Tales and Maxims from the Midrash. Samuel Rapaport

is a stranger?' Ashmedai replied, 'That blind man is a most pious and righteous man, and I heard it proclaimed in the higher spheres that great reward should be his who should render that man a service.'

      'And why did you lead the drunken man into the road away from the precipice into which he was walking?' 'That man,' said Ashmedai, 'is very wicked, and if he deserves any reward for ever having done anything but evil, he should receive it here on earth.' 'And what provoked your laughter when you heard a man inquire for boots to last him seven years?' 'Simply,' said the master of demons, 'that the man had but seven days more on earth.' 'Why did you weep on meeting a bridal party with their music?' 'Mighty King of Israel,' exclaimed Ashmedai, 'this very moment the last shred of flesh is gnawed off the bones of that bridegroom; he died five days after I met the wedding party.' 'Last of all,' demanded Solomon, 'what was the cause of your laughter on seeing the wizard with the people who consulted him?' 'Why should I not laugh when I saw a stupid person who professed to remove the veil of the hidden future, whilst he knew not that under the stone on which he was sitting there was hidden a kingly treasure?'16

      King Solomon now intimated by a gesture that he wished to be left alone with the king of the demons, and all his counsellors, ministers, and high officials surrounding his throne left the palatial room. When the king was alone with Ashmedai he addressed him as follows: 'The fact that I carefully excluded all my advisers from hearing what there is between us will have shown you that I have an important matter upon which I crave information from you. I therefore want you, O Ashmedai, whose power is infinitely above mine, because you know what is going on in the higher as well as in the lower spheres, to tell me my own future.' Ashmedai betrayed a satirical smile and said, 'It is perhaps not to be wondered at that a monarch as wise and mighty on earth as you are, who has acquired almost all the knowledge that it is possible for a mortal man to possess, should long for knowledge of the supernatural from the region of the unseen; but I must advise you to desist from this ambition: it will not be of any use or pleasure to you.' 'No,' insisted Solomon, 'nothing will induce me to abstain from increasing my knowledge, for it is that, and not silver or gold, that I have set my heart upon.' 'If my advice is to no purpose,' said Ashmedai, 'I will proceed to open for you the hidden secrets, but it will be necessary to release me from the chain I had put round me when I was made captive, and you will, instead, have to give me the chain that adorns your majesty's neck, and the ring with the name of God on it, which lies on the table before you.'

      Solomon did as suggested, took off his chain and put it on Ashmedai's neck, and placed the ring on his hand. Scarcely had the master of the demons closed his hand on the ring handed him by Solomon when a thunder clap passed through the room which made the whole place vibrate. At the same moment Ashmedai seemed to have grown into a terrible giant, his eyes looked like two great gleaming fires, his arms extended to enormous proportions, and looked as though they would catch hold of the extreme ends of the earth. Solomon trembled at the sight, his heart seemed to stand still from terror, and he was about to call for help; but his whole body was paralysed, his tongue refused its duty, and in the midst of this he was seized by Ashmedai by arm and neck and thrown into the air, and he became senseless. The men who had quitted the throne room at King Solomon's bidding were all the time impatiently awaiting the summons back to their king and master, but they remained in the ante-room longer than they ever had to wait, when at last they received the glad tidings, and the monarch summoned them to his presence. They found, on entering the throne room, King Solomon sitting as usual on his throne. They expressed their surprise at the absence of Ashmedai, whom they had left in the room on retiring, but no answer was vouchsafed to them. The king, however, took up the thread of conversation on the subject upon which he was consulting when they retired from the room. Yet they detected a marked change in the tone of the king's words, which lacked that mildness and gentleness for which the wise Solomon was so renowned.

      Some of the ministers ventured to ask his majesty for the reason of this change, but, instead of a reply, they received a sardonic laugh. It occurred to some of the wise men that this might not be King Solomon, but Ashmedai, the king of demons, who usurped their monarch's position; but who could give expression to that dreadful thought?

      King Solomon had been thrown by Ashmedai no less a distance than four hundred miles from Jerusalem. For a long time he lay in the open field, unconscious; as consciousness returned and he opened his eyes, he took in the situation, but happily his wisdom had not failed, amongst his other great qualities, to bestow on him the habit of practising abstinence in the midst of his splendour, and he occasionally used to subject himself to actual hunger, and deprive himself of the necessaries of life, so as to cultivate the habit of wanting things and not having them.

      He now made up his mind to face his great calamity in the best way possible, and resolved that, if need were, he would be bent, but not broken totally by it. As a beggar he traversed the land over which he had ruled with such splendour and power, and he was often thrown on the mercy of one of his humblest subjects. Yet in the midst of this great sorrow he proclaimed himself, wherever he came, the great 'Koheleth,' King of Jerusalem.

      No wonder that he was everywhere looked upon as insane! But he struggled hard to make his way to Jerusalem, which he eventually reached, and on his arrival at his metropolis he asked to be brought before the Sanhedrin. He repeated to the Sanhedrin his assertion that he was King Solomon, and related to them all the events that had happened to him. His statement was received by the Sanhedrin, if not with derision, still, with great mistrust and incredulity, and they were about to declare him insane, when one of the Sanhedrin, wiser and bolder than the others, rose and spoke as follows: 'Friends and worthy colleagues, whom the Lord has graced with wisdom and understanding, it will not be difficult for you to comprehend that any one afflicted with insanity would not be able to make so coherent a statement as we have now heard, but would wander about in his assertions incoherently from one subject to another. Now, this man who asserts himself to be King Solomon, has not spoken one incoherent word, and has given no indication of his insanity, except his assertion in general that he is the great king our master, and that assertion he made coherently enough. Besides this, there is no reason whatever, either in his demeanour, gesture or speech, to condemn him as insane. Would it be consistent with justice, as shown to us by our Great Lawgiver, to conclude that this man is insane, simply because he claims the throne as his own, without further investigation as to who is the one who now occupies the throne as King Solomon? Moreover, can we overlook the fact that when we left the throne room there were two individuals, and when we returned one had disappeared, without our being able to comprehend how that happened? My advice is, that we request Topos, one of King Solomon's many wives, that when the present king pays her a visit, she may notice his feet,17 and then on her report on this you can form your judgment in this matter.' The Sanhedrin fell in with this suggestion, and when they appealed to Topos, she reported that the king, her husband, never entered her chamber without a cover over his feet. The Sanhedrin requested her to try and remove the covering from her husband's feet at the next opportunity. Topos did as requested by the Sanhedrin, and reported that, to her amazement and disgust, she found her husband's feet to resemble those of a cock.

      The Sanhedrin were now concerned to have Ashmedai stripped of the chain and the ring by which he had subtly obtained the throne from King Solomon. In this they succeeded through a confidential servant of the demon, and these precious and holy things were handed over to the rightful owner, the real King Solomon, who now re-entered upon his glorious throne. The wise king had the chief of the demons brought before him, and exhibited to him the chain and the ring. The demon, amidst a peal of thunder, made his escape from the palace, and was seen no more.

      Solomon was again in his former greatness, but was till the end of his days in terror of demons; hence he had sixty of the most valiant men of his army surrounding his bed.--Midr. Rabba Gen. 7 and 36; Exod. 30; Num. 5 and 11; Lament. 3; Ruth, Eccles., and Song of Songs, and Midr. Tanchuma Emmor and Midr. Psalms, 78.

      Messiah

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      OF the six things which existed before creation, when only 'the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,' two, the Torah and the throne of God, were complete in every detail. The remaining four, however,