Page:Ginzburg - The Legends of the Jews - Volume 5.djvu/64

139] $undefined$ the Messiah a new Torah will be given which will dispense with the present dietary laws.Nistarot R. Simeon 8 reads: Behemoth will be slaughtered, Leviathan (a fish does not require to be killed ritually) will be torn by Ziz, and the latter slaughtered by Moses.In view of the description of the contest between Behemoth and Leviathan (comp. vol. I, p. 28), we should probably read in Nistarot, “and Behemoth will be slain by Leviathan”, i.e. by the points of his fins, which may be used as instruments for ritual slaughtering; comp. Hullin 1.2.On the disposal of the three monsters, Leviathan, Behemoth, and Ziz, that is, the representatives of the three animal kingdoms, at the Messianic banquet, see Tehillim 18, 153, and 23, 202, whence the statement found in later writings (Kad ha-Kemah, end of letter, 93a; Levita, Tishbi, s.v. ) that the bird Bar Yokni will be used as food for the pious in Messianic times.No trace is found in older sources of the identity of this bird with Ziz; but since (Job 49.13) is according to Bekorot 57b, the same as Bar Yokni, and in the opinion of Targum, ad loc., it is the same as  i.e., Ziz (comp. Targum Ps. 50.11), it was quite natural for the later authorities to identify Bar Yokni with Ziz.In most of the Ziz legends the dependence upon Iranic mythology is evident.The “heavenly singer and seer” is naturally the sacred cock of Avesta (Vendidad 18, 33, seq .); comp. Grünbaum, Gesammelte Aufsätze, 37, seq.; Rubin, Kabbala und Agada, 23–25; Ginzberg in Jewish Encyclopedia, s.v. “Cock”, as well as note 194.Of Iranic origin is also the conception that the wings of Ziz eclipse the sun.With this should be compared the sun birds of the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch 6–8 and the Chalkidri in 2 Enoch 15; comp. Bousset, Religion, 568.Highly instructive is the following passage in Konen 26, which precedes the description of the creation of Ziz (comp. note 131): And He created an Ofan (a kind of angel) on earth, whose head reaches the holy Hayyot who is the mediator between Israel and their heavenly Father.He bears the name Sandalfon and fashions out of the prayers wreaths (or crowns) for God’s majesty, which ascend upon the head of the Lord at his uttering the holy name.Whatever is said here concerning Sandalfon is taken from Hagigah 13b (comp. also PR 20, 97a).The connection, however, between Sandalfon and Ziz can only be understood when one considers the fact that Ziz was originally taken as the heavenly singer; he is hence identical with Sandalfon.To quite a different cycle of legends belongs the conception of the gigantic bird Ziz, which will be eaten by the pious in the world to come. 