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C. F. F |
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The Folktale Corner The diamonds
land A Jewish
folktale from the Retold by
Yoel Perez It is told, and
only God knows if it is a truth or a lie, that there were father and his son that
worked in their field. It was a small field and they worked hard to earn
their living. They were poor and they used to work all day long in the
burning sun day after day. And once, when they
worked there in their field, an old man that passed by, ask them for water.
They gave him some water. He thanked them and then he said: "Why are you
two working so hard?" "What can we
do?" said the father, "This field is our only property and we must
work here if we do not want to stave." "I
heard", said the old man that somewhere in this world there is a land of
diamonds. Who ever get there can turn a rich man in one night." "Ah, it is all bobe-mayse (old
wives' tales)." Said the father, "There is no such a land in this
world!" But the son – the words of the old man
were engraved in his heart. Many years passed. The old man died and
his son continued to cultivate the field, when one day an old man (another
old man) passed by and asked for water and said the same words to the young
man: "Why are you working so hard? I heard that somewhere in this world
there is a land of diamonds. Who ever get there can turn a rich man in one
night."
This time the young man made his decision. He sold the
field; he bought a horse and prepared himself to hit the road. "Are you crazy?" said his
friends, "What are you going to do? It is all nonsense. There is no such
a land!" But he was determined: "May be you right. May be that land
does not exist at all, but I must try. I must check it with my own eyes; from
my own experience!" And he went to his way. He passed many
lands, visited many countries. All the time he kept asking people: "Do
you know? Did you ever hear about the diamonds land?" People laughed at
him: "Diamonds land? You are crazy, you will never find it." But he
did not fall into despair. He kept walking. He climbed high mountains. He
crossed wide rivers and bushy forests. Nothing stopped him. And then one day he found himself in the
middle of a desolate desert. All his provisions ended, he had no water. He
thought: it is my last day; I will die from thirst here in nowhere. But then
he saw far away something white on a hill. He did a last effort. He mounted
his horse and rode forward and when he was closer he saw that it was a small
town. He kept riding and when he looked at the gravel under his horse hoofs,
it seemed to him that the stones shine and glimmer in a strange way. He
descended from his horse to have a close look – he did not believe what he
saw: diamonds! All sorts of diamonds – big, small, shining and glimmer in
many colors! At long last he arrived to the diamonds land! He began to collect them. He put them in
any available place – in his coat pockets, in his bag, in the sacks on the
horse back. He threw away his property – the few things that he brought with
him – and filled it up with diamond. He could not stop. It was like a mania.
Then when there was no place for one more diamond, he rode to the town. He
entered a good restaurant and ordered to serve him an excellent meal. When
the waiter came with the bill, he took one small diamond from his pocket and
gave it to him: "I believe it can pay not only the price of this meal
but of many more!" "This?"
said the waiter, "It is a simple stone. There are thousands stones like
this in every corner!" He looked at the road – the waiter was
right. Diamonds were scattered everywhere and no one paid attention. "If it is so, then what has any
value in your country?" "Ah," said the waiter,
"look here" and from a small bag that was tied around his neck he
took out a small simple gravel stone: "This has a great value!" What a world! Everything here is upside
down – he thought – in the diamonds land diamonds have no value! He had no choice. He had to work the
whole week in the restaurant washing dishes in order to pay his bill. Then he looked for a new job. He earned
some money and hired an apartment and every free moment he went out and
collected diamonds. He said to himself: it is a matter of 'once at life' –
I'll stay here three or four weeks, I'll collect the much that I can and come
back to my motherland. But after three weeks he felt he cannot
leave yet. So he stayed one more month and then another one. He found permanent
job. He began to make business and saved a lot of money. One year passed and
then another one. One day he looked around him on all those sacs of diamonds
that overfilled his rooms and he said to himself: what an idiot am I. When I
decide to leave all I need is to hire two boys that will fill for me as many
sacs of diamonds as I wish. What is the sense of filling my apartment with
all these sacs? So he emptied all the sacs and threw the
diamonds out. Years passed. Ten years passed. And then
came a day when all of a sudden he felt great yearning to his motherland, to
his friends, to all the things he left behind him. He decided to hit the road
and go back to his old home. He sold all his property and got for it a whole
bag of stones. He mounted his horse and rode into the desert. He was not
young. It was a great effort for him to cross the desolate desert. But he did
it. At long last he came to a settled place. He entered a good restaurant and
ordered to serve him an excellent meal. When the waiter came with the bill,
he took one small stone from his bag and gave it to him: "I believe it
can pay not only the price of this meal but of many more!" "This?" said the waiter,
"It is a simple stone. There are thousands stones like this in every corner!" And then he caught his head with his
hands. The diamonds! The real diamonds! He left them all in the diamonds land
and he brought home a handful of worthless stones! But what can he do? The diamonds land is
far away and he is not young any more. There is no chance that he can do the
journey once again. So he accepted his situation. He began once again from
the very beginning – he worked here and there; he worked hard, he saved penny
to penny and built himself once again. And then one day he put order in his
house (we the Jews call it "to make Passover" – the spring
cleaning) and he found his old travel coat. It was old and torn. He intended
to throw it away when he felt something hard in one of the pockets. He turned
it out and found a big diamond – the first diamond that he collected and put
in his pocket when he discovered the diamonds on his way to the town. He sold the diamond and he supported
himself with the money till the rest of his life. _____________________
I heard this story many years ago from my friend, Avi
Barak, who heard it in a synagogue in the |
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