And yet, not a day passed without our having
recited our Modeh-Ani. As to eating pork, we abstained from it in
spite of the rods. Then they gave up flogging us; but, instead of
that punishment, they gave us nothing but pork to eat. Two days we
held out; we did not touch any food. We did not get even a drink of
water. Do you see little Simeon? Well, he tried to eat the grass
in the courtyard. . . . On the third day of our fast I saw my
father in my dream. He was dressed in his holiday clothes, and
holding the Bible in his hands he quoted the passage, 'Be ye mindful
of your lives.' Suddenly, the earth burst open, and the Angel of
Death appeared. He had rods in one hand and a piece of swine's
flesh in the other. He put the piece of pork into my mouth. I
looked up, terror-stricken, to my father, but he smiled. His smile
filled the place with light. He said to me, 'Eatest thou this of
thy own free will?' Then he began to soar upwards, and called out
to me from afar: 'Tell all thy comrades, the Cantonists: Your
reward is great. Every sigh of yours is a prayer, every good
thought of yours is a good action! Only beware, lest you die of
hunger; then surely you will merit eternal punishment!'
"I awoke.
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