In the magnificent Mishneh Torah in the Kaufmann collection in Budapest (Budapest,
Academy of Sciences, Kaufmann A 77/I–IV), illuminated most probably in Lorraine in
the late 13th century, motifs familiar from Christian iconography are used by the Jewish
artist in relation to the text in ingenious ways. Samson, the Bible’s preeminent Nazirite,
appears rending the lion in juxtaposition to the Laws of the Nazirite; a depiction of David
harping is juxtaposed with the text’s description of the instruments used in the Jerusalem
Temple. The Sacrifice of Isaac, with the ram substituting for Isaac, appears immediately
following the section of the Code dealing with “sacrifices of substitution.” Adam and Eve
are represented in the section of the book dealing with trusts and deposits, as theirs was
the first violation of the law that prohibits the use of an object entrusted for safekeeping.
Such “in-jokes” and other scholarly plays indicate that the patron and the illuminator of
this manuscript shared the learned culture of northern French Jewry. The unexpected
figure of Judah Maccabee in full knightly armor on the folio describing the rabbinic
“chain of tradition” may represent a covert reminder to Jews that their ancient heroes
were both sages and military leaders—that there was a “knightly virtue” and “courtesy”
both in the study of the Torah and in the battle fought in the name of God. Medieval Jews
certainly viewed crusaders as “false knights” for the massacres they inflicted upon
innocent Jewish communities. Judas Maccabee, here juxtaposed with the “heroes” of
rabbinic culture, is the example par excellence of the Jewish “true and perfect knight.”
A northern French miscellany of the late 13th century, now in the British Library
(Add. 11639), has several series of full-page illustrations of biblical themes, some
exquisitely drawn and colored. Though the book has been rearranged over time, so that
the illuminations now appear random, one series in particular may be “read” as a unit that
forms an iconographic parallel to the dynastic-messianic-eschatological-thrust of an
Avodah (one of the liturgical texts recited on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement)
written by Yose ben Yose; the text figures prominently in the manuscript. The Avodah,
which describes the service of the High Priest in the Jerusalem Temple on Yom Kippur,
may have had special significance for a priestly patron. A similar theme is to be found in
the magnificent Pentateuch now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, illuminated at Poligny ca.
1300 (B.N. Heb. 36, fol. 283v), in which a full-page miniature of a menorah has,
intertwined in its branches, depictions of a number of the same themes found in the
British Library miscellany. Here, since the design is a sort of “shorthand,” the dynastic-
messianic-eschatological theme is more explicit.
What is most telling about these manuscripts is not their quality or style, or even their
iconography, but the fact that they are effectively the sole relics of medieval Jewish
material culture. The marks of use that they bear offer proof that they were handled
familiarly and often. In a given manuscript, the dedication inscription may testify that the
book was offered as a wedding present from a bride to her groom, a second layer of
“testimony” may be the wine stains on the pages containing the liturgy for the
Sanctification (Kiddush) of the holiday over wine, and a third layer may be the marks and
deletions of the censor. These volumes have traveled through both joy and sorrow; they
provide an eloquent metaphor for the situation of the Jews as a minority culture in
medieval France.
Marc M.Epstein
[See also: CLOTHING, JEWISH; JEWS; MANUSCRIPTS, PRODUCTION AND
ILLUMINATION]
Gutmann, Joseph. Hebrew Manuscript Painting. New York: Braziller, 1978.
The Encyclopedia 1101