Two yeshiva boys set out to hike from one town to another and
on the way became very hungry. They saw
a loaf of bread. The hungry boys were overjoyed at the apparent miracle.
One was ready to tear the bread in half and begin eating but
the other stopped and spoke.
“How can a person they so anxious to eat? Before we eat, let’s
look at the beauty of the loaf of bread. It is good to look at. You realize that
everything on this earth can be counted as two instead of one, because there is
the thing itself and thought that it exists?
It is as if there are two breads. We have the bread and have the thought
of bread in our thoughts.”
”Well now that you have given me such a great philosophical explanation
I think we can start eating,” the first boy said.
”You may eat,” the other responded. “As for me, I am going
to look around first.”
When the other boy returned he asked, “Where is the bread? Where is my portion?”
"Didn’t you tell me that we had two breads? I just ate up
one and left the second for you.”
Often we engage in semantics, philosophy, lofty thoughts, and metaphysics yet there is a limit to such ruminations.
It is good to seek knowledge but it is better to be kind.
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