The Red Tent

Rachel reports that she met a man (Jacob) at the family well, who says he is a cousin and will marry her. She has not yet reached menarche, the threshold into womanhood, so she cannot marry. Jacob formally greets Rachel and her sisters’ father, Laban, and notices the oldest sister, Leah. Leah is not considered beautiful because she has heterochromia, but is sturdy and strong. Zilpah believes the presence of El, the god of thunder and high places, hovers over Jacob. Bilhah is only eight, dreamy and shy. The sisters are all different, but share hatred for their father. Leah is attracted to Jacob and prepares a welcoming feast.

Jacob works for Laban, and the family’s flocks of sheep and goats multiply under his care. He offers the sisters gifts, giving Rachel a lapis ring. When she begins to menstruate, she is taken to a red tent for a ceremony that celebrates her womanhood, and a wedding date is set.

Rachel shares stories that Jacob told her during their courtship, that he was the youngest of twins and his mother’s favorite. Similarly, his father, Isaac, was the second son of Abram and Sarai, after Ishmael, but Sarai insisted that Isaac be heir. Jacob learns Leah effectively runs the household, and approaches her often.

Zilpah, who has little use for Jacob, stokes Rachel’s fear of marital relations. When her wedding day arrives, Rachel is terrified and begs Leah to take her place. Leah attends the ceremony, wearing a veil “worn by generations of brides who had lived through a hundred wedding nights filled with pleasure, violence, fear, delight, disappointment” (32). In their own tent, Jacob removes the veil. He is tender with Leah and recalls how his father had been with no woman but his partner Rebecca; the couple spend a week together. Then, Jacob tells Laban that he will take Zilpah as Leah’s dowry, since Bilhah was Rachel’s dowry, and offers to work for seven months to pay the bride-price for Rachel.

Rachel regrets giving up her status as Jacob’s first wife, and is angry when Leah becomes pregnant. Dinah says Leah was not jealous, for she knew Jacob loved her in his own way, but it took her and Rachel a while to learn how to share a husband. Rachel, who becomes pregnant soon after her marriage, grieves when she loses the child, but is consoled by midwife Inna, who says she “would bear beautiful sons who would shine like stars and assure her memory” (38). Rachel tells Dinah the story of Leah giving birth for the first time, a difficult labor: Leah’s mother, Adah, fetches Inna, and Inna turns the baby and then places two bricks on the ground upon which Leah will stand to deliver. The healthy boy is named Reuben, and Jacob rejoices at the birth.

Jacob circumcises Reuben when he is eight days old, as per family custom; his time as patriarch begins. While Reuben flourishes, Adah dies and is buried. Leah welcomes Bilhah to the red tent when she begins menstruating. Leah gives birth to Simon, then Levi, and then Judah. Rachel continues to miscarry and becomes an assistant to Inna. Bondswomen, the wives of men who work with Jacob, give birth in the red tent, but not all are successful: One child is left outside to die because she has a cleft palate. After a brief respite, Leah gives birth to Zebulun.

Seeing Rachel’s grief, Bilhah offers to bear a child in her stead. Jacob agrees to lay with Bilhah, but does not marry her until later. She tells Dinah that Jacob was tender with her. Rachel dotes on Bilhah through her pregnancy and helps deliver Dan, but still longs for her own biological child. Zilpah also wishes for a child, and asks for Leah’s permission. She does not take pleasure in lying with Jacob, as Rachel has newly learned to do. She has a difficult pregnancy and delivers twins Gad and Asher. Zilpah then falls ill and nearly dies, while Leah then gives birth to twins Naphtali and Issachar. Jacob is now a rich man with 10 sons and growing flocks.

Jacob tells his sons the story of how his grandfather’s god told him to sacrifice his son, Isaac, and Isaac stuttered after, so afraid of his father’s knife. Jacob wants his sons to worship El, the same god. The family is unhappy living with Laban, who mistreats his daughters and grandchildren. He resents Jacob’s success and abuses the enslaved woman, Ruti, who becomes “a ragged, battered misery” (63). When Ruti becomes pregnant again, she begs Rachel to help her end the pregnancy. When the women next enter the red tent, Rachel gives her an herbal drink that causes her to miscarry.

Leah and Rachel have learned to divide the duties of chief wife: Leah is in charge of weaving, cooking, gardening, and childrearing, while Rachel tends to Jacob and guests. When Leah learns she is pregnant again, she approaches Rachel, for she fears she will not survive another pregnancy. Rachel tells her the child is a girl, and that all the sisters will help her. The sisters dream of Dinah before her birth: Zilpah dreams of her weeping a river of blood that gives rise to monsters, but tells Dinah, “You walked upon their backs and tamed their ugliness, and disappeared into the sun” (67).

Dinah’s birth is easy, and the sisters welcome her with celebration. Leah spends two months in the red tent recovering, and her sisters pamper her and adore Dinah. Leah says Dinah helped choose her own name. Rachel conceives after, the difficult birth being eased by Inna. Rachel bears no milk, so Leah nurses her son, Joseph.