#Zilpah

[thecrimsonvalley-creates]

~ A whole bunch of Pathologic oc's! ~ This month has really been kicking me hard and the only creative output I've had the spoons for have been more little icon drawings! Spoiling the Pathologic oc's by drawing them! From top left: 1) Chestnut in her usual state of mind. No thoughts. Only silly! 2) Hannah. When the town first worries you're a shabnak and then realise you might be a mistress but you don't have a clue where you even came from. Everything's fine :) 3) Zilpah who, as always, can not take a compliment to save her life. Always embarrassed by any attention what so ever. 4). Arthur. What if he kissed his crush in the greenhouse? Would that not be.. very romantic? (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄ Another meme drawing from the bases done by Loumon!

[archangels-bible-annotations]

Chapter 30

30:1 Rachel was envious of Leah and wanted Jacob to bear children with her. Rachel says, "Give me children, or else I die."

30:2-4 Jacob becomes angry and states that he is not God, the one who "withheld from you the fruit of the womb." Rachel then says to bear children through her maidservant, Bilhah.

30:5-6 Bilhah gave birth to a son, and Rachel named him Dan because "God has judged [Rachel]; and He has heard [Rachel's] voice and given [Rachel] a son."

30:7-8 Bilhah gives birth to a second son, named "Naphtali." Rachel states, "God has helped me, and I have wrestled with my sister; and indeed, I have prevailed."

30:9-11 Leah gives her handmaiden to Jacob to bear another son. Gad is born and Leah says, "Good fortune!"

30:12-13 Asher is born through Zilpah, Leah's handmaiden, and Leah says, "I am blessed, for the women will call me blessed."

30:14-15 Reuben finds mandrakes in the field and brings them to his mother Leah. Rachel asks for some but Leah accuses her of taking Leah's husband and now wanting mandrakes. Rachel says for Leah to sleep with Jacob tonight in exchange of the mandrakes.

30:16-18 Jacob sleeps with Leah and they give birth to Issachar stating, "God has given me my wages, because I have given my handmaiden to my husband." In verse 17 it says, "God listened to Leah..."

30:19-20 Leah bares Zebulun and says, "God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will choose me, because I have borne him six sons."

30:21 Leah bore a daughter named Dinah.

30:22-24 We see the quote "God remembered Rachel." This is when God opened her womb and she bore Joseph

30:25-26 Jacob requests Laban to go home with his wives and kids.

30:27 This is a beautiful verse, "If I could find grace in your eyes, I would seek for it divinely, for God has blessed me by your coming."

30:28-30 Laban asks Joseph what his wages should be for working for so long. Joseph replies that since Joseph came, Laban's cattle/possesions have increased.

30:31-33 Joseph demands no wages and states that if Laban allows Joseph to take all of the gray sheep and the spotted/speckled goats then Joseph promises to "again feed and keep your sheep." He also states that if Laban is missing any pure-colored cattle, it would mean it was stolen.

30:34-36 Laban agreed to Joseph's request, and the cattle were given to Jospeh's sons. Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks as per his word.

30:37-40 Joseph collects green poplar, almond, and chestnut rods (branches?) and makes rods that help the animals conceive.

30:41-43 Joseph essentially repeats the process and gains a massive flock of sheep and goats that make him rich.

Other Remarks:

The name Dan means "Judge." (v.5-6)

The name Naphtali means "my wrestling" or "crafty, cunning one." (v.7-8)

At the birth of Naphtali, Rachel states that she has won victory over her sister. It is hard as the reader to say she has won 'full victory' considering that her sister bore 4 sons and Rachel was only able to conceive through her maidservant. The only view that Rachel has won is if she is looking at who conceived the most recent. She could also try to make a case that Jacob loves her more than Leah, but she never needed to prove that because Jacob went through so many trials and tribulations for her, not Leah. (v.7-8)

Leah gives her handmaiden to Jacob to continue to bear offspring. This could be seen as a dig at Rachel for trying to conceive the youngest son. Leah did not bear Gad herself, implying she became too old or her womb closed. This tied in with the struggle for Jacob's love would give enough motivation for her actions. Leah's acts show that she has not rid of her feelings to 'win' her husband's love and respect. (v.9-11)

The name Gad means "Good Fortune." Gad more accurately is defined as a cut that later reveals treasure. This name was intentionally chosen by Leah rather than the many different names for good fortune probably to symbolize her struggle with Rachel to win her husband's love. (v.9-11)

The name Asher means "happy" or "to go right on." (v.12-13)

Mandrakes are root plants. A quick search tells us that they have various properties such as sedative and hallucinogenic. (v.14-15)

Jacob seems to intentionally avoid Leah, which is evident by Leah's statement to Rachel for stealing her husband. It is also evident that Rachel controls Jacob, in at least the emotional aspect because she says that Jacob will sleep with Leah tonight for exchange of the mandrakes. (v.14-15)

Leah's wordage is interesting as she uses "wages" when she describes the blessing of another son. She is trying to say that her time has finally come as a mother because after birthing 4 sons, her womb was closed, which is why she gave over her maidservant to bare children in her steed. I still see this as one wife trying to one-up the other. It also seems that to get pregnant was Leah's intention from the exchange of the mandrakes rather than "love and affection" from her husband. I think it is a little funny how when Leah says she hired Jacob for the night, Jacob is not seen to complain and just goes with it. (v.16-18)

Issachar means "Man of Hire," which immortalizes the struggle for attention and the circumstances in which Issachar was conceived. (v.16-18)

Leah still has not learned her lesson to stop proving the need to fight for love and attention because she says that after the 6th son, now Jacob should give her attention. If giving sons was the factor, wouldn't the first few been more than enough? Especially considering Rachel was unable to conceive for a long time. (v.18-20)

Zebulun means "Glorious Dwelling Place." (v.18-20)

Since Dinah is explicitly mentioned, it can be assumed that she is the only daughter in the string of births between Leah, Rachel, and the two maidservants. (v.21)

Dinah means "Judgement" and is the female version of Dan. (v.21)

The phrase of "God remembering" appears again. Another instance we see this is when Noah leaves the ark. This is not to say that God forgot and then remembered; rather, it is time to fulfill a promise. In this case, it would be to make Jacob multiply among nations. (v.22-24)

Joesph means "Increaser" as Rachel says "The Lord shall add another son to me." (v.24)

If we interpret the gray and speckled cattle to be 'imperfect,' then it might not be a stretch to consider this small portion of the story a premonition of Christ. Christ takes care of those who are lost or are 'imperfect' by sin. (v.31-33)

Questions

Rachel says that she would die if she does not bear children with Jacob. Is this a suicide threat? (v.1)

What does it mean that "God has judged [Rachel]"? Usually "judge" implies a negative connotation and we see punishment follow. However, this time it seems that this 'judgment' is a blessing. (v.5-6)

Dinah's name means judgment, but why. Is this implying that negative judgment has come across Leah because of a birth of a daughter rather than a son? Another aspect to consider is that Leah does not bear anymore children after Dinah. (v.21)

Why does Joseph want the speckled and gray cattle? Are they considered inferior, or was it just cosmetic differences? (v.31-33)

What does "[Laban] put three days' journey between himself and Jacob" mean? Originally I would have thought it meant there was 3-days worth of travel between the two people but this is followed up by Joseph feeding the rest of Laban's flocks, which couldn't be 3-days away from Laban. (v.36)

How do the different rods make the animals conceive? (v.37-43)

Things to Add to Prayer:

Reference this quote when talking about guests: "If I could find grace in your eyes, I would seek for it divinely, for God has blessed me by your coming."

-Mikhael

[littleladylav]

Alright, I'm up... What'd I miss, how's Phoenix doing?

| @tismphoenix

"Oh, there you are! It has been a while, hasn't it?"

[Zilpahs smiles and waves to him, but her expression seemed.. off]

"How much.. have you missed exactly?"

[granonine]

Gad's Inheritance

Joshua 13:24-28 And Moses gave inheritance unto the tribe of Gad, even unto the children of Gad according to their families. And their coast was Jazer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon, unto Aroer that is before Rabbah; And from Heshbon unto Ramathmizpeh, and Betonim; and from Mahanaim unto the border of Debir; And in the valley, Betharam, and…

[yhebrew]

POLYGAMY: LAW-LESS SOLOMON? yes!

