Of the same genre but deriving mainly from west European rather than Arabic sources are the Mishle shuʿalim (“Fox Fables”) of Berechiah ha-Nakdan (“the Punctuator”), who may have lived in England near the end of the 12th century. About half of these tales recur in Marie de France’s Ysopet, and only one of them is of specifically Jewish origin. Berechiah’s work was translated into Latin and thereafter became a favourite of European storytellers.
Among anonymous compendiums of this type is The Alphabet of Ben Sira, extant in two recensions, probably of the 11th century. This is basically a collection of proverbs attributed to the famous sage of the apocryphal book Ecclesiasticus (Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach). In one of the recensions the proverbs are illustrated by appropriate tales. The author is represented as an infant prodigy who performs much the same feats of sapience as are attributed to Jesus in some of the Infancy Gospels. Medieval legendary histories and Haggadic compendiums
Two other developments mark the history of Jewish myth and legend during the Middle Ages. The first was a revival of the Hellenistic predilection for large-scale compendiums in which the history of the Jews was “integrated,” in legendary fashion, with that of the world in general and especially with Classical traditions. Two major works of this kind, both composed (apparently) in Italy during the 9th century, are Josippon, by a certain Ben Gorion, which presents a fanciful record from the Creation onward and contains numerous references to foreign nations; and the Book of Jashar, a colourful account from Adam to Joshua, named for the ancient book of heroic songs and sagas mentioned in the Bible (Joshua 10:13; 2 Samuel 1:18). There is also the voluminous Chronicles of Jerahmeel, written in the Rhineland in the 14th century, which draws largely on Pseudo-Philo’s earlier compilation and includes Hebrew and Aramaic versions of certain books of the Apocrypha.
The other development was the gathering of Haggadic legends and tales into comprehensive, systematic compendiums. Works of this kind are Yalquṭ Shimʿoni (“The Collection of Simeon”), attributed to Rabbi Simeon of Frankfurt am Main; Midrash ha-gadol (“The Great Midrash”), composed after the death in 1204 of Moses Maimonides, whom it quotes; and the Midrash of David ha-Nagid, named after the grandson of Maimonides. About 100 years later a similar work on the Prophets and holy writings, Yalquṭ ha-Makiri (“The Collection of Makhir”), was compiled by Makhir ben Abba Mari in Spain. It has been suggested that the production of such works was spurred by the necessity of providing “ammunition” for the public disputations with Christian ecclesiastics that the church forced upon Jewish scholars during this period. Myth and legend in the modern period Kabbalistic tales
In the 16th century, Jewish myth and legend took several new directions. The disappointment of messianic expectations through the dismal eclipse of the pretender Shabbetai Tzevi increased interest in occult speculation and in the mystical lore of the Kabbala. Important schools of Kabbala arose in Italy and at Safed, in Palestine, and tales of the miraculous Faust-like powers of masters such as Isaac Luria (1534–72) and Ḥayyim ben Joseph Vital (also known as Ḥayyim Vital Calabrese) circulated freely after their deaths.
Another reaction to the dashing of messianic hopes is represented by the beautiful story of the Kabbalist Joseph della Reyna and his five disciples, who travel through the world to oust Satan and prepare the way for the Deliverer. Warned by the spirits of such worthies as Rabbi Simeon ben Yoḥai and the prophet Elijah, they nevertheless procure their blessing and are sent on to the angel Metatron. The latter furnishes them with protective spells and spices and advises Joseph to inscribe the ineffable name of God on a metal plate. When, however, they reach the end of their journey, Satan and his wife, Lilith, attack them in the form of huge dogs. When the dogs are subdued, they beg for food, and Joseph gives them spices to revive them. At once they summon a host of devils, which causes two of the disciples to die of terror and two to go mad, leaving only Joseph and a disciple. The messiah weeps in heaven, and Elijah hides the great horn of salvation. A voice rings out telling Joseph that it is vain to attempt to hasten the footsteps of the Redeemer.
The repertoire of Jewish tales and legends was seasoned by other elements. During the 16th century—the age of the great European navigators—stories began to circulate about the discovery of the Ten Lost Tribes in remote parts of the world. Judeo-German (Yiddish) tales
In the 16th century, Judeo-German (Yiddish) came to replace Hebrew as the language of Jewish tales and legends in Europe, primarily because of the desire to render them accessible to women unschooled in the sacred tongue. The synagogal lessons from Scripture were embellished in Yiddish in the so-called Taitsh Humesh (“Yiddish Pentateuch”), in the more fancifully titled Tzeʾena u-reʾena (“Go Forth and See”; compare Song of Solomon 3:11), and in adaptations of the story of Esther designed for dramatic presentation on the feast of Purim. The Hebrew Chronicles of Josippon also assumed Yiddish dress. More-secular productions include a verse rendition of the Arthurian legend, titled Artus Hof (“The Court of King Arthur”) and based largely on Gravenberg’s medieval Wigalois, and the Bove Buch by Elijah Levita (1469–1549), which retold the romance of Sir Bevis of Southampton.
These “frivolous” productions were offset by collections of moral and ethical tales. The main examples of these are the Brantspiegel (1572; “Brant Mirro”), attributed to Moses Henoch, and the Maʿaseh Buch (1672; “Story Book”), a compendium of 254 tales compiled by Jacob ben Abraham of Meseritz and first published at Basel. The latter, drawn mainly from the Talmud, was supplemented by later legends about medieval rabbis. Jewish legends also circulated in the form of chapbooks, a large selection of which is preserved in the library of the Yiddish Scientific Institute in New York City. Judeo-Persian and Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) tales
A similar development, though on a lesser scale, took place among Jews who spoke other vernacular dialects. Major monuments of Judeo-Persian literature are poetic embellishments of biblical narratives composed by Shāhīn of Shīrāz in the 14th century and by Joseph ben Isaac Yahudi (i.e., “the Jew”) some 300 years later. These, however, are exercises in virtuosity rather than in creative storytelling. Versified elaborations of the story of Joseph appear in Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) in Coplas de Yoçef (“Song of Joseph”), composed in 1732 by Abraham de Toledo and embodying a certain amount of traditional Haggadic material. From a revival of literary activity in the 18th century comes a comprehensive “legendary Bible” called Me-ʿam LoʿḥḲ ą, “From a People of Strange Tongue” (compare Psalms 114:1), begun by Jacob Culi (died 1732) and continued by later writers, as well as several renderings of standard Hebrew collections and a number of Purim plays. Judeo-Spanish folktales were still current in Macedonia and Yugoslavia until the Nazi occupation of the early 1940s, but these stories drew more from Balkan than from Jewish sources. Hasidic tales