Reading Notes: Classical Unit (Jewish Fairy Tales), Part B – The Sleep of One Hundred Years

Aerial view of the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. 

(Source: Wikipedia Commons)

The Sleep of One Hundred Years

Rabbi Onias had received word that the war in Jerusalem had left the city in chaos so he made his way there to see what had happened. He had a canteen of water and a bag of dates with him, but he did not touch them, as he knew that there was a possibility that he could come across someone more malnourished and more thirsty than him. He said this even though he had not seen a person for days, but finally, he came across a man that was planting a carob tree at the bottom of a hill. Onias approached him and the man said "The Chaldeans destroyed my crops, so I have to plant new ones so that this land may live again." 

Onias went ahead and walked to the top of this hill, and from the hill, he could see Jerusalem. The once beautiful and architecturally phenomenal city was now nothing but flattened into ashes and dust. Onias instantly mourned at the sight, then laying down next to his camel, and crying himself to sleep. The sun rose and the sun set for days and then weeks and then months and then years, and Onias still did not wake up. The winds brought seeds, falling all around Onias, taking root, and then growing into shrubs that surrounded him and hid him from those who might have passed him. A date rolled out of his basket, falling to the ground and taking root, eventually growing into a beautiful palm tree that shaded Onias while he slept. Onias slept for 100 years.

One day, the sun rose and its shine woke Onias up. He looked around confused and then realized that he must've fell asleep last night when he was looking over at Jerusalem, but he did not recognize the shrubs around him and he didn't remember ever seeing that palm tree. He got up, as all of his bones cracked and his body ached. He looked around for his camel, but it was nowhere to be found. He looked down, catching a glimpse at the long and white beard he had grown. He sat down on the hill and felt his seat cave in, only to see that the rubbish that he sat on top of were the bones of his camel. He looked his saddle bags and they had rotted, but the water and the dates inside of them looked like they were still fresh. If he knew he had become old in his slumber, but the dates were still miraculously fresh, he knew that had to be a sign from God.

He looked outside of the shrubbery to see that the hill that he had once seen with absolutely no vegetation inhabiting it was now thick with carob trees. He looked out in the distance to see the glimmering city of Jerusalem, full of beautiful minarets and surrounded with bountiful vineyards. "Jerusalem still stands!", Onias said. "I swear that I had seen it flattened to rubble in my dreams." He walked into the city, not sure why people were staring at him and pointing at him as he walked through the outskirts of the city. He saw an old man and asked him, "Can you please give me the directions to the house of Onias, the rabbi?" Another man said "Onias? I know him. One second, I will go get him", and he returned with an old man that looked to be eighty years old.

"Who are you?", Onias asked. The man replied, "My name is Onias. I was named after my grandfather, Rabbi Onias, that disappeared a century ago, right after the First Temple was destroyed. "One hundred years? Is that how long I was sleeping? I guess this wasn't just a dream", Onias said. "It was not", the younger Onias said, ushering his grandfather inside. The older Onias was so confused. He didn't understand what people were saying, what they were wearing, or what they were doing. Onias, the grandson, said "You seem like you're of another world. You only talk about things that happened generations ago.

One day Onias called his grandson and said "Take me to where I fell asleep that day, on top of the hill. Maybe I will fall asleep there again, because I do not belong to the time of today. I am alone and do not want to live a life in the unknown. Onias took the dates and the canteen and he once again slept for another one hundred years, waking up in another world that was not his own.

Story source: Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends by Gertrude Landa (1919).