Matriarha Rahela în literatura rabinică
Matriarch Rachel in rabbinic literature

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article is to examine the way in which some works of the unanimous rabbinic writers or editors perceived the figure of Rachel the Matriarch depicted in the Book of Genesis. The tragic ending of the second Jacob’s wife was understood either as a punitive consequence of her personal actions or as a result of divine providence. Thus the rabbinic thought configured two interpretative directions: one unfavourable toward Rachel, which reflects the memory of the rivalry between two ancient endlessly warring communities of Palestine (the Judeans and the Samaritans), and one favourable which recognizes in Rachel a symbol of national sufferance that embraces the whole House of Israel. The author of the present study has proposed to himself to evidence which are the particularities that makes the rabbinic exegetical works on Rachel to differ from the recepted source, namely the Book of Genesis from the Hebrew Bible and the christian Old Testament.

• Details
• Contents