Once there were two brothers, one of them rich and the other poor. The poor man was married to a very beautiful wife.

One day the poor brother came to his brother to ask him for a loan. The rich man refused to help him. Even when stran­gers tried to persuade the rich man to help his poor brother, he would say that he had no brother.

One day the rich man went out for a walk in the town, and in the course of his wanderings came to the poor quarter of the town. Through the window of one of the buildings he saw the face of a beautiful woman. “Whose wife is that?” he asked the people there.

“That is your brother’s wife,” he was told.

And the rich man fell in love with the woman and desired her greatly. By day and by night he thought of how he could get her.

One day the rich man sent for his poor brother. He gave him money and said to him: “Why do you not ask rue for anything?” And he flattered his poor brother and invited him and his wife to his house, and did them many favours. After sonic time he gave his brother goods to trade with in a far country, to earn sonic money. At first the poor man refused to leave his wife, but the rich brother promised him that she would remain under his protection. And so the poor brother set out on his journey with a quiet heart.

On the following day the rich man sent his sister-in-law veget­ables, fruit and meat and told her that he would come to eat dinner at her house. She could not tell him not to come, but while he was in the house she conducted herself in the most proper manner. Every day the rich man used to bother her and send her gifts but she remained unimpressed. One day the wo­man decided to end matters with the rich man. She invited him to her house, but left before he came. He waited for her for a long time and then rose and left the house in anger. He nursed the insult in his heart and decided that he would revenge him­self on the woman who had offended him.

One day, early in the morning, the rich man left his house and on his way met a poor man. He gave him money and said to him: “In return for the money that I have given you I want you to steal into the hall of such and such a house and remain there.” Needless to say, this house was no other than the house of his sister-in-law. Then the rich man went to one of the synagogues in the city and invited the men he found there to a bris milah which, he said, was taking place in that same building. The men opened the door and there in the hall they saw a man standing. “What are you doing here?” they asked him. “Since the depar­ture of this woman’s husband I have always been here,” the poor man answered. For this was what the rich man had ordered him to say, in return for the money that he had given him.

The men believed the poor man, and they dragged the woman and drove her out of the town to be stoned. The townspeople showered her with curses, taunts and stones.

All the woman’s pleadings were in vain as she was pelted with stones. She wished to explain to the men and her rich brother-in-law that she was not guilty of what they suspected, but they refused to listen to her stoned her. She was a righteous woman and out of the depths she cried[2] to the heaven for help. She stood tall as she was indeed innocent of the shameful deed she was accused of. Her brother-in-law asked: “are you so brazen that you stand before us with pride?” The woman looked at the people around her with tears in her eyes and answered: “All my life I wondered when I could love G-d “with all my soul”[3], even if He take my life. Now the opportunity has come and I will fulfill it with joy.”[4] Her brother-in-law and the people buried her with the stones they threw.

Sometime later, a rabbi and his wife were traveling towards the town. They were childless. They heard the sound of moaning from beneath the pile of stones and began to dig until they found the poor woman lying on the ground with bleeding wounds.

They helped her up, bandaged her wounds and decided to take her with them. In their hearts they thought: “Perhaps the deed we did today will merit our prayers for a child to be answered.

After some time the couple was blessed with a child and they asked the woman to be the child’s nurse. The woman, of course, was very grateful to the couple, for they had rescued her and she was a faithful nurse.

In the house of this rabbi there was a student who fell in love with the beautiful woman. He asked her to marry him but she refused, for she was faithful to her husband. The student became angry at her refusal to marry him and decided to punish her. He killed the baby while everyone was asleep, and then ran away.

In the morning the parents were very angry with the woman they had trusted. The rabbi who drew his strength from Heaven, told his wife that the woman should not be punished. “It is the will of G-d,” he said. “We must let her go, bearing the dead child.”

The woman was sad and hopeless. She had been driven from every place because of false accusations. She wandered into the desert, hungry and thirsty, and in her arms she carried the dead child. Suddenly she saw an old man with a long beard and flowing robes, who told her that he was the Prophet Elijah, may his memory be a blessing,  and that she had nothing to fear. He gave her a vial water that revived the child, for the water was from the Garden of Eden and, indeed, the child came stirred and again breathed as life renewed in him. He gave her another potion that could cure all ills. He also gave her some advice: she must disguise herself as a man, establish a big place for travelers to rest and cure the sick who came to her. She asked when she could return to living a normal and proper life, and the prophet told her that woman was endowed with more intelligence than men[5] and she would know the right time when it came.

The woman took the advice of the Prophet Elijah, may his memory be a blessing, and put on men’s clothes and set up a rest stop for travelers. Soon, travelers with all sorts of problems were cured at the rest stop and they paid her well and she became very wealthy. The rabbi’s son, helped the woman with all she did. The woman made sure that the young man studied all the Hoy Writings.

Some of the sick who came to her she knew, but never once did she let anyone see through her disguise. One day, she was surprised at who came to the rest stop. One was her wicked brother-in-law, another was her husband who had become heartsick after he had been told that his wife had died. He never believed the tales of her being unfaithful. There was the poor man who had stood in the hall of the woman’s house and who falsely about her, and the rabbi and his wife also came, and lastly, there was the student who had wanted to marry her and whom she had refused. All were stricken with different sicknesses and hope that she could heal them.

The woman placed these patients in different rooms so that they should not see each other but they could hear each other. One condition the woman laid down to all those who came to be treated by her was that before receiving treatment they must confess and reveal all their sins.

First among those who confessed was her rich brother-in-law who told what he had not been honest in his business dealings. She looked at him and reminded him that unless he was completely honest, he could not be cured. He then admitted to his evil scheme. Then the poor man who had stood in the hall told his story admitted he was paid by the rich man to falsely testify against her. The husband heard these things and he was very angry with those who had slandered his wife. The couple who had driven out the woman after the death of their only child, and the student who had killed the child, all confessed their actions. The rabbi and his wife, when they heard the tale of the student, deeply regretted their hasty action in blaming their nurse who was really blameless.

When they had all confessed, the woman made herself known to them. She cured her husband who had returned to her, and to the old couple she restored their son who had in the meantime grown up and was a promising scholar.

She did not cure the three others for it is written: “Whoever slanders their neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not tolerate”[6]   and they remained sickly to the end of their days.

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[1] A Woman of Valor Who can Find?  Proverbs 31:10

[2]  Psalm 130:1

[3]  Deuteronomy 6:5

[4] T.Berachos 61b

[5]  T. Niddah 45b

[6]  Psalm 101:5

May all your tales end with Shalom (peace)

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