There is a story of an incident surrounding the famous Chasidic Rebbe David of Lelov, who was walking down the street when all of a sudden a woman attacked him screaming hysterically. After a while, she noticed that the Rebbe was not the man she thought he was: her husband, who had deserted her many years ago. She burst into tears out of shame and remorse. The Rebbe got back to his feet and consoled her, saying that she had not beaten him but her eloped husband.
Doesn’t this happen to us all the time? We get angry at a stranger, a friend, or a loved one, only to later discover that we were never truly angry at them, but at the person, we thought they were. So much misunderstanding and hurt could be avoided if we would just pause a moment before responding to perceived offences, and learn to communicate more carefully. Take the following story as an illustration.
There was a learned rabbi who upon returning from a Yeshiva was riding along the riverside on his donkey feeling happy and elated from the hours he had spent pouring over the Torah.
There chanced to meet him an exceedingly ugly man, who greeted him,
“Shalom Aleichem, my master!”
The rabbi did not return his greeting but instead commented,
” How ugly this person is! Are all the people of your city as ugly as you?”
“I do not know,” said the man. “But go to the craftsman who made me, and say to him: ‘How ugly is the vessel which you You may recognise elements of the next story as told by the Baal Shem Tov.
A King had an only son, the apple of his eye. The King wanted his son to master different fields of knowledge and to experience various cultures, so he sent him to a far off country, supplied with a generous quantity of silver and gold. Far away from home, the son squandered all the money until he was left completely destitute. In his distress he resolved to return to his father’s house and after much difficulty, he managed to arrive at the gate of the courtyard to his father’s palace.
In the passage of time, he had actually forgotten the language of his native country, and he was unable to identify himself to the guards. In utter despair, he began to cry out in a loud voice, and the King, who recognised the voice of his son, went out to him and brought him into the house, kissing him and hugging him.
In a world filled with so much darkness, God is at work seeking to teach us a forgotten language. He alone is the source, but we will only discover it when we return to Him, to His kingdom, and live there securely under the covering of His presence.
