There was once a pious man who was very wealthy. He had only one son, whose name was Yohanan, and Yohanan had a wife who was both beautiful and righteous. In time the old man took ill, and when he was on his deathbed he called his son to him and exhorted him to follow the commandments of the Lord at all times and always to be generous to those in need. Then he called his son close and whispered in his ear:
My son, when the days of mourning for me are over, go to the market and remain there until you see someone bringing something to sell. Then buy whatever the first man you see offers you, bring it home, and take good care of it, whatever it is. Yohanan vowed to do as his father had asked, and soon after the old man died and was laid to rest. His son mourned for him for thirty days, as is prescribed, and when the period of mourning had ended he remembered his father's last words and went to the market. And there the first thing he saw was a man carrying a very handsome silver goblet. Yohanan went to him and said: Is that goblet for sale? And the man said that it was. Then Yohanan asked: How much are you asking for it? And the man answered:
One hundred pieces of gold. This was a very great sum, and Yohanan thought about it and said: I will give you sixty gold pieces. But the man refused his offer and turned to go- Then Yohanan remembered his vow to his father, so he followed the man, and when he reached him he said: I agree to give you one hundred gold pieces after all. But the man said:
If you want it, the price is now two hundred gold pieces. Yohanan was greatly surprised the man had dared to double the price, and he held his ground and said: I will give you only one hundred, as you first asked. Then I will be on my way, said the man, and again he left. But when Yohanan thought about it, he decided that he had no choice but to buy the goblet no matter what the price, so he ran after him, and when he reached him he said: Here, take two hundred gold pieces, as you asked. But the man said: If you want it, you must give me one thousand gold pieces. And if not, let me take my leave. Yohanan saw that the price kept going up, yet he felt compelled to buy it, since it was his father's will. So he took the man to his home, and there he gave him one thousand gold pieces, and he put the goblet away in a chest.
Now this was not just another silver goblet, for it had a silver cover, and although Yohanan often took it out and tried to open it, he could not. Then Passover came, and Yohanan said to his wife: Bring me the goblet I bought for my father's sake, and let us put it on the table in honor of the holiday. Then she went and got it, and this time when Yohanan took it and tried to open it, the silver lid lifted at once, and inside it he found a smaller goblet, also silver, and inside it was a small scorpion, asleep.
Yohanan and his wife were very surprised to see it, and although his wife was frightened of it, Yohanan said to her: Not in vain did my father commit me to this thing. We must feed it and raise it and see what comes of it in the end. So they did, and every day the scorpion grew larger, until it could no longer fit into the small goblet, and they had to put it in the larger one. And soon afterward it required an even larger container. Before long it had grown so large it no longer fit inside Yohanan's home, and he had to put it in the courtyard. There it continued to grow until it was as big as a mountain, and Yohanan could no longer afford to feed it, for the scorpion ate so much that his inheritance had decreased almost to nothing. Finally Yohanan's wife said to him:
What shall we do? We can no longer feed the scorpion, for it has cost us everything we owned. Still, sell your prayer shawl today and buy food for it, and tomorrow I will sell my cloak. And this is what they did, but after that they truly had nothing left, and then Yohanan went to the scorpion and fell before it and prayed to God and said: Lord, you know that I have given everything I had in order to fulfill my father's dying wish. Now I am left with nothing, and I do not know what to do next, for my wife and children are hungry and thirsty. Nourish us, Lord, and tell me what is the nature of this scorpion I have raised, and what will be its end. And when Yohanan had finished speaking, the scorpion opened its mouth and said: God has heard your prayer and has given me permission to reply to you. I know that you have done everything you can for me, and you are well deserving of a reward.
Tell me what you would like, and I will give it to you. Then Yohanan thought carefully for a long time, and at last he said: If this is so, teach me all the languages in the world. And the scorpion said: Your wish shall be fulfilled. And the scorpion took a slip of paper and wrote the Name of God on it and gave it to Yohanan to swallow. In this way Yohanan learned not only all of the seventy languages, but the languages of the birds and the beasts as well.
Now when the scorpion had fulfilled his promise to teach Yohanan all the languages in the world, he said to him: Your wife was also very good to me, and sacrificed much in my behalf.
Now, ask her to name one reward she would like, and I will give it to her. Yohanan asked her, and she came before the scorpion and said: My lord, give us wealth great enough so that my husband and I and our children will be provided for all the days of our lives. And the scorpion said to her: Follow me, and bring wagons and horses and donkeys and other animals. And I will load them with gold and silver and precious stones, all that they can carry. Then Yohanan and his wife did as the scorpion had said, and they followed him until he brought them to a forest called Ilai.
