Page 3 - The Jewish Voice - December '19

The Jewish Voice, Page 3
Making a Hundred
Thanks Every Day
By Rabbi Shlomo Ezagui
Before we eat it is a
mitzvah — a positive good
act — to make a blessing.
A little dialogue goes on
between G-d and the angels
regarding our blessings.
There are three blessings
given by G-d through the
priests to the Israelites. The
third one is, “May G-d lift
(and shine) his countenance
on you.” The Talmud tells us that the ministering angels
protested this blessing, because the Bible declares that He
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From the rabbis
“has no favorites.” in with G-d. We are thanking Him for the food and the ability
to eat and enjoy and we are taking nothing for granted.
G-d replies to the angels, “How can I help but (not) favor
them? I said in the Bible, “You will eat and you will be sated Through the blessing, we are personally connecting with
and (then) you are to thank G-d for the good earth, and they the spark of good and G-dliness that is in the food. This
(go beyond my demand) and give thanks even, for every connection makes it much more likely that the food will truly
small morsel of food.” be only for a blessing and not G-d forbid anything else.
What is the power in saying blessings and thanking When we hear thunder and see lightning and make a
G-d even for a morsel of food and for everything we enjoy blessing over these very powerful occurrences, we draw to
or experience in this world, that G-d would shine His the surface of this experience the positive reason G-d certainly
countenance on us? inserted within these events.
G-d created a world where there is good and bad in Another thing: There are tons of blessings and good things
everything. That is what gives us the ability to choose, and in our lives that many of us many times just don’t pay enough
earn reward. In food there is the spark of G-dliness, of good attention to. We are so busy always looking at what we still
nutrition, and then there is the possibility for the food to end don’t have, and what we would like, we overlook the good
up in some negative way and cause negative effects in and we are blessed with in the present moment.
to our bodies. When a person trains himself the minute he wakes up to
The Baal Shem Tov explains that when we make a blessing put his two hands together and say, “I offer thanks to You,
to G-d over food, we connect the act we are about to engage living and eternal King, for You have mercifully restored my
soul within me; Your faithfulness is great” — he starts off
the day on a beautiful positive optimistic outlook.
Right from the first step of the day the outlook is the
blessing, the good, and the opportunity in all that comes,
and is expected to come in the day ahead. As he gets out of
bed and gets dressed, he begins to realize how lucky he is
that he can do so many things that so many others may not
be fortunate to do, and this inspires him to make even more
blessings.
King David teaches: A person should say no fewer
than 100 blessings a day! When a person recognizes G-d
throughout the day, this will help protect him/her. At first
glance it seems like this is a tit-for-tat kind of arrangement.
G-d so to say is conveying to us, “You do something with
me in mind and I will do something for you!” However, this
is not exactly the case.
When a person trains him/herself to see the blessing in
everything and he sincerely articulates his gratitude with the
proper blessing and acknowledgment, it becomes a natural
that he will experience so much more positive in his life if
for no other reason than that he has trained himself to be
connected to the good and G-dliness in everything. G-dliness
and goodliness comes “naturally” due to his/her own choice
to see things in that way, and blessings automatically becomes
their lot.
When Hagar was in the desert with her son Ishmael and
she prayed to G-d to save her son, the Bible says, “and G-d
opened her eyes and she saw the well of water.” The answer
to all our prayers is really already there. We need only to
merit connecting with the good, and opening our eyes to all
that is good and blessed already around us.
Rabbi Shlomo Ezagui is spiritual leader of Chabad
House Lubavitch of Palm Beach. Contact him at
Rabbi@chabadpalmbeach.org, 624-7004, or www.
The Only Man Who G-d
chabadpalmbeach.org.
Called Perfect
their lives By Rabbi Dovid Vigler
Do you know anyone
who’s perfect?
Apparently, perfect
and so many more people are hard to come
by. But in an extremely
rare testimony, the Torah
identifies Noah as both
a tzaddik (righteous
individual) as well as
perfect! No one else in all
of Jewish history, not even
Moses nor Abraham, merited such lavish praise. Only
Noah, the guy who preserved the world through the Great
Flood in the year 2104 BCE.
So what’s so special about Noah?
guy was far from perfect. Despite the fact that G-d chose
A closer look at Noah raises red flags. Seemingly, this
him to build the Ark and personally instructed him to save
the world, he didn’t really believe there was going to be
a Great Flood. He only entered the Ark when the waters
literally forced him into it. And when he emerged from
the Ark after all the devastation, his first investment was
to plant a vineyard, and then drink with abandon.
This you call perfect?
In the 1970s a young couple by the name of Uri
and Michal Lopoliansky moved to Jerusalem. It was a
particularly cold winter and they noticed that many of
needed were hard to find. So the couple purchased a few
the local children were congested. The humidifiers they
humidifiers and told the neighbors that the humidifiers
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From the Rabbis on page 4
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