2,000 feet, 69 days, 33 miners, 1 lesson

2,000 feet, 69 days, 33 miners, 1 lesson
by Rabbi Yisroel Engel

Everything we experience in life serves as a hands-on lesson in our purpose on Earth.

Consider this: Thirty-three miners plunge into two months of darkness 2,000 feet below the surface, disconnected from their source. After 69 days of eternity, the moment they were praying for, has arrived. Their dream became a reality. They would finally see the light of day, the joy of freedom, the hug of their loved ones, and the tears of their children.

However, they needed to prepare for this transition before a 13 foot capsule would whisk them up and away to heaven on earth.

Special socks, dark glasses, high calorie fluids, properly anchored straps, and an escape hatch were precautions that were set into motion. To make it out safely, they were instructed, they must follow these guidelines.

And follow they did.

The miners were not doctors, scientists, nor engineers. They had no inside knowledge of the capsule's mechanism.

But they didn't need to know.

What was important is realizing that this is their connection to light, to freedom and to life.

The story of the miners is the story of our souls.

Our souls come from a source of light. Divine light.

And then it descends into this material world, exchanging a heaven of pristine light for an earth of confusing darkness.

Indeed, the Mishna (Avot ch. 4) tells us the soul is "forced" to descend against its will.

It would rather stay and bathe in light and holiness. But it descends for a purpose, a higher calling.

It will confront darkness and transform it. It will make this world a place where G-d chooses to "reside."

G-d engineers our "rescue mission" from above and provides the spiritual cable which elevates us, connects us to the divine, and empowers us to bring light into a world of darkness, meaning into a world of chaos, and goodness into a world of evil.

G-d told Noah to enter the capsule - the ark which would save himself and his family from the raging floods of evil and the vicissitudes of life.

The Hebrew word for ark/capsule is "teiva," which also means "word."

This is the deeper meaning of "Enter the teiva," says the Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Chasidic movement.

Entering the "word" means entering the words of prayer and the words of Torah.

Prayer and Jewish teachings are the food and garments for the soul.

Enter the protection of Torah and mitzvot (commandments) which elevates us and indeed, the entire world, to our divine source, the surface of light.

"A candle is a mitzva and Torah is light," King Solomon proclaims in Proverbs. Every mitzva reveals so much light in this world.

One more mitzva can bring Moshiach today.

And this will change the world. For good.


Rabbi Engel is co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Colorado and spiritual leader of Bais Menachem Synagogue in Denver.