On
a trip to Israel, when I was 21 years old, I had my first religious experience.
I was standing on a balcony overlooking the Western Wall (aka "The
Wall") in the in the Old City of Jerusalem when it happened. At that point
in my life I was not very fond of religion (I looked at religion as an
irrational throwback to humanities primitive and fearful past), and I wasn't
planning on having a religious experience. In fact, moments before as I was
descending the steps to the Western Wall Plaza, where the Wall is located, I
said to myself, "I am going to see a really big wall, made of really big
bricks, that is really old, and nothing is going to happen." Upon entering
the plaza I had decided I didn't even want to buy into the silly
"religious" tradition of going up to the Western Wall, which is why
when I got there I went only to the balcony. So what came next was a surprise
to me.
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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