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The Theology of Jacob Ben El'azar's Hebrew Version Of Alan VERSKIN Columbia University THE THEOLOGY OF JACOB BEN EL‘AZAR’S HEBREW VERSION OF IBN AL-MUQAFFA‘’S KALILAH WA-DIMNAH1 RÉSUMÉ Kalilah va-dimnah, de Jacob ben Éléazar (mort en 1233), est une version hébraïque du célèbre texte arabe de conseils pour les princes écrit par ‘Abdallah Ibn al- Muqaffa‘ (mort vers 756), qui présente un point de vue sceptique envers la religion organisée et qui glorifie le pouvoir de la raison indépendante — position clairement opposée aux enseignements des rabbins. C’était un des nombreux textes arabes non- juifs qui posaient un problème à deux niveaux aux médiateurs culturels qui voulaient transmettre la littérature arabe aux lecteurs juifs. (1) Les traducteurs de l’arabe vou- laient créer une expression hébraïque qui préserverait l’élan et l’esprit de l’original et montrerait la richesse de la langue hébraïque. Pour atteindre cet objectif, Ben Éléazar employait des réarrangements créatifs de citations bibliques en prose rimée. Quelques-unes des citations ne sont que de l’ornementation littéraire, mais il y en a d’autres qui sont des figures de style intertextuelles dont le sens doit être déterminé à partir de leurs contextes bibliques originaux. (2) Ben Éléazar espérait aussi judaï- ser le contenu de l’œuvre d’Ibn al-Muqaffa‘. Son travail est en fait une réinterpré- tation du texte original. Ben Éléazar formule une réponse complexe et subtile, bien qu’évidemment rabbinique, aux enseignements d’Ibn al-Muqaffa‘, et il offre sa propre théorie de la nature du mal humain, des problèmes de la théodicée, et de la nature du sort décrété par Dieu. Il adapte et transforme la Kalilah wa-dimnah d’Ibn al-Muqaffa‘, texte de pragmatisme politique, en un texte d’édification religieuse. ABSTRACT Jacob ben El‘azar’s (d.1233) Kalilah va-dimnah is a Hebrew version of the famous eighth-century Arabic work of advice for princes by ‘Abdallah Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ (d.c. 756), who expressed a skeptical view of organized religion and celebrated the power of unaided human reason, a view clearly at odds with the teachings of the rabbis. It was one of the many Arabic non-Jewish texts which posed a dual set of problems for cultural mediators who wished to bring Arabic literature to a Jewish 1. I am grateful to Andras Hamori for having commented upon a previous version of this paper. This paper was completed in 2007 and its bibliography has not been subsequently updated. Revue des études juives, 170 (3-4), juillet-décembre 2011, pp. 465-475. doi: 10.2143/REJ.170.3.2141803 994816_REJ_2011-3-4_06_Verskin.indd4816_REJ_2011-3-4_06_Verskin.indd 446565 221/12/111/12/11 009:159:15 466 THE THEOLOGY OF HEBREW KALILAH WA-DIMNAH audience. (1) Translators from Arabic felt the need to create a Hebrew mode of expression which had the vitality and wit to do justice to the original and demon- strate the richness of the Hebrew language. To accomplish this, Ben El‘azar used creative rearrangements of biblical quotations in rhymed prose. While some of these quotations are used merely as a means of literary ornamentation, others are intertex- tual devices whose broader meaning must be determined with reference to their original biblical contexts. (2) Ben El‘azar also wished to judaicize the content of Ibn al-Muqaffa‘’s work. His work is in fact a reimagining of the original text. Ben El‘azar articulates a complex and subtle response to Ibn al-Muqaffa’s teachings, and, in so doing, offers his own particular, although recognizably rabbinic, approach to the nature of human evil, the problems of theodicy, and the nature of divinely ordained fate. He adapts and transforms Ibn al-Muqaffa‘’s Kalilah wa-Dimnah from a text on political pragmatism to one of religious edification. The works of Jacob Ben El‘azar (d. 1233), an Iberian poet and philoso- pher, have received relatively little scholarly attention.2 One of his surviving works is a translation of Ibn al-Muqaffa‘’s Arabic work, Kalilah wa-Dim- nah.3 Although Ben El‘azar himself refers to his work as a translation, it is really a creative development of his Vorlage in rhymed prose,4 meticulously adapted to a Jewish worldview. The changes that he makes to his Vorlage, however, are not, as they first appear, a bowdlerization motivated by a slav- ish pietism, but actually represent the articulation of a complex and subtle theology.5 2. For further information on his life and works, see JACOB BEN EL‘AZAR, Kitab al-Kamil, ed. N. ALLONY, Jerusalem, 1977, pp. 1-6; Sipurei ahavah shel Ya‘akov Ben El‘azar, ed. Y. DAVID, Tel Aviv, 1992, pp. 7-11. J. DECTER, A Myrtle in the Forest: Displacement and Renewal in Medieval Hispano-Jewish Literature, Ph. D. diss., Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 2002, pp. 176 ff. M. STEINSCHNEIDER, Die Hebraeischen Übersetzungen des Mittelalters und die Juden als Dolmetscher, Graz, 1956, pp. 878-83; and M. STEINSCHNEIDER, Die Arabische Literatur der Juden, Frankfurt, 1902, pp. 157-158. 