Why Did the Miracle Stop? | Parashat Chayei Sarah — Transcript

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1. 0:04A young woman boarded a flight to Eretz
2. 0:06Yisrael with a broken heart. For months,
3. 0:09she had been searching for her bashert,
4. 0:10her nasib. And finally, a suggestion
5. 0:13arrived that seemed to be [music]
6. 0:14everything she had prayed for. A fine
7. 0:17Yeshiva bachur, wonderful midot,
8. 0:18everything she was hoping for.
9. 0:21She began to pray, maybe this one was
10. 0:23finally the boy.
11. 0:24Then came the answer, [music] no.
12. 0:26He wouldn't even agree to meet her. No
13. 0:29explanation,
14. 0:30>> [music]
15. 0:30>> no opportunity, just no.
16. 0:34Welcome [music] to Me K'Amcha Yisrael.
17. 0:35This week, Parashat Chayei Sarah,
18. 0:38sometimes we do everything right. We
19. 0:41help others, we do mitzvot, we try to
20. 0:43live the way Borei Olam wants us to
21. 0:45live, and [music] yet instead of the
22. 0:46path growing smoother,
23. 0:49it grows steeper.
24. 0:50And we find ourselves asking, Borei
25. 0:52Olam,
26. 0:53I'm trying to do something good. Why are
27. 0:55you making it so difficult? The answer
28. 0:58may be hidden in one of the most
29. 0:59exquisite moments in the entire Torah. A
30. 1:02young girl, well of water, and a miracle
31. 1:04>> [music]
32. 1:04>> that suddenly stopped. Avraham Avinu
33. 1:06sends his faithful servant Eliezer on a
34. 1:08mission of monumental consequence. Find
35. 1:11a wife for Yitzchak Avinu. The future of
36. 1:14Klal Yisrael depends on this shidduch.
37. 1:16Eliezer arrived at a well, and there he
38. 1:18sees Rivka. The Torah tells us that
39. 1:21Eliezer ran toward her. Why did he run?
40. 1:23Rashi brings a remarkable midrash. When
41. 1:26Rivka came to fill her pitcher, the
42. 1:28water rose toward her.
43. 1:30She didn't have to draw it.
44. 1:31>> [music]
45. 1:31>> The water came up to meet her. Eliezer
46. 1:34understood immediately this was no
47. 1:36ordinary young girl. Then,
48. 1:38Eliezer asks her for a drink, and Rivka
49. 1:41doesn't simply [music] give him water.
50. 1:42She says that she'll draw water for his
51. 1:44camels as well. 10 thirsty camels,
52. 1:47thousands of gallons after a long
53. 1:49journey through the desert. Imagine the
54. 1:51sheer volume of water that that
55. 1:53demanded. Down to the well, fill the
56. 1:55pitcher, [music] carry to the trough,
57. 1:57again and again and again. And the Torah
58. 1:58tells us she hurried. But wait a moment.
59. 2:02What happened to the miracle?
60. 2:04Moments earlier the water rose to her on
61. 2:07its own. Why didn't it rise now?
62. 2:10If but Elokim performed a miracle when
63. 2:12she drew water for herself, surely he
64. 2:14would do even more so when she was doing
65. 2:16chesed for someone else.
66. 2:18The Kedushas Levi, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak
67. 2:20of Berdichev, offers a breathtaking
68. 2:22insight. When Rivka needed water for
69. 2:24herself, but Elokim spared her the
70. 2:26effort. But when she was doing chesed,
71. 2:29but Elokim didn't take the effort away
72. 2:31>> [music]
73. 2:31>> because the effort was not standing in
74. 2:33the way of the mitzvah. The effort was
75. 2:35part of the greatness of that mitzvah
76. 2:37itself. We measure success [music] by
77. 2:39our results. But Elokim measures by what
78. 2:42we invest in it. Had a miracle filled
79. 2:44those troughs, Rivka would have lost the
80. 2:46very effort that made her chesed [music]
81. 2:47so great. The very chesed that made her
82. 2:49worthy to become the mother of Klal
83. 2:51Yisrael. And sometimes the effort but
84. 2:55Elokim asks of us isn't carried on our
85. 2:57shoulders, [music] it's carried in our
86. 2:58hearts. It's giving to someone else at
87. 3:00the very moment we feel we have nothing
88. 3:02left to give. Let me tell you what
89. 3:04happened on that flight.
