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A Small Story

By Shoshanna Harrari

Once upon a time, long ago and far away, where the world divides behind gossamer curtains of rainbows and almond blossoms, there lived a tiny kingdom.

From the beginning of time it had been known to the world through stories of its righteous kings, beautiful songs, and the gentle people who lived there.

It was always a tiny kingdom and though it meant no harm to anyone, but only to do good in this world, every so often an evil king would rise up and try to wipe out the tiny kingdom, lock, stock and barrel. Some were more successful than others, but always, when most needed, the other kingdoms except for one or two of the bravest, would turn their heads away and pretend they knew nothing. This happened quite often.

After a while, as you can imagine, this made the people very sad, and sometimes when they thought no one could see, they would cry quietly by themselves.

This went on for quite a while, war after war, until one day there rose up a very bad king, almost worse than the last one, because he had terrible weapons of mass destruction which could wipe out the tiny kingdom in one fell swoop. He also liked to scare people very much...

He especially liked to scare little children when they were fast asleep in their beds, all warm and comfy. When he was sure every little child was asleep, having sweet and lovely dreams, he would push a buttton and send lots of big and powerful arrows over to the tiny kingdom which would make the sirens wail and loud, loud booms go off in the dark night. Many people didn't think he could send his arrows so far and land where he wanted them. But he did. And this frightened the little children and made them afraid in the night. And the evil king laughed and laughed.

What were the people to do? As usual, when they were in trouble, they were alone.

But then a very amazing thing happened !

In the tiny kingdom there rose up a righteous man from among his brothers and he said to the people: "Be not afraid, look around you, for there are more that are with us than those who are against us."


And the people looked around, and lo and behold their eyes opened to the supernatural. What did they see? Millions of angels surrounding the tiny kingdom on all sides. Big angels, small angels and even medium- sized angels. Some with the faces of men and some with faces that glowed like fire. Some with big strong wings and swords of steel and others more delicate with lacy wings and beautiful voices. And all rested on the hills and borders of the tiny kingdom to protect the people from all evil.

And the people cheered up, and deep in their hearts they knew they were not alone...

So when very bad times came, and many arrows fell, and people lost their homes and were sad, they would comfort each other with the words of the righteous man who was their brother "there are more that are with us than those who are against us."

And the people were comforted and no longer afraid. Even the tiniest baby was no longer afraid. Sometimes the animals, especially the dogs and cats and some very smart horses, seemed to understand.

And the war waged on....

In the court of the evil king there was a special court jester brought there by the evil king to make him laugh and keep him entertained when he was bored. He was a chubby little man who liked to do somersaults and make funny faces and speak riddles that no one could understand. He always wore a red dish towel on his head .and had a very scruffy beard.

There were also many others the evil king had brought into his royal court. There were many clowns of all sizes and shapes, military advisors from distant lands, magicians who could do all sorts of amazing tricks, conjurers, shamans, and ladies-in-waiting, musicians, and jugglers and even a trained
pony who could speak sometimes
And they kept the king entertained at all times so he wouldn't have to think too much.

PART TWO

But sometimes the evil king became distracted and angry anyway. No matter how hard he tried he just couldn't seem to make the people of the tiny kingdom afraid anymore. He ranted and he raved, he jumped up and down and screamed and killed people. But the people of the tiny kingdom just went about their daily life trying to do good in this world and they were not afraid.

"What should I do?" he screamed to his favorite court jester. The court jester thought and thought and scratched his balding head. "I?ve got and idea," he said. "Let's have our people pour all the cooking grease from all the cooking pots in the land into the beautiful blue sea. When the people of the tiny kingdom see all the birds and fishes die , they will surely be afraid."

The evil king liked that idea very much and he rushed right out to send his advisors, magicians, conjurers, ladies-in-waiting and even the talking pony to get right on it.

Soon the beautiful blue sea was filling up with the oil and grease from all the cooking pots in the land of the evil king. And all the people of the world saw the fishes and the beautiful birds begin to die and they were angry and sad and a little afraid of a king who would stop at nothing.

The people of the tiny kingdom were also sad and angry and said among themselves that the evil king was a very bad man indeed, but they were still not afraid. They went on with their daily life trying to do good in this world.

Of course this made the evil king madder and madder and he screamed to his advisors , "Do something!!!"

As time went by, the people of the tiny kingdom became weary of the game of the evil king and they wanted to end the war. They also began to notice that even though the angels protected them from the most terrible evil , they were not actually able to win a decisive victory.

They came to the righteous man who was their brother. 'What can we do?' they asked.

He said: 'The angels are here to protect our land and the people, but they cannot win the war for us. This is something we ourselves must do.'

