It is well known that babies cry from the moment they are born. Why? Because the angel in charge of birth tells them when they are destined to die. For a person’s fate is sealed from the time of his birth, and the circumstances of his death are already known.
Now one night, just as a baby was born, the angel told him, “You will die from a snake bite on the day of your wedding.” As soon as the baby heard this, he broke into loud cries. While most babies quickly forget what the angel told them, this baby remembered. As he began to speak, he told his parents what the angel had said. After that, his parents were afraid to let him marry, out of fear that he would die on the day of his wedding.
Years passed, the child grew, and his older brothers had all been married, and the young man also wanted to marry. He too wanted to marry, but every time he spoke to his parents, they discouraged him, reminding him of what the angel had said. The young man wanted the happiness of his married brothers and when his parents saw that he would not give up the idea of marriage, they approached a wise elder and asked for his advice. He told them: “Your son can marry on condition that you wrap him from head to foot in five sheep skins on the day of his wedding. And as you travel to the wedding be sure that his feet don’t touch the ground. Have his brothers carry him on a chair to his bride.”
So, it was that on the day of the wedding his parents wrapped the groom in five sheep skins, and his brothers carried him in a chair, so that his feet didn’t touch the ground. Then, as they traveled to the house of the bride, a huge poisonous snake, hidden in a tree, suddenly dropped down and bit the foot of the groom, but it couldn’t bite through the thick sheep skins that covered him. His brothers quickly killed the snake and buried it under a large stone. After that they took the groom down from the chair, unwrapped the sheep skins, and he continued to the house of the bride by foot. The wedding ceremony took place in peace, and the bride and groom returned to his village, and everyone was greatly relieved that he had survived.
Many years passed. The groom’s brothers aged and died, his own children grew old and died, and even his grandchildren died of old age, but he kept on living. He was so old he couldn’t speak, and he could barely stand. His descendants saw that he was suffering, but they didn’t know what they could do for him. So, they went to one of the wise men of that generation and told him the story of how he had escaped death on his wedding day.
The sage said to them: “I heard this story from my father. Because he escaped death when he was fated to die, he cannot die at all.”
His descendants said, “What are we going to do? He is so old and is suffering so much.”
The sage told them: “You must find the place where the snake was buried and take the dust from there and mix it with water and let the old man drink it. Only then will he be able to die.”
The groom’s descendants went back to the big stone where the snake was buried, and they took dust from beneath it and mixed it with water and let the old man drink it. And right after that, he died.
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)