It’s fashionable nowadays, particularly in the entertainment and news industries, to deride religious fundamentalists as mad. I have always had a certain affection for the god obsessed, having been down that road myself. Like the fellow in the center of this picture at the tomb of the Rambam in Tiberias, Israel, on the Kinneret, or Sea of Galilee.
In full Orthodox regalia, he was seated beside the tomb praying when we walked up to get a better look at the final resting place of the famous 12th century sage, Maimonides.
The fellow looked up and said in Hebrew that he was directly in touch with the soul of Maimonides. My secular Israeli friend backed up and urged me not to photograph the tomb at close range. The fellow, he said, was surely crazy and who knew what might happen. I didn’t see any weapon so I didn’t worry about it.
One of the shrine’s caretakers came over and, tapping his temple with a forefinger to indicate madness, said the cops had been called to come escort the fellow away. The cops, however, were close by but taking no action. Probably, like me, they saw no more than a man obsessed by god.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 