Lavan's Daughters (and Sons) - and Their Ages

Parshat Vayetze

by Rabbi Avi Billet

One of the more challenging fact-finding questions we encounter year after year is “how old are the Biblical heroes in the tales which are shared with us?” In some cases the Torah tells us, removing all doubt. We know Avraham was 75 at when he came to Canaan, 86 when Yishmael was born, 99 when he had his bris, 100 when Yitzchak was born and 175 at his death. There are many Midrashic viewpoints as to how old Avraham was when he discovered God. I’ve seen 20-days, 3, 13, 40, 48, 50, 52 years – all as legitimate options. Clearly only one of these can be correct.



 Sarah’s age is told to us when she gives birth (90) and when she dies (127), but as she and her husband were ten years apart, we know her age at the stages outlined in his life. 

Yitzchak was 40 when he married, 60 when his sons were born, and 180 when he died. We infer from other hints in the text (Rashi explains all this in 35:29, based on Talmud Megilah 17a) how old Yitzchak was when he blessed his sons (123), as well as other fun facts. The age of Rivkah is one of the more fun things I’ve ever written about in this column – I’ve seen 3, and 13-15 as her age at the time she met Yitzchak.

 As Yaakov was sixty years younger than his father, and because we know his age when he arrives in Egypt (130), as well as how old Yosef was at that time (39), we work backwards to figure out how old Yaakov was when Yosef was born (91), and therefore how old he was when he married Rachel (84), and how old he was when he started working to marry Lavan’s daughter(s) (77). Since Yitzchak blessed him when he was 63 – and at that time he was instructed to go to Lavan’s house to take Lavan’s daughter as a wife (28:2) – there is a discrepancy of 14 years, which is filled by our Sages with Yaakov’s study in the house of Shem and Ever.

 The question we’ll look at today is how old were Leah and Rachel when Yaakov married them? Were they twins, like Yaakov and Eisav?

 Before we continue, we must suspend our modern view that marriage should take place between people of the same age range (give or take 10-15 years). No matter their age, Yaakov was considerably older than Leah and Rachel. It is even possible that they were not yet born when Yitzchak gave Yaakov instruction to marry Lavan’s daughter.

 Seder Olam says that Rachel was 36 when she died and that Leah did not live past age 44. It further suggests that were 22 when they married because they were, in fact, twins.

 A simple reading of the Torah can suggest to us that at the end of last week’s Torah portion, when Yaakov was instructed to go to his uncle’s house, he actually went, only to discover that his uncle had no daughters. In fact, one could make the argument that Lavan had no children at all. After all, when Yaakov arrives and first meets Rachel, she is the shepherdess, while by the end of the story (31:1), we find Lavan’s sons complaining that Yaakov has stolen all of their father’s wealth. If he had sons, why were they not shepherding before?

 In any case, Lavan’s not having children, or perhaps their being babies, when Yaakov was 63 would stand to be good grounds for him to disappear for a little while, which is why his 14 years in the study hall of Shem and Ever is such a popular idea.

 When he arrived back at Lavan’s home, he discovered that Lavan’s daughter Rachel was a shepherdess, but was too young to marry. So he offered to work for seven years until she was old enough to marry. This approach is raised by the Bereshit Rabati on Vayishlach.

 Suffice it to say, whatever their ages were when he arrived, the 7 years of work were meant to give them time to grow up more so that the marriage, when it would come about, would be between two adults, even if their age gap was close to 60 years.

 There is another way to read the text such that Rachel was a child when Yaakov first encountered her – mandating a seven year period to get her to a marriageable age of being in her teens.

 It probably does not matter how old the foremothers were in any of these stories, as it is their struggles and their rising to their challenges which serve as inspiration for us. Their ages, while certainly notable, might serve as inspiration to those who can relate to being in the same stage of life. But, in the end, it is what they stood for as our fore-parents which sets the stage for how we view them and we take from their life experiences.