Your Own Salad - Parshat Vayechi
It's great to be able to open up the fridge, look inside and say - wow, there's enough here to make my own salad.
That’s exactly what Jacob points out in this week's parsha - Parshat Vayechi. He calls his children together for one last time and gives each their own individual blessing. At the end of all the blessings, though, the Torah summarizes and says - "each man according to his blessing he blessed them".1 The sentence starts off in the singular, "his" and ends in the plural, "them" - this kind of inconsistency in the same sentence is usually significant.
Because of this inconsistency, Rashi explains that Jacob is saying that all of the blessings actually are given to all his children. Together with that, each child also had his own particular attribute at which he excelled. Jacob was able to look at each one of his children and note his particular attributes.
We, too, have our own attributes. Some of which we are aware of and some not. Some help us more clearly than others and some have no apparent use. But we each have our own individual salad of attributes or strengths. Some people do not recognize their own particular salad. They do not even believe that there is anything good about them. If there is in fact a mix, they believe it’s a negative one.
We all have the same attributes - kindness, generosity, altruism, intelligence, as well as musical, creative, humorous, etc. We differ in how much we have of each and how we choose to use.
In order to reach a life of fulfillment and meaning we need to recognize the ones that come to us automatically just as we need to recognize the ones we use from choice - just like a basketball player needs to know if he is good at passing or shooting and which needs improvement.
The challenge is in learning which of those attributes helps us move forward towards that kind of life. The makings of the salad are within. Each situation can challenge us to use different ingredients and different proportions.
The poem we say on Yom Kippur, Ha-aderet Ve-ha-emuna, has a line that reads, "strength and humility are to the Everlasting One." There are times for strength, times for humility and times for a mix of both. How we mix that salad is up to us.
- Bereishit 49:28
For more information on logotherapy and how it helps to create a fuller, more meaningful life please come visit www.purposefultherapy.com
Have A Great Shabbat!
For More Information On Logotherapy And How You Can Create A Fuller, More Meaningful Life, Or To Book An Online Session,
- Call Me At +972-54-589-3399, or in Israel 054-5893399
- Contact Me Thru my email at [email protected]