Mishlè Shu'alim

Mishlè Shu'alim ("Fox fables") is a collection of fable, including fables about foxes, written, translated, and compiled by the English Jewish writer Berechiah ha-Nakdan in the 12th–13th century.[1]

Berechiah was a French native but lived in England. For his collection, which in the edition by A. M. Haberman has 119 fables, he relied in part on the Ysopet collection translated by Marie de France.[2] One of the fables in the collection was appended by the French Jewish grammarian Cresben (or Cresbien) le Ponctateur, an acquaintance of Moses ben Jacob of Coucy.[3]

One of the fables, "The Elephant and the Man of the Field", is to be read in the ongoing dispute between Jews and Christians about the role of the Torah. A hunter attempts to catch the Torah; the hunter, as is clear from the biblical references, represents Esau (who stands for Christian Rome), whereas the elephant stands for the Torah. A group of scholars helps the hunter; they represent the Christian polemic against Judaism.[4] The hunter captures the elephant and symbolically terrorises the local population, that is, the Jews.[5] Another fable, "The Camel and the Flea", derives from Genesis Rabbah.[6]

Editions and translations

The collection was edited and published in 1845–46 by A. M. Haberman,[2] and in 1979 by Haim Schwarzbaum.[1] An English translation with an introduction was published in 1967 by Moses Hadas.[2]

  • Haberman, A. M. (1945–1946). Mishle Shualim l'Rabbi Berekhyah ha-Naqdan. Jerusalem.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Hadas, Moses (1967). Fables of a Jewish Aesop. New York.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Schwarzbaum, Haim (1979). The Mishle Shu'alim (Fox Fables) of Rabbi Berechiah ha-Nakdan. Kiron: Institute for Jewish and Arab Folklore Research.

References
  1. Uther, Hans-Jörg (2006). "The Fox in World Literature: Reflections on a 'Fictional Animal'". Asian Folklore Studies. 65 (2): 133–160. JSTOR 30030396.
  2. Priest, John F. (1985). "The Dog in the Manger: In Quest of a Fable". The Classical Journal. 81 (1): 49–58. JSTOR 3296757.
  3. Galinsky, Judah D. (2011). "The Significance of Form: R. Moses of Coucy's Reading Audience and His Sefer ha-Miẓvot". AJS Review. 35 (2): 293–321. doi:10.1017/S0364009411000407. JSTOR 41310619. S2CID 163080619.
  4. Epstein, Marc Michael (1994). "'The Ways of Truth Are Curtailed and Hidden': A Medieval Hebrew Fable As a Vehicle for Covert Polemic". Prooftexts. 14 (3): 205–31. JSTOR 20689395.
  5. Epstein, Marc Michael (1994). "The Elephant and the Law: The Medieval Jewish Minority Adapts a Christian Motif". The Art Bulletin. 76 (3): 465–78. doi:10.2307/3046039. JSTOR 3046039.
  6. Williams, Benjamin (2017). "Gnats, Fleas, Flies, and a Camel". The Jewish Quarterly Review. 107 (2): 157–81. doi:10.1353/jqr.2017.0011. JSTOR 90006284. S2CID 164469707.
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