Rebbi Nachman’s Stories: Clever One, Simple One Today

There was once a man who had two sons: one son was very clever, and did extremely well in his SATs. He decided to go to college to become a doctor. The other son barely made it through high school, but he loved to learn and to share what he’d learnt with others.

The clever doctor had a ball in university; he had a different girl friend every week; he applied for electives that took him all over the world, to America, and Australia. In Australia, he learned how to sky dive and to bungee jump; in America, he spent a long time visiting all the most ‘interesting’ places, like Las Vegas, San Francisco, and New York.

Over the course of his medical degree, the clever doctor became increasingly convinced of his tremendous intellect and grasp of how the world really worked. He’d been brought up in a traditional household, but university really opened his eyes to just how backwards and primitive his religion was.

Religious Jews couldn’t eat in any restaurant they chose. Religious Jews couldn’t do anything ‘interesting’ or ‘stimulating’ on Shabbat, like going to a local art museum, or the beach. Religious Jews lived a boring, brain-washed, narrow-minded life.

The clever doctor was far too clever to be a religious Jew. Over the next 20 years, the clever doctor was so busy partying, expanding his mind with drugs, alcohol, and vacations, and studying for the never-ending medical exams that were going to make him a consultant, that it never even crossed his mind to ask himself what it was all for.

He was going to be a consultant! He was incredibly clever! What else was there?

At the age of 40, the clever consultant doctor decided it was finally time to settle down, and to pass on his superb genes to the next generation. He proposed to the attractive, non-Jewish nurse he’d been flirting with for some time at the hospital, and they were married in a castle, in the middle of an ancient forest, as befitting the clever consultant doctor’s very high status.

Now, let’s go back to the simple son. The simple son went to work in McDonalds, and while he was flipping burgers, he realized there had to be more to life than work. He started asking questions, and attending Torah lessons at his local synagogue. Very soon, the simple son had become a full-blown ba’al teshuva – and he loved nothing more than to learn and teach Torah.

As befitting a religious Jew, he got married as soon as he could to a wonderful, frum girl, who adored him and who he, likewise, adored. They had very little money, so he sold his car to pay for the wedding, and they had a bargain-basement ceremony in the hall of their local synagogue, where the Rabbi gave them a very good, all-inclusive price.

Even though they struggled to pay the mortgage and to put food on the table, the simple teacher was very grateful that he was married, frum, and a father of four wonderful kids.

One day, the simple teacher came across a book by Rav Arush called The Garden of Emuna – and he never looked back. He and his wife moved to Israel, and the simple teacher found a position teaching Torah in an amazing Breslever yeshiva, in the heart of Jerusalem.

Time passed, and the two sons’ parents died. The simple son flew back for the funeral and shiva.

When he saw his clever, consultant brother, he ran over and gave him a heartfelt hug. The clever consultant took one look at the simple teacher’s beard, kippa and payot, and could barely conceal his scowl.

What an idiot he looked! What an imbecile! If people saw him walking along the street with his brother in New York or San Francisco, they’d also think that he, the clever consultant, agreed with the primitive, backwards, ridiculous Jewish way of life.

But it was his parents’ funeral after all, so the clever consultant pasted a fake smile on his face, and gave his brother a lukewarm peck on the cheek.

“My brother! Come and visit me in Israel whenever you want,” said the simple teacher, when it was time for him to go home. “I will give you a welcome fit for a king! I’ll move all my kids into my bedroom, and you can have the run of the house for as long as you like!”

The clever consultant liked the sound of this – it was only befitting his high status that his brother would put himself out so much just to have him come visit. But his non-Jewish wife wouldn’t hear of visiting ‘dangerous’ Israel, so he demurred.

Some weeks’ later, the clever consultant was complaining to his simple teacher brother about how empty and disconnected he’d been feeling, since the funeral. The simple teacher responded with a lengthy email, which bared his own soul, and his own feelings about his childhood and (un)religious upbringing, to try to help his clever consultant brother to reconnect to G-d, his own religion, and hopefully, his own soul, and to stop living a lie.

