Let Them Hear

Pretty sure a version of this story involves chopsticks and a Chinese banquet. 

In contemporary (“politically correct”) terms that might be “cultural appropriation.” 

Or it reflects a universal understanding of the consequences of good and evil. 

If you’ve ever been graced with the opportunity to attend a genuine (and indescribably phenomenal) Chinese banquet with twenty-plus courses ranging from noodles and mushrooms to seafood, pork, chicken and beef, you understand my preference. [By the way, don’t ever ask for plain ole white rice at a formal Chinese banquet; a polite host will offer it at the end of the meal with the question “Do you need a filler?” You won’t!]

Rabbi Chaim Elchanan Tzadikov, known as “Rabbi Chaim of Rumshiskok” (a Lithuanian town with various spellings), was born in 1813 and one of the best-known itinerant maggidim (preachers) of his generation, famed for his use of allegories and powerful rhetoric elevated by humor. Travelling from town to town, he delivered sermons that stressed the importance of respect for one’s fellow human beings and was famous for asserting “I once ascended to the firmaments. I first went to see Hell and the sight was horrifying… Next, I went to visit Heaven. I was surprised to see the same setting I had witnessed in Hell.”

Surviving versions of the rabbi’s account focus on soup and spoons. Good. But I prefer the Chinese banquet and chopsticks version. [I’ll still use some of his words and images.]

The denizens of Hell gathered at giant tables “laden with platers of sumptuous food, yet the people seated around the tables were pale and emaciated, moaning in hunger. As I came closer, I understood their predicament.”  Giant chopsticks were permanently attached to the hands and arms of each of the condemned “so he could not bend either elbow to bring food to his mouth. It broke my heart to hear the tortured groans of these poor people as they held their food so near but could not consume it.”

In Heaven, the rabbi was surprised to see “the same setting I had witnessed in Hell… tables laden with food. But in contrast to Hell, the people [with similarly long chopsticks attached to their hands and arms] here in Heaven were sitting contentedly talking with each other obviously sated from their sumptuous meal… How, then did they manage to eat?”

The difference?

As the rabbi watched, a man used his chopsticks to pick-up noodles or Sichuan pork or jiaozi – Chinese dumplings (one of my favorite foods in all the world). “Then he stretched across the table and feed the person across from him! The recipient of this kindness thanked him and returned the favor by leaning across the table to feed his benefactor.” 

“I suddenly understood. Heaven and Hell offer the same circumstances and conditions. The critical difference is in the way the people treat each other.

“I ran back to Hell to share this solution with the poor souls trapped there. I whispered in the ear of one starving man, ‘You do not have to go hungry. Use your [chopsticks] to feed your neighbor and he will surely return the favor and feed you.’

“’You expect me to feed the detestable man sitting across the table’ said the man angrily. ‘I would rather starve than give him the pleasure of eating!’

“I then understood God’s wisdom in choosing who is worthy to go to Heaven and who deserves to go to Hell,” concluded the rabbi.

As Americans face the devastating consequences of COVID-19 – loss of jobs and income, inability to pay rent and mortgages, looming possibilities of eviction and children going hungry in what politicians brag is “the wealthiest nation on earth,” it’s easy to imagine tomorrow’s version of Heaven. 

Neighbors and grandparents who “temporarily adopt” the children of doctors, nurses, medical technicians, food preparation and cleaning crew staffs who dare not go home lest they contaminate their babies or elderly parents will nourish and nurture each other in the Kingdom of God. 

Sanitation workers who continue to keep our cities and streets clean and wave with big smiles to quarantined Americans of all ages will be fed with the greatest of Chinese dumplings and the spiciest of chicken.

The landlord who “has enough in the bank” and so tightens his or her belt and lowers or excuses rents for the waitress tenant who went ten weeks before being able to get back to working a few hours a day will enjoy joyous belly-laughs watching others master Chinese noodles and chopsticks. 

The COVID-19 survivor whose greatest concern is donating his or her plasma so that others might live will never know hunger at the table of Heaven; others will pray for the honor of feeding him.

