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animal farm

a few zoological midrashim about being a person

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg

• 6 min read
animal farm
Tag yourself....? (nine vintage stickers of animals wearing bows and hats and other accessories, with labels like "sly fox" "sassy squirrel," "wise owl," "pretty kitty," "wooly lamb," "brown mouse," "funny bunny" and "slick chick." The dog in the center's is difficult to read. Grey dog?)

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Happy Friday! I hope you had a fabulous rest of your Hanukah, a merry and joyful Christmas, are having a blessed Kwanzaa, and/or are otherwise enjoying this season of rest and celebration.

I thought it might be fun for our last Thurz post of the year to do a few midrashim on the stages of life, through a zoomorphic (and astrological!) lens.

  • What do you think of these?
  • Do you think they're accurate?
  • Any in particular? Any parts?
  • What would you change?
  • How might you rewrite any of them to be more reflective of life today?

They're all from Midrash Tanchuma, which was composed ca. 500-800 ce, in Talmudic Babylon, aka what's now Iraq. Let's do this thing?

1)

Then the seven stages in the life of a person begin: 

In the first stage one is like royalty, for everyone inquires about their health and is eager to look at them. They hug and kiss them, since they are only one year old. 

In the second stage they are like a swine that grovels in dunghills, for a child waddles in the dirt when they are two years old. 

In the third stage they are like a goat who skips about in the pasture. They are a joy in the eyes of their parents. They skip about here and there, while laughing, and everyone takes delight in them. 

In the fourth stage they act like a horse about to run in a race.