Date:  Wed, 21 Jan 1998 18:48:44 -0500
From:  Gregory {Greg} Downing <downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IS2.NYU.EDU>
Subject: Re: folk tale, "1, 2, 3"

Greg D. comment below.

At 06:32 PM 1/21/98 EST, you wrote:
>Not on topic, (apologies all) but I thought that some of you here might
>know this---
>
>there's a folk tale, situated variously in areas where pogroms occurred.
>In the tale, the provincial governor, or ruler, or even village chief,
>tells the local jewish population that one of them will have to debate
>him, or vie with him, and if the jewish representative loses,s/he'll be
>killed and everyone else driven out. No one wants to be the debater,
>and finally an illiterate, lowly sweeper or laborer or cowherd (e
>
>is selected. The cowherd and the village chief meet in the village
>square, and sit face to face, silently for a long time. At last, the
>cowherd hold up one finger. The village chief looks startled, then holds
>up two fingers. After a while, the cowherd holds up three fingers. The
>village chief announces that the cowherd has won and everyone can stay.
>Later, each gives a different interpretation of what the other meant.
>
>Larry Horn, where you der, charley?
>Anyone? Anyone know this?
>
>thanks
>
>beth simon
>assistant professor, linguistics and english
>indiana university purdue university
>simon[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]cvax.ipfw.indiana.edu
>

This is a bit of folklore that has been around for some time, and with the
advent of cut-and-paste-capable email, it travels even more than it used to.
The most recent time I saw this story was when one of my students emailed it
to me in Oct. 1997. I found it easily by searching for the letter sequence
"three fingers" in my fall-of-97 email box.

Here it is in full with the ending ( = puchline), in the version I was sent
in Oct. 1997 anyway:

|Religious Sign Language
|About a century or two ago, the Pope decided that all the Jews had to
|leave the Vatican. Naturally there was a big uproar from the Jewish
|community. So the Pope made a deal. He would have a religious debate
|with a member of the Jewish community; if the Jew won, the Jews could
|stay; if the Pope won, the Jews would leave.
|
|The Jews realised that they had no choice. So they picked a middle-aged
|man named Moishe to represent them. Moishe asked for one addition to the
|debate. To make it more interesting, neither side would be allowed to
|talk. The pope agreed.
|
|The day of the great debate came. Moishe and the Pope sat opposite each
|other for a full minute before the Pope raised his hand and showed three
|fingers. Moishe looked back at him and raised one finger. The Pope waved
|his fingers in a circle around his head. Moishe pointed to the ground
|where he sat. The Pope pulled out a wafer and a glass of wine. Moishe
|pulled out an apple. The Pope stood up and said, "I give up. This man is
|too good. The Jews can stay."
|
|An hour later, the cardinals were all around the Pope asking him what
|happened. The Pope said: "First I held up three fingers to represent the
|Trinity. He responded by holding up one finger to remind me that there
|was still one God common to both our religions. Then I waved my finger
|around me to show him that God was all around us. He responded by
|pointing to the ground and showing that god was also right here with us.
|I pulled out the wine and the wafer to show that god absolves us from
|our sins. He pulled out an apple to remind me of original sin. He had an
|answer for everything! What could I do?"
|
|Meanwhile, the Jewish community had crowded around Moishe. "What
|happened?" they asked. "Well," said Moishe, "First he said to me that
|the Jews had three days to get out of here. I told him that not one of
|us was leaving. Then he told me that this whole city would be cleared of
|Jews. I let him know that we were staying right here." "And then?" asked
|a woman. "I don't know," said Moishe. "He took out his lunch and I took
|out mine."

Greg Downing/NYU, at greg.downing[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]nyu.edu or downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]is2.nyu.edu