Communication in the Jewish Diaspora: The Pre-Modern World (Brill's Series in Jewish Studies, 16) 9004101896, 9789004101890

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COMMUNICATION IN THE JEWISH DIASPORA

BRILL'S SERIES IN JEWISH STUDIES GENERAL EDITOR

DAVID S. KATZ (Tel Aviv) ADVISORY EDITORS STUART COHEN (Bar-nan) ANTHONY T. GRAFTON (Princeton) YOSEF KAPLAN (Jerusalem) FERGUS MILlAR (Oxford)

VOL. XVI

COMMUNICATION IN THE JEWISH DIASPORA The Pre-Modem World EDITED BY

SOPHIA MENACHE

EJ. BRILL

LEIDEN . NEW YORK· KOLN 1996

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Communication in the Jewish diaspora : the pre-modern world / edited by Sophia Menache. p. cm. - (Brill's series in Jewish studies, ISSN 0926-2261 ; vol. 16) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 9004lO1896 (a1k. paper) 1. Jews-History-70-1789. 2. Jews-Intellectual life. 3. Jews-Communication. 4. Communication-Religious aspects-Judaism. I. Menache, Sophia. II. Series. DS124.C66 1996 302.2'24'089924--dc20 95-52274 CIP

Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufuahme Communication in the Jewish diaspora : the pre-modern world / ed. by Sophia Menache. - Leiden ; New York; Koln : Brill, 1996 (Brill's series in Jewish studies; Vol. 16) ISBN 90-04-10189-6 NE: Menache, Sophia [Hrsg.]; GT

ISSN 0926-2261 ISBN 9004 lO189 6

© Copyright 1996 by E.J. Brill, !.eiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission.from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by E.J. Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directlY to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910 Darwers MA 01923, USA. Fees are sul?ject to change. PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS

To my parents Sara Sued de Moaded and Rafael Moaded who taught me the prindples of communication

Contents

Sophia Menache Introduction: The "Pre-History" of Communication ..................................................1

Sophia Menache Communication in the Jewish Diaspora: A Survey...................................................... 15

Kenneth R. Stow By Land or By Sea: The Passage of the Kalonymides to the Rhineland in the Tenth Century................................................................................................. 59

Ruthi Gertwagen Geniza Letters: Maritime Difficulties Along the Alexandria - Palermo Route ........................................................................................................... 73

Aryeh Grabois The Use of Letters as a Communication Medium Among Medieval European Jewish Communities ............................................................................. 93

Avraham Grossman Communication Among Jewish Centers During the Tenth to the Twelfth Centuries........................................................................................................................... 107

Slmha Goldin "Companies of Disciples" and "Companies of Colleagues": Communication in Jewish Intellectual Circles................................................................ 127

Sylvia Schein Between East and West: The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and Its Jewish Communities as a Communication Center (1099-1291) .................. 141

Ram Ben-Shalom Communication and Propaganda Between Provence and Spain: The Controversy Over Extreme Allegorization (1303-1306) ........................ .171

Menachem Kelner Communication or the Lack Thereof Among ThirteenthFourteenth Century Proven~l Jewish Philosophers: Moses Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides on Song of SOngs.....................................227

Eleazar Gutwirth

Hebrew Letters, Hispanic Mail: Communication Among Fourteenth-Century Aragon Jewry...........................................................................................257 Sandra Debenedetti Stow

A Judeo-Italian Version of Selected Passages from Cecco d'Ascoli's Acerba..................................................................................................................................... 283

Jacob Barnai The Spread of the Sabbatean Movement in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries .................................................................................................................... 313

Joseph Otetrit Tradition du discours et discours de la tradition dans les communau~

juives du Maroc: Etude socio-pragmatique................................. 339

Daniel Gutwein

Traditional and Modern Communication: The Jewish COntext.....................409

Acknowledgments

The idea of this book was born during the enlightening sessions of the International Congress on KDmmunilmtion zwischen Orient und Qczident: Alltag und Sachkultur (Krems. 1992). A special thanks is accorded to the lnstituts fUr Realienkunde des Mittelalters und der friihen Neuzeit. for providing me and my husband with both hospitality and a stimulating spiritual and intellectual environment. Research for this book was supported by the University of Haifa Research Fund. The present work was not conceived as an addition to the rather overburdened shelf of communication studies. Rather. it is an attempt to clarify the involvement of Jews in and their contribution to the development of communication in the pre-modem world. Obviously. without the assistance of colleagues who shared their scholarly knowledge with me and contributed to this collection. this work would never have been completed. To them I express my deep gratitude. I am also thankful to Shoshana Mansfeld for designing the maps; to Genoveba Breitstein who was responsible for the word processing. and to A. M. Goldstein whose trained eye provided me with the most valuable editorial criticism and whose conversations helped clarify obscure passages in the text.

Hmfa,Nb~ber1995

List of Maps Hebrew Printing Presses (1444-1860) ........................................................................................... 57 Alpine Passes in the Early Middle Ages................................................................................. 72 Sea Routes Between Alexandria and Palermo ....................................................................... 91 The Routes of the Radanites .................................................................................................................. 126 Jewish Commercial Network in Thirteenth-Century France................................. 139 The Jews of Provence and Aragon in the Fourteenth Century .............................225 Prominent Jewish Learning Centers in Fourteenth-Century Provence......... 255 Messianic Travels of Sabbetai Zevi and Nathan of Gaza........................................ 338

INTRODUcnON THEnpRE-HffiTORynOFOO~CATION

SOPHIA MENACHE

And the .cord said, Behold the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech (Genesis 11: 6-7)

Any study of human activity touches on communication processes. that form the basis on which the varying cultures and civilizations of the world have rested. Though there are diverse definitions of communication.1 a broad consensus exists on its being the basic manifestation of the social nature of humankind and. therefore. intertwined with all aspects of human life. Involving as it does complex clusters of behavior. the ability to communicate on the highest level is regarded as a demarcation line between human beings and animals.2 Some theorists argue that communication is an evolutionary process affecting the individual and society. being both an index and agent of change in a total social system. s According to Michael Burgoon. "The social system itself is 1 In 1977, K. Merten indicated 160 different definitions of communication; this figure has increased considerably since then. See K. Merten, Kommunikation (Opladen, 1977), pp. 1-3. 2 Stephen W. Littlejohn, Theories of Human Communication. 3rd. ed. (Belmont, 1989), pp. 2-3. S Daniel Lerner, ·Communication Systems and Social Systems: A Statistical Exploration in History and Policy,· Behavioral Science 2 (1957): 267.

2

Sophia Menache

an accomplishment, or creation of communication."4 Colin Cherry clarifies this concept: A group of people, a society, a culture, may be defined as "people in communication." They may be thought of as "sharing rules" of language, custom, of habit, the rules [of which] ... have evolved out of those people themselves - rules of conformity. Inasmuch as that conformity is the greater or the less, so is the unity. The degree of communication, the sharing, the conformity, is a measure of one-mindedness .... A society has a structure, definite sets of relationships between individuals, which is not formless and haphazard but organized .... A "code" of ethics is more like a language, having developed organically; it is a set of guiding rules concerning "ought situations," generally accepted, whereby people in a society associate together and have social coherence. 5

Because communication is an interpersonal process, people require a shared code of symbols and some standardized usages to understand one another; words are convenient symbols by which to share meaning. Communication, therefore, may be defined as a symbolic behavior that occurs between two or more participating individuals. It has the characteristics of being a transactional process; it is affective, purposive, goal-directed behavior that can have instrumental or consummatory ends. From an instrumental perspective, the various functions of the communication process have been described from different albeit complementary angles. McRoskey and Wheeless indicate five main categories, namely:

• Affinity, or the establishment, maintenance, and/or change of social relationships. • Information and understanding, depending upon whether or not information is accurately decoded. • Influence, which is the change of attitudes, beliefs, values, or behavior. • Decision, reaching decisions or fostering adaptation to them. • Clmfirmation or disconfirmation of ideas, decisions, behavior, etc.6 4 Michael Burgoon, "The Variables in Communication Process," in Human Communication, 3rd ed. (Thousand Oaks, 1994), p. 4. 5 Colin Cherry, On Human Communication: A Review, A Survey, and a Criticism (Cambridge, Mass, 1966), pp. 4-8. 6 James C. McRoskey and R. Lawrence Wheeless, Introduction to Human Communication (Boston, 1976), pp.22-23.

Introduction

3

From an historical perspective, however, and, in particular, bearing in mind the peculiar characteristics of the Jewish Diaspora, the communication paradigm of Harold Lasswell offers a more suitable framework for analysis. It combines three definite functions: • Surveillance of the environment, that is, disclosing threats and opportunities that affect the value position of the community and its components. • Correlation of the components of society in making a response to the environment. • Transmission of the social inheritance from one generation to the

next. Lasswell maintains the existence of specialists responsible for carrying out these functions in each group or society in accordance with a division of work: • political leaders, diplomats, and foreign correspondents, who focus on the environment; • educators, journalists, and speakers, who help correlate or gather the people's responses to new information; • educators, either in family or school, who transmit the social inheritance. Lasswell further contends that in every society, accepted values are shaped and distributed according to communication distinctive institutional patterns. The communication system is in fact invoked in support of the network as a whole. "Such communications are the ideology....The ideology is communicated to the rising generation through such specialized agencies as the home and school."7 JUrgen Habermas incorporates Lasswell's paradigm in his universal validity claims' concept which in his view characterizes any communicative action; this concept is comprised of the following elements: • uttering something understandably; • giving the hearer something to understand; • making oneself thereby understandable; • coming to an understanding with another person.8 7 H.D. Lasswell, "The Structure and Function of Communication in Society," in The Communication oj Ideas, ed. L. Bryson (New York, 1948), pp. 38-44. 8 JUrgen Habermas, Communication and the Evolution oj Society, trans. Thomas McCarthy (Boston, 1979), pp. 2-3; for its application to research of the mi1:ldle ages, see Willem Frijhoff, "Communication et vie quotidienne A la fin du moyen age et a l'lipoque moderne: Rliflexions de th60rie et de mlithode," in Kommunikation und AUtag in Spiitmittelalter und friiher Neuzeit (Wien, 1992), pp. 20-22, 34.

Sophia Menache

4

To facilitate understanding with one's hearer/s, the speaker must choose a comprehensible expression, have the intention to communicate a true proposition, express one's intentions truthfully, and choose an utterance that is right. By doing so, the hearer/s should come to share the speaker's knowledge, trust the speaker, and accept the utterance in a recognized, normative background. The communicative action should continue as long as its participants justify the validity claims they reciprocally raise. 9 All definitions of communication succinctly reviewed up to now reflect the substantial research of the last decades. Still, from a historical perspective, these constructions suffer from a basic weakness. Willem Frijhoff queries, in this regard, whether communication systems are inherent in the so-called human nature or whether they change according to cultural factors which have to be carefully defined? Do persons always use the same vector-types for communication and do these vectors always have the same significance? Frijhoff particularly calls attention to gestures and colors, the meanings of which change from time to time within the same social group or, even more often, which acquire different implications in different societies. 10 One basic premise of the present study is that communication is a matter of evolution and, as such, reflects the different stages of human history. Further, a communication network - of the kind we are familiar with in modern culture - evolves in societies that are at a fairly advanced stage of socioeconomic and cultural integration. This communication network emerges in parallel with what Habermas calls the "public sphere. "11 The public sphere itself results from the development of a market society with the growing alienation of the individual from the community. In other words, a communication network always reflects the socioeconomic, political, and cultural framework from which it evolves and which it reciprocally influences. Though traditional societies did use and develop communication, they did not require a skilled, professional network of the kind it develops today; nor was communication essential to the economy or to the production process. The relevance of the communication network to socioeconomic life and the 9 Melvin L. de Fleur includes, in addition, the factor of noise on the diminution of information reception. See Alphons Silberman, Communication de masse: elements de sociologie empirique, trans. Michel Perrot (Paris, 1981),

p. 31.

Willem Frijhoff, "Communication et vie quotidienne," pp. 17-19. J. Habermas, L 'espace public: Archeologie de la publicite comme dimension constitutive de la societe bourgeoise (1962, Paris, 1993), pp. 189-204. , 10 11

Introduction

5

scientific sophistication of the system thus contribute to the line marking the border between the "prehistory" of communication and the emergence of a communication network. The corporate framework characteristic of traditional societies, with its complete absence of a "public sphere," hints at the incongruity between the socioeconomic climate of medieval and early-modem cultures and the development of an effective, total communication network. Moreover, the isolation inherent in the feudal system - as a conservative order fostering autarchic tendencies and, as such, indifferent to news exchange - gave rise to additional communication impediments. Only narrow political and economic elites were then aware of the importance of accurate information transmitted with reasonable speed. Accordingly, the elite tried, and to a certain degree succeeded, in developing communication channels, but of a limited scope. Nonetheless, the corporate, local essence of medieval and early-modem societies necessitate a tentative evaluation of the communication channels used as belonging to the "prehistory" of communication. From a methodological perspective, one crucial problem concerns terminology; namely, the suitability of such terms as "public opinion," "mass-communication," and "media" in the framework of traditional societies. To begin with, the appropriateness of the term media itself is questionable, since media are related not only to the technique of communication but also to the socioeconomic framework supporting their development. Contemporary media reflect an appeal to a society that is communication-oriented, so communicators may achieve some degree of identification with the characters or messages they broadcast by television, press, or radio. This identification is the product of the alienation that dominates twentieth-century society. The scope of contemporary media has also significantly reduced the number of communication channels while bringing about their standardization in the general framework of the "Global Village. "12 The chances that communication media with similar characteristics could have developed in traditional societies, however, were almost nil. In contrast to the anonymity of the audience inherent in the use of electronic mass-media, communication in traditional societies was characterized, mostly, by an immediate contact between communicator and audience. 13 Regis Debray, Vie et mort de ['image (Paris, Immediate contact characterized preaching, reading, processions, etc. One should note, in value of pictorial and sculptural representations, 12

13

1992), passim. political assemblies, public parallel, the communication which became a means of

Sophia Menache

6

Moreover, the traditional society was based on the socioeconomic and religious homogeneity of the corporation. This corporate structure cemented the individual to his niche and defined him as a member of the corporation rather than as an individual. Benzinger sees in the transmission of information one of the main roles fulfilled by corporations be they universities, guilds, orders, fraternities - which enjoyed some degree of mobility in face of the immobility characteristic of the feudal regime. 14 One should note, however, that even the messenger services of the most developed corporations, like towns, universities, and trade firms, was rather deficient. Trade firms did sometimes realize a relatively high-sending frequency, but only between two points. Thus, letters were sent from Bruges to the north or to Italy every three days, and from Barcelona to Florence every day. 15 Though acknowledging some remarkable exemptions,-16 Robert Brentano speaks of the "cloistering neighborhood" as the framework characteristic of large social strata in the middle ages. Still, he makes an important reservation: The point is not that medieval people were stable and motionless, but that their travel and that of their products was irregular and erratic, or channeled along very specific routes with specific purposes such as the quest for spices and relics, or for their buyers. The middle ages was, throughout its great central period, essentially without maps (although not without illustrated itineraries) and so without clearly understood, without spatial relationships,

except

for

the

grand general

intellectualized,

spiritualized map of the round world with Jerusalem at its center .17 communication used by the Church and the monarchy to spread their messages. See Sophia Menache, The Vox Dei: Communication in the Middle Ages (New York, 1990), pp. 26-37, 132-49. 14 Georges Renard, Guilds in the Middle Ages (1918, New York, 1968), pp. 32-67. 15 Gert Bernigs, "Transport and Communication in the Middle Ages," in Kommunikation und AUtag, p. 72. 16 By 1159, John of Salisbury had crossed the Alps ten times; and Margery Kempe, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, traveled from her home in Lynn to Assisi, Rome, Compostela, Venice, Danzig, Aachen, the Holy Land, and Norway. See John of Salisbury, The Metaiogicon, trans. Daniel D. McGarry (Berkeley, 1955), p. 142; The Book oj Margery Kempe, ed. Sanford Brown Meech (London, 1940), passim. Sylvia Schein, "Brigitta of Sweden and Margery Kempe: Mystical Women and Saints in Jerusalem at the Late Middle Ages" [Hebrew], Ariel 101 (1994): 217-26. 17 Robert Brentano, "Western Civilization: The Middle Ages," in Propaganda and Communication in World History, ed. Harold D. Lasswell, Daniel Lerner, and Hans Speier, 3 vols. (Hawaii, 1979), vol. I, p. 554.

Introduction

7

Brentano's assertion further hints at the peculiar stage of communication developments characteristic of traditional societies in which the very existence of transportation and transmission channels per se did not assure the effectiveness of the communication network; nor were these means essential for the op~ation of the economy. Moreover, medieval terms like paraveredi, scara, and angariae meant not only means of transportation but also means of information transmission, thus indicating the lack of a clear differentiation between the two. is Aside from a few late exceptions, the speed of communication was in most cases determined by the individual performances of the bearers of communication, a limitation that governed the area of transmission. The use of the term media in the framework of traditional societies refers, therefore, to the different means of communication elaborated at the time, without the socioeconomic implications they have acquired in contemporary society. Furthermore, the essential liaison among the different media excludes their categorization according to institutional patterns, thus challenging current definitions in communication research. In the framework of traditional societies, the isolation of groups from one's another further limited communication to the local sphere while bestowing on the whole process a fluctuating essence. This state of affairs, however, did not include the political and economic elites, whose perspective went beyond the local sphere. Benzinger approaches the feudal pyramid as a Kommunikationsmodell, in which the amount of information assimilated by the different social strata correlated with their social status and the political functions they fulfilled. While peasants and craftsmen usually contented themselves with scanty information, the sociopolitical elite dealt with a considerable range of reports. Moreover, the faster information was received, the more accurately it could be translated into political practice. 19 Still, any attempt to compare the development of political communication in traditional societies to that of our days would be inaccurate. In contemporary society, political communication systems mirror the process of integration in the sociopolitical and the economic spheres. In traditional societies, political communication resulted from an essential localism, which encouraged the development of communication channels at the higher sociopolitical strata without involving wider social groups. An additional feature of is Josef Benzinger, ·Zum Wesen und zu den Formen von Kommunikation und Publizistik im Mittelalter,· Publizistik 15 (1970): 299. 19 Ibid., pp. 301-302.

8

Sophia Menache

early communication was the time required for the transmission of information. Against the archaic, marginal state of communication in traditional societies, communication within the Jewish Diaspora appears sui generi.s. 20 It is the basic premise of this study that the elaboration of accurate communication channels played a crucial role in the subsistence of Jewish society - nominally a society in exile lacking a political locus standi - as a well-defined, autonomous entity. Moreover, being a group whose distinctive patterns of behavior depended on the accomplishment of a religious code and its continuous exegesis, the Jews had to arrange and indeed developed, reliable, effective channels of information transmission. These premises justify further inquiry into the main components of the communication paradigm of pre-modern Jewry. The Bible contributes a first indication, since it turns the Jews into the "people of the book, n their history being closely connected with the existence and circulation of a virtually indestructible document. 21 The biblical ethos of "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night," (Josh. 1: 8) gave to literacy divine legitimacy. True, other monotheistic groups, as well, lived according to a written religious code, which simingly challenges the singularity of Jewish literacy. Still, in open contrast to other monotheistic societies, the Jews lacked the support of a political establishment on which both Christians and Moslems could rely and, more often than not, the Jews were submitted to discrimination and persecution.22 The absence of a supporting establishment thus avoided the development of political communication channels like those characteristic of other monotheistic groups and turned literacy into a major factor in the emergence of a communication network in the Jewish Diaspora.23 Literacy itself, though it crucially influenced the Umwelt of Jews, could not nevertheless give rise to social consequences; it had to be and was used by individuals and developed through social institutions. Moreover, the mere technical existence of writing could not affect social change. What counted was its 20 According to Niklas Luhmann, "Just like life and consciousness, communication is an emergent reality, a state of affairs sui generis." See "What is Communication?" Communication Theory 2-3 (1992): 252. 21 J. Goody, Literacy in Traditional Societies (London, 1968), p. 5. 22 In this regard, medieval heresies may provide a suitable reference group. On their unique status in the development of communication, see Sophia Menache, The Vox Dei, pp. 229-41. 23 Harold D. Lasswell, "Introduction," in Propaganda and Communication in World History, p. 16.

Introduction

9

use, who used it, who controlled it, what it was used for, how it fitted into the power structure, how widely it was distributed - that is, the social and political factors that shaped its consequences.24 The classification of the Jewish Diaspora into the defined patterns of a "traditional society" offers additional terms of reference. Jacob Katz employs the concept of traditional society "to denote a type of society which regards its existence as based upon a common body of knowledge and values handed down from the past."25 This concept faithfully describes the whole of world Jewry from the second century, and it applies to some communities up to recent times. As a traditional society, the Jews have experienced the accumulation of different types of specialized knowledge, including symbolic information formed around the central attributes of cultural identity. The traditional leadership - both religious and lay - tried and to a great extent succeeded in monopolizing the central means of communication. Rabbis and pamassim [wardens] assured their own control over specialized communicators, thus bringing about a hierarchical-normative communication network. 26 The very fact that many Jews were involved in trade, to the point that Jew and mercator became synonymous,27 contributes an additional perspective for analysis. 28 In contrast to the agricultural, local essence of the surrounding societies, the Jews' occupation dictated their itinerant nature while giving an additional, functional meaning to literacy. In turn, both itinerancy and literacy became crucial factors in the emergence and development of communication channels across large areas. The early use of commercial practices such as the commenda and the evolution of the mamram or letter of exchange attest to the close interaction between trade and literacy, on the one hand, and communication developments within the Jewish Diaspora, on the other. 24 Ruth Finegan, Literacy and Orality: Studies in the Technology o/Communication (Oxford, 1988), pp. 41-42. 25 Jacob Katz, Tradition and D-isis: Jewish Society at the End 0/ the Middle Ages (1958, New York, 1961), p. 3. 26 S. N. Eisenstadt, 'Communication Patterns in Centralized Empires,' in Propaganda and Communication, vol. I, pp. 537-38. 27 Robert Latouche, The Birth 0/ Western Economy: Economic Aspects 0/ the Dark Ages, trans. E. M. Wilkinson (1956, London, 1967), pp. 121, ISO,

163-69, 260-61. 28 One should note, however, that the Jews operated in primitive societies in which trade orland finance did not fulfill essential socioeconomic functions but, rather, were intended for a narrow sociopolitical elite.

10

Sophia Menache

Their dispersion over scattered communities, coupled with the reliance by Jews on a written religious code that underwent a continuous process of exegesis, and their involvement in trade make the Jewish Diaspora an ideal case-study of what can tentatively be evaluated as the "prehistory" of communication. The Jewish Diaspora, further, by presenting all the symptoms of a transitory stage, with its intermixture of pre-modern and modern elements, offers new perspectives for a better understanding of the factors and agents in the emergence of a communication network. Though the important research of the last century brought about a better understanding of phenomena like the Responsa, routing network, and correspondence, communication developments in the Jewish Diaspora remain, as a whole, terra incognita. 29 This lacuna is not fortuitous; rather, it reflects the prevailing tendency to turn the history of communication into a sub-category of technological developments - first, the discovery of the written word,30 and then print,3! the telegraph,32 the telephone,33 and the electronic mass-media later on.34 This state of affairs creates an artificial gap between the socioeconomic framework and the technical aspects of communication developments. The lack of a methodological basis for social research into the history of communication further justifies some clarification of the basic postulates of the present study.3s In this book we are dealing with 29 Shmuel Trigano. however. has included some important contributions in the field in the fourth volume of his series, La societe Juive ii travers l'histoire (Paris, 1993), especially pp. 179-291 and 331-56. 30 Leonard Greenspoon, "Ars scribendi: Max Margolis' Paper 'Preparing Scribe's Copy in the Age of Manuscripts'," The Jewish 01arterly Review 71-3 (1981): 140, 150. 31 Theodore K. Rabb and Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, "Debate: The Advent of Printing and the Problem of the Renaissance," Past and Present 52 (1971): 144; Elizabeth Eisenstein, "L'avenement de l'imprimerie et la Reforme," Annales 26 (1971): 1382; cf. Robert K. Root, "Publication Before Printing," Publications o/the Modern Language Association 28 (1913): 417-31. 32 Joel Tarr, Thomas Finholt, and David Goodman, "The City and the Telegraph: Urban Telecommunications in the Pre-Telephone Era," Journal 0/ Urban History 14 (1987): 70- 71; Jeffrey Kieve, The Electric Telegraph: A Social and Economic History (New York, 1973), pp. 238-47. 33 Berti! Thorngren, "Silent Actors: Communication Networks for Development," in The Social Impact 0/ the Telephone, ed. Ithiel de Sola Pool (Massachusetts, 1977), pp. 374-75; J. Brooks, Telephone: The First Hundred Years (New York, 1976), passim. 34 Raymond Williams, Television, Technology, and Olltural Form (New York, 1975), pp. 9-31. 35 Albert Muller claims that "Die angedeutete Universalitlit des Begriffs 'Kommunikation' oder auch, in den Worten J. Baudrillards, der 'erstaunliche Erfolg' der Kommunikation erleichtert die Rolle jener Historiker, die sich um

Introduction

11

intentional communication; that is, a person or a group who intentionally send a message to another person or group/s, which is/are intentionally receiving the message. 36 Most studies have focused on dyadic or group communication; that is, messages transmitted not to any particular individual but to one or more groups.37 A group may be defined as an essential mechanism of socialization and a primary source of social order,38 from which people largely derive their values and attitudes.ss The more cohesive a group, the more force it exerts on its members to conform to its code. 40 Another characteristic of this research is its reliance on written testimonies. 41 The most obvious property of writing is to give permanence to verbal expression while allowing transmission through space and over time in a permanent, unchanging form. The written word serves as a kind of "transpersonal memory," by which men were given an artificially extended, verifiable memory of objects and events not present to sight or recollection. 42 Writing further allows the transmission of accumulated knowledge from one generation to another as well as contact between different cultures.43 With these premises in mind, this collection of essays is meant to fulfill a vacuum in Jewish history for the period preceding what Ithiel de Sola Pool calls a "revolution in communication. "44 It is the basic premise eine 'Kommunikationsgeschichte' bemUhen, keineswegs." See Albert Muller, "Mobilitiit-Interaktion-Kommunikation: Sozial und alltagsgeschichtliche Bemerkungen anhand von Beispielen aus dem spiitmittelalterlichen und frUhneuzeitlichen Osterreich," in Kommunikation und AUtag, p. 219. 36 On the lack of the intention factor, see James C. McRoskey and R. Lawrence Wheeless, Introduction to Human Communication, p. 17.

37 See Randy Y. Hirokawa, "Group Communication Research: Considerations for the Use of Interaction Analysis," in A Handbook for the Study of Human Communication: Methods and Instruments for Observing, Measuring, and Assessing Communication Processes, ed. Charles H. Tardy (Norwood, 1988), pp. 229-45 and the rich bibliography he provides. 38 Marvin E. Shaw, Group Dynamics: The Psychology of Small Group Behavior (New York, 1981), p. 10. ss Clovis R. Shepherd, Small Groups: Some Sociological Perspectives (San Francisco, 1964), p. 1. 40 Amatai Etzioni, Modern Organizations (Englewood Cliffs, 1964), pp. 3-8. 41 Charles H. Cooley, Social Organization (New York, 1909), p. 61. 42 H. A. Innis, Empire and Communications (Oxford, 1950, ed. 1972), p. 10. 43 Ruth Finegan, Literacy and Orality, pp. 4-22. 44 Ithiel de Sola Pool, "Foreword," in Wilson P. Dizard, The Coming Iliformation Age (New York, 1982), p. XI. As for the results of this revolution, McLuhan claims that whereas print encourages individualism and private experience with appeal only to the eye, television produces the "electronic man," who regains his "sensorial wholeness." See Marshall McLuhan, Counter Blast (London, 1970), p. 16.

12

Sophia Menache

of this study that communication occurs within a historical environment, the social systems and the physical context significantly altering communication exchange. Any attempt to delimit the scope of research by well-known terms like "medieval" or "modern," however, presents further methodological dilemmas. The expression "middle ages" as applied to the inner life of the Jews has little relevancy, at least from the acknowledged parameters used for western society, between the years 476 and 1492. This absence of medievalism, though, does not contradict the fact that medievalism produced lasting effects on Jewish life. 45 Moreover, any rigid terminus ad quem has proved to be inadequate in view of the heterogeneous nature of the Jewish Diaspora, with Jewries developing both in the most developed and in the most backward countries. The first appearance of a Jewish newspaper, the Gazeta de Amsterdam (1678) offers an adequate point of reference to this study because of the participation of Western Jewry in the modernization process and, in parallel, the first seeds of a communication network. 48 The terminus a quo was also difficult to establish, lacking as it does a clear communication process that might provide a chronological onset for analysis. We have, therefore, delimited our inquiry to the early middle ages; that is, to the period when Jewish history is basically the history of the Diaspora without any clearly recognized political/spiritual center. The following articles attempt to clarify some issues in the rich spectrum of communication developments in the Jewish Diaspora, investigated from a

wider perspective. Particular attention will focus on information exchange, its speed, and the channels of transmission. Except for the editor's opening article offering a general survey, the essays in this collection have been arranged according to chronological criteria. On the basis of this chronological approach stands a historical-evolutional perspective of communication developments.

**********

45 Israel Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, ed. Cecil Roth (London, 1932), p.l. 48 On the development of European newspapers in the seventeenth century and their political influence, see Ioel Raba, Between Remembrance and Denial [Hebrew], (Tel Aviv, 1994), pp. 13-16 and the rich bibliography it includes.

Introduction

13

In his paper on communication and history, Hanno Hardt states: History represents man's concern with the interior and exterior condition of his being; it is limited by his ability to communicate, and it provides a bridge between the nowness of his experience and past and future actions. Man therefore engages in the processing of historical matter upon which he must rely for everyday information about his physical and social environment. Based upon his understanding of communication with others, man forms a concept of his Umwelt that will affect his present and future position in the community .... History and communication define the limits oj man's reality; they also contribute to an understanding oj his existential condition. 47

The relevance of history and communication to an understanding of what Hardt calls "man's reality" supplies the raison d'etre of this collection of studies on the meeting point between Jewish history and communication research. We firmly believe that the study of communication developments in the Jewish Diaspora provides a useful clue for a better understanding of the relationship between community and individual, tradition and novelty, Jewish and non-Jewish societies.48 The common efforts of historians, philosophers, and linguistic experts further advances our understanding of what Genesis claims to be the designs of a jealous God (Gen. 11:6-7).

47 [Emphasis mine) Hanno Hardt, "Communication and History: The Dimensions of Man's Reality," in Approaches to Human Communication, eds. R.W. Bredd and B. D. Ruben (Rochelle Park, 1972), pp. 148, 154. 48 Aron Rodrigue and Steven J. Zipperstein have recently claimed: "We are at a time of relentless questions about the feasibility of writing authoritatively about the past, the relationship between the community and the individual, narrative and truth .•.. We, as students of the Je)¥ish past, are heirs to a scholarly tradition in need of reassessment, hard questions, new or rearticulated values. Perhaps most perplexing now are boundaries, often less distinct, coherent, even less useful than before: between scholarship and other narratives, between history and other disciplines, between narrative and theoretical work, between Jewish studies and the 'wider' questions." See Jewish Social Studies (new series - fall 1994): 1.

14

COMMUNICATION IN TIlE JEWISH DIASPORA: A SURVEY SoPHIA MENACHE

The dispersion across world-scattered communities, the corporate structure of Jewish society, and its behavioral norms comprise the basic conditions in which communication emerged in the Jewish Diaspora. Communication developments will therefore be outlined according to three main interacting categories; namely, 11 the Diaspora - which dictated the sociopolitical framework; 21 the halachah - the codex of religious law and behavior regulating Jewish life; and 31 trade - the basic livelihood of many Jews. These three categories were inseparably linked in daily practice, but they will be differentiated here for purposes of analysis. This chapter examines the main communication developments in the Jewish Diaspora from the early middle ages to the verge of· "modernism." An attempt has been made to emphasize the similarities and disparities with both the Christian and Moslem environments in which communication in the Jewish Diaspora evolved.

1. The Diaspora The basic social unit in the Jewish Diaspora was the community (kehillah).1 The kehillah's sources date back to the First Temple period, when Jews living in distant communities gathered in assemblies for prayer, instead of sacrificial worship, which could only be done in Jerusalem. Throughout the Hellenistic age, nearly all Jewish communities developed similar organizations, the core of which was modeled on the Greek cities. In accordance with the privilege of Antiochus ill (201 BCE) "to use their ancestral laws, "2 the Jewish communities were recognized as 1 On the Jewish community, see H. H. Ben-Sasson, "The Status of the Community/Municipality in Jewish History" (Hebrew I, in The Medieval Jewish Community, ed. H. H. Ben-Sasson (Jerusalem, 1976), pp. 7-24; Y. Baer, "The Fundaments and Beginnings of Jewish Community Organization in the Middle Ages" (Hebrew), Zion 15 (1951): 1-4l. 2 Accordingly, Kenneth Stow defines the kehillah as a body recognized for

16

Sophia Menache

voluntary associations in the Greco-Roman world and, as such, lawful organizations. The dispersion of Jews across large areas, however, gradually brought about different organizational patterns, which dictated the scope and nature of communication. Palestinian, Babylonian, and to some extent also Egyptian Jewries recognized a central authority. After the destruction of the Second Temple, the leadership of Judea lay in the hands of "Patriarchs" (nesiim) , who worked with the assistance of a supreme council, the Sanhedrin. Until its suppression c. 425, the patriarchate asserted its right to supremacy and exercised considerable control over communities across the Roman Empire. Babylonian Jewry was headed by a twofold leadership, the Gaonim and the Exilarchs; the latter claimed extraction from the Princes of Judea and were called "Princes of the Diaspora." The Moslem conquest turned the Exilarchs into the highest secular Jewish authority, until the Mongol advance brought about their decline. In Egypt and in Moslem Spain, as well, local leaders, called negidim, attained considerable influence. Active in Egypt from about 1065, the Nagid office was eventually entrusted to the descendants of Maimonides for more than two centuries, and was suppressed only in 1517. Sporadically, and specified by the name of the country for which they were responsible, negidim were also found in Yemen, Syria, and Palestine. This "centralizing" tradition of Eastern Jewry, supported by the existence of large political units in the framework of Islam, continued well into the sixteenth century. In the Ottoman Empire, the lJakham bashi of Constantinople was the highest Jewish authority, his supremacy acknowledged by many provincial chief rabbis. The highest spiritual authority was found inside the walls of the yeshiva or collegium talmudicum, personified by its head, the Gaon. The yeshiva combined the functions of a seat of learning, a high court, and a parliament. Being the core of a territorial organization divided into units or dioceses from the third century onwards, there was during the Geniza period a tripartite allotment among the yeshivot of Sura and Pumbedita (later Baghdad) in Babylon, and Jerusalem. The Gaonim exercised unrestricted rule over the communities under Byzantine and Persian rule, administrative and other such purposes by secular governments, which "granted Jews by royal and other charters of privilege to live by "their own law." Stow further claims that this kind of privilege "reflects their becoming not a "corporation among corporations" but rather a constitutional isolate - the Jews." See Kenneth Stow. Alienated Minority (Cambridge. Mass .• 1992). p.180.

Communication in the Jewish Diaspora: A Survey

17

and there was no appeal from their decisions. The prestige of the yeshiva depended on the scholarship and qualities of its head; a particularly brilliant and energetic Gaon could significantly increase the readiness of communities to transfer their allegiance to him. In insisting on the strict execution of their resolutions - inasmuch as they reflected God's will Gaonim would, when necessary, even look to the assistance of the Moslem government. Being recognized and supported by the Moslem government, Jewish authorities could and indeed did make use of the Moslem administrative branches to advance their own interests. In the internal sphere, the Gaonim promoted or demoted the members of the academy and intervened in the internal affairs of the communities under their control. An early eleventh-century letter written by a Gaon of Jerusalem defines the status and main functions of the office as follows: • The Gaon was the highest authority on religious law and was entitled to expound it in public lectures. • His official title was (in Arabic) ra's ai-mathlba. head of the academy. • The Rabbanite community owed obedience to his legal decisions as well as to his administrative dispositions. • He had jurisdiction over only Rabbanite Jews, thus excluding the Karaites and Samaritans. • He might delegate his authority over a certain city or country to any person chosen by him. • He supervised all matters of marriage and divorce. • He was the guardian of the religious and moral conduct of all the members of the community. • He had the right to impose or to cancel an excommunication. • He appointed and/or dismissed preachers. cantors, and ritual slaughterers. • He appointed and defined the competence of judges and supervised them as well as the trustees of the courts.3 The very performance of the office of the Gaonim or/and the Exilarch dictated the emergence and development of communication channels between the central authority - secular or/and spiritual - and the communities that acknowledged its rule. In contrast to the centralizing organization patterns developed in Moslem countries, Western Jewry took a completely different path. After 3 S. D. Goitein. The Community in A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities 0/ the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents 0/ the Cairo Geniza. vol. 2 (Berkeley. 1971). pp. 16-17.

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the deposition of the last Roman emperor in 476. autonomous Jewish organizational patterns matured within the precarious political framework of the German monarchies - whether in Italy. France. Germany. England. or. later on. in Christian Spain and Poland-Lithuania. The absence of a strong political entity in Christendom thus favored the emergence of self-ruling communities. that did not recognize a chief Jewish authority. Though some medieval rulers allowed or themselves nominated a central authority - like the "archpresbyters" in England and the chief rabbis in Aragon. Castile. and for a time in France - to exert more effective control over the Jews. especially over their fiscal contributions. these were more treasury agents than spiritual leaders. The characteristics of the communal organization and. in particular. the existence or lack. of an intercommunal establishment dictated the scope and tempo of the communication network. Both in Islam and in Christendom. the basic nucleus of the Jewish communication network was. as mentioned. the k.ehillah. The kehillah developed around the synagogue - the center of Jewish life - and provided the necessary services for the implementation of religious life. It was called "the holy congregation." a post-biblical version of "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Ex. 19:6). Occasionally. high-sounding epithets like "the assembly of God" were employed. Often. a congregation was simply named "Israel." because the local cell represented the whole body of the community.4 In the framework of Islam. there were large, medium-sized. and small communities. The large communities were located either in capital cities like Fostat/Old Cairo in Egypt or in administrative centers like Ramie in Palestine and al-Mahdiyya in Tunisia. Second in rank were the communities in large maritime cities. such as Alexandria. Damietta. Ascalon. and Tyre. or in inland district centers. like al-Mahalla, Minyat Zifti, and Qiis in Egypt. Small communities were located in villages and placed under the jurisdiction of the larger ones. Each community was headed by an official appointed or approved by a Jewish territorial authority and recognized by the local governor or chief of police. Although the community as a whole accorded him obedience. his power was not arbitrary and he had to look for the approval and cooperation of the people.5 The existence of large political bodies in the framework of Islam thus created a propitious arena for 4 S. D. Goitein, "The Local Jewish Community in the Light of the Cairo Geniza Records," Journal of Jewish Studies 12 (1963): 133-58. 5 S. D. Goitein, The Community, pp. 43-56.

Communication in the Jewish Diaspora: A Survey

19

mutual cooperation and the emergence of a communication network among the Jewish communities. In. medieval Christendom, the Jewish communities were characterized by their small size, the tendency of Jews to settle in distinct sections of towns, and the relative economic homogeneity of their members.8 A query addressed to R. Meshullam b. Kalonymos shows that Jews preferred to live in towns, among their coreligionists, even when bargaining with shepherds in rural areas. 7 External pressure thus appears as an additional but hardly unique factor in the emergence of distinct Jewish districts. 8 As a rule, the secular and religious leaders - the pamassim (wardens) and the rabbi - were expected to practice their office in the framework of religion, whose proper observance they were to enhance, and to strengthen the community in its daily struggle for subsistence.9 Sometimes, the chief administrator of the community bore the title of "pamas of the town" because of his dealings with the town's overlord. 10 To regulate the delicate balance with the non-Jewish population, the communal leadership was expected: • to maintain satisfactory relations with the ruling powers, while achieving a measure of distance from them; • to secure internal discipline and order, and to preserve the community's detachment from the local municipality; • to establish necessary internal economic limitations and controls. 11 The communal leadership thus fulfilled the main functions of communication specialists as defined in Lasswell's paradigm.12 In the Jewish environment, these "specialists" were outstanding talmudic scholars - that is, authorities on Jewish law - whose advice and consent was a condition sine qua non for any legislative act.1S Still, even the most 8 This state of affairs was clearly indicated in the Responsa literature; see Irving A. Agus, Urban avili~ation in Pre-D'usade Europe, 2 vols. (New York, 1965), vol. I, pp. 122, 131, 403-404. 7 Ibid., vol. I, p. 382. 8 Robert Chazan, Medieval Jewry in Northern France: A Political and Social History (Baltimore, 1973), pp. 50-51. Cf. Jacob Katz, Tradition and D'isis: Jewish Society at the End o/the Middle Ages (1958, New York, 1961), pp. 79 ff. 9 On the hierarchical structure of the kehillah, see Jacob Katz, Tradition and D'isis, pp. 82-90. 10 Irving A. Agus, Urban avili~ation in Pre-D'usade Europe, vol. 2, pp. 426-27. 11 Yitzhak Baer, "The Fundaments and Beginnings of Jewish Community Organization," pp. 32-36. 12 See "The Prehistory of Communication, " note 7. 13 Irving A. Agus, Urban avili~ation in Pre-D'usade Europe, vol. 2, p.467.

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Sophia Menache

hwnble Jew could contest their decisions and. occasionally. win his case. 14 To force its decisions on the congregation as a whole. the ~erem, or ban of excommunication, was the ultimate weapon at the disposal of the communal leadership. IS From the second half of the thirteenth century, however, there was a growing tendency to deny this prerogative to individuals. On the theoretical basis of Jewish law, R. Judah b. R. Meir haCohen and R. Eliezer ascribed the same validity to a ~erem pronounced by the people of Israel in solemn assembly as to one pronounced by Joshua b. Nun. King Saul. or the Sanhedrin. 18 The application of the ~erem is well illustrated by the following record in the Geniza: A Jew who had been excommunicated by the authorities of Granada. Lucena, Cordoba, and Seville tried to disappear and eventually traveled to Egypt. There, however, he was spotted by Spanish Jews. who demanded that the judge of Alexandria renew the ban on him. The excommunicated Jew's threat to defect to Islam caused the judge to hesitate. but his former fellow countrymen did not relinquish their stand and sent a special envoy to the Nagid in Cairo to urge that action be taken without further delay.17 The weight of excommunication in medieval and early-modem Jewry undoubtedly resulted from the existence of communication channels among scattered communities and the corporate essence of the community, which excluded any possibility of survival for an ostracized Jew. As such. the ~erem is pertinent to the "Prehistory of Communication"; that is. to the socioeconomic framework prior to the emergence of a market economy. which allowed and even encouraged the alienation of the individual from society, thus discharging the excommunication of its psychological weight. In contrast to the scope of Exilarchs, Gaonim, and negidim in the Moslem Empire. the power of the communal leadership in medieval and early-modem Christendom was extremely localized; it focused on daily administrative affairs. such as jurisdiction, philanthropy, and education. The complete autonomy of each community is faithfully shown by a 14 R. Meshullam b. Kalonymous supported the case of a Jew who having inflicted a bodily injury, was punished by the communal leaders above the customary fine. See Irving A. Agus, Urban Qvilization in Pre-O'usade Europe, vol. 2, pp. 424, 448-53. IS See tractate Baba Kamma 112a. 18 Irving A. Agus, Urban Qvilization in Pre-O'usade Europe, vol. 2, pp. 449-50; on the proper procedure for removing the ban, Ibid., p. 481. 17 S. D. Goitein, Economic Foundations in A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities oltke Arab World as Portrayed in tke Documents olthe Cairo Geniza, vol. 1 (Berkeley, 1967), p. 69.

Communication in the Jewish Diaspora: A Survey

21

responsum 18 addressed by R. Judah b. Meir haCohen and R. Eliezer b. Judah to the community of Troyes at the tum of the eleventh century: If the decree that the (inhabitants of one town] are enacting deals with the needs of their place, such as taxation, weights, measures, and wages - in all such matters the inhabitants of one town are not competent to legislate for the inhabitants of another town .•.. If, however, the inhabitants of a town transgressed a law of the Torah, committed a wrong, or decided a point of law or of ritual, not in accordance with the accepted usage - the inhabitants of another town might coerce them, and even pronounce the ,!erem against them. 19

Only clear transgressions in matters of Jewish religious behavior could justify external interference. A responsum of R. Joseph Tov-Elem the Elder clearly established that a community has no authority to ban or anathematize a person living in another town, and certainly not the community of another town. Similarly, the people of one town cannot levy any taxes on the inhabitants of another town... even the Nasi [prince] of all Israel possesses no such prerogative. The only right the inhabitants of one town may exercise as against those of another, is to prevent them by coercive means from transgressing Jewish law. They may exercise this right on the grounds that their own happiness and well-being are involved; for "the children of Israel are responsible for one another" (Sanh. 27b), and often suffer because of the transgressions of others. In secular matters, however, each community is completely independent. 2O

The complete autonomy of each kehillah - corroborated now and again by prominent talmudic scholars - was concomitant with the autarchy and isolation inherent in the feudal system. As such. it could hardly favor the emergence of a communication network across large areas. Still. outstanding scholars like R. Gershom b. Judah of Mainz. R. Solomon Yitzhaki (known as Rashi).21 or R. Jacob b. Meir (Rabbenu 18 A responsum is a written answer by an outstanding talmudic scholar to a query of a legal or religious nature put to him in writing. See the genre's most detailed analysis in Aryeh Grabois, Chroniques, Lettres et Responsa in Les sources h~brai"ques m~di~vales, 3 vols. (Turnhout, 1987), vol. I, pp. 60-82; see, also, Zvi Zohar, "Le processus du responsum," in La soci~t~ juive a travers ['histoire, ed. Shmuel Trigano, 5 vols. (Paris, 1993), vol. 4, pp. 185-89. 19 Irving A. Agus, Urban avili~ation in Pre-Ousade Europe, vol. 2, p. 452. 20 Ibid., vol. I, pp. 174-75. 21 On the diffusion of Rashi's taqqanot (religious regulations) at the end of the eleventh century and the information they covered, see Adolf Neubauer and

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Tam) pronounced regulations that were universally accepted, irrespective of their area of origin. R. Tam further claimed that the greatest scholars of any generation are the successors of the ancient Sanhedrin and, accordingly, may promulgate decrees that had to be obeyed by all under penalty of excommunication. R. Gershom's legislation in matters of religious law, especially his well-known marriage law - allowing but one wife - was respected across Ashkenaz and became the basis of a federate organization.22 This association, however, was based on the high respect accorded to R. Gershom and, in consequence, the voluntary acceptance of his far-reaching pronouncements. The power structure (e.g., the more compulsory attitude of R. Tam) did not enjoy wide acceptance. On the contrary, many twelfth-century rabbis supported the view that a Court of Appeals had to decide whether a community had acted within its rights in any particular case.23 The tendency to support the autonomy of each k.ehillah survived well into the mid-fifteenth century. When R. Seligmann Oppenheim of Bingen, for example, called for a council of the German communities in which he expected a general acknowledgment of his status as Chief Rabbi and, accordingly, of his policy to unify German Jewry - his reluctance to publish the agenda in advance aroused strong opposition. R. Moses Mintz and R. Phoebus appealed to the leading halachic authority of the time, R. Israel Isserlein of Neustad, who after a long discussion forced R. Seligmann to abandon his centralizing efforts. 24 On the other hand, there were some provisional alliances, like those promoted by the Bologna synod in 1416 in which the communities of Rome, Padua, Ferrara, Bologna, and also communities from the Romagna and Tuscany districts participated.25 A more permanent intercommunal network - called by Jacob Katz "super-k.ehillah organizations"26 - did not appear before the second half of the sixteenth century, and it survived into the first half of the Moritz Stern, Hebriiische Berichte iiber die Judenverfolgungen Wdhrend der Kreu~zuge (Berlin, 1892), pp. 11-16. 22 Name of a biblical people (Gen. 10:3, Jer. 51: 27), which from the ninth century CE was applied to Northern France and Germany, and to the Germans. The German Jews and their descendents were therefore called Ashkenazim. 23 See the ruling in this regard established by R. Meshullam b. Kalonymus in Irving A. Agus, Urban avili~ation in Pre-crusade Europe, vol. 2. p. 527. 24 H. Graetz, Geschichte der Juden (Leipzig, 1897), vol. 8-2, pp. 428 ff. 25 Louis Finkelstein, Jewish Self-Government in the Middle Ages (New York, 1964), pp. 86 ff. 26 Jacob Katz. Tradition and crisis, pp. 122-34.

Communication in the Jewish Diaspora: A Survey

23

eighteenth. The emergence of such intercommunal networks in Poland. Lithuania. Moravia. and Western Hungary was sanctioned by local government policy. which thought to rationalize taxation practices. IIi the framework of the new fiscal policy. the intercommunal organs were expected to exert more effective authority over their members and their contributions. thus increasing the treasury income. IIi this framework. the development of the super-kehillah organizations was fostered by the existence of trade centers and fairs that served as meeting points for Jewish merchants in specific areas. The zone covered by the super-kehillah was called a galil (district) or a medina (state). IIi Poland and Moravia. the representatives of the communities chose a committee to function in the name of the whole. IIi Lithuania. all communities were subject to the leadership of the principal k.ehillah in matters pertaining to the central management of the district. IIi both cases. the rabbi or chief rabbi was recognized by all Jews. thus creating a useful connecting link. The Vaad Arba Aratsoth or "Union of the Four Districts" ruled over Poland and neighboring lands' Jewry for a long time. At its head was an elective president. whose tribunal had criminal jurisdiction. But this Vaad. or union. had no detailed control over communal life. since each congregation retained its own rabbi and its own court or Beth Din. This mixture of central organization and independent organs led Katz to consider the super-kehillah as "merely a federation of autonomous entities which joined together from a recognition of their unity of interests." Still. they represent an important stage in the evolution from the relative isolation inherent in the medieval and early-modern periods to the emergence of broadened socioeconomic organizations that. as such. supported the development of the communication network. Both in more centralizing organizational patterns and in the framework of autonomous communities. the communal leadership provided the leading communication factor.27 IIi the Moslem Empire. there were regular communication practices that assured a permanent transmission of information from the center to the periphery. Thus. when assuming office. Exilarchs and/or Gaonim issued circular letters outlining their religious and communal program and. sometimes. also making comments on the situation and the changing needs of the congregations under their guidance. On the occasion of his appointment as Gaon. Saadya. for example. sent an open letter to the Jewish communities 27 See Benzinger's Kommunikationsmodell in "The Prehistory of Communication," notes 18-19.

24

Sophia Menache

throughout the Iberian peninsula and. probably. to other countries. as well (Baghdad. 928). He announced his intention to appeal to the central government in Baghdad to seek amends for the injuries suffered by the Jews while using the good services of the influential Jewish court bankers of the city.28 Though lacking formal bureaus like those maintained by the Moslem authorities. Jewish leaders in the Islamic world used correspondence extensively in their dealings with communities and individuals. There are numerous letters in the Geniza condemning dissension. demanding obedience or financial support. bestowing honorific titles. appointing lower-ranking officials. or promulgating bans. The head of the Egyptian Jews. the great grandson of Maimonides. Joshua Nagid (1310-1355). was very active in correspondence exchange. In one such letter dealing with community affairs. he asserts his own authority over violators· of socio-religious norms. To ensure maximum pUblicity. the Nagid further requested his letter to be read before the congregations after prayers on three consecutive days (namely. Thursday. Friday. and the Sabbath). thus adding an oral dimension to the written message. The prevalence of correspondence in the Islamic world was also due to the fact that many Jews served as kiitibs (scribes) and. as such. were responsible for the drafting of government correspondence. One Geniza fragment contains a transcription into Hebrew characters of Arabic epistolography made by the Jewish court clerk. l:Ialfon ha-Levi b. Manasse ibn-al-Qata'if (Fustat. 1240·s). It includes standard topics. such as letters conveying congratulations. condolences. gratitude. rebuke. recommendations. and apologies.29 Arabic epistolary practice was eventually introduced into Christendom by Northern African and Andalucian Jews.30 Hebrew prevailed in personal and circular letters;31 but from the fourteenth century. there were also letters in the vernacular.32 Though lacking a stable communication network. the Jewish leadership in Christendom nevertheless took a leading role in communication 28 S. Abramson, The Centers and Diasporas in the Gaonic Period [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1965), pp. 34-40. 29 Mark R. Cohen, "Correspondence and Social Control in the Jewish Communities of the Islamic World: A Letter of the Nagid Joshua Maimonides," Jewish History 1-2 (1986): 39-48. 30 Aryeh Grabois, Chroniques, Lettres et Responsa, p. 43 . . 31 S. D. Goitein "Tyre-Tripoli-'Arqa: Geniza Documents from the Beginning of the Crusader Period," The Jewish Quarterly Review 66-2 (1975): 69-88. 32 Aryeh Grabois, Chroniques, Lettres et Responsa, pp. 39- 56; see also the article of Eleazar Gutwirth in this collection.

Communication in the Jewish Diaspora: A Survey

25

especially in times of crises. The leadership of Palermo c. 1040 found it necessary to report its desperate situation.83 The circular letter records in some detail the military and political crisis caused by the Byzantines. the Ziride forces from North Africa. and the local Moslems on the island.34 In early December 1095. the leaders of Northern-France Jewry warned their colleagues in the Rhine area about the approaching Crusade.35 with its frightening. physical expressions of hatred of the Jew. 36 The community of Mainz acknowledged receipt of this information in January 1096 and announced that its members had already begun to pray and fast to prevent calamities.37 The success of Jews in carrying out this letter exchange between France and the Holy Roman Empire in only one month reflects the communication importance of commercial channels. which when need arose allowed fluent information exchange over large areas. 38 Moreover. if one bears in mind the fact that Pope Urban II 83 This letter appears in the Cambridge University Taylor-Schechter collection, TS NS 149.1; it was first published by A. Scheiber and Z. Malachi, who assumed that it was written in the second half of the tenth century to l;Iasdai Ibn Shaprut. See "Letter from Sicily to Hasdai Ibn Shaprut," PAAJR 41-42 (1975). pp. 207-18. • 34 This interpretation was given by Nadia Zeldes, "A Geniza Letter Pertaining to the History of Sicilian Jewry in the Moslem Period: A Reevaluation" [Hebrew), Zion 53-1 (1988): 57-64. 35 On the Jewish chronicles of the First Crusade, see I. G. Marcus, "From Politics to Martyrdom: Shifting Paradigms in the Hebrew Narratives of the 1096 Crusading Riots," Prooftexts 2 (1982): 40-52; cf. R. Chazan, "The Hebrew First Crusade Chronicles," Revue des ~tudes juives 133 (1974): 235-54; Id., "The Hebrew First Crusade Chronicles: Further Reflections." AJS Review 3 (1978): 79- 98; Jeremy Cohen, "The 'Persecutions of 1096' - From Martyrdom to Martyrology: The Sociocultural Context of the Hebrew Crusade Chronicles" [Hebrew), Zion 59 (1994): 167-208. 36 "Inventaire critique des lettres historiques des croisades," Archives de l'Orient Latin 1 (1881), no. 46; see, also, Die Judenverjolsunsen in Speyer, Worms und Main~ im Jahre 1096, ed. M. Manheimer (Darmstadt, 1877), p. 11. 37 "Inventaire critique des lettres historiques des croisades," no. 47; cf. Y. F. Baer, "The Massacres of 1096," in Book S. Asqf (Jerusalem, 1953), pp. 126-40. 38 L. Rabinowitz, Jewish Merchants Adventurers: A Study of the Radanites (London, 1948), pp. 10-24; Walter J. Fischel, Jews in the Economic and Political Life of Mediaeval Islam (London, 1937), pp. 17-44. Only in the fifteenth century were there similar developments in Christendom, with the emergence of the relay-post. News of the battle of Barnet in 1471, for example, traveled the 208 km to Ceme Abbas in one day, and the landing of Queen Margaret at Bamborough in 1462 underwent the 520 km to London in five days. Edward IV could in 1482 expect a series of riders to carry news over a distance of 320 km in two days. See C. A. J. Armstrong, "Some Examples of the Distribution and Speed of News in England at the Time of the Wars of the Roses," in Studies in Medieval History Presented to Frederick Maurice Powicke,

26

Sophia Menache

preached the Crusade on 27 November 1095, it follows that the Jews were capable of obtaining reliable information and, in parallel, of maintaining an intercommunal information exchange with remarkable speed. Though economic considerations lay at the origins of this communication network, the circumstances of 1095 prove its importance for security, as well. 39 The information exchange of 1095 was hardly unique. 40 Again, in the aftermath of the tragedy at Blois (1171), the Jewish leaders of Orl&ns, Paris, Tours, and Troyes communicated their decision to impose special penance and sumptuary rules to the communities in other areas of France as well as in England, Lorraine, and the Rhineland. A circular letter from Orl&ns reached Ephraim of Bonn and the community of Speyer; another letter from Paris passed through Troyes and also reached Speyer.41 Among the Jewish ruling classes, correspondence thus acquired the weight of information exchange. As might be expected, the political elite - Jewish and non-Jewish - had the strongest imperative to develop reliable communication channels, which often acquired an international scope. 42 The implementation of the halachah was another catalyst in the leadership's use of correspondence; the widespread exchange of letters eventually encouraged special legislation to assure their reliability.43 In the ed. R. W. Hunt. W. A. Pantin. and R. W. Southern (Oxford. 1948). pp. 439.

447-48; The Cambridge Economic History oj Europe. vol. 2. ed. M. Postan and E. E. Rich (Cambridge, 1952), p. 264; L. F. Salzman. English Trade in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1931). pp. 186-90.

39 According to Harold Lasswell, WIn animal societies communication is efficient when it aids survival, or some other specified need of the aggregate. WSee H. D. Lasswell. wThe Structure and Function of Communication in Society, W in The Communication oj Ideas. ed. L. Bryson (New York, 1948), p.46. 40 See. for instance, the communal letter that describes the crisis of 992 in the city of Le Mans, following the accusations of the converted Jew, Sehok b. Esther. in Robert Chazan, wThe Persecution of 992, WRellue des etudes juives 129 (1970): 217-21; A. Habermann, Sejer Geeerot Ashkenae lIe-Zarjat [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1945), pp. 11-15. 41 Robert Chazan. wThe Blois Incident of 1171: A Study in Jewish Intercommunal Organization, WAmerican Academy jar Jewish Research Proceedings 36 (1968): 17-21, 24. 42 On the existence of urban communication networks used against the Jews during the Black Death, see Neithard Buist, wNormative Texte als quelle zur Kommunikationsstruktur zwischen stadtischen und territorialen Obrigkeiten im spaten Mittelalter und in der frUhen Neuzeit. Win Kommunikation und Alltag. pp. 132-33. 43 See some examples of personal letters in Colette Sirat, wLes bases de la communication: Edition et circulation des textes manuscrits dans Ie monde juif, W in La societe juille, vol. 4, pp. 202-205.

Communication in the Jewish Diaspora: A Survey

27

early eleventh century, R. Gershom secured epistolary privacy, forbidding a third person to read others' mail without permission.44 This ordinance became an important weapon against the curiosity of letter-couriers, whether merchants, students, or special messengers. Still, letters did not always reach their destination, a problem common to Jewish communities in the framework of Islam and Christendom, as well. From the Geniza records one learns about a young Jewish merchant from Badajoz active in Jerusalem, Tyre, Aleppo, and other cities of Syria, who wrote to a business friend in Fustat and enclosed a letter to his family: "Perhaps one of the merchants from Toledo or one of the pilgrims returning to Madrid is prepared to convey the letter, for my brother and my father used to commute to Madrid. Or, there may be with you even a letter to me from my family, if they believe that I am still alive. "45 We have here clear evidence from an eager letter writer of the difficulties of maintaining fluent correspondence and, moreover, of the corporate, familiar essence of Jewish society, which allowed such an appeal. The poor maintenance of roads, the surrounding violence, the high cost of messengers, all might often cause delays or even the complete loss of mail. R. Meir of Rothenburg refers to a letter that had gone lost and he had notice of its content only two years later.46 More often than not, valuable information about merchandise and their fluctuating prices was transmitted by letters. The importance of such information, when received in proper time, clearly comes through in a letter sent from Alexandria to Old Cairo in the late eleventh century. The writer suggests to his addressee: "Please take notice that no pepper, cinnamon, or ginger are available in Alexandria. If you have any of these commodities, keep them, for the Rum [Byzantines] are keen solely on them." A letter sent from Old Cairo to Aden in January 1133 contained price lists and up-to-date information on the business situation in general. 47 Beside political leaders and merchants, correspondence was also a common communication channel in intellectual circles. About the 44 "Not to read a letter which a man sends to his fellow except with his knowledge and permission"; see Louis Finkelstein, Jewish Self-Government in the Middle Ages, p. 189. 45 S. D. Goitein, Economic Foundations, p. 69. 46 Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg: His Life and His Works as Sources for the Religious, Legal, and Social History of the Jews of Germany in the Thirteenth Century, ed. Irving A. Agus (Philadelphia, 1947), vol. 2, p. 555. 47 Goitein, Economic Foundations, pp. 44-45.

28

Sophia Menache

mid-eleventh century, there was a letter exchange between the "scholars of France and Germany" and the "men of Spain" regarding the proper wording of the blessings at the betrothal ceremony.48 Early in the thirteenth century, there was an active letter exchange across the Pyrenees during the debate on Maimonides's writings; after unsuccessfully discussing the matter with the key leaders of Lunel (1203-1204), R. Meir b. Todros Abulafia49 wrote long missives to R. Solomon of Rouen, R. Samson of Sens,50 and his brother R. Isaac the Younger of Dampierre,51 R. Samson of Corbeil, R. David of Chateau-Thierry, R. Abraham of Touques, and R. Eliezer of Bourges.52 This correspondence proves the regularity of information exchange in Jewish intellectual circles, which allowed a Jew from Toledo to know the names and addresses of the most important rabbis across the Pyrenees. The disputation in Paris - with the resulting burning of the Talmud in 1240 - occasioned a similar letter exchange.53 Obviously, technological developments and, particularly, the diffusion of print simplified these contacts while improving the scope and tempo of the communication network. The premise about the existence of such a communication network led Gershom Sholem to explain the success of Sabbatai Sevi, for example, as the result of an "intense propaganda of Lurianism"; this conclusion assumes the existence of effective communication channels in the seventeenth-century Jewish Diaspora as a whole. 54 Though Sholem's thesis has engendered much criticism in the last few years, his opponents do acknowledge the existence of an 48 I. A. Agus, Urban avili~ation in Pre-Crusade Europe, vol. 1. pp. 57-58. 49 Born into an aristocratic family in Burgos about 1180, Meir Abulafia was

the son-in-law of the Nasi, Abraham b. Alfakar, and this relationship may account for Judah's support of the anti-Maimonist cause in the conflict of 1232. 50 For the prolonged correspondence between R. Meir of Toledo and R. Samson of Sens, see Ketab al-Rasil, ed. Yehiel Brill (Paris, 1871), pp. 107-52. 51 Successor to his uncle, R. Tam, as head of the yeshiva, his tosaphot (additional Talmudical commentaries) and Responsa are quoted in many contemporary works. 52 For the arguments of the Maimonists and their opponents, see the detailed analysis of Joseph Sarchek, Faith and Reason: The Conflict Oller the Rationalism oj Maimonides (New York, 1935), pp. 47-72. 53 See the letter of the leading French figure, R. Samuel b. Solomon, to R. Meir of Rothenburg; cited by Ephraim Urbach, Ba'aley ha-TosaJot [Hebrew) Jerusalem, 1955), pp. 378-79. 54 Gershom Sholem, Kabbalah (Jerusalem, 1974), p. 246; Id., Sabbatai Sevi the Mystical Messiah - 1626-1676, trans. R. J. Zwi Werblowsky (Princet"on, 1973), pp. 33-66, 69-71, 75.

Communication in the Jewish Diaspora: A Survey

29

intercommunal communication network.55 Likewise, in l;Iasidic circles letters served as an important communication channel between the rabbi, his close circle, and his adherents - whether from neighboring or farawayareas. 58 The communal leadership thus tried, and to a considerable degree also succeeded, to monopolize communication and assure control over specialized communicators in the corporate framework. The invention of print and its rapid diffusion among Western Jewry, however, jeopardized this convenient status quo. At the synod held at Ferrara (21 June 1554), there were serious efforts to regulate the use of print to avoid the uncontrolled diffusion of books and new ideas: Printers shall not be permitted to print any hitherto unpublished book except with permission of three duly ordained rabbis, and the consent of the heads of one of the communities nearest the place of printing, if the city in which the book is printed is a small one. If it is a large city, the agreement of the heads of that community shall suffice, provided the consent of three ordained rabbis is obtained as said above ..•. Otherwise no one shall be permitted to buy the book under penalty of a fine of twenty-five scudi.57

From the perspective of the communal leadership, the improvement of communication channels such as print did not legitimize the democratization of education or, even less, any diminution of rabbinical control. Though print soon became an important tool in the diffusion of the Bible and prayer books, the Ferrara ordinance faithfully reflects the elite's reluctance to change traditional patterns of behavior. On the other hand, there is rich evidence of the enthusiastic welcome of print in Western Jewry: several old printed Hebrew books contain poems in praise of the art, which "enables one man to write with many pens." The Jewish printer was not regarded as a mere artisan but as "the performer of a holy work."58 The itinerant nature of press artisans brought about the rapid spread of the new technology from Germany across Europe. In Italy, 55 Moshe Idel, ··One from a Town, Two from a Clan' - The Diffusion of Lurianic Kabbala and Sabbateanism: ARe-Examination,· Jewish History 7-2 (1993): 79-104; see, also, Jacob Barnai's article in this volume. 58 Raya Haran, ·On the Copying and Transmission of Hasidic Letters· [Hebrew], Zion S6 (1991): 299-320. 57 Louis Finkelstein, Jewish Self-Government in the Middle Ages, p. 304. 58 Steinschneider, • Art JUdische Typographie in Ersch and Gruber,· Allegmeine Encyklopadie, vol. 28-2.

30

Sophia Menache

the Jewish presses were activated by German Jews, and certain itinerant families - Soncino, Sahor, and Hulicz - practiced the art to perfection. During the sixteenth century, print spread to the Jewish communities of Holland, Turkey, the Levant, and the Slavic lands (see map).59 Two main type fonts were used, the square and a kind of special italic that became known as rabbinical, or more popularly Rashi. In the eighteenth century, a cursive type for printing Jewish-German books was introduced. The sizes of the oldest Hebrew books were folio and quarto, the paper was stout, and the ink used was black, occasionally substituted with red.

2. The Halachah The fulfillment of the hallachah and its continuous exegesis formed a main catalyst in the emergence of a communication network. 6o Though in the west debate continued as to the power-balance among different communities, the recognition of rabbinical authority nevertheless favored intercommunal communication. Synods served this purpose, especially in Ashkenaz. In their original form, rabbinical synods appeared as ad hoc meetings in which the communities' representatives discussed matters of general interest, whether in the framework of religious-civil life or as part of the delicate web of dealings with secular rulers and non-Jews in general. According to Rashi, a meeting of all the members of the community or of its most important components constituted a plenipotentiary court, since among its members were certainly "the three greatest scholars." Rashi further asserted that "any three men appointed as a court of law over Israel, are equivalent to the court presided over by Moses. "61 As to the origins of synods, Finkelstein assumes that the gatherings of the Rhine communities were continuous from the days of R. Gershom, and besides the Three Communities (Worms, Speyer and Mainz), others were also represented. He provides the following data: 62

Zeev Gries, "L'imprimerie comme moyen de communication entre les juives: prolEgom~nes l une analyse d'apr~ des exemples du XVIe si~cle," in La soci~te j.tive, vol. 4, pp. 231-32. 60 On the development of the halachah from ancient times, see Zvi Zohar, "La circulation de la halakhah dans les espaces et Ie temps," in La soci~t~ j.tive, vol. 4, pp. 245-91. 81 Irving A. Agus, Urban Qvilization in Pre-Ousade Europe, vol. 2, p. 590. 62 Louis Finkelstein, Jewish Self-Government in the Middle Ages, pp. 41-104. 59

communaut~

Communication in the Jewish Diaspora: A Survey

31

Date

Place

Participants

1150

Troyes

R. Samuel b. Meir, R. Tam, R. Eliezer b. Nathan of Mainz, R. Eliezer b. Samson of Cologne

after 1160

Troyes

Jacob b. Meir, Isaac b. Baruch, Menahem b. Perez

1196

Worms, Speyer or Mainz

R. David b. Kalonymos

R. Eleazar b. R. Judah of Worms, R. Eliezer b. Joel Ha-Levi, R. Simhah b. Samuel of Speyer, R. Baruch b. Samuel of Mainz

before 1220

1220

Mainz

R. Eleazar b. R. Judah of Worms, R. Eliezer b. Joel Ha-Levi, R. Simhab b. Samuel of Speyer, R. Baruch b. Samuel of Mainz

1223

Speyer

R. Eleazar b. R. Judah of Worms, R. Eliezer b. Joel Ha-Levi, R. Simhah b. Samuel of Speyer, R. Baruch b. Samuel of Mainz

1238

Crete

1250

Mainz

c. 1270

Nuremberg

1306

Mainz

1354

Barcelona

Representatives of the Kingdom of Aragon

1381

Mainz

R. Moses b. Yekutiel, R. Samuel Bonfant, R. Abraham b. Gamaliel b. Pdahzur

1416

Bologna

1432

VaUadolid

R. David b. Shealtiel, Meshullam b. R. David b. Kalonymos, R. Judah b. Moses Ha-Kohen R. Meir b. Baruch

Representatives from Rome, Padua, Ferrara, Bologna, and Romagna and Tuscany R. Abraham Benvenisti and other Castilian leaders

Sophia Menache

32 1475

Nuremberg

1554

Ferrara

1642

Corfu

Additional councils held in 1493, 1562, 1582, 1603 in different areas of Germany R. Meir Katzenellenbogen of Padua and Isaac Abrabanel Members of the Pipi and Di Mordo families

The above table hints at the lack of a regular basis for the meetings,63 their summoning being a response to both internal and external factors. The list of well-known rabbis that accompanied each synod corroborates the fact that the initiative of an outstanding scholar, whose authority was widely recognized, was a condition sine qua non. In most cases, synods were conducted in trading centers, especially during fairs. Thus, Troyes, which served as a periodical meeting-place for twelfth-century synods, annually hosted two of the Fairs of Champagne, one in the summer in the town itself and the second in the winter in its suburb of Troieces (the Tresetto of the ltalians).64 The Jews' unstable situation and the many crises they had to face also motivated synods: In 1306, following Philip the Fair's expulsion edict and Henry VH's financial conditions for allowing the settlement of additional Jews in Germany, the council of Mainz was assembled to raise the 30,000 marks requested by the emperor. Similarly, the blood-libel of Simon of Trent and the need to cope with new waves of hatred of the Jew inspired the council of Nuremberg in 1415.

The contribution of synods as a meeting place and, thus, as a communication channel among the political and intellectual elite of Ashkenaz is rather obvious. One should note, moreover, that their influence went beyond the circle of actual participants because of careful procedures designed to achieve maximal pUblicity. The authority of the rabbis presiding over these meetings served as a source of legitimacy for their ordinances and justified their formal promulgation among a large number of communities, under both Christian and Moslem rule. 65 The 63 On parallel developments in the Church, see Sophia Menache, The Vox Dei, pp. 58-60. 64 On the medieval fairs, their location, and commercial role, see C. Verlinden, "Markets and Fairs," in The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. 3: Economic Organization and Policies in the Middle Ages, ed. M. M. Postan, E. E. Rich, and Edward Miller (Cambridge, 1965), pp. 119-56. 65 The diffusion of ordinances in Christian and Moslem areas presumed a basic knowledge of the general situation in these areas. Rashi, for example, was

Communication in the Jewish Diaspora: A Survey

33

synod of Troyes (c. 1150), which prohibited the unauthorized, private use of governmental authority in Jewish affairs, specifically established that: this is the document called ?a~ ha-Mateh, that was decreed by R. Samuel b. R. Meir and R. Jacob b. R. Meir and their brother R. Isaac, the descendants of the great guide Rashi. [They sent this document] throughout the entire dispersion in the Kingdom of France, and Lotharingia, and Germany, and much of Spain. 66

Another version of the same ordinance reports in detail the participation of representatives from Troyes, Dijon, Auxerre, Sens, Orl&ns, Chalonsur-Saone, Reims, Paris, Melun, Etampes, Normandy, Brittany, Anjou, Poitou, and Lotharingia;67 that is, from the Empire, Burgundy, Champagne, the TIe de France, and the Angevin territories in the Kingdom of France. Similarly, the second synod of Troyes, which met after 1160 to discuss the disposition of the dowry, was attended by rabbis coming from Normandy, Anjou, Poitou, and the TIe de France.88 Beyond ephemeral crises, synods thus became a crucial communication channel to regulate Jewish life and, in parallel, to strengthen the solidarity links among Jews in different sociocultural and political environments. The need to secure the uninterrupted accomplishment of the halachah, though basic to the Jewish Diaspora as a whole, increased at times of expulsions, when the Jewish population was forced to face a new reality.69 Expulsions were hardly a new phenomenon in the annals of Jewish history. Though England, Aquitaine, and France served as precedents, the attachment of Castilian and Aragonese Jews to their "homeland"70 nevertheless made the expUlsion in 1492 and their acculturation in new areas most difficult. From the time of their well acquainted with the Moslem rite of slaughtering animals. Jews of Mainz, Worms, and Troyes came in contact with merchants who traveled in Moslem lands and knew well some of their customs. See Irving A. Agus, Urban Ovi/i~ation in Pre-Ousade Europe, vol. 2, p. 765. 66 Louis Finkelstein, Jewish Self-Government in the Middle Ages, p. 159. 67 Ibid. p. 155. 68 Ibid., p. 166. 69 The most significant example is that of Rashi, who died shortly after the First Crusade (1104-1105). Until the end, he remained in contact with Jewish communities all over Europe, which turned to him for spiritual guidance. See E. Shereshevsky, Rashi, the Man and his World (New York, 1982), passim; on Rashi's concern and understanding of the personal tragedy of those who were compelled to baptize, see Seier Rashi, ed. R. Yehudah Leib Hacohen Fishman [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1951),pp. 532- 37. 70 See the classic study by Itzhak Baer, A History of the Jews in Christian Spain [Hebrew] (Tel Aviv, 1965), pp. 284 ff.

34

Sophia Menache

establishment in Fez, the Castilian leadership confronted the challenge of preserving the customs and standards of their coreligionists while avoiding local influences. They succeeded in finding a suitable substitute to replace the German synods by bestowing juridical force on rabbinical ordinances. Signed by the rabbis and the leaders of the counsel and approved by the whole community gathered in the local synagogue, each taqqanah was transcribed in the Book of Ordinances, which had the force of law.71 Copies of the Book of Ordinances were distributed to the rabbis and the Moroccan tribunals, especially in Fez and Meekness, which implemented them in religious juridical practice. The content of the ordinances suggests a strong Spanish inspiration, together with influences from Asbkenaz, Italy, the Ottoman Empire, and Palestine.72 Whether enacted in the framework of a formal assembly [oral delivery] or by rabbinical authority [written documents], the ordinances appear both as a result and as a catalyst of the communication network: being themselves an important source of information and an outcome of the communication network linking different diasporas, their efficacy was, however, conditioned by their subsequent diffusion. The centrality of the halachah in communication developments is further reflected through wandering scholars and students who became itinerant either to enhance their erudition or to assure their sustenance.73 When Nathan ha-Yar!ti visited Toledo, he reported on the lifestyle and religious practices of the various communities he had observed on his way; so did Moses of Coucy, an itinerant preacher in Northern France.74 Whether as casual visitors or in their capacity as preachers, such itinerant scholars acted as communication channels among the different communities they visited. 75 Itinerancy, moreover, 71 Abraham Anqawa collection, Kerem Hemer (Livourne, 1871) covered two and a half centuries of this codification, from the end of the fifteenth until the middle of the eighteenth century. 72 Haim Zafrani even speaks in terms of a "histoire paral1~le" between Western· Jewry and its Hispano-Marrocan coreligionists, see "L'6co1e espagnole, r~f~rence privil~gi~ des d~cisionnaires Nord Africains: Taqqanot et Responsa d'Espagne et du Maghreb," Revue des etudes juives 152 (1993): 316-44. See, also, Jacob Chetrit's article in this volume. 73 Mordechai Brauer, "Wandering Students and Scholars: Prolegomena to the History of Yeshivot" [Hebrew l, in Culture and Society in Jewish Medieval History: Festschrift in Memory of Haim Ben-Sasson (Jerusalem, 1989), pp. 445-68. 74 R. Moses of CoueY, Seier Mizvot Gadol [Hebrewl, ed. Eltar Pinchas Farber, (reprint Jerusalem, 1991); see his Introduction and also Urbach, Ba'aley ha-Tosa,fot, pp. 384-95. 75 An additional itinerant factor were the cantors (whom Goitein compares to opera singers nowadays), who led the congregation in prayer. See his "An

Communication in the Jewish Diaspora: A Survey

35

went far beyond an irregular transmission of information: it stood at the very core of medieval study in general and Jewish learning in particular. Abraham ibn Daud tells the story of four Jewish scholars - R. l:Iushiel. R. Moses. R. Shemariah b. R. Elhanan. and a fourth rabbi whose name remained unknown - who looking for funds for the Babylonian academies were eventually captured by pirates. Sold in different markets. they brought about the establishment of the great centers of learning in Fustat (R. Shemariah), Qayrawan (R. l:Iushiel), and Cordoba (R. Moses).76 Though the story is fiction, it was built on the prevailing conviction of the considerable mobility of Jewish scholars and the influence of Babylonian scholarship on Western Jewry. It further appears symptomatic of both the dispersion characterizing the Jewish Diaspora and as a counterbalancing factor, the unity inherent in the existence of a unique source of inspiration, the halachah. Notwithstanding the many impediments of the times, a considerable number of Jewish scholars abandoned their native environment. R. Meir b. Baruch (c. 1223-93) departed Worms to study in various centers of Ashkenaz until he eventually reached Paris. After his return to Germany, he was successively appointed Rabbi of Kostnitz, Augsburg, WUrtzburg, Rothenburg, Worms, Nuremberg, and Mainz. 77 Though the continuous mobility of R. Meir of Rothenburg appears exceptional, migrating was a rather common phenomenon in intellectual circles. Masliah b. Elijah, the Jewish judge of Palermo during the second quarter of the eleventh century, traveled to Egypt, where he traded in Sicilian silk, and to Palestine; eventually, he visited Baghdad to study with R. l:Iai Gaon, whose biography he dedicated to Samuel ha-Nagid, most probably on the occasion of Masliah's own visit to Granada. 78 A responsum of R. Isaac Alfasi (eleventh century) refers to an itinerant scholar from Eastern France who decided to tour the communities of Spain through delivering public addresses at the synagogues.78 At the same time, the scholars of Eleventh-Century Letter from Tyre in the John Rylands Library,· Bulletin 01 the John RyJands University Library 01 Manchester 54-1 (1971): 94-102. See, also, Ram Ben-Shalom'S article in this volume. 76 Abraham ibn Daud, Seier ha-QabbaJah, ed. Gerson Cohen (Philadelphia, 1967), pp. 63-64. 77 His name, R. Meir of Rothenburg, merely hints at the fact that he stayed longer in that city than in any other. 78 M. Steinschneider, Die Arabische Literatur der Juden (Frankfurt, 1902), p.132. 78 The services of such scholars were much demanded in Spain, where the level of Jewish education was apparently lower than that prevailing in France and Germany. See Irving A. Agus, Urban Civilization in Pre-D-usade Europe, vol. 1, pp. 123-24.

Sophia Menache

36

Qayrawan referred in a letter to Rav l;Iai to actual incidents related to them by "scholars of Palestine" and "scholars of Italy." They also alluded to certain reliable traditions of "the men of France,"80 thus hinting at substantial channels of information transmission among rabbinical circles on both shores of the Mediterranean and under Christian and Moslem rule, as well. R. Prigores, a great talmudic scholar from France, traveled to the Moslem city of Cordoba and settled there.81 R. Asher b. Yehiel, born in Germany about 1250, became at the age of fifty or older a teacher of Talmud to Spanish-speaking students.82 A thirteenth-century French scholar of the standing of R. Joseph b. Gershom, after serving as a judge in Alexandria, traveled to Baghdad, where his scholarship made a deep impression on contemporaries.83 Beyond the mobility of some wellknown personages and the communication developments they personify, one may further point to regular connections among scattered communities. 84 Rabbis from England were very close to Talmudic commentators from France and Germany (the Tosaphists); they cited each other's decisions and legal opinions and appeared in each other's martyrologies.85 The pursuit of learning did not always cause a continuous absence, since disciples occasionally returned home during their training period. When Rashi was studying at Worms, he went home to Troyes, probably for the holidays.88 In such cases, the scholars' communication role became most significant, since it received a cyclic nature. In the world of Islam, too, the relatively strong control exercised by the academies over remote communities may be explained by the fact that many local leaders had pursued their studies at these institutions. Since study was a lifetime obligation, the method pursued orally in the yeshiva was later continued through correspondence and could, therefore, persist. A Gaon writing from Iraq in 953 mentions that he possesses religious and legal queries 80 Irving A. Agus. Urban Ovilization in Pre-O'usade Europe. vol. 1. p. 56.

Ibid .• p. 126. On the Jewish scholars' mobility across the Pyrenees. see Simhah Asaf. "Interchange of Responsa between Spain. France. and Ashkenaz" [Hebrew), Tarbitz 8 (1937): 162-70. 83 S. D. Goitein. Economic Foundations. p. 52. 84 See. for instance. the active correspondence of the Crown Rabbi of Aragon. R. Hasdai b. Abraham Crescas. with the communities in the Comtat Venaissin ani Navarra. See Yom Tov Assis. "R. l;Iasdai Crescas's Contribution to the Recuperation of the Jewish Communities After the Massacres of 1391" [Hebrew), Proceedinss oj the Tenth Congress oj Jewish Sciences (1989). vol. 1 (Jerusalem. 1990). pp. 145-48. 85 Paul R. Hyams. "The Jewish Minority in Medieval England. 1066-1290." Journal oj Jewish Studies 25 (1974):271-72. 88 Irving A. Agus. Urban Ovilization in Pre-O'usade Europe. vol. 2. p. 743. 81

82

Communication in the Jewish Diaspora: A Survey

37

sent from Spain to his great-grandfather and to his grandfather and even to the Gaonim preceding them. 87 The desire to learn from an outstanding rabbi, to become closer to him and his retinue, continued well into the eighteenth century. Though the Hasidic movement developed in a completely different framework, which enjoyed, inter alia, the services of print and post, mobility remained a characteristic of those circles, as well. The aspiration to be near the rabbi favored continuous traveling to him, even over long distances. 88 Geographical mobility, however, was not always motivated by intellectual purposes. A query addressed to R. Gershom suggests that some Jews occasionally traveled to distant places merely in order to satisfy their urge to see the world.89 This possibility created propitious grounds for R. Tam to confine the time which a scholar might stay away. "Unless he receives the consent of his wife in the presence of proper witnesses," the husband's absence was limited to eighteen months. Still, a court of Seven Elders could allow him to stay away longer if "he must collect his debts, or if he is occupied in study, or learning to write, or he is engaged in business." Nevertheless, "when the husband returns from his journey he must remain at home for no less than six months before undertaking a second journey. "90 One learns about the critical problems that may arise from long periods of absence from the case of a pregnant woman whose child's legitimacy was put into question since she gave birth one year after her husband's departure!91 A scholar in Palestine wrote around 1180 to his son-in-law who had quitted to Egypt, to complain bitterly that the latter was enjoying himself with food, drink, and plays, while his wife and children were being held as pawns by the Count and Countess of Tiberias.92 Whether motivated by simple curiosity or by intellectual aspirations, the many travels of Jews - whether merchants, preachers, rabbis, or just adventurers - were in fact conditioned on the existence of a communication network between the voyagers and the local Jewish population. A Jewish wayfarer committed to dietary and religious observances could not run away to distant places without acquiring previous knowledge of the communities along the route in which he might accomplish his religious duties, find shelter and food, and even store his S. D. Goitein, The Community, pp. 7-13. Raaia Heran, "The Copy of Hasidic Letters," Zion 56 (1991): 303. 89 Irving A. Agus, Urban Ovilization in Pre-crusade Europe, vol. I, p. 355. 90 Louis Finkelstein, Jewish Self-Government, pp. 169-70. 91 Rabbi Meir of Rothenbur&, vol. I, pp. 283-85. 92 S. D. Goitein, Economic Foundations, p. 58.

87

88

38

Sophia Menache

merchandise when need arose. 93 An unidentified responsum, probably of R. Sherira Gaon (end of the tenth century), refers to Jewish scholars who "came from a Christian land and were domiciled in an inn exclusively inhabited by Jews."94 By the tenth and eleventh centuries, we notice the existence of inns owned by Jews, especially in the Mediterranean harbors, and which served as commercial meeting-points. 95 The existence of such hostels further corroborates the scope of Jewish trade - which developed along permanent routes - and its contribution to the emergence of a communication network. Though these channels were promoted first and foremost by and for commercial purposes, their very existence was of crucial importance as clearly demonstrated during the First Crusade. The bonds of trade and friendship were often strengthened by "diplomatic" marriages, which were an additional factor in communication networks. Shmuel Lukhtiish, the head of a leading eleventhcentury Spanish family, was married to a lady from Old Cairo; Sahlan b. Abraham of Baghdad married in 1037 the daughter of a Jewish chief judge of Sijilmasa in Morocco; and the daughter of Nissim b. Jacob fun Shahin of Qayrawan was married to Joseph ha-Nagid, the son of the vizier of Granada. Marriages between families living in Palestine, Lebanon, or Syria and those in Egypt are referred to frequently in the Geniza records. As well noted by Goitein, however, these relationships were not confined to Moslem countries. Jewish ladies from Egypt were married in Crete or Romania, and Egyptian doctors settling in Byzantium married native Jewish women.9B Traveling - which in its most extreme form turned into migration became an important means of cultural transmission, as illustrated by the Kalonymos family, one of the most noted of all Jewish families in the middle ages. When members of the Kalonymos family migrated from Rome to Lucca after 855 and to Mainz between 917 and 950, they became most influential in shaping the liturgical and mystical traditions of Ashkenaz. In his SeJer ha-Roqeah (Book oj the PerJurmer, early 93 There is ample evidence of the support and warm hospitality - for which German and French Jews were famous - extended to guests and travelers. See Irving A. Agus, Urban Civilization in Pre-Ousade Europe, vol. 1, pp. 97-98, vol. 2, p. 466. 94 Ibid., vol. 1, p. 55. 95 Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 637-38; from the thirteenth century onwards, the same inns served the local poor. See Israel Yuval, ·Hostels and Hostelers in Medieval Germany· [Hebrew), Proceedings 0/ the 10th International Congress 0/ Jewish Sciences, (1989), pp. 125-29; Yacob Gugenheim, ·Social Differentiation in Medieval Ashkenaz: The Poor,· Ibid., pp. 130-36. 9B S. D. Goitein, Economic Foundations, pp. 48-49.

Communication in the Jewish Diaspora: A Survey

39

thirteenth century), Eleazar of Worms associates the most notable members of the family with the development of Jewish ritual in such central matters like the Yom Kippur liturgy, praying with mystical effect, the nature and effects of sins, etc. Apart from attesting to migration history, the stories associated with the Kalonymide wanderings transmit chains of learning-traditions.97 An important focus of migration through all ages remained the Land of Israel, with which there was a continuous interchange of correspondence.98 The relatively high degree of literacy of the average Jew was an important factor in the emergence and evolution of communication, especially in its written forms.99 The habitual reading and expounding of the Bible and other sacred texts was a duty incumbent on every Jew, and the house of worship was also a house of learning. The following testimony from the Cairo Geniza hints at the prevalence of learning in daily life. In a letter from al-Mahdiyya, Tunisia, his elder brother congratulated Abu Zikrl Judah Ibn Sighmar on the occasion of the birth of his firstborn and emphasizes: You wrote that you had gone over the Bible a second time and knew it and, furthermore, that you studied the Mishnah and the Talmud. You made me extremely happy with this. It really is the crowning of your success and happiness ... but the study of Arabic calligraphy should not be neglected. 100

Though the frequency of weekday courses is not indicated in the sources, one document of around 1240 mentions that the son of a judge in Old Cairo, who had to go into hiding for political reasons, gave public classes on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. In addition to formal lectures given by scholars, there were regular, shorter readings of texts connected with the daily service. In Christendom, as well, early documentation took for granted the basic erudition of every male-Jew. R. Leontin, the teacher of R. Gershom, 97 Kenneth Stow, Alienated Minority, pp. 70-71, 88; on the route followed by the Kalonymous family on their way to Germany, see his article in this collection. 98 Ephraim Kanarfogel, "The 'Aliyah of "Three Hundred Rabbis" in 1211: Tosafist Attitude Toward Settling in the Land of Israel," The Jewish OJarterly Review 76-3 (1986): 210-11; for the Crusade period, see Joshua Prawer, The History 0/ the Jews in the Latin Kingdom 0/ Jerusalem (Oxford, 1988), passim; and Sylvia Schein's article in this volume. 99 Philippe Braunstein, "La communication dans Ie monde du travail A la fin du moyen Sge," in Kommunikation und Alltag, p. 76. 100 S. D. Goitein, The Community, p. 193.

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assumed that most members of the community of Troyes were talmudic scholars. R. Gershom himself refers to a large group of Jewish merchants who daily spent a number of hours in purely cultural pursuit. 10l R. Isaac haLevi, the teacher of Rashi, had great respect for the scholarship of the general public of his day.102 Rashi himself claimed that "Israelites, however, are [all] scholars [nowadays]"; that is, they were well versed in Jewish law, and a majority of them had a good knowledge of the Talmud. 103 This relative high degree of literacy receives further corroboration from non-Jewish sources. One of Abelard's students testifies to this phenomenon: If the Christians educate their sons, they do so not for God, but for gain in order that the one brother. if he be a clerk, may help his father and mother. and his other brothers .... But the Jews. out of zeal for God and-love of the law, put as many sons as they hav.e to letters, that each may understand God's law.... A Jew. however poor. if he had ten sons would put them all to letters, not for gain. as the Christians do, but for the understanding of God's law. and not only his sons, but his daughters. 104

Though books were very expensive, the Responsa literature suggests that the average Jew, even poor, owned books. 10S True, in many cases, Jews could read just their prayers and hardly understand their content; further, most testimonies refer only to male Jews. As a rule, women did not learn to write and the vernacular was introduced into the synagogue for their benefit. The Geniza papers, however, indicate that women, unmarried girls included, attended synagogue regularly; and a responsum of Maimonides deals with a class composed entirely of girls. Moreover, in a letter to the Nagid of Egypt, a woman entrusted with the supervision of orphan girls suggests placing two of them with a lady who would instruct them in "female-arts" like embroidery, while a private instructor would 101 Irving A. Agus, Urban Civilization in Pre-Ousade Europe, vol. 1, pp. 206-207. 102 Simhah Asaf. "Interchange of Responsa," p. 169. 103 IrvingA. Agus, Urban Civilization in Pre-Ousade Europe, vol. 2, p. 770. 104 Commentarius Cantabrisiensis in Epistolas Pauli e Schola Petri Abaelardi, ed. A. Landgraf (Notre Dame, Indiana, 1937), vol. 2, p. 434; see, also, Beryl Smalley, The Study o/the Bible in the Middle Ases, (1952, Notre Dame, Indiana, 1964), p. 78. 105 Irving A. Agus. Urban Civilization in Pre-Ousade Europe, vol. 1, p. 338; on the use of books for a dowry or as securities for loans, see also Rabbi Meir 0/ Rothenburs, pp. 228, 648-52, 659; on the fabrication of books and their purchase, loan, and copying, see Colette Sirat, "Les bases de la communication." pp. 211-16, 227-29.

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come to the house to teach them the prayers, "so that they should not grow up like wild animals and not even know 'Hear 0 Israel.'" 106 "A scholar should learn how to write." This amazing talmudic item in the list of accomplishments required of a scholar (Hulllm 9a) is to be understood in light of the fact that although the knowledge of reading was fairly common, writing nevertheless was an art acquired by persons who had a special reason to use it (clerks, copyists, scholars, teachers, physicians, merchants, etc.). Still, there was no learned caste in traditional Jewry, for every Jew studied the law. Boys about thirteen years old were often competent to read the prayers for the congregation. Occasionally, contemporary records corroborate the existence of accomplished women scribes. A Jewess of Regensburg named Litte wrote the History of David in a German dialect, using rhymes interspersed with a few Hebraisms. Another Jewess from Rome, Deborah Ascarelli, translated Hebrew hymns into elegant Italian verses. 107 The previous examples hint at the fact that many Jews had bilingual skills,loS a rather exceptional phenomenon in traditional societies - with the exception of the clergy or/and the sociopolitical elite. 109 Bilingual skills are implied by the form in which Jewish names were usually found in non-Jewish sources, as translations of their Hebrew meanings rather than phonetic transliterations. 110 This knowledge of an additional language to Hebrew was undoubtedly encouraged by occupations in finance and trade, much of which was performed outside the 106 Deut. 6: 4-9, the central piece of the daily prayers. See S. D. Goitein, The Community, pp. 183-84. 107 Israel Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ag",s, pp. 366-69. 108 Colette Sirat, "Les bases de la communication," p. 219, n. 104. 109 Thus, the very fact that Henry II of England or Emperor Frederick II spoke various languages was emphasized by contemporary chroniclers as a peculiar occurrence. Only from the sixteenth century was there a similar linguistic knowledge, especially among Protestant and humanistic circles, which appreciated the knowledge of Hebrew other than for missionary purposes. See Eric Zimmer, "Jewish and Christian Hebraist Collaboration in Sixteenth Century Germany," The Jewish Quarterly Review 71-2 (1980): 69-88. 110 Current research, however, has not yet reconstructed the glossary of Hebrew terminology in the middle ages; see Shatzmiller's analysis of the double writ from Pamiers (Ariege) in 1302, "Terminologie politique en Mbreu medieval: Jalons pour un glossaire," Revue des etudes juives 142 (1983): 133-40; on Hebrew and Aramaic components in Jewish Diaspora languages, both in the form of loans and loan translations, see Paul Wexler, "Terms for 'Synagogue' in Hebrew and Jewish Languages: Explorations in Historical Jewish Interlinguistics," Revue des etudesjuives 140 (1981): 101-38.

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community.111 In the ninth century. Ibn Khordadbeh mentions Jews who spoke Greek and Latin. Persian and Arabic. the Frankish dialects. Spanish and Slav. ll2 Jews living in the Moslem world wrote their Responsa. codes. letters. and commentaries in Arabic. 113 Jews living in Przemysl. in the south-eastern comer of Poland. in the eleventh century spoke the local language. 114 In his ltinerarium Cambriae. Gerald of Wales (1146-1223) tells of a Jew making puns in Latin and French on the names of his fellow-traveler churchmen on their journey down the Welsh border. 115 Translations of the Bible made by Jews in Spanish were already being printed in the first half of the sixteenth century.116 The relatively high degree of literacy among traditional Jewry. however. did not essentially change the prevalence of oral delivery. Still. the use of oral communication should not be evaluated as a function of culture populaire vis-A-vis culture savante 117 but. rather. of communication habits and the tendency of people to share religious. intellectual. commercial. or/and affective experiences in the corporate framework. Ashkenazic Jewry. indeed. both preserved and transmitted orally a highly developed body of law that became part and substance of its organized community life. 118 The very understanding of the Talmud depended on the oral transmission and the oral explanation of the text verbatim. Agus goes further. stating that compilations were in fact redacted during political and security crises. when the need to preserve rabbinical learning increased. In his view, legal codifications like the Mishna, the Tosefta, and the Midrashim were fostered by the Hadrianic persecutions; similarly. the literary compositions of Rashi and the Tosaphists resulted 111

P. Elman, "Jewish Trade in Thirteenth Century England," Historia

Judaica 1 (1939): 91-104. 112 Israel Abrahams, Jewish life in the Middle Ages, p. 270.

113 S. D. Goitein, "An Eleventh-Century Letter from Tyre in the John Rylands Library," Bulletin oj the John Rylands University library oj Manchester 54-1 (1971): 94-102. 114 I. A. Agus, Urban Qvilization in Pre-Crusade Europe, vol. I, pp. 104-105. 115 Giraldus Cambrensis, kinerarium Kambriae, 1. II, cap. 13, ed. James F. Dimock in Giraldus Cambrensis Opera, ed. J. S. Brewer, 8 vols. (London: Rolls Series, 1861), vol. 6, p. 146. 116 Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, vol. 5, ch. 3. 117 On this terminology, see La nouvelle histoire, eds. Jacques Le Goff, Roger Chartier, and Jacques Revel (Paris, 1978), s.v. "populaire," pp. 458-60, 255, 356, 492; see, also, Michael Richter, "Kommunikationsprobleme im lateinischen Mittelaiter," Historische Zeitschrijt 222 (1976): 45-49. 118 Irving A. Agus, "The Oral Traditions of Pre-Crusade Ashkenazic Jewry," in Studies and Essays in Honor oj Abraham A. Neuman, ed. M. Ben-Horin, B. D. Weinryb, and S. Zeitlin (Philadelphia, 1962), p. 16.

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from the many fears aroused by the First Crusade. Agus's assumption, however, marginalizes the weight of the written word in the world of learning and trade and turns the redaction of legal codifications into a mere consequence of external factors. Furthermore, the scarcity of custumals and codes from the eighth to the tenth century - frequently mentioned in support of the prevalence of oral delivery - might have resulted from the high price of books, which encouraged and sometimes made oral practices obligatory. Moreover, besides the "normal" enemies of books - accidents, theft, insects, re-use of the parchemin - Jewish books, especially the Talmud, were also exposed to charges of sacrilege and, consequently, intentional destruction (e.g., burning). The scarcity of books encouraged oral practices without justifying or causing the devaluation of the written word. Many of these oral patterns originated in the talmudic period and survived unaltered into the eleventh century. Students were to study every treatise of the Talmud "from the mouth" of their teachers, a practice reflected by the expression haka garsinan (thus we repeat by rote). In one of his Responsa, R. Gershom confessed that "I prefer the logic of the words of R. Leon, words he transferred to me." 119 In another responsum, R. Gershom asserted, "I did not explicitly hear the exact punishment for such a breach of law," a clear indication of the oral transmission of Jewish law. 12O Rashi once declared that "these verses are not firmly fixed in my memory," thus suggesting that prayers were recited by heart. 121 A thirteenth-century source reports that "R. Isaac b. Judah (Mainz, mid-eleventh century) heard this logical explanation in the city of Rome from the mouth of Rav J:lai Gaon." 122 The routine of oral delivery sometimes legitimized the recourse to rumors. Thus, in a responsum dealing with the right of a widow to remarry, R. Meir of Rothenburg claims, "It is true that 1 have known a woman who was reported to have received permission to enter upon marital relations with a Gentile. 1 have also heard in France that some women were permitted to have marital relations with Gentiles. "123 Legitimized in the world of learning, oral delivery further characterized daily practices. From Gaonic times, the ~erem was usually performed in the synagogue by the cantor or ~azzan, who holding the Scroll of the Law in the presence of ten adult males pronounced the I. A. Agus. Urban Qvilization in Pre-Ousade Europe. vol. 2. p. 542. Ibid .• vol. 1. p. 264. 121 Ibid .• vol. 2. p. 746. 122 Ibid .• vol. 1. p. 59. 123 (Emphasis mine) Rabbi Meir of Rothenbur&. vol. 1, p. 279. 119

120

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formula "cursed be he.... "124 A person asking for justice could make his claim orally, as did "the woman [whoI came to the community crying bitterly and protesting loudly. "125 Another woman "loudly" complained against her husband "for having driven her out of his house, and for having turned her out without paying her the ketubah" (marriage document) .128 And a non-Jewish maidservant was accused of having insulted some Jews "in the synagogue in the presence of the congregation. "127 Notwithstanding the written essence of Jewish law and the crucial importance of the written word in trade and finance, Jews were not totally exempt from the oral practices characteristic of traditional societies, and of German peoples in particular. l28 Oral promises or declarations had legal weight as shown by a tenth-century statement of the court of Bari refering to the Talmud dictum that "mere verbal promises of a gift made by the parent of the bride or of the groom at the time the marriage is arranged and the betrothal concluded are legally binding (Ket. l02b)." 129 This confirmation of oral practices was of extreme importance in cases of wills mouthed before witnesses. l30 A query of R. Aaron and R. Eleazar, probably addressed to Rashi, specifically refers to a Jew who was critically ill and, "in the presence of the community, relatives and non-relatives, began orally to dispose of his property. "131 In the case of a widow who lost her ketubah, R. Meir of Rothenburg specifically established that she is entitled to collect the [money of herl ketubah. since no document is required to prove the existence of an obligation classified as maase-beth-din. an obligation imposed by the rabbis on all husbands alike .... 132 124 I. A. Agus. Urban Ovilization in Pre-D-usade Europe. vol. 1, p. 333; vol. 2. pp. 541-42. 125 From a responsum from the Seier haDinim. Ibid .• vol. 2. p. 699. 128 From a query addressed to Rashi. Ibid .• vol. 2. p. 684. 127 From a responsum addressed to the community of Troyes by R. Judah b. Meir haCohen and R. Eliezer b. Judah. Ibid .• vol. 2. p. 446. 128 On the oral essence of Germanic peoples. see Ruth Crosby. "Oral Delivery in the Middle Ages." Speculum 11 (1936): 88-110; E. Delaruelle. "La pieta populare nel secolo XI." in La piete populaire au moyen age (Turin. 1975). pp. 3-26. 129 I. A. Agus. Urban Ovilization in Pre-D-usade Europe. vol. 2. p. 554. 130 See the responsum of R. Isaac haLevi and R. Solomon b. Samson to R. Isaac b. Isaac. Ibid .• vol. 2. p. 668. 131 [emphasis minel/bid .• vol. 2. p. 650. 132 Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg. vol. 1. p. 346.

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The prevalence of oral delivery hints at the close integration of communication practices at all levels of social life, thus corroborating the complete lack of a "public space. " The amalgam of written and oral practices further underlines the methodological dilemma implicit in any attempt to differentiate by rigorous chronological categories between pre-modern and modern communication practices. This amalgam of old and new, tradition and transmission, is further reflected in the Books of Customs (Sifre Minhagim), the origins of which go back to twelfthcentury Provence and which became the channel for the continuity of the religiolegal and religiocultural heritage of Babylon. Continuity was spurred on by the codification of accumulated Talmudic laws in Babylon, North Mrica, and Fostat-Cairo from the ninth to the thirteenth century.133 Among the rich collections of customs, one should mention Abraham ha-Yartti's Sefer ha-Minhag, Asher ben Sha'u1's Sefer haMinhagot, Menahem ha-Mei'ri's Magen 'Avot, and Judah he-J:la.sid's Sefer lfasidim. 134 These compilations offered a practical guide instructing people on how to behave, with specific references to Sabbath and holiday observances, dietary regulations, and family life. In the late middle ages, the Books of Olstoms were meant to aid Jews to confront the hardships of everyday life while placing emphasis on the how rather than the why of a custom. As important sources of practical information, the Books of Olstoms interpolate in their texts "the many arrangements for the accumulation of information," which, according to Eisenstadt, indicated "the importance of such knowledge in the more developed traditional societies. "135 Christian and Moslem custumals - such as the Islamic lJ.adit (a record of what Mohammed said. did. or approved) and the Castilian !iete Partidas (codified in 1263 by Alfonso the Learned) evidence the prevalence of such compilations in the traditional environment. One may conclude that although the halachah served as a main catalyst in communication development, it did not displace the traditional framework; rather, it forced the Jews to use conventional means for their own purposes, though with increased scope and tempo. The mobility of Jewish scholars, as well, was hardly exceptional, owing to the itinerant 133 Herman Pollack. "An Historical Explanation of the Origin and Development of Jewish Books of Customs (Si/re Minhasim): 1100-1300." Jewish Social Studies 3-4 (1987): 200. 134 On their diffusion in Babylon. Italy. Spain. Germany. and Provence. see Joseph Dan. Hasidut Ash/cenaz (Jerusalem. 1968). pp. 17-21. 135 S. N: Eisenstadt. "Communication Patterns in Centralized Empires." in Propasanda and Communication in World History. vol. 1, pp. 537-38.

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nature of medieval erudition as a whole. 138 Nevertheless, in the stationary, stable nature of feudal society, coupled with the negative stereotype of Jews, the mobility of Jewish scholars appeared suspicious. For large social strata who barely left the familiar confines of the village or the manor, such mobility appeared but anether symptom of the perfidious nature imputed to the Testes fidei. In his account of the Norwich blood libel of 1144, Thomas of Monmouth pointed to the Narbonne learning center as the core of the Jews' international, criminal organization. 13? In tum, the council of Paris (1213) - convened by Robert de Cour~n, the cardinal legate of Pope Innocent ill to France objected that [the Jews) have now again erected schools for their children where they teach them their doctrines which are contrary to the true fundamentals of learning, and where they instruct them so that they may write down the debts due to their parents which these obtain through usury. Therefore we decree that it is not permitted them to learn this art of writing, but rather the true doctrine .... 138

This invective faithfully hints at the close interaction between learning and trade, both being presented in the Jewish framework in opposition to "the true doctrine"; that is, as antipodes to the behavior patterns of traditional Christendom. 3. Trade l38

The integration of Jews into the behavior patterns of traditional societies calls for insights into their commercial practices, which exerted a crucial influence on communication developments. According to Israel Abrahams, "the Jews were the only great merchants, practically without rivals in Christian circles, until the great Italian republics reorganized 138 Helen Waddell, The Wandering Scholars (1927, 9th ed. London, 1942), pp. 83-122; Jacques Le Goff, Les intellectuels au moyen age (Paris, 1960), pp. 30-35. 13?

The LiJe and Miracles oj St. William oj Norwich by Thomas oj Monmouth,

ed. J. Jessopp and M. R. James (Cambridge, 1896), passim; see, also, Z. Rokeah, "The Monarchy, the Church, and the Jews of Medieval England" [Hebrew), in Antisemitism Through the Ages, ed. Shmuel Almog (Jerusalem, 1980), pp. 127-30. 138 Solomon Grayzel, The Church and the Jews in the XllIth Century: A Study oJtheir Relations During the Years 1198-1254, 2 vols. (1933, New York, 1966), vol. 1. pp. 306- 307. 138 On the Jewish world of commerce according to the Geniza documentation, see S. D. Goitein, Economic Foundations, pp. 148-275.

Communication in the Jewish Diaspora: A Survey

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themselves on a commercial basis." 140 The most important contribution of trade to communication developments lies in its being the main catalyst of the Jews' mobility across extensive areas of Europe, Asia, and Northern Mrica. 141 In the early eleventh century, a Jew of Qayrawiin had a partner in Spain; and in the mid-eleventh century, there were business trips made by Jews from Bohemia to Russia. 142 A prominent Jew like Nahray b. Niss"im possessed houses in Qayrawiin, Alexandria, Old Cairo, and Jerusalem. Another Jew from Palermo had a second house in Dams"is, Egypt, where his wife lived. 143 Regular travel between Tunisia or Sicily or even Spain and the eastern shores of the Mediterranean was nothing exceptional: "I am astonished that he has not come around Passover, as he is accustomed to do," says a letter from Alexandria with regard to a merchant from Tunisia. 144 The existence of well-organized travel at specific periods of time along clearly defined routes is supported by rich documentation; for instance, the Arab postmaster, Ibn Kordadbeh who wrote his account between 854 and 874 - listed four routes of Jewish merchants who traded between Asia and Western Europe.145 An early-eleventh-century responsum refers to a Jewish merchant who "was accustomed to travel to many places and to many towns situated within a day or two of his residence. "146 Very often Jewish tradesmen traveled from Mainz and Worms to the fairs of Cologne, or from Reims to Troyes, a distance of about eighty miles. 147 Jewish merchants frequented the 140 Israel Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ases, ed. Cecil Roth (London, 1932), pp. 232-34; see, also, B. Lionel Abrahams, "The Debts and Houses of the Jews of Hereford in 1290," Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of Ens/and 1 ( 1893-94): 136-59, esp. p. 141 141 As well noted by Richard Ettinghausen, mobi~ity was not a monopoly of merchants; there were also itinerant artisans who, inter alia, influenced the diffusion of traditions in the smaller arts, such as pottery and bookbinding. See Richard Ettinghausen, "Near Eastern Book Covers and their Influence on European Bindings," Ars Orientalis 3(1959): 113-31. 142 Still, from a question addressed to R. Eliezer the Great of Mainz from his student R. Isaac b. Mena~em of France, we learn about the difficulties in maintaining communication with countries across the sea. See Irving Agus, Urban Qvilization in Pre-Q-usade Europe, vol. 1, p. 103. 143 Goitein, Economic Foundations, p. 61. 144 S. D. Goitein, Economic Foundations, p. 42; see, also, Maimonides, Responsa, ed. Jehoshua Blau, 3 vols. (Jerusalem, 1957-61), vol. 2, p. 576; and Ruthi Gertwagen's article in this collection. 145 H. van Werveke, "The Rise of the Towns," in The Cambridse Economic History of Europe, vol. 3, p. 10; Moshe Gil, "The Ridhinite Merchants and the Land of Riidhin," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 17-3(1974): 307-308; see also, A. Grossman's article in this collection. 146 Irving Agus, Urban Qvilization in Pre-Q-usade Europe, vol. I, p. 99. 147 Ibid., vol. I, pp. 108., 174, 178-79.

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routes between Mainz and Hungary (400 miles) to the Byzantine Empire, an overland route of crucial importance for importing luxury articles from the east.148 In most cases, traveling practices assumed the significance of communication channels and were considered as such by contemporaries. 149 "You who are traveling the roads, tell us what you heard," said a twelfth-century dean to merchants who had come to pass the night in his monastery.l50 Merchants served as letter-couriers and information transmitters on an international scale among the different communities through which they passed. Jews also utilized the services of the Moslem commercial mail services, especially on the routes between Tunisia and Egypt, Alexandria and Cairo, and from Cairo to Ramie. Notwithstanding the many impediments, especially the Sabbath travel prohibition, Jews also appear in the capacity of couriers on certain routes: AlexandriaCairo, Egypt-Palestine, and perhaps also Egypt-Tunisia. In a letter from Alexandria that was carried by one Jacob, the writer says that he had sent letters "with a Moslem" and that whatever other letters he would forward with Moslems would be delivered to "the House of 'Abd," a Moslem postal agency. Of particular interest is a note in Hebrew written by "MUsil b. Joseph, the Red, the runner," in which he conveys his greetings to the Gaon Joshiah, the head of the academy in Jerusalem around 1015, and informs him that he was going back to Egypt. Normally, one may assume, he carried the letters all the way from Cairo to Jerusalem; but this time he had to turn back to Egypt immediately after his arrival in Ramie, because of which he forwarded the letters destined for Jerusalem with a Moslem colleague. The regularity of this postal service is also attested to by those passages in the Geniza record in which the addressee is implored to use the "service" and not to wait until some business friend made the journey. Another indication of the regularity and wide scope of the commercial mail service is its relatively inexpensive cost. A letter sent from al-Mahdiyya and forwarded from Alexandria to Old Cairo cost just one dirhem; and only half a silver piece was stipulated for a letter forwarded from Alexandria to Tunisia together with a package of letters destined for another person. 151 The mobility of Jewish merchants underscores the question of 148 Ibid., vol. I, p. 88, 92, 104-105. 149 See, for instance, The Discipiina c1ericalis oj Petrus Alfonsi, ed.

Eberhard Hermes, trans. P. R. Quarrie (Berkeley, 1977), c. xvii, xviii. 150 Inchoatio monasterii S. Andrae juxta BruSis, ed. C. van den Haute, Annales de fa Societe d'emufation de Bruses 59 (1909): 301. 151 S. D. Goitein, Economic Foundations, pp. 285-88.

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available routes. which determined the speed and sometimes conditioned the accomplishment of communication. For a long time. the decline of the Roman road network was seen as proof of inadequate mobility in the medieval and early-modem periods. The deterioration of Roman roads. however. was largely due to their inadequacy vis-a-vis the prevailing needs in later periods. The Roman road network had been developed as a response to military and political considerations involving large political units. without giving too much attention to geographical conditions; further. it connected provincial capitals - far from each other. In contrast. the focus of sociopolitical life from the early middle ages up to the seventeenth century was much more localized. 152 Roads were then designed to serve socioeconomic and religious needs and were detached from strategic or military considerations. These differences in goals dictated variances in means. In the early middle ages. there was a "fluvialization" of transport. which was not confined to Christendom but included the Arab world. as well. Wherever there was a major navigable river - such as the Guadalquivir. the Nile. the Euphrates. the Tigris. the Hilmend. or the Indus - merchants exploited it to the full. 153 Boats continued to be a common means of transportation up to the second half of the thirteenth century.154 The cargo-boats filled with eastern commodities in Constantinople sailed up the Danube until they reached Regensburg. from which they returned laden with agricultural products and manufactured goods. Sometimes. the merchants themselves were induced to take the road. and so had to separate themselves from their merchandise. which went by river. Jews preferred to travel by water even for distances under a hundred miles. such as between Acre and Ramie via Jaffa in Palestine. or from Tyre to Tripoli in Lebanon. Inside Egypt. too. transport on the Nile and its various tributaries and canals was the normal means of locomotion. wherever feasible. 155 In the early tenth century. an ordinance of Venice prevented Jews from using Venetian ships; this attempt to counteract competition points at the prevalence of Jewish merchants in maritime 152 Robert-Henri Bautier, "De Paris et des foires de Champagne a la Mediterran&! par Ie Massif Central," in Les transports du moyen age: Recherches sur les routes de ['Europe m~di~'I)ale (Rennes, 1976); proceedings published by the Annales de Bretagne et des Pays de ['Ouest 85 (1978): 99. 153 Robert S. Lopez, "The Evolution of Land Transport in the Middle Ages," Past and Present 9 (1956): 22. 154 The queries further emphasize, at least in one case, that the passenger was "a Jewish young man"; see Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg, pp. 172, 289. 155 S. D. Goitein, Economic Foundations, pp. 275 ff.

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trade in the same or neighboring areas as those reached by Venetian commerce. l56 An anonymous responsum from the SeJer Hadinim hints at the frequency and ease of transporting ship-loads of goods. 157 In the late middle ages, however, the use of waterways for transportation in Europe was limited to certain products and to particular rivers; e.g., in France, the Saone, the Rhone, and the Loire. Though waterways were still used for the transport of heavy bulk goods, like grain, wool, wood, and stones, the share of goods transported by water was not considerable. lss An additional factor for the preference of land trajectories at the time was the location of new commercial towns, some of them distant from important rivers. Medieval itineraries almost always recommended land journeys, with the exception of the popular downstream journey on the Rhone. This advice was carried out in actual practice on the verge of the modem period not only by Jewish merchants but also by the kings of France and the upper classes, who traveled thousands of kilometers by land and only exceptionally by water. Mostly it was the elderly, sick, and tired who made use of boats to reach their destination. 159 The majority of journeys were undertaken either on foot or on horseback. leo The development of trade, coupled with ever-growing political and strategic needs, brought about a considerable increase in roads in Western Europe toward the thirteenth century.161 In areas such as Flanders, the road system was imprOVed to the point that it remained almost unchanged from the thirteenth until the beginning of the nineteenth century.l62 Though routes were modest in appearance,l63 the average distance 156 A. B. Hibbert, "The Economic Policy of Towns," in The Cambridse Economic History of Europe, vol. 3, p. 166. 157 Irving Agus, Urban Civi/igation in Pre-D-usade Europe, vol. 1, p. 84. lSS The Barcelona Jews, however, continued and developed via maris their commercial markets; see Yom-Tov Assis, "The Barcelona Jewry in the Maritime Commerce with the Orient" [Hebrew 1, in Galuth After Gola: Essays in Jewish History in Honor of Haim Beinhart (Jerusalem, 1988), pp. 257-83. 159 Marjorie Ni'ce Boyer, "Roads and Rivers: Their Use and Disuse in Late-Medieval France," Medievalia et Humanistica 13 (1960): 68-69, 75. 160 John Langdon, "Horse Hauling: A Revolution in Vehicle Transport in Twelfth and Thirteenth Century England," Past and Present 103 (1984): 37, 66. 161 During the reign of Philip the Fair (1285-1314), the king fostered a general improvement of routes, especially around Paris, which allowed royal messengers to reach a daily average of 60 km; the voyage speed increased twenty years later, during the reign of Philip IV of Valois, when royal messengers riding horses achieved a daily average of 150 km. 162 Alain Derville, "La premi~re rEvolution des transports continentaux (c. 1000 - c. 1300)," in Les transports du moyen aSe, pp. 185 -86. 163 Lopez, "The Evolution of Land Transport," p. 23.

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attained per day was significant: Means of Transport • pedestrian 164 • runner • riding horse with luggage. packhorse • riding horse • with horse exchange

Daily Achievement 2S-40km SO-60km 30-4Skm SO-60km 80-200km

The above table l85 does not take into account the highest achievements recorded in contemporary sources; it relates only to the average speed achieved in medieval Christendom. One should note that the minimal differences between runners and people riding horses hints at the fact that the latter were .usually accompanied by pedestrians or carriages. which affected their speed. l66 Horses were a common means of transportation used by Jews; in the words of the Sefer Hadinim. in order "to take to the road like all other men." We further hear about cooperation among Jewish merchants who borrowed horses from one another for well-defined periods of time. 16? According to the Geniza records. one would undertake a journey on foot only under quite exceptional circumstances. as when no other means of transport were available. Thus. a scholar from Fustat writes to his brother-in-law. a government official in al-Bahna.sa: After leaving you on Sunday I went on foot, together with 'Imrin and Ibrahim, to Minya, looking for a boat. When I did not find one. I set out as I was, walking to Gizeh and - God is my witness - I plodded along until I arrived on Tuesday afternoon almost dead. At the very hour I arrived, there arrived also the riding beasts belonging to the Amir. 168 164 According to the table of professional couriers given by Giovanni di Antonio da Uzzano. messengers in the mid-fifteenth century traveled about 60-70 km per day. See "Termini di corrieri di andare da luogo a luogo," in Pratica della Mercatura. edt G. F. Pagnini. Della decima e delle altre gravezze imposte dal Comune di Firenze (Lisbon-Lucca, 1766), vol. 4, p. 103. 185 Geert Berings. "Transport and Communication." in Kommunikation und Alltag, p. 70. 166 One should note, however, that carriages, so common in the Roman period, had completely disappeared and are nowhere referred to in the Geniza papers with the possible exception of India, where they were drawn by oxen. See S. D. Goitein, Economic Foundations, p. 275. 167 Irving A. Agus. Urban Ovilization in Pre-O'usade Europe. vol. I, pp. 112-13. 117-18; see, also, Rabbi Meir 0/ Rothenburg, pp. 593, 595. 168 S. D. Goiten. Econmoic Foundations, p. 276.

52

Sophia Menache

The mounts of the Amir were perhaps a regular means of transportation, which did not function according to schedule on that particular occasion. For reasons of both safety and convenience, one traveled in caravans whenever setting out in the Islam world on a more protracted journey, especially in winter, when the sea was closed to ships. Caravans were used not only for crossing deserts but also for passing through densely populated areas. The mawsim were special caravans connecting Egypt and other countries of the Moslem East with Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya and having fixed dates and seasons. The itineraria - reports written by travelers for those who pursued any piece of information about foreign areas - exemplify the vinculum between trade and information transmission, first and foremost regarding the road network. "Theoretical" itineraries were written by professional authors, such as those appearing in Albert de Stade's Annales Stadenses or Matthew Paris's Glronica Majora and in the Voiage and Travaile of Jean de Mandeville. They illustrate the rudimentary knowledge available up to the late fourteenth century. "Real" itineraries were written by actual travelers, who gave data concerning routes, passageways, and general information of decisive importance for those who left the familiar neighborhood. l69 If one bears in mind the poor stage of cartography,l70 the itineraria provided a precious source of information, sometimes unique, not only about topography but also about peoples, their customs, and way of life. The practice of making written reports about foreign peoples became a habitual procedure among Venetian merchants, who were well aware of the importance of such knowledge for future commercial interchange. The well-known Livre des merveilles of Rustichello of Pisa, which reports the travels of Marco Polo between the years 1271 and 1295, pertains to this large category.l7l Alongside the political 169 See the excellent, detailed schemes reproduced by Yves Renouard, "Routes, etapes et vitesses de marche de France a Rome au XlIIe et au XIVe siecle d'apr~s les itineraires d'Eudes Rigaud (1254) et de Barthelemy Bonis (1350)," in Etudes d'histoire mediwale (Paris, 1968), pp. 677-97. On transportation between France and Italy, especially the Alpinian passes, see his "Les voies de communication entre la France et Ie Piemont au moyen age," Ibid., pp. 699-707 and the bibliography it includes. 170 Jews were noted map-drawers, and from the fifteenth century onwards, cartography was almost entirely in the hands of Mallorcan Jews. Jefuda Cresques was called the "Map Jew," just as his friend Moses Rimos was popularly known as the "parchment-maker." On the Jews' contribution to cartography and the manufacture of nautical instruments, see Israel Abrahams, Jewish life in the Middle Ages, p. 252. 171 Yves Renouard, "Ferveur exemplaire des etudes sur Marco Polo pour Ie 700e anniversaire de sa naissance," in Yves Renouard, Etudes d'histoire

Communication in the Jewish Diaspora: A Survey

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and intellectual elites, merchants therefore appear the most interested in receiving accurate information with reasonable speed and, as such, constituted the most suitable group to develop communication channelS. The involvement of Jews in trade favored the diffusion of practical guides, similar to those found in Christendom. The best known of all medieval voyages was that of the most famous Jewish traveler, Benjamin of Tudela, a Spanish merchant who c. 1165-1167 traveled from Tudela by way of Catalonia, Southern France, Italy, Greece, the Archipelago, Rhodes, Cyprus, and Cilicia, to Syria, Palestine, the Caliphate, and Persia. l72 His return route took him to the Indian Ocean, the coastal towns of Yemen, Egypt, Sicily, and Castile, to which he returned after an absence of about fourteen years. l73 Benjamin's description - which in both its literary form and language indicates the cultural tradition of Moslem Spain - is filled with details of the different communities he found on his long excursion, such as Narbonne, about which he reports that it is a city pre-eminent for learning; thence the Torah goes forth to all countries. Sages, and great and illustrious men abide here. At their head is R. Kalonymos, the son of the great and illustrious R. Todros of the seed of David. whose pedigree is established. He possesses hereditaments and lands given him by the ruler of the city, of which no man can forcibly dispossess him. Prominent in the community is R. Abraham. head of the Academy: also R. Machir and R. Judah. and many other distinguished scholars. At the present day 300 Jews are there. 174

Benjamin's report also lists faraway areas of which the average reader could hardly have possessed any accurate information. His account of Constantinople Jewry is particularly illustrative: No Jews live in the city. for they have been placed behind an inlet of the sea. An arm of the sea of Marmora shuts them in on the one side, and they are unable to go out except by way of the sea, when they want to do business with the inhabitants. In the Jewish quarter are about 2,000 Rabbanite Jews and about 500 Kara!tes.

mediel)ale, pp. 661-67. 172 Jos~ R. Magdalena Nom de D~u. Ubro de Viajes de Benjamin de Tudela (Barcelona. 1989), pp. 26-45. 173 On the chronological aspects of his report. see the critical analysis of J. Prawer, The History of the Jews in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. pp. 191-94. 174 The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela. ed. A. Asher. Marcus Nathan Adler, and Michael A. Signer (Malibu, 1987). pp. 59-60.

