The Pot of Gold

The pot of gold - June 21, 2009

As Rachel stood in the midst of her family members, her anxious mother, her weary father, her kid brother who wanted to know everything and her little sister who was confused, she was not sure how to begin.

Her mother had told her that she must explain to them all why her last pregnancy had ended in a small casket that was buried in the old Jewish cemetery. Why the stone would be unveiled in a years time and why the headstone would ultimately have stones of remembrance across the top, had to be a part of the story. But the most important message had to be why the family pot of gold, fondly called “The Inheritance” was dwindling and how that would affect them all.

Her mother was physically and emotionally exhausted from the ordeal of a miscarriage, the brief hospitalization and the toll it took on a woman, who at the age of 41, had lost a precious baby that she had wanted so much.

The other part of the story had to do with the economic crisis, a depression masquerading as a recession, that was not only changing her family’s financial base, but the bank accounts of all the families in their neighborhood, the Jewish ghetto where Orthodox Jews lived peacefully close to one another, with treeless backyards and graffiti ravaged sidewalks and walls, willingly, in order to be a Jewish family unit of comfort and hope to one another.

Rachel stood with her family recalling the “Unity” circle she had participated in at summer camp, when each camper had to define themselves and share one key attribute to the others in the circle. If one said they were “selfish” and the group didn’t want selfish kids in their circle, they could deny admittance to that person and she had to sit out. If that person decided however to change that attribute and said they were trying to be more generous, then the other campers might decide to let that person back in. Even if that camper was not sure she could deliver on her newly chosen attribute, if she pledged to try, she was let back in.

So here Rachel stood, about to tell her family the story of “The Inheritance”.

“So”, she began, “Imagine a family that worked very hard and loved one another very much. As they worked, the father was able to deposit gold coins in a large iron pot, bigger than the one momma uses to make chicken soup in when the whole block has a cold.” When the momma was able to do a little sewing for others, she got small gold coins to deposit. When the oldest daughter got her paycheck from being a school teacher, she would take some of the money she stored in the bank and asked for gold coins to deposit in the pot. When the poppa got the money he earned from selling beautiful jewelry to rich people who loved a bargain in his small vendor’s stall in the 48th Street Jewelry Exchange in the big city, he took as much as he could, turned it into gold coins and deposited them in the pot.”

“Imagine how happy God was when he saw the busy-ness of this family and the shiny gold coins almost peeping from out of the top of the heavy pot. One day, the family even saw a rainbow, brightly shining dripping with the last drops of rain that revealed this day glow rainbow with one end definitely dipping into this pot clearly for all to see who could see.”

Rachel continued, “Then it began to happen that poppa had to take out a few coins that had been so lovingly deposited in the pot to give to the doctor for tests to see if the baby that was growing inside of momma was alright. Signs had begun to appear that made them question whether or not they would have an adorable, night squealing baby in their home within a few months. Drops of blood, an exhausted momma who never had energy to cook anything for anyone, arguments behind closed thin doors, were the telltale indications that something was not right.”

Then one morning the kid sister and brother awoke to go to Gesher, their private Jewish school a few blocks away, when Rachel had to tell them of an emergency visit in the middle of the night that their parents had to make to the hospital. Even though it was called Jewish Memorial Hospital, they all knew that some people who weren’t Jewish would be in attendance on their mother, and they became silent hoping in deep hopes that God was not sleeping last night while they were snoring in their beds and that their momma and the almost new baby would be okay.

No one went to school that day and as they ate leftover boiled chicken and horseradish sandwiches on homemade challah, they waited for some news.

Finally momma and poppa came home and momma walked very slowly to the couch and asked for a blanket to cover her legs and feet while poppa paced trying to figure out how to tell the rest of the family what had just happened.

Soundlessly, poppa sat down in his chair and put his head in his hands. He rocked back and forth as if he were davening, praying to God who was not sleeping but who had just let something happen that made him sad inside and out.

Then momma finally broke the awful silence and said, “Rachel, we are home without a baby or even the dream of another baby. Our pot of gold has less gold coins than before. We may not even be able to pay the yenta this year for you to find a husband. Fewer people are buying the jewelry your father is selling and this is not a good day.”

Rachel was in deep thought, just as she might have been after being verbally assaulted by an inquisitive kid in the class she taught who always wanted to know why she dressed old-fashioned, with tights in the summer, shirts buttoned up to her neck, long sleeves and not at all like his sisters who loved to party and have fun.

That’s how she began the story.

She continued, “The momma and the poppa of this family were very sad because they had always promised their children that one day the pot of gold would be their inheritance, the money they would get when their parents were no longer alive. It was that money that would protect them from economic disaster and would be used to help them buy houses, pay for doctors and pay for all of the kids and maybe even the grandchildren to go to Gesher and then the Yeshiva to learn as much as their minds could hold and more.”

Rachel continued, “One time some gold coins had to pay the doctor, one time they had to pay the hospital, one time they had to use the coins for food and schooling when poppa had to have his gallbladder out and couldn’t work for two months.”

“Even the red line that angrily crosses the circle of a cigarette sign to indicate “No Smoking” began to appear across the front of the pot of gold and the drops of rain that used to glitter from the rainbow that ended in the coins seemed to be drying up.”

“The family was so upset about the pot that was emptying that they didn’t even notice a
second pot that was placed near the first. Every time the family had to remove a gold coin of wealth from the first pot, a gold coin of love was deposited in the second pot and it was almost brimming with coins now.”

Momma and poppa were startled. Rachel was a good girl, an excellent school teacher, not given to lying. What would posses her to make this up? Why would she give her brother and sister false hope at this time when they needed one another more than ever, when they needed to love one another no matter what word they declared about themselves when they stood in the unity circle.

Rachel went on with growing confidence, ignoring her parents confusion.

“You see, the only way that coins could be deposited in the second pot was for someone in the family to give love to the family. The more their love involved sacrifice, the more gold coins of love could be deposited in the pot. The family was so upset by the disappearing coins from the first pot, that they didn’t even notice the second pot, not to mention the growing pile of gold coins in the second. These coins were even heavier and shinier than the first bunch.”

As the picture of the second pot grew bigger and more real in the minds of momma and poppa, their faces changed from sadness to the discovery of something they had never even considered. Their sadness erupted into surprise and joy and the children began to laugh and dance around as though it were someone’s wedding.

They had lost one fortune, true enough, but they had just discovered another inheritance they had earned without even knowing anything about it. It was an inheritance of love that would be more real and usable for them than any deposit of gold in any pot or bank could ever be.

They didn’t even know that they would spend a lifetime discovering what this inheritance of love was all about. All they knew now was that their tears and sadness were gone and their loss was not a loss at all, but a real gain for them all.