Folktales of the Jews, Volume 1: Tales from the Sephardic Dispersion

11. The Merchant and Rabbi Meir Ba‘al ha-Nes (IFA 8391)

11 The Merchant and Rabbi Meir Ba‘al Ha-Nes T O L D B Y S H L O M O H R A P H A E L I T O M O S H E R A B B I In Rangoon in India, the merchants always insured the goods they were importing from abroad. There was one Jewish merchant there, too, who was an importer and owned a ship. But he never insured his cargo. Instead, he said he insured them with Rabbi Meir Ba‘al Ha-Nes—Rabbi Meir the Master of the Miracle. He did, in fact, send money regularly to the charity fund of Rabbi Meir Ba‘al Ha-Nes in Tiberias. His wife used to ask him to insure his cargo, but he paid no attention to her words and appeals , saying, “Our merchandise is insured.” One day there was a terrible storm at sea and all the cargo vessels sank. One of them was the Jewish merchant’s ship. When the news that the ships had gone down with their cargoes reached Rangoon, all the merchants recovered their losses from the insurance companies. Only the Jewish merchant received nothing. The Jew was distraught. All of his property was gone. Overnight he had become poor and utterly destitute. “I asked you to insure the cargo,” his wife said, “but you wouldn’t listen to me. What have you gained now? We’re left with nothing.” The merchant closeted himself in his room, where he prayed and read Psalms. But he had no appetite. He could not put anything into his mouth. He sat alone in his room and never came out. On the third day of his seclusion, the door opened. There stood the captain of his ship. “How did you get here?” the merchant asked him. “What happened? Tell me quickly!” “When we were at sea,” answered the captain, “a very strong tempest blew up. All the ships heaved from side to side, but ours held steady between them as if they were protecting it. All the other ships sank. Only mine survived. After the storm died down, I was able to resume our course. We didn’t make port until today. Here I am to let you know that all the cargo was saved.You owe thanks to God, for nothing has happened to it.” 71 At once the merchant stood up and gave thanks to God for the favor He had shown him. “It is only through the merit of Rabbi Meir Ba‘al HaNes ,” he said, “that my property was saved.” The next day, after he began selling his merchandise, he sent a donation to the fund of Rabbi Meir Ba‘al Ha-Nes in Tiberias. “You see,” he told his wife, “my insurance company is much better than the other merchants’. My insurance company is Rabbi Meir Ba‘al Ha-Nes.”  72  Folktales of the Jews: Volume 1 COMMENTARY FOR TALE 11 (IFA 8391) Told by Shlomoh Raphaeli to Moshe Rabbi in Haifa in 1968.1 Cultural, Historical, and Literary Background Current research locates the tomb of Rabbi Meir Ba‘al Ha-Nes (Master of the Miracle) as being a short distance south of Tiberias, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, near the hot springs of Tiberias. However, the identity of Rabbi Meir, for whom the tomb is named; where he is buried; and the legends that validate the attribution of the epithet “Ba‘al Ha-Nes” are all subject to the principle of legend migration. That is to say, throughout history there were different locations, different individuals, and different narratives associated with the said Rabbi Meir. However, as of the sixteenth century, the present location was accepted as the tomb of Rabbi Meir Ba‘al Ha-Nes, and the questions about the exact identity of that Rabbi Meir and the nature of his miracles receded from popular belief into scholarship. Tomb Location Four tomb sites in the Land of Israel and one or two in Iraq are attributed to Rabbi Meir: (1) near the hot springs of Tiberias, (2) in Kefar Navrata near Safed, (3) in Gush H.alav near Safed, and (4) in Sikhnin in the lower Galilee. One site in Iraq is in Hillah. With the exception of one document, early medieval travelers who visited Tiberias did not mention Rabbi Meir’s tomb there. A reference to the tomb is...