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It is an
ancient tradition, across all cultures, for the
elders of the community to teach the younger members
Life’s important lessons by telling stories. Here is
a collection for you to read, and take whatever it
is that you need, for yours and your family’s life.
We hope you
enjoy them.
A young
warrior stood in the centre of the village
brandishing his spear and his shield.
“Look at my
spear! It can pierce everything. It is the best
spear in the world.”
He held up
his shield. “Look at my shield. It can withstand
anything that comes against it. It is the world’s
best shield.”
A quiet
voice came from the onlooking crowd. “Then what
would happen,” it said, “if your shield were to meet
your spear?”
A man was
walking on the beach and stooped down and picked up
a pebble. Looking at the small stone in his hand,
he felt very powerful and thought of how with one
action he had taken control of the stone. “How many
years have you lain here, and now I hold you in my
hand.” The pebble speaks to him, “To you, I am a
grain of sand. To me, you are just a passing
breeze.”
A man at
home heard a knock at the door. He opened it.
There was a beggar. He invited him in and gave him
a meal – some hot soup with many little circles of
melted butter floating on the top. When the beggar
left, he thanked the man for his kindness, and
later, clearing everything up, he found as many gold
coins underneath the dish as there had been circles
of butter on the soup. Several days later he told a
friend about this. This man pricked up his ear…
sure enough, there was a knock on his door one
evening. He opened the door and there was a
beggar. He invited him in and gave him soup with
lots of butter put on top – the greedy man expected
a fortune!
The beggar
got up and went, thanking the man. Quickly he
cleared the dishes away to find the fortune. There
underneath the dish was one gold coin… since the
great amount of butter had all joined together to
make one buttery circle on top of the soup!
When the
first whites started getting into Inuit (Eskimo)
country, they found lots of exquisite tiny ivory
carvings everywhere, even in dumps. The ivory was
from seal tusks. When these native people were
stuck in a storm and could not travel, they carved
these things to pass the time. And then they threw
them out because the activity was the thing.
A young
mother was having a hard day, with her two little
children so demanding, several bills in the post, a
broken washing line and a neighbour calling round to
unburden her endless complaints about her family and
life in general. When her husband arrived home, she
broke down in tears which streamed down her face.
He reached over to her and gently wiped away her
moist tear with his finger and drew it down his own
cheek, then the same again on the other cheek. She
smiled – He understood – She understood.
Every
Sabbath eve, after the service, the Rabbi
disappeared into the forest and returned the
following morning. Intrigued, the congregation sent
the cantor to see where the rabbi went. Deeper and
deeper into the forest he followed him until he came
to the cottage of an aged Gentile woman. The Rabbi
began to chop wood, draw water, feed the animals,
and sweep the porch clean.
The cantor
went back to the congregation. “Well, did our
beloved Rabbi go to heaven?” they asked him. “Oh
no,” he replied, “He went much much higher than
that.”
Once,
several members of a Jewish congregation became
helplessly lost in a dense, dark forest. They were
delighted when, suddenly, their very own Rabbi
appeared, who was himself wandering through these
same woods. “Master,” they implored, “we are lost!
Please show us the way out of the forest.”
The Rabbi
replied, “I do not know the way out either, but I do
know which paths lead nowhere. I will show you the
ways which won’t work, and then perhaps together we
can discover the ones that do.”
The wise and
handsome man was reminiscing with good friends who
asked him why he had never married. “Ah,” he said,
“there was a lady in Kashmir but she talked too
much. And there was a beautiful woman in Persia but
she was too jealous for me to live with. And in
Cairo I met a damsel who had every attraction but
she was vain beyond words. Yet I did meet an
enchanting girl in Damascus who had every attribute
a man could wish for, and she would have suited me
perfectly in every way.”
The good
friends leaned forward eagerly. “Then why on earth
did you not marry her?”
“Ah,” he
replied, “she was looking for the perfect man.”
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