Was Ya’cov Deceived into Two Wives? YES! Whose Mandrakes were used? Cursed REUBEN Did Abraham or Isaac have many wives? NO! Did David have many wives at one time? NO! Did Solomon align with many nations? YES! Anti-Torah? Solomon, Reuben Concubines are male or female slaves. Wives are queens. Ya’cov’s wife Leah told him that he was to sleep with her because THEIR firstborn son, Reuben, had…

[whencyclopedia]

The Twelve Tribes of Israel

The Twelve Tribes of Israel refer to the sons of the Jewish Patriarch Jacob and are important for the tribal lineages of those who constituted the nation of Israel. In the ancient world, all ethnic groups developed stories of their ancestors in what are known as foundation myths as bloodlines were important in maintaining ancestral lineage and provided status as identity markers.

The twelve sons of Jacob, in order of their birth, are:

Reuben

Simeon

Levi

Judah

Dan

Naphtali

Gad

Asher

Issachar

Zebulun

Joseph (Manasseh, Ephraim)

Benjamin

Birth order was important in the practice of primogeniture, or the eldest son inheriting most of his father’s resources, and then distribution following the rank of the others. In the biblical narrative, after the death of Joseph in Egypt, his portion was given to his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Each son’s status was later coordinated in the tribal territories they received in Canaan. Jacob undoubtedly had other daughters, but only one is mentioned, Dinah (see below).

Jacob

Jacob was the younger son of Isaac and Rebecca. Isaac was the child of the promise given by the God of Israel, to Abraham, the traditional founder of the nation. Jacob stole his brother’s birthright (as the eldest) and had to flee East to Haran (Northern Iraq), where some of Abraham’s relatives still lived. There he met Rachel at the well and asked her father Laban for her hand. Laban required that Jacob work for him for seven years first. He did so, but the night of the wedding revealed that it was the older sister, Leah, who was given. Jacob protested, but Laban told him to work another seven years and he could have Rachel as well.

The narrative then goes into quite elaborate detail concerning Jacob’s children. At first, Leah gave birth to some sons, while Rachel was barren. Rachel then offered Jacob her servant (an ancient form of surrogate motherhood in the case of infertility). Leah then became barren for a while and offered her servant as well. All this activity reflected the later traditions as to where and why the sons inherited certain tribal areas in the land of Canaan. It was tied to the identity of their mothers, Leah and Rachel, and the two servant women, Bilhah and Zilpah.

Leah Rachel Bilhah Zilpah Reuben Joseph Dan Gad Simeon Benjamin Naphtali Asher Levi Judah Issachar Zebulun

Wanting to go home and reconcile himself with his brother, on the way back Jacob was accosted at night by a being with whom he wrestled. Various retellings describe a man, God, or an angel. Jacob demanded a blessing, and he now received a new name: "Israel" or "one that struggled with the divine angel or with God and lived". Hence, all his descendants became Israelites.

Continue reading...

[haggishlyhagging]

Looking back from our present vantage point, we can see that the single most significant step away from the concept that women needed an improved education only to carry out their housewifely or teaching duties better came with the founding of Mount Holyoke in 1837. Generally regarded now as the oldest woman's college in the United States, it made no such claim at the time. It opened as a seminary, and there were other such institutions then in existence. Mount Holyoke did not achieve collegiate status until 1893, after Vassar, Wellesley, Smith, and Bryn Mawr; yet it opened the way for them all.

Its founder, Mary Lyon, followed the path charted by Emma Willard, but went much further; in the fifteen years between the first steps toward founding her school and her premature death at fifty-two, Miss Lyon established certain fundamental principles which succeeding institutions accepted as axiomatic: the schools must have adequate financial endowment; they must try in some degree to make education available to girls of all economic groups; they must offer a curriculum more advanced than that envisaged even by Mrs. Willard; and they must prepare their students for more than homemaking or teaching.

Miss Lyon succeeded in her ambitious undertaking because, in addition to an indomitable will and a mind which left its fiery imprint on all whom she encountered, her purpose was perfectly suited to both time and place. Hers was a New England in which wider horizons for women were becoming a household controversy: where women were already more than homemakers and pedagogues. They were working by the thousands in the red brick mill buildings springing up beside every creek and river. The year Mount Holyoke opened its doors, anti-slavery women were holding their first national convention in New York, and the Grimké sisters were touring Massachusetts, speaking publicly against slavery; the storm unleashed by their unladylike behavior was convulsing the churches. There was a ferment abroad which stirred even women in obscure villages to ideas and efforts undreamed of a few years earlier. To a person of Mary Lyon's gifts and determination, here were the soil and climate that she needed.

