Tu BeShevat 2
By: Rabbi Price
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this Shiur Tu Beshevat-2
Since I received positive feedback on the Tu Beshevat dvar Torah, I decided to add a sequel that has some more beautiful insights on self esteem. This is mainly taken from a sicha that I wrote called, “Potential and Self Esteem.” If you want the whole sichah please ask me for it and I will gladly email it. I wanted to point out one correction in my first Tu Beshevat dvar Torah. On p.2 it says, “Rabbi learns this lesson from Tu-BiShevat- the 15th day of the Jewish month Shevat which is called “the New Year for trees.”
I omitted the name of the Rabbi who of course is the same Rabbi Balanson that I mentioned in the beginning.
The following are the excerpts from my sichah, “Potential and Self Esteem.”
The Touch of the Master’s Hand
The first one is a poem called, "Touch of the Master's Hand," by Myra Welch. It is about an auctioneer who is having a hard time auctioning off an old battered and dusty violin, until an amazing thing happened that changed it completely. It goes like this.
T'was battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin
But held it up with a smile
"What am I bidden good folks," he cried,
"Who'll start the bidding for me?"
"A dollar, a dollar," then two! Only two?
"Two dollars, and who'll make it three?
"Three dollars, once; three dollars, twice;
Going for three.... " But no,
[It was just about to be sold for only three dollars because people were judging its value by its rough exterior, but then something happened that changed it drastically].
From the room, far back, came a grey haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow;
Then, wiping the dust from the old violin,
And tightening the loose strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet
As a hyming angel sings.
The music ceased, and the auctioner,
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said, "What am I bid for the old violin?"
And he held it up with the bow.
"A thousand dollars, and who'll make it two?
Two thousand! And who'll make it three?
Three thousand once; three thousand twice;
And going and gone," said he
The people cheered, but some of them cried,
"We do not quite understand
What changed its worth?" Swift came the reply:
"The touch of the master's hand."
[This is the first half of the poem that teaches us an important lesson of life. Sometimes you need a master to show everyone the real potential that may be lying dormant within. Now she applies it to all of us].
And many a man with life out of tune,
And battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd,
Much like the old violin.
A "mess of pottage," a glass of wine;
A game, and he travels on.
He's "going" once, and "going" twice,
He's "going" and almost "gone."
But the Master comes and the foolish crowd
Never can quite understand
The worth of a soul and the change that's wrought
By the touch of the Master's hand.
The Master is Hashem Yisborach and any one of his agents. It could be a Parent, a Rebbi, a family member, a friend, an inspirational story or event that show us as well as everyone else our true potential. The only thing that I would add is that she writes that we are "auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd." Well, many of us are auctioned cheap to ourselves.
I once heard a moving story from Rabbi Avraham Twersky who was giving encouragement to a group of prisoners here in
After the speech, one of the prisoners, Avi, came and told the Rabbi that he couldn’t relate to his message. Avi explained that he was in jail for many years for stealing even small amounts. If he would ever get out who would trust him to give him a job? Besides, his parents pray for him every day that he should die, so how can he have self-esteem?
Rabbi Twersky told Avi an interesting analogy. He explained that we all know how valuable a diamond is. But let us consider what it looked like before it looked the way it does now. There are workers in diamond mines who dig out these dirty ugly looking rocks. They would throw them away, if not for the fact that there was an expert who examines the “dirty rock” and tells them that there is a beautiful diamond in there. He brings it back in a few weeks and shows them the beautiful diamond that was hidden inside.
Rabbi Twersky asked Avi what magic ingredient did they add to turn that dirty rock into a diamond? Of course the answer is that there is no magic ingredient. The diamond was always inside. It was just covered up with layers of mud and garbage. All you have to do is to process it and remove the surrounding dirt and automatically the diamond will shine through.
“Avi, don’t tell me how much you’re worth we know better. We say everyday in the Morning Prayers that Hashem has blown into us a pure soul. That is a precious diamond. The problem is that we dirty it up by doing the things that we shouldn’t be doing. If you will process it and get your act together then automatically your diamond will shine through.”
Avi took his words to heart. He went for therapy and eventually he went to a halfway house. When he was released, he bought a van and went into the moving business.
