It’s not what they expected. If I would only go along with them on Sunday mornings and go and do all the silly, little nonsense that they do, wonderful. But when I tell them that suddenly he the only one erupted within me and then I knew who Jesus Christ was, they look at me and say, “I know your origin, your father, your mother.” Certainly you do, but that’s not where I came from. I came just as you are told in the Talmud. I was in concealment, but I didn’t even know it…not until Elisha comes out. Well, who is Elisha that should first come? This body on the outside is John the Baptist and this comes into the world, and it makes every effort to attain salvation by some physical means, like doing violence against its appetites. It goes on a starvation diet, only vegetables, for seven years. Ask a man in the restaurant, “Does this soup have any beef stock in it or chicken stock in it or any meat stock?” and he’s going to tell you no. He’s a liar anyway, because what restaurant worthy of the name isn’t going to have a meat stock in soup? But he satisfies your conscience and you will then order soup. So you are lying to yourself right away, because you know that it has meat stock in it and you really want the soup, so you take it. And then you don’t call it anything but vegetables. So for seven years you get thinner and thinner and weaker and weaker while you are doing violence to yourself. You are young, virile, and desirous of everything that a normal man in this world is desirous of, and you go on a diet of celibacy, and have nightmares. Go into a depression, all completely down in the depths of your own being. And you wonder Why is it is happening to me, I’m such a holy man? I’m so good I’m good for nothing. After seven years of this complete violence to the body, then you awaken. Well, that’s John the Baptist.544 ¶18