She was born on a marginal hill farm in western Massachusetts in 1797, and as a child already showed astonishing mental capacities; like Emma Willard, she soon reached the outposts of knowledge then accessible to women. Like Mrs. Willard, she began to teach, and in the process, to continue her own education, to extend the existing curriculum, and to reshape teaching methods. With Miss Zilpah Grant she ran a successful academy, first at Derry, New Hampshire, and then at Ipswich, Massachusetts, but she was not satisfied. She saw the price paid in poor health by Miss Grant and by her friend, Catharine Beecher, for their staggering labors. She saw good schools arise, and then vanish, if a wealthy supporter died or lost interest. Like Miss Beecher she was obsessed with the need for good teachers. Most of all, she brooded over the young women who, like herself, wanted an education they could not afford: "During the past year my heart has so yearned over the adult female youth in the common walks of life, that it has sometimes seemed as if there was a fire shut up in my bones. I would esteem it a greater favor to labor in this field than in any other on which I have fastened my attention." To her mother she wrote in the same vein: "I have for a great while been thinking about those young ladies who find it necessary to make such an effort for their education, as I made when I was obtaining mine. . . . I have looked out from my quiet scene of labor on the wide world, and my heart has longed to see many enjoying the privileges, who cannot for want of means. . . . Sometimes my heart has burned within me; and again I have bid it be quiet."

In 1834 she laid her plan for a new kind of educational institution for women before a number of businessmen and ministers, who finally assumed the responsibility of raising the $27,000 estimated as necessary to build and open the school.

Here lay one of the major obstacles to success. Miss Lyon was herself the heart of the enterprise; yet the proprieties required that she keep in the background. It was not even considered seemly that she be present at the trustees' meeting which voted to locate the school in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She wrote to Zilpah Grant: "It is desirable that the plans relating to the subject should not seem to originate with us but with benevolent gentlemen. If the object should excite attention there is danger that many good men will fear the effect on society of so much female influence, and what they will call female greatness."

But when it became apparent that the men hired as "agents" were unable to raise the needed funds in the face of not only public apathy but a gradually worsening economic situation which culminated in the panic and depression of 1837, Mary Lyon herself entered the field, carrying the green velvet bag which became famous all over New England. When her staunchest friends objected to her incessant traveling and appearances at public meetings to ask for money, as unladylike, she refused to compromise her dream for the sake of propriety:

"What do I do that is wrong?" she asked in a letter. "I ride in the stage-coach or cars without an escort. Other ladies do the same. I visit a family where I have been previously invited, and the minister's wife or some leading woman calls the ladies together to see me, and I lay our object before them. Is that wrong? I go with Mr. Hawks and call on a gentleman of known liberality at his own house, and converse with him about our enterprise. What harm is there in that? If there is no harm in doing these things once, what harm is there in doing them twice, thrice or a dozen times? My heart is sick, my soul is pained with this empty gentility, this genteel nothingness. I am doing a great work, I cannot come down."

Miss Lyon herself raised the first $1,000 with which to launch the campaign, primarily from her former Ipswich students and teachers. Next she won support from men of means whom she visited under the escort of one or more of her trustees: there were two donations of $1,000 each, one of $640, one of $500. But in the last analysis the greater part of the money was raised because Mary Lyon, sometimes accompanied by a gentleman but very often alone, went to as large a cross-section of the population of New England as she could reach.

The greater portion of the total sum was raised from farmers and small townsfolk—men whose livelihood did not come easily, and women without any source of income except their handiwork, or what husbands or fathers might give them. In the old ledgers there are eloquent entries of five dollars, ones and threes, fifty cents, and one gift of six cents. Much of this money was raised at church meetings, small parlor gatherings, and sewing circles. There was a young girl in a sewing circle at West Brookfield who was making a shirt to help a young man through theological seminary, and whose thoughts as she listened to Miss Lyon have come down to us: “Among those who had sewed and spent time, strength and money to help educate young men, one dropped the needle and that toil and said: ‘Let these men with broader shoulders and stronger arms earn their own education while we use our scantier opportunities to educate ourselves.’ She never picked up the shirt again.” Her name was Lucy Stone.

