Jewish Aramaic Poems from Byzantine Palestine and Their Setting / שירת בני מערבא

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Jewish Aramaic Poems from Byzantine Palestine and Their Setting / שירת בני מערבא — היבטים בעולמה של שירה עלומה
Autor: קיסטר, מנחם ; Kister, Menahem
É parte de: תרביץ, 2006-10, Vol.עו (א/ב), p.105-184
Descrição: The book, Jewish Palestinian Aramaic Poetry from Late Antiquity, by M. Sokoloff and Y. Yahalom (Jerusalem, 1999), reveals new dimensions of Jewish literature in Late Antiquity. Many of the poems in this book, including many which have not been published before, share not only a common dialect (Palestinian Jewish Aramaic) and poetic structure, but also a common vocabulary and phraseology, literary style and religious ideals. Therefore, we may treat these poems as comprising a distinct corpus and compare it to other literary corpora. This article discusses several features of the newly discovered corpus, particularly literary features, cultural context, and textual and lexical problems. One feature apparent in several poems is the blatant reliance on Greek loan-words, including religious terms that are calques of the Hebrew (קיריס,אנגלי מרומא [as an epithet for God], נומוס = Torah). These terms may be found in the Targum of Psalms as well. The abundant use of Greek loan-words does not necessarily reflect an intimate acquaintance with Greek culture (either pagan or Christian); nor do the Greek words have any specific function. (The article deals with several Greek or supposedly Greek words in this corpus.) The article is divided into nine parts. In each part, particular poems of the corpus are discussed in the context of other literary works. The first part seeks to demonstrate how the refrains found in some of the poems emerged from repeated prose lines in targumim and midrashim. It also explores the relationship between the conventions of presenting disputations in Syriac literature, in Jewish Aramaic poetry, and in Aramaic disputes written in prose, and puts several poems in a broader literary context. Thus, for example, the mutual accusations brought before the judge by the body and soul in Poem 57 may show the continuity of an ancient tradition of expressing philosophical views concerning body and soul in the form of a legal suit between them. Another example is Poem 58, possibly a remnant of a genre of Jewish literature of Late Antiquity, which is almost unknown: it is a poem reflecting upon the power of death, in which death and the underworld are described without mentioning the Afterlife or referring to God. Phrases similar to those used in this poem may be found in other poems in the present corpus. In these poems, however, they are conflated with more 'rabbinic' notions of death and Afterlife. The second part of this article compares two versions of Poem 64, one of which is not included in the book, with the 'blessing for the mourners' (birkat avelim; BT Ketubot 8b). The conclusions are interesting regarding both the Aramaic poem and its amoraic and tannaitic predecessors. The section deals with parallels to formulae related to the deceased which occur in other sources (including inscriptions). The third part deals with the theme of consolatio per exemplum, namely, the consolation which comes from the knowledge that all human beings, great as they may be, have had to experience death. This theme occurs in the Bible, undergoes further development in Ben Sira and may be found also in non-Jewish Hellenistic sources. Understanding the importance of this theme in many ancient works is illuminating for the study of several midrashim in which it is used in new contexts, and of a midrash which takes issue with the genre and its central idea. The fourth part deals with two passages in which the Aramaic poems are significant for the reconstruction of the original form of existing midrashim. The fifth part examines the relationship of Poem 40 to various forms of Islamic ḫadith, which contain an argument between Adam and Moses. Moses blames Adam for his death and Adam retorts. The discussion concerns the theological and literary background of this tradition from the Jewish literature of the Second Temple period to the Islamic context. Poem 40 seems especially instructive in assessing the emergence of the numerous versions of the ḫadith. The sixth part treats descriptions of the splitting of the Red Sea in Poems 2 and 3. Poem 3 is compared with the Qurʾan, which apparently depends on earlier Jewish tradition. The article argues that Poem 2 reflects a secondary version of a tradition preserved in the late midrashic works, Midrash Viyyisa'u and Midrash Hallel. A motif in Poem 2 — the argument that Adam was created after other creatures, and therefore, is inferior to them and they need not obey him — goes back to traditions preserved in the Life of Adam and Eve. Also discussed is the relationship of the tradition preserved in the Life of Adam and Eve to a passage of Philo and to a poem of Yose ben Yose (as well as the Syriac poet Ephrem and Islamic traditions). The seventh part covers the more general question of whether the poems in this book are more 'mythological' than rabbinic midrashim, as claimed by Sokoloff and Yahalom. The author contends that there is no substantial difference in this respect between the Aramaic poems and the midrashim: the poems contain more dramatic expressions than rabbinic midrashim, but the latter are, by and large, no less daring than the former. The 'mythological' content of rabbinic midrashic passages is not always apparent because of the manner in which it is presented, namely, as terse bits of biblical interpretation. The very form of rabbinic midrash plays down its 'mythological' side. Comparing midrashim with the more open form of expression found in these Aramaic poems may be instructive for the midrashim no less than for the poems. Poems 2, 3 and 11 are especially relevant in this context. Poem 33 may demonstrate the difference in dramatization between the two genres. In the eighth part, the interrelationship among poems within this corpus is discussed. The textual fluidity of many of the poems is especially important. The ninth part consists of lexical remarks: expressions and idioms and some specific lexicographical notes to the poems. In addition to the specific subjects treated in these nine parts, the article illustrates the continuity in content, literary form and vocabulary in literature stretching from the Second Temple period through rabbinic writings, early piyyut and the Aramaic poems, and on to early Islamic traditions. Throughout the article, specific passages are explained and many textual problems are discussed. An index of passages and words explained in this article is appended.
Editor: הוצאת ספרים ע"ש י"ל מאגנס
Idioma: Hebraico

Jewish Aramaic Poems from Byzantine Palestine and Their Setting / שירת בני מערבא — היבטים בעולמה של שירה עלומה

קיסטר, מנחם ; Kister, Menahem

הוצאת ספרים ע"ש י"ל מאגנס

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