Twelfth Tale Of a Master of Prayer #3
Yet the mighty Warrior continued his advance towards them.
He sent forth his other warriors to ask the nation’s citizens how they wished to proceed, as was his custom.
The people of the nation were terrified and did not know what to do.
The merchants had a suggestion: they had visited another country that was populated 152 entirely by gods.
There, they said, these gods all rode with angels.
This was on account of the fact that in that country everyone, from the humblest to the greatest, was extraordinarily wealthy.
Even the least among them would be considered a god according to their foolish misbelief, since even the poorest person there was so rich and possessed enough money to be deemed divine in their own nation.
They were said to ride with angels because their horses were adorned opulently with gold and the like, so much so that the value of the horses’ caparisons was enough to be deemed an angel by their measure.
Some of these gods even rode astride three such angels yoked together.
Therefore, the merchants decided, we should send for help from this country and they will surely aid us since they are all gods.
This suggestion very much pleased everyone as they believed that the divine inhabitants of that country would certainly come to their aid.
Meanwhile, the Master had decided to return once more to the Nation of Wealth.
Perhaps, he thought, he could at last steer them away from their persistent folly.
So he went. When he came to the guards, he began to converse with one of them, as he was wont to do.
This guard told him the news of the mighty Warrior and how everyone was terrified of him.
What do you plan to do? the Master asked the guard.
The guard told him about the plan to send for help from the country where everyone was a god.
The Master laughed heartily at him, saying, What utter foolishness that is!
The people there are simply people, just like any of us.
You, with your so-called gods, are also just people—nary 153 a one of you is a god.
There is but one God in the universe, the One who created all things.
Him alone should you serve and to Him you should offer your prayers.
This and only this is the true purpose of the world.
The Master told the guard many other things as well.
But the guard still would not listen, for folly had long ago taken hold of the people.
So the Master continued to press his case with the guard until, at last, the guard responded, Well then, what can I do?
I am only one man. There are a great many others in this nation and they far outnumber me.
The guard’s response gave some hope that he might yet be turned around from his wayward path.
Indeed, the words the Master had spoken when he first met the guard joined with those that he had just said and together they stirred the guard’s heart.
So the Master went to the next guard and spoke with him, as was his wont.
After listening to the Master, this guard responded just as the previous one had.
And so, too, all the guards responded in kind.
Afterwards, the Master went into the city and, again, began to converse with people there, as he had before, elucidating the error of their ways—explaining that money was not the main point of living but, rather, that one’s true purpose was to be devoted to divine worship, the Holy Law, prayer and so forth.
Again, he was ignored, since their infatuation with money had long ago taken hold.
But they told him the news of the mighty Warrior and of their plans to send for aid from the country of gods.
Again, the Master scoffed and said that this was pure folly. He told them how these were regular people and they would not be able to help them. 154
Indeed they are human beings, he told them, just as you are, and they are not gods at all. There is but one God, blessed be He. And as for this mighty Warrior, he wondered aloud, could this be the same Warrior I once knew?
Nobody understood what he meant by this.
So the Master went on his way, talking with one person and then the next, just as he had before. Each time the mighty Warrior was mentioned, he remarked, Could this be the same Warrior…? And each time, no one knew what he meant.
Meanwhile, an uproar had broken out in the city.
It was said that there was someone in town going around deriding their faith and saying that there is but the One and Only God, Blessed and Almighty, and every time one speaks of the mighty Warrior he remarks, Could this be the same Warrior I once knew?
The people realized that this must be the Master of Prayer, since he was already quite renowned.
It was ordered that the Master be found and captured.
Even though he always appeared in a different guise, by now they knew all about his shifting disguises.
The Master was pursued until at last they apprehended him and he was taken before their elders.
They began to speak with him, and he said much the same as he had told the others before: how they were all living in error and in great folly; how money was not the point of living; how there was the One and Only Blessed God, the Almighty Lord, who created all living things and alone should be worshipped.
Money, he told them, was pure folly, and this country that you believe to be populated by gods will never be able to help you since they are just ordinary people and not gods at all. 155
The elders thought him mad. The whole nation was so steeped in their belief in money and so woefully deluded that anyone who said anything counter to their folly was considered a madman. They asked him, When you speak of the mighty Warrior, why do you always wonder, Could this be the same one?
He answered, Because I once served a great King, and this King’s mighty Warrior was lost. So, if this is the same Warrior, I am well acquainted with him.
Still, if you are counting on assistance from the country where you believe all to be gods, you are sorely mistaken, for they cannot help you.
Rather, putting your trust in them would be your ultimate downfall.
How are you so certain that this would be our downfall? they asked.
He answered, Because the King I served had possession of the Yad, the Guiding Hand.
It was a model of a hand, with a palm and five fingers, and scored with all the lines and creases of a human hand.
The Yad was a map of all the worlds. And everything that had ever been—since the creation of the heavens and the earth, from the beginning until the very end—and all that was still to be was inscribed in the lines and creases of the hand.
The design of all worlds and where each world was situated was indicated precisely on the Yad, just as it would be etched on parchment by the finest cartographer.
Every city and every country, every bridge, as well as every forest and every stream, each was marked to note what it was, whether a town or country or the like, and so inscribed on the Yad.
Just as on a map, where there are signs and symbols that indicate what each object illustrated upon it represents and explains what is what 156 and how to distinguish a city from a stream and so forth, so there were such signs and symbols in the lines and creases of the Yad.
So, too, with all the people who inhabited every country and all the events of their lives.
For each and every life was inscribed upon the Yad.
All paths from one country to another were there, too, and from one place to the next.
That is how I knew how to enter your city, which no one else had ever done before.
And should you send me to any other city, I would know the way, for I know the Yad.
Just so, the Yad shows the way from one world into the next.
For there is a path that, if followed, leads from this earth into the heavens.
No one may ascend without knowing the way, but the Yad shows the way.
On the Yad are all the many pathways that lead from one world into the next: the Prophet Elijah ascended to the heavens using one such path, and our teacher Moses ascended using another.
So, too, Enoch ascended yet another path after his three hundred and sixty-five years, and that path was inscribed upon the Yad.
Thus, each path from one world to another, above and beyond, is marked in the lines and creases of the Yad.
Inscribed upon the Yad is every single thing—as it was at the moment the world came into being up until the present and hereafter.
For example, the city of Sodom. The Yad shows how the city was before its destruction, how it was as it was destroyed, and how Sodom appears now, after its ruin.
Indeed, all that ever was, is and will be is inscribed upon it.
There, on that very Yad, I have seen the country that you believe to be inhabited by gods, and I have seen all its people, who you believe will come to your rescue.
This country together, with all its people, will be laid waste. 157
All this the Master told the elders and all were utterly astonished, for they realized that he had spoken the truth.
Indeed, it was well known that there existed such a map upon which all things were inscribed.
They understood that his words were true and that such things could not be simply made up.
For all were aware that in the assemblage of lines and creases of this Yad lay portentous signs and symbols.
They asked him, Where might your great King be? Perhaps he can show us a path to find more riches?
He shot back in surprise and anger, You still want money? Speak no more of it!
They persisted, Nevertheless, tell us where your King is.