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Copyright by Jane Robin Zackin 2008 The Dissertation Committee for Jane Robin Zackin certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: A JEW AND HIS MILIEU: ALLEGORY, POLEMIC, AND JEWISH THOUGHT IN SEM TOB’S PROVERBIOS MORALES AND MA’ASEH HA RAV Committee: ____________________________________ Matthew Bailey, Supervisor ____________________________________ Michael Harney ____________________________________ Madeline Sutherland-Meier ____________________________________ Harold Leibowitz ____________________________________ John Zemke A JEW AND HIS MILIEU: ALLEGORY, POLEMIC, AND JEWISH THOUGHT IN SEM TOB’S PROVERBIOS MORALES AND MA’ASEH HA RAV by Jane Robin Zackin, B.A.; M.ED.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2008 Knowledge is a deadly friend When no one sets the rules. King Crimson, “Epitaph” Acknowledgements I would like to thank the members of my committee for their help and encouragement, Dolores Walker for her ongoing support, and my father for his kind generosity. v A JEW AND HIS MILIEU: ALLEGORY, POLEMIC, AND JEWISH THOUGHT IN SEM TOB’S PROVERBIOS MORALES AND MA’ASEH HA RAV Publication No.____________________ Jane Robin Zackin, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin Supervisor: Matthew Bailey In this dissertation, I describe social, economic and political relations between Jews and Christians in medieval Europe before presenting the intellectual and religious context of Jewish life in Christian Spain. The purpose of this endeavor is to provide the framework for analyzing two works, one in Hebrew and one in Castilian, by the Spanish Jewish author Sem Tob de Carrión (1290- c.1370). Proverbios morales (1355-60), the Castilian text, is important to the Spanish literary canon because it is one of the first works of Semitic sapiential literature to be transmitted, in the vernacular, to a Christian public. However, it has generally been read by scholars of medieval Hispanic literature in isolation from his Hebrew writings. Given that Ma’aseh ha Rav (c. 1345) reveals essential aspects of his thought structure and intellectual milieu not found in Proverbios morales, it should be required reading for a thorough understanding of his worldview. vi In the Hebrew work, I draw parallels between the polemical language used by Sem Tob and historically documented ideological conflicts that took place among Jews in late medieval Spain and Provençe. Because it is written in a style that involves the weaving together of biblical quotations and allusions, the polemical language must be read in relation to the biblical contexts to which these allusions refer. When analyzed in this way, allegory pertaining to the ongoing dispute among Jews about philosophy and scriptural interpretation, and rebuttals of Christian truth claims, become apparent. Additionally, kabbalistic references and messianic allusions lend the work an esoteric character that sharply distinguishes it from Proverbios morales. This analysis of Ma’aseh ha Rav is used as a basis for comparing rabbinic and philosophical concepts that appear in both works. The general movement from opposition to unity that characterizes each text, and the ubiquitous “golden mean,” link the two works conceptually, and underscore Sem tob’s preoccupation with harmonizing contradictions on both the spiritual and social levels of existence. This aspect of his thought reflects the general intellectual climate of his milieu, which is characterized by the blending, or intertwining, of the main doctrines of medieval Judaism--philosophy, mysticism, and Talmudic-traditionalism. vii Table of Contents Introduction..........................................................................................................................1 Chapter One: Historical Context........................................................................................10 Anti-Semitism and Anti-Judaic sentiment in Western Europe in the Middle Ages.........................................................................................................................11 Political, Economic, and Social Context..................................................................22 Chapter Summary....................................................................................................49 Chapter Two: Critical Review and Description of Proverbios morales and Ma’aseh ha Rav...........................................................................................................................56 Literary Influences on Proverbios morales and Ma’aseh ha Rav........................... 60 Critical Approaches.................................................................................................66 Description of Ma’aseh ha Rav................................................................................78 Description of Proverbios morales.........................................................................101 Chapter Three: Streams of Thought in Fourteenth-Century Judeo-Hispanic Culture.....121 General Overview..................................................................................................123 Philosophy in Fourteenth-Century Spain and Provençe........................................137 The Jewish Mystical Tradition...............................................................................146 Conclusion.............................................................................................................153 Chapter Four: Metaphor, Allegory, and Polemic in Ma’aseh ha Rav.............................158 Ezer ha Dat, Ma’aseh ha Rav, and the Discourse between Philosophy and Religion..................................................................................................................161 Messianic Allusions...............................................................................................193 viii Metaphors of Unity and Reconciliation.................................................................198 Conclusion.............................................................................................................201 Chapter Five: Philosophical and Rabbinic Concepts in Proverbios morales and Ma’aseh Ha Rav...................................................................................................................204 Summary................................................................................................................246 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................252 Works Cited.....................................................................................................................259 Vita...................................................................................................................................268 ix INTRODUCTION Proverbios morales (1355-1360), one of the only extant works in Castilian written by a medieval Spanish Jewish author, has been read by scholars in relation to the historical circumstances of medieval Spain, other Christian, Jewish, and Arabic works in the sapiential genre, and biblical writings such as Ecclesiastes and Proverbs. Rarely has an attempt been made to understand the text in conjunction with Sem Tob’s Hebrew works, or in light of the intellectual context of Spanish and Provençal Jewry. Several scholars take Ma’aseh ha Rav (c. 1345) into consideration in their analyses, but they address only a small fraction of the spiritual and intellectual conflicts and discourses that were a vital component of the cultural life of the Jewish communities. For this reason, I have chosen to approach the subject of Sem Tob’s two most important works from the vantage point of social, intellectual, and religious discourse within the Jewish community itself rather than from the perspective of Christian-Jewish conflict. Indeed, many scholars have already interpreted Proverbios morales as a response to, or reflection of, deteriorating social conditions between Christians and Jews in fourteenth-century Castile. While many of their arguments are valid, Proverbios morales is better understood when read in relation to Sem Tob’s Hebrew writings, and to other Jewish works of the time period that reflect the ethos of medieval Spanish Jewry. Ma’aseh ha Rav (also called “The Battle of the Pen and the Scissors”), Sem Tob’s Hebrew maqama, is a complicated piece of writing that requires intense scrutiny in order to be correctly understood. While it has been characterized as a light satire of traditional debates between pen and sword by some scholars, certain elements that Sem Tob 1 introduces, such as the pen as host of the Almighty, allusions to significant allegorical passages in the Bible, and indirect references to heated religious controversies, suggest that the work can be read on several levels. This way of viewing the text is congruent with the Jewish hermeneutical tradition, which allows (and indeed calls) for plurality of meaning, sometimes even contradictory ones, in the interpretation of biblical words and verses.1 While Ma’aseh ha Rav is not an expressly religious text, Sem Tob was a rabbi; therefore he would have been highly trained in biblical exegesis and Talmudic dialectics, which inform his world view. Moreover, allegory, polysemy, ambiguity, and word play are encountered in much Jewish literature of