Now it was well known that in the palace of King Solomon there were to be found treasures unmatched in all the world, so precious and unique were they. And whenever a merchant who sold precious items came from another kingdom, he was taken directly to the king. In this way Solomon had gathered in his palace the most rare and treasured vessels, which had been handed down from earlier ages.
So it was that King Solomon was very curious when the Queen of Sheba told him she had heard of a treasure more precious than any to be found in his palace. Solomon laughed, for he did not believe this was possible. Still, he asked her to describe this treasure, and she said it was a precious glass vessel illumined from within by an eternal light, and that anyone who stood in its aura was filled with a sense of peace. King Solomon asked her if she had ever seen this treasure, and she confessed she had not, although she had often heard of it. Nor had she sought it out, since she did not yearn for a life of peace.
Now Solomon could not rest after this, for he longed to know if such a vessel truly existed, and he was determined that he must somehow obtain it, for it would serve as the jewel in the crown of his treasures. Thereupon Solomon called in his minister, Benaiah, and told him to gather ten men together, and to set out on a quest to discover if such a vessel of light, illumined from within, was anywhere to be found. Solomon gave Benaiah his magic ring, with the Ineffable Name of God engraved on it, in case its assistance might be needed. Nor did Benaiah delay any longer, but he set out at once to undertake this quest, for he recognized how important it was for his king.
So it was that Benaiah and his men began their journey by traveling south, toward the kingdom of the Queen of Sheba. And wherever they went they asked everyone they met if they had ever heard of such a vessel of light, but none of them had. At last they traveled so far south they reached a desert, and the men wanted to turn back, for the desert was so vast and barren it seemed to them they must have reached the end of the world. It was a dangerous desert, filled with snakes and scorpions and many low-flying birds looking for prey. But Benaiah insisted they had to search in the desert as well, for no stone could be left unturned in their quest.
In this way Benaiah and his men walked for thirty-nine days in the desert, until their supply of food had almost been exhausted, and only a small amount of water remained. And by then even Benaiah was afraid that the desert was boundless, and that they were lost there in vain. Then it happened on the fortieth day that they reached an oasis, where they found a fresh spring and many carob and date trees with ripe fruit. There they refreshed themselves, and gave thanks to the Lord for having rescued them from certain death. And after they had eaten and rested, Benaiah and the men traced the stream to its source, for they wondered whence it might flow in such a barren place. So it was that they traced it from the oasis into the desert, where it spouted forth from a great rock, which stood by itself among all the barren waste, the water flowing from it as if it were endless. And in the other side of that rock they found the mouth of a cave, and entered there and made their way through it. And when they emerged from that cave they found themselves in another kingdom.
Not long afterward they saw campfires, and when they approached close enough they heard the speech of the inhabitants.
They were amazed to hear them speak in Hebrew. Then they did not hesitate, but came forth and revealed themselves, and in this way they discovered one of the ten lost tribes of Israel, that of the Levites, the children of Moses, which had lost contact with their brothers in the days of the wandering in the wilderness in the time of Moses. And they were as amazed to hear Benaiah and his men speaking Hebrew as were Benaiah and the others to discover them. And after they had prayed and eaten, Benaiah asked them to describe what their lives were like. He learned that they were strong in faith and well-versed in the Torah. They lived to one hundred and twenty years of age, and no son of theirs died in his father's lifetime. There were no robbers among them, nor wild beasts, nor demons, and they did not lock their houses at night. They also had six springs whose waters gathered into one lake, and from this they irrigated their land. And the lake teemed with all kinds of fish, and they also had all kinds of fruit trees that grew in their orchards. And for each measure they sowed, they reaped a hundred.
From all that they told him, Benaiah saw that they were saintly, and stood in the sanctity of Moses. That is why the Holy One, blessed be He, had given them such abundance. Still, they had been isolated for so long, and were curious to know how their fellow Jews were faring. So Benaiah told them of King Solomon and his kingdom, and of the wondrous Temple he had built in the holy city of Jerusalem, and of the lives of the Jews who lived there, and they followed his every word with wonder.
After this Benaiah told them of his quest, and asked if they had ever heard of the eternal light he sought. And, to his amazement, they had all heard of it, for they had a legend among them that such a vessel had illumined the Tabernacle which Moses had carried through the desert. But like the Tabernacle itself, it too had long been lost, and none of them knew what had become of it. Then Benaiah spoke to the High Priest among them, who served as their leader, and asked that he join them on their quest, so that the eternal light of the Tabernacle could be recovered and cast its aura of peace over both of their kingdoms, which could at last be reunited. And so it was that this High Priest agreed to accompany them.
Now the name of this High Priest was Aaron, just as Aaron was the name of his ancestor, the brother of Moses. And he told them the legend of how that vessel of light had come into being.
