There are unfortunately many people today who suffer from serious financial, medical, and marital distress. Rav Yaakov Galinsky suggests that for all the pain and suffering they endure, the greater tragedy is that in their pursuit of segulos and easy solutions, many of them remain oblivious to the only legitimate Source of blessing: Torah study and mitzvah observance.
Rav Galinsky offers an insightful parable that depicts the folly of doing so. In the middle of the desert, a group of Bedouins dwelled peacefully and contentedly in their tents. They were only able to attain their greatest need – water – by traveling long distances to draw it from wells and transporting it home in pails carried by donkeys, which was an arduous process.
One day, some of the Bedouins traveled to visit a large city, where they were astounded by the sight of a remarkable invention: the faucet, which supplied cold, clean water to every home and building they encountered. The Bedouins quickly realized that the faucet could revolutionize their lives, so they rushed to a hardware store and purchased faucets for all the tents in their village.
Excited by their good fortune, they hurried home and installed the faucets on the walls of their tents, but when they tried to turn them on, they were shocked when no water emerged. They contacted the store to report that the faucets they purchased were defective. The store sent a representative to investigate the situation, and when he arrived at the village to inspect the faucets, he began to laugh uncontrollably.
The Bedouins demanded an explanation for his amused response to their suffering. He explained to them that the faucet is a simple piece of metal with nothing inside. It can only produce water if it is attached to a series of pipes that connect it to a source of water. In the absence of any semblance of plumbing, installing the faucets on the walls of their tents was an exercise in futility.
Similarly, Parshas Bechukosai presents a long list of berachos awaiting those who toil in Torah study and scrupulously perform mitzvos. The Torah, which is compared to water, is the source of all blessing and good in the world, but only to those wise enough to invest the time and energy to connect themselves to it. Sadly, those who spend their time seeking shortcuts and segulos will inevitably be left with useless faucets and nothing to drink. (R’ Ozer Alport)
