Part IV The Curse is Broken and Justice
When the king arrived home, he held a great banquet and invited all the lords of the realm. As he sat at the table, merry and joyous, he sent for the wolf. Coming in, the wolf was so happy that he wagged his tail appreciatively, for he knew the king had gone out to get the ring. The wolf licked the king’s hand and curled up at his feet. When the king saw this, he took the ring from his bag and showed it to the wolf. The king then took the ring and put it on the wolf’s paw. Suddenly a naked man stood before them.
When the king saw him, he quickly threw his royal cape over him to cover his nakedness. The lords of the realm were terrified. The king explained, “Don’t be afraid! The man standing before you was the werewolf.”
Now the man leaped up in great joy and made a request to the king, “Dear king, I beg you, give me permission to go home again, for I haven’t been there for three or four years. Do me the great favor and let me go.”
The king looked at his faithful friend and answered,
“My dear friend, if you wish to go to your old home, you may do so. But if you prefer to remain with me, you can live here and eat at my table for the rest of your life. I’ll never be able to repay the good things you did for me.”
So the rabbi took his leave of the king and went home. The king wanted to give him many presents, but the rabbi responded, “Your Majesty, you have seen for yourself that I have enough wealth at home. I really don’t need any money. You’ve treated me honourably and have returned to me my special ring. Truthfully, without it, I would have been destined to remain a werewolf for the rest of my life.”
The rabbi took some food for the journey and started out to return home. Along the way, he once again gathered some students and bought them fine clothes of black velvet, and they came to his home town. On a quiet night in his camp site, he quietly requested:
“I wish that my evil wife, may her name be forgotten, be turn into a donkey. Let her stand in the stable and eat from the trough with the other beasts.”
News spread quickly through the town that the rabbi was returning with some students, all finely dressed. The whole community happily welcomed the rabbi.
They wanted to know where he had been for so long, but the rabbi would only say, “It is better if you didn’t ask. I have returned to my home and the adventures of the last three or four years are not important.”
The rabbi acted as if he didn’t know what had happened to his wife, although he fully realized she was in the stable. Still, upon coming home, he ask his servants, “Where is my wife? I don’t see her anywhere! She won’t be able to meet students I’ve brought back with me.”
His servants said, “Dear Rabbi, please don’t be alarmed, and we’ll tell you what we know.”
The rabbi answered, “Please tell me whatever news you may have,”
So they began, “Dear Rabbi, as soon as we heard that you were coming, we ran to tell your wife the wonderful news. But we couldn’t find her anywhere. And we don’t even know what’s become of her.”
The rabbi wasn’t the least bit concerned and he continued as though he knew nothing, saying, “I think that if she may have left on a long journey and she’ll return after some time.”
The rabbi resumed his practice of distributing money to the poor, re-opened the yeshiva (Jewish religious school), and helped the less fortunate. Everyone was very happy.
A short time later, he gave a large banquet and invited the entire town. Sitting there in high spirits, he announced, “Friends, since the Holy One, blessed be He helped me to return home safe and sound, I pledge to build a beautiful Beis haMidrash (House of Study) where people can gather to study and pray. The bricks we need for the construction will be hauled by the donkey in the stable.”
This donkey was his wife, but no one knew she was transformed because of her many evil deeds. The people blessed their beloved rabbi, May the Holy One, blessed be He help you and enable you to carry out your wish in peace and health.”
Meanwhile, the donkey had been eating a lot and gotten fat. Sadly, in front of people, she had no sense of modesty, she coupled openly others in the stable. When the rabbi made her haul bricks on her back, she became very lean and muscular. When the rabbi saw that she didn’t want to move, so he kicked her in the ribs saying, “The Holy One, blessed be He hates ‘a heart that devises wicked plans and feet that hurry to run to evil’ (Proverbs 6:18). Your plans have come full circle ‘as you have done, it shall be done to you’ (Obadiah 1:15). You shall work doing good until you ‘mend your ways and your actions’ (Jeremiah 7:3).”
After the construction of the synagogue was built, the rabbi gave another great banquet, inviting all his wife’s family. When they were all happy, the rabbi told them the entire story, everything that had happened to him, the terrible troubles his wife had caused him, until the Holy One, blessed be He had helped him recovered his human form and return to his home. He further explained, “That’s why she was turned into a donkey, and that’s is how she’ll remain for the rest of her days.”
When her family heard this, they were shocked and felt pity for her. They pleaded with the rabbi to forgive her, assuring him she would never do it again. But the wrongs she had done to the poor and the students of the village caused the rabbi to question whether he could ever trust her.
Not long after that, the rabbi passed away, leaving his children a vast wealth. Upon his death, the wishing-ring vanished and his wife remained a donkey as long as she lived.
It was believed that the rabbi was from the lost tribe of Benjamin. For you see the Torah describes Benjamin as not just like a “ravenous wolf” (Genesis 49:27), but also capable of turning into a wolf itself. But the truth is only known to the Holy One, blessed be He.
May all your tales end with Shalom (peace)
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Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. (Joel 1:3)