This week's parashah opens with the words: ראה אנכי נתן לפניכם היום ברכה וקללה Behold, I am placing before you, blessing and curse. The Gaon of Vilna is bothered by a question: why doesn't the Torah say, " I am placing before you good and bad"? Why does it say " blessing and curse"? He explains that it is not true "good" and "bad." We see tzaddik v'ra lo, rasha v'tov lo — sometimes a righteous person experiences what looks like suffering, and sometimes a wicked person experiences what looks like goodness. Therefore, the Torah makes it clear: what is given is berachah and kelalah . Berachah does not mean that the outcome will immediately be good. It means that in the end, it will lead to good. For example, Yaakov Avinu blessed Ephraim: וידגו לרב בקרב הארץ You shall multiply like fish within the land. But they did not multiply immediately. Only later, when they entered Eretz Yisrael , the did descendants of Yosef said to Yehoshua, " Why did you give us this land? We cannot fill it!" Throughout the counts in Bamidbar , it's never mentioned that the tribe of Yosef was larger. What happened was that the berachah came down, but it was not fulfilled until much later. The Gaon says that in truth, the real reward and punishment are not in this world. As it says, schar mitzvot b'hai alma leika — this is not the world of reward; this is the world of action. What happens in this world is that we are amassing berachah . Similarly, when a person receives a blessing from a tzaddik — " you should be blessed with good children, you should be blessed with success" — what do you walk away with? Not the children or the money per say, but with the berachah . This is an important principle: sometimes we see the berachah fulfilled in this world, and sometimes not. That is why the Torah says clearly: berachah and kelalah . On Shabbat we also say: כי היא מקור הברכה For Shabbat is the source of blessing. Shabbat is the source of all blessings. A person may close his store on Shabbat, and the following week he might not see financial success. Does that mean he was not blessed? No — he did not immediately see the good , but he did receive the berachah . And that berachah might show itself later, in other ways or other forms. As we approach the end of the year, we say: תכלה שנה וקללותיה, תחל שנה וברכותיה Let the year and its curses end; let the year and its blessings begin. We focus on blessing , not on good . Of course, we would like the tovah as well, and perhaps that is why our prayers so often mention both together. For example, in Zachrenu Hashem Elokenu we ask for both זכרנו ה' אלקינו בו לטובה ופקדנו בו לברכה Remember us, Hashem our God, for good , and recall us for blessing . Every day in שים שלום we say: שים שלום, טובה וברכה Grant peace, goodness , and blessing . Interestingly it comes to livelihood, we ask for parnasah tovah . We do not usually say parnasah mevorechet . We want livelihood that is tangibly good. And in Avinu Malkenu we say: אבינו מלכנו חדש עלינו שנה טובה Our Father, our King, renew for us a good yea r. So, if we pay attention, it becomes clear: there is tovah and there is berachah . Of course, we hope for both — but sometimes, even when we don't see the tovah , we still have to believe that we have the berachah .