Aba-Helkiah was the grandson of Honi Gameagela. When the country suffered from lack of rain, the teachers of the law turned to him, asking him to pray for God’s mercy, and through his prayer it rained.
Arriving one day and not finding him at home, they went to the field where he was weeding at that time. They approached him with greetings, but he did not answer. In the evening, having collected a bundle of brushwood, he headed home. He carried firewood and a hoe on one shoulder, and his outer clothing on the other. He walked barefoot the whole way, but to cross the stream he put on sandals. Making his way through the thorns, he lifted the edges of his clothes higher. As he approached the place where he lived, his wife came out dressed to meet him. He let his wife enter the house first, followed her himself, and let the teachers of the law in last. I sat down for dinner, but didn’t invite them to the table. Distributing bread to the children, he gave the eldest a slice and the youngest two slices.
Then he said to his wife:
“I know that the teachers of the law came for no other reason than about the rain.” Let's go up to the roof and pray to the Lord - perhaps the Almighty will have mercy and send rain. And let them not say that this happened thanks to us.
Having arrived upstairs, they stood up, he in one corner, his wife in another, and began to pray. The first cloud to appear was from the side where the wife stood. Having gone down, he turned to those who had come, asking:
- Why, my mentors, did you come to me?
“We were sent to ask you to pray for rain.”
“Well,” he answered, “blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you from the need for the prayer of Aba-Helkiah.”
To this they said:
“We are sure that it was only because of your prayer that it started to rain.” Now we ask you, Rabbi, to explain your actions, which are incomprehensible to us. Why didn't you answer our greeting?
“Because,” Aba-Helkiya explained, “I was hired for day work and had no right to tear myself away from it.”
- Why did you carry the firewood on one shoulder and the cloak on the other?
“This cloak is someone else’s, and they lent it to me to put on, but not to carry firewood.”
- Why did you walk barefoot all the way, but when you reached the stream, you put on your shoes?
“On land you can see what’s under your feet, but in the water you can’t see it.”
“Why did you lift the edges of your clothes while climbing over the thorn bushes?”
“A wounded body can be healed, but a dress cannot be healed.”
- Why did your wife come out to meet you dressed up when you approached?
- So that I don’t start looking at other women.
“Why did your wife go into the house first, and you followed her, and you let us enter last?”
- Because you are not familiar enough to me.
- Why, when sitting down at the table, didn’t you tell us, according to custom: “Sit down and share a meal with me”?
“Because there wasn’t enough bread, and I didn’t want you to thank me in vain.”
“Why did you give your eldest son one slice, and your youngest son two?”
— The eldest stays at home, and the youngest goes to school.
- Why did the cloud appear first from the side where your wife stood and prayed?
— The wife, being constantly at home, gives bread to the poor man, and his hunger is immediately satisfied. I give alms in money - and the hunger of the poor is not satisfied now.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru