Folklore
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The Riddles of Solomon in Rabbinic Literature
S. Schechter
To cite this article: S. Schechter (1890) The Riddles of Solomon in Rabbinic Literature, Folklore, 1:3, 349-358, DOI: 10.1080/0015587X.1890.9720020
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1890.9720020
Published online: 14 Feb 2012.
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Download by: [University of Sussex Library] Date: 22 June 2016, At: 06:22 THE RIDDLES .OF SOLOMON IN RABBINIC LITERATURE.
HE place which the Solomon Riddles occupy in the T literature of almost every nation suggested to me that the publication of a previously inedited Hebrew text on the subject, with an English translation and a few introductory ^explanatory remarks, will not be without interest to the. readers of FOLK-LORE. As to the Hebrew text, it is edited for the first time from the Midrash Hacliephez, existing only in Yemen MSS., 'of which the British Museum has four copies, bearing the Press marks Oriental 2351 and Or. 2380-82. Our copy is 'Prepared from Or. 2382. The MSS. vary very little, and the only essential variation we found we have inserted in its Place. The Bodleian (see Dr. Neubauer's Catalogue, No. 2492) and the Royal Library in Berlin also possess copies of this Midrash. In the catalogue of the latter, by Dr. Stein- schneider,* p. 71, a full description is given of this work, and We see there that its compiler, Yachya Ben Sulieman, Wrote as late as 143a The new version of the Riddles, Which we give here, would accordingly have no claim to great antiquity. But, on the other hand, it has been Proved already, at least with regard to other Midrashic col lections coming from Yemen, that the Jews in this country Were, up to a comparatively late date, in possession of very ^cient Rabbinic sources, Midrash on Proverbs and the Second Targum to Esther, are, according: to the best authorities, not older than the tenth century,1 whilst neither the Talmud of Jerusalem nor that of Babylon, nor any of the other earlier Midrashim (homiletfc comments on the Old Testament), ever allude to them. But the silence of these sources may be explained on other grounds. Indeed, it would seem that the earlier Rabbis purposely avoided touching on the whole subject For we read in the name of R. Samuel bar Nachmani, a famous Aggadist of the third century: "He who translates the words Malkath Sheba as 'the Queen of Sheba' is mistaken, its real meaning being 'the kingdom of Sheba."* It hardly necessary to say that this Rabbi Samuel's explana tion is against all grammar. But we know from other places that this Rabbi was rather fond of such forced in terpretations of Scriptural stories, which in their simple meaning would rather be irreconcilable with the ideal which posterity has formed of their heroes.1 We may therefore assume, I think, that also in the present case the passage quoted was also meant as a protest against some legends about Solomon, current at the time, which the Rabbis considered unworthy of the Solomon idealised by a later generation. The legend which scandalised the Rabbis was probably that which is to be found first in the Pseudo-Sirach* according to which the relation be tween Solomon and the Queen ended in a love affair of which Nebuchadnezzar was the result This legend, again, is based on the Scriptural words: "And the King Solomon Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 06:22 22 June 2016 gave unto the Queen (Malkath) of Sheba all her desire" (i Kings, x, 13; 2 Chroa ix, 12; and Bertheau, ad lot)- The best way to make an end to all such stories was, therefore, to explain the word Malkath as if it were 1 See Znns, Die gottesdienstliche Vortrage, p. 268, and Monk** edition of the Second Targum, p. 10. Comp. also Rapoport, Ered* Millim, p. 23. * See Baba Baihra, 154 and Sabbath, 56a and b. ' See Pseudo Ben Sira, ed. Steinschneider, p. Munk's Second Targum, p. 23; and A. Epstein's Beitraege, etc., p. 122. Rabbinic Literature. 