A
strong man came to power in Germany whose ideas were that Germany has to create
a national community, which would include only the Aryan race, which he
considered superior, and all the people who did not belong to the Aryan race
could be eliminated. With planning and propaganda, he was able to convince most
of the German people to go along with him, insensitive to what happened to the
Jews who had basically been their former neighbors. And he managed to build
concentration camps and killing centers and finally gas chambers to annihilate
six million Jews and at the same time also millions of others, murdered in a
systematic, government-sponsored way.
The witnesses, laying their coats at the feet of Saul, were the men that would cast the first stones at Stephen in Acts 7. Why did they all lay their coats at Saul’s feet? The Talmud contains a very interesting account of the act of stoning that may provide the answer. “When the trial was over, they take him [the condemned person] out to be stoned. The place of stoning was at a distance from the court, as it is said, ‘Take out the one who has cursed.’ [i] A man stands at the entrance of the court; in his hand is a signaling flag [Hebrew sudarin = sudar , ‘scarf, sweater’]. A horseman was stationed far away but within sight of him. If one [of the judges] says, ‘I have something [more] to say in his favor,’ he [the signaler] waves the sudarin , and the horseman runs and stops them [from stoning him]. Even if [the condemned person] himself says, ‘I have something to say in my favor,’ they bring him back, even four of five times, only provided that there is some substance to...
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