<p>In the beginning, the cat and the mouse were friends. Partners, actually. But according to the Alphabet of Ben Sira, a satirical medieval text composed between 700 and 1000 CE, their friendship ended because of slander - and God's punishment was permanent.</p>
<p>The mouse went behind the cat's back and complained to God: "The cat and I are partners and we have nothing to eat." It was a scheme. The mouse wanted God to give him the food and cut the cat out. God saw through it immediately. "You slandered your friend so that you could eat from him," God declared. "Now he will eat you, and you will be his food."</p>
<p>The mouse protested. God wasn't having it. "Haven't you learned from the sun and the moon?" God asked. The sun and moon were originally created equal in size and brightness, but the moon slandered the sun, so God diminished the moon and made the sun greater. The same principle applied here: betray your equal, and you'll be reduced beneath them.</p>
<p>The mouse begged for mercy, terrified that his entire species would be wiped out. God relented - partially. "I will allow a remnant of you to remain, as I did for the moon." The mouse would survive as a species, but only as prey.</p>
<p>Then the mouse, in a final act of desperate aggression, bit the cat on the head. The cat pounced, threw the mouse to the ground, and killed it. And from that moment on, the hatred between cats and mice was sealed. It's a fable about the cost of lashon hara - evil speech - dressed up in animal fur. Betray a friend, and you don't just lose the friendship. You become the food.</p>