This article is a supplement to 'The Diwan of Samuel ha-Nagid: A Geniza Codex'. Published by Jona... more This article is a supplement to 'The Diwan of Samuel ha-Nagid: A Geniza Codex'. Published by Jonathan Vardi and Michael Rand in 2015, this book compiled all the extant Cairo Genizah fragments of an ancient codex of the Diwan – i.e., collection of poems – of the great eleventh-century poet Samuel ha-Nagid. In addition to color plates of the fragments, the book also provides a full edition of the text, and its authors produced a codicological reconstruction of the entire codex according to the original layout of the bifolia. This article is devoted to the discovery of a new bifolio of the Geniza codex, found in the collection of the late Meir Benayahu. The authors discuss the placement of the new bifolio in the reconstructed codex, its significant textual variants, and its contribution to our understanding of the Diwan as a literary oeuvre. Also highlighted is the bifolio’s importance to the study of the Cairo Geniza. The article includes high-resolution images of the four pages of the new bifolio, accompanied by a full critical edition of the text.
Only a scant number of secular poems have come down to us from the hand of R. Abraham Ibn Ezra, o... more Only a scant number of secular poems have come down to us from the hand of R. Abraham Ibn Ezra, one of the luminaries of the Golden Age of Sephardic Jewry. Based on previously unknown manuscripts in the Firkovich collections at the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg, the article completes a muwashshaḥ by the poet, first published in partial form some fifty years ago by J. Schirmann. In addition, the article discusses and brings another Hebrew muwashshaḥ, which appears adjacent to the previous poem in one of the manuscripts, and is therefore also likely to have been written by the poet.
Our knowledge of Hebrew poetry written in the East in the Middle Ages is limited. In contrast to ... more Our knowledge of Hebrew poetry written in the East in the Middle Ages is limited. In contrast to the Andalusian school of Hebrew poetry, which has received predominant attention by modern scholarship, we still lack even a preliminary inventory of Hebrew poets in centers outside of Al-Andalus. This lacuna hinders our understating of an important process that took place after the so-called ‘Golden Age’, wherein poets in the East embraced and absorbed the poetic innovations heralded by the Andalusian school. This article seeks to fill this lacuna in part by shedding light for the first time on the figure of ꜤOvadiah, an obscure poet apparently active in Damascus in the thirteenth century. This prolific poet wrote hundreds of secular and liturgical poems, which were compiled in a Dīwān. Fragments of two distinct copies of the Dīwān survived in the Second Firkovich Collection, now at the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg. Examining ꜤOvadiah’s extant poems, this article addresses the major trends and character of his poetry. The poet’s familiarity with the Andalusian school is evident not merely in his poetic craft and use of conventional genres and literary motifs, but also in the variations and explicit quotes he employs, building on well-known poems by Andalusian poets. Conversely, we find poetic innovations in ꜤOvadiah’s oeuvre, unknown in his predecessors, such as strophic poems celebrating wine-drinking before ending – surprisingly – with the hope for future redemption. This article concludes with an appendix of a selection of poems by the author.
This is an edition of a Hebrew translation of the first part of the opening of James Macpherson's... more This is an edition of a Hebrew translation of the first part of the opening of James Macpherson's "Fingal", attributed to the ancient blind poet Ossian. Translated immediately upon its first publication to Italian by Melchiorre Cesarotti, the text was translated from Italian to Hebrew by the rabbi and poet Pinḥas Ashkenazi (Felice Tedeschi).
R. Judah Halevi’s poetic oeuvre contains a significant section of literary riddles. The article i... more R. Judah Halevi’s poetic oeuvre contains a significant section of literary riddles. The article is devoted to one of the most opaque of the poet’s riddles, the short poem beginning with אִיעָצְךָ אַיֵּה, which has hitherto been misunderstood by modern scholars. While the solution given in the standard edition of Halevi’s work is uncertain, the present article offers the correct explanation of the poem: it is shown to be a sophisticated linguistic puzzle, whose ‘solution’ can apply to any of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew Alphabet. This explanation was in fact well known among the early modern readers of the poem, whether or not they knew it was written by its illustrious author. The recurrence of an identical explanation of the poem in various unrelated sources from different localities also sheds light on the transmission of pre-modern Hebrew poetry.
