Ziz (mythology)
Ziz ( Hebrew : זיז, pronounced “Sis” with a voiced S, also Renanim or Sekwi or “son of the nest”) is the name of a giant primeval bird in Jewish mythology .
classification
There is a certain cultural-historical relationship to the other giant birds of the Near East such as Simurgh (Persia) or Roch (Arabia). Ziz represents the element of air and is thus the counterpart to the better-known Jewish mythical creatures Leviathan (sea) and Behemoth (earth).
swell
Unlike this, Ziz is neither explicitly mentioned in the Bible itself nor in the Apocrypha , but only appears in rabbinical literature. David Kimchi (1160–1235) describes it, for example, in a commentary on Psalm 50:11 , which itself only deals generally with the "birds of the sky". The essay “Ziz Shadai” from 1600 was written by Yehuda Leib Karmenitz .
description
Ziz crawled out of an egg that was not hatched by the mother bird, but was left to its fate (hence: "son of the nest"). It should be so big that it can completely darken the sun (Galgal hachamma) with its wings. His legs are so long that he can stand with his feet on the bottom of the ocean, while the water is only up to his knees. A falling egg of the Ziz is said to have triggered an earthquake that killed three hundred cedar trees, while the interior flooded sixty cities.
Ziz is the protector of all other birds that would perish without him. It also protects the fields from the south wind. Both singing skills ("Renanim") and visionary gifts ("Sekwi") are awarded to him.
Destruction by God
According to a hymn called Akdamut or the Talmud tract Bava Bathra , which is usually performed on Thanksgiving , the Lord will destroy the monsters Leviathan, Behemoth and Ziz at the end of time and give their flesh to the righteous for food in a great banquet.
Impact history
Unlike the other two monsters, Ziz was not received in any way by Christian tradition. The bird lives on in Jewish culture to this day, for example in the collection “Jewish Fairy Tales and Fables” by Gertrude Landa (“Aunt Naomi”) from 1919, where Ziz in “The Princess of the Tower” and “Sinbad of the Talmud ”appears. Mention should also be made of the children's books "The hardest word - a Yom Kippur story" from 2001 and "Noah and the Ziz" from 2004 by Jacqueline Jules .