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and a fence divides them. Amongst the scholars are several wise men, at their head being the chief rabbi R. Abtalion, R. Obadiah, R. Aaron Bechor Shoro, R. Joseph Shir-Guru, and R. Eliakim, the warden. And amongst them there are artificers in silk and many rich merchants. No Jew there is allowed to ride on horseback. The one exception is R. Solomon Hamitsri, who is the king's physician, and through whom the Jews enjoy considerable alleviation of the oppression .... Yet the Jews are rich and good .... The district inhabited by the Jews is called Pera. 175

Benjamin's readers could thus receive first-hand information about contemporary Jewry as well as basic demographic figures and up-to-date cultural, socio-economic, and political data - the accuracy of which is now open to question. Besides, being a merchant and, as such, interested in more material aspects, Benjamin records the state of trade and the natural products of each place. Regarding Montpellier, which in the twelfth century was a convenient clearing-house for the trade between Italy and the Levant, Benjamin writes: You meet there with Christian and Mohammedan merchants from all parts: from Portugal, Lombardy, the Roman Empire, from Egypt, Palestine, Greece, France, Spain, and England. People of all tongues are met there, principally in consequence of the traffic of the Genoese and of the Pisans. 178

Another important traveler was Meshullam (Bonaiuto) da Volterra. son of a Florentine loan-banker. who in fulfillment of a vow journeyed in 1481 to Palestine via Naples. Rhodes. and Egypt, and returned via Cyprus, Rhodes, and Greece. His Hebrew-language account of the journey became a valuable information source for other Jews who were interested in following his foot-steps or were just curious about distant places. 177 Besides encouraging a greater awareness of the importance of information transmission at a relatively high speed, the involvement in trade fostered advanced commercial practices. in themselves an outcome of the communication network. In the commenda. which appeared in the pre-Crusade period. one merchant contributed two thirds of the capital Ibid., p. 72. Ibid., p. 33. 177 See, for instance, the important data he brings about local traditions, products, and prices in cities like Alexandria and Cairo, The Itinerary of Meshullam da Volterra in the Land of Israel (1481), ed. Abraham Ya'ari [Hebrew), (Jerusalem, 1948), pp. 47-48, 55-57; on other important travelers in the middle ages and early modern periods, see Gerard Nahon, "La dimension du voyage," in La soci~t~ juive, vol. 4, pp. 340-47. 175

178

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55

while a second provided the remaining third and managed the enterprise abroad, thus justifying his equal share in the profits. In a variant form, one merchant mobilized all the necessary cash and received three fo1.irths of the profits, while the second endured the hazards of trading in return for the remaining quarter. Young, impecunious merchants might therefore trade with the capital of others, while affluent merchants might negotiate a substantial number of separate contracts, thus assuring the safety of their capital through the diversification of risks. 178 Partnerships could be concluded with regard to money, goods, work, or any combination, and the most variegated combinations appear in the Geniza. As well noted by Goitein, the profusion of partnerships between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries was due to the fact that they constituted a substitute for modern forms of employment and loans on interest. An example of such a partnership is provided by Samuel b. Judah Ibn Asad, who in 1152 entrusted linen and other textiles worth 1,000 dinars to two partners, each of whom contributed 50 dinars. The two partners were expected to sell these goods and buy others in Egypt in the course of a year, at the end of which time profits and losses were divided equally among the three partners. l79 The existence of well-established communication channels and their use for the benefit of trade are further indicated by the development of the mamran or mamrem (from the Lat. membrana, parchment).l80 These were legal documents, similar to bills of exchange, used by Jews between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries to meet credit needs. The mamran was a simple document, one side bearing the signature of the debtor and the other the amount of the debt and the date due. It required no witnesses and was transferable without endorsement.181 Being of a universal character - as it did not specify the name of the beneficiary the mamram illustrates the existence of an active social body in which communication was an integral part of socioeconomic life. As such, the mamram and the commenda pertain to the "Prehistory of Communication, since they resulted from the rich socioeconomic interaction among the members of the corporation. II

********* 178 Harry A. Miskimin, The Economy 01 Early Renaissance Europe, 1300-1460 (Cambridge, 1975), pp. 118, 122; see, also, Yom-Tov Assis, -The Barcelona Jewry, - pp. 262 ff. 179 S. D. Goitein, Economic Foundations, pp. 170-79. 180 On the suftaja precedent in the Islamic world, see Ibid., pp. 243-46. 181 I. A. Agus, Urban Ovilization in Pre-D-usade Europe, vol. I, pp. 80-81.

Sophia Menache

S6

Analysis of the communication channels in the Jewish Diaspora uncovers their traditional nature, which resulted from the corporate framework. Though security considerations, commercial links, and a higher level of literacy favored the Jews' more intense use of communication, these factors did not significantly infringe on the isolation and autarchy inherent in the feudal system. Furthermore, the lack of a strong political body in Christendom legitimized the almost complete autonomy of each kehillah, thus posing serious obstacles to the emergence of a communication network. Only outsider interference eventually brought about the ephemeral existence of intercommunal organizations. In the Islamic world, the permanence of larger political bodies and, in parallel, the acknowledgment of a Jewish central authority offered a more favorable arena for intercommunal communication, the existence of which is extensively corroborated by the Geniza documentation. This state of affairs, however, did not substantially alter the traditional nature of the communication network in the middle ages and the early modern era. In the preface of this book, we quoted Colin Cherry's claim that a group of people, a society, a culture, may be defined as people in communication. They may be thought of as "sharing rules" of language, of custom. of habit. the rules [of which]... have evolved out of those people themselves - rules of conformity. 182

Analysis of the main channels of and developments in communication in the Jewish Diaspora affords some insight into this rich world of "people in communication." It further leads to the conclusion that the lack of a political locus standi did not prevent the emergence of a communication network. On the contrary, political considerations were replaced by socioeconomic and religious factors, which together acted as catalysts of communication developments. This interaction among the Diaspora, the halachah. and trade created a fruitful arena for communication developments, and it advances our knowledge of the Jewish Diaspora at the meeting point between tradition and modernism.

182

See "The Prehistory of Communication." note S.

§

o

@

•

Guadalajara 1482

Areas of widespread Jewish printing presses 1475-1500 and 1500- 1550

First weekly newspapers printed in Hebrew

Important printings of Jewish prayer books

Important printing presses , publishing Hebrew books, with date of first known publication

•

•

Prague 1513

Cracow@ 1592 @Lemberg 1788

@Lublin 1571

Lyck • • Grodno 1856 1789

O Vilna 1860

58

BY LAND OR BY SEA: THE PASSAGE OF THE KALONYMIDES TO THE RHINELAND IN THE TENTH CENTURY KENNETH R. STOW·

This is the story (or more precisely a series of possible scenarios and their historical implications) of how the Jews crossed - or did not cross - the Alps. Much has been assumed about this crossing, especially with reference to the arrival at Mainz, from Tuscany, of Moshe b. Kalonymos and other members of the Kalonymos family during the tenth century, beginning from some time between 917 and 950 and culminating about 1010. 1 Yet no one, to my knowledge, has traced (to the extent possible) the precise route anyone of them took. The difficulties begin with the texts themselves. Reports of the Kalonymides' movements are coated with legend, especially the legends which assign a role in the story to Charlemagne.2 • Reprinted by permission from Peter Lang Publishing. 1 For a full discussion of this family. see Abraham Grossman. The Early Sages 01 Ashkenaz [Hebrew] (Jerusalem. 1981). pp. 29-39. in particular. 2 A typical discussion is that of Shimon Dubnow. World History 01 the Jewish Pflople [Hebrew] (Tel Aviv. 1958). vol. 4. p. 76. who takes the story that Otto II brought Kalonymos to Mainz after the battle of Crotone in 982 at face value. Arthur Zuckerman. A Jewish Princedom in Feudal France. 768-900 (New York. 1972). pp. 142-44. would also assign Charlemagne an active role. although not necessarily in transferring the Kalonymides north. Simon Schwarzfuchs. "France and Germany under the Carolingians." in The Dark Ages. ed. C. Roth (Tel Aviv. 1966). pp. 122-42. esp .• 128. writes: "Jewish tradition even asserts that it was Charlemagne himself who brought Kalonymos of Lucca to Mainz. Whatever the truth of this story .... " S. W. Baron. A Social and Religious History 01 the Jews (Philadelphia. 1952-). vol. 5. p. 60. is more openly skeptical. Bernhard Blumenkranz. Les auteurs chretiens latins du moyen age sur les Juils et Ie Judarsme (Paris. 1963). pp. 244-45. however. shows that it was Meir b. Simeon. who in the thirteenth century conflated two legends. one of Charlemagne. and the other from Dietmar of Meresberg. But the most thorough discussion of the legends is in Aryeh Grabois. "Le souvenir et la Iegende de Charlemagne dans les textes hlibra·iques mcSdicSvaux." Le Moyen Age 72 (1966): 5-41. See also. most recently. Michael Toch. "Jewish Migrations to. within. and from Medieval Germany." in Le Migrazioni in Europa. Secc. XII/XVll. ed. S. Cavaciocchi (Firenze. 1994). pp. 639-41.

Kenneth R. Stow

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The exact starting point of Rabbi Moshe's journey was Lucca. Discussing Moshe's wanderings, in Hakhmei Ashkenaz HaRishomm, Avraham Grossman wrote that "Lucca and Mainz ... were key commercial centers . . . [The latter, situated at a] junction on the southern approaches of the Alps[!] . . . was an important . . . way-station for commerce between Italy, France, and Germany."3 But Moshe b. Kalonymos of Lucca and the other Kalonymides who went north did not simply join a pack-train to and from the Rhine. After they first traversed the Appenines, and then the Po valley, their journey, in the words of Richard Southern, was "through the appalling Alps .... A description of the geography and rigors met even as late as the middle of the twentieth century (about the year 1950), in traveling from Lucca in Tuscany to Worms on the Rhine will begin to give an idea of how formidable these rigors were one thousand year before, when, travelling with pack animals, progress was made at about 45 to 75 kilometers a day.s Lucca lies on the plain of the Arno, on the banks of the Serchio, roughly at the foothills of the Tuscan Apennines; and to cross the Apennines in 1950 took time. The Autostrada del Sole was not yet complete, and even today, in 1995, it takes about 45 minutes to traverse the so-called Tratto Apenninico, a bit less than 80 kilometers, in an automobile that might cover this same distance on the plain of the Po in less than 30 minutes. And this is the easier of the two mountain crossings the Kalonymide travellers would have faced. Overland, moreover, there is no way to avoid the Apennines going north from Lucca, unless one descends to the Tyrhennian coast (about 20 km) and sets out to sea. In neighboring Southern Liguria, the mountains extend to the submerged coastline (the last 100 or so km of autostrada to Genoa are over half Grossman, Hakhmei, 55. R. W. Southern, The Making o/the Middle Ages (New Haven, 1963), p. 20. A sense that these journeys were made simply and regularly is conveyed by Alfred Haverkamp, Medieval Germany, 1056-1273, trans. H. Braun and R. Mortimer (London, 1988), pp. 179-80; and, indirectly, by A. Grossman, ·The Roots of Kiddush HaShem in Early Ashkenaz,· p. 111, and Ivan G. Marcus, • Kiddush HaShem in Ashkenaz and the Story of Rabbi Amnon of Mainz· [Hebrew), in Sanctity 0/ Life and Martyrdom: Studies in Memory 0/ Amir Yekutiel, ed. I. Gafni and A. Ravitzky (Jerusalem, 1992), pp. 139-40 where the question of travelling conditions is not at all raised; admittedly, the overall context is not travel, but a discussion of travel might have effected the discussion of ideas in both articles. See also Germania Judaica, vol. I, p. 188, for a similar treatment. s Ren~ Doehaerd, The Early Middle Ages in the West: Economy and Society, trans. W. G. Deakin (Amsterdam, 1978), p. 192. 3

4

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tunnel; the railway is one long tunnel relieved every so often with a glimpse of daylight.) Going eastward from Lucca. the mountains curve southward at Florence and from there form the spine of the Italian peninsula until Reggio Calabria, 1000 km distant. Medievals who did not set out by sea would likely have crossed the Apennines at eisa, the pass leading from the coast to Pontremoli then Parma and Piacenza.6 Now the traveller faced the plain of the Po, as wide as 200 km and flat as a table, which knows extremes of summer and winter temperature and leaves the traveller exposed in full view of sundry dangers. In 1950. and today. the foremost of them is blinding and (on the autostrada) murderous fog. In the year 950. the problem was bandits and horrendous roads since the art of road-building making was generally lost from the end of the Roman period till about the middle of the eighteenth century. Somewhere toward the end of the valley. moreover. the traveller must make a choice. There are three directions. One is to go northwesternly at Piacenza. following the easy Piemontese hills another 200 km until Turin, and then 80 km or so more until the entrance to the Val d·Aosta. The floor of the valley is an easy passage. following the Dora Baltea with a constant incline for 60 km. At Aosta one can again go three ways, although as late as 1950. there were only two. The third opened a bit more than a decade later. the tunnel passing under Mt. Blanc. over 12 km long, which brings one to within not more than an hour or at most two, by automobile, from Geneva. In 1950. from Aosta, one went north. over the Grand St. Bernard, at 2472 m - or used the tunnel. which alone is open throughout the year - into Valais in Switzerland. The descent from there is especially steep. to Martigny. and then Montreux, at the other extreme of Lake Leman from Geneva. A second option from Aosta is to proceed to the foot of Mt. Blanc then to veer westward over the Small St. Bernard, the easiest pass in the region at 2188 m. which even today is traversed without a tunnel. The traveller then enters France, near Moutiers and Albertville and proceeds to the Rhone valley. The second road from Turin is straight west. through the Val di Susa to Mt. Cenis and Mt. Ginevro, coming out on the road to Chambery. In other words. following the Turin option, one invariably arrived in France. Even from Montreux, the easiest route would be on the lake to Geneva. 8 Maurice Lombard, Espaces et reseaux du haut moyen age (Paris, 1972), pp. 82-8; alternately, they were traversed at Monte Bardone; see Maria Clotilde Daviso di Charvensod, I pedaggi delle Alpi occidentali nel medio evo (Turin, 1961), p. 39; see also Yves Renouard, Etudes d'histoire medievale: Voyages, routes et communications (Paris, 1968), p. 679.

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Kenneth R. Stow

which is what half of Charlemagne's army did on its way from Geneva to Lombardy; the other half went by Mt. Cenis. Likely Charlemagne held his pre-departure conference at Geneva because the city was accessible from many directions.? From Geneva or Chambery one might go to Lyons. From Lyons, the road was open, via the rivers, to the south and Marseilles, the north and Paris, or with a portage on the Saone, north of ChAlons-sur-Saone,8 to the Moselle and thence to the Rhine at Koblenz, not far from Mainz. Possibly, one could have avoided a long French detour by going from Martigny not west to Lake Leman, but east to the northern side of the Simplon Pass at Brig; the way is level. But to go north from Brig means crossing the Bernese Overland, no small feat, which even today is done by putting one's car on a train-ferry through the Loetschen Pass. In the middle ages, this passage was not a regular one. Indeed, the Simplon itself, known in Roman times, generally went out of use and so remained until the thirteenth century. Moreover, even when the route was reopened, travellers still proceeded due west, toward Geneva, via Sion and Martigny, or sometimes they turned north at Lausanne.s Retracing our steps to the Po Valley, somewhere about Modena, we could have gone to the northeast, (the second route from the Po) through Verona, Trent, Bolzano, and then the Brenner Pass. The Brenner is perhaps the easiest of the passes going through the Alps, at only 1370 m, but most important, with a gradual slope reached today directly on the autostrada. Even trains, much more sensitive than road traffic to changes in grade, pass through without the shortest tunnel. The Brenner, however, leads into Austria, and an approach to Germany would be from Innsbruck through Munich, after which Augsburg, Stuttgart, and finally the Rhine. This easiest route north thus is also long. Nonetheless, its ease - and width, wide enough for vehicles - made it the pass of choice for imperial armies. 10 Still, there is a better route yet, and it is the shortest of all. One follows the road straight to Milan, then north to Como, Lugano, and the St. Gotthard, thence to Lucerne, Basel, Colmar, Strasbourg, and Speyer, ? Louis Halphen, Charlemagne and the Carolingian Empire, trans. Giselle de Nie (Amsterdam, 1972), p. 74. 8 Charvensod, I pedaggi, pp. 43-46; Renouard, Etudes, pp. 702-703; and Robert-Henri Bautier, Sur l'histoire economique de la France medievale (Hampshire, 1991), vol. 5, p. 13. S Charvensod, I pedaggi, pp. 47-48; the road from there to Basel is not difficult, but its low usage suggests a lack of comemrce on it. 10 J.W. Thompson, An Economic and Social History oj the Middle Ages (London, 1959), pp. 324-25.

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Worms, and Mainz. The catch, of course, is that this passage, now open year round, is so open thanks to the modern and recently built tunnel. Indeed, in the wintertime, it is often the only road open through the Swiss Alps (and to add a personal note, even it may be closed. As late as April, 1992, a snow storm nearly kept me from passing through). On the other hand, and with respect to the Kalonymides - to take us back to our specific subject - this route was always closed. For it was opened to traffic only in the thirteenth century, when the gorge over the River Reuss between Goeschenen and Schoellenen was finally bridged. l1 Previously, from Milan, to go north, one went first to Turin or Ivrea, then over the Grand St. Bernard. There was, to be sure, the Septimer, which led from Como to Chur and then Constance. But this was a hard passage and may have been limited to missionaries and pilgrims, or at most the traffic in cloth.12 Hence, between 650 and 1250, the only realistic routes - meaning, by realistic, for trade and armies - going from Italy to the north were through Austria and France. Further, the route taken was regularly overland. It was often deemed worthwhile to go north from Genoa not by sea to Marseilles, then up the Rhone, but over the mountains into the Piedmont Valleyl3 and then through the Val d'Aosta and over the St. Bernard passes, or, alternately, via the Val da Susa and the Mt. Cenis-Mt. Ginevro passes, just as Charlemagne's divided army, moving in the opposite direction on these roads, reunited at Parma, where he met Alcuin and eventually reached Pavia. 14 Similarly, Isaac, the emissary of Charlemagne to Harun aI-Rashid, tarried the winter in Italy because the Alpine passes were snowed-in. IS But why did he have to wait?16 Could he not simply have gone down to, and by, the sea? Why did others, too, shun a sea voyage? The mountain-overland route seems senseless when it is clear that the easiest way north from Italy 11 Donald Matthew, Atlas oj Medieval Europe (Oxford, 1983), pp. 78-79. Charvensod, 1 pedaggi, p. 47. 12 Lombard, Espaces, p. 91, n. 58; Matthew, Atlas, p. 79; however, Westermanns Grossen Atlas ~ur Weltgeschichte (Braunschweig, 1956), p. 50, map 1, indicates that cloth (tuche) was transported early by this route; and Doehaerd, Early Middle Ages, p. 175, points to Alcuin writing to the bishop of Chur to aid a merchant on his passage to and from Italy, surely, through the Septimer. However. the pass was broadened for wagons only in 1387, Thompson, History, p. 325. 13 Bautier, Sur l'histoire, vol. 1, p. 104. 14 See Bautier, vol. 1, p. 77; vol. 5, p. 12. 15 R. S. Lopez and J. Raymond, Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World (New York, 1955), p. 30, and Doehaerd, The Early Middle Ages, p. 179.

Kenneth R. Stow

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was by boat, from Pisa or Genoa to Marseilles and Lyons. However, before answering this question, we should ask which of these options were used regularly by Jews. Jews, to be sure, were active in eady medieval international trade. Indeed, such distinguished scholars as Verlinden and especially Renouard, Maurice Lombard, and Roberto Lopez have emphasized over and over a central Jewish role in this trade. 17 One sometimes wonders whether these scholars have not "overread" their texts. The naming of Jews as among those subject to the Raffelstetten tolls in Bavaria in 906 may be only a reprise of other standard formulations mentioning Jews, not proof positive that Jews were transporting slaves south through the Bavarian Alps.18 Likewise, the references in some medieval texts to "Jews and other merchants" does not mean that most merchants were Jews, but likely that most Jews met by the scribes drafting these texts, chronicles, or privileges (often one and same person, or at least students of the same "school ") were merchants; and this is a wholly different matter altogether. The isolation of Jews in these texts was also to be expected. Even in the most mundane of activities, Jews, from the earliest, were a group and a caste consistently described as a class apart. Nonetheless, there is no disputing that there were Jewish merchants, and the various textual references to these Jews often enable us at least to know approximately where Jews were physically present (irrespective of what these texts report the Jews to have actually been doing). Jews, much like Priscus at the royal court of Chilperic in the late sixth century (so well described by Gregory of Tours), apparently were also present at the ninth-century courts of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. Dietmar of Merseburg gives us reason to think Jews frequented the courts of the Ottonians, toO. 19 One may further imagine that some of these Jews, Renouard, Etudes, pp. 681-87. Lopez and Raymond, Medieval Trade, p. 30, n. 53, and its discussion in Doehaerd, The Early Middle Ages, pp. 178-79, 181, 211, nn. 234. Also Verlinden, "A propos de la place des Juifs dans 1'6conomie de l'Occident aux IXe et Xe si~C\es," in Storiograjia e storia: studi in onore di Eugenio Dupre Theseider (Roma, 1974). And the discussion in K. R. Stow, Alienated Minority: The Jew in Medieval Latin Europe (Cambridge, MA., 1992), chapter 2. 18 J. Aronius, Regesten ;;ur Geschichte der Juden in frankischen und deutschen Reiche (Berlin, 1902), no. 122. 19 Blumenkranz, Auteurs, pp. 244-45, for Dietmar. See Blumenkranz also in "Germany, 843-1096," in The Dark Ages, pp. 162-74. For Priscus, Gregory of Tours, History oj the Franks, O. M. Dalton, trans. (Oxford, 1927) 6:10, 6:11, discussed in Stow, Alienated Minority, p. 55. 16

17

By Land or By Sea: The Passage of the Kalonymides

6S

likely as members, officials or otherwise of some imperial entourage, and perhaps for commercial purposes, crossed the Alps through the Brenner, the favored imperial passage. But these surely were not the majority of Jewish travellers. Most Jews probably journeyed where they would find coreligionists along the route, including in fixed way-stations and settlements. And where Jews were not to be found, where there was no chain of Jewish settlements, was toward the east. Until the time of the Crusades, there were Jews living at Augsburg, Regensberg on the Danube,2o and more distantly at Merseburg, but we know of little more than that. Why Jews travelled where others of their kind were located is self-explanatory. They would be especially anxious to pass through a chain of Jewish settlements, to whose leading and respected members they could tum in times of difficulty, dispute, or perhaps for the temporary storage of merchandise. Norman Stillman has described such a phenomenon in depth in the Islamic world, where the merchant's agent, called by Goitein the true institutional innovation of the Geonic world, was the lynchpin in a far-flung commercial network. These agents performed any number of intermediary's activities and also, thanks to the Geonim's cleverness in exploiting this network, actively diffused Geonic culture, passed on Responsa, and gathered contributions for the Geonic academies. 21 The counterpart to this network in the Christian west were the Jewish settlements that stretched northward in France from the Mediterranean littoral with a concentration at Lyons, and eventually reached Germany; Baron places Jews at Metz in 888 and Mainz in 906. 22 Renouard has pursued an older ingenious suggestion (although Lopez doubts it) that the Rhadanites, the famous intercontinental Jewish merchants, derived their name from their base in the Rhone (Rhodanus) valley.23 Rhadanites and other Jewish merchants travelled north and south on their way to and from the far east. In 591, some Jewish merchants were reporting events in 20

181.

See Schwarzfuchs, "France and German," and Doehaerd, Middle Ages, p.

21 Norman Stillman, East- West Relations in the Islamic Mediterranean in the Early Eleventh Century (diss. Pennsylvania, 1970); see also S. D. Goitein, Jews and Arabs (New York, 1964). 22 Baron, Social and Religious History, vol. 4, p. 64; see also Doehaerd, Middle Ages, p. 181. and Blumenkranz, JuiJs et Chretiens dans Ie monde occidentale (Paris, 1966), pp. 62-74. 23 Doehaerd summarizes the arguments, citing Lopez, among others, in Middle Ages, p. 211, n. 234.

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Marseilles and ArIes to Gregory the Great in Rome. 24 At the same time, Priscus, in Northern France, spoke (with guile, implies Gregory of Tours) of his need to travel to Spain (would he have used the same route through Limoges that would become the classic one to the Pyrenees and Barcelona; likely so?).25 France, accordingly, with its ancient and constantly expanding network of Jewish settlements, would be the logical place for Kalonymos from Lucca (or others Jews like him) to journey. It was also where, as we have seen, all the western roads - in the early tenth century - effectively led. The interplay between roads, commercial travel, and settlements is almost too obvious to require stating. Yet what served more often than not for roads at this time were the rivers. Especially in the earlier middle ages, the chief road network was a fluvial one. 26 What about the sea? Indeed, the sea enabled travelling from the south of Italy to France without crossing the mountains. And the sea was a route the Jews knew well; in fact, it was one they had burned into their collective consciousness. Apart from being the medium for commercial voyages made by Jews coming from the Islamic east, the sea-route was a source for Jewish literary memories. These memories embraced the Adriatic, as well as the Tyrhennian coast. It was from Bari, on the Adriatic, that the legendary voyage to the Kallah of the famous "four captives" began, which also ended piecemeal in three other significant Islamic Mediterranean ports, in Spain, Qayrawan, and Alexandria. 27 A second legendary figure, Abu Aharon, the mythical transmitter of Babylonian culture to the west, arrived at the port of Gaeta on the Tyrennian. An emissary from the Land of Israel arrived at Dria, near Taranto on the Ionian Gulf.28 Such sea-borne legends were surely wrought and derived from experience . This experience, nonetheless, and its memory are limited in these stories to arrivals at the Italian south from distant Asiatic places. Would 24

A convenient English translation of Gregory's letters is J. R. Marcus,

The Jew in the Medieval World (New York, 1965), pp. 111-12. 25 Gregory of Tours, 6:10-11; and Lombard, Espaces, pp. 80-81, on the

route itself. 26 See especially Bautier, Sur l'histoire, vol. I, pp. 77-78 and vol. 5, pp. 12-14. 27 The best discussion is Gerson D. Cohen, "The Story of the Four Captives," Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 29 (1960): 55-131, elaborated on in Cohen's The 'Seier Ha-Qabbalah' by Abraham ibn Daud (Philadelphia, 1968). 28 See Benjamin Klar, The Scroll of Ahimaaz [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1974), pp. 12, 14, 16.

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not some Jews have been anxious to extend their sea-borne experience to the Italian north as well? Or even farther north, to France? From Lucca, in particular, one reached Pisa within a half-day's journey. It is Pisa that one reaches going the 20 kIn from Lucca to the sea. From the ninth century, moreover, Lucca was replaced by Florence as Tuscany's administrative center.29 This change in status no doubt negatively affected Lucca's commercial importance, which its situation on the meeting point of the Via Francigena (the road to France) and the Via Cassia conferred upon it during the period of Lombard hegemony between the sixth and the eighth centuries. Pisa, on the other hand, was now on its way to becoming "a first grade maritime power, "30 and it would have been a most apt place from which a Jew might set sail. Indeed, Jews may have sailed from, or to, Pisa once before. The Jewish merchants from Marseilles who traveled to Rome about the year 600 to report the forced conversions of some of their fellows most logically would have gone by sea. There was an overland route, touching at Savona or Genoa. 31 But there is no question that the 900 to 1000 kIn between Marseilles and Rome were far better traversed on the water, where, among other things (and depending on whether the ship set out as we know ships did in the thirteenth century - on an open sea voyage directly from Marseilles to Pisa)32 the distance would have been shortened by as much as one-third. Sometimes, the only viable route was by sea. In order to meet with Charlemagne in a time of war, Pope Adrian eschewed the Alps in favor of a boat to Marseilles quia viae clausae juerunt Romanis a Longobardis (the Lombards had closed the way before Romans).33 Adrian's journey northward from Marseilles, to Thionville on the Moselle, no doubt was also by water - this time the rivers: the Rhone, the Saone, and finally the Moselle itself, a journey that normally was a tranqUil one. Tranquil in two senses of the term, moreover: for as explained by 29 Duane Osheim. An Italian Lordship: The Bishopric of Lucca in the Late Middle Ages (Los Angeles. 1977). pp. 1-3. 30 Giulio Schmeidt. "Gli porti italiani nell'alto medioevo," in La Nal1iga~ione Mediterranea nell'a/to medioel1o (Spoleto, 1978), p. 150. 31 Bautier, Sur l'histoire. vol. 1, p. 104. 32 On records of sea voyages in this part of the Mediterranean, see S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, vol. 1, Economic Foundations (Berkeley, 1967), pp. 40, 42. 325, and, also pp. 67 and 211. 33 Doehaerd, Middle Ages, p. 190; although Pierre Riebe, Les Carolingiens (Paris, 1983), p. 105 refers to Adrian'S ambassador rather than the pope himself.

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Bautier. when a certain traveller noted by Gregory of Tours said that he slept peacefully through a river voyage. having confided his soul to St. Martin for safekeeping. one is to understand that the voyage passed uneventfully. In other words. it was not only less arduous. but also less dangerous to go by boat or barge. Expectations for a peaceful journey would have been about the same in the eighth century as they were in the sixth. and apparently in the tenth as well. 34 Medieval overland roads were also in an horrendous state of repair. Alcuin. accordingly. used the Rhine to travel to Rome. and Charlemagne is reported to have exploited the riverways. when. as an older man. he could no longer sit in the saddle. He even made projections for a canal to link the Main and the Danube (making a sealink directly from the North Sea to the Black Sea and eventually Suez and the Orient).35 But not everybody went by boat. in particular. during the period between the time of Charlemagne and the end of the tenth century. The story of the "four captives" told by Abraham ibn Daud explains why. at least for travel on the open sea. For captives is what the four rabbis who set out from Bari to the Kallah (the month of study at the Babylonian Academies) became. 36 And what made them captives were the Muslim pirates who preyed on the Mediterranean shores. from Spain. or from Faxinetum near St. Tropez on the French Riviera. Archibald Lewis tells us that pirates closed off traffic on the Italian east coast and the southern coast of France in the ninth and tenth centuries. Maurice Lombard has also discussed the effects of piracy in his article on the Meusse. 37 Might it not have been just such a pirate adventure that inspired the tale of the fanciful voyage recounted in the eleventh-century Megillat Ahimaaz ostensibly built around the misuse of the magical properties ascribed to written examples of the divine name? The voyage commenced at Amalfi in the direction of Ifriqiyah. but was derailed and tempestuously tossed from Spain to Narbonne. the Sea of Constantinople. the Sea of Ancona. at length to end in wreckage back at Amalfi where it began. 3s Bautier, Sur l'histoire, vol. 5, pp. 12-14. Doehaerd, Middle Ages, p. 190, says Danube-Main; Bautier, Sur l'histoire, vol I, p. 77, says Danube-Rhine. 36 See note 27, above. 37 Archibald Lewis, "Mediterranean Maritime Commerce: A. D. 300-1100 Shipping and Trade," in La Navigazione Mediterranea nell'alto medioevo (Spoleto, 1978), p. 150; Lombard, "La route de la Meuse," p. 78; see, also, Schwartzfuchs, "France and Germany," p. 132, n.18. 38 Klar, Ahimaaz, pp. 33-34. 34

35

By Land or By Sea: The Passage of the Kalonymides

69

If, through the early tenth century (and perhaps even the eleventh when the Megillat Ahimaaz was written, and to some extent the twelfth century, too, the time when Abraham ibn Daud spun his tale of the "four captives" - or was it by then just a memory) the preferred route to France from Genoa was the overland one through Turin or Ivrea, it was likely because travellers on these roads stood the least chance of not finishing their journey abruptly, as did R. Moses' wife in the heart of the sea - or like R. Moses himself and his companions scattered throughout the Muslim ports of the Eastern and Southern Mediterranean rim. Shabbetai Donnolo indicates that in the early tenth century pirate razias threatened coastal cities themselves; the issue of course, is not the facts as specifically related by Donnolo, but the setting, which, as a secondary issue, Donnolo is not likely to have invented from whole cloth.39 But there were also Saracen marauders in the Alps. In 953, Otto I sent John of Gorze - to little avail - to Cordoba to ask the Caliph to help root them out. 40 Through the middle of the tenth century, accordingly, no option was a safe one. Only in the eleventh century, especially after 1016, when "the Pisans and Genoese [began) clearing the Muslims from Corsica and Sardinia, ,,41 did the Mediterranean ports begin returning to life. Witness to the flowering of this reopening are the scholarly peregrinations of R. Nathan of the Arukh (c. 1101), who is said to have studied in Narbonne, as well as at Bari and in Sicily; his native city was Rome. Nathan quite possibly arrived at all these places by sea. 42

Whether Moshe b. Kalonymous could have done the same, travelling from Lucca to Mainz as had Pope Adrian before him using a combination of sea and river as early as the first half of the tenth century, is truly moot. Nonetheless, Lewis, again tells us that "a few Latin Mediterranean outposts like Amalfi-Naples and Venice [trading with both Byzantines and Muslims) .. were able to keep [some) maritime activity alive... 43 But it was just these ports, in particular that of Amalfi-Naples (and its nearby satellite Gaeta). with which Jewish sea-travel is associated by such as the Megillat Ahimaaz. A Jewish sea-voyage at this time thus was possible. Kalonymos might well have boarded a boat of Amalfitan origin berthing at Pisa on its way northwest. Memories of such voyages, 39

Shabbetai Donnolo, Seier Hakhmoni in Seier Yezirah (Jerusalem, 1968),

40

Southern, The Making, p. 37; Matthew, Atlas 01 Medieval Europe, p. 78. Lewis, "Maritime Commerce," p. 499. See Stow, Alienated Minority, p. 69. Lewis, "Maritime Commerce," p. 496.

123. 41 42 43

p.

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Kenneth R. Stow

indeed, might be responsible for the appearance of a boat - apparently intended to carry its passengers a long distance by sea - in the legend that placed a certain Kalonymos at the Battle of Crotone in 982, when he saved Otto n from death and was rewarded by being transported by Otto to the north.44 More concretely, the Responsa literature does record sea voyages in the Mediterranean about the year 1000 made by commercial voyagers who began their journey far inland. 45 To be sure, this reconstruction is not the only possible one. Moreover, the sea -route never truly supplanted that by land, not to mention that Moshe and especially his most famous and learned grandson, Meshullam, were not simple immigrants braving a single, one-way journey. The precious information we have about their lives points to them as "frequent flyers" who went back and forth between Italy and Germany a number of times. 47 If perchance they once braved the sea, they may more often have travelled overland. Ratherius of Verona's description of Pavia at just the time of the Kalonymides' wanderings leaves no doubt that whatever the dangers, traffic over the Alps in the tenth century had not come to a halt. 47 However, the precise mode of the Kalonymides' travels is less important than the probability rooted in the history of Jewish settlement, commerce, and maritime lore that their trajectory took them through France. The Kalonymides must not be viewed only as individuals, but as representative of so many other Jews who undertook similar journeys. And if the axis of Jewish north-south movement passed - via the St. Bernard or Mt. Cenis passes - through France, then structurally the entirety of the Jewish world north of the Pyrenees would have been geographically linked.48 Put otherwise, in the earlier middle ages, there were not two distinct spheres of Jewish movement and activity, that of France and that of Ashkenaz-Italy, but one, united first by the Aostan or Susan mountain passes and then by the river valleys of the Rhone, the Saone, the Moselle, and the Rhine. This linkage has cultural, geographical, and demographic implications.49 44 If one may call being taken from Italy to Germany a reward. See recently Grossman, Hakhmei, p. 36, and the literature cited in n. 2, above. 45 Cited in Irving Agus, Urban Ovilization in Pre-crusade Europe (New York, 1965), pp. 75-77. 46 See Grossman, cited in nn. 1 and 3, above. 47 Lombard, "Meuse," p. 83. 48 Renouard, Etudes, pp. 699-709, where he emphasizes, esp. p. 793, the centrality of the Great St. Bernard for Carolingians going south. 49 See the article of Avraham Grossman in this collection.

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71

The Kalonymides' movements are a barometer of more than travel. As Richard Southern has most elegantly explained, travel stimulated the creation of a unified culture. Purposefully, Southern opens The Making of the Middle Ages - explicitly marking the terminus ante quem of the book - with the transfer of Gerbert from Rome to Rheims in 972, bringing north his Italian cultural baggage. This was only a generation, or at most two, after Moshe b. Kalonymos departed Lucca for Mainz. Might we then suggest that following the model of Gerbert and Southern's interpretation, Moshe's departure and the subsequent travels of his grandson Meshullam and others resulted not only in Jewish geographical unity, but in cultural homogeneity as well?50 Such a homogeneity - more thorough than is sometimes thought - would have surely bolstered the decision of the Jews of Aries and Narbonne to seek out Meshullam's rabbinical advice. It mattered little whether at the time he was approached, Meshullam was residing (as he did at one time or another) in Lucca, Rome, or Mainz.51 But to pursue this suggestion is beyond the limits of our present inquiry. My desire has been the far more limited one of showing where and how Jews were moving from south to north, and back again. I have also not hazarded a guess about why this movement occurred precisely when it did. One cannot simply say the Kalonymides were anticipating the expanded travels of the eleventh century. Nor may it be glibly said that their immediate motive was intellectual, as was apparently that of Gerbert. Most likely, the Kalonymides like other Jewish travellers, had commercial, as well as intellectual incentives. Still, the probable linkage tying travel from Italy to France and the Rhineland to cultural fusion and diffusion demands that I ask at least one final question. To wit, just what if the Kalonymide heads of the academy at Narbonne arrived not from the east, but by sea or over the Alps from Italy? This is a matter of some significance. For if the latter is true, then the Kalonymides indeed were the cement binding various aspects of European Jewish culture into one solid block. In which case, Mueller's suggestion that Meshullam b. Kalonymos went first to France then to Narbonne in Provence, where he remained a considerable time, though perhaps specifically incorrect, would in principle not be far-fetched. 52 50 See especially Israel Ta Shema, • Ashkenazi Jewry in the Eleventh Century: Life and Literature,· in Ashkenaz: The German Jewish Heritase, ed. G. Hirschler (New York, 1988), p. 23. 51 Grossman, Hakhmei, p. 52 and note 46, there. 52 Grossman, p. 52, rejects this possibility, although Zuckerman, Princedom, pp. 66 n. 35, 121, n. 16, and 144, n. 69, would support it.

1~km

• Cuneo

ALPINE PASSES IN TIlE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

Pavia

Milan

-enUf

•

Parma

Brescia

• Mantua

• Bologna

Ferrara •

. Verice

GENIZA LEITERS: MARlTIME DIFFICULTIES ALONG THE ALEXANDRIA-PALERMO ROUTE RUTHI GERTWAGEN

Business letters comprise the most important group of Geniza records. The largest percentage of this correspondence from the end of the tenth century to the last quarter of the eleventh belongs to Jews from Sicily and North Africa. 1 This period overlapped profound changes on the Mediterranean scene, first and foremost in those two areas. The Byzantine Empire's recognition by treaty of Fatimid sovereignty in Sicily (965) paved the way for the Fatimid conquest of Egypt (July 969).2 This military victory eventually marked the shift of the political center from Tunisia - the nucleus of Fatimid power throughout the tenth century eastwards, to Egypt. Until Abassid rule (1048) and the ravage by Banu Hillal and Sulaym Bedouin hordes (late 1050's), Ziride Tunisia and Khalbide Sicily - until its conquest by the Normans in 1072 - became semi-autonomous dependencies of Fatimid Egypt for the next two decades. At the beginning of the eleventh century, Egypt replaced Tunisia as the Mediterranean hub and, as such, the center of its international trade, the former prevalence of Qayrawan and al-Mahdiyya gradually transferring to Cairo and Alexandria. 3 To the existing Tunisia-Sicily 1 For a general discussion of the Geniza records and their contribution to economic life, see S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities oj the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents oj the Cairo Geniza (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1967), vol. I, pp. 11- 12,17-21. 2 Ibid., pp. 29-31. 3 For Tunisia as the hub of the Mediterranean in the tenth century and the reasons for its decline, see S. D. Goitein, "Medieval Tunisia, the Hub of the Mediterranean," in Studies in Islamic History and Institutions (Leiden, 1966), pp. 310-11. As a result of the Bedouin attacks on the Maghreb in the late 1050's and the conquest of Qayrawin in 1057, the local emirs of Sfax rebelled against the Zirides in al-Mahdiyya from 1059-1099. These events caused a massive emigration from the Maghreb to Sicily. See A. Grife, The Sicilian Jewry in the Muslim Period (827-1061) [Hebrew], thesis submitted for the M. A. Degree (Tel-Aviv University, 1985), p. 21. As for Sicily in the first half of the eleventh century and its conquest by the Normans, see F. Chalandon, Histoire de la domination normande en Italie et en Sidle (repr. New York, 1969), vol. I, pp. 88-94, 191-211.

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maritime axis another axis was added, namely Egypt and Sicily. Palermo and Mazar were the two main Sicilian terminus ports of most shipping lines originating in Alexandria, while the ports and havens along the Maghreb played an important intermediary role. The displacement of the Fatimid center to Egypt in the 960's, brought about a massive migration of Jews from North Africa and Sicily to Fustat.4 This migration included well-established Jewish traders, who continued to keep close relations with their native countries, their families, and the compatriots they left behind. In Sicily, the Jewish communities were established in port towns: the capital, Palermo, in the north-west corner of the Island; Mazar, the present Mazara del Vallo, on the south-west coast; Messina, in the north-east; and Siracusa, toward the south-east.5 This distribution of Jewish communities across large areas of Sicily, the Maghreb, and Egypt turned the sea into their main communication "road," with ships becoming the primary transportation means for news, often delivered by letters.6 Besides their importance as a major source of knowledge for the development of commerce and industry - a subject that has enjoyed the instructive studies of Goitein and others - the Geniza records supply rich information about travel and seafaring, a subject about which much research is still to be done. This paper focuses on the difficulties and hazards that confronted commercial maritime activity along the shipping lines connecting Egypt and Sicily, a route common to many Jewish merchants. The Geniza records provide important information - little of it available in other contemporary sources - about the material aspects of communication in the Mediterranean, called The Sea by the Geniza people, which was the most vital communication channel 4 For the founding and establishment of the Jewish community of Fustat, the importance of the Qayrawin community, and relations between the two communities, see N. A. Stillman, East- West Relations in the Islamic Mediterranean in the Early Eleventh Century, Ph.D. Dissertation (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1970), pp. 36-45. 5 A. Grife, The Sicilian Jewry in the Moslim Period (827-1061), pp. 14-15; M. Gill, "The Jews in Sicily Under Muslim Rule in Light of the Geniza Documents," Italia Judaica (Rome, 1983), p. 89, and notes 5-6. 6 Until the Bedouin sacks of the Maghreb in the mid-eleventh century, transportation could also have been accomplished by land, especially by caravan, which was the only traffic functioning in the winter, when the sea was closed, or when filled the gaps during the navigation season. In Goitein's estimation, the ratio between references to overland travel and seafaring in the Geniza is 1:50. See S. D. Goitein, "Unity of the Mediterranean World in the "Middle" Middle Ages," in Studies in Islamic History and Institutions, pp. 302-303.

Geniza Letters: Maritime Difficulties Along the Alexandria Palermo Route 75

throughout the middle ages. As such, the Geniza records contribute to a better understanding of communication along the European and African shores, with implications for the development of communication via maris, not only among Jews but among Moslems, as well.7 The Sea Lanes Connecting Egypt and Sicily The Geniza records do not specify the precise route or routes from Alexandria to Sicily/Palermo, or the opposite direction. This ambiguity led M. Gill to assume the existence of a combination of land and sea routes, with the goods meant for Sicily first sent overland from Egypt through the Maghreb to al-Mahdiyya, and thence by ships to Sicily, an ancient version of the late twentieth-century concept of intermodal transportation. 8 Relying on supplementary evidence, like eleventhcentury geograghical descriptions, T. Lewicki and A. L. Udovitch maintain that there was one permanent sea lane, from Alexandria westwards to Tunisia and its ports al-Mahdiyya or Susa, and thence to Palermo. 9 Yet, while referring in detail to the exact route along the North African coast with its ports, harbors, havens, and way stations, Lewicki and Udovitch do not mention the course from North Africa to Sicily. Goitein and Ashtor, basing their analysis on the Geniza letters, assert the operation of an additional shipping line, leading directly from Palermo and al-Mahdiyya to Alexandria without intermediate stops.l° As the Geniza records concerning the sea lanes connecting Alexandria and Palermo might be ambiguous, this study will prove the existence of additional shipping lines to the one via Mahdiyya, thus challenging the assertion that there existed but a single, direct sea lane. 7 On the Mediterranean as a communication channel for the transportation of goods, books and ideas, see Ibid., pp. 296-300. 8 M. Gill. "The Jews in Sicily Under Muslim Rule," p. 93. The goods carried to Sicily would be sent from Egypt through the Maghreb by caravan and then from al-Mahdiyya by ship. 9 A. L. Udovitch, "Time, Sea, and Society: Duration of Commercial Voyages on the Southern Shores of the Mediterranean During the High Middle Ages," in La NaviBozione Mediterranea nell' Alto Medioevo (Spoleto, 1978), vol. 2, pp. 541-45, 550-51, 562. Although strongly negating the existence of a direct line, Udovitch does not satisfactorily explain his claim. See, also, T. Lewicki, "Les voies maritimes de la Mediterran~ dans Ie haut moyen Sge d'apr~ les sources arabes". Ibid .• pp. 444-47. 10 E. Ashtor, "Discussione sulle lezione Lewicki," in La Na1)iBa~ione Mediterranea, pp. 476-78; Ashtor cited by Udovitch in "Discussione sulle lezione Udovitch." Ibid., p. 550; S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, vol. 1, pp. 318-19.

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Sea routes, more often than not, were dictated by the hazards of navigation. Of the several factors determining the course of a sea lane operated within the technological limitations of contemporary ships the geographical, meteorological, and sea conditions played the most crucial role. During the navigation season of the Geniza period (i.e., between late April and late September), prevailing winds were from the west-northwest to the northeast. ll The general pattern of the sea current is from west to east and south-east;12 thus, for voyages from east to west or northwest, both adverse currents and contrary prevailing winds could be expected. Similar difficulties were encountered by ships coming from the west and the north-west (e.g., from Tunisia and Sicily), which faced eastern winds in the spring and the autumn. One should further note that the ships mentioned in the Geniza records depended mainly on sails, the wind being their driving force. 13 Those same favorable winds for ships going from Sicily and the Maghreb to Egypt were therefore hazardous for vessels sailing from Egypt to the west and north west. Pryor has already discussed the inability of the lateen rigged commercial ships in the early middle ages, including the Geniza craft, to hold course when sailing into the wind because of their hull configuration. 14 Besides, the number of inadequate vessels not specifically built for long-distance seafaring was rather considerable. The chances that such ships might survive the open sea or long-distance sailing, without stops en route, and heading into contrary winds and currents, were rather nill. Further, in light of the experience of the Geniza seamen, one can hardly assume that they might have sailed for fifteen lS or twenty consecutive days16 under such conditions, risking the possibility of being swept from their course or, even worse, foundering. Such incidents are attested to in a letter addressed to Barhun b. Miisa b. Barhun Taherti that describes the disasters encountered by several ships that set sail from 11 The average frequency percentage of these winds is well displayed by J. Pryor. See his Geography, TechnoloBY, and War (Cambridge, 1988), p. 23, table 2. See, also, Mediterranean Pilot Book (London, 1961), 5th edition, vol. 5, p.29. 12 Ibid., pp. 11-12 and p. 13, fig.3, p. 14, fig. 4. 13 For the diversified types of Geniza ships, see S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, vol. I, pp. 305-308; A. Udovitch, "Time, Sea, and Society," pp. 518, 535-37. 14 J. Pryor, GeoBraphy, TechnoloBY, and War, pp. 33-35. 15 S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, vol. I, p. 322, note 69. 16 Ibid., p. 325, note 85; A. Udovitch, "Time, Sea, and Society," p. 510, no. 5.

Geniza Letters: Maritime Difficulties Along the Alexandria Palermo Route 77

al-Mahdiyya to Alexandria on different occasions in the second half of the eleventh century. One ship was pushed by contrary winds to Catania, in Eastern Sicily, where it was thrown against the rocks and broke tip. Three other ships foundered. That year, only one ship survived, since it succeded in entering the port of Tripoli and finding shelter. The fate of the other ships that set sail from al-Mahdiyya to Alexandria remains unknown. 17 Being aware of the many technological limitations of their ships, the Geniza navigators would hardly have risked resailing in a stormy sea for 35 consecutive days without any stops en route, after having previously been forced by a storm to land on an island and find shelter. 18 One may therefore assume that a 35 day journey by sea did include interim stops. The silence of the sources in this regard may be explained by the prevailing tendency to emphasize the many troubles inherent in maritime trips in general and maritime commercial transactions in particular. 19 Such an attitude may easily have had justified changes or delays in original plans and schedules; for instance, the suspension of a voyage to Egypt, which was eventually postponed to the next season. Furthermore, as early as at the ninth and tenth centuries, Tunisian jurisprudence dealt with the possibility that storms might sweep vessels from their course and, in the most fortunate cases, force them to reach a safe harbor somewhere.20 Legislation of this kind hints at the awareness by contemporaries of their ships' limited technology and the dangers inherent in seafaring, especially in open-sea crossings, or in longdistance voyages without stops en route. It seems reasonable to assume that medieval Jews would not have risked life or fortune with such trips, unless they had no choice. Because a voyage from Palermo to Egypt lasted between 13 and 50 days, even without encountering contrary winds,21 it is unlikely that the journey have been accomplished without stops en route for provisioning, especially for 17 S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, vol. 1, p. 322, and notes 66, 68; the exact date of the letter is not mentioned. 18 Ibid., and notes 61-62. 19 On the attitude of medieval people to the sea and maritime seafaring, see the classic study by Jean Delumeau, La peur en Occident (XIVe-XVIIIe siecles) (Paris: 1978), pp. 124 ff; though concerning a later period, it brings some data relevant to the tenth and eleventh centuries, as well. 20 H. R. Idris, "Commerce maritime et kiriid en Berberie orientale," Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient 4 (1961): 237, nos. xxxii-xxxiii. 21 According to the table displayed in S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, vol. I, pp. 325-26, and the one in A. Udovitch, "Time, Sea, and Society," pp. 510-11; see also the author's discussion of the subject, pp. 513-14.

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taking on drinking water. Even if ships were well fitted out and provisioned in the ports of embarkation, the navigation season in the Geniza era - the dry period from late spring to autumn, including the sunny, very hot months of the summer - forced seamen to drink large quantities of water to avoid dehydration. Water supplies would have run out quite rapidly and what the seaman and passengers did not drink, the heat would have spoiled. One may conclude, therefore, that open-sea crossing or direct, long-distances sea voyages, were quite improbable in the Geniza period. Although S. D. Goitein satisfactorily demonstrated the necessity to anchor in intermediate harbors when waiting for a change in contrary winds42 or for reprovision;43 he fails to show the implications of such anchorage, neither the difficulties nor even the impossibility of accomplishing direct, long-distance voyages without stops en route between Palermo, al-Mahdiyya, and Alexandria. In addition to the route to Sicily via al-Mahdiyya, there were two main alternatives. One of these sea lanes went via Cyprus to Crete, and thence to Southeastern Italy via the Straits of Messina to Messina and Palermo. This was the favored route for ships sailing from the South Mediterranean to the north and northwest. The ships could have used the counter-clockwise currents in the Eastern Mediterranean - that is the west-east current - which flows along the Syrian-Palestinian coast through the Aegean Sea, past Southern Greece and back to the Western Mediterranean. Hugging the coasts, ships could also take advantage of the daily cycle of morning and evening sea and land breezes, which near to the shore allow to surpass prevailing winds. 22 After having crossed the notorious Straits of Messina, the ships could proceed either from Messina westwards to Palermo, either along the northern coast of Sicily but then risking contrary winds and currents or, using the northward current from the Straits of Messina, along the western coast of Italy up to Amalfi; then, cruising to the southwest, they could go to Palermo, the intermediate port between Amalfi and Egypt (see map).23 The Geniza records testify to the utilization of the long 22 About the detailed course of this route (namely, in the Eastern Mediterranean) see J. Pryor. Geogaphy, Technology. and War. p. 7. A slight modification of this course up to the islands of Cyprus and Rhodes is offered by R. Gertwagen. "Maritime Activity Concerning the Ports and Harbors of Cyprus from the Late Twelfth Century to the Sixteenth Century (1191-1571)." lin print]. and note 23. This sea lane was completely ignored by Goitein. Ashtor, Lewicki. and Udovitch; see above. notes 8-9. 23 S. D. Goitein. Letters 0/ Medieval Jewish Traders (Princeton. 1973), no. 3. p. 40; M. Ben-Sasson. The Jews 0/ Sicily 825-1068 [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1991), no. 41, p. 172. lines 11.15-17; no. 108. p. 538. line 5.

Geniza Letters: Maritime Difficulties Along the Alexandria Palermo Route 79

shipping lane through the Eastern Mediterranean by a ship that sailed from al-Mahdiyya to Amalfi via Egypt in the mid-eleventh century. The exceptionally long duration of this voyage. 70 days. was due to pirate attacks. which forced the crew to alter the route several times until they ultimately found shelter in Crete and then resumed their journey to their destination.24 Data describing other contemporary voyages along this trunk route indicate an average journey time of 60 days at the most.25 A great section of this route passed by friendly territory - Fatimid Palestine and Syria - where the ships could anchor for water. provisioning. finding shelter against storms. human menace. or in most crucial cases even to replace the ship. Tripoli. on the Syrian coast. was an important port on the route to Palermo or Mazar on the south-western coast of Sicily.26 This long route to Sicily might have been taken in 1060 by Joseph B. Farah al-Kabasi. who after having finished his business in Sicily. intended to proceed to Tripoli in Libya. if he would not miss the ship; otherwise. he planned to take the caravan route overland. 27 The sea route through the Eastern Mediterranean. including the Peloponese and the Aegean Sea. had been followed by the Radhanite Jews in the mid-ninth century and was described by Arab geographers in the 24 S. D. Goitein, Letters 0/ Medieval Jewish Traders, no. 4, p. 44. 25 See the data supplied by Pryor, Geogaphy, Technolo~, and War, p. 36.

Although the data refer to both earlier and later periods, crucial changes did not occur in travel times on the Medtierranean throughout the medieval period. See A. Udovitch, -Time, Sea, and Society, - pp. 505-506; also, Kedar's discussion on Udovitch's paper in La Naviga~ione Mediterranea nell' Alto Medioevo, pp. 558-59. 26 M. Ben Sasson, The Jews 0/ Sicily 825-1068, no. 109, p. 538, lines 6-7. We do not accept Ben-Sasson's statement about a direct lane from Tripoli in Syria to Mazar in Sicily. Compare the translation of line 6 to that made by C. Shemesh in Twenty-one Letters 0/ Family Traders to their Partners in Fatimid E~pt in the Mid-Eleventh Century [Hebrew], thesis submitted for the M. A. Degree (Tel-Aviv University, 1989), no. 12, p. 100, line 6. 27 M. Ben-Sasson, The Jews 0/ Sicily 825-1068, no. 115, p. 571, lines 13-15, p. 573, right margins, lines 1-2. Ben-Sasson translates: -if the ship .•• might be shipwrecked. - Shemesh's translation seems more logical: -If I might miss the ship. - See C. Shemesh, Twenty-one Letters 0/ Family Traders, no. 21, p. 146, right margins, line 1. Ben-Sasson claims that the trader intended to proceed to Tripoli via Alexandria-Sicily because the shorter route to Tripoli was not active. M. Ben-Sasson, The Jews 0/ Sicily 825-1068, p. 573, line 13. He does not explain, however, why the Alexandria-Tripoli route was not available. It seems that the trader's primary intention was to go to Sicily for business and to stop in Tripoli on his way back; his statement indicates that he had had this intention for a long time.

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next century.28 The actual use of this route, however, was conditional on political and religious factors. Syrian travellers, for example, refused to follow this path during the Byzantine attacks on Sicily in the years 1025-1027, 1030, and 1038-1043.29 The Geniza records show that such attacks between 1025 and 1027 affected the organization of merchant ships sailing from Egypt to Tunisia, as well: the convoy was then accompanied by a heavy warship and galleys with a garrison of soldiers. 30 In 1030, a tense situation also brought about the escort of a merchant ship by war galleys. In parallel, a new restriction prohibited war galleys for carrying merchandise, a very common practice in more peaceful times. 31 Thus, other factors than navigational often induced ships to voyage away from the safer sea lanes. In this case, political and religious considerations caused ships to avoid the northern coasts, which were under Christian rule, and to follow the lanes along the Islamic Maghreb coast, and thence to Sicily. In contrast to the above-mentioned view expressed by Gill, Goitein, Udovitch, and Lewicki, we assume the existence of an additional sea route to that via al-Mahdiyya, one that lead from Egypt through the Maghreb to Sicily. In a letter written in 1023 concerning shipments to Palermo and al-Mahdiyya, Sadaqa b. 'Ayyash informed his master, Abu Na~r Tustari, that he had failed to divert the consignments destined for Qayrawan via Mahdiyya to Palermo because of Tunisian war preparations against

sea

Tripoli, a planned attack that was eventually cancelled.32 Obviously. the

war situation did not cancel the routine contact between North Africa and Sicily; instead. it concentrated communication in other Maghreb ports of departure. The use of a different sea route to Sicily. in addition to the one through Mahdiyya or Sousa, is explicitly manifested in another letter. written between the late 1040's and the late 1050's; it does not indicate the causes of such a detour. 33 If written in the 1050's. there might have 28 T. Lewicki, wLes voies maritimes de la Mediterran~e, Wpp. 448-50; M. Gill, WThe Ridhinite Merchants and the Land of Ridhin, WJournal 0/ the Economic and Social History o/the Orient 17-3 (1974): 299-315. 29 A. R. Lewis, Naval Power and Trade in the Mediterranean A.D. 500-1100 (Princeton, 1951), pp. 194-97. 30 S. D. Goitein, Letters 0/ Medieval Jewish Traders, p. 311, no. 70; Stillman, East- West Relations in the Islamic Mediterranean, p. 293. 31 S. D. Goitein, wThe Jewish Trade in the Mediterranean at the Beginning of the Eleventh Centuryw [Hebrew], Tarbitz 36 (1967): 377, no. 3. 32 S. D. Goitein, Letters 0/ Medieval Jewish Traders, no. 69, pp. 306-11; M. Ben-Sasson, The Jews 0/ Sicily 825-1068, no. 57, pp. 233-38, and p. 237, notes, lines 16-17. 33 Ibid., no. 99, p. 479, line 14, and p. 481, notes, line 14.

Geniza Letters: Maritime Difficulties Along the Alexandria Palermo Route 81

been political and security considerations, as clearly expressed in a third letter, written between April 1052 - the date of the decisive battle that

opened Tunisia to the hordes of Banu Hillal and Sulaym, who eventually sacked the Tunisian capital, Qayrawlin - and November 1057. This letter refers to the Bedouins' ravaging and plundering of Tunisian towns. Evidently, ships coming from Sicily to Egypt34 did not make their way through Sousa or al-Mahdiyya. These circumstances eventually caused the massive emigration of Jews to Mazar and thence, via maris, to Egypt,3S assuredly not through al-Mahdiyya. A letter written in 1064 explicitly stated that being under siege, al-Mahdiyya had stopped to functioning as an international maritime emporium.36 The Geniza records further hint at the regular use of alternative sea lanes from Egypt to Sicily, and vice versa, in normal times, as well. In a letter written in Alexandria, Abu Yitzhak Ibrahim b. Fara~ Alexandrani reports to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat about two ships coming from Sicily, in addition to one ship coming from al-Mahdiyya, while designating the voyage time of the latter. 37 Obviously, the writer alludes to two separate sea routes. So did Brahiin and Joseph b. Miisli Taherti in their letter from al-Mahdiyya written between 1045 and 1057 to Mahray b. Nissim in Fustat. While reporting in detail commercial transactions made in the Maghreb, Egypt, and Sicily, these letters explicitly refer to consignments sent from Egypt to three different destinations (al-Mahdiyya, Tripoli, and Sicily) on separate ships.38 In turn, Joseph Taherti of al-Mahdiyya wrote in 1063 to his business associate in Alexandria that he had not as yet received the mastic his partner claimed to have sent to AI-Mahdiyya. Joseph further declares to lack any data about this shipment. whether the

34 S. D. Goitein, Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders, no. 31, pp.154-55; M. Ben-Sasson, The Jews of Sicily 825-1068, no. 107, p. 532, lines 10-15, and p. 534, notes, lines 11-15. 35 M. Ben-Sasson, The Jews of Sicily 825-1068, no. 110; see 545, lines 4-5. Tunisia is called the ·cursed country.· Referring to the departure ports, Ben-Sasson asserts that ten ships came from Sicily, including two Syrian ships, whereas Shemesh claims the existence of two departure ports: ten ships from Sicily and two from AI-Sham in Syria; see C. Shemesh, Twenty-one Letters of Family Traders, no. 3, p. 53, line 4. In his introduction to this letter, Ben-Sasson (p. 544) contends that another letter indicates some of these ships (no. 118, p. 587, lines 6-8), had been delayed, because of the political circumstances. Yet, the two letters were written at different times. The second letter (no. 118, p. 585, lines 12-15) speaks about a calm period in Tunisia . .36 Ibid., no. 123; see sp. p. 608, right margins, lines 1-5; for an explanation of the siege, see p. 606, in the introduction to this document. 37 Ibid., no. 117, p. 581, lines 5-7. 38 Ibid., pp. 488-98, no. 102, seesp. p. 493, line 27.

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mastic remained in Alexandria or was eventually sent to Sicily.39 One can reasonably assume that if the mastic had been sent to Sicily via al-Mahdiyya, Joseph would have had some knowledge of it. These letters, however, do not describe the course of the other shipping lane to Palermo, perhaps because it was so common that contemporaries regarded its mention as superfluous. The Geniza records referring to the sea lane connecting Egypt and Sicily through al-Mahdiyya reveal that this shipping lane was explicitly mentioned, but only on unusual occasions, when correspondents found it imperative. In the mid-eleventh century, Jacob b. Samuel wrote from Palermo to his cousin that he had sent letters to Fustat through al-Mahdiyya for him, though the cousin claimed not to have received them as yet. 40 In another letter, written in 1045, 'Ayyash b. ~daqa of Fustat informs his master, Nahray b. NissTm, in Busir, Egypt, of the arrival of three ships from Sicily via al-Mahdiyya. This unusual information was expected to justify the long duration of the voyage, 41 days, and the reasons for that delay, which were the confiscation and eventual release of six other ships in al-Mahdiyya. 41 In other cases, when the language remains ambiguous, the lack of details is probably due to the writer's confidence that additional information would be superfluous, such itinerary being of common knowledge. A letter written by Ephraim b. Isma'il Alg'ohari describes a shipment of cargoes in the month of June to two different destinations, al-Mahdiyya and Palermo, on different ships that left the port of Alexandria together in the 1030's. All the ships were forced to jettison part of their goods near the lighthouse of Alexandria, at the port exit. Some of the commodities destined for Sicily were retrieved. Ephraim tells his master, Joseph B. 'Awkal, that he had failed to dispatch this merchandise immediately on the ships sailing to Sicily; consequently, he sent the marchandise to al-Mahdiayya, from which the undamaged commodities would eventually reach their original destination. Ephraim wrote further instructions to his agents and business associates, sending several copies of his letters on ships destined for al-Mahdiyya and 39Ibid., no. 86, p. 400, lines 30-31. S. D. Goitein, Letters 0/ Medieval Jewish Traders, pp. no. 25, p. 131 F. 40 Ibid., no. 22, p. ll3 A. 41 M. Ben-Sasson. The Jews 0/ Sicily. 825-1068. no. lll, p. 600, lines

22-25. 42 S.D. Goitein. A Mediterranean Society. vol. 1. p. 320, note 48. 43 Ibid .• p. 316, note 21.

Geniza Letters: Maritime Difficulties Along the Alexandria Palermo Route 83

Sicily.44 Leaving the port of Alexandria, the ships both for Sicily and al-Mahdiyya sailed in the same convoy until a certain point off the North Mrican coast, where they diverged, each to its own destination. 45 One may note the delivery of many copies of the same letter carried on different ships, a practice that was widespread in the middle ages and that attests to the many dangers in travel in general and maritime travel in particular. Contemporaries were well aware of the possible loss of letters, an eventuality that was often recorded in the Geniza records. 46 The spot of divergence off Tripoli is specifically indicated in a letter sent from Palermo to Egypt in the early eleventh century47 that includes detailed accounts and sales of merchandise sent from Alexandria to Palermo through Tripoli.48 The convoys to both al-Mahdiyya and Sicily sailed together from Alexandria westwards, following the coast contour at such a short distance that they could have been sighted from several observation points along the Egyptian shore up to Ra's ai-Tin, approximately the midway between Alexandria and Tripoli. At Ra's ai-Tin, the vessels veered from the coast and shifted to the open sea owing to the topographic features of the shore; they still followed the coast, but at a greater distance. Mter Benghazi, the medieval Barqa, ships approached the shore again, following the contour of the bay of Sirte until Tripoli.49 Tripoli was the point of divergence, from which the ships either took a northwestern course to Southwestern Sicily or continued their way, following the contour of the shore to al-Mahdiyya and thence to Sicily. Tripoli had similar advantages to those of al-Mahdiyya to be an international maritime emporium and a port of embarkation to Sicily. The orientation of the Southern Sicilian coast between Cape Grantiola 44 M. Ben-Sasson. The Jews oj Sicily. 825-1068. no. 56, pp. 231-32. lines 7-24 and right margins. lines 7-10; S. D. Goitein, "The Jewish Trade in the Mediterranean at the Beginning of the Eleventh Century," no. 4. pp. 379-80. lines 11-23 and margins. 4S M. Ben-Sasson, The Jews oj Sicily 825-1068, no. 56. pp. 231-32, lines 7-23; S. D. Goitein "The Jewish Trade in the Mediterranean at the Beginning of the Eleventh Century." pp. 378-80. 46 See above, notes 39 and 40. M. Ben-Sasson, The Jews oj Sicily 825-1068, no. 87, p. 411. lines 21-23, no. 99, p. 480 lines 20-21; M. Gill, "The Jews in Sicily under Muslim Rule." p. 104, lines 21-24; see, also, Goitein's discussion on the subject. S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, vol. 1, pp. 307-308. 47 M. Ben-Sasson, The Jews oj Sicily 825-1068. no. 51, p. 206, line 2, and p. 207 line 9. 48 Ibid., no. 120, p. 595, lines 20-23. 49 This course is well analyzed by A. Udovitch, "Time, Sea, and Society," pp. 544-45; S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, vol. 1, p. 212.

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and the present Mazara di Vallo (the medieval Mazr) in the south-west and Cape Passaro in the southeast fits well with the orientation of the North African coast between Tripoli in the east-southeast .and al-Mahdiyya and Sousa west-northwest of Tripoli. Along that section of the North African coast, between Tripoli and al-Mahdiyya or Sousa, there is a western return current, in addition to the prevailing east-southeastern one. Vessels could take advantage of the western return current to resist the adverse north-northwestern winds. The western current is strengthened during the easterlies, and ships could use it to proceed from Tripoli, as from al-Mahdiyya, toward Sicily.so Furthermore, Tripoli also lay at the crossroads of caravan routes. One of these roads was on a south to north axis, a trans-Saharian route leading from Western Sudan to Tripoli as well as to Gabes, near Sfax, and alMahdiyya. Until the mid-eleventh century, these centers were connected to the gold supplies of Sudan.51 The other land road was on a west-east axis, the North African via marls leading from Morocco to Algeria through Tunisia to Tripoli and thence to Egypt, and the eastern Moslem provinces up to Iraq and Persia. This commercial route overland was also the biirid, or mail service artery, of the Moslem world. 52 Tunisia and al-Mahdiyya could not further enjoy it after their sack by the Bedouin hordes in the mid-eleventh century. Tripoli in Libya thus became a center of information exchange as well as an international commercial port, connecting Alexandria and Tunisia. on the one hand. and Alexandria. Sicily, and the Christian countries. on the other. in spite of the dangerous access to this port.53 Between the aforementioned four "border points" in South Sicily and North Africa. there are islands that could have been used for overnight anchorage. for a shelter against storm or human menace, or for provisioning and taking on water, like the Aegean islands. and islets in the Eastern Mediterranean.54 The most convenient islands for anchorage so Mediterranean Pilot Book, vol. 5, p. 12, p. 10, fig. 2, p. 13, fig. 3. 51 For this route, see T. Lewicki, "Les voies maritimes de la Mediterranee," p.

466 and note 30. For the cut off of the gold supplies from Sudan, see N. A. Stillman, East- West Relations in the Islamic Mediterranean in the Eleventh Century, p. 17, note 46. 52 S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, vol. I, pp. 281-95; H. Z. Hirshberg, The History a/the Jews in North Africa [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1965), pp. 190-93. S3 Ibid., p. 189, note 9. For the problematic entrance to the port of Tripoli, see, also. The Mediterranean Pilot Book, vol. 5, pp. 62-64. 54 For the use of the Aegean Islands and islets, see M. Balard, "Escales genoises sur les routes de l'Orient mediterraneen au XIVe siecle," Les Grandes

Geniza Letters: Maritime Difficulties Along the Alexandria Palermo Route 85

between North Africa and Sicily are Gerba and Kerkena near Gabes, alMahdiyya, and Sfax. To their north are the Pelagie Islands, of which only the Island of Lampedusa allows anchorage. To their northeast are the islands of Malta and Gozo; and to their northwest, the Island of Pantalleria. Ships from Tripoli could make their way to the islands of Malta and Gozo by taking advantage of the western local return current in case of adverse north westerlies, and thence to Southern Sicily. In case of easterlies, ships sailing from Tripoli could also make their way via the Island of Lampedusa, and thence to the Island of Pantalleria to Southern Sicily. That was also the sea lane for ships making their way from al-Mahdiyya to Sicily (see map). This route de rile from Tripoli and al-Mahdiyya is well described by the mid-thirteenth-century navigation-instruction book, R Compasso da Navigare. 55 This portolan recommends shipping during the summer along the southern coast of Sicily, from Cape Passaro in the southeast to Mazar in the southwest, since the area is protected against the prevailing western-northwestern winds and there are deep-water anchorages;56 the most prominent are Porto Empedoche - which is the port of Agrigento - and the port of Sciacca (see map). 57 Yet, sailing between islands, vessels could expect the Man-obbio, waves or surges that may raise the sea level up to one meter for a period of 30 minutes during undisturbed weather, and then recede again for some minutes. This cycle may continue for a few hours,S8 during which navigation again became quite agitated. When on passage between Malta and Sicily, ships could expect to have a lumpy sea most of the time. In this channel there is usually an east-going current of at least one knot. Normally. the ships run out of

wind in this area. Then, the east-going current can make sailing difficult, until the ship picks up wind again while approaching Sicily. The favorable wind from Malta to Sicily is the east-southeastern because it can reverse escales 32 (1974): 243-64 and the map. The fact that even in the middle of the fourteenth century ships needed frequent anchorage emphasizes that necessity in the Geniza period. 55 II ComJXlSso da Navigare: Opera Italiana della meta del secolo XIII, ed. B. R. Motzo (Cagliari, 1947), pp. 68-71, 79-8l. 56 Ibid., p. 106; on pp.l07-108 this portolan also details the route from Mazar, which it calls Marsala, to Palermo. 57 For the interim anchorage in Agrigento, the present Porto Empedoche and the port of Sciacca, see M. Ben Sasson, The Jews of Sicily, 825-1068, no. 112, p. 555, lines 7-13, no. 12, pp. 76-77, lines 32-34. For the present anchorage conditions in these two harbors, see R. R. Heikell, Italian Waters Pi/ot (third edition, London, 1991), pp. 310-12. S8lbid., p. 316; Mediterranean Pi/ot Book, vol. 5, p. 16.

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the east-going current in this channel. Yet. these same winds were inconvenient for ships approaching Malta from Sicily.59 Sailing from the Island of Pantelleria to Sicily. ships had to beware the banks and shoals north of the islands on the direct route to Mazar.6O Consequently. the safer sea lane from Pantelleria was tiny to the north-east. to Agrigento and thence to Sciacca and Mazar. Mazar lies at a navigation junction leading from or to Tunisia and Egypt through Tripoli. on the one hand. and from or to Palermo. on the other.61 As such. Mazar was a maritime emporium as well as a center for the distribution of news to Egypt concerning not only Sicily and Palermo. but also North Africa. namely Tunisia. The news dealt with events inside the Jewish communities of North Africa and with the changing political situations that could affect commerciallife.62 Once arriving at Mazar. the ships could proceed northwards. along the western coast of Sicily. using the counter-clockwise current flowing in the same direction. This stream is very strong during the summer. especially between the Egadi Islands near the Sicilian western coast.63 and is very helpful for ships going through the Formica Islets to nearby Trapani;64 thence. via Capo San Vito. on the northwest tip of Sicily. to Palermo (see map).65 Navigation Hazards Owing to Weather and Sea Conditions

The number of shipwrecks caused by storms - more often than not, accompanied by contrary winds - documented in the Geniza records is quite large. In a letter written in Palermo in 1025. Joseph b. Samuel Aldhani describes the shipwreck he suffered through on the Libyan coast. R. Heikell, Italian Waters Pilot, p. 351. Ibid., p. 266, and the map there. 61 M. Ben-Sasson, The Jews 0/ Sicily 825-1068, no. 8, p. 42, lines 48-56, no. 9, pp. SO-51, lines 12-17, no. 12, p. 76, lines 31-32, p. 81, lines 21, 26-27, p. 82. lines 37-39, p. 83, lines SO-52, no. 143, p. 91, lines 19-20, no. 12, pp. 76-77. lines 26-34, 39-40, p. 80, line 5, p. 81, lines 21-27, p. 82, lines 37-38, 45-47, pp. 82-83, lines 49-52, no. 24, p. 127, lines 16-19, no. 68, p. 296, lines 28-29, no. 76, p, 340, introduction, p. 345, lines 18, 24-25, no. 11, p. 550 right margins, lines 16-17, no. 112, p. 555, lines 8-13, and passim; M. Gill, "The Jews in Sicily under Muslim Rule," pp. 113-26, see sp. p. 120, lines I, 6, p. 121, line 19, p. 122, lines 25-26, pp. 122-23, lines 38-40. 62 M. Ben-Sasson, The Jews 0/ Sicily 825-1068, no. 12, pp. 76-77, lines 26-35, p. 82, lines 38-39, no. 63, p. 264, lines 30, 34-35, no. 85, p. 390, lines 11-17, no. 107, p. 532, lines 10-15; S. D. Goitein, Letters o/Medieval Jewish Traders, no. 34, pp. 169-70 B. 63 R. Heikell, Italian Waters Pilot (third edition, London, 1991), p. 317. 64 Ibid., p. 322. 6S Ibid., pp. 269-77; a detailed course from Mazar to Palermo is given by the II Compasso da Navi&are, pp. 107-108. S9

60

Geniza Letters: Maritime Difficulties Along the Alexandria Palermo Route 87

west of Tripoli, on his way from Egypt to Sicily, though he eventually succeeded in making his way to that city.66 This storm was brought on by strong northwestern winds that enhanced the south-eastern stream, which in turn pushed the ship to the shore. The vessel tried to proceed to Sicily via al-Mahdiyya or through the islands. This section of the Libyan coast, near the present Marset el-Briga and Zuara, is notorious for its shoals, the Secca Ehdouz; even today, modern portolans recommend soundings while approaching the coast. 67 No wonder that in the Geniza period, when ships were easily pushed southwards, they foundered on the rocks. Such was the fate of a ship whose owner fortunately succeeded in evacuating, before it broke up. The two other ships in the same convoy reached the port of Tripoli, thus finding safe shelter against the storm. 68 A similar heavy storm affected three ships on their way from Egypt to Sicily in 1019: one foundered, another was shipwrecked, and the third had to jettison all of its commodities.69 After sailing from al-Mahdiyya to Alexandria in the mid-eleventh century, two ships capsized because of contrary stormy eastern winds, while another was swept off its course to Catania, in Eastern Sicily; only one succeded in finding a safe harbor in Tripoli. According to the survivors' description, it seems that the shipwrecks happened west of Tripoli, near the Secca Ehdouz. 70 Such incidents, however, did not always end with shipwrecks: one Jew who encountered such a storm on his way from Alexandria to al-Mahdiyya and, again, on his way from al-Mahdiyya to Palermo, eventually succeeded in his journey.71 If they were not far from their ports of departure when the storm hit, ships succeded in returning unharmed.72 Yet there was neither compensation for the failure to carry the commodities to their market destination on time nor reimbursement for cargoes damaged on board by the ship's strong movements in a stormy sea. 73 66 M. Ben-Sasson. The Jews 0/ Sicily 825-1068, no. 42, p. 176, lines 4-5, p. 177, notes, line 4; S. D. Goitein, Letters 0/ Medieval Jewish Traders, no. 71, p. 317. 67 Mediterranean Pilot Book, vol. 5, pp. 58-59. 68 M. Ben Sasson, The Jews o/Sicily 825-1068, no. 68, p. 295, line 16. 69 Ibid., no. 48, p. 193, lines 11-14. 70 S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, vol. I, p. 322. 71 M. Ben Sasson, The Jews o/Sicily 825-1068, no. 52, p. 212, lines 5, 16; S. D. Goitein, "The Jewish Trade in the Mediterranean at the Beginning of the eleventh Century" [Hebrew), Tarbi?; 37 (1978): 170, lines 16-17; Ben-Sasson and Goitein differ on the issue of the writer's identity. 72 S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, vol. I, pp. 322-23. 73 A. Grife, The Sicilian Jewry in the Moslim Period (827-1061), p. 96; S. D.

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Stormy weather was not limited to the coast of the Maghreb or to Alexandria. The western-southwestern coast of Sicily was exposed to similar dangers. Such was the case at the beginning of the eleventh century with a ship with 400 passengers that after setting sail from Palermo to Alexandria. encountered a storm brought on by northwestern winds or winds that veered westwards. It seems that the ship was not solid. or perhaps it was overloaded with cargo and people. and it began to leak. Cargo was thrown over board and the passengers tried to bale out the water; finally. the captain reluctantly turned the ship around the head for land. but he could not control the vessel and it eventually crashed,14 In this case the damage was triple; namely. the loss of human life, of cargo, and ultimately of the ship. Storms could be dangerous for ships sailing before the winds, as well. In a letter written in the mid-eleventh century, mention was made of eastern winds that had been blowing strongly for 20 consecutive days, thus forcing a ship, which had already set sail from the port of Alexandria, to return. As for the other ships, there were rumors that they had managed to proceed to the high seas, most probably from Ras a Tin.7s The passage around the islands, could also turn into a disastrous trap during stormy weather. A letter written in 1040 reports the loss of flax around the island of Jerba, in the bay of Gabes,76 probably by a ship sailing westwards from Tripoli or eastwards from al-Mahdiyya. In 1052, the fleet of the Ziridite ruler of Africa that had been sent to Palermo was wrecked by a storm near the Island of Pantelleria,71 half way between Tunisia and Sicily. Modern portolans indicate that during strong northernlines there is a strong swell, which even today does not allow anchorage in the artificial ports of the island78 and prevents the rescue of ships. Difficult navigation was also to be expected around the Egadi Islands, off Trapani, on the western coast of Sicily. Running between Goitein, "The Jewish Trade in the Mediterranean," no. 14, p. 59, lines 9-24. 74 M.Ben Sasson. The Jews 0/ Sicily 825-1068, no. 41. pp. 172-73, lines 16-27; S. D. Goitein, Letters 0/ Medieval Jewish Traders, no. 3, p. 41. For another case of drawing, that of Moses Ben Alush, who traded between Egypt, Tunisia, and Sicily, see M. Ben-Sasson, The Jews o/Sicily 825-1068, no. 94, p. 451. line 7. On its way from Sicily to Egypt, Ben Alush's ship foundered in a storm during the 1040's. 7S C. Shemesh, Twenty-one Letters 0/ Family Traders, no. 19, p. 133, lines 10-12. ,76 S. D. Goitein, Letters 0/ Medieval Jewish Traders, no. 18, p. 103 C. 71 A. Lewis, Naval Power and Trade in the Mediterranean, p. 234, note 37. 78 R. Heikell, Italian Waters Pilot, p. 313.

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these islands as well as alongside the Sicilian western coast is a current that sometimes attains a speed of over one knot because it flows towards the northeast while the prevailing winds blow from the northwest; the result is a confused sea, even with light winds. Yet this sea might be more annoying than dangerous,19 a probability that might explain the complete absence of wreckage around these islands, in contrast to the situation between North Africa and Sicily and notwithstanding the many islets where ships could have found shelter.so Malta, for example, might have provided good retreat with convenient possibilities for reprovisioning and water. According to modern portolans, however, vessels must beware the strong gusts off the land around this island. During the summer, though, the prevailing wind is a sea breeze from the northwest,81 and not dangerous for navigation. The difference in the number of shipwrecks, cargo jettisons, and foundering of ships in the water zone of Sicily - which according to the Geniza records is minimal - and those around Egypt or between the Maghreb and Sicily appears rather striking. The approach to Mazara del Vallo, for example, is indicated as dangerous by modern portolans, which warn against the shoals ringing the coast. Vessels must be particularly careful of the shoal extending south of nearby Capo Granitola, as it is difficult to detect during sunset. 82 The area seems a rather "favorable" ground for shipwreks, yet we lack written evidence of such events there. Similarly, there is no satisfactory evidence of wrecks around Capo San Vito, on the northwestern tip of the island on the way to Palermo, where during northernlines a heavy swell descends on the northern coast and ships might find themselves in a dangerous, heavy, confused sea.83 Conversely, between Sicily, Palermo, and Mazar, and the port of Alexandria there is a relative high number of storms, shipwrecks, and jettisons inside the mooring zone. Although these are missing in the Sicilian harbors, the Geniza records attest to their existence in Alexandria.84 One should note, however, that hazzards caused by natural phenomena did not prevent merchants from shipping goods by sea, nor 79 Ibid., p. 350. so S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society. vol. 1. p. 322, note 60; C. Shemesh, Twenty-one Letters of Family Traders, no. 5, p. 60, line IS, right margins, line 1; M. Ben-Sasson, The Jews of Sicily 825-1068, no. 78, p. 356 lines 22, p. 358 notes, line 22. 81 R. Heiken, Italian Waters Pi/ot, p. 265. 82 Ibid., p. 315. 83 Ibid., p. 265. 84 M. Ben Sasson, The Jews of Sicily 825-1068, no. 56, pp. 231-32, lines 7-15; no. 70, p. 309, line 15.

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did any human menace like piracy or war situations.8s The current state of affairs is well expressed in a letter written to Joseph Ibn Awkal in the first half of the eleventh century. After sailing from al-Madiyya to Palermo. his representative confessed. "I have suffered in this voyage events beyond description caused both by storms and other things. "86

********** If one bears in mind the many risks inherent in the sea. the large scope of maritime transport in the tenth and eleventh centuries appears remarkable. Whatever the losses and dangers connected with the performance of trade along the navigation routes. they did not prevent the free movement of goods and trading among Jews. Moslems (who were the shipowners and navigators of the Geniza ships) .87 and Christians (who operated along the same shipping lines between Europe and the Moslem territories of Sicily. North Africa. Egypt. and Syria-Palestine). prior to the Crusader period.88 Maritime commerce thus became a leading factor in the improvement of the communication network among the three main cultures of the Mediterranean world. In this regard. the contribution of the Geniza records to our understanding of navigation and maritime transportation in the Southern Mediterranean appears considerable. Furthermore. because this was a time when transmission and transport went together - that is. when news delivery took the same path and the same speed as the conveyance of heavy marchandise gaining a better knowledge of the sea routes involved improves our understanding of communication in the widest sense of the term. In this regard, one can hardly point to exclusive "Jewish" communication channels in the Mediterranean. On the contrary. the evidence provided by the Geniza records proves the unity of the Mediterranean and shows how small the world already had become in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

8S General discussion of the subject in S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, vol. I, pp. 327-32. 86 Id., "Jewish Trade in the Mediterranean," no. 28, p. 169, line 5; M. Ben-Sasson, The Jews o/Sicily 825-1068, no. 52, p. 212, line 5. 87 S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, vol. I, pp. 309-13. 88 Id., "Mediterranean Trade Preceding the Crusades: Some Facts and Problems," Diosenes 59 (1967): 52-53.

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TIlE USE OF LEITERS AS A COMMUNICAnON MEDIUM AMONG MEDIEVAL EUROPEAN JEWISH COMMUNfI1ES ARYEH GRABOIS

Medieval Jewish epistolography contains a diversified amount of letters bearing either a public or a private character and covering almost every aspect of human activity. The genre includes documents belonging to both religious and secular matters and referring to almost every aspect of the corporate and private life of Jews. Among the documents preserved, the most important are the rabbinical Responsa, answers to queries by individuals and communities that were addressed to the most reputable contemporary Sages even if, as happened in many cases, their residence was distant. An example of this instance were the queries sent until the eleventh century to the Mesopotamian Geonim. The Responsa consisted of the adaptation of Talmudic precepts to actual questions concerning various problems of community life as well as of private behavior, whether related to individuals or families. 1 It is important to emphasize that the Responsa literature, though its content does not belong to the theme of the present paper and is dealt with elsewhere in this volume, reveals the development of intercommunitarian communication in the medieval world, whether between communities of the same socio-cultural area; between broader cultural areas, such as between the Sephardic and Ashkenazic communities of Europe; or between the latter and the Middle Eastern centres of Medieval Judaism in Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Egypt.2 Based on the use of messengers, called Shelikhim de- Rabbanan (-The messengers of the Rabbis"), who in practice were merchants charged with messages while undertaking their trade-travels, the queries reached their address and, after a due process of deliberation and interpretation, the answers were sent to the parties concerned, either by means of the 1 For the Responsa literature, see LA. Agus, ed., TeshlJl)oth Ba'alei Hatossaphoth (New York, 1954), and his Urban Civilization in Pre-crusade Europe, 2 vols. (Leiden, 1956), as well as S.B. Freehof, A Treasury oj Responsa (Philadelphia, 1963). For a full bibliography, see M. Elon, The Jewish Law

(Hebrew), 2nd ed. (Jerusalem, 1978), pp. 1213-1358. 2 See the article of Avraham Grossman in this collection.

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same messengers upon their return home or by other travellers. Moreover, the Responsa were circulated to other communities because of the nature of their precedents of jurisdiction; therefore, the identity of the persons involved in the query was often disguised by recourse to the names of Jacob's sons, like Reuben and Simon.2 Thus, the Responsa of this period testify to the establishment of an inter-communitarian communication network that ranged far beyond the respective communities of querier and responder because of the authority of the authors. The diffusion was effected either by the community involved in the document or through several centers of transmission, such as Cairo in Egypt and Qayrawan in the Maghreb, where copies of the original Responsa were made, both for their own use and for circulation among other communities that may have been interested in the problem treated. 3 Despite the quantitative and qualitative importance of this literature and the diver- sity of its topics, the Responsa formed only a part of the large production of medieval Jewish epistolography. This genre included letters of public interest, such as consultations and exchanges of views on current affairs between leaders of communities, often concerning the attitude to be adopted toward "gentile authorities" - i.e., local governments. The content of these letters was eventually rendered public in the synagogue, following the Sabbath service, if the head of this or the other community involved considered such pUblicity opportune. 4 Some of these letters were subsequently enlarged by their authors into treatises of a broader character; for example, the letter written in 1165 by Maimon b. Joseph (Maimonides' fatheij, which was entitled, /ggereth Hashemad ("The Letter of Apostasy") that described the calamities undergone by his family in Cordoba prior to its emigration. The epistle became an important testimony of the fate of Andalusian Jewry. compelled to convert to Islam by the Almohad conquerors, and of their return to Judaism once they had managed to escape the domination of this fundamentalist Muslim rulers. It also tried to comfort coreligionists who may have endured the same ordeal; hence its other title. /ggereth Nehamah (Letter of Consolation).s Similarly a letter in the 2 See S. W. Baron. A Social and Relisious History of the Jewish People, vol. 7 (Philadelphia, 1957), ch. 28 ("The Reign of Law"). 3 On the activity of the scriptoria of Cairo and Qayrawan, see Agus' introduction to his Urban avilization. 4 The criteria for rendering such letters public are discussed by I. A. Agus, "Democracy in the Communities of the Early Middle Ages." Jewish Quarterly Review, 43 (1952): 153-76. SEd. and translated into Hebrew by B. Klar, Iggereth Nehamah (Jerusalem, 1945) .

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next generation addressed by Maimonides to the Jews of Yemen, the /ggereth Teiman ("A Letter to Yemen") was also conceived as a treatise. Intended to offer encouragement to this remote community, the response to a query gave its author the opportunity to encapsulate his views on Jewish history, emphasizing the common fate of the different Jewish communities, their unity despite the dispersion, and their eschatologic faith in salvation in an undetermined future. s Because of Maimonides' importance and leadership, this treatise was circulated among communities all over the world, not only in its original destination. A different perspective of the genre is provided by a mid-fifteenth century private letter written to his father by the Italian Jew Ovadiyah of Bertinero, who was then in Jerusalem. The letter became an expanded narrative of the author's travels from Italy to Jerusalem and a geographical treatise of the Holy Land. Because of the nature of Ovadiyah's letter, it lost its private, intimate character and its content was widely publicized among European communities toward the end of the middle ages. 7 Among other public letters, the correspondence of l:Iasdai Ibn Shaprut, a tenth-century, Jewish, high-ranking dignitary of the Cordoba Caliphate, bears particular importance. Showing a keen interest in the condition of the different Jewish communities of France, Italy, and Germany, he frequently appeared as the leader of Western Judaism although he never was bestowed with such a title or an official function outside the frontiers of the Ummayad Caliphate in Spain. Moreover, his interest in the contemporary Jewish world led Ibn Shaprut to establish epistolary relations with the Jewish Kingdom of the Khazars. The story of the Khazars' conversion to Judaism had excited his mind to the point that in his letters to their monarch, Joseph, he praised the "renaissance of the Jewish realm," and expressed his readiness to give up his present position in order to serve the Khazarian monarch. 8 The diwan (the collected letters) of Samuel (Hannagid) Ibn-Nagrela in the first third of the eleventh century, as well, provide an interesting mirror of the interest in Jewish communities taken by this dignitary of the Ed. A. S. Halkin (New York, 1952). Ed. A. Yaari, in his l&&roth Erets-Israel (Tel Aviv, 1943), pp. 103-38. 8 Ibn Shaprut's correspondence is dispersed, published in various collections of Hebrew medieval sources; a selection of his letters to European and Mesopotamian communities was edited by J. Mann, in Texts and Studies in Jewish History and literature, vol. 1 (Cincinnati, 1931), pp. 29ff.; while the Khazar correspondence is now available in N. Golb and O. Pritsak, ed., Khazarian Hebrew Documents a/the Tenth Century (Ithaca, 1982). 6

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government of Cordoba, who was also the leader of the Andalusian community. Samuel's exchange of letters with the Mesopotamian leader, 1:Iai Gaon of Baghdad, attests to the Spanish Jew's involvement in the affairs of world-wide Judaism as well as to the use of epistolography as a communication medium between the western and eastern centres of the Jewish Diaspora. On the other hand, his letters accompanying the dispatch of Talmudic scrolls - which were copied in the scriptorium of his palace and presented to different communities in Western Europe and North Mrica - emphasize the role he played in the spread of learning and demonstrate his cultural patronage; lastly, they bear witness to his concern for the communities' appeal for help in the process of establishing their schools.9 Another type of public correspondence among Jews in the middle ages consisted of polemical letters; these were intended for a large circulation to serve the aims of their authors. These either criticized the heterodox views of their adversaries or defended the positions of person- alities or groups accused of having deviated from the norms of orthodox Judaism. This kind of epistolography was already developed as a communication system in the Middle East several centuries earlier, when it was used by both Karaites and Rabbanites from the late eighth to the tenth century. Their respective messengers spread these letters among the various communities, where they helped local polemicists to develop their respective arguments. 10 The use of polemical letters reached a zenith in Western Europe from the end of the twelfth to the beginning of the fourteenth century, during which period they constituted the main avenue of diffusion of contradictory arguments on the crucial Maimonidean polemic, which divided Jewish communities over the issue of philosophical studies. l l Athough the controversy over the need for philosophical - meaning Aristotelian - arguments to provide a rational explanation of halakhic precepts merely implied the recourse to learned treatises, the polemicists preferred the use of open-letters, in which they briefly summarized their positions. These letters gained wide circulation; and even if their content did not convince the learned protagonists to change their attitudes, Diwan Hannagid, ed. D. Sassoon (Oxford, 1934). Ed. J. Mann, Texts and Studies, vol. 11 (Cincinnati, 1935), passim. 11 Among the very rich bibliography on the Maimonidean controversy (the works in Hebrew having been omitted), see D. J. Silver, Maimonidean Criticism and Maimonidean Controversy, 1180-1240 (Leiden, 1965); and I. Twersky, Introduction to the Code of Maimonides (New Haven, 1980). See, also, Ben Shalom's article in this collection. 9

10

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the correspondence itself played a very important role in the process of spreading the polemic to the larger public. Thus, the serious criticism of Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed leveled by his contemporary Talmudist scholar, Abraham Ben-David of Posquieres, remained limited to a narrow circle of academic discussions,12 whereas the letters expressing the same criticism by Meir b. Todros Abulafiah (1170-1240), the head of the Toledo community, were dispatched throughout Jewish settlements of the Iberian realms as well as to North Africa and Southern France. These letters contributed to the split in Jewish public opinion between "Maimonideans" and "anti-Maimonideans" to the point that the most important leaders of contemporary Judaism found themselves compelled to choose a position. In this respect, the letters requesting David Kim~i of Narbonne to declare himself in the controversy in 1215 led the prestigious octogenarian to undertake a vain effort at calming the air. 13 Moreover, because of the communication network that enabled the diffusion of these letters to Northern France, Italy, and the Rhine area, the polemics aroused the interest of several Christian scholars who were involved in the Averroist debate; hence, the translation of the Guide into Latin and its diffusion among Western universities in the late 1220's. The use of epistolography was also characteristic of the later stages of the controversy, either by the "anti-Maimonideans," who were concentrated mainly in Montpellier in the 1230's and from 1296-1305, or by the "Maimonideans," resident of various communities in Western Europe and the Crusader Kingdom of Acre. In many cases, the protagonists sought letters endorsing their respective positions from prominent rabbinical authorities, and included their content within their own epistles. 14 The epistolary form was also used, though in a more limited amount, for external polemics, in particular those involving Christianity, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In this specific topic, the authors' purpose was different from that of the internal polemics. They were 12 Abraham Ben David of Posquieres, Hassagoth 'af Mishneh Torah [Hebrew], ed. I. D. Bergmann, in Hassagoth Harabad 'al Ba'al Hamaor (Jerusalem, 1957). See I. Twersky, Rabad oJPosquieres (Cambridge, Mass., 1962). 13 The Abulafiah correspondence was edited by H. Brodi, Poems and Letters oj Meir b. Todros Hale"i Abulafiah (Berlin, 1936). Other letters, as well as the thirteenth-century correspondence, were published by A.L. Lichtenberg, Ko"ets Teshu"oth Harambam Veiggrota" (Leipzig, 1859), parts II and III; and by S. Z. Halberstamm, Letters on the Maimonidean Polemics (Berlin, 1875). 14 See Min~ath Kenaoth, which consists of letters and endorsements concerning the controversy of 1296-1305, collected at Montpellier by Abba Mari of Lunel,

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aware that their letters did not reach their "gentile" opponents although they may have supposed that their arguments could be transmitted, or even read, by former coreligionaries converted to Christianity, who often used these premises to accuse Jews of blasphemy.15 The most impor- tant aim of these letters, however, was that of an apology for Judaism, through which the writers intended to reinforce the spirit of the different Jewish communities, living under the pressure of the Christian environment. Compelled by the authorities to attend in the synagogues the preachings of the Friars, whose aim was their conversion, and to take part in public disputations, whose results had been decided in advance, many Jews became demoralized. The "Polemical letters," stressing arguments of the truth of Judaism, played a role in encouraging communities and individuals to pursue their struggle against such attempts at their conversion. For this reason, the polemics against Christianity were entitled, "The War of the Lord. "18 In addition to the public letters, private correspondence played a role as a communication medium between individuals who, because of the conditions of the Jewish Diaspora, often resided at a distance from one another and, therefore, were unable to keep up personal contact. Thus, exchanges of letters were indispensable to maintain family connections as well as business associations. Like the public epistles, the private letters were entrusted to messengers, who eventually did travel for their business and, upon their arrival at the appropriate destination, delivered the letters either personally or through one of the local community leaders, usually a synagogue official. The private corres- pondence bore a confidential character, both because of the intimacy of the relations between members of the families concerned and because of the trade confidences of the businessmen's messages. To assure this confidentiality, which originally was based on trust in the messengers' integrity, rabbinic authorities emphasized the sacred principle of the who addressed them to R.. Salomon B. Adreth of Barcelona, whom he urged to condemn the "Maimonideans". Ed. I. Bisliches (Pressburg, 1839); see, also, Ben Shalom's article in this collection. 15 For example, Avner of Burgos, in fourteenth-century Spain. Two of the best-known cases of anti-Jewish activity of converts, however, belong to the thirteenth century; Nicholas Donin in Northern France, and Pablo Christiani in Aragon and Southern France. See R.. Chazan. Daggers 01 Faith: Thirteenth Century Christian Missionizing and the Jewish Response (Los Angeles. 1989). possim. 18 For example, see the polemical letters by Joseph Ibn Caspi, which reflect his disputations with Christian preachers in Aragon in 1318-1320; Maskioth Kessel. ed. I. Last (London, 1908).

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privacy of correspondence. Such recommendations were legislated at the beginning of the eleventh century in the famous ordinance issued by R. Gershom of Mainz, known as the "Light of the Exile, " prohibiting the opening and reading of letters by those for whom they were not intended except when there was an implicit permission to do so by the correspondent concerned,17 This ordinance was endorsed by the leaders of the entire spectrum of world Jewry. Because of their personal character, most private letters were either destroyed by the recipients or reused after a proper treatment of the parchment. Nevertheless, the remaining pieces of correspondence, especially the mass of material preserved in the Cairo Geniza, which contained both family correspondence and business letters,18 attest to the nature and the content of the whole genre. Letters dealing with economic activities are of particular interest owing to the typical character of communication between remote Jewish associates, most of whom rarely left their towns of residence. These letters relate to transactions that may be described as "international trade." From as far back as the Carolingian period, Jewish businessmen who resided in Western Europe used epistles as means of communication with their associates in North Africa and the Middle East. Such letters dealt with the nature of the transactions and the goods that were shipped, such as fine cloth and spices, as well as with the financing systems. Another topic treated in this kind of letter concerned exchanges of information about trade conditions and its taxation by various governments. While most of the letters preserved in the Cairo Geniza were written in JudeoArabic and. therefore. concern only the Middle Eastern countries. which are not discussed in the present paper ,19 some letters related to the commercial activities of West European Jewish merchants. Though these letters bore the character of private correspondence between business associates, they were preserved because of their validation by rabbinical courts. Acts of official confirmation became necessary because of the differences in commercial techniques and in the systems of customs and taxation between the Muslim countries and the West European feudal entities. On the other hand, the unity of Talmudic economic legislation enabled associations between remote Jewish merchants and, consequently, 17 Included in The Responsa of Meir b. Baruch of Rothenburg (thirteenth century) (Prague, 1608), no. 1022. 18 See S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 4 vols. (Berkeley, 19671983) . 19 See the contribution of M. Ben-Sasson in the present volume.

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commercial activities beyond political-religious boundaries.20 These when Italians established their own bases overseas. A tenth-century letter may serve as an example to illustrate the need for rabbinical court intervention. A rabbinical court in Southern Italy, the letter states, was called upon to certify that a transaction negotiated between Jewish partners located in the Muslim cities of Egypt and North Africa, on the one hand, and their associates in Germany and Italy, on the other, encountered a difficulty in regard to the European merchants' expenditures owing to the necessity for the latter to comply with the multitude and variety of feudal duties. Accordingly, the court decided that these expenditures, which were imposed upon Jews, must be consi - dered as pertaining to the entire association before the partners would be able to calculate their profits. Thus, this private transaction created a precedent for further partnerships, and the letter concerning it was widely circulated. Within Western Europe, letters of this type attested to business relations between merchants of Spain and the areas of France, the Rhineland, and Italy, as well as between them and Eastern Europe. Though such letters dealt mainly with trade operations that were conducted through the intermediary of Jewish merchants of Languedoc and Provence, this communication network was eventually used for the transmission of various types of information; for example, the activity of reputed physicians. A letter from Mainz, in the second half of the twelfth century, mentioned the journey of a Rhenish Jewish merchant to Barcelona, where he was successfully treated by a local Jewish orthopaedist.21 Other letters report the activity of Jewish merchants in Eastern Europe as fur traders and, later, their involvement in slave-trade. Finally, a particular network of communication transmitted letters devoted to family matters, particularly those involving the temporary absence of the head of a family or of sons who travelled for continuing their studies in various centers of learning in Spain, Italy, and the Rhineland. During their long-term stay in these yeshivot (schools of higher religious education) , students wrote to their parents of the conditions of their study and sojourn, eventually requesting financial help. On the other hand, they were informed by their relatives about the main family-life events. In some cases, heads of families were asked to provide the needs of their wife and children, especially when circumstances changed during their absence. 22 Such cases, when families were obliged See Agus, Urban avili~ation [Hebrew), vol. I, pp. 53-64. See A. Aptowitzer, Mavo Lasefer Rabiah [Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 1936) p. 93. 22 A selection of such letters was published by M. Gwedemann, 0Jellenschriften 20

21

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to request the community's support - particularly from the middle of the twelfth century onwards - led community leaders to issue regulations concerning travel and absence for the purpose of study. These included, as pre-conditions, the spouse's acquiescence in her husband's departure, thus limiting the period of his absence; the regulations obliged proper material arrangements to be made prior to his departure to make sure that the necessary means would be available to meet the family's needs.23 During their sojourns in the yeshivot, many students enjoyed personal relations with their teachers, which in several cases led to the marriage of the young student, especially if he showed brilliance, with one of the daughters of the head of the yeshiva. These relations were often pursued after the student completed his studies and returned home, as letters addressed to former yeshiva teachers bear testimony.24 The establishment of an epistolary communication network testifies to the general literacy of Jewish society in Western Europe in the middle ages. However, unlike the practice of the Middle East, where the use of Arabic in Hebrew characters emphasized that the vernacular was also the written language, there is no evidence of the use of spoken Hebrew by the Jews of Western Europe who did employ Hebrew in their correspondence. The revival of Hebrew in tenth-century Spain, which owed to the achievements of the Sephardic grammarians,25 was an important factor in the process of the adoption of Hebrew as the communication language between Jews. Though the Sephardic Jews living under Muslim domination in AI-Andalus attained perfect mastery of Arabic - which they used for their philosophical and scientific works - they used Hebrew for their literary, overwhelmingly poetical work as well as for their correspondence. Under their influence, this practice was adopted in communities where Arabic was unknown - France, Italy, Germany, and England - and the vernacular languages were still not literary before the thirteenth century. Hence, the use of Hebrew implied a certain recourse to scribes (Sopherim) who had mastered the "holy language." At the courts of the Sephardic leaders in the tenth to twelfth centuries, these scribes acted either as technical employees in the scriptoria, producing letters zur Geschichte des Unterrichts und Erziehung bei den deutschen Juden (Berlin, 1891) •

23 Jacob Tam, Sefer Hayashar, vol. 2; Novellae, ed. S. Schlesinger (Jerusalem, 1959), passim. See L. Finkelstein, Jewish Self-Government in the Middle Ages (Philadelphia, 1924), pp. 153 ff. 24 See S. Goldin's contribution in this collection. 25 For a brief synthesis of this evolution as perceived by historians, see S.W. Baron, A Social and Religious History, vol. 7, pp. 3-61.

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that were dictated to them, or as secretaries who, once they grasped the main ideas of a specified letter to be written, composed the From the epistles themselves on behalf of their employers.26 eleventh century on, many rabbinical personalities in Italy, Germany, and France also employed secretaries, who were chosen from among their students, for their epistolary work;27 however, the spread of this practice led to the need to define the secretary's duty. Accordingly, a statute from the mid-twelfth century, which was attributed by its author, Jacob Tam, to an earlier ordinance issued by the eleventh-century Gershom, "the Light of the Exile," not only testifies to the spread of secretarial employ- ment in the communitarian self-government system. It also emphasized the scribes' obligation to be faithful to their employers' thinking; those "who committed faults while they copied or elaborated the writs of their masters" were threatened with "eternal damnation. "28 Although the letters composed by these secretaries or scribes are distinguishable by particularities of style, reflecting the individual culture of their authors, especially in Spain, they bore the character of diplomatic uniformity. This characteristic had emerged in the Mesopotamian and Palestinian Geonim's correspondence from the eighth to the tenth century. Adapted originally to the needs of Hebrew epistolography in West European communities, the uniformity was further developed in Muslim Spain and. thereafter, transmitted back to Christian Europe. Characteristic signs of this diplomatic form included the invocation, the intitulation, the use of Biblical quotations, and elements of dating. The divine invocation, abridged, constituted the heading of the letter, an example being the letters standing for "with God's help." The dating, in most cases the mention of the weekly Torah portion, was variably placed either at the beginning or at the end of the letter. As for the intitulation, Sephardic epistolography adopted the hierarchical order of the correspondents, with the name of the more highly placed correspondent mentioned first, and formulas like: "from the illustrious N. to nn (the name and quality of the intended recipient). In the letters exchanged between Samuel Hannagid of Cordoba and l:Iai Gaon of Baghdad, however, this order was reversed, and the name of the Mesopotamian Gaon was first mentioned as a mark of deference to this ancient, 26 See A. Grabois, Typologie des sources hebrai"ques medievales, vol. 1, (Turnhout, 1987), pp. 43-45. 27 See Eleazar Gutwirth's contribution in this volume. 28 Jacob Tam, SeIer Hayashar, p. 9.

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prestigious institution.29 Under Sephardic influence. similar forms of intitulation were adopted by the courts of the Nessiim (princes) of Rome and Narbonne where they were used from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries. On the other hand. in the Ashkenazic areas of the Rhine and Danube. as well as in France and England. the hierarchical order was not always respected. As a mark of courtesy and deference. the names of the recipients were in many cases mentioned first. along with some appropriate adjectives relating to their knowledge of the religious literature.30 The practice of employing quotations from Biblical texts was not only in compliance with the customary procedures of scholastics in referring to the appropriate sacred texts. neither being a particular mark of erudition; it was also a means of improving the Hebrew language of the letters. especially in the communities beyond Spain. It was based on the presumption that Biblical verses in the "holy language" could better express the author's intentions. The result. however. was the development of an impersonal style of public correspondence. to the point that certain letters became models. adapted by subsequent writers to their own epistles.31 The writing of private letters also implied a large recourse to scribes. who knew Hebrew. Except for some intellectuals. like Abraham Ibn Ezra. the Nakedanim of England. the Kim~is of Narbonne. and the Tibbonites of Montpellier. whose mastery of the language and its grammar enabled them to express themselves in a distinguished Hebrew style.32 or the scholars and yeshiva students. who also were able to compose Hebrew letters. the great majority of medieval European Jewry used the vernacular tongues in daily-life and. except for liturgy. did not employ Hebrew. This deficiency in Hebrew led exegetes to use vernacular terms in Diwan (Samuel) Hannagid, passim. See Grabois, Typologie des sources, p. 42; and S. Goldin's article in this volume. 31 This impersonal character of letters and their stereotypical form led to the use of "formularies," like the one included by Abraham b. Nathan Hayarchi (of Lunel) in his SeIer Haminhag ("The Book of Customs"), ed. I. Raphael (Jerusalem, 1978), which dates to the beginning of the thirteenth century. 32 The will of Jehuda Ibn Tibbon (ed. I. Abrahams, Hebrew Ethical Wills (Philadelphia, 1928), pp. 51-92), in which he recounted the emigration of his family from Granada after the conquest of Andalusia by the Almohads in the mid-twelfth century and their family's settling in Languedoc, emphasizes the importance of using Hebrew correctly both in correspondence and in the translation of philosophical and scientific works written by Jews in Arabic. 29

30

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order to elucidate the meaning of Biblical and Talmudic expressions, whose Hebrew meaning was no longer familiar to European Jews. 33 While important merchants employed clerks in their enterprises to be responsible for business correspondence, the great majority of community members used the services of synagogue cantors or school-teachers, often the same person, to write their personal letters. Because such intermediaries were accustomed to public correspondence, they applied to private letters the uniformity of the official epistles. The intimacy of personal correspondence was thus transformed into a somewhat official letter, with expressions of feelings and familiar affections expressed by Biblical quotations, such as from the David and Jonathan story or from the Song of Songs.34 Nonetheless, private letters still attest to the strong family-ties found within Jewish society in medieval Europe; these helped resist both long absences by heads of households or by sons and, in particular, the constraints of dispersion caused by the hostile environment. Because of the extensive use of correspondence among medieval Jewry, epistolography became the most important communication mediwn of the Jewish world, even though the transmission of letters was subject to randomness for the lack of anything approaching a mail service. Moreover, it was impossible for Jews to use the special messengers, who were appointed by Christian and Muslim authorities for their own needs. Despite these difficulties, the economic activities of Jewish merchants, who frequently travelled for the sake of their business, led to the establishment of a relatively efficient communication network, both within Europe itself and between Europe and the Middle East. These voluntary messengers revealed themselves worthy of the trust of their coreligionists by finding means and ways to forward the letters to their destination. Thus, it was not very difficult to maintain a regular correspondence; an example is Nahmanides, who regularly corresponded with his son, a resident of Barcelona, from Jerusalem and Acre between 1263 and 1267.35 In this particular case, the correspondence included private letters as well as the transmission to Western Europe of the scholarly works of this distinguished Catalan master. Nahmanides, 33 See M. Banitt. "The 'La'azim' of Rashi and the French Biblical Glossaries.· in C. Roth, ed., The World History o/the Jewish People (Tel Aviv, 1966). pp. 291-97. 34 On Biblical quotations, see S. Assaf, ed., Mekoroth Letoledoth Hahinukh [Hebrew), vol. 1 (Tel Aviv, 1928), passim. 35 Ed. H.D. Chevel, Kitvei Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman [Hebrew), vol. 1 (Jerusalem, 1963).

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indeed, who had been compelled to leave his native country in the aftermath of his famous public debate with the Friars and settled in the Holy Land, where he reestablished Jewish settlement in Jerusalem and wrote his commentary on the Pentateuch.

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COMMUNICATION AMONG JEWISH CENTERS DURING THE TENTH TO THE TWELFTII CENTURIES Avraham Grossman The number of Jews in the world during the ninth to the twelfth centuries is estimated at about one million or slightly higher. They were dispersed throughout Asia, Africa, and Europe, with the overwhelming majority (about 80%) living under Muslim rule. At the end of the seventh century, most Jews lived in Western Asia, but Jewish communities gradually began to be established in all the lands that came under the Arab conquest. The largest communities in Muslim countries were in Babylon, Persia, Syria, the Land of Israel, Egypt, North Mrica, Spain, and Yemen. In the tenth century, less than 20% of the Jewish population lived in Christendom, congregating mainly in Byzantium (including Greece and Southern Italy), Germany, and France. In the eleventh and twelf~ centuries, however, the number of Jews in urban Christian Europe greatly increased with the development of commerce; Jews settled in England and in Eastern Europe, too. 1 These centuries witnessed one of the greatest transformations in the history of Jewish culture in the middle ages. Until the end of the tenth century, spiritual activity was almost wholly concentrated in Muslim lands. Thereafter, the core of activity shifted to Europe; namely, to Spain, Provence, Northern France, Germany, Italy, and England. These centers, though smaller in population, were more prolific in literary activity than the great centers in the Muslim countries, chiefly in Babylon and the Land of Israel. • What cultural, economic, social, and familial connection existed between both centers? • Were they each aware of the culture, language, customs, spiritual and social world of the other? • Were there any travelers between the diverse areas? 1 For an overview of the map of Jewish settlement in the world in the eighth to eleventh centuries and the movement to new centers, see S. W. Baron, A Social and Religious History 0/ the Jews, vol. 4 (Philadelphia, 1957), pp. 150-227; C. Roth, The World History o/the Jewish People, The Dark Ages (Tel-Aviv, 1966), pp. 13-48.

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• Did Jews from different centers maintain economic ties with each other? • Were they willing to adopt some of the cultural and literary heritage of other centers? • Did they intermarry? • Did they view themselves in any way as partners in a shared historical destiny, despite the great political rift between their countries? This article will address these issues. The sources at hand, though varied, are few. There are Jewish and external sources, Muslim and Christian; as a rule, however, they do not enable a full and reliable picture of the entire period. The issue of the connection among the different Jewish communities in the medieval Diaspora presents one of the most complex problems in Jewish historiography, especially regarding the early middle ages, between the seventh and tenth centuries. This complexity is due chiefly to the scarcity of sources furnishing explicit and general information about these ties, especially those between the Jewish communities in Muslim countries and in Christendom. It is agreed that strong ties existed among the different Jewish centers in the Muslim countries as well as between communities in Germany and in Northern France (i.e., north of the Loire). Likewise, it has been established that the important Jewish center in Babylon maintained cultural ties with other centers, not only in Muslim lands but in Christian Europe, as well, as the geonim of Babylon were approached by Jews requesting halakhic rulings from all over the world. What was the nature, however, of communication between other centers, such as between North Mrica and Muslim Spain, on the one hand, and between the Ashkenazi Jewry and the Jewish communities in the Iberian Peninsula, on the other? In order to answer these questions, this study will focus on four main issues of decisive impact concerning communication between the Jewish centers in the early middle ages: • immigration and settlement; • economic ties; • pilgrimages; • and cultural ties. In order to give a comprehensive perspective, analysis will be limited to the main phenomena.

********** One basic factor in the development of communication in the Jewish Diaspora is provided by the socio-economic structure of Jewish society, and the great transformation it underwent in the early middle ages; from

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a mainly agrarian society. it gradually became an urban society dealing in commerce. crafts. and the liberal professions. Babylonian Jews. constituting the majority of the Jewish people after the Muslim conquest. very quickly abandoned agriculture as a means of livelihood. Contemporary sources indicate that as early as the end of the eighth century. the majority of Babylonian Jewry no longer engaged in agriculture. We find important evidence of this process in the words of one of the Babylonian geonim. who recounted that in 785. most of the Jews did not own land. True. Jews elsewhere continued to farm the land. and apparently many Jews in Muslim Spain did so; but many Babylonian Jews turned to commerce instead. They were integrated into the newly emerging social class of middle- and upper-class of Muslim merchants. which flourished at the end of the eighth century and especially during the ninth century.2 It is certain that a large proportion of the Jews in medieval Christendom also were merchants. a fact that had widespread implications for the nature and scope of communication between the Jewish centers.

Immigration and Settlement The ties between the Jewish centers were greatly influenced by immigration. both among Muslim countries and in Christian Europe. The early middle ages was a period characterized by waves of immigration and settlement; for example. the great migration of Germanic tribes. which transformed the map of Europe. especially between the fourth and sixth centuries. In the ninth century there were additional waves. this time of the Normans coming from the Scandinavian north and of the Magyar migration from the east. Waves of migration occurred in Jewish society. as well. Many thousands of Jews also migrated and settled in new locations where commerce f1ourished. 3 One of the great migrations that altered the map of Jewish settlement in the early middle ages was the movement of thousands of Jews from 2 On this economic revolution and its significance, see S. D. Goitein, Jews and Arabs (New York, 1964), pp. 89-124; idem., A Mediterranean Society, vol. I, Economic Foundations (Berkeley, 1967), passim; idem., "The Rise of the Middle-Eastern Bourgeoisie in Early Islamic Times," Studies in Islamic History and Institutions (Leiden, 1966), pp. 217-41. 3 On the great migrations of the Jews from Babylon and its environs westward (to the Land of Israel, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain), see E. Ashtor, "Migrations de l'Iraq vers les pays m&iiterran~ dans Ie haut moyen Age," AESC 27 (1972): 185.

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Babylon and adjacent countries to the cities of North Africa. Few Jews lived in North Africa prior to the Arab conquest; by the end of the eighth century, the Jewish population there numbered tens of thousands. Others left Babylon, Persia, and Syria - though on a smaller scale - and turned to Egypt and Spain. In Fustat (Cairo), two distinct Jewish communities emerged, each with its own synagogue: one for Jews originally from the Land of Israel and the other for Jews originally from Babylon.4 Another destination of Jews leaving Babylon and its environs was the Land of Israel. The Babylonian sage Pirkoi b. Baboi recounts that at the start of the ninth century, a number of cities in the Land of Israel had so many immigrants from Babylon that they succeeded in introducing the Babylonian prayer ritual into the local synagogue and replacing the Land of Israel customs with their own. By his account, Jerusalem was one of these cities.5 This testimony clearly reflects the great number of arrivals from Babylon. An ongoing struggle ensued between Babylon and the Land of Israel for hegemony and influence in the different communities, with each trying to disseminate its own customs and rituals. The Babylonian success in some cities in the Land of Israel, then, is indicative of the number and power of the immigrants. On the other hand, Pirkoi admits that sages from the Land of Israel who reached North Africa wielded their influence over the local communities in some matters and introduced their own customs there. 6 Immigration in the opposite direction. from west to east. took place later. especially during the tenth and eleventh centuries. A small proportion of the descendents of the emigrants to North Africa went to the Land of Israel, where they established independent social frameworks that figured prominently throughout the political struggles of the tenth-eleventh centuries; all the while, they maintained close ties with their original communities in North Africa. 7 As a result of these great migrations and the re-settlement of Jews in new centers, the immigrants developed a strong bond with their 4 These synagogues are mentioned many times in the Geniza documents. See. for instance. J. Mann. The Jews in Egypt and in the Land 0/ Israel under the Fatimid Caliphs. vol. 1 (Oxford. 1969). passim; M. Gil. A History a/the Land a/Israel. 634-J099 (Cambridge. 1992). pp. 527-39. 575-94. 5 This document was presented and discussed in A. Grossman. "Immigration and Pilgrimage in the Early Arab Period" [Hebrew], Cathedra 8 (1978): 136-44. especially p. 136. 6 "We have heard that students from the yeshiva visited you and some of them were previously in the Land of Israel." Quoted by B. M. Levine. Tarbiz 2 (1931): 394. 7 See M. Ben-Sasson. "Communication Between the Maghreb and the Land of Israel in the Ninth-Eleventh centuries" [Hebrew). Shaiem 5 (1987): 31-82.

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lands of origin, especially Babylon and, though on a smaller scale, the Land of Israel. The newcomers still had relatives in their former homelands, whose great academies of Torah study they were still attached to; the cultural heritage was held dear and sacred. This is especially true of the congregation in North Africa, which cultivated strong cultural ties with Babylon. Great migrations leading to the establishment of new centers took place in Europe, too, in two main streams: • from Italy westward to the cities of Germany and Northern France (north of the Loire) ; • from Spain northward toward Provence, and from there to Northern France and Germany. Jewish immigration to the urban centers of Germany and the establishment of new communities there were extensively studied by S. Schwartzfuchs. In his opinion, the origins of Franco-German Jewry are to be traced to immigrants from Italy, not from Provence. The immigrants from Italy crossed the Alps, whereupon their route split in two: most turned to the cities of Germany, while a smaller number proceeded to Northern France. Some of the immigrants to Germany later continued farther south, to Northern France. Schwartzfuchs's main innovation is in denying the importance of the northbound route; that is, of immigration from Provence in the south toward France, and from there to Germany in the north. I have examined this theory in great detail and reached the conclusion that an important part was played by the northbound route of immigration, originating in Spain.8 Jews from Spain settled in Provence in Southern France at the end of the seventh century, following the persecution and decrees of the Visigoths. New arrivals reached the Languedoc region after the Muslim conquest of Spain in 711. It is, therefore, not surprising to find that the spiritual heritage of Proven~l Jewry differed in many respects from that of Italian and German Jewry, respectively, and resembled that of Spanish Jewry. Immigrants from Spain and other countries in the Muslim Caliphate did not settle in Provence alone; they reached farther north and settled in Northern France and Germany, as well. This is attested in personal names that are in part typical of Spanish Jewry, sometimes even preserving their 8 S. Schwarzfuchs, "L'opposition Tsarfat-Provence: la formation du Judaisme du nord de la France," in Hommage a Georges Vajda (Paris, 1980), pp. 135-50; A. Grossman, "Jewish Immigration and Settlement in Germany in the TenthEleventh centuries" [Hebrew), in Immigration and Settlement, ed. A. Shinan (Jerusalem, 1982), pp. 109-28.

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Spanish title. The literary and halakhic heritage of Northern France was also closer in some respects to those of Spanish Jewry. In the opinion of C. Roth. large numbers of immigrants arrived in the first generations: "Hence. a main factor. if not the main factor. in the increase of the Jewish population in Western Europe at this time was. without any question. immigration: inevitably. immigration from the great reservoirs of Jewish population in the east. "9 It is clear from the context that Roth was referring to immigration to Northern Europe. as well. Contemporary sources provide no clear indication of such massive waves of immigration from the Orient. There were certainly some immigrants from there. Obviously. the immigrants brought their own customs and traditions with them and continued. to a certain degree. to maintain ties with their countries of origin. The settlement pattern. then. confirms the assumption that strong ties existed between the two Jewish centers. that in Islam and that in Christendom. The Economic Factor Economic ties were the main factor that contributed to continuous communication between Jewish communities in Europe and in the Caliphate; indeed. it would be hard to describe the nature of this communication without referring to the commercial trade between different and. at times. scattered communities. In the ninth and tenth centuries. it was mainly Jews who upheld the commercial traffic between Christendom and the Caliphate. Three main factors contributed to this: • The Jews were assured of a "warm home" and sympathetic welcome anywhere they went - it sufficed to enter the local synagogue to find shelter and friends. • The Hebrew language served as a bridge between Jewish merchants from different lands. • The common bond of a unique legal tradition. based on Talmudic law. which prevailed throughout the Jewish Diaspora. enabled understanding between Jews from different centers. In case of an altercation. there was always an accepted legal institution. recognized by all parties. that would pass judgment. The most impressive testimony to the international ties of Jewish merchants and the far-reaching scope of their business activities is provided by Ibn Kordabheh. who served as an inspector at a border 9

C. Roth, The World History o/the Jewish People, The Dark Ages, p. 18.

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check-point in Iraq at the end of the ninth century. He describes in great detail the commercial channels and routes employed by the Jewish merchants of his day and emphasizes the importance of their trade: These merchants speak Arabic, Persian, Roman, Frankish, Spanish, and Slavonic. They travel from the east to the west and from the west to the east by land as well as by sea. They bring from the west eunuchs, slave girls, boys, brocade, beaver skins, marten furs, and other varieties of fur, and swords. They embark in the land of the Franks on the Eastern Sea, and they sail toward al-Framrama. There they load their merchandise on the backs of camels and proceed by land to al-Qulzum, twenty-five parasangs distant. They embark on the Eastern Sea and proceed from al-Qulzum to ai-Jar and to Jidda; then they go to Sind, Hind, and China. On their return from China they load musk, aloe wood, camphor, cinnamon, and other products of the eastern countries and they come back to al-Qulzum, then to al-Farama, and from there embark again on the Western Sea. Some of them sail for Constantinople in order to sell their merchandise to the Romans. Others proceed to the residence of the king of the Franks to dispose of their articles. Sometimes the Jewish merchants, embarking in the country of the Franks on the Western Sea, sail toward Antioch. From there they proceed by land to al-Jabiya, where they arrive after three days' journey. There they take a boat on the Euphrates and they reach Baghdad, from where they go down the Tigris to al-Ubullah. From al-Ubullah they sail for, successively, Oman, Sind, Hind, and China .... These different journeys may likewise be made by land. Merchants leaving from Spain or France proceed to Sus al-Aqsa and then to Tangier, and from there they set out for Africa and to the capital of Egypt. From there they turn toward al-Ramla; visit Damascus, Kufa, Baghdad, and Basra; cross al-Ahwaz, Fars, Kirman, Sind, and Hind; and reach China. Sometimes also they take the route back of Rome, and, crossing· the country of the Slavs, proceed to Khamlij, the capital of the Khazars. They embark on the Caspian Sea, then reach Balkh and Transoxiana, then continue the journey toward the camp of the Tughuzghur, and from there to China. 10

Ibn Kordabheh speaks of four routes connecting Europe and the lands of Islam. The geographical extent of the merchants' presence, both within Europe and in the Caliphate, is most impressive. Scholars are agreed as to the reliability of Ibn Kordabheh's descriptions, as he had no interest in digressing from the truth. The two most important circuitries are those 10 R. Lopez and I. W. Raymond, Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World (New York, 1955), pp. 31-33.

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mentioned first: the sea-route and the overland route, especially the latter, used by merchants departing from Germany towards France, Spain, North Africa, Egypt, the Land of Israel, Syria, Babylon and as far as India and China. It is hard to imagine a more important channel of communication among Jewish communities at the time. Trade thus fostered strong ties between the Jewish communities in Europe and those in the Orient. One of the earliest accounts of the prevalence of commerce between German Jewry and Jews living in Muslim lands has been preserved in a query addressed to Paltoi Gaon (842-857, Pumbedita):"The Ashkenazi habitually come to trade with us during the dry season and only a few of them come during the rainy season....When we hear that another convoy will come after them ... we quickly buy everything and sell everything. "11 A German sage mentions those traveling "via Russia" for purposes of commerce. There was also trade with countries in Europe, including Poland and Hungary. S. D. Goitein has shown that the sources found in the Cairo Geniza attest to bustling commercial traffic in the Eastern and Western Mediterranean. Needless to say, these traders forged many and varied commercial partnerships with local Jews in their ports of call. Much evidence of such commercial partnerships is found in the corpus of Responsa concerning merchants who usually sailed from Europe to the Orient. 12 The slave traffic, heading Ibn Kordabheh's list of merchandise in which the Jews traded, is of special importance. By its very nature, this trade required cooperation between merchants in different areas, Jews and non-Jews alike. Much evidence of joint action is preserved in the Gaonic COrpUS. 13 The eleventh-century Responsa literature of the sages of Germany and France, as well, is rich in information about economically motivated voyages. This is especially evident in the Responsa of R. Gershom Me'or Ha-golah and R. Judah Hacohen. They tell of merchants traveling from Mainz to Krakow in Poland around the mid-eleventh Responsa 01 the Geonim 01 East and West, (Berlin, 1888), par. 149. An important compendium of such Responsa was preserved in the volume Sha'arei Zedek (Jerusalem, 1966), part 4, ch. 8. See, also, J. Mann, "The Responsa of the Babylonian Geonim as a Source of Jewish History" [Hebrew 1, in The Collected Articles 01 J. Mann, vol. 2 (Gedera, 1971), pp. 1-243; M. Ben-Sasson, "Maghreb-Mashrek Contacts in the Ninth-Eleventh Centuries: Trust, Commitment, Partnership" [Hebrew], Pe'amim 38 (1989): 35-48. On the great commercial traffic in the Mediterranean between east and west, as reflected in the Geniza sources, see S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, vol. 1, pp. 156-67. 13 See, for instance, SeIer Shaarei Zedek, pp. 205-18, which mentions many Responsa dealing with this topic. 11

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century. A number of ordinances enacted by contemporary sages derive from this economic reality, which had widespread ramifications for many different aspects of life. 14 It is clear that these merchants served as cultural intermediaries, passing along written accounts, customs, and beliefs from one Jewish center to the other. The fact that some of these merchants were also scholars in their own right facilitated the transmission of information. We learn of the strength of the commercial ties between the Jews of Ashkenaz and those living in Muslim lands in the tenth century and first half of the eleventh century, inter alia, from Arabic phrases that found their way into the language of the Jews of Germany and Northern France. These are technical terms in the field of commerce and terms of daily activities. Among the former are: rissala (a kind of mission) and ma'arufiyya (a trade monopoly with certain foreign clients). The second category includes the salutation: ya akhI ("0 my brother"). Only an intimate acquaintance, cultivated in frequent trips and prolonged sojourns in Muslim and Christian lands by Jewish merchants, could provide the appropriate background for this development. An analysis of cultural ties between the Jewish center in Spain and that in France cannot be separated from this economic reality. The Jewish merchants throughout the early middle ages and afterwards, constituted the main channel for transmitting written literary sources and oral cultural traditions from one center to the other. Because some of these traders were also scholars, they took a great interest in the nature of the cultural activity of other Jewish communities. It has been established that in the eleventh century. most of the prominent rabbis in Germany and France traveled, sometimes even great distances. IS Other merchants were close friends or relatives of sages, mainly, in small communities. It is clear that they, too, expressed some interest in literary sources. The economic ties between Jewish centers within Europe itself 14 On the Responsa of Rabbenu Gershom Me'or Ha-golah and his disciple R. Judah Hacohen and their historical importance, especially for the study of the Jews' economic activity, see I. A. Agus, Urban Civili~ation in Pre-Crusade Europe, vol. 1 (New York, 1965); idem .• The Heroic Age of Franco-German Jewry (New York, 1969), pp. 23-77; A. Grossman, The Early Sages of Ashkena~ (Jerusalem, 1988), pp. 140-61, 195-206. IS In the eleventh century, all the sages of France traveled for the purpose of study, visits, and commerce. See my The Early Sages of France (Jerusalem, 1995), pp. 572-74. See, also, the tradition regarding Rashi's travels to Russia, Ibid., p. 135, which refers, I believe, not to Rashi but to a different sage. See discussion, loco cit. Many of Germany's sages also traveled, including R. Isaac b. Judah, head of the Mainz yeshiva.

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namely, among the Jewish communities in Germany, France, and Spain - were also of great importance. Jewish traders from Germany and France were constantly traveling on business to Spain, just as Jews from Spain and other Caliphate countries traveled to different areas of Christendom in the ninth to eleventh centuries. Spain was an important commercial center and a major avenue in the slave-trade, in which Jews played an important role. The overland route mentioned by Ibn Kordabheh and used by the Radhanite traders passed via France to Spain and from there to the Orient. Ibn Kordabheh lists Andalusian as one of the languages that the Jewish traders fluently spoke. One should note in this regard that industry and crafts were highly developed in Muslim Spain, which exported products to many countries. Spanish leather was especially renowned for its quality, as were its silk and cloth. These goods were exported in volume to Christian principalities in Northern Spain and to other areas of early medieval Europe. Jews took part in this trade, too, as we learn from Ibn Kordabheh. A query, sent to R. l;Ianoch (Cordoba, end of the tenth and start of the eleventh centuries), mentions "a certain Levite [whoI traded in the land of the Christians," and there are other such references. 16 A. Ashtor summarizes this trade: The scope of business dealings of Spanish Jewish merchants with the Frankish Kingdom north of the Pyrenees was by no means insignificant. Moreover. during the period of Omayyad dominance in Cordoba a very special condition developed in international trade relations whereby the Jewish merchants of Arab Spain and Frankish Gaul were able to fulfill a highly important function in the exchange of goods between all the Moslem and Christian lands. 17

In the framework of the development and scope of medieval communication, one should bear in mind the fact that these traders would not arrive for a short, hurried visit; rather, they remained for extended periods of time in the areas with which they traded. A sojourn of two years and more was common. In one of the queries addressed to R. Joseph Ibn Abitur, we hear of a Jewish merchant who traveled to a Christian land and remained there for more than six years. There is copious evidence of this phenomenon, though we will cite here only a single conclusive proof. We refer to the ordinance of R. Jacob b. Meir (Rabbenu Tam), the I presented these sources in my The Early Sages of France. pp. 557-61. E. Ashtor. The Jews of Moslem Spain. vol. 1 (Philadelphia. 1973). pp. 279-88. 16 17

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foremost sage of France in the twelfth century. He ruled that it is forbidden for a man to stay away from home for a period longer than a year and a half.18 The grounds for this ruling was the damage suffered by the family unit. The lengthy absences upset the family unit and inflicted economic hardships upon the household. Since the second half of the twelfth century was already a period of decline in the role played by Jews in international trade, one can therefore conclude that previously the situation was even worse and its repercussions graver, thus emphasizing how long some of the absences and voyages must have lasted. Generally, many of the ordinances on family affairs in this period derive from the frequent and lengthy trips made by Jewish merchants from Europe to Muslim lands. 19 One ordinance enacted by Maimonides (1138-1204) even indicates that some of these merchants would pretend to be bachelors. They married Jewish women in Egypt, and only after several years was it revealed that they were in fact already married. This state of affairs spurred Maimonides to issue a ruling that any Jew arriving in Egypt and wishing to marry there was obliged to swear to his bachelorhood and bring witnesses to attest to the fact.20 Jews also played an important role in the internal trade of the Muslim Caliphate. Jewish financiers of Baghdad at the end of the ninth and the start of the tenth centuries amassed a large fortune from this commerce and opened branches of their banks in far-away lands, including India. We possess much evidence, especially from the Cairo Geniza, of the major role of the Jews in the trade with China and with Aden in Southern Yemen. The Geniza preserved an extensive correspondence between traders and their families, attesting to frequent voyages between the various Jewish centers within the Caliphate and to the lengthy sojourns in the ports of call. The letters show how contact was maintained with families, and of the dangers of the road. They also reveal the pain and worry suffered by the families as a result of prolonged absences. The long absences also resulted at times in a marriage to a second wife in the 18 The source was published, translated into English, and discussed by L. Finkelstein, Jewish Self-Government in the Middle Ages (New York, 1964), pp. 168-70. 19 See A. Grossman, "The Historical Background to the Ordinances on Family Affairs Attributed to Rabbenu Gershom Me'or ha-Golah ("The Light of the Exile")," Jewish History, Essays in Honour of Ch. Abramsky, ed. A. R. Albert and S. J. Zipperstein (London, 1988>', pp. 3-24. 20 "In order that we do not marry a woman to a strange man throughout Egypt until he brings evidence that he is not married or swears to it, W Responsa of Maimonides, ed. Y. Blau, vol. 2 (Jerusalem, 1960), par. 367, p. 624.

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far-off land, for in Muslim countries polygamy was acceptable among Jews, as it was among their Muslim neighbors. 21 We may assume that these merchants were the messengers who carried with them the correspondence between l:Iisdai Ibn Shaprut of Cordoba and the Khazarian kings who had converted to Judaism. 22 To conclude: The accounts of Muslim historians, the Responsa of the geonim, and the correspondence of Jewish traders all furnish impressive testimony to the wide scope of Jewish trade. Consequently, the channels of communication among various Jewish settlements were for the most part firmly established as a result of the ongoing inter-community commercial traffic. The peculiar nature of contemporary trade left its mark on the development and characteristics of Jewish commerce and its communication network. Because of the dangers of the road and the requirement of a forum of ten males to observe certain religious commandments, Jewish merchants would usually travel in convoys composed of a more or less large group of Jews among other, different peoples. Often, robbers would lie in wait for the convoys, but other dangers also threatened the travelers. Thus, for instance, we read in a letter sent from Egypt: Reuben departed from Egypt, and Simeon sent along with him 15 golden ducats with which to buy merchandise .... On their way to Egypt they were attacked by robbers, and when he arrived in Egypt he wrote to his partner of all that befell him, in the following words: "All the golden ducats that I had, I sent along with so-and-so, because of the dangers of the road; I kept only Simeons's ducats .... We were attacked by thieves, and they seized the entire convoy and took everything I had, and left me naked. They were about to slaughter me, and when I saw this I said to myself. .. best to tell them of the golden ducats that I have, so that they will leave me alone. 23

21 On the correspondence of merchants and on trade with India, see S. D. Goitein, Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders (Princeton, 1973). See especially ch. 5, "The India Traders," pp. 175-229. His work, India Book, (unpublished) includes 354 documents from the Geniza dealing with trade with India. On polygamy in Jewish society, see M. A. Friedman, Jewish Polygamy in the Middle Ages [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1986). See, also, S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, vol. 3, The Family (Berkeley, 1978); and my article "The Historical Background to the Ordinances on Family Affairs. " 22 On this exchange of missives, see N. Golb and O. Pritsak, Kha~arian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century (Ithaca-London, 1982), passim. 23 L. Ginzberg, Geonica, vol. 2 (New York, 1909), pp. 150-51.

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Detailed descriptions of the adventures that beset the convoys are found in the Responsa and in the Geniza records as well as in different halakhic questions relating especially to the proper observance of the Sabbath and to vexed traders. The contact among. Jewish merchants of different backgrounds, the dangers of the road, and the care these merchants extended one another are recurring motifs in these sources. Pilgrimages Pilgrimages to holy places also formed an important communication channel between Jewish centers. Visits to holy sites are an ancient custom in all cultures. In Judaism, pilgrimages to and within the Land of Israel have figured prominently, both in the biblical period and afterwards, when most of the Jewish people were in exile. The fact that during the middle ages pilgrimages were of great importance in Islam, being one of its cardinal tenets, and that the practice spread to Christianity provided further instigation for Jews to make pilgrimages to the holy places in the Land of Israel. The hardships and dangers of the voyage curtailed mass travel, but these trips to the Land of Israel nevertheless continued throughout the early middle ages. Even during the grim warring between the Muslim tribes in the tenth and eleventh centuries and during the Crusader period, Jews continued to make pilgrimages to the Land of IsraeJ.24 The routes followed by the pilgrims, by land or by sea, were also varied; often, pilgrims would join merchant convoys. Several letters in the Cairo Geniza tell of Jews "from all over the world" making such pilgrimages in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Indeed, the Geniza has preserved documents attesting to the fact that pilgrims came from even far-off places. Thus, we hear of Isaac b. Reuven of France, who decided, after his son had been killed by rioters, to make a pilgrimage. Isaac departed from Normandy in the first half of the eleventh century, turned southeast, and traveled the length of the Seine past Paris. He continued to the Rhone and reached the community of ArIes in Provence. As he spoke no Arabic and feared that he would encounter difficulties along the way without the assistance of Jewish communities, he requested, and received, a letter of recommendation from the leaders of Aries, who served as "his mouthpiece in all the holy 24 On the pilgrimages to the Land of Israel in the period discussed here, see M. Gil, A History 0/ the Land 0/ Israel, pp. 609-30, and the literature cited; see, also, the article of Sylvia Schein in this collection.

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communities overseas." The letter of recommendation called upon the communities that Isaac b. Reuven would encounter to assist him in finding food and shelter. Other sources tell of a Jew from Russia who reached Salonica on his way to Jerusalem and of a Jew from Damascus who reached the Land of Israel and continued from there to Egypt. Syria was an important way-station for pilgrims from the east on their way to Jerusalem, while Egypt afforded an important station for pilgrims arriving from the west. The most famous pilgrim of this period is R. Judah Halevi, who remained some eight months in Egypt on his way from Spain to Jerusalem. In another example, a recently discovered document, tells of R. Eliahu b. Menahem of Le Mans in Northern France, who visited the Land of Israel around 1040 and made a pilgrimage to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem along with 12,000 Jews from "all over the world. "25 This figure is clearly exaggerated, but the document provides important testimony of the large-scale participation of Jews, from both Muslim lands and Europe, in pilgrimages; many similar accounts have been preserved. Jews also made pilgrimages to Babylonian sites with a tradition of holiness, especially ancient synagogues and graves. For instance, Benjamin of Tudela, visiting Babylon around 1170, described at great length the pilgrimage to the synagogue of the prophet Ezekiel. He recounts that not only did Jews pray there, but "the greatest among the

Muslims" also came to pray "out of their great love for the prophet Ezekiel."26 In conclusion, then, pilgrimages to the Land of Israel and other holy places afforded an important channel of communication among Jewish congregations in the medieval Diaspora in two main respects: • Pilgrimages brought on the passage through different Jewish centers, especially commercial centers where ships would anchor. • Pilgrimages led to the encounter in Jerusalem and other holy sites among Jews from different areas.

25 The source was published by M. Hirshman, "The Priest's Gate and Elijah b. Mena~em's Pilgrimage" [Hebrew], Tarbiz 35 (1986): 217-28. See also the discussion about this document in my Early Sages of France, pp. 92-98. On the pilgrimage of R. Isaac b. Reuven of Normandy, see N. Golb, History and Culture of the Jews of Rouen in the Middle Ages [Hebrew] (Tel-Aviv, 1976). 26 M. N. Adler, The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela (London, 1907), pp. 42-45.

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Cultural Ties Cultural ties are a valuable indication of the communication network between different Jewish centers, and the reason for this is twofold: they themselves are evidence of such a network; in addition, they provide a source for learning of the channels of communication between different centers. The thousands of Responsa, composed by the geonim of Babylon and sent to Jews in North Africa in reply to their queries, provide the best evidence of the firm bond between these two centers. 27 Many queries were put to the geonim of Babylon by the Jews of Spain and other countries in the Muslim Caliphate. Even from Christian Northern Italy, R. Meshulam b. Kalonymous sent questions to Sherira Gaon in the second half of the tenth century. From Germany, too, several queries were sent to the geonim of the Land of Israel in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The geographical distribution of the queries sent to the geonim is extensive and most impressive. The Babylonian geonim regarded themselves as teachers and leaders of the various Jewish communities, and in this capacity encouraged ties between the Babylonian center and the Diaspora. Saadiah Gaon, in the tenth century, describes himself as a king in need of an "army" of Jews. In a letter he sent to communities in Egypt, he even requests that the local Jews write to him daily and report on their situation: "Notify us each day of your welfare, as it is our own welfare, since there can be no king without an army. "28 Another important means of maintaining contact was through contributions of funds to the yeshivot, that were sent along with the queries. These grants were of considerable importance in the rise of the yeshivot. In the eleventh century, however, the number of queries sent from Europe to the yeshivot of Babylon gradually decreased; for centers of learning were being established in Spain, Germany, France, and Provence, and queries were referred to the rabbis in those locations, closer to home, for their ruling. The cultural link with the Babylonian center was not maintained by correspondence alone. Many sages, from Muslim countries and from 27 We did not mention here the numerous sources from the Cairo Geniza. They are discussed in the article by M. Ben-Sasson in the present volume. 28 On the questions posed by R. Meshulam b. Kalonymus to Rav Sherira, see my book The Early Sages of Ashkena~, pp. 50, 56-57. On the geographical apportionment of queries addressed to the geonim of Babylon, see the map in H. Beinart, Carta's Atlas of the Jewish People in the Middle Ages (Jerusalem, 1981), p. 28. The words of Saadiah Gaon are quoted in S. Abramson, Center and Periphery in the Gaonic Period [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1965), pp. 39-40.

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Christian Europe, would travel to visit and study in the Babylonian yeshivot. Thus, we hear of R. Eliahu b. Menaltem of Le Mans, who remained in the yeshiva of Hai Gaon (head of the yeshiva 998-1038) in Babylon and married a woman of the gaon's family. He even received from him the title "aluph," one of the honorary titles bestowed by the yeshiva on its friends and benefactors. Another sage who studied with l:Iai Gaon was R. Eliahu of Sicily, as did a large group of sages from Central and Northern ltaly.29 These students opened an important channel of communication for the transmission of literary sources and halakhic traditions from Babylon to other Jewish centers. R. Eliahu of Le Mans and his contemporary, R. Joseph Bonfils, are the two most prominent rabbis who helped introduce the heritage of the Babylonian geonim into Northern Europe, whence it spread to Germany and England. We learn of another sage from Germany who, in the eleventh century, brought to Ashkenaz a book by the sages of Babylon from Qayrawiin in North Africa. 30 The Responsa were usually transmitted by traveling merchants and sages traveling to centers of learning in Babylon and the Land of Israel; each type of messenger was instrumental in preserving the ties between Jewish centers until the end of the eleventh century. As to cultural ties between Muslim Spain and France and Germany in the tenth and eleventh centuries, the prevalent theory holds that there were none between these Jewish centers whatsoever. This opinion, presented as a given needing no proof, was accepted by such prominent scholars as Aptowitzer and Benedict: "We find no contact at the time between Ashkenaz and Spain, "31 and: As is known, there is no evidence for the existence of a link between the sages of France and Ashkenaz and those of Spain at that time. On the other hand, there are marked indications of the absence of any such connection .... Just as there is no evidence of a connection in that period between the sages of Ashkenaz and those of Spain based on the study of Torah; neither is anything known of such a link between France and Spain. After Provence became part of the Christian Frankish Kingdom

29 I dealt with this important source in my article, "The Yeshiva of the Land of Israel: Its Spiritual Activity and Standing in the Jewish World," in The History 01 Jerusalem, The Early Islamic Period (638-1099), edt J. Prawer (Jerusalem, 1987), p. 196. 30 On R. Joseph Bonfils and R. Elijah the Elder, see my The Early Sages 01 France, p. 46 ff. The sage who brought the book from Qayrawan is R. ltiel. See The Responsa 01 Early Geonim, edt D. Cassel (Berlin, 1848), par. 91. 31 V. Aptowitzer, Introduction to SeIer Rabiah [Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 1938), p. 334.

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under the Carolingians and was thus isolated from Muslim Spain. all spiritual ties stopped. apparently. between the Jews of these two countries. For many generations ... no inkling is to be found of any cultural relations between the sages of Provence and those of Spain. 32

This approach was so deeply rooted that even explicit reference by Rabbenu Tam to "sages of Spain" who studied with R. Gershom Me'or Ha-golah was interpreted as referring to Italy. We should not wonder at the opinion denying any contact between the two Jewish centers. This conclusion was based on the picture that emerged from the halakhic sources, which themselves furnish but sparse information as to such a link. It is, however, meet that a thorough investigation be conducted from a wider perspective. The link between the Jewish center in Muslim Spain and that in Christian France should be examined in the following context: • settlement and economy; • personal encounters between sages; • contacts in the fields of liturgical poetry, philology, and biblical commentary; • halakhic contacts. The sources provide much evidence as to the nature of such links although here we can present only the main proofs.33 The first issue has already been treated above. We have seen that economic ties between the two areas were very strong, Spain serving as a station for several of the important commercial routes used by Jews for their dealings in Muslim lands. Presumably, this economic reality influenced cultural links between various Jewish centers, as well, for Jewish merchants transferred their goods from one center to the other. Likewise, some merchants, or their relatives, were themselves scholars. In addition, the Spanish grammarians in the Muslim period were recognized and honored throughout the Jewish Diaspora. It would be difficult to imagine that Jewish merchants did not import into France and Germany the fruits of the impressive spiritual activity of contemporary Spanish Jewry. Supporting this assumption, it is the fact that Rashi and his disciples drew widely on the works of R. Menattem b. Saruk and Dunash b. Labrat. Explicit evidence of encounters between sages from the two 32 B. Z. Benedict, The Center of Torah in Provence [Hebrew 1 (Jerusalem, 1985), p. 30. 33 I dealt extensively with this issue in "Between Spain and France - Relations Between the Jewish Communities of Muslim Spain and France" [Hebrew 1. in Exile and Diaspora. edt A. Mirsky (Jerusalem, 1988), pp. 75-101.

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centers are also documented. During the first half of the eleventh century, Jewish sages from Italy, France, and Spain, and even from Muslim areas, arrived at the academy of R. Moses Hadarshan in Narbonne. One of Rashi's disciples, R. Shmaya, maintained close ties with sages in Byzantium and referred to their work. Other such cases are known.34 To cite but a few examples: R. Shmuel, the emissary of l;Iisdai Ibn Shaprut, the greatest of the Spanish Jewish courtiers in the tenth century, made a personal visit to Provence, met with Jewish leaders there, and promised in the name of l;Iisdai to provide them with political assistance. 3S The significant mutual influence in the field of liturgical poetry is also clearly in evidence. Only a short time after R. Shlomo Ibn Gabirol had composed his poems, they served as a model for poets in France. 36 In Germany, too, the influence of the Spanish liturgical poem is clearly discernible. It follows that we cannot speak of the absence of connections between the two Jewish centers, that in Muslim Spain and that in Christian France. Any detailed discussion of this issue should concentrate both on the degree of familiarity with other centers and on the willingness to receive and absorb their halakhic traditions and interpretations, since the sense of one's own spiritual superiority would surely present an obstacle to the acceptance of external cultural traditions. The strong cultural ties that existed between Spain and France in the eleventh century were further cemented in the twelfth century. Sages from both areas visited each other, and sages from France even came to teach in Spain. One of the famous authorities who traveled from Spain to France and then to England and Italy is R. Abraham ibn Ezra. A document tells of a Jew from Germany who went to a Spanish Jewish doctor for treatment. Books on halakha, biblical interpretation, philosophy, and astronomy written in Spain in the early twelfth century influenced sages in France only a short period after they had been composed. One of these, SeIer Ha-halakhot, by R. Isaac Alfasi, was glossed by R. Shmuel b. Meir, Rashi's grandson, not long after its composition. By the close of the century, the teachings of the French Ba'ale Ha-tosalot were accepted in the yeshivot of Spain. R. Meir Halevi Abulafia, one of the prominent sages of Spain at the end of the twelfth and start of the thirteenth centuries, approached sages 34 See my article. "Between Spain and France." and my book, The Early Sages of France. pp. 542-71. 3S J. Mann. Texts and Studies. vol. 1 (Cincinnati. 1931). pp. 28-29; also see Golh and Pritsak. Khazarian Hebrew Documents. 36 E. Fleischer. Hebrew Liturgical Poetry in the Middle Ages (Jerusalem.

1975). pp. 430-31.

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in France for their assistance in his polemic against certain works by Maimonides. The Maimonidean controversy, revolving around the campaign waged by more conservative thinkers against rationalistic learning, reached its peak in the first half of the thirteenth century. For the first time in medieval Jewish history, an issue involved the overwhelming majority of the Jewish world in Europe and Orient. Its central figures were sages from Provence and Spain, but strongly-worded missives and writs of excommunication came from many other Christian countries and from Muslim lands, too. The strong links among the Jewish communities in twelfth-century Christendom were influenced by the Spanish Reconquista, but this was not the sole factor in the emergence and development of the communication network linking them. Another important factor was the Renaissance of the twelfth century, which led to a movement of teachers and students from one academy to another within Christian areas, the development of dialectics; and social and religious disputations. 37 A similar renaissance took place in Jewish society and was characterized by heightened receptiveness to the intellectual renewal experienced in other Jewish centers of the day. Conclusion

We have presented an overview of the communication network that existed between the centers of the Jewish Diaspora in Christian Europe and the Muslim Caliphate in the ninth to the twelfth centuries. Though we did not enter into a detailed discussion, the general picture that emerges is clear: the opinion, embraced in the past by many scholars, that there was a cultural rupture between the Jewish communities in certain areas in Christian Europe and those in the Caliphate lacks any real basis. An inquiry into the nature of the contact among the Jewish communities shows strong ties, which were supported by the extensive commercial activity of the Jews. New sources discovered in recent years further bear out this conclusion. 37 Extensive literature exists on the twelfth-century Renaissance, which began in fact about 1050. We will limit ourselves here to citing only three studies: C. H. Haskins, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century (London, 1927); D. Knowles, The Evolution of Medieval Thought (London, 1962); P. Rich~, Ecoles et enseignement dans Ie haut moyen age (Paris, 1979). The bond between the development of the Renaissance and Jewish spiritual activity of the eleventh-twelfth centuries has also been extensively discussed in the scholarly literature. The various studies, along with a summary of the approaches, appear in my The Early Sages of France, pp. 21-29, 579-86.

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"COMPANIES OF DISCIPLES" AND "COMPANIES OF COLLEAGUES": COMMUNICATION IN JEWISH INTELLEcruAL CIRCLES Simha Goldin On 26 May 1171, over 30 Jews were put to death at the stake in the city of Blois in the Loire valley. The Jews of Northern France were horrified, not only by the act itself but also by the allegation against the Jews, the method of execution, and the fact that the Christians took the Jews' children and opposed their return, as well. This critical situation faced contemporary Jews with the imperative to resolve a number of problematic issues: Was it true that the executed Jews had been accused of murdering a Christian? If such was the case, what could be done to ensure that such an accusation would never resurface? Had this charge damaged the Jews' standing with the Capetian aristocracy? What was the significance of the recent wave of false accusations of ritual murder? And, above all, how were the release and return of the missing children to be achieved? By taking swift, well-planned action, the Jews succeeded in approaching the key-players in the case, whether through bribery, pressure, or flattery, and subsequently, in counteracting some of the damage that had been caused, first and foremost, by bringing about the children's release. The Jews, furthermore, obtained from the Capetian King, Louis VH, a formal declaration that Jews were not killers of Christians, and therefore should not be harmed for this alleged reason. 1 The main premise of this study is that the action that the Jews undertook in the Blois incident was possible because they had at their disposal an efficient intercommunal communication network, which they readily exploited to transmit information. At the center of this network, issuing instructions in all directions, was R. Jacob b. R. Meir (d. 1171), known as "Rabbenu Tam" (meaning, our rabbi, the innocent or pure), the grandson of the famous exegete, Rashi. Rabbenu Tam, who resided in 1 On the Blois incident. see R. Chazan. "The Blois Incident of 1171: A Study in Jewish Intercommunal Organization." PAAJR 36 (1969):13-26 and notes 1-3. See. also. S. Spiegel. "In Monte Dominus Videbitur: The Martyrs of Blois and the Early Accusations of Ritual Murder" [Hebrew). The Mordechai M. Kaplan Jubilee Volume. Hebrew section. 2 vols.(New-York. 1953). pp. 267-87.

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the city of Troyes. was the most significant Jewish figure in the twelfth century. During the Blois incident. he requested and received reports from the Jews of Orleans. situated close to Blois. and from the Jews of Loches. The Jews of Paris received information and instructions from Rabbenu Tam and. subsequently. pleaded the case before the king. In parallel. individual messengers sent by Rabbenu Tam petitioned King Louis VII. Henry Count of Champagne. and William Bishop of Sens and Chartres and reported back to him the results of their mission. 2 Rabbenu Tam. further. felt it necessary to send a detailed report to the Jews of Germany while requiring them to commemorate the traumatic occurrence with an annual fast-day. His account. dispatched from Troyes. reached Spires and. finally. came into the hands of Ephraim of Bonn. Besides the pervasive influence of Rabbenu Tam as a chief communicator. facilitator. and guide. it is important to note his ability to exploit the well-rehearsed connections between the Jewish center and its outlying branches. 3 This communication network was most active in the transmission of ordinances (Taqqanot).4 certain ones of which. to be put into practice needed a broad consensus beyond the borders of the local community. Marriage agreements concluded between members of different communities presented such a case. The ordinances published by Rabbenu Tam. and his two brothers. Samuel and Isaac. traveled along the network of urban trading-centers in Northern France and Germany; namely. between Dijon. Auxerre. Orleans. Chalons. Reims. Melun, Paris, Normandy. Brittany. Anjou, Poitou. and Lotharingia [see map]. No wonder. therefore. that Rabbenu Tam utilized this same network when he attempted to counteract the harm caused to the Jews of Blois and its environs. s In contrast to the stagnation that characterized communication in 2R. Chazan, "The Blois Incident of 1171," pp. 21-24, and S. Spiegel, "In Monte Dominus Videbitur," pp. 267-87. 3 Evidence of the existence of this network can be found in earlier incidences, such as the debate over Maimonides' writings. Although this took place in Spain, its repercussions were widely felt in Germany, as well. See E. E. Urbach, "The Participation of German and French Scholars in the Controversy about Maimonides and his Work" [Hebrew), Zion 12(1947-48): 149-59. 4 A Taqqana is a decision by a local community grounded in wide consensus and having force of law. 5 See L. Finkelstein's discredited opinion on the synods in his Jewish Self-Government in the Middle Ages (New York, 1964), pp. 153-59; and Chazan, "The Blois Incident," pp. 26-30, nos. 38-47. About the Taqqanot, see S. Schwarzfuchs, "A Takkanah of the year 1313," Bar-Ilan 4-5 (1955-1965): 209-20.

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medieval Europe, the Jews constructed a unique network that was based on letter-exchange dealing mainly, but not only, with issues of Jewish law or halachah. This communication channel, known as Responsa became the means by which an elite group located in France or Germany in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries created and developed an infrastructure of socio-religious, legal issues; i.e., it translated into medieval practice Talmudic rulings and questions of Jewish law. B Those who created, organized, and utilized the Responsa can be divided into two main categories, which are here tentatively defined as "Companies of Disciples" and "Companies of Colleagues. " This article focuses on the intellectual circles surrounding Rabbenu Tam and R. Meir b. Baruch of Rothenburg, while placing emphasis on the communication means they utilized and, in particular, on their elaboration of a peculiar code-language. Rabbenu Tam conducted an extensive and interesting correspondence from his place of residence, first in Ramerou and later in Troyes. The extant queries had been sent to him from the TIe of France and Provence as well as from Germany, Bohemia, and Italy. He also became the focal point for a significant group of students. Our second personage, R. Meir b. Baruch of Rothenburg, was a central figure in Germany during the latter half of the thirteenth century. He expounded the law in WUrtzburg with another major figure, R. Judah HaCohen of Friedburg; but his main studies were conducted in France, where he lived until the 1240's and worked with the most important Talmudic explicators, or Tosafists, of Paris.? Upon his return to Germany, he gathered around him a large circle of pupils and engaged a great deal of halachic activity. His Responsa concern a variety of issues and were addressed to various locations. In the 1280's he was incarcerated by the German Emperor, Rudolph, and spent many years in jail, where he 6 In the words of M. Elon, "In the term Responsa we include all the written decisions and conclusions reached by those learned in halachah, for teaching purposes, in response to questions addressed to them by writing." See M. Elon, Jewish Law History, Sources, Principles, 3 vols. (Jerusalem, 1988), vol. 2, pp. 1213-81, 1223, no. 39; I. Z. Kahana, Research in the Responsa Literature (Jerusalem, 1963), pp. 97-107; H. Soloveitchik, The Use 0/ Responsa as Historical Source (Jerusalem, 1990); Y. A. Dinari, The Rabbis 0/ Germany and Austria at the Close 0/ the Middle Ages (Jerusalem, 1984), pp. 239-47; L. Jacobs, Theology in the Responsa (London, 1975), pp. 29-38, 54-58; S. B. Freehof, The Responsa Literature (Philadelphia, 1959), pp. 35-36. ? Tosajists: The generation of Rashi's pupils (from 1105 onwards) and descendents, who undertook to expand, elaborate, and develop the commentary of the Talmud ("additions").

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eventually died; from his place of confinement, however, he continued to answer the many queries addressed to him. 8 The Companies of Disciples appeared in the Talmudical academies, or yeshivot, of Northern France and Germany. These institutions of higher education attracted advanced students from far and wide. In most cases, the yeshiva was located in the home of some renowned teacher, and it was their admiration of his personality and the desire to study with him that drew most students to the place, thus turning it into a learning center. An examination of the components of this learning experience reveals several distinctive features. At the center stood the charismatic personality of the teacher. Rather significantly, the yeshiva was known by his name, not by the town or the community where it was located. The Company of Disciples was a small, elitist group of some ten to fifteen scholars. Membership in such a Company bred extreme closeness: its members were mostly strangers in the town who ate, lived, and worshipped together. They did not pray in the community synagogue; rather, the Company of Disciples had its own synagogue in the teacher's home. This intimacy was accompanied by a marked openness between the teacher and his students on all issues, especially those connected with their studies. The students felt completely free to argue with their teacher and he, in tum, allowed and even encouraged these disputes, accepting the opinions of his students as valid. Despite the adulation and the natural distance between teacher and students, the latter were given the feeling that if they proved themselves, they would be his equal. 9 This intimate group - with all its communication connotations eventually broke up, most students either returning home or settling in other locations. In some cases, they established yeshivot in the same framework as the one at which they had studied themselves, thus becoming the nucleus for a new Company of Disciples. Nevertheless, they did not abandon their ties with their original socio-cultural group, or 8 E. E. Urbach, The Tosaphists: Their History, Writings, and Methods (Jerusalem, 1980), pp. 60-164, 521-70. Soloveitchik notes a difference between Northern France and Germany in terms of the Responsa. The scope of this article did not permit to elaborate on this and related topics. See Soloveitchik, Pawnbroking, A Study in the Inter-relationship Between Halachah, Economic Activity, and Communal Self-image (Jerusalem, 1985), p. 83. 9 M. Breuer, "Toward the Investigation of the Typology of Western Yeshivot in the Middle Ages" [Hebrew], in Studies in the History of Jewish Society in the Middle Ages and in the Modern Period, edt E. Etkes et al. (Jerusalem, 1980), pp. 53-54; see example in note no. 8 and in Urbach, The Tosaphists, p. 264, no 18. E. Kanarfogel, Jewish Education and Society in the Middle Ages (Detroit, 1992), pp. 42-65.

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especially with their former educator, and used correspondence to maintain them. The resulting letter-exchange, dealing with halachic issues. favored and allowed the continuity of the Company, whose venerated teacher now received queries reflecting the difficulties that his former disciples faced in their new roles as instructors and interpreters of the law. Both the teacher and his students shared a common awareness of the extreme importance of finding the most suitable transmission for the implementation of Jewish law. The other communication network is presented by the Company of Colleagues, which in contrast with the hierarchic nature of the Company of Disciples, was an exclusive circle of equals. Its members had a great deal of mutual respect for one another, since the standing of all of them in the world of halachah was equally high. They, too, like the Company of Disciples. shared information and knowledge through letter-exchange. Many of these Colleagues served as judges in religious courts, and when they encountered difficult questions of essence, they would consult their Company, especially the key figures among its members. This communication channel enabled the Company of Colleagues not only to ascertain or confirm the correct interpretation of the law, but also, and perhaps especially. to share the heavy burden of responsibility inherent in making decisions that could have far-reaching religious, socio-economic, and political consequences. 10 This communication network among the Company of Colleagues materialized through the Responsa. In the letters addressed to Rabbenu Tam in which both the name and location of the questioner have been preserved, it is possible to identify the same regular stations along the communication-route that was activated in 1171, during the Blois incident; they also reappear in the organization and distribution of the ordinances. In the center of this communication network stood Troyes, which was reached along the main trade routes -- from the east via Metz, Chalons, Vitry, Dampierre and Ramerupt; from the south, through Sens, Orl&ns (in 1171 Blois), and Joigny; from the west, Melun. Paris, Pontoise, Port-Audemer in the direction of Caen (where Rabbenu Tam's brother Samuel, known as the Rashbam, lived), and Falaise. The same 10 See Kahana, Research in the Responsa, pp. 99-100. One of the purposes in writing the letters was to confirm the judge in his decision: "More than writing to him to clarify a halachic point, he expects him to share the responsibility for the verdict." See Sanhedrin 7b: "When a case was submitted to R. Huna, he used to summon and gather ten schoolmen, in order, as he put it. that each of them might carry a chip from the beam. "

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routes served Rabbenu Tam when sending and rece1vmg letters from Germany through Metz to Speyer, Mainz, and Regensburg. 11 Occasionally, the messengers who delivered the Responsa were merchants traveling along trade routes; more often than not, special messengers were hired - either Jewish or Christian - whose task was to deliver the query and return swiftly with the reply. When Rabbenu Tam received a question from his brother-in-law, R. Shimshon b. Joseph, known as the "old man" of the city of Falaise, the letter was delivered by a messenger referred to as "the generous one," evidently an acquaintance passing through. What has been preserved in manuscript form are two replies contained in one responsum. The letter begins with an issue unrelated to the substance of the query just delivered. Rabbenu Tam likely had in his possession an earlier query of R. Shimshon and was waiting for an opportunity to send his reply. The juxtaposition of old and new queries in one letter evinces the high cost of employing special messengers. In this regard, R. Joseph of Orleans once lamented, "I have more queries than money, and I cannot send a messenger for every insignificant thing. "12 On another occasion, a friend of the aforementioned R. Shimshon (referred to as "my acquaintance") orally delivered a query to Rabbenu Tam, who framed his response to R. Shimshon. This behavior pattern corroborates the existence of oral delivery, a practice that prevailed in medieval non-Jewish circles and, probably, a remnant of the oral German heritage. 13 Beside the use of occasional messengers, it was customary to employ special carriers who were expected to deliver letters to a particular scholar and, if possible, to return with his response in the shortest period of time, which accounts for their expense. The recipients of the queries made efforts to persist with this communication network and to ensure its availability under any and all conditions. In most cases, the demand was for an immediate reply because the messenger was under pressure to continue his journey or because the Sabbath or some holiday, when no travel was permitted, was imminent. Replies were therefore written quickly, even under adverse circumstances. We have documentary evidence that Responsa were written 11 Finkelstein, Jewish Self-Government, pp. 153-59; Chazan, "The Blois Incident," pp. 26-30. 12Jacob b. Meir Tam, Sefer Ha-Yashar, ed. Rosental (Berlin, 1898), p. 123. 13lbid., pp. 1-4, 5,7, 12, 176. For Christian messengers, see p. 117. See, also, S. Menache, The Vox Dei: Communication in the Middle Ages (New York, 1990), pp. 18-19.

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at times when the recipient was ill or unwell or following a traumatic event that touched upon him or his family. including periods of mourning. 14 The obvious function of this letter-exchange was the clarification and implementation of halachic matters among an exclusive group that had a high regard for itself. both as a group and as individuals. They identified themselves as an elite whose members searched for and identified with their intellectual and social peers. This was not a unique phenomenon in twelfth-century Europe. C. Morris identifies the same phenomenon in contemporary monastic society and refers. particularly. to "the growth of a keen self-awareness [that) was naturally accompanied by a fresh interest in close personal relationship ....The characteristic vehicle for declarations of friendship was the letter. "15 In the Jewish world. as well. letters served to bridge the gap of geographical distance and to create a bond among people who shared a common cultural background through the use of a common language. imagery. associations. and topics of interest. Both the Companies of Disciples and the Companies of Colleagues created their unique social groups through the utilization of Responsa as their main communication channel. 16 The halachic issues raised in the Responsa were complex and written in such a way that only individuals well-versed in the material and the appropriate methods of study could understand them. These considerations alone might seem sufficient to have established an ambiance of fellowship among the correspondents. In order to increase their group solidarity. however. the Disciples and Colleagues elaborated the opening and closing remarks of each letter, thus creating a sophisticated literary structure; this was intended to achieve aims very different from those embodied in the halachic portion of the Responsa. It was in this 14 Hayashar, p. 71, and Y. A. Dinari, The Rabbis a/Germany and Austria, pp. 230-32, particularly the extreme example of Maharam Minz, who apologizes for not having had time to reply properly since at the time he was in the process of being exiled. 15 C. Morris, The Discovery a/the Individual (Toronto, 1972) pp. 96-99; at p. 111 ff., he presents a list of clerics and monks like Bernard of Clairvaux, Anselm of Canterbury, Peter the Venerable, Hildebert of Lavardin, and Peter of Blois. to prove his point. See, also, J. F. Bebton, "Consciousness of Self and Perceptions of Individuality," in Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century, ed. R. L. Benson and G. Constable (Toronto, 1991), pp. 263-98, esp. pp. 264-65. note 10. 16 On the parallel development in Christendom, see S. Menache, "Mythe et symbolisme au debut de la guerre de Cent Ans," Le Moyen Age 89(1983): 85-97.

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formulate elaboration that the acquaintance game was played. The writer would construct a complex opening containing hints and clues derived from the Bible, the Midrash, and the Talmud in such a way that the ordinary layman would not be able to decipher the clues, and even a learned reader would encounter difficulties. When the recipient succeeded in decoding the puzzle, he would be rewarded with a sense of identification with the sender. Not only were they members of the same exclusive fellowship, communicating in the same exclusive language but, usually. in the process of decoding they would encounter a compliment or two intended for themselves. In their reply, they would endeavor to imitate or even exceed the erudition and proficiency of their correspondent. If the sender was a student, he would be attempting to substantiate his claim to membership in this elite by his ability to surprise his teacher; he would essentially be continuing the method of study he had encountered at his teacher's home. In parallel with the customary ritual practices fostered by medieval fraternities, this "fraternity of learning" created its own distinctive ritual and specific language formulae. 17 The following examples demonstrate these exclusive communication patterns of the Companies of Disciples and the Companies of Colleagues; an attempt was made to emphasize the similarities and differences among them: In the letter-exchange between R. Samson and Rabbenu Tam, symptoms of the tension and respect between the two scholars are manifest, particularly as the younger (Rabbenu Tam) was married to the sister of the elder.1s R. Samson's queries concern the Talmudic tractate !Jlabbat, and Rabbenu Tam perceived that his brother-in-law and colleague was in fact testing his knowledge and cleverness, and so hints at this unpleasant situation: "I knew that although his questions are deep, he knows the answers, but he asks me in order to test my skills with his riddles." Rabbenu Tam meticulously responds with respect and humility, referring to himself, for example, as his "little dog Jacob," in a veiled reference to a passage in Sanhedrin 68a: "Much Torah have I learned but skimmed from the knowledge of my teachers as much as a dog laps from 17 On the medieval fraternities, see Gabriel Le Bras, "Les confreries chretiennes: problemes et propositions," in Etudes de soci%gie re/igieuse, 2 vols. (Paris, 1956), vol. 2, pp. 432-33; G. Meersseman, O. P., "Etudes sur les anciennes confreries Dominicaines," Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 20 (1950): 5-113,21 (1951): 51-196, 22 (1952) 5-176, 23(1953): 275-30S. 18 R. Samson Hazaken (the Elder) b. R. Joseph of Falaise; see Urbach, The Tosaphists, pp. 11Sff.

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the sea." Rabbenu Tam also encouraged R. Samson (ironically, in this writer's opinion) to correct the mistakes in his responses if he should find any. Furthermore, on one of his replies to R. Samson, Rabbenu Tam composed an introduction based on associations taken from Psalms 72, a hymn describing the ideal judge-king, who is perhaps Solomon, perhaps the Messiah. Rabbenu Tam links this hymn with R. Samson, making a pun on his name. The Hebrew word 'sun' - 'lIC'lI- being very close to li'llc'lI which is the Hebrew name for Samson, appears in the hymn in various forms: "abundance of peace, so long as the moon endure, to my teacher, R. Samson, before the sun Yinon [perpetuate and be] will be his name (Ps. 72: 5) to be perpetual and existing (Ps. 72: 17), arrestor and governor. " In turn, when R. Samson wrote his queries to Rabbenu Tam, he, too, began with a personal address and complimented R. Jacob Tam by comparing him with the biblical Jacob, who cleverly succeeded in overcoming Laban in the conflicts between them (Gen. 30: 37-39). Thus, Jacob "took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut tree; and pilled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods ....And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ring- streaked, speckled, and spotted .... " In addition, he depicts Rabbenu Tam's wisdom through a rich spectrum of biblical images, such as abundance of water (Hermon dew) and fragrances (cane, perfume, persimmon), the meaning of which in the traditional exegesis of the Bible is always connected with the accomplishment of religious precepts, Mitzvoth.19 In answering R. Samson, Rabbenu Tam responds in similar fashion, even continuing the rhyming that R. Samson had begun in his query. In R. Samson's opening, the rhyming was based on the idiom "pomegranate slice" (Song of Songs, 4:3), the classic simile in the Midrash for the observing of the religious precepts, or Mitzvoth (full of mitzvoth as a pomegranate - rimon - is of seeds). With this rhyme (in Hebrew, l''lIC'lI/l'C'''), R. Jacob Tam builds up, with impressive humility, a comparison between the superior R. Samson and himself, the inferior. This comparison is constructed upon a series of associative motifs taken from the Midrash and the Talmud. He compares R. Samson's words, "pomegranate juice," to his own words, "egg-yoke," or compares "pepper" and "cumin," the former spice being permissible to bring as an offering to the Temple and the latter being forbidden (Mishna Beitza, 2:9 19 Mitzvoth: commandments, denotes the individual injunctions of the Bible, but connotes doing good deeds by following them.

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versus Mishna Terumot, 9:4).20 Another colleague of Rabbenu Tam, R. Eliezer bar Nathan of Meinz, who wrote to him from Germany, composed an introduction in which the central motif was taken from the world of nature; namely, water, rivers, and a well. 21 He uses the idiom of a "tree of life" (Gen. 2:9, 3: 22) standing on a water source out of which diverge four rivers. The reference is to Genesis 2: 10- 12: R. Jacob Tam is the tree of life and his four sons are the four rivers surrounding Paradise and watering the entire world, being as they were also renowned scholars in the "Sea of Halachah"; one of the rivers was identified with the Euphrates, which in Hebrew (Prat) hints at the name of Rabbenu Tam (P. R.T.). Rabbenu Tam's student, R. Aaron b. Joseph, as well, sent him a query, and in the respectful rhymed opening explains why he is writing specifically to Rabbenu Tam: Rabbenu Tam is the king, all abide by him and take no action without consulting him. R. Aaron b. Joseph, therefore, "chooses to draw water from the well in Bethlehem," this being a reference to II Samuel 23: 15, telling of a thirsty David who asked his soldiers for water from the well of Bethlehem, held by his enemies; three heroes set off and brought him back water. R. Aaron develops this comparison between King David and Rabbenu Tam while hinting at a story in Ruth Raba (5: 1) that identifies the water requested by David with the halachah; further, the halachah is deliberated in a three-judge court, a practice that foretells the three heroes of the biblical episode. 22 Ephraim of Regensburg sent his esteemed teacher, R. Jacob Tam, "replies that were filled with the hairs he had torn from his beard in sorrow at the ways of the world. "23 During the second half of the thirteenth century, two of R. Meir b. Baruch of Rothenburg's former students, Mena!lem b. David and Hillel b. Azriel, sent him two queries. In the prolegomenon they wrote: "Since we have been exiled from the table of R. Meir b. Baruch, our mouths can no longer answer, because disputes have increased among the people of Israel, some are contaminating and some are purifying, and the one and only Torah has become as two. Therefore, we have decided to follow a Bet-Din Yafe (court of beauty), to follow R. Meir b. Baruch of Rothenburg, who will enlighten us." In response, their mentor framed detailed answers to their specific queries. His reply was prefaced by an opening Hayashar, 1-12, 17. Hayashar, p. 69; Urbach, The Tosaphists, index and, particularly, pp. 173-84. 22 Hayashar, p. 176; Urbach, The Tosaphists, pp. 115,286, 350 note 35. 23 On Ephraim of Regensburg, see Urbach, The Tosaphists, index and, particularly, pp. 190-213. 20

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poem. which intimated his message to them. Like the halachic portion of

the reply. the preface was constructed with associative symbols from the Bible and the Midrash. This was a unique language. understandable to his fonner students and the man who would always be their teacher. R. Meir b. Baruch refers to his students as "two olive trees." employing a figure of speech borrowed from the prophecy of consolation of Zechariah to Zerubabel. the rebuilder of the Temple. In the Temple. on either side of the Lamp. there were two olive branches. which. in the words of the Prophet: were "the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth" (Zech. 4: 14). Further in his reply. R. Meir seemingly professes modesty when he inquires. with imagery borrowed from the book of Jeremiah. why they need to address him with a "river of questions" when they themselves reside "in a land overflowing with an abundance of water sources." He was actually bidding them to assume responsibility and make decisions to the best of their abilities. though he was willing to share the burden. if necessary.24 Hundreds of similar examples are available in the Responsa. Both the queries and the replies resonate with personal emotions. the sharing of individual experiences. the expression of individual criticism - openly or indirectly. words of adoration and hero-worship and. in contrast. humility and modesty. At first glance. it might seem that the letters were written in a fixed format dictated by rote and custom: the quotations were almost inevitably from the Bible and the relevant Midrash. the position of the preface and conclusion were predetermined. and the language was flowery and high-flown. A more careful examination. however. reveals a more sophisticated. heterogeneous picture. The writers selected quotations and references for the preface and conclusion according to the personality of the person whom they addressed. A real effort was made to adapt Biblical and related imagery to the individual recipient. Through the thicket of honorifics it is possible to glimpse an entire world of imagery that indicates a definite. inter-personal point of view. An illustration can be found in the varied manner in which R. Meir b. Baruch of Rothenburg addressed his numerous correspondents. For each reply he took the time to improvise a punning rhyme. based on the name and title of the addressee and suffused with Biblical. Midrashic. and Talmudic allusions. In his response to R. Avigdor HaCohen of Vienna. for example. R. Meir implies that R. Avigdor should not ask him since R. Avigdor himself is as the High Priest. who wears the Urim and Tummim. the 24

Meir b. Baruch of Rothenburg. Responsa (Prague. 1895). p. 92. 143.

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breastplate of judgment (Ex. 28: 30).25 R. Meir also depicts himself as simple and inferior compared with R. Avigdor by opening his response with a paraphrase of the parable of Yotam in Judges (9: 7-16). Thus. R. Meir equates himself with the most inferior of trees; whereas those who query him. he likens to the vine and tall trees. To another questioner. recorded by the name of Moses. R. Meir composed a rhymed opening based on a reference to the biblical Moses. The verse is from Psalms 45: 7 ("God. thy God. hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows") and the reference is to Leviticus Raba (10: 18). according to which this sonnet speaks of Moses. who produced oil out of nothingness in the desert. Among the other similes that R. Meir utilized were expressions like "as a tree planted by the waters" (Jer. 17: 8). and the tree of life mentioned in Proverbs (3: 18. 11: 30. 15: 4).26 When writing to a Cohen (a scion of the tribe of priests in biblical times). R. Meir always took note of this fact. devising for each Cohen an original and personal associative reference. Thus. he refers to an individual named Yekutiel as "king" because Yekutiel was a descendent of Judah.27 Analysis of the Responsa from a communication perspective allows a new insight into their contribution not only to language and halachah but. first and foremost. to the development and strength of solidarity feelings among the Jewish intellectual leadership. If one bears in mind the crucial religious. socio-economic. and political roles that this elite fulfilled in the Jewish Diaspora. the Responsa are seen to acquire new dimensions. They appear as an important. if not unique tool in the battle for survival. in the fight to overcome the many hardships that characterized the Jewish Diaspora from the twelfth century onwards.

25 Urim and Tummim: A medium consisting of 12 gem-stones whereby the divine purpose or some unknown fact is revealed, and worn as a breastplate only by the High Priest. 28 For example, in his Responsa (Lemberg, 1860), Sec. 246, R. Meir b. Baruch of Rothenburg constructs an introductory poem for a man by the name of Judah, which is based on Midrashic associations to Judah and his historical role. 27 R. Meir b. Baruch of Rothenburg, Responsa, 78, 79, 100-104,224, 698.

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BETWEEN EAST AND WEST: THE LATIN KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM AND ITS JEWISH COMMUNITIES AS A COMMUNICAnON CENTER (1099-1291) Sylvia Schein Medieval communication may be characterized as oral, extremely slow in information transmission, and basically operating within rather small social groups in the framework of either corporations or settlements. As there was no communication network (or what can be defined as media in terms of modem communication) within particular states - let alone a global communication network - the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099-1291), with its Jewish communities, is an exception. The Kingdom served for almost two hundred years as a communication center between east and west, its Jewry constituting such a center for the communities of Western Europe and the Moslem Near East. One may say that whereas the entire medieval Jewish Diaspora developed its own channels of information transmission, and thus became a sort of communication paradigm, the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem was one of its most crucial and effective centers. The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem as a Communication Center On the eve of the establishment of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, Palestine and Lebanon formed the core of the communication network between west and east, as well as within the Eastern Mediterranean, because of their gec-political position and their religious status. A contested area between their powerful neighbors to the north and the south - the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt and the Seljuqs - Palestine and Lebanon were ruled in the last quarter of the eleventh century from two centers, Baghdad and Cairo. The native population was mainly Moslem, but also Christian and Jewish. The various Christian Churches maintained a close relationship with their centers; i.e., the Greek-Orthodox Church with Byzantium, the Coptic Church with Egypt, and the Armenian Church with Great and Lesser Armenia (Cilicia). The Jewish communities, of which the largest was in Ramlah, maintained a lively correspondence with their spiritual center, the Yeshivat Eretz Israel in Jerusalem, as well as

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with the opulent and influential communities of Cairo in Egypt. Damascus and Aleppo in Syria. and Baghdad in Iraq. Because of its geographical position. Palestine was often frequented by travelers and merchants. Its coast formed part of the road from the great cities of the Arab Interior - Damascus. Aleppo. and Baghdad - to Egypt; while in its interior stretched the Darb ai-Haj' to Mecca and Medina. which led through Damascus. Banyas. Beisan. aI-Salt. QirMoab. and Shaubak to Aqaba and to the northern approaches of the Hijaz. Both the coastal and the interior road were used mainly by travelers - like the two famous Moslems. al-Muqaddesi (985) and Nasir I Khosrau (1047) - and pilgrims. but also for military and governmental purposes. Before 1099. Palestine traded mostly with Egypt. whose ports were the most important Eastern Mediterranean centers for international trade. This trade consisted of lUXury goods. mainly silks and spices. and was handled by Venice and Amalfi; the latter maintained close relations with Benedictines both on Mount Athos and in Jerusalem. owing to its links with Monte Cassino. 1 As the Holy Land for the three monotheistic religions. Palestine was visited by pilgrims from all over the world. Until the beginning of the eleventh century. the extent of Christian pilgrimages from the west was rather small; it was only then that mass pilgrimage began. In 1065. for instance. some 7.000 persons participated in a pilgrimage headed by a group of bishops from Germany. Members of the Oriental Churches i.e.. Armenians of Asia Minor or Copts of Egypt - used to travel regularly (perhaps even once a year) on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The Alexandrine Copt Sawirus ibn al-Mukaffa writes in his history· of the patriarchs of Egypt: In the days of Abba Michael [the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria] armies of the Romans and the Franks ... gained possession of the noble city of Jerusalem [1099] .... We. the community of the Christians. the Jacobites. and the Copts did not join in the pilgrimage tal-Hajj to Jerusalem. 2 1 J. Prawer. The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem: European Colonialism in the Middle Ages (London. 1972). passim; M. Gil. "Eretz-Israel under Muslim Rule. 634-1099" [Hebrew] in The History of Eretz Israel. vol. 6. Eretz Israel Under Muslim and crusader Rule. 634-1291. ed. J. Prawer (Jerusalem. 1981). passim; J. Frenkel. "The Early Arab Period" [Hebrew]. in Commerce in Palestine Throughout the Ages: Studies. ed. B. Z. Kedar et al. (Jerusalem. 1990). pp. 223-38; D. Abulafia. "Trade and Crusade. 1050-1250." in Cultural Encounters in the crusader Period. ed. M. Goodich et al. (New York. 1995). pp. 1-7. 2 Quoted after Prawer. The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. p. 217.

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Pilgrims also came from the Byzantine Empire. This can be explained by the close relations of the Greek Orthodox Church of Palestine with the Byzantine Emperor, who saw himself as protector of the Christians of Palestine and their holy places. Such role was demonstrated, for instance, by the Emperor Constantine Monomachus's financing of the rebuilding of the Church of the Resurrection (Anastasis) in 1048. Jewish pilgrims came mainly from the Moslem and Byzantine worlds and made Jerusalem and Hebron their destinations. Both Jews and Moslems sometimes combined a pilgrimage with bringing their dead for burial in Jerusalem.s Thus on the eve of the Crusader conquest, Palestine and Lebanon maintained connections mainly within the boundaries of the Eastern Mediterranean - namely, the Byzantine Empire, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt. This changed almost overnight, one may say, after 1099. For the next two hundred years, the Latin Kingdom became a part, even an annex of Western Europe, constituting its main bulwark in the Middle East as well as the main battle ground between the Cross and the Crescent. It was the state of constant war and the dependence upon Europe particularly for military manpower, war materials, ships, and sometimes even foodstuffs - that forced the Crusaders, as a colonial society, to maintain efficient systems of maritime transport and close channels of communication with the west. At the same time, as a minority of conquerors ruling over a majority of the native conquered population that was regarded as ethnically, linguistically, culturally, and religiously inferior, the Crusaders kept the native inhabitants apart from them by law. As a resUlt, Crusader Palestine never became a center of cultural exchange between Moslem-Islamic and Roman-Catholic cultures like those in Southern Italy, Sicily, and the Christian Kingdoms on the Iberian peninsula; nor was the Crusader Kingdom instrumental in the process of bringing Islamic culture with its classical inheritance to the west. Although some translations of historical or philosophical works were undertaken in ·the Kingdom, they did not amount to anything similar to the Toledo center of translations from Arabic into Latin or the Palermo hub of cultural encounter. 4 A rare example of cultural exchange in the Latin Gil, "Eretz Israel under Muslim Rule," pp. 129-30. J. Prawer, The Latin Kingdom, pp. 503-33; [d., "Roots of Medieval Colonialism," in The Meeting of Two Worlds: Cultural Exchange between East and West during the Period of the o-usades, ed. Vladimir P. Goss et al. (Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1986), pp. 23-38; "Symposium: The Crusading Kingdom of Jerusalem: The First European Colonial Society?" in The Horns of Ha~~rn: Proceedings of the Second Conference of the Society for the Study of the o-usades and the Latin East. 3 4

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Kingdom is provided by the career of the Melkite physician Muwaffaq ai-Din Ya'qub b. Siqlab'. Born in Jerusalem in the 1160's, Muwaffaq studied philosophy and medicine there with a man known as "the Antioch philosopher," who had excelled in some of the "sciences of the ancients." In Jerusalem, the Melkite physician met another Christian physician, Shayk Abu MansUr, with whom he practiced medicine. Following Saladin's conquest of Karak (1187-1188), Muwaffaq moved to Damascus and became the physician first of the Ayybid lord of Sidon and Nablus and then of Sultan Mu'azzam 'Isa, ruler of Damascus and governor of Jerusalem. At the Sultan's court he held discussions on medical issues with a fellow Galleon specialist, Muhadhab ai-Din 'Abd ai-Rahim b. Ali al Dakhwar. Muwaffaq died in Damascus in 1228.5 Politically, socially, and culturally alienated from their immediate surroundings and popUlation, the Franks, living under constant war, saw themselves as part of the Western Roman Catholic world and its culture. Their contacts with the west, therefore, were not only political and military, but cultural as well. As a result, young men destined for the upper echelons of the Church were sent to be educated in the newly developing universities of Europe,8 whereas specialists from the west came to introduce European knowledge in fields like law, architecture, and sculpture into the Kingdom. There are, for instance, iurisperiti (adVocates, judges, and legal experts) who appear for a brief period in the Latin East from the mid-twelfth century onward. 7 Crusader sculpture of twelfth-century Jerusalem reveals the influence of West-Central France (Poitiers, Angoul@me, and Saintes) and of Central and Southern Italy, mainly Abruzzi and Apulia. It is possible that artisans who arrived in Jerusalem with Count Fulk of Anjou on his first visit in 1120 began the decoration of the Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives. 8 The western portal of the twelfth-century Cathedral of Sebaste suggests that a ed. B. Z. Kedar (Jerusalem, 1992), pp. 340-66. 5 Etan Kohlberg and B. Z. Kedar, "A Melkite Physician in Frankish Jerusalem and Ayyubid Damascus: Muwaffaq al-Dln Ya'qub b. Siqlib'," Asian and African Studies, 22 (1988): 113-26. 8 R. B. C. Huygens, "Guillaume de Tyr Etudiant: Un chapitre (XIX 12) de son 'Histoire' retrouvE," Latomus 21 (1962): 811-29; James A. Brundage, "LaUn Jurists in the Levant: The Legal Elite of the Crusader States," in O'usaders and Muslims in Twelfth-Century Syria, ed. Maya Shatzmiller (Leiden, 1993), pp. 22,29. 7 Brundage, "LaUn Jurists,· pp. 18-31. 8 Bianca KUhnel, O'usader Art of the Twelfth Century: A Geographical, an Historical or an Art Historical Notion? (Berlin, 1994), pp. 19-46.

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head master from Champagne was responsible for the overall design, while individual pieces of sculpture, all modeled upon the Cathedral of Sens, may have been executed by westerners and local assistants. 9 The ivory bookcovers of the famous so-called "Queen Melisande's Psalter" now in the British Museum - were the creation of a person of western origin, possibly English, who had studied Byzantine-imperial and Moslem courtly art.l0 Finally, the Crusaders imported from Europe war materials, like timber, lead, and horses, but also, hare and fox fur, items of clothing, and foodstuffs like salt meat. 11 The dependence of Outremer upon the west necessarily required the establishment of an efficient communication network. One should note, however, that such a demand was mutual as various factors in the west were also interested in maintaining fluent communication. These factors included the papacy, secular rulers, maritime cities with communes in the Kingdom, and the Military Orders. The papacy, as the spiritus movens of the Crusading movement and the protector of the Latin Kingdom - as the Holy Land and the Roman Catholic State in the Moslem East - was especially interested in regular communication between Rome and Jerusalem in the twelfth century and with Acre in the thirteenth century. The papacy was also interested in such regular communication with the Military Orders, which were exempted from the control of secular rulers and the local ecclesiastical hierarchy and were subjected directly to the supervision of the pope. The papacy was also interested in maintaining regular contacts with prelates of the Latin Church. Judging that many of the disasters in Outremer had occurred because of a lack of papal supervision. Pope Hadrian N (1154-1159) provided for a visitation by papal representatives to the Latin East at least once every eight years. The archbishops of Genoa were commissioned to undertake this legatine responsibility, accompanied by a cardinal of the Roman Church. 12 The popes also kept in touch with Outremer through legates ab hoc, 9 Nurith Kenaan-Kedar, "The Cathedral of Sebaste: Its Western Donors and Models," in The Horns 01 HaUrn, pp. 99-120. 10 KUhnel, crusader Art, pp. 67-125. 11 John H. Pryor, "Transportation of Horses by Sea during the Era of the Crusades: Eight Century to 1285 A.D.," Mariner'S Mirror 68 (1982): 9-125; Idem. "In Subsidium Terrae Sanctae: Exports of Foodstuffs and War Materials from the Kingdom of Sicily to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. 1265-1284," Asian and African Studies 22 (1988): 127 -42; M. Barber, "Supplying the Crusader States: The Role of the Templars, " in The Horns 01 Hatffn, pp. 314-26. 12 John G. Rowe, "Alexander III and the Jerusalem Crusade: An Overview of Problems and Failures." in crusaders and Muslims. pp. 112-32.

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dispatched more or less regularly. as well as through churchmen who came to Rome from the Kingdom either to receive their pallium directly from the pope (as did. e.g.. William. prior of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in 1127)13 or to appeal to the pope in ecclesiastical matters. Such was the case of Patriarch Arnulf of Jerusalem (1112-1118). who traveled to the papal curia in 1115 to appeal against his deposition. accompanied by a delegation consisting of the bishop of Bethlehem. the abbot of St. Mary of Josaphat. the prior of the church of Mount Zion, and two canons of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. 14 In 1154, Patriarch Fulcher (1145-1157) went to Rome accompanied by two thirds of the Kingdom's episcopate to present his grievances against the Hospitallers to Pope Hadrian N.15 In the thirteenth century, the popes increasingly tended to use legates a latere, who were sent to Acre as their informants. In June 1279, for example, Pope Nicholas ill informed Philip ill of France and Alfonso X of Castile of the misfortunes in the Holy Land, of which his legate. Patriarch Elias of Jerusalem, was an eye-witness. 16 13 William of Tyre, Chronicon, ed. Robert B. C. Huygens, 2 vols. (Turnhout, 1986), 14, 23; Bernard Hamilton, The Latin Church in the o-usader States: The Secular Church (London, 1980), p. 66. 14 William of Tyre, 11, 26. Hamilton, The Latin Church, p. 63. 15 William of Tyre, 18, 6. Hamilton, The Latin Church, pp. 74, 132. The mobility of clergymen between east and west was particularly high; they were often used as messengers. Most of those serving in the east came from the west and, moreover, were at times recalled by the popes to serve in the west. Thus, e.B., John of Pisa, the archdeacon of Tyre, became cardinal of S. Marino ai Monti in the 1130's. (William of Tyre, 16, 17). In 1203, Patriarch Soffred resigned his see of Jerusalem and returned to Europe (Hamilton, The Latin Church, pp. 248-49). In 1216, James of Vitry, the consecrated bishop of Acre, arrived in the city only to resign his see in 1228 and to be appointed cardinalbishop of Tusculum in the following year. His place in Acre was taken by John of Pruvino, dean of Paris, who reached Syria c. 1230 (Ibid., pp. 253-57). In 1240, Robert, bishop of Nantes was nominated patriarch of Jerusalem (Ibid., p. 262). James Pantaleon, bishop of Verdun, became patriarch of Jerusalem in 1255; in 1259, he went to Rome to appeal against the pope's decision to suppress the convent of Bethany, where on 29 August 1261 he became Pope Urban IV (Ibid., pp. 267-70). In 1271, Theobald Visconti, archdeacon of Li~ge, who came to Acre with Prince Edward of England, heard about his election to the See of St. Peter. (Ibid., p. 275). The Dominican Thomas of Lentino, who served as bishop of Bethlehem and previously prior of Naples, was appointed a legate a latere in Acre by Pope Alexander IV (in 1258). In 1263, he was recalled by Pope Urban IV to the west and was appointed the papal vicar in the city of Rome and entrusted with the preaching of the Crusade to Sicily against Manfred. In 1272, he was elected patriarch of Jerusalem and returned to Acre, where he died in 1277 (Ibid., pp. 269-72, 276-77). 16 Sylvia Schein, Fide/es o-ucis: The Papacy, the West and the Recovery o/the Holy Land 1274-1314 (Oxford, 1991), p. 55.

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Both the papacy and secular rulers made use of members of the Military Orders as informants and messengers. The two great Military Orders. the Hospital and the Temple. became in the mid-twelfth century international organizations with convents and estates all over Europe. whereas their centers remained in the Latin Kingdom. first in Jerusalem and later in Acre. The grand masters of the Orders as well as other officers and knights often traveled between the Latin Kingdom and the west; they were also frequently transferred from one place to the other. Moreover. as corporations. the Orders embodied experience and knowledge of the Moslems as well as information about Arab-world politics. As a result. they were used by Rome as information sources. Innocent ill had instituted a system whereby regular reports on the Latin Kingdom and the neighboring Moslem states were to be sent to Rome by the patriarch as well as the grand masters of the Hospital and the Temple. 17 Both the papacy and secular rulers used the members of the Orders as their advisors in Crusade planning. Edward I of England used the Hospitaller Master Nicholas Lorgne (1277 -1284) with whom he corresponded closely; both supported an alliance with the Mongols in view of the Crusade planned by Edward. 18 At the Second Council of Lyons (1274). the grand masters of the Hospital and the Temple gave advice regarding the Crusade planned by Pope Gregory for 1280. 19 Consequently. there was a general awareness of the importance of the Orders as intermediaries between east and west. This awareness is demonstrated by Bartholomew of Neocastro. a jamiliaris of James II of Aragon. who has a Templar as his messenger from the Holy Land to the curia. to present Pope Nicholas IV with the news of the fall of Tripoli (26 April 1289) .20 This mutual demand for communication brought about the intensification of traditional channels rather than the development of new ones. The most common were correspondence. pilgrims' treatises. chronicles - written by Franks and widely read in Europe like that of William of Tyee. or written in the west by Crusaders like Jean of Joinville - and oral information. transmitted by Crusaders. travelers. pilgrims. merchants. and ships' crews. The new channels mainly took the form of 17 J. Riley-Smith, The Knights of St. John in Jerusa/em and Cyprus (London, 1967). pp. 147 et passim. 181bid., p. 190; Schein, Fide/es Crucis, pp. 71-73. 19 Schein, Fide/es Crucis, pp. 37-38. 20 Bartholomew of Neocastro, Historia Sicu/a, RIS n.s., vol. 13, pp. 108-109; Schein, Fide/es Crucis, p. 67.

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written reports sent regularly in the thirteenth century by the Military Orders and the Italian communes21 as well as by the numerous delegations and envoys dispatched from the Latin Kingdom to the west. Although a complete list of the delegations and envoys is still a desideratum. some examples can be presented. Delegations consisting of clergy left the Latin Kingdom for Rome in 1107. 1115. 1127. c. 1138. 1154. 1179. 1184. 1194. 1244. 1259. and 1263. 22 Envoys from among the Latin clergy were also sometimes dispatched to Europe. In 1169. following the defeat of the Franks at Harim (1164). Frederick the archbishop of Tyre and John bishop of Banyas departed westwards to mobilize aid. In 1171. Bernard the bishop of Lydda was dispatched by King Amalric to Pope Alexander m. Following the Battle of Hattin (1187). Joscius archbishop of Tyre (1186-1202) sailed to the west to inform the kings of Europe of the Christian defeat. 23 The delegation consisting of both spiritual and secular rulers in the Latin Kingdom including Patriarch Ralph. King John of Brienne. and the grand master of the Hospital met Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen in Verona (1222) to discuss the possibility of a marriage between the emperor and John's daughter Isabel. heiress to the Kingdom. 24 The delegation that attended the Second Council of Lyons (1274) was led by Paul of Segni. the bishop of Tripoli (1261-1285). and consisted of William of Beaujeu. the grand master of the Temple. Hugh Revel. the grand master of the Hospital. and John of Grailly. the seneschal of the Latin Kingdom. 25 FoIlowing the faIl of Tripoli, John of Grailly headed yet another delegation to the curia in September 1289.26 The heads of the Military Orders traveled quite frequently to the curia and Europe. The grand master of the Hospital went to the west in the early 1150's and again in 1157. 1160·s. and 1169. The grand master Roger of Moulins traveled in 1179 to Sicily. and accompanied Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem and Arnold of Torroja. the grand master of the Temple in 1184. to appeal for help in the curia and the courts of France 21 For the Military Orders see above notes 17-20. During the existence of the Second Latin Kingdom (1192-1291), the Italian maritime States (Genoa and Venice) maintained regular contact with their communes in Acre and Tyre, among others, through written reports. Prawer, The Latin Kingdom, pp. 498-500. 22 Hamilton, The Latin Church, pp. 57, 63, 66, 70-71, 74, 82, 244, 264, 271; Riley-Smith, The Knights, pp. 389, 403. 23 Ibid. , pp. 79, 120-121, 133; Rowe, "Alexander III," pp. 123, 124, 127-28. 24 Hamilton, The Latin Church, p.' 255. 25 Schein, Fideles O'ucis, p. 37. 28 Ibid •• p. 67.

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and England. 27 The earliest leaders of the Temple. Hugh of Payns and Geoffrey of Saint-Orner. embarked on a series of journeys in the west. following their attendance at the Council of Troyes (1128).28 Since members of the Military Orders served as advisers to the spiritual and secular rulers of Europe on such matters as Islam. the Middle East. and Crusade-planning. often also being employed in the capacity of mediators and negotiators between the Franks and their Moslem neighbors by popes and kings. the Military Orders formed an important channel for transmitting news and information in Western Christendom about Islam and the Moslems. 29 The most meaningful communication development occurred in maritime transport. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. an unprecedented number of people had to be transported to/from the west and the Latin Kingdom: Crusaders. pilgrims. merchants. artisans. envoys. delegations. travelers. as well as members of the Military Orders and the maritime communes who had to maintain regular contact with Europe. Data regarding the number of ships from the west that frequented the show the revolutionary Latin Kingdom between 1100 and 1291 dimensions of maritime traffic. In 1100. up to 200 Venetian ships arrived off the coast of Southern Asia Minor on their way to the Holy Land. In 1102. according to Albert of Aachen. 200 merchant and pilgrim ships arrived from the west; in 1103. when the Crusaders were besieging Acre. a fleet of 12 ships arrived at its shores.so In 1123. the Venetians transported 15,000 armed men in 120 ships for their Crusade. In 1188. the Sicilian admiral Margaritus of Brindisi was sent to the Holy Land with reinforcements consisting of SO galleys and 500 knights. In 1190. Duke Hugh of Burgundy. the legate of King Philip Augustus of France. contracted with the Genoese for a fleet of some 30 to 40 ships to carry 650 knights and 1.300 squires. In 1225. Emperor Frederick II planned a fleet of SO galleys and 100 transports to carry 2.000 knights. with their squires. servants. and horses.sl In 1273. Philip ill of France sent to the Kingdom a contingent of 25 knights and 100 crossbowmen. to be followed in 1275 by 27 Riley-Smith, The Knights, pp. 44, 49, 63, 64, 73 and above, notes 24-25. It follows that an envoy or delegation left the Kingdom for Europe more or less every seven years. 28 Barber, "Supplying the Crusader States," p. 317. On Templars' embassies see above nos. 24, 25. 29 Riley Smith, The Knights, pp. 78 ff., 147-63. 30 Albert of Aachen, Historia Hierosolimitana, 9, 11, RHC. Hist. Oce., 4, p. 596; 9, 18, p. 601; Abulafia, "Trade," pp. 10-11. 31 John H. Pryor, "Transportation of Horses," pp. 9-25.

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40 knights, 60 mounted sergeants, and 400 crossbowmen. Pope Gregory X (1271-1276) dispatched three small contingents: one of 500 knights and footsoldiers; another of 400 cross bowmen, and a third of 300 crossbowmen. After the fall of Tripoli (1289), a Venetian fleet of 13 galleys landed in Acre a force of 1,600 Crusaders, mainly from Lombardy and Tuscany, in the summer of 1290.32 Besides those irregular expeditions, the ships of the maritime republics (particularly Pisa, Venice, and Genoa) regularly frequented the ports of the Kingdom twice a year. Around Easter and again in midsummer, numerous fleets gathered in the ports of Europe to set sail for the Levant. Many of the vessels sailed first to Alexandria, the greatest Mediterranean emporium, and then continued to Acre; others sailed directly to Acre. Moreover, from the mid-twelfth century, the Hospital and in the thirteenth century also the Temple, and the Teutonic Order owned ships in order to maintain contact between their commanderies in Europe and the Holy Land. These ships also carried merchants and pilgrims. Since 1234, the Hospital and the Temple were allowed to dispatch yearly, e.g. from Marseilles, four large transport vessels to the Crusader states; two of these vessels sailed around Easter, the other two around August. Toward the end of the twelfth century, large passenger vessels appeared and were used by both the maritime communes and the Military Orders. These vessels could accommodate more than 2,000 passengers, as did a Genoese ship that took Moslem and Christian merchants and travelers like Ibn Jubair and more than 2,000 western pilgrims sailing from Acre to Sicily in the autumn of 1184. The Falco, one of the largest transport vessels owned by the Templars in the thirteenth century, could carry more than 1,500 passengers. In the thirteenth century, ships carried an average of between 1,000 and 1,500 pilgrims each between the ports of Europe and Acre. 33 The establishment of a regular maritime traffic between the Latin Kingdom and the west made the transfer of news more regular and meaningfully faster. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, sea voyages Schein, Fide/es Crucis, pp. 19, 69. M. Balard, "Les transports maritimes g~nois vers la Terre Sainte," in I Comuni Italiani ne/ Regno Crociato di Gerusa/emme, ed. Gabriella Airaldi et al. (Genoa, 1986), pp.141-74; J. H. Pryor, Geography, Techn%gy, and War: Studies in the Maritime History 01 the Mediterranean, 649-1571 (Cambridge, 1988), passim; D. Jacoby, "Changes in Eastern Mediterranean Trade Between 1200 and 1350" [Hebrew], Pe'amim 45 (1990): 11-31; Barber, "Supplying the Crusader States," pp. 314-26; Marie-Luise Favreau-Lilie, "The Military Orders and the Escape of the Christian Population from the Holy Land in 1291," Journa/ 01 Medieval History 19 (1993): 205-209. 32 83

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between Acre and the ports of Europe (Amalfi. Genoa. Venice. Marseilles. and Barcelona) took on average four to eight weeks (i.e.• 28-49 days). Because of the great difficulty in sailing against a head wind. the return voyage from the east was much more difficult. and. consequently much longer. On his voyage eastwards. sailing with the favorable winds of spring in 1183. Ibn Jubair's ship covered the distance from the Malta Channel to Alexandria in ten days; whereas the return voyage from Acre to Messina encountered the variable winds of early winter and took "from 8 October to 8 December 1184. or 60 days. On 25 August 1248. King Louis IX sailed from Aigues Mortes and. after 25 days. arrived off Cyprus on 17 September. In 1254. Louis left Acre on 24 April and arrived at Hyeres after ten weeks. 34 Clearly. then. news transferred from west to east traveled a lot faster than it did in the opposite direction. Thus. the news of the disaster of Hattin (4 July 1187) reached Genoa first and. through a letter written by a local merchant. the papal court shortly before 20 October 1187; i.e.• the news traveled from the Latin Kingdom. probably from Acre to Rome. via Genoa. in about three-and-a-half months (106 days). News of the fall of Jerusalem (2 October 1187) reached Pope Gregory vm by the end of November. or after about two months (60 days).35 More than one hundred years later. news of yet another disaster. the fall of Acre (18 May 1291). arrived in Rome before 13 August 1291; 84 John H. Pryor, "The Naval Architecture of Crusader Transport Ships,· Mariner's Mirror 70 (1984): 378-83. On his return from the Holy Land in 1104, the Anglo-Saxon pilgrim Saewulf traveled from Jaffa to Rhodes in 37 days. John H. Pryor, "The Voyages of Saewulf," in Peregrinat/ones Tres: Saewu/f, John of WUr~burg, Theodoricus, ed. R. B. C. Huygens (Turnhout, 1994), pp. 35-57. Philip Augustus traveled between Messina and Acre In about 20 days (30 March 1191 - 20 April 1191). A party of English Crusaders made the voyage between Marseilles and Tyre in 37 days (7-9 August 1190 - 16 September 1190). King Richard the Lion-Hearted traveled between Messina and Limassol in 21 days (10 April 1191 - 6 May 1191), stopping for' one day in Crete and for eight days in Rhodes. Frederick II Hohenstaufen made the journey from Brindisi to Limassol in 23 days (28 June 1228 - 21 July 1228) and the remaining voyage to Acre in five days (2 September 1228 - 7 September 1228). His return journey from Acre to Brindisi took about 40 days (1 May 1229-10 June 1229). See A History of the crusades, ed. K. M. Setton, vol. 2 (Philadelphia, 1962), pp. 61-67, 451-60. Whereas the outward journey took from 20 up to 37 days, the return trip was between 40 and 70 days! 35 Pope Urban III, who died on 20 October 1187, did not react to the news since it had reached him shortly before his death. It was his successor Pope Gregory VIII, crowned on 25 October 1187, who reacted four days later with his Audita tremendi of 29 October 1187. Sylvia Schein, Jerusalem in Christian Spirituality of the Twelfth Century (in preparation).

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that is, after 10-12 weeks. 36 The contrast between three-and-a-half months (for the disaster of Hattin) and two months (for the fall of Jerusalem) in the transmission of news from the Latin Kingdom to the curia may be explained by the time of the return of the passagia from the east to the west, which took place twice yearly in early spring and in mid-October.37 The amount of information transmitted between west and east during the two hundred years of the Kingdom's existence was extremely vast. 38 This quantity is demonstrated, e.g., by the correspondence between various parties in the Latin Kingdom and the west as well as by the bulk of letters sent from the west to the Kingdom (e.g., by the papacy).39 Among the private letters sent from the Kingdom is a particularly interesting missive from Patriarch Amalric of Nesle of Jerusalem (1157-1180) to the renowned visionary Hildegard of Bingen (1157c. 1173), abbess of Mount St. Rupert in Bingen (in the bishopric of Mainz). Frenchman from Nesle in the diocese of Noyon, Amalric served as prior of the Holy Sepulcher before his election as patriarch in 1157. 40 In his letter to Hildegard, the patriarch states that his knowledge of Hildegard is by word of mouth, as it came from Jerusalem pilgrims: "From those many people who come from far distant places into our land to bend their knees at the sepulcher of the Lord, we have frequently heard that divine power is at work through you and in you.... " The patriarch hints at the awareness, even frustration, of Franks of the inadequacy of their contacts with Europe. He claims that "we have long desired to correspond with you, beloved daughter, but because an intermediary has Schein, Fideles Crucis, p. 3. See above, note 34. 38 See for the list Regesta Regni Hierosolomytani, ed. R. Rohricht Onnsbruck, 1893); Additamentum Onsbruck, 1904). 89 Vorarbeiten zum Oriens ponti/icius: I. Papsturkunden zUr Templer und Johanniter: Archivberichte und Texte, ed. R. Hiestand (Gottingen, 1972); Vorarbeiten zum Oriens ponti/icius: II. Papsturkunden zilr Templer und Johanniter: Neue Fo/ge, ed. R. Hiestand (Gottingen, 1984); Vorarbeiten zur Oriens ponti/icius: III. Papsturkenden for Kirchen im Heiligen Lande, ed. R. Hiestand (Gottingen, 1985); Cartulaire de I'~glise du Saint-sepulchre de Jerusalem, ed. E. de Rozi~re (Paris, 1894) (repr. PL, ISS, cols. 1105-1262); Cartulaire g~n~ral de I'ordre des Hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jerusalem (1100-1310), ed. J. Delaville Ie Roub (Paris, 1894-1904); Tabulae Ordinis Theuthonici, ed. E. Strehlke (Berlin, 1869) (2nd ed. with preface by H. E. Mayer, Toronto, 1975). 40 William of Tyre, who had a low opinion of him, describes Amalric as -reasonably well educated, but bereft of intelligence and virtually useless.William of Tyre, 18, 20. On Amalric, see Hamilton, The Latin Church, pp. 76-80 et passim. 88

37

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been unavailable so far, our desire has been completely frustrated. But now after a long time, an opportunity has arisen and therefore we thought it appropriate to address you .... in the present letter. "41 Letters sent westwards contain both general and private information. Thus, a letter by the Hospitaller Joseph of Cancy to Edward I of England contains information on political conditions in the Middle East in 1281, about which the Hospitaller claims that "it was never easier to conquer the Holy Land than now. "42 Personal information is conveyed in a letter, for example, by Bishop James of Vitry (1216-1228), who reports to his friends in Paris a typical agenda of his as the bishop of Acre: I have arranged my day in the following way .... Having celebrated Mass at dawn, I hear confessions until midday, and then, having forced down some food with great difficulty for I have lost my appetite ... since I came overseas, I visit the sick in the city until the hour of nones or vespers. 43

At the same time, however, as manifested in the letter by Patriarch Amalric of Nesle,44 pilgrims brought to the east information, both general and private, about the west. This is also shown by a letter by Anselm, cantor of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the reign of Baldwin I (1100-1118), to the canons of Notre Dame of Paris: Although it is now 24 years since I left your church, in which I grew up and received my education, yet ... you are always in my thoughts. I always talk to pilgrims, who come here each year and who know you ... , and ask them what you are doing and how you are. And I often dream that I am back with you, taking part in the processions on great feasts and singing the night office. 45

Pilgrims and their literature, the itineraria, comprised an additional channel of information transmission. Their importance in transmitting 41 Amalric refers in his letter to being constantly oppressed by the "sword of the pagans." It is plausible to assume that he refers to the defeat of Harim in 1164, following which he volunteered in 1169 to go to Europe in person. His ship was wrecked upon leaving Syria; though Amalric escaped, he was replaced as envoy by Archbishop Frederick of Tyre. It is perhaps the latter who served as intermediary in dispatching Amalric's letter to Hildegard. See Hamilton, The Latin Church p. 79; for the letter, see Sylvia Schein, Jerusalem. 42 Olrtulaire general de I'ordre des Hospitaliers, no. 3782; Schein, Fidelis Oucis, p. 63. 43 James of Vitry, Lettres, ed. R. B. C. Huygens (Leiden, 1960), no. 2, p. 90; Eng. trans. Hamilton. The Latin Church, pp. 128-29. 44 Here above n. 41. 45 Instrumenta Ecclesiae Parisiensis, no. 53, in Galia Christiana, 7, 44; English trans. Hamilton, The Latin Church, p. 113.

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basic knowledge about the Holy Land, its holy places, and more general infonnation to Europe has been a topic of many studies. 48 As a literary genre, the itineraria increased their importance as an information channel in the twelfth century because of a number of factors. First, there is a significant increase in the number of treatises between the early middle ages and the Crusader period. According to Rohricht's Bibiblioteca GeograJica Palestinae. about 40 treatises written between 333-1099 have survived; compared to about 100 between 1099 and 1291, namely during the Crusader period. 47 Secondly, some of the pilgrims show now interest in the realia of Palestine. Thus, Burchard of Mount Zion refers to the characteristics of the Franks, while other pilgrims, like Willebrand of Oldenburg and Ricoldo of Monte Croce, include descriptions of the non-Latin Christian population. 48 Saewulf (1102-1103) describes the hardships of the sea voyage and of the road journey between Jaffa and Jerusalem, where "anybody who did [dig a grave for his fellow) would dig a grave not for his fellow Christian but for himselfl"49 The Russian abbot Daniel (1106-1108) presents a description of Jerusalem's walls and its surrounding: Jerusalem is a large city with strong walls all round and it has four corners in the form of a cross. It has many valleys around it and rocky hills. It is a waterless place: there is no river, well, or spring near Jerusalem, except the Pool of Siloam, but all the people and beasts of that city live on rain water. 50

John of WUrzburg, who came on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem c. 1160, mentions the information about Mary Magdalen that had been reported to him by Jacobites monks of the Monastery of Mary Magdelen,51 thus pointing to the fact that Jerusalem was a site of encounter between western pilgrims and Oriental Christians. He also refers to relations between various national factions among the Franks in Crusader Jerusalem: Although Duke Godefroy [of Bouillon} and his brother Baldwin [Baldwin Il were on our side, few of our race [the Germans} remained with him .... So the whole city was to such an extent occupied by other 48

Here below, nos. 47, 50.

47 R. Rohricht, Biblioteca Geograjica Palestinae (Berlin, 1880), nos. 1-555;

Sylvia Schein, "From "Holy Geography" to "Ethnography": "Otherness" in the Descriptions of the Holy Land in the Middle Ages," in Miroirs de l'alt~rit~ et voyages au Proche Orient, ed. I. Zinguer (Geneva, 1991), p. 117. 48 Schein, "From "Holy Geography"," pp. 115-18. 49 Saewulfin Peregrinationes Tres, pp. 59-64. 50 John Wilkinson et a!., Jerusalem Pilgrimage 1099-1185 (London, 1988), p. 135. 51 John of WUrzburg in Peregrinationes Tres, pp. 111-12.

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nations, that is to say by Franks, Lotharingians, Normans, men of Provence, Auvernians, Italians, Spaniards, and Burgundians, who were also involved in that expedition, that no part of the city, not even the smallest open space, was distributed to the Germans. 52

Both John of WUrzburg and another German pilgrim, Theodoric, who came to Jerusalem in 1169, state that the aim of their writing itineraria is to help future pilgrims as well as those who are unable to go to the Holy Places. John of WUrzburg writes: I have paid particular attention to the Holy City of Jerusalem in order to describe all the facts about it in detail, and with care, and I have worked hard to collect all the inscriptions, whether in prose or verse. I believe that this description will be valuable to you if, by the divine will, you come to everything which I have described and see them physically. It will be easy for you to find them, and you will see the things which I have described to you easily, and without delay and difficulty of searching for them. But if you happen not to see them, you will still have a greater love of them and their holiness by reading this book and thinking about it!53

In addition to pilgrims, an important role in information transmission between east and west was played by merchants and missionaries. Merchants traveling through the Kingdom to and from the ports of Egypt often provided information about Egypt. 54 From the thirteenth century, missionaries used Acre as their base as well as a training-ground before departing to preach Christianity in various Moslem countries. Among the missionaries to the Moslems in the late thirteenth century were the Dominican William of Tripoli, born in the east of Christian parents, and the Florentine Ricoldo of Monte Croce, who in 1289 left Acre for Mosul and Baghdad. 55 The network of the Latin Kingdom, as was shown, was mainly aimed at Europe. Without any meaningful development of new means, this network transformed the traditional communication channels. They became more effective in terms of the quantity of information transmitted as well as the regularity and speed of transmission between the Kingdom and the west. It is within this network that one expects the Jews of the Kingdom to 521bid., pp. 12S-26. 531bid., pp. 79-80; Theodoricus in Peregrinationes Tres, p. 143. 54 Prawer, The Latin Kingdom, pp. 391-402.

55 M. W. Marshall, "Missions to the East in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries," in A History of the o-usades, ed. K. M. Setton, vol. S (Madison, 1985), pp. 452-9.

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partake. Although the Jews profited from the very existence and efficiency of this system, their own traditions and needs dictated the creation of a separate network, which formed an integral part of the global medieval Jewish communication system. The Jewish Communities The role of the Jews of the Latin Kingdom in the transmission of information between east and west derived from the Kingdom's network and its close connections with Western Europe. This latter element was furthered by three developments: • The appearance at the end of the twelfth century of passenger ships that regularly traveled between the various ports of the Middle East as well as between the Latin Kingdom and the west. • The transfer of the main port of the Kingdom in the 1130's from Jaffa to Acre, which made the landing safer. • The relative safety of traveling by land on the main roads of the Kingdom. These three factors made traveling faster and easier. Although in the first decade of their rule in Palestine, the Crusaders adopted a policy of conquest that advocated the extermination of the non-Christian population in conquered cities, namely, Jerusalem (1099), Haifa (1100), Caesarea (1101), Acre (1104), and Beirut (111 0), this policy changed around 1110; instead, the Crusaders encouraged the local population to remain in their cities. One manifestation of this change was the Crusader law which granted the Jews the same legal status as that of the other non-Franks in the Kingdom - the Moslems and Oriental Christians. The law also granted the Jews a fair amount of judicial and communal autonomy. Neither discriminated against nor persecuted, but treated like the other conquered native population, the Jews of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem became like them a sort of dhimmi, citizens of second rank. Consequently, the Jewish communities of the Latin Kingdom enjoyed a peaceful, indeed quite prosperous existence. 58 Another factor promoting the importance of Palestine's Jewry in the transmission of information is the profound change it had undergone, the main features of which may be defined as "Westernization"; i.e., the predominantly former oriental character of this population turned into a 58 See above no. 33; Sylvia Schein, "The Jewish Settlement in Palestine in the Crusader Period (1099-1291)," in The Jewish Settlement in Palestine 6.34-1881, ed. A. Carmel et a!. (Wiesbaden, 1990), pp. 23-39.

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predominantly western. By the eve of the Crusader conquest, the Jews like all other inhabitants of the country - had already undergone a process of Arabization; that is, the adoption of the material culture of the Arabs (in contrast to the process of Islamization, i.e., conversion to Islam). This process was manifested in the adoption of the Arabic material culture as well as the language. As the records of the Cairo Geniza reveal, the Jews of Palestine, during the early Moslem period, used to write in the Hebrew alphabet but in one of three languages: Arabic-Hebrew, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Jewish immigration from the Moslem East only served to strengthen this process of Arabization.57 Following the Crusader conquest, contacts between the Jews of Palestine and the Christian West increased. Whereas during the Early Moslem period, the Jewish communities of Palestine were ruled by the Head of the Diaspora (rosh ha-gola) and by the heads of the great Babylonian Academies of Sura and Pumbedita, as well as that of the Yeshivat Eretz Israel - located since 1124 in Cairo - the influence of these institutions diminished in the twelfth century. Maimonides and his descendants in Egypt now became the main authority in religious and legal disputes. In the thirteenth century, however, both the religious and the cultural centers of Palestine's Jewry moved from east to west, the main authorities being Nahmanides in Spain and the European rabbinical authorities from the school of Baalei Tosafoth, so called the Tosafists. 58 The increasingly western character of the Jews of Palestine was also an outcome of immigration. Up to the time of the Crusader conquest, new settlers had arrived mainly from the Moslem East, as did most of the Jewish pilgrims. Following the Crusader conquest, the immigrations from the east continued, but additional immigrations from the Latin West began; the latter increased considerably toward the end of the twelfth century and continued almost up to the fall of the Kingdom in 1291. Benjamin of Tudela, who came on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land between 1169 and 1171, found in Tyre Jews from Fustat (Old Cairo) as well as from Southern France. The re-established, after 1187, community of Jerusalem consisted of Jews from Ascalon, the Maghreb, France, and England. On the other hand, in the first decade of Crusader rule, many Jews immigrated to the neighboring countries, mostly to Syria or Egypt; 57 M. Gil, Palestine during the First Muslim Period (1099), I. Studies (Tel-Aviv, 1983); Id., "Eretz Israel under Muslim Rule," passim. J. Prawer, The History of the Jews in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Oxford, 1988), pp. 1-18. 58 Prawer, The Jews, pp. 16-18,93-127.

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during the twelfth century, Jews immigrated even as far as India. In the thirteenth century, the community of Acre acquired a heterogeneous character - namely, Spanish-Proven~l, Franco-German, and Oriental - as a result of migrations from both outside the country and from other places in Palestine. Thus, although the Oriental element persisted, the growth of the Franco-German population was felt more and more. One of the outcomes of this development was the fact that Jewish sources were now written less in Arabic and more in Hebrew. 59 By the 1250's, Acre, the capital of the Kingdom and its main gateway and the city in which the largest Jewish community in Palestine was located, became one of the most important centers of Jewish studies in the Middle East. This was a result of the migrations of the Tosafists. The ordinances (taqqanot) of this city's rabbinical court were often accepted by all the communities of the Kingdom as well as by those of Egypt and Syria. According to a responsum of R. Solomon Adret (Rashba) of 1280: "It is a custom among the sages of the Holy Land and of Babylon, that if a question should be asked, nobody answers but says: 'Let us be guided by the Sages of Acre'. "SO That Acre became a center of religious authority for the Middle East communities as well as a center of transmission of the Tosafists' learning in the Middle East constituted yet another factor contributing to the key role played by Palestinian Jewry in the communication network of the Jewish Diaspora. Channels of Communication The communication channels for information transmission included correspondence, Responsa, Hebrew descriptions of the Holy Land, and oral information transmitted by travelers, pilgrims, envoys, and merchants. These channels are less variable that those of the Latin Kingdom itself, as well as far more meager in terms of the volume of information transmitted. Correspondence served as a main channel of news transmission. This channel is characterized by its pseudo-official character; that is, though it usUally exchanged information between two individuals, its character 59 The Itinerary oj Benjamin oj Tudela, edt and trans. M. N. Adler (London, 1907), p.18; Prawer, The Jews, pp. 64-92. 80 Responsa oj Shelomo ben Adret, part 6, par. 890 (Venice, n.d.); Prawer, The Jews, pp. 259-91; Schein, "Jewish Settlement," pp. 33-35; Ephraim Kanarfogel, "The 'Aliyah of "Three Hundred Rabbis" in 1211: Tosafist Attitude Toward Settling in the Land of Israel," The Jewish Quarterly Review 76-3 (1986): 210-11.

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was public since the written message was often intended to be read aloud by the receiver within his community or to be transmitted in writing to other communities. An example of such news transmission, is a Geniza letter probably written in the waning days of February 1100 and dispatched to the dayyan Isaac b. Samuel the Spaniard in Egypt. The purpose of the letter was to remind the nagid to intervene with a local qadi and wali (in an unknown place, but possibly Tyre) on behalf of the anonymous writer. The letter ends with the following: My heart stood still when a man from Beirut who - as he said- had escaped at night, arrived, and reported that 35 Jewish families (beit yehudi) lived there, besides foreign merchants who had stopped over before continuing their travels. They had been surprised by the siege and remained therein. Praised be the True Judge (Barukh dayyan haemeth).61

This is a report by a man who escaped at the last moment from the city of Beirut. Besieged since February 1110. the city was captured by the Crusaders in May and its non-Christian inhabitants. including the Jewish community, were massacred. Whereas the writer of this letter refers to the news as an oral report, a letter that had been sent by the Jewish community of Cairo to Ascalon in 1099 - and that is the oldest document extant showing the Jewish reaction to the Crusader conquest of Jerusalem (15 July 1099) - refers to the news as "rumors (shemuah) of a great disaster. "62 Another letter, from the Karaite elders of Ascalon, refers to this conquest in terms of "continuous news" (yediay) as well as "rumors" or "hearsay. "63 Letters of a public and general character were sometimes dispatched circular-like to different communities in Egypt and

Palestine. Maimonides, for instance, wrote such a letter in 1169-1170 in 61 For the text, see S. D. Goitein, Palestinian Jewry in Early Islamic and o-usader Times in the Light of the Geniea Documents [Hebrew) (Jerusalem,

1980), p. 295. See, also, S. D. Goitein, "Geniza Sources for the Crusader Period: A Survey," in Outremer: Studies in the History of the o-usading Kingdom of Jer,usalem Presented to Joshua Prawer, ed. B. Z. Kedar et al. (Jerusalem, 1982), pp. 316-17; Prawer, The Jews, pp. 42-43. 62 S. D. Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, p. 255; Idem, "Geniza Sources," p. 310. 63 Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, pp. 242-43; Idem, "Geniza Sources," pp. 311-12. Another letter sent from Palestine to the community of Cairo or Ascalon in the same period refers to the Crusader conquest of Jerusalem in terms of "hearsay" (shemuah). See Ibid., p. 255. For additional letters regarding the Crusader conquest, see B. Z. Kedar, "Notes on the History of the Jews of Palestine in the Middle Ages" [Hebrew), Tarbie 42 (1973): 405-10.

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an attempt to collect ransom-money for Bilbais Jews who were taken captive in the Crusader invasion of Egypt (1168) .B4 Often, important information was included in letters concerned with private or family matters. The letter exchange between two cantors (hazzanim) of the communities of Alexandria and Cairo dealt mainly with communal and personal matters. Writing in 1213, the Alexandrine cantor transmits such as family news: "Your mother is fine, the money you sent arrived safely, your brother Said quarreled with his wife and left her. and nobody knows where he is." Following this family gossip is an extremely important piece of news referring to the so-called "immigration of the 300 Rabbis": and during the night when I wrote to you, my lord, these lines, seven of the rabbanim reached us, great scholars, and they are accompanied by a hundred souls, men, women, and children, looking for bread as if we did not have enough beggars of our own. BS

Another group of letters between the Jews of Palestine and various correspondents in the Latin west transmits news mainly concerning debates and controversies of a religious nature. Thus. the dispute regarding the philosophical works of Maimonides in the last quarter of the thirteenth century, ensued a wave of frantic correspondence between Acre. Baghdad, and Mosul, as well as Italy, Germany, France, Provence, and Spain. BB An important category of written sources with a particular type of information are the Responsa. B7 Besides the specialized content of the Responsa. their network reveals patterns of inter-communal relationships or what can be defined as inter-communal information exchange. The Responsa that arrived in Crusader Palestine show that whereas queries in the twelfth century were addressed mainly to Maimonides in Egypt, queries in the thirteenth century were addressed mainly to European authorities, the Rashba in Spain and R. Meir of Rothenburg in Germany; though some were sent to the nagid Abraham Maimuni in Egypt. It seems that most of the queries were addressed to the Rashba, who sent a group of 25 Responsa to Acre, of which 15 were addressed to R. Joseph of Sens Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, pp. 312-18; Prawer, The Jews, pp. 53-54. Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, pp. 338-40. See, also, Prawer, The Jews, pp. 75-80; I. Ta-Shma, "The Immigration of the Scholars from Provence to the Holy Land" [Hebrew), Tarbi~ 38 (1969). 66 Prawer, The Jews, pp. 282-91. 67 On this genre see A. Grabois, Les Sources h~brai'ques m~di~1Jales. Volume 1: Chroniques, Lettres et Responsa (Turnhout, 1987), passim. 64

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(by that time resident of Acre) .68 Thus in the thirteenth century, religious authority shifted from the Middle East to Europe. Though it is known that Responsa were addressed to the sages of Acre, their contents are nevertheless unknown, as they did not survive, except for one from Jubail (Jabala).69 Their scope during the thirteenth century is hinted at, as mentioned above, in a responsum by the Rashba arguing that "there is a custom among all the scholars of Eretz Israel and Babylon that when a question is asked, nobody signs it [i.e., no decision is taken) and so they say: 'Let the scholars of Acre teach us what to do in this case'. "70 It follows that the scholars of Acre dealt with Responsa sent to them mainly from the communities of Palestine and Iraq. As their correspondents were the greatest contemporary scholars in the west, like the Rashba and R. Meir of Rothenburg, Acre became a channel of Western Jewish learning transmission in the Middle East. Though Responsa traditionally dealt with halachah matters, they also provide valuable information on other subjects, such as the organization and social features of contemporary Jewry. Thus, for example, a responsum of Maimonides to the community of Acre is the only source proving that Acre in the 1170's had a rabbinical court.71 A responsum of the Rashba to R. Elijah of Acre seems to suggest that in the last quarter of the thirteenth century, the Jews of Acre possessed Moslem slave-girls and, possibly, even non-Moslem slaves.72 A responsum regarding a divorce (get) sent by R. Meir of Rothenburg to the community of Acre, written c. 1289-1290 while he was incarcerated by Emperor Rudolph of Habsburg in a fortress in Lombardy, is particularly enlightening regarding both the method of composing a responsum and the state of mind of the rabbi in captivity: I have no TosaJoth on the Tractate Gittin at my disposal, neither the book of Decisions ... and if it is known that the TosaJoth or decisions, 88 In the 1170's, scholars from Tyre and Acre addressed queries to Maimonides; see Responsa oj Maimonides, ed. A. H. Freimann (Jerusalem, 1934), nos. 72, 105, 159, 364. For the Responsa of Rashba, see Responsa oj Rashba (R. Solomon b. Adret), vol. 1, (repr. Bnei Braq, 1958), nos. 53, 68; vol. 6 (repr. New York, 1958), no. 69; and Prawer, The Jews, p. 105 n. 39, p. 281 n. 86. For the responsum of R. Meir of Rothenburg, see Rabbi Meir's lion Rothenburg bisher unedirte Responsen, ed. M. A. Bloch (Berlin, 1891), no. 108. For Abraham Maimuni's Responsa, see Abraham Maimuni Responsa, ed. A. H. Freimann and S. D. Goitein (Jerusalem, 1937), pp. 25-26. 88 Responsa oj Rashba, vol. 6, no. 69. 70 Ibid., loc.cit.; Prawer, The Jews, pp. 280-81. 71 Responsa oj Maimonides, nos. 159, 156-57. 72 Responsa oj Rashba, vol. 1, nos. 53, 68.

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darkness, in the shadow of death and chaos, by now for more than three and a half years?73

Another written communication channel between east and west is the genre of the descriptions of the Holy Land. A newly emerging Jewish literary genre in the twelfth century, it resulted from the growing scope of Jewish pilgrimages from Europe. The fact that the descriptions. were written in Hebrew rather than in Arabic, lingua franca of the Near East, points to their writers' intention that these treatises be read in Europe. Their structure reflects a certain influence of the Christian itineraria or the Descn'ptiones Terrae Sanctae. Both the Jewish and the Christian treatises are almost blind to the realia of the Holy Land and are centered, rather, on holy places. Whereas the Christian itineraria of the Crusader period focus on the location of the holy traditions of the Old and New Testaments, the Jewish descriptions are more or less a rather dreary enumeration of the "Tombs of the ancestors" or "Tombs of the Just," particularly those of the Talmudic Sages. The information they offer on the realia, however, is still most valuable concerning routes, distances, Jewish communities, their size, and sometimes their structure, eminent leaders and scholars, material conditions on the voyage, etc. 74 Of the ten Hebrew descriptions of the Holy Land from the Crusader period, the most valuable in regard to the Jewish communities there and realia in general is that of the Spanish merchant Benjamin of Tudela, who stayed in Palestine and neighboring countries between 1169 and 117l,75 His description of Ascalon is typical of his writing, which always combines the sacred with the mundane: Thence it is two parasangs to Ashkelonah or New Askelon, which Ezra the priest built by the sea. It was originally called Bene Berak. The place is four parasangs distant from the ancient ruined city of Askelon. New Askelon is a large and fair place, and merchants come thither from all quarters, for it is situated on the frontier of Egypt. About 200 Rabbanite Jews dwell here, at their head being R. Zemach, 73 Rabbi Meir's von Rothenburg bisher unedirte Responsen, no. 108; Prawer, The Jews, pp. 281-82. 74 On this genre, see M. Ish-Shalom, Tombs of Ancestors (Qivrei Avoth) [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1948), passim; Prawer, The Jews, pp. 169-76; Idem., "The Hebrew Itineraries of the Crusader Period" [Hebrew], cathedra 40 (1986): 31-36. For the characteristics of the Christian itineraria see above nos. 47-50. 75 For the implication of this data, see Schein, "The Jewish Settlement," pp. 24-30.

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R. Aaron, and R. Solomon; also about 40 Karaites, and about 300 Cuthim. In the midst of the city there is a well, which they call Bir Abraham; this the patriarch dug in the days of the Philistines. 78

Benjamin's treatise also relates valuable information about the professions prevailing among twelfth-century Palestine Jewry. He mentions dyers with their families scattered all over the Kingdom, including Jerusalem, often living in all-Christian or all-Moslem communities,77 dyeing being, so to say, one of the "traditional" Jewish professions. In Tyre, he refers to those who made their living from professions less typical of Jews - shipping and the glass industry.78 The treatises of Jewish pilgrims are particularly concerned with the state of the holy places, and especially Jerusalem and Hebron. Jacob b. Nathariiel (c. 1153-1187), probably of Egypt, describes the situation at the Patriarchs' tomb in Hebron following their "discovery" by the Crusaders in 1120, when a Christian sanctuary was established inside the Herodian building: 79 In Hebron, I Jacob, entered disguised as a Christian pilgrim (to'eh) into the Cave, which was built by the Christians, a fabrication to cheat the world ... and when the pilgrims (to';m) want to enter they cannot; only a single man with a candle [can enter] because it is very deep. And there are six tombs, three on one side, three on the other .... But this is a lie, because there is a large and strong wall of lime and shards between the new graves and the entrance to the Double Cave ... 80

Of the eight pilgrims' treatises whose authorship can be traced, five are composed by pilgrims from Europe (Spain, Provence, and Germany). It

follows that as a channel of communication and, mainly, as a source of information, the pilgrims' treatises were aimed primarily at the west. Besides the written information channels, travelers, pilgrims, merchants, immigrants, and messengers of various communities in both the east and the west transmitted news and information orally. We know about a number of Marseillais Jewish merchants who traded with Acre in 78 Benjamin of Tudela, pp. 27-28. The treatise of Benjamin of Tudela survives in about five mss., which demonstrates its great popularity and a relatively large circulation. See Adler's introduction, pp. XIII-XVI. TI Benjamin of Tudela, pp. 19-30. 78 Ibid., pp. 36-37. 78 ·Canonici Hebronensis de Inventione Sanctorum Patriarchum,· ed. P. Riant, Archives de l'Orient Latin, II A (1884), 411. 80 The Book of Travels of Jacob B. Nathaniel [Hebrew], ed. A. Yaari, Massa'oth Eretz-Israel (Ramat-Gan, 1976), pp. 60-61; English trans. after Prawer, The Jews, p. 187.

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the mid-thirteenth century and served as information transmitters, as well as of a Jew of Acre who was engaged in maritime commerce. On the whole, however, the role of Jews in both maritime commerce and banking decreased in the central middle ages, so that this communication practice also diminished; thence the importance of messengers who were employed by communal institutions and its officials. These messengers frequently traveled among various communit.ies of the Middle East or between those of the east and those of the Christian west. Thus, after the Crusader conquest of Jerusalem, a messengers was sent from Damieta or another community in Eastern Egypt to the community of Alexandria to inform in detail of the fate of the Jews of Jerusalem. 81 Messengers were sometimes asked to deliver oral information in addition to the letters they carried. Moreover, letters sent by messengers or otherwise82 sometimes included the writers' order to be read in public; i.e., in synagogues. Thus, the writers of another letter sent from one unknown Egyptian community to another concerning the fate of the Jerusalem Jews explicitly demanded that the letter be read publicly after a proclamation that all the public (zibiir) should be present. 83 In 1169, messengers were sent by Maimonides - who acted in his capacity of raTs al- Yahoo, the official head of Fatimid Jewry - to the communities of Egypt and Palestine and publicly read his order to collect the money promised for the ransoming of the Bilbais Jews. In 1214, an emissary from Alexandria was sent to Jerusalem with money collected for its different congregations; he also carried a letter that was supposed to be read in public. 84 The case of a messenger sent from Old Cairo to Crusader Acre is discussed in a letter delivered to Alexandria and written by Shlomo b. Elija ha-dajan, who served as a scribe (sofer) in the court of R. Abraham b. Rambam. He reports that the messenger was dispatched with the intent to try to ransom the Jewish women taken into captivity in Damieta (1221) and held in Acre. 85 In the second half of the thirteenth century, the "Great Academy of Paris" (Hamidrash Haggad'Ol de Parisi) in Acre whose spiritual founder was R. Ye~iel of Paris and which carried on the tradition of the Academy of Paris, i.e., the Tosafists of Northern France Prawer, The Jews, pp. 125-27. See below, notes 90-94. 83 Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, p. 248; for such a function of synagogues, see Idem., A Mediterranean Society, vol. 2 (Berkeley, 1971), pp. 165-66. 84 Ibid., p. 247. 85 Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, pp. 298-99; Mordechai Akiva Friedman, "New Sources from the Geniza for the Crusader Period and for Maimonides and his Descendants" [Hebrew], cathedra 40 (1986): 72-75. 81

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sent a professional money-collector to Europe, to ask for financial help. To aid him to collect money in the Diaspora, the envoy carried with him the so-called Itinerary of R. Jacob, the Messenger of the Yeshiva of Acre (c. 1258-1270), a Hebrew description of the Holy Land. This shows that such treatises were sometimes composed for a certain material aim, and it also explains forgeries like the so-called Letter of R. Mena~em of Hebron. 86

As mentioned above, travelers and pilgrims also carried information. Thus, the first Ashkenazi pilgrim, Petahyah of Regensburg (1174-1187), when entering the Double Cave of Hebron, remembered the information he received in Acre about the place: "And the Jews of Acre told him: 'beware because they [the Christians] put three corpses at the entrances of the Cave.' They say these are the Patriarchs, but they are not. "87 This sacrilegious treatment of Jewish tombs is also noted by Benjamin of Tudela. 88 The information that pilgrims or travelers provided was hardly limited to geographical or demographical data; it also contained up-to-date information about the Jewish communities and their officials, and even gossip. Thus the pilgrim Judah al-Harizi (1216-1217) reports about R. Elijah b. AqnTn, the head of the Maghrebi congregation of Jerusalem: "There is much slander against him, we are told, and rumors of misdoings and bad deeds; God alone knows the hidden truth! "89 Time and Space The above examined channels used by the Latin Kingdom's Jewry provide data on the various aspects of the communication network and its operation in time and space; that is, on the speed of travel and news transmission in a certain space, on how written information was delivered, and within what period of time. Letters from the Jewish communities of Palestine and Syria to Egypt were sometimes sent by public mail; i.e., a commercial post run by a private enterprise and modeled after the fashion of the governmental courier (band). It operated solely on land and was carried out by Prawer, The Jews, pp. 230-31, 275-76. The Circuit (Sibil!)) 'oj R. Petahyah oj Regensburg [Hebrew], ed. Yaari Alassa'oth, p. 54. 88 Benjamin oj Tudela, p. 25. 89 Prawer, The Jews, pp. 67-73, esp. pp. 72-73. For gossip in medieval society, see Sylvia Schein, ·Used and Abused: Gossip in Medieval Society,· in Good Gossip, ed. Robert F. Goodman et al. (Lawrence-Kansas, 1994), pp. 139-53. 86

87

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letter-couriers (JuyilJ1. In the season of sea voyages between ports of the Eastern Mediterranean - the spring voyage normally lasted from the end of April to the beginning of June, and the fall voyage from the middle of August to the end of September - letters were sent by ship; mostly they were confided to friends and, in case these were not available on board, to the captain or some sailor. There were also special agencies of couriers that operated in Jerusalem, Tyre, and Old Cairo. One could also send a letter by a regular messenger which was the slowest and cheapest method; by an express courier who moved a little faster than a regular fuyilj; or by special messengers who moved the fastest. 9o Thus, we read in a letter sent from Tripoli soon after the Seljuks' conquest of Jerusalem in 1071 that the sender, a woman refugee from Jerusalem who dictated the letter to be sent to her family in Old Cairo, was in a hurry, as she wished to send her letter "at the time of the ship's departure. "91 In c. 1221, R. Shlomo b. Elija ha-Dajlin, writing to an unknown person in Alexandria, asks whether, as "the ships of Acre are now there," he should send letters to a certain Abu Ali; he further adds that "the letters should be given to someone who will bring them to him, and he [Abu Ali] will let you know what he accomplished." Abu Ali can be identified as the messenger sent from Alexandria to Acre to ransom the Jewish women captured by the Crusaders in Damieta (1221).92 Still another type of messenger were relatives or officials; thus, a letter written in Acre or Tyre by Zadok b. R. Isaiah was sent to Egypt with his brother. 93 In 1210, a Jewish scholar from Jerusalem who was well connected with the Fatimid governor of the city, was detained in al-Mu!liylib, a caravan station in the Sinai, because of the Sabbath; he sent a letter to his son in Jerusalem with one of the Sultan's messengers (rasi1l). 94 The speed of the mail service varied according to the type of couriers. A special messenger made the Alexandria -Cairo-Alexandria round trip in seven days; a letter sent by a special courier from Old Cairo to Ascalon was received after 12 days. Of course, letters sent with regular couriers or with family and friends took longer. Also, letters sent by ship often took longer. depending on the condition of the ship as well as conditions at sea. A sea voyage from Acre to Jaffa took five days; TinnTs in Egypt to Ascalon, seven days; Alexandria to Tripoli, eight days. Sea voyages Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, vol. 1 (Berkeley, 1967), pp. 281-95. a11dem, Palestine Jewry, p. 282. 82 See note 85 above. 83 Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, p. 287. 84 Ibid. , p. 328; Idem, A Mediterranean Society, vol. 1. pp. 283-84. 90

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between the ports of Egypt-Palestine-Syria and those of Europe (Amalfi, Genoa, Venice, Marseilles, and Barcelona) took three to ten weeks (i.e., 21 to 70 days).95 Maimonides, traveling from Morocco probably by sea (on 18 April 1154), landed in Acre on 16 May; that is, after more than four weeks. 96 Jewish pilgrims provide rather contradictory information about the speed of traveling in the Holy Land. Maimonides' journey from Acre to Jerusalem took three days (14-16 October 1165),97 whereas the pilgrim Petahyah of Regensburg claimed that the length of the Holy Land was that of a three-day journey.9S From Benjamin of Tudela's account, it seems that it took much longer, as a pilgrim could cover 25 km a day. Thus, he mentions that the journey Sidon-Tyre (28 km) took 11/2 days; Tyre-Acre (40 km), 1 day; Caesarea-Lydda (60 km), 1 day; and Lydda-Sebastia (45 km), 1 day. Another space measure used by Benjamin is the parsa or parsa, which is equivalent to 4.5 kilometers; but the 30 instances in which he uses the parsa show that his own notion of this measure corresponds to some five to seven kilometers. One can conclude, therefore, that he covered about 630 kilometers in the Holy Land; since a daily ride was 25 km, he must have spent about one and a half or two months there. 99 Information regarding speed of travel and space measures is also offered by Jacob b. Nathaniel Hakkohen (1153-1187), who reports going from EI-Arish to Bilbeis in four days and from there to Cairo in one day. He, like Benjamin of Tudela, sometimes uses the parsa as a space measure: Hebron-Beit Nuba, 10 parsa (actual distance 37 km; parsa = 3,7 km); Beit-NUba-Lydda, 4 parsa (16 km; parsa =4 km); Lydda-Yabneh (lbelin), 3 parsa (16 km; parsa = 5 km); Yabneh-Ashdod, 2 parsa (15 km; parsa = 7 km); Ashdod-Ascalon, 4 parsa (16 km; parsa = 4 km); Ascalon-Gaza, 4 parsa (20 km; parsa = 5 km).l00 It follows that whereas the parsa of Benjamin of Tudela corresponded to some five to seven kilometers, that of Jacob b. Nathaniel Hakkohen corresponds to some four to seven kilometers, thus being quite close to that of Benjamin. 95 Ibid., pp. 289-91, 313-26 and above n. 34. The news of the fall of Acre (18 May 1291) and the massacre of its Jews reached Cairo, according to Joseph Yeriishalmi, a few days before 20 June; i.e., after about three weeks, probably traveling by land. Prawer, The Jews, p. 291. 96 Ibid., pp. 141-42. fT1 Ibid., p. 142. 98 The Circuit 0/ R. Petahyah 0/ Regens ixlrg, p. 53. 99 Benjamin 0/ Tudela, pp. 34-45; Prawer, The Jews, pp. 191-206. 100 The Book 0/ Travels 0/ Jacob B. Nathaniel, pp. 56-57.

