Fun_People Archive
1 May
Tradition!

Content-Type: text/plain
Mime-Version: 1.0 (NeXT Mail 3.3 v118.2)
From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Fri,  1 May 98 11:13:00 -0700
To: Fun_People
Precedence: bulk
Subject: Tradition!

X-Lib-of-Cong-ISSN: 1098-7649
Forwarded-by: Nev Dull <nev@bostic.com>
Forwarded-by: cyoung@learningco.com (Celeste Young)
Author:  David Kadansky at Comptons

During a service at an old synagogue in Eastern Europe, when the Shema
prayer was said, half the congregregants stood up and half remained sitting.

The half that was seated started yelling at those standing to sit down, and
the ones standing yelled at the ones sitting to stand up...

The rabbi,learned as he was in the Law and commentaries, didn't know what
to do. His congregation suggested that he consult a housebound 98 year old
man, who was one of the original founders of their temple.  The rabbi hoped
the elderly man would be able to tell him what the actual temple tradition
was, so he went to the nursing home with a representative of each faction
of the congregation.

The one whose followers stood during Shema said to the old man, "Is the
tradition to stand during this prayer?"

The old man answered, "No, that is not the tradition."

The one whose followers sat said, "Then the tradition is to sit during Shema!"

The old man answered, "No, that is not the tradition."

Then the rabbi said to the old man, "But the congregants fight all the time,
yelling at each other about whether they should sit or stand..."

The old man interrupted, exclaiming, "THAT is the tradition!"

© 1998 Peter Langston