In the evening, when the children were lying in their beds, they heard a gentle flute melody that drifted over Nazareth and spoke of the greatness of God. This melody was more beautiful than any psalm in the books. Much more beautiful ...
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“May the power of our Jewish God enlighten our human spirit of little faith, so that we perceive all of his glory and the gifts that God gives us in his glory.” Samuel stood in front of the children and had closed his eyes. It seemed like he was in a trance when he spoke his prayers.
“May you all pay close attention to the writings of our forefathers again today and recognize their meaning.”
Samuel loved going into the synagogue in the morning and teaching the wisdom of the torah to the children, the future of his people. Even if only a few of them would recognize the depth of this wisdom, he would be happy. Today he wanted to deal with this Yeshua, who preferred being called by his geek name. That damned worthless lout, Samuel cursed. He had been in the synagogue only rarely so far and yet was already so impudent. This Yeshua denied his Jewish roots and took on such a horrible sounding pagan name. Pah! Well, he would see who is boss here!
Samuel had to call his thoughts back into order, for they had swerved far from his topic this morning. First of all he wanted to see what this bastard had learned in that cesspool of sin Alexandria. He would deal with Joshua later. The new one had priority first.
“Today we will speak about the faith. I will read from the scriptures and ask you questions about them.” Samuel, the proud rabbi, began to read the story from the torah in which Abraham is supposed to sacrifice his son Isaac to God. Samuel loved this story, for to him obedience was the ultimate symbol of a God-fearing individual. When he had ended, an icy silence filled the synagogue.
“What does this story want to teach us? Joseph, what do you have to say about this?”
“The story wants to show us that God is the most important thing in our life.”
“Yes, very good Joseph. Eleasar, what do you think?”
“God saves one from all difficult situations.”
“Yes, not bad, Eleasar. And what about you, Simeon?”
“That I should never climb up on a mountain alone with my father.” Some of the children laughed.
“Silence!” Samuel was once again speechless. That dumb dog! Well, unfortunately not much good could come of this one if one took a look at his father.
“Not quite. But now I would like to know what our Greek has to say about it, Simeon.” Samuel was full of suspense. “Jesus, what are we supposed to learn from this story?”
Jesus thought a while and tilted his head to one side. Was another child trying to whisper something to him? No, Samuel saw nothing of the sort. He almost wanted to begin speaking again when an answer finally came from the one he had asked.
“Rabbi, I have a problem with this story.” Jesus was calm and glanced around the rooms with wide eyes. “I agree with Joseph and Eleasar, I even agree with Simeon, for I would not go up on a hill alone with someone. But…“
“What, but“, Samuel interrupted him.
“But this story teaches me that it is difficult in this world to distinguish between good and evil intuitions. Demons can hide behind beautiful words and logical thoughts. Good angels can hide behind simple and poor people. This story teaches me that I still must learn even more to check my thoughts and my intuitions in order to determine what power they belong to. Whether to our divine father or to the lord of darkness. In this story is it very simple: God would never demand such a sacrifice from Abraham. A sacrifice is not the intention of our Lord, our one God. And thus those words came from the lord of darkness. “
Samuel was speechless. He did not often fall speechless like this. How dared this lout …? What had this Jesus said there? After a short while he had regained his composure.
“Jesus, how can you say something like that! Even a blind man can see that these were the words of God and not those of a demon. Do you know the lepers that drool out of their mouths as if they were rabid dogs? When you first come to Jerusalem you will recognize them. These people are the demons. Bad things come out of those mouths, not from the torah. You have just denied, no, even slandered the holiness of the scriptures.” Samuel was so full of rage that he was shaking.
“Honourable rabbi, I have seen the kind of people that you describe. They are not demons, they are merely possessed by one. I only said my opinion which you had asked to hear. What am I supposed to do when I read and hear things that go against the sensibility of my soul?”
“Excuse me?” Samuel was boiling with rage.
“Honourable rabbi, one also does not pour new wine into old wineskins, for then the old wineskins would tear and the new wine would spill on the earth. No, one pours new wine into new wineskins, or no?”
Samuel’s horror increased. This boy was eminently intelligent. His choice of words also did not match those of a five-year-old. But what he said was unacceptable.
“I forbid you to speak of the personal records of God in this way. The old scriptures are holy. Do you think that you can act big by speaking the way you do? Do you then also believe what your father says, namely that you are supposed to be the saviour?”
Hit. Now Samuel was curious to see how Jesus would escape from this dilemma.
“Rabbi, much is spoken. Much is right and much is wrong. I would never claim such a thing of myself. After all the true and truly faithful people would recognize the saviour.”
Samuel was placated. This Jesus did not view himself as the Messiah. At least something good there. Now maybe some peace could be restored in the village.
He, the rabbi of Nazareth, would surely recognize the saviour of the Jews. The chosen people could only be saved by a true Jew. And not by a lout who preferred the Greek language over his own roots. Samuel was going to deal with his father later.
“Good, good, good. Let us continue speaking about Abraham. Joshua, what is your opinion? Joshua?”
“Umm, excuse me? What did you say, father?” Once again Joshua was daydreaming.
“I will talk with you later on.” That rotten dreamer. Barely back in school and he was already up to his old tricks. And yet he had so much hidden potential.
After that the rabbis feelings calmed down again, for most of the boys whom he asked about the story of Abraham made the impression that they had understood God’s message. Samuel had regained confidence. Not as much was lost as had seemed at first.
“May the blessing of our almighty father be with you. May he guard and protect you, may he let you recognize that Gods ways and messages are clearly visible. May the saviour appear soon to protect us from evil. See you tomorrow.” He had taken a little dig at Jesus there. After all the boy had to recognize quickly who was the boss in the synagogue.
I don’t like it when Simeon calls me blue-eyes, as if I had any choice in the color of my eyes. It happened again today in the synagogue. I get so angry then that I would like to slap him, but unfortunately I am weaker then he is. I would not stand a chance. But I also know from you that violence and revenge is not the path that I am supposed to take. As I recognize later on these feelings are not mine at all. They are transferred onto me by those grotesque faces. And I know that you are not angry at me for having such thoughts, but I believe that I can return those thoughts to you and share them with you, thereby relieving my human heart some, by regularly writing down my thoughts and impressions. And then the lesson with that rabbi. Samuel truly is a very stupid person. He does not recognize the divine revelations even when they are lying open right in front of his eyes. Instead he considers false messages to be the words of God. Do all rabbis not see this or is only Samuel this dumb? Looks like the task that I am here to do may get gnarly. Fortunately I can always think of something to say, but it will not be easy for me in the future. I can sense