AJS Review (The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies), Vol 19, No. 1 1994

Front Matter Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. i-76 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of t...

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Front Matter Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. i-76 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486599 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:43 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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AJS VOL.XIX,NO. 1 1994

TheJournalof the Associationfor JewishStudies

REVIE

Volume XIX, Number 1, 1994

ASSOCIATION FOR JEWISH STUDIES CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

AJS Review EDITOR:

NormanA. Stillman, State Universityof New York at Binghamton EDITORS: ASSOCIATE

Nehama Aschkenasy, University of Connecticut,Stamford Rela Geffen, GratzCollege RobertGoldenberg,State Universityof New York at Stony Brook BenjaminC. I. Ravid, BrandeisUniversity MarshaRozenblit, University of Maryland EDITOR: CORRESPONDING

Lloyd P. Gartner,Tel-Aviv University BOOKREVIEWEDITOR:

GaryRendsburg,CornellUniversity ASSISTANT: EDITORIAL

Susan O. Savitch The AJS Review (ISSN 0364-0094) is published twice annually by the Association for Jewish Studies. Manuscripts for consideration should be sent to Prof. Norman A. Stillman, Judaic Studies Department, State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, N.Y. 13901. Books for review should be sent to Prof. Gary A. Rendsburg, Dept. of Near Eastern Studies, 360 Rockefeller Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. 14853-2502. ? 1994 by the Association for Jewish Studies MANUFACTURED

IN THE UNITED

STATES

OF AMERICA

AJS REVIEW THEJOURNALOF THE ASSOCIATIONFORJEWISHSTUDIES VOLUMEXIX, NUMBER 1, 1994 Articles 1

R. BASKIN JUDITH From Separation to Displacement: The Problem of Women in Sefer Hasidim

19

DESHEN SHLOMO

BaghdadJewry in Late OttomanTimes: The Emergenceof Social Classes and of Secularization 45

DAVIDABERBACH Fantasies of Deviance in Mendele and Agnon

61

Updated Bibliography of Alexander Altmann's Published Writings

Review Essay 67

David B. Ruderman. A Valley of Vision: The Heavenly Journey of Abraham ben Hananiah Yagel. ROBERTBONFIL

Book Reviews 77

Christopher R. Seitz. Zion's Final Destiny: The Development of the Book of Isaiah; A Reassessment of Isaiah 36-39. MARVINA. SWEENEY

79

Adele Berlin. Biblical Poetry ThroughMedieval Jewish Eyes. ALAN COOPER

83

Steve Mason. Flavius Josephus on the Pharisees: A CompositionCritical Study. SETHSCHWARTZ

ii 88

CONTENTS Solomon Grayzel. The Church and the Jews in the XIIIth Century. Volume 2, 1254-1314. ROBERT C. STACEY

90

Hillel Levine. Economic Origins ofAntisemitism: Poland and Its Jews in the Early Modern Period. DAVIDENGEL

93

Jay M. Harris. Nachman Krochmal: Guiding the Perplexed of the Modern Age. MICHAEL BERKOWITZ

96

Natalie Isser. Antisemitism During the French Second Empire. VICKI CARON

99

M. Mitchell Serels. A History of the Jews of Tangier in the Nineteenth and TwentiethCenturies. SUSANG. MILLER

104

Nathan Rotenstreich. Immediacy and Its Limits.-A Study in Martin Buber's Thought. S. DANIELBRESLAUER

106

Simcha Fishbane. The Method and Meaning of the Mishnah Berurah. MARK WASHOFSKY

108

Anne Golomb Hoffman. Between Exile and Return: S. Y Agnon and the Drama of Writing. STEPHEN KATZ

112

Shuly Rubin Schwartz. The Emergence of Jewish Scholarship in America: The Publication of the Jewish Encyclopedia. HENRY D. SHAPIRO

Collected Studies 115

HaroldW. Attridgeand Gohei Hata,eds. Eusebius,Christianity; and Judaism.

115

Joshua Blau and Stefan C. Reif, eds. Genizah Research After Ninety Years: The Case of Judaeo-Arabic.

CONTENTS

iii

116

Howard Eilberg-Schwartz, ed. People of the Body: Jews and Judaism from an Embodied Perspective.

117

Daniel J. Elazarand ShmuelSandler,eds. Who'sthe Boss in Israel? Israel at the Polls, 1988-89.

117

Danna Nolan Fewell, ed. Reading Between Texts: Intertextualityand the Hebrew Bible.

118

Daniel H. Frank, ed. Autonomy and Judaism: The Individual and the Community in Jewish Philosophical Thought.

118

Saul Friedlander, ed. Probing the Limits of Representation: Nazism and the Final Solution.

119

Peter J. Haas, ed. Recovering the Role of Women:Power and Authority in Rabbinic Jewish Society.

120

Paul R. House, ed. Beyond Form Criticism: Essays in Old Testament Literary Criticism.

120

Lucy Dawidowicz. What Is the Use of Jewish History?

121

Lee I. Levine, ed. The Galilee in Late Antiquity.

121

Yehuda Libes. Studies in Jewish Myth and Jewish Messianism.

122

David Novak. Jewish Social Ethics.

122

HenningGraf Reventlowand YairHoffman,eds. Justice and Righteousness: Biblical Themes and Their Influence.

123

David B. Ruderman, ed. Preachers of the Italian Ghetto.

123

Marc Saperstein, ed. Essential Papers on Messianic Movements and Personalities in Jewish Histoty.

124

David A. Teutsch, ed. Imagining the Jewish Future: Essays and Responses.

124

Jack Wertheimer, ed. The Uses of Tradition:Jewish Continuity in the Modern Era.

iv

127

CONTENTS

Books Reviewed Hebrew Article

Publication of this volume of the AJS Review has been made possible by grants from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation, the S. H. and Helen R. Scheuer Family Foundation, and the Dorot Foundation. The Association is grateful for their support and encouragement.

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From Separation to Displacement: The Problem of Women in "Sefer Hasidim" Author(s): Judith R. Baskin Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 1-18 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486600 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:43 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



FROM SEPARATIONTO DISPLACEMENT: THE PROBLEM OF WOMEN IN SEFER HASIDIM by JUDITHR. BASKIN A gender analysis of some of the representations of women in Sefer and related texts Hasidim finds that the German-Jewishpietiests of the twelfth and thirteenthcenturies express a profoundambivalencetoward women. While Sefer Hasidim places great importanceon happy marital relations,its authorsalso see potentialadulteriesat every turn.Moreover,in their mystical yearningto transcendthe physicalpleasuresof the material world,theygo beyondrabbinicnormsin theirdisplacementof womenin favor of devotionto the divine.This essay suggeststhatsituatingthis ambivalence, and the frequent objectificationof women which results from it, within the largercontext of medieval social historycan expandand enhanceour knowledgeof Jewish social norms,family life, and spiritualityin medieval Ashkenaz. Considerationof the consequencesof genderas a categoryof historical Whilehistorians analysisis a significantdevelopmentin recenthistoriography. of previous eras tended to assume that social circumstancesor historical change affectedthe two sexes similarly,genderanalysishas shownthatthis is often far from the case. Indeed,genderstudieshave shownthathistorical An earlier version of this paper, "Images of Women in Sefer Hasidimn,"was delivered at Mystik, Magie und Kabbala im Aschkenasischen Judentum, a conference held at Frankfurtam Main, December 1991, and was published with the conference proceedings in Mysticisnmand Magic in Judaism: An International Symposium Held in Frankfurt, 1991, ed. K. E. Grdzinger and J. Dan, Studia Judaica 13 (Berlin, 1993).

AJS Review 19/1 (1994): 1-18

1

2

JUDITHR. BASKIN

in many eras affect men and women quite differently.'In transformations addition,introducinggender as a factor in the study of Jewish societies, endeavors,and achievementshas revealeda persistentpatternof limiting women's access to public activities and the status they confer, and has highlightedthe ways in whichwomenhavebeenexcludedfromtheeducation and empowermentwhich would allow them to function and achieve in the male culturalsphereof learningand communalprayerand leadership, even as it has directedattentionto Jewish women'sconsistentlysignificant economic roles, and to areas in which they have constructedtheir own, Such an approach usuallyuncelebrated,culturesand culturalachievements.2 has profoundimplicationsin studyingthe ways women are portrayedin a body of medievalJewish literaturewhich was writtenby men and intended or for a male audience.We cannot find women's voices in Sefer Hasidimn in the other writingsof the German-Jewishpietists;we cannotknow what any individualwoman of that circle thoughtor felt, althoughoccasionally we may know how they acted. Rather,we are left with one male elite's perceptionsof a wide rangeof femalesandfemalebehaviors,bothapproved anddisapproved. Womenare representedboth positivelyand negativelyin SeferHasidim. Generally,women who are partof the pietisticcircle are depictedfavorably. Pietists are advised to marrywomen who share their values, even at the a womanmay certainlybe "pious"(hasidah); cost of parentaldisapproval;3 1. A classic exploration of this phenomenon is Joan Kelly, "Did Women Have a Renaissance?" reprinted in idem, Women,History,and Theory (Chicago, 1984), pp. 19-50. Explorations of the varying effects of historical events on Jewish men and Jewish women include Paula Hyman, "Gender and Jewish History," Tikkun3, no. 1 (January-February1988); idem, "Gender and the Immigrant Experience in America," and Marion Kaplan, "Tradition and Transition: Jewish Women in Imperial Germany," both in Jewish Women in Historical Perspective, ed. Judith R. Baskin (Detroit, 1991), pp. 222-242, 202-221. 2. On medieval Jewish women's activities, see Judith R. Baskin, "Jewish Women in the Middle Ages," in Jewish Women in Historical Perspective, pp. 101-102, 104-107. See Susan Starr Sered, Women as Ritual Experts: The Religious Lives of Elderly Jewish Women in Jerusalem (New York, 1992) for an anthropological analysis of the alternative religious lives of a contemporary community of Jewish women. 3. Concerning the importance of marrying within the pietistic circle, see Judah b. Samuel the Pious, Sefer Hasidint, ed. Judah Wistinetzki, with an introduction by Jacob Freimann (Frankfurt am Main, 1924), Parma version (hereafter cited as SHP), pars. 1094, 1097, 1100, 1112, 1113, 1132, 1879-1881; and Ivan Marcus, Piety and Society: The Jewish Pietists of Medieval Germany (Leiden, 1981), pp. 95-97.

THE PROBLEMOF WOMEN IN SEFERHASIDIM

3

indeed,some suchwomenareportrayedas moreenergeticin givingcharitable contributionsthantheirhusbands.4An exemplarywomanof this milieu,like Dolce, the wife of the Roqeah, R. Eleazar ben Judah of Worms, not only

plays religiousroles, such as leadingwomen'sprayersin the synagogue,but expendsmuchof her energyin supportingherhouseholdso thatherhusband may devotehimself to study,andsacrificesherlife to summonhelpwhenher family is attacked,leavingbehinda trulybereftand desolatespouse.5 Yet women, even the most pious, simply by virtue of their sex, have the potential,howeverunwittingly,to tempta manto sin or sinful thoughts. For this reason Sefer Hasidim recommends extremely limited social converse

with women,includingone's own wife, advising: Each one who wishes to returnin repentanceand achievea statusof piety ... let him forsake'... conversewith his wife exceptwhile makinglove ... and let this not be a burdenuponhim becauseof his love for his Creator.6

Yet maintainingtoo greata distancefromone's wife mayalso leadto sin. For the pietist, happymaritalrelationsin themselvesbecome an essentialfence against the possibility of sexual temptation elsewhere. As Eleazar of Worms advises, "One should avoid looking at other women and have sex with one's wife with the greatest passion because she guards him from sin"; and "since she is his intimate partnerhe should display affection and love toward her."7 Similarly, Sefer Hasidim counsels that time and effort should be devoted to 4. Disputes between husband and wife over giving charity must have been frequent. For several examples, see SHP, pars. 669, 670, and 1715. These are translatedin AbrahamCronbach, "Social Thinking in the Sefer Hasidim," Hebrew Union College Annual 22 (1949): 59, 135. 5. Dolce, the wife of Eleazar of Worms, was attacked with the rest of her household by two armed intrudersin December 1196. The Roqeah wrote a prose account of the murderof his wife as well as a poetic eulogy for her and his two murdered daughters, Bellette and Hannah. The Hebrew texts are printed in A. M. Haberman, Sefer Gezerot Ashkenaz ve-Zatfat (Jerusalem, 1945), pp. 164-167. I have translated and analyzed the prose account in an unpublished paper, "Tragedy at Worms, 1196: The Murder of the Roqeah's Family Revisited," delivered at the Association for Jewish Studies Annual Meeting, December 1992. 6. Judah ben Samuel the Pious, Sefer Hasidism, ed. Reuven Magoliot (Jerusalem, 1964) Bologna version (hereafter cited as SHB), par. 29; also see SHP, pars. 984, 989. The precept that one should refrain as much as possible from converse with one's wife except during sexual intercourse is based on B. Hagigah 5b. 7. Eleazar of Worms, Sefer Ha-Roqeah Ha-Gadol (Jerusalem, 1968), Hilkhot Teshuvah, no. 20, p. 30, and no. 14, p. 27; both translated in David Biale, Eros and the Jews: From Biblical Israel to Contemporarq America (New York, 1992), p. 78.

4

JUDITHR. BASKIN

buildinga positive and creativesexual relationshipwithinmarriageso that the husband'sthoughtswill not strayto otherwomen.8 In an atmosphereso conscious of sexuality,genderbecomes a crucial societal determinant.Ivan Marcushas suggestedthatfor SeferHasidimthe social world divides into three groups, pietist Jews, non-pietistJews, and Christians,and he notes that qualities of wealth or poverty,learningor ignorance,or differencesin societal positionare all insignificantcompared to these discriminations.9 The womenencounteredin SeferHasidimalso fall into these threemajorcategories(with severalsubcategoriesfor each group as well, based on age, maritalstatus,and occupation).But I would argue thattheirgenderunites all women in the eyes of the German-Jewish pietists far more than they are separatedby variationsin religion,level of piety,or social status, since any woman can lead a man into sexual transgression. Indeed,significantportionsof SeferHasidimfocus on such violations,how atonementmaybe undertaken andhowrepentancemay by maletransgressors, be achieved.10How females mightdo penancefor theirsexualindiscretions, however,is not a subjectwhich is considered.The consequentreificationof womenas objectsof desireor causes of sin, but not as sinnersthemselvesin needof redemption,has not beenmuchnoticed,norhas it promptedscholarly explanation. Certainly,from the perspectiveof rabbinicJudaism,thereis little new in Sefer Hasidim's admonitionsto avoid women. RabbinicJudaism,with its acute consciousnessof humansexuality'spotentialfor causing societal disorderif strictcontrolsarelacking,particularly as regardsmaritalinfidelity and consequentuncertainlineage of children,ordainsdistinct separations between men and women, the roles they can play, and the status which pertainsto each sex. In this patriarchalsystem, women as a group are fundamentally"other,"constitutinga separatecategoryof humancreature, and their activities are ideally confined to the privatesphereof husband, children,andfamilyeconomicendeavors,wherethereis muchless possibility of falling into unsanctionedsexual liaisons." The German-Jewishpietists 8. See SHB, par. 509, which advocates a male superior position for sexual intercourse when conception is desired, since this is most pleasurable for the woman (should she achieve orgasm first she is likely to conceive a son), but rules that at other times the man may conduct their sex life as he wishes in order to prevent fantasies about other women. 9. Marcus, and Society, p. 15. Piety, 10. See ibid., pp. 41-52. 11. On women in rabbinic Judaism, see Rachel Biale, Women and Jewish Law: An


5

continue in this tradition; they painstakingly erect as many barriers as possible against encounters between men and women, encounters which were far more common in their constricted urban milieu than in the late antique environments reflected in rabbinic literature. As Monford Harris has noted, "From the days of the Talmud until Sepher Hassidim (and perhaps for a considerable time afterward) there is no other sustained Jewish work where not only is man's love for woman so continuously referredto, but also stated as being so serious an issue.""' Sefer Hasidim recognizes that joyful sexual relations within marriage constitute only a partial fence against sin. The human inclination to extend that happiness through sexual encounters with others cannot be ruled out, and this realization also plays a part in Sefer's Hasidim's ambivalence toward women and fear of the power they can exert over men. A statement like the following, which advises that the pious should not look at the faces or forms of women, and which, incidentally, reveals some of the occasions upon which a man might do so, and the varieties of women he might observe, reflects the tension between rabbinic teachings and medieval social reality: The mainstrengthof the piousmanfrombeginningto endis thatalthoughthey scoff at him he does not forsakehis piety,his intentis forheaven'ssakeandhe does not look at the countenancesof women:especiallyso amongothermen wherewomenarecustomarilyseen, for example,if he has beenin the wedding hall wherethe women were garbedin choicestornamentsandall were gazing but he did not stare,for thathe will meritthe greatgood thatis laid up, as it is written,"whichthou hast laid up for those thatfear thee"(Ps. 31:20). And his eye will be satiatedwith the Divine Glory:"thineeyes shall see the king in his beauty"(Isa. 33:17). For this reasonit is best for the individualwhen he meets a woman, whethersingle or married,whethera gentile womanor Jewish, whethershe be of age or a minor,to turnhis face aside fromlooking at her.Thusdo we find in Job (3:1), "Ihave madea covenantwith mineeyes; how then should I look upon a maid."And thus it is writtenin the book of Ben Sira,"Avertyoureyes froma beautifulwoman,lest you stumbleandincur Exploration of Women'sIssues in Halakhic Sources (New York, 1984); Judith Romney Wegner, Chattel or Person? The Status of Women in the Mishnah (New York and Oxford, 1988), and idem, "The Image and Status of Women in Classical Rabbinic Judaism," in Baskin, Jewish Womenin Historical Perspective, pp. 68-93. 12. Monford Harris, "The Concept of Love in Sepher Hassidimn,"Jewish Quarterly Review 50 (1959): 14.

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penaltiesfor her."So Isaiah33:15,"Andshutshis eyes fromlookingupon evil," refersto him who gazes not upon women at the time when they stand

andlift theirskirtsso as not by theirwash.Whentheywashtheirgarments

to soil them, they uncovertheirlegs, and we know a woman'sleg is a sexual incitementand so said the sage, "nothinginterposesbetterbeforedesire,than closing one's eyes."13

The connectionof Isaiah 33:15 with women washinggarmentsis first made in B. Baba Bathra57b; the statementthat"a woman'sleg is a sexual incitement"is from B. Berakhot24a. It is Sefer Hasidim,however,which makesthe connectionbetweenthese two passages,providingin the process not only a vivid glimpse of how medievalwomenwent aboutwashingtheir clothes, but of its author'sconvictionof the ubiquityof sexualprovocation. Thus, if thereis nothingnovel in Sefer Hasidim'snegativeattitudestoward women as potentialsnares to the righteous,I believe the German-Jewish pietistswere far moreanxiousaboutthe perilsof uncontrolledsexualitythan the rabbis,and consequentlythe concernto minimizemale-femalecontacts as muchas possiblebecamea centralfocus of theirendeavor.As Marcushas noted, "No temptationwas more alluringfor the pietist as sexual relations with a woman other thanhis wife."'4This concernis, in fact, universalized to all men, andthe pietistmustnot only limithimselffromunlicensedsexual activity,but has the addedobligationto protectothersas well. One such exemplum,foundin manuscript,relatesthata pietistwho was teachinghis daughtersto writejustifiedhis actionsas follows: If they do not know how to write,they will be forcedto requestmen to write

theirreceiptsforpledgeswhentheylendmoney.Theywillbe alonewiththose men who writefor themandthey may sin, andthis will be my fault,for wheneverit is in one's abilityto constructa fence for sin andone does not do it, it is as if one has causedit, as it is writtenin Hosea4:13: "I will not punish 13. SHB, par. 9 (some of this passage is also found in SHP, par. 978); translation is from Sholom Alchanan Singer, Medieval Jewish Mysticism: Book of the Pious (Northbrook, Ill., 1971), p. 9. As David Biale, Eros and the Jews, notes about other passages from Sefer Hasidimnand related writings, such narratives also function, albeit unconsciously, to arouse erotic excitement: "In the process of resisting the erotic temptations of his culture, Judah the Hasid ended up unwittingly reinforcing it" (p. 73). 14. Ivan Marcus, "Narrative Fantasies from Sefer Hasidim," in Rabbinic Fantasies: Imaginative Narratives from Classical Hebrew Literature, ed. David Stern and Mark Jay Mirsky (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), p. 236, n. 37.

OFWOMENIN SEFERHASIDIM THEPROBLEM

7

whentheycommitharlotry, noryourdaughters-in-law when yourdaughters becauseit is thefatherswhohavebeenthecause.And theycommitadultery," evenif theydo not sin, theymaythinkaboutit. Moreover, he did notwant them to acquirea bad reputation,andthushe taughtthemto writereceiptsfor pledges,andhe taughtthemthatwheneverit was timefor theirimmersionthey shouldnot delay,for whenherhusbanddesireshershe shouldbe ready,so that

andso thatshewillpreserve he will notengagein badthoughts, himfromall suchfantasies.15

This passageis fascinatingon a numberof levels, not leastin the window it opens into the social realityof women's moneylendingactivities,and in its allusionto apparentdebatesover appropriate levels of femaleeducation.16 Teachingone's daughtersto writeis reportedhereas somethingunusualwhich requiresjustification.And thejustification,while basedon women'sbusiness needs, is not directly relatedto them, but to fears of sexual indiscretions, whetheractualor imagined,which may follow from a womanwho cannot write asking a male neighborfor secretarialaid. It is the duty of the father to constructbarriersto sin, and in this instance,the dangersconnectedwith femaleliteracy,well recognizedanddocumentedin manymedievalliteratures, both Jewish and Christian,as leading to inchastity,are outweighedby the moreimmediatehazardsof frequentfemale-malepropinquity. It is assumed, of course,thatit will be the fatherand not some othermanwho will be the daughters'instructor.Moreover,while it may appearat firstthatthe writeris concernedwith his daughters'spiritualwell-being,it is no accidentthathe immediatelygoes on to stressa woman'sduty to makeherselfaccessibleto her husband'ssexual needs as expeditiouslyas she can, so thathe will not succumbto inappropriatethoughts,possibly promptedby encounterswith otherwomen.Clearly,the drivingneedhereis withpreservingmenfromsin, whetherthe father,who would otherwisebe to blamefor not educatinghis daughters,or the husband,who mightbe led to indiscretionbecausehis sexual needs had not been satisfiedat home, or indeed,the helpfulbut susceptible male scribesto whom illiteratewomen mighthave recourse.The daughters, literateor not, are essentiallyseen as objectswhichcan occasionsin in men, 15. Passagein HebrewMS 1566, BodleianLibraryOxford,p. 178a,publishedin Joseph Dan, Iyunim B'sifrut Hasidut Ashkenaz (Ramat-Gan, 1975), p. 140.

16. FormedievalJewishthinkingon the educationof women,see JudithR. Baskin,"Some Parallelsin the Educationof MedievalJewishand ChristianWomen,"JewishHistory5, no.1 (Spring1991):41-52.

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and satisfactoryandreadilyavailablesex withinmarriageis presentedas the only possibleantidote. Anotherstory in Sefer Hasidimdescribesthe confessionof a man who loved anotherman'swife. His affectionis returned,andduringherhusband's extendedabsenceon a businesstripthe couple,who live in the same house, engage in all mannerof sexual foreplay,stoppingshortonly of intercourse. Still, the man confesses, he did not enjoy doing these thingsbecause"my heartwas intent on having intercourse.For severalyears I acted this way [i.e., refrainedfromintercourse]in orderto receivea reward."He goes on to say, "My fatherdid the same thing.The sole differencebetweenus was that in his case the womanwas a minoras well as married.My fatheralso did the samethingwith his mother-in-lawandwithhis wife's sisterduringhis wife's lifetime."The young manis uncertainof the degreeof his transgression, or if he has sinnedat all: "I am askingyou the followingquestion:MustI repent and do penancefor this? Does my father,even if he acted for the sake of Heaven[i.e., by not havingintercourse]?Or will we receivea reward,since we were saved from sinning?""The resultof consultationwith the pietistis that the man and his fatherare criticizedfor the rathervenial sin of being alone with marriedwomen. This story appearsin the context of individualswho deliberatelycourt temptationin orderto successfullyresist it. Since sexualintercourse,which could lead to an illicit pregnancywith all of its dangerousconsequences for social disorderand confusionof lineage,did not takeplace, the offense is apparentlyminor, although such behavioris certainlynot sanctioned. Although there is some scholarly debate over whetheror not this story representsan actualsituation,"its appearancein SeferHasidimis indicative of German-Jewishpietist concernsaboutthe level of sexual promiscuityin 17. SHP, pars. 52-53; the entire passage is translated by Marcus in Rabbinic Fantasies, pp. 220-223. 18. Harris, "Concept of Love," pp. 24-27, is convinced that there is no doubt of the story's authenticity (p. 24), and views it as "a behavior typical of courtly love in which the 'furtive embrace' [intended to enflame desire while resisting consummation] can take place only outside wedlock" (p. 26). Recently, Eli Yassif, "The Exemplary Story in Sefer Hasidim," Tarbiz 57 (1987-88), has pointed out that this story is related to a folktale tradition found in Arabic literature, and suggests that R. Judah the Pious transformed it for his own didactic purposes (p. 224, n. 20). While Biale, Eros and the Jews, does not believe that this is a true story, he does note that regardless of its authenticity, "the text subverts its stated intent by telling a highly erotic story" (p. 73).


9

theircommunity.Thatpregnancieswere not improbableeventsas a resultof adulterousbehavioris implicitin a passagewhichdiscussesthe extremesto which people will go for the sake of personalhonor:"Forexample,knights go into the thick of battle and even sacrificethemselvesto enhancetheir own reputationandto avoidbeinghumiliated.Moreover,considerhow many stratagemsrespectablewomenadoptin orderto avoidbeingdiscoveredafter they become pregnantas the resultof an affair.Not to speakof thieves! If these people work so hardonly for minimalbenefits,how much the more should [a pietist] be resourcefulfor the sake of his Creatorall day and all night."19 In all these instances,whetherthe reportedillicit liaisonsreallyoccurred, or whethersuchstoriessimplyservethe didacticpurposesof theirteller,there is no thoughtgiven to any spiritualconcernswomenmayhavehadabouttheir participationin such indiscretions.Indeed,womenappearin virtuallyall the passagesrelatedto sexual transgressionsas totallysusceptible,willing, and indeedenthusiasticparticipantswho sometimesinitiatethe activities.20This apparentblindnessto the possibilitythatwomenare also moralandspiritual beings may simply be indicativeof medievalJewishthinkingaboutwomen; it may also stem from rabbinicJudaism'sunderstandingthat a woman's primarydutyis to enableherhusbandto fulfillhis religiousobligations.Were she herself to be involved in penancesand repentance,the entirelife of her family would be disrupted.It is for these reasonsthatan Italiansermonof the sixteenthcenturyexplicitly rebukeswomen who adoptasceticpractices such as daily fasting and prayer,placingashes on theirheads,and wearing sackcloth,denying themselves the enjoymentof even the smallestearthly matters,and vowing to abstainfrom all pleasure.Even thoughthe author admitsthatthe intentionsof these womenaregood andholy,he declarestheir singlemindeddevotionto God a derelictionof theirotherduties.By pursuing this coursea womanhas not fulfilledherobligationsto Godbecauseshe has abandonedher husbandand her home. A manwill turnagainsthis wife and hate her for taking such a course.21It is possible that such fears of social 19. SHP, par. 2, translated by Marcus, Piety and Society, p. 28. 20. See Marcus, Piety and Society, pp. 42, 46, for examples of women who importune men to sin (from Sefer Ha-Roqeah, Hilkhot Teshuvah, par. 1; and SHP, par. 15). 21. Abraham Yagel, Eshet Hayyil (Venice, 1605-1606), 18b-19a; cited in Howard Adelman, "Finding Women's Voices in Italian Jewish Literature,"in Womenof the Word:Jewish Women and Jewish Writing, ed. Judith R. Baskin (Detroit, 1994).

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disordermay also accountfor the obliviousnessto issues of femalepenance andrepentancein SeferHasidimandconnectedwritings. Anotherissue raisedby the presentationof women as sexual objectsin SeferHasidimandrelatedliteratureis thatof social veracity.It seemscertain that Rabbi Judahbelieved that illicit encounters,which on the testimony of Sefer Hasidim might include Jewish men having sexual contact with single Jewish women and marriedJewish women (of both minorand adult status),maidservants,whetherJewishor Christian,andChristianwomenwho were not employees of Jews, were a part of everydaylife in the Jewish communitiesof his time, and his responsewas to set up as many barriers as possible to men's contactswith women, even with women of theirown families. Althoughone may be suspiciousof the enthusiasticroles women, minorsandmaidservants, who weregenerallypowerlessvis-a-vis particularly male authority,are said to play in these episodes,even a cursoryreadingof SeferHasidimstronglysuggeststhatJewishsocial life in medievalGermany had strayedfar from rabbinicnorms. Thus, the concerns raised by these pietistic texts may usefully be approachedfromthe perspectiveof social history.Aretheresomerealisticbases for the German-Jewish pietists'virtualobsessionwith sexualtransgressions? Has a traditionaltendency toward separationof men and women within Judaismbeen intensifiedamong the German-Jewishpietists, not only by pervasiveChristianconcernwith sexual sin, but by social conditionswhich allowed for an atmosphereof frequentmale-femalesocial contacts that sometimesled to sexualpromiscuity? Increasingly,scholarsare recognizingthatthe smallJewishcommunities of medieval Ashkenaz were not significantlyisolated,in language,social custom,or intellectualand spiritualattitudes,fromthe people amongwhom they lived in such close physicalcontactin crowdedtowns.In oppositionto scholarswho have preferrednot to takeSeferHasidim'sportraitof social life at face value, Ivan Marcushas writtenconvincinglythatin regardto sexual promiscuity,as with numerousothertopics,"SeferHasidimis a speculumof the society in which it originated";moreover,"it is unwarranted to dismiss the reality of the sectariandescriptionof the Pietists in Sefer Hasidimas the result more of Judah'sfantasythanof reality."22MonfordHarriscame 22. Marcus, Piety)and Socier; pp. 130-131. Kenneth R. Stow, "The Jewish Family in the Rhineland in the High Middle Ages: Form and Function," American Historical Review 92 (1987), on the other hand, attributes many of Sefer Hasidim's accounts of sexual promiscuity to Judah's "vivid imagination," commenting, "More important than whether Judah believed such


11

to similar conclusions, suggesting the influenceof medievalcourtly love literatureas a major source of Sefer Hasidim'sconcernwith extramarital love, both consummatedandunfulfilled.23 While it seems to me that Sefer Hasidinm's overwhelmingconcernwith illicit liaisonsreflectsthe realityof constantmale-femalepropinquityandoccasionalpromiscuityin thecrowdedurbanenvironmentof medievalGermany farmorethanthe influenceof medievalliteraryromances,bothcontributedto a highlyeroticizedatmosphere,corroborated by othermedievalsources,both Jewish and Christian.As David Biale notes in his studyof social life in this era, there are numerousindications"thatthe Jewish populationas a whole was attractedto a very differenterotic code from the one that the rabbinic authoritieswished to enforce."24 One factor in this social dilemma was that medieval Europehad no traditionof sequesteringwomen comparableto whatis foundin societiesof the Middle East. Rather,women of all classes in this monogamoussociety had considerablefreedomof movement,and,often, significantsocial status. Such conditionsdo not allow for close controlof women'sbehavior.Studies of medieval Christianprivate life describe the efforts of aristocraticand bourgeois households to keep women "underlock and key in the most isolatedpartof the house,"becausethey were viewed as the weakersex and prone to sin.25Despite these precautions,however,even in the aristocratic household"innumerable of privatesexuality, signs attestto the irrepressibility which flourishedin secrecy and obscurity,in the shadowsof the orchards, cellars,and palacenooks and duringthe small hoursof darkness,unrelieved even by the light of small candles.No door was secure,and it was easy for a man to slip into a woman's bed."26With so many people living in close things occurred is his ability to imagine them. Neither he nor his contemporaries suffered from underdeveloped libidos" (p. 1105). 23. Harris, "Concept of Love," writes that Sefer Hasidim "pictures the German community as it really was, a febrile community, full of contradictions, concerns, and unsolved problems" (p. 13). 24. Biale, Eros and the Jews, p. 69; Ephraim Kanarfogel, "Rabbinic Attitudes Towards Nonobservance in the Medieval Period," in Jewish Tradition and the Nontraditional Jeri; ed. Jacob J. Schacter (Northvale, N.J., 1992), pp. 3-35, provides considerable evidence of rabbinic concern about sexual promiscuity in medieval Ashkenaz (see pp. 17-26). 25. Georges Duby, "The Aristocratic Households of Feudal France," in A History of Private Life, vol. 2, Revelations of the Medieval World,ed. Georges Duby (Cambridge, 1988), p. 78.

26. Ibid.,p. 80.

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proximity,promiscuityappearsto have been a constantconcernandadultery an obsession.27 In the urban bourgeois household, to which medieval Jewish family life closely conformed,sexual indiscretionswere also possible. Men undertooklong business trips, and membersof extendedfamilies, including mothers-in-law,sisters-in-law,cousins, and nieces, lived at close quarters. Jewish wives broughtlarge dowriesinto theirmarriages,renderingdivorce difficultandexpensive,andtheyengagedindependentlyin commerce,trades, and moneylending.As we have seen, opportunitiesfor improperbehavior multipliedwith increasedmale-femalebusinesscontacts,whileJewishsocial gatheringsin this period,as witnessedby our earliertext aboutthe varieties of enticingwomen to be met at a weddingreception,apparentlysanctioned mixingof the sexes, despiterabbinicexpressionsof disapproval.Indeed,that mixed companyat such gatheringswas deeply establishedin Ashkenazand viewed as especially dangerousis clear in the followingrabbinicordinance of the eleventhcentury:"it is forbiddenfor men and women to intermingle [at a wedding] whetherat the meal, at the dancing,or at any part [of the celebration].The women mustbe by themselvesandthe men by themselves ... for at a happyoccasion,especially,the sensualpassionsarearoused."28 Such rulingsappearto have been little heeded.In his ethicalwill of ca. 1357, Eleazarof Mainz advises his sons to behave "continently"in their relationsto women, "avoidingmixed bathingand mixed dancing and all frivolous conversation,while my daughtersought not to speak much with while IsraelAbrahamscomments strangers,norjest nor dancewith them,"29 that "manyJews, especially young men and maidens,with some married couples,disobeyedthe Rabbinicalrule,andnot only dancedtogether,butdid so in the communaldancing-hallon the Sabbathandfestivals.""3 Anotherfactoraddingto sexual temptationwas domesticservants.Historians of general medieval social history note that the additionto the householdof maidservants,many of whom were quiteyoung, addedsexual 27. Ibid., p. 82. 28. Sefer Ha-Pardes (Budapest, 1924), no. 149, trans. in Irving Agus, Urban Civilization in Pre-Crusade Europe (New York, 1965), 2:728-729; and see Biale, Eros and the Jews, p. 68, and n. 28. 29. For Eleazar of Mainz, see Hebrew Ethical Wills, ed. Israel Abrahams (Philadelphia, 1926; reprint ed., 1976), p. 211. 30. Israel Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (London, 1896; reprinted., New York,

1969), pp. 380-381.


13

spice to the family configuration, and this is evident in Sefer Hasidim's disapproving comments about sexual liasions with domestic employees.31 Certainly, centuries of Church rulings attempting to legislate against casual Christian-Jewish contacts, and Jewish employment of Christian servants, were based as much on concern about sexual connections as fear of Jewish efforts at conversion. The ubiquity of prostitutes in the German urban setting beginning in the twelfth century, apparentlyone result of a significant surplus of women in cities, also heightened the impression of readily available sexual opportunities.32While Sefer Hasidim attempts to place the blame for Jewish failings on the influence of loose Christian mores, observing that Jews tend to follow Christian social customs in the area of sexual permissiveness,33a study of contemporary responsa literature makes clear, as Biale concludes, "that adultery, real or alleged, was a repeated issue for the German Jews."34 Taking Sefer Hasidim somewhat more seriously in some of its accounts of Jewish social life and sexual activity in the context of serious comparisons with other medieval social and literary documents, both Jewish and Christian, would certainly lead to a more accurate assessment on this matter, albeit a discomfiting one.35 Jews were also influenced by Christian spirituality and religious thought. 31. See SHP, par. 19, on penance for sexual intercourse with a Christian maidservant. For a study of similar extended urban families in which father, mother, brothers, sisters, daughters-in-law, and domestic servants lived under the same roof, see Charles de La Ronciere, "Tuscan Notables on the Eve of the Renaissance," in A Historylof Private Life, 2:157-309. De La Ronciere notes that in this crowded urban setting, "Servants and slaves, many of them radiant young girls, offered the men of the house a distraction that discouraged outside escapades. Bourgeois memoirs are filled with the names of bastard offspring" (p. 294); and goes on to say that "the presence of cousins and nieces could also be disturbing, particularlywhen they shared the same bedroom." 32. Prostitutes were a medieval social reality. The suggestion of a surplus of women in German cities as a contributory factor to the prevalence of prostitution was first made by Karl Biicher, Die Frauenfrage im Mittelalter (Tiibingen, 1910), cited and discussed in Martha Howell, "A Documented Presence: Medieval Women in Germanic Historiography,"in Women in Medieval History and Historiography, ed. Susan Mosher Stuard (Philadelphia, 1987), pp. 116-119. 33. SHP, par. 1301. 34. Biale, Eros and the Jews, p. 73; Kanarfogel, "Rabbinic Attitudes," takes a more cautious approach, suggesting that "illicit sexual encounters were considered in Ashkenazic rabbinic literature as lapses on the part of individuals rather than as a larger societal problem" (p. 24). 35. As Kenneth Stow, "Jewish Family in the Rhineland," p. 1110, has suggested, Jewish scholarship has tended to extrapolate backwards from our knowledge of the ideals governing the institutions and leadership of Eastern European Jewish society in the early modern period

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Robert Chazan has demonstratedthat "close analysis of the events of 1096 has

revealeda set of Jewishcommunitiessociallyintegratedintotheenvironment around them," and shows that zealous Jewish attitudes toward martyrdom

mustbe seen in the largercontextof the intensespiritualethosof Christianity of the late eleventh and twelfth centuries, which very much esteemed death in defense of one's faith.36Similarly, medieval Christian convictions of the

inherentlycarnal natureof humanbeings, the negative role of woman in man'sfall, and the preferableoptionof celibacyfor those who were capable of it, would have been known to Jews. I would contend that the special

intensityof the German-Jewishpietists' uneasinesswith women, and their tendencyto move from separationtowarddisplacement,also owes muchto their exposure to these attitudes. The issue of celibacy is of particularinterest. Yitzhak Baer, in his study of the influence of medieval Christianity on this community, pointed out that the "Jewish mystic-ascetic may never go beyond a certain point in self-denial because of legal prohibitions."37But Sholom Alchanan Singer has noted that this does not set the Jewish mystic-ascetic apart from his non-Jewish counterpart in their common striving and spiritual personality: "In a manner of speaking, both Christian and Jewish mystics strive and achieve the extreme within their respective faiths that is permissable."38I would suggest that while the celibacy which Christian spiritualitycelebrated was not an option for Jewish men, who were enjoined to procreate, and for whom marital sexual relations constituted a fence against temptation, this does not mean that the idea of enforced separationsbetween men and women was unattractive. For the German-Jewish pietists, to constantly temper desire by channeling it to fulfill legal obligations and achieve avoidance of sin was already to practice a sort of celibacy within marriage. This displacement of women from a central role in marital relations was furthered by pietistic traditions throughout Jewish history which have sought to transformhuman sexuality into erotic theology. But perhaps more than for a Christiancelibate, to the medieval Jewish communities of the Rhineland. It may be, as he says, that the medieval Jewish family, and, I would add, its social setting, was something quite distinct. 36. Robert Chazan, European Jewty and the First Crusade (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1987), pp. 195-196. 37. Yitzhak Baer, "The Religious-Social Tendency of Sefer Hasidinm"(Hebrew), Zion 3 (1937-38): 12. 38. Singer, Medieval Jewish Mysticism, p. xix.


