Hashem created us to be challenged, as Chazal say “דלוי למעל םדא”.
One day, a donkey fell into a pit. The animal cried and whined for hours while his owner tried to figure out what to do. Finally, the farmer decided that since the animal was old, and the pit needed to be covered up anyway, he would just bury the old donkey right there. He got a shovel and started filling in the pit. The donkey kept up its wailing, but then fell silent. After an hour of furious shoveling, the farmer paused to rest.
To his amazement, he saw his old donkey jump out of the pit and trot away!
When life throws challenges at us, we have a choice. We can feel sorry for ourselves and cry and complain, “Why me?” Or we could stop and say to ourselves, “What can I do, given the new circumstances that have arisen?”
At first, when the donkey realized what was happening, he cried even more piteously, but then the wise animal hit on a plan. As each spade-full of dirt hit his back, the donkey would shake it off and take a step up on the growing mound of earth. Eventually, the mound grew high enough for him to jump out of the pit.
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the pit is to shake it off and take a step up. We can get out of the deepest pits by not stopping and never giving up. Just shake it off and take a step up.
Rebetzin Tzippy Vigler
Program and Chinuch Director
