Saturday, November 16, 2013

And He Limped Upon His Thigh

Yaakov's limping with after his spiritual battle in Parshat Vayishlach (this week's parshah) reminds me of a story that I find beautiful and profund in its elegant simplicity.  It's the end of Gilda Radner's memoir, written shortly before she passed away from cancer. (Dibby was her housekeeper/nanny with whom she was very close.)

When I was little, Dibby told me a story about her cousin who had a dog – just a mutt – and the dog was pregnant. I don’t know how long dogs are pregnant, but she was due to have her puppies in about a week. She was out in the yard one day and got in the way of the lawnmower and her two back legs got cut off. They rushed her to the vet who said, "I can sew her up, or you can put her to sleep if you want. But the puppies are OK – she’ll be able to deliver the puppies. Dibby’s cousin said, "keep her alive." So the vet sewed up her backside and over the next week that dog learned how to walk. She didn’t spend any time worrying; she just learned to walk by taking two steps in the front and flipping up her backside and then taking two more steps and flipping up her backside again. She gave birth to six little puppies, all in perfect health. She nursed them and then weaned them. And when they learned to walk, they all walked like her.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

hmm..so should we learn from that to forge ahead no matter what comes our way because we can figure out how to cope with/handle it? that's a message I needed this morning. thank you!

November 17, 2013 at 8:37 AM  
Blogger rabbi neil fleischmann said...

Yes! I think that's the - easier said than done, yet true and important to strive to follow - lesson.

November 17, 2013 at 1:16 PM  

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