In Christiandom, there is an image portrayed of Mary, the mother of Jesus. She is referred to as the 'mater dolorosa', the 'Mother Sorrowing', the 'Mother of Sorrows', the 'Sorrowful Mother' or 'Our Lady of Sorrows'. And there are numerous artists reflections of the image of Mother Mary sorrowing for the death of her son, the Christ, as it is foreshaddowed in Luke 2:35 where Mary is told that a sword will pierce her soul. We greive with her for her Son and our Savior Jesus Christ. Yet in Israel's traditions and scriptures is found what perhaps could be considered her counter part. For as Mary did sorrow singlularly for her one son another hath sorrowed not only for Him, but for a whole nation and world of the children of God.

In his book 'The Messiah Texts', Raphael Patai points out on pages 84-88 and again on pages 248-249 that it is Rachel who is the 'mater dolorosa' of Israel. The tradition gets mixed up with the image of a bird's nest of the Garden of Eden where God, Messiah and Rachel dwell. But the imagery of that 'nest' coming down 'On the way' or on the road to Bethlehem where Rachel's tomb is and where Jeremiah (31:15) and Matthew portray her as 'sorrowing' or as the Rabbi Messiah Legend holds with tears on her face and the 'Holy One' comforting her, but she does not yield to comforting. (see Zohar 8a-9a).

Thus in Jewish or Israelite traditions, there is also an image portrayed referred to as 'mater dolorosa', and it is not Mary who is there portrayed as the 'Mother sorrowing for the Messiah. Interesting is the fact that the sorrowing mother of the Messiah portrayed in the Jewish Rabbinical legends and traditions is none other than Rachel, the favored wife of Jacob and mother of Joseph and Benjamin. This image also has a scriptural basis found both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

According to the Gospel of the Apostle Matthew, when the wise men from the east who visited the child Jesus did not return to Herod to give their report, Herod was angered. Herod was not a descendant from King David, the 'rightful royal line', and feeling threatened by the new born 'King of the Jews' of the House of David, Herod sought to kill all the new born children within the regions of where the Christ child was reported to have been born. Matthew reports:

¶ Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceedingly wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy [Jeremiah 31:15] the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. ~ Matthew 2:16-18

It is important to take note the land region which was effected by this slaughter of innocent children. It was Bethlehem, the city of David, and all the 'coasts thereof'. These 'coasts' ranged as far north as Ramah, which is associated with the known land regions of Ehraim in the Old Testament as discussed in item number 37. We understand this because of the qouted prophecy of Jeremiah, that in Ramah (Rama), where the lands of Mount Ephraim began, was the voice of Rachel heard lamenting and weeping for the death of 'her children' .

Now here in lies the question. Like the judgment of Solomon who would have divided the child in two with the sword, King Herod did slay by the sword many of the children of the House of David as that was his intent to kill all the possible babes 2 years and under, who could have been 'King' of the House of King David of Bethlehem, alias Ephrath. And who was it lamenting the death of her slain children? Was it Leah or Rachel? Thus one asks who is the true and rightful mother of the House of David? Is it Leah by way of Boaz and blood. Or was it Rachel by way of adoptive legal birthright of Mahlon's son Obed, raised up to the dead to the House of Elimelech and Naomi? Obed and his descendants, like Elimelech and Mahlon were Ephrathites (1 Samuel 17:12 & Ruth 1:2).

It was Rachel who did weep with great mourning and lamentation for the death of 'her' children of the House of David. Some take the scripture of which Matthew quotes to be Rachel morning the scattered Benjaminites taken at the Babylonian conquest during the reign of King Zedekiah, comtempory in the days of Jeremiah. But what is to be understood by the Apostle Matthew's qoutation? It obvious implies that the prophetic scripture in Jeremiah 31:15 was not so limited in its scope to mean just the children of Benjamin..

Rachel was the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, and her affection would not be limited to Benjaminites only. Ramah was the city where the lands of Rachel's children met. Ramah is clearly associated with Ephraim, the son of promise of Joseph of Egypt, Rachel's firstborn. And as discussed thoughout this presentation, Rachel was by right the mother of the house of Obed, Jesse and David. And many of the tribe of Joseph, such as Lehi and Ishmael and Elimelech, did live in and possess lands of inheritance in the land regions running from Ephrath to Ramah by way of Jerusalem. And when Herod murdered the children who where born in those regions, he was murdering Rachel's children by birth and by right, including those of the House of David, from Ephrath or Bethlehem to Ramah. And Rachel did weep bitterly because of this terrible and haneous act of innocent murder wrought upon 'her' baby children.

Now on the one hand, one points out that Jeremiah well might have meant the departed of Ephraim and Benjamin during the scattering of Israel. And that would be an Old Testament Jewish interpretation. But the dualistic and even multiplistic nature of of the levels of scriptural understanding, says another, does not mean it could not also apply to the instance of the killing of the babes by Herod as recorded by Matthew in the New Testament. And just perhaps it was solely the prophecy of Rachel's weeping as reported by Matthew that was fulfilled. Certainly in the manner in which Apostle Matthew reports it, it is Rachel, Israel's favored wife who is portrayed as being most troubled at the lose of 'her' children of the House of David. And thus another scriptural evidence that David, Jesse, and Obed where of the House of Joseph through the Ephrathite Mahlon and Elimelech.

