NAALEH.COM and YU TORAH Majestic Maidservants Parshat Vayetzeh 5774 By: Mrs. Shira Smiles

Parshat Vayetzeh records the birth of eleven of the twelve tribes that are the ancestors of all of Bnei Yisroel. First Leah gives birth to four sons. Then Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant, gives birth to two sons, followed by Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant, giving birth to two more sons. Leah then bears to two more sons, and finally Rachel giving birth to her first son, Yoseph. Although it is obvious that the tribes were born from four wives of Yaakov, only Rachel and Leah are listed among the four matriarchs of Bnei Yisroel, along with Sarah and Rivka. The obvious question is why Bilhah and Zilpah are not included in the traditional count of our Matriarchs raising the count to six? click here for Summary by Channie Koplowitz Stein.