The+Rabbi+and+the+Inquisitor

The Rabbi And The Inquisitor By JonathanS092

The city of Seville was very excited. A Christian boy was missing. The Jews were being falsely blamed for kidnapping him. The Rabbi was quickly brought before the Grand Judge. You see, Rabbis are highly respected leaders in the Jewish community. Now, the Grand Judge hated the Rabbi, and he did everything he could to prove that he was guilty. But, aided by God, the Rabbi was able to successfully defend himself against the Grand Judge’s arguments.

Frustrated, the Grand Judge threw his hands into the air. “If we cannot decide if he is guilty or innocent, then let God choose!” He continued, “I will put two slips of paper into a bowl. One says guilty, and the other innocent. If the Rabbi chooses guilty, he will be jailed. If he pulls out innocent, then we will know that God knows he is faultless. It will be God, not the Rabbi, who makes the Rabbi choose whichever piece of paper he picks.”

Well, the Grand Judge really wanted the Rabbi jailed. So he wrote “guilty” on both slips. The Grand Judge was sure that the Rabbi would be jailed now. The Rabbi, however, was a very smart man. He was sure that the Grand Judge would do something like this. So when he chose his slip, the Rabbi quickly threw it into his mouth and swallowed it. When the people of Seville cried out, “why did you do that?” the Rabbi replied, “Look in the bowl. If the paper still inside reads innocent, then the paper I swallowed read guilty and I go to jail. But, if the paper says guilty, then I swallowed the innocent one, and I am free.” The villagers rushed to the bowl, almost ripping the piece of paper in their haste to read it. “It reads guilty!” they shouted in joy. “The Rabbi is free!” Thus began great celebrations of the Rabbi’s freedom and the Jews innocence. Also, as all stories have a happy ending, this one is no different. The Christian boy came back home, saying he was lost in the woods. And everyone (except the Grand Judge, who is still fuming over his defeat) lived happily ever after.