Leon Modena, one of the celebrated personalities of Italian Jewry in the early modern period, is ... more Leon Modena, one of the celebrated personalities of Italian Jewry in the early modern period, is known for his extensive, life-long involvement with music in its various theoretical and practical aspects. The article presents additional evidence that has gone unnoticed in previous studies of Modena’s musical endeavors: his adaption of a polyphonic, secular Italian melody, for the singing of a liturgical hymn. After identifying the melody and suggesting a possible date for the composition of the Hebrew text, the article proceeds to discuss it in a broader context of the Jewish musical culture at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in particular contemporary Jewish views to the use of “foreign” melodies in the synagogue. The article concludes with an attempt to situate it as part of Modena’s thought of art music.
Yosef ben Tanḥum Hayerushalmi (born c. 1262) was the last major Hebrew poet active in Egypt in th... more Yosef ben Tanḥum Hayerushalmi (born c. 1262) was the last major Hebrew poet active in Egypt in the middle ages. His Dīwān (collection of poetry) contains the conventional genres of medieval secular poetry. It survived in a number of manuscripts, but has not yet been fully published. Based on new discoveries from manuscripts in the Second Firkovitch Collection in St. Petersburg, the article deals with three aspects of the poetry of Yosef ha-Yerushalmi:
The first part presents formerly unknown poems that belong to the dīwān’s fifth section, dedicated to love lyrics and wine poetry. The second part completes a missing passage in one of Hayerushalmi’s rhymed maqāmāt, Maḥberet ha-Shibbuṣim. The last part deals extensively with strophic poems related by familial resemblance, presenting models that the poet imitated in two of the poems included in the dīwān’s fifth section. While the first of the two shares an identical Arabic kharja with one of Hayerushalmi’s poems, the second was written entirely in Hebrew. It also served as a model for later Oriental poems for several centuries.
This article is a supplement to 'The Diwan of Samuel ha-Nagid: A Geniza Codex'. Published by Jona... more This article is a supplement to 'The Diwan of Samuel ha-Nagid: A Geniza Codex'. Published by Jonathan Vardi and Michael Rand in 2015, this book compiled all the extant Cairo Genizah fragments of an ancient codex of the Diwan – i.e., collection of poems – of the great eleventh-century poet Samuel ha-Nagid. In addition to color plates of the fragments, the book also provides a full edition of the text, and its authors produced a codicological reconstruction of the entire codex according to the original layout of the bifolia. This article is devoted to the discovery of a new bifolio of the Geniza codex, found in the collection of the late Meir Benayahu. The authors discuss the placement of the new bifolio in the reconstructed codex, its significant textual variants, and its contribution to our understanding of the Diwan as a literary oeuvre. Also highlighted is the bifolio’s importance to the study of the Cairo Geniza. The article includes high-resolution images of the four pages of the new bifolio, accompanied by a full critical edition of the text.
Only a scant number of secular poems have come down to us from the hand of R. Abraham Ibn Ezra, o... more Only a scant number of secular poems have come down to us from the hand of R. Abraham Ibn Ezra, one of the luminaries of the Golden Age of Sephardic Jewry. Based on previously unknown manuscripts in the Firkovich collections at the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg, the article completes a muwashshaḥ by the poet, first published in partial form some fifty years ago by J. Schirmann. In addition, the article discusses and brings another Hebrew muwashshaḥ, which appears adjacent to the previous poem in one of the manuscripts, and is therefore also likely to have been written by the poet.
