Musar sobre Génesis 48:7

This is what the Torah alluded to when it described Jacob as kissing Rachel and raising his voice and beginning to cry (29,11). Rashi comments there that the reason Jacob cried was because he foresaw that Rachel would not be buried alongside him. This comment is difficult. The fact that Rachel would not be buried with Jacob hardly seems an adequate reason for him to cry about! No doubt Rashi meant that Jacob had a vision of the reason that Rachel would not be buried alongside him, that his descendants would be exiled and that she needed to intercede with G–d on their behalf. Rashi gave a somewhat similar commentary in Genesis 48,7, where Jacob justified himself to Joseph for asking to be buried in Machpelah, though he had failed to bury Joseph's mother Rachel there. We see that there is a spiritual association between Rachel and צאן, the description used for the Jewish people when the latter are in exile.