Blessed with a mis-matched watch strap.
Rabbi Zelig Pliskin, a well-known psychologist and author, wrote a story about a time he visited Israel and asked a fellow rabbi for a blessing. The rabbi gave him the following blessing: “May you be blessed with many difficulties.”
Pliskin was surprised and asked, “What kind of blessing is this, may you be blessed with difficulties?”
The rabbi responded, “May you be blessed with many difficulties means that you should have plenty of annoyances in your life. Because it is only when you have one annoyance, when you have just one difficulty, that your life is truly in trouble.”
How true!
When we have one pressing worry (say a loved one that is dying or another tragedy occurs in our life), that concern is at the forefront of our mind and overtakes all other day-to-day worries – we only have that one difficulty. But, days in which we have many difficulties are regular days.
I wear a silver-faced watch that belonged to my father. When the strap broke, I bought a new one. After a few days passed, I realized that this new watchstrap has a gold clasp on it. The gold clasp doesn’t match the silver face.
I realized that this watch is a great barometer for me because if it is something I’m annoyed by, I’m doing fine. I want to keep this at the top of my annoyance list for as long as I possibly can because when this is the thing that is annoying me, I know I’m truly blessed.
Find something in your life that you can use as a barometer for how annoyed you should be. And I wish you plenty of blessing and difficulties.
This week’s #wisdom_biscuit: Be elated that you have many problems.
Five More Wisdom Biscuits
June 11, 2026
1. I know garbage “You should put the garbage bins back where they were before you remodelled,” I tell the managers of the Grant High School construction project when they host a neighborhood forum. “Funny thing, that,” the lady in charge says, “It’s a bit counterintuitive.” She explains something city planners learned about beaches. “If there is a garbage
