“Let me,” answered Amnon, “pronounce my own doom for this neglect.  Let my tongue, which uttered those hasty, doubting words, be cut out; a lie I uttered, for I never intended to consider the proposition.”

“Nay,” said the Bishop, “I will not cut out thy tongue, but thy feet which refused to come to me, shall be cut off, and the other parts of thy obstinate body shall be also punished and tormented.”

Under the Bishop’s eye and order, the toes and thumbs of Rabbi Amnon were then cut off, and after having been severely tortured, he was sent home in a carriage, his mangled members beside him.

Rabbi Amnon bore all this with the greatest resignation, firmly hoping and trusting that this earthly torment would plead his pardon with God.

His life after this was of course to be measured only by days.  The Feast of the New Year came round, while he was living, and he desired to be carried to the synagogue.  He was conveyed to the house of God, and during the service he requested to be allowed to utter a prayer.  The words which proved to be his last were as follows:—­

“I will declare the mighty holiness of this day, for it is awful and tremendous.  Thy kingdom is exalted thereon; Thy throne is established in mercy, and upon it Thou dost rest in truth.  Thou art the Judge, who chastiseth, and from Thee naught may be concealed.  Thou bearest witness, writest, sealest, recordest, and rememberest all things, aye, those which we imagine long buried in the past.  The Book of Records thou openest; the great shophar (cornet) is sounded; even the angels are terrified, and they cry aloud, ‘The Day of Judgment dawns upon us,’ for in judgment they, the angels, are not faultless.

“All who have entered the world pass before Thee.  Even as the shepherd causes the flock he numbers to pass under his crook, so Thou, O Lord, causest every living soul to pass before Thee.  Thou numberest, Thou visitest; appointing the limitations of every creature, Thy judgment and Thy sentence.

“On the New Year it is written, on the Day of Atonement it is sealed.  Aye, all Thy decrees are recorded.  Who is to live and who to die.  The names of those to meet death by fire, by water, or by the sword; through hunger, through thirst, and with the pestilence.  All is recorded.  Those who are to have tranquillity, those who are to be disturbed.  Those who are to be troubled, those who are to be blessed with repose.  Those who are to be prosperous, those for whom affliction is in store.  Those who are to become rich, who poor; who exalted, who cast down; but penitence, prayer, and charity, O Lord, may avert all evil decrees.”

When he had finished this declaration, in which he designed to acknowledge his sin and the justice of his punishment, Rabbi Amnon expired, dying fitly in God’s house among the assembled sons of Israel.

FASTS AND FESTIVALS