אשרי העם שככה לו

This week, the king of Mo’av, Balak hires Balaam to curse Israel. But every curse he attempts, it comes out as a blessing.

Separately, when we eat something that doesn’t grow from the ground, we make the bracha שהכל נהיה בדברו, that everything should be according to HaShem—to His word, to His decree. Everything, the pleasant and the unpleasant, should ultimately be accepted as His Will.

Then when we finish our candy or cup of soda, we make the concluding bracha of בורא נפשות רבות, that HaShem creates many kinds of people and creatures, along with their deficiencies (חסרונן). But we bless it all, in נפש כל חי, which literally translates as “the soul of every being.” Alternatively, I’d interpret this as, every neshoma and breath that HaShem blew into each of us has חיים, has life, has goodness no matter what.

And we finish this blessing, saying ברוך חי העולמים, HaShem is blessed and awesome. There are worlds we don’t know of and accept His Will for the good and the bad in our lives, despite our discomfort or displeasure with these חסרונות.

We allow the curses and lacks in our lives to become blessings. May we all increase our strength this week to recognize the not-so-good things as Gd’s Will, and in this merit, may they become some of our biggest blessings.