Parshat Emor5 min read

Alexander Watched Justice That Would Not Kill

A man bought a ruin and found gold buried in it. He said the gold was the seller's. The African king told the two of them to marry their children.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Past the Mountains of Darkness
  2. Apples and Loaves of Gold
  3. What My Land Would Have Done
  4. Who Advanced Heaven Anything
  5. Two Courts, One Sky
Alexander Watched Justice That Would Not Kill Click for full size

Past the Mountains of Darkness

Alexander of Macedon rode past the Mountains of Darkness, hunting for the edges of the world. He found a city of women. They met him not with swords but with a trap made of wit. Win, they said, and the name goes out as the destroyer of women. Lose, and the name goes out as the king beaten by women. There is no honor here. Only ruin either way.

Alexander turned back. Over the gate he carved a confession: I was a fool until women taught me counsel. The conqueror who measured continents paused for a city that refused to give him a clean victory. He left with a lesson cut into stone instead of a corpse count.

Apples and Loaves of Gold

He came next to the land called Africa. They greeted him with apples of gold, pomegranates of gold, loaves of gold. "Do you eat gold here?" he scoffed. "Had you nothing to eat at home, that you traveled to us?" they answered. Gold as food is an insult to a man who already owns mines. The table was a test, not a tribute.

"I came not for your gold," he said, "but to watch you judge." So he watched. Two men disputed a treasure found in a sold ruin. One had bought the ruin and found a hoard inside. He insisted the gold belonged to the seller. The seller insisted he had sold the ruin and everything in it, from the depth of the earth to the height of the sky. Each man feared the punishment of theft more than he loved the metal.

The king called them near. "Have you a son?" he asked the first. Yes. "Have you a daughter?" he asked the second. Yes. Then marry them, the king ruled, and let both houses eat the treasure. The gold became a wedding gift instead of a corpse's prize.

What My Land Would Have Done

Alexander marveled, then confessed. "In my land we would have killed them both and seized the gold for the crown." The king grew quiet. "Does your sun still rise? Does your rain still fall? Have you flocks?" "Yes," said Alexander. "Woe to you," the king answered. "Only for the sake of your innocent beasts does Heaven keep your land alive, for it is written, You save man and beast, O Lord" (Psalms 36:7).

The sun does not shine for Alexander's justice. The rain does not fall for his crown's appetite. The beasts who never seized a treasure keep the sky working over a kingdom that would murder two honest men for a chest of coins. Alexander came for the edge of the world and found a mirror that showed him the thinness of his own courts.

Who Advanced Heaven Anything

Elsewhere the same stream of teaching opens another ledger. Rabbi Tanhuma begins with Job: "Who has advanced Me anything that I shall repay him? Everything under the heavens is Mine" (Job 41:3). A bachelor dwells in a province and gives an allowance to scribes and Mishnah teachers. He has no child of his own to place in those rooms. The Holy One says, It is for Me to pay him the compensation of a male child.

A heavenly voice will explode on the tops of the mountains: Whoever has done something along with God, let him come and receive his reward. Who offered praise before breath was given? Who circumcised a son before the son was given? Who made a tassel before the prayer shawl was given? Who set a parapet before the roof was given? Who built a sukkah before the room was given? Who set aside pe'ah before the field was given? Who offered a sacrifice before the beast was given?

Commandments arrive as gifts after gifts. Heaven still keeps a debt book for those who spend on Torah teachers without a private heir to collect the fruit.

Two Courts, One Sky

Alexander's court kills for treasure. The African court marries treasure into kinship. The bachelor's quiet coins feed boys who will chant without carrying his name. Heaven answers both scenes with the same stubborn arithmetic. Beasts keep a violent kingdom under sun and rain. A child-shaped reward waits for a man who paid teachers though he had no son.

The conqueror carves his foolishness on a gate of women. The king of Africa refuses to let honesty become a capital crime. Between them, Job's question hangs: who advanced Me anything? The answer is never gold loaves. The answer is justice that will not kill, and charity that does not need an heir to justify itself.

