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Fables of a Jewish Aesop: Translated from the Fox Fables of Berechiah Ha-Nakdan
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, Paperback
First published January 1, 1300
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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