“I just bought two lottery tickets, Rabbi. One for myself and one for you,” my dear friend John called to tell me. “I didn’t even look at the numbers on yours. I just mailed it straight to your house. All I ask is that if you win and build a magnificent Chabad center on the Upper East Side, as I am sure you would, please put up a nice plaque with my name on it.”
Everyone’s been dreaming about their winnings as the pot grows larger and larger. My sisters in South Africa all asked me to buy them tickets. I did, and told them that I want a generous portion of their earnings if they win!
Ah…to dream is so blissful.
Five years ago, I bought a lottery ticket at my local store and videoed the encounter, which went viral. At the time, I said there was a higher chance of my wife giving birth to quadruplets (and she was already in her ninth month at the time) than of me winning the lottery.
Well, guess what?
My wife gave birth to our fifth child shortly thereafter, and two years later – to the day – our triplets were born. Since we celebrate their birthdays on the same day, we call them our quads.
Ever since, I’ve decided not to mess with the odds! The likelihood of giving birth to triplets is 1 in 10,000, quadruplets is 1 in 70,000, and winning the lottery is 1 in 13,983,816. With the prize money being close to a billion dollars, we are all buying tickets. But why, when the odds are literally stacked against us? Wouldn’t we better off just holding onto the ticket money?
There is something to be said for hope. Even a sliver, a 1 in 13 million chance, we cling to it like a beacon at sea. And it’s not without purpose. This tendency is the secret to our nation’s survival.
Since the dawn of civilization, the odds have been stacked against us. All our enemies bet against us. The Hitlers, Sadams, Arafats, Stalins, Pharoahs, Romans, Greeks, etc. All felt confident our chance of survival was nil, but we clung to our faith, our prayers, and our almighty G-d, and proved them wrong.
And still, we cling to that hope. Every day – in fact, multiple times per day – we hope and pray for the arrival of Moshiach and the era of peace and tranquility that the Redemption will usher in. What are the odds? Definitely higher than winning the lottery!