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Sunday, March 27, 2005
easter
yes yes yes i no m jewish, i thought i would do something in honor of easter - or rather, of jesus - anyway...
there is a well-known story, about how a woman is caught in adultery and a rabbi comes along and saves her from being stoned to death by pointing out to the crowd that they should maybe be more forgiving. there are two other stories that also need to be told...
a woman is caught and about to be stoned to death for adultery. the rabbi comes, and says, "whoever here is sinless, let him or her cast the first stone." distracted, the townspeople drop their stones, thinking on their own sins. the rabbi, unnoticed, leads the woman out of the square and whispers, "tell the lord magistrate who saved his daughter. then he will know that i am his friend." and so the woman escaped because her town was near the brink of chaos, and could not enforce their laws.
another woman, another rabbi, another town. she is caught and about to be stoned for adultery. the rabbi steps up. again, he says, "whoever here is sinless, let him or her cast the first stone." the townspeople drop their stones, thinking that they would like to be saved should they ever be similarly situated. the rabbi picks up one of the fallen stones and crashes it into the woman's skull, killing her instantly. "neither am i without sin," he says. "but if we let only the sinless enforce our laws, we would collapse into chaos." and so the woman died because her town was too rigid to endure her deviation.
only one rabbi had the audacity to say the we should walk that fine line, between chaos and rigidity, death and lawlessness. and so, of course, we killed him.
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