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Adversity

A Maggid arrives in a small town and as was custom a notice was placed on the wall of the synagogue that we would deliver a sermon that Shabbat.  Saturday morning came and the notice had been torn down.  He began his discourse with this story:
“One way my wife went to visit a relative and I was left alone.  In the afternoon I went to the butcher and bought a tongue.  He instructed me how to prepare it, and since I was afraid I might forget that he said, I wrote the instructions down on a piece of paper and pasted it onto the tongue.  On the way home I was a attacked by a dog, that made a dash to grab the tongue. The mongrel only managed to seize the slip of paper.  So I said, “Dog, you can keep the paper, for as long as the tongue remains with me I will be able to help myself.”

There is more than one way to deal with adversity.


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