The Blessing of a Broken Thumb

By Hazzan Jenna Greenberg.

There is a wonderful book, written 25 years ago, by Wendy Mogul: The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children. The book is geared to guide parents to help their kids to become more independent, especially when life throws them lemons or curveballs, like a skinned knee (or in my son’s case recently, a broken thumb!), with the added lens of Jewish tradition and values.

The theme of this book is great for parents and their kids, but it also can resonate for all ages, adults as well, which we can see in our Torah portion.

When it comes to this week’s parasha, Lekh L’kha begins with God telling Avram, in the first 3 verses: to go forth from his native land, from his birth place, from his father’s house, to a land that God will show him. God will make of Avram a great nation, and God will bless him; God will make Avram’s name great. And Avram shall be a blessing. God will bless those who bless Avram and curse the one who curses Avram; and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by him.

These first three verses from our parasha seem fitting in the context of Mogul’s book, as God, the Ultimate Parent, speaks to our now adult patriarch Avram for the first time in the Torah, directing him to Lekh L’kha, to go forth, to an undisclosed destination. Avram does not yet know where to go, and yet has full trust in God who will show him guidance along his journey. Perhaps having trust or faith in others and in the Divine is a blessing in its own rite.

We read this story every year, and we know that many metaphorical curveballs and lemons get thrown in Avram’s way multiple times throughout the book of Breishit. We even know, from the third verse, that God does not prevent curses to come Avram’s way, but there will be consequences to those people. Curveballs still happen, even to our biblical patriarch.

We all know from our personal life experiences, that, at any age, when things go awry, it can be challenging to get through those moments. But perhaps as the saying goes, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” We can grow through the difficult moments that cross our paths in our own lives. And hopefully we can find blessings, or silver linings, as we grow through life’s skinned knees and broken thumbs, figuring out how to adapt to keep moving forward.

May we all find blessings in both the positive moments and in the ones that challenge us as well.

Shabbat Shalom