The Wayward Moon by Janice Weizman

Author:Janice Weizman [Weizman, Janice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Jewish Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction
Publisher: Yotzeret Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2012-08-28T05:00:00+00:00

Each Sunday after morning prayers, Rabban Basilius would address the monks, giving a talk so dull that my thoughts would drift away as soon as he began. Though he often began with a story from the Scriptures, or the writings of the Church Fathers, he would soon take up the subject that most troubled the monks of Mar Yuhanon, which as far as I could tell, involved a disagreement about the nature of Christ. I would glance at the pictures of Isho and Maryam, and wonder what they would have made of it all. Here we are, you and I, the only Jews among the Christians. I know why I am masquerading as something that I’m not, but how did it happen to you?

“In recent months,” Rabban Basilius began, “we’ve been reviewing some of the writings of our Church Fathers. Today we will read from the homilies of St. John Chrysostom.” Though the monks were looking up at him with rapt attention, I was unable to suppress a yawn. “Now the meaning of the name Chrysostom is ‘golden-mouthed.’ St. John’s insight, his straightforwardness, and his rhetorical splendor no doubt earned him this title. Though his words did not always find favor in the eyes of the clergy, St. John was nonetheless proclaimed one of the Four Doctors of the Church.”

He went on about St. John, and I let my thoughts wander far back to my last few weeks in Sura, when Shafiqa and I were busy embroidering sheets for my wedding trousseau. I was recalling the design we had chosen, a pattern of red roses with green leaves, when I heard Rabban Basilius say, “…so that we may understand the true nature of the Jews.” My ears opened wide. I had read enough of the writings of the Christians to know the strange things they thought about Jews. “They are a people who have not only rejected the holy teachings of Christ, but in spite of the punishment God has inflicted on them, still refuse to see the evil of their ways. Let us read from the sermons delivered by St. John in Antioch, almost 500 years ago.”

Now it was I who was listening to his every word.

He began to read: Nothing is more miserable than those people who never failed to attack their own salvation. When there was need to observe the Law, they trampled it under foot. Now that the Law has ceased to bind, they obstinately strive to observe it. What could be more pitiable than those who provoke God not only by transgressing the Law but also by keeping it? On this account, Stephen said: “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart, you always resist the Holy Spirit,” not only by transgressing the Law but also by wishing to observe it at the wrong time.

But what is the source of this hardness? It comes from gluttony and drunkenness. Who says so? Moses himself. “Israel ate and was filled and the darling grew fat and frisky.” When brute

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