What is the secret of Jewish survival? I mean, when you consider that, at various times throughout our history, we have been persecuted, isolated, denied entrance to universities and guilds, been subject to oppressive quotas and barred from many fields,

We have a brachah from HaShem.

summarily sent packing and just plain murdered, it is a very potent, perplexing question.


While I don't have a definitive answer - there probably is no one definitive answer - clearly one reason for our longevity is that we have a brachah from HaShem that we shall be immortal.


One form of that brachah was given by Yaakov to - quite literally - all the children of Israel, even before he blessed the tribes individually. Yaakov says, "V'yidgu l'rov b'kerev ha'aretz" - "you shall become a multitude in the midst of the land."


Chazal note that the verb v'yidgu (to increase) is related to dag or "fish" (who multiply in great numbers). So, the brachah can actually be read: "You shall be successful and populous - even if you are a fish in the middle of dry land."


And how true that is. Even in the harshest environments - such as in Egypt, where we were enslaved and threatened with genocide by a ruthless monarch - we managed to keep our identities, fend off our destruction and ultimately outlast Egyptian civilization, which would essentially vanish from the stage of history at the bottom of the Reed Sea.


A brachah that emanates from Shamayim (though absolutely no one has a "lock" on G-d and controls His will) is certainly a major asset in our portfolio, and can fill us with confidence in the darkest of days. As the following true story indicates.


Eva Galler was 16 when she and her family were herded by the Nazis aboard a train headed to a death camp. Along the way, her brave parents made a heroic, agonizing decision: they would punch a hole in the wall and throw her and her two siblings from the train.


Confidence in the darkest of days.

Just before that happened, her father whispered in her ear: "When you were a baby, you were very sick. We took you to the Belzer Rebbe and he blessed you and said, 'This child will live!' So, I believe, you have a brachah forever and you will survive!"


Eva jumped. The Nazis sitting atop the train started shooting, and killed her brother and sister. But she made it to the forest and, through many miracles, survived the war and built a wonderful family. The brachah held fast.


Can a people small in number, beleaguered by the world, survive? It is about as improbable as a fish living out of water. But, with a brachah from Above, it's no fish tale.