In one of the towns of Morocco there lived a wealthy Jewish merchant who was very wicked and had an evil heart. He did not want beggars and poor people to come to his house, so he built it outside the city. Around it he erected a high wall and at the only gate he placed wild dogs, who were as evil and wicked as their master. Without the walls he stationed two strong slaves who prevented the entry into the house of people whom the rich man did not like. Jewish people of the town said, “Since Haman haRasha there has been no one so wicked as he. Haman was not Jewish and this wealthy wicked man is Jewish. 

 

One day a great chacham came to the town. He was a wandering messenger who collected money for the scholars in Eretz Yisrael who engaged in the study of the torah by day and by night. The chacham heard of the town and of the wealthy man who lived in it. However, when he came to the town he could only collect a small sum of money there. He was greatly astonished, and the people of the town told him, “It is true, among us lives a very rich Jewish merchant, but his house is surrounded by a wall and guarded by dogs and armed slaves, so that the owner of the house need not give alms to any man.” 

 

“What is the name of this evil man?” asked the chacham. When he heard the name, he learned that sentence of death had been passed on the rich man and only he, the chacham, could save him. 

 

The chacham told the people of the town nothing of what he had learned and went to the home of the wealthy Jewish merchant. By ut­tering Hashem’s holy name the road was shortened for him. When he reached the wealthy merchant’s home, he noted that together with him had come a giant snake, which was trying hard to out-distance him. What did the chacham do? He uttered Hashem’s holy name and the snake lay motionless, unable to move backwards or forwards. 

 

The chacham from Eretz Israel came to the home of the wicked man, but the armed slaves tried to drive him away. 

 

“I wish only to ask the master of the house one single question,” he said to them. But the guards refused to listen to him. Then once again the chacham uttered Hashem’s holy name and immediately he was within the house without the dogs even sensing that he had entered. 

 

The wealthy man saw the chacham standing before him in the room and he uttered a cry,  “Why have you entered this room in such plain and dirty clothes?” and he called to his dogs to set them on to the visitor. But the chacham seated himself on the floor and refused to move. He sat there unconcerned, while the dogs had been strick­en with deafness and could not hear the call of their master. What could the rich man do? He was already weary of his own cries and he allowed the visitor to remain in the room and did not look at him. 

 

Evening came. Out of his pocket the chacham took a prayer book and began to recite the mincha service. Just then the rich man’s servants began to set the table for the evening meal. The rich man, his wife and his children sat down at the table to eat. The holy man requested a piece of bread (of course he only pretended to be hungry for he was satisfied without eating), the size of what the rich man would give to his dogs. But the cruel rich man refused. The rich man’s family finished their meal and the chacham remained seated on the floor, his hand stretched out to ask for some morsel to eat. But the rich man forbade even his wife and children to give the chacham anything to eat. 

 

When the remnants of the meal were gathered up from the table, the chacham once again asked for a piece of bread. The rich man threw some crumbs to the floor and said with contempt: “Take it before the dog gets it!” But the chacham persisted: “I shall accept it only from your hand.” 

 

The woman and the children pleaded with the evil man until at last he gave the chacham a slice of bread. 

 

The chacham rose to his feet, washed his hands, made the blessing over the bread, placed a morsel the size of an olive into his mouth and said to the rich man: “There is something I wish to reveal to you.” 

 

The rich man became alarmed and the chacham said to him, “Send your wife and your children quickly away to a distant place, for they are in great danger tonight. And you, too, are not to sleep tonight. You must be awake throughout the night and you must not open the door.” 

 

The frightened man did all that the chacham commanded him to do. The chacham remained seated on the floor reciting Psalms. 

 

The giant snake began to crawl closer and closer to the house. Suddenly the rich man came up to the chacham and said: “My wife is crying out, asking me to open the door, for someone wishes to kill her.” 

 

“Go back to your room,” the chacham commanded him. “Do not open the door.” 

 

The rich man did as he was bidden. In a few minutes, however, he was back again, saying: “My children are crying out, ‘have mercy upon us for bandits wish to slay us!’ I shall open the door.” 

 

“Do not open the door! Stay where you are!” commanded the chacham. The rich man obeyed, but soon he was back again. “My mother and all my other relatives have come and are pleading for mercy. I shall open the door.” 

 

The chacham uttered a great shout and the rich man desisted, weeping all the time and asking for permission to open the door, otherwise they would all be killed. 

 

And thus he pleaded throughout the night.

 

Dawn came at last. Then the chacham turned to the rich man and said, “Come and see what awaited you outside the house!” 

 

The rich man looked upon a huge snake whose head was as big as a cask and which was as long as the entire wall encircling the house. But the snake was dead. Then the chacham told him: “The voices that you heard during the night were uttered by the snake. He spoke in the voice of your wife and he spoke in the voice of your children, for he had come to kill you all. But I foresaw all this and came here to save you. Had you not given me the piece of bread with your own hand then your end would have been bitter indeed, and the end of the members of your house would have been likewise.” 

 

The rich man sent his slaves to bring back his wife and his children. When they returned he showed them the snake cut into pieces and told all that had come to pass during the night. The woman and the children had been so far away, that they could not know what had happened in the night. 

 

From that night the wealthy rich man was a changed man. He gave alms generously to the poor and contributed large sums of money for Eretz Israel and for the scholars who engaged in the study of the torah.

 

May all your tales end with Shalom (peace)

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