"We are a small people on a very tiny land, without fancy weapons and hardly any money. The evil king has lots of people and a very large kingdom with endless amounts of black gold and dangerous weapons. Of course, our army must fight with all its strength, but we must also use our most secret weapon. Our most secret weapon is doing good in this world. We can do this by remembering to be kind to each other, visiting friends when they are sick and helping sad children to laugh. Being good mothers and fathers, caring for one another and caring for animals and birds, too."

"By playing beautiful music and singing sweet songs of love and peace. By dancing with real joy and by saying good things to each other and by doing what you know is right in all situations."

"By doing these things you will be tippng the scales in the balance of good and you will help goodness to win and only then can we live in peace."

The people of the tiny kingdom liked the words of the righteous man who was their brother. And they knew in their hearts that he was right.

So they began right away to work extra hard at doing good in this world. Children spoke kindly to each other and helped one another. People visited each other when they were sick and children helped their mothers wash the dishes. All the animals were brushed and played with, and little girls left special food on the edge of the forest for the wild animals and birds. The children laughed and the musicians played, the dancers danced and the painters painted.

And on each of the seven mountains sat seven beautiful princesses who would play their harps with the golden sound and sing sweet songs of love and peace. Soon the air was filled with the beautiful music and it began to waft gently on the breezes and soon filled the whole earth

And the trees began to gently sway to the lovely sound and they moved as if they were dancing. Even the wild animals became friends with each other and would lay down together at night when they would sleep.

Soon the sounds drifted over to the land of the evil king and he heard it in his ears day and night. It began to drive him crazy, along with his advisors, magicians, conjurers, shamans, ladies-in-waiting and even the talking pony.

After a while, the army of the evil king couldn't shoot their arrows straight anymore and all the arrows kept coming back on their own heads. Rain from the sky became greasy and black , everything was smoky and dirty all the time and the sun never seemed to shine anymore.

One day after many sleepless nights, the evil king had an idea. " I will build for myself a special secret room deep under the earth with very thick walls and no sound will be able to penetrate."

He had his builders start immediately to dig a very deep and big hole and every night the built the walls thicker and thicker until finally the evil king was satisfied the walls were thick enough that no sound could penetrate.

He went in and shut the door and it was absolutely quiet. All winter he stayed there, day after day, night after night.

One day, there was a terrible earthquake and the room shook and shook and everything inside moved and swayed.

When it was all over, the evil king fell into a deep sleep, and woke to find himself floating in a sea of shining black oil. "Help. I give up," he cried , but there was no one to hear and the sea of oil started to rise higher and higher. Finally, the bed tipped over and with a very unceremonious plop, the evil king left this world, drowned in black oil, just like he had done to the fishes in the sea, and the very beautiful birds before him.

And the people of the whole world cheered when they heard the news, and they danced in the street and hugged each other.

And from among the people of the tiny kingdom there rose up a very good king, strong and gentle, who ruled his people with justice and honor. And his fame went out to all the earth. People came from the far corners of the world to meet him and to see an entire kingdom where goodness and joy and kindness lived side by side.

And soon the peoples of the other lands stopped quarreling with each other and began to realize that to do good in this world is the secret they had been looking for.

And soon the whole earth began to live in peace.

******
The Butterfly

by Anonymous

One day a small opening appeared on a cocoon.

A man sat and watched for the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through the little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gone as far as it could and could go no further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining
bit of cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were G-d"s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into the wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If G-d allowed us to go through life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly.

I asked for Strength.. And G-d gave me difficulties to make me strong.
I asked for Wisdom.. And G-d gave me Problems to solve.
I asked for Prosperity.. And G-d gave me Brain and Brawn to work.
I asked for Courage.. And G-d gave me Danger to overcome.
I asked for Love.. And G-d gave me Troubled People to help.
I asked for Favors.. And G-d gave me Opportunities.

I received nothing I wanted. I received everything I needed.


 

 

 

 

REMARKABLE STORIES OF GENEROSITY

In the days to come ........ 

by Shoshanna Harrari

"For Lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing bird is come......"
Song of Songs 2:12

The promises of this future world seem a dream to us now, as we live in a "real" world filled with wars and bloodshed. Truth, wisdom, and kindness are more and more becoming precious treasures in a world of darkness and sorrow. Stories of Y2K, plagues and tragic tales fill the airwaves and newspapers. From our present place in the here and now, things look pretty bleak indeed.