Alexander rode home under a sky that did not belong to him. The beasts of his pastures still breathed. The rain still fell. He had seen a verdict that turned two litigants into one family, and he had heard that Heaven sometimes saves a land only for the animals who never drew a sword over a coin.

AlexanderJusticeAfricaTreasureHeaven
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From the tradition

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The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Emor 9:1Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Emor

Translation of the source text.Midrash Tanchuma (Buber), Public Domain, on Sefaria · CC-BY-SA

Alexander of Macedon went off [to King Qatzya] beyond the Mountains of Darkness. He arrived at a province whose name was Carthage, and it was entirely [women]. They came out to meet him. They said to him: "If you wage war with us and conquer us, your name will go forth in the world as the [province] of women that he destroyed; and if we wage war with you and conquer you, your name will go forth in the world as: women waged war with him and conquered him, and you will never again stand before [any] kingdom." When he departed, he wrote upon the gate of the entrance: "I, Alexander of Macedon, was a fool until I came to the province of Carthage and learned counsel from women."

He went to another province whose name was Africa. They came out to meet him [with golden apples], with golden pomegranates, and with golden bread. He said to them: "Is gold eaten in your land?" They said to him: "Was there [nothing to eat then] in your own land, that you have come to us?" He said to them: "I have not come to see your wealth; rather, I have come to see your judgments." While they were sitting, two men came for judgment before the king. One said: "My lord king, I bought a ruin from this man, and I cleared it out and found in it a treasure, and I said to him, 'Take your treasure, for I bought a ruin; a treasure I did not buy.'" And the other said: "Just as you fear the punishment for robbery, so too do I fear the punishment for robbery; and when I sold you the ruin, I sold you everything that is in it, from the depths of the earth to the height of the heavens."

He called to one of them and said to him: "Do you have a son?" He said to him: "I have." He called to the other and said to him: "Do you have a daughter?" He said to him: "Yes." He said to them: "[Let them go] and marry one another, and let the two of them consume the treasure." Alexander began to wonder. The king said to him: "Why do you wonder, did I not judge well?" He said to him: "Yes." He said to him: "Had this case been in your land, what would you have done with it?" He said to him: "We would have killed this one and that one, and the treasure would go up to the king's house." He said to him: "And does the sun shine upon you?" He said to him: "Yes." "And does the rain come down upon you?" He said to him: "Yes." He said to him: "Perhaps there is small cattle in your land?" He said to him: "Yes." He said to him: "Woe to the spirit of that man! It is by the merit of the small cattle that the sun shines upon you and the rain comes down upon you, [and by the merit of the small cattle you are delivered]," as it is written, "Man and beast You save, O Lord" (Psalms 36:7), by the merit of the beast You save man.

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Midrash Tanchuma, Emor 7Midrash Tanchuma

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.Townsend 1989 translation of Midrash Tanhuma, S. Buber Recension · CC-BY

R. Tanhuma opened [his discourse] (with Job 41:3), “Who has advanced Me anything that I shall repay him; everything under the heavens is Mine.” This refers to a bachelor who dwells in a province and gives an allowance to scribes and Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law) teachers. The Holy One, blessed be He, said, “It is for me to pay him the compensation of a male child.” R. Jeremiah bar Eleazar said, “There is going to be a heavenly voice (bat qol) that shall explode on the tops of the mountains and say, ‘Whoever has done [something] along with God, let him come and receive his reward.’” The holy spirit also proclaims (in Job 41:3), “’Who has advanced Me anything that I shall repay him?’ Who offered Me praise before I gave him breath? Who has performed circumcision for Me before I gave him a male child? Who made a tassel for Me before I gave him a prayer shawl? Who made a parapet (in accord with Deut. 22:8) for Me before I gave him a roof? Who made a sukkah for Me before I gave him room? Who set aside pe'ah before I gave him a field? Who set aside the priestly tithe and the [other] tithes before I gave him a threshing floor? Who offered a sacrifice before I gave him a beast?” Ergo (in Lev. 22:27), “When a bull or a sheep or a goat [is born…].”

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