Santiago Bilinkis l Risk and Reward - Trying to live a life out of the comfort zone

A while ago I had the chance to attend a gathering organized by Toty Flores from the MTD-La Matanza at Cooperativa La Juanita. One of the speakers was a young Rabbi called Alejandro Avruj, who I had never heard before. He gave a very insightful speech, about our role as citizens to make Argentina a better place to live, where he focused on not asking God for help but instead rolling up our sleeves and get to work to make a change.

What I want to share with you here is a small story from the Talmud that he told to close his speech. I want to share it for the beauty of its prose as much as the deep, powerful relevance of its message.

The story tells that a long, long time ago in a small town there were two wise rabbis. The followers of every one of them fought for which of them was wiser. One child finally had an idea: He would catch a butterfly, take it to the other rabbi and ask: “Is the butterfly in my hand dead or alive?”. If the Rabbi replied: “Alive”, before opening his hand he would tight his fist squashing it, then show it was dead. If he replied “dead”, he would simply open his hand and let it go flying.

“Rabbi - he said - I have heard that you are a very wise man. Please tell me, is this butterfly in my hand alive or dead”.

The Rabbi paused, smiled and answered: “The answer, my child, is in your hands”.

When it comes to making the World a better place, the decision, my friends, is in our hands.