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March 29, 2004

A Story of Three Partners

There were three friends who lived in a very small town many years ago. They were very smart and picked up quickly on everything their teachers taught them. They finished the little school that the town had to offer and went on to learn from the wise men in town. When they were around 18 years old they decided that there is nothing more for them to learn in this town. They met up on the mountain in their village one day and decided they would each go their own ways and learn whatever they could and they would meet up at the same place, at the same time in five years time.

Five years later, they actually all come together. They ask the first “what did you learn in the past five years?” He takes out a little vial and says, “In here is a medicine that I developed that can cure many diseases.” “What are you planning to do now?” they asked. “I will go out, get people to invest money and I will mass produce my new medicine and live my life healing people.”

They ask the second one “what did you learn in the past five years?” He shows them a box with wheels on it. “What is that?” they ask. “What’s a carriage without horses?” “This is not just a carriage without horses,” he says, “it’s a carriage that can go a lot faster than a carriage with many horses.” And he takes them for a ride around town in his new “car.” “What are you planning to do now?” they ask. “I will get financial backing, mass produce the ‘automobile,’ and make a lot of money.”

The third one takes out a little cylinder. “What’s that?” they all ask. “It is a looking glass I developed that can see very far away, a lot farther than the naked eye can see.” They all have a try and are surprised to see that they can see all the way to the capitol. While one of them is looking openmouthed all around the capitol, he notices big signs plastered all over the streets. He hands the looking class to the other two and they see all the signs saying that the King’s daughter, the princess, is sick of such-and-such a disease, and that whoever will cure her will get $10 Million. The friend who developed the medicine says, “Oh, my medicine will definitely cure her but how will I get there on time?” The one who developed the car says, “That’s not a problem, my new automobile will get you there in no time.” They all hopped into the new car and were on their way to heal the princess.

They get there and give the princess some of the new medicine. Less than two hours later, there is a visible improvement in her condition. The doctor tells the king that the medicine is working but he will just need to monitor her until she is completely cured.

The time comes for the reward, and of-course all three friends want the $10 million. The first one says, “Without my medicine there would be no reward.” The second one says, “without my car to get you here, you’d never have been able to heal the princess.” The third one says, “Without my looking glass, you’d never even know to come here.”

So the finance minister goes and asks the king. The King calls the three friends in and says, “The money belongs to the one who developed the medicine. Without the car and the looking glass my daughter might not have made it, you have done your parts and I thank you for it. But you are done, I don’t need you anymore. On the other hand the doctor I still need to continue healing my daughter.”

That was a moshol from the Dubno Maggid. The nimshal is simple. While The Rebbele and Mordy may be right, and I do agree with a lot of what they say, we must never lose sight of a very important point. Chazal tell us that a person has three partners in life; father, mother and Hashem. The nimshal is that while our parents are partners in our life, we, the teenagers going through tough times, must not forget who the main partner is in our life. While it is our parents’ responsibility to bring us up the right way, and while mechanchim may be doing many things wrong, we must never lose sight of the fact that it is Hashem that is the ultimate partner here. When someone is no longer on talking terms with his/her parents, it may be a bad situation, but the important part is being on talking terms with Hashem. When the going gets rough, try an age old technique, take out your Tehilim, the one you got from a friend or bought yourself if you don’t want to use the one you got from the parental units, and talk to Hashem. He’ll do more for you than anyone else can or will.

If you are a teenager going through a tough time, please remember that there are people out to help you. There are well-meaning people that will do anything in their power to help you. If you’d like to email me with some really vague details of your situation, I will try to direct you to someone that will listen to you and try to help, or just plain listen. I have just one condition; that you always remember whom the ultimate yeshua comes from.

Posted by notepad at March 29, 2004 06:23 PM

Comments

Well what if you had a horrible father like I did? I guess that sort of "partnership" is one without god. If god cared, he wouldnt have done this to me.

Posted by: Rebecca at February 14, 2005 12:02 PM

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