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Why did Leah feel unloved and even hated despite Yaakov loving her? The shiur traces marriage tension back to the Garden of Eden: Adam viewed Chava as an appendage, and Chava was willing to destroy Adam for her own sake. Every marriage begins with this underlying hostility, and both spouses must take responsibility for their inherent shortcomings to build a healthy relationship and give their children self-worth.
Rabbi Zweig opens by examining the narrative of Leah's first children in Parshas Vayeitzei. After each birth, Leah expresses feeling unloved and then hated, despite the Torah (תורה) explicitly stating that Yaakov loved her—just not as much as Rochel. This raises a profound question: how could Yaakov Avinu, the greatest of our forefathers, allow his wife to feel this way? A responsible, caring husband should ameliorate such perceptions, yet the Torah presents this as foundational to understanding marriage itself. The shiur then traces the root of this dynamic back to the story of Adam and Chava in Gan Eden. After eating from the forbidden fruit, Chava gave it to Adam specifically so that she would not die alone and he would not survive to marry another woman. Rashi (רש"י) makes clear: she was willing to destroy her husband for her own sake, with no benefit to him whatsoever. This reveals a fundamental truth about women: they are capable of manipulating and even destroying their husbands purely for selfish reasons. This is the prototype of all women, embedded in the very nature of Chava, the mother of all living.
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Bereishis 29:30-33, Bereishis 3:4-6, Bereishis 2:23, Bereishis 3:20
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