|
This
is the tale of one who left his father's house and the land of his birth
and went forth to distant parts to learn a craft. In time he returned
to his land and to his father's house. His father asked: "What skill
have you learned in distant lands, my son?"
The son said: "I
have learned to fashion a hanging lamp that is a wonderful piece of art.
And if you please, my father, assemble all the masters of this art that
live in the land and I will show them the lamp that I have fashioned by
the skill of my hands."
So the father assembled
all the masters of that art living in the land to show them the great
accomplishments his son had mastered in his years abroad. The son brought
forth the wonder lamp and displayed it before the large gathering. They
looked at it and it did not please them. And when the father asked them
for their opinion of the lamp, they all answered as one, that it was extremely
misshapen, for they did not wish to hide the truth from him.
As soon as the visitors
left the house, the father said to his son: "Listen, my son, your
fellow craftsmen all agreed as one that the lamp is misshapen. Wherein
then lies its greatness?"
"This is its
greatness, that in this lamp I have combined all the imperfections that
are to be found in the work of my fellow craftsmen gathered in our house
today. Look, father, the work of every craftsman has some imperfection
of its own. One craftsman excels in making one part of an object while
he fails in another; a second craftsman turns out one part of his work
with exquisite beauty whereas in another it is truly ugly. What is good
with the one is faulty with his fellow, and just what is ill-made and
ungainly with his fellow turns out graceful in his own hands. And I have
a lamp that is a combination of all their imperfections, in order to inform
and advise them all that they have not attained perfection. My lamp/menorah
is a reminder to each of his imperfections."
|
The
first creation of God, in the works of the days, was the light
of senses; the last was the light of reason; and his Sabbath
work, ever since, is the illumination of the spirit.
(Francis Bacon, English philosopher, 16th century)
|
|
|
