The carrot, the egg, and the coffee: responding to life’s challenges

Seeing that his daughter was having difficulties dealing with life’s challenges, her father boiled a carrot, an egg, and coffee. To which of these are you similar, he asked: to the carrot, which appears hard on the outside, but softens and crumbles in the boiling water; to the egg, which seemed delicate and full of liquids, but which turned hard despite its outward similarity to its original appearance; or to the coffee, which turned the same boiling water into a valuable product, which smells and tastes so amazing? How do you deal with challenges? Indeed, to which of these are we similar....

Rabbi Noam Himelstein studied in Yeshivat Har Etzion and served in the Tanks Corps of the IDF. He has taught in yeshiva high schools, post-high school women’s seminaries, and headed the Torah MiTzion Kollel in Melbourne, Australia. He currently teaches at Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem, and lives with his wife and six children in Neve Daniel, Gush Etzion.