5 Parables for Thought: A Groom Like You for My Daughter!

Testing the Journey Versus the Outcome

One of the great Jewish leaders sought a groom for his daughter.

He entered one of the prestigious yeshivas and delivered a profound lesson on a tractate of the Talmud. The lesson was captivating, and at the end, the rabbi posed a difficult question, saying to the students, "Whoever finds an answer to this will be my son-in-law; I’ll give him my daughter…"

Naturally, all the yeshiva students were very excited, each trying their best, opening books, asking friends... but to no avail, as the question was extremely difficult, and not one student managed to solve it...

The rabbi waited another long hour, and when he saw that the students had given up on finding an answer, he blessed them with "blessing and success" and left the study hall. As he got into his car and began to drive, he heard distant calls, "Our Rabbi, our Rabbi, just a moment!"

Upon hearing the call, the rabbi stopped his car and asked the student, "Do you have an answer?" The student replied, "Honestly... no, I don’t have an answer." "So why did you run after me?" asked the rabbi. The student said, "Rabbi, although I won’t merit your daughter, at least I’ll merit to know the answer. I want to know the answer to the question."

The rabbi looked at him with affection and said, "You will be my son-in-law! A student like you is what I was looking for, a student truly desiring to learn Torah – interested in the answer, not my daughter."...

Friends, not everything we engage in brings the desired results, and sometimes we don’t understand what we are learning. How many times have we wanted to do a good deed or perform a small mitzvah and failed but continued and stumbled...

Don’t think that the outcome is always what matters. To Hashem, the journey, toil, and desire to do good are what’s important.

Even if you didn’t succeed, you tried again and failed – you can rejoice because the reward for your toil will be as though you had succeeded.

Learning to Leverage Every Challenge

The farmer’s donkey fell into the old, dry village well. The donkey began to bray in expectation of help.

Upon hearing the braying, the farmer came and thought about what to do... Since the donkey was quite old and the well dry, the farmer decided to gain two benefits: to bury the donkey in the well and simultaneously seal it.

The farmer called all his neighbors, and they all came with shovels and began to fill the well with debris. The donkey initially brayed, but soon after fell silent. The farmers continued to shovel debris into the well, and the donkey remained silent...

The farmer went and looked into the well, and to his great surprise, he saw the donkey standing in the well on all four of its feet... It turned out that each time a shovel of debris was thrown on it, the donkey shook it off its back and stepped on it. Thus, the debris piled up at the bottom of the well, and with each additional shovel, the donkey rose a few centimeters, until the pit filled, and the donkey stepped out of the abandoned well...

Remember, it’s always worthwhile to leverage everything that happens in our lives – to our advantage, and to use every situation to learn and progress. Even if "garbage is thrown at us," crying and whining won’t get us out of it. You have to shake off the garbage thrown on us, step on it, and move forward.

Life throws sand and stones at us, life throws challenges and corrections at us. We can fall into despair and let life’s trials bury us and crush us. But we can shake them off us and rise above them – to rise, climb, and conquer.

Lift your eyes, and with much prayer and simple faith, ask Hashem to help you rise and succeed!

(Photo: shutterstock)

"Put Down the Glass"

The professor began the lesson by holding up a glass with a little water. He held the glass high, making sure everyone could see it and asked the students, "How much do you think this glass weighs?"

"50 grams!"... "100 grams!"... "125 grams!"... the students replied.

"To know how much it weighs, I have to weigh it," said the professor. "But what will happen if I hold the glass up like this for a few minutes?"

"Nothing...", said the students.

"What will happen if I hold the glass like this for an hour?", asked the professor.

"Your arm will start to ache", said one of the students.

"That's right. And what will happen if I hold the glass like this for a day?"...

"Your arm might become numb, you might feel severe muscle tension, and perhaps – paralysis, and surely you'll have to be hospitalized," said another student, and all the students laughed.

"Very good. But during all that time, did the weight of the glass change?", asked the professor. "No"... was the answer.

"So, what caused the pain in the arm and the muscle tension?" The students were perplexed, puzzled.

"What should I do to be free of pain?", asked the professor.

"Put the glass down", said one of the students.

"Exactly!", said the professor...

Similarly, this applies to life’s problems. Hold them in your mind for a few minutes – that's reasonable. Think about them a lot – you'll start to feel pain. If you continue much longer, they will start to paralyze you. You won’t be able to do anything.

It’s important to dedicate time to think about the challenges or problems in your life, but it's even more important to let them go at the end of each day, before sleep, and place your trust in Hashem. This way, the problems will remain at their true weight. This way, you stay calm, wake up refreshed and strong every morning, and can handle any challenge that comes your way!

Don’t forget to "put down the glass" today!

Don't Rush to Conclusions

A cute little girl held two juicy apples in her hands. Her mother approached her and kindly and smilingly asked, "My sweetie, could you share one of the apples with me?"

The girl looked at her mother for a few moments, and finally bit into the first apple, and immediately bit into the second apple.

The mother felt her smile fade away, and she tried to hide her disappointment from her daughter's eyes. Then the little girl handed her mother one of the bitten apples and said, "Mom, here you go, this apple is sweeter!"...

Remember, never rush to conclusions! No matter who you are, how much life experience you have, or how educated you think you are, learn to avoid criticism. Give others a chance to explain themselves. What you see is not necessarily the reality, and you might be wrong...

Accepting Others

It was the coldest winter they had ever known, and many animals died due to the severe cold.

The hedgehogs decided to snuggle closely together to warm themselves and each other. This way, they managed to keep their body heat, but it wasn’t particularly pleasant – they hurt each other with their quills...

So the hedgehogs started distancing from each other... but soon began to die from the severe cold...

The hedgehog leader stood and declared, "Either we accept each other's quills, endure a little, but stay alive, or we simply vanish..." All the hedgehogs unanimously decided to snuggle together again. They learned to live with the small wounds caused by the close relationship with their peers, to receive the warmth they so desperately needed, and thus they managed to survive...

Remember, we all have flaws, none of us is perfect. The best relationships aren't formed between perfect people but among those who learn to live with the flaws of others and can recognize and admire their virtues. Because, in essence, everyone has something others don't, everyone has something to learn from, even if we're not perfect...