A Sephardic Siddur with Ritual
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A Sephardic Siddur with Ritual Instructions in Aragonese Romance Ms. Oxford, Bodleian Library 1133 (Opp. Add. 8" 18) Aldina Quintana and 1:s. Révah (posthumous) The text we are dealing with here1 consists of ritual instructions found in an all-year-round siddur in Aragonese Romance. The instructions, which are inserted in the ritual of the Passover holiday service are in accordance with tradition; they appear in the local language spoken by the Jews. There are many Passover Huggadoth originating in the Iberian Peninsula, including some with ritual instructions in Castilian and Portuguese romailces hut none has been preserved in Leonese Romance; they are also less numerous in Catalan Romance. The same is true of the books containing only the daily and Sabbath rituals (siddurim) and the prayer services for the different holidays of the Jewish year (mahzorim). The instructions concerniug the Passover ritual in Judeo-Aragonese Romance 1am dealing with here are part of a siddur that contains the liturgy for the whole circle of the year, weekdays, Sabbaths and festivals. It is found in the Bodleiana Library in Oxf~rd.~ l. Description of the Ritual The codex contains 258 parchment folios, numbered consecutively through page 251; folio 251 is followed by 6 folios containing pages 251 (i) through 251 (vi); the size of the text is 11,7 x 9 (8 x 6,5). It is witten in a beautifully elaborated square script, a characteristic of calligraphic reproductions of the Bible, the Talmud, the Passover Haggadah and prayer hooks. It contains flourishing signa- 1 A photographic copy of the pages containing the ritual iustructions of Pesah and Ha- nukknh, including the siddur analysed here, is found in the personal archives of the late 1. S Révah with some data refeming to the description of the mentioned ritual. 1 have the honow to complete and edit its publication. May it serve as a memorial and homage toa great scholar ou the thiaieth anniversary of his death. My gratitude tn Jean-Francois Révah for putting these materials at my disposal. This research was completed thanks to the financial suppoit of the Toni and Oded Eliachar Foundatiou. My most sincere gratitude to this iustitution. 2 For the completion of this work, 1 also consulted a microfilm copy of the original of the Bodleiana Lihrary of Oxford, which is located in the National and University Library of Jemsalem, classified with the number F 16594. A Sephardic Siddur tures, some of them illuminated, without catchword, with 13 to 14 lines per page. The parchment bindig, with red fore-edge, is modern. The codex perhaps dates from the last years of the 14" century. The rite reflected in the siddur is that of the Jews of ~ragon.~Even though it is difficult to specfy its exact origin, it is undouhtedly a siddur of the northwest =ea hetween Tudela, Huesca and Ansó, where Aragonese Romance was spoken, most probably from the Tudela The part that contains the Pesa. Haggadah in Hehrew is found between the foiios 98v-115v. The ritual instructions introduced between the different parts of the Passover service are written in Aragonese in Hehrew cbaracters. Also in Aragonese are inshuctions concerning &nukkah in folio 95v. The majority of the inshuctions were introduced by the scribe of the text himself (in our transcription, they are preceded by the number 1; the following number that appears indicates the corresponding lime of the mentioned folio) and they present no formal difference with the Hebrew text of the siddur; they are vocalized. The instructions of foiios 95v, lOOv and lO1r must have been introduced after- wards by another person (in our transcription, they are preceded by the number 2) and they appear in smaller and less elaborate script. 2. The Ritual Iizstructions in Aragonese Romance Even if they have no canonic form, the ritual instructions of Pesah are traditional. This means that once formulated, the text tends not to display significant variations from one edition to another. Therefore, it is possihle that the language of the instructions dates from a period before this copy of the ritual. In the iranscription of the Aragonese words, we adopt the following equivalents according to the Aragonese spelling of the 14" century: Sound Hehrew Grapheme Romance Grapheme [al <~>/<í)->/<í)~> <a> [el <>>/<>N> <e> iil <>>/<>N> <¡>/<y> [o1 <>>/<>ti> <o> 3 1 thank Professor Yom Tov Assis for his help in checking the rnanuscript to establish that we