The Balloon Test

A professor gave every student a balloon, telling the students to write their names on them, inflate them and throw them into the hallway. The professor then mixed up all the balloons and gave them 5 minutes for each student to find their balloon. Chaos. No one succeeded.

The professor then gave new instructions: pick up the first balloon you see, and find its owner. Within a few minutes, everyone had their balloon.

Said the professor; “These balloons are like happiness. We’ll never find it by looking for our own. But if we care about returning everyone else’s balloon to their owner, we’ll find ours too.”

This week’s Parsha outlines the chagim; Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot and they’re all introduced with the phrase: “These are My appointed days.”

These are holy meetings between us and God, times when we rise a higher. But this rising doesn’t happen in a vacuum (unless you’re in the UN). Rather, it starts with the energy that we bring into it, that creates the spiritual air. Air that others can breathe in.

That brings us back to the balloon, as we very much know, the chagim are about simcha. But joy isn’t found by chasing it for ourselves. Just like the balloon, you find it by picking up someone else’s and in the process, your own joy finds its way back to you.

The chagim are holy times, not only with God, but with each other. You can’t fully celebrate Sukkot alone. You can’t truly live the magic of Shavout if the people around you are weighed down and you’re oblivious to it.

Simcha is a team sport.

You want your balloon? Help someone find theirs.
You want to feel more connected on Shabbat? Light up someone else’s Shabbat meal.
You want to feel meaning on Yom Kippur? Smile at the person sitting next to you in Shul.

If we each take responsibility for others happiness, then maybe, just maybe, we’ll walk out of the hallway holding our own balloon with our head held high.

Shabbat Shalom!