Page:Ginzburg - The Legends of the Jews - Volume 5.djvu/77

Rh $undefined$ The conception that the animals and all created things chant praise to God is genuinely Jewish, and is not only poetically expressed in the Bible (Ps. 65.14, etc.), but occurs quite frequently in talmudic and midrashic literature, where the “singing” and praise of the animals and trees are spoken of; comp. Rosh ha-Shanah 8a; Hullin 54b; ‘Abodah Zarah 24b; BR 13.2; Tehillim 104, 442–443 (read ; the words are an explanatory gloss), and 148, 538.That animals chant praise seems quite natural in legends, since they originally spoke in human language (comp. vol. I, p. 71), and after the fall of man they were still in possession of languages which many a wise man understood; Gittin 45a.Comp. also vol. IV, p. 138, seq.The language of trees was understood not only by R. Johanan b. Zaccai (Sukkah 28a; Baba Batra 184a; Soferim 16.9), but also by the Gaon R. Abraham; comp. ‘Aruk, s.v. 1, and the parallels cited by Kohut, as well as Toratan shel Rishonim I, 63.If we further find that in Perek Shirah inanimate objects also praise God, we have to bear in mind that Hippolytus, Haeres., 9, 25 explicitly states (comp. also 5, 2, where the same assertion is made concerning the gnostic sect of the Naasenians) that according to the Jewish view, “all things in creation are endowed with sensation, and that there is nothing inanimate”.In mystic literature the angels of animals, trees, rivers, etc., praise God; comp. Seder Rabba di-Bereshit 7–8; Tosafot on ‘Abodah Zarah 17a (bottom); Hullin 7a (bottom).Comp. notes 102, 105, 112, and Grünbaum, Gesammelte Aufsätze, 340.The Christian legend knows not only of talking animals, trees, or other inanimate objects like ships, water, pictures, etc. (comp. Günter, Christliche Legende, s.v. “Redend”; Acts of Xantippe, 30; Narrative of Zosismus II), but is also familiar with the chants of praises of all things, which are divided into twelve classes, and utter their praise in turn one hour every day.Comp. the Testament of Adam, and the literature appertaining to it, cited by Bezold, Das Arabisch-Aethiopische Testamentum Adami in Orientalische Studien, 893–912, and James, The Lost Apocrypha 2–4.2 Enoch 2.5 is a reminiscence of Ps. 150.6, while the Testament of Abraham 3 speaks of the human language of the trees; comp. Hagigah 14b.—In connection with the praises enumerated in Perek Shirah the following is to be noted: On the earth comp. Sanhedrin 37b and 94a (“the prince of the earth”, alluded to in this passage, refers to the angel of the earth; comp. note 75); on the sea and the water comp. note 53; concerning the trees see Hagigah 14b.God’s visit paid to the pious in paradise, 