Leah (Bible)

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Lea with her children, GBTiepolo, Patriarchal Palace, Udine

Lea or Leah ( Hebrew לֵאָה, Le'ah ) is in the Torah and the Old Testament the daughter of Laban , an Aramaic from Paddan-Aram . She was Jacob's cousin because Laban was Rebekah's brother , Jacob's mother. As the first wife of the progenitor Jacob, she was the mother of six sons, who are considered to be the progenitors of the Twelve Tribes of Israel , as well as the daughter Dina . The relationship with her sister Rachel , Jacob's second wife, is tense. They both belong to the patriarchs of Israel .

Meaning of the name

There are different interpretations of the derivation of the name “Lea”, mostly it is understood as the Hebrew term for “(wild) cow”, with reference to Akkadian , Ugaritic and Arabic roots. The use of animal names as personal names is not uncommon in Akkadian. On the other hand, the name could go back to the Hebrew word stem לאה (la'ah, "tire, try in vain") (compare Gen 29.17  EU ).

In the Greek translation of the Tanach, the Septuagint , the name is Λεία Leia , in the Vulgate Lia .

Biblical narration

The Erzelternerzählung to Lea found in the book of Genesis (29,16 EU -49.31 EU ). Lea is Rachel's older sister, her father is Laban von Harran . According to Gen 30.36  EU Leah also had brothers. In the biblical story Lea is portrayed as an unattractive woman ("Lea's eyes were dull"), while her sister Rachel is described as "beautiful in face and form" ( Gen. 29.17  EU ).

Jacob, Laban's nephew, loves Rachel, whom he had met before. He is ready to serve her with Laban for seven years (compare bridal service ). At the end of this time, Laban brings his older sister Lea to him on their wedding night, so that the marriage with her will be consummated. Laban justifies this procedure with the custom of marrying off the older sister first ( Gen. 29: 20–26  EU ). After completing the bridal week with Leah, Jacob also married Rachel, but had to serve her with Laban for another seven years.

In response to God's intervention and to compensate for her being set back by Jacob, Leah becomes very fruitful in contrast to Rachel and first gives birth to the sons Reuben , Shimon , Levi and Judah . When she doesn't have any more children afterwards, she sends her maid Silpa to Jakob, who gives birth to Gad and Ascher . Since, according to Israelite legal notions, the maid is the representative of her mistress, these two sons are also recognized as Lea's children. Later, Lea has to Jacob nor the sons of Issachar and Zebulun and the daughter Dina ( Gen 29.31  EU -21 EU ).

Leah accompanies Jacob on his return to Canaan . She witnesses the reconciliation with his twin brother Esau and the grief over the alleged loss of his second youngest son Joseph , who is sold to Egypt by his brothers. After her death, Lea, like Jacob and his ancestors, is buried in the Machpelah cave near Mamre ( Gen. 49.31  EU ).

In exegetical science, the biblical narrative of the parent is largely regarded as legendary; therefore Lea is not understood as a historical person.

Lea as ancestral mother

According to the genealogy in Genesis, the Israelite tribes Ruben , Simeon , Levi , Juda , Issachar and Zebulon can be traced back to Lea as their common ancestral mother . This expresses the awareness that these tribes belong together - especially in contrast to the Rahel tribes . In the numerical book five of these six tribes are summarized in the "Camp Rubens" ( Num 2,10-16  EU ) and in the "Camp Judas" ( Num 2,3-9  EU ). Since the Levi tribe plays a special role, the Rubens camp is supplemented by the Gad tribe , which is traced back to Lea's maid Silpa . According to the Book of Joshua, the Lea trunks Reuben, Simeon and Judah had their settlement areas in southern Palestine - Judah and Simeon to the west and Reuben to the east of the Jordan. In contrast, Issachar and Zebulun, who were separated from them in the birth history ( Gen 29–30  EU ), had their settlement area north of the Rahelstämme ( Jos 19  EU ).

Rabbinical literature

In the Babylonian Talmud, Lea is honored as the first person to thank God.

“ Rabbi Jochanan spoke on behalf of Rabbi Shimon ben Jochai :“ From the day when the holy one, blessed be he, had created his world, there was no one who had thanked the holy one, blessed be he, until Leah came and thanked him, as it is said: "This time I will thank the Lord." ( Gen 29.35  EU ) ""

- Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot, chapter 1, page 7b

Leah says this sentence after the birth of her fourth son Judas. It is used to explain this name because it is in Hebrew אֹודֶה 'ô d æ h , German ' I want to thank ' and the nameיְהוּדָה jəhû d ā h sound similar. In the Talmud, Leah is given thanks to Abraham, who was the first man to call God “LORD”, in which he said: “Lord and GOD, how should I know that I own it [= the promised land] get? "( Gen 15.8  EU )

Remembrance day

The March 22 as a name day does not go directly to the herein described biblical person, but on the Catholic Holy Lea of Rome back.

Film adaptations

In The Bible - Jacob (1994) Juliet Aubrey played Lea, in The Bible - Joseph from 1995 Dominique Sanda played the role.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stefan Beyerle: Lea. In: New Bible Lexicon. Volume 2: H-N. Benziger, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-545-23075-9 , column 594/595.
  2. ↑ Renate Klein:  Rahel. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (eds.): The scientific Bibellexikon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart March 2009., accessed on February 3, 2020.
  3. ↑ a b Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot, Chapter 1, Page 7b , on sefaria.org.il (Hebrew and English).
  4. ↑ a b Babylonian Talmud, Traktat Berachot, Chapter 1, page 7b , on Internet Archive (German translation).