Ziz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The ziz (Hebrew: זיז) is a giant bird in Jewish mythology, said to be large enough to be able to block out the sun with its wingspan. It is considered a giant animal/monster corresponding to archetypal creatures. Behemoth, Leviathan and Ziz were traditionally a favorite decoration motif for rabbis living in Germany.
Some say that the ziz was created to protect all of the birds and that if the ziz did not exist, then all the smaller birds on Earth would be helpless and killed. The Ziz is also an immortal creature that terrified the people that entered its territory and those who killed birds.[citation needed]
The giant ziz lives on in children's literature. He figures prominently in a story from Gertrude Landa's (also known as Aunt Naomi) 1919 collection Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends. The ziz also appears in four recent books by Jacqueline Jules and illustrated by Katherine Janus Kahn (all from Kar-Ben Publishing) - The Hardest Wood, Noah and the Ziz, The Ziz And the Hanukkah Miracle and The Enj and the Ziz. These books portray the Ziz as an awesome, fiasco-prone, but kind-hearted creature who learns important lessons from God.

