The Disappearing Fish

This story took place many years ago, in Morocco, in a city called Rabat.

Many yidden lived in Rabat, and these yidden were poor and rich, at the same time. They were poor because they did not have much money, but they were rich because they had many children.

Their children studied Torah and performed its mitzvos as they should. Their parents were very proud. They felt so rich—they felt like millionaires!

There were many simchos going on all the time, whether it was a sholom zochor, a bris, or a chassunah.

The mohel of the city—who was also the rov—was kept very busy. Almost every day, he had a bris to make. He also had to be mesader kedushin by the chassunahs.

Obviously, the town of Rabat had a brocha for children. A very big brocha. This made the people of Rabat feel very rich.

One day, the rov of Rabat was doing his usual work—davening, learning Torah, teaching people, etc. But, there was one thing that was missing. Usually, the rov had at least one or two brisin to attend every day. But, on this day, there was not one bris!

The next day, there were no brisin either. The rov was surprised. Something fishy was going on. Something very fishy!

Soon Shabbos came. When the rov returned home from shul, he made kiddush, and then made hamotzi on the challah.

After hamotzi, the rov’s wife brought out the first course. Usually, there was fish, but that week there was no fish.

The rov was surprised. “Did you forget the fish?” he asked his wife. The rov’s wife replied, “No. This week I didn’t buy any fish. Lately, the price of fish has been going up.

“The past few weeks were okay, but now, the price of fish is very, very high. I did not have enough money to buy fish for Shabbos this week.”

The rov asked, “How could that be? Why has the price of fish been going up?”

“Well,” the rov’s wife explained, “I asked one of the fishermen. He said that there is a new tax, for a new officer, the Officer of the Fish. This officer does not let the fishermen go fishing unless they pay the tax, and the fishermen cannot sell their fish unless they pay the tax.”

What really happened, was that there was an officer of the king, and he wanted the king to appoint him to a higher position and pay him more money. So, the king appointed him as “The Officer of the Fish.” He was then able to charge taxes on all the fish and keep the money for himself.

Back to the story: When the rov heard what had happened, he thought to himself, “Strange things are happening this week. First there are no babies, and now no fish!”

The rov soon figured out that there must be a connection between the fact that there was no fish and that no babies were being born.

It says in the Torah, “pru u’rvu—you shall be fruitful and multiply.” The Torah says this about human beings, and about fish. The Torah also says, “vayevoreich Hashem es yom hashevi’I—and Hashem blessed the seventh day.”

The rov thought to himself, “When the yidden eat fish on Shabbos, the three brochas (two times pru u’rvu, and then the brocha for Shabbos) come together, and make a chazoko. Then the yidden have a lot of children. But now, that there is no fish on Shabbos, there are very few babies being born.”

The rov knew that he had to somehow make the price of fish go down. The yidden needed fish for Shabbos, and they could not afford to pay so much money for it.

After Shabbos, the rov davened to Hashem to give him a way to bring down the price of the fish. The rov davened and davened, until he finally got an idea.

The rov sat down at his desk and took out a quill, and a piece of parchment. He wrote down a few words on the parchment, and then rolled it up. The rov then went to sleep.

The next morning, when it was still dark outside, the rov got up, and did all the things he usually did. He then took his piece of parchment, and left his house.

The rov then went to the edge of town, by the ocean, and threw the parchment into the water. Suddenly, all the fish disappeared.

What had happened? On the parchment was written special words, that told the fish to disappear. The fish would only come back when the rov would tell them to. Otherwise, all the fish were gone.

After the rov left, the fishermen arrived. They boarded their boats and left to catch some fish.

Well, as you might have expected, the fishermen did not catch any fish that day. So, when one of the king’s servants went to buy fish for the king, he could not find any being sold.

The servant of the king did not know what to do. The king was expecting fish. The king loved fish! The king would get very upset if he did not have fish.

The servant just had to return to the palace, and tell the cook to make something else for lunch, because there was no fish.

When the king saw that he was not going to have fish for lunch, he got furious. “How could there be no fish in the ocean?” he asked the cook. “Did you send the servants too late? Who would send the servants so late.”

“No, your Majesty,” the cook replied. “I sent my helpers to the market, the first thing in the morning. There was no fish.”

