Today - Rachel Imeinu's Yartzheit

This was posted more than once before and I wanted to share the same thoughts with you again.

Today, yud aleph cheshvan, is Rachel Imeinu's yartzeit. Here are two things I would like to share with you.

Why is Rachel the only one of the imahos that are called "Imeinu"? There's no Sara Imeinu, Rivkah Imeinu or Leah Imeinu? Why is she the lucky one to be called, OUR MOTHER?!
We all know, that Lavan fooled Yaakov and set up that Leah should marry him instead of Rachel. So what did Rachel do? She spared her sister major pain and embarrassment by giving over the simanim to Leah.

When she did this, not only did she give up her olam hazeh, that she would now have to be married to the rasha, Eisav, she also gave up her olam habah. At that point, she had no idea that she would still marry Yaakov. In her mind, by giving up the simanim, she was giving up her whole life - in this world and in the next!

The dream of every Jewish woman is to bring up a family. She wants to be a mother to her children so she can have a part in the future of Klal Yisroel.

When Rachel Imeinu gave the simanim over to her sister Leah, she gave up that dream. She gave up her whole future. She lost her chance to be a mother of the future generations. She would not be the mother of the twelve shevatim. She didn't know that in the end she would marry Yaakov and have a part in being the mother of two of the shevatim.
And that is why she is given the title of Rachel Imeinu. Since she gave up her dream to be a mother of Klal Yisroel, she is called by the beloved title of Rachel Imeinu.

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Today is a very powerful day, a day when our tefillos can be accepted on a deeper level.
I remember learning the following in 10th grade from my teacher, Reb. Slomowitz…(b’shem omro, I hope it brings the geulah real quick because we really need it!)

When we speak about Rachel Imeinu, we say, “Kol B’ramah nishma…Rachel mivaka al baneha ki eineinu…” a voice is heard on high…Rachel is crying about her children…

The word mivaka seems to be grammatically incorrect. The definition of mivaka is to cause someone else to cry. The question is, why do we use this term for cry? If Rachel is crying for us on high, (as we know that Hashem says that her tears are going to bring the geula, not the tears of any of the avos) why is the term "causing to cry" used?! It should probably say, Rachel boche, Rachel "is crying" because she is constantly crying for us to come out of galus!

The answer is, that Rachel Imeinu is crying because we Jews are not crying! She is trying to get us to cry out of the pain of galus because we seem to forget where we are. Hashem puts us through so much pain and suffering in galus and our job is to cry out to Him and BEG Him to take us out! But instead, we try to ignore the pain we are in and try to run away from the pain using all sorts of escapes and distractions. We forget that we are in galus by making ourselves comfortable here. We try to enjoy life to the fullest instead of remembering that we are supposed to be davening to come out! What we have to do now is cry out to Hashem and beg and plead for Him to take us out!

Rachel is trying to get us to cry, to feel uncomfortable in galus! If we don’t feel like we are in galus and we don’t cry out to Hashem, then why should He take us out altogether?! If we are fine where we are, then why should anything change?! The only way to get out is by asking for it! And if Hashem sees we really want to come out, He will take us out!

And I’m telling you, when we come out of this galus, life will be so beautiful! Life will be soo unbelievable! We will live with total clarity and understanding of Hashem and His world and our job in it! We will feel what Torah means and realize how much we were missing out on beforehand!!

So take out your siddur, take out your tehillim or use your own words to BEG Hashem to bring us out of galus!

And THEN Hashem will tell Rachel Imeinu, “Minee koleich m’bechee v’einayich midim’ah,” Rachel, you can stop crying, because “v’shavu banim ligevulam,” Bnei Yisroel will return to their boundaries!

May we all have the zechus to see these very words come true!!