Is Your Inner Light On? A Powerful Lesson from a Forgotten Tragedy

One day in 1904, a train from Westchester approached a bridge. In those days, a signalman stood at the crossing holding a lantern, responsible for indicating whether the bridge was raised or lowered. When he heard the train whistle, he would wave the lantern if the bridge was up. If the driver did not see the signal, he would assume the bridge was down and safe to cross.

That Friday morning, at around three o’clock, the train plunged into the water. It was a devastating disaster, claiming many lives and leaving many others injured. The route was closed for a year and a half, and naturally, everyone searched for someone to blame. Suspicion fell on the signalman. After all, he was responsible for warning the train when the bridge was raised. Yet, without clear evidence, the court struggled to reach a verdict.

After six months of exhausting legal proceedings, the signalman’s lawyer made a bold decision to place his client on the witness stand. He asked him simple questions: what his job was, where he had been, whether he had seen the train, and whether he had been sober. Then came the critical question: did you signal with your lantern?

Silence filled the courtroom. The signalman, who had been calm until that moment, began to stammer. “Yes… I signaled with the lantern,” he said. The jury hesitated. Was this hesitation a sign of guilt? They debated at length, but ultimately chose to believe him, and he was acquitted.

When the courtroom emptied, the lawyer turned to him in frustration. “I’ve defended you for six months,” he said. “I worked day and night, barely saw my family — and you told me you were innocent. Why did you stammer like a guilty man? Were you lying to me?”

The signalman looked at him quietly and replied, “I never lied. You just never asked the right question. You asked if I signaled with the lantern — but you never asked if it was lit.”

The Journey Through Life 

The Torah portion of Masei describes the forty-two journeys of the Jewish people. These journeys were not always forward. Sometimes they involved revisiting earlier places, moving between comfort and difficulty, and even stepping backward in order to advance. This is the nature of any true journey, and it reflects our own lives as we move through different stages — some easier, some more challenging.

We often know how to give thanks when we leave a difficult place and arrive somewhere better. A person who has long searched for a life partner rejoices deeply when they find one. Parents who struggled for years to have children celebrate the cry of their firstborn. In these moments, we clearly see the blessing.

What about the reverse journey? What happens when we leave a place of comfort and enter a more difficult stage? Do we recognize that this too is part of the journey? Do we draw strength from where we have been? Do we understand that even these transitions carry meaning and opportunity?

Learning from Success and Failure 

By nature, we tend to analyze our failures. We ask what went wrong, where we made mistakes, and how we can improve. And yet, we rarely take the time to analyze our successes. We often overlook the strengths, abilities, and moments that bring us genuine joy and fulfillment.

There is a powerful idea: learn to befriend your failures, and to study your successes. When something goes well, such as a successful lesson, a meaningful interaction, a productive day, or even a simple moment of happiness, it is worth pausing to understand why. What made it work? What can we learn from it? When we identify these elements, we can begin to recreate success intentionally.

Is Your Inner Light On? 

We live in a world that values training, achievement, and measurable success. We learn how to perform, how to present ourselves, and how to meet expectations. In many ways, we become experts at “signaling” — we know how to act, how to respond, and how to navigate situations effectively.

But sometimes we forget the most important element. For the lantern to guide the way, it must be lit. Before setting out on any journey, there is one essential question to ask: is your inner light on?

True progress is not just about movement or performance. It is about clarity, purpose, and the inner light that illuminates the path ahead.