You’re The Only One | Rabbi Fischel Schachter

So I'm in camp. This story goes back many, many years ago. Before email and before - maybe even before faxes - I’m not even sure. And I have to get a sefer from someone to tell a story about a certain thing. He said he’s sending it over with his workers that work in the kitchen. Fine. So I'm down the road, and I’m waiting for them to show up, and every time a car comes by, and I’m looking in, and they’re looking at me. And I'm there, and I can't call - there’s no cell phones yet. And I'm walking back and forth, and finally a car pulls up, and there are these four real menacing-looking guys, and the guys that look like they eat bicycle chains for breakfast, you know what I mean? Like, you don't want to mess with them. And they don't look like they have the sefer for me, and they pull up a little further. And then I see things you only see in horror movies and novels. It’s not supposed to really happen in real life. There's a counselor there with little kids. They’re waiting for the school bus. They’re day campers. It looks like they're asking him for directions, and he points. And as he’s pointing, they grab him, and they start pulling him into the car, and he starts screaming! And I’m the only one there! And I can't believe it! I like telling stories. I don't like being in stories! And I run after this car, and I’m trying to pull the guy out! And they're trying to pull them in. And I'm trying to pull the guy out! And at one point, we just, I just yank him out, and we both fall into the mud, and the car takes off, and my heart is racing a thousand times a minute! And by now, the whole camp is converging, everything is happening over here, and I'm laying in the mud, and this guy is laying next to me. And I'm thinking to myself: “I just saved this person! I can't believe I did this! I saved this person!” I get up, and the head counselor’s there, and he gives me this angry look, and he calls me over, and he says: “ You just killed the color war break out!! Who asked you to mix in?!? They didn't tell me it was a color war breakout! So I was the laughing stock of camp, okay? And to add insult to injury, these guys came back and said: “Don't think that you out tug-a-war’d us. We just - it wasn’t part of the script! We didn’t know what was happening, so we just let go. So anyway, So a friend of mine comes over to me. I'm In every comedy skit in this whole camp. And someone says to me: “You know, I envy you.” I said: “What do you envy me about?” He said: “There you are, you're all alone. And you went, and you took on these four guys to try to save someone. I said: You know, he's right! If you would have told me, Schachter, get down there and patrol, and if you see four thugs come trying to kidnap someone, fight them off. Yeah, me, right, sure! And guess what? I did it. I mean I thought I was doing it. Why? Because I was the only one there! If we take every nisayon in our life, and we say: “It’s only me! I’m the only one! Hashem has orchestrated this for me! Hashem can turn over an entire world אותה מקום אותו עת אותו איש to come back to a certain set of nisyonos, set of circumstances. And you have to. You have to stand up to the nisayon. And you can!! You gotta believe you can!! Because if you know it’s only you, then you can.