Isaac Deutscher
THE WANDERING JEW AS THINKER
AND REVOLUTIONARY*
I
... I remember that when as a child I read the
Midrash
I
came across a story and a description of a scene which gripped my
imagination.
It
was the story of Rabbi Meir, the great saint, sage,
and
the pillar of Mosaic orthodoxy and co-author of the
Mishna,
who took lessons in theology from a heretic Elisha ben Abiyuh, nick–
named Akher (The Stranger). Once on a Sabbath, Rabbi Meir went
out on a trip with his teacher, and as usual they became engaged in
deep argument. The heretic was riding a donkey, and Rabbi Meir,
as
he could not ride on a Sabbath, walked by his side and listened
so
intently to the words of wisdom falling from heretical lips, that
he failed to notice that he and
his
teacher had reached the ritual
boundary which Jews were not allowed to cross on a Sabbath. At
that moment the great heretic turned to his pupil and said: "Look,
we have reached the boundary-we must part now; you must not
accompany me any further-go back!" Rabbi Meir went back to
the Jewish community while the heretic rode on-beyond the boun–
daries of Jewry.
There was enough in this scene to puzzle an orthodox Jewish
child. Why, I wondered, did Rabbi Meir take
his
lessons from the
heretic? Why did he show
him
so much affection? Why did he de–
fend
him
against other rabbis? My heart, it seems, was with the
heretic. Who was he? I asked. He appeared to be
in
Jewry and yet
out of it. He showed a curious respect for his pupil's orthodoxy when
he sent him back to the Jews on the holy Sabbath; but he himself,
• This article is based on a paper read before a large audience in London for
the J ewish Book Week, in February 1958, under the title "The Non-Jewish Jew
in
Modern European Thought."
