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The Beadle Who Crossed the Sambatyon River

A beadle crosses the stone-hurling Sambatyon on Shabbat to reach the lost tribes, nearly dies for it, and returns with help for Polish Jewry.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The River That Kept Shabbat
  2. Eldad Came from the Other Side
  3. The Beadle's Impossible Mission
  4. What the Lost Tribes Could Do

The Sambatyon throws stones six days a week and rests on Shabbat.

That is the river's rule in Jewish legend. It rages when people can travel and grows calm on the one day a Jew may not cross it. The lost tribes live beyond it, close enough to imagine and too far to reach.

The River That Kept Shabbat

Sanhedrin 65b, in the Babylonian Talmud redacted around the sixth century CE, gives the Sambatyon its basic miracle. The river hurls rocks throughout the six workdays and rests on Shabbat. It is not merely a physical barrier. It is a barrier made of sacred law. The only time it can be crossed is the one time crossing it would be forbidden.

The Ten Lost Tribes, exiled by Assyria in 722 BCE, live beyond it. Not merely far away but separated by a river that obeys Shabbat better than most human beings do. The geography of exile is not just distance. It is the cruel precision of a barrier that tests Jewish identity at its most fundamental point.

The traveler who reaches the Sambatyon and sees it calm on Shabbat faces a question no map can answer: what does the law require when the only way to reach what you need requires breaking the law to get there?

Eldad Came from the Other Side

Eldad HaDani, the ninth-century traveler who appeared in the Jewish communities of North Africa claiming to come from the lost tribe of Dan, brought stories of the tribes living beyond the Sambatyon in the Book of Eldad the Danite, preserved in Otzar Midrashim. He described the Children of Moses, a community so devout that any foreigner who violated Shabbat in their presence would be killed on the spot.

They maintained Jewish law with a strictness that the scattered communities of the diaspora could barely imagine. They knew no exile, no compromise, no accommodation to a surrounding culture. They lived in a land enclosed by the river's protection and kept the Torah as it had been given, without the centuries of legal adjustment that had shaped rabbinic Judaism elsewhere.

His stories reached the Gaon Zemach and the scholars of Kairouan, who questioned him carefully. Were the laws he described the same laws they knew? Enough of them were that his account could not simply be dismissed. The question of the lost tribes was not only a question about where they were. It was a question about what Judaism looked like when it had never had to negotiate with the world outside it.

The Beadle's Impossible Mission

The story preserved in Gaster's Exempla of the Rabbis, published in 1924, asks what would happen if someone actually had to cross.

A king of Poland fell under the influence of a sorcerer and issued a decree: the Jews of his kingdom must convert, be killed, or be expelled with only the clothes on their backs. A year's grace was granted. The Jewish community drew lots. The beadle of the main synagogue was chosen to travel to the Children of Moses and beg their intervention.

He journeyed for months through territory no map covered reliably. He reached the Sambatyon on a Shabbat, when the river lay still. He crossed.

On the other side, the Children of Moses nearly killed him. A stranger crossing the Sambatyon on Shabbat had violated the most basic law of their community. He had desecrated the holy day to enter their land. That was not an introduction. That was an offense.

He explained. He had not chosen the day for convenience. The river was impassable on any other day. The only time it could be crossed was the one time Jewish law forbade crossing. The prohibition and the access were the same moment. He had no choice but the one that looked like sin.

The Children of Moses heard him out. They acknowledged the logic. They forgave him. Then they listened to what he had come to say.

What the Lost Tribes Could Do

The story does not resolve with armies or dramatic rescue. The Children of Moses sent a letter. A letter carried by the beadle across the river on the week's end, back through the months of wilderness road, back to Poland before the year of grace expired.

What the letter contained, what it accomplished, and whether the decree was lifted, the tradition leaves incomplete in some versions, fully resolved in others. What survives with clarity is the shape of the mission itself: a beadle, the least glamorous office in a synagogue, carrying the weight of his entire community across the one river that should have been impossible to cross, explaining his transgression to people who kept the law more strictly than anyone he had ever met, and being believed.