351 toeludtatk, meaning "kingdom". Thus the Queen goes ^together out of the story, and the Riddles with her, though they were circulating among the people, and it t°°k centuries before the above objections were subdued ~~at least with regard to the Riddles. On the other nar»d, it is clear from the statement in the Bible, "The Queen, of Sheba . . . came to prove Solomon with hard questions" (1 Kings, x, 1; 2 Chron. ix, 1), that even in Biblical times some such riddles or puzzles were current among the people. That those which we here rescue from °blivion cannot trace back to the riddles current in Biblical braes is clear from* the anachronisms contained in them. The student of folk-lore is familiar with the tenacity of Popular memory, and there is therefore the remote chance that similar riddles to those given in our text are referred t°. in the Bible. The above considerations would then e_xplain how they failed to make any appearance in the literary productions of the Rabbis. This exclusion from what we may call the official litera ture for such a long time may perhaps also account for the" corrupt and incomplete condition jn which these Riddles are found We possess nowadays three versions of them: the version of the Second Targum to Esther, i, 2, con sisting of three riddles; the version of the Midrash on Proverbs, i, I, consisting of four; and the version which we now publish for the first time, consisting of nineteen riddles. The first four riddles of this version, as well as the introduc tion, agree on the whole with the Midrash on Proverbs. Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 06:22 22 June 2016 There is only this difference: that the verse from job which 13 here given by R Ishmael is quoted in the Midrash from another Rabbi of a much later date. The quotation was probably shortened by the copyist; for there'can hardly he any doubt that the Rabbi's allusion aimed at the suc ceeding verses in Job, in which the treasures of Ethiopia (Cush) are spoken of, which country was, as it is well known, .confused by the ancients with Sheba. We may now proceed at once to give the text and trans lation of the Yemen Midrash. 352 T/te Riddles of Solomon in -TIDO nnrm rmbv bp tnoan it bnyo& ~i ton nt#» KSD/i r**o naanm [-iowi in] nam '/opt ibid TJN drafl nobty •?» viD3n ntpow tap ioba it Twa opo nro*1 •tot on kvt nan on vioan .-thin t?n rnotf jtjmw »» dn *T/T03rr bin -pty vwd» ib mo» to** jttt vso noan in* *n *o nfr td» 'mro *mi t-tin two dw Twaa njwrn rwn» mow ft moa TOU/n 1 "rn* rw&rn trw* nu "o» nio» jt? ton •nnw ins •TTN NT nnwn thni rano RRO m •RMM .•ton ft man win nVwt» Tim :nn» oan v? rrios •iniro* •an »a nnfc •••too Tj*pn m ton nnb rnDK'*7 TON na nab moa art mb bt> vn it vera rk tbk td "bvb *&* p ^ «£nsn mow niapji nna? t? m*'-."1 RN ubv MAN 'owni nvbp ft warn D-ONO!? h-*"1 , 0 nnno nnpb vn rnapm •nn» |rm rnpft r^a-^ :/TD"pj ibn DNOR -Am ,t> ton 'prVz* t n»a /inn rrn-^ to ito n ft «nsn jtion oft-iw oftino rattan una tftrna nnan itik /in nnsi bra ]rab vsn •rtraitn vro yrss xbarav aba xbi •yiaip wo - Dft-|y FTNL DftviO ft« !T> ION TJITJS fts" Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 06:22 22 June 2016 :nn» can ft RNOTF. ion •no nVi •ftu vb tm *d RNONI win rftw Tan ft mow win rbxv TON :rra D'obiyn pra m rft *0 .*ft "ION 'TVm 01« *ft« *»DW nm Vfott V-)N It* nsn no ft mow vn» .t;nk- TAN ion mpw rnn m|30 onaw ••wn nnsj tom nvnna mnbn rrvW mvyi 'nm bp amn v isn nb ton "udj ma owns Rabbinic Literature. 353 t*atw !YJ*Y "b & a<2p) mm ens P nt NINVI ^ •FTMTRA Trwi Tunon opai *T»DI "ran •rrran" *T^»n NSV Twnttoi onaM *iwn ppai nrnrs rrnan LAA whi IRAPATYAI iVn rm tj maw nfow Ton ^ rroto nthd 'uvsm nrw it rb nan *nVn 1» miraj tt^w ten nasa ana npnu Nln im *6) flwaam NAAI WAI nanm ON lto* mVbt r£ ion Ttfran •TjUfefr loaaa n©ty Nina 'mn r®i nan on tew •FN"> w vniaa w» vrb rb idn 'ROWAN wan tbk ,l/?3nD nam ibno lapm *n nan nth na 00 Tw IT ftsnaro arm NR i^NA -opm NAV IT nan •napn'Tsm nVia ato p«i vwn ifaa rwte am NA •rrv laoa NMAI6 "few waste MRTO rr? BR Tvthm rb las Tart int> trno nipab IDAAARC rnato "Wri am mpab LOAAA wattn RTNTYI "jrotj RRAAN "awn ib» 'ma J6i TTONM aw na •wran ma dvd 'nn rra iranvwn TKRW *6T na ;rroai vr&» nt rr? •foaai TO-MM *rcia maiaa sin na 'barn nt rb "ia» ^SnnsT anna am na .nWi9 IT rf? naa 'nanan nsa 1 Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 06:22 22 June 2016 nb -iaa -tn ivroai iwm paai pn n-pVi pn ? ttw pg JTT^ j»n pn!?