TRADITION Questions: The Pawed Prince
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What is it?
In a viral trend, Russian teenagers have been dressing up and behaving as animals. Footage on social media shows young people donned in masks and paws crawling around on all fours while growling and meowing, sometimes even confronting strangers. Known as quadrobers or kvadrobers, they have prompted a crackdown from Russian police, with some Russian politicians blaming the craze on nefarious Western influence.
Why does it matter?
Children playing as animals is nothing new. A classic Hasidic story revolves around this premise.
R. Noson Sternhartz (1780-1844) – the primary disciple of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov – records his master’s story of the Rooster Prince (“Ha-Mashal meha-Hindik,” recorded in Kokhvei Or, p. 191). A young prince behaves as if he is a rooster. He takes off his clothes, sits naked under the table, and pecks at his food on the floor. The king and queen are horrified that their heir has lost his mind. They call in various experts to convince the prince to act human again. They all fail. A wise man comes to the palace and claims that he can cure the prince. He takes off his clothes and sits naked under the table with the prince, claiming to be a rooster, too. Gradually the prince comes to accept him as a friend. The sage then tells the prince that a rooster can wear clothes, eat at the table, etc. The Rooster Prince accepts this idea and, step-by-step, begins to act human, until he is completely cured.
In the context of early nineteenth-century Judaism, the story is understood as a response to the abandonment of faith. Rather than condemn the maskilim of his day for being non-religious, the Rebbe “descends” to their level to meet them where they are, showing them how to return to God, step by step. The phenomenon was addressed by many writers, perhaps most famously by R. Avraham Yitzhak Kook in his Ma’amar ha-Dor and by R. Kalonymus Kalman Shapira in Hovot ha-Talmidim. While parents and educators may retain some instincts akin to those of Russian politicians (at least in the eyes of their teenage children!), today’s popular educational philosophy has embraced the lesson of the Rooster Prince.
What questions remain?
Does the quadrobe phenomenon reflect a loss of faith like the metaphorical readings of the Rooster Prince? Is the phenomenon a form of protest where more traditional forms of protest are impossible? Who is the wise man who might go “under the table” and join today’s quadrobers?
Before the story becomes a metaphor for inter-generational tension and innovative education, the Rooster Prince is a story about mental health. Does the parable belittle a child’s inner torment with the wise man’s simple solution to his problem? What other mental health crises might be read into the classic parable, for good or for ill?
Is there a price to be paid if wise men undress and go under the table with princes? Do educators who meet students at their level lower the ceiling for those students’ potential?
In Parashat Vayhi, Jacob compares Judah to a lion, Yissachar to a donkey, Dan to a snake, Naftali to a deer, and Benjamin to a wolf. R. Jacob ben Asher begins his Tur with the words of Judah ben Tema, “Be as strong as a leopard and as swift as an eagle; fleet as a gazelle and mighty as a lion, to perform the will of your Father in Heaven” (Avot 5:20). Animals serve in the context of blessings and religious aspiration. How might we follow Jacob and envision the unique potential of our children amidst the palette of God’s amazing creatures?
Chaim Strauchler, rabbi of Rinat Yisrael in Teaneck, is an Associate Editor of TRADITION.