Not for commercial redistribution without the permission of the Holy Beggars of the House of Love and Prayer San Francisco, Iyar 5732 Transcribed by Steven Maimes Reb Shlomo speaking ... Elijah the prophet took a little walk on the beach of the world, somewhere where the waves are, where the sand Is waiting, and he saw a little fisherman. Elijah asked the fisherman, the sweet holy fisherman, have you studied G-d's word? Have you studied the five books of Moses? Have you studied the Prophets? Have you studied the Talmud? Have you studied all the mysteries of the world? The eyes of the little fisherman began to shine with tears, and he said, Elijah, holy Prophet, believe me, I tried, believe me I tried, I have tried so hard but my mind is not strong enough, the Almighty has not blessed me with such deep understanding to fathom His holy words. So Elijah the prophet asked him: Little fisherman, tell me are you a good fisherman? And suddenly his eyes began to glow with joy, and he said, "Believe me, Elijah, I'm the best fisherman on the coast." And Elijah the prophet began to cry and his tears mingled with the ocean. He said: "Fisherman. do you know why you are such a good fisherman? Because you know that life depends on fishing. If you only knew that your life depends on knowing the word of G-d you could have been the greatest scholar in the world. And Elijah the prophet is still crying because is not this world a ocean? Are we not all drowning in this ocean? We need good fishermen to bring us back to the sand, to the beach of G-d. So if you want to become a little fisherman, a pure little fisherman. we need people to study G-d's word, the truth, words are full of light. When you meet Elijah the prophet tell him I know one word. but this one word carries me for a whole lifetime. G-d gives us signs all the time. We just don't want them. Remember the story? Someone came to the holy Baal Shem Tov, and the Baal Shem Tov told him that divine providence is so strong, whenever a wind blows, divine providence knows exactly where every leaf has to fall. Divine providence is on every leaf, knows exactly where this leaf has to fall. And this leaf has to fall there. So someone says to him, I can't believe that! Divine providence? G-d In heaven has plans for every little leaf? After a hurricane, where every leaf should fall? I can't believe that. The Ball Shem Tov says, you can't believe it? You don't want to believe it. So he keeps on saying.- no, I can't believe it. The Baal Shem Tov says, "You can't? You don't want to." That was it. So he walked away. He walks on the highway and there is a little peasant sitting on top of the hay on his wagon, There he has to make a little U-turn, he doesn't make it so good, the whole wagon tips over, the hay falls down, the horse falls over the wagon, and he is all alone on the highway. So he sees this man walking and he asks him, will you please help me turn my wagon over and help my horse up? This great rabbi thinks, I can not stoop that low to help a little peasant. He says: "No, I can't. So the peasant got very angry; he had a whip in his hand. He gave him a strong whip over his face, and he said: "You can't? You don't want to!"