Fox Fables

Berekhiah ben Natronay ha-Nakdan (“the punctuator”) lived in Rouen, in Normandy. Berekhiah composed Hebrew works on science and ethics that incorporated material from the Baghdadi geonim, translated works into Hebrew possibly from several different languages, and wrote poetry. Much of our information on Berekhiah comes from colophons written by his son, Elijah ben Berekhiah ha-Nakdan, who copied biblical manuscripts. Later references to Berekhiah describe him as a biblical commentator, though only one such text has been tentatively identified, a commentary to the book of Job. His best-known work, Fox Fables (Mishle shu‘alim), collects and translates Latin and French fables, disseminating a series of legends that were otherwise unknown in Jewish literature. This work enjoyed fairly wide popularity and was printed many times. Berekhiah may have worked in England as well, and he likely crossed paths with Abraham Ibn Ezra during the latter’s travels through northern Europe.