JULY 23 • 2020 | 27
Spirit
torah portion
T
here is an inspirational
account that, in one ver-
sion or another, is often
printed. The earliest known ver-
sion of “Footprints” reads:
An elderly man, who had
lived his life and left this world
to go and meet his Maker, asked
the Lord a question.
“
As I’
m looking down on the
paths I’
ve trod, I see two sets of
footprints on the easy paths.
“But down the rocky roads I
see only one set of foot-
prints.
“Tell me, Lord, why
did you let me go down
all those hard paths
alone?”
The Lord smiled and
simply replied, “Oh, my
son, you’
ve got that all
wrong!
“I carried you over
those hard paths.
”
There is no doubt
that we all go through
rough times. Life pres-
ents us bumps, curves
and even mountains
that we must overcome. Each of
us has come upon obstacles that
we thought were insurmount-
able; and then, somehow, we
were able to overcome them.
How is it that we do this over
and over in our lives? And, if
God can simply pick us up, why
make us sweat, panic and doubt
our own abilities?
In this week’
s Torah portion
we read: “
And in the wilder-
ness, where you saw how the
Lord your God carried you,
as a parent carries their child,
all the way that you traveled
until you came to this place”
(Deuteronomy 1:31).
Is it possible that God truly
carried each Israelite the entire
way through 40 years of des-
ert wandering? Is it true that
God carried us “on the wings
of eagles” all the way to the
border of the promised land? Is
it possible that God carries us
over those places that we don’
t
believe we can overcome our-
selves? Or is there something
else going on?
The Malbim (1800s Ukraine)
wrote on this verse: “For
there, God gave them a great
strength to overcome (the
difficulties) of this mas-
sive desert that could not
have been done on their
own strength, rather only
as God gave them the
strength — just as a father
gives his child strength to
move on and continue to
overcome the difficulties
in front of them.
”
We have the obligation
to recognize the spark of
God that exists inside each
of us. We often forget it
is there, but in moments
of crisis and difficulty,
those sparks glow brighter and
remind us of who we are and
what we are here to do. Each
of us has the ability to use this
spark of God to give strength,
encouragement and even some-
one to lean on.
We must then ask ourselves:
“Whom can I carry through
this rough and rocky period?”
Or, when we reach that insur-
mountable spot, “Who might
be able to carry me?”
When we do this, we allow
our sparks to come together
and make the world that much
brighter.
Rabbi Shalom Kantor is the rabbi of
Congregation B’
nai Moshe in West
Bloomfield.
Parshat
Devarim:
Deuteronomy
1:1-3:22;
Isaiah 1:1-
27 (Shabbat
Hazon)
Rabbi Shalom
Kantor
Finding Sparks
of Strength
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