#mark podwal

Book #17 of 2023:

A Jewish Bestiary: Fabulous Creatures from Hebraic Legend & Lore by Mark Podwal

An interesting read, but not quite what I was expecting and definitely not as in-depth or exhaustive as it seems like it could have been. This modern title presents encyclopedic entries for 35 different animals described in the Torah, Talmud, or other traditional Jewish texts, explaining how each one was characterized within the teachings and practices of ancient Judaism. As with a true medieval bestiary, some of these are recognizably real fauna like bears, rams, or spiders, while others are plainly apocryphal beings like the phoenix, the unicorn, or the ziz. (My favorites are those that seem to exist solely within Judaic folklore, like the re’emim — a duo of giant horned beasts that are said to walk in opposite directions around the world, meeting only to mate and give birth to a new pair and then die.)

The articles are short but well-researched, and each is accompanied by an original drawing from author / artist Mark Podwal. Still, I think I’d prefer for this to be more mythologically-focused throughout, or at least to include every creature from the writer’s sources, rather than simply a few dozen hand-picked examples. If this book were a complete concordance of greater length I might round my rating up to four stars, but in this abbreviated format, I’m feeling a bit less enthusiastic about the project overall.

[Content warning for antisemitism.]

★★★☆☆

A Jewish Bestiary: Fabulous Creatures from Hebraic Legend and Lore by Mark Podwal

“Ask the beast and it will teach thee, and the birds of heaven and they will tell thee.” ―Job 12:7 In the Middle Ages, the bestiary achieved a popularity second only to that of the Bible. In addition to being a kind of encyclopedia of the animal kingdom, the bestiary also served as a book of moral and religious instruction, teaching human virtues through a portrayal of an animal’s true or…

What a great way to start the day and see a fantastic review from Canadian Jewish News (CJN) “Artist Re-Imagines Jewish Art” for Mark Podwal’s Reimagined: 45 Years of Jewish Art. 

From the review: “Lyrical, joyous, yet often simultaneously sad, the compilation of drawings and paintings by Mark Podwal in his new book –Reimagined, 45 Years of Jewish Art (Glitterati)– speaks volumes of how the artist views the plights and predicaments of Jews through time and place.” (Toby Saltzman)