" He caused the lame to mount on the back of the blind, and judged them both as one." Antoninus said to the Rabbi, " Body and soul might each plead right of acquittal at the day of judgment. " How so?w he asked. " The body might plead that it was the soul that had sinned, and urge, saying, (See, since the departure of the soul I have lain in the grave as still as a stone.* And the soul might plead, ( It was the body that sinned, for since the day I left it, I have flitted about in the air as innocent as a bird.*" To which the Rabbi replied and said, "Whereunto this thing is like, I will tell thee in a parable.
It is like unto a king who had an orchard with some fine young fig trees planted in it. He set two gardeners to take care of them, of whom one was lame and the other blind. One day the lame one said to the blind,