The teacher who – from her limited salary continues to provide crayons and poster boards and now is buying face masks for her students who life at the border of poverty – will be feted on whole fish so exquisitely served that she wants to take pictures to send to friends before remembering that all of her friends are at the Table of the Lord’s People.  

For the firefighters, EMTs, children and grandchildren, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers who tended to the sick and the dying in the midst of this pandemic, an endless round of barbeques and clambakes, characterized by genuine and joyous laughter as they are constantly thanked and embraced by those whom they served and saved. 

Of course, Heaven is for eternity.
There will be so many people in line 
to see Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle.
Mike Flynn

Anthony DeStafano appears to have focused on writing religious books for children, but his 2020 release Hell (A Guide) ought to frighten the bejeezus out of some folks – who, unfortunately for them, will almost certainly never read it. DeStefano’s well-written work argues effectively for the absolute and eternal existence of Hell and makes the point that, while a loving God the Father waits anxiously for the sinner to return to a loving relationship, the absolute (our word) sinner will never do so; he has hardened his heart and hates the goodness of God. 

There’s a special place in hell for ______ (fill in the blank).
Frank Flynn

While the Chinese allegory visualizes a universal Hell – everyone in the same situation, DeStefano describes a highly personalized everlasting Hell. Akin to the withdrawal of the drug addict – the sinner experiences the opposite of the “benefits” of his sins for all eternity.

Now there was a rich man dressed in purple and fine linen, 
who lived each day in joyous splendor.
And a beggar named Lazarus lay at his gate covered with sores
and longing to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. 
Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 
One day the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. 
And the rich man also died and was buried.
In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham from afar, 
with Lazarus by his side.
So he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me 
and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. 
For I am in agony in this fire.’
But Abraham answered, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime 
you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. 
But now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.
Luke 16:20-25

As I understand DeStefano’s explanation of Hell:

The corporate executives and family owners who grew fabulously wealthy addicting America and the world to opioids will experience the most intense pains of withdrawal – unending muscle gramps, shivers and fevers, praying  to die so that the pain will end, yet it never does, and heart and breathing failures from which they will “die” over and over again, only to be miraculously revived. 

Members of Congress who enjoyed a guaranteed annual salary of $174,000 – three times the national household income of Americans – but took four day weekends and monthlong summer vacations – leaving the nation buried in a pandemic and millions without income and facing – if not actually experiencing – evictions will wander through desert storms and hurricanes, the bone-breaking cold of arctic winters and skin scorching heat forever without shelter.

The bullying narcissist whose life was built on lies will be condemned forever to hallucinate, to hear voices of his own creating (because his victims in Heaven no longer care about his evil) telling him the truth about himself, his lies, his evil and the personal inadequacies he spent a lifetime attempting to deny and used every available platform to hide. 

The corporate and political men and women whose legislation and lobbying have polluted the worlds streams and oceans, destroyed glaciers and perpetrated global warming – forcing the poorest of the poor from their homes, provoking plagues of locust and desertification – will spend every moment of eternity treading in the skin- and lung-burning slime which their greed has created. 

The immigrant-hater who would deny freedom to the most oppressed of the most oppressed will spend eternity shivering in the glacial air of a wire cage surrounded by equally evil men and women speaking languages he will never understand.

Dictators and their sycophants will forever experience the tortures they inflicted and had inflicted on their victims, being tossed over and over again from helicopters into the cesspool of Hell and overwhelmed by the pleas of their own fathers and mothers, husbands and wives and lovers, and children, who now experience the separation and hopelessness they once inflicted on the innocent. 

The science denier, the mask-mocker, the “it will disappear in fifteen days… it will disappear… like a miracle” asserter,  the self-centered quarantine-scoffers who infect others and whose actions lead to unspeakable pain and suffering and deaths will spend eternity with the unrelenting lung and neurological damage, the aches and pains, the ICU-induced PTSD and the life-altering emotional traumas experienced by doctors and nurses and medical staffs who serve the victims of their egos and folly. 

Then Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” 
Mark 4:9

Check out DeStafano’s Hell (a Guide). It’s worth the read! And think about it!