Asher

Today’s name is ‘Asher.’

You may remember that Jacob, who wanted to marry Rachel and worked for 7 years to win her, was cheated by her father, Laban, who gave him at the wedding night his other daughter, Leah, instead of Rachel. He was forced to serve Laban for 7 more years for the right to marry Rachel, whom he loved. According to the Hebrew Bible, Leah was hated by Jacob, but God opened her womb and gave her five sons, while Rachel was still barren.

Asher

“And Leah said, ‘Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed’; and she called his name Asher”

Just as with the son that was born before him, Gad, the name, Asher, carries a double substantiation that in the biblical narrative is similar to a pun. Of course, this is not found in the English version of the text, however, it is found in the Hebrew Bible:

“Va•to•mer Leah be•osh•ri ki eesh•roo•ni ba•not va•tik•ra et she•mo Asher.”

Ignore the differences between ‘e’ ‘o’ and ‘a’ in the highlighted words; they are all made by the same Hebrew letter ‘Alef.’ Do you see how each of these word resembles ‘Asher’? Yet, the English text in the verse uses ‘Happy,’ ‘blessed,’ and ‘Asher’ respectively.

Obviously, the intention of the verb stresses the idea of ‘happiness.’ The daughters that Leah talks about recognize Leah’s joy and happiness and do not exactly ‘bless’ her, which uses a different biblical word that derives from a word you may already know: ‘ba•ruch.’ Even in modern Hebrew, Asher relates to the abstract noun ‘o•sher,’ which means ‘happiness.’