Tuvi Felt Hakohen

A man went to a cobbler to have his shoes repaired. As the cobbler was repairing the shoes, they struck up a conversation. In the midst of it, the cobbler says, ?I don’t believe in all that stuff about spirituality, a soul, or a creator. Go out into the street and see for yourself. If humans have a precious soul why is there so much crime? If there is a creator, why is there so much violence and suffering?? The man decided not to argue, paid for his shoes, and walked out the door. Outside of the shop on the sidewalk was a down-and-outer with long dirty hair, patched clothes, and torn shoes. The man turned around, walked back into the store, and said ?You know what? Cobblers don’t exist!? The cobbler said, ?How can you say that? I am standing right here and I just repaired your soles.? The man replied, ?No! Cobblers don’t exist because if they did there would be no people with torn shoes like that man outside.? The cobbler exclaimed, ?Wrong! Cobblers do exist! People have torn soles because they don’t come to me!? ?That’s exactly the point,? said the man. ?The Creator too, does exist. Humans do have a divine soul. All of the problems occur when we don’t come to him, either.?
In this week’s pasha, we see how Joseph went from the bottom of a pit to becoming the vice-ruler of Egypt. For years he was in jail with absolutely no vacation time. Yet, he didn’t lose hope in G-d, and it paid off in the end. He could have easily given up, abandoning his faith, but he persevered through one of the toughest tests imaginable.
When his brothers came down to Egypt to buy food, Joseph could have told them immediately who he was, but he wanted to give them a chance to rectify their mistake they made for selling him. He tricked them into thinking they had to give up their brother Benjamin, who was Jacob’s most beloved child. Yes, he put them through a very difficult test that was very hard, but once the test was over, the brothers realized the true purpose and benefit of their hard trial. They understood that, while it was a very painful test, it was better to be cleansed of their faults, so they could move on and grow into becoming the fathers of the twelve tribes.
It is the same way with us. Sometimes G-d sends us difficulties in life, that while we are going through them it is very hard to see how this can benefit us at all. Sometimes it is very frustrating and we don’t understand why we are being ?singled out.? The truth is that if life was always hunky dory, we would never seek out Hashem, and would feel no need to get closer to him or to work on ourselves. Although a vaccination hurts, it hurts a lot less than getting the disease, and we need to know that the difficulties in life are to help us along our own personal path. As they say in the sports world, ?no pain, no gain? and while we all have our own troubles, we need to make sure we don’t focus solely on them and remember the good in our lives, give thanks to G-d for the gigantic amount of blessings we receive from him morning to night (food, water, clothes, nice dorms, health, family, friends, education, opportunity, freedom), and use our time wisely.
Although I would love for this world to be like Halo, where I can just re-spawn as many times as I want, I know it is not that way. Since this is the only life we have, let us make a resolution to seize every day as something immensely precious, because the most precious resource more than money, fame, or power is time. Let us recognize our worth and fill our days with Torah, kindness, and thanks. Hopefully, we can learn from Joseph, and one day we will reach our personal goals, as long as we stay connected to the source. Shabbat Shalom
(The opening story courtesy of Rabbi Lazer Brody ? http://www.lazerbrody.net)