Day 49/50: The King & The Pauper

וְזֹאת֙ הַתְּרוּמָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר תִּקְח֖וּ מֵֽאִתָּ֑ם זָהָ֥ב וָכֶ֖סֶף וּנְחֽשֶׁת

And this is the offering that you shall take from them: gold, silver, and copper.

Imagine you’re on the way from your house to shul and you slip and fall on the ice. Does the fall cause you to slide all the way back home? Of course not! You simply need to get back up, brush yourself off, and continue where you left off.

It is the same with our struggle with the Yetzer Hara. If we have a setback, we must realize that we haven’t lost anything that we gained until now.

The Bal Ha’sulam says a beautiful moshol:

A king once wanted to reward a poor man for his loyalty and gave him 30 minutes to take as many gold coins from his treasure house as he could manage to gather. The pauper quickly filled up his bag to the top and proceeded towards the door. Suddenly, the guards gave the bag a big kick and all the coins spilled out onto the floor. The man was distraught, but he looked at his watch and saw that he still had plenty of time until the 30 minutes were up, so he quickly returned and began to refill the bag. But once again, as he tried to leave, the guards gave the bag a kick and everything went flying. The man was at his wits end, but seeing that he still had more time, he refused to give up and went back again to refill the bag.

The same scenario repeated itself over and over, until the poor man was sure that he was simply wasting his time. Finally the time was up and the guards dragged the poor man out of the room with his bag barely half full. Suddenly the man looks up and sees a wagon with a huge box full of gold coins standing before him. The king comes towards him with a big smile and tells him that the entire box of coins belongs to him, explaining that all the coins he had gathered and thought he had lost were saved for him. The king had commanded the guards to empty the bag again and again only so that he would manage to gather up so much more in the little time that he had!

The lesson is clear. Hashem allows the Yetzer Hara to kick our bag of achievements so that our “vessels” should be empty once again, even if it feels like we’re starting again from scratch. This enables us to fill up yet another time with even more achievements.