"Ellison-TowardTheLight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ellison Harlan)

And he said: "That wasn't the miracle."

And I said: "Seems pretty miraculous to me. If you believe."

And he said: "The miracle was that they knew the oil was uncontaminated.
Otherwise they couldn't use it for the ceremony."

"So how did they know?" I asked.

"They found one cruse, buried in the dirt of the looted and defiled Temple of
the Mount. One cruse that had been sealed with the seal of the high rabbi, the
Kohen Gadol, the Great Priest."

"Yeah, so what's the big deal? It had the rabbi's seal on it. What did they
expect, the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval?"

"It was never done. It wasn't required that oil flasks be sealed. And rules were
rigid in those days. No exceptions. No variations. Certainly the personal
involvement of the Kohen Gadol in what was almost an act of housekeeping . . .
well . . . it was unheard-of. Unthinkable. Not that the High Priest would
consider the task beneath hims" he rushed to interject, "but it would never fall
to his office. It would be considered unworthy of his attention."

"Heaven forfend," I said, wishing he'd get to the punchline.

Which he did. "Not only was the flask found, its seal was unbroken, indicating
that the contents had not been tampered with. One miraculous cruse, clearly
marked for use in defiance of alllogic, tradition, random chance. And that was
the miracle."

I chuckled. "Mystery, maybe. Miracle? I don't think so."

"Naturally you don't think so. You're a Bad Jew."

And that, because he was an arrogant little creep, because his subjective
world-view was the only world-view, because he fried my frijoles, ranked me,
dissed me, ground my gears, and in general cheesed me off . . . I decided to go
"fugitive" and solve his damned mystery, just to slap him in his snotty face
with a dead fish! When they ask you why any great and momentous event in history
took place, tell 'em that all the theories are stuffed full of wild blueberry
muffins. Tell 'em the only reason that makes any sense is this: it seemed like a
good idea at the time.

Launch the Spanish Armada? Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Invent the wheel? Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Drift back in time to 165 Before the Christian Era and find out how one day's
oil bums for eight? Seemed like a good idea at the time. Because Barry R. Levin
was a smartass!