The noted scholar Israel ben Joseph,

his mind always on the Holy Books,

derailed himself by asking one question

too many……

“If one is good, will not two be better?’

Wives.

So, he had five.

Two older than him for their wisdom.

Two younger than him for his lust.

One his age “to the day”

for companionable friendship as he aged.

If one house, then three!

If one X,

then eleven is better…

But the complete catastrophe arrived

when his ever wandering mind

washed up on Sabbath’s shores.

If one pure, Holy day a week was good,

why not two?

or three…

Or, like Heaven one day will be

why not seven?

Each day of each week a perfect Holiness.

Each week a whole foretaste of Heaven,

unalloyed by the mundane things of the world.

Ah!

Bliss!

“But how shall the food be prepared?”

asked his wives.

“When shall your accounts be tallied?’

asked his accountants.

“Windows washed?”

his servants.

“The stove be lit?”

the young goy next door.

“I don’t know!” shouted Israel ben Joseph.

“But what could be more bless-ed than a Sabbath

that never ends?

“How will your children eat?”

pleaded his neighbors.

“And when your older wives die of starvation,

Who to bury them?”

“I don’t know! But it must be so!

Our lives dedicated to Sabbath Holiness!

What could be better than this?”

Scholars came to dissuade him.

His wives deserted him.

His children destained him.

He became a poor man wandering

the empty streets of the Shitel.

A beggar found him on the road,

starving, unwashed, mumbling ,

“Holy! Holy! All is Holy!’

The Beggar,

(God in disguise, no less!)

Begged him,

“Israel! Come back to us!

Sometime, some one Has to make the hummus!!”

But Israel said to the Begging God,

“No! There is nothing better than the Holy!”

And when Israel died,

the most unbalanced of holy men,

all,

even the Beggar,

left him in the dust.