Blessing or Gift?

What is the difference between a blessing and a gift? Can the two words be used interchangeably? Are they one and the same? Does a blessing have to be something spiritual? Must a gift be physical?

As I was seeing “77” all over social media today as we celebrate Israel’s 77^th birthday, I started thinking about the significance of 77. The first thought that popped into my head was the word “זז” which relates to movement. Then I realized that 77 is the numerical equivalent of the word “עז“. I know that I’m not the only one to have had this idea, as a friend pointed out to me that Netanyahu made the same connection. For me it wasn’t just about the word though. It immediately made me think about the pasuk from Psalms that we say so often in various tefillot and birkat hamazon as well:

ה’ עז לעמו יתן, ה’ יברך את עמו בשלום.” (תהלים כ“ט: י“א).”

Loosely translated, this means that God will give strength to His nation, and God will bless His nation with peace. I was reminded of the story with Rabbi Akiva where he laughed at seeing a fox walk on the site of the destroyed Beit Hamikdash while his friends were sitting there crying. He inherently knew that this sight, based on the prophecies, indicated that Jerusalem would be rebuilt in the future.

Psalms may not be a book of prophecies, but this connection still struck me. In both a very literal and non-literal way, God has given us strength. The strength to survive and thrive as a nation through thick and thin, and the strength of 77 years and counting of our one and only country. Both are related forms of “gifts” that have been granted to us by God.

I so often think about the insane reality we are living in. I recently tried to open an Instagram page to post photos of flowers that I take around Israel, and it was immediately flagged before I had a chance to even post anything simply because it mentioned Israel in the name. The page was since reinstated, but that’s not the point. This is obviously a silly example, as there are too many well-known and more serious examples of the current insanity. Then again, today’s Google Doodle celebrates Israel, so there’s that. Good or bad, it’s a crazy time to be alive. But God has gifted us with strength to continue chugging along.

As we know from experience, this strength that we are granted is not free. Strength itself isn’t worth much if we don’t work with it. However, God-given strength along with our personal and collective efforts can move mountains. We may have had strength in the standard sense of the word beforehand, but now our homeland has strength as well which can only be a positive thing. Because the people of Israel are already strong. So the two units working together is sheer power.

And maybe that’s what is necessary to bring us to the point where we can be ready to receive God’s blessing of true and complete peace once and for all. Maybe one is dependent on the other. A strong foundation in who we are and what we stand for as a nation could very well be a necessary precursor to peace within ourselves and with those around us and ultimately with the world at large.

Blessings must come from a place of love. A gift may or may not. Sometimes we have to give gifts due to social norms even if we don’t particularly want to give them. But for the most part it’s still nice to receive them. As human beings our only way of giving blessings is verbally, and words are by nature more personal than anything physical can be. A non-loving blessing is not really worth much.

But God’s blessings are bigger than words. God has gifted us with the physical land of Israel, 77 years strong. Now it seems to be the right time for Him to bless us, with all of His love, with the seemingly elusive yet desperately needed שלום על ישראל.