Legend of the glowing pearl

Alexander the Great of ancient Macedonia is a favorite hero in old Jewish folktales. These stories hold a wealth of knowledge of oral Torah for students of kabbalah. One story tells us that Alexander was given the oracle prophecy that he would conquer the entire known world. He would live a fantastic but short life. In order to change the second part of this prophecy he began a quest to find the waters of eternal life. For students of the wisdom tradition we know who these waters are and there deep flowing significance. Alexander sets out on his quest and is told that he must enlist the help of Asmodeus, king of the demons in order to realize his goal. Asmodeus tells him how to find the waters but makes him vow that he will also recover the glowing pearl at the bottom of a well and return this to the king of demons in exchange for the information he needs to find the waters. So yes we must discover and possess our own soul before we may find the Waters. Alexander is about to drink of the waters of immortality from the roots, the spring of the great Tree when a Sar/angel warns him that if he does he must stay in paradise and not return to the bustling world of adventure that he so loves. He decides to not drink of the waters and returns to our turbulent world. On his way he finds that as soon as he recovered the glowing pearl in the well a similar one appeared in the crown of the king of demons and so Alexander was allowed to keep his own glowing pearl in his life journey. In the following weeks this blog will unravel the web of oral torah in legends and stories to understand how it is that we are in a global Chanukah/inauguration of an era of peace. This weeks parsha of Torah/vayigash has the unification of a loving brotherhood with Joseph and his brothers. It also speaks of the journey into the depths of the holy peoples, the land of mitzraim. Oral Torah and Zohar tells us that the mother of Moses was born exactly at the moment that the peoples entered the narrow places of exile. Knowing the right question is often the golden key to the correct answer.
(the events of the story about the glowing pearl is from a book "Miriam's Well" Oxford University Press compiled by Howard Schwartz)