The story of Rabbi Bustanai and what happened to Israel through him, and about how the House of David seals with the image of a fly on their seal. In the days of the Persian kingdom, there arose a king lacking wisdom, and it came into his heart to destroy the royal seed. He searched for all the descendants of David throughout his kingdom and killed them, imprisoning their relatives and their kin and all who knew them in prison, and tortured them.
He commanded to pour the broth of their beans upon them to defile and pollute them with forbidden foods, and he decreed that their infants be crushed and their pregnant women be split open. Through the mercy of God upon the seed of the House of David, one bride remained after her young groom from among the best of their young men was killed on the day of her wedding after she had become pregnant. The king dreamed, and behold, he stood in a garden and in it was every pleasant tree to behold and good for food, and he knew that the garden was not his.
He threw its fruit to the ground in the heat of his anger, and afterwards he sat down seeking to investigate further if any root remained to uproot it, so that a surviving root would not sprout and blossom after some time. He found one root with what appeared to be a branch sprouting from the ground, and he raised the axe to destroy it. And behold, an old man stood before him, handsome with beautiful eyes and goodly appearance, and he burned with great anger and cried out a great and bitter cry.
He snatched the axe from his hand and drove it into his forehead, and his blood poured upon his face and beard, and his soul drew near to death. He fell on his face to the ground and wept, and begged for mercy, saying: My lord, I beseech you, do not destroy me, for what have I done to you and what was my sin and transgression that you came upon me to destroy me? The old man answered him and said: Is this small reward for my kindness that you came to my garden to destroy from it every tree and branch and leaf together?
This is what you decreed to kill them and split their pregnant women and crush their infants with the sword and destruction. And when you searched the garden to see if any root remained to uproot it, you found one root sprouting from under the earth. Truly it is so, for there remains one woman of the House of David pregnant with a small fetus recently conceived. And this root that you saw in the dream, and that you raised your axe upon it to uproot it, is what came into your mind to search for them to destroy the royal seed.
And the old man who appeared to you burning against you and crying out is David King of Israel. And that you begged for mercy before him to water its beds until it becomes a mighty cedar branch is what you shall renew and make a covenant from this day forward to guard the fetus with all her relatives. The king answered him: Indeed I know that you have truly interpreted. Now search and seek if there remains a pregnant woman of his seed, and I shall deal kindly with her and set my eyes upon her for good and upon the seed that comes from her, and I shall fulfill all that I promised to raise him and not cause harm all my days upon the earth.
The old man heard these words and could not restrain himself, and he raised his voice and wept, and said: My lord the king, it is true that I have drunk the cup of poison and found its bitterness. I married my daughter to a young man from among the best of their young men, and on the day of his rejoicing with her you decreed to destroy all the House of David, and he perished among them. And I and her relatives were imprisoned, and my daughter remained a widow for many months, and I do not know if she has a fetus or not.
The king said: Go to your house and tell your daughter, behold I have released you today and all your imprisoned companions with you, and behold I have commanded not to afflict you anymore, and I shall set my eyes upon you. The king removed his ring from his hand and gave it to him concerning all these matters. They released all the prisoners, and the old man went to his house, and they told him that God had given a fetus to his daughter.
He rejoiced and gave thanks to God, and all Israel rejoiced. The old man returned to the king and told him, and he rejoiced greatly. The king called one eunuch and commanded him to prepare a chamber in the court of the king's house for the pregnant woman and all her needs and her bedding, and to bring the maiden to him. They prepared everything for her according to the king's command with great honor, with her father and relatives.
He commanded his servants to provide for her a bed and her needs in summer and winter seasons, according to the king's hand. When her days were fulfilled to give birth, she bore a son, and she called his name Bustanai, because of the garden that appeared to the king of Persia in his dream. There was joy for Israel, and the relatives near and far were informed about God leaving a remnant for David, and His mercies and kindnesses were remembered in not cutting off his seed.