The king then summoned his “Officer of the Fish.” He asked him, “Officer, I let you charge taxes on the fish, but now, when I want fish there is none. Why?”

“I don’t know, your Majesty,” the officer answered. “Today, I went down to the ocean, and when the fishermen came, they paid me. But then, when they came back, they had no fish.

“First I thought they were trying to trick me, to avoid paying the sales tax, but I searched them, and could not find any fish. I don’t know what is wrong.”

Well, the king just had to settle with whatever the cook had prepared for him.

After the king had finished eating, he called his cook. He told the cook, “Tomorrow morning, I want you to send someone to the ocean first thing in the morning. The first fish that is caught will be set aside for me. I want fish for breakfast tomorrow. Is that understood?”

“Yes, your Majesty,” the cook replied.

So, the next morning, the cook sent a servant down to the ocean. When the first boat came back, the servant asked the fisherman, “Any fish?”

“No,” the fisherman answered. “Not today and not yesterday either. No fish.”

Soon the next boat came back to shore. They also did not have any fish. Neither did the next nor the next. There was no fish!

“The king will be very, very upset this time,” the servant thought to himself.

The servant then returned to the palace, with no fish. The cook had to serve something else for breakfast.

When the king saw what would be for breakfast, he got angry! Even more angry than last time. “What is wrong?!” he wanted to know. “I told you to send your helpers the first thing in the morning!”

“I did, your Majesty,” the cook said. “No fish were caught today. I do not know what happened.”

The king summoned his Officer of the Fish again. “Officer, why isn’t there fish today? I hold you responsible for this! Where is the fish?” the king asked.

“Well, your Majesty,” the Officer of the Fish said, “I don’t know where the fish are. Something is very strange. The fishermen are not catching any fish.”

“I hold you responsible for everything that is going on!” the king shouted. “You better find out what is happening. I will give you three days. By then, I better get my fish back. Otherwise, I’ll throw you into the ocean, and you’ll find the fish yourself.”

“Y-Y-Yes your Majesty,” the officer said. “I will do as you say.”

So, the Officer of the Fish started asking all the fishermen if they saw anything fishy going on.

“Well, no,” one fisherman answered. “That’s the problem. I can’t find any fishy.”

Another fisherman, who lived right by the ocean, had a possible answer. “The day that all the fish disappeared,” he said, “I happened to wake up early. I looked out of my window, and I saw some Rabbi throw something into the water. It looked like a piece of parchment. I thought it was very strange for a Rabbi to do such a thing.”

When the officer heard this, he went and reported to the king. He told the king, “I think the Jews are messing around with the fish. I think that they are responsible for the disappearing fish, your Majesty.”

“If so,” the king commanded, “bring the Rabbi of the Jews here immediately! I want to speak to him now.”

So, a messenger went to call the rov and bring him to the king.

When the rov came, the king said to him, “Rabbi, something very strange is happening. All the fish have disappeared. Are you behind this?”

“Yes, your Majesty,” the rov replied. “One morning, I went to the ocean, and threw in a special piece of parchment. This parchment told all the fish to disappear. That is why the fish are gone.”

The king started to get angry: “What did you do? Where are the fish?”

“Let me explain,” the rov said. “Maybe then you can help me get back the fish.”

“I would love to get the fish back. I love fish,” the king exclaimed.

“Well,” the rov said, “recently, the price of fish has been going up. You see, we Jews buy fish every week, for our Shabbos meals. But, we cannot afford to pay such a high tax on the fish.

“So now that we do not buy fish for Shabbos, Hashem also took away our brocha for babies. There are still babies being born, but not as many as before,” the rov explained.

The king started becoming frustrated. “What are you talking about?” he asked. What do babies have to do with fish? Just get me back my fish already!”

“Okay, your Majesty,” the rov said. “What I you need to do to get back the fish, is drop its tax. Then I can the fish to return. Otherwise, the fish will never come back.”

“So be it,” commanded the king. “No more tax on the fish!”

That night, the rov wrote another parchment, but this one told the fish to return. Early the next morning, the rov went back to the ocean, and threw in the parchment.

After that, the mystery of “The Disappearing Fish” was solved and there was fish, by everyone’s tish (table).