Folklore Surrounding Falk
Many stories were current concerning Falk's extraordinary powers. According to one account, it was Falk's custom to make clandestine visits to Epping Forest in his carriage, where he was reported to have buried quantities of treasure. On one of these occasions a wheel came loose from the vehicle on the Whitechapel Road, but followed the carriage all the way to the forest. When Falk ran short of coal, he was said to have performed a magical feat involving three shirts and a ram's horn. Falk was also able to keep candles burning miraculously, and to transport objects from one place to another.
Some claimed that he had saved the Great Synagogue from a fire raging in the neighbourhood by writing four Hebrew letters on the pillars of the door. The most famous tale of Rabbi Falk concerns his connection with the death of Aaron Goldsmid, one of the Baal Shem's executors appointed in his will.
Read more about this topic: Baal Shem Of London
Famous quotes containing the words folklore, surrounding and/or falk:
“So, too, if, to our surprise, we should meet one of these morons whose remarks are so conspicuous a part of the folklore of the world of the radio—remarks made without using either the tongue or the brain, spouted much like the spoutings of small whales—we should recognize him as below the level of nature but not as below the level of the imagination.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“The opening of large tracts by the ice-cutters commonly causes a pond to break up earlier; for the water, agitated by the wind, even in cold weather, wears away the surrounding ice.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Americans are rather like bad Bulgarian wine: they don’t travel well.”
—Bernard Falk (1943–1990)