Yankel the beggar was a poor, miserable man, and out of luck. He often found himself like a ball in the hands of the townspeople, who ridiculed him and made him work hard on odd errands that had no real substance. More than once, they would run the beggar a long distance of several miles under the empty pretext of helping, and finally, when he returned empty-handed and in a state of despair, tired and weary from the winding road and the long detour he had now made for nothing, the town jesters would slip a few pennies into his pocket for his important "errand" and send him back to his miserable hut until the next time, which would come a few minutes after that event.<\/p>\r\n
And Yankel himself, not only was he good at his feelings and in his role as the town's puppet and the object of the town's clowning, but he was used to his tongue; it was better for the people of the place to insult me \u200b\u200bas long as they threw a few pennies at me after the fact - which would be enough to feed my family. And so, every morning, from the time he woke up, he would set out for the synagogue square and wait for some kind of "mission" or another, knowing that after it he would be sent back home with money to pay for his meager hut.<\/p>\r\n
But Yankel was particularly offended by the impudence of the townspeople who would come to his house in the middle of the night between the second and third watch, knocking loudly on his window, urging him to hurry up and put on his rags because they had an important mission on the edge of the city. Then the poor man would hurry up, quickly wash his hands, put on his hat, and go out to the edge of the city, where he would pick up a dry twig from the forest soil, tightly clasp it between his frozen fingers, and run back to the synagogue square, where the townspeople were already waiting for him, "thanking" him for his important mission in bringing a much-needed twig, throwing worn-out pennies at him, breaking the wooden handle before his eyes, and sending him away, their echoing laughter confusing him beyond comprehension. And at such times, the poor Yankel would walk back home with his head bowed and his knees weak, promising himself that one day he would be wealthy and full of possessions, and then no one from the city would dare to despise him like this or wake him from his sleep, which he had taken in the darkness of the night.<\/p>\r\n
And in the heat of his distress, the beggar collected penny by penny, saved his children's blankets and napkins, sold his blanket and shoes, saved a ruble for a dinar, and purchased a lottery ticket at a stall in the synagogue square. "Who knows, maybe my luck will shine and I'll get rich," Yankel mused to himself and returned to his routine. And now, when the time for the lottery arrived and its results were announced in the big city, the telegraph device in the stall owner's house emitted the winning details digit by digit with meticulous precision to Yankel the beggar's ticket, which lay somewhere between his pillows, like the autumn of the worn-out.<\/p>\r\n
The man was overcome with joy and decided that he must immediately tell the poor man in the neighborhood that from now on he was richer than all the people in the city and more powerful than his brothers. He put on his mats, flaunted his tie, and set off for the hut of the rich man of the town. Loud knocking was heard on Yankel's window. The beggar hurried again, took his hands in his pockets, and hurried to set out on his nightly errand. In the muddy ground between a gecko and a scorpion, the stall owner waited with a smile on his lips and a single word in his mouth: "You have become rich." In response, Yankel looked at him with tired, puzzled eyes: "I don't understand. Why do the people of the city bother me and wake me up from my sleep because I am poor and needy. But you, who knew that I was rich and powerful - how dare you wake me up like that from my sleep?!"\"<\/p>\r\n
***<\/p>\r\n
The story is nothing but a parable. A sad parable of a sad reality. We stand in the month of mercy, a month in which the King of kings is close to all his readers. The King is in the field. Days in which great merit has fallen to our lot and our response is easily received. And we hear the sound of the shofar carried on high, the holy cry of "Elul" echoing from the mouths of the moralists. "Kindness to the King who sits on the throne of mercy" is cried out in a hoarse throat every night and "We have brought you to the sick" is played in melody.<\/p>\r\n
And here, instead of seeing and hearing these calls, we hear a call of affection and awakening. We turn our ears away from hearing and complain about "pressure" and "religious burden." We are like that poor beggar who sees in a call of joy a reason to be angry at the slightest inconvenience of sleep disturbance. Do we understand the virtue of the holy days, the horrors of the days? Have we set it in our hearts to correct what needs correction and to raise the power of good on the path? Is it not enough to turn away from evil alone, for the power of bad habit still exists, and if we do not hasten to embark on the path of "doing good," we will, God forbid, return to sin because of the bad habit and the impurity of the soul. As believing Jews, we must hold on tightly to these holy days and make the best of them. For in the little time that remains, we can change everything and turn the tables. And soon earn the right to be written and sealed in the book of life, in the book of the perfect righteous.<\/p>\r\n
Yoredea.man@gmail.com<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yankel was sent on insignificant errands, for which he would receive meager pennies \u2022 But then, one day he won the huge lottery and became rich \u2022 What did he say to Arale from the lottery? And how does this relate to us?","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[7012,7054,759,7213,5375],"class_list":["post-78062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-138","tag-7012","tag-7054","tag-759","tag-7213","tag-5375"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n