Jacob the Baker: Gentle Wisdom for a Complicated World (Jacob the Baker Series) Read Online Free Page B

beggar.”

FREEDOM IS NOT THE ABSENCE OF SLAVERY; IT IS THE MEMORY
    S amuel stood patiently in the morning shadows of the bakery waiting for Jacob and wanting to talk.
    As soon as Jacob entered, Samuel came to life, and the two men worked together, quickly finishing the tasks in waking a bakery after its rest.
    “I miss these times,” admitted Samuel. “I’m not sure I didn’t like it better before people discovered your wisdom.”
    “The wisdom isn’t mine,” said Jacob, hunching his shoulders as if he were retreating from the very thought of it.
    “Don’t you see, Jacob? That is the attitude which draws people to you.”
    Jacob exhaled but said nothing.
    “Look, Jacob!” continued Samuel, “to this community, you are their
tzadik
, their holy man.”
    Jacob actually shuddered when he heard this.
    “Are you afraid of this power, Jacob?” asked Samuel.
    “No,” said Jacob. “Doubt picks a man’s own pocket. Fear is the pain before the wound.”
    Silence drew its hood around both the men and pulled them closer together.
    “Samuel,” said Jacob, placing his hand on his friend’s shoulder, “for someone to be a true
tzadik
he must wake others so they know themselves as their own
tzadik
because each of us is a reflection, a refraction of the Original Light.”
    Samuel pursed his lips and shook his head. “People don’t have the character to live like this!”
    His voice jumped with emotion. “You expect too much of them, Jacob.”
    Then Samuel confessed. “I’m afraid to believe this!”
    “Don’t be afraid to learn from fear,” said Jacob. “It teaches us what we are frightened of.
    “Look carefully and you will see we are all orchards hiding in seeds. You will see inside each of us is the Pharaoh. And inside every Pharaoh is a slave. And inside every slave is a Moses.”
    Jacob was swaying back and forth as if he were praying, his eyes shut, his voice filled with a clear cadence.
    “We must lead ourselves out of the enslavements we have constructed and called Pharaoh.
    “We must be the Moses in our Egypt. We must be the mountain in our desert. And …”
    “And,” Samuel interrupted, chorusing Jacob’s rhythm, “we are the border we must cross over to enter the Promised Land.”
    “Ah,” said Jacob, “see what a
tzadik
you are, Samuel.”

REALITY RIDES THE CURRENT
    T he children arrived after school. They folded their bodies onto the flour sacks.
    A warmth reflected between the faces of the children and the child in Jacob.
    The proximity to this warmth caused Jacob to reflect, “Vision is often the distance I need to see what is directly in front of me.”
    A boy found his courage and asked Jacob, “Why do you say, ‘A child sees what I only understand’ ?”
    Jacob paused a moment before answering, letting the silence draw the boy’s face upward.
    When Jacob spoke, his voice had a long-ago quality.
    “Imagine a boy, sitting on a hill, looking out through his innocence on the beauty of the world.
    “Slowly, the child begins to learn. He does this by collecting small stones of knowledge, placing one on top of the other.
    “Over time, his learning becomes a wall, a wall he has built in front of himself.
    “Now, when he looks out, he can see his learning, but he has lost his view.
    “This makes the man, who was once the boy, both proud and sad.
    “The man, looking at his predicament, decides to take down the wall. But, to take down a wall also takes time, and, when he accomplishes this task, he has become an old man.
    “The old man rests on the hill and looks out through his experience on the beauty of the world.
    “He understands what has happened to him. He understands what he sees. But, he does not see, and will never see the world again, the way he saw it as a child on that first, clear morning.”
    “Yes … but,” interjected a little girl unable to contain herself, “the old man can remember what he once saw!”
    Jacob’s head swiveled toward the child.
    “You are