A person once went to visit a great sage. When he reached his house, he saw that he was living in a tiny, tumbledown hut at the edge of town. He asked the elderly sage: “I don’t understand: you are a great sage, and have many disciples; you are known throughout the country. Is it fitting that a person like you should live in such a house? A person like you should live in a palace!”
“And you,” asked the sage, “where do you live?”
“I am a respected businessman, and I live in a large house, richly furnished.”
“And when you are on a business trip in a strange city, where do you live?”
“Well, when I’m on a business trip I live in one room, in a small inn,” answered the visitor.
The old sage looked at him and asked: “I don’t understand, is it fitting that a respectable person like you should live in a small room in an inn?”
“Look,” said the businessman, “life on the road is temporary, and therefore I don’t need more than one room. Come to my real home and you’ll see how big and magnificent it is.”
“So,” answered the sage, “my real world is spiritual, and the material world for me is just something temporary, on the way. If you enter my spiritual home you’ll see that I live in a palace.”
Friends, we are in the days of Bein Hametzarim – days of sorrow and mourning because of the destruction of the Temple. We have been in exile for 2000 years already. More than one nation has tried to obliterate us, time after time, but to no avail. They hit us, killed us, but we always got up and kept going, thanks to our strong and eternal believe that this is all temporary and that tomorrow will be good. The day will come when we will be redeemed from this exile. Sometimes it seemed that our house was poor and even tumbledown; sometimes it was cold and sometimes it was hot, but we always remembered that we are merely traveling, and when traveling, even a respectable businessman stays in a small room in an inn. We must not forget the truth: we have a large and magnificent building waiting for us – the one that we pray for its rebuilding three times a day. In a moment we will settle the last account and return to our true home – the Third Temple, speedily, in our days.
“I believe with complete faith in the coming of Mashiach, and although he may tarry, nevertheless, I wait every day for him to come.”
May we have a Shabbat of peace, comfort and salvation.
Zalmen Wishedski