Reading Notes: Jewish Fairy Tales Part B, "The Sleep of One Hundred Years" and "The Rabbi's Bogey-Man"

• "The Sleep of One Hundred Years"
• Rabbi Onias is travelling to Jerusalem
• the city ravaged by war, the first temple destroyed
• travelled by camel with a basket of dates and a leather bottle of water
• did not eat in case he came across someone who needed it more
• the land around the city was deserted except for a man planting a carob tree at the bottom of a hill
• must replant his destroyed vineyards so that the land may live again
• Onias passed the man and continued his journey
• reaches the top of the hill and sees the once beautiful city of Jerusalem is now destroyed
• begins to weep
• lays down at sunset with his head on his camel
• falls into a deep sleep
• sleeps for days, then weeks, then months, then years
• birds and wind dropped seeds around Onias as he slept
• grew into a thick hedge around him hiding him from sight
• date in his basket fell out and grew a large date palm that provided shade
• slept for 100 years
• awoke and stretched
• aching bones
• very confused
• thinks he only slept for one night
• confused about the hedge and tree - once barren hill now covered in carob trees 
• discovers his beard almost reached the ground and is white
• falls into a pile of bones - his camel
• his basket of dates and leather bottle of water is still fresh
• calls it a miracle
• discovers the city is rebuilt and beautiful 
• thinks he had dreamed about it being destroyed
• leaves the hill and heads for the city - children run after him and people call him strange names
• asks a man where his house is
• someone in the crowd says he knows someone by the by Onias
• bring elderly man called Onias
• his grandson - 80 years old
• says he was named after his grandfather who had mysteriously disappeared 100 years ago
• figures out he slept for 100 years and that it was not a dream
• is unhappy in the new time, asks to be led back to the hill where he had slept
• prays for peace, prayer is granted he lays down with his dates and water that is still fresh and goes back to sleep - "will not awaken in this world"
• Storytelling possibilities:
• update the time period
• motorcycle instead of camel
• camelback water backpack on his back - to connect to the original story
• awakes to a world of robots or automated cars 
• instead of camel bones, he falls into his rusted motorcycle and decayed saddle bags 
• Source: Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends by Gertrude Landa (1919)
• "The Rabbi's Bogey-Man"
• Rabbi Lion 
• the ancient city of Prague
• Rabbi is a scientist that scares the people in his town
• no one wants to work for him
• cannot find a servant
• decides to build a servant since he is in a way a magician
• builds a woman out of wood, glue, and springs
• animates his creation by writing the "unpronounceable sacred name of God" on parchment and putting it in the creature's mouth 
•  the invented being works for the man and the towns people are amazed
• he discovers that he must remove the parchment at night while he sleeps or she will get into trouble
• can do everything but talk
• one day she is persuaded to play with the children in the city
• they say it is cold and asks her to build a fire
• fire gets out of control and burns houses 
• also, destroys the woman-creature
• Rabbi Lion is arrested and taken to the king
• the king says it is a sin to create life
• Rabbi Lion says it was only wood and glue and not alive
• ordered by the king to make another creature
• this time makes a large man
• king is delighted and wants to keep the creature
• Rabbi refuses
• the creature eventually learns to speak and wants to be a soldier - Rabbi says no
• the creature gets out of hand and tries to break into the synagogue to destroy holy papers so that he may fight as a soldier, build an army like himself, and destroy the Jews
• Rabbi says he will kill him first - grabs the parchment out of the creature's mouth and the creature falls apart
• parts of the creature put on display and the story of the rabbi's bogey-man was told for years 
• Storytelling possibilities: 
• update the era to an alternative Victorian period
• make it steampunk
• cogs, gears, and steam-power
• make the rabbi a crackpot inventor with many steampunk gadgets
• the creature made form metal, rivets, springs cogs, gears, etc. instead of wood and glue
• Source: Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends by Gertrude Landa (1919)

(Steampunk Automaton from beneath.co.uk's article "On Writing Steampunk")