Monday, October 06, 2008
The Door
Calvin Bakov supplies liqueur to the military. He owns thousands of dollars in alcohol which he keeps in his warehouse. He is not allowed to touch it.
Because the liqueur is exempt from certain taxes, the government keeps Mr. Bakov’s property under lock and key. It is his liquor but he is not allowed into the room.
While Mr. Bakov is a personal friend and a very honorable man, the Talmud likens his situation to one who has much Torah but no fear of G-d. He has all of the keys to the inner chambers but he has no access to the main entrance.
This is a situation in which so many of us find ourselves in the days before Yom Kippur. We know what Hashem wants, we know about the treasures and the joys that are in the Torah, but we can’t seem to get in the front door.
The Gemara tells the story of Nikanor. Nikanor was a special man who was determined to create something special for Hashem. He undertook to craft the worlds finest copper doors and transport them from Egypt to Yerushalayim. The doors were his project, his contribution to history and his way of coming close to Hashem. After months of work he loaded the finished doors onto a ship and headed through the Mediterranean. As he was traveling the ship encountered a storm and was in danger of sinking. In an effort to save the tanking ship the panicked seamen threw one of Nikanors beloved doors overboard.
Nikanor took solace in his one remaining door, but before long that door too was slated to be thrown overboard. In an act of desperation, Nikanor clung to the remaining door. Life did not seem worth living if his dreams were to be dashed to the sea. Finally, Hashem had mercy and the storm subsided. When Nikanor reached the port in Akko he was pleased to find that his lost door had miraculously remained in the undertow of the boat and followed him to the port. Both doors made the journey across the sea.
Reb Shalom Schwadron points out that this story happens more often than we might think. We all have ambitions, goals, and grand plans. Often, we are successful in seeing our goals through to accomplishment. But sometimes a storm breaks out, turbulent times strike and we have no choice but to surrender our dreams to the winds and the waves. We struggle just to survive. Nikanor worked hard but his plan became unfeasible. After weeks of work and months of dreaming he was forced to throw his precious doors out to sea.
Lofty goals are hard to attain and easy to lose. Like Nikanor, we need to show determination and a willingness to sacrifice for even just one part of our dream. If we can do that, Hashem will open the storehouses for us and allow us to access all of our aspirations in the coming year.
Bose claims that if you haven’t used a Bose Sounddock, you haven’t truly heard your ipod. Let’s hook up our sounddocks, amplify our dreams and give our Neshamos a chance to shine.
