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Fables of Jewish Aesop
This charming book is the English translation of the long-famous Hebrew Fox Tales of Berechiah ben Natronai ha-Nakdan, a Jewish philosopher, Biblical commentator, and Hebrew grammarian who lived in France during the late twelfth or early thirteenth century.
- GenresJudaism
233 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1300
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About the author
Moses Hadas
88 books14 followersMoses Hadas (1900–1966) was an American teacher, one of the leading classical scholars of the twentieth century, and a translator of numerous works.
Raised in Atlanta in a Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Jewish household, his early studies included rabbinical training; he graduated from Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1926) and took his doctorate in classics in 1930. He was fluent in Yiddish, German, ancient Hebrew, ancient Greek, Latin, French, and Italian, and well-versed in other languages.
His most productive years were spent at Columbia University, where he was a colleague of Jacques Barzun and Lionel Trilling. There, he took his talent for languages, combined it with a popularizing impulse, to buck the prevailing classical methods of the day—textual criticism and grammar—presenting classics, even in translation, as worthy of study as literary works in their own right.
This approach may be compared to the New Criticism school: even as the New Critics emphasized close reading, eschewing outside sources and cumbersome apparatus, Hadas, in presenting classical works in translation to an influx of post-war G.I. Bill students, brought forth an appreciation of his domain for those without the specialized training of classicists.
His popularizing impulse led him to embrace television as a tool for education, becoming a telelecturer and a pundit on broadcast television. He also recorded classical works on phonograph and tape.
Raised in Atlanta in a Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Jewish household, his early studies included rabbinical training; he graduated from Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1926) and took his doctorate in classics in 1930. He was fluent in Yiddish, German, ancient Hebrew, ancient Greek, Latin, French, and Italian, and well-versed in other languages.
His most productive years were spent at Columbia University, where he was a colleague of Jacques Barzun and Lionel Trilling. There, he took his talent for languages, combined it with a popularizing impulse, to buck the prevailing classical methods of the day—textual criticism and grammar—presenting classics, even in translation, as worthy of study as literary works in their own right.
This approach may be compared to the New Criticism school: even as the New Critics emphasized close reading, eschewing outside sources and cumbersome apparatus, Hadas, in presenting classical works in translation to an influx of post-war G.I. Bill students, brought forth an appreciation of his domain for those without the specialized training of classicists.
His popularizing impulse led him to embrace television as a tool for education, becoming a telelecturer and a pundit on broadcast television. He also recorded classical works on phonograph and tape.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 22, 2021
Many of these stories were unfamiliar to me. Others, I recognized from many previous readings of Aesop’s fables. Quite a lot were fleshed out in ways that confused the storylines.
What clouds these tales are prolix ramblings that mix Scripture with needless details (complaints, physical assaults and verbal abuse are laid out with almost gleeful elaboration), boring repetitive rhetoric, extraneous unnamed characters and contradictory morals that often veer wide of the accompanying story.
In some stories, virtue is rewarded and the wicked are punished; in others deceit and cunning prevail and the deceiver is rewarded for his/her treacherous behavior. Then you’ll read a tale in which a liar has punishment meted out and a goodly person is redeemed. When people offer charity and aid, it is seen as either a kindly deed or a hideous snare, even if the giver sincerely meant well.
It’s a baffling plethora of stories gathered here and perhaps the only lessons you can glean from it are that morality is situational and you must shift your ground and behavior in order to reap the maximum benefit for society, friends and family (but mostly oneself) without losing a hand or eye in the bargain.
What clouds these tales are prolix ramblings that mix Scripture with needless details (complaints, physical assaults and verbal abuse are laid out with almost gleeful elaboration), boring repetitive rhetoric, extraneous unnamed characters and contradictory morals that often veer wide of the accompanying story.
In some stories, virtue is rewarded and the wicked are punished; in others deceit and cunning prevail and the deceiver is rewarded for his/her treacherous behavior. Then you’ll read a tale in which a liar has punishment meted out and a goodly person is redeemed. When people offer charity and aid, it is seen as either a kindly deed or a hideous snare, even if the giver sincerely meant well.
It’s a baffling plethora of stories gathered here and perhaps the only lessons you can glean from it are that morality is situational and you must shift your ground and behavior in order to reap the maximum benefit for society, friends and family (but mostly oneself) without losing a hand or eye in the bargain.
Displaying 1 of 1 review