Our first patriarch Avraham was a man who didn’t have an easy life. On the contrary it appears as though everything that can go wrong did go wrong. He was tested by God ten times and the tests were not easy. Yet, he remained positive, didn’t question the act of God and proceeded to move on to the next step in his personal journey.

It is said in the name of the Ramban (Nachmanides) that our forefathers, our patriarchs showed all of their descendants a way of life to emulate; to learn from. Almost as though what happened to them and how they dealt with their own trials and tribulations, would happen to us and be a guide for us in our lives.

At times we look at our peers, friends we attended school with and from the outside it can appear as though we’re still stuck and they’ve made it in life. There’s an interesting and wise saying “if everyone was given the option of putting their own life’s baggage in the center and given the choice which to pick, they’d end up picking their own”. EVERYONE has issues, difficulties, things they’ve given up, things that didn’t work out. There are those who have a rough time getting their business to run well, health issues, and more.  Yet, our package is custom made for each one of us. Our job as human beings and above that as part of the Jewish People descendants of our forefather Avraham is to persevere in spite of adversity, to get stronger and accept our situations as is. That does not mean life is just dandy or a bowl of cherries; rather life is what it is, the good and easy times, and painful and difficult times.

Avraham showed us that we CAN do this and how. No, we will never be Avraham who was ready to give his son as an offering, no, if our spouse was kidnapped by Pharaoh we wouldn’t handle the situation as well as Avraham did. We WILL pass our own tests and become great as only WE can be.

Mordechai Geberer

Please follow us and share:
Share
Tweet
Follow
Subscribe
1 Comment
Leave a Reply