A Handful of Gravel

A successful businessman was distant from Judaism. But that wasn’t the main problem. The main problem was that he was very abrasive in his interpersonal relations. He was simply a miserable person.
 
He planned to buy the entire 17^th floor of the Azrieli Tower, a prestigious Tel Aviv skyscraper, but a swindler convinced him to invest instead in tracts of land in Romania, promising that the land was zoned for construction. The land was actually zoned for agriculture and was a bad investment. The businessman lost a tremendous amount of money and eventually lost all his wealth. He fell deeply into debt and received an arrest warrant for failure to pay his tax bills.
 
He tried to borrow money from friends, to no avail. Somebody advised him to take a loan on the “grey market.” He was told to go to a lending company that was located in the Azrieli Towers – on the 17^th floor – the floor that he was supposed to have bought and could have been his, had he not lost everything…
 
The businessman entered the loan office, signed some papers and got the cash that he needed. Before he left the building he decided to look around a bit. He went up to the top floors to see what he could see. He went up one floor and then the next and saw that everything was rented out and looked good. He was eating his heart out over the mistake that he had made. Eventually, he got up to the roof and went out to see the magnificent view. But then, the door closed behind him and locked. He had no way to get back into the building!
 
He banged on the door and shouted at the top of his lungs, but to no avail. Who would hear him up on the roof? He looked down from the roof to the street at all the people walking by. He thought that to attract their attention, it would be a good idea for him to throw something down to the street. He thought to himself: what would draw people’s attention more than money? He would throw some money down, people would look up to see where the money was coming from and they would come up to free him from the roof.
 
One by one, our businessman threw 200-shekel bills down to the street. But to his dismay, the people with money gliding by their head simply grabbed it and didn’t even look up to see where it came from. Nothing seemed to help. Nobody looked up! Our businessman began to panic. He felt that he had nothing to lose and preferred any alternative to dying of hunger up on the roof. He decided to throw all his money down. The rain of 200 shekel bills came pouring down on the heads of the people below. The people on the street joyfully chased after the bills floating down from the sky. But once again, to his dismay, not one person thought of looking upward. Everybody was busy grabbing as many bills as he could.
 
It was getting colder by the minute and the hapless businessman was at a dead end. He reached the point that even the person farthest from religion reaches when he encounters a major problem. Suddenly, he turned to faith! He stood there, alone on the roof some 40-odd floors above ground level – closer to Heaven than he was used to being – and said: “Master of the Universe, save me! I do not know what to do. Save me!” He prayed from the bottom of his heart. Of course, Hashem heard his prayer and immediately put a new idea in his head. There was a lot of gravel on the roof. Our businessman decided to throw gravel down on the people below, in the hope that somebody would finally look up and see him.
 
He threw a few stones down below. The people hit on the head with the stones began shouting and cursing, gazing upward and shaking their fists. In no time, somebody called security and complained that there was a man up on the top of the tower throwing stones at the people below. The police came and found him up on the roof. They wanted to arrest him for throwing stones on the passersby. One policeman was willing to listen to him, and he explained what had transpired. “Come with me to the 17^th floor,” he said, “and you will see that I took out a loan just a few hours ago. After that, I came up here, got stuck and threw all the money down to the street. Nobody noticed me until I started throwing gravel. Look, even you came now!”
 
The police believed him and let him go. He returned home – with no money and with no solution to the the arrest warrant leveled against him. He sat down and began to think: “What happened here? When I threw down money, nobody looked up. But when I threw gravel, everybody looked up. Hashem is giving me a message. After all, I prayed to Him and it was He Who gave me the idea to throw gravel. That is what saved me.”
 
Then he understood G-d’s message to him. It was all an allegory. When Hashem threw him money from Above, when He showered him with riches and success in his business and he was a millionaire, he never once raised his eyes to Him and never once thanked Him! Only when Hashem threw “gravel” his way – when He plunged him into debt and locked him out on the roof – did he remember to raise his eyes to G-d.
 
This is the common behavior of most people. When there is abundance, they do not look to Hashem and do not thank Him properly. Only when the gravel starts to fly – when troubles arrive – do they remember to look to Hashem and beg Him to heal their lives.
 
The businessman felt a strong desire to repent. He burst into tears and asked Hashem to forgive him for all the years that he was so ungrateful. He thanked Hashem for the miracle that He had performed for him and for the invaluable lesson that He had taught him. He merited in this way to do complete teshuva. He sat and thanked Hashem again and again for his life and all the goodness that Hashem gave him. And then he thanked Him again. In a short time, he received a telephone call, informing him that the properties in Romania had been re-zoned for construction. He became a billionaire literally overnight! All he said was “Thank You!”
 
This story overflows with lessons for life. It shows us how Hashem showers each and every person with abundance, life and goodness every minute of the day. Hashem does kindness with us every second, may His Name be praised. Most people do not know to look heavenward until they have a problem. A person should always pre-empt tribulations with Torah and thanksgiving for all the goodness, loving-kindness and salvations which Hashem showers upon him.