About the story:
The Fox and the Vineyard (השועל והכרם) is a traditional Hebrew story that appears in the Midrash Kohelet Rabbah, and is also told by Aesop.
The story is about a fox that sees a vineyard and wishes to get inside, except for the fact that it has a big fence.
The fox makes his way in, but at the end of the story he realizes that this beautiful vineyard has done him no good, follow the Hebrew story here with the translation…
The story’s Hebrew text:
The Hebrew transliteration:
hashu’al vehakerem
shu’al ra’a kerem veratsa lehikanes letucho, ach lakerem hayta gadeir misaviv.
halach hashu’al mesaviv lakerem, umatsa chor tsar begadeir. ratsa hashu’al lehikaneis derech hachor. velo yachol. me asa.
tsam shlosha yamim ad shena’asa raze, venichnas derech hachor. yashav hashu’al shlosha yamim, achal men ha’einavim ad shena’asa shamein.
ratsa hashu’al latset derech hachor, velo yachol. me asa? tsam shuv shlosha yamim, na’asa raze veyatsa.
hafach hashu’al et panayiv lakerem veamar:
kerem, kerem! ma yafe atta! ma tovim perotecha! ach eizo to’elet yesh becha? ra’ev baati vera’ev yachaati.
The translation in English:
A fox saw a vineyard and wanted to get inside it, but the vineyard had a fence surrounding it.
The fox went around, and found a small gap in the fence. The fox wanted to get through the gap, but he couldn’t. What would he do…
The fox fasted for three days till he became thin, and got through the gap. The fox stayed for three days (in the vineyard), he ate from the grapes and became fat.
The fox wanted to get out through the gap, but couldn’t. What would he do?…. He fasted again for three days, and became thing.
The fox turned his face towards the vineyard and said:
Vineyard O’ vineyard! How beautiful you are! How good your fruit is! But what good are you (to me)? Hungry I came, and hungry I left…
Thank you!
The story is very useful.
It’d be better if there is an audio file, but the transliteration is very good.
Wow. This is a truly amazing book. My mom found it on acidcent while searching for a book on her kindle. We are very interested in the Holocaust and so she bought and read the book. I am 15 years now old and I have done a Holocaust unit in school and studied a lot about it. I have once visited the camp Dachau while traveling overseas. After reading this book, I do feel more thankful and appreciative of what I have. (I know us teenagers can be so selfish and ungrateful at times.) I just want to say thank you to the author for writing this book, and to Rena for having the courage to share her story. She was smart and so brave while surviving. I can say that if I had been in there with the choice to do some of the courageous things she did, I would never have survived. I wish I could’ve met such an amazing person. I will definitely travel to see Auschwitz if I ever get the chance.
The story is very worst