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Again, under the assumption that he traveled 25 kIn a day, R. Jacob could make the journey from Hebron to Gaza (some 120 km) in about five days. Bearing in mind that a sea journey took about three to ten weeks, the return journey being almost twice as long as the outward one, a pilgrim starting at one of the ports of Italy needed over four months for the round-trip. 101 Conclusion The picture that emerges from the various categories of sources used in this study is one of a tremendous communication activity between the Latin Kingdom and the west, and between the Jewish communities in the Latin Kingdom and the Jewish communities of both the east and the west. This activity reflects actually two networks of communication, that of the Kingdom and that of its Jews. Geniza documents, letters, Responsa, pilgrims' treatises, and oral information all present the Jewish communities of Palestine under Crusader rule as a dynamic, everchanging communication center in the Jewish global communication network. The constant movement of Jewish immigrants in and out of the country, the persistent influx of pilgrims, travelers, and messengers from both east and west, and the regular correspondence between the communities in the Holy Land and those of Iraq, Syria, and Egypt in the east, and Spain, Italy, Provence, France, and Germany in the west (in form of letters, circular letters, or Responsa) all indicate the importance with its international character of the Palestinian communities, particularly that of Acre in the thirteenth century. This Jewish communication network was, however, totally separated from that of the Latin Kingdom. Their only meeting place was the maritime traffic between west and east, which was used by both Christians and Jews. l02 A comparison of the two networks shows a similarity in the main channels they used (correspondence, envoys, messengers, and oral information) and in their operation in terms of space and time. At the same time, 101 J. K. Hyde, "Navigation of the Eastern Mediterranean in the Fourteenth and Fifteen Centuries According to Pilgrims' Books," in Papers in Italian Archeology. I: The'Lancaster Seminar, ed. H. Mc K. Blake et ai., BAR Supp. Ser., 41 (1978) tables 31.1, 31.2, p. 537. Compared to Jewish pilgrims, Christians spent less time on pilgrimage in the Holy Land, between 13-40 days, mostly about 20 days. Ibid., p. 535, no. 20. It is known that Benjamin of Tudela stayed about 1 -2 months, and Samuel b. Samson (1210) about a month. Prawer, The Jews, p. 198. 102 See the article of Ruthi Gertwagen in this collection.

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however, the Kingdom's network of communication with the west was more sophisticated in the variety of channels used (e.g., delegations, written reports, legad ab hoc, pilgrims, Crusaders, churchmen, members of the Military Orders and the communes, artisans, missionaries, etc.); therefore, it transmitted a far greater quantity, and more variable information, and did so more effectively. Not that the information was transmitted within a shorter period of time but the gaps in information transmission were significantly shorter than in the Jewish network. Significantly, when on 28 May 1291, Acre was captured by the Mamluks of Egypt and its Frankish and Jewish inhabitants were either massacred or taken into captivity, both Christian and Jewish sources described this event as "a tragedy as terrible as the day of the ruin of Jerusalem! "102

102 From the elegy written by R. Joseph Yeriishalmi on the death of his father, the grammarian Tanhiim Yeriishalmi, who at one time lived in Palestine. The writer linked the death of his father on 20 June 1291 with that of his friends in Acre. Prawer, The Jews, p. 291. On the Jewish reaction, see, also, B. Z. Kedar, "Jews and Samaritans in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem" [Hebrew), Tarbiz 43-3 (1984): 405-407. For the Christian reaction, see Sylvia Schein, "The Image of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Thirteenth Century," Revue Beige de philoiogie et d'histoire 64 (1986): 704-17. For a different evaluation of the role of the Latin Kingdom and the Crusades as a historical stage in the development of medieval communication systems, see Sophia Menache, "The Crusades and Their Impact on the Development of Medieval Communication," in Kommunikation zwischen Orient und Okzident: Alltag und Sachkultur (Vienna, 1994), pp. 69-90.

170

OOMMUNICATION AND PROPAGANDA BETWEEN PROVENCE AND SPA1N: THE CONTROVERSY OVER EXTREME ALLEGORIZATION (1303-1306) Ram Ben-Shalom* Between 1303 and 1306, a severe controversy relating to the study of Greek. philosophy by Jews, arose in Provence and Spain. At the beginning

of the controversy, Abba Mari b. Moses of Lunel, a resident of Montpellier, wrote to R. Solomon b. Abraham Ben Adret [the Rashba) of Barcelona, one of the greatest Jewish sages of Spain, to ask that he intervene and act to limit philosophical study. After protracted negotiations, in which scores of letters were exchanged, two bans were pronounced in Barcelona in 1305. The first ban forbade the study of Greek. philosophy in the areas of physics and metaphysics by young men under the age of 25. The second ban was addressed to preachers who included extreme allegory in their sermons and belittled the teachings of the Talmudic sages. Included under the latter prohibition were Hebrew books that contained such allegorical content. The result was that the advocates of philosophy in Montpellier - who since 1304 had led a fierce struggle against Abba Mari and Ben Adret - decided to issue a ban of their own against anyone who dared prevent the study of philosophy and foreign sciences. Abba Mari and his supporters, claiming that the Montpellier group had acted unlawfully, countered by issuing a coWlterban, the "Adrabba" (on the contrary), against the philosophers. 1 • I would like to express my gratitude to the Israel Open University for its assistance in the preparation of this article. 1 I. Baer, A History oj the Jews in Christian Spain [Hebrew J (Tel Aviv, 1959), pp. 167-78; J. Sarachek, Faith and Reason: The Conflict on the Rationalism oj Maimonides (Williamsport, 1967), pp. 73-127; Ch. Touati, "La controverse de 1303-1306 autour des ~tudes philosophiques et scientifiques," Revue des etudes juiWls [REJ) 127 (1968): 21-37; A. S. Halkin, "The Ban on the Study of Philosophy" [Hebrew J, in Chapters - Yearbook oj the Schocken Institute oj Research on Judaism - American Rabbinical Col/ese, ed. A. S. Rosenthal, vol. 1 (Jerusalem, 1967-1968), pp. 35-55; J. Shatzmiller, "Between Abba Mari and the Rashba - The Negotiations Which Preceded the Ban in Barcelona" [Hebrew), in Studies in the History oJ the Jewish People and the Land oj Israel, ed. B. Oded et aI., vol. 3 (Haifa, 1975), pp. 121-37; M. Saperstein, "The Conflict over the Rashba's I!erem on Philosophical Study: A Political Perspective," Jewish History

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This controversy was not first on the subject of Jewish rationalism. Debates over the new theological concepts acquired from Muslim philosophy had repeatedly broken out in Provence and Spain, starting in the mid-thirteenth century. These involved the questions of the degree to which it was permissible to accept new ideas and include them in Jewish tradition and which ideas should be rejected because of their inherently foreign nature. 2 The main debate took place in 1232-1235; then, too, the flames of controversy had been kindled in Montpellier. Solomon b. Abraham of Montpellier, a former resident of Barcelona, objected to Maimonides' book, Guide to the Perplexed, and to its interpretation by Samuel b. Judah Ibn Tibbon. The Maimonidean Controversy eventually ended with the burning of Maimonides' book (or portions of it) by the Inquisition. It was the first time that the Inquisition had intervened in the internal affairs of Jewish communities. s In the early years of the fourteenth century, however, the debate did not focus on Maimonides's writings, whose authoritative position had already been substantiated. The subject of attack this time was Levy b. Abraham b. l:Iayyim, whose book Lil1yat Hen (Ornament of Grace) was accused of extreme, unprecedented allegories. Every single story from the Bible was perceived by the author as a metaphor, it was charged, and the pesitat, or primary literal intention, was given no weight whatsoever. 4 This article will deal with the channels of communication and propaganda involved in the controversy; i.e., the letters; the messengers; investigation. espionage, and a determination of the climate of opinion; 1 (1986): 27-38; an introduction on this debate, by H. Z. Dimitrovsky. is forthcoming. On the bans. see R. Abba Mari of Lunel, "Min~at Qena'ot," in Responsa of the Rashba to R. Solomon b. Abraham Ben Adret, ed. H. Z. Dimitrovsky, part I, vol. 2 (Jerusalem, 1990), 99, p. 723; 101, pp. 733-37 [hereafter: "MQ"J. On Abba Marl, see H. Gross, "Notice sur Abba Mari de Lune!," REJ 4 (1882): 192-207; J. Shatzmiller, "Minor Epistle of Apology of R. Kalonymus b. Kalonymus" [Hebrew], Se/unot 10 (1966): 16-17. On Ben Adret, see J. Perles, R. Salomo b. Abraham b. Adereth, sein Leb. und seine Schrijten (Breslau, 1863); I. Epstein, Studies in the Communal Life of the Jews of Spain (New York, 1968); D. Schwartz, "Rationalism and Conservatism: The Philosophy of R. Solomon Ben Adret's Circle" [Hebrew], Daat 32-33 (1994): 143-47 and n.

3.

2

298.

Y. Dan, "The Debate on Maimonides' Writings" [Hebrew], Tarbiz 35 (1966):

3 J. Cohen, The Friars and the Jews: The Evolution of Medieval Anti-Judaism (Ithaca and London, 1982), pp. 52-60. 4 L. Back, "Zur Charakteristik des Levy b. Abraham b. Chayim," Monatschrijt ftlr Geschichte und Wissenschajt des Judentums 44 (1900): 156-57; A. S. Halkin, "Why Was Levy b. Hayyim Hounded?," Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 34 (1966): 65-76; Touatl, "La controverse".

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rumors; convocations and sermons; and the family network. The basic assumption of this study is that this controversy was founded on a broader question relating to communication and sermonizing.5 the real subject of the debate being the allegoristic preachers. They propagated radical philosophy. which views reason as the supreme. and indeed the only. authority.6 So long as the ideas embodying extreme allegory were hidden among the intellectual elite. there was no reason to explode the shaky status quo that had been maintained in Provence since the 1230·s. The fact that these "deviant" opinions were now being propagated among the public at large. however. led Abba Mari to launch his campaign.? The philosopher-preachers gave their sermons in synagogues on Sabbaths and holidays as well at weddings and other festivities. The selection of a philosopher-preacher to speak at such events apparently indicates both that this form was the taste of the audience and the fact that the struggle for the pulpit had been settled in favor of philosophical preaching even before 1303. Along with the well-known. respected preachers who dwelt within the communities, there was a more elusive group of itinerant preachers. This group constituted the greatest complication for Abba Mari, since it was difficult to locate and, consequently, to combat. As he bitterly complains in one of his letters: Nor did I myself take their census and learn how they are defined. I did not discover their name and origin, and neither the names of their fathers did I find. And I could not even ascertain whether their nature belongs to humankind. But know that all these things are true, and I am not making them up from my own mind. 8

Beyond the attempt to assign a demonic character to these preachers,9 his 5 On preaching and sermon literature, see M. Saperstein, Jewish Preachins 1200-1800: An Antholosy (New Haven and London, 1989), passim. iI The approaches referred to here as "extreme allegory" and "extreme phUosophy" led to an allegorical interpretation of the Bible, which detached it from its primary literal meaning, and focused on such philosophical concepts as the eternity of the world, miracles as natural processes, and the rejection of divine providence with regard to individuals. See D. Schwartz, "Rationalism," pp. 145-46. 7 This is clearly attested to by Abba Mari's partner in the struggle, Simeon b. Joseph Duran, "lfoshen Mishpat" ("Breastpiece of Decision")[Hebrew), in Glorious Old Ase: In Memory 01 J. L. Zune, ed. Zunz Memorial Society (Jerusalem, 1969), p. 170: "The rabbi [Abba Mari) and his associated faction thought to conceal from the multitudes the preachers who speak in figures and do not speak truly; the earth did not shake except for them alone." [emphasis mine) 8MQ, 77, pp. 644-45. g This method recalls the actions of ecclesiastical authorities, especially the Inquisition toward Cathars and Waldensians.

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words attest to Abba Mari's inability to establish their identity; indeed, all we know of them is based on rumor alone. lo Obviously, as a social group not included within the traditional leadership, the itinerant preachers presented a threat to the Jewish establishment. 11 In contrast to contemporary Christian society, in which the pulpit was subject to severe scrutiny,12 Jewish society had no regulations determining who was entitled to preach, where, when, and on what topics. 13 This freedom often posed problems for the establishment and, on several occasions, even the advocates of philosophy expressed reservations with regard to "unauthorized" preachers, whom they viewed, however, as a marginal phenomenon. I. The itinerant preachers wandered from one community to another, with no territorial center and, worse still, no supervision by institutional authorities. IS In order to prevent the propagation of their ideas, Abba Mari required the cooperation of the communities to enact a general regulation preventing itinerant preachers from ascending the pulpit. In the absence of a defined group that could be attacked directly, Abba Mari directed a vitriolic campaign against Levy b. Abraham, whose family, origin, and dwelling place were well known. Admittedly, it has recently been proven that Levy b. Abraham should not be viewed as a mere scapegoat; rather, he was a provocative intellectual with radical, rationalist views, such as giving halakhic and theological legitimacy to astral magic. Iii Nonetheless, he was not the decisive factor in the rise of 10 MQ, loc. cit., p. 645 "Only the very greatest of the generation ... have testified that this pollution has reached several places. " 11 MQ, 23, vol. I, p. 316: "And I saw that these few men, at weddings and birth celebrations/Preach in synagogues to the world at large,! like heads of communities or chiefs of nations." 12 The reference is to priests who had received the ordinatio or to the Mendicants, Franciscans and Dominicans, who had received special papal sanction. See G.R. Owst, Preaching in Medieval England: An Introduction to Sermon Manuscript (1350-1450) (Cambridge, 1926), pp. 169-70; J. Long~re, La predication medievale (Paris, 1983), pp. 30-31, 78-86; W. Tugwell and S. Tugwell, The Way .01 the Preacher (London, 1979), pp. 117-31; M. Saperstein, Jewish Preaching, p. 46. 13 M. Saperstein, Jewish Preaching, pp. 46-47. 14 MQ, 58, p. 511; see, also, the statement by Menachem b. Solomon of Perpignan (Ha-Me'iri) in "Hoshen Mishpat," pp. 166-67. 15 Ibid., p. 167: "For a c~lt of preachers now springs up each day, who recite their declamations and wander on. " Iii D. Schwartz, "The Debate on Astral Magic in Fourteenth-Century Provence" [Hebrew]. Zion 48 (1993): 173 and n. 107; D. Schwartz, "Philosophical Commentary on the Bible and on Legend" [Hebrew], Mahanayim 7 (1994): 160-63; D. Schwartz, "The Neutralization of the Messianic Idea in Medieval

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the debate, and his book, Livyat /fen, was not its main focus. While Levy b. Abraham did indeed refine the allegorical method, his own style apparently included nothing new. 17 The main problem lay in his profession and his broad sphere of influence. Levy was a poor man, forced to earn his living as a melamed (teacher of boys); this was the basic cause for the concern of Abba Mari and Ben Adret. By means of his teaching, Levy's philosophical theories spread far and wide, some of his former students becoming itinerant preachers themselves. 18 The controversy, which swept through many communities in Provence and Spain, began to die down only following the expulsion from France (1306),19 when the Jews living in Languedoc were forced to flee to Provence (east of the Rhone) and to the Kingdoms of Majorca and Aragon. The causes of the controversy, however, did not disappear; philosophical and scientific study continued, and outbursts against extreme philosophy in the communities of Provence and Spain were heard into the fifteenth century.20 The problem may even have increased in the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula in view of their social heterogeneity and the con versos phenomenon.21 The "foreign sciences, as well, were II

Jewish Rationalism" [Hebrew), Hebrew Union College Annual 64 (1993): 33. 17 None of the opponents of philosophy during the controversial years had read Levy b. Abraham'S book, their knowledge being based entirely on rumor. Similar extreme allegories, some of Bible stories, appeared in the writings of Samuel b. Judah Ibn Tibbon, who had been expressly accused of employing this approach in the previous controversy. See a letter by Solomon b. Abraham, in: B. Dinur, Is,.ael in the Diaspo,.a [Hebrew), vol. 2-4 (Jerusalem, 1969), p. 183g; A. Ravitzky, "R. Samuel Ibn Tibbon and the Secret of the Guide to the Pe,.plexed" [Hebrew), Daat 10 (1983): 19-46; C. Sirat. A Histo,.y oj Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1990), p. 246. 18 MQ, 30, vol. 1, p. 370: "And If the lawless boys in their sermons"; Simeon b. Joseph Duran, "Hoshen Mishpat," p. 151: "A cult of young men." Levy b. Abraham stated, in Uvyat Hen, that the Talmud prohibited the teaching of logic and philosophy to children. See D. Schwartz, "'Greek Science' - A Re-Examination of the Period of the Debate on the Study of Philosophy" [Hebrew), Sinai 104 (1989): 150, 153. See, also, Yedaiah (Penini) b. Abraham Bedersi, Ketab Hitnadut [Hebrew], In The Book oj Que,.ies and Responsa oj the Rashba, vol. 1 (Jerusalem, 1990), question 418, p. 222. 19 Sophia Menache, "On the Question of the ExpulSion of the Jews from England and France" [Hebrew], Zion 41 (1986): 321-32. 20 J. Shatzmiller, "Rationalisme et orthodoxie religieuse chez les Juifs proven\j8ux au commencement du XIVe si~cle," Provence histo,.ique 12 (1972): 285. 21 I. Baer, A Histo,.y, pp. 358-72: J. Hacker, "The Role of R. Abraham Bibage in the Controversy Over the Study and Status of Philosophy in FifteenthCentury Spain" [Hebrew], in Proceedings oj the Fifth Wo,.ld Congress oj Jewish Studies, C (Jerusalem, 1969), pp. 151-58; D. Schwartz, "The SpiritualIntellectual Decline of the Jewish Community in Spain at the End of the

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among the most popular subjects of study.22 From a historical perspective, one may argue that instead of moderating the preoccupation with philosophy, the "media coverage" given to the controversy had the effect of aro~ing interest, especially in scholarly circles.23 For a study of communication and propaganda relating to the controversy, the main historical source at our disposal is Abba Mari's book, Min~at Qena'ot, which includes a large collection of letters between Provence and Spain. Although the extent of Ben Adret's influence in Provence m~t still be clarified, that it was recognized is evident in the halakhic questions sent to him24 - which is the reason that Abba Mari chose to contact this authority. Judah b. Solomon Dels-Enfantz of Aries asserts that "After all, I know that from days of old, all the lands of Navarre, and Spain, and Ashkenaz, and France, and Rome and its environs, who have heard of his reputation, have acknowledged his leadership and respect him. "25 Ben Adret's influence also facilitated the involvement of many communities, the demarcation lines of the debate moving back and forth from the eastern border of Provence26 to the kingdoms of Aragon, Navarre, and Castile beyond the Pyrenees; the areas involved in the controversy were mostly, therefore, no more than a few days' walking distance from one another. In one of his letters, Dels-Enfantz advised Abba Mari that if the philosophers' ban reached Aries, he should first send the "Adrabba" to Barcelona and from there bring it back to Provence (and to Aries) adorned with the signatures of the great rabbis of Spain. Ben Adret's authority, Dels-Enfantz thought, would eventually be the decisive factor, Fourteenth Century" [Hebrew], Pe'amim 46-47 (1991): 92-114; [d., "On the Nature of the Controversy Over Medieval Philosophy: R. Judah b. Samuel Ibn Abbas· [Hebrew], in Proceedings 0/ the Eleventh World Congress 0/ Jewish Studies, C, vol. 2 (Jerusalem, 1994), p. 71; C. Horowitz, "Preachers, Sermons, and Sermon Literature" [Hebrew], in Moreshet Sefarad, ed. H. Beinart (Jerusalem, 1992), pp. 318-19. 22 J. Hacker, "On the Intellectual Character and Self-Perception of Spanish Jewry in the Late Fifteenth Century" [Hebrew], Se/unot (n.s.), 2, 17 (1983): 55-56. 23 Shatzmiller, "Rationalisme," loco cit.; Ravitzky, "R. Samuel," p. 21. Schwartz, "On the Nature," pp. 72-73. 24 Saperstein, "The Conflict," pp. 27, 35, n. 2, notes Ben Adret's influence in Perpignan, Montpellier, Narbonne, Carcassonne, Marseilles, and Avignon. 25 MQ, 116, p. 823. 26 We refer to the area which was then called "Provence" by the Jews and whose borders extended from the Alps to the Pyrenees; this area included the county of Anjou in Provence (east of the Rh6ne) and the areas of Languedoc and Roussillon, which were divided between the Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of Majorca.

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and if the philosophers' ban reached Aries first, that would prove to be to their disadvantage. 27 He perhaps feared that Abba Mari's camp would be perceived as responsible for starting the chain of mutual bans, and consequently would lose support. Dels-Enfantz's letter reveals the existence of a communication network linking the communities of Provence, and between them, Barcelona, and the rest of Spain. His words further indicate an awareness of the strength and possibilities of propaganda, and the many factors involved; namely, speed, accurate reports, the climate of opinion, and the weight of spiritual authority. Means of Communication

1. The Letters The letter was the most commonly used means for information transmission. Letters were exchanged within each of the camps, and there was also no impediment to correspondence between the rival parties. In both cases, personal or close letters (intended for a single person) and circular or open letters (sent to a group of persons) have come down to US.28 This distinction, however, poses a certain difficulty, involving the nature of the sources. Most information on the debate is drawn from the compendium of letters, MinJ:!at Qena'ot, collected and edited by Abba Mari. To many of the more than 100 letters in this collection, Abba Mari appended what was then called the "signature." Penned on the outside of the folded paper, the "signature" was written in a flowery style and rhyme, and generally abounded with honorifics. The private correspondence of the philosophers was not preserved in MinJ:!at Qena'ot, most of which is devoted to letters from Abba Mari's camp; many of the latter's personal letters have also been preserved. From Montpellier, Abba Mari wrote dozens of personal letters to Ben Adret in Barcelona and received replies. In fact, the official beginning of the dispute stemmed from a personal letter Abba Mari sent to Ben Adret, which the former later referred to as the "letter of awakening. "29 The letter includes important subjects, such as the deteriorating situation in Provence with regard to the study of philosophy, allegorical preaching, astrological science, and a halakhic discussion on the custom of some doctors to heal kidney patients through a form of 27

28 29

MQ, 116, p. 824. MQ, 33, 34, 52, 55, 58, 59, 60, 61, vol. 1, pp. 385-95, 470, 502, 602-48. MQ, 19, vol. 1, pp. 270-75.

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magic. 30 Ben Adret answered in two separate letters.31 Dozens of personal letters were exchanged among the adherents of the anti-philosophical camp; some of these were written by a group of people (two or more) and sent to one person. Thus, four Barcelona dignitaries jointly answered32 the letter to them written by Abba Mari,33 The brothers Sheshet and Jacob b. Shaltiel b. Isaac of Barcelona addressed a personal letter to Abba Mari,34 Eight notables of Largentiere wrote to Ben Adret,35 who answered in an open letter to the community.36 Ten dignitaries of Lunel also wrote to Ben Adret, apparently on behalf of the entire community,37 and he replied in a circular letter. 38 Circular letters were addressed to the entire community or to a group of people within the community. Like personal letters, the open letters were sent both within the internal channels of each camp and from one camp to another. Abba Mari wrote a number of letters intended for the notables of Barcelona or for the entire community.39 Ben Adret and 14 other sages of Barcelona sent a letter to the community of Montpellier. 40 In another case, Ben Adret and another 25 dignitaries sent two letters to Montpellier, signed with the seal of the fideles (community leadership) of Barcelona; the letters included an explanation of the nature of the Barcelona ban and a judgment on the "Adrabba" ban.41 The philosophical camp in Montpellier also sent letters to the community of Barcelona,42 in response to which Abba Mari enlisted 25 dignitaries from Montpellier, whose signatures he sent to Barcelona. 43 Unlike personal letters, which were meant to be answered by their 30 J. Shatzmiller, "The 'Form of the Lion' for Kidneys and the Dispute on the Study of Sciences in the Early Fourteenth Century" [Hebrew], Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought, 9 (1990): 397-408. 31 MQ, 20-21, vol. I, pp. 275-310. 32 MQ, 50, pp. 466-68. The letter is written in the plural and signed by Ben Adret, Solomon Reuben b. Moses, Jacob b. Hisdai, and Jacob b. Shaltiel. 33 MQ, 44, pp. 441-44. . 34 MQ, 107, pp. 764-70. 3S MQ, 66, pp. 564-70. 36 MQ, 67, pp. 570-75. 37 MQ, 73, pp. 616-23. In that letter (p. 622), they refer to themselves as "the youngest members of the flock of Lunel. " 38 MQ, 74, pp. 623-32. 39 MQ, 45, pp. 444-48; 93, pp. 703-704; he sent his Book of the Moon to "six of the great men of Barcelona," MQ, p. 663. 40 MQ, 38, pp. 409-14. 41 MQ, 103-104, vol. I, pp. 740-51. 42 MQ, 43, pp. 431-40. 43 MQ, 42, pp. 426-31.

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individual addressee, the question of who exactly should answer a circular letter is at times problematic. This is illustrated in a letter from Ben Adret to Abba Mari. The latter asked Ben Adret why he had not answered his last letter, and Ben Adret responded that he should not wonder, because it had not been a personal letter addressed only to him: his name had appeared as one of a list of addressees. Since he had been busy, he assumed that others in Barcelona would answer.44 In general, a circular letter was addressed to the community; in several cases, however, it was necessary to forward the "open letter" through well-known personages. Thus, in a letter written by Ben Adret and Jacob b. I:Jisdai to the Montpellier community, one of the outside faces of the letter reads: "To the noble Children of Israel...the great princes in the famous city, which is the great city of Montpellier"; the other reads: "Let it be given to ... the bar oryan [scholar], the venerable scholar ...R. Abba Mari. "45 Ben Adret, who knew that the Montpellier community was divided into two camps, apparently feared that his letter would fall into the hands of the wrong camp, and therefore emphasized that it should be given to Abba Mari, who would pass the message on to the entire community. There were also several cases in which the addressee of a private letter was explicitly required to publish its contents. In a letter to Moses b. Samuel b. Asher of Perpignan, Abba Mari told his version of the way the dispute broke out and asked that it be published for the city notables. In this case, Abba Mari sought to use his personal letter to Moses b. Samuel to refute certain rumors that had been spread about him in Perpignan. The philosophers camp adopted similar methods, making use of "circular letters" to enlist public support. One Abba Mari letter to Ben Adret expressed fears that a letter sent by R. Solomon of Lunel, a member of the philosophical camp, would be made public among the Barcelona community at large. In Abba Mari's opinion, Solomon of Lunel had succeeded in persuading a large number of persons to sign his "open letter"; Abba Mari even went so far as to speculate that, as a doctor, Solomon had influenced many of his patients to add their signatures. 46 The publication of letters was a main propaganda means used by both camps. A letter could be sent to an entire congregation or, alternatively, to one supporter who would be asked to make it public. Abba Mari was aware of both these methods and used them alternatively. He gave explicit instructions as to which of the letters were to be published and which were MQ. 70, p. 669. MQ. 49, p. 461. 46 MQ. 87. p. 693.

44

45

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to be kept from the public. Thus he asked Ben Adret to conceal three letters that he had sent to Barcelona; on the other hand, he approved the publication of another letter: "And I beg you to hide the letters and not allow any person to copy them, except for the letter [which begins], 'Who has seen these people going out'. "47 The three letters whose publication he forbade were personal letters in which he had told various persons in Barcelona what was going on behind the scenes in Montpellier, where he had acted according to their instructions and made preparations for the publication of the ban.48 The letter whose publication he approved49 was a circular letter signed by 25 Montpellier dignitaries, and its content was in any event generally known. His statement here indicates that the publication of letters was generally accomplished by copying the original and disseminating the copies made. Abba Mari took this course of action several times. His letter to Kalonymus b. Todros, the Nasi (Prince) of Narbonne, attests to his considerations for avoiding publication: And write on the parchment scroll the two signed regulations ... And send them to the rabbi and his court, and he will endeavor to remove all vexations. And enlist the signatures of several congregations. And do this in secret, and let no man approach this letter or read. For that which is concealed is blessed indeed. For I know that if you but raise your right or even your left hand, both congregations will agree with you and do as you command; I speak of the great sages of Beziers and Narbonne, as you understand. 50

According to Ben Adret's original plan, the communities of Provence were to set regulations limiting the study of philosophy. He turned down the request of Abba Mari's camp in Provence to be first in launching the campaign and only promised them the support of 20 congregations from the Iberian peninsula. 51 This was the reason that Abba Mari asked Kalonymus b. Todros to copy the two regulations. Aware of the personal difficulties he would have in enlisting the overall support of Provence, Abba Mari knew the strength inherent in the authority of the Nasi of Narbonne, especially among the communities of Narbonne and Beziers. 52 Abba Mari's letter to the Nasi defined the regulations and their 47MQ, 45, p. 447. 48 MQ, 40, pp. 419-25; 44, pp. 441-44; 45, pp. 444-48. 49 MQ, 42, pp. 426-31. so MQ, 84, p. 684. 51 MQ, 82, pp. 679-80. 52 A. Grabois, "The Nesiim of Narbonne: On the Image and Nature of Jewish Leadership in Southern France in the Middle Ages" [Hebrew], Michael 12 (1991):43-66, especially pp. 64-65.

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scope; however, he did not want the entire community to know that. He therefore asked the Nasi to conceal the letter in order to give the impression that the Nasi himself had initiated and set forth the regulations. Confidentiality was apparently one of the rules that Abba Mari attempted to establish in the communication network between Barcelona and Montpellier. In many cases, letters from Barcelona were delivered by means of an intermediary in Perpignan, who stated in one of the letters to Barcelona that confidentiality was still being maintained and that he had not left copies in Montpellier. The propagandistic importance of letters is also reflected in their rhetorical technique. The authors devoted time and attention to diction, using an especially beloved literary fashion of long, flowery phrases in rhyme, inserting verses from the Bible and post-Biblical literature, and weaving allusions to their ideological intentions. Furthermore, as was the case with contemporary Lattin letters, "in their most part... [they] were quasi-public literary documents, written to be collected and publicized in the future, and intended to be read by more than one person. They were designed to be correct and elegant rather than original and spontaneous, and often followed the form and content of model letters in formularies. "53 On one occasion, when it was necessary to send a letter in haste from Narbonne to Montpellier, the Nasi Kalonymus b. Todros aPologized that he could not enlarge on the topic. He had received a letter from Ben Adret on the eve of Passover and, ten days later, forwarded Ben Adret's letter to Abba Mari along with a brief covering letter of his own, no more than six to eight lines long. 54 Along with the flowery rhymes, one prominent means of conveying an ideological message was the use of slogans. 55 One of these, based on Levy b. Abraham's book, referred to the statement that Sarah and Abraham were a metaphor for matter and form in Aristotelian philosophical thought. The Abba Mari-Ben Adret camp viewed this claim with great severity, and the topic became the emblem of their struggle against radical philosophy. The slogan, "From Abraham and Sarah, they made matter and form" [n"~' ,c,n n'~' On':lNC '~)I], recurs in dozens of letters. It was simple, catchy, designed to transmit to its readers the gravity of this preoccupation with philosophy and the urgent need to take measures against it. The characters of Abraham and Sarah, father and 53 Sophia Menache, The Vox Dei, Communication in the Middle ABes (New York, 1990), p. 16. 54 MQ, 83, pp. 681-82. 55 See Simhah Goldin '5 article in this collection.

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mother of the People of Israel, certainly generated more sentimental effect than did other biblical figures and events; their comparison to "mere" form and matter - a metaphor to which even some philosophers were opposed - was an effective tool for fomenting resistance. This is precisely the reason that that slogan-allegory is mentioned in so many letters, whereas other extreme metaphors, no less well known, are cited only a few times. 56 One should note that the designers of the Abraham-and-Sarah slogan sacrificed the logic of the philosophical metaphor for the sake of the rhyme; obviously, Sarah was the symbol of matter and Abraham of form,57 not the other way around as the rhyme would have it. The brevity and rhyme of the slogan seem to have constituted a sort of anemonic device, enabling readers to remember it. Moreover, the frequent repetition of the slogan was one of the renowned techniques of the ars memorativa,58 and Ben Adret went so far as to repeat this slogan three times in one of his letters.59 In the middle ages, when oral delivery was central to the activity of any traditional society including that of the Jews - such easily remembered slogans constituted an immediate, catchy message, having immense propagandistic effect. The awareness of the propaganda power of letters is also evident in the attempts made by Ben Adret, Abba Mari, and others to collect most of their own letters that had been disseminated throughout the dispute. Ben Adret asked Abba Mari to edit the circular and personal letters sent to him in Barcelona and from him to Provence. In the midst of the dispute, Ben Adret conceived the idea of disseminating his letters throughout the congregations of Spain to enlist support, but realized that he could not locate some of the correspondence.60 His student, Sasson b. Meir, who was a scribe, was put in charge of editing into one compendium all letters that arrived from Barcelona, which was expected to help Ben Adret to convince the local communities in the Kingdom of Navarre to subscribe to the ban.61 According to Ben Adret's own testimony, his expectation was 56 For a complete list of metaphors considered unworthy, see Simeon b. Joseph Duran, wHoshen Mishpat, W pp. 158-61. 57 This' illustrates Aristotle's concept of the superiority of form over matter; see Ben Adret's statement in MQ, 34, vol. I, p. 391: wSarah ... who is matter. W 58 This is one of the rules set forth by Thomas Aquinas, and it permeated Christian preaching in the early 1300's, as reflected in the Summa de exemplis et similitudine rerum by the Italian Dominican, Giovanni di San Giminiano; see F. A. Yates, The Arto/Memory (London, 1966), pp. 85-86. 59 MQ, 32, vol. I, pp. 374-85. 60 MQ, 85; p. 687. 61 In one example, Sasson b. Meir asked to received all the letters in Abba Mari's possession, as five letters had been stolen from him. MQ, 86, p. 689.

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successfully fulfilled. 62 Abba Mari's fervent haste in compiling the letters, his own as well as others', was reflected in his repeated requests for these writings. A partial result of this compilation was the book, MinlJ.at Qena'ot. Abba Mari had a personal scribe, who copied all the letters for him, arranged them in order, and was expected to send them to Ben Adret as a compendium.63 Still, compilation of all the material disseminated in Provence and Spain required great effort. On certain occasions, Abba Mari asked his correspondents to prepare copies of the letters that they had sent to him or to others, and this took a great deal of time.64 On those few occasions when he failed to obtain such copies, he had to suffice with reports of their contents.6S The compendium thus took a long time to reach Ben Adret, who in the meantime continued to send Abba Mari the letters that reached him in Barcelona, but did not hesitate to reprove the latter and to express dissatisfaction at the fact that the compendium had not yet arrived. 66 The compilation of the letters and their publication enabled the refutation of rumors when necessary. In the course of the debate, indeed, rumor had became a powerful manipulative tool. In one case, Abba Mari sought to disprove two rumors propagated by R. Solomon of Lunel, a member of the philosophical camp. According to one of these rumors, Abba Mari had written hateful things to Ben Adret about R. Solomon; another had it that Ben Adret had written an attack on the preacher and philosopher Jacob Anatoli, author of Malmad ha- Talmidim ("Goad for Students") and one of the more important authorities among the philosophers. 67 The compendium of letters could constitute conclusive evidence against such malicious rumors: however, as Abba Mari himself testifies, rumor was at times much more powerful than written testimonies. 6s Moses b. Samuel, one of Abba Mari's intermediaries in Perpignan, desired to obtain the lengthy correspondence between Ben Adret and Abba Mari to refute rumors against Abba Mari. Abba Mari sent him a letter of his own, but stated that he did not have the time to copy long letters because of the burden of his work in the grape harvest. Ibid. , p. 688. MQ, 87, p. 694: "And know, my lord, that I have already ordered a scribe to write down all the letters, and soon, with the help of the Almighty, I shall present them to you, arranged [by the dates] on which they reached me." 64 MQ, 88, p. 696. 6S MQ, 52, p. 470. 66 MQ, 98, pp. 721-22. 67 MQ, 87, p. 692. 68 MQ, loco cit .. 62 63

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He did, though, inform him of a resident of Perpignan who had a copy of the letter collection and would certainly copy them for Moses. 69 In another case, Ben Adret sent Abba Mari a letter from a resident of Provence who regretted having given his support to the philosophers and wrote Ben Adret in Barcelona to that effect. Ben Adret understood that Abba Mari would be able to use the letter of remorse as effective propaganda, and therefore hastened to forward it to him.7° We do not know whether Ben Adret received Min~at Qena'ot (or a similar collection) while the dispute was still going on. The book is of great value as a historical source, since the letters contain their original phrasing, with no changes. It is, however, obvious that MI.·n~at Qena'ot is not a neutral summary of the dispute, but a propagandistic means adopted by Abba Mari, who selectively chose the material for inclusion. Each letter was preceded by a small introduction, in which Abba Mari established the appropriate context. Some chapters review the development of the dispute as the author saw it. 71 Moreover, most of the letters in Min~at Qena'ot belong to Abba Mari's camp, and the intentional omission or censorship of letters by philosophers is at times quite evident. One censored letter is that written by Levy b. Abraham to Ben Adret. Abba Mari mentions its contents in one brief sentence, but cites Ben Adret's reply in full. 72 Although Abba Mari published many of his supporters' letters concerning the "Adrabba," he refrained from publishing the opinion of Menachem Ha-Me'iri: It is truth that, in the matter of the" Adrabba" judgment, we have

received responses from some sages of B&iers and some sages of Narbonne, and from the perfect sage R. Menachem b. Solomon of Perpignan, even though he took a road of his own, as is written in the pamphlet which was sent to me. In any event, it may be understood from what he said that, as we did not want and did not accept the ban of those opposed, he said that it is clear that there 69 MQ, 37, vol. 1, p. 408. This was Joseph b. Pinhas Halevi, apparently the son of the poet Pin~as b. Joseph Halevi, a resident of Perpignan and known also by his Latin name, Vitalis Profait. See Gross, Gallia Judaica, dictionnaire seographique de la France d'apres les sources rabbiniques (Amsterdam, 1969), pp. 460-61; R. W. Emery, The Jews of Perpignan in the Thirteenth Century: An Economic Study Based on Notarial Records (New York, 1959), p. 28, n. 3; Kaufman, 7Wo Letters, p. 215. 70 MQ, 68, pp. 575-76. An additional letter of remorse appears in the compendium: MQ, 60, pp. 524-37. 71 See e.g. MQ, 39, pp. 414-19. This review even contains testimony contradicting that written in a later letter. 72 MQ, 34, vol. 1, p. 390.

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is nothing to their ban. From now on. our "Adrabba" remains valid and binding. 73

Obviously, Abba Mari had good reason not to publish the statement of the important halakhic sage Menachem Ha-Me'iri, who supported the philosophers; he even noted that Ha-Me'iri's opinion differed from all the other rulings published in the compendium. Indeed, Ha - Me'iri expressed support of the educational values and practices of the philosophers,?4 and also stated that Abba Mari should not have declared the n Adrabba" ban,15 In Min~at Qena'ot, Abba Mari censored this statement, merely commenting that Ha-Me'iri "took a road of his own." On the other hand, he made selective use of those passages in which Ha-Me'iri's views were in line with his own opinion. Since Abba Mari was certainly aware that skilled readers would not fail to notice his censure of the philosophers' opinions, he sought to elucidate his method: The sage R. Samuel Sulami sent us a long and distinguished letter. We have not copied it in this book. because we intend to include it in another treatise with all the letters and pamphlets which have reached us from the great sages of the country. from Perpignan to Marseilles. so as to be a sign and a wonder and a testimony for everyone in the world. showing that the thoughts of those who oppose us are twisted and all their reason has escaped them .... And when the time is ripe. as shall be appointed by the Creator. we shall endeavor to compose it all so that the matter will be recorded truly and written in a book. But now in this treatise. we shall mention only a bit of the language used in this long and distinguished letter, which the sage R. Samuel Sulami sent here to the two communities. And this is a copy of some of the language. 76

Little wonder that Abba Mari's intention at some future time to publish the letters of the philosophers along with the replies to them not included in MinIJ.at Qena'ot was never carried out. Letters also served as banning certificates or weapons of imprecation and, as such, were used by both camps. Having heard the philosophical theories propounded by Levy b. Abraham b. l;Iayyim, Ben Adret decided to curse him; accordingly, he wrote to Don Crescas Vidal: May his name and memory be erased ... may he attain disgrace. May the worms of the grave devour his face. And may he be 73 MQ. 113. p. 804. 74 Fragments of the letter (or perhaps the entire text?) were copied in a reply sent to him by Simeon b. Joseph Duran. "Hoshen Mishpat." pp. 142-74. 75 Ibid • • pp. 171-72. . 76MQ. 117. pp. 824-25.

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dragged by young rams. dragged and thrown away to rot. but not to rest in peace. Only to lie in a dunghill and be broken piece by piece. 11

Members of Levy b. Abraham's family, who feared for his life ("because the curse of a sage, even if it be a vain one, comes to pass"), pleaded with Abba Mari, asking him to appeal to Ben Adret to cancel the curse. As they saw it, Levy b. Abraham had never intended to harm the Torah, and the source of his extreme philosophical theories stemmed from error. They promised that he would not confuse philosophy and Torah again. Abba Mari acceded to their plea; and remarking that Levy b. Abraham was extremely remorseful and was even afflicting himself by fasting,?8 asked Ben Adret to transform the curse into a blessing. Ben Adret agreed, and, in a reply did so: May our God be praised. for His arms are open to receive the repentant .... For he has repented of the evil. and has realized that he was in error. And he was afraid of my curse ... and wants me to transform the curse into a blessing ... and if he has indeed realized that my blessing will help him. if I turn my curse into a blessing. then I say. 'May God on High bless him· .... Let him erase what he wrote in his book ... and his blessing will be soon to come. 19

Neither the letter bearing the curse nor that containing its subsequent removal were sent directly by Ben Adret to Levy b. Abraham, although the two did correspond.80 Levy was cursed in a letter from Ben Adret to Don Crescas Vidal, and was blessed (conditionally, provided that he absolutely repent and censor his book) in a letter to Abba Mari. In both cases, Levy was informed of the matter. The power of the curse or of the blessing was not necessarily related to whether the party being cursed or blessed was aware of it but, rather, to the act of writing and sending it. The rich letter exchange in the camp of Abba Mari and Ben Adret also indicated their awareness of the importance of speed in message transmission. After Samuel Sulami had sent Levy b. Abraham away from his house, one of Ben Adret's students in Narbonne hastily sent a letter to Ben Adret urging him to quickly send condolences to Sulami on the death of his daughter and to express encouragement of Sulami's having done the right thing. The student sent the letter to Barcelona with a messenger, MQ. MQ. 19 MQ. 80 MQ. 71

18

32. 44. 51. 34.

vol. 1, p. 381. p. 443; 51. pp. 468-69. p. 469. vol. 1. pp. 390-95.

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who was ordered to stand before Ben Adret and wait for his response. 51 When the philosophers camp in Montpellier tried to enlist the signatures of notables opposing Ben Adret, they intended to send this letter to the community of Barcelona. Rumor that such a letter was being organized reached Abba Mari in Montpellier. He consulted with his colleagues, who advised him to hurry and send off a letter of his own to Barcelona giving a detailed explanation of why the plan to ban the study of philosophy in Montpellier did not come to fruition. The need for haste in the letter of response was stressed, so as not to leave the field open to rival propaganda. Abba Mari took their advice and succeeded in convincing 25 notables to sign his letter. He even boasted of his speedy action, because of which he succeeded in getting the letter to Barcelona before the philosophers' letter,52 which arrived eight days later." Meanwhile, Abba Mari learned that the philosophers had obtained more signatures than he had. As he had already written to Barcelona that the number of his supporters was greater, he quickly sent another letter describing the improper methods used by the philosophers in recruiting signatures. Speed. in this case, was of supreme importance, as the arrival of the philosophers' letter. with its many signatures. could have portrayed him as a liar. This second letter succeeded in reaching Barcelona simultaneously with the philosophers' letter.54 Simeon b. Joseph Duran, too.as urged Ben Adret to send speedy response to Montpellier to deny the malicious propaganda of the philosophers, who exploited Christian authority.86 The speed of letter exchange. then, constituted a great advantage in the formation of public opinion. and Abba Mari's camp was especially aware of this fact. Naturally, that speed depended on the communication network between Montpellier and Barcelona, which included messengers and intermediaries of various kinds. Following the reciprocal ban in 51 MQ, 35, vol. I, pp. 395-99.

MQ, 41, p. 425. "MQ, 43, p. 431. 84 MQ, 45, pp. 444-48; 46, p. 448. as D. Kaufmann, "Simeon b. Josefs an Menachem b. Salomo. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte, Exegese und Predigt im Mittelalter," in Glorious Old ABe (nonHebrew section), pp. 143-51. 86 He expressly noted: "Let my lord make haste, let him hasten his deeds. Copy of a letter sent by Don Duran [Simeon b. Joseph Duran) of Lunel to the Great Rabbi, the Light of the Dlaspora, R. Solomon Ben Adret of blessed memory on the aforementioned matter" [Hebrew) (hereafter: Duran, Letter), in: D. Kaufmann, "Deux lett res de Simeon b. Joseph (En Duran de Lune!)," REJ, 29 (1894): 223. 82

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Montpellier, Abba Mari sent a letter to Barcelona that described the events and requested that a judgment be issued with regard to the validity of the "Adrabba" ban. The letter was sent by means of a messenger who was asked to bring the reply back to Montpellier immediately. The messenger's trip back and forth took 36 days. Given the distance and the nature of the mission this was a rather long trip, and Abba Mari considered it to have been an unnecessary delay.87 To overcome the time-distance problem, various means were adopted. Thus Ben Adret urged the Nasi of Narbonne and Abba Mari to make haste to impose a ban on the communities of Provence according to the accepted formula of Barcelona. Ben Adret was impatient, asking the Nasi to report to him as soon as possible on what had been done: "And do not refrain from writing to me by an early messenger. And write and write again, so that the messenger does not fail [lit. 'does not commit a crime'], and if one fails, the other will still remain. "88 Ben Adret was preoccupied with the possibility that the messenger might betray him and go over to the other side, thus preventing him from receiving the information. He advised the Nasi to send several copies by means of several messengers - a practice customary in the middle ages among non-Jews, as well - given the dangers of the road, as well. Abba Mari, for his part, made repeated inquiries whether the letters he sent actually reached Barcelona.89 The fear of problems of this sort became especially great when a reply was late, or no letters were received. When R. Jacob b. Judah of Beaucaire, who volunteered to serve as Ben Adret's emissary in Provence, did not receive a reply for a long time, he sent a special messenger to Abba Mari in Montpellier, who quickly sent a letter to Ben Adret to ascertain the reason for the delay.90 R. Mordechai b. Isaac of Carpentras employed a special messenger to Montpellier to determine whether the judgment he had sent Abba Mari with regard to the "Adrabba" ban had indeed reached its destination. 91 The distances between communities for messengers on foot were rather short; the road from Carpentras to Montpellier could be walked in two days. 87 MQ. 102, p. 739. On the speed of medieval travel. see the Introduction to this book. IS MQ, 91. p. 700. 89 MQ. 45, p. 447: "And let me know whether these letters have reached you"; 79, p. 664: "And let me know. my lord, if the letters which I sent by the distinguished letter-carrier, R. Samuel Galil. have reached you. " 90 MQ, 80, pp. 666-67. 91 MQ, U8, p. 830.

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Nevertheless, the short distance did not calm fears that the letter might be lost, because of one mishap or another. The Ben Adret-Abba Mari camp actually included two main centers of comm1Dlication: Montpellier and Barcelona; on the way were intermediary comm1Dlities, such as Narbonne and Perpignan. This was the main road from Provence to Catalonia, along which were the most important centers of Jewish learning in Provence.92 Thus, Ben Adret received letters from the communities of Avignon, Lunel, and Largenti~e,93 and Abba Mari received letters directly from Carpentras, Capestang, and BEziers. 94 In the camp of the philosophers, as well, there were two main centers: Montpellier and Perpignan; these were joined by a central channel that led to Barcelona and also was fed by secondary arteries. The philosophers, at least as far as letters were concerned, almost entirely ignored Abba Mari.95 This "oversight" may have been caused by Abba Mari's geographical proximity to the heads of the philosophical movement in Provence, which may have led them to prefer verbal communication; or, perhaps it was an integral part of their propaganda tactics - to concentrate on Barcelona. The philosophers believed that they would be able to cope successfully with Abba Mari in Provence and that they had to stop Ben Adret from intervening in their internal affairs. 2. The Messengers

Throughout the dispute, correspondence was conveyed either by travelers, who were asked to take letters on their way, or by special messengers, whether on a paid or volunteer basis. The first method was used, for 92 This was the road taken by Benjamin of Tudela in his journey in about 1166. See The Book 0/ Travels o/the lAte R. Benjamin Accordins to Manuscripts with Comments and Index, ed. Marcus Nathan Adler (New York, 1927), pp. 2-5. Perpignan is not mentioned, as its importance was still minor; it is not clear whether it already housed a Jewish community at that time. See Emery, p. II. This was also the same road traveled during the dispute by Kalonymus son of Kalonymus, who set out from Aries in order to study in Barcelona (apparently under'Ben Adret and his colleagues). On his way, he spent time in the Torah centers of Montpellier, B~ziers, Narbonne, and Perpignan; see J. Shatzmiller, "Minor Epistle," pp. 10-11, 39-42. 93 MQ, 63-64, pp. 551-59; 66, pp. 564-70; 73, pp. 616-23. 94 MQ, 111-12, pp. 786-803; 113-14, pp. 804-14. 95 We know that one letter - from Samuel Sulami - did reach him in Montpellier; another copy of the letter was sent to the philosophers in Montpellier. MQ, 117, p. 825. An additional letter, with regard to the validity of the "Adrabba" ban, was sent by Menachem Ha-Me'iri. MQ, 113, p. 804; Simeon b. Joseph Duran, "/foshen Mishpat". Neither Sulami nor Ha-Me'iri, was

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example, to send the three bans from Barcelona to Montpellier. Ben Adret sent them, along with a personal letter to Abba Mari, with a merchant who was traveling to Montpellier on business. 96 The letters written by the philosophers were carried from Montpellier to Perpignan by Isaac de Lattes and other notables, who were going to Perpignan to attend the wedding of a local dignitary.97 When R. Samuel Galil went to Montpellier from Barcelona on a personal matter, Ben Adret used the opportunity to send a letter to Abba Mari and to the community of Largentiere. It may have been as a favor to R. Samuel Galil, in exchange for his willingness to carry the letters, that Ben Adret asked Abba Mari to look after the messenger and instruct him how best to handle his affairs in Montpellier. 98 When R. Samuel Galil returned to Barcelona, Abba Mari gave him letters for Ben Adeet and other dignitaries. 99 Abba Mari also sent one of his letters by means of an anonymous Jew who was traveling to Barcelona to raise money for his daughter's wedding. Here, too, it is reasonable to assume that the man's recompense for his services was embodied in the long-winded praises and recommendations that Abba Mari wrote about him. Ben Adret was asked to give the man a good welcome and to present him to the rich men of the community so that he might receive their support. 100 Messengers were often asked to add verbal details to the written message, a fact that required them to be reliable persons, who actually acted as the proxies of those who sent them. lOI Although the sources at our disposal refer mainly to the messengers of Abba Mari and Ben Adret, evidence exists of special messengers employed by the philosophers. We know, for example, of one messenger who went from one community to another carrying a copy of the philosophers' ban; one letter mentions that the messenger had reached the community of Carpentras, another that he a finn member of the philosophical camp, and attempts at mediation may be seen in their letters. !16 MQ, 98, p. 720. 97 Simeon b. Joseph Duran, "Hoshen Mishpat," p. 152. 98 MQ, 60, p. 569: "And this distinguished man, the carrier of my letters, is named R. Samuel GaHil1 .... Please have the kindness to keep him close to you and to instruct him in his affairs there. " !J9 MQ, 78, p. 663. 100 MQ, 88, pp. 663-665. 101 MQ, 30, vol. 1, p. 365. Crescas Vidal sent to Montpellier the results of an investigation that he had conducted in Provence by means of a messenger carrying a verbal message. Ben Adret, on the other hand, received these results from him in a letter.

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had not yet reached Arles. l02 The mission of such messengers, whose names are not mentioned in the sources, was not limited to the mere conveyance of the written ban, but to engage in intensive propagandistic activity, apparently including public preaching. One letter announces that the philosophers' messenger reached Barcelona, where he caused serious damage to Ben Adret's camp.103 Some special messengers did their job for pay and restricted themselves to delivering letters, with no personal involvement in either the debate or community politics. One such messenger was employed by Ben Adret's disciple, who lived in Narbonne. The paid messenger was told to wait in Barcelona for Ben Adret's reply and to take it back to Narbonne. Ben Adret, who was aware of how much money the messenger was being paid for each day's waiting, responded hastily, but noted that because of his haste, he could not write at length and expected to send additional Responsa by means of a passing traveler. l04 At the beginning of the dispute, one of Abba Mari's messengers gave Ben Adret and the notables of Barcelona a letter and waited there for a written reply and further instructions. lOS After receiving a letter from R. Mordechai b. Isaac of Carpentras, Abba Mari was urged by the messenger to write his response at once; accordingly, he noted that he had to keep his letter brief. 106 In cases involving the use of special messengers, they were expected to wait for a reply and return it to the sender; the replies were written briefly, so as not to waste time and money. Longer responses were prepared in advance and sent by travelers. One of Ben Adret's personal messengers was R. Mordechai, a notable of the community of Barcelona. At the very beginning of the debate, he was sent to Montpellier to transmit a letter from Ben Adret and 16 other Barcelona notables. The letter exhorted the community of Montpellier to ban anyone under the age of 30 who studied philosophy. 107 R. 102 Abraham b. Isaac of Carpentras wrote to Abba Mari, MQ, 112, p. 800: RFor I was disturbed to see the text of their letter, brought by their messenger ... and they have banned anyone who would prevent his son from studying metaphysics from the books written by all the nations R; Cf. Judah b. Solomon Dels-Enfantz of Aries' letter, MQ, 116, p. 823. 103 This is mentioned in a letter sent by Moses Halev!, one of the notables of the Barcelona community, to Abba Mar!; see MQ, 106, pp. 761-62. 104 MQ, 35, pp. 395-96. lOS MQ, 45, p. 447: RAnd the messenger is here, before you he does stand/And will do as you command. R 106 MQ, 118, pp. 830-32. I07MQ, 39, pp. 409-14.

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Mordechai's mission is indicative of the functions fulfilled by a personal messenger. Along with the written message, he carried a verbal message; he was also expected to consider the best means of the letter's publication and to pay attention to the way in which it was received: When the letter came, that notable [R. Mordechail who carried the letter brought it to me [Abba Mari 1 and to the distinguished noble R. Todros of Beaucaire. For he [Ben Adretl ordered that it be brought to us when we were alone together, and that we should open the letter and read it before bringing it to the entire congregation. And if we thought that the message in the book would be acceptable to the distinguished members of our congregation, we should disclose the book to them, and if not, we should conceal it, and its words would be as the words of a sealed book .... And we said that we would keep the book concealed for a month or two, until we could study and investigate it well, until we knew how the individuals would accept it .... And we set an appointed date, on a Sabbath in the month of Elul in the year 64 by the abbreviated era [1304], to convene the notables of the city in the synagogue and read the letter to them,l°s

R. Mordechai's mission indicates the extreme care practiced by Ben Adret in the initial stages of the dispute. He did not wish his proposal to fall on deaf ears, nor did he wish to be perceived as a meddler in the internal affairs of the Montpellier community. Accordingly, the messenger had to ensure that the "open letter," which was theoretically addressed to the entire community, would first reach Abba Mari and R. Todros of Beaucaire so that they could read it alone before making it public. This messenger, then. took an active role in Ben Adret's initiative. Abba Mari and Todros of Beaucaire informed him of prevailing opinion in Montpellier, the results of the referendum, the manner in which the community meeting had proceeded. and its outcome. 109 One should further note that Abba Mari and Todros of Beaucaire were very sensitive to the ethics of their opening a letter addressed to the entire community; although from a halakhic standpoint the verbal message carried by the messenger was tantamount to permission to open the letter, the two refused to open it themselves, and the messenger eventually opened it for them,u° Obviously, then, an "open letter" addressed to the community had to been opened in public, and the individual who received the letter MQ. 39, pp. 414-15. MQ. 44. p. 441. 45, p. 445. 110 MQ. 39, p. 415. 108 109

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was forbidden to open it beforehand. l11 Another personal messenger employed by Ben Adret was Sasson b. Meir, who was in charge of propaganda in the communities of Spain, primarily Navarre, where he was able to use personal and family connections. In his letter to Abba Mari, Sasson told of the missions he had fulfilled for Ben Adret in different locations: And as our Rabbi - May the Merciful protect him! - had raised me like a father from the day on which I came to that country and studied with him, he told me that I should be the 'messenger of a good deed' in this matter, as I had been the 'messenger of a good deed' when I went to Castile and Navarre and the rest of the communities In the matter of the distinguished R. David the Nagid, the grandson of the Great Eagle, our late master R. Moses, and I assembled for him, along with the letter of our master, some five thousand tournois of sliver. 112

Sasson b. Meir had left Tudela for Barcelona when he was but a young boy and studied under Ben Adret. It was apparently the great closeness between the two that led Ben Adret to trust him and to assign him important missions. As stated, the high degree to which personal messengers were trusted was an important component of the concept of messengers and missions; unfortunately, messengers could not always be trusted in total confidence. ll3 In this particular case, however, Sasson b. Meir's personal connections, his previous experience, and the trust given to him by Ben Adret make him the central messenger involved in enlisting support for Ben Adret's camp among the communities of the Iberian Peninsula. Sasson b. Meir was not an ordinary messenger whose role was limited to the transfer of letters and information; he was a chief propagandist, who, besides delivering the compendium of letters maintained by Ben Adret, acted upon his own discretion and initiative to obtain maximum support. As part of the propaganda campaign he developed in Navarre, he 111 This was obviously affected by the eleventh-century ordinance of R. Gershom, "Not to read a letter which a man sends to his fellow except with his knowledge and permission"; see Louis Finkelstein, Jewish Self-Government in the Middle Ages (New York, 1964), p. 189. 112 MQ, 86, pp. 688-89. 113 Sasson b. Meir compared his present mission to one which Ben Adret had entrusted him some 20 years earlier, during the controversy that R. Solomon Petit of Acre had raised over Maimonides' Guide to the Perplexed. With a letter of recommendation from Ben Adret, Sasson b. Meir then was sent to the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula to raise money. See MQ, 52, p. 480; Dinur, Israel In the Diaspora, vol. 2, part 4, p. 272, n. 51.

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reported about Abba Mari's activity in Provence, extolling the latter's reputation and wisdom,114 Propaganda, then, included written texts and verbal messages. Another part of Sasson's activity involved his correspondence with Abba Mari without the mediation of Ben Adret. In one case, he wrote Abba Mari that he was waiting for a reply from him before setting out on a campaign to enlist signatures. Following the support that he had gained during his previous trip to Navarre, he asked Abba Mari if he should mobilize some SO communities, or perhaps a larger number, in support of the ban. He inquired whether Abba Mari required anything else of the communities in Spain, and noted that after he had obtained the signatures from those communities, he would himself bring the letters and signatures to Montpellier. 1lS In his reply, Abba Mari extolled Sasson b. Meir in long, flowery phrases and wished him success on his mission. Between the lines, however, he bewailed his bitter fate and lack of success in Provence, pointing out the messenger's good fortune in recruiting so many communities from the Iberian Peninsula. Abba Mari was not involved in planning the course of Sasson's journey, but he did ask him to conclude it in Toledo, at the school of R. Asher b. Yepiel (the Rosh) of Castile, who unhesitatingly supported Abba Mari's struggle. The approval of the Rosh, in Abba Marl's opinion, would constitute a suitable final chord,116 Moreover, keeping in mind his own difficult experience in Provence, he asked Sasson to exercise caution in his mission and "be their eyes" - that is, to inform of any development relating to the debate. Or put less delicately, to serve him as a spy. One of the key messengers in Provence was Jacob b. Judah of Beaucaire, who after the death of his brother, Don Todros of Beaucaire, volunteered to serve as the messenger of Ben Adret and Abba MarL He had been recruited by Abba Mari, who showed him the text of Ben Adret's letter and convinced him to work for them as his brother would have wanted to do. 117 Jacob sheds light on technical details related to his mission to Provence in a letter to Ben Adret. He describes the route, the boundaries of the debate in Provence, the time required to go from one place to the next, and his propaganda methods: 114

1lS

MQ, 86, p. 689.

Ibid., loc. cit.

MQ, 88 pp. 694-96. 117 MQ, 72, pp. 612-13. Don Todros of Beaucaire was Abba Mari's man in Montpellier, and had been involved in the debate since its very beginning. 116

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And I am strong as a leopard, and fleet as an eagle, and brave as a lion, ready to rally to you, to enlist the signatures of all those for whom I have strength, in support of your opinion, that anyone who has not completed 30 years should be prevented from studying philosophy, and whatever other things you agree upon. When your word reaches me, I shall travel throughout every place In Provence in which there are ten Jews, and first the city of water, called Alx, for there the most prestigious and distinguished holy sages dwelt in former times and even today they dwell there, and there is a great, established sage there, our lord and master, R. Abraham of Aix, and I know he has written to you, or so I have heard; and I shall be of assistance to him ..•. Anyone who does not have to speak to anyone can walk around Provence in five days; but if I have to discuss things in the various places, I will wait until I have accomplished what I set out to do, without fear. And once you have left Provence, on this side, there are no more Jewish settlements until Rome. And, as decreed by the Creator, I shall come back to Avignon, where there are sages of the Mishnah, and I shall go from there to Venaissan; that distance can be walked even by an itinerant in two days. And from there I shall go to Largenti~re, whose name means "silver town," and Montelimart is a day's journey away. And from there to the borders of France; they will not need a warning; they are already prudent there. And from there I shall come back by Tarascon, and I shall go to the mountain IMontpellier) and to two or three places in the middle where there are ten Jews. I shall speak to them; I shall do what I have the strength to do, as decreed by the Lord, and I shall fulfill your desires, 0 sages of the hearCll8

The characteristics of the missions undertaken by Jacob in Provence were similar to those of Sasson b. Meir in Spain. Both men were educated, belonging to the upper class of Jewish society;119 they enjoyed personal connections (respectively with Abba Mari or Ben Adret) and devoted much personal energy to the success of their mission. Their motives had nothing to do with any fringe benefit but, rather, revolved around a high level of personal motivation and full recognition that the cause of the struggle was just. These men composed the intermediate stratum in the camp of Ben Adret and Abba Mari. They coordinated the communication network of their respective cities, Montpellier and Barcelona, both within the local district and across the border. Along with messengers appointed 118 MQ, 72, pp. 614-15.

11!1 Jacob b. JUdah's brother had the title "Don," which automatically locates him in the upper class of Jewish society. Sasson b. Meir was a pupil of Ben Adret in Barcelona and one of his intimates, meaning that he, too, belonged to a higher stratum of Jewish society.

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ad hoc, Ben Adret and Abba Mari also required leading propagandists, whose mission was to obtain as many signatures as possible from the Jewish communities in an area. Still, the concentration of the propaganda campaign in the hands of one messenger was of extreme importance; thus Sasson b. Meir's statements with regard to enlisting the communities of Navarre and the impression made by the compendium. To prepare such a compendium, required vast effort. Until the end of the debate, there were repeated complaints to the effect that Abba Mari and Sasson b. Meir did not complete the volume. It was impossible to provide large numbers of messengers with a complete compendium, an additional factor for the preference of the single messenger. This was also a matter of supreme importance at the signature-collecting stage, the first names he managed to recruit certainly serving as an incentive for other communities. Jacob b. Judah's mission in 1304 encompassed most of the Jewish communities in Provence and the Comtat Venaissin. 120 His aim was to pass through every place where there was a quorum of Jews (ten men), while assuming that five days was the total length of time it would take to cover the communities of Provence; this journey took longer, as he had to stay in several communities to convince their members to sign the letter of agreement. He seems to have intended to arrive at each new place as quickly as possible, but to remain as long as necessary. When Jacob b. Judah mapped out the course of his journey, he was staying in Trinquetaille, near Aries. From there, he wanted first to go to Aix, apparently because of the extent of support that would be given there, including that of the local sage, R. Abraham.121 Jacob does not list all the Jewish communities in Provence, and his report cannot constitute a basis for deduction as to the small number of places on his itinerary.122 Dozens of contemporary communities in Provence are not even mentioned in the MinlJ.at Qrma'ot.123 He expressly notes that he intends to walk as far as the eastern end of Provence,124 afterwards to return to Avignon and from 120

MQ, 72, p. 616.

121 R. Abraham of Aix expressed his support of Ben Adret in a letter that he

sent to him; see J. Shatzmiller, "Minor Epistle," p. 17. 122 This was the conclusion drawn, e.g., by Dinur, Israel in the Diaspora, vol. 2. part 2, p. 181, n. 113. 123 See B. Blumenkranz, "Pour une geographie historique des Juifs en Provence m&liEvale," Bulletin philoiogique et historique (jusqu''A 1610) (Paris, 1968), pp. 611-22; D. lancu-Agou, "Topographie des quartiers juifs en Provence m&liEvale," REI 133 (1974): 11-156; Shatzmiller, "Between Abba MarL" pp. 132-33. 124 He seems not to have intended to go any farther east than Aix, whereas, according to several of the flowery phrases in Min~at Qena'ot, the eastern limit

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there to Comtat Venaissin, in a two days' journey. From Comtat Venaissin, he intended to proceed to the northern boundary of Provence, to the communities of Largenti~re and Montelimart, a day's journey. North of that point lay the Kingdom of France, which he felt was not necessary to visit, as the Jews of France were not "tainted" with the defective values of philosophical thought and so required no reproof. From the northern border, at the edge of France, he intended to go south (apparently along the Rh8ne) to the city of Tarascon, which was slightly to the north of Aries. From there he could only go west, passing through Nimes, Posquiues, and Lunel and concluding his trip in Montpellier. Given his figure of five days of constant walking, we may assume that the way from the border of France to Tarascon was a one day's journey, and another day's walking would have taken him from Tarascon to Montpellier. It should be noted that Benjamin of Tudela walked from Barcelona to Narbonne in four and a half days.12s Jacob b. Judas's actions may indicate how he meant to act during his propaganda campaign. At the time, he lived in the fortress of Trinquetaille, opposite ArIes, on the other side of the Rhone. 126 He used to cross the river on the ArIes bridge each day in order to enlist the support of the ArIes community. He would go from house to house, operating by means of personal persuasion,127 which he seems to have liked better than public exhortation; the latter was the system used by Abba Mari in Montpellier and proposed by the Rosh in Toledo. Jacob also took it upon himself to sound out the prevailing moods in the communities, which he apparently did mostly by listening to sermons preached there. As he put it, the preachers tended to include "wrong things" - i.e., extreme philosophical allegory - in their sermons. Jacob b. Judah did not intend to go any farther west than Montpellier, thus missing the important communities of B~iers, Narbonne, and of the controversy seems to have been Marseilles. See, e.g., MQ, 30, p. 367; Simeon b. Joseph Duran, "Hoshen Mishpat," p. 151; Aix is actually a little east of Marseilles; there were· also Jewish settlements located east of Aix and Marseilles. 125 See Benjamin of Tudela, pp. 2-3. 126 MQ, 72, p. 615. On the relationship between the communities of Trinquetaille and ArIes, see R. Ben-Shalom, "The Jewish Community in ArIes and its Institutions - Ben- Sheshet's Responsum 266 as a Historical Source" [Hebrew), Michael 12 (1991): 10-11, n. 9. 127 MQ, 82, pp. 615- 16: "And I am there day and night, on weekdays and on the Sabbath, on holidays and ordinary days of the month; I go about there as a man would go from house to house and from corner to corner, or from neighborhood to neighborhood. "

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Perpignan. It may be assumed that there were other messengers and propagandists active in the Languedoc region who traveled between Abba Marl (Montpellier) and Ben Adret (Barcelona) or exploited political connections in their birthplaces. Abba Marl noted several times that letters had reached him from Perpignan. 128 One of the activists there was Moses b. Samuel, a sage of the community (apparently a student of Menachem Ha-Me'iri) and one of its richer residents. 129 Moses b. Samuel himself initiated several moves, such as a failed attempt to make peace between Abba Mari and Solomon of Lunel, the refutation of the libels spread through Perpignan against Abba Mari,130 and negotiations with the Barcelona community. Moses b. Samuel did not send letters directly to Ben Adret. In order to reach him, Moses took advantage of his personal connections with Don Perfet Gracian of Barcelona, whose sons lived in Perpignan, and asked him to speak with Ben Adret on his behalf. 131 On one occasion, Perfet Gracian visited Perpignan at a time when many rumors and slanders about Abba Mari were circulating in the city. Moses b. Samuel hastened to welcome Perfet Gracian, apparently so that he could speak with him undisturbed before the latter could hear the opinion of the opposing camp. He gave Perfet Gracian his own, favorable version with regard to Abba Mari and asked him to convey the information to Ben Adret; however, as Perfet Gracian would be staying in Perpignan for some time, he waited for the expected arrival of another distinguished Jew from Barcelona, whom he introduced to Moses b. Samuel. This other Jew carried the message to Ben Adret and noted Gracian's indirect support. 132 Many of the letters sent by the Barcelona community to Provence, especially to Montpellier, passed through the hands of Moses b. Samuel. He transferred them to the sages of Montpellier - the supporters of Ben Adret and Abba Mari - while taking pains to leave copies. 133 Again and again, Moses b. Samuel refrained from sending his letters directly to Ben Adret, preferring to reach him through the intercession of Perfet Gracian. Was there any impediment to writing to him? Did the code of etiquette in Jewish society not allow everyone to write to the most important halakhic See, for example, MQ, 36, vol. 1. p. 399. Gallia, p. 466; Emery, The Jews oJ Perpignan, p. 28, nos. 2, 30,35. 104. 130 MQ, 36. vol. 1. p. 404: "And send me what you sent the Rabbi [Ben Adretl and what he replied to you, that my words may be confirmed. " 131 MQ, 55-57, pp. 492-501. 132 MQ, 57, pp. 504-505. 133MQ, 57, p. 499. 128

129 See Gross,

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authority of the age? The answer to this is unclear: however, Ben Adret had his own people in Perpignan, and was constantly updated on local events by means of another channel, managed, inter alia, by Don Crescas Vidal. 134 The intensive activities practiced by Moses b. Samuel and Don Crescas Vidal indicate the importance of Perpignan as a political arena in the struggle between the camps and as a main communication center along the MontpeIlier-Barcelona axis. Both sides had adherents in the community, and both sides attempted to win public opinion by sending out messengers on their behalf. Perpignan thus enjoyed a constant inflow of information on the course of events and provided fertile soil for propaganda. The Narbonne community also functioned as an important communication center, managed by its Nasi., Kalonymus b. Todros. He also corresponded directly with Ben Adret and Abba Mari and reported to both of them on various developments. 13s Kalonymus used his own personal messenger, to whom he referred as "my boy. "136 No wonder, therefore, that Jacob b. Judah preferred to limit his trip to the area east of Montpellier. Ben Adret's regulation was apparently well known in Perpignan and Narbonne and so decided to devote most of his time to the area east of the Rhone, to which messages were slow to arrive. 3. Investigation. Espionage. and Ascertaining the Qimate of Opinion As described above, Abba Mari asked Sasson b. Meir to "be his eyes":

i.e., to keep his eyes and ears open, observe what was happening, and report to Ben Adret on developments. This type of "espionage" was ~pparentIy not unusual. The rabbis of Northern France. for example. had sent emissaries to Provence in the 1230's, during the first dispute over Maimonides' writings, "to spy out the land and to know... the truth. "137 It is difficult to know how Sasson b. Meir operated, but several facts can be learned from Don Crescas Vidal's mission. When the first letters began to reach Barcelona about Levy b. Abraham, MQ, 28-33, pp. 359-85. MQ, 82-84, pp. 677-85: "Afterward, the exalted Nasi of Narbonne, the root of Jesse, awoke and sent a letter to the Rabbi [Ben Adretl .... When the Rabbi's response reached the great Nasi of Narbonne, he sent me a letter informing me of what the Rabbi had answered him .... 1 sent an answer to the exalted Nasi of Narbonne. " 136 MQ, 83, p. 681. 137 From a letter sent by Solomon b. Abraham of Montpellier, in J. Shatzmiller, "Towards a Picture of the First Maimonidean Controversy" [Hebrew], Zion 34 (1969): 127. 134

135

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the author of Uvyat /fen, and the extreme allegory used in the sermons of the philosopher-preachers of Provence, Ben Adret did not content himself with Abba Mari's descriptions of the situation and the other rumors that had reached him. He and Don Bonfos Vidal approached the latter's brother, Don Crescas Vidal, a former resident of Barcelona who now lived in Perpignan,138 to ask him to verify the information. 139 Crescas Vidal left Perpignan for Narbonne to ascertain the nature of Levy b. Abraham and Samuel Sulami, the rich, distinguished Jew in whose house Levy lived. Don Crescas' investigation included other communities in Provence, from Marseilles in the east to Perpignan in the west; 140 indeed, we know from additional sources that he traveled eastward as far as Narbonne, and that he reported on things that he had heard in Montpellier. Don Crescas Vidal described in detail to Ben Adret Samuel Sulami's character traits, including his actions, his prayer habits, his scholarship, and his public and private behavior. In all these, he found Sulami to be a superior person. The majority of Crescas' investigation appears to have been devoted to the question of whether any change had occurred in Samuel Sulami's behavior since bringing Levy b. Abraham into his house. The answer was negative. Even his study of philosophy under Levy b. Abraham was explained as a process intended to strengthen the Torah.141 Don Crescas Vidal devoted a separate investigation to Levy b. Abraham, whose wisdom and extensive knowledge he emphasized but also noted that opinions on the philosopher-preacher differed. Some criticizing his dealing in philosophy and extreme allegory and others claiming that there was no proof of his engaging in dangerous intellectual activity. The only way to know his beliefs was to read his book, Uvyat /fen; but though Don Crescas tried time and time again to persuade Levy b. Abraham to show him the book, Levy refused, saying that it was not in Narbonne. Don Crescas Vidal managed to find one defect which had to do with Levy's professional ethics as a teacher of the foreign sciences. Levy b Abraham, who was extremely poor, agreed to teach whoever wanted to learn, both old and young alike. This, according to Vidal, was a dangerous practice. 142 After clearing Levy b. Abraham of the suspicion of heresy, 138 On Bonfos and Crescas Vidal. see Baer. A History. pp. 172. 512. n. 90; J. Shatzmiller. "Minor Epistle." pp. 19- 20. 139 MQ. 28. vol. 1. p. 361; 30. p. 364. 140 MQ. 30. vol. 1. p. 367: "I investigated from our city. the holy city [of Perpignan 1. to the great city of Marseilles. " 141 MQ. 30. vol. 1. pp. 367-68. 142 MQ. 30. vol. 1. pp. 369-70.

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Crescas Vidal referred to him as "one of the sages" and ventured a supposition. R. Todros of Beaucaire had told him that one of the philosophers had written a philosophical commentary on the Torah denying the peshat and interpreting the entire Bible by means of allegory.143 No one had seen that book; but now that it had been lying unused for years. there was a risk that it would be lost forever. The son of that philosopher desired to make a copy. which. according to Todros. constituted a danger. since that copy could then be disseminated to anyone. 144 Aware of the communication aspects of copying books. Todros was prepared to accept that concepts amounting to philosophical heresy might lie in an old. vague book. far from the public eye. but a new copy of the work might bring it to the forefront of public interest and cause the indiscriminate dissemination of heretical ideas. Don Crescas Vidal hypothesized that perhaps this book was the reason for the great ado which had broken out in Provence and echoes of which had reached Barcelona. Crescas Vidal was not aware of the content of the correspondence between Ben Adret and Abba Mari or of the detailed information available in Barcelona. Although he had met with Todros of Beaucaire in Montpellier. he was not up to date on just how the controversy had begun. and his letter attests to a certain breakdown in communication between him and the main information center. Nor did Don Crescas succeed in verifying the charges brought against the philosopher preachers of Provence. As a visitor to the synagogue. he heard a few philosophical sermons. but nothing that even sounded like heresy. At the same time. he took into consideration the possibility that his presence caused preachers to be more careful. 145 Crescas Vidal was not interested in reproving the morals of the communities in Provence. This task was left to Ben Adret. At the same time. he proposed that Ben Adret issue a ban against the study of philosophy by anyone under age 30. His observation of the residents of Provence had led him to be impressed by their strong desire for learning; accordingly. a prohibition against philosophy would eventually lead them to study Torah. 146 It is interesting to note that it was actually Don

143 M. E. Renan, Les Rabbins /rant;ais du commencement du quatorzi~me si~cle (Paris, 1878), pp. 596, 659, hypothesized that the reference was to a lost commentary on the Pentateuch written by Moses b. Samuel Ibn Tibbon. It should be noted, however, that Moses Ibn Tibbon's philosophical learnings were rather moderate compared to the doctrine of his father, Samuel Ibn Tibbon. 144 MQ, 30, vol. I, p. 370. 14S MQ, 30, vol. I, pp. 370-71. 146MQ, 30, vol. I, pp. 371-72.

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Crescas Vidal, who, as a direct result of his investigation, conceived and

formulated the plan to ban the study of philosophy. Ben Adret adopted it almost verbatim: his one request was that the ban be pronounced at the initiative of the communities in Provence. 147 Don Bonfos Vidal also approved the plan for the ban.148 Only later, under pressure by the camp in Provence, was the minimum age lowered to 25. As a result of Crescas Vidal's letter, Ben Adret and Bonfos Vidal decided to call for another investigation in Montpellier. 149 After comparing the information supplied by Crescas Vidal with other information that had reached Barcelona in the form of letters and rumors, it was decided to adopt Vidal's position with regard to Samuel Sulami and to reject his opinion of Levy b. Abraham.lso They called upon Crescas Vidal to continue working on their behalf in Narbonne and to convince Samuel Sulami to expel the philosopher from his house. 151 Another important source of information was the climate of opinion. Ben Adret asked Abba Mari not to publish his letter on the banning of philosophical study before he could ascertain the prevailing opinion and be assured that would accord the letter a positive reception (i.e., the heads and distinguished members of the community of Barcelona). The investigation, conducted by Abba Mari and Todros of Beaucaire, took several months, and only when they obtained positive results did they convene a meeting of the notables. In this case, however, the attempt to ascertain the climate of opinion was not indicative of the results, since a large number of those invited did not attend the meeting. Moreover, Jacob b. Makhir, who initially had seemed to support Abba Mari's ideas, raised extremely strong objections. Ben Adret and the Barcelona community required information on prevailing opinion in Provence: at times, this information even directed their actions. Accordingly, when the letter written by the philosophers of Montpellier reached Barcelona and was found to bear more signatures than the letter of the other camp, Abba Mari hastened to explain the change in the community leaders' stance. He described to Ben Adret the course of secret negotiations which had preceded the meeting and through 147 MQ. 32, vol. 1, p. 383. Baer (A History, p. 172) has difficulty believing that Crescas formulated the ban on his own initiative. Shatzmiller ("Between Abba Mari," p. 123) seems to reject this conclusion. 148 MQ. 31, vol. 1. pp. 372-73. 149 MQ, 31. vol. 1. p. 373. ISO MQ. 32, vol. 1. pp. 379-82. lSI MQ, 32. vol. 1, pp. 382-83.

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which Jacob b. Makhir had agreed to Ben Adret's proposal. 152 At the meeting, however, Jacob changed his position completely. The larger support that had been given the philosophers' letter was rationalized as being due to the reprehensible means employed by Jacob b. Makhir. Some of the signers came from communities outside Montpellier; others were people who had already signed Abba Mari's letter and whom Jacob b. Makhir convinced to sign his own by arguing that the letters were the same. Some had signed without reading the letter, while others, who had read it, had not understood its content. 153 Abba Mari's arguments are corroborated by the personal testimony of one signer. According to Samuel b. Reuben, the philosophers had taken advantage of the early morning hour, when he was still a bit sleepy, and obtained his signature without his understanding what he was signing. 15. Abba Mari asked the dignitaries of Barcelona not to worry about the number of persons who supported the philosophers: "Do not be distressed by their multitudinous state. Do not fear the men themselves, nor their numbers great. "155 Instead, he exhorted them to continue their campaign against the study of philosophy. The apologetic tone of this letter indicates the importance ascribed in Barcelona to the balance of opinion in Provence. The philosophers' camp knew how to take advantage of the broader support of its cause, and to bring this fact to the attention of the community leaders in Barcelona. No direct testimony to that effect appears in Min~at Qma"ot; however, the letters of Simeon b. Joseph Duran, who quoted his rivals' arguments on several occasions, stated that "there are more with them than with us." Solomon of Lunel emphasized this situation in a letter. in which he asked Ben Adret to "respect the many. "156 One shOUld note that this pursuit of favorable public opinion was hardly unique to the Jewish communities. It may be seen as a Jewish replication of the policy of Philip the Fair (1285-1314), King of France. who both in his struggle against Pope Boniface vm and in his fight against the Templar Order manipulated public opinion to win the approval of the Estates General and thereby foster his policy.157 In .an attempt to allay Ben Adret's fears, Duran's letter was sent to 152 MQ. 45. p. 445: "To speak in secret and to gain the ear of the individuals." 153 MQ. 45. pp. 446-47.

MQ. 60. pp. 527-28. 45. p. 447. 156 Shatzmiller. "Between Abba MarL" p. 128. 157 J. R. Strayer. The Reign of Philip the Fair (Princeton. 1980). pp. 237-99; S. Menache. "A Propaganda Campaign in the Reign of Philip the Fair. 13021303." French History 4 (1990): 427-54. 154

15SMQ.

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R. Ben -Shalom

Barcelona after the publication of the philosophers' anathema and the " Adrabba" ban; it gives an exact description of the array of forces in Montpellier, where the philosophers had "stolen the minds of the great sages, most of the elected leaders [niv~arim] of our community, and the hearts of some of the special leaders of the people. "ISS In other words, the philosophers had attained a decisive majority among the community leadership (the fideles) and had even won over a small part of notables. Most of the notables, however, supported Abba Mari's camp. 159 According to Duran, the fact that most of the community leadership supported the philosophers' ban should not worry Barcelona, since the community regulations specified that a ~erem could be declared only by the unanimous agreement of all the fideles, not by simple a majority.l60 This was the reason that Duran wrote: "We did not fear their multitudinous state. "161 On the other hand, the massive support of the philosophers' ban162 was in contradiction to the regulation stating that the minority opinion of the leadership was enough to oppose the ban and to declare its activation illegal. 163 Beyond the halakhic and legal reasons advanced by Duran in an attempt to convince the Barcelona community that the philosophers' ban was not valid, his distinction between a quantitative and a qualitative majority is important. As he saw it, the qualitative majority of the community - members of the upper class, leaders, and dignitaries took precedence over the majority, which included only a small proportion of the dignitaries and the great majority of the community. This argument, which Shatzmiller feels reflected wishful thinking rather than objective reality,164 lay at the core of the Church in the middle ages and regulated most elections. The philosophers, though, certainly rejected it out of hand as a manipulative argument intended to act on Ben Adret and the notables of Barcelona. ISS Simeon b. Joseph Duran, Letter, p. 222. 159 Ibid.: "And the nobles ones, most of the dignitaries of the congregation, are within our ranks, and many of the men of the congregation agree with us. " 160'Simeon b. Joseph Duran, Letter, loc. cit.: "For they breached the covenant of agreed severe oaths among the members of our congregation; it is written and sealed that they may not ban, shun or flog unless all the elected leaders of the congregation agree to it ... and even for the sake of a divine commandment, no one shall be banned without the agreement of all the fideles." 161 Simeon b. Joseph Duran, loc. cit. 162 Our conclusion in this matter is opposed to that of Shatzmiller; cf. "Between Abba Mari," p. 129. 163 Simeon b. Joseph Duran, Letter, loc. cit. 164 Shatzmiller, "Between Abba Mari," p. 130.

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This reaction hints at the new winds sweeping through urban life, especially the communal movement which injected more democratic methods. Duran could not therefore further argue that he enjoyed the support of most of the community, the channels of communication with Barcelona being open to the other camp and well exploited by them. It seems that the philosophers used the claim of majority support as a manipulative means to create the dynamics of victory. It was therefore important for Duran to emphasize the matter of the qualitative majority. At the same time, in view of previous cases in which the Barcelona community had sought to ascertain the climate of opinion among the notables only, it may be assumed that the argument was favorably received. One of Ben Adret's Responsa even indicates that they "follow the most and wisest [scholars] in every place";165 in other words, the majority must be not only quantitative, but qualitative, as well: maior vel senior pars. 166

4. Rumors An additional, crucial means of information and misinformation transmission was the spread of rumors. Although Ben Adret was impelled to action by Abba Mari's letters, he did not content himself with this "official" source of information; he clarified what was going on in Provence by means of personal conversations with people who had come from there. 167 Thus, in the case of Samuel Sulami: And I loved him very well, and he knew/That I often ask people passing through/To tell me what was happening with him, and with

his household, too./Indeed, these travelers have given me information/ Even about his most Intimate conversation./ Anyone who had good to tell me of him made me glad,!And if any of his enemies spoke out against him, I was sad. 168

Ben Adret's house in Barcelona, which may also have served as a sort of inn for many travelers, became an international center of information and rumor. Ben Adret was known to interrogate all those coming from 165 The Book of Queries and Responsa of the Rashba, 279, vol. 2 (Jerusalem, 1990), p. 198. 166 The Third Lateran Council (1179) established in this manner the canonical election to the papacy. See I. Baer, "The Foundations and Beginnings of Organization of the Jewish Community in the Middle Ages" [Hebrew I, Zion 15 (1950): 38. 167 MQ, 30, vol. I, p. 364. Ifill MQ, 32, pp. 379-80.

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Provence in the greatest detail, thus receiving extremely intimate information. As an important halakhic scholar and the head of a rabbinical court, Ben Adret was aware of the care that had to be taken when dealing with rumors. He believed, too, that rumors were not to be accepted as decisive testimony. He therefore approached Crescas Vidal, a uu,tworthy and neutral person, to investigate the matter and verify some rumors that had reached Barcelona. Indeed, according to Crescas Vidal, the rumors that had been spread in Barcelona about Samuel Sulami and Levy b. Abraham had originated with some of their enemies in Narbonne. 169 Although Ben Adret preferred direct testimony to rumor, he never rejected the latter out of hand. In a letter to Samuel Sulami, he suggests that rumor can be a legitimate instrument for obtaining information: And do not consider them as slander spread in secret; rather, they are spoken far and wide. They are not whispered clandestinely, into the ear. as a thing to hide .... And saving your reverence. I do not view these things as defamation. When the same tale is told by thousands passing through our nation .!Especially when none of them is known to me in any way/And each of them arrives on a different day.!This information will not fail, is what I say. 170

Thus, identical rumors coming from many different sources must be believed, as so many people could certainly not all have impure motives. Accordingly, with regard to Levy b. Abraham, Ben Adret preferred those negative rumors told to him by intimates of Samuel Sulami, some of whom had even lodged in SUlami's homeY I He also reported to Crescas Vidal information about Levy b. Abraham that had been heard in Barcelona, adding that he continued to belittle matters which are sacred to Judaism, such as stating that "Abraham and the other forefathers have putrefied. "172 This last rumor was told to Ben Adret in Barcelona "by one of the great men," and it obviously startled him a great deal; accordingly, he decided to call down a curse on Levy b. Abraham. 173 The strength of rumors, in this case, was greater than the findings of Ben Adret's own, uu,tworthy investigator, Crescas Vidal. In a personal letter to Levy b. Abraham, Ben Adret also addressed the legitimacy of rumors: MQ, 30, vol. 1. p. 365. MQ, 33, vol. 1. pp. 388-89. 171 MQ. 32. vol. 1. p. 380. m MQ, 32, vol. 1. p. 381. This is counter to that stated in the Talmud. Baba Batra, 17a: 'Seven were not consumed by worms: Abraham. Isaac and Jacob, Moses, Aaron. Miriam, and Benjamin.' 173 MQ, loco cit. 169 170

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Go and ask the people who come from there to here/What they have heard others say, openly and without fear./ And when you have realized that people are coming in order to criticize/They are all gossiping about you, whether that gossip be the truth or lies/You must act to remove this obstacle from yourself and your house; this I advise,114

Levy b. Abraham, in other words, was admonished to take rumors into consideration, even if they were false. Similar arguments were advanced by Ben Adret in a letter to Crescas Vidal: even though Samuel Sulami was a decent and righteous man, he had to take into consideration "how he is mocked by people. "175 The above testimony is indicative of information transmission from Fragments of the Provence to Barcelona by means of travelers. information conveyed verbally from place to place were set down in writing and sent back to their places of origin. This gives rise to a question: What distinguished those rumors, from the moment they were written down, from official information sent to Barcelona in letters? In several cases, the difference does not seem to have been great. Often, the reports contained in letters were permeated with rumors; at times, they were even based exclusively on hearsay evidence or on personal and speculative interpretations of things seen by the speaker. For example, one of the criteria by which Abba Mari examined Isaac de Lattes's "orthodoxy" was that of his social connections with members of the philosophers' camp. Seeing for himself that de Lattes frequented the homes of philosophers, he concluded that he belonged to their camp; he wrote this to Moses b. Samuel of Perpignan and asked him that the information be passed on to Ben Adret. 176 The distinction in the case at hand between rumor and reliable information lay principally in the degree of vagueness surrounding the source, the content, and the quality of the information. Thus, Crescas Vidal's investigation findings show a clear distinction between the information that he himself had collected on Levy b. Abraham and the preachers, on the one hand, and the things he had heard from others about books of heretical philosophy and extreme anonymous preaching. He specifically notes that he himself had not heard anything heretical MQ, 35, vol. I, pp. 394-95. MQ, 32, vol. I, p. 380. D. Schwartz, in his ·Philosophical Commentary,· p. 160, distinguishes between the allegoristic philosophers' attitude toward their own writings and the cultural effects of their work. 176 MQ, 45, p. 494. 174 175

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from the preachers of Montpellier. 177 Crescas Vidal's letter, however, is the exception that proves the rule. Most of the information about the philosophical preachers that reached Barcelona was based on rumor, not on reliable information. True, Abba Mari would appear to have based his statements (in one of his first letters) on something he personally had seen;178 however, the absence of any particulars on the identity of the preachers or the content of their sermons and the incessant repetition of the same slogans show that, in fact, Abba Mari had no access to direct information, only to rumors. In his Book oj the Moon, his theoretical program, which was sent to Ben Adret as part of the propaganda campaign, he asked readers to believe him, even though he did not know any details of the preachers' identity, origin, or number. The content of the sermons, too, was addressed only in fragments of rumors. 179 It seems, at times, to have been the lack of knowledge that caused the anti-philosophers to ascribe to those preachers various comments that were rumored to appear in Levy b. Abraham's book - a work which was not then available for their perusal. All these rumors were accepted in Barcelona as authentic information, and were written down, summarized, and listed as part of the official ~erem document issued by the community. ISO In the framework of her analysis of communication in non-Jewish society, Sophia Menache has pinpointed the reasons for recognizing 177 MQ, 30, vol. I, pp. 370-71: "And to this day I have not heard it in our city [Narbonne]"" Twice, indeed three times, the philosophers preached in the synagogue while I was there/And not a word of sinful or criminal talk did I hear./I do not know whether they refrained from speaking their thoughts because of me/Or whether their mouths and their hearts agree." 178 MQ, 23, vol. I, p. 316: "And I saw that these few men, at weddings and birth celebrations/Preach in synagogues to the world at large, like heads of communities or chiefs of nations .... /They did not speak of the commandments ... but instead/Of things that they had made up out of their own head;/And, as If this did not cause enough of a storm/They transformed Abraham and Sarah into matter and form." 179 MQ, 75, pp. 633-34: "So great was the folly of one of those errant preachers, that this statement he did make/Saying aloud that anyone who believed the sun stood still for Joshua was a fool and was making a mistake/And as for the voice heard from Mount Sinai, we heard the sinful thing that he did say/So awful that anyone hearing it must rend his clothes, and anyone mentioning it must atone and pray/And we have heard many such things from these lawless ones .... I do not know the names of these preachers, nor who their fathers are/Nor whether they come from near or far"; see MQ, 37, pp. 407-408. 180 MQ, 100, pp. 726-28; 101, pp. 734-35. Research has confirmed that many of those allegories, which were propagated as rumors, did appear in Livyat Hen; see Halkin, "The Ban," pp. 35-40; Sirat, A History, pp. 245-46. .

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rwnor as a legitimate information channel in the middle ages; namely, the relative slowness of transmission, the lack of tested channels of communication, the mist that covered most information, the fear of the unknown, and the time needed to transmit news. lSI These factors are also valid with regard to the communication network between Provence and Spain. Despite the geographical proximity of the two areas, communication was not always continuous; we have many reports of breakdowns or delays in communication, with news arriving late or not at all. On many occasions, too, the news that did arrive was not reliable,ls2 offering several conflicting reports on the same person. It is also reasonable to assume that fear of the consequences of philosophical heresy caused a profusion of rumors and expedited their dissemination. As inhabitants of an area that had been a target of Inquisitorial pressure and even Crusades against heresy, the Jews evinced a preoccupation for safeguarding orthodoxy that seems hardly peculiar. The use of rumors was not always limited to the search for information, as had been the case with Ben Adret in Barcelona. At times, rumor became an important propaganda tool. At the very beginning of the controversy, when Abba Mari decided to convene the first community meeting in Montpellier, Jacob b. Makhir (Don Perfet Tibbon) and Judah b. Moses Tibbon attempted to prevent the meeting and to frustrate any decision against philosophy. They launched a counter-propaganda campaign among the Jews of Montpellier, by spreading rwnors that Abba Mari's activity was directed against Jacob Anatoli, the author of Malmad ha-Talmidim, and against Samuel Ibn Tibbon, the translator of Maimonides' Guide to the Perplexed and author of various philosophical works of his own, such as Ma 'amar Yikkavu ha-Mayim. 1S3 These two characters, who had been among the founders of the Maimonides' school in Provence and were important translators in their own right, were accepted by most of the Jewish public. Their descendents, especially the Ibn Tibbon family, were still involved in community leadership. The spreading of such rumors helped to obtain support for the letter of opposition sent to Barcelona. 1M Though the letter itself makes no mention of the rumor concerning Abba Mari's attempt to harm Jacob Anatoli and Samue1lbn Tibbon - leaving it to the realm of verbal propaganda - it alludes to an array of rumors scheduled for dissemination in the next lSI Sophia Menache. The Vox Dei. p. 12. 182

MQ. 43. p. 439.

184

MQ. 43. pp. 431-40.

IS3 MQ. 45. p. 445.

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stage of the debate; included was the argument that Abba Mari was opposed to Maimonides. 18s The philosophers may have understood that arguments set forth in writing are more easily refuted, whereas propaganda spread in the form of rumors is more difficult to deny, and at times may make a greater impression. Abba Mari, in any event, utterly denied the allegations, categorically noting that his only intention was to speak out against allegorical preaching. 186 From that point on, the dissemination of rumors continued throughout the entire debate.· This was, to a certain extent, a repeat performance of the propaganda patterns used by the philosophers during the first controversy over Maimonides' writings. 187 As stated, nearly no propagandist letters written by the philosophers in this debate have come down to us. We know of their content only insofar as it is reflected in letters of the opposite camp. It may, however, be possible to deduce their nature on the basis of correspondence exchanged during the previous controversy. This took the form of circular letters, intended to be read in public before the entire community. Thus, one of the letters sent from the community of Lunel read as follows: Therefore, when this letter reaches you, assemble all the heads of your tribes and your judges, and read it once and again before your entire congregation, and gather together, and speak. And tell it to your sons, and let your sons tell it to their sons, and their sons to another generation. 188

In Perpignan, Abba Mari conducted extensive activity, including the sending of letters and messengers, to refute rumors spread against him by an intimate of the Ibn Tibbon family. This time, the philosophers chose to say that he was reviving the great controversy that had arisen over Maimonides' Guide to the Perplexed some 70 years earlier, an initiative MQ, 43, pp. 431-32; see also Dimotrovsky, note to 1. 9. MQ, 45, pp. 445-46. 187 Then, too, Maimonides' supporters had launched an energetic propaganda campaign (both written and verbal), including the dissemination of various rumors. R. David Kim~i (the Radak) was in charge of managing the campaign in Spain, assisted by several other messengers, who were referred to by Nachmanides as "Travelers bearing letters smoothly designed/To steal the heart and flatter the mind." See A. Shohat, "Concerning the First Controversy on the Writings of Maimonides" [Hebrew), Zion 36 (1971): 37, 49- 52. E. E. Urbach, "The Participation of German and French Scholars in the Controversy About Maimonides and His Works" [Hebrew), Zion 12 (1957): 157-58. B. Septimus, "Piety and Power In Thirteenth-Century Catalonia," in Studies in Medieval Jewish History and Literature, ed. I. Twersky (Cambridge, 1979), pp. 202-205. 188 Shatzmiller, "Towards a Picture," pp. 135-37. 185 186

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that was aimed directly against Maimonides. 189 The dynamic contacts between Moses b. Samuel of Perpignan and Don Perfet Gracian of Barcelona were intended to refute these allegations, and to prevent Ben Adret from giving credence to them. At the same time, Abba Mari attempted to act in Perpignan, Montpellier, and Barcelona to refute another rumor, one concerning defamatory remarks he had supposedly made against R. Solomon of Lunel. l90 The next stage of the philosophers' propaganda campaign included Ben Adret, as well; the claim was that both he and Abba Mari were working against the accepted authorities of the sages of Provence: Maimonides, Jacob Anatoli, and Samuel Ibn Tibbon. 191 Ben Adret was directly accused of this in one of the letters sent to him by Jacob b. Makhir. 192 As part of this propaganda effort, the philosophers in Montpellier decided to read from Jacob Anatoli's book, Malmad ha- Talmidim, before the congregation in the synagogue on the Sabbath; they even attempted to establish this reading as a fixed custom. 193 The attempt to generate rumors about a general plot against Maimonides constituted an important propaganda tool for mobilizing public support for the philosophical camp. In the later stages of the debate. this rumor was even categorically included in the ban pronounced against those who prevented their children from studying philosophy. In fact. only one section of the three sections included in the philosophers' ban directly addressed the ban pronounced by Ben Adret and previously published in Barcelona; the two other sections were aimed to those who opposed Maimonides and other books. 194 The ban in Barcelona, however, did not target the books of Maimonides, but, rather, Greek philosophy, especially physics and metaphysics. Ben Adret and the Barcelona leadership repeatedly clarified this point. '95 Abba Mari and other sages of Provence often argued that the charge that the anti-philosophy camp was against Maimonides was a baseless libel. intended to arouse the populace. 196 As part of the attempt to reject this propaganda, a series of 189MQ, 57, p. 503. I90MQ, B7, p. 692. 191 MQ, 27, vol. I, pp. 358-59; 52, p. 572; 87, p. 692. 192 MQ, 5B, p. 50B-510. 193 MQ, 87, p. 692. The passage is quoted in the section on "Meetings and Sermons." I94MQ, 97, pp. 716-17. 195 MQ, 103, p. 743. 196 MQ. 93, p. 703: "And our opponents have risen up against us with a libel, after the manner of 'Naboth has reviled God and the king' (I Kings 21:10). They

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commentaries appeared on the precise nature of the ban in Barcelona. For example, Bonfos Vidal, Ben Adret's man, noted that according to the ban of Barcelona, only the regular study of philosophy was forbidden and that anyone who wanted to peruse Greek philosophy to understand the teachings of Maimonides was allowed to do so. 197 These attempts, however, met with no great success. 19S By including the mention of Maimonides within their ban, the philosophers made a great impression on the public. In this manipulative manner, the exaggeration and extremism ascribed to the actions of the opposing party created the impression that this was really the case; the anxiety of the target population was aroused, with a view to enlisting it in the struggle. This course of action had also been adopted by the medieval Church in its propaganda campaigns against the so-called heretical sects;l99 it was also the method used by Abba Mari's camp in accusing the philosophers of disrespect for the commandments and in attempting to endow the itinerant preachers with demonic attributes. The philosophical propaganda campaign in Provence apparently succeeded beyond expectations. Menachem Ha-Me'iri accused Abba Mari of having revived the controversy over the Guide to the Perplexed; Simeon b. Joseph Duran later complained that Abba Mari had gone astray after false propaganda and not noticed that these were manipulative tactics intended to separate themselves ("the holy flock") from the masses ("the gangs of comrades").200 The same sense of urgency and loss of the battle is reflected in Duran's letter to Ben Adret: They have stolen the minds of the great sages, most of the elected leaders of our community, and the hearts of some of the special leaders of the people .... Even though we knew that you do not need to apologize to the sages and nobles of the country ... those who seek to undermine have no other way to do so but by this slander ... and when the reason for this passes away, they will remain in confusion. Let my lord hurry and make haste to act. 201 said. in order to provoke the controversy, that these efforts are against our master Moses." MQ, 93, p. 711; 110, pp. 783-84; see also Saperstein, "The Conflict," p. 37, n. 22. 197 MQ, 109, pp. 787-88. 198MQ, 87, p. 692. 199 Heresy was considered as a sort of plague or leprosy, whose proponents transmitted it throughout their environment. S. Menache, The Vox Dei, pp.

226-28.

200 Simeon b. Joseph Duran, "Hoshen Mishpat," p. 153: "I cannot understand these barricades of yours, that take the sect of speakers which seeks to elevate the holy flock above the gangs of comrades." 201 Simeon b. Joseph Duran, Letter, pp. 222-24.

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Simeon b. Joseph Duran was prodding Ben Adret to make haste to deny the rumors, as he actually did with the notables of Barcelona. They sought. inter alia, to publish their letters in order to prove the purity of their intentions,202 and in so doing won a certain degree of support. 203 It was, however, apparently too late to prevent mass support for the philosophers. 204 The prevailing climate of opinion, which had been trained to accept moderate philosophical views ever since the first struggles against Maimonides in the early thirteenth century and which considered him an unimpeachable authority, was not prepared to accept any insult to Maimonides. One main difference between letters and rumors focused on the language. Letters were written in Hebrew; although some of them were read to a large audience, not all those present understood the high and flowery Hebrew in which they were written. If anyone wished to convey the message to a larger group, he undoubtedly had to translate it into the vernacular and interpret it. A distinction can thus be made between the elitist channel of transmission, letters, whose original distribution was limited to a rather small group of fluent Hebrew speakers,20s and the popular channel, rumors, which were spread in commonly spoken languages and intended to be heard by the entire public. The latter channel was not without its risks. Both camps were sensitive to the effect of rumors. In contrast to letters, which could be kept relatively confidential, the scope of a rumor was utterly uncontrollable and liable to reach Christian ears; accordingly, once the opposing parties realized how "hot" the atmosphere had become, they both endeavored to become more cautious. Ben Adret and the Barcelona leadership asked both camps in Montpellier to revoke their mutual bans so as to keep the political and intellectual tempest from reaching the Christians. 206 The renowned philosopher Yedaiah Penini asked Ben Adret to stop spreading rumors on MQ. 110. p. 784. MQ. 113. pp. 805-806. 204 Simeon b. Joseph Duran. Letter, p. 224. explicitly states: "For there are more with them than there are with us." 20S Proof that there were so few Hebrew speakers in Provence at the time may be found in a responsum by Mordechai b. Isaac Ibn Kimhi: "But now. in our time. most of our sons and daughters speak Edomite [Latinl. and Arabic. and Greek. and the languages of all peoples. and most of the people do not understand how to speak the Jewish language." A. Neubauer. "Documents in&lits," REJ 12 (1886): 82. 20fi MQ. 103. p. 745. The fear of revealing the controversy was also reflected in a letter written by Moses Halevi b. Isaac Halevi of Barcelona; see MQ. 105. p. 759. 202

203

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the misdeeds of the Provence communities, "lest they spread too far and the nations learn of the confusion in our faith, and that our Torah has become several theories. "207 Their main fear was that Church authorities, especially the Mendicants, would suspect that heresy had spread to the Jews. Since the 1230's, particularly since 1267, when the papal bull Turbato corde was published, such fears had resulted in Inquisitorial intervention.208 The media echo that accompanied the dissemination of rumors and letters alike lay behind the long statement of defense by the Jews of Provence that Yedaiah Penini of Perpignan sent to Ben Adret. Yedaiah emphasized that it was neither the Barcelona ban nor the charges leveled against them in the previous letters that had caused him to write his Ketab Hitnazlut (apology), but the letter that Ben Adret had sent to Aragon, Castile, and Navarre, which included serious charges against all the Jews of Provence. 209 He had also heard a rumor that Ben Adret had sent an identical letter to the Jews of Germany and France. 21o The most serious problem, then, as Yedaiah Penini saw it, was the bad name that Ben Adret had given the Jews of Provence in distant areas,211 especially in Germany and France, where Ben Adret was known to have considerable influence. 212 There is no reason to believe that that rumor was true and 207 Yedaiah (Penini) b. Abraham Bedersi, Ketab Hitnatlut [Hebrew], in Responsa o/the Rashba, 418. vol. I, p. 228. 208 The attempt to define Judaism as a heresy and deviation from the Bible was part of the Mendicant offensive during the thirteenth century. Maimonides' Guide to the Perplexed (or parts thereof) were burned during the 1230's by the Inquisition. Books of the Talmud were burned in Paris in 1242. See Cohen, The Friars, pp. 19-99. J. Shatzmiller, "L'Inquisition et les Juifs de Provence au XIIIe s.," Provence historique, 23 (1973): 327-37: M. Kriegel, "Premarranisme et Inquisition dans la Provence des XIIIe et XIVe si~les,· Provence historique, 27 (1977): 313-23: "La juridiction inquisitoriale sur les juifs ll'epoque de Philippe Ie Hardi et Philippe Ie Bel," in Les Jui/s dans I'histoire de France, ed. M. Yardeni (Leiden, 1980), pp. 70-77: Y. H. Yerushalmi, "The Inquisition and the Jews of France in the Time of Bernard Gui," Harvard Theological Review, 63 (1970): 317-76: Cohen, The Friars, pp. 91-96; Y. T. Assis, "Juifs de France refugi~s en Aragon (XIlIe-XIVe si~cles)," REJ, 142 (1983): 299-302. 209 The reference is to a letter by Ben Adret that appears in MQ, 100, pp. 725-32. 210 Responsa a/the Rashba, 418, p. 200. 211 Ibid., "For you have written hateful things on the entire country, and revealed them to those who dwell afar"; p. 228: "What great evil have we done, that our master should cast an evil rumor about them [the members of the Montpellier community] into another country?" 212 Ibid. , p. 210. On Ben Adret's influence in Germany, see E. E. Urbach, The Tosaphists: Their History, Writings and Methods (Jerusalem, 1986), 2, p. 578.

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that Ben Adret had actually sent such letters; however. the Jews of Provence. in view of the experience of the previous controversy. during which the rabbis of France had issued a ban that included the personal shunning of each and every sage in the area.213 were certainly not interested in waiting for the rumor to come true; they sought to react immediately. As long as the controversy remained an internal affair within the borders of Provence and Catalonia. the accusations and dissemination of libel and slander could be tolerated. Once international communication had penetrated the limited area between Montpellier and Barcelona. however. a more energetic reaction would be required. Yedaiah Penini decided. therefore. to devote his apologetic and philosophical skills to that cause. 214 S. Meetings and Sermons A central problem characterizing medieval communication was the delivery of a message to a large number of people within a short period of time. The convening of a meeting was one of the more efficient means of communication in Christendom. and in the Jewish communities as well.21S since it enabled messages to reach large audiences. Naturally. the location of the meeting for Jews was most often the synagogue. which in any event served as a place of public assembly and which members of the community regularly attended for religious services. A congregational meeting. though. had its limitations. The message had to be exposed to everyone. so that it was not always possible to predict further developments and controversial issues could branch out into unexpected directions. This happened at the meeting organized by Abba Mari in Montpellier in 1304. Ben Adret had requested that his proposal to ban the study of philosophy by persons under 30 be examined in a community meeting; but he had been referring to a meeting of notables only. Ben Adret was also aware that. following such a meeting. it would no longer be possible to conceal the message that had been revealed there. Accordingly. he asked Abba Marl to undertake a preliminary investigation. He hoped to have his 213Responsa 0/ the Rashba, loc. cit., p. 220: "And we have definitely seen many letters from the time of the first controversy which were sent out against him [Maimonides) from the corners of the earth." See Shohat, "Concerning the First Controversy," p. 33, for details on the banning of R. David Kimhi. 214 A. S: Halkin, "Yedaiah Bedershi's Apology," in Jewish Medieval and Renaissance Studies, ed. A. Altmann (Cambridge, 1967), pp. 165-84. 215 On the political uses of the meeting in medieval Christendom, see S. Menathe, The Vox Dei, pp. 56-59, 161, 165, 234, 267-268.

R. Ben-Shalom

216

proposal accepted unanimously, or at least by a large majority. The preparations for the meeting took several months, and included a scrutiny of the climate of opinion and persuasive activities directed at leaders and notables. 216 Neither the investigation nor the personal contacts made by Abba Mari could prevent the explosion. On the Friday immediately preceding the scheduled meeting, Jacob b. Makhir approached Abba Marl to ask him not to hold the meeting and proposed, instead, that Ben Adret's letter be kept from the entire public. 217 Abba Mari rejected this proposal arguing that he had already revealed the letter's content to most notables and that he was quite certain of obtaining their sUpport. 218 Abba Marl thus decided to go ahead with the meeting and sent a personal messenger to convene the notables, "who are called 'special people' [mey~adim]." Some of the "special people," however, did not come. Although there was no full attendance, Abba Mari read Ben Adret's letter; the majority appeared ready to accept it, and the only one who objected to the decision was Jacob b. Makhir. As a result of his objection, however, it was impossible to reach a clear decision. Moreover, Jacob b. Makhir proceeded to organize the opposing camp, which included those "special people" who had not come to the meeting. 219 The meeting in Montpellier, then, did not achieve the expected results; worse still, the public exposure of Ben Adret's message created the stimulus that led to the consolidation of the opposition. Abba Mari used meetings for propaganda purposes on other occasions, as well. When he desired to refute rumors spread about him in Perpignan, he contacted a confidant of his there, Moses b. Samuel, to convene a meeting of notables and to publicize a letter in which he denied the allegations cast against him.220 Here, too, as in Montpellier, there was not a general meeting, but one of notables only. Moses b. Samuel convened the meeting in the synagogue and read out Abba Mari's letter. According to his later report, this was a most successful move, and he managed to convince those present of Abba Mari's honest intentions. 221 Before the meeting, Moses b. Samuel had been active in attempting to convince the community notables not to listen to the rumors.222 Abba Mari, however, 216 MQ. 39, pp. 414-15.

MQ. MQ, 219 MQ, 220 MQ, 221 MQ, 222 MQ, 217 218

ibid., p. 416. loc. cit. ibid., p. 418.

37, pp. 405, 48. 47, p. 502. 36, p. 403.

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217

was not satisfied; in order to refute the rumor absolutely, he demanded that the meeting of notables take place. Abba Mari's initiative in this case turned out to be justified. and. up to the final organization of the opposing camp in Perpignan,223 he received considerable support in that city. R. Asher b. Yehiel (the Rosh) of Toledo, one of the most important leaders in Castile,224 also sought to operate by means of meetings. To resolve the debate, he planned a general meeting of the heads of communities in Provence that would also be attended by notables of Barcelona and would bring about a compromise. 225 We do not know whether R. Asher's initiative was acceptable to Abba Mari. In any event, no real attempt was made to organize the inter-community meeting. It may be assumed that Abba Mari. who was aware of the course of events in Provence, already realized that it would not be possible to attain unanimity and that the leaders of the philosophical camp would reject R. Asher's initiative. It also seems that the Rosh's plan was rejected as "foreign," a deviation from local custom. R. Asher had come from Germany not long before, where inter-community meetings were held from time to time and he himself had attended some of them. In Provence and Spain, however, the communities generally maintained full independence, and attempts to form a supra -community organization for any purpose above and beyond the collection of taxes failed miserably.226 On the initial organization of the camp in Perpignan, see MQ, 57, p. 503. See A. H. Freiman, The Rosh: Rabbenu Asher b. R. Yehiel and His Descendants, Their Uves and Work [Hebrew I (Jerusalem, 1966), especially pp. 27-31; Y. M. Ta-Shema, "Rabbenu Asher and His Son R. Jacob Baal ha-Turim: Between Germany and Spain" [Hebrew], Pe'amim 36-37 (1991): 75-91. 225 MQ, 70, p. 591. 226 On Germany and France, see L. Finkelstein, Jewish Self-Government, esp. pp. 36-76; on Germany, E. Zimmer, Jewish Synods in Germany During the Late Middle Ages (1286-1603) (New York, 1978), pp. 15-21; Y. Y. Yuval, Sages in Their Generation: The Spiritual Leadership of the Jews of Germany in the Late Middle Ages [Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 1989), pp. 78, 85, 149-57. In contrast to Finkelstein and Zimmer, R. Chazan, "The Blois Incident of 1171: A Study in Jewish Intercommunal Organization," PAAJR 36 (1968): 26-30, rejects the very existence of synods in twelfth-century France. In the second half of the thirteenth century, however, inter-community meetings were held. See Urbach, The Tosaphists, 2, pp. 542-45. R. Asher participated in at least two convocations of rabbis from the various communities, held in Mainz (on matters of taxes) and Worms (on inheritance law); see Freiman, The Rosh, p. 25. On meetings in Provence, see J. Shatzmiller, "La perception de la Tallia Judeorum en Provence au milieu du XIVe si~cle," Annales du Midi, 82 (1970): 221-36; M. Kriegel, Les Juifs Cl/a fin du moyen age (Paris, 1979), p. 112. General meetings 223 224

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The ban imposed in Barcelona was announced by convening a meeting of the community in the synagogue on the Sabbath. Like the meeting organized in Perpignan by Abba Mari. Saturday was found to be the most convenient day for making important decisions. as most members of the community came to synagogue on that day. Abba Mari indeed testifies that. aside from the Ibn Tibbon family and its intimates. many others of the community also attended. The ban of Barcelona itself was accepted by all the community notables. without exception. 227 A similar process took place among the philosophers. and the imposition of their ban was adopted in the framework of a meeting of representatives. 228 The philosophical camp had begun holding mass meetings in Montpellier three months before the proclamation of the ban. At these meetings. which were held before the afternoon service. every Sabbath in the synagogue. 229 sermons were preached in favor of philosophical study. and books of philosophy - such as that of Maimonides and Jacob Anatoli. but also more recently composed works - were read in public. 23O In order to convene most of the community a sufficient time before the prayers began. it was necessary to announce the meeting in advance. The time selected for the meeting and the sermons also took into account the need to assemble as large a congregation as possible. After all. people would come to the synagogue on the Sabbath in any event and would not have to interrupt their work to do so. In addition. the afternoon prayer is the were convened in Aragon from time to time under royal pressure for determining new rates of taxation and means of dividing the tax burden. The first Jewish initiative in Aragon for the creation of a supra-community organization arose in Barcelona in 1354, following the crisis of the Black Plague. A. A. Neuman, The Jews in Spain: Their Social, Political and Cultural life During the Middle Ages (Philadelphia, 1942), I, pp. 60-62; Baer, A History, pp. 242-44. In Castile, the most famous supra-community meeting was that of the communities of Valladolid in 1432. Nevertheless, E. Gutwirth, ("Tendencies Towards Centralization in Fifteenth-Century Castilian Jewish Communities" [Hebrew 1,

Te'uda - The Chaim Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies Research Series 4

(1986): 231-34) indicates the existence of earlier meetings. 227 MQ, 90, p. 699. 228 MQ, 92, p. 701: "They assembled in order to impose the ban strongly." 229 On sermons given on the Sabbath, see Saperstein, Jewish Preaching, pp. 26-29. 230 Simeon b. Joseph Duran, Letter, pp. 222. One of these meetings was described in a letter by Abba Mari, MQ, 87, p. 622: "And he [Solomon of Lunell assembled against me some of the community notables, intimates of the sage R. Jacob, author of the Malmad. And it turned out that these intimates assembled, along with many members of the community, on the Sabbath of the Torah portion Parah, before the afternoon service, and read the Malmad in the synagogue aloud, and said that they would do so every single Sabbath. "

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shortest service of the day; accordingly, people then had more patience to listen to long sermons. 231 The philosophers' camp, which apparently had taken over many positions of power in Montpellier, succeeded in setting both the tone and the agenda in the synagogue. The established meetings in the synagogue each Sabbath were also held at other times, when most of the community was present for the sake of religious worship, not just as meetings of invited guests. In this way, this camp combined two effective means of medieval communication: the meeting and the sermon. The meeting enabled transmission within a brief time to a large number of persons; the sermon was the most effective way of enlisting public opinion through the use of rhetorical techniques. 232 Admittedly, this philosophical propaganda did not go unanswered, and the pulpit was sometimes occupied by representatives of Abba Mari. Simeon b. Joseph Duran testified that he and many notables were forced to pretend they were deaf, in order not to listen to philosophical sermons. 233 Another testimony, by Abba Mari, reveals that on several occasions when he or a member of his camp ascended the pulpit, the philosophers fought back,234 turning the sermon into a living dialogue. These dynamics were replicated in other cities, as

well.23S 6. The Family Network

Still another important communication channel during the controversy was the family artery. The Ibn Tibbon family and its followers stood at the head of the philosophers' camp. When Jacob b. Makhir sought to 231

On the afternoon prayer as a suitable time for sermons, see Saperstein,

Jewish Preachins, pp. 30-31. 232 Ibid., pp. 5-79; on R. Moses of Coucy, also called R. Moses the Preacher, see Urbach, The Tosa/ists, vol. 1, pp. 466-71.

Z33 Simon b. Joseph Duran, p. 222. On the strength and influence of sermonizing in the Jewish communities of Catalonia during the 1240's, see B. Septimus, "Piety and Power," pp. 215-21. 234 MQ, 69, pp. 582-583. Saperstein, Jewish Preachins, p. 56. 23S MQ, 80, p. 672. One of the rumors that reached Barcelona spoke of a philosophical sermon given in the synagogue on Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks. The preacher called for "public violation of the Torah precepts," and his words reflected an attitude of contempt for the Talmud. Simeon b. Joseph Duran, "Hoshen Mishpat," p. 147, describes how one of the Montpellier notables pfeached a philosophical sermon at the wedding of a prominent community member. Duran, who was sitting beside the preacher on the stage, stood up at the end of the sermon and reproached him before the congregation. On sermons at weddings, see Saperstein, Jewish Preachins, pp. 36-37.

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establish the philosophical camp in Montpellier, he first approached "his loving relatives";236 according to Abba Mari, the person who stood behind him and offered encouragement to organize the opposition was his relative, Judah b. Moses (Ibn) Tibbon. 237 Solomon of Lunel, another leader iri the philosophers' camp, is also said to have organized "the distinguished members of the congregation, the relatives of R. Jacob, author of the Malmad";238 the reference is to the Ibn Tibbon family and its multiple ramifications. These testimonies mainly indicate the family network in Montpellier. The question arises, however, as to whether communication in Provence, outside Montpellier, was also based on family relationships. The lack of primary testimony by the philosophical camp makes it difficult to reply. It is, however, safe to assume that in at least some cases communication on the Montpellier-NarbonnePerpignan artery was based on local messengers and intermediaries related to the Ibn Tibbon family. Thus, Moses b. Samuel of Perpignan reports that Abba Mari's letter of apology was welcomed in the community, "except for a few related to one of the 'special people,' belonging to the opposition. "239 It may be assumed that the reference is to the Ibn Tibbon family. The parallel communication artery in Abba Mari's camp (MontpellierNarbonne-Perpignan-Barcelona) also centered on families and close friends. Perpignan was the center that linked Barcelona and Montpellier. Moses b. Samuel b. Asher, a resident of Perpignan, was an important intermediary on the communication network; he worked on behalf of Abba Mari, represented him, and transmitted various messages from Montpellier to Barcelona and in the opposite direction. Moses b. Samuel was related to Abba Mari by marriage. His connection to Barcelona and Ben Adret was also based on personal connections with Don Prefet Gracian, whose sons lived in Perpignan and apparently studied there. 240 Don Crescas Vidal, a resident of Perpignan, was chosen to spy for Ben Adret because he was the brother of Don Bonfos Vidal, Ben Adret's man and one of his fideles in Barcelona for many years. 241 Additional family ties may be found among Abba Mari's party. Conspicuous in their activity on his behalf were the brothers Todros and Jacob b. Judah of Beaucaire. MQ, 40, p. 418. MQ, 39, p. 416. On the father, see Gross, Gallia, 327-28. 238MQ, 87, p. 692. 239 MQ, 57, p. SOL 240 According to Dimitrovsky, Responsa oj the Rashba, p. SOl, they studied under Moses b. Samuel: this, however, is no more than a supposition. 241 Baer, A History, p. 172. 236

237

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Todros was Abba Mari's man in Montpellier and they both organized the meeting of notables that led to the outbreak of the controversy. They also wrote a joint letter to Barcelona and informed the community there about what was happening in Montpellier. 242 After Todros' death, his brother became the chief propagandist and messenger to the communities of Provence. Jacob b. Judah of Beaucaire was related to Abba Mari's family through the marriage of his son.243 The center in Narbonne was no less part of the family network. The Nasi, Kalonymus b. Todros, was a relative of Abba Mari, whom he had met in the home of a mutual relative, R. Meshullam. The Nasi undertook to support Abba Mari's letter and to write a letter of his own to Ben Adret. 244 It is not impossible that the Nasi Kalonymus b. Todros was the family link between Jacob b. Judah of Beaucaire and Abba Mari.24s The Nasi of Narbonne was also the brother-in-law of Moses Halevi b. Isaac Halevi, called Escapat Malet, one of the notables of Barcelona who corresponded with Abba Mari. 246 One of Ben Adret's senior students lived in Narbonne, and his daughter had married the son of Crescas Vida1. 247 Abba Mari's network of family connections, with its multiple ramifications and links to Ben Adret's circle, may thus be seen to have constituted a major communication channel between Montpellier and Barcelona. It is even possible that Ben Adret and Abba Mari were descended from the same family.248 Opposite them stood the Ibn Tibbon family and its representatives in the communities of Provence. Nonetheless, this was not a personal family feud. In one of his letters, Jacob b. Makhir mentions the social connections that his ancestors had once shared with those of Abba Mari. 249 Ben Makhir's family, however, had meanwhile become the flagship of the struggle, and its lineage had been transformed into an instrument of propaganda. Abba Mari used a similarly powerful tool on his own behalf - the lineage of the Nasi of Narbonne's family, which could be traced back to the House of King 242 MQ, 39-40, pp. 414-25. 243 MQ, 72, p. 612. MQ, 75,p. 632; 76, p. 635. Shatzmiller, "Between Abba Mari," pp.134-35. MQ, 72, p. 612. Jacob b. Judah's son married the daughter of R. Kalonymus, who was called "the uncle of the first inciter, who is the venerable sage R. Abba Mari of Lunel. " . 246 Baer, A History, p. 513, n. 106. 247 Shatzmiller, "The Minor Epistle," p. 20, n. 62; pp. 27- 28. This Samuel Sachiel was mentioned by Ha-Me'iri in "Ifashen Mishpat," p. 162, as combining foreign science and Talmud in his world outlook. 248 MQ, 46, p. 450; see Dimitrovsky, Responsa a/the Rashba, note to 1. 27. 249 MQ, 58, p. 509. 2«

24S

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David: "Therefore you and all of your father's house must eliminate the crime and wipe out the evil thing / Through the efforts of the seed of David the King. "250 Jacob b. Makhir praised the founding fathers of his family, Judah and Samuel Ibn Tibbon. He noted their relationship to R. Meshullam b. Moses of B~iers, one of the greatest sages of Provence and the head of the local yeshiva,251 and emphasized the permission they had received from him (and from Maimonides) for their scientific activity.2S2 The accusation that Ben Adret had attacked Jacob Anatoli's book, Malmad ha-Talmidim, was part of the attempt to unite the family and its members into a joined struggle. This is also the reason that Ben Adret hastened to deny the charges and attempted to prove his great respect for the ancestors of the Ibn Tibbon family and their literary works.253 Analysis of the family network as the central axis around which both ideological camps revolved throughout the controversy accords with the conclusions of sociological research on the crucial role played by social networks and kinship ties in the formation and growth of CUlts, sects, and conventional faiths and religions. New members of religious groups were often recruited on the basis of their social connections, and not always according to any well-established views. This does not suggest that theology or ideology played no role in the recruitment and maintenance of a group; it certainly suggests, however, that "blood is thicker than attitude. "254 The conclusions drawn by sociological research have been found to be appropriate, too, to other ideological controversies in Christendom, where "theory traveled" with considerable success through dense social networks. 255 ..............................

