Just hot off the press... An Israeli woman who bought her elderly mother a new mattress threw out the old one unaware that it had one million dollars hidden inside it.
Israeli newspapers reported that the woman was left scrabbling through landfill sites in an, as yet, fruitless search for the mattress which contained her mother's life savings.
The woman, identified only as Anat, a resident of Tel Aviv, told Israeli Army Radio that she bought the mattress as a surprise for her mother and got rid of the other one without telling her. When she realized her mistake, she rushed outside to look for the mattress but found it had already been taken by the garbage collectors. Subsequent searches at three different landfill sites turned up nothing.
I thought to myself that this story has major relevance:
There are many young people out there who, with the best intentions, are recommending replacing our old Jewish mattress, namely our Torah. They claim that the mattress that we have been sleeping on for more than 3,300 hundred years is pretty worn out and ancient. They claim that the newer, modern philosophies are way more comfortable and relevant. Some will even take the liberty of throwing out Mamma's old mattress into the garbage dump of assimilation and intermarriage without finding out what really lies inside it.
To their total surprise, they then find out that the old dusty mattress was loaded with a million dollars worth of bills. In fact, the Torah, our treasure buried in the discarded mattress, is priceless. Can you imagine their frustration and disappointment in themselves when their mistake is discovered?
King Solomon writes in the book of Proverbs: "For its price is far greater than rubies." Our precious Torah is not only valuable because of its age, it is priceless because of its powerful relevant message to our generation. It is a book that brings meaning and value to every facet of life. Let us open its pages and discover how we all are heirs to its incredible spiritual wealth. It belongs to each and every one of us regardless of background or level of piety. We all can become millionaires—providing, of course, that we don't thoughtlessly discard it!
