The One Who Is Dirty

I came across the following story while doing research for a story I'm working on. I love the way the Talmud scholar answers questions with questions that seem to not bear on the initial question. Jesus did the same, many times, though he praised the answers he got as often as he knocked them down.



A goy insisted that a Talmudist explain to him what the Talmud was. The sage finally consented and asked the goy the following question:

"Two men climb down a chimney. When they come out the bottom, one has his face covered with soot, the other is spotless. Which of the two will wash himself?"

"The one who is dirty," answers the goy.

"No, for the one who's dirty sees the other’s clean face and believes his is clean too. The one who's clean sees a dirty face and believes that his is dirty too."

"I understand!" the goy exclaims. "I'm beginning to understand what the Talmud is . . ."

"No, you have understood nothing at all," the rabbi interrupts. "For how could two men have come down the same chimney, one dirty and the other clean?"



from The History Of Anti-Semitism, by Leon Poliakov, translated by Richard Howard