To sum up, the very outbreak of the controversy over radical allegorization between 1303 and 1306 owed to a communication network 2SO MQ, 84, p. 683; see Gross, Notice, p. 198; Shatzmiller, "Between Abba Mari,· p. 136. 251 Y. M. Ta-Shema, R. Zerachiah Halevi Baal ha-Ma'or and His Circle: On the History of Rabbinical literature in Provence [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1992), pp. 168-72. 252 MQ, 58, loco cit. m MQ, 61, p. 543. 254 R. Stark and W.S. Bainbridge, "Networks of Faith: Interpersonal Bonds and Recruitment to Cults and Sects,· American Journal of Sociology 85 (1980): 1376-95. 255 E. A. Clark, The Olltural Construction of an Early Christian Debate (Princeton, NJ, 1992), pp. 16-20,247.

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related to itinerant preachers who disseminated philosophical ideas considered esoteric. The parties to the controversy were aware of the power of communication and proved to be familiar with its manipulative uses. With regard to the principal means used, it appears that, along with letters, messengers carrying written and oral messages, rumors, early investigation of the climate of opinion, meetings, and sermons all played a certain role. One should conclude from this rich spectrum that oral delivery played a central role, both on the local and regional levels, as well as along the main artery of international communication between Provence and Spain. This phenomenon is not surprising, as medieval Jewish society, despite its high literacy rates, was an integral part of an orally oriented culture. Moreover, most of the letters involved in the controversy were meant to be read out loud to the public, and were accordingly written according to the relevant rules of rhetoric. The intensive use of mnemonic means of persuasion, such as slogans, formed part of this general culture. Indicative of the symbiotic relationship between written texts and oral communication256 is the story in a letter sent by Moses b. Samuel to Abba Marl. When trying to influence the Perpignan notables to reject certain rumors, Moses b. Samuel made a joking remark that he had once heard from Abba Mari in Lunel: I have seen how the children of every artisan follow him into the same trade; whichever it is, none of them will replace it with another nor exchange a good trade for a bad one or a bad trade for a good one, and from that point onward, the teachings of their faith return to their own dwelling place. And we, with our fathers and our fathers' fathers, have gone the way of ha/achah .... Why should we turn from the straight path chosen by the perfect man?251

The jest and the proverbs interspersed in it amused the notables,258 who eventually became convinced of the purity of Abba Marl's intentions. This relationship between a written text and oral communication is 256 P. Zumthor, Introduction ala poesie orale (Paris, 1983); Id., La lettre et la voiJC de la litterature midiivale (Paris, 1987); W. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologieing of the Word (London, 1982); A. N. Doane and C.B. Pasternack (ed.), VOJC InteJCta: Orality and TeJCtuality in the Middle Ages (Madison, 1991); A. Gurevich, "Oral and Written Culture of the Middle Ages: Two 'Peasant Visions' of the Late Twelfth to the Early Thirteenth Centuries," New Literary History 16 (1984): 51-66. 257 MQ, 36, p. 403. 258 Loc. cit.: "I told them this, and they were pleased with it." On the proverbs in the jest, see Dimitrovsky, MQ, loco cit., note to 11. 56-57.

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exceptionally interesting: a joke once told by Abba Mari in Lunel was retold to men in Perpignan, and was only then written down in a letter and sent back to its author, who in the meantime had moved to Montpellier; had it not been for written sources, we would not know anything of the entire incident. The disadvantages of the written text are evident: it is difficult to know the tone in which the joking remark was told, the pitch of the voice, the accent, the situation in which it was told (in the street, at home, or in the synagogue), and whether it was told, or for that matter retold, in the same form in which it was later written down. It may also be assumed that it was related in an oxytonic language. The text further reflects the effective use of jests as a means of persuasion and thereby, the strength of oral communication. 259

259 Most of the proverbs common in the middle ages were traditional popular sayings that offered wisdom and advice in a pithy manner, and sometimes served as a bridge between different strata of society. See N. Z. Davis, "Proverbial Wisdom and Popular Errors," in Society and Culture in Early Modern France: Eight Essays by N. Z. Davis (Stanford, 1975), pp. 230-33; J. Obelkevich, "Proverbs and Social History," in The Social History of Language, ed. P. Burke and R. Porter (Cambridge. 1988), p. 47, has shown that in situations of conflict, proverbs are used less for their truth or wisdom than for taking advantage of their impersonality; by expressing disapproval in an indirect manner, they draw the sting from criticism and make an angry response less likely. The studies by Davis and by Obelkevich seem to shed light on the same situation in Perpignan, where, in a situation of conflict, proverbs proved to be an effective means of settling differences.

THE JEWS OF PROVENCE AND ARAGON IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY LOCATION MAP

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COMMUNICATION OR mE LACK mEREOF AMONG TIIIRTEENTH-FOURTEENTH CENTURY PROVENCAL JEWISH PHILOSOPHERS: MOSES mN TIBBON AND GERSONIDES ON SONG OF SONGS

.

Menachem Kellner R. Levi b. Gershom (Ralbag. Gersonides; 1288-1344). one of medieval Judaism's most original and surely most forthright thinkers. was the author of works in fields as diverse (from our perspective) as astronomy and astrology. mathematics. Bible commentary. philosophical theology. "technical" philosophy. logic. halakhah. and even satire. 1 In June or July of 1325. at the age of 37. Gersonides wrote a commentary on Song of Songs. He had already written a large number of works. beginning with his Wars of the Lord. parts of which were completed in 1317. continuing through independent works on logic. mathematics. and astronomy. and culminating in a long series of super-commentaries on many of the commentaries of Averroes on Aristotle. 2 In 1325. Gersonides completed his first biblical commentary. on the book of Job. Thereafter. biblical commentaries became a regular part of his work. the second. on Song of Songs. appearing only six months after the first. Indeed. if in his first 37 years Gersonides wrote almost exclusively what we today would call philosophical and scientific works. the last 19 years of his life were devoted almost exclusively to what can be called more narrowly Jewish works. With the admittedly notable exceptions of a super commentary on Averroes on the Metaphysics. Wars of the Lord. V. and some smaller works. all of his later productions involved commenting on the Bible or the Talmud. 1 For a comprehensive account of Gersonides' life and thought, see Charles Touati, La pens~e philosophique et th~olo&ique de Gersonide (Paris, 1973). For an annotated bibliography of works by and about Gersonides see Menachem Kellner. "Bibliographia Gersonideana: An Annotated List of Writings by and about R. Levi b. Gershom, in Gad Freudenthal (ed.), Studies on Gersonides: A Fourteenth-Century Jewish Philosopher-Scientist (Leiden, 1992), pp. 367-414. 2 For a very useful chronological table of Gersonides' writings, set against the (few) known events of his life and events of contemporary historical significance, see Anne-Mary Weil-Gueny, "Gersonide en son temps: un tableau chronologique, in Gad Freudenthal (ed.), Studies on Gersonides, pp. 355-65. W

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Song of Songs contains a surprising claim, one which. when analyzed. sheds interesting light on the ways in which medieval Jewish philosophers communicated (or failed to communicate) with each other. Gersonides opens his commentary as follows: Said Levi b. Gershom: we have seen fit to comment on this scroll, the Scroll of Song of Songs, as we understand it, for we have not found any [other) commentary on it which could be construed as a (correct) explanation of the words of this scroll. Rather, we have seen that all the commentaries which our predecessors have made (upon it] and which have reached us adopt the midrashic approach , 3 including interpretations which are the opposite of what was intended [by the author of Song of Songs). 4 These midrashic explanations, even though they are good in and of themselves, ought not to be applied as explanations of the things upon which they are said midrashicaIly. For this reason one who wishes to explain these and similar things ought not to apply to them the derashim regarding them; rather, he should endeavor to explain them himself according to their intention. He also ought not to combine those derashim with his explanations, for this will either confuse the reader and cause him to misunderstand what he intended, most especially with deep things such as these, or because this will bring (the reader) to despise the words of the author. This [latter) is so for two reasons: [a] the [excessive] length of the matter, or [b] the confusion in them of essential and accidental matters, for all this causes things to be despised. 5 8 The question of what exactly "midrash" is (and, therefore, how to translate the word) has exercised many contemporary scholars. For a recent extremely valuable study see David Weiss Halivni, Peshat and Derash: Plain and Applied Meaning in Rabbinic Exegesis (New York, 1991). 4 On the midrashic approach to Song of Songs, which sees the text as 8 description of the love between God and Israel, see Menachem Hirshman, Ha-Mikra u-Midrasho [Hebrew) (Tel Aviv, 1992), pp. 65-73. 5This translation is based upon my critical edition of "Gersonides' Introduction to his Commentary on Song of Songs" [Hebrew) Da'at 23 (1989): 15-32. The text here is found on p. 17 of that article. I published an English translation of Gersonides' Introduction as '''Introduction to the Commentary on Song of Songs Composed by the Sage Levi ben Gershom'-An Annotated Translation," in J. Neusner et al., (ed.), From Ancient to Modern Judaism: Intellect in Quest 01 Understanding. Essays in Honor 01 Marvin Fox, vol. 2 Intellect in Quest 01 Understanding. Essays in Honor 01 Marvin Fox, vol. 2 (Atlanta, 1989), pp. 187-205. The text here is on page 188 of the translation. My translation of Gersonides' entire commentary on Song of Songs is scheduled for publication in the Yale Judaica Series.

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Gersonides here justifies his decision to write a commentary on Song of Songs. Such a commentary is needed, he explains, because no appropriate commentary on the book has ever been written. Previous commentators have followed the Midrash; Midrash is certainly valuable in and of itself, but it ought not to be construed, Gersonides insists, as an actual explanation of what the text really means.s Furthermore, if one does seek to explain the actual intent of the author of Song of Songs, then one ought not to mix up or irritate the reader by also citing the Midrashim. This statement is surprising in light of the fact that a detailed commentary on Song of Songs was composed by a figure who was temporally, geographically, and, most importantly, philosophically close to Gersonides, Moses ibn Tibbon. If Gersonides was unaware of Ibn Tibbon's commentary, we must ask how it is possible that he was unaware of it. On the other hand, had Gersonides indeed read his predecessor's commentary, then we must ask why he ignores it in his own commentary, in effect pretending that it did not exist. In order to answer these questions, it would be useful to take a rather extended detour, noting different understandings of Song of Songs, attending to a number of relevant philosophical issues, and to aspects of the cultural history of the Jews of (what is today) Southern France and Northern Spain in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In particular, it would be valuable to explain the special problems posed by Song of Songs for medieval Jewish philosophers like Gersonides and Moses Ibn Tibbon, and describe the solution offered by Maimonides (and adopted by Gersonides and Ibn Tibbon). Commentaries to Song of Songs in what may be called a Maimonidean "spirit" would then have to be described. Doing all this. however, would result in a study for too long for the present volume. These matters will be attended to, therefore. very briefly. More attention, however, will be devoted to showing that Gersonides and Ibn Tibbon lived near each other in space and time, and shared a similar intellectual, cultural, and religious universe of discourse. The ban of 1305, forbidding the study of philosophy by young Jews, will then be adduced as adding force to the claim that Gersonides had to have seen himself as a member of the same (embattled) party as Ibn Tibbon.7 S Despite his French origins, Gersonides was apparently unsympathetic to the sorts of approaches to texts which have emanated from the left bank of the Seine over the last generation. For a discussion of his attitude towards Midrash, see Ze'ev Harvey, "Quelques r~flexions sur I'attitude de Gersonide vis-A-vis du Midrash," in Gilbert Dahan (ed.), Gersonide en son temps (Louvain, 1991), pp. 109-16. 7 See Ben Shalom's article in this volume.

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Against this background it seems quite incredible that Gersonides should have been unfamiliar with Moses Ibn Tibbon's commentary. I then undertake a detailed comparison of the two commentaries, the result of which is negative: there is no conclusive evidence unequivocally pointing towards Moses Ibn Tibbon as a source for ideas, expressions, or interpretations found in Gersonides' commentary. In the end, we are left with two possibilities: Gersonides really never read Ibn Tibbon's commentary, or he had, and sought to hide that fact. In the final section of this paper each of these possibilities is analyzed for its implications concerning communication among Jewish philosophers in Provence in the transition period between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Song of Songs, traditionally attributed to King Solomon, is the first of the so-called "five scrolls" (hamesh megillot) and is named after its opening words. The book consists of a series of poems in which two lovers express the delight they find in each other and anguish at their separation. The lovers describe each other in graphic terms of passion and physical desire. The book is unique in the biblical canon not only for what is in it but also for what is not in it. Like the Scroll of Esther, God is nowhere mentioned in Song of Songs; but unlike Esther, God is not even lurking in the background and no moral or religious lesson is easily drawn from the poems in Song of Songs, or even hinted at by them. The book contains no prophecy, no historical narratives, no wisdom, no prayers, and certainly no mizvot (commandments). Not only is God absent from Song of Songs, but so is Israel; indeed the book is innocent of theological concerns altogether. If ever a biblical text "cried out" to be interpreted allegorically, Song of Songs is it. Indeed, the Talmud records the opinion that it is forbidden to all intents and purposes to take the book literally, in terms of its peshat, the straightforward contextual meaning. 8 As noted above, the Rabbis of the Mishnah and the Talmud understood the book as describing God's love for the People of Israel and Israel's reciprocal love for God as evidenced through Jewish history. The Targutn carries this view through to the future, seeing in Song of Songs an expression of Jewish eschatology as well. Kabbalistic texts interpret Song of Songs mystically, as dealing with the inter-relationships of the sejirot. None of these solutions, however, were available to medieval Jewish philosophers, especially those in the Aristotelian tradition, whose vision of Judaism was not only relatively ascetic, but also abstract, austere, and 8

See Sanhedrin IlIa.

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intellectualist in the extreme. Song of Songs presented two kinds of problems for them, the first having to do with the explicit sexuality of the text itself,s the second with the accepted allegorical interpretations of the text, which heavily anthropomorphized God. Maimonides (1138-1204), the pre-eminent medieval Jewish philosopher and legist, identifies love of God with knowledge of God: "love [of God] is proportionate to apprehension [of God]. "10 It is no surprise, therefore, that he interprets the love so graphically described in Song of Songs as referring to the intellectual love of God which is the ultimate aim of all human existence. l l Maimonides' philosophical interpretation of Song of Songs is most succinctly summarized at the end of his Book 0/ Knowledge, in "Laws of Repentance," X. 3: How does one love [God] properly? It is to love God with a great and exceeding love, so exceedingly strong that his soul is preoccupied Uiterally: tied up] with the love of God, so that he is constantly ravished by it, like people sick with love whose thoughts are never free of the love of that woman [whom they love]. ... All of Song of Songs is an allegory concerning this matter.

Song of Songs, then, may appear to describe the physical attraction between "a man and a maid," and it may have been used to symbolize the love between God and Israel, but what it really refers to is human striving for intellectual perfection and through it felicity. Maimonides never composed a fully worked out commentary on Song of Songs. But his comments here show clearly how he would have interpreted it. Indeed, the various philosophical interpretations of Song of Songs written by medieval Jews after Maimonides all follow his lead. Several commentaries on Song of Songs in a "Maimonidean" mode were written before that of Gersonides. 12 Two of these, by Moses Ibn Tibbon S These philosophers considered the sense of touch in general and sex in particular to be repulsive and animal-like, the very antithesis of our true human nature. See, for example, Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed III.S. 10 Ouide of the Perplexed IILS1, p. 621. All citations from the Guide are taken from the translation of Shlomo Pines (Chicago, 1963). On this issue see my Maimonides on Human Perfection (Atlanta, 1990), pp. 29-33. 11 This is the love that Spinoza was to call amor Dei intellectualist 12 For a detailed and exhaustive account of medieval Jewish commentaries on Song of Songs generally (including, of course, the philosophical commentaries), see Dov (Barry) Walfish's marvelous "Annotated Bibliography of Medieval Jewish Commentaries on Song of Songs· [Hebrew 1. in Sarah Yafet (ed.),

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and Immanuel of Rome,13 adopt approaches generally congenial to Gersonides and were written by individuals who lived shortly before him. Moses Ibn Tibbon lived in close geographical proximity to Gersonides and Immanuel in what might be called cultural proximity, and yet Gersonides claims to have seen no commentaries on Song of Songs which "could be construed as a correct explanation" of it.14 That Gersonides may not have known Immanuel's commentary is not all that surprising: Immanuel was Gersonides' senior by only about 17 years and lived all his life in Italy. It would not be odd for his commentary not to have come to Gersonides' attention at all. Such, however, is surely not the case with Moses Ibn Tibbon's commentary. This is so for three reasons, each of which will have to be examined separately: the first is the geographical and temporal proximity of Moses Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides; the second is the similarity of their approaches to Song of Ha-Mikra bi-Re'i Melarshav: SeIer Zikaron Ie-Sarah Kamin [Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1994), pp. 518-71. 13lmmanuel ben Solomon of Rome (c. 1261-1328), was an older contemporary of Oersonides'. On Immanuel, see See Dov Varden, Introduction to Mahbarot Immanuel ha-Romi [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1957), pp. 11-19. Immanuel's commentary was analyzed and the subject of philosophic commentaries on Song of Songs summarized in Israel Ravitzky, "R. Immanuel ben Shlomo of Rome, Commentary to the Song of Songs, Philosophical Division" [Hebrew] (MA Thesis, Hebrew University, 1970). This thesis is an extremely valuable source of information on our topic. Among many other things, Ravitzky demonstrates Immanuel's dependence upon Moses Ibn Tibbon In his commentary on Song of Songs. Ravitzky also provides a transcription of the philosophical portions of Immanuel's commentary. Further on Moses Ibn Tibbon's commentary on Song of Songs see Uriel Simon, "Interpreting the Interpreter: Super-commentaries on Ibn Ezra's Commentaries," in Isadore Twersky and Jay M. Harris (eds.), Rabbi Abraham ibn Eua: Studies in the Writings 01 a Twelfth-Century Jewish Polymath (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 86-128, 103-04. The text of the commentary was published in Lyck, in 1874. 14 Note should be taken of the fact that Abraham Ibn Ezra, in the introduction to his commentary to Song of Songs, says that "the philosophers [anshei ha-mehkar] have interpreted this book as dealing with universal matter, and the way in which the supernal soul joins with the body .... " I do not know to whom he is referring (the comment sounds like the work of Solomon Ibn Oabirol, or some other neo-Platonist) but from his coment we may infer that at least one philosophically oriented commentary on Song of Songs was composed before the first half of the twelfth century, when Ibn Ezra flourished. (Ibn Ezra is quoted often by Oersonides in his commentary to the Torah; there are also a number of places in the commentary to Song of Songs where his commentary might have influenced Oersonides.) Rabbi Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra's Commentary on Canticles after the First Recension was edited by H. J. Matthews and published in London in 1874.

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Songs; the third is the fact that they both belonged to the same embattled

minority. Moses Ibn Tibbon was born in Montpellier and apparently spent most of his life there. His translations, for which he is most famous, were all made in the years 1244-1274. Aside from the first year of this period, when he visited his relation Jacob Anatoli in Naples,15 Moses apparently spent all of his time in Montpellier. Montpellier is less than one hundred miles from Avignon and Orange, the towns in which Gersonides spent his life (on which, see below). Contacts among Jews in the various communities of Provence, as the Jews called the area (parts of which are known to the French themselves as Languedoc), were intimate. 18 The political situation was such that familial, commercial, religious, and intellectual interchanges between the Jews of Avignon, Montpellier, and Barcelona (the importance of which will come up belOW) were common (see map). Gersonides, it turns out, not only could have been aware of the work of Moses Ibn Tibbon, but actually owned several of Moses' Hebrew translations of Averroes, a partial copy of Anatoli's Malmad, a copy of Samuel Ibn Tibbon's Ma'amar Yikkavu ha-Mayim, and, it appears likely, a copy of Samuel's commentary on Ecclesiastes. 1? But owning copies of other works by Moses Ibn Tibbon, and by members of his family (whose connection with him, it must be emphasized was strongly 15ln his Malmad ha-Taimidim, p. 12, Anatoli refers to Samuel Ibn Tibbon, Moses' father, as his ~atan. On this basis, most scholars claim that Jacob was Samuel's son-in-law, and hence Moses' brother-in-law. In the Introduction to his commentary on Song of Songs, however, and in the commentary itself, Moses repeatedly refers to Jacob as his uncle (dod). Assuming that Moses knew his own family better than nineteenth and twentieth century scholars do, I suspect that Jacob was Samuel's brother-in-law, not his son-in-law. I do not find the matter of sufficient interest or importance to Investigate further and will content myself with noting that some family relation obtained between Moses and Jacob without attempting to determine what exactly it was. 18 See Richard W. Emery, The Jews 01 Perpignan in the Thirteenth Century: An Economic Study Based on Notarial Records (New York, 1959), pp. 12-17 and Bernard Septimus, Hispano-Jewish Culture in Transition: The Career and Controversies 01 Ramah (Cambridge, 1982), p. 46. Other relevant studies will be cited below in a slightly different context. l?See Gerard E. Wei!, La bibliotheque de Oersonide d'apres son catalogue outogaphe (Louvain, 1991); for Moses' translations of Averroes, see the index, p. ISS, under "Mosheh ben Shemu'el Ibn Tibbon;" for Anatoli, see p. 58; for Ma'amar Yikkavu ha-Mayim, see p. 90; and for the Ecclesiastes commentary, see p. 60.

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intellectual, and not just familial) 18 does not prove by any means that Gersonides was familiar with Moses' commentary on Song of Songs. Gersonides grew to maturity it would seem, when Moses Ibn Tibbon was already an older man, or had already died. The two lived in communities separated by roughly one hundred miles (even in the middle ages, not an insuperable distance, especially in an area of fairly intense commercial activity, and in an area in which Jews in particular moved around quite a bit18) but closely connected by all sorts of commercial, familial, and cultural ties.20 Moreover, the area in which they lived was perceived by the Jews as being fairly homogeneous (so much so that they ignored shifting political boundaries and simply referred the area as "Provence"). We have seen that Gersonides was familiar with Moses' activity as a translator of Averroes, and owned (and presumably read!) works by members of Moses' immediate family. But more than that, Gersonides and Moses were joined by a commonality of interest and outlook, one which would make it even more likely that the former would know the work of the latter. This point may be sharpened by comparing the views of the two authors concerning the work under discussion here, Song of Songs. On p. 6 of his Introduction, Moses makes the following statement: I, Moses, son of R. Samuel, son of R. Judah ben Tibbon of Rimmon in Spain,21 z"l, seeing this very precious and great scroll. and seeing that earlier [commentators] followed various approaches which failed properly to attend to its details and to the division of its parts, and understood it all entirely in terms of [rabbinic] 18 In a number of valuable studies Aviezer Ravitzky has drawn attention to the fact that a circle of like-minded Jewish thinkers, centered on the Ibn Tibbon family, functioned in Provence and Italy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. See Aviezer Ravitzky, "Mishnato shel R. Zerahiah ben Shea/tiel ben Yizhak Hen vi-ha-Hagut ha-Maimonit-Tibbonit bi-Meah ha-Yod-Gimmel," [H~brew]' (Ph.D. Dissertation, Hebrew University, 1978): "Samuel Ibn Tibbon and the Esoteric Character of the Guide of the Perplexed," AJS Review 6 (1981): 87-123; "AI Derekh Hakiratah shel ha-Philosophia ha-Yehudit bimei ha-Benayim," Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 1 (1981): 7-22: "Sitrei Torato shel Moreh ha-Nevukhim," Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 5 (1986): 23-69. This last appeared in English as "The Secrets of the Guide to the Perplexed: Between the Thirteenth and Twentieth Centuries," in I. Twersky (ed.), Studies in Maimonides (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 159-207. 18 On both these matters see Emery, above, note 16. 20 See Simha Goldin's article in this collection. 21 Granada, Judah Ibn Tibbon's birthplace, was often called "Rimmon Sefarad" (i.e., "the pomegranate of Spain") in medieval Hebrew literature.

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homilies - even the sage Ibn Ezra is included in their number despite their knowing the testimony of the Sage R. Akiva. who said that "all the Writings are holy. but Song of Songs is the holy of holies." I set myself the task of commenting on it22 originally. following after what Maimonides had explained concerning some of its verses. and upon which my father and teacher had expanded.

Moses Ibn Tibbon here tells us explicitly that his commentary on Song of Songs is Maimonidean in nature. 23 The reference to his father, Samuel Ibn Tibbon, relates to comments the latter made on Song of Songs in his commentary on Ecclesiastes.24 Moses' commentary is indeed Maimonidean in its approach to Song of Songs. "Solomon" in Song of Songs is presented as symbolizing the perfection of human intellect and its conjunction with the separate intellect (p. 8) and the point of the poem in its entirety is to direct one to love God, to cleave to God, and thus earn immortality (p. 9). This approach is sketched out in greater detail on p. 11, where Moses Wlderstands Song of Songs as describing the conjunction of the human soul with its intellect or the conjunction of the human intellect with the separate intellect, where the "human soul" here refers to the material (or potential) intellect. When actualized, this intellect cleaves to the separate intellect and thus becomes immortal. Moses interprets the specific symbols in Song of Songs in light of these guidelines. The "daughters of Jerusalem," for example, are faculties of the soul, while the beloved (dod) refers either to God or to the Active Intellect. Gersonides' approach, while differing in detail (as we will see below), is similar to that of Moses in overall approach. Gersonides defines the Literally: "I said to myself to write .... " Moses' commentary, see, in addition to I. Ravitzky's thesis (above, note 14), pp. 37-46, Georges Vajda, L'amour de Dieu dans [a th~o[ogle juive du moyen age (Paris, 1957), pp. 179-80; Colette Sirat. "La pens~e philosophique de Moise Ibn Tibbon, " REJ 138 (1979): 50S-IS; Sirat, A History 01 Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 228-32; and J. Sarachek. Faith and Reason: The Conflict Over the Rationalism 01 Maimonides (Williamsport, 1935), pp. 184-85. Further on Moses. see Zvi Diesendruck, "Samuel and Moses Ibn Tibbon on Maimonides' Theory of Providence," HUCA 11 (1936): 341-66 and pp. 61-63 of Gad Freudenthal's extremely important "Les sciences dans les communaut~s juives m~di~vales de Provence: leur appropriation, leur rale," REJ 153 (1993): 29-136. 24 In his dissertation, Aviezer Ravitzky (above, note 19) cites comments on Song of Songs by Samuel Ibn Tibbon in his commentary on Ecclesiastes on pp. 11r, 2Sv, 50r, 76r, 94r, and 123v-124r of ms Parma 2182. 22

23 On

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ultimate felicity of a human being as "cognizing and knowing God to the extent that that is possible for him".25 Song of Songs is an attempt both to describe the stages of this cognition and to guide the individual seeking ultimate felicity by its achievement. The main topics dealt with in the poem are the following: (a) the overcoming of those impediments to cognition (and thus to felicity) related to immoral behavior; (b) the overcoming of those impediments caused by failure to distinguish between truth and falsity; (c) the need to engage in speculation according to the proper order; (d) the division of the sciences (mathematics, physics, metaphysics) and how nature reflects that division; (e) characteristics of these types of sciences. Like Moses, Gersonides understands the specific images found in Song in Songs as symbols referring to the human quest for intellectual perfection; thus, Jerusalem stands for humankind - just as humans, among all the compounded entities, are set apart for the worship of God, so is Jerusalem set off from other cities. Furthermore, the name Jerusalem is derived from the Hebrew word for perfection; humans are the most perfect of all the sublunar entities and thus called Jerusalem. The faculties of the soul are the daughters of Jerusalem while Solomon refers to the intellect. Since Zion is the worthiest part of Jerusalem, the daughters q Zion refer to those faculties of the soul closest to the activity of the intellect. We have established. then. that Gersonides lived shortly after Moses Ibn Tibbon, in close physical. commercial, and cultural proximity to him, and that they both understood the nature of Song of Songs in much the same way. We have also seen that Gersonides owned others of Moses' literary productions, as well as books written by members of the latter's immediate family. None of this, however, makes it necessary or even particularly likely that Gersonides should have been familiar with Moses' commentary on Song of Songs. For this, we must look at another kind of proximity between the two, beyond geography, time, and even general intellectual inclinations. On July 26, 1305, corresponding to the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, the most somber day in the Jewish calender, marking the destruction of both Temples and the end of Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel, as well as many other national and spiritual calamities, the Jewish community of Barcelona met under the leadership of the leading rabbinic authority of the day, R. Solomon Ibn Adret (Rashba; c. 25 See Hebrew text, p. 18 and English translation, p. 190 (see above, note 5).

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1235 - c. 1310) formally, publicly, and solemnly to ban the study of philosophy (specifically, physics and metaphysics) by individuals under the age of 25. To study philosophy before the age of 25, or to teach it to individuals under that age, was to court excommunication.28 The ban was imposed one hundred and one years after the death of Maimonides and capped a century of intermittent agitation on the Subject.27 In the run-up to the imposition of the ban itself a wide-ranging debate took place, involving Jews from Catalonia and Provence, in particular the cities of Barcelona (home of the Rashba) , Lunel, Perpignan, Montpellier, and Beziers.28 The debate was acrimonious and heated, and divided communities and families. Given the solemnity with which the ban was imposed, the agitation which preceded it, the way in which individuals were forced by the participants in the debates preceding the ban to range themselves in one or the other of the opposed camps, it is not possible that Gersonides, who was 17 at the time of the ban, could have been unaware of what was happening or uninterested in it. It must be further recalled that Gersonides was, for all his scientific and philosophical attainments, an accomplished halakhist and could not have been either ignorant of the Rashba's work or unimpressed with it. But despite that, just 12 years after the imposition of the ban, Gersonides published his philosophical opus, Wars oJ the Lord. It thus seems likely that Gersonides consciously refused to comply with the terms of the ban when it was promulgated. For our purposes, then, we see that Gersonides not only lived shortly after Moses Ibn Tibbon flourished, in reasonably close geographical proximity. and in very close cultural and intellectual proximity. but that 28 The ban itself, a series of three letters, has never been critically edited, translated in its entirely into any European language, or annotated. These letters may be found in the Responsa of the Rashba, nos. 414-17. A small portion of the text was translated to English by Jacob R. Marcus in The Jew in the Medieval World (Cincinnati, 1938), pp. 189-92. See also, Ram Ben Shalom'S article in this collection. 27 For a history of the disputes, see J. Sarachek, Faith and Reason: The Con/lict ()1)er the Rationalism of Maimonides (New York, 1970). On the ban itself see Marc Saperstein, "The Conflict over the Rashba's Herem on Philosophical Study: A Political Perspective," Jewish History 1 (1986):' 27-38 and the sources cited there. 28 See, for example, Dov Schwartz, "Rationalism and Conservatism: The Philosophy of Rabbi Solomon ben Adreth's Circle" [Hebrew). Da'at 32-33 (1994): 143-82, esp. pp. 181-82; Abraham S. Halkln, "Yedaiah Bedershi's Apology," A. Altmann (ed.), Jewish Medieval and Renaissance Studies (Cambridge, 1967), pp. 165-84; and Saperstein's "The Conflict over the Rashba's Iferem on Philosophical Study: A Political Perspective."

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Gersonides clearly and self -consciously belonged to a beleaguered and harassed camp within the Jewish community of his time and place, a camp in which Moses Ibn Tibbon had to have been considered a major fJgure. 29 Is it really possible that Gersonides was unaware of Moses' commentary on Song of Songs? The implications of this for the nature of communication among Jews in the middle ages are considerable. If indeed Gersonides had never seen Moses Ibn Tibbon's commentary on Song of Songs, then we must really wonder what efforts philosophically oriented Jews in that period made to disseminate their own ideas and find the publications of other like-minded Jews. so Moses Ibn Tibbon, after all, clearly did not write his commentary on Song of Songs in order to secure promotion at some university or other. Given the way that he refers in the commentary over and over to the works of his father and of Anatoli it seems very likely that A. Ravitzky is correct in seeing this commentary as part of a cooperative effort to explicate all the Biblical books in the spirit of Maimonides; it is not credible, therefore, to assume that Moses wrote it for his own private satisfaction or for a small circle of intimates. No, the work was clearly meant to be read by as wide a circle as possible. 31 For his part, aside from the Bible, Talmud, Maimonides, and himself, Gersonides quotes from no Jewish authors in his commentary on Song of Songs.32 If he had read Moses' commentary, why pretend that he had not? As we saw above, they started from similar standpoints and arrived at similar conclusions. Why not use the authority of Moses to bolster his 29 Remember that Gersonides called his philosophical magnum opus Wars of the Lord, indicating, perhaps, its polemical intent. Could this reflect the cultural environment in which he found himself after 1305? so Note should be made of the fact that Gersonides consistently justifies his writings on the grounds that he had found no previous compositions which served the purpose of his own writings. This implies that he had looked for such compositions. For instances of this, see the passage from the commentary on Song of Songs with which I opened this study, Gersonides' Introduction to his commentary on Job, Wars of the Lord, Introduction (Leipzig, 1866), p. 4, and Wars of the Lord, V. 1.1. 31 On the efforts of members of Ibn Tibbon's circle to circulate philosophical ideas and propagandize for them, see my "Gersonides' Commentary on Song of Songs: For Whom Was it Written and Why?,· G. Dahan (ed.), Gersonide en son temps (Louvain, 1991), pp. 81-107. S2 While quoting heavily from Aristotle (49 times), and less heavily from Ptolemy (3 times); Epicurus, Ghazzali and Averroes are each cited once. I ought to note, so as not to convey a false impression, that Gersonides, like Malmonides before him, rarely quotes from post-Talmudic Jewish authors (other than Maimonides) .

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own interpretations? This is precisely what Immanuel of Rome did in his commentary on Song of Songs, borrowing liberally, heavily, and explicitly from Moses. The question of how medieval Jewish philosophers related to earlier authorities is both interesting in and of itself and clearly relevant to our theme. While individual medieval philosophers were not immune to the temptation to borrow from earlier figures without attribution (a point to which I shall return below), and appeals to authority were a staple of the rabbinic tradition, Maimonides and Gersonides both appear to have adopted a respectfully critical approach to earlier thinkers and appear never to have cited these figures simply as authorities. Maimonides is explicit on this issue: "The great sickness and the grievous evil (Eccl. 5:12) consists in this: that all the things that man finds written in books, he presumes to think of as true - and all the more so if the books are old. "33 Not only is Maimonides thus opposed to "name dropping" simply in order to add authority to his positions, he tell us explicitly that he does not always cite his sources. The issue comes up in Maimonides' Introduction to his commentary on the Mishnaic tractate, "Chapters of the Fathers:" Know that the things about which we shall speak in these chapters and in what will come in the commentary are not matters invented on my own nor explanations I have originated. Indeed, they are matters gathered from the discourse o~ the Sages in the Midrash, the Talmud, and other compositions of theirs, as well as from the discourse of both the ancient and modern philosophers and from the compositions of many men. Hear the truth from whoever says it. Sometimes I have taken a complete passage from the text of a famous book. Now there is nothing wrong with that, for I do not attribute to myself what someone who preceded me said. We hereby acknowledge this and shall not indicate that MSO and so said" and MSO and so said," since that would be useless prolixity. Moreover, the name of such an individual might make the passage offensive to someone without exerience and make him think It has an evil Inner 33

"Letter on Astrology," translated by Ralph Lerner in Lerner and Muhsin

Mahdi (eels.), Medieval Political Philosophy (Ithaca, 1972), p. 229. For a recent

discussion of Maimonides' use of his sources, see Isadore Twersky, "Did R. Abraham Ibn Ezra Influence Maimonides?" in Isadore Twersky and Jay M. Harris (ed.), Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra: Studies in the Writings of a Twelfth-Century Jewish Polymath [Hebrew) (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 21-48.

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In order not to arouse the ire of his readers, Maimonides refuses to cite by name the authorities he uses, but he makes that point explicitly, and does not seek to pull the wool over anyone's eyes.36 Gersonides is perhaps even more critical than Maimonides of his predecessors, freely attacking throughout his works Aristotle, Avicenna, Averroes, and even Maimonides. Indeed, the Wars of the Lord is explicitly presented, not as a comprehensive work, but as a series of discrete discussions of issues which had been dealt with incorrectly by preceding thinkers. Thus, even in the "best of circumstances" (were Gersonides to have been full of admiration for the insight, acumen, and erudition of Moses Ibn Tibbon, something which could not have been the case, as we will see below), he is not likely to have cited the work of Moses simply in order to bolster the authority and acceptability of his own. This may have been acceptable intellectual behavior in the eyes of Immanuel of Rome, it most certainly was not in the eyes of Gersonides. Nor would he have any reason to follow Maimonides' practice as expressed in the text cited just above, and use Ibn Tibbon's ideas without explicit attribution, since citing Moses Ibn Tibbon in his commentary would hardly offend any of his readers. But perhaps my assumptions here are entirely incorrect? Perhaps Gersonides had read Moses' commentary, but found it so unhelpful as not to warrant a mention? Let us recall Gersonides' statement cited at the beginning of this investigation, in which he says that he composed his commentary because he had "not found any [other) commentary on it which could be construed as a [correct) explanation of the words of this scroll." Gersonides insisted there that a commentator on Song of Songs explain the words of the poem "according to their intention." No previous commentator has yet done so. Gersonides goes on to exclude Midrash as an appropriate way of explaining the true meaning of Song of Songs and 34 I cite the text as it is translated in Raymond Weiss and Charles Butterworth, Ethical Writings 0/ Maimonides (New York, 1983), p. 60. The philosophers used but not cited by Maimonides here are Aristotle and al-Farabi; see Herbert A. Davidson, "Maimonides' Shemonah Peraqim and Alfarabi's Fusu/ a/-Madani,· Proceedings o/the American Academy/or Jewish Research 31 (1963): 33-50. 36 The question of Maimonides' attitUde towards the intellectual authority of his rabbinic and philosophical predecessors is addressed in my forthcoming Maimonides on the Decline 0/ the Generations and the Nature 0/ Rabbinic Authority (Albany, 1966).

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also rejects as a suitable commentarial strategy the attempt to combine Midrrui1 with a correct explanation of the text. Could it be that Gersonides was not unaware of Moses' commentary, but rejected it because of one of these two failings? I shall examine that possibility below towards the end of this paper, but let me here note that even if that turns out to be the case we are still faced with a question of interest for the history of communication: why would Gersonides refuse to admit that he had read the commentary of Moses Ibn Tibbon? Perhaps our problem can be solved if we can show good cause for thinking that his protestations to the contrary, Gersonides had actually read Moses' commentary. Leaving aside the general orientation which both Moses and Gersonides adopted from Maimonides, and the fairly obvious interpretations of specific symbols in the poem which follow from that orientation, I have found a number of ideas and specific interpretations which Gersonides shares with Moses Ibn Tibbon. The question which must be asked is, did Gersonides learn these things from Ibn Tibbon? In the Appendix to this essay I examine this question in detail; here it will suffice to present the conclusion of that investigation. My examination of the commentaries on Song of Songs by Moses Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides yielded no clear proof that Gersonides was familiar with Ibn Tibbon's commentary. Each interpretation, linguistic usage, or idea in Gersonides' commentary which might be thought to have been derived from that of Ibn Tibbon can be shown to have plausible roots in other sources. On the available evidence we cannot use the similarity or dissimilarity of the ideas expressed in their commentaries to prove a relationship between them. In brief, no "smoking gun" has been found: Gersonides may have read Moses Ibn Tibbon's commentary on Song of Songs or he may not have; there is no clear proof one way or the other. But perhaps we are approaching the whole question of Gersonides' knowledge and use of Moses Ibn Tibbon's commentary on Song of Songs backwards. I have assumed all along that the two commentaries are so similar, and were written by individuals who lived in such close temporal, geographical, and cultural proximity, that it is highly unlikely that Gersonides would not have known Ibn Tibbon's work. I then looked in Gersonides' commentary for ideas, interpretations, or expressions which could be reasonably to traced to Ibn Tibbon's parentage (in the Appendix below) and found nothing unequivocal. But perhaps we should be looking for aspects of Ibn Tibbon's commentary which Gersonides would find objectionable and use them to show that the latter was aware of the

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fonner's work and consciously rejected it? There are indeed very clear dissimilarities between the two commentaries. despite their shared Maimonidean orientation. Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides divide the text of Song of Songs into different parts. Ibn Tibbon speaks of God or the separate intellects as the object of conjunction while Gersonides is careful always to refer to the Active Intellect as the object of conjunction, Ibn Tibbon raises the idea that Song of Songs deals with progress through the sciences only to reject it. while Gersonides makes that idea the whole focus of his commentary. and. finally, the two do indeed interpret most of the verses of the text in dissimilar ways. None of these divergences. however. would seem to justify Gersonides' claim that he had not "found any [other] commentary on it [i.e. Song of Songs] which could be construed as a [correct] explanation of the words of this scroll. II After all. when all is said and done, Moses Ibn Tibbon accepts the Maimonidean interpretation of Song of Songs no less than does Gersonides. The differences between them relate to matters of detail. not overall conception. and certainly are not greater than the differences between Gersonides and Averroes. say. on human immortality. or between Gersonides and Maimonides on providence; in these and similar cases. Gersonides does not ignore his predecessors. he argues with them. Indeed. in all of his writings Gersonides is careful to cite his sources and when he disagrees with a position. presents it fully before trying to refute or modify it.

There is. however. one further glaring difference between the commentaries of Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides which we have to this point ignored. Let us recall what Gersonides wrote concerning the use of rabbinic Midrash in explaining Song of Songs: "He also ought not to combine those derashim with his explanations. for this will either confuse the reader and cause him to misunderstand what he intended. most especially with deep things such as these. or because this will bring [the reader] to despise the words of the author." There is no doubt that Moses Ibn Tibbon is "guilty" of this crime. Throughout his commentary on Song of Songs Ibn Tibbon presents a brief exposition of the "Maimonidean meaning of the verse under discussion and then, typically. a lengthy citation from the Midrash on the same verse. He does thus indeed combine rabbinic derash "with his explanations. II Is this malfeasance so great as to have led Gersonides to ignore Moses Ibn Tibbon's commentary altogether. in effect pretending that it did not exist? I would like to address that and similar issues in the next and final section of this study. Moses Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides lived in what I have called close II

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temporal, geographical, and cultural proximity. They both shared a clear Maimonidean orientation in their understanding of Song of Songs. They were both members of the same embattled minority within their Jewish world. Gersonides clearly knew of Moses' existence, having been the owner of some of his translations. Yet, despite all this, Gersonides nowhere mentions Moses Ibn Tibbon's commentary on Song of Songs. There seem to be three possible explanations for this state of affairs: (a) Gersonides knew of Ibn Tibbon's commentary but sought to hide that fact from his readers, presumably so that he could steal some of Ibn Tibbon's ideas; (b) Gersonides knew of Ibn Tibbon's commentary but for some reason (other than hiding plagiarism) did not want to mention it; (c) Gersonides did not know of Ibn Tibbon's commentary. The first explanation may be rejected out of hand: there is no evidence of such "plagiarism," it is inconsistent with what we know of Gersonides' behavior in other contexts (he is very generous in citing his sources), and he could hardly have expected to "get away" with it. This, despite the fact that as is well-known, medieval thinkers generally felt freer than we do today to appropriate the ideas and words of others without attribution. Canons of citation were certainly different, and the notion of intellectual property apparently foreign to their way of thinking. But within the Jewish world in particular citing a statement in the name of its author was considered a high value,36 and persons who contravened that convention were censored. 37 It has been the burden of my argument in this article that we cannot prove either the second or third explanation: Gersonides mayor may not have known of Ibn Tibbon's commentary on Song of Songs. What are the implications of this state of affairs for the history of communication in the Jewish community of Provence in the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries? Let us first examine the possibility that Gersonides did not know of Ibn Tibbon's commentary. We then have the following situation. In an attempt to further the Tibbonian project of spreading Maimonidean values in the Jewish world, Moses Ibn Tibbon wrote a commentary on 38 As expressed in the oft-cited rabbinic maxim, "one who cites a statement in the name of its author brings redemption to the world" (Megillah 15a). The very fact that this statement was made and then reiterated proves, I would think, both that some individuals were not always particular in this regard and that a casual attitude towards authorship was considered reprehensible. 87 Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508) borrowed without attribution from the writings of other thinkers and was even explicitly accused of plagiarism by the son of one of them. For details, see my translation of Abravanel's Principles of Faith (Oxford, 1982), p. 219.

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Song of Songs. He wrote this commentary, most likely, while living in Montpellier sometime between 1244-1274, in the generation immediately preceding Gersonides' birth (in 1288). Gersonides spent all of his life within one hundred miles of Montpellier. The world of Jewish intellectuals in Gersonides' day was bitterly divided between those who supported the study of the sciences, and those who opposed it; this came to a head in 1305 when Gersonides was 17 years old. The 17 year old Gersonides could not have been unaware of the Rashba's ban and also clearly and consciously contravened it. 38 He had to have identified himself self consciously, that is, with the same camp in the Jewish intellectual world with which Moses Ibn Tibbon (and his entire family) was clearly identified. And yet, despite all this, Gersonides was unaware of Moses' commentary. If this is indeed the case we learn that the diffusion of philosophical works in thirteenth-fourteenth century Provence was fraught with difficulty and that a man like Gersonides could remain unaware of the existence of a work like Moses Ibn Tibbon's commentary on Song of Songs. Communication among Jewish philosophers on matters of considerable concern to them was thus apparently a hit or miss affair. A person like Gersonides would have been an obvious target for Ibn Tibbon's commentary; that he was apparently unaware of it when he wrote his own commentary on Song of Songs shows how such targets could be missed. 3S

But let us examine the other possibility: Gersonides knew of Moses' commentary, but did not want to draw attention to it. The most likely reason for this, it seems to me, is that Gersonides found some aspect or aspects of Moses Ibn Tibbon's commentary embarrassing to the philosophical camp and wished to draw attention away from it, or at least not criticize it by name. Since he himself tells us that a proper commentary would eschew Midrash altogether, and Ibn Tibbon certainly did not do that. it is safe to surmise that this is what Gersonides found objectionable in the earlier commentary. If this supposition is correct, then we have 37 I am not saying that the ban was necessarily effective, or that the young Gersonides felt himself obligated to obey it; rather, I am only saying that whatever his response to it, it strains credulity to think that Gersonides was unaware of the ban or so unimpressed with the Rashba's authority and importance as to ignore the ban without giving the matter any serious attention. 38 My conclusion here, concerning the hit or miss character of communication among Jewish philosophers, is obviously tentative, depending entirely upon the specific case of Gersonides and Ibn Tibbon. The entire body of contemporary literature would have to be studied before the conclusion could be broadened.

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evidence that Gersonides felt strongly enough about the deficiencies of Moses Ibn Tibbon's commentary to write another commentary on Song of Songs and, apparently, felt strongly enough about the solidarity which ought to be displayed towards another member of the philosophical camp that he ignored Ibn Tibbon's commentary rather than criticize it. There is also another aspect of Ibn Tibbon's commentary which Gersonides could hardly have found congenial.4o Put briefly, Gersonides was much more serious about his allegorical reading of the text than was Ibn TIbbon. Throughout his commentary on Song of Songs, Ibn Tibbon jwnbles together midrashic and philosophical allegory, with no attempt to harmonize between them. He leaves the reader with the impression that he found one as forced as the other. Gersonides, on the other hand, takes his allegory very seriously, a point which comes through over and over again throughout the commentary. Thus, commenting on the following phrase in Song of Songs 1:4, Draw me, we will run after Thee, Gersonides writes: This [verse] Is addressed to God, [in order] to indicate the passionate desire - notwithstanding the multitude of impediments - which directs it41 to Him and which draws it so much that It runs after Him, It and the other faculties of the soul. This will occur when the other faculties of the soul are subordinated42 to the servlce43 of the intellect. Or, by we will run after. he and others like him - i.e .• other rational beings - may be meant. In that this desire Is naturally found in all men; this !interpretation] makes more sense.

We see Gersonides striving to arrive at the correct allegorical interpretation of the verse, something he would only do if he thought that the allegory was in truth read out of the verse, not read in to it.44 40 I would like to thank my friend Dr. Y. Tzvi Langermann for directing my attention to this point. 41 I.e., the intellect. The root here for "direct" (y-sh-r) is also the root of the word translated as "sincerely" at the end of the verse. 42 Perhaps, "subordinate themselves. " 43 Avodah can mean work. worship. or sacrificial cult. The Hebrew expression here, avodat ha-sekhel, carries with it connotations which the translation cannot hope to capture. 44 For further examples of many, see the commentaries to verses 1:11, 1:12, and 2:4. For an analysis of different approaches to allegory in medieval Judaism. see Marc Saperstein. Decoding the Rabbis: A Thirteenth Century Commentary

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On balance, however, it seems to me that this second possibility is less likely than the first. Combining Maimonideanism and Midrash and not taking allegory seriously might not have been to Gersonides' taste, but this hardly renders the Ibn Tibbon commentary valueless for a Maimonidean. There is much in the commentary to which Gersonides could have pointed to approvingly had he been aware of it. It seems much more likely that my first supposition is correct: Gersonides was unaware of the commentary on Song of Songs of Moses Ibn Tibbon when he wrote his own commentary, with all that implies for the (surprising) lack of communication among like-minded individuals living in relatively close proximity one generation after another. 45

on tM At,&adah (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 14-15 and 48.

I would like to thank Tzvi Langermann, Bezalel Manekin, and Seymour Feldman for their kindness in reading an earlier draft of this essay and for their helpful comments and Insights. I am indebted to Sophia Menache for encouraging me to examine the issues discussed here.

46

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Appendix: A Comparison Between the Commentaries on Song of Songs of Moses Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides both interpret Song of Songs 1:2 (Let him kiss me with the kisses 01 his mouth) as indicating that human perfection is possible. Moses Ibn Tibbon writes that this verse comes to "indicate that conjunction of the human soul with the separate intellect is possible, for no man would desire nor imagine [lit. "describe"] that which is impossible .... " Gersonides writes at greater length, but makes the same point: In that the acquisition of this perfection is so unlikely that for many reasons it is thought to be impossibie, this sage began [his book] by making the possibility of its acquisition clear. since that is the object of inquiry in this book. i.' .• how it is possible for a man to acquire this perfection. It is not possibie to investigate the way which will bring one to it if he does not first make known that it is possible to acquire. Now, in the light of Guide 01 the Perplexed 111.51 (p. 628), cited above, it is no surprise that both Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides understand this verse as referring to intellectual perfection. 48 What is striking, however, is that both of them interpret the verse as reassuring the reader that ultimate human perfection is actually attainable. Song of Songs 1:5, I am black, but comely, 0 ye daughters 01 Jerusalem, as the tent. of Kedar, as the curtains 01 Solomon, appears at first glance as if it is interpreted by Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides in a conspicuously similar fashion. Ibn Tibbon explains that in this verse "the human intellect addressed the other faculties of the soul .... " Gersonides wrote, "The hylic intellect said to the other facuIties of the soul that ab initio she is black since she lacks any intelligibles, but is nonetheless comely because of her disposition to receive every intelligible when she will be stimulated to do this." But Ibn Tlbbon does not follow up on his opening, and immediately casts the verse back into the traditional midrashic mode. Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides also approach Song of Songs 1:15, Behold, thou art /air my love; behold, thou art lair; thine eyes are as doves, with similar terminology. Ibn Tibbon explains, "that is, I am prepared to accept and bear your activity and form," while Gersonides comments that "the hylic intellect allegorically said, concerning the beauty of this faculty of the soul's preparation and the natural longing between then to cooperate in order to proceed towards perfection .... " 48 Samuel Ibn Tibbon follows Maimonides in connecting this verse to "death by a kiss· in his commentary on Ecclesiastes; see ms. Parma 272/1 (2182), JNUL 13354, p. 50a. But, given the use in Maimonides, there is no need to posit Samuel as the source for his son Moses and Gersonides.

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The similarities we have seen so far do not seem to me to be very significant. In each case the verses more or less cry out for the interpretations given by Ibn Tibbon and Gerson ides , once the overall Maimonidean approach to Song of Songs is adopted. This is not the case with the resemblance between the approaches of Moses Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides to Song of Songs 3:5 and 8:4. Both verses deal with "adjurations" (3:5: I adjure you, 0 daughters 0/ Jerusalem, by the ga~e//es, and by the hinds

0/ the field,

that ye awaken not, nor stir up love, until it please).

Ibn Tibbon is typically laconic: "that ye awaken not - that they not break through, or not rebeL ... " Gersonides is clearer: "This oath comes here because of the great longing to seek out the end: [it urges that one] approach the [different] species of speculation in their order, lest they break through and the end be withheld from them." The term translated here as "break through" comes from the root h-r-s. Both Moses Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides appear to be following Moses' father Samuel's translation of Maimonides' taha.1Jamu (Guide 1.5 [Pines, p. 30]), following Ex 19:21, ... lest they break through unto the Lord to g~e, and many 0/ them perish. Samuel Ibn Tibbon discusses the term in his Perush ha-Millot ha-Zarot, explaining that it refers to the act of entering into a place one has no right to enter in order to see that which one ought not to see. 47 Moses Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides both use a relatively unusual term, invented for the specific use to which they both put it by Samuel Ibn Tibbon. More important than the use of the term is that they both understand the "adjurations" in Song of Songs as relating to individuals who seek to enter areas of study for which they are not yet ready. This point, it seems to me, is more significant than the similarity in linguistic usage. Once they interpret the "adjurations" in a similar fashion, it makes sense that they both use a term found in Samuel Ibn Tibbon's translation of the Guide o/the Perplexed at a point where Maimonides is making a similar claim. Other linguistic similarities between the two commentaries are, it appears to me, of little importance. Thus, both Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides interpret the term aperion in 3:9 to mean a marriage canopy. In this, however, they both follow Rashi's commentary on the verse. They both understand Song of Songs 6:8, There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and maidens without number, as referring to the great number of psychic faculties in the human soul. But, once they adopt Maimonides' interpretation of Song of Songs as recounting the soul's longing for Its ultimate perfection, it is not really surprising that they would each understand this verse In this way. Gersonldes could easily have arrived at this interpretation without the influence of Ibn Tibbon. 48 There thus do not appear to be any places where Gersonides can be shown to 47 Here is what Samuel says: "it Is when one causes himself to enter into that which he ought not enter, from lest they break through [unto the Lord] (Exodus 21:19), the meaning of which is, according to its peshat, that they should not enter a place which they ought not to enter, to see what they ought not to see; its intention is that they not study that which they ought not to study, and thus anyone who causes himself to enter the study of a science before knowing its premises is called hores. 48 There are some other places (such as verse 8:11) where ibn Tibbon and Gersonides offer similar interpretations of specific verses; but these are as easily understood as coincidences as they are as evidences of direct Tibbonian influence on Gersonides. W

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have borrowed interpretations of specific verses from Moses Ibn Tibbon. Can the same be said for the apparently similar ideas which we find in the two commentaries? The first of these is the unusual claim that Song of Songs is the product of King Solomon's old age, not his youth. 49 The idea that Song of Songs was written in Solomon's enthusiastic youth, Proverbs in his maturity, and Ecclesiastes in his disillusioned old age is a commonplace in the Jewish tradition. But the idea that Song of Songs was the last of the three, not the first, was hardly Moses Ibn Tibbon's invention. It is found in the Talmud,50 in the Midrash, 51 and in the Introduction to R. Menahem b. Solomon Meiri's (Perpignan, 1249-1316) commentary on Proverbs. 52 That Gersonides mentions this idea in his commentary on Song of Songs is thus no indication that he read Moses' commentary. We saw just above that both Moses Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides understand the "adjurations" in Song of Songs as relating to individuals who sought to learn things they were not ready to study. This similarity, it turns out, actually reflects a more basic similarity between the approaches of 'Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides. On pp. 24a-24b of his commentary, Moses Ibn Tibbon divides Song of Songs into three parts. The first (1:1 - 2:17), "deals with a man who has not actualized his potential, neither through eating of the fruit of the tree of life nor of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; or, lit deals with) a man of good [moraI] qualities whose beliefs and opinions are true and correct, adopted by [acceptance of! tradition, not [rational) proof." The second part (3:1 - 5:1), deals with "a man who has actualized his perfection and has eaten of the tree of life." The third part (5:2 - 8:14) - deals with "the man who has eaten of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil.· So far, so good; nothing here is reminiscent of Gersonides' division of Song of Songs. But then Ibn Tibbon remarks, 49 Ibn Tibbon, p. 9; Gersonides, Commentary on Ecclesiastes (Koenisgberg, 1860), p. 25b. Gersonides, thus, does not actually make the claim in his commentary on Song of Songs, a point of no importance here. 60 Ba\Ja Batra 14b lists the Hagiographa is chronological order of composition; of the three Solomonic books Songs of Songs is listed there last. Rashi in his comment on this passage explicitly interprets the text to mean that the Talmud here holds that Song of Songs was written in Solomon's old age. Gersonides, it should be noted, owned copies of many of Rashi's commentaries; See Weil, La bibliotheque de Gersonide ••• , index, p. 156, "Shelomoh ben Yishaq de Troyes.· 51 Song of Songs Rabbah 1.10 debates the order of the Solomonic books. The dicussion is introduced as follows: "[Solomon) wrote three books: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs.· In the debate itself, the following options are defended: (a) Proverbs, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes; (b) all three were written at the same time in Solomon's old age; and (c) Song of Songs, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. But before the debate itself, the Midrash speaks of "three descents which Solomon descended.· In that context, Song of Songs is listed last. 62 Perush al Seier Mishlei, ed. Menahem Mendel Meshi-Zahav (Jerusalem, 1969), p. 3. Meiri may himself have been influenced here by Moses Ibn Tibbon; be that as it may, there is no reason to assume that Gersonides was influenced in this by Ibn Tibbon.

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Menachem Kellner It is possible to say, although this is an unlikely interpretation, that the first section deals with the person who studied only the

mathematical sciences; the second section deals with a person who also learned the physical sciences; the third section deals with a person who also learned metaphysics. Now this interpretation may be "unlikely" but it is precisely that offered by Gersonides in his commentary on Song of Songs, and it is certainly the interpretation of Song of Songs which underlies both Ibn Tibbon's and Gersonides' understanding of the "adjurations" in Song of Songs. Can we say that Gersonides adopted this interpretation from Ibn Tibbon? Perhaps the fact that he adopted from Ibn Tibbon an interpretation which the latter rejected explains why Gersonides failed to mention his source? Let us defer dealing with this question till after we look at two further ideas which Gersonides and Moses Ibn Tibbon find in Song of Songs. Moses Ibn Tibbon thus rejects an interpretation of Song of Songs according to which the poem is divided into three parts; the first part describes the individual who has mastered mathematics, the second part the individual who has also mastered physics, and the third part with the individual who has gone past mathematics and physics and studied metaphysics. Now Gersonides divides Song of Song into more than three parts, and certainly does not agree with Ibn Tibbon's actual division of the poem,53 but there are still two ways here in which his understanding of the poem is strikingly like that of Ibn Tibbon. The first is the very claim that the poem deals with the study of the sciences, while the second relates to their order. Is it really odd, however, that both Moses Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides should read a text like Song of Songs as teaching one how to progress through the sciences? On the face of it, perhaps yes, but when we remember their shared Maimonidean background then their shared approach becomes immediately understandable, indeed, almost expected. Both Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides learned from Maimonides that Song of Songs deals with the individual's attempt to achieve intellectual perfection. It was Maimonides also, however, who emphasized the need to approach that perfection in the proper order and in a restrained manner. This is the burden of the letter to Joseph ben Judah with which Maimonides prefaces the Guide 01 the Perplexed, of Guide 1.31-34,53 and of the "parable of the palace" in 1ll.51. 54 It is, I think, fair to say that once one reads Song of Songs in a Maimonidean vein, it is almost Gersonides divides the poem as follows: introductory material, 1:1-1:8 overcoming moral impediments, 1:9-2:7 learning to distinguish truth from falsehood, 2:8-2:17 mathematics, 3:1-4:7 physics, 4:8-8:4 f) metaphysics, 8:5-8:14 53 For a valuable exposition of these chapters, see Sara Klein-Braslavi, "King Solomon and Metaphysical Esotericism According to Maimonides," Maimonidean Studies 1 (1990): 57-86, 66ff. 54 On which, see Menachem Kellner, Maimonides on Human Perlection (Atlanta, 1990), pp. 13-31. 52

a) b) c) d) e)

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a foregone conclusion that one is going to find in it a discussion of the sciences which one must master in order to apprehend God and thus to love God. But not only do we find Ibn Tibbon raising the possibility that Song of Songs deals with the student's efforts at studying the sciences, and Gersonides enthusiastically presenting that as the only correct interpretation of Song of Songs, but they both present the sciences in the same order: mathematics, physics, and metaphysics. This, it turns out, may be significant. In a variety of places in his writings, including most emphatically the commentary of Song of Songs, Gersonides presents the sciences in the order: mathematics, physics, metaphysics. Gersonides maintains that this division of the science is Aristotelian. In point of fact, however, Aristotle consistently presents the sciences in the order: physics, mathematics, metaphysics. 58 Perhaps Gersonides' ordering of the sciences was influenced by that of Moses Ibn Tibbon in the latter's commentary on Song of Songs? While this possibility cannot, of course, be excluded, it does not appear likely to me. This, for a number of reasons. First, and most important, Gersonides' ordering, as I argue in the essay just cited, reflects his realist orientation to science. The objects of physics, for Gersonides, are more real than the objects of mathematics, and the objects of metaphysics are more real than the objects of physics. Furthermore, knowledge of physics and metaphysics (contra Maimonides) brings one to perfection and immortality; thus the two are linked together, not divided by mathematics. To speak anachronistically, Gersonides' ordering of the sciences reflects his own philosophy of science (as well as his epistemology) and it is hardly credible that he owes that orientation to an interpretation of Song of Songs raised in an aside by Moses Ibn Tibbon and then immediately rejected by him. Furthermore, Gersonides' ordering of the sciences is reflected in the tripartite division of Treatise V of the Wars of the Lord, another indication that this order is important to him, not something casual. It is simply not reasonable that Gersonides would have adopted a position so central to his thinking on the basis of an offhand remark by Moses Ibn Tibbon. There is one more issue which must be examined in our search for a "smoking gun,· proving that Gersonides had or had not read Moses Ibn Tibbon's commentary on Song of Songs. This is their respective attitudes towards the nature of that conjunction which is humankind's highest perfection. The issue is complex and a full and detailed discussion of it has no place here. Briefly, Gersonides and Ibn Tibbon agree that humans actualize themselves most fully through a process of intellection the end result of which is "conjunction" (dlWekut) with the Active Intellect. 57 In the tradition of medieval Aristotelianism conjunction was broadly understood in one of two ways. 68 68 For the texts, see my "Gersonides on Song of Songs and the Nature of Science," Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 4 (1994): 1-21. 57 More precisely, Gersonides is careful to define conjunction as occurring between the human and Active intellects. Moses Ibn Tibbon speaks of conjunction between humans and the separate intellects (p. 8) and even between humans and God (p. 9). 68 For the background in Arabic philosophy, see Herbert A. Davidson, On Alforabi, Avicenna, and Averroes on Intellect (New York, 1992). Gersonides' views see Herbert A. Davidson, "Gersonides on the Material and

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Conjunction was either understood as actual ontological union between the human intellect and Active Intellect (the two literally become one) or as epistemic union (borrowing the language of Seymour Feldman), whereby the human Intellect achieves some level of knowledge of the concepts known by the Active Intellect. The two thus share objects of knowledge and in that sense, and In that sense only, are "conjoined." The issue here will become clearer If we take a moment to summarize Gersonides' different uses of the term "intellect." Gersonides, along with most other medieval Aristotelians, distinguishes between the material intellect, the acquired intellect, and the Active Intellect. 59 Gersonides' doctrine of the material intellect is sketched out in War 01 the Lord I.5. As Gersonides presents it on the basis of an extended philosophical debate with Alexander of Aphrodisias, Themistius, and Averroes, the material Intellect is really nothing other than the human capacity to learn. 'Material Intellect' is the name given to the ability humans have to receive properly abstracted sensory data and, with the assistance of the Active Intellect, transform it into intelliglbilia, the proper objects of knowledge. Gersonides defines the acquired intellect succinctly as "the intelligibles that accrue from abstracting material forms from their matter. "60 The acquired intellect, In other words, Is really nothing other than a collection of ideas. Gersonides devotes Wars 01 the Lord 1.11 to a proof that "the acquired intellect is everlasting." Gersonides there adds to our Information concerning the nature of the acquired intellect, maintaining that "it is clear that the acquired intellect Is the perfection of the material intellect brought about by the Active Intellect," and that "the acquired Intellect is itself the order obtaining in the sublunar world that Is inherent In the Active Intellect. "61 It is not just any ideas, then, that constitute the acquired intellect, but just those ideas found in a systematic fashion in the "mind" of the Active Intellect. By "acquiring" ideas found in a perfect and systematic fashion in the Active Intellect, humans achieve immortality through the permanent existence of these Ideas In the Active Intellect. This is the "epistemic" sense of conjunction. The Active Intellect in Gersonides' view is the "lens" through which the other separate intellects influence the sublunar world, the giver of forms In that world, and the cause of human knowledge (including prophetic knowledge). Gersonides is one of the very few medieval Jewish or Muslim Aristotelians to define conjunction in epistemological as opposed to ontological terms. In a recent and very insightful article, Shalom Rosenberg maintains that Moses Ibn Tibbon Active Intellects," Gad Freudenthal (ed.), Studies on Gersonides: A FourteenthCentury Jewish Philosopher-Scientist (Leiden, 1992), pp. 195-265, and Seymour Feldman, "Gerson ides on the Possiblity of Conjunction with the Agent Intellect," AJS Review 3 (1978): 99-120. 58 On this subject see my forthcoming, "Gersonides on the Role of the Active Intellect in Human Cognition," Hebrew Union College Annual. 59 This definition is found in Gersonides' supercommentary to Averroes' Epitome 01 the De Anima; see Jesse Stephen Mashbaum, NChapters 9-12 of Gersonides' Supercommentary on Averroes' Epitome 01 the De Anima: The Internal Senses," (Ph. D. Diss., Brandeis University, 1981), p. 150. BO Leipzig, 1866, p. 82; S. Feldman, trans, The Wars 01 the Lord, vol. 1 (Philadelphia, 1984), pp. 212-13.

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adopted the same view in his commentary on Song of Songs. 82 Rosenberg (p.142) points to Ibn Tibbon's commentary on Song of Songs 1:2 (p. 8a of the commentary): "It says, let him kiss me in the third person, and for thy love is beUer than wine (Song of Songs 1:2) In the second person to Indicate that apprehension of God [sic!) is not constant, but [God) will be apprehended once and another time not, like the light of the f/amin& sword which turned every way (Genesis 3:24)."sa The episodic nature of conjunction indicated here proves, Rosenberg affirms, that Moses Ibn Tibbon adopted an epistemological, not ontological, understanding of conjunction. Ontological union, after all, is not something that comes and goes; it is actual (and according to Rosenberg, apparently, permanent) union. Assuming Rosenberg to be correct here, what does this say about the relationship between the commentaries of Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides? Well, if Ibn Tibbon really did understand conjunction in epistemological terms in his commentary on Song of Songs, and was one of the few medieval Jews to hold that view, and Gersonides knew that he held this view in his commentary on Song of Songs, is it really credible that Gersonides would maintain that he had "not found any [otherl commentary on it [Song of Songs) which could be construed as a [correct) explanation of the words of this scroll"? It does seem unlikely. If Shalom Rosenberg is correct, then it seems that we have a fairly strong indication that Gersonides did not know Ibn Tibbon's commentary. In this particular case, however, I think that Rosenberg is supporting a fairly heavy conclusion with rather a thin reed. Is it indeed the case that ontological conjunction cannot be episodic? Averroes held an ontological view of conjunction;84 yet for him conjunction was clearly episodic in nature. 85 Maimonides' views on this subject are not clear, although on balance it appears that his view of conjunction was more ontological than epistemological. 88 Not only is he unclear on whether or not he adopts an ontological or epistemological theory of conjunction, and unclear on the question of with what (or whom) one achieves conjunction, but he is also inconsistent on whether or 82 See Shalom Rosenberg, "Philosophical Hermeneutics on the Song of Songs, Introductory Remarks" [Hebrew), Tarbiz 59 (1990): 133-51. 83 In discussing the apprehension of the secrets of the Torah in the Introduction to the first part of the Guide of the Perplexed (p. 7) Maimonides comments, "There are others between whose lightning flashes [of prophetic apprehension) there are greater or shorter intervals. Thereafter comes he who does not attain a degree in which his darkness Is illumined by any lightning flash. It is illumined, however, by a polished body or something of that kind, stones or something else that give light in the darkness of the night. And even this small light that shines over us is not alway there, but flashes and Is hidden again, as if it were the f/amin& sword which turned every way. It is in accord with these states that the degrees of the perfect vary. " 84 See Davidson's article on Gersonides (above, note 59), p. 249. 86 See the texts analyzed by Alfred Ivry in "Averroes on Intellection and Conjunction," JAOS 86 (1966): 76-85, p. 85 and in Ivry, "Moses of Narbonne's 'Treatise on the Perfection of the Soul': A Methodological and Conceptual Analysis," JQR 57 (1967): 271-97, 286. 88 See the sources cited by Feldman, in note 21 of his article cited above (note 59), on the debate over Maimonldes' views on this issue.

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not conjunction once achieved Is permanent. By and large, his position seems to Thus, the fact that Moses Ibn Tlbbon sees conjunction as a phenomenon that "comes and goes" does by any means prove that he held a view similar to that of Gersonldes on the nature of conjunction. We thus cannot use his theory of conjunction as an indication that Gersonides had not read his commentary.

be that it is not. 87

tTl See my Maimonides on Human Perfection (Atlanta, 1990), p. 31 and Sara Klein-Braslavl, Perush ha-Rambam la-Sippurim al Adam bi-Parashat Bereshit (Jerusalem, 1986), p. 256. Klein-Braslavi and I base ourselves on statements such as " ... the intellect which emanated from Him. . . toward us Is the bond between us and Him. You have the choice: if you wish to strengthen and fortify this bond, you can do so ... it Is made weaker and feebler if you busy your thought with what is other than He" (Guide o/the Perplexed 111.51, p. 621). Pp. 624-28 of the same chapter, furthermore, make precious little sense if the episodic interpretation of conjunction is not adopted. But Maimonides does seem to contradict himself on this Issue; see 1.62 (p. 152): "It has been made clear in the books that have been composed concerning divine science that it is impossible to forget this science; I mean thereby the apprehension of the active intellect .... " Lawrence V. Berman seeks to explain this passage as reflecting, not Maimonides' own views, but those of the rabbis whose text he is here explaining; see his Ibn Bajjah ve-ha-Rambam (Ph.D. Dissertation: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1959), pp. 28-29.

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HEBREW LEITERS. HISPANIC MAn..: COMMUNICATION AMONG FOURTEENTH-CENTURY ARAGON JEWRY. Eleazar Gutwirth

In the history of letter writing. the late middle ages is a period offering large collections; those of the Paston family and those of the Datini Archives are the better-known ones. This is also the period during which clergymen and princes lost their former monopoly on letter-writing. In parallel. a change in the form and content of letters is noticeable. The study of fifteenth-century Christian Spain has led to a general recognition of the importance of letters in Spanish life. The study of communication. and of the development of postal systems in particular. had also advanced in importance. 1 The image of Thurm und Taxis - whose invention has been likened to the discovery of America - as the "inventor" of the postal system. as he was called by King Philip II. has certainly drawn more attention to postal systems in the early modem period than to their late medieval counterparts. Nevertheless. such attention has been forthcoming. notably in studies of the Crown of Aragon.2 • My thanks to the Museo y Biblioteca de Correos. Madrid, for its help during the research for this study. 1 For the fictitious letter as a characteristic of certain genres of fifteenthcentury Castilian and Catalan literature, see A. D. Deyermond, Tradiciones y puntos de vista en la./icci6n sentimental (Mexico, 1993), n. 13. On private letters and the possible relation between the Petrarchan humanist letter and those of Profayt Duran, see Eleazar Gutwirth, "Profayt Duran on Ahitofel: The Practice of Jewish History in Late Medieval Spain," Jewish History 4/1 (1989): 59-74 and the bibliography cited. 2 Research on late medieval Italian postal systems has been able to document the intensity and regularity of information transmission, as well as the organization and costs of the postal service. For the work of historians like Federigo Melis, E. Cecchi, and L. Frangioni associated with the Quaderni di Storia Postale, see the notes infra. For the development of mail in Spain, in particular the Crown of Aragon, see Greogorio Cruzada Villamil, Anales de las ordenanzas de correos de Espana (Madrid, 1879); R. Ortiz Vivas, 10 que j'ue el correo en Espaifa. 1252-1918 (Madrid, 1927); Maria Montanez Matilla, El correo en la Espaifa de los Austrias (Madrid, 1953); and the bibliography provided by Jos~ Toledo Girau, "Los correos valencia nos en la ~poca de Fernando el Cat6lico," V Congeso de Historia de la Corona de Ara&6n 4 (Saragossa, 1962): 203-20. For Thurm und Taxis, see Wolfgang Behringer, Thurn und Taxis (Munich, 1990).

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Several features in the development of Christian-Spanish communication provide the background to a phenomenon that began occurring in Hispano-Jewish communities in the late middle ages. In this regard. three apparently unrelated. but major and well-documented features concerning letter-writing are particularly noticeable: • the rise in intensity of the learned non-halachic letter-essay;3 • the substantial increase in Hebrew letter-formularies;4 • the rise of a new type of writing. Jewish letters in the romance. 5 This last extensively continued after the expulsion and led to a large corpus.s All these developments have been studied elsewhere. They have 8 Recent research has attempted to enhance and revaluate the non-halakhic correspondence of the late fourteenth-century scholar from Aragon, Profayt Duran, and suggests that it is possible to place his letters within the context of late medieval notions of the epistle as a work of scholarship leading to the "essay." See the study mentioned In n. 1: Eleazar Gutwirth, "History and Apologetics in Fifteenth-Century Hispano-Jewish Thought," Helmantica, 35,107 (1984): 231-42. I have listed some of the bibliography on Jewish letter-writing in my "A Judeo-Spanish Letter from the Geniza," in Judea-Romance Languages, ed. I. Benabu and Joseph Sermoneta (Jerusalem, 1985), pp. 127-38. 4 The Hebrew letter-formularies constitute a considerable corpus and belong to late medieval Spain, as well. They have recently been used as Indices of the Jewish mind set of the period. See Eleazar Gutwirth, "Late Medieval Fortuna of Maimonidean Ideas on Wealth," in Sobre la vida y obra de Maim6nides, ed. J. Pelaez (C6rdoba. 1991), pp. 295-304; id., "Lineage in Fourteenth-Century Hispano-Jewish Thought," Miscelanea de Estudios Arabes y Hebraicos 34, fasc. 2, (1985): 31-38. 5 Most Jewish letters written in the peninsula in Iberian Judeo-Romance belong to this period: some of the fifteenth-century vernacular Jewish letters may be found in Laura Minervini's important anthology, Testi Giudeospagnoli medievali (Napoli, 1992). See, also, Eleazar Gutwlrth, "Geniza Fragments in Judea-Spanish," Anuario de Fllologfa 9 (1983): 219-23. Another Jewish letter is alluded to in Bernaldez' account of the expulsion. It would be worthwhile to attempt to reconstruct this letter, since it represents the late fifteenth-century correspondence between Abraham Seneor, the Rabbi Mayor of the Jews of Spain, and his son in law, don Meir Melamed. Their social standing contrasts quite radically with that of the correspondents in Minervini's collection and might change notions about the general character of Jewish vernacular letters prior to the expulsion: see Eleazar Gutwirth, "The Jews in the Fifteenth-Century Castilian Chronicles," The Jewish Quarterly Review 84-4 (1984): 379-96: id., "Abraham Seneor: Social Tensions and the Court-Jew," Michael 11 (1989): 169-229. 8 For the question of change and continuity in the Hispano-Jewish epistolary traditions after the expulsion, the manuscripts in the Geniza collections supply an essential documentary basis. Because of the lack of a general classification and catalogue as an independent body of material, their discovery and transcription is therefore a laborious, albeit essential task. Some of these manuscripts were discovered in the past decade. See Eleazar Gutwirth, "Geniza Fragments in

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come to the fore, it may be argued, because of the preservation of certain types of manuscripts and manuscript collections and because of the particular turns taken by modem historiography. These developments indicate, however, a much more fundamental underlying trend: the increased vitality of certain types of letter writing in Hispano-Jewish communities. One basic premise of this study is that these developments were fostered by historical and socio-economic factors; namely, a material infrastructure like means of reproduction, the organization of time and space, copyists, velocity, roads, and means of transport - all are part of the communication process. The Responsa of R. Isaac bar Sheshet, which have been studied in their legal/ha/achic context, provide a well-defined corpus to analyze the development and scope of Jewish correspondence in late fourteenth-century Aragon.? It has recently been argued that there were discernible Jewish cultural characteristics and tastes in late fourteenth- century Aragon, where the urban values of merchants were influential. Sobreques, in his demographic analysis of Christian Spain during the reign of the Catholic monarchs, pointed out that a vacuum existed between the aristocracy and the plebe. The Jews, who "constituted a real middle class," filled the gap. Sobreques describes the Christian merchant class - which appeared in Castile around 1300 and was already evident in the reign of James I in Catalonia - as enjoying social prestige. Many merchants proceeded to the commerce of money. In the fifteenth century, the economic crisis in Catalonia brought about the return of Jews who replaced the Christian cambiador. In the merchants' "estate," urban legal concepts included artisans, pharmacists, barbers, surgeons, and notaries. Much of note in the arts - painters, smiths, architects, as well as poets and famous scientists - also originated in this class. This background indicates the socio-economic similarities between a large number of Jews and the Christian bourgeoisie in late medieval Spain, thus offering the common parameters of this class (merchants, those engaged in the commerce Judea-Spanish," Anuario de FiloloBta 9 (1983): 219-23; id., "The Family in Judea-Spanish Geniza Letters (XVI-XVIII Centuries)," Vierteljahrschrijt fUr Sozial und Wirtscho,ftsBeschichte 73, 2 (1986): 210-15; id., "A Judeo-Spanish Letter from the Geniza," pp. 127-38; a provisional list of the recently published Judea-Spanish letters from Cambridge may be consulted in id., Ten Centuries of Hispano-Jewish Otlture (Cambridge, 1992); and id., "The Hispanicity of Sephardi Jewry: A Geniza Study," Re\lue des ~tudes jui\les 145 (1986): 347-57: [d. "Sephardi Culture of the Geniza People," Michael (In Press). 7 All references are to the standard Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W Teshu\lot (Jerusalem, 1975).

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of money, some artisans, and professional groups). The large volume of documentation on this class that has appeared in the past two decades should alert one to the rise in prominence of these groups. The evidence confirms that it was the bourgeoisie that came to the fore in Hispano-Jewish society at the late middle ages. A few examples will suffice here. The municipal historical collection of Cardona contains a manuscript manual in which notaries consigned transactions or contracts both among Jews and between Jews and Christians from 2 February 1330 to 24 March 1334. The manual includes 327 documents, most of which (287) concern money-lending. About 30 Jews are mentioned, these having an intermediary role between the richest and poorest social strata. Casas i Nadal, who studied this documentation, believes the Jews of Cardona belonged to the middle class. In the Kingdom of Navarre, the archives are particularly rich in documenting the money-lending and commercial activities of Jews in the late middle ages. A study of their economic life can be based on the Pamplona Cathedral and General Archives; at Tudela, the Protocols of Martin Don Costal in the Notarial Archive yield important information. Beatrice Leroy analyzes this evidence: the Jews sold leather shoes, fowl, silk, clothes, and other merchandise in the markets of Estella. Pamplona, and Tudela. Like others in fourteenth-century Navarre, they lent at interest, but smaller sums and at longer terms. Studies of local documentation in the Kingdom of Valencia (bail1a. Maestre Radonal) • notarial protocols. and the Municipal Archive for 1377-1391 lead to the conclusion that most of the Jewish population belonged to the ma mitjana - that is the "middle estate" - with its merchants, physicians, and functionaries. Traveling merchants are more difficult to research, but at times archival peculiarities, such as the duty registers of the so-called coses vedades, serve to document the export and import activities of Jews outside Valencia as well as in Valencia between 1391 and 1492. Several hundred Jews engaged in such commerce have been documented. On a different plane, one may use the Responsa documentation to uncover the inner structure and workings of commercial and financial activities amongst Jews. An analysis of about 800 Responsa of Simeon b. Zemah Duran shows the Jews' involvement in commerce between North Africa and Spain. Against the postulates of a radical change in the patterns of such involvement around the mid-fourteenth century, the Responsa does not support assertions that Jewish commerce was limited to the town. Conversely, the Responsa show how the family continued to provide the backbone of commercial trust, how merchant companies

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developed, and how they engaged in the Mediterranean trade, with a base in Majorca. The movement patterns of certain products - like wine and gold - can be reconstructed for the years 1391-1444. Commercial ties between Jews and converstJs are documented by the Responsa, thus indicating how certain bonds withstood conversion. There are analogies here with a documented study of the Castilian aljama of Segovia later in the fifteenth century, in which family and other bonds served as a basis for the commerce between Jews and converstJs, This well-documented population shared a certain identity by its choice of occupation. SAnchez Arevalo, the fifteenth-century politicaltheological thinker, contemptuously described them as "mercenarios y mercatarios" that is, "mercenary merchants." The Catalonian Francesch Eiximenes had perhaps a less negative though still critical approach. What is of importance is that the highly visible and well-documented late-medieval Hispanic Jews engaged in monetary transactions and commerce and constituted a bourgeoisie. Their affinity with their non-Jewish counterparts are evident in issues that lay at the heart of urban life and mentality of the period, particularly in regard to the institutions of local government. The well-known coincidence in terminology of Jewish and non-Jewish institutions and such details as the number of councilors are extremely telling. Equally important are the efforts of the middle estate to achieve larger recognition in both the Jewish and the non-Jewish councils. One of the most eloquent examples of this attitude is the satiric poetry of Solomon Bonafed, with its attack on individuals who belonged to the groups we have been discussing. s The reconstruction of the Christian bourgeoisie mentality has long attracted the attention of historians. In the case of Hispanic Jewry in the late middle ages, there are certain features of the bourgeois mentality that may be suggested. Hispanic Jewry shared with its non-Jewish counterparts a taste for realism; i.e., for the reproduction of reality in art. Toward the last decades of the fifteenth century, it enthusiastically embraced the press, thus evincing its recognition of the importance of reproduction in communication. Jewish merchants and money-lenders, 8 For the bourgeois ideology and tastes of late medieval Hispanic Jewry, see E. Gutwirth, "Jewish Bourgeois Ideology in Late Mediaeval Spain," in Iberia and Beyond, ed. Cooperman (Delaware, in press); Id., "En Maymon Galipapa: Texto y contexto de un intelectual ilerdense (s. xiv)," Aetas del Coloquio de Historia de [os Judtos en la Corona de Ara&6n (L6rida, 1992), pp. 339-48; [d., "A muwashshah by Solomon Bonafed," Aetas del Congreso de Poesta Estr6/iea (Madrid, 1991), pp. 137-44.

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like their non-Jewish counterparts, worked to a certain schedule. Payments were made at certain dates, and commerce was carried on at fairs, which were also governed by a specific calendar, that of saint's days. The surviving Jewish manuscript evidence indicates an increase in the use of non-Jewish dates alongside commercial considerations. A convert of Jewish origin, Hernando de Talavera, wrote a treatise on the organization of time. Whether or not hypotheses of the Jewish character of such writings are fully amenable to proof, is not our main concern. What is of interest is that such hypotheses have been voiced by scholars, who are aware of the lack of such concerns among other groups in the Hispanic population. These traits depended on a material infrastructure, which in the case of Hispanic Jewry is still to be studied. This study will first pay attention to a trait noted by Jacques Le Goff on the basis of non-Hispanic material. 9 Aiming at a reconstruction of bourgeois culture in the late middle ages, Le Goff noted the pursuit of prestige by the individual merchant and his desire to see his particular features exactly reproduced; for example, there is the appearance of the donor's picture in late medieval paintings. This type of construction of "the individual" in the visual arts has a counterpoint in other media in late medieval Spain. Historians have related this trait to the merchant class, whose concern for time, reproduction, and communication we shall reconstruct. I. Letter-Writing - Writing the Self Isaac bar Sheshet was born in Barcelona in 1326. His teachers, J:lasdai Crescas, Perez Ha-Cohen, and Nissim of Gerona, were the foremost authorities in fourteenth-century Aragon. Up to the pogroms of 1391, his rabbinical positions were held in the Crown of Aragon and its most important urban centers, Saragossa (1372-1373) and Valencia (from the late months of 1385). When he left Spain, he was in his mid-sixties. 10 It may therefore be asserted that by education and scholarly environment, R. Isaac bar Sheshet belongs to a particular cultural milieu, that of the Jewish communities in late medieval Aragon. Isaac bar Sheshet's 518 extant letters, covering a period of almost 40 years, between 1368 and 1407, fall within an old, well-established 9 Jacques Le Goff, Marchands et banquiers du moyen age (Paris, 1956), passim. 10 On Bar Sheshet, see A. M. Hershman, R. Isaac bar Sheshet Prefet and His Times (New York, 1943).

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tradition of Responsa writing. 11 Their main concern is with halakhic matters. The tone of these halakhic arguments may be described as "objective" in the sense that they are not ostensibly the result of personal taste or wishes but of carefully constructed reasoning, based on authority and interpretation. They are not meant to be personal and need not concern us here. In addition, there is a component of his letters, usually the exordium, that consists of highly developed rhetorical texts of praise and salutation, but it, too, cannot be easily described in terms of a recognizable personal, individual mode. At other times, however, his personal family ties and affections are more explicit: [from Valencia 1 to Mallorca, to the scholar R. Vidal Ephraim Gerondi. .. and I shall inform you that my grandson ... is well. I brought him here to Valencia from Barcelona about 18 months ago. He is now in his eighth year, and this summer began to learn Mishnayyot. 12

Repeatedly articulated professions of humility should be seen as part of the rhetoric of petitio benevolentiae rather than as personal confession. In some cases, though, the personal element is highly visible. This is the case with letters that allude to his own state of mind and his personal misfortunes, and are not necessarily relevant to the halakhic discussion. Thus, for example, he writes:

11 The genre of Responsa has long been recognized as one of the factors making for cohesiveness in the Jewish Diaspora. Studies of particular Responsa collections tend to concentrate on their use as evidence in legal history, communal Institutions, on whether the rabbi in question tended to leniency or to stringency. The fact that the Responsa are basically items of mail and could, therefore, serve as a source for the history of the postal and communication systems has not yet been the focus of Responsa research. Brief surveys have tended to see the centuries between the Gaonate and the Emancipation as one period, and the area formed by Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East as one unit. Such assumptions, needless to say, are no longer tenable. See, for example, I. Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (London, 1896), p. 76. 12 Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W Teshuvot, no. 309. However, his expressions of affection for Solomon Ha-Levi of Burgos - later to become the Bishop of Burgos - are generally recognized as reflecting the historical reality of the close ties between the two men: "To Solomon Ha-Levi: How honourable the day and how pleasant to recall your memory before me and to renew our friendship and the bridal love which is inscribed on the tablets of my heart as if with nails and behold your scroll has reached me today ... and you have not asked me this because of my understanding, since the gates of understanding are closed before me ... 1 shall open my lips to reply ... may the writings and the letters fly towards you bearing ... salutations." See, also, no. 187.

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My mind is anxious ... for they have opened their mouths against me deceitfully .... In your letters ... shall I delight and I shall answer you briefly. for the lack of leisure prevents me from doing more. 13

Or. in another letter, to Belchite: Despite the fact that my mind is agitated with cares ... for the news have reached me that the elder son of my brother in Barcelona ... has passed away and he was about 18 years old. a good boy ... all the same I shall not desist from replying to your questions. 14

There is a poignant quality to personal digression, such as the following, precisely because the rest of the letter is so radically different in tone: To Alcaniz. to R. Moses Mascaran: ... This is what I saw fit [to answer concerning] your question. And the delay was caused by the fact that the hard news has reached me: the absence of my lady. my mother ... from Barcelona. And all the 30 days [of ritual mourning] I stood weeping and sighing. I was in shock. May your state be as exalted as is wished by the crushed one; loyal in your love. Isaac b. R. Sheshet. 15

A similar paragraph may be found elsewhere: This is what I was able to write in answer to your questions. And it [the reply] was delayed till now because at the beginning of the summer I have had frightening news about the terrible things that happened in Barcelona. where the pleasant young men who were as sons to me had died. And I wrote this about two months ago and I was too tired and weak. 18

or. elsewhere in a letter To R. l;Iasdai b. Solomon. Tudela ... we have also suffered this last winter. They have plotted falsely against us and informed against us to the authorities for a reason similar to yours. Ask these students and they shall tell you what their eyes have seen and therefore the letter from your honor which shines with heavenly brilliance reached me at that time when my mind was anxious. I called to my thoughts but they were not there. I also heard you escaped the city for your life from the plague .... I have not been told as to your whereabouts. 1?

Isaac Isaac 15 Isaac 18 Isaac 17 Isaac

13 14

bar bar bar bar bar

Sheshet Sheshet Sheshet Sheshet Sheshet

Sheelot Sheelot Sheelot Sheelot Sheelot

W W W W W

Tshu!)ot, Tshu!)ot. Tshu!)ot. Tshu!)ot. Tshu!)ot.

no. no. no. no. no.

192. 416. 412. 393. 373.

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Appreciations or evaluations of his colleagues and contemporaries. expressed by means of qualifying adjectives and adverbs. are privileged circumstances of personal references: To En Moses Gabai. If I have delayed my reply ... be not surprised ... the cause was that I went to Teruel to the wedding of one of my important colleagues for whom I have a special affection. IS

or To Barcelona, to Shealtiel f;len ... we sent the letter with the prince, don Benveniste de la Cavallerfa of Saragossa, may the Lord protect him .... 1 know that he is speedy and does not forget. And should he not find your honor there, he shall seek for you wherever you are. 19

Another clear case of individual evaluation comes in a letter that indicates the close links between his position as a communal leader and advisor to various communities and the mental disposition of evaluating personal qualities: To Calatayud, to the scholar R. Solomon Reuven ... your letter has reached me, and about two months before, that honorable community asked me which rabbi to choose for them ... and I replied that the scholar En Biona can pass sentences, and judge, and teach, and preach, and is eloquent in speech and in writing ... and it did not occur to me then that you might wish to leave that honorable community. 20

Questions of friendship and enmity are surely related to this practice. Such questions appear in a number of letters. which have been studied elsewhere as evidence of the tensions between the rabbinate and the community. For example: To Breshk; Samuel Halayo: your letter reached me through R. Moses b. Sedeq and I did not know that he was one of your adversaires and since you sent the letter with him, I read it out before him, and he denied that that was the way things happened. 21 Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshu1)ot, no. 308. Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshu1)ot, no. 370. 20 Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshu1)ot, no. 287. 21 Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshu1)ot, no. 175. On the Responsa documenting the tensions between rabbis and communities on the eve of the conversions of 1391. see E. Gutwirth, "Religion and Social Criticism in Profayt Duran's Writings." Michael 12 (1991): 135-56; [d., "Conversions to Christianity in Late Medieval Spain: An Alternative Explanation," in S. Simonsohn Jubilee Volume: Studies on the History of the Jews in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance Period. ed. D. Carpi (Tel Aviv, 1993), pp. 97-122. 18 19

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Competition for students would be a relevant expression of Bar Sheshet's individualism. Whether one may discern such a feature in the following text - and of course my contention is that one may - its personal tone is in any case undeniable: To Alcal'; to R. Abraham AlcahaU •.• your first letter arrived here with your student, R. Samuel Vivas, and 1 wished to grant him favor and let him study here with my other students •... When he came 1 was about to leave for Barcelona to my nephew's wedding. And 1 gave orders in the house to give him whatever he needed while 1 was away from the city. And 1 was detained there three months. And as he saw that 1 tarried, he left two days before my return, without telling people in the house where he was going. And now 1 know that he is in Saragossa and he is learning there with R. Hasdai. ... And the colleague R. Habib came to us here and learned with us for about one year, and a 'young man from the wealthy ones of J'tiva came here, and he used to give a comely portion [i.e., money) to R. l;Iabib to learn with him. 22

The perception of the letter as a means of articulating personal circumstances accompanies Bar Sheshet into exile in North Africa. In the following letter, the subject is personal space: To Or'n, to R. Amram Efrati b. Marwam .... 1 was very busy moving house for they rented it out, to be reconstructed, and 1 had to move into a small and narrow dwelling which can only contain [little) and had to deposit my books with two or three people until they rebuild the destroyed house and then 1 shall return to my first place. 23

In another case, the main subject is the personal organization of time: To Alcolea .... 1 did not expatiate [so as) to hasten your messenger who stayed here a few days, because he arrived here on Saturday night and on Sunday and Monday 1 had no leisure to write this less 1 miss [my duties) at the House of Study, and on Tuesday 1 started the matter and on Thursday, around the third of the day, 1 sent him off. 24

Of particular importance are the references to the writer's body: To Breshk; My friend, the wise R. Samuel Halayo, your dear letter has reached me and it was as sweet as honey to my mouth for when 1 passed by Breshk and 1 saw you willing to learn the Torah and 22 Isaac bar Sheshet Shee[ot W Tshul)ot,

no. 290.

Isaac bar Sheshet Shee[ot W Tshul)ot, no. 11. 241saac bar Sheshet Shee[ot W Tshul)ot, no. 477. 23

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walking with the scholars, and your voice was pleasant and your countenance was comely; my soul yearned for you and now that your letter has reached me, my heart is glad ... and I shall reply to your letter as far as I can in my iIlness.25

In one case, there is a self-conscious attempt at humor by referring to his own ample girth: To Mallorca, to the wise En Vidal Ephraim .... It is true ... that our friend, the wise R. Moses Gabai had asked me about that ritual bath ... and my estimate is that nowadays an average man needs 20 se'ah [a measurel and not ten as you estimated; and, as a joke, I might say that each of us gauges according to himself.26

On other occasions, the reference is less forced: To Tenes, to Samuel l:Iakhim: I have not desisted from replying at length even though I am now old, and my hair is white, and my hands are weak. For I know all the favor you have shown to the distinguished R. Joseph b. Menir, who was your teacher, may his soul rest in Eden, may the Lord recompense yoU. 27

One may conclude that letters have a privileged location in the construction of an individual persona in Hebrew prose. In the present case, the construction is contemporary with what has been described elsewhere as the age of the Hispano-Jewish bourgeois mentality, which is particularly noticeable in the Crown of Aragon. 28 Such constructions depended on and were inseparable from certain technologies in the general fields of communication, reproduction, and transport in the later middle ages.

n The Postmen Mention of postmen occurs in peninsular sources from at least the thirteenth century onwards. In Castile, they appear in the Sete Partidas; in Aragon, they are mentioned in chronicles and documents. The Jewish messengers or the messengers of the Jews in Spain do not seem to have been sufficiently well paid or organized to form a guild of postmen, like 25 Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshuvot, no. 64. 26 Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshuvot, no. 295. 27 Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshuvot, no. 126. 28 See above, no. 8.

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that of their Christian counterparts: The Co/radta de Marcus, which disappeared at some point in the fourteenth century but was revived in 1417. is a Catalonian example of this institution. The well-known definition of the ideal courier as one who is above all trustworthy, as enunciated in the !iete Partidas, was probably accepted by the Jews, as well. Given the state of the documentation, it is necessary to pay attention to the nomenclature of late medieval couriers. There is a certain ambiguity in the terminology for the official couriers in Iberian romance languages, which may reflect the precariousness of the institution. In Valencia, for example. the nomenclature includes troters or correus; the "director," who is called maestre de correus, but also hostaler de correus. In the last three decades of the fourteenth century, the period of R. Isaac's activity, the Valencian institution acquired special vitality. which characterized it throughout the early modem period. During this time, the term hoste seems to replace the others. 29 In Hebrew, the most frequent usage is shaliah (n'~'U) messenger - although there are others, such as raz (~,) and/or neeman ( leN)). as well. This variety shows a certain lack of recognized identity. as it is easy to confuse couriers with the many other functions that halachically/legally were covered by the term shaliah. In fifteenth-century archival documents in Aragon written in the romance language and concerning the important community of Saragossa, the term salia described a communal officer. A document dated 20 December 1472. however, designates Isaac Zayyat as "nuncio de la aljama de CfJra/IlXia." Other documents mention the "nuncio siquier salia." Since his function consisted of calling the community members to the synagogue. it was thus "servicial." According to a document of 19 January 1466, the members of the community had gathered in the Synagogue of Barrionuevo in Saragossa "por llamamiento de Mosse Ardit. servicial de la dita sinatpga siquier Midras." The ambiguity of the designation reflects the fact that at this stage. the institution of the "nuncio" or "saUa" was not perceived as an independent. major. or permanent function. but merely one of the tasks of certain minor officers. 30 Communities of some importance seem to have had a messenger responsible for delivering their mail. Thus. one responsum reports that "the Calatayud communal officers send the papers to you. and they have Jose Toledo Girau, "Los correos valencianos," pp. 203-20. See my "Inqulsici6n y sociedad en los albores de la modernidad," a draft of which appeared in Luces y sombras de La juderta europea (5. XI-XVII), ed. J. Carrasco (Tudela, 1994), pp. 197-210. 28

30

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this messenger. "31 For individuals, finding a messenger was not always easy. Even Isaac bar Sheshet, with his far-flung and intense correspondence, had difficulties at times. The logistics of the search for a messenger are sometimes alluded to in his correspondence: To the scholar R. Judah b. Asher: After writing this reply, came the festivals, and I found no one to bring it to you till now. And the honorable don Samuel Benveniste gave me the news that you were in Soria and you intended to come to us. Therefore, I did not send it to you for if it is delayed by a few days you would judge me negligent .... I have in my possession three booklets of Avicenna's commentaries. They were left here by your student Isaac AI!tadib [AI!tahdab, in the text] and he wrote to me to send them to you. And as you were coming here, I did not trouble to send them till now, when one of these will bring them to you. 32

One may note the imprecision of the phrase "one of these," to refer to the courier. In some cases, the courier was more than a simple messenger and had to fulfill the functions of an attorney, appointed by a party to act for another in business or legal matters. One example might be the classic legal question concerning a messenger who is "appointed" - there is no mention of fees in the text: "To Frag[a?J. You have asked: 'Reuven is away in distant lands, and his wife appointed a messenger to receive the divorce bill from the hands of her husband'. "33 In another case, the messenger bringing a missive was employed for a further task at his destination: To R. Moses Benjamin, To Salamanca: ... Your letter reached me. It was about the case of the woman who cannot remarry. because she has not been divorced. She had to hold this messenger, and to write to the place where the husband is. They will support the messenger until the husband does what is expected of him. And I asked him ... but apparently they did not do it right ... and this messenger had to obtain certificates, when going from place to place, from famous people, whose signatures are known and recognizable. 34

The "support of the messenger" mentioned here is one of the expenses related to the institution. It seems to have been assumed, whether by the person receiving the letter, the one sending a reply, or by others; and it reminds us of the legacies left by noblemen in Aragon to their couriers in Isaac Isaac 33 Isaac 34 Isaac

31

32

bar Sheshet bar Sheshet bar Sheshet bar Sheshet

Shee[ot Shee[ot Shee[ot Shee[ot

W W W W

Tshuvot, Tshuvot, Tshuvot, Tshuvot,

no. no. no. no.

508. 240. 247. 358.

Eleazar Gutwirth

270

this period. Occasionally, there are references to the time of arrival, perhaps for checking on a messenger's speed and reliability. Thus, for example, in a letter addressed, "To Alcolea, to the wise [EJn Icaq Vidal de Tolosa," we find the following words: "Your messenger arrived here last Friday afternoon and I saw your words; they were true, for the wise don Abraham Alshikh arrived here a day earlier. "35 In another case, we have a graphic description of the time the messenger had to wait for a reply and the support and expenses involved: To Alcolea .... I did not expatiate on proofs concerning debts, to hasten your messenger, who stayed here a few days, because he arrived here on Saturday night and on Sunday and Monday I had no leisure to write this lest I miss [my duties) at the House of Study, and on Tuesday, I started the matter, and on Thursday around the third of the day I sent him off. And the messenger gave about two dinars to the scribe who copied the notebook/papers. 38

The courier was not always an anonymous functionary or professional. It was assumed that if a mutual acquaintance was traveling, he would carry letters. In such cases, communication depended on previous knowledge of people's movements: "To Monzon: I did not know that En Caravida was going, that is why I did not send the reply with him. "37 Isaac bar Sheshet could count on a network of friends, acquaintances, and students, whose mobility was a factor that enhanced the ability and efficiency of his communication. At times, the courier was not a professional but a distinguished member of the correspondent's circle, who carried the letter as a personal favor. Such was the case in the following letter to Shealtiell:len in Barcelona: We sent the letter with the prince don Benveniste de la Cavallerfa of Saragossa, may the Lord protect him so that he should present it to your honor while he passes through Fraga. For I have heard from passers-by that you have there established your throne and your dwelling. 38

In other cases, the courier could be a "wandering student," a recognizable medieval type: "To Alcal!, to R. Abraham Alcahali ...your first letter arrived here with your student R. Samuel Vivas and I wished to Isaac Isaac S? Isaac 38 Isaac 35 38

bar Sheshet Shee/ot W bar Sheshet Shee/ot W bar Sheshet Shee/ot W bar Sheshet Shee/ot W

Tshuvot, Tshuvot, Tshuvot, Tshuvot,

no. no. no. no.

473. 477. 496. 370.

Hebrew Letters, Hispanic Mail

271

grant him favor and let him study here with my other students."39 Sometimes, the fact that the courier was not an anonymous messenger had its deficiencies. The following is a text from the North African period, but it exemplifies a common situation in the Iberian peninsula: To Breshk Samuel Halayo: your letter reached me through R. Moses b. Sedeq and I did not know that he was one of your adversaries and since you sent the letter with him I read it out before him and he denied that that was the way things happened. 40

International or inter-continental post depended on maritime transport. Ships would carry mail, and sailors seem to have been contracted by individuals to deliver it: To Astrug Hacohen: when you were in Valencia, they used to send you from the Arab lands deposits [of money) .... They send [them) to him through an Ishmaelite sailor, telling him 'transport this merchandise to so and so'. "41

The correspondents adapted themselves to the system and tried when possible to respond by the same ship: To R. Amram b. Merwas: I wrote a reply to your letter before Passover and I had no leisure then to reply to your questions and even after the festival a large ship came from Mallorca and many letters arrived with it from my friends who are there on business, and I had to reply to them. Also there were questions amongst those letters which demanded an immediate response and I had to reply by that very same ship and therefore I had no leisure to reply to your questions. 42

Despite the deficiencies of the Jewish postal system in the Iberian peninsula, the reader of bar Sheshet's Responsa has the distinct feeling that the North African mail system was perceived as even more precarious. An example might be the case of bar Sheshet's correspondence with R. Samuel Halayo: Although I have already replied extensively to your questions and I sent you the letter through R. Samuel J:lakim, and you informed me 88 40 41 42

Isaac Isaac Isaac Isaac

bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshu'I)ot, no. 290.

bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshu'I)ot, no. 175. bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshu'l)ot, no. 2.

bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshu'l)ot, no. 60.

272

Eleazar Gutwirth that it had not reached you and said that it was forgotten when he left. 1 wrote to him asking him to make an effort, so that the letter should reach you, and it seems that he did not heed my words ... and although it is troubling to have to write the letter again because of my mind's anxieties, and the city has been under siege for a month, as Samuel Vidal shall tell you; nevertheless, 1 shall reply to your question again in brief for there is no leisure, and had 1 kept a copy of the first letter as is my habit with all my replies, it would not be so much trouble to give orders to have it copied, but since the matter was then of urgency, 1 did not keep a copy with me and sent it as 1 wrote it on the first draft. 43

The logistics of finding a courier in North Africa, too, seem to have been more complicated than in the Iberian peninsula: To Or~n, to R. Amram b. Marwam. One of your letters reached me through a Jew from Seville and another through b. Bitas, and both were treated as was fit by the community and 1 signed b. Bitas' document in your honor, for he is going to Bagia .... A third letter reached me in the middle of the Festival of Tabernacles through my distinguished brother in law .... 1 had neither ability nor leisure to answer but the first one through that Jew [from Seville] and 1 informed you how 1 wrote to you by way of Honein through an honorable merchant from Tlemcen who is an acquaintance of the exalted R. Abraham Sasapu and with his letters 1 sent you a copy of my reply to Malaqa, and 1 have no doubt that it has reached you or shall reach you. and if it has not reached you yet, let me know and I shall write again. 44

m. Routes and Speed of Communication The Responsa of bar Sheshet are clearly divisible. even in the standard printed version. into two main sections: those sent in Spain before 1391 and those sent in North Africa after 1391-1392. The earlier. Spanish corpus contains correspondence with Granada and Seville. but the bulk of its letters were not addressed to Andalusia. When reflecting on his letters to Zamora. for example. one should bear in mind the existence of the former Roman road uniting Saragossa and Zamora and the common northern character of Saragossa and Burgos; these lay behind the ties between Solomon Ha - Levi of Burgos and the Benvenistes or bar Sheshet himself in Aragon. The bulk of the correspondence. however. is to towns. such as Sos. Uncastillo. Jaca. Teruel. Daroca. Huesca. and Barcelona; that 43/saac bar Sheshet Sheelot W TshU1)ot, no. 153. 44 Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshu1)ot, no. 157.

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is to say, those localities that were united by a common road system in the Crown of Aragon.

An additional factor in the communication network was the tendency to improve the roads and transport systems in late medieval Spain. To a large extent, such activity accorded with the interests of merchants and commerce. Bridges were built, roads and rivers widened. A concrete example to create a better infrastructure for commerce in the northern area is presented by Fuenterrabia. The agreement between the town council and the procurators of Charles of Navarre was signed on 8 August 1365. Amongst other clauses, it stipulated that the king was to build a good bridge for the transport of merchandise, people, and animals; that he was to construct roads; while the council of Fuenterrabia obliged itself to construct a "good and sufficient road, cleaning the stones, and clearing and widening the river and the roads. "45 Time is also a factor in analyzing bar Sheshet's Responsa. For over a century, scholars have been gathering evidence of the time it took to deliver mail in late medieval Europe. 4B There is also some data for late medieval Spain. The jurats of Valencia, the deputies of the Generalitat, and the general office of the Bayle established in early 1479 a special post service between Valencia and Barcelona. Because of the fixed posts on the 45 S.Honor~ Duverge, "Notes sur la politique economique de Charles Ie Mauvais en Navarre," in Aetas del primer Con&reso internacional de estudios pirenaicos (Saragossa, 1952), vol. 6, pp. 103-107. 48A fast rider took 30 days to ride from Luttich to Rome in 1215. In January 1216, the return journey took 40 days. In 1434, the Count of Katzenellenbogen took 11 days to ride from Venice to Augsburg. Daily speeds of 50-60 km were considered high; the average was probably nearer to 20-30 km per day. A courier from Nurnberg to Vienna and back in 1449 took seven weeks. Traders, students, and monks doubled as couriers when no service existed. See F. Ludwig, Untersuchungen ueber die Reise und Marsch&eschwindi&keit im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1897); C. Loeper, "Das Botenwesen und die Anfaenge der Posteinrichtung im Elsas, insbesondere in der freien Reichsstadt Strasburg," Archivjilr Past und Tele&raphie 4 (1876): 231-41; A. Korzendorfer, "Die Nachrichtenbeforderung wahrend des Mlttelalters, " Zeitschrift jilr bayerische Londes&eschichte 2 (1929): 36lff; K. Zimmermann, "Vorlaufer und Anfange der Post im Koblenz-Trierer Verkehrsgebiet," Deutsche Post&eschichte 2 (1939-40): 22-41; R. Hennig, Verkehr&eschwindi&keiten in ihrer Entwicklun& bis ~ur ae&enwart (Stuttgart 1936). Some aspects of fifteenth-century journeys by hispanic Jews and their context are dealt with in my "Viajes y viajeros hispano-jud{os en la baja edad media," Caminerfa Hispana (In press). Wolfgang Behringer, Thurn und Taxis. On Italy, see Federigo Melis, "Intensita e regolarita nella diffusione dell'lnformazione economica generale nel Mediterraneo e in Occidente alIa fine del Medioevo," Quaderni di Storia Pastale 2 (1983): 9-70; E. Cecchi, "Federigo Mellss e l'Archivo Datini di Prato," Quaderni di Storia Pastale 2 (1983): 71-92; L. Frangioni, "Organlzazione e costi del servizio postale alia

274

Eleazar Gutwirth

way, the journey could be made in two days and a half. These

were, however, unusually fast posts related to the illness of King

Juan n of Aragon. The postman Juan Curca took seven days to go from Valencia to Trujillo when he delivered the news of the death of Juan n to his son Ferdinand, whom he reached on 29 January 1479. The postman Juan de Torrija took three days and nine hours from Barcelona to Valencia around this time. In 1480, the postman Gualter de Paris took eight days to deliver mail from Valencia to Cordoba. In 1482, Pedro Vergua took seven days and 18 hours to reach Valencia from Vitoria. During the war with Granada, a special system of posts twice weekly - was established between Valencia and the royal encampment near Baza.47 Isaac bar Sheshet's Responsa do not seem to provide data on the speed of medieval mail. They do, however, contribute evidence for another, perhaps equally important aspect of communication. The letters preserved in these Responsa convey a sense of organized time, a lack of leisure, and an urgency, which may be compared to what Jacques Le Goff termed "the merchant's time" on the basis of non-Hispanic and non-Jewish evidence. 48 The idea that medieval time - i.e., the time of communication - may be characterized as dem langsameren Zeitgefuehl des Mitteiaiters, a perception whose radical change about 1490 is subsumed under the postal slogan, "ato. cito, cito, citissimo," is by no means confirmed without qualifications by our material. 49 A concern for time and urgency seems to inform bar Sheshet's decisions on whether to answer at length or not. Such references to the lack of leisure seem to be more frequent in his correspondence than in other Responsa collections. It is possible that the atmosphere of the Catalan-Aragonese area, with the merchants' influence on its inhabitants' valUes, that formed the framework of this attitude. Thus in a letter to nearby Belchite, he writes: "I have heard your sayings for they are pleasant. And I shall reply to your questions in order. But as my leisure denies me time to expand, I shall be brief. "50 Or, in a letter to Salamanca: "This is my opinion about your questions, and I had fine del Trecento," Q./aderni di Storia Postale 3 (1983): 1-68. 47 Jose Toledo Girau, "Los correos valencianos." 48 On the possible relation between Jewish and Christian perceptions, measurements of time, and the relevance of Le Goff's "Time of the Merchant" to the Hispano-Jewlsh mentality, see Eleazar Gutwirth, "Fechas jud1as y fechas cristianas," EI o/il)o 19 (1984): 21-30. 49 Wolfgang Behringer, Thurn und Taxis, ch.1. 50 Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshul)ot, no. 427.

Hebrew Letters, Hispanic Mail

275

no leisure to expatiate on proofs ....1 wrote my opinion in brief. "51 Or, in a letter to En Duran Ha-Ishari: "To the distinguished brother, may your mind be at rest as mine is after receiving your letter and now 1 shall inform you briefly about your questions, for 1 had no leisure till now. "52 In another letter he writes: "I shall answer you briefly, for the lack of leisure prevents me from doing more. "53 In a letter to Teruel he says: "I do not wish to elaborate this matter at length, for it is an old discussion and besides 1 have no leisure to do so. "54 Bar Sheshet introduces time measurements into his letters even when these are not strictly necessary. Thus in a letter [from Valencia] to Mallorca he writes: To the scholar R. Vidal Ephraim Gerondi ... and I shall inform you that my grandson ... is well. I brought him here to Valencia from Barcelona about 18 months ago. He is now in his eighth year. 55

Concern with wasting time may lie behind the apparent criticism of his correspondent's lack of conciseness: "To R. Todros b. David ... and these are their arguments in brief even though they are set forth at length in the question";58 or elsewhere: "To J4tiva, to R. Pinpas bar Salmia Lunel ... this is the gist of your question in brief although [your letter was written at] great length and with rhetorical eloquence. "57 In some cases, the explicit mention of the time of delivery is related to the matter discussed in the letter: "To Alcolea, to the wise [E]n lcaq Vidal de Tolosa ... your messenger arrived here last Friday afternoon and 1 saw your words they were true, for the wise don Abraham Alshikh arrived here a day earlier. "58 In some cases, the arrival of the letters would galvanize a community into action: When your letter arrived here before Passover, I gathered the supervisors of morals [berure a\lerot] and showed them your letter, and asked to bring that scribe/notary, and they did so, and there in public we admonished him and ordered him to desist from [ritually] slaughtering [animals for food] in this city. Neither for himself nor for others. 59

51 Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshu\lot,

Isaac 53 Isaac M Isaac 55 Isaac 56 Isaac 57 Isaac 56 Isaac 56 Isaac 52

bar Sheshet Sheelot bar Sheshet Sheelot bar Sheshet Sheelot bar Sheshet Sheelot bar Sheshet Sheelot bar Sheshet Sheelot bar Sheshet Sheelot bar Sheshet Sheelot

W W W W W W W W

Tshu\lot, Tshu\lot, Tshu\lot, Tshu\lot, Tshu\lot, Tshu\lot, Tshu\lot, Tshu\lot,

no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no.

330. 310.

192. 452. 309. 250.

253. 473. 309.

276

Eleazar Gutwirth

Bar Sheshet not only expresses his concern for his own delays but also measures the time of his colleagues: To Perpignan .•. And I shall inform you of my doubts on the matter

as one who is debating the matter [rather than giving a fixed verdict], and do not be surprised about the delay in my reply. For the file was in the hands of the exalted scholar Don Hasdai ... for about IS days, and it did not reach me till after he replied to you. 80

Speed in delivering a letter was considered an esteemed quality. In his letter to Shealtiel 1:Ien, he makes this evaluation of the courier, the prince don Benveniste de la Cavallerta of Saragossa: "I know that he is speedy and does not forget. "81 Delays always demanded an explanation, since they were understood as neglect. Bar Sheshet's correspondence is replete with such explanations, perhaps more than any other respondent. In his letter to the scholar R. Judah b. Asher in Burgos, bar Sheshet writes: After writing this reply, came the festivals and I found no one to bring it to you till now. And the honorable don Samuel Benveniste gave me the news that you were in Soria and you intended to come to us. Therefore I did not send it to you, for if it is delayed by a few days you would judge me negligent. 82

Bar Sheshet articulates his concern with organizing his time and tries to impress this upon his correspondents. Thus, in a letter to Alcolea: I did not expatiate on proofs concerning debts to hasten your

messenger who stayed here a few days, because he arrived here on Saturday night and on Sunday and Monday I had no leisure to write this, lest I miss [my duties] at the House of Study, and on Tuesday I started the matter and on Thursday around the third of the day I sent him off. 83

Time dedicated to the House of Study takes precedence over correspondence. So does time assigned to public office, as we may appreciate from his letter to Shealtiel1:len: And let my lord not wonder at the delay. For about ten days, I have been engaged with some of the communal notables, may their Rock Isaac bar Sheshet bar Sheshet 82 Isaac bar Sheshet 88 Isaac bar Sheshet 80

81 Isaac

Sheelot Sheelot Sheelot Sheelot

W W W W

Tshu1)ot, Tshu1)ot, Tshu1)ot, Tshu1)ot,

no. no. no. no.

380. 370. 240. 477.

Hebrew Letters, Hispanic Mail

277

and Redeemer protect them. And now your honor's second letter came. S4

A similar impression may be gathered from his letter to the scholar R. Solomon Sarfati in Mallorca: The letter you sent to the perfect scholar, the honorable don J:lasdai, may the Lord protect him, with the book of questions, and he showed it to me ... and he beseeched me to reply and express my opinion ... and I looked at the book and began to express my opinion ... and on the first two leaves of your book, I wrote about ten, but as I have no leisure to write on it consistently and to leave the studies of my House of Study and abandon my works for the community - which have been imposed upon me against my will - I intend to be brief. 85

Similarly, there is a sense of ordering letters in a hierarchy of urgency, which is related to the organization of time: To Mallorca, to the wise En Vidal Ephraim .... It is true that our friend, the wise R. Moses Gabai had asked me about that ritual bath and I was too busy with grave questions asked pertinently and of a practical nature to reply before now. Even now, there is no leisure to expatiate and reply to all the details mentioned in your letter. 66

The Festivals and Days of Awe are part of this hierarchical arrangement of time: To Daroca. to R. J:layyim b. R. Joseph Ha-Levi: As I have no leisure to expatiate because it is the eve of the New Year. I shall not be able to fulfill your request to include abundant proofs. I shall therefore be brief and write only the main laws. B?

Or, elsewhere: "To OrAn, to R. Amram b. Marwa... a third letter reached me in the middle of the Festival of Tabernacles through my distinguished brother-in-law....I had neither ability nor leisure to answer but the first one";Ba or: "To R. Amram b. Merwas. I wrote a reply to your letter before Passover and I had no leisure then to reply to your questions S4lsaac 85 Isaac 66 Isaac m Isaac Ba Isaac

bar Sheshet Shee[ot W Tshuvot, no. 370.

bar Sheshet Shee[ot bar Sheshet Shee[ot bar Sheshet Shee[ot bar Sheshet Shee[ot

W Tshuvot, W Tshuvot, W Tshuvot, W Tshuvot,

no. no. no. no.

364. 295. 205. 157.

Eleazar Gutwirth

278

and even after the festival....I had no leisure to reply to your questions. "89 Time-saving devices are appreciated: "To Amram b. Marwas ... about your question concerning the study of foreign wisdom: R. Ephraim ...had already asked me that in the past, and I send you a copy of my reply to him. "70 Time measurements are mentioned in connection with the post, and convey the sense of the intensity of time pressure in these communities, at least, amongst some individuals. This is the case, ironically, even when the subject is delay: "To Mallorca: ... It has been two months since I wrote this but I was loath to send it. "71 Time measurements of the delivery are included in his correspondence after 1391: "To Mostaganem, to R. David Hacohen, your letter written on the sixth of Teveth has reached me. "72 Time pressures counted even in the pedagogic context. Delay could lead to the loss of students, as in the case of R. Samuel Vivas, quoted above. 73 Time lapses and differences were understood to have professional consequences, as in the case of R. Solomon Reuven, who looked for a post of rabbi. 74 In one case, bar Sheshet seems to express the sense of overwhelming pressure caused by his correspondence: "To JAtiva, to R. Pir$as bar Salmia Lunel .... Be not surprised that my reply has been delayed; I am surrounded by packages of letters from far away places and important matters. "75 IV. Reproduction and Communication

Within the constraints operating in the age before print, reproduction was a prime concern. Copies were normally made of official correspondence. An example is a letter to En Vidal Ephraim in Mallorca: "It is true... that our friend, the wise R. Moses Gabai, had asked me about that ritual bath ...But I ordered the papers to be copied ... and I shall send them to you. "78 Hispano-Jewish Responsa are generally regarded as a genre in which the practice of copying and keeping copies was particularly maintained, the participation of family and students explaining the particular success in preserving extended collections of this Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshuvot, Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshuvot, 71 Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshuvot, 72 Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshuvot, 73 no. 290; see above nos. 23 and 39. 74 no. 287; see above, note 21. 75 Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshuvot, 78 Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshuvot,

89 70

no. no. no. no.

60. 62. 377. 180.

no. 262. no. 295.

Hebrew Letters, Hispanic Mail

279

correspondence. A concrete study of Bar Sheshet's correspondence qualifies and confirms such a premise. Bar Sheshet refers to copying as his own personal habit. Thus, in a letter to R. Samuel Halayo he says: "Had 1 kept a copy of the first letter as is my habit with all my replies. "77 Private, informal letters could be sent without copies. This seems to be the case in the following letter to Barcelona: To Isaac Bonastrluc): Your letter has reached me, and I saw what you said about my letter to the honorable brother, don Samuel Benveniste ... and I had not replied as if it were something important, for I brought no proofs as should be done by anyone who responds. I merely revealed my opinion in a confidential manner and [wrote) what appeared to me to be the case ... this to such an extent that I did not keep a copy of what I wrote to him.78

Bar Sheshet continued his custom of making copies, even later, in North Mrica. This was useful when letters were lost or did not reach their destination: To Or'n, to R. Amram b. Marwam ... and with his letters I sent you a copy of my reply to Malaqa ... and I have no doubt that it has reached you or shall reach you, and if it has not reached you, let me know, and I shall write again. 79

Copyists seem to have been paid for their labors, probably by the community that sent the query. We may learn this from a letter to Alcolea: "I did not expatiate on proofs concerning debts to hasten your messenger. And the messenger gave about two dinars to the scribe who copied the notebook/papers. "80 This trend toward institutionalization is discernible in references to an individual who is a scribe and whose absence or incapacity affects the process of copying: To En Moses Gabai, If I have delayed my reply ... be not surprised ... also the worthy who does the copying hid because of the anxiety of being in prison .... All these things combined to delay [my response) until the Lord wished to be a shield to those who go/travel. 81

One wonders whether the frequent mention of copies in the Responsa Isaac Isaac 78 Isaac 80 Isaac 81 Isaac T7

78

bar Sheshet bar Sheshet bar Sheshet bar Sheshet bar Sheshet

Sheelot Sheelot Sheelot Sheelot Sheelot

W W W W W

Tshuvot, Tshuvot, Tshuvot, Tshuvot, Tshuvot,

no. no. no. no. no.

