Weekly Message

6 November 2025

In this week’s parashah, Vayera, Avraham models the virtue of humiility, one that the Jewish tradition deeply values. He says to God, “Anochi afar v’efer – I am dust and ashes” But, in the context of that statement, Avraham also models the opposite: the importance of hutzpah or audacity, of knowing that we have the power to make a difference in the world. Even as Avraham admits that he is dust and ashes, he protests God’s decision to destroy the innocent citizens of S’dom together with the guilty. He insists that “the Judge of all the earth” must “do justly.”

Perhaps the real lesson that we learn from Avraham this week is that those two traits, humility and audacity, are not really opposites at all. At times when we feel paralyzed by the enormity of the challenges in front of us, it is the acceptance of our limits that gets us unstuck and enables us to act. Recognizing that we cannot do everything liberates us — and challenges us — to do something. Like Avraham, we find that humility unlocks audacity.

May Avraham’s example help us, in challenging times, to make our lives a blessing.