In this week's Parsha Eikev the Torah tells us that a person should not think that their strength and hard work have brought about their monetary success but they should realize that it is from Hashem. The Torah teaches that a person who forgets the Manna that Hashem gave the Jewish People in the desert, which was food and sustenance that they did not have to work for and it was clearly from Hashem, they will be led to this mistake.

In our day and age it is very easy to make this mistake. In every aspect of our work we can falsely attribute our success to ourselves. When people used to live in an agricultural society and the civilizations that still do, there was always at least one aspect which a person understood was from above and that was rain. In our advanced civilizations it seems like everything is in our control and we are not (C'V) dependent on G-d for anything. This makes our test even more challenging to overcome. Every week though when Shabbas comes around we stop all of our work and we sit down to eat three meals. Each time we make Hamotzi we take two challahs which correspond to the Manna that the Jewish People received as two portions on Friday so they would not have to gather on Shabbas. This is our chance to reflect and remember that all of our sustenance is from Above.

Shabbat Shalom, 

Heath