“You would love nothing more than to see that day, I am sure,” the baron said with a smile. “And to personally deliver the holy box into its archives.”

“Even Jews must cherish their dreams, Baron.”

A lengthy silence fell.

77 The Baron and the Rabbi

77

The Baron and the Rabbi

When the baron and the rabbi picked up their conversation once again, it was the latter who spoke first, and in a more personally thoughtful vein.

“I have noticed, Baron,” he said, “that you here—you and your family especially, and my own wife and daughters have commented on it too—that you appear to think of God so individually. Your Christianity does not even seem what I would call a religion for you, but frankly I don’t know what I would call it.”

The baron smiled.

“Your perceptions are most accurate, Heziah. Our faith is not a mere religion to us.”

“What is it then?”

“A way of life.”

“Religion is a way of life for everyone, Baron, is it not? I would say the same of our Jewish faith. Does not everyone who maintains a belief consider it a way of life?”

The baron nodded thoughtfully.

“Yes, I see,” he said slowly after a moment. “Yes, you are right. Hmm… how might I draw the distinction?” he mused.

A pause followed, then he smiled again.

“We had another visitor here at Lebenshaus several years ago, before the war—an American lad and his father. The boy asked me almost the same question—what was it about our beliefs that made them so personal, so close, so intimate in everything we did and thought.”

“What did you tell him?”

“We spoke at some length about God’s fatherhood. For my wife and daughter and myself, that is the key to it all.”

“God’s… fatherhood. What exactly do you mean, Baron?”

“Our faith is not a religion as men commonly mean when they use that word. Rather, we are on a quest together, a lifelong journey, an adventure to discover all we can about a Father whom, it is sad to say, very few of his creatures know with intimacy.”

“Go on. I am intrigued.”

The baron proceeded to summarize the gist of his conversation with Matthew McCallum.

“So you see, Heziah,” concluded Dortmann, “we are engaged in a life of discovery, not the following of a religion at all. Our foundational prayer, the sole objective of life for us, is to discover who God is and then to do what he would have us do—to obey him once we know him.”

“Everything you’ve said, Baron,” said the rabbi, “is nothing I would take exception to as a practicing Jew. In fact, from listening to you talk, you could be a Jew—and a devout one at that!”

Baron von Dortmann laughed.

“I will take that as a high honor,” he said. “To be truthful, I have always considered myself a Jew—in the spiritual sense.”