The Woman Who Asks and the Wisdom of Her Children

Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani said in the name of Rabbi Yonatan: Any woman who openly asks her husband for the matter of the commandment [marital intimacy] will have children the like of whom there were none even in the generation of Moses. For regarding the generation of Moses it is written, "Choose for yourselves men who are wise, understanding, and known" (Deuteronomy 1:13), yet it is written, "So I took the heads of your tribes, wise men and known" (Deuteronomy 1:15) [men who were wise and known], but "understanding" he did not find. Yet concerning Leah it is written, "And Leah went out to meet him and said, You shall come to me" (Genesis 30:16), and it is written [of her descendants], "And of the children of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times" (1 Chronicles 12:32).