A few weeks ago our Chabad house air conditioning needed repair. New York City summers are notoriously hot and sticky, so it was quite urgent. Thank G-d, our congregants were patient and continued coming to shul in the meantime!
I had a technician come down, take a look, and give us an estimate. For some reason it required two trips, but he assessed that the unit was installed in the ‘70s and would cost $69,995 to fix.
I thanked him for his time. There’s a lot we can do with $70,000, but we’re certainly not going to spend that to fix the AC.
I called a second technician who also came multiple times before sending us an estimate of $4832. My initial reaction was glee. We would save $65,000 with this guy! But the discrepancy seemed too extreme. How could they be charging such vastly different prices for the same job? Something didn’t sit right.
I emailed him back, “I’ll pay the $4832 if you can guarantee me that the AC will work when you’re done. After I see that it’s running properly, I’ll pay you.” Unsurprisingly, he never responded.
The third technician came down and sent an estimate of $13,500, but noted that he cannot guarantee it will work even after that, because the unit is so old. He suggested we install an entirely new system which will cost around $18,000.
And that’s what we did. Thank G-d, our AC is now working and shul is once more a cool and pleasant place to be.
But the truth is, there are no guarantees in life. The one and only thing we can rely on is G-d.
We read in the Torah, “If you follow My statutes and observe My commandments and perform them, I will give your rains in their time, the Land will yield its produce, and the tree of the field will give forth its fruit.”
And our sages teach, “G-d never remains in debt.”
It couldn’t be clearer. If we follow the Torah, He guarantees us goodness in return. When we do a mitzvah, He will pay us back. It’s the only thing we can rely on with 100% assurance.