Do, climbing up on a ladder to install a large light fixture properly. If the dining room was large, you needed two or even three light fixtures, and the whole family would stand around looking at you standing on the ladder, drill in hand, davening that the installation would be a success and that you would also succeed in getting down from there to return to life and peace. Afterward, when they turn on the light, it is a great joy – ohr laYehudim.
My story is very similar, but the difference is only in the numbers: I am an electrician. I live in Yerushalayim, and my work involves all sorts of small projects throughout the country. The story that I want to tell you happened when I was working in a huge structure. We installed 66 lighting fixtures, and we installed them at a height of 12 meters! It was a serious project, which included planning and designing down to the installation of the last of the bulbs. And then the exciting moment arrived: We were going to turn on the lights!
There were quite a few light switches. The bulbs lit up one by one, and light flooded the area, but then we discovered a problem: Nine of the light fixtures did not light up. There was an electrical circuit that was not working. We had to find the source of the problem.
We had to climb up a high ladder to reach the 12-meter high ceiling to open the light fixtures I had just connected, and to check whether the problem was there. There is no way to reveal where the problematic circuit is other than to check each and every fixture. And that’s h-a-r-d work – after we had already worked so hard!
I went up the ladder and checked the first light fixture. It was okay.
I climbed down 12 meters, pushed over the ladder, and climbed up to examine the second light fixture. Then I thought, Hashem can arrange that this will be the problematic light fixture, and then it will all work out. But what would it help me to daven for it if I was already on the ladder?
I did not daven, and I did not find any problems with that light fixture.
I climbed down.
I pushed the ladder over to the third light fixture and climbed all the way up, and I asked Hashem – not from the depths but specifically from the heights, this being the third time I was climbing – I asked Hashem to help and to make this be the one with the problem, and help me be able to fix the circuit efficiently.
And indeed, baruch Hashem, I found the problem, I fixed it, and all nine bulbs that were connected to that electrical circuit lit up. Hashem heard my tefillah!
I cannot help but add my own thoughts after this amazing event. We were busy with this huge project. There were many of us with many tools, and everyone was working with tremendous energy. There was this feeling of capability – “Here, we’ve done it!”
In our excitement we forgot Who is the Creator of light and the Producer of all. This small blip somewhere up there in the ceiling came in order to show us Who truly gives us the strength to do mighty things.
And in keeping with my job as an electrician, I am spreading the light that came into my heart to you as well.
