As posted on November 30, 2012 by Sam Blustin on Soup for the Neshama
“Reb Yaakov Shimshon of Kosov loved to share with his students the stories of the great rebbes and their Hasidim. It once happened after morning prayer that the rebbe began to tell one story after another without stopping. He and his Hasidim were lifted to such a state of divine bliss that they stepped out of time. The day passed, and it wasn’t until late in the afternoon that the rebbe told his final tale.
Slowly, Reb Yaakov and his disciples returned to the needs of the everyday world and realized that they had eaten neither breakfast nor lunch. One of the students stood up and honored his rebbe, saying: ‘Until this moment, rebbe, I did not really understand Moshe Rabbeinu when he said that while on Mount Sinai he ate no break and drank no water. Now I know what it is like to be filled with the very Presence of God and to fell no further need to eat or drink.’
Reb Yaakov nodded his appreciation to his student and said, ‘Your interpretation is a worthy one, my son, but perhaps Moshe was not celebrating his transcendence of food and drink, but regretting it? We know that everything in this world contains a spark of the Divine and that only when a thing is used properly is this spark uplifted and repaired to God, from Whom it came. This is no less true of food and drink than it is of books and tools. Moshe realized that in those forty days on Mount Sinai he neither ate nor drank and thus failed to uplift the divine sparks in his break and water. In the World to Come, these sparks will complain to the Holy One that Moshe did them a grave disservice by putting his own love of God before their liberation.”
With Thanksgiving just having passed, this lesson of Reb Yaakov speaks loudly to our current consciousness. Everything in this world, animate or not, has a purpose in this world, a spark of divine nature to be released back to the heavens.
With that knowledge, we should be thankful and appreciative of everything that passes through our lives, as they are opportunities to release God’s sparks from their entrapment. When we treat all of these opportunities with a thankful mind and an open heart, they can truly be transformative experiences, not only for the receiver, but for both parties involved. You know this is true when you think about the times you’ve decided to have a positive attitude about something, and it ended up being much better than you thought it would be.
This Shabbos, put a smile on your face and bring to every moment a thankful and appreciative attitude. You’ll come out the better for it.
Shabbat Shalom,
SB
(Story taken from “Hasidic Tales” by Rabbi Rami Shapiro)
