Matriarchs of Genesis: Rachel

Rachel was beautiful, lovely to look upon, and instantly attracted the attention and love of the handsome stranger. Jacob, said stranger, was immediately taken with Rachel and offered her father the only thing he had: hard work. How Rachel felt about him the narrative does not say, but the reader is led to assume that she returned Jacob's love and affection. However, she may have felt an stronger love for her sister Leah...

A Jewish tradition says that Rachel was in on tricking Jacob on what should have been her wedding night. Legend says that Jacob and Rachel had developed secret signs so that Jacob would know without a doubt that he was with Rachel. However, for whatever reason, Rachel taught these signs to Leah so that on the wedding night Jacob would not stop the events until it was too late. Maybe Rachel felt she had no choice when her father Laban approached her and told her what he was planning. It's not hard to imagine Laban using threats or violence to get his way, which was for Leah to be married first. However, as the tradition suggests, Rachel also acted out of love for her sister, and through her actions she secured a placement within a household for her sister.

However, if this tradition is true, then Rachel created a life that may have contained more hurt and frustration than if she had alone married Jacob. Without knowing it, she had entered herself into a womb contest with Leah that she was never able to win. She also was not made the mother to the heir, as that honor went to Leah. Although Joseph did many great things, Jacob did not make him the heir. Instead, Judah, Leah's son was given everything and it his name we read in the genealogy line to David. 

Rachel made a difficult choice in allowing her sister to marry Jacob before her. I wonder if she imagined the consequences of such a decision, that she tried to imagine all the bad that could occur being married to the same man as her sister. But, what if Leah remaining within their father's household was a punishment Rachel was not willing to subject her sister to. That not only would Rachel be escaping Laban's household, but now Leah would be too. Sisterly love may have initially trumped whatever romantic love was between Rachel and Jacob....