Eikev

In this parsha, Moshe informs the Jewish people of all the goodness they will receive by keeping even the relatively small mitzvos. He reminds them how Hashem took care of them throughout the years in the desert and now He would be bringing them to the promised land. He warns them to be careful; when all is going good and one has all that he needs, the tendency is to forget Hashem. “Don't say it is my strength that got me great wealth; remember Hashem, כי הוא הנותן לך כח לעשות חיל, for it is He that gives the strength to amass wealth.”

The Ben Ish Chai says that when a person has to be told to remember something, it's because it's something that's easily forgotten. There are six times that the Torah tells us to remember a commandment. Each one can be attributed to nature or just forgotten. The מהרי”א ז''ל explained by Shabbos, why does it say to remember the Shabbos? Because the nature of a person involves doing all of the activities that you can't do on Shabbos all six days of the week. It becomes second nature to do them, so we need to consciously remember that on Shabbos we can't perform these actions. Similarly, in our posuk, says the Ben Ish Chai, a person is working in all the pursuits of this world and things seem to be “going good." In the natural course, one tends to believe that it's his work, his efforts that made everything come about. To counter that, the Torah tells us here, too, remember that it's Hashem who gives you the strength and who is masterminding everything that goes on. Everything comes to us from Hashem.

Once, a poor man came to the Kutzku Rebbi asking him for help since his daughter was getting married and he had no money for the wedding. The Rebbi gave him a letter and told him to go to a certain town where there was a philanthropist named Moshe Chaim Rotenberg, and to give him the letter in hopes that he would help him. The poor man took the letter and treks from town to town until he came to the town of the wealthy man. He arrived at the house and was greeted warmly by Moshe Chaim, who gave him some food and drink and allowed him to relax a little from the long journey. After a little while the poor man took out the letter, sure that Moshe Chaim would give him all that he needed for the wedding. After all, he has the letter from the Rebbi.

The wealthy man read the letter and handed him a few dollars. The poor man was taken aback. The trip cost him way more than that, but nothing he said would change the wealthy man's mind. Left with no choice, he went on his way. Dejected, he headed back home praying to Hashem to help him.

As soon as he departed, Moshe Chaim went out and bought everything he would need for the wedding, loaded it all on wagons and chased after the dejected poor man. He caught up to him, gave him the wagons with more than enough money to pay for everything else. The poor man was ecstatic, thanked him profusely, then asked, “if you were going to give me everything anyway, why did you not just give it me when I came to you?” Moshe Chaim answered him, “when you came with a letter from the Kutzku Rebbi to Moshe Chaim, you were confident that nothing could go wrong; you had all you needed, the ultimate guarantee. You were relying too much on that letter and forgetting that really everything comes from Hashem, so I didn't give it to you at first, so that you would remember that everything comes from Hashem.  It's not the letter that gets you what you need, rather it's Hashem. When you left, you undoubtedly davened to Hashem to help you,and He did."

We have to remember that no matter what’s going on in our lives or how much we think we're controlling the situation, everything is from Hashem!