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Updated: August 22, 2024
"Bar Shalmon is his name," replied the princess, "and to him am I bound by vows that may not be broken." "'Tis false," cried Bar Shalmon from the crowd. "'Tis true. Behold our son," answered the princess, and there stepped forward a dainty elfin boy whose face was the image of Bar Shalmon.
"There is human blood in my veins. My great-grandfather was a mortal who fell into this land and was not put to death. Being of mortal descent, I have been made rabbi. Perhaps thou wilt find favor here and be permitted to live and settle in this land." "But I desire to return home," said Bar Shalmon. The rabbi shook his head. "Thou must sleep now," he said.
"You must," he said angrily, "burst it open." "We do not know how to burst open a door," they said. "We are not mortal. If we were permitted to enter the room we should just walk through the walls." Bar Shalmon could not do this, so he put his shoulder to the door and it yielded quite easily. A strange sight met his gaze.
For that one there is no key, and thou must not enter it. Beware." For several days Bar Shalmon amused himself by examining the hundreds of rooms in the vast palace until one day he came to the door for which he had no key. He forgot the king's warning and his promise to obey. "Open this door for me," he said to his attendants, but they replied that they could not.
"Thy worthy father must, of a truth, have been bereft of reason in failing to tell thee of his full estate, and an oath to a man of mind unsound is not binding. That is the law in our land." "So it is here," returned Bar Shalmon, and with this remark his last scruple vanished.
Mar Shalmon fell back upon his pillows and spoke no more. Bar Shalmon stood gazing out of the window until the sun had disappeared, and then, silently sobbing, he left the chamber of death. The whole city wept when the sad news was made known, for Mar Shalmon was a man of great charity, and almost all the inhabitants followed the remains to the grave.
The ship almost leaped from the sand, and before Bar Shalmon could realize what had happened it was speeding swiftly away. "Come back, come back," he screamed, and he could see the captain struggling with the helm. But the vessel refused to answer, and Bar Shalmon saw it grow smaller and smaller and finally disappear. He was alone on an uninhabited desert land.
The branches tore his clothes to shreds and bruised his body, but they broke his terrible fall, and when at last he reached the ground he was not much hurt. Bar Shalmon found himself on the outskirts of the city, and cautiously he crept forward. To his intense relief, he saw that the first building was a synagogue. The door, however, was locked.
"I cannot," said Bar Shalmon, as he looked up at the balcony thirty feet above the ground. "Try," said the rabbi. Bar Shalmon did try, and found, the moment he lifted his feet from the ground, that he was standing on the balcony. "Neatly done," said the king. "I see thou art quick at learning." "So my teachers always said," replied Bar Shalmon. "A proper answer," said the king.
Then the rabbi pleaded for him and declared that the oath was not binding because Bar Shalmon's father had not informed him of his treasures abroad and could not therefore have been in his right senses. Further, he added, Bar Shalmon was a scholar and the king desired him to teach his wisdom to the crown prince. The chief justice rose to pronounce sentence.
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