‘Perhaps both, as Aristotle tells us,’ my master answered.
Eisik huffed, mumbling under his breath. ‘You think too much of that Greek, perhaps it is your Alexandrian blood. Your race has always thought too much of Greeks and look where it has got you!’
‘Maimonides, whom you revere as a great philosopher, used many Aristotelian laws . . .’
Eisik shook his head, waving a finger in the air, ‘And it was philosophy, Andre, that led to his downfall . . .’
My master sighed. ‘How can a man so erudite be so stubborn! Even Maimonides knew that logic illuminates the mind and strengthens the spirit, Eisik!’
‘No, you are confused,’ he shook his head, ‘philosophy addles the mind, and confounds the soul...and moreover, it will not help you decipher the threat on your life which you have just received!’ His face softened. ‘Oh, my son, my son, when will you see the error in your thinking? When will you devote your life to the spirit? Don’t feed your anima the errors of reason, for if you do, your soul will dry up as have the souls of so many in these days of wickedness. That is the bitter lesson that I have learnt, though I atone that one error until the day God calls me to answer for my sins . . . ah!’ He waved a hand, closing his eyes and shaking his shoulders. ‘An error too horrible to contemplate!’
My master looked grave, and perhaps as much for his sake as for his friend’s he said, ‘What happens in the past must be forgotten.’
‘You are mistaken, Andre,’ Eisik sighed. ‘It must never be forgotten, we must remember that we were wrong! We allowed our zeal to transform us into instruments of execution . . . the lamb became the wolf, and the intimidated became the intimidators! May the God of our fathers forgive us for allowing the shining face of love and compassion to elude us . . .’
‘That was a long time ago.’
‘Not so long ago . . .!’ There was a wide-eyed feverish quality to his face. ‘You may say, because you love me as I hope you do, that I was only defending the memory of Maimonides, from whose lips I learnt so much . . . but to defend him, a man died . . . do you hear me? A man died! Oh! It is horrible! Horrible to cast one’s mind back to those terrible days. You should listen to the mystics, who say that knowledge and faith should never be brought together, that the lust for such things is distinct from the beatific sacrifice that is innocence. Maimonides the great Spanish Jew tells us that happiness lies in the immortal existence of the human intellect contemplating God.’
‘But, Eisik, the rabbi condemned Maimonides, he condemned the mystics, and . . . Cabbala.’
‘It is true . . . it is true . . . he was blind to the light that emanates from the holy source through which our fathers have always spoken. In his ignorance he despised knowledge because he was tempted by the devil of envy. But learned men also succumb to temptation because even more than ignorant ones, they know the ways of sin . . . Perhaps the rabbi was right?’
‘But I am certain you didn’t desire the rabbi’s death, and that is all I need to know . . .
‘But you are wrong!’ Eisik exclaimed, horrified. ‘I confess that for an instant I desired that very thing! For one terrible moment, a shadow, a mire, prevented me from seeing the divine precepts of the Holy Law. He was burning books! He was destroying knowledge and so he should be punished! But it was as I stood calling for his death, snarling like a rabid animal, that I realised that learning does not better man, it only makes him better at being clever. It does not lead a man to the path of brotherly love, but to that of self-love. It never leads to tolerance. It leads only to arrogance!’
‘But you are an erudite and insightful man whose knowledge has been a blessing to many.’
‘Ahh!’ spat the Jew. ‘It is a curse!’ Then to me, ‘One thinks in his youth – and you had better listen to this my young one lest you become like your master – one thinks that he learns in order to better understand the world and its laws. A holy pretext if it weren’t also a foolish one because after a time of gazing into the vast distances, a man no longer sees what lies at his feet, he loses himself in the universe of ideas because he neglects to see the connections between entities that unite those ideas.’
‘But my dear and wise friend,’ broke in my master impatiently, ‘surely the world would be paler and far less appealing without the wisdom of men, but we are not only speaking of the wisdom of master mathematicians, teachers, and rulers, but also the wisdom of farmers, herdsmen, blacksmiths!’
‘Very well, but I fear that your pursuit of philosophy, as you call it, will lead you to your ruin and I will be forced to witness it, it is my destiny . . . Do you not know that there is little better than the simple soul that strives for nothing more than what is given him by the grace of God? I beg you, do not allow your pride to take you to hell, for I suspect this note of yours mirrors what we have been discussing.’ In a softer voice he said, ‘Throw away your reason, my son, and bask in the light of the one eternal wisdom that no man can know!’