Yosef
Roth
In this
weeks Parsha Rachel tells Yaakov “give me children” and Yaakov gets angry,
saying back to her “am I instead of God that I can give you children.” Why is
Yaakov getting angry: Yitzchak prayed for Rivkah so why couldn’t Yaakov just
pray for Rachel?
I believe an answer may lie in the fact that Rachel didn’t ask Yaakov to pray
to God, but rather, made the request to Yaakov. Yaakov realized that Rachel thought
that it was in his power to cause God to give her a child. Yaakov thought this
was a bad idea. Even a tzaddik of the highest level who prays to God for
something, does not automatically receive his request. It still depends on Gods
will. This is the lesson that Yaakov was trying to teach Rachel.