Har Peled, Misgav. The Dialogical Beast (phd, Johns Hopkins University, March, 2013)

THE DIALOGICAL BEAST THE IDENTIFICATION OF ROME WITH THE PIG IN EARLY RABBINIC LITERATURE

By Misgav Har-Peled

A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Baltimore, Maryland March, 2013

© 2013 Misgav Har-Peled All Rights Reserved

Abstracts The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the logic behind the identification of Rome with the pig in rabbinic literature. This identification is observed in the light of the broad context of the discourse concerning the pig and the avoidance of pork in rabbinic literature. Following this, we address the possible link of the rabbinic identification with porcine simile in Roman political discourse. We also identify the role of the pig in the legend of the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the midrsh concerning Jacob and Esau in Genesis Rabbah, and the midrash concerning forbidden animals in Leviticus Rabbah chapter 13 as well some in other midrashim. It is proposed that by identifying Rome with the pig, the sages made the avoidance of pork a locus of resistance to the Empire, which was first pagan and later Christian. By making the pig a symbol of dialogical relations with the other in time, the avoidance of pork was inscribed in history as embodying past, present, and future relations between Jacob and Esau, between Jews and Romans, and between Judaism and Christianity.

Advisors: David Nirenberg (University of Chicago) Gabriel Spiegel (Johns Hopkins University)

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Acknowledgements I was lucky to have two remarkable supervisors: Professor David Nirenberg (The University of Chicago), and Professor Gabrielle M. Spiegel (Johns Hopkins University). David Nirenberg made me cross an ocean, not just geographically but also intellectually, making my sojourn at Johns Hopkins University a determining experience. Gabrielle M. Spiegel took me under her wing after David Nirenberg moved to the University of Chicago. She became one of my most critical readers, as she was severe and extensive in her critique while extremely kind and cordial. My parents, Michal and Nehemiah, encouraged me to finish my PhD long before I started it, and were extremely helpful when pockets were empty and doubts abundant. Also, thanks to my brother Sariel - with no further excuses, with all the excuses. Thanks to my sister Lily, for her warm hospitality during my sojourns in California, much encouragement, and help with the Shakespearian language. Thanks to Ann Greenberg for being extremely thorough in the cyclical editing process. Luz del Rocio Bermudez H., a true intimate colleague of love, wisdom and patience, helped this research become a collective adventure. Thanks to Luz, I came to know the warm generosity of Nati, Carmen, Francisco, Paco, Ana, Armando, Monica and Victor. Most significantly, Maya joined Luz and I halfway along this journey, a happy reminder of the possibility of enjoying dialogics - of being with others in life. All I know is theirs; all errors, mine.

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A note on Style Unless otherwise noted, translations from Greek and Roman sources are from the Loeb Classical Library (LCL) edition. Biblical citations are from New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Abbreviations Rabbinic Texts Abrevations of mishanaic and talmudic tractates generally follow those of H. L. Strack and G. Stemberger in Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash. Edinburgh: Clark, 1991, 374-376. ARN B. CantR DeutR DEZ EcclR ExodR EsthR GenR LamR LevR M. Mek MHG MidAgada MidrPss MidProv Midr Tann MRS NumR LamR

Abot de-Rabbi Nathan, Text A or B Bavli = Bablylonian Talmud Song of Songs Rabbah Deutronomy Rabbah Derekh Eretz Zutta Ecclesiastes Rabbah Exodus Rabbah Esther Rabbah Genesis Rabbah Lamentations Rabbah Leviticus Rabbah; M. = M. Margulies, Midrash Wayyikra Rabbah, 5 vols., Jerusalem, 1953-60. Mishnah Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael; L = J. Z. Lauterbach, Mekilta de Rabbi Ishamael, 3 vols. Philadelphia, 1933-35. Midrash ha-Gadol Midrash Agada, ed. Buber, Vienna, 1894. Midrash on Psalms; B. = S. Buber, Midrash Tehillim, Vilna, 1892; repr. Jerusalem, 1966. Midrash on Proverbs; B. = S. Buber, Midrasch Mischle, Wilna, 1893; repr. Jerusalem, 1965. Midrash Tannaim; H. = D. Hoffmann, Midrasch Tannaim zum Deutronomium, Berlin, 1908-09. Mekhilta de R. Simeon b. Yohai; E.-M. = J. N. Epstein & E. Z. Melamed, Mekhilta de R. Simeon b. Yohai, Jerusalem, 1965. Numbers Rabbah Lamentations Rabbah; B. = S. Buber, Midrasch Echa Rabbati, Wilna, 1899; repr. Hildesheim, 1967. iv

PesR. PRE PRK

RuthR Sifre Deut Sifre Num SongR SZ T. Tan. TanB Y. YalShim

Pesikta Rabbati; F. = M. Friedmann, Pesikta Rabbati, Vienna, 1880. Pirqe deRabbi Eliezer; L. = D. Luria, Pirqe deRabbi Eliezer, Warsaw, 1852; repr. Jerusalem, 1960. Pesikta de Rab Kahana = B. Mandelbaum, Pesiqta de Rav Kahana: According to an Oxford Manuscript with Variations….With Commentary and Introduction, 2 vols. New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1962. Ruth Rabbah Sifre to Deuteronomy Sifre to Numbers Song of Songs Rabbah Sifre Zuttah; H. = H. S. Horowitz, Sifre Zuttah, 2nd ed. Jerusalem, 1966. Tosefta Tanḥuma Tanḥuma Buber. Yerushalmi (Palestinian Talmud) Yalkut Shimoni

Primary Literature ANF ANRW CCSL GLAJJ HUCA HTR JJS JQR LCL PG NPNF PNF

PL REJ SC

Ante Nicene Fathers. The Early Church Fathers, 38 vols., ed. A. Roberts and J. Donaldson. Edinburgh: T. & T. 1885-1887. Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt. Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina Menahem Stern, Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism, 3 vols. Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1974-1984. Hebrew Union College Annual Harvard Theological Review Journal of Jewish Studies The Jewish Quarterly Review Loeb Classical Library Patrologia Graeca. 161 vols., ed. J. P. Migne. Paris, 1857-1966. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers A Select Library of the Nivene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church. First and second series, tr. P. Schaff and H. Wace. Buggalo and New York (Reprint: Grand Rapids, MI, 1980-1991.) Patrologia Latina, 221 vols, ed. J. P. Migne, Paris, 1844-1855;1862-1865. Revue des Études Juives Sources Chrétiennes

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Table of Contents Abstract Acknowledgements A note on style Abbreviations Table of Contents List of Illustrations

ii iii iv iv vi viii

Introduction

1

1. The Nature of the Pig Omnivorous Animal Excrement and Dirt Sexual Lust Harmfulness Injurious Voice Uselessness and Idleness Diseases Drunkenness Hypocrisy Discussion

19 21 22 24 25 27 27 28 30 31 31

2. The Prohibited Animal Prohibition of Breeding Feeding and Commerce Pig Hide Purity and Classification The Sages’ Refusal to Explain the Avoidance of Pork Discussion

33 33 38 40 40 48 54

3. Boundary Keeping Persecutions Forbidden Sexual Relations with Non-Jews Apostasy Epikorusiut and the Pig Elisha ben Abuya, Aḥer Proselytes Conclussion

61 61 65 76 81 85 90 93

4. The Pig and the Destruction of the Temple August 70 CE The Pig and the Profanation of the Temple Prior to 70 CE The Legends of Destruction The Pig’s Head The Exchange of Lambs for Pigs The Sprinkling of Pig’s Blood

95 95 97 101 101 106 111

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Discussion

113

5. The Boar Emble m of the Legion X Fretensis and Aeneas’ Sow The Boar Emblem Aelia Capitolina The Sculpture of the Sow

117 117 121 122

6. The Diocletian Legend in Genesis Rabbah Dicletian the Swineherd Diocletian the Hunter The Ruler as a Boar-Hunter The Midrashic Context of the Rabbinic Legend

132 132 140 144 149

7. Leviticus Rabbah Leviticus Rabbah 13.2 Leviticus Rabbah 13.3 Leviticus Rabbah 13.4 Leviticus Rabbah 13.5 Discussion

158 158 165 168 169 176

8. The Boar out of the Wood Sifri Numbers 316-317 Bavli Pesaḥim 18b Bereshit Rabbati of Moses ha-Darshan Discussion Christian Reading of Psalms 80 (79):14 Conclusion

183 185 188 193 195 199 202

9. Why is it called ḥazir? Ecclesiastes Rabbah Hamidrash HaGadol Discussion Conclusion

205 206 210 211 218

10. The End of the Pig Esther Rabbah Discussion

221 221 227

Discussion and Conclusion

231

Bibliography

258

Vita

285

vii

List of Illustrations Figures 1. Cysticercosis Muscle of a Pig. The Several Vesicular Ovoid Nodules, Whitish-Yellow and Smaller than a Green Pea, are Larvae of Taenia solium. (Gil J. Infante and J. Costa Durão, A Colour Atlas of Meat Inspection (London: Wolfe, 1990), 66, fig. 104).

30

2. The Porcine Greco-Roman Discursive Sphere with the Rabbinic topoi (framed).

32

3. Classification of beasts in Leviticus 11 according to Sifra Shemini 4.1.

43

4. The Three Parallel Domains of Classification According to Jacob Milgrom. (Jacob Milgrom. “Ethics and Ritual: The Foundations of the Biblical Dietary Laws,” in Religion and Law: Biblical, Jewish, and Islamic Perspectives, ed. E. B. Firmage (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1989), 179,181).

57

5. Legion X Fretensis' standards on Aelia Capitolina’s coin, Elagabal (218222 CE). A. topped with eagle, B. topped with boar. (Yaakov Meshorer, The Coinage of Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 1989), 118).

96

6. Suovetaurilia Sacrifice to Mars on Arch of Titus (c. 81 CE).

96

7. Illustration of the Troops. Arch of Constantine (dedicated in 315 CE).

96

8. Standard with a boar on a Roman bas-relief, Narbonne, France. Photo by the author. Narbonne, Musée Lapidaire, 737.

118

9. Two Brick Stamp Impressions of the Legio X Fretensis from Jerusalem, 68-132 CE. (Dan Barag, “Brick Stamp-Impressions of the Legio X Fretensis,” Bonner Jahrbücher 167 (1967): 255).

119

10. A Roman Coin Found in Jerusalem with a Secondary Mint of the Symbols of the Legion X Fretensis. (Félicien De Saulcy, “Lettre à M. Léon Renier sur une monnaie antique contremarquée en judée,” Revue archéologique 20 (1869): 252).

120

11. Aelia Cpitolina, Coin of Herennius Etruscus (250-251 CE). Boar running; legionary eagle on its back, with vexillum topped by star. Meshorer, Yaakov. The Coinage of Aelia Capitolina, (Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 1989), 114.

122

12. The Plan of Aelia Capitolina (cf. Yaron Z. Eliav). (Yaron Z. Eliav, “The Urban Layout of Aelia Capitolina: A New View from the Perspective of the Temple Mount,” in The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered: New viii

Perspectives on the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome, ed. Peter Sch fer (T bingen: Mohr, 2003), 277, map 2).

123

13. Legion X Fretensis in Judea (Cf. Dabrow 1993). (Edward Dabrowa, Legio X Fretensis: a prosopographical study of its officers (I-III c. A.D.) (Stuttgart: F. Steiner, 1993), 6).

125

14. Rome, 2nd century marble sculpture of sow with piglets. Rome, Vattican Museum (sala degli Animali, inv. 176). (Frederick Cameron Sillar, Ruth Mary Meyler, and Oliver Holt. The Symbolic Pig: An Anthology of Pigs in Literature and Art (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1961), pl. 7).

127

15. Ara Pacis: Relief of Aeneas sacrificing to the Penates. Consulted October 07, 2012.

128

16. The Belvedere Altar. A. Aeneas and the Laurantine sow. B. Augustus and the Vicomagistri. Belvedere Altar, Vatican, Rome (DAIR 1511). (Lowell Edmunds, “Epic and Myth” in A Companion to Ancient Epic, ed. John Miles Foley (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005), 31-44).

128

17. Vespasian, Denarius, minted 77-78 CE. Laureate head right / Aneas’ sow with piglets.

129

18. Antonine copy of the Hadrianic 'Aeneid' medallion, reverse design. Source: bronze cast from original held in the Cabinet des Medailles, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Actual size: 3.5 cm diameter (approx.). (Michael R. Jenkins, “The 'Aeneid' medallion - a narrative interpretation,” The Numismatic Chronicle 148 (1988): 148-152, pl. 12/3-4). 19. Bronze Medallion of Antionius Pius (Reign 138-161 CE). (Andreas Alföldi, Early Rome and the Latins (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1965), plate VI).

130

20. Hadrianic Boar Hunt Relief, Arch of Constantine, Rome. (Jones Mark Wilson, “Genesis and Mimesis: The Design of the Arch of Constantine in Rome,” The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 59, no. 1 (2000): 54, fig. 64).

147

21. Alexander the Great Hunting a Wild Boar. 1st century. Sardonyx; cameo. The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

148

22. The three-four model in Leviticus Rabbah 13.

178

23. Hypothetical reconstruction of the midrashic process of identification of Rome with the pig.

237

24. The Discursive spheres of Israel and the Pig in Rabbinic literature.

239

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Tables 1. The pig and the destruction or profanation of the Temple.

116

2. The Four Kingdoms in Leviticus Rabbah 13.5.

170

3. Structure and message of Leviticus Rabbah 13.2-5.

177

4. Structure and content of Psalm 80

184

5. The reading of Deuteronomy 32: 13-14 in Sifre 316-317.

195

6. The interpretation of Psalm 104: 20-22 in Bereshit Rabbati.

204

7. Psalm 80:14 and the association of the pig with Rome.

214

8. Different answers to the question, “Why is it called ḥazir”?

217

9.

247

The pig in the historical model of the midrashic discursive sphere.

x

Introduction The prohibition of pork is the Jewish food avoidance par excellence, one of the strongest markers of Jewish identity in the eyes of Jews and non-Jews alike. Many scholars have tried to explain the origin and raison d'être of this biblical avoidance. Likewise modern research has placed much attention on the Christian association of the Jews with the animal they disdain, the pig. In 1974, art historian Isaiah Sachar published a monograph on the European image of the Judensau, the Jews’ sow, which depicted a group of rabbis with a sow, riding it, sucking its tits, licking its anus, and eating its excrement. 1 Twenty years later, ethnologist Claudi ne Fabre-Vassas published the book The Singular Beast: Jews, Christians, and the Pig (1994). In this fascinating book, based on her fieldwork in the French East Pyrenees and material from throughout Europe, the author demonstrates the rich association of the Jew with the pig in European folklore. 2 As does much research on anti-Judaism, both scholars ignore the Jewish side of the story. Were the Jews just figures of thought? Were they passive and not active actors? Were they solely victims of Christian hate discourse? Can we assume that Jews were not aware of the degrading association of them with the pig? Did they not react to this insulting association of them with the impure animal? Can we assume that the Christian association of the Jews with the pig has nothing to do with Jewish discourse concerning the pig? This asymmetric history where the Jewish voice is absent is quite problematic, not only because it renders the Jews into non-historical persons, and hence lacking 1

Isaiah Shachar, The Judensau: A Medieval Anti-Jewish Motif and Its History (London: Warburg Institute, 1974). 2 Claudine Fabre-Vassas, The Singular Beast: Jews, Christians, and the Pig (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997) [Original title: La bête singulière. Les Juifs, les chrétiens et le cochon (Paris: Gallimard, 1994)].

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responsibility, but also because it ignores the dialogical nature of Jewish-Christian relations, relations that have never been simple, almost never symmetrical, and rarely unidirectional. In fact, if the Christians associated the Jews with the pig at least since the High Middle Ages, already by the end of antiquity, rabbinic literature identified the Roman Empire with the pig, and since the Christianization of the Roman Empire, sages have identified the pig with Christianity. 3 Was there no link between the Christian and the Jewish identification? If there was a link, what was its nature? To answer these questions, we must observe discourses concerning the pig, the avoidance of pork, and the other religion, both in Judaism and Christianity in the longue durée (long term). The dialogical history of the interrelations between the two around the pig should not only seek direct polemics, but also seek the meta-dimensions of the theological, anthropological, and moral issues at stake. In other words, the dialogical history should ask to what exte nt the logic of each side was constructed vis-à-vis the logic of other, and in what ways differences between the different religions were constructed. Notions emphasizing the negation of the other, such as polemics, anti-Judaism, racism, etc., are problematic for they often assume a “pure” existence of self/group. However, no self/group/identity exists in a vacuum. Like language, culture is highly dialogic. Therefore, otherness is not a secondary dimension of human experience, but rather a primordial one. Negation of the other is just one manifestation of the triangulation of identities, where the location of one

3

In fact, both Sachar and Fabre-Vassas demonstrated that the association of the Jews with the abominable pig in Europe had its roots in Christian writings from Late Antiquity, hence from the same period as classical rabbinic literature.

2

entity is understood by its real or imagined location in a network of entities. 4 In this play of triangulation, similarities, distinctions, and negations together create rather complex relations. By focusing our analysis on the negative/violent dimension of intergroup relations, we risk ignoring the broad span of configurations of identities. One can compare the researcher who focuses on the negation of the other, and hence focuses on the violent nature of the relations, to a geologist who analyzes earthquakes while ignoring plate tectonics. Just as earthquakes are a consequence of movement of plates along a common rift, so the negation of the other between human groups which are dialogically connected is a part of their mutual construction of identity along the same frontier. This is the case of Judaism and Christianity, whose grids of alterity in diverse ways encompass each other. In this dissertation, I hope to contribute to the dialogical history of JewishChristian relations over the longue durée. However, for practical reasons, the actual work focuses on the identification of Rome with the pig in early rabbinical literature. Hence, the work mainly covers: the Mishnah and Tosefta from the Tannitic period (50-200 CE); the Midrash Sifre from the Amoraic period (200-400 CE); and Midrash Genesis Rabbah, Midrash Leviticus Rabbah, the two talmudim, the Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Talmud) Talmud, and the Bavli (Babylonian) Talmud, all from the post-Amoraic period (400-700 CE). In some cases, material from later midrashim is discussed (900-1300 CE). The main period addressed in this work is Late Antiquity (2 th - 7th cent.), a period corresponding to the formative stages of Christianity and Rabbinical Judaism. Due to the limited scope of this dissertation, the Christian discourse concerning the pig and avoidance of pork will 4

On the concept of triangulation, see: Jean-Loup Amselle, ranchements anthropo ogie de uni ersa it des cu tures (Paris: Flammarion, 2001). Ibid. “Métissage, branchement et triangulation des cultures,” Revue germanique internationale 21 (2004): 41-51.

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briefly be addressed in those cases in which rabbinic literature seems to be polemical or in which the church fathers refer to rabbinic literature. However, several elements contributing to the understanding of rabbinic discourse concerning the pig and the identification of Rome with the pig in its Jewish-Christian dialogic context will be provided, mainly in the final discussion. In order to fill the gap, detailed analysis of the Christian discourse on the pig and the avoidance of pork in the patristic era will be necessary.

The Current State of Research Unlike the great body of literature on the biblical prohibition of pork, relatively little attention has been paid to the avoidance of pork in rabbinic literature in general and the identification of Rome with the pig in particular. 5 Jacob Neusner, in Judaism and Christianity in the Age of Constantine: History, Messiah, Israel, and the Initial Confrontation (1987), analyzed the identification of Rome both with the fourth kingdom and the pig in Midrash Leviticus Rabbah 13, explaining this identification as being a polemic with Christianity. 6 In 1986, Mireille Hadas-Lebel dedicated an article to the identification of Rome with the fourth kingdom of the book of Da niel and with the pig; this was further developed in her book Jerusalem Against Rome (2005, a translation of Jérusalem contre Rome, 2003).7 Her main interest was to reconstruct the history of the

5

The entry “ḥazir ‫ ”חזיר‬in the Tamudic Encycopedia, like any encyclopedical entry, is far from complete. Encyclopedia talmudit, vol. 13 (Jerusalem: Talmudic Encyclopedia Institute, 1977), 443-446 (Hebrew). 6 Jacob Neusner, Judaism and Christianity in the Age of Constantine: History, Messiah, Israel, and the Initial Confrontation (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1987), 102. 7 Mireille Hadas-Lebel, “Rome ‘Quatrième Empire’ et le symbole du porc,” dans e enica t udaica ommage Va entin i iprowet , éd. André Caquot, Mireille Hadas-Lebel et. J. Riaud (Leuven: Peeters, 1986), 297-312. Ibid. Jerusalem Against Rome, trans. Robyn Fréchet (Leuven: Peeters, 2005) [original title: Jérusalem contre Rome (Paris: Cerf, 2003)], 413-416.

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creation of this identification. She did not analyze the midrashim in depth or try to analyze the inner logic of the midrashic construction or locate it in its larger context of Roman or Christian discourses. David Kraemer, in Jewish Eating and Identity through the Ages (2007), briefly explains why the pig became the food avoidance par excellence in Judaism, but does not analyze in detail the relevant rabbinic texts. 8 In 2010, Jordon D. Rosenblum published the article, “Why Do You Refuse to Eat Pork? Jews, Food, and Identity in Roman Palestine.” 9 His main point is that the sages identified Rome with the pig following the metonymic logic of “you are what you (do and do not) eat.” Aside from this idea, Rosenblum’s discussion does not add much to Hadas-Lebel’s work (which he seems not to be aware of). Since the nineteenth century, five explanations have been given in the literature for the identification of Rome with the pig; these have to do with: 1) The god Mars, 2) The boar emblem of the Legion X Fretensis, 3) The erection of a sculpture of a sow in Jerusalem, 4) The Roman myth of Aeneas, and 5) A metonymic identification of the Romans with their meat. 1. The God Mars Abraham Epstein (1885) proposed that the equation ‘Rome = Esau = Pig’ had its origin in the Roman cult of the war-god Mars, who, in his view, was portrayed as a pig. According to Epstein, the Syrians called Mars “Ḥaziran,” derived from ḥa ir (pig). Because Mars gave his name to the red planet (Mahadim in Hebrew), his redness was

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David Kraemer, Jewish Eating and Identity through the Ages (New York and London: Routledge, 2007), 30-33. 9 Jordon D. Rosenblum, “Why Do You Refuse to Eat Pork? Jews, Food, and Identity in Roman Palestine,” The Jewish Quarterly Review 100, no. 1 (2010): 95-110. See also his Food and Identity in Early Rabbinic Judaism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 48-51, which is based on his PhD dissertation:‘The Sit Apart at Mea s’ ar Rabbinic Commensa it Regu ations and Identity Construction. PhD dissertation (Providence, Rhode Island: Brown University, 2008).

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linked to Esau-Edom, both of whom had red hair. 10 This interpretation is far from convincing, and will not be discussed here. 11 2. The Boar Emble m of the Legion X Fretensis Theodore Reinach suggested (1903) that the sages identified Rome with the pig because the boar was the emblem of the Legion X Fretensis, which participated in the conquest of Jerusalem in 70 CE and was stationed in the city ruins after the Great Revolt.12 3. The Erection of a Sculpture of a Sow in Jerusalem Samuel Krauss (1914) proposed that “there is reason to believe that this [symbolization of Rome as a pig in rabbinic literature] came into prominence only since

10

Abraham Epstein, “The Beasts of the Four Kingdoms,” Bet Talmud 4 (1885): 177 (Hebrew). Ibid., Mi-Qadmoniot ha-Yehudim, 2 vols (Jerusalem: Mossad ha-Rav Kook, 1965 (Vienna, 1887)), 33 (Hebrew). Epstein is followed by Jay Braverman, erome’s Commentar on Danie A Stud of Comparati e ewish and Christian Interpretations of the Hebrew Bible (Washington: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1978), 79. 11 For criticism of this explanation, see: Jane Barr, “Review of Braverman, Jay. Jerome’s Commentary on Daniel: A Study of Comparative Jewish and Christian Interpretations of the Hebrew Bible, Washington, The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1978,” Journal of Biblical Literature 100, no. 2 (1981): 288. Gershon D. Cohen called it “farfetched,” see: Gershon D. Cohen. “Esau as Symbol in Early Medieval Thought,” in Jewish Medieval and Renaissance Studies, ed. Alexander Altmann (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1967), 21, note 7. 12 Théodore Reinach, “Mon nom est Légion,” Revue des études juives 47 (1903): 172-178. Louis Ginzberg writes, for example, “The designation of Esau (=Rome) as “swine” is very common in rabbinic literature, and occurs in so old a source as Enoch 89. 12. Originally it was not intended as an expression of contempt, but was coined with reference to the standard of the Roman legion stationed in Palestine, which had as its emblem a boar, a wild swine, and hence the designation of Rome as ‫‘ חזיר מיער‬the boar out of the wood’.” Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, vol. V (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1947), 294, note 162. Isaac Heinemann, The Methods of the Aggadah (Darkhe ha-agadah) (Jerusalem: Magness, 1949), 32 (Hebrew). Samuel Krauss, Paras VeRomi BaTalmud UbaMidrashim (Persia and Rome in the Talmud and Midrashim) (Jerusalem: Mosad HaRav Cook, 1948), 100-105; 177178 (Hebrew). Irit Aminoff, The Figure of Esau and the Kingdom of Edom in Palestinian MidrashicTalmudic Literature in the Tannaic and Amoraic Periods. PhD dissertation (Melbourne: Melbourne University, 1981), 258-265 (“Chapter 4: The Swine.”). Louis H. Feldman, Josephus's Interpretation of the Bible (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 323. Ibid., Remember Amalek: Vengeance, Zealotry, and Group Destruction in the Bible According to Philo, Pseudo-Philo, and Josephus (Cincinnati, OH: Hebrew Union College Press, 2004), 67. Daphne Barak-Erez, Outlawed Pigs: Law, Religion, and Culture in Israel (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2007), 20. Samuel Tobias Lachs, A Rabbinic commentary on the New Testament: the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Hoboken, NJ: Ktav; New York: Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, 1987), 139. For criticism of this identification, see: HadasLebel, Jerusalem Against Rome, 104.

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the time of Hadrian and the fall of Betar (135 CE) since, in order to insult the Jews, the image of a pig was attached to the southern gate of Jerusalem which had been transformed into the Roman colony, Aelia Capitolina.” 13 4. The Roman Myth of Aeneas Moshe David Herr (1970) proposed that the rabbinical identification of Rome with the pig was linked to the sow and her thirty piglets. According to Virigil’s Aeneid, this was the sign given Aeneas as to where the city of Lavinium, the mother city of Rome, should be founded, and hence the sow with piglets became a symbol of Rome. 14 5. A Metonymic Identification of the Romans with their Meat David Kraemer (2007) proposed that the sages identified the Romans with the pig because of the importance of pork in the Roman diet. 15 Likewise, Rosenblum proposed that “if to be Roman meant, in some sense, to eat pork, then the pig makes a seemingly logical symbol for Rome: after all, ‘‘you are what you eat.’’ 16

My approach While each of the explanations that have been given for the identification of Rome with the pig may be worthy, it seems reductionist to attempt to explain the Rabbinic identification of Rome with the pig by a single cause. If the pig had rich, diverse meanings in rabbinic literature as well in the Greco-Roman world, we can assume 13

Samuel Krauss, Monumenta Talmudica, vol. 5, Geschichte, 1. Teil: Griechen und Rimer (Wien: Orion, 1914), 15. Cited in: Braverman, erome’s Commentar on Danie , 94. Mireille Hadas-Lebel argues against the idea that: “after 135, there was little contact between the Jewish populations and the Xth Fretensis quartering at Aelia Capitolina where the Jews were forbidden the right to stay.” Hadas -Lebel, Jerusalem Against Rome, 518. 14 Moshe David Herr, Roman Rule in Tannaitic Literature Its Image and Conception, PhD Dissertation (Jerusalem: The Hebrew University, 1970), 128, note 99. 15 Kraemer, Jewish Eating, 31. 16 Rosenblum, “Why,” 107-108.

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that the identification of Rome with the pig will correspond to this complexity, that it will function at diverse levels and with diverse meanings. Current research suffers from what Marc Bloch called historians’ “obsession with origins,” 17 an “obsession” which shifts us from the question of the logic behind the identification. Hence, to seek to understand the identification of Rome with the pig, I will analyze it in the broader context of discourse concerning the pig in rabbinic literature. Due to the semi-oral nature of Rabbinic literature, it is very hard to date the different texts within it; therefore I will not analyze the rabbinic discourse in a supposed chronological order. However, in the discussion, I will propose some historical observations on the evaluation of rabbinic porcine discourse over time, from the Mishnah to the medieval midrashim. Before going on to Chapter One, I will briefly summarize the place of the pig in the Hebrew Bible.

The Pig in the Hebrew Bible The Hebrew word ḥa ir, which means both pig and wild boar,18 is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible only seven times (Deut. 14:8; Lev. 11:7; Is. 65:4; 66:3; Ps. 80:14; Prov. 11:22). 19 Consumption of pork is prohibited in Leviticus 14 and Deuteronomy 11, priestly sources which probably date from the end of Iron Age, but may reflect an earlier tradition: Leviticus 11

Deuteronomy 14

2: From among all the land animals, these are the creatures that you may eat. 17

3 You shall not eat any abhorrent thing. 4: These are the animals you may eat:

Marc Bloch, The Historian's Craft (New York: Knopf, 1953), 24. Likewise, Aramaic and Arabic do not distinguish between the domestic and the wild animal. 19 Compare this to other animals, such as the dog, which is mentioned thirty-two times, the goat seventy-four times, and the sheep one hundred and seven times. 18

8

3: Any animal that has divided hoofs and is cloven-footed and chews the cud — such you may eat. 4: But among those that chew the cud or have divided hoofs, you shall not eat the following: the camel, for even though it chews the cud, it does not have divided hoofs; it is unclean for you. 5: The rockbadger, for even though it chews the cud, it does not have divided hoofs; it is unclean for you. 6: The hare, for even though it chews the cud, it does not have divided hoofs; it is unclean for you. 7: The pig, for even though it has divided hoofs and is cloven-footed, it does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. 8: Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean for you.

the ox, the sheep, the goat, 5: the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain-sheep. 6: Any animal that divides the hoof and has the hoof cloven in two, and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. 7: Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cloven you shall not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the rockbadger, because they chew the cud but do not divide the hoof; they are unclean for you.

8: And the pig, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. You shall not eat their meat, and you shall not touch their carcasses.

The prohibition of touching the dead body of impure animals seems to reinforce the prohibition of consumption.

20

Curiously, the Hebrew Bible does not give a

theological explanation for food avoidance, but does clearly link it to purity as a state of separateness, as summarized in Leviticus 20:24: 21 I am the Lord your God; I have separated you from the peoples. You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; you shall not bring abomination on yourselves by animal or by bird or by anything with which the ground teems, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from the other peoples to be mine (Lev. 20:24-27). 20

As Walter Houston notes, this ban “is intended as a kind of ‘hedging of the law’; in order to remove even the temptation of eating the flesh of these animals, or the possibility of doing so accidentally, it is forbidden even to touch their bodies.” Walter Houston, Purity and Monotheism: Clean and Unclean Animals in Biblical Law, JSOTSupSer, 140 (Sheffield: JSOT, 1993), 40. Jacob Milgrom. Leviticus 1-16. The Anchor Bible (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 655. 21 Ibid., 54.

9

This logic of purity and separateness does not, however, explain the reason for the criteria given for the purity or impurity of each particular animal. In any case, the pig is explained as an anomaly of a purity classification system: it holds the first mark of purity but not the second. In this sense, it can be understood as a symbol of impurity, hybridism, and the transgression of category boundaries. Third Isaiah (c. late sixth century - mid fifth century BCE), 22 rebukes the presence of a foreign cult in the Temple. In this passage, the blood of the pig symbolizes the profanation of the Temple (Isaiah 66:3): “[He] who presented a cereal offering [would now present] the blood of a swine.” 23 Isaiah 66:17 declares that “those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following the one in the centre, eating the flesh of pigs, vermin, and rodents, shall come to an end together, says the Lord.” Likewise, Isaiah 65:4 condemns the ones “who sit inside tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat swine’s flesh, with broth of abominable things in their vessels.” In Psalms 80:14, the wild pig (‫ )חזיר מיער‬symbolized the destruction of the Temple: “(13) Why hast thou broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? (14) The boar from the forest ( a’ar) ravages it, and the beasts of the field feed on it.” 24 The pig, as a thing out of place, is also found in the book of Proverbs (tenth to sixth centuries BCE), 25 which says “Like a gold ring in the snout of a pig is a beautiful woman bereft of sense” (Prov. 11:22). 26

22

On the date of Third Isaiah, see Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 56-66: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, Anchor Bible, vol. 19b (New York: Doubleday, 2003), 42-54. 23 Jack Murad Sasson, “Isaiah 66:3-4a,” Vetus Testamentum 26 (1976): 200. 24 Arthur Weiser, The Psalms: A Commentary (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962), 546. 25 Proverbs is a collection of texts produced probably over the course of a very long period (10 th to 6th cent. BCE) which was edited in its final form perhaps as late as the third century BCE: Leo G. Perdue, Proverbs (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 2000). 26 The saying as Tova L. Forti notes is “a moral statement about the advantage of intellect over beauty,” Tova L. Forti, Animal Imagery in the Book of Proverbs (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2008), 52.

10

In all of these passages, the pig is mentioned in a negative context, standing for a thing “out of place.” In Leviticus and Numbers, the pig is an anomaly of the classification system; in Isaiah, it is a forbidden food (eaten in an impure place, the tomb) or inappropriate sacrifice. In Psalms, the pig is the animal that penetrates and destroys the vineyard (Temple). In Proverbs, the pig is a vulgar creature. Hence, the pig in the Hebrew Bible is above all an impure animal, its consumption is forbidden, and its general symbolism makes it stand for an anomaly, whether ontological, cultic, or moral.27

Romanization and Pork Consumption David Kraemer notes that the “major development in Jewish eating practices between the Bible and the rabbis is the emergence of pork as a uniquely abhorred substance” by the early first century CE, 28 which he explains through the central role of pork in the Greco-Roman diet, which made pork a marker of difference in daily life: (…) When the common Palestinian Jew viewed the common gentile eating meat at her or his table – in the first century BCE or the first century CE – that meat was far more likely to be pork than anything else. In other words, of all the species marked as off limits by the Torah’s legislation, the only one concerning which this would make a difference on a regular basis was the pig. The rest were primarily of academic interest, the pig was a presence and potentially a temptation. But it was also, crucially, their meat – ubiquitously so. And thus, it was taboo – because the Torah outlawed it, taboo because it was so readily associated with “the other.” It emerged as the abhorred symbol par excellence because it was available to serve in that capacity. No other species on the Torah’s list could do the same. (…) Palestine, in the second century BCE, saw rising numbers of Hellenized soldiers, traders and other residents within its territories. Notably, pork was a mainstay of the Hellenistic – and later, Roman – diet. By contrast, in the centuries before the Hellenistic conquest, local peoples in Palestine rarely consumed pork (…) What this means is that in the Hellenistic period, for the first time, Jews observing the Torah’s prohibitions would have had increasing opportunity to witness their neighbors regularly consuming a

27

Except for Psalms and Proverbs, the pig is mentioned mainly as a concrete animal and not as a metaphor or symbol. 28 Kraemer, Jewish Eating, 30.

11

particular prohibited flesh: pork. As this awareness grew, pork could grow into a symbol – it could be viewed more and more prominently as the food of the other. 29

According to Baruch Rozen, the Roman occupation was a turning point in the importance of pig breeding in Palestine, as witnessed by the increase percentage of pig bones in archeological excavations in layers from the Roman period to the Arab conquest in the seventh century. 30 The neo-Platonist Porphyry, in his Against the Christians, argues against the story of the Gaderian pigs (Mt. 8:28-34; Mark 5:12-17; Luke 8:27-37) - that it is not possible that Jesus had drowned so many pigs in the sea of Galilee, for “how could there be so large a swineherd grazing in Judea, animals most unclean and from the beginning hated by the Jews?” 31 However, even this polemical argument takes for granted that pigs were raised in the Holy Land. In fact, the sages of the Talmud even imagined that the emperor Diocletian was a swineherd in the city of Tiberias, on the shore of the sea of Galilee.32

29

Ibid. Baruch Rozen, “Swine Breeding in Eretz Israel after the Roman Period,“ Cathedra 78 (1995): 25-42 (Hebrew). See also: Shimon Dar, “Food and Archeology in Romano-Byzantine Palestine,” in Food in Antiquity, ed. John Wilkins, David Harvey & Mike Dobson (Exeter, UK: University of Exeter Press, 1995), 328. Magen Broshi, “The Diet of Palestine in the Roman Period.” Cathedra 43 (1987): 15-32 (Hebrew). Ibid., “The Diet of Palestine in the Roman Period: Introductory Notes,” in Bread, Wine, Walls and Scrolls (London: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001), 121-43 [originally published in: The Israel Museum Journal 5 (1986): 41-56]. For a detailed discussion of pork consumption in a Roman site, see for example the Roman legionary fortress of el-Lejjun (Jordan): Michael Toplyn, “Livestock and Limitanei: The Zooarchaeological Evidence,” in The Roman Frontier in Central Jordan: Final Report on the Limes Arabicus Project, 19801989, ed. S. Thomas Parker (Washington (D.C.): Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2006), 484-486. 31 Porphyry, Against the Christians, fr. 177 (apud Apokritikos 3.4). Robert M. Berchman, Porphyry against the Christians, Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Platonic tradition, v. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 200. A later scholiast (in the margin of the Manuscript) argues that the Jews raised pigs and sold the meat to Roman solders and thus broke the law. Consequently, the Savior vindicated the law by letting the demons go into the pigs. See Apocr. 3.4 (Blondel), discussed in John Granger Cook, The Interpretation of the Old Testament in Greco-Roman Paganism (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004), 178. 32 Rosenblum, “Why, ” 96. 30

12

In Rome, even more than in Greece, 33 pork was a popular, inexpensive meat; it was the meat par excellence.34 Pig breeding was so widespread in Rome that Varro (d. 27 BCE) asked the rhetorical question: “Who of our people cultivates a farm without keeping swine?” 35 Polybius notes that “the number of swine slaughtered in Italy for private consumption as well as to feed the army is very large,” 36 mentioning herds of thousands of pigs, 37 while Pliny the Elder (d. 79 CE) notes that “no other animal produces so much material for cooking: the pig has about fifty different flavors.” 38 In Roman Italy, all parts of the pig were consumed, as pork, ham, sausage, or lard. 39 Pork was an important component in the diet of the Roman soldier, especially during a campaign. 40 Pork was supplied in large quantities to the city of Rome, where a public

33

Plutarch, Life of Cato the Younger 46.3. Emily Gowers, The Loaded Table: Representations of Food in Roman Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 69. 34 Jacques André, L'alimentation et la cuisine à Rome (Paris: Klincksieck, 1961), 139-41. Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti, “Alimentazione, cibi, tavola e cucine nel l’età imperiale,” in L’A iment ione ne mondo antico (Roma: Instituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1987), 90-94. 35 Varro, On Agriculture 2.4.3. 36 Polybius, The Histories 2.15.2. 37 Polybius, The Histories 12.3.8-4.14. 38 Pliny, Natural History 8. 209. The following is an idea found in a satire of Petronius (Sat. Trim, 69.): serving a meal in which everything was made of pork, the host explains: “my cook prepared all this from pork. There is none more valuable than he. If you wish, he’ll prepare you a fish from a pig’s womb, a wood pigeon from bacon, a turtle-dove from ham, and a chicken from pork loin …” Patrick Faas, Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1994), 255. 39 “The haute cuisine of Imperial Rome presents an astonishing array of recipes based on the pig; there is scarcely any part of the carcass that did not provide the basis for some gourmand’s delight…Pliny alone mentions fifty such recipes“ K. D. White, Roman Farming (New York: Cornell University Press, 1970), 231. 40 “The Roman military ate pork in a number of forms: cooked, roasted or boiled, made into sausages (ifarcimina), ham (perna) or bacon (lardum/laridum). […] Smoked or salted pork was particularly important during a campaign. Indeed, from the quartermaster’s, if not the soldier’s, point of view, salt pork has always been a favorite food for campaigning because it is cheap and long-lasting.” Jonathan P. Roth, The Logistics of the Roman Army at War (264 B.C. – A.D. 235) (Leiden; Boston; Köln: Brill, 1999), 29-30. Hadrian, if we have to believe the Historia Augusta (late 4th century): “led a soldier’s life among the maniples, and […] cheerfully ate out of doors such camp-fare as bacon, cheese and vinegar.” Historia Augusta¸ Hadrian 10.2

13

system of pork distribution existed. 41 Authors from the imperial period presented pork consumption as part of the ideal Roman diet, that of early Roman times, which they contrasted to the “corrupted” diet of their own days. 42 Juvenal, in Satire Eleven, praises the old practice of consuming homemade bacon: “For feast days, in olden times, they would keep a side of dried pork, hanging from an open rack, or put before the relations a flitch of birthday bacon, with the addition of some fresh meat, if there happened to be a sacrifice to supply it.” 43 This humble diet is contrasted with that of his own day, characterized by a “magnificent feast of hares and sow's paunches, of boars and antelopes,”44 or that of Satire One: (…) lordly patron will be devouring the choicest products of wood and sea, lying alone upon an empty couch; for off those huge and splendid antique dinner-tables he will consume a whole patrimony at a single meal. Ere long no parasites will be left! Who can bear to see luxury so mean? What a huge gullet to have a whole boar----an animal created for conviviality----served up to it! 45

It seems that pork consumption was subject to sumptuary laws, as Pliny the Elder (d. 79 CE) notes: Nor does any animal supply a larger number of materials for an eating-house: they have almost fifty flavors, whereas all other meats have one each. Hence pages of sumptuary laws, and the prohibition of hog’s paunches, sweetbreads, testicles, matrix and cheeks for banquets, although nevertheless no dinner of the pantomime writer Publius after he had obtained his freedom is recorded that did not include paunch - he actually got from this 41

Peter Garnsey, “Mass Diet and Nutrition in the City of Rome,” Cities, Peasants and Food in Classical Antiquity: Essays in Social and Economic History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 226-252, especialy pp. 242- 245. 42 On this theme in the satire of Plautus, see: J. C. B. Lowe, “Cooks in Plautus,” Classical Antiquity 4, no. 1 (1985): 77. “The Roman stereotype of the humble peasant with his flitch of salted bacon assumed that, once a year at least, the fatted animal would be killed, perhaps at a festival or wedding which coincided with the start of winter. This, incidentally, helps to explain the particular connections between pigs and the Saturnalia (along with their anthropomorphic features).” See also Nicholas Purcell, “The Roman Villa and the Landscape of Production” in Urban Society in Roman Italy, ed. T. Cornell and K. Lomas, 151-179 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995), 155-59. Ibid. “The Way We Used to Eat: Diet, Community, and History at Rome,” American Journal of Philology 124, no. 3 (2003): 329-358. 43 Juvenal, Satiries 11. Likewise, Varro “contrasts modern luxury with the opprobrium attached in the old days to a peasant who bought bacon at the market instead of producing it on his own plot.” Gowers, The Loaded Table, 72. 44 Ibid. 45 Ibid.

14

the nickname of Pig’s Paunch. But also wild boar has been a popular luxury. As far as Cato the Censor we find his speeches denouncing boar meat bacon. Nevertheless a boar used to be cut up into three parts and the middle part served at table, under the name of boar loin. Publius Servilius Rullus, father of the Rullus who brought in the land settlement act during Cicero’s consulship, first served a boar whole at his banquets - so recent is the origin of what is now an everyday affair; and this occurrence has been noted by historians, presumably for the improvement of the manners of the present day, when it is the fashion for two or three boars to be devoured at one time not even as a whole dinner but as the first course. 46

Likewise, after bringing the menu of a banquet for a pontiff, Macrobius mentions the reproach made in 161 BCE by a certain C. Titius to the people gathered to receive the Fannia sumptuary law.47 This reproach was made to them because they ate the dish called “Trojan pig” (porcus troianus), a pig that “was stuffed with other animals that were closed inside the same manner that the Trojan horse was filled with warriors.”48 If this critique of luxury by the regimen in imperial Rome involves that of pork, consuming it confirms and reinforces the role of pork consumption as part of Roman identity. If the Empire incorporated the food of the different cultures under its control, creating a kind of cosmopolitan diet, while at the same time making the Roman diet the unified diet of the empire,49 was pork in the diet an important part of Romanization? In

46

Pliny, Natural History 8. 127-128. As Emily Gowers notes, “It is not known which sumptuary laws contained the restrictions on pig-meat mentioned by Pliny.” Gowers, The Loaded Table, 70. 47 Vincent J. Rosivach, “Lex Fannina Sumptuaria of 161 BC,” The Classical Journal 102, no. 1 (2006): 1-15. 48 Macrobius, Satires 3.16.14. Cited by Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa. The Taste of Ancient Rome (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1992), 98. Also see the description of Petronius, Cena Trimalchionis (The Banquet of Trimalchio). An idea of this dish is also given by Apicius´ (4 th/5th cent. CE) recipe of stuffed piglet: “Suckling pig with two types of stuffing: Clean it, gut it from the throat, truss [the feet] to the neck. Before cooking it, open the ear under the skin. Fill the ox bladder with Terentian stuffing, and attach a bird’s quill at the neck of the bladder: through this squeeze as much [stuffing] into the ear as it will hold. Then plug the hole with paper and close with fibulas, and prepare another stuffing. Make it thus: Grind pepper, lovage, oregano, a bit of silphium root; moisten with garum; add cooked brains, raw eggs, cooked spelt, cooking broth, small birds if available, pine nuts, peppercorns. Mix with grum. Stuff the pig, plug with paper, and close with fibulas. Place in the oven. When it is cooked, spread with oil, and serve.” Apicius 367. Cited in Giacosa, The Taste of Ancient Rome, 97. 49 Oddone Longo, “La nourriture des autres,” in istoire de ’a imentation, dir. Jean-Louis Flandrin et Massimo Montanari (Paris: Fayard, 1996), 274.

15

other words, if “the Roman polity was more inclusive than the Greek, built to expand,” 50 was this true also of the Roman diet, and pork consumption in particular? Was consuming pork sine qua non for becoming a true Roman? Louis H. Feldman notes that “the abstinence from their national dish [pork] must have struck the Roman nationalists much as a deliberate abstention from roast beef would have affected an English citizen in our day who believes that patriotism and roast beef are somehow connected.” 51 As noted above, Rosenblum goes one step further: “By refusing to eat pig, Jews are never able to ingest Romanness and thus can never truly become Roman.” 52 This is an essentialist and simplistic conception of Roman identity. While “Roman nationalists” such as Juvenal or Tacitus would probably agree with Rosenblum, this does not change the fact that the paths of Romanization were diverse, including with respect to diet. 53 However, the idea that pork consumption became common after the Roman conquest must be nuanced. Many groups, beside Jews in the Roman Levant, abstained from pork: Phoenicians, Syrians, Arabs, Egyptian priests, Samaritans, and some Jewish Christians. Therefore, either pork consumption was not part of the traditional diet in these particular cultures, or it had a marginal place in it, and it is not clear to what extent these groups maintained their preference for meats other than pork. 54 In fact, as the zoo-archeologist Justin Lev

50

Peter Garnsey, Food and Society in Classical Antiquity (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 80. Ze’ev Safrai, “Pigs,” The Economy of Roman Palestine (London and New York: Routledge, 1994), 172-173. 51 Feldman, Jew and Gentile, 167. 52 Rosenblum, Why,” 96. 53 On the diverse opinions of Greco-Roman authors on Jewish avoidance of pork see: Louis H. Feldman, “The Attack on the Jewish Dietary Laws,” Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993), 167-170. Peter Sch fer, “Abstinence from Pork”, Judeophobia. Attitudes toward the Jews in the Ancient World (Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press, 1997), 66-81. 54 As Leonard V. Rutgers notes, the presence of pig bones in a house in Shephoris (Dioceasria) does not necessarily testify that its occupants were Christians. Leonard V. Rutgers, “Some Reflections on the Archeological Finds from the Domestic Quarter on the Acropolis of Sephoris,” in Religious and Ethnic Communites in Later Roman Palestine, ed. Hayim Lapin (Bethesda, MD: Univeristy Press of Maryland, 1998), 191. Regarding ethnic diversity in Roman Palestine: Glen W. Bowersock. “The Greek Moses:

16

Tov proposes, the real impact of Romanization on the diet in Palestine seems not so much to be regarding pork consumption, but rather regarding fish consumption: Foodways, as much as any other cultural habit, have as much the power to unite as to divide. What this survey of bone data most clearly suggests is that, contrary to much wishful thinking on the part of archaeologists working in a variety of periods, ethnic and religious groups are difficult to separate by dietary traditions. Pigs are universally rare in the Near East, while fish, starting in the Roman period, are universally abundant. In searching for the evidence that can be used to separate the ancient populations of Palestine, we have overlooked the evidence that the external influences of Rome and the desire of many to imitate Roman culture to an extent unified these ethnic and religious groups. Perhaps both the pig and the fish bone evidence are significant and complementary. While the general lack of pig bones may indicate the maintenance of a traditional Near Eastern, if not specifically Jewish, diet on the one hand, the popularity of fish indicates that Jews and others were able to emulate Roman culture without sacrificing their own. With the advent of the Roman-era, fish consumption rises in importance at both civilian and military sites (Kreuz 1995:80). Acculturation is not the same phenomenon as assimilation, and in late antique Palestine it appears from dietary evidence that many people adopted those foreign practices which did not conflict with their own traditions, thus undergoing dietary acculturation but not assimilation. 55

Taking into account the many paths of acculturation and the wide range of assimilation, it is possible that for some (both Jews and non-Jews), not eating pork was an obstacle to fully becoming part of the Empire, while for others (both Jews and non Jews), this was not at all the case. However, it is reasonable to assume that Romanization roused the tension around Jewish avoidance of pork and that it influenced the vivacity of the rabbinic association of Rome with the pig.

Confustion of Ethnic and Cultural Components in Later Roman and Early Byzantine Palestine,” Ibid., 31 48. 55 Justin Lev-Tov, “‘Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed…?’ A Dietary Perspective on Hellenistic and Roman Influence in Palestine,” in eichen aus Text und Stein Studien auf dem Weg u einer Arch o ogie des euen Testaments, ed. S. Alkier and J. Zangenberg (Tübingen: Francke, 2003), 21.

17

The Plan of the Dissertation This dissertation will discuss the rabbinic discourse concerning the pig and avoidance of pork (chapters 1-3) before turning to the role of porcine symbols in the confrontation between Jews and Romans in the first and second centuries (ch. 4-5), and then analyze the midrashic identification of Rome with the pig (chapters 6-10). Chapter One deals with diverse topoi that define the nature of the pig in rabbinic literature. Chapter Two analyzes legal aspects concerning the pig and the sages’ refusal to explain the avoidance of pork. Chapter Three deals with the pig as a frontier marker involving persecutions, sexual relations, apostasy, and proselytes. Chapter Four shifts the discussion to the role of the pig in the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE and in the legends concerning this destruction. Chapter Five deals with the link between the rabbinical identification of Rome with the pig and the boar emblem of the Legion X Fretensis, its representation on the coins of Aelia Capitolina, and the statue of the sow near the Jaffa Gate. Chapter Six addresses the rabbinical legend according to which emperor Diocletian was a swineherd, which is analyzed in the light of Roman legend regarding Diocletian as a boar hunter and the midrashic context of this legend in midrash Genesis Rabbah. Chapter Seven is dedicated to the discourse on eating in midrash Leviticus Rabbah 13. Chapter Eight discusses the interpretation of Psalms 80:14 (“The wild boar out of the wood doth root it up, and the wild beasts of the field devour it”) by the sages as well as by the Church Fathers. Chapter Nine deals with the midrash on the name of the pig, and Chapter Ten addresses why the sages rarely use the simile of the killing of the pig.

18

Chapter 1 The Nature of the Pig What was the nature of the pig for the sages of the Talmudim and midrashim? Before we proceed to discuss the diverse porcine topoi in rabbinical literature (omnivores, excrement and dirt, sexual lust, harmfulness, injurious voice, uselessness and idleness, diseases, drunkenness, hypocrisy) let us observe the diverse observations that the sages made concerning the biology and realia of the pig: the domesticated pig and the wild boar, although similar to each other, are considered to be diverse-kinds;56 pregnancy of the sow lasts sixty days;57 a sow becomes smaller as her litter grows;58 the pig is one of three animals whose strength increases with age; 59 the pig has “sixty-hundred thousand

56

“R. Judah said, “A female mule which craved a male [mule] – “they do not mate with it either [one] of the horses or of the asses, but only [one] of the male mules. The ox and the wild ass, the hog and the wild boar, even though they are similar to one another, they are [considered] diverse-kinds [when they mate] with one another.” T. Kilayim 1.8. Translation by Jacob Neusner, The Tosefta, vol. I, Zeraim (The Order of Agriculture) (New York: Ktab, 1977), 250, with a slight alteration. ‫ שור ושור הבר] חמור וחמור הבר‬.‫ פרדה שתבעה זכר אין מרביעין עליה לא מן הסוס ולא מן החמור אלא מן הפרד‬:‫[ר' יודא אמר‬ . ‫חזיר וחזיר הבר אע"פ שדומין זה לזה כלאים זה בזה‬ 57 T. Bekhorot 1.9-110 (cf. B. Berakhot 8a. GenRab 20.4.) “[Even though they said] A small clean beast gives birth at five months. A large clean beast gives birth at nine months. A large unclean beast gives birth at twelve months, the dog at fifty days, the cat at fifty-two, the pig at sixty days, the fox and all creeping things at six months; the wolf, the lion, the bear, the panther, the leopard, the elephant, the baboon, and the ape at three years, and the snake at seven years.” Translation by Neusner, The Tosefta, vol. V, Qedoshim, 164. The period of sixty days is given by Aristotle, History of Animals 8.6 and Pliny, Natural History 8.77.207. 58 LamR 1.51: “My children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed” (Lamentations 1:16): R. Aibu said, “It is like the tuber of a cabbage. As the cabbage increases in size, the tuber shrinks.” R. Judah b. R. Simon said, “It is like a sow that shrinks as the litter grows.” Translation by Jacob Neusner, Theological Commentary to the Midrash: Lamentations Rabbati (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2001), 172. ‫ ר' יהודה‬,‫ כהדא אפתא דקרא דכמה דההיא רבייא היא קטנא‬:‫ ר' איבו אמר‬- )‫ טז‬,‫“היו בני ]בניה[ שוממים כי גבר אויב” (איכה א‬ .‫ כהדא חזירתא דכמה דבניה רביין היא קטנא‬:‫בר' סימון אמר‬ 59 B. Avodah Zarah 30b. My translation. “Rav Safra said in the name of R. Yehoshua of the South: There are three types of venom: that of a young [one] sinks, that of a young [one] penetrates, and that of an old [one] floats. To say that the older [one] grows the weaker it becomes? And it was taught in a Braisa: three as they age their strength increases. These are they: the fish, the snake, and the pig. Its strength increases, [but] its venom weakens.” ‫ דכמה‬,‫ למימרא‬.‫ ושל זקן צף‬,‫ של בינוני מפעפע‬,‫ של בחור שוקע‬:‫ שלשה מיני ארס הן‬:‫אמר רב ספרא משום ר' יהושע דרומא‬ ,‫ וחזיר! כח אוסופי הוא דקא מוסיף‬,‫ נחש‬,‫ דג‬:‫ אלו הן‬,‫ שלשה כל זמן שמזקינין גבורה מתוספת בהן‬:‫דקשיש כחוש חיליה? והתניא‬ .‫זיהריה קליש‬ And b. Sabbath 77b.

19

(600,000) cards [folders/membranes]” in its stomach; 60 pig’s intestines are similar to those of human beings; 61 and each seven years the field mouse is transformed into a boar.62 Mishnah Bechoroth 4.4, referring to the physician Todos, mentions that a cow or a sow does not leave Alexandria unless it is castrated,63 probably so that other breeders will not be able to breed the Alexandrian race.64 As we will later see, the midrashim play with

60

B. Beḥorot 57b. “Pigs in our places have sixty-hundred thousand (600,000) cards [folders/membranes] in their stomachs.” ‫ חזירין שבמקומנו יש להם ששים רבוא קלפים בבית המסס שלו‬. 61 . Ta’anit 21b. Translation by A. Steinsaltz, The Talmud, The Steinsaltz Edition, vol. XIV, Tractate Ta’anit, part II (New York: Random House, 1995), 98-99 62 Y. Shabbat 1:3, 3b. “Once in seven years God changes his world: the chameleon becomes a great serpent, the head-louse after seven years becomes a scorpion, the horse worm becomes a human worm, the ox worm is changed into another species of vermin, the male hyena becomes female, the field-mouse becomes a wild boar, the fish vertebra turns into a centipede and the human vertebra turns into a serpent (…)” Translation by A Rabbinic Anthology, ed. Claude Goldsmid Montefiore and Herbert Loewe (New York: Schocken, 1974), 662. ‫ אחת לשבע שנים הקב"ה מחלף את עולמו קמקמה מיתעביד חו רב פדה חד אפר מיתעביד שר‬:‫רבי יוסי בי רבי בון בשם רב זביד‬ ‫מימיתה דרישא מתעביד עקרב ודמניא שממי תולעתא דסוסיא מתע בדא אורעי ודתורתא דברי צבוע הזכר נעשה נקבה עכברא דטורא‬ …‫מתעביד חזיר בר שיזרתא דנונא מיתעביד נדל ודבר נשא חיוי‬ 63 Columella notes an operation is which is “performed with the knife on the wombs of the females to make them suppurate and close up as a result of scarring over, so that they cannot breed.” Columella, On Agriculture 7.9.5. 64 M. eḥorot 4.4. “If one that was not a [properly qualified] expert beheld the firstling, and it was slaughtered at his word, it must be buried, and [this examiner] must pay compensation from his own possessions. If [an unqualified person] gave a legal decision, declaring the guilty exempt or declaring the innocent culpable, or declaring the clean unclean, or declaring the unclean clean, what he has done can not be undone, but he must compensate [the wronged litigant] from his own means. But if an [authorized] expert approved by the court [to act as judge gave a wrongful decision], he is exempt from having to make restitution. It happened once that a cow had its womb removed, and R. Tarfon declared the carcass trefah and fed it to the dogs; and when the matter came before the Sages they declared it permitted. Todos the physician said, No cow or sow leaves Alexandria before they cut out its womb so that it can not bear offspring. R. Tarfon said, ‘Gone is thine ass, Tarfon! R. Akiba said to him, ‘R. Tarfon, thou art exempt, for thou art an expert [qualified] by the court, and every expert [authorized] by the court is exempt from having to make restitution.’” Translation by Philip Blackman, Mishnayoth, vol. V. Order Kodashim. (New York: Judaica Press, 1964), 259-260. ‫ טמא את‬,‫ דן את הדין זיכה את החייב וחייב את הזכאי‬.‫מי שאינו מומחה וראה את הבכור ונשחט על פיו הרי זה יקבר וישלם מביתו‬ ‫ מעשה בפרה שנטלה האם שלה‬.‫ ואם היה מומחה לבית דין פטור מלשלם‬.‫ מה שעשה עשוי וישלם מביתו‬,‫הטהור וטהר את הטמא‬ ‫ אין פרה וחזירה יוצאה מלאכסנדריא עד שהם‬:‫ אמר תודוס הרופא‬.‫והאכילה רבי טרפון לכלבים ובא מעשה לפני חכמים והתירוה‬ ‫ שאתה‬,‫ רבי טרפון פטור אתה‬:‫ אמר לו רבי עקיבא‬.‫ הלכה חמורך טרפון‬:‫ אמר רבי טרפון‬.‫חותכין את האם שלה בשביל שלא תלד‬ .‫מומחה לבית דין וכל המומחה לבית דין פטור מלשלם‬ And see also: B. eḥorot 28b; B. Sanhedrin 33a; 93a. Psikta Zutara (Lekach Tov), Genesis 45.19. Sechel Tov (Buber), Genesis 45.19. The Bavli (Sanhdrin 93a) asks what Daniel was doing when his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were in the furnace (Daniel 3): “And where did Daniel go [that he was absent when this incident occurred]? Rav said: [He was sent by Nebuchadnezzar] to dig a great river in Tiberias. And Shmuel says: [He was sent] to import aspasta seed [to Babylon]. And R. Yochanan says: [He was sent] to import Alexandrian hogs [to Babylon to be bred there]. [The Gemara asks:] Is that so? But it was taught in a Mishnah: Todos the Physician said: No cow or sow leaves Egyptian Alexandria without their cutting out her womb so that she not bear young. [The Gemara aswers:] [Daniel] brought young ones [out of Egypt] without their knowledge [of his intended purpose].”

20

the root H.Z.R (‫ר‬.‫ז‬.‫ )ח‬of the word for pig, ḥazir (‫ )חזיר‬to insist on its nature of return, while the later medieval Psikta Zutara explains the name of the pig, in that it “turns all its body, and does not turn its neck.” 65

Omnivorous Animal The pig is an omnivorous animal that puts whatever it finds in its mouth: 66 it is even an eater of corpses. According to Mishnah Ohalot 18.8, a Jew that enters to live in house in Eretz Israel that previously belonged to a goy should examine it for buried aborted babies because of corpse impurity, since according to the sages, the Goyim are suspected to be buried in their houses.67 The school of Hillel states that “wherever a pig or a rat can get into no examination is required,” probably because it was considered that where a pig or a stoat can enter they took out or ate any buried body: What [parts about a dwelling] have to be examined? The deep drains and the foul water. The School of Shammai says, also the manure heaps and loose earth. And the School of Hillel says, wherever a pig or a stoat can get into no examination is required. 68

‫ לאתויי חזירי‬:‫ ורבי יוחנן אמר‬.‫ לאתויי ביזרא דאספסתא‬:‫ ושמואל אמר‬.‫ למיכרא נהרא רבא בטבריא‬:‫ודניאל להיכן אזל? אמר רב‬ ,‫ אין פרה וחזירה יוצא מאלכסנדריא של מצרים שאין חותכין האם שלה‬:‫ תודוס הרופא אמר‬,‫ איני? והתניא‬.‫דאלכסנדריא של מצרים‬ .‫ בלא דעתייהו‬,‫בשביל שלא תלד! זוטרי אייתי‬ 65 Psikta Zutra, Leviticus Shemini 29b. .‫ שמחזר כל גופו ואינו מחזר צוארו‬.‫ואת החזיר‬ 66 Ecclesiastes Zuta 1 (ed. Buber). .‫בן שנים ושלש שנים בולש (כנסין) [כוכין] כחזיר וכל מה שהוא מוצא נותן לתוך פיו‬ Compare to Aristophanes’s saying: “What is the pig’s favorite weakness?” “Anything you give them.” Aristophanes, The Acharians 795. See also: Aristotle, History of Animals 8.6.15-22.595A. 67 For Gentile impurity and corpse impurity, see: Christine Elizabeth Hayes, Gentile Impurities and Jewish Identities: Intermarriage and Conversion from the Bible to the Talmud (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 202. 68 M. Ohalot 18.8 (And B. Pesachim 9a). Mishnayoth, vol I. Order Taharoth (New York: Judaica, 1964), 291. :‫ אף האשפתות ועפר התיחוח ובית הלל אומרים‬:‫ בית שמאי אומרים‬.‫את מה הם בודקים? את הביבים העמוקים ואת המים הסרוחים‬ .‫כל מקום שהחזיר והחולדה יכולים להלך בו אינו צריך בדיקה‬

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Excrement and Dirt Few rabbinic texts refer to the well known topos in the Greco-Roman world of the pig’s love for excrement and dirt: 69 a Bavli’s proverb says: “Give a pig the heart of pal m and he will do its deeds (burrow in the waste).”70 According to Ecclesiastes Rabbah, “at two and three [years old, the child] is like a pig, sticking his hands in the gutters.”71 In other versions, the reason the child is compared to a pig is that he rolls in waste heaps and excrement, 72 or because he looks in niches like a pig, putting whatever he finds in its mouth. 73 According to Tanḥuma, the drunkard is like the pig, “wallowing about in urine and other things [sexual relations/excrement?].” 74 A famous Talmudic saying states that “a pig is a moving toilet.” 75 The Yerusalmi states that one should remove himself at least four cubits from pig dung before reciting the prayer of Sema: Rabbi Yose bar Hanina said: One removes himself four cubits from animal dung. Rebbi Samuel bar Rav Isaac said, if it is soft, but only from donkeys. Rebbi Hiyya bar Abba 69

See: Cristiano Grottanelli, “Avoiding pork: Egyptians and Jews in Greek and Latin texts,” in Food and Identity in the Ancient World, ed. C. Grottanelli and L. Milano (Padova: S.A.R.G.O.N., 2004), 74-77. 70 YalShim 968. 71 “R. Samuel b. R. Isaac taught in the name of R. Samuel b. Eleazar: The seven ‘ anities’ mentioned by Koheleth correspond to the seven worlds which a man beholds. At a year old he is like a king seated in a canopied litter, fondled and kissed by all. At two and three he is like a pig, sticking his hands in the gutters. At ten he skips like a kid. At twenty he is like neighing horse, adoring his person and longing for a wife. Having married, he is like an ass. When he has begotten children, he grows brazen like a dog to supply their food and wants. When he has become old, he is [bent] like an ape. What has just been said holds goo d only of the ignorant; but of those versed in the Torah it is written, Now king David was old (1 Kings 1:1) – although he was ‘old’, he was still a ‘king’.” EcclR 1.1 72 Tan Pekudei 3 (and minor tractate semachot 1.3) .‫ כך שוגש בצואה כשהוא קטן בן שנתים‬,‫עולם שני דומה לחזיר שהוא שוגש באשפתות‬ 73 Ecclesiastes Zuta 1 (ed. Buber). 74 Tan oaḥ 13. (and YalShim, oaḥ 61). ‫כחזיר מתלכלך במי רגלים ובדבר אחר‬ 75 As for example in Yerushalmi (Berakhot 2.4.3.3) which deals with the question as to whether one may pray in a bathouse which is not in use: “Rabbi Jermiah asked before Rabbi Zeïra: If it was used as bath house in summer but not in the rainy season, what is the rule? He said to him, a bath house even if it is not in use, a toilet even if it does not contain excrement. Mar Uqba said: a pig is a moving toilet.” Y. Berakhot 2:3, 4c. Translation by Heinrich W. Guggenheimer, The Jerusalem Talmud, Berakhot (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2000), 187. And: b. Berakhot 26a. ‫ מרחץ ואע"פ שאינה מרחצת‬:‫ היתה מרחץ מרחצת בימו' החמה ואינ' מרחצת בימות הגשמי'? א"ל‬:‫ר' ירמיה בעא קומוי ר' זעירא‬ .‫ מר עוקב' אמ' אהן חזיר' בית כסא מטולטל‬.‫ובית הכסא אע"פ שאין בו צואה‬

22

said, if it arrived from a trip. Levi said, one removes himself four cubits from the excrement of a pig. And it was stated: One removes himself four cubits from the excrement of a pig, four cubits from the excrement of a marten, four cubits from the excrement of chickens. Rebi Yose ben Rebbi Abun in the name of Rav Huna: Only from red76 one.77

Bavli Nida 58b notes that in a city in which there are pigs, a woman should not fear that a bloodstain on her cloths is from her menstruation, and hence that she is impure: Rav Ashi said: In a city, in which there are pigs, we are not concerned about [blood] stains. Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak said: And this city Dedokart [a city in Mesopotamia] is like a city in which there are pigs. 78

76

Some commentators prefer to understand “Edomite.” Y. Berakhot 3:5, 6d. Translation by Guggenheimer, The Jerusalem Talmud, Berakhot, 314. ‫ רבי חייא בר‬.‫ ברכים ובלבד בשל חמור‬:‫ רבי שמואל בר רב יצחק אמר‬.‫ מרחיקין מגללי בהמה ארבע אמות‬:‫רבי יוסי בר חנינא אמר‬ ‫ כן מרחיקין מצ ואת חזיר ארבע אמות ומצואת הנמייה‬:‫ ותני‬.‫ מרחיקין מצואת חזיר ארבע אמות‬:‫ לוי אמר‬.‫ בבא מן הדרך‬:‫אבא אמר‬ .‫ארבע אמות ומצואת התרנגולין [אדומים] ארבע אמות‬ Bavli Berakhot 25a: “It has been stated: a putrid odor that has a tangible source. Rabbi Huna said: [one] distances himself four cubits and recites the Shema. And Rabbi Chisda said: distance four cubits from the place where the odor has dissipated, and recite the Shema. It was taught in a Baraisa in accordance with Rabbi Chisda: A man will not recite the Shema opposite human excrement, nor opposite dog excrement, nor opposite pig excrement, nor opposite chicken excrement, nor opposite a trash heap whose odor is putrid. But if [one of the above] was a place ten spans [tefyachim] higher or ten palms lower, [one should] sit alongside [that place] and recite the Shema and if not he distances within eyesight, and so it for prayer. A putrid odor that has a tangible source, one distances four cubits from the place of the smell and recites the Shema. Rava said: the law is not in accord with this [aforementioned] Baraisa, but with this [other] Baraisa: a man will not recite the Shema opposite human excrement, nor opposite pig excrement, nor opposite dog excrement, when one placed hides in them [for tanning].[…] It was stated: passing excrement. Abaye said: it is permitted to recite the Shema. Rava said: it is forbidden to recite the Shema. Abaye said: From where do I say this? As we learned in a Mishnah: if an impure [person] is standing under a tree and a pure [person] passes [underneath that tree], [the latter] is impure. If a pure [person] is standing under a tree and an impure [person] passes [underneath], [the former, remains] pure. And if [the impure man stops and] stands [under the tree, the other person is] impure. And so in the case with contaminated stone [with leprosy]. Rava could tell you [that] there the matter is dependent on [the] permanence as it is written: “He shall dwell in isolation; his dwelling shall be outside the camp (Lev.13:66)”. Here, the Merciful One said, “And your camp shall be holy” (Deut. 23:51), and this there is not [the case]. Rav Pappa said: The mouth of a pig is like passing excrement. [This is] obvious. [This teaching] is not necessary even though [the pig] has [just] emerged from a river.” ‫ מרחיק ארבע אמות ממקום‬:‫ מרחיק ארבע אמות וקורא קריאת שמע; ורב חסדא אמר‬:‫רב הונא אמר‬. ‫ ריח רע שיש לו עיקר‬:‫אתמר‬ ,‫ לא כנגד צואת אדם ולא כנגד צואת כלבים‬,‫ לא יקרא אדם קריאת שמע‬:‫ תניא כותיה דרב חסדא‬.‫ וקורא קריאת שמע‬,‫שפסק הריח‬ ‫ ולא כנגד צואת אשפה שריחה רע; ואם היה מקום גבוה עשרה טפחים או נמוך‬,‫ ולא כנגד צואת תרנגולים‬,‫ולא כנגד צואת חזירים‬ ‫ מרחיק ארבע‬- ‫ ריח רע שיש לו עיקר‬.‫ מרחיק מלא עיניו; וכן לתפלה‬- ‫ ואם לאו‬,‫ יושב בצדו וקורא קריאת שמע‬- ‫עשרה טפחים‬ ‫ לא יקרא‬:‫ לית הלכתא כי הא מתניתא (בכל הני שמעתתא) אלא כי הא דתניא‬,‫ אמר רבא‬.‫ וקורא קריאת שמע‬,‫אמות ממקום הריח‬ :‫ בעו מיניה מרב ששת‬.‫אדם קריאת שמע לא כנגד צואת אדם ולא כנגד צואת חזירים ולא כנגד צואת כלבים בזמן שנתן עורות לתוכן‬ - ‫ אבל בקריאת שמע‬,‫ בדברי תורה‬- ‫ והני מילי‬.‫ דהני גנו והני גרסי‬,‫ אתו חזו הני ציפי דבי רב‬:‫ריח רע שאין לו עיקר מהו? אמר להו‬ ‫ מותר לקרות קריאת שמע; רבא‬:‫ צואה עוברת; אביי אמר‬,‫ אתמר‬.‫ לא‬- ‫ אבל דידיה‬,‫לא; ודברי תורה נמי לא אמרן אלא דחבריה‬ ‫ טהור עומד תחת‬,‫ טמא‬- ‫ הטמא עומד תחת האילן והטהור עובר‬: ‫ מנא אמינא לה ? דתנן‬:‫ אמר אביי‬.‫ אסור לקרות קריאת שמע‬:‫אמר‬ ‫ "בדד ישב‬: ‫ דכתיב‬,‫ בקביעותא תליא מילתא‬- ‫ התם‬:‫ ורבא אמר לך‬.‫ טמא; וכן באבן המנוגעת‬- ‫ ואם עמד‬,‫ טהור‬- ‫האילן וטמא עובר‬ ‫ פי חזיר‬:‫ אמר רב פפא‬.‫ והא ליכא‬:‫ אמר רחמנא‬,)‫ טו‬,‫ "והיה מחניך קדוש" (דברים כג‬:‫ הכא‬,)‫ מו‬,‫מחוץ למחנה מושבו" (ויקרא יג‬ ! ‫ פשיטא‬.‫כצואה עוברת דמי‬ 78 B. Nida 58b. 77

23

The reasoning seems to be that the pig dirties its environment with drops of bloods coming out of his mouth. A city of pigs stands for a filthy city, and hence a city that is considered impure, such as Dedokart, is “like” a city of pigs. This rabbinical disgust for the dirty pig became famous due to the 12th century Rabbi, doctor, and philosopher Maimonides’ explanation of avoidance of pork: I maintain that the food which is forbidden by the Law is unwholesome. There is nothin g among the forbidden kinds of food whose injurious character is doubted, except pork and fat. But also in these cases the doubt is not justified. For pork contains more moisture than necessary [for human food], and too much of superfluous matter. The principal reason why the Law forbids swine’s flesh is to be found in the circumstance that its habits and its food are very dirty and loathsome. It has already been pointed out how emphatically the Law enjoins the removal of the sight of loathsome objects, even in the field and in the camp; how much more objectionable is such sight in towns. But if it were allowed to eat swine’s flesh, the streets and houses would be dirtier than any cesspool, as may be seen at present in the country of the Franks. A saying of our Sages declares: “The mouth of a pig is like passing excrement" (B. Berakhot 25a)” 79

This explanation suggests that we differentiate between the sages who refuse to directly explain the reason d’être of the avoidance of pork and medieval rabbis who attempt to give a few rational explanations for this. In early rabbinic literature, the pig’s dirtiness does not explain the avoidance of pork, but rather indirectly reinforces its meaning by insisting on the repugnant nature of the animal.

Sexual Lust The pig is associated in several texts with negative sexuality. Bavli Avoda Zara states that a man should not look at a male pig and a sow while they procreate: Nor upon the colorful clothing of a woman. Nor shall one gaze upon a he-donkey, nor upon a she donkey, nor upon a pig, nor upon a sow, nor upon birds, at the time they mate with one another. 80

.‫ כעיר שיש בה חזירים דמיא‬- ‫ והא דדוקרת‬:‫ אמר ר" נ בר יצחק‬.‫ אין חוששין לכתמים‬- ‫ עיר שיש בה חזירים‬:‫אמר רב אשי‬ Moses Maimonides, The Guide for the Perplexed, trans. M. Friedlander (London: Geroge Routledge, 1919), 370-71. 80 B. Avodah Zara 20b. 79

24

Another link between the pig and sexuality is found in Bavli Moed Katan, where the pig is the instrument of punishment for having forbidden sexual relations: Rafram b. Papa said, It is taught in the Ebel Rabbathi: “A mourner is forbidden to use the [conjugal] couch during his [seven] days of mourning;” and it happened [once] with one who used his [conjugal] couch during the [seven] days of his mourning that a swine hauled away his carcass. 81

Likewise, the later Midrash on Proverbs interprets the pig as representing a prostitute in Proverbs 11:22: “Gold ring in a pig's snout, a beautiful woman of errant sense”: “Gold ring in a pig's snout, a beautiful woman of errant sense,” (Proverbs 11:22) - If he put all the gold in a pig’s snout and it [the pig] goes and makes it dirty in the mud it does not corrupt it [the gold]. Likewise a Ta mid Ḥaḥam [Torah’s scholar] that goes to a prostitute and has sexual intercourse with her, did not corrupt his Torah. And it is true, for concerning it was said: “Gold ring in a pig's snout.” 82

Harmfulness The Hebrew Bibe describes the pig as a harmful animal: In Psalms 80:14, the wild pig (‫ )חזיר מיער‬symbolized the destruction of Israel/the Temple: “(13) Why hast thou broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? (14) The boar

]‫ י( שלא יסתכל אדם באשה נאה ואפילו פנויה באשת איש ואפי' מכוערת ולא בבגדי צבע [של‬,‫" ונשמרת מכל דבר רע” (דברים כג‬ .‫ ולא בחמור ולא בחמורה ולא בחזיר ולא בחזירה ולא בעופות בזמן שנזקקין זה לזה‬,‫אשה‬ Also Midr Tann, Deutronomy 23.10. ‫ "כי תצא מח' על אי' ונשמ' מכל דבר רע" ואם‬:'‫ כת‬:‫ אמר ר' יוסי ביר' חנינה‬.‫ במלחמה חובה הכת' מדבר‬- "‫"כי תצא מחנה איביך‬ ‫ אם בקשת להשתמר מכל דבר רע‬- "‫ "ונשמרת מכל דבר רע‬.‫אינו יוצא אינו נשמר אלא מכאן שאין השטן מקטרג אלא בשעת סכנה‬ ‫אל תסתכל באשה נאה ואפלו פנויה באשת איש ואפלו מכוערה ולא בבגדי צבע אשה ולא בחמור ולא בחמ ורה ולא בחזיר ולא‬ .‫בחזירה ולא בעופות בשעה שמזדקקין זה לזה מפני שמלאך עומד מלמעלן ומלמטן וחרבו שלופה בידו‬ 81 B. Moed Katan 24a. ‫ ושמטו חזירים‬,‫ ומעשה באחד ששימש מטתו בימי אבלו‬.‫ אבל אסור לשמש מטתו בימי אבלו‬:‫ תנא באבל רבתי‬, ‫אמר רפרם בר פפא‬ .‫את גוייתו‬ 82 MidProv 11, 62-64. My translation. ‫ כך‬.‫ אינו סורחו‬,‫ אם נותן את כל זהב באף חזיר והוא הולך ומלכלכו בטיט‬.)‫ כב‬:‫נזם זהב באף חזיר אשה יפה וסרת טעם (משלי יא‬ ‫ לכך נאמר נזם זהב באף חזיר [אשה‬,‫ הוי אומר הין‬.‫אם הלך תלמיד חכמ' אצל אשה זונה ועושה צורכה עמה אינו מקלקל את תורתו‬ .)‫ כב‬:‫יפה וסרת טעם] (משלי יא‬ Midrash Mishle: A Critical Edition based on Vatican MS. Ebre. 44, ed. Burton I. Visotzky (New York: The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1990), 91-92 (Hebrew).

25

from the forest ( a’ar) ravages it, and the beasts of the field feed on it.” 83 As we will later see, in several midrashim this phrase refers to the oppression of Israel by the Romans, who, like “the boar of the forests kills people and injures folk and smites men.” 84 The boar is an evil beast, which one has to eradicate. Referring to Leviticus 26:6, “I will give you peace in the land, after I will cause evil beasts to cease from the land,” the midrash notes that “evil beasts can refer only to the boar, for it is said, “The wild boar out of the wood doth root it up, and the wild beasts of the field devour it” (Ps. 80:14).” 85 The damage caused by pigs led to legal problems. The Tosefta notes that one has to pay the full payment for the damage caused by a pig that ate pieces of meat. 86 In the discussion on tzerorot laws concerning the damage done indirectly by an animal which, while walking, splashes stones or earth which damage things in its way, it is noted that - for “a pig which was rooting around and did damage with its snout – [the owner] pays the full value of the damages it has caused.” 87 The danger of the pig is also magical. According to Bavli Pesaḥim, a man should not pass between two pigs or a pig between two men: “Our Rabbis taught: There are three who must not pass between [two men], nor may [others] pass between them, viz.: a dog, a palm tree, and a woman. Some say: a swine too; some say, a snake too.” The Talmud also provides the remedy for such a transgression: “Said, R. Papa: Let them commence [a 83

Weiser, The Psalms, 546. ARN A 34. Translation by Goldin, The Fathers, 138. .‫ ומלקה בני אדם‬,‫ ומזיק את הבהמות‬,‫מה חזיר מיער הורג נפשות‬ 85 Translation by William G. Braude, The Midrash on Psalms, vol. 2 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959), 293. ,‫ ואין חיה רעה אלא חזיר‬,)‫ ו‬,‫ שם‬,‫ אימתי יהיה כן? "והשבתי חיה רעה מן הארץ" (שם‬.)‫ ו‬,‫" ונתתי שלום בארץ" (ויקרא כו‬ )‫ יד‬,‫ " יכרסמנה חזיר מיער" ( תהלים פ‬:‫שנאמר‬ 86 T. Baba Kama 1.8. 87 T. Baba Kama 1.8. B. Baba Kama 17b. See: Amitai Salomon, “Din Tzerorot veMekorotav, (The Law of Tzerorot and its Origin),” Petuhi Hotam 3 (2008): 110-145 (Hebrew). Avishalom Westreich, “Gibuso ePituho she din t erorot bedibrei haTana’aim, bedibrei haAmora’aim ubata mudim (The Formation and Development of Tzerorot Law in the Saying of the Tannaits, Amoraics and the Talmuds,” Sidra 19 (2004): 77-100 (Hebrew). 84

26

verse] with el [God] and end with el. Others say: Let them commence [a Scriptural passage] with lo [not] and finish with lo.88

Injurious voice A later midrash notes, “Three voices are hard to humans: the voice of adolescent; the voice of mice; the voice of pigs. And there are who say also the voice of thunder and the voice of donkeys.” 89 It is also possible that in some versions of the legend of the destruction of the Temple, the pig is said to cause the destruction by its screaming. 90

Uselessness and Idleness The uselessness of the pig is a common Greco-Roman topos,91 which goes hand in hand with the idea that the pig is an idle animal which is only good after its death. This is an idea found in an Aesopian story incorporated in midrash Esther Rabbah (which will be discussed in detail in chapter ten). According to this story, a man that had a filly, a she–ass, and a sow gave the sow more to eat than he gave to the working animals, but finally this worked against the sow´s interest, for after being fattened it was butchered. Observing this, the she-ass barely ate. However, “her mother told her: “my daughter, it is not the food that is the cause, but the idleness.” 92 A similar observation on the use lessness

88

B. Peshim 111a. Translation by Hebrew-English Edition of the Babylonain Talmud, Pesahim (London: The Soncino Press, 1967), with slight alteration. ‫ ואי‬.‫ אף הנחש‬:‫ ויש אומרים‬,‫ אף החזיר‬:‫ ויש אומרים‬.‫ והאשה‬,‫ הכלב והדקל‬:‫ ואלו הן‬,‫ שלשה אין ממצעין ולא מתמצעין‬:‫תנו רבנן‬ .‫ נפתח בלא ונפסיק בלא‬:‫ אי נמי‬.‫ נפתח באל ונפסיק באל‬:‫ממצעין מאי תקנתיה? אמר רב פפא‬ 89 Otzar haMidrashim, ed. J. D. Eiesenstein (New York: Eiesenstein, 1915), 168 (hupat Eliyau). .‫ וי"א אף קול רעמים וקול חמורים‬,‫(ע"ה) שלשה קולות קשין על בני אדם קול נערים קול עכברים קול חזירים‬ 90 See: Saul Liberman, Tosefta Ki-Fshutah: A Comprehensive Commentary on the Tosefta, vol. 9, Second Augmented Edition (New Yotk: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1992), 185 (Hebrew). And Ibid. Studies in Palestinian Talmudic Literature (Meḥ arim be-Torat rets- i ra e ) (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1991), 488-490 (Hebrew). 91 See for example Ovid, Fasti 1. 349-362; 1.655; Metamorphoses 15.111-121. 92 Esther Rabbah 7.10. . ‫ בתי לא המאכל גורם אלא הבטלה גורמת‬:‫אמרה לה אמה‬

27

of the pig is found in Midrash Zuta’s comment that while the sheep is sheered and grows wool, the pig is not sheered and does not grow wool: A man should not say: I reduce my goods if I will give [alms] to the poor. [Rather] a man should observe that what does not diminish does not increase. The hair of the head and beard which are cut always grow, and the eyebrows are not cut ever and never grow. And indeed Israel was compared to a sheep that is sheered and grows wool, while the pig is not sheered and does not grow [wool].” 93

Diseases Bavli, Ta’anit explicitly notes the danger of contagion between pigs and humans: They said to Rav Yehudah: “There is pestilence among the pigs.” He decreed a fast. Shall we say [that] Rav Yehudah maintains [that] an epidemic that is spread among one species will spread among all the species? No. Pigs are different, because th eir intestines are similar to those of human beings. 94

It is not clear what sort of epidemic the Talmud associates with pigs and humans. However, in some rabbinic sources we find the link between the pig and leprosy. 95 Bavli Kidushin 49b notes: “Ten measures of disease [nèga’im] descended to the world. Pigs took nine, [and the rest of the world took one].” 96 The word nèga’im (pl.), nèga’ (sing.) is one of the words for ‘leprosy” and other skin diseases in rabbinical texts. The saying can be understood to mean that the pig suffers from leprosy more than any other creature of the world, that it is the leprous animal par excellence. In Bavli Sabbath, another connection seems to be made between pork and leprosy:

93

Midrash Zuta, Song of Songs (ed. Buber) 1.15. My translation. ‫ שער הראש והזקן שהן מסתפרין‬:‫ יסתכל אדם כל מה שאינו מחסר אינו מוסיף‬.‫ מחסר אני מנכסי אם אתן לעניים‬:‫לא יאמר אדם‬ ‫ והן נמשלו ישראל לרחל שגוזזים אותה והיא מגדלת צמר בכל שנה‬,‫ והגבינים אינם מסתפרים לעולם ואינם מגדלין‬,‫לעולם מגדלין‬ .‫ החזיר אינו נגזז ואינו מוסיף‬,‫ושנה‬ 94 B. Ta’anit 21b. ,‫ נימא קסבר רב יהודה מכה משולחת ממין אחד משולחת מכל המינין? לא‬.‫ גזר תעניתא‬.‫ איכא מותנא בחזירי‬:‫אמרו ליה לרב יהודה‬ .‫ דדמיין מעייהו לבני אינשי‬,‫שאני חזירי‬ 95 The link between leprosy and pigs is also found in Egyptian and Greco-Roman sources. See Grottanelli, “Avoiding Pork,” 70-74 and Youri Volokhine‘s forthcoming book: Le porc en Egypte: Mythes et histoire à ’origine des interdis a imentaires. 96 B. Kiddushin 49b. '‫ ט' נטלו חזירים כו‬,‫עשרה קבים נגעים ירדו לעולם‬

28

Rav and Shmuel both say: One who undergoes the procedure [of blood letting] should eat something [first] and then leave [the house]. For if he does not eat anything [before leaving, he exposes himself to a host of dangers:] if he meets up with a corpse, his face will turn green. If he meets up with a murderer, he will die. If he meets up with “that other thing,” [which Rashi identifies as a pig] it is harmful with regard to “that other thing” [Rashi: i.e. leprosy]. 97

The eleventh century commentator Rashi based his reading of ‘another thing’ [davar haḥer] as first meaning once pig and then leprosy on Kidusin 49b (“Ten measures of disease [nega’im] descended to the world. Pigs took nine, [and the rest of the world took one]).” Similarly, he understood a story in Bavli, Ketubot: Ameimar, Mar Zutra and Rav Ashi were [once] sitting by the entrance to King Izgur’s palace. The king’s steward passed by [carrying the king’s food]. Rav Ashi saw that Mar Zutra’s face became pale. He took [some of the food] with his finger [and] placed it into [Mar Zutra’s] mouth. [The steward] said to [Rav Ashi], “You ruined the king’s meal!” [They] said to him, “Why did you do thus?” [Rav Ashi] said to them, “Whoever prepared [food] in this manner disqualifies the king’s food.” They said to him, “Why?” [Rav Ashi] said to them, “I saw another thing [(Rashi) leprous pig meat] 98 [in the dish].” They inspected [the dish] and did not find [any leprous meat. Rav Ashi] took [the chef’s finger [and] placed it on [one particular peace] of the meat, [and] said to them, “Did you inspect here?” They inspected [that piece of meat and miraculously] they found [it to be leprous]. The Rabbis said to [Rav Ashi] “What is the reason you relied on a miracle?” He said to them, “I saw a spirit of leprosy sprouting on him.” 99

We may conclude that the alleged connection between the “leprous” pig meat, i.e. meat suffering from Taenia solium custicercus, and leprosy, which is known to us from the Middle Ages, also existed in early rabbinic literature (as in Greco-Roman literature). Leprosy however must not be understood as only referring to Hansen’s disease, but rather to a great number of skin diseases that cause scales and measles.

97

B. Sabath 129a. Translation by Schottenstein Talmud (Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1990–2005), with slight alteration. , ‫ ירקא אפיה‬- ‫ אי פגע בשכבא‬,‫ דאי לא טעים מידי‬,‫ ליטעום מידי והדר ליפוק‬- ‫ האי מאן דעביד מילתא‬:‫רב ושמואל דאמרי תרוייהו‬ .‫ קשה לדבר אחר‬- ‫ אי פגע בדבר אחר‬,‫ מית‬- ‫אי פגע במאן דקטל נפשא‬ 98 Rashi: ‫ ובלשון לעז קורין לו שורשמי"ן‬,‫בשר של חזיר מצורע‬ 99 B. Ketubot 61a. Translation by Schottenstein Talmud, with sligth alteration. ‫ חזייה רב אשי למר זוטרא דחוור‬,‫ חליף ואזיל אטורנגא דמלכא‬,‫אמימר ומר זוטרא ורב אשי הוו קא יתבי אפיתחא דבי אזגור מלכא‬ ,‫ מאן דעביד הכי‬:‫ אמאי תיעביד הכי? אמר להו‬:‫ אמרו ליה‬.‫ אפסדת לסעודתא דמלכא‬: ‫ א"ל‬.‫ שקל באצבעתיה אנח ליה בפומיה‬,‫אפיה‬ ‫ הכא‬:‫ אמר להו‬.‫ שקל אצבעתיה אנח עליה‬.‫ בדקו ולא אשכחו‬.‫ דבר אחר חזאי ביה‬:‫ אמר להו‬. ‫ אמאי‬:‫ אמרו ליה‬.‫פסיל למאכל דמלכא‬ .‫ חזאי רוח צרעת דקא פרחה עילויה‬:‫ אמר להו‬.‫ מ"ט סמכת אניסא‬:‫ אמרו ליה רבנן‬.‫ בדקו אשכחו‬.‫מי בדקיתו‬

29

Fig. 1: Cysticercosis muscle of a Pig. The several vesicular ovoid nodules, whitishyellow and smaller than a green pea, are larvae of Taenia solium.

Interestingly, despite the negative nature of the pig, Bavli Shabbat 110b provides a remedy for a disease called Yerakon (probably jaundice):100 take a “speckled another thing (da har aḥer = pig), tear it open and apply it to the sick heart.” 101

Drunkenness Referring to Noah’s drunkenness after the flood, during which his pudenda was exposed to his younger son Ham (Gn 9:21-28), the sages compare one of the stages of drunkenness to the behavior of pig: Our teachers of blessed memory stated: While Noah was planting the vineyard; Satan appeared before him and asked: “What are you planting?” He answered: “A vineyard.” “What is it?” inquired Satan. “Its fruits are sweet, whether moist or dry,” he answered, “and from them one produces a wine that causes the heart of man to rejoice, as it is written: “And wine doth make glad the heart of man (Ps. 104:15).” Satan suggested: “Come, let us be partners in the vineyard.” And Noah replied: “Certainly.” What did Satan do? First, he obtained a lamb and slaughtered it beneath the vineyard. Then, he took a lion and slaughtered it there, and after that he obtained a pig and an ape and slaughtered them in the same place. Their blood seeped into the earth, watering the vineyard. He did this to demonstrate to Noah that before drinking wine man is as innocent as a sheep: “Like a sheep that before her shearers is dumb (Is. 53:7).” But after he drinks a moderate amount of wine he believes himself to be as strong as a lion, boasting that no one in all the world is his equal. When he drinks more than he should, he behaves like a pig, wallowing about in urine and performing other base acts. After he becomes completely intoxicated, he behaves like an ape, dancing about, laughing 100

Fred Rosner, “Yerakon in the Bible, and Talmud: Jaundice or anemia,” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 25, no. 6 (1972): 626-628. 101 B. Shabbat 110b. .‫ ולותביה אליביה‬,‫ליתי דבר אחר חוטרנא וליקרעיה‬

30

hysterically, prattling foolishly, and is completely unaware of what he is doing. All this happened to the righteous Noah. If the righteous Noah, whom the Holy One, blessed be He, praised, could behave in such a fashion, how much more so could any other man! 102

Hypocrisy In Leviticus Rabbah 13 (and Genesis Rabbah 65.1), it is argued that the Roman Empire/Esau is compared to a pig because the empire in its hypocrisy pretends to be pure: “Just as the swine when reclining puts forth its hooves as if to say: See that I am clean.”103

Discussion We have reviewed some of the topoi concerning pigs found in the rabbinic literature: omnivores, excrement and dirt, sexual lust, harmfulness, injurious voice, uselessness and idleness, diseases, drunkenness, and hypocrisy. To these, we must of course add impurity, which is the most present and will be at the heart of our discussion later on. All these topoi are found in Greco-Roman literature, 104 but many other topoi found in these texts are absent in rabbinic literature: criminality, tyranny, injustice, death, 102

Tan, oaḥ 13. (and YalShim, oaḥ 61). Translation by Samuel A. Berman, Midrash TanhumaYelammedenu: An English Translation of Genesis and Exodus from the Printed Version of Tanhuma Yelammedenu with an Introduction, Notes, and Indexes (Hoboken, NJ: KTAV, 1995), 66-67 ‫ מה טיבו? פירותיו מתוקים בין לחים בין‬:‫ א"ל‬.‫ כרם‬:‫ מה אתה נוטע? א"ל‬:‫ א"ל‬,‫ כשבא נח ליטע כרם בא שטן ועמד לפניו‬:‫ארז"ל‬ : ‫ א"ל‬,‫ בא ונשתתף שנינו בכרם זה‬:‫ א"ל שטן‬.)‫ " ויין ישמח לבב אנוש" ( תהלים קד‬:‫יבשים ועושין מהן יין המשמח לבבות דכתיב‬ ‫ ואח"כ הביא קוף והרגו תחת‬,‫ ואח"כ הביא חזיר והרגו‬,‫ אח"כ הביא ארי והרגו‬,‫ מה עשה שטן? הביא כבש והרגו תחת הגפן‬.‫לחיי‬ ‫ רמז לו שקודם שישתה אדם מן היין הרי הוא תם ככבש זו שאינה יודעת כלום‬,‫הכרם והטיפו דמן באותו הכרם והשקוהו מדמיהן‬ ‫ כיון ששתה יותר מדאי נעשה‬,‫ שתה כהוגן הרי הוא גבור כארי ואומר אין כמותו בעולם‬,)‫ ז‬,‫" וכרחל לפני גוזזיה נאלמה" ( ישעיה נג‬ ,‫כחזיר מתלכלך במי רגלים ובדבר אחר נשתכר נעשה כקוף עומד ומרקד ומשחק ומוציא לפני הכל נבלות הפה ואינו יודע מה יעשה‬ .‫ שאר בני אדם על אחת כמה וכמה‬,‫ מה נח הצדיק שהקב"ה פירש שבחו כך‬.‫וכל זה אירע לנח הצדיק‬ For this story in the context of the rabbinic folktale, see: Eli Yassif, The Hebrew Folktale: History, Genre, Meaning (Bloomington, Ind: Indiana University Press, 1999), 82. 103 LevR 5.4. (and GenR, Toledoth 64.1). Translation by J. Israelstam and Judah J. Slotki, Midrash Rabbah, Leviticus (London; New York: Soncino Press, 1939), 174. 104 Grottinelli is wrong when stating that aside from the topos of the filthiness of the pig, other GrecoRoman topoi concerning the pig are not found in Talmudic literature. See Grottanelli, “Avoiding Pork,” 78.

31

being nothing but meat, earthiness, fecundity, gluttony, excrement-eating, cannibalism, courage, ferocity, and stupidity. However, the rabbinic portrait of the pig more or less resembles the main traits of this animal in Greco-Roman discourse, as for example in the anonymous Latin Treatise of Physiognomy (4th cent. CE?), where the pig is portrayed as violent, ignorant, filthy, voracious, foulmouthed, insatiable, unclean, irascible, a drunkard and a criminal [fig. 2]. 105 sky

Improper meat for philosophers

Pig sacrifice The courageous Boar

Enemy of the divinty

Positive

Negative Stupidty Boar sterility

Criminality Downcast eyes

Impurity

Strong meat

Flthiness Gluttony

Rich as the soil

excrement

Lust Death

Rooting animal Leprosy

Fecundity

Plowing animal

Earth

Fig. 2: The Porcine Greco-Roman Discursive Sphere (Rabbinical Literature’s themes in boxes).

Two characteristics of the rabbinic porcine discourse distinguish it from GrecoRoman discourse: first, it does not give any positive place to the pig, and secondly it tends to refer to the domestic animal and the savage one in the same terms, associating both animals together, which is manifested by calling both ḥa ir. As we will later see, this negative nature of the pig reinforces the meaning of the avoidance of pork as well of its eaters.

105

Treatise of Physiognomy (De Physiognomonia Liber) 14, 17, 18, 48, 51, 194. Anonyme Latin, Traité de physiognomonie, trad. Jacques André (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1981), 61, 64, 66, 88-89, 90, 127.

32

Chapter 2 The Prohibited Animal For the sages, the pig was above all a prohibited animal that raised diverse legal issues. While Deuteronomy 14 and Leviticus 11 prohibit only its consumption and the touching of its carcass, the Sages also discuss a variety of other possible prohibitions: breeding, feeding, commerce, or using pig hide. After discussing these cases, I will address the Sages’ understandings of the biblical prohibition of pork and their refusal to explain the grounds for this prohibition.

Prohibition of Breeding One of the manifestations of the repulsion the sages held for the pig is the Mishnaic’s law that “no one may raise swine in any place”. 106 Likewise, Avot deRabbi Nathan (version A), speaking about the ritual laws concerning Jerusalem, notes that “neither geese nor chickens may be raised there, nor needless to say, pigs.” 107 In the Tosefta, Rabbi Eleazar is quoted saying, “One who raises dogs is like one who raises pigs.” 108 The context of the mentioned curse is given in the Bavli: 109 the civil war 106

M. baba Kamma 7.7. “They may not raise small cattle in the Land of Israel, but they may rear them in Syria or in the wilderness in the Land of Israel. They may not raise fowls in Jerusalem because of the sacrifices; nor may priests [rear them] in the Land of Israel because of [the laws regarding Levitically prepared] clean foods. And no one may raise swine in any place. A man may not rear a dog unless it is tied on a chain. They may not set snares for doves unless they are thirty ris from an inhabited place.” Translation by Blackman, Mishnayoth, vol. IV, 62. ‫ אין מגדלין תרנגולים בירושלם מפני הקדשים‬.‫אין מגדלין בהמה דקה בארץ ישראל אבל מגדלין בס וריא ובמדברות שבארץ ישראל‬ ‫ אין‬.‫ לא יגדל אדם את הכלב אלא אם כן היה קשור בשלשלת‬.‫ אין מגדלין חזירים בכל מקום‬.‫ולא כהנים בארץ ישראל מפני הטהרות‬ :‫פורסין נישבים ליונים אלא אם כן היה רחוק מן הישוב שלשים ריס‬ 107 ARN A 35. Translation by Goldin, The Fathers, 144. ‫ ואין צריך לומר‬.‫ואין מגדלין בה אווזין ותרנגולין‬ ‫חזירים‬ 108 T. Baba Batra (ed. Liberman) 8.17. .‫ המגדל כלבים כמגדל חזירים‬:‫ר ליעזר אומר‬ See also the discussion of Rabi Eleazar in Tosefta Yevamot 3.3: “They asked R. Eleazar, “A mamzer – may he inherit?” He said to them: “May he perform halisah?” “May he perform halisah?” He said to them, “May he inherit?” “May he inherit?” He said to them, “May one plaster his house?” [ “May one plaster his house?”] He said to them, “May one plaster his grave?” “May one plaster his grave?” He said to them, “May one raise dogs?” “May one raise dogs?” He said to them, “May one raise pigs?” “May one raise

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between the brothers Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II at the end of the Hasmonean dynasty. According to the story (discussed in detail in chapter four), during the siege of Jerusalem each day the besieged lowered dinars over the wall in a box, and the besiegers raised up to them sacrificial animals for the daily offering (the tamid). However, one day, following the advice of an old man who was knowledgeable about Greek wisdom, the besiegers replaced the pure sacrificial animals with a pig. When the pig thrust its paws against the wall, the city fell. Hence, “at that time did they declare: “Cursed be the man who will rear pigs! And cursed be the man who will teach his son Greek wisdom. 110 Here, pig breeders are analogous to assimilated Jews who blur the boundary between Jews and non-Jews and finally became traitors. The sages’ disdain for pig breeding is also

pigs?” He said, “May one raise roosters?” “May one raise roosters?” He said to them, “May one raise small cattle?” “May one raise small cattle?” He said to them, “May one save the shepherd from the wolf?” “May one save the shepherd from the wolf?” He said to them, “It seems you have asked me only concerning the lamb?”And as regards the lamb, “May one save [it]?” He said to them, “It seems you have asked only about the shepherd.” So-and-so, what is he as to [does he enter] the world to come? So and so, what is he as to the world to come?” He said to them, “It seems that you have asked only about so-and-so.” “And so-and-so, what is he [=his status] as the world to come?” R. Eleazar was not putting them off, but he never said anything which he had not heard.” Translation by Jacob Neusner, Eliezer Ben Hyrcanus: The Tradition and the Man, Part 1, The Tradition (Leiden: Brill, 1973), 178. :‫ מהו לסוד את ביתו? אמר להם‬:‫ מהו לירש? אמרו‬:‫ מהו לחלוץ? ומהו לחלוץ? א"ל‬:‫ ממזר מהו לירש? אמר להם‬:‫שאלו את ר" א‬ ‫ מהו לגדל חזירים? מהו לגדל חזירים? אמר‬: ‫ מהו לגדל כלבים? א"ל‬:‫ מהו לסוד את ביתו? אמרו לו‬:‫מהו לסוד את קברו? אמר להם‬ ‫ מה להציל את‬:‫ מהו לגדל בהמה דקה? מהו לגדל בהמה דקה? אמר להם‬:‫ מהו לגדל תרנגולים? מהו לגדל תרנגולים? א"ל‬:‫להם‬ :‫ דומה שלא שאלתם אלא על הכבשה ואת הכבשה מהו להציל? אמר להן‬:‫הרועה מיד הזאב? להציל את הרועה מיד הזאב? א"ל‬ ] ‫ דומה שלא שאלתם אלא על פלוני ופלוני‬:‫דומה שלא שאלתם אלא על הרועה פלוני מהו לעוה"ב ופלוני מהו לעוה"ב? אמר להם‬ .‫מהו לעוה"ב] ולא שהיה ר"א מפליגן אלא שלא אמר דבר שלא שמע מימיו‬ 109 B. Baba Kamma 72b; Menahot 49b; Sota 49b. The three versions are identical, but in the Sota 49b version the place of Aristobolus and Horkanus is reversed. 110 B. Menahot 49b. ‫ בכל יום ויום היו משלשלין דינרים בקופה ומעלין‬.‫ היה הורקנוס מבחוץ ואריסטובלוס מבפנים‬,‫כשצרו מלכי בית חשמונאי זה על זה‬ ‫ "כל זמן שעוסקים בעבודה אין נמסרין‬:‫ אמר להן‬,‫ לעז להם בחכמת יוונית‬,‫ היה שם זקן אחד שהיה מכיר בחכמת יוונית‬.‫להן תמידים‬ .‫ נזדעזעה א" י ארבע מאות פרסה‬.‫ נעץ צפרניו‬,‫ כיון שהגיע לחצי חומה‬,‫ למחר שלשלו להם דינרים בקופה והעלו להם חזיר‬."‫בידכם‬ .‫ וארור אדם שילמד לבנו חכמת יוונית‬,‫ "ארור אדם שיגדל חזירים‬:‫אותה שעה אמרו‬ The Yerushalmi (Ta’anit 4.68; Berachot 4.7) tells two analogous episodes from the time of Greece and Rome. Bavli Baba Kama (83a) after discussing the studying of Greek refers to Rabbi Eleazar’s saying: “It was taught in [another] Beraitah: R’ Elieser the Great says: One who raises dogs is like one who raises pigs. [the Gemara asks:] Regarding what [matter] is this relevant? To implicate him, [the one who raises dogs,] in the [Rabbis’ imprecation,] “Cursed be [the man who raises swine].” .‫ למאי נפקא מינה? למיקם עליה בארור‬.‫ המגדל כלבים כמגדל חזירים‬:‫תניא רבי אליעזר הגדול אומר‬

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manifested in a story told by the Yerusalmi of how a non-Jewish noble woman told a rabbi that his face is radiant like that of a pig breeder: When Rabbi Yona drank four cups during the night of Pesach, he held his head until Pentecost. Rabbi Yuda son of Rabbi Elai, drank four cups in the night of Pesach, and held his head until Sukkot! A Matrona saw his face glowing. She said to him: Old man, old man, one out of three things is in you: Either you are wine drinker, or a usurer or a pig farmer. He answered her: May the spirit leave this woman! None of these three things is in me but my learning as is written: “the wisdom of man makes his face shine.” (Eccl. 8:1) 111.112

Why does the face of wine drinker, or a usurer or a pig farmer shine? Rashi explains that the three faces shine of happiness for they gain a lot without effort. 113 In rabbinic and Greco-Roman sources, we find the link of the pig to drunkenness, 114 and also to richness, 115 which might explain the analogy the story creates between a wine drinker, a usurer, and a pig farmer. What is important to our subject here is that the pig breeder is presented as the opposite of the Talmudic scholar.116 In another version of the story, the reason for the shining visage of the sage is very different from Torah learning (here b. Berakhot 55a):

111

Eccl. 8:1. “Who is like the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? Wisdom makes one's face shine, and the hardness of one's countenance is changed.” .‫ וְּע ֹז ָפנָיו י ְּשֻׁ נֶא‬,‫פֵשֶ ר דָ בָר; ָחכְּמַ ת ָאדָ ם תָ אִ יר ָפנָיו‬, ַ‫ ּומִ י יֹודֵ ע‬,‫ ְּכ ֶה ָחכָם‬,‫מִ י‬ 112 Y. Pesaḥim 10:1, 37c (and: y. Shabbat 8:1, 11a; y. Shekalim 3:2, 47c). Translation by Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra, “Parody and Polemics on Pentecost: Talmud Yerushalmi. Pesahim on Acts 2?” in Jewish and Christian Liturgy and Worship: New Insights into Its History and Interaction , ed. Albert Gerhards and Clemens Leonhard (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 287. ‫ ר' יודה בי ר' אלעי שתי ארבעתי כסוי דלילי פיסחא וחזיק‬.‫דרבי יונה שתי ארבעתי כסוי דלילי פסחא וחזיק רישיה עד עצרתא‬ ‫ סבא סבא חדא מהני תלת מילין אית בך או דשתויי חמרא את או דמלוי‬:‫ חמיתיה חדא מטרוניתא אפוי נהירין אמרה‬.‫רישיה עד חגא‬ ‫ תיפח רוחא דההיא איתתא דחדא מאלין תלת מילייא לית בי אלא אולפני שכיח לי דהכין‬:‫ אמר לה‬.‫ברבית את או דמגדל חזירי את‬ ".‫ "חכמת אדם תאיר פניו‬:‫כתיב‬ 113 Rashi: "‫ בלא טורח ושמחים בחלקם‬,‫"שכרם מרובה‬ 114 Tan, oaḥ 13 (and YalShim, oaḥ 61). 115 “None richer than a swine.” B. Sabbath 155b. 116 Midrash Samuel (ed. Buber) 16, notes the analogy of the effect of wine drinking and Torah studying: “Like this vine [=Torah] that as much one eats and drinks from it he has a beaming face, hence “the wisdom of man makes his face shine.” (Eccl. 8:1) - [this is] when he has been asked and responds, “and the hardness of one's countenance is changed.” (Eccl. 8:1) – when he has been asked but does not response.” My translation. ‫ בשעה שהוא נשאל‬- )‫ א‬,‫ כך "חכמת אדם תאיר פניו" (קהלת ח‬,‫מה הגפן הזה כל שהוא אוכל ממנה ושותה מיינה פניו מצהילות‬ .‫ בשעה שהוא נשאל ואינו משיב‬- )‫ שם‬,‫ "ועוז פניו ישנה" (שם‬,‫ומשיב‬

35

(…) a certain noblewoman said to R’ Yehudah the son of R’ Il’ai, “Your [radiant] face resembles [that of] pig breeders and usurers.” He said to her, “Faith! Both of these [occupations] are prohibited to me. Rather, there are twenty-four privies between my lodging and the house of study. [And] when I go [from one location to the other] I check myself in all of them.”117

In this version, the sage’s face shines because he is relieved after using the toilet. Perhaps this is because in contrast to breeders of pigs (an animal whose mouth was considered by the sages to be a walking toilet) or usurers, the sage does not accumulate impurity but to the contrary eliminates it. Indeed, what the midrash seems to reproach pigs breeders for is excess. In Koelet (Ecclesiastes) Rabbah Zuta, Rabbi Hunah notes on Ecclesiastes 6:11: “The more words, the more vanity, [so how is one the better?]” - “like

117

B. Berakhot 55a (and: b. Nedarim 49b; PesR 14; Tan Ḥukkot 191; YalShim 977). ‫ ולולבי‬,‫ ועלי גפנים‬,‫ האוכל עלי קנים‬:‫ עשרה דברים מביאין את האדם לידי תחתוניות‬,‫והמארי ך בבית הכסא מעליותא הוא? והתניא‬ ‫ והמקנח בצרור‬,‫ והמקנח בסיד ובחרסית‬,‫ והשותה שמרי יין‬,‫ ודג מליח שאינו מבושל כל צרכו‬,‫ ושדרו של דג‬,‫ ומוריגי בהמה‬,‫גפנים‬ ‫ כי‬.‫ דמאריך ולא תלי‬- ‫ הא‬,‫ דמאריך ותלי‬- ‫ הא‬,‫ לא קשיא‬- !‫ אף התולה עצמו בבית הכסא יותר מדאי‬:‫ ויש אומרים‬,‫שקנח בו חברו‬ ‫ הימנותא! לדידי‬:‫ אמר לה‬- .‫ פניך דומים למגדלי חזירים ולמלוי ברבית‬:‫הא דאמרה ליה ההיא מטרוניתא לרבי יהודה ברבי אלעאי‬ .‫ דכי אזילנא בדיקנא נפשאי בכולהו‬,‫ עשרים וארבעה בית הכסא איכא מאושפיזאי לבי מדרשא‬,‫תרוייהו אסירן; אלא‬ In Bavli Nedarim 49b, a version of this story the one that says Rabbi Yehudah’s face resembled that of pig breeders is a Sadducee: “[A certain Sadducee once said to R’ Yehudah, “Your face seems to be [the face of] either usurers or pig farmers.” [R’ Yehudah] replied to [the Sadducee], “By the oath used among, Jews, both of those [occupations] are prohibited [to me and are not the reason for my glow.] Rather, I have twenty-four lavatories between my house and study hall, and each and every hour I enter each and every one of them. [This explains my shining face.”] ‫ אלא עשרים וארבעה‬,‫ ביהודאי תרוייהו אסירן‬:‫ פניך דומין אי כמלוי רבית אי כמגדלי חזירין! א"ל‬:‫אמר לי' ההוא צדוקי לרבי יהודה‬ .‫ וכל שעה ושעה אני נכנס לכל אחד ואחד‬,‫בית הכסא אית לי מן ביתא עד בי מדרשא‬ And Tanḥuma (ed. Buber) 19 “A certain gentile saw R. Judah b. R. Il’ay with his shining. He said: Now one of three things is the matter with the man: Either he is lending at interest, or he is raising swine, or he is drinking wine. [When] R. Judah b. Il’ay heard his remark, he said to him: May the breath of that man blow out [of him], for none of them applies to me. I am not lending at interest, because it is written:’ “You shall not lend to your brother at interest” (Dt. 23:20). Moreover, I am not raising swine, because a child of Israel is forbidden to rear swine, since we are taught there (cf. Bavli, Qidushin 82b) ‘No one may raise swine in any place’. Nor am I sotted with wine, because the four Paschal cups which I drink at Passover has my head tied in knots from Passover to Pentecost. R. Mani had his head tied in knots from Passover to the feast of Tabernacles. [The gentile] said to him: Then for what reason is your face shining? He said to him: It is the study of Torah that makes my face shine for me. It is written: ‘A person’s wisdom lights up his face’ (Eccl. 8:1).” ‫ או מגדל‬,‫ או מוזיף בריביתא‬,‫ הדין גברא חדא מן תלת מילין אית ביה‬:‫ אמר‬.‫גוי אחד ראה את ר' יודה ב"ר אלעאי דהוי אפוי נהירין‬ ‫ לא מוזיף‬,‫ דכל חדא מנהון לית בי‬,‫ תיפח רוחיה דההוא גברא‬:‫ א" ל‬,‫ שמע קליה ר' יהודה ב"ר אלעאי‬.‫ או חמר הוא שותה‬,‫חזירים‬ ,‫ דתנינן תמן‬,‫ דאסיר לבר ישראל למרבי חזירים‬,‫ ולא מרבה חזירים אנא‬,)‫ כ‬,‫ “לא תשיך לאחיך” (דברים כג‬:‫ דכתיב‬,‫בריביתא אנא‬ '‫ ר‬.‫ חזיק ראשי מן פסחא לעצרתא‬,‫ דארבעת כסי דפסחא דאנא שתי בפסחא‬,‫ ולא שקויי דחמר אנא‬,‫לא יגדל אדם חזירים בכל מקום‬ ‫ "חכמת אדם תאיר‬:‫ דכתיב‬,‫ אורייתא היא דמנהרא לי אפוי‬:‫ ועל מה אפך נהירין? א"ל‬:‫ אמר ליה‬.‫מני חזיק ראשיה מפסחא לחגא‬ ".‫פניו‬ And PesR 14; YalShim 977.

36

the breeders of monkeys, cats and pigs.” 118 It seems that pigs stand for vanity not jus t because they are impure but also because they are prolific animals, and hence demonstrate vain excess. We find the contrast “pig breeder - Talmudic scholar” also in a legend (discussed in detail in chapter six) concerning the emperor Diocletian. According to the legend the young Diocletian was a swineherd in Tiberias. Whenever he came near Rabbi’s school, the young students would come out and beat him up. When he became emperor, he tried to take vengeance on the sages, but miracles protected them. Diocletian criticized the sages, saying that they disdained the king because they knew that God performs miracles on their behalf. To this, the sages answered: “Diocletian who was a swineherd we did indeed disdain, but to Diocletian the king we are enslaved.” 119 Another foreign ruler whom the sages compare to a swineherd is Pharaoh. In a parable in Exodus Rabbah (also discussed in detail in chapter six), Pharaoh is compared to a swineherd who found an ewe-lamb (=Israel), and kept it among his pigs. The owner (God) asked for his ewe-lamb (Israel) but in the face of the swineherd’s refusal, acquired it only after a serious of sanctions. 120 Hence, Israel is the lamb, the non-Jews (Egyptians) are pigs; the foreign ruler (Pharaoh) is a swineherd, while the ruler of Israel, God, is the ultimate shepherd. The swineherd is the opposite social pole of the King, hence referring to a king as a swineherd is degrading. Yalkut Shimoni tells a story about the Persian King who dreamed that the Romans captured him and forced him to feed pigs:

118

Koelet Rabbah Zuta 6.11."‫אמ' רב הונא כגון מגדלי קופות וחתולים וחזירים "כי יש דברים הרבה מרבים הבל‬.” See: Reuven Kipperwasser, Midrashim on Kohelet; Studies in their Redaction and Formation, PhD Thesis (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University, 2005), 54. 119 GenR Toledoth 63.8.7. and Y. Terumot 8:11, 46c. My translation. .‫ ברם לדיקליטיינוס מלכא אנן משועבדים‬,‫ לדיקליטיינוס רעי חזירין אקילינן‬:'‫אמרין לי‬ 120 ExR 20.

37

The Emperor [of Rome] said to R. Joshua b. R. Hananyah: You [Jews] profess to be very clever. Tell me what I shall see in my dream. He said to him: You will see the Persians coming and taking you captive and making you grind date-stones in a golden mill. He thought about it all day, and in the night he saw it in his dream. King Shapor [I, the Persian king] once said to Samuel: You [Jews] profess to be very clever. Tell me what I shall see in my dream. He said to him: You will see the Romans coming and taking you captive and making you feed pigs with a golden crook. He thought about it the whole day and in the night saw it in a dream. 121

Feeding and Commerce Contrary to the texts that forbid pig breeding, other texts deal with questions of feeding or selling pigs (theoretically but likely also practically). Bavli Shabbath notes that one should feed a dog on the Sabbath but not a pig. The logic seems to be explained later by the observation that “there is no poorer than a dog, and richer than the pig.” The question is how long the animal will not suffer without being fed. The Braitah seemed to assume that the dog digests quickly and thus has to be feed even on the Sabbath, while the pig digests slowly,122 and thus should not be fed. 123

121

YalkShim Daniel 1060. My translation. ‫ חזית בחלמך דאתו פרסאי ושבו לך וטחנו‬:‫ אמריתו חכמינן טובא אימא לי מה חזינא בחלמאי? א"ל‬:‫א"ל קיסר לר' יהושע בן חנניה‬ ‫ שבור מלכא לשמואל אמריתו חכמינן טובא אימא לי מה חזינא בחלמאי? אמר‬:‫ אמר ליה‬.‫ הרהר וחזא‬.‫בך קשיתא בריחיא דדהבא‬ .‫ הרהר וחזא‬,‫ חזית בחילמך דאתו רומאי ושבו לך ורעו בך חזירי בחוטרא דדהבא‬:‫ליה‬ Compare to Bavli Berakhot 56a: “The Emperor [of Rome] said to R. Joshua b. R. Hananyah: You [Jews] profess to be very clever. Tell me what I shall see in my dream. He said to him: You will see the Persians making you do forced labor, and despoiling you and making you feed unclean animals with a golden crook. He thought about it all day, and in the night he saw it in his dream. King Shapor [I] once said to Samuel: You [Jews] profess to be very clever. Tell me what I shall see in my dream. He said to him: You will see the Romans coming and taking you captive and making you grind date-stones in a golden mill. He thought about it the whole day and in the night saw it in a dream.” ‫ חזית דמשחרי לך פרסאי וגרבי‬:‫אמריתו דחכמיתו טובא אימא לי מאי חזינא בחלמאי? אמר ליה‬: ‫אמר ליה קיסר לר' יהושע ברחנינא‬ ‫ אמריתו דחכמיתו טובא אימא‬:‫ אמר ליה שבור מלכא לשמואל‬.‫ הרהר כוליה יומא ולאורתא חזא‬.‫בך ורעיי בך שקצי בחוטרא דדהבא‬ .‫ הרהר כוליה יומא ולאורתא חזא‬.‫ חזית דאתו רומאי ושבו לך וטחני בך קשייתא ברחייא דדהבא‬:‫לי מאי חזינא בחלמאי? אמר ליה‬ Becoming a swineherd as sign of humiliation/”fall” is found in the New Testament’s parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). 122 For a similar distinction between the digestive systems of the dog and that of the pig in Greek thought, see: Christophe Lafon, “Un organisme interne semblable au chaudron du sacrifice,” La sacrifice antique: vestiges procédures et stratégies, Sous la direction de Véronique Mehl et Pierre Brulé (Renne: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2008), 155-166. 123 B. Sabbath 155b. “Even as it was taught: Food may be placed before a dog but not before a swine. And what is the difference between them? You are responsible for the food of the one, but you are not responsible for the food of the other. […] R. Jonah lectured at the entrance to the Nasi's academy: What is

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While pig breeding is clearly forbidden, under some circumstances a Jew can sell pigs. For example, according to the Bavli, Baba Kama, a proselyte who inherited pigs, is not obliged to sell them all immediately, but may sell them off little by little. 124 However, Mishnah Ukatzin states that the carcass of a pig, camel, hare, and rabbit could be sold to a non-Jew anywhere. 125 Tosefta Avodah Zara states that one can sell pigs to a tagar because there is no danger that he will sacrifice them to idolatry: And of all of them, he would sell them a bundle. And how much is a bundle? R. Judah b. Peterah says, “In the case of frankincense, it is no less than three by number.” One sells [the stated substances] to a tagar [merchant], but does not sell to a householder [M. Avodah Zara 1.5A]. But if the tagar [merchant] was suspect [of idolatrous practices], it is prohibited to sell [them] to him. One sells them pigs and does not scruple that he might offer them up to an idol. One sells him wine and does not scruple that he might offer it as a libation to an idol. But if he explicitly stated to him [that his intent was to make use of what he was buying for idolatry], it is prohibited to sell him even water, even salt [M. Avodah Zara 1.5f]. 126

As Emmanuel Friedheim notes, the tagar is probably a Syrian or Arab nomad merchant, for whom pork and wine are forbidden and thus there is no risk that he will use them for idolatry.127

meant by the verse, “The righteous knoweth the cause of the poor”? The Holy One, blessed be He, knoweth that a dog's food is scanty, therefore He makes him retain his food in his stomach for three days. As we learnt: How long shall the food remain in its stomach and yet defile? In the case of a dog, three full days of twenty-four hours; while in the case of birds or fish, as long as it would take for it [the food] to fall into the fire and be burnt. R. Hamnuna said: This proves that it is the proper thing to throw raw meat to a dog. And how much? Said R. Mari: Measure its ear and the stick [straight] after! But that is only in the fields but not in town, because it will come to follow him. R. Papa said: None are poorer than a dog and none richer than a swine.” .‫ אין מזונותיו עליך‬- ‫ מזונותיו עליך וזה‬- ‫ ומה הפרש בין זה לזה? זה‬.‫ ואין נותנין מזונות לפני חזיר‬,‫ נותנין מזונות לפני כלב‬:‫כדתניא‬ ‫ " ידע צדיק דין דלים" (משלי כט)? יודע הקדוש ברוך הוא בכלב שמזונותיו‬:‫ מאי דכתיב‬:‫) דרש רבי יונה אפיתחא דבי נשיאה‬...( ,‫ שלשה ימים מעת לעת‬- ‫ בכלב‬,‫ כמה תשהה אכילתו במעיו ויהא טמא‬:‫ כדתנן‬.‫ לפיכך שוהה אכילתו במעיו שלשה ימים‬,‫מועטין‬ ‫ אמר רב‬- ?‫ וכמה‬.‫ אורח ארעא למשדא אומצא לכלבא‬:‫ שמע מינה‬:‫ אמר רב המנונא‬.‫ כדי שתפול לאור ותשרף‬- ‫ובעופות ובדגים‬ ‫ ולית‬,‫ לית דעניא מכלבא‬:‫ אמר רב פפא‬.‫ דאתי למסרך‬, ‫ לא‬- ‫ אבל במתא‬,‫ בדברא‬- ‫ הני מילי‬.‫ וחוטרא אבתריה‬,‫ משח אודניה‬:‫מרי‬ .‫דעתיר מחזירא‬ 124 B. Baba Kama 80a. 125 M. Ukatzin 3:3. 126 T. Avodah Zara (ed. Zurkmendel) 1.21. ‫ מוכר לתגר וא ין מוכר‬.‫ בלבונה אין פחות משלשת מנין‬:‫מכולן היה מוכר להן חבילה וכמה היא חבילה? ר' יהודה בן פתירה אומר‬ ‫ מוכר לו יין ואינו חושש‬,‫ מוכר לו חזירים ואינו חושש שמא מזבחן לעבודה זרה‬.‫ ואם היה תגר חשוד אסור למכור לו‬,‫לבעל הבית‬ .‫ ואם פירש לו אפילו מים או מלח אסור למכור לו‬,‫שמא מנסכו לעבודה זרה‬ 127 Emmanuel Friedheim, “The Travelling Merchant and Arabian-Syrian Pagan Rituals Mentioned in the Tosefta.” Tarbiz 69, no. 2 (2000): 170 (Hebrew). And Ibid. Rabbinisme et Paganisme en Palestine

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Pig Hide Mishnah Ḥu in 9:1 states that in general the hide of an animal is not subject to the rules of food impurity, but rather to those of carcass impurity. Mishanh Ḥu in 9:2 lists some animals whose hides follow the rules of flesh in all respects. R. Johanan holds that for eating pigskin one never can be prosecuted, while R. Shimeon ben Laqish holds that eating pigskin, not yet transformed into leather, is as punishable as eating pork. 128

Purity and Classification How did the sages understand the prohibition of pork in Deuteronomy 14:8 and Leviticus 11:7? The early midrash Sifra questions the logic of the biblical classification system concerning the pig in diverse places. Sifra Shemini 2.4 asks how one knows on the basis of the four anomalous animals mentioned in Leviticus (camel, rock badger, hare, and pig) that one may not eat other impure animals? “….Which you may eat among all the beasts” (Lev. 11:1): […] I know only that the prohibition of eating an unclean beast is subject to a positive commandment [“which you may eat,” meaning the others may not be eaten; eat these only]. How do I know that unclean beasts are subject also to a negative commandment? Scripture says, “The camel…the rock badger…the hare…the pig…of their flesh you shall not eat.” I know that is the case only for these that have been specified alone. How do I know that is the case for other unclean domesticated beasts? It is accessible through a logical argument: If these, which possess some of the indicators of cleanness, lo, they are subject to a negative commandment against eating them, those that lack any of the indicators of cleanness surely should be subject to a negative commandment against eating them. Thus the rule governing the camel, rock badger, hare, and pig derives from Scripture, and the rule romaine: étude historique des Realia talmudiques (Ier-IVème siècles) (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2006), 250262. The avoidance of pork in ancient Syria is mentioned by Syrian avoidance of pork by Epictetus, Porphyry and Damascius. The avoidance of pork in proto Islamic Arabia is mentioned by: Solinus, The Wonders of the World (De mirabilibus mundi) 33.2.4; Pliny, Natural History 8.78.213; Jerome (d. 420 CE), Against Jovinian 2 (NPNF2-06); Hermias Sozomen (c. 440 CE), Church History 6.38 (PG 67.1412C; NPNF 2, 375). 128 M. Ḥu in 9.2. ‫ אף עור חזיר הבר ועור חטוטרת של גמל הרכה ועור הראש‬:‫ רבי יוסי אומר‬.‫ עור האדם ועור חזיר של ישוב‬:‫אלו שעורותיהן כבשרן‬ :‫ רבי יהודה אומר‬.‫של עגל הרך ועור הפרסות ועור בית הבושת ועור השליל ועור שתחת האליה ועור האנקה והכח והלטאה והחומט‬ ‫ שמנה שרצים יש להן‬:‫ רבי יוחנן בן נורי אומר‬.‫הלטאה כחולדה וכולן שעיבדן או שהילך בהן כדי עבודה טהורין חוץ מעור האדם‬ :‫עורות‬ And b. Ḥu in 122a; b. Shabbat 14b; y. Pesahim 7:11, 35a; y. Shabbat 14:1, 14b.

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governing other unclean beasts from an argument a fortiori. The affirmative commandment affecting them derives from Scripture, the negative one from an argument a fortiori.129

The pig is understood here as a generic symbol for impure animals. While it is doubtful that this was the intention of the biblical text itself, it probably reflects the special importance of the avoidance of pork in the rabbinic period. We find a similar legal discussion in Sifra Shemini 4.1, which deals with the prohibition of touching the carcass of an animal (Leviticus 11:24-28).130 The midrash starts by questioning whether the law covers all animals: “And by these you shall become unclean” (Lev. 11:24): Might one suppose that “these” refers to all the categories stated in context [so that the rules that follow pertain through, and not only to carrion of beasts]? And what are the categories stated in context? Domesticated beasts, wild beasts, birds, fish and locusts.

In order to eliminate this possibility by reducing the span of the law, proof texts are taken from Leviticus 11:26 (the word “animal” excludes fish, “parts the hoof” excludes locusts and fowl, and “cloven-footed” eliminates birds): Might one suppose that a limb cut from a living creature should impart uncleanness in the case of all of them? Scripture says, “animal.” I may then eliminate fish that live in the ocean, which are not susceptible to uncleanness, but I shall not eliminate locusts. To the contrary, Scripture says, “Every animal which parts [the hoof]…” I shall then eliminate locusts, to the species of which uncleanness does not apply, but I shall not eliminate fowl, to species of which uncleanness does apply. To the contrary, Scripture says, “[Every animal which parts] the hoof…” Then perhaps I should eliminate unclean birds but not eliminate clean birds? It is a matter of logic. If a beast, which cannot impart uncleanness 129

Sifra 2.4. Translation by Jacob Neusner, Sifra: An Analytical Translation, vol. 2 (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1988), 155-156. ‫ "אותה תאכלו" אותה באכילה ואין בהמה טמאה‬:‫ לרבות את השיליא יכול אפילו יצאת מקצתה ת"ל‬- "‫"בבהמה אותה תאכלו‬ ‫" אין לי אלא אילו‬,‫ " הגמל והארנבת והשפן והחזיר מבשרם לא תאכלו‬:‫ בלא תעשה מנין? ת"ל‬,‫ (ב) אין לי אלא בעשה‬.‫באכילה‬ ‫ ושאין בהם סימני טהרה‬,‫ שאר בהמה טמאה מנין ודין הוא ומה אילו שיש בהם סימני טהרה הרי זה בלא תעשה על אכילתן‬,‫בלבד‬ ‫ נמצא מצות‬,‫ נמצאו הגמל והארנבת והשפן והחזיר מן הכתוב ושאר בהמה טמאה מקל וחומר‬,‫אינו דין שיהו בלא תעשה על אכילתם‬ .‫עשה שלהם מן הכתוב ומצות לא תעשה שלהם מקל וחומר‬ 130 “24: And by these you shall become unclean: whoever touches their carcass shall be unclean until the evening, 25: and whoever carries any part of their carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening. 26: Every animal which parts the hoof but is not cloven-footed, or does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. Everyone who touches them shall be unclean. 27: And all that go on their paws among the animals that go on all fours are unclean to you; whoever touches their carcass shall be unclean until the evening, 28: and he who carries their carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening; they are unclean to you.” (Lev. 11: 24-28).

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to clothing when a bit of it is in the gullet, produces a limb from the living creature which does impart such uncleanness, a bird, which does impart uncleanness to clothing when a bit of it is in the gullet, surely should yield a limb from the living creature which does impart such uncleanness! To the contrary, Scripture says, “But is not cloven-footed.” [That eliminates all birds.]131

After explaining that Leviticus 11:26 reduces the law to only four footed animals, it is explained how the same phrase covers all the possible cases among those animals: I know then that the law applies only to clean beasts. How do I know that it applies to unclean beasts as well? Scripture says, “Every animal” (Lev. 11:26) and as to a beast that is clean? Scripture says, “Every animal which parts...” (Ibid.) And as to a beast that is unclean? Scripture says, “…the hoof.” (Ibid.) And as to those that have cloven hoofs? Scripture says, “Cloven-footed.” (Ibid.) And those that do not have cloven hoofs? Scripture says, “But is not cloven-footed.” And as to those that chew the cud among domesticated beasts? Scripture says, “Or does not chew the cud.” Now is there not the case of the pig, which parts the hoof and is cloven-footed? Is it possible that the limb cut from a living creature in that case should not impart uncleanness? Scripture says, “Does not chew the cud, is unclean to you.”132

If it is prohibited to touch the carcass of pig, 133 this prohibition is taken to its extreme by being inscribed in the discussion of eating a limb cut from a living creature. It is clear that what is at stake is not the real possibility but a theoretical one. In any case, the classification system is described as perfect, for it covers all imaginable possibilities.

131

Sifra 4.1. Translation by Neusner, Sifra, vol 2, 171-172. ‫ יכול לכל האמור בענין ומה אמור בענין בהמה וחיה ועופות ודגים וחגבים יכול יהיו אבר מן החי מטמא בכולם‬- "‫" ולאלה תטמאו‬ ‫" אוציא את החגבים שאין‬. ‫ " מפרסת‬:‫" אוצ יא את הדגים הגדילים בים שאין מקבלים טומאה ולא אוציא החגבים? ת"ל‬. ‫ "בהמה‬:‫ת"ל‬ ‫ ודין‬,‫" אוציא את העוף הטמא ולא אוציא את העוף הטהור‬. ‫ "פרסה‬:‫למינן טומאה ולא אוציא את העופות שיש למינן טומאה? ת"ל‬ ‫ עוף שמטמא בגדים אבית הבליעה אינו דין שיהא‬,‫הוא ומה אם בהמה שאינה מטמאה בגדים אבית הבליעה אבר מן החי ממנה מטמא‬ ?‫אבר מן החי מטמא‬ 132 Sifra 4.1. Translation by Neusner, Sifra, vol 2, 171-172. ?‫ חיה טמאה מנין‬,‫ מפרסת‬:‫ חיה טהורה מנין? ת"ל‬,‫ לכל הבהמה‬:‫" אין לי אלא בהמה טהורה בהמה טמאה מנין? ת"ל‬. ‫ "שסע‬:‫ת"ל‬ ‫ "מעלת‬:‫" מעלת גרה בבהמה מנין? ת"ל‬.‫ "איננה שוסעת‬:‫" לאין שיסועים מנין? ת"ל‬. ‫ "ושסע‬:‫ לשיסועים מנין? ת"ל‬.‫ פרסה‬:‫ת"ל‬ : ‫ יכול לא יהא אבר מן החי מטמא הימינו? ת"ל‬,‫" והלא חזיר מפריס ומשוסע‬. ‫ "איננה מעלה‬:‫" לשאין מעלה גרה מנין? ת"ל‬.‫גרה‬ ". ‫"גרה איננה מעלה טמא הוא‬ 133 The Mishnah, Okazin 3.3 notes that the pig is polluted in any case, whether contact with it was intentional or random: “The carcass of an unclean beast anywhere, and the carcass of a clean bird in villages, need intention, but [being already unclean] they do not require to be rendered susceptive to uncleanness. The carcass of a clean beast in any place, and the carcass of a clean bird and fat in the markets do not need either intention or to be made susceptive to uncleanness. R. Simon says, Also, [the carcass of] the camel, or the hare, or the cony, or the pig [- these do not need intention].” ‫ נבלת בהמה טהורה בכ" מ ונבלת‬.‫נבלת בהמה טמאה בכל מקום ונבלת העוף הטהור בכפרים צריכין מחשבה ואינן צריכין הכשר‬ :‫ אף הגמל והארנבת והשפן והחזיר‬:‫ רש"א‬.‫העוף הטהור והחלב בשווקים אינן צריכין מחשבה ולא הכשר‬ And Midrash Tana’aim to Deutronom 14.7; b. eḥorot 10a.

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The textual inquiry by a series of distinctions repeats and reinforce the original distinction of the classification system in general and that of the pig in particular (fig. 3).

Fig. 3: Classification of beasts in Leviticus 11 according to Sifra Shemini 4.1.

We find the pig as a locus of distinction also in Bavli Ḥu in 59a: And Rav Chisda said: [If] one was traveling on the road and he found an animal whose mouth was mutilated, [so that he cannot determine whether it had upper front teeth] he may examine its hooves [and thereby determine its status:] If its hooves are split [then] it is definitely pure, and if [they are] not [split then] it is definitely non kosher; [but he may rely on this method only] provided that he can identify a pig. Did you not say [that] there is the pig, [which represents an exception to your rule that any animal with split hooves is kosher? Perhaps, then] there is also some other species [of animal of which we are unaware] that resembles a pig [in that it has split hooves yet is nonkosher. How can anyone who does not see an animal’s mouth assume, simply because it has split hooves and is not a pig, that it is kosher species? It should not enter your mind [that there is any such species.] For it was taught in a Braitah in the academy of R’ Yishmael: [Scripture states: But this is what you shall not eat …] The pig, for it has a split hoof [and its hoof is completely separated, but it does not bring up its cud.] The ruler of his universe knows that there is no creature that has a split hoof yet is impure [on account of not bringing up its cud] except for the pig. Therefore scripture specifies regarding [the pig that] it [has a split hoof but does not bring up its cud.] 134

134

B. Ḥu in 59a. ‫ בידוע שאין לה שינים‬,‫ כל בהמה שמעלת גרה‬,)‫ "כל בהמה מפרסת פרסה וגו'" (ויקרא י"א‬:‫ אלו הן סימני בהמה‬,‫ תנו רבנן‬.'‫גמ‬ ‫ והרי בן גמל דניבי נמי‬.‫ וטמא! גמל ניבי אית ליה‬- ‫ ואין לו שינים למעלה‬,‫ וכללא הוא? והרי גמל דמעלה גרה הוא‬.‫ וטהורה‬- ‫למעלה‬ ‫ שינים מי כתיבי באורייתא ? אלא הכי‬,‫ וטמאין! ועוד‬- ‫ ויש להן שינים למעלה‬,‫ הרי שפן וארנבת דמעלת גרה הן‬,‫לית ליה ! ותו‬ ‫ וליבדוק בפרסותיה! כגון שהיו‬.‫ ומפרסת פרסה וטהורה‬,‫ בידוע שהיא מעלת גרה‬- ‫ כל בהמה שאין לה שינים למעלה‬:‫קאמר‬ ‫ אם אין לה‬,‫ בודק בפיה‬- ‫ היה מהלך במדבר ומצא בהמה שפרסותיה חתוכות‬:‫ וכדרב חסדא; דאמר רב חסדא‬,‫פרסותיה חתוכות‬ ‫ ובלבד שיכיר בן‬:‫ גמל? ניבי אית ליה ! אלא‬.‫ ובלבד שיכיר גמל‬,‫ בידוע שהיא טמאה‬- ‫ אם לאו‬,‫ בידוע שהיא טהורה‬- ‫שינים למעלה‬ ‫ "ואת הגמל כי‬:‫ דתני דבי ר' ישמעאל‬,]‫ לאו אמרת איכא בן גמל? איכא נמי מינא אחרינא דדמי לבן גמל! לא ס"ד [סלקא דעתך‬,‫גמל‬ ‫ ואמר רב‬.‫ לפיכך פרט בו הכתוב הוא‬,‫ שליט בעולמו יודע שאין לך דבר מעלה גרה וטמא אלא גמל‬,)‫מעלה גרה הוא" (ויקרא יא‬ ‫ בידוע‬- ‫ אם לאו‬,‫ בידוע שהיא טהורה‬- ‫ אם פרסותיה סדוקות‬,‫ בודק בפרסותיה‬,‫ היה מהלך בדרך ומצא בהמה שפיה גמום‬:‫חסדא‬

43

Also here we find the idea of the uniqueness of the pig, as well of his classificatory ambiguity. These aspects are at the heart of Sifra Shemini 2.5, which asks why the four anomalous animals (the camel, hare, rock badger, and pig) are prohibited both in Deuteronomy 14 and in Leviticus 11: “…the camel, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof is unclean to you. And the rock badger, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the hare, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you” (Lev. 11: 5) What is the point of Scripture here? If it is only to provide Scripture with a complete account, lo, it is written, “The camel, the hare, and the daman - for although they bring up the cud, they have no true hoofs - they are unclean for you; [also the swine - for although it has true hoofs, it does not bring up the cud - is unclean for you. You shall not eat of their flesh or touch their carcasses]” (Dt. 14: 7-8). What then is encompassed in the statement above? The included items we have already listed. “…the camel, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof is unclean to you” (Lev. 11: 5): What is the point of Scripture here? One might have thought that that beast should be permitted if it displays a single validating trait. And the opposite of that proposition is a matter of logic: If the pig, which has a cloven hoof, is unclean, the camel, which does not have a cloven hoof, surely should be unclean! If that were so, I should reply, “What is it that causes the prohibition of the pig?” It is the matter of its not chewing the cud. Then that same matter should render the camel permitted! Accordingly, Scripture says, “…the camel, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof is unclean to you” (Lev. 11: 5): Let the rule be given for the camel, and an argument a fortiori for the pig will follow: If the camel, which chews the cud, is unclean, the pig, '‫ דתנא דבי ר‬,[‫ לאו אמרת איכא חזיר? איכא נמי מינא אחרינא דדמיא לחזיר! לא ס"ד [סלקא דעתך‬.‫ ובלבד שיכיר חזיר‬,‫שהיא טמאה‬ ‫ לפיכך‬,‫ שליט בעולמו יודע שאין לך דבר שמפריס פרסה וטמא אלא חזיר‬,)‫ " ואת החזיר כי מפריס פרסה הוא" (ויקרא יא‬:‫ישמעאל‬ ‫ בודק בבשרה; אם מהלך‬,‫ ומצא בהמה שפיה גמום ופרסותיה חתוכות‬,‫ היה מהלך במדבר‬:‫ ואמר רב חסדא‬."‫ "הוא‬:‫פרט בו הכתוב‬ ‫ לאו אמרת איכא ערוד? איכא נמי מינא אחרינא‬.‫ ובלבד שיכיר ערוד‬,‫ בידוע שהיא טמאה‬- ‫ ואם לאו‬,‫ בידוע שהיא טהורה‬- ‫שתי וערב‬ .‫ בכנפי העוקץ‬:‫ והיכא בודק? אמר אביי ואיתימא רב חסדא‬.‫דדמיא לערוד! גמירי דליכא‬ According to Genesis Rabbah, in order to avoid uttering an unclean expression, God enumerated the positive sign of the pig before its negative one: “Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee…and of the beasts that are not clean, etc.” (Gn. 7:2). R. Judan in R. Johanan’s name, R. Berekiah in R. Leazar’s name, and R. Jacob in R. Joshua’s name said: We find that the Holy One, blessed be He, employed a circumlocution of three words in order to avoid uttering an unclean [indelicate] expression: It is not written, ‘And of the unclean beasts,’ but…That are not clean. R. Judan said; Even when [Scripture] comes to enumerate the signs of unclean animals, it commences first with the signs of cleanness [which they possess]: it is not written, ‘The camel, because he parteth not the hoof, ‘but, Because he cheweth the cud but parteth not the hoof (Lev. 11: 4); The rock-badger, because he cheweth the cud but parteth not the hoof (ib. 5); “The hare, because he cheweth the cud but parterth not the hoof” (ib. 6); “The swine, because he parteth the hoof, and is cloven-footed, but cheweth not the cud” (ib. 7).” GenR 32.4. Translation by Freedman, Midrash Rabbah, Genesis, vol. I, 251. ‫ מצינו‬:‫ ור' יעקב דכפר חנין בשם ר' יהושע בן לוי‬,‫ ר' יודן בשם ר' יוחנן ור' ברכיה בשם רבי אליעזר‬,'"‫"מכל הבהמה הטהורה וגו‬ ‫ "מכל הבהמה הטהורה תקח לך שבעה‬:‫ הה"ד‬,‫ כדי שלא להוציא דבר טומאה מתוך פיו‬,‫שעיקם הקב"ה שתים ושלש תיבות בתורה‬ ‫ אף כשבא‬:‫ א"ר יודן ב"ר מנשה‬.‫ אלא אשר לא טהורה היא‬,‫ ומן הבהמה הטמאה אין כתיב כאן‬,)‫ ב‬,‫שבעה איש ואשתו" (בראשית ז‬ ‫ "כי‬:‫ אלא‬,‫ אין כתיב כאן‬- ‫ את הגמל כי לא מפריס פרסה‬:‫ לא פתח להם אלא בסימני בהמה טהורה‬,‫לומר להם סימני בהמה טמאה‬ ‫ “כי מעלה גרה” (ויקרא יא) ואת החזיר כי איננו‬:‫ אלא‬,‫ אין כתיב כאן‬- ‫ את השפן כי איננו מפריס פרסה‬.)‫מעלה גרה" (ויקרא יא‬ ". ‫ "כי מפריס פרסה הוא‬:‫ אלא‬,‫ אין כתיב כאן‬- ‫מעלה גרה‬

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which does not chew the cud, surely should be unclean. If that were the case, then I should reply, What is it that causes the prohibition of the camel? It is the matter of the hoof. Then the same matter should render the pig permitted! Accordingly, Scripture says, “And the pig, because it parts the hoof and is cloven footed but does not chew the cud” (Lev. 11:5). 135

The repetition of the law is understood here as provided in order to avoid any misunderstanding which will follow just one sign of purity. The emblematic status of the pig makes it a token of impurity: the Mishnah for example discusses whether a sacrificial animal is blemished if it has its mouth 136 or tail like that of a pig is blemished. 137 Likewise, the Mishnah forbids taking a vow of eating pork (because one has to take a vow on something which is not inherently forbidden). 138 Similarly, if a man conditioned

135

Sifra Shemini 2.5. Translation by Neunser, Sifra, vol 2, 160. ‫ואת הגמל כי מעלה גרה הוא ואת השפן כי מעלה גרה הוא ואת הארנבת כי מעלה גרה הוא מה ת" ל אם לתיקון המקרא הרי כבר‬ ‫ (ו) ואת הגמל כי מעלה גרה הוא שיכול‬.‫נאמר הגמל והארנבת והשפן כי מעלה גרה המה ולמה באו לרבות את הריבויים שאמרנו‬ ‫יתירינו סימן אחד ודין הוא ומה אם חזיר שמפריס פרסה טמא גמל שאין מפריס פרסה אינו דין שיהא טמא אילו כן הייתי אומר מי‬ ‫ כי מעלת גרה היא יאמר בגמל וקל וחומר לחזיר ומה גמל שמעלה גרה טמא‬,‫ ואת הגמל‬:‫ ת"ל‬,‫אוסר את החזיר גרה היא תתיר גמל‬ ‫ ואת‬:‫ והיא תתיר את החזיר ת"ל‬,‫ (ז) אילו כן הייתי אומר מי אוסר את הגמל פרסה‬.‫חזיר שאינו מעלה גרה אינו דין שיהא טמא‬ .‫החזיר כי מפריס פרסה ולא גרה טמא הוא‬ Also Bavli Beḥorot 6b: “[The Gemara returns to its discussion at the top of this amud: ] But now [that you have explained that the two times the term “camel” is stated in Scripture is for expositional purposes, when it states:] hyrax, hyrax; hare, hare; pig, pig;[two times each,] are they coming for these [types of expositions?] Indeed, not!] Rather, [they are repeated] for [the reason] that was taught in a Baratia: [why as the enumeration of those that are kosher and nonkosher] repeated regarding the animal [species,] for [the addition of ] the shesuah, [which was not mentioned the first time.] And regarding the birds [the enumeration is repeated] for the Raah. [If so,] camel, camel also comes for this [reason, and not for the purpose of the expositions cited above!-?- The Gemara answers:] Wherever it is possible to expound [the verse] we expound.” - ‫ ובעופות‬,‫ מפני השסועה‬- ‫ למה נשנו? בבהמה‬:‫ חזיר חזיר להני הוא דאתו? אלא לכדתניא‬,‫ ארנבת ארנבת‬,‫אלא מעתה שפן שפן‬ .‫ גמל גמל נמי להכי הוא דאתא כל היכא דאיכא למידרש דרשינן‬,‫מפני הראה‬ 136 M. Beḥorot 6.8: “If a bone of its foreleg or a bone of its hindleg be fractured, even if it be not evident [when the beast stands up, but is manifest when it walks, this is deemed a blemish]. These [two] blemishes Ila recounted in Jabneh, and the Sages concurred. And, further, he added three [other blemishes], [but the Sages] said to him, We have not heard [any tradition] about these [that they should be considered blemishes, namely], if its eye-ball be round like that of person, or if its mouth be like that of a pig, or if the greater parts of its fore-tongue had been removed; but the court [that succeeded] after them said that these [three, also] were blemishes.” Translation by Philip Blackman, Mishnayot, vol V. Order Kodashim (New York: Judaica, 1964), 271-272. ‫נשבר עצם ידו ועצם רגלו אף על פי שאינו ניכר מומין אלו מנה אילא ביבנה והודו לו חכמים ועוד שלשה הוסיף אמרו לו לא שמענו‬ ‫את אלו את שגלגל עינו עגול כשל אדם ופיו דומה לשל חזיר ושניטל רוב המדבר של לשונו ובית דין של אחריהן אמרו הרי אלו‬ .‫מומין‬ And: Tosefta (ed. Zukermendel) 4.11; B. Bechoort 3b; 40a. 137 M. Bechorot 6.9. B. eḥorot 50b. :‫ זנב הגדי שהיא דומה לשל חזיר ושאין בה שלש חוליות הרי זה מום‬:‫רבי חנניא בן גמליאל אומר‬ 138 M. Nedarim 2.1: “[And these are declarations that leave the vower] permitted: “Ḥulin which I eat of yours,” “Like pork,” “like an idol,” “like skins perforated at the heart,”, “like neveolos and tereifos,” “Like

45

the validity of a get, a divorce document, on the wife eating pork, then the get is valid and the condition annulled, for the husband does not really intend to this condition for he knew that it is forbidden. 139 Being a token of impurity, the pig serves the sages to discuss hypothetical cases. Bavli Ḥu in, for example, while discussing whether a fetus of impure animal in the uterus of pure animal is pure or not, asks if “the pig within the womb of a sow should not be unclean.”? 140 Likewise, in Bavli Bechorot, the sages asked what is the rule in a case where a pig follows a ewe and suckles from her? Is this the ewe's first offspring, born in the form of a pig, and so subject to the laws of the firstborn (forbidden for non-priests to eat) or is this a real piglet, born to a sow, but since its own mother

shekatizm and remasim,” “Like Aaron’s challahm” or “like [Aaron’s] terumah,” – [In all these cases, the vower is] permitted [to eat his fellow’s food].” .‫מותר‬-- ‫ כחלת אהרון וכתרומתו‬,‫ כרמשים‬,‫ כשקצים‬,‫ כטריפות‬,‫כנבילות‬, ‫ כעבודה זרה‬,‫ כבשר חזיר‬,‫ חולין שאוכל לך‬:‫אלו מותרין‬ Also see the discussion of B. Nedarim 14a. 139 M. Nedarim 2.1; T. Ketubot (ed. Liberman) 7.2; T. Nedarim (ed. Liberman) 7.2; Y. Nedarim 2:41, 37a; B. Nedarim 14a. B. Gitin 84b-85a states: “According to Abaye, the “general rule” of R. Yehudah comes [to include] a condition that she eat pig meat,” what is [the law; i.e. is the condition binding?] Abaye responds: This is identical [to the case of R. Yehudah ben Teima, and the condition is void.] Rava responded: It is possible [for her] to eat pig [meat] and be lashed [as a punishment. Therefore, the condition is binding.] According to Abaye, the “general rule” [of R. Yehudah coms] to include [a condition that she eat] pig meat [as non-binding]. According to Rava, [R. Yehudah’s statement void of stipulations,] “such as this” [comes] to exclude [a condition that she eat] pig meat.” - ‫ כלל‬,‫ לאביי‬.‫ אפשר דאכלה ולקיא‬:‫ היא היא; רבא אמר‬:‫ מהו? אמר אביי‬,‫ הרי זה גיטיך ע"מ שתאכלי בשר חזיר‬:‫איבעיא להו‬ ‫ ואם‬,‫ הרי זה גט‬- ‫ נתקיים התנאי‬,‫ הרי זה גיטך ע"מ שתבעלי לפלוני‬:‫ מיתיבי‬.‫ למעוטי בשר חזיר‬- ‫ כזה‬,‫לאתויי בשר חזיר; לרבא‬ ,‫ אין חוששין שמא נבעלה להן; ואילו על מנת שתבעלי לאבא ולאב יך לא קתני‬- ‫ על מנת שלא תבעלי לאבא ולאביך‬,‫ אינו גט‬- ‫לאו‬ ‫ אלא‬,‫ נמי אפשר דמשחדא ביה בממונא‬- ‫ פלוני‬,‫ אפשר דאכלה ולקיא‬- ‫ בשלמא בשר חזיר‬:‫ לרבא קשיא! אמר לך רבא‬,‫לאביי ניחא‬ ‫ למעוטי‬- ‫ כזה‬,‫ לאתויי אבא ואביך‬- ‫ כלל‬,‫ לרבא‬.‫ אבא ואביך מי עבדי איסורא‬,‫אבא ואביך בדידה קיימא? נהי דאיהי עבדא איסורא‬ .‫ למעוטי פלוני‬- ‫ כזה‬,‫ לאתויי בשר חזיר‬- ‫בשר חזיר; לאביי כלל‬ 140 B. Ḥu in 70b. :‫ ר' יוסי הגלילי אומר‬.‫בהמה שמת עוברה בתוך מעיה והושיט הרועה את ידו ונגע בו בין בבהמה טמאה בין בבהמה טהורה טהור‬ ‫ קל וחומר אם הועילה אמו להתירו באכ ילה לא תועיל לו‬:‫ מאי טעמא? דתנא קמא אמר רב חסדא‬.‫בטמאה טמא ובטהורה טהור‬ ‫לטהוריה מידי נבלה אשכחן בהמה טהורה בהמה טמאה מנלן אמר קרא וכי ימות מן הבהמה זו בהמה טמאה אשר היא לכם לאכלה זו‬ ‫בהמה טהורה איתקש בהמה טמאה לבהמה טהורה מה בהמה טהורה עוברה טהור אף בהמה טמאה עוברה טהור ור' יוסי הגלילי מאי‬ ‫טעמא? אמר ר' יצחק דאמר קרא וכל הולך על כפיו בכל החיה ההולכת וגו' מהלכי כפים בחיה טמאתי לך אלא מעתה קלוט במעי‬ ‫פרה ליטמא דמהלכי כפים בחיה הוא מהלכי כפים במהלכי ארבע והאי מהלכי ארבע במהלכי שמנה הוא פרה במעי גמל לא תטמא‬ ‫דמהלכי שמנה במהלכי ארבע הוא הולך וכל הולך לרבות פרה במעי גמל קלוט במעי קלוטה ליטמא דמהלכי ארבע במהלכי ארבע‬ .‫ חזיר במעי חזירתא לא ליטמא דמהלכי שמנה במהלכי שמנה הוא‬:‫ מתקיף לה רב אחדבוי בר אמי‬.‫הוא להכי אהני ק"ו דרב חסדא‬ Also Y. Terumot 8:1, 45c. “Abba bar Rav Huna in the name of Rabbi Johanan: He who slaughters an animal and found in it a pig may eat it. Rabbi Jonah said, it is forbidden to eat, what is the reason? An animal “inside an animal you may eat.” (Lev. 11:3). You should not eat a bird inside an animal and not an abomination inside an animal.” Translation by Guggenheimer, The Jerusalem Talmud,, Zeraïm, 267. ‫ אסור באכילה מה טעמא בהמה‬:‫ רבי יונה אמר‬.‫ השוחט בהמה ומצא בה חזיר מותר באכילה‬:‫אבא בר רב הונא בשם רבי יוחנן‬ .‫בבהמה תאכלו ולא עוף בבהמה תאכלו ולא שקץ באכילה ולא סוף דבר פישפש אלא כל דבר שנפשו של אדם חתה ממנו‬

46

abandoned him he follows the ewe and has adopted her as his mother? 141 The emblematic status of the avoidance of pork makes it fit for discussing exceptional situations where consuming is permitted: Bavli, Ḥu in for example notes that even impure animals were permitted to the Israelites during the conquest of the promised land, “as it written: “And houses full of all good things […you will eat]” (Deut. 6:11) and Rabbi Yirmiyah bar Abba said in the name of Rav: [this refers to] bacon.” 142 Likewise Bavli Pesaḥim states an opinion that it is permitted to eat a kosher animal that was roasted together with a pig: Rabh said: “(Ritually) slaughtered fat meat, if roasted together with lean meat of carrion, must not be eaten, because one draws the juice of the other.” Levi, however, said “Even slaughtered lean meat roasted together with fat meat of carrion may be eaten, because it only draws the odor of the fat meat, and that does not interfere with it.” Levi acted in accordance with his decision in the house of the Exilarch, where a goat and “another thing” [a pig] were roasted together. 143

To the prohibitions concerning pig mentioned thus far, we should add a few other laws: The Tosefta forbids shearing pig hair on the Sabbath, noting that “there are those who make a distinction in the case of a pig between its snout and the rest of its body,”

141

144

B. eḥorot 24a. ‫ "עד‬:‫ ואסור באכילה‬,‫ פטורה מן הבכורה‬- ‫ ראה חזיר שכרוך אחר רחל‬:]‫ארבב"ח [אמר רבה בר בר חנה] אר"י [אמר רבי יהודה‬ ‫ אי‬,‫ כרבנן! ותו‬- ‫ ואסור באכילה‬,]‫ פטור מן הבכורה כמאן? כרשב"ג [כרבן שמעון בן גמליאל‬.)'‫יבא ויורה צדק לכם" (הושע י‬ ‫ אי‬,‫ מספקא ליה אי הלכה כרשב"ג אי כרבנן‬: ‫כרבנן מאי " עד יבא ויורה צדק לכם"? עד שיודע לך דבר מיבעי ליה ! וכי תימא‬ ‫ כל מקום ששנה רשב" ג‬:‫ מי מספקא ליה? והאמר רבה בר בר חנה אמר ר' יוחנן‬,‫מספקא ליה – אמאי פטורה מן הבכורה? ותו‬ ‫ אי‬:‫ מיהו מספקא ליה‬,‫ חוץ מערב וצידן וראיה אחרונה! לעולם פשיטא ליה הלכה כרבן שמעון בן גמליאל‬,‫במשנתינו הלכה כמותו‬ ‫ ולמילקי עליה משום אותו‬,‫ עד דאשמעינן חזיר – לישמעינן טלה‬,‫ אי הכי‬.‫סבר רבן שמעון בן גמליאל יולדת מרחמת או אינה מרחמת‬ , ‫ לא‬- ‫ דלא מינה‬,‫ דמינה‬- ‫ הוה אמינא אם תמצא לומר דסבר יולדת מרחמא‬,‫ דאי אשמעינן טלה‬,‫ואת בנו! חזיר איצטריכא ליה‬ .‫ (דמרחמת) ואפילו דלאו מינה נמי דאיכא למימר דלמא מרחמא‬,‫אשמעינן חזיר‬ 142 B. Ḥu in 17a. .‫ כתלי דחזירי‬:‫ ואמר ר' ירמיה בר אבא אמר רב‬,)'‫"ובתים מלאים כל טוב" (דברים ו‬ 143 B. Pesahim 76b. ‫ אפילו בשר שחוטה כחוש‬:‫ ולוי אמר‬.‫ מפטמי מהדדי‬- ‫ מאי טעמא‬.‫ אסור‬- ‫ בשר שחוטה שמן שצלאו עם בשר נבילה כחוש‬:‫אמר רב‬ ‫ בגדי‬:‫ עביד לוי עובדא בי ריש גלותא‬.‫ וריחא לאו מילתא היא‬,‫ ריחא בעלמא הוא‬- ‫ מאי טעמא‬.‫ מותר‬- ‫שצלאו עם בשר נבילה שמן‬ .‫ודבר אחר‬ 144 T. Sabbath (ed. Liberman) 8.1. “He who shears a domesticated beast, a wild beast, fowl, even a hide, so much as a double-sit’s measure - Lo, he is liable. There are those who make a distinction in the case of a pig between its snout and the rest of its body.” .‫הגוזז מן הבהמה מן החיה ומן העופות אפי' מן השלח מלוא הסיט כפול הרי זה חייב יש חולקין בחזיר בין חטרתו לשאר גופו‬ T. Sabbath 9.2 (ed. Liberman): “He who takes out two hairs of horse’s tail or a cow’s tail, lo, this one is liable, because he makes them into hunting nets. He who takes out two stiff bristles of a pig, lo, this one is liable. R. Shimon b. Elieazar says, “Even one.” There are those who make a distinction in the case of a pig between its snout and the rest of its body.” Translation by Neusner, Tosefta, Moed, 25, 30.