And when they were deep in the forest, the scorpion whistled, and one pair of each and every animal in the world came to him, along with snakes and scorpions and birds of every kind. Each pair brought a gift of silver or gold or precious stones, and they gave them to Yohanan and his wife. And after this the scorpion said to them: Take your bags and fill them, and pile them in the wagons, and be sure that you take enough so that you will never have to depend on any man. And this is what they did.
Now after they had loaded all their wagons and animals with all they could carry, Yohanan said to the scorpion: How can we ever thank you? The scorpion said: Do not thank me, but thank the Lord, for it is at his will that I serve. Then Yohanan said:
Forgive me for asking, but could you tell me who you are and where you come from? And the scorpion replied: I am the son of Adam, who begot me by Lilith, who was his first wife, before Eve. For the past thousand years before you released me, I had been growing smaller, and during the next thousand years I will grow larger. When he heard this, Yohanan was greatly surprised, and he said: If that is so, please bless me. And the scorpion replied: May God deliver you from the evils which are to come upon you. Yohanan had not expected this blessing, for he felt that his life from then on should be quite secure. And he said to the son of Adam: What evils are to come upon me? But the scorpion would not reveal this, and took his leave of them.
Then Yohanan and his wife returned home, and there was no one in all of that kingdom whose wealth or wisdom was equal to his own.
Now the kingdom in which Yohanan lived was ruled by a king who was unmarried, and for a long time his counselors had advised him to marry, so that there would be an heir to succeed him. Each time he had turned them down, but at last he agreed to consider this matter seriously, and told them he would reply to them in three days. Then it happened on the second day that as he sat in his courtyard deep in thought a raven flew above him and dropped a beautiful golden hair from its beak that landed at the king's feet. The king picked it up and looked at it, and he was amazed at its beauty. So it was that on the third day he brought the hair with him when he met with his ministers, and he said to them: If you want me to take a wife, bring me the woman to whom this hair belongs, and I will marry her. But if you fail to bring her to me, I will cut off your heads! The ministers were terrified at this ultimatum, and they said:
Give us three days to consult before we decide what to do. The king agreed to give them this time, and at the end of three days they declared that they knew of only one man in the kingdom who could undertake this task, and that was the Jew Yohanan, who was skilled in all languages. The king thereupon sent for him.
Now that same day Yohanan was sitting in his garden and a bird flew over it crying out: May God deliver you, Yohanan, from the evils about to come upon you. And because Yohanan knew the language of the birds, he understood what this bird had said, and he was very disturbed, for he had not forgotten the warning of the scorpion. Just then the messenger from the king arrived at his gate and said: Yohanan, come with me at once, for the king has sent for you. So it was that Yohanan accompanied the messenger to the palace, and when he was taken to the king, the king said: I have heard that you are very wise, and further that you are well versed in all of the languages of the world. Now it is my wish to be married, so that there will be an heir to succeed me. Therefore I wish you to seek out the woman whose golden hair this is, which a raven brought me, for I know that this woman is destined to be my wife. Now Yohanan could not believe what it was that the king was asking of him, and he said: My lord king, I am willing to serve you in any way that I can. But what you ask must be reckoned as next to impossible, not unlike asking another to tell you your own dream. Never has a king made a request such as this. But the king did not like this reply, and he said in a cold, cruel voice: If you do not bring this woman to me, I will have your head and the heads of your people! If that is the case, said Yohanan, then I will undertake this quest. Only grant me three years' time to find your bride-to-be and to bring her back. The king granted him his time, and Yohanan departed from the palace.
When Yohanan reached his home, he told his family of the king's demand, and all of them wept on account of it. Then he packed provisions for the journey, three loaves of bread and ten pieces of gold, and told them he planned to travel first to the forest Ilai, where he had taken leave of the scorpion, for perhaps he could find him there and ask for his assistance. He reached the forest after a week and, shortly after he began to search in it, he came upon a dog of immense size, which was crying and howling. Yohanan asked the dog what was wrong, and the dog told him that because God had created him so large, it was very difficult to satisfy his hunger. To this Yohanan replied: God did not create you to die of hunger, for his mercy extends to all the creatures He has created. Here, take one of these loaves of mine, and eat. The dog did so, and then it said: May God deliver you from all the troubles which are about to befall you. And may God grant me the opportunity to reward you for the kindness you have done for me. Yohanan went farther in that forest, and there he came upon an immense raven, which was crying out in its hunger exactly as had the dog. So Yohanan gave it another of his loaves, and the raven gave him the same blessing as had the dog.
After this Yohanan went on his way until he came to a river.
