Rashi had a question...
Dec. 3rd, 2006 07:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuIn yesterday's Torah reading, Lavan has chased after Ya'akov and his family. Among other things, Lavan charges Ya'akov with stealing his idols, and Ya'akov rashly responds, "Whomever you find with your gods, that one shall not live." And the verse concludes: "For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them." As Lavan searches, Rachel excuses herself from standing in her father's presence, claiming "the way of women is upon me" when, in fact, she had hidden the idols in her saddlebags and was sitting on them.
Rashi's comment on "that one shall not live" is "And because of this curse, Rachel died on the journey." Which I found interesting, because the Talmud elsewhere explains Rachel's death as being because the land of Israel is so holy that, while there, the patriarchs intuitively kept all the commandments, and therefore Rachel's neshama departed just before they entered the land so that they would not be in violation of the prohibition against a man marrying two sisters. (I know, midrashim don't have to be consistent with one another.)
But the terms of Ya'akov's statement were not met: he does not say "Whoever stole your gods," he says "עִם אֲשֶׁר תִּמְצָא אֶת-אֱלֹהֶיךָ" and a few verses later, we are informed "וַיְמַשֵּׁשׁ לָבָן אֶת-כָּל-הָאֹהֶל, וְלֹא מָצָא." So attributing Rachel's death to Ya'akov's oath to Lavan seems to be going lifne m'shurat ha-din, beyond the requirements of justice. This is not a case of bat-Yiftach.
So why does Rashi say this?
But I also found myself wondering if, in the middah k'neged middah world of sefer B'reishit, there is supposed to be a supernal connection between Rachel's using menstruation (true or false) as a means of concealing the teraphim and her dying in childbirth. (A sort of middah k'neged niddah, if you'll pardon the pun, which you shouldn't.) Rashi didn't comment on this, and my other books are at home.
Rashi's comment on "that one shall not live" is "And because of this curse, Rachel died on the journey." Which I found interesting, because the Talmud elsewhere explains Rachel's death as being because the land of Israel is so holy that, while there, the patriarchs intuitively kept all the commandments, and therefore Rachel's neshama departed just before they entered the land so that they would not be in violation of the prohibition against a man marrying two sisters. (I know, midrashim don't have to be consistent with one another.)
But the terms of Ya'akov's statement were not met: he does not say "Whoever stole your gods," he says "עִם אֲשֶׁר תִּמְצָא אֶת-אֱלֹהֶיךָ" and a few verses later, we are informed "וַיְמַשֵּׁשׁ לָבָן אֶת-כָּל-הָאֹהֶל, וְלֹא מָצָא." So attributing Rachel's death to Ya'akov's oath to Lavan seems to be going lifne m'shurat ha-din, beyond the requirements of justice. This is not a case of bat-Yiftach.
So why does Rashi say this?
But I also found myself wondering if, in the middah k'neged middah world of sefer B'reishit, there is supposed to be a supernal connection between Rachel's using menstruation (true or false) as a means of concealing the teraphim and her dying in childbirth. (A sort of middah k'neged niddah, if you'll pardon the pun, which you shouldn't.) Rashi didn't comment on this, and my other books are at home.