| This d’var Torah is short. It begins with a Buddhist tale, continues with a Hassidic tale, and concludes with a few words about the meaning of a song that many of us are familiar with. The Buddhist tale is called the Wannupatha Jathakaya. Here is a brief version of it: Long ago, when Brahmadatta was king in the city of Benares, there was a merchant. He would travel far and wide, and return home with goods to sell. One time he traveled to a country far away and after he had bought many wagon loads of merchandise he started for home. His way back to his city led across a wide desert which would take days to cross, so he joined a caravan of other travelers. They traveled only at night, and each day they camped and rested, because it was too hot to travel when the sun was up. They had a pilot who led them, and he drove the first wagon in the train. He lay back on the seat, looking at the stars, and so navigated. After they had gone five days the pilot told them that they were only one day from the far side of the desert. As the sun set and they started out they dumped out their remaining water to lighten the load and go more quickly. But because he was so tired from the long journey, the pilot fell asleep, and at midnight the oxen turned and retraced their steps, and all the other carts followed them. The pilot only woke as the sun was coming up. He discovered that they had returned exactly to the place where they had camped the night before. The situation was dire: with no water they could not continue their journey and were doomed to die in the wilderness. While everyone else was moaning and crying, and before the sun had risen too high in the sky, the merchant took a walk around the encampment. Not far away, he found a clump of grass growing. “Where there is grass, there must be water,” he reasoned, and he went back to the wagons and enlisted some of the other traders to come and dig. They dug a deep pit, hoping at every moment to come upon a spring, but when they had reached a depth of twenty feet they ran into an enormous flat rock. Everyone else gave up again, but the merchant climbed down to the bottom of the pit, put his ear to the rock, and heard water rushing below. He climbed back up and persuaded a young man to go down to the bottom and strike the rock with a sledgehammer. At the third blow the rock cracked and water gushed up. Everyone filled their jugs with water, and the next night they journeyed on and reached their destination. The second story is about the important Hassidic master Simcha Bunim of Peshischa ( ca. 1765 - 1827). Rabbi Simcha Bunim was traveling in a wagon with a group of his followers. As they rode, they all fell asleep, and after some time all of them except the Rebbe awoke, and they discovered that the horses had stopped and the wagon was deep in a forest. They could not see any trail leading to where they were, nor any that led out of the forest. They woke the Rebbe. He looked around and called out in Polish “Straża!” (“Guard!”) A voice from among the trees answered “Kto idzie?” (“Who goes there?”) The Rebbe answered “The apothecary from Peshischa.” The voice said, “Just this one time.” and suddenly a road appeared, and the wagon continued on its way. These two stories have some important things in common. In each case a group of travelers find themselves in a dangerous situation due to their inattention to their surroundings. Only the knowledge and abilities of their wise leader saves them from disaster. Of course, there are also important differences. In the Buddhist tale it is the calm persistence of the bodhisattva which is important, while in the story of Simcha Bunim it is his esoteric knowledge and authority as a holy man which allows him to communicate with the evil spirit and prevail upon it to release him and his followers. But what is most striking is this similarity: they both emphasize the importance of attention to what is happening around us as we journey, and surely it is no stretch to interpret the journeys of the Bodhisattva and Simcha Bunim as metaphors for all of our lives. Another Hassidic leader, Nachman of Bratzlav, taught that God is very close to us and wants our service, but that the world is full of obstacles that discourage us from trying to come close to Him. Nachman felt that it was important for everyone to concentrate on the little steps that they could make in approaching God. We shouldn’t feel that because we have not been able to achieve holiness in a single leap that we can never progress. Just as though every drop that falls into a pitcher seems insignificant in itself, but in the end the pitcher is filled, so too each mitzvah that we perform, though it may seem trivial at the time, brings us closer to the goal of truly serving God. This section of Nachman’s teachings concludes with this sentence, which was put to music as the well-known song “Kol HaOlam Kulo.”:
Looking at our two tales through this prism, we can say that sometimes we may be inattentive to the real progress that we make towards approaching God through observing his commandments. This can cause us to despair and fall into peril. But through self-awareness and persistent effort, we can achieve our goal. In summary, this journey called life is short, this d’var Torah is short, the time before our New Year is short. It is time to be aware and not afraid. Shabbat Shalom. |
| Created on 19 September 2022, updated on 21 September 2022 by Samuel Ethan Fox |