47

or that it is lawful on the Sabbath to take food out to feed an animal, “as much as a pig’s mouthful,” which is equal to one pit. 145 Likewise, the sages forbid eating cheese made by a non-Jew inter alia because he may add to it pig fat, 146 or salkundris salt because the non-Jew may add to it or coat its surface with pig fat. 147

The Sages’ Refusal to Explain the Avoidance of Pork The singling out of the avoidance of pork for the sages might seem problematic: from a pure halachic point of view, all food avoidances have the same status, and eating pork is one of the minor offenses, for which one only receives lashes. 148 Placing importance on the avoidance of pork might put other food avoidances in the shadows. Hence, the later midrash Numbers Rabbah notes that the avoidance of pork is a symbol of all other food avoidances: An analogous instance [of the singling out of one item from among a number]: “Eating swine’s flesh, and the detestable thing, and the mouse” (Is. 56:17). In what way is the prohibition of the swine stricter than that of other unclean beasts, or that of the mouse than that of other creeping things? Truly, not at all; but the swine was mentioned, and the

‫ אפי' אחד יש שחולקין בחזיר בין חטרתו לשאר גופו‬:'‫ ר' שמעון בן לעזר אומ‬.‫המוציא שני זפין מן הקשה שבחזיר הרי זה חייב‬ T. Sabbath (ed. Liberman) 8.31; Y. Sabbath 8:2, 11b; B. Sabbath 90b. 146 B. Avoda Zara 35b. .‫ מפני שמחליקין פניה בשומן חזיר‬:‫מלכיא משמיה דרב אדא בר אהבה אמר‬ 147 Y. Avoda Zara 2:9, 42a. ‫ עבדו של מומחה כמומחה ומלח סלוקנרית אית תניי תני שחורה אסורה ולבנה מותרת אית תניי תני לבנה‬:‫רבי יסא בשם רבי יוחנן‬ ‫ רבי‬.‫אסורה ושחורה מותרת מאן דמר שחורה אסורה שנותן לתוכה שרץ שחור ומאן דמר לבנה אסורה שנותן לתוכה שרץ לבן‬ ‫ שכן חד הוה לנא והיה נותן לתוכה שומן של‬:‫ אמר רבי חנניה‬.‫ זו וזו אסורה‬:‫חנניה בן גמליאל אמר משום רבי יהודה בן גמליאל‬ ‫חזיר הן סככות הן פרעות הן רפפות הן רעלות הן איסטגיות הן ספיות הן כוסות הן גומות היא מקום תחת הכוסות היא מקום הנחת‬ .‫חתיכות הן זיתי קלוסקא הן זיתים מגולגלין והשלוחין אסורין‬ B. Avoda Zara 39b. ‫ מלח‬:‫ תנו רבנן‬.‫ מלח שכל סלקונדרי רומי אוכלין אותה‬:‫ מאי מלח סלקונדרית? אמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל‬.‫ומלח סלקונדרית‬ ‫ שחורה מותרת; רבי יהודה בן גמליאל‬,‫ לבנה אסורה‬:‫ דברי רבי מאיר; רבי יהודה אומר‬,‫ לבנה מותרת‬,‫ שחורה אסורה‬- ‫סלקונדרית‬ ‫ קירבי דגים‬,‫ לדברי האומר לבנה אסורה‬:‫ אמר רבה בר בר חנה אמר רבי יוחנן‬.‫ זו וזו אסורה‬:‫משום רבי חנינא בן גמליאל אומר‬ ‫ זה‬,‫ קירבי דגים שחורים טמאים מעורבין בה; לדברי האומר זו וזו אסורה‬,‫לבנים טמאים מעורבין בה; לדברי האומר שחורה אסורה‬ .‫ שהיה מחליק פניה בשומן חזיר‬,‫ זקן אחד היה בשכונתנו‬:‫ אמר רבי אבהו משום רבי חנינא בן גמליאל‬.‫וזה מעורבין בה‬ 148 B. Gitin 84b-85a. See also the comment of Yehuda Halevi in the eleventh century in The Kuzari 3.49. 145

48

same applies to all other unclean cattle and unclean beasts; the mouse was specified and the same applies to all creeping things in the world. 149

Although it is hard to evaluate the scope of non-Jewish criticism of the Jewish avoidance of pork, it is clear that of all Jewish food avoidances, that of the pig received the greatest attention from non-Jews. While Greco-Roman opinions concerning the Jewish avoidance of pork diverged, ranging from strong hostility (as in the case of Roman authors such as Juvenal, Petronius, or Tacitus) to a positive opinion (for example: Plutarch or Julian the Apostate),150 Christian authors are strongly hostile to the avoidance of pork. 151 Thus, it seems that with the rise of Christianity, the avoidance of pork beca me increasingly problematic, for Christians as well as for Jews. Whether in their real or imagined encounters with Greeks and Romans, Jews had to answer the question, “Why do you not eat pork?” In Jewish Hellenistic literature Philo answers Emperor Caligula (38/39 CE), 152 Josephus Apion (1st cent. CE), 153 the elder Eleazar King Antiochus (2 and 4 Books of Maccabees, 2nd cent. BCE and 1st cent. CE). Interestingly, there are no parallel early rabbinic answers. In fact, the sages consciously refused to answer the question according to a famous Tana’itic midrash in Sifra, Qedoshim 9.13: “You shall keep my ordinances“ (Lev. 18:4): This refers to matters that are written in the Torah. But if they had not been written in the Torah, it would have been entirely logical to write them, for example, rules governing thievery, fornication, idolatry, blasphemy, murder, examples of rules that, had they not been written in the Torah, would have been logical to include them. Then there are those concerning which the impulse to do evil 149

NumR 12. Translation by Jusah J. Slotkin, Midrash Rabbah: Numbers (London; New York: Soncino, 1983), 462-463, with slight alteration. ‫ "אוכלי בשר החזיר והשקץ והעכבר" ( ישעיה סו) ומה איסור גדול יש להחזיר מן שאר בהמות טמאות ולעכבר משאר‬:‫ודכותה‬ .‫שרצים ? אלא חשב חזיר והוא הדין לכל הבהמות וחיות טמאות ומנה לעכבר וה"ה לכל השרצים שבעולם‬ 150 Feldman, Jew and Gentile, 167-170. Schäfer, Judeophobia, 66-81. 151 See for example: Novatian, On the Jewish Meats; Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.15.4; Augustine, Reply to Faustus the Manichaean, 16. 152 Philo, The Embassy to Gaius 363-364. 153 Josepus, Against Apion 2. 137.

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raises doubt, the nations of the world, idolaters, raise doubt, for instance, the prohibition against pork, wearing mixed species, the rite of removing the shoe in the case of the deceased childless brother’s widow, the purification-rite for the person afflicted with the skin ailment, the goat that is sent forth - cases in which the impulse to do evil raises doubt, the nations of world, idolaters, raise doubt. In this regard, Scriptures says, “I the Lord have made these ordinances, and you have no right to raise doubts concerning them.”154

The Sifra interprets here Leviticus 18:1-5: “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2: Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: I am the Lord your God. 3: You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not follow their statutes (‫)ובחקתיהם‬. 4: My ordinances (‫ )משפטי‬you shall observe and my statutes (‫ )חקתי‬you shall keep, following them: I am the Lord your God. 5: You shall keep my statutes (‫ )חקתי‬and my ordinances (‫ ;)משפטי‬by doing so one shall live: I am the Lord.”155

The Sifra distinguish between two types of commandments: ordinances (‫משפטים‬ mishpatim) which are universal and “natural”, and statutes (‫ חקים‬huqqim) which, like the commandment to avoid pork, are particular and apparently arbitrary. As David Novak notes regarding the latter, “precisely because they have neither universal nor historical reasons, because their sole authority is God’s mysterious will, they are able to function as active reminders that Israel is totally defined by the covenant, whereas God participates in the covenant but is not defined by it.” 156 Hence, the sages appear to accept at least i n some sense the critique of some non-Jews such as the Roman physician Galen who wrote that “it is his [Moses´] method in his books to write without offering proofs, saying, ‘God

154

Sifra, Qedoshim 9.13. Translation by Neusner, Sifra, vol. 3, 79, with slight alteration. ‫ הגזלות והעריות וע"א וקללת השם‬:‫ בדין היה לכתבן כגון‬,‫ אלה הדברים הכתובים בתורה שאלו לא נכתבו‬- "‫"את משפטי תעשו‬ ‫ ואלו שיצר הרע משיב עליהם ואומות העולם ע"א משיבין עליהם כגון אכילת חזיר‬,‫ושפיכת דמים שאלו לא נכתבו בדין היה לכתבן‬ ‫ולבישת כלאים וחליצה יבמה וטהרת המצורע שעיר המשתלח שיצר הרע משיב עליהן ואומות העולם ע"א משיבין עליהן תלמוד‬ .‫לומר אני ה' חקקתי' אין את רשאי להשיב עליהם‬ 155 Lev. 18: 1-5. ;‫וְָּאמַ ְּרתָ אֲ ֵלהֶם; אֲ נִי י ְּהוָה אֱֹלהֵיכֶם׃ כְּמַ עֲשֵ ה אֶ ֶרץ־ ִמצ ְַּרי ִם אֲשֶ ר י ְּשַ בְּתֶם־בָּה ֹלא ַתעֲשּו‬, ‫ַוי ְּדַ בֵר י ְּהוָה אֶל־מ ֹשֶ ה לֵאמ ֹר׃ דַ בֵר אֶל־ ְּבנֵי י ִשְּ ָראֵל‬ ;‫ ּו ְּבחֻׁקֹתֵיהֶם ֹלא תֵ לֵכּו׃ אֶ ת־מִשְּ ָפטַי ַתעֲשּו וְּאֶת־חֻׁקֹתַי תִשְּ מְּרּו ָל ֶלכֶת ָבהֶם‬,‫ּוכְּמַ עֲשֵ ה אֶ ֶרץ־ ְּכנַעַן אֲשֶ ר אֲ נִי מֵ בִיא אֶ תְּ כֶם שָ מָ ה ֹלא תַ עֲשּו‬ ‫ אֲשֶ ר יַעֲשֶ ה אֹתָ ם הָָאדָם ָוחַי ָבהֶם; אֲ נִי י ְּהוָה׃‬,‫אֲ נִי י ְּהוָה אֱֹלהֵיכֶם׃ ּושְּ מַ ְּרתֶם אֶ ת־חֻׁקֹתַי ְּואֶת־מִשְּ ָפטַי‬ 156 David Novak, The Election of Israel: The Idea of the Chosen People (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 251-52.

50

commanded, God spoke.” 157 In early rabbinical literature it is exactly the arbitrary nature of avoidance of pork that renders it a powerful symbol of separateness, chosenness, and holiness, which are concieved dialogically vis-à-vis God and non-Jews. This characteristic of the Jewish avoidance of pork might be better understood in light of Edmund Leach’s discussion of food avoidance. As Leach notes, “the edible part of the environment usually falls into three main categories:” 11. Edible substances that are recognized as food and consumed as part of the normal diet. 12. Edible substances that are recognized as possible food, but that are prohibited or else allowed to be eaten only under special (ritual) conditions. These are substances which are consciously tabooed. 13. Edible substances that by culture and language are not recognized as food at all. These substances are unconsciously tabooed.158

The Jewish avoidance of pork is of the second category, for as Leach notes, it “is a ritual matter and explicit. It says, in effect, “pork is a food, but Jews must not eat it.” 159 The sages are conscious of this dimension. They do not present avoidance of pork as natural, or give it rational explanations as some Greco-Roman (and later medieval) authors might. As Claudine Fabre-Vassas observes, following Mary Douglas, “if forbidden foods manifest the categories of a culture, they also necessarily demonstrate the indigenous distinctions between societies. They are only fully affirmed, and can only be understood, in the context of this confrontation.” 160 The sages admit the inter-cultural confrontation around the avoidance of pork, for which “the impulse to do evil raises

157

Richard Walzer, Galen on Jews and Christians (London: Oxford University Press, 1949), 11 (from an Arabic version of Galen’s ippocrates’ Anatom ). 158 Edmund Leach, “Anthropological Aspects of Languague: Animal Categories and Verbal Abuse.” New Directions in the Study of Language, ed. E. H. Lenneberg (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1964), 31 159 Ibid., 32. 160 Fabre-Vassas, The Singular Beast, 6. Also: Claudine Vassas, “Questions anthropologiques autour de l’interdit du porc dans le judaïsme et de son élection par le christianisme,” dans De la domestication au tabou : le cas des suidés dans le Proche-Orient ancien. Travaux de la Maison René-Ginouvès 1, éd. B. Lion et C. Michel (Paris: De Boccad, 2006), 229.

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doubt, the nations of the world and idolaters raise doubt,” or the Bavli put it: “Satan and the nations of the world.”161 This dialogical dimension, which as we have seen above, is at the heart of Leviticus 18:1-5, is also found in Leviticus 20:22-26: 22: You shall keep all my statutes (‫ חקים‬ḥu im), and all my laws (‫ משפטים‬mishpatim) and observe them, so that the land to which I bring you to settle in may not vomit you out. 23: You shall not follow the practices of the nation that I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them. 24: But I have said to you: You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God; I have separated you from the peoples. 25: You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; you shall not bring abomination on yourselves by animal or by bird or by anything with which the ground teems, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. 26: You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from the other peoples to be mine. 162

The interpretation in Sifra Qedoshim of this paragraph inscribes in it, inter alia, the avoidance of pork: “I am the Lord your God who has separated you from the peoples [‫( ”]העמים‬Lev. 20:24): “see how vast is the difference between you and the nations [‫“ !]אומות‬One of them fixes up his wife and hands her over to someone else [for sexual relations], a man fixes up himself and gives himself to someone else [for sexual relations].” “You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean beast and the unclean”: Scripture should say, “between a cow and an ass.” For has the matter at hand not already been spelled out? Why therefore does it say, “You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean beast and the unclean” (Lev. 20:25)? The sense is, between what is clean for you and what is unclean for you, specifically, between the one the greater part of the gullet of which has been cut and the one only half of which has been cut. And what is the difference between the greater part and half? A hair’s breadth. “…and between the unclean bird and the clean; you shall not make yourselves abominable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground teems, which I have set a part for you to hold unclean” (Lev. 20:25): that is, to subject such to a prohibition. “You shall be holy to me, 161

B.Yoma 67b: “such commandments to which Satan objects, and the nations of the world, object,” (“‫ ;)”ואומות העולם משיבים עליהן דברים שהשטן‬YalShim, Ahri mot 587: Satan, the impulse do evil and the nations of the world (“ ‫ ;)”דברים שהשטן ויצר הרע משיבין עליהם ואומות העולם‬Tan, Mishpatim 7 : “the impulse to do evil raises doubt, the nations of the world raise doubt,” ( “ ‫דברים שיצר הרע משיב עליהן ואו"ה משיבין עליהן‬ ‫)“תשובה‬. On the impulse to do evil (Yetzer Hara), see: Ishay Rosen-Zvi, “Yetzer Hara in Amoraic Literature: A Reevaluation,” Tarbiz 77 (2008): 1-38 (Hebrew). Ibid., Demonic Desires: Yetzer Hara and the Problem of Evil in Late Antiquity (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011). 162 Lev. 20:22-26. ‫אֲשֶ ר אֲ נִי מֵ בִיא אֶ תְּ כֶם שָ מָ ה לָשֶ בֶת בָּה׃ וְֹּלא תֵ ְּלכּו‬, ‫ָָארץ‬ ֶ ‫ ַועֲשִיתֶם אֹתָם; וְֹּלא־תָ קִיא אֶתְּ כֶם ה‬,‫ּושְּ מַ ְּרתֶם אֶ ת־כָל־חֻׁקֹתַי ְּואֶת־כָל־מִשְּ ָפטַי‬ ‫ וַאֲ נִי אֶתְּ נֶנָה ָלכֶם ל ֶָרשֶת‬,‫ִירשּו אֶת־ַאדְּ מָ תָם‬ ְּ ‫ אַ תֶם ת‬,‫וָָאקֻׁ ץ בָם וָא ֹמַ ר ָלכֶם‬, ‫אֲשֶ ר־אֲ נִי מְּשַ ֵל ַח מִ ְּפנֵיכֶם; כִי אֶ ת־כָל־אֵ לֶה ָעשּו‬, ‫ְּבחֻׁק ֹת הַּגֹוי‬ ‫ ּובֵין־הָעֹוף‬,‫ אֲשֶ ר־הִבְּדַ ְּלתִי אֶתְּ כֶם מִ ן־ ָה ַעמִים ְּו ִהבְּדַ לְּתֶ ם בֵין־ ַה ְּבהֵמָ ה ַהטְּה ָֹרה ַלטְּמֵ ָאה‬,‫ אֶ ֶרץ זָבַת ָחלָב ּודְּ בָש; אֲ נִי י ְּהוָה אֱֹלהֵיכֶם‬,‫א ֹתָ ּה‬ ‫ כִי‬,‫ אֲשֶ ר־ ִה ְּבדַ לְּתִ י ָלכֶם ְּלטַמֵ א׃ ִו ְּהי ִיתֶ ם לִי קְּ ד ֹשִים‬,‫ ּובְּכ ֹל אֲשֶ ר תִ ְּרמ ֹש הָאֲ דָ מָ ה‬,‫ַהטָמֵ א ַלטָה ֹר ; וְֹּלא־תְּשַ קְּ צּו אֶ ת־נַפְּשֹתֵיכֶם בַ ְּבהֵמָ ה ּובָעֹוף‬ ‫קָ דֹוש אֲ נִי י ְּהוָה; וַָאבְּדִל אֶ תְּ כֶם מִן־ ָה ַעמִים ִל ְּהיֹות לִי׃‬

52

for I the Lord am holy”: “Just as I am holy, so you be holy,” “Just as I am separate, so you be separate,” “…and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine” (Lev. 20:26): If you are separated from the nations, lo, you are for my Name, and if not, lo, you belong to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylonia, and his associates.” R. Eleazar b. Azariah says, “How do we know that someone should not say, ‘I do not want to wear mixed fibers, I don’t want to eat pork, I don’t want to have incestuous sexual relations. Rather: I do want [to wear mixed fibers, I do want to eat pork, I do want to have incestuous relations.] But what can I do? For my father in heaven has made a decree for me!’ So Scriptures says, ‘and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.’ (Lev. 20:26) So one will turn out to keep far from transgression and accept upon himself the rule of Heaven.” 163

As Gherhard Bodendorfer notes, “this explanation of the commandment is very significant as it makes the biblical text [Lev. 20:22-26] topical in a most drastic way. It is put down to the unconditional divine will and on the next level is connected to sanctification.” 164 An analogy is created between three distinctions: Jewish morality a nd non-Jews’ moral deviance (itself present as lack of separateness in sexual morality); Judaism’s distinction between pure and impure foods; and God’s separateness and Israel’s separateness. Some midrashim soften the idea of the arbitrariness of the divine commandment: God in his compassion, for each thing which He prohibited, He authorized another

163

Sifra, Qedoshim 10.11. Translation by Neusner, Sifra, vol. 3, 137, with slight alteration. ‫ באומות אדם מקשט את אשתו ומוסרה לאחר אדם‬,‫"אני ה' אלהיכם אשר הבדלתי אתכם מן העמים" ראו כמה ביניכם ולאומות‬ ,‫" צריך לומר בין פרה לחמור והלא כבר מפורשים הם‬,‫ (יט) " והבדלתם מן הבהמה הטהורה לטמאה‬.‫מקשט את עצמו ונמסר לאחר‬ ‫ בין שנשחט רובו של קנה בין שנשחט חציו‬,‫אם כן למה נאמר “ והבדלתם מן הבהמה הטהורה לטמאה” בין טהורה לך לטמאה לך‬ ‫ ולא תשקצו את נפשותיכם בבהמה ובעוף ובכל אשר תרמוש‬,‫ (כ) “ובין העוף הטמא לטהור‬.‫וכמה הוא בין רובו לחציו מלא שיער‬ ‫" כשם שאני קדוש כך אתם (קדושים) היו‬,'‫ (כא) " והייתם לי קדושים כי קדוש אני ה‬.‫האדמה הבדלתי אתכם” לטמא לאסור‬ ‫" אם מובדלים אתם מן העמים הרי אתם‬.‫ (כב) " ואבדיל אתכם מן העמים להיות לי‬.‫ כשם שאני פרוש כך אתם היו פרושים‬,‫קדושים‬ ‫ מנין שלא יאמר אדם אי איפשי ללבוש שעטנז‬:‫ ר' אלעזר בן עזריה אומר‬.‫לשמי ואם לאו הרי אתם של נבוכדנצר מלך בבל וחביריו‬ ‫ ואבדיל אתכם מן‬:‫ ת"ל‬.‫ אבל איפשי מה אעשה ואבי שבשמים גזר עלי כך‬,‫ אי איפשי לבוא על הערוה‬,‫אי אפשי לאכול בשר חזיר‬ “.‫ נמצא פורש מן העבירה ומקבל עליו מלכות שמים‬.‫העמים להיות לי‬ And also: YalShim, Qedoshim 626. 164 Gherhard Bodendorfer, “‫אני יהוה‬: God’s Self-Introdution Formula in Leviticus in Midrash Sifra,” in Book of Leviticus: Composition and Reception, ed. Rolf Rendtorff, Robert A. Kugler, and Bartel S. Smith (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 417.

53

similar thing; while God forbid pork, He permitted brains or the tongue of a fish called shibuta, which tastes similar to the pig (here Bavli Ḥulin 109b’s version): 165 Yalta said to Rav Nachman, [her husband:] “Now, [let us see,] whatever the Merciful One forbade us, He permitted us something corresponding. He forbade us blood, [but] permitted us liver, [He forbade relations with a niddah, [but permitted relations with a woman who has discharged] ‘blood of purity’; [He forbade eating the] cheilev of a domestic animal, [but permitted] cheilev of an undomesticated animal; [He forbade] pork, [but permitted] the brains of a shibuta. [He forbade] girusa, [but permitted] fish tongue; [He forbade relations with] a married woman, [but permitted relations with] a divorced [woman] while her husband is alive; [He forbade relations with] one’s brother’s wife, [but permitted] a yevamah; [He forbade relations] with a Cuthian, [but permitted] ‘the beautiful captive.’ I wish to eat meat in milk. Rav Nahman said to the cooks: Cook her the udder. 166

Yalta, the wife of Rav Nachman, the daughter of Resh Galuta, who was known for her wittiness and eruditeness, gives a list of permitted things which are substitute for a forbidden thing. As Eliezer Diamond notes, Yalta argues that the Torah “regulates pleasure but does not forbid it.” 167

Discussion For the sages, the prohibition of pork is a practical legal question that is more extensive than the simple prohibition of its consumption. May a Jew breed pigs? May a Jew feed pigs or trade them? And, if yes, under what conditions? The sages, however, do not only ask practical questions concerning the pig, but use its emblematic status to discuss exceptional or hypothetical situations: Can a Jew eat pork during war? Can he eat 165

For the identification of the Shibuta, see: Zohar Amar and Ari. Z. Zivotofsky, “Identification of the Shibuta Fish,” HaMa'ayan 45, no. 3 (2005): 41-46 (Hebrew). And: Ari Z. Zivotofsky and Zohar Amar. “Identifying the Ancient Shibuta Fish,” Environmental Biology of Fishes 75, no. 3 (2006): 361-363. In August 2005, the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post published that the fish indentified as the Shibuta had recently been smuggled from Iran to Israel for the purpose of breeding. Judy Siegel. “Kosher 'pork of the sea' makes aliya from Iran,” Jerusalem Post (Friday, August 19, 2005), 6. 166 B. Ḥu in 109b. Translation by Schottenstein Talmud. - ‫ חלב בהמה‬,‫ דם טוהר‬- ‫ נדה‬,‫ שרא לן כבדא‬- ‫ אסר לן דמא‬,‫ כל דאסר לן רחמנא שרא לן כוותיה‬,‫ מכדי‬:‫אמרה ליה ילתא לרב נחמן‬ .‫ יפת תאר‬- ‫ כותית‬,‫ יבמה‬- ‫ אשת אח‬,‫ גרושה בחיי בעלה‬- ‫ אשת איש‬,‫ לישנא דכוורא‬- ‫ גירותא‬,‫ מוחא דשיבוטא‬- ‫ חזיר‬,‫חלב חיה‬ . ‫ זויקו לה כחלי‬:‫בעינן למיכל בשרא בחלבא ! אמר להו רב נחמן לטבחי‬ 167 Eliezer Diamond, Holy Men and Hunger Artists: Fasting and Asceticism in Rabbinic Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 130.

54

meat that was cooked near pork? Is a pig in a uterus of a pure animal pure or impure? etc. If for some issues such as selling pigs, the sages seem to demonstrate some openness to the possibility of proximity between pigs and Jews, most of their discussion insists upon increasing the distance between Jews and the abominable animal, which became a strong boundary marker with non-Jews. This tendency is clearly observed in the sages’ ban on pig breeding which is linked to the ban on learning Greek wisdom: both learning the other’s wisdom and eating the other’s meat became a symbol of impurity. The inner classification anomaly of the pig (being pure and impure) came to stand for anomalous relations between Jews and non-Jews: the inner negative mixing of categories became exterior negative mixing of categories. In other words, the sages follow and enlarge the biblical tendency to link the inner legal distinction of classification between pure and impure animals to the distinction between Jews and non-Jews. This classificatory discrimination is repeated by legal speculations as well as by respect for the avoidance of pork itself. To distinguish and be distinguished became the leitmotiv of the religious system: one who discriminates between pure and impure animals, pure and impure foods, and pure and impure humans will be distinguished from the impure and will be holy. Not eating pork is an active way of affirming a categorical world order: it is a locus of repetition and at the same time of eternal distinction, a minor distinction but at the same time a very concrete one which embodied the larger distinction between God and the world, that of the process of Creation (heaven and earth, light and darkness, etc.), as well as of his chosen people and the nations. As Walter Houston notes, the discrimination between clean and unclean flesh is part of Jewish national and religious identity, for “it defines and protects equally their ‘vertical’ relationship to God

55

and their ‘horizontal’ difference from all other peoples.” 168 For the sages, avoidance of pork “vertically” marks their unique relations with God, while it “horizontally” marks their separateness from the rest of humanity. Jacob Milgrom, following Mary Douglas, 169 argues that the tripartite biblical animal classification between pure-sacrificed, pure-edible, and impure animals is parallel to the biblical classification of humanity priests, Israel and non-Jews, as well as the classification of space into: Sanctuary, Land of Israel, and Earth (fig. 4).170 If we refer to this basic unified-analogical conception of humanity, animality, and space, the pig is part of the outermost sphere.

168

Houston, Purity and Monotheism, 260. Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (New York: Praeger, 1966). Ibid. “Impurity of Land Animals,” Purity and Holiness. The Heritage of Leviticus, ed. M. J. M. Poorthuis and J. Schwartz, 24-45 (Leiden; Boston; Köln: Brill, 2000). 170 Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16 (New York: The Anchor Bible, 1991), 718-725. Ibid., Leviticus 1722, (New York: The Anchor Bible, 2000), 1718. Milgrom interprets the dietary laws as an “ethical system.” Jacob Milgrom. “The Biblical Diet Laws as an Ethical System,” Interpretation 17 (1963): 288-301 (reprinted in Studies in Cultic Theology and Terminology, 105-106. Leiden: Brill, 1983). For criticism of this idea, see: Houston, Purity and Monotheism), 76-78. 169

56

Fig. 4: The three parallel domains of classification according to Jacob Milgrom.

In light of this categorical order, perhaps it is not surprising that some non-Jews saw Judaism as misanthropic, for it introduced a strong distance between Israel and the rest of humanity,

171

especially with respect to customs such as the prohibition of pork

which create a real culinary difference and made eating together problematic. The Hellenistic tradition viewed misanthropy as the opposite of hospitality, a crucial element

171

As Jean Bottéro remarks, Judaism “volontairement constitué comme isolé et fermé. Il y avait là le germe d’une opposition, où d’Israël au reste des hommes ou du reste des hommes à Israël. Mais cet isolement, ce sentiment de l’altérité, comme disent les philosophes, se tenait toujours sur le seul plan de la culture.” Jean Bottéro, “L’homme et l’autre dans la pensée babylonienne et la pensée israélite,” in Hommes et bêtes, Entretien sur le racisme, ed. Léon Poliakov (Paris; La Haye: Mouton, 1975), 112. Although Jean Bottéro’s generalization is problematic, it is valuable at least with respect to the way many Jews and nonJews viewed Judaism.

57

of which was the sacrifice of an animal and partaking of its meat with the guest.

172

Hence,

the refusal of Jews (or some Jews) to eat non-Jewish food (especially meat), could be understood as implying that the Jews also do not invite foreigners to eat their food, and therefore that they are misanthropes.

173

For example, the Roman historian Tacitus writes

that “Jews are extremely loyal toward one another, and always ready to show compassion, but toward every other people they feel only hate and enmi ty.”

174

He especially targeted

Judaism’s separateness: They sit apart at meals, and they sleep apart, and although as a race, they are prone to lust; they abstain from intercourse with foreign women; yet among themselves nothing is unlawful. They adopted circumcision to distinguish themselves from other peoples by this difference. Those who are converted to their ways follow the same practice, and the earliest lesson they receive is to despise the gods, to disown their country, and to regard 175 their parents, children, and brothers as of little account.

Such accusations were repeated by the sophist Philostratus, in the early third century: (…) the Jews have long been in revolt not only against the Romans, but against humanity; and a race that has made its own a life apart and irreconcilable, that cannot share with the rest of mankind in the pleasures of the table nor join in their libations or prayers or sacrifices, are separated from ourselves by a greater gulf than divides us from Susa or Bactra or the more distant Indies. 176

172

From the Greek perspective, perhaps the pig was not the most valuable offering to a host, but it was probably the most common animal to sacrifice and eat with a guest. The refusal of the Jews to “partake” of the pig strongly contrasts with one of the emblematic scenes of hospitality in Greek culture - that of Odysseus’ swineherd, Eumaeus, who immolates pigs for his master who is disguised as a stranger (Odyssey 10.407-44; 14.80-109). In the Odyssey, this scene of sacrificing and partaking of the pig are the antipode of the pretenders’ swinish, misanthropic behavior: they eat without sacrificing, they insult the stranger (Odysseus), giving him the worst parts of the meat. 173 Katell Berthelot, Phi anthrôpia udaica e d bat autour de a “misanthropie” des ois jui es dans ’Antiquit (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 90. According to Berthelot, the accusation of misanthropy against the Jews is often linked to “une perception négative des lois alimentaires juives, qui découle de l’observation de leurs conséquences sur la convivialité entre Juifs et non-Juifs.” Ibid. 83. 174 Tacitus, Histories 5.5. 175 Tacitus, Histories 5.5. 176 Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana, 33. See: Berthelot, Philanthrôpia Judaica, 153-156. Simmilar accusation can be found in Rutilius Namatianus, A Voyage Home to Gaul, 382-398.

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While the sages were aware of this common accusation of misanthropy against the Jews by Greco-Roman authors, 177 they did not seek to deny Jewish separateness but rather to glorify it. Hence, in the face of the accusation that Jews do not marr y non-Jews, the sages insist on the prohibition of sexual relations with non-Jewish women, which came to stand for idolatry. Refusing sexual relations with non-Jewish women came to represent the moral superiority of the Jews, their control of their desires. As seen above, Sifra Qedoshim (10.11) contrasts the sexual deviance of the non-Jews with Jewish morality, emphasizing food avoidances. It also contrasts non-Jews´ sexual proximity with the Jewish keeping of purity laws. Hence, food purity serves as an a fortiori argument: while the Goyim do not maintain separateness concerning sex, the Jews even keep the separateness of food avoidances which are of minor importance. Another message here is that the Jews must distinguish between themselves and non-Jews as much as they distinguish between clean animals (which are analogous to Jews) and impure ones (which are analogous to non-Jews). As the Sifra states, Jewish social exclusion is parallel to that of God: “You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy, just as I am holy, so you be holy, j ust as I am separate, so you be separate.” (Lev. 20:26).” 178 Hence the Sifra placed the avoidance of pork and forbidden sexual relations together, one after the other, in the list of commandments concerning which “someone should not say, ‘I do not want to wear mixed fibers, I don’t want to eat pork, I don’t want to have incestuous sexual relations. Rather: I do want. But what can I do? For my father in heaven has made a decree for me!’ 179

177

See: Moshe David Herr, “Persecutions and Martyrdom in Hadrian’s Days,” Scripta Hierosolymitana 23 (1972): 85-125. Herr, Roman Rule in Tannaitic Literature, 33. 178 Ibid. 179 Ibid.

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The sages refuse to enter into dialogue regarding the sense of the avoidance of pork with non-Jews in the Greco-Roman manner. Their argument about the arbitrary nature of food avoidance is part of their declaration of uniqueness and hence holiness. This refusal to dialogue is highly dialogic for it inscribes the avoidance of pork in a deep tension with the customs of the other, and hence reinforces its power as a boundary marker. The vivacity of the boundary is not due to its being an impenetrable fixed obstacle, but rather a dynamic one, a mediatory zone, part of a field of tensions.

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Chapter 3 Boundary Keeping In chapter two, we observed the extent to which the sages´ analyzed the avoidance of pork in relation to non-Jews. Now we will observe how pork was used to maintain boundaries around Jewishness. We will focus on four liminal situations: persecutions, forbidden sex with non-Jews, apostasy, and proselytes.

Persecutions Contrary to the common modern impression that Jews throughout history have been persecuted by being forced to eat pork, the early rabbinic texts are almost silent concerning cases of this sort. The topic of persecution by Antiochus in the Books of Maccabees, in which pork plays an important role, and in which the king forces the Jews to sacrifice pigs and eat their flesh, are absent from early rabbinic literature. In the Mishnah, the Talmud, and the Midrashim, we do not hear of the sacrifice of the pig in the Temple, or of forcing the Jews to eat pork; we hear nothing about the martyrs who prefer death to eating the forbidden meat. Nor do we find in the rabbinic literature stories such as the one that Philo of Alexandria tells about forcing Jewish women to eat pork in the Alexandrian riots of 38 CE.180 Furthermore, although in the early rabbinical literature we do not find martyrdom stories about not eating pork, we do find stories about trickery or deception on the theme. One example is the story about Rabbi Meir who pretended to eat pork, expressing the tactic of deceit: They (…) engraved R. Meir's likeness on the gates of Rome and proclaimed that anyone seeing a person resembling it should bring him there. One day [some Romans] saw him and ran after him, so he ran away from them and entered a harlot's house. Others say he happened just then to see food cooked by heathens and he dipped in one finger and then 180

Philo, Flaccus 96.

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sucked the other. Others again say that Elijah the Prophet appeared to them as a harlot who embraced him. God forbid, said they, were this R. Meir, he would not have acted thus! [and they left him]. He then arose and ran away and came to Babylon. Some say it was because of that incident that he ran to Babylon; others say because of the incident about Beruria. 181

Rabbi Meir’s conduct is very different from that of Old Eleazar in 2 and 4 Maccabees, who refused to pretend to eat pork to save his life.182 It also differs from the actions of the mother and her seven sons, who refused even to touch pig’s meat. 183 While the martyrdom story of Eleazar came to glorify martyrdom as resistance, the story about Rabbi Meir prefers what Daniel Boyarin calls “the trickster option.” 184 Another rabbinic legend in the later midrash Numbers Rabbah tells about a Jewish innkeeper who

181

B. Avoda Zara 18b. ‫ רהט‬,‫ רהט אבתריה‬,‫ יומא חדא חזיוהי‬.‫ כל דחזי לפרצופא הדין לייתיה‬:‫ אמרי‬,‫אתו חקקו לדמותיה דר' מאיר אפיתחא דרומי‬ ,‫ אתא אליהו אדמי להו כזונה‬:‫ איכא דאמרי‬.‫ טמש בהא ומתק בהא‬,‫ בשולי עובדי כוכבים חזא‬:‫ איכא דאמרי‬.‫ על לבי זונות‬,‫מקמייהו‬ :‫ ואיכא דאמרי‬,‫ מהאי מעשה‬:‫ איכא דאמרי‬.‫ קם ערק אתא לבבל‬.‫ אי ר' מאיר הוה לא הוה עביד הכי‬,‫ חס ושלום‬:‫ אמרי‬,‫כרכתיה‬ .‫ממעשה דברוריא‬ Compare to Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7.12.1: “R. Meir was being sought by the [Roman] Government. He fled and passed by the store of some Romans. He found them sitting and eating from that species [swine’s flesh]. When they saw him they said, ‘Is it he or not? Since it may be he, let us call him over to us; if he comes and eats with us [it cannot be he].’ He dipped one finger in the swine’s blood and placed another finger in his mouth, dipping one finger and sucking the other. They said one to the other, ‘If he were R. Meir, he would not have done so.’ They let him go and he fled. The text was therefore applied to him, The excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom preseveth the life of him that hath it.” EcclR 7.12.1. Translation by A. Cohen, Midrash Rabbah, vol. VIII, Ruth and Ecclesiastes (London: Soncino Press, 1939), 194. ‫ הוא הוא‬:‫ חמון ית יה אמרין‬.‫ ואשכח יתהון יתיבין אכלון מן ההוא מינא‬.‫ וערק עבר על חנותא דארמיין‬.‫ר' מאיר הוה מתבעי למלכותא‬ ‫ ויהב אצבעותיה‬,‫ והוה צבע חדא אצבעותיה בדמה דחזיר‬.‫ אין אתי אכיל עמן‬:‫ אנן כרזין ליה‬,‫ אם הוא הוא‬:‫לית הוא הוא? אמרין‬ ‫ "ויתרון דעת‬:‫ וקרא עליה‬,‫ שבקוניה וערק‬.‫ דין לדין אילו הוה ר' מאיר לא הוה עביד כן‬:‫ אמרין‬.‫ טמש הא ומתק הא‬,‫אוחרי בפומיה‬ ."‫החכמה תחיה בעליה‬ Maimonides, in The Epistle on Martyrdom (wr. c. 1165) relates another version of the story: “It is common knowledge that in the course of a persecution during which Jewish sages were executed, Rabbi Meir was arrested. Some who knew him said: “You are Meir, aren’t you?” and he replied: “I am not.” Pointing to ham, they ordered: “Eat this if you are not Jewish.” He responded: “I shall readily eat it,” and he pretended he was eating, but did not in fact. In the view of this modest person who knows the true meaning of Torah, Rabbi Meir is undoubtedly a gentile, for so his responsum rules: He who acts openly as a gentile, although secretly he behave like is a Jew, is a gentile, since according to him worship of God is open, and he hides it, as Rabbi Meir did.” Translation by Abraham S. Halkin and David Hartman, Epistles of Maimonides: Crisis and Leadership (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1993), 20. 182 2 Macc. 6; 4 Macc. 1. 183 2 Macc. 7. 184 Daniel Boyarin, Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Meaning of Christianity and Judaism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999), 73.

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pretended to be a non-Jew. To non-Jews he served pork, but to the Jews, whom he recognized because they washed their hands before the meal, he served kosher meat: 185 ’And he [Balaam] took up his parable’ (Numbers 24:3). Halachah: if a man has eaten without previously washing his hands, does he incur a penalty? Our Rabbis have taught: Washing the hands before a meal is optional; after the meal it is obligatory. An incident is related that during the period of religious persecution a certain Israelite shopkeeper used to cook ritually clean meat as well as the flesh of swine and sell them, so that it might not be suspected that he was a Jew. His practice was that if anyone came into his shop [to eat] and did not wash his hands, he would know that he was an idolater and would place before him the flesh of swine, but if a man washed his hands and recited the blessing he would know that he was an Israelite and would give him clean meat to eat. Once a Jew came in to eat and did not wash his hands, so he thought that he was an idolater and placed swine’s flesh before him. The man ate and did not say the Grace after Meals. When he came to settle the account with him for the bread and the meat the shopkeeper said to him: ‘I have a claim on you for such-and-such a sum on account of the meat you have eaten, for each piece coasts ten manehs.’ Said the other: ‘Yesterday I got it for eight and today you want to take ten from me, do you?’ The shopkeeper answered him: ’The piece you have eaten is from the swine.’ When he told him this his hair stood on end, and he fell into a great fright and said to him under his breath: ’I am a Jew and you have given me swine’s flesh!’ Said the shopkeeper to him: ‘A plague on you! When I saw that you ate without washing your hands and without a blessing I thought you were an idolater!’ Hence the Sages have taught: The [neglect of the] water before the meal killed the soul. 186 T he eating of pork is the consequence of non-fulfillment of a minor

commandment: the washing of the hands before the meal. 187 This is parallel to the transgression of another minor commandment: the second washing of the hands that leads

185

B. Holin 106a; Yoma 83b; Y. Hala 2:1, 58c. NumR 10.21; Tan, Balak 24. NumR, Balak 20.21. Translation by Judah Slotki, Midrash Numbers Rabbah, vol. II (London and Bourmemouth: Soncino Press, 1939), 817-818. ,‫ רשות‬- ‫ נטילת ידים לפני המזון‬:‫ שנו רבותינו‬.‫ הלכה מי שאכל ולא נטל ידיו מה יהא? חייב‬:)3 ,‫ כד‬,‫"וישא משלו ויאמר" (במדבר‬ ‫ מעשה בשעת הגזירה בחנוני אחד מישראל שהיה מבשל בשר טהור ובשר חזיר ומוכר שלא ירגשו בו שהוא‬.‫ חובה‬- ‫לאחר המזון‬ ‫ כל מי שנכנס לחנות שלו ולא נטל ידיו יודע שהוא עובד כוכבים ונותן לפניו בשר חזיר וכל מי שנטל ידיו‬:‫יהודי וכן היה מנהגו‬ ‫ נכנס יהודי לאכול שם ולא נטל ידיו והיה סבור שהוא עובד כוכבים נתן‬,‫ פעם אחת‬.‫ומברך יודע שהוא ישראל ומאכילו בשר טהור‬ ‫ יש לי עליך כך וכך מן הבשר שהאכלת‬:‫ בא לעשות עמו חשבון על הפת ועל הבשר אמר לו‬.‫לפניו בשר חזיר אכל ולא בירך‬ ‫ "זו שאכלת של חזיר‬:‫ אמר לו‬."‫ "אתמול אכלתי אותה בח' והיום אתה רוצה ליטול ממני עשרה‬:‫ אמר לו‬.‫שחתיכה עולה עשרה מנה‬ ,‫ " תיפח רוחך‬:‫ אמר לו‬."‫ " יהודי אני ונתת לי בשר חזיר‬:‫ כיון שאמר לו כך עמדו שערותיו נבהל ונחפז אמר לו בצנעה‬."‫היא‬ ‫ האכילו בשר‬- ‫ מים ראשונים‬:‫ מיכן שנו חכמים‬."‫ הייתי סבור שאתה עובד כוכבים‬,‫שכשראיתי שאכלת בלא נטילת ידים ובלא ברכה‬ .‫ הרגו את הנפש‬- ‫ אחרונים‬,‫חזיר‬ 187 On hand purity see: Avrham Aderet, “Tumat Yadaim (Impurity of the Hands),” in From Destruction to Restoration: The Mode of Yavneh in Re-Establishment of the Jewish People (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1990), 210-231 (Hebrew). Chaim Milikowsky “Reflections on Hand-Washing, Hand-Purity and Holy Scripture in Rabbinic Literature,” in Purity and Holiness: The Heritage of Leviticus, ed. M. J. H. M. Poorthuis and J. Schwartz (Leiden; Boston; Köln: Brill, 2000), 149-162. 186

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to a murder. 188 After telling a story concerning a man who, because he did not wash his hands after the meal, killed his wife, the midrash resumes: For this reason the Holy One, blessed be He, exhorted Israel to be careful even in regard to a trifling precept; as it says, For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life (Deut. 32:47), which implies that even a precept which you consider to be vain and trifling contains the reward of like and length of days. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: ‘If you observe My commandments I shall cast down your enemies before you’; as

188

The two episodes detailed in Numbers Rabbah allude to Yerusalmi and Bavli, while Bavli Yoma 83b relates the story concerning the second washing of the hands. Y. Berakhot 8:2, 12a. “[washing both before and after the meal is compulsory in accordance with the following:] Said R. Jacob bar Idi, “On account of [neglect of] the first [washing before the meal], they came to eat swine’s meat. And on account of [neglect of] the second [washing after the meal], three persons were killed.” Translation by Tzvee Zahavy, Talmud Yerushalmi, Berakhot (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1989), 286. Y. Hala 2:1, 58c. .‫ על הראשונים נאכל בשר חזיר ועל השניים יצאת אשה מביתה ויש אומרים שנהרגו עליה שלש נפשות‬:‫אמר רבי יעקב בר אידי‬ B. Ḥu in 106a. - ‫ ראשונים‬:‫ אחרונים הוציאו את האשה מבעלה; כי אתא רבין אמר‬,‫ האכילו בשר חזיר‬- ‫ מים הראשונים‬:‫כי אתא רב דימי אמר‬ . ‫ אתא רבין – קטלה‬,‫ אפקה‬- ‫ אתא רב דימי‬:‫ וסימניך‬,‫ הרגו את הנפש; אמר רב נחמן בר יצחק‬- ‫ אחרונים‬,‫האכילו בשר נבלה‬ B. Yoma 83b. “Also, R. Meir and R. Judah and R. Jose were on a journey together. (R. Meir always paid close attention to people's names, whereas R. Judah and R. Jose paid no such attention to them). Once as they came to a certain place, they looked for a lodging, and as they were given it, they said to him [the innkeeper]: What is your name? — He replied: Kidor. Then he [R. Meir] said: There from it is evident that he is a wicked man, for it is said: For a generation [ki-dor] very forward are they. R. Judah and R. Jose entrusted their purses to him; R. Meir did not entrust his purse to him, but went and placed it on the grave of that man's father. Thereupon the man had a vision in his dream [saying]: Go, take the purse lying at the head of this man! In the morning he [the innkeeper] told them [the Rabbis] about it, saying: This is what appeared to me in my dream. They replied to him: There is no substance in the dream of the Sabbath night. R. Meir went, waited there all day, and then took the purse with him. In the morning they [the Rabbis] said to him, ‘Give us our purses’. He said: There never was such a thing! R. Meir then said to them: Why don't you pay attention to people's names? They said: Why have you not told this [before]. Sir He answered: consider this but a suspicion. I would not consider that a definite presumption! Thereupon they took him [the host] into a shop [and gave him wine to drink]. Then they saw lentils on his moustache. They went to his wife and gave her that as a sign, and thus obtained their purses and took them back. Whereupon he went and killed his wife. It is with regard to this that it was taught: [Failure to observe the custom of] the first water caused one to eat the meat of pig, [failure to use] the second water slew a person. At the end they, too, paid close attention to people's names. And when they called to a house whose [owner's] name was Balah, they would not enter, saying: He seems to be a wicked man, as it is written: Then said I of her that was [balah] worn out by adulteries.” ‫ כי מטו‬.‫ רבי מאיר הוה דייק בשמא רבי יהודה ורבי יוסי לא הוו דייקו בשמא‬,‫רבי מאיר ורבי יהודה ורבי יוסי הוו קא אזלי באורחא‬ ‫ "כי דור‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫ שמע מינה אדם רשע הוא‬:‫ אמר‬- .‫ כידור‬:‫ אמר להו‬- ?‫ מה שמך‬:‫ אמרו לו‬.‫ יהבו להו‬,‫לההוא דוכתא בעו אושפיזא‬ ‫ אזל אותביה בי קיבריה‬.‫ רבי יהודה ורבי יוסי אשלימו ליה כיסייהו רבי מאיר לא אשלים ליה כיסיה‬.)‫תהפכת המה" (דברים לב‬ ‫ חלמא‬:‫ הכי אתחזי לי בחלמאי! אמרי ליה‬:‫ למחר אמר להו‬.‫ תא שקיל כיסא דמנח ארישא דההוא גברא‬:‫דאבוה אתחזי ליה בחלמיה‬ ‫ לא היו דברים‬:‫ הב לן כיסן! אמר להו‬:‫ למחר אמרו לו‬.‫ ונטריה כולי יומא ואייתיה‬,‫ אזל רבי מאיר‬.‫דבי שמשי לית בהו ממשא‬ ,‫ אימר דאמרי אנא חששא‬:‫ אמאי לא אמרת לן מר? אמר להו‬:‫ אמאי לא דייקיתו בשמא? אמרו ליה‬:‫ אמר להו רבי מאיר‬.‫מעולם‬ ‫ אזל איהו‬.‫ ושקלוהו לכיסייהו ואייתו‬,‫ אזלו ויהבו סימנא לדביתהו‬,‫ חזו טלפחי אשפמיה‬,‫אחזוקי מי אמרי? משכוהו ועיילוהו לחנותא‬ ‫ כי מטו‬,‫ ולבסוף הוו דייקי בשמא‬.‫ מים אחרונים הרגו את הנפש‬,‫ מים ראשונים האכילו בשר חזיר‬:)‫ היינו (דתנן‬.‫וקטליה לאיתתיה‬ ‫ "אחרי‬:‫ "ואמר לבלה נאפים")יחזקאל כג) כמו‬:‫ דכתיב‬,‫ שמע מינה רשע הוא‬:‫ אמרי‬.‫ לא עיילו לגביה‬- ‫לההוא ביתא דשמיה בלה‬ .‫ זקנה בנאופים‬:‫ כלומר‬,)‫בלתי היתה לי עדנה" (בראשית יח‬

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it says, “Oh that My people would hearken unto Me a little…I would subdue their enemies.” (Ps. 81:14f). 189

The avoidance of pork is portrayed as a minor commandment that has a major importance: its keeping brings life; its transgression, death. Interestingly, the personal reward (long life) is paralleled here to the freedom of Israel from outside oppression. It is not the Jewish innkeeper who served pork who is criticized, but rather the Jew who does not wash his hands before eating. It seems than that the focus of the story is not Roman oppression, but rather the failure of some Jews to keep the law and thus cause the subjection of Israel to foreign rule. The message is that the real field of action for a Jew is not the fight against the foreign oppressor but that of fulfilling the Divine law.

Forbidden Sexual Relations with non-Jews In the Greco-Roman world eating and sex were associated (mainly negatively, but not exclusively so) with the pig. 190 Hence, for example women´s genitals were called pig in Greek and Latin. 191 Likewise, in rabbinic literature the term da ar aḥer (another thing) designated the pig as well as the female sex. Both eating and sex, as much as they are fundamental to human survival, are sources of anxiety and phobias, subject to strong prohibitions, and therefore particularly apt to serve as boundary markers between groups. It is not surprising than that we find the pig in the sages’ discussions of forbidden sexual relations with non-Jews. 189

NumR, Balak 20.21. ,(‫ מז‬,‫ “כי לא דבר רק הוא מכם כי הוא חייכם" (דברים לב‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫לכך הזהיר הקדוש ברוך הוא את ישראל אפלו במצוה קלה‬ ‫ אני‬,‫ אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא לישראל אם שמרתם מצוותי‬.‫ בה חיים ואריכות ימים‬,‫אפלו דבר מצוה שאתה רואה אותה רקה וקלה‬ .)‫ יד טו‬,‫" ( תהלים פא‬.‫ כמעט אויביהם אכניע‬,‫ "לו עמי שמע לי‬: ‫ שנאמר‬,‫מפיל שונאיכם לפניכם‬ 190 Michel Briand, “Grec κάπρος: du (porc) au sanglier,”dans Les Zoonymes : Actes du colloque international tenu à Nice les 23-25 Janvier 1997 (Nice: Publications de la Faculté des Lettres, Arts et Sciences humaines de Nice, 1997), 99-100. 191 Mark Golden, “Male Chauvinists and Pigs.” Echos du Monde Classique/Classical Views 32, no. 7 (1988): 1-12.

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The sages extended the earlier connection of impurity with non-Jews (goyim) to the idea that Goyim are intrinsically impure. One of the reasons for Goyim impurity is their diet, as bavli Shabbath 145b notes: “Why are idolaters impure (‫ ?)מזוהמים‬Because they eat abominable (‫ )שקצים‬and creeping things (‫)רמשים‬.”192 Indeed, as will be seen, the sages linked the eating of forbidden food on the one hand, and having forbidden sexual relations with non-Jews on the other, with states of impurity. As in the two stories concerning Rabbi Akiba’s master, Rabbi Joshua in Avot deRabbi Natan (version B): A story is told of Rabbi Joshua that he went to ransom a woman taken captive. And when he returned, he went (into the pool) and bathed. He said to this h is disciples: Comrades, what did you say about me? They said to him: Rabbi, what we said about you was: We have no one in Israel like you. What (laws of) uncleanness and cleanness are there current in Israel which did not come from your mouth. He said to them: And afterwards, what did you say about me? They said to him: We said: When you were among the unclean, uncircumcised Gentiles, you were like one who eats pork, and when you came back among (the people of) Israel, you said: I will go (to the pool) and bathe and become like them, clean. He said to them: I swear that you were exactly right. About you it is said: “And judge everyone with the scale weighted in his favour.” (m. Avot 1.6). 193

The mere being in a non-Jewish environment is compared to the state of impurity involving eating pork. The following episode of the midrash associates this state of impurity to the impurity of non-Jewish women: A story is told about a woman in Ashkelon [a non-Jewish city]. None the likes of Eve was more beautiful than she. Rabbi Joshua went to talk with her. When he reached her door, he removed his (outer) garment and phylacteries. When he entered, he locked the door behind him and when he came out, he went (into the pool) and bathed. He said to his disciples: Comrades, what did you say about me? They replied: Rabbi, what we said about you was: We have no one in Israel like you. What (laws of) uncleanness are there 192

B. Shabbath 145b. "‫ "מפני מה עובדי כוכבים מזוהמי' מפני שאוכלין שקצי' ורמשים‬As Christine Hayes notes, “the verifiably ancient desire to prohibit intermarriage and ultimately apostasy is the rationale for a rabbinic decree of Gentile impurity, not the other way around.” Christine Hayes, “Intermarriage and Impurity in Ancient Jewish Sources,” HTR 92, no. 1 (1999): 36. 193 ARN B 19. Translation by Anthony, J. Saldarini, The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan (Abot de Rabbi Nathan version B) (Leiden: Brill, 1975), 126-127. ‫ חברינו מה הייתם אומרים עלי? אמרו‬:‫מעשה ברבי יהושע שהלך לחזור את (הישיבה) [השבויה] וכשבא ירד וטבל אמ' לתלמידיו‬ ‫ ובסוף‬:‫ אמ' להם‬.‫ רבי מה היינו אומ' עליך ? אין לנו בישראל כמוך; איזו היא טמאה וטהרה הנהגת בישראל שלא מפיך היא יוצא‬:‫לו‬ ‫ היינו אומרין עליך כשהייתה (בזו) [בין] הגוים הטמאים ערלים הייתה כאוכל בשר חזיר‬:‫מה הייתם אומר' עלי? אמרו לו‬ ‫ עליכם‬,‫ כך וכך לא הטיתם ימין ושמאל‬:‫ אמ' להם‬.‫וכשנכנסתה וכשבאתה לבין ישראל אמרת ארד ואטבול ואהיה כמותם טהור‬ .‫ הוי דן את כל האדם לכף זכות‬:‫נאמר‬

66

in Israel which did not come from your mouth. He said to them: And afterwards, what did you say about me? They said to him: We said (You are removing your garment and phylacteries) so that nothing clean will enter into something unclean, or so that no one will recognize that you are a Jew. And when I entered and locked the door behind us, what did you say about me? They replied: We said that while the door is open, permission is given for one about to go out and for one about to enter to enter. You said: I will lock the door behind us until I have discussed all my business with her. And when I came out and went (into the pool) to bathe, what did you say about me? They replied: We said: Perhaps when she was talking with you, a drop of spittle sprayed from her mouth onto you and you said: I will go (to the pool) to bathe and I will be like them, clean. He said to them: In this you were exactly right. About you it is said; “And judge everyone with the scale weighted in his favour” (m. Avot 1.6). 194

The two stories seem to explain Rabbi Joshua ben Perahyah’s saying in Misnah Avot (1.6), “Appoint for yourself a teacher, acquire for yourself a fellow [haver], and judge everyone with the scale weighted in his favour.” 195 The irony of course is that “everyone” in the stories in Avot deRabbi Natan concerns only the sage and not the nonJew, who is portrayed as impure, and suspect of sexual corruption. For the sages, the gentile is like a zab (impure man due to abnormal seminal discharge), who defiles through spit, urine, and indirect contact. This explains the risk of impurity by the nonJewish woman’s spittle. Indirectly, between the two episodes, a parallel is created between eating forbidden food and having forbidden sexual relations, eating pork and eating saliva. To this anxiety of eating impure food in the context of intimacy with a non Jew we can add the discussion in Bavli Megilla 13a concerning Queen Esther’s diet in the Persian king palace:

194

ARN B 19. Translation by Saldarini, The Fathers, 126-127. ‫ והלך ר' יהושע לדבר עמה וכיון שהגיע אצל פתחה הגביה‬.‫מעשה באשה אחת שהיתה נאה באשקלון ולא היה במין חוה נאה ממנה‬ :‫ חברינו מה הייתם אומ' עלי? אמרו לו‬:‫ אמ' לתלמידיו‬.‫את כליו וחלץ את תפיליו וכשנכנס נעל הדלת בינו לבינה וכשיצא ירד וטבל‬ ‫ ובסוף מה‬:‫ אמ' להם‬.‫רבי מה היינו אומ' עליך? אין לנו בישראל כמוך; א י זו טומאה וטהרה הנהגת בישראל שלא מפיך היא יוצא‬ ‫ היינו אומ' עליך שלא יכנס דבר של‬:‫הייתם אומ' עלי כשהגבהתי את כלי? וכשחלצתי את תפלי מה הייתם אומרים עלי? אמרו לו‬ :‫ וכנשכנסתי ונעלתי את הדלת ביני לבינה מה הייתם אומ' עלי? אמרו לו‬.‫טהרה לתוך טמאה או שמא לא יכיר(ו)ך אדם שאת יהודי‬ ‫ ולנכנס – נכנס; אמרת(י) אנעול את הדלת ביני לבינה עד‬,‫ ליוצא – יוצא‬:‫היינו אומ' עליך שכל זמן שהדלת פתוחה הרשות נתונה‬ ‫ היינו אומ' עליך שמא ממשיחה עמך נתזה צנורה של‬:‫ וכשיצאתי וירדתי וטבלתי מה הייתם אומ' עלי? אמרו לו‬.‫שאדבר לה כל צרכי‬ ‫ הוי דן את כל‬:'‫ עליכם נאמ‬,‫ כך וכל לא הטיתם ימין ושמאל‬:‫ אמ' להם‬.‫רוק מפיה עליך ואמרת ארד ואטבול ואהיה כמותם טהור‬ .‫האדם לכך זכות‬ 195 M. Avot 1.6. ‫ וקנה לך חבר; והוי דן את כל האדם לכף זכות‬,‫ עשה לך רב‬,‫יהושוע בן פרחיה אומר‬

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[The girl pleased him [the king] and won his favor, and he quickly provided her with her cosmetic treatments and her portion of food, and with seven chosen maids from the king's palace,] and advanced her [and her maids to the best place in the harem].” (Esther 2:9) Rav says that he fed her Jewish food. And Samuel says that he fed here with pork chops. And Rabbi Yohanan says [that he fed her] seeds, as it was written: “So the guard continued to withdraw their royal rations [and the wine they were to drink,] and gave them seeds.” (Daniel 1:16). 196

Rav and Rabbi Yohanan think Esther did eat pure food, while according to Samuel, she failed to keep the kashrut laws in the King’s palace. 197 Queen Esther’s porcine diet is contrasted to the exemplary behavior of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, who refused to eat the royal rations of food in the Book of Daniel. 198 An even more virulent critique of mixed marriage is found in Genesis Rabbah 65.1; while commenting on Esau´s marriage with Hittite women, Esau is described as a pig (Genesis 26:34): And when Esau was forty years old, he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon [the Hittite, 35: and they were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah] (Gn. 26:34). It is written, “The swine out of the wood doth ravage it, [that which moveth in the field feedeth on it]” (Ps. 80: 14). R. Phinehas and R. Helkiah in R. Simon’s name said: Of all the prophets, only two, Moses and Asaph, exposed it: Asaph: “The boar [swine] out of the wood doth ravage it.” While Moses said: “And the swine, because he parteth the hoof” (Dt. 14:8). Why does he compare it [the Roman State] to a swine? For this reason: when the swine is lying down it puts out its hoofs, as if to say, ‘I am clean’; so does this wicked State rob and oppress, yet pretend to be executing justice. So for forty years Esau used to ensnare married women and violate them, yet when he attained forthy years he compared himself to his father, saying, ‘As

196

B. Megilla 13a. My translation. :‫ ורבי יוחנן אמר‬.‫ שהאכילה קדלי דחזירי‬:‫ ושמואל אמר‬.‫ שהאכילה מאכל יהודי‬:‫ ט) – אמר רב‬,‫" וישנה ואת נערותיה וגו'" (אסתר ב‬ (‫ טז‬,‫ ונותן להם זרעונים” (דניאל א‬...‫ “ויהי המלצר נושא את פת בגם‬:‫ וכן הוא אומר‬,‫זרעונים‬ See also: YalShim, Esther 1053. 197 For traditional views on the question, see: Sara Weinstein, “Aaron Arend, A Critical – Annotated Edition of Elef HaMagen,” Pathways Through Aggadah IV-V (2001-2002): 317-321 (Hebrew). 198 Daniel asks that they not be fed this food, but the palace master feared for the children’s health. Daniel proposed that the palace master make a test and feed the children only seeds for ten days to see if it affected their health. After eating seeds and drinking water for ten days “to these four young men God gave knowledge and skill in every aspect of literature and wisdom; Daniel also had insight into all visions and dreams.” (Dan 1:17). The abstention from non-Jewish foods, a topos almost absent from the Hebrew Bible, is repeated in a few Jewish texts of the Hellenistic period; see: David Moshe Freidenreich, Foreign Food: A Comparatively-Enriched Analysis of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Law (PhD Dissertation, New York: Columbia University, 2006), 58-95. Kraemer, Jewish Eating, 25-38. Nathan MacDonald, “Food and drink in Tobit and other ‘Diaspora novellas’,” in Studies in the Book of Tobit: A Multidisciplinary Approach (London and New York: T&T Clark, 2006), 165-178.

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my father was forty years old when he married, so I will marry at the age of forty.’ Hence it is written, “And when Esau was forty years old, he took to wife, etc.”199

While in this midrash, the context of the identification of Rome with Esau and the pig is commonly commented upon, the connection between Esau, the pig, and his marriage to foreign wives is ignored. The hypocrisy of the pig, which pretends to be pure while being impure, which in the midrash is related to the Roman Empire, also relates to Esau’s marriage. Clearly, the midrash made Esau a violator who pretends to be an honest man by marriage, but taking in consideration the negative view of the sages regarding Esau´s marriages with the Hittites wives, 200 which the Bible condemns (Gn. 26:35), it seems that the midrash hints that Esau is a pig inter alia due to his marriage with nonJewish women. The Amoraic midrash (5/6th cent.?)201 Pesikta de Rab Kahana (and Avot deRabbi Nathan, version A) relates three successive stories about Jewish men in captivity who refuse to have sexual relations with non-Jewish women, after a short paragraph about the inclination to evil (Yetzer hara) and the inclination to good (Yetzer haTov), the latter of which is compared to a ruler in a prison: When a man, his imagination heated, proceeds to commit an act of unchastity, all the parts of his body obey him. But when he sets out to fulfill a religious obligation, all the parts of his body protest from deep within him because the Inclination to evil in his innermost being is king over the two hundred and forty-eight parts that make up a man; the Inclination to good, however, may be likened to a king who is shut up in a prison, as is said “For out of prison he comes forth to rule” (Eccles. 4:14) that is, the Inclination to good [finally comes out in a man and ruled his conduct]. 202

199

GenR, Toledoth 64.1. Translation by H. Freedman, Midrash Rabbah, Genesis, vol. II (London and Bournemouth: Soncino Press, 1951), 580. 200 Aminoff, The Figure, 85-91. 201 On the dating of Pesikta de Rab Kahana, see: H. L. Strack and G. Stemberger, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash (Edinburgh: Clark, 1991), 295-297. 202 PRK, Annex 3. Translation by W. G. Braude and I. J. Kapstein, Pesikta deRab Kahana: R. Kahana's Compilation of Discourses for Sabbaths and Festal Days (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1975), 475.

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The sinner is ruled by the inclination to evil, but the just man is freed by the inclination to good and becomes a king. As will later be seen, the dialectic “to be ruled/to rule” is at the heart of the episodes that follow. The first story the midrash relates is about Joseph and Potiphar’s wife: Another comment: The words “For out of prison he came forth to rule” (Eccles. 4:14) apply to Joseph, of whom it is said “Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph” (Gen. 41:14). Of the righteous Joseph - concerning the time when Potiphar’s wife said to him, “Lie with me,” and he refused: “He refused, and said unto his master’s wife…’How can I do this great wickedness?’” (Gen. 39:8,9) - the following is told: When she threatened “I shall shut you up in prison,” he replied, “The Lord looseth prisoners” (Ps 146:7). When she threatened, “I shall put out your eyes,” he replied, “The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind” (Ps. 146:8). When she threatened, “I shall make a humpback out of you,” he replied, “The Lord raiseth up them that are bowed down (ibid.). When she threatened, “I will make you into a stranger - banish you,” he replied, “The Lord preserveth the strangers” (Ps. 146:9). 203

Although here food is not mentioned, in the medieval Midrash Tanḥuma Joseph’s refusal of Potiphar ’s wife is presented as a refusal to eat pork: 204 “Why will you not listen to me? She pleaded. “Since I am the wife of another man, no one will know that there is anything between us.” He replied: “Your virgins are forbidden to us, how much more so is the wife of a man,” as it is said: “Neither shall thou make marriages with them (Deut. 7:3).” That is why he would not listen to her. R. Judah the son of Nahman explained: This may be compared to an idolater who tells an Israelite: “I have some delicious food for you.” “What kind of food do you have?” he asks. “The meat of a pig,” he replies. Whereupon the Israelite retorts: “You fool! If the flesh of a pure animal that you kill is forbidden to us, how much more so is the flesh of a ‫ הולך לדבר מצוה כל איבריו מתענין לו מפני שיצר‬,‫ובזמן שאדם הוא מתחמם את עצמו והולך לדבר עבירה כל איבריו נשמעין לו‬ ‫ "כי מבית יצא‬:'‫ שנ‬,'‫הרע שבמעיו הוא מלך על רמ"ח איברי' שיש באדם ויצר הטוב אינו דומה אלא למי שהוא חבוש בבית האסורי‬ .‫ זה יצר הטוב‬,)‫ יד‬:‫למלוך" (קהלת ד‬ 203 PRK, Annex 3. ‫ אמרו על יוסף‬.)‫ יד‬,‫ " וישלח פרעה ויקרא אל יוסף" (בראשית מא‬:‫ דכתי' ביה‬,‫ זה יוסף‬- "‫ "כי מבית האסורי' יצא למלוך‬:‫ד"א‬ ‫ " וימאן ויאמר אל אשת אדוניו איך אעשה הרעה הגדולה‬:'‫ שנ‬,‫ שכבה עמי והוא מיאן‬:‫ בשעה שאמרה לו אשת פוטיפרע‬:‫הצדיק‬ ‫ אני אנקר‬:‫ אמ' לו‬.)‫ ז‬,‫ " י" י מתיר אסורי' " ( תהלים קמו‬:‫ אמר לה‬.'‫ אני אחבשך בבית האסורי‬:‫ אמרה לו‬,)‫ ט‬:‫הזאת" (בראשית לט‬ .)‫ " י" י זוקף כפופי' " ( תהלים קמ"ו‬:‫ אמ' לה‬.‫ אני אכופף את קומתך‬: ‫ א"ל‬.)‫ ח‬,‫ " י" י פוקח עורים" ( תהלים קמו‬:‫ אמי לה‬.‫את עיניך‬ .)‫ ט‬,‫ " י" י שומר את גרי' " ( תהלים קמ"ו‬:‫ אמ' לה‬.‫ אני אעשה אותך ארמי‬:‫א"ל‬ 204 In the a Hellenistic-Jewish version of the story Testimony of Joseph 6:1-5 one of the ways Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce Joseph is by serving him enchanted food. See: M. Braun, “Biblical Legend in Jewish-Hellenistic Literature with Special Reference to the Treatment of the Potiphar Story in the Testament of Joseph,” in History and Romance in Graeco- Oriental Literature (Oxford: Blackwell, 1938), 44-104. Devora Matza, “The Story of Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife,” in Studies in Jewish Narrative: Ma’aseh Sippur, ed. Avidov Lipsker and Rella Kushelevsky (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 2006), 249-50 (Hebrew). The connotation between forbidden food and sex with non-Jewish women is found also in Joseph and Aseneth, See: Gideon Bohak, Joseph and Aseneth and the Jewish Temple in Heliopolis (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1996), 55-58.