Further, the LDS Bible Dictionary points out that the location of Ramah has been in dispurte by scholars. Here it is definitely associated with the 'coasts' about Bethlehem and the killing of the children of the House of David by Herod. Rachel was buried on the road to Ephrath, of the same name origin as Ephraim. The Prophet Samuel's father was of Ramathaim-zophim of mount Ephraim (1 Samule 1:1 & 19; 2:11; 7:17; 8:4; 15:34; 16:13; 19:18-23; 20:1; 22:6; 25:1; 28:3). And though Samuel is made of Levite descent by the somewhat questionable genealogies of 1 Chronicles, Samuel does establish himself to operate out of Ramah which was the house of his and his father's associated with mount Ephraim and Gibeah. Now Gibeah is just north of Jerusalem. Bethlehem is a handful of miles south of Jerusalem and all are about in the 'land of Jerusalem.' That the children of Joseph and Benjamin, to whom Jerusalem was originally assigned by Joshua, would well have right to the land of their mother's burial at Ephrath a few miles south, is quite likely. And Bethlehem, which is associated with Judah is also state to be Bethlehem of Ephratah (Micah 5:2).

"But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah [Bethlehem of Ephraim], though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have from of old, from everlasting." ~ Micah 5:2

Now some will read this to mean out of Judah comes the Christ. And in terms of blood descent, of Judah he is. But an alternative or more insighful reading may well be considered. And that is, that of a small group of Josephites/Ephraimites (of Ephratah/Ephraim) could have been that small remnant fraction within the thousands of Judah from whence the shepherd, even the stone of Israel is to come forth. It is already pointed out that 'Zulzah' was the place of Rachel's tomb and it was Benjamin's tribal property. Why would Jospeh/Ephraim not also have a small land claim in the land about Rachel's tomb, even Ephratah/Ephrath? Certainly then such an alternatie reading is possible. Micah 5:2 does not preclude that Christ was legally of the house of Joseph through Ephraim, the house of Elimelech and not of the blood line of Boaz only. And this may be the significance of it being stated 'Bethlehem Ephratah' rather than Bethlehem-Judah, as it is in most all other cases of reference to the town of Bethlehem which may have been the result of the compilation of the Jews and not a matter of the words of a prophet as it is in Micah.

Further it might well be considered that 'Israel' here speaks of either all of Israel or even that Kingdom of Israel, which is the Kingdom of the ten tribes, that Kingdom of Ephraim and his companions. And certaily Jesus Christ is and will be he King over all of Israel, and not just Judah and his companions, the 'Jews'.

A final note is to be made. John the Baptist was born about 6 months prior to the birth of Christ. John was born in the same 'coastal' regions about Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Ramah that Christ was. And John, like the Christ child, came under threat of also being murdered by Herod's order. Zacharias had Elisabeth and her baby John retreat into and hide in the hill country, perhaps the Mount Ephraim regions.. There John grew being raised on honey and locust. According to the prophet Joseph Smith, when Zacharias was questioned about the were abouts of his son John, he refused to devulge where John was hide and it was Zacharias, the father of John the Batist, who was murdered between the temple and the altar. It was not the presumed Old Testament Zechariah of 2 Chronicles 24:20 as some Bible scholars make it. And this full scope from Old Testament times to New Testament times when the Savior requires the blood of the righteous prohets from Abel to Zacharias at the hands of the wicked who killed them becomes quite expansive to include all from the beginning until the very time of Christ and the death of John's father Zacharias (see Matthew 23:34-35, Luke 11:50-51 and TofPJS page 261).

Perhaps locked and lost within the performances of tradition and the lose of prophetic uterances are the whys and wherefores of what has been termed 'a sort of Mother's Day in Israel'. It occurs on the eleventh of Heshvan, the Hebrew month which falls around October or November. On this day the toddlers are usually guided in making crafts for their mothers. It is quite modest and lacks any real known halakhic definition other than it falls on the traditional date of the death of the matriarch Rachel. There appears that there is no remaining Biblical, talmudic or even medieval literature which speaks of this tradition and why it is observed in Israel. There is only the selected date of the pilgrimage to the burial site of the ancient righteous and pious Jews which is made anually. And it is to Rachal's Tomb on the eleventh of Heshvan that also receives that date.

Despite the lack of concise information, the transformation of Rachel's death date and pilgrimage into 'Mother's Day' raises the question. What is there in Rachel that makes her a suitable embodiment of the Israelite ideals of motherhood. Is it just Hebrew folklore that Rachel is identified with the 'Divine Presence (the Shekhina)? Is it Rachel's (Rahel - Jeremiah 31:15) sorrowing for the children of Israel's scatterings and wandering? Is it because she paid the ultimate motherly sacrifice in giving her life in in giving birth to Benjamin? Is it her recorded sorrowing for the slain children of the house of David and Israel which she calls her children when Herod kill all of the age of 2 and under? Or is it in part because she is the recognizable mother of Israel in that the 'True Messiah' was to come of her seed through Joseph and then through Ephraim? What all makes Rachel the 'matter dolorosa' of Israel?

There is a particlar Tekhinneh prayer for the month of Heshvan. It contains a touching appeal to Rachel to strike at the heavenly Gates of Mercy in intercession before God to insure that he honors his pledge to deliver 'her children' from the exile of the scattering among the nations of the earth. It is coupled with the thought that 'just as they passed out of the Land of Israel by Rachel's grave, so will they pass back by upon their return to their land. We could also attache the imagery of the fulfillment of the the promises of Abraham performed by Christ and his gospel going forth by way of Ephraim in the latter-days to gather Israel and bless all the nations of the earth. According to some recorded traditions, to Rachel it was prophecied that it would be through her seed that the Messiah would come.

So indeed, what is it about Rachel that Israel doth honor her and that toddlers do craft hand made gifts to their mothers in her name?