When the wives of Lamech heard the decision of Adam, that they were to
continue to live with their husband, they turned upon him, saying, "O
physician, heal thine own lameness!" They were alluding to the fact
that he himself had been living apart from his wife since the death of
Abel, for he had said, "Why should I beget children, if it is but to
expose them to death?"[46]
Though he avoided intercourse with Eve, he was visited in his sleep by
female spirits, and from his union with them sprang shades and demons
of various kinds,[47] and they were endowed with peculiar gifts.
Once upon a time there lived in Palestine a very rich and pious man,
who had a son named Rabbi Hanina. He knew the whole of the Torah by
heart. When he was at the point of death, he sent for his son, Rabbi
Hanina, and bade him, as his last request, to study the Torah day and
night, fulfil the commands of the law, and be a faithful friend to the
poor. He also told him that he and his wife, the mother of Rabbi
Hanina, would die on the selfsame day, and the seven days of mourning
for the two would end on the eve of the Passover. He enjoined him not
to grieve excessively, but to go to market on that day, and buy the
first article offered to him, no matter how costly it might be. If it
happened to be an edible, he was to prepare it and serve it with much
ceremony. His expense and trouble would receive their recompense. All
happened as foretold: the man and his wife died upon the same day, and
the end of the week of mourning coincided with the eve of the Passover.
The son in turn carried out his father's behest: he repaired to market,
and there he met an old man who offered a silver dish for sale.
Although the price asked was exorbitant, yet he bought it, as his
father had bidden. The dish was set upon the Seder table, and when
Rabbi Hanina opened it, he found a second dish within, and inside of
this a live frog, jumping and hopping around gleefully. He gave the
frog food and drink, and by the end of the festival he was grown so big
that Rabbi Hanina made a cabinet for him, in which he ate and lived. In
the course of time, the cabinet became too small, and the Rabbi built a
chamber, put the frog within, and gave him abundant food and drink. All
this he did that he might not violate his father's last wish. But the
frog waxed and grew; he consumed all his host owned, until, finally,
Rabbi Hanina was stripped bare of all his possessions. Then the frog
opened his mouth and began to speak. "My dear Rabbi Hanina," he said,
"do not worry! Seeing thou didst raise me and care for me, thou mayest
ask of me whatever thy heart desireth, and it shall be granted thee."
Rabbi Hanina made reply, "I desire naught but that thou shouldst teach
me the whole of the Torah." The frog assented, and he did, indeed,
teach him the whole of the Torah, and the seventy languages of men
besides.[48] His method was to write a few words upon a scrap of paper,
which he had his pupil swallow. Thus he acquired not alone the Torah
and the seventy tongues, but also the language of beasts and birds.
Thereupon the frog spoke to the wife of Rabbi Hanina: "Thou didst tend
me well, and I have given thee no recompense. But thy reward will be
paid thee before I depart from you, only you must both accompany me to
the woods. There you shall see what I shall do for you." Accordingly,
they went to the woods with him. Arrived there, the frog began to cry
aloud, and at the sound all sorts of beasts and birds assembled. These
he commanded to produce precious stones, as many as they could carry.
Also they were to bring herbs and roots for the wife of Rabbi Hanina,
and he taught her how to use them as remedies for all varieties of
disease. All this they were bidden to take home with them. When they
were about to return, the frog addressed them thus: "May the Holy One,
blessed be He, have mercy upon you, and requite you for all the trouble
you took on my account, without so much as inquiring who I am. Now I
shall make my origin known to you. I am the son of Adam, a son whom he
begot during the hundred and thirty years of his separation from Eve.
God has endowed me with the power of assuming any form or guise I
desire." Rabbi Hanina and his wife departed for their home, and they
became very rich, and enjoyed the respect and confidence of the
king.[49]