Life is just a cup of coffee

Life is just a cup of coffee

By Harav Y. R. Rubin Shlita

Come July and memories of long past summers slip into my mind. New York City does summer like no other place; the heat is turned on full blast and the very pavement starts to melt underfoot. The first week of July sees a mass exodus from the heat of Brooklyn to cooler climes, namely the Catskill Mountains. In my time there, everyone rented what were quaintly called bungalows, which were not much more than glorified two-room wooden sheds with indoor plumbing. Whole families would be packed off to “the mountains” (which were not really mountains but glorified hills) for ten weeks, returning before Rosh Hashonoh.

Usually, the men would return to the city each Sunday evening and stay till Thursday. This created a large community of men who were left to provide for themselves. I remember there was a soda fountain across from one of the well-used shteiblech. For those under a certain age, a soda fountain was the precursor to today’s coffee shop. There you could buy hot coffee that was served out of large Pyrex jugs with pitchers of milk on the counter. Come the summer and the place was packed from early morning till about one in the afternoon. “Yidden darfen kava”, Jews need their coffee and it was obvious that these “summer bachelors” didn’t even know how to boil a kettle of water.

“Just clinging onto Hashem in the face of the daily onslaught of a secular world gone mad is itself a feat of great faith”

Something I heard in the name of Rav Meilech Biderman conjured up memories of the thirsty Jews of Boro Park. In the morning one of the first things a Yied does is to have a cup of coffee, (or, if you’re like me, a glass). Now, think about it: coffee itself is bitter; it has hot water into which we pour cold milk and add sweet sugar (or sweetener). This mixture of opposite tastes is served together and we make a brocho shehakol nehiyeh bidvaro (everything was brought into existence by Hashem’s word) over it. This reminds us that the hot and the cold, the sweet and the bitter, everything comes from Hashem.We begin our day with a cup of coffee (or tea) with this important reminder, that whatever happens during that day, it is all from Hashem.

We have all just enjoyed the season where many chasunas take place. Young fresh-faced couples, filled with hopes and dreams, stand under chuppah and daven that all should be blessed with good. Directly after these few weeks we are plunged into a period of sadness which we call the Three Weeks. Hot and cold, sweet and bitter, it’s all part of the life of a Yied, and it is all there to connect us with Hashem. Chazal tells us: The black on the straps of the tefillin are halocho le’Moshe mi’Sinai (law received from Moshe at Sinai). Everything, including the ‘black’ and the harsh moments, is from Hashem. This bespeaks the task of a Yied: to know that Hashem stands behind all of life’s vicissitudes. We take the black strap and wrap it onto our hearts and crown our heads with it, so as to internalize this realization. By embracing life’s challenges, and accepting them as part of Hashem’s plan, we create a bond with His Will that helps us overcome whatever life dishes out.

Compared with previous generations, many of our young today have been blessed with much material wealth from an early age. This means they are ill-equipped to take on the challenges of reality. They have not experienced “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” and so sometimes collapse in despair. We parents must instill in them an understanding that everything is from Hashem and that somehow even what seems black has within it Hashem’s illumination. Allow them to hear your stories, about the roller coaster of your life. Every Yied is a hero! Just clinging onto Hashem in the face of the daily onslaught of a secular world gone mad is itself a feat of great faith. Youngsters should know how you have conquered adversaries and that all this is what life is meant to be.

So next time you take that coffee cup in hand, just pause and think how wondrous life can be.