About Project Diktuon
Pulling the Fish Together
Understanding and Misunderstanding

Once upon the time there was a very pious pope. He was disturbed by the great influence the infidel Jews had in Rome. So he called for the leaders of the Jews and told them to leave the city.

The Jews understood that the city officials had pleaded the pope. Quite soon they figured that the issue with the officials was the chronic deficit in the city treasury that the Jews had been kind enough to cover, with an obviously nominal 600% annual interest rate. The Jews immediately re-negotiated a very generous repayment plan, and the officials found suddenly that it would be wise to keep such generous patriots within the city walls. However, this pope was not motivated by financial issues or politics, but was sincerely keen to exile the infidels who had rejected Christ.

The Jews and the city officials who had suddenly reached an agreement finally managed to mitigate the pope’s rather uncompromising opinion, and finally he agreed to give the Jews a chance: should the Jews best him in a public theological debate, they would get to stay in Rome.

The Jews had no choice but to comply with this proposal, and the date for the debate was set. Carpenters started immediately working on a huge stage right in front of St. Peter’s church, and as the word spread, people from all over the world started to flock to Rome. While this caused some disturbance, the city officials were generally happy about all the gold they brought to the town, and were sorry they hadn’t thought of such debate earlier.

The Jews, on the other hand, were not as jovial. They had to find an opponent for the pope, and the days were running short. Defeat in a public debate in front of thousands of ardent Christians was near certain. The pope was famous for his thorough knowledge of the scriptures forward and backwards, his razor sharp intellect and his superb eloquence. Everyone had began to realize that the opponent would be responsible not only for the Jews having to leave Rome, but also for the public disgrace of their people. It seemed that no-one was willing to face the pope and take the blame before all the Jews as well.

As the rabbis were trying to suggest each other for the noble task, an old Jew, called Joseph, passed by. Joseph was just visiting Rome, and asked what they were arguing about. They told him that no-one was willing to face a pope in a debate, where it would be decided if the Jews had to leave Rome. Joseph was then heartened, declared that he himself would face the pope and save the Jews and he would not allow anyone to stand before him in the matter.

The rabbis went to tell the pope that the great Jewish rabbi Yussef ben Ezra ben Sholomon had just arrived to Rome and demanded to use the opportunity to defend the Jewish faith against the pope – but with one condition. As the rabbi did not speak Latin, the debate would have to take place without words. The Jews had touted so much about this Yussef, that finally even the pope started to think he had heard of the man, and wanted himself to try his wits against this worthy opponent. So he agreed.

On the morning of the set day, the pope and Joseph arrived to the stage. He greeted the multitudes and smiled at them, and they replied to him in a roaring cheer – all but a small number of very worried-looking Jews who had already packed their valuables and were set to go. Joseph arrived from the opposite end of the stage, staring intently at the pope with eyes shooting daggers and said absolutely nothing. A city official introduced them both to the crowd and explained what was about to happen and what was on stake.

The pope and Joseph sat at their designated seats and the debate began. The pope lifted three fingers and showed them to Joseph. Immediately Joseph replied by shaking one finger at him. The pope leaned back for a moment, and then stretched to draw a large circle in the air and several lines going to every direction from it. Without a blink Joseph replied by quickly drawing a circle in the air and pressing a dot in the middle of it. Again the pope stopped to think for a moment. Finally he took up a piece of bread and a cup of wine and showed them to Joseph. Joseph, who had been staring the pope intently all this time, relaxed, took an apple from his pocket and bit it.

Then pope stood up, broke the silence and declared: “God has spoken. I confess that this man is a better debater than I am. The Jews get to stay in Rome.” Joseph looked at the pope curiously, and only when the rabbis came to explain him what the pope had said, he agreed to leave the stage, still glaring angry looks on him.

Afterwards the cardinals were arguing, trying to face the inevitable conclusion that they hadn’t got a clue of what had happened on the stage. Finally the bravest and most the humble of them ventured to the pope inquiring: “Your holiness, we were not able to follow all the nuances of the debate, could you be so kind and share your wisdom to us in a more articulate manner?”

“Well, first I lifted up three fingers to point out the trinity of God, that there is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. By lifting just one finger he pointed out, that still there isn’t three gods, but that God is one. That was of course a true reminder and as already the Old Testament teaches us, so his answer was both swift and excellent. Then I drew a picture to say that Christ is the light of the world. By drawing the sign of the sun, he immediately reminded, that God is the true source of the light, and Christ is the reflection of His glory like moon reflects the light of the sun. Finally I took up some bread and wine to say that the salvation lies in the death and resurrection of Christ. With the apple he reminded of the Old Testament story of the fall, without which there would not have been any need for salvation.

“When I saw how quickly and effortlessly he provided excellent counterarguments to everything I could present for the supremacy of Christian faith, I understood that God surely was with him and I could not win him in the debate. And since I did not want to argue against God, I accepted that it is His will that the Jews get to stay in this city and declared that to the people.”

The rabbis were no wiser than the cardinals, but as they were wary of going to ask the pope, they went to ask Joseph instead:

“Well, first he says that the Jews have three days to pack and leave, and I say, that oh no, we are not going anywhere. The he says that Jews are going go every direction, and I say that we stay put. Then he takes up his provisions, and I take mine, and that was it.”

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