Toldot: Digging for Meaning
A noted lecturer once presented his audience with a white sheet of paper that had a black dot in the center. He asked the crowd what they saw. Without exception they responded, “A black dot.” He asked: “Why do you choose to focus on the insignificant speck of black in the middle of a page, when its overwhelming majority contains white space?”
The secret to thanksgiving is recognizing and dwelling on the vast amount of “white” or goodness in our lives, beginning with the greatest gift of all: life itself. To help us with our “white-scouting,” our sages instituted the Modeh Ani prayer of gratitude, to be said first thing in the morning, in which we say, “I offer thanks to You, living and eternal King, for You have restored my soul within me; Your faithfulness is great.”
Before getting out of bed and beginning a day that will include work, acquisition, and the pursuit of external things and relationships, we say a prayer that emphasizes the gift of being. This helps us lead lives focused less on having the things we want than on wanting the things we have.
Here’s to a Shabbat of thanksgiving!
Mendel Kalmenson,
on behalf of the Chabad.org Editorial Team
P.S. “Four thousand rabbis sit down at the dinner table . . .” Sounds like the start of a joke, but it is going to happen in Brooklyn. Watch our live streaming of the International Conference of Chabad Emissaries at 5:30 PM (EST) this coming Sunday.
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I thought of my little tree out there in the wild darkness. So fragile—how would it withstand such a dreadful storm?
“But Mommy, you love all your children just as much as you love me, so how can you love me more than anyone?”
In the middle of this lonely meal, far from my family, I suddenly recalled that it was Friday night and that I was missing kiddush!
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Isaac bored through the strata of emotion and experience in search of the quintessential waters of the soul.
If only water were to be found near this inn, he would be a prosperous man. What should he do?
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A child is a child. Perhaps bright and knowledgeable—yet still lacking the maturity that distinguishes the adult from the child.
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I have a sense of anticipation and slight frustration struggling for the pleasure that will shortly be mine.
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The sages say that all is in the hands of heaven except for the awe of heaven.
Which puts all the power in your hands.
Because if there is no awe of heaven, heaven is bankrupt. It owns nothing—not you, not your world, not anything at all.
That being so, the greatest power you have is your ability to surrender the delus...
