Parshas Vayeitzei: The Hishtadlus of Emunah

 Parshas Vayeitzei: The Hishtadlus of Emunah  

The Torah (30:9) relates that after Leah had her first four children, it became clear to her that she would not immediately have any more children and therefore offered Zilpah, her maidservant, as a wife to Yaakov. This was just after Rachel, in desperation to have children herself, offered her maidservant, Bilhah, to Yaakov to be “built up” through her (30:3) as Sarah had done with Avraham.  

It is quite understandable why Rachel gave Bilhah to Yaakov. In fact, it was not even her Plan A. She started by demanding Yaakov daven for her to have children as Yitzchok had done for Rivkah. Yaakov responded that he could not daven for an open miracle (as Rachel was physically unable to have children) and that his situation was different from Yitzchok’s because Yaakov already had four children, whereas Yitzchak was davening before he had any children. Rachel then argued that Avraham davened for Sarah even though he already had Yishmael. Yaakov responded that that situation was different as well because Sarah had given her maidservant, Hagar, to Avraham in an effort to have children with him. Rachel concluded that she too would do the same to have the same merit. She gave him Bilhah, and subsequently Bilhah gave birth to the next two shevatim. While all this makes sense for Rachel, how could we understand why Leah felt compelled to give Zilpah to Yaakov if she already had children? 

The Ramban answers that the Imahos all knew with ruach hakodesh that there would be 12 shevatim born to Yaakov. Leah was so focused on achieving the actualization of this nevuah that she wanted to do anything and everything in her power to bring about more shevatim, and strive to contribute to the mitzvah to her full capacity. Therefore, when she realized she stopped having children after her first four, she offered Zilpah to further the achievement of the nevuah in general and, more specifically, increase her chances of being an equal participant in birthing of at least half (six) of the shevatim. 

After Zilpah gave birth to the next two shevatim, fulfilling Leah’s desire to have contributed a total of six shevatim – four of her own, and two from Zilpah – Leah still felt the responsibility to ensure that the twelve shevatim would be born, and that they would be born from her or Rachel. With this mindset she arranged to have Yaakov come to her tent (through the dudaim trade with Rachel) and ultimately gave birth to an additional two shevatim – Yissachar and Zevulun.  

In describing the birth of Yissachar, the Torah (30:17) relates that Hashem listened to Leah, and she gave birth to Yissachar. The Ohr Hachaim comments from the fact the Torah says that Hashem listened, it must be that Leah davened, even though the Torah does not explicitly relate that Leah davened. The Ohr Hachaim then offers a second explanation, which is a bit more cryptic. He writes that alternatively, perhaps Leah did not specifically daven for another child. Rather, the “vayishma” here means that Hashem “understood” through her actions that she was so dedicated to performing the mitzvah of fulfilling the nevuah of brining the shevatim into the world, and middah k’negged middah, Hashem responded by allowing her to give birth to Yissachar and Zevulun.  

The Ohr Haganuz further clarifies this middah k’negged middah – which resulted in two additional children – as referring to two things she did, above and beyond, that clearly demonstrated her pure intentions and strong will to help bring the nevuah to reality. One was that she offered Zilpah to Yaakov, even though it is uncommon for a wife to introduce a co-wife into a relationship. Second, was that her actions with Rachel and sensitivity she showed by proactively going to Yaakov to make him aware of the arrangement, rather than waiting and needing to pull him out of Rachel’s tent. 

The Seforno has a slightly different approach which seems to be in between the two explanations of the Ohr Hachaim. He explains it wasn’t just that Leah davened and it wasn’t just that she took action. It was the combination that she made efforts of hishtadlus and combined that with tefillah.  

As we look at these comments and this theme of character that Leah represented, a question emerges which is simply, why all the effort? There was already a nevuah that the shevatim would all ultimately be born, was Leah actually increasing the chances of the fulfillment of the nevuah by taking all these deliberate measures to go above and beyond? It was already destined, why not just let it all play out?  

We see from here a stunning lesson in what hishtadlus means and the power it has when combined with the right intentions. Hishtadlus is often minimalized to mean “putting in the human effort” as if we need to do something in order to give Hashem the vehicle to make things happen, which is certainly false. True Hishtadlus is so much more. When done with the right intentions it is effectively a materialization of emunah and tefillah. It is doing things because of an alignment with Hashem’s ratson and emunah that Hashem will help. Not in spite of, and not to compliment with; but one and the same as a tefillah and emunah itself. 

Of course we cannot assume that each of our desires and associated hishtadlus is at the same level of alignment with ratson Hashem as fulfilling the nevuah to give birth to the 12 shevatim, however we could certainly see from here the importance of hishtadlus, and the quality it needs not just in the effort itself, but in the mindset of the effort to do what Hashem wants of us, while humbly admitting we need His assistance. This is what merited Leah to be the mother of 75% of the shevatim! 

May Hashem help us elevate the quality of our hishtadlus so that it itself is not mere “effort” but an actual expression of emunah and tefillah itself. In this zechus we should merit that Hashem answer yes to our tefillos.