There he sat down at the side and ate the remaining loaf of bread and drank some water. And there on the opposite shore he saw a fisherman, who said: Would you like to buy the fish I have just caught in my net? Yohanan replied that he would, and the fisherman said: The price for it is ten gold pieces. Now Yohanan wondered how it was possible that the fisherman had asked for the exact amount he was carrying, and although he was taking a considerable risk, since neither he nor the fisherman had seen the fish as yet, he agreed to the bargain. So he took out the ten gold pieces and gave them to him, and in turn the fisherman pulled his net out of the water. And when he opened it he discovered that the fish was a very large and beautiful one that was so immense it was worth at least one hundred gold pieces. The fisherman was angry that he had gotten the poor side of the bargain, but the fish now belonged to Yohanan. And when he picked it up, the fish spoke and said: My lord, you know that I am too large to carry, nor could you eat more than a small part of me. Therefore please do what is right and throw me back into the water, and someday I will reward you for your kindness. And when Yohanan heard this, he tossed the fish back into the river and threw it the last of his bread, much to the amazement of the fisherman, and he went on his way.
Now on the other side of that river there was a town, and two women of that town were sitting together not far from the river bank. One was the princess of that kingdom, who was the most beautiful woman in the entire country, and the other was her handmaid. And the princess said to her handmaid: Do you see that poor man on the other side of this river? He is searching for a woman with golden hair, for a raven dropped such a hair at the feet of a king, who has sent him on this quest. And who is it that he is seeking? It is I, for the hair he carries with him is my own. But the king he wishes me to marry is an evil one, and I do not care to be his wife. Therefore I will give him three tasks that he must accomplish, difficult tasks, impossible ones. And unless he accomplishes those tasks, he will return empty-handed to the king. But first I must inform him of these tasks. Therefore ask the boatman to cross the river and bring him to me. The boatman did as he was told, and crossed the river and came to Yohanan and said: The princess of this country has asked to see you. Please come with me. So Yohanan accompanied him, and thus he reached the princess with the golden hair.
And when he met with her he was amazed at her beauty, which far exceeded that of any woman he had ever seen. And the princess said to him: Where are you coming from, and where are you going? And Yohanan replied: I have come from a distant land to seek a woman whose hair this is. And he took out the golden hair he carried, and showed it to the princess. And the princess said: I, who stand before you, am the very woman you are seeking. Know that I am willing to accompany you to the king and become his bride, but first there are three tasks that you must accomplish for me. If you accomplish these tasks, I will go with you; but if you do not, you will return alone. Then Yohanan saw that the golden hair he carried did indeed belong to the princess, so he asked her what the first task was, and she said: Here is a pitcher, and I want you to fill it with the waters of Gehenna. And when he heard this, Yohanan began to weep, and he said: Who is able to do such a thing? But the princess would not change her mind, and she said: If you cannot do this, I will not accompany you. If that is the case, said Yohanan, give me the pitcher, for I have no other choice. So the princess gave him the pitcher, and he departed on the quest.
The first place Yohanan traveled to was the forest Ilai, across the river. There he sat down beneath a tree and wept bitterly over his fate, and while he was weeping the raven that he had helped came and perched on a branch of that tree and said: Is there anything I can do for you? And Yohanan told it of the princess's demand, and the raven instructed him to hang the pitcher around its neck. And when Yohanan had done this, the raven flew off on its journey to the river of Gehenna, which is boiling hot, and filled the pitcher, although the boiling waters burned the bird badly. After this the raven was barely able to return to Yohanan, and when it did, it gave him the pitcher, saying:
Behold, I have done as you asked. And Yohanan took the pitcher and thanked the poor raven from the bottom of his heart, and returned to the princess with the pitcher. And when the princess took it, she recognized that it was truly filled with the waters of Gehenna, for they were still boiling and the odor was very bad. And then the princess knew that Yohanan had indeed fulfilled the first task.
Then the princess said: Now that you have completed the first task, let me tell you about the second one. Here is another pitcher, and I want you to fill it with the sacred waters of the Garden of Eden. And when Yohanan heard this, he began to weep, and he said: Is not the way to the Garden of Eden closed to mortals such as myself? But the princess insisted and said: If you do not bring me the water, I will not accompany you. In that case, said Yohanan, give me the pitcher, and I will try to complete the quest. So the princess gave Yohanan the pitcher and he returned to the forest Ilai. There he sat down beneath a tree and wept bitterly over his fate, and while he was weeping the raven that had retrieved the waters of Gehenna for him came and perched on a branch of that tree. Then Yohanan told it of the princess's demands, and the raven said: If only I could fly to the Garden of Eden for you I would gladly do so, but my feathers are so badly singed from the boiling waters of Gehenna that I can scarcely fly. And Yohanan saw that what the bird said was true, and he sat glumly with his head in his hand, for he did not know what to do. But just then the giant dog, whom Yohanan had given one of his loaves of bread, suddenly appeared. The dog said: Why are you so sad? So Yohanan told it all that had happened and explained why the raven was unable to undertake the second task.
