kaufmann haggadah

8/18/2019 Kaufmann Haggadah

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Kaufmann Haggadah (Kaufmann Collection MS A 422)

Perhaps the most famous manuscript in the whole KaufmannCollection is the so-called Kaufmann Haggadah (MSKaufmann A 422) !"! #t was produced in !4th centur$Catalonia %he first scholars to stud$ it considered thismanuscript to &e of #talian origin Su&se'uent researchhoweer traced its origins to Catalonia !"2 #t contains the pra$ers poems and narratie te*ts to &e recited on the ee of the festial of the +ewish ,aster Pesach the east of thePassoer !". in which the participants recall the /o$ of delierance from seritude in ,g$pt than0ing 1od for hismiraculous wor0s !"4 #n the !!-!th centuries Haggadahswere not infre'uentl$ produced for priate famil$ use 3 the Kaufmannmanuscript also &ears the mar0s of almost e*cessie use

oth in the Kaufmann Haggadahand the Sara/eo Haggadah thereare conspicuous traces of children5sdrawings a fact no dou&t indicatie of the considera&le popularit$ of these manuscripts among children which canalso &e e*plained to a certain e*tent at least &$ theimportant part children pla$ in the traditional rite of Passoer !" #n iew of this there can hardl$ &e imagined asadder scene than when one of the sons of the famil$appeared at the Sephardic elementar$ school in Sara/eowith one of the famil$5s most treasured possessions

something the$ had owned perhaps for a considera&le period forced now to sell it &ecause of straitened

circumstances occasioned &$ the sudden death of their father6 the laishl$ illuminated manuscript &ecame 0nown as the Sara/eo Haggadah !"7 #t ma$ hae &een in a similar straitened situation thatthat the Schwar8 famil$ parted with the splendid illuminated Mah8or e*ecuted in rance around!.99 which the$ had possessed since !:92 and which was still in their possession in Mis0olcHungar$ in the !;9s %he famil$ later emigrated to Canada and there the$ sold the pricelessmanuscript !":


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!"" %he$ are ga8ing spell&ound at themarellous illustration depicting the ,*odus from ,g$pt6 the &earded Moses in his pointed red hatwith a feather is leading the +ews who are carr$ing dough wrapped in cloths oer their shoulders (,*!26.4-.) ?n the left an ,g$ptian cit$ l$ing on their wa$ can &e seen (aal @ephon> cf ,* !462) itsgates closed while from a&oe the inha&itants watch the +ews passing &$ and 0noc0ing on the gateswhile a dog wearing a crimson nec0&and is standing in the foreground %he figure of the dog whichseems to hae &een treated er$ well in recent times is an allusion to the passage6 ut against thechildren of #srael no dog shall stic0 out its tongueB (,* !!6:) !"; %he e*act meaning of thee*pression is not 'uite clear it seems to mean something li0e to stic0 the tongue out to threatsomeoneB ?ur illustration apparentl$ follows the traditional interpretation going &ac0 to ashi'uoted a&oe6 the dog5s tongue seems to &e missing !;9 #n the &ac0ground the crowned figure of Pharaoh emerges pursuing the refugees !;! =oung and old are ama8ed at the marellous figures that populate the folios of the manuscript and in this famil$ circle the father is all too willing to $ield totheir urging and to tell them the stories of the i&lical figures while the imagination of the $oung is

captiated more &$ the owls 3 the latter seres as a decoration for the panel of the son who does not0now how to as0 #n the former illustration we can see a figure emerging from the decoration in themargin aiming with his arrow at an owl A er$ similar scene appears in the !4th centur$ CatalonianHaggadah formerl$ in the possession of the ,arl of Crawford and alcarres (Dondon) now one of thetreasures of the +ohn $lands Eniersit$ Di&rar$ (ManchesterF He&rew MS 7)6 a fantastic h$&rid isaiming with his arrow at an owl from &elow !;2 #n the case of a hunter aiming with his arrow at anowl we are in all pro&a&ilit$ dealing with a simple decoration in the margin although there hae &eenefforts to interpret it as the e*tension of the motif of the ra&&it hunt so common in Ash0ena8icHaggadahs which owes its popularit$ to a +ewish 1erman mnemotechnic pun there Gamel$ theinitials of the He&rew names of the ceremonial elements of the twofold &enediction at the &eginningof the feast of Passoer and at the termination of Sa&&ath add up to an e*pression which lends itself toa +ewish 1erman interpretation as an acron$m6 =a$in wineI Jiddush sanctificationI Ger lightI

Hadalah distinctionI @eman timeI =aJeGHa@ +ag5n Has5 +ag5 den Has5 L Chase the ra&&it%he acceptance of this interpretation in our case is seriousl$ hindered &$ the fact that it onl$ wor0s in


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a 1ermanic-spea0ing conte*t unless we assume that it was alread$ a popular motif that found its wa$from one communit$ to the other !;.

