בראשית, פרק ל״ה, פסוק י״ז

In her final moments, Rachel experiences agonizing, life-threatening labor. The birthing process is excruciating, taking a severe toll not only on her physical body but also on her emotional and mental state [אבן עזרא, אבי עזר, מחוקקי יהודה]. As she struggles, the midwife standing beside her attempts to offer comfort and encouragement by revealing the identity of the newborn.

The midwife urges Rachel not to be afraid, addressing a deep and complex terror. While this fear might naturally stem from the approaching shadow of death, other perspectives highlight Rachel's profound righteousness. Even at death's door, her primary concern is not for her own life, but for her child. She worries that the sheer trauma of the labor has caused the baby to be stillborn or that the child will not be spiritually viable [מלבי״ם, תיבת גמא]. This anxiety is compounded by a folk belief that if a mother dies during childbirth, the unborn child perishes first, leading Rachel to dread that her baby is already gone [העמק דבר]. Furthermore, she carries the heavy burden of potential social stigma. She fears people will assume her tragic death is a divine punishment for failing to observe the laws of family purity. By immediately announcing the birth of a boy, the midwife aims to clear Rachel of any such suspicion, as tradition holds that women who meticulously observe these purity laws are rewarded with male children [פרדס יוסף].

The midwife's declaration that Rachel has given birth to another son operates on multiple levels of comfort. The primary approach among commentators is that she is gently reminding Rachel of the prayer she offered when her first son, Joseph, was born, asking God for another child. The midwife delivers the joyful news that this prayer has been fully answered: the baby is alive, and he is a boy. Because traditional wisdom held that the labor pains for a female child were far more severe and numerous than those for a male, Rachel's intense suffering led her to assume she was having a girl. The midwife reassures her that despite the immense pain, she has indeed delivered a son [ספורנו]. Moreover, since delivering a boy was considered less dangerous, the midwife attempts to instill hope in Rachel that she will survive the ordeal and live to raise him [אור החיים].

The midwife's phrasing emphasizes that this child is a direct addition to Joseph [רש״י], but it also hints at an unusual pregnancy involving twins [אור החיים]. According to early rabbinic tradition, each of the tribal patriarchs was born with a twin sister, yet Benjamin was born with an additional twin [רש״י]. This unique occurrence is explained conceptually: Joseph represents the head of the tribes and was therefore born without a twin, whereas Benjamin represents the final completion of the tribes, earning him two twins to symbolize a double completion [גור אריה]. Another view suggests this extra twin was originally destined to be born with Dinah, but her birth was delayed as a result of Leah's prayers, causing her to be born alongside Benjamin instead [משכיל לדוד]. To reconcile the existence of these twin sisters with the later census of seventy Israelites who descended into Egypt, where they are not listed, it is assumed that they either died before the migration or married local Canaanite men [ברכת אשר על התורה]. Finally, the midwife's reassuring words may have been intended to plant a seed of hope that Rachel would not only survive but eventually give birth to a third child, thereby fulfilling God's promise to Jacob to establish a great nation and a community of nations [אלשיך].