The anti-semitic Pope had spoken, ex cathedra, and proclaimed that all Jews, such as there were, had to leave the Vatican. Outraged, the embattled Jewish community turned to their spiritual leader, we'll call him Aaron, who asked the Pope for a debate on the matter. If the Pope won the debate, the Jews would leave and if he lost they could stay ad infinitum. The Pope said "ok" (but in latin) but then Aaron made a very strange request; the debate had to be conducted in silence.
Ever a fan of the trappists, and other orders at the more ascetic end of the market, the Pope agreed.
The awaited day arrived and both parties sat facing each other for some time, before the Pope raised his hands and showed three fingers. Aaron did the same, only he only showed one finger. The Pope then circled his finger around his head and in response, Aaron pointed to the ground.
The Pope next took out some holy wafers and altar wine and Aaron immediately pulled out an apple, upon which the Pope threw the towel in "these guys are too clever for me; dialectics was never my strong point at the seminary", he said. And the Jews could stay.
His Cardinals swarming around him, the Pope explained what had gone wrong. "I held up three fingers, representing the trinity. He responded by raising the one finger to represent the one God, that we both worship and have in common. I waved my finger around to show that God was all around us, and he then pointed to the ground, which I interpreted as meaning that God was here with us, right in the room. My final gambit was to pull out the sacraments to show that God absolves us of all our sins, upon which he drew out an apple, to remind us of original sin. I was stumped. He had an answer for everything. They can stay.."
Meanwhile across town, various people were questioning Aaron as to how he'd been able to pull it off.
"Well, he began by telling me we had three days to get out of the city, so I raised a finger to show that not one of us would leave. He then indicated that the city would be cleared of Jews by waving his finger, so I showed him that we were staying right here".
"What happened next, how did you get out of that?" someone asked.
"Dunno." said Aaron. "He just took out his lunch and so I took out mine".
I thank you.
It’s it’s the thorgt that counts…
1 day ago