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To: reb-shlomo@shamash.org

From: goldfarb@dnai.com (Yehudit & Reuven Goldfarb)

Subject: Jewish Joke

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Okay, here's a joke I heard Reb Shlomo tell.  It's totally my paraphrase

but close to the original.



        Three people met in an oncologist's office, a priest, a minister,

and a rabbi.  After talking together for while, they realized they were all

there for the same thing--to find out what the prognosis was for each of

the conditions they suffered from.  Since they had become so friendly, they

decided to wait until all three had received the news.  The news came back.

All three would be dead in a year.  So they agreed to share the plans that

each would make in response to these gloomy forecasts.



        The priest said, "I'm going to give up my parish and retire to a

monastery.  There I'll live a life of humble abstemiousness, pray and

meditate for the salvation of my soul, and grow closer to my maker."  The

minister and the rabbi agreed that was a very noble idea and congratulated

him on his decision.



        The minister said, "You know, my wife and I have always wanted to

travel and see the world, but we've been working so hard for our

congregation we never had the time.  So we're going to take a cruise and

see all the places we've missed knowing before I leave this world."  The

priest and the rabbi agreed that was an excellent idea.



        Then the priest and the minister turned to the rabbi and asked,

"What about you?" He said, "I'm going to see another doctor."



        Shlomo told this story in a videotaped interview at a conference

sponsored by Yogi Bhajan and 3HO on the Stanford University Campus in the

early 80s.  It was called to address the threat of nuclear proliferation

and war.  So Reb Shlomo, in his subtle way, was offering a mildly

optimistic rejoinder to the dread of extermination proffered by his

spiritual colleague.



        Still, I agree with Dr. Bernet that the Bill Gates joke that

started these billiard balls bouncing was weak, maybe because I've heard it

before.  As you can see from all the arrows, it's been around the world a

few times.



Reuven Goldfarb



