Nine Gifts – Part 3
God assists those who have trouble making spiritual progress in the following manner: He sends them a gift that resembles a wild raspberry thicket.
God assists those who have trouble making spiritual progress in the following manner: He sends them a gift that resembles a wild raspberry thicket.
Continuation of nine commonly concealed gifts amongst life's thorns
Gift number six: To save us from undesirable people
Shlomo Hamelech (King Solomon) says (Mishlei 18:3), "Scorn is the companion of the evil, and shame accompanies disgrace."
The above proverb teaches how to identify undesirable people: First, they're full of contempt. Second, they have nothing nice to say about other people. Third, they're constantly on the lookout for other people's flaws, as future ammunition to disgrace them in public.
An old Yiddish expression literally translated says, "The hat burns on the thief's head." In other words, a thief thinks that everyone steals. People tend to project their faults on others. Since an undesirable person is loaded with faults – he or she is usually arrogant, dishonest, untrustworthy, extremely insecure, and very angry. Such people project all of their faults on others and then try to elevate themselves by degrading their unfortunate victims.
Many times, a good person becomes involved with some new acquaintance, unaware of the true nature of the latter. God guards the unwitting, and in His infinite knowledge knows that such a relationship will be detrimental to the good person. God therefore sends the good person a double dose of sharp thorns. Here's what happens:
The Almighty exposes the undesirable person, who does something painful or damaging to the unwitting person. In such a case, the thorns are a gift from God, an urgent message to warn the unsuspecting that such a relationship has dangerous prospects, and should be terminated. The well-known folk adage says, "If you play with fire, you get burned." If you associate with undesirable individuals, then you can expect to suffer.
Gift number seven: To prevent spiritual stagnation
Stagnant water smells bad. It also attracts mosquitoes, snakes, and unfavorable microorganisms. Flowing, or fresh water, always smells good. Such water is drinkable, and it is a suitable environment for fish. Since every entity of the physical world – mineral, vegetable, animal, and human – receives its vitality from a spiritual life spark, the laws that hold true in the physical world also apply to the metaphysical. A spiritually stagnant person exudes a spiritual stench, which repels good angels and attracts evil forces. On the other hand, a person who makes constant spiritual progress projects a sweet and fresh spiritual aroma which attracts good angels and repels evil forces. A truly righteous person is capable of smelling such a spiritual scent.
A good athlete thrives on daily progress. A long-distance runner wants to knock a few seconds off his previous best time and a weightlifter tries to lift a little more weight than he lifted yesterday. In the same way, a spiritual person tries to get closer to God every single day.
God assists those who have trouble making spiritual progress in the following manner: He sends them a gift that resembles a wild raspberry thicket. The sharp stickers are always obvious, but oftentimes the sweet fruit is concealed.
The Almighty frequently rescues a person from spiritual stagnation by sending him or her some terrible insult or humiliation. If the recipient is cognizant enough to accept the verbal abuse with no anger or negative reaction, then he or she graduates to a higher spiritual level. Insult, embarrassment, and humiliation – as we learned in the Cooper story earlier in this chapter, are always preferable to sickness or financial loss.
Once, the renowned Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Chassidic movement, visited one his prize pupils, the holy Rebbe Michal of Zlatchov. (Rebbe Michal of Zlatchov, one of the greatest sages of the last three hundred years, never suffered from a day's spiritual stagnation in his life.) As they stood on the steps of the synagogue, a peasant walked past and hurled a string of insults at Rebbe Michal. "Who was that?" asked the Baal Shem Tov.
Rebbe Michal answered, "He walks past the synagogue every day and 'greets' me in such a manner, then disappears".
The Baal Shem Tov smiled, "How lucky you are, Michal, to have a daily spiritual cleansing like that!"
Gift number eight: To prevent us from becoming emotionally dependent
Periodical thorns in our lives – especially tribulations of insult, derision, embarrassment, or degradation – are actually a rare gift from the Almighty. If everyone were to constantly praise and honor us, we'd become addicted to the point that we'd be dependant on others for our daily "fix" of acclaim. Emotional dependence on others is the worst form of poverty. Compliment seekers walk around with an extended palm begging for a bit of praise or honor, just like a poor man begs for a coin or two.
When a "praise-aholic" – a person who is addicted to compliments and praise – suddenly receives the opposite, such as criticism or verbal abuse, his or her life becomes a bitter misery. Such a person is an emotional handicap in every sense of the word, and difficult to get along with. Praise-aholics harbor extreme feelings of hatred toward anyone who dares to criticize or insult them. Their heart burns with anger, and their soul is in constant turmoil. Praise-and-honor addicts can never achieve inner peace, unless they overcome their addiction.
God doesn't want us to become to become emotionally handicapped, nor does He want us to become praise-aholics. Therefore, from time to time, He sends us a dose of verbal thorns – malicious criticism, insult, or humiliation – to keep our ego in line and to perpetuate our emotional health.
Rabbi Zev of Zabriz. Rabbi Zev was one of the five sons of Rabbi Michal of Zlatchov (see Gift number seven, above). Rabbi Zev was a holy man, scholar, and miracle worker in his own right, with thousands of followers in the Galician district of Western Ukraine.
Rabbi Zev's clapboard house of prayer was adjacent to his modest apartment. His wife, a razor-tongued shrew to say the least, would often embarrass him in the middle of a sermon or lesson in front of hundreds of listeners. Usually, she'd say something like, "If all those people knew how stupid you really are, they'd go home and do something productive, rather than listening to your foolishness!"
Rabbi Zev would only smile, take a deep breath, and continue with his sermon.
His followers and pupils were outraged. "Rabbi, we can't stand hearing the Rebbetzin's blasphemy. Your clerical honor demands that you divorce her. You could have your pick of a hundred better women than her!"
Rabbi Zev shrugged his shoulders, and once again smiled sheepishly: "Thank you for your concern, dear friends, but if I get rid of her, who will give me my daily dose of anti-arrogance medicine? I keep her for the health of my soul!"
To be continued…
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