ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
G. David Schwartz the former president of Seedhouse, the online interfaith committee. Schwartz is the author of A Jewish Appraisal of Dialogue, and coauthor, with Jacqueline Winston, of Parables In Black and White. Currently a volunteer at Drake Hospital in Cincinnati, Schwartz continues to write essays, and fiction. You can reach me at DavidSchwartzG@AOL.com (513) 821-6414 and/or 1211 Morts Pass Cincinnati Ohio 45215
One fine day the fours sons of Jason Sucrut decided to leave the houses which they owned to find the answer to the mystery of their small dwellings. They were convinced an enigma was involved which needed to be discovered. Each son remembered that their father's dwelling was much larger than their own, and none of them could fathom why theirs should be so small. To make matters worse, their father's fathers dwelling was larger, larger still.
The four sons researched the ancient records to discover why dwellings shrunk as the families expanded. The ancient records, however, had very small print, which made the boys eyes tired and sore, and made them sleepy as well. They decided more could be accomplished by thinking the thoughts necessary to discover the answer to their problem. Each agreed that the exact method for discovering the thoughts themselves required indefatigable resilience and tenacity. Nevertheless, each set out to think thoughts.
The first son proposed a mathematical solution. He used a hypothesis to assert that more and more people were filling the world, and therefore living space was dwindling. His brothers, not realizing how close he was to the answer -- because he was the oldest -- pointed out the foolishness of his assertion. They noted that some families had four children some none, and some twelve. On such as basis, the dividends of dwelling could not be even, as they apparently were.
The second son proposed an ecological explanation. As people became more and more aware of the resources available and/or failing, they intuitively required less and less space for living. His brothers pointed out the illogic of this false solution by affirming that (a) the hypothesis asserts a dichotomy between awareness and intuition, each of which exclude one another; and (b) the total lack of concern, as evidenced by their own action, concerning dwindling resources. After all, each wanted bigger and therefore better quarters.
The third son proposed an economic model. He elaborately described the means and modes of production as well as the inflation of surplus or labor and oppression. His brothers dismissed his arguments both by shaking their heads dismissively and failing to comprehend his obviously metaphysical insistence that progress and history have anything at all to do with the division of land, which fell their lot in life.
The third son giggled at the unobvious play on words between "land" and "lot in life."
The forth son scratched his head for the longest time, enjoying this exercise quite a bit, then tendered his hypothesis. "I think," he said, "that our dwellings are no smaller than anyone else's. I think, rather, that we ourselves are much bigger."
Each of his brothers scratched their heads, enjoying the exercise quite a bit. Indeed, so well did they enjoy the push up of the digital nail, the sit up of the condensed index finger, the deep bend of the knuckle, and the isometric scrape of the scalp -- accomplished in rapid succession, resembling a virtual Olympics of dander roughing -- that they thoroughly, if implicitly, forgot exactly what the problem which brought them together may have been.
Our story would have ended here except that their great, great, great, great grandmother Hildegaard (yes, she was still alive) had overheard their entire conversation. Yes, her hearing was simply that good, although her ears were slightly misshapen by the encroachment of wrinkles.
"Boys, come over here. Boys," she called them, "I'll tell you what, I'll tell you! Once the founder of our family owned the entire world, all of it. But he had children, and before he died he divided all of his property, which was everything!, between all of his children. And these children had children. And they divided up their estates. And these children had children and divided their properties evenly. And so on this went, and on, until you children were left to inherit the portion of your father, the portion your father divided between the four of you. And I'll tell you two truths, boys, one's which you would do well to remember. First, you are going to have children, oh, yes, you are!, and you will divide your capital between them. Second, the founder of our family was a god, and all the people who live on earth today are related to him in some manner or another. And our father desired that we divide everything, which comes into our hands, divide it until it becomes infinitesimally small. Only in that manner, boys, will it be seen that the 'nothing which is left' is identical to, and an extension of, the 'everything that ever was.' And whosoever knows this secret will live, as I am proof, long, long into life. Do you understand me, boys?"
But none of the boys were listening. She was old, and they thought of her as senile. The did not listen, also, because they were also very deeply involved in scratching their heads.
READER'S REVIEWS (1) DISCLAIMER: STORYMANIA DOES NOT PROVIDE AND IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR REVIEWS. ALL REVIEWS ARE PROVIDED BY NON-ASSOCIATED VISITORS, REGARDLESS OF THE WAY THEY CALL THEMSELVES.
"MIDRASH AND WORKING OUT OF THE BOOK Author House, Bloomington Indiana Publisher and year of publication 2004 Author G David Schwartz ISBN 1-4184-8956-5 (sc) Page count 675 Studies have been interesting and unique. The teachers of old were both intelligent and interesting. G David Schwartz, a former interfaith propagandizer had made a book which is a unique reversal of, well the biblical text as well as some new remarks on what is ripened between the good old days and the brilliant ones to come. Schwartz traces the art of Midrash into and through transcendent passages of not just religion but life in all its aspects. His studies range from intensive analysis to polite ribbing on the bible. He analyses Midrash, the Torah (Bible) in fact, in an out of terms of scholarship impinged and desired with humor. One little chapter, My Early Years, speaks as Abraham beginning as a toy maker, an idol maker. And the fictionalized piece intertwines true biblical facts with humorous sequences of story. Schwartz also has a parody of tales in the Talmud, the official rabbinic writings. In one, the tale of Rachel is told with delightful teasing. Schwartz does not simply invent fiction but fictionalizes other stores to become new, unique, and interesting to modern society. Though meaningful essays, interesting and humorous parables and copes of on line discussion in humor filled transcripts, Schwartz does something like the rabbinic enterprise: makes causal live related to the lives of today. The abstraction of what intellectual life is made into is transferred and transpired into a new way to learn that which is true and that which is hidden in these truths. Schwartz makes the work of Midrash into a quite joyous and quite necessary way of thinking and acting into new and better thinking; and thoughts I may extrapolate, make living more interesting. Schwartz has made such an interesting and tantalizing book that any few criticisms I may have are just not worth mentioning. " -- Alan Free, new tyour , use, N Y.
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