Parshat Vayechi

Why was Rachel (Jacob’s wife, not our Rachel in the office!) in Bethlehem?

This verse is part of Jacob’s final testament to Joseph as the end of Sefer Bereishit (the book of Genesis) draws to a close. It appears out of sync with the context of Jacob’s testament, in which he gives various blessings to Joseph.

Other than Rachel, all of the patriarchs and matriarchs, including Jacob, were buried in Mearat Hamachpela, the Cave of Machpela in Hebron, which Abraham purchased as a burial ground for Sarah (Bereishit 23). Why was Rachel not buried there?

Rashi, the premier medieval Torah commentator, explains that Jacob received a prophecy instructing him to bury Rachel in Bethlehem. This was so that her tomb would provide comfort and the eternal link of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel when, after the destruction of the first Temple, Jewish captives were being led north to Babylon. The captives were comforted by the prophecy that they would return, with a symbol of the matriarch Rachel waiting for them (See Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) 31:14, which is the Haftara for the second day of Rosh Hashana).

This implies that Rachel’s Tomb is to the north east of Jerusalem in a place called ‘Bethlehem’ on the road to Babylon, rather than where it is claimed to be today in contemporary Bethlehem, south-west of Jerusalem.

Ramban, another crucial medieval commentator, expands on these points. He suggests that Jacob wanted to explain to Joseph why Rachel, Joseph’s mother, was buried separately. This may explain why this verse is in the context of Jacob’s testament to Joseph. Rachel actually died in Rama, probably the same place north-east of Jerusalem where the prophet Shmuel (Samuel) later lived. When Jacob said that Rachel died ‘baderech’, on the way, he was referring to the path that her descendents would later take. She needed to be buried separately so that she could provide comfort for her descendents.

On a different note, Ramban also proposes that it was not possible for Jacob to take Rachel from Rama to Hebron for burial. Given the size of Jacob’s family and company, it would have taken them several days to get to Hebron. Alternatively, Ramban suggests that Jacob did not want to bury his two wives together, since they were sisters and the Torah was later to forbid a man from marrying two sisters.