Like Rivka, Rachel is first introduced at a well (Genesis 29). Like Rivka, she is selected as an ideal partner and foundational player in building God’s nation despite the lack of obvious signs of spiritual depth. But she has a sister…
Though the text provides little explicit information about the internal characters of either Rachel or Leah, midrashic tradition extracts hints and offers further information – including, but not limited to, how they did or did not connect with God in those early years. We will explore some of those midrashic texts (Genesis Rabbah 70:16, Bava Batra 123a, and Genesis Rabbah 71:5) to discover what might lie beneath their external appearances as described in the Torah. Utilizing insights from Malbim’s comment on Genesis 1:1, we will then begin to take a closer look at Genesis chapters 29-30 and discover what more their childbearing years might reveal about these women and their developing relationships with God.