An inconvenient time
There once lived a king who had a Jewish adviser called Chaim. The king relied so much on the wisdom of Chaim that one day he decided to promote him to chief adviser. But the other advisors objected.
They said, “It’s OK sitting in counsel with a Jew, but to allow him to boss us about would be unacceptable.”
The king accepted their argument and ordered Chaim to convert. Chaim had to obey the king.
But soon after, Chaim felt great remorse and over the months that followed he became despondent, his health suffered and he grew weak.
Finally Chaim could take it no longer and made a decision. He went to the king and said, “I was born a Jew, and a Jew I will always be. So do whatever you want with me.”
The king had no idea Chaim felt so strongly about his conversion. “OK,” said the king. “If that’s how you feel, go be a Jew again. The other advisers will just have to live with it. You’re too important for me to lose.”
On his way back home to tell his family the news, Chaim felt the strength surge back into his body.
When he arrived, he called out to his wife, “Sarah, we can be Jews again, we can be Jews again!”
Sarah glared at him and replied, “Couldn’t you wait until after Passover?”
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California