SambatyonLost TribesExileShabbatMiracles
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From the tradition

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The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Sanhedrin 65bTalmud Bavli, Sanhedrin

He said to him: This is what I am saying to you: Who says that today is the Sabbath? He said to him: The river Sambatyon will prove it, the necromancer will prove it, the grave of his father will prove it, for it raises no smoke on the Sabbath. He said to him: You have disgraced him, you have shamed him, and you have cursed him!

Full source
Eldad HaDani, The Book of Eldad HaDani, Story 1Otzar Midrashim (Eisenstein)

Book of Eldad the Danite A Question and Answer between the People of Kairouan and Rabbi Zemach Gaon [Epstein, Eldad the Danite, Story I] Before the chariot of Israel and its horsemen, the right hand pillar, the strong hammer, the champion among shepherds, the head of the warriors, armed and sent forth in the war of Torah, girded and equipped with every instrument of splendor to discern and contemplate the Book of the War of the Lord, to detail and explain its secrets, to decode the mysteries of its wonders, to unveil and proclaim the depths of its strategies, and to expound the hidden aspects of its matters to understand its taste and to clarify its interpretations, to open eyes blind from their sockets, to release those locked within their confinements, to open hearts sealed in their closures, to set matters straight on their foundations, saying each word in its own right, and he is our master, the light of our eyes, the glory and splendor of our majesty, the crown of our head, the diadem of our splendor, our champion and victor, our master, the great Rabbi Zemach the Exilarch, son of Jacob. May it be the will before the Lord of Lords to add days to the life of our master, to elevate and bless him, to improve his stock and to cause his offspring to flourish, to sweeten their root, to make his flower blossom, to bring his blooms to bud, to crown his presence with splendor, to enrich and to perfect him, and to make his offspring successful, to bring forth shoots like thousands and like our master, for our master is the ornament and the praise of Israel, the stretched-out arm to the congregation of Israel, the staff of Israel and their crown of beauty, and not for us alone who are scattered but for the tribes beyond the river of Ethiopia, for they eat the bread of our master and drink his waters. Let it be known to our master that a man stayed among us, his name is Eldad the Danite, of the tribe of Dan, and he told us that there are four tribes in one place: Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher; the name of the place is ancient Havilah where the gold is. And they have a judge, his name is Obdon, and they judge with the four capital punishments of the court, and they live in tents, traveling and encamping from place to place, and they wage war with the seven kings of Ethiopia (text should read 'five'), and it takes seven months to traverse their land. However, five hundred of those kings surround them from behind and on both sides and they wage war with them continuously, and whoever is fainthearted among them, they give over to the inheritance of the Lord (to the wise as teachers). Their entire scripture is complete, and they do not read from the Megillah of Esther because they did not experience that miracle, nor from the Megillah of Lamentations so as not to break their hearts, and all of their Talmud does not mention any sage except for "Joshua said from the mouth of Moses from the mouth of the Almighty." And every strong man among them is given an allotment of the war, and they do not move from their work, and when they go out [to battle], they do not go out mixed. The warriors of Dan have a known three months pursuing their warfare on their horses and do not dismount from them all week, and on the eve of the Sabbath, they disembark wherever they are, and their horses stand in their armor. If enemies do not come upon them, they observe the Sabbath properly, and if enemies do come upon them, they go out with all their armor and kill many of them as the war power of God is upon them. And there are among them some mighty ones, sons of Samson from Delilah (nowhere mentioned that Samson had children and in Sotah 10a it teaches that every man brought his wife to the prison so that she might conceive from him), and they run to meet them for war, and the smallest among them will pursue many of them, and the voice raising of each one is with a voice of answer of strength like the voice of a lion, and he will loudly call out: "To the LORD belongs salvation; upon Your people be Your blessing, Selah." And they stand in war until they complete three months, and at the end of the three months, they come with all the spoil to King Adiel (in other sources it is written "Azriel" son of Malkiel or son of Michael) and he divides everything equally among all of Israel. And when the king receives his portion, he