Thirteenth Tale Of Seven Beggars #5
On the fifth day, they were still merry. But they remembered the hunchbacked beggar, and they wept longingly: Where can we find that hunchbacked beggar? If only he were here we would be all merrier.
Just then he arrived and said: I am here.
I have come to your wedding. And he fell upon them and hugged and kissed them.
Then he said, I blessed you before with the wish that you might be like me, but now I grant it by my words as a gift: may you be as I am.
I am not a hunchback at all. No, rather, these shoulders of mine are the exemplar of ‘the little that holds a lot’, the principle described long ago by our Talmudic Sages of old. And I have it on good authority.
Once there was a discussion where people were all boasting on that ancient topic.
Everyone bragged that he had the perfect example of something little that held a lot.
Each scoffed at the other boaster, as they each boasted that their own little something held a lot more than the others’.
But my little that holds a lot far exceeds all of theirs. 211
One boasted that his brain was an example of a little that holds a lot, for his brain held myriads and multitudes of people along with all of their needs and behaviours and their experiences and actions—all of this his compact brain contains.
In this way, his brain is a little that holds a lot—inasmuch as even a sliver of brain holds so many people and all that pertains to them.
But they scoffed at him, exclaiming, You are nothing and the throngs of people in that brain of yours are nothing.
Another spoke up and said, I know a little that holds a lot.
Once I was passing by a mountain and I saw that it was strewn with a great deal of rubbish and filth.
I was astonished, How did all this rubbish and filth end up on the mountain?
A man was there and he said, It all comes from me.
He had settled near the mountain and dumped there the refuse and waste from his food and drink.
This was how all the rubbish and filth piled up on the mountain.
Therefore, a single human being is another example of a little that holds a lot. From one person can come so much waste.
This case was deemed the same as that of the man who carried the multitudes of people in his brain.
One man boasted that he had a little that holds a lot.
He had a plot of land that yielded a great amount of fruit.
If someone later were to measure the fruit produced there, he would see that the total area of the plot could not possibly contain all the fruit it produced.
This is, therefore, another example of a little that holds a lot.
They all were quite pleased by this fine demonstration of a little that holds a lot. 212
Another said that he had a very fine orchard with all kinds of fruit.
Many would visit the orchard, commoners and nobles alike, for it was very lovely.
In the summertime, the common folk and nobility would come for strolls there.
But, in fact, there was not nearly enough space for all of these people.
So this, too, is a little that holds a lot.
This pleased them all as well.
One of them said that his speech was a little that holds a lot.
This man was the privy secretary of a great king.
Many people came to this king, be it to heap praise upon him or ask a favour of him or the like.
Of course, he said, the king cannot grant an audience to everyone, so I condense all that they say into only a few words with which I brief the king.
All the praise and appeals—all that they have to say—is there in my few words.
So there you have it: my speech is a little that holds a lot.
Another said that his silence was a little that holds a lot.
He had been assailed by a spate of accusers and gossipmongers who denounced him and heaped abuse and slander upon him.
Yet, whatever they said to defame him and whatever aspersions they cast, he kept silent.
This was the solution to every difficulty he confronted and to all the calumnies uttered against him.
He responded to all with his silence. So you can see that his speechlessness is a little that holds a lot.
One said that he himself was a little that holds a lot.
For there was once a poor man, and this poor man was both sightless and very large, while the fellow speaking was quite diminutive.
And, yet, he guided this large, sightless poor man.
Therefore, he is a little that holds a lot.
After all, the sightless man could have 213 slipped and fallen, but the small man supported and guided him.
So he himself was a demonstration of a little that holds a lot, since he was such a small man who held this large sightless man.
I was there, the hunchbacked beggar continued, and I declared that this was all true, Indeed, you each have something of a little that holds a lot.
I also understand the true essence of all your boasts.
The least of you who has spoken—the small man who boasted of guiding the large sightless man—is, in fact, the greatest example. But I am greater still than all of you.
Now, he who boasted of guiding the large sightless one really meant that he is the force that guides the celestial circuit of the moon in its darkness.
For the moon is also sightless, having no light of its own and depending on others to be visible.
Even though he may be small and the celestial circuit enormous, the existence of the world is owed to him, because the world needs the moon.
Therefore, he is truly an example of a little that holds a lot.
But my little that holds a lot exceeds all, and here is why:
Once there was a group of scholars who were contemplating how each animal had its own preferred place for shade.
Each animal has its own shaded place where it prefers to take its rest. And so, too, with the birds.
Each bird has its own branch, wishing to rest only on it and not on another, while other birds choose branches of their own.
The group of scholars wondered if there could be found a tree in whose shade all animals would take their rest and in whose branches all the birds would rest as well.
They concluded that such a tree must exist, and they wished to go to it.
The delight of this tree would be boundless; all animals would gather there along with all the birds, causing no harm to 214 one another as they mingled and played there together.
It would be a great delight to be by that tree.
So the scholars began considering how to reach the tree.
A debate broke out among them that could not be settled.
There was one who said that to get there one must head east, while another claimed that one must head to the west. One said this way and another said that way until they had no idea which was the right way to get to the tree.
Along came a sage who said, Why are you pondering the direction you must take to get to the tree?
First you must consider this: Who are the people who may reach the tree, because not everyone can.
To this tree none may come unless he possesses the qualities of the tree.
The tree has three roots: one root is Faith, another is Reverence and the third root is Humility.
And the trunk of the tree is Truth. Truth is the very body of the tree, from which its branches extend.
Thus no one may come to the tree who does not have those qualities: Faith (by maintaining a deep belief in God), Reverence (by being God-fearing), Humility (by not holding oneself in high regard) and Truth. So the sage told the group.
But not every scholar in the group possessed all these qualities, only some.
Yet there was a great sense of unity among them, and they did not want only some of them to head off to the tree while others were left behind.
Thus they stuck together, even if it meant waiting for their friends as they strove towards the qualities to enable them all to come to the tree together.
And so they did. They endeavoured to develop the necessary qualities of Faith, Reverence, Humility and Truth.
When everyone 215 had honed these qualities, they were of one mind and agreed on which direction to take to get to the tree. So they all set out.
They walked for a while until they saw the tree in the distance. But on closer inspection, the tree was not standing in one place, indeed it had no place at all. How could they reach it?
I was there with them and I spoke up and told them, I can bring you to the tree, even if it is not fixed in any place.
For the tree transcends space, it is above and beyond any place in this world.
Behold, here, my little that holds a lot.
Although you have considered the little that holds a lot to be a small place that contains far more than could ever be placed in it, each still exists in space, takes up space, and is, after all, confined by space.
Yet, even so, I can bring all to the tree, to a place that transcends all space.
For I am the middle ground, the point between space and where space is transcended.
This is my little that holds a lot: the nexus between the very edge of space and where space is no more.
And I took them up and brought them to the tree.
Thus I have it on good authority that I am the exemplar of a little that holds a lot. That is why I appear to have a hunchback, because I bear so much, for I, myself, am a little that holds a lot. Now I grant you these words as a simple gift, that you may be like me.
And there was great celebration and much merriment.
On the sixth day they were merry, too, but they also spoke longingly, Where can we find that lame-handed beggar?