Gen. 29:4 Jacob said to them, "My brothers, … it is still high day; it is not time for the livestock to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go, pasture them" 8 But they said, "We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep." 9 While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess. 10 Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother.
Is this story of Jacob coming to the well and rolling the stone from the well given to us only for the sake of the narrative? Indeed, this story is about the strength Jacob had through the covenant of G-d to bring Jewish souls into the world. It is in this way that the deeper narrative of the meeting of Jacob and Rachel and Leah is introduced. Rachel and Leah were righteous gentiles but their own souls could not be renewed as Jewish souls that were born from Above except through the power of Jacob to roll away the stone that covers the well-springs of life.
In Hebrew we read about Jacob, וַיָּגֶל vahiygel, "and he rolled" (the stone from the well). The word gilgul means "cycle". Because of the deeper context of this story, we can associate this with the Kabbalistic teaching of גלגול הנשמות - Gilgul neshamot/Gilgulei Ha Neshamot literally, the revolving (into the world) of souls. This Kabbalistic teaching comes in a metaphorical language because it deals with other-worldly matters, and is easily misunderstood. It is not necessary, however, to understand completely how souls are redeemed and rectified in order to learn an important lesson from this story about how the covenant of the promise of Mashiach, which gave Jacob his power, brought the power of full conversion to the souls of Rachel and Leah.
There are potential Jewish souls who seem fated to be left to Esau and there are potential Jewish souls who seem destined for conversion and union with Jacob. This was the original situation of Leah and Rachel. Leah was not as attractive as Rachel as her eyes were sad and tender from crying over her apparent destiny that as the older sister she would be given to the older brother. (Perhaps it was also understood by the daughters that Laban had a preference for Esau and coveted him for his son-in-law.) Because the potential Jewish soul of Rachel appeared destined for union with Jacob, Rachel's beauty radiated from her.
In time, Jacob was rectified from judging between Leah and Rachel by appearances. He came to see that to the eyes of the Ruach of Mashiach which was in him the potential of Leah's Jewish soul had always been as great as the potential of Rachel's Jewish soul, and the beauty of both was equal. Indeed, while Mashiach was destined to come into the world through Leah, he would not be fully revealed in the world in fulfillment of the promise of blessing given to Abraham until, in the end, he would be manifested through the soul of Rachel, in final rectification brought about through her son Joseph together with Leah's son Judah.
At first it was Leah's eyes which were tender from weeping, marring her appearance. Later it was Rachel who wept and did not cease from weeping, because her children became lost from their own Jewish souls. We also will sometimes judge our own souls, or the potential Jewish souls of others, by appearance. Our eyes will be dark if we seem destined for final union with Esau, or bright and beautiful if our souls seem destined for union with Jacob. Or else we will be tempted to judge others in this way. There is a time given to us to learn, as time was given to Jacob, not to judge by these appearances, but to judge, as the Ruach of Mashiach teaches, with righteous judgment. And now it is time for us to understand that if the soul of Leah weeps in someone, or if the soul of Rachel weeps in someone, and makes them appear spiritually unattractive to Jacob, it is not because they desire to be united to Esau but because they only have one desire, one reason to live, to be united to Jacob, but the way of their redemption has not yet been laid open before them.
