(א) בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּ֒שָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לַעֲסֹק בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָה:
(1) Blessed are You, Adonoy our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who sanctified us with commandments and commanded us to be engrossed in the words of Torah.
Yosef Kleiner, "The delicate perception – Parshat Vayetze", http://dialorapia.com/archives/638
It may be that the Torah does not speak about her physical eyes, but rather her way to perceive the world, her way to see. Leah had a very delicate, fragile, sensitive way to perceive reality.
Yaakov loved her, but she did not perceive it: Yaakov’s love of this other woman, Rachel, made Leah perceive herself as hated. “The Lord saw that Leah was hated” (Gen. 29:31) and Radak explains that “Yaakov did not hate her, but loved her. Since he loved Rachel more, she thinks herself hated; i.e. that compared to Rachel she was hated” (commentary on Gen. 29:31).
Through Leah’s life and her fragile perception, the Torah poses before us the possibility of learning to transcend our own fragile perception, so as to see the world beyond our own limitations, so as not to let us base our conclusions about ourselves on the competition with our fellows.
Dena Weiss, "Once Upon an Eyelash", https://www.hadar.org/torah-resource/once-upon-eyelash
When I was a little girl, I remember being told that when you see a stray eyelash, you should blow it away with a wish. I see Leah as her eyelashes fall out and think about how it didn’t occur to her to dream of something different, to wish for something better than what she had been promised. The story of Leah is not about what she looked like. She looked just like her sister. The story of Leah is about the story of Leah, the stories other people tell about us, and the stories that we tell about ourselves.
(31) Hashem saw that Leah was unloved and He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. (32) Leah conceived and bore a son, and named him Reuben; for she declared, “It means: ‘Hashem has seen my affliction’; it also means: ‘Now my husband will love me.’” (33) She conceived again and bore a son, and declared, “This is because Hashem heard that I was unloved and has given me this one also”; so she named him Simeon. (34) Again she conceived and bore a son and declared, “This time my husband will become attached to me, for I have borne him three sons.” Therefore he was named Levi. (35) She conceived again and bore a son, and declared, “This time I will praise Hashem.” Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing.
By Rabbi Shai Held, "Can We Be Grateful and Disappointed at the Same Time?", https://www.hadar.org/torah-resource/can-we-be-grateful-and-disappointed-same-time#source-7722
Notice that when her first son was born, she had the temerity to hope that his arrival would elicit Jacob’s “love”; by the time the third is born, it seems she would settle for her husband’s “attachment” to her.
By now something seemingly inexplicable happens. Leah bears a fourth son, and we wait for yet another expression of her sadness and desolation, and perhaps also of her wish that her husband finally cares for her. But something else entirely occurs: “She conceived again and bore a son, and declared: ‘This time I will praise (odeh) the Lord.’ Therefore, she named him Judah (Yehudah)” (29:35). What has happened here?
Leah has somehow found the courage to accept that her life is not going to turn out as she had hoped. Leah is disappointed, and as we have seen, she has every right to be. But she is also grateful – despite the intensity of her pain, she, too, has her blessings. With the birth of Judah, Leah has discovered the awesome capacity to feel grateful even amidst her sorrows.
Strikingly, the name Leah gives her fourth son, Judah, meaning “I will praise” or “I will express gratitude,” becomes the name of the Jewish people as a whole. Who is a Jew? One who discovered the possibility of gratitude even amidst heartbreak. That is why we are given the name that expresses Leah’s courage, and her achievement: a Jew is, ideally, a human being who, like Leah, can find her way to gratitude without having everything she wants or even needs.