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pig.” Similarly, Joseph told her: “If your virgins are forbidden to us, how much more so another man’s wife.” 205

The second story the Pesikta de Rab Kahana relates concerns Rabbi Zadok in Roman captivity: And do not be astonished at Joseph. Witness R. Zadok who showed even greater restraint when he was taken as captive to Rome where a prominent noblewoman [matrona] purchased him [in the slave market] and sent a beautiful maidservant to tempt him to lie with her. When he saw the maidservant, he fixed his eyes upon the wall and sat silent and motionless all night. In the morning the maidservant went and complained to her mistress, saying, “I would rather die than be given to this man [and be rebuffed by him].” When the noblewoman asked R. Zadok: “Why did you not do with this woman what men generally seek to do?” he replied: “I am of a family from which High Priests are chosen, and I thought: Shall such as I lie with such as she and multiply bastards in Israel?” At once the noblewoman gave orders that R. Zadok be freed with great honor. 206

What is at stake in this story is the purity of noble blood. The story that follows concerning Rabbi Akiba‘s refusal to have sex with non-Jewish women takes a more extreme tone: And do not be astonished at R. Zadok. Witness R. Akiba who showed even greater restraint than he. When R. Akiba went to Rome, it was slanderously said of him before a certain general [that he enjoyed the company of loose women]. Thereupon the general sent two very beautiful women to him. These were bathed, anointed, and adorned like brides for their grooms. All night, they kept thrusting themselves at R. Akiba, one saying, “Turn to me,” and the other saying, “Turn to me.” Sitting between them, he spat in disgust at both. In the morning the women went off and complained to the general, saying to him, “We would rather die than be given to this man [and be rebuffed by him].” Whereupon the general asked R. Akiba: “Why did you not do with these women what men generally seek to do? Are they not beautiful? Are they not human beings like yourself? Did not He who 205

MidTan, Vayshev 8. Translation by Berman, Midrash Tanhuma-Yelammedenu, 240-241. ‫ ביותר שאת‬,‫ השתא הפנויות שלכם אסורות לנו‬:‫ אמר לה‬.‫ אין אדם יודע בנו‬,‫ למה אין אתה שומע לי? הלא אשת איש אני‬:‫אמרה לו‬ ‫ "משל לעכו"ם שאמר‬:‫ אמר רבי יהודה בר נחמן‬.‫ ואעפ"כ לא שמע אליה‬.)‫ ג‬,‫ "לא תתחתן בם" (דברים ז‬:‫אשת איש שנאמר‬ ‫ אפי' שחוטה שלכם בבהמה טהורה אסורה לנו‬,‫ "ריקה‬:‫ א"ל‬.‫ בשר חזיר‬:‫ מהו? א"ל‬:‫ א"ל‬,"‫ " יש לי מאכל יפה להאכילך‬:‫לישראל‬ ."‫ " אפי' פנויות שלכם אסורות לנו כ"ש אשת איש‬:‫ וכך אמר לה יוסף‬."‫וכ"ש [וכל שכן] בשר חזיר‬ The association of sex, forbidden food, and idolatry is also known from other midrashim. For the the me of food, sex, and idolatry in a Christian context, see: Stephen C. Barton, “Food Rules, Sex Rules and the Prohibition of Idolatry. What’s the Connection?,” in Idolatry: False Worship in the Bible, Early Judaism and Christianity (London; New York: T&T Clark, 2007), 141-162. Michael Satlow, Tasting the Dish: Rabbinic Rhetorics of Sexuality (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995). 206 PRK, Annex 3. ‫ כיון שראה אותה‬,‫ נטלתו מטרונית גדולה א' ושיגרה לו שפחה א' יפה‬,‫ שהרי ר' צדוק גדול ממנו כשנשבה לרומי‬,‫ואל תתמה על יוסף‬ ‫ שיווה לי המות‬:‫ אמ' לה‬,‫ לשחרית הלכה והקבילה פני גבירתה‬.)‫נתן עיניו בכותל והיה יושב ושותק כל ה' ( בשולי הגליון כל הלילה‬ ‫ ממשפחת כהנים‬:‫ מפני מה לא עשית עם אשה זו כדרך שעושין ב"א (בשולי הגליון בני אדם)? אמ' לה‬:‫ אמ' לו‬.‫מי שנתנני לאיש הזה‬ .‫ מיד פטרתו בכבוד גדול‬.]‫גדולי' אני ואמרתי שמא אבא עליה והרבתי ממזרי' ביש' [בישראל‬

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created you create them? R. Akiba replied: “What could I do? The odor of their bodies, as foul as the stench of carrion or of swine overcame me.” 207

Adiel Schremer, referring to the version of the story in Avot deRabbi Nathan, sees in it an inner humanistic critique. According to his interpretation, the Roman general’s reproach to Rabbi Akiba (“Are they not human beings like yourself? Did not He who created you create them?”) alludes to Rabbi Akiba’s statement in the Mishnah Avot (3.14) - “beloved is man, for he was created in the image [of God].” 208 This might be the case at some level, but as Sacha Stern notes, “this edifying story is clearly perspective and designed for emulation.” 209 Indeed, the Pesikta de Rab Kahana summarizes the three stories about Rabbi Akiba, ending with: Of men [such as Joseph, R. Zadok, R. Akiba], and their like, Scripture says, “Bless the Lord, ye messengers of His, ye mighty in strength, that fulfill His word.” (Ps. 103:20). 210

207

PRK, Annex 3. ,‫ ושגר לו ב' נשים יפות מאד‬,'‫ כי כשהלך ר"ע לרומי ניכלו קורצין לפני הגמון א‬,‫ שהרי ר' עקיב' גדול ממנו‬,‫ואל תתמה על ר' צדוק‬ ‫ והיה יושב‬,‫ חזור אצלי‬:‫ חזור אצלי וזאת אומרת‬:‫ זאת אומרת‬,‫רחצום וסכום וגם קשטום ככלות לחתני' והיו מתנפלות עליו כל הלילה‬ ‫ א"ל אותו הגמון‬.‫ שיווה לנו המות מי שנתננו לאיש הזה‬:‫ לשחרית הלכו והקבילו פני אותו הגמון ואמרו לו‬.‫ביניהן ומרקק להם‬ ‫ למה לא עשית עם הנשים הללו כדרך שב" א ( בשולי הגליון כתוב שבני אדם) עושין? לא יפות הן? לא בנות ב"א (בשולי‬:‫לר"ע‬ .‫הגליון בני אדם) הן כמותך? לא מי שברא אותך ברא אותו? א"ל ומה אעשה ודבר ריחן בא עלי כבשר נבלות ובשר חזיר‬ Compare to ARN A 16. “And do not be astonished at Rabbi Zadok, for lo, there was (the case of) Rabbi Akiba, greater than he. When he went to Rome, he was slandered before a certain hegemon. He sent two beautiful women to him. They were bathed and anointed and outfitted like brides. And all night they kept thrusting themselves at him, this one saying “Turn to me,” and that one saying “Turn to me.” But he sat there in disgust and would not turn to them. In the morning they went off and a complained to the hegemon and said to him: “We would rather die than be given to this man!” The hegemon sent for him and asked: “Now why didst thou not do with these women as men generally do with women? Are they not beautiful? Are they not human beings like thyself? Did not He who created thee create them?”“What could I do?” Rabbi Akiba answered: “I was overcome by their breath because of flesh of carrion, terefah, and creeping things they ate! [in Oxford manuscript: and Pig’ meat]” Translation by Goldin, The Fathers, 84. ‫ואל תתמה על רבי צדוק שהרי רבי עקיבא גדול ממנו כשהלך לרומי אוכילו קורצא אצל הגמון אחד ושגר לו שתי נשים יפות רחצום‬ ‫ והיו מתנפלות עליו כל הלילה זאת אומרת חזור אצלי וזאת אומרת חזור אצלי והיה יושב ביניהם‬.‫וסכום וקשטום ככלות לחתנים‬ ‫ שלח וקרא לו א" ל‬.‫ [לשחרית] הלכו להן והקבילו פני ההגמון ואמרו לו שוה לנו המות משתתננו לאיש הזה‬.‫ומרקק ולא פנה אליהן‬ ‫ לא יפות המה לא בנות אדם כמותך הן מי שברא אותך לא ברא‬.‫ומפני מה לא עשית עם הנשים הללו כדרך שבני אדם עושים לנשים‬ .]‫ אמר לו מה אעשה ריחן בא עלי מבשר נבלות וטרפות ושרצים [בכי"א מבשר נבילות וטריפות ומבשר חזיר‬.‫אותן‬ 208 Adiel Schremer, “Other Brothers,” Reshit 1 (2009): 183, note 39 (Hebrew). 209 Stern, Jewish Identity, 58, note 57. For the broader link of this story to Rabbi Akiba and the GrecoRoman world see David Stern, “The Captive Woman: Hellenization, Greco-Roman Erotic Narrative, and Rabbinic Literature,” Poetics Today 19, no. 1 (1998): 115. 210 PRK Annex 3. .)‫ כ‬:‫ "ברכו י" י מלאכיו גבורי כח עושי דברו וגו' " ( תהלים קג‬:'‫ועליהן ועל כיוצא בהן נא‬

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Rabbi Akiba’s answer to the Roman general: “What could I do (‫?”)ומה אעשה‬ recalls the Sifra’s rule that a man should not say that he do not want to eat pork, or incestuous relations, etc., but should say: “ ut what can I do (‫ ? )מה אעשה‬For my father in heaven has made a decree for me!” 211 Hence, what seems to be part of the humoristic tur n in Rabbi Akiba’s answer is that instead of answering with the obliged nature of God’s rule, he answers with a physical repulsion. In a sense, the story asks to glorify the notion that the subjection to God´s commandments should become second nature. Thus, if the Sifra argues that the Jews should not intellectualize the commandments but rather simply obey them, 212 the story concerning Rabbi Akiba argues that a Jew should interiorize and naturalize the commandments. The smell of the non-Jewish women is for Rabbi Akiba as repulsive as the “stench of carrion” or, in Avot deRabbi Nathan, that of “flesh of carrion, terefah (the flesh of a torn animal), and creeping things.” While Avot deRabbi Nathan explains this smell of the non-Jewish women as the result of what “they ate,” the Psikta states that their bodies had the smell “as of carrion or of swine.”213 Aside from these differences, in both versions, the non-Jewish women are repulsive as are their impure foods. As Sacha Stern notes, revulsion “goes well beyond the level of the mind: the entire body can be shaken with revulsion, typically with a nauseous tremor or with actual nausea. It must be stressed that nausea itself does not merely ‘represent’ or indicate mental revulsion, but is itself a bodily form of rejection and revulsion. The same may well apply to spitting: thus, R. 211

Sifra, Qedoshim 10.11. The story concerning Rabbi Akiba and the critique of the Roman General could be seen as echoing Sifra, Qedoshim 9.13, saying that to the commandments “concerning which the impulse to do evil [‫]יצר הרע‬ raises doubt, the nations of the world, idolaters, raise doubt, for instance, the prohibition against pork, wearing mixed species […]”. In this regard Scriptures says, “I the Lord have made these ordinances, and you have no right to raise doubts concerning them.” Sifra, Qedoshim 9.13. Translation by Neusner, Sifra, vol. 3, 79, with slight alteration. 213 PRK, Annex 3. 212

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Akiba spat in the presence of repulsive non-Jewish female captives. But the midrash also refers to other forms of bodily revulsion: when the Jew discovered that he had accidentally eaten pork, ‘his hair stood up - he was agitated and in a flurry.’ 214 Whatever its form, the whole person is mobilized in the experience of revulsion; it acquires thereby tremendous potency.” 215 As noted by P. Rozin et al., disgust “becomes the means by which culture can internalise rejection of an offensive object, behavior, or thought. (…) The process of socialization in any culture involves acquisition of many values. It is more efficient to have these values internalized than to have to ensure compliance by policing compliance with a rule or law. Disgust accomplishes much of this internalization of negative values. A good way to prevent traffic with something is to make it an elicitor of disgust.” 216 However, the repulsion one feels to the other’s forbidden diet might be merely a consequence of cultural difference, not necessarily a rejection of the other. 217 Visigothic law (7th cent. Spain), for example, recognized such physical repulsion when it

214

B. Holin 106a; Yoma 83b; Y. Hala 2:1, 58c; NumR 10.21; Tan, Balak 24. Stern, Jewish Identity, 61-62. 216 P. Rozin and J. Haidt, C. McCauley, and S. Imada, “Disgust: Preadaptation and the Cultural Evolution of a Food-Based Emotion.” in Food Preferences and taste, ed. H. MacBeth (Providence: Berghahn Books, 1997), 77. Or, as notes anthropologist David Le Breton, “Le dégoût est essentiellement une menace réelle ou symbolique pour le sentiment d’identité. Danger pour soi, pour l’entre-soi, il instaure les frontières symbolique qui permettent de se poser de manière cohérente à l’intérieur de l’ambig ité essentielle du monde. Inassimilable à soi, principe de destruction d’une identité personnelle ou collective toujours précaire, il est irréversible, altérite absolue, sans appel. C’est pourquoi le dégout est aussi un sentiment moral provoquant une répulsion envers un individu, un groupe ou une situation (...) Le dégout est une « réaction de défense », la mise à distance sans rémission d’un danger (Kolani, 1997, 27). Son paradoxe, s’il est partagé par les membres d’un même groupe, est de fonder le lien social sur une séparation radicale, de se rassembler contre l’abjection, et simultanément de se démarquer des autres qui en apprécient l’objet ou y prêtent moins d’attention. Il n’est pas anomalie au sein du système culturel, il s’inscrit dans un ordre global ou tout se tient plus ou moins, il n’est pas une fantaisie individuelle ou collec tive mais un principe culturel appliqué à un objet ou à une situation. Le dégoutant recouvre le hors-champ du pensable.” David Le Breton, La saveur du monde: une anthropologie des sens (Paris: Métailié, 2006), 389. 217 For the disgust pork evokes for many Jews and Muslims in contemporary Europe, see for exemple: Andrew Buckser, “Keeping Kosher: Eating and Social Identity among the Jews of Denmark,” Ethnology 38, no. 3 (1999): 191-209. Mohammed Hocine Benkheïra, “Tabou du porc et identité en Islam,” dans Histoire et identités alimentaires en Europe, dir. Martin Bruegel et Bruno Laurioux (Paris: Hachette, 2002), 37. 215

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exempted baptized Jews from eating pork because of the disgust it provoked in them.

218

However, the story about Rabbi Akiba does not seek to neutralize this “natural” disgust, but rather to mobilize it in order to reinforce the boundary between Jews and non-Jews. The disgust felt by Rabbi Akiba is not just a manifestation of “proto racism,” 219 but also a resistance to oppression. The refusal of the prisoner to have sex according to the will of his Roman jailor manifests his moral supremacy and moral freedom, in the spirit of the introduction to the three stories in which Rabbi Akiba’s episode ended: “the Inclination to good, (…) may be likened to a king who is shut up in a prison, as is said “For out of prison he comes forth to rule” (Eccles. 4:14).220 Hence, the resistance is transferred from the political (Rome-Israel) to the interior (the inclination to evil-the inclination to good), and finally the first is subjected to the last. To be free is to be subjected to Gods’ commandments; to rule means to refuse the rule of the inclination to evil, not that of foreign power. The difference between Israel and Rome parallel s the difference between the person who accepts the kingdom of God and the one who does not, as well as the difference between the inclination to do good and the inclination to do evil, 218

Oath of the baptized Jews to the Visigoth king Recceswinth (640-672 CE): “We shall truly hold and sincerely embrace all the usages of the holy Christian religion, in holidays, marriage, and food, as well as in all its observances, without any reservation of an opposition or of a device of falsity by which we should do again what we undertake to repudiate or execute only exiguously or insincerely what we promise to do. Concerning pork, we promise to observe this, that if we could not possibly take it according to custom, at least we shall take the food cooked with pork without loathing and horror [fastidio et orrore].” And likewise King Erwig (680-687 CE): “As for the foods, however, namely, the meat of pork alone, we decree out of a discerning rather than negligent piety, that if anyone of them should absolutely abhor the eating of pork and if perchance they should avoid it out of fastidious nature and not condemn it - be discriminating according to that perverse custom, and particularly if they are considered to be similar to the Christians in other actions and they are not wanting in their commitment to Christianity and in their wish to act in any way in the Christian manner, such as those who are found to be faithful in all the other ways of life shall not be held punishable by the law’s sanction as mentioned above for this rejection of pork alone.”Amnon Linder, The Jews in the Legal Sources of the Early Middle Ages (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997), 280, 297. 219 For the term “proto racism,” see: Benjamin Isaac, The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2004). 220 PRK, Annex 3. Translation by Braude and Kapstein. Pesikta deRab Kahana, 475. .‫ זה יצר הטוב‬,)‫ יד‬:‫ "כי מבית יצא למלוך" (קהלת ד‬:'‫ שנ‬,'‫ויצר הטוב אינו דומה אלא למי שהוא חבוש בבית האסורי‬

75

and the difference between to rule and to be ruled – a series of oppositions linked to the difference between not eating pork (self-control) and eating pork (lack of self control).

Apostasy For the sages, eating pork is the transgression par excellence of food purity laws and of the law in general.221 Rabbi Akiba compares for example one who wanted to sin but did not to one who wanted to eat pork but ate lamb, and the one who wanted to sin and indeed sinned to the one who wanted to eat pork and indeed ate it: The woman who took a vow to be a Nazir – her husband annulled the vow for her, but she did not know that her husband had annulled the vow, she went around drinking wine and contracting corpse-uncleanness – lo, this one receives forty flogging. When R. Akiba would reach this matter, he would cry. Saying, “Now if someone who intended to take up in his hand pig-meat and took up in his hand lamb-meat who ate it has to effect atonement, he who intends to take up in his hand pig-meat and who actually does take up in his hand pig-meat – how much the more so that requires atonement and forgiveness!” 222

The woman did not know that her vow was annulled and hence she is like the one that sinned with intention. To this, the second case applies, as Rabbi Akiba says: the one that “intends to take up in his hand pig-meat and who actually does take up in his hand pig-meat.” In several places, the one who eats pork became a token for a transgressor of 221

A later legend in Midrash Hagadah (Buber) Exodus 20.7 tells of a couple who ate pork on Yom Kippur, the day of Atonement. ‫ ומעשה באדם אחד שנכנס לעיר בערב שבת ולא היה‬.‫" שלא תנהוג עצמך כאלו חסיד אתה ואין אתה חסיד‬.'‫"לא תשא את שם וגו‬ ‫ וראהו אותו‬,‫ וראה גר אחד יושב בבית הכנסת ומתעטף בציצית והיו תפילין קשורין בראשו‬,‫ והיה לו כיס מלאה פשוטים‬,‫מכיר אדם‬ ‫ אמר לו לא היו דברים‬,‫ לאחר השבת ביקש ממנו‬,‫ ופקד לו את כיסו‬,‫ לפי שראה מצות הללו‬,]‫האדם והיה סבור כאלו אדם גדול [הוא‬ ,‫ אלא שראיתי בו המצות הללו‬,‫מעולם התחיל להצטער ואמר רבון העולמים גלוי וידוע לפניך שלא מסרתי לו המעות שלי בפקדון‬ ‫ ואם אמרה לך בא יזה סימן אמור לה‬,‫בלילה בא אליהו הנביא אליו בחלום ואמר לו למחר לך אצל אשתו ותאמר לה תן לי כיסי‬ , ‫ למחר השכים זה האיש לפני אשתו של גזלן‬,‫ ובליל יום הכיפורים בשר חזיר‬,‫בסימן שאכלה היא ובעלה בליל ראשון של פסח חמץ‬ ‫ וכך וכך‬,‫ אמרה לו בא בעל הכיס ונטל את הכיס‬,‫ בא הגזלן אצל אשתו שאל לה את הכיס‬,‫ ונתנה לו הכיס‬,‫ומסר לה הסימנים הללו‬ :‫ וכן עונשן של עושי כך‬,‫ אמר לה אחר שנתפרסם הדבר נחזור למעשינו הרעים‬,‫מסר לי סימנים‬ 222 T. Nazir (Liberman) 3.14. ‫האשה שנדרה בנזיר היפר לה בעלה והיא לא ידעה שהיפר לה בעלה היתה שותה יין ומיטמאה למתים הרי זו סופגת את הארבעים‬ ‫ אם מי שנתכוון לעלות בידו בשר חזיר ועלה בידו בשר טלה ואכלו צריך כפרה‬:'‫וכשהיה ר' עקיבא מגיע לדבר הזה היה בוכה ואמ‬ .‫המתכוין לעלות בידו בשר חזיר ועלה בידו בשר חזיר על אחת כמה וכמה צריך כפרה וסליחה‬ And: Sifri Numbers 153; 154; Evel Rabbati 6.1; Y. Nazir 4:3, 53b; B. Nazir 23a; B. Kidushin 71b; YalShim, Vayikra 479.

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the law. Mishnah, Shevi'it 8.10 states that the one who eats from the bread of Samaritans (Kutim) is like one who eats pork:223 If one has smeared a hide with oil of Sabbatical Year produce, R. Eliezer says, it must be burned; but the Sages say, He must consume of equal value. They stated before R. Akiba that R. Eliezer used to say, if one smeared a hide with oil of Sabbatical Year produce it must be burnt. He replied to them, ‘Be silent! I will not state to you what R. Eliezer says regarding this.’ And they stated further before him, ‘R. Eliezer used to say, He that eats of the bread of Samaritans is as one who eats the flesh of swine’. He replied to them, ‘Be silent! I will not state to you what R. Elizer says regarding this’. 224

Eliezer ben Hurcanus (1st-2nd century) was a student of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai, but contrary to his master, who was inclined towards the extremist line of Beith Samai, Rabbi Eliezer was more inclined toward the moderate school of Beith Hillel. Hence, Rabbi Eliezer’s opinion here goes hand in hand with the hard line view concerning separation between Jews and non-Jews.225 It seems that Rabbi Akiba rejected his master´s thought that Samaritan food is not forbidden. However, there is an inner problem in the mishnah’s text: what is the link between the first and second saying of Rabbi Eleazar: the one that deals with oil of the sabbatical year and the one that deals with Samaritan bread? A possible solution is that the second saying deals with the Sabbatical year. The Samaritans should respect the Sabbatical year but do not do so, and hence their fruits are forbidden. 226 If this is the case, Rabbi Eleazar states that the one who eats the Samaritans’ bread during the Sabbatical year is like the one that eats pork. 227

223

M. Sheviit 8.10. y. Sheviit 8: 48, 37d. YalShim, II Kings 234. Tan, Vayeshev 2. M. Sheviit 8:9-10. Translation by Blackman, Mishnayoth, vol. 1, 276-277. ‫ אומר היה רבי‬:‫ אמרו לפני רבי עקיבא‬.‫ יאכל כנגדו‬:‫ ידלק וחכמים אומרים‬:‫ רבי אליעזר אומר‬. ‫[ט] עור שסכו בשמן של שביעית‬ :‫ [י] ועוד אמרו לפניו‬:‫ שתוקו לא אומר לכם מה שרבי אליעזר אומר בו‬:‫ אמר להם‬.‫ עור שסכו בשמן של שביעית ידלק‬:‫אליעזר‬ :‫ שתוקו לא אומר לכם מה שרבי אליעזר אומר בו‬:‫ אמר להם‬.‫ האוכל פת כותים כאוכל בשר חזיר‬:‫אומר היה רבי אליעזר‬ 225 Neusner, Eliezer Ben Hyrcanus, 18-45. 226 Ze'ev Safrai, “The Exemption of the Territory of Caesarea from the Commandments Relating to the Land,” Sinai 96, no. 5-6 (1985): 223 (Hebrew). 227 The later Pirke deRabbi Eliezer, chapter 36, provides the historical context of the ban o n Samaritan bread, which is understood as ban on Samaritan meat: “What did Ezra and Zerubavel ben Shaltiel and Yehoshua ben Yohtzadak then do in response (to the Samaritan attack on building the Temple)? They 224

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The idea that one who transgresses the Sabbatical year is like one who eats pork is also found in an obscure story in Tosefta Ahilot:228 Testified Judah ben Jacob of Bet Guvrin and Jacob b. Isaac of Bet Gufnin concerning Qisri ]Caesarea[ that they possessed it from ancient times and declared it free without a vote. Said R. Hanin, “That year was the seventh year, and gentiles went to their circuses and left the market full of fruits, and Israelites came and swiped them, and when they came back, they said, ‘Come, let us go to sages, lest they permit them pigs also.’ 229

The story may be set during the patriarchate of Yehudah Ha-Nasi, called Rabbi, during the latter quarter of the 2 nd century CE, when he and his court released Caesarea from the condition of impurity decreed earlier upon the land of the Gentiles.230 The stor y

gathered all of Israel into the Courtyard of the Temple, and they brought 300 Kohanim and 300 shofars and 300 Torah scrolls and they were blowing the shofars and the Levites were chanting, and they excommunicated the Samaritans with the secret of the explicit name of God, with the script that is inscribed in the Tablets, and with the excommunication of the heavenly court and of the earthly court, that no person should ever eat the bread of Samaritans. As a result of this, it is said that whoever eats from the slaughtered meat of a Samaritan is as if he ate from the meat of a pig. And [they further decreed that] a person should not convert a Samaritan, and that they have no portion in the Resurrection of the Dead, as it is stated: “It is not for you, but for us [to build God's house] (Ezra 4:3) – you have no portion with us not in this world or in the next. And they sent this excommunication to all of Israel, and they heaped excommunication upon excommunication, and even Cyrus the King decreed upon them an eternal excommunication.” ‫מה עשה עזרא וזרובבל בן שאלתיאל ויהושע בן יהוצדק קבצו כל ישראל אל היכל ה’ והביאו שלש מאות כהנים ושלש מאות‬ ‫שופורות ושלש מאות ספרי תורות והיו תוקעים בהם והלויים משוררין ומזמרין ומנדין את הכותיים בסוד שם המפורש בכתב הנכתב‬ ‫על הלוחות ובחרם בית דין העליון ובחרם ב ית דין התחתון שלא יאכל אדם פת כותיים עד עולם מכאן אמרו כל האוכל בשר‬ ‫ שנ’ לא לכם ולנו לא בעה”ז‬,‫ ואל יתגייר אדם כותי ישראל ואין להם חלק בתחיית המתים‬, ‫משחיטת כותי כאילו אוכל בשר חזיר‬ …‫ והמלך כורש קבע עליהם חרם עולם‬,‫ ועוד הוסיפו עליהם חרם על חרם‬,‫ולא בעה”ב… ושלחו החרם אצל ישראל‬ And also: y. Shevhit 8:4, 37d. Tan Vayesev 2. YalShim, Kings 234. 228 The tractus intially deals with Ohalot: the uncleanness imparted to persons and objects by reason of their location within the tent of a corpse, which is to say, under the same roof as a corpse (Num. 19:14-19) 229 T. Ahilot 18. 15 (ed. Zukermandel, 617). Translation by Neusenr, The Tosefta, vol. VI, Tohorot , 132. ‫ אמר ר' חנן‬.‫העיד ר' יהודה בן יעקב מבית גוברין ויעקב ברבי יצחק מבית גופנין על קיסרי שהחזיקו בה מעולם והתירוה שלא במנין‬ ‫ בואו נלך אצל‬:‫ בחזירתן אמרו‬.‫אותה שנה שביעית היתה והלכו גויים לקרקסיאות שלהן והניחו שוק מלא פירות ובאו ישראל ובזזום‬ :‫חכמים שמא התירו להן חזירים‬ 230 For the story in the context of the history of the Jews in Caesarea, see: Irving M. Levey, “Caesarea and the Jews,” in The Joint Expedition to Caesarea Maritima, vol. I. Studies in the History of Caesarea Maritima, ed. Charles T. Fritsch, (Missoula, MN: Scholars Press for the American School of Oriental Research, 1975), 44. It is not clear based on what prooftext A. Büchler and Lee I. Levin date the episode to 61/62 CE, Sabbatical year. A. Büchler, “Der Patriarch R. Jehuda I. und die Griechisch-Römischen Städte Palästinas,” The Jewish Quarterly Review 13, no. 4 (1901): 688. English translation: A. Büchler,“The Patriarch R. Judah I and the Graeco Roman Cities of Palestine,” in Studies in Jewish history: the Adolph Büchler memorial volume, ed. Israel Brodie and Joseph Rabinowitz (London: Oxford University Press, 1956), 184-185. Lee I. Levine, Caesarea Under Roman Rule (Leiden: Brill, 1975), 30. Ze’ev Weiss’ interpretation that “the story of stealing the fruits in Caesarea, during the first century, where it is mentioned that the “pagans had gone and plundered it,” may indicate that the Jews did not attend games and spectacles at that time,” taking into cosideration that the legendary nature of the story is farfetched. Ze'ev Weiss, “The Jews and the Games in Roman Caesarea,” in Caesarea Maritima: A Retrospective After

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of R. Hanin (late 2nd cent.?)231 addressed how Caesarea came to be declared permitted i n a sabbatical year.232 Hence, the story puts in the mouth of the non-Jewish residents of Caesarea the rabbinical idea that one who does not respect the sabbatical year is like one who eats pork. 233 Eating pork was already associated by the Tannaitic period with apostasy, as Tosefta Horayot testifies when it enumerates it as one of the actions of apostasy: One who eats abomination – behold, this one is an apostate [‫]משומד‬. [This also applies to] the one who ate carrion and/or terefah, abominations or creeping things; the one who eats pork or drinks libation wine, the one who desecrates the Sabbath; the one who stretches his foreskin [in order to conceal his circumcision]. R. Yosi b. R. Yehudah says: “Also the one who wears garments of mixed species.” R. Simon b. Elazar says: “Also the one who does something [prohibited] that his impulse does not desire.” 234

Two Millennia, ed. Avner Raban, Kenneth G. Holum, and Jodi Magnes, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. no. 308: 108 (Leiden: Brill, 1996), 445. 231 Ze'ev Safrai, “The Exemption of the Territory of Caesarea from the Commandments Relating to the Land,” Sinai 96, no. 5-6 (1985): 219 (Hebrew). 232 R. Abbahu, who lived in Caesarea, relates how the non-Jews mocked the sabbatical year (LamR. 17). See: Weiss, “The Jews and the Games,” 446. 233 Ephrat Habas, “The Halachic Status of Caesarea as Reflected in the Talmudic Literature,” in Caesarea Maritima: A Retrospective After Two Millennia, ed. Avner Raban, Kenneth G Holum, and Jodi Magnes (Leiden: Brill, 1996), 462. 234 T. Horayot 1:5 (ed. Zukermandel, 474) ‫האוכל שקצים הרי זה משומד אכל נבילות וטריפות שקצים ורמשים האוכל בשר חזיר והשותה יין נסך והמחלל את השבת והמשוך‬ :‫ר' יוסי בר' יהודה אומ' אף הלבוש כלאים ר' שמעון בן אלעז' אומ' אף העושה דבר שאין היצר תאב לו‬ Rosen-Zvi, Demonic Desires, 30. See also Bavli Horayoth 11a. In the sixteenth century, Gdaliah ibn Yahia’s Sefer Shalshelet ha-Kabbalah told the story of an apostate who ate pork in front of his rabbi: “With the rabbi standing before him, he killed a pig, cut it up, cooked it and ate it. When he finished eating, he asked his teacher how many condemnable offenses he had committed, to which Rabbi Moses replied, “Four.” Abner said that he wished to dispute his teacher and claim that there were really five. The rabbi stared angrily at him and silenced him – for he still retained some fear of his teacher. Finally his teacher asked him who it was that had led him to his apostasy. [Abner] said that he had once heard it explained that all the commandments and everything in the world was contained within Parashat ha’a inu (the thirtysecond chapter of Deuteronomy), and that in order to disprove this idea, he became a different person (nehefakti le-ish aḥer). The rabbi answered, “I still say this is true. Ask whatever you want.” The man was very surprised and said to him, “OK. tell me if you can find my name written there.” The RaMBaN….immediately walked himself to a corner of the room and prayed, and into his mouth came Deuternomy 32: 26: “I said I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men.” – for the man who was Rabbi Abner is contained within the [combination of the] third letter of each [Hebrew] word. When the man heard this, he became sad, and asked his rabbi if there was a remedy for his affliction. The rabbi said, “You heard the words of the verse!” and went on his way. Immediately, and without uttering a word, the man boarded a ship. He went where the wind would take him, and nothing was ever heard of him again.” Gdaliah ibn Yahia, Sefer Shalshelet ha-Kabbalah (Chain of Tradition) (Venice, 1585. Reprint: Jerusalem: Otza’at HaDorot HaRishonim veKorotam, 1972), 56a. Translation by Mark Barry Ross, “Kabbalistic Tocinofobia: Américo Castro, Limpieza de Sangre, and the

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It seems that because eating pork is understood as apostasy, Bavli Sanhedrin 26b states that the pork eater is incompetent as a witnesses: R. Nahman said: those who eat of another thing [pork] 235 are incompetent as witnesses. Provided, however, that they accept it publicly, but not if they accept it in private. And even if publicly [accepted], the law is applicable only if, when it was possible for them to obtain it privately they yet degraded themselves by open acceptance. But where [private receipt] is impossible, it [public acceptance] is vitally necessary. 236

What is at stake here is not so much the eating of “another thing,” but if this was done in public. Eating pork was one of the laws of the Torah about which the Mishnah argues: “every law of the Torah, if a man is commanded: 'Transgress and suffer not death' he may transgress and not suffer death, excepting idolatry, incest [and adultery], and murder” (Sanhedrin 74a). This law, however, was limited: “When R. Dimi came, he said in R. Yohanan’s name: If there is a royal decree [forbidding the practice of Judaism], one must incur martyrdom rather than transgress even a minor precept. When Rabin came, he said in R. Yohanan’s name: Even without a royal decree it was only permitted in private; but in public one must be martyred even for a minor precept rather than violate it.” (B. Sanhedrin 74a). Therefore, while eating pork is a minor precept that one can transgress (at least in private) and not die, if it is a part of an idolatrous sacrifice or a form of persecution, one should die rather than transgress the law. If a person prefers to transgress the law in public he is a heretic.

Inner Meaning of Jewish Dietary Laws,” in Fear and its Representations in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, ed. Anne Scott and Cynthia Kosso (Turnhout: Brepols, 2002), 173-174. 235 Rashi thoght that “those who eat of another thing,” are those who received alms from the Goyim. :‫ מקבלי צדקה מן הנכרים דהוי חילול השם מחמת ממון והוה ליה כרשע דחמס‬- ‫אוכלי דבר אחר‬ 236 B. Sanhedrin 26b. ‫ ובפרהסיא נמי לא אמרן אלא דאפשר ליה‬.‫ לא‬- ‫ אבל בצינעה‬,‫ בפרהסיא‬- ‫ הני מילי‬.‫ אוכלי דבר אחר פסולין לעדות‬:‫אמר רב נחמן‬ .‫ חיותיה הוא‬- ‫ אבל לא אפשר ליה‬,‫ וקא מבזי נפשיה בפרהסיא‬,‫לאיתזוני בצינעה‬

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Epikorsiut and the Pig The word epikorus became in rabbinic literature a generic word to designate the heretic, while the word epikorsiut designated heresy. 237 Epicurus (d. 270 BCE) held a n ethical theory of eudemonistic hedonism, advocating tranquility, ataraxia, as the goal of life, or telos. This has two aspects: “First, it is identified as the absence of pain – where pain is understood to be not only physical pain but also the mental pains of anxiety, distress, or worry. Second, it is identified as pleasure or at least as a certain kind of pleasure.”238 Because hoggishness was seen as a pursuit of pleasure, it was maliciously associated with Epicureanism. 239 Clement of Alexandria writes for example: “Epicurus, in placing happiness in not being hungry, or thirsty, or cold, uttered that godlike word, saying impiously that he would thereby vie even with Father Jove; teaching, as it were, that the life of pigs devouring rubbish and not of rational philosophers, was supremely happy.” 240 The pig, after being associated with the Epicureans by their adversaries, was

237

Joseph Geiger, “To the History of the Term Apikoros,” Tarbiz 42 (1972-73): 499-500 (Hebrew). Saul Lieberman, “How Much Greek in Jewish Palestine?” in Biblical and Other Studies, ed. A. Altmann (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963), 130. Jenny R. Labendz, “’Know What to Answer the Epicurean’ - A Diachronic Study of the Apiqoros in Rabbinic Literature.” Hebrew Union College Annual 74 (2003): 175-214. Hans-Jürgen Becker, “Epikureer im Talmud Yerushalmi,” in The Talmud Yerushalmi and Graeco-Roman Culture, vol 1, ed. Peter Sch fer (T bingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1998), 379-421. 238 James Warren, Epicure and Democritean Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 3. 239 Timon, Fr. 51 Diels. Cicero, Against Piso 16.37. Plutarch, That Epicurus Actually Makes a Pleasant Life Impossible 7 (Moralia 1091C). Horace, Epistle 1.4.15-16; 2.2.72-75. See: Jacques Boulogne, P utarque dans e miroir d’Épicure. Ana se d’une critique s st matique de ’ picurisme (Villeneuve d’Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 2003), 141-143. A silver cup from Boscoreale, near Pompeii (c. 30 CE), represents skeletal figures belonging to various philosophical schools. On one side of the cup, a pair of philosophers is depicted: to the left is the Stoic Zeno; to the right is Epicurus. “The latter figure is not only intent on the meal in the pit at the centre of the picture (above which is written an Epicurean tag: ‘pleasure is the telos’), but he is also indentified as a hedonist by the presence of the pot-bellied pig jumping up to smell the cooking.” Warren, Epicure, 131. 240 Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies (Stromata) 2.21 (ANF). Likewise, Isidore of Seville (6th cent. CE): “The Epicureans are so called from a certain philosopher Epicurus, a lover of vanity, not of wisdom, whom the philosophers themselves named ‘the pig,’ wallowing in carnal filth, as it were, and asserting that bodily pleasure is the highest good.” Isidore of Seville, Etymology 8.6.15. The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, trans. Stephen A. Barney (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 179. For another

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associated by Christianity with the heretics (sometimes described as Epicureans).241 In Christianity, the identification of the heretic with the pig is mainly based on 2 Peter 2:22:“’The dog returns to its vomit’ and ‘The pig, once washed, wallows in mud.’” (wr. ca. 130 CE ?).242 The image of the pig returning to the mud after the bath is from a known saying attributed to Heraclitus. The two parallel proverbs summarizing a paragraph (2 Pe 2:1-22) deal with the “false prophets/teachers” (2:1), who are compared to dogs and pigs.243 Hoggishness is a movement towards the earthly, the bodily desires, toward animality. This downward movement is the opposite of the upward movement of salvation: the turning to Christ, from the body to the spirit, from the earth to heaven, from animality to the divine. Because conversion is understood (literally) as an act of turning in Christianity, the image of the heretic is as one who takes a negative turn: hence the simile of the pig returning to the mud. As great as is the salvation, so great is the fall. 244

patristic mention of Epicurus as a pig, see: M. Di Marco, “Riflessi della polemica antiepicurea nei Silli di Timone II: Epicuro, Il porco e l’insaziable ventre,” Elenchos 4 (1983): 60, note 3. 241 As Pierre Courcelle notes: “le porc et son bourbier, après avoir désigné Épicure et ses disciples, ont été considérés comme désignant les hérétiques.” Pierre Courcelle, “Le thème littéraire du bourbier dans la littérature latine,” Comptes rendus de ’Acad mie des Inscriptions et e es-Lettres (avril-juin 1973): 281. R. Jungkurtz, “Fathers, Heretics, and Epicureans,” The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 17 (1966): 310. 242 Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the the New Testament, The Anchor Bible Reference Library (New York et al.: Doubleday, 1997), 767. 243 The “false teachers” which “follow the polluting desires of the flesh” (2:10) are compared to “beasts without reason, creatures of instinct for capture and destruction” (10:12). They are doggish and hoggish, filthy and impure: “17. These men are springs without water, mists driven by storms; for them gloomy darkness is kept. 18. They mouth empty boasts; they entice with debauchery and desires of the flesh those who but recently fled from the company of those who live in error. 19. The y promise them freedom, but are themselves slaves of destruction. For people are slaves to that which masters them. 20. For if they, who fled the pollution of the world by acknowledging our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, again are entangled in evil company and are mastered by it, this last state is worse than the first. 21. Far better for them that they should never have acknowledged the way of righteousness, than acknowledging it, to turn away from the holy rule given them. 22. For them the proverb has proved true: “The dog returns to its vomit” and “The pig, once washed, wallows in mud.” (2 Pe 2:17-22). See: Jerome H. Neyrey, 2 Peter, Jude: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. The Anchor Bible, vol. 37C (New York et al.: The Anchor Bible, 1993), 217. 244 For example, the Armenian Bishop Movsēs of Siwinik‘ (d. 731 CE) writes:“Wherefore, you, high priests and heads of the Church: Rejoice with ecstasy and shake with fear and much trembling, lest you who are elevated heads and knowledgeable about heaven should become like swine that crawl on earth and wallow in ashes, thinking only of the earthly.” Movsēs Bishop of Siwinik, “Hymn to St. Gregory the

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Hence, 2 Pe 2:22 was mainly understood to refer to heretics.245 Were also the minim, epikorsim, or mesumadim of rabbinic heresiology associated with the pig? Tosefta Avoda Zara contrasts the scholars of Torah, who are likened to a lawful sacrificial animal, with those who do not learn Torah, who are likened to impure animals such as the camel and the pig: R’ Shimon ben Yochai says: one does not say, “examine that camel that it might have a deformity” or examine that pig that it might have a deformity”; just pure [temimim] are checked ´(for deformities). And who is this? This is a Torah scholar who forsakes the Torah. Regarding him scripture says: “What is crooked cannot be made straight,” (Eccl. 1:15) and “The wicked borrow and do not repay” (Ps. 37:21). And Rabbi Yehuda says on him He says: “Like a bird wandering from its nest,[so is a man who wanders from his place.] (Proverbs 27:8). And: What wrong did you forefathers find in me,[that they distanced themselves from me.] (Jeremiah 2:5). 246

The pig is inherently impure, unfit for sacrifice, and hence one does not look to see whether it had defects as with pure animals which are fit to sacrifice. Similarly, only a person who was initially straight can be said to have become “crooked (‫)מעוות‬.” Hence, as a pure animal that has a defect, the Talmud scholar acts impurely. What is implicit is that by acting so, he is even worse than the camel and the pig, which in their natures are impure, for he is acting against his own nature. In a similar manner, chapter six of

Illuminator,” hymn 52 [Part II], In Abraham Terian, Patriotism and Piety in Armenian Christianity: The Early Panegyrics on Saint Gregory (New Rochelle, NY: Avant, 2005), 149. 245 “Le porc et son bourbier, après avoir désigné Épicure et ses disciples, ont été considérés comme désignant les hérétiques.” Courcelle, “Le thème littéraire,” 281. See Robert M. Grant, Early Christians and Animals (London and New York: Routledge, 1999), 6-7. Terrance Callan, “Comparison of Humans to Animals in 2 Peter 2,10-22,” Biblica 90 (2009): 101-113. For the Middle Ages see: Jacques Voisenet, Bestiaire chrétien. L'imaginaire animale des auteurs du Haut Moyen Age (Toulouse: Presses universitaire du Mirail, 1994), 219. See for example Hilary of Potiers, On Matthew 6.1. Hilaire de Poitiers, Sur Matthieu, vol 1, trans, Jean Doignon, SC 254 (Paris: Cerf, 1978), 170-171 246 T. Avoda Zara 1.8. ?‫ אין מבקרין אלא תמימים ואי זה‬.‫ בקרו חזיר זה שמא יש בו מום‬,‫ אין אומ' בקרו גמל זה שמא יש בו מום‬:'‫ר' שמעון בן יוחיי אומ‬ ‫ עליו הוא‬:'‫" ר' יהודה אומ‬.‫ "מעות לא יוכל לתקון" ואומ' "לוה רשע ולא ישלם‬:'‫זה זה תלמיד חכם שפרש מן התורה ועל זה נאמ‬ ."'‫אומ'? "כצפור נודדת מקינה" ואו' "מה מצאו אבותיכם בי עול וגו‬ And b. Hagigah 9B; EcclR 1.5.2. In both places, the midrash is told in the context of prohibited sexual relations with a married woman.

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Mishnah Avot (Pirke Avot), which is a later addition to the Mishnah, compares one who does not learn Torah to a pig: Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Every day a heavenly voice goes forth from Mount Horev [Mount Sinai] proclaiming and saying: ‘Woe to mankind for their disdain of the Torah!’ For he who does not occupy himself with the Torah is called “rebuked [nazuf ‫]נזוף‬,” as it is written: “As a golden ring in the snout of a swine, so is a fair woman without discretion. (Prov. 11:22)” And it says: “And the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tablets.” (Ex. 32:16) Read not “graven” (harut), but “freedom” (herut); for no man is free but he who occupies himself with the study of Torah, and he who devotes himself regularly to the study of Torah shall be exalted, as it is written: “And from Mattanah [=gift] to Nahaliel [=inheritance of God]; and from Nahaliel [=inheritance of God] to Bamoth [heights].” (Num 21:19). 247

The midrash reads the word “censured (‫ ”)נזוף‬as notrikon (acronym) of “As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout (‫)נזם זהב באף חזיר‬.” It seems also that being “rebuked ‫”נזוף‬ means here losing one´s freedom, as the animal that is controlled by its nose-ring. 248 This idea that the one who does not learn Torah is not a free man is followed by the idea of the second part of the midrash that only the one who learns Torah is free. While in the Mishnah the one who deviates from the study of Torah (= gold) is indirectly compared to a pig, 249 in Kala Rabati’s version of the same midrash he is fully a pig:

247

M. Avot 6.2. Translation by Pinhas Kehati, The mishnah, vol. 4, Seder Nezikin (Jerusalem: Eliner, 1987), 195. Also: Seder Eliyahu Zuttah 17.5 (ed. Friedmann (Ish-Shalom)). ‫ שכל מי‬,‫ אוי להם לבריות מעלבונה של תורה‬:‫ בכל יום ויום בת קול יוצאת מהר חורב ומכרזת ואומרת‬:‫אמר רבי יהושע בן לוי‬ ‫ והלוחות מעשה אלהים המה והמכתב‬:‫" ואומר‬.‫ "נזם זהב באף חזיר אשה יפה וסרת טעם‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫שאינו עוסק בתורה נקרא נזוף‬ ‫ שאין לך בן חורין אלא מי שעוסק בתלמוד תורה וכל מי שעוסק‬,‫ אל תקרא חרות אלא חירות‬.‫מכתב אלהים הוא חרות על הלוחות‬ :)‫ יט‬,‫ במדבר כא‬:( "‫ "וממתנה נחליאל ומנחליאל במות‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫בתורה תדיר הרי זה מתעלה‬ 248 The midrash seems to play with the proximity of the word “rebuked (‫ ”)נזוף‬to “nose-ring (‫)נזם‬. 249 We find a similar idea in midrash Tanḥuma : “If a man makes a vow involving human life, as it is said, “the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise” (Prov. 11). If a man is just, even though he is just and does not study the Torah, he has nothing. Rather, the fruit of the just is the tree of life, meaning that since he is a Torah scholar he learns how to deal with human life; as it is said, wise is he who deals with human life. If he knows how to deal with vows regarding human life he learned it from the Torah, and if he has no learning he has nothing. Thus it was with Jephthah the Gileadite, who because he was not a Torah scholar, lost his daughter when he was fighting Ammonites, in the hour when he made the vow: “…if thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house shall surely be the Lord’s and I will offer it up for a burnt offering” (Judges 11:30-31). In that hour the Lord was angry with him and he said, if a dog or a pig or a camel comes out of his house he would offer it up as a sacrifice to me? So he provided his daughter. Why? So that all who make vows will study the laws of pledge and oaths, and will not act mistakenly when they make vows.” Tan Behukotai 5. Translation by Shulamit Valler, “The Story of Jephtah’s Daughter in

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For whoever is not constant in the study of the Torah is termed “rebuked [nazuf ‫ ”;]נזוף‬as it is stated, “As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout”- gold refers to the Torah, for so it states, “And I put a ring upon thy nose,” (Prov. 11:22); and it also declares, “As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout” : this refers to one who studies the Torah at [irregular] intervals. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: “Of what [use] is this before swine, seeing that My Torah is beautiful and I have given it [to man] to meditate thereon, but he does not meditate on it until he forgets it.’ 250

This midrash is similar to Sifre’s note that, “At the time that Torah comes from his mouth he [the priest=Israel] is like an angel; when [it does] not, he is like a beast and an animal that knows not its creator.” 251 In these texts, animalization is not turned outward (toward non-Jews) but inward (to Jews); the pig is the one who is going astray from the world of Torah. In fact, the heretic par excellence in the Rabbinic tradition, Elisha ben Abuya, known as Aḥer (Other), was perhaps associated through this very nickname with the pig.

Elisha ben Abuya, Aḥer According to the Babylonian Talmud, it is a prostitute who named Elisha ben Abuya Aḥer (Another): “He went and found a prostitute and asked for her. She said to him: Are you not Elisha ben Abuya? When he tore a radish (or turnip) out of the ground

the Midrash,” in A Feminist Companion to Judges, ed. Athalya Brenner (Sheffield: Sheffield academic Press, 1999), 54-55. ‫ שמתוך שהוא בן תורה הוא‬,‫ זה התורה‬,)‫" זש"ה "פרי צדיק עץ חיים [ולוקח נפשות חכם]" (משלי יא ל‬.'‫ד"א "איש כי יפליא וגו‬ ‫ אימתי‬,‫ מפני שלא היה בן תורה איבד את בתו‬,‫" וכן אתה מוצא ביפתח הגלעדי‬, ‫ "לוקח נפשות חכם‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫לומד היאך לוקח נפשות‬ ‫ באותה שעה כעס עליו‬,)‫לא‬- ‫ ל‬,‫ והיה היוצא וגו'" (שופטים יא‬,'‫ "וידר יפתח נדר לה‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫בשעה שנלחם עם בני עמון ונדר‬ ",‫ " והנה בתו יוצאת לקראתו‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫ זימן לו הקב"ה בתו‬,‫ אילו יצא מביתו כלב או חזיר או גמל יקריב לפני‬:‫ אמר הקב"ה‬,‫הקב"ה‬ .‫כ"כ למה כדי שילמדו כל הנודרים הלכות נדרים וקונמות שלא לנהוג טעות בנדרים‬ 250 Kala Rabati 54b (ed. Higger). Translation by A. Cohen, The Minor Tractates of the Talmud: Massektoth Ketannoth, vol. II (London: Soncino Press, 1966), 502. ‫ "ואתן‬:‫ וכן הוא אומר‬,‫” זהב זו תורה‬. ‫ “נזם זהב באף חזיר אשה יפה וסרת טעם‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫ נזוף‬:‫שכל מי שאינו עוסק בתורה נקרא‬ ‫ שהרי תורתי יפה אני‬,‫ למה זו לפני חזיר‬:‫ אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא‬.‫" זה שקרא לפרקים‬,‫ "נזם זהב באף חזיר‬:‫" ואומר‬,‫נזם על אפך‬ ;‫ והוא אינו הוגה עד שמשכחה‬,‫נתתיה להגותה‬ 251 For a reading of the universalistic trends of this text, see: Marc Hirshman, “Rabbinic Universalism in the Second and Third Centuries.” HTR 93 (2000): 101-105.

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on the Shabbat and gave it to her, she said: ‘He is another [aḥer hu].’”252 The change within the Sage is so great, that even the prostitute is astonished. The otherness/strangeness became his name, his essence. The name Aḥer (another), recalls the expression for the pig in rabbinic literature: Davhar Aḥer (Another thing). Both bynames are used in order to avoid pronouncing the abominable min: word which designs heretic but also species and kind. The Yerushalmi (Hagiga 2.1) answer the question “Why did all this happen to him?” in three episodes. The first is as follows: Once Elisha was sitting and studying in the plain of Gennesaret, and he saw a man climb to the top of a palm tree, take a mother bird with her young, and descend safely. The following day he saw another man climbing to the top of the palm tree; he took the young birds but released the mother. When he descended a snake bit him and he died. Elisha thought, “It is written, ‘you shall let the mother go, but the youn g shall you take to yourself; that if may go well with you, and that you may live long (Deut. 22:6f). 253 Where is the welfare of this man, and where his length days? 254

The second episode explains Aḥer’s heresy by his reaction to the martyrdom of Rabbi Judah the Baker in the times of Hadrian’s persecutions: 255 (…) he saw the tongue of Rabbi Judah the Baker, dripping blood, in the mouth of a dog. He said, “This is the Torah, and this its reward! This is the tongue that was bringing forth the words of the Torah as befits them. This is the tongue that labored in the Torah all its

252

B. Hagigah 15a. Different explanations are given to Aḥer´s name in the Bavli Hagiga 15b: “Why was he called Aḥer ? [Because] Greek songs were always on his lips”. His hellenophilia is thus the origin of his name. See: Nurit Be’eri, Went Forth into Evil Courses: Elisha Ben Abuya – A’her (Tel-Aviv: Miskal –Yedioth Ahronoth Books and Chemed Books, 2007) (Hebrew). 253 ‘[If you chance to come upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young;] ‘you shall let the mother go, but the young shall you take to yourself; that if may go well with you, and that you may live long (Deut. 22:6f). 254 Y. Hagiga 2:1, 77b. Translation by Jacob Neusner, The Talmud of the Land of Israel, vol. 20, Hagiaga nad Moed Qatan (Chicago and London: The Univeristy of Chicago Press, 1982), 48-49. ‫וכל דא מן הן אתת ליה ? אלא פעם אחת היה יושב ושונה בבקעת גיניסר וראה אדם אחד עלה לראש הדקל ונטל אם על הבנים וירד‬ .)‫ ז‬,‫ למחר ראה אדם אחר כתיב "שלח תשלח את האם ואת הבנים תיקח לך למען ייטב לך והארכת ימים ” (דברים כב‬,‫משם בשלום‬ ? ‫איכן היא טובתו של זה ?איכן היא אריכות ימיו של זה‬ The Talmud suggests that his doubts will not let him to go astray if he kne w the explanation of Deuteronomy 22:6: “He did not know that R. Jacob had explained it before him: “That it may go well with you” in the World to Come which is wholly good, “And that you live long,” in the time which is wholly long.” Y. Hagiga 2:1, 77b. .‫ לעתיד שכולו ארוך‬- "‫ לעולם הבא שכולו טוב“ והארכת ימים‬- "‫למען ייטב לך‬: “‫ולא היה יודע שדרשה רבי עקיבא לפנים ממנו‬ 255 On the martyrdom of Rabbi Judah the Baker, see: Herr, “Persecutions and Martyrdom,” 114, note 103.

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days. This is the Torah, and this its reward! It seems as though there is no reward [for righteousness] and no resurrection of the dead.” 256

According to Bavli Hullin 142a, Elisah-Aḥer saw the tongue of R. Huzpit, the Interpreter, cast in a rubbish heap, 257 while according to Bavli Kiddushin 39b, he saw it dragged by a pig: Now what happened with Aḥer ? Some say, he saw something of this nature. Others say, he saw the tongue of Ḥutzpit the translator being dragged by davhar aḥer [another thing = a pig]. He said: “The mouth that uttered pearls now licks the dirt?” He went out and sinned. 258

The words of Elisha- Aḥer in front of the tongue dragged by the pig recall the words of Jesus in the sermon on the mountain:”Do not give what is holy to the dogs, or throw your pearls before the swines, so that they will not trample on them with their feet, and turn around and tear you apart.” (Mt. 7:6). In both cases, pearls stand for Torah (or Holy things). Matthew’s parable refers to a thing out of place; the “holy” and “pearls” represent something valuable, which contrasts with ignoble, impure animals such as dogs and pigs. The pig trampling the pearls refers to the pig’s destructive nature as well to the Greco-Roman idea that the pig reverses the “normal” hierarchy of values, it detests marjoram but delights in the mud. 259 In the Christian exegetical tradition, Matthew 7:6

256

Y. Hagiga 2:1, 77b. ‫ זו תורה וזו שכרה !?זהו הלשון שהיה מוציא‬:‫ אמר‬,‫ ע" י שראה לשונו של רבי יהודה הנחתום נתון בפי הכלב שותת דם‬:‫ויש אומרים‬ ! ‫דברי תורה כתקנן !? זה הוא הלשון שהיה יגיע בתורה כל ימיו !? זו תורה וזו שכרה !? דומה שאין מתן שכר ואין תחיית המתים‬ 257 B. Holin 142a. ‫ פה‬:‫ אמר‬,‫ דהוה מוטלת באשפה‬,‫ לישנא דרבי חוצפית המתורגמן חזא‬:‫ ואיכא דאמרי‬, ‫ כי האי מעשה חזא‬:‫מאי חזא? איכא דאמרי‬ ?‫שהפיק מרגליות ילחוך עפר‬ 258 B. Kidushin 39b. ‫ פה‬:‫ אמר‬,‫ לישנא דחוצפית המתורגמן חזא דהוה גריר ליה דבר אחר‬:‫ כי האי גוונא חזא; ואיכא דאמרי‬:‫ואחר מאי הוא? איכא דאמרי‬ .‫שהפיק מרגליות ילחך עפר? נפק חטא‬ Also Hagadot Hatalmud 56a (Kiddushin) = 135c/d (Ḥu in): “He saw the tongue of a great man being dragged by a pig.” 259 As for example Lucretius, in On the Nature of Things writes: “Pigs detest oil of marjoram and fear/ all kinds of ointments, for to the bristly pig/ What seems to us refreshing is rank poison./ But on the other hand, what is to us/ Most loathsome filth, why, pigs delight in it/ And love to roll their bodies in the mud.” Lucretius, On the Nature of the Things 6.973-978; Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe, trans. Ronald Melville (Oxford: Clarendon, 1997), 208.

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was often understood as referring to heretics.260 In the Talmud, the image of the pig tha t dirties the pearls with mud refers to a world turned upside down: a strong image of injustice. The third possible reason the Yerushalmi gives might be also related to the pig: “But some say that when his mother was pregnant with him, she passed by temples of Idolatry, and smelled from that kind (Veheriha meoto ha-min).261 And that odor pierced her body like the poison of a snake.” 262 Rather than thinking that what Elisha-Aḥer’s mother smelled was incense, it seems more probable that “that kind” refers to sacrificial meat, perhaps pork (as in the expression “another thing”). Whatever the case, this episode may become clearer by observing the case mentioned in Bavli Yoma 82a of a pregnant woman who during the fast of Yom Kippur smelled sacrificial meat or pork and wanted to eat it: The Rabbis taught in a Baraita: [If] A pregnant woman smelled sacrificial meat or pork [and craved it], we stick a pindle into the soup [in which the prohibited food was cooked] and place it on her mouth. If she feels relieved, fine; But if not, we feed her the soup itself. If she feels relieved, fine; But if not, we feed her the very fat [ of the prohibited food,] for there is nothing that stands in the way of saving a life, other than [the cardinal sins of] Idol worship, illicit relations, or murder. 263

In the continuation of the discussion, the Bavli relates the following two episodes:

260

The Alexandrian gnostic Basilides (c. 130-140 CE) goes far as to say in his gospel: “We (…) are the human beings, but all the others are pigs and dogs. And because of this he [sc. Jesus] said, ‘Do not throw the pearls before the pigs, nor give the holy to the dogs.” Epiphanius, Pan 24.5.2. Cited by Hans Dieter Betz, The Sermon on the Mount: A Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, including the Sermon on the Plain (Matthew 5:3-7:27 and Luke 6:20-49) (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1995), 498. 261 Jacob Neusner translates “smelled their particular kind of incenses.” Jacob Neusner, Hagigah and Moed Qatan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986), 49. 262 Y. Hagiga 2:1, 77b. ‫ אמו כשהייתה מעוברת בו הייתה עוברת על בתי עבודה זרה והריחה מאותו המין והיה אותו הריח מפעפע בגופה‬:‫ויש אומרים‬ .‫כאירסה של חכינה‬ 263 B. Yomah 82a. ‫ ואם‬,‫ מוטב‬- ‫ אם נתיישבה דעתה‬.‫ ומניחין לה על פיה‬,‫ תוחבין לה כוש ברוטב‬- ‫ עוברה שהריחה בשר קודש או בשר חזיר‬:‫תנו רבנן‬ ‫ שאין לך דבר שעומד בפני‬,‫ מאכילין אותה שומן עצמו‬- ‫ ואם לאו‬,‫ מוטב‬- ‫ ואם נתיישבה דעתה‬,‫ מאכילין אותה רוטב עצמה‬- ‫לאו‬ .‫פקוח נפש חוץ מעבודה זרה וגילוי עריות ושפיכות דמים‬

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There was a certain pregnant woman who smelled food [and craved it on Yom Kippur.] They came before Rebbi [and asked him what to do.] [Rebbi] said to them: whisper to her that it is Yom Kippur. They whispered [it] to her, and she accepted the whisper. [Rebbi] applied the [following] verse to [the fetus]: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you etc [before you left the womb I sanctified you]. (Jeremiah 1:5). From her issued R’ Yochanan. There was [another] pregnant woman who smelled food [and craved it on Yom Kippur]. They came before R’ Chanina [and asked him what to do.] He said to them: Whisper to her [that it is Yom Kippur.] [They whispered it to her,] but she did not accept the whisper; [R’ Chanina] applied the [following] verse to [the fetus]: The wicked are estranged, from the womb. [And indeed,] Shabasi, 264 the hoarder of produce, issued from her. 265

Two contradictory cases are exposed here: the pregnant woman who does not eat the forbidden meat and the one that does; the one that begot a just man and the one that begot a wicked man. It seems that the story of Elisa/Aḥer’s mother refers to the second case. Indeed, according to Ruth Rabbah and Ecclesiastes Rabbah, Aḥer’s mother did not just smell the forbidden meat but also ate it. 266 The forbidden meat of a pagan sacrifice is described as having a magical quality - as having the power to alter the nature of the fetus and hence influence the nature of the adult, as in the case of Elisha’s heresy. The apostasy of Elisha-Aḥer is indirectly associated with what might stand for the pig. Perhaps this hints at an equation: Elisha ben Abuya = Aḥer (Another) = Davar Aḥer (Another thing) = Min (Apostate) = pig. This porcine connection to Aḥer might also be associated with the supposed epicurean element of his heresy, mainly his negation of divine providence. This is perhaps the subject of a midrash in Bavli Berakhot 43b were heresy seems to be associated with the pig: 264

Shabsai was a well-known market manipuator who engineered price increases in produce by hoarding large supplies. He then took advantage of the poor by selling the produce at the inflated prices (see b. Baba Batra 90b). 265 B. Yoma 83a. Translation by Schottenstein Talmud. ‫ קרי עליה "בטרם‬.‫ לחושו לה ואילחישא‬.‫ זילו לחושו לה דיומא דכיפורי הוא‬:‫ אמר להו‬,‫ההיא עוברה דארחא אתו לקמיה דרבי‬ ‫ ולא‬,‫ לחושו לה‬:‫ אמר להו‬,‫ אתו לקמיה דרבי חנינא‬,‫ ההיא עוברה דארחא‬.‫ נפק מינה רבי יוחנן‬.(‫אצרך בבטן ידעתיך וגו'" ) ירמיהו א‬ .‫ נפק מיניה שבתאי אצר פירי‬,(‫ "זרו רשעים מרחם" ( תהלים נח‬:‫ קרי עליה‬.‫אילחישא‬ 266 RuthR 6. ‫ והיה מפעפע בכריסה כריסה‬,‫ והריחה ונתנו לה מאותה המין ואכלה‬,‫ על ידי שהיתה אמו מעוברת בו ועברה על בתי ע"ז‬:'‫ויש אומ‬ .‫של חכינא‬ EcclRab 7.1. ‫ויש אומרים על ידי שכשהיתה אמו מעוברת בו עברה על בתי עבודת כוכבים והריחה ונתנו לה מאותו המין ואכלה והיה מפעפע‬ .‫בכריסה כאריסה של חכינה‬

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R. Zutra b. Tobiah said in the name of Rab: Whence do we learn that a blessing should be said over sweet odors? Because it says, “Let every soul praise the lord.”(P s. 150:6) What is that which gives enjoyment to the soul and not to the body? – you must say this is a fragrant smell. Rabbi Zutra b. Tobiah further said in the name of Rab; The young men of Israel are destined to emit a sweet fragrance like Lebanon, as it says: “His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his fragrance as Lebanon.” (Hosea 14:6) R. Zutra b. Tobiah further said in the name of Rab: What is the meaning of the verse: He hath made everything beautiful in its time [He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.]? (Eccl. 3:11) It teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, made every man’s trade seem fine in his own eyes. R. Papa said: This agrees with the popular saying: Hang the heart of a palm tree on a pig, and it will do the usual things with it [take it to the dung heap]. 267

Why does the text, after praising the Torah learners, turn to Ecclesiastes 3:11 and finally to the proverb concerning the pig? It seems that the students of Torah are contrasted with those who, like the pig, take a good thing and make it filthy. Who are those persons? It is hard to know. But the continuation of Ecclesiastes 3:11 may propose that they are the ones that doubt God’s deeds, for: “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

Proselytes To cease eating pork was one of the markers of the process of conversion to Judaism, at least according to Juvenal’s Fourteenth satire (wr. c. 90 – 127 CE), which describe the children of god-fearers who convert to Judaism: 268

267

B. Berakoth 43b. Transltion by Hebrew-English Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Pesahim (London: The Soncino Press, 1967): 190. ‫ איזהו דבר שהנשמה‬,)‫ "כל הנשמה תהלל יה" ( תהלים קנ‬:‫ שנאמר‬- ‫ מנין שמברכין על הריח‬:‫אמר רב זוטרא בר טוביה אמר רב‬ ‫ עתידים בחורי ישראל שיתנו ריח טוב‬:‫ ואמר רב זוטרא בר טוביה אמר רב‬.‫ הוי אומר זה הריח‬- ?‫נהנית ממנו ואין הגוף נהנה ממנו‬ ‫ "את‬:‫ מאי דכתיב‬,‫ ואמר רב זוטרא בר טוביה אמר רב‬.)‫ " ילכו יונקותיו ויהי כזית הודו וריח לו כלבנון" (הושע יד‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫כלבנון‬ :‫ היינו דאמרי אינשי‬,‫ אמר רב פפא‬.‫ שכל אחד ואחד יפה לו הקדוש ברוך הוא אומנתו בפניו‬,‫הכל עשה יפה בעתו" (קהלת ג)? מלמד‬ ‫ והוא את שלו יעשה‬,‫ ואיהו דידיה עביד [ תלה לו קור (=הלב הרך והלבן של דקל הכרוב)] לחזיר‬- ‫תלה ליה קורא לדבר אחר‬ .]‫[= ינבור באשפה‬ And YalShim Ecclesiastes 968. ‫ היינו‬:‫ אמר רב פפא‬,‫ שכל אחד ייפה לו הקב"ה אומנותו בפניו‬:‫ אמר מר זוטרא בר טוביה אמר רב מלמד‬,"‫"את הכל עשה יפה בעתו‬ .‫ תלא ליה קורא לדבר אחר והוא דידיה עביד‬:‫דאמרי אינשי‬ 268 See: E. Courtney, A Commentary on the Sattires of Juvenal (London: Athlone, 1980), 561-562.

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Some who have had a father who reveres the Sabbath, worship nothing but the clouds, and the divinity of the heavens, and see no difference between eating swine’s flesh, from which their father abstained, and eating that of human beings; and in time they take to circumcision. Having been wont to flout the laws of Rome, they learn and practice and revere the Jewish law, and all that Moses handed down in his secret tome, forbidding to point out the way to any not worshipping the same rites, and conducting none but the circumcised to the desired fountain. For all of which the father was to blame, who gave up every seventh day to idleness, keeping it apart from all the concerns of life. 269

Juvenal distinguishes two stages of Jewishness: in the first stage the Sabbath is kept, and the “heavenly god” is worshiped and pork is avoided; in the second stage comes circumcision. Like Juvenal, the rabbis refer to avoidance of pork as a sign of conversion. Mekilta deRabbi Ishmael (4-5th century) states that one should not mention to the convert his past porcine diet: “And a Stranger Shalt Thou Not Vex, Neither Shalt Thou Oppress Him; for Ye Were Strangers in the Land of Egypt.” (Ex. 22:20). You shall not vex him – with words. Neither shall you oppress him – in money matters. You should not say unto him: But yesterday you were worshiping “Bel, bowing (kores ‫ )קורס‬Nebo,” (cf. Is 46:16) 270 and unti now swine’s f esh has sticking out from between your teeth, and now you dare to stand up and to speak against me!271 And how do we know that if you vex him he can also vex you? It is said: “And a stranger shalt thou not vex, neither shalt thou oppress him; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Ex. 22:20) In connection with this passage R. Nathan used to say: Do not reproach your fellow man with a fault which is also your own.272

269

Juvenal, Satire 14.96-106. Jacob Z. Lauterbach [Mekilta de Rabbi Ishmael, vol. 3 (Philadephia: The Jewish Publiciton Society of America, 1935), 137] and Jacob Neusner [The Mekhilta According to Rabbi Ishmael: An Analytical Translation, 2 vols. Vol. 2 (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1988), 210.] translate this phrase as refering to three gods: Bel, Kores, and Nebo. This seems a mistake for the phrase is a pharprase of Isaiah 46:1: “Bel has bowed down, Nebo stoops over; Their images are consigned to the beasts and the cattle. The things that you carry are burdensome, A load for the weary beast.” See: Rosenblum, Food, 56, note 82. 271 Saul Liberman suggests that in the convert’s voice can be heard the voice of the pig, see: Liberman, Tosefta Ki-Fshutah, vol. 9, 185. And Ibid. Studies, 488-490. 272 Mekilta de Rabbi Ishmael, Tractate Nezikin, 18.95.1 (ed. Lauterbach). Translation by Jacob Z. Lauterbach, Mekilta de Rabbi Ishmael, vol. 3 (Philadephia: The Jewish Publicaton Society of America, 1935), 137-138. Italics mine. ‫ כ) לא תוננו בדברים ולא תלחצנו בממון לא תאמר לו אמש‬,‫" וגר לא תונה ולא תלחצנו כי גרים הייתם בארץ מצרים" (שמות כב‬ ‫ עד עכשיו הרי חזירים נוצר מבין שיניך ואתה עומד ומדבר כנגדי ומנין שאם הוניתו אף הוא יכול‬,‫ה יית עובד לבל קורס נבו‬ .‫להונתך שנאמר וגר לא תונה ולא תלחצנו כי גרים הייתם בארץ מצרים מכאן היה רבי נתן אומר מום שבך אל תאמרהו לחברך‬ 270

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Bel and Nebo are both Babylonian deities mentioned in Isaiah 46:1 (“Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth ‫ ק ֵֹרס נְּבֹו‬,‫ )”כָרַ ע בֵל‬and their cult was popular in Syria.273 Interestingl y, in Bavli Sanhedrin we find Isaiah 46:1 as the proof text that one may mock idolatry: R. Nahman said: All scoffing is forbidden, excepting scoffing at idols, which is permitted, as it is written, Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth … they stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden. 274

Hence, Mekilta deRabbi Ishmael excludes the Gerim from the mockery of idolatry. The midrash plays with the double sense of the word Ger ‫גר‬: a proselyte and a stranger. Hence, a Jew should not mention to a proselyte (ger) his foreign origin nor his past nonJewish diet, because the Jews themselves were strangers (gerim) in Egypt. We find a link between the proselyte and the pig also in Bavli Baba Kama 80a, where it is stated that “a proselyte to whom dogs and pigs fell in his inheritance, we do not obligate him to sell [them all] immediately. Rather he may sell [them off] little by little.” 275

For others variants of the text, see the online critical edition of the Mekhilta of Bar Ilan University, The Primary Textual Witnesses to Tannaitic Literature, Consulted February 5, 2012. Also: Minor treatises, Gerim 4.1 ( ‫ ואתה עומד‬,‫ ועד עכשיו חזיר בין שיניך‬,‫ אמש היית עובד את הבל ואת הנבו‬,‫אל תאמר לו‬ .‫)ומדבר עמי‬. TanB, Vayera 14; 32 ( ‫) ואם היה בן גרים לא יאמר לו זכור מעשה אבותיך שהרי החזיר נשוך בין שניהם‬. Leqah Tob, Exodus 22.20 ( ‫ עד‬,‫ עכשיו הוגה טעמי תורה‬,‫שלא תאמר לו הפה שהיה אוכל נבלות וטרפות שקצים ורמשים‬ ‫)עכשיו היו חזירין נושרין מבין שיניך ועובד היית לכל‬. YalShim, Mishpatim 349 (‫אם היה גר ובא ללמוד תורה לא יאמר לו פה‬ ‫)שאכל נבלות וטרפות שקצים ורמשים יבא ללמוד תורה שיצאה מפי השכינה‬. MidAgada, Exodus 22.20 ( ‫שאם יאמר לו כמה‬ ‫ כמה נשיקות יש לך בע"ז‬,‫)בשר חזיר בבטנך‬. 273 See the chapter “The Cult of Nebo and Bel,” in H. J. W. Drijvers, Cults and Beliefs at Edessa (Leiden: Brill, 1980), 40-75. Bel was one of the gods of Palmyra, see: Ted Kaizer, The Religious Life of Palmyra: A Study of the Social Patterns of Worship in the Roman Period (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2002), 67. In the Greco-Roman period Bel was sometimes identfied with Zeus and Nebo with Hermes/Mercur. The bavli Avodah Zarah 11b mentiones the famous temple of Bel in Babylon and the temple of Nebo in Chursi. See: Jacob Martin, “Pagan tempel in Pal stina – rabbinische aussagen im vergleich mit arch ologischen funden,” in The Talmud Yerushalmi and Graeco-Roman culture [2] II, ed. Peter Sch fer and Catherine Hezser (T bingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1998), 148. 274 B. Sanhedrin 63b and b. Megilah 25b. 275 B. Baba Kama 80a. .‫ אלא מוכר על יד על יד‬,‫ אין מחייבין אותו למכור מיד‬,‫וכן גר שנפלו לו כלבים וחזירים בירושתו‬ T. Baba Kama 8.14 (ed. Liberman) does not mention the man as a proselyte: “[if] a person has received an inheritance of pigs or dogs, they do not require him to sell all of them at once. But he goes along to sell them little by little.”

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Conclussion Eating pork is associated by the sages with non-Jews, persecutions, impurity of non-Jews, forbidden sexual relations with non-Jewish women, eating Samaritan bread or forbidden fruits during the sabbatical year, and heresy. The eater of pork is impure, a defiled person. A Jew who eats pork is a transgressor of the law; if he eats it intentionally he is a heretic. Eating pork, literally or metaphorically, stands for transgression of the law, and the “eater of pork” is synonymous with an heretic. If the non-Jews are eaters of pork (aside from exceptional cases such as that of the tagar), then for the Jews pork-eating can serve as a sign of alterity or otherness. This sense is manifested in the Rabbinic hyponym to the pig: davar aḥer = another thing. This expression not only manifests the will to not utter the impure (a kind of reverse of the prohibition to utter the tetragrammaton, Yahweh ‫)יהוה‬, but also to mark it as an outsider element, its deep otherness. Furthermore, Aḥer is not just the “other,” but also the name of the heretic par excellence: Elisah ben Abuya, whose heresy as we have seen was perhaps associated with the pig/pork eating. The heretic is like the pig, because like the pig he is half pure - half impure. His alterity lies in his proximity, his monstrous status due to his hybridity. Becoming “other” is becoming a pork eater, as becoming Israel means to cease to eat pork. 276 As we have seen, eating pork is a sign of heresy already in Tannaitic sources (20-200 CE), but this seems to be even more developed in later sources. If the creation of heresiologies and orthodoxies of both Christianity and Rabbinic

276

The “pork eaters” stand for hertics who follow a forigien cult Isaiah 66:17: “those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following the one in the centre, eating the flesh of pigs, vermin, and rodents, shall come to an end together, says the Lord.” This phrase however is not linked to heretics in rabbinical literature, but rather, as we will later see, to punishment of the non-Jews, especially Rome in the messianic era.

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Judaism were not without connection, 277 then we may ask (and will later try to answer) to what extent the Christian denouncement of avoidance of pork as heretical influenced the sages’ marking of eating pork as a sign of heresy? For now, we can simply observe that contrary to Christianity, in rabbinic discourse on heresy we do not find a strong use of porcine similes. What seems to be the main difference between Christian similes and the rabbinic similes of the heretic is that, in the first, the pig stands more for a negative return while in the second it seems rather to signify transgression of the law. Because separation and distinction is so central to Judaism, the hoggishness of the heretic seems to lie mainly in his failure to respect the boundary: a failure symbolized and embodied by the eating of the forbidden meat. To the contrary, in Christianity, because of the centrality of positive mediation between categories (transfiguration, transubstantiation, conversion) the heretic is portrayed as the one who fails to convert, or more specifically, as a person who undergoes a negative conversion; the heretic is the pig that after washing in the river returns to the mud. In other words, in rabbinic thinking the pig is a locus of distinction between two categories, while in Christianity, as Jonathan Boyarin notes, following the work of Claudine Fabre-Vassas, the pig is the locus of passage, poros. 278 From this comes the basic difference of eating and not eating pork in the two religions’ orthodoxies and heresies. However, as we have seen, in rabbinic porcine discourse on heretics, we find some points of possible convergence with the Christian discourse on heretics as hoggish and the philosophical tradition which portrays the “heretics among the philosophers,” the Epicureans (and perhaps also the sophists) in similar terms. 277

See: Daniel Boyarin, Border Lines: The Partition of Judeo-Christianity (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004). 278 Jonathan Boyarin, “Le porc en dieu Pôros.” Penser/Rêver 7 (2005): 151-176. I thank Jonathan Boyarin for allowing me to read the Englsih version “The Pig as Poros: On the Uses (and Loss) of a Swinish Symbolic Mediator,” (April 2005), unpublished paper.

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Chapter 4 The Pig and the Destruction of the Temple August 70 CE In August 70 CE, after a four-month siege, on the 9th of Ab in the year 3830 according to the Jewish calendar, Roman soldiers stormed the Temple Mount. 279 The ne xt day, according to Josephus, while: “the sanctuary itself and all around it were in flames, [the Romans] carried their standards into the temple court and, setting them up opposite the eastern gate, they sacrificed to them, and with rousing acclamation hailed Titus as imperator.” 280 The emblems worshiped probably included those of the Legion X Fretensis, which included the boar [fig. 5].281 Whatever the sacrifice, it might have resembled tha t of the suovetaurilia sacrifice to Mars, the god of war, of a pig (sus), a ram (ovis) and a bull (taurus), as depicted on the Arch of Titus in Rome or the Arch of Constantine [fig. 67].

