Last week, I flew to Umhlanga, a beautiful resort town on the east coast of South Africa, to give a shiur.
I was booked to fly on Kulula.com, the local no-frills el-cheapo airline (after all, do I really need a half-warmed, double-wrapped inedible kosher lunch on a 50 minute flight?).
As it happens, Kulula is owned by Comair, a British Airways partner. Occasionally, they simply put their Kulula passengers onto BA flights- which is what happened to me. In fact, not only did I get onto a BA flight, but landed in row 7!
Row 7 means I had a business class seat!
Ok, I was behind the impermeable business class curtain and I didn't get the free newspaper or peanuts. But I did have extra leg room and a tad wider armrest. My ticket was for a buy-your-own-drinks, cattle-class flight, and here I was traveling in "style" (considering that people pay big bucks for 50 minutes of extra leg room...)
You see? Sometimes in life, you get more than what you pay for.
Of course, the Talmud knew this all along. That's why it teaches "Yoga'ato Umotzoso", try and you will find.
Everyone else will tell you that, if you try, you will succeed. Only G-d tells you that you will find.
If you chance upon a wad of cash on the side of the road, it's not because you tried to find it. It's a windfall; beyond your expectations.
G-d promises that whenever you try and grow spiritually or draw close to Him, the result will be so far beyond your expectations, that you'll feel as though we found the unexpected.
You just have to try.
(Next time I fly to New York, I think I'll try this free business class upgrade thing again...)
2 comments:
AND..
not being able to get out of bed because of depression..
from attending "goverment" school & learning barmitzvah portion by heart (not being able to read hebrew)..
15 yrs on, in such a dark place, not being able to do anything, even to drag yourself from bed..
as a "something to do" went to a hebrew 101 for beginners - the power of each letter just by looking on the page "speaks" of something else, something bigger (no wonder ur depressed - from not knowing)... to finding how to pronounce, alef, bhet, vhet ..
reading your lesson, i just realised, thats when everything turned - when i FOUND the LOVE of Hashem, the light, all the things that happen every day (which WE have ZERO control over - i'd like to see someone stop the sun from rising - even Eskom couldnt mess that up?) - from knowing how to pronounce a hebrew word, guess what, Shul on a Friday calls out to you all week (as you carry it into the next week, but cant wait for the next one) - all the lessons there are still to be found - i always thought i had it hard, i just never "found" just how lukcy (AND PROUD) i really am, from such lessons, such history, such heritage.. maybe one day i can put back into just as much as i have gained..
Thank you for letting us "find" those things that have ALSO happened to us, not because they "just happen", but because we KNOW and CAN FEEL Hashem LOVING us
Thank you for that!
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