EXCERPT
JOEL bEN IZZY
THE BEGGAR KING AND
THE SECRET OF HAPPINESS
A
11 storytellers remember the
to the rabbi to study Talmud. You know
teller who first inspired
the story?"
them; it leaves a lifelong
I didn't.
impression. In storytelling circles, this
"A young man asks a rabbi to teach him
person is known as a teller's "mama
the wisdom of the Talmud. The rabbi tells
duck." Lenny was my mama duck.
him he's not ready. The man insists he is,
I'd first heard him telling stories one
so the rabbi gives him a test.
night at a pub, nearly twenty years ear-
"Two burglars climb down a chimney
lier, in downtown Santa Cruz. I'd seen
to rob a house,' says the rabbi. 'One's face
a flyer on the door and walked in, with
gets dirty, the other stays clean. Which one
no idea what to expect. He stood alone,
washes his face?'
in silence, on a platform in a corner of
Joel ben Izzy is a storyteller whose CDs
the room. His appearance was not par-
have won awards from the American
ticularly striking—somewhat stocky,
Library Association. The memoir
The
"'No,' says the rabbi. 'It's the one with
with a beard and bushy hair. He looked
Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness
the clean face. Because he looks at the one
no more like a storyteller than anyone
is his first book.
with the dirty face and assumes that his
else in the bar.
Yet when he opened his mouth, everything changed. The room fell
into complete silence, and I found myself transported, first to a crum-
says the man.
own face must be dirty. Meanwhile, the
one with the dirty face sees the other and assumes that his own face
must be clean.'
bling castle in the Scottish highlands, then to a schoolhouse in New
"`Ah-ha!' says the man. 'Now I understand.'
England, and finally to a tiny village in Eastern Europe. There I met
"`No, you think you understand, but you do not. Try again: Two bur-
and fell in love with characters painted by his words, people more real
glars climb down a chimney to rob a house. Which one washes his face?'
to me than many I knew. I left at the end of the evening, nostalgic for
"The one with the clean face, right?'
places I'd never been and missing people I'd never met, knowing I
"Wrong again,' says the rabbi. 'If they both go down the chimney,
had found my life's work.
The next day I found out where he lived and rode my bike ten
miles through the redwoods to his cabin, where I begged him to be
my teacher.
"You?" He laughed as though I'd told a joke. "But you're just a kid!
Do you even know why you want to tell stories?"
I shrugged, noticing something I had not seen the night before.
When he spoke, he gestured using only his right hand.
He shook his head, laughing again. "You're like the guy who goes
4
"The one with the dirty face, of course,'
NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR JEWISH CULTURE
both of their faces get dirty. You see,' says the rabbi, 'you're not ready.
Someone like you wastes time looking for answers, when you should
be looking for questions."
He then closed the door in my face. But I came back the next day,
and before he could close the door again I shouted, "Wait! I have a
question."
He stared at me, eyebrows raised.
"Since when do burglars stop to wash their faces?"
"Ah!" he smiled. "Now we're getting somewhere."