279

For the 9th of Ab as the date of the Destruction, see: Yuval Shahar, “Rabbi Akiba and the Destruction of the Temple: the Establishment of the Fast Days,” Zion 68, no. 2 (2003): 153-159 (Hebrew). 280 Josephus, Jewish War 6.6.1. By doing so, the Romans transgressed several Jewish prohibitions: that of non-Jews entering the Temple, that of making an image of a being (aniconism), and idolatry. Josephus tells us how pious Jews destroyed a statue of an eagle that Herod erected in one of the entrances to the Temple (Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 1.33.2-4), and of the violent reaction of the Jews when the Roman governor Pilate (26-36 CE) ordered Roman legionary standards with the imperial emblems to be taken into Jerusalem (Josephus, Jewish War 2.10). This was detestable idolatry to the Jews, as the Qumran scroll Pesher on Habakkuk (1QaHab 6:1-5) describes: “the Kittim [the Romans], and they increase their wealth with all their booty/ like the fish of the sea. And when it says ‘Therefore he sacrifices to his net/ and burns incense to his seine [Habakkuk 1:16],’ the interpretation of it is that they/ sacrifice to their standards, and their military arms are/ the objects of their reverence…” Hanan Eshel, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hasmonaean State (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K: Eerdmans; Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi Press, 2008), 174. 281 K. M. T. Atkinson, “The Historical Setting of the Habbakuk Commentary,” Journal of Semitic Studies 4 (1959): 238-263. Helmut Schwier, Tempe und Tempe erst rung ntersuchungen u den theo ogischen und ideo ogischen a toren im ersten j disch-r mischen rieg (66-74 n. Chr.) (Freiburg: Schweiz: Universit tsverlag Freiburg Schweiz, 1989), 315 (non vidit). Brian J. Incigneri, The Gospel to the Romans: The Setting and Rhetoric of Mark's Gospel (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 192.

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Fig. 5: Legion X Fretensis' standards on Aelia Capitolina’s coin, Elagabalus (218-222 CE). A. topped with eagle, B. topped with boar.

Fig. 6: Suovetaurilia sacrifice to Mars on Arch of Titus (c. 81 CE).

Fig. 7: Illustration of the Troops. Arch of Constantine (dedicated in 315 CE).

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If this was the case, the abominable animal was present in the destruction of the Temple as an image (on the Legion’s standard, as well on the shields and helmets of its soldiers) and in flesh and blood as a sacrificial animal. In any case, we find the pig in several legends concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple: Avot de Rabi Nathan, Yerushalmi, Bavli, Targum of Lamentations, Targum Sheni to Esther, and the JudeoPersian Apocalypse. In order to better understand the formation of these legends, before adressing them we will identify the role of the pig in Jewish traditions concerning the profanation or destruction of the Temple prior to 70 CE.

4.2. The Pig and the Profanation of the Temple Prior to 70 CE Third Isaiah (Is. 66:3, (c. late sixth century - mid fifth century BCE), rebukes a foreign cult in the Temple: He who slaughtered an ox Who sacrificed a lamb Who presented cereal offering Who burnt commemorative incense

(would now) slay a man, (would now) break a dog’s neck, (would now present) the blood of a swine (would now) worship an idol. 282

The prophet rebukes cultish observance without a pure heart (which is metaphorically described as a foreign/impure cult) or the replacement of the pure cult with idolatry. Here, pig blood symbolized the profanation of the Temple in a scheme of

282

Sasson, “Isaiah 66:3-4a,” 200. For a comparison of pork in Isaiah 66:3 and in 1 and 2 Maccabees, see Brian Hesse and Paula Wapnish, “Pig Use and Abuse in the Ancient Levant: Ethnoreligious BoundaryBuilding with Swine,” in Ancestors for the Pigs: Pigs in Prehistory, ed. Sarah M. Nelson, MASCA Research Papers in Science and Archaeology, vol. 15 (Philadelphia, PA: Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1998), 131.

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pollution-purification. 283 In Psalms 80:14, dated by some to Eighth Century BCE, 284 the boar ravaging the vineyard symbolized the foreigners destroying Israel or the Temple: 13

14 15

Why hast thou broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? The boar from the forest ravages it, and the beasts of the field feed on it. Return to us, O God Sabbath! Look down from heaven, and see, And visit this vine, The sapling which thy right hand planted… 285

The penetration of the boar and other savage animals into the holy space symbolizes destruction and defilement. 286 This description of the destruction of the vineyard (Israel/the Temple) by the boar may perhaps represent the Assyrians, and, as we will see, was understood in rabbinic literature as standing for Rome. 287 The pig plays a central role in some versions of the history of the profanation of the Temple by the

283

Sasson, “Isaiah 66:3-4a,” 200. The “abomination” (sikutz), the sacrilege, is answered by a punishment: “Just as they have chosen their ways and take pleasure in their abomination [ubesikutzeyhem]; so will I choose to mock them, to bring on them the very thing they dread. (Is. 66:4)” 284 As Craig C. Broyles notes, “Ps. 80 has been variously considered to reflect every national crisis from the Tenth Century division of the kingdom to the time of Maccabees. The most plausible conjectures locate the psalm either in 732-722 BC when the northern tribes were under threat (…) or in the time of Josiah and his reform.” Craig C. Broyles, The Conflict of Faith and Experience in the Psalms: A FormCritical and Theological Study (Sheffield, UK: JSOT Press, 1989), 161. 285 Weiser, The Psalms, 546. 286 The topos of the penetration of the animal into the holy or urban space as a sign of destruction appeared in many biblical texts: Isaiah (5:18; 7.25;13:20-23; 27:10; 32:14; 34:11,14-15), Jeremiah (9:10; 10:22; 12:8-10; 15:3; 49:33;50:39; 51:27,37), Ezekiel (14:15,21; 25:5; 31:13), Tsefania (1:6,14,15), Pssalms (80:14), Lamentations (4:18). For medieval use of this topos, see: Penny J. Cole, “‘O God, The Heathens Have Come into Your Inheritance’ (PS.78.1) - the Theme of Religious Pollution in Crusade Documents, 1095-1188,” in Crusaders and Muslims in Twelfth-Century Syria, ed. Maya Shatzmiller (Leiden; New York; Köln: Brill, 1993), 84-111. Misgav Har-Peled, “Animalité, pureté et croisade. Étude sur la transformation des églises en étables par les Musulmans durant les croisades, XIIe -XIIIe siècles,” Cahiers de civilisation Médiévale 52 (2009): 113-136. The Roman historian Dio Cassius describing the result of the revolt of Bar-Kockva uses also the metaphor of the penetration of savage animals in the holy place: “The whole of Judea was almost like a desert, as had been predicted before the war. For the tomb of Solomon, which they highly revere, collapsed by itself and many wolves and hyenas entered their cities and howled.” Dio Cassius, Roman History 69.14. 287 David Bryan, Cosmos, Chaos and the Kosher Mentality (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995), 116-117. Several scholars prefer to read a’ar as e’or (‘ayin suspensum), seeing in the boar the invasion of Pharaoh Nechoin 609 BCE from the land of the Nile (=ye’or) during the reign of Josiah (641 609 BCE). See: G. J. Botterweck, “‫ חזיר‬chazîr,” in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, vol. IV (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1980), 296.

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Seleucid King Antiochus IV, in 167 BCE. According to 2 Maccabees (6:5), “The altar was filled with abominable sacrifices which the Law prohibited,” while 1 Maccabees tell how the King seeks to force the Jews to “sacrifice pigs and other clean animals” in the Temple (1:47), and how the abomination of abominations was placed on the altar (1:51). It is probable that the Greek words used in 1 Maccabees for the “abomination of desolation” are a translation of the Hebrew shikutz meshomem (‫ )שִקּוץ מְּשֹמֵם‬used in the Book of Daniel to describe the same event. According to the book of Daniel, the daily offering in the Temple, the tamid, was replaced by the. 288 But what was the nature of the latter? Was it a statue of an idol (a god) or of the king? Was it an altar dedicated to foreign gods or a kind of sacrifice? All these possibilities have been raised by scholars. J. Lust and O. Keel suggest that the shikutz meshomem in the book of Daniel and in 1 Maccabees was an altar dedicated to an idol or, more likely, the sacrifice itself: a pig. 289 According to Keel, the expression shomem (‫ )שֹמֵם‬or meshomem (‫ )מְּשֹמֵם‬stands for King Antiochus, who ordered the shikutz (‫)שִקּוץ‬. 290 The idea that the “Abomination of desolation” was the sacrifice of a pig is supported by later authors Diodorus of Sicily and Josephus Flavius. According to Diodorus (d. c. 30 BCE), Antiochus IV Epiphanes sacrificed a “great sow” before the image of Moses that he found in the temple and the open-air altar of the god, “and poured its blood over them.” 291According to Josephus

288

The tamid is a technical abbreviation for the olat tamid the “daily/constant holocaust, or “constant whole burnt-offering.” This offering was made twice daily, in the morning and in the evening. It consisted of a lamb, fine flour, oil and wine (Ex 29:38-42). Johan Lust, “Cult and Sacrifice in Daniel: The Tamid and the Abomination of Desolation,” in The Book of Daniel: Composition and Reception, ed. John Joseph Collins, Peter W. Flint and Cameron VanEpps (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 672. 289 Lust, “Cult and Sacrifice in Daniel.” 290 Othmar Keel, “Die kultischen Massnamen Antiochus’ IV. Religionsverfolgung und/oder reformversuch?” in Hellenismus und Judentum: vier Studien zu Daniel 7 und zur Religionsnot unter Antiochus IV, Hellenismus und Judentum, ed. Othmar Keel und Urs Staub (Freiburg Schweiz: Universitätsverl; G ttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000), 103-112. 291 Diodorus of Sicily, The Library of History 34-35.1:3f.

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(probably based on Diodurus), 292 “The king also built a pagan altar upon the temple-altar, and slaughtered swine thereon.” 293 One may conclude that in the ancient sources Daniel and 1 and 2 Maccabees, the tamid is replaced by the sikutz haMeshukatz, the abomination of desolation. In later sources such as Diodorus and Josephus, the tamid is replaced by a pig sacrifice. Hence, whatever the exact meaning of the term “abomination of desolation (shikutz meshomem),” it is clear that at the end of the first century BCE and the beginning of the first fentury CE, there was a tradition that the climax of the profanation of the Temple was a sacrifice of a pig or a sow on the holy altar by Antiochus himself. We find here a binary opposition: the sacrifice of the tamid versus the sacrifice of the pig, purity versus impurity, Jew versus Greek. To the sources mentioned above we may add 1 Enoch, probably written in the early Hasmonean period (140 to 137 BCE), in which impure animals stand for the enemies of Israel, while pure animals stand for Israel. The sheep is the main symbol of Israel, while the boar symbolizes Esau or his descendants: the Edomites or the Amalekites. 294 For example, the destruction of the First Temple (587/586 BCE) is described in the following manner: And the lions and tigers ate and devoured the greater part of those sheep [Israel], and the wild boars [the Edomites] ate along with them; and they burned that tower and demolished that house. And I became exceedingly sorrowful over that tower because that house of the sheep was demolished, and afterwards I was unable to see if those sheep entered that house. 295

We can assume that the image of the boar as the destructor of the Temple was well established before 70 CE, inscribed in a narrative of pollution and purification, 292

Schäfer, Judeophobia, 66. Josephus, Jewish Antiquites 12.253. 294 A. Patrick Tiller, A Commentary on the Animal Apocalypse (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993), 32. Bryan, Cosmos, 115-18. 295 1 Enoch 89.66-67. Translation by R. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch Translated from Professor Di mann’s thiopic Text (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1893), 245. 293

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bondage and redemption. This image creates a contradiction between the lamb/sheep symbol of Israel, and the boar - symbol of its enemy; between the pure sacrifice (tamid) and the impure (sikutz) abominable sacrifice. We can presume that this tradition influenced the post 70 CE legends of destruction.

The Legends of Destruction We may observe three different versions of the legends of destruction: 1) The throwing by a war machine of a pig’s head into the Temple (Avot deRabbi Nathan, Origen, Jerome), 2) The replacing of sacrificial animals with a pig (Bavli, Yerusalmi, and the Jewish-Persian Apocalypse of Daniel), and 3) the sprinkling of pig’s blood during the destruction of the First Temple (Targum of Lamentations, Targum Sheni to Esther, and Jewish-Persian Apocalypse of Daniel).

The Pig’s Head Although a post Talmudic compilation, Avot de Rabi Nathan seems to tell an ancient version of the legend of destruction. 296 In version A (4), the legend of destruction is part of the narrative of the running away of Raban Yohanan ben Zackkai from the besieged Jerusalem, which may be understood as the foundation myth of Rabbinical Judaism. The legend begins with the coming of Vespasian to Jerusalem and its inhabitants´ refusal of his peace proposal: Now when Vespasian came to destroy Jerusalem, he said [to the inhabitants of the city,], “Idiots! Why do you want to destroy this city and burn the house of the sanctuary? For what do I want of you, except that you send me a bow or an arrow [as marks of submission to my rule], and I shall go on my way.” They said to him, “Just as we sallied 296

Menahem Kister, “Legends of the Destruction of the Second Temple in Avot De-Rabbi Nathan,” Tarbiz 67, no. 4 (1998): 483-530 (Hebrew).

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out against the first two who came before you and killed them, so shall we sally out and kill you.”297

Those who are guilty of the destruction of the city are the city’s extremist inhabitants. This is even more strongly emphasized by Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai, opponent of the Zealots: When Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai heard, he proclaimed to the men of Jerusalem, saying to them, “My sons, why do you want to destroy this city and burn the house of the sanctuary? For what does he want of you, except that you send him a bow or an arrow, and he will go on his way.” They said to him, “Just as we sailed out against the first two who came before him and killed them, so shall we sally out and kill him.” Vespasian had stationed men near the walls of the city, and whatever they heard, they would write on an arrow and shoot out over the wall. [They reported] that Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai was a loyalist of Caesar’s. 298

The pragmatic Sage, after a third vain attempt to change the opinion of the city´s inhabitants, runs away from the besieged city: After Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai had spoken to them one day, a second, and a third, and the people did not accept his counsel, he sent and called his disciples, R. Eliezer and R. Joshua, saying to them, “My sons, go and get me out of here. Make me an ark and I shall go to sleep in it.” R. Eliezer took the head and R. Joshua the feet, and toward sunset they carried him until they came to the gates of Jerusalem. The gate keepers said to them, “Who is this?” They said to him, “It is a corpse. Do you not know that a corpse is not kept overnight in Jerusalem?” They said to them, “If it is a corpse, take him out,” so they took him out and brought him out at sunset, until they came to Vespasian. 299

The escape from the city is followed by the dramatic interview with Vespasian:

297

ARN A 4. ‫ שוטים מפני מה אתם מבקשים להחריב את העיר הזאת ואתם מבקשים לשרוף‬:‫וכשבא אספסיינוס להחריב את ירושלים אמר להם‬ ‫ כשם שיצאנו על שנים‬:‫ אמרו לו‬.‫את בית המקדש וכי מה אני מבקש מכם? אלא שתשגרו לי קשת אחת או חץ אחת ואלך לי מכם‬ . ‫ראשונים שהם לפניך והרגנום כך נצא לפניך ונהרגך‬ 298 Ibid. ‫ בני מפני מה אתם מחריבין את העיר הזאת ואתם מבקשים‬:‫כיון ששמע רבן יוחנן בן זכאי שלח וקרא לאנשי ירושלים ואמר להם‬ ‫ כשם שיצאנו‬:‫ אמרו לו‬.‫לשרוף את בית המקדש וכי מהו מבקש מכם? הא אינו מבקש מכם אלא קשת אחת או חץ אחת וילך לו מכם‬ ‫ היו לאספסיינוס אנשים שרויין כנגד חומותיה של ירושלים וכל דבר ודבר שהיו‬.‫על שנים שלפניו והרגנום כ ך נצא עליו ונהרגהו‬ .‫שומעין היו כותבין על החצי וזורקין חוץ לחומה לומר שרבן יוחנן בן זכאי מאוהבי קיסר הוא‬ 299 Ibid. ‫וכיון שאמר להם רבן יוחנן בן זכאי יום אחד ושנים ושלשה ולא קבלו ממנו שלח וקרא לתלמידיו לרבי אליעזר ורבי יהושע אמר‬ ‫ רבי אליעזר אחז בראשו רבי יהושע אחז ברגליו והיו מוליכין אותו עד‬.‫ בני עמדו והוציאוני מכאן עשו לי ארון ואישן בתוכו‬:‫להם‬ ‫ מת הוא וכי אין אתם יודעין שאין‬:‫ מי הוא זה? אמרו להן‬:‫ אמרו להם השוערים‬.‫שקיעת החמה עד שהגיעו אצל שערי ירושלים‬ ‫ והוציאוהו והיו מוליכין אותו (עד שקיעת החמה) עד שהגיעו אצל‬.‫ אם מת הוא הוציאוהו‬:‫מלינים את המת בירושלים? אמרו להן‬ .‫אספסיינוס‬

102

They opened the ark and he stood before him. He said to him,” “Are you Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai? Indicate what I should give you.” He said to him, “I ask from you only Yavneh, to which I shall go, and where I shall teach my disciples, establish a prayer [house], and carry out all of the religious duties.” He said to him, “Go and do whatever you want.” He said to him, “Would you mind if I said something to you? [He said to him, “Go ahead.”] He said to him, “Lo, you are going to be made sovereign.” He said to him, “How do you know?” He said to him, “It is a tradition of ours that the house of the sanctuary will be given over not into the power of a commoner but of a king, for it is said, “And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon [which refers to the Temple] shall fall by a mighty one (Is. 10:34).” People say that not a day, two or three passed before a delegation came to him from his city indicating that the [former] Caesar had died and they had voted for him to ascend the throne. 300

As Shaye J. D. Cohen notes, when Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai quoted before Vespessian from Isaiah 10:34: “And the Lebanon [= the Temple constructed from the cedars of Lebanon] shall fall by a majestic one [=Vespessian],” he “neglected to inform the Romans that the next verse of the prophecy begins with the messianic prediction, “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse.” Had Vespasian known the Bible of the Jews, he might not have received the rabbi so kindly.” 301 The prophecy of the destruction is but the first part of the script, hinting to its second part: the redemp tion. The ascent of Vespasian to the throne of the emperor and that of Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai to the head of the house of study of Yavne, is followed by the destruction of the Temple with the pig: They brought him a catapult and drew it up against the wall of Jerusalem. They brought him cedar beams and put them into the catapult, and he struck them against the wall until a breach had been made in it. They brought the head of a pig and put it into the catapult and tossed it toward the limbs that were on the Temple altar. At that moment Jerusalem was captured. 302

300

Ibid. ‫ איני מבקש ממך אלא יבנה שאלך ואשנה‬:‫ אמר לו‬.‫ אתה הוא רבן יוחנן בן זכאי שאל מה אתן לך‬:‫ אמר לו‬.‫פתחו הארון ועמד לפניו‬ ‫ רצונך שאומר לפניך‬:‫ אמר לו‬.‫ לך וכל מה שאתה רוצה לעשות עשה‬:‫ אמר לו‬.‫בה לתלמידי ואקבע בה תפלה ואעשה בה כל מצות‬ ‫ כך מסור לנו שאין בית המקדש נמסר‬:‫] מנין אתה יודע? אמר לו‬:‫ [ א" ל‬.‫ הרי את עומד במלכות‬:‫ אמר לו‬.‫ אמור‬:‫ אמר לו‬.‫דבר אחד‬ ‫ לא היה יום אחד שנים‬:‫ אמרו‬.)‫ לד‬,‫ "ונק ף סבכי היער בברזל והלבנון באדיר יפול" ( ישעיה י‬:‫ביד הדיוט אלא ביד מלך שנאמר‬ .‫ושלשה ימים עד שבא אליו דיופלא מעירו שמת קיסר ונמנו עליו לעמוד במלכות‬ 301 Shaye J. D. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah (Louisville and London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 24. 302 ARN A 4.

103

Another version is found in Avot deRabbi Nathan: 303 When Vespasian surrounded Jerusalem […] They brought him planks of wood and he made them into something like a masbih [covered with branches? shielded?], like a kind of klunos [bridle?]. He made them into two pegusot [catapults?] and they kept firing (projectiles) against the wall until it was breeched. He made an arch of zir [ballista?] and put a pig’s head in it. They kept shooting and hitting with the machine [ballista?] and they kept moving down (the length of the wall) until (the head) landed on the entrails that were on the altar and defiled it.” 304

The machine made of cedar beams that Vespasian used seems to correspond to the first part of the prophecy of Isaiah (10:34), which Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai cites: “He will hack down the thickets of the forest )‫ ( סבכי היער‬with an axe and the Lebanon [cedar ‫ ]ארז‬shall fall by a majestic one[.” As in the pre - 70 CE tradition concerning the profanation of the Temple, in Avot deRabbi Nathan, the pig stands for the highest profanation of the Temple, and as in the tradition concerning the sacrifice of a pig/sow on the Temple’s altar by Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the times of the Maccabees, we find here the description of the pig touching the sacrifice on the altar; the ending of the tamid with the pig. As in Psalm 80, the profanation by the pig is inscribed in a scenario of profanation-purification, destruction-redemption. The creation of the center in Yavne (‫ )יבנה‬is the diametrical response to the destruction of Jerusalem (‫)חורבן‬. 305 Rabban

‫ הביאו לו נסרים של ארז ונתן לתוך קשת של זירים והיה מכה בהן על‬.‫הביאו לו קשת של זירים ותיפ"א כנגד החומה של ירושלים‬ ‫ באותה‬.‫ הביאו ראש חזיר ונתנו לתוך קשת של זירים והיה משליך אותו כלפי אברים שע"ג המזבח‬.‫החומה עד שפרץ בה פירצה‬ ‫שעה נלכדה ירושלים‬ 303 Wiesenberg, “Related Prohibitions.” 304 ARN B 7. ‫] הביאו לו נסרין שלעץ עשאן כמסביך במין כלונוס עשאו שתי פגושות והיו מזרקים‬...[ ‫”וכשבא אספ(י)סינוס (ו)הקיף על ירושלם‬ ‫בהן לחומה עד שניפרצה עשה לו קשת של זיר ונתן בתוכה ראש חזיר והיו מפקיעין במיכני' ויורדי ן עד שעלתה וישבה על האברים‬ ”.‫שעל גבי המזביח וטימ<א>אתו‬ The text includes several unclear technical words. For the different possible interpretations and text variations, see: Kister, “Legends of the Destruction,” 483-530 (Hebrew). Anat Yisraeli-Taran, The Legends of the Destruction (Tel-Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1997), 90-94 (Hebrew). My translation follows Kister’s explanations. 305 It is probably significant that the place chosen to be the new center of Judaism, Yavne, means to build. However, it seems that this play on words is not implict in the sages’ writing. For the meaning of Yavne in Rabbinic Literature, see: B. Z. Rosenfeld, “The Changing Significance of the Name ‘Yavne’ in Rabbinic Tradition,” in Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple, Mishna and Talmud Period: Studies in

104

Yohanan ben Zakkai is compared to Eli the high priest, and hence the house of study of Yavne is implicitly compared to the Tabernacle, hinting that Yavne is a kind of substitute for the destroyed Temple, as the sages replaced the Temple’s priests: Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai was in session and with trembling was looking outward, in the way that Eli had sat and waited: “Lo, Eli sat upon his seat by the wayside watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God (1 Sam. 4:13). When Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai heard that Jerusalem had been destroyed and the house of the sanctuary burned in flames, he tore his garments, and his disciple tore their garments, and they wept and cried and mourned. 306

As Menahem Kister notes, the story of the destruction of the Temple with the pig probably expressed an ancient tradition, as evidenced by the fact that the Church fathers Origen (c. 185 – c. 254 CE) and Ambrose (c. 339 – 397 CE) mentioned it. Origen, in his Commentary on Matthew, notes that the Jews think that “the abomination of desolation” (Matthew 24:15; Daniel 12:11) concerns “the last plot of the Romans, or the pig head that was launched to the Temple, or the emblems that Pilatus brought into the Temple.” 307 The first event, the “last plot of the Romans,” probably refers to the foundation of Aelia Capitolina (c. 130 CE); the launching of the pig’s head may refer to the destruction of 70 CE; while the third may refer to the events during the government of Pontius Pilate in Judea (26-36/19-37 CE?).308 Interestingly, according to Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306-373 CE), “some say that the sign of its [Jerusalem´s] destruction was the pig’s head which the Honor of Shmuel Safrai, ed. Isaiah Gafni, Aharon Oppenheimer and Menahem Stern (Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 1993), 149-164. 306 Translation by Jacob Neusner, The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1955), 42-43, with slight alteration. ‫ " והנה עלי יושב על הכסא יד דרך מצפה כי היה‬:‫והיה רבן יוחנן בן זכאי יושב ומצפה וחרד כדרך שהיה עלי יושב ומצפה שנאמר‬ ‫ כיון ששמע רבן יוחנן בן זכאי שהחריב את ירושלים ושרף את בית המקדש באש‬.)‫לבו חרד על ארון האלהים" (שמואל א' ד' י"ג‬ :‫קרע בגדיו וקרעו תלמידיו את בגדיה ם והיו בוכין וצועקין וסופדין‬ 307 Origenes Werke, XII, Origenes Matthäuserklärung: Fragmente und Indices, III, ed. Erich Klostermann (Berlin: Akademie Verl, 1968 (1943)), 194. Cited in: Kister, “Legends of the Destruction,” 502 . 308 For the dates Pontius Pilate’s office, see: Flavius Josephus Translation and Commentary, vol. 1b, Judean War 2, trans. Steve Mason (Boston: Brill, 2008), 139. Josephus, Jewish Wars 2.169-174; Antiquities 18.55-59.

105

Romans gave Pilate to carry into the interior of the temple to place there.” 309 Ambrose writes, in his commentary on Luke 21:20 (“When you see Jerusalem surrounded by an army”), “Indeed Jerusalem was besieged and was taken by storm by a Roman army: concerning which the Jews thought that the “abomination of desolation” was accomplished, because the Romans threw a pig’s head into the Temple to mock the ritual observance of the Jews.” 310 These Christian authors testified that the legend in Avot deRabbi Nathan dates at least to the beginning of the third century and that, at least by Christians, it was associated with the “abomination of desolation.”

The Exchange of Lambs for Pigs The Yerusalmi (Ta’anit 4:5, 68c; Berakhot 4:1, 7b) tells two analogous episodes from the time of Greece and Rome: ‘And the tamid (the daily whole offering) was canceled (Mishnah Ta’anit 4.6).’ Rabbi Simon in the name of Rabbi Joshua ben Levi: In the days of the Kingdom of Greece, [the besieged in Jerusalem daily] lowered over the walls two baskets of go ld and obtained in exchange two lambs (required for the Tamid offering). Once they lowered over the walls two baskets of gold [of pigs – Vatican Manuscript, fol. 66] and obtained in exchange two goat kids (which are unfit to sacrifice). At that time, the Holy One blessed be He enlightened their eyes and they discovered two duly examined lambs in the Chamber of Sacrificial Lambs. At that time did it happen that, as reported by R. Judah. Abba, the offering of the Tamid was delayed till the fourth hour.”

309

Ephrem the Syrian, Commentar on Tatian’s Diatessaron 17.12. Translation by C. McCarthy, Saint phrem’s Commentar on Tatian’s Diatessaron. An ng ish Trans ation of Chester eatt S riac MS 709 with Indtroduction and Notes, JSSt Supplement 2 (Manchester: Oxford University Press on behalf of the University of Manchester, 1993), 276-277. Ephrém de Nisibe, Commentaire de l' Evangile concordant ou Diatesseron, trad. Louis Leloir, SC 121 (Paris: Cerf, 1966), 322-232. See: Phil J. Botha, “The Relevance of the Book of Daniel for Fourth-Century Christianity According to the Commentary Ascribed to Ephrem the Syrian,” in Die Geschichte Der Daniel-Auslegung in Judentum, Christentum Und Islam: Studien Zur Kommentierung Des Danielbuches in Literatur Und Kunst, ed. Katharina Bracht and David S. Du Toit (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 2007), 118. 310 Ambrose, Commentary on Luke 10.15. “Cum uideritiscircumdari ab exercitu Hierusalem. Vere Hierusalem ab exercitu obessa est et expugnata Romano, unde et Iudaei putauerunt tunc factam abominationem desolationis, eo quod caput porci in templum iccerint illudentes Romani Iudaeicae ritum observantiae.” Ambroise de Milan, Traité sur l`Evangile de S. Luc, trad. Gabriel Tissot, SC 45 (Paris: du Cerf, 1976), 162.

106

R. Levi said: also in the days of this Wicked Kingdom (Rome), the besieged in Jerusalem likewise lowered daily over the walls two baskets of gold and obtained in exchange two lambs. In the end they lowered over the walls a basket of gold and obtained in exchange two pigs. Hardly half way up, the pig thrust its paws against the wall. A tremor shook the wall, and the pig leapt 40 parasangs from the Land of Israel. At that time, on account of our sins (avonot), the Tamid ceased and the temple was destroyed. 311

The Talmud explains the Mishnah Ta’anit 4.6 which states a list of events that are believed to have happened on the 17th of Tammuz and on the 9th of Av. The text of the first episode is somewhat distorted, but it seems that in the original text, in the first episode as well as in the second, the besiegers replaced the lambs for the daily offering (tamid) with an animal unfit for sacrifice (goat kids/pigs), but miraculously the besieged found two lambs in the Temple, so that continual sacrifice did not cease. This miracle of the lambs, reminiscent of the oil jar of Hanukah, is contrasted with the second episode in which the exchange of the lambs for the pigs ended the daily offering (tamid) and the coincided with the destruction of the Temple. Thus, if in the first episode the Greeks sent two kid goats, which were unsuitable for sacrifice, in the second episode the Romans sent pigs, not only unsuitable, but impure animals. It seems, then, that the Maccabean motive for replacing the tamid with the pig is here transferred to the Roman period, as is also the case in the Bavli version of the legend.

311

. Ta’anit 4:5, 68c. My translation. For textual variants see Wilk, “When Hyrcanus was Besieging Aristobulus,” 103. ,‫ בימי מלכות יון היו משלשלין להם שתי קופות של זהב והיו מעלין שני כבשים‬:‫ רבי סימון בשם רבי יהושע בן לוי‬.‫ובשל התמיד‬ ‫ באותה השעה האיר הקב" ה‬.‫] והעלו להן שני גדיים‬66 ‫ דף‬,‫פעם אחת שילשלו להם שתי קופות של זהב [חז ירים – כך בכ" י וטיקן‬ .‫ על אותה השעה העיד רבי יהודה בן אבא על תמיד של שחר שקרב בארבע שעות‬.‫את עיניה ם ומצאו שני טלאים בלישכת הטלאים‬ ‫ ובסוף שילשלו להן‬.‫ אף בימי מלכות הרשעה הזאת היו משלשלין להן שתי קופות של זהב והיו מעלין להן שני גדיים‬:‫ואמר רבי לוי‬ .‫ לא הספיקו להגיע למחצית החומה עד שנעץ החזיר וקפץ מארץ ישראל ארבעים פרסה‬.‫שתי קופות של זהב והעלו להם שני חזירים‬ .‫באותה השעה גרמו העוונות ובטל התמיד וחרב הבית‬

107

The Bavli (Baba Kamma 72b; Menahot 49b; Sota 49b) locates the second episode mentioned in the Yerusalmi in the civil war between the brothers Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II at the end of the Hasmoneans dynasty (here b. Menahot 49b):312 When the Hasmonean kings were laying siege to each other, Hyrcanus [II] was outside and Aristobulus [II] inside. Day after day, they [the besieged] lowered over the walls dinars in a box, and they [the besiegers] raise them temidim [sacrificial animals for the offering of the Tamid]. There was an old man who was knowledgeable in Greek wisdom [language]. He told them [the besiegers] in Greek wisdom [in Greek language]: as long as they [the besieged] went on working [sacrificing], they would not be delivered to you.” Next day, when they lowered them the dinars in the box, they sent up to them a pig [in return]. Half way up, it thrust its paws against the wall. The land of Israel trembled for four hundred parsot. At that time did they declare: “Cursed be the man who will rear pigs! And cursed be the man who will teach his son Greek wisdom [the Greek language]. 313

Although the Mishnah dated the ban of learning Greek and breeding pigs to the Polmus of Titus (meaning to the Great Revolt of 66-73 CE, or perhaps to Polmus Kitos {Quintus}, 314 the general of Trajan who oppressed the Jewish Diaspora revolt in 117 CE), this did not prevent the Bavli from setting it in the time of Hyrcanus’ siege of his brother Aristobulus in Jerusalem in 65 BCE. The transfer of what had been told in the Yerusalmi about the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 CE to the end of the Hasmonean period and the beginning of the Roman occupation might be significant. This might be a typical Talmudic process, whereby different historical events are mixed together.315 There was also a deeper link between the two events for the Babylonian sages:

312

The three versions are identical, but in the Sota 49b version, the places of Aristobolus and Horkanus are reversed. For the Historical background of the siege and additional bibliography see: Eyal Regev, “How Did the Temple Mount Fall to Pompey?” The Journal of Jewish Studies 48, no. 2 (1997): 276-289. 313 B. Menahot 49b. ‫ בכל יום ויום היו משלשלין דינרים בקופה ומעלין‬.‫ היה הורקנוס מבחוץ ואריסטובלוס מבפנים‬,‫כשצרו מלכי בית חשמונאי זה על זה‬ ‫ "כל זמן שעוסקים בעבודה אין נמסרין‬:‫ אמר להן‬,‫ לעז להם בחכמת יוונית‬,‫ היה שם זקן אחד שהיה מכיר בחכמת יוונית‬.‫להן תמידים‬ .‫ נזדעזעה א" י ארבע מאות פרסה‬.‫ נעץ צפרניו‬,‫ כיון שהגיע לחצי חומה‬,‫ למחר שלשלו להם דינרים בקופה והעלו להם חזיר‬."‫בידכם‬ ."‫ וארור אדם שילמד לבנו חכמת יוונית‬,‫ "ארור אדם שיגדל חזירים‬:‫אותה שעה אמרו‬ 314 Regarding the Cambridge and Parma manuscripts, see: Lieberman, Studies, 225, note 6. For criticism of this identification, see: David Rokeah. “Polmus shel Kitos–LeBirura shel Bayia PhilologitHistorit,” in Meridot ha-Yehudim bi-yeme Trayanus, 115-117 li-sefirat ha-Notsrim, ed. David Rokeah (Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center, 1978), 172-173 (Hebrew). 315 In fact, the prohibition of the teaching of Greek wisdom is mentioned by the Rabbinic corpus in three different episodes: Polmus Kitus (M. Sota 9.14; Sifri Devarim 34), the civil war between Horkonus

108

the siege of 65 BCE was the climax of the quarrel between the two sons of Alexander Jannaeus and Alexandra Salome over their inheritance. Hyrcanus with his allies Aretas III, the king of the Nabateans, and Antipater the Idumean tried to take back the kingship and the title of the great priest that his brother took from him just four years earlier. The siege lasted a long time, and both sides asked the Roman general Pompeius in Syria to intervene in their favor. Finally, in 63 BCE, Pompe y conquered the city and desecrated the Temple by entering the Holy of Holies. This event officially marks the end of Hasmonean rule and the subjection of Judea to Rome. In this sense, for the Babylonian sages, the events which brought Pompeius to conquer Jerusalem foreshadowed the siege of Jerusalem by Titus. The Talmudic legends do not seek to clarify history, but to pass along a message. In tractate Menahot, the legend places the bringing of the Omer offering over a long distance from Jerusalem in a particular historical context; 316 in the two others tracts, it was used to clarify the logic of two Mishnaic prohibitions: in Baba Kamma (72b) the ban on breeding of pigs, and in Sota (49b) the ban on Greek wisdom. Both prohibitions are bound together in Menahot.317 Whether it was the pig’s legs striking the wall or its cry which caused an earthquake that destroyed the land of Israel,318 the destruction was no t

and Aristobulus (B. Sota 9b), and after the Great Revolt in 66AD (Y Sabath 1.4.3c). See: I. Lee Levine, Judaism and Hellenism in Antiquity: Conflict or Confluence? (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998), note 34. 316 The ‘Omer to be offered on the second day of Passover was normally collected from the neighorhood of Jerusalem. The story is told in the gemarah to explain in which context it was brought from Gaggoth Serfin, far away from Jerusalem (m. Menahot 10. 2). 317 Joshua Efron, “The Psalms of Solomon, The Hasmonean Decline and Christianity,” in Studies on the Hasmonean Period (Leiden: Brill, 1987 (1980)), 230. 318 Jordan D. Rosenblum, (“Why,” 103) notes that pigs were used as weapons in war, citing Adrienne Mayor, Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World (Woodstock: Overlook Duckworth, 2003), 200-203, which mentions several texts speaking of the use of pigs to terrorize war elephants, but just one episode concerning siege warfare. It seems that the pig in the story has nothing to do with real military practices, nor with any siege machine (As Jacques André notes: “Aucun nom de la truie ne semble avoir, comme au Moyen Age en français, par une substitution du

109

possible without the treachery of the old man “who was knowledgeable in Greek wisdom”, and who gave the besiegers the advice on how to impede the Temple sacrifices. 319 The legend here creates a parallel between the breeding of the impure animal and the raising of one’s son in the light of the foreign wisdom, that is, between pigs and Hellenized Jews. The Babylonian legend strengthens the ideal of the cultural seclusion of the Jews from Hellenistic culture, and emphasizes the danger of blurring the boundaries between the two. The legend is a transformation of a story told by Josephus in Jewish Antiquities: While the priests and Aristobulus were besieged, there happened to come round the festival called Phaska [Pessah], at which it is our custom to offer numerous sacrifices to God. But as Aristobulus and those with him lacked victims, they asked their countryman to furnish them with these, and take as much money for the victims as they wished. And when these others demanded that they pay a thousand drachmas for each animal they wished to get, Aristobulus and the priests willingly accepted this price and gave them the money, which they let down from the walls by a rope. Their countrymen, however, after receiving the money did not deliver the victims, but went to such lengths of villainy that they violated their pledges and acted impiously toward God by not furnishing the sacrificial victims to those who were in need of them. But the priests, on suffering this breach of faith, prayed to God to exact satisfaction on their behalf from their countrymen; and He did not delay their punishment, but sent a mighty and violent wind to destroy the crops of the entire country, so that people at that time had to pay eleven drachmas for a modius of wheat. 320

Both Josephus (1st century) and the Bavli (edited 5th-6th centuries) give the same historical context for the episode, but they express two different conceptions as to the reasons for the Destruction of the Temple: in Josephus it is because of the wickedness of the besiegers and the brothers’ hate; in the Bavli, it is the disloyalty of one of the besiegers and the wickedness of strangers.

porc au bélier, désigné des machines de guerre, un bélier ou une catapulte qui lançait des pierres.” Jacques André, “La part des suidés dans le vocabulaire grec et latin,” Anthropozoologica 15 (1991): 21. 319 On the use of Greek in Second Temple Jerusalem, see: Levine, Judaism and Hellenism, 33-95. 320 Josephus, Jewish Antiquity 14.25-28.

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The Sprinkling of Pig Blood This version of the legend of destruction transfers the pig episode to the destruction of the first Temple by Nebuchadnezzar. Targum of Lamentations, version of Lamentations 2:9: “Her gates have sunk into the ground; he has ruined and broken her bars,” reads: “Her gates have sunk into the earth because they slaughtered a pig and brought its blood over them. He has destroyed and shattered her doorposts.” 321 The Targum Sheni to Esther 1:3 (4th-10th century CE?) reads similarly: Then came the Chaldean armies, who brought with them 360 camels loaded with iron axes, but the outer gates of the Temple swallowed them up. Nevertheless, they did not want to open until Parnatos [prnitus] came and slaughtered a swine, sprinkling its blood upon the Temple, thus defiling it. After being defiled, it opened itself, and the wicked Nebuchadnezzar entered the Temple (…). 322

According to F. Perles, “prnitus” refers to Fronto Haterius, the commander of the legions from Alexandria that besieged the Temple Mount in 70 CE.323 This detail ma y indicate that the original story was indeed about the Roman destruction of the Temple. 324 In the later Jewish-Persian Apocalypse of Daniel (Ma‘aseh Danī’e ) (a unique manuscript, c. 1600), we find a mixture of the second and third versions of the legend of destruction:325

321

See: Christian M. Brady, The Rabbinic Targum of Lamentations: Vindicating God (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 45. ‫טמעו בארעא תרעהא על די נכסו חזירא ואובילו מן דמיה עלויהון‬ In Lamentations Rabbah (17a and 74b), the wall of the city sunk after the Babylonians measured the city wall, see: Shaye H. D. Cohen. “The Destruction: From Scripture to Midrash,” Prooftexts 2 (1982): 21. 322 Targum Sheni to Esther 1:3. ‫] עד דאתא פרנטוס ונכס חזירא וזרק‬...[ ‫וכד חזא פתחא דבית מקדשא דעמא מסאבא קיימין לקיבליה סתם נפשיה ולא צבא למפתחא‬ .‫ מן בתר דאסתאב פתח נפישה ועל נבוכדנצר רשיעא לבית מקדשא‬.‫מן דמיה על בית מקדשא וסאיב יתיה‬ 323 F. Perles, “Nachlese zum neuhebr ischen und aram ischen W rterbuch,” in Festschrift Adolf Schwarz zum siebzigsten Geburtstage, 15. Juli 1916, ed. Samuel Krauss and Victor Aptowitzer, 293-310 (Berlin: R. L wit, 1917), 305. Manuscripts read: Parnesos, Partanos, Parsutnos, Peranetos. See: Bernard Grossfeld, The Two Targums of Esther, The Aramaic Bible, 18 (Collegeville, MN: Michael Glazier, 1991), 119, note iiiii. 324 Rosenblum, “Why,” 106.

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Now they (i.e., Israel) possessed two commandments, which while they were observing them, no enemy could achieve victory against them. One of them was sacrifice, and the other circumcision, and they did not maintain (the observance) of any other commandment. Every day they would put a dirham for this sacrifice in a basket and lower it from the wall with a rope into the camp of Nebuchadnezzar in order to purchase a lamb for this sacrifice. Now one day an Israelite youth was on the wall of Jerusalem, and so they asked him: ‘This lamb which you have been purchasing from us – what do you do with it?’ The youth answered [them]: ‘We offer it as an offering.’ Then they stopped selling them any more lambs and devised a stratagem: instead of a lamb they placed a pig in the basket and sent it to the wall. As soon as [the basket] had reached the top of the wall, they shot arrows at the pig, the blood spewed onto the wall, and the wall cracked open. That day was the ninth of the month Av. Nebūzarādan realized that the Lord was handing them over into his control. He entered Jerusalem and proceeded directly to the Temple. Zedekiah, the king of Judah, fled and the officers of Nebuchadnezzar chased after him (and captured him). When they saw King Zedekiah, they said: ‘These eyes of yours are handsome!’ Then the order was given to kill two of his sons before his eyes, and afterwards they blinded his eyes. Then Nebū arādan s aughtered a pig within the Temp e of the Lord. Nebuchadnezzar himself did not come to Jerusalem – he remained in Riblah – but he had dispatched Nebūzarādan to Jerusalem in order to gain profit through these deeds. 326 325

Dan Shapira notes that his part of the text seems to be a kind of a paraphrase of Targum Sheni to Esther 1:3 which the author adds to the Talmudic legend. Dan Shapira, “Qīṣṣa-ye Dāniyāl – ’o Ma‘aseh Danī’el – be-farsit-yehudit: Ha-ḥibbur we-targumo,” Sefunot 7 (1999): 339 (Hebrew). 326 The Jewish-Persian Apocalypse of Daniel (Ma‘aseh Danī’e 4. Translation by Dan Shapira from the Hebrew translation (cited below) of the original Judeo-Persian text by John C. Reeves (available on line: consulted 17 Janaury 2012. ‫ ולא קיימו שום מצוה‬,‫ והאחת מילה‬,‫ האחת – קרבן‬,‫ אבל בידיהם היו שתי מצוות אשר בעשותן לא ישיג האויב נצחון עליהם‬.6 ‫ درهم] בשביל הקרבן הזה והיו מורידים מהחומה בחבל למחנה נבוכדנצר והיו‬,Dirham[ ‫ וכל היום היו שמים בסל דירהם‬.‫אחרת‬ ‫ מה אתם‬,‫ "הטלה הזה אשר אתם קונים מאתנו‬:‫ יום אחד היה נער ישראלי על חומת ירושלים ושאלו ממנו‬.‫קונים טלה לשם הקרבו‬ ‫ וחיבלו תחבולה ובמקום טלה שמו בסל חזיר‬,‫ אז הם לא מכרו עוד טלה‬."‫ "אנו מקריבים קרבן‬:‫עושים בו?" אמר [להם] הנער‬ ‫ והיום היה תשעה לחודש‬.‫ ירו חצים בחזיר והדם נזל על החומה והחומה נבקעה‬,‫ כאשר הגיע [הסל] לראש החומה‬.‫ושלחו לחומה‬ ‫ מלך יהודה ברח ושרי נבוכדנצר דלקו‬.‫ הוא נכנס לירושלם והגיע במישרין לבית המקדש‬.‫ וידע נבוזרדן שימסור אותם ה' בידו‬,‫אב‬ ‫ אז ציווה להרוג לעיניו את שני בניו ואחרי כן סמאו את‬."‫ "העינים האלה שלך יפות הן‬:‫ אמרו‬,‫ כאשר ראו את המלך צדקיה‬.‫אחריו‬ ‫ ושלח את נבורזראדן לירושלם כדי לבצע את‬,‫ ישב ברבלה‬,‫ ונבוכדנצר עצמו לא בא לירושלם‬.'‫ ונבוזראדן הרג חזיר בבית ה‬.‫עיניו‬ .‫המעשים האלה‬ Shapira, “Qīṣṣa-ye Dāniyāl,” 154. Wiesenberg’s English translation (“Related Prohibitions,” 228) seems to follow both the Hebrew translation of M. Caplan, published in Jellinek (Bet Ha Midrash, V (Vienne, 1873), 117-130) and M. Zotenberg’s German translation. Caplan’s Hebrew translation, however, is a translation of the German translation, See: J. Darmesteter, “L'Apocalypse persane de Daniel,” dans Mélanges Renier; recueil de travaux pub. par l'École pratique des hautes études (Section des sciences historiques et philologiques) en mémoire de son président Léon Renier (Paris: École pratique des hautes, 1887), 407, note 1. For the Judeo-Persian text, see: Hermann Zotenberg, “Geschichte Daniels: ein apokryph,” Archiv für wissenschaftliche Erforschung des Alten Testamentes 1 (1867-69): 385-427. Jes Peter Asmussen and H. Dadkhan, “En jødisk-persisk Daniel apocalypse, en oversšttelse af en apokryf Daniel tekst (A JewishPersian Daniel apocalypse, a translation of an apocryphal Daniel text),” Dansk Teologisk Tidsskrift (1998): 199-215. While it probably has no direct connection to the destruction legends, the Persian general that conquered Jerusalem in the seventh century perhaps was a man named Farrokhan, nicknamed Shahrbaraz, the wild boar. Theophilus of Edessa in the eighth century explains this nickname: “[Khursau said]: “I am ready to exact vengeance on the Romans. Which of you distinguished generals and nobles of the Persians is ready to serve my purpose?” Thereupon Romizan, a powerful diligent man, with considerable experience in combat, said in reply: “I am ready to accomplish your purpose; I will have the strength to do battle with Romans. I flinch from nothing; I show no compassion nor pity nor remorse for any man; I know no

112

Discussion Does the role of the pig in the legends of destruction echo the sacrifice of a pig on the Temple Mount by the Roman soldiers? Perhaps, but not necessarily. As Anat Yisraeli-Taran notes, the pig is “fit” for symbolizing the destruction-profanation of the Temple because it was a strong symbol both of impurity and Rome, and because it was the emblem of the Legion X Fratensis.

327

However as we have seen, the

profanation/destruction of the Temple by a pig, and especially the idea of the replacement of the tamid with the pig, is a literary topos found in earlier Jewish texts, such as the book of Isaiah and Psalms, or in the memory of the Maccabean revolt [table 1]. It seems, then, that early rabbinical texts transferred this topos to the Roman’s conquests of Jerusalem by Pompeius in 63 BCE and especially to that of 70 CE, while in later sources it is traced to the destruction of the first Temple by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The first version provided a violent image of penetration and profanation; the second version stressed the danger of relations between insiders (Jews) and outsiders (Romans), as well as the replacement of the tamid with the abominable animal; the third version stressed the magical nature of the event. The first version seems to be the most ancient, perhaps from the Tannaitic period, for the throwing of the pig’s head into the Temple is mentioned by Origen, who died in 254 CE. The second version, which first appears in the Yerusalmi, of the replacement of the sacrificial animals with the pig, appears to be dated to the

reverence nor regret for the aged or the young.” When he heard his words, Khursau rejoiced greatly and said: “No longer will you be called Romizan, but rather Shahrbaraz, that is, the wild boar!” Theophilus of Edessa, Chronicle, 1234 (8th century CE). Translation by Robert G. Hoyland, Theophilus of Edessa's Chronicle and the Circulation of Historical Knowledge in Late Antiquity and Early Islam (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2011), 56-57. 327 Yisraeli-Taran, The Legends of the Destruction, 85-86.

113

Ammoraic period, while the third version, which concerns the First Temple, is postAmoraic. In the porcine legends of destruction, the abominable animal has magical qualities: its contact with the wall or the altar causes destruction. 328 The pig’s killing/body/blood serves as the anti-thesis of the normal-pure sacrifice. In the same way the tamid sacrifice has the power to defend the city, the “sacrifice” of the pig has the power to destroy it. This magical dimension comes to emphasize the unnatural character of the event, and hence its being the fruit of divine intervention. The profanation of the Temple by pigs has a long history, from the Bible to the Maccabean era, to post 70 CE, to the Middle Ages, to the modern era, moving from the profanation of the Jewish temple to profanation of the Muslim mosques built on the Temple Mount. Already in the seventh century, the Bishop of Bagratunis, Sebeos, in his History (wr. 660s), tells a legend of how, after the Muslims built the mosque on the Temple Mount, three Jews slaughtered two pigs and put them in the mosque, plotting that the fault would fall on the Christians. 329 In the era of the Crusades, Arab historian Yaqut 328

Kister, “Legends of the Destruction,” 503. Sebeos, History 31. “Now I shall speak about the plot of the Jewish rebels, who, finding support from the Hagarenes for a short time, planned to [re]build the temple of Solomon. Locating the place called the holy of holies, they constructed [the temple with a pedestal, to serve as their place of prayer. But the Ishmaelites envied [the Jews], expelled them from the place, and named the same building their own place of prayer. [The Jews] built a temple for their worship elsewhere. It was then that they came up with an evil plan: they wanted to fill Jerusalem with blood from end to end, and to exterminate all the Christians of Jerusalem. Now it happened that there was a certain grandee Ishmaelite who went to worship in their private place of prayer. He encountered three of the principal Jewish men, who had just slaughtered two pigs and taken and put them [in the Muslim] place of prayer. Blood was running down the walls and on the floor of the building. As soon as the man saw them, he stopped and said something or other to them. They replied and departed. The man at once went inside to pray. He saw the wicked [sight], and quickly turned to catch the men. When he was unable to find them, he was silent and went to his place. Then many [Muslims] entered the place and saw the evil, and they spread a lament throughout the city. The Jews told the prince that the Christians had desecrated their place of prayer. The prince issued an order and all the Christians were gathered together. Just as they wanted to put them to the sword, the man came and addressed them: "Why shed so much blood in vain? Order all the Jews to assemble and I shall point out the guilty ones". As soon as they were all assembled and [the man] walked among them, he recognized the three men whom he had previously encountered. Seizing them, [the Arabs] tried them with great severity until they disclosed 329

114

(1179-1229) wrote that the Franks transformed the Mosque of Omar and Al Aksa into a pigpen, while Abu Shama (1203-1267) reports that the El-Aksa, and especially its mihrab, were full of piglets. 330 More recently, in 1997, two Israeli far-right activists, Avigdor Eskin and Damian Pakovitch, were arrested for planning to throw a pig’s head by a catapult into the Temple Mount/al-Haram el-Sharif. 331 One may wonder how much this plan was influenced by the rabbinic legend of the pig’s head that the Romans threw into the Temple. Whatever the case, these examples demonstrate the vitality of images or acts of profanation in narratives of purification. In the case of the rabbinic tradition, the profanation of the Temple by the pig marks the ever continuing situation of the Temple being impure, where the Jews are under the yoke of Rome, a profane world which is to be purified in messianic times.

the plot. And because their prince was among the Jews present, he ordered [The subject probably is the Arab, not Jewish, prince] that six of the principals involved in the plot be killed. He permitted the other [Jews] to return to their places.” Translation by Robert Bedrosian, Sebeos' History (New York: Sources of the Armenian Tradition, 1985), 131-133. Cyril Mango, “The Temple Mount AD 614-638,” in Bayt alMaqdis: 'Abd al-Malik's Jerusalem, ed. Julian Raby and Jeremy Johns (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 1-16. 330 Yaqut al-Hamawi, Dictionar of Countries ( itab Mu’gam a -Buldan), 4; Abu Shama, The Book of the Two Gardens on the History of the Two Reigns (Kitab al-Rawdatayn fi akhbar al-dawlatayn), see: HarPeled, “Animalité, pureté et croisade,” 132 331 Ha’aretz 25 December 1997.

115

Source

Date

JewishPersian Apocalypse of Daniel Targum Sheni to Esther 1:3 Targum of Lamentations 3.2.9 Avot deRabbi Nathan Bavli

Ms. c. 1600

Yerusalmi

5th -6th cent.

4th-10th cent.?

Actor

Destruction/ Profanation of the Temple 1st 2nd

Nebūzarādan under the orders of Nebuchadnezzar Parnatos Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar

▲

▲

▲

Romans

▲

d. 397

Romans

▲

306-373

Romans

▲

Origen Commentary on Matthew Daniel

c. 185– c. 254

Romans

▲

2nd cent. BCE

[Greeks]

▲

The besiegers put pigs in the basket but two lambs were found the pig thrust its paws against the wall Pig’s head

▲

Pilate carries the pig’s head into the temple Pig head ▲

?

? 5th cent BCE

Table 1: The pig and the destruction or profanation of the Temple.

116

Other

Sprinkling of blood upon the Temple Sprinkling pig’s blood on the city gates The pig touches the wall and the altar the pig thrusts its paws against the wall (Siege of 65 BCE)

▲

The Romans ? (war between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus) Greeks

Psalms 80:14

Sac rific e ▲

▲

Ambrose Commentary on Luke Ephrem the Syrian

Isaiah 66:3

tamid

▲

Vespasian 6th -7th cent.

The action with the pig

The abomination of desolation was a sacrifice of a pig? “The boar from the forest ravages it” Offering of pig blood

Chapter 5 The Boar Emblem of the Legion X Fretensis and Aeneas’ Sow In the current chapter, we will discuss three explanations which have been provided for the identification of Rome with the pig: 1) the boar emblem of the Legion X Fretensis, 2) the erection of a sculpture of a sow in Aelia Capitolina, and 3) the myth of Rome’s founding as told in Virgil’s Aeneid. First, we will discuss the recurrent explanation following Theodore Reinach’s idea (1903) that the Rabbis identified Rome with the pig because the boar was the emblem of the Legion X Fretensis. 332

The Boar Emblem The legion derived its appellation Fretensis from Fretum (Siculum), where it had distinguished itself in the naval battle fought between Agrippa and Sextus Pompeius in 36 BCE. This explains the special link of the legion to Neptune and its symbols of the galley and the dolphin. In 1869, Félicien de Saulcy suggested that the boar became the Legion X Fretensis’s emblem with the intention of annoying the Jews.333 As Dan Bara g notes “this theory has been rejected because three other legions ( Legio I Italica, II Adiutrix, and 20th Valeria Victrix) had the same symbol, but never had any connection 332

Reinach, “Mon nom est Légion,” 172-178. Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, 294, note 162. Heinemann, The Methods of the Aggadah, 32. Krauss, Paras VeRomi, 100-105; 177-178. Aminoff, The Figure, 258-265. Feldman, Josephus's Interpretation of the Bible, 323. Feldman, Remember Amalek, 67. Barak-Erez, Outlawed Pigs, 20. Lachs, A Rabbinic commentary, 139. Against this identification, see: Hadas-Lebel, Jerusalem Against Rome, 518. See also: “Swine” Jewish Encyclopedia. Wilk, “When Hyrcanus was Besieging Aristobulus,” 104. 333 De Saulcy, “Lettre,“ 259. Félicien de Saulcy, Numismatique de la Terre Sainte, description des monnaies autonomes et impériales de la Palestine et de l'Arabie Pétrée... (Paris : J. Rothschild, 1874), 90. Followed by P. Germer-Durand, “Aelia Capitolina,” Revue biblique 1 (1892): 384. Cagnat rejects this argument, noting that the boar was the sign of other legions which had no connection to the war with the Jews, K. M. R. Cagnat, “L’armée romaine au siège de Jérusalem,” Revue des études juives 22 (1891): xlii. E. Michon, “Mélanges, III, Note sur une inscription de Ba’albek et sur des tuiles de la légion Xa Fretensis,” Revue Biblique 9 (1900): 95-105.

117

with the Jews.”334 The boar emblem manifested the strong long-standing identification of the warrior with the boar in the Greco-Roman world, and especially in the Germanic world (Fig. 8).335

Fig. 8: Standard with a boar on a Roman bas-relief, Narbonne, France. 336

The legion X Fretensis arrived in Judea in the spring of 66 CE. After assembling the Roman troops in Ptolemais, in 67 CE the legion took part in the war in Galilee, at the siege of Jotapata. After spending the winter in Caesarea Maritima, the legion participated in the conquest of Tiberias, Tarichease, and Gamla, spending the winter of 68 CE in Scythopolis. In 69 CE, after Vespasian ordered his son Titus to conquer Jerusalem, the legion X Fretensis moved to Jerusalem via Jericho. First camping on the Mount of Olives, Titus then moved the legion to the northern part of the city. Our unique source for the history of the siege, Josephus, does not relate the exact role of the legion in the conquest of the city, but it is probable that its troops took part in the conquest of the Temple Mount.

334

Barag, “Countermarks,” 118. For a general survey of boar emblems, see: Bernard Marillier, Le sang ier h ra dique (Le CoudrayMacouard: Cheminements, 2003). 336 See: Émile Espérandieu, Recueil général des bas-reliefs de la Gaule romaine, tome 1 (Paris: Impr. Nationale, 1907), 444. [“Sanglier entre deux casques gaulois pourvus de cornes et de jugulaires; à droite, deux bouclier d’amazone superpose, recouvrant deux lances.”]. 335

118

After the fall of Jerusalem, Judaea received the status of a senatorial province and the legate of the X Fretensis held the office of governor, until the time of Trajan, when the legate was subordinated to the governor of Judea. 337 After capturing the fortresses of Herodium, Machaerus, and Masada in 73 CE, the legion was stationed in Jerusalem until the end of the third century when it was transferred to Aelia (modern Aqaba/Eilat) on the shore of the Red Sea. 338 Tiles and brick-stamps with the legion X fretensis’s boar emblem were discovered in Jerusalem and its vicinity (fig. 9) 339 and on countermarks (secondar y mints on coins) (fig. 10). 340

Fig. 9: Two Brick Stamp Impressions of the Legio X Fretensis from Jerusalem, 68-132 CE. 337

Dabrowa, Legio X Fretensis,15-16. Josephus, Jewish War 7.1-2: “Caesar ordered the whole city and the temple to be razed to the ground, leaving only the loftiest of the towers, Pasael, Hippicus, and Mariamme, and the portion of the wall enclosing the city on the west: the latter as encampment for the garrison that was the remains (…) As the local garrison Caesar decided to leave the tenth legion, along with some squadrons of cavalry and companies of infantry (…).” 339 Barag, “Brick.” Approximately two kilometers west of Jerusalem (Binyanei Ha'uma/Seikh Bader), a tile kilnworks was found with some tiles with the boar emblem. B. Arubas and H. Goldfus, “The Kilnworks of the Tenth Legion Fretensis,” in The Roman and Byzantine Near East: Some Recent Archaeological Research, ed. John H Humphrey (Ann Arbor, MI: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 1995), 273. H. Goldfus and B. Arubas, “The Kilnworks of the Tenth Legion at the Jerusalem Convention Center,” Qadmoniot 122, no. 2 (2002): 111-119 (Hebrew). 340 Dan Barag, “The Countermarks of the Legio Decima Fretensis (Preliminary Report),” The Patterns of Monetary development in Phoenicia and Palestine in Antiquity. Proceedings of the Internationa l Numismatic Convention, Jerusalem 27-31 December 1963, ed. Arie Kindler (Tel Aviv: Schocken, 1967), 117-125, plates IX-XI. Kenneth K. A. L nnqvist, “New Vistas on the Countermarked Coins of the Roman Prefects of Judaea,” Israel Numismatic Journal 12 (1992): 56-70. Countermarks of the boar emblem also appear on a coin of a Palestinian Judaea Capta of Titus and of Vespasian Barag,”Countermarks,” 120. A. Spijkerman, “Some Rare Jewish Coins,” Liber Annuus 13 (1962/3): 315, fig. 56. 338

119

Fig. 10: A Roman Coin Found in Jerusalem with a Secondary Mint of the Symbols of the Legion X Fretensis.

Whatever the exact location of the Legion X Fretensis camp in Jerusalem, 341 it is clear that its mere presence in the holy city was a scandal for the Jews, as demonstrated, for example, by the Jerusalem Talmud’s prayer to the ninth of ‘Av, the day of lamentation of the destruction of the Temple: “Have mercy, Lord our God, out of your bountiful mercy and true loving-kindness, upon us, and upon your nation Israel, and upon the city Jerusalem, and upon Zion your honored dwelling, and upon the city of mourning, ruin, destruction, and desolation, which has been given over into the hands of strangers, which the wicked devastated, foreign legions inherited, and idolaters desecrated.”342

341

Scholars disagree as to the location of the tenth legion camp in the city; some propose it was on the southwestern hill of the city; others in the area of the Holy Sepulcher, the city citadel (Jaffa gate), south of the Temple Mount; and some even claim that it was on the Temple Mount itself. For a general review of the various opinions, see: Yoram Tsafrir, “The Topography and Archaeology of Aelia Capitolina, “The History of Jerusalem. The Roman and Byzantine Periods (70-638 CE), ed. Yoram Tsafrir and Smuel Safrai (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi Press, 1999), 125 (Hebrew). Eilat Mazar, “The Camp of the Tenth Roman Legion at the Foot of the South-West Corner of the Temple Mount Enclosure Wall in Jerusalem,” in New Studies on Jerusalem, Proceedings of the Fifth Conference December 23 rd 1999, ed. A. Faust and E. Baruch (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University, Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies, 1999), 52-67 (Hebrew). G. D. Stiebel, “The Whereabouts of the Xth Legion and the Boundaries of Aelia Capitolina,” in New Studies on Jerusalem, Proceedings of the Fifth Conference December 23 rd 1999, ed. A. Faust and E. Baruch (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University, Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies, 1999), 68-103 (Hebrew). See also: Jodi Magness, “In the footsteps of the Tenth Roman Legion in Judea,” The First Jewish Revolt: Archeology, History, and Ideology, ed. Andrea M. Berlin and Andrew J. Overman (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), 189-212. Dan Barag, “Brick.” 342 Y. Berakhot 4:3, 8a. Italics mine. Translation by Neusner, The Talmud of the Land of Israel, vol. 1, Berakhot, 174.

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Aelia Capitolina Approximately sixty years after the destruction of the Jewish city by Titus, Emperor Hadrian founded the Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina on its ruins. The new colony was named after the second name of the emperor Hadrian (Aelius) and the supreme deity in the Roman pantheon (Capitoline Jupiter). The founding of the new city was probably one of the reasons for the Bar Kochba revolt (132-135 CE), at least if we believe Dio Cassius, who notes that “the Jews deemed it intolerable that foreign races should be settled in their city and foreign rites planted there.” 343 The city, for two centuries until its Christianization in the fourth century, was a typical oriental pagan Roman colony. As a veteran colony, the military cult was one of Aelia Capitolina’s principal cults; one of these cults to the Legion X Fretensis’ signboards included the boar emblem, 344 which was minted on the city´s coins (fig. 11).345

‫רחם ה' אלהינו ברחמיך הרבי' ובחסדיך הנאמני' עלינו ועל עמך ישר' ועל ירושלם עירך ועל ציון משכן כבודך ועל העיר האבילה‬ ‫והחריבה וההרוסה והשוממה הנתונה ביד זרים הרמוסה ביד עריצים ויירשוה לגיונות ויחללוה עובדי פסילים ולישר' עמך נתתה‬ ‫נחלה ולזרע ישורון ירושה הורשתה כי באש היצתה ובאש אתיה עתיד לבנותה כאמור ואני אהיה לה נאם ה' חומת אש סביב ולכבוד‬ .'‫אהיה בתוכ‬ See: Isaiah, M. Gafni, “Jerusalem in Rabbinic Literature,” in The History of Jerusalem. The Roman and Byzantine Periods (70-638 CE), ed. Yoram Tsafrir and Smuel Safrai (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi Press, 1999), 35-60 (Hebrew). 343 Cassius Dio, Roman History 69.12.1. Hanan Eshel, “Aelia Capitolina. Jerusalem no more.” Biblical Archaeological Review 23, no. 6 (1997): 46-48. 344 Nicole Belayche, “’Dimenticare... Gerusalemme’: les paganismes à Aelia Capitolina du IIe au IVe siècle de notre ère,” Revue des Études Juives 158, no. 3-4 (1999): 302. 345 Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem): Antonius Pius (138-161 CE), Elagbal (218-222 CE), (250-251 CE). Caesarea: Herennius Etruscus, (249-251 CE), A boar walking to the right surmounted by two vexilla, coin number 186. In Leo Kadman, The Coins of Caesarea Maritima (Tel-Aviv: Schoken; Jerusalem: Publications of the Israel Numismatic Soceity, 1957), 69, 210, plate XV. As Yaakov Meshorer notes, “it seems that Hadrian gave great prominence to the symbols of the legions on the coins of Aelia Capitolina in order to emphasize that the colony was founded after a military victory.” Yaakov Meshorer, “An Unpublished Coin of Aelia Capitolina,” Israel Exploration Journal 13 (1963): 60. Nichole Belayche writes: “Le fait que la colonie tout juste naissante ait été confonté à la seconde révolte juive a dû contrivuer à renforcer les symboles légionaires sur les monnaies hadrianiennes, histoire d’insister sur la vic toire de 135.“ Belayche, “Dimenticare...,” 304.

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Fig. 11: Aelia Cpitolina, Coin of Herennius Aelia Cpitolina, Coin of Herennius Etruscus (250-251 CE). Boar running; legionary eagle on its back, with vexillum topped by star.346

The Sculpture of the Sow In the Chronicon of Eusebius (c. 311 CE), which came to us in its Latin translation by Jerome (c. 380 CE), it is written for the year 136 CE: “Aelia founded by Aelius Hadrian; on the front [in fronte] of that gate, by which we go out to Bethlehem, a sow was sculpted in marble [sus sculptus in marmore], denoting that the Jews were subject to Roman authority. Some believe it was constructed by Titus Aelius, the son of Vespasian.” 347 The statue mentioned was erected in front of the western gate of the city,

346

As Kadman notes, the image of “the boar of the Decima Fretensis surmounted by eagle and vexillum, occurs also on coins of Neapolis Samaria and Ptolemais-Acre, minted under Trebonianus Gallus [Emperor 251-253 CE]; but on these coins the military symbol is associated with the figure of Poseidon and – in the case of Neapolis – of Mount Gerizim.” Kadman, The Coins of Aelia Capitolina, 57. 347 “Aelia ab Aelio Hadriano condita, et in fronte ejus portae, qua Bethleem egredimur, Sus sculptus in marmore, significans Romanae potestati subjacere Judaeos. Nonnulli a Tito Aelio filio Vespasiani exstructam arbitrantur.” Jerome (Eusebius), Chronicle, 20. Repeated later on by Prosper of Aquitaine (d. 455 CE; PL 51, Col. 0560D.) and Cassiodorus (d. c. 585 CE; PL 69, Col.1232D), and in the middle ages by Freculphus (Frechulf) of Lisieux, Chronicle 2.12 (written around the 820s in France; PL 106, col. 1160D). Interestingly, since the end of the sixteenth century, some explained the medieval image of the Judensau, which shows Jews riding a sow, eating its excrement, breast-feeding from it, and kissing it, as originating from the sow sculpture Hadrianus, allegedly erected in Jerusalem. Shachar, The Judensau, 1213.

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the modern Jaffa Gate, between the city Forum and perhaps the camp of the Legion X Fretensis (fig. 12). 348

Fig. 12: The Plan of Aelia Capitolina (cf. Yaron Z. Eliav). Contrary to the Chronicon, K. M. R. Cagnat and Yoram Tsafrir believed that the sculpture was not erected to humiliate the Jews, but to commemorate the contribution of the Legion X Fretensis to the construction of the gate. 349 Whether or not the erection of the statue was motivated by the intention to humiliate the Jews, in later periods it was so conceived by Christian authors. Indeed, it seems probable that the pig, regardless of

348

Belayche, “Dimenticare...,’” 303. Tsafrir, “The Topography and Archaeology of Aelia Capitolina,” 125. Also: Frederic W. Madden, History of Jewish Coinage, and of Money in the Old and New Testament: With 254 Woodcuts, and a Plate of Alphabets (London: Quaritch, 1864), 211. 349

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whether it was a priori used against the Jews, could be seen in the eyes of the Jews and Romans as insulting the Jews in the context of the conflict between the two. Samuel Krauss goes as far as to propose that “there is reason to believe that” the symbolization of Rome as a pig in rabbinic literature “came into prominence only since the time of Hadrian and the fall of Betar (135 CE), since, in order to insult the Jews, the image of a pig was attached on the South gate of Jerusalem which had been transformed into the Roman colony, Aelia Capitolina.” 350 Mireille Hadas-Lebel argues that the link between the sculpture of the sow at the Jaffa gate and the identification of Rome with the pig is doubtful since, “after 135, there was little contact between the Jewish populations and the Legion X Fretensis quartering at Aelia Capitolina where the Jews were forbidden the right to stay.” 351 This is indeed true on some level, but we know that the legion was not only active in the vicinity of Jerusalem (fig. 13), and that furthermore, the ban on Jewish presence in the holy city was not fully respected and was exaggerated by Christian authors for polemical reasons.352

350

Krauss, Monumenta Talmudica, 15. Cited in: Braverman, erome’s Commentar on Danie , 94. Hadas-Lebel, Jerusalem Against Rome, 518. On the ban of Jews from the city, see: R. Harris, “Hadrian’s Decree of Expulsion of the Jews from Jerusalem,” Harvard Theological Review 19 (1926): 199206. 352 S. Safrai, “The Holy Congregation in Jerusalem,” Scripta Hierosolymitana 23 (1972): 62-78. Belayche, “Dimenticare...,” 294. G nter Stemberger, Jews and Christians in the Holy Land: Palestine in the Fourth Century (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2000), 40-43. For the patristic discourse concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, see: M. C. Paczkowski, “Gerusalemme negli scrittori cristiani del II-III secolo,” Liber Annus Studii Biblici Franciscani 45 (1995): 165-174. 351

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Fig. 13: Legion X Fretensis in Judea (Cf. Dabrow 1993).

The idea that the sculpture was of the legion X Fretensis’ emblem is itself problematic. If this was the case, why does the Chronicon say that the sculpture was of a sow (sus) and not of a boar (aper)? Because Rome itself was evoked in the official image that Aelia Capitolina gave to itself, one can wonder if the marble statue that was erected

125

at the Jaffa gate (hence near the Forum of the city) was not that of the boar of the Legion X Fretensis but of Aeneas’ sow, one of Rome’s symbols.353 According to Virgil’s Aeneid (wr. 29-19 BCE), after the fall of Troy Aeneas and his companions left the ruined city, looking for a place to found a new home. After seven years of hardship along the Mediterranean, Aeneas finally founded the city of Lavinium, the parent city of Alba Longa and Rome. According to the poem, Helenus prophesized to Aeneas that he should build his new city where he finds an albino sow with thirty piglets: 354 When, under pressure, you come to streams of a well-hidden river, Under the bankside’s oak-shrub brush you’ll find an immense sow Lying sprawled on the soil, on her side – an albino, with thirty Newborn piglets, albino themselves, at her teats in a cluster. This is the seat for you future state and your refuge from troubles. 355

Aneas’s sow became a symbol of Rome, and hence, as Andreas Alföldi notes in early times, “it even seems that the statue of the sow with her piglets was erected in all the forums of the new colonies of Rome which had a Latin status.” 356 It is not clear whether sculptures of Aeneas’ sow were erected in Roman colonies in later periods, but 353

This was proposed by Cesare Baronius in his Annales Ecclesiastici (1588-1607). Cesare Baronio, Annales ecclesiastici Caesaris Baronii, vol. 2 (Barri-Ducis: Guerin, 1864), 229 (“sixti annus 6-Christi 137”). 354 For the different configurations of this tradition see : Jacques Poucet, “Le motif de la truie romaine aux trente gorets,” Folia Electronica Classica (Louvain-la-Neuve) 7 (janvier-juin 2004), . Consulted April 18, 2012. Joël Tho mas, “La truie blanche et les trente gorets dans l’Énéide de Virgile,” dans Mythologies du Porc. Actes du Colloque de Saint Antoine ’Abba e (4-5 avril 1998), texte réunis par Philippe Zalter, 51-72 (Grenoble: Jérôme Million, 1999). Joël Thomas, “Le boeuf, la truie et la louve: les animaux-totems et les voyageurs dans le mythe des origines de Rome,” dans Bouleversants voyages. Itinéraires et transformations, éd. P. Carmignani (Perpignan: Presses universitaires de Perpignan, 2000), 67-84. 355 Virgil, Aeneid 3.387-393 (and also 8.42-46; 8.80-85). Translation by Frederick Ahl and Elaine Fantham, Virgil, Aeneid (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 66. 356 Alföldi, Early Rome and the Latins, 272. Varro (116-24 BCE) notes that in his time there were bronze images of Aneas’ sow in public spaces in the city of Lavinium: “It is recorded that the most ancient portent of this kind is the sow of Aeneas at Lavinium, which bore thirty white pigs; and the portent was fulfilled in that thirty years later the people of Lavinium founded the town of Alba. Traces of this sow and her pigs are to be seen even to this day; there are bronze images of them standing in public spaces even now, and the body of the sow is exhibited by the priests, having been kept in brine, according their account.” Varro, On Agriculture 2.4.17.

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the theme received special importance in the political propaganda of the Imperial period (fig. 14).

Fig.14: Rome, 2nd century marble sculpture of a sow with piglets.

In the time of Augustus, the scene of the sacrifice of the Laurentine sow appears on the Ara Pacis, which the Roman Senate erected in 9 BCE to celebrate Augustus’ triumph in Spain and Gaul several years earlier (fig. 15). Around the corner from the scene of Aeneas sacrificing the sow, Augustus and his family are depicted. Hence, a symbolic association is made between Aeneas and Augustus, which portrays the latter as the new founder of Rome. The scene of the sacrifice of the white sow is exhibited also on the Belvedere Altar that commemorates Augustus’ reorganization of the cult of the Lares compitales (fig. 16). 357 Augustus´ propaganda portrayed Aeneas as the founder of Alba Longa and of the Julian line. Hence, Augustus’ filial piety originates from Aeneas. 358 Just

357

P. Zanker, “Die Larenaltar im Belvedere des Vatikans,” Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaologischen Instituts, Romische Abteilung 76 (1969): 205-218. 358 Jane DeRose Evans, The Art of Persuasion: Political Propaganda from Aeneas to Brutus (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992), 43-45.

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as Aeneas was the founder of Rome, so was Augustus portrayed as the re-founder of Rome after a series of civil wars.359

Fig. 15: Ara Pacis: Relief of Aeneas sacrificing to the Penates.

B.

A.

Fig. 16: The Belvedere Altar. A. Aeneas and the Laurentine sow. B. Augustus and the Vicomagistri.

Contrary to the the Julio-Claudian dynasty which preceeded it, the Flavian dynasty founded by Vespasian did not lay claim to any divine lineage in general, or to Aeneas in particular. However, like their predecessors, they use the image of Aeneas’

359

Ibid., 46

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sow in their propaganda: the white sow with her piglets appeared on Titus and Vespasian’s coins (fig. 17), 360 and on medallions which Marcus Aurelius, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius’ minted with the nine hundredth anniversary of Rome in mind (figs. 1819).361

Fig. 17: Vespasian, Denarius, minted 77-78 CE. Laureate head right / Aneas’ sow with piglets.

Fig. 18: Antonine copy of the Hadrianic 'Aeneid' medallion, reverse design.

360

For propaganda on Vespasian coins see: Barbara Levick, “Propaganda and the Imperial Coinage,” Antichton 16 (1982): 104-116. 361 Alföldi, Early Rome and the Latins, 273, pl. IV-VII. Stefan Weinstock, “Pax and the 'Ara Pacis',” Journal of Roman Studies 50 (1960): 44-58.

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Fig. 19: Bronze Medallion of Antoninus Pius (Reign 138-161 CE).

