The Rabbi, the Priest, and the Quarterback

Over at DovBear, in a post discussing the possibility that a story of the suicide of 93 Beis Yaakov girls was fabricated, Bray of Fundie asks what the motivation could be. Why in the world would somebody fabricate a story like that?! This is reason for him to lean towards believing the story is true.

I don't find this a persuasive argument, because every few weeks we encounter some "inspirational" story passed around as true, which was fabricated by some individual who thought it would be inspirational. It is an attempt to be mezakeh the rabbim. And the problem with this is that they do not see any problem making up inspirational stories; and their idea of "inspirational" is sometimes skewed. It is not at all inconceivable that someone would find the message in the Beis Yaakov story inspirational, and would pass it around as truth.

Also, sometimes stories begin in a way where it is quasi-evident they are made up, to illustrate a point, but as the story spreads, it morphs, and people misunderstand elements of it, including whether it is a true incident.

A good recent example is the story linked to recently at Shirat Devorah. She writes:

If you have the title "Rabbi" in front of your name, you should definitely read this post from Mashiach is Coming - even if you're not a Rabbi, it's a good lesson to bear in mind.

At the Mashiach Is Coming blog, we encounter the following story:

Several years ago, a rabbi from out-of-state accepted a call to a community in Houston , Texas . Some weeks after he arrived, he had an occasion to ride the bus from his home to the downtown area. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him a quarter too much change.
As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, 'You'd better give the quarter back. It would be wrong to keep it'.
Then he thought, 'Oh, forget it, it's only a quarter. Who would worry about this little amount? Anyway, the bus company gets too much fare; they will never miss it. Accept it as a 'gift from G-d' and keep quiet'.
When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, and then he handed the quarter to the driver and said, 'Here, you gave me too much change'.
The driver, with a smile, replied, 'Aren't you the new rabbi in town?'
'Yes' he replied.
'Well, I have been thinking a lot lately about going somewhere to worship. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change. I'll see you in Shul on Shabbos'.
When the rabbi stepped off of the bus, he literally grabbed the nearest light pole, held on, and said, 'Oh Rebono Shel Olam, I almost sold a Yid for a quarter.'

Our lives are the only thing some people will ever read.

This is a really scary example of how much people watch us as JEW, and will put us to the test! Always be on guard -- and remember -- You carry the name of HaShem on your shoulders when you call yourself a 'JEW'.

Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

Right off the bat, I was suspicious of this story. While I am sure that these stories do happen on occasion, this reads like an inspirational tale, something from a homily. This is the genre, and there are many fictional stories of this sort. So maybe it happened, but there is a strong likelihood it did not. Even though a generic time was given ("several" years ago), a place was given ("Houston, Texas"), and the rabbi is question was quasi-identified ("a rabbi from out-of-state").

Further, certain elements of the story seem strange, or stilted. (1) What kind of test is this? Maybe the rabbi would not count his change, and just pocket it, assuming it was accurate; or what if he would count his change inaccurately? (2) It just happened that the bus-driver was Jewish. This is possible, but then he would not be wearing a kippah, for the rabbi did not recognize him as Jewish; I suppose this could be a kiruv opportunity. (3) A rabbi just looks like a religious Jew. He is not a priest, who is identifiable as clergy by the collar. Why should the driver assume he is the new rabbi? (4) This is a practical question. Does Houston have metrocards, or machines to accept coins? do the bus-drivers actually dispense change? (5) The bus-driver uses the term "worship," and will see the rabbi in shul on shabbos. Again, he might be quasi-religious... such is suggested, but many Jews go to shul during the course of the week as well. Christians have "worship" on their day of rest. Yes, they have mass on other days, which some attend, but the big day to go to church is Sunday. One can picture the statement better as "I'll see you in church on Sunday." (6) The idea of selling a soul for money (in this case, a Yid, but a Jewish soul) has New Testament connotations: that of Judas; and of selling one's soul to the devil.

Not all of the above was apparent to me at first, but it did strike me as possibly originally being about a priest -- besides these elements, if an inspirational urban legend, one would expect to find it in the general American culture first, but modified to a Jewish audience, much like the story of Kyle.

And indeed, after a bit of searching, I discovered this, from about July to August of 2007:

There is a story of a priest new in town who boarded a local bus. The driver gave him the incorrect change handing the priest an extra quarter. The priest sat down before he realized what had happened. "It's only a quarter, what does it matter?" he thought to himself.

