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îñ"ò îøëæ ñéôåøé òí åôåì÷ìåø |
C. F. F Center of Folktales and Folklore |
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The Folktale Corner The diamond
of Adam A
Jewish-Afghani folktale Retold by Yoel Perez You know, when Almighty God decided to
throw Adam out of Well, God looked
for a polite way to sweeten the pill of conversion, because you know – here
in the Middle East you cannot say to such an honored guest like Adam: "Get out of here!" It does not work like
this. So he invited
him to a great feast. He served him all kinds of delicious food and good
wines, and then he turned to him and said:
"Tell me, Adam, did you think about the idea of going out for a while,
to see the wide world – Thailand, South America – like all the good
guys?" "Ah, why do I need all this bother?
I feel quite comfortable here. It is a waste of time, and besides – you know
– after September 11, I don't fill quite safe with
planes. No, thanks, I prefer keep staying here. "Well," said God, "if you
agree to go out, I'll give you fine presents!" "Presents? What sort of
presents?" "Well, I'll give you fields; I'll
give you wine-yards!" "Fields? Wine-yards?
To work the land with the sweat of my brow? Oh, give
me a break!" "Look, there are other presents!
Come on, I'll show you my treasures. You can take
what ever you want!" So he took him
for a guided-tour, and what shall I tell you – it was unbelievable! What a
treasure! Piles of jewelry, stones of beauty, amethysts, rubies,
pearls, diamonds! Adam looked around. He saw a huge
diamond. If I tell you, you will not believe me, but is the truth – a diamond
in the size of a water-melon! And Adam did
not stand the temptation. He took the diamond and agreed to go out. Well, he is going out. He sees the gates
of paradise closed and locked behind him, but what is done
is done. He keeps walking. An angel accompanies him in his way. And then they arrive at a stream of water. Adam hesitates – how to cross the water,
and the angel urges him: "Keep walking! Don't stay here!" and he
pushes him. And then the diamond fell out of his
hands into the stream. "My diamond!" "What's the problem? Go down and
peak it!" So Adam went
down to look for his diamond, but then he cried: "Mr. Angel, there are
so many diamonds here. How can I tell my diamond from all the rest? "What did you think?" said the
angel "that you are the first man to be thrown out of the Garden of
Eden..." (In Hebrew we use the same word for Adam and
man) This
story was told by a Jewish-Afghani storyteller
by the name of Shimon Yazdi to Zevulun
Kurt, who collected Jewish-Afghani folktales. The story is
listed as IFA 7836 in The Israel Folktale Archives named in honor of Dov Noy (IFA) in Haifa
University. The way I tell it is quite different from the way it was told by the original teller. |
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