While at a bookstore one day, a friend showed me a book he had picked up for his grandchildren. It was a colorful picture book with laminated pages for easy cleaning, and looked very enjoyable for the kiddies. He was returning it though, and he showed me why. He opened the book and showed me page 18. He pointed to the facing page and it showed 23. I imagined it was missing pages, but that wasn’t exactly the case.
When he turned the page, I saw page 24, then page 27. After that came 22, 19, and several others in a number salad that made my head spin. I have no idea how that happened at the printing house, and I felt terrible for the author as well as the booksellers. I’m sure this would be a terrible loss of money, having to throw them all out.
Problem Solved…Or Not
As I pondered this, I came up with a great idea. Why not make stickers with new page numbers and paste them over the incorrect page numbers?! Then it would go from 18, to 19, to 20, and so on. Problem solved! Of course, this is actually a ridiculous idea. While it could work if there were an incorrect price on the cover, and they could just cover it with a gold sticker with the correct price, that wouldn’t solve the issue with the page numbers.
While the pages would technically be “in order,” the story would be all messed up because it’s not just the page numbers that matter, but what’s happening on those pages. When the page numbers were printed on those colorful pages, they had a specific order they needed to be bound in so a reader would see each one in the proper time and sequence. Without it, the whole thing becomes nonsense.
In Whose Order?
It got me to thinking about how so many of us look at the events in our lives. We expect things to be in a certain order, on a certain schedule, and that the things we go through should make sense to us. The problem is that this is just like putting number stickers over the page numbers so we see a neat, orderly progression, but we’re not the ones writing the story.
There’s a famous story about a community that had commissioned a new Sefer Torah (Torah scroll) and they decided to allow women in the community to sew a special cover for it. They would hold a vote and choose the nicest one to adorn their new prized possession. The women were very excited and worked diligently, creating beautiful mantels.
When the time came, they chose one that was considered the most elegant, beautiful, and respectful. However, as they tried to put it onto the Torah, it became glaringly obvious that the cover was too short for the new Torah. Reluctantly, they moved on to the runner-up, and used that to cover the Torah.
Just then, the woman who had made the winning cover came running up. “I have an idea!” she exclaimed. “Just cut off the bottom of the Torah and it will fit perfectly!”
Keep The Torah As It Is!
The moral of this story is that when people try to make the Torah fit their ideals and wishes, they just end up mutilating it. The Torah-true Jew believes that the Torah is supernatural and is applicable for all time, in all places, and for all people. It doesn’t need to change to match our opinions; our opinions need to change to match the Torah.
And that’s the same thing with the book. No one would be crazy enough to argue that if you renumbered the pages the story would unfold as it is meant to. I mean, maybe I’m wrong, as there are plenty of crazy people out there pretending to be rational thinkers, but for the most part, I think I’m right. That’s why it doesn’t make sense for us to complain about things that go on in the world as if they make no sense because all we can see are the page numbers. We have no idea what plot twist the Author has in store for us but the story really IS going according to plan.
His Plan Is The Best
Instead, we have to accept that Hashem, the “Publisher” of the world, doesn’t make mistakes. If He says this page of the story follows that one; that this villain rises to power or this libelous allegation gains traction, it’s His story to write, which one day will be OUR history. For now, we should just pay attention to the details, look for foreshadowing clues of future events, and hold our questions until the end. When we reach the final page, everything will make perfect sense. All the loose ends will be tied up in neat little bows, and we will live happily ever after.
By Rabbi Jonathan Gewirtz
2025 – All Rights Reserved
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