#n the $landsHaggadah themotif of thehare-hunt andthe hunter aiming withhis arrow atan owl appear in fact on thesame page(fol 2;) !;4#n oth5sopinion thehare-hunt ma$

&e no morethan a pictorial echoof thewidespread,uropean practice of ahare-hunt atthis season of the $ear at,astertide6 a practice itself

dou&tless rooted in pagan anti'uit$ (%he hare was in fact the sacred animal of the %eutonic goddess of the spring ,ostre or ?stNra from which deries the name ,aster and in Continental ,urope is still ascharacteristic of the season as the egg which li0ewise suries in the +ewish Passoer o&serances)B!; %he hare is of course a well-0nown s$m&ol of fertilit$ too Similar decorations are widespread inthe margins of Christian manuscripts too !;7 Staghunting and similar motifs ma$ perhaps allude tothe persecution of +ews in He&rew manuscripts while the hare pursuing the hunter and the dog is a popular motif of the world turned upside down (monde renersO) !;: #ncidentall$ in Christianmanuscripts owls are fre'uentl$ used as s$m&ols of the +ews who 3 /ust li0e the &irds of the night 3 prefer the dar0ness of error and sin to the light of the 1ospel !;"

=oung and old are also captiated &$ the coc0fight with the strange semi-nude grotes'ues riding onthem or the illustration of Pesach6 a &areheaded man is leading a lam& on a lead with a 0nife in his

left hand !;; %he fact that the figure of the wic0ed son is represented &$ an armed soldier amercenar$ pro&a&l$ reflects the sad e*periences of mediaeal +ewr$ 299 ?n the other hand the wiseson is represented &$ the &eautiful figure of a scholar in a green mantle


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?ur manuscript is in rather &adcondition 29! %he colours were of inferior 'ualit$ right at the time of its &irth and the manner of its e*ecutionalso left a lot to &e desired As aconse'uence of hea$ use thecolours and the gold simpl$ fell off inman$ places %he$ were su&se'uentl$replaced with su&stances of eenlower 'ualit$ and this procedure ma$hae &een repeated seeral times incertain parts %he margins of themanuscript are mutilated too6 oer thecenturies the manuscript wasre&ound perhaps seeral times andon these occasions the margins were

trimmed as a conse'uence of whichthe decorations in the margins hae &een damaged in a num&er of places#n spite of all this howeer themanuscript is still a most preciousrelic of cultural histor$ 3 in additionto its religious significance 3 and oneof the most important gems of mediaeal art in general %heinterested reader is referred to thesplendid facsimile edition pu&lishedrecentl$ which is accompanied &$ a

fascicle containing a alua&le andinformatie essa$ &$ 1a&rielle Sed-a/na 292 #n addition to thestandardB ersion which was also

pu&lished in ,nglish there appeared a lu*ur$ edition in a elet presentation &o* accompanied &$ aconsidera&l$ longer essa$ .; ppF .9 cmI with the detailed and e*act description of the i&licalscenes among others %his is all the more important &ecause owing to the loss of colours and thedistur&ed se'uence of the pictures een a s0illed e$e will sometimes fail to recogni8e the su&/ect of agien picture

rom among the illustrations on i&lical themes 3 although originall$ the$ did not form part ofHaggadahs 3 we select two intriguing scenes from Moses5 childhood when he was liing at Pharaoh5s

court (f;) %hese scenes do not appear in the i&le itself &ut hae &een presered in the rich treasur$of +ewish legend 29. or a detailed description of these scenes we turn to 1a&rielle Sed-a/na6


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Epper compartment6 Moses ta0ing off Pharaoh5s crown Pharaoh was dining one da$ in the compan$of his daughter and Moses Pharaoh5s daughter wearing a gold diadem is seated on the right thecrowned Pharaoh in the center and &etween them the $oung Moses wearing also a crown uring thedinner the pla$ful child too0 off the 0ing5s crown %his is the gesture which is eo0ed in the paintingPharaoh5s wise men interpret the gesture of the child as an eil omen Pharaoh hence decided to call

for all the wise men of ,g$pt in order to decide whether the child acted as an innocent infant or withwisdom reealing his am&ition to ta0e oer the 0ingdom from Pharaoh %he painting shows the three


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councillors in a liel$ discussion one of them holding a scroll which might hae &een inscri&ed &utis &lan0 at present

Dower compartment6 %he test of Moses Knowing that Moses was in danger 1od sent the angel1a&riel disguised as one of the wise men


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of them are in the possession of the Museum of Ara& Art LMuseum of #slamic Art in Cairo toda$I29"

#n the Mah8or produced in 1erman$ perhaps in Heil&ronn &etween !.:9 and !499 (MS Kaufmann A.":) in connection with one of the pra$ers of the a$ of Atonement the artist depicted the scenewhen the male figure coming from the sanctuar$ in accordance with Deiticus !7622 and traditionalimagination casts the scapegoat from the cliff into the a&$ss to A8a8el who appears in ourillustration as a horned and clawed mountain demon or deil 29;

ootnotes6

!"! #t is worth mentioning in connection with this manuscript that the earlier pagination was replaced &$ folio-num&ers at its restoration in !;": Conse'uentl$ earlier references to page-num&ers do notcoincide with modern references to folio-num&ers!"2 MQller 3 on Schlosser6 ilderhaggaden !";" !"; L


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!"7


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%afel ZZ Gar0iss 3 Sed-a/na !;"! Cards Gos 4.-44 Cf also Kaufmann6 ilder8$0len #n6Kaufmann !;9"-!;! ### 242 ad "&I Sed-a/na !;": ;2 Cf Oau !;-!;; ## # !"2-!".29 or a detailed description of the scene see Sed-a/na6 %he Kaufmann Haggadah udapest !;;9!. Cf also MQller 3 on Schlosser6 ilderhaggaden !";" !;: ad p :2I Gar0iss 3 Sed-a/na !;""Kaufmann Haggadah Card Go 4.297 +oseph 1utmann6 %he illuminated medieal Passoer haggadah6 inestigations and research pro&lems #n6 Studies in i&liograph$ and oo0lore : (!;7) !" of the offprintI29: Similar lamps can &e seen in the Sara/eo Haggadah in the Haggadahs of the ritish Di&rar$shelf-mar0s ?r 2:.: (fol 29) and 2""4 (fol !:) 3 all three Haggadahs are of Spanish origin,ugen

kaufmann haggadah

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