IN last weeks Torah portion, Vayetzi, the Torah tells us that the first time Jacob sets eyes upon Rachel, he weeps. And Jacob kissed Rachel, and raised his voice, and wept.
That moment seems to mark the beginning of much weeping at emotional turning points in Jacobs life. In this weeks Torah portion, we learn of Jacobs emotional reunion with his twin brother Esau. And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept. Both Esau and Jacob weep. After years of painful separation, some kind of at least momentary reconciliation unites the brothers. And Jacob cries.
Later in Jacobs journey in this same Torah portion, the Torah tells us of the passing of Deborah, Jacobs mothers wet-nurse, i.e., his beloved childhood nanny.
And Deborah, Rebbecah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bet-El, under an oak: and the name of it was called Alon-bachut. Alon bachut means: the tree of double weepings.
What is that? According to Rashi, Jacobs mother Rebeccah had then, too. Hence, a tree of double weeping. Jacob wept for the two primary caretakers and nurturers of his childhood. Jacob is on his way home, but he is too late. Too late to see his mother, and too late to see a grandmother figure of his childhood, one last time. And so he weeps.
Still later in Genesis, we know Jacob weeps bitterly and inconsolably for what he thinks is the death of his beloved son Joseph.
And Jacob rent his clothes and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted . . . thus his father wept for him [Joseph].
After the long story, replete with the vicissitudes of Joseph and his brothers, Jacob is told that his long lost son Joseph is, after all, alive. Upon their reunion, they fall upon each others necks and the tears pour forth.
And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel [Jacob] his father, to Goshen, and presented himself to him: and he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.
The words and he wept are ambiguous. Who wept? Joseph? Jacob?
FOR our purposes, let us say that it was Jacob who wept. This means that tears, weepings, mark Jacobs life from the point he meets Rachel and onwards.
Rashi comments as to why Jacob weeps upon setting eyes on Rachel. He explains that Jacob prophetically sees that he will not be buried with Rachel. Rather Jacob, together with his wife Leah (and the other founding couples) will be buried in the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron.
Why? Because Rachel will be buried elsewhere, ba-derech, on the way, on the journey . . . so that when Rachels descendants are exiled from the land of Israel she will be there to comfort them in their hour of pain and need.
Interestingly, it is Leah who is the one described by the Torah as the crier. And Leahs eyes were soft. This is explained to mean soft from perpetual crying. Yet, Rachel is the matriarch who posthumously leaves us forever with the the image of tears.
The first time Jacob sets eyes on Rachel she might be a beautiful young shepherdess, oblivious to her destiny of tears. She might be innocent of what her future holds. For this, Jacob cries.
Or is it something more? Are Jacobs tears shed for something more? Perhaps within those tears lie an intrinsic bond between him and Rachel? Tears become the stuff of Rachels essence. Where do Jacobs tears begin and Rachels tears stop? Where do Rachels tears begin and Jacobs stop? Their tears are intertwined.
Jacob sheds tears of compassion for Rachel. When he sees prophetically that he and Rachel will be buried apart, he understands that the reason is so she can be there for their future descendants. He sees her destiny as the guardian mother pleading, weeping, for her children, and he weeps.
Kola be-Rama nishma: the haunting verse in Jeremiah echoing through Jewish history says it all.
A voice was heard on high, in Rama, lamenting and bitterly weeping: Rachel is weeping for her children and refuses to be comforted for her children, since they are far away. And G-d will answer her: Restrain your voice from weeping, your eyes from tears; for your work will be rewarded, says G-d, and they will return from the land of their enemies. There is still hope for your future . . .that your children will return to their borders.
Tears are what bind Rachel and Jacob together. They meet at the well, the centerpiece of their first interaction; the well being a symbol of a place that gathers water. It is this shared emotional response that connects them. Upon seeing Rachel, Jacob weeps for all the tears his beloved Rachel will shed in the future.
More than not being buried together, it is what their separation in burial symbolizes, that Jacob cries for: the future troubles of his children, the future, painful tears that his wife Rachel will shed for them. Rachel completes the process Jacob begins.
It is tears that bind the two forever: the first time they ever meet, Jacob weeps, and the final time we hear of Rachel in Scripture, it is in her tears.
Shabbat Shalom.
Copyright © 2012 by the Intermountain Jewish News