They praised the Lord God: 'Do not turn away the face of Your anointed one, remember the kindnesses of David,' and He did not turn away His face, etc. Bustanai grew and became great and learned Torah and Mishnah, Talmud, Halacha, wisdom and understanding. He was reported to the king, and the king wished to see him. He commanded to bring him before him, and God drew to him kindness from David, the kindness that belongs to David.
He stood before him, and the king and all his wise men marveled at this youth. He stood before the king from then until evening and did not move his head nor lift his foot. A fly came and stood on his temple, and he was like a slice of pomegranate. It bit him and lingered on him, but he did not chase it away, and his blood dripped before the king.
The king said: What happened to you? He said: What you see, my lord the king. And the king saw that the fly was eating at his temple, and the king said to him: Why did you not chase it away from your face? He answered: This discipline we inherited from our fathers, for from the time we were removed from the crown of our kingdom, we were obligated when standing in the king's palace not to speak nor laugh nor raise a hand in his presence.
This pleased the king, and he knew that he was a man of wisdom.
The king commanded to have him ride in the chariot of the Mishneh and to give him gifts according to the king's hand, and they proclaimed before him: Thus shall be done to a man who is the head of the exile of Israel, for the king knows his wisdom and understanding. The joy of Israel was great, for God had left a remnant for David. The king commanded him to appoint judges under him and to deal with all the affairs of the kingdom.
He did not disturb the wise heads of the yeshivot, one on the right was Sura and on the left was Neharde'a and Pumbedita, to be judges in his domain throughout the borders of Israel. This practice continued in all Israel for a long time until the king of Ishmael arose and appointed judges and dayyanim who were judges for all nations, and so too for the Jewish dayyanim. But the Exilarchs have not ceased until now.
Therefore, on every seal of the Exilarchs there is a fly engraved on their seals, because of the story that happened with Bustanai before the king, that there was a fly on his temple and he did not raise his hand, etc. The greatness of Bustanai and how the king raised him and how he was elevated above all the ministers and nobles is written in the book of chronicles of the House of David. We saw fit to mention a little of his greatness as proof.
Once the king of the Ishmaelites, Ali ibn Abu Talib, passed by him with many ministers (to the city where Bustanai was, and there were 80,000 Jews there). Bustanai went out to greet him with the Sefer HaYashar and the Holy Scriptures and the sacred names in his hand, and with him was a congregation of Israel, hundreds upon hundreds. He received Ali the king of the Ishmaelites, and he rejoiced greatly with him and asked him for his blessing and to pray for him.
Ali gave Bustanai garments, fair spoil. Ali asked if he had sons, and he replied that he was not yet married because he had not found a woman his age. Ali marveled at this, for Bustanai was 35 years old.
Therefore he gave him (as written in Sefer Archot Olam) the daughter of the king of Persia as a wife, and the maiden was a beautiful virgin, and he did not want to take her. Ali pressed him until he received her from him. Ali said: Is this forbidden to a man like you? Did not David your father take concubines, beautiful women without a ketubah and kiddushin?
Bustanai said to him: The Holy One Blessed Be He only permitted a beautiful captive woman at the time of war, but not at the time of war she requires a ketubah and kiddushin and immersion. Ali said to him: The permission is in your hand to do all these for her. And Bustanai took her as a wife after she immersed and he made for her a ketubah and kiddushin. She found favor in his eyes and sons were born to him from her.
After his death, his sons who were born from his other wives stood against them and said to them: You have no portion with us in the inheritance of our father, for you are sons of a maidservant. A dispute arose between them, and they gathered before him, and all of them ruled that they have no defect from the inheritance of their father nor harm in their lineage. Even though a document of the mother's ketubah is not found, the legal presumption is that a man does not make his relations into licentious relations.
And so ruled the wise men and sages like Bustanai.
All this is written in the book of the House of David, and there are riddles in them in hidden allusions proclaiming their virtues and their kingdom and their might in every generation. [Thus far I found in a small book, and afterwards it was printed in Sefer Archot Olam. See Sa"z at the end and Yuchsin at the end, and I copied below the matter in another manner.] The city of Yuga, which is Pumbedita, is where Bustanai the Exilarch, head of the exile, was buried in the province of Babylonia [(Benjamin of Tudela)].