The Master of a Thousand
HE was one of that large army of American-born Jewish lads, with a fondness for sport, slang,— and the Stars and Stripes, but once I surprised nim at home praying fervently in tephillin. Frank, eager, with a penchant for pugilism, he varied his amateur appearances in the ring with activity for the National Fund.
There was a hidden streak of the Oriental in his character. Half in earnest, half in jest, he intimated that he felt as if once, in the long past, he had appeared on earth in a different garb, with a different function in life. He connected his first entrance in mundane affairs with some form of Jewish life, but could not identify it. He aroused my curiosity once by incoherent mutterings of Oriental import, which led me to surmise that he may have been either David’s body-guard or one of Bar Kochba’s intrepid fighters.
I frequently invited him into my office, curiously interested in the unconscious revelations he made, in moments of physical exhaustion, of his previous existence. I flooded him, in such moments, with questions, worried him; resorted, in other words, to the brutal "third-degree" methods of the police. But all to no purpose. He was worried, but his secret remained sealed.
One evening he laid before me the plans for a Jewish Athletic Club that would defeat all comers at the next Olympiad. He was telling me of the prowess of a certain Jewish athlete, who would make a splendid record. His eye chanced to fall upon an open volume bearing upon certain researches in Egyptian archeology.
He had come to me after an afternoon spent in the field. His body quivered with the excitement of unusual physical exertion. His eye was bright, but weary. As I showed him the illustrations of the book, he suddenly, spasmodically leaped to his feet, and exclaimed:
"That's it—Egypt!"
"Yes, that's Egypt," I remarked. "That's where our ancestors belonged to the Hodcarriers' and Bricklayers' Union."
He fell back into his chair and repeated:
“That’s it—Egpyt !”
Suddenly he arose, rigid, and drew himself up to his full height.
His eyes gleamed and he seemed transformed. I stared at him. He exclaimed in a voice that was tense, but emotionless:
"With our swords we kept Pharoah on his throne, and the fear of his name held all the peoples of the East and West. While the weakened son of the Nile pondered over his beast-gods, we, whom history has named the Hodcarriers of Egypt, drove the Ethiopian back to his lair and held the terrible Hittite in check."
Recovering myself, I sat down near him, and asked quietly:
"How came you there?"
"How came you there. "I do not know," was the quiet reply. "Wise men said that we came from beyond the great river, from the East, and swept down upon Mizraim. Pharoah purchased our favor, with ransom of silver and gold. and
made us his friends, else we would have turned the Nile valley into a shambles. But our misfortune was— as our Master said—in our very strength."
"Your Master?" I asked.
"Yes, Moses, our deliverer. Then we turned our backs to the Pyramids."
He seemed to be weakening. I pressed the point.
"What do you mean, you turned your backs to the Pyramids?" I inquired.
"By the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," he exclaimed, "hear the gentile speak! The Host of the Lord left the accursed land Mizraim to seek our home."
"And what were you in those days?" I asked.
"Phineas. Master of a Thousand," he said, simply, but with dignity. But the ordeal was too much for the lad, and he collapsed into a deep sleep and when he awoke, he knew nothing of what had transpired.
The next evening the unexpected happened again. I had taken from the public library a recent volume on ancient Egypt. The volume was illustrated with photographs of obelisks, papyri and excavations. I noticed that his eye dwelt particularly on a group of six or seven men, the Hiksos, who had conquered Egypt and given it several dynasties. His eye was fixed, and again he seemed to pass into slumber-land, and when I again addressed him, he had passed over into the realm of the past.
"Hail, Master of a Thousand!" I said, sharply.
"Hear, Oh Israel, God is One," was the startling reply.
"Tell me of the time when Mizraim was afflicted with the ten curses, when the sea parted, and the host of Pharoah perished," I pursued him.
He murmured:
"I know nothing of the parting of the sea."
"How then explain the going out of Israel?" I hurled that question at him.
“Our Redeemer brought us back to the true God, and weaned us away from the worship of the Cat of Bubastes. He counselled us to return to Canaan, whence we had come. and which God had promised the Patriarchs. Israel then arose and followed him as one man.”
And this was how the Exodus took place, according to the youth in a trance.
“Pharoah would not have it so, and made alliances with our enemies to destroy us. The hosts of Mizraim, of Canaan, Summur and Akkad, the Hittite and the blue-eyed strangers from beyond the Great Sea, came to battle against us. We did not move, but awaited them. On the shores of the Red Sea we met them and slew them. We smote them hard and drove them into the Sea, which was choked with their carcasses. Their bodies were heaped so high that one could cross the waters dry- shod over the bodies of the slain.”
"Did you battle for the Lord?" I asked, curious beyond measure to hear the tale of that struggle which had freed a nation.
"My thousand was in the vanguard," he replied, with