Highlighting: “Living With Miracles” by Rabbi Binyomin Pruzansky. ArtScroll Mesorah Publications. 2024. Hardcover. 312 pages. ISBN-13: 9781422642443
(Courtesy of ArtScroll) We all want to be winners. That’s why we are always looking for ways to improve. But sometimes, in our quest for success, we see other people’s gains as our losses, which leads to fierce competition. In reality, however, the only real winning strategy is to build our bitachon. When we trust that Hashem will give us exactly what is meant for us, and no one can take anything away from us, we feel free to work together with others. With this achdus, each person contributes his own strengths, and everyone emerges a winner. A story from Rav Elimelech Biderman illustrates the point.
A group of fifty salesmen met at a hotel to hear a marketing seminar from a famous motivational speaker. As the speaker was making his presentation, a man approached him at the podium and slipped him a note. As the speaker silently read the note, his face lit up with a big smile.
“I was just informed that someone in the audience is making a great offer to everyone here,” he told the crowd. “He is willing to pay $5 to every person who wins a round of arm wrestling against his fellow participant. The contest will last ten minutes, and you’ll win another $5 for every round you win!”
An excited buzz broke out in the room. The audience assumed the offer was part of some bigger scheme, but they were more than willing to go along with it. The participants paired off, and when the signal sounded, the games began. To play, each of the opponents placed one elbow on the table and locked hands with the other. Then each tried to force the other player’s arm down to the table.
Anyone observing the scene would think the contestants were fighting for their lives as they sweated and strained against their opponents. For many of the pairs, it was a tough fight. Just as one man seemed to have the advantage, forcing his opponent’s arm a mere few inches away from the table, the other player rallied and pushed back to the middle. And so it went until the ten-minute buzzer ended the contest.
Then it was time to give out the prizes. Some teams had played five rounds, some had played ten, and there was one even man who had won fifteen rounds in that ten-minute period.
But there was one pair of men who claimed to have each won three hundred rounds per player, thus earning themselves $1,500 each. The speaker declared them the winners of the event, but instead of applause, they became the target of angry shouts from the audience. “They must have cheated!” people accused. “There’s no way they could have done it!”
The winning pair came up to the podium and one of them took the microphone. “I want to assure everyone that we won fair and square,” he said. “And here’s how we did it. We knew that in order to make the most of the ten minutes we were allotted, we had to work together instead of against each other. So, he let me win and I let him win. We went back and forth, pinning each other’s arm to the table over and over for ten minutes straight. With teamwork, we each accumulated three hundred wins. You, on the other hand, were fighting each other, exerting all your strength to defeat your opponent. You spent your energy struggling against each other while the clock was ticking, and both sides lost out!”
The speaker stepped forward and finished the story. “This team maximized its time and energy by working together. This is the way to maximize your results in sales as well. By helping each other instead of working against each other, you can earn more than you can imagine!”
Rav Biderman concludes that this is a lesson for everyone. Although we have to do our hishtadlus to earn a parnassah, it doesn’t have to be an energy-sapping, anxious struggle against others. The more we adopt the attitude that Hashem will give us whatever is ours, the more we can combine our strengths and talents with others and achieve far more than we could ever achieve alone.
When you have bitachon, you feel secure that Hashem will provide you with whatever you need. You’ll minimize the challenge of parnassah while maximizing your success.
Reprinted from ”Living with Miracles” by Rabbi Binyomin Pruzansky with permission from the copyright holder, ArtScroll Mesorah Publications.
