Everything You Have Is a Gift: A Powerful Lesson From Bereishit

“And the earth was chaos and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of Hashem hovered over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2).

In the opening verses of Bereishit, the Torah describes the world before Creation took its familiar form. Yet within this mysterious description, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev finds a deeply personal lesson about how we should understand everything Hashem gives us.

In his Kedushat Levi, he focuses on the words “the spirit of Hashem hovered over the face of the waters.”

What do these words teach us about our own lives?

Everything We Have Is an Act of Kindness

The Kedushat Levi explains:

“A person should accustom himself to this trait: that everything Hashem gives him is through His abundant mercy and kindness, not according to his deeds. And water is called kindness, as is known.”

In this interpretation, water represents chesed, kindness. The “spirit of Hashem” represents the abundance that flows from the Creator.

The verse therefore contains an important message: everything we receive from Hashem ultimately comes through His mercy and kindness.

The Kedushat Levi continues:

“This is the meaning of ‘and the spirit of Hashem hovered over the face of the waters’: everything the Holy One, blessed be He, gives a person is only through His abundant mercy and kindness. The spirit of Hashem is the abundance that comes from the blessed Creator. It hovers over the face of the waters, meaning that it comes through His abundant kindness, and water is kindness.”

This changes the way we look at the blessings in our lives.

Instead of thinking, “I earned this,” or “I deserve this because of what I have accomplished,” we learn to recognize what we have as an expression of Hashem’s kindness.

Our health, livelihood, abilities, relationships, opportunities, and countless everyday blessings are not reasons for pride. They are reasons for gratitude.

The Mindset That Brings Us Closer to Hashem

According to the Kedushat Levi, recognizing Hashem’s kindness does more than make us grateful. It changes the way we see ourselves.

When we stop viewing our blessings as something we are automatically entitled to, there is less room for ego. In its place come humility and a greater awareness of our dependence on Hashem.

He writes:

“When a person accustoms himself to this trait, he attaches himself to the traits of self-effacement and humility, and he will become a chariot for the lofty and refined worlds, alluded to in ‘the heavens,’ as we explained above. Consider this carefully.”

The more a person develops this perspective, the more they cultivate the humility that allows them to draw closer to Hashem.

It is a powerful lesson hidden in one of the Torah’s very first verses.

Before the world had fully taken shape, the Torah describes Hashem’s spirit hovering over the waters. According to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, those waters remind us of the chesed that surrounds our own lives as well.

Everything we have is an opportunity to recognize that kindness.

And perhaps one of the greatest responses to Hashem’s kindness is simply to notice it, appreciate it, and allow it to make us a little more humble.