Vayetze | Who Knew What, When? by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom

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.

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