On Chiseling Ourselves And Weathering Storms

On occasion pictures do speak louder than words, and drawings speak even louder. I love a good one panel cartoon. An old friend, Eliezer Kwass, once spoke about a sketch of a man chiseling...himself. What a profound illustration of the idea that we are created to create... ourselves. This is how the Baal Shem Tov explains the words of G-d at the start of creation, "Let us make man," G-d starts the process of our creation, and we are expected to continue that creation by working on ourselves daily.

Yesterday I saw an ad for a Torahweb lecture for our times. There was a drawing of a man in a small rowboat riding through a high tide. In his hand is an oar. The word hishdadlus - human effort - is written on one half of the oar. The word bitachon - trust in G-d - is written on the other side. The man is struggling to use the oar with proper balance. Well done.