The American holiday of Thanksgiving can often be a time of distress in families. As we gather around tables, sharing time and waiting for food, the social, political, and religious differences in families seem to become more pronounced. Undoubled, this year will be no exception. Yet, can we, in the midst of our differences announced or muted, bring thanksgiving from the mess?

In this week’s Torah portion of וַיֵּצֵא/Vayetze, “and he went out,” the young swindler Jacob find himself swindled by his uncle Laban. Jacob, arriving in Haran, sees and immediately falls in love with Rachel when he meets her at the same well where Eliezer met his mother Rebecca many years earlier (Gen. 29:11-12). After meeting Laban, Jacob agrees to labor seven years for Laban in exchange for Rachel, an extraordinary sum.

The Torah says that the years seemed but few because of Jacob’s love for Rachel (Gen. 29:20). Yet, Jacob, we know, is swindled; and Leah, Rachel’s older sister, is given to Jacob in her place. The Torah is not flattering in its description of Leah, perhaps an honesty revealing Jacobs heart. In Genesis 29:17, she is described as having weak eyes, while Rachel is described as being beautiful in form and appearance. Rachel is pretty and sexually desirable, and Jacob longs for her.

The commentators wrestle with the reference to Leah’s eyes being רַכּוֹת, meaning “weak or tender.” The rabbis comment that her eyes are either crossed, or they protruded. At one time English speakers may have referred to Leah as “homely.” Her eyes are referenced in comparison to Rachel’s beauty. In fact, it is speculated that Laban believes the only way he will get someone to marry Leah is by tricking them, which he did to Jacob.

How would, and how did, this make Leah feel? Jacob we know is disappointed with Leah; and the Torah notes (Gen. 29:30) that Jacob loves Rachel more than Leah. Yet, the Lord reveals just how disappointed Jacob was with Leah, “When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren” (Gen. 29:31).

וַיַּרְא יְהוָה כִּי-שְׂנוּאָה לֵאָה, וַיִּפְתַּח אֶת-רַחְמָהּ

To paraphrase, “The Lord saw that Leah was hated, so he opened the doorway of mercy for her.” He opened her womb for children.רחם , “womb” comes from the root “mercy.” פתח, “door,” meaning open wide, doorway. She begins to have sons:

1. Reuben – “see a son.” “The Lord has seen that I am hated; and now my husband will love me.”

2. Shimon – “hearing.” The Lord has heard that I am hated.”

3. Levi – “attached/joined to.” “Now this time my husband will join himself to me…”

4. Judah – “celebrate/praise.” “This time I praise the Lord.”

What begins as a competition for Jacob’s love, develops into a profound lesson. At times we have a tendency to read Scripture with rose colored lenses, looking ideally upon unideal circumstances. Jacob’s family is certainly one potential instance of this. Leah, as we discern from the flow of her sons names, is deeply disappointed. Who could blame her? She is unloved, dismissed, told she is not a pretty as her sister, and even though she has produced sons, her husband never identifies her as his wife, never. In the Talmud, Rabbi Simeon b. Yohai explains that Leah is the first person in history to express gratitude to God (BT. Berakhot 7b). This is an extraordinary claim indeed. But what was unique about Leah’s gratitude, or thanksgiving, was the circumstance in which she gave it.

We can easily express thanks to God, and rightly so, when things are well and good. When we are blessed and content. But what about when everything is a mess? This is the heart of what Rabbi Simeon was explaining. The Torah gives Leah the primary, or first position of a person who expressed thanksgiving to God as she faced profound disappointment with her life circumstance. After attempting to win Jacob with three sons, at the birth of her fourth son she says, “This time I will praise the Lord” (Gen. 29:35). Judah/ יְהוּדָה comes from the root יד, so Judah denotes raising or lifting the hands in praise, as to say, “I will praise,” or “I give thanks.”

Leah teaches us that even in the midst of the most unfortunate circumstance, there is yet present the possibility of a spirit of thanksgiving. Sure Leah wasn’t as beautiful as Rachel, but in the eyes of the Lord, Who showed her mercy and love, she was perfected when she began to praise Him.

Leah’s family was a mess, but guess what? The Lord still planned and purposed for the Messiah to come from that mess. Leah was overlooked, but in the end she praised the Lord, why? She knew, just as Jacob would reveal prophetically in Genesis 48 as he blessed his sons, that King Messiah would come through her, and that King would be the true Bridegroom. Still, Leah’s life gives other lessons:

Leah wasn’t beautiful, in fact she was homely. Leah was unwanted. Leah was overlooked. Leah was unloved. Leah was rejected.

But of Messiah Yeshua/Jesus we learn:

He wasn’t beautiful or desirable (Isa. 53:2/Jn. 1:10). He was unwanted (Isa. 53:3/Jn 1:11). He was overlooked (Isa. 53:3/Lk. 4:22). He was unloved (Isa. 53:4/Lk. 23:21). He was rejected (Isa. 53:3/Lk. 22:55-62).

He became weak, ugly, unwanted, unloved, rejected, lonely and ultimately died in order to bear these burdens that we all feel and experience. He bore these in order that we who receive Him will experience that relationship of praise that Leah ultimately experienced when she stopped allowing circumstance to rule her life.

In the end, Leah was more loved, more accepted, and more blessed than she could have ever imagined, because her eyes that were weak beheld the real beauty of her Lord, and she praised Him in Thanksgiving.

If your eyes are too weak to see your blessing, just say the name Yeshua/Jesus. He has opened blind eyes more than once, and when He opens your eyes, you will offer a Thanksgiving of praise to heaven, even if the turkey was dry or the conversation was unpleasant. Even if the day is not perfect, as Leah said, “This time I will praise the Lord.”

Be well. Shalom.