please delete previous post which contained a spelling error which garbled the meaning; Thanks
The original story is something like this, and it doesn't make sense any other way.
The Pope decided to exile all the Jews of Rome. The community begged him to reconsider and he said that he would allow them to debate him in pantomime, and the losing side agreed to comply with the wishes of the winner.
The Jewish community found only one volunteer to debate the Pope, a lowly shoemaker, reasoning that if he lost, the Pope might still have mercy on them as it was only an ignorant shoemaker who had debated him.
On the appointed day the two groups met in the great plaza in front of the Vatican. The Pope with all his Bishops and Cardinals, and the few members of the Jewish community who were brave enough to risk the wrath of the Church.
The Pope held one finger high, the shoemaker held up three. The Pope pointed to the horizon , the shoemaker pointed to the ground. The Pope took an apple from his sleeve, the shoemaker took a piece of matzoh (unleavened bread, generally eaten on Passover, or by very poor people who could not afford to get richer or raised bread ). The Pope spoke and said that the shoemaker had won and turned to leave.
Back in the Vatican the Bishops asked the Pope what had happened. The Pope answered that he had first raised one finger to trick the Jews to commit a sin of heresy that G-d is only one, but the shoemaker had replied correctly that He had a triple nature of the Father, Son and Spirit. Then he had pointed to the horizon that G-d was in the heaven and the shoemaker had pointed out that he was there with them. The the Pope said he had pulled out an apple to try to catch the shoemaker in the heresy that the world was round, and he had shown him that the earth was indeed flat, so he had to concede the argument and the Jews were not heretics and could stay.
Back in the ghetto,the shoemaker was asked by the community leaders what had just happened and explained. When the Pope had held up one finger as if to say if to say 'if you don't leave we will beat you with sticks' I held up three to say we'll hit you three times, when he pointed to horizon to say 'go away' I pointed to ground as if to say 'we're staying here, and when he pulled out his lunch, I pulled out mine.
This is based on the fact that during the middle ages and up to the 18th century, many Jewish communities were forced to undergo public debates with representatives of the Church, on the legitimacy of the Torah (the Hebrew Bible) in an effort to force mass conversion or face expulsion.
There is a movie based on one such very famous disputation which took place in the 12th century.I couldn't find it directly but see link here;
http://www.curtainup.com/disputation.html