gives it to the wise, those who study Torah, and whoever is worthy to receive a portion, they give him a portion (meaning those who are not entitled to a portion others take their share, they distribute it to other worthy individuals). And so it is with Gad and Asher and Naphtali until the completion of twelve months, and they return. And they do not speak any language other than the Holy Tongue alone, and this Eldad the Danite, even a single word he does not understand, neither in the language of Cush nor in the language of Ishmael but only the Holy Tongue alone. And in the Holy Tongue that he speaks, there are words that we have never heard before, such as for a dove he calls 'tinthera,' for a bird he calls 'reqot,' dialectical pilpul called 'dramosh', like these we wrote many from his mouth, as we would show him an object and he would tell us its name in the Holy Tongue, which we do not write, and after days we asked him again on each thing, and we found him consistent with his original word. Their Talmud in the Holy Tongue is immaculate, and it does not mention any sage, neither from the Mishnaic nor the Talmudic authorities, but rather thus it says in every legal ruling: "So we learned from the mouth of Joshua from the mouth of Moses from the mouth of the Almighty." And it seems that even in the matters of prohibited and permitted, we saw that it is one Torah, though they make some changes. And we had to explain to our master these words that we wrote some of their Talmud, because there is a great astonishment in it, and because our master will look into it, etc. [Here the people of Kairouan bring the halakhic rulings of Eldad, see Epstein Eldad the Danite page 83 and in the Otzar Yisrael, entry for Eldad the Danite]. And he also told us, when the Temple was destroyed, Israel went up to Babylon, the Chaldeans stood over the sons of Moses and said to them, "Sing for us the songs of Zion," the sons of Moses stood and cried in tears before the Holy One, blessed be He, and they bit their fingers with their teeth to say, "The fingers that used to play in the Temple, how can we strike with them in an unclean land?" And a cloud came and took them with their tents and their sheep and their cattle, and brought them to Havilah and dropped them there at night (see Pesikta Rabbati page 144 the edition of Ish Shalom, Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin (the supreme rabbinic court) chapter 1, verse 5, and Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) Eichah Rabbati chapter 3). And they also told us, our fathers told us and our fathers from their fathers that they heard on that night a great noise and in the morning saw a large and heavy camp, and it turned for them the river that rolls stones and sand in a place where there was previously no river, and that river still rolls stones and sand without water with a great noise and a loud voice, that if it hit a mountain of iron it would shatter it. And the river rolls the stones and sand all six days of the week without any drop of water, and on the Sabbath it rests. And at the time of the Friday twilight between the sunsets, a cloud descends upon it, and no one can approach it until after the Sabbath, and its name is Sambation and we call it Sevtinu (or Sanbation), and there are places in the river that are not wider than sixty cubits, and they stand on one side and we stand on this one, and tell each other stories. And they are forbidden (see Jerusalem Talmud there, and Targum Yonatan to Exodus 34), since the river encircles them, and we cannot enter among them, nor can they come out from there. And among them, there are no evil beasts or unclean animals, nor detestable things or crawling creatures, only their sheep and their cattle; and they plow and sow and ask each other questions. And they tell them about the destruction of the Temple, and the sons of Dan did not know anything about it. However, after the destruction of the Second Temple (text should read 'First Temple'), Naphtali, Gad, and Asher came to Dan, because initially, they were living with Issachar in their cities, and they were quarreling with them, as they were saying to them, "You are children of the maidservants," and they feared that these would not provoke a war among them, and they traveled and went until they reached Dan and became four tribes in one place. [And here is the response that Rabbi Zemach Gaon Jacob returned to the words of the people of Kairouan who asked about the affairs of Eldad the Danite and the changes in his Talmud:] Regarding Rabbi Eldad the Danite you sent to us and that you heard from him, our sages told us that they heard from Rabbeinu Yitzhak son of Mar and Rabbeinu Simcha that they saw this Rabbi Eldad the Danite and were astonished at his words, as some of them seemed like our own Sages' words, and some were extraordinary. In discussing this matter, we found verses that support our Sages that when Sennacherib rose and exiled the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali in the eighth year of King