- /teuiMi *ian mwa t»b]n*a P/VO ^ANA WRA am NA •mvT> nt TT pmatti 'QVwtei n»o» nt R6 noa pnaa paa vb m ntra 'Jimn V? MAM xiaa NA N""^ NM RWPNW waa >3^WR6 NFE MS *«PY vm rm vm m rb naa 'tran rrm ^JWN tpn trmn is 354 The Riddles of Solomon in mat* rw nrmi 'epyn xn *ptm vrmn vm ypnvw 72b TTO T^N nvm txrom by aiai roan /ISDVT ft •'tt/TIDN nt nbiM •.no-reft noan \ra wi "W**J R. Ishmael related the following:—'' This is the wisdom of Solo mon, (the fame of) which extended from end to end of the world, as it is written, 'and he was wiser than all men' (1 Kings, v, 11); and it 13_ said,' But where shall wisdom be found, and where is the place of understanding?1 (Job, xxviii, 12). This is the Queen of Sheba, who heard of the wisdom of Solomon and said,' I will go and see his wisdom, whether he be wise or not.'" R. Jeremiah said:—" The Queen of Sheba,' addressing Solomon, said to him, ' I have heard of thee and thy wisdom; if now I inquire of thee concerning any matter, wilt, thou answer me?' He replied,' The Lord giveth wisdom : out of His mouth cometh know ledge and understanding.' She then said to him: (1)' Seven there are that issue and nine that enter: two yield the draught, and one drinks.' Said he to her,' Seven are the days of a woman's defilement, and nine the months of pregnancy; two are the breasts that yield the draught, and one the child that drinks it' Whereupon she said to him' Thou art wise.' (2) Then she questioned him further: 'A woman said to her son, thy father is my father, and thy grandfather ray husband; thou art my son, and I am thy sister.' 'Assuredly,' said he,' it was the daughter of Lot who spake thus to her son.' (3) She placed before him a number of males and females, and said,' Dis tinguish now between them.' Forthwith he made a sign to the eunuchs, who brought him a quantity of nuts and roasted ears of corn-. The males, who were not troubled with bashfulness, seized them with bare hands, the females took them putting* forth their gloved hands from beneath their garments. Whereupon he exclaimed, 'Those are the males, these the females.' (4) She brought to him a num ber of persons, some circumcised and others uncircumcised, and Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 06:22 22 June 2016 asked him to distinguish between them. He instantly made a sign to the high priest, who opened the ark of the covenant; whereupon those that were circumcised bowed their bodies to half their height, while their countenances were filled with the radiance of the Shechinah; the uncircumcised fell prone upon their faces. 'Those,' said he, 'are circumcised, these uncircum cised.' 'Thou art indeed wise, she exclaimed. (5) She put other questions to him, to all of which he gave replies. 'Who is he who neither was born nor has died?' 'It is the Lord of the Universe, blessed be He.* (6)'What land Is that that has but Rabbinic Literature. 355 once seen the sun?1 «The land upon which (after the creation) the waters were gathered, and (the bed of the sea on) the day when the »ea was divided.' (7)' There is an enclosure with ten doors, when one k .°Pen, nine are shut; when nine are open, one is shut' 'That enclosure is the womb: the ten doors are the ten orifices of man—his ears, nostrils, mouth, the apertures for the discharge of the fcrcreta and the urine, and the navel; when the child is in the embryonic state, the navel is open and the other orifices are dosed, W when it Issues (from the womb) the navel is closed, and the others are opened.' (8) *(Thero is something which when) living moves not, yet when its head is cut off it moves?' ' It is the ship in the sea' (the living tree has no motion, the trunk from which the crowning hranches have been severed supplies the material for the moving *essel). (9) 'Which are the three that neither ate, nor drank, nor had breath put Wo them, yet saved three lives from death?' 