Page:Ginzburg - The Legends of the Jews - Volume 5.djvu/73

Rh $undefined$ death clearly points to the assumption that the view prevalent in the Kabbalah concerning the identity of Satan with Leviathan (comp. note 127) goes back to an ancient tradition.According to a legend handed down from a different version, there are several angels of death.Thus PRK 14b (Schönblum’s edition) states that there are six angels of death.Gabriel is in charge of taking away the lives of young persons; Kazfiel is appointed over kings; Meshabber over animals; Mashhit over children; Af over the other kinds of men; Hemah over domestic animals.On the relation of Gabriel to the angel of death, comp. Ma'aseh Torah 98; Huppat Eliyyahu 6; Zohar I, 99a.  $undefined$ According to ancient sources (comp. note 115), it is the weasel, which lives on the dry land, and if we want to be accurate, we ought to read “weasel” instead of “cat” in the text.  $undefined$ The heart, according to the Hebrew idiom, signifies the intellect.The conception that one can acquire the characteristics of an animal by eating it is well known among all primitive peoples.  $undefined$ 2 Alphabet of Ben Sira 27a–28b and 36a.The text requires many emendations.28a, line 8, read: ; 28a, line 15: ; 36a, 1.15: .On the origin of this animal fable, comp. Ginzberg, Jewish Encyclopedia, II, 680; s.v. “Ben Sira”, Abrahams, Book of Delight, 159, seq.It should be further noted that although MHG II, 45, Sekel, Exod. 29, Imre No'am and Hadar on Exod. 7.14 give different versions of the similar fable found in Yalkut I, 182 (in the first edition is given as source) concerning the lion, the ass, and the fox, there can be no doubt that the origin of our fable is to be found in that about the ape and the crocodile (Pantchatantra IV, 1), which has found its way also into the Alphabet of Ben Sira, where, however, it was combined with other elements.Whether the author of the Alphabet had directly made use of the Indian-Arabic fable literature, or whether he had adapted fables known to him from older Jewish writings, is a moot question.The first alternative, however, is the more likely, since the author knows a number of animal fables, which are not extant in the older Jewish literature.Some animal fables are also given in 1 Alphabet 5a–5b and 7a–7b; but those are found also in the older rabbinic literature, so that the priority of this source is more than questionable.The account of the pious son who was compensated by Leviathan because he had fulfilled his father’s last wish (on this motive comp.. vol. 1, pp. 118, seq.) is known not only to 1 Alphabet (5a–5b), but is also 