One last story before Shabbos, from the holy Reb Mendel Futerfass, who spent several years of his life in a Soviet labor camp. One of the ways he kept his sanity was to follow this teaching of the Baal Shem Tov (founder of Chassidism): “From everything that a person sees or hears, he should derive a lesson in his service of G-d.” For instance, one of the prisoners claimed to be a tightrope walker. Reb Mendel said he didn’t believe him because he couldn’t imagine why a person would waste his time walking on a rope and risk falling on his head, when he could just walk on the ground like everyone else. But when the evil Stalin died, and the government eased up the pressure on the camps, some of the inmates made a celebration. And the tightrope walker finally got a chance to prove himself! He found a long thick rope somewhere in the camp. For a long time he was up on a ladder pulling, testing and fastening until the rope was taut, about ten fee above the ground. A crowd gathered. The man removed his shoes and climbed onto the rope. Reb Mendel explained what happened: “First he climbed up onto the rope, took a few steps, lost his balance and fell. But he knew how to fall, like a cat. He waited a few seconds and climbed up again and fell again the same way. But eventually he started walking, and then dancing from one foot to the other to the rhythm of the clapping onlookers. “Then he got to the end, turned around, danced back to where he started, and climbed down amidst the applause and cheering of the crowd. “After shaking everyone’s hand he walked over to me and said, ‘Well Rabbi, do you believe me now?’ “I told him I was impressed, but I couldn’t help wondering how he did it. How could he walk on such a thin rope without falling off? After much prompting he finally revealed his secret. ‘I fix my eye on where I’m going,’ he said, ‘and never even think about falling’. “He waited a few seconds for me to digest the answer, and then said: ‘Do you know what was the hardest part? Turning around! When you turn around you lose sight of the goal for a second. It takes a long time to learn to turn around!’”
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 19:00:05 +0000
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