He was asked by the secretary of the halfway house to please move some furniture to the halfway house. An elderly woman had left an inheritance for them. Avi agreed, but when he saw how dilapidated it was he tried to persuade the secretary that it wasn’t worth the effort. She explained that they already promised the children that they would take it. She suggested that he bring it and whatever they could salvage they would.
When Avi started moving a couch, an envelope fell out of it. It contained 10,000 New Israeli Shekel [about $2000+]. Now here is a guy who was in prison for many years for stealing even paltry sums. He is alone and really could use the money. HE DIDN’T take it! He called the secretary who spoke to the children. They decided to donate the money to the halfway house in memory of their mother.
When Rabbi Twersky met Avi later, he told him, “You know, I know many respectable people who were never in prison for anything. Yet if they would have been in your situation they wouldn’t have thought twice about pocketing that money. Here you were in prison many years for stealing and now you made such a reversal that you give back money that maybe you could have kept. Didn’t I tell you that we’d find a diamond?”
The story ends that when Avi went to the halfway house he put up a sign “Mercaz Liletishat Yahalomim- The Center For Polishing Diamonds.”
The only thing I would point out that there is one major difference between the diamond and violin of the aforementioned stories and us.
They don’t have free will. When the master comes to tune the violin and process the diamond they can’t object. We have free will. We have to be careful to allow those masters to show everyone including ourselves what we really are.
I want to conclude with a few moving stories and a parable that will help us realize the importance of knowing and realizing our potential.
There is a story they tell about the Rebbe of Kotzk. He once confronted a young man who had come to his court,
“Why have you come here?” he asked.
“I have come to find Hashem,” the young man replied.
“Too bad, you wasted your time and money,” the Rebbe said.
“Hashem is everywhere. You could have found Him just as
well had you remained at home.”
“Then for what purpose should I have come?” the young man
asked.
“To find yourself,” the Rebbe answered, “To find yourself.”
Part of finding yourself is realizing your potential and what you should be striving for in life.
I have often spoken about the sadness, frustration, and disappointment that I feel when I see people who don’t realize their potential and how much they can accomplish in Torah and Mitzvos. Consequently, they never reach a fraction of their true greatness.
Imagine, if we would see someone burning or throwing hundred dollar bills out the window. [I admit that I would be the first one to run down and put them in my pocket]. If we cared at all about the fellow, how much it should hurt us to see him wasting or destroying what could be of great value to him and to others. Hopefully, we would try to explain to him the folly of his ways.
How much more so, when we see how people destroy their potential for Torah and Mitzvos, which is worth more than any amount of money.
In our Yeshivah Neveh Zion, in
This past Rosh Hashana 5764-2003, I was especially moved by the bright young faces that radiated with the happiness and holiness of Rosh Hashana. As each boy passed by, we wished each other to be written and signed in the “Book of Life.” It was then that I felt a mixed feeling of joy and sadness with tears welling up in my eyes.
I felt joy just looking at these fine prospects of future ”Servants of Hashem,” and realizing that I have the privilege of possibly helping them in some small way to realize their potential.
On the other hand, I had known many of these boys from before. I knew that they were not living up to even a fraction of what they could really do. It was then that tears welled up in my eyes as I remembered a very inspirational Gemoro in Berachos.
The Gemoro Berachos 5b relates a moving story about
Rabbi Elozor and Rabbi Yochanan.
Rabbi Elozor was sick and Rabbi Yochonon went to visit him. When he saw that Rabbi Elozor’s house was dark, Rabbi Yochanan lit up the house by revealing his arm [which shone from beauty]. At that point Rabbi Elozor started to cry and Rabbi Yochanan asked him, Why? Rabbi Elozor responded that he was crying because, “Such beauty is destined to deteriorate [decompose] in the ground [after death].” Rabbi Yochanan responded, “For this you should definitely [are right to] cry.”
The Gemoro concludes that at that point they both cried.
What I realized from this Gemoro was, that beauty that will eventually be destroyed, even by the natural process of death and burial in the earth [not through the deeds of its owner], is something to reflect and cry about.
It then struck me, how much more so, when beauty is literally buried in the earth by its very owner. When we don’t reach our potential, we are taking our beauty and destroying it with our very own hands. “For this you should definitely cry.”
May this sicha be like the master who is trying to bring out our potential and may we be smart enough to be receptive to it.
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