Ahaz, and from the foundation of the Temple until the eighth year of Ahaz was almost 64 years. And since the sons of Dan saw that they were mighty warriors and the king of Assyria began to rule over Israel, they left the land of Israel for Cush and encamped there, it being a land of gardens and orchards, fields and vineyards, a land spacious of frontiers and filled with all good things, and they set their hearts to worship the Lord in reverence and to do all His commandments in love, and it availed them that they were crowned with two crowns, in Torah and kingdom, as related by this Rabbi Eldad the Danite. And our Rabbis say that Israel experienced ten exiles (see Midrash on the Ten Exiles), four by Sennacherib and four by Nebuchadnezzar, and one by Vespasian and one by Hadrian, and the tribe of Dan is not mentioned in any of the exiles, because they went to Cush on their own before the destruction by about 265 years. It seems there is no flaw in this matter, perhaps Dan did not travel until the third exile (according to Epstein's view, Rabbi Zemach tries to reconcile the difference between our Sages and Eldad, who say that Dan went to Cush in the days of Assyria (Midrash Rabba 22, and Midrash Konen) and Eldad who says he left there already in the days of Jeroboam, and therefore Rabbi Zemach says I do not see any flaw in this matter, perhaps Dan did not travel until the third exile, and perhaps they forgot the time of their departure from the land of Israel). And Rabbi Eldad says they judge with the four forms of execution: stoning, burning, slaying, and strangulation. Astutely, our Sages expounded and said every death prescribed in the Torah is really strangulation (Sanhedrin 52b). And that the sons of Moses are with them and the river Sambatyon encircles them, true he said, as thus do our Sages say in the Midrash that Nebuchadnezzar exiled the Levites, sons of Moses, totaling 600,000, and when they reached the rivers of Babylon, they and their harps experienced what Rabbi Eldad recounted to you. And prior to our fathers' entrance to the land of Canaan, they engaged in wars and forgot the teaching they had taken from Moses' mouth (text should read 'from Joshua'), and even about Joshua of blessed memory, it was said that he encountered doubts after Moses' death (Tractate Temura 14:), and among all the tribes that were in the whole land, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin held fast to the Torah above all. And do not wonder about the variation and change that you heard from Eldad's mouth; for the sages of Babylon and the sages of the land of Israel have differences in a single teaching with much precision, and they neither subtract nor add, and sometimes these students say one reason and those another, like two scholars sitting to understand a scripture or a Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law), this one sees one reason, and that one sees another. And even regarding scripture which is fixed in the text, there is variation between Babylon and the land of Israel in the absences and additions, in the open and closed [texts], in the musical accent divisions, and in the traditions of dividing the verses. And how much more so the Mishnah which is an intricate matter, profound, profound, who can discover it. And it is plausible to say that this Eldad made a mistake and confused things because of the abundant troubles he had been through and the weariness of the journey that wears the body down. But the Mishnah Torah is one, to it we shall not add nor from it shall we take away, and you shall not find change, neither a substantial nor a minor change, except in the Talmud. For the people of Babylon recite it in the Aramaic tongue and the children of the land of Israel in the translation tongue (Targum). And the sages who were exiled to Cush interpreted the Talmud in the Holy Tongue which they recognize. And the reason it does not contain the name of any sage is because every Mishnah that Israel discussed in the Temple was anonymous and did not bear the name of any sage. And the Torah is one, whether in the Mishnah or Talmud, and they all drink from one source, and it is not proper to interpret every matter, for it is said: "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter" (Proverbs 25). And that Eldad said that they pray first for the sages of Babylon and then for all the exiles, rightly they do, because the principal sages and prophets were exiled to Babylon, and they established the Torah and founded a yeshiva by the Euphrates from the days of Jehoiachin king of Judah to this day. And they were the chain of wisdom and prophecy, and from them the law for all the people emanates. And we have already informed you that they all drink from one source, and be strengthened by what the sages expound to you and the Talmud they have taught you, and do not deviate right or left from all their words, as it is written: "According to the law [Torah] which they instruct you and according to the judgment they tell you, you shall do" (Deuteronomy 17).

