When he approached the gate, the man at the gate stopped him. “Sir, what is that?” “This is my Torah,” he answered. The man at the gate shook his head. “I was cleared through security, and it has to fly with me. I can’t separate from it; it’s really important.”
The man at the gate called his supervisor and after some deliberating, he said to the passenger, “If you want you can try to get on the plane but they’re going to stop you at the door again. I’m telling you there is no way they’re going to let you on that plane with that.” The man happily went through and waited for his next hurdle.
As he stepped on the plane with the Sefer Torah, the head flight attendant said, “Uh sir, no you can’t bring that on this plane. You have to gate-check that. Otherwise, we won’t be able to take off.”
The man stressed how important this holy article was and begged them to let him keep it with him for the flight. The flight attendant went to get the pilot to ask special permission, and the man braced himself waiting for the final answer.
The pilot came out and said, “What’s going on here?” The man started rambling, “This is my Torah and it’s extremely important, and I need it to fly with me so I could make sure nothing happens to it.”
The pilot said, “Well you can’t keep it here, but no problem, you can keep it up in the cockpit with me, because that’s where I keep my tefillin.”
When we want to achieve something, we can’t just sit back. We have to do everything in our power to succeed, just as Bnei Yisrael put their blood, sweat, and tears into trying to build the Mishkan. May we see many berachot and successes from our efforts. May we all learn to appreciate the Shabbat and keep it to the highest standards that we possibly can, because it is the true source of all our berachot. Amen!
Reprinted from the Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei HaChodesh 5786 email of Jack E. Rahmey based on the Torah teachings of Rabbi Amram Sananes.
