The RALBAG vs. Chazal on the Time Frame in Parshas Vayetze
According to Seder Olam, all the shvatim except Binaymin were born within 7 years, and all the pregnancies were curtailed to 7 months. The RALBAG is aware of this but finds difficulty with such a phenomenon and the fact that then Yehudah would perforce have had to become a father while still under 13 and married his sons to Tamar while they were younger than 13 -- soemthing he finds very difficult to accept. So he learns the pshat for the order of events quite differently than Rashi does. He says that Yaakov did not work 7 years then marry Leah and a week later marry Rachel. Rather that he contracted to work 7 years for Lavan, had the wedding right away, discovered the switch and then agreed to work an additional 7 years for a total of 14 after marrying Rachel a week after Leah. He argues that when Yaakov demands his wife (29:21) "ki maloo yamay," [for my days have filled] he is not saying that his days of work have been completed but that his lifetime has advanced, for Yaakov was already past seventy at this point.
The RALBAG's pshat allows 14 years for the birth of 12 children -- 11 boys and one girl. It also allows enough time lapse for Leah to worry about the fact that she has not conceived for a while and to give her maidservant, Zilpah, to Yaakov as a wife, before she finds herself pregnant again with Yissachar, Zevulan, and, finally, Dina. Within a space of only 7 years, she would hardly have time to catch her breath between pregnancies and births while having 7 children, let alone see a definite cessation and feel that further action is needed after having given birth to 4 in what must have been no more than 4 years.
But I have two major difficulties with reading the order of events as the RALBAG does. one is that 29:20 says that Yaakov worked 7 years for Rachel before he demands his wife in the next verse. My other difficulty with this is that I find Lavan pulling off the switcheroo when he is in a poor bargaining position seem very unlikely. If Yaakov had not yet done his part of the bargain and saw that Lavan had given him the sister he had not asked for, he could easily have walked away from the deal or simply said that he would keep Leah but only fulfill his promise of 7 years work for Rachel and not a day for her sister. And Lavan would have nothing to negotiate with. The way the text sounds, Lavan got Yaakov to pay first with 7 years work and then delivered Leah. Knowing that Yaakov still wants Rachel, he is able to demand an additional 7 years. But I fin it hard to believe that Yaakov would agree to indenture himself for 14 consecutive years after seeing that Lavan had attempted to dupe him.
The RALBAG's pshat allows 14 years for the birth of 12 children -- 11 boys and one girl. It also allows enough time lapse for Leah to worry about the fact that she has not conceived for a while and to give her maidservant, Zilpah, to Yaakov as a wife, before she finds herself pregnant again with Yissachar, Zevulan, and, finally, Dina. Within a space of only 7 years, she would hardly have time to catch her breath between pregnancies and births while having 7 children, let alone see a definite cessation and feel that further action is needed after having given birth to 4 in what must have been no more than 4 years.
But I have two major difficulties with reading the order of events as the RALBAG does. one is that 29:20 says that Yaakov worked 7 years for Rachel before he demands his wife in the next verse. My other difficulty with this is that I find Lavan pulling off the switcheroo when he is in a poor bargaining position seem very unlikely. If Yaakov had not yet done his part of the bargain and saw that Lavan had given him the sister he had not asked for, he could easily have walked away from the deal or simply said that he would keep Leah but only fulfill his promise of 7 years work for Rachel and not a day for her sister. And Lavan would have nothing to negotiate with. The way the text sounds, Lavan got Yaakov to pay first with 7 years work and then delivered Leah. Knowing that Yaakov still wants Rachel, he is able to demand an additional 7 years. But I fin it hard to believe that Yaakov would agree to indenture himself for 14 consecutive years after seeing that Lavan had attempted to dupe him.
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