Joseph ben Isaac Bekhor Shor "tree of life" (Genesis ii. 9) as "tree of healing", explaining that the fruit of the tree possessed the virtue of healing the sick, without, however, bestowing eternal life. In regard to the transformation of Lot's wife into a pillar of salt (Gen. xix. 26) he explains that, disbelieving in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, she lingered on the road, and was overtaken by the rain of brimstone and fire, which are usually mixed with salt. Well acquainted with the Vulgate and Christian Biblical exegesis, Joseph, in commenting on Psalm ii., cites Jerome, whose explanation of the word he
The Mouse Turned into a Maid man and his cat", while in the Latin explanatory text it reads "De Cata in Fœminam mutate" (The cat changed into a woman). Jean de la Fontaine wrote a separate version of this fable, also under the title "The cat changed into a woman" ("La chatte metamorphosée en femme", II.18), in which he gave the theme of change an extended, thoughtful treatment: Though La Fontaine avoided mention of Venus as the intermediary for the change in his fable, she is there in Christopher Pitt's "The Fable of the Young Man and his Cat", which is turned into a satirical picture