What does it mean to be a sister, to be these sisters? Rachel and Leah are made from the same genetic material, they share a family, they both seem to suffer beneath their father’s household (and leave as soon as they get a chance), and love the same man; yet they move through the world so differently, and are treated differently by the people around them.

Many of my songs are based directly on Torah texts, but in a few cases, I’m so moved or inspired or shocked by a rabbinic interpretation of a story that I write a song about the commentary, rather than the original text. This is one of those cases. In Genesis 29, Jacob and Rachel are to be married, but her father instead places his older daughter Leah beneath the bridal veil, tricking Jacob into marrying the wrong sister. This song is based on these midrashim, specifically Midrash 1-3 in this Study Guide.

In these rabbinic re-imaginings of the Biblical story, Rachel is not a victim. She foresees her father’s trick and arranges with Jacob a series of “simanim,” or signs, to whisper from beneath the veil, ensuring that he marries the right sister.  But, just before the wedding, Rachel realizes this would result in terrible public humiliation for her older sister, Leah, so Rachel betrays her beloved and gives Leah the passwords. According to some versions, she even lies beneath the marriage bed that night making noises, so Jacob will recognize her voice and consummate the marriage with Leah.

I find it tremendously moving that the rabbis, faced with a story that seems to pit one sister against each other, instead imagine them conspiring to protect each other. And I appreciate their granting Rachel - who elsewhere in the Torah shows herself to be tough and resourceful, but is rather meek in this story - a good deal of agency. In the Torah, Rachel is simply swapped for Leah, with both sisters passive; but the rabbis’ interpretations grant her a series of powerful actions. She anticipates Lavan’s deception and arranges passwords with Jacob; then she betrays Jacob and whispers the passwords to Leah. What a switch, from a seemingly silent Rachel to a double agent Rachel!

In “DNA O Sister,” I retell the above midrashim in Rachel’s voice. This song also contains a hint of the passwords Rachel gives Leah. According to the midrash, these are the traditional commandments given to women: making challah in the proper way, observing menstruation laws, and lighting Sabbath candles. (You can read more about that in my notes on midrash 3, above.) This ancient idea of “women’s commandments” is troubling from a progressive perspective, as it removes women from the sphere of mainstream Jewish observance and sequesters them in the body and the home. And yet how poetic and vivid are the three elemental objects this midrash imagines Rachel whispering into her sister’s ear: fire, blood and bread.

Like fire, blood and bread, the sister relationship is elemental. “DNA O Sister” is a love song from one sister to another. That love continues as their relationship changes, through the power struggles, the elation and despair, the closeness and distance.

As the oldest of three sisters myself, I also read this story through my own personal experience of the mysteries and beauties and challenges of sisterhood. And so this story about Rachel and Leah is also a love song to my own sisters, honoring our own complex, powerful and beautiful sisterhood.

Note: the phrase “Half You Half Me,” drawn from this song, is the title of Girls in Trouble’s second album. In the context of Rachel and Leah, this phrase is based on thinking about the genetic and emotional aspects of biological sisterhood and how extreme closeness is also tied to the need to differentiate. But on a larger level, “Half You Half Me” also encapsulates the process of midrash-making I enter when writing a Girls in Trouble song. I am looking for that place where an ancient character’s life intersects with my own, and when I write and sing these songs, I often feel I am singing half as the character, half as myself.