A Question of Vessels1 min read

Yesterday, on the way to my weekly class in Yeshivat Mevaseret Tzion, I had the radio tuned to a Jewish music station. They were playing “oldies but goodies” and I was thoroughly enjoying songs I hadn’t heard since my childhood when, suddenly, the music abruptly stopped, replaced by a static hiss. I was passing through a tunnel, and the radio had lost connection. For a moment, as I drove through the darkened tunnel, the joy that had echoed through my car only a moment ago was entirely absent. Its place had become occupied by a grating sound, an unpleasant noise which evoked the very opposite of pleasure and joy.

But, merely a moment later, I exited the tunnel. Immediately, the radio regained frequency and the music came right back on, filling the car with light and joy once more.

And then it hit me. Although my car had lost its capacity to receive the radio waves of this particular station, thousands of cars all over Israel were, at that moment, filled with the very music I was missing. When the music in my car stopped, it wasn’t because the radio station malfunctioned – the music never ceased! It was simply that the vehicle I was driving happened to be in a situation that rendered it unable to channel that music into my experience.

Heavenly kindness is shining all the time. The only question is whether we have vessels for it!