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From Blessing to Reality

Many people wake up in the morning knowing there will be a difficult task ahead of them during the coming day. For some the challenges come daily and for others it’s more sporadic. We can struggle with making a living, we can struggle with interpersonal relationships and we can even struggle with ourselves.

In this week’s Torah portion we are reminded of G-d blessing Abraham and promising him that he would give him the land of Israel as a gift. Yet a few paragraphs later we find Abraham in the midst of a tense negotiation to buy a field and a cave in Hebron so that he can bury his wife. Abraham ends up paying a hefty sum of money for the right to that land. What happened to G-d’s blessing? Should he have been able to “take the land” without worrying about the others who lived there. After all, he had G-d’s word.

A very simple yet powerful idea that we can glean from this occurrence is that while we strive for G-d to bless us a people, and our prayers are full with requests for G-d to shine His goodness upon us, no blessing can take the place of hard work. Struggle is the way in which divine promise comes to fulfillment.

Next time you reach a difficult place, dig down and face it head on knowing that through the toil and effort you are bringing G-d’s blessing to fruition.

November 14, 2014 | From the Rabbi's Desk | 0

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