The great kabbalists of the past thousands of years kept this wisdom with the foresight that one day it would serve as a catalyst for personal and global change. My hope is these words awaken your heart to improve, to elevate, to be better today than you were yesterday - so we may all come closer to a world with no more pain, no more suffering, and even as the Bible and the Zohar promise, no more death.

THE LOST DOWRY

Posted: August 26th, 2009 | Author: MICHAEL | Filed under: Stories | Tags: | No Comments »

In order to be able to see the Light and blessings from the important spiritual actions we do, we have to make sure our ego does not become involved. When we want people to know what we have done – and respect us for it – we render our spiritual actions almost worthless.

This requires constant awareness, as the ego is very dangerous and constantly on the lookout for ways to come into the situation.

This idea is perfectly illustrated in a famous story about Rav Zusha of Anipoli. He was traveling the countryside and as he entered a certain town, he saw many people dressed up and standing around waiting for a wedding to begin. It appeared there was a delay, and he learned it was due to the fact that the mother of the bride had lost the dowry and could not afford to pay for the wedding.

He went through all the people and found the mother of the bride. He approached her and said, “I hear you have lost your daughter’s dowry. Can you please tell me the denominations the money was in so that I may help look for it?” After telling him all the details, he responded, “I believe I have found your money. Allow me to go back to the inn where I am staying and get it for you.”

He came back a half hour later and said, “I found your money.” Everyone was so excited, and word quickly spread that the wedding would proceed as planned. However, out of the blue he announced, “I want to take a 30% finder’s fee from the dowry.”

Everyone started yelling at him, “What are you crazy- a finders fee - this money is holding up the wedding - how dare you!”

“I’m sorry but I believe I deserve a 30% finders fee, and I would like it now,” he responded. Well, that caused a ruckus, as you can imagine, and the entire family pounced on him, grabbed the money out of his hand, and ran him out of town like a common criminal.

A few months later the leader of that town was visiting Rav Zusha’s teacher, the Maggid of Mezrich, and told him what happened. “I don’t understand. He is a student of yours. I expected his behavior to be exemplary. How could he behave in such a selfish way?”

Perplexed, the Maggid of Mezrich called Rav Zusha over and told him, “I want you to tell us the real story of what happened in that town.” Rav Zusha demurred, saying he would rather not because it was too embarrassing. After going back and forth, the Maggid finally said, “I command you, as your teacher, to tell me the story.”

And so he told it. “I was traveling from town to town collecting money for my daughter’s wedding. It took me about two months, but I finally raised enough money. When I arrived in this town and heard the sad story of the lost dowry, I decided that since my daughter’s wedding wasn’t for another few weeks, and this one was happening right now, the right thing to do was to take the money I collected and give it to this family.
I did.

But, I wanted to make sure no one would know what I did, so I asked the mother the proper denominations in order to ensure that she believed the money was hers. I went back to the inn where I was staying, retrieved my own daughter’s dowry, and walked over to the moneychanger to convert it into the denominations specified by the mother.

On my way there, my ego started talking to me. “Zusha, who else in the world would do what you are doing now? Who else in the world would take the money they spent months collecting for their own daughter’s wedding and give it to a stranger? Who else in the world is as thoughtful and sharing as you are?” With every step I took, my ego grew louder and stronger.

I realized that if I let my ego grow, my action would become almost worthless. Yes, it would have been a great personal sacrifice, but it also would have been completely taken over by my ego. I knew I had to find a way to both do the important action, and also to finish off my ego so it did not grow from this action. That is when I came up with the idea of a finder’s fee, knowing full well they would run me out of town in disgrace.

It was the perfect plan - I could do the action of sharing, and still be able to diminish my ego.”

The lesson in this story is that great actions of sharing – when done in such a way that the ego grows - become almost worthless. As a matter of fact, they can even be detrimental. We want to be careful that whenever we do positive actions - especially if they are large and significant – that we also think of ways to prevent them from growing our ego. Only then can we be certain that these actions will bring as much Light and blessings into our lives as they can.
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The Holy Homeless Man

Posted: February 26th, 2009 | Author: MICHAEL | Filed under: Stories | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

I’m always looking for stories to inspire myself and my students, and the following is one such story. Keep it in your heart and it will push you to do amazing things:

Hundreds of years ago there was a group of homeless men that traveled from town to town in search of food and shelter. Usually they managed to scrape by, but not this one time. For weeks on end they found themselves without a morsel to eat.

One day they were sitting in the middle of the forest, brainstorming on how to find food. The head homeless man came up with an idea. At that time, it was common for famous kabbalists to travel the land in search of people in need of their wisdom and powers. And it was common that the townsfolk would receive them in a royal manner, lavishing food and gifts upon them.

He proposed to the group that they go into the nearest river, clean their clothes, and then find the closest village where they would tell everyone that the head homeless man was a great and righteous soul.

With nothing left to lose, they decided to give it a try.

They went into the river and cleaned themselves up. They then sent two of the beggars into the local town as emissaries to alert the people of the great Kabbalist due to arrive. They went into every prayer room and town hall and announced that the great so-and-so was due any minute. The townsfolk bought the ruse hook, line and sinker, so much so that the wealthiest man in the village invited them to be guests in his home.

They hit the jackpot! And so, that evening they found themselves sitting at a gorgeous, ornate table filled with food. They stuffed themselves with abandon, smug in their successful con. Towards the end of the meal, the wealthy man turned to “the righteous man” and whispered, “I have to tell you the truth. The reason why I invited you into my home wasn’t just to share with you. I have something to ask of you. My daughter has been very ill for a long time and the doctors have given up hope. When I heard such a great man as yourself was coming to town, I thought it was my last chance to save her. Can you heal her? Can you bring this miracle into our home?”

As you can imagine, the homeless men were shocked and scared. Running through their minds were the facts that not only were they liars, but now they were going to ruin this man’s hope. Not knowing what to do, they all turned to their “righteous leader.”

He picked up on their looks and turned to the father, saying “Let us go in and see your daughter.” They went in and the homeless man took a few prayer books off the shelf and then told the father to leave him alone with the young girl.

He stayed there for two hours and when he finally emerged, his face was red and his cheeks stained with tears. He turned to the father and said, “I think your daughter is going to be just fine. She already looks better. Go in and see for yourself.”

Sure enough, the father went in and discovered that the homeless man was telling the truth. She looked much better than she had looked in months, and he could tell she was already healing.

Later that evening, after the beggars left town, they all gathered around their leader and furiously pumped him for answers. “You’re no righteous man! You’re a beggar and a homeless guy like the rest of us! What went on in there?!”

He looked each of them square in the eye and said, “Of course what you say is true. I’m a nobody, a homeless liar just like the lot of you. But when I went into that room and saw the love the father had for his daughter, I broke down in tears. I found myself saying to the Creator, ‘you know who I am - a liar, a nobody. But you also know the love this father has for his child. He thinks I can help and although we both know I cannot, please, for the sake of this man, allow your healing to come into his daughter.’ I cried in that room for two hours, and the rest, well, you saw the miracle just as I did.”

All of us, to one degree or another, are this homeless man. We may think we need to be at a certain level to create miracles for other people, but our lesson here is clear: no matter how low we think we may be, we can always open a channel through which the Light of the Creator can flow.

Let this story remind us to never, ever say “I can’t” or “somebody greater than me needs to do this.” Remember the homeless man. Remember the little girl whose life he saved.
Remember that through a genuine desire to help, we can all be conduits for the Light to bring great miracles into the lives of others.