C.—"No; that were impossible."
K.—"It permitted us to deceive them and spoil them of their goods."
C.—"Eh? Wherefore are we the selected people, if we could not spoil the children of Edom? They are our slaves, for we have gold and they have none."
K.—"Good, good; but where is it written that we may spoil the swine and take their goods?"
C.—"The Talmud says, it is permitted to deceive a Goi, and take his goods." [Footnote: Tract. Bava Mezia.]
K.—"Forget not the principal passage, Tract. Megilla, fol. 13—'What, is it then permitted to the just to deal deceitfully? And he answered, Yea, for it is written, With the pure thou shalt be pure, and with the froward thou shalt learn frowardness.' [Footnote: 2 Sam. xxii. 27; a specimen of how the Talmudists interpret the Bible.] Item, it is written expressly in the Parascha Bereschith, 'It is permitted to the just to deal deceitfully, even as Jacob dealt;' and if our fathers of blessed memory acted thus, we were fools indeed not to skin the Christian dogs and flog them to the death. (Spitting out.) Curse on the unclean swine!"
C.—"I will be no such fool, rabbi, and if they compel me to take an oath, I will do as Rabbi Akkiva of blessed memory."
K.—"Right, my son; pity thou canst not speak Hebrew; methinks then thou wouldst have been a light in Israel. Speak—how hath the Rabbi Akkiva sworn?"
C.—"The Talmud says, 'Hereupon the Rabbi Akkiva took the oath with his lips, but in his heart he abjured it." [Footnote: Talmud, tract. Calla.]
K.—"The Rabbi Akkiva, of blessed memory, was but a sorry liver. Canst thou, too, defend the violation of the marriage vow?"