'The seal, the thread and the staff (of Judah); are those three, and *elives they saved were Tamar, Pharex, and Zarah.' (10) 'Three entered a cave, and five came forth therefrom?' 'Lot and his t*o daughters, and their two •children.' (11) 'The dead lived, the grave moves, and the dead prays: what is that?' 'The. dead °ne was Jonah; the moving grave, the fish; Jonah was also the one that prayed.' (ia) 'Who were the three that ate and drank °n (he earth, yet were not born of male and female?' 'The three angels who revealed themselves to, our father Abraham, Peace be unto him.' (13) ' Four entered a place of death and came forth alive, and two entered a place of life and came forth dead?' The four were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah ; and the two who entered a place of life and came forth dead were Nadab and Abihu.'. (14)'Who was he who was born and died not?* 'Elijah and the Messiah.' (15)' What was that which was not born, yet life was Siven to it ? " The (golden) calf.' (16) * What is that which is produced "•roil the ground, yet man produces it, while its food is of the fruit of the ground ?' 'A wick.' (17) 'A woman was wedded to two, and bare Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 06:22 22 June 2016 two sons, yet these four had one father ? * * Tamar was married by two, Er and Onan; she bore two (sons), Pharex and Tarah ;• and the father of (all) four was Judah.' (18) 'A house mil of dead: no dead one eame among them, nor did a living one come forth from them ?' It is the story of Samson and the Philistines.' (19) She next ordered the sawn (trunk of a) cedar tree to be brought, and asked to point out which (end) the root had been and at which the branches. He bade her cast it into the water, when one end •ank and the other floated upon the surface of the water. That Part which sank was the root, and that which remained uppermost A A a 356 The Riddles of Solomon in was the branch end. Then she said to him,' Thou exceed est » wisdom and goodness the fame which I heard, blessed be thy Go* Therefore it is said,' And the Lord gave wisdom unto Solomon.'" The chief critical problem of interest in connection with' these Riddles is to trace how far they occur in other Jewish or Eastern sources. The following ndtes bearing, on this side of the subject may perhaps be of service to students of folk-lore, who seem to an outsider to be more interested in parallels than in originals. Rabbinic literature, which is in a large measure one vast system of parallels, ought to offer them wide scope for their "study. With regard to the separate Riddles, there is in the Midrasb on Lamentations,ch. i, a parallel to Riddle 1. In Perles' work, Zur RdbbiniscJien Sprach- und Sagenkunde, p. 97, note h Persian parallels are also given. Riddle 2 is of a genea logical character, and so are Riddles 10 and 17. The study of the forbidden degrees in marriage may have encouraged the discussion of such questions. See, for instance, the Talmud of Babylon, Yebamoth, gb. As to' Riddle 3, on which there was a question In Folk-Lorejournal, vii, p. 3^ besides this version four others are known, put together by the late Prof. Delitzsch in his work, Iris (Edinburgh, 1889), of which we give here a brief extract Two are of Mahomedan origin. According to one: "The boys and girls he thus distinguished; when, according to the usual custom in the harems, water was brought to be poured on their hands, the girls received it in the palm, the boys on the backs of their hands." According to the other: "The boys lifted the hand, on which the water Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 06:22 22 June 2016 was poured, immediately to their face, whereas the girl3, first filled the right hand with the water falling on the left, and then washed the face with both hands at once. In the Byzantine version, as related by Georgius CedrenuS and Michael Glykas, the male children, when commanded to wash themselves," rubbed their faces with right good will* the females gently and timidly." In another version, again, Solomon distinguished between the boys and girls by the Rabbinic Literature. 