3. The work is known from a unique and incomplete manuscript, see J. DERENBOURG, Deux versions hébraïques du livre Kalîlâh et Dimnâh, la première accompagnée d’une traduc- tion française, pub. d’après les manuscrits de Paris et d’Oxford, Paris, 1881, p. VIII; and Á. NAVARRO PEIRO, ‘La versión hebrea de “Calila y Dimnah” de Ya‘aqob ben El‘azar’, Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century I, ed. J. TARGARONA BORRÁS, Leiden, 1999, p. 468. All references in this paper to Ben El‘azar’s translation refer to the pages and line numbers of Derenbourg’s edition. 4. On the genre of rhymed prose in Hebrew literature, see D. PAGIS, ‘Variety in Medieval Rhymed Narratives’, Scripta Hierosolymitana 27, 1978, pp. 79-98. 5. It should be noted that Ben El‘azar was active in the movement to promote the literary use of Hebrew among Arabic speaking Jews. Such Jews saw Hebrew literature in general, and poetry in particular, as a way of advancing Jewish cultural nationalism in Arabic-speaking lands. Thus Ben El‘azar’s translation of Kalilah wa-Dimnah was not written to spread Arabic culture among Jews who could not read Arabic, but to demonstrate the richness, eloquence and versatility of the Hebrew language to a Jewish audience steeped more in Arabic than in Hebrew literary culture. As a result of this, Ben El‘azar is quite strict in excising Arabic words 994816_REJ_2011-3-4_06_Verskin.indd4816_REJ_2011-3-4_06_Verskin.indd 446666 221/12/111/12/11 009:159:15 THE THEOLOGY OF HEBREW KALILAH WA-DIMNAH 467 The story of Kalilah and Dimnah was popular in many medieval languag- es.6 The original story is believed to have been composed by a Vishnuite Brahman in approximately 300 CE and is known from its recension in the Panchatantra, a work intended to instruct princes in the laws of politics through animal fables.7 It is thought that in the sixth century the work was translated into Middle Persian8 and that it is from this translation that Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ created his Arabic version.9 I refer to his work as a version, rather than a translation, because of the considerable liberties that he takes with the text.10 Like the Panchatantra, the intention of Ibn al-Muqaffa‘’s work is to instruct courtiers in the art of politics. In broad outline, the story that he tells can be summarized thus. It is framed with a story about a pre-Islamic Per- from his prose. He will not, for example, make do with the word faylasuf, but instead employs dod ha-Ìokhmot (358.25). He is, however, occasionally compelled to make use of Arabic words where he is unable to find Hebrew equivalents. This occurs quite frequently with animal names. See, for example, 347.17, 348.31, 351.15, and 351.29. For Ben El‘azar’s position on the use of the Hebrew language, see Kitab al-Kamil (n. 2 above), pp. 6-11; and Sipurei ahavah (n. 2 above), p. 7. On Jewish cultural nationalism in medieval Spain in general, see R. BRANN, The Compunctious Poet: Cultural Ambiguity and Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Spain, Baltimore, 1991, pp. 23ff.; and N. ROTH, ‘Jewish Reactions to the ‘Arabiyya and the Renaissance of Hebrew in Spain’, Journal of Semitic Studies 28, 1983, pp. 63-84. 6. C. BROCKELMANN, ‘Kalila wa-Dimna’, Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed. Leiden, 1986- 2004, IV, pp. 503ff. My transliteration of the names of the characters is in accordance with the forms in which they are most commonly known in English. I have chosen to do this because there is some variation in the names even between versions of Ibn al-Muqaffa‘’s Arabic version. 7. J. HERTEL, Das Pañcatantra, seine Geschichte und seine Verbreitung, Leipzig-Berlin, 1914. 8. F. de BLOIS, Burzoy’s Voyage to India and the Origin of the Book of Kalilah wa Dim- nah, London, 1990, p. 1. 9. Ibid., p. 3. In this paper, I have consulted the following two editions of Ibn al-Muqaf- fa‘’s Kalilah wa-Dimnah. The first is edited by L. CHEIKHO, Amsterdam, 1981, and the second is edited by ‘A. al-W. ‘AZZAM and T. HUSAYN, Cairo, 1980. For a brief overview of the life and works of Ibn al-Muqaffa‘, see M. COOPERSON, ‘Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ (circa 723-759)’, Arabic Literary Culture 500-925, in The Dictionary of Literary Biography, ed. M. COOPERSON, vol. 311, Detroit, 2005, pp. 150-163; and J. D. LATHAM, ‘Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ and Early ‘Abbasid Prose’, in The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature: ‘Abbasid Belles-Lettres, ed.
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