“When Rachel saw that she bore Yaakov no children, Rachel became envious of her sister, and she said to Yaakov, ‘Give me children, or else I am dead.’” (Bereshit 30:1)
It must be explained that the expression “When Rachel saw” means that she observed that Yaakov was not making an effort to pray for her to conceive. And she understood that this was because Yaakov did not believe the Matriarchs needed prayer. Necessarily, — she thought — he held this opinion because he thought that everything depends on the accumulation of merits: that children come according to the abundance of merits, not through prayer.
Upon reaching this understanding, “Rachel became envious of her sister.” As Rashi explains: envious of her actions. That is, she understood that if she (Rachel) had not yet merited children, it was a sign that she did not have sufficient merits and was not a Tzadeket (righteous woman) on the same level as her sister Leah.
That is why she said to Yaakov: “Give me children, or else I am dead.” Meaning: “You must pray for me; because if I do not have children, people will say that I am a ‘dead woman,’ in the sense that I am a wicked woman without merits—for the wicked, even in life, are called dead.”
Zera Shimshon, Parashat Vayeitzei, art. 13
