‘Olam, II, 5, seq. The following account by R. Akiba goes back to an Indian fable. R. Akiba saw once a lion, a dog, and a lizard (אנקקניתא is akin to Hebrew אנקה); the lion wanted to attack the dog, but could not carry out his plan out of fear of the lizard (read צדי), which is the protector of the lion, whereas the dog is the protector of the lizard. Tehillim 104, 445.
191 Shabbat 77b. The sentence “Whatever, etc.” literally agrees with that of Aristotle, De Coelo, I, 4: Ό δἐ θεὀς καἰ ἡ φύσις ούδἐν πάτην ποιοῦσιν. Many a species of animal was only created on account of a single specimen to which some special historical mission was assigned. For instance, the gnat that lives only one day was destined to cause the death of Titus (it crept through his nose into his brains); Gittin 56b; 2 Alphabet of Ben Sira 24a; BR 10.7; WR 22.1; Koheleth 5.8; Koheleth Z., 104; BaR 18.22; Tan. B. IV, 98, seq.; Tan. Hukkat 1; ShR 10.1. Comp. also Ecclu. 39.28–34. The emphasis frequently laid on the statement that everything in nature has a mission to perform, so that even the bad may be applied as a means to attain the good, is directed against the view of the Persians, according to which all noxious animals are the creation of the god Ahriman. See Lactantius, Institutiones, 7.4, who like the Rabbis emphasized the usefulness of all created things.
192 ‘Erubin 100b, where the monogamous life of the dove is pointed out as a moral lesson which may be derived from nature. The statement concerning grasshoppers, storks, and frogs are found in Shebet Musar 22, 70b and 73c, as well as 31, 98a (comp. also note 190), the source or sources of which are not known. On the frog, comp. Löw in Florilegium…M. de Vogue, 398, and below, note 194. A description of the superiority of many animals over man in moral and physical respects is contained in part 15 of Ben ha-Melek. On the ant comp. DR 5.2.
193 Tosefta Yoma 2.5 and Babli 38a, as well as ShR 17.1, where this idea, derived from the Bible (Is. 43.7 and Prov. 16.4), is fully developed. The creation is the revelation of God’s majesty and splendor in nature; comp. vol. I, p. 3, and note 2 on vol. I, p. 49.
194 Perek (Pirke) Shirah. On the oldest source where this small treatise is made use of and on its history, comp. Steinschneider, Hebräische Bibliographie, XIII, 103, 106, and Zunz, Magazin, XVIII, 301–302. It is questionable whether, as Steinschneider maintains, this treatise was influenced by the fable of the contest of animals which plays an important role in the writings of the Pure Brethren.
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