Friday, October 2, 2015

The Debate

This is an old joke but it is worth repeating.

Many centuries ago, the pope decreed that all Jews in Italy had to convert their faith or leave the country. Of course, there was much outcry from the Jewish community. The pope relented and proposed a four eyes only debate with the Jew's highest religious authority, hoping to convince the Jews to convert. The Jews agreed but cunningly picked an old rabbi who only spoke Yiddish.

The pope was not deterred although he could not speak Yiddish and arranged for the debate behind closed doors.
They were hardly inside for a few minutes when an aspen-faced pope emerged from the room.
He quietly announced that the Jews could stay in Italy.

The cardinals were shocked and asked the pope what had happened.
The pope said, “I started by waving my hand to show that God is all around us. He responded by pointing to the ground to show that God was also right here with us."

"Then I held up three fingers to represent the Trinity. The rabbi quickly responded by waving one finger to remind me there is still only one God common to both our beliefs.  I pulled out the wine and wafer, to show that God absolves us of all our sins. He pulled out an apple to remind me of the original sin. It was then that I knew that rabbi is wise and I could not continue with the debate.”

Meanwhile, the elated Jews gathered around the rabbi o find out how he had won.

“I do not know,” said the baffled rabbi. “First, he said all the Jews must leave the country but I insisted that we will stay put. Then he told me that we had three days to convert our faith or get out of Italy, so I gave him the middle finger. That was it!”

“And then what happened?” asked a woman breathlessly .

The rabbi replied, “Well, he took out his lunch, so I took out mine. Funny that he left the room without eating....”

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