This interesting story, by anthropomorphism, grants a personality to the Sea of Galilee. It becomes a partner in our spiritual practice and our physical wellbeing.  Through this we may be challenged to become aware of the role that it plays, and thereby take responsibility for its welfare as well.  

 
About two hundred years ago there was a terrible famine in Eretz Yisrael, in the Land of Israel, The situation was particularly bad in the north, in Tiberias and Tzfat, where hundreds of Yidden [Jews] were mamash dying of starvation. So the leaders of those communities got together and decided to send a shaliach, a messenger, to the Jews of Russia, to try to raise money to buy food. Everybody waited anxiously for the messenger to come back, but a long time went by and he didn’t return. And nobody knew what had happened to him.

At that time the Holy R. Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk was living in Tiberias. Now, R. Mendele had a special custom – he always went to the Kinneret, to the Sea of Galilee, right before Shabbos to daven minchah [pray the afternoon prayer]. One Friday afternoon he went to the Kinneret as usual, but he didn’t start to pray. He just sat down on the shore and stared at the waves. And he looked so sad that the Chasidim who were with him became very worried. Still, he was, after all, the Rebbe, and they didn’t like to disturb him. So they just sat down on the sand beside him, and they all silently watched the water.
Time went by, and still R. Mendele didn’t daven. One of the Chasidim dared to whisper, “Rebbe, don’t you think we should pray?” But R. Mendele didn’t answer. He just kept staring into the Kinneret. It got darker and darker. The Rebbe still refused to move. His followers couldn’t understand what was happening.

Suddenly, just before it was totally dark, R. Mendele stood up. He stretched, he smiled, he mamash laughed out loud. Then he turned to his Chasidim: “Thank you so much for waiting for me. Come, let’s daven.” And he led them in the afternoon prayer with great simcha, with utmost joy.
After the davening one of his followers said to him, “Rebbe, I hope you won’t be offended but I can’t help but wonder. First you were so sad, and now you’re so happy. What’s going on?”

And R. Mendele answered, “Do you remember the messenger we sent to Russia, to collect money for food? We’d received word that he had succeeded in his mission and was on his way home. Then he suddenly disappeared, and we couldn’t find out where he was or what had delayed him.

“Today, just as I came here to the Kinneret, Heaven showed me the whole story. When our messenger reached Istanbul, the Turkish Pasha arrested him and confiscated all the money he had collected. There was no way he could get the money back – or return home.

“Now, everybody knows that the Holy Wall in Jerusalem is the gateway to Heaven for all our prayers. Everybody’s prayers, from all over the world, have to come first to the Kotel, and from there they go up before G-d’s Holy Throne. But what most people don’t know is that before going to the Holy Wall, all of our tefillos, all of our words before G-d, have to go to the mikvah to be purified. And the mikvah for all the prayers of the world is here – the Kinneret, the Sea of Galilee.

“When the Pasha had taken our messenger’s money, it decided that it could not allow so many Jewish lives to be lost. So the Sea of Galilee went on strike. It absolutely refused to cleanse or purify anybody’s prayers until the Pasha released both our shaliach and the money.

“This caused a big commotion in the Heavenly Court. One side said that everybody, even the Pasha, has free choice, and the Kinneret had no right to try to interfere with what he was doing. And on the other side was the Sea of Galilee, which just kept saying, ‘I cannot stand by and let the starving Yidden die. I will not serve as the mikvah for one single prayer until the Pasha relents and the Jews get their money!’

“The battle between these two sides has been going on every since our messenger disappeared. Today, Heaven let me watch as the Court made its final decision. You see, the world can’t exist if its prayers don’t reach G-d. And the prayers can’t go up without first being purified.

“The Kinneret held out, and in the end, it won. Heaven finally influenced the Pasha to change his mind; I just heard him announce: ‘Release the messenger. Let the money go on to Israel to save the suffering Jews.”

Reprinted with permission from Carlebach, Rabbi Shlomo, told by Tzlotana Barbara Midlo, Lamed Vav (Jerusalem: 2004), pg 199-200.