A different Alef, Beis, Gimmel

Motek

Sun, Feb 10 2008, 7:33 pm

Reb Mendel Futerfas was a renown and beloved Chasid who passed away in 1995. Many stories abound of his five years of hard labor in a Siberian prison camp for the "crime" of teaching Jews about Judaism and his two decades as the spiritual mentor of the Lubavitch town in Israel, Kfar Chabad.

Reb Mendel, as this wise yet humble man was known, once related a story that he remembered from when he was a five-year-old schoolboy. One day, one of his classmates forgot to bring his bottle of ink to yeshiva. He asked the boy next to him if he could use some ink.

"No," replied the child. "I don't have enough. You should have remembered to bring yours." The reprimanded youngster turned to another child and managed to get some ink from him.

The teacher noticed the exchange but said nothing. A little while later, he asked the boy who had refused to share his ink, if he could show the class the first three letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

The child quickly pointed out the Hebrew letters "alef," "bet," and gimmel."

"Wrong," said the teacher.

The child was utterly confused. "But teacher," he said, "this is what you have been teaching us since we were three years old!"

"No," the teacher repeated. "You are wrong. 'Alef' is: When your friend asks you for ink, you share it with him. 'Bet' is: When your friend asks for ink, you share it with him. 'Gimmel' is: When your friend asks for ink, you share it with him."