Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Berechiah ben
Natronai ha-Nakdan, ("ha-Nakdan", meaning "the punctuator" or
"grammarian"), commonly known as Berachya, (13th century) was a Jewish
exegete, ethical writer, grammarian, translator, poet, and philosopher.
His most famous works are Mishle Shualim (Fox Fables) and Sefer Hahibbur
(The Book of Compilation). Very little is known for certain about his
life and much discussion has taken place concerning the date and native
country of Berachyah. It is possible that he was a descendant of Jewish
scholars of Babylonia. He is thought to have lived sometime in the 12th
or 13th century, with some placing him about 1260 in Provence. Other
theories give Northern France as his home while Joseph Jacobs arrived at
the conclusion that Berechiah should be located in England toward the
end of the 12th century. This was confirmed by Neubauer's discovery
that, in the preface to his fables, Berechiah refers to the "turning of
the wheels of fate to the island of the sea [= England ] for one to die
and the other to live," clearly a reference to the English massacre of
1190.
