* Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
Usually we ask for blessings for health, livelihood, marriage, children, and success. But in this week’s Torah portion, we find words that invite each of us personally to be a blessing.
After God blesses our forefather Avraham with great success, what follows are these moving words: “And you shall be a blessing.”
This is a special kind of calling - that you yourself should be a blessing, that you should be a source of blessing wherever you go and in whatever you do. And so parents bless their children to grow up to be like Avraham.
The path of Avraham was to be a blessing to everyone, and this should be our aspiration as well. We all know people about whom we say, “What a blessing to have them in our lives!” They inspire faith, strength, joy, and hope, and they show us how to live.
Perhaps we can take one practical lesson from this week’s Torah portion and apply it to our own lives: Think of one person for whom we can be a blessing and then, in God’s words to Avraham, “be a blessing” to them.
