Tales of Asenath Barazani

Asenath the daughter of R. Samuel Adoni [Barazani] was a wise woman and a great Torah scholar. She studied the secrets of kabbalah and acquired a considerable reputation for performing miracles and wonders. After she gave birth to one boy and one girl [as a married woman], she prayed to God to stop her menses, so that she could devote herself entirely to studying the holy Torah in purity. God granted her wish.

And Asenath was good-looking and beautiful. And it so happened that one day, Asenath went up to the roof to spread out the clothes from her laundry; and a non-Jew saw her and desired her. It happened that in the middle of the night, the non-Jew sneaked onto the roof and he harbored evil intents in his heart toward the rabbi. She immediately called out the names of the holy ones and, as a result, the non-Jew remained hanging on the walls of the roof without being able to move from his place. In the morning, the event became public. A large crowd of people congregated and observed this marvelous sight. All of their efforts to move the non-Jew from his place were in vain. The incident came to the attention of the wali—the city’s ruler—and he himself requested that R. Asenath release the non-Jew. But she refused, as she told him, “If this non-Jew had come here in order to steal something from my household items, I would now be silent. But he came to me with the intent of doing moral harm, and therefore he will remain hanging in his place.” The ruler swore to her that if she released the sinful non-Jew, he would be punished appropriately and he would be hanged publicly. At that moment, Asenath freed the non-Jew, who was hanged from a tree, and everyone in the city saw this and was astonished.