If we can lift our eyes from the gritty road beneath our feet, it is possible to catch a glimpse of an amazingly beautiful future. The promises of the times to come are of a beautiful Garden of Eden world, filled with truth, justice, and love. All of humanity will be there, joyfully, to support each other in whatever way possible so that each of us may be encouraged to fulfill our own destiny. The harp has a big part to play in all of this. However each of us are involved with this incredible instrument, as players, therapists or listeners, we will probably agree that the harp has positively changed our lives and those around us for the good.

In Hebrew the word for harp is 'nevel'. It is said that it was named so because the sound of the nevel is so beautiful that when all the other instruments heard it they became ashamed. Though its origins are from long ago (3 to 4 thousand years ago), it is spoken of in scriptures as having its destiny firmly rooted in the future.

From the earliest days, its purity of sound and high vibrational tone was universally connected with healing prayer, meditation, spiritual warfare and prophecy. It was the instrument of choice for the musical accompaniment for the psalms of King David, the music in the Temple, and the prophecies of many of the Biblical prophets of old. In the future world, where all people are family, and kindness is the norm, the harp in its sweetness and purity will finally reach its rightful place as the crown of all musical expression. For us as harpmakers, we realize that the road to the future begins today. Whatever actions we take at any given moment lay the foundation that our children's children will inherit. Consequently, when we build a harp, we build it of Temple quality, as if it were to be made for a king or Levitical priest and will last a thousand years. This takes a lot of time and patience. Each harp is built like it is the first one, with the goal in mind to bring forth the "voice" of a tree to merge in harmony with the voice of a harpist and to connect with the eternal .

To this end we are constantly innovating and modifying to produce instruments of devotion and prayer. Consequently, we encourage the owners of these harps to use them as a tool to look deep into their souls and bring forth "new songs" hidden within. These will be the future music of tomorrow....

********

 ...The site on which the Holy Temple was built was once the property of two brothers. One had a wife and children, the other did not. They lived together on one house - happy, quiet and satisfied with the portions which they inherited from their father. Together they worked the fields with the sweat of their brows.

And the harvest came. The brothers bound their sheaves and brought them to the threshing floor. There they divided the crops of the field into two parts equally between them and left them.

That night, the brother who had no family lay on his bed and thought: I am alone, but my brother has a wife and children. Why should my share be equal to his? And he rose from the floor, took the stalks from his own sheaf , and added them to the sheaves of his brother.

That same night, the other brother turned to his wife and said: "It is not right that we have divided the crop into two equal parts, one for me and one for my brother. He is alone and has no other joy or happiness, only the yield of the field. Therefore, come with me, my wife, and we will secretly take from our share and add to his." And they did so. In the morning, the brothers went out to the threshing floor, and they wondered that the sheaves were still equal. Each one decided to himself to investigate. During the night each one rose from his bed to repeat his deed. And they met each other on the threshing floor, each with the sheaves in his arms. Thus the mystery was explained. The brothers embraced, and kissed each other.

And the L-rd looked with favor on this threshing floor where the two brothers conceived their good thoughts....and the children of Israel chose it for the site of the Holy Temple.
  - MIDRASH (Vayikra Rabba)

*****

 

A few weeks ago, a group of women came into our store. We played the harps together, sang some songs, and I told them many stories and legends about King David and the harps of ancient Israel. We also spoke about the healing power of music and its connection with miracles.

Afterward, one of the women came up to speak to me privately. She told me a special story about her grandson, born with cerebral palsy, who is now 15 years old. Though he had many struggles and problems in his life, his one joy was music. For some amazing reason he excelled in music and could play different instruments. Within music he could find joy and peace in his heart to rise above his troubles and frustrations.

She said that she felt very strongly that when she heard the sweet sounds of David's harp she wanted to bring home a harp from Jerusalem for her grandson. The problem was she just didn't have the finances to do it. She did not know what to do. Quietly she said a small prayer.

At that moment, another woman from the group walked over and said "You know, I feel that I would like to buy this harp for your grandson. My diamond ring was recently stolen and just before we left for this trip to Israel I received the insurance money for it. I don't care about jewelry, and I would much rather do something special with the money. G-d has put it on my heart to buy this harp for the boy."

We were in awe of this incredible act of generosity. No one could speak for a few minutes. With disbelief, the grandmother broke the silence and asked "Do you really want to do this?" Her friend replied "With all my heart."

Normally we create our harps by custom order, but there happened to be one harp in the store that was not built by order, it just 'happened' to be there ready and waiting. It was as if the harp also found its destiny in this miraculous story. The very harp we had all played upon that day, became the harp taken home for her grandson.

Her heart's desire was met with another's ability to give - to make possible what seemed impossible. We at the House of Harrari want to wish everyone a year filled with the blessings of hope, generosity, and love, and to continue to make amazing stories like this come true.