The Solution

The owner of a well-established, very well-respected, third generation family owned garment business met with his Board of Directors. Due to the recession, business had been very bad. Sales were down and costs were up.

The owner and his wife had poured every penny they had back into the business in the hope of keeping it afloat, but still things looked very precarious. The Board of Directors offered no solutions, so as a last resort the owner decided to seek advice from his Rabbi.

He poured out the story, with tears running down his face about the three generations of family sacrifice that had gone into building this once-thriving business. He ended by asking plaintively, "So Rabbi, what should I do?"

The Rabbi, a very old and wise man, said nothing for a long time, and then quietly intoned: "So here's vat I vant you should do. Get a beach chair, and a Bible. Put dem in your car. Drive down to the vater's edge. Sit in the beach chair mit the Bible open on your lap

..."

"Yes Rabbi ...yes?!..." encouraged the business owner, completely at a loss for any better ideas.

"... and ven the pages stop turning in the vind I vant you should look down at dat page, and read the first thing you see. And dat vill be vat you must do." pronounced the Rabbi with great certainty.

A year passes ... and the business owner (not a very religious man) returns to pay a visit to the Rabbi. The man is wearing a brand new $2000 handmade Italian suit; his wife looked stunning in her new mink coat; they had driven to see the Rabbi in their brand new BMW 740i Sedan.

The business owner discreetly pulled the Rabbi aside and slipped an envelope to him, stuffed with money. "Rabbi," he whispered, "this is a little something for you and your wife, and here's also a check for $25,000 toward your congregation."

The Rabbi, although very old, remembered the man. "So, you did vat I said?"

"Absolutely!"

"You vent to the beach?"

"Yes I did!"

"And you sat in the beach chair mit the Bible open on your lap?"

"Yes Rabbi. Absolutely!"

"And you let the vind rifle through the pages until they stopped?"

"Absolutely!"

"And vat vere the first words that you read on that page?"

"Chapter Eleven."