And this is the story that Aaron the High Priest told: Once, long ago, there was a kingdom which had been blessed with a sacred light which pervaded the entire realm. And each of the inhabitants of that kingdom knew peace in his heart, for peace reigned supreme in its presence, and everything flourished. Then, somehow it happened—no one knew why—that the soothsayers and astrologers of that kingdom divined that a time was shortly to come when the kingdom and its precious light would cease to exist.
Then the king of that kingdom ordered that a way be sought to preserve at least some of that enchanted light, for it was their greatest blessing, so that it would continue to exist after the kingdom had disappeared. And all of the king's sorcerers and wise men consulted together in the spirit of peace, since they lived directly beneath that divine presence. Yet they were unable to find a solution, for how can light be captured? But then one of them recalled seeing the marvelous work of a craftsman who created treasures out of glass that he himself blew into many astonishing and remarkable shapes. It was said there was nothing to be found in this world that he was unable to give form to with his breath. And all of the other sorcerers and wise men agreed that he might well be the one who could succeed in finding a way to preserve the precious light, so that at least a small part of it could be saved.
So it was that a messenger was sent forth to bring this craftsman to the palace of the king, and when he arrived no expense was spared so that he might succeed in his task. Before long the master craftsman had begun to seek ways to capture the light in his glass creations, but although he succeeded in capturing the air, the light eluded him. Then one night he was shown in a dream the secret of how to capture light, a secret that has since been lost for many generations. All we know is that he acted on his dream, and utilized the secret, and succeeded in capturing the light in ten perfect vessels, which emerged from his lips in succession. And he brought those ten vessels before the king, and demonstrated that they were illumined from within, for they continued to glow in the dark. And all who stood in the aura of those vessels of light were overcome by a feeling of peace that took root in their souls.
Now by the time the ten vessels of light had been formed, only a few days remained before that kingdom was destined to come to its end. Then the king called in his sons, the three princes, and bade them make ready the finest ship in the king's fleet, and to set sail on the Sea of Darkness, beyond the region illumined by the sacred light, where no one had ever dared to go. And he bade them to seek out a kingdom beyond their own, in which they might establish a new life, where the vessels of light, which he entrusted to them, might survive into another age, beyond their own.
So it was that the three princes set sail, and had passed only beyond the circle of light that contained their kingdom and entered into the realm of darkness, when they saw all trace of their kingdom disappear, as if it had been only a mirage, and darkness was everywhere to be seen. Now it would have been impossible to steer the ship in that darkness, and they would have had to abandon themselves to the currents of fate. But fortunately they had been blessed with the ten vessels of light, and when they carried them from the hold onto the deck, the darkness around them was illuminated, and they were able to sail surrounded by an aura of light.
In this way the princes were able to discover an island, which was not recorded on any map, for no map had ever been made of the Sea of Darkness. And the people of that island had lived their lives in darkness, for they had never seen light. Nevertheless, they had been born with eyes, although they did not know how to open them, for they had never been used. But when the ship of the three princes cast its aura around the island, the eyes of the people opened, and they hurried to discover the source of this great blessing, and that is how they found the three princes, and invited the eldest to serve as their king. In this way the royal family was re-established, as the princes found lovely maidens among these people to take for their wives, and they were soon rewarded with beautiful children. And so too was the precious light preserved on that small island, and men were once more able to find shelter in its divine presence.
That island kingdom existed for many ages, and flourished in its aura of abundance. Then its wise men detected signs that revealed the coming of the end of its era. The king of that kingdom, who had descended from the eldest of the three princes, called in his two younger brothers, and directed them to set out in the ship that their ancestors, the first king and his brothers, had sailed in, which had been carefully preserved by each of the succeeding generations. And this king directed them to take with them one of the ten vessels of light. For he feared the people would despair in that terrible time if more than one of the sacred vessels were taken away. And the two princes set sail, and had not gone very far when they saw the island disappear. And when that happened, the nine vessels that had remained behind were all shattered, and their sparks were scattered across the Sea of Darkness, where some became the stars, and others clustered together, and in this way there came to be a sun that shone in the day, and a moon that illumined the night. Then Aaron, the High Priest, who had told this tale, explained that the fate of the two princes was unknown, and all that was certain was that the last vessel of light had somehow come into the possession of Moses, who had discovered it beneath the burning bush. For this light shone from below, illuminating the bush, and making it appear to be burning, although it was not consumed. And eventually Moses had placed that eternal light inside the Tabernacle that the Israelites carried through the wilderness.