Full source
Eldad HaDani, The Book of Eldad HaDani, Story 2Otzar Midrashim (Eisenstein)

Story of Eldad the Danite, Narrative B In the name of the LORD God of Israel, blessed be His name, of our God the King, King of kings, Who chose Israel from among all nations and granted unto us the law of truth and planted everlasting life in our midst, statutes upright and life therein; and ye, our brethren, children of the exile, be strong and let your hearts be of good courage to keep the commandments of our God in their season, for as long as Israel doeth the will of the Omnipresent, no nation nor language doth prevail over them. And peace be unto you, our brethren, children of the exile, and peace unto Jerusalem, our glory's city, place of our God's abode Who doeth wonders among the nations, and place set before the Holy of Holies; and peace unto all the elders of Israel and the craftsmen of the Lord's Torah and its interpreters, its priests and levites, unto all tribes of Israel and Judah, both great and small. May God strengthen your hearts in the LORD our God and in the truth's prophet, Moses our teacher, the righteous servant of the LORD. [And now we will narrate to our brothers, the tribes of Jeshurun, about the matter of Eldad the Danite who doth tell all this, of how his egress happened throughout all the lands, for he is a noble of the tribe of Dan, and the LORD wrought a great miracle with him and delivered him from several places, and many troubles were overcome by him to go out to these lands to tell all the children of Israel dispersed in exile his matters and the matter of our land, to announce comfort unto them and to speak good words unto their hearts] (This is like an introduction to the following narrative, and the enclosed text is the note of the transcribing scribe. And Eldad wrote this narrative for the Jew of Spain who he went unto them to ask for their support). Thus was my departure beyond the rivers of Kush. A certain Jew from the tribe of Asher and I entered a small ship [to trade] with the seafarers and it happened at midnight, that the LORD sent forth a great and mighty wind and the ship was rent in sunder, and by God's providence, I caught hold of a timber plank, and when my companion saw such, he also grasped with me upon the same plank, and we went up and down upon it until the sea cast us unto a certain nation, whose name is Romranos (or Romrom in the kingdom of Kush), and they are black Kushites of stature, unclothed and unwrapped, for like the beasts are they compared, and they eat human flesh. When we came to their land, they laid hold on us, and seeing my comrade healthy and plump and delicate, they slaughtered and did eat him, and he cried out, woe unto me that I have encountered this nation for the Kushites will eat my flesh, and they took me for I was sick upon the ship and put me in a collar until I would become fat and healthy, and they brought before me all manner of goodly forbidden foods, yet did I not eat a thing, and I did conceal my eating, and they would ask if I had eaten and I would say yea, I did eat. And I was with them a long time until Hashem performed a miracle with me, and a great army from another place came unto them, and took them captive and spoiled them and slew them, and took me with them among the captives. And those wicked ones worshipped fire and I dwelt with them four years, and they made a great fire every morning and burnt and bowed down to it, until once they brought me unto the city of Atzitz (or Atzin, Tzin, Altzin, near the author of the Kuzari part B, chapter 19). And there found me a certain Jew a merchant from the tribe of Issachar and bought me for thirty-two gold pieces and returned with me to his land. And they are those in the mountains of Tehom (the mountains near the sea, for Tehom in Arabic is the land near the sea), and they are underneath the land of Medes and Persians and they keep this verse: "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth" (Joshua 1:8), and they have no yoke of kingdom but the yoke of Torah, and with them are chiefs of armies but they war not with men but with Torah, and they are in solace and tranquility and there is no Satan nor evil occurrence, and they make journey of ten days upon ten days, and they have very many flocks and camels and donkeys and slaves and they raise not horses, and they have no weapon of war save slaughter knife. And also they have no oppression nor robbery, and even if they find on the way garments or money they will not stretch forth their hand to take, and near them are wicked fire worshippers and they take their aunts and sisters to wife, but they harm them not and doth not help (aid) them. And they have a judge and I enquired of him and they told me his name is Nahshon, and they have four capital punishments of the court and they speak in the holy tongue and in Persian. And the children of Zebulun are camped in the mountains of Paran (another version "Pariyan" and see the note from Epstein there), and they reach their [the children of Issachar's] neighborhood, and they plant tents of hair which come unto them from the land of Armenia, and they reach unto the river Euphrates and are engaged in commerce. And they have four capital punishments of court according to their fashion. And the tribe of Reuben is opposite them behind the mountain of Paran, and there is peace between them and brotherhood and companionship. And these (the aforementioned tribes) go together to war and rob (plunder) the ways, and all their spoil together they divide and they go by the way of the kings of Medes and Persians, and they speak in the holy tongue and in Persian, and with them are Scripture and Mishna and Talmud and Aggadah, and every Sabbath they open the reasons of Torah in the holy language and the explanations in Persian. And the tribe of Ephraim and half the tribe of Manasseh are there in the mountains opposite the land of "Makkah" an error