Lousy Day? No Way!

Coach Yoeli Gottehrer, owner and operator of the Better Health Studios in Brooklyn is one of my favorite people. He runs a 5-star gym and incorporates emuna as an integral part in getting the body and soul to work together for total fitness. You’ll often hear people talking about emuna and how to get closer to Hashem between the kettle bells and the suspension trainers.

The other day, Chaim came into the gym for his tri-weekly workout. He was full of excitement. “Yoeli,” he said to the coach in their native Brooklynese dialect of Yiddish peppered with English words (there’s no word for “kettle bells” in Yiddish), “you won’t believe the miracles that happened to me today.” Yoeli not only believed, but he told Chaim to send me an email all about it.

Chaim did. This is a gem. I want you to taste the full flavor of Brooklynese, so this is almost unedited. So Chaimk’e, the microphone is all yours:

“My day yesterday was wonderful, some would call it everything going wrong…” 

(Editor’s note: you are about to read the longest, most unpunctuated sentence you’ve ever read – please take a very deep breath and follow the action closely…)

“My friend called me and told me that his phone is broken if I can come with him to buy a new phone I wasn’t able to go I was working but I put my phone charging and after work I take my phone and it doesn’t work it doesn’t open it doesn’t close it doesn’t do anything so I didn’t ask for anything lately I’ve been only saying thank You to God and I drove to the T-Mobile store to repair it they told me they can repair it but I’m going to lose everything in my phone the contacts and everything and I haven’t backed up anything so he told me I can go to BestBuy to Samsung department and maybe they can help me but that would mean I wouldn’t have time to come back to the T-Mobile store and I wouldn’t have a phone at night I went into my car and I started driving and all the time I just said thank you God for this thank you God I didn’t do anything and all of a sudden the phone just started and opened up I went back to the store and I upgraded to a new phone to be safe.

“On the way home I was going a little bit fast and a cop pulled me over I prepared my license registration and insurance and while doing it I said, “Thank You, God”.

“The officer comes and tells me good evening sir and I reply good evening officer so the officer tells me you know why I stopped you and I say I’m sorry officer the officer tells me do you know the speed limit I say yes 45 so the officer tells me do you know how much you went so I say probably 50 something he replies more like 63 so I told him again I’m sorry officer I was coming into the highway and I was going all the way to the left lane so he asked me when have you been stopped the last time so I say about two and a half years ago so he says alright wait in the car I’m going to go check it out and I start talking to God I told him I’m not asking for anything I just wanted to thank You for the morning all that has been going on I want to thank U for the evening thank U for the phone and as I was saying thank You for the cop pulling me over I see him coming back which is strange because it’s less than 2 minutes and he’s coming back to the other side of the car by the passenger window I open the window and he hands me my license registration insurance and he tells me drive safe and have a happy holiday…

“Guys, say thanks to Hashem show ur gratitude to the master.

“It’s a life changing feeling.

“Thanks for the microphone, reb lazer”.

“Good shabbess, ur friend and Yoeli’s client, Chaim from Boro Park”

Chaim is definitely right: gratitude is a life-changing feeling. Try it, you’ll love it.