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This week’s torah portion is called Ekev. Which means ‘heel’ or ‘follow’ and it talks about the wonderful blessings promised to the children of Israel if we follow the Torah’s commandments. It also includes the second chapter of the Shema, which mentions all the rewards for doing mitzvoth.
However the important message in Ekev is to always remember where your rewards have come from.
It is easy to become very self righteous and take all the credit for all of the good things that happen to you and to take things for granted.
An example of this for me is Yom Kippur when I fasted for 25 hours. It really made realise how much I take food for granted. Any other day I know I will have food to eat, so really I don’t think about it. However on Yom Kippur when I didn’t have any food I thought about it all day! This also made me realise that for some people in this world it is like that for them every day.
In Ekev it mentions about the importance of saying thank you to G-d for our successes, big or small. We must remember that most achievements in our life aren’t achieved alone.
Right at the core of all our successes is G-d. And as Moses said (in Ekev chapter 8, verse 3)
‘human beings do not live on bread alone, rather by everything that emanates from the mouth of G-d do human beings live’
We should make sure we are always thankful for what we have, help others who have less and keep performing mitzvoth. In this way we will be thanking G-d for helping us all to reach our full potential.
Note: Josh is 14 years of age |
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