-Eleanor Flexner and Ellen Fitzpatrick, Century of Struggle: The Woman’s Rights Movement in the United States

[artandthebible]

Jacob with Leah And Rachel

Artist: Andrea Appiani (Italian, 1754-1817)

Date: n. d.

Medium: Oil painting

Collection: Private collection

The Story of Jacob with Leah and Rachel

The complicated story of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel comprises one of the larger sections of Genesis and includes much information relevant to the history of the Jewish people. Jacob, the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, fled to his mother’s brother Laban. At the time, Jacob feared his twin brother, Esau, would kill him (Genesis 27:41–46). It was at Laban’s that Jacob met Leah and Rachel.

Laban offered his nephew Jacob a place to stay. Jacob soon fell in love with Laban’s younger daughter, Rachel, and agreed to work for Laban seven years in exchange for marriage to her (Genesis 29:16–20).

Laban agreed, but after seven years, he deceived Jacob. On the night that Jacob and Rachel were to be married, Laban gave Rachel’s older sister, Leah, to him as a wife instead. Jacob protested, but Laban argued that it wasn’t the custom to give the younger daughter in marriage first. So it was official: Jacob and Leah were to stay married. Laban then said Jacob could still have Rachel in exchange for another seven years of work (Genesis 29:21–30). In an ironic twist, the deceiver Jacob had himself been deceived. In exchange for fourteen years of labor, Jacob had two wives, Leah and Rachel.

Jacob showed favoritism to Rachael and loved her more than Leah. God compensated for the lack of love Leah received by enabling her to have children and closing Rachel’s womb for a time (Genesis 29:31). There developed an intense rivalry between the two wives. In fact, at one time the wives bartered over the right to sleep with Jacob. Genesis 30:16 says, “When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, ‘You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.’ So he lay with her that night,” and Leah became pregnant. In the end, Jacob fathered twelve sons and a daughter. Jacob and Leah had six sons and a daughter; Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant, bore Jacob two sons; Jacob and Rachel had two sons together; and Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant, bore Jacob another two sons (Genesis 35:23–36).

After twenty years with Laban, Jacob and Leah and Rachel, now very wealthy, moved their family back to Canaan. As they were leaving Laban’s house, Rachel stole her father’s teraphim and lied about having them (Genesis 31). As he drew closer home, Jacob knew that he would have to face Esau again. He still feared Esau’s anger, and he sent gifts to satisfy him before he arrived. The night before Jacob crossed the Jabbok River, he “wrestled with God” and was given the name “Israel” along with God’s blessing.

The story of Jacob and Rachel ended tragically, as Rachel died giving birth to her second child, Benjamin. Rachel named him Ben-Oni (“son of my trouble”), but Jacob renamed him Benjamin (“son of my right hand”). Rachel “was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel’s tomb” (Genesis 35:19–20).

Jacob and Leah’s marriage lasted longer, but eventually Leah, too, died in Canaan and was buried in the same tomb as Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Rebekah (Genesis 49:30–32). Jacob and his son Joseph would later be buried in this tomb as well (Genesis 50).

The story of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel is filled with much difficulty, yet God used these people greatly to impact history. Their twelve sons were the leaders of the twelve tribes that became the nation of Israel. Through their family, God blessed the entire world, as Jesus Christ was born from the tribe of Judah and offers salvation to all (John 3:16; Luke 2:10).

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

I wish Joseph King of Dreams had the same passion and funding as The Prince of Egypt

Saaaaaame. I like it but nowhere near like I love PoE (pre-Egypt Joseph is so annoying qsdfsd and I HATE HATE HATE that they glossed over the family dynamics and the existence of Leah, Bilhah and Zilpah, and Dinah). 

The songs are still great though (BEHOLD THE GLORY and MORE THAN YOU TAKE!!!). And some of the visuals are fire, the prison and the harvest especially.

