Reply To: Short & Sweet

Lech Lecha: Hard Won Habits

When Hashem informed Avrom that he would have children, the Torah tells והאמין בה׳ ויחשבה לו צדקה, the fact that Avrom believed Hashem was considered a zechus. The Ramban finds this puzzling – why wouldn’t Avrom believe the word of Hashem?

R’ Elya Lopian gives a fascinating explanation. We know that לפום צערא אגרא – the amount of reward that a person receives for their actions is dependent on how hard it was for them to do what was right.

We might think that once a person has accustomed themselves to doing what is right, they would no longer receive the same credit that they did when it was a struggle. This is why the Torah tells us that Hashem counted it as a zechus that Avrom believed – he received the same amount of reward now as he did when he first recognized and believed in Hashem. The fact that his original accomplishment had now become second nature did not lessen the amount of reward he received for each subsequent action.

לע״נ דוד חיים בן ישראל דוב הכנן
לע״נ ר׳ חיים דוב בן ר׳ בןציון שלום