Like so many others, this week I bought a ticket to the mega millions lottery hoping to win the largest ever prize in US history: $2.04 billion!
And for a moment, I caught myself dreaming about how I would spend the money. I thought about the new building I would purchase for our Chabad center. I thought about our preschool, shul and wounded IDF soldier program—all the ways we could enhance and grow our community and activities. Even after all that, I still had a billion and change left over.
When I checked the winning numbers against my ticket, I sank right back into reality.
Then again, what are the odds? How likely is any individual to actually win? The odds are something like 1 in 300 million, or 0.000000003863%. Compare that to a 1 in 1.2 million chance of dying in a lightning strike, 1 in 58,000 chance of dying from a bee or wasp sting, and 1 in 35,000 chance of dying in a cataclysmic storm. There's a higher chance of having identical quadruplets or becoming president of the United States than there is of winning the lottery!
And yet, at one point this week, 25,000 tickets per minute were being sold in California! Dozens of people in our community texted me, “Rabbi, if I win, our Chabad is definitely getting a better building.” Somehow, we all entertain thoughts of winning, despite the virtual impossibility of it.
Why? It's simple. The lottery motto is “Hey, you never know!” And it’s that attitude exactly—someone has to win, it may as well be me—that drives us to buy tickets in hordes.
Indeed, one of the 13 principles of our faith is, "I believe in the coming of Moshiach, and even though he may tarry, I still await his coming every day."
Now, what are the odds of Moshiach coming? What are the chances of finding a cure for aids, malaria or cancer? What is the likelihood of solving the Arab/Israeli conflict? Pretty much, less than 0%. And yet, every day, day after day, we pray for Moshiach and dream of the utopian society his coming will bring.
So if Moshiach is the jackpot, how do we buy a ticket?
It's a small investment, just like the $1 lottery ticket.
Maimonides tells us to view the world as balanced on a scale. One side holds the collective good deeds we have done; the other side all the misdeeds. Any one of us can tip that scale with a single good deed, which would lead to Moshiach's arrival and an era of world peace.
What are the odds of my mitzvah being the final one to tip the scales? Basically nil. But, "Hey, you never know!"
And since we can never know, it's imperative we keep playing the lottery. Do a good deed today. Anything counts. Put a mezuzah on your door. Pray. Feed a homeless person. Visit someone sick. Every single deed is a potential winning ticket.
"Hey, you never know!" Today might be the day.