Story: The boy feels worthless until a man helps him find his real value
Continued from Tuesday’s blog
Yanky tells Rabbi HaLevy:
“Even though I wasn’t really interested in
speaking to the man,
I could see he was so real
and so interested in helping me.
I opened up and told the man my story.
I told him all about my past.
When I finished the man gave me:
Tremendous chizuk (encouragement).
He gave me strength.
He really helped me.
But I still had questions about
G-d, religion, Judaism and everything about them.”
The man told me:
“Look, I am not such an expert on these things.
I do not claim to be a learned person.
But I will send you to Rabbi Aharon HaLevy.
He is a big person at Arachim.
He will answer your questions.
When you go to R’ Aharon HaLevy tell him the person who sent you is Yoni.
The same person he grew up with in school.”
Rabbi HaLevy listens to the boy and
is happy to hear Yoni is alive.
It has been twenty-five years since he last saw him.
He is curious how Yoni came to helping other people.
Rabbi HaLevy then goes to see Yoni, and they have an emotional reunion.
Yoni explains to the Rav how his life changed:
“I was brought back by a knockout punch.
What made me fall to the lowest depths?
It wasn’t that I was kicked out of schools.
It wasn’t any punishment.
It was the words directed at me.
People put me down and
said so many hurtful things about me.
I acquired a feeling of being worthless,
a feeling of having no value.
This feeling returned to me over and over again.
I thought about my sense of worthlessness all the time.
It broke me down.
I wondered what my purpose in the world is.
It seemed there was no reason for me to exist.”
Yoni finally comes to the conclusion that the reason
he feels worthless is because of words.
It is because of what people say:
What his friends would say.
What his siblings would say.
What his Rebbeim (teachers) would say.
Their blame,
their belittling,
their insults
and rebukes made me feel worthless.
Then I realized:
Who said I have to feel this way
because of what people say?
I do not have to automatically accept everything
people say.
Story continues in Tuesday’s blog.
Questions:
How do you deal with other people’s words about you?
How do you deal with criticism?
Please share this with anyone
who might enjoy or benefit from this.