[seygay]

Anita Diamant, The Red Tent, Zilpah daughter of Mer-Nefat

Happy Mother's Day to those who celebrate 🎉

[thecrimsonvalley-creates]

~ Just a peek ~ Trying out my own YCH pose and decided to draw Zilpah. She's doing her best with this entire flirtatious invitation... And probably keels over out of embarrassment a few seconds later.

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Jacob Meets Rachel

1 Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the people of the east. 2 As he looked, he saw a well in the field and three flocks of sheep lying there beside it; for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well’s mouth was large, 3 and when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well, and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place on the mouth of the well.

4 Jacob said to them, ‘My brothers, where do you come from?’ They said, ‘We are from Haran.’ 5 He said to them, ‘Do you know Laban son of Nahor?’ They said, ‘We do.’ 6 He said to them, ‘Is it well with him?’ ‘Yes,’ they replied, ‘and here is his daughter Rachel, coming with the sheep.’ 7 He said, ‘Look, it is still broad daylight; it is not time for the animals to be gathered together. Water the sheep, and go, pasture them.’ 8 But they said, ‘We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together, and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.’

9 While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep; for she kept them. 10 Now when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his mother’s brother Laban, and the sheep of his mother’s brother Laban, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of his mother’s brother Laban. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and wept aloud. 12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman, and that he was Rebekah’s son; and she ran and told her father.

13 When Laban heard the news about his sister’s son Jacob, he ran to meet him; he embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, 14 and Laban said to him, ‘Surely you are my bone and my flesh!’ And he stayed with him for a month.

Jacob Marries Laban’s Daughters

15 Then Laban said to Jacob, ‘Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?’ 16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah’s eyes were lovely, and Rachel was graceful and beautiful. 18 Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, ‘I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.’ 19 Laban said, ‘It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.’ 20 So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.

21 Then Jacob said to Laban, ‘Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.’ 22 So Laban gathered together all the people of the place, and made a feast. 23 But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob; and he went in to her. 24 (Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her maid.) 25 When morning came, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, ‘What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?’ 26 Laban said, ‘This is not done in our country—giving the younger before the firstborn. 27 Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me for another seven years.’ 28 Jacob did so, and completed her week; then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as a wife. 29 (Laban gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her maid.) 30 So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. He served Laban for another seven years.

31 When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. 32 Leah conceived and bore a son, and she named him Reuben; for she said, ‘Because the Lord has looked on my affliction; surely now my husband will love me.’ 33 She conceived again and bore a son, and said, ‘Because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also’; and she named him Simeon. 34 Again she conceived and bore a son, and said, ‘Now this time my husband will be joined to me, because I have borne him three sons’; therefore he was named Levi. 35 She conceived again and bore a son, and said, ‘This time I will praise the Lord’; therefore she named him Judah; then she ceased bearing. — Genesis 29 | New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved. Cross References: Genesis 4:1; Genesis 12:11; Genesis 12:18; Genesis 16:11; Genesis 24:10; Genesis 24:24; Genesis 24:28-29; Genesis 24:67; Genesis 28:10; Genesis 29:31; Genesis 30:26; Genesis 30:28; Genesis 31:15; Genesis 31:41; Genesis 33:4; Genesis 46:25; Exodus 2:16-17; Numbers 34:20; Deuteronomy 22:13; Judges 6:3; 1 Samuel 9:11; Matthew 1:2; Acts 7:8; Romans 11:14

Jacob Falls in Love

[nonstandardrepertoire]

Parashat Vayeitzei: בָּגָד | bagad

If you turned this one-word Torah project into a parashah, you’d get parashat vayeitzei. The portion carries forward the narrative story of the Jewish ancestral families, yes, but it’s also obsessed with individual words and what they mean.

Specifically, it’s obsessed with names. Twelve of Ya’aqov’s thirteen named children are born in this parashah, and each time one of the sons is named, there’s a little explanatory gloss giving a reason that he was named what he was named. (The exception, of course, is Dinah, the only daughter, and the only child named without an explanation. There may be room here to expand on traditional trans readings of Dinah [a] to understand her as self-named, reserving the explanation of her choice to her own private thoughts. Goodness knows she deserves to have control over whatever she can in her own life, given everything she goes thru.)

