Making plans

 

The holy Rebbe of Tzanz used to tell the following story, 'There

was once a poor women who had many children. They asked her for food

to eat, but she did not have any to give them. Once she found an egg.

She called her children to her and told them: "My children, we no

longer have anything to worry about. I have found an egg. And since I

am a person who is foresighted we will not eat this egg. I will ask

our neighbor to allow me to place this egg under one of his hens, and

there will come from it a small chicken. And we will not eat the

chicken, since she will be able to lay eggs. And these eggs we shall

not eat but we shall place them under her and there will be more eggs

and more chickens. We shall not eat of them, but we shall sell them

and I will buy a calf. And we shall allow the calf to grow and become

a cow. The cow will have calves, and we will allow them to grow, and

we shall have many cows and calves. Then I will sell them and buy a

field, and we shall have fields and cows and calves and chickens and

eggs. We will not be lacking for anything." And while she said this

to her children she was holding the egg in her hand, and the egg fell

from her hand and broke.'

 

The Holy Rebbe explained, 'This is the way people act. When the holy

days come everyone makes plans in his mind and accepts upon himself

to begin to do tshuva, and he considers in his heart, "I will do so

and so." But when the days have passed all the plans fall apart, and

are broken. Therefore people should be careful to not to fall. (p.

267 Otzer HaChaim customs of Rebbe Chaim of Tzanz)






Copyright (c) 1997 by Moshe Shulman  (mshulman@virtual.co.il)

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