Choosing Fabric
One evening, Tommy wandered into a fabric store to buy cloth for his wife. The storekeeper, ever the professional, flicked on all the lights, illuminating every inch of the shop like a Broadway stage.
"What kind of fabric are you looking for?" the storekeeper asked, his voice as smooth as the silk hanging from the shelves. "High-quality, durable material, or just something simple?"
Tommy glanced around and waved his hand dismissively. "Oh, it’s all the same. No difference. I’ll just take whatever feels... fabric-y enough." He squinted at the rows of material, his hand sweeping over the shelves. "What’s the big deal? It’s all just cloth, right?"
"And since it’s all the same," Tommy added with a shrug, "there should be one price for everything, right? I mean, it's all... fabric."
The storekeeper’s eyebrows shot up, and he walked over to the switch. Without a word, he flipped it off.
The shop plunged into darkness.
"Hey!" Tommy yelled, his voice echoing. "Why’d you do that?"
"Well," the storekeeper replied, as if revealing the most obvious truth in the world, "you say it’s all the same, right? No difference. So why bother turning on the lights? I only flip them on so you can see the difference between the good stuff and... well, the kind of fabric you’d use to wipe up spilled coffee."
"Well," the storekeeper replied, with the air of a professor patiently explaining quantum physics to a goldfish. "You say it’s all the same, right? No difference. So, why bother turning on the lights? I only flip them on so you can see the difference between the premium fabrics and... well, the stuff that's good for wiping up spilled coffee."
"All are Equal!"
Korach stood before the people and boldly declared, "The entire nation is holy." He insisted there is no difference between the great and the small, between the priests and the ordinary Israelites. Like the clueless customer in the fabric store, Korach claimed that all are equal, and all should be allowed to perform the service in the Tabernacle.
Moses, however, warned him: "In the morning, God will reveal who is truly close to Him." Why did he mention "morning"?
Because there are distinctions in this world—between the morning and the evening, between the wise and the foolish, between the great and the small-minded.
As long as God separates light from darkness, there will always be distinctions between the holy and the ordinary, between wisdom and folly.(Adapted from Mishlei Ya'akov, pp. 347-348)
