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Joseph the Shabbat Lover Found a Fortune Inside His Friday Fish

Joseph spent every coin he had on Shabbat food, and a Gentile neighbor tried to cheat the prophecy that Joseph would inherit his wealth.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Man Who Spent Everything on Friday
  2. What the Wind Did With the Turban
  3. The Prophecy That Could Not Be Outwitted
  4. What the Employer Said at the End

The Man Who Spent Everything on Friday

He was called Yosef Mokir Shabbat, Joseph who honors the Shabbat, because honoring the Shabbat was the one thing he did without limit. Every Friday he went to the market and bought the finest food available. Whatever the week had brought him, even if it had been meager, he spent what he had on Friday's table. His neighbors thought him reckless. He thought the Shabbat queen worth every coin.

Next door to him lived a wealthy neighbor, a Gentile, a Persian in some versions of the story, a man who had no interest in Shabbat but considerable interest in his own fortune. This neighbor consulted a soothsayer who told him something disturbing: all his property would eventually end up in the hands of Joseph, the Jew who honored the Shabbat. The neighbor decided to outwit this prophecy. He sold everything he owned, converted the entire estate into a single gem of extraordinary value, sewed it into the lining of his turban, and set out across the sea. His reasoning was efficient: if Joseph was fated to receive his property, there would be no property to receive.

What the Wind Did With the Turban

Crossing the sea, standing on the deck of the ship, a sudden wind came up and lifted the turban from the neighbor's head and dropped it into the water. The gem, sewn into the lining, went with it. A fish swallowed the gem. The fish was caught. The fish was brought to the market. It was Friday morning. The vendor shouted: fine fish, fine fish. Who buys for Shabbat?

Joseph bought it. He bought it because he always bought the best fish on Friday. He brought it home. His household began to prepare it. Inside the fish, in the belly, was the jewel. Joseph had received his neighbor's entire estate through the belly of a fish he bought because it was the finest specimen in the Friday market and Shabbat deserved nothing less.

The Prophecy That Could Not Be Outwitted

The Talmud states the principle plainly. The one who lends for Shabbat is repaid by Shabbat. Joseph had been lending his own money to the Shabbat, spending lavishly on something that gave him nothing material in return, and the return came from a direction no one could have predicted or arranged. His neighbor had tried to prevent the transfer of wealth by converting his estate into a single portable object and putting it in his own hat. The wind had not been a random weather event. The wind was the mechanism through which the prophecy fulfilled itself, despite every human effort to frustrate it.

Some versions of the story add a scene between Joseph and the soothsayer after the fish. Joseph asks: what did you tell my neighbor? The soothsayer laughs and says: I can see what is fated but not how it will arrive. All I knew was that the wealth would come to you.

What the Employer Said at the End

A separate version of the story records a different wealthy employer who had the same prophecy about Joseph. He tried a different approach. He gave Joseph a job and gave him generous wages, calculating that if the wealth was already in Joseph's hands as wages, the prophecy was already fulfilled in the least threatening possible way. On the final day of work, he settled accounts. He put the wages in a bag, tied it closed, and tied it to the neck of a goat, meaning to carry it to Joseph. The goat escaped. It ran. The employer's son chased the goat and found Joseph's house and the goat standing at his gate. The bag of wages was delivered by a runaway goat. The prophecy, again, had found its own mechanism.

Joseph Mokir ShabbatShabbatFishPearlJewelDivine Providence
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From the tradition

Sources

5 sources

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

Gaster, Exempla No. 380The Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)

There was a man called Yosef Mokir Shabbat, "Yosef the Honorer of the Sabbath." Every Friday he spent whatever he had on the best food available for the Shabbat table. Anything the market considered the finest, he bought. His neighbors thought him foolish with his money. He thought the Shabbat queen worth every coin.

Next door to him lived a wealthy Parsee, a Persian, who had no particular use for Yosef or his customs. A soothsayer told this Parsee that, by some strange turn of fate, all his property would eventually end up in Yosef's hands. The Parsee decided to outwit the prophecy. He sold every piece of property he owned, converted the whole sum into one enormous pearl, and fastened the pearl into the fabric of his turban. Wealth wrapped around his head could not be stolen or transferred.

One day, crossing a bridge, a sudden wind tore the turban from his head and blew it into the river below. The pearl slipped out of the cloth and sank. A fish swallowed it.

Late that Friday afternoon, a fisherman stood in the marketplace with that very fish, unable to find a buyer so close to Shabbat. Yosef, making his usual late-day tour for the best Shabbat food, saw the fine fish, paid well for it, and took it home.

He cut it open in his kitchen and the pearl rolled out. He sold it the following week for twenty-three thousand golden dinars (Gaster, Exempla No. 380).

The sages add a second vignette to the same chapter. Rabbi Hiyya was once a guest at the table of a rich Jew whose household brought in a golden table drawn on twenty-six silver chains by twenty-six servants. Rabbi Hiyya asked how the man had earned such a table. The man answered simply, "I was a butcher. Every Friday I set aside the best cut of every animal I bought, so that my Shabbat table would have the finest portion. This table is the accumulated interest."

The Torah teaches, "You shall call Shabbat a delight" (Isaiah 58:13). The sages read these stories as the Holy One answering, "When you delight in My Shabbat, I will delight in you, and My delight leaves visible marks on your week."

