“I can’t sit down here waiting like a sitting duck for the pirates to come for us. I’m going up to help the sailors”

T

error hung over the heads of everyone on board the ship. They knew that at any moment the black masts of a pirate ship could appear on the horizon. The pirates were notorious for selling anyone whom they didn’t kill as slaves to barbaric island dwellers.

Mordechai and Esther enclosed themselves inside their tiny cabin and poured out their hearts to Hashem.

“It will all be for the good,” Mordechai told Esther one night, after hours of reciting Tehillim. “Everything will be good.”

“How can you know such a thing?” Esther’s face was tearstained and her eyes were puffy and red. “Do you know the future?”

“Are we saying Tehillim without believing that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is listening to every word? He answers every tefillah, even though we don’t know how exactly. So whatever happens, we must remember that it will be good because it will be from Hashem. And Hashem only does good, even when it looks bad to us.”

“I was also davening for you,” Esther told Mordechai. “You’ve never stopped trying to become a talmid chacham. I am certain Hashem will open the gates of understanding for you one day, in reward for all of your efforts.”

Mordechai felt tears falling from his eyes. There was nothing in the world he wanted more than to enter the beautiful garden of Torah and understand the sweetness of Hashem’s wisdom.

The door to their cabin burst open suddenly. A sailor stumbled inside, breathless and panicky.

“The captain’s ordering everyone to stay silent. A ship has been spotted.”

“Pirates?”

“We don’t know, but whoever they are they are steering directly toward us.”

*********

Every passenger on board the ship fell completely silent. Everyone listened with bated breath, gasping in fear at every creak of wood and every slap of water hitting the sides of the ship.

A tremendous boom split the silence and the entire ship shook violently. Shouts rent the air and everyone could hear intruders boarding their ship. Esther screamed in terror.

“I can’t sit down here waiting like a sitting duck for the pirates to come for us. I’m going up to help the sailors.” Mordechai walked to the door and then turned back to tell Esther one last thing.

“Whatever happens, don’t lose your emunah,” Mordechai instructed Esther.

“But what if we’re separated?” Esther asked in terror. “What then?”

“We’ll always have Hashem. We cannot be separated from Hashem.”

(Excerpted from Mishpacha Jr., Issue 768)