When Yaacov arrived to the land of Charan, he met the love of his life Rachel. But his father in law to be Lavan, twisted things up and instead of Yaacov marrying Rachel he ended up marrying Leah. Afterwards he was allowed to marry Rachel. “Rachel saw that she had not borne Yaacov children;Rachel was jealous of her sister Leah.” Leah had the blessing of mothering half of the twelve tribes of Israel. Rachel saw that she would not even be able to contribute with half of the portion, she wasn’t getting pregnant and decided to give her maidservant to Yaacov. Leah did the same and between Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah they were able to bring to the world each one of them two making in total six more.
Rachel attributes Leah’s fertility as the reward for her righteousness, and was therefore jealous of her sister’s good deeds. This form of jealousy is constructive because it propels the person to become better, not like a destructive, petty jealousy which is born out of fear that the other person’s success will lessen our own self worth.
Our Sages state that jealousy among Torah Scholars increases wisdom.
Jealousy can be a positive force in our life when applied correctly.
Excerpts taken from “Daily Wisdom Vol 1” insights given by the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
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