15

the power of sexuality, because it was part of everyday life, could threaten to distract a Jewish pietist from his duty to the divine: it could color, invade, and infect the very experience of his eroticized spirituality. As vessels of sexuality, therefore, women had to be objectified, made strangerseven when they were at home. This point needs to be emphasized: what is at stake in the attitude of the German-Jewish pietists toward women is the nature of their own devotion to the divine. As Joseph Dan has written, "God expects the hasid to break the laws of nature, of the human body and soul, and of human history and society"39in the almost impossible effort to achieve the miracle of full adherence to divine wishes. As Dan describes it, through this intense mystical love, which is presented in erotic terms, the righteous may hope to achieve a closer relationship with the revealed divine glory.40Such spiritualand, indeed, erotic concentration must not be directed elsewhere, and as Sefer Hasidim itself demands: The root of loving God is loving God with all your heart(Deut. 6:4)... And the joy of this love is of such intensityand so overpowersthe heartof those who love God, that even after many days of not being with his wife and having a great desire for her, in the hour that a man ejaculateshe does not find it as satisfyingas the intensityand powerof loving God and finding joy in his Creator .... He must love the Creatorwith a greatand stronglove until he becomes sick becauseof his love, as the manwho is lovesick for the affectionsof a woman and reels constantlybecauseof his love, whenhe sits, rises, goes and comes, also when he eats and drinks.He neithersleeps nor slumbersbecauseof this love. Greaterthanthis shouldlove of theCreatorbe in the heartsof those who love Him, andtheyshouldbe absorbedin it constantly, as we were commanded,"withall thy heart,withall thy soul .. ." (Deut.6:4).41 In light of this exaltation of divine over human love, the following excerpt from Sefer Hasidimnseems less social commentary than an allegory of suppressed desire. This passage, which begins, "A man should not invite women into his house lest he have sinful thoughts about them," enumerates the temptations to undesirable behavior which can befall a man who is not 39. Joseph Dan, Jewish Mysticism and Jewish Ethics (Seattle, 1986), p. 75. 40. Ibid. 41. SHB, par. 14.

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fastidious as to his companions, profession, and dwelling place, and offers this parable: Go and learnfrom a gentile prince.Once therewas a rulerin whose territory peoplegatheredat a largefair.Theycamefromeverywhere,andall on thesame day.Manyprostitutesalso flockedthere,andthe prostituteshada madam.The rulersaid to his servant,"Takea largesumof moneyandhireall theprostitutes because tomorrowpeople will come to the fair. After you have hiredall of them and given themeverythingthey want,put themall in a house,preparea comfortablebed for each, give themfood, drink,andwool to work,andguard themuntilthe fair is over.Thensend themhome." The servant went and spoke to the madam,"I will give your women everythingyou wish-above andbeyondwhatyou wouldnormallyearn."And he gave her everythingshe stipulated.He broughtthe prostitutesto a house and guardedthem there. When the fair was over, he broughtthem back to town. He did this every time therewas a fair that attractedprostitutes.And how muchmore so shoulda Jew,who mustkeep his distancefromthose who sin! ThereforeGod commanded:"Thereshallbe no harlotof the daughtersof Israel"(Deut. 23:18). And it is written,"Visityourneighborsparingly"(Prov 25:17). Consider:If therearetwo friendsin businesstogether,andone of them has a beautifulwife, betterthathe shouldgo to yourhouse [thanyou to his].42 On one level, this story reads as a wistful pietist's meditation on contructing barriers against a complex urban phenomenon which affected his community: if only prostitutes were not driven by financial necessity to entice susceptible men into illicit sexual behavior, a major cause of sin would be eliminated. Yet the prince, who is also driven by financial necessity, finds a way to eliminate prostitution while preserving the fair and sustaining the women. Perhaps this encourages us to read this story as an allegory, in which we may substitute all women for the prostitutes. How much simpler and less confused male existence would be if some powerful force would sequester and support all the women somewhere else, so that men could be saved from the temptations and complications the other sex engenders. This is why both the beginning and the conclusion of the story do not deal with prostitutesbut simply with the everyday occurrence of finding anotherman's wife attractive. Commerce, like marriage, is necessary, but must contact with other men's wives be a part of daily life? Sefer Hasidinm'sapprobationof a gentile prince 42. SHP par. 179; translated by Ivan Marcus in Rabbinic Fantasies, pp. 226-227.


17

who cloistersprostitutesduringa fair clearlyrevealsa pietisticappreciation of those Christianmonasteriesand convents which so efficientlyeliminate the distractionsof at least some forbiddenwomen. This urge for separationfrom the anxietiesand confusionsinherentin male-femalerelationswas not uniqueto this epochin Jewishhistory.Wefind from late antiquitythat some men would leave wife and family for lengthy But in the Christianenvironment periodsof study in rabbinicacademies.43 this pietistic trendtowardseparationfrom women and all thatcontactwith them entails becomes intensified,as in the writingsof the German-Jewish pietists,whichexpressa profoundambivalenceabouteventhejoys of licensed sexuality,whichhas the potentialeitherto distracta manfromGodor to lead him into extramaritalsexualactivity.Suchtensions,withtheiraccompanying displacementof women,reachan apogeein the withdrawalfromfamilystress and the threatsof modernityofferedby the sexual asceticismof the Hasidic courtsand rabbinicyeshivot of the eighteenthand nineteenthcenturies,with all theirattendantnegativefeelings aboutwomen.44 It therefore seems to me that what David Biale has written of the displacementof humansexuality in favor of asceticismin eighteenth-and EasternEuropeanHasidismappliesas well to theideology nineteenth-century of the German-Jewishpietists,if to a lesser extent:"Evenpermittedsexual acts must be divorced from desire; or, to put it differently,the fantasies and emotions connected with sexual arousalmust be transformedinto a spirituallove of God." And, Biale furthernotes, "this negative attitude toward [human]sexuality was often bound up with frank expressionsof misogyny incorporatingmany of the demonic images of women that ran As Ada Rapoportthroughoutrabbinic,kabbalistic,and folk traditions."45 Albert has written on the same subject, the associationof women with 43. See, for example,B. Ketubot62b for severalsuchaccounts. 44. See David Biale, "Ejaculatory Prayer:The Displacementof Sexualityin Chasidism," Tikkun6, no. 4 (July-August1991): 21-25, 87-89; andAda Rapaport-Albert, "OnWomenin in JewishHistoy: Essays in Hasidism,S. A. Horodeckyand the Maid of LudmirTradition," Honourof ChimenAbranmsky ed. Ada Rapoport-Albert and Steven J. Zipperstein(London, 1988), pp. 495-525. Biale writes that "theChasidicmovementintroducedthe most extreme anti-eroticvaluesever to appearin any Jewishtexts,valuesthatresemble,in somerespects,the renunciationsof sexualitypreachedby Christianmonastics.Still moreparadoxically,we find on the thresholdof modernityone of the most widespreadmovementsof sexualasceticismin Jewishhistory"(p. 21). 45. Biale, "Ejaculatory Prayer,p. 24.

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witchcraftin eighteenth-centuryHasidism"was not novel but constituted a directcontinuationof classical rabbinicand philosophicalconceptionsof women as moreinclinedto sorceryandwitchcraft,moresusceptibleto ritual impurity,exhibiting a more intense and untamedsexualityand altogether elementof creationratherthanthe element representingthe material-physical of form or spirit."46Certainly,the German-Jewishpietists, who take for grantedthe associationof women with necromancy,who find sorceresses even within their own communityof the pious,47are one with other male asceticmovementsin seeing womenas representing to mystical impedimpents ascent.The pietist'sdesirefor separationfromthe corruptionof the material world,and his wish to displacethe pleasuresof humansexualitythroughhis devotion to the divine, is built, in part,upon the objectificationof women. That such spiritualoptions were simply not availableor even imaginedfor Jewishwomen is, perhaps,the otherside of the coin. Consideringgender as a category of analysis demonstratesthat the German-Jewishpietists go beyond rabbinicJudaismin theirobjectification of women, both in their efforts to limit illicit sexual behaviorand because of theirwish to elevate passion for the divine over the pleasuresof human love. This is, in part,a consequenceof theirsituationin a Christianmilieu which preachedthe evils of carnalityand the virtues of celibacy, while countenancingfrequentencountersof all kinds betweenmen and women. It is a reflection,equally, of the entire qualityof German-Jewish pietistic spirituality,which saw quite clearly the correspondencebetweenthe desire evokedby womenandthe love demandedby God,andrecognizedthecritical need to distinguishdecisively betweenthem. StateUniversity of NewYorkatAlbany Albany,N. Y.

46. Rappaport-Albert, "On Women in Hasidim," p. 523, n. 80. 47. See Joshua Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study'in Folk Religion (New York, 1939; reprint ed., 1970) on the connection of women with witchcraft in Jewish tradition in general and in Sefer Hasidim in particular.The passage on sorceresses who regularly attend synagogue services is found in SHP, par. 1369.

Baghdad Jewry in Late Ottoman Times: The Emergence of Social Classes and of Secularization Author(s): Shlomo Deshen Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 19-44 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486601 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:43 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



BAGHDAD JEWRY IN LATE OTTOMAN TIMES: THE EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL CLASSES AND OF SECULARIZATION by SHLOMODESHEN In late Ottoman times and until the end of the British Mandate in 1932, the community in Baghdad was one of the glories of modern Jewry. In the contemporary Middle East and Mediterranean world, Baghdad Jewry was rivaled in size and institutions only by the Jewish community of Salonika. But despite its prominence, and that of its descendants in Israel today, Baghdad Jewry has been studied very little. Our understandingof Jewish societies in obscure regions such as Yemen and Tripolitaniais more advanced. This paper offers the outlines of a sociological portraitto fill the gap. Since antiquity Jews have been a prominent minority in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly in the cities, where they performed important functions. The study of Middle Eastern Jews has, for many decades, been mainly structured in terms of the political concerns of our own time. The thrust of many scholars has been to demonstrate the so-called symbiosis of Jews and Arabs in the past; others have uncovered abrasiveness and hostility in the relations between Jews and Arabs. These materials have been bandied about by political protagonists of various positions in the latter-day conflict. However, the study of Middle Eastern Jews is also important for ordinary Early versions of this paper were presented in 1991 at conferences on Middle EasternJewish Studies convened in Jerusalem by Harvey Goldberg, in Binghamton by Yedida Stillman, and in Tel Aviv, at the International Conference on the Study of Iraqi Jewry, by Yitzhak Avishur. I am thankful to S. N. Eisenstadt and Sylvia Kedourie, who offered comments on a draft, and in particular to Zvi Yehuda, who enlightened me on numerous points. Leila Fawaz gave valuable editorial advice.

AJS Review 19/1 (1994): 19-44

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academic reasons. Given the prominenceof the Middle EasternJewish minority,any understandingof issues concerningthe majoritypopulation dataaboutthe minority.As a pointof methodology necessitatesincorporating it may be stated that a general thesis to which there are exceptions is superficial;the exceptions requireto be woven into the generalityso that the thesis can be formulatedin a nuancedway. The studyof MiddleEastern Jewry should, therefore,be situatedin generalMiddleEasternstudies,not only in Jewishstudies.This appliesparticularlyto a minoritycommunitylike lateOttomanBaghdadJewry,whichwas highlyprominentin its environment, in bothnumbersand socioeconomicactivities.' The thesis of the presentstudyis thatlate OttomanBaghdadJewrywas and characterized by increasingcomplexity.Thepopulationgrewdramatically became socially heterogeneous;new strataemergedand new organizations were founded.The populationdevelopedan imageof itself as organizedin a markedlysteep, stratifiedway. The main sourcesfor the studyare the legal responsaof local sages, especially Rabbis cAbdullaSomekh (1813-1889) and Yosef Hayim (1834-1909), and the sermonsof the latterand of Rabbi Shim'onAgassi (1852-1914). For comparativepurposesI have also made use of the responsaof RabbiSedaqaHusen (1699-1773), the leadingsage of eighteenth-century Baghdad.2Otherimportantmaterialpertainingto this study, collated by AbrahamBen-Yaakob(1979, first publishedin 1965, the standardstudy of BaghdadJewry), serves as source.3But significant volume, analyticalstudieson BaghdadJewryarelimited.AndtheBen-Yaakob in is deficient focus. On the its informational value, general despite great nineteenth-century Baghdadisettingno comprehensivemonographis, to my knowledge,available.4 We do have on hand a small numberof fine general overviews of Middle EasternJewish history in moderntimes, the most comprehensive 1. To cite one example of the fruitfulness of such an approach:a study of Moroccan Jewish mellah society has contributed to a virtually classical topic of Middle Eastern studies, the elucidation of the nature of the so-called Muslim city (Deshen 1984, 1989). 2. I am grateful to Dr. Zvi Zohar for placing at my disposal the draft of a comprehensive bibliographic review of the writings of the sages of Baghdad which he is preparing. From Zohar's work I am satisfied that the sources I use reflect the bulk of the pertinent extant materials. 3. There are supplementary materials in Ben-Yaakob 1980a. I have not cited the numerous primary and secondary sources on Baghdad Jewry that I did not find directly useful for the purposes of this article. 4. A volume by Batatu (1978) on a later period does offer an outline description of the

BAGHDAD JEWRYIN LATE OTTOMANTIMES

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and recent being Stillman (1991). I accept the conclusionsof that work, and they serve as premisesand pointsof departurefor my own exploration. The latter differs from the works of the scholarswhom I cite, or merely allude to, on two counts. First,I do not commandall the languageskills of the Orientalist,hence my coverageof sourcesis limited.Second, I am not motivatedby a passion to discoverhithertounknownhistoricaldocuments, as many professionalhistoriansare. I am a social anthropologistinterested in historicalJewish societies, and I bringto bearthe concernsandquestions of my craftto sourcesthat are well known,but have not been studiedfrom a socioanthropologicalperspective.The rationalefor this interdisciplinary venture is the possibility that it may prove illuminating,and enrich our understandingof the people concerned. TheMaterialSetting From antiquityuntil the thirteenthcentury,Mesopotamiawas a major center of the Jewish diaspora,often equal in importance,and sometimes superior,to thePalestinianJewishheartland.Afterthethirteenth century,however, MesopotamianJewry-and BaghdadiJewry in particular-declined, along with the disintegrationof the caliphate.Between the destructionof Baghdadby the Mongols and the mid-eighteenthcentury,BaghdadJewry was insignificant,as Mesopotamiaitself becamea borderprovincebetween rivalempires.The fact thatin the seventeenthandearlyeighteenthcenturies the senior Baghdad sages were membersof a family that originatedin Kurdistansuggests this decline, because KurdishJewry does not have a distinguishedrecordin scholarshipand creativity.By the eighteenthcentury most BaghdadJews were making a precariousliving from peddling,and some engaged in the illegal, and consequentlyhazardous,alcohol and wine trade.Some were craftsmen,particularlysilversmiths,and a small number were moneylenders,particularlyto the local potentates. In the late eighteenthcenturyPersianpowerwaned,andin the nineteenth centurytheOttomansreassertedtheirswayovertheirMesopotamian province, improvingits security.Baghdadbeganto play a rolein the BritishIndiatrade, traditional society, and particularly of the merchant classes. There is also an outline description of modem Baghdad Jewry in Rejwan (1985).

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andtheJewishcommunitygreatlyincreased.In 1794thenumberof Jewsthere is reportedto have been about2,500, or 3.3 percentof the populationof the city (about75,000). By 1893 the Jews arereportedto haveincreasedto about 50,000, no less than35 percentof a populationof about145,000(Ben-Yaakob 1979:107, 231-232; Batatu 1978:248).The Jewish communitythus would seem to have increasedtwentyfold,while the city as a whole barelydoubled its population.The datauponwhichthesedemographicconclusionsarebased arenotoriouslyvague. But thereis anotherset of datathatsimilarlyindicates dramaticpopulationexpansion. Ben-Yaakob(1979:279-283) reportsthat over the nineteenthcenturythe numberof synagoguesin Baghdadincreased tenfold,from threeto aboutthirty.Moreover,the synagoguesweregenerally overcrowded(see n. 5). So grantingthatthe populationfiguresare imprecise and may be exaggerated,they do in general indicate great demographic vitality. The causes of the increasein the second half of the nineteenthcentury were migrationfrom Persia, where Jews were particularlyoppressed,and from Kurdistanand Syria. BaghdadJews were awarethattheirswas a very largecommunity(Hayim1977b:64;Hayim4:ib, 2:5),andthatit was growing (Hayim2:3b). On the level of halakhicguidancethis is indicatedby the fact that,whereasin the past Baghdadsages hadfrowneduponthe consumption of bread from non-Jewishbakeries,by the second half of the nineteenth centurythey relaxed this prohibitionbecauseJewish bakerieswere unable to meet the demand,and a shortagemight cause the price of breadto rise. To avoid hardshipthe sages permittedthe consumptionof Muslim bread (Somekh2:159).5 The reassertionof Ottomanrule in the nineteenthcenturycoincided 5. This should not be interpreted anachronistically in connection with the kashrut laws. In Western countries industrial mass-produced bread has aroused kashrut-linkedobjections in the twentieth century, rooted in details of the new production processes, but that was not the case in nineteenth-century Baghdad. The old Baghdad prohibition was rooted in mystical thought and practice, not in halakhah in the strict sense of the term. Population increases also led to changes in the timing of rituals. The custom of slaughtering fowl on the eve of Yom Kippur was advanced to begin at an earlier hour, to alleviate the pressure of clients on the shohatim (Hayim 1977:113). More significantly, morning prayer time originally began at sunrise. Due to the pressure of the numerous worshipers who crowded the synagogues on the feast of Sukkot, each of whom desired to wave the scarce ritual "arb'a minim greenery, prayers began earlier, at dawn, as soon as quorums convened. Subsequently the practice of beginning services at that early hour was extended throughout the year to alleviate the pressure on the limited facilities (Hayim 1977:14b). One source gives the specific date of 1860 for the change in synagogue


23

with the Tanzimatreformsthattightenedthe hold of the centralgovernment over the provinces.The effect on the Jewish communitywas to encroach on the prerogativesof old-establishedfamilies and to favor newly installed functionariesandinstitutions.The innovationscoincided government-backed with a greatexpansionof commerce,resultingfromBritishpolicies in India. Baghdad,and in particularits Jewishsector,becamea commercialhub.The opening of the Suez Canal caused ancient inland routes of commerceto stagnate,andinternationalcommerceto move southwardto the portof Basra. The outcomeof all this was a generalexpansion.In additionto the rise in population,new institutionsand social classes grew.BaghdadJewrybecame increasinglypolarizedeconomically,as the numberof wealthyfinanciers,on the one hand, and of the poor, on the other,increased.Uniquelyin Jewish social historywe hearof mass politicalmobilization.In 1883, 1,700 people signeda petitionprotestingtaxation(Ben-Yaakob1980a:190);in 1884,some 400 signed a petitionprotestingthe appointmentof an unpopularsage to the office of hakhambashi ("chief sage") (Ben-Yaakob1979:168).On another occasion a protagonistin a disputefoundit necessaryto explainwhy he had not circulateda mass petitionto advancehis cause (Ben-Yaakob1980a:169). People beyond the limited circle of hereditarynotablesbecamepolitically active. In the 1820sJews fromBaghdadbeganto establishcoloniesof merchants andindustrialentrepreneurs in Indiaandthroughoutthe FarEast,andby the end of the centurythey were also in England.These overseascommunities were run by scions of aristocraticfamilies, the Sassoonsin particular,who maintainedtheircommunalties andusedthemeffectivelyin theircommercial affairs.BaghdadiJews also becameagentsfor Britishcompanies,especially in the textile importtradefrom Englandand India to Iraq,and dominated internationaltradebetween India,Iraq,and Persia.The Jewishpresencein tradingwas so salientthatSaturdayswere slack days. A Europeanvisitorto "OnSabbathdays all the stores Baghdadin 1880 reportscharacteristically, close, and a holy repose (dumiatqodesh)prevailsin the city" (Ben-Yaakob 1979:214).Jewishtraderswere also to be foundas middlemenwho extended loansandsecuritiesformodesttransactions. Therewereevenbusiness-women who acted as economic agents. But we also hear of people who could not practice. This suggests that about that time people began to feel that the community was expanding significantly. The Jewish population figure cited for that year is 20,000.

24

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make a living (Hayim4:23), and of people who were forced to searchfor food amongthe refuse(Hayim3:27b,also Husen 1975:88). Wealthwas foundedin parton the importationof the new productsof the textile industrypromotedby the Britishin Englandandin Indiaand the developmentof modernprofessions,and in parton the old BaghdadJewish occupationsof finance and moneylending.Even in the twentiethcentury, descendantsof the old notablefamilies of the eighteenthcenturywere still active in banking.The affluentoverseascommunitiessent back to Baghdad for theirreligiousfunctionariesand teachers,and contributedgenerouslyto trainingfacilitiesin Baghdadso thatthe communitywouldflourish(see, for instance,Sassoon 1949:206).6

CommunityLeadership

MesopotamianJewryhad a venerabletraditionof havingbeen governed scions of the royal Davidic family of ancientJudeathat went back at by least as far as the beginningof the commonera. Evenafterthe traditionwas finally lost, in the seventeenthcentury,the Baghdadcommunitycontinued to be dominatedby individualsfrom a small circle of wealthyaristocratic families, one of whom served as the nasi' ("president," pl. nesi'im)of the The who owed his to his nasi', community. position acting as a financier for the local Muslim governor,was responsiblefor collecting taxes and sundryextortionsfrom the Jews, and providedthe governorwith loans and securities.Sometimesthe nasi' advancedthe community'spaymentsout of his own resources(Husen 1978:156,256). The communityhadlittle say aboutwho was appointednasi'. This was a personaltransactionbetweenthe Muslimpotentateand a wealthyfinancier. The nasi' retainedhis post by virtueof the potentate'sauthority.Thereare reportsof high-handed,autocraticnesi'imwho extortedmoney from other Jews (Husen 1978:194), but no informationas to how they retainedtheir authority.In contrastto comparableJewishcommunitiesin NorthernEurope and Morocco, eighteenth-centuryBaghdadJewry lacked an independent 6. In modern times, until the Holocaust, Eastern Europeanrabbis by and large discouraged emigration. Consequently, emigrants tended to be marginal in various ways or to belong to the lower class. Long-term relationships between emigrants and their home communities tended to be ambivalent. This was not the case among Baghdadi Jews.

BAGHDAD JEWRYIN LATEOTTOMANTIMES

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group of sages. In these other societies the sages constituteda resourceful and powerfulstratum.Appointmentsto judicial and religiouspositionslay partlyin theirhandsand partlyin the handsof lay leaders.Sometimes,as in precolonialMorocco,the sages hadmoresay,andsometimes,as in European Jewry,the lay communityhad moresay, with gradationsin betweenin other regions.7But in eighteenth-centuryBaghdadappointmentswere solely by the nasi'. Moreover,the nasi' often interferedin court procedures,which elsewherewere governedexclusivelyby rabbinicaldiscretion. As in other Jewish societies, in Baghdadlay jurisdictionover certain matterswas administeredby the nasi'. He administeredcorporalpunishment in cases of sexualmisdemeanor,for example(Husen1975:21;Hayim1:74b), butin additionalsohadextraordinary standing.Althoughin generalBaghdad's were owned 2:13b-14), the synagoguethatthe publicly (Hayim synagogues nasi' attendedwas popularlyregardedas being his own; the flowery title of the sage who officiatedtherewas "HeadCantorof the President'sGreat Synagogue"(rosh hazan ha-kenesetha-gedola shel ha-nasi') (Ben-Yaakob 1980a:179). On festivals the nasi' would hold grandfeasts wherehe hosted the dignitariesand sages of the community(Hayim 3:18); accordingto MiddleEasternetiquette,this meantthathe was superiorto the sages. The nasi' figurestogetherwith the sages as signatoryof a decreeagainstgamesof chance(Hayim2:119). It is indicativeof the relativelymodestpositionof the sages thatwe find complaintsthatthey lackedbooks for theirwork (Husen 1975:217,278). Toward the middle of the nineteenthcentury the relative standings changed.The nasi' is no longermentionedin the sources,while the number of sages increased,and they are found operatingin academies(yeshivaor midrash,pl. midrashimn), makinglegal decisions on mattersbroughtto the attentionof senior sages and then reviewedby them. RabbisYosef Hayim 7. These comments are predicated on a conception of Jewish social history as an exercise in comparative ethnography that requires adequate documentation. At present there are only a few monographic studies that could serve as a base. On medieval MediterraneanJewry (primarily Tunisia), there is Goitein's great Geniza study (1967-1988), and on late premodern Central European Jewry there is Katz (1961). There are several much more delimited attempts, such as Goldberg (1990) on late Ottoman Tripolitania, Udovitch and Valensi (1984) on Jerba in Tunisia, and my own work on Morocco (1989). On the Yemen there is Nini (1991) and numerous earlier works by Goitein, Brauer, Tobi, and others, many of them cited by Nini. Several minor works are to be found in a reader by Deshen and Zenner (1982), which also contains a preliminary synthesis by the editors; Sharot (1976) also contains work of a comparative nature.

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and'AbdullaSomekhoften remarkthattheyallowjuniorsagesanddisciples, referredto as "thesages of the academy"(hakhmeyha-yeshiva),to deliberate mattersthatwere broughtbefore them.The importanceof this new stratum of sages is also made evident by the disputes between them; they take bashiandon sides for or againstparticularappointeesto the officeof hakhamn mattersof incomeandtaxation.Theystageddemonstrations, signedpetitions, threatened,and generallyplayedpolitics.These activitiesdo not necessarily reflect a total reversalof roles between the old politicalelite and the new religiousone-the sourcesare all rabbinicaland have a naturaltendencyto highlightthe doings of sages-but they do suggest thatboth theirnumber and theirimportancehad grown. That this developmentwas importantto the Jews of nineteenth-century Baghdadis evidentfromthefactthatsagesandtheirdoingsfigureprominently in theirethnohistory(Ben-Yaakob1979:118andsources).Accordingto local history,the first great Torahsage of recent times came to Baghdadfrom Aleppo aftera plaguein the mid-eighteenthcenturyhadkilled all the native sages. ThereafterTorahscholarshipbegan to flourish,reachingits apogee with the activitiesof the sages of the mid- and late nineteenthcentury.8One witnessbeforea courtidentifiedyearsby linkingthemto a particularsage.9 Symbols of Status

Baghdad'sJews had numerousterms to designatedifferencesof social status.These termswere consistentwith the class situationin the eighteenth century,the emergenceof a new stratumof religiousscholarsandthe decline of theold politicalelite.Carein religiouspracticewasexpressedby a varietyof honorifics: mnedaqdeqim("punctilious"),zehirimn("careful"),"ansheima'aseh

("menof [good] deeds")(Hayim2:3b; Somekh 1:432, 2:159). It is worthy of note thatpunctiliousnessin this areawas not referredto by a single term. This suggests thatalthoughBaghdadiJews differentiatedamongthemselves religiously, the categories were not formal and rigid. Togetherwith the classificationof some individualsas sages and religiouslypainstakingcame 8. The question whether or not this popular historical account is factually correct is irrelevant for popular awareness of the presence of a category of sages. 9. The source states: "Mas'uda daughter of Abdulla Moshe Zilkha was born one year after the death of our teacher and master, the sage Rabbi Abdulla Somekh (may his memory be a blessing), and she was born after the Sukkot festival." (Hayim 4, Even ha'ezer:15).


27

the designationof the opposite category,persons who were "boors"(cam ha-'ares) (Hayim 4:6, 7).10Similarly,we hear of customsof "thecommon people"(hamonha-'am)in a derogatorycontext(Somekh2:168). Members of the lower class are referredto stereotypically:butchersare "complete evildoers"(Somekh 2:195), and "mostbakersare boors"(Somekh2:159). A particularcustom that a sage disapprovesof is categorizedin termsof a putativelower-classorigin.It is termed"acustomthatthe synagoguesextons have fabricated(badu)"(Hayim4:2b;also Somekh2:168). Only sages were eulogizedin the synagoguewhen theydied. In one case an aged, pious, but unlearnedman was eulogizedin his modesthome, into which a great crowd pressed (Hayim 4:18b). Since the deceasedwas not a sage, the event could not be held in the more convenientpremisesof a spacious synagogue.When sages were called upon for advice aboutritual practices,they imposed strictpracticesuponboors, because"it is properto be stringent(le-hahmir)with [them]"(Hayim4:26; Somekh2:195). This is phrasedas a virtualprincipleof rabbinicalpastoralteachingin thecommunity. The idea that standingin society is relatedto religiousscholarshipis basic in Jewish thoughtand practice,but in late OttomanBaghdadit was newly emphasizedwith some harshness.ComparableMoroccanmaterialhas no traceof such expressions(Deshen 1989). Socioreligiouspracticealso differentiatedrichandpoor.Ordinarypeople held one daily feast for their newly marriedchildren during the week that followed the wedding, as requiredby tradition.But the wealthyheld two feasts daily (Somekh 3:179-180). It was customaryto honorwealthy people by bringing spices from the synagogue to their homes when the Sabbathended.The practicewas institutionalized, andindividualspurchased the privilege from the community(Hayim 3:25). The wealthyhad special domesticarrangements duringthe festivalof Sukkot,whenpeoplespenttime in temporaryhuts and home routines were changed (Hayim 2:41b). The wealthy were generousin giving to charity(Hayim2:100), and employed Jewishwomen as domestichelp (Hayim1:63). This overtand cognitivecategorizationof peoplein termsof wealth,and further,the linkageof the difference,as a matterof course,withsocioreligious practice,is remarkable.We find it at certaintimes and places in traditional 10. Jewish religiosity is usually conceived of as flowing from knowledge of the divine law, while boorishness is conceived of as leading to disregard of the law, hence to irreligiosity. Therefore, there is an apposition between the religiously punctilious and the boorish.

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Jewish and other societies, for instance in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Central European Jewry. But it is by no means universal. A report from Baghdad that appeared in a European publication, Ha-Maggid, on 14 April 1874 is illuminating. The paper's correspondent,a member of the community, described a local philanthropistwho had given 150 men grantsto study Torah: Thereare many completelyunculturedpeoplehere who areignorantof Bible and Mishnah,[lack] good manners,and are a disgraceto the Jewishpeople. For eight monthsnow this man has prevailedupon [150 of] themto improve themselves,teachingthem the Torahof the Living God, so that they should be consideredlike all our wealthybrethren(nehshavimke-khol'aheinuhacashirim)..... They have come ... to keep the preceptslike all Israel... risingearlyto prayersand stayinglate in the eveningin synagogue,and study diligently. ... We hope that in the futurethere will be no more boors in Baghdad. Evidently, the writer regarded material affluence as being normally and naturally tied to excellence in religiosity, and conversely, poverty in his view dovetailed with religious laxity. Seen in terms of class theory these conceptions, linking material differences with symbols of differentiation in other spheres of life (such as religion), are a fundamental element of social-class formation. Respectable people are reported to have had specific ideas on decorum, such as not carrying objects in public (Husen 1978:169). "An important person" ('adam gadol) is given the honor of ritually covering the blood shed when fowl are slaughtered (Somekh 1:432). Some people occasionally slaughtered a sheep and distributedthe meat among the poor (Somekh 2:219). A sage, discussing the possibility of using someone else's talit and tefillin (prayer shawl and phylacteries) without permission, remarks, "In our times most people are particularthat others should not put on their talit and tefillin [which they left in synagogue]" (Hayim 1977:4b). Jews in many communities are not particular about others using the ritual objects that are normally left in synagogue after daily services, provided they are properly returnedto their place. But in Baghdad men were fussy about this. The impression we gain is that decorum, formality, and social distance were marked." 11. This source appears in Rabbi Yosef Hayim's compendium of customs, which is dated 1898 (Hayim 1977:99).


29

Differences in status were entrenched.In a discussion of synagogue etiquette,RabbiYosef Hayimurgesthatexpressionsof obeisanceto superiors be restrainedwhile in synagogue.Recommendingobedienceto the halakhic requirementthat gestures of respect be given only to one's parents,the learned,andthe aged, the sage rules(Hayim1977:55): When a rich notable(gevir)who is neitheraged nor learnedentersthe synagogue,one shouldnot rise in his honor,becausesucha gesturewould a rich implya lack of honorto Heaven.Suchis the case evenconcerning notablewhomone wouldhonoroutsidethe synagogue. However,if thecase leaders(mi-yehidey happensto be of a famousrichnotableof thecommunity aboutthis,thenit is permissible to risein his ha-qahal),andhe is punctilious honor,so as to avertstrife. The sage does not see disrespectfulbehavioras likely to be a problem.He worries, however, that the improperexpansionof the categoriesof people entitledto overt gesturesof respectwill lead to unseemlyconductin a house of worship. RabbiYosef Hayim explicatedthe popularsentimentsconcerningsocial differentiation.According to the Sabbathhalakhah,objects that one has discardedmay generally not be recoveredand used on the Sabbath,for reasonsof technicalhalakhicmukserules.The Talmudrecognizesdifferences between rich and poor in this matter.Pieces of fabric and mats that are smaller than a certain measureare forbiddento the rich on the Sabbath, becausethey areassumedto considersuchobjectsworthless,butforthepoor, who mighthaveuse for them,theydo notfall intothe forbiddencategory.The Baghdadisage, in explicatingthese Sabbathpractices,emphasizedthe social niceties of his time. Operatingin an originalway he furtherincorporated class differentiationinto halakhah.He ruledthata poorpersonwho happens to be the guest of a richmanon the Sabbathmustabideby the halakhicstatus of the host, becausepresumablyhe will enjoythe latter'saffluence,hencethe said objectwill be forbiddento him. Conversely,a richmanwho happensto be in a poor man'shome on the Sabbathis permittedto act accordingto his host's status,because presumablythe latter'sstraitenedconditionwill also affect the guest (Hayim 1977b:27b). Statusconsciousnessalso affectedmarriagearrangements. Familieswere moreor less respectable,andthe term"of good family"is oftenused(Hayim 1:77b).Publicopinion,honor,andshamewereimportant.A case camebefore

30

SHLOMODESHEN

the sages in whicha marriedwomanwas suspectedof adultery.Halakhiclaw requiresdivorcewhen such a suspicionis confirmed.In the case at handthe sage ruledthatthe suspicionswereunfoundedandclearedthewoman'sname, butthe husbandnonethelessinsistedon a divorceon thegroundsthatit would be shameful(herpa) for him to remainmarriedto a womanwho had even been suspectedof such a thing (Husen 1975:22).In anothercase the father of a young man, engagedto be married,belatedlydiscoveredthatthe father of the bride made his living as a schoolteacher.The man wantedto break his son's engagementon the groundsthatthis madethe match"shamefulfor him"(genaylo) (Hayim2:72b).A sage has a discussionabout"lossof face"; he concludesthat this is most grievous when one is amongpeople of "his own kind"(ha-sugshelo) (Hayim2:40b)'2. Questionsof statusrecurin discussionsof dowriesandgifts at marriage, which were major considerationsin maritalarrangements.A recent study of nineteenth-century BaghdadiJewishmarriages(Avishur1990) shows that disputesoverthesemattersinvolvedthenotionthatanopulentdowryandgifts reflectedon the social standingof the parties.They were not only material transactions.The dataindicatethatover time the proportionof goods given by the family of the bride increased,theiroverall value increased,and the proportionof cash relativeto othergoods increased.The parentsof grooms insistedon generousdowries and gifts for the bridesof theirsons not only for the obvious materialreasons,but also because generousgifts were an acknowledgmentof theirstatus.Less opulentgifts wereconsidereddegrading to the groomandhis parents,and,to a lesserextent,also to the parentsof the bride.The dowry increasedwhen the bride was eitherold, unattractive,or divorced(Hayim 1:77,2:72b).Bridesuniversallylike to appearin finery,but the rationalethatthe Baghdadsourcessuggestfor this, as a matterof course, is revealing.It is to advertisethe distinctionof the bride'sfamily (le-har'ot shevahbet 'aviha) (Hayim2:100-101). The statuselementis emphasized. Some girls rejected offers of marriageand threatenedsuicide if the fatherpersistedwith a particularmatch(Hayim 1:85;4, Even ha'ezer: 15, 18b). In one case the fatherof a bride gave the girl's age as eight years less than it actually was (Hayim 1:77b). The groom was apparentlyof modestbackground,and the bride,whose brotherswere scholars(talmidey hakhamim),of a notablefamily.Presumably,becauseof the bride'sadvanced 12. Elsewhere we hear that bachelors are "usually bashful" when offered the honor of holding the baby at circumcisions (Hayim 4: Sod yesharim section, 34).


31

age, herfamilywereresignedto a less thanoptimalgroom,buttheystillhadto resortto deception.Such deceptionscouldariseonly wherethe families,and certainlythe young people concerned,did not know each other,a condition thatmust have been commonin the growingandheterogeneouscommunity of Baghdad.Families new to the city would have little familiaritywith the parentsor child concerned.Moreover,there are indicationsthat marriages withinthe extendedfamily were rarein Baghdad(Avishur1990:42-50).All this indicates a social situationthat was conduciveto abrasivenessin the arrangementof marriagesby parents. The contrastwith the MoroccanJewish family is striking.In the much more extensive materialwe have for traditionalMorocco,there is hardly any indication of friction over matchmaking(Deshen 1989:107-108). I suggest thatthis is probablybecausethe Moroccancommunitieswere more homogeneousin bothoriginandclass,andnumericallymuchsmaller.Matches werethereforebetweenpeoplewho werelikelyto be familiarandcomfortable with each otherin advance.'" Social Institutions,Positions,and Stereotypes Amongthe new institutionsthatdevelopedin nineteenth-century Baghdad were talmudicacademies,benevolentfunds for the benefitof cities in the Holy Land, and funds for the sick (Hayim 2:66, 1:111; 1973:223). "The community"(ha-kolel)is reportedto havepaidsalariesto thejudges,stipends to scholars,money for the education(andmeals)of students,andthe salaries of their teachers (Hayim 2:17b, 4:21). Presumablythese benefitsaccrued only to the poor,but the significantpointis the involvementof the publicin charity,in the guise of formallyorganizedvoluntaryassociationsand of the communitycorporation.The communitycollectedindirecttaxesfromkosher meat slaughteringand kept writtenaccounts(Hayim2:110b).It supported 13. The marriages of Ashkenazi Jews, like those of Baghdadis, were arranged on a background of social heterogeneity (diverse classes and regions). Ashkenazic Jewry developed a formal role for the matchmaker (shadkhan), whose skills included judging the compatibility of the couple and evaluating the overall chances of success for the match. Baghdad Jewry also had matchmakers, but there was no name for them aside from the generic term dalal ("middleman"). This suggests that the role of matchmaker was not as institutionalized in Baghdad as it was in Ashkenazi Jewry, perhaps because the size and heterogeneity of the population were only recent developments in Baghdad.

32

DESHEN SHLOMO

a hospital,originallyfoundedwith funds providedby wealthyemigrants.It distributedfundsfor the operationof talmudicacademiesthathadoriginally been established by private initiative. The "beadle"and "beadle of the court-of-law"(shamashbet din) (Hayim1:74b,2:84b)andritualslaughterers were appointedby the community(Somekh2:221). Some examples of the system in action:A shohet failed in his work, therebycausing people to consume meat that was not kosher.The pious asked how they could atone for this mishap.The sage ruledthatthey were not obliged to atone because the fault was beyond their control (Hayim 1973:366); the responsibilitybelonged solely to the public official.14 In anothercase a sage who servedas a judge was maintainedpartlyfroma fund for the sick (quppatbiqqurholim) thatwas supportedby ten wealthymen. When one of the ten became involved in a suit thatwas to be triedby this judge, the otherpartyto the suit arguedthatthe sage shouldbe disqualified because of his financialdependenceon his opponent.But a superiorsage dismissed the argument.He ruled that the judge was not dependentupon the wealthy litigant, because once the funds were deliveredto the charity they became "money that is sanctifiedfor the indigent"(mamonheqdesh la-'aniyim)(Hayim 1973:223-225). The superiorsage evidently operated on the notion that heqdesh, a holy endowment,is an institutionthat sets benefactorand recipientapart.In his view, such gifts did not pertainin any way to the benefactor,and the recipientwas thereforenot indebtedto him. Such a judgment is conceivable only where organizationsare formal and impersonal."1

Public institutions are particularlysalient in Baghdadwhen seen in the context of comparableMoroccanmaterial.Moroccansages were very awarethatthe synagoguesof theircommunitieswere privateand not public institutions.They did not like this, and their complaintsexaggeratedby underplayingthe role, limitedthoughit was, thatthe publicactuallyhad in synagoguemanagement(Deshen 1989, chap. 7). The Baghdadisage Rabbi Yosef Hayim, in contrast,tells us thathis people were proudof theirgreat city, and sensitiveto the honorof theircommunity,its traditions,andofficers 14. The sage does recommendcertainritualstringencies,butexplicitlystatesthattheseare suggestedonly as acts of superiorpiety. 15. ComparableMoroccanrabbinicalmaterialhas nothingsimilarto this judgment.In MoroccanJewrythe personalelementis important,and it wouldbe difficultto conceiveof a sage presentingsuch an argumentto resolvea dispute(Deshen1989,chap.4).

