Welcome to the short, practical Lelamed Weekly Dvar and Daily Aliyah. As always, you can Order The Daily Aliyah <https://mosaicapress.com/product/the-daily-aliyah/> and receive your hard copy of these daily practical and relevant Torah thoughts (all proceeds go to Daily Giving), or join this Whatsapp group <https://chat.whatsapp.com/G35Ne4mpYsm3RLPDPnPSKC> to receive one per day. I hope you find this meaningful... _______________________________________________ The Jewish people are divided, with six tribes representing blessings on one mountain (Gerizim) and the remaining six representing curses on another (Aivel) (27:12–13). Why did the people have to be divided such that half of them represented curses? Wouldn’t it have been better if everyone represented the blessings? Oznayim LaTorah suggests that the tribes representing the curses were those that had more significant struggles in their lives; among them were the children of Yaakov’s maidservants, who were born into an unfavorable situation. These tribes did not represent curses; they represented overcoming adverse circumstances. The wording in the pasuk supports this position: For the blessings, the Torah says, “The following shall stand to bless,” and for the curses, the Torah says, “And the following shall stand on the curses.” The tribes that overcame adversity were highlighted to encourage all of us to fight through adversity until we stand proudly on our personal mountaintops. As we near the Yamim Noraim (High Holidays), this lesson is especially relevant for us; as we seek to improve our lives, the first step needs to be a change in our approach, ensuring that we give proper thought to our actions. Shlomo Ressler _____________________________________________ Quotation of the week: "Difficulties in life are intended to make us better, not bitter."