are deaiing with a siddur of Aragonese rite. 4 Coincidencebetween national frontiers and bouudaries which separate officiai languages is anyway rare; there is no purely linguistic rneans of delimiting one 'language' from another, since closely related 'languages' fom part of a continuurn and any dividing line which cuts through this continuum is not drawn for linguistic reasons but for political reasons. The term Aragonese Romance refers here exclusively to iinguistic niles. A Sephardic Siddur Aldina Quintana and 1:s. Révah (posthumous) Sound Hebrew Grapheme Romance Grapheme Sound Hebrew Grapheme Romance Grapheme [SI a> <S> lul <i>/<lN> a> lkl <p> <q> a> <P> [SI <W> <S> <Y <b> [SI <w> <S> <'3> d> ltl <t> <n>1<0-> <m> <n> <u> <t> 'Ihese equivalents are also vaiid for the transcription of the Judeo-Aragonese <d> words of Arabic origin. <-u>1<-3-> <S> <z> <1> 2.1. The Original Instructions <-VI>/<*->/<-u-> <S->/<-S>/<-SS-> <-*-> U>/<)-> 4> <7-> <-l> <'A> Fol lOOv <»> <a>/<u> <p> <A> Aragonese has five vowels la, e, i, o, u/ and the scribe uses the Hebrew signs for long versus short vowels respectively to indicate the stressed versus the unstressed syiiables in tbe word. Throughont tbe transcription we have invariably used á for Fol lOlr qüméc, a for pathah, é for $ir8 and e for seghol. )i*i)vi>~ >>T liniv flwiinw> )wizt> )N iwzt iw iiimp 1iztzt L...] 2.8 In Aragonese words, 1 do not transiiterate the shwa quiescent; in the inserted lin1v +7~?7~í1'79 ~712n'nh l)'mlliv )N nonn >)>)N 2.9 Hebrew words in the Aragonese text, 1transcribe the shwa mobile as short S (sic, 'ivi'~N)1))35 ~i?,N w~n 113 nii~? )i>ui3 )N n»n w,iv 2.10 e in Sephardic Hebrew). For consonants with a different phonetic equivalent than 113 W~>VID Wl> )lW N'~V>DN>7))3 NlVIN> ?N 'WINW W17 W> 2.11 in the Aragonese text or for consonants that only appear in Hebrew words included L...] nnih 1177 ?N WlWl W15 )13>3i)N >N )%>1{7)9N 2.12 in the ritual instmctions in Aragonese, 1 adopt the following equivalents: Fol 1lOv Sound Hebrew Grapheme Romance Grapheme la1 <q> <-b 1?2> 'N 1*2 iW iil11NTP )y")??O 279 L...] 1.5 ihlli0l <n> <b +>VI ?Y 17t'l)'i >N wiin w> 1.6 [zl <1> <Z> 'N '~!7)n>iip ~NPnr?', llniv lf~?l> 1.7 [xl <n> 4=- 7N2)31P 11) )N 'N!7>n $)f N'Yli> ?lN['31 1.8 lil <»>1<-)> <Y> Nl'? 'N npif nyn n>)f T>NV >piiu))~ 1.9 F1 <9> <b 'N N)nip q" nf>3- 5p DJ,~/N~n~fix 1.10 1x1 0>1<7-> +9 >N 'N1?'A1)> -17 xxiv ~~wi7iu~N~T 1.11 Aldina Quintana and 1.-S. Révah (posthumous) A Sephardic Siddur 2.10 [...] baséhéheyanu, y en tal nueyti cum6 ésta ay atá be&r@nu 2.1 1 en oración en piéd dirán atá beb-nu haté a 2.12 vésim&á hagadol véhaqadof alenu qarala" [...] Fol 11lr 2.8 [...] bebrán cáda únu so básu y labarseán las mános" tomarán del ápiu["] entinyirán 2.9 en el harosel y dirán" [bar& afá a'elohenu melek haolam] boré pén' haadamá' tomarán 2.10 tres masóf y partirán la úna por médias y dará la média éntre Fol 113v 2.11 las dos sánas, y la ótra média métala son los mantéles por7 2.12 afiqomen y enplirán los básos y dirán la hagadú [...] Fol 1 lOv [...] pérí hagefen" bebrán cáda únu so básu y labarán las mános y bendizrán al nétikg yadayim" tomarán la masá sána con la média' y [flarád hamosi de la média, y non comnád éntro que táyed de la masá sána y dirá [bar& aiá a' elohenu melek haolam] al akilaf mas$ comná y 2.2. Transcnption of the Ritual Instnictions dará a tódos, tomará de la lechúga' y entíngad enel harosef' y dirá [baruk a- a ' elohenu mel& haolam afer qideSanu bemisvofav vesivanu] al akilal maror" tomará de la masá 2.2.1 The mnukkah Ritual Inshuctions con lechúga y cómad y non dirá ningúna biraw [...] Fol lllr 2.10 [...] la nueyti pnméra dirán séhéheyanu y non mas y farán gfilát 1.1 [...] y cenarán y désque abrán cenádu comnán 2.1 1 ami& haté a al kulam ' 1.2 el afiqomen y enplirán los básos y [ ] 1.3 dirán birm mazón" y bebrán cáda únu so básu 2.2.2 The Haggadah Ritual Lnshuctions 1.4 y dirán el hallel" [...] Fol lOOv 1.1 [...] si caéssed pesah en nueyti de alhad5 dirán so 1.2 qiduS cúmo de súso y anyadrán y dirán" [...] 6 There is here an elision of the unstressed -o, dueto its contact with the following vowel. This reflects a frequent feature of medieval Aragonese speech. 7 Pora (sic,para) in medieval Aragonese texts (see those edited by J. R. Magdalena Nom de Déu & C. Lleal, Aljamías Hebraicoaragonesas (Siglos XIV-XV), Barcelona 1995. 5 The word a-ad is an Arabic form used to name 'the fnst day' of the week, that is, Para is also found in Castilian texts (Manuel Alvar & Bernard Pottier, Mo>fologia Sunday.