A
teacher was curious about how each of her students celebrated Christmas.
She called on young Patrick Murphy. “Tell me, Patrick, what do you do at
Christmas time?” she asked. Patrick addressed the class: “Me and my 12
brothers and sisters go to midnight Mass and sing hymns, then we come home and
put mince pies by the back door and hang up our stockings. Then we go to
bed and wait for Father Christmas to come with toys.”
“Very nice, Patrick,” the teacher said. “Now, Jimmy Brown, what do you do
at Christmas?” “Me and my sister also go to Church with Mom and Dad
and we sing carols, and after we get home we put cookies and milk by the
chimney and we hang up our stockings. We hardly sleep, waiting for Santa Claus
to bring our toys,” Jimmy replied. “That's also very nice Jimmy,” she
said.
Realizing there was a Jewish boy in the class and not wanting to leave him out
of the discussion, she asked Isaac Cohen the same question. “Now Isaac, what do
you do at Christmas?” Isaac said, “Well, we go for a ride and we
sing a Christmas carol.” Surprised, the teacher questioned further. “Tell
us what you sing.” “Well, it's the same thing every year. Dad comes
home from the office. We all get into the Mercedes, and we drive to his
toy factory. When we get inside we look at all the empty shelves and we sing,
“What a friend we have in Jesus.” Then we all go on a cruise to the
Bahamas.”
Rabbi
Mitchell Wohlberg
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