We explained in previous post that when I realize that my challenges come from Hashem and my salvation also only comes from Him do I have the ability to truly overcome.
A story:
In the surrounding districts where the Ba'al Shem Tov lived there was a very dry season and the need for rain was desperate. The Ba'al Shem decreed public fasts. During one of the mass-prayer sessions, he noticed a simple man crying during the Shema. After the communal services were done he approached the man to ask for an explanation. Of all the places to cry, why Davka during Shema?
The man explained that in the Shema it says "ועצר את השמים ולא יהיה מטר" - I shall lock the heavens and there shall no rain. This is the curse that we are experiencing right now. But this decree emanated from the Hashem's inner Ratzon. The word עצר also means to squeeze, no? In the Gemara the term for pressing olives is עצירת הזיתים. If this is true, then Hashem who is the source of the drought can also re-direct the Pasuk to mean that He will squeeze the clouds until there is nothing left and all the rain as fallen to the earth.
Instead of reading "ועצר את השמים ולא יהיה מטר" as a curse... I read it as a prayer. Hashem! You are the reason the rain is locked up, but You are also the only way it will come down. ועצר את השמים - Don't lock up the sky, liquefy it.
As this simple Jew related his prayer to the Ba'al Shem, the rain started to fall.
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