Bereishis/Vayetzei - Yaakov's Engagement Gift

 In Parsha Vayetzei we learn that when Yaakov met Rochel for the first time, he kissed her, raised his voice, and cried.

וַיִּשַּׁ֥ק יַעֲקֹ֖ב לְרָחֵ֑ל וַיִּשָּׂ֥א אֶת־קֹל֖וֹ וַיֵּֽבְךְּ׃

Then Yaakov kissed Rochel, raised his voice and cried (Genesis 29:11)

 

Which Rashi explains

 

ויבך AND HE WEPT - He wept because he came with empty hands. He thought: Eliezer, my grandfather’s servant, brought with him rings, bracelets and all good things, but I have nothing with me (Genesis Rabbah 70:12).

 

Rashi explains why Yaakov wept, but he does not explain why he kissed her. It seems that kissing a girl in public by a tzaddik, for whom modesty is paramount, raises a bigger question about propriety than merely weeping. Rashi says that he cried because he was robbed by Esau's son Eliphas along the way and did not bring any engagement gifts for his future bride Rochel. This is our clue: just as his weeping was for the lack of a gift for Rochel, so was his kiss. But how can a simple kiss be a gift? The answer is found in the previous parsha, Toldos, when Yaakov came to Isaak to receive the blessing:

 

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֵלָ֖יו יִצְחָ֣ק אָבִ֑יו גְּשָׁה־נָּ֥א וּשְׁקָה־לִּ֖י בְּנִֽי׃

וַיִּגַּשׁ֙ וַיִּשַּׁק־ל֔וֹ וַיָּ֛רַח אֶת־רֵ֥יחַ בְּגָדָ֖יו וַֽיְבָרְכֵ֑הוּ וַיֹּ֗אמֶר רְאֵה֙ רֵ֣יחַ בְּנִ֔י כְּרֵ֣יחַ שָׂדֶ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר בֵּרְכ֖וֹ יְהֹוָֽה׃

Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come close and kiss me, my son.” And he went up and kissed him. And he smelled his clothes and he blessed him, saying, “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of the fields that יהוה has blessed. (Genesis 26-27) 

 

Rashi explains that this smell of the fields that Hashem had blessed is the perfume of Gan Eden:

 

’וירח וגו AND HE SMELLED etc.— Surely there is no more offensive smell than that of washed goat-skins! But Scripture implicitly tells us that the perfume of the Garden of Eden entered the room with him (Genesis Rabbah 65:22).

 

כריח שדה אשר ברכו AS THE FRAGRANCE OF A FIELD WHICH THE ETERNAL HAD BLESSED — to which God has given a pleasant perfume: it refers to a field of apple trees. So have our Rabbis, of blessed memory, explained it (Taanit 29b).

 

This all makes sense now: Yaakov wanted to ask Rochel to marry him, but he had nothing to offer her as an engagement gift, so his first reaction was to raise a bitter cry over it. He then remembered that he does have one special gift that follows him wherever he goes: it is the fragrance of the field that Hashem had blessed, that is a field of Apple Trees, the perfume of Gan Eden. So, just like he did for his father Isaak, he approached her and, through a kiss, offered her an engagement gift not of this world, the indescribable perfume of Gan Eden.