inheriting emunah

The Pri Ha'aretz hit me pretty hard, the one we quoted recently from Hayyei Sarah. How could it be that everything we're accomplishing ends up feeding the other side? That's depressing, no matter how many victories we have we're still going to screw up tomorrow. At least until we're perfect tzaddikim, which is hard to imagine (for me at least) that this is a milestone within reach.

How can we take away from this a useful lesson that we can apply daily in our lives?

First of all, whenever we say the first berachah of the Amidah, it has a whole new meaning. Magen Avraham--HaShem protects Avraham--from falling to the yetzer hara, through Avraham's emunah and yirah, fear of heaven.

This understanding also gives us hope, because Avraham had no zchut avot to rely on. It was just him versus his yetzer. We, on the other hand, have Avraham's emunah and yirah as a yerushah, an inheritance from our father Avraham. When we are faced with a test of emunah, we can simply say, well, of course I can overcome this test, I have Avraham Avinu's emunah to guide me.

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