Weekly Chasidic Story #933 (s5776-05 / `29 Tishrei 5776)

A Jew Who Has Gratitude to a Dog

"Humans can never be trusted. The only love that is unconditional is the one from your pet."

Connection: Weekly reading -- Living with Animals (Noah's Ark)

A Jew Who Has Gratitude to a Dog

About a decade ago, I (Rabbi Simon Jacobson) was giving a class on the topic of unconditional love. Conditional love is driven by ulterior motives, and is therefore subject to change: If the motive is no longer fulfilled, the love wanes in direct proportion. Unconditional love, by contrast, is unwavering because it is not determined by mercurial factors.

As I was speaking, a gentleman sitting to my right began to mutter. "Absolutely right," he said. "The only unconditional love is the love you get from your pet dog." His voice got louder and more aggressive. "Human love can never be trusted. People will always disappoint you, but your dog will always love you, unconditionally. When you come home after a hard day, your dog will greet you at the door, lick you and always accept you. Human love is unpredictable, always changing, always with strings attached."

The man became increasingly passionate, to the point that he was almost frothing at the mouth. 'Yes," he raved on, "humans can never be trusted. The only love that is unconditional is the one from your pet." Clearly, the issue touched a deep chord in this gentleman.
The rest of the class, however, was quite annoyed. People tried to silence him. Some snickered, others laughed, while others got angry. One woman spoke out at him, with a dismissive voice, "We didn't come to hear you talk about your dog. We came to hear the Rabbi. Why don't you just shut up with this dog nonsense. Stop raving like a lunatic."

I'll never forget the look in his eyes, as he glared at her and hissed with an anguished, trembling voice: "You… You are so shallow…"

The entire class looked at me waiting, watching how I would respond. I could have easily dismissed the individual. It would even have been possible to get a good laugh at his expense. But I instantly remembered something that took place many years ago, when I wore a younger (and slimmer) man's clothes.

A man came to see me and told me his life story, which included the horrible abuse that his alcoholic father would subject him to. To avoid the blows of a baseball bat, the young boy would run outside and sleep near the doghouse, where he would be comforted by the love of his pet dog…

The man told me, "I learned love from… a dog. That was the first true love I ever experienced."

I was utterly stunned. It was the first time I had ever heard about real abuse. I just couldn't believe it. But I never forgot the story. So now, when this gentleman was carrying on about the unconditional love of a dog, I said to myself, "you never know where people find love. Never, ever judge anyone especially when it comes to the emotional realm."

So I calmly said to the man at the class: "Listen, this week we're talking about human love. We'll designate another time to discuss canine love." Everyone was surprised that the man responded with respect, "Thank you. I understand."

After the class, another attendee, slipped me a handwritten note, which I read after I returned home. "I have been coming to your class for two years," she wrote. "I have learned many things and been very inspired. But tonight I learned the most important lesson of all: The respect one must show to other people, no matter how strange they may behave. You have healed me tonight from my greatest wound: The lack of trust in human dignity."

A few months later, the gentleman called me as well, and said that he wants to thank me for not dismissing him. "Your validation of me has given me strength to deal with some very difficult challenges I am facing. Over the years, I have always been dismissed as weird when I would strongly react, in my own bizarre way, to issues around love. That night something changed. The fact that you did not invalidate me, that you actually allowed me to be strange, opened some significant doors. I now believe in some new possibilities."
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Source: Lightly edited by Yerachmiel Tilles from the article by Rabbi Simon Jacobson on //meaningfullife.com.

Connection: Weekly Reading - interacting with animals (Noah's ark).

Yerachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and chief editor of this website (and of KabbalaOnline.org). He has hundreds of published stories to his credit, and many have been translated into other languages. He tells them live at Ascent nearly every Saturday night.

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