Click in the field, then press CTRL+C to copy the HTML code
<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=420810" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Two Rabbins</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE Rabbi Nathan two-score years and ten<br>Walked blameless through the evil world, and then,<br>Just as the almond blossomed in his hair,<br>Met a temptation all too strong to bear,<br>And miserably sinned. So, adding not<br>Falsehood to guilt, he left his seat, and taught<br>No more among the elders, but went out<br>From the great congregation girt about<br>With sackcloth, and with ashes on his head,<br>Making his gray locks grayer. Long he prayed,<br>Smiting his breast; then, as the Book he laid<br>Open before him for the Bath-Col's choice,<br>Pausing to hear that Daughter of a Voice,<br>Behold the royal preacher's words: 'A friend<br>Loveth at all times, yea, unto the end;<br>And for the evil day thy brother lives.'<br>Marvelling, he said: 'It is the Lord who gives<br>Counsel in need. At Ecbatana dwells<br>Rabbi Ben Isaac, who all men excels<br>In righteousness and wisdom, as the trees<br>Of Lebanon the small weeds that the bees<br>Bow with their weight. I will arise, and lay<br>My sins before him.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And he went his way<br>Barefooted, fasting long, with many prayers;<br>But even as one who, followed unawares,<br>Suddenly in the darkness feels a hand<br>Thrill with its touch his own, and his cheek fanned<br>By odors subtly sweet, and whispers near<br>Of words he loathes, yet cannot choose but hear,<br>So, while the Rabbi journeyed, chanting low<br>The wail of David's penitential woe,<br>Before him still the old temptation came,<br>And mocked him with the motion and the shame<br>Of such desires that, shuddering, he abhorred<br>Himself; and, crying mightily to the Lord<br>To free his soul and cast the demon out,<br>Smote with his staff the blankness round about.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">At length, in the low light of a spent day,<br>The towers of Ecbatana far away<br>Rose on the desert's rim; and Nathan, faint<br>And footsore, pausing where for some dead saint<br>The faith of Islam reared a domed tomb,<br>Saw some one kneeling in the shadow, whom<br>He greeted kindly: 'May the Holy One<br>Answer thy prayers, O stranger!' Whereupon<br>The shape stood up with a loud cry, and then,<br>Clasped in each other's arms, the two gray men<br>Wept, praising Him whose gracious providence<br>Made their paths one. But straightway, as the sense<br>Of his transgression smote him, Nathan tore<br>Himself away: 'O friend beloved, no more<br>Worthy am I to touch thee, for I came,<br>Foul from my sins, to tell thee all my shame.<br>Haply thy prayers, since naught availeth mine,<br>May purge my soul, and make it white like thine.<br>Pity me, O Ben Isaac, I have sinned!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Awestruck Ben Isaac stood. The desert wind<br>Blew his long mantle backward, laying bare<br>The mournful secret of his shirt of hair.<br>'I too, O friend, if not in act,' he said,<br>'In thought have verily sinned. Hast thou not read,<br>'Better the eye should see than that desire<br>Should wander?' Burning with a hidden fire<br>That tears and prayers quench not, I come to thee<br>For pity and for help, as thou to me.<br>Pray for me, O my friend!' But Nathan cried,<br>'Pray thou for me, Ben Isaac!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Side by side<br>In the low sunshine by the turban stone<br>They knelt; each made his brother's woe his own,<br>Forgetting, in the agony and stress<br>Of pitying love, his claim of selfishness;<br>Peace, for his friend besought, his own became;<br>His prayers were answered in another's name;<br>And, when at last they rose up to embrace,<br>Each saw God's pardon in his brother's face!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Long after, when his headstone gathered moss,<br>Traced on the targum-marge of Onkelos<br>In Rabbi Nathan's hand these words were read:<br>'/Hope not the cure of sin till Self is dead;<br>Forget it in love's service, and the debt<br>Thou, canst not pay the angels shall forget;<br>Heaven's gate is shut to him who comes alone;<br>Save thou a soul, and it shall save thy own!/'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=John+Greenleaf+Whittier">John Greenleaf Whittier</a><div class=q>
<img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share">
<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=420810" data-title="The Two Rabbins de John Greenleaf Whittier" data-description="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 a temptation all too strong to bear,
And miserably sinned. So, adding not
Falsehood to guilt, he left his sea..."></div>
</div>
</div>