When Life Feels Like a Tightrope: Trusting in God’s Love

A Chabad chassid named Rabbi Mendel was once in Siberia. While there, he witnessed an extraordinary sight.

A non-Jewish man had erected two iron poles on two neighboring mountains and stretched a rope between them, with a deep ravine below. The man turned to the people gathered there and asked, “Would you like to see me cross from one mountain to the other on this thin rope?”

Everyone thought he had lost his mind. But he did it. He walked across the rope with a deep and frightening abyss beneath him.

The next day, he announced that he was going to cross the rope again. Everyone begged him not to do it, but once again, he crossed safely.

Who Is Willing to Sit in the Cart?

The third time, he crossed the rope while pushing a cart. The fourth time, he asked, “Who is willing to sit inside the cart?”

Naturally, no one agreed to risk his life. They had watched the man cross successfully several times, but still, no one was willing to trust him with his life.

Rabbi Mendel related, “A few moments later, I saw the man walking across the rope with the cart, and inside the cart sat a small child, completely calm and without the slightest fear.”

The people could not understand. Who was this child? How could he possibly not be afraid?

Once again, the man crossed safely. When they reached the other side, everyone rushed over to the child and asked him, “Where are your parents? How were you not afraid?”

The child pointed to the man who had just crossed the rope.

“That is my father. When he told me to sit in the cart, I was completely calm. I knew with absolute certainty that he would never put me in danger, because he is my father.”

What a Jew’s Faith Should Look Like

Rabbi Mendel said, “From this story, I learned what a Jew’s faith in this world should look like.”

Even when you feel as though you are walking on a thin rope in your life, and the rope is shaking beneath you, even when there seems to be a vast abyss below and you are afraid, remember Who is guiding you through the journey of life.

It is your Father. Remember that, no matter where you are, no matter the place and no matter the time.

“You Are Children of the Lord Your God”

The Torah reminds us: “You are children of the Lord your God.”

The prophet Malachi says: “I have loved you, says the Lord. Yet you say, ‘How have You loved us?’... Was not Esau a brother to Jacob? says the Lord. Yet I loved Jacob.”

Malachi was the final prophet of the Jewish people, and he delivered this prophecy to them before they entered the long period of exile. The Jewish people ask God, “How do You love us?”

And God answers: I love every Jew as though he or she were an only child.

God’s Love for Every Individual Jew

The verse says, “I loved Jacob.” It does not say, “I loved Israel.” “Israel” can refer to the nation as a whole, while “Jacob” here can be understood as emphasizing each individual Jew.

This was among the final prophetic messages given to the Jewish people, so that as they entered exile, they would carry this knowledge and this love with them.

The Holy One, blessed be He, loves each and every one of us with a personal and individual love. You are My daughter, God says. And I love you.