An incident that highlights the rivalry between Rachel and Leah involved some mandrakes found by Leah’s son Reuben. This fruit was thought to aid in conception. When Rachel asked for some, Leah responded bitterly: “Is this a little thing, your having taken my husband, with your now taking also my son’s mandrakes?” Some understand her words to mean that Jacob was with Rachel more often than with Leah. Perhaps Rachel saw the merit of Leah’s grievance, for she answered: “For that reason he is going to lie down with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” So when Jacob got home that evening, Leah informed him: “It is with me you are going to have relations, because I have hired you outright with my son’s mandrakes.”​—Genesis 30:15, 16.

The mandrakes did not help. When after six years of marriage Rachel finally did conceive and give birth to Joseph, it was because Jehovah “remembered” her and answered her prayer. Only then could Rachel say: “God has taken away my reproach!”​—Genesis 30:22-24.