THE MYSTERY OF THE STOREROOM

“Did you hear what happened?” It was portly Berel who always walked around as tensely as a coiled spring.

“No,” I said.

“Don’t ask! Old Zev did not feel well and he is staying in the Senior Home to recuperate.”

“So? Why are you so excited about that?”

Berel’s lips pursed and he concluded, “Okay, fine …”

I remained quiet and Berel waddled away.

“The game is starting. Do you want to join?” Redheaded Yitzi did not wait for my response. As he dribbled the ball, he drew me into the court and the game began. When recess was over I went upstairs to class, but something niggled in my mind. I felt that I had forgotten something important, but could not remember what it was.

I reviewed the previous hours and I suddenly remembered. Zev! Zev did not feel well and he was not at home. This was a great opportunity. An opportunity for what, you want to know? It isn’t right for me to tell you before I tell Shmuli, my best friend. So be patient please, until I meet up with Shmuli.

As soon as the next recess bell rang, I leaped from my seat and went to our regular spot in the yard. Shmuli came a second later. “What happened?” he curiously asked.

“Don’t ask!” In my excitement, I used the same words that Berel had used. “Old Zev did not feel well and he is staying in the Senior Home to recuperate.”

“What’s so exciting about that?” Shmuel asked.

“Yeah, I asked Berel the same question,” I said as I thought, one-zero, Berel. “But why don’t you understand? Now we can organize Zev’s dusty storeroom.”

“Wow, how come I didn’t think of that myself? You’re a genius,” said Shmuli with unusual generosity.

The story of the storeroom is as follows. One day, when my father, who is a second cousin to Zev, visited his house, I joined him and that’s when I found out about the treasure. In the storeroom in Zev’s house is a treasure of Jewish antiquities worth a fortune. When I begged Zev to let me visit the storeroom, he sweetly said, “Why are you begging so much? I am happy to let you go in. I think I can rely on you.”

He took down an old key that was hanging on the wall in the kitchen and went to the storeroom while I followed closely behind him. The old door squeaked a bit when it was opened by Zev’s trembling hands and my eyes widened in amazement at the sight of the great treasure before me. There were antiques of all kinds, old silver and copper menorahs of all sizes, silver candlesticks, rings, old Torah crowns, and many other Judaica items, more than I can enumerate…

But one thing in particular caught my attention, the chaos. The storeroom was a huge mess, as though someone had worked hard to make sure it was disorganized.

“It’s a pity that I don’t have the strength to make order out of this chaos,” said Zev behind me and he sighed. Over time, I visited Zev some more and discovered that he is a truly fascinating person. His memories of his youth could fill a thick book. My friend Shmuli, who began joining me on my visits to Zev, agreed with me that there was nobody more fascinating than him. There was another thing we agreed upon, that we had to find the time to help Zev organize the storeroom. We knew that this would please him and we waited for the opportunity.

I knew that Zev left a key to his house with neighbors across the way. When I knocked on the door in the evening with Shmuli and asked for the key, they gave it to me without asking much of anything.

After I opened the door to the storeroom, I flicked the light switch but the light did not turn on. “What shall we do?” Shmuli whispered worriedly.

“Don’t worry,” I reassured him. “I brought along a flashlight in case of emergency.”

“You thought of everything,” Shmuli said in that flattering way that I was beginning to get used to.

“What a mess,” Shmuli murmured.

“I propose that instead of being scared off by the mess, we start organizing the place and slowly the storeroom will shape up,” I said, as I moved the flashlight around and the light beam moved around the walls. Shmuli got down to work.

I picked up a carved silver menorah and suddenly heard a low voice, “Basi L’Gani achosi kalla … d’ikar Sh’china ba’tachtonim haysa.”

“Who is that?” I asked in a fright.

“It’s me,” I heard Shmuli say and a stone rolled off my heart.

“What’s up with you? You scared me!”

“Sorry, I’ve given up making order here. This storeroom was never organized and it looks like it will never be organized. So I began reviewing the Yud Shvat maamer that I had learned by heart.”

“I’ll tell you something,” I said. “Zev told me that he inherited this storeroom from his father. The storeroom was wonderfully organized but Zev, who is messy by nature, collected more and more treasures and that is how the storeroom turned into what we see now.”

“You know,” said Shmuli. “Now I believe we will be able to organize it. If the storeroom was orderly to begin with, then it can definitely be organized once again.”

“This reminds me of something else,” said Shmuli. “I see now why I began reviewing the maamer. I never understood how we can be expected to prepare the world to welcome Moshiach. In the Geula, Hashem will be revealed in the physical world but now we do not see how the world is ready for that. We see wicked people succeeding and one can think that the world runs on its own, without Hashem, G-d forbid.”

“The truth is,” I said intently, “that I also thought that way. So, do you have an answer?”

“Yes,” said Shmuli enthusiastically. “The maamer of Yud Shvat begins with a quote from the Midrash that at the beginning of Creation, the Sh’china was openly revealed in the world. The world was created in such a way that it was suitable for the revelation of Hashem. Like this storeroom which was organized at first.”

“Right. Then came wicked people who sinned and caused G-dliness to be concealed, but we just need to restore the world to the way it was at first, its true state, the way it will be in the time of the Geula when everything will be good and complete. Even this storeroom will be organized then and will be even more perfect than it was at first.”