Imagine a super successful businessman who just signed the deal of a lifetime. He literally feels like he is on top of the world. Years of cold calling, hustling, sweating and pushing himself to the limit have finally bore fruit that will secure his financial future for the rest of his life.
He doesn’t tell anyone as he takes a break from his penthouse office suite to the roof of the skyscraper he now owns, for some fresh air. Intoxicated wit his own success, he fails to hear the door slam shut behind him.
As he prepares to leave the roof, he finds the door locked. It has no handle from the outside and his banging on the door is fruitless.
He reaches for his mobile phone, but its not there. He must have left it on his desk. It’s after five o’ clock. It’s getting dark and cold. He peers over the edge and sees little people walking along the avenue, eighty flights below. His euphoria turns to fear.
Suddenly, he thinks of something. He drops a crisp one hundred dollar bill over the edge. Surely someone will notice it. But alas, he watches in vain as a pedestrian stops to pick it up and proceeds with nary a glance.
In desperation he empties his pockets of cash, and as each dollar descends, it is picked up by a passerby. Not even one stops to look up to where it came from.
Having no other choice to save himself, he drops a single pebble from the rooftop. The moment it lands, just feet from a pedestrian, pandemonium breaks loose as everyone looks up to the danger above. In just minutes, the police are on the roof.
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How many times have you had hundred dollar bills rain upon you from Heaven?
When you met the love of your life, when you scored your dream job, built your ideal home or drove the car you could only wish for? When you found that hundred dollar bill, did you look up to Heaven?
You and I are the pedestrians on the street. The man on the rooftop, desperate for our attention, is G-d.
When he fails to get pour attention by raining good fortune upon us, He has no choice but to send us pebbles. And they hurt. A lot.
A pebble could be your car breaking down or when you lose a job.
Larger pebbles are when your doctor asks you to come and see him immediately, a War, or a nuclear menace like Iran.
When good things happen to us we feel like the smartest person on earth and pat ourselves on the back. But when bad things happen to us G-d forbid, we suddenly cry bloody murder and angrily demand from G-d: ‘Why me?!?’
When we received the Divine gift of our homeland, the beloved land of Israel 67 years ago, some amongst us failed to recognize the incredible miracle that happened before our eyes as a tiny, ill equipped army managed to overpower massive, well trained Arab forces from all sides except the sea.
Any normal person would be deeply pained by the lack of gratitude nor any vestige of recognition shown by the recipient of his kindess. Hashem, our father in Heaven too, pines for a meaningful relationship with us as well.
Let us have the wisdom to recognize the source of our blessings from Hashem. This way, we will be able to form a meaningful relationship with Him in good times, with hundred dollar bills raining upon us, and never need to resort to pebbles upon us to capture our attention.
Lets make this Shabbos count!
Rabbi Dovid and Chana Vigler