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Steve's avatar

A rabbi is lying on his deathbed. His wisest disciple kneels beside the old rabbi, the second-wisest behind him, the third-wisest behind, and so on, down the length of the bed, into the hall, down the stairs, and out into the street where the simplest student is at the back of the line.

The wisest student leans over and in a soft, reverent voice asks, “Great Rabbi, before you go to be with God, please tell us: What is the meaning of life?”

The rabbi raises his head a little, slowly opens his eyes, draws a rattling breath, and with great effort says, “Life... Life is... is like... a river.” He shuts his eyes, dropping his head back onto the pillow.

The wisest student turns to the student behind him and says, “The Rabbi says life is like a river!” That student turns to the one behind him and repeats this wisdom, and so on and so forth, out of the room, down the hall, down the stairs, and outside to the end of the line, until the second-simplest student turns to the simplest and says “The Rabbi says life is like a river!”

The simplest student, realizing he has no one to tell, contemplates it silently. After a moment, he taps the student ahead of him on the shoulder and says “Excuse me, but... why is life like a river?”

This message gets passed up to the front of the line, until the second-wisest whispers in the wisest student’s ear: “Moishe wants to know why life is like a river.” The wisest student leans over the Rabbi and again, soft and reverently, he said, “Great Rabbi, your students have brought forth a question! Please, O wise one, tell us: why is life like a river?”

The old rabbi raises his head again, slowly opens his eyes, draws another rattling breath, and says... “Okay, so it’s not like a river....”

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KLS's avatar

Your early experiences, books you’ve read - all come out in your writing showing a depth of thinking that is refreshing in its rarity in today’s so-called journalists. They feel more like secretaries taking dictation than original thinkers.

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