A Jewish woman’s beauty

YITZCHAK GINSBURGH

One of the most important days in the month of Cheshvan is the 11th, which commemorates the day of passing of our matriarch Rachel. Rachel was Jacob’s most beloved wife and was the principal of his household and thus the principal of the entire House of Israel. From the first day of the year, the first of Tishrei, the 11th day of Cheshvan is the 41st day: 41 is the numerical value of the Hebrew word eim, which means mother, thus the 11th of Cheshvan is truly the Jewish Mother’s Day. However, in light of the fact that, on the secular calendar, Mother’s Day is this weekend, May 8, it is also an appropriate time to recommit to our mother’s guidance.

The figure of our matriarch Rachel is the one most associated in kabbalah with the building of Jewish nature, the character of an individual who walks willingly and naturally in the path of G-d. Jewish nature and character call upon an individual to perform G-d’s will out of his or her own accord, a state described by the sages as “acting without dictation [from Above].” Just as our matriarch Eve, “the mother of all life,” is the mother of human nature, so our matriarch Rachel is the mother of our unique Jewish nature.

“Rachel cries for her children, she will not be comforted....” Rachel constantly mourns over the exile of her children, the Jewish people, and the Almighty comforts her with the words: “Withhold your voice from crying and your eyes from tearing, for there is a reward for your actions ... and the children will return to their border.” Literally, “return to their border” refers to the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, but, more deeply, it refers to the return of our people to our natural spiritual environs: Judaism and our ancestral Jewish nature.

The mother defines and guards the uniqueness of the Jewish people, both physically and spiritually: physically, because one’s nationality as a Jew passes through one’s mother, and, spiritually, because the culture, atmosphere and nature of being Jewish are nurtured by the Jewish mother. Our ability to return to, defend and hold on to our physical borders, i.e., to the land of Israel, depends on our success in returning to and guarding the spiritual borders of our people.

Rachel is described as the most beautiful woman in the Torah. King Solomon says that external beauty by itself is deceitful. It is of such a woman that King Solomon says: “And I find the woman to be more bitter than death.” But, of true beauty, the beauty of a Jewish woman that emanates from within, he says: “The woman of beauty shall support honor.” This true beauty is given to us, the Jewish people, by G-d through the Torah, for “there is no truth but Torah” and “there is no honor but Torah.” It was Rachel who was first endowed with this real beauty. Rachel is described in the Torah as having “a beautiful face and a beautiful figure.” She was the embodiment of the verse: “A woman who fears G-d, she shall be praised.”

But the beauty of the Jewish woman is not just a passive agent of spirituality. The sages teach that the offspring of Esau and his grandson, Amalek, can be defeated only by the children of Rachel. Who embodies the spirit of Amalek in our day and age? Well, in Hebrew, the words Amalek and doubt (safek) have the same numerical value, thus, the spirit of Amalek that continues to plague each and every Jew is doubt: doubt in our faith, doubt in our Torah and doubt in ourselves and the moral justification of our path.

With everything that we have said about Rachel, her role as our matriarch, as the progenitor of Jewish nature, and of her beauty, it should now be clear that our weapon for defeating Amalek is the special beauty and grace of the Jewish mother. Joseph the Tzaddik (righteous one) inherited his mother Rachel’s beauty and he, too, is described as having a beautiful face and a beautiful figure. That is why the prophet says about him that “the House of Jacob will be fire and the House of Joseph its flame and the House of Esau straw, and together they will ignite him and consume him; and there will be no remnant for the House of Esau.”

Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh is the founder and director of the Gal Einai Institute: The Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Study of Torah, Art and Science. He has written more than 40 books illuminating the Torah’s understanding of topics such as psychology, education, medicine, politics, mathematics and relationships. The original version of this article can be found at chabad.org.

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