EXTRA · Side-ring · Parashas Vayeitzei · Passuk 30:39
This page is an EXTRA derasha. It is not part of the main-ring PREV/NEXT chain.
And the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted.
Classical sources beyond the TT-numbered main ring: Rashi on 30:39 citing Bereishis Rabbah 73:10.
Lemma: ויחמו.
English: “They conceived” — the animal sees the rods, is startled and recoils; its mate then pairs with it and it later gives birth to young marked like the rods. Rabbi Hoshayah says: the water itself became seed in their wombs.
Derash / classical peirush — not a formal named middah of the 13. Visual influence and possible miracle explained as the cause of the patterned births.
The rods functioned as a visual stimulus (and, according to one midrashic view, more than that) that directed the appearance of the new generation of the flock.