We read at the end of the first Beracha (blessing) of the Amidah, “Baruch Atah Hashem, Magen Avraham”—that blessed are you Hashem, that you protect and you shield Avraham, Avraham Avinu. And the question is: What does that mean, Hashem protects Avraham? I would say, Hashem protects the Jewish people; Avraham Avinu is not here anymore. What does it mean that Hashem is protecting Avraham Avinu?
The answer is that the first three Berachot correspond to the three avot (forefathers): the first Beracha is Avraham, the second Beracha is Yitzchak, and the third Beracha is Yaakov. Now, in the first Beracha, we talk about how great Hashem is: HaGadol, HaGibor, HaNora—all the character traits of Hashem's greatness. And they say that it corresponds to Avraham Avinu, because Avraham Avinu was busy his entire life trying to make Hashem great, trying to publicize the greatness of Hashem.
Now Avraham Avinu was promised that his children were going to be taken down to Mitzrayim, to Egypt, then taken out, and then made into a great nation. And the question that arises is that we know that when the Jewish people were in Mitzrayim, before they left, they were on the 49th level of Tumah (impurity). And the rabbis tell us that had they reached the 50th level of Tumah, of impurity, they wouldn't have been taken out of Egypt. And the question is: I don't understand. There was a promise made to Avraham. Hashem said, “I'm going to take your people out.” Why is it that if they hit such a level, they wouldn't have been taken out?
The answer is that Avraham was promised that his children would be taken out. Now, to be someone's child, you still have to look like your father. So as long as the Jewish people were within 49 levels of Tumah, they still had a resemblance of Avraham Avinu. But once they reached the 50th level of Tumah, they became too impure; they would no longer have looked like Avraham Avinu. And then the promise is off, because now, once we're not looking like the children—Avraham's children—then we're not guaranteed to be taken out of Egypt.
Now, what does that have to do with our Beracha? When we read, “Baruch Atah Hashem, Magen Avraham,” that Hashem protects Avraham Avinu means to say that Hashem says your children at all times are going to look like you. They're going to look like Avraham. Even if they end up in Mitzrayim, no matter what generation they live in, no matter what place they live in, no matter how impure they are, Hashem says if they get to the 49th level of Tumah, they're about to hit a level where they're going to look impure. Hashem says, “I'm going to step in and I'm going to protect them. I'm going to protect your name, so that your children will always look like you.”
Now, what's the message for us? The message for us is that we see Hashem has built in that we are going to have spirituality protectors. Hashem guarantees that no matter what society looks like, there's always going to be opportunities for us to stay religious, for us to learn Torah. Baruch Hashem, we have so many shuls and so many opportunities to learn Torah. If you scroll your WhatsApp right now, you'll see you have about 15 chats that have Divrei Torah (words of Torah) coming in. It's such a blessing that as the world keeps getting worse, Hashem keeps giving our community and our Jewish people the opportunities to become more religious and more connected to the Torah.
That's what it means over here: “Baruch Atah Hashem, Magen Avraham.” Hashem, you're not shielding the Jewish people. You're magen the Avraham Avinu that's inside of all of us. Have a great day.