Our knowledge of Hebrew poetry written in the East in the Middle Ages is limited. In contrast to ... more Our knowledge of Hebrew poetry written in the East in the Middle Ages is limited. In contrast to the Andalusian school of Hebrew poetry, which has received predominant attention by modern scholarship, we still lack even a preliminary inventory of Hebrew poets in centers outside of Al-Andalus. This lacuna hinders our understating of an important process that took place after the so-called ‘Golden Age’, wherein poets in the East embraced and absorbed the poetic innovations heralded by the Andalusian school. This article seeks to fill this lacuna in part by shedding light for the first time on the figure of ꜤOvadiah, an obscure poet apparently active in Damascus in the thirteenth century. This prolific poet wrote hundreds of secular and liturgical poems, which were compiled in a Dīwān. Fragments of two distinct copies of the Dīwān survived in the Second Firkovich Collection, now at the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg. Examining ꜤOvadiah’s extant poems, this article addresses the major trends and character of his poetry. The poet’s familiarity with the Andalusian school is evident not merely in his poetic craft and use of conventional genres and literary motifs, but also in the variations and explicit quotes he employs, building on well-known poems by Andalusian poets. Conversely, we find poetic innovations in ꜤOvadiah’s oeuvre, unknown in his predecessors, such as strophic poems celebrating wine-drinking before ending – surprisingly – with the hope for future redemption. This article concludes with an appendix of a selection of poems by the author.
This is an edition of a Hebrew translation of the first part of the opening of James Macpherson's... more This is an edition of a Hebrew translation of the first part of the opening of James Macpherson's "Fingal", attributed to the ancient blind poet Ossian. Translated immediately upon its first publication to Italian by Melchiorre Cesarotti, the text was translated from Italian to Hebrew by the rabbi and poet Pinḥas Ashkenazi (Felice Tedeschi).
R. Judah Halevi’s poetic oeuvre contains a significant section of literary riddles. The article i... more R. Judah Halevi’s poetic oeuvre contains a significant section of literary riddles. The article is devoted to one of the most opaque of the poet’s riddles, the short poem beginning with אִיעָצְךָ אַיֵּה, which has hitherto been misunderstood by modern scholars. While the solution given in the standard edition of Halevi’s work is uncertain, the present article offers the correct explanation of the poem: it is shown to be a sophisticated linguistic puzzle, whose ‘solution’ can apply to any of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew Alphabet. This explanation was in fact well known among the early modern readers of the poem, whether or not they knew it was written by its illustrious author. The recurrence of an identical explanation of the poem in various unrelated sources from different localities also sheds light on the transmission of pre-modern Hebrew poetry.
Leon Modena, one of the celebrated personalities of Italian Jewry in the early modern period, is ... more Leon Modena, one of the celebrated personalities of Italian Jewry in the early modern period, is known for his extensive, life-long involvement with music in its various theoretical and practical aspects. The article presents additional evidence that has gone unnoticed in previous studies of Modena’s musical endeavors: his adaption of a polyphonic, secular Italian melody, for the singing of a liturgical hymn. After identifying the melody and suggesting a possible date for the composition of the Hebrew text, the article proceeds to discuss it in a broader context of the Jewish musical culture at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in particular contemporary Jewish views to the use of “foreign” melodies in the synagogue. The article concludes with an attempt to situate it as part of Modena’s thought of art music.
Yosef ben Tanḥum Hayerushalmi (born c. 1262) was the last major Hebrew poet active in Egypt in th... more Yosef ben Tanḥum Hayerushalmi (born c. 1262) was the last major Hebrew poet active in Egypt in the middle ages. His Dīwān (collection of poetry) contains the conventional genres of medieval secular poetry. It survived in a number of manuscripts, but has not yet been fully published. Based on new discoveries from manuscripts in the Second Firkovitch Collection in St. Petersburg, the article deals with three aspects of the poetry of Yosef ha-Yerushalmi:
The first part presents formerly unknown poems that belong to the dīwān’s fifth section, dedicated to love lyrics and wine poetry. The second part completes a missing passage in one of Hayerushalmi’s rhymed maqāmāt, Maḥberet ha-Shibbuṣim. The last part deals extensively with strophic poems related by familial resemblance, presenting models that the poet imitated in two of the poems included in the dīwān’s fifth section. While the first of the two shares an identical Arabic kharja with one of Hayerushalmi’s poems, the second was written entirely in Hebrew. It also served as a model for later Oriental poems for several centuries.
