A rabbi was accustomed to take an early morning walk in Meah Shearim, an ultra-orthodox Jewish quarter of Jerusalem. He timed it right so that he passed by just as the owner was opening up his hole-in-the-wall pitta-bread bakery store in the Bukharan market. The Bukharan Market is a small street market with a distinctive atmosphere located in the heart of the Bukharian neighbourhood towards the end of Mea Shearim Street. Each day he would buy freshly baked Syrian-style pita (made by throwing the dough against the inside of his hole- in-the-wall oven). However, today he had arrived just a little late where a line was already forming for the bread, so he took his place behind another woman.
This person was an old Bukharian woman, wrinkled and bent with age, who seemed very dissatisfied with the pitta-bread the baker was offering her:
‘No, this one is burnt,” she said, handing it back to the baker. “It’s not good. I want a different one.’
Without a word of complaint, the baker handed her another one. However, the woman returned this one too, loudly lamenting that it looked under-baked, and rudely demanded another. This occurred several times, but on each occasion, the baker patiently sought to accommodate the old woman’s desires and was not daunted by her aggression or rudeness.
Each time the baker handed the old woman a perfectly good, fresh warm pita, she would carefully examine it and then hand it back with some complaint. Finally, as the queue grew ever longer, the baker said to her gently but firmly,
‘It’s okay, ma’am. This one is just fine. It’s a very good one. It’s fine, they’re all fine.’
Finally convinced, and wrapping her six large pittas in a small blanket to keep them warm, the little old woman walked away loudly grumbling to herself but evidently satisfied.
The baker apologised for the delay, and explained,
‘I feel sad that I got agitated with her. You see, she doesn’t pay.’
In the account in the Book of Genesis when God confronts Cain following his murder of his brother, Abel, He asks him a question followed by a challenge:
“If you are doing what is good, shouldn’t you hold your head up high? If you don’t do what is good, sin is crouching at the door—it wants you but you can rule over it.” (Genesis 4:17)
The Hebrew word for sin (‘Chata-ah’) is the same word found in the Book of Leviticus (6:17;24) for a sin offering which when translated correctly provides us with a very different meaning:
“If you don’t do what is good, a sin-offering is crouching at the door (i.e. is within ready reach).”
The Lord was telling Cain that the type of offering his brother had brought was still accessible for him if he so chose. Sadly, Cain ignored this advice and bore the consequence of a rebellious heart; he ended up a vagabond for the rest of his days but
preferred this to humbling himself before God.
Scripture compares rebellion with the sin of witchcraft (1Samuel 15:23). It feeds our indignities and pride. Its stark fury festers with insatiable greed which ignites and selfdestructs into a million fragments of regrets. Those who follow the pathway of Cain will reap his reward.
No matter how far down we may have travelled the road of rebellion, a sin offering is within reach. All we need to do is stretch out and take it, for there is genuine hope even in the deepest darkness. Many people standing in the queue to receive the ‘Bread of Life,’ wrongly reject it for never being quite good enough. Others, like the Bukharian woman in the story, fill their lives with grumbling and complaints because they fail to place their full trust in the ‘Divine Baker.’ But, there are a few amongst God’s chosen people who receive the ‘Bread of Life’ with joy and thankfulness as a divine gift freely received from the One
who alone is our eternal sustenance. Which one are you?
