Hom
true
the
halfCest.
ing,ked
son
n to
the
O at
hischen
one
wasTheight
washimThe
was
arry
thented
oice
the
the
e.
rea-nth
was
sub-
ame
-
135-
day. The latter, however, brought the case before the sultanbut the sultan and his councillors could not decide. Theycalled the Jewish Rabbi, who caused the two mothers to
57
fill two vessels of equal weight with their milk; that which Schiefen Ralftencontained the washerwoman's milk was the heavier and hedecided that she was the mother of the boy, the milk fora male child being heavier than that for a female. He alsoappeased the wrath of the vizier.
365( 37). Rabbi Eliezer of Worms told his pupils on theeven of Passover that he intended going to Egypt to meetMaimonides. The pupils were surprised at his undertakingsuch a long journey at that time but he, being a masterof the Kabbalah, conjured a cloud and rode on it and inthe twinkling of an eye reached Egypt. In the eveningMaimonides invited him to his house. During the HagadahMaimonides discoursed philosophically but R. Eliezer neveropened his mouth. Maimonides believed him to be an igno-rant man, not knowing who he was. In the morning he warnedR. Eliezer not to go through a street of the Lupanaria onhis way to synagogue, for any Jew caught there would beburned alive. So R. Eliezer went deliberately, was capturedand condemned to be burned. Maimonides and the peoplegrieved. On his way to the market place where he was tobe burned, R. Eliezer called at Maimonides's house andasked him to wait for him before pronouncing the blessingof the wine at the midday meal. Maimonides believed himto be mad, but waited. At the market place, R. Eliezerthrough his magical powers assumed the form of one ofthe governors, a bitter enemy of the Jews, and the latterappeared to the people in the shape of R. Eliezer and wastherefore burned. At the appointed time R. Eliezer enteredthe house of Maimonides and explained to him that hehad come to show him the mystical power of the Kabbalahand to convert him to the belief in it, for till then Maimo-nides had refused to acknowledge it. Eliezer then remaineda yearwith him and Maimonides became a convinced studentof Kabbalah.