In a seemingly perfect world, we do what’s right and everything right happens to us. But as we well know, unfortunately, it is not always quite like that.
Abraham, the first Jew, left his birthplace and travelled to Canaan where G-d promised He’d make him into a great nation. But soon after getting there things turned south (quite literally), when a famine forced him and Sara down to Egypt where she was taken captive (temporarily) by the Egyptian Pharaoh.
At this point, Abraham had every reason to question everything. What happened to G-d’s glorious promise? But he didn’t, taking everything in stride and never wavering, Abraham remained true with his faith in G-d, and G-d remained true to him, testing and proving that ultimately this was the man who was worthy to serve as the father of the Jewish People.
As his spiritual descendants, we each carry a spark of Abraham’s soul that provides us with a natural inner resource of faith and trust in the One Above.
When the going gets tough for us, whether as a nation (with more and more of “our friends” ganging up against Israel), or in tribulations we might face in our personal lives, what we need to do is reach down into our souls and find and tap into that deep fountain of faith bequeathed to us by Abraham, a faith that is vibrant and alive and one that empowers us to be able to pull through any challenge.