As in the case of Augustus, the association of the emperor with Aeneas sacrificing the sow came to represent the emperor as a new founder of Rome. 362 Herr seems to go too far when he proposes that the pig that the sages identified with Rome is really Aeneas’ symbol of Rome. We can at least remark that if the Romans inscribed the pig (and its sacrifice) in one of their foundation myths, the Jews inscribed the pig in their destruction myth. While Aeneas’ sow symbolized fortune for the Romans, for the sages the boar symbolized both current Roman fortune and future misfortune in the messianic era, when God would punish Rome. The problem with the above explanations of the identification of the pig with Rome is that we do not find any echoes of them in rabbinic sources. The Midrashim and the Talmudim do not even mention the Legion X Fretensis, its boar emblems, the statue of a sow at the Jaffa Gate, or Aeneas’ sow. If the boar emblem was ”an insult thrown in the face of the Jewish nation,” 363 as Félicien de Saulcy proposed, we do not find any evidence of this in Jewish sources. The silence of the Rabbinic sources make it difficult

362

Francois Philippe Gourdain noted in 1787 that the representation of this theme on Vespasian’ coins (and on later coins) “is not made with the intention of offending the Jews.” Francois Philippe Gourdain, “Translation of a Dissertation on Satyrical Medals addressed to the Society by Pere Francois Philippe Gourdain,” Archaeologia, or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, vol. IX (London: The Society of Antiquaries of London, 1789), 61-81. Frederic W. Madden, History of Jewish Coinage, 212, note 4. 363 “[u]ne insulte jetée à la face de la nation juive,” De Saulcy, “Lettre,” 259.

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to argue that the identification of Rome with the pig is a direct reaction to Rome’s porcine symbols. Rather than asking to which particular porcine Roman symbols the sages react, I propose that we ask to what Roman porcine discourse the sages react. In other words, what was the political meaning the Romans gave to the pig or the boar, and how did the sages react to this? We will respond to this question in the following chapter.

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Chapter 6 The Diocletian Legend in Genesis Rabbah Diocletian the Swineherd According to a legend in the Jerusalem Talmud, and a more elaborated version in the 4/5th century Genesis Rabbah (below), Emperor Diocletian in his youth was a swineherd: 364 The emperor Diocletian was a swineherd in Tiberias. Whenever he came near Rabbi’s school, the children would come out and beat him up. Later he became king. He went and stayed at Paneas, [Caesarea Philippi, currently Banias] and sent letters to Tiberias just before the eve of the Sabbath, saying: “I command the Rabbis of the Jews to appear before me on the first morning of the week [Sunday morning].” He instructed the messenger and told him: “You will not give them the message until just before the sunset in the Sabbath evening.” R. Samuel b. Nahman went down to bathe. He saw Rabbi standing before the House of Study with his face pale. He told him: why is your face all pale? He [Rabbi] told him: “So and so, letters were sent to me from Diokletianus the King.” He [R. Samuel b. Nahman] told him: “Come to bathe, that our creator performs miracles for you.” He [Rabbi] went in to bathe, and came Argantin [a sort of spirit] jesting and dancing before him. Rabbi wished to scold him. R. Samuel b. Nahman said to him [to Rabbi]: “Leave him alone, for sometimes he makes miracles appear.” He told him [R. Samuel b. Nahman to Argantin]: ‘Your master is in distress, yet you giggle?’ He [Argantin] told them: “Go, eat and make a good Sabbath, for your Creator performs miracles and I will set you in the first morning of the week in the place you desire.” At the end of the Sabbath, after the Service, he [Argantin] took them and set them before the gate of Paneas. They [Diocletian´s servants] entered and told him [Diocletian]: “Lo, they are standing before the gate.” He said: “close the gate.” He [Argantin] took them and set them on the wall of the city. They [Diocletian´s servants] entered and told him [Diocletian]. He said: “I command that the baths be heated for three days, then let them go and bathe therein and then appear before me.” They went and heated the baths for three days, and Argantin entered and poured [cold water] before them, and they entered and bathed and they came before him. He [Diocletian] told them: “Because you know that your God performs miracles on your behalf, you disdain the king.” They [the Rabbis] told him: “Diocletian that was a swineherd we did indeed disdain, but to Diocletian the king we are enslaved.” He told them: “Even so, you will not disdain the humblest Roman or the meanest servant [Guliar]”365 364

I thank Hakim Salem for sharing with me his reading of the story. GeR Toledoth 63.8.7. My translation. ‫ לבתר יומין איתעביד‬,‫דקלייטינוס מלכא הוה רעי חזירין בהדא טבריה וכיון דהוה מטי סדריה דרבי הווי מינוקא נפקין ומחיין ליה‬ ‫ אנא יהיב קילוון דיהוון רברבני דיהודאי קיימין‬:‫ אמר‬.‫ ושלח כתבים לטבריא מפני רמשא דערובתה‬,‫מלך נחת ויתיב ליה בהדא פנייס‬ ‫ נחת רבי שמואל בר נחמן‬.‫ לא תתן יתהון להון אלא עם מטעמי יומא דערובתא‬:‫ אמר ליה‬.‫ פקדיה לשליחא‬,‫קודמי בצפרא דחד בשבא‬ ‫ כן וכן אשתדר לי כתבין מן‬:‫ למה פניך חולניות? אמר‬:‫ חמתי לרבי דהוה קאים קומי סדרא רבה ראה פניו חולניות אמר לו‬,‫למיסחי‬ ‫ עלו ן למסחי ואתא הדין ארגיניטון מגחיך ומרקד קדמיהון ובא זה ארגיניטון‬,‫ איתא סחי דברייך עביד לנא נסין‬:‫ אמר ליה‬.‫מלכותא‬ :‫ אמר ליה‬.‫ רבי שבקיה דזמנין על נסין הוא מתחמא‬:‫ אמר ליה רבי שמואל בר נחמן‬.‫ בעא רבי דיזעוף ביה‬,‫מגחיך ומרקד למולם‬ 365

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Scholars have long searched for the historical background of this story. Heinrich Graetz (1885) imagined that “the emperor was secretly informed that the Patriarch and his companions made merry over his obscure parentage and his surname Aper (Boar), concerning which the emperor was especially sensitive.” 366 Yitzhak Baer saw in this story proof that Diocletian persecuted not just the Christians but also the Jews, an opinion that was rejected by others. 367 A. Marmostein proposed that the story originally was about Galerius, Diocletian’s adopted son, with whom he shared the rule of the East in 293 CE. He noted that Galerius, according to some Roman sources, was a shepherd in his youth, and because he ruled the East the sages in Eretz Israel would have known this. This biographical detail was incorporated into the story, but later generations attributed it to Diocletian who was better known to them. Hence, the word “Guliar” in the response of Diocletian is a later transformation of the original name ‘Galerius’. Thus, according to Marmostein, it was Galerius who told the sages: ‘

en so, ou wi

not disdain the

‫ אזלון ואכלון ושתון ועבדון שבא טבא דמריכ ון עביד לכון נסין ואנא מקים לכון‬:‫מריך בעקא ואת קאים גחיך ומרקד? אמר להון‬ .‫ הא קיימין קדם פיילי‬:‫ עלון ואמרין ליה‬.‫ באפוקי שבתא בתר סידרא נסבון ואקימון קדם פיילי דפנייס‬.‫קודמוי בצפרא דחד בשבתא‬ ‫ אמר אנא קלוון אנא דיתזון בי בני תלתא יומי ויעלון‬:‫ עלון ואמרין ליה‬.‫ סגרון פיילי נסבוהון ועקמון על מטכסא דמדינתא‬:‫אמר‬ ‫ בגין‬:‫ אמר להון‬.‫ויסחון ויאתין לגבאי אזלון ואתזון בי בני תלתא יומין ואעל חד ארגיניטון ומוזגה קדמיהון ועלו וסחון ואתון לגביה‬ ‫ ברם לדיקליטיינוס מלכא‬,‫ לדיקליטיינוס רעי חזירין אקילינן‬:'‫ אמרין לי‬.‫דאתון ידעין דאלהיכון עביד לכון נסין אתון מקילין למלכא‬ .‫ אפילו כן לא תבזון לא ברומי זעיר ולא בגולייר זעיר‬:‫ אמר להון‬.‫אנן משועבדים‬ Compare to Yerusalemi, Terumot 8:11, 46b-c: .‫ איתעביד מלך נחת לפמייס שלח כתבין בתר רבנין תיהוון גביי במפקי שובתא מיד‬.‫כולא דיקלוט חזירא מחוניה טליי דר' יודה נשייא‬ ‫ לא ת תן להון כתבין אלא בערובתא עם מטמעי שמש' ואתא שליחא גבהון בערובתא עם מטמעי שמשא והוה רבי‬:‫אמר ליה לשלוחיא‬ ‫ אמר ליה‬.‫יודן נשייא ור' שמואל בר נחמן נחתין למיסחוי בדימוסין דטיבריא אתא אנגיטריס גבהון ובעא רבי יודן נשייא למינזף ביה‬ ‫ סחון דברייכון עביד‬:‫ אמר לון‬.‫ מה רבנין עבדין? תנון לי' עובדא‬:‫ אמר לון‬.‫ ארפי ליה לניסיון הוא מיתחמי‬:‫רבי שמואל בר נחמן‬ ‫ לא ייחמון אפיי עד דאינון סחיין הוה ההיא ביבני אזייה‬:‫ אמר‬.‫ הא רבנין לבר‬:‫ אמר ליה‬.‫ במפקי שובתא טען יתהון ואעיל יתהון‬. ‫ניסין‬ ‫ בגין דברייכון עביד לכון ניסין אתון מבזין‬:‫ אמר לון‬.‫שבעה יומין ושבעה לילוון נפק ואנצח קדמיהון ועללון וקמון ליה קדמיהון‬ .‫ לא ברומי זעיר ולא בחבר זעיר‬,‫ לא מכסי‬,‫ ואפילו כן‬.‫ דיקלוט חזירא בזינן דיקליטיאנוס מלכא לא בזינן‬:‫מלכותא? אמרין ליה‬ 366 Heinrich Graetz, History of the Jews, vol. II (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1956 [1893]), 533. Günter Stemberger mentions the link between the two stories, but does not explain it. Günter Stemberger, “Die beurteilung Roms in der rabbinischen literatur,“ ANRW II. 19, no. 2 (1979): 379. 367 Yitzhak Baer, “Israel, the Christian Church and the Roman Empire from the time of Septimius Severus to the Edict of Toleration of A.D. 313,” Scripta Hierosolymitana 7 (1961): 127. A contrary opinion: Saul Lieberman, “The Persecutions of the Jewish Religion,” in Salo Wittmayer Baron Jubilee Volume on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday, vol. 3, ed. Saul Lieberman and Arthur Hyman (Jerusalem: American Academy for Jewish Research, 1974), 241. Mordechai Alfredo Rabello, “On the Relations between Diocletian and the Jews,” Journal of Jewish Studies 35 (1984): 147-167.

133

humblest Roman or the meanest Galerius.”368 For Zvi-Uri Ma’aoz, “Diocletian was in the Levant in 290 CE and traveled as far south as Tyre. Paneas was in the hinterland of the Phoenician coastal cities and on the main route to Damascus.(…) It is, therefore, highly likely that during his stay at Paneas, Diocletian summoned the leaders of the Jewish community, who were located only about 65 km away, in Tiberias.” 369 However, evidence of this is insufficient. In any case, the story tells us more about the way the sages understood history than about a real historical event. The sages, more than writing history, are telling a story: “While the historical documents serve to describe events, the stories serve to clarify, resolve, and teach a lesson on “morals.” 370 This story is indeed a significant historical document, not about a doubtful historical event, but rather about the way in which relations between Rome and the Jews were understood by the sages. Freed from the burden of positive historicism, we may turn again to the story itself. 371 The story may be divided into three parts: I. Introduction, II. Tiberias, and III. Paneas, while each scene may be divided into two sub-scenes. The Introduction explains the motive for Diocletian’s hostility to the sages: revenge for the bad treatment he received from Rabbi´s peoples when he was a humble man, a swineherd. Now that he is the Emperor,

368

A. Marmorstein, “Dioclétien à la lumière de la littérature rabbinique,” Revue des études juive 98 (1934): 24. 369 Zvi Uri Ma’oz, “The Civil Reform of Diocletian in the Southern Levant,” Scripta Classica Israelica 25 (2006): 109. 370 Eliezer Marcus, The Confrontation Between Jews and Non-Jews in Folktales of the Jews of Islamic Countries, vol 2 (Ph.D. thesis, Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1977), xliv (Hebrew). 371 The talmudic legend is not different in its nature from any other legend, for example from this late Jewish legend: A swineherd is badly treated by the Jews. When he becomes king, he asks for the Jews to be exterminated. A Jewish sage asked him what is the diffrence between two words “klia ‫( ”כליה‬anhilation) and “Klia ‫( "קליה‬roasting( [both words without punctuation marks might be read in the same way]. The king did not know the answer. The sage told him, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). The king repented and became a friend of the Jews. Israel Folktale Archives named in honor of Dov Noy at the University of Haifa [no.18949. Collected by: Yifrah Habib; told by: Hasher ben Harush (Marocco), 1993].

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he is the one that orders.372 He orders his messengers, and he orders the sages. Diocletian knows that the Jews are prohibited from travel on the Sabbath, so he orders that they receive his command a short time before the beginning of the Sabbath (an hour before Friday sunset). Diocletian puts the sages in a dilemma: to respect “the queen, the Sabbath,” or the King’s order? Should they respect the divine commandment - “you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God (Leviticus 19:3),” or the imperial order? The Tiberias episode is divided into two scenes. In the first, we see Rabbi Shmuel ben Nahman on his way to bathe before Sabbath. But the idyl is broken with the meeting with Rabbi Judah, the patriarch, standing in front of the house of study (Beith ha-Midrash), his “face all pale.” Out of his kingdom - the space of learning, hopeless and in need of advice, Rabbi the patriarch (Nasi) seeks advice in the street. It is Rabbi Shmuel and not the Patriarch who has advice: “Come to bathe, that our creator perform miracles for you.” One must continue in the routine of preparations for the Sabbath, as if it is a normal Friday; in other words, they should observe the divine commandment and not the imperial one. The second scene occurs in the bathouse, 373 a Roman institution, a place of blurred frontiers, of mixing: non-Jews and Jews, rich and poor, the intimate body and public nudity. 374 In this ambiguous place, the reversal of hierarchy between Rabbi Shmuel ben Nahman and Rabbi became accentuated.

372

The text uses the term ‘Ana i ion’, which stands for the Greek εκελέυον - “I ordered”. Yaron Tzvi Eliav, Introduction to the Research of the Jewish Daily life in the Roman Bath-Houses in Eretz Israel: History, Halacha and Talmudic Realia (M.A. Thesis, Jerusalem: The Hebrew University, 1993), 80 (Hebrew). 373 As Marc G. Hirschman notes, in the Yerusalmi five stories are told which happen in Tiberias’s bath house. Marc G. Hirschman, “Stories of the bath-house of Tiberias.” Idan 11 (1988): 119 (Hebrew). 374 Joshua Levinson, “Enchanting Rabbis: Contest Narratives between Rabbis and Magicians in Rabbinic Literature of Late Antiquity.” Tarbiz 75 (2006): 295-328 (Hebrew).

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At the heart of this legend is the belief in miracles. Three times it is said in Tiberias that one must believe in miracles, and three miracles take place: the demon “jumped” with the sages from Tiberias to Panias, he set them on the wall of the city, and he poured cold water to cool the sages’ bodies in the boiling bath. Diocletian recognized this: “Because you know that your God performs miracles on your behalf, you disdain the king.” A tension is created in the legend between past and present, the eve of Sabbath and its end, between two options, two cities: Tiberias, a mainly Jewish city which is t he seat of the Sanhedrin [the court of 70 sages], in the Province of Palestina, and Panias, which lies 65km to the north, a pagan city, in Syria-Phoenice Province. 375 The contradictions between the two cities are emphasized by the symmetry the legend creates between them: Tiberias - Three times the belief in miracles is expressed. - The sages bathe in the bathhouse to honor the Sabbath. - The demon giggles and dances in the bath. - Rabbi Shmuel ben Nahman: ‘Leave him alone, for sometimes for miracles he [the demon] appeared.’

Panias - Three miracles happen. - The sages bathe in boiled water. - The demon poured cold water on the sages. - Diocletian: ‘Even so, you will not disdain the humblest Roman or the meanest servant [Guliar]”

This is the symmetry of Providence: measure for measure, “with whatever measure you measure others you yourself are measured” (m. Sota 1.6; b. Sanhedrin 100a), or “he who took the trouble to prepare on the eve of the Sabbath [Friday] will eat on the

375

For the city of Panias, see: John F. Wilson, Banias: The Story of Caesarea Philippi, Lost City of Pan (London: I.B. Tauris, 2004).

136

Sabbath” (b. Avodah Zarah 3a). 376 The Jews are persecuted for their poor treatment of a non-Jew, a swineherd; the punishment is according to the measure of the crime. 377 By the same token, God’s help corresponds to the measure of the Sages´ belief in miracles and in their guarding of the Lord´s commandment - the keeping of the Sabbath. The story, however, does not only concern the relations with Roman power. In fact, in the story, two circles of power exist: an external circle between Israel and Rome between the Nasi and the Emperor, and an internal conflict between the Nasi and a Sage. As Origen (c. 185–254 CE) noted, the Nasi was like the king of the Jews.378 Because Rabbi did not prevent his people from respecting a non-Jew; he put all the sages, if not all Israel, in danger. The violation of the equilibrium between Jews and non-Jews finally causes the breach of equilibrium between the Nasi and a sage. In the moment of crisis, the one who leads is Rabbi Shmuel ben Nahman and not Rabbi the Nasi. In times of crisis, the sages have no other option than to rely on God’s rescue, on miracles. In this sense, the sages and the Nasi are equal before their creator. As Ofra Meir notes, this divine intervention is at once a salvation and a rebuke; indeed the demon ( Argantin) saves the sages from Diocletian, but the sages are rebuked for needing the help of a demon. 379 The dictatorship of Diocletian is contrasted with the collective decision-making of the Jewish patriarch, Rabbi Yeuda Hanasi, and the others sages. While Diocletian sent

376

See: Isabel A. Massey, “Measure for Measure,” in Interpreting the Sermon on the Mount in the Light of Jewish Tradition as Evidenced in the Palestinians Targums of the Pentateuch: Selected Themes (Lewiston: Mellen, 1991), 74-89. 377 Saul Lieberman noted that the story in fact justifies Diocletian, when the rabbis themselves admit that they despised the Swineherd Diocletian. See: Saul Lieberman, Studies in Palestinian Talmudic Literature, ed. David Rosenthal (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1991), 378 (Hebrew). 378 Origen, Epist. Ad. Africanum 20.14. 379 Ofra Meir, The Acting Characters in the Stories of the Talmud and the Midrash (A Sample) (PhD Thesis, Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1977), 186 (Hebrew). See also: Ofra Meir, Questions about Life: Selected Stories from Bereshit Rabba (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2000), 110 (Hebrew).

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messengers with his orders, Rabbi the Nasi left the house of study to seek advice. The opposition between the emperor and the patriarch may serve internal Jewish polemics regarding the status of the patriarch, for example, regarding the question of who had the authority to appoint judges, the sages or the patriarch. 380 In the story, the contrast between Diocletian and the Patriarch is clear: the latter is a first among equals (primus inter pares) who takes the advice and criticism of his peers: the relation between the patriarch and the sages is not like the relation between Caesar and his citizens. The moral of the story is that one should not despise the lowly; in the Jerusalem Talmud version, “not in a little (simple) Roman, and not in little haver.” The word haver has several meanings, but it seems that here, it means a pupil. The moral thus refers to both external and internal social circles; one should not despise the minor Goy (non-Jew) nor the minor pupil of the house of learning. Marmorstein relates the story’s moral to Bavli, Pesahhim 113a: “Our Rabbis said: three things one does not envy [despise]: a small foreigner, a small serpent and a small pupil.” 381 This suggestion might have bee n more convincing if Marmorstein had cited the following sentence which explains the meaning of the saying: “What is its reason? For it rules after his master.” 382 We have here the implicit explanation of the explicit logic of the moral of the Diocletian legend; one must respect the minor or powerless person for he might become important and ta ke revenge. The moral in Genesis Rabbah’s version: “you will not disdain the humblest Roman or the meanest Guliar,” repeats this idea. The word Guliar comes from the Latin

380

See: Alon Gedaliah. “Inner Tensions: The Patriarchate and Sanhedrin,” in The Jews in their Land in the Talmudic Age (70-640 C.E. (Cambridge, MA. and London: Harvard University Press, 1989), 308-322. 381 B. Pesahhim 113a (".‫ ואלו הן נכרי קטן ונחש קטן ותלמיד קטן‬,‫)" תנו רבנן ג' אין מתקנאין בהן‬. See: Marmorstein, “Dioclétien,” 22. 382 ".‫ דמלכותייהו אחורי אודניהו קאי‬, ‫ " מ"ט‬As Rashi explains: “they [a small foreigner, a small serpent, and a small pupil] will grow, and their terror will grow, and they will revenge you.”

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word galiarius, soldiers serving in the army, and in the sages’ literature it indicates a simple man. 383 The use of this word here may be understood in two senses: 1) one should not disdain a simple man, or 2) an allusion to Diocletian’s humble origin. 384 Diocletian was the first emperor with a full Greek name: Dioclês.385 When he ascended to power, he Latinized his name to Diocletianus (Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus). Diocletian was from the lower classes (a slave’s son, according to one tradition), virum obscurissime natum (Eutropius 9.19.2), but became Emperor. As a “self-made man,” his ascent raises the question of election. As we will see, a Roman legend explains Diocletian’s rise to power as a fulfillment of a prophecy - that is to say, the wish of the gods. In the Talmudic legend as well, the question of election is central; even the lesser might become the king. But in the sages’ story, his lesser origin testifies to the lesser value of Roman power. The sages´ answer to Diocletian is equivocal (in the Jerusalem Talmud): “We despised Diocles the swineherd; we did not despise Diocletianus the king,” playing with the name change of the emperor from Dioclês to Diokletianus, from swineherd to emperor, from Greek to Roman.

383

Joseph Tabory, “The Poems of the Seventh Chapter of Esther Rabba and Midrash Abba Gurion,” Jerusalem Studies in Hebrew Literature 16 (1997): 11 (Hebrew). 384 For Christian allusions to Diocletian´s humble origin, see: William Seston, Dioclétien et la tétrarchie (Paris: E. de Boccard, 1946), 42. 385 Derived from the Greek díos kletos ("sky-called").

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Diocletian the Hunter Gbyaliah ibn Yahia, a Jewish historian of the sixteenth century, proposed that the rabbinical legend concerning Diocletian is connected to a Roman legend: The chronicles say that when he [Diocletian] was a young man and humiliated [humble], he went to eat. When the house keepers asked him to pay, he answered that when he becomes Caesar he will pay his debt. An old woman [that was present there] told him that when he has killed a certain pig he will became Caesar. He went and killed many pigs. Eventually he went to Rome and joined one of the parties of warriors, and he killed one of the ministers of the opposite party, who in the language of Rome was called pig [Aper]. By this act he became finally emperor. And necessarily this [story] hints to Midrash Rabbot [Rabbah] with the phrase: “And the first came forth ruddy” (Gn 15:24), that he [Diocletian] was swine herder, etc.386

Diocletian was probably born in 243 CE at Salona [Dalmatia], 387 to a lower-class family (the humiliores), and joined the army at an early age. In 283, after a long military career as the commander of the Emperor´s bodyguard, the protectors, he accompanied the Emperor Carus in the war against the Sassanid Empire. During the campaign, the Emperor died, and his son Numerian was declared Emperor. While the army was moving toward the west back to the frontier of the Empire, Lucius Aper, the Praetorian prefect and father-in-law of Numerian, claimed that due to illness, the Emperor would have to travel in a closed wagon. When the soldiers smelled a foul odor rising from the Emperor’s wagon, they opened it and found in it the Emperor’s body. Diocletian took advantage of the opportunity, blaming Lucius Aper for the death of the emperor, and executed him with his own hands in front of the army, who declared him Emperor on

386

Gdaliah ibn Yahia, Sefer Soshelet ha-Kabala, Venice, 1585 (Jerusalem: Hadorot HaHronim VeKorotam, 1962), 150 (Hebrew). My translation. ‫ואומרים הקרוניקי שבהיותו בחור ואיש נבזה הלך לאכול אצל בעל הבית כששאל ממנו פרעון האוכל השיב כשיהיה קיסר יפרענו‬ ‫ לבסוף הלך לרומה ונכנס בחלק אחד מהלוחמים שהיו‬:‫ותאמר לו אשה זקנה שכשיהרוג חזיר אחד יהיה קיסר והלך והרג הרבה‬ ‫בתוכה והרג מהם אחד מהשרים שהיה בחלק המנגד לו ובלשון רומה היה נקרא השר ההוא חזיר ועל הדבר הזה הוקם על לבסוף‬ .‫נעשה קיסר ואומר מדרש רבות פסוק ויצא ראשון אדמוני שהיה רועה חזירים ול"ד רומז לזה‬ 387 Stephen Williams, Diocletian and the Roman Recovery (New York: Methuen, 1985), 22.

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November 20, 284 CE. The Historia Augusta (late 4th cent.)388 retells “an incident whic h he [Diocletian] regarded as an omen of his future rule,” allegedly reported by Diocletian to the grand-father of the factious author of the book, Flavius Vopiscus: “When Diocletian” )…( “while still serving in a minor post, was stopping at a certain tavern in the land of the Tungri in Gaul389 and was making up his daily reckoning with a woman, who was a Druidess, she said to him, ‘Diocletian, you are far too greedy (avarus) and far too stingy (parcus),’ to which Diocletian replied, it is said, not in earnest, but only in jest, ‘I shall be generous enough when I become emperor.’ At this the Druidess said, so he related, ‘Do not jest, Diocletian, for you will become emperor when you have slain a Boar (aper).’ Now Diocletian always had in his mind a desire to rule, as Maximian 390 knew and my grandfather also, to whom he himself told these words of the Druidess. Then, however, reticent, as was his wont, he laughed and said nothing. Nevertheless, in hunting, whenever there was opportunity, he always killed the boars with his very own hand. In fact, when Aurelian received the imperial power, then Probus, then Tacitus, and then Carus himself, Diocletian remarked, “I am always killing boars, but the other man enjoys the meat.” It is now well known and a common story that when he had killed Aper, the prefect of the guard, he declared, it is said, “At last I have killed my fated Boar.” My grandfather also used to say that Diocletian himself declared that he had no other reason for killing him with his own hand than to fulfill the Druidess’ prophecy and to ensure his own rule. For he would not have wished to become known for such cruelty, especially in the first few days of his power, if Fate had not impelled him to this brutal act of murder. 391

This is a story in three acts: I. the prophecy of ruling, II. the hunt (striving for power), and III. fulfillment of the prophecy (ascension to power). The story starts with a dispute over the quantity of payment between young Diocletian and a woman, a Druidess. The woman teases him that he is stingy: “Diocletian, you are far too greedy (avarus) and far too stingy (parcus).” Diocletian jokingly answers that when he becomes Caesar he will be generous. Diocletian’s joke creates a contradiction between the young soldier/officer, serving in a frontier post on the border of the empire, and the emperor in

388

Ronald Syme, “The Composition of the Historia Augusta,” in Historia Augusta Papers (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), 12-29. 389 Modern Tongres in eastern Belgium. 390 The Roman Emperor (together with Diocletian) from March 286 to 305. Maximian was the ruler of the West, while Diocletian was the ruler of the East. 391 Historiae Augustae, Carus et Carinus et Numerianus, 14-15. Translation by David Magie, The Scriptores Historiae Augustae, LCL (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1922), 437-439.

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Rome; between the concrete present and a far-off, impossible future. Nonetheless, the joke exposed Diocletian’s concealed motivations for power, to become Caesar. The Druidess, in her prophetic power, well understands that behind the cynical remark there is a grain of truth, and answers Diocletian enigmatically: “Do not jest, Diocletian, for you will become emperor when you have slain a Boar (aper).” Is the prophecy uttered seriously, taking into account its context? What is the connection between killing the pig and ruling? The status of the prophecy is ambiguous - serious and ridiculous at the same time. The story moves constantly between the humorous and the serious, the low and the high, through a series of witty sayings: “Diocletian, you are far too greedy (avarus) and far too stingy (parcus)… ‘I shall be generous enough when I become emperor… Do not jest, Diocletian, for you will become emperor when you have slain a Boar (aper)…I am always killing boars, but the other man enjoys the meat…At last I have killed my fated Boar.” The laughter conceals the bare truth at the same time that it exposes it: Diocletian says he will be generous when he becomes emperor “not in earnest, but only in jest”. The Druidess turns the amusing to serious: “Do not jest, Diocletian, for you will become emperor when you have slain a Boar (aper).” When Diocletian tells the prophecy later on, he laughs. This is a laugh of embarrassment in the face of the risk that his lust for power will be exposed, a laugh of disguise that gives the listener the impression that for Diocletian, the prophecy is nothing more than an amusing anecdote. Diocletian laughs, but while going to hunt, he “always killed the boars with his very own hand.” Diocletian laughs a third time when he says, ”I am always killing boars, but the other man enjoys the meat.” This is a real expression of Diocletian’s frustration, that he remains a servant of a succession of emperors. This recalls the statement of Eumaeus, the old swineherd of

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Ulysses in the Odyssey, who refers to the pigs eaten by Penelope’s suitors: “We have had trouble enough this long time feeding pigs, while others reap the fruit of our labour.” 392 The play of exposure-concealment ends with the fourth and final joke, the grotesque jesting of the executor: “At last I have killed my fated Boar (aper).”393 We may understand the dialogue in the following way: the Druidess argues that Diocletian behaves like a pig. Diocletian answers that he will cease his hoggish behavior when he becomes emperor. The Druidess says that in order to become Caesar, he has to stop being hoggish, to kill the boar. Following Plato, we may distinguish between the domestic pig (sus) - a symbol of the negative passions - and the savage pig, the boar, which is the symbol of ardor and courage of the thumos.394 Diocletian must cease being the domestic pig, and become the savage animal, master of himself. Diocletian must pass from pettiness to greatness, from servitude to lordship. The object of the story is to justify Diocletian’s rule in general, particularly the murder of Aper, where he acted as prosecutor, judge and executor, killing with his own hands: “Diocletian himself declared that he had no other reason for killing him with his own hands than to fulfill the Druidess’ prophecy and to ensure his own rule, for he would not have wished to become known for such cruelty, especially in the first few days of his power, if Fate had not impelled him to this brutal act of murder.”395 More than bei ng critical, the story shows a Diocletian full of wisdom and virtue, a man whom the gods had

392

Homer, Odyssey 15: 415. The joke of the porcine name of Aper recalls Cicero´s jokes on the name Verres: Cicero, Against Verres 2.4.95; 2.2.77. Plutarch, Lifes, Cicero 7. 6. See: Brian A. Krostenko, Cicero, Catullus, and the Language of Social Performance (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), 161. 394 Frère, Le bestiaire de Platon, 53-54. 395 Historiae Augustae, Carus et Carinus et Numerianus, 14-15. 393

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marked among men to avenge the murder of an emperor beloved by all. 396 The story binds together the entertaining with the serious, telling of the rise of a simple man from servant to master, from the inn in a remote border post to Caesar’s palace. The story’s apparent lack of seriousness should not hide the fact that “The ‘hidden meaning’ is not truly unconscious at all, but rather represents a layer which is neither quite admitted nor quite repressed – the sphere of innuendo, the winking of an eye, and ‘you know what I mean.’” 397 In this legend, the ascent of Diocletian to power is complex: a mixture of ambitiousness, courage, and luck, and above all, the predestination of fortuna. Cruelty is justified as being part of the edict of fortune. This justification of power is that of “might is always right” or la raison de plus fort. This concept is manifest in the hunting of the boar, in the image of the ruler as hunter, and more particularly as a boar-hunter.

The Ruler as a Boar-Hunter In Greece and Rome, the wild boar, as with many other savage animals (such as the bear, the lion, or the eagle) symbolizes power and sovereignty. The Latin poets use the following adjectives to describe the boar: “acer, ferox, ferus, frendens, fulmineus, rabidus, saevus, spumans, torvus, violentus,”398 the very characteristics the upper class Roman generally chose for himself, as testified by names of important Roman families. 399

396

Seston, Dioclétien, 48. “montre un Dioclétien plein de sagesse et de vertu, que les dieux ont désigné avant les hommes pour venger le meurtre d’un empereur aimé de tous.” 397 Theodor, W. Adorno, The Stars Down to Earth and Other Essays on the Irrational in Culture (London and New York: Routledge, 1994), 54. 398 Michel Pastoureau, “La chasse au sanglier: histoire d'une dévalorisation (IVe-XIVe siècle),” dans La Chasse au Moyen Age: Société, traités, symboles, éd. Michel Pastoureau, Paravicini Bagliani, Agostino & den Abeele van Baudouin (Firenze: SISMEL-Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2000), 9. And also: J. Aymard, Essai sur les chasses romaines des origines à la fin des Antonins (Paris: De Broccard, 1951), 324. 399 In Europe until the end of the Middle Ages, the boar and the bear competed to be the King of the animals, see: Michel Pastoureau, “Quel est le roi des animaux?” dans Le Monde animal et ses représentations au Moyen-âge (XIe-XVe siècles): actes du XVe congrès de la Société des historiens médiévistes de l'enseignement supérieur public, Toulouse, 25-26 mai 1984 (Toulouse: Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail, Service des publications, 1985), 133-142.

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Boar hunting was second in importance after lion hunting, but due to a lack of lions it was the most practiced. 400 The killing of the boar in a face-to-face battle expresses “the ability of the hunter and his courage, in one word, his Virtus.”401 The bravery of the boar - his anger - was what the warrior had to imitate on the battle-field.402 Vegetius (4 t h century) noted that “boar-hunters may usefully be joined to the military. This is a matter on which the safety of the entire State depends, that recruits be levied who are outstanding both in physique and moral quality.” 403 Boar images were on Greek a nd Roman helmets and shields, as well as on the emblems of several Roman Legions. The hunting of the wild boar expresses the victory of man over animal, the courage of the hunter over the savagery of the animal. However, during the hunt, the boundary between the hunted and the hunter, between the biped human animal and the four footed animal, becomes blurred. The hunter must sharpen his animal sensation to track the animal, to catch up with it, and to confront it in a face to face battle. This proximity with the beast is dangerous, not just because of the risk of deadly injury, but also because of the risk of savage animalization, that the hunter will become confused with the hunted. The hunter might become a wild animal, a predator, a wild boar. Killing the boar is the moment when the hunter proves his superiority over the animal. The 400

Aymard. Essai, 328. As Michel Pastoureau notes: “Les Romains aiment chasser le sanglier. Il s’agit d’un gibier noble, d’une bête redoutable dont on admire la force et le courage. Pour les chasseurs c’est un adversaire extrêmement dangereux qui se bat jusqu’au bout et meurt sans fuir ni renoncer. Par là même, c’est un adversaire respecté er recherché. D’autant que la chasse au sanglier, qui se pratique le plus souvent à pied, se termine en général par un combat au corps à corps, face contre face, souffle contre souffle. Le travail de rabattage se fait avec des chiens et des filets, mais c’est un homme seul qui supporte le dernier assaut de la bête furieuse : ne craignant ni ses coups, ni ses cris, ni son odeur épouvantable, il tente de l’achever à l’épieu ou au couteau, en frappant à la gorge ou bien entre les yeux. Etre vainqueur d’un sanglier est toujours un exploit. Rares sont ceux qui y parviennent sans être blessé par les défenses ou par les soies hérissées de l’animal.” Pastoureau, “La chasse,” 8. 401 “l’habilité de veneur et son courage, en un mot sa Virtus [sert] à caractériser la performance sportive constituée par la mise à mort du sanglier.” Aymard, Essai, 319. 402 Plutarch, Gryllos 388. 403 Vegetius, Epitome of Military Science 1. Translation by N. P. Milner, Vegetius, Epitome of Military Science (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1993), 7-8.

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victory of man over the wild animal is the victory of rationality over irrationality. In the words of Ovid, the feral, uncontrolled instinct, the irrational power of the boar, is what brings him to his death; encircled by dogs and man, the boar charges the hunter, running directly into his spear: The hunted boar displays his anger with his hairy bristles. He rushes vigorously unto fixed, wounding steel. Checked by a spear thrust through his guts, he dies. 404

The animal´s power, contrary to that of the hero, is uncontrollable, arbitrary, and irrational. The man who kills the wild boar appropriates the force of the animal, while at the same time proving his superiority over it. 405 Only those who have enough power can rule and protect society from the uncontrolled violence of the wild animal. This is the logic of the plus forte. Killing the wild animal not only meant the promise of superiority of man above animal, that of culture over nature, but also of the elite over the plebeians. Controlling the animal is controlling society. Killing the animal is the manifestation of the ruler´s power over human life, his capacity and duty to protect the citizens from outside danger. The image of the ruler as hunter was common in the Ancient Near East, in Persia, and in Hellenistic Greece,406 and from the first century CE on was adopted by the Roma n

404

[Pseudo] Ovid, Halieutica, vv. 60-62. Latin text: The Halieutica ascribed to Ovid, ed. J. A. Richmond (London: Athlone Press, 1962), 18. Translation by Peter Toohey, Melancholy, Love, and Time: Boundaries of the Self in Ancient Literature (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004), 236. 405 “In Greek thought, with its emphasis on reason (logos) as the distinguishing characteristic of the Greek-speaking adult male citizen, force (bia) was thought to be a necessary component of the relationship between rational beings and those with whom one could not reason, including slaves, barbarians and children as well as animals (…)” Thomas Wiedemann, Emperors and Gladiators (London: Routledge, 1992), 62. 406 J. K. Anderson, Hunting in the Ancient World (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), 5782.

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emperors. 407 A relief from the period of Hadrian’s rule, later placed on the Arch of Constantine in Rome (dedicated in 315 CE), is a visual manifestation of the imperial propaganda of hunting. The emperor Hadrian is portrayed on his horse, followed by two other riders, chasing a wild boar. He is in a position of spearing the boar with a javelin (now destroyed). As Steven Tuck noted, “This is predator-control hunting showing Hadrian bringing the benefits of his rule to the Roman world by removing dangerous animals and thus ensuring peace and stability.”

408

By this discourse the Emperor

identified itself with Alexander the Great, Conqueror of the World.

409

Fig. 20: Hadrianic Boar Hunt Relief, Arch of Constantine, Rome. 410

407

Steven L. Tuck, “The Origins of Roman Imperial Hunting Imagery: Domitian and the Redefinition of Virtus under the Principate,” Greece and Rome 52, no. 2 (2005): 221-245. The description of Herod by Josephus in The Jewish Wars (c. 80-100 CE) might serve as an example of this conception of the ruler as hunter and warrior bound together: “Herod’s genius was matched by his physical constitution. Always foremost in the chase, in which he distinguished himself above all by his skill in horsemanship, he on one occasion brought down forty wild beasts in a single day; for the country breeds boars and, in greate r abundance, stags and wild asses. As a fighter, he was irresistible; at practice spectators were often struck with astonishment at the precision with which he threw the javelin, the unerring aim with which he bent the bow. But besides these pre-eminent gifts of soul and body, he was blessed by good fortune; he rarely met with a reverse in war, and, when he did, this was due not to his own fault, but either to treachery or the recklessness of his troops.” Josephus, The Jewish War 1.13.429-430. 408 Tuck, “The Origins,” 238. 409 Ibid., 243. On the “Roman Alexander complex,” see: Diana Spencer, The Roman Alexander: Reading a Cultural Myth (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2002), Ch. 5. 410 Jones Mark Wilson, “Genesis and Mimesis: The Design of the Arch of Constantine in Rome,” The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 59, no. 1 (2000): 54, fig. 64.

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Fig. 21: Alexander the Great Hunting a Wild Boar. 1st century CE. Sardonyx; cameo The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

The political discourse of the hunter was also an important aspect of the Roman games since the first century CE. The celebration began in the morning with the venationes: hunting and killing of dozens if not hundreds of savage animals, including boars.411 The “noon break” was dedicated to the execution of criminals or war prisoners, and the afternoon to munera: gladiators combating each other or savage animals, including boars. The games reaffirmed the social order: in the arena, the struggle between the uncontrolled forces (criminals, enemies, savage animals) was presented. The ritualized killing of these beings brought back the rule of order, demonstrating the might of imperial rule.

411

Boars took part in these festivites in large numbers: the Historia Augusta says that during the games of Septimus, one hundred and fifty boars were killed, and that during the games of the emperor Probus in the Circus Maximus in 281 CE, one hundred boars were killed. Historia Augusta, Gordiani Tres 3, 6.7; Probus 19. See: Wiedemann, Emperors and Gladiators, 61.

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The story of Diocletian in the Historia Augustae demonstrates this boarish metaphor of power.412 Diocletian is not just portrayed as a bold hunter; his hunting skills demonstrate his qualities as emperor. At the same time, the story demonstrates the tension between the boar-hunter metaphor and the transformation of the hunted boar into a man. This is not, however, a critique of the ideal of the hunter; rather, the narrative conforms to this ideal in a grotesque way. The Rabbinic legend express a totally different conception of power than that of the imperial legend of the Historia Augusta; the people of Israel must subjugate themselves to Roman rule, and not profit from even a temporary, isolated moment of superiority, even if it is to a lower-ranking Roman. At the same time, the legend subverts the foreign rule: the emperor was originally just a swineherd, 413 but if Rome is identified with the pig, is he not a swineherd also in the present? As the later Midrash on Psalms stated: “The boar out of the wood doth ravage it, and that which moveth in the field feedeth on it” (Ps. 80:14): “The boar out of the wood” - refers to the emperor [of Rome], while “that which moveth in the field” - refers to his generals in the field. 414

The Midrashic Context of the Rabbinic Legend To better understand how the midrashic legend relates to the imperial discourse, we must analyze its broader midrashic context. The story in Genesis Rabbah is part of a

412

As François Pachoud notes, boar hunting is related to several emperors and those who have been destined to be emperors: Histoire auguste. Tome V, 1ère partie, Vies d'Aurélien, Tacite, texte établi, traduit et commenté par François Paschoud (Paris: Les belles lettres, 1996), 378. 413 Likewise, in Coptic hagiography, Diocletian was a goatherder in Egypt: Leary O. De Lacy. The Saints of Egypt (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), 17-18; The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church, vol. Mas aram mt h d r (September 8-December 6), trans. E.A. Wallis Budge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1928), 39, chapter XI. “Maskaram.” 414 The Midrash on Psalms 80:14.6. Translation by Braude, The Midrash on Psalms, 51.

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midrash on the birth of the twins Esau and Jacob. According to the biblical story, Jacob, the younger son, stole by cunning the right of primogeniture from his elder brother, Esau. This myth tells the origin of two neighboring nations: Esau is the father of the people of Edom, and Jacob is the father of Israel. The book of Genesis tells us how in the womb of their mother, Rebecca, the two brothers (the two nations) “struggled together within her” (Gn 25:22). Their destiny was proclaimed by God himself before their birth: “And the Lord said unto her, two nations are in thy womb, and two nations shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one nation shall be stronger than the other nation; and the elder shall serve the younger.” (Gn 25:23). Esau was the first of the twins to be born, but was immediately followed by his usurper brother, who, in the process of emerging from his mother’s womb, latched onto his brother’s heel. Was this a first attempt to take his older brother’s birthright? Indeed, this act gave him his name: Jacob (‫ =יעקב‬a’aqo ): “the one that is holding the heel” (Aqev=‫)עקב‬. The second time that Jacob attempted to take his brother’s birthright was when Esau returned from hunting. Exhausted, Esau asks to eat from a lentil stew that Jacob has cooked. Jacob asks him to sell him his birthright in exchange for the stew: “And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he swore unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob” (Gn 25: 31-33). The third and final episode of the “fight” for the birthright is the blessing from the father. When the blind father, Isaac, asks to bless Esau, he sends Esau to hunt for him. Encouraged by his mother to profit from the absence of Esau, Jacob represents himself to his father disguised as his brother. Five times the father suspects that this is not Esau, but finally he gives his blessing to Jacob believing that he is Esau. The elder brother returning from the hunt discovers the

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plot, but the benediction cannot be taken back. Robbed of his birthright, Esau desires to murder Jacob (Gn 27). In Genesis Rabbah, the legend of Diocletian comes after an interpretation of the first part of Genesis 25:25 telling of Esau´s birth: “And the first came forth ruddy”: “Ruddy.” R. Abba b. Kahana said: Altogether a shedder of blood. And when Samuel saw that David was ruddy, as it is written, “And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy” (1 Sam. 16:12), he was smitten with fear, thinking he too might be a murderer. But the Holy One, blessed be He, reassured him that he was “Withal of beautiful eyes” (ib.) [which meant] Esau slew by his own judgment, whereas he [David] would slay only on the sentence of the Sanhedrin . 415

The midrash contrasts not Esau and Jacob, but Esau and David. The interpretive question is the resemblance between the redness of Esau and David; if having red hair (‫ )אדמוני‬is a sign of being a blood shedder (‫)שופך דמים‬, how does one explain that David was red haired? At a more profound level, the question is: if sovereignty is negative because it involves shedding blood, what is the difference between the ideal Jewish kingship and the Roman kingship, between legitimate and illegitimate blood shedding ?416 The answer is that the bad regime (the Roman) sheds blood according to its own judgment, and not according to the law, while the good regime (King David) killed according to the judgment of the court of seventy sages, the Sanhedrin, the only one that can judge to death. 417 Here, the midrash tells the story that “the emperor Diocletian was [originally] a swineherd…” But why? How does the story illustrate the midrashic idea? This would be evident if the midrash told us how Diocletian killed Aper not according to the judgment of a court (the Roman Senate) but on his own judgment, where he was the

415

GenR Toledoth 63.8. Translation by Freedman, Midrash Rabbah, vol. II, Genesis , 563-564. ,‫ כאלו שופך דמים‬:‫ אמר רבי אבא בר כהנא‬- )‫ כה‬,‫[ "אדמוני" (בראשית כה‬...] )‫ כה‬,‫ "ויצא הראשון אדמוני" (בראשית כה‬:‫ד"א‬ ,‫ נת יירא ואמר אף זה שופך דמים כעשו‬- )‫ טז‬,‫ " וישלח ויביאהו והוא אדמוני" (שמואל א‬:‫וכיון שראה שמואל את דוד אדמוני דכתיב‬ .‫ אבל זה מדעת סנהדרין הוא הורג‬,‫ עשו מדעת עצמו הוא הורג‬,)‫ טז‬,‫ "עם יפה עינים" (שמואל א‬:‫אמר לו הקב"ה‬ 416 Irit Aminoff proposes that the Midrash originly was about Herod, see: Aminoff, The Figure, 226. 417 For the rabbinical anology of “eyes = Sanhedrin,” see: Aminoff, The Figure, 231.

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prosecutor, the judge, and the executioner at the same time. Instead, the midrash tells a strange story about Diocletian the swineherd, a story which apparently has no relation to killing. We can presume that the story of Diocletian’s rise to power (as told by the Historia Augusta) is implicit in the midrash. It is thus enough to mention Diocletian, in this midrashic context, who is clearly an example of a king who kills without justice. Nevertheless, the image of the Emperor in the story as the one who is right demonstrates another voice in the midrash that holds a milder vision of Roman rule. If, in the midrash, Esau (Rome) is a “blood shedder” by nature (red haired), in the Diocletian legend the hostility of the Emperor to the Jews does not result from his nature, but from the Jew’s own deeds - their poor treatment of Diocletian in his youth. Roman violence is conditioned by the deeds of the Jews.418 After the story on Diocletian, Genesis Rabbah interprets the second part of the sentence of Genesis 25:25: “[And the first came forth ruddy,] all over (kullo ‫ )כלו‬like a hairy mantle [aderet ‫”]אדרת‬ (Gn. 25:25). Hanina b. Isaac said: Every one (kullo ‫[ (כולו‬of his descendants] is eligible for a toga.419

The midrash interprets the word aderet [mantle] as the Roman toga: any one of Esau´s offspring (the Romans) may become an emperor. If the legend ended with Diocletian saying to the sages, “Even so, you will not disdain the humblest Roman or the meanest servant [Guliar],” the midrash reverses the sense of the phrase, or at least confirms it ironically, that indeed any one of the Romans might become emperor, perhaps alluding to the lower origin of Diocletian himself.

418 419

An idea that we observe in ARN A 34.19. GenR 63.25. . ‫ כולו ראוי לאדרת‬:‫ אמר רבי חנינה‬- )‫ כה‬,‫"כלו כאדרת שער" (בראשית כה‬

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The midrash not only rejects Rome and its political system, but also comforts the Jews that Rome will fall: The Rabbis of the South in T. Alexandri’s name, and Rahabah in the name of R. Abba b. Kahana, said: He came out destined to be altogether scattered like the chaff in the threshing-floor, as it is written, “Then was the iron…broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors” (Daniel 2:35). R. Hanina b. Isaac said: Why will they become like chaff (idre) of the summer threshing floors? Because they attacked the noble ones (addirim).420

Roman power, represented by the mantle (aderet ‫)אדרת‬, is associated with chaff (idre ‫)אדרי‬. Its destiny is to be burned in the threshing floor, a punishment for its action against the noble ones (addirim ‫)אדירים‬, the Jews.421 In other words, the success of the Roman Empire will also be the reason for its fall, when it will be punished for its treatment of the Jews. The midrash continues: “And they called his name Esau” (Gn 25:25). It is for naught (shav ‫ )שוא‬that I created him in My universe. R. Isaac said: [God declared]: ‘Ye have given a name to your sow; then I too will name My firstborn,’ as it says, “Thus saith the Lord: Israel is My son, My firstborn” (Ex 4:22). 422

According to the common reading, the midrash is playing with the proximity in sound between the name Esau (‫ )עשו‬and the word naught (shav ‫)שוא‬. The porcine vanity of Esau’s (Rome’s) claim of being the primogeniture is contrasted with Exodus 4:22: “Thus saith the Lord: Israel is My son, My firstborn.”

423

Two principal problems are

raised by this midrash: 1) The idea that the creation of Esau was for naught contradicts the rabbinic idea that nothing is in vain in God’s creation. 2) If R. Isaac’s saying refers to 420

GenR 63.25. ,‫ יצא כולו מפוזר ומפורד כאדרת לזרותו כמוץ וכקש מאדרא‬:‫ אמר‬,‫רבנן דרומאי בשם ר' אלכסנדרי ורחבה בשם ר' אבא בר כהנא‬ ‫ מי גרם להם‬:‫ רבי חנינא בר יצחק אמר‬.)‫ " באדין דקו כחדא פרזלא וגו'" (דניאל ב) " והוו כעור מן אידרי קיט" (שם שם‬:‫הה"ד‬ .‫להעשות "כעור מן אדרי קיט"? על שפשטו ידיהם באדירים‬ 421 See Aminoff, The Figure, 187-188. 422 GenR 63.25. ‫ "כה‬:‫ אף אנא קורא לבני בכורי שם‬,‫ אתון קריתון לחזירתכון שם‬:‫ אמר ר' יצחק‬.‫ הא שוא שבראתי בעולמי‬- "‫"ויקראו שמו עשו‬ .)‫ כב‬,‫אמר ה' בני בכורי ישראל" (שמות ד‬ 423 For the problem with this reading, see: Ronald N. Brown, “Midrashim as oral traditions,” HUCA 47 (1976): 188, note 32.

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Esau, the text should not refer to a sow (‫ )חזירתכון‬but to the masculine form (‫)חזירכון‬. 424 Samuel Krauss proposed that the use of the word sow stems from Rome’s generally being described in the feminine (Roma ‫)רומא‬,425 while Moshe David Herr, proposed that it is hinting at Aeneas’ sow, one of the symbols of Rome. 426 However, as Ronald N. Brown proposed, it seems that we have here a midrash about a name that used the Greek language - that the sages read in the name of Esau (Ησαύ) the Greek word for a sow (συός sus),427 hence: “and they called his name Esau” (Gn 25:25) - the sow which I created in my world. Rabbi Isaac said, “Ye have given a name to your sow, etc.” 428 The Esau-Jacob conflict in the Bible is the conflict between the hunter and the shepherd.429 From the Rabbinical point of view, Esau the hunter is cruel, a shedder of blood, while Jacob/Israel the shepherd is merciful. The first is identified with a devastating, savage, impure animal, the pig/boar; the second with a domestic, pure animal, the lamb. In the Midrashic legend, Esau=Diocletian became a swineherd and not a boar 424

The masculine form (‫ )לחזירכון‬is found in the manuscripts Vatican 30 and Oxford 2335, but this form appears to be a later correction. 425 Krauss, Paras VeRomi, 103-105. 426 Herr, Roman Rule, 128. 427 For midrashim on a name which uses Greek ) see: Fraenkel, Darkhei ha-Agadah ve-ha-Midrash, vol. I, 115-118. 428 See Ronald N. Brown’s article (“Midrashim,” 188-189) and his PhD dissertation: The Enjoyment of Midrash: The Use of the Pun in Genesis Rabba (Ph.D. Thesis, Cincinnati, OH: Hebrew Union College, 1980), 441-446. See also the discussion in Aminoff, The Figure, 12-15. A less likely possibility is that here the feminine form of the word pig replaces the masculine form. If this is the case, one may wonder if this is a hint to Diocletian´s statement when he executed Aper, “At last I have killed my fated Boar.” What seems even more probable is an illusion to the Midrash that explains the nomination of Rome = pig, in Leviticus Rabbah: “And why it [Rome] is called ‘ḥa ir’ [swine or boar]? – Because it will yet restore (hazar) the crown to its [rightful] owner. This is indicated by what is written, “And saviors shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s” (Obadiah 21).” LevR 13.5. Translation by Israelstam and Slotki, Midrash Rabbah, vol. 4. Leviticus, 176. '‫ " ועלו מושיעים בהר ציון לשפוט את הר עשו והיתה לה‬:‫ הדא הוא דכתיב‬,‫ולמה נקרא שמה חזיר? שמחזרת עטרה לבעליה‬ .)‫המלוכה" (עובדיה‬ If this assumption is true, the Midrash played twice with the idea that the Roman claim of superiority over Israel is vain: first in the Midrash of the name of Esau = shaw (naught), and second with the Midrash: ḥa ir (pig) = hazar (return). 429 Jesse Rainbow, “Sarah Saw a Hunter: The Venatic Motif in "Genesis Rabbah" 53:11,” in Midrash and the Exegetical Mind: Proceedings of the 2008 and 2009 SBL Midrash Sessions, ed. Lieve M. Teugels and Rivka Ulmer (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2010), 155-179.

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hunter. Perhaps the midrash tries to reduce the Emperor´s honor by mentioning his simple origin. However, it seems significant that the rabbinic legend does not create the opposition hunter-shepherd. Diocletian is not depicted here in a negative light; he is not a “blood shedder.” He is not a hunter but a herder, not an arbitrary ruler but a logical one. This is a more softened, compromising depiction of Roman power. However, Diocletian is not depicted as a perfect or ideal shepherd, he is ultimately a swineherd. As the pig is half pure, half impure, Roman rule pretends to be a shepherd while being a swineherd, a dichotomy that we find in midrash Exodus Rabbah (20) where another enemy of Israel is a swineherd: Concerning, “When Pharaoh had let the people go,” (Ex. 13:17) scripture says: “A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, [and a rod for the back of fools].” (Prov. 26:3) […] “A bridle for the donkey,” (Ibid.) is a parable of Pharaoh. This may be compared to a swineherd who found a ewe-lamb and kept it among his swine. When its owner demanded its return, he replied: ‘I have no ewe-lamb.’ The owner then made inquiries as to where he watered his flocks. When he was told, he stopped the waters up, and again sent word to the shepherd: ‘Restore my ewe-lamb.’ Again the reply was: ‘I have no ewelamb.’ The owner then inquired [of his friends]: ’Tell me where he stalls his beasts.’ When they told him, he destroyed the swineherd’s folds and then sent word again: ‘Restore my ewe-lamb.’ Once more the reply was: ‘I have no ewe-lamb.’ The owner then said: Tell me where his beasts actually feed.’ When they told him, he burnt all the grass there, and again sent word: ‘Restore my ewe-lamb.’ The replay again was: ‘I have no ewe-lamb.’ He then asked: ‘Let me know which school his son attends.’ He then went and seized the child, and once again sent word: ‘Restore my ewe-lamb.’ The replay now was: ‘Here is your ewe-lamb.’ He took it away and then seized the swineherd also, as he had done to his son. The swineherd protested: ‘Since the lamb is no longer in my possession, why do you seize me? What have I of yours still?’ the reply was: ‘I claim from you all that she had given birth to, and also the value of the fleece which you have sheared all the time she was in your hands.’ He then began to cry: ‘Would that I had not given her back at all; for then people would say: “The very fact that he refuses to give it up, [in spite of intimidation], proves that the man is only seeking an opportunity to slay him.” ‘This king, [the owner], is the kings of kings, The Holy One, blessed be he – the ewe-lamb is Israel; the swineherd is Pharaoh. 430

430

ExodR 20.1. My translation. ?‫ למה" ד‬.‫ משל פרעה‬,)‫] "ומתג לחמור"(משלי כו‬...[ ,)‫ "שוט לסוס ומתג לחמור" (משלי כו‬:‫"ויהי בשלח פרעה" זה שאמר הכתוב‬ ‫ אמר‬.‫ אין לך אצלי רחל‬:‫ א"ל‬.‫ תן לי רחלי‬:‫ שלח בעלה אצלו ואמר‬.‫לרו עה אחד שהיה רועה חזירים מצא רחל אחת משכה ביניהן‬ ‫ אמר‬.‫ אין לך בידי רחל‬:‫ א"ל‬.‫ שלח לי רחלי‬: ‫ א"ל‬.‫ הודיעו לי מהיכן הוא משקה בהמותיו הלכו והודיעוהו וסתם את המעיינות‬:‫הבעל‬ .‫ אין לך בידי רחל‬:‫ אמר‬.‫ שלח לי רחלי‬:‫ א"ל‬.‫ הודיעו לי מהיכן הוא מרביץ א ת בהמותיו הלכו והודיעוהו והרס את הצריפין‬:‫הבעל‬ :‫ אמר‬.‫ אין לך בידי רחל‬:‫ אמר‬.‫ שלח לי רחלי‬:‫ א"ל‬.‫ הודיעו לי היכן הוא רועה הלכו ומודיעו לו ושרף את כל העשב שהיה לו‬:‫אמר‬ ‫ היה מנהיג והולך ואח" כ‬.‫ הרי רחלך‬:‫ א"ל‬.‫ שלח לי רחלי‬:‫ א"ל‬.‫הודיעו לי היכן בנו הולך ללמוד באסכולי והלך ולקח בנו תחת ידו‬

155

Israel is the ewe-lamb, the Egyptians pigs; against Pharaoh (the swineherd) stands God, the ultimate shepherd. Likewise, in the rabbinic equation: ‘Esau=Edom=Rome=Pig’ the association: ‘Jacob=Israel=Lamb’ is implicit. As in the midrash about Egypt, in the midrashic legend about Diocletian, the non-Jewish ruler is a swineherd, while the ruler of Israel is a shepherd. In this context of Exodus, one recalls Moses, a shepherd who became a prophet. In his Life of Moses, Philo of Alexandria provides an idealistic explanation: After the marriage, Moses took charge of the sheep and tended them, thus receiving his first lesson in command of others; for the shepherd’s business is a training-ground and a preliminary exercise in kingship for one who is destined to command the herd of mankind, the most civilized of herds, just as also hunting is for warlike natures, since those who are trained to generalship practice themselves first in the chase. And thus unreasoning animals are made to subserve as material wherewith to gain practice in government in the emergencies of both peace and war; for the chase of wild animals is a drilling-ground for the general in fighting the enemy, and the care and supervision of tame animals is a schooling for the king in dealing with his subjects, and therefore kings are called “shepherds of their people,” not as a term of reproach but as the highest honour. And my opinion, based not on the opinions of the multitude but on my own inquiry into the truth of the matter, is that the only perfect king (let him laugh who will) is one who is skilled in the knowledge of shepherding, one who has been trained by management of the inferior creatures to manage the superior. For initiation in the lesser mysteries must precede initiation in the greater. 431

Philo follows a philosophical tradition which goes back to Plato, Xenophon, and Aristotle and describes the good king as one who takes care of his people, like the shepherd cares for his herd. 432 The same is found in the biblical ideal manifested in the figure of Moses and King David.433 The sages thus follow a general idea of the Greco -

‫ שאני מבקש ממך כל מה שילדה וגזותיה‬:‫ א"ל‬.‫ עכשיו אין רחלך בידי למה אתה חובשני מה יש לך בידי עוד‬:‫ א"ל‬.‫חבשו אצל בנו‬ .‫ ולואי לא נתתיה והיו בני אדם אומרים עמד בדבריו ולא שלחה לו והוא שבקש להרגו‬:‫ התחיל צווח ואומר‬.‫כל הימים שהיתה אצלך‬ .‫ רועה חזירים זה פרעה‬,‫ רחל אלו ישראל‬,‫כך המלך זה ממ" ה ]מלך מלכי המלכים[ הקב"ה‬ 431 Philo of Alexandria, Moses I (De Vita Mosis), lines 60-62. 432 Philo of Alexandria, Writings, vol. I. The historical Writings, the Apological Writings, tr. and ed. Suzanne Daniel-Nataf (Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 1986), 224, note 69 (Hebrew). 433 On the image of King David as a shepherd, see: Yair Zakovitech, David: From Shepherd to Messiah (Jerusalem: Yad Izhak ben Zvi, 1995), 167 (Hebrew).

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Roman world, which contrasts the hunter (boarish) political imperial ideal of power with that of the shepherd.434 The direct connection between the Historia Augustae legend of Diocletian and the rabbinical one proposed by Gdaliah ibn Yahia in the sixteenth century remains speculative. However, comparing one with the other, a more profound connection arises the confrontation of two contradictory political discourses. The sages, rejecting the politics of raw power, reject the boarish/boar hunter metaphor of the ruler. Rather, they inverse the Roman identification with the boar from a sign of legitimacy to a sign of illegitimacy. The sages did not resist in the enemy’s (boarish) terms of hunting but by longing for a future where the boar (ḥa ir) will return the rule to Israel. This messianic projection avoids the politics of force - which lead to a direct violent confrontation with the Roman Empire, and advocates the politics of subjection to non-Jewish rule. However, the rabbinic resistance to the Empire does not just represent a passive messianic solution; by equating the impure, non-kosher animal par excellence with the Empire, the avoidance of pork became an act of a total resistance, here and now. Even a daily act of eating became an act of resistance to the omnivore-homogenized politics of Imperial universalism. Not partaking of pork meant not partaking of the Empire.

434

For Judaism´s hostility to hunting, see: Paul A. Kay and Bob Chodos, “Man the Hunter? Hunting, Ecology, and Gender in Judaism,” Ecotheology 11 (2006): 494-509. Rainbow, “Sarah Saw a Hunter.”

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Chapter 7 Leviticus Rabbah 13 Chapter thirteen of midrash Leviticus Rabbah,435 edited in Palestine/Eretz Israel in the 4th-6th century, includes a compilation of diverse midrashim concerning the pig. Because most of the chapter (13.2-5) is dedicated to the interpretation of the purity laws concerning four legged animals in Leviticus 11:1-8,436 we will discuss all its parts and not just its statements regarding the pig. 437

Leviticus Rabbah 13.2 The first section (13.2) opens with the question of election (of Israel, generation of the wilderness, Mount Moriah (the Temple Mount), Jerusalem, Mount Sinai, and the Land of Israel), referring to Habakkuk 3:6: “He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook [yatar=released] the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered as the everlasting hills sank low. His ways were as of old:”438 R. Simeon b. Yohai began: “He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook [yatar ‫= יתר‬released] the nations; (Hab. 3:6). “The Holy One, blessed be he, took the 435

The text use here follows Mordechai Margaliot’s edition (1956–8; Reprint. New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1993). See also the Bar Ilan University’s online edition of Leviticus Rabbah: . Consulted May 16, 2012. 436 Leviticus 11:1-8: “1: The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying to them: 2 Speak to the people of Israel, saying: From among all the land animals, these are the creatures that you may eat. 3 Any animal that has divided hoofs and is cleft-footed and chews the cud--such you may eat. 4 But among those that chew the cud or have divided hoofs, you shall not eat the following: the camel, for even though it chews the cud, it does not have divided hoofs; it is unclean for you. 5 The rock badger, for even though it chews the cud, it does not have divided hoofs; it is unclean for you. 6 The hare, for even though it chews the cud, it does not have divided hoofs; it is unclean for you. 7 The pig, for even though it has divided hoofs and is cleft-footed, it does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. 8 Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean for you.” ‫ָָארץ׃‬ ֶ ‫ מִ כָל־ ַה ְּבהֵמָ ה אֲשֶ ר עַל־ה‬,‫דַ בְּרּו אֶל־ ְּבנֵי י ִשְּ ָראֵל לֵאמֹר ; ז ֹאת ַה ַחי ָה אֲשֶ ר ת ֹאכְּלּו‬2 ‫ַוי ְּדַ בֵר י ְּהוָה אֶל־מ ֹשֶ ה וְּאֶל־ַאהֲר ֹן לֵאמ ֹר אֲ ֵלהֶם׃‬ ;‫ ּומִ מַ פ ְִּריסֵי ַהפ ְַּרסָה‬,‫ מִ מַ ֲעלֵי ַהּגֵרָ ה‬,‫אַ ְך אֶ ת־זֶה ֹלא ת ֹאכְּלּו‬4 ‫ מַ ֲעלַת ּג ֵָרה ַב ְּבהֵמָ ה; אֹתָ ּה ת ֹא ֵכלּו׃‬,‫ וְּש ֹ ַסעַת שֶ סַע פ ְָּרסֹת‬,‫כ ֹל מַ פ ְֶּרסֶת פ ְַּרסָה‬3 ‫ ּופ ְַּרסָה ֹלא יַפ ְִּריס; טָמֵ א הּוא ָלכֶם׃‬, ‫ כִי־מַ ֲעלֵה ג ֵָרה הּוא‬,‫וְּאֶ ת־הַשָ פָן‬5 ‫ טָמֵ א הּוא ָלכֶם׃‬,‫ ּופ ְַּרסָה אֵינֶנּו מַ פ ְִּריס‬,‫אֶ ת־ ַהּגָמָל כִי־ ַמ ֲעלֵה ג ֵָרה הּוא‬ ‫ וְּהּוא‬,‫ וְּשֹסַע שֶ סַע פ ְַּרסָה‬,‫ וְּאֶ ת־ ַה ֲחז ִיר כִי־מַ פְּרִ יס פ ְַּרסָה הּוא‬7 ‫ ּופ ְַּרסָה ֹלא ִהפ ְִּריסָה; טְּמֵ ָאה הִוא ָלכֶם׃‬,‫ כִי־מַ ֲעלַת ּג ֵָרה הִוא‬,‫ַָארנֶבֶת‬ ְּ ‫וְּאֶ ת־ה‬6 8 ‫ ּו ְּבנ ִ ְּב ָלתָם ֹלא תִ ּג ָעּו; טְּמֵ אִ ים הֵם ָלכֶם׃‬,‫ּג ֵָרה ֹלא־יִּג ָר; טָמֵ א הּוא ָלכֶם׃ מִ בְּשָ ָרם ֹלא ת ֹאכֵלּו‬ 437 The first part of the chapter (13.1) deals with the death of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10. 438 Hab. 6:3. .‫ לֹו‬,‫ שַ חּו ּגִ ְּבעֹות עֹולָם; ֲהלִיכֹות עֹולָם‬,‫עַד‬- ‫ וַי ִתְּפֹצְּצּו הַרְּ ֵרי‬,‫ ָרָאה וַיַתֵר ּגֹוי ִם‬,‫עָמַ ד ַוי ְּמ ֹדֶ ד אֶ ֶרץ‬

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measure of all the nations and found no nation but Israel that was truly worthy to receive the Torah. The Holy One, blessed be he, further took the measure of all generations and found no generation but the generation of the wilderness that was truly worthy to receive the Torah. The Holy One, blessed be he, further took the measure of all mountains and found no mountain but Mount Moriah that was truly worthy for the Presence of God to come to rest upon it. The Holy One, blessed be he, further took the measure of all cities and found no city but Jerusalem that was truly worthy in which to have the house of the sanctuary built. The Holy One, blessed be he, further took the measure of all mountains and found no mountain but Sinai that was truly worthy for the Torah to be given upon it. The Holy One, blessed be he, further took the measure of all lands and found no land but the Land of Israel that was truly worthy for Israel. That is in line with the following verse of Scripture: ‘He stood and took the measure of the earth.” 439

After emphasizing that the election was done vis-à-vis all other options (Israel was elected from all the nations, mount Sinai from all the mountains, etc.), the midrash moves to the second part of the first phrase of Habakkuk 3:6 which concerns the conquest of the land of Canaan by the Israelites, described in terms of eating: [“He rose and measured the earth] and He released (‫ יתר‬yatar) nations” (Hab. 3:6) – Rab said: He declared [the shedding of] the blood of heathens permitted, and He declared the [appropriation of the] property of heathens permitted. He declared [the shedding of] their blood permitted, as it is said, “Thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth”(Deut. 20:17). He declared [the appropriation of] their property permitted, as it is said, “Thou shalt eat spoil of thine enemies,” (Deut. 20:14). R. Yohanan says: He jumps them to Hell as it is written “to leap [lenater ‫ ]לנתר‬with them on the ground.” (Lev. 11:21). R. Huna of Tzippori said: He permitted their harlotry (zonim ‫)זונים‬, as it is written, “He looses the bond [musar ‫ ]מוסר‬of kings and binds their loins with a girdle” (Job 12:18). 440

439

LevR 13.2. Translation by Jacob Neusner, A Theological Commentary to the Midrash, vol. 4, Leviticus Rabbah (Lanham, Md: University Press of America, 2001), 47. ‫ מדד הקב"ה בכל האומות ולא מצא אומה שהיא ראויה‬.)‫ ו‬,‫ “ עמד וימודד ארץ ראה ויתר גוים וגו'” (חבקוק ג‬:‫ר' שמעון בן יוחי פתח‬ ‫ מדד הקב"ה בכל‬.‫ ומדד הקב"ה בכל הדורות ולא מצא דור הראוי לק בל את התורה אלא דור המדבר‬.‫לקבל את התורה אלא ישראל‬ ‫ מדד הקב" ה בכל עיירות ולא מצא עיר שיבנה בה בית המקדש אלא‬.‫ההרים ולא מצא הר שתשרה שכינה עליו אלא הר המורייה‬ ‫ מדד הקב" ה בכל הארצות ולא מצא ארץ שהיא‬.‫ מדד הקב" ה בכל ההרים ולא מצא הר שתינתן עליו תורה אלא הר סיני‬.‫ירושלם‬ .‫ הה"ד עמד וימודד ארץ‬.‫ראוייה לישראל אלא ארץ ישראל‬ Parallels: Sifri Deutronomy 311; Midr Tann 32.8; PesR, annex 1.3 440 LevR 13.2. Translation by Israelstam and Slotki, Midrash Rabbah, vol. 4. Leviticus, 165, with slight alteration." ‫ "ואכלת את שלל‬,‫ התיר ממונן‬.)‫ טז‬,‫ "לא תחיה כל נשמה" (דברים כ‬,‫ התיר דמן‬.‫ ה תיר דמן התיר ממונן‬:'‫" רב אמ‬.‫“ראה ויתר גוים‬ ‫ ר' הונא רבה דציפורי‬.)‫ כא‬,‫ "לנתר בהם על הארץ" (ויקרא יא‬:'‫ ר' יוחנן אמ' הקפיצן לתוך גהנם כמה דאת אמ‬.)‫ שם יד‬,‫איביך" (שם‬ .)‫ יח‬,‫ "מוסר מלכים פתח ויאסור אזור במתניהם" (איוב יב‬:‫ הה"ד‬,‫אמ' התיר זונים שלהם‬ Parallels: NumR, Aqev 5; B. Baba Kama 38a; TanB Shemini 10.

