A good employee

Hi,

"Abba Chilkiyah was the grandson of Choni haM'agel [who was known for success in praying for rain]. When the world needed rain, the sages sent a messenger to Abba Chilkiyah, he would pray, and rain would come.

"Once they needed rain and sent a pair of rabbis to Abba Chilkiyah, to ask him to pray for rain. They went to his house and he wasn't there. They went into the fields and found him hoeing the fields. They greeted him, but he didn't turn to face them."

[some of the story removed for time and space]

"They later asked Abba Chilkiyah, 'When we greeted you, why didn't you turn to us?' Abba Chilkiyah responded: I was hired as a day laborer, and I didn't want to stop working [as that would be cheating my boss]."

(Talmud, Taanit 23a-b)

המצפה לישועה,
Mordechai