What IS the Cause??

By DOVID BEN-MEIR
There are many well known subjects of wide investigation, intensive research, and deep philosophical and meta-physical thought. However one of the deepest puzzles ever to baffle, whose solution had escaped the best minds of the brightest for generations, was the question asked and answered by two bright young Jewish scholars, Yankel and Mendel, who – because of their pioneering analytical thought, should be referred to, at least, as Professor Yankel and Dr. Mendel.
These two young Torah scholars sat in the back benches of the study hall after lunch time, when the digestive system is hard at work and consequently the powers of abstract learning are at ebb. As par to their reasoning abilities at the moment, not able to dissect and absorb the intricacies of Jewish jurisprudence and philosophy embodied in that monumental tome – the Talmud – they pondered this well known and well worn logical conundrum that has challenged others for eons.
"Mendel!" said Yankel, reclining as far back as much as possible on the bench, "what sweetens the tea?"
Mendel, who was want to stoop over his book stand ("shtender"), laying his weary head on its surface in order to rest a bit, answered from the quirky mists of slumbering wakefulness: "Huh What?"
"I said", reiterated Yankel, "what makes the tea sweet?"
The seeming absurdity of the query jolted Mendel out of his lassitude. Alas, for Mendel being an eminent scholar in his field was totally unaware of this ongoing-over-the-generations-investigation from another field, as is usually the case with scholars in one field who haven't a clue about other fields.
"Well, the sugar sweetens the tea, obviously" exclaimed he.
"Not so fast" replied Yankel. "The facts are: if you put a teaspoon of sugar in a cup of tea, but don't stir it with same said teaspoon – the sugar remains at the bottom and the tea remains unsweetened. Yet empirical examination shows that if you stir a cup of tea without sugar – you have the same result, unsweetened tea, only without a residue. So the question remains: what sweetens the tea?"
Mendel, thinking that it the day after Purim and perhaps his friend had more than just tea to drink looked at his friend quizzically: "I'm afraid I don't follow. Can you clarify the possibilities?"
"Certainly", Yankel said with a hint of a grin. "The question, properly framed as I see it, is this: Does the sugar indeed sweeten the tea, with the stirring being just a minor but necessary condition for the sugar to make its influence known; or perhaps the stirring is mainly what sweetens the tea, while the presence of sugar is only a minor conditional detail for the stirring to achieve its full potential?"
The two friends discussed the question, back and forth, forth and back, up and around and back down again. Finally Yankel said:
"I will share with you my absolute clear opinion that I believe to be true. Since we are at a quandary on this question, whether it is the sugar or the action of the spoon stirring that sweetens the tea – yet there is one incontrovertible fact."
"Yes" Mendel encouraged his fellow scholar, to spill the cholent beans, as they say.
"It is an inescapable truth that you cannot ever have sweet tea without one certain quintessential element in the mix," continued Yankel, enjoying the drawn out suspense he caused his friend to feel.
"Nu!!" as scholars are used to saying in a scholarly manner.
"Indeed. The inescapable truth is that you must always have tea in order to sweeten the tea. Therefore I propose that what sweetens the tea is – the tea. All the other accoutrements and actions only make it possible for the tea to sweeten itself by its sweet nature!" Yankel said… and burst out laughing. Mendel, history records, was not amused.
Similarly people ask: What causes Arabs violence against Jews in Israel?
Arabic-Islamic intolerance of other peoples (Kurds, Copts, Yazidis, Assyrians, Christians, Jews, Bahais, etc.)?
Incitement?
Libelous hate propaganda?
Greed?
Ignorance?
Nooooooooooo! Of course not!
As Yankel might've said: Since you can't have violence against Jews without Jews, so it must be that the Jews are responsible for the violence against them!
Absurd?
Of course!!
 


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