..AND LEAH'S EYES WERE WEAK-RAKKOTH . R. Johanan's amora translated this before him: And Leah's eyes were [naturally] weak. Said he to him: Your mother's eyes were weak! But what does rakkoth mean? That they had grown weak through weeping, for [people used to say]: This was the arrangement; the elder daughter [Leah] is for the elder son [Esau], and the younger daughter [Rachel] for the younger son [Jacob], while she used to weep and pray, May it be Thy will that I do not fall to the lot of that wicked man. R. Huna said: Great is prayer, that it annulled the decree.5 and she even took precedence of her sister.
...The Lord upholdeth all that fall (Ps. CXLV, 14)-viz. childless women who fall [i.e. are disgraced] in their own homes; And raiseth up all those that are bowed down (ib.): as soon as God visits them with children, they are raised up. The proof is that Leah was hated in her house, yet when the Holy One, blessed be He, visited her, she was raised up. Thus it is written, AND THE LORD SAW THAT LEAH WAS HATED, etc. AND THE LORD SAW THAT LEAH WAS HATED. This means that she acted like those who are hated. [Another interpretation]: She was bespoken for an enemy, for such was the arrangement, that the elder son [Esau] should marry the elder daughter [Leah], and the younger son [Jacob] the younger daughter [Rachel], but she wept and prayed, May it be Thy will that I do not fall to the lot of the wicked Esau. R. Huna said: Great is prayer, that it annulled the decree; moreover she took precedence of her sister. [Another interpretation]: All hated [i.e. abused] her: sea-travellers abused her, land-travellers abused her, and even the women behind the beams1 abused her, saying: ' This Leah leads a double life2: she pretends to be righteous, yet is not so, for if she were righteous, would she have deceived her sister!3 R. Judah b. R. Simon and R. Hanan said in the name of R. Samuel b. R. Isaac: When the Patriarch Jacob saw how Leah deceived him by pretending to be her sister, he determined to divorce her. But as soon as the Holy One, blessed be He, visited her with children he exclaimed, ' Shall I divorce the mother of these children! ' Eventually he gave thanks for her, as it says, And Israel bowed down [in thanksgiving] for the bed's head (Gen. XLVII, 31): who was the head of our father Jacob's bed? surely Leah.4
(16) The trees of the LORD have their fill, The cedars of Lebanon, which He hath planted; (17) Wherein the birds make their nests; As for the stork, the fir-trees are her house.