Gates to the Old City: A Book of Jewish Legends

859 Pages·1981·12.68 MB·English

by  Raphael Patai

A
BOOK OF
JEWISH LEGENDS
RAPHAEL PATAI
Wayne State University Press Detroit. 1981
Copyright© 1981 by Raphael Patai. All rights att rcscT'\·cd.
\\;o pan of this book may be rq>n>duccd without formal pttmission
from 1hc publisher.
~lanufactun:d in the t: nitcd States of America
A softbound edition of this book is available from Avon Books.
Main entry under title:
Gares ro the Old City.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
I. Tales. Jewish. 2. L.rgcnds. J~ish. J. Bible. 0. T.-Lcgmd~. +. Aggada
-Translations into English. 5. Talcs. flasidic. I. Patai, Raphael, 1910-
B.\1530.GJ7 1981 296.1 80-66154
ISBI" B-8143-1679-4
DR. RAPHAEL PATA I is a noted anthropologist, Biblical
scholar, and author. He taught Hebrew at che Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, and served as professor of
anthropology at Dropsie University and at Fairleigh
Dickinson University, and as visiting professor at the
University of Pennsylvania and at Princeton, Columbia,
Ohio State, and New York U niversitics. He was also
consultant to the Department of Social Affairs of the
United Nations Secretariat, director of the Syria-Lebanon
Jordan research project of the Human Relations Area Files,
director of research at the Herzl Institute, and editor of the
Herzl Press. Dr. Patai is the author of twenty-six books,
including Hebrew Myths (with Robert Graves>. Man and
Temple in Ancient Jewish Myth and Ritual, Golden River to
Golden Road: Society, Culture and Change in the Middk Emr.
Israel Between Emt and West. The Kingdom ofJ ordan, Tents of
Jacob: The Diarpora Yesterda)' and Today. Myth and Modern
Man. The Arab Mind, The Myth of the Jewish Race (with
Jennifer Patai-Wing), and The Jewish Mind His two latest
books, The Hebreu: Goddess and The Messiah Texts, were
published by Avon Books in 1978 and 1979 respectively.
iii

CONTENTS
Preface vu
Prologue: The Six Days and the Seven Gates, by Yitzhak
Navon 1x
Introduction xvu
1. BIBLE
2. APOCRYPHA 121
3. TALMUD 159
Of God 162
Creation, Eden, Gehenna 164
Sea Lore 173
Angels and Demons 177
Biblical Heroes 190
Between Israel and Edom 209
Sages and Saines 221
Sin and Repentance 248
4. MIDRASH 257
Creation, Eden, Gehenna 262
Biblical Heroes 282
The Exile: Woes and Triumphs 349
Warriors and Martyrs 353
Men of Virtue: Sages and Saines 37 1
Of Birch and Death 37 8
Angels, Demons, and Ghosts 386
The Messiah 410
5. KABBALA 419
Of Body and Soul 424
The Mysteries of Eden 432
Death and Punishment 439
Mysterious Worlds 445
The Matronic 450
v
CONTENTS (continued)
5. KABBALA (continued)
The Legend of Lilith 453
Mysteries in History 469
Sages and Saines 482
Of Safed Kabbalists 504
6. FOLKT ALF.s 513
Tales of Origins 518
Rewards and Punishments 522
Angels and Demons 563
Animal Tales 593
Satirical Tales 598
Heroic Tales (,QB
Wisdom Stories 628
Miracle Men 636
Biblical and Other Heroes 652
7. HASIDISM 667
About the Ba'al Shem Tov 669
R. Leib Sarah's 701
R. Yitzl)aq, the "Seer" of Lublin 711
R. N al)man of Bratzlav 717
Other Tzaddiqim 726
Bibliography 749
Index 767
vi
PREFACE
This anthology is intended to serve as a guide and an
introduction to the vast storehouses of the Agada (legend)
literature accumulated by the Jews in the course of three
thousand years. It contains selections from the seven major
genres of Jewish literature that are, among other things,
repositories of legends: the Bible, the Apocrypha, the
Talmud, the Midrash, the Kabbala, folklore, and Hasidism.
The background notes which precede each of these parts
give essential information about the genre.
Only a very few legends about the Messiah have been
included, since about a year ago I published all the material
I could find on that subject in a separate volume entitled
The Messiah Texts (New York: Avon Books, 1979, liii, 373
pp.).
In making the selections, preference was given to texts
thus far not available in English. However, whether
previously translated or not, all the selections contained in
this volume were translated anew by me from the original
Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Yiddish, or German sources,
because I found the existing translations to be not quite
satisfactory. An exception is the story "The Six Days and
the Seven Gates" by Yitzhak Navon, which was translated
by Misha Louvish, and which appears as prologue to the
book. I wish to express here my thanks to President Navon
for his permission to include his beautiful legend in this
volume. In preparing my own translations I endeavored to
retain, as far as possible, the flavor of the original texts,
vii
GATESTOTHEOLDCITY
which reflect stylistic norms and ideals quite different from
those one is used to in English.
My thanks are also due to Marc Bregman, Gedalyah
Nigal, and Dov Noy of Jerusalem and Aliza Shenhar of
Haifa, who supplied some of the material included in the
sections of folklore and Hasidism.
R.P.
Forest Hills, N.Y.
April 1980
viii
PROLOGUE
The Six Days and the Seven Gates
YITZHAK NA VON
On the day che king of Ammon wenc co Egypt the verdict
was sealed. And the men of Jerusalem clapped their hands
in woe and said:
"What will become of us now, for all che Arabs have
encompassed us, from the River Euphrates even unco
Egypt?"
There was a certain old man chere; while they sac and
grieved, he sat and laughed.
"Why are you laughing?" chey asked him.
"Why do you grieve?" he asked in reply.
"Because war approaches," they replied, "and our
enemies are cruel, and we do not know which of our sons
will be killed, and whac will happen to our lictle ones, and
who will be the victor and who the vanquished."
He laughed and said: "Of you the sages said: No man
recognizes his own miracle. Do you not see that ic has all
been brought about by the Holy One, blessed be He, to
produce a miracle the like of which the world has never
seen before?"
"And what will become of Jerusalem?" they asked.
He said to chem: "He chat does not loveJerusalem, what
does he see in her? Stones and dust! And he chat loves her,
what does he see in her? Radiance and light! She is won
only by suffering; she responds only co him who woos her
wich yearning and supplication, and gives his soul for her
sake."
ix