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The Son Who Fed the Sea and Met Its King

A dying father told his son to throw bread into the water every day. One fish grew too large, complained to Leviathan, and the king of the sea summoned the man.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Deathbed Command
  2. Leviathan Hears the Case
  3. The Gift From Below
  4. The Mouth That Understood Everything

The Deathbed Command

His father was dying. The old man had one instruction left to give, and it was a verse from Ecclesiastes: cast your bread upon the waters.

There was no explanation. There was no field, no purse, no map to something buried. Just a verse that sounded like waste, and a dying man's certainty that his son should repeat the action every day. The son had no way to ask what this meant. The father was almost gone. After the burial, the son began.

Every morning he went to the water and threw in a loaf. Day after day. One fish found it. Then found it again. The loaf was regular, the fish was reliable, and the fish ate until it grew so large it began to bully everything around it. The smaller fish had no defense against it. They went to their king.

Leviathan Hears the Case

Leviathan was the king of the sea in this folktale from the Midrash on the Ten Commandments, the vast creature of Jewish deep-water lore who presides over the creatures below the surface the way earthly kings preside over creatures above it. The smaller fish had a legitimate grievance. One fish had grown monstrous on human food, and it was using that size to terrorize the community of the sea.

Leviathan summoned the overgrown fish and demanded an accounting. The fish explained: a man on the shore had been casting bread upon the water every day, and he had eaten every loaf.

Leviathan issued a summons. Bring the man.

The man came before the king of the sea and stood there, a human being who had been obeying a dead father's command without knowing why, now face to face with the creature who rules the depths. Leviathan asked him why he had done this. The man told the truth. His father had commanded him, and he had obeyed.

The Gift From Below

Leviathan spat in the man's face three times. The man flinched, expecting contempt, and felt instead a heat spreading across his tongue. The king of the sea was filling the man's mouth with something that would not fit inside an ordinary life.

The Mouth That Understood Everything

When the man returned to shore, he found he could understand the languages of every creature, birds, animals, fish, everything that breathed. His father's instruction had opened a door under the water and brought him back carrying knowledge no school could teach.

The old man who told his son to throw bread into the sea knew what he was doing. He had been feeding a creature that would grow too large for the sea's ordinary politics, and when that creature caused enough disruption to reach Leviathan's court, the chain of obedience would eventually reach his son. The command that looked like waste was a long mechanism whose outcome required a dead man's trust in a living man's faithfulness.

LeviathanSea CreaturesWisdomDeathHonorFolktale
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From the tradition

Sources

2 sources

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

Exempla of the Rabbis, No. 381Exempla of the Rabbis (Gaster, 1924)

V. 1. A man on his deathbed commanded his son to cast bread upon the waters. He did it daily and one fish caught it regularly and grew very big and persecuted the other fishes. They complained to their king Leviathan, who called him and asked him how he had grown so large. The fish told him by the loaf a man was casting upon the water daily. Leviathan ordered him to bring that man and when he heard that the man was fulfilling a command of his father, the king spat in his mouth three times. The man then understood the language of birds and beasts as well as seventy languages. The fish then carried him back to dry land. Tired from having been inside the fish he lay down to sleep. Two birds saw him and the younger said that it would pick out his eyes in spite of the warning of its mother. The man caught the bird. The mother bird promised the man treasure hidden by Solomon and carried him thither after which he let the young one free. The mother bird killed the young one, brought a herb and revived it. A man, passing by, saw it, took it up and said he was going to Jerusalem to revive the dead. On the way, he tried it on a dead lion, who being revived killed him. The other man, meanwhile, brought asses to carry away the treasure and among them was a cantakerous ass. This one said to the others, “That man has put too heavy a burden upon us. Let us cause him to lose it.” He plotted to throw himself down at the gate of the town; then those

who would come to his help would see the treasure and rob him of it. The others were frightened and said he would have to rise up by himself through heavy beating. The man understood what they said and the ass was heavily beaten. Then the man came home and hid his treasure awav. His wife pressed him to tell her where he had got it from and at last he promised to reveal the secret. In the stables his horse was weeping. Asked the reason by a cock, the horse said, “My master is pressed by his wife to tell where he found the treasure and a woman cannot keep a secret and our master will soon be robbed and killed. The cock replied, “I have ten wives and they are all frightened of me. He has only one wife and he ought to teach her to be frightened of him." The man heard and when the wife asked again for the secret, he took a stick and smote her so severely that she promised never to ask any more. He got all the treasure because he had honoured his father.

V. 2. Story of Joshua b. Ilem and of how Nanas the butcher was his compannon in Paradise because he honoured his father. See No. 323.

382.*) V. 2. Dama b. Netina honouring his father. See No. 323.

V. 3. Child and book of Genesis. See No. 38.

VI. Two murderers used to kill travellers and throw the bodies into one pit and the money into another. A caravan passing, one man said, “Aforetime this was a beaten road; now grass and bushes are growing here. There must be a reason. ” They searched and found the pits and the robbers. Asked what they were doing there, the Angel of Death snatched the words of false excuse out of their mouths and said, “Their sins have brought them here." They were caught, brought before the king and executed.

VII. 1. Story of how Mattia ben Heresh blinded himself. See No. 136.

Full source
Gaster, Exempla of the Rabbis No. 381; Midrash Aseret HaDibrotThe Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)

Gaster's exemplum No. 381 preserves a cascading folktale from the Midrash Aseret HaDibrot, the Midrash on the Ten Commandments, all arranged around the commandment to honor one's father.

A man on his deathbed told his son to cast bread upon the waters each day, citing (Ecclesiastes 11:1). The son obeyed. Every morning he threw a loaf into the sea. One fish began eating these loaves regularly and grew enormous. So large that it began to terrorize the smaller fish.

The smaller fish complained to their king, Leviathan, the great sea-creature of Jewish lore. Leviathan summoned the giant fish and demanded an explanation. The fish admitted it: a man was feeding him bread each day. When Leviathan learned the man was fulfilling a dying father's command, the king of the sea spat three times into the fish's mouth. This blessing passed to the fish, and the fish, returning to shore, spat into the man's own mouth.

From that moment the man understood the language of every bird, every beast, and all seventy languages of humankind.

Exhausted from his sea voyage inside the giant fish, he lay down on the shore to sleep. Two birds flew over, a mother and her fledgling. The young one said it would pick out his eyes. The mother warned it not to, but the fledgling insisted. The man, understanding every word, caught the young bird. The mother, desperate, promised to show him where King Solomon had once hidden a treasure. He agreed, freed the young bird, and followed the mother to the hoard.

The story multiplies. The mother bird killed her own disobedient fledgling, then revived it with a magical herb. A passing man saw the herb and said he was going to Jerusalem to revive the dead. On the way, he tried it first on a dead lion, which revived and killed him.

Meanwhile, the first man brought donkeys to carry Solomon's treasure home. Among the donkeys was one cantankerous beast who plotted with the others to cause him to lose the treasure at the town gate. But the man, still hearing the speech of animals, understood the plot, beat the lazy donkey until it rose, and brought the treasure home safely.

His wife pressed him for the secret. In his stable, his horse wept, and a rooster told the horse, "My master has only one wife and cannot control her. I have ten wives and they are all afraid of me. He should teach her to fear him." When the wife asked again, the man took up a stick and disciplined her.

The Midrash on the Ten Commandments preserves this entire cascade as an elaboration of one mitzvah: honor your father. Because the son honored his dying father's strange command and cast bread on the waters, he received the language of creation, a king's treasure, and the wisdom to protect them. Every act of honoring a parent, the midrash teaches, opens a door the honoring child cannot even see.

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