Folk-lore of the Holy Land: Moslem, Christian, and Jewish by J. E. Hanauer
Legends of El KhudrThis story is actually two separate stories, and I don't necessarily see them as stories but instead as legends. These legends are religiously based and are definitely told to religious people to strengthen their faith and teach them a lesson. The first story starts off in a very amusing manner. Essentially, a priest was doing communion and he spilled it on his foot, so the wine and bread combination burned a hole through his foot and made a spot in the ground. The priest died from the hole in his foot (naturally) and the spot on the ground in the church became a place of healing. People from all around came to the spot to be healed, and it worked. One day, a sultan tried to move the piece of ground, but the God in the story would not let him, interfering supernaturally, so the sultan decided to put the piece back into the El Khudr church. This first story is very interesting to me because it doesn't seem like it has any lesson or theme in it, but rather it just seems to tell a story. I'm sure it has a theme or moral lesson, but it's not coming to me at the moment. The second story speaks of a cave that also has healing properties. A woman had a demon in her, but the Jewish leaders could not heal her, so her friends told her to go to this cave. They locked her in the cave, and naturally she fell asleep because she was all alone. When she awoke, a god-like figure came to her and touched her, which ended up healing her. The now-cured woman saw one of the Jewish leaders in the street and told him this story. This story, like the first one, just seems to be a story with no lesson or theme, just plot. I hope that one day I'll understand what these stories are trying to convey.
Legends of El KhudrThis story is actually two separate stories, and I don't necessarily see them as stories but instead as legends. These legends are religiously based and are definitely told to religious people to strengthen their faith and teach them a lesson. The first story starts off in a very amusing manner. Essentially, a priest was doing communion and he spilled it on his foot, so the wine and bread combination burned a hole through his foot and made a spot in the ground. The priest died from the hole in his foot (naturally) and the spot on the ground in the church became a place of healing. People from all around came to the spot to be healed, and it worked. One day, a sultan tried to move the piece of ground, but the God in the story would not let him, interfering supernaturally, so the sultan decided to put the piece back into the El Khudr church. This first story is very interesting to me because it doesn't seem like it has any lesson or theme in it, but rather it just seems to tell a story. I'm sure it has a theme or moral lesson, but it's not coming to me at the moment. The second story speaks of a cave that also has healing properties. A woman had a demon in her, but the Jewish leaders could not heal her, so her friends told her to go to this cave. They locked her in the cave, and naturally she fell asleep because she was all alone. When she awoke, a god-like figure came to her and touched her, which ended up healing her. The now-cured woman saw one of the Jewish leaders in the street and told him this story. This story, like the first one, just seems to be a story with no lesson or theme, just plot. I hope that one day I'll understand what these stories are trying to convey.
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| Cave of Elijah (Wikimedia) |
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