Rebbetzin Leah Gans
part five
We spoke about how blessings can soften Heaven's decree.
One might say that the purpose of blessings is to help a person understand: there is none besides the Almighty. He alone governs the world.
I remember being very frightened before one of my deliveries. The doctors offered no shortage of gloomy predictions, and I felt uneasy. My husband said to me then: “You must focus on the fact that there is none besides Him. The doctors do not run the world. Everything comes from the Almighty. We are nothing. We know that everything that happens is solely within His power.”
Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin writes in Nefesh HaChaim: in a moment of danger, one must concentrate on the realization that there is, and can be, no other power in the world besides G-d. When Rabbi Yitzchak Ze’ev Soloveitchik and his son had to flee German-occupied Poland during the war, their route led to Vilna, since the Lithuanian Republic was still free of the Nazis. Miraculously, they traveled through Poland unhindered. Later, Rabbi Yitzchak Ze’ev explained that this was precisely because, throughout the journey, he had concentrated on the thought, “There is none besides Him”: nothing can bring a person either good or harm without the Almighty’s will. This saved them.8/
The weekly Torah portion Ki Tavo says that not only will our blessings be blessings, but curses will also become blessings. This relates to the verse, “Because you did not serve the L-rd your G-d with joy and gladness of heart amid an abundance of every (good thing)” (Devarim, 28:47). There are two ways to explain how this transformation takes place.
Orchot Tzaddikim explains that a lack of joy in fulfilling the commandments stems from insufficient trust in the Creator (bitachon). We spoke earlier about the joy of fulfilling a commandment and mentioned the Arizal. He said that he owed his understanding of Torah precisely to his joy in fulfilling the commandments.
We mentioned above that blessings are what lead to trust in the Almighty.
We must make an effort, but the source of everything is in His hands. Everything comes only from Him. Neither our efforts nor our worries bring us greater earnings. We say: “… by Whose word all things came into being.” We have nothing to worry about—like an infant at its nursing mother’s breast. With this understanding, there is no reason for worry. Trust in the Almighty brings us joy.
Thus, brachot turn a curse into a blessing.
During the Second World War, the Sanz-Klausenburg Rebbe spent 9 months in a concentration camp. Beyond the fence, he could see a spring of clean water. Throughout those 9 months, he would stop opposite the spring and pray: “Almighty, let me live to drink from this spring.” When the camp was liberated, people rushed to the food. But the first thing the Sanz Rebbe did was fulfill his dream: he went to the spring, immersed himself in it (as in a mikveh), then recited the blessing “Shehakol” and drank some water. He later said: “If only I could once again reach the level at which I recited that blessing then.”
The second explanation. It is written in Vayikra (26:40,41): “they walked with Me as though by chance. I, too, will walk with them as though by chance.” In other words, curses are deserved because Jews believe that everything that happens to us is a matter of chance. But brachot show us that every action, everything that happens in the world, is not random. Everything is under His watchful eye. He does not abandon His world. Understanding this turns a curse into a blessing.
May all women merit attaining Love and awe of the Creator through the daily reminder—blessings!
Prepared by Mrs. Zissi Skarzhinskaya