One Hour

Many years ago, there lived a very powerful king. This king had a beautiful palace, and many servants, officers, and guards.

The king had a special system in the way that he assigned jobs to his servants. When a servant would first start working at the palace, he would be assigned the lowest of all jobs.

Occasionally, the king would test his servants, to see whether or not they deserved to “go up in rank” and receive a better job in the palace.

Of course, the tests were not so easy. The servants who were being tested did not even know that they were being tested at all.

Well, one of the king’s servants was named Yisroel. Yisroel was a good, hardworking servant.

One day, the king decided that it was time for Yisroel to be tested to see if he could be promoted to a better job in the palace.

He called in Yisroel and said: “Yisroel, I want to reward you for all the hard work that you have been doing for me.

“I will open up my treasure house for you for just one hour. You will be able to go in and take anything you want.

“But remember Yisroel,” said the king, “that is one hour—from ten o’clock, to eleven. Not one minute more! Be there tomorrow morning at nine fifty.”

Of course, Yisroel was very exited! He could not wait for the next day. He would be there on time.

So, the next morning, at nine fifty, Yisroel was at the treasure house with ten large barrels, ready to collect anything that he wanted.

At ten o’clock, the doors to the treasure house were opened, and Yisroel went in. The king said: “Remember, you only have one hour. When the clock strikes eleven, you must leave.”

So, Yisroel opened a big chest, and stuck his hand in. Before he could even pick up one jewel, he heard the most beautiful music.

Yisroel loved music, and when he heard such beautiful music being played, all he could do was just stop and listen.

That is what the king expected to happen. The king had hired the best musician from the kingdom. He had asked him to be in the treasure house the entire hour that Yisroel was there, and play music.

Meanwhile, the king was watching Yisroel from a small crack in the wall. He wanted to see if Yisroel would collect some treasures, or just listen to the music.

Soon the first song was over. Yisroel looked at the clock and realized how much time he had wasted. He quickly put his hand back into the chest to take some jewels, but suddenly … he heard more music, and this time it was even nicer than before.

Soon the whole hour went by, and all Yisroel did was listen to music. The king came and told him to come out. His hour was up.

Yisroel said: “But I didn’t even take a thing! I was listening to the music!”

“Right,” said the king. “You were supposed to be taking as many treasures as you could, but you did not! You were just listening to the music. Too bad!”

What do we learn from this story?

Yisroel is like the yidden. The yidden are called Yisroel. We are of course, servants of the king, Hashem. Hashem put us in the world (the treasure house), and we are supposed to be learning Torah and doing mitzvos.

Hashem sent a musician down into this world too—the yetzer hora. The yetzer hora is trying to stop us from learning Torah and doing mitzvos.

The treasure house is now open. Let’s use our time wisely.