{"id":9516,"date":"2015-03-02T16:57:33","date_gmt":"2015-03-02T20:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/?p=9516"},"modified":"2015-03-02T16:57:33","modified_gmt":"2015-03-02T20:57:33","slug":"voices-from-the-fire-medieval-jewish-martyr-laments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2015\/03\/voices-from-the-fire-medieval-jewish-martyr-laments.html","title":{"rendered":"Voices from the Fire: Medieval Jewish Martyr Laments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Part of my Lenten reading was Susan L. Einbinder\u2019s Beautiful Death: Jewish Poetry and Martyrdom in Medieval France<\/em>. It\u2019s a very readable adapted thesis which makes a few arguments\u2013for example, that Jewish martyr laments shifted over time from proclaiming God\u2019s covenant with the community<\/em>, to depicting individual transformation of the martyrs; that the laments shift from emphasizing demographic diversity to exalting scholars as a sort of martyr elite; and that the laments show the degree to which an increasingly-persecuted minority was nonetheless shaped by the culture and fashions of their Christian surroundings. But Einbinder also wants to rescue these poems and songs as poetry<\/em>, including liturgical poetry. She draws out their Biblical references and describes their metrical and other formal features in order to help us see their pathos and depth.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s my main thought about the book, which I\u2019m glad I read. I did have a series of much smaller sub-thoughts:<\/p>\n

* The last chapter in the book shows the growing early-modern fascination with magic and magic books, and the connection both Jews and Christians drew between Jewish books and magical powers. The Jews were, unsurprisingly, much more nuanced in separating reverence for Torah from magical use of books, whereas the Christians tended to see all Jewish books as talismanic.<\/p>\n

While I was in the middle of this chapter I saw 1923\u2019s The Golem<\/em> at the AFI Theater, with musical accompaniment by Gary Lucas. It was a powerful testament to the longevity of the Magical Jewish Book trope.<\/p>\n

Lucas noted afterward that many people have asked him if he thinks The Golem<\/em> is anti-Semitic. He says no, and I agree: The movie, it seems to me, assumes that you\u2019ll empathize with the Jewish community, and the Jews are the protagonists and heroes.<\/p>\n

But also, the rabbi really does practice magic and invoke \u201cspirits\u201d (Astaroth! That happens!). The Christian emperor in the film simultaneously condemns the Jews for practicing the Black Arts, and asks the rabbi to come visit and show the court his magic tricks, so nobody\u2019s innocent here, but\u2026 yes, actual spirits get invoked by the Jewish heroes and nobody seems to think that\u2019s weird. (Plenty of other weirdness\u2013The Golem<\/em> is a terrific quasi-horror flick, with amazing interiors and costumes and effects, but its religious or cultural notes are quite odd\u2013like when the rabbi says he\u2019ll show the Christians a kind of magical movie of \u201cour ancestors\u201d and the ancestor he picks is the Wandering Jew<\/a>.) \u201cSave us, rabbi! Recite the fire spell or we shall all perish!\u201d A strange thing to read while also reading Einbinder\u2019s book about Jewish martyrs led to the stake.<\/p>\n

* Einbinder\u2019s book also asks whether the French Jews\u2019 martyrological traditions protected them from the mass conversions which decimated the Jewish community of Spain right before Spain\u2019s Christian rulers expelled their Jews. She looks at a period of time during which conversions peaked and then dropped, and notes, \u201cCertainly, fervent and educated young converts were able to cause great damage upon defection.\u201d Jewish converts to Christianity participated in \u201cdisputations\u201d and charged the Talmud with heresy and blasphemy, which led to the banning and burning of Torahs and Talmuds.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a contrast here\u2013I don\u2019t want to push it too far, because we know so little about the inner life and mentality of the medieval Jewish converts to Christianity\u2013with the twentieth-century Jewish converts to Christianity who helped shaped the Vatican\u2019s approach to Jewish people and faith<\/a>. The Jewish Christians whose work influenced (among other things) Nostra Aetate<\/em> seemed to feel that they had an ongoing responsibility to Jewish communities, and that the Church\u2019s current approach to these communities needed reform. They did not simply pledge allegiance to the Church and turn away from the community in which they were raised. They saw their role as representing and advocating for the Jewish people to the Church, not merely the other way around.<\/p>\n

So now you know why I tagged this post \u201cGay Catholic Whatnot.\u201d<\/p>\n

* Finally, there\u2019s an element of martyr stories which is conspicuous in these laments by its absence. I hope it is obvious that I don\u2019t say this to blame the martyrs (!) or champion their killers. And I know so little about Jewish martyrological texts; for all I know, the ones Einbinder didn\u2019t address (for example, the prose chronicles) do contain this element. But it was striking to me that the martyr laments contain calls for God to avenge, and virulent depictions of Christianity and Christian ritual as impure fountains of filth, while never sounding a note of forgiveness for one\u2019s enemies. There\u2019s no \u201cthey know not what they do,\u201d no, \u201cBless those who curse you.\u201d This absence was, to me, a poignant reminder of how unnatural<\/em> the Christian doctrine of forgiveness is: how brutal, one might say.<\/p>\n

And especially brutal when mercy is so thoroughly absent from Christians\u2019 own actions.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part of my Lenten reading was Susan L. Einbinder\u2019s Beautiful Death: Jewish Poetry and Martyrdom in Medieval France. It\u2019s a very readable adapted thesis which makes a few arguments\u2013for example, that Jewish martyr laments shifted over time from proclaiming God\u2019s covenant with the community, to depicting individual transformation of the martyrs; that the laments shift […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[102,171,83,38,79,443,26],"class_list":["post-9516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gay-catholic-whatnot","category-mackerel-snapping","tag-a-shandeh-for-the-goyim","tag-abuse-of-power-comes-as-no-surprise","tag-complicity","tag-forgiveness","tag-moral-memories-of-the-past","tag-put-not-your-trust-in-princes-of-the-church","tag-suffering"],"yoast_head":"\nVoices from the Fire: Medieval Jewish Martyr Laments<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Part of my Lenten reading was Susan L. 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