Disability, Desirability and Leah's Eyes in Genesis 29

In the Jacob Cycle (Gen 25:19-36:43), there is a peculiar passage about the appearance of Rachel's sister Leah. Jacob clearly prefers Rachel and the narrator includes a comparative note about the sisters in Gen 29:17 which indicates that Rachel was more physically desirable than Leah, describing Leah's eyes with the ambiguous modifier rakkot (תוכר). Some interpreters have concluded that this does not describe a defect in Leah's physical eyes but is an observation about her appearance. In this article, I examine the characterisation of Leah in Gen 29 through the lenses of disability studies and aesthetic philosophy, concluding that while there is probably no physical or anatomical problem with Leah's eyes, the narrator describes her as if there was, suggesting that Leah's undesirability is treated as though it were a physical disability. Leah's characterisation as such is illuminated through an analysis of how disabling conditions are understood in the Hebrew Bible and the overlap between ability and aesthetic appeal is explored to illustrate how the narrator of Gen 29 conflates concepts of disability and desirability in the portrayal of Leah's character. Ultimately, since Leah does conceive despite being undesired by Jacob, she is portrayed ironically as desired by YHWH and the narrator utilises the subversion of the reader's expectation to show how YHWH in his sovereignty subverts the expected outcome of the narrative, granting agency to the powerless and favouring the unfavoured.