BAGHDADJEWRYIN LATEOTTOMAN TIMES

33

(Hayim4:ib; Ben-Yaakob1980a:167-168).16 Baghdad'ssynagogueswereof superiorhalakhicstatus,he said, using a termreservedfor publicinstitutions (batey keneset shel kerakhim) (Hayim 2:13b-14).'7

Formalizationand institution-building devolved primarilyon sages. In the mid-nineteenthcenturythe Ottomans,as partof the Tanzimatreforms, createdthe office of hakhambashi ("chiefsage"),by which they soughtto tightentheir hold on their subjectsand weakenthe old aristocracy,the lay nesi'im.The hakhambashi, appointedjointly by the authoritiesandnotables of the community,replacedthe nasi' and came to fill both religious and administrative functions.This appointmentwas oftena sourceof dissent,and incumbentschanged frequently.'8Some of the sages who held the post of hakhambashi had little communalstanding,but the mere fact thatthe role was earmarkedfor a sage was of significance.It addedto the powerof the sages, anddetractedfromthatof the lay notables,who wererepresentedside by side with the sages on the committeefor secularaffairs(vacadha-gashmi) and the committeefor religious affairs(va'ad ha-ruhani);the head of the bashi. joint committeewas the hakhamn 16. Somewhatlater,around1910, in a sermonadmonishingpeopleforcommittingsins that he believed had caused a drought,a preacherarguedthatthe landof Mesopotamiawas in a categoryof uniquespirituality,inferioronly to thatof the Holy Land.In sucha landmisdeeds were regardedas particularlysevere(Agassi 1968:196).The preacherbewailedthe declineof scholarshipin his time, "Woe!In a few years we shall be like Zaku!We shall be similarto Dahok!"(Agassi 1968:240),majorcommunitiesof KurdishJewrythatservedhim as negative referencegroups. 17. However, it is improbablethat all Baghdadsynagogueswere public, for the nasi' probablyhada privatesynagogue.Further,whenwealthyindividualsmadegifts to synagogues of ritualartifacts,such as silver Torahscroll ornaments,the artifactswere namedafter the donors,andthe synagoguemanagerswerenotpermittedto disposeof them(as theywouldhave beenin the case of artifactspurchasedwith synagoguefunds,Husen1978:111-116).Theseare indicationsthatin facttherewerelimitationsto thepublicelementin Baghdadisynagogues.But the sage overlooksthis in his generalizedcharacterization, thediametricoppositeto theequally stylizedpicturethatMoroccansages offer of theirsituation.Limitationsof the publicelement are evident also in some of the social roles of the community.Judgesand ritualslaughterers were salariedcommunalofficials,but the bureaucratic elementwas developedinconsistently. Once an official was hired, the communitywas not free to dismisshim or even to diminish his salary(Hayim3:62-63, 4:21-23). Thus the office of the hiredofficialthusdid not belong exclusivelyto the community;it also belongedto him. 18. In one of the numerousaccountsof bickeringover the positionof hakhanm bashi we hearof one incumbentwho was forcedto interrupthis sermonandleavethe synagoguepodium in tears(Ben-Yaakob1980a:168).

34

SHLOMODESHEN

Whereasthe old regime of the nesi'in was historicallyrooted in the community,that of the hakhambashi was largely an alien bureaucratic appointmentof a particularsage. Since the appointmentswere often controversial,the new regime,in contrastto the old one, was not fully legitimatein the eyes of the community.Consequentlysages who belongedto notableand wealthyfamilies often triedto avoid being appointedto the post of hakhamn bashi. By evading this legally dubious role, they gained superior,albeit unofficial,standingwithin the community.This is true in particularof the leadingsages of the period,RabbiscAbdullaSomekhand YosefHayim,and othersages,membersof thelatter'sfamily.Priorto themid-nineteenth century, Baghdadisages had not enjoyedthis kind of standing;the communitywas dominatedby thenasi'.ButaftertheTanzimatreforms,withthedisappearance of the nasi"and the creationof the novel office of hakhamn bashi, the status of traditionalsages who remainedindependentof the general authorities was enhanced.Most respectedwere those sages who combinedaristocratic lineageand independentwealthwith superiorpersonalqualities.'9 In contrastto the nasi' of old, the hakhambashiwas not usuallya member of a wealthynotablefamilyandthusdid not commandhis own resources.He maintainedhis officeby meansof a tax on koshermeatandfromendowments. Sometimeshe was supportedby wealthylaymenwho belongedto his clique. This kind of head was new for Baghdad;the nasi' of the past had either been a man of independentwealthor had supportedhimselfby tax-farming, so that the cost of his office was not apparentto the community.The cost of the office of the hakhambashi, however,was evident, and objections, fed by the Ottomanregime's impositionof a new military-exemption tax 19. This situation might account for a puzzling phenomenon in the Baghdad rabbinate:The nineteenth-century community had many scholars, but only two were creative in rabbinical responsa. However, the structure of leadership favored individuals who were perceived as superior. This had two effects: it inhibited other scholars from asserting themselves by volunteering responsa to rabbinical queries, and it inhibited anyone who was inferior from filling a role reserved for superiors. The following public speech made by Rabbi Shim'on Agassi, a senior sage, fifty-seven years old, after Rabbi Yosef Hayim's death in 1909, illustrates this: "Did you ever hear the faintest whisper from me in the presence of the splendor of his honor? For how could an insect squeak where the lion roars ... !? Indeed when our teacher and master, the crown on our head (peace be on him), was alive-[concerning] everything that was difficult for us ... we used to say 'Go to Joseph!' (Gen. 41:55)." This would also explain why the few Baghdad sages who were active in delivering responsa were so prolific; each wrote enough to fill several volumes. Most of the numerous Moroccan sages produced single volumes only.


35

that the hakhambashi collected, were frequent.Petitionscirculatedamong the affluent;and employees, junior sages, and professionalsin religious affairs(such as teachersand shohatim)demonstratedand even struck.The Theshohatimmobilizedwhen juniorsagesorganizedthemselvessporadically. on one occasion the synagoguecantors a of and threatenedwith loss income, threatenednot to blow the shofarat the New Yearservices.The sages fought to retaintheirage-oldprivilegeof immunityfromcommunaltaxation,but in view of the weight of the new tax, andprobablyalso becauseof the increase in the numberof sages requestingimmunity,the affluentwerecalleduponto shoulderwhat they regardedas an unreasonableburden.This arousedtheir ire andled to unprecedentedsocial tension. Class Formationand Secularization The latterhalf of the nineteenthcenturysaw importantdevelopmentsin BaghdadJewry:the creationof institutions,the shift in politicalelites, the crystallizationof a religiousstratum.Wehavealsonotedhowthecultureof the symbols symbols,andparticularly communitywas pervadedby differentiating that wedded religious with materialdifferences.The ensuingconfiguration of social arrangementsentailedincreasingstratification by social class. The nineteenth-centurysources indicate only vague recognitionof this reality on the partof contemporaries.Thus the 1874 correspondent for Ha-Maggid mentionedabove did not conceptualizethe realityhe describedwith explicit class terms. But by the beginningof the twentiethcenturyclass formation was evident to one and all. A British consularreportof 1910 writtenby a local Jewish employee repeatedlymentions"class"divisions within the communityand "class"identitiesof individuals(Kedourie1971).The use of the termis not fortuitous.A sermondeliveredaroundthe sametimedescribes class differentiationvividly. Speakingaboutthe community'sold religious school, one of the seniorsages expressedhis anguishat innovations(Agassi 1968:162-163): Therearenow some [people]in ourcommunitywhohaveraisedanuproarabout the MidrashTalmudTorahthatcatersto nearly2,500 boys, learningScripture and a little rabbinics. Most [of the boys] come from poor homes. .... [Those people] say that the Midrash consumes a vast sum [out] of the community treasury ... and the returns are not worth the expense, because most of those

36

SHLOMO DESHEN

who leave thathouse . .. becomeportersanddisposersof refuseon donkeys, cleanersof latrines,and similarlydespisedanddegradingoccupations,thatdo not bringhonorto ourpeople(lelo kavodla'umna) and [that]also areuseless to the individualsthemselves(rehoqimni-to'elet'asmain)... for thesedegraded occupationsdo not enablea livelihood.... All thatin contrastto the graduates of the Alliance schools . . . who know how to write, and [know] foreign languages,and makea good living, some as clerksto merchants,and [others] have themselvesbecomebig businessmen.... Therefore[thosepeoplesay], "It is betterfor us to handover the managementof the Midrashto the Alliance!" The sage concludes with a forceful response to that suggestion: Those people should know that even if, Heavenforbid,thereremainin our community(qehal 'adateinu)only the porters,disposersof garbageandcleaners of latrines-through whom they despise us (mevazim'otanubahem)-we will neverthelessmanageto continueandsupplyall the needsof this school! This reaction and the whole tenor of the speech reveal antagonism between the classes of well-to-do merchants and others, fueled by the tendency of divisions of wealth to nurturereligiocultural differences. Several social classes figure in this preacher's sermons. Thus, dwelling on the sins that in his view had led to a drought in 1914, he called on his audience to mend their ways (Agassi 1968:208): If the sages do not do anything[aboutthis] can you remainpassive... !? The Torahthat the sages study protectsthem. [Therefore]thougheventuallythey also will suffer from rising prices,they will not sufferas muchas you .... I myself am a merchantlike you. I understandyourtroubles.Also the wealthy do not feel all the troublesthatvisit us, as everyoneknows.... Onlyyou suffer from the drought. . . the high costs, and fromthe authoritieswho constantly makedemands. . .why thereforedo you remainlax ...? Whydon'tyou help yourselves?How long will you go on dreaming,relyingon the sages!?(Agassi 1968: 208). The preacher clearly distinguishes between three classes-ordinary merchants, wealthy merchants, and sages--characterized both by material and by religiocultural features, and he is poignantly aware of the tension between them.20 At the turnof the century, Baghdad's Jews were becoming increasingly cognizant of social classes. 20. The preacher,Rabbi Shim'on Agassi, categorizedhimself in the class of ordinary

TIMES BAGHDADJEWRYIN LATEOTTOMAN

37

Secularizationwas anothermajorprocessof which they were becoming for Jewishperiodiaware.Beginningin the 1870s, Baghdadcorrespondents in and India instances note of disregard cals published Germany,Poland, for Orthodox Jewish practice, such as patronizingof coffeehouses and music-makingon the Sabbathand, after the turn of the century,writing in commercialledgers on the Sabbath(Yehuda1984). In 1889 a reporter complainedgenerallyabout"thediscardingof the holy faithandcustoms"in Baghdad(cited in Ben-Yaakob1980a:207).Thesedesecrationsdo not figure as majorconcernsto the rabbis,however.Comparingthe responsaof Rabbi SedaqaHusen, the eighteenth-century sage, with those of the sages of the nineteenthcentury,one sees little differencein concernsfor religiosityand Orthodoxpractice.The nineteenth-century sages seem to be as secureas their predecessor;apparentlytheirswas a stableworld.Inhis responsaRabbiYosef Hayim does addressproblemsrootedin the fact thatsome people practiced religion less strictly than others, but these were problemsbroughtto him from the Baghdadidiasporain anglicizedFarEasternenclaves,such as the communityin Shanghai.ComparablematerialfromBaghdadproper,by and large,reflectsthe old-timereligion. In only one responsumdoes RabbiYosefHayim(3:1) confronta problem that caused a Baghdadman to deviate from a traditionalobservance.But remarkably,the sage's handlingof the case shows that he was unaware of the possibility that it might be of wider significancein terms of the viability of traditionin general.A pharmacistwas employedtogetherwith non-Jewishcolleagues, and before beginningwork, he used to change his clothes (apparentlyto don a medical cloak). Because he wore the ritual fringedgarment(talit qatan)underhis shirt,his colleaguesusedto poke fun at him. The pious pharmacist,arguingthatthereby"theholy precept(mnisva) was demeanedamong the gentiles,"asked for guidance.In his reply the sage implicitly absolves the man from wearingthe ritualgarment.He then engages in a long technicalhalakhicdiscussionabouta certainsolutionthat merchantsand detachedhimself fromthe class of sages. This was rootedin the fact thatthere were two categoriesof sages, those who maintainedthemselvesindependently andthose who lived off publicendowmentsand salaries.Includedamongthe formerwere the leadinglights of the community;whereasthe latterincludedthe hakhanm bashi, of whomthe preacherwas critical(Agassi 1968:181,243). In his categorizationRabbiShim'onsoughtto associatehimself with the categoryof sages that includedmen whom he revered.The significantpoint is the overallconceptualizationof classes thatpervadesthe sermon.

38

SHLOMODESHEN

thepharmacisthadproposedandconcludesby remarkingthattherewas much moreto be said, but he could not say it for pressureof time. The atmosphere that pervadesthis responsumis remarkable;the sage is indifferentto the social and religiouspredicamentsinvolved in the question.His imagination is firedexclusivelyby its technicalaspect. RabbiYosef Hayim was no mere legalist.2?While creativein traditional Jewishlearning,he also wroteandpreachedon a popularlevel, andeven publishedfolktalesand sermonsspecificallyfor women.He was also a kabbalist for whom the talit qatan custom was extremelyimportant,recommending thatit never be takenoff, even at night,and even duringsexualintercourse (Hayim 1977:2). Yet when the practicalproblemposed by the pharmacist arose, the sage ruled strictly accordingto halakhah,which attributeslittle weightto the custom.The responsumrevealshow unawarethis leaderof the communitywas of the socioculturalramificationsof the problemat hand, unawareof changingtimes.22 Evenwherethissage does commenton deviationsfromOrthodoxpractice, he is notablymild. In 1897 he writes:"Forseveralyearsnow some people have had the practiceof visiting gentile coffeehouseson the Sabbath... and drinkingcoffee preparedon the Sabbath.We do not protest(mohintm) to consume loudly for variousreasons.We merelyadvise them (mazhirimn) only whatwas preparedpriorto theircoming"(Hayim1977b:47).The sage's attitudeis relaxed. He views the matterin strictlyhalakhicterms,and his technicaladvice transformsSabbathcoffeehousepatronizinginto a matterof only minorhalakhicimport.He goes on mildly:"Oneshouldnot sit in this convention of idle people on the holy Sabbath day. . . . There is much to be preached about this .... Whoever avoids going to coffeehouses ... will

It was only in 1908 thatthe rabbisassertedthemselveswith a be blessed."23 21. There is extensive biographical information on Hayim in the Ben-Yaakob volume, which served as the main source for several later publications on him. There is a preliminary analysis of Hayim's halakhic work in English (Jacobs 1978). 22. The authors of responsa sometimes abbreviate and reformulate the questions they discuss to make them devoid of details considered to be irrelevant. I suspect that this might be the case here, because the purported motive of the questioner is utterly pious. If indeed the sage considered the real-life situation so unimportant as to cut it, that would support my evaluation of Rabbi Yosef Hayim's view of secularization. 23. The analysis of Rabbi 'Abdulla Somekh's halakhic rulings by Zohar (1988) shows that a similar atmosphere pervades them. The sage confronts technological and other innovations in a relaxed way. He does not suspect that they have wider socioreligious implications. Moreover, Rabbi 'Abdulla permitted his grandson to attend the new Alliance school. We find the same


39

determinedand articulatecomplaintaboutspecificreligiousmisdemeanors, primarilythe desecrationof the Sabbathfor commercialactivities (BenYaakob1979:372-373).24 The 1910 consularreportstatesrathersweepinglythat"incontradistinction to past days the clergy enjoy no influenceover their co-religionists" (Kedourie1971:358). An illuminatingsermonfrom 1913 adds to this. The preacher,complainingaboutthe new ways (particularlywomen'sdress and relaxedsegregationof the sexes), calls on his audiencenotto relyon the sages for remedies.The latterno longerhave any influence,he laments.Therefore, lay people should correct matters.In the past, the preacherexplains, the sages were allied with "the rich," and the latter used to execute their directions.The two stratagovernedthe communityjointly.But now wealthy men do not devote themselves much to public affairs,but concentrateon commerce,"andsince the richarenoteffective,neitherarethe sageseffective (ve-kevanshe-cashirim'en k'an, hakhamim. . . gamnken 'en k'an)"(Agassi 1968:208-209). The preachersees traditionalself-rulefalling apart,but does not rail at villains.He is notablymild. The wealthyarenot describedas radicalor even innovative,andcertainlynot as heretics.He sees themjust as verybusy men who choose not to devote themselvesto Jewishpublicaffairs.Those whom the preacherberatesare presentedas partof a society thathe conceives as unified, and from which he detaches neitherhimself nor his audience.It is possible that the people whom the preacherberatedwere actuallyin his audience.The religiosocialdisintegrationthat is reflectedin the sermonis not far-reaching. In late Ottomantimes secularizationwas slow in comingto Baghdadand reactionto it mild. Abandonmentof religiouspracticesin Baghdadwas not rabbinical attitude toward change in Europe in the early stages of secularization; it changes as the movement for innovation is bolstered by ideology. See also below n. 26. 24. The complaints are specifically about engaging in commerce and writing in ledgers on the Sabbath, but not about diffuse changes of leisure practice and life-style on the day of rest. In another source (from 1914) a sage states that there is "a rumor"that some people smoke on the Sabbath. He repeats the old complaint about people patronizing non-Jewish coffeehouses, also mentioning the consumption of forbidden food (Agassi 1968:200, 202). This indicates that when distancing from tradition did become common, it did not come abruptlyand traumatically, as frequently was the case in Ashkenazic Europe at comparable stages of sociocultural change. There, within the span of only two generations, people often moved from the pole of total immersion in Jewish tradition to the pole of conversion to Christianity.

40

SHLOMODESHEN

coupled with a supportingsecularideology and did not turninto an actual movementof secularization(Eisenstadt1988), in contrastto the situation in Europe,where, beginning in the eighteenthcentury,secularideologies and movementsdid develop. The Baghdadisourcesreflectan unawareness of changingtimes. Baghdadisages evaluatedthe transgressorsof religious humanfailings, normsas peoplewho succumbedto old-time,all-too-familiar, not as innovators;hencethe mildnessof theircastigations.Secularschooling, in the guise of the Alliance Isra61itesystem, was conceivedin termsof the traditionalworldview,objectionablewhen it clashed with religion,but not threateningin a fundamentalway, the forebodingsof a transformedgodless world (Yehuda1987). We come to an importantconclusion:late Ottoman BaghdadJewry,while it didundergochange,was notradicallyrecastingitself. People perceived their communityas one in which the pious were losing control;with such mutationsthey were familiarfrom theirfolk-culture,the Bible and rabbinictexts, and they took them in stride.Culturalchangewas seen as neitherinnovativenor threatening.25 Anotherconclusionconcernsthe social stratificationof the community. The data are replete with indicationsthat people conceivedthemselvesas belongingto specific classes. Symbolsof statusdovetailedwith occupations and materialstanding.At the same time we hear little of kinshipties, the majorelement of social organizationin premodernsocieties. In contrastto the numerousindicationsof class differentiationin late OttomanBaghdad, evidencethatkinshipwas potentin publiclife is scarce.Therelativesilenceof the sourceson anotherpointis also remarkable. Jewishsocial life, especially since the lateMiddleAges, hascommonlyrevolvedaroundimmigrantgroups or quasi-ethnicgroups,leadingto the formationof synagoguecongregations madeup of people of commonorigin(see, for instance,Goitein,vol. 2:167). One wouldhave expectedtheseto appearin Baghdad,since thereweremany immigrantsfrom other places, such as Persiaand Kurdistan.But in all the 25. After World War I, secularization and westernization proceeded much more radically. Members of the community became attracted to a range of new ideological movements, including Zionism, communism and even theosophy. Yet at that time the religious leaders did not assert themselves energetically. This would seem to contradict my thesis, but not necessarily. The 1920s were marked by considerable emigration from Baghdad to Jerusalem, including many notable sages. Since geopolitical circumstance freed the pious from the need to make a stand, their protest was deflected by their fleeing the scene, improving themselves by going to the Holy Land. Subsequently Baghdadi sages in Jerusalem came to fill a prominent role in the Israeli religious establishment (Ben-Yaakob 1980b:356-379).


41

sourcesand secondarymaterialsI have reviewed,thereis no traceof such a development.This does not rule out the possibilitythat common origin or ethnicityfiguredhere and therein social life. Theremay even have been some "ethnicsynagogues,"but the silence of the sources,in the contextof what they do say, suggests that ethnicitywas not a differentiatingelement of prime importance.So how did people in this vast communityconceive themselves,andhow did they organizethemselves?The foregoingclusterof dataclearlyindicatesthe directionof class formation. At this point a methodologicalcomment is called for: The published responsa and sermons contain only a few of the issues that the sages addressed.How thencan we drawconclusionsfromthem?Further,how can we attributesignificanceto the essentiallyanecdotalmaterialthatconstitutes the responsa?The answer to both questions is that in a large corpus of materiallike the one we have been using, discussionsrangeover a great numberof topics. There are also many incidentalallusionsto mattersthat are not fully discussed. Thereforethe silence of the sources aboutcertain subjects is significant.Moreover,because sages in all traditionalJewish societies operatedin the same halakhiclegal system, in essentiallysimilar socioculturalsettings, features that are salient in a particularcorpus of responsaare significantand warrantattention.26 The thesis of this study is based primarilyon expressionsof attitudes and culture that the analysis of the rabbinicalsources reveals. While the latterare unequivocal,a definitiveestablishmentof the thesis also requires positivedataconcerningactualsocioeconomicconditions.Movingtowarda fuller understandingof late OttomanBaghdadJewryrequiresplacing it in its pertinentcontext. There are two such contexts.(1) thatof contemporary Baghdad,of which the communitywas part;(2) thatof comparableJewish minorities in broadly similar conditions, in both Muslim and Christian societies.But the studyof nineteenth-century Baghdadhasnotyet produceda comprehensivepictureof the city as a whole. One wouldwantto learnabout mutualrelationsbetweenBaghdad'sdiversepeoplesandinstitutions-Jews, Muslims, Europeanagents, and others. Studies of Jewish communitiesin 26. Moreover, responsa-based research is not founded only on positivistic attention to case material, but also on uncovering subtle cultural revelations that are embedded in linguistic expression and in the turns and twists of legal discussion. There are several works devoted to the methodology of sociohistorical research with rabbinical sources, most recently Soloveitchik (1990); earlier ones are referred to in Deshen (1989).

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other parts of the Middle East show that BaghdadJewry,of all of them, has the most consistent indicationsof class stratification(see Deshen and Zenner 1982). BaghdadJewry stands at a diametricallyopposite pole to YemeniteJewry,which is the extremecase of a classless, undifferentiated Jewishsociety;othercommunitiesareto be foundat variouspositionson the continuumbetween the poles. We need to uncoverthe social rootsof these differences,both those that may be groundedin the circumstancesof the particularenvironmentof each Jewishsociety,and also those thatmay stem frommattersinternalto the subcultureof eachJewishsociety.Bothcontextual settings,thatof generalBaghdadisociety and thatof MiddleEasternJewry, invite furtherstudy. TelAvivUniversity TelAviv,Israel

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Agassi, Shim'on. 1968. Inlrei shim'on. Jerusalem. Avishur, Yitzhak. 1990. The Jewish Wedding in Baghdad. Haifa: Haifa

UniversityPress.(Hebrew). Batatu, Hanna. 1978. The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Move-

mentsof Iraq. Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress. Ben-Yaakob, Abraham. 1979 (1965). The Jews of Iraq from 1038 to 1960.

Jerusalem:Kiryat-Sepher(Hebrew). . 1980a. The Jews of Iraq in Modern Times.Jerusalem:Kiryat-Sepher

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(Hebrew). . 1980b. The Jews of Iraq in the Land of Israel. Jerusalem: Rubin

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WithoutAssimilation:Notes on Eisenstadt,ShmuelN. 1988. "Modernization 36: 3-6 (Hebrew). the Social Structureof the Jews of Iraq."Pe'armim A D. Mediterranean Shlomo 1967-88. Goitein, Society. 5 vols. Berkeley: Universityof CaliforniaPress. Goldberg, Harvey E. 1990. Jewish Life in Muslim Libya: Rivals and Relatives.

Chicago:Universityof ChicagoPress. 4 vols. Jerusalem. Hayim,Yosef. 1970. Ray pecalimn. . 1973. Tora lishma. Jerusalem.

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. 1977 (1898). Ben 'ish hay. 2 parts.Jerusalem.

Husen, Sedaqa. 1975. Sedaqa u-mishpat: Even ha-ezer. Tel Aviv. . 1978. Sedaqa u-mishpat. Jerusalem.

Jacobs,Louis. 1978. "The Responsaof RabbiJosephHayimof Baghdad." In Perspectives on Jews and Judaism, ed. A. A. Chiel, pp. 189-214 New

York:RabbinicalAssembly. Katz, Jacob. 1961. Tradition and Crisis: Jewish Society at the End of the

MiddleAges. New York:Free Press. Kedourie,Elie. 1971. "TheJewsof Baghdadin 1910."MiddleEasternStudies 7: 355-361. Nini, Yehuda. 1991. The Jews of the Yemen,1800-1914. London: Harwood. Rejwan, Nissim. 1985. The Jews of Iraq: 3000 Yearsof History and Culture.

London. Sassoon, David S. 1949. A Histoty of the Jews in Baghdad. Letchworth.

Sharot,Stephen.1976. Judaism:A Sociology.London:David& Charles. Soloveitchik, Haym. 1990. The Use of Responsa as Historical Source: A Methodological Introduction. Jerusalem: Shazar Center (Hebrew).

Somekh,'Abdulla.Zivheysedeq.Vols. 1-2, Baghdad,1904;vol. 3, Jerusalem, 1980. Stillman, Norman. 1991. The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times. Philadel-

phia:Jewish PublicationSociety. Udovitch, Abraham,and Valensi,Lucette. 1984 The Last Arab Jews: The Communities of Jerba, Tunisia. New York: Harwood.

Yehuda,Zvi. 1984. "SocialRelationsbetweenJews andMuslimsin Baghdad at the End of the 19th Century." In Nation and History: Studies in the History of the Jewish People, ed. S. Ettinger, pp. 55-64 (Hebrew).

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du bassin miditerran-ena?la fin du 19emesiecle et son conmmunautis influencesur la situationsociale culturelle,ed. S. Schwartzfuchs,pp. 36-40 (Hebrew).Jerusalem:MisgavYerushalayim. Zohar,Zvi. 1988. "TheAttitudeof RabbiAbdullaSomekhTowardChanges in the 19thCenturyas Reflectedin his HalakhicWritings."Pe'amimn 36: 89-107 (Hebrew).

Fantasies of Deviance in Mendele and Agnon Author(s): David Aberbach Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 45-60 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486602 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:43 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



FANTASIES OF DEVIANCE IN MENDELE AND AGNON by DAVIDABERBACH Fantasiesof deviance, includinglatent homosexuality,are not a major or overt theme in the fiction of MendeleMocherSefarim(pen name of S. Y. Abramowitz,1835?-1917) and SamuelJosephAgnon (1888?-1970) but are, nevertheless,an unmistakablepartof the characterswhom they depict. These characters,for variousreasonsand to varyingdegrees,are deflected from normalheterosexualattachmentsand are inclined,for this reason,to forms of perversionwhich at times mirrorthe distortionsand breakdownin the societies in which they live. Indeed, some of the featuresof their psychologicalmakeupare hardly explicable, when taken together,except as signs of sexual malaise:most strikingly,their dreamsand fantasies,in which sex roles are confusedand identities reversed, and their constant search for and overvaluationof a strongman, or successfullover, as a modelfor identificationandemulation; and, more generally,their emotionalimmaturity,their fear of women and difficultywith them,the men being ratherweakandpassivein relationto the women, who are dominant,at times cruelly,leadingto frequentexpressions of sexual inferiority,frustration,and unwholeness.As both writerswere, at least nominally,OrthodoxJews in a more puritanage thanthe present,' andhomosexualityis againstJewishlaw, neithercoulddeal openlywith this theme:Mendeleinjectsit withelementsof ribald,even grotesque,fun,notably

1. On the harshclimate for the depictionof homosexualityin Westernliteratureduring the latterperiod of Mendele'scareerand the early periodof Agnon'scareer,see J. Meyers, Homosexualityand Literature,1890-1930 (London:AthlonePress, 1977).

AJS Review 19/1 (1994): 45-60

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in MascotBinyaminha-Shlishi(1878Y, 1896H),2while Agnon'streatmentof it is often characterizedby a mocking,recoilingallusiveness. It is true,of course,thatMendeleandAgnonaredifferentin manyways. Agnon,being a half-centuryyounger,was morefamiliarthanMendelewith and WesternEuropeancultureand behavior.Mendele'santi-traditionalism andhis adherenceto socialrealismoftenclashwithAgnon'sneo-Romanticism tradition.UnlikeMendele,Agnondoes notthinkin abstract,allegoricalterms. YetMendele'sinfluenceon Agnonis detectablenotjust in Agnon'sstyle and and technique,but also, to an extent, in his psychologicalcharacterizations; this maybe seen by comparingandcontrastingthe motifof sexualperversion andhomoeroticismin theirwritings. In particular,Mendele's Susati (1873Y, 1909H) and Agnon's Sippur Pashut(1935) providemutuallyilluminatingparadigmsof familystructures which sometimes producea homosexualson:3in Susati, a fatherwho has died, leaving the anxious, indulgentmotherto raise her only son; and in Sippur Pashut, a strong-willed,manipulativemother and a weak father. In neitherwork, however, does the homosexualundercurrent emerge as a behavioralphenomenon,but it remainsas a clear,merelylatent,andin itself not necessarily abnormalalternativein fantasy in the absence of healthy heterosexualbonds. The centralstrugglein Susati,as statedin the title of its openingchapter ("Israeltriesto be a man"),is the creationandassertionof masculineidentity. Israel,an orphanraisedby his motherin theRussianPaleof Settlementduring the reign of AlexanderII, is in his twentiesand still unmarried.Ostracized by his society as a Maskil, he fails in his bid to enter university.Feeling maddeninglytrappedand frustrated,he projectshis yearningfor manhood onto the mare.The mare,a figmentof his imaginationin madness,is herself an allegoricalrepresentationof the Jews as a people in searchof masculine identity,lost when uprootedfrom their ancestralhomeland.Once a noble prince,the marehas been unsexedin exile, she confessesto Israel:"Inthose days there lived a wise, good prince.This prince,while still a boy, would 2. References to Mendele's writings are from the one-volume Kol Kitve Mendele Mocher Sefarimn(Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1947). When two dates are given, the first refers to the Yiddish and the second to the Hebrew text. Translations from the Hebrew are by David Aberbach, unless indicated otherwise. 3. See I. Bieber et al., Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study (New York: Basic Books, 1962). For a clear account of various theories on the origins of homosexuality, see A. Storr, Sexual Deviation (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1977).

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wanderfar from home, to see what went on in the world, and he became famousamongthe nations.The king of Egypt,a landdefiledwiththe idols of magicians,sorcerers,and wizards,got angrywith the prince,who had come as a visitor to live in his country.He consultedhis retinueand said:Let us find a good way of destroyinghim. The magiciansused theirsorceryto turn the princeinto a mare and made him do the hardestwork,buildingPithom andRameseswith bricksand straw"(p. 312).4 Israel'slonging "to be a man"(pp. 309, 318) thusrunsparallelwith the mare'slonging to be a prince again, and his jumbledfeelings for the mare betrayhis unconsciousself-perception.At one point,he weeps for the mare and is even readyto sacrificehis life for her (p. 313), but he is also enraged at her sluggishacquiescenceto hercondition.Hergroansandkicksgive him relief, for they signify her struggleto regainherformerstate(pp. 313, 322). In wildly discordantfantasies,Israelreflectson the mare'ssex change in relationto his own sexual uncertainties.He thinks,for example,"If the mareis a prince,I, a male, in contrast,am a princess"(p. 315), andimagines that in a formerincarnationhe might have been the Queen of Sheba.But he also wishes, or suspects,thathe was JudahMaccabeus,in its contextan imageof exaggeratedmasculinityso fantasticthatit suggestsa desperateneed on his part to compensatefor the weaknessin his male identity.Later,his fear-riddentemptationby the Devil andthe sexualabandonwhichthisentails might express that side of him which seeks a perverse,distortedmasculine identityat the expense of others,by abandoningmoralscruples. The night after he fails his universityexaminationat the hands of antisemiticexaminers,Israelhas continualnightmaresof being a sacrificial cock. These nightmaresbringout starklyhis convictionof beingemasculated socially and emotionally:"Eyes watchedme in reproachand anger,and the gamebegan,a terrifyinggame!Theplayerstooktheirparts:someas donkeys, oxen, or humanbeings, and I played the role of the rooster,boundat their mercy,a sacrificefor the Day of Atonement"(p. 320). As a sacrificeon the altarof the twistedworldin which he lives, Israel is ripe for demonic possession. In this state of breakdown,his social and sexual crisis merges with his role as symbol of the Jewish people. In the for a workfirstpublishedin czaristRussiain 1873,though end, appropriately 4. Compare this with Exodus, chap. 1. For images of the horse as a male symbol, see Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Bialik's "Avi," and D. H. Lawrence's "St. Mawr"; perhaps the best-known clinical example is Freud's case of Little Hans.

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Israeldoes gain much insight into his predicamentand recovershis sanity, his problems,like those of the RussianJews, remainunsolved. As a studyof madnessand latentdeviance,Susatiis directlylinkedwith Agnon's SippurPashut (1935). The latterwork,publishedover sixty years later, lacks the overall social impactof Susati, but is in some ways a far more subtle and controlledcharacterstudy.Agnon'sonly novel telling of a youth growingup at home, SippurPashutis also, on one level, a study of emasculationand madness, with undertonesof latent deviance.Set at the turnof the centuryin the town of Shibbush(a play on Buczacz, Agnon's hometown,andmeaning"disruption, confusion,disturbance"), it, too, depicts an unstablefamily in a time of social upheavalproducinga son vulnerableto breakdown. The madnessof HirshlHorowitz,like thatof Israelin Susati,eruptsout of his suppressed,inturnedanger, which finds expressionin a nightmare of being a sacrificialrooster.Hirshl'smurderousrage at his wife, Mina, is evidently linked to his torturedbond with his mother,who has engineered this loveless marriage.Hirshl has no way of disposingof this angerother thanby turningit in on himself. He developsan insanefear of slaughtering roostersand of being a slaughteredrooster.We are told by the narratorthat Hirshlhides his knife at night to protecthimself from his sado-masochistic impulses:"Anangrymanis not in control.In an impulse,he couldkill every roosteron earth.Hirshlwas rightto hide his knife at night"(3:201).5 Like Israel,Hirshlin madnessfeels himselfto be disembodiedandout of control.His sexualidentity,too, appearsdistorted.Hirshldeliriouslyaddresses trees, as Israel does animals,as superiorbeings. Whenfoundravingin the fields near Shibbush,Hirshlpleads,"Don'tslaughterme, I'm not a rooster" (ibid.,p. 218). Inhis analysisof theroosterimageryin Agnon,thecriticBaruchKurzweil pointsout thatthe word for "rooster,"gever,is the same as thatfor "man."6 Hirshl's terrorat being a slaughteredcock could, therefore,symbolizehis fear of emasculationor his sense of having been emasculated,deprivedof the power to act forcefully in his interests.This interpretation is equally in to Israel Susati. Mendele As chief artistic applicable providedAgnon's 5. Unless indicated otherwise, quotations from Agnon are taken from Kol Sippurav shel ShmnuelYosefAgnon, 8 vols. (Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1953-62). 6. B. Kurzweil, Massot al Sippure S. Y Agnon (Jerusalem and Tel Aviv: Schocken, 1970), pp. 216 ff.


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model in Hebrewprose,it is inconceivablethatAgnonwas not influencedby this classic work.In addition,Mendeleappearsconsciouslyto have used the cock as symbol of manhood:duringa brief remissionfrom madness,Israel is told of how, when mad, he bowed to a roosterandaddressedit as gever,a man of valor.In this unconsciouspantomine,he implicitlychargedhimself with unmanlyweaknessand ineffectuality. In SippurPashut, similarly,Hirshl'ssense of emasculation,sexual frustration,and suppressedrage at women appearto enhancehis potentialfor deviance, whether consciously or not. He is particularlyalarmedby his responsivenessto the touch of YonahToiber,the matchmakerwho arranges his marriage. WhateverToiber'struecharacter,Hirshlsees himin contrastwithhimself, as one who knows how to manage his life. Toiber's touch (3:180-81), feminine as his first name and surnamesuggest-Yonah in Hebrew and Toiberin Yiddishare feminineand mean"dove"-is similarbothto thatof Blumah(pp. 82-83), Hirshl'scousin,for whomHirshllongs froma distance, andalso of Hirshl'smother(p. 100).7Evenafterhis marriageto Mina,Hirshl remainsguiltily attractedto Toiber'stouch:"Isn'tit a disgracethatwhen he takes my hand in his I want to kiss it .... How smoothare Yonah'shands" (p. 213). WhenHirshlundergoespsychiatrictreatmentin Lemberg,the hand of Dr. Langsamtakesover: "Thestronghandthatcasuallyheld his whenhe arrivedand left was not soft like Toiber's,and he felt no wish to kiss it" (p. 227). This is aboutas far as Agnon could go in the mid-1930sin suggesting possibledeviantimpulseson the partof his centralcharacter. Agnon goes furtherin his explorationof distortionandthe exchangeof sexual identity in later works, notably Temnol Shilshom(1945) and Shirah (1971), both set in Palestine, at the turn of the centuryand in the 1930s respectively.Neithernovel gives muchdetailaboutthe familybackgrounds of thecentralcharacters,butpsychologicallytheyhavemuchin commonwith Hirshlin SippurPashut.As in the latterwork,Agnonintroducesfantasiesof deviance as signs of pathologyand social breakdown.YitzhakKummerin TemolShilshomcomes to Palestinewith the idealismof a pioneerbut gets bogged down in his life in JaffaandJerusalem,firstbecominginvolvedwith Sonia, who does not care for him, and finallymarryingShifra,daughterof 7. For pertinent discussion of the feminine images and symbolism in Sippur Pashut in relation to the Hebrew literary tradition, see N. Aschkenasy, Eve 's Journey: Feminine Irmages in Hebraic Literary Tradition (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986).

