A widow and her four children lived in the city of Fez. Every day was a struggle to care for her children and she worked very hard in the market. Her oldest son, Shelomo, tried to help his mother by doing odd jobs, but there is only so much a young boy can do. His mother insisted that whatever he did, he was not to neglect his Torah studies.
Every week the widow would gather her children around the table on erev Shabbat and they would welcome the Shabbat Malka. There was always special food and such a feeling of peace throughout Shabbat.
Shelomo prayed and wished that the day would come that his mother did not have to work so hard. He tried real hard to keep the house neat and his brothers and sisters from arguing. One day a merchant came to the house with a letter from Fustat. Shelomo wondered who in faraway Mitzrayim (Egypt) knew his family.
He ran to the market carrying the mysterious letter to give to his mother. She took it, opened it and read it as tears trickled down her cheeks. Shelomo got angry that someone in a far off place made his mother cry.
The widow dried her tears and explained. It happened that they had a relative in Fustat who was very wealthy and left a fortune to them. She was glad about the wealth that could benefit her children, but was sad when she realized that she could not travel across the aṣ-ṣaḥrāʼ al-kubrá (the Great Desert) with her children. She would not be able to go to Fustat to retrieve the fortune.
Shelomo offered to go for his mother. The widow looked at her 12 year old son and admired his willingness, but he was still a boy. She felt that a boy could not survive a journey across the Great Desert and back. Shelomo reminded her that in a few short months he would be bar mitzvah and be considered a man in the Jewish community. The widow agreed to send her son to get the fortune in Fustat and bring it back.
The widow sold some of her jewelry and wrapped up food for her son’s journey and gave him directions and much advice. She approached a caravan leader for a ride and was assured that the caravan would stop for Shabbat, so Shelomo joined the group.
On Friday afternoon, after traveling many days through the Great Desert, Shelomo saw that the sun would be setting in an hour and the leader of the caravan was not stopping. “Excuse me sir, but are we not stopping?” he asked. The caravan leader answered, “Boy, I know this part of the desert and this is too dangerous of a place to stop.”
The sun was moving lower on the afternoon horizon. The caravan was still in the dry desert wilderness, yet Shelomo got down off of his camel, and announced that he would remain in the desert for the next day so that he would not be m’chalel Shabbat – in violation of the Sabbath Day.
“What? Are you insane?” cried his fellow travelers. “The desert is no place for a boy to remain alone. The sun is hot, the wind is harsh, the land is dry, and there are wild beasts that will tear you to pieces. There are lions in the wilderness, which will gobble you up in one bite,” the caravan members said. “Not even a camel would want to stay.”
Shelomo put his faith in the Holy One, blessed be He and stayed. The caravan members stopped arguing and continued on their way to Fustat, leaving the boy to spend Shabbat alone in the Great Desert.
Minutes before Shabbat would begin, Shelomo took a stick and drew a circle in the sand around himself. There he said his evening prayers and ate his Shabbat seudah (Sabbath Meal). He thought about his mother blessing his brothers and sisters in the glow of the Shabbat candles.
As he completed his seudah (meal), he saw a lion running toward him from a distance. He carefully watched the lion, but he was not afraid. He began his Grace after Meals, and as the lion approached the circle drawn around the boy, it simply stopped, crouched, and laid down. This lion did not come to eat the boy. The huge lion came to watch over him.
In the morning, Shelomo awoke, prayed the Shacharit prayers, ate his meal and sang Shabbat songs. The lion kept watch throughout the day. After Shabbat, the lion approached the boy and crouched down. Shelomo understood that the lion was hinting that he should sit on its back. He placed his bags on the lion’s back, mounted the lion, and the lion galloped off with the boy across the desert.
Soon Shelomo and his bags caught up with the caravan. The members of the caravan were shocked and frightened, and many ran and hid behind their camels. They were not only surprised to see that the boy Shelomo had survived the desert, but he was riding on a lion and was able to overtake them in their journey across the desert.
“Come join us as we continue on to Fustat and we will definitely stop on Shabbat,” the caravan leader told Shelomo. He soon came to Fustat and returned to his mother in Fez under the watchful eye of the lion.
The widow was overjoyed at the return of he son and with the fortune they provided for many needs of the poor of Fez. Everyone came to celebrate the bar mitzvah of Shelomo and his mother said – “my son is a man.”
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)
