In The Merchant of Venice Shylock gives a speech: “If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?” Confronting the anti-semitic undertones of the play Shakespeare reminds us of our common humanity. The Bible stories, even though they are three thousand or more years old, could have been written today. We recognize the Saul, Jonathan, David tangle of jealousy and friendship. Saul was jealous of David… But Saul’s son Jonathan was very fond of David. We live in a age which tends to divide people up into tribes: Democrat or Republican, Black or White, English or Spanish speaker. The Biblical imperative is to find what unites, not what divides us.
