Custom Made

Here is a very powerful mashal.

There was once a king who had five yards of the world’s most beautiful fabric created, and then had his loyal tailor custom-tailor an exquisite suit out of it. A problem arose when one of the king’s jealous advisers suspected the tailor of using less than the five yards of fabric and stealing the remnants.

The king was extremely perplexed by the accusation that his tailor had stolen any material and insisted the tailor prove to him that all five yards had been used to make the suit. The tailor claimed that the only way he could prove it would be to take apart the suit piece by piece, which would destroy it. The king was so baffled that he agreed.

The servants bought in a fifteen-foot table, and the suit was laid out. The tailor began by cutting the cuff off the jacket sleeve and exposing the inner lining. “You see, Your majesty,” he began, “an ordinary suit has just one inner lining. A better suit has two, and a great suit has three linings. I used no less than six linings!” As he spoke, he carefully laid out each small piece of material.

Then he continued to cut the inner fabric of the sleeve. He explained how a regular suit was constructed, how a better quality suit was made, and how he had used a totally different method of construction to design this suit. “Because this suit was for Your Majesty, I wanted it to have every possible quality. In order to achieve this I used fabric in ways never before conceived.” The tailor continued painstakingly to cut each layer of the fabric he had so lovingly fashioned.

After he had taken apart the entire jacket and laid out each scrap of material on the table, he began to do the same with the vest and the pants. Slowly and meticulously, he cut each layer and carefully laid it out on the table.

The king and his entourage were all watching with rapt attention as the tailor took apart the last few inches of what had once been a pair of pants and laid it out on the table.

As the last piece of fabric was set down, the king gasped because there on the table lay exactly five yards of fabric!

There was not an inch of material missing!

The tailor had clearly shown not only how honest he was, but how well he had constructed the world’s finest erstwhile suit.

“Your majesty,” the tailor said, “now you see how everything fit. Now you understand how every piece of fabric was used. Now you appreciate all the genius that went into the creation of this most wonderful garment. How it pains me that now there is no longer any suit!

Don’t take apart Hashem’s world (like the tailor).

Remember that your difficulties are custom tailored for you! Hashem knows what is best for you and what you need at every stage in your life.