CHAPTER THIRTEEN

INTRODUCTORY POEMS (R’SHUYOT) TO THE OF THE HAFṬARAH IN PRAISE OF JONATHAN BEN UZZIEL

לשמשון לוייא מתורגמן דנבייא The two most popular talmudic legends about Jonathan ben Uzziel (first century B.C.E.–first century C.E.) relate to his study of and to his translation of Torah. Both stories contain supernatural motifs that endeared them to the people and eventually led to their inclu- sion in introductory poems, r’shuyot, to the targum of the haftaroṭ . The first story1 tells that Jonathan ben Uzziel delivered the Targum of Prophets as received from the mouths of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi;2 and the entire Land of trembled on that day. A heav- enly voice (bat-qol) called out, “Who is it that revealed my secrets unto mankind?” To which Jonathan boldly responded, “It is I who revealed your secrets. Surely you realize that I did it neither for personal honor nor for the honor of my father’s house—but that there not increase dispute among Israel” ( ad loc.: over the interpretation of obscure biblical passages). He further wished to reveal the targum of the Hagiographa, but the heavenly voice called out, “Enough!” And why was that? Because it contains the fixed time (for the coming) of the Messiah (Rashi: in the Book of Daniel).3

1 b. Megillah 3a: תרגום של נביאים יונתן בן עוזיאל אמרו מפי חגי זכריה ומלאכי ונזדעזעה ארץ ישראל ארבע מאות פרסה על ארבע מאות פרסה יצתה בת קול ואמרה מי הוא זה שגילה סתריי לבני אדם עמד יונתן בן עוזיאל על רגליו ואמר אני הוא שגיליתי סתריך לבני אדם גלוי וידוע לפניך שלא לכבודי עשיתי ולא לכבוד בית אבא אלא לכבודך עשיתי שלא ירבו מחלוקת בישראל ועוד ביקש לגלות תרגום של כתובים יצתה בת קול ואמרה דייך מאי טעמא משום דאית ביה קץ משיח. 2 Also compare the Aramaic poem from Maḥzor Vitry, par. 168, in the Appendix below. The legend ignores the chronological gap of over 500 years between these prophets and the tana; for our present purposes, we, too, suspend disbelief. 3 I will not deal here with the obvious problem, namely, that in fact there are tar- gumim to the entire Hagiographa except Daniel and -Nehemiah, presumably because they were originally composed partially in Aramaic. The talmudic story would 168 chapter thirteen

The second story speaks of the eighty disciples of (first century B.C.E.–first century C.E.), the greatest of whom was Jonathan ben Uzziel and the smallest of whom, . “It was said of Jonathan ben Uzziel that, when he was involved in the study of Torah, any bird that flew over him was immediately burnt” (Rashi: from the fire of the divine angels that gathered about, to listen to his exposition of the Torah).4 Introductory poems to the haftaraḥ as collected from Maḥzor editions and manuscripts were first listed by Leopold Zunz in his Literaturgeschichte der Synagogalen Poesie.5 In that monumental work, Zunz merely cited opening and closing phrases of poems; and in this -Let me obtain permis“) איסב רשות מכולכון manner, he lists the poem sion from all of you. . .”) among three Aramaic introductory poems for the m’turg’man (i.e., translator) of the festival haftaraḥ . Zunz noted that his sources for this poem are Maḥzor Vitry and some (unidenti- fied) French manuscripts. He divided this short poem into its three components and elsewhere offered a probable date of composition as the Geonic period.6 . . . איסב רשות מן קדם The other two poems listed by Zunz are (”. . .Let me obtain permission from the exalted God“) אלהא רמה .(”. . .If my mouth were all musical strings“) . . . אילו פמי כל נימי and Yet a fourth composition listed by Zunz and recognized by Bacher as Let“) אנקוט בריש הרמא מקמי רחמא belonging to the same genre, is me first obtain authority from before the Merciful One. . .”). 7

seem to apply the prohibition to the entire K’tūvim. Yet, it is well-known that frag- ments of two exemplars of Targum to Job have survived among the Dead Sea Scrolls and antedate Jonathan ben Uzziel by some 200 years. Likewise, another talmudic story relates that Rabban Gamliel I (early first century C.E., and possibly a younger contem- porary of Jonathan ben Uzziel) tried to suppress an existent Targum of Job (b. Shabbat 115a; m. Soferim 5:15; and elsewhere). 4 b. Sukkah 28a; b. Bava Batra 134a: שמונים תלמידים היו להלל הזקן . . . גדול שבדולם רבן יוחנן בן עוזיאל קטן שבכולם יוחנן בן זכאי אמרו עליו על יוחנן בן עוזיאל בשעה שיושב ועוסק בתורה כל עוף שפורח עליו מיד נשרף. On the comparison of Torah to fire, see, for example, Jeremiah 23:29, “Behold, My word is like fire, declares the Lord. . .,” and the many rabbinic homilies on this and similar verses. 5 (Berlin, 1865), pp. 79–80. 6 Ibid., p. 9. 7 Ibid., p. 569, item no. 11, composed by a poet named Yosef, of unknown date. In an article to which we will refer at length, Wilhelm Bacher gives the full text of this introductory poem: “Alte aramaische Poesien zum Vortrage des Haphtara-Targum,”