fertility. Frustrated that she was not able to conceive at all, Rachel offered to trade her night with their husband with Leah in return for the mandrakes. Leah agreed, and that night she slept with Jacob and conceived Issachar. Afterwards she gave birth to Zebulun and to a daughter, Dinah. After that, God remembered Rachel and gave her two sons, Joseph and Benjamin. Rivalry with Rachel On a homiletical level, the classic Chassidic texts explain the sisters' rivalry as more than marital jealousy. Each woman desired to grow spiritually in her (service of God), and therefore sought closeness to the (Jacob) who is God's personal emissary in this world. By marrying Jacob and bearing his sons, who would be raised in the 's home and continue his mission into the next generation (indeed, all 12 sons became in their own right and formed the foundation of the Nation of Israel), they would develop an even closer relationship to God. Therefore, Leah and Rachel each wanted to have as many of those sons as possible, going so far as to offer their handmaids as proxies to Jacob so they could have a share in the upbringing of their handmaids' sons, too. Each woman also continually questioned whether she was doing enough in her personal efforts toward increased spirituality, and would use the other's example to spur herself on. Rachel envied Leah's tearful prayers, by which she merited to marry the and bear six of his twelve sons. The Talmud (Megillah 13b) says that Rachel revealed to Leah the secret signs which she and Jacob had devised to identify the veiled bride, because they both suspected Laban would pull such a trick. Death and burial Leah died some time before Jacob (according to Genesis 49:31). She is thought to be buried in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron alongside Jacob. This cave also houses the graves of Abraham and Sarah, and Isaac and Rebekah. Medieval Christian symbolism In medieval Christian symbolism, Rachel was taken as a symbol of the contemplative (monastic) Christian life, and Leah as a symbol of the active (non-monastic) life. Dante Alighieri's Purgatorio includes a dream of Rachel and Leah, which inspired illustrations by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and others: "... in my dream, I seemed to see a woman both young and fair; along a plain she gathered flowers, and even as she sang, she said: Whoever asks