Ronnie McBrayer

By Ronnie McBrayer

There is a story about a declining monastery. Once it had thrived, but now it was decimated; only a few old monks remained. Deep in the monastery woods was a little cabin where a rabbi occasionally came for retreat. No one ever spoke with him, but for as long as he was there, the monks would feel blessed by his presence.

One day the abbot decided to visit the rabbi and open his heart to him. As he approached the hut, the abbot saw the rabbi in the doorway. It was as if he had been awaiting the abbot’s arrival. The two entered the hut and simply sat in the stillness. Finally, the rabbi spoke, “I know you have come to ask a teaching of me. But it is the same in my town. Almost no one comes to the synagogue anymore.”

When the time came for the abbot to leave, he pressed the rabbi: “Is there nothing you can give us that would help us save our dying order?” The rabbi paused and said quietly, “Well, there is one thing: One of you is the Messiah.”

The next morning, the abbot called his monks together. He told them he had spoken to the old rabbi and said bluntly, “The rabbi said that one of us is the Messiah.” In the weeks that followed, the old monks thought about the rabbi’s words and wondered whether it could actually be true – the Messiah is one of us?

Thinking like this, the old monks began to treat each other with extraordinary respect on the off chance that one of them just might actually be the Messiah. A gentle, warm-hearted, concern began to grow among them which was hard to describe but easy to notice.

Over time, as people visited the beautiful forest in which the monastery was home, they sensed the extraordinary respect that now began to radiate from the place. People began to come back to the monastery more frequently to picnic, play, meditate, and pray.

Then it happened that some of the younger men who came to visit the monastery started to talk with the old monks. Then one joined them. Then another. And another. Within a few years the monastery had once again become a thriving order and light to the community, thanks to the rabbi’s gift, a gift that taught them to love others, expecting the very best.

Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, speaker, and author of multiple books. You can read more and receive regular e-columns in your inbox at www.ronniemcbrayer.me. 

An Irish priest and a Rabbi get into a car accident. They both get out of their cars and stumble over to the side of the road. The Rabbi says, “Oy vey! What a wreck!”

The priest asks him, “Are you all right, Rabbi?”

The Rabbi responds, “Just a little shaken.”

The priest pulls a flask of whiskey from his coat and says, “Here, drink some of this it will calm your nerves.”

The Rabbi takes the flask and drinks it down and says, “Well, what are we going to tell the police?”

“Well,” the priest says, “I don’t know what your aft’ to be tellin’ them. But I’ll be tellin’ them I wasn’t the one drinkin’.”