The Power of a Snowflake

They said it was going to be the mother of all storms. New York City was in total shutdown: From airports to subways and schools to city streets! But alas, the storm never came.

What was everyone getting excited about? A humble snowflake.

The snowflake is one of the most magnificent of G-d’s creations. No two snowflakes look exactly the same. Each one is utterly useless, but amassed in enough quantity, they can shut down the world’s busiest city!

I had a similar experience in my home recently when a tiny water leak quickly turned into a flood in the bathroom. The humble water droplet on its own is insignificant, but it’s the world’s most destructive force when amassed in quantity.

In the Torah portion Beshalach, we find that the Jews were able to face the mighty Egyptian army, but they literally gave up when faced with the ocean before them!

How often do you doubt the value of a good deed? ‘Will it really matter if I do the right thing or not?’ ‘Will G-d really care if the spoon is milchig or fleishig?’, ‘Alone in my hotel room, who will even notice whether I lit the Holy Shabbat Candles?’

Everything happens for a reason, and we’re encouraged to learn a spiritual lesson from all that surrounds us. Perhaps, the lesson to be learned from the storm that never happened is the power of little things, when banded together.

Since Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden, we Jews have been working hard to bring Light and Holiness into this mundane world. Each Mitzvah we do, permeates the object with which it was fulfilled with holiness. Though insignificant on its own, our good deeds are added to those of the rest of the Jewish People, not just of our generation, but of all generations together, to form the most powerful force the world has ever known. For we are promised that our actions will cause the ultimate era of peace into the world, the era of Moshiach. All it takes is just one more Mitzvah!