Yaakov’s Anger

 

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.