לאה אמנו

Leah our mother is the mother of most of the tribes of Israel, who turned the pain of an unloved wife into a wellspring of thanksgiving. 'The eyes of Leah were tender' (Genesis 29:17), and the Sages expounded that she wept over her fate, for by tradition she was originally destined for Esau, and through her weeping and prayer she changed her fate and married Jacob.

Yet Leah felt all her life that she was not the beloved one. 'And God saw that Leah was hated' (Genesis 29:31), and God opened her womb. And in the names of her sons her whole path is preserved: Reuven, 'for God has seen my affliction,' Shimon, 'for God has heard that I am hated.' Her pain speaks through the names.

And here is the great turning point: when her fourth son was born, Yehuda, she said 'this time I will thank God' (Genesis 29:35). The Sages teach that she was the first to give thanks from the depth of the heart, without asking for more. From the 'hated' wife came Yehuda, from whom the kingdom of the house of David and the Messiah. The pain became the root of the monarchy.

What do we learn from her? That one can bear deep pain and turn it into thanksgiving, 'this time I will thank God.' Leah teaches that precisely one who felt herself less loved merited to be the mother of most of the nation, and that thanksgiving, even out of a broken heart, is what opens the way to greatness, all the way to the kingdom of the house of David.