The Water on the Roof

We all know the classic anecdote of the man and the flood: it rained for forty-eight hours straight, and the water was up to the man’s front doorstep. A rescue-squad van with a loudspeaker drove through the neighborhood calling for everyone to vacate their homes and offering assistance to those who might need help. The man didn’t budge. He was waiting for Divine assistance, not a helping hand from flesh and blood.
 
The rain fell for another forty-eight hours straight, and the man’s living room was now flooded so he took refuge in an upstairs bedroom. This time, the Coast Guard sailed around the neighborhood streets in a rescue boat, calling for the diehards to vacate their homes and offering assistance to anyone who might need help. The man still didn’t budge. He wanted Divine assistance, not a helping hand from flesh and blood.
 
The rain fell for yet another forty-eight hours – now six days straight – and the water level rose to the second story of the man’s home, flooding the upstairs bedrooms. With no other alternative, he climbed up to the roof. By this time, he was the only one left in the neighborhood. An Air-Force helicopter that was patrolling the flood area spotted him and hovered over his house. The pilot called from a loudspeaker, “This is the pilot speaking. I’m lowering you a winch; strap yourself in securely, and we’ll lift you to safety.”
 
The man on the roof gestured to the pilot to keep on going and yelled, “I don’t need your help; I’m waiting for Divine assistance!”
 
On the seventh day, the rain fell harder than before. The water level rose ten feet above the roof. The man swam for a few hours and then became totally exhausted, surrendering to the flood waters and returning his soul to his maker. He actually drowned with a smile on his face – “I trusted in Hashem until the very last moment and I didn’t accept a handout from flesh and blood.” In his final pipedream, he imagined his mansion in the sky somewhere in the neighborhood of Rashi and the Rambam…
 
Wow, did he have a rude awakening in the Heavenly Court! They threw the book at him for wasting his life for naught. The accused man protested, “But I didn’t want the help of flesh and blood! And what do you mean about me wasting my life for naught? If Hashem would’ve have wanted me to keep on living, He would have rescued me!”
 
A deep bass voice thundered from above, “Fool! First I sent you the rescue squad; then I sent you the Coast Guard. Finally, I summoned an Air-Force rescue helicopter especially for you. I – Hashem – dispatched them all!”
 
What an embarrassment.
 
Look at who Hashem is “dispatching” to jolt us out of our spiritual slumber: Earthquakes in New Zealand; massive mud slides in Brazil; volcanoes in Japan, Guatemala, Italy and Iceland; typhoons in China, Australia’s worst floods in history and America’s toughest winter on record. Coincidence? We haven’t even mentioned the political and economic upheavals around the globe…
 
Mubarrak is a name of the past and Qaddafi will soon join the ranks of disposed tyrants. There’s unrest all around Israel’s borders. Iran recently sent two warships through the Suez Canal and four nuclear facilities have just been discovered in Syria. If that’s not enough, the Islamic Jihad recently renewed Grad missile fire on southern Israel’s cities. Still not enough?
 
The USA economy affects the entire world. Uncle Sam owes $14 Trillion, have of which is debt to foreign countries. The USA pays $500 billion a year in interest alone, or roughly $1.5 billion every single day. With continued deficit spending and money printing – together with interest – the USA sinks approximately $4 billion daily deeper into debt. The Gross National Product of the USA – currently about $14 trillion – is not enough to cover both the debt and the interest even if a single cent wasn’t spent on current needs. The USA is neither discovering new natural resources nor opening new industry. The opposite is true – plants and businesses are closing and jobs are tight. More and more Chinese imports are replacing “made in USA” products. Something has to give.
 
There’s a double message here: Hashem wants us all to return to Him in complete teshuva. It’s not enough to wear long black and to eat potato kugel on Shabbat. Hashem wants our hearts; He wants us to cling to Him with real emuna. Until we do, the wakeup calls will simply become louder. Why wait until the earthquake splits your back yard in two or the Katyusha lands on your front doorstep? So message number one is teshuva, with no delay.
 
Message number two is aliya. Hashem wants to get the full redemption of our people on the way, and He wants us here in the Land of Emuna. He wants us learning emuna and living emuna, and there’s no place on earth for emuna like Israel. Don’t take my word for it; our sages in tractate Ketubot had lots to say on the subject.
 
I can’t count the times when I’ve heard from Israelis, “When Hashem wants me to do teshuva, He’ll let me know.” Many of my beloved brothers outside Israel sing a similar tune: “When Hashem wants me to make aliya, let Him first send me a plane ticket, an apartment, and a job.” That’s just like the man on the roof.
 
None of us would do anything without an express purpose. Why do we think that Hashem does random things around the world, all for no purpose? At the time of this writing, there’s still time to do teshuva and to make aliya. Let’s not wait until the water reaches roof-level.