The Convergence of Judaism and Islam. Religious, Scientific, and Cultural Dimensions

Jewish Parody and Allegory in Medieval Hebrew Poetry in Spain r 215

of his predecessors and contemporaries. As the reader quickly discovers,
Jacob ben Elazar’s Sefer Meshalim is more than an entertaining book of
tales. It is a book whose alternate name, “Love Stories,” marries love and
fantasy, fun and frolic, parody and satire. This essay, then, focuses on Ja-
cob ben Elazar’s love poetry in Mahbarot Seven and Nine, in which are
found lusty tales of women besting men in battle, resourcefulness, and
poetic creativity.

Mahberet Seven: Yoshefe and His Two Loves

The protagonist of Mahberet Seven is Yoshefe, (’ish yafeh, l. 4),^34 whose
well-to-do parents, like the aristocrats around them, have lost both status
and wealth because of the rise of evildoers (l. 6). Stricken with wanderlust
and perhaps wanting a better life than he is now experiencing due to his
reduced social status, Yoshefe is provided with rations for a long journey
from his land of Hasar Susa, the inheritance of Simeon’s descendants.^35
During his travels, he joins bands of roving drunkards and gluttons and is
quite content to eat and drink with them and tell tall tales, all in rhymed,
metered poetry. Upon their arrival in magnificent Cairo (ll. 48–63), whose
beauty Yoshefe extols with even more elegance (u-misrayim me-hullala,
be-hura me-’ahoteha), the scruffy young man is led to a marketplace, ring-
ing with the sounds of music, where the wares are enchanting women. He
singles out the most beautiful gazelle (ll. 69–75) of all, whose eyes inflame
him and captivate his soul. He cannot, however, purchase her until he
resolves his slovenly state. That being done, he purchases her with money
that he has hidden in his torn garments. With an agent’s help, he also pro-
cures a magnificent house, surrounded by courtyards, waterfalls, lavish
gardens, and stone lions spouting cascades of water, the typical backdrop
found in contemporary Hebrew and Arabic literature and frequently the
setting for wine soirées. He takes this most beautiful and chaste Yefefia
as his lover (ra ̔ya),^36 ensconces her in his house, and arouses her desire
(hisheqah), which she pretends to rebuff, warning: “My friend (yedidi), my
eyes have spread a net,” the first hint to the reader that women will take
charge of both their bodies and voices. Yoshefe is consumed with pas-
sion and stung by her arrows of love (ll. 113–19). The virginal Yefefia has
entrapped her lover with metaphorical weapons of war (u-milhama meqa-
ddeshet), instead of the reverse, and she succumbs to his charms, appar-
ently without the benefit of sanctification through marriage. Henceforth