Chapter twelve. Holy Soil
As soon as our men of good heart reached the shore they flung themselves on the ground, kissed the earth, and burst into loud weeping, until their eyes streamed like wells. How is it possible for children who return to their father’s home and find it ruined not to weep? Yet even in their mourning they rejoiced because they had been worthy to return home. They took one another by the hand and sang, ‘I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go up unto the house of the Lord.’ Furthermore they sang, ‘The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.’ And the Ishmaelites stood in the distance staring.
And so they went their way singing until they were brought to a certain courtyard known as the Courtyard of the Jews. There they found chambers, one for prayer with the congregation when they were ten together, and two more known as the Holy Chambers where there were beds for the use of the sick people coming from the journey; one chamber for men and the other for women. And there was another chamber there which was the chamber of the beasts, where the beasts on which people rode up to Jerusalem were stabled.
When a caravan that has been on a journey reaches its destination, the travelers assuredly rejoice, particularly if they have been in great distress and have come forth from it; for then indeed they have good reason to rejoice. But when one of the group is missing and nobody knows whether he is alive or dead, the thought of him is bound to come up no matter how much they rejoice and to disturb their joy. So it was with our comrades. For Hananiah had gone through so much together with them and had passed through so many adventures on his own in order to go up to the Land of Israel. And then when his time had come to go up to the Land he had not done so, and they did not know whether he was alive or dead; so how could their joy be complete? They vowed to have his name commemorated in Jerusalem and to pray for him at the Holy Places.
And now it is fitting to find out what happened to him — to Hananiah, that is. When his comrades went to fetch victuals for the journey, he went along with them. But on the way he parted from them and went in a different direction, but they did not notice it. After a while he came back and did not find them. Off he went to the port. When he came there, he saw that their ship had already set sail. How the poor fellow had toiled and labored in order to go up to the Land of Israel! And now when his time had actually come, the ship had started off and left him behind, and he stood watching and could not go with it!
Now Hananiah was always quick and nimble; so what had held him up on the way? Well, while he was standing in the market, a Gentile came along.
Aren’t you the fellow, said Hananiah to him, who wished to lead me to the Land of Israel through some cave or other?
Yes, said he, I am the man.
And what are you doing here? asked Hananiah.
I don’t know any more than you, said the other. Every day when I put on the tefillin of our former robber chief, I hear him weeping for his wife and children, and now I am wandering through the world in search of them.
May you live a hundred years, said Hananiah to him. You are earning your share of the world-to-come. Come along with me.
They went to a certain house, and Hananiah knocked on the window. The householder opened the window and asked, What do you want?
Where is the woman, answered Hananiah, who came here from Hutin?
I do not know, said the other. She went out with her children this morning and has not come back. Perhaps she has already gone off to Hutin.
On hearing this, Hananiah sighed and said nothing.
What do you need that woman for? asked the householder.
Hananiah pointed to the Gentile and said, This fellow can bear witness as to where he last saw her husband.
It would be a good thing, said the householder, if he were able to give his evidence before a rabbi.
While Hananiah was talking to the householder, the Gentile went to one side to put on his tefillin. No sooner had he done so when the woman came along and shrieked, Oh, those are my husband’s tefillin!
If Zusha is your husband’s name, said the Gentile, then these are his tefillin; and he promptly handed them over to her and told her the whole story of Zusha. And that was what caused Hananiah to be delayed.
There are ever so many tales about salvation, each finer than the next; like the story of the man who was lost in the desert. Suddenly a huge bird appeared and lifted him on its wings and in a single hour flew with him to his house, a distance it would have taken several years to journey. But no bird came to Hananiah. An even greater wonder was the mantle of King Solomon, peace be upon him, for he would sit on it and the wind would bear it away, so that King Solomon could eat his breakfast in Damascus and his supper in Media, though the one is in the East and the other is in the West. But that mantle has vanished since the day that King Solomon, peace be upon him, passed away, and nobody knows where it is concealed. And even if Hananiah were to find it, he would not be able to do anything with it, since nobody in the world ever knew how to sit upon it except Solomon and his four princes: one the prince of humanity, and one the prince of the demons, and one the prince of the beasts, and one the prince of the birds. Likewise, even in the generation before our own miracles were performed upon the water, such as that of the holy sage Rabbi Shmelke of Nikolsburg and his holy disciple Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sasov, who crossed the river Danube in a trough in a dangerous season. But where is such a trough to be found nowadays?
So Hananiah, seeing that he was indeed in distress, raised his eyes to the sky and said, Lord of the Universe, I have nothing on which to depend except on your many mercies.
Thereupon the Holy One, blessed be he, gave Hananiah the idea of spreading out his kerchief on the sea and sitting upon it. So he spread his kerchief upon the sea and sat down upon it. The kerchief promptly floated off to sea, carrying him upon it all the way to the Land of Israel. Nor was that all. For he actually got there before his comrades, who were first delayed at Stambul waiting for a ship, and then found themselves in distress during the storm at sea; whereas he crossed the sea peacefully.
Now let us return to all our other comrades. In brief, they reached the sea of Jaffa, that same sea of Jaffa which is kept in store for the pious in days to come. For at Jaffa the Great Sea brings up all the ships that are lost anywhere upon it, together with their gold, and silver, and jewels and pearls, and glassware, and valuable vessels, and in time to come the Messiah King will give each of the righteous his share of the wealth.
They got off the ship and into a ramshackle Arab boat. The sailors took their oars and shouted, Yoho and Oho, and subdued the waters and made passage through the sea, and led the boat between sharp rocks which have been there ever since the Creation. For before any of the waves in any of the seas and rivers start out on their journey, they come to prostrate themselves before the sea of the Land of Israel; and if the sharp edges of the sea did not break their force, never a ship would be able to reach Jaffa on account of all the waves.
They came safely forth from the sea and from its sharp teeth, and received all their goods intact, and came up on the shore at Jaffa, the threshold of the gate of the City of God. There they flung themselves on the ground, kissed the earth, wept over the ruin of the Land, and rejoiced that they had been worthy to arrive.
Then came two wardens and led them to the Court of the Jews, which was a hostelry for the Exiles of Israel. This court was surrounded by a wall, and fine trees were planted in it, and it had its own well of water in the center of it. They stood and prayed according to the usage of their own land and restored their souls after the journey. There they stayed until they obtained animals for proceeding to Jerusalem. They went out knowing that all was good, on the day whereon God twice saw that his handiwork was good, namely the third day of the week; and they traveled until evening, when the air grew chill.