Honi The Circlemaker: Eco-Fables from Ancient Israel
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Authors
Schwartz, Barry L.
Issue Date
1993
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Type
Book, Whole
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Abstract
Here are nine stories on 32 pages after an introduction to the story-teller and an introduction to the character of Honi. The introduction to the story-teller comments well on the dimensions of these stories relating to the annual cycle of holidays, the geography and history of Israel, and central Jewish ethical qualities like reverence, justice, and compassion. The time setting for the stories is the first century B.C.E. There are three stories about Honi in the Talmud. The rest here is straight from Schwartz's imagination. Kids know Honi for his associations with carob trees, rain-making, and falling asleep for a long time. The first story, The Carob Tree, is simple and touching. In it Honi asks an old man why he would plant a carob tree that will take seventy years to bear fruit. The man replies: Just as my ancestors planted for me, so I will plant for my children (15). The second story associates Honi with circles--the circles of his body, the hoops of the barrels he makes, and the circles he talks in. The third story is the basis, I take it, of his fame. In a drought, Honi made a circle and promised he would not move from it before God brought rain on the land. In fact, the downpour that came threatened to become a flood. The fourth story has Honi going out on a beautiful day and dreaming. He recalls the word of the prophet: Speak to the earth, and it will teach you. The earth speaks to him of blossoming, and he forms his purpose to plant carobs all over Israel. He does just that, for example, when he is told by a Roman to stay put until he returns. Honi goes to a nearby carob, blesses it with a wish that its offspring be just like it, and soon there are seven trees where there had been one. One story tells of Honi's gifts as a reconciling matchmaker, who persuades a father to let his daughter marry the man who loves her. He is rescued from certain death by some Nabatean traders whom he had befriended along his way. They ask him in return only to help some other person find his way--and to keep planting carobs. His family and townsfolk pledge to finish the circle he has started. There are simple illustrations along the way.
Description
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Publisher
The Friendship Press
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PubMed ID
DOI
Identifier
4264 (Access ID)