As he went to exit the bus, the priest returned the quarter to the driver. The driver thanked him and admitted: "You know Father, my wife and I have been unsatisfied with the churches in town. We heard there was a new priest. I knew it was you when you stepped on the bus and I gave you the extra quarter on purpose to see what you would do. My wife and I will see you on Sunday."

And at that point, it was already presumably an established, well-known, inspirational tale.

Now someone comment and say that "they got it from us!"

Now that you have considered that response, how about this version of the story, which is a more direct parallel, from 2006. In this following one, it is even closer to the language.And also this, with a bit more text, where the bit more text is important. And the priest at the end says "Oh God, I almost sold your Son for a quarter." This is surely a Judas reference.

Several years ago, a preacher moved to Houston, Texas. Some weeks after he arrived, he had occasion to ride the bus from his home to the downtown area. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him a quarter too much change. As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, "You'd better give the quarter back. It would be wrong to keep it."

Then he thought, "Oh, forget it, it's only a quarter. Who would worry about this little amount?
Anyway, the bus company gets too much fare; they will never miss it. Accept it as a 'gift from God' and keep quiet." When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, then he handed the quarter to the driver and said, "Here, you gave me to much change." The driver with a smile replied, "Aren't you the new preacher in town? I have been thinking lately about going to worship somewhere. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change. I'll see you at church on Sunday"

When the preacher stepped off of the bus, he literally grabbed the nearest light pole, held on, and said, "Oh God, I almost sold your Son for a quarter." Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read.

This is a really scary example of how much people watch us as Christians, and
will put us to the test! Always be on guard -- and remember -- You carry the name of Christ on your shoulders when you call yourself 'Christian.'

Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
I'm glad a friend forwarded this to me as a reminder. So, I choose to forward it to you - my friend. God bless you; I hope you are having a wonderful day!

If you don't pass this on to anybody, nothing bad will happen; but, if you do, you will have ministered to someone.

The Will of God will never take you to where the Grace of God will not PROTECT you...

Stay FAITHFUL and Be GRATEFUL

Here, my girsological skills can come in handy. Source A and source C surely did not arise independently of one another. Someone either modified source A to make source C, or else someone modified source C to make source A. So while the language is identical, consider the changes.

1) God to G-d. Which is likely original. It could have been transformed in either direction, with a Christian fixing the supremely strange misspelling. But wouldn't the rabbi have said "a gift from Hashem?"

2) "Here, you gave me to [sic] much change" to "Here, you gave me too much change". In the Jewish version, the spelling is correct. Would someone fix the careless spelling error, or would he deliberately edit a correct text to introduce a spelling error. Obviously, the Christian one is the original.

3) "Oh God, I almost sold your Son for a quarter." to 'Oh Rebono Shel Olam, I almost sold a Yid for a quarter': The Jewish one seems to me like a conscious attempt to frum up the language. Would a rabbi exclaim "Oh God!"? But would a Christian understand Rebono shel Olam and change it to Oh God?

4) If changing from "a yid," you would expect something like "a Christian soul." Substituting "your Son," with the capital S, is obviously a reference to Jesus. This is not an expected substitution. But a Jewish writer trying to strip out the overtly Christian references in the story in order to "purify" it for a Jewish audience, and there is obviously no exact parallel for "your Son," so he substituted "a yid."

5) " Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read." to "Our lives are the only thing some people will ever read."
Again, a modification to remove a Christian-sounding statement. And indeed, it is a Christian phrase. Do a google search and read through some of the 3 million hits. They seem to base it on 2 Corinthians 3:1-3, from the New Testament. One modern rendition of it:

You are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all,

6) The Will of God, and the Grace of God, being removed.

7) Compare the Christian version:

This is a really scary example of how much people watch us as Christians, and
will put us to the test! Always be on guard -- and remember -- You carry the name of Christ on your shoulders when you call yourself 'Christian.'

to the Jewish version:

This is a really scary example of how much people watch us as JEW, and will put us to the test! Always be on guard -- and remember -- You carry the name of HaShem on your shoulders when you call yourself a 'JEW'.

The fellow who changed this to JEW, in all-caps, in both places, should have made the first one "Jews". And can you imagine his audacity in modifying the story and merrily changing "carry the name of Christ on your shoulders" to "carry the name of Hashem on your shoulders"?!

I find this sort of modification, and hoodwinking of people in order to "inspire" them, mildly offensive.

Still, it might be a true story, and might have originated with a rabbi. But based on the above, I highly doubt it. And it is unfortunate that people try to inspire others with false inspirational stories, or pass on such stories as truth rather than homily.