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Thought for the Day: Taking Advantage of Tachanun

There is a well known mashal about a savage who saves the king's life.  The king rewards the savage by letting him spend an entire night in the royal treasury and take all he wants.  The savage, not understanding the king nor the value of jewels, just sees boxes of rocks that he knows he is supposed to bag up.  Bemoaning his luck, he works very lazily and ends up with almost nothing.  We, of course, wouldn't be anything like that poor savage.

Now imagine a slightly upscale savage, he has a credit card backed by the king's bank.  This savage uses the credit card freely, barely giving a thought to the huge debt being accumulated.  Then, one day the king announces that anyone who would like may come on Thursday and talk his debt down.  All he has to do is admit his mistakes, admit that only the king can help him, earnestly declare that he will try to do better, etc.  In fact, the king is so magnanimous that he even allows that the poor savage can come to him every Monday and Thursday to talk his debt down.  Moreover, the king (knowing the savage is a busy man) allows him to deliver his supplications during the regular morning meeting in the king's palace.  I think even the lowest kind of savage (the one within...) would understand that if you just explained it to him properly.

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