214 r Libby Garshowitz
Jacob ben Elazar continues: “My Book of Tales’ intent and my dialogues
will respond to Arabs who the Sacred Tongue assail, vaunting their bold-
ness over me, saying, only in their language can tales be told!” (ll. 11–14)
According to these naysayers, only the Arabic language can “praise,
ridicule, arouse love, mock” (ll. 16–17), to the extent that even Jacob ben
Elazar’s fellow Jews are convinced that the Arabic language is superior:
“They [the Arabs] have seduced my people and have so deceived them
that indeed [my people] say that the Ishmaelites silence all others with
their flattery and there are no words as pleasing [ ̔arevim] as the Arabs’“
( ̔aravim, ll. 20–21). Sefer Meshalim, then, is designed to remove the
stigma of the “primitive nature” of Hebrew, which ostensibly shames his
people.^29 He will reveal that the Hebrew language has not fallen into de-
suetude, since by zealously “posing riddles [hiddot] and allegorizing”^30 (l.
26) “whose content and good taste the astute [’ish maskil] will surely un-
derstand” [bin yavin, l. 4], his fellow Jews will see what they have hitherto
neglected. And, indeed, Sefer Meshalim rings out with song, ridicule, par-
ody, satire, an abundance of puns, alliterations, praise, love, and entertain-
ment [sha ̔ashu ̔im] (introduction, ll. 2, 11). Jacob ben Elazar challenges
the Arabs to retract their derision of the Hebrew language since he will
demonstrate its superiority and exaltedness because God has endowed
humankind with intelligence, perception, and speech. And if, indeed, the
Hebrew language has lost some of its luster, Jacob ben Elazar will invigo-
rate it.
The pivotal narrator in each mahberet of this work is a foreigner, as
found in Arabic literature, in this case Lemuel ben Itiel, of proverbial
fame,^31 storyteller par excellence (ll. 31–35), who is our author’s own alter
ego. Ben Elazar has inserted his own name, Jacob, into his introduction,
abjuring plagiarizers (zar) to distance themselves from his work, on the
pain of death, a most unlikely eventuality for vulnerable Jews living as
dhimmis in Andalusian Spain or who were migrating elsewhere because
of persecution and destruction.^32 There are no central characters in this
composition as in Alharizi’s Sefer Tahkemoni. What is found throughout,
however, is a medley of subjects that have little connection to the ritu-
als of Judaism per se, but as the reader will see, there is a strong advo-
cacy of its teachings (torot), moralizing, and the quest for wisdom and
the eschewing of treachery and violation of norms.^33 Jacob ben Elazar’s
effusive praise and thanks to God and his wondrous creations reverberate
throughout this composition, as found in the sacred and secular poetry