{"id":73530,"date":"2023-03-17T17:55:54","date_gmt":"2023-03-17T22:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=73530"},"modified":"2023-03-17T17:55:54","modified_gmt":"2023-03-17T22:55:54","slug":"off-the-pulpit-a-remarkable-interpretation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/off-the-pulpit-a-remarkable-interpretation\/","title":{"rendered":"Off the Pulpit: A Remarkable Interpretation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE<\/p>\n

From Ancient Greece comes a story of rival artists, Zeuxis and Parrhasius, who competed to create the most realistic painting. Zeuxis drew grapes so realistic birds flew down to peck at them. Parrhasius brought his picture in covered in cloth. Reaching out to lift the cloth, Zeuxis was stunned to discover he had lost the contest — the cloth was really his rival\u2019s painting.<\/p>\n

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How did he know? The Maggid of Dubno explains: once an artist created a painting of a man carrying bread. The bread looked so real that birds pecked at the canvas. When one observer commented that the painting was perfect, another responded, \u201cNo, if it were perfect, the man would be realistic, too, and the birds would be afraid to get close. They can tell he is artificial, and so they attack the bread.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, said the Maggid, Joseph realized that the birds in the baker\u2019s dream ate the bread because the man did not scare them off, for he was not really alive.<\/p>\n

Rabbi David Wolpe is the senior rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles.<\/em><\/p>\n

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