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an ultra-Orthodox zealot in Jerusalem.His story mergesin the last quarter of the novel with that of Balak, a rabiddog who on one level appearsto reflect Kummer'sperverseimpulses. In an act which seems to defeat the initialidealismof the novel, the dog bites Kummer,who contractsrabiesand dies. In deliriumshortlybeforedeath,Kummerhas a seriesof hallucinations in which he mixes male and female with seeming indiscrimination. These fantasies suggest that the dog-bite, their cause, is a symbol of deviance and breakdownin which the lines of Kummer'spsychologicalweaknesses suddenlybecomeclear.In one fantasy,Kummerrecallscharacterswho appear earlierin the novel, such as the taxidermistArzafandthe hermitSweetfoot, both described as men who know how to live alone, unencumberedby womenas Kummeris: "WhenYitzhakmanagedto rememberArzaf'sname, he foundhim in Sweetfoot'sshackstrokingTzutzik'steeth,talkingto him as if he were female, saying ati to him. Tzutzikenjoyedbeing coddledlike a bitch"(5:597). The fact that Kummerimaginesthe dog treatedas femaleis significantin the scheme of a novel in which dogs are often comparedwith people. A homosexualcomponentin Kummer'smakeupmight be implied hereandalso in a juxtaposedfantasyin whichhe findshis friend,Rabinowitz, in women'sclothes. Such fantasies of transvestism,with their hints of suppressedsexual deviance, appearalso in Shirah (1971). In this, Agnon's last, unfinished novel, the central character,ManfredHerbst, has obsessive fantasies of Shirah,a nurse in the local lepers' hospitalin Jerusalem.These fantasies, like those of HirshlHorowitzin SippurPashut,are full of violence against women. At one point, for example,Herbst,consumedwith lust, frustration, and rage at Shirah,craves for her to become a man:"Heopenedhis mouth untilthe rows of his teethstuckout andbeganto chatteragainstone another. He got up and screamed,'Andif you wantto live, then live, only turninto a man'" (p. 164). Mas'otBinyaminha-Shlishi,in contrast,has noneof the sordidpathology and hints of sexual deviationof Agnon's writings,but treatsa "marriage" of men in the spiritof a Purimspiel.This allows Mendeleto get away with a greatdeal that would otherwisehave been inadmissible.The storybegins in the fictional shtetl of Batlon ("Idlersville"),with the pious luftmensch Benjamin,a marriedman with children,undergoinga crisis of identitynot unlike thatof Israelin Susati, in which he, too, withdrawsfromhis family. Intent,likewise, on proving himself a man, belatedly,by makingthe hard


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trekto the Landof Israel,he devoteshimselfto an idealof toughmasculinity diametricallyopposed to his nature.He adoptsthe figureof Alexanderthe Great-this recallsthe JudahMaccabeusfantasyin Susati-as a malemodel of identificationand, in orderto combathis naturaltemerity,tests himself: "He decided to act bravely,to suppresshis nature,to root out all fear from his heart.He forced himself to walk out alone at night,to sleep alone in his room,to go past the town limits, even thoughit exhaustedandterrifiedhim" (p. 60). Next, he finds himself an ideal "wife":Senderlthe Woman,malleable and ludicrous,henpecked,beaten,and effectivelyemasculatedby his wife, carelessof his indignitiesto the pointof masochism,ultimatelywarmhearted and loveable. (He is called Senderlthe Womanbecausehis wife puts him to work aroundthe house and he often does women's chores.) Mendele depicts their friendshipas a parodyof a homosexual"marriage," perhaps the only way he could have portrayedit at the time: Senderlis Benjamin's "helpmeet"ezer ke-negdo (p. 62), as Eve is to Adam (Genesis 2:20); and the biblical and rabbiniclanguage of sexual desire and union-teshukah, zivug, hityachadut-is frequentlyused to heightenthe tone of ribaldfarce. "My blood boils and I long for you" (p. 63), ve-elekhateshukati(Genesis 3:16), exclaimsBenjaminto Senderlon proposingthatthey"elope"together; Senderl'sagreementraisesBenjamin'secstasyto new heightsin a parodyof romanticlove not unworthyof GrouchoMarx:"'My soul, the air I breathe, let me kiss you,' criedBenjaminas he huggedSenderlthe Womanlovingly" (p. 64); and when Senderl pulls a bundle of coins, his life savings, from his pocket, Benjamin'sjoy is unbounded:"'Now, belovedone of my soul, gufkha],'exclaimed you deserve a kiss on every limb [kol ever mne-evre Benjaminjoyfully, embracingSenderlthe Womanandhugginghim"(p. 64). On the morningof their departurefrom Batlon, Senderlappearsdisguised as a woman, and once Benjaminascertainsthatthe bustlingfigurein skirts and kerchief is not his wife in hot pursuit,he brightensup and gazes at Senderllike a groom at his beautifulbride,ke-khalana'ahbe-eynedoda (p. 65). They fairly sail along until Senderltires,as a womandoes accordingto the Talmud(Berachot32b), tash kochoki-nekevah(p. 66). To his everlasting credit,Senderlhad busied himself like a "womanof valor,"eshet chayil, to preparefood for the way (p. 67), unlikeBenjaminwhose preoccupationsare masculineand spiritual-until he gets hungry.Each declareshis inexorable attractionto the other,Senderlrevealingthathe was drawnto Benjamin"like

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a blind person ... like a calf afterthe cow,"and Benjamin:"Ourmarriage was madein heaven,you and I are body and soul"(p. 67). Whenthey reach the town of Kesalon,they paradelike a honeymooncouple, "likebrideand groomin the seven days of feastingaftermarriage,alone together,strolling in the gardens,enjoyingone another'severy wordandglance"(p. 80). This parody of marriagereaches its climax when the "newlyweds" unwittinglyfall into the hands of khappers,this being Russia duringthe CrimeanWar of 1854-56, when Jews were legally empoweredto seize otherJews withoutvalid papersand,in returnfor payment,presentthemfor recruitmentin the Russianarmy.Unconsciouslyawareof the danger,they have complementarynightmareswhichbetraytheirdeepestfears.Benjamin, clasping the hand of his hero Alexanderthe Great-echoed, perhaps,in Hirshl'sfascinationwith the handsof YonahToiberin SippurPashut-wakes to find insteadthat he has crusheda flea (p. 81). Senderlfor his parthas a simultaneousnightmareof being a pregnantwomansufferinglaborpains(p. 82). Some fifteen years after Mascot Binyarminha-Shlishi, in "Bi-Yme ha-

Ra'ash"(1894), Mendeledepicteda secondmock marriagein which,again, a pairof men, Mendelethe BooksellerandReb Leib, abandontheirfamilies in order to journey to the PromisedLand:"We made a covenantto live togetherand neitherwould abandonhis mate"(p. 407). Leib, like Senderl, is the "female"partner,and when the bedraggledtravelersvisit the Zionist (basedon LeonPinsker)in Odessato askaboutemigration-the representative is set in 1881,aftertheoutbreakof thepogroms-Leib "bentandcurtsied story and twisted up his face as women do" (p. 410). Later,when Leib looks in the mirror,Mendele imagines him to be a narcissisticfemale, and ugly to boot: "Puttingon their makeupin front of the mirror,they tell themselves they are beautiful and unrivaled"(p. 413). There then follows a parody of the competitivenessoften found amonghomosexuals:Mendeleis sorely distressedat the sight of Leib accompaniedby a young woman who, in fact, wants him not as a lover but as a Hebrewteacher.Leib appearsto be and betrayingnot only his wife but also Mendele,to whomhe is "married," who assumesthe worstwhen Leib,dressedin his Sabbathkapote,disappears with the woman. Here, too, Leib is identifiedas the femininepartner:"To makemattersworse, I saw Leib's everydaykapotehangingon the wall, and she seemed sad, her sleeves crustedwith mudlike the sleeves of a woman's dress on Sabbatheve" (p. 415). Leib returnsfrom his rendezvousspouting


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Hebrew (the only time, incidentally,in the author'sentireoeuvre when a characterspeaksHebrew),full of excitementat beingin demandas a Hebrew teacher.As in Mas'ot Binyaminha-Shlishi,the climax is reachedwith the feminine partner's"pregnancy":"Reb Leib looked like a woman in labor strugglingto give birth"(ibid.). Mendelesees thathe has misjudgedLeib, andnow thatLeib has foundwork,the 'marriage'is dissolved. Against the backgroundof these "marriages"of men, the hilarious matchmakingdone by Mendele's fellow bookseller,Reb Alter, in Sefer ha-Kabbtzanim(1888Y, 1909H), while having a parallel in Sholom Aleichem's writings,seems to fit into a pattern.Reb Alter,seeing a chance to earn a hefty matchmaker'sfee at the Yarmolinskfair, hatchesa match with excessive dispatch-to find that he has pairedtwo grooms!This little tale, spiced with appropriateinterjectionsof comic disgust, is, in fact, crucial in the structureof the novel; it triggers off the main story of Fishke the Lame, his disastrous marriageand his love for Beila the Hunchback(Alter's daughter,as it turnsout). As elsewherein Mendele's are eithercruellydominantand fiction,the women in Sefer ha-Kabbtzanim manipulativeor fruitlesslyyearnedfor, anddivorceis common.Malebonds, such as those of Mendeleand Alter,and,in the end, of MendeleandFishke, are strongerand more stable. Mendele's initial amusementand pity for Fishkechangeto empathyandadmirationonce Fishketells whatit feels like to be in love, a state which Mendele has apparentlynever experienced. This nose-in-the-candyshop-window mentalityin sexualmattersis shared and for this reason,Agnon chose the expressional by Agnon's creations, kapotha-manul,"atthe handlesof the lock,"fromthe Song of Songs (where it is the woman,not the man,who is in searchof herbeloved),as the title for his love stories.His charactersare often divertedfromhealthyheterosexual attachmentsby obsessionswithwomenwho areoutof reachor withthelover, or formerlover, of the beloved. The most blatantlypathologicalexampleof such an obsession appearsin the story "Ha-Rofeu-Grushato"(1941), in which the doctoris so tormentedby thoughtsof his wife's formerlover that his marriagefalls apart.At the climaxof the story,the formerloverbecomes his patient.The extraordinarycare with which he tends the man, whom he hates,mightindicatean unconscioushomosexualattractionanda narcissistic identificationwith him.8 (In the context of such writings,the ambivalent 8. "Inall homosexuallove, thereis an elementof narcissism."Storr,SexualDeviation,p. 88.

DAVID ABERBACH

54

hatredof Moshe Pinchas for Reb Shlomo in "Shne TalmideHakhamim she-Hayube-Irenu"[1946], whichMoshePinchasadmitsis irrational,might be interpretedas a sign of suppresseddeviance.This hatredapparentlydoes not stem primarilyfrom Reb Shlomo'ssuperiorsocial andeconomicstatus, and it is least comprehensibleto Moshe Pinchas,as a conversationwith his motherreveals:"'The man whom I hate [Reb Shlomo]wantsto help me.' His motherreplied:'If so, why do you hatehim?'RabbiMoshePinchassaid: 'I hate him as he bringsout this contemptiblequalityof hatredin me.' The old womansaid, 'I don't understandwhatyou'retalkingabout.'He replied, 'I don't understandit either'" [6:23].) The madnessimplicitin the doctor's identificationwith his wife's formerlover is grotesquelyunderscoredat the end of the story.The doctorrevealswith chillingcasualnessthathe chose to remainchildless for fear thathis childrenwould look like the formerlover. The evident fear of women and sex, and the childlikedependencebrought home most forciblyin the finalsentence-the doctorsits up in bed andcalls to his formerwife as a child to its mother-are partof a matrixof perversity, includinglatent homosexuality.A lesser, thoughcomparablypathological, jealousy of and identificationwith the formerlover, or lovers, appearsin Shirah.WhenShirahtells Herbstof herviolent,tragiclife, he is unresponsive except to think:which men did she know?(p. 25). The doctor's obsession in "Ha-Rofeu-Grushato"is foreshadowedin OreahNatahla-Lun(1939), in whichSamuelthewritertravelsfromPalestine to his hometownof Shibbush,wherehe developsan obsessionwiththe lover of thegirl to whomhe is attracted.Kurzweilwritesof his "demonicaffection" for YeruchamChofshi and observes that "no one in the novel arousesthe Yeruchamappearsto be everything Guest's envy more than Yerucham."9 thatSamuelwould like to be: he is toughand manly,he does hardphysical work, he has his woman, and he lives for the present.Samuel,in contrast, cannotbreakaway from the past, his onetimeambitionto workthe land in Palestinehas come to nothing,and he lives alone, infatuatedwith Rachel from a distance.Physically,he is drawnto Yerucham,to his body,his eyes andhair,andhis earthyfragrance(4:84, 421). After"Ha-Rofeu-Grushato," theobsessionwiththelover,or formerlover, continuesin TemolShilshom,when YitzhakKummerfinds himself drawn to Rabinowitz,Sonia's former lover. Again, as in Samuel's relationship with Yeruchamin OreahNatah la-Lun,Rabinowitzis implicitlycontrasted 9. Kurzweil, Masot al Sippure S. Y Agnon, pp. 61, 62.


55

with Kummeras a model of success, in business and with women, as he is unhamperedby the psychologicalinhibitionswhich plague Kummer.He confides in Kummerthat his secret is the constantstrivingto createnew desiresandsatisfythem:"A manshouldget usedto unnecessarythings.If he has no greatdesirefor them,he shouldcreatedesire.If you have superfluous lusts, you lust to satisfy them.This way you strengthenyourwillpowerand you can't sit idly, as lusts requiremoney and money demandsaction. By forcing yourself to act and overcominglaziness,you build yourselfup and the landgrows with you" (5:454). In the context of Kummer'sproblemswith women, this talk of lust and action is suggestive. Kummer'slust for womenis apparentlystifled,as is Hirshl'sin SippurPashut,by unresolvedfamilyconflictsand imbalances whichhave madehim vulnerableto deviantimpulses.These,as we haveseen, emergestrikinglyin his deliriousfantasiesafterbeingbittenby the rabiddog, Balak.The dog mightitself symbolizedeviance,which,as BaruchHochman suggests, is implicit also in the juxtapositionof Kummer'smarriagewith the fatal bite: "WhenBalak leaps at him from underGeronam'sgaberdine, Yitzhakis presumablysuccumbingto his own rageandterror[towardwomen] and also to his wish that the violent old puritantake him as a man takes a woman. We feel it is no accidentthat Balak'sassaultcomes so soon after Yitzhak'smarriage."10 Anothersign of perversion,includinglatenthomosexuality,is the Agnon hero's attractionnot to female peers as much as to older men who, again in contrastwith himself, have succeededin some masculineform of selfassertion,especially in business or public affairs.The most extraordinary relationshipof this sort is that of the narratorand Mr. Gresslerin "Pat Shlema"(1933): "ThisMr.Gresslerwas my acquaintance, one of my special Since had I when known him? the days whenI since acquaintances. Possibly reacheda maturityof knowledge.Nor do I exaggerateif I say thatfrom the day I met him we had neverceased to have a likingfor one another[lit: our love did not cease]. Now, althoughall and sundrylike him, I can say thathe prefersme to all of them,since he has takenthe troubleto show me all kinds of pleasures."" 10. B. Hochman, The Fiction of S. Y Agnon (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1970), p. 141. 11. Trans. I. M. Lask, in Twenty-One Stories by S. Y Agnon, ed. N. Glatzer (New York: Schocken Books, 1970), p. 86.

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The suggestivenessof this passage-it could almostbe mistakenfor the admissionof a young womanflatteredby the attentionsof an olderman-is enhancedby the hungerand heat which pervadethe story and suggest the sexual cravings of a man who is living apartfrom his wife. Also, at the startof the story,Agnon describeshim firstas movingwith the crowd,then breakingaway on his own path. This breachwith society has implications In of deviancewhich the rest of the story appearsto bearout symbolically.. a remarkablescene which combineselements of perversionand slapstick, the narratorrides in a carriagedrivenby Gressler(whose namemightitself suggestforbiddenappetites),who goes the wrongway:"I stoodup, tookthe reinsout of his hands,andturnedthe horsesoff in a differentdirection.Since I am not an expertin steeringhorses,the carriageturnedoveron me andMr. Gressler,and we both rolled into the street.I yelled and shouted,'Takethe reins and get me out of this!' But he pretendednot to hearand rolled with me, laughingas thoughit amusedhim to roll aboutwith me in the muck."'2 While cautionshould be exercisedin applyingrecenttheoriesof sexual deviation to literaryworks writtenseveral decades ago, the commentsof the psychiatristAnthony Storron an aspect of homosexualitymight have some relevanceto a story whose centralimages revolve aroundwholeness andunwholeness:"Heterosexuallovershabituallyreportthatthepartnerwith whom they are in love seems to fulfill their lives, to complete them, to makethemwhole. Homosexualloversless oftenrepeatsuchphrasesbecause, inevitably,theirlives lack this qualityof wholeness.""' Indeed,by the end of "PatShlema,"the narratorappearsto give up on ever obtaininga "wholeloaf."In a restaurant,wherehe waitsfutilelyfor his supper-the storyis clearlymorethana commenton the standardof service in the restaurantsof mandatoryPalestine-he spies a boy munchingbread similarto that which his motherbakedwhen he was a boy. He would give everything,he thinks,for a mouthful.Confronted,if only symbolically,with his inner hungerand his latentdeviances,he yearnsto returnto a state of sexual innocence-it is uncannyhow frequentlyin Agnon childrenappear in situationsof innertensionsuch as this.'4Whenthe narratorhearsGressler ridingpast in his carriage,he cannotrefrainfromcallingto him. The image 12. Ibid., pp. 88-89. 13. Storr, Sexual Deviation, p. 89. 14. See D. Aberbach, At the Handles of the Lock: Themes in the Fiction of S. J. Agnon (Oxford University Press, 1984), pp. 66-69.

FANTASIESOF DEVIANCE IN MENDELE AND AGNON

57

from the Song of Songs of the unansweredlover at the handlesof the lock appearshere, as if to suggestthe narrator'sunremittingstateof unwholeness (andperhapsalso his feminineposition). Similarly strange states and encounters,dreams and fantasies appear in other stories, and they, too, have undertonesof latent deviance. The story"Yedidut"(1932) takesplace immediatelyafterthe narrator'swife has returnedto their new home aftera long absence.On his way to see her,he forgets where they live. He meets an acquaintance,Dr. Rischel:"'Get into a streetcarand come with me,' said Rischel.I wonderedwhy he was giving me suchunsuitableadvice.He took me by the armandgot in withme. I rode on againstmy will, wonderingwhy Rischelhad seen fit to dragme into this tramcar.Not only was it not bringingme home,but it was takingme further away frommy own street.I rememberedthatI had seen Rischelin a dream wrestlingwith me. I jumpedoff the tramcarandleft him."'15 On the one scrap of paper which had his addressand which he had torn up, the narratorhad writtenthat in the Book of Job the real trialwas God's:"He had a perfectand uprightman,and He placedhim in the power of Satan."16Impulsesof deviance-the satanicnatureof which againbrings Susati to mind-may be implied in the narrator'sbehavioras well as his dreams.He spends no time alone with his wife afterher return,he forgets wherethey live, denies hystericallyany contactwith womenin her absence, rides perverselyaway from home with Rischel, who, wrestlingpartnerthat he is in dream,mightalso be desiredunconsciouslyas a sexualpartner."7 Anotherfantasywithpossiblehomoeroticimplicationsappearsin Shvu'at (1943). On the day after Susan remindsJacob Rechnitzof their Emnunim childhoodoath to marry,he recalls a fantasyof his in which he, like the narratorof "Yedidut,"is ridinga tram:"Twoyoungfellows got in andone sat on the other'sknees. He heardthemtalkingaboutOttoWeiningerandhis Sex and Character.Thejourneycontinuedfor an hour.And then,oddly enough, Jacobhad foundhimself again sittingwith Susan;and it was not yet eleven o'clock, althoughhe had left Susan'shouse at ten, andshe hadaccompanied

15. Trans. M. Louvish, in Twenty'-OneStories by S. Y Agnon, p. 76. 16. Ibid., p. 74. 17. The wrestling match between Gerald and Birkin in D. H. Lawrence's Womenin Love is clearly intended by Lawrence as symbolic of a desired sexual encounter. See Meyers, Homosexuality and Literature, pp. 146-147.

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him halfway,andhe hadeven travelledfor an houron the streetcar,andspent an hourat home."'8 Whileit is truethatmachoimagesof masculinity-the oppositeof whatis generallyfoundin Agnon-may sometimespointto homoerotictendencies, Rechnitz'simmaturityandhis beingsomethingof a "womanlyman,"a theme of Weininger'sbook (as of Susati), might involve homosexualleanings, symbolized by the one boy sitting on the other's knees. His inabilityto differentiateSusan from the image of her dead mother,whom he regards The motif of virtually as his own mother, supportsthis interpretation.'9 retardedtime suggests regressionor fixationon his part,and difficultyin takingSusanas a man takesa woman. Yet anotherfantasywith similarundertonesoccursin Ad Henna(1952). The narrator,who, like most of Agnon'sprotagonists,lives alone, separated from his family, has a nightmarewhich alludes to the midrashon Exodus 2:24, with sinister insinuations:"One night when I lay in bed, Pharaoh's executionerscame and fixed me in the walls of a brickhouse. I cried out from the walls, and the Holy One, blessed be He, took me out and put me to bed. And still the executionerschoked me. In my struggle,they all fell down except for the official in the tax office who lived in the roomopposite mine.... He had mistakenlyenteredmy room,got on my bed, and lay on top of me" (7:68). While Agnon's treatmentof deviance includesoccasionalhumor,it is largely depicted as pathological,whereas Mendele is more inclined to a semicomic,satiricapproach.It is interestingthatAgnon'spicaresquenovel, HakhnasatKallah(1930),which morethanany of his otherworksshowsthe directinfluenceof Mendele,20 Mas'otBinyaminha-Shlishi,avoids particularly the between Reb Yudel and Nuta as a mock marriage. defining relationship in no Agnon, addition,gives complete biographicalaccountwhich would the of help explain persistence deviancein his writings,thoughbiographical

18. Trans. W. Lever, Two Tales of S. Y Agnon (London: Gollancz, 1967), p. 69. 19. On the dead mother in Agnon, see Aberbach, At the Handles of the Lock, pp. 81-99. 20. "No one writing in Hebrew in the 1920s concerning Eastern European Jewry of the early-nineteenth century and using various plot features of Hakhnasat Kallah could possibly do so without confronting Mendele psychologically and ideologically." A. Band, Nostalgia and Nightmare: A Study in the Fiction of S. Y Agnon (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1968), p. 130.


59

parallelsin fictionaldisguise may be detectedthroughouthis works,central to which is SippurPashut.21 Mendele,however,in Ba-Yamimha-Hem(1894, 1903-10, 1917H;1899, 1912-13, 1917Y), gives a fairly clear biographicalpictureof the originsof problemswhich he addressesin his other works:his father'sdeath when he was in his early teens, his mother's inability to supporthim and her remarriage,his consequentdeparturefrom home for the yeshiva of Slutsk, a preludeto his later life among beggars in the Pale of Settlement.22 He describeshis indiscriminatehungerfor friendshipand love at the yeshiva, whichmay be takento presagethe male bondswhichhe portrayselsewhere: "The essence of Shloymele's soul was a mixtureof love, eternallonging, affection and friendship.Like a flame to the wick, he reachedout to catch to everyone,andto live withhimin love andfriendship hold,indiscriminately, as with his own soul"(p. 304). Something,however,was wrong, for Mendelesoon came to regardthe yeshivaas a moralswampin whichhe was sinkingandbecomingfouled.Not long after,he joined a bandof beggars,an experiencewhich permeatedhis life andwritings.The identificationwithbeggars,whichMendele'scharacters sharewith some of Agnon's(e.g. Hemdat,MenasheChaim,HirshlHorowitz, and Herbst),23may have to do with the fact that beggars, being out of society's pale, can in theory live freely and, if they wish, in accordance with theirdeviances.Theireconomicconditionmightalso be regardedas an externalizationof emotionalpovertyleadingto possibledeviance. To sum up. Certainobscure featuresin Mendele and Agnon become clearerif the possibility of latentdeviance,homosexualityin particular,is takeninto account.The patternsof earlyfamilyrelationshipsin theirworks, while differentin manyways, arerecognizedfrequentlyto producesons with homoeroticleanings. These patternsare particularlyevident in Mendele's Susatiand Agnon'sSippurPashut,andit is suggestedthatthey have caused, in part at least, the hero's emotional immaturity,his feelings of sexual inferiorityand emasculation,and his fear of women, all symbolizedmost strikinglyin the nightmaresof being a slaughteredcock; and thatall this is 21. See Aberbach, At The Handles of the Lock, p. 217, index s.v. "biographical basis of writings," "life and career of," "personality." 22. For a fuller account of the relationship between Mendele's early life experiences and his writings, see D. Aberbach, Realism, Caricature and Bias: The Fiction of Mendele Mocher Sefarim (Littman Library, 1993). 23. On the beggar motif in Agnon, see Aberbach, At the Handles of the Lock, pp. 72-73.

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linkedwith theirpostadolescentidentificationwith varioustypes of models of ideal masculinity(though never of the CharlesAtlas variety),whether successfulhommesd'affairesor men who succeedwith womenwherethey themselves fail, or, in madness, with exaggeratedor distortedimages of masculinity;and with their strangedreamsand fantasiesof sex change or of men on top of one another:all these, obscureindividually,suggest the possibility of latent deviance, particularlyhomosexuality,when viewed as a Gestalt.It is remarkablehow much Agnon appearsto have learnedfrom Mendele,notjust in imitationof the naive andpiousnarratorwho is, in fact, a sophisticatedartist,but also in the psychologicaldepictionof characters andtheirinnerlife, theirdreamsandfantasies,as well as in the use of images to sicknessand of sexual immaturityand distortionas obliquecounterparts breakdownin the societies whichthey describe. McGillUniversity Montreal P.Q.

Updated Bibliography of Alexander Altmann's Published Writings Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 61-65 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486603 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:44 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



UPDATEDBIBLIOGRAPHY OF ALEXANDERALTMANN'S PUBLISHEDWRITINGS AlexanderAltmannpassed away six years ago, yet his presenceis still very much felt by all who work in the field of medievaland early modern Jewishphilosophyand mysticism.The recentpublicationof his earlyessays on Jewish theology and the crisis of GermanJewryin the thirtieswill bring him to the attentionof a still wider circle of readers.His place amongthe foremostscholarsof Judaicstudiesin ourcenturyis assured. Many membersof the Associationfor JewishStudieswere fortunateto have known ProfessorAltmannpersonally.He took an active role in the meetings of the Association,both as a speakerand as a faithful attender of the sessions. He contributedgreatly to the level of discussionat these meetings,helping to turnthem into learningsessions for all present.In one of his last conversations,he spoke aboutthe talk he plannedto give at the 1987 conference. It is thus fittingthat the AJS Reviewpublisha completedupdateof Dr. Altmann'sbibliography.It was preparedby his devotedbrotherDr.Manfred Altman, Chairmanof the Board of Governorsof the Instituteof Jewish Studiesin UniversityCollege, London. TheEditors Bibliography of Published Writings by Alexander Altmann (1906-1987)

The period of AlexanderAltmann'spublicationsfrom 1927 to 1981 is covered in the Bibliographycontainedin Mystics, Philosophers,and Politicians: Essays in Jewish Intellectual History in Honor of Alexander

Altmann,Edited by Jehuda Reinharzand Daniel Swetschinski,with the AJSReview19/1(1994):61-65000

61

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ALEXANDER ALTMANN'S PUBLISHED WRITINGS

collaboration of Kalman P. Bland. Duke Monographs on Medieval and

RenaissanceStudies,No. 5 (DukeUniversityPress,Durham,NorthCarolina, 1982). The period from 1927 to 1978 is also covered in the bibliography contained in Studies in Religious and Intellectual History Presented to Alexander Altmann on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday, Edited by Siegfried Stein and Raphael Loewe (published in association with the Institute of Jewish Studies, London, by the University of Alabama Press, University, Alabama, 1979). This Bibliography contains his publications from 1981 to 1987 and posthumous publications. Titles shown in CAPITALS indicate books and other independent publications. The consecutive numbers of entries follows No. 212, the last entry in the above-mentioned Bibliography 1927-1981. Composedby ManfredAltman London,England April 1992 213.

214.

215. 216. 217.

218.

Moses Mendelssohn: "Die Bildsiule-Ein psychologisch-allegorisches Traumgesicht."Eingeleited und erliutert von AlexanderAltmann.Allgeineine Zeitschriftfir Philosophie, No. 3/1981, Frommann-Holzboog, Canstatt,pp. 1-26. (Ed.) Stuttgart-Bad (Ed.) MOSES MENDELSSOHN.GESAMMELTESCHRIFTENJUBILAUMS-AUSGABE,VI, 2: KleinereSchriftenI. Bearbeitedvon Eva Y. Engel. Mit einem Beitragvon AlexanderAltmann.1981, Frommann369 pp. Holzboog,Stuttgart-Canstatt, "LurianicKabbalain a PlatonicKey:AbrahamCohenHerrera'sPuertadel Ciel."HebrewUnionCollegeAnnual,LIII 1982,pp. 317-355. "GeorgesVajda, 1908-1981." AmericanAcademyfor Jewish Research, Proceedings,Vol. 1, 1983, pp. xix-xxii. "Ars Rhetoricaas Reflectedin Some Jewish Figuresof the ItalianRenaissance."Jewish Thoughtin the SixteenthCentuly,Ed. by BernardDov Cooperman,HarvardUniversity Centerfor Jewish Studies, Cambridge, Mass, 1983, pp. 1-21. MOSESMENDELSSOHN.JERUSALEMOR ON RELIGIOUSPOWER AND JUDAISM,Translated andCommentary by AllanArkush,Introduction Pressof New by AlexanderAltmann.BrandeisUniversityPress/University England,HanoverandLondon,1983, 254 pp.

PUBLISHED ALTMANN'S WRITINGS ALEXANDER

63

219.

PANIM SHEL JEHUDOT ("Faces of Judaism"),in Hebrew.Selected Essays. Am Oved Publishers Ltd., Tel Aviv, 1983, 296 pp.

220.

(Ed.) MOSES MENDELSSOHN. GESAMMELTE SCHRIFTEN JUBILAUMS-AUSGABE, Band 8, SCHRIFTEN ZUM JUDENTUM II. Bearbeited von Alexander Altmann, Frommann-Holzboog, Stuttgart-Bad Canstatt, 1983, 375 pp.

221.

"Gershom Scholem (1897-1982)." Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research; Vol. LI, 1984, pp. 1-14.

222.

(Ed.) MOSES MENDELSSOHN.GESAMMELTESCHRIFTENJUBILAUMS-AUSGABE, Band 10, Teil 1 und 2: SCHRIFTENZUM JUDENTUM IV. Unter Benutzung von teilweisen Vorarbeitenaus dem Nachlass von Simon Rawidowicz. Bearbeitet von Werner Weinberg. Mit BeitrAgen von Alexander Altmann, Stuttgart-Bad Canstatt, Frommann-Holzboog, 1985, 625 pp.

223.

"Moses Mendelssohn as the Archetypical German Jew." In Symposium on The Jewish Response to German Culture: From the Enlightenment to the Second World War, Ed. by Jehuda Reinharz and Walter Schatzberg. University Press of New England, Hanover and London, 1985, pp. 17-31.

224.

"Do We Need a Jewish Theology?" Proceedings of the Institute for Distinguished Community Leaders, Brandeis University, 27-29 July 1986.

225.

VON DER MITTELALERLICHEN ZUR MODERNEN AUFKLARUNG, STUDIEN ZUR JUDISCHEN GEISTESGESCHICHTE.Ten Essays: First publication of "Maimonides on the Intellect and the Scope of Metaphysics," pp. 60-129, and of "Moses Mendelssohn's Concept of Judaism Reexamined," pp. 234-248. Both in English. The other six English essays are republished: "The Delphic Maxim in Medieval Islam and Judaism";"The Ladderof Ascension"; Moses Narboni's Epistle on Shi'ur Qomah. An Introduction";"Ars Rhetorica as Reflected in Some Jewish Figures of the Italian Renaissance"; "Lurianic Kabbala in a Platonic Key: Abraham Cohen Herrera's Puerta del Cielo"; "Eternality of Punishment: A Theological Controversy within the Amsterdam Rabbinate in the Thirties of the Seventeenth Century." Two essays in German are republished: "ZurFrihgeschichte der Jtidischen Predigt in Deutschland: Leopold Zunz als Prediger"and "HermannCohen's Begriff der Korrelation." Volume 2 of Texts and Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Judaism, Ed. by Maurice R. Hayoun, Ivan G. Marcus, Peter Schifer. 336 pp. Tubingen, J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1987.

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226.

"Lurianic Kabbalah in a Platonic Key: Abraham Cohen Herrera's Puerto Del Cielo." In Jewish Thought in the Seventeenth Century, Ed. by Isadore Twersky and Bernard Septimus. Harvard University Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1987, pp. 1-37. (Republished, see nos. 215 and 225.)

227.

"The God of Religion, the God of Metaphysics and Wittgenstein's 'Language Games'." "Zeitschriftfiir Religions- und Geistesgeschichte, Vol. 39/4, 1987, E. J. Brill Verlag, Cologne, pp. 289-306.

228.

"Eine bisher unbekannte frtihe Kritik Eberhard'san Kant's Raum und Zeit Lehre." Kant Studien, Philosophische Zeitschrift der Kant Gesellschaft, ed. Gerhard Funke und Rudolf Malter. Vol. 97, No. 3, 1988, pp. 329-341. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York.

229.

"Essence and Existence in Maimonides." In Maimonides: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. by Joseph A. Buijes. Lafayette, Ind., Notre Dame Press, 1988.

230.

"Mendelssohn's Political Philosophy." Brandeis University, Waltham,Mass.

231.

"Das Bild Moses Mendelssohn's im deutschen Idealismus." In Moses Mendelssohn und die Kreise seiner Wirksamkeit(Internationales Symposium der Lessing Akademie, Wolfenbtittel, September 1986). Herausgeber Michael Albrecht, Eva J. Engel, Norbert Hinske, Wolfenbtittel, Lessing Akademie, to be published 1992, Niemeyer Verlag.

232.

THE MEANING OF JEWISH EXISTENCE. Theological Essays, 1930-1939, by Alexander Altmann. Ed. Alfred L. Ivry.Preface by Alexander Altmann. Introduction by Paul Mendes-Flohr. Translatedfrom German into English by Edith Ehrlich and Leonard H. Ehrlich, University Press of New England for Brandeis University, Hanover, New Hampshire, and London, 1992. 216 pp.

RE 233 to 239 These volumes, completing the MOSES MENDELSSOHN. GESAMMELTE SCHRIFTEN JUBILAUMS-AUSGABE, were planned and directed by Alexander Altmann, the Editor-in-Chiefof the Jubiliums-Ausgabe, together with the Publishers and his collaborators. Refer to catalogue of Frommann-Holzboog, Stuttgart-Bad Canstatt, 1991/92. These volumes are listed, edited by Alexander Altmann, S.A., Eva J. Engel. 233.

Band 15, Teil 1 und 2-Band 18: Hebrtiische Schriften II, I-II, 5. Bearbeited von Werner Weinberg, 1990. Total 2149 pp.

ALTMANN'S ALEXANDER PUBLISHED WRITINGS

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234.

Band 5, Teil 1: Rezensionsartikel in Briefe, die neueste Literaturbetreffend. Bearbeited von Eva J. Engel, 1991. 696 pp. Band 5, Teil 2: Rezensionsartikel in Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek". Literarische Fragmente. Bearbeitet von Eva J. Engel, 1991. 327 pp. Band 5, Teil 3: Kommentar zu Band 5,I und 5,II. Bearbeitet von Eva J. Engel. Mit Beitrigen von Michael Albrecht. Due in 1992.

235.

Band 9, Teil 1: Schriften zum Judentum II. Due in 1992.

236.

Band 20: Lebensdokumente. Bearbeitet von N.N. und Eva J. Engel. In preparation.

237.

Band 21: Nachtr~ige.Bearbeitet von Eva J. Engel, mit Einem Beitrag von H. Lausch. Due in 1992.

238.

Band 22,1: Register (deutsche Schriften und deutsch-sprachiges Material in den BAinden14-19). Due in 1992.

239.

Band 22,2: Register (hebrAische Schriften und einzelne hebraica in den BlAnden1-13, 20, 21). Due in 1992.

Review: Some Reflections on a Baroque Jewish Novella Author(s): Robert Bonfil Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 67-75 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486604 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:44 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



REVIEW ESSAY SOME REFLECTIONSON A BAROQUE JEWISH NOVELLA by ROBERTBONFIL David B. Ruderman. A Valley of Vision: The Heavenly Journey of Abraham ben Hananiah Yagel. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990. The study of Italian Jewry from the fifteenth through the seventeenth century has recently encountered renewed interest. As is well known, Italian Jewry in this period has traditionally been considered a fine paradigm of confrontation with the more general problem of the definition of Jewish identity against the background of general culture. The use (and abuse) of notions and semantics of the "Renaissance"-by definition a concept implying a more or less conscious association of ideas with luminosity contrasting the darkness of the Middle Ages (by almost traditionaldefinition the "Dark Ages")-has naturally helped to exacerbate the implications of the encounter between the Jewish and the non-Jewish cultures in terms of "confrontation" and of value-judgment (for instance, if the Renaissance was by definition "good," then the perception of Jewishness in terms of resistance to it should necessarily be perceived as "bad"). The semantics of acculturation, assimilation, cultural influences, and interaction between cultures, quite often used in this context without precise definition of meaning, may conceal quite different, deeply biased historical outlooks and ideological stances, ranging from plain Jewish or non-Jewish apologetics to equally plain recriminations or Jewish self-accusations. To be sure, the efforts of several scholars, some of them working in teams, have already enriched our AJS Review 19/1 (1994): 67-75

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libraryshelves with an impressivenumberof volumesof monumentaof all kinds,thusmakingpossiblean efficaciousrevisitingof ourissue with greater chances of evaluatingit sine ira et studio. Yet, not unreasonably,we may relativeto it still derives assumethatthe problemof historicalinterpretation much strong appeal from the acutenessof the contemporaryperceptionof the questionsconcerningmoderndefinitionsof Jewishidentity.Onemayalso feel quitejustified,therefore,in assigningthe ongoingscholarlydiscussions to the very same context. David Ruderman'scontributionto the discussionis alreadymost significant. In fact, his works assign Rudermana place of primaryimportance. Rudermanhas been searchingout models of positive coping in relations between Jews and non-Jews on the culturallevel, in particularmodels of Jews into (perhapsone shouldsay paradigms)of the cultural"integration" the generalcontexts of theirdiasporicallife. His primaryfield of research, therefore,hasquitenaturallybeenthatof ItalianJewryduringtheRenaissance. Accordingto Ruderman'smostrecentformulation,thefirstquestionsto be askedin this contextare: "Towhat extentwere Jews earnestlypreoccupied with the concerns of Renaissanceculture?Was there a Jewish humanist movement comparableto that of Italian cultureof the period?Can one legitimatelyspeak of a Jewish Renaissancein Italy coterminouswith the ItalianRenaissance?Did ItalianRenaissancecultureactuallyexerta decisive influenceon Jewish thought or did its impact constituteno more than a passing fad or superficialencounter?"'It seems to me that the italicized words in the preceding quotation may give a fair idea of Ruderman's primaryscholarlyconcerns:discoveringpathsof influenceleadingfromthe non-Jewishto the Jewish space, determiningdegreesof earnestnessin the Jewish approachesto the non-Jewishworld, ascertainingthe existence of "parallellives" amongJews and Christians,and verifyingthe legitimacyof to the Renaissanceas an essentialpartof includingthe "Jewishcontribution" thatculturalphenomenon.2 Rudermanis not simply pursuingthe traditionalbent of Jewish hisWissenschaftdes Judentumsand toriographyrooted in nineteenth-century 1. D. B. Ruderman, "The Italian Renaissance and Jewish Thought," in Renaissance Humanism: Foundations and Forms, ed. A. Rabil, vol. 1 (Philadelphia, 1988), p. 382 (emphasis added). 2. Indeed, one may hardly miss the significance of such questions for the perception of the identity of any modern Jew.

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redefinedmasterfullyby the late Cecil Roth and Moses AvigdorShulvass, and by their lesser epigones. Like most (indeedall) contemporarystudents of Jewish history in RenaissanceItaly, Rudermanat first felt profoundly influenced by these masters.3However, his interests gradually have shifted to the involvement of Jews in science at the dawn of the modem era.4The first major result was his biography of Abraham Yagel, a Jewish physician living in northern Italy between 1553 and ca. 16235--a period that, as we will later point out, Ruderman would prefer to characterize as Baroque, rather than Renaissance. As is the case with pioneering works in all fields, Ruderman's treatment

of the historyof Jewish science in the early modernperiodhad to confront some basic challenges,essentiallynot differentfromthose most studentsof the history of science confront. Some of them are summarizedpretty well by the following introductory remarks written several decades ago by I. Bernard Cohen in a review essay about books on the history of science: While appreciatingthatscientificideas are an essentialpartof the complexof ideas in any given portionof history-and moreessentialin some periodsor culturesthan in others-the historianof ideas in generalis moreapt to value the historyof science as an ancillarydisciplineto his own thanas the be-all and end-allof historicalresearchor even as an independentsphereof activity. Thus, the historian of science, if he wishes to make his research have the impact on scholarship it deserves, must consciously strive to make his results

intelligibleto others, a word that includes"other"historiansof science just as much as "other" kinds of historians. .

