Often times we read the narratives of the Torah and are filled with questions about the actions of God and humanity.

 The narrative of Noah and the Flood are no exception. We wonder about a corruption of creation that could be so astounding as to necessitate almost total annihilation. The midrash is filled with descriptions of this corruption within nature itself, including both animals and vegetation. One of the human corruptive acts, according to Genesis Rabbah, was that men started to take multiple wives.

Lamech is said to have taken two wives, one named Zillah and one named Adah. Through an interesting usage of the root words for these names, the midrash concludes that one wife was meant for procreation while the other wife was made sterile so she could be kept for pleasure alone. The midrash in Genesis Rabbah clearly states “this is what the men of the generation of the flood would do” and this action plays a part in God’s decision to destroy the world. Yet, there are other narratives that involve multiple wives – in fact, two of our matriarchs, Rachel and Leah, are co-wives within one marriage.

The problem with Lamech is not that he took a wife to solve a fertility problem or that he, like Jacob, was tricked into a marriage. Rather, Lamech took two wives in order to redefine each woman from a complex being into a simple, single purpose being. One wife was intended only for procreation, defining the woman as mother, while the other wife was intended only for pleasure, defining the woman as lover. Lamech has set up an “either/or” definition for the women that is contrary to their natural composition.

When Jacob marries Leah and subsequently marries Rachel, it is through twists and turns of fate and balance that result in Jacob being tricked in parallel ways to his choosing to trick his father, Isaac. God makes Leah fruitful after she is married. She is not married for procreation alone. The text creates a tension between the women as they argue and struggle to define themselves. Leah strives to be lover as well as mother, and Rachel likewise strives to counterbalance her role as mother as well as lover.

While the family struggles internally for two generations to try and reconcile this issue, the text does not want us to find resolution. There is never a question that both Rachel and Leah stand together equally as Jewish matriarchs. If it were Leah alone, the Jewish woman would define by her model, meaning the Jewish woman is most fulfilled as mother. If it is Rachel alone, the Jewish woman would be most fulfilled as lover. The text maintains them both as matriarchs to affirm without question that women are complex beings, composites of mother and lover.

Lamech tries to redefine the woman within creation by taking two wives and deliberately forcing each to only manifest half of who they are. This action is seen as a self-indulgent corruption of creation.

And while the book of Genesis teaches us of the corrupt extreme in Lamech, the Zohar describes the ideal. According to the Zohar, “He who wins a wise woman by his own worth has won the greatest victory in life.”