240 r Libby Garshowitz
- The word kima occurs also in Amos 5:8 in combination with kesil, Orion, as it
does in Job 9:9, 38:31; Isaiah 13:10. In BT Berakhot 58b Samuel said: “Were it not for the
heat of Orion the world could not endure the cold of Pleiades and were it not for the cold
of Pleiades the world could not endure the heat of Orion,” which can be understood as
alluding to Kima’s alternating passion and cruelty toward Sahar. Furthermore, Samuel
puns on the word kima, referring to it as “about a hundred (ke-me’a) stars,” Kima’s hand-
maidens or perhaps the many trials Sahar must endure. - Along with these words Kima states that the status of “kind words” (nedivot) of
“spiritual love” (hishqam) are found in “their books, filled with innocence (tom) and
integrity (yosher), and reverence (yir’a) and humility ( ̔anava).” The editor, Yona David,
in his notes to this chapter and these lines, 160, understands “their books” to refer to the
books of love written by members of the “half-breed society,” that is, those of inferior
intellect. He states in the same note that Schirmann emends the text to read “our books”
(sefareinu). It is possible that if the correct reading is “their books” (sifreihem), then Jacob
ben Elazar may be subtly continuing his ridicule of them; if the emendation “our books”
(sefareinu) is followed, then our author could possibly be extolling Jewish literature to
his fellow Jews who may no longer be familiar with them, an accusation shared by his
contemporaries. However, Jacob ben Elazar may be casting an indirect jibe at the works
of Arab love poetry, which he intended to do, and therefore the reading “their books”
should be retained. - On the didactic and moralizing spirit of love poetry, see Catherine Léglu, “Sa-
tirical and Moralising Poetry,” in The Troubadours: An Introduction, ed. Sarah Kay and
Simon Gaunt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 47–65. - For female mastery of the martial arts see Decter, Iberian Jewish Literature, 140–41,
who, citing Tova Rosen as well as other sources, briefly reviews the possible roots of the
themes of “cross-dressed knights” and female militancy. - See Moses ibn Ezra, Sefer ha- ̔iyyunim ve-ha-diyyunim, ed. A. S. Halkin (Jerusa-
lem: Mekitse Nirdamim, 1975), 277–79.