Last Sunday (December 14), while we were returning from a typical family outing (that is, six children between almost seven years and nine months plus two adults), driving along the highway that connects Buenos Aires with La Plata, our vehicle began to overheat.
Of course, we stopped around kilometer 26 to see what was happening. The engine was very hot and there was little coolant in the tank.
Since our cell phone battery had died, I went to one of those emergency phones on the highway to call a tow truck. Fifteen minutes later, the tow truck arrived and confirmed that one of the belts driving the water pump and alternator had come off.
With no possibility of repairing it on site, the crane operator called a van that transported seven children and an adult, and I traveled along with the crane and the car to the nearest tollbooth, in Berazategui.
Without a cell phone (the public one was broken), the tollbooth supervisor put us in touch with the car insurance company, who informed us that they would send a tow truck in an hour and a half...
Six restless kids, in the middle of nowhere... waiting... An hour and a half passed and the tow truck hadn't arrived, so we decided to call again. Once more the supervisor connected us and this time they said the tow truck would be here in forty minutes.
When they arrived, it turned out they couldn't load the car with the people inside or tow us. They also wouldn't let them tow just the car and have us travel in two taxis... at one in the morning, tired and hungry, we called a taxi (an old, beat-up Peugeot 504, for those who know...) where six kids and an adult traveled, while I traveled on the tow truck with the car...
We got home at almost two o'clock.
The next day the mechanic told us that in reality only a screw had broken, which caused the rubber belt to become loose and the car to stop working.
Beyond the various events surrounding this story, there are two central points we can learn. As the Baal Shem Tov used to say, one should learn a lesson in service to God from everything one hears or sees. Here are two:
1) Shortly after we called the insurance company's tow truck (the first time), the boys started asking, "When is the tow truck coming? When are we leaving here? We're bored!" At that moment, we understood what it means to wait for the Messiah. The idea isn't that we should just go about our lives, even if it's a life full of Torah and mitzvot, and wait for God to send the Messiah whenever He feels like it. Of course, we wait for Him, and when He arrives, we'll welcome Him with great joy, but in the meantime, we're going to live life...
No... with the same anxiety that the boys had for the crane to arrive, not understanding what we were doing in that unknown, open field, desperate to leave, bored!, in the same way we must yearn and wait for the coming of our righteous redeemer, to transform this desert world where Divine revelation is lacking, into a world full of God.
2) The problem with the car was a screw. Anyone who knows even a little about cars will understand that a screw is insignificant compared to the thousands of parts that make a car function properly, from the engine (with its thousands of parts), to the chassis, brakes, air conditioning, etc.
What broke was a screw, and that caused the entire system to stop working. The same is true for the entire Jewish people. We are a complete system, where all its parts are interconnected and affect each other. If there is even one Jew in the whole world who is not well, the entire system, the entire Jewish people, ceases to be well.
As we approach Hanukkah, let us make the decision to strive to bring more light into this dark world, more revelation of God, to bring the world to its ultimate goal, to be a dwelling place for God.