{"id":3769,"date":"2020-08-03T08:27:09","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T15:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/?p=3769"},"modified":"2020-08-03T08:27:09","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T15:27:09","slug":"zemel-and-the-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/archives\/3769","title":{"rendered":"Zemel and the Pope"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Several hundred years ago, when the Vatican was a powerful city state and the Pope commanded a great army, Jews escaping trouble in Europe and the Middle East settled on the outskirts of the Vatican, their population grew, and soon there were thousands of Jews living in close proximity to that most Catholic of places. Cardinals and bishops were outraged and petitioned the Pope to send his army to clear away the heathens who were, according to Christian dogma, the killers of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pope at that time, his name\neludes me, was deeply pious and spent many hours a day communing with God, so at\nfirst he ignored these petitions from the bishops and cardinals. But finally he\nwas compelled to listen to their demands, and he said, \u201cArrange for me to meet\nwith the wisest of the Jews and then I\u2019ll make my decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A proclamation is sent forth into\nthe Jewish community that on such and such a day, at such and such a time, the\nPope will be enthroned at the entrance to St. Peter\u2019s awaiting the wisest of\nthe Jews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you can imagine this proclamation\nsends the Jewish community into a tizzy as one group claims their<\/em> rabbi is the wisest and another group\nsays, \u201cAre you kidding? Our rabbi\u2019s little finger is smarter than that guy.\u201d\nAnd so on. The bickering continues night and day, and no one is chosen to speak\nto the Pope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day comes and the Jewish\ncommunity prepares for the worst. The Pope takes his place on his throne in\nfront of St. Peter\u2019s and a red carpet is rolled across the plaza and lined with\nsoldiers of the Papal Guard. Hundreds of Jews venture as close as they dare to\nwitness the terrible failure of their community leaders to choose a\nspokesperson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And who should come walking by just as the momentous moment arrives? Zemel the Fool, an unemployed bum and one of the more problematic members of the Jewish community. He sees the red carpet and all those hundreds of soldiers holding their swords in salute, and he feels inclined to take a stroll down that beautiful red path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assumed by the Vatican honchos to\nbe the wisest Jew, Zemel is not impeded in his progress and ere long, after\ncomplimenting the soldiers on their nice duds and impressive swords, he comes\nto where the Pope awaits him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pope looks at the man in rags\nand is reminded of Saint Francis who eschewed all worldly goods and was a\nfriend to all God\u2019s creatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zemel looks at the Pope and is\nreminded of his old friend Ezekiel Goldberg who also tended to overdress on\nwarm days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pope raises one finger skyward.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zemel considers this and raises two\nfingers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the Pope opens his arms in an\nexpansive gesture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zemel thinks for a moment, raises both\nhands a little, palms up, and shrugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the Pope takes a bite of a holy\nwafer and follows this with a sip of wine from a bejeweled goblet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zemel nods, takes an orange out of\nhis pocket, peels the orange, and eats it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pope watches Zemel relishing\nthe orange, rises from his throne and proclaims, \u201cThe Jews may stay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you can imagine, this gets the\ncardinals buzzing angrily and they assemble around the Pope and demand an\nexplanation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Jews agree with us entirely,\u201d\nsays the Pope, still elated from his encounter with such a wise person. \u201cThey\nare every bit as reverent and knowing of His truths as we are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cardinals are dumfounded and\nask the Pope to explain further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pope says, \u201cWe conversed in the\nsilent language of spiritual understanding. I raised my finger to say, \u2018God is\nthe father,\u2019 and he raised two fingers to says, \u2018And the son.\u2019 Then I lifted my\narms wide to say, \u2018God is everywhere,\u2019 and he made the holy gesture that means,\n\u2018God is here.\u2019 Then I ate of the body of Christ and drank of our savior\u2019s\nblood, and then that wise man ate of the holy fruit of Israel. I tell you the\nJews are our brothers and may stay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Zemel is carried back to\nthe Jewish settlement on the shoulders of his cheering brethren and deposited\nin front of the four most popular rabbis, all of them having watched in horror\nas Zemel communed with the Pope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They begrudgingly thank Zemel for\nsaving the community from annihilation, and ask what went on between him and\nthe Pope. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zemel frowns. \u201cThat guy was the\nPope? I thought he was just a rich guy with a big house.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut what did he say to you and how\ndid you answer?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh that,\u201d says Zemel, scratching\nhis head. \u201cWell I get there and he puts up one finger that means, \u2018I\u2019ll give a you\none.\u2019 So I top that with, \u2018I\u2019ll give a you two.\u2019 Then he says, \u2018What are you\ndoing here?\u2019 And I say, \u2018I don\u2019t know.\u2019 Then he eats his lunch and I eat mine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

fin<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Goodly Fool<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several hundred years ago, when the Vatican was a powerful city state and the Pope commanded a great army, Jews escaping trouble in Europe and the Middle East settled on the outskirts of the Vatican, their population grew, and soon there were thousands of Jews living in close proximity to that most Catholic of places. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6021,6020,6023,6022,9,33,6018,6019],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3769"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3769"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3772,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3769\/revisions\/3772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}