The story is told of two chassidim who would annually travel to visit their Rebbe for Succos. On the way, they would stop at a certain inn run by an observant Jewish couple. One year, the innkeeper approached them humbly and asked, “You know that I am not a chasid, but nevertheless I have a favor to ask of you: My wife and I have been married for ten years and have not been blessed with a child. Can you ask the Rebbe to intercede on our behalf?”
The chassidim agreed to speak to the Rebbe, and, the next morning, the innkeeper’s wife began parading around town with an expensive baby carriage, heralding the future birth of their child. When her friends gathered to wish her mazal tov, she explained that, while she was not yet with child, she soon would be. After all, the chassidim were going to speak to their Rebbe.
Seeing this, the two chassidim were slightly embarrassed because they knew that prayers do not always engender the results for which they hope. Hashem decides what is best, and it does not always precisely correspond with our aspirations.
The following year, the chassidim returned to the inn, as the innkeeper’s son’s circumcision was in progress. The joy was palpable, as everybody shared in the celebration – everybody but one of the chassidim. He said nothing until he arrived at the Rebbe’s home, and he began to pour out his heart to him: “For thirty years, I have been your trusted disciple. Every year, I ask for your blessing that my wife and I be blessed with a child. We have yet to be blessed. Yet, Hashem answered the innkeeper, who is not a chasid, on his first request. Why?”
The Rebbe took his disciple’s hands in his and looked deeply into his tearstained eyes and asked, “Tell me something: during these thirty years, did you ever buy a baby carriage? How great was your faith compared to that of the innkeeper’s wife?”
This story tells it all. We must take our emunah to the next level. We must demonstrate our belief by participating actively in our faith. Perhaps we should not go as far as buying a baby carriage, but we must realize that emunah is not a spectator event.
Reprinted from the Parshas Bereishis 5786 email of Rabbi L. Scheinbaum’s Peninim on the Torah, a publication of the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland.