A rabbi, known
for his fire-and-brimstone sermons, was heard addressing his flock.
”Hear, O Israel,”
said he, “ the Lord is one. As a father admonishes his children so that their
errant ways might be corrected, so too do I admonish you.”
“Follow the Lord
your God with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your strength, so
that it might go down well with you.”
“If, however, you
do not do as I say but instead choose to follow the inclinations of your own
hearts and bow down to foreign gods, gods that neither you nor your forefathers
had known, as surely the Lord lives, He who created the heavens and the earth,
the Lord is his Name, He will send his armies against you to rid you from the
land he gave to you and your descendants to be your inheritance forever, a land
overflowing with milk and honey.”
“Even if you rally
your finest men to defend your city walls, He will send his hordes again and
again until the land vomits you out like the stomach vomits out rotten food and
putrid wine.”
“If you do not
do as I say, I tell you the truth, you will end up like Gaddafi.”
“And it will be
said about you, from that time onwards, that because you did not follow the
Lord your God but chose to follow other gods instead, He stretched out His
mighty hand against you so that you suffered the same fate as Gaddafi.”
And indeed, from
that time onwards, blessings were pronounced, “May you not end up like
Gaddafi”, and curses, “May you end up like Gaddafi”, among other things too
numerous to be mentioned here.
