Short Story: The Rabbi learns about real love from a drunkard

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Rabbi Yisflor Zerlisher, was walking along a city road, late one night, when he came upon a drunkard, slounging ( a combo of "slacking," and "lounging") in the street, taking yet another swig at his bottle. The Rabbi, winced, and said to him: "The night is late, at what time do you put that bottle away, my friend?" The drunkard looked bleary-eyed at the Rabbi, but his reply was very meaningful, to the Rabbi, even if he didn't mean it to be so. He said, "As long, as my bottle, still has some juice within it, I will keep on drinking." The Rabbi walked on, thinking to himself: "As long as my life still has some use to God, I will go on loving others, as much as I can." Still walking along, deep in his pondering, the Jewish Rabbi was suddenly surprised, when suddenly he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder, and the drunk then said something else to him. "Would you like my last mouthful; it seems that you need it more than I do?" The Rabbi winced. It was true that his thoughts, just then, were too loftily proud, and he was not loving these types of persons, like this drunk, that he more just despised. He took that on board, and he tried to love all, despite their outer appearances, after that too. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com "A drunkard in the gutter is just where he ought to be, according to the fitness and tendency of things." William Graham Sumner (1840 to 1910), an American Businessman said this. If this is really true, are we where we ought to be too?