When the Son Outshines the Father

How is it possible for a Jew, a true believer and recipient of Torah, to entertain the notion that “It is my strength and skill that has caused my success”?

The Talmud relates that when the Sages overruled G-d, G-d smiled and said: “My children, you have bested me!” G-d instills His children with the power even to “surpass” Himself. What gives them this power? The fact that G-d calls them, “My children.” A child can inherit abilities that were latent and unexpressed in the father, and can manifest those abilities even before the father does.

Someone who truly feels he is G-d’s own child might sincerely feel, “It is my strength and skill that has caused my success” – not because the original source of the strength is his own, but because he has inherited the strength from his father, from G-d. Therefore, Torah makes it absolutely clear: “G-d alone is the One Who gives you the strength to succeed.”