Full source
Exempla of the Rabbis, No. 380Exempla of the Rabbis (Gaster, 1924)

Joseph Mokir Shabbat (the Sabbath), "Joseph Who Honors the Sabbath", was a man whose devotion to the Sabbath was so complete that it became the engine of his fortune. The Talmud (Shabbat 119a) tells his story as proof that honoring the Sabbath brings material as well as spiritual reward.

Joseph was a poor man who spent every coin he had on food for the Sabbath. While his neighbors ate simple meals during the week and saved their money, Joseph ate simply during the week and spent lavishly on the Sabbath. The finest fish, the best bread, the most aromatic spices, nothing was too good for the Sabbath table.

A wealthy gentile who lived nearby owned vast properties. Astrologers told him: "All your wealth will eventually pass to Joseph Mokir Shabbat." Terrified, the rich man sold all his property and used the money to buy an enormous diamond, which he sewed into his turban. "No one can take what I carry on my head," he reasoned.

As he crossed a bridge, a gust of wind blew the turban into the river. A great fish swallowed the diamond. Fishermen caught the fish on a Friday afternoon and, looking for a buyer willing to pay a premium price so close to the Sabbath, they brought it to the one man in town who always bought the finest fish for the Sabbath: Joseph.

Joseph bought the fish. When he cut it open, the diamond tumbled out. He sold it for an enormous sum and became fabulously wealthy. A sage told him: "One who lends to the Sabbath, the Sabbath repays." Every coin Joseph had spent honoring the seventh day came back to him multiplied, through a fish, a diamond, and a gust of wind that was no accident at all.

Full source
Hebraic Literature (1901), Midrashim, cf. Shabbat 119aHebraic Literature (1901)

A man named Joseph, who kept the Shabbat with uncommon care, had a neighbor who was rich, fearful, and utterly convinced of astrology. The neighbor was told by a professional astrologer that every coin of his wealth would one day pass to Joseph.

Horrified, the man sold his entire estate, took the proceeds, and bought a single diamond of extraordinary value. He sewed the diamond into the lining of his turban and said, half in triumph and half in spite, "Now let Joseph try to get this."

Some time later, crossing the sea by ship, the man was standing on deck when a sudden wind lifted the turban off his head and flung it into the water. A fish in the sea opened its mouth and swallowed the diamond. The fish was caught by a fisherman the next morning, hauled to market, and displayed for sale. Who happened to be buying? Joseph, looking for something special to honor the approaching Shabbat.

He bought the fish. He took it home. He opened it. And there, in the belly of the fish, lay the diamond.

The story, preserved in the 1901 anthology Hebraic Literature from the Midrashim, is one of the Rabbis' favorite shapes, a man hoarding against fate, and fate walking in through the kitchen door. The Talmud (Shabbat 119a) uses this very tale to teach that honoring the Sabbath brings wealth to those who observe it. The astrologer was not wrong about what would happen. He was wrong about what could stop it. Joseph did not chase the diamond. He went to market. He honored Shabbat. And the diamond, as the Rabbis like to say, found its home.

Full source
Shabbat 119a (Harris, Hebraic Literature, 1901)Hebraic Literature (1901)

There was once a man named Joseph who was famous in his city for one thing above all others: he honored the Shabbat. Every Friday his table groaned under fish and wine, whatever the week had been like. His neighbors called him Joseph the Sabbath Lover.

One of those neighbors, a Gentile, was very rich, and a fortune-teller told him a strange thing. In the end, all your property will pass into the hands of Joseph, the Jew who loves the Sabbath. The man resolved to outfox fate. He sold every field, every house, every vessel, and converted the whole estate into a single rare jewel, which he fastened to his turban. Now his wealth was portable, armored, and, he thought, safe from prediction.

One Friday he crossed a bridge, and a sudden gust blew the turban off his head and down into the river. A fish swallowed it. That fish was caught in a net, brought to market, and laid out as the choicest catch of the day. Joseph, preparing for the Sabbath, paid top price for it, because nothing was too good for his table on Friday. When the fish was cut open in his kitchen, the jewel rolled out. Joseph sold it for thirteen purses of gold denarii.

When the former neighbor met Joseph in the street, he conceded with a sigh, He who despises the Sabbath, the Lord of the Sabbath repays. And he who honors the Sabbath, the Lord of the Sabbath rewards. This tale from Shabbat 119a, preserved in Harris's 1901 Hebraic Literature, teaches that honoring Shabbat is not a weekly expense but an investment. Every fish you buy for a Friday night may be carrying a jewel.

Full source
Exempla of the Rabbis, No. 380Exempla of the Rabbis (Gaster, 1924)

IV. 4. A man called Joseph Mokir Shabba (“honourer of the Sabbath") lived next to a rich Parsee. The latter was told that all his property would go to Joseph. He, therefore, sold all his property and bought a large pearl which he fastened into his headgear. One day, crossing a bridge, the wind blew his headgear into the water and a fish swallowed the pearl. This fish was caught by a fisher-

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man who, not finding a purchaser, having come to market too late on Friday afternoon, brought it to Joseph who used to buy the best for Sabbath. Joseph cut it open and found the pearl which he sold for 23000 golden dinars.

R. Hiyya was once a guest at the table of a rich Jew and saw a golden table brought in by twenty six men by 26 silver chains. He had been a butcher who saved for the Sabbath the best of the animals bought. This was his reward.

IV. 5. Story of the cow which refused to work on Sabbath. See 312.

Full source