159

‫‪Habakkuk 3:6 is part of a psalm which describes how, after coming from Teman‬‬ ‫‪and Para (in the vicinity of Mount Sinai), God takes revenge on the evil nations . 441‬‬ ‫‪Therefore, by choosing this verse, Leviticus Rabbah refers to both the election in Sinai in‬‬ ‫”‪” means “drove asunder,‬יתר ‪the past and the future redemption. In Habakkuk 3:6, “yatar‬‬ ‫‪but can also mean “to make permissible,” but it may also, as the midrash proposes, mean‬‬ ‫‪“to release / be released.” The idea is that while the Canaanites were released from the‬‬ ‫‪commandments, it was permissible for the Israelites to take their lives and land. In‬‬ ‫”‪another words, while the Canaanites were authorized to eat, Israel was authorized to “eat‬‬ ‫‪them and their land. Hence, the midrash links Israel’s election in Sinai with the messianic‬‬ ‫‪judgment of the evil nations, which will be “eaten” as were the seven nations of Canaan‬‬ ‫‪in the past. 442‬‬

‫‪441‬‬

‫‪Robert D. Haak, Habakkuk (Leiden: Brill, 1992), 82-83. Neusner, A Theological Commentary‬‬ ‫‪2001), 169-206. Habakkuk 3:6 is part of the prophetic lesson (haftarah) on the second day of Pentecost,‬‬ ‫‪which the Sages identified with the anniversary of the recieving of the Torah in Mount Sinai.‬‬ ‫‪442‬‬ ‫‪This idea is emphsized in other versions of the midrash. See: Midr Tann 33.2‬‬ ‫ד"א "ה' מסיני בא" היה ראוי לומר לסיני בא ולמה אמר מסיני? אמ' ר' שמעון בן יוחאי‪ :‬מסיני הוא בא לדין אומות העולם ששמעו‬ ‫את התורה ולא קיבלו אותה שנ'‪ " :‬ועשיתי באף ובחמה נקם את הגוים" (מיכה ה‪ ,‬יד)‪ :‬וכן את מוצא שהרי הוא מזכיר שעיר ופארן‬ ‫שאמ' משה רבונו של עולם כשתהא כועס השב הכעס על אלו שלא קיבלו את תורתך וה"א‪" :‬עמד וימדד ארץ ראה ויתר גוים"‬ ‫(חבקוק ג‪ ,‬ו)‪.‬‬ ‫‪Mek Yetro 318.5.‬‬ ‫ולפיכך נתבעו אומות העולם בתורה‪ ,‬כדי שלא ליתן פתחון פה להם כלפי שכינה לומר‪ ,‬אלו נתבענו כבר קיבלנו עלינו‪ ,‬הרי שנתבעו‬ ‫ולא קבלו עליהם‪ ,‬שנ'‪" :‬ויאמר ה' מסיני בא וגו'" (דברים ל‪ ,‬ב(‪ .‬נגלה על בני עשו הרשע ואמר להם‪ ,‬מקבלים אתם עליכ' את‬ ‫התורה‪ .‬אמרו לו‪ :‬מה כתיב בה? אמר להם‪" :‬לא תרצח ‪ ".‬אמרו לו‪ :‬זו היא ירושה שהורישנו אבינו‪ ,‬שנאמר‪" :‬ועל חרבך‬ ‫תחיה"(בראשית כז‪ ,‬מ)‪ .‬נגלה על בני עמון ומואב‪ ,‬אמר להם‪ :‬מקבלים אתם את התורה‪ .‬אמרו לו‪ :‬מה כתוב בה? אמר להם‪" :‬לא‬ ‫תנאף‪ ".‬אמרו לו‪ :‬כלנו מניאוף דכתיב‪ " :‬ותהרין שתי בנות לוט מאביהם" (בראשית יט‪ ,‬לו)‪ ,‬והיאך נקבלה‪ .‬נגלה על בני ישמעאל‪,‬‬ ‫אמר להם‪ :‬מקבלים אתם עליכם את התורה‪ .‬אמרו לו‪ :‬מה כתוב בה? אמר להם‪ " :‬אל תגנוב‪ ".‬אמרו לו‪ :‬בזו הברכה נתברך אבינו‪,‬‬ ‫דכתיב‪" :‬והוא יהיה פרא אדם" (בראשית טז‪ ,‬יב) וכתיב‪" :‬כי גנב גנבתי" (בראשית מ‪ ,‬טו)‪ .‬וכשבא אצל ישראל‪" :‬מימינו אש דת‬ ‫למו" (דברים לג‪ ,‬ב)‪ ,‬פתחו כלם פיהם ואמרו‪ :‬כל אשר דבר ה' נעשה ונשמע‪ ,‬וכן הוא אומר‪ " :‬עמד וימודד ארץ ראה ויתר גוים"‬ ‫(חבקוק ג‪ ,‬ו)‪.‬‬ ‫‪B. Avoda Zara 2b:‬‬ ‫אומרים לפניו‪ :‬רבש"ע‪ ,‬כלום נתת לנו ולא קיבלנוה? ומי מצי למימר הכי? והכתי'‪" :‬ויאמר ה' מסיני בא וזרח משעיר למו" (דברים‬ ‫לג)‪ ,‬וכתיב‪" :‬אלוה מתימן יבוא וגו'" (חבקוק ג)‪ ,‬מאי בעי בשעיר ומאי בעי בפארן? א"ר יוחנן‪ :‬מלמד שהחזירה הקב"ה על כל אומה‬ ‫ולשון ולא קבלוה‪ ,‬עד שבא אצל ישראל וקבלוה! אלא הכי אמרי‪ :‬כלום קיבלנוה ולא קיימנוה? ועל דא תברתהון‪ ,‬אמאי לא‬ ‫קבלתוה? אלא כך אומרים לפניו‪ :‬רבש"ע‪ ,‬כלום כפית עלינו הר כגיגית ולא קבלנוה‪ ,‬כמו שעשית לישראל? דכתיב‪" :‬ויתיצבו‬ ‫בתחתית ההר" (שמות יט)‪ ,‬ואמר רב דימי בר חמא‪ :‬מלמד שכפה הקב"ה הר כגיגית על ישראל‪ ,‬ואמר להם‪ :‬אם אתם מקבלין את‬ ‫התורה ‪ -‬מוטב‪ ,‬ואם לאו ‪ -‬שם תהא קבורתכם! מיד אומר להם הקב"ה‪ :‬הראשונות ישמיעונו‪ ,‬שנא'‪" :‬וראשונות ישמיענו" ( ישעיהו‬ ‫מג)‪ ,‬שבע מצות שקיבלתם היכן קיימתם! ומנלן דלא קיימום? דתני רב יוסף‪ " :‬עמד וימודד ארץ ראה ויתר גוים" (חבקוק ג‪ ,‬ו)‪ ,‬מאי‬ ‫ראה? ראה ז' מצות שקבלו עליהן בני נח ולא קיימום‪ ,‬כיון שלא קיימום עמד והתירן להן‪ .‬איתגורי איתגור? א"כ מצינו חוטא נשכר!‬

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In the following paragraph Leviticus Rabbah tells two parables which explain why the commandments were given to the Jews and not to all nations of the world: Ulla Biraah in the name of R. Simeon b. Yohai: “The matter [of the reference to ‘releasing the nations’] is to be compared to the case of one who went out to the threshing floor [for harvesting his crop], taking his dog and ass with him. He loaded his ass with five seahs of grain, and his dog with two. The dog went along panting. He took one seah off the dog, but it continued to pant. He took off the second, but it continued to pant. He said to it, ‘Now you’re carrying nothing, yet you’re continuing to pant!’ So as to even the seven religious duties that the children of Noah accepted: since they could not endure under their burden, the [nations] went and loaded them onto Israel. 443

The message is that if the commandments are a burden, the Jews by obeying them demonstrate their superiority to other nations. We may refer to this idea as the Burdening Principle:444 to the extent that an individual or a group burdens itself, it demonstrates or claims superiority over other individuals or groups. 445 This line of thinking is inter alia a counter argument to the Christian view of the yoke of the law as a punishment to Israel, from which Jesus liberates humanity. If Christians argue that “the letter of the Law kills” (cf. 2 Cor. 3:6), the midrash to the contrary argues that freedom from the Law kills, as is emphasized in the second parable of the midrash which uses medical imagery: Said R. Tanhum b. R. Hanilai, “The matter [of releasing the nations] may be compared to a physician who went to pay a call on two sick persons. One of them [he judged] to have the strength to live, and the other of them [he judged] not to have the strength to live. To the one who he judged to be able to survive, he said, “Such and so you must eat.” But to the one who he judged to be unable to survive, he said, “Whatever he wants [to eat], give him.” So the nation of the world, who are not going to enjoy the world to come: “[Every 443

LevR 13.2. Translation by Neusner, Leviticus Rabbah, 48 ‫ והיה אותו הכלב‬.‫ הטעין לחמורו חמש סאין ולכלבו שתים‬,‫עולא ביראה בש' ר' שמעון בן יוחי לאחד שיצא לגורן וכלבו וחמורו עמו‬ ‫ כך אפילו שבע מצוות שקיבלו‬.‫ אמ' ליה טעון לית את טעון ואת מלחית‬.‫ שתיהן והיה מלחית‬,‫ העביר ממנו אחת והיה מלחית‬.‫מלחית‬ .‫עליהן בני נח כיון שלא יכלו לעמוד בהן עמדו ופרקום על ישראל‬ Parallels: Sifri Deutronomy 343. 444 Amots Zehavi and Avishag Zahavi. The Handicap Principle: A Missing Piece of Darwin's Puzzle (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997). 445 We can find the handicap principle also in the distinction the sages make between themselves and the Jewish mob (am ha-aretz). See for example bavli Pesahim 49b: “Rabbi said, it is forbidden for an am ha-aretz to eat meat - as it is written, 'This is the torah of beast and fowl' (Lev 11:46) - for all who engage in Torah - it is permitted to eat the flesh of beast and fowl. But for all who do not engage in Torah, it is not permitted to eat beast and fowl.” Jonahan Brumberg-Kraus, “Meat-eating and Jewish Identity: Ritualization of the Priestly 'Torah of Beast and Fowl' [Lev. 11:46] in Rabbinic Judaism and in Medieval Kabbalah,” Association for Jewish Studies Review 24, no. 2 (1999): 227-262.

161

moving thing that lives will be food for you], as the green herb have I given you everything” (Gen. 9:3). But to Israel, who will enjoy the world to come: “[And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Say to the people of Israel,] these are the living things which you may eat among all the beasts that are on the earth” (Lev. 11:1-2) 446

If in the first parable the burden of the commandments was placed on Israel because of its healthy capacity to carry it, in the second parable the commandments were given to Israel to improve its health. The pure diet is metaphorically the healthy one, while omnivorous regimen is equal to death. Life and death however, are not in this world but in the world to come. Interestingly enough, we find a similar argument in the neoplatonist Porphyry (c. 234-c.304), Against the Christians, where Porphyry notes that Paul “mutters like a man on his deathbed,” when he said: “Eat whatever’s sold in the meat market without raising questions on the basis of conscience, for the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it (1 Cor. 10:25-26).”447 The midrash´s citation of Genesis 9:3, “Every moving thing that lives will be food for you, as the green herb have I give you everything,” as being what permits the idolaters to eat everything, likely refers to the Christian reading of this verse. According the Christian exegesis, beginning with Justin Martyr in the middle of the second century,

446

LevR. 13.2. Translation by Neusner, Leviticus Rabbah, 48. '‫ זה שיש בו כדי לחיים אמ‬.‫ אחד יש בו כדי לחיים ואחד אין בו כדי לחיים‬,‫ לרופא שנכנס לבקר שני חולים‬:‫אמ' ר' תנחום בר חנילאי‬ :‫ כך אומות העולם שאינן לחיי העולם הבא‬.‫ וזה שאין בו כדי לחיים אמ' להם כל דבעי הבו ליה‬,‫ דבר פלו' ודבר פלו' לא יאכל‬:‫ליה‬ ‫ "זאת החיה אשר תאכלו מכל הבהמה אשר על‬:‫ אבל ישראל שהן לחיי העולם הבא‬,)‫ ג‬,‫"כירק עשב נתתי לכם את כל" (בראשית ט‬ .)‫ ב‬,‫הארץ" (ויקרא יא‬ Compare to: tanB Shemini 10. ,‫ למה הדבר דומה לרופא שהלך לבקר שני חולים‬,‫ התיר להם את האסורים את השקצים ואת הרמשים‬:‫ר' תנחום בן חנילאי אמר‬ ‫ אמר לבני ביתו‬,‫ ראה את האחד שהיה חוזר לחיים‬,‫ אמר לבני ביתו תנו לו לאכול כל מה שהוא מבקש‬,‫ראה אחד מהן שהיה בסכנה‬ ‫ אמרו לו לרופא מה ראית בין זה לזה [שלזה שהוא בסכנה אמרת יאכל כל מה שהוא‬,‫ כך וכך מאכל לא יאכל‬,‫כך וכך מאכל יאכל‬ ‫ אמרתי תנו לו‬,‫ לזה שראיתי שהוא למיתה‬,‫ אמר להם הרופא‬, ]‫ וזה שהוא לחיים אמרת לו כך וכך יאכל כך וכך לא יאכל‬,‫מבקש‬ ‫ וכך הקב" ה התיר לגוים עובדי כוכבים שקצים ורמשים ואת כל העבירות‬,]‫ [אבל זה שיש בו לחיים ישמור את עצמו‬,‫שהוא למיתה‬ ‫ אמר להם (והייתם קדושים כי קדוש אני) אל תשקצו את נפשותיכם (ויקרא יא‬,‫ אבל לישראל שהם לחיי גן עדן‬,‫לפי שהן לגיהנם‬ ‫ "ואתם‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫ למה שהן חיים‬, "‫ "את זה תאכלו ואת זה לא תאכלו‬,)‫ מד‬,‫ויקרא יא‬/ ‫ [ והייתם קדושים כי קדוש אני] (שם שם‬,)‫מג‬ ."'‫ הוי "עמד וימודד ארץ וגו‬,)‫הדבקים בה' אלהיכם חיים כלכם היום" (דברים ד ד‬ 447 Porphyry, Porphyry's Against the Christians: The Literary Remains, ed. and trans. R. Joseph Hoffmann (Amherst, NY.: Prometheus Books, 1994), 63.

162

this verse as proofs that all kind of food are pure and therefore permitted. 448 Interestingl y enough, more or less in the period of the writing of Leviticus Rabbah, the emperor Julian “the Apostate” or “the Philosopher,” in his anti-Christian treaty Against the Galileans (wr. June 362-March 363, cf. Cyril of Alexandria, Against Julian), criticizes the Christians’ “omnivorousness:” Why in your diet are you not as pure as the Jews, and why do you say that we ought to eat everything “even as the green herb (Gen 9:3),” putting your faith in Peter, because, as the Galilaeans say, he declared, “What God hath cleansed, that make not thou common (Acts 10:15)”? 449

This “omnivorousness” for Julian was scandalous. In his discourse, To the Uneducated Cynics, he criticizes his interlocutor for despising Diogenes of Sinope’s diet:450 “For you are an Egyptian, though not of the priestly caste, but of the omnivorous type whose habit it is to eat everything “even as the green herb” (Gn. 9:3). You recognize, I suppose, the words of the Galilaeans.” 451 Thus the Christians (the Galilaeans) are associated with the omnivorousness of the Egyptian mob, and hence indirectly with the omnivorous animal par excellence – the pig - from which Egyptian priests abstained. While Peter’s vision in Jaffa (Acts 10: 9-22) plays an important role in the Christian argument that all foods are permitted, the later Christian interpretation of Genesis 9:3 448

Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 20.2. See: David Rokeah, Justin Martyr and the Jews (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 112. The anti-Christian message of the midrash is also found in its paralell in Exodus Rabbah 30.22 which cites Ezekiel 22:25, which is used to support the Christian argument that the Jewish law is negative. See: Jean-Louis Déclais, “Du combat de Jacob avec l’ange à la licéité de la viande de chameau: le devenir d’un récit,” Islamochristiana 25 (1999): 47. 449 Julian, Against the Galilaeans 306B-314E (Apud Cyril of Alexandria, Against Julian). 450 On Julian and the cynics, see Rowland Smith, Julian's Gods: Religion and Philosophy in the Thought and Action of Julian the Apostate (London: Routledge, 1995), 49-90. 451 Julian, To the Uneducated Cynics 193A. See: Derek Krueger, “The Bawdy and Society: The Shamelessness of Diogenes in Roman Imperial Culture,” in The Cynics: The Cynic Movement in Antiquity and Its Legacy, ed. Robert Bracht Branham and Marie-Odile Goulet-Cazé. Hellenistic culture and society, 23 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 232. Pseudo Aristeas makes a similar connection between Egypt’s mob and omnivorousness: “The priests who are the guides of Egyptians have looked closely into many things and are conversant with affairs, and have named us ‘men of God,’ a title applicable to no others but only to him who reveres the true God. The rest are men of food and drink and raiment, 141: for their whole disposition has recourse to these things.” Letter of Aristeas 139-140.

163

goes further by arguing that Peter’s vision merely returned the status of animals to their primordial state at the time of Noah. Jewish food avoidances were thus limited in time, a temporal exigency placed upon the Jews to correct their ways. The avoidance of pork thus does not concern the nature of the pig but rather the sinful nature of the Jews. Since for Julian the different religious manifestations go back to early times and are unchangeable (as is the Torah for the sages), he cannot accept this dynamic explanation of the Law. Thus, he ironically asks if the nature of the pig changed after Peter’s vision: What proof is there of this, that of old God held certain things abominable, but now has made them pure? For Moses, when he is laying down the law concerning four-footed things, says that whatsoever parteth the hoof and is cloven-footed and cheweth the cud is pure, but that which is not of this sort is impure [cf. Leviticus 11:3]. Now if, after the vision of Peter, the pig has now taken to chewing the cud, then let us obey Peter; for it is in very truth a miracle if, after the vision of Peter, it has taken to that habit. But if he spoke falsely when he said that he saw this revelation, - to use your own way of speaking, - in the house of the tanner, why are we so ready to believe him in such important matters?

Julian hints that the Christian abandonment of food avoidance is a practical accommodation motivated by the desire to render life easier: Was it so hard a thing that Moses enjoined on you when, besides the flesh of swine, he forbade you to eat winged things and things that dwell in the sea, and declared to you that besides the flesh of swine these also had been cast out by God and shown to be impure? 452

Julian reverses the Christian claim that originally Moses was forced to yoke the Jews with food avoidances in order to end their enslavement to their bellies; that the Jews’ literal understanding of pork avoidance demonstrates that they are carnal and earthly, or in other words: hoggish. 453 Julian hints that it is the Christians who resemble the pi g, which consumes everything with no limits. He also suggests that their porcine diet is

452

Julian, Against the Galilaeans 306B-314E (Apud Cyril of Alexandria, Against Julian). See: Peter J. Tomson,”Jewish Food Laws in Early Christian Community Discourse,” Semeia 86 (1999): 193-211. S. Stein, “The Dietary Laws in Rabbinic and Patristic Literature,” Studia Patristica 2 (1957): 141-54. 453

164

motivated by their weakness of the flesh. 454 This is similar to the argument in Leviticus Rabbah that the non-Jews were released from the Law because of their weak nature. Like Julian, Leviticus Rabbah turns the Christian argument on its head: the law was not given to Israel as a corrective-preventive punishment because of the Jews’ sinful-earthly nature but rather because of their healthy nature; freedom from the commandments does not bring life but rather death, while the burden of the Commandments brings life.

Leviticus Rabbah 13.3 This section of the midrash begins with another interpretation of Leviticus 11:2: “These are the living things which ye may eat among all the beasts that are on the earth,” proposing that the commandments came to purify (letzaref ‫ )לצרף‬the peoples (briot ‫)בריות‬: “Every word of God is pure ]tzrufa[ (Prov. 30:5) - Rab said: This means the precepts were given for the express purpose of purifying [letzaref ‫ ]לצרף‬peoples [briot ‫]בריות‬. Why [must one assume] so much? Because it is said, “He is a shield to them that seek refuge in Him” (Prov. 30:5). 455

454

Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444 CE) in his Against Julian refutes Julian’s criticism, noting that the avoidance of pork from the beginning was spiritual and not physical: “The law is spiritual and does not provide an explanation that stops at physical meanings. (…) So the voice of the Lord came down, not only because God was rebuking him but also he was saying clearly, “What God has cleansed, you must not call common.”(Acts 10:15) Then [Peter] immediately understood that the time had come when the shadows had to be transformed into truth. And so the passage of the figures into truth fulfilled them and should not show, as some people think, that they were placed there without a reason. Doubtless, the lawgiver does not consider a pig, or the other animals, now clean, now unclean. No, for he knows that they are well made, for it is written, ‘And God saw all that he had made, and behold all was very good, and he blessed it.’(Gen. 1:31) For to the extent that each thing of creation has come to be and to the extent that it has been made, it will only have, so I suppose, in itself what is good. So even though the pig cannot chew the cud, it is not unclean, but rather is perfectly edible, and what is proper to something’s nature does not pollute it. As I have said, the law was figures and shadows that remained ‘until the time of correction.’(Heb. 9:10)” Cyril of Alexandria, Against Julian 9.318-19 [PG 76: 989-92]. Translation by Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament, vol .V. Acts, ed. Francis Martin and Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press, 2006), 128. On Cyril’s interpretation of Acts 10 see: François Bovon, De Vocatione Gentium: istoire de ’interpr tation d’Act. 10,1-11, 18 dans les six premiers siècles (Tübingen: Mohr, 1967), 123. 455 LevR 13.3. Translation by Israelstam, Midrash Rabba, vol. 5, Leviticus, 166-167, with slight alteration. ‫ וכל כך‬.[‫ לא נתנו מצוות אלא לצרוף בהן את הביריות ]הבריות‬:'‫ רב אמ‬.)‫ ה‬,‫“כל אמרת אלוה צרופה מגן הוא לחוסים בו” (משלי ל‬ .)‫ ה‬,‫למה? “מגן הוא לחוסים בו” (משלי ל‬

165

The idea that the one who fulfills God´s Commandments will be rewarded is followed by the description of the banquet that God will arrange for the righteous in the messianic era: R. Judan b. R. Simeon said: Behemoth and the Leviathan are to engage in a wild-beast contest [kinigin ‫ ]קניגין‬before the righteous in the Time to Come, and whoever has not been a spectator at the wild-beast contests [kinigin ‫ ]קניגין‬of the nations of the world in this world will be accorded the boon of seeing them in the World to Come. How will they be slaughtered? Behemoth will, with its horns, pull Leviathan down and rend it, and Leviathan will, with its fins, pull Behemoth down and pierce it through. The Sages said: And is this a valid method of slaughter? Have we not learnt the following in a Mishnah: “All may slaughter, and one may slaughter at all times [of the day], and with any instrument except with a scythe, or with a saw, or with teeth [in a jaw cut out of a dead animal], because they chok”? R. Abin b. Kahana said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said: “Instruction [of the Torah] shall go forth from Me” (Is. 51:4), i.e. a new interpretation of the Torah will go forth from Me. 456

The kinigin, from Greek (kynegionκυνήγιον) ‘chase’ or ‘hunt’ (kynegia) 457 refers to the show of animal combat, as well as the place where this show took place. 458 The symmetry of reward will make the ones who do not watch the non-Jewish games in this 456

LevR 13.3. Translation by Israelstam, Midrash Rabba, vol. 5, Leviticus, 166-167, with slight alteration. ‫ וכל מי שלא ראה קיניגין שלאומות העולם בעולם הזה‬,‫ בהמות וליויתן הן קניגין שלצדיקים לעתיד לבוא‬:‫אמ' ר' יודן בר' שמעון‬ ‫ והצדיקין‬.‫ כיצד הן נשחטין? בהמות נותן לליויתן בקרניו ונוחרו וליויתן נותן לבהמות בסנפיריו וקורעו‬.‫זוכה לראותן לעולם הבא‬ ‫ ולא כך תנינן הכל שוחטין ובכל שוחטין ולעולם שוחטין חוץ ממגל קציר והמגירה והשינים והצפורן מפני‬,‫או' זו שחיטה כשירה היא‬ .‫ חידוש תורה מאיתי תצא‬,)‫ ד‬,‫ אמ' הקב"ה " תורה מאתי תצא" ( ישעיה נא‬:‫ אמ' ר' אבה בר כהנא‬.‫שהן חונקין‬ 457 William K. Jr. Whitney, “The Place of the Wild Beast Hunt’ of Sib. Or. 3,806 in Biblical and Rabbinic Tradition,” Journal for the Study of Judaism 25, no. 1 (1994): 68-81. Kimberly B. Stratton, ”The Eschatological Arena: Reinscribing Roman Violence in Fantasies of the End Times,” Biblical Interpretation: A Journal of Contemporary Approaches 17, no 1-2 (2009): 45-76. 458 In Constantinople, the amphitheatre of Septimus Severus was known as the Kynegion. Joseph Patrich proposed that this could also be the name of the amphitheatre in Caesarea in the time of the Rabbis (see: Joseph Patrich, “Herod’s Hippodrome/Stadium at Caesarea in the Context of Greek and Roman Contests and Spectacles,” in Studies in the History of Eretz Israel, presented to Yehuda Ben Porat, ed. Yehoshua Ben-Arieh and Elchanan Reiner (Jerusaelm: Yad Ben-Zvi Press, 2003), 163 (Hebrew). Ze'ev Weiss, “The Jews and the Games in Roman Caesarea,” in Caesarea Maritima: A Retrospective After Two Millennia, ed. Avner Raban, Kenneth G Holum, and Jodi Magnes, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. no. 308: 108 (Leiden: Brill, 1996), 443-453. Ibid., “Roman Leisure Culture and Its Influence upon the Jewish Population in the Land of Israel,” Qadmoniot 109 (1995): 2-19 (Hebrew). Ibid. “The Jews of Ancient Palestine and the Roman Games: Rabbinic Dicta vs. Communal Practice,” Zion 66 (2001), 427-459 (Hebrew). Ibid., “Adopting a Novelty: The Jews and the Roman Games in Palestine,” The Roman and Byzantine Near East: Recent Archaeological Research, II, ed. J. H. Humphrey, Journal of Roman Archaeology, Supp. 31 (Portsmouth, RI: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 1999), 23-49. R. Aha, a third-centruy Amora who lived in Caesarea: “When the day of the Judgment arrives… you will be among those who behold the punishement of the sinners rather than among those who are beheld receiving punishment. You will be among the spectators rather than among the gladiators.” PRK. 28:3. see: Weiss, “The Jews,”451.

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world instead watch the messianic play. The question of the edibility of the slaughtering of Behemoth and Leviathan contrasts implicitly the non-edible way of killing of animals in the kinigin, but it is also a criticism of the idea that in the messianic era God will change the Law. This is a marginal idea in early rabbinical Judaism, but central in Christianity, which argues that Jesus replaced the old Torah with a new one. 459 The midrash 460 reads the “new Torah (‫ ”)תורה חדשה‬of Isaiah as a new interpretation of Torah ( ‫ )חידוש תורה‬which will resolve the rabbinic question of the legality of Behemoth and Leviathan’s butchery. To reinforce the idea of a reward for keeping the purity laws, another midrash is told concerning the messianic banquet which this time is described as a reward for keeping the food purity laws: R. Berekiah said in the name of R. Isaac: In the Time to Come, the Holy One, blessed be He, will make ariston [ ‫ אריסטון‬meal, banquet] 461 for his righteous servants, and whoever has not eaten nebelah and trefa in this world will be merited to eat in the World to Come. This is indicated by what is written, “And the fat that which dieth of itself (nebelah) and the fat of that which is torn of beasts (terefah), may be used for any other service, but eat it [ye shall] not,” in order that you may eat it in the Time to Come. For this reason did Moses admonish Israel, saying to them: “This is the animal which ye shall eat.” Rabbi Chiya says Moses was holding each animal and demonstrated it to Israel, and saying: this is the animal you will eat and this is the one you will not eat. “These you may eat, of all that are in the waters.” (Lev. 11:2) This is the animal you will eat and this is the one you will not eat. “These you shall regard as detestable among the birds” (Ibid. 11:13). - This is the animal you will detest and this is the one you will not detest. “These are unclean for you” (Ibid. 11:29) - This is the unclean and this is unclean. “These are the creatures that you may eat (Ibid. 11:2).”462

459

Abraham Joshua Heschel, Heavenly Torah: As Refracted Through the Generations, trans. Gordon Tucker and Leonard Levin (New York: Continuum, 2005), 680-700. 460 According to Hananel Mack, the message of the midrash is that in the messianic era some commandments include the laws of butchering. This possible reading does not seem to me the original message of the midrash in the light of its context. Mack, “The Source,” 69. 461 Michael Sokoloff, A Dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic of the Byzantine Period (RamatGan, Israel: Bar Ilan University Press, 1990), 75. 462 LevR 13.3. Translation by Israelstam, Midrash Rabba, vol. 5, Leviticus, 166-167, with slight alteration. ‫ אריסטון גדול עתיד הקב" ה לעשות לעבדיו צדיקים לעתיד לבוא וכל מי שלא אכל נבילות וטרפות בעולם‬:‫ר' ברכיה בש' ר' יצחק‬ ‫ בשביל שתאכלו‬,)‫ כד‬,‫ "חלב נבלה וחלב טרפה יעשה לכל מלאכה ואכל לא תאכלוהו" (ויקרא ז‬:‫ הה"ד‬,‫הזה זוכה לאכל בעולם הבא‬ ‫ תני ר' חייא מלמד שהיה משה‬.)‫ ב‬,‫ "זאת החיה אשר תאכלו" (ויקרא יא‬:‫ לפיכך משה מזהיר את ישראל ואו' להן‬.‫ממנו לעתיד לבוא‬

167

Again we find here the idea that one that avoids the forbidden foods in this world will be recompensed by eating in the world to come. This is evident in reading Leviticus 7:24, “eat it [ye shall] not” and Leviticus 11:2, “these are the creatures that you may eat,” as referring not just to the present but also to the future.

Leviticus Rabbah 13.4 After noting the meticulous nature of the food laws, the midrash turns from the reward for keeping the commandments to the punishment in the opposite case: [Returning to] the body [of the matter], said R. Abbahu, “It was a kind of fiery skull that the Holy One, blessed be he, showed to Moses. He said to him, “If [during a slaughter] the membrane of the brain is perforated, in any measure at all, [the beast is] invalid[ly slaughtered and may not be eaten.]” Said R. Simeon b. Laqish, “If you have merit, you shall eat. If you do not have merit, you shall be eaten – by the kingdoms.” Said R. Aḥa, “It is written, “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword (ḥerev ‫[ ;)חרב‬for the mouth of the Lord has spoken]” (Is. 1:19-20). “You shall eat carobs (ḥaruvin ‫)חרובין‬.”For R. Aḥa said, “When a Jew has [to resort to eating] carobs, he carries out repentance. And as becoming is poverty for the Jews as a red ribbon on the chest of a white horse.” 463

The message is that Israel’s political condition is the consequence of the s uccess or failure of the Jews to keep the commandments. When Israel goes astray, it is eaten by the nations, but its diet of misery (eating carob) serves as repentance.

‫ זה אכלו‬,)‫ ט‬,‫ את זה תאכלו מכל אשר במים" (ויקרא יא‬.‫ "זאת החיה אכלו וזאת לא תאכלו‬:‫אוחז בחיה ומראה להן לישראל וא' להן‬ ‫ זה טמא‬,)‫ כט‬,‫ שם‬,‫"וזה לכם הטמא" (שם‬.‫ אלה תשקצו ואלה לא תשקצו‬,)‫ יג‬,‫ "א ת אלה תשקצו מן העוף" (ויקרא יא‬.‫וזה לא תאכלו‬ .)‫ ב‬,‫ שם‬,‫ זאת החיה אשר תאכלו (שם‬.‫וזה אינו טמא‬ 463 LevR 13.4. ‫ אם ניקב קרום של מוח ואפילו כל‬:‫ כמין גלגלת שלאש הראה לו הקב"ה למשה מתחת כסא כבוד שלו ואמ' לו‬:‫ אמ' ר' אבהו‬.‫גופה‬ :‫ אמ' ריש לקיש‬.‫ החיה מטריפתה תאכלו ושאינה חיה מטריפתה לא תאכלו‬,)‫ ב‬,‫ "זאת החיה" (ויקרא יא‬:'‫ ורבנין אמ‬.‫שהוא פסולה‬ ‫ כתיב " אם תאבו ושמעתם טוב הארץ תאכלו ואם תמאנו ומריתם חרב‬:‫ אמ' ר' אחא‬.‫אם זכיתם תאכלו ואם לאו תאכלו למלכיות‬ ‫ צריך יהודאה לחרובה עבד תתובא ויאיא מסכינתא ליהודאי כי ערקתא‬:‫ דאמ' ר' אחא‬,‫ חרובין תאכלו‬,)‫כ‬- ‫ יט‬,‫תאכלו" ( ישעיה א‬ .‫סומקתא דעל ליביה דסוסיא חיורא‬

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Leviticus Rabbah 13.5 The fourth section (13.5) relates a series of ten different readings of verses, where the sages see a structure of “three-four,” in which they read the schemes of the four kingdoms )Table 2(. This pattern, which is the most common in the Hebrew Bible (98 places),464 is composed of four elements: three which repeat each other or are analogous and a fourth which creates a radical change which is the climax of the pattern. The contradiction between the situation common to the first three elements and the fourth creates tension and surprise and provides a general logic to the pattern. This is also the overall pattern of section 13.5, which is divided into four parts (I-IV): Part I (“Adam saw the four kingdoms…”) reads Genesis 2:11-14, which describes the four rivers that go out from the garden of Eden as the four kingdoms. Part II (“Abraham saw the four kingdoms…”) reads Genesis 15:12 which describes the falling of the night during God´s blessing to Abraham in the Brit bein HaBetarim, the “Covenant Between the Parts,” linking it to the animals mentioned in Deuteronomy 8:15. 465 Part III (“Daniel saw the four kingdoms…”) refers to the four animals mentioned in Daniel 6:4, which is linked to the animals mentioned in Jeremiah 5:6. Part IV (“Moses saw the four kingdoms…”) refers to the four animals mentioned in Leviticus 11:6: the camel, the hare, the rock badger, and the pig. In other words, the section moves from Paradise, and hence from Creation to the Abramaic covenant (the Covenant Between the Parts), to Exodus (Deut.

464

Yair Zakovitch, ‘ or Three…and for our’ The Pattern of the umerica Sequence Three-Four in the Bible (Jerusalem: Makor, 1979), 496 (Hebrew). 465 As Irit Aminoff notes, midrashim concerning the four kingdoms refers to different subjects, as “creation in all its stages; the rivers flowing out of Eden, the convenant with Abraham, the four kings’ war, the binding of Isaac, relations between Isaac and Esau, Jacob’s dream of the ladder, pairing of heroes among Jacob’s sons with each of the four kingdoms, the halacha of leprosy, the red heifer, prohibition of impure animals, the prophet’s visions, particularly Daniel’s of the four beasts, selection of Biblical verses opposite the four kingdoms, Israel’s honour.” Aminoff, The Figure, 308.

169

8:15), then to the eschatological fourth beasts of the book of Daniel, to the animals mentioned in Jeremiah 5:6 as the punishment God sent on Judah for it sins, and finally to the purity of animal kinds in Leviticus (table 2). Part I Adam II Abraham

III Daniel

IV Moses

Read ing 1

Phrase/ Empire Gn 2:11-14

Babylonia

Media

Greece

Rome (Edom)

Pishon

Gihon

Tigris

Euphrates

2

Gn 15:12

Dread

Great

Fell on him

3 4

Deut. 8:15 Gn. 15:12

Scorpion Darkness

Fell on him Horror

5

Daniel 6:4

Snake Fell on him Lion

Darkne ss Serpent Great Bear

Wolf

6

Jeremiah 5:6

Lion

Wolf

Leopard

7

Lev. 11:6

Camel

Hare

8

Lev. 11:6

Camel

hare

9

Lev. 11:6

Camel

hare

10

Lev. 11:6

Camel

hare

Rock badger rock badger rock badger rock badger

The fourth beast (Dan. 7:6) “Whoever goes out from them will be savaged” Pig pig pig pig

Table 2: The Four Kingdoms in Leviticus Rabbah 13.5.

We will now observe the texts referring to the pig. In part III, the fourth beast of the book of Daniel is linked to the boar of Psalm 80:14: Daniel beheld the empires engaged in their [subsequent] activities. “I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heavens broke forth upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from the other (Dan. 7:2).” If you will so merit, it [the animal] will come up out of the sea, but if not, from the forest. An animal coming up from the sea is timid, whereas if it comes from the forest, it is not timid. Similar is [the interpretation of] “The boar out the wood [ a’ar] doth ravage it (Ps. 80:14).” 466

466

LevR 13.5. Translation by Israelstam, Midrash Rabba, vol. 5, Leviticus, 171. ‫ וארבע חוון רברבן סלקן מן‬.‫ " חזי הוית בחזוי די ליליא וארו ארבע רוחי שמיא מגיחן לימא רבא‬.‫דניאל ראה את המלכיות בעיסוקן‬ ‫ סלקא מן חורשא היא‬,‫ הדא חיותא כד סלקא מן ימא לית היא ממכיא‬.‫ אם זכיתם מן ימא ואם לאו מן חורשא‬.)‫ ג‬- ‫ ב‬,‫ימא" (דניאל ז‬ ‫ הדא חיותא כד סלקא מן נהרא לי ת היא‬.‫ אם זכיתם מן היאור ואם לאו מן היער‬,)‫ יד‬,‫ דכואתא יכרסמנה חזיר מיער ( תהלים פ‬.‫ממכיא‬ .‫ סלקא מן חורשא היא ממכיא‬,‫ממכיא‬

170

The pig out of the river ( e’or) refers probably to a certain kind of fish which is called pig and which is not harmful to man. 467 The message of the midrash, that we have seen above (in section 13.4), is clear: the political condition of Israel (subjection/ liberty) does not depend so much on its relations with non-Jews but more on its relations with God. When the Jews respect the commandments they are free, but when they do not they are subjected to the nations. 468 This is an idea which the Mishnah formulated in the saying: “Whoever accepts the yoke of Torah is relieved of the yoke of the empire, but whoever shrugs off the yoke of Torah is subjected to the yoke of the empire.” 469

In some manuscripts it is added, “The letter ‘ayin [in the word a’ar] is suspended, [indicating that it might be read as if e’or (river), meaning]: If you will prove worthy it [i.e the boar] will come from the river , if you will not prove worthy, from the wood; an animal coming from a river is timid, one coming from a forest is not timid.” The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan, version A seems to link Psalms 80:14 with Rome: “Scripture reads, The boar out of the wood ( a’ar) doth ravage it (Ps 80:14), but it is written, The boar our out of the river ( e’or) doth ravage it. The boar out of the wood doth ravage it [according to one manuscript: ‘refers to the Roman Empire’]. For when Israel does not do the will of God, the nations appear to them [Israel] like the boar out out of the wood: even as the boar of the forests kills people and injures folk and smites men, so too, so long as Israel does not do the will of God, the nations kill them [Israel] and injure them and smite them. But so long as Israel does the will of God the nations do not rule over them. (Then the nations are) like the boar out of the river: even as the boar of the rivers kills no people and harms no folk, so too, so long as Israel does His will, no nation or people kills them or harms them or smites them. That is why it is written, The boar out of the river.” The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan A 34. Translation by Goldin, The Fathers, 138. ‫ שבזמן‬.]‫ יכרסמנה חזיר מיער [זו מלכות רומי‬.‫ יכרסמנה חזיר מ יאור כתיב‬.)‫ " יכרסמנה חזיר מיער" (שם פ' י"ד‬:‫הרי הוא אומר‬ ‫ מה חזיר מיער הורג נפשות ומזיק את הבריות ומלקה‬.‫שאין ישראל עושין רצונו של מקום אומות העולם דומות עליהם כחזיר מיער‬ ‫ וכל זמן שישראל‬.‫בני אדם כך כל זמן שאין ישראל עושים רצונו של מקום אומות העולם הורגין בהם ומזיקין בהם ומלקין אותן‬ ‫ מה חזיר של יאור אינו הורג נפשות ואינו מזיק לבריות כך‬:‫עושים רצונו של מקום אין אומות העולם מושלין בהן כחזיר של יאור‬ .‫כל זמן שישראל עושין רצונו אין אומה ולשון הורגין בהן ומזיקין בהן ולא מלקין אותן לכך נכתב חזיר מיאור‬ 467 This is probably a fish; several fish in Greek and Latin are called pig or boar, see: Alfred C. Andrews, “Greek and Latin Mouse-Fishes and Pig-Fishes,” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 79 (1948): 232-253. Jacques André, “La part des suidés dans le vocabulaire grec et latin,” Anthropozoologica 15 (1991): 8-11. Isidore of Seville (7th century) writes: “Shetfish (porcus marinus. lit. “sea pigs”), commonly called suilli (lit. “small swine), are so named because when they seek food they root up the earth underwater like swine.” Isidore of Seville, Etymology 12.6.12. Translation by Stephen A. Barney, The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 260. In Arabic, the term khinzir (pig) is also used to designate several animals with a long muzzle : the potamocherus of Africa is called khinzir al-nahr/al-mā (“Pig/boar of the river/water). See: F. Viré, “Khinzir,” The Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition, vol. V (Leiden: Brill, 1979), 9. 468 On this idea in the rabbinic midrashim concerning Esau (Rome), see: Aminoff, The Figure, 208-212. 469 M. Avoth 3.5. ‫ נותנין‬,‫ מעבירין ממנו עול מלכות ועול דרך ארץ; וכל הפורק ממנו עול תורה‬,‫ כל המקבל עליו עול תורה‬:‫רבי נחוניה בן הקנה אומר‬ .‫עליו עול מלכות ועול דרך ארץ‬

171

Most references to the pig are found in part IV of the midrash, in which the pattern “three-four” is found in each of the four readings which make up this part as well in the relations between the first three readings (7-9) and the last one (10). The first of the four reads as follows (no. 7): Moses foresaw the empires engaged in their [subsequent] activities. “The camel, the hare, The Rockbadger,” (Deut. 14:7) “The camel [gamal]” - alludes to Babylon, of whom is said, “[O daughter of Babylon, that art to be destroyed]; happy be he that repayeth thee thy retributions [gemul] as thou hast dealt [gamal] with us” (Ps. 137:8). “The Rockbadger alludes to Media. The Rabbis and R. Judah b. Simon gave different explanations. The Rabbis said: just as the rock-badger possesses marks of uncleanness and marks of cleanness, so too did Media produce a righteous man as well as a wicked man. R. Judah b. R. Simon said: The last Darius was the son of Esther, clean from his mother[‘s side] and unclean from his father[‘s side]. The hare alludes to Greece; the name of the mother of Ptolemy was [Lagos, the Greek equivalent of] hare. The swine alludes to Edom [i.e. Rome]. 470

The end of the reading emphasizes the particularity of the fourth beast (Rome): Moses mentioned [the first] three of them in one verse, but the last [by itself] in another verse. R. Johanan and R. Simeon b. Lakish gave explanations. R. Johanan said: Because it [i.e. the swine] is on a par with the three others put together. R. Simeon b. Lakish said: It is even more than that. R. Johanan raised an objection to the view of R. Simeon b. Lakish [on the strength of the passage], “Thou, therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite hand to hand [and let the threefold sword [doubled]” (Ezekiel 21:19). What does Resh Lakish do with this? [Resh Lakish replied: It is said]: “The threefold swords doubled” (Ibid.). 471

In the next paragraph the midrash links the boar of psalm 80:14 with the pig of Leviticus 11:7:

For the metaphor of the ‘yoke’ ‫ עול‬see: Marijn Zwart, Re erence & Resistance The Term ‘ o e’ in Matthew 11, 28-30 as Elucidated by the Theories of Bildfeld & Hidden Transcripts (M.A. Thesis, Utrecht: Utrecht University, 2011). 470 LevR. 13.5. Translation by Israelstam, Midrash Rabba, vol. 5, Leviticus, 173-174. ‫ "אשרי שישלם לך את‬,‫" זו בבל‬, ‫ "את הגמל‬.)‫ ז‬,‫ "את הגמל ואת הארנבת ואת השפן" (דברים יד‬.‫משה ראה את המלכיות בעיסוקן‬ ‫ רבנין אמ' מה השפן הזה יש בו סימני טומאה‬.‫ רבנין ור' יהודה בר' סימון‬.‫ זו מדי‬,"‫ "את השפן‬.)‫ ח‬,‫גמולך שגמלת לנו" ( תהלים קלז‬ ‫ אמ' ר' יהודה בר' סימו ן דריוש האחרון בנה שלאסתר היה טהור מאמו וטמא‬.‫וסימני טהרה כך היתה מלכות מדי מעמדת צדיק ורשע‬ .‫ זה אדום‬,)‫ ח‬,‫ "ואת החזיר" (דברים יד‬.‫ אמו שלתלמי המלך ארנבת שמה‬,‫ זו יוון‬,‫ ואת הארנבת‬.‫מאביו‬ In some manuscripts the fourth beast (the pig) is not Rome but Persia. The exceptional identification of the pig with Persia plays with the sonority of the Hebrew word for hoof: parsa ‫ פרסה‬and the Hebrew word for Persia: paras ‫פרס‬. 471 LevR 13.5. '‫ ור‬.‫ ר' יוחנן אמ' שהיא שקולה כנגד שלשתן‬.‫ למה? ר' יוחנן ור' שמעון בן לקיש‬,‫משה נתן שלשתן בפסוק אחד ולזו בפסוק אחד‬ ,‫ דא מה עביד לה ר' שמעון בן לקיש‬,‫ מתיב ר' יוחנן לר' שמעון בן לקיש בן אדם הנבא והך כף אל כף‬.‫שמעון בן לקיש אמ' יתירא‬ .‫עביד לה ותיכפל‬

172

R. Phinehas and R. Hilkiah, in the name of R. Simeon, said: Out of all the prophets, only two, namely Asaph and Moses, named it [i.e. Rome]. Asaph said: “The boar (ḥa ir) out of the wood doth ravage it” (Ps 80:14], Moses said: “And the pig (ḥa ir) [because it parteth the hoof, and is cloven footed, but cheweth not the cud, he is unclean to you]” (Lev. 11:7).” Why is it [i.e. Rome] compared to a ḥa ir [pig or boar]? – To tell you this: Just as the pig when reclining puts forth its hooves as if to say: See that I am clean, so too does the evil kingdom [Rome] boast as it commits violence and robbery, under the guise of establishing a judicial tribunal. Once a governor in Caesarea who put to death the thieves, adulterers, and sorcerers, said to his counselor: “I myself did these three things in one night.”472

We find the same midrash in Genesis Rabbah 65.1 concerning Esau´s marriage at the age of forty with Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon (Gn. 26:34), which is presented as a hypocritical behavior given that “until the age of forty, Esau used to ensnare married women and violate them, yet when he attained forty years he compared himself to his father, saying, ‘As my father was forty years old when he married, so I will marry at the age of forty.’” (Gn. 26:34). 473 The midrash creates unity between the Torah and Psalms, proposing that the criminal nature of the pig (Rome) in Psalm 80:14 is explained in Leviticus 11:7. 474 Caesarea was the capital of the province of Judea and hence the governor’s center. The governor in the midrash is hence the highest Roman authority in the city which the sages saw as “small Rome,” and hence represents the typological wicked Esau who is marked by his hoggish nature. The second reading (no. 8) of the four animals of Leviticus 11:4-6 provides the first explanation (out of three) for why Rome (the pig) is different from the three preceding empires (beasts):

472

LevR. 13.5. Translation by Israelstam, Midrash Rabba, vol. 5, Leviticus, 174. ,‫ " יכרסמנה חזיר מיער" ( תהלים פ‬:'‫ אסף אמ‬,‫ אסף ומשה‬,‫ מכל הנביאים לא פירסמוה אלא שנים‬:‫ר' פינחס ור' חלקיה בש' ר' סימון‬ ,‫" למה נמשלה בחזיר? לומר לך מה חזיר הזה בשעה שהוא רבוץ ומוציא טלפיו ואומר ראו שאנו טהור‬. ‫ "ואת החזיר‬:'‫ משה אמ‬.)‫יד‬ ‫ מעשה בשלטון אחד בק יסרי שהיה הורג את‬.‫כך היתה מלכות הרשעה הזו מתגאה וחומסת וגוזלת ונראת כילו שהיא מצעת בימה‬ .‫הגנבים ואת המנאפין ואת המכשפין ואמ' לסנקליטין שלו שלשתן עשה אותו האיש בלילה אחד‬ 473 GenR Toledoth 64.1. Translation by Freedman, Midrash Rabbah, Genesis, vol. II, 580. See: Fraenkel, Darchei Aggadah VeHamidrash, vol. I, 220. 474 The image of the pig as pretending to be pure may recall the Greco-Roman proverb concerning the pig as being emblematic of stupidity: “A pig teaching Minerva” (Sus docet Minervam).

173

Another interpretation: The camel alludes to Babylon, “Because he extolleth with the throat,” (Lev. 11:4) i.e. that it praised the Holy One, blessed be He. R. Berekiah and R. Helbo said in the name of R. Samuel b. Nahman: All the expressions that David used separately, that wicked man [viz. Nebuchadnezzar] included in one verse, as it is said, “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honour the King of Heaven; for all His works are truth, and His ways justice; and those that walk in pride He is able to abase” (Dan. 4:34). [Corresponding to Nebuchadnezzar’s expression] ‘praise, [David had said], “Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem” (Ps. 147:12); [corresponding to] “extol,” [David had said], “I will extol Thee, O Lord” (Ps. 30:2); [corresponding to] “honour,” [David had said], “O Lord my God, Thou art very great; Thou art clothed with glory and honour” (Ps. 104:1); [corresponding to] “All His works are truth” [David had said], “For Thy mercy and for Thy truth,” (Ps. 138:2); [corresponding to] ‘His way is justice,” [David had said], “He will judge the peoples with equity (Ps. 96:10); [corresponding to] “Those that walk in pride,” [David had said], “The Lord reigneth, He is clothed in pride (Ps. 93:1); [corresponding to] “He is able to abase,” [David had said], “All th e horns of the wicked also will I cut off” (Ps 75:11).“And the rock-badger” alludes to Media, “He exalteth with the throat” in that it extolled the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said, “Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia [All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord, the God of the heavens, given me, etc].” (Ezra 1:2). “And the Hare: alludes to Greece, She raiseth with the throat in that it extolled the Holy One, blessed be He. Alexander of Macedon, when he saw Simeon the Just, said: “Blessed be the Lord, God of Simeon the Just.” 475

While the first three empires exalt God, Rome blasphemes: “The pig” (Lev. 11:7) - this refers to Edom. “For it does not chew the cud”- for it does not give praise to the Holy One, blessed be he. And it is not enough that it does not give praise, but it blasphemes and swears violently, saying, “Whom do I have in heaven, and with you I want nothing on earth. (Ps. 73:25). 476

The third reading of the four beasts of Leviticus 11:4-6 (no. 9) states that while the first three empires exalt the righteous, Rome kills them: Another interpretation: The camel” (Lev. 11:4) - this refers to Babylonia. “For it chews the cud” -for it exalts righteous men: “And Daniel was in the gate of the king” (Dan. 2:49). “The rock badger” (Lev. 11:5) - this refers to Media. “For it brings up the stranger” - for it exalts the righteous men: “Mordecai sat at the gate of the king” (Est. 2:19). “The hare” (Lev. 11:6) - this refers to Greece. “For it brings up the stranger” - for it exalts the 475

LevR 13.5. Translation by Israelstam, Midrash Rabba, vol. 5, Leviticus, 175. ‫ רבי ברכיה ורבי חלבו בשם ר' ישמעאל בר‬.‫ שמקלסת להקב"ה‬:)‫ ד‬,‫ "כי מעלה גרה היא" (ויקרא יד‬,‫ זו בבל‬- "‫ד"א "את הגמל‬ ,‫ "כען אנה נבוכדנצר משבח ומרומם ומהדר למלך שמיא"(דניאל ד‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫ כלל אותו רשע בפסוק אחד‬,‫ "כל מה שפרט דוד‬:‫נחמן‬ ‫ "ה' אלהי גדלת מאד‬- "‫ "ומהדר‬.)‫ ב‬,‫ "ארוממך ה '"( תהלים ל‬- "‫ "ומרומם‬.)‫ "שבחי ירושלים את ה'" ( תהלים קמז‬- "‫ "משבח‬.)‫לד‬ ‫ "די כל‬.)‫ ב‬,‫ "על חסדך ועל אמתך" ( תהלים קלח‬-)‫ לד‬,‫ (דניאל ד‬,"‫ "די כל מעבדוהי קשוט‬,)‫ א‬,‫הוד והדר לבשת" ( תהלים קד‬ "‫ "ה ' מלך גאות לבש‬- )‫ לד‬,‫ "ודי מהלכין בגוה" (דניאל ד‬.)‫ א‬,‫ " ידין עמים במישרים" ( תהלים צג‬- )‫ לד‬, ‫ארחתיה דין" (דניאל ד‬ ‫ כי מעלה גרה‬,‫ זו מדי‬- "‫ "ואת השפן‬.)‫ יא‬,‫ "וכל קרני רשעים אגדע" ( תהלים עה‬- )‫ לד‬,‫ " יכיל להשפלה" (דניאל ז‬.)‫ א‬,‫( תהלים צג‬ ‫ כי מעלת גרה היא שמקלסת‬,‫ זו יון‬- "‫ "ואת הארנבת‬.)‫ כ‬,‫ "כה אמר כורש מלך פרס" (עזרא א‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫הוא שמקלסת להקב"ה‬ ."‫ "ברוך ה' אלהי של שמעון הצדיק‬:‫ אלכסנדרוס מוקדן כד הוה חמי לר"ש הצדיק אומר‬,‫להקב"ה‬ 476 LevR 13.5. ‫ ולא דייה שאינה מקלסת אלא מחרפת‬, ‫ שאינה מקלסת לקב"ה‬,)‫ ז‬,‫ והוא גרה לא יגר (ויקרא יא‬.‫ זו אדום‬,)‫ ז‬,‫"את החזיר" (ויקרא יא‬ .)‫ כה‬,‫ "מי לי בשמים ועמך לא חפצתי בארץ" ( תהלים עג‬:‫ומגדפת ואומרת‬

174

righteous. When Alexander of Macedonia saw Simeon the Righteous, he would rise up on his feet. They said to him, “Can’t you see the Jew, that you stand up before this Jew?” He said to them, “When I go forth to battle, I see something like this man’s visage, and I conquer.” “The pig” (Lev. 11:7) - this refers to Rome.“ But it does not bring up the stranger” - for it does not exalt the righteous. And it is not enough that it does not exalt them, but it kills them. That is in line with the following verse of Scripture: “I was angry with my people, I profaned my heritage; I gave them into your hand, you showed them no mercy; on the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy” (Is. 47:6). This refers to R. Akiba and his colleagues. 477

The last reading (no 10), which also closes the chapter, introduces the third difference between the empires and Rome, which will not be followed by another empire: Another interpretation [now treating “bring up the cud” (gera) as “bring along in its train”]: “The camel” (Lev. 11:4) - this refers to Babylonia. “Which brings along in its train” - for it brought along another kingdom after it. “The rock badger” (Lev. 11:5) - this refers to Media. “Which brings along in its train” - for it brought along another kingdom after it. “The hare” (Lev. 11:6) -this refers to Greece. “Which brings along in its train” for it brought along another kingdom after it. “The pig” (Lev. 11:7) - this refers to Rome. “Which does not bring along in its train” - for it did not bring along another kingdom after it. And why is it then called “pig” (ḥa ir)? For it restores (meḥazeret) the crown to the one who truly should have it [namely, Israel, whose dominion will begin when the rule of Rome ends]. That is in line with the following verse of Scripture: “And saviors will come up on Mount Zion to judge the Mountain of Esau [Rome], and the kingdom will then belong to the Lord (Ob. 1:21). 478

In sum, the three readings give a different sense to the blemished sign of the pig in Leviticus, that it does not chew the cud: the first reads it as a sign that Rome “does not exalt the righteous;” the second, that Rome “does not give praise to the Holy One, blessed be he. And it is not enough that it does not give praise, but it blasphemes and swears violently;” and finally that “it did not bring along another kingdom after it.” The

477

LevR 13.12. Translation by Neusner, Judaism and Christianity, 222. ‫ כי‬.‫" זו מדי‬, ‫ "ואת השפן‬.)‫ מט‬,‫ "ודניאל בתרע מלכא" (דניאל ב‬,‫ שמגדלת את הצדיקים‬,‫ כי מעלה גרה הוא‬.‫" זו בבל‬, ‫ד"א "את הגמל‬ ,‫ כי מעלת גרה היא‬.‫" זו יוון‬,‫ "ואת הארנבת‬.)‫ יט‬,‫ "ומרדכי ישב בשער המלך" (אסתר ב‬,‫ שמגדלת את הצדיקים‬,‫מעלה גרה הוא‬ ,‫ אלכסנדרוס מקדון כד הוה חמי לשמעון הצדיק הוה קאים על ריגליה אמ' ליה יהודאי לית את יכיל למיחמי‬.‫שמגדלת את הצדיקים‬ ", ‫ "והוא גרה לא יגר‬.‫" זו אדום‬,‫ "ואת החזיר‬.‫ בשעה שאני יוצא למלחמה כדמותו אני רואה ונוצח‬:‫ אמ' להן‬,‫מן קדם יהודיי את קאים‬ ,)‫ ו‬,‫ "קצפתי על עמי חללתי נחלתי ואתנם בידך" ( ישעיה מז‬:‫ הה"ד‬,‫ ולא דייה שאינה מגדלת אלא הורגת‬,‫שאינה מגדלת את הצדיקים‬ .‫זה ר' עקיבה וחביריו‬ 478 LevR 13.13. Translation by Neusner, Judaism and Christianity, 222-223. .‫ שגררה מלכות אחריה‬,‫ כי מעלה גרה הוא‬.‫" זו מדי‬, ‫ "את השפן‬.‫ שגררה מלכות אחריה‬,‫ כי מעלה גרה הוא‬.‫" זו בבל‬, ‫ד"א "את הגמל‬ ‫ שלא גררה מלכות‬,‫ והוא גרה לא יגר‬,‫" זו אדום‬,‫ "ואת החזיר‬.‫ שגררה מלכות אחריה‬,‫ כי מעלה גרה הוא‬,‫" זה יוון‬,‫"את הארנבת‬ "‫ " ועלו מושיעים בהר ציון לשפט את הר עשו והיתה לי" י המלוכה‬:‫ הה"ד‬,‫ ולמה נקרא שמה חזיר? שמחזרת עטרה לבעלה‬.‫אחריה‬ .)‫ כא‬,‫(עובדיה א‬

175

last reading is reinforced by the midrash name for the word pig (ḥa ir): “And why is it then called “pig” (ḥa ir)? For it restores (meḥazeret) the crown to the one who truly should have it [namely, Israel, whose dominion will begin when the rule of Rome ends].”479 Hence, the impure nature of the pig incarnates Rome’s crimes against God a nd his nation, but also Rome’s future fall and punishment and Israel’s final triumph. The fourth kingdom, Rome, Edom, the pig, will fall and will raise the fifth and final kingdom, Israel, after the future revenge prophesized in Obadiah 1:21: “And saviors will come up on Mount Zion to judge the Mountain of Esau [Rome], and the kingdom will then belong to the Lord.” 480

Discussion In all four sections of the midrash (13.2-5), the main message is: The fulfillment of the commandments is a sign of Israel’s superiority over the nations (13.2). If Israel follows the law, it will be rewarded (13.3), if Israel does not follow the law, it will be punished (13.3); Israel´s subjection to Rome is part of a divine plan. Rome is the worst of the four kingdoms, but also the final kindom (13.5) (table 3). Through the midrash, we can see the dialectics of eating which function with several contradictions: to eat - to be eaten; to avoid eating – to be rewarded by eating; and not to eat now (in this world) – to eat in the future (in the world to come). Israel should avoid eating impure food in this world but will eat the messianic meal; Israel in this world is eaten by the nations of t he world but will eat them in the world to come. Hence, passivity, which is the outcome of powerlessness, which is symbolized by the simile of being eaten, is transformed into an 479 480

LevR 13.13. LevR 13.13. Translation by Neusner, Judaism and Christianity, 222-223. .)‫ " ועלו מושיעים בהר ציון לשפוט את הר עשו והיתה לה' המלוכה" (עובדיה א‬:‫הדא הוא דכתיב‬

176

active power. This is achieved by portraying avoidance of impure food as the “real” field of battle and by projecting it to the messianic future where Israel will receive its recompense, and actively eat. Section 13.2

13.3

13.4.

13.5

Content God elects the generation of the desert, Mount Moriah, Jerusalem, Mount Sinai, the land of Israel.

Main Ideas Israel’s Election is the dis-election of the nations. The release of the nations from the commandments demonstrates their inferiority.

God permits Israel “to eat” the nations of Canaan (their lives, land, and goods). - The parable of the donkey and the dog - The parable of the doctor and the two patients The aim of the Commandments

The release of the nations from the law is not a sign of liberty but of subjection.

The burdening of the commandments demonstrates the superiority of the Jews.

In the world to come, the Jews will be recompensed for their keeping of the Law.

The banquet of Behemot - The Torah is eternal (there will not be a new and Leviathan in the Torah in the messianic era). World to Come - God will recompense those that will keep his The ariston [banquet] for Law. the righteous in the World to Come - The eternity of the Law - God will recompense those who keep the food laws. God showed Moses a fiery Israel´s political condition (freedom/ skull. subjection) is conditioned by its observance of the Law. The four kingdoms Israel’s subjection to the four kingdoms is part of the divine plan announced by all the prophets. The fourth kingdom (Rome=Pig) is distinguished from the three empires preceding it. It is the worst but the last. After its fall, Israel will be redeemed.

Table 3: The Structure and message of Leviticus Rabbah 13.2-5.

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We can see a strong symmetry in the construction of the midrash which follows the pattern “three-four,” in which the fourth element is different from the three preceeding and consists of a climax of all the elements. The chapter concerning Leviticus 11:1-7 is divided into four sections (13.2-5); the fourth section (13.5) is divided into four, while each of the ten readings include a variety of verses according to the pattern of “three-four”(fig. 22).

1

2

3

4

Readings

a b c d

Fig. 22: The three-four model in Leviticus Rabbah 13.

We find here the two types of symmetry which Chaim Milikowsky observes in midrash Seder Olam: moral and esthetic. The moral symmetry is one of the faces of “a measure for a measure” (‫)מדה כנגד מדה‬, or as the Mishanah says: “According to the measure that a person measures, with it do we measure him” (m. Sota 1.7), while the esthetic symmetry provides a sense of order in the divine historic plan. 481 As Gerson D. Cohen notes, “It was not out of love for the art of history that the rabbis sought symmetry, but out of a passionate longing for the messianic redemption. Schematology always 481

Chaim Milikowsky, “The Symmetry of History in Rabbinic Literature: The Special Numbers of Seder Olam, Chapter Two,” Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 11 (1993): 45 (Hebrew).

178

betrays a very superficial interest in the events themselves, but a deep desire to unravel their meaning and their place in the plan of history as a whole.” 482 History is a repetitive pattern. The sages read the diverse texts following the idea of the unity of Torah ( ‫אחדות‬ ‫)המקרא‬: all the texts are understood as decoding the same basic idea, that of the four kingdoms. This unity of scriptures is imagined as unity of time (Adam, Abraham, Daniel, Moses) and as unity between prophecy and Law, practice and history. This structure placed special importance on the pig (=Rome) and resolved in a sense the problem posed by the actual importance of the avoidance of pork due to the tensions between Jews and eaters of pork in the Greco-Roman world. As proposed above, a few ideas in the midrash can be understood as constituting a polemic with Christianity, mainly the rejection of the idea that the commandments are but a yoke and a burden. As Joseph Heinemann notes (1971): All sections of this homily refer, in one way or another, to animals and the eating of their meat; yet, instead of dealing with details of the precepts, they put the entire chapter into an utterly new perspective. Far from being a burden, the dietary laws are a token of distinction for Israel, a means by which they are set apart from other nations and will, eventually, inherit life in the World-to-Come. If they refrain from participating in the wild-beast contests and from eating forbidden meat in this world, incomparably greater pleasures are in store for them in the future. And this very chapter, apparently but enumerating the list of forbidden animals, is in truth foretelling the messianic redemption. In this as in other homilies the author deals by implication with acute problems of his time. Not only does he hold up the hope of redemption and demonstrate that Israel's subjugation to Roman rule is but temporary, he also summarily rejects the idea that the commandments are but a yoke and a burden — as was claimed by Christianity in its polemics against Judaism. 483

Jacob Neusner, in Judaism and Christianity in the Age of Constantine: History, Messiah, Israel, and the Initial Confrontation (1987), linked the sages’ identification of

482

Gerson D. Cohen, “The Symmetry of History,” in Abraham Ibn Daud, The Book of Tradition (Sefer Ha-Qabalah), ed. Gerson, D. Cohen (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1967), 213. 483 Joseph Heinemann, “Profile of a Midrash: The Art of Composition in Leviticus Rabba.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 39, no. 2. (1971): 147-148.

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Rome with the pig to Jerome’s allegorical exegesis of the two signs of purity of four footed animals (the parted hoof and the chewing of the cud): The Jew is single-hoofed and therefore he is unclean. The Manichean is single hoofed and therefore he is unclean. And since he is single-hoofed he does not chew what he eats, and what has once gone into his stomach he does not bring up again and chew and make fine, so that what had been coarse would return to the stomach fine. This is indeed a matter of divine mystery. The Jew is single-hoofed, for he believes in only one Testament and does not ruminate; he only reads the letter and thinks over nothing, nor does he seek anything deeper. The Christian, however, is cloven-hoofed and ruminates. That is, he believes in both Testaments and he often ponders each Testament, and whatever lies hidden in the letter he brings forth in the spirit. 484

As Neusner (1987) notes, Rome in Leviticus Rabbah “bore some traits that validate, but lacked others that validate – just as Jerome said of Israel. It would be difficult to find a more direct confrontation between two parties to an argument. Now the issue is the same – who is the true Israel? – and the proof-texts are the same; moreover, the proof-texts are read in precisely the same way. Only the conclusions differ.” 485 For Neusner, the image of the pig w hich pretends to be pure summerizes the main antiChristian polemical message of the chapter: The polemic represented in Leviticus Rabbah by the symbolization of Christian Rome makes the simple point that, first, Christians are no different from, and no better than, pagans; they are essentially the same. The Christians’ claim to form part of Israel, then, requires no serious attention. Since Christians came to Jews with precisely that claim, the sages’ response -they are another Babylonia - bears a powerful polemic charge. But that is not the whole story, as we see. Second, just as Israel had survived Babylonia, Media, and Greece, so would it endure to see the end of Rome (whether pagan, whether Christian). But there is a third point. Rome really does differ from the earlier, pagan empires, and that polemic shifts the entire discourse, once we hear its symbolic vocabulary properly. Christianity was not merely part of a succession of undifferentiated modes of paganism. The symbols assigned to Rome attributed worse, more dangerous traits than those assigned to the earlier empires. The pig pretends to be clean, just as the Christians give the signs of adherence to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That

484

Jerome, Tractates on Psalms 95.2. Translation by Boniface Ramsey, Beginning to Read the Church Fathers (New York: Paulist, 1985), 25-26. Allegorical interpretation of these signs is found as early as Pseudo-Aristeas, Letter of Aristeas 150-154 in the second century BCE and in Philo of Alexandria The Special Laws 4.18-19.106-109; On Husbandry 33. 143-145 in the first century CE. 485 Neusner, Judaism and Christianity, 102.

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much the passage concedes. For the pig is not clean, exhibiting some, but not all, of the required indications, and Rome is not Israel, even though it shares Israel’s Scripture. 486

Neusner’s reading makes the polemic with Christianity the leitmotiv of the Leviticus Rabbah and Genesis Rabbah, but what are the proof texts for this reading? The midrashic presentation of the Empire as pretending to be pure can be understood as targeting the Empire’s discourse, which presents its action as just and beneficial to humanity, and not just against the Christian claim to be true Israel. Neusner argues that the fourth century, or the age of Constantine, was a dramatic turning point in JewishChristians relations: The age of Constantine, the fourth century (roughly, from 312, when Constantine extended toleration to Christianity, to 429, when the Jewish government of the Land of Israel ceased to enjoy the recognition of the state), marks the period in which Christianity joined the political world of the Roman Empire. In that century Christianity gained power, briefly lost it, and, finally, regained the power that assured its permanent domination of the state. Christians saw Israel as God’s people, rejected by God for rejecting the Christ. Israel saw Christians, now embodied in Rome, as Ishmael, Esau, Edom: the brother and the enemy. The political revolution marked by Constantine’s conversion forced the two parties to discuss a single agendum and defined the terms in which each would take up that agendum. 487

However as Adiel Schremer noted recently, “contrary to prevalent scholarly opinion, Constantine’s conversion and the resulting Christianization of the Roman Empire were, from the rabbinic point of view, of relatively little significance. Palestinian rabbis of late antiquity continued to view Rome as a powerful oppressor, without paying much attention to its new religious character.” 488 The historical reality was probably somewhere between these two scholarly opinions. However, what is important for my discussion here is the lack of any direct reference to Christianity in the midrash itself. If the midrash represents the subtext of the dominated and it indeed targets Christianized 486

Ibid. Italics mine. Ibid, 1. 488 Adiel Schremer, Brothers Estranged: Heresy, Christianity, and Jewish Identity in Late Antiquity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 22. 487

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Rome, why does it not directly point to it? One possible explanation is the refusal of the sages to follow the Christian reading of the Christianization of the Empire as a turning point. If for Christianity the Empire changed its nature by embracing the true faith, the sages insist on the continuity by repeatedly describing the empire as being as unjust as before. Thus: while for Christians “all changes,” for the sages “nothing changes.” There was no need to Christianize Rome. The need was rather to refuse to recognize the supposed change in the empire’s nature.

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Chapter 8 The Boar out of the Wood As we have seen, in Genesis Rabbah and Leviticus Rabbah, Esau, Rome, and the fourth empire are identified with the “boar out of the wood” of Psalm 80:14. We will now discuss the interpretation of this verse in other rabbinical texts (mainly Sifre 316-317 and b. Pesaḥim 118b) and in Christian exegesis (Augustine, Eucherius of Lyons, a nd Cassiodorus). However, first we will observe in some detail the scriptural context of Psalm 80:14. 489 A prayer for the restoration of the ravaged vineyard [Israel] of the Shepherd of Israel [God], the psalm starts with an invocation and petition (vv 2-4), followed by a lamentation (vv. 5-8) which serves as a prologue to the main section of the psalm, the parable of the vine (vv. 9-20),which itself may be divided into three parts: 1) A recitation of God’s saving acts (vv. 9-12), 2) a description of the vine’s present condition (vv 13-17a), and 3) petitions and a vow (vv. 17b-20). As Marvin E. Tate explains, the parable of the vine is an “extended metaphor of Yahweh’s great vine which he took from Egypt and planted in his land. In the vineyard that was Israel, the vine once spread its branches and tendrils until it transformed a large territory into a vineyard and covered mountains and mighty cedars with its shade. But now the great vine is ravaged, uprooted by wild hogs and trampled by vagrants who pluck its fruit as they will.”490 The historical pattern of the psalm is that of salvation-enslavement-redemption, going from God´s salvation of Israel from Egypt, to the giving of the Promised Land, to the

489

Ps. 80 is dated by some to the eighth century BCE. As Craig C. Broyles notes, “Ps. 80 has been variously considered to reflect every national crisis from the tenth century division of the kingdom to the time of Maccabees. The most plausible conjectures locates the psalm either in 732 -722 BC when the northern tribes were under threat (…) or in the time of Josiah and his reform.” Craig C. Broyle s, The Conflict of Faith and Experience in the Psalms: A Form-Critical and Theological Study (Sheffield, England: JSOT Press, 1989), 161. 490 Marvin E. Tate, Psalms. 51-100 (Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1990), 316.

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punishment of Israel for its sins by a foreign force, and finally to the future redemption (table 4). Structure I. Invocation and petition (vv 2-4)

II. Lamentation (vv 5-8)

Text 1: To the Conductor. According to ‘Lilies’. A testimony. To Asaph. A Psalm. 2: Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou who hast led Joseph like a flock! Thou who art enthroned upon the cherubim, appear! 3: Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy might and come to save us! 4: Restore us, O God; let thy face shine, that we may be saved! 5: O Lord’ ‘Sabaoth, how long wilt thou be angry with thy people’s prayer? 6: Thou hast fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in full measure. 7: Thou didst make us a strife to our neighbours, and our enemies mock at us. 8: Restore us, O God Sabaoth; let thy face shine, that we may be saved!

III. Parable of the vine 1. Recitation of God’s 9: Thou didst bring a vine out of Egypt; Thou saving acts (vv 9-12) didst drive out the nations and plant it. 10: Thou didst clear the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land. 11: The mountains were covered with its shade, the cedars of God with its braches; 12: It sent out its tendrils to the sea, and its branches to the river. 2. Description of the 13: Why hast thou broken down its walls, vine’s present so that all who pass along the way pluck its condition (vv13-17a) fruit? 14: The boar from the forest ravages it, and the beasts of the field feed on it. 15: Return to us, O God Sabbaoth! Look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vine, 16: the sapling which thy right hand planted, and the son whom thou hast reared for thyself! 17: It is burned with fire and hacked to pieces;

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Event Hope for future redemption

Israel’s present suffering

The Exodus from Egypt. The conquest of the Promised Land

Israel’s present destruction

3. Petitions and vow (vv 17b-20)

they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. 18: Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, the son of man whom thou hast reared for yourself! 19: We will not part from thee; thou givest us life that we may call on thy name; 20: Restore us, O Lord’ ‘Sabaoth! Let thy face shine, that we may be saved. 491

The future redemption

Table 4: Structure and content of Psalm 80

If verse 80:14 is a metaphor for Israel’s enemy who destroyed the vineyard (Israel/ Temple),492 it is inscribed in a divine historical plan and hence carries both the idea of destruction and the hope for redemption. This scriptural context made Psalm 80:14 particularly apt for transferring an eschatological interpretation of Israel´s subjection by Rome in the Rabbinic literature.

Sifri Numbers 316-317 One of the earlier (end of the 3 rd cent.?)493 references to Psalm 80:14 is found i n Sifri on

umbers’ interpretation of verses thirteen and fourteen of Deuteronomy thirty

two. These verses are part of the blessing and warning God gave to the Israelites before Moses´ death and their crossing of the Jordan into the Holy Land (known as “the song of Moses ‫)”שירת האזינו‬.494 The midrash offers four different readings following the patter n “three-four” [see table 5]. The first reading evokes the time of the Israelites’ conquest of 491

Weiser, The Psalms, 546. In the Masoretic text, the letter ayin ‫ ע‬of the word a’ar (forest) is suspended above the line [ ‫]יער‬. It was proposed that it is a clue to a change of the original text which read ḥa ir me eor (‫“ )חזיר מיאור‬boar of the Nile,” referring to Egypt, while ḥa ir me a’ar (‫ )חזיר מיער‬refers to Rome. But, as Marvin E. Tate notes, “the suspension is more likely due to the fact that this was assumed to be the middle consonant of entire Plaster.” Tate, Psalms, 307. 493 Strack and Stemberger, Introduction, 297. 494 Deuteronomy 32:13-14: “13: He made him ride on the high places of the earth and he did eat the fruitage of the field and He made him to suck honey out of the crag, and oil out of the flinty rock. 14: Curd of kine and milk of sheep with fat of lambs and rams of the breed of Bashan and hegoats with the kidneyfat of wheat and the blood of the grape thou drankest foaming wine.” 492

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the Promised Land, and the bounty of the Holy Land in the past; the second speaks of the Temple cult; the third of Torah learning; and the fourth, which will be discussed here, of the bondage to Rome: Another interpretation: “He made him ride on the high places of the earth” (Deut. 32:13) – this refers to the world, as it is said, “The boar out of the wood doth ravage it,” [that which moveth in the field feedeth on it] (Ps. 80:14) – “and he did eat the fruitage of the field” (Deut. 32:13) – this refers to the four kingdoms – “and He made him to suck honey out of the crag, and oil out of the flinty rock” (31:53) – this refers to the oppressors [metzikim]495 who have taken possession of the Land of Israel, and from which it is as difficult to extract a pĕrutah [a penny] as from rock; but in the near future Israel will inherit all of their possessions and will derive pleasure from them as from oil and honey. “Curd of kine” (Deut. 32:14) – this refers to their consuls [pitkim] and their generals [hagmonim] – “and milk of sheep” (Deut. 32:14) – this refers to their colonels [klirikim] – “and rams” (Deut. 32:14) – this refers to their centurions [kintornim] – “of the breed of Bashan” (Deut. 32:14) – this refers to the privileged soldiers [benifikarim = lat. beneficarius], who extract (food) from between the teeth – “and hegoats” (Deut. 32:14) – this refers to their senators [snokolitim] – “with the kidney-fat of wheat” – this refers to their noble ladies [metroniot = lat. matrona] – “and the blood of the grape thou drankest foaming wine” (Deut. 32:14) – in the near future Israel will inherit their possessions and will derive pleasure from them as from oil and honey. 496

The paragraph opens with the reading of Deuteronomy 23:13 in the light of Psalm 80:14. The textual connection between the two verses was probably that both have the word “field – ‫ ”שדי‬in them: Deut. 32:13

He made him ride on the high places of the earth

and he did eat the fruitage of the field.

Ps. 80:14

The boar out of the wood doth ravage it

[that which moveth in the field feedeth on it].

With this link, the fourth and final reading of the midrash of Deuteronomy 32:13 creates a surprise: while the first three readings create an idyllic climate, interpreting the 495

For the term “metzikim” see: Herr, Roman Rule, 52-53. Sifre 317. Translation by Reuven Hammer, Sifre: A Tannaitic Commentary on the Book of Deuteronomy (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1986), 324, with slight alteration. ‫ אלו ארבע‬- "‫ " ויאכל תנובות שדי‬.(‫ יכרסמנה חזיר מיער ) תהלים פ יד‬:‫ זה העולם שנאמר‬,"‫ " ירכיבהו על במתי ארץ‬:‫דבר אחר‬ ,‫ אלו מציקים שהחזיקו בה בארץ ישראל והם קשים להוציא מהם פרוטה כצור‬- "‫ " ויניקהו דבש מסלע ושמן מחלמיש צור‬.‫מלכיות‬ ‫"עם חלב‬,‫ אלו הפיטקים והגמונים שלהם‬- "‫"חמאת בקר‬.‫למחר הרי ישראל יורשים נכסיהם והם עריבים עליהם כשמן וכדבש‬ - "‫"ועתודים‬.‫ אלו בניפיקרין המוציאים מבין שניים‬- "‫ "בני בשן‬.‫ אלו קינטרונים שלהם‬- "‫ "ואילים‬.‫ אלו כליריקים שלהם‬- "‫כליות‬ ‫ למחר הרי ישראל יורשים נכסיהם‬- "‫ "ודם ענב תשתה חמר‬.‫ אלו מטרניאות שלהם‬- "‫ "עם חלב כליות חטה‬.‫אלו סנוקליטים שלהם‬ .‫ועריבים להם כשמן ודבש‬ 496

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verses as standing for the blessing of the Israelites (the Land of Israel, the Temple, and Torah), the fourth addresses Rome. However, we can see here how the four readings together create an order: the first reading reminds us of the blessing which the people of Israel enjoyed in their land in the past; the second reminds us of the Temple cult; the third speaks of the Torah learning, which is the sages’ occupation, while the fourth describes the future redemption from Roman subjection. The midrash proposed that the blessing of Deuteronomy 32:13-14 will comfort the destruction caused by the boar in Psalm 80:14. Hence a symmetry is created between the blessing and the curse; the past and future; subjection and redemption, between “being eaten” right now (by the boar = Rome) and the future eating of the oppressors of Israel (= the Romans). A shift is created in time from the world of the Temple to the world of the sages, from sacrifices to Torah learning, making the study and fulfillment of the Torah the key to redemption, a condition for the messianic “eating” of Rome.

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Deuteronomy 32:1-14

He made him ride on the high places of the earth and he did eat the fruitage of the field and He made him to suck honey out of the crag, and oil out of the flinty rock. Curd of kine and milk of sheep with fat of lambs and rams of the breed of Bashan and hegoats with the kidney-fat of wheat and the blood of the grape thou drinkest foaming wine.

1 Past’s blessing Land of Israel

Fruits of the land of Israel Figs of Siknin; olive of Gush Halab

Readings 2 3 Temple’s cult To rah’s learning Temple Torah

Offering baskets of first fruits (Bikurim) Libations of oil

Scripture

Fourth kingdom

Mishnah

Oppressors who have taken possession of the Land of Israel, which in the near future Israel will inherit Consuls and their generals Colonels

Talmud Solomon’s times

Sin offering

Ten tribes’ times

Solomon’s time

Offering of flour

Ten-tribes’s time

Libations of wine

4 Subjection and Redemption World (=Rome) = the boar of Ps. 80:14

Inferences form the minor to the major, analogies, rules, and answers (to arguments)

Laws that are the essence of Torah Homiletic lessons that attract man’s heart like wine

Centurions Privileged soldiers Senators Noble ladies

Israel will derive pleasure from them as from oil and honey

Table 5: The reading of Deuteronomy 32: 13-14 in Sifre 316-317.

