Churchill's Teaspoon

Churchill's Teaspoon
By Faige Lobel
Public Relations Director, Manhigut Yehudit USA
Av 5765 (Aug, 05)

While some are involved with post-mortems, Manhigut Yehudit looks forward. Our task is to offer belief-based candidates for the leadership of the Jewish nation. Our goal is to rectify the State of Israel, creating an authentic Jewish society in which we will be proud to live.

We must learn from the mistakes that have been made -- and go forward with renewed energy. Pertinent to a discussion of tactics and decision-making, resolve and perseverance is this most interesting story told by Rabbi Anschelle Perl, Chabad Rabbi of Long Island, New York.

The Story:

During World War II, Winston Churchill took a nation that was battered and destroyed, that really had nothing but a handful of airplanes, and gave them courage to survive an onslaught that lasted many years. He had the vision that Britain would survive, and his personality carried the people through. An anecdote was told in Britain...that Churchill had flown to a secret meeting with the German dictator and the Italian dictator. Churchill told the other two that this was killing many people, "Just surrender," the German said, "so we wont have to bomb your cities."

"In Britain we are a betting people," Churchill told him, and showed them a pool that contained carp. "Let's make a wager. Whoever can catch a carp in this pool of water without using any of the traditional means of catching fish -- no nets, no rod, no hook -- will win the war. Everyone will surrender to him, and he will be the winner."

The German agreed to the bet. He whipped out his gun and started shooting at the carp. But you can't shoot a carp in the water and eventually he quit. He turned to the Italian, "Mussolini -- Your turn." Mussolini jumped into the pool and tried to catch the carp with his hands. After an hour, exhausted, he admitted that he couldn't do it.

Churchill had been drinking a cup of tea. He took his teaspoon out of his cup, dipped it in the pool, filled it with water and threw it over his shoulder. He repeated the action again and again. When they asked him what he was doing, he said, "It may take forever but we are going to win this war," and he continued to spoon the water out of the pool.

The story goes on from there, telling everyone to increase in following G-d's commandments, one at a time, to bring Moshiach...but let's focus on the first part of the story: What lessons can we learn from Churchill's strategy?

The dig in your heels approach, focusing on the long haul, speaks clearly to us. Despite our grief at the (temporary) loss of Gush Katif and Northern Shomron, and our anguish for our displaced brothers and sisters, we must not allow ourselves to be dragged down by temporary setbacks. Some battles will be won and others not. We will focus on winning the war...and we will win.

But then there is the issue of tackling the problem with a teaspoon -- yes, you read it right, a teaspoon. Couldn't he at least have used his cup? Or perhaps there was a drain at the bottom of that pool and all he had to do was to "pull the plug" and let out the water.

And what if, while Churchill was busying himself with a teaspoon, the enemy was also busy...pouring in gallons of water?

Clearly we must keep our eyes wide open. If there is a drain -- if there comes an opportunity for a major and decisive victory we must seize it. At the same time we must watch out for enemies carrying buckets of water, because the Leftists will not be sitting on their hands while we move forward. And all the while we must keep busy with the teaspoon -- better yet, many teaspoons...then cups and buckets -- till the people of Israel wash away the evil.

Will it really make any difference in the scheme of things, in practical or in spiritual terms, whether our effort is of the teaspoon or plug pulling variety? Well, maybe there is a drain at the bottom of the pool, and then again, maybe there isn't. We must approach the issue from a Jewish perspective. Some people believe, for example, that giving charity is -- in essence -- a spiritual matter, that giving a penny is just as good as giving much, much more. Others take issue with that notion. Surely, to the recipient it makes a great deal of difference. Receiving a penny is not the same as receiving thousands of dollars...or shekels. If we really want to accomplish something, our contributions and our work must be equal to the task, and this requires sustained and steady effort.

We learn in Pirkei Avot (Chapter 5): Of the four types of people who give charity, only one type receives the highest praise, and that is he who wants to give and also wants others to give. This is the Jewish lesson we must learn from Churchill's teaspoon. Not only must we increase our own efforts, we must reach out to the nationalist public in the Likud. It is not enough that we are members of Manhigut Yehudit, not enough that we vote for candidates who believe in G-d. Our understanding and resolve much reach the nationalist public. If we do our job right, the Likud membership will know, beyond any doubt, that the only acceptable candidate for chairman of the Likud -- for Prime Minister -- is the candidate who believes in G-d.