In the daily prayers it says, "He tells His words to Jacob, His statutes and His laws to Israel." Our Rabbis teach us that "His words" and "His laws" mean that the commandments that G‑d asks us to do are also His: G‑d Himself fulfills the commandments which He commands us.

This week's Torah portion, Mishpatim, has many commandments. Let us take one of those commandments — the mitzvah of lending money to a person in need — and see how G‑d fulfills it.

When we give someone a loan, it seems as if we are giving away something for nothing. That person is not giving us anything back immediately for the money we gave him, but of course, we expect to get it back one day. We trust him, even if he is a poor person.

Now let us try to understand how G‑d fulfills this commandment. Like a person lending another some money, G‑d "lends" each and every soul the special strength and ability to fulfill His will.

As with a loan, the soul gets its strength "for free." But G‑d expects that, in return, our soul will pay back the loan by using this strength to fulfill His will.

G‑d is very generous and grants each soul many powers, whether or not it deserves them. The verse says, "If you will lend money to My people" - G‑d loves us and calls us "My people"; that in itself makes us worthy of this loan.

When we lend money, we do not tell the borrower how to use that money. It becomes his, and he can use it for whatever he wants. When G‑d gives us a "loan," it also becomes ours. We can use the strength and power He gives our soul for anything we choose. We must do our best to make the right choices. We must show G‑d that we are worthy of this loan, and "pay it back" by using the strength He gives us to fulfill His will.