A university student asked a Jewish rabbi to teach him how a religious Jew approaches the Scriptures.
“I understand that you Jews have a peculiar way of reasoning when you come to the Talmud and the Torah, and I want you to teach it to me.”
The rabbi replied, “I’m sorry, but you’re too old for that.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Well,” the rabbi told him, “we have three questions we ask a boy before he enters into the study of the Talmud. If he can answer them, we let him into the study. If he can’t, he has no chance.”
The student replied, “Ask them of me. What’s the first question?”
The rabbi said, “The first question is this: Two men fall down a chimney; one comes
out clean and the other is dirty, which one washes?”
The student answered, “Oh, that’s easy. The dirty one washes, of course.”
The rabbi said, “Wrong. It is the clean one that washes.”
How do you reason that?” asked the student.
The rabbi answered, “When they fall down the chimney, they look at each other, and the dirty one sees the clean one, so he thinks he is clean too; but the clean one sees the dirty one and thinks he is dirty, so he washes.”
“All right,” the student reflected, “there is a strange logic about that. But give me the second question.”
“The second question is this: Two men fall down a chimney. One comes out dirty,
and the other clean. Which one washes?”
The student replied, “That’s the same question!”
“No it isn’t, it’s an entirely different question.”
“Well,” the student said, “I think I can answer that. It is the clean one that washes.”
The rabbi answered him, “Wrong. They look at each other. The dirty one looks at the clean one and says, ‘Isn’t it wonderful that two men can fall down a chimney and come out clean?’ But the clean one looks at the dirty one and says, ‘Look how dirty we’ve got.’ And the dirty man holds up his hands and sees that they are dirty. So he washes.”
The student pondered for a few moments, then said, “What’s the third question?”
“Two men fall down a chimney…”
The student interjected, “That’s the same one!”
“No it isn’t,” the rabbi answered, “it’s an entirely different problem!
What’s the answer?” the student asked in frustration,
“I don’t know.” The rabbi said, “Neither of them wash because it is a ridiculous story to begin with! How could two men fall down a chimney and one come out dirty and the other clean? So, unless a boy can answer those questions, we never allow him to study the Talmud.”
The story was ridiculous because it had nothing to do with right answers or interpretations, but everything to do with right questions, which the intelligent student in the story seemed to have missed.
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