The Bible in Medieval Jewish Creativity

A Very Short Introduction for Beginning Reception Historians

Chris HeardAssociate Professor of ReligionPepperdine University

Note: This presentation is a draft, a work in progress. It will be updated later to give additional attention to visual art, especially 10th- to 15th-century illustrated Bibles and Haggadoth.

Rome falls to the “barbarians.”

476

The Middle Ages fade in.

Jewish literary and visual art thrives especially in Syria-Palestine.*

PALESTINE

* As far as we know from the works that have survived the centuries.

Synagogue cantors such as Yose ben Yose further develop the piyut or liturgical poem, a genre that emerged in late antiquity.

Literary Art: Yose ben Yose

Piyutim* sometimes retell biblical stories or connect biblical passages to worship activities.

[On Yom Kippur, the priest] exults in the fringed linen pants—like an envoy,

like a horseman on the alert, a messenger faithful to those who dispatch him.

By wearing the pants he atones for lechery,for they were prescribed to cover his nakedness.He completes the concealment of his body with

a double tunic,fringed, reaching down to the wrists.

Thus, he atones for the house of Jacob,who sold the righteous Joseph because

of his ornamented tunic.

From a fourth- or fifth-century avodah (liturgical poem for Yom Kippur) by Yose ben Yose, as translated in Carmi (2006). Yose ben Yose is “the earliest Palestinian paytan [liturgical poet] known by name” (Carmi 2006: 87).

Patrons of the sixth-century Beit Alfa* synagogue decorate its floors with mosaics illustrating Bible stories and cultural symbols.

Visual Art: Beit Alfa Synagogue

* Also spelled “Beth Alpha.”

* Opposition to the use of figural images in (places of) worship. ** People who destroy (religious) images.

* Opposition to the use of figural images in (places of) worship. ** People who destroy (religious) images.Bible illustration: the aqedah (“binding” of Isaac, Genesis 22)

* Opposition to the use of figural images in (places of) worship. ** People who destroy (religious) images.Cultural illustration: the zodiac wheel

* Opposition to the use of figural images in (places of) worship. ** People who destroy (religious) images.Liturgical illustration: lions and menorahs flanking a Torah ark (cabinet)

The defacing of figures in some synagogues has led to speculations about a Jewish iconoclastic* movement in the sixth century.

* “Image-destroying.”

However, evidence for widespread Jewish iconoclasm in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages is lacking …

… and some examples of Jewish figural art (both in synagogues and other contexts) remain unscathed.

Eleazar ben Kallir* infuses the piyut form with greater complexity and other innovations.

Eleazar ben Kallir

* Or “Killir.”

Then* shall the gates of the garden of Eden be opened,**

and the seven preordained companies of righteous men shall be revealed within the garden,**

and the tree of life in the middle of the garden.

* At the end of time. ** In the Hebrew text, the last word of the line is “garden.”*** This line is only four words in Hebrew, but requires a long English translation.

They shall hear the sound of their Creator in the garden;

and as once He moved about in the garden,so shall He now move amongst them in the

garden.

They shall see, and pointing a finger at His likeness,*

they shall say: ‘Such is God, our God, and we shall not die.**

He shall be our guide forever!’***

* Ubidmut. ** Velo namut. *** Al mut.

Whereupon He shall show them the three rewards:*

Ziz, Leviathan and Behemoth.**……………

* Nechamot. ** Uvehemot.

Behemoth arches his horns,Leviathan rears his fins—but now He makes an end of the pair,to slaughter, prepare, and consecrate them.They shall be served up as a dish to the

faithful people.*

* Each line ends with the sound -man. | Quoted from the translation given in Carmi (2006).

Muhammad hears a voice telling him to “Recite!”

610

Islam is on the rise.

Muslims conquer lands they, Jews, and Christians all consider holy.

632–661

Muslims from North Africa invade and conquer Spain.

711–718

Christians and Muslims vie for control over Spain …

… for the next seven centuries.

Saadia ben Joseph (882–942)or Saadia Gaon*

* Head of a Jewish academy (in Saadia’s case, at Sura in Babylonia, the most prestigious one at that time).

Saadia Gaon

Want to know more about the Goan? Explore my slideshow on “The Bible in Medieval Jewish Scholarship.”

• Translates the Tanak into Arabic• Writes a rhyming dictionary for

poets• Introduces alternating rhyme

schemes into Hebrew poetry

You [God] are far greater than all architects:for they fix the lower, then erect the upper

part above it;*but You first fixed the heavens, then stretched

the earth beneath them as a haven.O Lord my God, You are great indeed!

Quoted from the translation given in Carmi (2006).

Dunash ben Labrat “introduc[es] quantitative meter and secular genres”* as well as new rhyme schemes into Hebrew poetry.