.

. Every historian of science has a

double obligation:to produceoriginalscholarlyresearchwhich may or may not be generallyunderstandable to thosewithouthis own specialcompetences, and also to help to make his work and that of his colleaguesa partof the knowledge of every historianwho may be concernedin any way with the culturein which that science was producedor which was affectedby it. ... 3. See D. B. Ruderman,TheWorldof a RenaissanceJew:TheLifeandThoughtof Abraham ben MordecaiFarissol (Cincinnati,1981). 4. His more recentcontributionsinclude:"TheImpactof Science on JewishCultureand Society in Venice(WithSpecial Referenceto JewishGraduatesof Padua'sMedicalSchool)," in Gli Ebreie Venezia,ed. G. Cozzi (Milan, 1987), pp. 417-448; andScience,Medicine,and Jewish Culturein Early ModernEurope,Spiegel Lecturesin EuropeanJewishHistory,no. 7 (Tel-Aviv,1987). 5. David B. Ruderman,Kabbalah,Magic, and Science: The CulturalUniverseof a JewishPhysician(Cambridge,Mass., 1988). Sixteenth-Century

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literature of thehistoryof sciencemay Althoughon occasionthemonographic be ably and brilliantlysummarizedand interpretedby the generalhistorian,

therecanneverbe a substitute forthepresentation of anysubjectbyitsmaster, as countlessexamplesshow.6

In fact, the historianof the Jewish experiencein the field of science in the periodspriorto the modernfaces the problemhere outlinedby Cohenin a much more dramaticway: in his case the "other"encompasseslargelythe realm of the topic and of the field of specialization.Indeed,it raises basic questionsof "simple"linguistic translationfrom a languageand a culture most historiansconsiderexotic (a statementthatholdstrue,I believe,even if we restrictourselvesto Hebrew-reading audiences).The moreso, if we take into considerationthe fact that Hebrew-written medievaland early-modern scientific discourse is organicallyinterwovenwith other no less "exotic" discourses,with which we have only recentlybegunto be acquainted,such as Kabbalahand magic. In fact, the crucialrole of magic in the progressof science, its intriguingrelationshipto reasonandexperiencebesidesreligion and religious practice,7as well as the intricacyof Kabbalahas a system of beliefs, thought,and practices,are quiterecentscholarlyacquisitions,on which it seems thatwe still are not able to perceivemuchmorethanthe tip of the iceberg. Thanksto greateruditionandthe masteryof diversescholarlydisciplines, Rudermanhas successfullyhandledthis linguisticandexpositorychallenge. In so doing, he has broughtHebrewliteraryproductionrelatedto Kabbalah, magic, and science to the attentionand scrutinyof the generalaudienceof historians,and renderedit intelligible.He has also proposedviewing it as an organicpartof the generalrestructuring of the perceptionof knowledge startedtowardthe end of the sixteenthcentury.Rudermanpursueshis goal with an eye firmlyorientedtowardnon-Jewishconceptionsand practicesof science;he triesto locate influenceexercisedfromthe Christianspaceon the Jewishone. In so doing, he proposesto verifythe legitimacyof assigningthe 6. I. Bernard Cohen, "Some Recent Books on the History of Science," in Roots of Scientific

Thought:A CulturalPerpective,ed. PhilipP.WienerandAaronNoland(New York,1957),pp. 627-628, 632. 7. See, for instance, G. E. R. Lloyd, Magic, Reason and Experience: Studies in the Origin and Development of Greek Science (Cambridge, 1979); and Stanley JeyarajaTambiah, Magic, Science, Religion, and the Scope of Rationality (Cambridge, 1990).

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admittedlyminorfiguresof Jewish doctorsand theirliteraryproductionsto the most generalcontemporaryintellectualcontext. AbrahamYagel was indeed one of these men-a Jewish moneylender, medical doctor, and prolific writer.Yagel was undoubtedlya minorintellectual figure,not only when comparedwith contemporaryChristianssuch as Cardanoor Galileo, but also in juxtapositionto Jews like Leon Modena or MenahemAzariahda Fano. His life, as it is describedby Ruderman's meticulousreconstruction, may hardlybe thoughtof as unveilingunknownor particularlyexcitingaspectsof ItalianJewishlife. Althoughhe seemsto have his life is typically beenmoresuccessfulas a physicianthanas a moneylender, even and and with persecution imprisonment) insecurity(occasionally tinged bitternessborderingon distress.His engagementin intellectualruminations and scholarlywritingthusemergesas a meansof overcomingthe dullnessof his precariouseverydayexistence.However,ratherthanbeing some kindof learnedevasion of ordinarylife, as were the writingsof manyCinquecento Italianintellectuals,Yagel's literaryeffort mustbe readas an expressionof the Jewish strivingto make sense of humanlife in generaland of Jewish life in particular,at a time which, as is well known,was dramaticallycrucial for ItalianJews. AlthoughYagel's literaryproductionmay quite safely be as mediocre,Rudermanproposesthatwe discoverin thisquality characterized (whichin a sense characterizedFarissolas well) some kindof Archimedean point that eventually may be instrumentalin raisingthe questionof how Jewish culture coped with non-Jewishcultureon the social level. For if Yagel does not offer our curiosity any exciting scholarship,he certainly presentsus with what most (if not almost all) Jews of his time held to be first-ratescholarship,andwhich they triedto conformto in orderto consider themselvesup-to-dateliterati.Ruderman'sfocus on a mid-levelfigurelike Yagel is thereforehighly suggestive and stimulatingin proposinga new directionfor research. It is indeed from this perspectivethatin Kabbalah,Magic and Science, Rudermanwove themes "pickedout" from Yagel's Valleyof Visioninto a mosaicthatrecreatesYagel'sWeltanschauung as paradigmatic of the making of a new Jewish culturalidentityin early modernItaly.The resultachieved in Kabbalah, Magic and Science is summarized in the introductionto Valley

of Vision.The rest of the book containsthe completetext of this work by However,giventheoften Yagel,presentedto the readerin Englishtranslation. it nature of the Hebrew must be stressed thatRudermanhas cryptic original,

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providedmuch more thansimply a translation.The importanceof his book lies in the literaryanalysisof the text and in the learnedexplanatorynotes appendedto the translation.The rich apparatusof eruditefootnotes,actually a mine of informationthatundoubtedlywill triggerfutureresearch,enlarges the reader'shorizonandenableshim to graspmanyhiddenfacetsof Yagel's discourse. As alreadynoted by I. Zinbergand M. A. Shulvass,Yagel'sbook is in fact writtenin the genre of the Italiannovella. Yet, althoughadmittingthe great dependence of Yagel's Valley of Vision on La piacevol notte et lieto

giorno composed by Nicolao Granucci(1522-1603),8 Rudermanprefers, especially in his notes and commentary,to assign more importanceto the "scientific"componentsof Yagel'sdiscourse.Althoughhe urgesus to consider Yagel's Valleyof Visionas a uniqueautobiography(see p. 23), and devotes special chaptersto what one would characterizeas definitelyliteraryand socioculturalthemes,9it seems thathe prefersthe perspectiveof intellectual historyto those of literaryor socioculturalhistory.Rudermanis charmedby whatappearsto him as "theunderlyingmessageof the Valleyof Vision,"'1 i.e., the networkof relationshipsemergingfromYagel'sprosebetweenthe natural and the supernatural,as well as between empiricalknowledgeof the kind we would characterizeas "popular"and traditionalauthoritativelearning, drawnobviouslyfromJewishsources,butalso fromnon-Jewishones, which following the medieval Jewish traditionYagel consideredacceptable.In a seriesof learnedphilologicalinquiriesincludedin his notesandcommentary, Rudermanunravelsa host of threadsof thatnetworkandshowshow they are variouslylinkedto a multiplicityof contexts,includingthe humanistone of Pico della Mirandolaand MarsilioFicino, the Kabbalah,andthe medicalas well as belletristicliteratureof the sixteenthcentury. One wonders how justified is Ruderman'sdecision to privilege the scientificdimensionof a novella over its literaryandsocioculturalaspects." 8. This fact was already pointed out by Giulio Busi, "Sulla Ge Hizzayon (La valle della visione) di Abraham Yagel," Annali della Facoltri di Lingue e Letterature Straniere di Ca' Foscari 23 (1984): 19, and is duly acknowledged by Rudermanon p. 29, n. 81. 9. Particularly the impact of Boethius and the Consolatio genre, the use of popular emblematic handbooks in the teaching of Judaism, the theme of the involvement of Jews in gambling, the birth of Siamese twins in the Jewish ghetto of Venice in 1575, and some others. 10. This is the title of the concluding chapter of the introduction (pp. 60-65), followed only by "a final reflection on the Valley of Vision and the Baroque sensibility," and a technical preface to the English translation. 11. One might even ask: in order to investigate the "scientific"component of Yagel's world,


73

An example will show more concretely the kind of problem posed by his choice. One of the most fascinating chapters of the book is "The Gambler's Speech," which is a speech delivered by one of the souls allegedly encountered by Yagel on his heavenly journey. The speech includes, among other things, a discussion of the excellence of the number seven, followed by a statement of Yagel's: "However, in reality, only six is a perfect number, as is clear to the mathematicians" (p. 97). In the footnote appended by Ruderman to this statement (n. 7) we find a reference to V. F. Hopper's Medieval Number Symbolism, suggesting the consideration of a quotation from Philo. In other words, the intertextual perspective Rudermanurges upon us is that of medieval number symbolism. To this we are supposed to associate what we know about kabbalistic and magic numerology, in the scientific framework previously established in the same chapter and the gambler's speech by a lengthy discussion on the zodiac, stars, and heavenly influences. One wonders if such an approach is not somehow misleading, not only in that it overstates Yagel's "popular" discourse, but also because it does not take into account the possible relevance of popular discussions of the like, as attested in the novelistic productions of the period, in which, beyond the learned panoply of quotations, one perceives clearly the ironic dimension emerging from the mundane (almost empty) function of such discussions. For instance, this occurs in one of Firenzuola's novels, where the discussion on the "perfection" of the number six, according to the "mathematicians,"expands over no less than five pages, closing with a clever joke.12 Still, what is wrong in preferring one kind of theme over the variety of many others? It seems to me that in determining the natureof the information offered to his reader, Ruderman is doing much more than simply preferring themes and motives which especially attracted him. In presenting Yagel's culture as almost directly linked with the humanism of Pico and Ficino, and in stressing its intellectual and scientific significance over its popular and social significance, he in fact is delving into one of the most intriguing questions concerning the history of Italian Jewry: whether the phenomenon of Jewish scientists, mostly doctors at that time, is actually to be considered as continuing the overall phenomenon of the Italian Jewish Renaissance (be its would it not have been more effective to focus on Yagel's more scientific Moshia' Hosimn (Venice, 1587), which is a quite typical work on the plague, much akin to dozens of similar works written by contemporary Italian doctors? 12. Agnolo Firenzuola, Le novelle, ed. Eugenio Ragni (Rome, 1971), pp. 25-29.

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significancewhateverit may)or,to thecontrary,as pointingto a radicalrupture with it? It seems to me thatRudermanhas optedfor continuity.To be sure, he no longer assumesthe monolithicunity of the entireperiod,as did Roth and Shulvass,and as manystill do. His positionis muchmoresophisticated, indeed quite new. As noted above, he adopts the characterization of the of Baroqueinsteadof that the Renaissance.Yet, this choice of terminology does not seem to imply the assumptionof any essentialdifferencebetween the periods,as faras the mainquestionsinterestingRudermanareconcerned. On the contrary,it seems to me that he persistsin positing the necessity of maintainingwithoutsignificantmodificationthe interpretative categories describinghow theJewscopedwiththeculturalcontextof theRenaissance(as he construedthemin his firstbook)13even in the followingperiod,however one wishes to nameit-Late Renaissance,Counter-Renaissance, or Baroque period.The principaldifferenceis thatRuderman'sparadigmatic figuresare now physiciansratherthanphilosophers,andthe field of knowledgeis more specificallyscience in its increasinglymodern(empirical)sense ratherthan philosophyas perceivedby medievalor even humanistthinkers. In sum, Rudermanis adamantin assumingcontinuitybetweenthe Renaissance and the Baroque,as far as the attitudeof ItalianJews regarding non-Jewishcultureis concerned.In fact, Rudermanquiteadamantlydefends the idealizedpictureof ItalianJewryas one of continuousopennesstoward outsidecultureandof uninterrupted organicinterwiningwithit. Indeed,hehas himself quiteovertlytakena positionon this issue, statingthe existenceof a "characteristic mode of Italian-Jewishcivilization,at leastuntilthe threshold of the modern era,"'4 which consisted "in absorbingdiverse Jewish and non-Jewishculturalformsandcreativelymoldingtheminto constantlynovel configurations,in patientlytoleratingdiversityand discord,in channeling ideas andvalues fromone place to anotheras an entrepotand clearinghouse of merchandise,andin allowingindividualityto blossomwithina framework of communalconsensus.""Accordingto Ruderman,it is in this "refreshingly appealing"image of ItalianJewry, conceived as some kind of constante de trcs longue durde,that ultimatelycan "be locatednot only the essential 13. See n. 5 above. 14. David B. Ruderman,"Atthe Intersectionof Cultures:The HistoricalLegacyof Italian Jewry,"in Gardensand Ghettos:TheArtof JewishLifein Italy,ed. VivianB. Mann(Berkeley, 1989), p. 2. 15. Ibid., p. 21.


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legacy of Italian-Jewishcivilization but also its enduringsignificancefor contemporaryculture."'6 In my opinion, one may cogently take issue with such a sweeping generalization."Absorbingdiverse Jewish and non-Jewishculturalforms and creativelymolding them into constantlynovel configurations""7 is not a unique virtue of Italian Jewry, but ratherof Judaismin all times and places. The real question is not one of ascertainingthe mere fact of such but ratherof the differentways in which they took place in "absorptions," differenttemporaland spatialcontexts.Rudermanassumesthatthe erudite discoveryof hundredsof sourcesfor Yagel'sdiscoursein theliteraryoutputof renownedfifteenth-century humanistsis a cleardemonstration of continuity betweenthe culturalattitudesof fifteenth-century humanismand those of a middle-browJewish physician,who, at the thresholdbetweenthe sixteenth and seventeenthcenturies,readhumanisttexts anda varietyof otherprinted books readily available to most literates.But this assumptionultimately may obstructa full understandingof this physician'sruminations.Such an I submit,mighthave muchto gain froma furtherfocusingon understanding, those literaryand socioculturalaspects which were intentionallyneglected by Ruderman. However,this is certainlynot to underestimateRuderman'saccomplishment,for it is thanksto thisscholar'sworkthatwe now maymuchmoreeasily approachItalianJewishculturein the Baroqueperiod.He has in fact entered a totally new field. Until now, nobody has gone so far beyond the erudite bibliographicallists of Moritz Steinschneider.Ruderman'swork therefore mustbe consideredas pioneering.His two bookson AbrahamYagelprovide basic tools for any futurediscussionof the culturalandsocialhistoryof early modernItalianJewry.We now look forwardto Ruderman'spublicationof the Hebreworiginal,a servicethatwill leave scholarseven morein his debt. HebrewUniversity Israel Jerusalem,

16. Ibid. 17. Ibid.

Review: [untitled] Author(s): Marvin A. Sweeney Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 77-79 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486605 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:44 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



BOOK REVIEWS

Christopher R. Seitz. Zion's Final Destiny: The Development of the Book of Isaiah; A Reassessment of Isaiah 36-39. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991.

xii, 228 pp. AlthoughChristopherSeitz's studyfocuses especiallyon Isaiah36-39, it mustbe consideredin relationto the currentdebateon the formationof the Book of Isaiah as a whole. Appearingat the centennialof the publication of BernhardDuhm's epoch-makingcommentaryon Isaiah,Seitz's volume attemptsto redirectscholarlyattentionaway from a dominantconcernwith establishingthe original literaryworks of First, Second, and ThirdIsaiah. He maintainsthatDuhm'scommentarypromptedreadingsof SecondIsaiah that placed the prophetoutside of the land of Israel among the exiles in Babylonia.This resultedin an overly historicizedapproachto Isaiahfor the last one hundredyears that overlookedDuhm's originalconcernwith the meansby which the worksof threeIsaiahswere combinedto forma single book. Presupposingrecent studies that point to the pivotal role of Isaiah 36-39 within the structureof the Book of Isaiah,Seitz attemptsto address this questionanew. Essentially,his study proceedsfrom two questions:(1) what were the natureand form of the developingIsaiahtraditions?and (2) why was the message of the eighth-centuryprophetextendedinto the exilic andpostexilicperiods? Based upon his analysis of Isaiah 36-39, Seitz arguesthat "the Book of Isaiah grew out of a concern to understandand then adumbrateZion's final destiny"(p. x). He calls into questionprevailingscholarlyapproaches that exclude Isaiah 36-39 from the Isaiahtradition,based upon Gesenius' 77

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originalargumentsthatIsaiah36-39 derivesoriginallyfromKings,andthat a smoothed-overversion of this narrativewas placed at the end of First Isaiahto close off the collection.He arguesthat2 Kings 18:14-16 appears to be an editorialinsertioninto the Kings narrativethat was motivatedby the DeuteronomisticHistory'sconcernwith the continuedAssyrianthreatto Judahduringthe reignsof ManassehandJosiah;it is thereforenot a deletion fromthe Isaiahversionthatwas designedto idealizeHezekiah. According to Seitz, the portrayalof Hezekiahwas positive from the beginning.Based on his argumentsthatthe rejectionof foreignalliancesin Isaiah 1-35 is consistentwith the portrayalin Isaiah36-37 of a righteous Hezekiahwho conforms to the will of YHWH,Seitz affirmsK. Smelik's view thatIsaiah36-37 constitutesa unifiednarrativethatwas set originally withinthe Book of Isaiah.Seitz maintainsthatthe purposeof this narrative andthe earlyIsaiahtraditionwas to remindManassehto conformto the will of YHWH and thereby to alleviate the Assyrian threat,based upon the model of Hezekiah'sfaith and obedience.The compositionof the narrative concerningHezekiah'sillness in Isaiah38 presupposesthatof Sennacherib's death in Isaiah 36-37; it correlatesthe illness of Hezekiahwith that of Jerusalem(cf. Isa 1:5b-6) to demonstratethe benefitsof faithfulness.The narrativeconcerningthe Babylonianembassy to Hezekiah in Isaiah 39/ 2 Kings 20:12-19 originatedin the DeuteronomisticHistory'sconcernwith the Babyloniandestructionof Judahin 597-587. The subsequentinclusion of this narrativein Isaiahfacilitatesthe transitionbetweenFirstand Second Isaiah and the book's concern with Zion's final destiny in light of the Babylonianexile; it emphasizesthatIsaiah'sfinalwordwas notrecovery,but exile. Seitz points to images of Zion's vicarioussufferingin Second Isaiah as an indicationof Zion's finaldestiny,but a full analysisis left for a future study. Thereare a numberof pointson which Seitz's workcan be criticized.It is difficultto understandwhy a narrativethatis genericallyconsistentwith the Book of Kings shouldoriginatein the Book of Isaiahwith its prophetic oracles. The correspondencesbetween Isaiah 7:1-9:6, with its mixtureof narrativeand oracularmaterial,and Isaiah 36-39 suggest that the former was modeled on the latter,and that the latteroriginatedoutsideof Isaiah. His observationson the intrusivecharacterof 2 Kings 18:14-16 are to the point, but the editorialadditionof these verses hardlydemonstratesan originalsettingof the Hezekiahnarrativein the Book of Isaiahratherthanin

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Kings. I. W. Provanhas demonstratedthatan earlierversionof the Hezekiah narrativemay well have concludeda Josianiceditionof the Deuteronomistic History in which Hezekiah served as a model for Josiah.Clearly,such a narrativewould need to be adjustedin light of the fall of Jerusalemin 587. Hezekiah'scapitulationto Sennacheribdemonstratesthat even a righteous monarchsuffers in the Book of Kings, and his receptionof a Babylonian embassyanticipatesthe catastrophe.Why then should2 Kings20:12-19 be carriedover into Isaiah,andnot 2 Kings 18:14-16?Finally,Seitz'sargument that the disobedientManassehneeded to be remindedof the rewardsof righteousnessrings somewhathollow when one readsthathe was dragged off to Babylonby the Assyriansin 2 Chronicles33:10-13. These criticismsshould not overshadowSeitz's contributionto the discussionof Isaiah36-39 andits relationto the formationof the Book of Isaiah as a whole. He has brokenthe strictlyhistoricalmoldby whichscholarshave consideredthese chaptersand has pointedto theirpivotalrole in joining the two halves of the Book of Isaiah.But most importantly, he has pointedto the fact thatthe seeds of the growthof the Book of Isaiahareto be foundwithin the traditionof FirstIsaiahitself. The Book of IsaiahgrewnotbecauseIsaiah was a prophetof judgmentalone; ratherthe traditionindicatesthat Isaiah articulateda futurefor Zion even in the face of the Assyrianthreat.In short, Seitz's work will be foundationalfor all futureresearchon the formationof the Book of Isaiah. MarvinA. Sweeney of Miami University CoralGables,Fla. Adele Berlin.Biblical Poetry ThroughMedievalJewishEyes. Bloomington: IndianaUniversityPress, 1991. xvii, 205 pp. Adele Berlin's book compriseslightly annotatedEnglishtranslationsof texts by eighteen Jewish authorson aspects of biblical poetryand poetics. The Hebrewand Arabictexts spanabouteightcenturiesandare culledfrom writingsof diversegenres.Most of themhavebeen collectedpreviously,and they have also been the subjectof a majoranalyticalstudy (see p. 4), but only a few have been availablein Englishbefore.The texts are introduced by a desultoryoverviewof the issues withwhich they areconcerned.

Review: [untitled] Author(s): Alan Cooper Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 79-83 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486606 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:44 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



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Kings. I. W. Provanhas demonstratedthatan earlierversionof the Hezekiah narrativemay well have concludeda Josianiceditionof the Deuteronomistic History in which Hezekiah served as a model for Josiah.Clearly,such a narrativewould need to be adjustedin light of the fall of Jerusalemin 587. Hezekiah'scapitulationto Sennacheribdemonstratesthat even a righteous monarchsuffers in the Book of Kings, and his receptionof a Babylonian embassyanticipatesthe catastrophe.Why then should2 Kings20:12-19 be carriedover into Isaiah,andnot 2 Kings 18:14-16?Finally,Seitz'sargument that the disobedientManassehneeded to be remindedof the rewardsof righteousnessrings somewhathollow when one readsthathe was dragged off to Babylonby the Assyriansin 2 Chronicles33:10-13. These criticismsshould not overshadowSeitz's contributionto the discussionof Isaiah36-39 andits relationto the formationof the Book of Isaiah as a whole. He has brokenthe strictlyhistoricalmoldby whichscholarshave consideredthese chaptersand has pointedto theirpivotalrole in joining the two halves of the Book of Isaiah.But most importantly, he has pointedto the fact thatthe seeds of the growthof the Book of Isaiahareto be foundwithin the traditionof FirstIsaiahitself. The Book of IsaiahgrewnotbecauseIsaiah was a prophetof judgmentalone; ratherthe traditionindicatesthat Isaiah articulateda futurefor Zion even in the face of the Assyrianthreat.In short, Seitz's work will be foundationalfor all futureresearchon the formationof the Book of Isaiah. MarvinA. Sweeney of Miami University CoralGables,Fla. Adele Berlin.Biblical Poetry ThroughMedievalJewishEyes. Bloomington: IndianaUniversityPress, 1991. xvii, 205 pp. Adele Berlin's book compriseslightly annotatedEnglishtranslationsof texts by eighteen Jewish authorson aspects of biblical poetryand poetics. The Hebrewand Arabictexts spanabouteightcenturiesandare culledfrom writingsof diversegenres.Most of themhavebeen collectedpreviously,and they have also been the subjectof a majoranalyticalstudy (see p. 4), but only a few have been availablein Englishbefore.The texts are introduced by a desultoryoverviewof the issues withwhich they areconcerned.

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Some may wonderwhethera translationof this materialwas necessary. OnemightarguethatpremodernJewishliterarytheoryis of interestmainlyto specialistsin the historyof Jewishthought,who will be able to readit in the originallanguages.Adele Berlinsuggests,on the contrary,thatheranthology "shouldbe of interest"to both biblical scholarsand literaryscholars,"for differentreasons"that she does not expound. In her view, access to the texts containedin the volume will enhancemodernliterary-critical studyby "mak[ing]us moreappreciativeof earlierattempts... to applypoetictheory to the Bible"(pp. ix-x). Given thatthe book's purposeis to introducea corpusof reconditetexts to an audienceof nonspecialists,a reviewerneednot focuson its contribution to scholarship,buton the qualityof the translationsandof the contextthatthe authorprovidesfor understandingthem.This briefreviewcan provideonly a small indication,by way of a few examples,of the work'sshortcomingsin those areas. Berlin presentstwo texts by JosephIbn Kaspi,one of which is his brief introductionto Song of Songs (pp. 105-107). Since this text is concerned with hermeneuticsratherthanwith poetryor poetics as such, the reasonfor its inclusionis unclear.'In the middleof the selectionthereis a passagethat Berlinsingles out as an exampleof "theinterplaybetweenissues and views whichseem modem andthose whichseem hopelesslyoutmoded"(p. 5). The passagein questionbegins as follows:2 ;1"Y 'I ?yt 7 X;7

'

tr I

n

Rxhnn ir")" "lrlrn 1'"•37rxy1 -n,'1 ' 1"Y,,In•l o),1"2y:•1, viO ;*1)*nvw non*nzMtp•nn •?n"lnIn7=IlulatvD ;*1) nr rX -I "nt 107"nwil1 "nwNl n nn 71ITI?r ;MIDI 15o)"•nt•X In a *,n"nn•ta 1•Tr-11m .1yt,nlbn 1,1 " •w " i?a , 1. On the other hand, one misses such texts as the surviving fragment of Saadiah's poetics (in N. Allony's edition of the pain [Jerusalem, 1969], pp. 386-389); also Meiri's important remarks on the difference between and 5vn (in the introductionto his Proverbs commentary, "i, ed. M. Meshi-Zahav [Jerusalem, 1969], pp. 5-8), ignored in the discussion of the topic on pp. 33-35. With the notable exception of the Abravanel selections (pp. 119-133), n~mtr is excluded from the anthology. The author asserts that "discussions of poetry were not apt to be found in commentaries" (p. 10). It would have been useful, nonetheless, to cite instances of such expressions as D1?i nyu and 1') SD---especially when they are associated with stylistic elegance (mnny);also Ibn Ezra's controversial comment on Qohelet 12:9, where he may be implying the existence of metrical poetry in the Bible. On the last item, see Shlomo Almoli, ?jv, ed. H. Yalon (Jerusalem, 1965), p. 52 with n. 2; in general, see James L. Kugel, The rvnn S Idea of Biblical Poetry,: Parallelism and Its Historyi(New Haven, 198 1), pp. 172-18 1. 2. Kaspi, no: ' ed. Isaac Last, 2 vols. (Pressburg, 1903), 1:184. ,?int'y,

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Berlin's translation(the insertionsin bracketsare hers, and thereare no explanatorynotes): Solomon,peace be uponhim, composedthreebookswhichwe possess, to the threetypes of discoursewhichthe prophets,peace corresponding be uponthem[i.e., authorsof scriptural books],used.The firstis entirely open and literal, with nothing beyond this-this is called "all silver."The second is entirelyhidden,with nothingrevealed,havingonly metaphorsand imagery-this is "allgold."The thirdhas bothhiddenandrevealed[i.e., literal and figurativemeanings]-this is called"applesof gold."

The translationmisses the markcompletely.In the first place, the references to Proverbs 25:11 should have been noted and explained, with mentionof FrankTalmage'ssplendidtreatmentof the subject.3But the more fundamentalproblemis the failureto discloseKaspi'ssource:theintroduction to partI of Maimonides'Guide4is certainlyone of the mostfamouspassages in Jewish literature,but it is not likely to be familiarto the averagebiblical scholaror literarycritic.And Kaspi'sterminologyneedsto be understoodnot in a vague "literary-critical" manner,butin the light of Maimonideanusage. fti? and IbnTibbon'srenderingof Maimonides'Inmw't reflect Kaspi's "ino t=11, "externaland internal."This fact is confirmedby Kaspi'suse of min, anotherTibbonism(lain= ). Berlintranslates%,*a1 inconsistentlyas both ,m•t "open"and "revealed,"neitherof which is correct(it means "external"or "exoteric").Then she compoundsthe problemby havingKaspicharacterize the as of and lu), as if theywere "nno consisting "metaphors imagery"(p'rT,•r rather than the Maimonidean poetic figures ,lnn--the prophetic"parable" thatcontains"wisdomconcerningthe truthas it is" (nm i m~ nin vorn ~ni Next Berlin proceeds to misrepresentthe text's content:"IbnKaspi is concernedwith differentiatinggenres, for, as he explains, and as literary scholarsandbiblicalFormCriticsknow,one cannotunderstandthe meaning of a passageif one does not knowits genreandtheconventionsof thatgenre" (p. 5; cf. pp. 32-33, 101). The last clause is unexceptionableas a general 3. Frank Talmage, "Apples of Gold: The Inner Meaning of Sacred Texts in Medieval Judaism," in Jewish Spirituality'from the Bible Through the Middle Ages, ed. Arthur Green (New York, 1987), pp. 313-355. 4. Ed. Y. Qafih, 3 vols. (Jerusalem, 1972), 1:11-12; trans. S. Pines, The Guide of the Peiplexed (Chicago, 1963), pp. 11-12.

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principle; one might be tempted to apply it to translatorsof medieval Jewish texts. But the statement has nothing to do with Kaspi, whose comments are not concerned with genre even by the most capacious definition of the term. In the passage following the above-quoted text, Kaspi describes the act of -morn Vnn nfn i nl'n -TY.Berlin seizes upon that statement as W0,1V arriving to make the following remark:"Ibn Kaspi is also concerned with the original intention of the author, something rejected by the New Criticism as the intentional fallacy yet not entirely dispensable to most biblical scholars" (p. 5; cf. p. 101). It is difficult to comment on such a sentence. Suffice it to say that Kaspi's -nM has nothing to do with "intention"as defined in the classic literary-critical essays of Wimsatt and Beardsley, and that the New Criticism did not reject "the original intention of the author."What Berlin intends to say about the attitude of biblical scholars toward intentionality ("not entirely dispensable") is obscure. The other Kaspi text in the anthology is the introduction to the so-called second version of his Proverbs commentary. A brief portion of this text will provide further illustration of the difficulty of presenting this kind of material to nonspecialists. Once again Kaspi is reflecting on exoteric and esoteric interpretations:5

The translation (p. 102): When it says "To save you from a strangewoman"[Prov2:16], and "Here comes a womanto meet him"[Prov7:10], and all thatfollows this, Solomon did not intendto referthroughoutthis whole book to matterandform. There is a note on the words "matterand form" that reads as follows: "That is, to an esoteric thought disguised as a commonplace" (p. 106, n. 5). The translation and its accompanying note betray a poor command of Kaspi's language, intention, and context. Using the standard philosophical antithesis of matter and form, Kaspi alludes to and rejects the allegorical interpretationof the t tn•t as the seductiveness of the materialworld-Iinanni 5. Io 4? rmiws,1:83.

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1'rMm, as Immanuel of Rome puts it in his commentary on Prov. 7:5.6 The

readerof Berlin'spresentationwill have no notionof any of this. As these examplesindicate,all too often the authorshows an inadequate grasp of her corpus in the context of arnz'•and Jewish thought.Berlin's desire to make these texts accessibleto nonspecialistsmay be laudable,but the weaknesses describedabove precludemy recommendingthis book to them. AlanCooper HebrewUnionCollege Ohio Cincinnati, Steve Mason. Flavius Josephus on the Pharisees: A Composition-Critical

Study.StudiaPost-Biblica,vol. 39. Leiden:E. J. Brill, 1991. xvi, 424 pp. The body of this book is an exemplaryapplicationto the works of a classical writerof a techniquedevelopedby biblicalcritics.Steve Mason's criticism" unflinchingandcourageouslysingle-mindeduse of "compositional to get at the meaningof Josephus'sinfrequent,ambiguous,and apparently self-contradictorycomments about the Phariseesgives some indicationof the state of German-styleBible scholarship,and shouldserve as a warning to those interestedin adoptingits techniques.Compositionalcriticismis, as Mason describesit, the attempt"to intepretan author'swritingsin and of themselves,as self-containedcompositions.The narrativeis assumedto contain within itself the keys to its own meaning"(p. 43); accordingly, Mason'smethodin makingsense of Josephus'sPhariseepassagesis always "to look first within Josephus'swritingsfor clues aboutthe significanceof his chosen words and phrases.His generalusage and the immediatecontext will, so far as is possible,be the arbitersof meaning"(ibid.). Mason sees this exercise as serving two functions.(1) It is the first step in a revision of the historyand reassessmentof the significanceof the Pharisees-to be conductedaccordingto the strictestprinciplesof historical empiricism:firstthe historianselects the "evidence,"thenengagesin careful exegesis of it. By means of this exegesis, he will be able to discern the 6. (Naples, 1487), ad loc. Immanuel'scommentaryon Proverbs1:1providesan instructive contrastto Kaspi'sintroduction.

Review: [untitled] Author(s): Seth Schwartz Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 83-88 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486607 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:44 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



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1'rMm, as Immanuel of Rome puts it in his commentary on Prov. 7:5.6 The

readerof Berlin'spresentationwill have no notionof any of this. As these examplesindicate,all too often the authorshows an inadequate grasp of her corpus in the context of arnz'•and Jewish thought.Berlin's desire to make these texts accessibleto nonspecialistsmay be laudable,but the weaknesses describedabove precludemy recommendingthis book to them. AlanCooper HebrewUnionCollege Ohio Cincinnati, Steve Mason. Flavius Josephus on the Pharisees: A Composition-Critical

Study.StudiaPost-Biblica,vol. 39. Leiden:E. J. Brill, 1991. xvi, 424 pp. The body of this book is an exemplaryapplicationto the works of a classical writerof a techniquedevelopedby biblicalcritics.Steve Mason's criticism" unflinchingandcourageouslysingle-mindeduse of "compositional to get at the meaningof Josephus'sinfrequent,ambiguous,and apparently self-contradictorycomments about the Phariseesgives some indicationof the state of German-styleBible scholarship,and shouldserve as a warning to those interestedin adoptingits techniques.Compositionalcriticismis, as Mason describesit, the attempt"to intepretan author'swritingsin and of themselves,as self-containedcompositions.The narrativeis assumedto contain within itself the keys to its own meaning"(p. 43); accordingly, Mason'smethodin makingsense of Josephus'sPhariseepassagesis always "to look first within Josephus'swritingsfor clues aboutthe significanceof his chosen words and phrases.His generalusage and the immediatecontext will, so far as is possible,be the arbitersof meaning"(ibid.). Mason sees this exercise as serving two functions.(1) It is the first step in a revision of the historyand reassessmentof the significanceof the Pharisees-to be conductedaccordingto the strictestprinciplesof historical empiricism:firstthe historianselects the "evidence,"thenengagesin careful exegesis of it. By means of this exegesis, he will be able to discern the 6. (Naples, 1487), ad loc. Immanuel'scommentaryon Proverbs1:1providesan instructive contrastto Kaspi'sintroduction.

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author's "motives and purposes" and "consider... how the original readership would plausibly have understood the document" (p. 13). The next step is to reconstruct the history. Earlier studies of the Pharisees have failed because they have not begun with rigorous exegesis of the sources. So Mason has chosen to keep first things first and restrict this book to exegesis. (2) Mason's first purpose is vitiated by its naive positivism, but his second one is more down-to-earth: he wishes to test what he calls the Smith-Neusner hypothesis, with the intention of disproving it. What is the Smith-Neusner hypothesis? In a popular essay published in 1956, Morton Smith argued that the then common notion that Pharisaism was the "normative"Judaism of the later Second Temple period is a mistake based mainly on claims about the Pharisees made or implied by the Talmud and Josephus. But the Talmud's history is a mixture of folktales and the wishful thinking of rabbis living centuries after the Destruction, and Josephus's claims about Pharisaic popularity are made in a few isolated passages in his later works (the later books of Antiquities, and Life, published twenty or twenty-five years after the Destruction), are not borne out by his narrativeof the history of the Second Temple period, in which the Pharisees scarcely figure, and are best understoodas attemptsby Josephus to recommend the increasingly influential post-Destruction Pharisees to the Roman government. Smith's argument about Josephus was later expanded by Jacob Neusner, and in fact served as a cornerstone of the Neusnerian revolution. The "Smith-Neusner hypothesis" is at present enjoying a modest currency; Smith's larger points about the variety of first-century Judaism and the non-normative character of Pharisaism are widely accepted, at least north and west of the Litani River. So Mason's argument is intended to, and undoubtedly will, have an impact.1 Mason's book is divided into four large sections. The first is introductory, containing a survey of scholarship on Josephus and the Pharisees, some methodological reflections (see above), and a brief discussion of some general questions about Josephus's work, especially those pertaining to the character of Josephus's "authorship" (pp. 45-53). This is a critical issue for Mason, because compositional criticism, at least as he uses it, assumes that the literary work lying before us is in every respect the work of the person said 1. It is only fair to point out that the late Morton Smith was my teacher and I myself have argued in print for a (rather drastically modified) version of the Smith-Neusner hypothesis. Though it would not be entirely wrong to consider this review an act of hesed shel "emet,as it were, the problems with Mason's book are real.

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to have writtenit, and not a sometimesthoughtlesslyproducedpasticheof earliermaterial,or a piece of committeeworkproducedby ghostwritersfrom a sketch or notes providedby the "author."Both techniqueswere common in antiquity,perhapseven more so than today.Josephushimself certainly composed the Jewish Warwith the help of assistants,and the later books of Antiquitiesare so incoherentthat they often seem like the work of a pasticheur(and are sometimesthoughtto have been ghostwritten,too!), and AgainstApion is almost certainlya pastiche.Mason'sbriefrejectionof the significanceof some of these facts (he does not considerthe problemsraised by Warand Against Apion) is hardly satisfactory.However,some of the problemsmay be insoluble,and the decisionsimplyto takea standwith the mainstreamof Josephusscholarshipon this issue, as Masonatypicallydoes, is, if unpardonable,at least understandable. The remainingthreesections are the body of the work.In these, Mason discusses each of Josephus's relevant works (War;Antiquities,and Life) separatelyand in chronologicalorder-beginning in each case with a brief introductorychapteron the work discussedin the section,its date,purpose, etc., andthendevotinga separatechapterto eachpassageon the Pharisees.In these sections,Masonis trueto the methodprescribedin the firstsection:the passagesare understoodin light of the literarycorpus(i.e., all of Josephus's works)2in which they appear.In practice,this meansthatMasonselectswhat he considersthe most importantwords in the passage,checks them in the JosephusConcordance,and interpretsthe passagein light of whathe finds. Mason reaches the following conclusion:all the Phariseepassagesuse typically Josephanvocabularyin typicallyJosephanways; this means that of all thePhariseepassagesin his works-i.e., Josephushimselfis the"author" none was thoughtlesslycribbedfrom a source. In all his works, Josephus takes for grantedPharisaicdominancein pre-70 Palestinianreligious life, and equally consistentlyexpresses his regretabout this; in fact, Josephus is consistentlyhostile to the Pharisees(so Smith-Neusnerwere wrong on all counts). The source of this hostility is the Pharisees'reputationfor akribeia ("accuracy")and eusebeia ("piety"),which Josephusbelieves is undeserved.It is the priests-i.e., membersof Josephus'own class-who are the trueguardiansof these.The writeralso hadpersonalfeudswithindividual 2. Mason's decision to interpret passages in War in light of data in Antiquities, Life, and Against Apion vitiates his conclusion about the unity of Josephus's oeuvre because it presupposes it. This is a major defect of the book, but limited space precludes full discussion.

