Mothers, Fathers, and Intergenerational Merit in Rabbinic Sources

In its commentary on Gen 35:19 (“And Rachel died and she was buried on the way to Ephrat”), Genesis Rabbah asks: “What was Jacob’s reason for burying Rachel on the way to Ephrat?” The midrash answers that “Jacob foresaw that the exiles would pass on from there, therefore he buried her there so that she might pray for mercy for them.” Similarly, Lamentations Rabbah explains in more detail Rachel’s effectiveness as a negotiator on behalf of her children. Rachel reasons with God: she was not jealous of her sister’s marriage to Jacob, how can God punish Israel out of jealously for idolatrous worship? After several biblical characters unsuccessfully intercede on Israel’s behalf, Rachel’s reasoning persuades God and she is finally assured that her children will eventually be forgiven and return to the land. These rabbinic interpretations present Rachel as an eternal mother of the people of Israel whose prior death and timeless prayers can intervene in God’s judgment of her descendants. In this paper, I explore different rabbinic texts (legal and narrative) that reflect on the possibility of mothers (matriarchs and ordinary mothers) interceding on behalf of their children in matters of human and divine judgment. I then compare and contrast the development of traditions about the redemptive quality of Rachel’s piety and premature death for later generations with contemporaneous rabbinic notions of “merit of the fathers” (zechut avot), as a way of reflecting on the intersection of gender and intergenerational justice in rabbinic sources.