The County Judge

The Russian poet S Frug took it as the subject of an epic: Or else your God
appears
to have abandoned you. He found it in the 13th century commentary Or
Zarua by R Isaac,
who attributes the writing to R Ephraim, who claims it was R Amnon,
who is unknown apart from this one story about his friendship
with the otherwise unnamed county judge.
They met daily. The judge didn’t use force.
He harbored the hope that a Rabbi would succumb
but he as much wanted the company of an educated person.
An inspecting officer looks at every one of his troops, Rabbi.
He requested. And listen, back then every county judge considered it a
challenge to cause a Jew to abandon faith. It’s clear then

what interest the county judge had in making relations with R Amnon.
Note the words of the county judge, Fulfill my will.
Yet what interest did R Amnon have? R Yannai found a handwritten letter
by R Ephraim. “Because of his resistance to their daily pleading.”
Translation: Yet I’ll determine my own sentence.

The county judge sent around. R Amnon refused to go.
“He refused to eat or to drink because he had already resolved to end his
life.”
Amnon was brought in before the county judge,
his friend, and requested three days to consider the offer.

He regretted giving even the pretense. On the fourth day,
when he was rebuked for his failure to appear, R Amnon pled
to have his tongue removed. R Amnon suggested such a punishment even
though it would have meant the composition were unspoken.
Instead the county judge ordered his arms and legs amputated.

After each amputation R Amnon refused the opportunity.
“Being dead once already.”
The knife was raised twenty times just because of that which he left in his
mouth.
Then he was sent home as a field snake.
Alternatively, after completing the amputation
the judge sent Amnon and his limbs to the county dump. That’s why he’s
known as R Amnon.
You see the name Amnon wasn’t popular in Ashkenaz
because it was the name of David’s son who raped his half-sister Tamar.
R Ephraim says, The striking R Amnon
but R Isaac says, the infected R Amnon as he lay on his death.

The holidays arrived.
In other words what had happened to R Amnon was inscribed one year
before.
He made the composition on Rosh Hashanah.
The story contains an ambiguous phrase: “And his body immediately
disappeared” “with reference to his own history.”

Others say his brother-in-law gathered the bones and buried them in a cave
next to the muddy creek.
The town heard the cry overcome the cave and reported the noise.
The judge announced, The court knows the reason and is satisfied.

In another version the judge responded, Even if what I do causes the world
to be destroyed.
Three decades later R Amnon appeared to R Kalonymos in a dream and
taught him the composition.
In fact, the above story concerning the county judge
shares three elements with the eventual story of R Kalonymos:
1 The request for time to consult,
2 A statement about the beauty of the victim and 3 The detailed torture.

You see, because R Amnon visited R Kalonymos
things were there and no one knew their presence behind the closed gate
except Kalonymos.

They began to hang skeletons again in Mainz. The world was at odds.
One night, under the smell of lambgrease even the bailiffs
who had promised to protect Kalonymos fled.
The judge, fearing that the people would turn on him,
fled, because he had initially tried to protect R Kalonymos.
The hold R Kalonymos had on his neighbors weakened.
Now is not the time to ponder thinking.
Some tried to leave through the basement of the courthouse.
When they reached the window, the opening was too small
to pass through and they were caught.
Before the judge returned R Kalonymos took his kid,
kissed and slaughtered them. Word got back to the judge,
who said, Now I won’t provide any assistance to those people.
The people heard what the judge said.
R Kalonymos learned what the judge said
and took the knife with him to the courthouse.
They hit R Kalonymos with a slab of chestnut wood until he died.
They cut his appendage and brought it to the judge.
Others say R Kalonymos never returned to the judge
after taking his kid’s life, but died first.

A third opinion suggested that the Crusaders found him
on the road and killed him there.