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Pharisees.Thus,notwithstanding thecommoninterpretation of Life,paragraph was not himself a in the threepassagesin Pharisee. However, 12, Josephus WarandAntiquitiesin whichJosephusdescribesthe mainJewishsects of his day (the "schools"passages),he restrainshis hostilityand presentsfor the benefitof an uninformedpaganaudienceobjectivedescriptionsof what he consideredthe "official"varietiesof Judaism,includingPharisaism.Finally, Josephushatedthe Phariseesbut approvedof theirideals and manyof their beliefs; his hostilitywas entirelypersonal. These conclusions,counterintuitive, andsimplywrong self-contradictory, as many of them are, should serve to warn us against the assumption underlyingMason'sbook-that thereexists one straightpathto meaning,and thatthis pathconsists of the rigorousapplicationof a single "methodology." The simplicity and apparentobjectivityof this assumptionconstitutesits refutation,for the "meaning"of an ancienttextcan be foundonly at the point wherea multiplicityof contexts-political, social, andeconomicconditions, of plot literaryand intellectualtraditions,genericconventions,requirements structure,grammar,syntax, and usage, etc.--converge, and even thereonly provisionallyand tentatively.It is simply idle to believe thatone can make sense of a literaryartifactif only one studiesits lexiconhardenough.Mason's interpretiveself-restraintis impressive,and even movingin a way, but it is also a very bad idea. Not that compositionalcriticism is completely useless-no approach based on commonsense is. Hence, thereis muchof value in Mason'sbook, especiallyin his discussionsof the three"schools"passagesmentionedabove. His analysesof Josephus'scommentsaboutfate andimmortality(whichare the least methodologicallypureandmost wide-rangingsectionsin the book) seem to me definitive(pp. 132-170), andno one interestedin ancientJewish sectarianismcan afford to miss Mason's commentson the crucial word hairesis, used in War2.161 (pp. 125-128). In the rest of the book, though, Masongoes radicallywrong,misledby the restrictionsimposedby his choice of "methodology,"by an apparentlypowerfuldesire for coherence,and at times by sheer intellectualperversity.Let me give just a few examples.The Phariseesplay an importantrole in Josephus'shistoricalnarrativeonly in his two accounts,in War,book 1, and in Antiquities,book 13, of the reign of the Hasmoneanqueen Alexandra(76-67 B.C.E.). Both of these accounts are generallybelievedto be basedon thatof Nicolausof Damascus,the court historianof Herod,in his GeneralHistor,.As a rule,Antiquities, books13-17,is

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plausiblysupposedto havereportedmoreof thecontentof Nicolaus'swork-and thatmoreaccurately-thanthebrieferWar,books1-2. In thecaseof Alexandra, the Antiquitiesaccountis longerand presentsthe Phariseesin a far harsher lightthanWar(thoughJosephusmollifiedthis in his evaluationof the queen's reignin Antiquities13.430-432,by shiftingall the blamefor the catastrophic aftermathoff the Phariseesand onto the queenherself;Masonmisinterprets this passage).Hence, in War,Josephushas revisedhis sourcein favorof the Pharisees.Why?Mason,who has rejecteda priorisuchstandard techniquesas sourceand redaction-criticism, cannoteven ask the question,let aloneanswer banaland it; in his chapteron the Warpassagehe comesto the simultaneously conclusion did in that not the a Pharisees misleading Josephus portray flattering light(pp. 110-113).3 Otherwise, the book is rife with cases of overinterpretation (Mason dislikes ambiguity:wheneverJosephussays that the Phariseesare reputed to be the most accurateinterpretersof the laws-a rhetoricaltic resulting from Josephus'spretenseto objectivityand used also of the Essenes [War 2.119]-Mason needs to determinewhetherJosephusthinkstheirreputation is true or false) and misinterpretation. He is rightto insist thatsome of the storiesinAntiquitiesaboutthe Phariseesareuncomplimentary, andJosephus's failureto revisethemis certainlynoteworthy.Andhis insistencethatJosephus never actuallyclaimed to be a Phariseeis correctand salutary(thoughhis interpretationof Life, paragraph12, is otherwisesurely wrong;given the context,Josephusis obviously expressingpridein his fellow-traveling,not confessinghis ignominioussubmissionto a bunchof thugs,as Masonargues of such obviouslyadulatorypassages [pp. 342-356]). But his interpretation as Antiquities18.15-17 as hostile is simply perverse(pp. 281-308), as is his argumentthat 13.289 ff. was mindlesslycribbedby Josephusfrom a pro-Pharisaicsource-which may be true,but blatantlycontradictsMason's own exegeticalprinciples(p. 229). Finally,Masonfails to confrontone of the crucialargumentsof Smith-Neusner:thoughJosephusclaims in Antiquities (and only there) thatthe Phariseeswere the most influentialgroupand that Palestinewas ungovernablewithouttheircooperation,they play almostno 3. I should also point out that though he claims to be comprehensive, he actually fails to mention War2.411, in which the leaders of the Pharisees are listed with the high priests and lay aristocrats as champions of the peace party. An acknowledgment of this passage might have modified Mason's belief that Josephus was always hostile to the Pharisees, In fact, in War, Josephus is indifferent to them, considering them at most a respectable and legitimate group of Jews of rather little significance.

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role in his narrativeof Jewish politicalhistoryexcept for the brief reignof Alexandra. In the final analysis, the simple version of Smith-Neusneris probably wrong;they did, afterall, fail to explainwhy Josephusallowedso muchof Nicolaus of Damascus'shostility to the Phariseesto standin a work which was allegedlyPharisaicpropaganda.But at least theirtheorywas formulated with a keen awarenessof the largerliteraryandhistoricalquestions.Mason's naive empiricismand methodologicalinflexibilitypreventhim from facing these issues and so from providingan adequateaccountof the peculiarities and incoherencesof Josephus'swork.Exegesis is an honorableoccupation, andMasondoes it withpersistenceandoccasionalbrilliance.But theexegete also mustlook beyondthe text beforehim, if only to makebettersense of it. SethSchwartz King'sCollege, Cambridge, England Solomon Grayzel. The Church and the Jews in the XIIIthCentuty. Volume 2,

1254-1314. Editedandarranged,with additionalnotes,by KennethR. Stow. Detroit:WayneStateUniversityPress, 1989. xxiii, 357 pp. Fifty years afterits firstpublication,SolomonGrayzel'sTheChurchand the Jews in the XIIIth Century (Philadelphia, 1933; rev. ed. 1966) remains

the essential sourcebookon its subject.The presentvolume, substantially completedby Grayzelbefore his deathin 1980, representsthe long-awaited secondvolume to his greatwork,carryingthe collectionforwardfrom 1254 (when the 1933 editionended)to 1314. Englishsummariesof Latinsources have taken the place of the full translationsoffered in vol. 1, a change necessitatedby the increasingvolume of the survivingmaterial,and the notes have been moved from the bottom of the page to the end of each document;but otherwisethis volume follows closely the model established by its predecessor.Conciliardecreesas well as papalbullsareincluded,with full Latin texts, and explanatorynotes by both Grayzeland KennethStow, who at Grayzel'srequesthasupdatedthevolumeandseenit throughthepress. The notes themselvesare admirable:probing,questioning,and open-ended, theyprovokeratherthanforeclosediscussionaboutthe meaningandintentof the documents.The volume also includestwo previouslypublishedarticles

Review: [untitled] Author(s): Robert C. Stacey Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 88-90 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486608 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:44 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



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role in his narrativeof Jewish politicalhistoryexcept for the brief reignof Alexandra. In the final analysis, the simple version of Smith-Neusneris probably wrong;they did, afterall, fail to explainwhy Josephusallowedso muchof Nicolaus of Damascus'shostility to the Phariseesto standin a work which was allegedlyPharisaicpropaganda.But at least theirtheorywas formulated with a keen awarenessof the largerliteraryandhistoricalquestions.Mason's naive empiricismand methodologicalinflexibilitypreventhim from facing these issues and so from providingan adequateaccountof the peculiarities and incoherencesof Josephus'swork.Exegesis is an honorableoccupation, andMasondoes it withpersistenceandoccasionalbrilliance.But theexegete also mustlook beyondthe text beforehim, if only to makebettersense of it. SethSchwartz King'sCollege, Cambridge, England Solomon Grayzel. The Church and the Jews in the XIIIthCentuty. Volume 2,

1254-1314. Editedandarranged,with additionalnotes,by KennethR. Stow. Detroit:WayneStateUniversityPress, 1989. xxiii, 357 pp. Fifty years afterits firstpublication,SolomonGrayzel'sTheChurchand the Jews in the XIIIth Century (Philadelphia, 1933; rev. ed. 1966) remains

the essential sourcebookon its subject.The presentvolume, substantially completedby Grayzelbefore his deathin 1980, representsthe long-awaited secondvolume to his greatwork,carryingthe collectionforwardfrom 1254 (when the 1933 editionended)to 1314. Englishsummariesof Latinsources have taken the place of the full translationsoffered in vol. 1, a change necessitatedby the increasingvolume of the survivingmaterial,and the notes have been moved from the bottom of the page to the end of each document;but otherwisethis volume follows closely the model established by its predecessor.Conciliardecreesas well as papalbullsareincluded,with full Latin texts, and explanatorynotes by both Grayzeland KennethStow, who at Grayzel'srequesthasupdatedthevolumeandseenit throughthepress. The notes themselvesare admirable:probing,questioning,and open-ended, theyprovokeratherthanforeclosediscussionaboutthe meaningandintentof the documents.The volume also includestwo previouslypublishedarticles

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by Grayzel:his 1979 essay "Popes,Jews, and Inquisition:From 'Sicut' to 'Turbato'"; andhis 1951 list of PopeJohnXXII'slettersconcerningJews.A persons,places, and subjectsindex completesthe volume. Comparisonwith the relevantsectionsof ShlomoSimonsohn'scollection, The Apostolic See and the Jews: Documents 492-1404 (Toronto, 1988)

suggests to me that scholarswill want to have both workson theirshelves. For John XXII's pontificate,the Simonsohn volume is clearly superior, printingfuller Latintexts thanGrayzeloffers,and addingto Grayzel's1951 list a largenumberof additionaldocuments.Grayzel'snotes,however,remain valuable,andjustify the decisionto reprintthe list. Fortheperiod1254-1314, however,I suspectmost scholarswill preferthe Grayzelcollection,although they will want to consult both. Twenty-sixof the papalbulls in Grayzel's second volume do not appearin Simonsohn,while fourteenof Simonsohn's documentsare not in Grayzel. The most importantdocumentfound only in Simonsohnis #282, which appearsto be eitherthe text itself or a very closely relatedtext to the bull noted in Grayzel#79, but of which Grayzel had been unable to find any copy. This bull, datingto the last six months of 1305, establishesa plausiblelink betweenKing PhilipIV's concernwith his debasementof his own coinage and his decision to expel the Jews from Francein the following year. Simonsohn'scollectiondoes not includethe materialfromlocal councils containedin Grayzel,being limitedstrictlyto papalletters,nordoes he offer any notes. Grayzel'sEnglish summariesare also fuller and more detailed. Simonsohn,however,providesa numberof archivalreferencesto additional copies of documentsthatarenotnotedin Grayzel.In manycasesSimonsohn's transcriptionsof documentsalso differ from Grayzel'sreadings.Although in most cases these differencesare minor, in the case of one previously unpublished document, Clement IV's Dampnabili petfidia Judeorumof 1267

(Grayzel #28; Simonsohn #232), significanterrors in transcriptionhave clearlybeen madeby someone.Not havingaccess to the originaldocument, however,I cannotjudge which (if either)versionis correct.I also noted a disturbingnumberof cases in which manuscriptfolio referencesto the same documentdiffer between Grayzeland Simonsohn.Again, I cannotresolve these differences without access to the archivalcatalogues,but scholars planningto check these documentsfor themselveswill do well to bringboth Grayzel'sand Simonsohn'sarchivalreferenceswith them.Thereare a lot of

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folios betweenfol. 12a(Grayzel#80) andfol. 125r(Simonsohn frustrating in Ms.Ottobon. Vatican 2546! #283) Library A few minorcorrectionsto the Grayzelvolumemay be offered.In Document15,theamountquotedin theEnglishsummary shouldbe 200 li., not1200li. Document17shouldbedatedJuly23,notJuly19.Documents 34 and39 in theJohnXXIIsectionarealsomisdated; theyshouldbe February 18 andOctober19 respectively. Document48 has beenverydramatically shortened,withoutany indicationthatportionsof the text havebeen omitted. Textualvariantsbetweenthis and Simonsohn'sversion,however,seem to be errorsin Simonsohn'stext;Grayzel'sreadingsagreeat leastwiththosein the publishedRegisterof Pope MartinIV. Documents18, 23, and 43 also have been abbreviatedwithoutellipses being adequatelyindicated.Document19, meanwhile,has been abbreviatedwith properindication,but not so as to makeclearthatthe debtsowed by the archbishopof Sens to thesemerchants of Rome were for loans he and his suffraganshad takenout, ratherthanfor merchandisepurchased.Nor is it likely thatAngelusJohannesJudeus,one of the merchantsto whom the archbishopowed money,was in fact a Jew. As a surname,Judeuswas not uncommoneven for families that, so far as we know,had neverconvertedfromJudaism;and while Grayzelhas rightly taughtus to see papalpolicy towardJews as less uniformlyhostilethanwas once thought,even he found it hard to imagine a thirteenth-century pope addressinga faithfulJew as his "belovedson."To this reviewer,it remains an impossibility. RobertC. Stacey of Washington University Seattle,Wash. Hillel Levine. Economic Origins of Antisemitism: Poland and Its Jews in the

EarlyModernPeriod.New Haven:YaleUniversityPress, 1991.xiii, 271 pp. Early in this book Hillel Levine states that archivalresearchon Polish Jewryhas producedonly a numberof case studies,whose "generalizability remainsdiifficult to establish"(pp. 15-16). In contrasthe proposes"the judicious use of multiple comparisons [and . . .] social science tools" to

"compensatein part for the silence of the archives and move us . . from descriptionto analysis"(p. 16). Thus his book does not offer much

Review: [untitled] Author(s): David Engel Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 90-93 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486609 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:45 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



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folios betweenfol. 12a(Grayzel#80) andfol. 125r(Simonsohn frustrating in Ms.Ottobon. Vatican 2546! #283) Library A few minorcorrectionsto the Grayzelvolumemay be offered.In Document15,theamountquotedin theEnglishsummary shouldbe 200 li., not1200li. Document17shouldbedatedJuly23,notJuly19.Documents 34 and39 in theJohnXXIIsectionarealsomisdated; theyshouldbe February 18 andOctober19 respectively. Document48 has beenverydramatically shortened,withoutany indicationthatportionsof the text havebeen omitted. Textualvariantsbetweenthis and Simonsohn'sversion,however,seem to be errorsin Simonsohn'stext;Grayzel'sreadingsagreeat leastwiththosein the publishedRegisterof Pope MartinIV. Documents18, 23, and 43 also have been abbreviatedwithoutellipses being adequatelyindicated.Document19, meanwhile,has been abbreviatedwith properindication,but not so as to makeclearthatthe debtsowed by the archbishopof Sens to thesemerchants of Rome were for loans he and his suffraganshad takenout, ratherthanfor merchandisepurchased.Nor is it likely thatAngelusJohannesJudeus,one of the merchantsto whom the archbishopowed money,was in fact a Jew. As a surname,Judeuswas not uncommoneven for families that, so far as we know,had neverconvertedfromJudaism;and while Grayzelhas rightly taughtus to see papalpolicy towardJews as less uniformlyhostilethanwas once thought,even he found it hard to imagine a thirteenth-century pope addressinga faithfulJew as his "belovedson."To this reviewer,it remains an impossibility. RobertC. Stacey of Washington University Seattle,Wash. Hillel Levine. Economic Origins of Antisemitism: Poland and Its Jews in the

EarlyModernPeriod.New Haven:YaleUniversityPress, 1991.xiii, 271 pp. Early in this book Hillel Levine states that archivalresearchon Polish Jewryhas producedonly a numberof case studies,whose "generalizability remainsdiifficult to establish"(pp. 15-16). In contrasthe proposes"the judicious use of multiple comparisons [and . . .] social science tools" to

"compensatein part for the silence of the archives and move us . . from descriptionto analysis"(p. 16). Thus his book does not offer much

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new primarydata about Polish Jewry; it representsrathera synthesis of informationculled from secondarysources,interpretedthroughcomparisons with the history of Westernand CentralEuropeanJewry and throughthe social science of CliffordGeertzandPeterBerger,amongothers. The question that needs to be put to this book is thus whether its yields generalizationsthat are any more powerfulor "deep interpretation" case studies.To be illuminatingthan those generatedby empirically-based sure, the promisethatthe authorholds out for his methodis tantalizing.He suggests in his title thathis approachwill explainthe "economicoriginsof antisemitism"(p. 3)-words thatadumbrate one of themostdifficultproblems in the historyof modem Polish-Jewishrelations,thatof the subjectiveversus the objectiveroots of Polish attitudestowardJews. For over a centuryPoles and Jews have clashed over whether behaviorby Poles that Jews have regardedas hostile was unavoidablein a social system where commerce and industrywere concentratedin Jewish hands,or whetherit represented an inborn, ineluctable hostility. Proponentsof the former position have had difficultyexplainingwhy heavy Jewish involvementin commerceand industryshouldhave botheredPoles if not becauseof somebasicanti-Jewish prejudice,whereas the view of "abidinganti-Jewishsentimentsin Poland as explanationsrather than as results, as causes ratherthan as effects" tends to place "these antagonismson somethingof a metaphysicallevel," makingthem "inaccessibleto analysis"(p. 232). The authorclaims thathis methodhas suggested"a morecomplicatedrelationshipbetweencooperation and conflict, between the pragmaticintereststhatJews representedand the religiousemotionsthatthey evoked"(ibid.).Has it? Accordingto the author,by the mid-seventeenth century,as Polandbegan to lag economicallybehindWesternEurope,the Polishgentry,unaffectedby theProtestantReformationandin controlof a statebearinga strongconnection to Catholicism,requiredan explanationfor the country'seconomicfailures in comparisonwith states that had been overtakenby religiousfalsehood. Jews providedsuch an explanation.Not only did the triumphof Catholicism permitPolandto remainrelativelyunaffectedby attitudesthatviewed Jews as a source of productivityratherthan of revenue,but Polish Jews were now unable, in the face of Westernexpansion,to fulfill the functionthat had been assigned them for two centuries-"overcom[ing]the economic and organizationalproblemsof feudal agricultureand the inefficienciesof guild-regulatedburghercraftsand trades"(p. 235). WhenJews failed in this

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task, it became easy to argue that Jewish economic activity was harmful to Poland.And because the Catholicchurch"continuedto be the custodian of [Polish] nationalconsciousness"(p. 237) throughoutthe period of the partitions,this argumentwas easily translatedinto the languageof the Polish nationalmovement. Thisis a cleverthesis,well supportedby thesecondaryliterature marshaled to illustrateit. And because the argumentwas suggestedby asking about the ways in which Polish social structuresdiffered from their Western counterpartsduring the early modernperiod, the author'sclaims for the usefulness of his method appearstrong. One can, of course, argue about whetherthe explanationofferedby the book accountsfully for the character of Polish-Jewishrelationsduringthe nineteenthand twentiethcenturies,but its fruitfulnessas an indicatorof new directionsin which to thinkaboutthe problemcannotbe denied. Nonetheless,the booklacksthecogencythatdetailedreferenceto primary sourcescan provide;as it stands,it dependstoo muchupon argumentfrom the generalto the specific, or from a foreigncase to the case at hand,to be looked upon as much more thana highly suggestivehypothesis.The author is also on shakygroundwhenhe claims thathis discussionof the role played by Jews in the economy of prepartitionPolandcontributesto the study of "the modernizationof polities and economies and the entry of Jews into the modernworld"(p. 233) in general,or suggests that it has explanatory value in the study of the Holocaust.He arguesthatthe FrenchRevolution was paralleledby an almost simultaneous"PolishRevolution"(symbolized by the Constitutionof 3 May 1791), which,althoughdrawingits inspiration fromthe same intellectualwellspringsas the revolutionin France,"excluded Poland'sJews from its purview"and resultedin their being "legislatively definedas nonpersons"(p. 2). And he claimsthatby inquiringwhy thesetwo revolutionsdiffered"intheirresponsesto the problemof the rightsandstatus of Jews," it will be possible to discern the "differentfutures . . . for the Jews

of WesternandEasternEuropein the modernperiod"(p. 232) at whicheach hinted.But althoughPolandand France(bothCatholiccountries)may have begun from comparablesituationsin the sixteenthcenturyand thus permit comparisonof their subsequentdivergencefrom that point, by the end of the eighteenthcenturythey were alreadyfar apart,and the juxtapositionof theirtwo constitutionsis pointless.Therereallywas no Polishrevolutionin 1791comparableto the eventsof 1789 in France;thuswhenthe authorlooks

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to the forwardfrom1791to themid-twentieth centuryinsteadof backward 1650s,his visionseemsterriblyconfused. This book, then, is a most useful work aboutPolandand its Jews in the earlymodernperiod.It is also a suggestivestudyof the economicoriginsof antisemitismin Polandspecifically.To the extent thatit purportsto make a significantstatementaboutthe economicoriginsof antisemitismin general, or about the fate of the Jews in the modernworld as a whole, it greatly overstepsits mark. DavidEngel NewYorkUniversity NewYork,N.Y. Guidingthe Perplexedof the Modern Jay M. Harris.NachmanKrochnmal: New York New York: Age. UniversityPress, 1991. xvi, 336 pp. GuidingthePerplexedof theModern JayM. Harris'sNachmanKrochmnal: Age is an authoritativetreatmentof Krochmal'sTheGuideof the Perplexed of the Time.With remarkablefluency in Krochmal'smultilayeredJudaic, Germanic,and Galicianenvironments,Harrissuperblyrendersthe processes by which his subject crafted an intellectualshield for Judaismto ward off assaults from disparatequarters.Krochmallaboredwith the scholarly instrumentsof nineteenth-century CentralEurope,and Harrisinterpretsthis significant,but unfinishedandproblematicbookthroughthe historyof ideas. Harris'stitle,as well as thatof Krochmal'swork,is misleading.Bothbooks are principallydesigned for observantJews-not generically"perplexed" Jews-who wish to engage in seculardiscourseto defendrabbinicJudaism. In Krochmal'streatise"thefundamental elementsof traditional Jewishthought remain:God as an instructorin faiththroughrevelation;the authenticityand antiquityof the oral law; the inspiredleadershipof the GreatAssembly, Pharisees,and rabbis;the qualitativedistinctionbetween Judaismand all other religions, despite acknowledgmentof some commonelements;Israel as the light untothe nations;the eternityof Israel"(p. 320). Especiallyin his imaginativediscussionof Krochmal'spossibleevaluationof attemptsby later Jewishthinkersto balancethe religiousand secularin the era since his own time, Harris'svenerationof Krochmalis unabashed.AlthoughHarrisexposes severalof Krochmal'segregiouserrorsin disputation,he prizesKrochmalas

Review: [untitled] Author(s): Michael Berkowitz Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 93-95 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486610 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:45 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



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to the forwardfrom1791to themid-twentieth centuryinsteadof backward 1650s,his visionseemsterriblyconfused. This book, then, is a most useful work aboutPolandand its Jews in the earlymodernperiod.It is also a suggestivestudyof the economicoriginsof antisemitismin Polandspecifically.To the extent thatit purportsto make a significantstatementaboutthe economicoriginsof antisemitismin general, or about the fate of the Jews in the modernworld as a whole, it greatly overstepsits mark. DavidEngel NewYorkUniversity NewYork,N.Y. Guidingthe Perplexedof the Modern Jay M. Harris.NachmanKrochnmal: New York New York: Age. UniversityPress, 1991. xvi, 336 pp. GuidingthePerplexedof theModern JayM. Harris'sNachmanKrochmnal: Age is an authoritativetreatmentof Krochmal'sTheGuideof the Perplexed of the Time.With remarkablefluency in Krochmal'smultilayeredJudaic, Germanic,and Galicianenvironments,Harrissuperblyrendersthe processes by which his subject crafted an intellectualshield for Judaismto ward off assaults from disparatequarters.Krochmallaboredwith the scholarly instrumentsof nineteenth-century CentralEurope,and Harrisinterpretsthis significant,but unfinishedandproblematicbookthroughthe historyof ideas. Harris'stitle,as well as thatof Krochmal'swork,is misleading.Bothbooks are principallydesigned for observantJews-not generically"perplexed" Jews-who wish to engage in seculardiscourseto defendrabbinicJudaism. In Krochmal'streatise"thefundamental elementsof traditional Jewishthought remain:God as an instructorin faiththroughrevelation;the authenticityand antiquityof the oral law; the inspiredleadershipof the GreatAssembly, Pharisees,and rabbis;the qualitativedistinctionbetween Judaismand all other religions, despite acknowledgmentof some commonelements;Israel as the light untothe nations;the eternityof Israel"(p. 320). Especiallyin his imaginativediscussionof Krochmal'spossibleevaluationof attemptsby later Jewishthinkersto balancethe religiousand secularin the era since his own time, Harris'svenerationof Krochmalis unabashed.AlthoughHarrisexposes severalof Krochmal'segregiouserrorsin disputation,he prizesKrochmalas

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a singularlyoutstandingchampionof this difficultexercise.Clearly,Harris's book will best be used by scholarswho seek a learnedexegesis of a modern text that is neverthelessan apologia for halakhahand belief in "rabbinic Judaismas a profoundand theologicallyadvancedtradition"(pp. 282-283), intimating"thatthereis no conflictbetweenJudaismand modernhistorical andphilosophicalthought(p. 25). A notable aspect of this book is its placement of Krochmalin a specificallyGaliciancontext to accountfor the influencesof his worldview and his circumscribedexpectationsfor Jewish assimilation.Harrisdetails Krochmal'sstance regardingthe increasinglypowerfulHasidicmovement, whose anti-intellectualism and superstitiousness presentedobstaclesto Jewish self-understandingand Gentile acceptanceof Judaism'srespectability. AlthoughKrochmal'sGuide is largely a conservativereactionto GermanProtestantcriticism, his "hatredof Hasidism"(p. 12) and other forms of "religiousdecadence"(p. 17) is no smallfactormotivatinghis project. Afterdescribingthe compositionof the Guide,Harrisexploresthebook's mainissues.He detailsKrochmal'sattempt"toclarifythecentralmetaphysical positionsof Judaism"to uncover"theirlatentphilosophicalcontent"(p. 45), stemmingprimarilyfrom an urge to insulateJudaismfrom modernphilosophicalcritiques.Referingto Hegel, Schelling,Ibn Ezra,Spinoza,and the philosophes,HarrisreconstructsKrochmal's(sometimesfarfetched)marriage of JudaismandphilosophyagainstGermanidealism,the Enlightenment, and "extremist" Jewishthought.In so doing,Krochmalnot only protectstheJews butexaltsthemas "thebearersof a uniqueconsciousness"(p. 81). Perhapshere Krochmalis closer to Moses Mendelssohnthanthe authoracknowledges,but in otherinstancesHarrisindicateswhereKrochmalintersectswithor departs fromMendelssohn'sthought. The principaltask of "Krochmal'sTheory of History"(chap. 3) is to prove that Judaismis not "a relic,"which for Harrisis one of Krochmal's less satisfying endeavors."Krochmalremainedcommittedto the essential programof the Deuteronomist,insisting on the relationshipbetweenone's faith in God and historicaldestiny"(p. 131); he arguedin favorof Jewry's moralsuperiorityover the Gentiles,assertingthat"Jewishfaithis uniqueand absolute"(p. 135), that Jewry is "exemptfrom the law of demise"(ibid.), and that"theirspiritualessence remainsbeyondtime, even as theirexternal spiritualinstitutionsare subjectto it" (p. 135). Despite the legend to the contrary,HarriswritesthatKrochmalwas not

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an importantbiblical critic (chap. 4). Interestingly,halfway into the book comes the first instancein which Harrischaracterizeshis subject'swork as "apologetic"(p. 159). The critics, however, had too much hardevidence to allow Krochmal'sapologia to hold up; one exceptionto his often "implausible"argumentationis his studyof selectedpsalms.On "TheRabbinic Tradition"(chap. 5), Krochmalapplies "recenthistoricalscholarship"to "properlycategorize the legal materialsof the rabbiniccorpus"and uses "the critical historicalmethod to affirmthe basic integrity"of rabbinism (p. 226). Not surprisingly,he produces"a highly partisanpresentation"(p. 234) in which rabbinichistoricalclaims are typicallyunquestioned.Here HarrisintroducesKrochmal'snotionof the ahistoricityof the Torah,andhis tendentiousargumentthatthe Israelitereligionandrabbinismarepartsof an interwovenwhole. The finalchapterinvestigatesKrochmal'sattemptto wrestlewith a body in Judaismthat could not be squashedinto into any modem intellectual category-the aggadah.Krochmaltries to prove that some of the aggadot have pedagogicalpurposes,andarethereforeefficacious,whileotheraggadot are superfluous-if not embarrassing-and should be disinherited.In the face of patentlyantirationalsources,the pitfallsof Krochmal'sapproachare glaringlyevident. Still, Harris'sexplanationof why his subject'spolemics on this issue should interestus is lively and provocative.Overall,through his skillful discussionof Krochmal'stext and his world,Harrishas indeed provided"animportantpictureof the intellectualdisorientationwroughtby modernity"(p. 315). To a lesser degree, a similardisorientationapparentlybesets the author. In a revealingmoment,Harristells us that"Icannothelpbutfeel thatmodern Judaismwill continueto driftaimlesslyor takerefugein fideismif it cannot resolve-for itself-the problemof historicalrelativism,andself-confidently affirma transcendentand binding set of principles"(p. 319). Insomuchas the readeris likewise moved, he or she will find Krochmaland his current interpreterrelevantandcompelling. MichaelBerkowitz OhioStateUniversity Ohio Columbus,

Review: [untitled] Author(s): Vicki Caron Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 96-99 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486611 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:45 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



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Natalie Isser. Antisemitism During the French Second Empire. American

UniversityStudies,SeriesIX; History,vol. 100.New York:PeterLang,1991. 149 pp. AlthoughhistoriansoftenhavedismissedtheSecondEmpire(1852-1870) as a "goldenage" for Jews priorto the DreyfusAffair,NatalieIsserinsists thatthese years constituteda seminalperiodin the developmentof French antisemitism.Accordingto Isser,it was duringthe reignof NapoleonIII that the bannerof antisemitismpassedfromthe campof the socialistleft to that of the ultramontaneright.Moreover,Isser argues,this clericalantisemitism influencednotonly the emergenceof a virulentstrainof Catholicantisemitism at thetimeof the DreyfusAffair,butthemoresecularvarietiesof fin-de-siecle antisemitismas well. The mainfocus of Isser'sattentionis the way Jewishissuesoftensurfaced in the emergingconflictbetweenthe churchand the Frenchstate,especially duringthe liberalphase of NapoleonIII'sreign,beginningin the late 1850s. AlthoughNapoleonIII had allied himself with clericalinterestsin the early yearsof his reign,this alliancewas a shamblesby the end of the 1850s,due largelyto Frenchsupportfor Italianunification,whichthe popeperceivedas a threatto his temporalpower.Isser's main concern,therefore,is with the way the relationshipbetweenthe Frenchstateandthe papacyoftenrevolved aroundJewishmatters,and in so doing provokedan antisemiticbacklashon the partof Frenchultramontane Catholics. The most acrimoniousof these contestsbetweenNapoleonIII and the pope was the MortaraAffair of 1858, in which a six-year-oldJewishchild was kidnappedby Vaticanagents becausehis Christiannurse secretlyhad baptizedhim. As Isser shows, the MortaraAffairpittedthe papacy'sclaim to supteme power over the salvationof the soul againstthe rights of the Jewishparents.In this instance,as in the MontelAffairof 1840, which also involved the kidnappingof a FrenchJewish girl who had been baptized secretly,Franceemergedas the principaldefenderof the rightsof the family againstthe unlimitedpowerof the church.Becausethe MontelswereFrench citizens, the Frenchgovernmentwas able to persuadethe Vaticanto return the child to her parents.It did not have the samesuccessin the Mortaracase, however.The Mortaraswere Vaticansubjects,and the Mortarachild was neverreturned. The prolonged battle between the French state and the church over

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the MortaraAffair had far-reachingconsequencesin France.Althoughthe Catholiclaity,accordingto Isser,largelyagreedwith the governmentthatthe rights of the parentssupercededthose of the church,Frenchultramontane Catholics,and especially the publicistLouis Veuillot,used the occasion to whip up a virulent antisemiticcampaign.Accordingto Veuillot,the Jews were orchestratinga worldwideprotestagainstthe papacyover this issue, and he increasinglyidentifiedJews with everythingCatholicsdetestedabout the modernworld: secularism,materialism,and the perniciousideas of the FrenchRevolution.Similarconflictsbetweenthe Frenchstateandthe church continued to sour Catholic-Jewishrelationsthroughoutthe 1860s. Forced conversions,thoughneverwidespread,persisted,anddebatesregardingclerical influenceover educationalso frequentlycenteredon the rightsof Jewish students. Isser's studyraises a numberof importantissues, but unfortunately most of these are never articulatedwith any clarity.First,despiteIsser'semphasis on the virulentCatholicantisemitismthatdevelopedin thisperiod,the major impressionconveyed by her studyis thatthe SecondEmpirewas a "golden age"for FrenchJews in manyrespects.As she herselfpointsout, the government of Napoleon III consistentlydefendedJewishrightsboth at home and abroad.It eliminatedall barriersto equaleducationalopportunities andmade a concertedeffort to appointJewish teachers.Moreover,an unprecedented numberof Jews were appointedto high-levelgovernmentposts duringthis period. The regime also protectedthe rights of French Jews who were the governmentnever hesitated travelingor working abroad.Furthermore, to use its censorshippowers to prosecuteantisemiticslander.Such activity contrastssharplywith thatduringthe ThirdRepublic,when the 1881 press law made it virtuallyimpossibleto prosecutedefamationcases. In the final analysis,therefore,the author'sportraitof the SecondEmpireas a periodof unprecedentedofficial tolerationsupportsthe traditionalview of this period, andcasts doubton recentinterpretations thatFrancethroughoutmuchof the nineteenthcenturywas neitheras liberalnoras tolerantas historiansformerly suggested. Isser's focus on clericalantisemitismis an interestingand importantone, but her own evidence suggeststhatshe has vastlyoverratedthe movement's significance,at least for the decadeof the 1860s. At one point she suggests that the repercussionsof the MortaraAffair were similar to those of the DreyfusAffair,but at othertimes she claims thatmost of the Catholiclaity,

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in additionto many liberal clergymen,did not share Veuillot'sextremist views. Yet, even if Veuillot'smovementwas more of a fringephenomenon than Isser would have us believe, she is almost certainlycorrectto point out that Veuillot'svarietyof antisemitismexerteda majorinfluenceon the subsequentdevelopmentof Catholic antisemitismin France,a point the existing literatureon Frenchantisemitismall too often ignores.Moreover, Isseris correctto pointout thatthe Catholicantisemitismthatemergedduring this periodwas not simply a restatementof traditionalChristiananti-Jewish themes,but was a distinctlymodernmovement.As she illustrates,Catholic antisemitismwas neither static nor traditional.Rather,in its increasingly stridenttone as well as in its use of mass propaganda,it was no less modernthan its secularcounterparts.Furthermore, by stressingthe role of the clerical right in the subsequentdevelopmentof secularantisemitism, Isser challenges, albeit unwittingly,Zeev Sternhell'sthesis, put forth in his book La Droite revolutionnaire, 1885-1914: Les origines frangaises du

antisemitismgrew out of fascisme (Paris,1978), thatlate-nineteenth-century a left-wingratherthana right-wingtradition. Finally, an importantsubthemeof Isser's book is the degree to which the CentralConsistorywas willing to protestantisemitismpubliclyand to requestgovernmentinterventionto stampit out. Indeed,Isser's discussion suggests that the CentralConsistorywas consistentlysuccessfulin eliciting positive governmentalresponsesto its appeals.While this trendillustrates the government'sfirm commitmentto Jewish rights, it also demonstrates the considerabledegree of securityand confidenceFrenchJews felt. And, althoughIsserfails to makethis point,this evidencealso suggeststhatJews during the Second Empire were not passive when it came to protesting antisemitism,contraryto MichaelMarrus'sthesisas statedin ThePolitics of Assimilation: A Study of the French Jewish Communityat the Tinte of the

DreyfusAffair(New York,1971). Despite the importanceof these themes, this book is so poorly written andorganizedthatmuchof whatis valuablesimplygets lost. Too frequently, the authorseems completelyunawareof the largerissues at stake.She has completelymissed an opportunityto discuss whatthis subjectrevealsabout the general natureof Napoleon III's regime or about the internalschisms withinthe Frenchchurch.Moreover,the authorfrequentlyfails to definewhat she is talking about. She never adequatelyexplains what France'sspecial relationshipto the Vaticanwas, and she frequentlyalludes to people and

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incidentswithoutdescribingwho or whattheywere.Numerouscontradictory statementsare never clearedup. For instance,at some pointsshe arguesthat antisemitismwas directedonly at less assimilatedJews,while elsewhereshe acknowledgesthathighly assimilatedJews were its chief targets. To make mattersworse, the book is pepperedwith egregiousspelling, grammatical,and typographicalerrors,andthereareoccasionalerrorsin the numberingof the footnotes(p. 120) andin the index.The writingis oftenso stiltedthatit is impossibleto decipherthe meaning.Finally,the bibliography is completelyout of date. Althoughthe authorspendsa considerabletime discussingJewishinvolvementin the Saint-Simonianmovement,she fails to mention Michael Graetz's book, Les Juifs en France au xixe sidcle: de la revolution frangaise a l'Alliance Israelite Universelle (Paris, 1989), which

is the major study of this phenomenon.Nor is there any mentionof the work of Phyllis Cohen Albert,especially her essay "Ethnicityand Jewish France,"in J. ReinharzandD. Swetschinski,eds., Solidarityin 19th-Century Mystics, Philosophers and Politicians (Durham, N.C., 1982), and Jay R. Berkovitz's The Shaping of Jewish Identity in Nineteenth-Century France

(Detroit,1989), which togetherwith Graetz'sstudywould have contributed significantlyto the author'sdiscussionof antisemitism.Clearly,this book neverpassedthroughthe handsof a copy editor,andone can only hope that the publisherwill remedythis situationin the future.In the end,becausethis book is so confusedandconfusing,it will be of use primarilyto specialistsin FrenchJewish history.AlthoughIsserhas some interestinginsightsinto the natureof clerical antisemitismduringthe Second Empire,this subjectstill awaitsmorethorough,comprehensive,andlucidhistoricalanalysis. VickiCaron BrownUniversity R.I. Providence, M. Mitchell Serels. A History of the Jews of Tangier in the Nineteenth and

TwentiethCenturies.Brooklyn:Sepher-Hermon Press, 1991. 324 pp. As theonce-thrivingJewishcommunitiesof Moroccodissolveintohistory, preservingsomethingof theirpast occupiesnot only those left behind(there are still about 5,000 Jews in Morocco)but also a greatercircle of scholars in Israel,Europe,and the Americas.This movementof culturalpreservation

Review: [untitled] Author(s): Susan Gilson Miller Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 99-103 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486612 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:45 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



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incidentswithoutdescribingwho or whattheywere.Numerouscontradictory statementsare never clearedup. For instance,at some pointsshe arguesthat antisemitismwas directedonly at less assimilatedJews,while elsewhereshe acknowledgesthathighly assimilatedJews were its chief targets. To make mattersworse, the book is pepperedwith egregiousspelling, grammatical,and typographicalerrors,andthereareoccasionalerrorsin the numberingof the footnotes(p. 120) andin the index.The writingis oftenso stiltedthatit is impossibleto decipherthe meaning.Finally,the bibliography is completelyout of date. Althoughthe authorspendsa considerabletime discussingJewishinvolvementin the Saint-Simonianmovement,she fails to mention Michael Graetz's book, Les Juifs en France au xixe sidcle: de la revolution frangaise a l'Alliance Israelite Universelle (Paris, 1989), which

is the major study of this phenomenon.Nor is there any mentionof the work of Phyllis Cohen Albert,especially her essay "Ethnicityand Jewish France,"in J. ReinharzandD. Swetschinski,eds., Solidarityin 19th-Century Mystics, Philosophers and Politicians (Durham, N.C., 1982), and Jay R. Berkovitz's The Shaping of Jewish Identity in Nineteenth-Century France

