(22) Now God remembered Rachel; God heeded her and opened her womb. (23) She conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” (24) So she named him Joseph, which is to say, “May the LORD add another son for me.”
(א) אסף אלהים את חרפתי. כטעם כרת. וכן ונאסף שמחה וגיל. ואחרים אמרו כי השם ראה החרפות שהיו הנשים מחרפות אותי בעבור היותי עקרה וכאילו נאספו ונתחברו אצל השם. והנה נולדו ליעקב י''ב בנים בז' שנים וכאשר ספרים הקדמונים מצאום בני ששה חדשים וימים במספר. ויתכן שנתנה לאה שפחת' ליעקב קודם שנולד נפתלי. גם הרתה רחל קודם שנולד זבולון וגם דינה לא ידענו מתי נולדה
GOD HATH TAKEN AWAY MY REPROACH. 'Asaf' (taken away) is to be rendered cut off. Compare, 'And gladness and joy are taken away' (ve-ne'esaf) (Is. 16:10). Others interpret what was said as, God saw the insults which the women hurled at me because I was barren and by giving me a son He, as it were, gathered and collected the insults.
[Ibn Ezra's Commentary on the Pentateuch Genesis,
Translated by H. Norman Strickman, Arthur M. Silver - Menorah Publishing Co (1988)]
אסף (Asaf) is present tense meaning 'to gather up' (either to harvest or remove, depending on context, as we can see by Ibn Ezra's comment,
יסף/יוסף (Yosef) is the future tense, 'will add' as if to say 'In the future I will gather more'
Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra (1089–c.1167) Spain, was one of the most distinguished Jewish Biblical commentators and philosophers of the Middle Ages.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_ibn_Ezra
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:
How do the two translations of 'asaf' regarding reproach ('cut off' 'gathered up') impact our understanding of Rachel's statement? About her perspective on being barren? Do they complement or challenge each other?
What can we learn from the fact that Rachel names her son with a future tense of 'asaf', 'yosef'?
What are some situations today that, like barrenness/infertility, aren't a matter of character/choice, yet cause societal reproach?
What wisdom can we draw from these texts to apply to those situations?