of the Ishmaelites, and they are those of sullen soul and faint heart, owners of horses and robbers of the ways and they spare not their enemies and they have no livelihood save from the spoil, and they are those strong in war and one of them will go out against a thousand. And the tribe of Simeon and half the tribe of Manasseh are in the land of the Chaldeans (in other narratives "Kadraim" or "Kuzarim") far away six months, and they are those most numerous of all and they take tribute from twenty-five kingdoms and some of the Ishmaelites pay tribute. And we say in our land that it is a tradition in our hands that you children of the exile, the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, under the faith of idolatry in the impure land, are scattered under Rome, who destroyed the house of our God, and the Greeks and the Ishmaelites, their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. And we have a tradition from man to man that we the tribe of Dan in the beginning were dwellers of tents in the land of Israel, and there was in all the tribes of Israel no warriors of strength like us. And when Jeroboam the son of Nebat stood up, who made Israel sin and he made two golden calves, the kingdom of the house of David was split and the tribes gathered and said, rise up and fight against Rehoboam and against Jerusalem, they said to him why should we fight with our brothers and with the son of our lord David, king of Israel and Judah, God forbid and God forbid! In that hour the elders of Israel said thou hast not in all the tribes of Israel like the tribe of Dan, warriors. Immediately they said to the children of Dan, rise up and fight with the children of Judah. They said unto him by the life of the head of Dan our father we will not make war with our brothers and we will not spill their blood. Immediately the children of Dan took swords and spears and bows and gave themselves to die to go forth from the land of Israel, for we saw that we could not stand. Let us go now and find for us rest and place, and if we wait until the end they will lead us away. And they set their mind and counseled to go to Egypt to destroy it and to slay all its inhabitants. Our princes said unto us, and is it not written "Ye have seen Egypt no more again forever" (Exodus 14), and how shall you prosper? They said we will go against Edom or Ammon and Moab to annihilate them and we will dwell in their place. Our princes said it is written in the Torah that the Holy One, blessed be He, prevented Israel from crossing their border. At last they gave advice to go to Egypt and not by the road which our fathers went and also not to destroy but to pass over the river Pishon (Nile) to the land of Kush. And it happened that we came close to Egypt and all of Egypt were shaken and they sent unto us whether for war or for peace? And we said unto them peace! We will pass through your land to the river Pishon, for there shall we find a resting place. And it happened that they believed not and all Egypt stood on their watch until we crossed their land and we reached the land of Kush, and we found it a good land and fat, and therein fields and vineyards, gardens and orchards. And the children of Dan were not prevented from dwelling with them for with force they took the land. And it happened that they wanted to kill everyone and they became tributaries under Israel and dwelt with them many years until they were fruitful and multiplied exceedingly and we had great wealth. And thereafter Sennacherib king of Assyria came up and exiled Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh and brought them to Halah and Habor, and the river of Gozan (1 Chronicles 5:26). And again Sennacherib came up a second time and exiled the tribe of Asher and the tribe of Naphtali and brought them to the land of Assyria (2 Kings 15:29). And after the death of Sennacherib the three tribes of Israel, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher went to the land of Kush, and they journeyed and camped in the wilderness until they came to their border and they slew of the men of Kush the journey of twenty days, and they fight to this day with the sons of the kingdoms of Kush. And these four tribes, Dan and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher, are camped in ancient Havilah where there is gold (and they are in good places and established in the kingdom of Pharaoh, government of Hauran, and they trust in their Creator first and God with their help. And these tribes place their hand upon the neck of their enemies, and every year they make war with seven kingdoms and seven lands. And the names of these lands are Thausena and Kamtav and Kovav and Triaugi and Takul and Karmav and Kaalum (with variations in other narratives) and they are beyond the rivers of Kush. And these four tribes, they have gold and silver and precious stones, many sheep and cattle and camels and donkeys, and they sow and reap and dwell in tents. And whenever they wish they journey and camp with their tents from border to border a journey of two days upon two days, and in the place where they encamp there is no place that a foot may enter and they encamp only in fields and vineyards). And the name of their king is Uzziel, and the name of the great prince is Elizaphan of the sons of Ahliab of the tribe of Dan, and his flag is white written in black: Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD. And at the time when he desires to go out to war, the trumpeter shall cry aloud with the trumpet and the army chief shall come and the troops shall go forth one hundred twenty thousand small white flags. And every month (should read three months), one tribe goes out to war and the tribe stands outside for three months, and all that they bring from the spoil of their enemies they divide with their tribe. And they are of the sons of Samson of the tribe of Dan over all, not at all shall they flee for it is a great shame