April 2010
Dear Friends—A story,
Once, a man lived who was so wealthy he could have had seven palaces--one for each
day of the week. He was so rich he could have enjoyed cream-filled desserts every
night. He chose not to spend his money on these things. Instead, he bought books,
because he loved to learn! Not millions of books (though he could have), but several
thousand of the choicest books. After all, he understood that even if he lived to 120
years old and he read one book a week, that would total 5200 books in a lifetime. He
knew to choose what he read carefully.
He also spent his money on teachers. After forty years of learning, he realized he had
learned with the greatest teachers of the land, the mediocre teachers, in fact all the
teachers. An outcry escaped from his lips: "Is there no teacher I have not learned
with?" His servants went scurrying through the land to try to discover one more teacher
that their master had not met. They checked all the cities and small villages too, with no
luck.
One servant refused to give up. He searched in the farthest reaches of the kingdom,
and there, to his delight, discovered a wise teacher. All the villagers said she could be
met at the basket maker's tent, midafternoon, in the village square. SHE, he thought to
himself. All right, I'll see for myself.
The servant made his way past the brightly colored cloth and citrus, the fresh fish and
pottery, ending at the basket maker's tent. Upon greeting and sharing his journey, the
basket maker said "here she comes now". The servant turned and a young girl with
pony tail flying was skipping through the marketplace right up to the basket maker, threw
her arms around him and squealed with delight, "Papa!"
"Is this a joke?" stammered the servant. Everyone laughed and said together, "Oh no,
she is quite wise" Everyone agreed, so the servant invited the girl and her papa to the
city to meet his master. What could it hurt?
Upon meeting the girl, the Master yelled, "Is this a joke!?" "No my Lord, please give her
a chance. If you do not learn, n I will continue my search for you." "Very well, I will test
her". "Tell me little girl, where do our prayers go when they leave our heart? If God is
good, and all is truly God, how can evil exist in our world? Why does the first words of
God in torah say 'Yehi Ohr VaYahi Ohr'- Let there be light, and there was light? After all,
the sun, moon and stars were not created until the fourth day- what is that first light all
about?"
That little girl answered all of his questions and her answers were numerous and
illuminating. But then she became bored and said, "Let's play Hide and Seek". "Little
girl, I do not play, and if I did I would not play Hide and Seek". "Yes, lets play. Iit will be
fun. You hide first." "Very well, if you insist". On the count of three, that man jumped
into one of the other worlds. The little girl looked all through that home and could not
find him. "Where are you? I can not find you." At that the man came back, saying-
"Ahah! I won. I hid in one of the other worlds. Ooohh, this is a good game, a good
game. You hide now." "Before I hide, I'll let you know that the other worlds are off limits.
They are just too big" On the count of three, the little girl jumped directly into his heart.
The man looked all over. "Where are you, where are you little girl? I give up." Just then,
he heard a small still voice, coming from his own heart, saying "Here I am, here I am. I
thought you knew--the first place you should always look for something you've lost is
your own HEART."
May we all find the maps for our journey from Egypt to the Promised Land tucked away,
safely stored, right inside of our own heart!
Chag Sameach,
Maggid David, Director
school@bajcvermont.com
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