Pearls of Wisdom from the Parshah
She called his name “Reuven,” because she said, “Since Hashem has seen my affliction.” (Bereishis 29:32)
Just a simple reading of the parshah reveals amazing things.
When Leah Imeinu gave names to her children as they were born, she did not think about the child, about his intrinsic nature, and what he will grow up to be, and then give him an according name. Quite the contrary.
All the names she gave her children related to herself, to her own experiences. The first son was so named כי ראה ה' בעניי – “Since Hashem has seen my affliction.” The second, Shimon, got the name he did because כי שמע ה' כי שנואה אנכי – “Because Hashem heard that I am disliked.” The third, Levi, was so named because עתה הפעם ילוה אישי אלי – “This time my husband will accompany me.” The fourth, Yehudah, because הפעם אודה את ה' – “This time I will thank H a s h e m .” And so it was with Yissachar and Zevulun, too.
But how does this make sense? Leah Imeinu was thinking the whole time only about herself?! How could she not think about her child when choosing a name for him or her?!
Let’s take Levi, for instance. He is the pillar of avodas Hashem. From him come all Kohanim and Leviim. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu honored him with the twenty-four matnos kehunah, the various gifts that Jews give to the kohanim, such as terumah. He is a very important figure in the Jewish people!
Leah Gets Double
After that she gave birth to a girl, and she called her name Dinah. (Bereishis 30:21)
“Dinah” – Our Rabbis explained that Leah conducted a judgment (din) on herself: if this child will be a boy, Rachel will not even be equal to one of handmaidens, so Leah prayed over the fetus and it turned to a girl. (Rashi)
It sounds from the story as if Leah’s concern for her sister caused her to lose out. She had a daughter, instead of a son who would have been one of the Twelve Tribes.
But it’s not really so. Because it says in the Midrash that as a result of Shechem taking, she gave birth to Osnas, and Yosef took Osnas as his wife.1
So from Dinah, daughter of Leah, came not just one tribe but two – Efraim and Menasheh. Perhaps this was due to a kal vachomer. If someone steals from his friend, he must pay back double. And Hashem’s trait of goodness is greater than His trait of punishment. So if a person gives to his friend, he surely should be rewarded doubly.
Leah gave one tribe to Rachel, and through Yosef, son of Rachel, she got back two.
So what does his mother call him? “Levi.” Why Levi? Because “This time my husband will accompany me.” Couldn’t she have given the child a name more appropriate to his station in life?
To answer this question, we need to understand what goes on inside a tzaddik’s heart.
The Torah tells us that Eliezer, the servant of Avraham, when he came to the well looking for a wife for Yitzchak, prayed as follows:
םֹויַי הַנָפְא לָה נֵרְקַם הָהָרְבַי אִנֹדֲקֵי אֹלֱה' א – “Hashem, G-d of my master Avraham, please make it chance before me today.”
And sure enough, Rivkah came along. But when he told the story to Besuel and Lavan, he rephrased it. He reported:
יִּבִל לֶר אֵּבַדְה לֶּלַכֲם אֶרֶי טִנֲא – Before I finished speaking to my heart...
He says that Rivkah came along while he was still speaking to his own heart, i.e., himself.
Wait a minute, was Eliezer speaking to himself, or to Hashem?
The answer is:
םָלֹעוְקִים לֹלֱי אִקְלֶחְי וִבָבְר לּצו – The Rock of my heart and my portion is G-d forever.
Hashem is inside the hearts of the tzaddikim. He is the very Rock, the solid foundation, of their hearts. In other words, their personal self is nothing but the Will of Hashem.
This is hard for us to understand because we are so far from this madreigah. But the great tzaddikim had nothing self-oriented at all in their daily lives. Their entire self was the Shechinah that dwelt within them. They themselves were a merkavah, a vehicle for the Shechinah. Their whole being and everything they did was in order to bring satisfaction to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so much so that Hashem’s Will expressed itself in their very lives. Aside from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, they had no sense of self at all.
This is how it was with the great tzaddikim of the earlier generations. For the sages of the Jewish people, their personal self was the Shechinah that dwelt within them. Chazal were truly holy people and they did not see themselves at all as independent personalities that figure into the equation.
Every person by nature has a personality and a sense of self that encompasses, among other things, desires and yetzer haras. We experience our individual personality as us, as our life in this world. This is actually the great barrier that stands between us and Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Our sense of self encompasses our whole being. It takes up our whole lives, and separates us from Hashem.
It was not that way with Chazal. For them, evil was external to them. It was not part of themselves. The natural nisyonos of envy, lust and pursuit of honor were for them a little bit like the state of Adam Harishon before he sinned, when evil was an external force and was not incorporated into his being. Chazal’s sense of “self,” their “personality” with which they lived twenty-four hours a day, was actually the kedushah within them.
All their aspirations, all their feelings, of each one of them – what am I living for, what am I eating for, what am I sleeping for – it was all for the sake of Hakadosh Baruch Hu Who dwelled within them.
So when Leah Imeinu gave names to her children, she was expressing her feelings which were actually Hashem’s Will on the highest level.
