Naked Truth and Resplendent Parable
The great scholar known as the Vilna Gaon once asked the Preacher of Dubno, “Help me to understand. What makes a parable so influential? If I recite Torah, there’s a small audience, but let me tell a parable and the synagogue is full. Why is that?”
The dubner maged replied, “I’ll explain it to you by means of a parable.
“Once upon a time Truth went about the streets as naked as the day he was born. As a result, no one would let him into their homes. Whenever people caught sight of him, they turned away or fled. One day when Truth was sadly wandering about, he came upon Parable. Now, Parable was dressed in splendid clothes of beautiful colors. And Parable, seeing Truth, said, ‘Tell me, neighbor, what makes you look so sad?’ Truth replied bitterly, ‘Ah, brother, things are bad. Very bad. I’m old, very old, and no one wants to acknowledge me. No one wants anything to do with me.’
“Hearing that, Parable said, ‘People don’t run away from you because you’re old. I too am old. Very old. But the older I get, the better people like me. I’ll tell you a secret: Everyone likes things to be disguised and prettied up a bit. Let me lend you some splendid clothes like mine, and you’ll see that the very people who pushed you aside will invite you into their homes and be glad of your company.’
“Truth took Parable’s advice and put on the borrowed clothes. And from that time on, Truth and Parable have gone hand in hand together and everyone loves them. They make a happy pair.”
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Glossary
Gaon: (Yid. “goen”) Originally the title of the head of a Jewish rabbinic academy in Babylonia between the seventh and eleventh centuries C.E.; it was later applied to an outstanding rabbinic scholar.maged: (maggid) A Jewish preacher, often itinerant, whose discourse drew upon biblical texts embellished by rabbinical commentaries and folklore.
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Annotations
TELLER: Father of collector, Pumpyan (Pumpenai), Lithuania, (no date recorded)COLLECTOR: Benyomin Yankev Bialostotzky.
SOURCE: Bialostotzky (1962), pp. 30–31.
COMMENTS: A volume of parables entitled *Mishlei Ya’akov*, culled from the Preacher of Dubno’s homilies, appeared in Cracow in 1886. Unfortunately, the contexts are lost to us.
