They tell the story of a businessman who had come upon hard times. He was pressed for a large sum of cash. He finally finds an old friend who’s willing to lend him the money. They meet at the penthouse office of his friend. With an attache case full of cash, the man decides to head onto the roof for some fresh air.
As soon as he steps outside, he hears a thud. The door locked behind him. He quickly pulls out his phone, but he doesn’t have service. He heads to the edge of the roof and starts screaming, but he’s too far up. No one can hear him. It’s getting later in the day. The cold starts to seep into his bones, and he begins to panic.
Suddenly, he has an idea. He takes out a hundred dollar bill and drops it off the roof. Surely, whoever picks it up will look to see where it came from. The bill drops, a man picks it up, and continues on his way. “Maybe I need to drop more,” he thinks. He takes out a handful and lets it fall, but no one looks up.
They simply pick it up and move on. With no resort, he empties the entire attache case. Hundreds of bills rain down on the street. People are scurrying and jumping to grab the bills. But no one looks up to see where the money is coming from. Totally defeated, he’s about to give up when out of the corner of his eye, he notices some pebbles on the floor.
With nothing to lose, he drops a pebble on the ground below. Within minutes, the police are on the roof to take him into custody. His life was saved and he learned a powerful lesson. Too often we ignore blessings and where they come from. As Moshe in this week’s Parsha concludes his final words to the Jewish people, “And it will be after all these blessings and curses befall you, As you are scattered in exile, you will return to Hashem and His ways.”
Now it makes sense that curses and problems can motivate us to change our ways. But how are blessings a precursor to teshuva? How will blessings inspire us to improve? The Shemen Hatov writes a fascinating insight. Blessings, if we look at them correctly, can indeed inspire us to do tshuva. You see, when we take notice of our blessings and reflect on them, we ought to ask ourselves a powerful question.
Where are these blessings coming from? And deeper yet, why are they happening to us? Am I better than my competition? Am I so righteous and deserving? Or perhaps Hashem sees some incredible potential in me that I can use these blessings in the best way possible. When we look upwards during times of blessing and abundance, we become both empowered and driven to keep the blessings in our lives by optimizing and improving ourselves so that we live up to the version of ourselves that Hashem already sees inside of us now. At this special time of the year, let us remember the many blessings in our lives and express that appreciation in our renewed commitment to Hashem. Wishing you all a wonderful Shabbos.
