ABSTRACT
The Legend of the Three and Four is the most important work written by Hayyim Nahman Bialik after he left Russia in 1922. It belongs to the same genre as "The Scroll of Fire," a prose poem composed in 1905. Both works are based upon ancient Rabbinic legends. "The Scroll of Fire" utilizes and refines several Jewish legends about the heavenly fire once used on the altar of the Temple in Jerusalem, which was salvaged and hidden in a cave in a distant land. Netanyah, the protagonist of The Legend of the Three and Four, after much anguish, penetrates the tower, wins the princess, and the two return triumphantly to celebrate their marriage in Jerusalem at King Solomon's court. The emerald carried by Netanyah as a gift to the Temple in Jerusalem was a gem that once belonged to his dead mother.
