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| Kamadhenu, the "wish-fulfiller" |
Genesis 29:16 ff: the elder daughter of Lavan, and Ya'akov's (Jacob's) first wife. Her children (verses 32 ff) were Re'u-Ven, Shim'on, Levi and Yehudah; with her maidservant Zilpah, Ya'akov also fathered Gad and Asher; after which Le'ah mothered Yisaschar, Zevulun and Dinah.
Genesis 46:15: the names of her children given again.
Genesis 49:31: Ya'akov states that he buried her in the family burial-cave at Machpelah.
Le'ah from La'ah (לאה) = "to labour", "be exhausted"; which links back to the punishment imposed in the Eden story (Genesis 3:16) where childbirth is to bring sorrow and weariness, though the word Le'ah is not specifically used there.
Genesis 29:17 calls her "tender-eyed" (ve eyney Le'ah rachot - ועיני לאה רכות), which must be presumed to be a reference to her as the cow-goddess - Kamadhenu (कामधेनू) or Surabhi among the Hindu, Ninsuna or Ninsumuna to the Babylonians, Hat-Hor to the Egyptians, though many ancient texts make clear that Hat-Hor may well be a variant form of Ashtoreth, which is itself a variant of Ishtar, and linked mythologically to Io - the sister of Ephron the Beney Chet from whom Av-Raham bought the burial-ground in the Cave of Machpelah - who took Ishtar-worship to Egypt as Eshet (Isis)-worship. But given Drummond's observations on the Bull-Ram change, her cow status makes for an interesting relationship with Rachel as Ewe. On this basis, Ya'akov the goat-god of Aries rightly marries Rachel the ewe-goddess, but Ya'akov's bull-predecessor would have married the cow-goddess Le'ah. Who was that bull-god? Av-Raham himself? Or perhaps Kayin (Cain). Both have strong bull connections. Either way, the tale of the supplanted wife echoes that of Sarah with Hagar, and provides a female equivalent to the supplantings of Kayin by Havel, Yishma-El by Yitschak (Isaac), Esav by Ya'akov, Zerach by Parets, Ephrayim by Menasheh, and in all of them we are probably witnessing, in addition to the obvious ultimogeniture, the astrological transition from the Age of Taurus to the Age of Aries; the same will happen again when the Jesus epic reflects the passing of the Age of Aries into the Age of Pisces.
Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
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