The Crock Pot

People often ask what will it be like when Mashiach comes?  Will I be ready?  Do I have to be perfect in my character refinement or my knowledge of Torah to greet Mashiach?  In order to better understand these questions, the Dubner Maggid, Rabbi Yaakov Franz (1740-1804 Lithuania), who was a famous story teller, gave the following mashal (parable):

An ocean-bearing ship sailed into a large hurricane and collided with towering walls of water and powerful winds.  “Yaaaakov” yelled Moshe, as water forcefully splashed across the deck of the helpless vessel.  “Hold on to me tightly and let me tie this rope around you.”  Moshe, who already tied a rope around his waist rushed to his 6-year-old grandson Yaakov and tied the rest of the rope to his little body.  After what seemed to be an eternity, the storm finally abated and both grandfather and grandson found themselves alone, washed up on a deserted island. 

“Are you OK, Yanky?”, asked grandfather.

“My head is aching and I am very tired and thirsty”, answered Yanky weakly.  “But otherwise, I think I’m OK.  How about you, grandpa?” 

“I’m also exhausted and thirsty, but thank G-d we are alive and well.” 

“Look grandpa some boxes washed ashore” pointed Yanky excitedly.  “Let’s check out the boxes and go search for other survivors and fresh water” said Moshe.  Yanky and his grandfather opened up the crates and found blankets, pots and pans, plates, silverware and cups.  Then they slowly searched the island for a spring, and to their excitement, not only did they find a fresh stream of water but near the stream they found apple trees, banana plants, grape vines and wild chickens.  They were able to start a fire and cook eggs that they found near the chickens as well as eat some apples and bananas.

“Let’s collect a bunch of branches together so that if a ship sails close by we will be able to light a large fire by which, G-d willing, we’ll be spotted,” said grandfather.  After tirelessly collecting wood, sticks and twigs, Moshe and Yanky stretched out the blankets they found in the crates and went to sleep.  In the morning after washing, praying and breakfast Yanky turned to his grandfather and asked, “What should we do now grandpa?”

“Do you know the Alef Bait yet?”,  asked grandfather. 

“No”, answered Yanky.

“Come with me to the shore and I will teach you,” said grandfather excitedly, as he grabbed a stick and led Yanky to the beach.  Grandfather wrote the letter alef and asked Yanky to repeat after him. 

“Alef”, repeated Yanky.  Next came the letter bait.  The days passed by.  Yanky and his grandfather built a little hut for themselves, ate fruits and eggs and even made wine for Shabbat.  With each passing day Yanky learned the Alef Bait.  Upon completion of the letters, grandfather taught Yanky the vowels.  “Kamatz says Ah”, said grandpa as Yanky eagerly repeated.  More days went by and Yanky now mastered the letters and the vowels when, to their great delight, a ship appeared on the horizon.  “Look grandpa, a ship!”, yelled Yanky as he jumped for joy.  Grandpa and Yanky quickly lit a large fire from the fire wood they collected when they first arrived on the island and by Divine intervention, they were spotted.

The captain took the two exhausted souls aboard and brought them back to civilization.  After a nice meal, shower and changing into fresh clothes, grandpa told Yanky, “I want to take you to a special place.”

As they entered the large building, Yanky sighed in awe.  “Wow grandfather, I’ve never seen so many books before.  There must be thousands of books here.”  Yanky looked around at the 100s of bookshelves filled with thousands of books at the huge library.  “But I don’t know how to read”, remarked Yanky. 

“You know the Alef Bait and the vowels”, said grandpa. “Now all you have to do is put the letters together and you have words, which create sentences and entire stories.”

* * * 

This parable describes our mission here on Earth.  Our precious souls were placed in a physical human body in order to grow in Torah and Mitzvot (fulfillment of Torah commandments).  However, everything we do here is only a prerequisite to what we will enjoy in the times of Mashiach and the Next World.  The deep knowledge contained in our holy Torah is endless.  The benefit of the Torah that we learn here is but a drop in the ocean of the knowledge that we are destined to enjoy in the times of Mashaich and the Next World.  However, we will take with us only the emunah (faith) that we started to work on, the Torah that we started learning, and the character traits that we began to refine.  Therefore, our Sages, of blessed memory, urged us to learn as many of our holy writings as possible – Torah, Prophets, and Chronicles and work on refining our character traits, all of which will be the spring board to endless improvement and reward during of Times of Mashiach.

The Times of Mashiach are compared to Shabbat for on Shabbat, we can only enjoy those things that we prepared ahead of time and placed in our crock pot.  Therefore, fill up your crock pot with as much diverse knowledge of Tanach, halacha, and mussar as you can, and do your best to refine your character before the Times of Mashiach because only those who prepare for Shabbat will have what to eat on Shabbat for eternity.