(Detroit,1989), which togetherwith Graetz'sstudywould have contributed significantlyto the author'sdiscussionof antisemitism.Clearly,this book neverpassedthroughthe handsof a copy editor,andone can only hope that the publisherwill remedythis situationin the future.In the end,becausethis book is so confusedandconfusing,it will be of use primarilyto specialistsin FrenchJewish history.AlthoughIsserhas some interestinginsightsinto the natureof clerical antisemitismduringthe Second Empire,this subjectstill awaitsmorethorough,comprehensive,andlucidhistoricalanalysis. VickiCaron BrownUniversity R.I. Providence, M. Mitchell Serels. A History of the Jews of Tangier in the Nineteenth and

TwentiethCenturies.Brooklyn:Sepher-Hermon Press, 1991. 324 pp. As theonce-thrivingJewishcommunitiesof Moroccodissolveintohistory, preservingsomethingof theirpast occupiesnot only those left behind(there are still about 5,000 Jews in Morocco)but also a greatercircle of scholars in Israel,Europe,and the Americas.This movementof culturalpreservation

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has takenon a varietyof forms;recentyearshave seen an upsurgein books, personalmemoirs,exhibitionsof materialobjects,andthe in situpreservation of sites such as synagogues and cemeteries.The business of transmuting MoroccanJewish historyinto a memoryis a thrivingone, takingon many shapesand attitudes,of which this studyof Tangier'sJewishcommunityis a part. Mitchell Serels's effort must be seen againstthe backgroundof other recentwritingon MoroccanJewishsociety andhistory.Generallyspeaking, this subjecthas drawnan internationalgroupof scholarsproducinga corpus of exceptional quality despite the scanty documentation.The MoroccanFrenchscholarHaimZafranihas exploitedliteraryand liturgicalmaterialto recreatea richly texturedportraitof social and religiouslife from the late medievalperiodonward,representingwith specialpoignancythe Moroccan Jewish imaginaire-that elusive yet distinctiveway MoroccanJews had of discerningmeanings in the world aroundthem. Americanscholarsusing cross-disciplinarymethodologiesin historyand culturalanthropologyhave combined archival researchwith fieldworkto create nuancedimages of Jewish life in specific locales. KennethBrown'sPeople of Sald: Tradition and Change in a Moroccan City, 1830-1930 (Cambridge, Mass., 1976) and

Daniel Schroeter's(Merchantsof Essouira (Cambridge,Eng., 1983) stress social adaptationand the centralrole Jews played in economic life. The IsraelischolarMichel Abitbol has used the archivesof the Jewish Corcos family of Marrakechto show how Muslimsand Jews were boundtogether at every economiclevel. Finally,a groupof MoroccanMuslimhistoriansled by GermainAyachehave triedto reintegrateJewishcommunalhistoryinto the broadersweep of Moroccanhistoryby using locally generatedArabic sources.Historiansof Jewish Moroccohave availableto them a varietyof innovativemodels characterizedby (1) the use of a rangeof sourcesboth internalandexternalto Morocco;(2) a concernforJewishcultureas a human, lived experience;(3) a reverencefor the particularity of placeandthe virtues of local knowledge;and (4) a sensitivityto the broadernational,regional, andEast-Westcontextsthatprofoundlyaffectedthe Jewishsituation. Thisgrowingbodyof literatureprovidesa pointof referenceforassessing Serels's book aboutTangier.Certainlyhis choice of subjectis a good one, for an informedstudy of the Jews of Tangieris long overdue.Tangierwas Morocco'sprincipalportanddiplomaticcapitalin the latenineteenthcentury; afterWorldWarI, it becamean internationalcity whereartists,adventurers,

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and refugees sought safety and tranquillityamong a mixed populationof Christians,Muslims, and Jews. Despite its small demographicsize (about 45,000 at the turnof the century,10,000 of whom were Jews), Tangierwas of regionalimportance.Theperiodunder a commercialandculturalentrepOt discussionis thatof Tangier'sglory,when it was the mainportalof Western influence and its Jews were the primarycarriersof Europeanideas and tastes to the rest of Moroccansociety. Changecame to Tangierlong before it reachedthe inland populationcentersof Fes and Marrakech,giving the people of Tangiera clear sense of ascendanceover Moroccancommunities of the "interior." This attitudeof superioritywas especiallypronouncedamongits Jewish population.A spiritof progresscoupledwith a deeply ingrainedawareness of their "pure"Sephardicheritagewere the bases for a feeling of cultural supremacythatpersistseven today.Serelsdoes littlein thisbookto question, objectify,or nuance this widely held communalmyth;rather,he provesto be a willing accomplicein perpetuatingit. He is only incidentallyinterested in the historicalrelationsbetweenTangier'sJews and the rest of Moroccan Jewry,while MoroccanMuslims are seen mainlythroughthe optic of their role as oppressors.Unlike most of the works mentionedabove, this is not a finely texturedstudy which explores the complicatedstrandsconnecting Jews to the widerIslamicsociety;rather,it is inward-looking andfocusedon the communityitself. Nor does it treatthe communityas a whole,butrather concentrateson a narrowstratumat the top,the "grandees" who ranthe local Junta,or communitycouncil. Herewe haveJewishhistoryof an olderstyle, convergingon elites ratherthanon the mass, largelyignoringdiversegroups thatmakeup the social fabric,suchas women,the weak,or the dispossessed, andmoreconcernedwith memorializingthanwith sharpcriticalanalysis. Examplesof this approachabound.Openinghis discussionof twentiethcenturyTangier,Serelsmakesthe followingstatement:"Tangierat theturnof thecenturywas anamalgamof manypeople.Mostof theEuropeanswerepoor Spaniardswho fled the economiccrisesof Spain.Theyearnedtheirlivingby smuggling,runningbarsand cafes, and raisingpigs. Manywere alcoholics" (p. 76). No mentionhere of the elegant and educatedSpanishfamilies like the Abrines,who ranthe firstmechanicalprintingpressin Tangier,producing books in Hebrewand Arabicas well as Europeanlanguages,and who were friends and business associates to many Jews; no mentionof the Spanish intellectualswho appearin the archivesof the AllianceIsra61iteUniverselle

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(AIU) in Paris, and who sought political refuge in Tangierand sent their childrento Jewish schools; no discussionof the Jewish families who sent their childrento Spanishschools as early as the 1880s. Evidenceof close intercommunalties, of which there are countlessexamplesin the sources, is for the most part left out. Rather,we are left with an image of Spanish decadencethatsimplybelies the truth. It is not only Spanishtangerinoswho come in for malediction;Moroccan Muslimstoo are held at arm'slength.The stateis depictedas the antagonist and the Jews as innocent victims of a rapaciousregime. The annualtax imposed on them by Koraniclaw was collected in a humiliatingfashion, accordingto Serels, accompaniedby "thetraditionalandcompulsoryslapon the face" (pp. 13, 14, and 191 n. 3), an observationrepeatedseveraltimes withoutmentionof a specificsource.To be sure,Muslim-Jewishrelationsin Tangierwere complicated,sometimestense, and occasionallyeven violent; but to recountstereotypeswithoutsupportingfacts does not serve the cause of objective historiography.One must also rememberthat each Moroccan communitydifferedfromthe other,andwhatmayhavebeencommonpractice in Fes was not necessarilyknownin Tangier.Hencethe need to cite precise texts andcontextswhen makingsuch allegations. Serels'ssympathyfor a broader,morecosmopolitanperspectiveon these issues might have been enhancedhad he delved deeperinto the archives. He must be creditedfor makinguse of the Actas, or "minutes,"of the local Jewish communitycouncil of Tangier,an unpublishedsourceof rareworth. Tangierwas uniqueamongJewishcommunitiesin Moroccoin havinga local self-governingcommunitycouncil from the mid-nineteenthcentury.In the pages of the Actas one findsimportantinformationon charitableinstitutions, educationalreform, changes in leadership,and fluctuationsin economic conditions.But these notes do not constitutea completerecordof communal affairs.The were severelyedited,so thatthe conflictsformingthe warpand woof of social relationswere for the most partleft out. Moreover,the record is filled with temporalgaps and topical omissions. These methodological difficultiesmighthave been overcomeby a parallelreadingin otherprimary sources,such as the Europeandiplomaticarchives,or the enormouslyfertile archivesof the AIU; inexplicably,these sourceswere not consulted.As a result,this studyis flawedby its relianceon a narrowbase of documentation thatdoes not give us a full sense of the complexityandthe complementarity of intercommunalrelations.

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One finalcriticismis thatSerelsdoes not provideus withthe interpretive frameworkneeded to assimilate this rich materialand give it historical meaning,Instead,we are left with a mass of undigestedinformationtaken directlyfromtheActasandunmediatedby structureor thematicdevelopment. The Actas documentthe ongoing problemin the communityregardingthe availabilityof koshermeatandits exorbitantprice-a matterof greatconcern to Jews at every economiclevel. He tells us, for example,thatin 1860 "there were constantproblemsbetweenthe Juntaand the supervisor[mashgiach], on the one hand, and the growing numberof Jewish butchersamong the immigrantJews.... In May 1861,thebutcherRahamimBenlishacomplained aboutthe attitudeandactivitiesof the butcher'ssupervisor" (p. 17). Thiswas undoubtedlya stirringcontroversythat echoed throughoutthe community, butits broaderimplicationsareunexplicated.Wasthe illicit sale of nonkosher meat a means for poor migrantsfrom the countrysideto earn a living in a difficultlocal economy?Why migrateto Tangierif jobs were scarceand conditionsdifficult?What was the generaltenorof relationsbetweenlocal TangierJews and their migrantbrothersand sisters from elsewhere?The largermeaningof the event is left to the imaginationof the reader. All in all, Serels'sbook leaves us witha curiosityto learnmoreaboutthis community:how personalitiesandeventsactuallyinterelated,how individual lives fitted into a largermulti-ethnicculturalframework,how complicated andfinelycalibratedsocial mechanismsoperatedandevolvedovertime.The interplayof competitionsand alliancesamongindividualsand groups,and the influenceof place, culturalcontext,andhistoricalmilieuon behaviorare legitimatetopics for the social historian.Thereare hints and suggestionsof thissortof dynamicgive-and-takein Serels'saccount,buttheydo notprovide sufficientsustenancefor the inquiringmind. With its well-intentionedbut occludedperspective,this bookrepresentsa strongattachment to anidealized Jewishpast, offeringa gloss on a far moreintricatereality. SusanGilsonMiller Harvard University Mass. Cambridge,

Review: [untitled] Author(s): S. Daniel Breslauer Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 104-106 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486613 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:45 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



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Nathan Rotenstreich. Immediacy and Its Limits: A Study in Martin Buber's

Thought.Chur:HarwoodAcademicPublishers,1991. 118 pp. Throughoutthis challengingmonographNathanRotenstreichrecognizes thatMartinBuberhimselfeschewedphilosophicalanalysisandwas primarily "anexplorerof humannature."He contends,however,thatresearchinto the philosophicaland cultural influences on Buber illuminateshis thinking. Rotenstreich'sconvincingargumentson Buber'sdifferencesfromHermann the distinctionbetween Cohen,his affirmationsof similaritynotwithstanding, BuberandKierkegaard,andan extendedcritiqueof Buber'sinterpretation of the well A more contention founded. controversial proposal Spinoza,proves claims thatBuber'sown ambivalencetowardphilosophycausedhim to fail eitherto distinguishadequatelybetweenphilosophyandreligionor to create of religionandreligiosityin his own terms"(p. 98). "acoherentinterpretation This propositionformsthe backboneof Rotenstreich's argument.He notesas Buber's"problematiccontributionto modernthought"his attemptto employ an I-Thou structurediscovered in human experience to the relationship between the divine and the human(or "conversely,his transpositionof it one" [p. 104]).Thecontribution fromthe religiouscontextto the interhuman of thisbooklies in raisingphilosophicalquestionsabouttheontologyimplied about humanencountersand the applicabilityof thatontology to religious experience. Many previousthinkershave notedthe ethicaldilemmaBuber'sthought faces. By rooting his descriptionof the I-Thourelationshipin the facts of humanexistence,Buberloses an ethicaldimension.He can tracethe origins of I-Thou meeting, the portalsby which one entersI-Thoubeing, and the significanceof I-Thouencounter.Yet,as Rotenstreichsuggests,Buberwants to do more. He "conjoins"a descriptiveidentificationof I-Thoumeetings witha "normativepresentationof whatoughtto guideconductin thescopeof interhumanrelations"(p. 71). Philosophersexpecta moreprecisedelineation of thegroundsof the "ought"andof thesourceof obligationthanBubergives. Rotenstreichnotes thatBuberemphasizesthe humanabilityto "respond"as the basis for his normativedemandwithoutrecognizingthat"responsibility" as accountabilityneeds a firmerfoundation. Buber'sontology of the interpersonalunderlieshis Zionism,as several besidesRotenstreichhave recognized.Any comprehensivestudy interpreters of Buberwill conclude,as does Rotenstreich,thatBuber'sZionismrepresents

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an "attemptto integrate additionalaspects of the immediacyof human experienceinto the spectrumof his thinking,as in this specificcase man's attachmentto a place or a land"(p. 101). Rotenstreich,however,criticizes Buber's extrapolationfrom the experienceof the individualto that of the group.A nationtakes shape not in responseto immediateI-Thoumeetings but out of the consciousness of history-and history is more than life. This critique, however, misses its mark. Buber recognizedthe realm of "Spirit"in which culturalpowersmeet the individualwiththeirown demand for relationship.Israel as a nation takes shape from the I-Thou meeting which occurs in the immediacyof those spiritualbeings in relationshipto a communityof individuals.A link with an intergenerational spiritmay be as immediateand powerfulas a meetingwith one's own contemporaries. Rotenstreich'scritiqueof Buber'sexplicationof religiouslanguagehas more to recommendit. Buber,Rotenstreichpoints out, uses philosophical termsto describethedeity.He cannothelpbutemploytermssuchas "absolute" and "creator." These terms,however,fit uncomfortably with a descriptionof Godas a "Thou."Rotenstreichremindsreadersof severalproblemsin Buber's discussionsof the divine: is the relationwith God the primaryfact with the interhumanrelationshipsecondary,or is the relationshipwith God a resultof the interhumanmeeting?is the EternalThouthe guarantor of I-Thoumeeting or the idealmotivatingthe willingnessto entersucha meeting?is relationship to the divine as active a humandecision as reflectiveness,or is withdrawal fromGodtheonly activeparthumanbeingsplay?cana self-sufficientdivinity enterinto reciprocitywith a finitecreature,and if so, how it is explainable? is the I-Thourelationshipexperiential,and if so, how can experienceapply to the divine absolute?Rotenstreichis not the first to raise questionslike these aboutBuber'sformulations.Buber'sresponsewouldbe thathe has not triedto offer a coherentphilosophybut ratherto indicateelementsof reality of which modernsare often unaware.Rotenstreichaddressesthis answer.He sees the philosophicalquest for clarity not as a discontinuitywith human but as an extensionof it. Humanbeings inevitablycreate interrelationship, conceptualframeworksby which to understandthemselvesandtheirreality. Immediacyis not the full sum of humanreality.Rotenstreichconcludesthat "Weare beyond immediacy-not by a deliberatestep but intrinsically"(p. 112). This point needs examinationbut also suggests an importantaspect of humandevelopment.Buberoffers modernthinkersa point of departurefor

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theirown investigations. He providesroadsigns theycan follow as they seekto understand humanpsychology,theproductsof humanculturesuch as the BibleandlaterJewishreligion,andevenphilosophical conceptsand theircontemporary relevance.ThatBuberhimselfavoidedan investigation of all the avenuesopenedby his thinkingdoes not excuselaterthinkers from studyingthem. The philosophicalquest for claritymay drawon Buber'sthought,demanda greaterrigorof it thanhe himselfadvanced, andmodifyhis thinkingaccordingly. Rotenstreich's critiqueshouldstimulate suchreconsideration of Buber'sbasiccategories. S. DanielBreslauer of Kansas University Kans. Lawrence, SimchaFishbane.TheMethodand Meaningof the MishnahBerurah.Hoboken, N.J.: Ktav,1991. 183 pp. Few halakhicworksof recenttimeshaveattainedthedegreeof acceptance and prestige enjoyed by the MishnahBerurahof R. Israel Meir Hakohen Kagan (d. 1933). This compendiumexerts a profoundinfluenceupon the rituallife of the observantJew;as such,it is a significantdocumentof Jewish intellectualhistory,and a thoroughanalysisof its literarystructureandlegal methodologyis long overdue.In the presentvolume, SimchaFishbanehas takena valuablefirststep in this direction. I say "valuable"because Fishbanecorrectlyemphasizesthe importance of literarygenre in the understanding of Kagan'saccomplishment.Like the worksof the greataharonim,the MishnahBerurahis cast as a commentary to R. Joseph Karo'sShulhanArukh,OrahzHayim.Kaganthus "testifiesto of the authoritative [his] desire to be identifiedwith the Weltanschauung commentatorson the Shulhan Arukh in the seventeenthand eighteenth centuries"(p. 156). Putdifferently,the formof this workis no less indicative of its author'spersonalphilosophythanis its content.The stylisticcontrast between the MishnahBerurahand other similarworks, such as R. Shalom MordekhaiSchwadron'sDa 'at Torah(whichis not a runningcommentaryon all essentialpointsof law) andR. YehielMichaelEpstein'sArukhHa-Shulhan (which imitatesthe style of the MishnehTorahand the Turratherthanthat of the aharonim),is thereforeof greatsignificance."Hisemploymentof the

Review: [untitled] Author(s): Mark Washofsky Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 106-108 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486614 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:45 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



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theirown investigations. He providesroadsigns theycan follow as they seekto understand humanpsychology,theproductsof humanculturesuch as the BibleandlaterJewishreligion,andevenphilosophical conceptsand theircontemporary relevance.ThatBuberhimselfavoidedan investigation of all the avenuesopenedby his thinkingdoes not excuselaterthinkers from studyingthem. The philosophicalquest for claritymay drawon Buber'sthought,demanda greaterrigorof it thanhe himselfadvanced, andmodifyhis thinkingaccordingly. Rotenstreich's critiqueshouldstimulate suchreconsideration of Buber'sbasiccategories. S. DanielBreslauer of Kansas University Kans. Lawrence, SimchaFishbane.TheMethodand Meaningof the MishnahBerurah.Hoboken, N.J.: Ktav,1991. 183 pp. Few halakhicworksof recenttimeshaveattainedthedegreeof acceptance and prestige enjoyed by the MishnahBerurahof R. Israel Meir Hakohen Kagan (d. 1933). This compendiumexerts a profoundinfluenceupon the rituallife of the observantJew;as such,it is a significantdocumentof Jewish intellectualhistory,and a thoroughanalysisof its literarystructureandlegal methodologyis long overdue.In the presentvolume, SimchaFishbanehas takena valuablefirststep in this direction. I say "valuable"because Fishbanecorrectlyemphasizesthe importance of literarygenre in the understanding of Kagan'saccomplishment.Like the worksof the greataharonim,the MishnahBerurahis cast as a commentary to R. Joseph Karo'sShulhanArukh,OrahzHayim.Kaganthus "testifiesto of the authoritative [his] desire to be identifiedwith the Weltanschauung commentatorson the Shulhan Arukh in the seventeenthand eighteenth centuries"(p. 156). Putdifferently,the formof this workis no less indicative of its author'spersonalphilosophythanis its content.The stylisticcontrast between the MishnahBerurahand other similarworks, such as R. Shalom MordekhaiSchwadron'sDa 'at Torah(whichis not a runningcommentaryon all essentialpointsof law) andR. YehielMichaelEpstein'sArukhHa-Shulhan (which imitatesthe style of the MishnehTorahand the Turratherthanthat of the aharonim),is thereforeof greatsignificance."Hisemploymentof the

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literarygenreof the Aharonimmakesthe MishnahBerurahpartof a mature, authoritativelegal system that in the mind of its adherentsstretchesback over a thousandyears"(p. 156). In his concentrationupon genre,Fishbane dissectsthis aharonicworkwith those tools of form-criticismthathave been utilizedin the study of classical rabbinictexts. Thereinlies his hiddush,his majorinnovationand scholarlycontribution. I say "firststep"because,despiteFishbane'sdetailedanalysisof the text of the MishnahBerurah,so muchremainsto be done. This commentstems in part from the limited circumferenceof his study,which covers but six of the 697 chaptersin Kagan'scommentary.AlthoughFishbaneclaims (p. 3) thatthese sections (chaps.243-247 and 252, dealingwith Jewish-Gentile of the entire relationstouchingupon the laws of Shabbat)are representative work,he does not demonstratethe accuracyof his assertion.Clearly,his study shouldbe expanded,both in quantityand in the varietyof halakhicsubject matter,so as to establishthathis findingsareanythingbut tentative. More data, too, would be helpful in clarifyingthose conclusionswhich in their presentform are somewhatdiffuse. For example,Fishbanewants us to see Kaganas more thana summarizerof the aharonim.He was, after all, a man of musar,the authorof such ethical-religioustreatisesas Hafez Yisrael;it is no surprise,then,thathis "ethicalsensibility IHayimand Nidh.ei stands behind his discussionand,indeed,frequentlycomes to the continually surface"(p. 5). At the same time we are told (p. 157) thatmusarand other extralegalmaterialsare employed in only three of the 160 subparagraphs analyzedin this book. In none of thesecases, it shouldbe added,does musar lead Kagan to deviate from the acceptedhalakhah.Anotherindicationof the posek's worldview, says Fishbane,is his tendencyto rule stringently issues" which raise his "halakhicanxieties"(p. 167), in on "contemporary with his desire "tomaintainandregulatethe boundariesbetweenhis keeping milieu and secularJewishsociety"(p. 163). Yetin the veryparagraph which containsthis last statement,we readthatKaganis unwilling"toruleleniently on a contemporaryissue when there are disputingopinions."The question thusarises:when Kaganrulesstringently,does he do so becausethe issue is a one (assumingit is more"contemporary" forhimthanit was for contemporary the aharonim,an assumptionwhose proofrequireshistoricalandsociological detailswhichFishbaneneverprovides)andhe wishesto erecta fence against incursionsfromthe nonobservantJewishworld?Ordoes he do so becausehis legal sources,aharonicand earlier(see the discussionon sec. 246, subpars.

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31 ff.), arein dispute,andas a matterof legalphilosophyhe favorsstringency as the safest means to cover all halakhic bases (to be yozei kol ha-de'ot)? The

evidenceis mixed,inasmuchas the mattersidentifiedhereas "contemporary" alreadybear stringentrulings by some of Kagan'spredecessors.A wider studymighthelp untanglethe confusionbetweenKaganas manof musarand Kaganas the faithfulredactorof aharonichalakhicthought. Sucha widerstudyoughtto proceedon two fronts,the diachronicandthe synchronic.Kagan'sconclusionsfirst shouldbe placed withinthe ongoing contextof the workof the aharonim.To whatextentarehis rulingsreflections or logical extensionsof decisions and tendenciesin theirwritings?To what extent does he deviate from them,breaknew ground,chartan independent halakhiccourse?Fishbanemakesa stabatthiskindof diachronicanalysis,but the pre-MishnahBerurahstate of EasternEuropeanhalakhahneeds a more detailedand explicit treatmentthanis providedby this work,whichfocuses almostexclusivelyuponthe wordsof theMishnahBerurahitself.Second,the researchershouldcompareKagan'srulingsin the MishnahBerurahagainst those of his contemporaries.Is he significantlyor morefrequentlystringent Is his workmoreindicativeof than,say, Epsteinin the ArukhHa-Shtdlhan? if and does his concerns," so, responseto thoseconcernsdiffer "contemporary In the precisecontributionof this we can best determine substantially? way, R. IsraelMeir HakohenKaganto Jewishlegal thought. In the meantime,Fishbanehas earnedthe appreciationof all who work in the field. That more can and ought to be done should not obscurethe importantcontributionhe has madeto the stateof research. MarkWashofsky of Religion HebrewUnionCollege-Jewish Institute Ohio Cincinnati, Anne Golomb Hoffman. Between Exile and Return: S. Y Agnon and the

Drama of Writing.SUNY Series in ModernJewish Literatureand Culture. Albany:StateUniversityof New YorkPress, 1991. 236 pp. Whathappenswhen a Hebrewwriterof the likes of S. Y. Agnon-whose tracksin deepimmersionin traditionalJewishtextselicitsendlessintertextual his writing-writes aboutwriting?How do his "bookanecdotes"(p. 166)and episodes foregroundingthe presenceof books, writtentexts, theirlanguage, or otheracts of inscriptionilluminatethe fictionof sucha writer?Theseand

Review: [untitled] Author(s): Stephen Katz Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 108-111 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486615 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:45 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



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31 ff.), arein dispute,andas a matterof legalphilosophyhe favorsstringency as the safest means to cover all halakhic bases (to be yozei kol ha-de'ot)? The

evidenceis mixed,inasmuchas the mattersidentifiedhereas "contemporary" alreadybear stringentrulings by some of Kagan'spredecessors.A wider studymighthelp untanglethe confusionbetweenKaganas manof musarand Kaganas the faithfulredactorof aharonichalakhicthought. Sucha widerstudyoughtto proceedon two fronts,the diachronicandthe synchronic.Kagan'sconclusionsfirst shouldbe placed withinthe ongoing contextof the workof the aharonim.To whatextentarehis rulingsreflections or logical extensionsof decisions and tendenciesin theirwritings?To what extent does he deviate from them,breaknew ground,chartan independent halakhiccourse?Fishbanemakesa stabatthiskindof diachronicanalysis,but the pre-MishnahBerurahstate of EasternEuropeanhalakhahneeds a more detailedand explicit treatmentthanis providedby this work,whichfocuses almostexclusivelyuponthe wordsof theMishnahBerurahitself.Second,the researchershouldcompareKagan'srulingsin the MishnahBerurahagainst those of his contemporaries.Is he significantlyor morefrequentlystringent Is his workmoreindicativeof than,say, Epsteinin the ArukhHa-Shtdlhan? if and does his concerns," so, responseto thoseconcernsdiffer "contemporary In the precisecontributionof this we can best determine substantially? way, R. IsraelMeir HakohenKaganto Jewishlegal thought. In the meantime,Fishbanehas earnedthe appreciationof all who work in the field. That more can and ought to be done should not obscurethe importantcontributionhe has madeto the stateof research. MarkWashofsky of Religion HebrewUnionCollege-Jewish Institute Ohio Cincinnati, Anne Golomb Hoffman. Between Exile and Return: S. Y Agnon and the

Drama of Writing.SUNY Series in ModernJewish Literatureand Culture. Albany:StateUniversityof New YorkPress, 1991. 236 pp. Whathappenswhen a Hebrewwriterof the likes of S. Y. Agnon-whose tracksin deepimmersionin traditionalJewishtextselicitsendlessintertextual his writing-writes aboutwriting?How do his "bookanecdotes"(p. 166)and episodes foregroundingthe presenceof books, writtentexts, theirlanguage, or otheracts of inscriptionilluminatethe fictionof sucha writer?Theseand

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otherissues areat the coreof AnneGolombHoffman'sstudyof writingabout writingin the fiction of S. Y. Agnon. It presentsreaderswith new insights into a numberof this author'scentralworks from a nearlyuniquevantage point,which integratesliterarytheorywith psychoanalysis.WereHoffmanto have presentedeven a brief surveyof previousstudiesemphasizing,as she has done, the significanceof fiction's self-consciousness,readerswould be even moreimpressedby her groundbreaking foraysinto this field. Her thesis is that,by foregroundingthe very issue of writingin his tales, Agnon's fiction assertsthat "theissue of boundaryand transgression,exile, andreturnareactedoutwithinthedomainof thewritingitself' (p. 2), enabling readersto considerthe matterof how writingrefersto itself. Inevitably,then, the studycomes to focus on one of the morenotableof binarytraitsin Agnon, the ambivalentattitudetowardbooksof Judaismandwriting,oftenexpressed in an Oedipalconfrontationwith the sources.Agnon's fictions,assertsthe author,are a testimonyto the inherenttensionbetweenhis being an author continuingthe traditionof Hebrewbooks, on the one hand,and a citizen of the contemporaryworld,on the other. To illustratethe manifoldways by which Agnon'sworks (and those of a few otherwriterswhose writingsare, at times, pittedagainsthis) address mattersof textual reflexivity,or literaryself-referentiality, Hoffmandraws upon a numberof his shortstoriesand novels. However,ratherthanexplore issues of the writer'spoetics as implied by his metaphorsof composition, this study seeks out the implicitregardheld by the protagonistfor being the conduitfor a continuedtraditionaltext or way of writing.Such an attitudeis interpretedin psychologicaltermsas a responseto the call for maintaining the values of a parentalworld, as opposed to the protagonist'simpulseto This dynamicof inclusion express a more individualisticWeltanschauung. and exclusion-willed by or foisted upon the protagonist-is whatAgnon's expressionsappearto be after when he writesof writing.Readersgiven to readfictionin Freudiantermsshouldappreciatethe emphasisplacedon the OedipalmanifestationsHoffmanfinds in Agnon'swork.These, she asserts, representthe ambivalent,rebelliousimpulsein the author'swritingsagainst the very paternalworld,texts, andviews aboutwhichhe writes.Heranalysis of Oedipaland feministicaspectsof Agnon's"TheTaleof the Scribe"is an illuminatingexampleof these views. Included among her selected texts is a discussionof Agnon's 'Oreah na.tah

lalun (A Guest for the Night), whose familiar theme of the futility

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of resurrectingthe past is illuminatedand reinforcedby Hoffman'stextual approach.Her analysis confirms the novel's point that all semblanceof imminentsuccess in restoringpracticesandinstitutionsof the pastis illusory andironic.The study'semphasison the ambivalenceof the Guesttowardthe enterpriseof restorationis mostinstructiveandfurtherconfirmsthecentrality of this (implied)message throughoutthe novel. As supportingevidence to sustainthis claim, she resortsto notionsof textuality,themesof books, and referencesto the writingprocess.Of specialnote are her discussionsof the theme of the "wise embryo"(p. 81) and the episode surroundingthe book Yadavshel moshe as symbolizingthe impossiblemissionof the Guest and otherswhile underscoringan ambivalencefor the revivalof the past. A numberof assertionsneed correcting,however.One is that,afterhis returnin 1924, Agnon left Israel only once to receive the Nobel Prize in 1966 (p. 192, n. 2). Withoutapparentlyrealizingthis error,Hoffmancorrects it again and again when telling of Agnon's leaving his home in 1930 (pp. 71,77, 79) to oversee the publicationof his collectedworksin Germanyand journeyto Buczaczand easternEurope. Claimingthatthe Guestleft Buczaczon theninthof Av,someninemonths after arrivingthere,Hoffmanseizes the opportunityto develop a themeof his rebirth.This would also be, she suggests, evidence of the "novelistic fiction"reinforcing"theautobiographical fiction"(p. 99). Yet,on examining the novel, we find thatthe ninthof Av is mentionedin an accountpreceding the birthof RachelandYeruham'sson, andthe Guest'ssubsequentdeparture. The ninth of Av is referredto indirectlyas the narratorobservesthat"The days of mourningbeforethe Fastof Av [sheloshetshevucotha-'evel(Hebrew original,p. 413)] passedand the days of consolationarrived"(Englishtrans. [New York,1968], p. 442). More likely, the Guest'sdepartureis just before Rosh Hashanah,markingnearlya year's sojournin Szybucz. So as to demonstratethe prevalenceof the matterof Agnon's fiction's ambivalencetowardthe past,Hoffmanalso drawson a numberof tales from the thirties-"Upon a Stone,""TheSense of Smell,"and "TheDocument" (the lattertwo also are availablein translation,contraryto Hoffman'sclaim [p. 197, n. 2]). These tales, assertsthe author,serve to expressa momentary sense of inclusionin, or exclusionfrom,the continuumwhich is the textual body of Hebrewwriting.While the discussionon this issue is stimulating,a clearerexplanationis needed to clarify the linguisticconflictregardingthe

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issue of sukkahmerihahin "The Sense of Smell" and the tale's poignant irony. One of the more intriguingand insightfulreadingspresentedis of Tmol shilshom, which she not only comparesto Joyce's and Mann'sworks as anotherBildungsroman,but then proceedsto trace its Zeitromanfeatures. Most original,though,is her readingof its Balakepisodeas a metaphorof fictiongone amok, the dog a signifierof writinggone out of control,as the textplays out its Oedipalrevoltin confrontationwiththe notionof traditional textuality. An ambivalentexpressiontowardone's roots is expressedin a different way in Agnon's Shira. H. Barzelhas suggestedthatit is a metaphorfor the protagonist'spursuitof the literaryand the carnal,exemplifiedmost prominently by Herbst'srepeatedrecitationof lines evocative of Shin Shalom's poem, "Fleshsuchas yours/ Will not soon be forgotten."Hoffman'sreading, while following some of these lines, also attendsto episodesinvolvingbooks andwritingto supportthe thesis thatsuchimageryindicatesthe ambivalence of Jews aboutGermanand Europeanculture,on the one hand,andZionism, on the other.Shira,as term and character,refersto the notion of the book (poetry) and the body of woman as a signifierof diverse meanings.As done throughoutthis study,the emphasison a Freudianinterpretation sheds additionallighton thenovel's implicitexpressionsof ambivalenceconcerning the hero'sallegianceto the worldof his fathers. Hoffman'sstudyis enlighteningin its insights,nearlyencompassingin its genericscope,carefullythoughtout,andoffersamplerewardsfora scrupulous reading.This is a groundbreakingstudy of particularvalue to studentsof Hebrewliterature,andof Agnonin particular. Whereasone wouldhavehoped for a morethoroughaddressingof Agnon'sliteraryoutput-specificallysuch as "Ha-panimla-panim,""'Imkenisatha-yom,"andseveralepisodes of the novels discussed-as well as a more rigorousapproachto the methodof transcriptionand transliterationof Hebrew terms and titles, the declared scope of this work shouldfoster additionalstudiesof literaryreflexivityand the dramaof writingin Agnon. StephenKatz Indiana University Ind. Bloomington,

Review: [untitled] Author(s): Henry D. Shapiro Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 112-114 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486616 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:45 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



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Shuly Rubin Schwartz. The Emergence of Jewish Scholarship in America: The Publication of the Jewish Encyclopedia. Monographs of the Hebrew

Union College, no. 13. Cincinnati:HebrewUnion College Press, 1991. xii, 235 pp.

If there is more to be said about the Jewish Encyclopedia(12 vols. 1901-1905) as event, resource,or symptom,I can't imaginewhatit might be. Shuly Rubin Schwartztells us aboutits conceptionby Isidor(e)Singer, its adoptionby Funk and Wagnalls,the operationsof its editorialboard (including conflicts over matters of interpretationand personality,with helpful biographicalsketches of all the board members),the mannerof its composition,the structureof its financing,its receptionby reviewers (generallyfavorable)and the public(who didn'tbuy enoughcopies to make the projectprofitable),its reputationand continuingusefulness,as well as whatit says. Most important,she does whatcould not have been done fifty, or forty,or even thirtyyears ago, when encyclopediaswere not acceptable "sources,"i.e., not real scholarship:She treatsit seriouslyas a madething,a conscientiousattemptto makesense out of the worldas definedin particular ways at a particulartime and from a particularpointof view, with the same as CharlesBeard'sAn Economic "reliability"(and the same "unreliability") Interpretation of the Constitution (1913).

That is a peculiarly "postmodern"point of view, in its unwillingness either to stand on the shouldersof our scholarlypredecessorsor to drive their faces into the mud, and this reviewerfinds it particularlywelcomeand appropriate-for the discussion of a projectin which this very issue, of the validityof "traditional" sourcesof Jewishknowledgeandknowledge aboutJews and Jewish life, whetherof rabbinicor "modem"origins, was joined. In general, Schwartz argues, the authorsof the Jewish Encyclopedia treated their subjects as matters of belief and interpretationratherthan of truth (and even the matter of "truth"as a matter of belief and interpretation).For some this approachderived from their commitment to the "modernization"of Judaismas a system of belief and ritual. For some it derivedfrom theircommitmentto the methodsof Wissenschaftdes Judentums,i.e., of Judaismas Phenomenon,"one among many"ancient, medieval,modernsystems of belief, ritual(andpolity).For some it derived from their commitment to universalism(the analogue of contemporary

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internationalism),in which Judaismstood either as the Ur religion or as the modal religion. For some it derived from an acknowledgmentthat they were writing at once for Jews and non-Jews,that the Jews disagreed among themselves, and that this disagreementwas legitimate even if some persons were right and some were wrong, but that even the fact of disagreementdemonstratedthat Jews and Judaismwere one thing in its numerousvariations.("Sensitive"or "disputed"issues were routinely covered in more than one article, reflectingdifferentpoints of view.) For some-Schwartz examines in detail the contributionsof JacobLauterbach, of Kaufmann explicitly intendedto counteractthe "reform"interpretations Kohler and thereby to satisfy "traditionalists"on the board of editors like Solomon Schechterand Cyrus Adler-it derivedless from intention, ideology,or practicalnecessity thanfrom"thespiritof the age"(my phrase, not hers). But unlike the contemporaryauthorsof the eleventh edition of the EncyclopaediaBritannica(1911), whose apparentcommitmentwas to telling the one and single truth, the authorsof the Jewish Encyclopedia reflect the essentially modernistrecognitionof a pluralismof points of view and of truths,includingthose which change acrosstime accordingto their usefulness as well as those which change acrosstime in light of new knowledge.And thus also, althoughSchwartzdoes not say so, the Jewish Encyclopediaeffectively transcendedits roots in the scientificpositivism of the late nineteenthcentury(includingWissenschaftdes Judentums)and became a symptomaticdocumentof the new age of which Americaitself soon became the emblem. Were the Jewish Encyclopediano more than a summaryof the "best" scholarshipof its age, it would be worththe carefulexaminationSchwartz gives it, to know whattheyknew,whatissues theyaddressed.But in addition, its editorialboardcomprisedthe leadinglights of Jewish scholarshipat the turnof the century.In additionto Adler,Kohler,and Schechter,and Singer himself, GotthardDeutsch, Louis Ginzberg, Richard Gottheil, Emil G. Hirsch,MarcusJastrow,MorrisJastrow,Fredericde Sola Mendes,William Popper,HermanRosenthal,and the HarvardsemiticistsGeorgeFoot Moore and CrawfordHowell Toy all served for varyinglengths of time. Out of their(sometimesuneasy)collaborationon this project,Schwartzremindsus, came the experiencenecessaryfor subsequentcollaborations-mostnotably the Bible translationproject of the Jewish PublicationSociety-but even more important,their several personal recognitionsof the possibility of

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Jewish scholarship in America. It is the recognition which justifies the title of this volume, and makes the Jewish Encyclopedia not only a document illuminating its own time, but an event in the history of ours. HenryD. Shapiro Universityof Cincinnati Cincinnati,Ohio

Collected Studies Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 115-125 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486617 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:45 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



COLLECTEDSTUDIES Harold W. Attridge and Gohei Hata, eds. Eusebius, Christianity,and Judaism. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1992. 802 pp. RichardHorsley, "Jesusand Judaism:ChristianPerspectives."David CONTENTS: Flusser, "Jesus and Judaism: Jewish Perspectives." Philip Sellew, "Eusebius and the Gospels." Peter Gorday,"Paul and Eusebius and OtherEarly Christian Literature."Dennis R. MacDonald, "Legends of the Apostles." Charles A. Bobertz, "TheDevelopment of the EpiscopalOrder."SebastianBrock, "Eusebius and Syriac Christianity."James E. Goehreing, "The Origins of Monasticism." ElizabethClark,"Eusebiuson Womenin EarlyChurchHistory."JosephGutmann, "EarlyChristianand Jewish Art."BirgerA. Pearson,"EusebiusandGnosticism." William L. Petersen, "Eusebius and the Paschal Controversy."Alan F. Segal, "Jewish Christianity."Kikuo Matsunaga,"ChristianSelf-Identificationand the Twelfth Benediction."Louis H. Feldman, "JewishProselytism."Alan J. AveryPeck, "Judaism Without the Temple: The Mishnah."Charles Kannengiesser, "Eusebius of Caesarea."William Adler, "Eusebius'Chronicleand Its Legacy." Arthur J. Droge, "The Apologetic Dimensions of the Ecclesiastical History." Alan Mendelson, "Eusebiusand the PosthumousCareerof Apolloniusof Tyana." Frederick W. Norris, "Eusebius on Jesus as Deceiver and Sorcerer."Eugene Ulrich, "The Old TestamentText of Eusebius:The Heritageof Origen."Wataru Mizugaki, "'Spirit' and 'Search':The Basis of Biblical Hermeneuticsin Origen's On First Principles 4.1-2." Michael J. Hollerich, "Eusebius as a Polemical Interpreterof Scripture."Yoshiake Sato, "Martyrdomand Apostasy."Timothy D. Barnes, "The ConstantinianSettlement."Robert M. Grant, "Eusebius and ImperialPropaganda."Glenn F. Chesnut,"Eusebius,Augustine,Orosius,and the LaterPatristicand Medieval ChristianHistorians."WalterPakter,"EarlyWestern ChurchLaw and the Jews." RobertL. Wilken, "Eusebiusand the ChristianHoly Land."

