הִ ג ִ י עַ ז ְ מַ ן
The time has arrived...
As a man living in Israel started becoming religious, he came into contact with a rabbi to whom he took a liking. After some time, he and his friends began attending a lecture given by the rabbi every night for an hour or two. One day, however, he was the only person who showed up to the lecture. It was the day of a big game for the Maccabi Tel-Aviv basketball team.
Seeing only one person in attendance, the rabbi inquired where everyone else was. “Rabbi,” explained the man, “nobody will show up today. There is a big sports event.” “If that is so, we will resume the lecture tomorrow.” “Tomorrow? Rabbi, I came all the way here; you have to give the lecture now!” “Listen,” the rabbi replied, “I have a rule. I only teach the public. I need there to be at least one other person for me to teach a class.”
Listening to the unprecedented rule his rabbi mentioned, the man wondered where he would ever find anyone else. “Try going out onto the street,” the rabbi told him. Making his way outside, the man began waving people down. But nobody wished to come. And so the man headed back inside alone. “Rabbi, I tried, but no one wants to come.” “Listen,” said the rabbi, “you are not trying hard enough. Come, let me show you what to do.”
Taking the man outside, the rabbi met an empty street. “If no one is here on the street, then let’s go inside the apartment building. We will be able to find someone there.” Making their way up the steps, they knocked on one of the apartment doors. A man opened up. “Excuse us, but we are trying to hold a Torah lecture. Today, not that many people have come; would you consider participating for an hour?” Within moments, the man fainted and fell to the floor.
Panicking and unsure if they should phone for help, the man soon came to his senses. “What happened? Are you alright?” “I’m okay,” reassured the man, “just come with me.”
With tears in his eyes, the man took the two of them to his shower. Pulling back the shower curtain, the rabbi and his student were shocked to see a noose hanging from the ceiling with a chair underneath. “You see the rope over here,” said the man as he pointed upward toward the ceiling. “I was ready to hang myself. I got on top of the chair, put the rope around my neck and was about to kick the chair from underneath when I heard a knock on the door. If you would have knocked five seconds later, I would not be here now. As the noose was tightly secured around my neck, I said to G-d, “If You exist and everything these religious people are saying is true, please give me a sign. Don’t let me take my life and later regret it. If, however, You do not exist, then I would rather be dead. I am begging You, give me a sign.”
“As those words left my mouth, I heard a knock on the door. It was you asking me if I would like to attend a Torah lecture.”
Today this man is a complete baal teshuva.
Sometimes we are looking for Hashem to give us a sign and open the door for us to return to Him. And then, at the very last moment when we are least expecting, a knock is heard at the door. “It is Me,” Hashem says, “come listen to the beautiful words of My Torah. Instead of letting a noose embrace your neck, let Me and My Torah embrace your neshama.”
