Who Is The Man Who Wants Life? מי האיש החפץ חיים

Yesterday, a student of Learnoutlive came with the following story to our online Hebrew lesson offering me to learn it together. I happily agreed and here is the English version based on Levitikus Rabbah chapter 16.

Who is the man who wants life ?¹

Once upon a time there was a merchant who used to wander through the villages close to Tzippori² announcing his goods in a loud voice : “Who wants to have a Remedy for Life?”

Everybody assembled around him and said: “Give us The Remedy for Life!”

At the same time Rabbi Yanai was sitting in his parlor trying to understand the simplicity of the Torah and to implement it. He heard a voice calling outside his parlor’s window: “Who wants Remedy for Life?”

Rabbi Yanai approached the window and called: “Come up here and sell it to me!”

The merchant didn’t hesitate and replied: “Not to you, and not to people like you.”

Rabbi Yanai tried to persuade the merchant to come up to his parlor several times more, until the merchant finally came, opening his Psalms and showing him a verse.

“Who is the man who wants life?” asked the merchant, “and what is the following verse?”, he continued. “Keep your tongue from evil?”³

Rabbi Yannai added: “King Solomon says:’The one who keeps his mouth and his tongue, keeps the troubles far away from his soul’”.⁴

And so summarized Rabbi Yanai: “All my days I have been reading this verse and I didn’t know how simple it is until this merchant came and notified me.”

comment by the original text’s unknown author:

This is why Moses warns Israel: “This is the law of the leprous.” The law of a person whose lips are raw.⁵

Who Is The Man Who Wants Life ? מי האיש החפץ חיים