Parsha:

Vayeitzei 

Description

The famous deception of Yaakov on his wedding night, in which Leah was brought in to his chambers in the guise of Rachel, is a well-known component of the complex and unpleasant history between Yaakov and his father-in-law, Lavan. The famous Midrashic motif of the סימנין - the code that Yaakov and Rachel shared and which she subsequently revealed to her older sister to save her from being shamed, is a beloved and vital trope. Yet, a reassessment of the narrative itself, informed by a later testy conversation between the two sisters about who the "real" wife of Yaakov is tells a different story. Noting what is said and, more significantly, what is not said, opens up surprisingly different take on the story.