''Mishlè Shu'alim'' (, "Fox fables") is a collection of mashal as

fable Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a parti ...

, including fables about foxes, written, translated, and compiled by the English Jewish writer

Berechiah ha-Nakdan Berechiah ben Natronai Krespia ha-Nakdan (; ) was a Jewish exegete, ethical writer, grammarian, translator, poet, and philosopher. His best-known works are '' Mishlè Shu'alim'' ("Fox Fables") and ''Sefer ha-Ḥibbur'' (The Book of Compilation) ...

in the 12th–13th century. Its title reflects an older Talmudic tradition of fox fables (משלות שועלים); for example

Rabbi Meir Rabbi Meir () was a Jewish sage who lived in the time of the Mishnah. He was one of the Tannaim of the fourth generation (139–163), and a disciple of Rabbi Akiva. He is the second most frequently mentioned sage in the Mishnah and is mentioned ...

was supposed to have known 300 of them, and it has appeared in modern Israeli popular culture through the ''

Foxy Fables ''Foxy Fables'' (known in Hebrew as משלים שועליים) is an animated television series produced by Israeli animator Rony Oren. All the characters were made from moulded plasticine modelling clay on metal armatures, and filmed with stop mo ...

'' series. 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 ''Ysopet'' ("Little Aesop") refers to a medieval collection of fables in French literature, specifically to versions of Aesop's Fables. Alternatively the term Isopet-Avionnet indicates that the fables are drawn from both Aesop and Avianus. The fa ...

'' collection translated by

Marie de France Marie de France (floruit, fl. 1160–1215) was a poet, likely born in France, who lived in England during the late 12th century. She lived and wrote at an unknown court, but she and her work were almost certainly known at the royal court of Kin ...

. 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 Rabbi Moses ben Jacob of Coucy, also known as Moses Mikkotsi (; ), was a French Tosafist and authority on Halakha (Jewish law). He is best known as the author of one of the earliest codifications of Halakha, the '' Sefer Mitzvot Gadol''. Biogr ...

. 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 Esau is the elder son of Isaac in the Hebrew Bible. He is mentioned in the Book of Genesis and by the minor prophet, prophets Obadiah and Malachi. The story of Jacob and Esau reflects the historical relationship between Israel and Edom, aiming ...

(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. The hunter captures the elephant and symbolically terrorises the local population, that is, the Jews. Another fable, "The Camel and the Flea", derives from

Genesis Rabbah Genesis Rabbah (, also known as Bereshit Rabbah and abbreviated as GenR) is a religious text from Judaism's classical period, probably written between 300 and 500 CE with some later additions. It is an expository midrash comprising a collection of ...

Editions and translations

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

Moses Hadas Moses Hadas (June 25, 1900, Atlanta, Georgia – August 17, 1966) was an American teacher, a classical scholar, and a translator of numerous works from Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and German. Life Raised in Atlanta in a Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Je ...

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mishle Shu'alim Foxes in literature 13th-century literature of England 13th-century Jewish texts Jewish English history Jewish folklore Collections of fables Animal tales