Week 3 Story: The Rabbi's Bogey-man: Retold

A Sculpture of a man-like Golem (Wikimedia Commons)

    Once upon a time, there was a rabbi who lived all alone. He had nobody to help with the chores at home or tasks at the synagogue. He couldn't employ any of the townspeople because they all feared him.. They believed his experiments with chemistry was evil. They saw fire and strange shadows in his window at night and believed he was working with demons. They called him a wizard. Now, the Rabbi was no wizard. However, fed up with not having any help, he decided to take matters into his own hands. "If it's a wizard they want, it's a wizard they'll get," said the rabbi.  The rabbi built a large mechanical woman out of wood and metal. It had springs and hinges so that it could move. "Now I must power this creature." The rabbi wrote the Sacred Name of God on a slip of paper and placed it into the mechanical woman's mouth. His creation sprung to life and the rabbi put it to work to do chores.

    The rabbi quickly learned that if he left the slip of paper in his machine overnight, the mechanical woman would get up to mischief without commands.  So, whenever he was done with his machine for the day, he would remove it's life by removing the slip of paper. One day, while preaching, the rabbi left the mechanical woman sitting near a window with the paper still in her mouth. A group of children outside begged the machine to come play with them. The machine leapt through the window and played with the children in the street. When the children got cold, they asked the machine to make them a fire. Because the machine was made to follow instructions, it promptly gathered wood and started a fire. Soon, the fire became to large. It caught nearby homes on fire and burnt them to the ground. When the roaring flames finally subsided, the mechanical woman was gone and only the slip of paper with the Sacred Name of God remained in the rubble.

    When word of this disaster reached the rulers of the city, the rabbi was summoned to the king. The king accused the rabbi of sinning by creating a living creature. "It had only the life the Sacred Name gave it," the rabbi replied. The king, skeptical of this statement, demanded that the rabbi be imprisoned there and build him a new creature. "If you are telling the truth, you may stay alive. If you are lying, you shall die and all the Jewish people will be banished from the city," said the king. The rabbi immediately got to work and built an even larger mechanical man. When he was finished he placed the slip of paper in the man's mouth and it stood up and saluted the king. The king demanded that the rabbi give him the mechanical man. The rabbi told the king that he could not. If the rabbi gave away the Sacred Name, the machine might cause harm again. The king understood and let the rabbi and his creation go. When the rabbi arrived in town, the people were not impressed and excited by the creature as they had once been. They were fearful of it. The children who once played with the rabbi's creation called this new man "The Bogey-man". 

    The rabbi was extra careful this time and removed the Sacred Name from the machine just before Sabbath every week. For a time, all was well. Over time, the machine became more and more advanced. One day, the rabbi was woken up by the mechanical man. "I want to be a soldier. Give me to the king. You made me for him," said the mechanical man. The rabbi, startled by his creations new ability, told the machine no. He grew fearful of his creation. "If I am not careful, this machine may become my master and destroy the Jews," said the rabbi to himself. Over time, the machine improved at talking and other things. However, he also grew disobedient and angry. 

    One day, while preparing a sermon, the rabbi heard a loud noise outside. "Come outside," somebody outside his door yelled. "Your creature is attacking the synagogue!" The rabbi quickly rushed outside to find the mechanical man trying to break down the door to the synagogue. "What are you doing," cried the rabbi. "I will destroy your scrolls and books of Holy Law," replied the mechanical man. "Then, you will have no power over me and I will make an army of mechanical men and kill all the Jews for the king." "Not if I kill you first," exclaimed the rabbi. The rabbi leapt from the ground and ripped the Sacred Name from the machine's mouth. It happened so quickly that the machine fell to pieces at the rabbi's feet. 

    For years, these pieces remained on display in the synagogue as a reminder of the rabbi's story.

Author's Notes: I chose to do a very simple retelling of the story for this tale. My version of the story doesn't change any of the plot points for the story. The changes I made were in language and length. I rewrote the story in modern English and tried to make it read more like a modern fairy tale. I wanted to write it in a way that could be understood by a present day child. To that end, I replaced a lot of words like "thou" and "canst". I also simplified some larger words and exchanged words like parchment for words like paper. I exchanged "magician" for wizard because magician doesn't really mean the same thing in today's world. Beyond changes in language, I tried to make it shorter and easier to understand by cutting out less necessary descriptors and condensing dialogue into a sentence or two of descriptive text. For instance, the conversation with the king was much more dialogue heavy in the original story. Most modern children's stories are written in a very short and direct fashion. "The dog went here. He ate that. He did this. The man said this. The dog did that. The end." I tried to emulate that writing style by eliminating a large portion of the text in favor of short, direct sentences that just told the reader what happened. The original story was 1300 words. My version is 823 words. 

Bibliography. The Rabbi's Bogey-Man from Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends by Gertrude Landa (1919)