by Esther Cameron (June 2026)
Toward the beginning of the classic fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast,” there is an episode that doesn’t get a lot of discussion but which has always seemed to me the most interesting part of the story. The gist of it is: A merchant whose fortunes have taken a turn for the worse sees a chance to recoup them if he takes a certain journey. In anticipation of his success, his daughters load him down with requests for expensive presents. Only the youngest daughter, Beauty, makes no request. When his father presses her to name some wish, she answers, “Just bring me a rose.” The merchant makes the journey, finds himself cheated of the expected profit, and starts for home as poor as he went. He loses his way in a storm and strays into a magical domain of fabulous wealth, where his needs are lavishly attended to by invisible servants. On his way out he passes by a hedge of roses, remembers his promise to Beauty, and plucks a single rose. Immediately, with a terrible roar, the Beast appears before him and tells him that his life is forfeit. He will be spared only if one of his daughters is willing to be a hostage for him. With this the encounter between Beauty and the Beast is set in motion.
In this domain of fabulous luxury and unlimited wealth, from which the greedy requests of the elder daughters are later generously supplied, it is the plucking of a rose, a thing of small monetary value and the request of a humble heart, that awakens the wrath of the reigning Beast. I thought of this when, in a conversation with a non-Jewish friend, I quoted Rabbi Dr. Zvi Faier’s statement that, if the world could recognize Israel’s right to exist, world peace would be possible. Her first words in response to this were, “That’s very hard.”
Yes, it is very hard. It is a lot easier to talk about universal peace than to assert that the existence of one small nation, living on land to which they have a historical right, and waging war only in self-defense, needs to be protected. For the assertion that Israel has a right to exist, and to defend itself as long as necessary, is not always safe. Safer, much safer, to talk about world peace and universal tolerance, to blame, like the French ambassador, “one s….y little country” for the lack of peace in the Mideast, while oil-funded fanatics go on endowing chairs at American universities to preach terrorism.
Those who oppose universalism to particularism need to be reminded that a universalism that never comes down to cases is null and void. In the situation of Israel, universal principles of justice are involved. A wrong judgment in a particular case, in this particular case, is a defeat for universal justice. It is a capitulation to the forces of wrong, and helps to ensure the continuance of universal war.
The parable of Beauty’s rose is a pattern that repeats fractally at many levels. Self-deception is easy and introspection difficult, but the parable offers us all a hint: look for the one little step that follows from all your principles but just may get you into trouble. That trouble may be the true struggle for universal peace. That step may be the rose you need to give for the survival of beauty and truth and justice in this world.
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Esther Cameron is a dual citizen of Israel and the US, now living in Jerusalem. She is the founding editor of The Deronda Review. Her poems and essays have appeared here and there; she has published her Collected Works on Amazon and has had one book published by an academic press—Western Art and Jewish Presence in the Work of Paul Celan (Lexington Books, 2014).
Follow NER on Twitter @NERIconoclast
