THINK OF OTHERS

When we have a lack or a need, and we focus on a friend who has the same need and pray for them, we will be answered and fulfilled first.

MOSES THE SHEPHERD

Every night when I put my daughter Miriam to sleep, she asks for a story. I told her this one a few nights ago. I’ve read it many times before, yet it impacted me in a way different than ever before.

The story is about the Baal Shem Tov, a great soul and righteous person, who was told through divine inspiration about a person whose spiritual work was greater than his. His name was Moses the Shepherd.

The great master was eager to meet this person, so he gathered a few students and mounted a carriage to the village, not too far away. As they arrived, they noticed Moses out in his field, surrounded by his flock. As his animals grazed, he turned up to heaven and shouted to God, “You’ve given me so many blessings in my life. I love you so much. I wish there was some way I could give back to you.”

Moses threw himself to his knees. “You know I am a simple person. I don’t know how to read or write. I can’t pray. I can’t study. I can’t teach,” he pleaded, “but I have a shepherd’s whistle and I know how to blow it! I hope you accept this action.”

He got up and began blowing his whistle with all his strength. After 45 minutes, Moses fell to the ground, exhausted. He lay there for a long time, and only after regaining his strength did he turn up to heaven and say, “I wish to serve you. You know I am a simple person, there’s not much I know how to do. But I do know how to dance! I hope that you accept this.”

And then Moses started dancing with all of his strength, literally for 30 minutes until he collapsed. Again, he lay there for awhile, regaining his stamina. Finally, he got up again and screamed, “I want to give you something, but there is nothing I have. But I do have a penny in my pocket! Please accept this from me.” He threw the penny up into the sky with all his strength, and out of nowhere a heavenly hand reached out to catch it.

The Baal Shem Tov turned to his students and smiled, “All my life I thought I knew what spiritual work was. Now I realize I haven’t even begun to understand.”

Very often we diminish our own self-worth by telling ourselves subconsciously, “I’m not there yet. Maybe in a year from now, after I’ve really worked on myself and grown, then my work will be important. But now what can I do that is great?”

This thought is from the negative side. As this story shows us, any person at any time can do the greatest of things, as long as he invests himself completely. Right now there is something we each could do that would be more powerful than anything the most righteous person could do, provided we invest all our effort into it. This week, push those doubts out of your minds and continue to train yourself to think, “I can do something great right now!”

The Holy Homeless Man

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.