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The Copper Pot

סִיר הַנְּחֹשֶׁת

An illustrated story in two pages · daily chizuk, 24 Cheshvan.

Download / print PDF (A4, 2 pages)
Page 1: An angry woman in a small town blames everyone. A great tzaddik comes; she cries that she can't change. He tells her to bring her dirtiest copper pot back shining. She scrubs all night.
Page 2: In the morning she says she failed. The tzaddik shows her gold shining through. Hashem sees every scrub. Under the soot, the soul is pure gold. Try this week.

The lesson

Tikkun hamiddos is made of small daily decisions, not one big event. The yetzer hara whispers “you’ll never change”, but the soul under the soot is pure gold. Bad middos are only an outer garment: we don’t invent the good, we uncover it. Every passed test, every silence in anger and every good thought is another cloth wiping the soot away. Hashem measures direction and desire.

Try this week: once a day, catch one angry reaction and stay silent; choose a good eye about one person; count the scrubs, not the stains.