Dispatches from a Path

There was a child who was deeply pious and devout. One day he kept vigil through the night with his father, the sacred scriptures nestled on his lap. Many gathered in their home that evening. However, as the night drew on everyone else in the room grew tired. Soon, all had fallen asleep except for the child and his father.

The child turned to his father and said, “These people sleep instead of pray, it is as if they were dead.”

But his father simply replied, “Beloved son, I would prefer that you slept like them rather than slandering them.”

–Peter Rollins

There once was a young man who sought high and low to find a learned rabbi who would be able to teach him the ancient wisdom of Hebraic logic. The story goes that after a prolonged search the young man finally found a suitable rabbi and asked if the rabbi would be willing to tutor him. Upon seeing the youth the rabbi simply smiled and said, “You are too young and have too little life experience for the lessons that I have to teach. Come back to me in ten years.”

The young man was full of a confidence bordering on arrogance and responded, “I may be young but I have already mastered Aristotelian logic and symbolic logic. Test me. Ask me any question you want and I will prove to you that I am ready.”

The rabbi thought for a few moments and then choose a question. He said, “Two men descend a chimney. When they get to the bottom, one man’s face is covered in soot. Tell me, which one washes his face?”

In response the young man immediately said, “Why, that is easy. It would be the one with the soot on his face.”

In response the rabbi turned to leave, saying, “Of course not. What are you thinking? It is the man without the soot who washes his face, for he sees his friend’s complexion and thinks that he too must be dirty.”

“Please don’t send me away,” replied the young man. “Test me again. Any question at all.”

And so the rabbi thought for a moment and said, “Alright, listen carefully this time. Two men descend a chimney. When they get to the bottom, one man’s face is covered in soot. Tell me, which one washes his face?”

“Why, the man without the soot on his face,” replies the young man. Again the rabbi shakes his head, “You are not listening in the right way. It is obvious that it is the man with the soot on his face who washes. He sees the reaction of his friend upon reaching the ground, can taste the soot from his lips, and can feel it stinging his eyes. Now leave me in peace.”

“Please,” replies the young man, “test me one last time, as I think I have it now.”

“One last time,” replies the rabbi. “This time I want you to really listen. Two men descend a chimney. When they get to the bottom, one man’s face is covered in soot. Tell me, which one washes his face?”
“The first answer I gave,” shouts the young man, “but for different reasons.”

“No, no, no,” says the rabbi as he leaves. “They both wash their faces. How could someone descend a chimney and not think that their face would be covered in soot?”

by Peter Rollins

There was once a mother whose child tragically died only a few months after her birth. The woman was so distraught at what had taken place that she carefully bound the infant’s body to her own with cloth and went in search of someone who would be able to resuscitate her.

She travelled far and wide to doctors, magicians, and wisdom teachers but no one could offer any help. In her travels she heard a rumour about a holy man who lived high up in the mountains and who possessed the power to work great miracles. So she went in search of this great saint, eventually locating his small dwelling in an isolated patch of land high about the town.

Upon meeting the man she relayed her story while he listened intently. After she finished he thought for a while and then spoke with compassion, saying, “I can help you, but only if you gather up a handful of mustard seeds from the home of someone who has not suffered the pain of loss.”

The woman immediately went on the quest and travelled throughout the city in search of a single home that had not been overshadowed by the pain of separation. However she could not find a single place. Nevertheless, as she travelled from house to house and heard the stories of other people suffering she slowly began to come to
terms with her own. She was eventually able to take her beloved child and bury her in the soil of the world.