There was once a pious man who was wealthy and of the king’s company. He had a handsome, fine-looking, and wise son. Before he passed away, he told his son not to leave the synagogue from the moment the cantor rose to pray and began to recite the Kaddish prayer until the whole service was over. Also, if somebody who had not been present were to rise and recite the evening prayer he should stay there until he had finished as well. The dying man added: “I have done this all my life and I have prospered. And if you pass through a city where there is a synagogue and you hear the cantor, enter and do not leave until he has finished his prayers.” Then the pious man passed away.
Now the son was well thought of by all who saw him. He served the king and was the wine bearer to the king and queen and sliced them their bread and meat. They loved him very much and praised him to the skies. The king’s vizier saw the favor in which the king and queen held the young man and envied him. He came to the king and said: “Your majesty, you have eyes yet you do not see that this young man loves the queen, and they betray you behind your back when they are together.” The king did not believe him, yet the vizier repeated it day after day until the king grew jealous.
One day the king went to inspect the workers who were preparing a limekiln, and he said to the master of the workers: “Take the first man who comes here tomorrow and fling him into the kiln at once. If you do not do so, you will pay for it with your own life.” “Your majesty,” answered he, “I shall obey your orders.” Then the king returned home. That night while the young man was serving him, he called him and ordered: “Rise early tomorrow morning and go where they are preparing the lime and tell the man in charge to make a great fire.” “I shall carry out your orders,” answered the young man.
In the morning he mounted his horse, but as he passed the synagogue he heard the cantor’s voice. He dismounted, entered the synagogue, and prayed. When the cantor had finished, another man who had not heard the prayers rose and began to pray, and he waited until he finished as well. And so he was delayed until it was broad daylight. Meanwhile, the king summoned his vizier and ordered him: “Go to the place where they are making the lime and ask the man in charge: Have you obeyed the king?” Then the vizier mounted his horse and rode off and asked the man in charge: “Have you obeyed the king’s orders?” Thereupon they seized him and tied him up and flung him into the kiln. The young man arrived just then and saw them flinging the vizier into the kiln, and he said to them: “If the king knows this, he will slay you.” But the man in charge answered: “Yesterday the king ordered me: ‘Take the first man I send to you tomorrow, and fling him into the kiln.’ And this is the man who came first.”
Then the young man returned to the king and said: “Your majesty, why did you order the vizier to be burned?” At this, the king shuddered and shook with astonishment and said to the youth: “Now I know that you are G-d-fearing, and your Creator loves you. This is what the vizier said about you and the queen. So I ordered that the man whom I first sent to the limekiln should be flung into the fire; and it was you I first ordered to go. After that I told the vizier to go and see whether my orders had been obeyed. But you were delayed, so they flung him in instead. Now I know that you are innocent.” That is as the Book of Proverbs declares (11:8): “The righteous is delivered from distress, and the wicked comes in his stead.”
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)