bi, remembering his marriage vows and his duty to the house
of Israel, made her his wife only in name. One day when they were
sitting at table together, she asked him, "Why art thou so distant
towards me?"

"Swear," he answered, "that thou wilt never tell a soul, and thou
shalt hear the truth."

On her promising, he told her that he was a Jew. Thereupon she sent
him away secretly, and gave him gold and jewels, of which, however,
he was robbed on his journey home.

After he had returned to his joyful wife, who, though she had given
him up for dead, had never ceased to mourn for him, an angel appeared
unto him and said, "By reason of thy good deeds, and thy unshaken
fidelity to the God of Israel throughout all thy sufferings and
temptations, thou shalt have a son who will be a light to enlighten
the eyes of all Israel. Therefore shall his name be Israel, for in him
shall the words of scripture be fulfilled! 'Thou art my servant
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.'"

But the Rabbi and his wife grew older and older, and there was no son
born unto them. But when they were a hundred years old, the woman
conceived and bore a son, who was called Israel, and afterwards known
of men as the Master of the Name--the Baal Shem. And this was in the
mystic year 5459, whereof the properties of the figures are most
wonderful, inasmuch as the five which is the symbol of the Pentagon is
the Key of the whole, and comes also from subtracting the first two
from the last two, and whereas the first multiplied by the third is
the square of five, so is the second multiplied by the fourth the
square of six, and likewise the first added to the third is ten, which
is the number of the Commandments, and the second added to the fourth
is thirteen, which is the number of the Creeds. And even according to
the Christians who count this year as 1700, it is the beginning of a
new era.

The child's mother died soon after he was weaned, and Rabbi Eliezer
was not long in following her to the grave. On his death-bed he took
the child in his arms, and blessed him, saying, "Though I am denied
the blessing of bringing thee up, always think of God and fear not,
for he will ever be with thee." So saying, he gave up the ghost.

Now the people of Ukop in Bukowina, where the Master was born, though
they knew nothing of his glorious destiny, yet carefully tended him
for the sake of his honored father. They engaged for him a teacher of
the Holy Law, but though