I was reading an interview with Bob Dylan (yeah, I know!!) last night and I came across this amazing quote from the interviewer (Jonathan Cott – Rolling Stone 1978). He got it from Rabbi Dov Baer, a Hassidic rabbi.
In the service of God, one can learn three things from a child and seven from a thief.
From a child you can learn:
- always to be happy,
- never to sit idle,
- to cry for everything one wants.
From a thief you should learn:
- to work at night
- if one cannot gain what one wants in one night to try again the next night
- to love one’s co-workers just as thieves love each other
- to be willing to risk ones life even for a little thing
- not to attach too much value to things even though one has risked one’s life for them – just as a thief will resell a stolen article for a fraction of its real value
- to withstand all kinds of beatings and tortures but to remain what you are
- to believe that your work is worthwhile and not be willing to change it.
I have no idea what it all means but it sure sounds profound.
Here is another, from the same source but, I think, from a different rabbi:
You can learn something from everything. Even from a train, a telephone, and a telegram.
From a train – learn that in one second one can miss everything.
From a telephone – learn that what you say over here can be heard over there.
From a telegram – learn that all words are counted and charged.
mishmashmax 