וְיֹאחֵ֣ז צַדִּ֣יק דַּרְכּ֑וֹ וּֽטֳהָר־יָ֝דַ֗יִם יֹסִ֥יף אֹֽמֶץ׃
און דער גערעכטער זאָל אָנהאַלטן זײַן װעג, און דער װאָס האָט רײנע הענט זאָל מערן שטאַרקײט!
Akeidat Yitzchak
Our opening Midrash confirms our view. Rabbi Chaninah says that in spite of the fact that many aspects of a person's life are predetermined (provisionally), G-d did not predetermine man's moral development. This is entirely up to his own volition. The original determination of man's physical and material attributes is due to the leeway given to the angel, i.e. to the intermediary otherwise known as "nature." However, since G-d has reserved to Himself the keys to life, livelihood, and the ability to have children, those three matters are subject to G-d’s override if man's merit suffices. This is in line with the statement by Rabbi Akiva in Avot 3,15, "While everything is foreseen, freedom of choice has been granted." The name laylah, mentioned by Rabbi Chaninah as the name of the angel in charge of presenting the embryo before G-d, symbolizes two concepts. 1) Night is a time when positive elements such as light are absent. 2) It is the time when one hopes for improvement, rebirth, renewal (see Psalms 130,6 “Shomrim laboker,” one yearns for morning and what it is expected to herald). Man cannot tolerate the idea that things are decreed irrevocably, that only negative forces exist. He feels that he aught to be the master of his own fate. It is quite in line with these expectations of man, then, that G-d says, "All I am asking of you is that you revere Me etc." (Deut 10,12).