Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/225

 The Unity of Another dramatic fail to

207

the Jacob Story

of which the compilers (Hd not

situation,

take full advantage, exists in the substitution of Leah

for Rachel, and in the simple, yet direct and forceful words, it came to pass in the morning that, behold, it was Leah" (XXIX, 25). This is really the reversal of an earlier situation of the story. Just as Jacob had impersonated his brother to secure the coveted blessing, which belonged by right to Esau, so here Leah impersonates her sister to secure for herself the husband who should have been Rachel's.


 * 'And

This motive of the deceiver being deceived

is

common

in all

literature.

Furthermore, we have learned that riage with a cousin

in ancient Israel

mar-

was considered the highest type of mar-

riage.

The

story of

Isaac's

obtaining his cousin Rebekah,

artistic

and

spiritual

though

it

is,

is

nevertheless

in

itself

an independent incident of the Abraham cycle of stories, without which the unity of the Abraham story would nevertheless have been complete. It is merely the connecting link between the Abraham cycle and the Jacob cycle, and shows that the patriarch Isaac found the very best possible wife, and that his descendants sprang from a marriage of the highest type. But here the motive of Jacob's marriage with, Without it not one, but two cousins, is integral and vital. the story would limp exceedingly, or w^ould, in fact, be no story.

And

still

more

is

implied.

God had

said that

He would

Jacob must have regarded the very moment of his arrival,

be with Jacob upon this journey. his

meeting with Rachel

at

and the love which immediately sprang up between them, as a sign that God was true to His word. Time and again the story aflirms that Jacob

knew with

ever-increasing conviction

God was with him. He could not but see in the deception whereby the hated Leah had become his wife, in-

that

stead of the beloved Rachel, only the counterpart of his

deception

practiced

upon

his

unsuspecting

brother.

own

How