Weekly Chasidic Story1438 (5785-40) 4 Tammuz 5785 (June 30, 2025) (Next Week)

"Drama on The Roof of a Tel Aviv Skyscraper"

He was alone, on the top floor of one of the Azrieli towers. It was quiet, with only soft recorded music coming through the ceiling. He thought about the irony of it; this whole 49th floor could have been his!

Why This Week?
The ‘drama’ of the story connects nicely to verses in this week’s Torah reading, Chukat
.


Story in PDF format for more convenient printing.

 

Drama on The Roof of a Tel Aviv Skyscraper


About fifteen years ago, Jerry (not his real name), an Israeli multi-millionaire businessman, was on the top of the world. He toured the globe enjoying the best hotels, restaurants, cars and anything that money could buy. He was a self-made-man who loved his creator (i.e. himself). Saying; "My talents and strength gave me all these riches." (Deut. 8:17) and the sky was the limit…almost.

One of the most grandiose building projects ever in Israel, the Azrieli business complex [1] in Tel Aviv,1 was nearing its completion and Jerry was given an opportunity to purchase the entire top (49th) floor!

It would cost him several tens of millions of dollars but he had the money, or could easily borrow what was lacking and it looked like a promising investment. He examined all sides of the deal with his lawyers, took a lot of advice and was just about to say yes until one of his best friends came up with a better investment.

"What?" His friend exclaimed. "For price of one floor of the Azrieli Towers you can buy ten whole offices buildings in Hungary! And the economy there is on the rise! In just two-three years you'll have your entire investment back, and after that…pure profits! Get in on it now before it's too late and it's all sold. It's a sure thing!!"

Jerry took his friend's advice, dropped the Azrieli idea, took loans and invested all he had in Hungary and within less than a year…lost it all.

Suddenly every penny he had saved and slaved for was gone and he was in tremendous debt. Even after he liquidated all his assets, including selling his house to pay his debts, he still owed 17,000 shekels to the Israeli Revenue Service.

Things happened so fast that he almost didn't have time to digest it all. At first he even tried to deny it saying. "After all, that's business; right? ups and downs! Right? It will pass! The main thing is to smile, keep my eye open for opportunities, think positively; soon I'll be on the top again. Even more than before! Etc. etc."

But reality began creeping up on him when he tried to get the 17,000 shekels. He soon discovered that his old friends weren't as friendly as before. Doors that used to open for him were now locked and people weren't returning his phone calls.
With no collateral, the banks refused to loan him money on any terms. He was getting desperate, things were looking very bad. But then an old friend returned one of his calls.

"Jerry, how are you? I hear you're looking for a loan. Come up and see me, I think I owe you a few favors from the good ol' days. Whatever you want I'll try to help."

[BTW, as irony would have it, this friend's office was nowhere other than the 49th floor of the Azrieli center!]

Jerry, still full of confidence, took the elevator to his friend's office, signed for the loan, shook his hand, put the bills in his inside coat pocket and exited the office to the plush corridor.

The door closed behind him and he was alone, it was quiet with only soft recorded music coming through the ceiling. Jerry began to realize the irony of it; this whole floor could have been his! With nothing better to do he decided to walk around and have a look.

After a few minutes of strolling he noticed a set of stairs leading up to a large metal door, which he ascended and opened the door. A cold autumn wind blew into his face. It was the door leading to the roof, 'why not', he thought to himself as he went out.

Ah, it was beautiful! From here he could see far into the distance; the Judean hills in one direction, the wide, vast Mediterranean sea on the other. He just stood there, thinking and trying to enjoy the weather when suddenly a loud thud behind him startled him.A quick glance revealed that the wind had slammed the door shut.

That broke his train of thought, and anyway it was getting late. He decided it was time to go back. Jerry went to the door and tried to open it, but. to his shock. it was locked!

He tried peering from all sorts of angles to figure out the latch but he couldn't. So he began to pound on the door and when that didn't work, to kick at it. For sure someone would hear.

But no one did. The wind was getting stronger and colder now and he wasn't really dressed for this. He looked around for some object to hit the door with, to attract attention and get out but there was none. He still had a good hour before dark; people were probably still in their offices so he pounded, kicked and yelled but there was no response.

'Hey, what a fool I am!' He slapped his forehead and said to himself, "My cellular phone! I can just call someone with my cellular phone!'

But when he took it out he discovered that the battery was dead. Totally dead! Of all times for this to happen!

