Fox Fables
Berechiah is known chiefly as the author of a set of over a hundred fables, called Mishle Shualim, (Fox Fables), which derive from both Berachyah's own inventions and some borrowed and reworked from Aesop's fables, the Talmud, and the Hindus. Berechiah's work adds a layer of Biblical quotations and allusions to Aesop's tales, adapting them as a way to teach Jewish ethics. Manuscripts exist at the Bodleian and Munich (207 written before 1268). The first edition appeared in Mantua, in 1557; another with a Latin version by M. Hanel, Prague, 1661; other editions at Berlin, 1706; Lemberg, 1809; Grodno, 1818; Sklov, n.d.; and Warsaw, 1874. An English translation appeared in 1967 by Moses Hadas, entitled Fables of a Jewish Aesop; it has recently been republished by David R. Godine, publishers.
The fables give in rhymed prose most of the animal tales passing under the name of Aesop during the Middle Ages; but in addition to these, the collection also contains fables conveying the same plots and morals as those of Marie de France, whose date has been placed only approximately toward the end of the 12th century.
The following table exhibits the relationship between Berechiah's fables and those of Marie, as well as their connection with the Romulus, the Latin prose translations of the medieval Aesop. These show that Berechiah has only one-half of the additional fables of Marie, and that he has about thirty not in her collection. Some of these are from Avian, others from Oriental sources.
- Comparative Table of Corresponding Fables in Berechiah, Marie de France, and Romulus
The following fable is one paralleled by Marie de France (No. 73), and derives from an Oriental source, probably the Vaka Jataka (Folk-lore Journal, iii.359):
Read more about this topic: Berechiah Ha-Nakdan
Famous quotes containing the words fox and/or fables:
“Perhaps of all our untamed quadrupeds, the fox has obtained the widest and most familiar reputation.... His recent tracks still give variety to a winter’s walk. I tread in the steps of the fox that has gone before me by some hours, or which perhaps I have started, with such a tip-toe of expectation as if I were on the trail of the Spirit itself which resides in the wood, and expected soon to catch it in its lair.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I had rather believe all the fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind; and, therefore, God never wrought miracle to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it.”
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626)