Overcoming Adversity Personal Story of Triumph

I was brought up in a home where "the meek shall inherit the earth."

In other words one had to be poor to be worth something of value to society.

There was no achieving spirituality as a "filthy" rich businessperson.

There was something in my education that had to do with the difficulty of a moneyed individual entering the kingdom of heaven as it would be to thread a camel through the eye of a needle. So there you have it.

Anything that reeked of capital made my stomach turn. If I would see a mansion with a swimming pool, or would watch people playing golf (of course only the well-off play golf that's why I never learned the game) was worthy of my scorn. One day, coming face to face with this dilemma, changed my life.

I was invited by my brother-in-law to meet an old army buddy of his for dinner. I walked with him into the plush, wall to wall carpeted restaurant, which was already enough to make a meager man like myself cry with horror. Then I looked straight ahead and my brother-in-law said, "That's him." I was disgusted by the sight of this overweight, cigar smoking entrepreneur in a shark-skin suit, talking on a cordless telephone that had an antenna and being attended, caringly by two young, sexy women. I had never seen a cordless telephone with an antenna before. This made me even sicker. I walked toward him with the sole purpose of ruining his evening and humiliating him as I had done to numerous others in the past who deserved the whip of my self-righteousness.

Just then something clicked in me. "This man is me," I thought to myself. But how could that be? He was wealthy, loud and obviously advertising his prosperity at every opportunity. But wasn't that me, marketing my poverty at every possible chance? "He is my Tikkuun," I thought slowly. "Tikkuun" in the Jewish Kabala is when a correction is made in one's perception. "Ha possel memo possel," I reflected. Translated from the Hebrew it means: "The one who judges another is judging himself." My amendment in insight was made instantly as I regarded this man as my teacher. He was offering me the element of my personality that I had hidden for so long; the "rich" Lenny. I knew that by embracing this disowned part, I would own the freedom and the right to be affluent. I would no longer be a prisoner to my previous beliefs. I walked over to his table and instead of holding out my hand to be greeted, I extended my arms as if to ask him for a hug, which he so kindly obliged. I whispered in his ear, as we met for the first time, "You are my rabbi." He smiled and we've been the best of friends since. And yes, I am now liberated, permit myself to make money and live in abundance, thanks to this man, who shamelessly displayed my veiled "dark side" which I gladly embrace today.

By Lenny Ravich