This week I am reading from the Biblical Readings.
"
The Sleep of One Hundred Years" is from the
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| Rabbi Onias |
Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends section. I was interested in this story because I took Origins of Christianity with Professor Harper last semester and this story takes place during the destruction of the first Jewish Temple. In a time of war the land and city of Jerusalem were laid to waste. The city was unhappy and all but deserted. Rabbi Onias was traveling the barren land when he came upon a man planting carob trees. The man hoped that the land could be replenished. The Rabbi refused to eat his only source of food, although he was starving. He was saving it for someone who might need it more than he did. He was exhausted from his long journey and eventually fell asleep. As he slept the land replenished itself and grew around Onias. The trees and bushes protected him from his surrounding while he slept for a hundred years. When he woke he was amazed by the transformation. He stayed with his great grandchild for some time before he asked to be returned to the place were he had slept for so long. When he was returned to the spot Onias found peace and slept never to wake on earth again.
My Thoughts: This story reminded me of sleeping beauty in a sense. It combined a journey of despair and the realization of hope. The journey the man began ended with the journey the land had while he slept. It would be interesting to design a story around the adventures his mind underwent as he slept for one hundred years...
Bibliography:Story and Image can be found
Gertrude Landa (1919)."The Sleep of One Hundred Years."
The Sleep of One Hundred Years
I am somewhat confused as to the expectation of this assignment. Would you like us to read each story under the section we have chosen. For example, I chose the Biblical Readings. Do we write a separate post for each reading or combine several of our favorites into one post? The instructions say that I only need one post. Should I just take notes on the others I read?
ReplyDeleteThis is PERFECT, Heather! When you find a story like this that really grabs you, definitely focus you attention on that story. You will probably want to use it for your own story later in the week... unless you find one you like even better in the second half of the reading.
DeleteAnd how great that you took a course with Kyle Harper! Isn't he fabulous? You will find lots of overlap I am sure between the historical topics you studied with him and the reading options in this class.
Also, this is a very famous "type" of story, like in the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, Rip van Winkle, etc. So keep that in mind as a Storybook topic. This would be a great one to bring together stories from different cultures that share the same eerie theme of sleeping and then waking up in a different world!