A story related to me by my husband who heard it from a local rabbi. My apologies to all involved if I botch the story-telling:
A rabbi was learning with his students. A knock came upon the door. In came a young boy.
Young Boy: Is a radish kosher?
The students watch as the rabbi pulls book after book off the shelf, examining each one carefully. A talmud comes down, a mishnah berurah, a kitzur shulhan orach, and other books of Jewish laws. The students smirk, wondering to themselves why the rabbi is spending so much time on such a simple question. The rabbi looks up from his books.
Rabbi: Yes, my dear boy, a radish is kosher.
Boy leaves. Students ask rabbi, why did you spend so much time on this?
Rabbi: I wanted him to know I would take him seriously. If I do not spend time on this simple question now, he will be turned off from answering more complicated questions in the future.
This is somewhat related to my post on the Daughters of Tzlafchad, in which Moshe showed empathy with these women when they questioned him.
great story. great lesson! thanks.
Thanks, Phyllis. I appreciate your commenting; this poor little post was sitting here all day, and I have over 33 comments on the one below…
When your post appeared on Friday I wanted to comment it (it’s an execellent story for a teacher like me) but it was impossible to do so. It said something like “blocked for comments”.
Ilana-Davita, thanks for telling me about that “blocked for comments” note. I’ve never had that problem before. I “unblocked” it. One of those weird WordPress things, I guess.