Parashat Ekev: The Parachute Packers

Captain Charles (Charlie) Plumb, a US Navy fighter pilot who had flown 75 combat missions during the Vietnam War was having a quiet meal with his wife in a restaurant a few years ago.

During the evening, he was approached by a stranger who looked at him and said,

“You’re Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!”

“How in the world did you know that?” asked Plumb.

“I packed your parachute,” the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, “I guess it worked!”

Plumb assured him, “It sure did. If your chute hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.”

(https://medium.com/jacob-morgan/this-is-the-true-story-of-charles-plumb-5eeb7eba334e)

Understandably Charlie spent a sleepless night thinking about this anonymous sailor.

Plumb says, “I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said, ‘Good morning, how are you?’ or anything, because, you see, I was a fighter pilot, and he was just a sailor.”

These days, Captain Charlie Plumb is a motivational speaker. He describes his experiences in the Navy and how he was shot down over Hanoi on his 75^th Mission only five days before what should have been the end of his tour of duty. He continues by detailing the way he was captured by the North Vietnamese and spent the next 2,103 days in captivity in a POW camp with his first cell being only eight foot long and eight foot wide.

You can view his story (which is quite harrowing at times) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLTc0K77Q7w

Charlie realised how this man’s meticulous (and I would imagine quite tedious) task had literally saved his life. There he was in a cabin somewhere below deck carefully folding parachutes into a backpack attached to a harness. And that was it. He would finish one and start on the next and so on.

This vital work brought home to Captain Charles Plumb a profound and life changing lesson on how interconnected our lives are and how grateful we need to be for everything we have. Even the things that we consider to be inconsequential.

It’s a powerful lesson for us all.

Parashat Ekev continues the narrative started in Va’etchanan which describes Gd’s beneficence towards the Jewish people.

If, indeed, you heed these laws, always vigilant to keep them, the L-rd your Gd will keep with you the covenant and the love He forged on oath with your ancestors. He will love you, bless you and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and wine and oil, the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flock in the land that He swore to your ancestors to give you…. (7.12-13)

Moshe reminds and warns the people against the arrogance of believing that their success is solely due to their own efforts.

“You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the Lord your Gd, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth” (8:17-18).

Rabbi Sacks ztl often spoke about the concept of “covenant and love” (brit ve-chessed). The covenant, he said, is a partnership between Gd and human beings, where each has responsibilities and obligations. Chessed, or loving-kindness, is the expression of that covenant in our actions towards each another.

In Judaism, we have a concept known as Hakarat Hatov which literally means ‘recognizing the good’ or as we refer to it – gratitude which is precisely the realisation that Captain Plumb had when he met that sailor.

Each of us has our own parachutes that were packed by someone else. Do we always recognise the time taken by the members of our community who go shopping to buy the delicacies that adorn our Kiddush Table? How about those who stand outside our shuls in the pouring rain and cold weather to ensure that we are safe? It might even be the young girl or the senior citizen at the cash till who packs our bag in a way that protects the more delicate items (such as eggs) that could easily be crushed or fall out of the bag.

The parachutes packers might be the drivers who travel all night and stay away from their loved ones to ensure that our fruit and vegetables reach their destination or the health care visitors and nurses who go out of their way to look after us. They might even be the people who stuff envelopes that enable us to attend polling stations or complete surveys.

Who is your parachute packer?

It is easy to take everything we have for granted but sometimes, we need to remember that the lives we lead are as plentiful and pleasant as they are precisely because of those people who spend time ‘packing our parachutes’.

And ultimately, we should remind ourselves that Gd is the ‘parachute packer’ who ensures that our crops receive the right amount of sunshine and rain to ensure that we have food on our tables whenever we wish.

Rabbi Sacks wrote:

“To be a Jew is to be a guardian of hope, a witness to the future, and a bearer of blessings.”

To be a ‘bearer of blessings’ we need to remind ourselves of those who are enabling us to do this. To recognise those in our communities, far and wide who pack our metaphorical parachutes.

May we carry these lessons forward, living lives of gratitude, responsibility, and loving-kindness to all. With all the negativity that surrounds us, we can play our part to make the world a kinder and more considerate place.

Perhaps, we might begin by packing somebody else’s ‘parachute’.

Shavuah Tov.