Then the dog said: Oh, I would gladly assist you in this, for you were kind to me when I was in need. Let the bird climb on my back, and I will carry it to the Garden of Eden, for I know the way there very well. And Yohanan was delighted when he heard this, and he quickly hung the pitcher around the raven's neck, and the bird got on the back of the dog and off they went.
Now because of the dog's great strides, the raven quickly arrived at the gates of the Garden of Eden. There the bird flew over the walls of the Garden to one of the four sacred rivers that flow from beneath the Tree of Life, and it filled the second pitcher with the precious water. And while it was filling the pitcher, a few drops of those wondrous waters splashed upon the raven and immediately healed the burns it had received from the boiling waters of Gehenna, so that it was as good as new.
Before very long the dog and the bird returned to Yohanan, with a pitcher filled with the waters of the Garden of Eden. Yohanan was overjoyed to see it, and he was also very happy that the bird had been healed, and he thanked both of them from the bottom of his heart. Then he returned to the princess with the pitcher, and she found the scent of the waters more wonderful than any perfume. But still to be certain they were truly the waters of the Garden of Eden, she sprinkled them on a bird that had been killed that day, and the bird immediately came to life and flew away. And then the princess knew that Yohanan had indeed fulfilled the second task.
Then the princess said: Now that you have completed the first two tasks, let me tell you of the third. Twenty-five years ago I inherited my father's ring, which contained a very precious stone, the like of which is not to be found anywhere in the world. One day, while I was walking beside the river, the ring fell from my hand into the waters. We searched for it everywhere and dredged the river, but it was lost. If you can find this ring and bring it to me, I will go with you without delay. But Yohanan said: How is it possible to find something in a river which has been lost for twenty-five years? And the princess replied:
If you do not find the ring, I will not go with you. After this Yohanan returned to the river and sat down on the bank and wept, for it seemed that there was no end to the obstacles that confronted him. And while he was weeping, the immense fish he had thrown back in the river appeared to him and said: My lord, why are you weeping? Is there some way I can be of help? And Yohanan told the fish about the ring he was searching for, which was lost in the river. And when the fish heard this, it said: Yes, I know of that ring, for I saw the fish that swallowed it so long ago. I will seek to retrieve that ring for you, but first I must receive permission from Leviathan, who is the ruler of all the fish. Then the fish went to Leviathan and told him the whole story, and Leviathan gave the fish permission to retrieve the ring for Yohanan, as a reward for the kindness he had done. Soon enough the fish reappeared before Yohanan, and spat out the ring on the shore. And when Yohanan saw it, he was amazed at its beauty and the size of its stone, and he thanked the fish from the bottom of his heart and hurried back to the princess.
Now when the princess saw her long-lost ring, she wept tears of joy, and she said: I will always be grateful to you for having restored the lost ring of my father. And now I will gladly accompany you to the king, for you have certainly earned the right. And so it was that Yohanan and the princess set out for the palace of the king. And when the king was told that they were coming, he went out to meet them, and led them to the palace. And the king was so overwhelmed with the great beauty of the princess that he desired to wed her at once. But the princess said: In my country it is not customary to marry at once. Let us wait twelve months' time. This angered the king, but he reluctantly agreed to grant the request.
During that period a war broke out, and there were many civilian casualties, among them the wife of Yohanan. And so it was that Yohanan was among the first of those who set out to drive the enemy from the kingdom. Now it happened that in the course of one battle Yohanan was slain. And when this news was reported to the palace, the princess insisted on going to the place where his body had been taken. The king accompanied her, for he did not want to let her out of his sight. But when the princess reached Yohanan, she sprinkled some of the water of the Garden of Eden on his body. And suddenly Yohanan began to breathe, and his eyes opened. And when the king saw this he was truly amazed and said: Now that I know you have this miraculous potion, our army will be indestructible. And after that the king was not afraid of fighting on the front line with his troops, for, he assumed, the princess could always revive him.
So it was that during an especially fierce battle the king was cut down, and his body was carried off by the soldiers and brought to the princess, to be revived, but instead of sprinkling the water of the Garden of Eden, she sprinkled the waters of Gehenna, and the body of the king was reduced to ashes, which blew away in the wind. After this the princess and Yohanan were married, and they came to rule the kingdom together. They lived together in peace and tranquillity for many years, and begot sons and daughters; as it is written, Cast thy bread upon the water, for in time to come thou wilt find it again.