D’var Torah
By Roger Mendelson to TBI Board
August 12, 2010
August 12, 2010
Just after I initially joined the board, I had an experience which has stayed with me.
I learnt from this experience and I hope that you will too.
You will also see how this links in with your role of being on the TBI Board.
I am really privileged to live in a delightful area, which is two kilometers along an unmade road, in the Dandenongs.
On the map, it appears that the road to our gate continues right to the bottom of the hill, but the reality is that the road is impassable.
There is a gate blocking it off.
At the bottom of the hill, there was a Christian camp (now taken over by Buddhists).
Late on a Sunday afternoon, I was taking the rubbish bins out.
As we have a long driveway, I had them on a trailer which I was towing with my tractor.
As I drove out the gate, I saw a large Ford which had been attempting to turn around and became stuck in a ditch.
The driver of the Ford approached me and, in a thick Dutch accent, advised me that he was driving his wife to the Christian camp to sing.
He asked if I could drive her because he had no way of getting there.
I readily agreed to this and got my car out and drove her down to the camp and came back.
Driving the long way around is probably a 20 to 25 minute trip.
As I was leaving, I asked the man what he planned to do?
His words were: “I have done all I can do so I am just going to sit and pray to the Lord for help”.
When I came back, I saw that indeed, he had been helped.
His car had been towed out of the ditch by a Land Cruiser, which had a winch on the front.
The driver of the Land Cruiser was going for a Sunday drive and saw the man in distress and offered to help.
At this point, I could see that there were three happy people.
The Land Cruiser driver was happy because he had helped someone, I was happy because I had helped his wife get to her singing appointment and the Dutchman was happy because he had prayed for help and help had come.
Over time, I often pondered this little scene and recollected the Dutchman’s words: “there is nothing I can do so I will pray to the Lord for help”.
It subsequently struck me that his Lord is also our God.
After all, there is only one God so he must be one and the same.
If that were the case, why does he feel able to pray for help whereas we Jews tend to feel embarrassed about such a concept?
It then struck me that the Torah is replete with stories of our ancestors who did precisely this.
They prayed to God for help.
This little story has helped me on many occasions.
When I feel that I am blocked and have nowhere to go, there is one option left which is to follow the actions of the Dutchman and pray for help.
It then later struck me that there is a direct relationship between this vignette and our role on the board.
We should never forget the fact that God would be rather pleased with what we do.
Whilst we are often dealing with mundane issues, we must never forget the higher purpose which brings us together.
There will be times when we face seemingly intractable problems and issues.
Often there is only so much we can do about them.
There then comes a point when we should be like the Dutchman and sit back and wait for the resolution to present itself.
