English translation — עמוד 141

In our parshah it is told,

that Yaakov married Leah and Rachel,

and afterwards also with Bilhah and Zilpah — who all were daughters of Lavan².

One poses here the question: The Patriarchs indeed fulfilled the entire Torah before it was given — and Rashi says this explicitly regarding Yaakov³,

we are dealing with [a case of] sisters — so how could he take four sisters,

since this is forbidden by the prohibition⁴

"And a woman to her sister you shall not take"?

And although when the five-year-old studies the parshah Vayeitzei,

he does not yet know about this prohibition — which is only stated in a later place in the Torah — one finds, however, also in the later parshahs that Rashi should address this question.

It is however understood,

that according to the simple meaning the answer is also not sufficient:

a)

According to the simple meaning of the verses, it is nowhere indicated,

that before the Giving of the Torah the Jews had a different <b>law</b> than the Bnei Noach¹⁴

(except for <b>the explicit</b> that they were obligated in the mitzvah of circumcision and more)

; because that which the Patriarchs kept the 613 mitzvos¹⁵

was only a stringency which they <b>themselves</b> had <b>accepted</b> upon themselves.