But he didn't lose his composure. He had to work fast. He went to the edge of the building, peered over the small protective fence and began waving his arms and yelling to the people far below which, after just five minutes, he realized was totally futile. There was no way that anyone would hear him over the wind 49 floors below.

Jerry knew he had to remain calm. It was his only chance. Soon it would be dark and really cold. And there was nowhere to get protection from the wind, which was getting colder by the minute.

Suddenly he had an idea. The money! He had 17,000 shekels in his pocket. For sure if he threw a 200 shekel note down people would look up to see where it was coming from, and then they would see him.

He pulled out a stack of bills, removed one, looked over the fence and threw it. He watched as it floated crazily in the wind and finally, after several minutes, landed on the other side of the street. He watched helplessly as someone stopped, bent down, picked it up and continued walking.

This time he took out five bills, 1,000 altogether and let them drop… but it was the same thing. No one noticed them until they hit the ground, then they picked them up, looked around for more and kept going.

He knew what he had to do! It was his only chance! He took all the money from his pocket, tore the band that held them neatly in a pack and with a yell, threw below as hard as he could the rest of the sixty-five 200 shekel bills. With his last optimism he gazed as it scattered far below him. He removed his shirt and began waving it frantically for someone to notice.

Jerry couldn't believe his eyes; not only did no one look up or hear his cries for help; they were all arguing down there about who saw which bill first!
He looked around on the roof, the sun was setting, it was still light enough to see, but he saw nothing that might help him.

He looked up at the dimming sky and his eyes filled with tears. Suddenly he felt small and weak. He needed help..... he was sure that there was hope. The sky said so. It was obvious… he wasn't alone.

He yelled out, " Oh G-d! G-d Al-Mighty! Help! Help me!" A second earlier he didn't even believe in a Supreme Being, but now it was clear.

Suddenly his eye caught a medium sized sack of sand and small pebbles. Why didn't he see it before? But there it was! He dragged it to the fence, took a handful of pebbles, said a prayer, threw it over the side and began waving his arms and looking down again.

Sure enough, this time it worked! People looked up and pointed and began screaming and cursing at him. It must have been that many of them called the police because in just moments the door burst open, police with guns drawn stormed through, put handcuffs on him and took him to the station. He was saved!

It took some serious explaining. He was lucky that no one was really hurt from his pebbles and, of course, he lost the 17,000 shekel and still owed the taxes. But after a few days they accepted his story and let him out.

Surprising all his friends, Jerry proclaimed that it was well worth it. Not only he got saved, but he got adjusted as well! He got a good look at how foolish he had been; the people on the street had just taught him!

They were just like him; all the time money was raining down they never looked up--only down for more money. But as soon as they started feeling the pebbles hurting them, they looked up to see where they were coming from.

Now Jerry realized he too never looked up when he had money. At those times he felt like a god incarnate. When he began to suffer, however, he realized he needed help to change.

Jerry began taking classes in Judaism and started doing the commandments also. In time, he became a totally observant Jew.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Source: Adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from an emailing of Rabbi Tuvia Bolton of Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim in 5776 (2016), who states that he heard the story years before from a good friend, who says that unfortunately he lost all touch with "Jerry".

PHOTO credit - Wikipedia

The connection to the weekly Torah reading, Chukat:
Rabbi Bolton teaches that we also can derive from this story an explanation for a puzzling episode in this week's Torah reading, Chukat [Num. 21:6-9]:
Because of their constant complaining against Him, "God sent the venomous snakes and they bit the people, and many Israelites died….Moses prayed on behalf of the people. God said to Moses, "Make a viper and put it on a [high] pole…" Moses [did so…and] if a person was bitten and he looked [upward] toward the copper snake, he lived."

Explains Rabbi Bolton: The reason G-d told Moses to make a snake and put it on a pole was not just to make the Jews look up towards Heaven, but rather to realize that the SOURCE of misfortune and evil is also G-d, and the reason G-d creates it is for us to transform it.

Why This Week? The 'drama' of the story connects nicely to verses in this week's Torah reading.

Footnote: [1]The Azrieli Center is a complex of three skyscrapers--one square, one triangular, and one round--that define Tel Aviv's skyline. At the base of the complex lies a large shopping mall. It is (as of the original writing of this story in 2016) Israel's leading real estate property



Yerachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and chief editor of this website (and of KabbalaOnline.org). He has hundreds of published stories to his credit, and many have been translated into other languages. He tells them live at Ascent nearly every Saturday night.

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