Success

Parshat עקב has a very stern warning about becoming complacent and taking things for granted. Moshe warns that one must never think, כוחי ועוצם ידי עשה לי את החיל הזה, “My strength and the strength of my hand, has brought me this success.” Such thoughts come with arrogance and a lack of recognition that all of our success is not ours, but is Hashem’s kindness. We may come up with brilliant ideas that seem not only promising, but look like a definite success. However, Hashem may decide things differently. There are absolutely no guarantees of anything in this world. It does not matter how much it looks like the, “sure thing.” There is no such thing as a sure thing. Often something we might view as trivial in comparison to what we see as the big money maker, but it is the trivial or incidental, that becomes big. Moshe Rabbeinu wants us to be clearly aware that Hashem controls our success and it is only because of Him, that we succeed or fail.