The Body and Soul

Saw this today and wanted to share it because I found it to be profound.

The story is called the Two Watchmen, it comes from the Talmud, a Rabbinic Midrash of Rabbi Judah HaNassi (Talmud Sanhedrin 91 a-b):

"Antoninus said to Rabbi Judah HaNassi: The body and the soul can each absolve themselves from judgement. The body can say: "It is the soul who has sinned. Why, from the day it left me, I lie like a dumb stone in the grave!" And the soul can say: "It's the body who transgressed. From the day I departed it, I fly about in the air like a bird!"

Said Rabbi Judah: I will tell you a parable.

Once there was a king who had a beautiful orchard with splendid figs. He appointed two watchmen for his orchard. One watchman was lame, and the other one blind.

One day the lame man said to the blind man: "I see beautiful figs in the orchard. Come, I will ride on your shoulders, and we'll take them and eat them." So the lame man rode on the shoulders of the blind man, and they took the fruits and ate them.

Some time after, the owner of the orchard came and inquired of them, "Where are those beautiful figs?" The lame man replied, "Have I feet to walk with?" The blind me replied, "Have I eyes to see with?"

What did the king do? He placed the lame watchman on the shoulders of the blind watchman, and judged them together."

I found this to be such a beautiful picture of the body and soul. It reminds me of two things - the first is the story of Adam and Eve and the whole scene of them eating the forbidden fruit. Both of them utter an excuse (Eve: the serpent tricked me, Adam: the woman gave it to me and I ate it). After that thought was how much of a dancer God is. There is seemingly always this dance at play, on a number of levels; (some of the things that come to mind) between the flesh and the spirit, between the chosen-ness of Israel and the provocation of Gentile faith, or between a narrow path or a broad road, between building on sand versus building on rock...