[a] In Bərakhot 60a of the Babylonian Talmud, Rav explains that Dinah was originally conceived as a son, but then נֶהֶפְכָה לְבַת | nehefkhah ləvat | “was transformed into a daughter” due to Divine intercession.

These naming glosses are sometimes described as etymologies and then critiqued for their sometimes lack of scholarly accuracy, but etymology isn’t really the goal here as much as explanation. It’s like saying, “Oh, I call him Frankie because he’s honest to a fault” — you’re not explaining the philological origin of the name, you’re explaining what the name means to you and why you chose it in this context. And so it is with the names of Ya’aqov’s sons.

But curiously, one of these explanations is emended. We’ve talked about these emendations before — moments where the scribes who fixed the text in its final form looked at the text they had received and sought to fix a typo or the like. There’s one here when Lei’ah explains the name of Zilpah’s first son, Gad. In the emended version, she explains Gad’s name by saying בָּא גָד | ba gad | “Luck has come!” (Bəreishit 30:11). But the uncorrected text drops the silent alef and runs the two words together into one: בגד, which you could take as either a strict contraction bagad or perhaps as a more grammatically fragmentary bəgad | “With luck!” [b].

[b] There is some evidence for the existence of a g-d called Gad in the Ancient Semitic pantheon who had power over chance, fortune, and luck, which creates a slight ambiguity here as to whether the gad in the text is just the generic Hebrew word for “luck” or a proper name of a g-d of Luck, not wholly unlike how “hope” in English can be a generic noun for a feeling or a specific person’s name. Ryan Thomas argues (in “The [G-d] Gad”, Journal of the American Oriental Society 139 (2021): 307–16) that G-d isn’t really an independent deity at all but rather just a common epithet for the local g-d in charge — much as many contemporary Jews might refer to our G-d as “HaMaq-m” or “Sh-khinah” or the like.

This is all linguistically fairly uncomplicated. Two verses later, when Lei’ah names Asheir, she uses the same fragmentary ��ְּאׇשְׁרִי | bə’oshri | “With my happiness!” construction that the unemended consonants of verse 11 imply, so we might prefer “With luck!” to “Luck has come!” as a reading, but the emended version doesn’t pose any particular problems, and there’s lots of variety in the grammatical structure of the various naming explanations, so one structural parallel is hardly decisive.

Instead of teasing out a problem, I’m interested very specifically in the difference between these two versions in the Hebrew text. In this whole word-obsessed parashah, this is the only instance of this sort of emendation; it’s like a tiny sign saying “Hey, something happened here.”.

The difference is slight. Alef, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, has a numerical value of 1 — the smallest possible value in a system that deals only with integers — and is all but silent in pronunciation [c]. It is a sliver of a difference, the least amount of difference you can get, almost, before two things are just the same.

[c] Technically, it represents a glottal stop, the little hiccup that separates the two vowels in “Latin” when US English speakers say it in normal speech. This is already not a very pronounced sound, but people with US English as a first and primary language tend to drop a lot of these stops when they pronounce liturgical Hebrew; we like to run our vowels together. So alef is very frequently not just subtle but nonexistent, audibly, however up in arms prescriptivists might get over it.

Without the alef, בגד sums to nine in gematria; with it, בא גד sums to ten. Nine is the value of אָח | aḥ | “brother”. Ten is the value of בָּדָד | badad | “separation”. What can we learn from this?

First: Gad shares his brothers’ fate, and also doesn’t. According to the Biblical text, his eponymous tribe is one of the ten conquered by Assyria in 722 BC, whereupon those ten tribes are cut off from the rest of the Jewish people and separated from the rest of our history. So he is a brother to those other lost brothers, isolated from the chain of Jewish continuity by the ravages of empire. Perhaps Lei’ah’s gematrial “Brother!” was a plea that this fate be reversed, that the tribe of Gad persist down thru the ages as a brother to the tribes that escaped Assyrian oblivion, and perhaps the Masoretes’ “Separation!” reflects the sad reality of history as it ultimately played out.

But second: As I said, the difference here is very small. As small as it can be — no word can have a gematria between nine and ten; there is no such integer. And so too perhaps this teaches us that the difference between kinship and atomization is similarly small. Not just as a matter of perspective — Gad being both akin to some of his brothers and separated from others — but as a matter of instruction. Perhaps this, vayeitzei’s sole emendation, comes to teach us that there is not so great a distance between joining together with one another in bonds of trust and community and falling apart from one another in helpless individualized isolation.

