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Daily Chizuk #0777
Weekly Parasha
Dealing with Competition: The Challenge to Our Faith
Parashat Toldot: Meeting Us
Although Hashem told Avraham that through Yitzchak the Jewish People will have continuity, Yitzchak and Rivka were barren. In the beginning of this week’s parasha, Toldot, it speaks about Yitzchak and Rivka each praying hard for Hashem to give them a baby and the Torah testifies that Hashem granted them children specifically because of their tefilot. This means, there may be certain gifts that Hashem wants to give a person and it’s in that person’s destiny to have, but He holds back from giving the person until he prays for them. That is in the person’s best interests because prayer connects him to Hashem like no other way. The tefila of Yitzchak is called atira, which the midrash says is lashon “chatira”, which means to tunnel. The midrash explains with a parable of a prince who was tunneling into his father’s palace to try to get some gold. His father, the king, loved his son more than anything and when he heard his son was tunneling in, he started tunneling from the inside until they eventually met in the middle and the father happily gave his son all the gold that he needed. Sometimes we wish we could just go and “take” things from Hashem when we need. It is then that we have to realize that Hashem wants to give us those things more than we want to have them. When we come to Him with heartfelt prayer, He meets us halfway, kavayachol, and is so happy to give us what we need. If it is not good for us, He’s not going to give it to us, but if it is, it’ll be our prayers which bring it down.
Chodesh Tov & Shabbat Shalom!!
Although Hashem told Avraham that through Yitzchak the Jewish People will have continuity, Yitzchak and Rivka were barren. In the beginning of this week’s parasha, Toldot, it speaks about Yitzchak and Rivka each praying hard for Hashem to give them a baby and the Torah testifies that Hashem granted them children specifically because of their tefilot. This means, there may be certain gifts that Hashem wants to give a person and it’s in that person’s destiny to have, but He holds back from giving the person until he prays for them. That is in the person’s best interests because prayer connects him to Hashem like no other way. The tefila of Yitzchak is called atira, which the midrash says is lashon “chatira”, which means to tunnel. The midrash explains with a parable of a prince who was tunneling into his father’s palace to try to get some gold. His father, the king, loved his son more than anything and when he heard his son was tunneling in, he started tunneling from the inside until they eventually met in the middle and the father happily gave his son all the gold that he needed. Sometimes we wish we could just go and “take” things from Hashem when we need. It is then that we have to realize that Hashem wants to give us those things more than we want to have them. When we come to Him with heartfelt prayer, He meets us halfway, kavayachol, and is so happy to give us what we need. If it is not good for us, He’s not going to give it to us, but if it is, it’ll be our prayers which bring it down.
Chodesh Tov & Shabbat Shalom!!
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