357 *act that "the former washed their faces like men without more ado, while the latter, with characteristic prudery, would ^cely touch the water with the tips of their fingers." As to the authorities for these different sources, they are fu% discussed by Delitzsch (L c, 154-165), where the reader will find also many interesting points about the migration of this legend in the Wisdom literature, and the use which artists and poets have made of it1 With regard to the solution of the 4th Riddle, it is based on the Jewish belief that those who were not brought into the covenant of Abraham are so overpowered by any strong manifestation ,°f the divine presence that they lose the use of their limbs and fall down. This is supposed to be proved by Balaam, the non-Jewish prophet, of whom it is said in the "Scripture: " Which saw the vision of the Almighty falling into a trance" (Numbers, xxiv). For Riddle 7 we have partial parallels in Nedarim 12b, Niddah 32*, and elsewhere. The completesf Parallel is to be found in the Appendix to Adra- Viraf- ntmetl ed. E. W. West (See Perles, lib. cit., pp. 98 99, and notes.) In Riddle 13 the MSS. vary, but the difference is not material, as may be seen by the translation which was made in this place after Or. 2351. The word Daniel, though it is to be found in all MSS., must be ascribed to a slip of the copyist, being accustomed, from his frequent reading of the Bible, to mention these,four names together. With regard to Riddle 14, it is to be noticed that other Jewish sources speak of nine or thirteen Persons who have not died See Epstein's Beitr&ge, p. 111, Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 06:22 22 June 2016 where all the parallels are put together. The solution of Riddle 15 is based on the legend according to which the magicians Yannes and Yambros (see 2 Tim. iii, 8, and com mentaries, and Levy, Chadd. Worterb., 337), who belonged to the mixed multitude which went up with the Israelites from Egypt, managed by their charms to make the gold calf speak. According to other versions, it was Satan him- 1 There is also much of interest and value in A, Wuensche, Die RSthstlv/eUheit der alien HeirSer, 358 Tlie Riddles of Solomon. self who went ipto the calf and spoke (see Tanchutna to Exod. xxxii, I, and the Targum of Jerusalem to the same verse. Riddle 16 reminds us very much of the 2nd Riddle in the version of the Second Targum, which has been translated and fully treated by P. Cassel in his Commentary on Estlter, pp. 283 and 284. This fact may, perhaps, suggest that our version once contained all the Riddles of the Second Targum, as it has all the Riddles of the Midrash, which will' prove that none of all these- versions is complete in its present form. The MSS. contain here an Arabic gloss, the translations of which I owe to the kindness of Dr. Neubauer. It runs thus*: "Men plait the wick and then light it, for if it had not been plaited it would riot burn evenly. Therefore it is considered as if men had created it, -fc&.made it" Riddle 19 was probably suggested by I Kings, v, 33. (See the. excellent remarks of Dr. Jellinek on this point, in his introduction to the fifth volume of his Beth Hammidraslt, p. Iv.) We think that the foregoing remarks, as well as the few words which we have interpolated in round brackets here and there in the translation, will suffice to make the text intelligible to the reader. The parallels from non-Jewish sources we leave to others, and we have no doubt that they also will furnish the folk-lorist with interesting matter. See, for instance, the Dialogue of Solomon and Saturnus, by Kemble, p. 199, Riddle 5 and Riddle 6, in our version. There are also many points in the introduction to Kemble's book which will have to be corrected after the researches Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 06:22 22 June 2016 of Steinschneider and others on the subject The story of a Man from Jerusalem, which is attributed to R. Abra ham Maimun, must also not be neglected by the student We can only hope that Mr. Jacobs, who has equal mastery both of Jewish and non-Jewish sources, will soon find the leisure to favour us with a new edition of the Dialogue. S. SCHECHTER.