The clever consultant went berserk.

“Who are you disgusting, brain-washed, ‘religious’ people, that you can tell me anything about anything?” he emailed back. “Now that you’ve become religious, you think you are better than everyone else, and that you’ve got the answer to all the questions. But look at your own life! You have next-to-no-money, you can’t have a normal conversation like a normal human being without talking about G-d all the time, and even your own wife and kids think you’re a weirdo! I don’t care two hoots what you have to say, you’re just an indoctrinated, brain-washed ‘religious’ person. If you had any sense, you would realize that you are a miserable failure, and you would stop trying to pretend that you are happy with where all your G-d nonsense has got you. In the real world, you are a complete loser.”

The simple one emailed back: “If you are so content, my brother, then why are you so full of anger and bitterness? Why do you spend most of your time picking holes in me, and our religion, and bad-mouthing me to anyone you can?”

Now, the simple teacher had gone too far. Didn’t he know he was dealing with a medical consultant?!?!?!? The clever consultant showed the latest email to his non-Jewish nurse wife, and they both decided that the simple one was mentally ill.

The clever consultant emailed his brother that he should go and see a shrink asap – and not a ‘rabbi’ or a ‘faith healer’, but someone who could really help him to sort out his enormous emotional problems. Once the simple teacher got to grips with his tremendous problems, including believing in G-d, working on his character, and trying to be happy with his lot in life, then, maybe, the clever consultant wouldn’t mind being back in touch. Maybe.

Years passed. The simple teacher carried on learning and teaching Torah and emuna; he married off all of his children to wonderful, G-d fearing, kind Jews, and schlepped a ton of nachas from seeing his children and grandchildren grow up as happy, committed Jews in the land of Israel.

His finances also took a turn for the better, as real estate in Eretz Yisrael went through the roof, and he was able to help each of his kids with a down payment on their own homes.

Meanwhile, the clever consultant’s life went from bad to worse. His attractive non-Jewish nurse wife had an affair with the most senior consultant doctor in the hospital, so he filed for divorce, naming the senior consultant as the respondent in the legal papers.

The senior consultant responded by firing the clever consultant from his post, and blackening his name all over the country, so he couldn’t get another job anywhere. He was reduced to working as a locum, and had to travel all over the country at the drop of a hat, to wherever he was needed.

His wife got custody of the kids, and he barely saw them. When he did see them, they weren’t interested in talking to him. The fact that he was a Jew was a huge embarrassment to them, and they preferred to have nothing to do with him.

The stock market dived, wiping out all his investment portfolio and savings. Then came the last straw: he was successfully sued for medical malpractice, and had his license suspended.

His only pleasure in life was trying to find people to rant to about how everything was all those ‘religious Jews’ fault; and how only lunatic madmen who had no idea how the ‘real world’ worked could believe in G-d, rabbis, souls or emuna.

One day, the simple teacher remembered his clever consultant brother, and went to see his spiritual guide for a chat.

“Revered Rabbi, do you think you could help my brother? He is so caught up in his own lies and heresy that it’s completely destroyed his life. Can you rescue him?”

The Revered Rabbi agreed – but only if the simple one would come with him, to assist.

The simple brother tracked down his clever brother to a bedsit in a poor part of town, and bought plane tickets for himself and the Revered Rabbi to come visit.

Initially, the clever consultant was very pleased to see his brother. Since his luck had turned, he had no friends, no status, no visitors. “My dear brother!” he welcomed him. “See what the horrible religious Jews have done to me!”

The simple brother chastised him: “Even after all this time, you are still blaming others, and your own religion, instead of admitting that you yourself are the source of all your problems and misery.”

Even so, the simple one introduced his clever brother to the Revered Rabbi, and after a 10 second conversation with him, even the clever one had to admit that there was a G-d; there is a soul; there is reward and punishment; and that the Revered Rabbi was far cleverer and wiser than the clever one could ever hope to be in a million years.