The Legend of Meshullam of Mainz

A story of R. Qalonymos, the father of R. Meshullam the Great, who had a dream that his son would be taken from him.

It once happened that some merchants came to his city on market day. R. Meshullam was fourteen years old. The merchants encountered him when he was walking in the market, cast their eyes on him, took him, and brought him with them to their kingdom. They seized him and brought him to Babylonia.

The merchants came before the nasi [“prince”; the exilarch] and said, “Do you want to buy a Jew to serve you?” He replied “yes” and bought him from them. This nasi was the head of the academy, and R. Meshullam asked him to tell the other members of his household to treat him well. The study hall of the nasi was next to the room where they prepared his meals, and he [Meshullam] was in charge of that room.

R. Meshullam heard that the nasi was uncertain about a halakhic matter on which his students had asked him many difficult questions. When the nasi left the study hall, R. Meshullam went and wrote down the explanation on the margin of the page—as he had heard it from his father. But he said nothing. When the nasi returned, he saw the explanation written in the margin, but he too said nothing. R. Meshullam did the same thing whenever the nasi was at a loss for an explanation. The nasi was certain that the explanations that he found written in the margins of his books were from God.

Once he said to his students, “I’m going to put together a halakhah—can one or two of you find out who is writing in the books when I leave?” Two of his students told him, “Whatever happens to us, we want to see what is going on!” When the nasi left, two of his students stood behind the wall. Through a hole, they saw R. Meshullam come into the room, write down the resolution of the problem in the margin, and go back to his room. When the students came to hear the law from the nasi, those two boys who had seen him [R. Meshullam] write in the book told their master, “Our teacher, you have a servant who is greater in Torah than you.” He asked, “Who is it?” They replied, “The servant that the merchants brought you from a far country has been writing in your books.” He immediately called the servant, brought him to the study hall, and asked his forgiveness in front of the students for using him in such an ordinary way, like any common servant. Then he sat him down next to him.

Once when he [i.e., the nasi] was teaching the law, he asked him [i.e., Meshullam], “What is the name of your father and grandfather?” He replied, “My father’s name is R. Qalonymos the son of R. Moses the Elder [or, from Lucca], who wrote the hymn ‘Emat nor’otekha’ [The terror of Your awful deeds].” The nasi offered him his daughter’s hand in marriage, but R. Meshullam did not want to accept the match without his father’s permission. The nasi said, “If you forgive me wholeheartedly for treating you like a servant, I will give you a servant and provisions for the journey to your father, or to any other town where you know somebody.” He replied, “All right.” And the nasi gave him one of his slaves to accompany him, as well as provisions for the journey.

He reached Mainz, where he married the sister of one of his female relatives, and she bore him a son named R. Todros. R. Meshullam returned to his father and died there. And R. Todros his son became the head of the academy in Mainz.