The Coachman's Wheels

Rav Dov Berish did all he could to help yeshivah students obtain exemptions from army service. Some approached him and argued that, to strengthen the IDF and protect the citizens of Israel, yeshivah students would have to be conscripted too. He answered them with a mashal.

A coach was stuck at the bottom of a steep hill. The terrain was so hilly and the load so heavy that the horses could not pull it. The coachman coaxed the tired horses with sugar cubes and carrots. When that did not work, he took off some of the heavy luggage and parcels, and finally emptied the coach entirely, but the horses still could not climb. At his wits' end and ready to give up, the coachman had one last idea. He unlatched the heavy iron wheels and took them off the coach, reasoning that their weight must be what was holding it back.

"You are guilty of the same flawed logic as the coachman," said the Tchebiner Rav. "It is only in the merit of the Torah study of the yeshivah students that you win any wars and gain any victories. Now you wish to take off the wheels of the coach. Without them, the coach will not go anywhere at all."