Literary Art

* Carmi (2006): 97.

The centers of Jewish creativity shift into Europe, especially Spain, France, and Italy.

FRANCE

SPAIN

ITALY

• “[I]ntroduce[s] the full range of Hispano-Arab conventions into the piyut.”*

• Reflects increasing persecution of Jews by Christians and Muslims

Solomon ibn Gabirol (1021–1055)

* Carmi (2006): 101.

Open the gate, my love, arise and open the gate!My soul is dismayed and shaken with terror.Hagar,1 my mother’s slave-girl, laughed me to

scorn; she grew haughtybecause God heard the outcry of her child Ishmael.2In this midnight of exile, I was trampled by the wild

boar3 of the thickets,then pursued by the wild ass.4, 5

Quoted from the translation given in Carmi (2006). | 1, 2 The names “Hagar” and “Ishmael” don’t appear in the Hebrew text; the translator has added them to help readers recognize the allusion to Genesis 16. | 3 Christianity, perhaps represented

thus due to its non-kosher diets. | 4 Islam, through its association with Ishmael (Genesis 16:12). | 5 For reasons unknown to me, the translator has swapped the order of the ass and the boar. The ass comes first in the Hebrew poem.

Christian crusaders retake Jerusalem from its Muslim occupants.

1096–1099

This was the first of several crusades.

Abraham ibn* Ezra (1089–1164)

* Like Hebrew ben, Arabic ibn means “son of.”

Ibn Ezra

• Gains fame not only as a biblical scholar, but also as a poet

• Writes religious poetry with many biblical allusions, but also romantic poems and drinking songs

Judah Halevi (1075–1141)

Judah Halevi

• Lives periodically in both Muslim-controlled and Christian-controlled Spain

• Gives voice to the distress of Jews caught between warring Christians and Muslims

• Presents Jewish suffering as a sacrifice to God

My love, have you forgotten how you lay between my breasts?1

Then why have you sold me forever to my enslavers?

Did I not follow you through a barren land?Let Mount Seir2 and Mount Paran,3 Sinai and

Sin be my witness!There my love was yours, and I was your delight.

1 The speaker is Zion (Jerusalem), addressing God. | 2 The territory of Esau (Genesis 36), associated metaphorically with Rome and thence, by extension, with Christians. | 3 The territory of Ishmael (Genesis 21), associated by extension with Islam.

Then how can you now bestow my glory upon others?

I am thrust into Seir,1 driven towards Kedar,2tested in the furnace of Greece,3 crushed under

the yoke of Media.4

1 See previous slide. | 2 A region in Arabia, sharing a name with one of Ishmael’s sons (Genesis 25:13), and therefore associated with Islam by extension. | 3 Here associated with Christianity, in parallel with Seir/Esau/Rome. | 4 Geographically

contiguous with Persia, here associated with Islam, in parallel to Kedar/Ishmael.

• Writes poetry in the Hebrew language, but in European style

• Uses biblical imagery in ribald fashion

Immanuel of Rome (1261–1332)

Deep in my heart I have resolvedto spurn the garden of Eden in favour of Hell,for there I shall find dripping honey and nectar:all the graceful does and lustful ladies.

What is there for me in Eden? There are no love[r]s

there, only women blacker than soot or pitch,and crones covered with lichen.My spirit would droop in their company.

Eden, what are you to me? You assembleall the maimed women and infamous men.That is why I think of you with contempt.

Hell, I consider you excellent in charm and grandeur,

for you house all the girls in their elegant dresses.

It is you who have assembled all the delights of our eyes.

Quoted from Carmi 2006: 421–422. The poem is a sonnet with an aaaa aaaa bac bac rhyme scheme.

Constantinople falls to the Ottomans.

1453

The Middle Ages begin to fade out.

Christians complete the Reconquista, expelling Muslims from Spain.

Modernity is coming.

1492

SourcesBland, Kalman P. 2000. The Artless Jew: Medieval and Modern Affirmations and Denials of the Visual.

Princeton: Princeton University Press.Carmi, T., ed. 2006. The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse. London: Penguin.Epstein, Marc Michael. 1997. Dreams of Subversion in Medieval Jewish Art and Literature. University Park:

Pennsylvania State University Press.Halper, B. 1921. Post-Biblical Hebrew Literature: An Anthology. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society

of America.Sed-Ranja. 1985. Ancient Jewish Art: East and West. Neuchâtel: Paul Attinger.Tahan, Ilana. 2007. Hebrew Manuscripts: The Power of Script and Image. London: The British Library.Wigoder, Geoffrey, ed. 1972. Jewish Art and Civilization. Fribourg: Office du Livre.

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Walters Art Museum via Wikimedia Commons

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Photo Sources

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