But since the time of Moses the vessel of light had again been lost. And Aaron, the High Priest, told them of a legend that held that this eternal light had become hidden at the source of the River Sambatyon. But in order to reach the mouth of this river, it was necessary to cross it. Yet this was impossible for them to do, since the river was too wild to be crossed during all of the week, throwing up rocks as high as a house, and spreading a mist as thick as a fog. Nor could they cross it on the Sabbath, although Friday at sunset the waters would subside and disappear, and it would resemble a lake of snow-white sand. And why could they not cross it then? Because to do so would be to dese crate the Sabbath, and this, of course, could not be done. And at the close of every Sabbath it would resume its torrent of rushing water, stones, and sand.
Aaron also explained to Benaiah and his men that since the lost tribe could not cross the River Sambatyon on the Sabbath, any more than they could on the other days of the week, when the waters were running, they had given its existence much thought, since it perpetuated their exile. In general there were two schools of opinion about its purpose. There were those who insisted that the river had been formed to remind them of the unchanging nature of the eternal laws, and to assure them that they had not been forgotten in their exile. Then there were those who had concluded the river had been created to keep them in exile from their brothers, since the Sabbath is also their day of rest. Those who regarded the river from this point of view were certain the exile would end on the day when the river stopped flowing and they were permitted to come across.
Finally Aaron, the High Priest, told Benaiah and his men the legend of the origin of the River Sambatyon. For that river had come into being only in the time of Moses—in fact, it was said to pour forth from the rock that Moses had struck in the desert with his staff, from which waters flowed. For those waters had never stopped flowing, and from them had emerged that remarkable river, which had become impassable during the week, just as it was on the Sabbath.
Now Benaiah listened to these tales with fascination. And when he heard about the rock from which the waters of that river flowed, he recalled at once the rock he and his men had found in the desert, with water spouting from it, and the cave in the other side of the rock, which had led them to that kingdom. And he suddenly realized that the rock from which the water flowed must be that which had been struck by Moses, and that in discovering that rock and cave, they must have stumbled on the way to cross beneath the River Sambatyon, for that was the only way it could be crossed. None of the lost tribe had ever detected the entrance to that cave that was to be found in their kingdom, for it was too well hidden. But Benaiah and his men had discovered the cave from the other side.
Then Benaiah led the High Priest Aaron to that cave, and he accompanied them to the entrance. But when he was about to enter the cave, he saw before him a flaming sword that turned in every direction, and he jumped back in fear, although, to his amazement, the others saw nothing. Then Aaron understood that the way was barred to him, and that the Holy One had not yet declared the exile of the lost tribe to be at an end. Therefore Aaron and Benaiah took leave of each other, and the High Priest returned to his people, asking only that Benaiah reveal the existence of the lost tribe to the rest of the world.
It was then, before they proceeded to return through the cave, that Benaiah wondered if the vessel of light might be hidden in that cave, as the legend had it. Therefore he took out the magic ring that King Solomon had given him, on which the Ineffable Name of God had been engraved, and he put it on his finger.
It was his hope that the ring might signal the presence of the sacred vessel in the event that it was truly hidden in that place. After this Benaiah and his men returned through those secret caverns that ran beneath the River Sambatyon.
Now for most of the way Benaiah did not notice any sign, but when they had almost reached the other end of the cave, Benaiah felt the ring gently pull him in one direction, and before long it led him like a magnet to a rock-covered crevice, and when Benaiah pulled away the stones that covered it, the cave was suddenly filled with light—for he had been led to the right place, and there, for the first time since the era of Moses, a man stood in the divine presence of that sacred vessel of light. But no sooner did he take it in his hand than the floor of the cave began to rumble, as though from an earthquake. Then Benaiah hurried out of the cave, with his men close behind, and he had just emerged with the eternal light safe in his hands, when the ground shook, and the entrance to the cave collapsed, so that it could no longer be found.
Benaiah realized that the only route to the lost tribe had been cut off, and that the tribe would remain in exile until the day the River Sambatyon would permit them to come across. But he was greatly relieved that at least the eternal light had been saved, and that their quest was almost complete. With the light to guide them, Benaiah and his men succeeded in only six days to return the distance that had taken forty to travel without it. And on the seventh day they rested in Jerusalem, where King Solomon shared the peace of the Sabbath in the glow of that sacred vessel of light. And as soon as the building of the Temple was completed, Solomon placed the eternal light in the Tabernacle.
And that light shone in the Holy of Holies, and in this way shed its light of peace over all Jerusalem. And there it remained until the Temple was destroyed by those who were blind to its light.
And what was the fate of that sacred vessel of light? No one can say for certain. Most assume that when the Temple was destroyed, it too was shattered, and its sparks of light scattered throughout the Holy Land, where they are found in abundance to this day. But there are still a few who believe that the eternal light was saved by the prophet Jeremiah, who concealed it in a cave along with the other sacred Temple vessels, where it still remains hidden.