when he concentrated. Charan and Laban were not exactly everyday names and one had to have some talent in order to be able to recall them so readily. Right now he was a little proud how well his son – who after all was only seven years old – was able to remember the history of his ancestors! If only he wouldn’t daydream so often!
Samuel unrolled the torah until he reached aforementioned passage. Joshua read very fluidly and calmly, he rarely had to pause in order to pronounce a difficult word. He loved this chapter, in which Jacob wooed Rachel and had to work for her father for many years. But in the end his patience and humility had paid off.
Today Joshua could concentrate well, even though he would have rather played with the other children. But he relaxed as he reminded himself that he could do that tomorrow again, for his father would not always have time to study with his son.
“Then she became pregnant again and gave birth to a son and said: ‚This time I want to pr .. praise the Lord.’ and thus they called him Judah. She did not have any further children.” The chapter was finished.
“Well done, Joshua.” Samuel was very happy about Joshua’s work today. “Now we will do the writing exercises. I will read a few passages, and you are to write them down. Let us begin.” Samuel knew that it was not allowed to copy from the torah, unless it served the purpose of teaching. If one considered things carefully, this was also a teaching which he was passing on to his son. Hence he was able to ignore the rule this time. After all a future rabbi was in training here, he thought to himself. It was clearly visible that his on would at some point step into his footprints and become the rabbi of Nazareth.
Time always passed quickly, for Joshua also noticed that he was making progress with his writing.. But after another hour he had become tired.
“Joshua, that was enough for today.” Samuel noticed how tired he had become. No wonder, for Joshua had worked for along time with utmost concentration.
“I can tell that you are beginning to make more and more mistakes now. I am happy with your development. We will work together often in the future. I also want you to do your writing exercises when I am gone on occasion for a few days.” Samuel fixed his gaze on Joshua. “An hour every day. If you think I won’t be able to tell, then you are making a big mistake. Don’t even try to trick me. It is important, believe me. You are destined for something greater than tending sheep or harvesting barley. Have you understood?” His voice took on a threatening tone.
“Yes, father.” Joshua had frozen, for he had not expected that tone of voice after having just been praised a moment before.
“I will probably have to spend some time in Jerusalem soon. I will take a look at your exercises in that time. I know how much you can write in an hour.” Satisfied with his cleverness, Samuel smiled. With one last glance at his son he left the room and went over to the synagogue.
Joshua remained seated fro a while and thought about his tough individual lessons with Samuel sadly. On the one hand he was grateful for being able to improve his writing skills more and more, but on the other hand the rules and regulations of his forefathers sometimes seemed to crush him under their weight. Especially this ridiculous ‚hear oh Israel’ with the demand among other things that the tefilin had to be worn on arm and forehead, restricted him so much that it was enough to drive him up the wall. There were strips of parchment containing passages from the torah within the leather cases. As if it would make any difference whether one wore them or not. In this regard he could not comprehend adults and the teachings of his forefathers. Or whether one fastened a capsule with torah passages on parchment on the doorpost or not. What was that supposed to effect? He had to endure the wise-cracks of Simeon for wearing these stupid things. Simeon on the other hand refused to wear them whenever he could. That idiot could not even fasten the tefilin on his arms properly. But the worst thing, and which proved the lack of any effect of those containers, was that the words on parchment could not prevent his father, a man of God, from hitting him and injuring his mother. He had learned that it was his religious duty to respect his father, but in reality he despised him. And that is why God had to be angry at him, Joshua, he thought.
Slowly he became aware of the voices of children coming from outside the house. He went out sadly and sat down under the shadow of a pomegranate bush that stood near where the girls were playing their favorite game with Jesus: “Jacob and the Lord.” He watched the children a while and noticed that the girls always insisted that Jesus play the Lord. He tensely observed that the girls loved being caught by Jesus. Now it was Rachel’s turn and Joshua could not avert his eyes. He stared at her, curious to see whether she would also act so childishly, after all one had to try at least a little to avoid being caught in the game and to run away from the Lord some.
“Jacob, where are you?” Jesus called out with a gentle voice.
“Here.” Rachel laughed as she answered. It seemed as if Rachel also was not doing much to hide from Jesus, the Lord. After a couple of moments he had her already. They laughed and hugged for a while after they had taken off their blindfolds.
Joshua was still sitting under the tree and suddenly felt very lonely. He noticed it getting darker around him. His sadness increased and his loneliness was almost unbearable. But suddenly it got brighter again. “Joshua“, a voice called out and tore him from his thoughts. “Joshua, do you want to play with us?” It was Rachel’s voice, which brought a smile to his face with its cheerfulness.
“Yes, I will join you. Who am I supposed to be?”
“Jacob, of course.” Rachel brought him a blindfold. “Jesus is always the Lord. We decided on that yesterday.”
She wrapped Joshua with the blindfold. Then she turned him around a couple of times until he had lost his sense of direction.
“Jacob, where are you?” Jesus called out to him. He seemed to be somewhere behind him. Joshua turned around.
“Here.” Joshua answered and went in the other direction, until he noticed that the girls standing around in the circle wanted to push him back into the middle. He would not make it so easy for Jesus. Some time went by. He listened for the footsteps of Jesus, which he suddenly could barely hear anymore.
“Jacob, where are you?” Jesus seemed to have come nearer.
Joshua moved away from him before he replied. After all he did not Jesus to catch him so quickly. But all of his thoughts were no use. After a short while Jesus touched him on the back and he had to give up. How had Jesus been able to find him so quickly? He had after all been on the opposite side when he had called out.
“I found you. I have found Jacob. I have found Joshua.” Jesus seemed to be very happy. The girls laughed, for they enjoyed it very much when Jesus had been successful once again. In the old days when Simeon still played with them and called all the shots, they had been happy when it had taken longer until Simeon had found the Jacobs. But with Jesus the situation was completely different.
Both of the boys took of their blindfolds.
“How were you able to find me so quickly?”, Joshua asked Jesus.
“I concentrate, look inside myself, ask my father in heaven and then I see a weak light. This is the light that shows me the way and guides me to you.”
Joshua was astonished. It truly seemed as if Jesus had abilities that were not normal. Who was Jesus? Was he truly connected to God, the Lord, or was his father someone else, perhaps a demon, as his father suspected?
These thoughts wouldn’t leave Joshua alone for the entire rest of the day. He loved Jesus on a level of which