90. 3:06>> [music]
91. 3:06>> She was shattered. The one suggestion
92. 3:08that truly excited her, and she wasn't
93. 3:10even given a chance. Her friends urged
94. 3:12her,
95. 3:13"Step away for a while. Go to Eretz
96. 3:15Yisrael, clear your mind." So she booked
97. 3:17a flight, and on the plane she sat
98. 3:19quietly. [music] She was lost in her
99. 3:20thoughts. The flight attendant placed
100. 3:22her kosher meal in front of her. She
101. 3:24didn't touch it. A few minutes later she
102. 3:26happened to overhear a conversation
103. 3:28several rows behind her. A young yeshiva
104. 3:30bochur had ordered a kosher meal. You
105. 3:32know the story. But his name wasn't on
106. 3:34the list. "I'm so sorry," the flight
107. 3:35attendant said, [music] "there are no
108. 3:37extras. You'd have to go without." She
109. 3:39could have stayed in her seat. She had
110. 3:41enough [music]
111. 3:42pain of her own that she was carrying,
112. 3:43but another Jew was in need,
113. 3:45>> [music]
114. 3:46>> and she couldn't ignore it. She called
115. 3:47the flight attendant over. "I have a
116. 3:48kosher meal. I didn't touch it. I'm not
117. 3:50going to eat it. Would you please give
118. 3:52it to the young man back there? And that
119. 3:54was it. Or so she thought. [music]
120. 3:56After the meals were cleared, the young
121. 3:58man stood up and stopped at her row.
122. 4:00Excuse me, my name is Levenson. [music]
123. 4:02I'm the one who received your meal. I
124. 4:04just wanted to thank you. That was
125. 4:06really very kind of you. She smiled.
126. 4:09You're very welcome. He turned to go and
127. 4:11her heart almost stopped to beat.
128. 4:12[music] Levenson? She knew that name.
129. 4:15Excuse me, what is your first name and
130. 4:17I'm just curious, where do you live? And
131. 4:18he [music] told her. That was the boy.
132. 4:20The very bachur whose parents had said
133. 4:23[music] no, the one who wouldn't even
134. 4:24agree to meet her. She gathered her
135. 4:27courage and told him her name. I believe
136. 4:30that I was recently suggested to [music]
137. 4:32you as a shidduch.
138. 4:34His face turned bright red like a beet.
139. 4:36May I ask you, I'm just curious, why did
140. 4:37you say no?
141. 4:38For a long moment he [music] was silent.
142. 4:40Then almost in a whisper,
143. 4:43we were told that at your seminary,
144. 4:45chesed just wasn't a high priority. He
145. 4:47paused. And I'm looking [music] for a
146. 4:49home built on chesed. He looked at her.
147. 4:52The young woman who had just given her
148. 4:54her own meal to a complete stranger
149. 4:56without even knowing his name, without
150. 4:58expecting anything in return, without
151. 5:00knowing anyone was watching. I guess we
152. 5:03were wrong.
153. 5:04That young man and that young woman
154. 5:06eventually married and years later they
155. 5:09still marvel at the hashgacha pratit
156. 5:11that [music] brought them together. One
157. 5:12airplane, one missing meal, one quiet
158. 5:15act of chesed and two lives changed
159. 5:18forever.
160. 5:20Ladies and gentlemen, that young woman
161. 5:22boarded [music] the plane with a broken
162. 5:23heart. Another door had closed and she
163. 5:25couldn't understand why. But even in her
164. 5:27own pain, she found room
165. 5:29for someone else. Now think about Rivka
166. 5:31and Meena. When she needed water for
167. 5:33herself, the water rose toward her. When
168. 5:36she began helping others, the miracle
169. 5:37stopped. Or did it? Perhaps the greatest
170. 5:40miracle wasn't that the water rose
171. 5:42toward Rivka. Perhaps the greatest
172. 5:44miracle was that Rivka kept drawing the
173. 5:47water and it didn't. We all have moments
174. 5:50when the water stops flowing.
175. 5:52When our tefillot seem unanswered, when
176. 5:54life becomes a roller coaster harder
177. 5:56[music] than we ever imagined it. But
178. 5:59Borei Olam isn't watching what happens
179. 6:01to us.
180. 6:03He's watching [music] what we do next.
181. 6:05Because the true measure of who we are
182. 6:07isn't how we behave when Borei Olam
183. 6:09makes life easy.
184. 6:11It's who we choose to be when he
185. 6:14doesn't.
186. 6:15And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Mi
187. 6:17[music] Chamocha Yisrael. Shabbat Shalom
188. 6:19Umevorach.