Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1868-10-06
From the Atlantic for October.
The Two Rabbis.
BY JOHN G. WHITTIER.

The Rabbi Nathan, two score years and ten,
Walked blameless through the evil world, and
then,
Just as the almond blossomed in his hair,
Met temptation all too strong to bear,
And miserably sinned. So, adding not
FaIsehood to guilt, he left his seat, and taught
No more among the elders, but went out
From the great congregation grt about
With sackcloth, and with ashes on bis head,
Making his gray locks, grayer. Long he pray &c
Shifting hi breast; then. as the Book he laid
Open before him for the Bath-COrs choice,
Pausing to hear that Daughter ofa Voice,
Behold the royal preachers words: ga friend
Leaveth at all times, yea, unto the end;
And for the evil day thy brother lives"
Marvellng, he said; "It is the Lord who gives
Counsel in need. At Ecbatana dwells
Rabbi Isaac. who all o<ceIs
In righteousness and wisdom, as the trees
OfLebanon the small weeds that the bees
Bow with their weight. Twill arise and lay
My sins before him."
And he went his way
Barefooted, fasting long. with many prayers;
But even as one who, followed unawares,
Suddenly in the derkness feels a hand
Thrill with its touch his own, and his cheek
famed
By odors subtly sweet, and whispers near
Of words he loathes, yet cannot choose but hear
So, while the Rabbi journeyed, chanting low
The wall of David's penitential woe,
Before him still the old temptation came,
And Knocked him with the motion and the shame
Of such desires that, shuddering, he abhorred
Himself; and, crying nightly to the Lord
To free his soul and cast the demon out,
Smote with his staff the blackness round about.
At length, in the low light of a spent day.
The towers of Ecbatana far away
Rose on the deserts rim and Nathan, faint
And footsore, pausing where for some dead sain
The faith of Islam reared domed tomb,
Saw some one kneeling in the shadow, whom
He greeted kindly: "May the Holy one
Answer thy prayers, o stranger" Whereupor
The shape stood up with loud cry, and then,
Clasped in each others arms, the two gray mel
Wept, praising Him whose gracious providence
Made their paths one. But straightway as tn,
sense
OF his transgression smote him, Nathan tore
Himself away: 30 friend beloved, no more
Worthy am to touch thee, for l came,
Foul from my sins, to tell thee all my shame.
Haply thy prayers, since naught avaieth mine,
May purge my soul and make it white like thine
Pity me, o Ben Isaac, have sinned"
Awestruck Ben Isaac stood The desert wind
Blew his long mantle backward, laying bare
The mournful secret of his shirt of hair.
81 too, friend, ifnot in act" he said,
"In thought have verify sinned. Hast thou no
read,
| Better the eye should see than that desire
Should wander? Burning with a hidden fire
That tears and prayers quench not, come tC
thee
For pity and for help, as thou to me.
Pray for me, o my friend?" But Nathan cried,
pray thou for me Ben Isaac!"
OfdO by sire
In the low sunshine by the turban stone
They knet; each made his brothers woe his OWL
Forgetting, in the agony and stress
OF plying love, his claim of selfshness;
Peace for his friend besought, his own became
His prayers were answered in another's name;
And, when at last they rose up to embrace,
Each saw Gods pardon in his brothers face.
Long after when his headstone gathered moss,
Traced on the targum marge of Onkelos
In Rabbi Ndthan's hands these words were read
" Hope not the cure of sin till self as dead;
FORGET 1t in loUe'S service. and the debt
Thou canst not pay the angels shall forget;
Heauens gate is shut to him aoho comes a lone;