Crowns on the Torah – Spiritual Story by Paulo Coelho

When Moses ascended to Heaven to write a certain part of the Bible, the Almighty asked him to place small crowns on some letters of the Torah. Moses said: Master of the Universe, why draw these crowns? God answered: Because one hundred generations from now a man called Akiva will interpret them.

Show me this man's interpretation, asked Moses.

The Lord took him to the future and put him in one of Rabbi Akiva's classes. One pupil asked: Rabbi, why are these crowns drawn on top of some letters?

I don't know. Replied Akiva. And I am sure that not even Moses knew. He did this only to teach us that even without understanding everything the Lord does, we can trust in his wisdom.

Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian author who has sold more than 100 million books, which include 14 short story collections and the novel “The Alchemist.” He has been a fan of the Internet since the early 1990s. He spends at least three hours a day online, writing e-mails back and forth with his readers and posting photos on Flickr, MySpace and a blog.

Coelho's online activities also include promoting pirated copies of his own books. Since 2005 he's been directing his readers to an online site where they can download his books, in languages from German to Japanese, for free. “I always thought that when, at the beginning of your career, you strive to be read, you can't change your mind later and become greedy about it.”