WOODEN SWORD SOURCES
(excerpts from posts)
(If you want to retell any of the stories listed below, be sure to obtain permission from the copyright holder if the material is not in the public domain)

1) Howard Schwartz, Elijah's Violin and Other Jewish Fairy Tales. Harper and Row, 1983. In there, the story is titled The Wooden Sword.
Also: The Wooden Sword - from Howard Schwartz's and Penninah Schram's collection of Jewish folk tales, Jewish Stories One Generation Tells Another, Elijah's Violin.

2) Dov Noy, Folktales of Israel (University of Chicago, Folktales of the World series, I think). Story #30, titled Blessed Be God, Day by Day.

3) Partial text for The Wooden Sword by Lynn Abbey.
http://www.lynnabbey.com/html/wooden_sword.htm
The Wooden Sword in book format.

4) The Wooden Sword story is also found in Heather Forest's Wisdom Tales from Around the World (World Storytelling). She cites it as a story from Afghanistan.. Let me know if you can't locate either of these two books.

5) As for a story with a constructive attitude, how about The Wooden Sword, the Jewish story from Afghanistan (and probably a lot of other places) in which the Shah goes out in disguise and encounters a poor but cheerful Jew who mends shoes. To test the poor man's faith in God, the Shah outlaws shoe mending, whereupon, the poor man starts carrying water.

Next the Shah outlaws carrying water for pay, so the poor man switches to cutting firewood. Then the Shah bans woodcutting and puts all the woodcutters in the army, gives them swords, but won't pay them until the end of the month. The cheerful woodcutter is forced to sell his sword in order to survive and carves a perfect wooden replica to replace it.

The next day the Shah has his officer order the Jew to execute a man who has stolen fruit from the royal garden. The Jew tries to refuse, saying he's never even killed a fly, but the officer tells him either he obeys the order or he must die himself.

After praying quietly, the Jew stands and prays out loud: "God, you know that I have never killed anyone in my whole life. Please, God, if this man is guilty, let my sword be so shrap as to kill him in a single blow. But if he is not guilty, let my sword turn to wood, as a sign of his innocence." He then pulls out his sword and shows that it is made of wood. The crowd thinks a miracle has happened, but the Shah knows better. Appreciating the poor man's wisdom, he invites him to live in the palace and become his advisor.
Judy S. 2/13/06
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(This web page updated 11/12/04; 2/13/06)