Edition 19: Fantastic Creatures: "How numerous are your creations..."
The Editor


Fantastic creatures in ancient biblical legend
Introduction by Shalom Spiegel

          Leviathan, king of the fishes
          Behemot, king of the mammals
          Ziz, king of the birds
          The phoenix, most marvelous of birds
          The salamander and the shamir, most marvelous of reptiles

Four creatures with four faces and four wings: In Ezekiel's vision of the heavenly throne
Louis Jacobs

Conjuring up the demons
Jewish demonology in biblical, Talmudic and medieval times

A blossoming bear, a lion embracing a unicorn, and a two-headed eagle
All this and more on the ceiling of the Hodorov synagogue
Ida Huberman

Asmodeus, king of the demons: Not such a bad fellow, after all
Geoffrey Wigoder

Geese so fat and a bird so big.... The triumph of imagination over reason
Louis Ginzberg


Zoomorphic Hebrew letters — free clipart for our readers! Fantastic typography from a late-13th cent. manuscript