Heaven and Hell

There is an old rabbinic tale: The Lord said to the Rabbi, "Come, I will show you hell."

They entered a room where a group of people sat around a huge pot of stew. Everyone was famished and desperate. Each held a spoon that reached the pot but had a handle so long it could not be used to reach their mouths. The suffering was terrible.

"Come, now I will show you heaven," the Lord said after a while.

They entered another room, identical to the first — the pot of stew, the group of people, the same long spoons. But here everyone was happy and well fed.

"I don't understand," said the Rabbi. "Why, when everything is the same, are these people happy when in the other room the they were miserable?"

The Lord smiled. "Ah, but don't you see?" he said. "Here they have learned to feed each other."