unto them, and they are as the sand of the sea now and they have no occupation but war, and when they fight they shall say, it is not good for the warrior to flee, let the young die and not flee, let his heart be strong unto the LORD, and they shall say many times and all shall cry out together, Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD, and then they shall all be guarded. And thus they do until the three months are complete and they return, and they bring all the spoil to king Uzziel and he divides it all with all Israel. And this is the ordinance for them from king David until this day. And king Uzziel takes his portion and the king gives to all the wise Torah scholars dwellers of tents their portion and thereafter all take their portion and the prince over the war. And thus they do in three months Issachar goes out, in three months Naphtali goes out, and so all of them until a year is completed and they return God forbid. And yet another tribe of Moses our teacher of blessed memory, the righteous servant of the LORD, and they are called in our midst the tribe of Janus because they fled from idolatry and clung unto the fear of the LORD. And the sea surrounds them from a three months' journey upon three months' journey and they dwell in splendid houses and in elegant buildings and they prepare for themselves towers and in the time when they rejoice they ride upon the elephant, and with them there is no unclean thing, nor unclean bird nor unclean beast nor unclean cattle, nor flies nor fleas nor lice nor foxes nor scorpions nor snakes nor dogs, for all this came out of idolatry which they served in the land, except the sheep and cattle and fowl. And their sheep give birth twice a year, and also their seed they sow twice a year, and they sow and reap, and they have gardens and orchards and olive trees and pomegranates and figs and all kinds of legumes and melons and squash and onions and garlic and barley and wheat and from each comes forth a hundred [stalks]. And they are men of faith, and their Talmud is entirely in the holy tongue, and so they study: Thus have our rabbis taught us from the mouth of Joshua the son of Nun from the mouth of our teacher Moses from the mouth of the Almighty. And they know not of the sages for in the Second Temple they were and they did not reach them. And they know not to speak save in the holy tongue, and all of them are pure, owners of immersion, and they swear not at all, and he who remembers the Name in vain they shall cry out upon him and say that because of the iniquity of oaths your children shall die young (under the sin of vows, Shabbat 32a). And they prolong their days and live a hundred years or a hundred and twenty years, and no son shall die in the lifetime of his father, and they reach unto three or four generations, and they sow and reap [by themselves] for they have no servants nor maidservants, and all are equal. And they lock not their houses by night for it is shame unto them, and the youth walks with the flock a ten days' journey and they are not afraid neither of robbers nor of demons. And all of them are Levites and they have no priest nor Israelite and still [stand] in the holiness of Moses our teacher the righteous servant of the LORD. And yet they see not the sons of men and the sons of men [see] not them (them), except these four tribes who dwell beyond the rivers of Kush. And there is a place where they see one another and speak by shouting and the river Sambatyon is between them, and they say such has happened to us in war, and they informed all Israel what has befallen them. When they desire to speak or for a great matter, they have a kind of pigeons known amongst them and they write their tales and tie them on the wings or the pigeon's leg, and they go and cross the river Sambatyon and the pigeons come to their kings and to their princes. And yet they have very many precious stones and silver and gold, and they sow flax and raise cochineal worms and make beautiful garments without end. And they are as those who went out of Egypt five times for there is no number. And the breadth of that place the river is two hundred cubits like the drawing of a bow, and the river is full of great and small stones and the noise thereof thunders like the roar of a great wind in a storm at sea, and at night its voice is heard the journey of a day. And there are with them six springs and all gather to one lake and from them they water their land, and there breed in it clean fish. And the river goes and the stones and sand thunder six working days, and on the seventh day it rests and is at peace until the going out of the Sabbath. And beyond the river from the side near the four aforementioned tribes there is a blazing fire on the Sabbath and no man can move [in that place] much as a mile's journey. And this is my name, Eldad son of Mahli, son of Ezekiel, son of Hezekiah, son of ALUK, son of ABNER, son of Shemaiah, son of Hatir, son of Hor, son of Elkanah, son of Hillel, son of Toviah, son of Pedah, son of Enan, son of Naaman, son of Ta'am, son of Taami, son of Unam, son of Naol, son of Shalom, son of Caleb, son of Amram, son of Domam, son of Ovadiah, son of Abraham, son of Joseph, son of Moses, son of Jacob, son of Capur, son of Ariel, son of Asher, son of Job, son of Shalem, son of Eliab, son of Ahisamak, son of Hushim, son of Dan, son of Jacob our father of blessed memory and peace unto all Israel amen. [In that year of forty and three, this Master Eldad dispatched these epistles unto the land of Spain, and, this Master Eldad is replete with the Torah and the commandments, as if a man were to sit with him from dawn until eve, his tongue would not stay from the savor of Torah in the sacred tongue, and his words are sweeter than honey and the droppings of the honeycomb. The LORD of Hosts shall grant unto him goodly reward in this world and in the world to come.] Here endeth the Book of Eldad the Danite.