153. 30.

157. 477. 308.

Eleazar Gutwlrth

280

is not intended as a reminder of the expense incWTed in replying to questions. Copying was felt to be a demanding task. since scribes were not always easily available. Thus. in one letter bar Sheshet writes: This is what I was able to write in answer to your questions. And it [the reply] was delayed till now .... And I wrote this about two months ago, and I was too tired and weak to copy it and to rewrite it. and I could not then find a scribe to copy it till now, the words of he who seeks the peace of your learning, who enjoys your friendship, and is loyal in your love. Isaac bar Sheshet. 82

In some cases. however. students were used for the task. and mention was made of the fact when they were not available: To Jativa, to R. Pln~as bar Salmia Lunel .... Be not surprised that my reply has been delayed .... Even after the holidays, when I replied to you, I could find no one to copy them, for the colleagues [i.e., the members of the yeshilla] even when they are not studying, are busy writing their own work ... and I did not see fit to Interrupt their work. And since time has passed, and in order to ... take away from me ... this which is like the Tabor among the mountains, I took the trouble to copy them with my own hand. 83

Nevertheless, a number of reasons justified the trouble of reproduction. among them the efficiency of having a reply at hand when similar questions were asked in the future. as in the case of Amram b. Marwas concerning the study of foreign wisdom. Bar Sheshet utilized a former responsum when he wrote to R. Ephraim.84 Another was the occasional unreliability of the post or the messengers: To R. Samuel Halayo: had I kept a copy of the first letter as is my habit with all my replies, it would not be so much trouble to give orders to have it copied; but since the matter was then of urgency, I did not keep a copy with me, and sent it as I wrote it on the first draft. 85

It is clear from a comparison of various Responsa collections that sometimes a community would make various copies of one question and send it to different rabbis. The question of whether it was permissible to Isaac Isaac 84 Isaac 85 Isaac 82 83

bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshullot, no. 393. bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshullot, no. 262. bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshullot, no. 62; see above, note 70. bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshullot, no. 153; see above, notes 43 and 77.

Hebrew Letters, Hispanic Mail

281

read the MegiUah - Scroll of Esther - in the vernacular is one example. The following query was sent to bar Sheshet, Crescas, and other rabbinical authorities in the Iberian peninsula. It is possible that the hand of correspondence was adapted to the needs of reproduction and copying, and therefore was less attentive to calligraphy and more to expediency. Apart from the manuscript evidence, it may be possible to adduce the following text. Although admittedly it is primarily a halakhic text, nevertheless one may doubt whether it would be cited in this way if the practice in real life contradicted the main idea; that is, if the correspondence handwriting differed from that of literary copying: It is permissible to learn and certify the signature of a person from

a [comparison with) the handwriting of that book. But [the handwriting) in a letter is doubtful for purposes of establishing the authenticity of the handwriting, for a person is rarely careful about his handwriting when penning a letter, and it changes according to the pen ... and this is why Maimonides allowed writing letters of greeting in the middle of festivals [~ol ha moed) for a person is not careful about letter writing. 88

Nevertheless, accuracy was at a premium in certain cases: Moses Gabai: I wrote to you about the question of the inheritance as you asked me at first, and so that you should know that that is how it was, I am sending you its copy, letter by letter, and I also replied to the other questions in your letter. 87

The official letters of a Jewish community, it may be suggested, like those of medieval chancelleries, were thought to represent the community and thus were consciously seen as a means of constructing its image. That is why sloppy letters detracted from the "communal honor": To Teruel: I have studied the notebook/file with the arguments of the litigants and I have had a great deal of trouble with it because of the many mistakes in it. Were it a Torah scroll, it would have to be consigned to a Geniza [repository of discarded writings) for it has more than four [mistakes) on every page. I wonder at an honorable community like yours and a holy congregation, how is it that you have not thought of hiring a literate notary/scribe, so that no writings with mistakes should come out from your pen. For in

bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshuvot, no. 137. Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W Tshuvot, no. 47.

88 Isaac 87

282

Eleazar Gutwirth truth, fearing for your reputation, I have abstained from showing the text to anyone. as

********* We have tried to reconstruct certain aspects of Jewish communication in late medieval Aragon, a period of increased vitality in Jewish epistolography. A particular corpus was chosen to this effect: the halakhic correspondence of R. Isaac bar Sheshet. It has been argued that such modes of communication were not completely divorced from their historical and social background. It is a background that manifests itself in widely differing forms and at different levels: the merchant's mentality, which advocates the improvement of roads, rivers, and bridges, has an affinity with that of the organization of time, which, in tum, is related to issues concerning reproduction, communication, and the intensified inscription of the self.

88

Isaac bar Sheshet Sheelot W TshU1)ot no. 452.

A JUDEO-ITALIAN VERSION OF SELECfED PASSAGES FROM CECCO D'ASCOLI'S Acerba Sandra Debenedetti Stow Language is preeminent means of communication of human beings, the tool that establishes relations between persons or groups who share a common tongue. In spoken language, a dialect's inflexions, emphasis, or use of particular terms comprise a prime source of information about the social origin, habits, mentality, and customs of a given group of speakers. Written texts can also be a precious source of such information, most interesting being those texts presenting features characteristic of special minority groups. In this contribution to the study of language as a means of communication, it is my intention to concentrate on a very special example, Judeo-Italian, and, through the study of one particular document, to cite those peculiarities that identified Italian Jews during the middle ages and the Renaissance as a group distinct from the rest of the surrounding population. This document, preserved in an unpublished manuscript attributed to the sixteenth century, is a Judeo-Italian version of parts of a fourteenth century Italian literary work, Acerba, a poem written by a very controversial figure, Cecco D'Ascoli. FOCUSing on this specific Judeo-Italian text allows us the opportunity not only to observe a particular linguistic phenomenon, but also to touch afresh upon the much-debated issue concerning the extent of the influence of surrounding culture on Jewish society. The special nature of our text raises a full range of questions about interrelationships, and community of interests, if not of goals, tieing the Jews to the cultural environment of Renaissance Italy. The first methodological problem concerns the date when this Judeo-Italian text was actually written. The manuscript in which the version is preserved is by the hand of a sixteenth-century copyist. But is it a copy of an earlier original, or was it indeed written by a sixteenth century author? If the latter is the case, who was this author, what motivated him to translate an obscure fourteenth-century text, and why did he choose to make his own version in Hebrew characters? Were his

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motives the same that influenced Jewish scholars to produce earlier Judeo-Italian translations?1 Addressing these questions as well as why the author selected the particular passages that he did from among the wide range of subjects treated in the Acerba offers a contribution to the scholarly debate on the influence exerted on the Jews by the literary culture and trends of the surrounding society. This examination will start with a general survey of the peculiarities that define and differentiate Judeo-Italian from other dialects spoken in Italy at different times in the different regions where Jews resided. Then after dealing with the motives that compelled Jews as a group to preserve and develop a characteristic and diversifying linguistic vehicle. I will try to identify the author of the version and speculate why he did it. The text itself will be presented. preceded by several linguistic considerations. The text has been preserved. to the best of my knowledge. in just one manuscript. and its publication will contribute to a critical edition of the Acerba. of which many versions now exist. A final question is how one may interpret certain textual discrepancies of this text vis-a-vis other manuscripts of the Acerba. Is there an intentional effort to avoid mention. at least in one instance. of a subject particularly sensitive to a Jewish audience? Is it possible to apply to our case what Joseph Dan has said about texts like the ,,\:r1N "tln m~N.2 that the Hebrew text reflects the influence of the Italian Arthurian tradition. but with an effort to gloss over those parts having a definite Christian character?

1

Judeo-Italian

Normally the term Judeo- Italian is used to refer to the language of a number of manuscripts produced in Italy between the twelfth and 1 For the fourteenth century. for instance. J. B. Sermoneta, ·Una trascrizione in caratterl ebralci dl alcuni brani filosoficl della Commedia,· Romanica et Occidentalia, Etudes dediees a la memoire de H. Peri (Jerusalem, 1963), pp. 23-42. has recently advanced the hypothesis that those passages from Dante's Commedia, translated in Judeo-Italian by the Jewish scholar Jehudah Romano, cannot be taken as witness of the literary influence of surrounding culture on the Jews. but are instead proof of how Jewish scholars of the time took advantage of those elements of the surrounding culture made available to them, in order to forward their own, Jewish, philosophical Interests. 2 Y. Dan, Ha-sippur ha-'ivri bi-mei ha-benajjm (Jerusalem, 1974), p.1ll.

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sixteenth centuries. These manuscripts are written in Hebrew characters. yet their main linguistic traits derive from Southern-Central Italian dialects. Judeo-Italian. however. displays conspicuous differences from those dialects. such as a unique lexical patrimony. special linguistic structures. and the persistence of many lexical forms already obsolete in the surrounding linguistic norm. 8 It is well known that Jewish groups that settled on the Italian shores kept alive their ancestral language for religious purposes. 4 Through the middle ages. the knowledge of written Italian was not as wide. so the employment of Hebrew characters for all written purposes is well understandable. Furthermore. a tradition of transliterating words of Italian dialects into Hebrew characters was established in the early middle ages. by many exegetes. who to preserve graphic homogeneity inserted their glosses (in Hebrew letters) into the pre-existing sacred or traditional Hebrew text. By the sixteenth century. conditions had altered. With respect to daily activity. the language most comfortably spoken and written by Jews was the local vernacular. conditioned by their own peculiarities and special terms.a The use of Hebrew characters owed first of all to the will to 8 On Judeo-Italian see especially: J. B. Sermoneta, "Considerazionl frammentarie sui giudeo-italiano," ltalia 1 (1976): 1-29; 2 (1978): 62-106; A. Freedman, "Italian Texts in Hebrew Characters: Problems of Interpretation," Mainzer Romanistische Arbeiten (Weisbaden, 1972), pp. 1-120; L. Cuomo, "11 giudeo-italiano e Ie vicende IInguistiche degli ebrei d'Italia," ltalia Judaica, Attl del I Congresso Internazionale (Bari, 1981), pp. 427-54; S. Debenedettl Stow, La Chiarijicatione in vo/gare delle "espressionl di!fici/i" ricorrenti ne/ Mishneh Torah di Mos~ Maimonide (Rome-Turin, 1990); G. Massariello Merzagora, Giudeo-italiano. Dia/ettl italiani par/atl dagli Ebrei d'ltalia (Pisa, 1977); U. Cassuto, "La tradizione giudeo-italiana per la traduzione della Bibbia," Attl del primo congresso nationale di traditioni popo/ari (Florence, 1930), pp. 114-21. Transcription from Italian in the characters of another language is not limited to Hebrew, see, for Instance, the transliteration In Greek characters of some dialects of the Salentlne peninsula, Calabria, and Sicily, in some documents studied by O. Parlangell, Storia Iinguistica e storia politica nell'ltalia meridionale (Florence, 1960), pp. 91-183, where the usage is attributed to the spreading influence of Basilian monasticism in certain areas of Southern Italy and to the permanence of some Greek cultural elements; see also A. Pagliaro, Saggi di critica semantica (Messina-Florence, 1953), pp. 283-300, and A. Colonna, "Glasse volgarl meridionali in un codice omerico," Rend. (Lett.) 1st. Lomb. 89

(1956): 195-212.

4 On the problematic concerning the language spoken by these settlers see U. Cassuto, "Un'enigmatica iscrizione romana," Giorna/e della Societa Asiatica 2 (1931-32): 125-34; R. Degen, A/taramaische Grammatik (Wiesbaden, 1969); T. H. N61deke, Die Semitischen Sprachen (Leipzig, 1899). a As is demonstrated, for instance, by Jewish notarial records found in the

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remain faithful to the ancient tradition. R. Bonfil, reviewing Jewish literary production during the Renaissance, stresses that these works, conceived as a Jewish cultural creation for a Jewish audience, essentially revolved around Jewish philosophical and religious subjects, and were naturally written in Hebrew. If this is the case, the transliteration into Hebrew letters of a lay literary Italian text becomes a means to merge it into the stream of Jewish thought. 8 A cryptic component could also be taken into account; namely, the effort to hide one's words or thoughts from indiscreet eyes in a society in which very strict control over written texts was exercised by ecclesiastical authorities. This effort is especially understandable with a text like the Acerba, whose author, Cecco D'Ascoli, had been executed as a heretic and whose works consequently had been forbidden since the fourteenth century. Was it, then, a desire to hide a transgression, compounded by the will to preserve a well-established tradition, which compelled the author to use Hebrew characters in his Judeo-Italian version of a controversial text?? Judeo-Italian texts, beginning with the famous Elegy for the Ninth of Av, studied by Cassuto,8 are found through the sixteenth century, and they bear witness to the continuity of a means of expression handed down by Italian Jews from ancient times. 9 From the sixteenth century, Neld"i Capitolini in Rome; see, Kenneth Stow and Sandra Debenedetti Stow, "Donne ebree aRoma nell'etl del ghetto: affetto, dipendenza, autonomia," La RasseB1la Mensile di Israel 52.1 (1986): 63-116. 8 R. Bonfil, Gli ebrei in Italia neU'epoca del Rinascimento (Florence, 1991), pp. 130-32. ? A wish to hide from indiscrete eyes one's thoughts can be compared to the motives which brought, for instance, Leonardo da Vinci to write many of his considerations backwards, rendering them readable only through the use of a mirror. 8 U. Cassuto, "Un'antichissima Elegia in dialetto giudeo-italiano," Archivio Glott%gico Italiano 22/23 (1929): 349-408. 9 In 1488 was published in Naples the Maqr~ Dardeq~, an Hebrew-ArabicItalian dictionary written by Perez Trabot; in 1588 was printed in Venice a small Hebrew-Italian glossary, known by the name of 'Or Lustro, from the first couple of words appearing in it, probably the work of David b. Sion Ben Avraham da Modena. Always in Venice, in 1596 was published the Dibber Tov, a school dictionary in Hebrew-Italian-Jiddish, maybe a work of the same da Modena. See also V. Colorni, "La parlata degli ebrei mantovani," Scritti in memoria di Attilio Milano: La Rassegna Mensile di Israel 36 (1970): 109-64; G. Fiorentino, "The General Problems of the Judeo-Romance in the Light of the Maqr~ Dardeq~," The Jewish Q./arterly Review 42 (1951): 55-77. For the sixteenth century many documents written by Jewish notaries, which are at the moment a subject of my study, allow a pretious insight on the instrument of communication of Roman Jews during the Renaissance. For this period see also the considerations of M. Modena Mayer, "n Seier Miswot della Biblioteca di Casale Monferrato," Italia 4 (1985): 15-21.

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consequent on the Italian Jews' enclosure in ghettoes. their spoken dialects little by little began to be characterized by linguistic conservatorism and. compared with the corresponding Italian dialects. were generally identified by the preservation of archaic traits. which favored the formation of a cryptical jargon. to From the middle of the sixteenth through the nineteenth century. therefore. speaking of for instance Judeo-Roman or Judeo-Venetian has its own particular meaning. Prior to this period. the term Judeo-Italian applies to works written in certain Italian dialects. rendered in Hebrew characters. containing special features pertaining to Jewish speakers. Judeo-Italian is normally characterized by two tendencies generally applicable to linguistic areas where intercommunication is made harder because of either territorial marginality or difficult access. They are the tendency to maintain unchanged archaic forms and the tendency to adopt and generalize certain linguistic phenomena. As a rule. these tendencies occur because of geographical marginality or the particular influence of a substratum; in the case of Judeo-Italian. however. they are due to a particular case of social marginality on the part of the Jewish group as well as to another very special element: the bond created by tradition. applicable to speakers as well as to translators. The peculiar sensibility to mantain traditional structures and forms finds its origin in the method of Bible translations in the Jewish communities of Southern Italy during the high middle ages. The need to preserve tradition. to avoid any possible minimal alteration. compelled translators and interpreters to create and adhere to a stringent method tieing them to rules that froze the words of translation. which were deemed as sacred and unalterable as the sacred Hebrew text itself. This procedure. fixed for centuries. enables us to single out some very distinctive traits in Judeo-Italian. Thus. certain phonetic characteristics of Southern-Central Italian dialects are preserved unaltered in almost all medieval Judeo-Italian texts. like the abundance of prosthetic vowels. 10 An echo of this foreign tongue is often heard in the mouth of the common people in satirical works; see In this regard C. Bragaglia, Storia del teatro papalare romano (Rome, 1958), p. 247, and the many hebraisms in the sonnets of O. O. Belli; see also S. Debenedetti, "Parole in giudaico-romanesco in una commedia del Bernini," Unsua Nostra 31 (1970): 87-89. Linguistic conservatorism among the Jews Is a factor stressed by many scholars, see: U. Cassuto, "Parlata Ebraica," II Vessillo Israelitico 58 (1909): 257; R. Bachi, "Ricerche folklorlstiche e linguistiche sugli ebrei d'italia," La Rassesna Mensile di Israel 2 (1926-27): 29; A. Milano, Storia desli ebrei in Italia (Turin, 1963), p. 572; O. Sermoneta, "Considerazioni," p. 20.

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metathesis, and apheresis; the lack of solution for consonant groups with I; the dissimilation of r; the passage of r to I, of in to an, and others. In morphology the influence of these rules explains, for instance, the overwelming presence of the nominal suffix -mento. In the absence of a mirroring Italian form, a new noun is created from the corresponding verbal form by adding to its root the nominal suffix -mento. The lexicon is usually characterized by the massive presence of learned terms belonging to the ancient strata of later Latin and preserved through the centuries in Judeo-Italian texts solely because of the tradition that was fixed for translating the holy text. Furthermore, the presence of a great number of southern words dating back to the high middle ages bears witness to the tendency to preserve unaltered traditional forms, inherited from the Southern Jewish communities, which flourished under the influence of Byzantine. Longobard, and Norman rule. The same preponderance of southern elements, so relevant in phonetics, can be found in the lexicon, together with the preservation of many terms direcly connected with Greek. Two elements are perhaps the most striking features of Judeo-Italian: one is the presence, owing to the rules of traditional translation, of words for which there is no correspondence in Italian dialects - new calque creations made on the basis of the Hebrew language; the other is the use of mixed forms obtained when treating Hebrew roots with an Italian desinence or flexion. Sixteenth-century texts pertaining to Italian Jews, which usually show a remarkable spelling uncertainty,l1 tend to maintain unaltered certain peculiarities of the dialect because of the very linguistic conservatism defining Judeo-Italian, while during the course of the century these become more and more obsolete in Italian texts. The morphology of these texts shows, for instance, in the name, a frequent use of the archaic plural ending -ora or -a; a regular use of the plural feminine ending -i; and a general tendency to regularize a or 0 as the singular nominal ending in place of -e. In the case of our text, which is transliterated in Hebrew characters and, therefore, falls within the definition of a Judeo- Italian text, a particular difficulty exists in trying to single out distinctive Judeo-Italian traits. Because of the need to remain faithful to the original poetical text, and to operate within the constraints of verse and rhyme, a good part of those elements that make Judeo-Italian unique cannot be 11 As on the other hand is common in all Italian written production through the sixteenth century, and even beyond, see B. Migliorini, Storia della Ungua Italiana (Florence, 1958), pp. 362-65.

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found. 12 Furthermore the southern-central elements of the dialect cannot be considered necessarily identifying traits belonging to Judeo-Italian, but may reflect a faithful adherence to one of the manuscripts of the Acerba. For example, it is difficult to establish whether the frequent passage of nd to nn, a trait of southern Italian dialects regularly appearing in Judeo-Italian, was an element present in the original or a distinctive feature inserted by the author of the version. 2 Cecco D' Ascoli and the Acerba Cecco D'Ascoli, the nome de plume of Francesco Stabili, a physician from Ascoli, was burned at the stake as a heretic in Florence in 1327. Consequently, it was forbidden to keep or read manuscripts of his works. Cecco is chiefly remembered as the author of the Acerba, written principally while he practiced medicine at the court of the Duke of Calabria and completed just before his execution. Copies of the work passed on secretly from hand to hand as a result of its author's name as a martyr and as a magician - were corrupted by many copyists, who corrected, interpreted, and adapted the text to suit their own cultures and linguistic areas. As a resUlt, there are many versions of the work, presenting considerable discrepancies. A first edition of the Acerba was made public in 1476. 13 Between the fifteenth and the first half of the sixteenth century, no fewer than 25 editions were printed, all showing considerable variants. The edition printed in Milan in 1505, edited by the Modenese Nicola Massetti, is equipped with a comment and was changed and corrected according to 12 Judaeo-Italian is unique with respect to other Italian dialects, and It was the means of expression used by a special group of speakers, which also Identified them, just as other Judaeo-Romance languages identified their own individual groups of speakers. For other specific, as well as more generalized, conclusions about characteristics common to the body of Judaeo-Romance languages, see I. Benabu and J. Sermoneta, Judeo-Romance Languages (Jerusalem, 1985). 18 On the Acerba of Cecco d'Ascoli see the studies, here briefly riassumed, of: M. Alessandrini, Cecco D'Ascoli (Rome, 1955); F. Bariola, "Cecco O'Ascoli e l'Acerba," Rivista Europea 8 (1879): 11-133, ; G. Castelli, La Vita e Ie Opere di Cecco d'Ascoli (Bologna, 1892); A. Crespi, L'Acerba, dirotta a mi&lior

le~ione e per la prima volta interpretata col sussidio di tutte Ie opere deU'autore e delle loro fonti (Ascoli Piceno, 1927); H. Peri, "L"Acerba' dl Cecco d'Ascoli, saggio d'interpretazione," Archivum Romanicum 23 (1939): 178-241 (published also by Leo S. OIschkl, Florence 1939); P. Rosario, Cecco D'Ascoli, L'Acerba, con pt'eja~ione, note e bibliogaj'ia (Lanciano, 1926).

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the judgment of the editor.14 Almost all other editions made during the sixteenth century stem from it. In 1820. it was printed again. in Venice called the del Pamaso edition - modernized and oversimplified in an effort to make the text clearer. but altogether a considerable alteration from the original version. In its different versions. the work is variously divided. and the order and the length of its chapters are not always equivalent. The first critical edition of the Acerba in modem times was attempted by Menachem Peri. on the basis of about 50 manuscripts. The many scholars who have dealt with Cecco's work still have not arrived at wumimous agreement on the most trustworthy manuscripts. 1s Examining the oldest of Florentine manuscripts. apparently dating to the rrrst half of the fourteenth century. Mario Alessandrini noticed the presence of forms characteristic of southern dialects. such as the participial ending -so instead of the normal ending -uto (ereso for creduto. caso for caduto. etc.). and the lack of verb contractions (dicete for dite. etc.). In the lexicon. he points out many southern terms. like stutare (extinguish). scommerare (to step aside). In phonetics. he stresses the abundance of assimilation in the passage of the nd groups to nn in the gerundive. of ld to II. and of md to mm. Nonetheless. the many southern elements are balanced by the many terms belonging to dialects of the north-eastern area; the scholar offers two possible explanations for this phenomenon. opting for the first: either Cecco. who left his country to live for a long time in the north of Italy. employed the dialect of the locality where he dwelled for the longest time. striving at the same time to polish his language and adapt it to Tuscan norms; or the oldest 14 Massetti Nicola, L'Acerba, Lo ilIustro poeta Cecho d'Ascoli: con e/ momenta novamente trovato, et nom/mente historiato: revisto: emendato: et da molto incorrectione extirpato .... Nico/aus Massettus mutinem ad lectorum (Venice. 1560). Peri. edt Olschki. pp. 10-11. 20-21. and 28-30. claims this is not a real comment. but rather a translation In Latin. and raises doubts concerning its attribution to Massetti. 15 For a full list of all existing manuscripts of the Acerba. see P. Rosario. According to him the most reliable manuscripts are the Laurenziano (number 52 of the Mediceo-Laurenziana Library in Florence. ph. XL. first half of the fourteenth century) and the Casanatense (number 82 of the Casanatense Library in Rome. fifteenth century). The Casanatense contains many words and forms from the dialect. Other important manuscripts can be found at: Civic Library of Ascoli (137 folios. without title page). copied by the Florentine notary Giovanni Gabrielli In 1376; Civic Library of Perugia (manuscript number 163 [c.46), 68 folios). attributed to the fourteenth century. F. Egidi and F. Bariola prefer instead the Hamburg manuscript. which they consider the most faithful to the Asculan dialect of the original text. although Egidi states that it Is impossible to rely on just one manuscript (to complete the lacking Hamburg manuscript Rosario suggests to couple it with the Vatican Urbinate 697).

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Florentine manuscripts are the product of northern copyists. Other scholars, convinced that Cecco was bent on proving the nobility of his own dialect, emphasize the originality of the south-central linguistic elements, attributing Tuscan and northern forms to later adaptations introduced by copyists. IS The very name, Acerba, indicates that Cecco wanted to warn his readers that his work was difficult to grasp. It is indeed a challenging trip through the scientific knowledge of his time, a very special thesaurus in verse, which uses as a starting point philosophical sources, from Aristotle to Albertus Magnus. Cecco D'Ascoli's aim is to present the reader with his own intellectual patrimony. He deals first with the order of the heavenly bodies; from there, dwelling on virtues and vices, he moves to a consideration of humanity and the influence of the heavens. He then moves into the world of animal symbols and, next, to the mysterious proprieties of stones; finally, he passes to general questions of nature and morality. 3 The Author of the Judeo-Italian Version and Its Content That a Jewish scholar in the sixteenth century should take interest in the work of Cecco should not come as a surprise. If one judges by the number of printings made of the work during the first half of the sixteenth century, it becomes clear that it may have been a particularly stimulating subject within Neoplatonic philosophical circles. The argument that seems central to the attention of the author of our translation is that of the reflectibility of stellar influences upon individual virtues. The text of the version is found in a manuscript whose content seems exclusively devoted to philosophical-astronomical subjects. 17 Although the author of IS The positions of various authors are well summarized by O. Castelli who notes how some linguistic phenomena, considered by others as specifically Asculan, can be registered also in Umbria, Marche, Rome, and up to Southern Tuscany. He states also that not all Tuscan forms appearing in the Acerba are to be attributed to the hand of Tuscan copyists, but notes that in the oldest manuscripts Asculanisms are more frequent. Noteworthy is for him also the presence of a great number of latin isms and of elements belonging to the Venetian dialect, the last, according to him, due to the hand of Venetian copyists. He considers the manuscript Paiatino n. 71 (fifteenth century), studied by Palermo, the most Tuscanized, and the Laurenziano S2 (Plut. XI, first half of the fourteenth century) the one with the most visible signs of a Venetian copyist. Castelli in his citations of the text relies on the Laurenziana manuscripts, mentioning (pp. 262-86) all the manuscripts known to him, ten in all. 17 See in,fra the description of the contents of our manuscript.

the version is not mentioned. we think possible to propose to attribute it

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the version is not mentioned, we think possible to propose to attribute it to the learned Italian Jewish physician, Abraham ben l:Iannaniah Yagel. David Ruderman has recently documented Yagel's interest in the works of Cecco D'Ascoli. 18 Yagel was born in 1553 in Monselice, a town south of Padua and north of Rovigo, and belonged to the Gallico family. IS While living in Luzzara, near Mantua, Yagel wrote his most important book, the (lei /fizzayon, an autobiography and heavenly journey. He worked as a physician and tutor in the homes of several affluent Jewish banking families and was an expert in natural history and medicine rather than in astronomy. Ruderman stresses two facts: that Gei /fizzayon is indebted to the literary traditions of Boethius and Boccaccio: and that in this work, Yagel consciously experimented with a new genre in contemporary Italian culture while successfully adapting it for his own didactic purposes.20 Yagel read broadly in both Jewish and non-Jewish literature and wrote extensively on a wide variety of fields. 21 In a book called Be'er Sheva, he summarizes Cardano's commentary on Ptolemy's Quadripartitum, in which Cardano discusses three different kinds of comets and the specific influence exerted on them when in close proximity to the various planets. Ruderman points out that at this point, claiming to quote from a work written by the Italian astrologer, Cecco d'Ascoli, Yagel inserts a section on the planetary influence on comets unrelated to Cardano's commentary.22 Noting that "Cecco's writing on comets was clearly Wldistinguished and the discussion presented by Yagel is located nowhere in the works of that writer," Ruderman mentions that the Venetian edition of the Acerba, printed in 1560, includes the commentary written by Niccol~ Massetti. He further states: "[since) Yagel had access to this work with its commentary, [he must have) translated the latter almost word for word, and attributed the commentary to Cecco D'Ascoli. 18 D. B. Ruderman, Kabbalah, Magic and Science (Cambridge-London, 1988); for Yagel's biografy see in particular the first chapter, pp. 8-24; see also The World 0/ a Renaissance Jew (Cincinnati, 1981), and his article: "The Jews in Italy," Seier cassuto (Jerusalem, 1986), p. 83; on Yagel's writings see also Y. Dan, Ha-sippur ha- '/vrl, pp. 202-21. 19 The Gallioo family had, through the generations, many prominent members, doctors, bankers, scholars and owners of manuscripts and Jewish books (one of them, Yehlel, is listed as the owner of a fourteenth-century manuscript containing Judeo-Itallan glosses to the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides). 20 See also J. B. Sermoneta, "Encyclopedias in the Medieval Hebrew World," and A. Melamed, "Hebrew Italian Renaissance and Early Modern Encyclopedias," both in Rivista di Storia della Fiiosojia 40 (1985): 1-50, and 91-112. 21 Sefer Cassuto, pp. 83-84. 22 Ibid., p. 93.

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Apparently impressed by Massetti's colorful narrative, Yagel provided a useful digression related to the main source from which he quoted. " Ruderman's conclusion that Yagel translated Massetti's commentary on the Acerba into Hebrew, strengthens my argument that Yagel could also be the author of our Judeo-Italian translation. Assessing Yagel's work, Ruderman notes: "His religious convictions in no way obstruct his ability to admit the new. On the contrary, by locating precedents within Jewish tradition for the discoveries, he makes the new more comprehensible and more compatible with his own experience. The testimony of Yagel thus offers an interesting example of the distinct capacity of Jewish thought to re-orient itself to a new cultural situation while retaining a continous bond with the past."23 Ruderman, therefore, sees in Yagel's work a further proof of the fact that. far from being just an effort on the part of the Jews to assimilate to surrounding culture, it is indeed an effort "to accommodate the new within the framework of a traditional Jewish theology." This effort pushes Jewish society to try to research and explain the order of the universe through the new heliocentric theory of Copernicus.24 The need, documented by Yagel's work, to try to harmonize traditional and modern thought synchronizes the Italian Jewish world with general cultural tendencies typical of the Renaissance. This era, continuing for the most part to speak a medieval language and to develop themes inherited from medieval thought, strove to emphasize those aspects and problems close to its own experience and interests. In so doing, it created the new. Side by side with the still persistent Aristotelianism, Platonism - with its less systematic cohesion - began to offer a strong pole of attraction. Its broad metaphysical themes provided greater freedom. and more openness to discussion and the expression of opinion. Moving from the empirical to the metaphysical, Neoplatonism, with its peculiar immanencetranscendence, tied earth and heaven together by emphasizing earthly experience. Moreover. Renaissance humanism represented an ecstatic contemplation of beauty: an aesthetic Platonism, in which harmony and love were the elements around which the cosmos revolved. It is also, however, a means of offering human beings, through knowledge. a basis for a more nearly complete, perfect humanity.25 These few considerations on the characteristic tendencies of the times are essential to understand how these very stimuli were active within 23 Ibid., p. 76.

24 Ibid. , p.76, note 10. 25FromG. Preti, UmanismoeStrutturalismo (Padua, 1973), pp. 97-124.

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Jewish society. Indeed they led a Jewish scholar to go back to a fourteenth-century text in order to explore metaphysical themes, and therefore to use the old in order to introduce the new within the frame of his own tradition and thought. The Judeo-Italian version of the Acerba, in my view, proves the extent of the influence of the general culture on Jews. Dealing with stellar influences, Yagel felt the need to acquaint his readers with the theories of an early authority, thus showing the familiarity of Italian Jewish scholars with Italian lay literary texts. Yet, by doing so in Hebrew characters, he indicates his intention to further specifically Jewish interests, which are set on a parallel track to that of the surrounding society, because Jews share those general cultural trends. The remainder of this section will look at the content of the Judeo-Italian translation. The author of our version chose certain passages, taken from the second book of the Acerba. He starts with Chapter Seven, dealing with Prudenza (Prudence); that is, the ability to distinguish correctly between good and evil. Cecco states that this virtue is innate in people and its influence comes from the stars, which direct people toward good things. The knowledge this virtue provides is worth more than any riches. A virtuous person, one who is bent on knowledge, becomes immortal, and cannot be touched by fortune. Those who can curb their vices will not have to endure pain, whereas those who run after worldly goods will find themselves abandoned by all when fortune turns its back on them. True wealth is virtue and measure, in giving and receiving, while the time spent not trying to acquire virtue is wasted. The version then shifts to a passage from Chapter Nine, which deals with liberality. Virtues are inspired by the influence of the third heaven,28 which places this potential in the human heart. Virtue and possibility together comprise something good; liberality is the art of giving with measure. Those who do not practice liberality virtuously will suffer when fortune changes. It is better to give than to receive although one has to know how to give without haughtiness, but with humbleness, which is above any other virtue and increases knowledge. We must humbly acknowledge God's power over everything and bow our heads before virtuous people. We must humbly heed the voice of the afflicted, as prescribed by Holy Scripture. The sphere of the Moon influences this virtue by keeping the will in check. It is better to suffer than to seek vengeance, and to act charitably while awaiting the time of eternal peace. 28 From Aristotle and from Dante's Paradise we learn that the third heaven is that of Venus, whose carrying strength is that of love.

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Cllapter Ten deals with humility. Humility is crucified by human beings. It used to rule the world. Now it has been driven away. God put humility in the world when He created man,27 who was made in his maker's image; therefore, people have to follow humility. If virtue were something inherited, we could not understand how a creature could lack it. Yet a second agent is also at work, with the result that bad children can be born to good parents. Heaven disposes every creature to good deeds, but individual will determines the choice between good and evil. Gentle behavior stems from the influence that spreads from the second heaven (Mercury's). If gentle behavior and worth were unified in ancient blood, this is no longer true. Cecco recalls Dante's doubts about the inclinations of twin brothers, one virtuous and the other evil. Both have the same potentiality, but the power to exploit it for good or evil is an act of the individual will. 28 In the twelfth chapter, concerning nobility, Cecco returns to the question of the hereditary or voluntary character of this virtue. True nobility, Cecco says, has already been described by Dante. Gentle behavior exists as potentiality in a subject because of stellar influence, but a thing that is perfect becomes extremely vile when it changes its nature. Gentility is such that proving its worth activates its potential. Gentility and nobility are not inherited by blood, birth, or wealth. Wealth is accidental and cannot bring happiness. In twins, the firstborn is influenced by the eastern, the second by the western stars. Therefore, as the first is virtuous, so the second is evil. Whoever takes pride in his high birth is a fool. Good does not come from old blood: praise is something to be earned, and it should not be shunned. A fruit is not always to be found where there is a green leaf. It is not all gold that glitters. Whoever runs after great style and praise despises life. Showing off is hypocrisy; extolling one's own virtues is vainglory, but a false reputation does not last. Those who seek to hide their true nature speak well and live badly, but what they are trying to hide is discovered soon enough. Therefore, it is better to keep quiet and let others sing your praise. A gentle soul will show itself to all. God is worthier than human beings, and soul is more perfect than blood; therefore, nothing is better than the nobility of a virtuous soul. Celestial powers cause differences among people according to different stellar influences. A virtuous man is gentle, and virtue shines like the sun. 27 Here our translator makes two small but very substantial variations, see below at page 297. 28 Of stellar influences responsible for the diversities of sons born to a same father is delt in the 8th canto of Dante's Paradise.

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The author's interest shifts, finally, in the eighteenth chapter to vainglory and hypocrisy. A virtuous man desires praise to increase his worth, but those who are guilty of vainglory seek it, using all means. Vainglory contradicts magnanimity. It is not one of the worst vices, but renders the soul blind, causing it to cease worrying about knowledge or about its own salvation. The debate about man's nobility, gentility, and worth had preoccupied medieval society. In the fundamental Roman de La Rose, the author of its second part, Jean de Meun, has Nature discuss nobility and establish a contrast between nobility of the blood and that of the heart. Talking about the role of free will in pursuing virtue and avoiding sin, Nature speculates about the influence of celestial bodies on an individual's character and about the power of free will to resist such influences (v. 17549). Nature also discusses inherited nobility, stating that one should not be praised or blamed for the actions of one's forefathers, "par vertu de persone estrange" (v. 18778).29 This question returns in the stiLnovisti, in Dante and Boccaccio, and during the Renaissance it again was the core of a heated debate. Plato's aesthetics and the concept of Love, with its two inseparable components of love and desire, spirit and body, which permeate Renaissance speculative writing, are responsible for the appearance of the many treatises on love written during that era, such as Bembo's AsoLani, Castiglione's Cortegiano, and the many discussions on nobility and love that are an ever-present undercurrent in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, How greatly these Neoplatonic elements permeated Jewish society is shown by the DiaLoghi d'Amore of Jehudah Abravanel, also known as Leone Ebreo. 30 Our author did not limit himself to a slavish transliteration of the text, but rather used it as a means to achieve his own ends. This is indicated by 28 See Sylvia Huot, 'The Romance 0/ the Rose' and Its Medieval Readers: Interpretation, Reception, Manuscript Transmission (Cambridge, 1993). Analyzing a manuscript containing an interpolation to the text of the Roman (ms. 1567 Bib!. Nat. Fr.), Huot, p. 186, notes that here the discussion by Nature on nobility widens, elaborating on the point that those who did not perform glorious actions, cannot derive their nobility from their ancestors. 30 Hava Tirosh Rothschild, in her article: "Jewish Culture in Renaissance Italy, a Methodological Survey," 1talia 9 (1990): 63-96, has recently noted that the difficulties deriving by the different methodological approaches in defining and periodizing the term Renaissance, for what it pertains to Italy, heavily influence the interpretation of Jewish culture in Italy as wei!. She invites not to see the Renaissance as a meaningful category for Jewish history, since for the Jews the middle ages not only survived, but thrived up to the eighteenth century in social patterns, political organization, and religious sensibilities. See also:

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at least one point in which the Judeo-Italian version shows a change with respect to the other known texts of the Acerba. In the tenth chapter, concerning humility, the Acerba (following the text of the Perugia manuscript, reputed to be among the best by Achille Crespi) has the following lines: "Dio prese al mondo la umilitate,/ se vi ricorda del sanguigno fianco/quando ricompero I'umanitate" (God brought humility to the world/if you are reminded of the bloodied flank/ when he redeemed humanity). The author of the Judeo-Italian version modifies these lines to read: "Dio apre a 10 mondo la umilitade/ se vi ricorda 10 sanguigno fianco/ quanno li piacque la umanitade" (God opened to the world humility/ if you remember the bloodied flank! when he found mankind pleasing) . The three verses of the original refer to the humility of Jesus, who is supposed to redeem humanity by the sacrifice of his own blood. The Jewish text, in turn, by emphasizing the intrinsic worth of human beings and God's recognition of it, has created what is surely an anti-Christian polemic by the slightest change of wording. In the introduction to his book, Kabbalah, Magic and Science, Ruderman stresses that Yagel's efforts were directed at harmonizing Jewish learning with non-Jewish learning in order to narrow the cultural distance separating Judaism from western civilization. s1 Just as it was true for Pico della Mirandola, whose approach to Judaism and to Jewish Kabbalah was motivated by a wish to advance the interests of Christianity - by way of demonstrating a common background between Judaism and Christianity, he aimed at promoting the conversion of the Jews - , it also held for the Jews. Their metaphysical inquiry, utilizing texts drawn from the surrounding Catholic milieu, should not be interpreted as steps towards Riccardo Fubini, "L'ebraismo nei riflessi della cultura umanistica (Leonardo Bruni, Giannozzo Manetti, Annio da Viterbo)," ltalia 8 (1989): 7-52; J. B. Sermoneta, "Aspetti del pensiero moderno nell'ebraismo italiano tra Rinascimento e etl barocca," ltalia Judafca: Attf del II Convesno lnternazionale, Genoa June 10-15 1984 (Rome, 1986); Oan Pagis, Chanse and Tradition in Hebrew Secular Poetry (Jerusalem, 1975); R. Bonfil, Gli ebrei in ltalia neU'epoca del Rfnascimento (Florence, 1991). The majority of modern historians, although with significative differences, are unanimous in stating that "there was no Italian Jewish Renaissance as an intellectual movement, even though Jewish culture in Renaissance Italy evolved through some interaction with majority culture" (Tirosh Rothschild, p. 78). 81 See pages 5-6.

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assimilation, but, rather, should be seen as an effort to exploit these texts in order to forward Jewish interests and to broaden the horizons of Jewish culture by harmonizing tradition with new trends of thought. The cultural climate is the same and the two societies are open to elements of the opposite culture, but each is bent on forwarding its own best interests. 4 A Short Linguistic Description of the Text The fact that our text is a transliteration of a literary work affords the author very little autonomy; the text, therefore, lacks the greater part of those characteristics that make Judeo-Italian so special. Furthermore, the still-unsolved problems concerning the manuscript tradition of the Acerba do not allow one to establish with absolute certainty whether those peculiarities appearing in the translation and pertaining to Italian southern-central dialects reflect the author's adherence to the old Judeo-Italian tradition or whether they were present in the particular manuscript of the Acerba on which the author based his translation. Accordingly, I shall have to be content with discussing but some of the most interesting linguistic traits of the text. Phonetics Vocalism

The treatment of vowels shows, with respect to standard Italian, sensible changes, such as the passage from i to e, which is constant in the masculine singular article, and, at the opposite, from e to i, the passage from e to a and from 0 to e. 32 Remarkable, too, are the apheresis of initial vowel, the use of anaptyctic vowels, and the uncertainty in the use of the diphthong. 33 32 The Italian article it always appears as el; for the passage of I to e see for instance the terms: defetto "''9'1 'difetto'; sespenna ",OOO 'si spenda'; endespitto l\')'9O"T1N 'in dispetto'; enlul 'Nl~lN 'in lui', etc.; for I : delsaperl ''''012~''1 'del sapere'; perlrl ,.".,'0 'perire'; endespitto ""00'11N 'in dispetto', etc.; f~~ e to a: oltra 'oltre' ( a pr~b~ble latinism), and for 0 to e: devete. 33 Apheresis of I: 'Isuo 'i1 suo', se 'I primo 'se iI primo', &ne&no 'ingegnio', quanno ~ 'n so stato 'quando ~ in suo stato', vole serene 'vol'esserne', strutto 'istrutto', 'I potere 'II potere', etc.; of a: cerba 'acerba'; of e: semplo 'esempio' , loterno 'I'eterno', lostremo 'I'estremo'. For the use of anaptyctic vowels: setella "~"''''' cheweJta N"'U"'P (but also questa ""'U"p), peruden~ia (but also pruden~la and proveden~la), vol'esserene '1,.,0 '~l:l, soJ!erire '''''''OlO, sterln~e ~,.,""" 'strinse', umilita, I'umilitade, nobilita. The diphtong is missing in

e'to

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Consonantism Consonant groups with I are always resolved34 ; noteworthy is the resolution, which seems hypercorrectness, of br into bjj in the word bjjanca, meaning here 'branca' (grip). Very frequent is the southern-central assimilation of nd into nn, but just as frequent are the cases in which it does not take place.35 The following are frequent phenomena: the passage of t to d,3s of r to 1,37 and of voiced s to voiceless s.sa The passage from I to n, from in to an, and from p to v appear only once.38 Instability characterizes the rendering of s with Z,40 and the alternation of the allophones, c and g.41 Interesting are the passage from many cases: inso 'in suo' lOl'N, so 'suo' 10 (but also dal suo); pa 'puo' lfl, n£l; pensere, penseri 'pensiero, i'; lomo ll'Jl"; che'Sta 'questa' n,,'U'p; covene 'conviene' '~'~li'; vole. volere, ','''n ,''''::1; Ii roti '\;Ih ,~; omini '1'1'J1N ; alcelo '~"N; nova n::111. etc.; but is present in just as many: dalsuo lN10"", nel

suo; pruden~ia; en~ia;

abidien~ia;

proveden~ia; poten~ie;

virtuosa; acqui'lta N"'U'li'N; conscien~ia; riveretc.; lavode 'lode' and lavodi ,,.,,.,

conoscen~ia,

represent maybe an Intermediate form with the introduction of an intervocalic lI. 34 As it happens. by regular development from Latin into Italian, while their intact appearance is a trait of the oldest Southern Italian dialects, preserved in the ancient Judeo-Italian texts. See for Instance: chiavi '::1 n i' ; e 'I bianco lP1'':l''N; lobianco li'lN'::11"; piovate '''::11'£1; chiare~~a N~"ni'; planta; plana

N n 9; interesting is the hyper-correction (if it is not a southern form) spiendore ",,.ln90 'splendore'. The only exception in the text is semplo 'esempio' . 35 See for instance: granne, quanno, sespenna, monno, passanno, perdenno, valianno, innuminanno, movenno, jacenno, tenennosi, lassannose, possenno, vo/enno, resplennenno, oJfenne, voitanno, etc.; but: mondo, perfonda (Hamburg and Perugia have pro/Onna), cadendo, prende, oJfenda, ricevendo, respirando, dando. abbandonando, vendetta, dubitando, entendi, etc. 38 Larsitade, virtudi (e), umiltade. umanitade, povertade, qualitade, verdude, benil9litade, mal9lamanitade (in all these cases other manuscripts have t). 37 Valianno 'variando', valiati 'variati'; and once from rl to II in monta/le 'montarle'; but once we find also the opposite: I becomes r in a,ffritti

'afflitti' . sa See, for instance: virtuosa nO'N1O"'; tresoro ,',0""; refuso lOlfl'; sra~iosa NO'N~; misura n"O'I'J; laspesa nO,go.,; noiosa nOl'll"; per 10 deviso ," "£1 10'11'; si esalta ",,"O'N '0; jariseo IN'O'~, etc. 38 In innuminanno 'illuminando', anchinare 'inchinare', and alsavere "'::10"N 'al sapere'. 40 Fa/~o, ja/~a, ja/~a mente, discen~e, sestren~e, sterin~e; against: iunse, penseri, celarsi, senpre, perso, conserva, ci pensa. Only once c is rendered with s, in esselso 'eccelso', 'S is rendered with s, in lassannose, and S is rendered with '§ in rri§one 'ragione'. 41 See: fuca, sesonn', lasesonna (but somewhere else also seconni) , seque, sequa, loco.

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ng to gn,42 the introduction of an intervocalic

V,48

and the substitution of

some prefixes. 44 Morphology

In the noun, the plural ending -a, in the word castella 'castles' is present just once, as is a plural feminine ending in -i: Ii roti 'Ie ruote' (the wheels) .45 Examples of the nominal and adjectival ending -e, regularized in -a, are trista 'triste' (sad) and saluta 'salute' (health) (although the regular form salute als~ a;,/i70ears in the text); at the same time, there are instances of the occurrence of the opposite phenomenon, as in the noun pensere 'pensiero' (thought), and in the pronoun lore 'loro' (their). As for the article, it should be noticed that unlike Hebrew writing, in which the article always appears united to the word it modifies, in our text it sometimes follows the Hebrew style, as an integral part of the word, and sometimes the Italian, as two separate words. In the articulated preposition, the article is attached at times to the preposition and at times to the noun. Simple prepositions and conjunctions can also occur as an integral part of the lexeme. Adverbs with exits in -mente are presented as two separate words (Jalza mente, mala mente). For the verb, remarkable forms are the future ha a venire, for the regular Italian avvetm, 'it will happen'; the participial form rejuso, for the Italian rijiutato, 'refused'; and the imperative forms vi ricorda, 'ricordatevi' (remind yourselves),46 and ti strigne, 'stringiti' (tighten yourself). Lexicon The Judeo-Italian translation preserves a great number of Latinisms:

largitade, virtudi (el. verdude, umiltade, umilitade, umanitade, povertade, 42 In snesno 'Ingegno', strisne, and srifasno, for which the needs of the rhyme with Janso request Instead the form ns, as shown by the Perugla and Hamburg manuscripts, which have srifanso. 48 In si lavoda 'si loda' n"fmt" '0 and lavode '"f,:1" 'lode', while in an opposite case, dee 'deve', the intervocalic v disappears. 44 Pro replaces pre in proveden~ia 'previdenza', but per replaces pro in perfonda (where Perugla and Hamburg have pro/Onna). 45 But castella could be an error since the noun Is accompanied by a singular adjective: pill di nostro castella: a plural feminine in -i could be also larshe~~e, but since there is no vocalic indication we cannot be sure of that. 48 The Hamburg manuscript has instead: vi ricordi.

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301

qualitade, benignitade, magnamanitade, reverenzia, obidienzia, conscenzia, all'alma, dell'alma, provedenzia 'previdenza', re!rena, laude, oltra 'oltre', si valora 'si avvalora', and perhaps also siniore.47 The ending -1 in saperi, 'sapere' (knowledge), and in perirl, 'perire' (death), reflects the maintenance of original forms of Ascoli's dialect, while northern fonns, perhaps influenced by French, are found in tresoro, 'tesoro' (treasure), and in tomi, 'cadute' (falls).48 5

Content of the Manuscript

Our text appears in a manuscript of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,

Conv. Sopp. 70/2,49 together with other material, in the following order: ff. lr-48v: Excerpts from the astronomy book called, Al Fargani, after the author, Ahmad Ben Mahmad Al Fargani, on the aggregation of stars. Dealing with stellar and planetary influences, it was copied by Jahakov Bar Abba Mari Bar Shimshon Bar Anatoli, who states that he copied the work from a Christian. It is attributed to the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries. Fr. 49r-55v: Our text, attributed to the sixteenth century; the title page, f. 49r, bears the inscription: A/orismi di Hippocrate Hebreo. Ff. 56r-128v: A medical work of an unidentified author, called: lm"'£I'i'I '£10 ovvero A/orismi di Ippocrate, interspersed with blank or partially written pages. Attributed to the fifteenth century, it also contains a commentary by Moshe of Rieti. 6

Conclusions

Far from being a mere curiosity, our text, because of its special nature, represents an intriguing challenge for the student of communication. How does the Jew communicate with the outside world, and what are the limits bounding that communication? The Jews felt a deep need to preserve their identity, partly by mantaining their own diversifying linguistic vehicle through the centuries. Our text testifies to this wish to adhere to tradition through the use of the Hebrew characters even though, as a translation of Other manuscripts have: riverenza, obedienza, conoscenza, or cognoscenza. virti} and anima appear though more often In this rather than in the latinlzed form. 48 See Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, c. 19, XLVIII, 5-6: "Sui mare intanto, e spesso al ciel vicino I'afflitto e conquassato legno toma (tumbles down)"; and again, c.45, I, 4, as torno, in the meaning of 'headlong faU'. 48 Microfilm n. 17995 'tl of the Manuscripts Institute of the Hebrew University. 47

The words

Sandra Debenedetti Stow

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an Italian literary text. many of the most relevant characteristics of Judeo-Italian cannot be found in this version. The need to interrelate with the surrounding culture and to open itself to general cultural stimuli was equally deep. as proved by the text chosen by our author. This need. however. did not imply total assimilation; rather. it was a wish to enrich the Jewish cultural milieu and to strengthen Jewish defenses. which claim is demonstrated by the single. slight. yet telling. change that the author made in the translation. With all its peculiarities. our text can. therefore. be symbolically read as representative of the different realities with which the Jewish diaspora had to contend. established as it was. as more than one Christian said. as a society within a society of others.

7 The Text of the Judeo-Italian Version Present below is the text of the Judeo-Italian version of the Acerba. in Hebrew letters as it appears in the manuscript. I have added a transliteration in Latin characters; but the reader must be warned that because of several unsolvable problems of transliteration. which I shall list here together with general explanatory notes on the system of transliteration. my reading is conjectural in certain cases. 1) Vocalic punctuation is rare in the text; therefore. it is often impossible to establish with absolute certainty their original value, especially in the case of the distinction between italian e and i. 2) The Hebrew letter beth :1 is used in the text to render both Italian sounds band Y. Occasionally. the indication of a voiced labiodental fricative (v) is given by the author by the apposition of a line above the letter; but in most cases. no indication is given. When it was impossible to establish beyond doubt whether the reading should be b or Y. I used both letters by to indicate a possible double reading rather than making an arbitrary decision. as in the case of the verbal present serbYa 11:1'0. for which the Italian has two forms. serbare or servare. 3) In the Hebrew alphabet. the palatal sound c is missing. This phoneme is therefore rendered in Hebrew by the letter zade ~. The same letter is used. though. to transliterate the Italian voiceless z; in many cases. therefore. it is impossible to choose between a pronuciation c palatal or z. In such cases I again avoided making an arbitrary decision. and indicated the possible double reading by using the graphic sign Ii. as in the case of

lut;e 'YI~. 4) The Hebrew pei

~

is used to transliterate both the sounds! and P. but

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303

generally the identification of the sound is made clear by the contest of the phrase; in a few instances, a pronunciation f is indicated by the translator by the apposition of a line above the letter, for instance in the case of fuca MP1S). S) The phoneme g, voiced affricate prepalatal (as in the Italian word giomo), is missing in Hebrew, and the sound is generally rendered by a single or double jod '. But the same Hebrew letter is used to transliterate the Italian semiconsonant j. The impossibility of distinguishing between the two phonemes is particularly regrettable, since the development from Italian g to the semi-consonsonant j is one of the characteristic traits identifying southern-central Italian dialects. 6) Before a bi-Iabial plosive, the Italian sound m is always rendered in all Judeo-Italian texts with the Hebrew letter nun l. The same happens in our text: tenpo 'ISll''', senpre ',QlO, etc.; except for one instance, in the word semplo '~Qt)'O. 7) To transliterate the Italian sound s, the Hebrew characters samech 0, and sin 4lI are used indifferently. In some cases, though, the use of 4lI may also indicate a prepalatal pronunciation (~), as in the case of borSa ~'l and cor!tz M4lI"p. In the groups st and str, generally the 4lI is used although here. too, the value of the sound, voiceless or prepalatal, _cannot be established beyond doubt. Only once, in the word sapere "'SlO, a line is drawn over the samech, but why it is there and what difference in pronunciation it implies, I cannot establish.

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Sandra Debenedetti Stow

BootH Chapter 7 (and Prudence, which is from the skies)

Non

~

wirtllia do

~

poco gnegno

f.49r: Non ~ wirtllia do ~ poco gnegno o fuca I'anima mia al pensere wile che quegli ~ granne che qwweS'ta fa degno

'''~~'~ lpi!) 'N 1'T n) ~'?' '~ 1U ')'1 "'Ol'O)N nN '0 nO'l) npolO IN '''l''T no n"~l'np 'P 'l'l 'N ")"p 'P

prudenzia dico 0 wer discrezione aUro non ~ segonn'al nostro stile che el ben dal male discernere per raSone

'llN'lI"PO''T "1 IN lP''T nN'lIl''Tl'O ')'''0 ,.,"'UU)N 1110 'N 1U l"",)N 'll'U' "!) "'l,'U''T ')0)"1' 1':1 )N 'P

e la memoria del tenpo passato o provedenzia di qwel che ha a wen ire conserbva I'omo nel feli~ stato da qwelta dea sapere la fonte nasce

~O!) l!:Il"')'T nN ",O'O)'N "'l'l nN'p )"P'T nN'lIl"T:11"lO IN ""''U '1I')'0 )'l 101) n:1,Ollp

che fa la wita benigna finire

qwanno la mente del suo amore si pasce

''Ul "'ll!)) "'!)O nN"T nt)'U"P n'T "'l'O N1'l'l:1 N"") no 'P ''U!)'O ",ON IN 10' ):j' "'l'O) UN lP

qewwelta natura wirtuosa e bella prende radi~ nelloumana pjjanta qwwanno ~ n so stato la segonna ktella

n)':1 'N n01NW," N',"l nt)'Ull'P N"l"O nl01Nl)'l '1I''T' ''Tl'"IS) n)',,''U NlllO) WN"'U 10lN UNnp

chewelta ~ la lu~ del saperi umana che dona all'alma conoscenza tanta che tra I'urnanitA del pensere wwano pjb wale sapere che tresoro non wwale ove ~ el sapere ricchezza non manca se I'anima non si sforza nel suo male

llOlN '1'fll1Z)''T '1I1)) 'N N"'U'l'P N"lN" NlIl''UlllP nO))N nll'T 'P un "'Ol'O )''T n\?'~P.l) N,),? 'P ')ll lU ,',0"" 'P "'00 ')1 1'0 nplo 1U nll'p" "'OO)N 'N ':11N ')0 lN10 )l nll'l!:IO'O l'l nO'l) '0

non widi wirtuoso mai periri rna ben refuso da contraria bjjanca ove ~ wirtll pur covene saliri

'1'1'fll 'NO 101N ~'" ''T'l 1U npl":1 nN "'''llP'T 10l!:l' 1':1 no '1'~V '~'~lP ',0 ~'" 'N':11N

non pa morire chi al savere ~ dato nE wivere in povertl nE in defetto nE da fortuna pa essere dannato

W'T 'N "':10)N "P "",0 l!:I 1U ''''S)'Tl'N 'l nt)":1l!:1l'N "":1'1 'l ~Nl'T "O'N "g n~~"1ig'1 'l

f.49v is blank f.SOr: o voi che date pur passanno el modo or wi ricorda de la fronte suda da dirnandare poi che se a saldo la conscienzia in povertl ~ pena e pjll dogliosa fa la wita cruda qwegli ~ feli~ che el wizio refrena

1'T10)N llNO!) ,,!) "''T 'P 'Nl:1 IN N'T10 "'ll"lS))'T n'T'lp'," ',N l'T)ON '0 'P 'N10 "'TlO''TN'T nl'!) 'N N"":11!) l'N nN'lIlN''Ullp) n'Tl'p n,,',) no noi')''T 1'0 'N Nl"O', IN 'lI"~N 'P '1I')'0' 'N ")"p

A Judeo-Italian Version of Selected Passages from Cecco D'Ascoli's Acerba o qwwanti ami~i 0 qwwanti parenti si wede I'uomo nel feli~ ....... (t stato) non respirando al contrario wenti dura I'amore fin chi dura el frutto the qwwanto I'omo pa tanto ~ amato da qwelte jjenti col wedere strutto tanto ha I'omo qwwanto ha di wirtude e tanto qwwanto per lei sa walere o jjenti ~che co Ie menti nude

305

"'1'"19 "'lnp Ul 'lI'ON "'lnp IN ........ 'lI')'9 )'1 101) ,.,'1 '0 'I;I~'11N '-'-'''llP )N ,.,1-''90'-' 113 Wl"19)N n-"., 'Po 1'9 '-"0) n-"., WON 'N W1" W 101) W1llP 'P Wl-'''VI ,-'''',, )lp "'1" "'VI"P"

,.,W-""., nN '''lnp 101) nN W1" '-")1 no ,~~ -''9 W1np W~ 'N ,.,,1 "'1'0') lP 'P'lI "'1" IN

mirati che malizia ~ desolata e senza onore se non ~ 'I potere pjjh che de vita ~ morte beata

m2:Z10'., 'N nN'lI')O 'P '1;1')'1;1 '-''''19) 'N 113 '0 '"llllN NlI1'0 'N N"N':1 "'-"0 'N N"':1" 'P 1"£1

non ri~vete nell'antica borsa qwel the misura bvole che pur se spenna che appoco bvene el tenpo dela corsa

NVI-":1 np"'l)'l "":1'lI'-' 113 nl£loo -'19 'P ')1:1 ml0'0 'P )"i' NV-llP)" 191"')N '1':1 lP19N np

con a~identi non pensare pravi chi bvole che la spesa non offenda tenga misura colle aperte chjjavi f.SOv: Ma qwsta wita e I'altro monno perde chi ha el savere senpre in despitto perdenno el bene del tenpo werde

'~'l!? '10~'~ 113 "'l''''lIN 11i' n.,1'£I1N 113 no'9o) 'P ')1:1 "P ':1 "i' "'-"£IN ')lp n-"0'tl n~l'"

,.,-"£1 llltl 1"",)) 'N N"'l ~VI"P ntl W'£I0.,lN '"1910 '-":10)N nN'p ,.,-'" 191'" )., 'l:1)N 13,.,-"£1

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Chapter 9 (On Liberality, which is from the skies)

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306

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ma qwwegli che pur ri~ve e non wergogna e lui non ~ difesa perch~ ~ como contra wirtll dl e notte si ugna f.Slr: e chi si esalta fa depresso el bvolto cadendo sopre lui II tenpi rei per pjll sua pena regna ('omo stolto umilitl fa grazia segwire e de la sommitl de Ie wlrtll per nova conscienzia fa salire che si como Ii ~lli strengon ('ali

per al sol montalle neUe alte wedute cosl ti strigne se del ben ti cale

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f.Slv: qWeSta wirtll degno fa ~scuno e grazia possedere n'alcun loco pjll tosto dare che ri~vere dono pill tosto sofferire che fare wendetta qwessa ~ la caritl col dol~ foco che de l'eterna pa~ el tenpo aspetta e fa nel mondo grazla possedere a chi con qWeSti serbva el bel pia~re Chapter 10

(On Humility)

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A Judeo-Italian Version of Selected Passages from Cecco D'Ascoli's Acerba

307

ove ~ condotta la noiosa wita solia nel tenpo umllitl regnare dal ~ mondo pare che sla smarrita

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qwegli ~ pjll, degnl che pa trionfare per 10 dewiso ch'~ fra el nero e 'I bjjanco dando li nemi9i Ie percosse amare

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della lore natura I'affetto remoto 11 gran cattivi di jjentili parenti donca al 9810 con qwieta IU98 dispone a jjentilezza creatura apper wolere aile opere si addu98 wen qwesto rajjo dallo segonno 9810

che ten di jentilezza la figura

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rna el 981i innuminanno el sangwwe novo non li pa dare consimile costume como a I'antico; ~ dl sopre prova rna qwi mi sterlnze dubltando Danti son dui filioli nati in uno parto e pjll, jjentlle sl mostra qwel dinanti conwwerso sl como jja bvidi torna a Ravenna e da 1l non mi parto dimmi ascolano qwel che ne cridi

~~

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308

f.S2y: sojjetto e mlnore moitrasi sen pre a cui e qwwanno deye e non si sprezzi abbandonando de wlrtl'1le ten pre la reverenzla qwwale 51 fa al majore onore che teitimonio del bene abjjdienzia si fa al senjore col serwire conosce wene cosl dal suo contrario I'angosce

~rtificare

la

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qweJta wirtl'1 che dal ~I discenze fa pur beato chi co 16 se strenze Chapter 12 (On Nobility) pjoYate ~li la noitra chjjarezza conigati da qwweJti li errorl che falza mente appe\lan jjentilezze fu jja trattato cole dol~i rime e definito 10 nobile walore dal florentino coll'antiche lime

rna collo schermo deli juJti proyl I dlco contra dela prima setta e bYolio che mio detto ralone troyi che jjentilezza adi wirtude forma che nel sojjetto diJpoJto 5i a5petta

o qwwanno al

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di qwwalitade I'~rma

f.S3r: cosa perfetta for de sua natura qwwanno nel suo contrario si forma enpia forma prende oltra misura e jjentilezza ~ non per a~idente qwwelli ~ jjentile che per ~ 51 wwalora e non per sangwe del'antica jjente

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per ~ nulla credente moitra affetto donca ricchezza non fa I 'omo feli~ che pa fa jjre ad essere sujjetto

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A Judeo-Italian Version of Selected Passages from Cecco D'Ascoli's Acerba

rna la ricchezza a l/entilezza fa~i e pjik ljentile si moltra omo rna qwwel che su potere onore sfad

309

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e mala mente sua ricchezza mena

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dare non possenno qwwanno a cwuj e como la conoscenzia 10 condu~ a pena

wwolenno qwwelte sette contentare jjentile de sangwe filiolo d'omo tengo f.S3v: per qwwalitade de diwerse moltre in uno con~tto waliati effetti segonno qwelli che hanno I'anime Iultre

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10 primo nato forma a I'oriente

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fedeli avemo l/a pil'l de mill!

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310

Sandra Debenedetti Stow

e p~ ~ I'omo non ~ qwwanno si moltra e pur desia Ie ponpose lawode e pure disprezza qewelta pjjana noltra qwwelta si ~ I'anima del1a apocrisia che della wwana gloria si lawoda bvoltanno I'intelletto a fantasia

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la falza nomenza poco dura e chi ben parla e mala mente wive e chi coprire si bvole da sua natura

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ben ~ scoperto qwwelli che bvole ~Iare a Ii occhjj umani Ie opere cattive

el perso per 10 blanco demoltrare

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I'altrui parlare la tua lawoda spande e la tua bvocca serbvi el bel ta~re poi de wwergogna I'anlma non si affanna

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propia bvocca fa lawode sorde e falli fra Ie jjenti dispia~re qwwanno la wwana gloria Ie morde f.S4v: jjentile de animo e filiolo de Dio e pjb jjentili cose pa moltrare se non ~ del tena~ fariseo 10 temo Dio pjll che I'omo ~ degno e pjb the I'sangwwe ~ I'anima perfetta ~ tu confessi como note e segno donca ~ pjll degna la nobilitade dell'alma che werdude si diletta resplennenno in e benignltade $Ono dal ~Io potenzjj jja bvenuti the defferenzia fanno fra Ii umani segon che fa el ~rchjo Ii soi moti l'omo ~ jjentile qwwanto ~ wirdude in lui e tutti I'altri penseri son wwani the antichia jjente faWl bono altrui 5i como lu~ si conosce al sole che omo qwwanto moltra e wirtll rico Ie Chapter18 (On Vainglory) bene ~ wirtude chi desia onore e lawode de110 bene che I'omo acqwilta che per la fama cresce pjll wwalore

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THE SPREAD OF THE SABBATEAN MOVEMENT IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES Jacob Barnai The Sabbatean movement and various groups that were its legacy constituted a most influential phenomenon in the annals of Jewish history. Indeed, there was almost no Jewish community in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in which Sabbateanism did not establish itself. It enveloped almost all of world Jewry, reaching across considerable social and geographical expanses. Analysis of the avenues by which the movement attained its prominence contributes to a better understanding of communication practices, their channels, and their scope in the pre-modern Jewish world. This essay analyses the main communication channels of Sabbatai ~vi's messianism both among its disciples and among the audiences from which proselytes were recruited. Our research covers two main periods, Sabbatai ~vi's conversion in September 1666 serving as a demarcation line. The response of Jewish authorities to the movement, its ideas, and development will be also taken into consideration as an additional, though biased, means of information about Sabbateanism. Several observations concerning the sources are in order. The literature about Sabbateanism includes extensively published archives. For the purposes of this study, extant correspondence concerning the movement, messages sent either by communities or by individuals, are of primary importance. This correspondence includes isolated documents but also R. Jacob Sasportas' (1610-1698) large collection about Sabbateanism at the height of its power. One of the movement's most vociferous opponents, Sasportas gathered in his Tzitzat Novel :kvi 1 373 letters and documents and refers to 375 more, some of which are known from other sources and some of which have still not been found. Isaiah Tishbi produced a scholarly edition of Tzitzat Novel :?£vi, including an index of persons and places. For the period following Sabbatai ~vi's conversion, the large collection of correspondence and diaries recently published by Meir Benayahu in "The Sabbatean Movement in Greece" forms the 1

See Jacob Sasportas, Tzitzat Novel Zevi, ed. Isaiah Tishbi (Jerusalem, 1954).

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documentary basis. 2 Benayahu's monograph contains a rich assortment of historical material concerning relations among the Sabbateans. both among those who converted and those who remained Jews. in the Ottoman Empire and Italy at the close of the seventeenth century and throughout the eighteenth century. In addition. the sundry correspondence and documents published in the periodical literature have been used. particularly materials from the journal Sefunot. Contemporary chronicles. community records. and observations made by European diplomats and Ouistian figures who reported on the Sabbatean movement constituted an additional avenue by which information about Sabbateanism circulated. and therefore another documentary source.

********** In the first half of the seventeenth century. the Jews were widely dispersed among the Ottoman Empire (especially in Turkey. the Balkans. and the Near East). Northern Africa. the Arab countries. and Persia. All these places were under Moslem rule. Poland contained a dense network of Jewish communities. Italian Jewry was a separate phenomenon. while serving as a bridge between Southern and Northern Jewries. Western Europe experienced a rejuvenation of Jewish life in the generation before Sabbatai ~vi because of the influx of Portuguese mammos and refugees from Eastern Europe. marranos settled in Holland. Germany. Italy. France. and England. but also in the New World. Finally. there were numerous Jewish communities in Central Europe. the Austrian Empire. and the German principalities. Alongside geographical diffusion. the Jewish Diaspora lacked a single communal structure. In Moslem countries such as Yemen. Iraq. and Persia. the Jews were descended from ancient. autochthon communities. In Northern Africa lived the progeny of those exiled from the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the fifteenth century residing side by side with an older Jewish presence. In the Ottoman Empire. the fugitives from the Inquisition mingled in established Jewish communities. In the second half of the sixteenth century these communities. largely dominated by exiles from the Iberian peninsula. reached the apex of their economic and cultural development. They enjoyed a far-reaching influence on the spiritual and cultural life of Jews throughout the world. particulady in 2 Meir Benayahu, "The Sabbatean Movement in Greece, " Sejunot 14 (1971-1978); see the entire issue. See, also, Abraham Elkayam, "Bury my Faith" [Hebrew I. Pe'amim SS (1993): 4-37

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matters of halachah (through the Shul~an Arukh or code of Jewish law) and Kabbalah. Eastern Europe was home to Ashkenazic Jews. In Western Europe, Ashkenazic Jews lived alongside the marranos, who had left Portugal in the seventeenth century and reverted to Judaism. This variegated Jewish world on the eve of the Sabbatean crisis did display several common denominators. Most noteworthy for our purposes was the wide dispersal of Spanish and Portuguese Jewry; another was the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over Asian, African, and European countries where important Jewish communities were located. The diffusion of Iberian Jews throughout the Moslem and Christian worlds engendered a vigorous communication network between scattered communities. Spanish and Portuguese Jews were connected by family, friendships, a common language (Ladino) , and shared cultural practices. Their rabbinical writings and juridical decisions enjoyed wide authority throughout the Diaspora. The spread of Hebrew printing, as well, led to the tightening of relations between remote communities. As for the Ottoman imperial structure, within which so much of Jewish life developed, the Empire's extensive economic relations with European countries, such as Italy, Holland, England, France, and Austria, concomitant with its geographical proximity to Eastern Europe contributed additional communication channels among the most important Jewish communities. 3 In some cities - e.g., Amsterdam and Jerusalem - Ashkenazic and Sephardic traditions coexisted, a portent of the meeting between Sabbatai ~vi, the Sephardi, and his prophet Nathan, son of an Ashkenazic family. Both the distinctive and the common factors of Jewish life on the eve of Sabbatai ~vi 's appearance has been analyzed in depth during the last 150 years. Modem historiography in reference to Sabbateanism embraces three main periods. 1) From the birth of modem Jewish historical scholarship, in the mid-nineteenth century, until the 1920's: The prevailing approach during this period was defined by Samuel Werses as "an interpretive tradition [which] mixed scholarship and polemic. It inherited the legacy of Jacob Emden [the well-known anti-Sabbatean of the eighteenth century] in describing Sabbateanism and Frankism in the disapproving terms of the 3 Jacob Elbaum, ·Cultural Links Between the Jews of Poland and Ashkenaz and the Jews of Italy in the Sixteenth Century· [Hebrew], Gal-Ed, 7-8 (1985): 11-40; Jacob Barnai, ·Connections and Isolation Between the Jewish Sages of Turkey, Poland, and Central Europe in the Seventeenth Century· [Hebrew), Gal-Ed 9 (1986): 13-26; Ze'ev Oris, ·Print as a Communication Network Between Jewish Communities in the Diaspora Following the Expulsion from Spain: Prolegomena to a Discussion· [Hebrew], Daat 28 (1995): 5-17.

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Enlightenment."4 This school was generally suspicious of the movement, opposing the Sabbatean emphasis on mysticism and anti-rationality, not to mention its actual program. In the early twentieth century, a certain change in attitude was discernible among Zionist scholars, who romanticized messianism in the hope that Zionism would succeed where the Sabbateans failed. 2} Gershom Scholem's life-long study of Sabbateanism, which commenced in the 1920's and continued to his death in 1982: Scholem's two landmark treatments of the subject are an essay, "Mitzvah haba'ah oo'averah," first published in 1938,5 and a monograph, Sabbatai !fevi and the Sabbatean Movement in his Lifetime, which first appeared in Hebrew in 1957 and was translated into a number of foreign languages.8 Like his predecessors, Scholem understood Sabbateanism to be a widespread phenomenon from its beginnings in the mid-seventeenth century until the decline of Frankism in the mid-nineteenth century. His work focused on the period up to Sabbatai ~vi's death in 1676. The years after Sabbatai ~vi's death have yet to receive full scholarly treatment, serving mainly as the focus of specific studies of narrow scope. Still, Scholem and his students certainly showed that Sabbatean activities extended beyond Sabbatai ~vi 's own lifetime. Scholem argued that the central cause of the Sabbatean crisis was the expulsion from Spain, which provoked deep-seated messianic expectations and popularized Lurianic Kabbalah in the generation preceding Sabbatai ~vi. Scholem's account, then, emphasized the mystical and religious influences on Sabbateanism. Addressing the movement's survival into the eighteenth century, he contended that Sabbateanism sustained its intensity throughout the century following Sabbatai's death. What is more, it was clearly related to both J:lassidism and the Haskalah. Scholem also pointed to the challenge to traditional religious structures that was manifest in Sabbateanism and to the movement's emergence in parallel with the appearance of the ghetto; Shmuel Werses, Haskalah and Sabbateanism (Jerusalem, 1988), p. 146. Gershom Scholem, ·Mit~ah haba'ah ba'averah: Towards an Understanding of Sabbateanism,· Kenesset 2 (1937): 347-92. The article was republished in the collection of essays by G. Scholem, Studies and Texts Concernin& the History oj Sabbateanism and its Metamorphoses [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1974), pp. 9-67. 8 Gershom Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi and the Sabbatean Movement in his lifetime (Jerusalem, 1957). Significant additions were made in the English and French editions. Thus, further bibliographic references in this essay are to the English edition: G. Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi (Princeton, 1973). The rest of Scholem's scholarship on Sabbateanism was collected and updated by Yehuda Liebes in Researches on Sabbateanism [Hebrew] (Tel Aviv, 1991). 4

5

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both events raised new perspectives, secular and national, for the Jews. Scholem's work has deeply influenced two generations of scholars. Its central theses were adopted almost without critical resistance, in regard both to their factual basis and to the perception of Sabbateanism's root causes. Scholem's contentions about the movement's effect on modern Jewish life, however, did not win as wide an acceptance, particularly on the part of orthodox scholars.7 3) The post-Scholem era of Sabbatean scholarship: critical readings of Scholem's oeuvre, both those concerning the causes of the Sabbatean movement and those about its consequent effects comprise the most significant characteristic of this period. s Yet, as more factual data becomes known, Scholem's description of the movement's wide social acceptance, not only in Sabbatai ~vi's lifetime but during the eighteenth century as well, receives corroboration. Nevertheless, there are several new directions evident in the study of Sabbatean theology. Likewise, there is a significantly greater understanding of the role of Christian messianic thought and the marranos' influence on Sabbateanism. The revision of Scholem's scholarship, however, is still in its infancy. It focuses on a new analysis of the scope of messianic fervor and Kabbalistic teachings, especially Lurianic Kabbalah; the impact of Sabbateanism on modern Jewish history, especially Hassidism and the Haskalah; and the interrelationships of Christianity, the marranos, Islam, and Sabbateanism. Though Gershom Scholem never rejected the role of political, social, religious (non-Jewish), and economic forces in the spread of Sabbateanism, he assigned them only marginal importance in the 7 Baruch Kurzwell, The Fight for Jewish Values [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1970), pp. 99-134. 8 Jacob Katz, "On the Relationship Between Sabbateanism, Haskalah, and Reform" [Hebrew], in Ein Hadah: Anniversary Volume for Alexander Altman (Alabama, 1979), pp. 83-100; Eliezer Shweld, "Mysticism and Judaism According to G. Scholem" [Hebrew]. in Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought, Supplement 2 (1983); Joseph Haker, "Cultural Activities Among the Jews of the Ottoman Empire in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries" [Hebrew], Tarbitz 53 (1984): 569-603; Stephen Sharot, Messianism, Mysticism and Magic, p. 86; Joseph Kaplan, Henry Mechoulan, and Richard H. Popkin, Menasseh Ben Israel and his World (Lelden, 1989), and several articles on Sabb~teanlsm; Moshe Idel, "'One from a Town, two from a Clan'; the Diffusion of Lurianic Kabbalah and Sabbateanism: ARe-Examination," Jewish History 7 (1993): 29-104; Jacob Bamai, "Christian Messianism and the Portuguese Marranos: the Emergence of Sabbateanism in Smyrna," Jewish History 7 (1993): 119-26; Richard H. Popkin, "Three English Tellings of the Sabbatai Sevi Story," Jewish History 8 (1994): 43-54; Yehuda Liebes, On Sabbateanism and its Kabbalah [Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 1995).

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movement's dramatic success. Scholem, instead, focused on a single factor: the spread of Kabbalah "in that particular form it acquired in the seventeenth century, that is, the Lurianic Kabbalah."9 According to Scholem, the Kabbalah's encounter with Jewish messianism gave birth to Sabbateanism. This focus on religious life and its theological dynamics offers a "total interpretation" designed to explain all aspects of Sabbateanism. Recent scholarship, however, has raised doubts about how extensive the influence of Lurianic Kabbalah was in the generation preceding Sabbatai !?evi. The criticism of Sholem's tenets, too, encourages a reexamination of the Sabbatean Movement, among other approaches by putting special emphasis on its avenues of communication in the framework of the seventeenth-century Jewish world. The connection between the marranos in Western Europe and the startling spread of Sabbateanism is long established. Scholem emphasized WO and recent studies have enriched our understanding of this relationship.11 In the seventeenth century, the Portuguese marrano community was seized by messianic fervor as a result of its return to Judaism, together with a sense of repentance for its former Christianity. Quite paradoxically, however, this community was influenced at the same time by a messianic ethos imbibed from Christianity. The Jewish community of Smyrna, for example, where Sabbatai !?evi and many of his followers came from, embraced a large, wealthy population of marranos, who had established themselves in the mid-seventeenth century. Two of the six synagogues in the city were marrano. Several of Sabbatai !?evi's closest childhood friends came trom marrano families, and they were to perform important roles in the movement after Sabbatai !?evi returned from the Holy Land as the messiah. 12 It is significant, then, that in 1659 (six years before Sabbatai !?evi's messianism), a Spanish edition of the treatise of Menashe Ben Israel, himself a marrano, was published in Smyrna. The book, Esperanr;a de Israel, was a messianic treatise, originally published in Amsterdam. In the Smyrna edition, a number of G. Scholem, Sabbatai Se"i (English edition), pp. 7-8. G. Scholem, Sabbatcii ~"i, p. 485; G. Scholem, Studies and Texts, pp. 274-369. 11 Joseph Kaplan, From Christianity to Judaism [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1983), pp. 183-203; S. Sharot, Messianism, pp. 101-109; Joseph Hayim Yerushalmi, From Spanish Court to Italian Ghetto (New York, 1971), pp. 302-49. 12 Jacob Barnai, "The Beginnings of the Jewish Community in Smyrna in the Ottoman Period" [Hebrew], Pe'amim 3 (1982): 47-58; J. Barnai, "The Marranos of Portugal and Smyrna in the Seventeenth Century" [Hebrew], in Oma Vtoldoteiyah, ed. Menachem Stern (Jerusalem, 1983), pp. 289-98. 9

10

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poems by friends of Sabbatai ~vi were added to the text. 13 Also noteworthy in this context is the analogy that may be made between the heterodoxy of some marranos - Spinoza and de Costa being the best-known examples - and the Sabbatean challenge to rabbinical orthodoxy; for instance, by the Sabbatean marrano, Michael Abraham Cardozo. Qearly, the settlement of Portuguese marranos in Western Europe and the Ottoman Empire and the widespread network with which they maintained communication constituted important factors in the eruption of Sabbateanism and, later, in facilitating the emergence of its communication network through former channels. Another event, concurrent with Sabbateanism and of broad geographical and, in consequence, communication significance, was Ounielnicki's persecutions in Eastern Europe (1648-1649) and their subsequent anti - Jewish riots. Early studies connected these disturbances to the appearance of the Sabbatean movement. Scholem and his disciples marginalized Chmielnicki's persecutions, without entirely rejecting their influence, by assigning them local significance at best. By exploration of the general historical dynamics of Sabbateanism, however, Chmielnicki's riots should be given more causal prominence. 14 First, we are not discussing a single, momentous occurrence confined to the years 1648-1649 that harmed Polish Jewry. This was an ongoing process incidents, riots, and expulsions - that affected Jewish communities in Western and Eastern Europe, as well. Shortly before, the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), which was waged principally in Germany and Central Europe, had created a wave of Jewish refugees. Some had fled eastward to Poland. others westward to Holland. 1s With the end of that War. the revolts in the Ukraine began, affecting Polish Jewry for years as Jewish refugees scattered throughout the Diaspora. The uprisings and wars in Poland and Lithuania and the accompanying destruction continued for 13 Cecil Roth, "Sepharadic Print in Smyrna" [Hebrew], Kiryat Sejer 28 (1952-53): 390-93; Abraham Yaari, "Hebrew Print in Smyrna" [Hebrew), Areshet 1 (1959): 101-103; Barnai, "Christian Messianism.· 14 O. Scholem, Sabbetai !ievi, pp. 1-2. And see my article which Is critical of Scholem, "The Outbreak of Sabbateanlsm: the Eastern European Factor," The Journal oj Jewish Thousht and Philosophy 4 (1994): 171-83. 15 Israel Halpern, Jews and Judaism in Eastern Europe [Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 1969), pp. 197-211; Yosef Kaplan, "Jewish Exiles from Ashkenaz and Poland in Amsterdam During the Thirty Years War and the Massacres of 1648-1649" [Hebrew], in Culture and Society in Jewish Medieval History: Memorial Volume for H. H. Ben-Sasson, eds. Reuben Bonfil, Menachem Ben-Sasson, Yosef Hacker (Jerusalem, 1993), pp. 587622.

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18 years (1648-1667).18 In parallel, the war between Sweden and Poland (1655-1660) led to further expulsions, persecutions, and murders of Polish Jews. 1? The general result was a Jewish refugee problem, with thousands migrating to Western Europe, Italy, the Ottoman Empire (especially, Turkey, Egypt, and Greece), and to the Maghreb. Many Jews were imprisoned, an eventuality that called for the assistance of Jewish communities around the world. IS The effect of this chain of events throughout the Jewish world and, in consequence, on the communication network among communities in Europe and the Moslem world was tremendous both because of the large numbers of wandering refugees and the imperative to help them through an inter-communal effort. One may further argue that on the eve of Sabbatai !?evi's appearance, Polish Jewry was not isolated. The "Council of the Four Lands," the umbrella organization of Polish Jewry, maintained close contact with communities in Western Europe. 1S In light of the Jews' spatially diffused existence, it is telling that so many participated in what the Zohar described as the year of the resurrection of the dead; i.e., Redemption, 1648.20 The first accounts of Sabbatai !?evi's messianism surfaced this same year.21 Other circumstances also connect the catastrophes in Poland to heightened messianic expectations. Sarah, whom Sabbatai !?evi married in Egypt in 1664, was an Ashkenazic refugee of the persecutions of 1648-1649. The same was true of her brother, who lived in Amsterdam. 22 Recent scholarship has documented a great wave of Jewish refugees arriving in Amsterdam from Western and Eastern Europe in the first half of the seventeenth century and encountering the marrano community there.23 This was a situation in which two Jewish cultures, each with strong messianic needs of its own, met. As to the 18 Israel Halpern, Jews and Judaism in Eastern Europe, pp. 206, 212-65; Moshe Rosman, The Stories of the Pogroms in Poland [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1982), pp. 5-12; Bernard D. Weinryb, The Jews of Poland (Philadelphia, 1973), pp. 181-205. I? Israel Halpern, Jews and Judaism in Eastern Europe, pp. 266-76; B. Weinryb, The Jews of Poland, pp. 184, 190. 18 Israel Halpern, Jews and Judaism in Eastern Europe, pp. 212-62; Eliezer Bashan, captivity and Ransom [Hebrew I (Ramat Gan, 1980), under the index listing of Ge~eirot tach vtat. 18 Moshe Rosman, "The Authority of the 'Council of the Four Lands' Outside Poland" [Hebrew], Bar-/lan 24-25 (1989): 11- 30. 20 Zohar, part 1, p. 139b. 21 G. Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, pp. 138-40. 22 G. Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, p. 191. 23 J. Kaplan, "Jewish Exiies," p. 587.

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direct influence of the Polish persecutions on Sabbatai ~vi, a source reporting the visit of two Polish rabbis, R. Isaiah and his brother, R. David Halevi, to Sabbatai ~vi after his conversion is instructive: They told him [Sabbatai ~evi] about the riots and killings which occurred in Poland from 1648-1649 to 1655. Sabbatai ~evi responded: You have to tell me about this? Can't you see that I have before me the book of Tzok Haetim, with contributions from all the affected Jewish communities, which describes the persecution?24

Thole Ha'itim was a Hebrew chronicle of the persecutions of 1648-1649 that had already been three times printed (I) - in Krakow in 1650, in Salonica in 1652, and in Venice in 1656 - before Sabbatai ~vi was declared a messiah, thus evidencing the wide effect of these events across the Jewish Diaspora. Sabbatai ~vi apparently read the Salonica edition, since he lived there in the 1650's, after he was first expelled from Smyrna. Other chronicles of the disturbances in Poland were published in Holland and Italy in the 1650's and 1660's.25 In sum, the experiences of European Jewry during the first half of the seventeenth century ramified, leaving their mark on Jewish communities outside Europe - such as those in Turkey - and on Sabbatai ~vi himself. The extensive contacts between scattered communities in the wake of these events constitute an additional explanation of the scope of Sabbatean messianism and hint at the communication channels that both the adherents and opponents of Sabbatai ~vi had at their disposal. An investigation of the causes of Sabbateanism's success must take into accoWlt still another factor, the general religious and spiritual context namely, the seventeenth-century Christian and Moslem milieu. Some research has been done on the influence of Christian, especially Protestant, messianism on the Sabbatean movement. Gershom Scholem's emphasis on an internal dynamic dismissed such a possibility.28 But the seventeenth-century Christian and Moslem milieus deserve further examination in light of scholarly research questioning the actual extent of Lurianic influence - the axiomatic and exclusive cause of the Sabbatean crisis for Scholem. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there was a distinct wave of Christian messianism, of which the Jews of Western and Central 24 See Leib ben Ozer, The Story 0/ Sabbatai Sev; Deeds [Yiddish and Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1978), p. 86. . 25 Rosman, The Stories o/the Posroms, pp. 5-12. 28 G. Scholem, Sabbatai ~vi, p. 101.

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EW'Ope were clearly aware. 2 ? Christian theologians and. in particular. Protestant ones. expressed increasing interest in Judaism and nurtured relations with Jewish philosophers. Millenarian and philosemitic references to "the return of the Jews" multiplied. It is no wonder that Sabbatai ~vi's messianism aroused significant interest among Christians. in both Europe and the Levant. because of their being millenarians and. thus. deeply apprehensive at the appearance of a Jewish messiah.28 The Portuguese marranos. who were particularly responsive to messianic enthusiasm. played a role in this exchange. but there were additional channels between the Sabbatean movement and the Christian world. Jews were closely tied commercially and culturally to European companies. which had established a colonial presence in Smyrna and other Ottoman cities.28 For instance. Sabbatai ~evi's father was an agent for an English merchant in Smyrna. 30 Company agents were among the first and most important witnesses of the Sabbatean movement. Coenen. the minister who participated in the Dutch commercial mission in Smyrna. left one of the most important first-hand accounts of Sabbatai ~evi in a book published as early as 1669 in Amsterdam. S1 In England. too. there was immediate interest in Sabbatai ~evi on the part of millenarians. 32 It is clear. then. that the Jewish-Christian interaction in Europe in regard to religious and messianic subjects should be included in any discussion of the causes of the spread of Sabbateanism. an approach that would further uncover Christian foundations in Sabbateanism and in Sabbatai

~evi 's

own behavior.33 Recently several scholars have also explored the impact of mysticism and Islamic theology on Sabbatean thought. This is not a far-fetched connection. Sabbateanism developed and established itself in 71 Miryam Yardeni. "Judaism and Jews as Seen by the French Protestant Exiles in Holland (1685-1715)" [Hebrew I. in Studies in Jewish History in the Land 0/ Israel and 0/ the Jewish People in Memory 0/ Zvi Avneri. edt A. Gilboa et a!. (Haifa. 1970). pp. 163-85; David Bankier. "The 'Return of the Jews' in French Jansenism." in Israel and the Nations: Essays Presented in Honor 0/ Shmuel Ettinger. edt Shmuel Almog et a!. (Jerusalem. 1988). pp. 71-86; Yosef Kaplan. Menasseh ben Israel and his World. 28 Despite the fact that G. Scholem underplays the importance of Christian messianism as an influence on Sabbateanism. his works contain much evidence of strong Christian interest in the movement. 28 Daniel Gofman, Iemir as a Commercial Center (Chicago, 1985), pp. 77-92. 30 G. Scholem. Sabbatai Sevi. p. 107. 81 Thomas Coenen, Ydele verwachinge der Joden (Amsterdam, 1669), p. 30. 32 Michael Wilenski, "The English Tractates on the Sabbatean Movement in the Years 1648-1649" [Hebrewl. Zion 17 (1952): 157-72. 33 G. Schoiem. Sabbatai ~evi, pp. 217, 870.

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the Ottoman Empire and other Islamic countries. such as Yemen. and in the Maghreb. 54 In attempting to determine the historical causes of Sabbateanism and its spread throughout the Jewish world. one should also consider the economic and political crises that overtook Europe. the Ottoman Empire. Northern Africa. and other countries - what is generally referred to as "The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century." Marxists are not the only ones drawn to this kind of explanation.55 Nevertheless. this avenue raises several difficulties. Although it is true that the Jews who lived in the affected regions suffered from the economic problems no less than their neighbors. recent studies show that the economic crisis was not so general. Smyrna and other cities in the Levant flourished in the seventeenth century.38 What is more. the material condition of some Jews in Western and Central Europe was not insufferable. This does not contradict the fact of an economic and political crisis that affected the Jewish communities of Safed. Salonica. Yemen. Morocco. and Eastern Europe. But it does mean that the economic factor cannot offer an entirely explanation for the wide reception of Sabbatean messianism. Perhaps a different approach is needed; namely. that the enthusiasm of the Jewish spiritual and economic elites for Sabbatean messianism was informed mostly by religious concerns. some internal and others born of extra-Jewish influences. On the other hand. the Sabbatean loyalties of the masses issued from the psychopathology of a crowd yearning for charismatic leadership because of the difficult economic and political conditions. Most likely. unique local factors also created a favorable situation for wide acceptance of the messiah's arrival. This causal matrix of separate social strata and separate communities will be explored below. When these causes of Sabbateanism are reviewed. one common thread becomes evident: that ideas and events achieved prominence as a result of the continuous flow of information among the Jewish communities and between the Jewish and the non-Jewish worlds. In other words. though 34 Yosef Tobi, Studies in 'Mesillat Teman' [Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 1986), pp. 82-150; Paul B. Fenton, "Sabbatai ~evi and his Moslem Contemporary, Mohammed An-Niyazl," In Approaches to Judaism in Medieval Times, vol. 3, 1988, pp. 81-88; P. S. Van Korningveld, J. Sadan, and G. AI-Samanzai, Yemenite Authorities and Jewish Messianism (Leiden, 1990). 35 S. Sharot, Messianism, pp. 110-14; Elie Moyal, The Sabbatean Movement in Morocco [Hebrew) (Tel Aviv, 1984), pp. 33-42; Benjamin Braude and Bernard Lewis, ed., Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire, vol. 1 (New York and London, 1982), introduction, p. 26. 38 Gofman, I~mir; Necmi Ulker, The Rise oj I~mir, 1688-1740 (Michigan, Ph. D. dissertation, 1974).

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Sabbateanism was an important catalyst for the development of communication channels and the scope of information transmitted, the appearance of Sabbatai ~vi was preceded by an efficient communication network exercised by Jews and non-Jews, who shared eschatological dreams or/and economic-commercial interests. The wide geographical scope of the wanderings of Sabbatai ~vi and his prophet, Nathan of Gaza, provide an additional rationale for the unprecedented scope of the movement. Sabbatai ~vi was born in Smyrna on the 9th of the Jewish month of Ab 37 - the day on which Jewish tradition assigns the destruction of both the first and the second Temple in Jerusalem - in 1626. His father had settled in the city several years previously, almost certainly having come from Petras in Greece, which was then under Ottoman rule. We do not know much about Sabbatai ~'s ethnic background. I suspect he was a Romanioti; i.e.• a Byzantine Jew.88 Sabbatai ~vi's father belonged to one of the waves of Jewish immigration to Smyrna that began at the end of the sixteenth century, when the city became the most important port in the Levant.39 It had been home to a Jewish community during the Hellenistic-Roman period, but no Jews lived there during the middle ages or the early years of Ottoman rule, after 1424. Exiles from the Inquisition did not arrive directly after their expulsion in 1492, in contrast to the migration to many other cities and towns in the Ottoman Empire. Jewish exiles did, however, settle in several towns in Smyrna's vicinity. With the city's economic prosperity at the end of the sixteenth century, Jews from Salonica, Safed Istanbul, Ankara. and elsewhere in Turkey and the Balkans began to settle in Smyrna. Portuguese marranos arrived in large numbers in the seventeenth century after their return to Judaism. 40 Several of the offspring of this group were childhood friends of Sabbatai ~vi, and he made them "kings of this world" after returning to Smyrna as the messiah in 1665. Some were also among Sabbatai ~vi's most fervent supporters, even after his conversion.41 month of Ab coincides with July orland August. In a previous research, I demonstrated that Romanioti Jews had family names taken from the names of animals, such as Aryeh, Ze'ev, Zevi, etc. The region where Sabbatal Sevl's family came from was home to Romanioti Jews. 88 See note 36. . 40 Jacob Barnai, "The Beginnings of the Jewish Community in Smyrna in the Ottoman Period" [Hebrew), Pe'amim 3 (1982): 47-58; J. Barnai, "The Marranos of Portugal and Smyrna in the Seventeenth Century" [Hebrew), in Oma Vto/doteiyah, ed. Menachem Stern (Jerusalem, 1983), pp. 289-98. 41 G. Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, p. 427; on Moshe Pinheiro, see his entry in the index. 87 The 88

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Smyrna, like other large cities in the Ottoman Empire, had a heterogeneous population: Jews of varied ethnic backgrounds, Christians of different sects, Europeans, and of course Moslems, who were no social monolith. As a youngster, Sabbatai !?evi provoked the ire of Smyrna's rabbinical authorities, who disapproved of his strange behavior and later self-annointment as a messiah. Consequently, they exiled Sabbatai twice. 42 He was formally ostracized in 1651; forced to live away until 1654, he returned only around 1659. During the intervening years, he lived and traveled in Salonica and other Greek cities, including, apparently, Petras. Afterwards, Sabbatai went to Istanbul, from where he returned to Smyrna. Thus, Sabbatai !?evi became known in numerous Turkish and Balkan communities; that is to say, he was far from an anonymous figure when he declared himself messiah in 1665. His second period in Smyrna, after 1659, was no less tempestuous than the first. In 1662. Sabbatai !?evi was again forced out by the community leadership.43 This time he went to Jerusalem, apparently a popular destination for those with messianic visions. He sailed from Smyrna and traveled through Rhodes, Tripoli (in Syria), and then to Egypt. In Egypt, he developed close relationships with several of Cairo's most important Jewish figures, in particular Raphael Joseph, the wealthy head of Egyptian Jewry who would playa significant role in Sabbatai !?evi's future activities and the movement's success. From Egypt, Sabbatai !?evi proceeded to Jerusalem. He stayed there for two years, becoming the leader of a group that included both scholars and unlearned enthusiasts who would become key figures in his movement and prophets of his teachings; among them were R. David Yitzchaki. R. Shmuel Primo. R. Yehuda Saraf. R. Mattathias Bloch. and Sabbatai Raphael,44 Sabbatai !?evi probably traveled throughout the Holy Land during this period, praying at the graves of righteous ones (called Ziyara, a term borrowed from Arabic), which meant that Safed was on his itinerary.45 After two years, Sabbatai !?evi was chosen by the Jewish authorities of Jerusalem to represent the community abroad. He traveled to Egypt - where he was well connected - to raise money. His appointment for such a crucial mission hints at Sabbatai !?evi's high prestige, not only in Egypt but in Jerusalem, as well. One may conclude, therefore, that even before his messianic incarnation, G. Scholem. G. Scholem. 44 G. Scholem, pp.271-89. 45 G. Scholem, 42

43

Sabbatai Sevi • pp. 148-52. Sabbatai Sev; , p. 175. Sabbata;' ~vi, pp. 180, 781; Sasportas, Tzieat Novel Tevi, Sabbatai

~vi,

p. 186.

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Sabbatai ~vi was already known in Turkey and the Balkans, in the Jewish commWlities of the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas, in Syria, Egypt, and in the Holy Land, as well. This fact is significant for Wlderstanding the early success of the Sabbatean movement; namely, Sabbatai ~vi was known to be a real persona, not a fictive messiah who somehow became the subject of widespread rumor. And although he was not personally known in Europe, reports of his activities from respected rabbis in the east reached the Continent, too. On the way to Egypt, Sabbatai ~vi passed through Hebron and Gaza, where he visited the Jewish communities. On his return to Jerusalem after several months in Egypt, Sabbatai ~vi again passed through Gaza. He now met Nathan of Gaza, his prophet-to-be and foremost proponent. In the month of Sivan - the Jewish month corresponding to May-JWle 1665, word came from Gaza that "the messiah of Jacob's God" had arrived. 48 From Gaza, Sabbatai ~vi traveled to Jerusalem at the head of a group of followers. Ironically, in Jerusalem, which should have become the base of his messianic proselytizing, Sabbatai ~vi was ostracized and expelled. 47 His expulsion from Jerusalem, however, did not hinder word of the movement from spreading. The rumors, in fact, only multiplied. Sabbatai ~vi traveled to Safed, Damascus, and Aleppo, and arrived back in Smyrna around the Jewish New Year, in September, 1665.48 At the same time, Nathan of Gaza and other believers began to herald the arrival of the messiah throughout the Jewish world. 49 The message, thus, traveled along two parallel routes: the would-be messiah's actual travels, and his followers' far-flung correspondence. The assumption of control over Jewish life in Smyrna with the removal of one of the community's principal rabbis, R. Aharon Lapapa, and the appointment of his rival, R. I:Iaim Benveniste in his place, was a high-water mark in the spread of the movement. 50 Ibid, p. 220. Ibid, p. 239; Meir M. Benayahu, "A Key to the Understanding of Some Documents on the Sabbatean Movement in Jerusalem" [Hebrew 1, in Studies in Mysticism and Relision Presented to Gershom Scholem (Jerusalem, 1968), pp. 35-45: M. Benayahu, "The Status of the Sabbatean Movement in Jerusalem" [Hebrew], in Jubilee Volume in Honor of So.io Baron (Hebrew section), (Jerusalem, 1975), pp. 41-69. 48 G. Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, p. 371. 48 G. Scholem, Studies ~nd Texts, p. 219; Sasportas, Tzizat Novel Tzvi, pp. 7-12. 50 G. Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, p. 371, passim; David Tamar, Studies in the History of Jews in the Land of israel and the East [Hebrew 1 (Jerusalem, 1981), pp. 119-35; Jacob Barnai, "A Document from Izmir Concerning the History of 48

47

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In the winter of 1666, Sabbatai ~vi left Smyrna for Istanbul, the imperial capital. In Istanbul he won an enthusiastic following in the Jewish community within months, not to mention the attentive curiosity of Christian residents and the Ottoman authorities. In fact, the excitement was deemed too great. Sabbatai ~vi was arrested by the Grand Vizier and sent to the fortress at Gallipoli and from there to Edirne (Adrianople). His arrest, as is well-known, resulted in his conversion to Islam in the Fall of the same year. 51 Until 1672, however, Sabbatai ~vi continued to instruct his followers from Edirne without interference. Released, he retwned to Istanbul, was again arrested, and this time exiled to Ulcing (south of former Yugoslavia) in order to isolate him.52 Nevertheless. Sabbatai ~vi maintained contact with his followers even from Ulcing. Known sources point to communication with such important Jewish communities as Sofia, Salonica. Edirne. and Kastoria. These are some of the destinations of what must have been an extensive network. 53 Sabbatai Sevi found a new Jewish wife (his fourth or fifth. after Sarah, the Ashkenazic. had died) through his contacts among the more reputable families of Sofia and Salonica. He eventually married the daughter of Joseph Philosof. a rabbi and Sabbatean and member of an established Salonica family54 who later converted and became a founder of the DOnme sect in Salonica in 1683.55 These details illustrate the ongoing relationships between Sabbatai ~vi and his followers after his conversion. Sabbatai ~vi eventually died in exile. on Yom Kippur - the Jewish day of Atonement - in 1675. Scholars are divided as to where he was buried. either in Olcing or in Berat. Albania. 56 In sum. Sabbatai ~vi's travels covered a very wide geographical range. passing through numerous Jewish communities in Turkey, the Balkans. Egypt, and the Holy Land. He was received by the local Jewish elites. many of whom were to be counted among his most fervent supporters. Interestingly, he never left the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire. He never visited communities in Europe. Northern Africa, or Yemen. Yet. his Sabbateanism" [Hebrew), in Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 2 (1982), pp. 119-31; R. Yosef Escapa and the Rabbinate of Izmir, Seft,mot 18 (1985): 53-82. 51 G. Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, p. 673. 52 Ibid, pp. 877, 882. . 53 Ibid, p. 899. 54 Ibid., p. 884. 55 M. Benayahu, Sejunot 14, pp. 95, 101-104. 58 Y. Fenton, "The Tomb of the 'Messiah of Ishmael'" [Hebrew], Pe'amim 25 (1985): 13-39; Tzvi Luker, "Where Sabbatai ~evi was Buried?" [Hebrew), Pe'amim 29 (1986): 152-53.

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travels were extensive enough to diffuse the popular enthusiasm for him and his movement to places he never personally reached. Besides, Sabbatai ~vi himself accelerated the dissemination of his messianic message by leading a group of followers from the Holy Land to Syria and then to Turkey. Other communities in Turkey and the Balkans that he did not personally visit but where he was not an unknown figure heard of him by letter and by travelers' rumors. Rumors thus represent an additional communication channel through which word of the purported messiah's arrival spread quickly in the Jewish world. Several examples may illustrate the scope and speed of contemporary communication. Sabbatai ~vi arrived in Aleppo, Syria, from Jerusalem at the end of July, 1665, about two months after being declared the messiah in Gaza. The day prior to his arrival, a letter reached Aleppo from Gaza announcing Sabbatai ~vi 's messianism. According to Gershom Scholem, this was not the first letter to reach Aleppo with the news. 57 Several passages in correspondence sent from Gaza to Egypt immediately after Sabbatai ~vi's self-declaration speak in mysterious fashion about the mystical assemblies that preceded the event.58 Thus, we can trace, if only partially, the very origins of the messianic rumors, shortly to be realized in nwnerous communities, as it were, by ~vi's physical presence. These early writings confused fact and fiction, as was so common in mystical movements, but the rumors spread from Egypt and Aleppo to other countries. Nathan of Gaza, whom Gershom Scholem considered more crucial than Sabbatai ~vi to the movement's success - though not all are agreed on that point _59 was born in Jerusalem in 1664 to an Ashkenazic father who was a rabbinical scholar. eo The prophet of the greatest messianic movement in Jewish history was a talmudic prodigy, in contrast to Sabbatai ~vi, whose leadership was based far more on personal charisma than on scholarly learning. Nathan was quite young, about 21 years old, when Sabbatai ~vi declared as messiah. Nathan did not travel, at least not to the extent that Sabbatai ~vi did prior to his messianism. He had never been outside the Holy Land. Nathan began his studies in Jerusalem, then moved to Gaza, where he deepened his knowledge of Kabbalah and, G. Schoiem, Studies and Texts, pp. 219-32. A. M. Haberman, ed., "Collections from Letters Concerning the Sabbatean Movement" [Hebrew], Qo"etz 'al fad 3 (1940): 207-15. 59 Isaiah Tishbi, Paths of Faith and Heresy [Hebrew 1 (Ramat Gan, 1964), pp. 245-58. 80 S.V. "Nathan," Hebrew Encyclopedia, vol. 25, pp. 402-404; G. Schoiem, Sabbatai ~"i, pp. 199, passim. 57 58

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in particular, Lurianic Kabbalah. It was in Gaza, where he announced the arrival of the messiah. Although Sabbatai ~vi continued to visit numerous communities after this point, Nathan did not venture out of Gaza until after ~vi's conversion in 1666. From Gaza, Nathan directed by correspondence an ambitious campaign in support of Sabbatai ~vi throughout the world. One such message was to Raphael Joseph Chelebi, a leader of Egyptian Jewry and already well acquainted with Sabbatai ~.81

Mter Sabbatai ~vi's conversion, Nathan commenced his travels. Though he himself did not convert, he invested great effort in justifying such a shocking deed and continued to consider Sabbatai ~vi the messiah. It is not my intent here to address the apologetics and theology of Sabbatai ~vi 's followers in the wake of his conversion. The conversion itself - this extreme act - created a new situation in the Jewish world. Most members of the elite, together with recognized public opinion, now opposed the movement. Consequently, Nathan could not freely travel to any community he wanted. There were some places in Turkey and the Balkans that simply prohibited him from visiting; other expelled him. Elsewhere he was constrained to keep a low profile. Nathan proceeded to Turkey after Sabbatai ~vi 's conversion, almost certainly in order to ascertain what exactly had transpired. He passed through Safed, Damascus, and overland to Anatolia in Turkey on the way to Smyrna. B2 While in Bursa, in the winter of 1667, an order was issued by the Jewish leadership of Istanbul to ostracize him, refuse him food, and expel him from the city.B3 From there, Nathan went to Smyrna, where Sabbatai ~vi had a greater following. Nevertheless, here, too, life was made difficult for Nathan, and consequently, he did not visit important Jewish communities in the area. From Smyrna he went to Ipsola, near Edirne (in European Turkey), where Sabbatai Sevi was living; but Nathan never entered the city and the two did not meet. In early 1668, Nathan continued his journey, traveling to Yanina and Corfu in Greece and ultimately to Italy. He visited Livorno, Venice, and even Rome, where he intended to carry out some kind of mystical act in the Apostolic See.B4 Nathan's peripatetic wanderings in this period are evidence of his spiritual restlessness and, perhaps, of a failure of confidence in the fate of the movement. Still, wherever he went, he organized the remnants of Sasportas, Ti;~at Novel Tiv;, pp. 7-12. G. Schoiem, Sabbata; Sev;, p. 708. 83 Ibid, p. 719. . B4lbid, p. 747; Isaiah Tishbi, Paths of Fa;th and Heresy, p. 59. 81

82

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Jacob Barna!

the sect while propagating a messianism adapted to the changing needs. The period that Nathan spent in Italy is critical for an understanding of the movement's development after Sabbatai ~vi's conversion, particularly its continued influence on Jewish life. Italy was the geographical bridge between the Ottoman Empire, the Maghreb, and Europe. It was home to a heterogeneous Jewry: long-settled Italians, Romaniots, Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews. Furthermore, Sabbatean teachings were embraced by a number of rabbis in Italy, from where they spread to Jewish communities in Turkey and Greece and then to Eastern and Central Europe. 85 The Italian Sabbateans became, therefore, the link that bound the movement's far-flung believers after Sabbatai ~vi 's conversion. Italy was not Nathan's final station. He continued on, visiting communities in European Turkey and the Balkans. Eventually he went to Edirne - which Sabbatai ~vi had already left - Kastoria, and other places in Thrace and Macedonia. Several times he was expelled from varioWi communities. He established a Sabbatean &it Midrash in Sofia and Salonica that attracted some important scholars. Everywhere he went, Nathan met a core of believers, with whom he regularly issued new predictions for the date of the Redemption. The most consequential stop of Nathan's journeys was Ultzin, Sabbatai ~vi 's place of exile, where he met the messiah in 1675. Ultimately, Nathan arrived in Scopia (in the former Yugoslavia) ,88 where he died and was buried in 1680. Nathan's wide-ranging travels took place after the conversion and continued after Sabbatai ~vi's death. The list of places that we know Nathan visited - and one should assume that we have only a partial list - is impressive. He visited communities outside the Ottoman Empire, as Well, organizing followers in Italy, from where his teachings were disseminated. The contacts made by Sabbatai ~vi and Nathan of Gaza were undoubtedly crucial to the movement's survival and represent the personal factor in the emergence of a communication network that embraced considerable segments of world Jewry. Beside the wanderings of the movement's founders, there were supplementary, inter-personal means of communication. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, relations among communities having an Iberian population - exiles from the Inquisition and Portuguese mananos - were very close. As mentioned above, the "Sephardic Diaspora" was dispersed throughout scores of communities in Turkey, the Balkans, Syria, the Holy Land, Egypt, Northern Africa, Italy, 85

88

M. Benayahu, Sejunot 14, pp. 109-300. G. Schoiem, Sabbatai ~vi, p. 925.

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Holland, Germany, and England. These communities were related through kin, personal acquaintances, and an ongoing dialogue amongst scholars on matters of halachah, Kabbalah, and other aspects of Jewish life. Economic relations were also important.67 In today's terminology, the Sephardic Diaspora can be described as a sort of "global village." Any matter of consequence that occurred in one community was quickly known in other communities. Communication, continuous in every area of life, reached from Northern, Western, and Central Europe to the Moslem East. It ran between Turkey, Poland, and Persia - which had a common border - Italy, Europe and Northern Africa, Egypt and Yemen, Libya and Northern Africa. Emissaries from the Holy Land, as well, filled an important role in the Sabbatean communication network. Though their primary mission was not connected with nor aimed at information transmission, their pursuit of donations throughout the Diaspora turned them into an important means of inter-communal communication in actual practice. In parallel, the printed word contributed an additional, and most efficient, communication channel. Hebrew presses were established in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in various communities in the Ottoman Empire, Italy, Poland, and Western Europe. Books circulated widely and quickly from country to country. Recent studies show that Sabbateanism was a popular subject of the si/rut hahanhagot (Codes 0/ conduct, or custom literature) in the second half of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries, including the Lurianic hanhagot (customs) and tilamim kabbaliyim (kabbalistic emendations), which became popular with the rise of Sabbateanism.68 Scores of works were printed and circulated, and became the means by which kabbalistic and Sabbatean teachings achieved such wide-spread effect. The most famous example was Ifemdat Yamim, originally printed in Smyrna in 1731-1732 and containing important Sabbatean ideas. It circulated widely in Jewish communities in both Islamic and European countries and was printed in fT7 Minna Rozen, "The FATTORIA A Chapter in the History of Mediterranean Commerce in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries" [Hebrew], Miqqedem Umiyyam 1 (1981): 101-32; Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean (New York, 1976), vol. 2, pp. 802-25. 68 M. Benayahu. SejUnot 14, p. 269; Isaiah Tishbi, "The Customs of Nathan of Gaza, the Letters of R. Moshe Zaccuto, and the taqqanot of R. Hayyim Abulafiya in the Book /femdat Yamim" [Hebrew], Kiryat SeIer 54 (1979): 585-610; Ze'ev Gries. "The Establishment of the Hebrew Si/rut hahanhasot in the Transition Period of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century and Its Historical Significance" [Hebrew]. Tarbitz 56 (1987): 527-82.

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numerous editions.as Although Sabbatai ~vi's conversion and the mass hysteria of his followers eventually weakened public messianic activity, faith in his messianism, and more generally in the expectation of a messiah, retained a vital presence in all strata of Jewish society. Sabbateanism, thus, was a catalyst for the diffusion of sf/rut hahanhagot ha/w.blit vetikunei tshuva (kabbalistic customs and repentance literature), making it, in turn, a crucial element in the strengthening of relations between disparate communities within the Jewish world. All these ideas, rumors, facts, and books circulated in varied ways, making the world a small place as far back as the seventeenth century. As for the more regular, widespread means of communication, one can point to correspondence diffused by several channels. The Jews sent their correspondence by well-traveled trade routes, overland and by sea. 70 A letter from the Holy Land or Egypt arrived in Turkey or Italy within 10 to 20 days. European trading companies in the Levant maintained continual contact with their mother countries, thus serving both Christians and Jews as an important channel of information transmission concerning the Sabbateans. European diplomats in Istanbul and consuls throughout the Ottoman Empire sent back reports about the movement's progress. Christian theologians and European travelers also wrote about the messianic events. European newspapers published detailed account. 71 A considerable amount of our knowledge about Sabbateanism and its spread, both before and after its founder's conversion, is mostly due to the efforts of R. Jacob Sasportas, one of the movement's greatest opponents. R. Jacob lived in Hamburg, where he collected documentation relating to the Sabbatean movement and corresponded with a vast network of rabbis. He suffered at the hands of Sabbatai's followers, who constituted a majority in the Hamburg community. From R. Jacob's correspondence with rabbh\ical figures in Italy and Amsterdam, one learns that Sabbatai ~vi was accepted there as the messiah. 72 Sasportas described how word of the messiah arrived and how he found it necessary 89 Abraham Yaari, Taalumat Seier (Jerusalem, 1954); G. Scholem, Researches in Sabbateanism, pp. 250-88; Isaiah Tishbi, Paths 01 Faith and Heresy, pp. 108-68; 1d., The Hanhagot 01 Nathan 01 Gaza, pp. 585-610; 1d., wThe 'Genealogy' of 'My Teacher' and 'My Father who is my Master and My Teacher' in Hemdat Yamim" [Hebrew), Tarbitz 50 (1981): 463-514. 70 F. Braudel, The Mediterranean, pp. 276, passim; Halll Inalcik, The Ottoman Empire (London, 1975), pp. 121-64. 71 See the bibliographic list at the end of G. Scholem's book, Sabbatai Sevi, p. 939. . 72 Sasportas, Tzizat Novel Tzvi, introduction by Isaiah Tlshbl and pp. 11-75.

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to smnmon all of world Jewry against the new threat to the Jewish Faith. On the 22nd day of Kislev (the end of 1665) rumors arrived from

Eastern Egypt and neighboring areas that in Gaza, not far from Jerusalem, a prophet had announced the redemption, declaring that Sabbatai ~evi from Smyrna and currently from Jerusalem, is the messiah of the God of Jacob .... I immediately wrote to Ashkenaz and Poland, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and Jerusalem .... Some time passed and in the month of Adar reports were received from the east that the messiah Sabbatai ~evi "may he be damned," was on his way to Smyrna. 73

Though acting from a biased perspective, Sasportas and other opponents of the Sabbatean movement in effect played a role in the diffusion of news about the new messiah. Another interesting example is a message sent from Smyrna to Hamburg in March, 1666, that described the ecstatic response that overtook that city's populace. According to this source, more than 200 men and women experienced a prophecy in Smyrna, the fast of the 10th of Tebeth - one of several annual fasts in remembrance of the Temple, all of which were abrogated by Sabbatai ~vi, since the Redemption had arrived - and Sabbatai ~vi circulated around the city in a royal manner, escorted by 500 followers. Moreover, he was accorded a dignified reception by the non-Jews of Smyrna. 74 Two letters sent from Istanbul to Smyrna and to Jerusalem in the middle of 1666 illustrate what the Jewish leadership in the imperial capital thought of Sabbatai ~vi before his conversion, when the self-proclaimed messiah was living in Istanbul. The message to Smyrna denounced those few opponents to be found there for their denial of Sabbatai ~vi's messianism. 75 In the letter to Jerusalem, however, the Istanbul leadership requested that a committee of rabbis conduct an investigation in order to determine whether Sabbatai ~vi was a true or a false messiah. 76 One may conclude that in most cases the information sources about Sabbatai ~vi and his movement came from the elite, whether rabbis, parnassim, merchants, the clergy, or European diplomats. The more popular levels of society, however, also participated in informationexchange and they were probably even more responsible for the mythologizing and exaggeration of the image of Sabbatai ~vi that so 73

74

75 78

Ibid, pp. 1-2. Ibid., pp. 60-62. Ibid. , pp. 133-35. Ibid. , pp. 123-25.

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excited the masses. 77 In any case, the sources make it clear that Sabbateanism was not the faith of a small sect of mystics. The movement captured the imagination and loyalty of many people, from all strata of Jewish society and almost every Jewish community in the world: the rich and the poor, the educated and the ignorant all dedicated themselves with equal ecstatic fervor to the would-be messiah and his movement. Doubtless, there were opportunists among Sabbatai ~vi's followers, those who hoped the movement would serve their ambitions. There were others who acted mostly out of fear. Of course, Sabbateanism had its opponents; and they paid a heavy price for their opposition, at least until Sabbatai ~vi 's conversion. 78 While messianic ideology can be explained as an aspect of the religious forces at work in some generations, popular hysteria can be discussed only in terms of mass psychology. The twentieth century can well understand the mass zeal for ideology, charismatic leaders, and myth-making. Norman Cohn's book, Warrant for Genocide, presents telling examples of this phenomenon, among others explaining how the Protocols of the Elders of Zion became received truth in contemporary society.79 Elias Canneti addressed the popular appeal of false rumor in his work, Masse und Macht. 80 Sabbateanism was transformed from a mass movement to a sect by the messiah's conversion. By sect, I mean the closed, sometimes secretive nature of adherents who maintained their belief in Sabbatai ~vi, and who were to be found throughout the Jewish world. "Sect" does not connote modest numbers. The fact that the faithful often operated in the open suggests that at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century the Sabbatean loyalties of a considerable number of Jews were a well-known, accepted fact. Modem scholars have found other followers who went undetected in their own time, thus offering a glimpse of the internal world of the Sabbatean movement after Sabbatai ~vi's conversion. 8! These studies also give a 77 Memories of Glueckel of Hameln, trans. A. Z. Rabinovitz [Hebrew] (Tel Aviv, 1929), pp. 34-35; Moyael, The Sabbatean Movement in Morocco, pp. 81-97. 78R. LeibBenOzer, The Story of Sabbetai Sevi, p. 49. 79 Norman Cohn, Warrant for Genocide (Hebrew trans. Tel Aviv, 1967), pp. 12-28. 80 Elias Canetti, o-owds and Power (Hebrew trans. Tel Aviv, 1979), pp. 144-50. 81 See especially, O. Scholem, Studies and Texts; Isaiah Tishbi, Paths of Faith and Heresy; Se/Unot 3-4 (1960); 5 (1961); M. Benayahu, Se/Unot 14; Moshe Areyeh Anat (Perlmuter), The Attitude of R. Yehonatan Eibschilte to Sabbateanism !Hebrew], (Jerusalem, 1947); Y. Liebes, On Sabbateanism and Its

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sense of the continued breadth of the movement, which retained many members of the intellectual elite and covered a wide geographical spectrwn in the Jewish world. Sabbatean loyalists lived everywhere in the Jewish Diaspora. At the end of the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth century, they inhabited Turkey, the Balkans, Italy, the Holy Land, Egypt, Northern Africa, Libya, Western and Eastern Europe. A list of known Sabbateans in this period includes important rabbis, communal leaders, kabbalists, and members of the second tier of the intellectual elite, such as preachers (drmflanim) and interpreters of the texts (magidim). There is clear evidence that Sabbateans maintained extensive mutual contact throughout the Diaspora, exchanging visits, correspondence, and Sabbatean teachings formulated by themselves or by others. These activities were not always clandestine. On occasion, the Sabbateans conducted a dialogue with rabbinical authorities and community leaders about their beliefs. Of course, there were also frequent conflicts with the established rabbinical authorities, who sought to repress the Sabbatean legacy.82 Notably, these communication channels facilitated the evolution of an inter-communal communication network in the most general sense. Moreover, the faction confrontations between Sabbateans and their opponents served to strengthen ties between the different parts of the Jewish world, not just to polarize them. Nathan of Gaza, who wandered extensively in the wake of Sabbatai ~evi's conversion and death, established important centers of the movement in Turkey, the Balkans, and Italy. A group of Sabbateans in Kastoria was founded under the leadership of R. Israel Chazan; in Edirne under R. Shmuel Primo; in Salonica under several important learned figures, such as R. Shlomo Florentine, R. Joseph Philosof, and R. Yitzak Chanan. These are only some of the movement's spiritual centers that Nathan helped to found. 83 Two central Sabbatean figures in Italy, R. Benjamin Hacohen and R. Abraham Rovigo, who were counted among the most important rabbis in Italy at the end of the seventeenth century, have left us their secret diaries Kabbalah, pp. 198-261; Jacob Barnai, "Two Documents for the Study of Sabbateanlsm in Tunis and Smyrna" [Hebrew), Zion 52 (1987): 191-202; Tobi, Studies in 'Mesillat Teiman'; Moyal, The Sabbatean Movement in Morocco. 82 This Is not the place to specify the personal names and communities Involved In Sabbatean activities in these generations. Details can be found In the sources listed in note 78. 83 M. Benayahu, SejUnot 14, most of the book; G. Scholem, "The Exegesis to Psalms from Sabbatean Circles in Adrianopolis" [Hebrew), in Alei Ein: Anniversary Volume for Shlomo Zalman Schoken (Tel Aviv, 1952), pp. 157-212.

