224 r Libby Garshowitz
Masos is young and untutored in the art of love and “has set his soul
(nafsho) to death / but the day will come when passion arouses his zest”
(u-vo ’esh ’ahava tiv ̔ar, ll. 426–27), hopes Sippor, like the love martyr who
struggles incessantly with her/his passion, alternately flagging and surg-
ing. For the present Masos is content with platonic love, in Sippor’s words
(ve-lu qirvat yedid li tov, tehi nafshi ha-lo’ mis ̔ar, l. 433), and Sippor, too,
must yield for the present. Perhaps Masos’s youth and inexperience have
led him to act wildly and irrationally when he appears to defend Yoshefe,
yet he has the ability and means to furnish Yoshefe’s love nest in Cairo!
Jacob ben Elazar ridicules Masos’s phlegmatic character as he turns hot
and cold, tearful and exuberant, in his relationships with both Yoshefe
and Sippor. In this mahberet, ben Elazar also appears to mock courtly
love with its martyr complex and ascetic nature, since it is not consonant
with Jewish tradition as is, supposedly, harmonious, monogamous mar-
ried love, which, if faithful, poses no source of interest to him in this
parodic, satiric work. One’s wife should be of no legitimate concern to
anyone but her husband. It is only the adulterous wife or a chaste young
maiden who interests authors and readers of this piquant literature. In the
case of Masos and Sippor, married love concluded in abstinence, although
it had been a case of love at first sight, in each other’s company for a year!
Perhaps Yefefia and Yemima subliminally undermined this relationship
as they stoked Sippor’s curiosity and wonder with their tales of women’s
wiles and perfidy. One can only surmise the reason for this—jealousy and
thus betrayal of their protegée. But if Sippor entertains some ray of hope,
so should the reader.
Summary of Mahberet Seven
In the tale of “Yoshefe and His Two Loves,” Jacob ben Elazar introduced
into his love poetry a rare phenomenon prior to the advent of the maqāma
genre: women’s voices, somewhat stilled in biblical literature and medieval
Hebrew love poetry but quite prevalent throughout Songs of Songs. These
voices at times are equally strident and loving as they express both desire
and reserve. Our author has allowed the women to embody contrived
modesty through their provocation of their stricken lovers as Yefefia and
Yemima pursue Yoshefe and Sippor tries to revitalize Masos’s love through
plaints about the “courtliness” of her “courtier.” While handsome Yoshefe