Rabbi
Moshe of Kobryn told the following story:[*]
"When
I was a boy, I was once playing with the other children on the
first day of the month of Elul. Then my elder sister said: 'How
can you play today at the beginning of the month of preparation
for the great judgment, when even the fish in the water tremble?'
"When I heard this I began to tremble and could not stop
for hours. And even now as it comes back to me, I feel as if I
were a fish in water on the first day of the month of Elul, and
like the fish I tremble before the judgment of the world."
We devote the first Elul edition of JHOM to FISH, the symbol of abundance
and fertility. The legend of the Leviathan,
as retold in Louis Ginzberg's classic work Legends of the Bible,
tells of a wonderfully made and powerful creature with an impossibly
foul smell. From the Apocryphal Book of Tobit we have the story
of Tobit's son, Tobias, whose fate is secured by a fish invested
with magical properties. The rabbis of the Talmud extoll the benefits
of a fish diet and brings us two fish parables from the period following
the Roman defeat of Judea.
Prof. Raphael Patai discusses medieval fish charms,
remedies and customs in Jewish birth customs, and Prof. Gershom Scholem
shares a fish-related story about the 17th-century false
messiah, Shabbetai Zevi.
The fish form asserts
itself in Judaica art and objects, and in
a sensual 1920s painting by Israeli artist Reuven Rubin. Finally, cookbook
author Claudia Roden shares with us the history
of gefilte (and other) fish enjoyed by Jews and a
few recipes, and Dr. Lowin analyzes the fish
rootword which crops up in gastronomy, philosophy and theology.
[*]
About R. Moshe of Kobryn (d. 1858) writes Martin Buber: "I
do not hesitate to count this little-known man among the few late-born
great men which the Hasidic movement produced in the very midst
of its decline. While he did not enrich the teaching, his life
and words and the unity between his life and his words lent it
a very personal, refreshingly vital expression." (from Tales
of the Hasidim, Martin Buber, with a foreword by Chaim Potok.
Schocken Books, 1995.) [Back]
