The Ah Hah! vs. the Hah!

Rabbi Silverman had eaten at the same delicatessen for lunch every day for nearly 30 years. And every day he had the same thing for lunch – chicken soup. The rabbi was so predictable that the waiter would lay out his table and have the bowl of soup ready at 10:59. At precisely 11:00 the rabbi would walk through the door, greet everyone, take his place at his table, and quietly eat his soup.

One morning the rabbi came in, as usual, greeted everyone, as usual, and sat at his table, as usual. But that morning, he merely looked at his soup. He didn’t even try to eat it.

Concerned, the waiter came over and asked if the rabbi were ok.

“Taste the soup,” the rabbi said.

“There is something wrong with the soup?” the waiter said. “You haven’t even tried it and you think there is something wrong with the soup?”

“Taste the soup,” the rabbi replied patiently.

“I just had a bowl of this soup,” the waiter said. “I can assure you it is wonderful chicken soup. Just the way you like it. Yet you keep saying, ‘Taste the soup’.”

“Taste the soup,” the rabbi said.

Finally, in exasperation, the waiter said, “All right, already, I’ll taste the soup!”

He reached down, then looked at the rabbi in astonishment and said, "You don’t have a spoon.”

“Ah hah!” the rabbi said.

I tell this story to my students when they start to fuss because I won’t give them answers they can easily discover for themselves or they should already know. It always comes down to discovery. If I tell them, they will have heard, but not learned. If they discover the answers, they have learned without the hearing. It is called the “ah hah” moment.

These moments are important in our growth as Christians. We want others to tell us what we should either already know need to learn for ourselves. Sometimes, it is simply a matter of our not grasping something we already know but don’t fully understand. The gap between knowing and understanding can be a chasm. Then, of course, there are times we simply overlook something that should be obvious. In all cases, we need to have our "ah hah" moment of discovery, not the be given the answers.

Often, when we are dealing with others, we don’t try to lead them to their own “ah hah” moment because we are too busy looking for the “Hah!” moment for ourselves. That is the moment when we can look at someone and say triumphantly, “Hah! See! I told you.” The problem with this is that nobody learns anything. In going for the “Hah!” moment, we miss the lessons that we can learn by watching others come to their own answers. When we lead them to the "ah hah" moment, everyone gains.

Worse, there are times when someone is trying to lead us to our “ah hah” moment and we simply defend our own already-arrived-at conclusions. We are so confident in our assumptions, so convinced we have overlooked nothing, that we miss the obvious. We have to be teachable to be taught. We miss the "ah hah" moments because we keep them from happening.

Sometimes we get frustrated when someone simply rejects our message. At those times we need to consider that perhaps it isn’t the message that is being rejected, but the delivery system. We haven't prepared the listener by giving him some way to grasp the message for himself. Sometimes the message is rejected no matter what, but we are not the stumbling block.

Paul says the Lord’s servant must be “able to teach . . . with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition.” (2 Tim. 2:24-25 NASB). Peter tells us to always be ready “to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet ever with gentleness and reverence.” (1 Peter 3:15 NASB)

In all things, we need to be like the rabbi leading others to discover for themselves the things they need to know. And like the waiter, we need to be sure on our part that everything necessary is there and usable by others. Taste the soup.