Towards the end of Parshas Vayera, God commanded Abraham to offer his beloved son Isaac as a sacrifice on the altar. At the last moment, as Abraham was about to slaughter Isaac, God sent him a message saying that He had never intended for Isaac to actually be slaughtered as part of the offering.
The Torah prefaces this episode with the phrase, “And God tested Abraham.” God had purposely concealed the fact that Isaac was not meant to actually be killed in the process, in order to test Abraham’s loyalty. And indeed, Abraham passed the test.
What was the point of the test? What did God intend on accomplishing by giving such a test? The Ramban addresses this and says the following: “Since man has free will to choose to do or not to do, from his perspective it is called a ‘test.’ God himself doesn’t need a test to prove the results, but rather God sets up the situation in order to bring the powers of a person into fruition, so that the person will receive greater reward for the action and not just for being good hearted.”
The Ramban then adds an incredible statement: “And you should know, that God tests only the righteous. When He knows someone who does His will, God will test him to bring out his righteousness. God will not test the wicked who won’t listen. And behold, all tests are for the benefit of the one being tested.”
These words are a lesson for life. Everyone experiences challenges in their lives to some extent or another. No one escapes hardships in life. Yet, when they come, we are often caught off guard, become confused and think to ourselves, “Why is this happening? This is not the way it was supposed to be!” As a general rule, we dread difficulties and wish they never occurred. These words of the Ramban give us a new outlook in life. A challenge is a gift from God! No, we don’t wish these challenges upon ourselves, and we are not looking for them. But we must realize that whatever difficulties do come our way are tests for us to pass for our own benefit.
This itself is a great challenge. To accept the fact that a challenge is a blessing in order to acquire greater reward by executing our free will and proving ourselves loyal to God is no simple feat! This is the first challenge of every test; not to get upset about the fact that we are presented with a challenge, but rather to accept the situation and embrace the challenge. Because overcoming difficulties in serving God makes us into greater people.
There was once a Yeshiva boy (a student of a Talmud study institution) who was struggling and was getting discouraged. He was advised to take counsel from a certain prominent rabbi. At first, he was reluctant to approach such a great rabbi with his petty issues, but eventually he was convinced into having an audience with him. After describing his challenges, the rabbi smiled and requested of the boy to take down a portrait which was hanging on the wall with a photograph of one of the leading rabbis of the Jewish Nation. He then gestured to the boy to place the picture on the table as they examined it together.
“What does the photograph consist of?” asked the rabbi. “Tiny black dots arranged in a pattern that reflects the image of the person,” answered the boy.
“Which aspect of the picture contributes to the quality of the image? Is it the paper or the type of ink?” asked the rabbi.
“It’s about the density and boldness of the black dots,” answered the boy. “The closer and bolder the dots are, the clearer the outline of the image will be.”
The rabbi then proceeded to make his point: “Every single black dot in this portrait represents a struggle that this revered rabbi experienced in his lifetime. He had many, many challenges, and each one he overcame added another black dot to form his beautiful personality. Challenges should not be scary or viewed as something to run away from. Every single challenge you experience is an opportunity to add another black dot to your own portrait. The more challenges you overcome, the more black dots you will have, to form a vivid image of yourself as a great person.”
Once we overcome our resentment to challenges in life, we have already passed the first aspect of the challenge. The better we understand that challenges are good for us and help us develop our character and come closer to God, the easier it will be to step up to them and overcome them. The more we appreciate and embrace our challenges in life, the greater we will become.
Parshas Vayera | Rabbi Yitzchok Aryeh Strimber (torah4every1@gmail.com)
The Torah prefaces this episode with the phrase, “And God tested Abraham.” God had purposely concealed the fact that Isaac was not meant to actually be killed in the process, in order to test Abraham’s loyalty. And indeed, Abraham passed the test.
What was the point of the test? What did God intend on accomplishing by giving such a test? The Ramban addresses this and says the following: “Since man has free will to choose to do or not to do, from his perspective it is called a ‘test.’ God himself doesn’t need a test to prove the results, but rather God sets up the situation in order to bring the powers of a person into fruition, so that the person will receive greater reward for the action and not just for being good hearted.”
The Ramban then adds an incredible statement: “And you should know, that God tests only the righteous. When He knows someone who does His will, God will test him to bring out his righteousness. God will not test the wicked who won’t listen. And behold, all tests are for the benefit of the one being tested.”
These words are a lesson for life. Everyone experiences challenges in their lives to some extent or another. No one escapes hardships in life. Yet, when they come, we are often caught off guard, become confused and think to ourselves, “Why is this happening? This is not the way it was supposed to be!” As a general rule, we dread difficulties and wish they never occurred. These words of the Ramban give us a new outlook in life. A challenge is a gift from God! No, we don’t wish these challenges upon ourselves, and we are not looking for them. But we must realize that whatever difficulties do come our way are tests for us to pass for our own benefit.
This itself is a great challenge. To accept the fact that a challenge is a blessing in order to acquire greater reward by executing our free will and proving ourselves loyal to God is no simple feat! This is the first challenge of every test; not to get upset about the fact that we are presented with a challenge, but rather to accept the situation and embrace the challenge. Because overcoming difficulties in serving God makes us into greater people.
There was once a Yeshiva boy (a student of a Talmud study institution) who was struggling and was getting discouraged. He was advised to take counsel from a certain prominent rabbi. At first, he was reluctant to approach such a great rabbi with his petty issues, but eventually he was convinced into having an audience with him. After describing his challenges, the rabbi smiled and requested of the boy to take down a portrait which was hanging on the wall with a photograph of one of the leading rabbis of the Jewish Nation. He then gestured to the boy to place the picture on the table as they examined it together.
“What does the photograph consist of?” asked the rabbi. “Tiny black dots arranged in a pattern that reflects the image of the person,” answered the boy.
“Which aspect of the picture contributes to the quality of the image? Is it the paper or the type of ink?” asked the rabbi.
“It’s about the density and boldness of the black dots,” answered the boy. “The closer and bolder the dots are, the clearer the outline of the image will be.”
The rabbi then proceeded to make his point: “Every single black dot in this portrait represents a struggle that this revered rabbi experienced in his lifetime. He had many, many challenges, and each one he overcame added another black dot to form his beautiful personality. Challenges should not be scary or viewed as something to run away from. Every single challenge you experience is an opportunity to add another black dot to your own portrait. The more challenges you overcome, the more black dots you will have, to form a vivid image of yourself as a great person.”
Once we overcome our resentment to challenges in life, we have already passed the first aspect of the challenge. The better we understand that challenges are good for us and help us develop our character and come closer to God, the easier it will be to step up to them and overcome them. The more we appreciate and embrace our challenges in life, the greater we will become.
Parshas Vayera | Rabbi Yitzchok Aryeh Strimber (torah4every1@gmail.com)
