This story was posted on the Story Tour Blog in April 2009, we dusted it off and removed the chometz and have it ready for Passover this year. Enjoy and share with others, or even at your Seder table.

Pesach (Passover) was approaching quickly and everyone was preparing for the holiday. Once two Jewish beggars were traveling together. One beggar told the other to go to the shul (synagogue), and the Jewish householders would have pity on him and invite him to a Passover Seder.

And so it was, both beggars were invited to seders. The evening started with Kiddush (the blessing over wine), and the one beggar thought to himself:

“Good wine means good food.”

As the seder continued to karpas, the beggar was given a green vegetable and thought:

“Wine now a piece of salad, this is going to be a great meal.”

The seder progressed as there was much discussion until it came to the part of matzah. The beggar was given a piece of matzah, and thought,

“Thank goodness the meal is about to begin.”

After eating the matzah, the beggar was given a piece of maror (bitter herb – horseradish) which burned his mouth and made his eyes water. He jumped up from the table and ran out the door.

“How was your Seder?” asked one beggar to the other. The unhappy beggar then told him what had happened. They gave me 2 cups of wine, a sprig of parsley, a dried cracker (matzah) and hot stuff. It was torture so got up and left!” 

“Fool!” replied the one beggar to the other. “If you had waited just a little longer, you would have had a fine meal, as I had.”

The same is true when we want to come close to G-d. After all the effort to begin, we are given a little bitterness. This bitterness is needed to purify the body. But we might think that this bitterness is all there is to serving G-d, so we run away from it. This is a mistake. If we would only wait just a short while — if we would allow ourselves to be purified – then we would experience every joy and delight in the world in our closeness to G-d.

May all your tales end with Shalom (peace)

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Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. (Joel 1:3) Please share this story with family and friends and leave us a comment or two.

The Story Tour Blog has grown to over 250 short stories about faith. Many visitors to the Story Tour Blog have requested that the stories be gathered together into a book. 72 of these special tales are now available in the new book

Story Tour: The Journey Begins

This special book of stories would be a nice Pesach/Afikomen Gift Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

 Click here for the the new book, Story Tour: The Journey Begins filled with 72 stories from the Story Tour Blog