Irvin D. Yalom

An Old Hassidic Tale

“A rabbi had a conversation with the Lord about Heaven and Hell. ‘I will show you Hell,’ said the Lord and led the rabbi into a room containing a large round table. The people sitting around the table were famished and desperate. In the middle of the table was an enormous pot of stew which smelled so delicious that the rabbi’s mouth watered. Each person around the table held a spoon with a very long handle. Although the long spoons just reached the pot, their handles were longer than would-be diners’ arms: thus, unable to bring food to their lips, no one could eat. The rabbi saw that their suffering was terrible indeed.

‘Now I will show you Heaven,’ said the Lord, and they went into another room, exactly the same as the first. There was the same large round table, the same pot of stew. The people, as before, were equipped with the same long-handled spoons but here everyone was well nourished and plump, laughing and talking. The rabbi could not understand. ‘It is simple, but it requires a certain skill,’ said the Lord. ‘In this room, you see, they have learned to feed each other.’"

Momma and the Meaning of Life: Tales of Psychotherapy by Irvin D. Yalom
Basic Books, New York, 1999
Page 28-9