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A:
Great question!
The
source of 3 Patriarchs and 4 Matriarchs is the Gemara in Brachos 16b. "There are only 3 Patriarchs and only
4 Matriarchs." The three Patriarchs can only be Avraham
Yitzchak and Yaakov. And these are the only three that any Jew can claim
descent from all of them.
The
four women can be either Sara, Rivka,
Rachel, Leah; - OR – Rachel, Leah, Bilhah, Zilpah. Rashi comments on the
Gemara that the list is Sara, Rivka, Rachel,
Leah. Therefore your question is on Rashi for
commenting in this way. Before going on to explain Rashi,
I would refer you to the book TA'AMEI HAMINHAGIM page 384 where he calls
Rachel Leah, Bilhah, Zilpah
the four Matriarchs in order to explain why IRON (In Hebrew: BARZEL) is
placed in water at certain times of the year [The first letters of the
wives of Yaakov make up the word BARZEL].
Back
to Rashi: The Rashba
says that since not every Jew can claim that he descended from Rachel AND
Leah, therefore the concept of 4 Matriarchs is an honorable title and not a
hereditary one. Once we know that Matriarchs has nothing to do with
heredity, your question should be much easier to answer.
When
I asked my family on Shabbos what they thought,
they responded with the question: What did Bilhah
and Zilpah do?
The
problem of putting Bilhah and Zilpah
in the honorary list is that we do not know a single thing about their
behavior! They did not even name their own children! The simple explanation
is that they did nothing without permission from Rachel or Leah. I do not
think the list of Matriarchs would be any more honorable or truthful by the
inclusion of Bilhah and Zilpah.
Our Matriarchs should be mothers whose ways should be emulated. Bilhah and Zilpah would be quite
out of place in the list.
Keep
the questions coming. Feel free to ask another.
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