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Rachel gave Leah the secret signals Jacob and she had designed to prevent Laban from switching Leah for Rachel. The Talmud explains that Rachel did not want Leah humiliated by being thrown out by Jacob if he realized that the sisters had been switched. Rachel is praised for her protection of Leah’s dignity.
I wonder if Rachel believed that Jacob would so humiliate Leah. Was Jacob any less concerned with Leah’s dignity?
I suspect that Jacob would not have thrown Leah out, but he would always feel that Leah represented Laban’s trick. Rachel understood that Leah would never have a chance to be loved because the memory of Laban would always be in the way. So, she gave her private signals to Leah, which Jacob would immediately figure out, and now Leah would no longer represent Laban’s treachery but Rachel’s commitment to her sister’s dignity.
Rachel wanted Jacob to see Leah through Rachel’s eyes, not Laban’s. This is probably why Jacob eventually achieved a real relationship with Leah.
Rachel’s greatness was not preventing Leah from being humiliated, but in preventing Leah from being a constant reminder of Laban. That is why the Talmud defines her actions as Tzniut; she changed the way Jacob viewed Leah. She did whatever she could to prevent someone from being perceived as a negative. That level of concern for how someone else is perceived is a commitment to the idea of self-respect. That is the true definition of Tzniut.
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