But the Lord chose to crush him by disease,

That, if he made himself an offering for guilt,

He might see offspring and have long life,

And that through him the Lord's purpose might prosper.

Out of his anguish he shall see it;

He shall enjoy it to the full through his devotion.

My righteous servant makes the many righteous,

It is their punishment that he bears;

Assuredly, I will give him the many as his portion,

He shall receive the multitude as his spoil.

For he exposed himself to death

And was numbered among the sinners,

Whereas he bore the guilt of the many

And made intercession for sinners. '

Scott wasn't sure whether the rabbi was finished but he had no desire to hear anymore. 'Why have you read this to me?' he asked.

'What do you think?' the rabbi asked in return, ignoring Scott's question for the moment.

'I think that the Christian writers do a poor job of imitating the style of the Jewish prophets.'

The rabbi smiled broadly. It wasn't exactly the answer he had expected but it made the point. 'Why do you assume that these are Christian scriptures?'

Scott still wasn't sure what the rabbi was up to but the teaching style of question and answer brought back his days in Hebrew school. The rabbi must be using this to make some point about Joel's delusion, he thought. 'Well,' Scott answered, as if he were in a classroom, 'there are two reasons. First of all, the writer is obviously writing about Jesus: all that business about being wounded because of our sins and crushed because of our iniquities. That's a Christian belief – that Jesus was a substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of mankind. It is obvious that this is one of their scriptures trying to convince the reader that Jesus was the Messiah.'

'Is that what it is saying?' the rabbi asked before Scott could get to his second point.

'Of course. It's obvious. It could be nothing else.'

'And the second reason?'

'Second,' said Scott, 'is that I have never heard nor read that passage before. If it was from the prophets I would have heard it read in synagogue.'

Rabbi ben David leaned forward and handed the still-opened book to Scott. Sitting back again in his chair, he crossed his hands on his stomach and exhaled audibly through his thick gray beard. Scott found the passage quickly; it was well marked. Then he looked at the top of the page: it read 'Isaiah.' Suddenly his eyes filled with rage. 'Were the Christians not satisfied to add their writings to the back of our Bible with their so-called 'New' Testament?! Have they now begun inserting their lies into the very text of the Tenach?! Where did you purchase this? We must put a stop to it immediately before others are deceived!'

'As you can see,' the rabbi said, flipping to the title page, 'this is translated according to Masoretic text and was published by the Jewish Publication Society of America. What I read you is in your Bible, too, Scott. You can go home and look.'

'That's impossible. My Bible was given to me by my grandfather. The Christians could not have… '

'Those are the words of the prophet Isaiah, Scott.'

Scott's eyes grew wide with bewilderment. 'But why have I never heard this before?'

'You have never heard it because that passage is never read in the synagogue. It does not appear in any rabbinic anthology of synagogue readings for the Sabbath. It is always passed over.'

'But who can the prophet be talking about?'

The scrutiny of the rabbi's stare turned Scott's question back to him.

'But it can't be. The prophet must be speaking in allegory.'

'Perhaps. In rabbinic school, when I was young and believed everything I was told, they covered this passage briefly and they taught us that Isaiah was speaking allegorically of Israel. But if the 'he' the prophecy speaks of is Israel, who then is the 'we'? Clearly there are two parties spoken of. And if the 'he' is Israel, then whose sins – whose iniquities – is it we have borne? Who is it that was healed by our wounds?

''He was cut off from the land of the living through the sins of My people,'' the rabbi continued, reciting a piece of what he had just read. 'Is it not Israel who are God's people? And if Israel is God's people, and 'he' was cut off from the land of the living through our sins, who is the 'he'?' Rabbi ben David frowned and concluded: 'So we are back to the same question: to whom does the prophet refer?'

'But what about the part about dying from disease? Jesus was supposed to have been crucified,' said Scott.

'In truth,' Rabbi ben David answered, 'that wording is a very selective translation. You can see right here,' he said, pointing to the editor's note at the bottom of the page from which he had just read, 'the meaning of the original Hebrew is uncertain. 'Disease' was just a guess. But even with that, who can miss what the prophet is saying?'

Scott did not answer.

The rabbi sighed. 'So there is the reason for my distraction,' he said, 'and the reason I find Joel's dream, or at least the timing of it, so curious. You see, it was because of a dream that I recently read that portion of Isaiah. It was not so colorful a dream as the one Joel described. I'm not even sure I was asleep. I just kept hearing a voice calling my name and telling me to read the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. I was as astounded as you when I read it. I could not understand how I could have so long ignored what you have just said is so obvious; allegory simply cannot explain the striking similarity. If ever a prophecy were exactly fulfilled, then this… ' The rabbi stopped himself from saying more. 'Well,' he continued, 'so now I find myself in a dilemma. As you have said, it is obvious of whom the prophet seems to be speaking, and yet, I cannot allow myself to admit it, but,' he said, and then paused, 'neither can I bring myself to deny it.'

Thursday, August 1,2019 – New York

The Security Council was called to order to assess the progress toward reaching a compromise on a new Secretary-General. Although there was still a long way to go before a decision, substantial movement had occurred. The first major change was the withdrawal of the candidacy of the ambassador from Saudi Arabia. It quickly became clear that certain other regional representatives, particularly India, simply would not accept an Islamic Secretary-General and since the selection had to be unanimous, the Saudi ambassador had bowed out. In doing so, he made it clear that whoever was ultimately chosen would have to pay a price for the Islamic region's spirit of compromise and cooperation. The representatives of East and West Africa who had supported the Saudi were then approached by the American and the Japanese ambassadors for their support, but both were reluctant to support either.

After some late-night deliberations between the supporters of Japanese Ambassador Tanaka and the Africans, French Ambassador Albert Moore had asked the representative of West Africa whom he could support. An hour later, after private discussions between the East and West Africans, they had come back with the answer that they could support the representative of Northern Asia, Ambassador Yuri Kruszkegin. Moore relayed the information and the next morning Tanaka withdrew and threw his support to Kruszkegin.

In the meantime, however, the Saudi, who represented the Middle East, had agreed to support Ambassador Clark of the United States. When the Security Council adjourned, the vote was five for Kruszkegin, four for the American Clark, and as before, China abstained. The issue was tabled for seven more days.

Sunday, August 11,2019 – Jerusalem

The black stretch limousine of the Italian ambassador to Israel, Paulo D'Agostino, pulled past the security barriers and stopped outside the front entrance of the Israeli Knesset. Accompanying D'Agostino were Christopher Goodman, Robert Milner, and Milner's guest, Alice Bernley. Close behind the limo, security personnel from the

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