|
PASSOVER 2nd DAY 5782
It’s Passover and Jews all around the world are celebrating our freedom. But what if on a personal level you’re just not feeling very free. What if you’re feeling stuck or enslaved or trapped in a situation that’s not changing? How can you experience this freedom?
I spoke about 3 ways yesterday: #1, Peh Sach: positive speech, believe in yourself and verbalize it. #2, Matzah: don’t procrastinate, seize the moment, and #3, Maror: step into life’s challenges and choose to grow.
Today I’s like to share an incredible true story with you from Elmer Bendiner’s book, The Fall of Fortresses. Bendiner was a Jewish American navigator in WWII like my father. In 1943, he was sent to fly a mission over Kessel, Germany—bombing Nazi territory. That day he and his crew, along with pilot Bohn Fawkes, got into their B-17 bomber and took off as usual. They were flying smoothly until boom. Bendiner writes: “Our B-17, the Tondelayo, was barraged by flak from Nazi anti-aircraft guns. That was not unusual, but on this particular occasion our gas tanks were hit.”
Now this wasn’t the 1st time that their B-17 had been hit, but this time was different because a 20-millimeter shell pierced their fuel tank. They literally all braced for the explosion, but it never came and the bomber didn’t explode. Fawkes, the captain was totally shaken. Somehow, he flew the plane back and landed safely.
Both he and his crew were shocked by what just happened. They knew that they just experienced a miracle. Their plane should have blown up right there in the sky over Germany—but it didn’t! The next morning after the attack, Fawkes asked his crew chief for the shell that didn’t explode—as a souvenir of this incredible miracle. The crew chief, however, told him something that shocked him even more. He said that they didn’t actually find one shell in the gas tank. They found 11—11 unexploded shells! “It was as if the sea had been parted for us,” Bendiner wrote.
But it gets even crazier. They sent all the shells to be disarmed. When the armorers opened each of the shells, they found no explosive charge. They were as clean as a whistle and just as harmless.
Empty? Not all of them! One contained a carefully rolled piece of paper. On it was a note scrawl in Czechoslovakian. The Intelligence people scoured for someone who could read Czechoslovakian to decipher the note. Bendiner writes: “It set us marveling. Translated, the note read: “This is all we can do for you now...Using Jewish slave labor is never a good idea!”
It turns out that Czechoslovakian Jews were forced to work in Nazi ammunition factories and forced to create bombs and weapons that would kill more Jews and others. But instead, they sabotaged the bombs whenever they could by leaving out the explosives—and putting in a note!
Can you imagine? Here they were totally trapped. They couldn’t escape. But even though they couldn’t change their situation, they found meaning and purpose within it. they were slaves who found freedom within their slavery. They said, “Look, we might be slaves, but here’s what we can do. As a result, their lives now had meaning. They could save others’ lives.
Viktor Frankl once said, “Forces beyond your control can take everything you possess except one thing—your freedom to choose how you respond to the situation you’re in.”
Yes, my friends, right now the Jewish people are celebrating freedom. Maybe you personally don’t feel free because of a really painful or challenging situation you’re in. Maybe it’s a disability that’s not going away—or a diagnosis that’s not changing. Maybe you’re facing bankruptcy because your business suffered during Covid. Maybe you’re just feeling lonely after more than 2 years of the pandemic. But you’re not stuck with a life without meaning.
Viktor Frankl—a psychologist and survivor of Auschwitz—taught us that we’re never a slave to our situation. Miracles do happen, and sometimes bombs do not explode when they are supposed to. Gd willing, things may change for the better. But right now—although you might not be able to change your situation—you have the freedom to choose greatness within your situation. You can find ways to brighten your world and the lives of others
My friends, here’s what I want you to take away from all this: Sometimes we experience freedom when things change…and sometimes we experience freedom when we change—when we recognize that within our situations there are great things that only we can do.
So, let’s do it. Les find the freedom in our lives despite our situations. And as a result, we can lift our spirits and join the Jewish people in celebrating our national freedom this Pesach.
Chag Kasher v’Sameyach, Happy Passover, Amen!
|
