The owner of a well-established, very well respected, third generation
family-owned garment business met with his Board of Directors. Due to
the recession, business had been very bad. Sales were down and costs
were up.The owner and his wife had poured every penny they had back
into the business in the hope of keeping it afloat, but still things
looked very precarious. The Board of Directors offered no solutions, so
as a last resort the owner decided to seek advice from his Rabbi. He
poured out the story, with tears running down his face about the three
generations of family sacrifice that had gone into building this
once-thriving business. He ended by asking plaintively,
- "So Rabbi, what should I do?"
The Rabbi, a very old and wise man, said nothing for a long time, and
then quietly intoned:
- "So here's vat I vant you should do. Get a beach chair, and a
Bible. Put dem in your car. Drive down to the water's edge. Sit in dis
beach chair vit the Bible open on your lap, and let the wind from the
sea rifle the pages of the open Bible ..."
- "Yes Rabbi ... yes?!..." encouraged the business owner,
completely at a loss for any better ideas.
- "... and when the pages stop turning in the wind I want you
should look down at dat page, and read the first thing you see. And dat
vill be vat you must do." pronounced the Rabbi with great certainty.
A year passes ... and the business owner (not a very religious man) returns
to pay a visit to the Rabbi. The man is wearing a brand new $2000
handmade Italian suit; his wife looked stunning in her new mink coat;
they had driven to see the Rabbi in their brand BMW 740i Sedan. The
business owner discretely pulled the Rabbi aside and slipped an
envelope to him, stuffed with money.
- "Rabbi" he whispered, "this is alittle something
for you and your wife, and here's also a check for $25,000 toward your
congregation.".
The Rabbi, although very old, remembered the man.
- "So, you did what I said?"
- "Absolutely!"
- "You went to the beach?"
- "Yes I did!"
- "And you sat in the beach chair with the Bible open on your
lap?"
- "Yes Rabbi. Absolutely!"
- "And you let the wind rifle through the pages until they
stopped?"
- "Absolutely!"
- "And what were the first words that you read on that
page?".
- "Chapter Eleven"