Joshua Blau and Stefan C. Reif, eds. Genizah Research After Ninety Years. The Case of Judaeo-Arabic. Papers Read at the Third Congress of the Society 115

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for Judaeo-Arabic Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. xiv, 176 pp. Stefan C. Reif, "IntroductoryRemarks:Semitic Scholarshipat Cambridge." Yitzhak Avishur, "Some New Sources for the Study of the Text and Language of Saadya's Translationof the Pentateuchinto Judaeo-Arabic."Dan Becker, "Traces of Judah ibn Quraysh in Manuscript,Particularlyin Genizah Fragments."Haggai Ben-Shammai,"Some GenizahFragmentson the Duties of the Nations to Keep Mosaic Law."Joshua Blau, "On a Fragmentof the Oldest Judaeo-ArabicBible TranslationExtant."Robert Brody, "SaadyaGaon on the Limits of LiturgicalFlexibility."David Doron, "A Hymnof Praiseand a Letterof Supplicationfrom the CairoGenizah."RinaDrory,"'WordsBeautifullyPut':Hebrew VersusArabic in Tenth-CenturyJewish Literature."Ilan Eldar,"Mukhtasar (an abridgementof) Hidiyat al-Qjri: A GrammaticalTreatise Discovered in the Genizah."Paul B. Fenton, "Daniel Ibn al-Mashita'sTaqwimn al-Adydn:New on of Maimonidean the Oriental Phase the Light Controversy."MordechaiA. of Abraham on Maimonides a Debtor's Travails."Simon Friedman,"Responsa Hopkins,"ArabicElements in the Hebrewof the ByzantineKaraites."HaskellD. Isaacs, "MedicalTexts in Judaeo-Arabicfrom the Genizah."GeoffreyKhan,"The Functionof the Shewa Sign in VocalizedJudaeo-ArabicTextsfromthe Genizah." Daniel L. Lasker,"QissatMujadalatal-Usquf andNestorha-Komer:The Earliest Arabic and Hebrew Jewish anti-ChristianPolemics." Aharon Maman, "The Lexical Element in David Alfasi's Dictionary Definitions."Aviva Schussman, "An Iraqi Judaeo-Arabic Version of Ma'aseh Avraham: Some Literary and Linguistic Features." Shulamit Sela, "The Genealogy of Sefo (Xo)xpop)ben Elifaz: The Importanceof a GenizahFragmentfor Josippon'sHistory."Hadassa Shy, "Taqdrrand Its Counterpartsin MediaevalJudaeo-Arabic."SarahStroumsa, "Qissat Mujadalat al-Usquf: A Case Study in Polemical Literature."Steven M. Wasserstrom,"The Magical Texts in the Cairo Genizah." CONTENTS:

Howard Eilberg-Schwartz, ed. People of the Body: Jews and Judaismfrom an Embodied Perspective. SUNY Series: The Body in Culture, History, and Religion. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992. ix, 392 pp. CONTENTS: HowardEilberg-Schwartz,"TheProblemof

the Body for the People of the Book." Gary Anderson, "The Gardenof Eden and Sexuality in EarlyJudaism."Daniel Boyarin, "TheGreatFat Massacre:Sex, Death,and the Grotesque

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Body in the Talmud."Chava Weissler, "MizvotBuilt into the Body: Tkhinesfor Niddah, Pregnancy,and Childbirth."LawrenceFine, "Purifyingthe Body in the Name of the Soul: The Problem of the Body in Sixteenth CenturyKabbalah." Elliot R. Wolfson, "Images of God's Feet: Some Observationson the Divine Body in Judaism."Naomi Janowitz, "God'sBody: Theological and RitualRoles of Shi'ur Komah." Eli Yasif, "The Body Never Lies: The Body in Medieval Jewish Folk Narratives." Sander Gilman, "The Jewish Body: A Foot-Note." Jay Geller, "(G)nos(e)ology: The Cultural Constructionof the Other."David Biale, "Zionism as an Erotic Revolution."Rahel Wasserfall,"Menstruationand Identity: The Meaning of Niddah for Morccan Women Immigrantsto Israel." Riv-EllenPrell, "WhyJewish PrincessesDon't Sweat:Desire andConsumptionin Postwar AmericanJewish Culture."Rebecca Alpert, "ChallengingMale/Female Complementarity:Jewish Lesbians and the Jewish Tradition."

Daniel J. Elazar and Shmuel Sandler, eds. Who's the Boss in Israel? Israel at the Polls, 1988-89. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1992. 313 pp. CONTENTS: Daniel J. Elazar and Shmuel Sandler, "Forging a New Political Center." Giora Goldberg, "The Likud: Moving Toward the Center."Efraim Torgovnik, "The Labor Party and Electoral Stalemate."Eliezer Don-Yehiya, "Religion, Social Cleavages, and Political Behavior: The Religious Parties in the Elections." Hillel Frisch, "If Things Are So Much Better, How Come They Are Worse? The Political Fragmentationof the Arab Communityand the Marginalizationof Arab National Republics."Dan Caspi and HannaLevinsohn, "ToInfluenceand to Be Influenced:The Election Campaignto the 12thKnesset." Gerald Steinberg, "Israel Among the Nations: Foreign Policy and the Peace Process."EfraimInbar,"Warand Peace, Hopes and Fearsin the 1988 Elections." Chaim Kalchheim and Shimon Rosevitch, "The Financing of Elections and Parties."Chaim Kalchheim and Shimon Rosevitch, "The 1989 Local Elections." Giora Goldberg and Shmuel Tzabag, "The 1989 HistadrutElections: Thunder Before the Storm?"Daniel J. Elazarand Shmuel Sandler,"WhoIs Boss Today? Coalition Governmentin Israel and the Need for ElectoralReform."

Danna Nolan Fewell, ed. Reading Between Texts: Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible. Literary Currents in Biblical Interpretation.Louisville: Westminster Press, 1992. 285 pp.

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Danna Nolan Fewell, "Writing,Reading and Relating."Timothy K. Beal, "Ideology and Intertextuality:Surplusof Meaning and Controllingthe Means of Production."Peter D. Miscall, "Isaiah:New Heavens, New Earth, New Book." Ilona N. Rashkow, "Intertextuality,Transference,and the Reader in/of Genesis 12 and 20." David Penchansky,"Stayingthe Night: Intertextuality in Genesis and Judges." L. Daniel Hawk, "StrangeHouseguests: Rahab, Lot, and the Dynamics of Deliverance." Tod Linafelt, "TakingWomen in Samuel: PatriciaK. Willey,"TheImportunateWoman Readers/Responses/Responsibility." of Tekoa and How She Got Her Way." Stuart Lasine, "ReadingJeroboam's Intentions:Intertextuality,Rhetoric, and History in 1 Kings 12." Francisco O. Garcia-Treto,"The Fall of the House: A CarnivalesqueReading of 2 Kings 9 and 10." Jan Jaynes Granowski,"Jehoiachinat the King's Table:A Readingof the Ending of the Second Book of Kings."DeborahKrause,"A Blessing Cursed: The Prophet's Prayer for BarrenWomb and Dry Breasts in Hosea 9." Ellen E Davis, "Job and Jacob: The Integrity of Faith." David M. Gunn, "Samson of Sorrows:An Isaianic Gloss on Judges 13-16." CONTENTS:

Daniel H. Frank, ed. Autonomy and Judaism: The Individual and the Community in Jewish Philosophical Thought. SUNY Series in Jewish Philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992. ix, 229 pp. CONTENTS: Eugene B. Borowitz, "Autonomy and the Community."Kenneth Seeskin, "Autonomy and Jewish Thought."Ze'ev Levy, "Tradition,Heritage, and Autonomy in ModernJewish Thought."Lenn E. Goodman,"TheIndividual and the Community in the NormativeTraditionsof Judaism."Daniel H. Frank, "The Elimination of Perplexity: Socrates and Maimonides as Guides of the Perplexed." Martin D. Yaffe, "Autonomy, Community, Authority: Hermann Cohen, Carl Schmitt, Leo Strauss."Robert Gibbs, "A Jewish Context for the Social Ethics of Marx and Levinas."Elliot N. Dorff, "Individualand Communal Forgiveness."

Saul Friedlander, ed. Probing the Limits of Representation: Nazism and the Final Solution. Cambridge, Mass.: HarvardUniversity Press, 1992. 407 pp. CONTENTS: ChristopherR. Browning, "GermanMemory,JudicialInterrogation,

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and Historical Reconstruction:Writing PerpetratorHistory from PostwarTestimony."Hayden White, "HistoricalEmplotmentand the Problemof Truth."Perry Anderson, "On Emplotment:Two Kinds of Ruin."Amos Funkenstein,"History, Counterhistory,and Narrative."Carlo Ginzburg, "Just One Witness." Martin Jay, "Of Plots, Witnesses, and Judgements."Dominick LaCapra,"Representing the Holocaust: Reflections on the Historians' Debate." Dan Diner, "Historical Understandingand Counterationality:The Judenratas EpistemologicalVantage." Eric L. Santer, "HistoryBeyond the Pleasure Principle:Some Thoughtson the Representationof Trauma."Vincent P. Pecora, "Habermas,Enlightenment,and Antisemitism."Sande Cohen, "Between Image and Phrase:ProgressiveHistory and the 'Final Solution' as Dispossession."MarioBiagioli, "Science,Modernity, and the 'Final Solution'." Anton Kaes, "Holocaust and the End of History: PostmodernHistoriographyin Cinema." Yael S. Feldman, "Whose Story Is It Anyway? Ideology and Psychology in the Representationof the Shoah in Israeli Literature."John Felstiner, "TranslatingPaul Celan's 'Todesfuge':Rhythmand Repetition as Metaphor." Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi, "'The Grave in the Air': UnboundMetaphorsin Post-HolocaustPoetry."Peter Haidu, "The Dialectics of Unspeakability:Language, Silence, and the Narrativesof Desubjectification." Berel Lang, "The Representationof Limits." Geoffrey H. Hartman,"The Book of the Destruction."

Peter J. Haas, ed. Recovering the Role of Women:Power and Authority in Rabbinic Jewish Society. South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism 59. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992. 132 pp. Matthew S. Collins, "Money, Sex and Power: An Examinationof CONTENTS: the Role of Women as Patronsof the Ancient Synagogues."LynnT. Stott, "Not Merely Chattel: Women as Guardiansof Holiness in the Mishnah's Society." Adeline Fehrbach,"Between Text and Context: Scripture,Society and the Role of Women in Formative Judaism."Sally O. Langford,"On Being a Religious Woman: Women Proselytes in the Greco-RomanWorld."Anne Sheffer, "Beyond Heder, Haskalah and Honeybees: Genius and Genderin the Educationof Seventeenth-and Eighteenth-CenturyJudeo-GermanWomen."LarryD. George, "TheDomestic Role of Jewish Womenin the Modem Social Context:The Kosher Meat Boycott of 1902."

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Paul R. House, ed. Beyond Form Criticism: Essays in Old TestamentLiterary Criticism. Sources for Biblical and Theological Study, vol. 2. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1992. xvi, 448 pp. Paul R. House, "The Rise and CurrentStatus of LiteraryCriticism CONTENTS: of the Old Testament."David J. A. Clines, "Storyand Poem: The Old Testament as Literatureand as Scripture."KristerStendahl,"TheBible as a Classic and the Bible as Holy Scripture."James Muilenburg,"FormCriticismand Beyond." J. Kenneth Kuntz, "Psalm 18: A Rhetorical-CriticalAnalysis." RichardJacobsen, "TheStructuralistsandthe Bible."JeanCalloud,"A Few Commentson Structural Semiotics: A Brief Review of a Method and Some Explanationof Procedure." Daniel Patte and Judson F. Parker,"A StructuralExegesis of Genesis 2 and 3." Robert Alter, "A Literary Approach to the Bible." Shimon Bar-Efrat,"Some Observationson the Analysis of Structurein Biblical Narrative."BarbaraGreen, of Bib"ThePlot of the Biblical Story of Ruth."Adele Berlin, "Characterization lical Narrative:David's Wives." Meir Sternberg,"TheBible's Art of Persuasion: Ideology, Rhetoric, and Poetics in Saul's Fall." J. Cheryl Exum and J. Williams Whedbee, "Isaac, Samson, and Saul: Reflections on the Comic and Tragic Visions." Adele Berlin, "The GrammaticalAspects of Biblical Parallelism."J. Cheryl Exum, "Of Broken Pots, Fluttering Birds, and Visions in the Night: Extended Simile and Poetic Techniquein Isaiah."Robert M. Fowler, "Who Is 'The Reader' in Reader Response Criticism?"Willem S. Vorster,"Readings, Readers, and the Succession Narrative: An Essay on Reception." David M. Gunn, "New Directions in the Study of Biblical HebrewNarrative."Mona West, "Lookingfor the Poem: Reflectionson the CurrentandFutureStatusof the Study of Biblical Hebrew Poetry." Lucy Dawidowicz. What Is the Use of Jewish History? Edited by Neal Kozodoy. New York: Schocken Books, 1992. xxiii, 278 pp. CONTENTS: "What Is the Use of Jewish History?"(lecture, 1990). "Historyas Autobiography:Telling a Life" (lecture, 1990). "InBerlin Again"(1986). "How They Teach the Holocaust" (1990)."Lies About the Holocaust" (1980). "The True History of Babi Yar"(1981). "Historyas Ideology" (1989). "Poles, Jews, and History"(1987). "Visualizingthe WarsawGhetto"(1978). "CouldAmerica Have Rescued Europe's Jews?" (1985). "IndictingAmericanJews" (1983). "On EqualTerms:Jewish Identityin America"(lecture, 1984). "EastEuropeanJewry

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121

and Us" (lecture, 1989). "The Business of American Jews (Notes on Work in Progress)"(lecture, 1982). "The Politics of AmericanJews" (1985).

Lee I. Levine, ed. The Galilee in Late Antiquity.New York:Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1992. xxiii, 410 pp. Howard Clark Kee, "EarlyChristianityin the Galilee: Reassessing the Evidence from the Gospels." Anthony J. Saldarini,"The Gospel of Matthew and Jewish-ChristianConflict in the Galilee." Albert I. Baumgarten,"Literary Evidence for Jewish Christianityin the Galilee." Douglas Edwards, "The Socio-Economic and CulturalEthos of the Lower Galilee in the First Century: Implications for the Nascent Jesus Movement." Sean Freyne, "Urban-Rural Relations in First-CenturyGalilee: Some Suggestionsfromthe LiterarySources." Uriel Rappaport,"How Anti-RomanWas the Galilee?"Zeev Safrai,"TheRoman Army in the Galilee." Aharon Oppenheimer,"RomanRule and the Cities of the Galilee in Talmudic Literature."Martin Goodman, "The Roman State and the Jewish Patriarchin the Third Century."LawrenceH. Schiffman,"WasThere a GalileanHalakha?"Shaye J. D. Cohen, "ThePlace of the Rabbiin Jewish Society of the Second Century."StuartS. Miller,"R. HaninabarHamaat Sepphoris."Lee I. Levine, "The Sages and the Synagogue in Late Antiquity:The Evidence of the Galilee." Gary A. Rendsbug, "The Galilean Backgroundof Mishnaic Hebrew." Avigdor Shinan, "The Aramaic Targumas a Mirrorof Galilean Jewry."Steven D. Fraade, "RabbinicViews on the Practiceof Targum,and Multilingualismin the Jewish Galilee of the Third-Sixth Centuries."Gideon Foerster,"TheAncient Synagogues of the Galilee." Eric M. Meyers, "RomanSepphorisin Light of New Archaeological Evidence and Recent Research."James F. Strange, "Six Campaigns at Sepphoris:The University of South FloridaExcavations, 1983-1989." Zeev Weiss, "Social Aspects of Burial in Beth She'arim:ArchaeologicalFinds and TalmudicSources." CONTENTS:

Yehuda Libes. Studies in Jewish Myth and Jewish Messianism. Translated by Batya Stein. SUNY Series in Judaica: Hermeneutics, Mysticism, and Religion. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992. ix, 226 pp. "De Natura Dei: On the Development of the Jewish Myth" (unCONTENTS: published). "The Kabbalistic Myth as Told by Orpheus"(1989). "Sabbatean

122

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Messianism" (1989). "Sabbetai Zevi's Religious Faith" (1983). "Ha-Tikkun Ha-Kelali of R. Nahmanof Bratslavand Its SabbateanLinks"(1980).

David Novak. Jewish Social Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. xiii, 252 pp. "NaturalLaw, Halakhah,and the Covenant.""TheonomousEthics: CONTENTS: A Defense and Critique of Tillich." "John Courtney Murray,S.J.: A Jewish Appraisal.""Some Aspects of Sex, Society, and God in Judaism.""TheProblem of AIDS in a Jewish Perspective.""NuclearWarand the Prohibitionof Wanton Destruction.""Technologyand Its Ultimate Threat.""Violencein Our Society: Some Jewish Insights." "Non-Jews in a Jewish Polity: Subject or Sovereign?" "Economics and Justice: A Jewish Example." "AmericanJews and the United States:The Mission of Israel Revisited."(All essays publishedca. 1984-1992.)

Henning Graf Reventlow and Yair Hoffman, eds. Justice and Righteousness: Biblical Themes and Their Influence. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series 137. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1992. 258 pp. Shmuel Ahituv, "Landand Justice."YehoshuaAmir, "Measurefor CONTENTS: Measure in TalmudicLiteratureand in the Wisdom of Solomon."YairahAmit, "The Jubilee Law-An Attempt at Instituting Social Justice." Gershon Brin, "TheDevelopment of Some Laws in the Book of the Covenant."Pin'has Carny, "Theodicy in the Book of Qohelet." Ze'ev W. Falk, "Law and Ethics in the Hebrew Bible." ChristopherFrey, "TheImpactof the Biblical Idea of Justiceon Present Discussions of Social Justice." Siegfried Herrmann,"Observationson Some Recent Hypotheses Pertainingto Early Israelite History."Yair Hoffman, "The Creativityof Theodicy."GottfriedNebe, "Righteousnessin Paul."Konrad Raiser, "Reflections About Social Justice within the Ecumenical Movement." Henning Graf Reventlow, "Righteousnessas Orderof the World:Some Remarks Towardsa Programme."Rivka Schatz-Uffenheimer,"MosheHayyim Luzzatto's ThoughtAgainstthe Backgroundof TheodicyLiterature."BenjaminUffenheimer, "Theodicy and Ethics in the Prophecy of Ezekiel." Moshe Weinfeld, "'Justice and Righteousness'--n••a t7mv-The Expressionand Its Meaning."

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123

David B. Ruderman, ed. Preachers of the Italian Ghetto. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. viii, 168 pp. Marc Saperstein, "ItalianJewish Preaching:An Overview."Moshe CONTENTS: Idel, "Judah Moscato: A Late Renaissance Jewish Preacher."Robert Bonfil, "Preachingas MediationBetween Elite and PopularCultures:The Case of Judah Del Bene." David B. Ruderman,"JewishPreachingand the Languageof Science: The Sermons of Azariah Figo." Joanna Weinberg,"Preachingin the Venetian Ghetto:The Sermonsof Leon Modena."Elliott Horowitz,"Speakingof the Dead: The Emergenceof the Eulogy among ItalianJewry of the SixteenthCentury."

Marc Saperstein, ed. Essential Papers on Messianic Movements and Personalities in Jewish History. New York: New York University Press, 1992. xii,

580 pp. R. J. Zwi Werblowsky, "Messianism in Jewish History."Eliezer CONTENTS: "Jewish Messianism: Metamorphoses of an Idea." Morton Smith, Schweid, "Messiahs: Robbers, Jurists, Prophets, and Magicians." Richard A. Horsley, "PopularMessianic Movements Aroundthe Time of Jesus."Israel Friedlaender, "Shiitic Influences in Jewish Sectarianism."Salo WittmayerBaron, "Messianic and SectarianMovements." S. D. Goitein, "A Report on Messianic Troublesin Baghdad in 1120-21." Gerson D. Cohen, "Messianic Postures of Ashkenazim and Sephardim."Salo WittmayerBaron, "Reappearanceof Pseudo-Messiahs." AbrahamBerger, "The Messianic Self-Consciousness of AbrahamAbulafia:A Tentative Evaluation." Isaiah Tishby, "Acute Apocalyptic Messianism." Gershom Scholem, "SabbataiSevi: The Mystical Messiah." W. D. Davies, "From Schweitzer to Scholem: Reflections on Sabbatai Svi." Benzion Dinur, "The Messianic-PropheticRole of the Baal Shem Tov." ArthurGreen, "Nahmanof Bratslav's Messianic Strivings." Arie Morgenstern,"Messianic Concepts and Settlement in the Land of Israel." Bat-Zion Eraqi Klorman, "The Messiah Shukr Kuhayl II (1868-75) and His Tithe (Ma'aser): Ideology and Practice as a Means to Hasten Redemption."Jacob Katz, "Israeland the Messiah." Uriel Tal, "Foundationsof a Political Messianic Trendin Israel."MenachemKellner, "MessianicPosturesin IsraelToday."David Biale, "GershomScholem on Jewish Messianism."Jacob Taubes,"ThePrice of Messianism."

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David A. Teutsch, ed. Imagining the Jewish Future: Essays and Responses. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991. vii, 290 pp. CONTENTS: "God, Prayer,and Religious Language,"Essay: ArthurGreen, Response: Judith Plaskow. "Traditionand Religious Practice,"Essay: DeborahE. Lipstadt,Responses: Michael Paley, EverettGendler."JewishEducation:Crisis and Vision,"Essay: JonathanWoocher,Responses:KathyGreen,JosephReimer. "CreativityandCommunity:The JewishArtist'sExperience,"Essay:MarciaFalk, Responses: Richard A. Siegel, Omus Hirshbein. "Jewish Literacy:Will More and More Be Known by Fewer and Fewer?"Essay: Hillel Levine, Response: Rela Geffen Monson. "Are American and Israeli Jews Drifting Apart?"Essay: Steven M. Cohen, Response:MartinJ. Raffel. "Facingthe JewishFuture,"Essay: Philip M. Klutznick. "Jewish Family Ethics in a Post-HalakhicAge," Essay: MarthaA. Ackelberg, Reponses: Esther Ticktin, Elliot N. Dorff. "The Coming Reformation in American Jewish Identity,"Essay: Egon Mayer, Responses: Richard J. Israel, Deborah Dash Moore. "Social Justice: Reenvisioning Our Vision,"Essay: ArthurWaskow,Response:David A. Wortman."TheSynagogue and Caring Community,"Essay: Lawrence Kushner,Responses:Burt Jacobson, Lee Friedlander."Theology and Community,"Essay: Arnold Eisen, Response: Jacob J. Staub.

Jack Wertheimer,ed. The Uses of Tradition:Jewish Continuityin the Modern Era. New York:Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1992. xxi, 510 pp. David Ellenson, "GermanJewish Orthodoxy:Traditionin the ConCONTENTS: text of Culture."Michael K. Silber, "The Emergenceof Ultra-Orthodoxy:The Invention of a Tradition." David E. Fishman, "PreservingTradition in the Land of Revolution: The Religious Leadershipof Soviet Jewry, 1917-1930." Harvey E. Goldberg, "Religious Responses among North African Jews in the Nineteenthand TwentiethCenturies."LawrenceKaplan,"TheHazon Ish: Haredi Critic of Traditional Orthodoxy."Menachem Friedman, "The Lost Kiddush Cup: Changes in Ashkenazic Haredic Culture-A Traditionin Crisis." Paula E. Hyman, "Traditionalismand Village Jews in Nineteenth-CenturyWestern and CentralEurope:Local Persistenceand UrbanNostalgia."RichardI. Cohen, "Self-ImageThroughObjects:Towarda Social Historyof Jewish Art Collecting and Jewish Museums." David G. Roskies, "S. Ansky and the Paradigm of Return." Jay M. Harris, "Modern Students of Midrash Halakhah: Between

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125

Traditionand Wissenschaft."Paul Mendes-Flohr,"The Retrieval of Innocence and Tradition:Jewish Spiritual Renewal in an Age of Liberal Individualism." JennaWeissmanJoselit, "'Merry Chanuka':The ChangingHoliday Practicesof AmericanJews, 1880-1950." ShulamitS. Magnus,"ReinventingMiriam'sWell: Feminist Jewish Ceremonials."StuartSchoenfeld, "Ritualand Role Transition: AdultBar Mitzvahas a Successful Rite of Passage."BarryW.Holtz, "Midrashand Modernity:Can Midrash Serve a ContemporaryReligious Discourse?"Joseph Reimer, "The Havurah as Context for Adult Jewish Education."Charles S. Liebman, "Tradition,Judaism,and the Jewish Religion in ContemporaryIsraeli Society."ArnoldM. Eisen, "Constructingthe Usable Past:The Ideaof 'Tradition' in Twentieth-CenturyAmerican Judaism."Michael A. Meyer, "Traditionand ModernityReconsidered."Charles S. Liebman,"TheReappropriationof Jewish Traditionin the Modern Era." Ivan G. Marcus, "Postmodernor Neo-Medieval Times."

Books Received Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 127-134 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486618 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:45 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



BOOKSRECEIVED Ahroni, Reuben. The Jews ofAden: A CommunityThat Was.Tel-Aviv: Afkim,

1991. xii, 459 pp. Apor, Eva, ed. Catalogue of the Scheiber Library. Keleti Tanulmanyok

OrientalStudies 9. Budapest:Libraryof the HungarianAcademy of Sciences, 1992. xv, 450 pp. Attias, Jean Christophe. Isaac Abravanel: la mdmoire et l'esperance. Paris:

Les Editionsdu Cerf, 1992. 302 pp.

Attridge, Harold W., and Gohei Hata, eds. Eusebius, Christianity, and Ju-

daism. Detroit:WayneStateUniversityPress, 1992. 802 pp. Batto, Bernard F. Slaying the Dragon: Mythmakingin the Biblical Tradition.

Louisville:JohnKnox Press, 1992. vii, 248 pp. Becking, Bob. The Fall of Samaria: An Historical and Archaeological Study.

Studies in the History of the Ancient Near East, vol. 2. Leiden:E. J. Brill, 1992. xvi, 153 pp. Bellon, BernardP. Mercedes in Peace and War:GermanAutomobile Workers,

1903-1945. New York:ColumbiaUniversityPress, 1990.xv, 356 pp. Ben-Chorin,Shalom. TheologicaJudaica. GesammelteAufsitze, Band II. Ttibingen:J. C. B. Mohr,1992. vii, 308 pp. Ben-Yehuda, Nachman. Political Assassination by Jews: A Rhetorical Device

for Justice.Albany:StateUniversityof New YorkPress, 1992.xxii, 527 PP. Ben-Zion, Shmuel, and Aryeh Steinberg. TheHistory of Gordonia in Romania.

2 vols. Tel Aviv: HistadrutPress, 1992. vi, 231 pp.;210 pp. (Hebrew). Birger, Trudi. A Daughter's Gift of Love: A Holocaust Memoir. Written with

JeffreyM. Green. Philadelphia:Jewish PublicationSociety, 1992. 218 pp. Blau, Joshua, and Stefan C. Reif, eds. Genizah Research After Ninety Years:

TheCaseofJudeo-Arabic.Universityof CambridgeOrientalPublications 47. Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, 1992. xiii, 176 pp. 127

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Blenkinsopp, Joseph. The Pentateuch: An Introductionto the First Five Books

of the Bible. New York:Doubleday,1992. x, 273 pp. Brown, Cheryl Anne. No Longer Be Silent: First Centuty Jewish Portraits

Press, 1992. 240 pp. of Biblical Women.Louisville:Westminster New York:Continuum, Buckley,WilliamF., Jr.In Searchof Anti-Semitism. 1992. xvii, 207 pp. Campbell,AnthonyF., and MarkA. O'Brien.Sourcesof the Pentateuch: Texts, Introductions, Annotations. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993.

xix, 266 pp. Carmichael, Calum M. The Origins of Biblical Law: The Decalogue and the

Book of the Covenant.Ithaca:CornellUniversityPress, 1992. xiv, 253 PP. Charny, Israel W., ed. Holding on to Humanity: The Message of Holocaust Survivors; The Shamai Davidson Papers. New York: New York

UniversityPress, 1992. xxvii, 242 pp. Chazan, Robert. Barcelona and Beyond: The Disputation of 1263 and Its

Aftermath.Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1992.x, 257 pp. Cohen, Menahem. Mikra'ot Gedolot "Haketer"-Joshua, Judges. Ramat-

Gan:Bar-IlanUniversityPress, 1992. xiv, 280 pp. Cohen, Mitchell. Zion and State: Nation, Class and the Shaping of Modern

Israel. New York:ColumbiaUniversityPress, 1992.xii, 338 pp. Cohen, Naomi W. Jews in Christian America: The Pursuit of Religious

Equality.Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress, 1992.viii, 300 pp. Cohn-Sherbok, Dan, ed. The Blackwell Dictionary ofJudaica. Oxford: Black-

well, 1992. xvi, 597 pp. Davidson, Herbert A. Alfarabi, Avicenna, & Averroes on Intellect: Their Cosmologies, Theories of the Active Intellect, & Theories of Human

Intellect.Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress, 1992. x, 363 pp. Davies, Philip R. In Search of "AncientIsrael". Journalfor the Study of the

Old Testament,SupplementSeries 148. Sheffield:JSOTPress,1992. 172 PP. Dawidowicz, Lucy S. WhatIs the Use of Jewish History? New York:Schocken

Books, 1992. xxiii, 278 pp. Diner, Hasia R. A Timefor Gathering: The Second Migration, 1820-1880. The

JewishPeople in America,vol. 2. Baltimore:JohnsHopkinsUniversity Press, 1992. xvii, 313 pp.

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Earhart, H. Byron, ed. Religious Traditions of the World. San Francisco:

HarperSan Francisco,1993. xx, 1204 pp. Edgerton, W. Dow. The Passion of Interpretation. Louisville: Westminster

Press, 1992. 160 pp. Eilberg-Schwartz, Howard, ed. People of the Body: Jews and Judaismfrom

an EmbodiedPerspective.Albany:StateUniversityof New YorkPress, 1992. ix, 392 pp. Elazar, Daniel J., and Shmuel Sandler. Who'sthe Boss in Israel? Israel at the

Polls, 1988-89. Detroit:WayneStateUniversityPress, 1992. 313 pp. Elior, Rachel. The Paradoxical Ascent to God: The Kabbalistic Theosophy

of Habad Hasidism. Translatedby Jeffrey M. Green. Albany: State Universityof New YorkPress, 1993. xx, 279 pp. Ettinger, Amos. Blind Jump: The Story of Shaike Dan. New York: Cornwall

Books, 1992. 389 pp. Exum, J. Cheryl. Tragedy and Biblical Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge

UniversityPress, 1992. xiv, 206 pp. Faber, Eli. A Timefor Planting: The First Migration, 1654-1820. The Jewish

People in America,vol. 1. Baltimore:JohnsHopkinsUniversityPress, 1992. xvi, 188 pp. Falk, Marcia. With Teeth in the Earth: Selected Poems of Malka Heifetz

Tussman.Detroit:WayneStateUniversityPress, 1992. 179 pp. Feingold, Henry L. A Time for Searching: Entering the Mainstream,

1920-1945. The Jewish People in America,vol. 4. Baltimore:Johns HopkinsUniversityPress, 1992. xvii, 338 pp. Fewell, Danna Nolan, ed. Reading Between Texts: Intertextuality and the

HebrewBible. Louisville:WestminsterPress, 1992. 285 pp. Finkelstein, Norman. The Ritual of a New Creation: Jewish Tradition and

ContemporaryLiterature.Albany:StateUniversityof New YorkPress, 1992. xi, 162 pp. Finkielkraut, Alain. Remembering in Vain.:The Klaus Barbie Trial & Crimes

AgainstHumanity.New York:ColumbiaUniversityPress, 1992. xxxvi, 102 pp.

Fishman, Aryei. Judaism and Modernization on the Religious Kibbutz. New

York:ColumbiaUniversityPress, 1992. xv, 202 pp. Fitzmyer, Joseph A. Responses to 101 Questions on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

New York:PaulistPress, 1992. xviii, 201 pp.

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Foster, John L. Love Songs of the New Kingdom. Austin: University of Texas

Press, 1974, 1992. xix, 120 pp. Frank,Daniel H., ed. Autonomy and Judaism: The Individualand the Community in Jewish Philosophical Thought.SUNY Series in Jewish Philosophy.

Albany:StateUniversityof New YorkPress, 1992. ix, 229 pp. Free, Joseph P., and Howard F. Vos. Archaeology and Bible Histol3y Grand

Rapids,Mich.:Zondervan,1992. xii, 314 pp. Freedman,DavidNoel, A. DeanForbes,andFrancisI. Anderson,eds. Studies in Hebrew and Aramaic Orthography. Biblical and Judaic Studies, vol.

2. WinonaLake,Ind.:Eisenbrauns,1992. xi, 328 pp. Friedlander Saul, ed. Probing the Limits of Representation: Nazism and the

Final Solution.Cambridge,Mass.:HarvardUniversityPress, 1992.407 PP. Gelander, S. David and His God: Religious Ideas as Reflected in Biblical Historiography and Literature. Jerusalem Biblical Studies 5. Jerusalem:

Simor,1991. 200 pp. Gerber, Jane S. The Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic Experience.

New York:Free Press, 1992. xxv, 333 pp. Goldstein, Bluma. Reinscribing Moses: Heine, Kafka,Freud, and Schoenberg

in a EuropeanWilderness.Cambridge,Mass.:HarvardUniversityPress, 1992. 218 pp. Gould, Allan. What Did They Think of the Jews? Northvale, N.J.: Jason

Aronson,1991. xxvii, 615 pp. Gutwein, Daniel. The Divided Elite: Economics, Politics, and Anglo-Jewry,

1882-1917. Brill's Series in Jewish Studies,vol. 5. Leiden:E. J. Brill, 1992. 501 pp. Harris, Monford. Exodus and Exile: The Structure of the Jewish Holidays.

Minneapolis:FortressPress, 1992. ix, 129 pp. Haas, Peter J., ed. Recovering the Role of Women:Power and Authority in

RabbinicJewishSociety.SouthFloridaStudiesin the Historyof Judaism 59. Atlanta:ScholarsPress, 1992. 132 pp. Hillers, Delbert R. Lamentations.Rev. ed. AnchorBible, vol. 17A. New York:Doubleday,1992. xiv, 175 pp. House, Paul R., ed. Beyond Criticism: Essays in Old Testament Literary

Criticism.Sources for Biblical and TheologicalStudy,vol. 2. Winona Lake,Ind.:Eisenbrauns,1992. xvi, 448 pp.

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Judge, Edward H. Easter in Kishinev: Anatomy of a Pogrom. New York:New

YorkUniversityPress, 1992. x, 186 pp. Kadish, Sharman.Bolsheviks and British Jews: TheAnglo-Jewish Community, Britain and the Russian Revolution. London: Frank Cass, 1992. xiv, 298

PP. Kaplan, Steven. The Beta Israel (Falasha) in Ethiopia from Earliest Times

to the TwentiethCentury.Albany:State Universityof New YorkPress, 1992. xi, 231 pp. Keller, Sharon R., ed. The Jews: A Treasuryof Art and Literature.New York:

Macmillan,1992. 384 pp. Kepnes, Steven. The Text as Thou: Martin Buber's Dialogical Hermeneutics

and NarrativeTheology.Bloomington:IndianaUniversityPress, 1992. xvi, 221 pp. Klein, George.Pietc. Cambridge,Mass.:MITPress, 1992.297 pp. Law, David A. From Samaria to Samarkand: The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.

Lanham,Md.: UniversityPressof America,1992. 228 pp. Levene, Mark. War;Jews, and the New Europe: The Diplomacy of Lucien

Wolf 1914-1919. Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress, 1992. xiv, 346 pp. Levine, Lee I., ed. The Galilee in Late Antiquity. New York: Jewish Theo-

logical Seminaryof America,1992. xxiii, 410 pp. Levy, Avigdor. The Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire. Princeton: Darwin

Press, 1992. xv, 196 pp. Lichtenstein, Diane. Writing Their Nations: The Tradition of NineteenthCentury American Jewish Women Writers. Bloomington: Indiana Uni-

versityPress, 1992. x, 176 pp. Lieber, Sherman. Mystics and Missionaries: The Jews of Palestine,

1799-1840. Salt LakeCity:Universityof UtahPress, 1992.489 pp. Liebes, Yehuda. Studies in Jewish Myth and Jewish Messianism. Translated

by Batya Stein. SUNY Series in Judaica:Hermeneutics,Mysticism,and Religion.Albany:StateUniversityof New YorkPress, 1993. ix, 226 pp. Maccoby, Hyam. Judas Iscariot and the Myth of Jewish Evil. New York:Free

Press, 1992. ix, 213 pp. Mach, Michael. Entwicklungsstudiendes jiidischen Engelglaubens in vorrab-

binischerZeit. Texte und Studienzum AntikenJudentum34. Tilbingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1992. xvii, 457 pp. Mahut: Journal of Jewish Literature and Art, vols. 8-9. Edited by Zvi

Malachi.Lod: HabermanInstitute,1991-92. 256 pp. (Hebrew).

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Meier, Samuel A. Speaking of Speaking: Marking Direct Discourse in the

HebrewBible. Supplementsto VetusTestamentum, vol. 46. Leiden:E. J. Brill, 1992. xvi, 383 pp. Mendels, Doron. The Rise and Fall of Jewish Nationalism: Jewish and Christian Ethnicity in Ancient Palestine. New York:Doubleday, 1992. x, 450 pp.

Meyers,EricM., EhudNetzer,andCarolL. Meyers,eds. Sepphoris.Winona Lake,Ind.:Eisenbrauns,1992. 63 pp. Mintz, Jerome R. Hasidic People: A Place in the New World. Cambridge,

Mass.:HarvardUniversityPress, 1992. x, 434 pp. Moran, Gabriel. Uniqueness: Problem or Paradox in Jewish and Christian

Traditions.Maryknoll,N.Y.:OrbisBooks, 1992. v, 160 pp. Morgan, Michael L. Dilemmas in Modern Jewish Thought: The Dialectics

of Revelationand History.Bloomington:IndianaUniversityPress,1992. xxi, 181 pp. Muffs, Yochanan. Love and Joy: Law, Language and Religion in Ancient

Israel. New York:JewishTheologicalSeminaryof America,1992.xxvii, 240 pp. Neusner, Jacob. A Short History of Judaism: Three Meals, Three Epochs.

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‫ר׳ יהודה הלוי על הנצרות ועל המדע הנסיוני‬ Author(s): ‫דב שוורץ‬ Source: AJS Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1994), pp. 1-24 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1486619 . Accessed: 08/07/2011 11:45 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].



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AJS Review (The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies), Vol 19, No. 1 1994

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AJS Review: Vol. XXI, No. 2, 1996

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AJS Review (The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies), Vol 18, No. 2 1993

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AJS Review: Vol. XXI, No. 1, 1996

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Association for Jewish studies 1997- 22(1)

Association for Jewish studies 1999- 24(1)

Association for Jewish studies 2002-26(1)

Association for Jewish studies 1998- 23(1)

Association for Jewish studies 2005-29(1)

AJS Review: Vol. XXI, No. 2, 1996

Ajs Review 1986: Spring, No 1

AJS Review 1985: Spring, No. 1

Ajs Review 1995: Fall, No 1

Ajs Review, 1995 No 2

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