Our Gemara on Amud Beis tells us the familiar story of how Rachel and Yaakov planned to prevent him from being swindled by Lavan. They anticipated that Lavan would force Rachel to secretly let him switch her for Leah at the wedding, so they had secret signs. But, as with many plans, it didn’t quite go as they imagined. At the last minute, Rachel had a change of heart and couldn’t allow her sister to be publicly humiliated and rejected, which could certainly happen if Yaakov tested her with the code words. Therefore, Rachel gave Leah the secret signs. This is why the verse says, “In the morning, behold, it was Leah” (Genesis 29:25). The emphasis is that in the morning, and only in the morning, she appeared to be Leah. Because, at night, Yaakov was sure it was Rachel due to their agreement.

Daas Zekeinim Mibaaley Tosafos brings down a Midrash on this verse, and offers commentary on Yaakov’s life and consequences:

 We are told the following in Bereishis Rabbah 70,19: all night long people were singing “Ha-Layah”, which sounded like Hallelah, praise her, but if one listened closely it was saying, “Ha”, behold, “Hiy Leah” she is Leah. The townsfolk were hinting to Yaakov that he was being swindled. Yaakov did not suspect being tricked when Leah always answered when he addressed her as Rachel, because he had the agreed upon code words. In the morning when he found out that he had been tricked by Leah, he complained to her, “Trickster, daughter of a trickster!” But she responded that she had learned from Yaakov himself to do this, as when Yitzchok had asked him if he was his firstborn son Esau, he had answered to his father misleadingly, “It is I. Esav is your first born.” This is when Yaakov began to hate her as is reported in verse 31, where G–d is reported as taking note of that.

There are two features about this Daas Zekeinim that we will discuss. As nearest I can tell, the Midrash only records the story of the townsfolk and the repartee between Yaakov and Leah, but not the part about this being the origin for Yaakov hating her. Either the Daas Zekeinim had more in his version of the Midrash or he extrapolated this on his own. Either way, it is quite the criticism of Yaakov. Not only is he dead to rights getting payback for his own trickery, but he is then depicted as hating Leah for calling him out. I couldn’t say it if Daas Zekeinim didn’t say it, but essentially this is a story of consequences and payback for difficult choices Yaakov made in his life. I think the lesson to consider is that even if you must do something, and you have all the right justifications including God on your side, the actual negative consequences may still be unavoidable.

Another idea that comes about through the Midrash is that the townsfolk were dropping hints that Yaakov was not getting. I would like to imagine that the townsfolk were a bit intimidated by  Lavan and Couldn’t directly warn Yaakov.  Kind of like when you live in a country where freedom of speech is censored, so you must hint at what you are saying but not say anything directly. Or maybe it was all a big joke for them and they had fun hinting, and watching Lavan squirm as he fretted that Yaakov will pick up on the scam. In any case, I don’t think It would be incorrect to state that Yaakov was overconfident, because he had the secret code words. Therefore, no matter that her voice might’ve sounded different or other types of subtle indications, Yaakov had a predetermined mindset that biased his perceptions. This is an important lesson to always be mindful and pick up on subtle cues. The more sure we are that we are right about things the more likely we are to miss something important.  On Daf 16 we will see more about confirmation bias.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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