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Fables of a Jewish Aesop: Translated from the Fox Fables of Berechiah Ha-Nakdan
Fables of a Jewish Aesop Translated from the Fox Fables of Berechiah HaNakdan Author:Moses Hadas (Translator), 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. — Berechiah's stories were drawn largely from non-Jewish sources, the collections of fa... more »bles in the Aesopic tradition which were widely circulated in Europe during the Middle Ages.
To these traditional sources Berechiah added his own narrative details and his own style of writing. With the language of the Old Testament, the author, in the fashion of Biblical commentators of the Middle Ages, used every possible opportunity to introduce Biblical quotations and allusions. Moses Hadas's translation of the work beautifully preserves the Biblical character of the original by using the language of the King James Version of the Bible and by incorporating the passages of the King James Versions which correspond to Berechiah's Hebrew quotations. The result is a translation which reflects the style of the original and retains the Biblical flavor highly appropriate to the gentle and at times ironic advice which the fables convey. The reader of the English translation can thus appreciate what is perhaps the most interesting aspect of Berechiah's work the change which Aesop's fables underwent when viewed in the mirror of medieval Hebrew culture.« less