The message of this satirical story by Philip Roth is applicable to all religions: the need to guard against zealotry. A teenaged Jewish boy is disciplined for suggesting that God could impregnate a woman without intercourse. He wasn’t questioning the Jewish belief that Jesus was a man, but rather asserting the power of God to do so. After being slapped for questioning his rabbi’s knowledge of God, the boy flees to the synagogue roof and finds a creative way to force the whole community to acknowledge his point of view. Themes include bigotry vs. tolerance, irreverence, search for truth, hypocrisy.
The title of the story alludes to an event predicted in the Christian bible (Romans 11:25) in which, prior to the second coming, there will be a mass conversion of Jews to Christianity. The closing images of the story where everyone present, Jew and Gentile alike, are kneeling as if in Christian prayer, support the allusion. Rather than foreshadowing the End of Days, the story highlights the need for better understanding and tolerance of alternate religious views.
Original Text / PDF (5,400 words)