When the great Rabbi Israel Shem Tov saw that the Jews were being mistreated, he went into the forest, lit a sacred fire and said a special prayer, asking God to protect his people. And God sent him a miracle. Later, his disciple Maggid of Mezritch, following in his master’s footsteps, went into the same [...]
Archive for the ‘Short Stories’ Category
There is a fable of the sun and the wind. They quarreled about which was the stronger, and the wind said, “I’ll prove I am. See the old man down there with a coat? I bet I can get his coat off of him quicker than you can.” So the sun went behind a cloud, [...]
There is a tribe in the North American Arctic who believe that all things on earth have a soul that exists in a miniature form of the body that holds it – so that a deer has a tiny deer inside it, and a man has a tiny man inside him. When the large being [...]
A boy and a girl were insanely in love with each other. They decided to become engaged. And that’s when presents are always exchanged. The boy was poor – his only worthwhile possesion was a watch he’d inherited from his grandfather. Thinking about his sweetheart’s lovely hair, he decided to sell the watch in order [...]
This is an excerpt from “By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept” by Paulo Coelho. Man runs into an old friend who had somehow never been able to make it in life. “I should give him some money,” he thinks. But instead he learns that his old friend has grown rich and is [...]
Once upon a time a very wicked man died and ended up in Hell. As he was brought before King Yama, (the Lord of Hell in Buddhism), he pleaded to the King, “I am asking your Majesty to be merciful because I always recited Namo Amitabha Buddha.” pleaded the wicked man. “Can you give me [...]
In the lush bushes beside a small pond there lived a family of frogs. ♫ Heaven is there for frogs, and earth is there for frogs – so that we have room in which to live. ♫ Yippie! ♫ Water is there for frogs, and the air is there for frogs. ♫ Yippie! ♫ The bugs in the air are [...]
It was said of Abba John the Dwarf, that one day he said to his elder brother, “I should like to be free of all care, like the angels, who do not work, but ceaselessly offer worship to God.” So he took off his cloak and went away into the desert. After a week he [...]
An apprentice asks his master, what’s the worth of one bowl of rice? The master answers that it depends on who gets the bowl of rice. If a housewife gets it, she will add some water and cook it. About half an hour later, a bowl of cooked rice will be ready and worth one [...]
There was once a very wealthy man who was so miserly that he couldn’t bear to spend even a single cent of his vast wealth. One day the Zen master Mokusen paid him a visit. “If I held my hand in a fist like this forever, what would you call it?” he asked the man, [...]
