HEAVEN AND HELL AND THE LONG SPOON ALLEGORY

This is a parable, which is a simple story told to teach morals or religious principles. It originates from Jewish folktales. The same story can also be seen in the Romanian folktale “Das Gastmahl des Teufels,” which was published in 1928 by German folklorist Adolf Schullerus. The oldest version of the story was told by Rabbi Haim Romshishker, many years earlier. This was his story:

“Once, I went up into the sky and also entered hell. I looked around and saw: old and young men sitting rows upon rows in front of tables that were full of all the best things, each holding a long spoon in hand. And when one reached for his mouth, he wouldn’t be able to because of the spoon’s length. And so they all sat row against row with their souls dry and a great sorrow rested on their faces. I went over to one of them and said to him: ‘A fool in the world! Rather your eyes seeing all this goodness and craving, send the spoon that is attached to your hand and support your friend who sits opposite you. And he will, in turn, support you with the spoon attached to his hand.’ The man looked at me with meager eyes and replied: ‘It would better for my eyes to see and crave all day long than for me to see him enjoy and be satiated. ‘I was alarmed to hear this, so I opened my mouth to scream a loud scream and woke up.”

This story has been interpreted in many different ways but the most common that we can make the world either a heaven or a hell ourselves, based on our actions.

HELL

A man was once taken on a tour of hell and was shocked by what he saw: All of hell’s people sat at long tables in a dining room, long spoons in their hands. The table was full of amazing foods. But all the diners’ arms were too short to feed themselves with those long spoons. They were not able to feed themselves and refused to help each other, so no one could eat.

HEAVEN

Next, the man visited heaven and found the same scenario, but with one great difference. The souls in heaven sat on opposite sides of the table and used their long spoons to feed each other. It can be said that the difference between heaven and hell is that the inhabitants of hell only care about themselves, whereas heaven is full of people who spend their time helping each other.

If you wish to make your life on Earth better, you have to ask yourself only one question; Is your spoon long enough to reach those who need it? If so, use your spoon to assist who you can, and heaven will be a place on Earth.