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Gaster, The Exempla of the Rabbis (1924), No. 369The Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)

A medieval Jewish legend tells of a king of Poland who fell under the influence of a sorcerer — a wizard — and issued a decree: the Jews of his kingdom must convert, be killed, or be expelled with only the clothes on their backs. A year’s respite was granted.

The desperate community drew lots. The beadle of the main synagogue was chosen to travel to the Children of Moses, the hidden tribes said to live beyond the mysterious river Sambatyon — a river that hurls stones six days a week and lies silent only on the Sabbath.

The beadle journeyed for months and reached the river on a Sabbath, when it was calm, and crossed. On the far side, he was nearly put to death for having violated the Sabbath by crossing at all — until he explained that only then could the river be crossed. The Children of Moses listened to his message, and they sent their own beadle back with him — a man deeply learned in the practical Kabbalah, the mystical arts used to contest sorcery.

When they arrived in Poland, the wizard met them with contempt. The Kabbalist beadle said, “Unless the decree is revoked, I will fight you, and you will die.” The wizard refused. They stood before the king and began their contest.

The Kabbalist struck the ground once. The wizard sank into the earth up to his ankles. The beadle offered him a chance to advise the king to rescind the decree. He refused. The Kabbalist struck again. The wizard sank to his knees. Strike. To his waist. Strike. To his chest. Seven times in all, until only the wizard’s head remained above ground — and then that too disappeared.

The king, white with terror, revoked the decree on the spot. The Jews of Poland were saved.

The story was told and retold in Yiddish-speaking communities for centuries. Every time a sorcerer whispers in a king’s ear, it says, the Children of Moses are closer than you think.

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