Should We Be Crazy Like Everyone Else?
In a discussion with one of the, uh, “unconverted”, he said we should follow the masses.
In support, he quoted the famous story told by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov of the king and the tainted wheat.
Well, said I, there is an alternate version of this story (שיח שרפי קודש (ברסלב) א-רעא), I didn’t read this inside:
סיפר רבנו משל לעניין שצריך לעבוד את השם יתברך במסירות נפש אף שנדמה לבני העולם כמשוגע…
In this version, it was the stargazer who suggested that they would have to eat from the tainted grain, but the king vehemently rejected this, saying that just because the whole world was crazy, they do not, and should not be crazy. And if they would appear to be crazy to the rest of the world, so what? That is no reason to eat the grain that makes people crazy. So they would prepare grain for themselves.
Stalemate.
PS, I understand there is a third version of this tale, too.
