Issachar

Today’s name is ‘Issachar.’

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.

Issachar

“And Leah said, ‘God has given me my hire, because I have given my maid to my husband’; and she called his name Issachar”

Here, the English text is completely mixing up two words and gives the wrong word as the main reason for giving Issachar his name. The word ‘sa•char’ has two different meanings, and it appears twice in relation to Issachar. The first meaning is found two verses earlier and means ‘hire’ in the sense of ‘hiring a service’ (Leah hires time with Jacob from her sister Rachel for a fee: mandrakes, an ancient aphrodisiac). The second meaning is mentioned in verse 18 where ‘sachar’ has a different meaning: ‘wage’, ‘reward payment’, ‘retribution’. Leah speaks about being ‘rewarded’ by God for giving Jacob her maidservant to produce a child; this has nothing to do with the meaning ‘hire’ that was used two verses earlier in a different context. It was used there only to provide substantiation for the pun. Above all, the two words together in the same verse serve (as with other sons of Jacob) as a pun to strengthen the importance of the name Issachar.