Re: Husbands and sons

[Guest guest]

On Friday night here in Jerusalem, after the first course of our

Sabbath meal, DH got up, cleared the table of the fish plates and

went into the kitchen.

Zehava shot me a panicked look.

" Mummy! You have to stop him before he *washes up*!!!!!!! I'll only

have to do it all over again! He never washes the backs of the

plates! "

Yeshaya's " job " is making serviettes. (ie folding them nicely and

putting them in the glasses.) Other than that, he does diddly squat

to help. Oh I might, at a pinch, get him to take the rubbish down

(there are communal wheelie bins here, rather than one per family),

or take the plastic bottles to the wire recycling bins which have

recently sprouted all over our neighbourhood.

DH has the ultimate answer to me when asked to help. " I'm busy

learning right now. " If he is studying (religious books), that is

more important than anything, he says. It drives me bananas when he

does this to me!

Folklore tells of a young couple having marital difficulties about

who was to take the rubbish out. They went to see the Rabbi about

it. (a very famous sage). After arguing in front of him for ages (the

young husband said it was beneath his dignity as a Torah scholar to

take rubbish out, the young wife said she was busy with a small

baby), the couple went home with the conflict unresolved. Later on

that day, there was a knock on their door. On opening it, there

stood the great sage.

" Oh Rabbi! " the young Torah scholar was embarrassed and pleased to

have a visit from such a great man. " Have you a solution to our

problem? A way to get my wife to agree to my wishes? "

" No, " the wise old man said, " I have come to take your rubbish out. "

(Needless to say this stymied the young husband's argument about it

being beneath his dignity!)

Ruthie