Parasha Vayetzei
SAN DIEGO — “Thank you.” When Leah, the mother of Yehuda, first brought words of hoda’ah, thanks, to the world, little did we know there’d one day be an entire science of gratitude serving our health and wellbeing. When’s the last time you expressed genuine, heartfelt gratitude and shown your deep appreciation to Hashem for all that you have? Of course, having a full-time connection to Hashem is essential for a genuine life of deep, authentic and meaningful gratitude.
I’m reminded of the little boy who was out flying his kite on a windy day. The wind was terrific that day and the kite was soaring high into the clouds. A man walked by and asked the boy what he was doing. “I’m flying my kite,” said the boy. The man looked, couldn’t see any kite and said, “I don’t see any kite. How do you know you’re flying a kite?” The boy answered, “Mr., because I can feel the tug.”
Do you feel this tug in every moment of your life? That’s what positive spirituality is about – finding that tug in our lives. Menahem Mendel of Kotzk taught that Hashem is wherever we let God in. It is up to us to feel His presence, to discover His tug in every moment, in every situation, and to let Him into our lives.
Hashem promises Jacob in this week’s Torah reading that he will feel His tug, “And behold, I am with you, and I will guard you wherever you go, and I will restore you to this land, for I will not forsake you until I have done what I have spoken concerning you.” And Jacob goes on to say, “Indeed, the Lord is in this place, and I did not know [it].” How reassuring it is to feel the tug of Hashem with us in every step we take, regardless of where we are and what we are doing. How do we know He is with us? We feel His tug.
The Kobriner Rebbe asked his students, “Do you know where God is?” He took a piece of bread, showed it to them, and observed: “God is in this piece of bread. Without God’s expression of power in all nature, this bread would have no existence.”
Like Jacob’s dream of the highly symbolic ladder with angels of Hashem ascending and descending on it, it is up to us to climb one rung at a time, to come closer to God, no matter how challenging that journey might be. Indeed, whatever is happening around us, we can feel His tug, not face a problem, but His hand challenging us to grow, providing us an opportunity, not an obstacle, rather a tug. Life, somehow, has a way of blinding us. It is said that “just as the hand, held before the eye, can hide the tallest mountain, so the routine of everyday life can keep us from seeing the vast radiance and secret wonders that fill the world.” Jacob in our parasha found a ladder in the middle of the wilderness that connected heaven and earth. What if he didn’t? We all have moments where we can say Shehecheyanu, where we can say thanks for being granted life, for Hashem sustaining us and enabling us to reach a particular occasion. Do you see the Shehecheyanu ticks that fill your life?
Do we only express gratitude when the unexpected, the unanticipated, or the unrequested occurs in our lives? No, of course not. We are a people who understand that everything in life is a gift from Hashem – everything. We wisely have no sense of entitlement whatsoever to anything that comes our way. We understand that everything happens FOR us, not TO us. We have no belief that “it’s coming to me.” We may not be able to discern why we have – or don’t have –but we are always able to live up to our name with an honest attitude of gratitude and thanks to Hashem, which is after all our name, Yehudim.
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Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D., prepares a weekly D’var Torah for Young Israel of San Diego, where he and his family are members. They are also active members of Congregation Adat Yeshurun. He may be contacted via michael.mantell@sdjewishworld.com