i feel comfortable and proud in my own skin, as a christian, that is to say, as a person born into a heritage comprised by judaism, an obscure jewish rabbi killed by romans, and a religion crafted from that clay by a committee of learned roman intellectuals and mystics such as aquinas, augustine, and the various monks and committees who did a little tweaking here, a little tweaking there, and swallowed pagans and zealots along the line.
they do not call it catholic for nothing, which means, of course, for lack of reason. or, for lack of fact.
i believe in this civilization, this culmination of religious and secular law reflective of the push, tug, strife, warfare and slaughter, and the good and love, of entire epochs and of entire peoples. this civilization hewn by the blood, sweat and tears of passionate men, warriors, who believed in an ideal of love and gentleness: i find it a reassuring irony that lots of heads were cracked to achieve these ideals.
somehow good has been accommodated and nurtured.
not the least of that good has been the writing of good and kind souls along the way.
for passover, to my jewish and christian, and yes, zorastin friends alike, i give you the work of one isaac bashevis singer, one of the greatest of these good, kind and humble souls who seek nothing more than the ennobling of man.
not conquest. not domination. not imposition. just the ennoblement that only good, kind and pointed writing can achieve, which helps a person to become good through his own devices. so that he may do good, and conform his soul by his own good works to the good that courses through the universe.
i will not say more.
i trust the words of isaac singer to convey their own meaning, by their own devices.
so, please, read isaac singer’s short story, and then read his lecture to the swedish academy upon his acceptance of the nobel prize. they are eloquent testimony to the stature of man, and to the jewish faith. which is, of course, part of me.
--john jay
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