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

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