And what’s more: This separation is distinguished from kinship not by subtraction, but by addition. It is not that we start out isolated and then add something to bring us together; we start out together and then something comes to drive us apart. And it is a very small something! A miniscule, inaudible something! Something as subtle as a slight hitch in the breath between one vowel and another.

From this we can learn: The roots of separation lie not in grand gestures of opposition, but in the thousand little moments of daily life, moments so small we may not even perceive them. A slight tensing of the shoulders, a subtle raising of the guard. A hitch in your breath when you start to call a man your brother.

[toadlessgirl]

20 Names More Common in the Regency Era than any of the Bridgerton Girls' Names

Araminta

Asenath

Brittania

Cherry

Christmas

Cleopatra

Dorcas

Dove

Easter

Etheldred

Happy

Keren-happuch

Mehetabel

Peace

Petronella

Philadelphia

Seabright

Urania

Virtue

Zilpah

[yhebrew]

Polygamy in Hebrew and Greek Scriptures: The Truth About Patriarchs' Marriages

Polygamy is NOT in the Bible. 1 Timothy 3 says one wife. It frustrates me when bible believing men go out of context and pattern. Abraham had one wife at a time. Hagar was under Sarai's control and it was a one-time event with Abram.

Po.lyg.a.my noun – the practice or custom of having more than one wife or husband at the same time. Who are wives? Who are concubines? Is polygamy practiced today because Abraham, Ya’cov and David, did it? But did they, do it? We know Solomon did as he is the King of ‘The Torah Take Down.’ Let’s look at the words in Greek and Hebrew and who is called a wife and who is called a concubine. The…

[whencyclopedia]

The Twelve Tribes of Israel

The Twelve Tribes of Israel refer to the sons of the Jewish Patriarch Jacob and are important for the tribal lineages of those who constituted the nation of Israel. In the ancient world, all ethnic groups developed stories of their ancestors in what are known as foundation myths as bloodlines were important in maintaining ancestral lineage and provided status as identity markers.

The twelve sons of Jacob, in order of their birth, are:

Reuben

Simeon

Levi

Judah

Dan

Naphtali

Gad

Asher

Issachar

Zebulun

Joseph (Manasseh, Ephraim)

Benjamin

Birth order was important in the practice of primogeniture, or the eldest son inheriting most of his father’s resources, and then distribution following the rank of the others. In the biblical narrative, after the death of Joseph in Egypt, his portion was given to his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Each son’s status was later coordinated in the tribal territories they received in Canaan. Jacob undoubtedly had other daughters, but only one is mentioned, Dinah (see below).

Jacob

Jacob was the younger son of Isaac and Rebecca. Isaac was the child of the promise given by the God of Israel, to Abraham, the traditional founder of the nation. Jacob stole his brother’s birthright (as the eldest) and had to flee East to Haran (Northern Iraq), where some of Abraham’s relatives still lived. There he met Rachel at the well and asked her father Laban for her hand. Laban required that Jacob work for him for seven years first. He did so, but the night of the wedding revealed that it was the older sister, Leah, who was given. Jacob protested, but Laban told him to work another seven years and he could have Rachel as well.

The narrative then goes into quite elaborate detail concerning Jacob’s children. At first, Leah gave birth to some sons, while Rachel was barren. Rachel then offered Jacob her servant (an ancient form of surrogate motherhood in the case of infertility). Leah then became barren for a while and offered her servant as well. All this activity reflected the later traditions as to where and why the sons inherited certain tribal areas in the land of Canaan. It was tied to the identity of their mothers, Leah and Rachel, and the two servant women, Bilhah and Zilpah.

Leah Rachel Bilhah Zilpah Reuben Joseph Dan Gad Simeon Benjamin Naphtali Asher Levi Judah Issachar Zebulun

Wanting to go home and reconcile himself with his brother, on the way back Jacob was accosted at night by a being with whom he wrestled. Various retellings describe a man, God, or an angel. Jacob demanded a blessing, and he now received a new name: "Israel" or "one that struggled with the divine angel or with God and lived". Hence, all his descendants became Israelites.

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