Today I want to teach you how to insure what we hold dear better than any insurance policy can. What’s more, it will be much cheaper than the services of insurance companies, and far more reliable.
We women do not want to watch circumstances unfold passively; we want to take steps to protect our property. Say we bought an apartment in installments. Who can guarantee that it will always be ours? Anything could change: we could lose our job, something could go wrong…
Our children. They are wonderful, may they be healthy. But who can guarantee that they won’t go through a crisis as teenagers? Who can promise that all our children will follow us along the straight path? No one is immune to mistakes; a child, too, may start veering off course…
Who can promise me that He will safeguard my children? My property? Everything I have?.. How can I insure myself against loss? How can I turn to the Almighty for help with this?..
In the portion of Eikev in the Book of Deuteronomy, it is written (8:11, 12,14): “Beware lest you forget the L-rd, your G-d, by failing to observe His commandments, His ordinances, and His laws, which I command you today. Lest, (when) you eat and are satisfied, and build fine houses and live in them, your heart grow haughty and you forget the L-rd, your G-d.” How many people, after eating their fill in good health, have forgotten to say: “Almighty! Thank You for this delicious, nourishing food. Everything I have comes from You.”
Moreover, it is written further on (8: 17): “And you will say in your heart: My strength and the might of my hand have gained me all this wealth.” The great danger is that a person may do more than forget that everything comes from the Almighty. He immediately takes all the credit for himself. He worked all month, toiling like a workhorse. When he receives his salary, he feels independent of everyone. He can manage perfectly well “without the Almighty” (G-d forbid). Then he goes to the store and swipes his credit card. Whose money is it? His, of course! He worked, and he got paid.
And what does the Torah say? “And remember the L-rd, your G-d, for it is He Who gives you the strength to amass wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:18).
The secret to ensuring that everything we acquire is not lost, but remains ours until we are 120 years old, is “And remember the L-rd,” for “He gives you the strength.” He gives you health, children, an apartment, a livelihood. Everything comes from Him!
And what happens when someone pays me a compliment? “You’re so gifted!” “You’re so capable!” There is no need to say, “Oh, not at all!” After all, deep down you long to hear more praise! You should answer: “Thank you. But it isn’t me; it’s a gift from the Almighty.”
Even if I worked all day, day after day, so that at the end of the month I could finally receive my salary and enjoy it, deep down I should still feel that everything comes from Him. If we never forget for a moment that everything comes from the Almighty, then, with G-d’s help, we are promised that all of it will remain ours and be safeguarded for us.
Look at what else is written in the same portion (Deuteronomy 7:17): “ Perhaps you will say in your heart: These nations outnumber me; how can I drive them out?” The Almighty reassures the people of Israel. Before entering the land, they had to drive out all the nations living there—7 nations. How were they to do it? Where should they begin? If they relied only on their own strength, who could guarantee their success?! But the L-rd assures them: “Do not fear them” (7:18). Why will this work? Because they remember Who gives them the strength to fight.
I want to share something I heard recently. Many years ago, I took a trip to Jewish sites in Poland, to the towns where Jews had lived and the camps where they were murdered. Auschwitz, Majdanek. A little history—but the impressions are more vivid when you are there. And I was fortunate enough to visit the former Chachmei Lublin yeshiva, very famous for the Torah scholars who taught and studied there. People came from far away to seek advice from the head of this yeshiva, to learn from him how to provide a good Jewish education.
One visitor, arriving at an unusual hour, once heard strange sounds at the top of the stairs. He decided to go up and see what was happening. When he reached the top, he saw the head of the yeshiva himself, Rav Shapiro, praying aloud with deep concentration, saying: “Hu hanoten lecha koach la’asot chayil”—“He gives you the strength to perform valiant (deeds).” But chayil also consists of the first letters of the words “Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin.” In other words, Rav Shapiro named his yeshiva so that he would always remember Who gives him strength.