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Beauty and the Beast: On a Doe, a Devilish Hunter, and Jewish-Christian Polemics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2020

Sara Offenberg
Sara Offenberg*
Affiliation:
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
*
offenbergs@gmail.com
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Abstract

Hunting scenes are common in Jewish illuminated manuscripts and are understood as allegories of the Jew, usually represented as a hare or a deer, being persecuted by the Christian, shown as a hunter and his dogs. This article will discuss a hunt scene from the Worms Maḥzor, an Ashkenazic illuminated prayer book produced in 1272, probably in Würzburg. At the top of folio 130r, an illumination of the piyyut (liturgical poem) “ʾAyelet ʾahavim” (the loving hind, or doe) for Shavuot displays a deer being hunted by a devilish hunter and his dogs. Examining the illustration in the context of contemporary textual evidence, I shall demonstrate that the deer in the Worms Maḥzor portrays the Torah itself being persecuted by the hunter, who can be understood not only as a Christian or Esau, but also as Jesus.

Type
Research Article
Information
AJS Review , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , November 2020 , pp. 269 - 285
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Copyright
Copyright © Association for Jewish Studies 2020

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Footnotes

I am indebted to Daniel J. Lasker and Katrin Kogman-Appel for reading earlier drafts of this paper and making numerous suggestions and comments. Thanks are also due to Leor Jacobi and the anonymous reader, whose comments helped me to refine many of my arguments.

References

1. That said, it should be mentioned that Leor Jacobi recently published on medieval Jewish hawking and falconry practices that appear to have been marginal; see Jacobi, Leor, “Jewish Hawking in Medieval France: Falconry, Rabbenu Tam, and the Tosafists,” Oqimta 1 (2013): 421–504Google Scholar; Jacobi, “The Rabbis on the Hunt: From Palestine to Poland,” in Falconry: Its Influence on Biodiversity and Cultural Heritage, ed. Urszula Szymak and Przemysław Sianko (Bialystok: Podlaskie Museum, 2016), 169–86.

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19. Tripartite Mahzor, fols. 49–50.

20. As in the Hammelburg Maḥzor, Darmstadt, Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, Cod. Or. 13, fol. 150v, produced in 1348.

21. On artistic ways of writing such piyyutim in this manuscript see David Stern, “ʻJewish’ Art and the Making of the Medieval Prayerbook,” Ars Judaica 6 (2010): 23–44.

22. Madeline Harrison Caviness, “Reception of Images by Medieval Viewers,” in A Companion to Medieval Art: Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe, ed. C. Rudolph (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006), 71–72.

23. חשו גבנונים לקדם לסיני / חמד אלהים לשבתו הר-סיני

24. On the relation between the making of Torah codices in Ashkenaz and Jewish-Christian relations see David Stern, The Jewish Bible: A Material History (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017), 105–26.

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33. My translation. ואשאל היש תורה חדשה. בכך שרפו גליליך

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37. According to Gerson Cohen, the tradition of Esau and Edom as symbolizing Rome can be traced back to Rabbi Akiva (cf. Genesis Rabbah 65:21). This association with Rome was turned toward Christianity during the Middle Ages. According to Cohen, medieval Jews believed that “Esau might exchange his eagle for a cross, but he was Esau nonetheless.” Cohen, “Esau as Symbol,” 29. See also Offenberg, “Expressions of Meeting the Challenges,” 113–18; Yuval, Israel Jacob, Two Nations in Your Womb: Perceptions of Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006)Google Scholar.

38. Schubert, “Wikkuach-Thematik.”

39. Kaufmann Ms. A 388, vol. II, fol. 12v, Magyar Tudomanyos Academia, Budapest. The entire manuscript is available online: http://kaufmann.mtak.hu/en/ms388a/ms388a-coll1.htm. On this image see Rodov, Ilia, “Dragons: A Symbol of Evil in European Synagogue Decorations,” Ars Judaica 1 (2005): 71Google Scholar.

40. Such as the example from the Codex Manesse, produced in Zurich in the years 1305–1340, displaying Konrad von Suonegge (1220–1241) hunting a deer. Cod. Pal. Germ 848, fol. 202v, Heidelberg Universitätsbibliothek. On Codex Manesse, see the website http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/cpg848 and the facsimile Codex Manesse: Die Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift, Kommentar zum Faksimile des Cod. Pal. Germ. 848 der Univeritätsbibliothek Heidelberg, hrsg. von Walter Koschorreck und Wilfried Werner (Frankfurt: Insel-Verl., 1981).

41. Tosefta Avodah Zarah 6:4; Talmud Yerushalmi Avodah Zarah 3:33.

42. Neusner, Babylonian Talmud.

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52. Eisenberg, “Reading Medieval Religious Disputation,” 38–40; Hames, “Reason and Faith,” 276–77, 281n39.

53. Azriel, Abraham Bar, ʾArugat ha-bosem, ed. Urbach, Ephraim (Jerusalem: Meḳiẓe Nirdamim, 1939), 1:256–58Google Scholar. A similar description is found in Gaon, R. Saʿadiah, ʾEmunot ve-deʿot, ed. Kapheh, Joseph (Kiryat Ono: Mekhon Mosheh, 1999)Google Scholar, treatise 8, chap. 5, 245–46.

54. A similar story appears in the book Toledot Yeshu. Schäfer, Peter, Meerson, M. and Deutsch, Yacob eds., Toledot Yeshu (‘The Life Story of Jesus’) Revisited: A Princeton Conference (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011)Google Scholar.