Shavuos Night 12:30 -12:33 AM

It's Shavuos Night, in a Shul in a city that could be any Shul in any city, in a downstairs room, that could be any downstairs Shul room. A rabbi and 6 students sit around a cracked wooden collapsable table. It is 12:30 in the morning. One of the students challenges the rabbi, "We'll give you 5 words, you make a story using these words. And it has to make sense." The rabbi is happy to have this restless crew, settled, still, talking with him.

He accepts the challenge: Wheelbarrow, squirrel, bumblebee, cheese, and bubble (the last one is inspired by the gum a girl is chewing, the others seem to be picked as difficult challenges - not that bubble is easy). The rabbi just starts talking. He is home. As he speaks, he thinks ahead of his words realizes that the way he wants to go is to do separate stories with a connected themes. One story is do-able but would come out hokey. Five meaningful anecdotes and analogies (utilizing each of these words respectively) quickly come to mind.

Wheelbarrow - I heard this story many years ago, but it was new to every one of the kids. A guard at a factory stopped a worker who was walking out of the building pushing a wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow was empty.The next day he stopped the same worker who was again pushing an empty wheelbarrow. This happened for thirty one years. When the worker retired the guard finally said, "OK, I give up. I know you are up to something, but I just can't tell what. Please, I won't arrest you, but put me out of my misery; tell me what you were stealing all those years." The man smiles and replies, "Wheelbarrows." (This written version was adapted from http://www.guy-sports.com/humor/stories/story_wheelbarrow.htm)

Sometimes we look at things one way and we get nowhere. As long as we stick exclusively to one train of thought we won't reach the truest conclusion. If we think out of the box we may realize that the empty wheelbarrow itself is being stolen before our eyes.

(To Be Continued) (Maybe)