By Bread Alone

December 3, 2007 - 12:30 PM by Stephanie

Israel seems to attract a good number of messianic visionaries.

People who believe they have been sent by Jesus/Buddha/Allah/Moses/Muhammed/Mister Rogers/etc. to lead us all from temptation and guide us along the path of chaste & pure living.

Come to think of it, San Francisco seems to attract those types too.

But I digress.

Over at Israel Stories, JC blogs an encounter in a Jaffa bread shop with one such character…

I felt a tap on my shoulder. My shoulder, my bloody shoulder, why not somebody else, why my shoulder.

“Can I bless your bread?” The Swedish Arab asked me, his eyes rolling back into his head, wild hair flaying in all directions as his head bobbed uncontrollably.

“No, you can’t!” I had my reasons ranging from not getting spittle anywhere near my food or body, to religious doubts that was correct practice.

“I am a priest of the lord, I have the power of healing, take up thy bed and walk, I and no other. Cast of your shackles, possessions are useless all property is theft. Man cannot live by bread alone”. There then proceeded a jumble of gargled rhetoric spawning or spewing random verses from the bible, Koran and even Oscar Wilde (the one about lying in the gutter).

Security was called, the police arrived and “The Lord’s Messenger” was carted away.

All in a day.

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