15 Daily Dose of Gratitude
Update: 2025-12-01
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Welcome to our daily bitachon . We are talking about Sha'ar HaBechinah and the responsibility for those people that recognize God to share with those that don't, because we're supposed to make God beloved upon others. That's what all people try to do. As we said, if you love someone, you want the rest of the world to love them as well. In the source for this, said the Rambam , was Avraham Avinu , who's called Avraham ohavi , Avraham the one that loves me. There's a beautiful Rashi that brings this out and something beautiful that you could think about every day in your amidah three times a day. בראשית כד ג, Avraham is talking to Eliezer and he says, v'ashbiacha , I want to make you swear by השם אלקי השמים ואלקי הארץ, the God of the heavens and the God of the earth…... So who is the God that he makes them swear by? The God of the heavens and the God of the earth. A few pesukim later, pasuk zayin , Avraham says, Hashem Elokei hashamayim , Hashem , the God of the heavens, that took me out of my father's house. So why now is God referred to only as the God of the heavens, not God of the earth? Rashi explains that originally when Avraham was born, when he was taken out of his father's house, he was only Elokei hashamayim . He was the God of the heavens; nobody knew him down here. So, when he's going back in history and telling Eliezer , the God that took me out of my father's house, that was the God of the heavens. When he's talking to him now in real time, when Avraham already made his change in the world, he now became the God of the heavens and the God of the earth. Why, says Rashi ? שהרגלתיו בפי הבריות. I made him common in the mouth of people. I made him known. The world knew of God because of Avraham . But beforehand, his name was not known in the world. So our father, Avraham , was the first one that made God the God of the earth. Based on this, the Da'at Zekeinim on this spot adds a beautiful thought. He's bothered by a question that everybody asks, which is, the first, let me give you a minute of introduction. In order for a bracha to be classified as a bracha , it has to have the words Hashem , Elokeinu , Melech ha'olam , three things: God, who is the one in charge, and he is the king of the world. If you don't have that, it's not a blessing. Now, sometimes, I can have a blessing like אלקי נשמה שנתת בי doesn't start with that, but it's next to asher yatzar . That's why we want to put those two blessings next to each other. When you have a blessing next to another blessing, it doesn't have to have that. Now, ata kadosh in the amidah or ata gibor in the amidah doesn't start. Well, it's next to the first bracha . But hold on. The first bracha of the amidah is Elokeinu v'Elokei avoteinu . We have Hashem , we have Elokeinu , but where's Melech ha'olam ? Answers Tosafot , that by saying Elokei Avraham , by saying the God of Avraham , that's the equivalent of Melech ha'olam , because Avraham made God Melech ha'olam . He made him king of the world. So therefore I don't have to say king of the world. God of Avraham is the equivalent of king of the world. Very nice. The question is, but why not say Melech ha'olam ? Just say Melech ha'olam . Does it hurt? I have to say Elokei Avraham ? Says the Da'at Zekeinim an unbelievable answer. He says that we want you to know that at the beginning when Avraham came onto the picture, there was no Melech ha'olam . He wasn't known by the world. There was no recognition in the world of God. And therefore, the only way to express is Elokei Avraham . It's the God of Avraham , because through Avraham , the world knew what God was. Rav Yeruchem Levovitz applies this to a Midrash Rabbah in Devarim , parsha three, section three, which tells the following story. About Rav Shimon ben Shetach , he bought a donkey from an Arab, and his students noticed that there was a precious stone around the neck of the donkey. So, the students were all excited and they said to him, ברכת ה' היא תעשיר, the blessing of God makes one wealthy. So look, God blessed you. Rav Shimon ben Shetach says, חמור לקחתי, אבן טובה לא לקחתי. I bought a donkey. I didn't buy a jewel. Go and return it to the Arab. They brought it back to the Arab, and the Arab says, ברוך השם אלקי שמעון בן שטח. Blessed is the the God of Shimon ben Shetach . That means this Arab, through the way of Shimon ben Shetach acted, he appreciated God. And that's something that we all can do. We can all make people say, wow, this is the God of this person. That reflects on who God is if this person acts this way and that's his God. And that's what Avraham Avinu did. He made the world say Elohei Avraham . And we too could do that in a certain sense. And the way we act and the way we talk, make God beloved upon the world and known.
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