All she wished was to have a righteous and pious son.
Yet, the odds were neatly and firmly stacked against her.
Nature ruled that she would be barren; the Torah ruled הכל בידי שמים חוץ מיראת שמים, a person's righteousness cannot be destined from Above - a pious lifestyle cannot be foretold.
Thus, the odds of Chana's wish coming true were zero - it could not happen. Not by means of nature nor by the rules of the Torah.
This was reality.
Yet, Chana did not settle with this reality.
She fought to create a new one.
I was expecting an important piece of mail for a few weeks, and was anxiously awaiting its arrival.
This Shabbos, I was right behind the front door when the mail fell through the mail-slot. One envelope fell onto another. I could not tell if the piece I was looking for had arrived, but another important looking envelope lay on top of the pile. It was from my mortgage bank...
I am set up for paperless billing, and e-notifications, so my heart raced. My bank only writes to me when there is a problem.
I worried that my last payment did not go through. That would mean the check bounced and there would be a fee from the mortgage bank and my regular bank.
Or was it something else?
I had recently renewed the fire insurance policy, and my broker ensured me that all was in order. Was there a lapse? Did the policy expire?
While on a trip this summer, we were driving on a long stretch of interstate highway. These stretches usually offer interesting sights and much time to think about them.
During one particularly long stretch, I passed two trucks that carried ice cream.
One was a long 18-wheeler, and was probably on its way to a warehouse or supermarket, hauling pallets and pallets of yummy, frozen treats.
The other, less intimidating one, was a traditional, city-street ice cream truck, probably on its way back to the garage after a long day's work.
As I continued driving, I noted another, far more interesting contrast between the two ice cream haulers.
"Though it is a clear day and the sun shines brightly, one feels a change in the atmosphere; the air is different. The Elul air is palpable; a Teshuva wind begins to blow..."
In this Sicha from 5694, the Frierdiker Rebbe describes what Shabbos Mevorchim Chodesh Elul felt like in the town of Lubavitch.
In another Sicha, the Frierdiker Rebbe describes waking up with a start, upon hearing the Shofar on Rosh Chodesh Elul, from the 6 o'clock Minyan.
All she wished was to have a righteous and pious son. 
