The man: "
Rabbi, what is a Jew’s task in this world?"
The rabbi: "A
Jew is a lamp-lighter on the streets of the world. In olden days, there was a
person in every town who would light the gas street lamps with a light he
carried on the end of a long pole. On the street corners, the lamps sat, ready
to be lit. A lamp-lighter has a pole with a flame supplied by the town. He
knows that the fire is not his own and he goes around lighting the lamps on his
route."
The man: "But
what if the lamp is in a desolate wilderness?"
The rabbi:
"Then, too, one must light it. Let it be noted that there is a wilderness
and let the wilderness be shamed by the light."
Not satisfied, the
man asked: "But what if the lamp is in the middle of the sea?" to
which the rabbi responded: "Then one must take off one’s clothes, jump
into the water, and light it there!"
"And that is the Jew’s mission?" asked the
man.
The rabbi thought
for a long moment and finally responded: "Yes, that is a Jew’s
calling."
The man continues –
"But rabbi, I see no lamps."
The rabbi responds:
"That is because you are not yet a lamp-lighter." So, the man
inquires: "How does one become a lamplighter?"
This time, the rabbi
answers: "One must begin with oneself, cleansing oneself, becoming more
refined, then one is able to see the other as a source of light, waiting to be
ignited. When, heaven forbid, one is crude, then one sees but crudeness; but,
when one is noble, one sees nobility."
-Rabbi Cheryl Peretz
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