BRAGADAYJAH 99

Now Leah and Rachel were at each other’s throat again, this time over mandrakes that Reuben, Leah’s first born had found in the fields during the time of wheat harvest. We are told that Reuben had found the mandrakes growing among the wheat and collected them and brought them to his mother Leah. Somehow, Rebekah heard about it and demanded that Leah should give her a share, whereupon Leah retorted, “You took away my husband and now you want to take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Firstly, what were these mandrakes? Apparently they were something used for a variety of uses. According to Solomon, the mandrakes give a smell; that is a sweet odor; so it was probably the aroma of the plant that attracted Reuben. He was the first born and since 7 followed him he must have been old enough to help gather the wheat; but was he old enough to know about the various uses to which mandrakes could be put? Was there another reason known to him why he would have thought his mother would want to have them? Secondly, how did Rebekah find out about the mandrakes, and what was her interest in getting some of them? Perhaps all the children were old enough to help with the harvesting; and perhaps Rachel’s two children or some of her servants were aware that Reuben had gathered mandrakes. In any event she wanted some. Thirdly to answer the first question, mandrakes were said to have some kind of power for good or evil. It was apparently used as a stimulant, as a love potion, as a fertility drug, and even in the practice of witchcraft. And so, for whatever reason, both women wanted it. And of course one could readily see why. In so far as it could be used as a love charm to woo her husband back to her bed, Leah would have desired it. And in so far as it was a kind of a fertility drug Rebekah would have wanted it. Indeed, so desperate was Rebekah to get hold of some mandrakes that she was prepared to let Jacob, over whom she clearly had the control, spend the night with Leah in exchange for some of her son’s mandrakes. More