Two weeks ago, there was a garbage pile growing steadily, by the Rav’s olam hatefillot.

Shuvu prays outside, in a courtyard, in a road off Meah Shearim, while the Rav stands above on his balcony.

It’s never been the most des-res, but the last couple of years have seen that courtyard become more and more grotty, for a bunch of different reasons,

Three weeks ago, things hit a new low. Someone had turfed-out an old sofa and just left it on a patch of vacant ground at the back of the of the courtyard. Then, someone else chucked a few bags of old clothes there. Then, someone else put some building rubble.

Then, a bunch of small kids showed up and pulled out armfuls of white flocking from the ripped sofa’s inside, and threw it all over the place, like some sort of toxic ‘snow’. It mamash looked like that.

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Next, these piles of unmeltable ‘snow’ everywhere started to magically attract even more garbage.

While everyone just kind of stood back and watched it happen, because how can I change anything, anyway?! What can any of us do?!

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Two weeks ago, I decided I was going to go down to the dawn minyan with my husband, with a pair of gardening gloves and 10 garbage bags.

I spent close to two hours tidying that mess up – probably just before the rats showed up – and when my husband was done praying, he helped me drag the tatty sofa over to the bin, so no more ‘snow’ would be pulled out of it.

Then, I settled down to see what was going to happen next.

I mostly believed that within 2-3 days, the mess would be back.

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Three days later, someone dumped two bags of old clothes there, and a broken window blind.

I decided to just go over there, pick the new garbage up again, and get rid of it in the nearest bin.

That was two weeks ago.

The space is still clear. (Mostly…. empty bags of bamba notwithstanding).

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As usual, attending the Rav’s prayers taught me a very fundamental lesson about life.

It taught me that yes, even one person can make a tangible difference to their surroundings.

It taught me that it only takes one person, to start turning things around, to start cleaning up the ‘mess’ that we’re all having to deal with, in a million different ways.

So many of us have given up.

So many of us are so soul-sick and tired at the moment.

It feels so hard to do anything, because what’s the point?!

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I know I felt that for two weeks, watching that pile of garbage grow and grow.

What’s the point, of cleaning it up when I know tomorrow, the mess will be back….

That’s what stopped me doing anything.

Until I realised something.

Namely, that if God wants me to have the zchut of tidying up again and again and again at the Rav’s courtyard – then it is my privilege to do just that.

Once that different way of looking at the problem kicked in, everything changed and now I was raring to go and tidy up the mess.

Because the point is the process, not the outcome.

And even if the mess came back the next day, I felt SOOOOO good that at least today, it was clean and tidy, and more ‘kavod’ for the Rav and his kehilla.

And in the meantime, the mess didn’t really come back, either. Because all this ‘garbage’ is an illusion, a test, a challenge.

And that’s all.

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This happened two weeks ago, but I was thinking about it today, when considering what to do with the blog, and how to continue.

Maybe, just maybe, it is making a difference, more than it seems to me so much of the time.

Maybe, all it really takes for this to turn around is for me and you to be ‘that one crazy’ in the crowd who is prepared to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty, to tidy things up for everyone.

Maybe, things are way closer to being properly ‘tidied up’, spiritually, than anyone can tell or guess.

Because no one want to live in a garbage dump – not even the people who are busy creating it.

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Tomorrow, I’m posting up something I got sent a few days ago, without realising what it really was.

Namely, the Rav’s completion of Rabbenu’s story of the Seventh Beggar.

I have a bad AI English translation of the Hebrew, so tomorrow I’ll post up the Hebrew, and then BH, I will work on a better English translation.

Rebbe Nachman taught that the Moshiach would be the one to complete the tale of the Seventh Beggar.

Make of this what you will.

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The nights are long, the darkness is all around, the koach to continue is failing us, at least, some times.

But in the midst of all that, there is CHANUKAH.

The light in the darkness.

The miracle that turns everything around for the best.

And the tale of a very small bunch of people who decided they weren’t going to let the ‘garbage’ take over the world.

Or to put this into other words – a great example of the difference just one person can make.

Doesn’t matter if that person is called ‘Matityahu HaHashmonai”, or ‘Rivka the housewife’.

With God behind us, anything is possible.

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So, let me bless you dear reader, that you should find the strength to be that ‘one person’ in your neighborhood, your community, your family, to clean things up for others.

To help others, for no obvious reward.

To kindle the light of Jewish kindness, and unfailing belief that God has never turned His back on us, and still loves the Jewish people as much as He ever did.

Just, we need to clear the ‘garbage’ out the way, to clear the path back to Him.