Reading Notes: Jewish Fairy Tales, Part B

One of the reasons I chose this unit was to learn more about the history of the golem, as told in "The Rabbi's Bogey-Man." Some of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books feature golems. Interestingly enough, given that the first golem in this story ends up burning down the synagogue, Pratchett's golems form a volunteer fire brigade. Certainly this story portrays the golems in a more negative light than those of Discworld. However, golems in any world pose ethical questions, such as whether they or their maker, here Rabbi Lion, should be blamed for their actions. For example the second golem turns on the rabbi, but he may simply be fulfilling the king's judgement on the rabbi, that if he truly made a living thing he should be condemned to death. At first glance he may seem simply murderous, but he may actually be the just reward of the rabbi's arrogance. On the other hand, his desire to kill all the Jews in the name of the king could be representative of the king's actual desires. In that case, it should have been taken as a warning to the people.


Golem. Web Source: Wikipedia.

I would be very interested in telling the story from the perspective of the golems, particularly if I could do so without definitively stating whether they were alive or simply like robots. I feel especially sad for the first golem, who was trying to help the children and ended up causing great destruction and killing herself. The second one is more complicated, given his desire to kill the Jews of the city. It would be interesting to explore how his mind, if he has one, came to this conclusion and whether it was truly of his own agency and free will, or more like computer programming because of the circumstances of his creation.

Bibliography: Gertrude Landa's Jewish Fairy Tales, web source.

Reading Notes: Jewish Fairy Tales, Part A

One of the creatures that stood out to me from the Jewish Fairy Tales unit were the unicorns, featured in both the "The Giant of the Flood" and "From Shepherd-Boy to King." I never really thought about which story traditions unicorns came from, and I certainly did not associate them with Jewish folktales. I was particularly surprised that they were so large. Just from scanning the Wikipedia page, I learned that some of the oldest images of unicorns are from the Indus Valley seals and that unicorns were originally known for their strength, not their beauty and innocence. This makes more sense with the flood story in particular.

Unicorn. Web Source: Wikipedia.

"The Beggar King" has a pretty similar pattern to most stories of proud kings. particularly reminds me of the story of Nebuchadnezzar. What stood out to me was that Hagag wanted to stay in his humbler role, and I thought his concern for the blind beggars was quite touching. I am confused by the genie, since I thought jinn were from Islamic stories. According to Wikipedia, there are creatures called Shedim that parallel the jinn, however they tend to be demonic, while this genie is benevolent. Is it an angel?

The most curious story to me was "The Magic Palace." First of all, like "The Beggar King" it is called a Jewish fairy tale yet the main character has the Arabic name Ibrahim, and the mysterious guest (who, spoiler alert, is Elijah, who was Jewish) appears as an Arab. Also, when I first read through it, the moral was not clear to me, particularly the magic palace part. However, a second reading clarified that the entire story was really about rescuing the godly and esteemed Ibrahim from his poverty, and the ornate palace built by magic was simply the means, not the end.

As far as retelling goes, I would like to incorporate a unicorn. So I might retell "The Giant of the Flood" from the point of view of the unicorn. I would also be interested in a sequel to "The Beggar King," focusing on the group of beggars that he served as guide.


Bibliography: Gertrude Landa's Jewish Fairy Tales, web source.