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and correspondence,84 recording some of their teachings, their Sabbatean activities, and the extensive network by which Sabbateans communicated with one another, wherever they lived. Furthermore, Sabbateans knew of each other and developed their own terminology. Sabbateans from Turkey, the Holy Land, and Poland, for instance, visited R. Abraham Rovigo in Modena. Noteworthy are his relations with the famous Sabbatean from Poland, R. Yehuda hal:lasid, before the latter's immigration at the head of a group of several hundred to the Holy Land in the early 1700's.85 The Sabbateans wielded much influence in Salonica. In Italy, Nathan's pupils were important. M. Benayahu sketched the path of several remarkable Sabbateans from Salonica to Italy in the last quarter of the seventeenth century, together with the spread of Sabbatean ideology there. S8 They contacted famous Sabbateans, such as Abraham Michael Cardozo, who like many others, traveled from community to community. Such wanderings were common amongst Sabbateans, since they were not always able to practice their way of life - evidence of an inner crisis that could be ameliorated by contact and dialogue with their co-believers. The Sabbateans also communicated and spread their ideas by means of the printing press: that is, through the circulation of printed materials, which were sometimes explicit in nature and sometimes disguised. One such work was lfemdat Yamim, first published in three volumes in Smyrna in 1731-1732 and issued later in many editions, both complete and abridged, thus becoming an eighteenth-century "best-seller." The book is an anthology of different varieties of Jewish religious writing. The identity of its editor was hidden by its publishers, a group of important Smyrna rabbis.s7 It includes many basic Sabbatean teachings, including several by Nathan of Gaza. Ifemdat Yamim gained popularity, despite being (erroneously) credited to Nathan, but fell out of circulation in Europe in the second half of the eighteenth century as a result of the intense struggle to break the movement's resilience: however, Sabbateanism remained very popular in Jewish communities in the Moslem world even into the nineteenth century. Although one can detect little significant change in the communication channels of the Sabbatean movement in the transition era between the 84 M. Benayahu. Se/Unot. 14. pp. 449. 524; Isaiah Tishbi. "Letters of R. Meir Rofe to R. Abraham Rovigo" [Hebrew). Se/Unot 3-4 (1960): 71-130. 85 Ibid •• p. 512. 8B Ibid •• pp. 109 passim. &7 See the works cited in note 68. above.

The Spread of the Sabbatean Movement

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seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, the sharp exchanges between Sabbateans and their opponents actually effected closer relations between Jewish communities. The campaign waged by rabbis in Turkey and Italy against A. M. Cardozo,88 the debate centering on the Sabbatean figure Nechemia l:Iiya l:Iayon in Europe and the Moslem world,89 the polemics over the writings and actions of the Ramhal (R. Moshe l:Iaim Luzzatto) in Italy,90 and the bitter argument that broke out in Europe between R. Jacob Emden and R. Jonathan EibschUtz after the former accused EibschUtz of Sabbatean practices91 - all these conflicts had a common trait: their effect spread far beyond the community in which they began. Thus, though Sabbateanism was no longer a mass movement or a public presence, its influence persisted for a long time, thanks to its followers, who were dispersed throughout the Diaspora, to the circulation of their writings, and to the repercussion of the conflicts with their opponents.

88

G. Scholem, Studies and Texts, pp. 274-369; Y. Liebes, On Sabbateanism

and its Kabbalah, pp. 198-211; Barnai, "Two Documents for the Study of

Sabbateanism. " 89 Menachem Friedman, "Letters on the Debate Around Nechemiyah Hiya . Hayon" [Hebrew), Sej'unot 10 (1966): 483-619. . 90 Isaiah Tishbi, Paths 0/ Faith and Heresy, pp. 169-203; [d., "The Influence of R. Moshe Haim Lutzato in Hassidic Tenets" [Hebrew), Zion 43 (1978): 201-34; [d., "The Status and Image of R. Moshe David Vali (Ramdav) in the Ramhal Circles" [Hebrew), Zion 50 (1979): 265-302; M. Benayahu, The Kabbalistic Writings 0/ the Ramhal (Jerusalem, 1979); M. Benayahu, "The Ramhal's Oath" [Hebrew), Zion 42 (1977): 24- 48. 91 Anat Perl muter , R. Jonatan Eibshiltz; Liebes, On Sabbateanism and its Kabbalah, pp. 198-211.

o

I

-

250

500 milo.

The Travels of Sabbetai Zevi The Travels of Nathan of Gaza - ----- +

Messianic Travels

TRADmON DU DISCOURS ET DISCOURS DE LA TRADmON DANS LES COMMUNAurns JUIVES DU MAROC: ETUDE S0C10-PRAGMATIQl1E* JOSEPH CHETRIT

1. Presentation L'objectif de cette recherche est d'analyser Ie discours traditionnel en general ainsi que certaines traditions et pratiques du discours, et particulierement Ie discours rabbinique et sa composante juridique, dans les communautes juives du Maroc,! A partir de I'installation des Juifs expulses (ou megorashim en hebreu) d'ESpagne et du Portugal A la fin du XVe siecle.2 L'arrivee des megorashim a insufle en effet une dynamique nouvelle et une activi~ discursive nouvelle aux vieilles communautes autochtones qui venaient A peine de se remettre des dures persecutions que leur avaient infligees les Almohades aux Xlle et XIIIe siecles.3 En dehors • Cette 15tude a 15t15 rendue possible grace l une bourse de recherche qui nous a 6t6 alloure par la Fondation Scientifique Israelienne gerre par l' Academie Nationale Israelienne des Sciences. 1 Les analyses que nous proposons ici sur Ie discours juif traditionnel au Maroc sont d'apres nous valables pour l'ensemble des communaut& juives d'Afrique du Nord, a la seule diffl5rence que les mutations qui ont commenre a bouleverser ce discours traditionnel se sont developpres en Algerie et en Tunisie plus tot au XIXe sieele, alors qu'en Lybie ces transformations sont plus au mains parall~les l celles qui ont eu lieu au Maroc. Voir l ce sujet: J. Chetrit, "Hebrew National Modernity Against French Modernity: The Hebrew Haskalah in North Africa at the End of the Nineteenth Century" [en bebreul, Miqqedem Umiyyam 3 (1990): 11-76; J. Chetrit, The Written Judeo-Arabic Poetry in North Africa Poetic, Linguistic and OJltural Studies [en h15breul, (Jerusalem, 1994); J. Chetrit, "The Hebrew Poetry in Morocco as a Communal and Messianic Poetry" [en bebreul. Miqqedem Umiyyam 6 (1995): 159-233. Nous nous restreignons iei il. l'analyse des processus discursifs dans les communaut& marocaines pour mieux circonscrire les phenom~nes et pratiques. 2 Sur cette installation des me&arashim au Maroc et dans d'autres communaut& d'Afrique du nord, cf. H. Z. Hirshberg, The History of Jews in North Africa [en bebreul, 2 vols. (Jerusalem, 1965), I, pp. 298-329; D. Corcos, Studies in the History of the Jews of Morocco [en hebreu), (Jerusalem, 1976), pp. 258-318; J. Gerber, Jewish Society in Fez 1450-1700 - Studies in Communal and Economic Life (Leiden, 1980); Sh. Bar-Asher (ed.) , Sefer Hataqanot [en bebreul, (Jerusalem, 1991), pp. 1-40. 3 Voir H. Hirshberg, The History of Jews, vol. I, pp. 84-102.

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des communaut& qui sont rest~ judeo-hispanophones au nord du Maroc,4 l'intEgration de cet ~l~ment novateur ne s'est certes pas d~roul~ sans accrocs ni tensions avec les toshabim ou juifs autochtones,5 mais la prepond~ance qu'ont prise assez rapidement les megorashim dans la vie des grandes communautEs urbaines a marqu~ pour plus de quatre siecles la nature du discours juif officiel au Maroc ainsi que ses formes et contenus. NollS int~resseront ici particulierement Ie discours h~bra'ico-aram~n gm~al a toutes les communaut& (du Maroc comme celles de toute l'Afrique du Nord) ainsi que Ie discours en judeo-arabe marocain qui s'est impoe m@me aux megorashim a la suite de leur int~gration dans les grandes communaut& mixtes.8 Cela dit, quelles traditions du discours feront ici l'objet de notre ~tude? Par discours tout d'abord, nous entendons ici aussi bien les formes et structures d'monciation que les contenus intellectuels, religieux, artististiques ou quotidiens des monciations ~rites ou orales produites dans la vie communautaire, de m@me que les activit& sociales et socio-culturelles au cours desquelles sont produites de telles ~nonciations avec les ~v~nements sociaux que ces activit& constituent et les r&eaux socio-discursifs qui les produisent ou les sous-tendent.? Le discours est 4 Sur ces communaut~s voir Ibid., vol. 2 d'apr~s I'index; S. Leibovici (ed.), Les Mosai'ques de notre m~moire; les jud~o-espagnols du Maroc (Paris, 1982); M. M. Serels, A History 0/ the Jews 0/ Tangier in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (New York. 1991) et I. Guershon, "The Diaspora of North Moroccan Jews and 'the Spirit of Tetuan'" [en h~breuJ, Miqqedem Umiyyam 6 (1995): 57-70, ainsi qu' infra. 5 Sur les tensions entre megorashim et toshabim ~ F9 voir J. Gerber, Jewish Society in Fez 1450-1700 - Studies in Communal and Economic life (Leiden, 1980), ainsi que H. Gagin, 'Ets Hayyim, ed. M. Amar (Ramat-Gan, 1987) [en h~breuJ. Pour Marrakech, voir J. Avivi. "'Qore Hadorot' de Marrakech, un nouveau document sur I'histoire des expuls~ d'Espagne au Maroc" [en h6breu), Pe'amim 38 (1989): 58-67. 8 La communaut~ jud~o-hispanophone des megorashim de F~s s'est servie de son ~-espagnol jusqu'~ la moiti~ du XVIIe si~cle, pendant plus d'un si~cle et demi donc. Cf. Gerber, Jewish Society; J. Chetrit, "Judeo-Arabic and JudeoSpanish in Morocco and their Sociolinguistic Interaction", in Readings in the Sociology o/Jewish Languages, ed. J. A. Fishman (Leiden, 1985), pp. 261-79. ? Certains ~I~ments de notre conception du discours sont emprunt~s ~ des auteurs s'int~ressant aux usages sociaux et autres du langage tels que: J. Austin, Quand dire c'est faire (Paris, 1970) (Traduction de: How to do Things with Words, Harvard, 1962); J. Searle, Les actes de langage (Paris, 1972); J. Searle, Sens et expression, Etudes de th~orie des actes de langage (Paris, 1982); P. Bourdieu, Ce que parler lIeut dire. L '~conomie des ~changes linguistiques (Paris, 1982); P. Bourdieu, Choses dites (Paris, 1987); O. Ducrot et aI., Les mots du discours (Paris, 1980); O. Ducrot, Le Dire et Ie dit (Paris, 1984); U. Eco, ~miotique et philosophie du langage (Paris, 1988); D. Maingueneau, L'Analyse

Tradition du Discours et Discours de la Tradition

341

done ici pour nous l'ensemble des textes, des EnoncEs et des dires produits dans les diff6"entes activit& de la vie communautaire des communautEs juives du Maroc ainsi que leurs conditions de production. Par tradition nous entendons ici un ensemble orien~ de pratiques, de perceptions et de strat~gies, c'est-A-dire d "habitus , ,8 concernant entre autres Ie discours tel qu'U vient d'etre deini. Ces habitus, les communautEs juives du Maroc les ont continu&, d~velopp&, produits, adapt& ou adoptEs durant la p~riode historique circonscrite A travers les diff&ents r&eaux socio-discursifs communautaires, pour r~pondre A leurs besoins de survie, pour soutenir leur existence juive autonome et pour s'adapter aux changements socio-historiques externes et internes que les communautEs ont connus jusqu'A leur dispersion dans la seconde moiti~ du XXe si~cle. Tradition du discours ne signifie donc pas pour nous ici ni stabili~ permanente, ni conventions fixes une fois pour toutes, ni la transmission orale uniquement des ~nonciations et des textes. Elle signifie plutat la r~cursivi~ orien~ des formes! des contenus et des contextes d'une activi~ discursive multiple embrassant et refl~tant l'ensemble des comportements, des prooccupations, des visions du monde et des dires explicites ou implicites, Ecrits ou oraux, en fonction d'habitus propres qui tendent A se p~renniser et A s'auto-r~fl~chir continuellement. Dans cette Etude nous envisagerons les habitus qui ont distingu~ l'existence juive dans ces communautEs et ont contribu~ A la g~rer en fonction des contraintes religieuses et idoologico-culturelles fondatrices ou l'ont transform~ en fonction des vicissitudes historiques. Les traditions du discours dans les communautEs juives du Maroc, tout comme l'activi~ discursive et ses dires qui refl~tent et portent toute vie communautaire, seront donc indissociables pour nous ici des contraintes sociales et des espaces sociaux qui ont forg~ ces communaut&, ainsi que de leurs transformations A la suite de changements brusques ou progressifs, dQs A des g~n~rateurs internes ou externes. C'est donc Ie discours - Introduction awe lectures de l'archi1)e (Paris, 1991); J. C. Anscombre (ed.), Th~orie des topai (Paris, 1995); J. C. Ascombre et O. Ducrot, L'ArlUmentation dans la langue (Bruxelles, 1983). Voir infra des ElEments de cette soclo-pragmatique que nous essayons d'Elaborer. 8 Le terme 'habitus' est central dans la pensEe du sociologue Pierre Bourdleu l qui nous l'empruntons. Cf. P. Bourdieu, Ce que parler 1)eut dire; Id., Chases dites notamment, oh des El~ments d'une d~finition sont avan~s. Cf: "L'habitus entretient avec Ie monde social dont il est Ie produit une v~ritable complicitE ontologique, principe d'une connaissance sans conscience, d'une intentionalitE sans intention et d'une ma!trise pratique des r~gularit~s du monde qui permet d'en devancer 1'avenlr sans avoir seuIement besoin de Ie poser comme r~el." (P. Bourdieu, Chases diles, p. 22). du

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Joseph Chetrit

fonctionnement des diff~rents r~eaux socio-discursifs qui dans toute soci~~ g~rent les multiples aspects de la vie sociale et permettent de produire les discours qui leur sont pertinents qui nous aidera a mieux comprendre la production discursive juive traditionnelle au Maroc. Soulignons aussi que cette tradition juive du discours n'a jamais ~t~ ni homog~ne ni monolithique dans les communaut~ juives du Maroc, comme dans aucune autre communau~ juive d'ailleurs ou qu'elle fOt. A c6~ du discours communautaire officiel et I~gitim~, v~hicul~ ou produit d'un c6t~ par Ie leadership rabbinique omnipr~ent et de I'autre par Ie leadership politique local, au dire ex~ieur ou bien m~diateur surtout, il faudrait envisager aussi Ie discours quotidien, professionnel et familial des masses masculines ainsi que Ie discours quotidien et intime des masses f~inines, activi~ qui ~taient elles-memes diversifi~ en fonction des diff&ents contextes d'~nonciation et des c~r~onies du cycle de la vie et du calendrier juif. Dans cette vaste production discursive cependant, seul Ie leadership rabbinique a laiss~ des traces historiques et textuelles appr~iables de son activi~ discursive. n I'a fait notamment grace a sa maltrise de I' ~rit et a sa maltrise de I'h~breu (et souvent de I'aram~en aussi) ainsi que de la langue communautaire judro-arabe (ou judro-espagnole dans les communau~ du nord du Maroc ou bien judro-berb~re dans les communau~ berb~rophones). Le discours qu'il a produit se retrouve dans des documents ~rits de toutes sortes, manuscrits ou imprimes, ou bien dans des ouvrages entiers qui se comptent par centaines sinon par milliers pour I'ensemble des centaines de communau~ qui ont jalonn~ la terre marocaine durant ces cinq cent demi~es ann~.9 D'autre part, ce discours rabbinique s'inscritexplicitement et d'embl~ dans la tradition juive inaugur~, comme Ie dit Ie Traite des Peres, par la remise de la Tora, y compris la loi orale, a Mo'ise sur Ie Mont Sinai et sa transmission fid~le 9 Aucune ~tude d'ensemble n'a encore ~t~ men~ sur la production intel1ectuelle consid~rable des Rabbins du Maroc (comme pour aucun autre pays d'Afrique du Nord) pour la ~riode qui nous int~resse ici. Les informations sont dispers€es dans diff~rentes ~tudes, telles que H. Hirshberg, The History oj the Jews; H. Zafrani, ndagogie juive en Occident musulman (Paris, 1969); H. Zafrani, Les Juijs du Maroc. Vie sociale, economique et religieuse. Etudes de Taqqanot et de Responsa (Paris, 1972); H. Zafrani, Poesie juive en Occident musulman (Paris, 1977); H. Zafrani, Litteratures dialectales et populaires juives en Occident musulman: ['ecrit et I'oral (Paris, 1982); M. Amar (ed.), Le droit Mbrai'que dans les communautes juives marocaines [en hIlbreul (Jerusalem, 1980); Y. Benaim, Malkhei Rabanan [en h~breul (Jerusalem, 1931); D. Ovadia, Qehilat Sej'rou [en hIlbreul. 5 vols. (Jerusalem, 1975-1992); D. Ovadia, Fas Va-Halchameiha [en hIlbreul (Jerusalem, 1979), 2 vols.; E. Marciano, Seier Bene'Melakhim: Histoire du livre hebrai'que au Maroc [en h~breul (Jerusalem.

Tradition du Discours et Discours de la Tradition

343

de g&J.&ation en gEnEration jusqu'aux membres de la Grande AssemblEe.lO Dans cette conception, la tradition englobe nEcessairement les deux processus indispensables A la pErennisation de toute tradition vivante, fondEe qu'elle est sur une chaine de transmission ininterrompue: la reception d'un catE (en Mbreu qabba/a en rapport avec Ie verbe qibbe/) et la transmission de l'autre (massoret en Mbreu en rapport avec Ie verbe mamr), ainsi que la volontE active - et meme l'obligation coercitive et donc fondatrice - des diffErentes gEnErations de ne pas rompre la chaine de transmission. C'est de IA que Ie discours rabbinique tire sa IEgitimitE Evidente et sa force Enonciative, dont l'inspiration est donc avant tout d'ordre divin et dont la production dEpend des compEtences et des capacitEs du locuteur ou de l'auteur. Pour les marchands et les commer~nts ainsi que les autres corporations masCUlines, aucune tradition Ecrite ne s'est Etablie dans les diff&entes communautEs judEo-marocaines en dehors de quelques notes disparates et dispersEes dans des manuscrits, de quelques registres de commerce (sauvE! par miracle des rongeurs) ou d'une correspondance commercia Ie assez rEcente. 11 Quant aux femmes, ayant EtE exemptEes par la culture juive traditionnelle de l'Etude formelle et de l'Ecriture, tout leur discours variE n'a pu etre qu'oral. 12 De ce fait, la reconstitution du discours masculin et du discours fEminin ne peut passer que par l'observation directe du discours judEo-arabe actuel de certains vieux locuteurs d'origine marocaine avec les formes traditionnelles constitutives que ceux-ci ont conservEes, en Israel notamment,13 ou bien par l'analyse 1989); J. Avivi, Manuscrits des lui/s du Maghreb ~ l'/nstitut Ben-Zvi. Volume 1: crflation rabbinique [en Mbreul: H. Zafranl, Kabbale, vie mystique et magie (Paris, 1986); H. Zafrani, Ethique et mystique. ludaisme en terre d'/slam: Le commentaire Kabbalistique du "Traitfl des P~res" de /. Bu- '1lerBan (Paris, 1991); J. Tedghi, Le livre et l'imprimerie hflbraique ~ Fes (Jerusalem, 1994). 10 Cf. Pirqe Avot, cap. 1, & 1. Voir aussi Zafrani, Les juifs du Maroc, p. 4. sur cette affiliation du discours rabbinique juridique. 11 Grace ~ la diligence des fr~res Messas de Strasbourg nous disposons d'une importante correspondance commercia Ie en jud6o-arabe datant de la fin du XIXe si~le et du d6but du XXe ainsi que de quelques registres. Les archives LevyCorcos de Mogador, qui ont 6t6 mises ~ notre disposition, comportent elles aussi des registres de commerce et une correspondance du d6but et de la fin du XIXe s. 12 Cf. J. Chetrit, "Niveaux, registres de langue et sociolectes dans les langues j~-arabes du Maroc," in Les Relations entre luils et Musulmans en Afrique du Nord-XlXe-XXe si~cles (Paris, 1980), pp. 129-42: J. Chetrit, "Strat6gies discursives dans la langue des femmes jud6o-arabophones du Maroc," Massorot 2(1986): 41-66; J. Chetrit, "Le jud60-arabe et ses strat~gies d'existence", in La socifltfl juive Cl travers l'histoire, ed. S. Trigano (Paris, 1993), pp. 521-31; 709-14. 13 Diff~rents projets de recherche nous ont permis d'interviewer et d'enregistrer ees derni~res ann~es en Israel et au Maroc de nombreux locuteurs

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Joseph Chetrit

des genres textuels fixes tels que la poEsie ou les contes par exemple, qui se

transmettaient oralement de p~re en fils et de m~re en fille. Dans d'autres ~udes, nous avons abord~ les formes et les contenus de ces discours masculin et f~inin traditionnels A travers leurs traditions de production et de performance de la poEsie jud~-arabe ou bien dans leur interaction quotidienne, et nous n 'y reviendrons pas ici. 14 A la lumi~re de ces notes pr~liminaires, quelles questions feront plus sp6cialement I'objet de cette ~tude? Nous tenterons tout d'abord d'expliciter les principes d'une th~rie socio-pragmatique du discours dans Ie cadre de laquelle sont men~ les analyses que nous proposons ici et A la lumi~re de laquelle nous d~rirons les pratiques discursives juives traditionnelles au Maroc. Puis nous ferons une br~ve pr&entation de la formation du discours juif au Maroc durant ces cinq cent derni~es ann~ avec la diversit~ diglossique et linguistique qui Ie caract.erise et les rEseaux socio-discursifs communautaires qui I'ont produit ou inspir~. Nous essaierons enfin d'esquisser sur la base de ces pr~misses th~riques et historiques I'analyse du discours rabbinique comme prototype d'un discours qui se veut et se proclame traditionnel et dont I'objectif premier est de faire r~gir la vie communautaire courante par les sch~es interpretatifs de I'ex~g~e juive et par les pr~eptes de la Loi traditionnelle. Apr~ l'~tude des fondements de ce discours, nous ferons une br~ve prEsentation du discours ex~g~tique et une analyse du discours juridique et de son rEseau judicia ire producteur. Pour les autres genres discursifs rabbiniques traditionnels, tels que Ie discours homil~tique et Ie discours mystique ou Ie discours ~pistolaire, nous ne ferons que les juciEo-marocains. Nous comptons en publier prochainement de larges extraits. pour Tunis D. Cohen, Le Parler arabe des juifs de Tunis. I. Textes et documents linguistiques et ethnographiques (Paris-La Haye, 1964). 14 Pour la po&ie des femmes et la poesie des hommes, voir J. Chetrit, ·El~ments d'une po~tique jud~o-marocaine - po~sie Mbra'ique et po~sie juciEo-arabe au Maroc,· in Les Jui/s du Maroc. Identite et Dialogue (Paris, 1980), pp. 43-57; J. Chetrit, ·Personal and Social Poetry in Judeo-Arabic of the Moroccan Jews· [en h~breul, Miqqedem Umiyyam 1(1981): 185-230; J. Chetrit, The Written Judeo-Arabic Poetry; H. Zafrani, Utteratures dialectales; N. A. Stillman, The Language and OJlture of the Jews of Sefrou, Morocco: An Ethnolinguistic Study (Manchester, 1988). Pour les contes, cf. A. E. Elbaz, Fol/ctales of the Canadian Sephardim (Toronto, 1982); A. Shenhar and H. Bar-Yitzhak, Folktales from Shlomi [en Mbreul (Haifa, 1982). Voir aussi mes travaux en pr~paration: La poesie orale des femmes juives au Maroc et Les proverbes judeo-arabes du Maroc - Etude socio-pragmatique et versions communautaires. Sur Ie discours quotidien des femmes juives au Maroc, voir L. Brunot et E. MaIka, Textes judeo-arabes de Fes; textes, transcription (Rabat, 1939); J. Chetrit, ·Strat~gies discursives·; N. A. Stillman, The Language and OJ/ture.

cr.

Tradition du Discours et Discours de la Tradition

345

mentionner ici dans certaines analyses, laissant A des etudes ulterieures la necessite d'en faire une prEsentation plus etoffee. Quant au discours poetique, qui est Ie seul genre litteraire commun aux differentes strates ayant constitue la societe juive dans les differentes communautEs jusqu'A l'irruption de la modemite et qui illustre si bien l'heterogeneite constitutive du discours traditionnel juif au Maroc, les etudes que nous lui avons deja consacrees ainsi que les limites de cette prEsente etude nous amment A renvoyer d~ A prEsent Ie lecteur interesse A ces travaux ainsi qu'A ceux d'autres chercheurs. 15 2. ElEments d'une socio-pragmatique du discours traditionnel

2.1 Prindpes de l'analyse socio-pragmatique Les analyses du discours qui nous serviront ici se fondent sur certains

developpements recents de deux disciplines en plein epanouissement dans la linguistique modeme, la sociolinguistique d'un cote et la pragmatique et l'analyse du discours de l'autre,16 et leur integration en une discipline que 15 Voir J. Chetrit, "EI~ments d'une po~tique jud~o-marocaine - po~sie hEbra'ique et po~ie jud~o-arabe au Maroc," in Les Jui/s du Maroc. Identit~ et Dialogue (Paris, 1980), pp. 43-57; J. Chetrit, "Personal and Social Poetry in Judeo-Arabic of the Moroccan Jews" [en Mbreu], Miqqedem Umiyyam 1 (1981): 185-230; J. Chetrit, "Shlomo Gozlan - un po~te bilingue de Tamgrut" , in Les communaut~s juives des marges sahariennes, ed. M. Abitbol (Jerusalem, 1982), pp. 427-51; J. Chetrit, "Historical Poems in the Poetry of Moroccan Jews" [en hEbreuJ, in Studies in the Heritage of Sepharadic and Oriental Jewry, ed. I. Ben-Ami (Jerusalem, 1982), pp. 315-38; J. Chetrit, "R. David Elkaim - a Hebrew Poet, an Artist and a 'Maskil'" (en h~breu), in Introduction to the Shire Dodim of R. David Elkaim (Jerusalem, 1983), pp. 17-28; Apirion, n. 1 (Spring 1983), pp. 96-102; J. Chetrit, "The Personal and Socio-Historical Poetry of R. Shelomo Halewa (Meknes, the XVIIIth Century) and the Tradition of the Hebrew Poetic Discourse in Morocco" [en MbreuJ, Miqqedem Umiyyam 4 (1991): 25-111; J. Chetrit, The Written Judeo-Arabic Poetry in North Africa; J. Chetrit, "The Hebrew Poetry in Morocco" ainsi que les ouvrages en pr~paration mentionn~s dans 1a note pr~~dente; H. Zafrani, Po~sie Juive; [d., Litt~ratures dialectales et populaires. Cf. aussi les nombreux travaux en h~breu d'Ephraim Hazan et de Binyamin Bar-Tiqva. 18 Pour 1a socio-linguistique, voir entre autres P. Bourdieu, Ce que parler veut dire; J. Chetrit, "Niveaux, registres de langue et sociolectes"; J. Chetrit, ·Strat~gies discursives dans la langue des femmes jud~o-arabophones du Maroc"; J. J. Gumperz, Discourse Strategies (Cambridge, 1982); J. J. Gumperz, Engager la Conversation. Introduction 11 la sociolinguistique interactionneile (Paris, 1989). Pour la pragmatique et I'analyse du discours, voir entre autres; J. C. Anscombre, ed., Th~orie des topoi; J. Austin, Quand dire c'est jaire; E. Benveniste, Probl~mes de linguistique g~n~rale, 2 vols. (Paris, 1966-1974); O. Ducrot et ai., Les Mots du discours (Paris, 1980); O. Ducrot, Le Dire et Ie dit (Paris, 1984); U. Eco, 5emiotique et philosophie du [angage; D. Maingueneau, L 'Analyse du

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nous denommons la socio-pragmatique. L'objectif de cette analyse est d'essayer de cerner les multiples aspects semiotiques, semantiques, pragmatiques et sociaux de tout discours en partant de premisses gen&ales, et d'en etudier les implications et les caracterisations dans diff&ents types de societes. Par rapport A la societe, Ie discours est en effet non seulement Ie reflet semiotise de ses structures, de ses habitus, de ses tensions, de ses strategies et de ses perceptions, mais aussi Ie support de la vie sociale et de la vie individuelle dans lesquelles sont investies toutes ces potentialites sociales et humaines. n fait ainsi partie integrante des multiples reseaux familiaux, socio-culturels, socio-economiques, socio-professionnels, socio-politiques et autres qui fondent la vie sociale, et forme necessairement avec eux des reseaux socio-discursifs totalement integres, dont la fonction discursive est souvent inseparable des autres fonctions qui fondent chaque reseau. Avant d'etre un "capital symbolique" dont l'exploitation sociale est inegale et participe des diff&ents marches,!? Ie discours est donc d'abord Ie moteur privilegie de toutes les conduites sociales ainsi que l'instrument premier de l'interaction quotidienne ou specialisee, professionnelle ou artistique. C'est donc avant tout un ensemble d'activites et d'actions orientees aboutissant A des dires, par lesqueUes les differents agents sociaux et groupes d'agents sociaux exercent une influence sur les comportements cognitifs, affectifs et pratiques d'autres agents sodaux ou d'autres groupes d'agents sociaux. Dans l'exercice de cette influence sont deployees des strategies et des perceptions qui dependent d'un cate des Discours; H. Parret (~d.), La communaute en paroles - Communication, consensus, ruptures (Bruxelles, 1991); J. Searle, Les Actes de langage; J. Searle, Sens et expression, Etudes de theorie des actes de langage (Paris, 1982). Pour d'autres pr&entations de la tMorie socio-pragmatique telle qu'elle est con{:U8 ici, voir J. Chetrit, "The Personal and Socio-Historical Poetry of R. Shelomo Halewa"; J. Chetrit, "A Socio-Pragmatic and Linguistic Study of the Hebrew Component of the Judeo-Arabic Poetry in North Africa - Theoretical Aspects" [en Mbreu], Miqqedem Umiyyam 5 (1992): 169-204; J. Chetrit, "Mutations in the Discourse and the Judeo-Arabic of the North-African Jewry at the End of the XIXth Century", Pe'amim 53 (1992): 90-123; 1d., "Le j~-arabe et ses strat~gies d'existence"; J. Chetrit, The Written Judeo-Arabic Poetry in North Africa; J. Chetrit, "Discours et modernit~ dans les communaut~s juives d' Afrique du Nord a la fin du XIXe si~cle", in Transmission et passages en monde jui!, ed. Esther Benbassa (Paris, 1995) (in press); J. Chetrit, "Les configurations textuelles et la diversit~ du judoo-arabe au Maroc. Etude socio-pragmatique", in Actes du Colloque de Marrakech, Janvier 1995 (Rabat, 1995) (in press). I? Cf. P. Bourdieu, Ce que parler veut dire.

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intentions, des volontEs, des ambitions ou des vellEitEs des agents, et dEpendent de l'autre des contraintes discursives et argumentatives imposees par Ie genre de discours actualisE, du savoir linguistique de l'agent locuteur et de l'agent destinataire (ou des agents destinataires) ainsi que des potentialitEs linguistiques de la communautE de locuteurs. MalgrE Ie caract~re universel du langage humain et en dEpit de la comp&ence gEnErale partagEe par les sujets parlants, la mise en pratique de ce potentiellinguistique par Ie discours n'est en fait jamais identique ni homogme chez les diffErents agents sociaux et les diffErents groupes d'agents. Cette praxis dEpend aussi bien des aptitudes personnelles que de la formation formelle ou informelle suivie par Ie locuteur, des habitus propres aux diffErents groupes sociaux et a la situation linguistique de la sociEtE particuli~re telle qu'elle a EtE fa~nnEe par son histoire et sa culture, ainsi que des rEseaux socio-discursifs, diffus ou compacts, qui rendent possible Ie discours, l'in~grent dans les diffErentes. stuctures et activitEs sociales, Ie sous-tendent, l'orientent et Ie diffusent dans les diffErents groupes concernEs ou censEs etre intEressEs ou bien Ie rEservent a tel ou tel groupe social. Dans chaque sociEtE, Ie discours se trouve etre ainsi A l'intersection d'aptitudes, de connaissances et de pratiques individuelles, de contraintes imposEes par les fondements de l'activitE discursive, de rEseaux sociaux avec leurs diffErentes institutions et agences et de structures socio-culturelles et socio-historiques. C'est cette complexitE et cette pluralitE des conditions du discours qui nous guident dans les analyses que nous proposons ici des textes et des dires de communautEs traditionnelles telles que les communautEs juives du Maroc. Quant aux dires produits par Ie discours et aux textes qui les incluent. l'activitE discursive permet de construire A travers eux des univers et des espaces linguistiques peuplEs de personnages, d 'objets , de propriEtEs, de valeurs, de roles, de rep~res spatiaux et temporels ainsi que de fonctions qui relient et rEunissent ces diffErentes catEgories d'EIEments dans des situations ou dans des scEnarios cohErents, appartenimt a une rEalitE construite, reconstruite ou bien imaginEe' et crEant ou bien donnant Ie sentiment de crEer des totalitEs descriptives, argumentatives ou narratives locales. Dans tout discours, une partie des situations et scEnarios construits renvoie a l'activitE discursive elle-meme, a ses conditions, ses contextes, ses agents et ses objectifs, ainsi qu'aux rEseaux sociaux qui la portent et l'alimentent, ce qui se traduit par des ElEments discursifs auto-refErentiels, explicites ou implicites. 18 18

Voir notamment O. Ducrot et a!., Les Mots du Discours; O. Ducrot. Le

Dire et Ie dit.

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D'autre part, cette construction d'univers et d'espaces linguistiques elle aussi de strat~ies globales et locales et de perceptions propres aux locuteurs agissant dans I'interaction. Elle sert de ce fait des objectifs ~voqu& explicitement ou implicitement dans Ie discours. De m@me, comme cette construction d'univers participe de la fonction t~loologique prerni~e de tout discours, elle met l'intentionalit~ A la base de tout dire et de tout texte et en plie les formes et structures aux intentions declar~ ou cach~ du locuteur, A ses volont& ou vell~it~, ainsi qu'aux contenus vis~ ou souhait& dans Ie cadre de la coop~ration entre les co-Iocuteurs, insta~ ou pr~umee par la situation discursive. 19 Les significations vBticul~ dans tout discours sont donc toujours d'ordre s~mantico­ pragmatique et d~endent invariablement aussi bien des ~l~ments lexicaux et syntaxiques des ~nonc& et des textes que des facteurs sociopragmatiques, explicites et implicites, des r~eaux socio-discursifs producteurs du discours ou servis par lui et de l'interaction r&lisee qui portent et alimentent l'~nonciation (et l'ecriture aussi) , facteurs qui d~terminent et distinguent les diff~rents contextes et les diff~rentes situations d'~onciation. ~d

2.2 LesJondements semantico-pragmatiqu.es du discours Ce sont ces principes socio-pragmatiques de base qui nous permettent d'introduire ici les fondements s~mantico-pragmatiques du discours et leur application au discours traditionnel. Comme nous venons de I'indiquer, notre analyse du discours est orient~ par les diff~rentes dimensions du sens et de sa construction sociale, y compris les conventions culturelles ou idoologiques, les contraintes de l'ethos et les ~lections tMmatiques qui Ie d~finissent ainsi que les structures textuelles g~&iques et les configurations linguistiques qui Ie circonscrivent. A travers l'explicitation de ces fondements, ce sont les premiers ~l~ments d'une s~miotique ouverte du discours et des textes que nous voudrions poser, s~miotique qui doit prendre en charge aussi bien les contenus et les structures internes de tout texte et de tout discours que leurs conditions de production ou de r&lisation ainsi que les diff~rents r&eaux sociaux dans lesquels ils s'inserent et se d~ploient.

2.2.1 LesJondements ideoiogico-cultureis ou mythiqu.es du discours Ces fondements comprennent les conventions idoologiques formelles ou ordinaires, ressortissant donc A des systemes organis& et conscients de croyances et de normes religieuses ou idoologiques, ou bien aux 19 Cf. H. P. Grice, "Logic and Conversation," in Syntax and Semantics-ll/: Speech Acts (New York, 1975), pp. 41-58.

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perceptions quotidiennes et aux modes de pens~ et de conduite Ie plus souvent inconscients, ainsi qu'aux r~gles ou aux valeurs axiologiques propres A une ~ue donn~ ou A un groupe social donn~. Ces conventions se trouvent en filigrane A la base de toute monciation et "orientent Ie plus souvent de fa~on inconsciente. Cet ensemble conventionnel cr~ aussi des filtres id~logiques ou culturels d'apprebension et d'interpr~tation du monde et des dires et constitue ainsi la source miotique de la lecture du monde et de son interpr~tation, ce qui entraine dans des soci~t& diff&entes ou m@me dans des groupes sociaux diff&ents la construction par les locuteurs d'univers et d'espaces discursifs coMrents mais diff~rents, et par voie de cons~uence la formation de textes diff&ents, lors m@me qu'il s'agit de situations de base similaires ou m@me identiques. Ces fondements id~logico-culturels, allant de soi pour les locuteurs, font gm~ralement partie du non-dit du discours et ~pousent les diverses formes de I'implicite discursif: les pr~uppos&, les implicatures, les topoi ou regles d'enchainement argumentatif,20 les inf&ences et chaines d'inf&ence, les renvois allusifs, etc. Investissant Ie discours tout en restant opaques, ces significations conventionnelles sont particuli~rement frequentes dans Ie discours traditionnel dont elles forment la trame et Ie bien-fond~ m@me. C'est m@me leur pr&ence r~ursive et expansive ainsi que leur rappel d'all~eance dans ce type de discours qui d~terminent ses formes traditionnelles et son conformisme transparent. Cependant, dans Ie discours id~logique ou religieux officiel, loin que ces ~l~ents subliminaires soient rel~gu& aux interstices du discours, ils y sont au contraire hypostasi& et Mis explicitement en avant, comme pour reaffirmer ind~finiment I'all~geance constitutive de ce type de discours et contribuer de la sorte A sa p~rennisation. C'est ce que nous verrons dans Ie discours rabbinique des communaut& juives du Maroc.

2.2.2 L'ethos communautaire et individuel Dans tout discours s'op~re explicitement ou implicitement une construction par Ie locuteur de I'ethos individuel ou communautaire qui marque sa place dans la situation discursive par rapport au(x) destinataire(s) du discours, aux sources transparentes ou opaques de ses dires et aux diff~rents ~nonciateurs explicitement ou implicitement present& dans Ie discours. La construction de cet ethos se traduit par I'~vocation d'une pluralit~ de points de vue, d'int~r@ts, d'appr~iations, d'images et de repr&entations des diff&entes instances ~voqu~ dans 20

cr. J.

C. Anscombre, Thiorie des topoi.

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I'monciation, par rapport auxquelles Ie locuteur ou I'auteur d~termine ses propres points de vue. Ces derniers peuvent @tre individuels et ne concerner que lui-m@me ou bien communautaires ou sociaux et concerner son groupe d'appartenance ou son groupe d'affiliation tout entier. A travers la construction de cet ethos, c'est en fait I'ensemble des r&eaux sociaux impliqu& par Ie discours ou Ie texte qui sont ~voqu& explicitement ou implicitement par Ie locuteur ou I'auteur, y compris les diff&ents roles sociaux qu'it remplit et les diff~rentes voix qu'it manipule dans ses dires. Cependant, c'est surtout Ie r&eau socio-discursif serveur direct du texte avec ses processus et ses activit& propres, ses agences et ses agents, ses conventions, ses habitus et ses textes ant~dents, ses forces acrel~ratrices ou perturbatrices, qui oriente les strat~gies de cette construction de I'ethos. C'est ce r&eau en effet qui soutient directement la production du texte nouveau, lui insufle ses orientations idoologiques ou culturelles, sous-tend sa th~matique, lui transmet ses traditions textuelles et Iinguistiques, et lui assure en d~finitive sa pertinence socio-s~miotique. Dans Ie discours traditionnel, cette polyphonie constitutive de tout discours21 privit~gie les voix collectives au d~triment des voix personnelles et individuelles, lesquelles se confondent Ie plus souvent dans les points de vue communautaires et accentuent de ce fait Ie caract~re conformiste de ce discours. Dans Ie discours juif traditionnel au Maroc, cette ob~dience communautaire des dires et des textes est particuli~ement frappante, car c'est l'identite communautaire qui determinait avant tout l'existence de l'individu juif, comme nous Ie verrons plus loin, et faisait du locuteur officiel un porte-parole plutOt qu'un ~nonciateur pleinement autonome. 22 Sur Ie plan des configurations Iinguistiques, l'ethos se construit par diff&entes strat~gies de pr&entation et d'auto-pr&entation reposant aussi bien sur les coordonn~ d~ictiques de la personne, de l'espace et du temps, qui recouvrent les cat~ories classiques ego, hie et nune,23 que sur une intertextuali~ transparente ou opaque, laquelle reprend explicitement ou implicitement les dires ext~rieurs par rapport auxquels se d~finit la position du locuteur (ou de l'auteur du texte). Cette intertextuali~ est particuli~rement pr~ominante dans Ie discours traditionnel et investit une grande partie des dires aussi bien explicites qu'implicites. Bien plus, 21 Sur la polyphonie de l'~nonciation, voir O. Ducrot, Le Dire et Ie dit, pp. 171-233. 22 cr. J. Chetrit, "The Hebrew Poetry in Morocco" et infra. 23 Sur les aspects d~ictiques de l'~nonciation, voir E. Benveniste, Probl~mes de linguistique sinirale. Pour une construction de I'ethos communautaire d'apr~s un ~me jud~o-arabe marocain, cf. J. Chetrit, The Written Judea-Arabic Poetry in North Africa, pp. 309-22.

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~t donne que les textes sollicitEs appartiennent presqu'uniquement aux sources propres de la tradition, cette intertextualite prend souvent les formes d'une transtextualite et d'une intratexualite, comme nous Ie verrons plus loin. Quant aux elements deictiques, its determinent aussi bien les perceptions de soi et de l'autre ou des autres, done une alterite en meme temps qu'une identite, que les rapports du locuteur a l'espace physique ou social et aux differentes categories de temps existentiel, historique ou culturel qui Ie conditionnent.

2.2.3 Les foyers tMmatiques du discours Ds dependent des selections semantiques prealables, operees consciemment ou inconsciemment par Ie locuteur ou les co-Iocuteurs, et de la situation discursive contraignante ou libre, ainsi que des domaines de savoir, d'experience, de fiction ou d'invention selectionnes pour faire l'objet de l'enonciation monologuee ou dialoguee (oralement ou par ecrit). Ces selections sont notamment orientees par Ie reseau socio-discursif producteur qui oriente ou alimente Ie discours du locuteur et dans Ie cadre duquel est mene Ie discours envisage. Parfois meme, ce sont differents reseaux entrelacEs ou parall~les qui alimentent la tbematique du texte. Les domaines semantiques circonscrits et orientEs se developpent ainsi sous forme d'isotopies homog~nes ou parall~les,24 dont la cohesion et la coherence tiennent aussi bien a la recursivite des noyaux lexicosemantiques et grammaticaux specifiques qu'a la disposition des elements syntaxiques et pragmatiques du discours, lesquels organisent la conduite argumentative, narrative ou descriptive, ou bien hybride de l'enonciation. Dans Ie discours traditionnel, les foyers tbematiques ne se renouvellent pas sans cesse comme dans Ie discours modeme, ou dans Ie discours libre de contraintes sociales ou ideologiques. Leur reapparition frequente cree dans ce discours une cyclicite et une fermeture qui definissent la tradition fondamentale en meme temps qu'i!s la prEservent et la prot~gent contre des foyers tbematiques nouveaux ou anti-conformistesi soup~onnes souvent d'etre subversifs. Les ruptures et renouvellements thematiques, sous-tendant Ie discours libre en fonction des contextes differents et des developpements socio-culturels ou scientifiques, sont ainsi considerEs dans Ie discours traditionnel comme des menaces ou meme des outrages aux normes socio-discursives en vigueur. Leur persistance annonce et amorce les changements qui peuvent ebranler les structures et normes traditionnelles et les faire evoluer. Confronte a un renouvellement des foyers 24 Sur les isotopies isotopies", in Essais de 1972). pp. 80-106.

du texte, s~miotique

Yoir F. po~tique,

Rastier, "Syst~matique des ed. A. J. Greimas (Paris,

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thErnatiques, Ie discours traditionnel ne saurait donc se passer de censure et d'auto-censure sous peine de favoriser la subversion et l'eclaternent.

2.2.4 Les formes textuelles sh1mques Tout discours emprunte des formes et des structures textuelles pr~xistan­ tes, ou qu'il contribue parfois A instaurer, lesquelles fonctionnent comme des mod~les ou des ensembles de r~gles, Ie plus souvent implicites, et orientent la production &lonciative selon des genres ou des types de discours Etablis. Ces structures gEnEriques comportent des genres majeurs comme les textes en prose et les textes poEtiques, lesquels sont eux-memes composEs de sous-genres littEraires variEs comme les c~ntes, les legendes, les mythes ou Ie roman, ou Ie discours expositif pour la prose et la poEsie epique ou la poEsie lyrique avec leurs multiples formes prosodiques pour la po&ie. Les types de discours concernent plus specialement les domaines thenatiques majeurs qui reflechissent et construisent les activitEs sociales ou intellectuelles principales de la tradition ou de la societe donn~ et sont pris en charge par ses diffErents rEseaux socio-discursifs. Ce sont par exemple Ie discours politique, Ie discours religieux, Ie discours juridique, Ie discours exegetique, Ie discours informatif ou Ie discours pEdagogique. De par leur imbrication etroite dans les divers rEseaux sociaux qui les sous-tendent et les renouvellent, ces types de discours sont indissociables des conditions sociales ou socio-culturelles et des traditions longues et moins longues qui les forment et les alimentent. TIs doivent donc @tre Etudi& par rapport A leurs contextes sociaux larges et Etroits dans lesquels ils sont produits. Les structures g&leriques et typologiques des textes comprennent aussi leurs modes conversationnels, dialoguE ou monologue, leurs modes rbetoriques - serieux, humoristique, satirique, metaphorique, allegorique, parabolique, hyperbolique, 'realiste' ou fictif, etc. - ainsi que leur orientation argumentative, narrative, descriptive, specUlative, meta -discursive ou bien hybride. Dans ces formes generiques, il convient de ranger aussi les formes fixes ou figees d'enoncEs qui emaillent Ie discours quotidien ou les discours specialisEs, tels que les clichEs argumentatifs solligistiques et autres, les proverbes et dietons, ou bien les formules ceremonielles de la conversation et les formules specifiques A certains genres oraux de discours comme les contes ou les enigmes, ou les structures formula ires de la po&ie orale. Quant A leurs assises sociales, les differents genres et types du discours se dEveloppent tout naturellement dans les diffErents rEseaux sociodiscursifs et socio-culturels qui les rendent possibles et les maintiennent,

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r6ieaux dont ils d~pendent en d~finitive aussi bien sur Ie plan de leur production et de leur ~volution que sur Ie plan de leur diffusion ~entuelle ou de leur ~renni~ m@me. C'est ainsi, par exemple, que si la conversation quotidienne de l'interaction face-A-face ne d~pend gm~ale­ ment que de la volon~ ou des pulsions des co-Iocuteurs en pr&ence avec les repr&entations des diff~rents r&eaux porteurs qui les caract~risent, l'entretien radiophonique ou t~l~vis~ d~end pour sa production et sa diffusion en plus de ces d~terminations personnelles et inter-personnelles de r&eaux technologiques, socio-culturels, socio-~nomiques ou m@me socio-politiques parfois. De m@me, Ie d~veloppement et l'~panouissement du roman moderne ou bien de tel ou tel sous-genre po~tique seraient inexpliqu& sans la prise en consid~ration des r&eaux socio-culturels et socio-~onomiques li& A l'industrie de l'impression et aux entreprises de diffusion du livre qui se sont d~velopp& apres l'invention de l'imprimerie. Le conte oral par contre ainsi que la po&ie orale des soci~t& traditionnelles d~endent pour leur part de r&eaux communiatifs, familiaux ou communautaires, qui sous-tendent les c~r~monies r~guli~res ou irreguli~es qui permettent et parfois m@me conditionnent leur production ou leur performance. Dans Ie discours traditionnel, les formes textuelles sont normalement fixes. encore que I'int~gration de nouvelles formes ne soit ni impossible ni rare, ce qui occasionne des transformations mod~r~ ou m@me radicales dans les anciennes formes ou bien donne naissance A des formes nouvelles. Ces transformations g~n~iques du discours apparaissent particuli~rment lors de contacts prolong& avec d'autres traditions voisines ou assimil~, comme les structures musicales et prosodiques de la po&ie juive au Maroc calqu~ pour la plupart sur des structures arabo-musulmanes. Quant aux structures formulaires, elles tiennent une place importante et parfois m@me principale dans l'monciation traditionnelle. Les formes g~n~riques determinent aussi les traditions linguistiques et textuelles propres aux differents groupes sociaux ainsi que leurs repertoires socio-discursifs et socio-linguistiques.

2.2.5 Les configurations Iinguistiques et socio-Iinguistiques Tous ces el~ments semantico-pragmatiques du discours sont vehicul& et mis en forme A travers les configurations linguistiques g~n~rales ou sp&ialis~ en vigueur dans telle ou telle communaute de locuteurs, mettant A contribution les langues ou les vari~t& de langue pratiqu~ par les membres du groupe etendu ou restreint de locuteurs, Ie statut pluriglossique ou unitaire de la situation linguistique de la communaute, Ie savoir linguistique des locuteurs et leurs aptitudes d'~nonciation (ou d'ecnture) ordinaires ou professionnelles. Ces configurations linguistiques

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comprennent aussi I'utilisation du dispositif pragmatique, syntaxique et phon~co-phonologique du complexe linguistique communautaire ~ travers les formes textuelles, argumentatives, ~nonciatives, phrastiques, syntagmatiques et lexicales appartenant ~ la grammaire et aux usages de ce complexe linguistique. L'ensemble de ces configurations forme les diff&ents textes et mod~les de textes, r&lis& ou possibles, ~ I'int&ieur du complexe linguistique communautaire, et s'ordonne dans ces textes selon des regles ou des pratiques de compatibili~ ou d'admissibili~ valables pour l'ensemble ou pour la partie concern~ des locuteurs.25 C'est ce qui d~termine les diff~rents sociolectes rep~rables dans telle ou telle soci~t~ ou communaut~, d~finis ici par Ie r~pertoire socio-linguistique plus ou moins homog~ne qui caract~rise chacun d'eux et Ie distingue. Les diff&ents sociolectes sont donc form& de vari~1& de langue diff~rentes, dont certaines comme la langue quotidienne par exemple leur sont communes, chaque vari~t~ ~tant elle-meme diff~renci~ par des configurations linguistiques distinctes. Le discours traditionnel ne fonctionne pas autrement dans l'utilisation du potentiel linguistique communautaire, et ne diff~re pas dans ce domaine du discours de communaut& non-traditionnelles. C'est que les changements linguistiques qui bouleversent et transforment des ~tats de langue apparemment stables sont lents et progressifs meme dans les soci~1& modernes, ~ cause notamment de leur caract~re Ie plus souvent localis~ et des d~pendances r~iproques et contraignantes qui p~ent sur les configurations linguistiques dans I'esprit du locuteur ordinaire. Au niveau des configurations linguistiques, Ie discours libre n'est pas moins r~ursif que Ie discours traditionnel, et celui-ci n'est pas moins vari~ que celui-I~. Les diff&ents sociolectes qui distinguent les diff~rents groupes socio-cuIturels dans les communau1& juives du Maroc nous Ie montrent aisement. 2.3 Le discours traditionnel comme discours intratextuel. Legitime et

skurisant Dans les societ& traditionnelles, comme dans toute societe d'ailleurs, Ie discours participe des differentes structures sociales et socio-culturelles ainsi que des differents habitus constitutifs de la vie sociale et des r&eaux socio-discursifs qui les portent. n ne saurait donc etre en decalage par rapport aux autres 'biens symboliques' ni etre gere de fa~n autonome. C'est cette projection des structures et des activi1& sociales sur Ie discours communautaire qui imprime au discours traditionnel ses propri~1& de

25 Sur les

propri~t€s socio-pragmatiques des configurations linguistiques, Yoir Chetrit, "Mutations in the Discourse" et J. Chetrit, "Les configurations textuelles et la diyersit~ du jud~o-arabe au Maroc. Etude socio-pragmatique".

J.

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intratextuelle, de I~gitimation d'autorit~ inconditionn~ et quotidienne, dont nous venons de donner certaines indications et que nous voudrions compl~ter ici.

recursivit~

d'auto-r~gulation

2.3.1 La recursi"it~ intertextuelle Toute tradition se stabilise et r~ussit a. s'instaurer en imposant une omnipresence de ses valeurs, ses normes, ses perceptions et ses habitus propres ou m@me emprunt& mais in~r&. Sans cette omnipr&ence constitutive et durable, qui apparatt particulimnent dans les w~onies et les rituels, garapts de la solidarit~ communautaire, ol) Ie discours est Ie plus souvent fig~ et r~p~t~ a. longueur d'ann~es ou meme de gm~rations, la tradition risque de se diluer ou d'oclater. C'est cette omnipr&ence ainsi que I'all~geance continue aux valeurs et aux normes fondatrices de la tradition culturelle ou religieuse qui sont a. l'origine de la rocursivi~ des domaines th~matiques et des foyers th~atiques du discours. L 'intertextualit~ pr&ente dans tout discours rev& ici les formes d'une intratextualit~ culturelle, qui se r~f~re A elle-m@me par un travail continu de citation explicite ou implicite des textes ou des mythes fondateurs. Cette auto-r~f~entiation ne persiste d'ailleurs qu'aussi longtemps que les' locuteurs et agents sociaux conservent leur all~eance au syst~me et tant que r~gne un consensus presque unanime sur les valeurs et normes de ce syst~me. La polyphonie traditionnelle est donc ici avant tout une polyphonie interne, en circuit ferm~, souvent auto-suffisante et auto-r~flexive, et apparatt m@me comme une monophonie par rapport a. des sys~es e~ieurs ou a. des soci~t& ouvertes. Quand d'autres voix apparaissent dans Ie discours traditionnel, ce sont Ie plus souvent des voix d'~trangers, d'agresseurs r~ls ou potentiels, d'ennemis ou de groupes adversaires, consid~r~ alors comme perturbatrices et devant @tre critiqu~, condamn~, isol~ et exclues. Cette polyphonie dichotomis~ et pol~mique sert aussi de rempart pour renforcer I'identit~ du groupe et la pr~venir ou la pr~munir contre d'~ventuelles attaques ext~rieures, r~lles ou imaginaires. La tradition ne va donc pas sans une vision suspicieuse de I'autre, sans une disjonction de ses propres points de vue de ceux des autres et de ceux de I'autre, c'est-a.-dire sans I'instauration d'un 'ennemi', lequel sert alors de rer&ence n~gative. Cependant, Ie fait m@me d'hypostasier dans Ie discours ce rale de repoussoir jou~ par I'autre ou les autres ne manque pas de ~r paradoxalement des interf~rences entre certains aspects de la tradition ~trang~re, concurrente ou adverse, et certains aspects de la

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sienne, surtout quand celle-ci se trouve dans une situation de domination ou d'inf~riori~ par rapport ~ celle-I~. De ces interf~rences naissent de nouvelles formes ou de nouvelles pratiques ainsi que des nouveaux contenus, fruits d'un syncr~tisme Ie plus souvent inconscient. A c6~ d'une alt&i~ proclam~ et condamn~, iI se d~veloppe done dans toute tradition une al~i~ int~r~ - Ie plus souvent inconsciemment - et dont I'origine est Ie plus souvent ignor~ et meme ni~ par les porte-parole I~gitim& de la tradition concem~ et par ses d~tenteurs aussi. 2.3.2 L'all~geance'permanente et l~gitimante L'exclusion et Ie bannissement de 'I'ennemi' proclam~, qui fait peser sa menace sur I'in~gri~ et Ie bien-fond~ de la tradition identitaire, se fait d'abord au nom de la fid~lit~ ~ soi et ~ ses propres normes et valeurs. Dans les traditions ~ fond religieux, c'est bien ~videmment la fid~li~ aux commandements divins et ~ I'enseignement divin qui est invoqu~ et inculq.ree, avec bien sQr toute la multiplicit~ d'images et de repr&entations que les diff~rents sys~mes tMologiques et les diff~rentes civilisations ou cultures donnent du divino lci nous nous int~ressons particuli~ement ~ un systm-te monotMiste avec Ie discours scriptuaire sacralis~ qui Ie fonde et Ie perp~tue, et dont I'ex~gese orthodoxe renouvelle sans cesse la I~gitimit~ de I'autorit~ et la v~rit~ de la parole premi~e.

Par voie de translation. cette

est accord~ aussi et en meme traditionnel, dot~ d'un savoir professionnel et technique sur la tradition, aux ex~g~tes et interpretes qualifi~ de ses textes fondateurs et de ses habitus constitutifs, d'oi:a Ie r61e pro~minent du discours meta-textuel dans la transmission et la perp~tuation de la tradition ~ base textuelle, comme nous Ie verrons plus loin. Mais cette all~geance va au-delA de la parole et des textes. Elle comporte aussi une fid~li~ au pass~ et aux ~v~ements saillants. heureux ou malheureux, qui I'ont marqu~ et I'ont perp~t~ dans I'identit~, la m~oire et la conscience des locuteurs et agents sociaux et qui reapparaissent sans cesse dans les textes canonis~ ou dans les mythes communautaires. C'est principalement cette m~moire vivante et active d'un pass~ lointain et r~ent, bas~ sur Ie souvenir tout autant que sur les pratiques qui en d~ulent, qui donne toute leur coh~rence aux divers contenus, symboles. comportements et significations qui composent telle ou telle tradition. Cette m~moire vivante et cette fid~li~ venant ~ fl~hir, c'est tout I'equilibre de la tradition qui bascule et qui la destabilise pour la faire ~voluer ou pour la faire disparaitre. Le discours traditionnel ne saurait all~geance

temps aux porte-parole reconnus du

syst~me

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357

donc @tre ind~pendant par rapport aux diff~ents rEseaux sociopsychologiques, socio-culturels et socio-idrologiques plus ou moins stables qui maintiennent la tradition et la g~rent activement en cas de crises ou de ruptures graves.

2.3.3 L'auto-reguiation securisante Le discours traditionnel, comme d'ailleurs toute la tradition elle-meme, a en d«initive pour fonction principale de veiller a la r~gulation tant soit peu harmonieuse de la vie communautaire et de la vie sociale selon des regles et des normes propres et r~ursives, bien que parfois fort complexes. Dans une tradition totale, c'est-a-dire dans une soci~~ ou la tradition conceme la totali~ des situations sociales, des activitEs intellectuelles, des activitEs socio-culturelles et socio-~onomiques, Ie discours colle aux diff~rents besoins et demandes des agents sociaux et tente de rEsoudre les questions, les contradictions, les doutes ou les conflits qui ne manquent pas de surgir de temps en temps sinon en permanence au cours de la vie sociale. Dans Ie discours oral des soci~tEs traditionnelles, un genre d'~oncEs au statut linguistique particulier s'est d~velopp~ qui prend en charge les multiples situations de la vie sociale et de l'environnement ambiant et les dkrit ou les codifie en quelque sorte pour en faire des mod~les de conduite ou des g~n~rateurs de sens. n s'agit des proverbes et des dictons, et en fait de I'ensemble des ~noncEs formulaires, lesquels fonctionnent tous comme des mini-textes autonomes et sont invoqu~ dans Ie discours quotidien comme garants d'une ~videntialit~ ou d'une v~ridicit~ allant de soi, dont l'autorit~ ou la l~gitimit~ n'est pas sujette a discussion. Dans Ie discours naturel, Ie d~ploiement de l'exemple proverbial tel qu'i\ est reconstruit par Ie contexte signifie entre autres une r~probation ou une condamnation, une consolation ou un r~onfort, une conclusion ou une l~on a tirer, et exige du co-locuteur et parfois meme du locuteur lui-meme une prise de conscience ou une r~paration, dont Ie caract~re est d'autant plus imp~ratif qu'U n'est pas explicitement pos~ dans Ie discours. Ce fonctionnement socio-pragmatique de l'~nonc~ formula ire explique aussi au moins en partie pourquoi les proverbiers sont tombEs g~n~alement en dEsu~tude dans les soci~t~ occidentales modemes, ou la tradition a cess~ progressivement de guider la vie et Ie discours des diff~rents locuteurs dans les villes sinon dans les campagnes. 26 Le discours traditionnel veille ainsi activement au maintien des 28 Sur cette mani~re d'envisager les emplois naturels des proverbes, voir J. Chetrit, "Le dire proverbial comme dire m~ta-textuel; un regard sur les proverbes judea-marocains" [en hebreu), Massorot 9 (1995) (in press) et J.

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pratiqueset perceptions constitutives, et essaie de resorber les incoh&ences ou de pallier aux insuffisances des structures interpr~tatives et reparatrices propres l la tradition. La fonction ex~g~tique du discours s'av~ etre d~ lors une fonction essentielle dans la vie traditionnelle, car c'est par l'ex~gese qu'on tentera de concilier la tradition avec les d~veloppements sociaux nouveaux qui semblent la contredire ou l'infirmer. L'ex~~e sert aussi souvent l l~gitimer et l in~grer certaines de ces r~novations surgies de l'int~rieur, ou meme propag~ de l'ext~rieur mais en voie d'etre int~gr~, en les accomodant aux schemes significatifs propres, quand elles ne sont pas en flagrante contradiction avec des dogmes, des normes ou des va leurs consid~res l telle ou telle ~oque comme fondamentaux. Cette auto-r~gulation, guid~ souvent par un travail m~ta-discursif intense sous forme d'interpr~tations renouvel~ des textes et des mythes fondateurs, participe des fonctions s~urisantes de tout ordre social. Tout en g&ant des savoirs et des comportements, des croyances et des perceptions, la tradition et son discours privil~gient la stabilit~ et la permanence, Ie connu et Ie pr~visible, et tentent meme de dompter l'inconnu et l'impr~visible par leur int~gration pr&lable dans Ie systeme des savoirs et des habitus traditionnels, l travers Ie discours magique et des pratiques magiques notamment dans un grand nombre de soci~tes, y compris la soci~~ juive traditionnelle. Cette fonction s~urisante du discours n'est d'ailleurs pas exclusive au discours traditionnel, mais II plus que dans toute autre ca~gorie de discours, c'est Ie fondement meme de son fonctionnement et de ses stra~ies regulatives. Quand la tradition, l la suite de bouleversements culturels ou d'interf~rences ext~rieures majeures, cesse de remplir cette fonction primordiale, son discours ~volue lui aussi pour tenter de retrouver une nouvelle stabilit~ et un nouvel ~quilibre l travers une nouvelle coh&ence et une nouvelle ex~g~e des textes et des mythes fondateurs. 2.4. Les strategies du discoUl'S traditionnel

En tant que complexe coMrent et r~glement~ de dires et d'~nonciations a l'in~eur d'une tradition vivante, Ie discours traditionnel est g~r~ par un ensemble de strat~gies et de tendances qui Ie maintiennent dans les limites de 1& tradition et de ses valeurs fondatrices et l'orientent dans ses fonctions r~gulatives et adaptatives. Cet ensemble de strat~gies discursives Chetrit, "Dire proverbial et dire personnel; pour une proverbe," in Hommage a David Gaatone (Amsterdam, aussi J. Obelkevich, ·Proverbs and Social History,· in Lanf,Uage, ed. P. Burke and R. Porter (Cambridge, 1987),

socio-pragmatique du 1995) (in press). cr. The Social History of

pp. 43-72.

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comprend done des strat~gies fondatrices, des strat~gies formatives et des stratEgies r~gu1atives. Panni les stra~gies fonciatrices du discours traditionnel, il convient de noter tout particuli~rement l'institution d'un discours officiel, auto~ et auto-l~itim~, dont les textes ~rits ou oraux canonis~ et les mythes de base sacralis& deviennent assez rapidement un patrimoine sp&:ifique et distinctif, par rapport auquel tous les autres discours communautaires vont @tre interpr~t~, appr~i~, autoris~ ou interdits, et souvent m@me produits. Par suite de cette sacralisation, ces textes et mythes de r~f~rence sont soumis A des pratiques de r~ification tant des formes que des contenus, mais A cause de leur sollicitation permanente et de leur ex~g~e continue, ils finissent par acqu~rir dans la m@me tradition un statut polys~mique et polyvalent, amplifie par la diversi~ des textes et commentaires orthodoxeso ou Mt&odoxes ul~rieurs et Ie travail m~ta­ textuel important qu'ils comportent. Les stra~gies formatives du discours traditionnel d~oulent toutes des stratEgies fondatrices et des besoins sociaux ininterrompus de la communication A travers les diff~rents r~eaux socio-discursifs internes et extemes de la communaut~ traditonnelle. Elles comprennent la sp~iali­ sation et la contextualisation de diff~rents types de discours et de genres discursifs, comme Ie discours communiatif des pri~es, des rites et des ~onies communautaires, Ie discours r~p~titif des textes ludiques, narratifs ou po~tiques des r~unions ou des c&~monies familiales, communautaires ou tribales, ou bien les multiples structures formulaires des diff&ents types de textes et discours. Cette sp~ialisation, qui provient du cloisonnement social et de la stratification sodale rigide qui en d&:oule et qui rend difficile sinon impossible la mobili~ sociale, touche aussi Ie discours des diff~rents groupes sociaux, lequel tend A reproduire ou au moins A r~fl~hir la stratification socio-culturelle de la soci~~ traditionnelle. C'est de IA que proviennent les diff~rents sociolectes, dialectes, ethnolectes et registres ou niveaux de langue qui distinguent les r~pertoires linguistiques ou discursifs propres aux diff~rents groupes sociaux et fondent la diversit~ linguistique constitutive de toute soci~~, traditionnelle ounon. 27 27 Sur la diversit~ linguistique dans les communaut~s juives du Maroc, voir J. Chetrit, "Niveaux, registres de langue et sociolectes"; J. Chetrit, "Strat~gies dlscursives dans la langue des femmes jud~o-arabophones du Maroc"; J. Chetrit, "A Socio-Pragmatic and Linguistic Study of the Hebrew Component of the Judeo-Arabic Poetry in North Africa - Theoretical Aspects"; J. Chetrit, "Discours et Modernit~ dans les communaut~s juives d' Afrique du Nord a la fin du XIXe si~c1e"; J. Chetrit, "Les configurations textuelles et la diversit~

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Quant aux strat~gies r~gulatives, elles d~terminent les divers accomodements et les diverses conduites du discours quotidien sans cesse renouvel~ ou du discours officiel reproduit par rapport au discours fondateur et au discours I~gitime institu~. Ce sont d'abord les diff~rentes stratEgies de censure, et surtout d'auto-censure, conscients ou inconscients, avec les diff~ents tabous et interdits qui les r~gissent. Ce sont ensuite les interpr~tations et r~interpr~tations fr~quentes de textes canonis& a. travers des grilles conventionnelles ou nouvelles, lesquelles vont permettre d'harmoniser ou de concilier des antinomies fiagrantes ou bien de r~parer des failles ou de g~rer des crises herm~neutiques. Ce sont enfin des strat~gies adaptatives ou integratives dont Ie role sera d'introduire dans Ie discours propre et dans la langue propre a. la communaut~ les entit& lexico-s~mantiques ~trangeres devenues incontournables par suite de rapports de domination, de voisinage ou de reconnaissance. C'est Ia. I'origine des multiples emprunts nrologiques que chaque langue ou dialecte ne manque d'introduire au contact d'autres langues ou dialectes externes. 28 Au terme de cette pr&entation dont I'objetif premier est de situer Ie discours des communaut& judro-marocaines dans Ie cadre g~n~ral du discours traditionnel, tournons-nous maintenant vers Ie discours juif tel qu'U s'est d~velopp~ depuis I'arriv~e des megorashim au Maroc a. la fin du XVe siecle. Dans ce d~veloppement, l'apport de ces derniers est d~terminant en ce qui concerne I'ampleur du discours rabbinique et sa production ecrite comme en ce qui concerne sa diversit~ Iinguistique et communautaire ainsi que sa diversit~ typologique. Mais les megorashim n'ont pas eu qu'un apport discursif. C'est I'ensemble des activii& juives qui a ~~ boulevers~ apres leur in~gration dans les communaut& mixtes, lesquelles nous int~resseront plus particulierement ici. 3. Formation du discours juif au Maroc ~ partir de la fin du XVe siecle 3.1 L'apport des megorashim

Apres la politique d'islamisation forc~e men~e par les Almohades dans tout l'Occident musulman, y compris dans les communaut& de I'Andalus ou !'Espagne musulmane, la r~g~n~ration des communaut& avait eu du judOO-arabe au Maroc. Etude socio-pragmatique". 28 Cf. par exemple l'int~gration de lex~mes fran~is dans Ie jud~o-arabe d'Afrique du Nord dans J. Chetrit, "L'influence du fran~is dans les langues jud~-arabes d'Afrique du Nord", in Judai'sme d'A.frique du nord aux XIXe XXe si~cles, ed. M. Abitbol (Jerusalem, 1980), pp. 126-66.

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lieu au Maroc aux XNe et XVe si~les sous Ie r~gne plus am~ne des M&inides. 29 Cette politique tol~rante a permis l'~ergence de nouvelles communaut& urbaines sur la base surtout des communaut& rurales ou p&iph~riques rescap~, lesquelles avaient mieux r&is~ a l'islamisation forde, notamment celles qui ~taient situ~ aux confins du Sahara et dans Ie Haut-Atlas ou l'Anti-Atlas. 30 Quant aux megorashim de la fin du XVe s. avec les nouvelles vagues du d~but du XVIe, ce qu'its ont apport~ aux diff&entes communaut& du Maroc, c'est tout d'abord une nouvelle vision du monde des affaires et de I'activit~ ~onomique en g~n~ral, avec un engouement particulier pour Ie commerce international, au d~but entre Ie Maroc et Ie Portugal notamment et ensuite avec l'ensemble de l'Europe occidentale a l'exception de l'Espagne. GrAce a leur connaissance des Iangues europ~nnes, les sultans ont notamment recrut~ parmi eux de nombreux diplomates et interpr~tes du XVIe au XIXe si~cles pour leurs relations avec l'Europe. C'est aussi une culture mat~rielle plus riche et plus raffin~ aussi bien dans les domaines de l'ameublement et du v~tement que de l'art culinaire et des habitudes nutritives. 31 C'est ensuite une organisation communautaire mieux structur~ et regularis~ grAce aux taqqanot ou d~isions communautaires prises par des assembl~ g~n~ralement mixtes r~unissant des figures rabbiniques et des dirigeants officiels et non-officiels de la communaut~.32 C'est enfin et surtout une intense activit~ cr&trice dans tous les domaines de la production proprement juive, allant de la halakha a l'ex~g~e rabbinique, en passant par la pr~ication homit~tique, la mystique kabbalistique et la po&ie Mbra'ique,33 avec des traditions d'~tude et de formation familiales 29 Cf. D. Corcos, Studies, pp. 1-62; H. Hirshberg, The History of Jews, vol. 1, pp. 274-87; J. Avivi, "'Qore Hadorot' de Marrakech, un nouveau document sur l'histoire des expuls~s d'Espagne au Maroc" [en h6breu], Pe'amim 38 (1989): 58-67. 30 Cf. D. Corcos, Studies, pp. 258-318. En AIg~rie, I'arriv~e de la premi~re vague de refugi& d'Espagne ~ la fin du XIVe si~cle avait dej~ revigor~ la vie communautaire juive tant au niveau de I'organisation qu'au niveau de la creation et de I'etude et permis aux grands centres d'Alger, d'Oran et de Tlemcen de rayonner dans Ie monde juif. Voir H. Hirshberg, The History of Jews, 1, pp. 285-87. 31 Les traces de cette culture materielle ont ~te conserv~es dans les dialectes j~-arabes de certaines grandes communaut~s comme F~s et Mekn~s ~ travers I'important lexique jud~-espagnol qui les distingue d'autres dialectes communautaires. Cf. aussi Y. Stillman, "Spanish Influence on the Material Culture of the Moroccan Jews" [en h6breuJ, in The Sephardi and Oriental Heritages: Studies, ed. I. Ben Ami (Jerusalem, 1982), pp. 359-66. 32 Voir H. Zafrani, Les Juifs du Maroc; J. Gerber, Jewish Society in Fe~; Sh. Bar-Asher (ed. ), Seier Hataqanot [en h6breuJ (Jerusalem, 1991). 38 Y. Benaim, Malkhei Rabanan; H. Zafrani, Les Juifs du maroc; ld., Po~sie juive en Occident musulman; J. Avivi, Manuscrits des Juifs du Maghreb.

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qui sont l l'origine des lign~es de figures rabbiniques ayant dirig~ les grandes communau~ comme F~, Marrakech, Mekn~, Sefrou, Sal~ et Tetuan notamment.34 Sur Ie plan du discours juif, l'int~gration des megorashim a fix~ pour de nombreuses g~&ations les formes et les contenus du discours communautaire. Pour ces expu1s&, Ie souvenir de l'exil et de l'expulsion ne s'est pas ~mouss~ pendant de nombreuses g~n~ations,35 et n'a fait que renforcer les angoisses de la vie juive dans un environnement arabo-musulman, ou la pr&ence juive n'~tait que tol~r~e et r~gl~e par les clauses floues du trait~ d'Omar et Ie staut de dhimmi. 88 Les stipulations de ce statut n'ont en effet emp@ch~ - au Maroc comme dans tout Ie monde arabe - ni l'arbitraire ni les pers~cutions individuelles ou communautaires, ni limit~ l'app~tit des souverains et de leurs subordonn& dans les diff&entes r~gions ou locali~. Au Maroc, la lutte intermittente de tribus berbm:s contre Ie pouvoir royal, dont les communau~ juives ~taient souvent les premieres l payer les frais, n'a fait qu'aggraver ces souffrances et ces traumatismes. C'est cette situation socio-politique pr~­ caire bien que r~gl~ qui a sous-tendu pendant 10ngtemps - jusqu'apr~ l'instauration m@me du Protectorat frans:ais sur Ie Maroc - Ie discours communautaire officiel, dont les porte-parole ~taient souvent des descendants de megorashim. 3.2 La fonnation de quatre types de cultures communautaires diglossiques 3.2.1 L'int~gration des megorashim dans les diff~rentes communaut& a non seulement ranim~ la vie juive et la cr~tion juive au Maroc avec les implications discursives que cela entraine, mais a ~~ aussi ll'origine de la formation de deux nouveaux types de cultures communautaires au Maroc: les communaut& jud~o-hispanophones du nord du Maroc, utilisant principalement Ie jud~o-espagnol, et les communaut& mixtes, fond~es 34 Voir la bio-bibllographie de ees lIgn~es de figures pour F~s et Serrou dans D. Ovadia, Fas Va-Hakhameia, vol. 1; [d., Qehillat Se/rou, vol. 4 - dans la deUJ:i~me partie de I'ouvrage. 35 Dans les communaut~s ob la pr~dominanee des megorashim s'est impoa, 11 s'est conserv~ jusqu'A nos jours des ~I~gies ou qinot qui ont EtE krites sur les sourrranees de I'expulsion d'Espagne et du Portugal et ont EtE chantEes dans les pri~res du 9 ab avec les autres qinot pour CQmmEffiorer la destruction du Premier et du Second Temples. cr. J. Chetrit, "Historical Poems." 88 cr. N. A. Stillman, The Jews 01 Arab Lands: A History and Source Book (Philadelphia, 1979), pp. 22-39; Sh. Deshen, Les Bens du Mellah. La vie juive au Maroc I'~poque pr~-coloniale (Paris, 1991), pp. 36-62.

a

Tradition du Discours et Discours de la Tradition

sur

363

autochtone ancien jud&l-arabophone et les descendants des pleinement in~gr& et devenus assez rapidement prepond~rants dans les affaires communautaires. A c8t~ de ces deux nouveaux types de communaut& ont continu~ d'exister des communaut& jud&l-arabophones sans aucun apport jud&l-espagnol ainsi que de tr~ anciennes communaut& (jud&l-)berb~rophones. Avant d'analyser les cara~istiques culturelles et discursives de ces quatre ca~gories de communaut&, nous tenons A souligner ici Ie caract~re multi-focal ou au moins bi-focal des traditions culturelles juives dans les diff~rentes communaut& de la diaspora, et par voie de cons~uence Ie caract~re diglossique ou pluriglossique de leur situation linguistique. Les diff~rents foyers qui ont constitu~ la culture juive communautaire proviennent tout d'abord des textes Mbra'ico-aram~ns fondateurs, de leurs enseignements universels dans Ie monde juif et de leurs interpr~tations locales et continues dans une perspective orthodoxe (ou h~~oxe dans certaines communaut& modernes). C'est la pratique p&iagogique et ex~g~tique continue de ce corpus textuel ainsi que l'monciation ininterrompue du corpus vari~ des pri~res qui a permis A l'h~breu, et dans une moindre mesure A l'aram~n, de perdurer en tant que langue d'~tude et d'~criture pour les classes rabbiniques et les classes de lettr&. Aux c8t& de ce fonds juif universel, transmis dans chaque communau~ selon une intensit~ et une accentuation diff~entes, se sont ~ve1opp& des foyers culturels locaux emprunt& Ie plus souvent inconsciemment ou bien sans pr~m~ditation aux traditions et comportements des populations non-juives voisines, en premier lieu la langue vernaculaire servant d'abord A la communication avec les voisins non-juifs et dont l'~volution en milieu juif aboutit g~n~ralement a la languejuive locale ou au dialecte juif local.s7 C'est cette diglossie gm~rale avec les multiples interf~ences linguistiques qu'eUe suscite dans les deux complexes linguistiques, qui est a la base de la culture juive communautaire et qui' figure bien les nombreuses autres cat~gories d'interf~rences de la culture non-juive locale dans les pratiques et les comportements juifs des diff~rentes communaut&. Ces emprunts concernent aussi bien la culture ma~rielle avec ses traditions d'habillement, d'habitat et de nutrition ne s'opposant pas aux enseignements juifs, que certaines croyances et pratiques parfois en flagrante contradiction avec les enseignements juifs orthodoxes, 1'E1~ment

megorashim

87 Cf. J. Chetrit. "Les configurations textuelles et la arabe au Maroc. Etude socio-pragmatique. "

diversit~

du

jud~o­

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comme Ie culte des saints au Maroc par exemple,38 en passant par des modes de pensee ou des comportements, des textes et des ceremonies dont l'Equivalent ou l'origine se retrouvent dans les traditions non-juives voisines. C'est ce mod~le diglossique, plurifocal et Ie plus souvent syncretique de la culture juive communautaire qui sera enrichi et diversifie au Maroc avec l'installation et l'integration des megorashim, aboutissant A la formation de quatre categories de cultures communautaires, basees sur les trois langues juives vernaculaires qui se sont developpees au Maroc: Ie berb~e ou peut-etre meme Ie judeo-berb~re, Ie judeo-arabe et Ie judoo-espagnol, en dehors des deux langues juives vehiculaires, l'hebreu et I'arameen.

3.2.2. Les communaut~s judeo-hispanophones Elles se sont constituees A la fin du XVe si~cle et au XVIe autour des groupes de refugies d'Espagne et du Portugal au nord du Maroc, non loin des lieux de debarquement des refugies, et dans les autres grandes communautes du littoral comme Sale et de l'interieur comme F~, Mekn~ ou meme Marrakech. D'autres communautes, d'origine hispanoportugaise, se sont constituees A la fin du XVe siecle et au debut du XVIe dans les ports atlantiques d'Azemmour, de Mazagan et de Safi occupes jusqu'au milieu du XVIe siecle par les Portugais et ont beaucoup developpe Ie commerce avec Ie Portugal et les Indes Occidentales.39 Pendant tout Ie XVIe siecle au moins, ces communaut.& de megorashim ont continue de pratiquer leur judeo-espagnol ou leur judeo-portugais, mais c'est seulement au nord du Maroc, ou les derniers ont forme la majorite de la population juive, que Ie judeo-espagnol s'est maintenu comme langue communautaire principale jusqu'au XXe si~c1e sous sa variete denommee la hakiti1.a, dont Ie lexique hybride comprend un grand nombre de lex~es arabes et hebra'iques, integres dans les structures judeoespagnoles medievales. 40 38 Cf. I. Ben-Ami, Saint Veneration Among the Jews in Morocco [en Mbreul (Jerusalem, 1984), pp. 185-213. 39 Sur I'installation et Ie devenir de toutes ces communaut~s, voir les sources indiqtrees dans la note 2 supra. Une communaut~ de megorashim s'est m8me install~ A Tiillin dans la vall~ du Dad~, dans Ie Haut-Atlas, mais il semble qu'elle soit la seule qui ait pouss~ si loin A I 'int~rieur du pays. Cf. H. Hirshberg, The History of Jews, 1, pp. 301-302. 40 Sur la hakit1a voir J. Benoliel, Dialecto judeo-hispano-marroqui 0 hakiti1a, ed. R. Benazeraf (Madrid, 1977); R. Benazeraf, Rejranero (Paris, 1978); S. Leibovici, ed., Les Mosai'ques de notre memoire: Les Judeo-espagnols du Maroc (Paris, 1982); Y. Bentolila, "Le composant h~bra'iqu" dans Ie judEo-espagnol marocain", in Judeo-Romance Languages, ed. I. Benabu (Jerusalem, 1985); I. Guershon, "EI reencuentro linguistico de espaiioles y judios

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Par la suite, ces communautEs judEo-hispanophones ont continuellement int~gr~ des judEo-arabophones en provenance de communautEs voisines ou lointaines et meme l'ensemble des anciennes communautEs berb&ophones du Rif. Cependant, malgr~ la pr&ence de textes juci€o-arabes dans les anthologies manuscrites de ces communaut& et une certaine connaissance du judEo-arabe par certains locuteurs,41 c'est Ie judEo-espagnol sous ses vari~tEs calques ou po~tiques, narratives ou vernaculaires, qui y a sous-tendu avec l'h~breu l'essentiel du discours communautaire. Apr~ son extinction a la suite de la pr~valence de l'espagnol modeme, la hakitita est devenue au XXe s. source d'identi~ et de dEclaration ou de revendication d'appartenance pour les ressortissants de ces communaut& et leurs descendants dispers& en Am~rique Latine, en Israel, en Espagne, en France et au Canada.42 Ce discours a base judEo-espagnole ne fera pas ici l'objet de notre analyse, encore qu'il soit presque similaire dans la plupart de ses traits sociolinguistiques au discours judEo-arabe qui nous prEoccupera ici plus spkialement. Comme ce denier, Ie discours judEo-espagnol est tres diversifi~ et comprend diff~rents niveaux de langue allant entre autre de Ia langue litt~aire m~i~vale des romances espagnoles sauvegard~ par Ia m~oire des descendants d'expuls& a la langue calque ancienne des traductions bibliques et de textes liturgiques ou para-liturgiques, en passant par les structures lexicales et syntaxiques hybrides et locales de la langue quotidienne ou hakitita.

3.2.3 Les communaut~s judeo-arabophones mixtes int~grees Elles sont Ie produit de l'int~gration lente ou rap ide de communautEs judEo-hispanophones ou de groupes judEo-hispanophones dans certaines vieilles communautEs autochtones, du littoral atlantique comme de l'in~ieur, ayant entrain~ l'adoption du judEo-arabe communautaire comme langue principale commune a tous les membres de la communaut~. Dans certaines grandes familles, la tradition judEomarroqu{es; con ocasi6n de la guerra de Africa?", in Proyecci6n hist6rica de

Espaiia en sus tres culturas: Castilla y Le6n, America y el Mediterr6.neo, II, ed.

E. Lorenzo Sanz (Valladolid, 1993), pp. 99-104. 41 Cf. J. Chetrit, "Judeo-Arabic and Judeo-Spanish" . 42 Voir S. Leibovici, ed., Les Mosai'ques de notre m~moire: Les Jud~o­ espa&flOls du Maroc (Paris, 1982); S. Leibovici, Nuestras bodas en Tetu6.n; anthologie; noces judeo-espagnoles (Paris, 1983); S. Leibovici, Chronique des Juils de Tetouan (1860-1896) (Paris, 1984); I. Guershon, "The Diaspora of North Moroccan Jews and 'the Spirit of Tetuan'", Miqqedem Umiyyam 6 (1995): 57-70; M. M. Serels, A History o/the Jews 0/ Tangier.

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espagnole s'est maintenue jusqu'au XIXe si~cle m@me, mais dans des contextes familiaux ou pour les besoins de la correspondance uniquement. Les traces de ce plurilinguisme communautaire se retrouvent encore de nos jours dans l'important composant jud~-espagnol et peut-@tre mSme dans les realisations vocaliques qui distinguent Ie lexique et la morphologie judEo-arabes de communaut& in~gr~es comme Mekn~ ou F~.43 La r&orption des deux diglossies juives originelles en une seule ne signifie pas pour autant la pr~valence de l'ancien ~l~ment jud~­ arabophone sur son concurrent. Tant s'en faut. Ce sont les grandes familIes de megorashim qui ont conquis progressivement tous les postes cl& du leadership communautaire, rabbinique et autre, et de l'organisation communautaire, et ont fini par constituer la trame mSme de Ia vie communautaire par suite des mariages intercommunautaires.44 Dans les grandes communaut& du centre comme F~, Meknes et Sefrou, les lign~ de rabbins et dayyanim ont progressivement substitu~ les rites sepharades et les coutumes espagnoles aux pratiques locales, a tel point que les synagogues des ~l~ents autochtones (les toshabim) ont cess~ d'exister ou bien sont devenues tr~ largement minoritaires. 45 Par ailleurs, Ie mod~le d'organisation socia Ie et ~conomique de la communau~ tel qu'it ressort des taqqanot de F~ a eu une influence d~terminante sur les destin~ des autres grandes communaut& du Maroc. Certaines de ces taqqanot se sont r~pandues m@me dans les communaut& les plus ~loign~es du pays. Au XIXe siecle cependant. avec la croissance demographique de ces grandes communaut& integrees par suite de vagues d'immigration interne, Ie leadership rabbinique a dO revenir sur certaines de ses options majeures et adopter les points de vues de communaut& autochtones, de Marrakech notamment, par exemple en ce qui concerne l'ouverture de synagogues priv~es ou la r~partition du patrimoine familial entre la m~re 43 Dans une ~tude en cours nous avons relev~ des centaines de lex~mes espapols et jud~o-espagnols dans des textes oraux et ~crits de Mekn~s. Cf. aussi J. Chetrit, "L'lnfluence du fran~is dans les langues jud~o-arabes d'Afrique du Nord"; Id., "Judeo-Arabic and Judeo-Spanish". Voir aussi S. Levy, "La lengua diaria marroqu{, reflejo de unas relaciones seculares entre Espana y Marruecos", in Espaiia-Magreb. Sisto XXI: E[ Porvenir de una vecindad, ed. J. Andr&Gallego (Madrid, 1992), pp. 53-65. 44 Le souvenir de deux communaut~s culturellement distinctes s'est Pn~ralement estomp~ dans ces communaut&, ce qui n'a pas ~t~ Ie cas au XXe sikle dans les communaut~s jud~o-hispanophones oil les jud~o-arabophones fraichement Install~s ~taient trait~s de "jorasteros" , d'~trangers, comme A Tanger ou A Tetuan. Cf. C. de Nesry, Le jui/de Tan&er et [e Maroc (Tanger, 1956), ainsi que I. Guershon, "The Diaspora of North Morrocan Jews." 45 C'est ainsi qu'A F~s il s'est conserv~ une seule synagogue de rite autochtone dont Ie rituel remonte A la p~riode d'avant I'arriv~e des me&orashim.

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pater jamilias. 46

C'est Ie discours Mbra'ico-aram&m et judeo-arabe de ces communaut& in~gr~ avec celui des communaut6i autochtones qui nous int&essera principalement ici.

3.2..4 Les communautls judoo-arabophones autochtones

r~ussi a subsister principalement dans les regions m&idionales du Maroc, aux confins du Sahara Ie plus souvent, ap~ les dures pers~utions des XIIe et XIDe siecles. Ces communaut& ont occu~ depuis Ie haut moyen-ige et peut-etre meme bien avant les vall~ du Seus, du DrAa, du Dad~, du Todgha et du Ziz (Ie Tafilalet de nos jours) en allant de l'ouest a I'est. Elles n'ont guere connu d'apport ,;ooeo-espagnol majeur a cause principalement de leur ~loignement des points de chute des premi~res vagues de r~fugi6i, lesquelles avaient atteint la terre marocaine par la cote m~iterran~nne ou bien par les ports atlantiques de Sal~, Mazagan et Azemmour. Plus tard diverses familles de megorashim et de leurs descendants sont venues s'installer dans ces communaut& ~loign~, mais leur pr6ience n'a pas eu d'influence perceptible ni sur les dialectes judeo-arabes locaux ni sur les pratiques et les coutumes communautaires. 47 Ces communaut6i autochtones ont de ce fait conserv~ parfois des traditions textuelles qui ont disparu des autres communaut6i judeo-arabophones int~gr~, dans Ie domaine de la liturgie synagogale ou familiale notamment. 48 Leur production intellectuelle se distingue, quant a elle, par l'orientation plutOt mystique de l'ex~g~e des textes fondateurs et de l'appr~hension des habitus juifs. C'est ainsi qu'au XVIe et au XVlle siecles ont prosp~r~ de grands centres kabbalistiques dans Ie Seus et Ie DrAa, dont l'reuvre originale vient seulement d'etre ~uverte et ~tudi~. Aux XIXe et XXe siecles, c'est Ie Tafilalet avec l'reuvre mystique de R. Ya'aqov Abihs~ra (1807-1880) et de ses descendants qui a vu ~lore une importante production mysticokabbalistique et po~tique. 49

Ce sont des communaut& qui ont

48 Voir sur ces transformations Deshen, Les sens du Mel/ah, notamment pp. 151-212. 47 Cf. J. Heath and M. Bar-Asher, "A Judeo-Arabic Dialect of Tafilalt (Southeastern Morocco)", Zeitschri/t ftlr Arabische Unsuistik 9 (1982): 32-78, pour I'analyse linguistique d'un dialecte communautaire du Tafilalet. 48 Nous pensons icl l certains textes ou suppl~ments de textes Ius ou d~clam~s lors de ~r~monies familiales comme la circoncision ou la lecture de la traduction j~-arabe de la haBBada de Pessah, que nous comptons publier dans des travaux ultErieurs. 49 Sur les aspects mystiques de la production rabbinique dans ces communaut~s et les grands centres de cette production, voir H. Zafrani, Kabbale, vie mystique

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Parmi les grandes communautes, c'est la communaut~ de Marrakech qui a sauvegard~ Ie plus et Ie mieux les traditions et les sensibilites des communautes autochtones, et ce malgr~ l'implantation d'un important groupe de megorashim d~ la fin du XVIe siecle en son sein, dont la synagogue qu'Us avaient fond~ s'appelle encore de nos jours ~a! al- 'zjimii ou 'synagogue des ~trangers', et malgr~ une longue lign~ de rabbins et de chefs communautaires descendants des megorashim qui ont dirig~ les destin~ de la communau~.50 Ce rale pilote jou~ par Marrakech est dQ en grande partie Asa forte population juive autochtone, la premia-e du Maroc en nombre jusqu'au d~but du XXe siecle, ainsi qu'aux vagues d'immigration incessantes qui ont drain~ de tout temps vers elle des ~migrants jud~-arabophones et jud~-berb~rophones des petites communautes du Haut-Atlas et du Sous. 3.2.5 Les communaut~s judoo-berMrophones

Ce sont IA des communautes rurales surtout, qui

~taient dispers~ dans Ie Haut-Atlas, l'Anti-Atlas et semble-t-il dans Ie Rif aussi, et qui ont contin~ de pratiquer jusqu'au XXe siecle les diff~rents dialectes berberes, ou peut-etre meme des vari~tes de jud~-berbere.51 Certaines communautes comme celles de la r~gion de Tifnout, entre Ie Haut-Atlas

et maBie (Paris, 1986); H. Zafrani, Ethique et mystique. Judaisme en Terre d'Ts/am. Le commentaire kabbalistique du "Trait~ des P~res" de T. Bu- 'l!er8an (Paris, 1991); R. Eli'or, "Les kabbalistes du Draa" [en h~breul, Pe'amim 24 (1985): 36-73; D. Manor, Kabbaie et Ethique au Maroc: La voie de R. Jacob AbihatzJra [en Mbreul (Jerusalem, 1982); J. Avivi, Manuscrits des Jui/s. 50 Cf. H. Hirshberg, The History 0/ Jews, vol. 2; J. Avivi, "Qore Hadorot". Voir aussi les traditions de la communaut~ de Marrakech dans Sh. Deshen, Les Bens du Mellah. La vie juive au Maroc a ['~poque pre-coioniaie (Paris, 1991), d'apm l'index. 51 Faute d'une documentation suffisante, la question de I'existence de dialectes jud~o-berb~res diff~rents des dialectes berb~res parl~s par les voisins non-juifs, A l'instar des dialectes jud~o-arabes tr~s vari~s par rapport aux dialectes arabo-musulmans, est loin d'etre r~solue. II existe certes en caract~res hEbraiques une traduction calque de la ha88acia de Pesah en ber~re (cf. P. Galand-Pernet et H. Zafrani, Une Version BertJere de ia ha8gadah de Pesah. Texte de Tinrhir du Todrha (Maroc). Suppl~ment aux Comptes rendus du G.L.E.C.S. (Paris, 1970), 2 vols.; H. Zafrani, Utt~ratures diaiectaies, pp. 321-99) et j'al moi -meme recueilli derni~rement une autre version manuscrite provenant semble-t-Il du Sous ainsi que d'autres textes et des extra its oraux de la ha&Bada et d'autres textes de la bouche de diff~rents informateurs vivant en Israel; il n'empeche qu'll est encore pr~matur~ pour d~cider de l'existence de langues ou de dialectes jud~o-berb~res distincts. D'apr~s les t~moignages de locuteurs jud~o-ber~rophones que nous avons pu consulter, il semble que les parlers juifs fussent tr~ proches des parlers non-juifs A cause notamment des contacts symbiotiques et continus bien que tendus sur Ie plan ~conomique entre les juifs et les populations berb~res environnantes. Sur la d~finition et les

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et l'Anti-Atlas, ont ete monolingues jusqu'au debut du XXe si~cle au moins, ne parlant dans la communaute comme au sein de la famille que du berb~re ou du judeo-berb~re.52 D'autres ont ete ou sont devenues bilingues et utilisaient Ie judeo-arabe comme langue communautaire avec les textes judeo-arabes traditionnels qu'elle comporte et Ie berb~e comme langue de commerce avec les berberophones juifs et non-juifs, et parfois m@me comme langue familiale, les femmes etant souvent monolingues. C'est done la triglossie comportant I'bebreu des textes fondateurs, Ie ber~e ou Ie judeo-berb~re et Ie judeo-arabe, qui caracterise ces derni~ communautes. Contrairement aux pratiques juives generalisees, les communautes exclusivement judeo-berberophones ont developpe des traditions uniquement orales et n'ont pas laisse de textes judeo-berb~res ecrits, A cause semble-t-il des traditions orales constitutives et fondamentales de la culture berb~re en Afrique du Nord. Les seuls textes judeo- berb~res ecnts dont nous disposons actuellement ont ete ecrits a l'instigation de personnes exterieures A la culture communautaire. 53 Leur discours etait done un discours oral avant tout, A l'exception peut-@tre de rares textes exegetiques en bebreu dQs A quelques figures rabbiniques, dont il est d'ailleurs difficile de situer I'origine faute de renseignements autobiographiques. Pendant tr~ longtemps ces communautes judeoberberophones etaient coupees des autres communautes juives du Maroc et n'ont emerge A la conscience juive locale qu'A partir de la fin du XIXe caract~ristiques

distinctives des langues juives, voir Chetrit, "Niveaux, registres

de langue et sociolectes"; J. Chetrit, "Intralingulstique ou Intradogmatique?

Profil d'une revue des langues juives", International Journal oj Sociology oj Language 67-5 (1987):167-92. 52 En dehors des nombreux t6moignages oraux que j'ai pu recueillir sur ces communaut6s, j'ai en ma possession un document manuscrit ~crit en Mbreu au d6but du XXe si~cle par un rabbin originaire du Tafilalet, R. Moshe Maman alias Mbihem, apr~s qu'il eut rendu visite A ces communaut6s et A bien d'autres, et dans lequel il relate que ces communaut~s juives ne parlaient que Ie berb~re. Les ressortissants de ces communaut6s que j'ai pu consulter en Israel, nient cependant que leurs communaut& fussent exclusivement berb6rophones, et de fait ils parlent eux-m8mes Ie jud~o-arabe. Comme pour de nombreuses autres communaut~s aux XIXe et XXe si~cles, il semble que la facilit~ des communications et Ie d6placement plus fr~uent des hommes hors de leur r~gion aient r~cemment rendu ces communaut& bilingues avec leur acquisition du jud~o-arabe. 63 En dehors des textes signal~s dans la note 51 supra, Yehuda Der'i d'Ighil Nogho dans Ie Sous, habitant depuis les ann~es soixante a Ashdod en Israel, vient d'krire pour moi en caract~res Mbra'iques sa traduction de certains passages de la ha&&ada ainsi qu'un long po~me qu'il a eompos~ A mon invitation sur la sainte Solica Hatehuel d~capit~e en 1834 a F~s. Je Ie remercie iei vivement pour ces documents pr6cieux.

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si~c1e. Elles n 'ont done connu aucune influence judeo-espagnole directe, en dehors peut-etre des communautes du Dades parmi lesquelles existait aux XVIe et XVIIe si~les une communautE de megorashim l Tiillin.54

3.3 L'interaction socio-discursive dans Ies commonautes juives du Maroc L'activitE discursive dans ces quatre types de communautes varie en intensitE comme en volume pour ce qui est du discours rabbinique et du discours communautaire officiel en fonction de la tradition communautaire propre, en fonction du nombre de lettres et des traditions d'Etude, en fonction du developpement des reseaux socio-discursifs communautaires et inter-communautaires, et en fonction des rapports instables avec I'environnement non-juif. Les soubassements sociopolitiques et socio-culturels de cette activite discursive sont cependant communs aux diffErentes communautes. lis tiennent pour une part aux conditions socio-politiques de I'existence juive au Maroc, comme dans toute l'Afrique du Nord et tout Ie monde arabo-musulman en fait, aff&entes l la dhimma ou Ie statut de protection ou de tolerance octroye aux juifs par l'Islam et par I'etat islamique, statut auquel sont rattacbees differentes conditions considerees officiellement comme humiliantes. lis concernent d'autre part les dEterminations universelles et locales de l'identite juive au Maroc fondee d'un c6te sur les pratiques orthodoxes et meme pieuses de la vie juive communautaire et familiale et de I'autre sur la diffErentiation religieuse et culturelle par rapport l I'environnement non-juif. Ce sont ces contraintes socio-politiques ainsi que ces stratEgies identitaires qui ont fa~onnE Ie discours juif traditionnel au Maroc et I'ont portEjusqu'l I'irruption de la modernite et meme au-dell.

3.3.1 R£seaux sodo-discursi/s communautaires internes En dehors du discours quotidien ou professionnel de la conversation face-l-face, dont les conditions sont precisees et meme determinees par la situation d'interaction directe et par les interlocuteurs co-presents, Ie discours communautaire tel que nous I'envisageons ici depend de reseaux socio-culturels plus complexes, comportant des elements formels autant qu'informels et des facteurs internes autant qu'externes. Ces reseaux font non seulement circuler Ie discours ou Ie diffusent l partir du destinateur ou des destinateurs reconnus ou habilites par la tradition communautaire jusqu'A ses destinataires directs ou indirects, mais I'alimentent meme souvent, Ie sous-tendent, Ie renforcent ou I'affaiblissent, I'orientent ou 54

cr.

note 39 supra.

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l'inflkhissent en fonction des conditions sociales fix~ par la tradition communautaire. Les r~eaux communautaires internes comprennent tout d'abord les reseaux familiaux de la famille restreinte ou ~largie ou bien des diff~ents clans, r~eaux A l'in~rieur desquels se d~veloppe Ie discours intime avec ses multiples formules et ses vari~~ comme Ie discours enfantin, qui prEsente au Maroc certaines particularit~ morpho-Iexicales, ou bien Ie discours narratif des contes oraux et Ie discours po~tique oral des femmes juives, dont la performance est li~ g~n~ralement A des circonstances ou A des m~onies essentiellement familiales. 55 Ces r~eaux familiaux du discours sont completement domin~ par les configurations linguistiques, unilingues ou plurilingues, des langues juives locales. Ces r~eaux se doublent souvent de r~eaux ~ucatifs et de formation, formels et informels, qui permettent l'interpr~tation du discours quotidien et des discours professionnels ou sp~cialis~, et pour certains locuteurs ou groupes de locuteurs la production meme de tels discours. Pour les femmes et pour une grande partie des hommes, ces r~eaux ~ucatifs ~taient uniquement informels dans toutes les communaut~ avant l'implantation du reseau scolaire de l'A.I.U. (l'Alliance Israelite Universelle) A la fin du XIXe siecle, et d~pendaient pour une large part de l'activit~ discursive familiale avec son corpus textuel ouvert et sans cesse renouvel~, et de son corpus ludique, narratif ou po~tique Ie plus souvent ferm~. Au Maroc comme dans beaucoup d'autres communautes du Proche Orient, l'~ucation juive formelle traditionnelle avait surtout comme objectif d'inculquer aux jeunes garcons de la communaut~ les elements du ritue1 synagogal et familial ainsi qu'une certaine compr~hension de textes bibliques et post-bibliques A travers leur traduction calque en judro-arabe (ou dans la vari~t~ ~uivalene dans d'autres langues juives), donc de former des participants actifs aux services religieux avant tout. 58 Ce n'est que pour une faible minorite d'adolescents que des ~tudes juives plus po~ comprenant une formation ex~getique et talmudique etaient possibles, dans Ie cadre de yeshivot familiales particulierement, dont la tradition s'est d~velopp~ surtout au sein des grandes familles de megorashim. C'est d'ailleurs ce reseau de formation familiale sp~ialis~ 55 Cf. J. Chetrit, "Niveaux, registres de langue et sociolectes"; J. Chetrit, "StratEgies discursives dans la langue des femmes judEo-arabophones du Maroc". 58 Pour l'Education juive traditionnelle au Maroc, voir H. Zafrani, Pedasosie

),live; Id., Mille ans de vie juive au Maroc: Histoire et culture, relision et masie (Paris, 1983); Id., Los judJos del Occidente musulmfln: Al-Andalus y El-Masreb (Madrid, 1994), ainsi que Sh. Deshen, Les Gens du Mel/ah.

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qui est A l'origine des lign~ de rabbins, de dayyanim et de lettrEs ayant fait la renomm~ de ces familles et qui leur a permis de d~tenir la serara, c'est-l-dire la conservation de certains droits et pouvoirs rabbiniques, pendant des si~cles dans les grandes communautEs.57 Comme partout ailleurs, ce rEseau ~ucatif formel formait malgr~ ses d~faillances l'~lite communautaire capable de com prendre Ie discours rabbinique sp~ialis~, de l'interpr~ter et de Ie produire Ie moment venu en fonction des capacitEs et des talents individuels. D'autres r&eaux communautaires, moins r~guliers mais tout aussi portEs sur la formation, la formation juive permanente, fonctionnaient lors des pr~ications de rabbins dans les synagogues ou bien dans certains foyers. Le discours rabbinique pr~icatif est alors aliment~ par les diff&entes formes discursives et les diff~rentes traditions textuelles de la vie juive, et prend la forme d'hom~lies tr~ vari~ ou passent entrem@IEs les multiples mythes fondateurs et formateurs de la tradition juive, les diff&entes formes de l'ex~g~e rabbinique, les narrations paraboliques et allEgoriques, les diff&ents th~mes de l'~thique et de la morale juives, les correspondances et associations d'id~ et d'interpr~tations, Ie tout dans des textes superbement hybrides et accrocheurs. Ce discours homil~tique est sous-tendu par les rEseaux religieux formels de la communaut~, tels que les services religieux A la synagogue et leurs activitEs para -liturgiques ou bien les rencontres publiques dans certains maisons A l'occasion de comm~orations ou de f@tes familiales. 58 A ces activitEs pr~icatives, il faudrait ajouter les diff~rents cercles 57

H. Zafrani, Les jui!s du Maroc; Sh. Deshen, Les Gens du Mellah, pp.

125-61.

Cf. Ie tlimolgnage d'un auditeur enthousiaste sur les prlidications attendues Mekn~s au XXe si~cle: "Alors commen~lt une homlilie d'un genre particulier. Au dlipart, un simple verset, choisi dans la section qui avait litli lue Ie matin meme dans Ie Slipher Tora. Pour en faire I'exlig~se, Ie savant orateur s'appuyait d'abord sur Rachi. Puis il dliveloppait, sur Ie ton de I 'lividence , des considlirations auxquelles je ne comprenais rien, jonglant avec les lettres de certains mots, soit pour les transformer en chiffres qu'il comparait A d'autres chiffres obtenus de la meme fa~n, soit pour en faire I'initiale de mots nouveaux, qui se rlivlilaient particuli~rement charglis de significations. Apr~s quoi il abandonnait les hauteurs de la speculation et se faisait plus accessible. Plus familier aussi, et franchement drale par moments. Anecdotes, paraboles se multipliaient [ .... J Mais, au fur et A mesure que I'on approchait de la fin, la voix redevenait grave. Le propos se chargeait d'un nombre croissant de citations bibliques et talmudiques qui, A peine identifilles, litaient reprises en ch~ur par la plupart des auditeurs, ravis d'avoir I'occasion de donner la rliplique au maitre. Et Ie discours s'achevait, dans un silence plein de ferveur, sur quelque radieuse livocation des temps messianiques. Je sortais de lA litourdi, grisli d'une science toute neuve, et heureux.· M. 58

de R. Yosef Messas, une grande figure rabbinique de

Tradition du Discours et Dlscours de la Tradition

373

ou de lecture, talmudiques ou kabbalistiques, qui ~taient I'apanage de quelques groupes de privil~gi& dans les diff&entes communaut& et qui sous-tendaient un discours ex~g~tique ou ~thique p~gogique tres intense.

d'~tude

3.3.2 Reseaux socio-discursi/s mixtes D'autres r&eaux socio-discursifs mettant en jeu des facteurs aussi bien internes qu'externes se d~ploient dans les communaut& juives pour assurer une vie juive conforme aux r~les de la halakha et aux principes de la jurisprudence rabbinique. Ces r&eaux comprennent d'abord toute I'infra-structure jurdiciaire de la communaut~ avec ses institutions comme Ie bet din ou tribunal rabbinique et Ie ma'amad ou assembl~ de notables communautaires pouvant edicter des taqqanot, ses agents comme les dayyanim, Ie 'a" bet din ou pr&ident du tribunnal et ses so/rim ou saibes, et ses correspondants sp~ialistes r&idant dans d'autres communaut& du Maroc ou du monde juif, sollicit& pour donner leurs avis sur des questions halakhiques en litige sous forme de responsa, ainsi que ses textes formulaires, sans oublier bien sUr les multiples incidents et ~v~ements de la vie communautaire requ~rant Ie d~ploiement et la production du discours juridique. Ce r&eau judiciaire, dont nous ferons plus loin I'analyse plus d~taill~, est sous-tendu presqu'exclusivement par la langue rabbinique officielle, A savoir I'h~breu rabbinique truff~ de formules aram~nes, A I'exception de quelques citations de t~moignages qui reproduisent en carac~res Mbra'iques les dires authentiques en langue juive ou autre de personnes mel~ AI'affaire d~battue. Quant aux autres r&eaux communautaires devant normalement prendre en charge la production intellectuelle des rabbins et lettr& et sa diffusion dans la communaut~ ou les communaut& avoisinantes, I'absence de I'imprimerie MbraIque au Maroc pratiquement jusqu'A la fin du XIXe si~cle a plac~ cette fraction du discours rabbinique, la cr~tion exEg~tique, halakhique, homil~tique ou kabbalistique, dans une situation !res pr~ire et en faisait b~n~ficier quelques proches ou privil~gi& seulement. qui pouvaient consulter les manuscrits, les recopier ou en devenir possesseurs. Avant Ie XXe si~cle, sur les nombreuses centaines et peut-eue meme les milliers d'ouvrages ou d'opuscules ~rits par des lettrEs marocains seuls quelques dizaines ont pu etre imprim& en Europe Ie plus souvent apres la mort de leurs auteurs. 59 Certains sont rest& A BEnabou. Jacob, ~nahem et Mimoun. Une ipo~e jamiliale (Paris, 1995), p. 208. Voir la biographie de R. Yosef Messas (Mekn~s 1892 - Haifa 1976) dans H. Zafrani, Pidagogie juive, pp. 117-44. 58 Voir par exemple la liste bibliographique dress~e par Y. Benaim, Malkhei Rabanam, dans la rubrique Kevod Melakhim.

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l'Etat de manuscrits et peuvent etre consultEs de nos jours dans des biblioth~ues publiques. D'autres, la plupart sans doute, ont Etc! detruits par Ie feu, l'humiditc! et les rongeurs. eo D'autres rEseaux socio-discursifs mixtes concernent l'activite discursive qui s'est developpee dans les communautes avec l'environnement non-juif, A commencer par les divers patrons ou protecteurs patentEs de la communaute ou de la famille, comme Ie sultan ou ses representants locaux ou bien les chefs de tribus berberes. Ces rEseaux mEdiateurs contraignaient souvent les locuteurs juifs A utiliser des formes phonEtico-lexicales et des formules d'adresse arabo-musulmanes A la place de leurs elements judeo-arabes naturels soit pour marquer leur Etat d'inferioritc! en face du protecteur soit pour signifier Ie cara~e socio-discursif mixte de I'interaction. De meme, pour commercer avec leurs clients ou leurs fournisseurs musulmans, les marchands et colporteurs juifs etaient dans l'obligation d'apprendre Ie berbere sous ses differents dialectes tribaux, quand leur langue communautaire etait Ie judeo-arabe ou bien Ie judeo-espagnol meme dans Ie nord. Des rEseaux similaires concernent aussi certains lettrEs musulmans qui, intriguEs par les pratiques et les croyances juives, provoquaient ou convoquaient des discussions avec des rabbins et lettrEs juifs, notamment sur les vertus et les attributs du messie juif et la foi messianique en general, rencontres qui toumaient tres souvent A la polEmique et Ala frustration. 81 Ce sont de tels reseaux mixtes qui ont contribue A la formation des diffErentes langues secretes juives utilisees par les commer~nts, les artisans et les colporteurs juifs pour camoufler certaines significations en presence de clients non-juifs ou de simples co-Iocuteurs, Ie plus souvent meme aux depens de ces derniers. Dans les communautEs judeo-arabophones, ces langues secretes portaient une syntaxe et une phonetique judeo-arabes et un lexique hebra'ique tres riche, dont les eo Cf. J. Avivi Manuscrits des jui/s du Maghreb et J. Tedghi, Le Livre et l'imprimerie h~brai'que ans. 81 Sur ces discussions pol~miques, cf. D. Manor, Exi/ et r~demption dans /a pens~e des rabbins marocains aux XV/le-XVII/e si~cles [en Mbreul (Lod, 1985), pp. 51-75, ainsi que J. Chetrit, "The Hebrew Poetry in Morocco", pp. 195-97. Dans l'introduction d'un ouvrage kabbalistique ~crit au XVle si~cle dans Ie Drb et ~tenu par R. Moshe Amar de l'Universit~ Bar-Han, il est relat~ que Ie potentat musulman local avait r~uni au d6but de ce si~cle dans son palais un groupe de soufis arabes et un groupe de lettr6s juifs, y compris I'auteur de I 'ouvrage , pour une discussion sur des sujets mystiques int~ressant l'Islam et Ie judaisme. La rencontre aurait dur~ une dizaine de jours.

Tradition du Discours et Discours de Ia Tradition

formes souvent hybrides camouflage,82

participent des

diff~rentes

375 strat~gies

de

3.3.3 Les strategies identitaires du discours juif traditionnel Tous ces

socio-discursifs sont eux-m@mes sous-tendus et leur d~loiement orien~ par les stra~gies fonda trices de l'identi~ juive communautaire et ses options majeures en ce qui conceme les r~gles ~iques et Morales juives r~issant les conduites individuelles et sociales, familiales ou publiques, les modes de croyance et de pensre gouvem& par Ia foi fervente et la tradition juive avec ses enseignements superpos~, les modes de vie d~termin~ par les pr~eptes de la loi juive et par les conditions socio-culturelles et socio-~nomiques de l'environnement, et enfin les modes de repr~entation de l'univers et de l'existence juive a travers les diff~rents types de discours institu~ par la tradition communautaire ou par les usages universels. Dans ce demier domaine, la soci~ juive diasporique a toujours r~erv~ une place privil~ire aux representations et aux activi~ discursives, ex~g~tiques et interpr~tatives notamment mais aussi juridiques et ~thiques, pla~nt les textes fondateurs et les ~v~nements fondateurs de la culture juive orthodoxe a la source d'une intense activi~ herm~eutique et au centre de la vie liturgique et para-Iiturgique. De m@me, au Maroc comme dans toute l'Afrique du Nord. la cr&tion p~tique en hebreu et dans les langues juives locales a Mis au centre de ses prooccupations th~matiques les images contrast~ du temps juif, actualisant sans cesse les images du pass~ juif idyllique puis tragique, brossant un tableau sombre et tourmen~ du pr~ent diasporique et banalisant continfunent la vision messianique de l'identi~ juive traditionnelle. C'est cette vaste production discursive communautaire ba!ree sur l'all~geance permanente au Dieu d'Israel et a la Tora, sur des tentatives sans cesse renouvel~ de percer leurs secrets et sur la fid~li~ au ~ juif garant de l'avenir promis, qui a aliment~ tous les r~eaux socio-discursifs publics et priv~. Pour hypostasier et mieux affirmer cette identi~ du souvenir, de la foi et de Ia loi, c'est l'ethos de la diff~rentiation religieuse et existentielle qui a ~~ aussi cultiv~ par la tradition orthodoxe a l'~gard de l'environnement non-juif, dans les diff~rents domaines de la vie juive pouvant pr@ter a I'assimilation ou seulement a la confusion. 82

r~eaux

cr. J. Chetrit, "Formes et structures du mixage linguistique dans Ies

langues

secr~tes juives du Maroc", in Actes des premieres journees internationales de dialect%gie arabe de Paris, 6d. D. Caubet et M. Vanhove (Paris, 1994), pp. 520-30.

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Joseph Chetrit

Cette diff~rentiation intentionnelle et consciente, qui se fonde sur Ie pr6:epte biblique: "Tu ne te comporteras pas comme eux" (Exode xxm, 24). concerne tous les aspects de la vie quotidienne et de la foi, A commencer par la d~limitation du territoire et de l'espace religieux pour les besoins du eru" permettant Ie transport d'objets pendant Ie shabbat et les jours des grandes fetes, en passant par les r~gles d'hygi~ne, de la table et du vetement.63 Pour mieux se pr~unir contre les dangers ~ventuels de la proximit~ avec les non-juifs, cette strat~gie de la diff~rentiation a ~t~ accompagn~ d'une condescendance et souvent meme d'un m~pris envers I'autre, les goyim ou gentils en g~n~ral, lesquels ont d'ailleurs rendu si bien Ie sentiment aux communaut~ juives et A leurs membres pour des raisons similaires entre autres. Toutefois, loin que cet enfermement proclam~ sur soi et sur ses valeurs conduistt A la r~clusion totale et A la coupure ~finitive de l'environnement non-juif, c'est au contraire un syncr~tisme inconscient de valeurs et de conduites non-juives qui se produisit dans diff&ents domaines. C'est que la d~pendance economique et politique vitale a l'~gard de la soci~t~ non-juive environnante et de ses dirigeants ainsi que la fr~uentation durable des clients non-juifs ne pouvaient qu'encourager, comme nous l'avons vu, des interf~rences imperceptibles au d~art de valeurs et de conduites non-juives dans les modes de vie et de pens~ communautaires, A commencer par la langue vernaculaire locale servant l'interaction quotidienne avec les voisins ou les clients non-juifs, y compris ses textes oraux A la tMmatique humaine et universelle. Cependant, d~ lors que ces interf~rences s'ancrent dans la tradition communautaire et deviennent par la suite des va leurs constitutives de cette tradition pour quelque groupe ou fraction que ce soit, ces emprunts subissent eux aussi la loi de la diff~rentiation et se d~veloppent ou s'in~rent dans des sch~mes socio-culturels juifs reconnus. C'est IA l'origine de la juda"isation des langues et dialectes non-juifs voisins selon des traits aussi bien pragmatiques que phon~tiques et lexicaux, qui a abouti aux langues juives ou aux dialectes juifs communautaires. C'est de IA aussi que provient semble-t-it la longue tradition des traductions calques des 63 Sur 1a mise en pratique de ces strategies de differentiation dans une communaute juive nord-africaine. celle de Jerba. voir A. L. Udovitch et L. Valensi, "Etre Juif ~ Djerba". in Communaut~s juives des marges sahariennes. ed. M. Abitbol (Jerusalem. 1982). pp. 199-225; A. L. Udovitch and L. Valensi, The Last Arab Jews. The Communities oj Djerba. Tunisia (ChurParis-london-New York. 1984).

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377

textes bibliques ou para-liturgiques 0\:1 Ie texte judeo-arabe (ou judEo-espagnol ou bien judeo-berb~re, tout comme dans d'autres langues juives) du sharlJ. garde theoriquement la syotaxe et la smantique h6bra."iques du texte original (bien souvent par Ie truchement de la traduction aram6enne interm6diaire) sous Ie couvert d'un lexique et de formes grammaticales arabes locales. 64 Des proc6d& de s6lection et d'adaptation ont de m@me 616 utilis& dans l'in16gration des tr~ nombreux textes po6tiques et narratifs ou bien des milliers de proverbes et dictons emprunt& dans les diff6rentes communaut& A la litt6rature orale arabo-musulmane, de fa~n A r6duire Ie plus possible leur charge s6rnantique originelle porteuse de valeurs et de symboles islamiques. C'est cette volont6 active de fid6lit6 aux valeurs orthodoxes du juda"isme et de diffuentiation proclam6e et cultiv6e qui investit tout particuli~rement Ie discours rabbinique des communaut& juives du Maroc dans ses diffuentes manifestations textuelles et dans ses tentatives de construction des images repr&entatives des univers juifs et de l'univers en

g6n&a1. 4 Les fondements du discours rabbinique au Maroc 4.1 Lea strat~gies du discours rabbinique.

Le discours rabbinique est Ie discours produit par 1'6lite lettr6e de la communaut6 traditionnelle A l'intention de pairs ou de l'ensemble de la communau16. n est sous-tendu par l'organisation socio-culturelle de la soci6t6 juive traditionnelle, laquelle porte comme id&l la connaissance parfaite de la Tora, son ex6g~e continue et son exploitation judicieuse pour des besoins juridiques et 6thiques. C'est ce discours qui alimente donc les diff6rents r&eaux socio-discursifs communautaires, lesquels vont promouvoir cet id&l et s'appliquer A Ie r&liser dans la vie communautaire quotidienne. De par son institutionalisation par la tradition communautaire comme discours officiel, d'inspiration divine, Ie discours rabbinique se trouve auto-16gitim6 et m@me sacralis6, A la condition importante toutefois que Ie discours produit par tel ou tel locuteur ou auteur rabbin ou lettr6 rot B4 Sur les structures calques de la langue tradition neUe de traduction, voir H. Zafrani. Pedasot,ie Juive; J. Chetrit, "Niveaux, registres de langue et sociolectes"; J. Chetrit, "Mutations in the Discourse and the Judeo-Arabic of the North-African Jewry at the End of the XIXth Century"; M. Bar-Asher, "The Shar~ of the Maghreb: Judeo-Arabic Exegesis of the Bible and other Jewish Literature - Its Nature and Formulation", in Studies in Jewish lansuases. Bible Translations and Spoken Dialects, ed. M. Bar-Asher (Jerusalem, 1988).

378

Joseph Chetrit

reconnu pr~lablement par un maitre, done avali~ et autoris~ par un pair formateur ou par des pairs approbateurs. C'est dire que ce discours exige pour sa performance comme pour sa diffusion des garanties de savoir minimal dans les textes fondateurs et leur ex~g~e, de respect strict a la tradition rabbinique et a ses m~thodes d'interpr~tation, et de conformite entre les orientations du discours et les conduites morales et quotidiennes de son auteur. n est done ins~parable d'une censure communautaire, permanente et informelle mais non moins contraignante, gm~ratrice d'une auto-censure consciente ou bien surtout inconsciente. Consid~r~ par 1a communaut~ comme Ie d~tenteur de ses valeurs supremes, ce discours exerce }~gitimement a son tour une censure permanente sur tous Ies autres types de discours communautaires et, suivant Ie pouvoir dont il veut user a chaque occasion, fustige ou meme interdit Ies discours non-conformes a }'orthodoxie rabbinique avec Ia possibili~ notamment de jeter I'anath~me sur les r~Icitrants sous forme d'excommunication.85 Le discours rabbinique est tr~ diversifi~ bien que ses vari~~ ressortissent aux memes fondements idoologico-religieux que nous analyserons ci-apr~. Ses orientations textuelles de prMilection portent sur l'~~g~e des textes fondateurs, sur l'~tablissement raisonn~ de Ia r~gle halakhique dans Ie domaine juridique, sur Ies n~si~ Mucatives et ~thiques de la vie juive, sur la pr&entation homi1~tique des enseignements destin& a la masse communautaire et plus particuli~rement aux hommes de la communaut~, sur les repr&entations mystiques voire kabbalistiques de l'existence juive orthodoxe et son rapport au divin, sur Ia reconstitution ~loree d'~v~nements ou de trag~dies communautaires, sur I'adresse de requetes a des pairs ainsi que sur Ia c~I~bration po~tique du temps juif et de ses images contrast~. Le discours rabbinique comporte done respectivement Ies vari~t& suivantes: Ie discours ex~g~tique, Ie discours juridique, Ie discours ~thique, Ie discours homil~tique, Ie discours mystique, Ie discours historique, Ie discours ~pistolaire et Ie discours ~tique. Tr~ souvent, ces diff~rentes orientations du discours se 85 Avant cette irruption de la modernit~ au Maroc, nous n 'avons pas connaissance que cette censure ait eu a s~vir contre des rabbins ou lettr6s non-conformistes. La situation a chang~ avec I 'apparition de nouveaux modes modernistes d'ex~g~se, quand iI fallait remettre les audacieux a leur place et Eviter des d~passements. Cependant en comparaison de I' Alg~rie et de la Tunisie, ob des pol~miques virulentes s'~taient enflamm~es a la fin du XIXe si~cle et au dEbut du XXe entre rabbins de tendances diff6rentes, de tels cas ont Et6 tr~s rares au Maroc, a cause notamment de I'importance num~rique du corps rabbinique et de ses traditions continues d'6tude et de formation qui n'ont pas ~t~ sErieusement secouEes par Ie vent moderniste.

