Vayeitzei 5770: Infertility Antics, Redux

We follow the path of Yaakov as he heads out to Charan in search of a wife. His trip begins with a noteworthy revelation and he has another revelation before he heads back home. What is intriguing is the angst of the pregnancies of the latest Matriarchs. The drama certainly evokes the experiences of the earlier Matriarchs.

We can hardly forget the stress endured by Sarah, the first Matriarch. Sarah offers her handmaiden Hagar to her husband Avraham as a surrogate. Sarah subsequently has a son and then banishes Hagar from her home.

Sarah’s only son Yitzchak marries Rivkah after a blind date and she too is infertile. Nevertheless, she quickly conceives after what appears to be effective prayer by both Rivkah  and Yitzchak.

Now the third generation of ancestors suffers the same malady. The text made clear in the case of Sarah and Rivkah that it was a case of female infertility. This seems to be true with Yaakov’s wives as well.

The text implies Leah - the elder of the two wives – cannot conceive. Bereishis 29.31 states “And God saw that Leah was hated, so God opened her womb...” Ostensibly, her womb had previously been ‘closed’.

Rachel’s ordeal is especially troubling. Chapter 30 begins with Rachel’s realization that she was not getting pregnant after her older sister had her fourth son. She makes a startling demand of Yaakov: “Give me children, and if not, I am dead.” Yaakov’s reply is even more unnerving: ‘And Yaakov became angry with Rachel, and he said, “Am I instead of God, Who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”’ 

How does Rachel come to present such a demand to Yaakov? How does Yaakov reply with such brutal indifference? Why is Yaakov ‘angry’?

The pattern of Sarah is followed as Rachel presents her handmaid to Yaakov and utters the familiar refrain “so that I, too, will be built up from her.” Note the use of the word ‘too’. Does she intimate that she is consciously exercising Sarah’s methodology? Finally Rachel prevails and gives birth to Yosef.

What finally does the trick for Rachel? Is there a paradigm Rachel must follow to conceive?