I was inspired to share this story after my kids told us about the tree that Avrohom Avinu had which would decrease its shade by lifting its leaves or increase its shade by lowering its leaves depending on who was sitting under it.
This shadchan kept on calling a guy about a girl but he never got around to looking into her and giving an answer. One day the shadchan calls and says that the girl drove down to go out with him (a five hour drive) and would like to go out in a few hours.
The guy explained that he didn’t even do the minimal research but in order to not hurt her feelings he would take her out, and do the necessary research later on if applicable.
He felt that she was a nice person but was not worth pursuing. She felt the same way (or so he thought).
The next Zman his chavrusa told him a great moshul he heard from his neighbor Rabbi _________.
“A guy trying to get married is like trying to find a beautiful tree in an orchard. There’s thousands of them and he can have which ever one he picks. A girl trying to get married is like trying to find a beautiful tree in the desert. There are none for miles in each direction. When you finally think you see one in the horizon and you schlep all the way out there it turns out that it was really a cactus!”
The guy recognized the name of the neighbor as the father of the girl who drove five hours to go out with him only to refer to him as a “cactus”.
Not to be outdone he gave a moshul of his own.
“Imagine this one beautiful tree in the vast desert with no other comparable trees in sight. Now this lonely tree had a major problem that stinky, sweaty camels would travel for hours just to bask in its’ shade and the tree would have a hard time getting it to leave. Finally it would leave and another one would come along. Eventually the tree had enough and when ever a stinky, sweaty camel would come along the tree would just pretend to be a cactus so the camel would just leave on its own.”
“WOW, that’s a great moshul” his chavrusa complimented. “When I tell it to my neighbor do I have to say it in your name?”