CHAPTER 17.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Levi
Jesus talks with the rabbi of the synagogue of Nazareth. He criticises the narrowness of Jewish thought.
Now, Rabbi Barachia of the synagogue of Nazareth, was aid to Mary in the teaching of her son.
2 One morning after service in the synagogue the rabbi said to Jesus as he sat in silent thought, Which is the greatest of the Ten Commands?
3 And Jesus said, I do not see a greatest of the Ten Commands. I see a golden cord that runs through all the Ten Commands that binds them fast and makes them one.
4 This cord is love, and it belongs to every word of all the Ten Commands.
5 If one is full of love he can do nothing else than worship God; for God is love.
6 If one is full of love, he cannot kill; he cannot falsely testify; he cannot covet; can do naught but honor God and man.
7 If one is full of love he does not need commands of any kind.
8 And Rabbi Barachia said, Your words are seasoned with the salt of wisdom that is from above. Who is the teacher who has opened up this truth to you?
9 And Jesus said, I do not know that any teacher opens up this truth for me. It seems to me that truth was never shut; that it was always opened up, for truth is one and it is everywhere.
10 And if we open up the windows of our minds the truth will enter in and make herself at home; for truth can find her way through any crevice, any window, any open door.
11 The rabbi said, What hand is strong enough to open up the windows and the doors of mind so truth can enter in?
12 And Jesus said, It seems to me that love, the golden cord that binds the Ten Commands in one, is strong enough to open any human door so that the truth can enter in and cause the heart to understand.
13 Now, in the evening Jesus and his mother sat alone, and Jesus said,
14 The rabbi seems to think that God is partial in his treatment of the sons of men; that Jews are favored and are blest above all other men.
15 I do not see how God can have his favorites and be just.
16 Are not Samaritans and Greeks and Romans just as much the children of the Holy One as are the Jews?
17 I think the Jews have built a wall about themselves, and they see nothing on the other side of it.
18 They do not know that flowers are blooming over there; that sowing times and reaping times belong to anybody but the Jews.
19 It surely would be well if we could break these barriers down so that the Jews might see that God has other children that are just as greatly blest.
20 I want to go from Jewry land and meet my kin in other countries of my Fatherland.