Shabbat Ekev
Torah: Deuteronomy 7:12 - 11:25 / Haftarah: Isaiah
49:14 - 51:3
“Giving Thanks”
Dear Friends,
Watching the
Olympics over the past two weeks has reminded me how very impressed I am by
top-level athletes. Their raw talent and years of dedicated training have
produced is nothing short of amazing.
Yet, not once have I heard an athlete say that their success was due
solely to personal effort and lonely perseverance. Not once have I heard an athlete say, “Well,
I did it all myself.” Never. Rather, what I hear time and time again is
how athletes thank everyone and everything who helped them along the way -
parents, coaches, teammates and training facilities and sponsors. Thank you to competitors, sports officials, sport
supervision bodies, and the fans.
Finally, thank you to God for giving them the power and ability to
pursue and accomplish such lofty athletic success. Athletes understand best of all that the road
to glory is not walked alone.
Individuals, community and God are always there to lend support and
focus.
In this week’s
Torah portion, Moses is recounting the journey from Egypt to the Promised
Land. He is careful to caution the
people from thinking that their success is due to their own hard work. “Man does not live by bread alone” is his way
of reminding the Israelites that life is not sustained solely by putting food
in the stomach. God’s spirit and guiding
presence has even more to say about life and living. When the Israelites have eaten a meal, they
should give thanks to God for providing food in abundance. This is the foundation for Birkat Hamazon,
the grace after meals. One must never
take food and sustenance for granted.
We can learn a
lot from great athletes and from this week’s Torah portion. No one accomplishes
great success in a vacuum. The only way
to accomplishment is with the help of individuals, community and God.
Shabbat Shalom,
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