Tradition du Discours et Discours de la Tradition

379

retrouvent A la fois dans Ie m@me texte et s'inter¢n~trent au point de se dissoudre les unes dans les autres. Ce qui distingue une variete de I'autre n'est alors Ie plus souvent qu'une affaire de proportion ou de degre selon les buts vises par Ie discours dans Ie contexte socio-discursif de sa production. C'est ainsi que Ie discours juridique se reconnait aux visees pratiques de son argumentation, Ie discours exegetique A son argumentation meta -textuelle, Ie discours ethique A ses visees edificatrices et moralisantes, Ie discours homiletique A ses formes hybrides et associatives, Ie discours mystique A son obsession du divin et A ses manipulations sephirotiques, Ie discours epistolaire A ses accents personnels et Ie discours poetique A son obsession du temps cyclique juif, Ie temps du calendrier et de la vie juive comme Ie temps historique A dessein messianique. Dans ce qui va suivre, nous essayerons d'abord de caracteriser les fondements semantico-pragmatiques du discours rabbinique en general, puis nous accorderons une attention plus particuli~e A deux de ses varietes: Ie discours exegetique tr~ diversifie et Ie discours juridique total. Comme nous I'avons dejA annonce, nous ne ferons que mentionner au passage Ie discours poetique, Ie discours homiletique hybride, Ie discours mystique et kabbalistique et Ie discours historique et epistolaire des auteurs judeo-marocains, dont les reuvres maitresses dans ces deux derniers domaines sont maintenant disponibles au chercheur.88 4.2 Lesfondements slmantico-pragmatiques du discours rabbinique De par sa fonction directive eminente dans la vie des communautes, Ie discours rabbinique est Ie discours de I'interpretation continue de la tradition juive orthodoxe ainsi que de la presentation et de I'inculcation de cette tradition aux membres de la communaute. II tire donc ses fondements de cette tradition m@me, dont Ie respect par la communaute n'est pas Mis en doute ni sujet A caution mais au contra ire pieusement assume et mSme revendique, ce qui renforce encore plus l'autorite autoproclamee du discours rabbinique, laquelle provient de I'origine divine reconnue a la Tora et A sa transmission de generation en generation. S7 68 Pour les ceuvres kabbalistiques, cf. H. Zafrani, Kabbale, vie mystique et masie; id, Ethique et mystique; R. Eli'or, "Les Kabbalistes du Draa"; D. Manor, Kabbale et ethique au Maroc; id., Exil et redemption; ainsi que M. Hallamish, "The Kabbalists In Morocco" [en Mbreu), East and Maghreb II (1980), pp. 205-34. Pour les textes historiques voir M. Benayahu (ed.), History oj Fe~ [en hEbreu] (Tel-Aviv, 1993). fn Cf. par exemple ce qu'Ecrit R. Raphael Berdugo dans I'un de ses Responsa (R. Berdugo, Mishpatim Yesharim - She'elot u-Tesuvot (Krakau, 1891), p. 12a):

380

Joseph Chetrit

Dans la mise en application de cette autorit~ et de cette I~itimi~ de caractere transcendant, Ie discours rabbinique interroge sans cesse les fondements de la tradition juive et ses textes, les interprete et les manipule en fonction des regles herm~neutiques consacr~. n Ie fait entre autres pour g&er ce qui est consid~r~ comme les accidents de la vie juive, puisque au regard des vertus ~ternelles de la Tora et de ses enseignements dYBEs une fois pour toutes sur Ie Mont Sinai, les faits sociaux nouveaux ou les ~v~nements socio-historiques malmenant la communau~ ne sont que des ~pisodes entrant dans les schemes pr~~tablis et pr~vus par les textes sacrEs.B8 Par rapport a la vie sociale dans Ie cadre de la communaut~, les stra~gies majeures de ce discours sont donc de rapporter continfunent la nouveau~ aux schemes et aux structures de I'ancien, de consid~rer les diff~rents d~veloppements de la vie sociale juive ou de la vie politique, interne ou externe, de la communaut~ comme inscrits dans les rouages de la tradition, et de stipuler que la seule interpr~tation ad~uate des textes et des faits anciens est capable de rEsoudre ou d'abolir les contradictions qui pourraient effleurer la conscience. Ce sont ces fondements tant id~logiques qu'herm~neutiques du discours rabbinique dans les communaut~ juives du Maroc qu'il s'agit de prEsenter a pr~ent. 4.2.1 Lesfondements ido%gico-religiewc. I.e discours rabbinique se ronde sur un melange inextricable de croyances

religieuses Ii~ a la foi monoth~iste la plus d~incarn~ et a la mise en pratique premiere de ses principes et doctrines dans la totalit~ des situations quotidiennes, de positions arret~ sur Ie destin incomparable du peuple juif et de son histoire a dessein cyclique, et de convictions profondes sur l'exigence interpr~tative ou ex~gEtique continue des textes fondateurs et des textes continuateurs. Dans ce corps de croyances et de doctrines, les fondements strictement religieux sont insEparables des points de vue culturels plus larges, ce qui imprime au discours rabbinique un caractere id~logique prononc~, dont les ~l~ments de base sont: •• Ia reconnaissance des fondements orthodoxes de la religion juive et I'observance de ses pratiques couvrant la totalitE de la vie juive communautaire ou individuelle, d'ou les pr~ccupations juridiques et exEgEdques ininterrompues du discours; b. la diffErentiation pr6n~ et cultiv~ par rapport aux communaut~ "Je me mettrai lies tirer au clair [=Ies doutes dans un tEmoignage] selon les instructions qu'on me donnera du ciel", sans que ce fat une clause de style. B8 Cf. H. Zafrani, Les Jui!s du Maroc, pp. 2-23.

Tradition du Discours et Discours de 1a Tradition

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non-juives voisines, par rapport aux 'gentils', A tous les niveaux de la vie sociale et de ses implications symboliques, avec un fort sentiment de sup6iorite eu ~ard aux valeurs et conduites non-juives; c. la vision catastrophique de la vie juive en diaspora avec ses moments privilEgi~ du shabbat, des grandes fetes et des jours redoutables, vision sans cesse r&ctualis~ par l'ins~urit~ et l'arbitraire qui ~taient Ie lot courant de communaut& ou d'individus jusqu'au d~but du XXe siecle; d.la croyance ferme en la r~aration messianique du statut socio-politique juif p~ire en diaspora, r&ultat d'un chatiment divin, consid&~ comme provisoire malgr~ sa longue dur~, et la centralit~ de J~rusalem avec la reconstruction rev~ du Temple comme symboles de cette rMemption; e. la formation permanente des masses masculines pour une vie pieuse, regl~ par les exigences tr~ strictes du calendrier h~braYque ainsi que par la vie communautaire autonome sinon autarcique et par les devoirs de la solidarite juive et de sa gestion par l'organisation des r&eaux de la bienfaisance. Bien que ces principes fondateurs forment les soubassements permanents et unanimement reconnus du discours rabbinique, its n'en sont pas moins r~~t& et meme ressass& dans toutes les varil~t~ discursives et dans les multiples textes qu'elles ont suscit~. Ce besoin d'explicitation ininterrompue des fondements provient sans doute de la n~ite d'indoctrination et de formation permanente qui anime Ie discours rabbinique.

4.2.2 Les contraintes de J'ethos communautaire. Dans ce discours ~minemment doctrinaire, la place de l'individu juif d6c0ule d'une part de ses devoirs religieux et sociaux pran~ par la Tora et ses enseignements et de l'autre de son statut de membre de droit dans la communaute juive, la seule instance A etre reconnue par l'etat islamique en tant qu'ensemble regroupant les croyants et les fideles juifs. C'est donc la communaute en tant qu'organisme officiel et en tant qu'agence supreme pour l'ensemble des activit& juives qui est mise au centre des consi~rations et des pr~upations tant g~n~rales que particulieres dans Ie discours rabbinique. Cette vision communautaire aussi bien interne qu'externe de l'identit~ juive en terre d'Islam, comme d'ailleurs partout ailleurs avant l'~mancipation, laisse peu de place aux droits de l'individu juif qui violeraient ce statut religieux et socio-politique ou seraient en contradiction avec lui. L'all~geance communautaire sur Ie plan de l'appartenance et de l'identification comme sur Ie plan du strict respect des devoirs juifs qui en d~oulent devient alors un imp&atif

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incontournable pour tout individu juif, et Ie chitiment d'excommunication pouvant @tre arr@~ par les autorit& rabbiniques de la communaute est IA pour sanctionner cette allegeance et la rendre operatoire. Par suite de I'autarcie communautaire, cette allegeance prend m@me la forme d'un patriotisme local formateur d'identi~ et de personnalite, l'origine communautaire continuant d'accompagner l'individu ou la famille bien des annees, des dizaines d'annees m@me, apr~ avoir quit~ leur communaute et s'@tre installes dans une autre communaute. 69 C'est dire que les analyses avancees par certains en ce qui concerne les tendances individualistes et fragmentaires de la socie~ juive au Maroc, epousant en cela des tendances similaires dans la societe musulmane voisine, ne proviennent pas en fait des structures socio-politiques propres aux communaut& judeo-marocaines ni de structures mentales specifiques, mais plutot du manque de traditions bureaucratiques regulatrices, formalisees et reconnues, dans ces communaut&. 70 Au Maroc, la vie communautaire avec ses differents reseaux etait traditionnellement basee sur Ie benevolat et l'esprit de solidari~ qui l'anime ainsi que sur l'esprit d'initiative et les ambitions personnelles de certains membres, avec les traditions familiales qui les guidaient. Les emportements sporadiques de certains membres de la communaute A l'occasion de telle ou telle ceremonie, marquant par IA leur forte personnali~ ou leur individualisme froisse, l'esprit critique dont d'autres ont pu faire montre A l'egard de certains de leurs pairs, ou bien m@me les tentatives de certains de se soustraire au devoir de payer l'impot communautaire, ne constituent aucunement une orientation individualiste de l'esprit communautaire ni du discours qui en decoule, mais proviennent tout simplement du cara~e diffus des institutions communautaires. Dans leur fonction de repartition du 'capital symbolique' communautaire, les institutions B9 Cf. Sh. Deshen, Les sens du Mellah, pp. 81-82. Dans Ie cadre de mes enqu8tes sur Ie terrain aupr~s des originaires des diff~rentes communaut~s install&! en Israel ou demeurant encore au Maroc, ce patriotisme local s'av~re 8tre encore trM vivace de nos jours. Pourrait en t~moigner Ie cas exemplaire de tel directeur d'~cole Sg~ de 73 ans qui, ayant quitt~ Mogador (Essaouira) avec ses parents ~ I'Sge de 7 ans pour Marrakech ou il r~side encore, se d~clare mogadorien et non marrakchi et fier de 1'8tre rest~. A certaines ~poques d'ailleurs, des questions ont mame ~t~ adress~es ~ des rabbins renomm~s pour sauvegarder les droits des membres reconnus de telle ou telle communaut~ contre les prejudices que leur causait I'installation d'originaires d'autres communaut~s. 70 Voir ~ ce sujet les th~ses ~mises dans Sh. Deshen, Les sens du Mellah, pp. 89-91 et 176-78 et 1d., ·Communal and Individual Interactions in Nineteenth Century Moroccan Jewry·, in Studies In Islamic and Judaic Traditions 2, ed. W. BrinnerandS. Ricks (Atlanta, GA, 1989), pp. 143-55.

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jud&>-marocaines traditionnelles n'ont pas su rationaliser ni formaliser les regles de cette distribution, laissant Ie champ libre aux deux oligarchies qui ont dirig~ depuis Ie moyen-ige les destin~ des communaut~ marocaines, I'oligarchie rabbinique d'une part et I'oligarchie marchande de l'autre, et comptant sur les bonnes volon~ assurees ou sur les ambitions - parfois pertubatrices - de certains de leurs chefs ou de leurs membres. Pour les personnes qui auraient tenu A affirmer leur individualisme en dehors des limites fix~ ou tol~r~ par la tradition communautaire, ces tentatives ne pouvaient @tre que des vell~it~, que les rappels A l'ordre et les contingences du statut communautaire arrivaient tres souvent a dissiper ou a d~ourager. Quant aux r~calcitrants tenaces qui auraient ten~ d'~happer a cette condition, une seule issue leur ~tait g~n~alement offerte, la s~paration de la communaut~, ce qui se traduisait parfois par la conversion A l'Islam.71 Cet ethos communautaire fondamental des locuteurs rabbiniques, comme des autres locuteurs communautaires d'ailleurs, ressort mieux encore des comparaisons explicites ou implicites des pratiques juives avec celles des non-juifs et de leur condamnation, pour mieux affirmer et asseoir la diff~rentiation non-ambigue de l'identi~ juive. Cette presentation de l'environnement non-juif se trouve plus dichotomis~ encore dans les contextes ou sont ~voq~ les relations tendues entre juifs et musulmans et entre Ie juda"isme et l'Islam, dans Ie discours historique des chroniques ou dans Ie discours po~tique. Dans les textes qui en font mention, cette diff~rentiation prend souvent les formes pronominales opposant la premiere personne du pluriel identitaire et solidaire ('nous') a la troisieme personne du pluriel de I'al~rit~ ('eux'). Elle se sert aussi de dmominations collectives contrastives pour la communaut~, comme 'Yisra'el' ou bien "adat ha-shem' (Ia communaut~ de Dieu) et d'autres dmominations avec r~f~rence directe, A la deuxieme personne, aDieu, et pour les non-juifs de d~nominations traditionnelles d'origine biblique 71 Pour certaines personnes jud~o-marocaines, hommes et femmes, dont Ie nombre ne saurait ~tre estim~ de nos jours faute de documents et de t~moignages en nombre suffisant, la conversion ~ l'Islam a ~t~ de tout temps Ie principal moyen d'~chapper au carcan communautaire et au carcan familial. En dehors des conversions forrees en ~riode d'agitation, les conversions massives de familles ou d'individus ~ l'Islam ~taient fr~quentes lors de longues p~riodes de disette ou de crises ~conomiques particuli~rement graves, dans les grandes communaut~s urbaines comme dans les petites communaut~s rurales. Sur la conversion d'une femme aux mC2urs l~g~res ~ Mekn~s ~ la fin du XVlIIe si~cle voir J. Chetrit, "The Personal and Socio-Historical Poetry of R. Shelomo Halewa", pp. 77-79. Sur d'autres cas de conversion voir Sh. Deshen, Les gens du Mellah, pp. 75-77.

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comme 'Yishma'el' et 'Qedar' ou bien talmudique comme 'ha-'areUm' les non-circoncis), 'ha-noxrim' (les ~trangers) et 'ha-goyim' (les gentils) par exemple. En dehors de ces besoins d'affirmation et de distanciation, Ie locuteur du discours rabbinique s'efface g~n~ralement dans son ~nonciation en raison du carac~re atemporel et apersonnel d~lar~ de ses stipulations ~~tiques ou juridiques, Ie m~ta-texte ou l'argumentation ne d~pendant pas en principe de son entendement ou de sa cr~tion mais, comme nous l'avons no~, d'une inspiration d'ordre divin ou bien s'inscrivant dans une perpetuelle tradition qui d~passe les personnes et les g~n~ations. Tres souvent, la premi~re personne invoqu~e dans Ie discours juridique ou ex~~tique ne sert qu'a marquer des actes techniques accomplis par Ie locuteur au cours de sa recherche ou de son questionnement et non la source responsable ou l'inventeur de sa propre ~onciation. ~n~ale­ ment, ce 'moi' marque surtout la position personnelle de l'auteur face aux diff~ts points de vue ~voqu& ou aux diff~rentes sources ci~ au cours de son investigation juridique. Ce n'est que dans Ie discours ~pistolaire de pair a pair que la premiere personne du locuteur concern~ et responsable en tant qu'origine de ses dires reprend ses droits, accompagn~ d'ailleurs de toutes les marques de d«~ce formulaires qui s'attachent traditionnellement a la deuxieme personne, la personne du destinataire sollici~ ou sollicitant, et avec les marques non moins traditionnelles d'humilit~ et d'ignorance feinte qui accentuent cette pr&entation de soi. Parfois meme, dans des cas de pol~ique rabbinique particulierement, c'est Ie 'moi' personnel et individuel, recouvrant les droits et les acquis de toute personne humaine, et de la personne humaine selon de la tradition juive en particulier, qui est mis a l'avant de la sc~ne discursive et qui s'exprime haut et ferme. Le 'moi' rabbinique reprend alors toute son enveloppe de sentiments euphoriques et dysphoriques, de pulsions, de blessures, d'attitudes arretEes, de mesquinerie, de g~n~osit~, de contradictions, d'h&itations et de tournures d'esprit, lesquels sont souvent voil& dans Ie discours officiel par les roles communautaires de ce 'moi' et leurs r&eaux psychosociaux.72 C'est ce 'moi' Iyrique et total qui s'exprime aussi dans un grand nombre de pi~es po~tiques de facture personnelle ou communautaire, et particulierement dans les centaines de qinot ou ~l~ies qui ont ~t~ 72 Voir par exemple la pol~mique violente qui a oppos~ en 1704 R. Ya'aqov Aben Sur de F~s l R. Shemu'el Zaoui de Sal~ et les textes du premier dans D. Ovadia, Fas Va-Hakhameiha, 2, pp. 261-79. Sur I'auteur et son c:euvre juridique immense, voir M·. Amar, "A Biography of R. Jacob ben Tsur (Yaavets)" [en Mbreul, East and Maghreb 3 (1981): 89-123.

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compos~ au Maroc durant la p~riode qui nous in~esse ici A la suite de malheurs nationaux, communautaires ou familiaux. Dans Ie discours po~tique par ailleurs, c'est une autre dimension du moi rabbinique qui se construit, A savoir Ie moi porte-parole, li~ aux images dysphoriques du temps et de l'espace de l'exil et au role directif et done repr&entatif que Ie po~te rabbin ou lettr~ assume dans son texte. Ce 'moi', indiqu~ Ie plus souvent par la premi~e personne du singuiier, ne d&igne alors aucunement l'auteur du texte mais l'ensemble de la communaut~ ou m@me l'ensemble des communaut~ juives, l'auteur ne faisant que s'~plorer ou louer les bienfaits incommensurables de Dieu au nom de ceux qui l'ont investi de sa fonction ou qui lui ont permis de s'exprimer p~tiquement sur des sujets concernant l'ensemble de la communaut~. L 'ambiguit~ portant habituellement sur cette fonction de porte-parole est loin d'ailleurs d'@tre abolie dans ce discours rabbinique. La repr~entation communautaire invoqu~e par cet emploi du 'moi', effectivement attrib~ au locuteur po~te, se double en fait d'un pouvoir et d'une autori~ l~itim& sur les destin~ de la communau~, puisque presque tous les po~tes d~tenaient d'autres fonctions officielles A la t@te de la communaut~, et n'est parfois qu'un signe d'humili~, feinte ou sinc~re, exig~ par la tradition du discours et les lois de la Tora. 73 D'autre part, la pr~valence d~lar~ et cultiv~ des sch~mes traditionnels pour la r~orption de contradictions apparentes, l'interpr~tation de faits ou de pMnom~nes nouveaux ainsi que la solution de probl~mes nouveaux, ne peuvent que se traduire par la sollicitation permanente des textes anciens et des textes ult~rieurs, et particuli~ement des textes bibliques et des textes talmudiques, ces demiers ~tant consi~r~ depuis Ie moyen-age comme des textes fondateurs et sacr~ au m@me degr~ que les textes bibliques. Ce retour permanent aux sources et aux multiples textes juridiques, midrashiques et ex~g~tiques qui les ont suivis fait du texte rabbinique un tissu de citations explicites ou d'allusions A peine voil~ aux textes du pass~, lesquels investissent Ie nouveau texte rabbinique de fragments auto-textuels reproduits tels quels, comme tel verset biblique ou tel texte mishna·ique, de paroles transtextuelles reprises A des auteurs anciens ou bien de dires intertextuels int~gr~ par l'auteur dans son argumentation propre. En fait, ce sont toutes les formes de l'intertextualit~, Ie plus souvent transparentes, qui distinguent Ie discours rabbinique et qui rattachent obligatoirement ses foyers tMmatiques A d'autres textes ~rits bien avant lui ou qui seront produits bien apr~ lui, 78 Sur cette dimension du 'moi' comme porte-parole, cf. J. Chetrit, "The Hebrew Poetry in Morocco" .

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et qui composent cette m~oire du texte ins~parable de toute tradition

vivante et lui impriment sa circulari~ et son auto-r«~entiali~ rkursive. I.e texte rabbinique est intertextuel par essence. 74 En dehors de cette intertextuali~ transparente et envahissante, nous avons d~jA no~ Ie carac~re souvent hybride du discours rabbinique aussi bien dans ses prooccupations th~atiques que dans ses procEdures textue1les ou ses finalit& ex~g~tique, ~thique et juridique.75 Les foyers th~tiques des textes sont par ailleurs indissociables des genres discursifs qui les constituent. C'est donc par rapport aux diff~ents genres discursifs rabbiniques que devraient @tre ~tudi~ les diff&ents traits s~mantico­ pragmatiques de ce discours. Nous Ie ferons ici pour la composante exEg~tique et la composante juridique du discours rabbinique. 4.3. I.e discours ex~g~tique ou Lesfondements interpr6tatifs de La tradition juive

Les textes ex~g~tiques sont tres vari~ dans Ie discours rabbinique. Us procMent tous d'une exigence herm~neutique fondatrice de la tradition juive, laquelle provient de la centralit~ des textes sacr&, bibliques et talmudiques, dans l'instauration et Ie d~veloppement de la civilisation juive en g~n&al et de la tradition rabbinique en particulier. Ils produisent tous aussi un m~ta -texte amplificateur, court ou long, qui vient traduire, expliquer, interpr~ter, commenter, klairer ou com parer des ~l~ments textuels prkEdents appartenant aux textes fondateurs ou a leurs commentaires et sur-commentaires. Ces textes ex~g~tiques peuvent aussi bien disserter ou traiter d'une question textuelle plus g~n~rale, d'une question de doctrine religieuse, d'une haLakha ou bien d'une coutume dans un but interpretatif ou d~monstratif. Dans Ie m~ta-texte ex~g~tique sont aussi ~voqtrees d'autres ex~geses ant~rieures, lesquelles sont admises ou bien reru~, et des ouvertures sont souvent pratiqu~es sur des modes d'interpr~tation nouveaux, philosophiques ou surtout mysticokabbalistiques par exemple, Ie tout en fonction de la formation et de la comp&.ence de l'ex~g~te, de qui il est cependant exig~ de ne pas d~passer les limites de la tradition communautaire. C'est d'ailleurs en toute hwni1i~ que toute nouvelle ex~gese est pr&ent~e par l'auteur, ce qui ne l'empeche pas de noter les insuffisances ou les contradictions d'autres ex~eses an~rieures. 74 Sur cette intertextualitE dans Ie discours poEtique. voir J. Chetrit. "Mutations in the Discourse and the Judeo-Arabic of the North-African Jewry at the End of the XIXth Century·. pp. 39-43. 75 Le discours homilEtique est exemplaire dans cette hybriditE constitutive du texte rabbinique. Cf. note 58 supra.

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a

Les ~I~ments textuels sollici~ par I'ex~gese peuvent appartenir des textes complets et former des fragments suivis ou choisis dans Ie texte

original ou bien constituer des ~I~ments isol~ et servir de points de d~part pour une r~flexion ou un commentaire bien longs. Dans d'autres cas, ces ~I~ents ne servent pas comme d~clencheurs premiers de I'acte d'ex~gese mais sont plutat appr~hend~ a travers des d~onstrations ou des ~veloppements juridiques ou bien homil~tiques plus larges. C'est dire que la finali~ du discours ex~g~tique n'est pas unique ni homogene. Elle peut concerner des objectifs didactiques et p~gogiques assez simples pour repondre a des besoins de compr~hension ou d'interpr~tation au premier degre, ou bien sous-tendre des prroccupations sp~ulatives entrant dans un systeme interpr~tatif plus complexe et plus ample, dont les ~I~ments se repercutent d'un texte a I'autre pour former un ensemble coMrent et rEcursif, comme I'ex~gese mystique et kabbalistique par exemple, ou bien encore servir des vis~ argumentatives ou d~onstratives pour I'~tablissement d'une regie de conduite ou d'une halakha appliqu~ par exemple, l'ex~gese offrant alors une preuve en meme temps qu'une ~I~ation d'autori~.

Le discours ex~g~tique n'est done pas un discours completement autonome. II est tributaire d'autres formes ou types de discours comme Ie discours p~agogique, Ie discours philosophique, Ie discours mystique ou kabbalistique, Ie discours juridique ou Ie discours homil~tique. II utilise aussi explicitement et implicitement les diverses regles herm~neutiques traditionnelles allant de la lecture simple a ras du texte a I'interpr~tation allusive et all~gorique a base num~rologique ou analogique, en passant par les diff~rents systemes de pens~ ~trangers mais int~gr~ par la tradition rabbinique. En liaison avec Ie discours homil~tique ou meme juridique, I'ex~gese &blit souvent de nouveaux rapports entre des textes qui semblent a premi~e vue incommensurables I'un a I'autre en mettant a contribution des lectures non-conventionnelles ou des d~ryptages audacieux mais non moins autoris~ par la tradition. Ces nouvelles lectures forment gm&alement une sous-vari~t~ textuelle appel~ ~iddush (plur. lJ.iddushim) ou novella, soit un commentaire (consid~r~ par son auteur) comme nouveau. 76 76 Sur l'aluvre exEgEtique de rabbins marocains et sa diversitE textuelle, voir H. Zafrani, Les Juijs du Maroc, pp. 245-64; Id., Kabbale, vie mystique et magie; Id., Ethique et mystique; R. Eli 'or, "Les Kabbalistes du Draa"; D. Manor, "R. Raphael Berdugo and his Attitude to Philosophy and Rationalism of his Time" [en hEbreul. Miqqedem Umiyyam 4 (1991): 127-43; Id., Kabbale et Ethique au Maroc; Id., Exil et rfJdemption; J. Avivi, Manuscrits des Jui!s du Maghreb.

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Comme il a E~ dEjA dit, c'est l'activitE exEgEtique qui permet sans cesse au discours rabbinique officiel de crEer les rapports qui s'imposent entre les faits nouveaux qui surgissent dans Ie cours de la vie communautaire et les schemes anciens prEvus par les cas faisant partie de la tradition textuelle. Cette fonction transitive apparalt particuli~rement dans ce qu'il est convenu d'appeler l'exEg~e casuistique, qui est A la base de la jurisprudence rabbinique et qui rapporte les situations concr~tes soumises au dEcisionneur rabbinique aux sch~mes et aux situations typiques dEjA envisagEs, traitEs et scellEs par la tradition talmudique ou halakhique. Tout en cMant A une circulari~ textuelle constitutive, l'exEg~e juridique ne manque alors de remplir une fonction Eminemment sociale. Tr~ souvent aussi, Ie recours A l'exEg~e de tel ou tel fragment dans Ie discours juridique vient surtout corroborer un argument, une conviction ou une r«iexion qui s'imposent A partir du cas EtudiE. Cette pratique fait progresser la jurisprudence rabbinique tout en s'appuyant sur l'autoritE du texte sacrE et en respectant la forme traditionnelle de la gestion des probl~mes. Le discours exEgEtique n'est pas servi par un rEseau socio-discursif forme1 et ne dEpend donc pas en principe pour sa production d'un r&eau que1conque, car il investit en fait la totalitE des autres discours rabbiniques et leur sert de support hermEneutique ou interprEtatif, crEant les associations d'idEes et de cas qui s'imposent, conciliant des points de vue contraires ou bien contredisant et r~futant d'autres lectures et interpretations. II est donc alimentE et vEhiculE par l'ensemble de la tradition textuelle juive et par l'ensemble des rEseaux socio-culturels, socio-intellectuels, socio-Mucatifs et socio-religieux diffus de la communautE, en fonction du public, gEn~ral ou professionnel, vis~ par tel ou tel commentaire et en fonction de sa finalitE commentative, ~thique, juridique ou mystique. C'est pour ces raisons d'ailleurs que Ie discours exEgEtique n'est conditionnE ni assurE par aucune formation pMagogique ou didactique spEciale, formelle ou informelle. Seuls les besoins ou les int&@ts de l'ex~g~te ainsi que sa formation g~n~rale dans l'~tude du judaisme et de ses traditions, comme ses capacitEs intellectuelles, lui permettent de s'adonner Ason activit~ et de s'y illustrer ou d'y sombrer, Quant aux configurations linguistiques qui sous-tendent Ie discours exEgEtique, Ie plus souvent c'est l'h~breu rabbinique avec ses structures hybrides hEbra'ico-aramEennes, son formula ire tr~ riche, sa syntaxe aux multiples phrases complexes, son lexique spEcialis~ et sa morphologie aux nombreuses variantes, qui est utilise par les auteurs, Les ouvrages exegetiques en judoo-arabe ne sont pas rares cependant, mais ils

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comportent surtout des commentaires sui vis de textes bibliques ou mishna'iques ou bien des commentaires a caract~re homit~tique destin& au grand public. Comme tout texte rabbinique, ces textes judro-arabes sont truff& de fragments en h~breu et en aram~n, cit& ou bien calqu& sur des textes Mbra'ico-aram~ns, et d'un grand nombre de lex~es h~bra'iques, y compris des mots du discours ou des charni~res textuelles, lesquels trahissent manifestement Ie substrat textuel Mbralque ayant servi au texte judro-arabe. 77 5 I.e discours juridique rabbinique ou la traditionalisation de la vie communautaire 5.1 Le discoUl's juridique comme discours de La totalite juive Alors que Ie discours ex~~tique depend pour sa production uniquement de la com~tence ou de I'inspiration de son auteur, Ie discours juridique met a contribution I'ensemble des r&eaux socio-discursifs internes ou mixtes de la communau~. C'est Ie discours de la totalit~ communautaire par excellence, car n~ de la tradition juive totale sinon totalitaire, it concerne l'ensemble des situations de l'existence juive, individuelle, familiale ou sociale, a l'int~rieur com me a I'ext~rieur de la communaut~, et aspire a r&oudreou a r~ler la totalit~ des conflits ou des litiges qui en ~anent ainsi qu'a corriger les comportements d~viants. n a aussi pour objectif de rappeler sinon d'~icter les r~gles de conduite indispensables aux pratiques juives orthodoxes et aff~rentes aussi bien aux rapports de l'homme juif avec Dieu qu'a ses rapports avec d'autres hommes, juifs et non-juifs, r~gles dont l'~nonciation ancienne ne serait pas ou ne serait plus claire ou bien s'av~rerait insuffisante a I'occasion. Comme dans toutes les autres communaut& juives orthodoxes, Ie discours juridique rabbinique des communaut& marocaines n'est done pas produit ex nihilo, mais est g~n~ralement suscit~ par Ie cours de la vie sociale et ses moindres conflits ou litiges, ses moindres h&itations ou d«aillances Quant aux normes a suivre ou a appliquer, ou ses moindres demandes de direction des consciences. Sa production d~pend aussi bien sQr de l'~volution gm~rale des conditions de I'existence juive a telle ou telle ~poque et du besoin ressenti parfois par de grands esprits rabbiniques a devoir codifier ou repertorier les diff&entes d~isions haLakhiques connues pour rendre ais& leur consultation ou bien pour ~hafauder un vaste syst~me juridicoreligieux. 77 Cf. J. Chetrit. "A Socio-Pragmatic and Linguistic Study of the Hebrew Component of the Judeo-Arabic Poetry in North Africa - Theoretical Aspects·.

pp. 175-77.

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C'est donc I'ensemble des reseaux socio-religieux, socio-economiques, socio-politiques et socio-historiques de la communaut~ qui sous-tendent ce discours, I'alimentent de leurs d~veloppements incessants et Ie sollicitent continOment, et qui sont pris en charge A leur tour par ce discours. 78 n suffit pour s'en rendre compte de consulter Ie moindre recueil de Responsa dO A un des tr~ nombreux auteurs ayant eu leur formation au Maroc (comme dans toute autre communau~ juive d'ailleurs). La plurali~ des cas et des sujets recouvrant les diff~rents domaines du droit rabbinique qui y apparaissent, I'h~terog~n~it~ des consultants et de leurs origines qui s'y expriment, la multitude de situations familiales ou sociales, r~lles ou envisag~, qui y sont d~rites, la plethore de sources et de points de vue sollici~ ou confrontes, c'est toute cette profusion de la vie juive - comme de toute vie sociale - et de ses tales accompagnateurs qui ~maille de tels recueils et qui forme la quintessence du discours juridique rabbinique. 79 5.2 Le reseau socio-discursi/ judiciaire de fa communaute En dehors de ces reseaux socio-discursifs servis par Ie discours juridique, ce discours est lui-meme porte et aliment~ directement, et en fait meme produit par Ie reseau socio-discursif judiciaire de la communau~, lequel garantissait aussi A la communaut~ l'autonomie culturelle et religieuse dans les conditions socio-politiques qui lui avaient ~t~ impos~ par I'Jslam et l'~tat islamique. D'ou Ie principe fondateur et formateur de ce reseau, A savoir la r~gularisation et la gestion de la vie communautaire juive totale selon les pr~ceptes et les obligations de l'ensemble de la 78 Beaucoup de chercheurs ont utilis6 au XXe si~cle les textes juridiques rabbiniques et particuli~rement les recueils de Responsa pour en inf6rer des situations historiques ou sociales particuli~res ou sp6ciales dans les diff6rentes communaut6s juives concern6es par ces textes. En fait, c'est la multitude des faits sociaux qui fait la vie totale de toute communaut6 qui est impliqu6e par Ie discours juridique rabbinique et non seulement telle ou telle vision externe de la vie communautaire. Sur une telle utilisation des Responsa des rabbins marocains, cf. H. Zafrani, Les JuiJs du Maroc; Sh. Deshen, Les Gens du Mel/ah; ainsi que S. Schwarzfuchs, "Les Responsa et 1'histoire des Juifs d' Afrique du Nord", in Communautes juives des marges sahariennes du Maghreb, ed. M. Abitbol (Jerusalem, 1982). 79 Pour illustrer les analyses que nous proposons iei, nous avons choisi un recueil de textes juridiques dil a l'une des figures rabbiniques les plus importantes du juda'isme marocain, R. Raphael Berdugo (1747-1823), appel6 en son temps l'Ange Raphael, qui a eu une influence d6terminante sur Ie d6veloppement de sa communaut6, Mekn~s. II s'agit de son recueil Mishpatim Yesharim (=Jugements droits) , publi6 a Cracovie en 1891 (MY dor6navant). Sur I'auteur, voir D. Manor, "R. Raphael Berdugo and his Attitude".

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tradition juive rabbinique, donc selon Ie code ethique et juridique tres found et en principe immuable du droit rabbinique. C'est ce code, dont la version de R. Yosef Qaro de Safed, Ie ShullJ.an 'arukh, a fait autorite au Maroc comme partout ailleurs dans Ie monde sepharade partir de la seconde moitie du XVle si~cle, qui va servir de fondement et en meme temps de reference incontoumable pour tout litige, tout conflit, tout forfait, toute ignorance, toute incomprehension ou tout malentendu concernant les multiples situations et developpements de la vie juive individuelle ou sociale.80 D'autre part, cette prise en charge des regularites, des ceremonies et des vicissitudes de la vie juive se fait au nom des preceptes immuables de la Tora, interpretes et augmentes cependant des enseignements de la Loi orale et des r~gles talmudiques (Ia mishna et la gemara d'apres Ie Talmud babylonien surtout) et des apports ulterieurs des ge'onim (Ies autorites rabbiniques du moyen-age en Irak) et des posqim ou decisionneurs codificateurs, au premier rang desquels se trouve Maimonide (1135-1205) avec son reuvre halakhique immense, et des differentes autorites halakhiques, de tout Ie monde juif sepharade ou ashkenaze, dont l'reuvre partir du XVIe si~cle, ainsi que des taqqanot ou a ~ publiee ordonnances communautaires et du minhag ou coutume communautaire locale. C'est sur la base de ce vaste corpus juridico-religieux, qui fournit une multitude de sources toutes legitimes et pertinentes bien que contradictoires parfois, que Ie discours juridique rabbinique va se deployer du XVIe au XXe si~le au Maroc et servir a rendre justice et a orienter les activites des battei din ou tribunaux rabbiniques, des dayyanim et des differents organismes et agences communautaires, ainsi que les conduites de l'individujuif. Du point de vue de sa production textuelle, ce reseau judiciaire produit tout d'abord tous les actes juridiques reglementaires dans la vie familiale, contrats de mariage (Ia ketubba) ou contrats de divorce (Ie get) par exemple, dans les tractations economiques entre individus ou entre associes sous la forme d'actes contresignes et authentifies par les dayyanim (Ies differents shtarot). n se manifeste aussi dans d'autres domaines de la vie communautaire, comme des recommandations delivrees des indigents, des captifs ou des emissaires commu-

a

a

a

a

a

80 Sur Ie Shul~an 'arukh, son auteur et l'autorit6 dont il a joui dans Ie monde sepharade et au Maroc notamment, voir Qobes Rabbi Yose! ~ro [en h6breul (Jerusalem, 1969). Cf. aussi ce qu'6crit R. Raphael Berdugo: "De toute fa~n, nous n'avons a notre disposition que ce qu'il [R. Yosef Qarol a d6cid6 dans son petit livre, dont tout Ie peuple d'Israel reconnatt l'autorit6", MY, p. 12a.

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nautaires, provenant d'Erets Israel ou d'Europe ou de quelque autre communaut~, pour leur permettre de recueillir des fonds dans diff&entes communaut~. II a surtout A se d~ployer dans les arrets juridiques (les pisqe din) et les autres decisions prises par les dayyanim dans les affaires en litige ou sur les questions de principe, qu'on leur soumet dans Ie cadre de leurs fonctions au bet din, Ie tribunal rabbinique, de l'int~rieur ou de I'ext&ieur de la communaut~. Continuant une tradition qui s'est impos~e A partir de l'ere gaonique surtout, Ie r~eau judiciaire a de plus en plus recours au Maroc A des consultations specialis~ et cibl~es de dayyanim ou de lettr~ d'autres communaut~ pour recevoir leur avis sur des conflits d'interpr~tation, des questions juridiques d'ordre pratique ou tbeorique, ou bien sur la solution de cas litigieux, de controverses ou de discussions suspendues entre les autori~ rabbiniques de la communaut~. Le texte de ces consultations comprend Ie texte succint de la sollicitation avec la description de la situation A d~brouiller (she'ela, pI. she'elot) et la r~ponse (tshuva, pI. tshuvot) plus ou moins longue de l'autorit~ rabbinique consult~. C'est IA ce qui a aliment~ et continue d'alimenter cette vaste production juridique rabbinique, d~ign~ comme la litt~rature des she'elot u-tshuvot ou Responsa, dont l'influence sur la gestion quotidienne des communau~ et Ie d~veloppement du droit bebra'ique rabbinique furent (et continuent d'etre) inestimables, au Maroc comme ailleurs. C'est surtout Ie discours juridique sans cesse renouvel~ des Responsa au Maroc, dans lequel se r«Iechit si bien tout Ie r~eau socio-discursif judicia ire communautaire et inter-communautaire, qui nous int~ressera ici et servira de cadre A notre analyse des strat~gies discursives qui fondent ce discourS. 81 Comme il a d~jA ~~ soulign~, l'installation des megorashim au Maroc a eu pour cons~uence Ie d~veloppement d'un autre genre de textes juridiques, A Fes d'abord et dans d'autres communaut~ par la suite. II s'agit des nombreuses taqqanot ou ordonnances communautaires, que les assembl~es communautaires, d~ign~es sous Ie nom de ma'amad et reunissant les dirigeants ainsi que les membres les plus influents de la communaut~, promulgaient en commun accord avec les dayyanim et les autori~ rabbiniques locales sur des questions d'ordre familial ou social, de morale communautaire ou des rapports avec d'autres communaut~, decisions qui ~taient en rapport ~troit avec les vicissitudes de la vie 81 Sur la production halakhique des rabbins marocains, cf. note 78 supra ainsi que M. Bar-Yuda, ed., Halakha and Openness; the Moroccan Rabbis as Decisions Makers for Our Generation [en Mbreul (Tel-Aviv. 1985); M. Amar. I.e droit hebrai'que; J. Avivi, Manuscrits des luifs du Maghreb.

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communautaire telles que les voyait Ie leadership civil et rabbinique. Les taqqanot pouvaient concemer aussi Ie sort ou les affaires d'individus d~in& dans la communaut~, dont Ie comportement ou les agissements n'ont pu @tre r~gl& d~finitivement par Ie tribunal rabbinique local, ou bien dont la d~ision qui les concemait avait une signification symbolique ou exemplaire pour l'ensemble de la communaut~.82 Contrairement A la halakha ancienne ou aux arr@t& halakhiques tardifs, ces ordonnances ne valaient en principe que pour la communaut~ concern~ et pouvaient n'@tre m@me que provisoires et donc devenir caduques. 83 Cependant, beaucoup d'entre elles ont ~t~ adopt~ par d'autres communaut& apr~ avoir ~t~ parfois adapt~ aux conditions locales. C'est Ie cas des taqqanot c~lebres de la communaut~ castillane de Fes, qui apr~ la pr~pond~rance que cette demiere a prise dans la vie communautaire gm~rale de la Ville, se sont r~pandues dans les autres communaut& marocaines, qu'elles fussent jud&>-hispanophones, mixtes intEgrees ou autochtones. I.e texte de la taqqana comprend g~n~ralement l'indication du lieu et de la date de sa promulgation, la situation ou la cause A l'origine de la d~ision, la d~ision elle-m@me sous forme d'arr@t juridique ou psaq din (pl. pisqe din) avec ~ventuellement quelques d~tails sur les raisons et les consid&ations qui l'ont motiv~ ou orien~, ainsi que les noms de ceux qui ont particip~ aux d~bats et ont contresign~ la taqqana et du soJer ou des soJrim (les scribes) qui ont ~crit ou recopi~ Ie texte. Dans la vie communautaire, les taqqanot constituaient de v~ritables actes l~gislatifs, et seule cette forme de l~gif~ration publique pouvait regrouper A la fois Ie leadership socio-politique et Ie leadership rabbinique de la communaut~, mais uniquement selon les n~cessit~ et l'urgence des d~isions A prendre. La gestion du r&eau socio-discursif judicia ire conceme donc l'esemble de la vie juive communautaire, ses situations r~gulieres ou d~viantes, ses vicissitudes et ses accidents, ses troubles et ses doutes, ses ignorances ou ses savoirs incomplets, ses diff~rents r&eaux socio-discursifs, ses traditions textuelles juridiques propres ou universelles. Cette gestion est rendue possible par l'organisation communautaire avec les institutions 82 Sur la tradition des taqqanot au Maroc, cf. H. Zafrani, Les luifs du Maroc; Sh. Deshen, Les Gens du Me/lah; M. Amar, "The Women's Status in Rabbinical Courts of Morocco in the Twentieth Century", Miqqedem Umiyyam 3 (1990): 187-202; Sh. Bar-Asher, ed., Seier Hataqanot; M. Bar-Yuda, ed., Halalcha and Openness. 83 Voir par exemple la remise en cause d'une taqqana castillane de F~s par R. Raphael Berdugo, dans MY, p. 127b, a I'interieur d'un developpement sur les taqqanot du juda'isme espagnol, ainsi que la proclamation d'une autre taqqana par Ie meme auteur, Ibid., p. 180a.

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judiciaires qu'elle comporte, ses agences de formation et d'habilitation, les yeshivot ou Eccles talmudiques, qui au Maroc etaient surtout familiales au d'obedience familiale, - ses agents experts ou specialistes et ses lieux publics ou prives dans lesquels se tenaient les seances des tribunaux et s'eaivaient les decisions prises. Quant aux activites de ce reseau, elles comprenaient entre autres les actes judiciaires suivants: rendre justice, convOQuer des temoins, interroger, enqueter, consulter, debattre, decider, textualiser, signer et authentifier; copier, recopier, composer des recueils de Responsa ou de pisqe din, intervenir aupres de communautes etrang~es et de leurs chefs, recevoir et controler des emissaires d'Erets Israel, recommander ou fournir des lettres de recommandation - Ie tout selon les proc&lures r~glementaires, les procedes conventionnels et les traditions etablies, qu'elles fussent communautaires ou universelles, y compris les recueils de droit rabbinique anciens, recents ou nouveaux avec leurs differentes categories de textes et les formula ires traditionnels. 84 Taus ces actes judiciaires com portent des aspects discursifs majeurs, mais ne sauraient aucunement etre limites a ces seuls aspects, car leur realisation et leur ach~vement demandent la confirmation, I'intervention et Ia collaboration des differents agents et agences, instances et institutions, conventions et r~gles constituant Ie reseau socio-discursif judiciaire. De meme la realisation de tous ces actes n'a de signification, n'est pertinente que par rapport ace reseau et a ses diverses fonctions. Ce sont donc des actes socio-discursifs par essence qui, joints aux actes argumentatifs et hermeneutiques propres au discours juridique rabbinique, lesquels sont uniquement discursifs, definissent ce discours et en distinguent les proprietes. Comme tout discours juridique, Ie discours juridique rabbinique est donc tributaire des differents reseaux communautaires qui }'alimentent ou Ie saus-tendent et est determine a son tour dans sa tbematique comme dans ses presupposes ideologico-culturels et ses formes textuelles par Ie reseau socio-discursif judiciaire producteur qui Ie porte. 5.3 Les strategies discursives du discours juridique rabbinique C'est ce vaste ensemble de principes, d'activites, de conventions, d'actes, d'agences, d'agents, de demandes, de sollicitations, de consultations, 84 Pour mieux se rendre compte de cet ensemble d'activit~s et d'actes juciiciaires anim& ou r~alis~s par les pr~sidents des tribunaux rabbiniques ou par de simples dayyanim, il convient de lire la correspondanee adress~e par ces responsables communautaires a leurs pairs. Comme il a d~ja ~t~ signal~, beaucoup de ces documents sont maintenant r~unis dans D. Ovadia, Qehil/at Se/rou; 1d., Fas Va-lfakhameiha.

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d'investigations, de textes anciens et nouveaux formant Ie rEseau socio-discursif judiciaire communautaire, qui va investir les multiples textes ha/akhiques du discours juridique rabbinique au Maroc, en particulier les Responsa, qui seuls nous interesseront dorenavant. Ce r&eau determine aussi les differentes categories de strategies propres au discours juridique rabbinique, parmi lesquelles il convient de distinguer les strategies fondatrices, les strategies jurisprudentielles et les strategies textuelles et argumentatives. 5.3.1 Les strategiesjondatrices La premiere strategie fonda trice du discours juridique rabbinique est sans

conteste, bien qu'elle soit uniquement implicite parce qu'allant de soi, ce qu'on pourrait appeler la strategie de traditionalisation de la vie juive courante, c'est-A-dire la vision des regularitEs et vicissitudes de la vie juive communautaire ou ses incidents et accidents comme conformes aux schemes, aux cas et aux situations dejA envisagEs dans la Tora ecrite et Ie Talmud. Ces faits et situations de la vie juive relevent done du point de vue de leur comprehension, de leur interpretation, de leur regularisation ou de leur reglement des preceptes et principes immuables de la ha/akha, etablis une fois pour toutes dans les textes fondateurs de la civilisation juive et dans la vaste litterature haiakhique, gaonique et rabbinique ulterieure, qui les a interpretEs et codifiEs. Tout fait conflictuel nouveau et toute situation litigieuse nouvelle qui sont portEs A la discretion des tribunaux, des dayyanim ou des autoritEs rabbiniques reconnues, doivent ainsi @tre d'abord rapportEs aux cas generaux prevus explicitement par la halakha, ou bien etre apparentEs A des cas deja decrits ou envisagEs par la tradition juridique, afin d'y trouver Ie cas similaire, la regie a appliquer ou les preuves et les appuis argumentatifs en faveur de telle ou telle solution ou decision. D'ou une seconde strategie fondatrice de ce discours, la strategie d'assimilation casuistique, qui consiste en la necessite absolue d'assimiler tout cas litigieux ou deviant nouveau, soumis a l'instance judiciaire, a un cas ou a des cas similaires dejA debattus dans Ie Talmud ou la literature des posqim et leurs continuateurs. Dans Ie texte juridique, cette assimilation demande a etre explicitee et expliquee, done raisonnee, afin de demontrer Ie bien-fonde et la legitimite de la comparaison effectuee, ce qui occasionne parfois une recherche prealable sur Ie degre de pertinence casuelle ou logique de tel ou tel apparentement, commis par d'autres sources A l'egard du cas etudie ou d'un cas similaire, et conduit a des controverses et refutations ou a des alignements de position de la part

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de I'auteur consul~. Assimilation et dissimilation procMent ici donc du marne principe d'apparenement qui est au centre de I'ex~g~e casuistique.85 Ce sont les conditions et les d~tails les plus fins de cette assimilation du cas nouveau A on cas ancien et de sa justification argument~ qui font souvent l'essentiel du texte juridique du responsum ou consUltation, y compris les implications et les pr&uppos& de la situation compar~ pour Ie cas ~tudi~ avec les ressemblances et les diff~rences recens~ et analys&s. Le vocabulaire et Ie formula ire bebraIques ou aram~ns tr~ riches de la comparaison, sous son aspect d'assimilation ou de dissimilation, sont d'ailleurs employ& explicitement pour marquer les diff&entes phases de cet apparentement ou bien pour r~futer Ie bien-fond~ ou d~noncer les faiblesses d'one autre comparaison faite par one autre autorit~ dans la solution du cas soumis ou d'un cas similaire. 88 n va sans dire que si Ie cas soumis entre tel quel dans les sch~mes gm&iques d~jA pr~vus et connus dans la litt~rature haiakhique, la consultation revient alors A on simple renvoi aux r~f~rences classiques et ne demande aucon d~veloppement sp~cial, A l'exception parfois de quelques d~tails bibliographiques ou herm~neutiques, pour la bonne information du correspondant. 5.3.2 Les strategies jurisprudentiel/es Les deux stra~gies de traditionalisation et d'assimilation casuistique

amment n~essairement Ie locuteur et d~isionneur du discours juridique A la consultation et A l'~tude des sources juridiques pouvant Ie guider ou I'appuyer dans son interpr~tation du cas soumis et l'explicitation de ses implications ha/akhiques. Dans cette besogne essentielle, l'auteur du responsum est amen~ A d~ployer des strat~gies jurisprudentielles, dont certaines sont d'ailleurs d'ordre herm~neutique. Ces strat~gies l'orientent 8& Voir par exemple Ie cas €tudi€ dans MY, pp. IOb-Ha, concernant Ie nouveau mari€ qui a perdu sa salur dans la semaine suivant ses noces, et la pol€mique qui s'y exprime contre la I€gitimit€ de I'assimilation commise par une autre autorit€ rabbinique. 88 Les lex~mes et expressions Mbra'iques et aram€ens foisonnent dans I'application de cette strat€gie d'assimilation ou de dissimilation. Les exemples suivants extraits au hasard de MY suffiraient a Ie montrer: n', Ol'U nt~ l:l ~)ll" "n)N'UM ,'tOY.l O:lnn N'lnv nlY.llpY.ln onlN ~:l 0)1 l"Y.l't [=C'est pourquoi ceci n 'a aucune odeur de ressemblance avec les cas envisag€s par Ie sage qui a r€dig€ la question) - p. 19b; "nt~ 'UY.lY.l nY.ll't l'Y.l "l'tl 'U' 'tl)ll" [=Et il ya encore dans les propos de notre ma!tre [R. Yosef Qaro) une ressemblance r€elle a cela) - p. 21b; "l'SO't Nn" nt nlY.l't~ l'N l:ll .... "":l 'Y.l't NO, nt ll'tll" [=Le cas consid€r€ ne ressemble en rien... et de m8me il ne faut pas comparer l'un a I'autre) - p. 24b.

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dans l'investigation juridique qu'il est cens~ mener pour arriver a la dkision haJakhique qui s'impose a partir de l'acte d'assimilation effectu~, dans la justification de ses prises de position et dans la r~futation ~ventuelle d'autres positions, consid~r~ d'ailleurs elles aussi comme tout afait I~itimes au regard de la tradition haJakhique. 87 D'autre part, l'~tude du cas soumis exige toute une ex~~e casuistique, dont la compr~hension inspir~ et l'interpr~tation pertinente des diff&ents ~lments et aspects sont des conditions n~saires, n~essaires mais non suffisantes, pour arriver a la solution souhai~ du problmte ~ ou au r~lement du litige soumis. La recherche d'appuis argumentatifs dans la vaste lit~ature haJakhique et de l'autorit~ haJakhique a suivre ou a r~futer sont aussi indispensables, ce qui transforme tr~ souvent toute conSUltation sur un cas nouveau, a premi~re vue non conforme aux r~gles ou au cas d~ja envisag& par la haJakha, en une v~ritable investigation raisonn~ des sources pertinentes et des positions des diff~rentes autorit& qui y sont cit~. Parfois, avant meme la phase d'assimilation casuistique et la consultation des sources, l'auteur passe m~thodiquement en revue les diff~rents doutes (en hebreu sajeq, pI. sefeqot) qui ~manent de la situation ~tudi~, aussi bien au niveau des dires des tmoins ~voqu& et de leurs all~ations qu'au niveau de la proc~ure suivie par Ie tribunal ou des faits et de leur interpr~tation par les diff&entes instances. L'objet de cet examen pr~lable est de clarifier les Sments de la situation envisag~ susceptibles de mener a une d~ision juridique juste sinon ~1~gante.88 Dans de nombreux autres cas, Ie calcul dubitatif fait partie int~grante de la consultation juridique, par suite d'une contraverse, d'une incapacite d'interpretation ou d'une incomprehension par exemple, et la tentative de lever ce doute constitue l'essentiel de I'investigation juridique. Ce n'est qu'apr~ l'examen raisonn~ de ces doutes et Ie calcul des tenants et des aboutissants des diff~rentes positions dans des cas similaires, selon la proc~ure argumentative et herm~neutique du shaqJa ve-tarya (N"'" N~i"l') d'origine talmudique, que Ie dayyan consul~ peut moncer sa d~ision. Dans la plupart des cas, sa d~ision juridique 87 Cf. la lettre adressEe par R. Ya'aqov Aben Sur ~ R. Shemuel Zaoui de SalE, citEe dans la note 72 supra et dans laqueUe I'auteur dEveloppe ce principe fondateur des controverses rabbiniques en rappelant la formule consacrlSe: • '~N "D"n D'nl~N '.,:1'1 '~N' [=Ies unes et les autres sont des paroles divines vivantes·. 88 Voir par exemple dans MY, pp. 12a-14a, l'examen d'une longue sErie de doutes concernant I'accusation d'adult~re portEe contre une femme par des tEmoins de mauvaise vie mais repentis pour l'occasion, ainsi que la rEfutation catEgorique et justifiEe du doute Emis sur la IEgaiitE d'un mariage consommE, Ibid .• p. 17a.

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concordera avec I'une des deux sources, Ie Shu1~an 'arukh ou son complEment Ie Bet Yose!, dil au meme auteur, R. Yosef Qaro, dont l'autorit~ est reconnue de tous dans Ie monde sepharade, comme il a d~jA EtE signal~.89 C'est seulement lorsque ces deux sources restent ~tonamment muettes sur des situations similaires que I'auteur se positionnera par rapport A d'autres autorit& anciennes ou contemporaines, marocaines ou non, avec la pr~f~rence proclam~e pour une autorit~ du monde s~pharade en cas de controverse entre autorit& ashk~nazes et sepharades sur la question d~ba ttue. 90 La d&ision prise par I'auteur du responsum ne se pr&ente donc jamais comme une d&ision personnelle mais uniquement comme I'application raisonnre de principes et de pr&eptes de la halakha A la siuation ~tudire. L'acte juridique consiste alors avant tout en un examen analogique et en une recherche des criteres de similitude ainsi qu'en une interpr~tation compaente du systeme argumentatif et herm~neutique de la halakha. Cet acte d&isionnaire ne se pose jamais non plus comme une I~gif~ration personnelle, dont Ie principe est totalement ~tranger A la tradition juridique rabbinique, ni comme Ie produit de la perspicaci~ individuelle du dayyan consul~. Quelle serait donc la part de I'intelligence personnelle des situations et de la logique du sens commun qui ne demandent qu'A entrer en action dans cette casuistique raisonnre? Les auteurs de Responsa ne manquent pas parfois de soulever la question A propos de certaines situations etudi~, en refusant categoriquement tout credit et toute fonction juridique A I'intelligence individuelle ou A la logique apparente, invoquant express~ment les faiblesses et les insuffisances du sekhel (l'esprit humain) au regard de I'inspiration divine de la loi juive. 91 Un 89 Voir dans, MY, p. Sb, Ie calcul des r~gles concernant la position a suivre dans les cas probl~matiques ou la d~cision du Shulhan 'arukh n 'est pas claire sur la question d~battue, d'autres autorit~s ~tant cit~es par I'auteur de ce code sans qu'U eQt trancM. 90 Cf. par exemple Ie cas soulev~ dans MY, p. 31a, concernant les positions contraires de rabbins ashkenazes et sepharades sur la nature des tractations commerciales liant des sujets au souverain, dont les r~gles sont diff~rentes en pays d'Islam et en pays de chr~tient~. L'auteur consult~ y affirme que c'est un devoir de suivre les autorit~s sepharades (ayant v~cu dans l'Empire Ottoman) citEes dans son responsum, parce que "leur coutume est la notre et leur royaut~ (r~gime socio-politique) est Ie notre. " 91 Cf. ce qu'krit R. R. Berdugo au sujet du premier cas mentionn~ dans la note 85 supra apr~s avoir soulev~ les conclusions contradictoires auxquelles peut mener I'esprit logique 10rsqu'U s'applique a la question d~battue: "II nous faut done cesser de suivre les lois de I'esprit logique (')::I'Un') et ses enseignements qui se contredisent sans cesse, et nous tourner vers les lois de notre sainte Tora" ,

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seul domaine jurisprudentiel fait malgr~ tout exception ~ cette m~fiance gmErale envers I'intelligence logique du dayyan consul~, c'est Ie domaine du droit civil ou dine mamonot, ~ propos duquel il est explicitement stipul~ que Ie juge peut faire agir ~ sa guise son discernement pour r~gler Ie contentieux soumis selon la halakha. 92 Cependant, malgre ces r~gles depersonnalisees de jurisprudence et leur hermmeutique casuistique, la personna lite du dayyan, son savoir et sa competence reconnus, son autorite acquise dans Ie monde rabbinique, ses humeurs rigoristes ou au contraire conciliantes, son experience humaine et juridique, tous ces facteurs personnels ont eu une influence certaine sur Ie maintien, Ie developpement et l'evolution de la tradition juridique juive au Maroc comme dans d'autres communautes. TIs ont distingue aussi aux diff&entes epoques quelques autorites eminentes parmi les dizaines et les centaines de dayyanim et personnages rabbiniques qui etaient ~ la tete des reseaux judiciaires des grandes communautes. 93

5.3.3 Les strat~gies textuelles et argumentatives Les strategies textuelles commandant la formation et la cohesion du texte juridique rabbinique sont en etroite relation avec ces strategies de l'assimilation et de I'interpretation casuistique. Elles determinent d'une part Ie processus intertextuel fondateur et Mis en action par I'auteur, avec ses textes initiateurs ~ la base de la consultation, ses textes de r~ference necessaires ~ I'investigation et ~ I'assimilation du cas, ainsi que Ie caractere hybride des enonces hebra'ico-arameens et de leurs structures Iexicaies et syntaxiques. Elles fondent de I'autre Ie travail argumentatif du locuteur et Ie deploiement de ses calculs hermeneutiques et jurisprudentiels. Le texte initiateur de la consultation est normalement rappo~ dans la question (she'ela) ou la demande adressee au juge consul~. Celle-ci MY, p. 13b. La m~fiance l l'~gard de l'intelligence logique n'est cependant pas totale chez le mSme auteur, puisqu'11 en fait usage l maintes occasions dans ses interpritations et son calcul des inf~rences ou quand 11 s'agit selon lui d'l§vidences. Cf. par exemple Ibid., p. 17a - au sujet de la ll§galitl§ d'un mariage contract~ en bonne et due forme juridique. Pour R. Saadia Ibn-Danan (Grenade-F~s, XVe si~cle), l'intelligence logique, qui est pour lui aussi sujette ~ caution, ne peut venir qu'en dernier lieu dans 1'I§chelle des facteurs devant appuyer la prise de telle ou position juridique, seulement apr~s les diffl§rentes sources rabbiniques et le minhag ou coutume locale. Cf. D. Ovadia, Fas Va-HaJchameiha, vol. 1, pp. 46-47. s2 Cf. MY, p. 19a. 93 Sur l'l§volution du droit rabbinique, cf. H. Zafrani, Les Juifs du Maroc, pp. 12-23.

400

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presente Ie cas sous la forme d'une narration gm~ralement courte d&:!'ivant Ie cas litigieux ou la situation d~viante, dont la solution demande la d~ision du dayyan consult~. Les personnages meles A la situation sont assez rarement designes nomm~ment, et souvent meme I'monciation de la situation se presente sous des formes prototypiques, comme la designation des personnes concern~ par des noms bibliques symboliques 'Re'uven', 'Shim 'on', 'Yehuda', etc., et cela pour marquer Ie caractC-e exemplaire du cas soumis A d~cision. Dans les recueils de Responsa, ce texte initiateur est g~n~ralement d~tach~ et joint A la r~ponse du s¢Cialiste consult~, mais parfois ce texte est repris presque in extenso au d~but de la r~ponse, sans doute pour des raisons techniques de m~orisation surtout. Ce texte d~clencheur est presque toujours rMig~ en hebreu rabbinique comme la reponse elle-meme, mais cela n'a pas e~ Ie cas au moyen-Age, puisque des d~isionneurs celebres, comme Maimonide (1135-1205) et R. Saadia lbn-Danan au XVe ont rMig~ certaines de leurs reponses en judeo-arabe medieval. 94 Meme les temoignages des personnes impliq~ dans la situation present~e ne sont pas toujours transmis dans leur langue d'origine, Ie judeo-arabe, et quand c'est Ie cas, certains el~ents du temoignage sont presentes ou elabores en hebreu. 95 Cependant, pour authentifier Ie ~moignage et transmettre les sous-entendus vehicules par Ie texte original du personnage, la langue d'origine n'est pas transformee ou litterarisee dans ces cas, et c'est Ie judeo-arabe quotidien qui y est iIIustr~, ou parfois m@me J'arabe musulman parle quand les propos rapportes proviennent de la bouche de musulmans. 96 Quant aux sources sollicitees par I'investigation, leurs textes ne sont gmeralement pas repris dans la reponse, mais seulement referencies selon Ie titre de l'ouvrage Ie plus souvent. Ce n'est qu'en cas de discussion serree avec la source mentionnee sur un point pr~is ou bien en cas d'interpretation explicite de ses dires que sont cites en partie ou in extenso 84 Voir certains Responsa de R. Saadia Ibn-Danan en jud~o-arabe dans: D. Ovadia, Fas Va-Hakhameiha, vol. I, pp. 22-54. Quant aux Responsa de Maimonide, voir d~s textes en jud~-arabe dans M. Maimonide, Epistles 2 [en h~reul, ed. D. H. Baneth (Jerusalem, 1985); J. Blau (ed.), The Responsa oj Maimonides [en hEbreul (Jerusalem, 1958-1961), 3 vols .. 85 Voir les tEmoignages rapportEs en jud~o-arabe dans MY, pp. 30a, 38a, 40a, a5b, 160a, 162b et 182b. Les deuxi~me et troisi~me fragments prEsentent des marques d'Elaboration en hEbreu. Pour I'utilisation de textes pareils dans 1'Etude des languesjuives, cf. J. Chetrit, "Judeo-Arabic and Judeo-Spanish". 9B Le premier fragment mentionn~ dans la note pr~~dente comprend les dires de musulmans, Emissaires du roi sur Ie marchE des ventes, et les rapporte dans les ~mes morpho-syntaxiques et lexicaux musulmans.

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les propos de la source invoquee. La consultation des sources et la reprise du texte initiateur transforment donc les textes des Responsa en un vaste ensemble intertextuel ob se retrouvent sous forme auto-textuelle, citee ou mentionnee par des termes initiaux, toutes les cat~ories de sources ayant formE la tradition juridique juive, l commencer par les textes bibliques et les diffErents textes talmudiques et en passant par ceux des tres nombreux dEcisionneurs anciens et rEcents, qui se sont illustr6i dans la litterature juridique rabbinique. A cette intertextualitE des sources s'ajoute l'intertextualitE int~ree des textes juridiques rabbiniques classiques inspirateurs, de leurs structures textuelles et argumentatives et de leur vocabulaire professionnel et technique, structures familieres ausquelles viennent se superposer les structures du nouveau texte de la consultation. Ces structures comprennent d'une part des formules argumentatives et des formules de pr6ientation d'arguments ou d'analogies, ainsi que des expressions de subordination ou de cohesion textuelle, Ie tout tres souvent sous forme d'acronymes l la forme variable, qui sont parfois opaques m@me aux inities. Cette difficulte de lecture se double d'ailleurs d'une ambigu'ite assez generalisee des acronymes utilis6i, qui repr6ientent parfois chez Ie m@me auteur des formules ou des syntagmes nominaux diffErents. 97 D'autre part, Ie texte juridique relevant d'une tradition linguistique ilIustree et transmise par Ie Talmud, ses structures syntaxiques, lexicales et formula ires participent d'un complexe linguistique hybride, ob I'Mbreu et I'arameen sont entrem@l6i et imbriqu6i I'un dans I'autre l tous les niveaux de I'monce, de la phrase, du syntagme et des formes nominales ou verbales, "auteur passant inconsciemment d'une langue ~ "autre comme si elles ne formaient qu'une seule entite linguistique. Dans la periode qui noWi interesse ici, les deux langues etaient des langues d'etude et non d'interaction directe, et jouissaient du m@me prestige de langue sacree, leur emploi tout naturel dans Ie m@me enonce relevant d'un pMnomene tres courant dans les situations de plurilinguisme. 98 Pour Ie locuteur ou I'auteur rabbinique, les deux langues faisaient partie intEgrante de sa fT7 Pour 1a consultation de ces documents, des dictionnaires d'acronymes sont donc indispensables. Cf. l'ouvrage dactylographi6 de R. 'Amram Sha'ul Az-Ziini de Sefrou, Bet Ha-'amrami (Jerusalem,1976). 98 L'6tude linguistique et socio-linguistique de ce ph6nom~ne d'emploi concomittant de langues diff6rentes dans Ie meme 6nonc6 est maintenant tr~s d6velopp6e. Cf. par exemple J. J. Gumperz, Discourse Strategies; [d., Engager la Conversation; J. Chetrit, "The Personal and Socio-Historical Poetry of R. Shelomo Halewa", et J. Chetrit, "A Socio-Pragmatic and Linguistic Study of the Hebrew Component of the Judeo-Arabic Poetry in North Africa - Theoretical Aspects".

402

Joseph Chetrit

formation Iinguistique passive et ~taient d~jA mSI~es pour lui lors de I'~ude de certains textes bibliques et surtout des textes talmudiques. L'emploi indiff~renci~ des ~l~ents des deux langues n'est cependant pas total dans les textes juridiques rabbiniques, certaines sp~ialisations diff&enciatives s'~tant ~tablies entre les deux langues dans Ie domaine des expressions et des formules argumentatives ou discursives, qui construisent la coh&ion du texte et soutiennent son argumentation. C'est ainsi que les formules argumentatives sont g~n~ralement d'origine aram~nne alors que les subordonnants et mots du discours y sont de formation Mbra'ique. 99 Quant a la d~arche argumentative qui construit Ie texte juridique rabbinique, elle d~ule des exigences et contraintes jurisprudentielles et hermmeutiques qui fondent ce demier. L'analogie g~n~ralement pratiqu~ exige Ia recherche du cas typique ancien pouvant englober Ie cas soumis ou Stre similaire Alui du point de vue de ses traits inf~entiels significatifs. L'investigation des sources traitant des cas analogues commande au repertoriage des positions pertinentes et au calcul souvent contrast~ de leurs points de vue. De mSme, la d~monstration argument~ du bien-fond~ ou de la l~gitimit~ de la position soutenue pour l'~tablissement de la d~ision juridique passe par toutes les r~gles de l'herm~neutique et de I'argumentation talmudiques, dont deux proced& sont particuli~rement represent& dans les textes des consultations: la construction de syst~mes hypothetiques d'une part et la regIe de l'a/ortiori de l'autre. Les syst~mes hypotMtiques int~gr& dans l'argumentation jurisprudentielle comprennent souvent plusieurs hypoth~es et leurs r&ultantes bentuelles, pr&en~ souvent non pas sous la forme assertive mais sous Ia forme interrogative, dont la signification est alors ~uivalente a une question rMtorique. 100 Ces s~ries d'hypoth~es prennent en charge diff&ents aspects du cas ~tudi~ et apparent ou bien portent sur des inf&ences et des implications d~oulant des propos de telle ou telle source ci~. Leur fonction argumentative tient de la tradition talmudique du 99 A notre connaissance, aucune litude linguistique n'a encore litli menlie sur l'hEbreu rabbinique, juridique ou autre, des auteurs marocains ou nord-africains. C'est l'examen des textes eux-memes qui nous permet de poser ici les premiers jalons d'une recherche compl~mentaire, qu'il convient de mener. Sur les outils de subordination et d'argumentation de I'Mbreu post-biblique en glinliral, voir M. Z. Kaddari, Post-Biblical Hebrew Syntax and Semantics [en blibreuJ (Ramat-Gan, 1991-1995),2 vols .. 100 Sur I'interrogation et d'autres structures argumentatives dans la langue, voir J. C. Anscombre et O. Ducrot, L'Argumentation dans La langue (Bruxelles, 1983) ..

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pitpul ou raisonnement aigu, et fait gEnEralement progresser la dEmonstration par l'Elimination de contre-arguments possibles ou imaginables. Quant A la regIe d'a jortiori, Ie qat va-I}omer de l'exEgese rabbinique traditionnelle, elle pose implicitement un ordre graduel de valeurs ou une hi&archie de situations, dont les implications dEmontrEes pour Ie cas inf&"ieur dans l'Echelle valent au moins autant sinon plus pour Ie cas supErieur. Cette regIe d'extrapolation est tres frEquente dans les calculs argumentatifs conduisant A la justification ou au renforcement de la position prise par l'auteur en fonction des rEsultats de son investigation jurisprudentielle. De nombreuses autres stratEgies argumentatives soustendent les diff&entes phases du texte juridique rabbinique et en font une mine argumentative. Parmi elles, nous ne ferons que mentionner ici les plus caractEristiques: la crEation de situations fictives exemplaires pour une meilleure analogisation avec des situations similaires ou des situations gmmques, la confrontation des points de vue citEs ou envisagEs sur tel ou tel dEtail de procEdure ou d'interprEtation des faits et de leurs infErences, l'apprkiation argumentEe des diffErentes positions mentionnEes et Ie dEveloppement d'une contre-argumentation appropriEe, la justification obligatoire de la dEcision juridique pour pouvoir en tirer des conclusions ou extrapoler ses enseignements A d'autres cas similaires qui pourraient surgir. 101 Quant aux modalitEs rMtoriques du texte, la littErature juridique rabbinique - comme toute littErature juridique d'ailleurs - se caractErise par Ie ton serieux et sobre de son Enonciation, valant pour toutes les situations soumises, y compris les plus scabreuses ou les plus croustillantes relevant de tabous sexuels par exemple. 102 Dans Ie texte juridique rabbinique, I'orientation rEfErentielle et schematique dans la description ou la narration des faits EtudiEs Ie dispute au travail argumentatif serrE de l'investigation et A l'examen depouille des differentes positions envisagEes. L'auteur est par ailleurs pleinement conscient de la conduite de son argumentation, et un riche appareil meta-textuel, par lequel Ie locuteur juridique se refere A sa propre demarche, A son propre travail argumentatif et A son texte prEsent ou bien A d'autres textes qu'il a dejA commis sur une affaire similaire ou sur d'autres affaires, emaille Ie d&oulement de la consultation A partir de la prEsentation du cas EtudiE jusqu'A la dEcision juridique ou au rangement de position qui la scelle. Pour cette derni~re strat~gie, voir MY, pp. 14b-lSa. Voir par exemple la description crue de l' acte sexuel dans un t~moignage rapporte sur Ie comportement d'une femme adultere, dans MY, p. 13b. 101

102

Joseph Chetrit

404

Contrairement au 'moi' originaire et inventeur des dires, dont nous avons dit qu'it ~tait exclu de la d~ntologie juridique rabbinique, puisque Ie juge consul~ n'est qu'un instrument dans I'application raisonn~e des preceptes et principes de la halakha d'origine divine, Ie 'moi' technique et producteur inspir~ de ses dires avec ses images de juge decisif, volontiers polEmiqueur et fustigeur, raisonnable et conscient de ses faiblesses d'entendement, compatissant ou d~fenseur des droits acquis selon la halakha, ce 'moi' comp~tent est pleinement repr~en~ dans ces consultations juridiques. I.e temps et I'espace sont g~n~ralement peu repr~ent~ dans Ie discours juridique rabbinique, car ce discours traite fondamentalement de cas judiciaires ou de comportements religieux ou universels, g~n~riques ou 1 valeur prototypique. Aussi est-ce les diff~rentes modalit~ du g~n~rique dans Ie temps grammatical - avec Ie pr~ent atemporel ou omnitemporel - et dans les d~terminants du nom, qui sont privil~gi~ aussi bien dans l'argumentation que dans la pr~entation des faits, les temps r~f~rentiels du pass~ ~tant r~erv~ aux faits declencheurs de la consultation ou bien aux phases de I'investigation judiciaire. De meme, malgr~ l'origine locale precise des questions adress~ aux decisionneurs rabbiniques, la provenance de ces questions n'est pas toujours indiqu~ dans les Responsa. L'espace habit~ ou am~nag~ par la famille ou des associ~ est certes tr~ present dans les consultations judiciaires, mais il joue 11 un role avant tout fonctionnel ou professionnel et non symbolique ou s~miotique. C'est seulement dans les taqqanot, dont la validit~ concerne avant tout la communaut~ qui les a ~dict~es, que les aspects de I'espace et du territoire communautaires deviennent cruciaux et sont precis~ avec des d~tails sur les lieux ou ont lieu les ~v~nements.l03 6. Conclusions Confront~

au renouveUement quotidien, 1

l'~volution

et aux vicissitudes de

la vie juive communautaire en terre d'Islam, Ie discours juridique

rabbinique tente de p~renniser la tradition qui Ie fonde par un travail inlassable d'analogies, d'adaptations et d'accomodements casuistiques, ou Ie nouveau est apparen~ A I'ancien et mis sous sa coupe, ou I'argumentation et 1'hermmeutique permettent de d~passer les limites du contingent pour retrouver Ie g~n~ral et Ie g~n~rique de la tradition juive. Ce faisant, 103 Sur Ie temps et I'espace mythiques ou ideologiques dans la poesie hebra'ique juive au Maroc, voir J, Chetrit, "The Hebrew Poetry in Morocco",

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ce discours prend continuellement conscience des valeurs, des pr~eptes et des principes qui Ie r~issent et m~e sans cesse de l'in~rieur une r8iexion et une interrogation techniques sur ces fondements. D'autre part, dans ses fonctions de r~ularisation et de r~aration, Ie discours juridique est servi par un complexe reseau socio-discursif judiciaire, qui est probablement Ie seul reseau communautaire a Stre aussi formellement organis~ et dont les activites produisent des textes sous forme d'actes ou de documents obligatoirement ~rits et authentifies. Cette mani~re de p&enniser la tradition religieuse et juridique n'a ete battue en br~e que lorsque des evenements ou des processus perturbateurs ont oblige les communautes juives a utiliser d'autres reseaux judiciaires, externes et concurrents, en perdant du mSme coup la totalite ou au moins une partie de leur autonomie judiciaire et socio-culturelle. Au Maroc, ce processus d'~latement de la tradition judiciaire n'a ~~ entame que relativement tard, avec les reformes des institutions juives d~id~ en 1918 par Ie Protectorat fran~is, lesquelles limitaient la juridiction traditionnelle au droit personnel et pla~ient les tribunaux rabbiniques sous Ie contrale des autorites coloniales. lo4 Cependant, malgre ces restrictions et malgr~ l'expansion de plus en plus grande de modes de vie et de modes de pens~ modemes par suite de I'Sargissement du reseau p~gogique de l'A.I.U.I05 et de la presence fran~ise au Maroc, les communautes juives n'ont pas cess~ pour autant leur discours traditionnel. C'est que l'allegeance communautaire qui a de tout temps fa~onn~ l'identit~ juive au Maroc n'a pas e~ remplac~ par une d8inition politique nouvelle du statut personnel du juif marocain, et ce malgr~ l'abrogation des conditions de la dhimma par Ie Protectorat. 106 Faute d'une soci~~ civile au Maroc qui pOt developper la la'ici~ et faute d'un nouveau statut pour l'individu juif, les communautes ont maintenu et parfois meme renforc~ leurs structures traditionnelles. lo7 D'autre part, la 104 cr. D. J. Schroeter and J. Chetrit, "The Reform of Jewish Institutions in Morocco at the Beginning of the Colonial Government: Considerations, Orientations and Reasons" [en Mbreul. Miqqedem Umiyyam 6 (1995): 71-103. 105 Cf. M. M. Laskier, The Alliance Israelite Universelle and the Jewish Communities o/Morocco: 1862-1962 (Albany-New York, 1983). 108 cr. D. J. Schroeter and J. Chetrit, "The Reform of Jewish Institutions in Morocco at the Beginning of the Colonial Government: Considerations, Orientations and Reasons" , et D. J. Schroeter and J. Chetrit, "The Transformation of the Jewish Community of Essaouira (Mogador) in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries", in H. Goldberg, ed., Sephardi and Middle Eastern Jewries: History and Culture (Bloomington, 1995) (in press). 107 cr. D.J. Schroeter and J. Chetrit, "The Transformation of the Jewish Community of Essaouira (Mogador) in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries", injine.

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forte emprise rabbinique sur les destinees des communauMs marocaines, laquelle n'a pas ~M s~rieusement entam~ jusqu'a la dispersion de ces derni~ dans la seconde moiti~ de notre si~cle, a permis de maintenir et meme d'am~liorer la production du discours traditionnel. Les nouvelles possibilit& et facilit& d'impression et de publication des oeuvres rabbiniques ont perm is aux auteurs et aux ~iteurs d'augmenter consid~ra­ blement Ie nombre d'oeuvres diffusees dans tous les domaines du discours rabbinique. 108 Avec l'irruption de la modemit~, un changement discursif majeur a quand meme eu lieu dans Ie discours communautaire. C'est Ie d~velop­ pement de nouveaux genres discursifs et de nouvelles diglossies basees sur les langues euro~nnes et sur l'hebreu modeme. Le monopole rabbinique sur Ie discours communautaire officiel a dO composer des la fin du XIXe si~le avec d'autres formes et d'autres contenus modemes du discours, v&.icules par les organes de la haskala Mbra'ique d'Europe orientale en vogue dans certains cercles de jeunes lettr& d'une part et par l'enseignement la'ic des ecoles de l'A.I.U. de l'autre. 109 Bien plus, apres la Seconde Guerre mondiale, les transformations rapides dans les modes de vie qui ont eu lieu dans les grandes communaut& ont amene les autorit& rabbiniques a prendre de nouvelles mesures juridiques et a ~icter de nouvelles taqqanot, qui tiennent compte des nouvelles conditions de la vie juive et tentent de freiner ou de contenir ces changements socio-culturels dans les limites fixees par la halakha. 110 La dispersion des communautes n'a pas perm is de mesurer l'effet de ces nouvelles mesures judiciaires sur Ie maintien ou l'~volution de la tradition juridique ou les traditions du discours au Maroc. Quant au discours traditionnel en general, ses fondements socio-pragmatiques sont indissociables des structures sociales et des 108

Cf. E. Marciano, Seier Bene Melakhim; J. Tedghi, Le Livre et

l'imprimerie. 109

Cf. J. Chetrit, "A New Consciousness of the Anomaly and the Language -

The Beginnings of a Hebrew Haskalah Movement in Morocco at the End of the XIXth Century" [en h~breul. Miqqedem Umiyyam 2 (1986): 129-68; J.

Chetrit" ,The Hebrew Haskalah Movement in Morocco at the End of the XIXth century and its Contribution to the Zionist Organization" [en Mbreul, in Studies on the OIlture 01 the North-African Jews, ed. I. Ben-Ami (Jerusalem, 1991), pp. 313-31; J. Chetrit, "Mutations in the Discourse and the Judeo-Arabic of the North-African Jewry at the End of the XIXth Century"; J. Chetrit, "Discours et modernit~ dans les communaut~s juives d' Afrique du Nord a la fin du XIXe sikle." 110 Cf. M. Amar, ed., Le Droit hebrai'que; [d., "The Women's Status in Rabbinical Courts"; M. Bar-Yuda, ed., Halakha and Openness.

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407

r&eaux socio-discursifs qui Ie servent ou Ie produisent en fin de compte, car ce sont ces rEseaux qui sont les v~ritables fabriques du sens social avec I'auteur ou Ie producteur du discours. L'auto-r~ulation souhai~ et servie par ce discours repose aussi bien sur la fermeture et l'auto-r~f~rentiali~ de la tradition que sur l'allEgeance et la I~itimit~ ~videntes accord~ l ce discours par les tenants de la tradition. Discours reflEtant avant tout I'unanimi~ qui r~gne entre les producteurs et les rEcepteurs des ~onciations l I'in~ieur des diff~rentes strates socio-culturelles qui composent la soci~~ traditionnelle en question, Ie discours traditionnel officiel est ainsi un miroir consolidateur de la tradition qui Ie porte. n construit les univers s~miotiques de la tradition a travers des textes mythiques ou fondateurs aux structures formula ires ou fixes, et les amplifie par un travail interpr~tatif incessant qui Ie preoccupe. II c~l~bre les valeurs traditionnelles fondamentales et les ~isodes heureux ou malheureux du pass~ par des textes fixes, oraux ou 6:rits, et contribue de la sorte lies mythifier et a les garder pr&ents dans la m~oire communautaire, sociale ou tribale. n tente de r~parer ou de rEgulariser les d~viations du prEsent par I'institution de r~les ou de systmtes juridiques, qu'il sollicite et interpr~te sans cesse pour accorder les vicissitudes de la vie courante aux pr~ptes de la tradition. n oriente et Edifie la vie individuelle et sociale par I'~nonciation ou Ie rappel du code Etilique et des r~gles morales de la tradition. Souvent, il tente meme de g&er ou de dompter I'inconnu et I'impr~visible par des textes et des formules magiques. Bref, Ie discours traditionnel officiel aspire l prendre en charge les diff~rents aspects de l'existence et la totalit~ des situations qui la constituent. C'est Ie discours total et meme totalitaire par excellence, parce que c'est I'ethos communautaire ou tribal et non l'ethos individuel qui I'anime en principe.

408

TRADmONAL AND MODERN COMMUNICATION: TIlE JEWISH CONTEXT

Daniel Gutwein The 1840's mark a watershed in the history of Jewish communication. 1 The decade that began with the Damascus blood libel and ended with the liberal revolutions of 1848-1849 witnessed the rapid growth and spread of the Jewish press, which became an important factor in Jewish public life. The expansion of the press, however, was hardly a distinctly Jewish phenomenon. It was, rather, an integral part of the development of the European press and was basically informed by the same processes, mainly modernization in its sundry forms. 2 This congruence in the development of the Jewish and the non-Jewish press should be analyzed against the background of the completely different framework in which communication developed in the Jewish and non-Jewish societies. Whereas communication in its modem sense played only a marginal role in premodern Europe, a highly developed, modem-like communication network inhered in the functioning of traditional Jewish society. This 1 For the history of the Jewish press in the nineteenth century. see I. Singer. Presse und Judentum (Vienna. 1882): B. Poll. Judische Presse im 19 Jahrhundert (Aachen. 1967); M. Gilboa. Lexicon 01 Hebrew Periodicals in the Ei&hteenth and Nineteenth Centuries [Hebrew) (Jerusalem. 1992): J. Philippson. "Ludwig Philippson und die Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums." in Das Judentum in der Deutschen Umwelt. 1800-1850: Studien ~ur frugeschichte der Eman~ipation. eds. A. LiebeschUtz und A. Pauker (TUbingen. 1977). pp. 243-91; J. Toury. Die Jiidische Presse im Osterreichischen Kaiserreich. 1802-/918 (TUbingen. 1983); Y. Slutsky. The Russian Jewish Press in the Nineteenth Century [Hebrew) (Jerusalem. 1971); Z. Szajkowski. "ISO Years of the Jewish Press in France." in Yidn in Frankraykh. ed. E. Tcherikower [Yidish) (New York. 1942). pp. 236-306; D. Cesarani. The •Jewish Chronicle" and Anglo-Jewry. 1841-1991 (cambridge. 1994). 2 For the social history of the press. see Newspaper History: From the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day. ed. G. Boyce et al. (London. 1978); H. Hardt, Social Theories 01 the Press: Early German and American Perspectives (Beverly Hills. London. 1979); A. J. Lee. The Origins 01 the Popular Press (London. 1976); R. D. Altick. The English Common Reader: A Social History 01 the Mass Reading Public. 1800-1900 (London and Chicago. 1957); L. Brown. Victorian News and Newspapers (Oxford. 1985); M. Shudson. Discovering the News: A Social History 01 American Newspapers (New York. 1978).

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inter-community communication network served to turn the otherwise abstract concept of the "Jewish People" - as a people dispersed across large areas and lacking a political or religious center - into a living reality. The importance of communication in pre-modem Jewish life and its modem-like character raises the question whether the emergence of the Jewish press in the nineteenth century represented either a continuation of communication patterns or a new phenomenon having only superficial, and misleading, resemblance to traditional communication in Jewish society. To answer this question, the differences between traditional and modem communication in Jewish and non-Jewish societies must be clarified. This step requires analysis of a broader theoretical perspective into the interrelationship of the emergence and development of the press and the process of modernization.

********** There is scholarly consensus that the press, like other mass media, is the product of the modem market society. Modem communication, it is commonly agreed, fills the social vacuum created by industrialization, secularization, bureaucratization, urbanization, and the resulting alienation of the individual from society.3 Modem communication thus substitutes for the traditional social and human relations wrecked by capitalism. Sharing this consensus, scholars are nevertheless divided over whether the modem communication process continues or breaks with traditional communication patterns. One school argues that although modem communication introduces new techniques and acquires greater social importance, it does not bring about a qualitative transformation of pre-modem patterns. Following this techno-quantitative and, essentially, a-historical perspective, Schramm claims that the difference between communication in the modem and pre-modem periods is smaller than is generally assumed. that it "is more in degree than in kind. n Although modem communication is more complex and more extensive. "essentially it does about the same thing." True. communication systems respond to economic and technological change. and develop in its wake. Since they continue to fill the same basic social functions. however. they are not qualitatively transformed by this technological change.4 3 D. McQuail, Mass Communication Theory: An Introduction (London. 1983). pp.I-142. 4 W. Schramm. "Communication Development and the Development Process."

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The opposing school argues that, given the different social environments in which it operates, modem communication is fundamentally different from communication practices in pre-modem life. Taking this social-qualitative and, essentially, historical perspective, Pye argues that: The most striking characteristic of the communication process in traditional societies was that it was not organized as a distinct system sharply differentiated from the social process. Traditional systems lacked professional communicators, and those who participated in the process did so on the basis of their social or political position in the community or merely according to their personal ties of association. Information usually flowed along the lines of the social hierarchy or according to the particularistic patterns of social relations in each community. Thus the process in traditional societies was not independent of either the ordering of social relationships or the content of the communication. s

The contrast in the communication process between traditional and modem societies is a reflection of fundamental differences in the economic sphere. Modem communication develops in parallel with the intensification of the division of labor, which is the defining trait of modem market society. In traditional society, marked by a high degree of economic autarchy, such human activities as economics, politics, and communication were intertwined; they constituted an interlocking, indivisible, organic social process that had not yet been separated into distinct spheres. 8 Accordingly, communication in traditional societies was essentially a spontaneous action, submerged in the normal self-regulation and governance of isolated communities, in which the transmission or/and reception of information acquired but marginal importance. Conversely, information exchange in the modem market society takes on vital importance in all spheres of life, thus turning communication into a foundation of social existence. The division of labor not only fragmented the economy; it also separated social life into a distinct and segregated sphere. With the growing disintegration of modem society, marked by the division of labor and the alienation of the individual from society, in Communications and Political Development, ed. L. Y. Pye (Princeton, N. J., 1963), pp. 33-34; W. Schramm, Men, Messa&e and Media: A Look at Human Communication (New York, 1973), passim. 5 L. Y. Pye, "Models of Traditional, Transitional, and Modern Communications Systems," in Communications and Political Development, p. 24. 8 K. Polanyi, The Great Transformation (New York, Toronto, 1944), part 2: "Rise and Fall of Market Economy," pp. 33-219.

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communication, too, became a distinct and specialized sphere. Communication was adjusted to the rules of the market, in which information is transformed into a commodity, its circulation into a profession, and communicators into professionals. Further, communication became essential for the regular functioning of the market society. It coordinates the isolated activities of alienated individuals and brings them together into a working economy and society. Accordingly, the more modernized a society, the more important the role of communication becomes. The view of modem communication as sprung directly from the groundwork of modernity and, as such, fundamentally different from communication practices in traditional society is propounded by the premier theoretician of communication, Marshal McLuhan. McLuhan argues that like technological progress in general, modem mass media change the individual and the individual's consciousness, effecting a new relationship with the environment and society. Part of a causal circle, these alterations engender new social, political, and economic structures that, in tum, encourage new technologies.? According to McLuhan, the invention of printing is a clear example of such progress, the era beginning with the invention of printing has advanced to the electronic media and turned into "the Gutenberg Galaxy."8 Printing introduced a basic change not only in the sphere of communication - the oral message being replaced by the printed word - but in every aspect of life. Printing anticipated the industrial revolution in the pattern of producing a greater number of identical articles, thus helping to form a new paradigm based on standardization and abstraction that became so basic to modernity. Moreover, the spread of literacy and the new reading habits of a growing public brought about fundamental changes in consciousness and mentality. Printing weakened magic and mysticism, rooted as they were in the oral culture of the past. Rationalization was encouraged because the reading of printed texts requires universal rules, order, and precision, all of which effect causal mental paradigms. The written word with the ability to reread and interpret - impossible in oral communication facilitated the development of scientific thinking. Reading thus developed ? M. McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions 01 Man (New York, 1964), pp. 56-lOS, 157-78, 203-16, 226-33, 246- 64, 275-337. On McLuhan, see J. Miller, Marshall McLuhan (New York, 1971) and S. D. Neil, Clarifying McLuhan (Westport, Conn., 1993). S M. McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making 01 Typographic Man (Toronto, 1962), passim; cf. E. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent 01 Change, vol. 2 (Cambridge, 1979), pp. 683-708.

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the human capacity for abstraction, analysis, and synthesis of disparate elements, their categorization and conceptualization. Such skills laid the groundwork for specialization, which is essential for the development of modem economy, based as it is on the division of labor. In the context of the emerging market society, printing also transformed artistic creation into a commodity - i.e., private property - that fitted into the patterns of capitalism. In contrast to oral communication, reading does not require direct. personal contact between communicator and recipient. Printing thus helps to dissolve the collective social structure and consciousness characteristic of traditional societies, while catalyzing the atomization of society and, in parallel, the development of individualism. Consistent with his distinction between traditional and modern mentality, McLuhan rejects the common notion that modern sensibilities issue from a transcendent "human nature." Rather, he emphasizes the processes of ongoing social and cultural changes caused by technological progress. Accordingly, printing and, later on, the electronic media, continually modify the nature of individuals and society, creating them anew as it were. In the framework of this causal circle, not only does modem society bring about a new communication process, but it is itself born and continually reshaped by this process. The question of the relationship between traditional and modern communication resembles other issues endemic to modem life, perhaps most significantly the ongoing controversy over the origins of modern capitalism. Werner Sombart argued that capitalism was none other than an improvement and intensification of commercial techniques already extant and manifest in traditional societies.9 This quantitative interpretation was rejected by Max Weber, who contended that modem capitalism was unprecedented - i.e., it was qualitatively different from any former social and economic order.lO No wonder, then, that the perception of "modernity" in McLuhan's and Weber's writings shows a great similarity. Both scholars consider bureaucratization, specialization, division of labor, rationalization, and individualization to constitute the basic traits that differentiate modern and traditional societies. Moreover, both consider these characteristics to be the result of mental modifications in western society. McLuhan says that the technology of printing provided the catalyst for this change. Weber points that to a large extent, this change resulted from a psychological transformation W. Sombart, The Quintessence o/Capitalism (New York. 1915), passim. M. Weber, General Economic History (New York. 1961), pp. 207-13; ld., The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit 0/ Capitalism (New York. 1958). pp. 13-46. 8

10

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rooted in Protestantism, which served as the agent of the "spirit of capitalism." In the same tradition, Yurgen Habermas underlines another aspect of the inter-relationship of modem communication, the capitalistic individual, and social consciousness. Modem communication, Habermas argues, emerges with the bourgeois "public sphere," the cultural and intellectual facets of capitalistic civil society. The public sphere is the realm of private individuals, who conceive society in the perspective of their private interests and exercise their sociality as private individuals. Thus, the public sphere - the Enlightenment being one of its early manifestations - is the opposite of the traditional, organic collectivity, in which the individual was submerged in society. Historically, then, modem communication could not have developed before capitalism disintegrated the traditional society, communication serving as a means of transforming the newly emerging, conscious individuals into a public fitting the patterns of the arising market society. 11 The views of Pye, McLuhan, and Habermas constitute, it seems, a well-reasoned argument against the quantitative approach that perceives modem communication processes as a continuation, by more sophisticated means, of pre-modern communication practices. Further to these theories, the difference in the patterns and role of communication between traditional and modem societies can now be historically contextualized. Modern communication is essential for the functioning of an advanced market society, in which communication emerges as a separate, professionalized sphere. It is the result and cause of far-reaching changes brought about by capitalism, affecting both individuals and the society as a whole. As such, modem communication processes serve to reintegrate social functions and individuals. In traditional society, the role of communication was fundamentally different. Playing only a marginal role, communication was absorbed, like other activities, into the regular functioning of the society; it never constituted a profession or a separate sphere. In contrast to modern communication, which is an agent of change, communication in traditional society, like other social functions of the time, served to preserve the social status quo. From a modem perspective, then, traditional communication has an anti-communication orientation; that 11 Y. Habermas, The Structural Transformation 0/ the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a category 0/ BourgeOis Society (Cambridge-Mass., 1989), passim; C. Calhoun, Habermas and the Public Sphere (Cambridge. MA. and London. 1992).

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is. it serves opposite ends than those served by modem communication. The central issue in differentiating between traditional and modem communication. therefore. concerns the purpose of communication. not its methods. If. socially. the communication process serves to maintain a corporate order and a traditional economy. even through modem-like communication practices. then such a communication network cannot be anything but pre-modem. The rise of the press is an example of the fundamental transformation that the communication network underwent in the modem era. The press itself came into being to satisfy the needs of an emerging capitalist bourgeoisie. 12 The economic. social. and cultural existence of the progressively literate bourgeoisie was conditioned on a constant flow of information and knowledge which could not be directly obtained from the immediate social environment as was common in traditional society. In the new society governed by the market. information became a commodity that the emerging bourgeoisie was prepared to buy through the medium of the newspaper. The press forced its way to the center of the public stage following a growing need to fulfill the vacuum left by the disintegration of traditional social structures. The press gradually established itself as an abstract "market place" and developed into an alternative center of social gravity. It took part in defining the social identity of newly discovered individuals who had lost their old traditional ties based on occupation. residence. religion. corporate loyalties. personal allegiance. etc. It served to delineate the boundaries of the new bourgeois public-sphere. which was based on the autonomy of private individuals who aspired to acquire legitimacy in the framework of the impersonal. general terms of the "natural law." The extent of newspapers circulation. can thus be used as an indication of the level of modernization in a given society. Similarly. the spread of the Jewish press in the nineteenth century should be seen in the context of the modernization process of Jewish society. The importance of this press grew with the social and ideological crisis afflicting the traditional Jewish community and with the attempts to redefine the Jewish collective identity. These attempts were based on the perception of the Jew as an emancipated individual. free of its former corporate bonds. Nonetheless. as stated earlier. traditional Jewish communication developed modem-like patterns.

********** 12

See above, notes 2 and 10.

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Two patterns of communication coexisted in pre-modem Jewish society: the typically traditional one, which operated within single communities, and the modem-like one, which may be defined as basically inter-communal. In each community - Jews normally lived in a well-defined Jewish neighborhood - communication was carried on in traditional patterns: mainly oral, based on the corporate way of life, primary relations, social transparency, and the existence of direct, personal contact. It was, however, in the modem-like, inter-communal communication network that the difference between Jewish and non-Jewish traditional communication came to the fore. The Jewish Diaspora - characterized by the geographical dispersion of distant communities, a developed awareness of religious unity based on the halacha, a relatively high degree of literacy, and the commercial nature of the Jewish economy - may be counted among the main factors informing an advanced communication system in the otherwise traditional Jewish world.13 Was the sophistication and scope of such a modern-like communication system in traditional Jewish society an exception to the qualitative rule, an avant garde born of the anomalous situation of Jewish life? Or was this precocity an integral aspect of traditional society and fully consistent, although in a paradoxical manner, with the general qualitative model? The advanced nature of the Jewish pre-modem communication network was made possible, first and foremost, by the commercial and

financial nature of the Jews' traditional economy. In view of this relationship, the question of whether traditional Jewish communication was "modem" appears to be just another aspect of the controversy of whether pre-modem Jewish economy was "capitalistic." The latter is closely related to the broad debate over "the Jewish contribution to the rise of capitalism," whose ramifications reach well beyond Jewish history. Two interpretive traditions have developed concerning the relationship between Jews and capitalism, their outspoken theoreticians being, again, Werner Sombart and Max Weber.14 Sombart depicted the Jews as the 13

These patterns are thoroughly discussed in other chapters of this volume.

14 On the controversy between Sombart and Weber regarding the Jews' role in

the rise of capitalism, see F. Raphael, Judaism et capitalism: Essai sur la controverse entre Max Weber et Werner Sombart (Paris, 1982), passim; T. Olsner, "The Place of the Jews in Economic History as Viewed by German Scholars: A Critical Comparative Analysis," Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 7 (1962): 183-212; E. Redlich, Steeped in Two Cultures (New York, 1971), pp. 94-95; W. Mosse, "Judaism, Jews, and Capitalism: Weber, Sombart, and Beyond," Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 24 (1979): 3-15.

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forebears of capitalism. Jewish commercial and financial activities and their resultant mental, behavioral, and ethical systems, he argued, clearly turned the Jews into a capitalist enclave in European feudal society throughout the middle ages. 1S Weber, who considered Protestants to be the founders of modem capitalism, opposed Sombart with the argument that despite apparent similarities, the medieval Jewish economy lacked the essential traits of modem capitalism. IS The Sombart-Weber controversy has inspired an ongoing scholarly debate that seems to support the Weberian thesis both empirically and theoretically.17 Weber's contention that Jewish pre-modem economic activity cannot be defined as capitalistic in the modem sense still raises the question of how the capitalistic-like, commercial-financial activity of the Jews could theoretically be considered an integral part of pre-modem economy. Among the several models that seek to settle this apparent paradox, the most useful for our purposes is that which depicts the Jews in the role of a "trading people" in pre-modem society. "Trading peoples" are a widespread phenomenon in traditional economies, in which the marginal role of commerce and finance in a mainly-agrarian economy acquired social expression and was filled by outcast strangers, usually ethnic or religious minorities. 18 Further, the commercial and financial activities carried out by these trading peoples usually do not serve the production process. Accordingly, despite its appearance, this phenomenon did not hint at any sort of a rudimentary division of labor. In the highly autarkic medieval economy, which had no 18 M. Weber, General Economic History, passim; Id., The Protestant Ethics, passim. For discussion of Weber's Jewish thesis, see H. Leibschutz, "Max Weber's Historical Interpretation of Judaism," Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 9 (1964): 41-68: F. Raphael, "Max Weber and Ancient Judaism," Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 18 (1973): 41-62. 17 For the theoretical discussion, see J. Katz, Tradition and crisis: Jewish Society at the End o/the Middle Ages (New York, 1971), pp. 64-75: M. Levin, wEconomic Attitudes and Behavior in Jewish Tradition: An Examination of Sombart's Thesis in the Light of Musar Literature and Memoirs" [Hebrew], Zion 43 (1978): 235-63: cf. S. W. Baron, A Social and Religious History o/the Jews, vol. 2 (New York, 1937), pp. 176-77. For the empirical discussion, see H. I. Bloom, The Economic Activities 0/ the Jews 0/ Amsterdam in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (New York, 1937), pp. 219-21: A. Hertzberg, The French Enlightenment and the Jews (New York, 1968), pp. 78-80. 18 S. Kuznets, "Economic Structure and Life of the Jews," in The Jews: Their History, Culture and Religion, ed. L. Finkelstein, vol. 2 (3rd ed., New York, 1960), pp. 1597- 666: K. Grunwald, "Lombards, Cahorsins, and Jews," Journal 0/ European Economic History 4 (1975): 393-98: S. D. Eitzen, "Two Minorities: The Jews of Poland and the Chinese of the Philippines," Journal 0/ Jewish Sociology 10 (1968): 221-40.

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need of intermediate services, the separation of commerce and moneylending from the production process was only normal. As international traders in luxury goods or as local money-lenders for consume purposes, the Jews of medieval Europe formed the classic trading people. 19 It was only with the rise of the market economy that the Jews gradually shed this role and integrated themselves into the capitalist division of labor, to became intermediaries between the town and its villages, contractors engaged in production, etc.20 The modern-like Jewish communication network in the middle ages was immanent to the economic role of the Jews as a trading people. The geographic dispersion of the Jewish communities encouraged the development of an advanced communication network; further, Jewish international commerce and its outcome, the all-Jewish jurisdiction of the halacha and the Jews' higher degree of literacy, enabled the development of more sophisticated communication channels. The dependence of traditional Jewish communication, advanced as much as it was, on the Jews' role as a trading people, however, make it impossible to perceive traditional Jewish communication as a modem phenomenon. Modem communication is the product of capitalism, the division of labor, economic integration, and the market society. In contrast, the modem-like traditional Jewish communication was rooted in the medieval pre-market economy. The economic role of Jews as a trading people was based on ethnic-religious factors rather than on economic ones; it was the autarky characteristic of medieval economy that conditioned and nurtured their international commerce. The social context of medieval Jewish communication further indicates that despite its modem-like practices. it was merely a variant of pre-modem communication. Modem communication emerges alongside civil society and the bourgeois public sphere; both are based on marketoriented, private individuals who had freed themselves of the feudal. corporate bonds. In contrast, pre-modem communication was practiced in the framework of Jewish communities. whose feudal. corporate structure and consciousness obstructed the formation of either the public sphere or a communication network in the modem sense. It is true that together with the strict observance of corporate autonomy of every single 18 Economic History of the Jews. ed. N. Gross (Jerusalem. 1975). pp. 25-48 and passim; M. Arkin. Aspects of Jewish Economic History (Philadelphia. 1975), pp. 37-83. 238-40; see also note 18. 20 Gross, Economic History of the Jews, pp. 55-82 and passim; J. I. Israel, European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, 1550-1750 (Oxford, 1989). passim.

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community, there were inter-communal relations, born of political or religious concerns and exigencies, that encouraged the development of an advanced, more sophisticated communication network. But the more advanced communication system was not born of, and did not reproduce, a modem social dynamic either in the local communities or in the Diaspora as a whole. On the contrary, carried along pre-modem patterns, these communication channels were considered, and developed as, a means to preserve ancestral ways of life. Geographical dispersion largely determined the nature of Jewish communication in the pre-modern world. The Jewish dispersion, however, was not essentially different from that of other non-productive groups in feudal society, such as the aristocracy and the Church, which likewise managed to maintain extensive and efficient channels of communication. 21 Serving as a means of luxury goods trading, moneylending, or feudal domination - and, thus, separated from production - Jewish communication like that of the Church and the aristocracy could not become the basis for a modem communication network. Moreover, as part of religious systems, both the Jews' and the Church's communication networks did not perceive the individual as their point of departure. On the contrary, these systems were concerned with the subordination of the individual to the corporate order. As such, they served as a means of preserving the traditional society, with its anti-communication, autarkic orientation. This trend was particularly evident in traditional Jewish society. Lacking the political sphere, the Jewish Diaspora developed communication, which was largely preoccupied in keeping the community's preeminence over individuals in matters of religious orthodoxy and personal status. The dependence of the advanced patterns of pre-modem Jewish communication on the extensive economic activities of the Jews as a trading people meant that communication took on prominence mainly on the inter-community level. This phenomenon was another facet of the detachment of Jewish international commerce from local production. Modem capitalism, though, emerged not from international trade but from the local division of labor; along with its expansion, the local division of labor produced the infrastructure and the social dynamics necessary for the emergence of a modem communication network. 22 The 21 Sophia Menache, The Vox Dei: Communication in the Middle Ages (New York. 1990), pp. 10-11 and passim. 22 Weber, General Economic History, pp. 151-69; cr. K. Glaman, "European Trade, 1500-1750," in The Fontana Economic History of Europe: The Sixteenth

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fact that in its more developed forms modem communications have, indeed, transformed the world into a "global village" should not blur the local essence of its origins. It can be concluded, then, that the supra-local or inter-community character of pre-modem Jewish communication and its relationship to Jewish international commerce obviated its becoming the basis of a modem communication network. Despite its advanced nature, pre-modem Jewish communication was designed to maintain traditional institutions and values. In traditional societies, the corpus of knowledge and information, like the individual, has not yet separated from society, and its transmission, mainly oral and personal, aims at preserving the traditional system by cultivating the corporate consciousness of its members. In contrast, the modem corpus of knowledge and information is in the first instance of a public nature; it is transformed into a private interest, a private experience, and private property by the print and electronic media. The private individual is not only the basis of modem communication, he is constantly reproduced by it. At the same time and in a paradoxical manner inherent in the market society, the communication process further strengthens the individual's dependence on society.23 The way in which modem communication is at one and the same time a product of society built of alienated individuals and a factor in its reproduction is exemplified by the social modus operandi of the press. The newspaper addresses its readership as a fictitious pUblic, built of separated, private individuals, who by purchasing and reading the newspaper - as individuals - identify with an abstract public that they perceive through the newspaper; the newspaper later becomes a substitute for that public. The question of whether traditional Jewish communication was modem or not can be elucidated further by means of the parameters proposed by Jacob Katz for distinguishing between traditional and modem patterns and phenomena when the empirical difference between them is blurred. For Katz, the crucial question is not whether persons began to behave in what seems to be a modem way. What is important is whether this behavior is guided and legitimized by modern values and ideas or whether it is judged by old standards and perceived as a deviation that should be reproached and then excused. 24 In terms of Katz's guidelines, the and Seventeenth Centuries, ed. C. M. Cipolla (Glasgow, 1974), pp. 427- 526.

23 M. Horkheimer and T. W. Adorno, "Kuturindustrie: Aufk.larung als Massenbetrug,· in Dialektik der AujklG.rung (Frankfurt, 1969), pp. 128-76. 24 J. Katz, Out 0/ the Ghetto: The Social Background 0/ Jewish Emancipation, 1770-1870 (Cambridge, Mass., 1973), pp. 34-36.

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modem-like traditional Jewish communication was still "woven into the old fabric"; it was meant to preserve traditional values and community structures. On the other hand, according to this same criterion, the Jewish press is clearly a modem phenomenon. Not only was it a by-product of the modernization process of Jewish society, but it also consciously served as an agent of transition, particularly for those who sought to replace the corporate Jewish community with a Jewish civil society built of emancipated. private individuals. Modern patterns of Jewish communication were first evidenced with the emergence of a Jewish newspaper during the eighteenthcentury Haskalah, or Enlightenment, which was an expression of the disintegration of the traditional Jewish community and the integration of Jews as private individuals into the market society. The Htdmlah press propagated a new ethos, weltanschauung, and corpus of knowledge, while challenging the very basis and legitimacy of the traditional ones. 25 It served to embrace and to popularize European values. especially general education and the bourgeois ethos, and to adapt them to the distinctive Jewish context. Like the non-Jewish press, the Jewish press formed an illusion of sociality that could be experienced by individuals and that replaced the real sociability of traditional life. The Jewish press was instrumental in establishing a sort of a Jewish public sphere as a substitute for the German bourgeois public sphere, which was not yet accessible to Jews. Informed by bourgeois valUes, the maskilim (the enlightened) attacked the Jewish corporate order that had intertwined all aspects of life into a "holy community." In the spirit of Moses Mendelsohn's teachings, they sought to separate religion from the state and the Jew as an individual from the corporate community, with all its ramifications for education, culture, religion, social life, politics, etc. 28 Indeed, the Jewish press not only addressed the Jew as a private individual, but by individualizing the Jewish ethos and the traditional literary corpus, it also created an illusory community, thus offering a means for practicing Judaism on an individual basis. Language offers a suitable example of how the Jewish press became 25 T. Tsamriyon, HaMeasseJf: The First Modern Periodical in Hebrew [Hebrew) (Tel Aviv, 1988), passim. 28 M. Meyer, The Origins of the Modern Jew: Jewish Identity and European Otlture in Germany, 1749-1824 (Detroit, 1967), pp. 11-57, 115-44; D. Sorkin, The Transformation of German Jewry, 1780-1840 (Oxford, 1987), pp. 82-85; M. Weiner, Jlldische Religion in Zeitallter der Emanzipation (Berlin, 1933), pp. 28-174.

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part and parcel of a new public sphere, and an alternative to the traditional community. Jewish traditional communication was conducted mostly in Jewish languages, such as Aramaic and Hebrew, or in jargons like Yiddish and Ladino. Jewish languages defined the audience of communication as well as the subject and content of messages, which were relevant to the traditional, mainly religious life of the "holy community." The modifications in audience and content brought about by the Jewish press manifested themselves on the language level and in the different stages in the evolution of the Jewish press. The first Jewish modem journal, Measseff - like its less popular predecessor, Koheleth Mussar was published in the early stages of the Haskalah. Written in Hebrew, it preached the general ideas of the European Enlightenment, and resembled the German philosophical and literary journals of the day. This combination presents a fair reflection of the audience and the ideology of Measseff: it addressed Jewish Hebrew readers with a traditional, rabbinical, intellectual background, whom it sought to Europeanize. 9zulamit which succeeded Meassejjhalf a generation later, was written in the German language and marked the transition from the Haskalah journals to the modem Jewish press in the mid-nineteenth century. Ideologically, Shulamit's program remained rooted in the Haskalah, but it further distanced itself from the traditional literary corpus: it propagated the ideas of emancipation, had the non-Jewish public in mind, and even accepted non-Jewish contributors. The adoption of the German language shows that Shulamit operated in a new social environment of the emerging Jewish Germanized bourgeoisie. 27 The same social transformation that informed the rise of the German Jewish press led to the replacement of the Hebrew homily by the German sermon. The homily had been one of the most important communication channels in the traditional Jewish community. Assuming that the audience had knowledge of the Hebrew and Aramaic literary corpus and was familiar with the casuistic-halachic system, the homily was meant to legitimize and reinforce accepted practices and beliefs. The sermon differed from the homily not only in language, structure, and content, but more importantly in its social environment and the audience it addressed.28 Like the journal Shulamit, the sermons attest to the emergence of a bourgeois Jewish public-sphere, representing a clear 27 Sorkin, The Transformation 0/ German Jewry, pp. 81-82; A. Shmuely, wLanguage and Culture: Moses Mendelsohn and the Language Problem in Jewish Literature w [Hebrew], Kivunim 33 (1986): 129-52. 28 Sorkin, The Transformation o/Germany Jewry, pp. 82-85, 98-99.

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break with the corporate, traditional Jewish community life. Their audience was the newly emerging Jewish bourgeoisie, which gradually transformed the traditional community into a Jewish civil society; that is, a community built of conscious individuals, who sought to experience their Jewishness privately, who defined themselves through the Enlightenment (German) culture rather than the traditional Jewish one, and who promoted synagogue service with civil and individual contents and German Protestant-like decorum. The spread of the Jewish press was closely linked to another aspect of the modernization of Jewish life: the politicization of Jewish consciousness.29 In traditional society, politics was not a separate sphere, rather it was inherent in the ruling authority, economic life, religion, etc. It turned into a distinct sphere with the break up of the traditional order and consciousness into many independent spheres, which were reintegrated by the mechanism of the market. Politicization means that politics, once the domain of a specialized elite, becomes the interest of every individual who conceives of public matters through the perspective of his or her private interests. This nature of modem politics is analogous to that of the market, the civil society, or the public sphere inherent in capitalist society: all are common matters regulated by the private interests of the individual. Like the role played by the market in bringing together all individuals in economic life, the press emerged as a "market place" for the political process, serving at once as both a cause and an effect of politicization. The Jewish press, similarly, emerged with the politicization of Jewish life, with the decline of the traditional corporate Jewish community, with the separation of the Jew as a citizen and a person, and with civil emancipation - all of which turned politics into a sphere of its own. The Reform and Emancipation controversies in the mid-nineteenth century exemplify the process in which politicization served as catalyst for the spread of the Jewish press. The debate over community-government, education, and religious reform marked the break in the traditional consensus over the proper Jewish way of life, that of a "holy community," and the split of Jewish society into rival sub-groups. The most conspicuous of these rival sub-groups were the Liberals and the Orthodox, each of which competed for the support of the newly 29 For a discussion of the politicization process In Jewish society, see D. Gutwein, The Divided Elite: Economics, Politics, and Anglo-Jewry, 1882-1917 (Leiden, 1992), pp. 397-412.

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politicized individual community members for its agenda. so Likewise the struggle for Emancipation divided the apparently politically homogenous traditional community. Given the do ut des nature of the proposed emancipation. a dispute arose in the Jewish communities in regard to the price in terms of corporate Jewish autonomy they were willing to pay; the Liberals and the Orthodox stood at the extremes of the ideological spectrum.S1 In the new polarized community. the term "Jew" itself lost its relevance. The controversies that dominated the Jewish public arena forced Jews to identify with one of the rival parties. which were divided along the lines of the Jewish as well as the non-Jewish political and ideological agenda. thus politicizing the former religious-ethnic Jewish identity.s2 The politicization of the community prepared the ground for the emergence of the Jewish press which gradually became one of the main platforms for the political and ideological debates that defined the new Jewish public-sphere. Reading newspapers became a way of participating in Jewish public life. With the disintegration of the "holy community." the press became one of the components of the emerging literary corpus that defined the new Jewish identity. The rise of the Jewish press was effected. then. by the politicization process on two levels: the disintegration of the community into private individuals - who needed the press as a palliative. since the community was becoming more and more an abstract notion for them: and as a means of their reintegration - but divided into rival factions - over the vital issues of the community and contending for hegemony. initially in the community and later in allJewish politics. The close relationship between the development of the Jewish press and the politicization of the community became evident with the appearance of partisan newspapers that propagated the ideas of ideological and political rival factions.ss 30 On the Reform controversy, see M. Meyer, Response to Modernity: A History o/the Reform Movement in Judaism (Oxford, 1988), pp. 10-224.

81 For the inter-community ramifications of the emancipation struggle, see J. Toury, Die Politischen Orientierungen der Juden in Deutschland, von Jena bis Weimar (TUbingen. 1966), pp. 1-109; A. Gilam. The Emancipation 0/ the Jews in En&land (New York. London, 1982). pp. 1-109; Katz, OUt o/the Ghetto. pp. 104-219. 82 This basic premise is developed throughout my book, The Divided Elite. 88 For example in Germany: the mild Reformist Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums, and see Phllippson, "Ludwig Philippson und die Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums; the Orthodox Israelit; M. Breuer, Modernity Within Tradition: The Social History 0/ Orthodox Jewry in the German Empire 1871-1918 (New York, 1990), pp. 167-73, 293-94, 339-S1;the Zionist Jtidische Rundschau; J.

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The role played by the Reform and Emancipation debates, which varied in character from country to country, underscores an important aspect of the Jewish press. This press originated in the internal needs of separate Jewish, mainly western communities, and developed as a local press, preoccupied with local issues. Only at a later stage, analogous to the development of the capitalist, market economy, did it take on a global nature. As the "Jewish problem" became international in character, local Jewish newspapers began to devote more attention and space to events in distant communities, in particular those which suffered anti-Jewish persecution in backward countries.34 The interest in these communities was awakened when the Western Jewish press realized that the global nature of the Jewish problem made its resolution impossible in the framework of a single community; it then transferred its primary local interest in the Jewish Emancipation and civil rights to Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire and, concomitantly to such pan-Jewish issues as antisemitism, migration, and nationalism. Thus, the press became another sphere in which the traditional Jewish solidarity with its theological nature, was transformed into a political solidarity; this transformation proved to be a precondition for the emergence of Jewish nationalism. 35 The distinctly local nature of the Jewish press, evidenced both by language and its main fields of coverage, was the antipode of Jewish traditional communication, characterized by its non-local nature. Accordingly, the similarity between the common interest in distant communities shared by the traditional Jewish communication network and the press is only superficial: the modem-like communication practices of the traditional Jewish society depended on international commerce, practiced by Jews in their capacity as a trading people. Conversely, the global interest of the Jewish press was closely linked to the development of the modem international market. The Jewish press appeared when all-Jewish religious ties declined with the modernization process and were replaced by a new political solidarity that resulted in the gradual politicization of Jewish society. The pan-Jewish coverage of the press, particularly in Western and Central Europe, was not the result of Reinharz, Fatherland or Promised Land: The Dilemma of the German Jew, 1893-1914 (Ann Arbor, 1975), passim. 34 B. Meborach. "The Damascus Blood Libel and the Development of the Jewish Press" [Hebrew), Zion 23-24 (1958-59): 46-65. 35 D. Gutwein, Jewish Diplomacy in the Nineteenth Century: The Besinninss of Jewish Nationalism [Hebrew I (forthcoming).

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the all-Jewish, religious responsibility that informed traditional communication. On the contrary, it emanated from a concern that the persecution of Jews in distant communities would encourage Jew-hatred and so hamper the long last achieved civic rights. Although the social dynamics that informed the transformation of the HaSc.alah press from Meassef to Shulamit can be seen as the foundation of a Jewish press, it was not until the post-Napoleonic Era that the Jewish press significantly expanded and became a force in Jewish life. This was the result of the accelerated pace of Jewish modernization and closer economic, cultural, and political contacts with the non-Jewish society. The ever-increasing exposure of Jews to the non-Jewish surrounding and its culture - legitimized by Haskalah values - enhanced the fragmentation of the former culturally relatively homogenous European Jewry. mainly Ashkenazi, into separate cultural entities. The decline of the "holy community." with its common corpus of Jewish culture, left each community - now composed of private. politicized Jewish individuals, divided by rival ideologies - in a vacuum, which was ready to be filled by the surrounding culture and language. Accordingly, each community had to begin to develop its own local, Jewish culture and identity. Engendered by local conditions, the Jewish press developed and spread as a substitute for the declining traditional all-Jewish sphere by creating a new sense of Jewish solidarity, based on political rather than religious sentiments. The disintegrating effect of the modernization process was evidenced, in a similar way, in the disintegration of the all-Jewish sphere, that of the corporate community, which resulted in individualization. Just as the press was instrumental in re-integrating individuals and creating a Jewish public sphere on a local basis, so it also played a significant role in cultivating modem Jewish political solidarity. The relatively late appearance of the Jewish press affords ample proof that it was not the Diaspora - i.e., the world-wide dispersion of Jews nor their international commerce, both of which effected the modernlike practices of the traditional Jewish communication, that generated Jewish modem communication. Rather, this network developed in the wake of the modernization process and its implications for all aspects of life. when traditional communication practices, despite their relative sophistication, could no. longer serve the new social reality of an ever-modernizing Jewish society.

BRILL'S SERIES IN JEWISH STUDIES 1. COHEN, R. JtwS in Another Environment. Surinam in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century. 1991. ISBN 90 04 09373 7 2. PRAWER, S.S. Israel at VaniD' Fair. Jews and Judaism in the Writings ofW.M. Thackery. 1992. ISBN 90 04 09403 2 3. PRICE, JJ. Jerusalem under Siege. The Collapse of the Jewish State 66-70 C.E. 1992. ISBN 90 04 09471 7 4. ZINGUER, I. L'hebreu au temps de La Renaissance. 1992. ISBN 90 04 09557 8 5. GUTWEIN, D. The Divided Elite. Economics, Politics and Anglo-Jewry, 18821917. 1992. ISBN 90 04 09447 4 6. ERAQI KLORMAN, B.-Z. The JtwS of Yemen in the Nineteenth Century. A Portrait of a Messianic Community. 1993. ISBN 90 04 09684 1 7. BEN-DOV, N. Agnon's Art of Indirection. Uncovering Latent Content in the Fiction of S.Y. Agnon. 1993. ISBN 90 04 09863 1 8. GERA, D. Judea and Mediterranean Politics (219-162 B.C.). ISBN 90 04 09441 5. In preparation 9. COUDERT, AP. 7he Impact of the Kabbalah in the 17th Century. ISBN 90 04 09844 5. In preparation 10. GROSS, A. Iberian Jtwryjrom Twilight to Dawn. The World of Rabbi Abraham Saba. 1995. ISBN 90 04 10053 9 12. AHRONI, R. TheJtwS of the British Crown Colo1!J of Aden. History, Culture, and Ethnic Relations. 1994. ISBN 9004 10110 1 13. DEUTSCH, N. The Gnostic Imagination. Gnosticism, Mandaeism and Merkabah Mysticism. 1995. ISBN 90 04 10264 7 14. ARBEL, B. Trading Nations. Jews and Venetians in the Early Modem Eastern Mediterranean. 1995. ISBN 9004 10057 1 15. LEVENSON, D. Julian and Jerusalem. The Sources and Tradition. 1996. ISBN 90 04 105441 16. MENACHE, S. (ed.). Communication in the Jtwish Diaspora. The Pre-Modem World. 1996. ISBN 9004 10189 6 17. PARFITT, T. The Road to Redemption. The Jews of the Yemen 1900-1950. 1996. ISBN 90 04 10544 1