Uploads
Papers by Kedem Golden
This article is devoted to the discovery of a new bifolio of the Geniza codex, found in the collection of the late Meir Benayahu. The authors discuss the placement of the new bifolio in the reconstructed codex, its significant textual variants, and its contribution to our understanding of the Diwan as a literary oeuvre. Also highlighted is the bifolio’s importance to the study of the Cairo Geniza. The article includes high-resolution images of the four pages of the new bifolio, accompanied by a full critical edition of the text.
This article seeks to fill this lacuna in part by shedding light for the first time on the figure of ꜤOvadiah, an obscure poet apparently active in Damascus in the thirteenth century. This prolific poet wrote hundreds of secular and liturgical poems, which were compiled in a Dīwān. Fragments of two distinct copies of the Dīwān survived in the Second Firkovich Collection, now at the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg. Examining ꜤOvadiah’s extant poems, this article addresses the major trends and character of his poetry. The poet’s familiarity with the Andalusian school is evident not merely in his poetic craft and use of conventional genres and literary motifs, but also in the variations and explicit quotes he employs, building on well-known poems by Andalusian poets. Conversely, we find poetic innovations in ꜤOvadiah’s oeuvre, unknown in his predecessors, such as strophic poems celebrating wine-drinking before ending – surprisingly – with the hope for future redemption. This article concludes with an appendix of a selection of poems by the author.
The first part presents formerly unknown poems that belong to the dīwān’s fifth section, dedicated to love lyrics and wine poetry. The second part completes a missing passage in one of Hayerushalmi’s rhymed maqāmāt, Maḥberet ha-Shibbuṣim. The last part deals extensively with strophic poems related by familial resemblance, presenting models that the poet imitated in two of the poems included in the dīwān’s fifth section. While the first of the two shares an identical Arabic kharja with one of Hayerushalmi’s poems, the second was written entirely in Hebrew. It also served as a model for later Oriental poems for several centuries.
This article is devoted to the discovery of a new bifolio of the Geniza codex, found in the collection of the late Meir Benayahu. The authors discuss the placement of the new bifolio in the reconstructed codex, its significant textual variants, and its contribution to our understanding of the Diwan as a literary oeuvre. Also highlighted is the bifolio’s importance to the study of the Cairo Geniza. The article includes high-resolution images of the four pages of the new bifolio, accompanied by a full critical edition of the text.
This article seeks to fill this lacuna in part by shedding light for the first time on the figure of ꜤOvadiah, an obscure poet apparently active in Damascus in the thirteenth century. This prolific poet wrote hundreds of secular and liturgical poems, which were compiled in a Dīwān. Fragments of two distinct copies of the Dīwān survived in the Second Firkovich Collection, now at the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg. Examining ꜤOvadiah’s extant poems, this article addresses the major trends and character of his poetry. The poet’s familiarity with the Andalusian school is evident not merely in his poetic craft and use of conventional genres and literary motifs, but also in the variations and explicit quotes he employs, building on well-known poems by Andalusian poets. Conversely, we find poetic innovations in ꜤOvadiah’s oeuvre, unknown in his predecessors, such as strophic poems celebrating wine-drinking before ending – surprisingly – with the hope for future redemption. This article concludes with an appendix of a selection of poems by the author.
The first part presents formerly unknown poems that belong to the dīwān’s fifth section, dedicated to love lyrics and wine poetry. The second part completes a missing passage in one of Hayerushalmi’s rhymed maqāmāt, Maḥberet ha-Shibbuṣim. The last part deals extensively with strophic poems related by familial resemblance, presenting models that the poet imitated in two of the poems included in the dīwān’s fifth section. While the first of the two shares an identical Arabic kharja with one of Hayerushalmi’s poems, the second was written entirely in Hebrew. It also served as a model for later Oriental poems for several centuries.