23
Which is easier: to say, Your chatta’im have been granted selicha, or to say, Get up and walk?
24
But in order that you may have da’as that the Ben HaAdam [Moshiach, DANIEL 7:13] has samchut on HaAretz to grant selicha to chatta’im, Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach said to the one having been paralyzed, To you I say, Get up, pick up your mat, and go to your bais (house, home).
25
And at once the man arose in front of them, picked up the mat upon which he was lying, and departed to his bais, shouting, Baruch Hashem!
26
And astonishment seized everyone, and they were shouting, Baruch Hashem! And they were filled with yirat Shomayim, saying, Hayom (today) our eyes have beheld niflaot (wonders)!
27
And after these things Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach went out and saw a moches (tax collector) named Levi [Mattityahu] sitting in the tax office, and he said to him, Follow me.
28
And having forsaken all and having got up, Levi was following Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach.
29
And Levi arranged a large seudah in his bais for Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach, and there was a great number of mochesim and others who were with them, reclining at tish.
30
And the Perushim and their Sofrim were murmuring against Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach’s talmidim, saying, Why with the mochesim and choteim are you eating and drinking?
31
And in reply, Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach said to them, It is not the bariim who have need of a rofeh, but the cholim (sick persons);
32
I have not come to call the tzaddikim but choteim (sinners) to teshuva (repentance).
33
But they said to Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, Yochanan’s talmidim undergo tzomot (fasts) often and offer tefillos; likewise also the ones of the Perushim; but your talmidim eat and drink.