The Bed in Bilhah's Tent

Rachel had passed away on the road to Beis Lechem, and the family of Yaakov was grieving. Chazal relate that Yaakov's bed had always stood in Rachel's tent, and now he moved it to the tent of Bilhah, Rachel's maid. His eldest son Reuven could not bear it. While Rachel lived, he thought, my mother Leah had to share her husband with her own sister. Must she now take second place to her sister's maid as well? Standing up for his mother's honor, Reuven went and disturbed his father's bed.

The Torah describes the episode in words so harsh that they seem to speak of a terrible sin. Rav Shmuel bar Nachmani taught in the name of Rebbi Yonasan that whoever says Reuven sinned is simply mistaken. Right after the episode the Torah says that the sons of Yaakov were twelve, to teach that all of them, Reuven too, remained equal in righteousness. Rebbi Shimon ben Elazar added that Reuven's own descendants would one day stand on Har Eival and pronounce the curse upon exactly such a sin. Could that tzaddik have done the very thing his children would curse? He was saved from it, and it never came into his hands.

Targum Yonasan says that Yaakov was deeply pained when he heard of it, and feared that one of his sons had turned out unworthy, as Yishmael had come from Avraham and Esav from Yitzchak. Then the spirit of holiness answered him: do not fear, for all of them are righteous. Yet because Reuven had disturbed his father's bed, the verse counts it against him as though he had done the deed itself. Yaakov's blessing later names his fault as haste, the rush of anger that runs like water.