Bavli Pesaḥim 118b In Bavli Pesaḥim 118b, the boar of psalm 80:14 is found in a midrash which links psalm 117:1 497, which describes the praising of the Lord by the nations in the messianic

497

Ps. 117:1. “Praise the Lord, all you nations! Extol him, all you peoples! 2 For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!” . ‫ ַהלְּלּו י ָּה‬- ‫ וֶאֱ מֶ ת י ְּהוָה לְּעֹולָם‬, ‫ כִי גָבַר ָעלֵינּו ַח ְּסדֹו‬.‫ב‬. ‫שַ בְּחּוהּו כָל הָאֻׁ מִ ים‬, ‫ַהלְּלּו אֶ ת י ְּהוָה כָל ּגֹוי ִם‬

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era, to psalm 68:30-32, which describes the future punishment of Israel’s enemies by God and how the nations of the world in the messianic era will praise the Lord and bring gifts to the Temple.498 The first part of the midrash argues that Israel has more reasons tha n other nations to praise the Lord: Said R. Kahana, 499 “When R. Ishmael b. R. Yosé fell ill, 500 Rabbi sent word to him:501 ‘Tell us two or three of the things that you said to us in the name of your father.’ “He sent word to him, ‘This is what father said: “What is the meaning of the verse of Scripture, ‘Praise the Lord all your nations (Ps. 117:1)? What are the nations of the world doing in this setting? This is the sense of the statement, ‘Praise the Lord all you nations (Ps. 117:1) for the acts of might and wonder that he has done with them; all the more so us, since ‘his mercy is great toward us.’” 502

The second part of the midrash describes how God will accept gifts from Egypt and Ethiopia: “And further: “Egypt is destined to bring a gift to the Messiah. He will think that he should not accept it from them. The Holy One, blessed be He, will say to the Messiah, ‘Accept it from them, they provided shelter for my children in Egypt.’ Forthwith: ‘Nobles shall come out of Egypt bringing gifts’ (Ps. 68:32). The Ethiopians will propose an argument a fortiori concerning themselves, namely: ‘If these, who subjugated them, do this, we, who never subjugated them, all the more so!’ The Holy One, blessed be He, will say to the Messiah, ‘Accept it from them.’ Forthwith: ‘Ethiopia shall hasten to stretch out her hands to God’ (Ps. 68:32). 503

498

Ps 68: 30-33. “Rebuke the wild animals that live among the reeds, the herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples. Trample under foot those who lust after tribute; scatter the peoples who delight in war. Let bronze be brought from Egypt; let Ethiopia hasten to stretch out its hands to God. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth; sing praises to the Lord, Selah.” . ‫ִירים ְּבעֶגְּלֵי עַמִים מִ תְּ ַרפֵס ב ְַּרצֵי ָכסֶף ִבזַר עַמִ ים קְּ ָרבֹות י ֶ ְּח ָפצּו‬ ִ ‫ ּגְּעַר ַחי ַת קָ נֶה עֲדַ ת אַ ב‬.‫לא‬. ‫מֵ הֵי ָכלֶָך עַל י ְּרּושָ ָ ִל ם לְָּך יֹובִילּו מְּ ָלכִים שָי‬ .‫ָָארץ שִ ירּו לֵאֹלהִים זַמְּ רּו אֲ דֹנ ָי ֶסלָה‬ ֶ ‫ מַ מְּ לְּכֹות ה‬.‫ לג‬. ‫ י ֶאֱ תָיּו חַשְּ מַ נִים מִ נִי מִ צְּרָ י ִם כּוש תָ ִריץ י ָדָיו לֵאֹלהִים‬.‫לב‬ See: Samuel L. Terrien, The Psalms: Strophic Structure and Theological Commentary (Grand Rapids, Mich: William B. Eerdmans Pub, 2003), 485-496. 499 Rabi Kahana was a Babylonian Amora of the first generation (3rd cent.). 500 Rabbi Ishmael b. R. Yosé was a Tana of the fifth generation (2 nd cent. - beginning of 3 rd cent. CE). 501 Rabbi Judah I the Patriarch was a Tana of the fifth generation (2nd cent. - beginning of 3rd cent. CE) 502 B. Pesaḥim 118b. Translation by Jacob Neusner, The almud: Law, Theology, Narrative: a Sourcebook (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2005), 85-86. ‫ כך‬,‫ שלח לו‬.‫ אמור לנו שנים ושלשה דברים שאמרת לנו משום אביך‬:‫ כשחלה רבי ישמעאל ברבי יוסי שלח לו רבי‬:‫אמר רב כהנא‬ - "‫ "הללו את ה' כל גוים‬:‫ אומות העולם מאי עבידתייהו? הכי קאמר‬,)‫ א‬,‫ "הללו את ה' כל גוים" ( תהלים קיז‬:‫ מאי דכתיב‬:‫אמר אבא‬ .‫ כל שכן אנו דגבר עלינו חסדו‬,‫אגבורות ונפלאות דעביד בהדייהו‬ 503 B. Pesaḥim 118b. ,‫ קבל מהם‬:‫ אמר לו הקדוש ברוך הוא למשיח‬,‫ כסבור אינו מקבל מהם‬,‫ עתידה מצרים שתביא דורון למשיח‬:)‫(אמר לו) ועוד (חדא‬ ‫ ומה הללו שנשתעבדו‬:‫ נשאה כוש קל וחומר בעצמה‬.)‫ לג‬,‫ מיד " יאתיו חשמנים מני מצרים" ( תהלים סח‬,‫אכסניא עשו לבניי במצרים‬ ,‫ מיד "כוש תריץ ידיו לאלהים" ( תהלים סח‬,‫ קבל מהם‬:‫ לא כל שכן? אמר לו הקדוש ברוך הוא‬- ‫ אני שלא נשתעבדתי בהן‬,‫ כך‬- ‫בהן‬ .)‫לג‬

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The third part of the midrash speaks of Rome which is identified with the rebuked “wild beast of the reeds” in Psalm 68:30 which includes three interpretations of the word “reeds” (kaneh ‫)קנה‬. The first interpretation is as keneh (to take possession): Wicked Rome will then propose [the same] argument a fortiori in her own regard: ‘If these, who are not their brethren, are such, then we, who are their brethren, all the more so!’ The Holy One, blessed be He, will say to Gabriel, “Rebuke the wild beast of the reeds [kaneh].” (Ps. 68:32) – ‘rebuke the wild beast and take possession [keneh] of the congregation [‘edah].’ 504

This reading divides Psalm 68:32 - “Rebuke the wild beast of the reeds” - into two parts: the first refers to Rome’s punishment, while the second to the restoration of Israel - God’s congregation. The second reading makes an illusion to the midrashic tradition according to which Rome was founded on reeds, as for example in Songs of Songs Rabbah: “’My own vineyard I did not keep (Song 1:6)’ – R. Levi said: On the day that Salomon married the daughter of Pharaoh Necho, Michael the great prince came down from heaven and stuck a great pole in the sea, and mud came up on each side so that the place became like a thicket of reeds, and tha t was the site of Rome.” 505 Hence Leviticus Rabbah reads “the reeds” in Psalm 68:32 as the “forest” mentioned in Psalm 80:14: Another interpretation: ‘Rebuke the wild beast of the reeds’ - who dwells among the reeds, ‘the boar out of the wood ravages it, that which moves in the field feeds on it.’ (Ps 80:14). 506

504

B. Pesaḥim 118b. ‫ לא כל שכן? אמר לו הקדוש ברוך‬- ‫ אנו שאנו אחיהן‬,‫ כך‬- ‫ ומה הללו שאין אחיהן‬:‫נשאה מלכות [רומי] הרשעה קל וחומר בעצמה‬ .‫ געור חיה וקנה לך עדה‬.)‫ "גער חית קנה" ( תהלים סח‬:‫הוא לגבריאל‬ 505 SongR 1:41. Translation by Rivka Ulmer, Egyptian Cultural Icons in Midrash (Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 2009), 36. ‫" אמר רבי לוי יום שנתחתן שלמה לבת פרעה נכה ירד מיכאל השר הגדול מן השמים ונעץ קנה גדול בים‬, ‫"הוי כרמי שלי לא נטרתי‬ .‫ועלה לחלוחית מיכן ומיכן ועשו אותו מקום כחורש והוא היה מקומה של רומי‬ Also Y. Avodah Zara 1:2, 39c; b. Sabbath 56b; Sanhadrin 21b; Song R 1:41. 506 B. Pesaḥim 118b. .)‫ יד‬, ‫ " יכרסמנה חזיר מיער וזיז שדי ירענה" ( תהלים פ‬:‫ דכתיב‬,‫ שדרה בין הקנים‬- "‫ "געור חית קנה‬:‫דבר אחר‬

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If indeed this reading refers to the tradition of Rome’s foundation on reeds, it links it to the destruction of Israel/ the Temple by the Romans. Rome is the home of the boar, the animal of the reeds, which recalls the Roman myth of Aeneas’s sow, but contrary to that in the midrash, the boar is not a sign of Rome’s fortune, but rather of its criminal nature; it is not a sign of eternal Rome, but rather of its falling. The third reading interprets the word “reeds” (kaneh ‫ )קנה‬as pen (using the Greek word kolmus, which in rabbinic literature means “reed” or “reed pen”):507 Said R. Hiyya bar Abba: said R. Yohanan, “Rebuke the wild beast, all of the actions of which may be recorded with the same pen.” “The multitude of the bulls [abirim] with the calves of the people” (Ps. 68:31): they slaughtered the valiant [adirim] like calves that have no owners. “Everyone opens his hand with the desire of money.” (Ps. 68:31): they open their hand to take the money but do not do what the owner wants. “‘He has scattered the people that delight in approaches” (Ps. 68:31): what brought about that Israel should be scattered among the nations? It [is] the approach [to the nations] which they wanted. 508

Rome, the animal of the reeds - the boar, is described as murderous and a despoiler. Like the midrashic tradition concerning the foundation of Rome as a result of King Solomon’s marriage with a non-Jewish woman, the conclusion of the midrash explains Israel’s subjection to Rome as the result of “the approaches to the nations that they [Israel] wanted.” 509 The seeking of proximity with the other is however also the

507

For the word Kolmus in rabbinic literature, see: Brown, “Midrashim,” 185. B. Pesaḥim 118b. My translation. - )‫ " עדת אבירים בעגלי עמים" ( תהלים סח‬.‫ געור בחיה שכל מעשיה נכתבין בקולמוס אחד‬:‫אמר רבי חייא בר אבא אמר רבי יוחנן‬ ‫ ואין עושין רצון‬,‫ שפושטין יד לקבל ממון‬- )‫ "מתרפס ברצי כסף" ( תהלים סח‬.‫ששחטו אבירים כעגלים שאין להם בעלים‬ .‫ קריבות שהיו חפצין בהן‬- ‫ מי גרם להם לישראל שיתפזרו לבין אומות העולם‬- )‫"פזר עמים קרבות יחפצון" ( תהלים סח‬.‫בעלים‬ Parallels: YalkShim Psalms 800. 509 In Exodus Rabbah, the midrash concerning Psalms 68 appears in a slightly different version, preceded by a midrash on the three materials that one should donate to the construction of the Tabernacle [miskan] and the Temple according to Exodus 25:3: “And this is the offering which ye shall take of them: gold, and silver and brass,” and the three materials mentioned in Daniel 2:32: “As for that image, its head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms were of silver, its belly and thighs were of brass.” From the fact that iron, which symbolizes Rome, is not mentioned in either of the verses, the midrash teaches that while the three first kingdoms will be rewarded in messianic times, Rome will not: “Another explanation of “And thou shalt make the boards.”? Preceding this verse, we read: “And this is the offering which ye shall take of them: gold, and silver and brass” (Ex. 25:3). Gold refers to Babylon, for it says, “As for that image, its head was of fine gold” (Dan. 2:32); silver refers to Media, for it says, “Its breast and its arms were of silver” (ib.); brass refers to Greece, for it says, “Its belly and thighs were of brass” (ibid). But no mention is made of 508

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reason for Rome’s fall in the future. They will believe that because of their family ties with Israel as the descendants of Esau, they will want to bring gifts to the messiah. However, they will be rebuked as is the animal of the reeds, the pig, the emblematic animal of negative hybridism, which is pure and impure at the same time. iron in the construction either of the tabernacle or the Temple. Why? Because Rome, that destroyed the Temple, was likened to iron, and the verse teaches that God will accept gifts from all kingdoms in the time to come, save from Edom [Rome]. But, surely, Babylon likewise destroyed the Temple? Yes, but it did not raze it to the ground, whereas of Edom it is written, “Who said: Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation thereof” (Ps. 137:7). – [saying to each other], ‘It still has a foundation! It is on this account, because Edom is compared to it [Iron], that no mention is made of iron in the construction of the tabernacle. Similarly, in the millennium you will find that all nations will bring presents to the king Messiah, Egypt being the first to do so. When the Messiah will hesitate to accept these gifts from them, God will say to him: ‘My children found hospitality in Egypt,’ for it says, “Nobles shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall hasten to stretch out her hands unto God” (Ps. 68: 32). Whereupon he will immediately accept their gifts. Ethiopia will then draw an inference for himself, thus: ‘If the Messiah receives gifts from Egypt which enslaved them, then how much more will he receive gifts from us who have never subjected them to slavery? Hence it says, “Ethiopia shall hasten to stretch out her hands unto God.” When the other kingdoms will hear this, they will also bring presents, as it says, “Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth” (Ps. 68:33). The kingdom of Edom will then draw an inference for herself, thus: ’If presents were received from those who are not their brothers, then how much more will they be received from us [who are their brothers]?’ But when she will be about to bring her present to the Messianic King, God will say to him: “Rebuke the wild beast of the reeds, etc.” (Ps. 68: 31), for the whole of that nation is like a wild beast of the reeds.’ Another explanation “Rebuke the wild beast that sojourns among the reeds,” as it says, “The boar out of the wood doth ravage it” (Ps. 80:14). “The multitude of the bulls, with the claves of the peoples” (Ps 68:31) – namely, that kingdom that consumes the wealth of peoples, and derives support from Abraham, saying: ‘I descend from them, since Esau was the son of Isaac who was the son of Abraham. “Every one submitting himself (mithrappes) with pieces of (razze) silver” (Ps. 68:31); for even when one has sinned against her [Edom] and she is worth with him, yet she opens her palm (mattereth pas) to accept the proffered bribe and becomes reconciled (mith-razzeh) to him. What is the meaning of “He hath scattered the peoples that delight in war” (Ps. 68:31)? – That she [Rome] disperses Israel when assembled for the study of the Torah, and gathers them in such places in which the Evil Inclination takes delight. Another explanation of “He hath scattered the peoples that delight in war”: They scattered Israel across the face of the globe. Another explanation of this verse: ‘Bizzar ‘ammim’ (He hath scattered the peoples) – they made Israel zarim (strangers) unto Me. Yet they [have the effrontery] now to bring gifts!” ExR. 35.5. Translation by S. M. Lehrman, Midrash Rabbah. Vol. III, Exodus (London: Soncino, 1939), 433-435, with slight alteration. ‫ "הוא צלמא‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫ זהב זו בבל‬,‫ מה כתי ב למעלה וזאת התרומה אשר תקחו מאתם זהב וכסף ונחשת‬,‫הד"א ועשית את הקרשים‬ ‫ "מעוהי וירכתיה‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫ נחושת זו יון‬,)‫ "חדוהי ודרעוהי די כסף" (דניאל ב‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫ וכסף זו מדי‬,)‫ראשה די דהב טב "(דניאל ב‬ ‫ ללמדך שמכל‬.‫ למה שנמשל בו אדום? שהחריבו בהמ"ק‬.‫ אבל ברזל אין כתיב כאן לא במקדש ולא במשכן‬,)‫די נחש" (דניאל ב‬ ‫ אבל אדום מה‬.‫ והרי בבל אף היא החריבה אותו? אלא על שלא קעקעה אותו‬.‫המלכיות יקבל הקב"ה דורון לעתיד לבא חוץ מאדום‬ ‫ לפיכך לא נכתב ברזל במשכן ובמקדש שמשולין בו‬,‫ "האומרים ערו ערו עד היסוד בה" ( תהלים קלז) עד עכשיו היסוד בה‬:‫כתיב בה‬ ‫ וכן אתה מוצא לעתיד לבוא שכל האומות עתידין להביא דורון למלך המשיח ומצרים מביאה תחלה וכסבור שלא לקבל מהם‬,‫אדום‬ ‫ מיד‬,)‫ " יאתיו חשמנים מני מצרים כוש תריץ ידיו לאלהים" ( תהלים סח‬:‫ אכסניא נעשו לבני במצרים שנאמר‬:‫ואומר לו הקב"ה‬ ‫ מיד כוש תריץ‬,‫ נשאה כוש קל וחו מר ומה מצרים ששעבדו בהן קבל מהם אנו שלא נשתעבדנו בהן על אחת כמה וכמה‬.‫מקבל מהן‬ ‫ ואח"כ מלכות אדום‬.)‫ "ממלכות הארץ שירו לאלהים" ( תהלים סח‬:‫ מיד כל המלכיות שומעות והן מביאות שנאמר‬,‫ידיו לאלהים‬ ‫ ואף היא מבקשת להביא דורון למלך המשיח ואומר לו‬,‫ ומה הללו שאינן אחיהם קבלו מהם אנו עאכ"ו‬:‫נושאת ק"ו בעצמה ואומרת‬ "‫ " יכרסמנה חזיר מיער‬:‫ געור חיה הדרה בין הקנים שנאמר‬,‫ ד"א‬.‫ שכולה חיה מן הקנה‬,)‫ "גער חית קנה" ( תהלים סח‬:‫הקב"ה‬ ‫ " עדת אבירים בעגלי עמי" ם אותה שאוכלת שמנן של עמים ובאה בכחו של אברהם ואומר מהם אני עשו בן יצחק בן‬.)‫( תהלים פ‬ ‫ ומהו "בזר עמים‬,‫ אע"פ שחטא אדם וכועסת עליו מתרת את הפס ונוטלת את הכסף והיא מתרצה לו‬,"‫ "מתרפס ברצי כסף‬,‫אברהם‬ - "‫ ד"א " בזר עמים קרבות יחפצו‬.‫קרבות יחפצו"? שהיא מפזרת לישראל מתלמודה של תורה ומכנסת אותן במה שיצר הרע חפץ בו‬ .‫ והם מביאין קרבנות‬,‫ שעשו את ישראל זרים לי‬- "‫ ד"א "בזר עמים‬.‫שפיזרו את ישראל מן העולם‬

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Bereshit Rabbati of Moses ha-Darshan To the well known midrashim mentioned above we may add a midrash from the lost Bereshit Rabbati of Moses ha-Darshan, an eleventh-century commentator from Narbonne. In a midrash which is cited in the polemical work of Raymond Martini (1278 CE), Pugio fidei adversus Mauros et Iudaeos (Dagger of the Faith against the Muslims and the Jew),510 Genesis 30:16511 is linked to Psalm 104:20-22:512 “When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him,” (Gn 30:16) – thus it is written: “You make darkness, and it is night,” (Ps 104:20). “You make darkness,” (Ibid.) - this is Israel’s Exile, for Israel darkens their deeds, as it is written: “whose deeds are in the dark,” (Is. 29:15) – [for this reason] the Holy one blessed be He, darkens their world as it was said: “The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining” (Joel 2:10; 4:15). “And it is night,” (Ps. 104:20) – Those are the days of Exile which are as nights for Israel. “When all the animals of the forest come creeping out.” (Ibid.) – those are the nations of the world which are called “animals of the forest” and trample Israel, as it is written: “The boar out of the wood doth ravage it, that which moveth in the field feedeth on it” (Ps 80:14). “The young lions roar for their prey,” (Ps. 104:21) – “The young lions” those are the nations of the world which deny the Holy one blessed be He, and roar for prey. Said R. Hanina bar Papa: [not just they] deny the Holy one blessed be He and roar for prey but moreover ask the Holy one blessed be He for a reward in the future, as it is written: “seeking their food from God” (Ibid.) And what is their reward from the Holy one blessed be He? “When the sun rises, they will withdraw (‫( ”)יאספון‬Ps. 104:22) – as “Let Aaron withdraw (‫ )יאסף‬to his people” (Num. 20:24). The sun of the King-Messiah will rise, as it was written: “like the light of morning rises the sun” (2 Samuel 23:4). In this hour will sink the sun of the worshipers of ido latory, as it is says: “they will withdraw (‫( ”)יאספון‬Ps. 104:22). 513

510

Syds Wiersma, “The Dynamic of Religious Polemics: The Case of Raymond Martin (ca. 1220ca.1285),” Interaction between Judaism and Christianity in History, Religion, Art and Literature , ed. Marcel Poorthuis, Joshua Schwartz, and Joseph Turner (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 197-218. Ursula Ragacs, “Raimundo Martí, O.P. Biografía”, Valle Rodríguez, Carlos del, Andrés Barcala Mu oz, and Domingo Mu oz Le n. La contro ersia judeocristiana en spa a: (desde los or genes hasta e sig o III homenaje a Domingo Mu o Le n (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto de Filología, 1998), 301-308. 511 Genesis 30:16: “When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him, and said, "You must come in to me; for I have hired you with my son's mandrakes." So he lay with her that night.” 512 Psalms 104:20-22: “You make darkness, and it is night, when all the animals of the forest come creeping out. 21: The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. 22: When the sun rises, they withdraw and lie down in their dens:”512 513 Moshe Hadarshan, BereshitRabbati, Genesis 30:16, cf. Raymond Martin, Pugio fidei adversus Mauros et Iudaeos, 2.11.10 (fol. 344). Raymundus Martinus, Pugio Fidei adversus Mauros et Judaeos (Leipzig, 1687. Reprint. Farnborough, Eng. 1967), 430. My translation. ‫ על‬,‫ זה גלות ישראל‬- "‫ " תשת חשך‬.)‫ כ‬,‫ " תשת חשך ויהי לילה" ( תהלים קד‬:‫ הה"ד‬- ‫ויבא יעקב מן השדה בערב ותצא לאה לקראתו‬ ‫ "שמש וירח‬:'‫ שנ‬,‫ טו); החשיך עליהם הקב"ה את העולם‬,‫ "וה יה במחשך מעשיהם" ( ישעיה כט‬:‫ כדכתיב‬,‫שהחשכו ישראל מעשיהם‬

193

‫‪Although some argue that the midrashim cited by Raymond Martini are pure‬‬ ‫‪forgeries, it seems that most of them are authentic. 514 In fact, the heart of the midrash‬‬ ‫‪discussed here follows Bavli Baba Metzia 83b:‬‬ ‫‪R. Zera lectured — others say. R. Joseph learnt: What is meant by, Thou makest darkness,‬‬ ‫‪and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth? Thou makest darkness,‬‬ ‫‪and it is night — this refers to this world, which is comparable to night; wherein all the‬‬ ‫‪beasts of the forest do creep forth — to the wicked therein, who are like the beasts of the‬‬ ‫;‪forest. The sun ariseth — for the righteous; the wicked are gathered in — for Gehenna‬‬ ‫‪and lay them down in their habitations — not a single righteous man lacks a habitation as‬‬ ‫‪befits his honour. Man goeth forth unto his work — i.e., the righteous go forth to receive‬‬ ‫‪their reward; and to his labour until the evening — as one who has worked fully until the‬‬ ‫‪very evening. 515‬‬ ‫קדרו וכוכבים אספו נגהם" (יואל ב‪ ,‬י; ד‪ ,‬טו)‪" .‬ויהי לילה" ( תהלים קד‪ ,‬כ) ‪ -‬אלו ימי הגלות שהן כלילה לישראל‪" .‬בו תרמש כל‬ ‫חיתו יער" ( תהלים קד‪,‬כ) ‪ -‬אלו אומות העולם הנקראים חיתו יער ורומסים את ישראל‪ ,‬הה"ד‪ " :‬יכרסמנה חזיר מיער וזיז שדי‬ ‫ירענה" ( תהלים פ‪ ,‬יד) "הכפירים שאגים לטרף" ( תהלים קד‪,‬כא)‪" ,‬הכפירים" ‪ -‬אלו אומות העולם שכופרין בהקב"ה ושאגין לטרף‪.‬‬ ‫א"ר חנינה בר פפא‪ :‬כופרין בהקב" ה ושאגין לטרף ולא עוד אלא שמבקשין שכר מן הקב"ה לעתיד לבא‪ ,‬הה"ד‪" :‬ולבקש מאל‬ ‫אכלם" ( תהלים קד‪,‬כא)‪ ,‬ומה שכרם מן הקב"ה? " תזרח השמש יאספון" ( תהלים קד‪ ,‬כב)‪ - ,‬כמו‪ " :‬יאסף אהרון אל עמיו" (במדבר‬ ‫כ‪ ,‬כד)‪ .‬תזרח שמשו של מלך המשיח‪ ,‬כדכתיב‪" :‬וכאור בקר יזרח שמש" (שמואל ב‪ ,‬כג( באותה שעה תשקע שמשן של ע"ז‪ ,‬הוי‬ ‫אומר‪ " :‬יאספון" ( תהלים קד‪ ,‬כב)‪.‬‬ ‫)‪See: Hananel Mack, Mi-Sodo shel Mosheh ha-darshan (The Mystery of Rabbi Moshe Haddarshan‬‬ ‫‪(Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2010), 269-270 (Hebrew). On the authencity of the midrashim cited by Martini‬‬ ‫‪see also: Hananel Mack, “The Source and Development of the Shawaten Exposition on the Rescission of‬‬ ‫‪the Mitzvot,” Sidra 11 (1995): 65-67 (Hebrew).‬‬ ‫‪514‬‬ ‫‪Y. Baer, “The forged Midrashim of Raymond Martini and their Place in the Religious Controversies‬‬ ‫‪in the Middle Ages,” Studies in Memory of Asher Gulak and Samuel Klein (Jerusalem, Palestine: Center for‬‬ ‫‪Judaic Studies Hebrew University, 1942), 29-49. For contrary opinions, see: Saul Lieberman, “Raymond‬‬ ‫‪Martini and his alleged forgeries.” Historia Judaica 5 (1943): 87-102. Ursula Ragacs, “The Forged‬‬ ‫‪Midrashim of Raymond Martini – Reconsidered” Henoch 19 (1997): 59-68.‬‬ ‫‪515‬‬ ‫‪B. Baba Metzia 83b.‬‬ ‫דרש רבי זירא‪ ,‬ואמרי לה תני רב יוסף‪ :‬מאי דכתיב " תשת חשך ויהי לילה בו תרמש כל חיתו יער"? " תשת חשך ויהי לילה" ‪ -‬זה‬ ‫העולם הזה שדומה ללילה‪ " .‬בו תרמש כל חיתו יער" ‪ -‬אלו רשעים שבו‪ ,‬שדומין לחיה שביער‪ " .‬תזרח השמש יאספון ואל מעונתם‬ ‫ירבצון"; " תזרח השמש" ‪ -‬לצדיקים‪" ,‬יאספון" ‪ -‬רשעים לגיהנם‪ .‬ואל מעונתם ירבצון ‪ -‬אין לך כל צדיק וצדיק שאין לו מדור לפי‬ ‫כבודו‪ " .‬יצא אדם לפעלו" ‪ -‬יצאו צדיקים לקבל שכרן‪" ,‬ולעבדתו עדי ערב" ‪ -‬במי שהשלים עבודתו עדי ערב‪.‬‬ ‫‪Compare to YalShim Psalms 862.‬‬ ‫רבי ברכיה בשם ר' סימון‪ :‬שניהם נבראו להאיר יהי מאורות‪" ,‬והיו למאורות‪ ,‬והיו לאותות אלו השבתות כי אות היא וגו'‪",‬‬ ‫" ולמועדים" אלו ימים טובים‪" ,‬ולימים" אלו ראשי חדשים‪ ,‬ושנים אלו ראשי שנים‪ " :‬תשת חשך ויהי לילה‪ ".‬לעולם יכנס אדם בכי‬ ‫טוב (כתוב ברמז י"ג)‪" :‬הכפירים שואגים לטרף ולבקש מאל אכלם ‪ ".‬ר' שמעון בן חלפתא הוה קאזיל באורחא פגעו ביה הנהו‬ ‫אריותא דהוו קא נהמי באפיה‪ ,‬אמר‪" :‬הכפירים שואגים לטרף‪ ".‬נחיתו ליה תרתי אטמתא חדא אכלוה וחדא שבקוה‪ ,‬אתא לבי‬ ‫מדרשא בעא עלה דבר טהור הוא או דבר טמא הוא אמרו לו אין דבר טמא יורד מן השמים ואפילו ירד דמות חמור‪ " :‬תזרח השמש‬ ‫יאספון וגו'‪ ".‬אמר ריש לקיש‪ :‬פועל בכניסתו משלו ביציאתו משל בעל הבית‪ ,‬שנאמר‪ " :‬תזרח השמש יאספון ואל מעונותם ירבצון‪",‬‬ ‫ואומר‪ " :‬יצא אדם לפעלו ולעבודתו עדי ערב‪ ".‬וליחזי היכי נהיגי בעיר חדשה‪ .‬וליחזי מהיכא דקאתו בנקיטאי‪ .‬איבעית אימא דא" ל‬ ‫דאגריתו להו כפועל דאורייתא‪ .‬דרש ר' זירא ואמרי לה תני רב‪ :‬מאי דכתיב‪ " :‬תשת חשך ויהי לילה"? זה העולם הזה שהוא דומה‬ ‫ללילה‪ " .‬בו תרמוש כל חיתו יער" אלו הרשעים שדומין לחיה רעה שביער‪ " ,‬תזרח השמש לצדיקים‪ ",‬יאספון רשעים לגיהנם‪" ,‬ואל‬ ‫מעונתם ירבצון" אין לך כל צדיק וצדיק שאין לו מדור לפי כבודו‪ " .‬יצא אדם לפועלו" יצאו הצדיקים לקבל שכרם‪" ,‬ולעבודתו עדי‬ ‫ערב" במי שמשלים עבודתו עדי ערב‪:‬‬ ‫‪Otzar ha-Midrashim (ed. Eisenstein, vol. 1), 409.‬‬ ‫"להגיד בבקר חסדך" זה עולם הבא שנמשל לבקרים שנאמר‪" :‬חדשים לבקרים רבה אמונתך" (איכה ג)‪" ,‬ואמונתך בלילות" זה‬ ‫העולם הזה שנמשל ללילה שנאמר‪ " :‬תשת חשך ויהי לילה בו תרמוש כל חיתו יער" ( תהלים קד)‪ ,‬וכי כל חיתו יער לא תרמוש אלא‬ ‫בלילה וביום אינה רומשת כלל? אלא מלמד שעוה"ז נמשל כלילה ומלכי או" ה משולים כחיות שהן רומשות ביער בתוך הלילה‬

‫‪194‬‬

While Bavli Baba Mezia 83b speaks of the wicked and righteous in general, the midrash of Joseph ha Darashan applies it to the distinction between Israel and the nations of the world. The link of the boar of Psalms 80:14 to the wild animals of psalm 104:20 is extremely efficient, for it locates the boar in a temporal scene of night and day, darkness and light, Exile and Redemption (table 6).

Psalm 104: 20-22 You make darkness, and it is night, When all the animals of the forest come creeping out. The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God When the sun rises, they will withdraw (‫”)יאספון‬

Meaning Israel’s sins. Exile. The nations of the world that oppressed Israel. The nations that deny God. The nations will ask for a reward in the world to come. The nations’ fall.

Table 6: The interpretation of Psalm 104: 20-22 in Bereshit Rabbati.

Discussion The diverse interpretations of Psalm 80:14 link the Boar, the emblematic animal of Rome, to criminal acts such as robbery, stealing, and murder (Sifre Numbers, 316-317; LevR 13.5; GenR 65.1; B. Pesaḥim 118b; Bereshit Rabbati), or to the Empire/ Esau’s hypocrisy; the pig pretends to be pure by showing its hoofs, as Jacob’s brother and the Empire pretend to be just while acting unjustly (LevR 13.5, GenR 65.1). By identifying the boar/ pig alternatively with Esau (GenR. 65.1; MidrPss 120), with the Empire, with “The evil kingdom” or the nations of the world, with the Emperor (MidrPss 80), or with the fourth kingdom of the book of Daniel (Sifre Num 316-317; LevR 13.5), most of the

‫ וכשם שכל החיות חוזרות ליערם ולמקומם כך כל מלכי הארץ ורוזני תבל כיון שבא‬.‫ וכיון שעלה עמוד השחר חוזרין‬,)‫(הגלות‬ '‫ "והיה ה‬:‫עליהם עוה" ב ומלכות משיח חוזרים ליערם ולמקומם ויורדין מגדולתם ושבים אל עפרם ואינם באים לעוה"ב שנאמר‬ .)‫למלך על כל הארץ" (זכריה יד‬

195

midrashim inscribe the boar/ pig as the means of the historical divine plan of destruction and redemption. In other words, the pig (Rome) is the blow and the remedy. The “boar out of the wood” is part of a divine symmetrical plan. Hence, the Bavli Kidusin 30a remarks that: “The boar out of the wood [ a’ar ‫ ]יע ר‬devours it” (Ps. 80:14). The letter ‘ayin [‫[ ]ע‬of the word] a’ar [ ‫ ]יע ר‬is the half-way [point of the book of] Psalms. “And he is merciful and he forgives sin” (Ps. 78:38) is the half-way point of the verses [of the book of Psalms]. 516

The symmetry of the text hints at the symmetry between the destruction (hurban) and redemption (gehula). In the same way that God destroyed the Temple in His rage, He will rebuild it in His mercy, as in the famous midrash about Rabbi Akiba who sees a fox in the ruins of the Temple: “For Mount Zion which lies desolate; jackals prowl over it” (Lam. 5:18): Rabban Gamaliel, R. Joshua, R. Eleazar b. Azariah, and R. Akiba went to Rome. They heard the din of the city of Rome from a distance of a hundred and twenty miles. They all begin to cry, but R. Akiba began to laugh. They said to him, “Akiba, we are crying and you laugh?” He said to them, “Why are you crying?” They said to him, “Should we not cry, that idolaters and those who sacrifice to idols and bow down to images live securely and prosperously, while a footstool of our God has been burned down by fire and become a dwelling place for the beasts of the field? So shouldn’t we cry?” He said to them, “That is precisely the reason that I was laughing. For if those who outrage him he treats in such a way, those who do his will all the more so!” There was the further case of when they were going up to Jerusalem. When they came to the Mount Scopus they tore their clothing. When they came to the Temple mount and a fox came out of the house of the Holy of Holies, they began to cry. But R. Aqiba began to laugh. “ Akiba,” you are always surprising us. Now we are crying and you laugh?” He said to them, “Why are you crying?” They said to him, “Should we not cry, that from the place of which it is written, “And the ordinary person that comes near shall be put to death” (Num. 1:51) a fox come out? So the verse of Scripture is carried out: “for Mount Zion which lies desolate; jackals prowl over it.” He said to them, “That is precisely the reason that I was laughing. For Scripture says, “And I will take for myself faithful witness to record, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberchiah” (IS. 8:2). “Now what is the relationship between Uriah and Zechariah? Uriah lived in the time of the first temple, Zechariah in the time of the second! But Uriah said, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps” (Jer 26:18). And Zechariah said, “There shall yet be old men and old women sitting in the piazzas of Jerusalem, every man with his staff in his hand for old age” (Zech 8:4). And further: “And the piazzas of the city shall be full of 516

B. Kidusin 30a. My translation. "‫ עי"ן ד" יער‬- (‫ יד‬,‫]" יכרסמנה חזיר מיער" ( תהלים פ‬...[ ‫ שהיו סופרים כל האותיות שבתורה‬- ‫לפיכך נקראו ראשונים סופרים‬ .‫ חציו דפסוקים‬- )‫ לח‬,‫ "והוא רחום יכפר עון" ) תהלים עח‬,‫חציין של תהלים‬

196

boys and girls playing in the piazzas thereof” (Zech 8:5). Said the Holy One, blessed be He, “Now lo, I have these two witnesses. So if the words of Uriah are carried out, the words of Zechariah will be carried out, while if the words of Uriah prove false, then the words of Zechariah will not be true either.” I was laughing with pleasure because the words of Uriah have been carried out, and that means that the words of Zechariah in the future will be carried out. They said to him, “Akiba, you have given us consolation. May you be comforted among those who are comforted.” 517

A reverse symmetry exists between Rome and Jerusalem, between the flourishing of the first and the destruction of the second and vice versa. The fox and the boar in the holy of holies function in the same way: they are the sign of destruction, but at the same time they inscribe this chaotic catastrophe in the divine plan, pronouncing the future redemption. 518 The animal that marked the destruction of the Temple holds paradoxical meaning: it is the negative sign but also positive. If Rome is the detractor beast, in the end it will be destroyed, as notes the later Midrash on Psalms: “My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace” (Ps. 120:6). Is there any man who hates peace? Esau hates peace. Scriptures says, “I will give you peace in the land” (Lev. 26: 6). When will there be peace? The verse goes on to answer, “After I will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land” (ibid.). “Evil beasts” can refer only to the boar, for it is

517

LamR B 5.18. Translation by Jacob Neusner, Neusner on Judaism, vol. 2, Literature (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), 441, with slight alteration (Parallels: Sifri Deuteronomy 43.16; M. Tan’aim Deuteronom 11.16 ; B. Makot 24b; YalkS Torah Pinhas 782; Aqeb 865; Isaiah 410). See: Shaye J. D. Cohen, “The Destruction: From Scripture to Midrash,” Prooftexts 2, no 1 (1982): 35. Shahar, “Rabbi Akiba,” 147 (Hebrew). ‫ כבר היו רבן גמליאל ור' יהושע ור' אלעזר בן עזריה ור' עקיבה עולין לרומי ושמעו קול המונה‬.‫על הר ציון ששמם שועלים הלכו בו‬ ‫ אמר להם למה‬,‫ אמרו לו עקיבה אנו בוכים ואתה שוחק‬,‫ התחילו הם בוכים ור' עקיבה משחק‬,‫של רומי רחוק מאה ועשרים מיל‬ ‫ ובית הדום רגל אלהינו היה‬,‫ א"ל לא נבכה שעובדי ע"ז וזובחים לאלילים ומשתחוים לעצבים ויושבים לבטח ובשלוה‬,‫בכיתם‬ ‫ שוב פעם אחת עלו‬.‫ אמר להם לכך אני שוחק אם למכעיסיו כך לעושי רצונו עאכ"ו‬,‫לשריפת אש ומדור לחיות השדה לא נבכה‬ ‫ התחילו בוכים ור' עקיבה‬,‫ והגיעו להר הבית והיה שועל יוצא מבית קדש הקדשים‬,‫לירושלים כיון שהגיעו לצופים קרעו בגדיהם‬ ‫ אמר להם רבן גמליאל ראו מה‬,‫ אמר להם למה בכיתם‬,‫ א"ל רבן גמליאל עקיבה לעולם את מתמיה אנו בוכים ואתה שוחק‬,‫שוחק‬ ‫ עלינו נתקיים הכתוב על זה היה‬,‫ לא נבכה‬,‫ שועל יוצא מתוכו‬,)‫ נב‬,‫ מקום שכתוב בו והזר הקרב יומת (במדבר א‬,‫עקיבה אומר לנו‬ ‫ ואעידה לי עדים נאמנים את אוריה הכהן ואת‬,‫ א"ל לכך אני שוחק שאומר הכתוב‬,]‫ על הר ציון [ששמם שועלים הלכו בו‬,‫דוה לבנו‬ ‫ אוריה אמר ציון שדה תחרש‬,‫ מה אמר אוריה ומה אמר זכריה‬,‫ וכי מה ענין אוריה אצל זכריה‬,)‫זכריהו בן יברכיהו ( ישעיה ח ב‬ ‫ זכריה אמר כה אמר ה' [צבאות] עוד ישבו זקנים וזקנות ברחובות‬,)‫ יח‬,‫ והר הבית לבמות יער ( ירמיה כו‬,‫וירושלים עיים תהיה‬ ‫ אמר הקב"ה יש לי‬,)‫ ורחובות עיר ימלאו ילדים וילדות משחקים ברחובותיה (זכריה ח ד ה‬,‫ירושלים ואיש משענתו בידו מרוב ימים‬ ‫ שמחתי‬,‫ יהיו בטלים דברי זכריה‬,‫ ואם בטלים דברי אוריה‬,‫ יהיו קיימים דברי זכריה‬,‫ אם קיימים דברי אוריה‬,‫שנים עדים הללו‬ .‫ כלשון הזה אמרו לו עקיבה ניחמתנו תתנחם במנחמים‬,‫ סוף שיתקיימו דברי זכריה לעתיד לבוא‬,‫שנתקיימו דברי אוריה‬ 518 I follow here Inbar Raveh’s analysis of the legend of Rabbi Akiba in Bavli Makot 24b, See: Inbar Raveh, Fragments of Being: Stories of the Sages: Literary Structures and World-View (Or Yehuda, Israel: Kinneret, Zmora-Bitan, Dvir; Beer Sheva: Heksherim Istitute, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 2008), 140-143.

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said, “The wild boar out of the wood doth root it up, and the wild beasts of the field devour it” (Ps. 80:14), and the boar is none other than wicked Esau. 519

The following idea is found in the midrash “pig of the sea, pig of the forest,” in Leviticus Rabbah 13.5: “Daniel beheld the empires engaged in their [subsequent] activities. “I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven broke forth upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from the other (Dan. 7:2).” If you will so merit, it [the animal] will come up out of the sea, but if not, from the forest. An animal coming up from the sea is timid, whereas if it comes from the forest, it is not timid.” 520 The following midrash is found in a more elaborate form also in The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan, version A: “Scripture reads, “The boar out of the wood (ya’ar)” doth ravage it (Ps 80:14), but it is written, The boar our out of the river (ye’or) doth ravage it. “The boar out of the wood doth ravage it” [according one manuscript: ‘refers to the Roman Empire’]. For when Israel does not do the will of God, the nations appear to them like “the boar out out of the wood”: even as the boar of the forests kills people and injures folk and smites men, so too, so long as Israel does not do the will of God, the nations kill them and injure them and smite them. But so long as Israel does the will of God the nations do not rule over them. (Then the nations are) like “the boar out of the river”: even as the boar of the rivers kills no people and harms no folk, so too, so long as Israel does His will, no nation or people kills them or harms them or smites them. That is why it is written, “The boar out of the river.” 521

519

MidrPss 120. Translation by Braude, The Midrash on Psalms, 293. ‫ "ונתתי שלום‬:‫ וכה"א‬.‫ וכי יש אדם שונא שלום? עשו שונא השלום‬.)‫ ו‬,‫"רבת שכנה לה נפשי וגו '" [עם שונא שלום] ( תהלים קכ‬ ‫ אימתי יהיה כן? "והשבתי חיה‬.)‫ ו‬,‫]" (ויקרא כו‬:‫בארץ [ ושכבתם ואין מחריד והשבתי חיה רעה מן הארץ וחרב לא תעבר בארצכם‬ .‫ זה עשו הרשע‬- )‫ יד‬,‫ " יכרסמנה חזיר מיער" ( תהלים פ‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫ ואין חיה רעה אלא חזיר‬,)‫ ו‬,‫רעה מן הארץ" (ויקרא כו‬ 520 LevR 13.5. Translation by Israelstam, Midrash Rabba, vol. 5, Leviticus, 171. ‫ וארבע חוון רברבן סלקן מן‬.‫ חזי הוית בחזוי די ליליא וארו ארבע רוחי שמיא מגיחן לימא רבא‬.‫דניאל ראה את המלכיות בעיסוקן‬ ‫ סלקא מן חורשא היא‬,‫ הדא חיותא כד סלקא מן ימא לית היא ממכיא‬.‫ אם זכיתם מן ימא ואם לאו מן חורשא‬.)‫ ג‬- ‫ ב‬,‫ימא (דניאל ז‬ ‫ הדא חיותא כד סלקא מן נהרא לית‬.‫ אם זכיתם מן היאור ואם לאו מן היער‬,)‫ יד‬,‫ דכואתא " יכרסמנה חזיר מיער" ( תהלים פ‬.‫ממכיא‬ .‫ סלקא מן חורשא היא ממכיא‬,‫היא ממכיא‬ 521 ARN A 34. Translation by Goldin, The Fathers, 138. ‫ שבזמן‬.]‫ " יכרסמנה חזיר מיער" [זו מלכות רומי‬.‫ יכרסמנה חזיר מיאור כתיב‬.)‫ " יכרסמנה חזיר מיער" (שם פ’ יד‬:‫הרי הוא אומר‬ ‫ מ ה חזיר מיער הורג נפשות ומזיק את הבריות ומלקה‬.‫שאין ישראל עושין רצונו של מקום אומות העולם דומות עליהם כחזיר מיער‬ ‫ וכל זמן שישראל‬.‫בני אדם כך כל זמן שאין ישראל עושים רצונו של מקום אומות העולם הורגין בהם ומזיקין בהם ומלקין אותן‬ ‫ מה חזיר של יאור אינו הורג נפשות ואינו מזיק לבריות כך‬:‫עושים רצונו של מקום אין אומות העולם מושלין בהן כחזיר של יאור‬ :‫כל זמן שישראל עושין רצונו אין אומה ולשון הורגין בהן ומזיקין בהן ולא מלקין אותן לכך נכתב חזיר מיאור‬

198

This midrash makes Israel subject to Rome, and Israel´s liberation is conditioned by its deeds. In some manuscripts of Leviticus Rabbah, the scriptural basis of the midrash is added: “Similar is [the interpretation of] “The boar out the wood [ a’ar] doth ravage it (Ps. 80:14).”The letter ‘ayin [in the word ‘ a’ar’] is suspended [ ‫]מיע ר‬, [indicating that it might be read as if e’or (river), meaning]: If you will prove worthy it [i.e the boar] will come from the river, if you will not prove worthy, from the wood; an animal coming from a river is timid, one coming from a forest is not timid.” 522

The uncontrolled, savage force of the boar (Rome) is in some sense domesticated: it’s destructive force is not arbitrary, but rather a direct consequence of Israel’s sins.

Christian Reading of Psalm 80 (79):14 Christian authors had a somewhat different version of Psalm 80 (79):14 according to the Christian Bible: The Septuaginta Greek’s text reads: “ἐλυμήνατο αὐτὴν σῦς ἐκ δρυμοῦ καὶ μονιὸς ἄγριος κατενεμήσατο αὐτήν,” 523 while the Latin Vulgate reads: “extermnavit eam aper de silva et singularis ferus depastus est eam:” “The wild boar of the wood has destroyed it, and the solitary wild beast has devoured it.”524 The Churc h Fathers provided diverse interpretations of Psalms 80 (79):14, mainly seeing the “boar out of the wood” as Satan, 525 or a furious enemy of Christianity which attacked the Soul or the Church. 526 However, after the fourth century, we find a Christian reading tha t refers to the defeat of the Jews by the Romans. As we have seen, Jerome (d. 408) in his 522

LevR 13.5. Translation by Israelstam, Midrash Rabba, vol. 5, Leviticus, 171. Septuaginta, ed. A. Rahlfs, 2 vols in one (Stuttgart: Württembergische Bibelanstalt, 1979), ii 88 (Psalm 79). 524 Biblia sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem, ed. R. Weber and R. Gryson (Stutgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1994), 873. 525 John Chrysostom, Homilies on Philippians 6. The Physiologus as well identified the boar with Satan and the World, the vineyard with the Soul and the Lord. Physiologos 61. French Translation: Physiologos: Le bestiaire des bestiaires, trans. Arnand Zucker, Physiologos: le bestiaire des bestiaires (Grenoble: Millon, 2004), 302-303. For the diabolic image of the boar in Christianty, see: Michel Pastoureau, “Chasser le sanglier. Du gibier royal à la bête impure: histoire d’une dévalorisation,” Une histoire symbolique du moyen age occidental, 65-77 (Paris: Seuil, 2004), 72-74. 526 Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History 2.10. 523

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Commentary on Daniel 7:7 notes, “The Hebrews believe that the beast which is here not named is the one spoken of in Psalms: “A boar from the forest laid her waste, and a strange wild animal consumed her” (Ps. 80 (79):14):”527 It is however Augustine (d. 430) in his Expositions of the Psalms who seems to be the first Christian author to see the Romans in the boar of Psalm 80 (79):14: “The boar from the forest has ravaged it” (Ps. 80 (79):14). What are we to understand by the boar? To the Jews pigs are abhorrent, and typical of the uncleanness of the Gentiles. The Jewish nation was defeated by Gentiles, and the king who defeated it was not merely an unclean pig, but a boar; for what is a boar but a savage pig, a proud pig? “The boar from the forest has ravaged it” (Ps. 80:14). “From the forest” means from the Gentiles. The Jews were a vineyard, the Gentiles a forest. But when the Gentiles came to believe, what does scripture say about that? “All the trees of the forest will shout for joy” [Ps 95(96): 12]. So “the boar from the forest has ravaged” the vineyard, and “the solitary beast has fed on it.” (Ps. 80 (79):14) The boar who wrecked it is a solitary beast, solitary in the sense of proud, for every proud person talks like this: “Me, me. No one else matters.” 528

Where the sages identify the subjection of Israel by Rome and Israel’s future redemption, Augustine identifies the passage of election from old Israel to the new Israel, from the Jews to Christians. Augustine recognizes the way Jews associated the pig with the impurity of gentiles, but he introduces a hermeneutic twist that transforms the impurity of the gentiles (forest) into purity, while shifting the impurity to the Roman emperor whom he identified with the boar. While Augustine does not name the Roman emperor, Eucherius of Lyons (d. 449 CE) identified the boar with Vespasian and the

527

Jerome, Commentary on Daniel 7:7. PL 25. Translation by Gleason L. Jr., Jerome's Commentary on Daniel Archer (Michigan, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House, 1958), 71-82. See: Van Kooten, George H. “The Desecration of the ‘The Most Holy Temple of all the World’ in the ‘Holy Land’: Early Jewish and Early Christian Recollections of Antiochus ‘Abomination of Desolation,” in The Land of Israel in Bible, History and Theology: Studies in Honour of Ed Noort, ed. Jacques van Ruiten and J. Cornelis de Vos, 291316 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2009). 528 Translation by Maria Boulding, Saint Augustine, Expositions of the Psalms, 73-98 (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2002), 147 . Augustinus, Enarration in Psalmum 79, PL 36, 1025; Augustinus, Exposition in Psalmum 79:11. CCSL 39, pars X, 2. P. 1116.

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“singular beast” with his son Titus.529 The same reading is developed by Cassiodorus (d. c. 583 CE), who merges it with Augustine’s exegesis: “The boar out of the wood has exterminated it, and a singular wild beast has devoured it.” (Ps. 80 (79):14). Exterminated, that is, scattered it everywhere beyond the boundaries of its native land, as happened to the Jews; the sense is identical to the earlier phrase, they strip it. Perhaps we should interpret the boar as Vespasian, who showed himself tough and savage to the Jews. This label of boar shows him as foe of the Jews, for they were known to consider this beast as unclean among the rest. Out of the wood means from the Gentiles, who are rightly compared to rough woodland, for as yet they were not implanted with fruitful seed. The boar (aper) is so called because it dwells in rough (asper) regions. The singular wild beast denotes Titus, son of Vespasian, who conducted the closing stages of the war with such grinding ravaging that he destroyed nation and city; he devoured them in fearful fashion like hay – an inevitable end to the vineyard once the wall was seen to be down. 530

If Cassiodorus omits Augustine’s idea of the transformation of the nations (the forest) from impurity to purity, he introduces the idea that “The boar out of the wood has exterminated it,” referring to Israel’s exile, reading the verb “exterminare” as to exile (exterminus). The three readings discussed here repeat Christian medieval exegesis in different variants. 531 Interestingly enough, the Christian reading recalls Midrash on

529

“Quem significat dicens Exterminauit eam aper de silua et singularis ferus depastus est eam ? – Aprum hic Vespasianum, ut quidam dicunt, uult intellegi qui Iudaeos bello uastauit; singularem ferum Titum Vespasiani filium qui Hierusalem oppugnatione consumpsit.” Instrructiones I, xxxvi. Eucherius. Eucherii Lugdunensis Formulae spiritalis intelligentiae; Instructionum libri duo . Eucherius, ed. C. Mandolfo. CCSL 6 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), 124. See: Rolf Baumgarten, “The 'pig and vine gloss' and the Lives of St. Brigit.” Peritia 19 (2005): 232. 530 Translation by P. G. Walsh, Cassiodurus, Explanation of the Psalms, Vol II. Psalms 51-100 (New York: Paulist Press, 1991), 289. Cassiodurus also provides an allegorical explanation: “The boar because of its aggression and excessive strength can be interpreted in a spiritual sense as the devil; out of the wood implies that the devil’s intentions are always rough and devious.” Cassiodorus, Expositio in Psalmum 79:14; CCSL 98, II, 2, p. 745. 531 For the history of the Christian interpretation of Ps. 80 (79):14 in the Middle Ages see: Wilfried Schouwink, Der wilde Eber in Gottes Weinberg: zur Darstellung des Schweins in Literatur und Kunst des Mittelalters (Sigmaringen: J. Thorbecke, 1985). Ibid., “The Wild Pig in Medieval Historiography: How a Pagan Devil Becomes a Christian Ruler,” in Atti del V Colloquio della International Beast Epic, Fable and Fabliau Society, Torino–St-Vincent, 5-9 settembre 1983, ed. Alessandro Vitale-Brovarone and Gianni Mombello (Alessandria: Edizioni dell'Orso, 1987), 301-311. The eighth century Glossa in Psalmos writes, for example: “EXTERMINAUIT EAM, [id est] uiniam. APER, id est Nabocodonossor [Nebuchadrezzar], uel Sencaribh [Senncherib]. ET SINGULARIS FERUS, id est Titus uel Vespassianus.” Glossa in Psalmos, Codex Palatinus Latinus 68, 79.14 (fol. 16V). Martin McNamara, Glossa in Psalmos: The Hiberno-Latin Gloss on the Psalms of Codex Palatinus Latinus 68 (Psalms 39:11-151:7) (Città del vaticano: Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, 1986), 173. For the manuscript’s date, see Martin McNamara, The Psalms in the Early Irish Church (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000), 165-238. The Pseudo Meliton’s Clavis (ninth

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Psalm 80: “the boar out of the wood” refers to the emperor [in some manuscripts “commander of the host”], while “that which moveth in the field” refers to his generals [‫]איסטרטיקולין‬. [Another interpretation]: “that which moveth in the field” refers to both.”532 However, contrary to the Christian authors, the sages do not identify the boar with a particular Roman emperor, but rather with the empire in general. While the Christians identified the hoggishness with Vespasian and Titus, whom they see as executers of punishment of the Jews for their rejection of Christ, the sages emphasize the hoggish nature of the empire, which - whether pagan or Christian - does not change its nature.

Conclusion Based on Leviticus Rabbah and Jerome, we may conclude that the identification of Rome with the boar of Psalm 80:14 and the fourth beast of the book of Daniel originated at least in the fourth century. However, we do not have any reason to believe, as Mireille Hadas-Lebel proposes, that the identification of Rome with the pig originated in the reading of Psalm 80:14, 533 for the identification has in the rabbinic literature

cent.,) writes “Aper, diabolous: “Exterminavit eam aper de silva, et singularis ferus. Titus et Vespasianus. Clavis 35. De bestis, S. Melitions clavis, 47. Bruno the Carthusian (1030-1101 CE) “‘aper de silva’ procedens, Vespasianus scilicet, qui ferus erat et immundus sordibus vitiorum, sicut aper ferum animal est et sordidum” (PL 152: 1066D). Rupert of Deutz (c. 1075–1129) writes: “Ut dictum, ita et factum est. Venerunt enim animalia de silva qua primi ex omnibus gentibus ausi fuerunt ad se missos prophetas et sapientes et Scribas occidere et crucifigere, flagellare in synagogis suis, et de civitate in civitatem persequi ubi erat multiplicitas errorum, et feri homines habitabant, sicut ferae in silva” (PL 168: 623B-C). For the history of the exegesis of Psalm 80 (79): 14 see: Ute Schwab “Runentituli, narrative Bildzeichen und biblisch-änigmatische Gelehrsamkeit auf der Bargello-Seite des Franks Casket.” In Runica—Germanica— Mediaevalia [Festschrift for Klaus Düwel]. Eds. Wilhelm Heizmann and Astrid von Nahl. Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 37. (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2003), 759– 803. Klaus Speckenbach, “Der Eber in der deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters,” in Verbum et Signum. Beiträge zur mediävistischen Bedeutungsforschung, Festschrift Friedrich Ohly, vol. 1., ed. Hans Fromm, Wolfgang Harms and Uwe Ruberg (Munich: Fink, 1975), 425-476. 532 MidrPss. 80 (ed. Buber). .‫ זה וזה‬.‫ [דבר אחר] וזיז שדי ירענה‬.‫ זה איסטרטיקולין‬.‫ וזיז שדי ירענה‬.‫ זה השר צבא‬.‫[ו] יכרסמנה חזיר מיער‬ 533 Hadas-Lebel. Jerusalem Against Rome, 517. Ibid. “Rome,” 307. See Fraenkel, Darchei Aggadah VeHamidrash, vol. II, 618, note 128.

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diverse exegetic proof texts. Most of the midrashim which mention Psalm 80:14 inscribe it in a historical divine plan of subjection -redemption as in its original scriptural context. The historical sense the sages give to Ps. 80:14 is opposite to that which some Christian authors give it. For the sages the boar devouring the vine stands for the fourth kingdom (Rome), which is the last empire but also marks a continuity with the empires before it. The Christian reading sees in it a mark of a historical turning point in the passage from Judaism to Christianity.

203

Source Bereshit Rabbati of Moses haDarshan

Date 11th cent.

Midrash on Psalm (Buber) 120

Midrash on Psalm 80 Bavli, Pesaḥim 118b

Associated with

Esau

6th-7th cent.

R. Kahana in the name of R. Ishmael, son of R. Jose (3rd cent.)

Main idea The nations of the world are called “animals of the forest” (Ps. 104:20.) and trample Israel, as it is written: “The boar out of the wood doth ravage it, that which moveth in the field feedeth on it” (Ps 80:14). Evil beasts can refer only to the boar, for it is said, “The wild boar out of the wood doth root it up, and the wild beasts of the field devour it” (Ps. 80:14), and the boar is none other than wicked Esau “the boar out of the wood” refers to the emperor. Another interpretation: ‘Rebuke the wild beast of the reeds’ - who dwells among the reeds, ‘the boar out of the wood ravages it, that which moves in the field feeds on it.’ (Ps 80:14). The letter ‘Ain [‫[ ]ע‬of the word] a’ar [‫ ]יער‬is the half-way [point of the book of] Psalms. ‘And he is compassionate, forgave the sin” (Ps. 78:38) is the halfway point of the verses [of the book of Psalms]. The boar out of the wood or the boar out of the river.

Bavli Kidusin 30a

6th-7th cent.

Leviticus Rabbah,13.5 and Avot deRabbi Nathan A 34.19 Leviticus Rabbah,13.5 Genesis Rabbah, 65.1

4th-5th cent.

R. Phinehas and R. Hilkiah, in the name of R. Simon (2nd cent.)

4th-5th cent.

The pig pretends to be pure.

Jerome, Commentary on Daniel 7:7 Sifre on Numbers, 316-317

d. 408

Esau, Fourth kingdom, Lev. 11:7 Esau, Lev. 11:7. R. Simon b. Pazzi; R. Simon (3rd cent.) Fourth kingdom

Fourth kingdom

“He made him ride on the high places of the earth” (Deut. 32:13). This refers to the world, as it is said, “The boar out of the wood doth ravage it,” [that which moveth in the field feedeth on it] (Ps. 80:14)

3rd cent.

Daniel 7:7

Table 7 : Psalm 80:14 and the Association of the Pig with Rome

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Chapter 9 Why is it called ḥazir? In the midrash “why is it called ḥazir?” the sages placed great importance on the pig’s name, seeing it as embodying a deep meaning of the quality and fate of what is named. 534 As we have seen in chapter thirteen of Leviticus Rabbah, this midrash explains the name of the pig (ḥa ir) as embodying the promise of redemption: “The pig” (Lev. 11:7) - this refers to Edom [Rome]. “Which does not bring along in its train” - for it did not bring along another kingdom after it. And why is it then called “pig” (ḥa ir)? For it restores (meḥazeret) the crown to the one who truly should have it. That is in line with the following verse of Scripture: “And saviors will come up on Mount Zion to judge the Mountain of Esau [Rome], and the kingdom will then belong to the Lord (Ob. 1:21). 535

According to this midrash, in messianic times Israel will “judge” Rome, a term that may be understood as meaning to rule, but more plausibly as taking vengeance. The midrashic explanation of the nature of the pig (by his name), that it is called ‘ḥa ir’ “because it is destined to restore (lehahzir) sovereignty to its owners,” seems to play with the common Greco-Roman notion that the pig pays for its crime. 536 Rome, the boar, is the destroyer of Israel but also the kingdom that will restore the kingdo m to Israel, for as the Mekilta de-Rabbi Ishmael notes, God “in what He strokes - He cures.”537 In this chapter we will observe later versions of the midrash “why is it called ḥa ir?,” namely from Ecclesiastes Rabbah and Hamidrash HaGadol, where we find a tension between different conceptions of the messianic era. 534

On midrashim on animals’ names in the Old Testament, see: Moshe Garsiel, Midrashic Name Derivations in the Bible (Ramat-Gan: Revivim, 1987), 51-53 (Hebrew). 535 LevR 13.13. Translation by Neusner, Judaism and Christianity, 222-223. ‫ "ולמה נקרא שמה חזיר? שמחזרת עטרה‬.‫ שאינה גוררת מלכות אחריה‬,)‫ז‬,‫ "והוא גרה לא יגר" (ויקרא יא‬,‫ זו אדום‬- "‫"ואת החזיר‬ .)‫ " ועלו מושיעים בהר ציון לשפוט את הר עשו והיתה לה' המלוכה"(עובדיה א‬:‫ הדא הוא דכתיב‬,"‫לבעליה‬ 536 As the Greek expression goes: ”Pig, you will give back grape-pips;” as the Suda explains: “that is, you will give back more than you ate up. [This is applied] to those paying a penalty greater than their sins.” Suda, Adler, alpha, 3600: Suda On Line: Byzantine Lexicography, <www.stoa.org/sol/< consulted September 10, 2009. 537 Mekilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, beshalach 5. My translation. ". ‫] במה שהוא מכה הוא מרפא‬...[ ‫"הקב"ה‬

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Ecclesiastes Rabbah Ecclesiastes Rabbah (7th-9th centuries) relates the midrash “why is it called ḥa ir?” in its interpretation of Ecclesiastes 1:9.538 The midrash opens by declaring that in the eschatological times only Israel will be rewarded: “That which hath been is that which shall be” [and that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun.] (Ecc. 1:9). The Rabbis say: In the Hereafter the generations will assemble in the presence of the Holy one, blessed be He, and say before Him, ‘Lord of the Universe, who shall utter a song before Thee first?’ He will answer them, ‘In the past none but the generation of Moses uttered a song before Me, and now none but that generation shall utter a song before Me.’ What is the proof? As it is said, “Sing unto the Lord a new song, and His praise from the end of the earth; ye that go down to the sea” (Is. 42:10). 539

From a point of view which holds that a radical change will occur in the messianic era, the idea of Ecclesiastes 1:9 “that which hath been is that which shall be” is problematic. The midrash resolved this problem by stating that in the messianic era the “new song” will be that of Moses’ generation, portraying the messianic era as a return or restoration rather than a radical change. This is an idea developed further on in the following episode the midrash relates concerning Rabbi Meir and the Romans: Once [the Roman] government dispatched a message to our Rabbis, saying, ‘Send us one of your torches.’ They said, ‘They possess ever so many torches and they want one torch from us! What multitudes of torches they have; what abundance of precious stones and pearls! It seems to us that they want of us nothing else than somebody who enlightens (meir) faces with legal decisions [halaha].’ They sent R. Meir to them, and they asked him many questions, all of which he answered. Finally they asked him why he [the pig] is called ‘ḥa ir’, and he replied, ‘Because it is destined to restore (lehahzir) the sovereignty to its owners.’ R. Meir continued to sit and expound: A time will come when the wolf

538

For the date of this midrash, see: Reuven Kiperwasser, “Sturcture and Form in Kohelet Rabbah as Evidence of Its Redaction,” The Journal of Jewish Studies 58, no. 2 (2007): 283-302. 539 EcclR 1.9. Translation by A. Cohen, Midrash Rabbah, vol. VIII, Ruth and Ecclesiastes (London: Soncino Press, 1939), 31-32. ‫ הדורות מתכנסין לפני‬,‫ לעתיד לבא‬:‫" רבנן אמרי‬, ]‫ תחת השמש‬,‫חדש‬- ‫ הוא שיעשה; ואין כל‬,‫שנעשה‬- ‫"מה שהיה הוא שיהיה [ומה‬ ‫ לשעבר לא אמר שירה לפני אלא דורו של משה ועכשיו‬:‫ רבש" ע מי יאמר לפניך שירה תחלה? ואומר להם‬:‫הקב"ה ואומרים לפניו‬ .)‫ "שירו לה' שיר חדש תהלתו בקצה הארץ יורדי הים ומלואו וגו' "( ישעיהו מב‬:‫ מאי טעמא? שנאמר‬,‫לא יאמר שירה לפני אלא הוא‬

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will have a fleece of fine wool and the dog a coat of ermine. They said to him, ‘Enough, R. Meir! ‘There is nothing new under the sun’ (Ecc. 1:9). 540

The midrash explains two names: Meir and ḥa ir (“pig”). Rabbi Meir (‫ )מאיר‬is named so because he “illuminates,” (‫)מאיר‬, as he brings his followers to know the light of God. He is both illuminated and illuminates, for his inner source of light, of wisdom, “makes his face to shine” (Ecclesiastes 8:1).541 The pig is named ḥa ir (‫ )חזיר‬because he returns (mahzir ‫)מחזיר‬. The juxtaposition of the two names, Meir and ḥa ir, creates an esthetic enjoyment for the names rhyme with each other, but this also creates contradiction (the sage – the abominable animal). 542 It is probably not accidental that Rabbi Meir is the hero of the midrash. Was it because according to another midrash Rabi Meir pretended to eat pork in Rome? 543 Was it because Rabbi Meir was allegedly descended from Caesar Nero who converted to Judais m? 544 What is clear is that, in both

540

EcclR 1.9. ‫ כמה קסלופנוס יש להם והם מבקשין‬:‫ אמרו‬.‫ שלחו לנו קסלופנוס אחד משלכם‬:‫מעשה ושלחה מלכות אצל רבותינו ואמרה להם‬ ‫ממנו קסלופנוס אחד? כמה מקות פנסין יש להם כמה אבנים טובות ומרגליות יש להם? כמדומין אנו שאין מבקשין ממנו אלא מאיר‬ ‫ למה נקרא שמו‬:‫ ובסוף שאלו אותו‬,‫ שואלין אותו והוא משיב‬,‫ שלחו להם את ר' מאיר והיו שואלין אותו והוא משיב‬.‫פנים בהלכה‬ ,‫ והכלב גלבטינון‬,‫ עתיד זאב להיות גזוז מילתן‬:‫ ועוד ישב ר' מאיר ודרש‬.‫ שהוא עתיד להחזיר את המלכות לבעליה‬:‫חזיר? אמר להם‬ .)‫ "ואין כל חדש תחת השמש" (קהלת‬,‫ דייך ר' מאיר‬:‫אמרו לו‬ Another version appeared in Moses Gaster, The Exempla of the Rabbis (based on a manuscript from Persia, 16th century): “The Emperor asked for a luminary among the sages to be sent. R. Meir was sent to the Emperor as being one who lit up the world with his wisdom. He was asked various questions about swine and why they are called “ḥazirim”. He explained that the name “ḥa ir” means “returning” i.e. profit to the owner but that the profit of them who keep aloof from any creeping and unclean thing was far greater.” Moses Gaster, The Exempla of the Rabbis; Being a Collection of Exempla, Apologues and Tales Culled from Hebrew Manuscripts and Rare Hebrew Books (New York: Ktav, 1968), 99. 541 B. Eruvin 13b. .'‫ ולמה נקרא שמו ר' מאיר? שהוא מאיר עיני חכמים בהלכה וכו‬.‫ אלא ר' נהוראי שמו‬,‫ לא ר' מאיר שמו‬:‫"תנא‬ See: Galit Hasan-Rokem. “Rabbi Meir, the Illuminated and the Illuminating: Interpreting Experience,” Current Trends in the Study of Midrash, ed. Carol Bakhos (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 227-243. Also: Avigdor Shinan, “Light and Blindness in the Stories of the Rabbis,” Migvan 2 (2003): 75-92 (Hebrew). 542 If the Romans ask, “why he [the pig] is called ‘ḥa ir,’” it is probably because the question refers to Esau, the father of Edom = Rome according to the Sages, which is mentioned in Levitcus Rabbah’s version’s citation of Obadiah 1:21. 543 B. Avoda Zara 18b; EcclR 7.12.1. 544 B. Gittin 56a. “He sent against them Nero the Caesar. As he was coming he shot an arrow towards the east, and it fell in Jerusalem. He shot one towards all four points of the compass, and each time it fell in Jerusalem. He said to a certain boy: Repeat to me [the last] verse of Scripture you have learnt. He said: And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel (Ezek. 15:14). He said: The Holy One, blessed be He, desires to lay waste his House and to lay the blame on me. So he ran away and became a

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stories, Rabbi Meir in Rome is by his acts or his statements, a trickster. As such, he is glorified and mocked at the same time. Hence, following his witty midrash about the pig, Rabbi Meir is presented as going too far with his exegetical imaginary when he says,” A time will come when the wolf [a pig – according to Hamidrash HaGadol] will have a fleece of fine wool and the dog a coat of ermine.” 545 This saying recalls the Latin proverb: “Ab asino lanam quaeris - you're looking to get wool from a donkey,” referring to a vain, impossible action.546 Hence the Romans were made to express the rebuke of the sages, 547 “Enough, R. Meir! ‘There is nothing new under the sun’” (Ecc. 1:9).” Indeed Rabbi Meir is portrayed in the Bavli as one whose reasoning is so sharp that even his fellow sages did not understand it: Rabbi Acha bar Chanina said, “It is revealed and known before the Creator of the Universe that there was no one in Rabbi Meir's generation who was Rabbi Meir's peer. And why doesn’t the law follow him? Because his peers could not follow his logic, when he declares impure – pure, and brings reasons to it and declares pure – impure and brings reasons to it.”548

proselyte, and R. Meir was descended from him.” According Naomi G. Cohen, Rabbi Meir is the only Talmudic figure named “Meir.” The name dos not appear in the Bible or in any Jewish texts before the Ga’aonic period. She believes the name is a transliteration of a name from Asia minor. While the legend on the conversion of his father Nero is linked to his origin from Asia Minor, according to the Roman and Christian legend, Nero hides after he commits “suicide.” The rabbinic legend of Nero´s conversion is according to Cohen part of the Jewish polemic with the Christian legend concerning Nero as anti-Christian. Naomi G. Cohen, “Rabbi Meir: A Descendant of Anatolian Proselytes,” JJS 23 (1972): 51-59. 545 Midrash HaGAdol, Shemini 11.7. My translation. Italics mine. Midrash Hagadol to Leviticus, ed. A. Steinsaltz (Jerusalem: Mosad Harav Kook, 1975), 249 (Hebrew). .‫ועוד היה ר' מאיר אומר עתיד חזיר להיות גוזז מילתין וכלב גלקטינין‬ The fact that the pig is not sheered is mentioned in Midrash Zuta, Song of Songs (ed. Buber) 1.15. 546 The proverb originated from Aristophanes, The Frogs (186) where Charon, the boatman to the underworld, asks: τίς εἰς τοῦ λήθης πεδίον, τίς εἰς ὄνου πόκας; "who's for the plain of Lethe? Who's for the donkey's wool?" The use of Ecclesiastes 1:9 to criticize messianic sayings is found also in Bavli Sabbath 30b. 547 Shraga Abramson thinks that it is the Sages who are speaking and not the Romans, see: Shraga Abramson, “Ma'amar Chazal U-Perusho (A Rabbinic Saying and Its Interpretation),” Molad 27, new series 4 (1971): 421-429 (Hebrew). 548 B. Eruvin 13b. My translation. ‫א"ר אחא בר חנינא גלוי וידוע לפני מי שאמר והיה העולם שאין בדורו של רבי מאיר כמותו ומפני מה לא קבעו הלכה כמותו שלא‬ .‫יכלו חביריו לעמוד על סוף דעתו שהוא אומר על טמא טהור ומראה לו פנים על טהור טמא ומראה לו פנים‬

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The joke’s sting in Ecclesiastes Rabbah is that Rabbi Meir seems to go too far not just for his fellows sages but even for the Romans. However, while the Romans seemed to refuse Rabbi Meir’s messianic optimism, they implicitly admit that their ferocious animal nature will not change in the future. This turns against the Romans in the next part of the midrash, which argues that only Israel, not the pork eaters, will be rewarded in the future: The Rabbis say: In the Hereafter the Holy One, blessed be He, will send forth a herald to announce, ‘Whoever has not partaken of swine’s flesh in his lifetime, let him come and take his reward’; and many who belonged to the Gentile peoples who never partook of swine’s flesh will come to receive their reward. At that time the Holy One, blessed be He, will declare, ‘These wish to be rewarded in both worlds. Not enough for them that they enjoyed their world [upon earth], but they also seek to enjoy the world of my children! At that time the Holy One, blessed be He, will send forth a herald a second time to announce, ‘Whoever has not partaken of the flesh of animals which had not been ritually slaughtered or of animals disqualified for food or of the animals and reptiles prohibited by the Torah, [let him come and receive his reward.’ But there were none, apart from Israel, because,] if [a Gentile] had not partaken of the flesh of such animals which belonged to himself he did so of animals which belonged to another. Hence, why is the pig called ‘ḥa ir,’? Because it is destined to restore greatness and sovereignty to those to whom they are due.” 549

The midrash seems to be distorted. If it refers to the Romans, the pork eaters, why does it speak about “Gentile peoples who never partook of swine’s flesh”? And if it is not pork which is the focus of the midrash, why does the midrash finish with “why it is called “ḥa ir”? The answer may perhaps be found in the Midrash HaGadol’s version of the midrash (Yemen, 14th cent.).

549

EcclR 1.9. ‫ והרבה מאומות‬,‫ כל מי שלא אכל בשר חזיר מימיו יבא ויטול שכרו‬:‫ לעתיד לבא הקב"ה מוציא כרוז ומכריז ואומר‬:‫רבנן אמרין‬ ‫ לא דיין שאכלו‬:‫ נשתכרו אלו שני עולמות‬:‫ באותה שעה הקב"ה אומר‬,‫העולם שלא אכלו בשר חזיר מימיהם והם באים ליטול שכרן‬ ‫ כל מי שלא אכל‬:‫ באותה שעה הקב" ה מוציא כרוז פעם שנייה ומכריז ואומר‬.‫ אלא הם מבקשין לאכול עולמן של בני עוד‬,‫עולמן‬ ‫ שעתיד להחזיר הגדולה‬- ‫ הוי למה נקרא שמו חזיר‬.‫בשר נבלות וטרפות שקצים ורמשים אם לא אכל משלו אכל משל חבירו‬ .‫והמלכות לבעליה‬

209

Hamidrash HaGAdol “And the Pig” (Lev. 11:7) The Rabbis say: Once [the Roman] government dispatched a message to our Rabbis, saying, ‘Send us one of your torches.’ The Sanhedrin assembled and said: ‘They possess ever so many lighted candles and torches, abundance of precious stones and pearls and they ask from us torches!? It seems that they want of us nothing else than somebody who enlightens (meir) faces with legal decisions [halaḥa].’ What did they do? They sent R. Meir to them. And why he is called Meir? For he illuminates (meir) faces in legal decision [ha aḥa]. And when he entered to Rome the sons of Rome asked him: why the pig’s name is ‘ḥa ir’? He replied: ‘Because it is destined to return ( aḥzor ‫)לחזור‬.’ They said to him: “Enough, R. Meir! ‘There is nothing new under the sun’” (Ecc. 1:9). And furthermore they [the Romans] asked him why his name is called ‘ḥa ir,’? He said to them: ‘It will restore (lehaḥzir) the reward to its owners.’ In the Hereafter the Holy One, blessed be He, will send forth a herald to announce, ‘Whoever has not partaken of swine’s flesh, let him come and take his reward’; and many of the nations of the world who did not partake of swine’s flesh since this day will come to receive their reward. At that time the Holy One, blessed be He, says: ‘These wish to be rewarded in both worlds. Not enough for them that they enjoyed [lit. eat] their world [upon earth], but they also seek to enjoy [lit. to eat] the world of my children!? At that time the Holy One, blessed be He, will send forth a herald to announce a second time: ‘Whoever has not partaken of the flesh of animals which had not been ritually slaughtered [nebelot], animals disqualified for food [trefot] or of reptiles and vermin [skatzim] and insects [remasim] let him come and receive his reward.’ But there is none of the nations of the world which did not eat nebelot, trefot, skatzim and remasim. And if he did not eat [it all/pork] he dipped [in its] sauce and if he did not dip in [its] sauce he cooked it in a pot. Hence, it is found to return [maḥzir] good reward to its owner.’ Concerning it scripture says “A wise king winnows the wicked, and drives the wheel over them” (Proverbs 20:26). And R. Meir said furthermore: A time will come when the pig will have a fleece of fine wool and the dog a coat of ermine. 550

This midrash refers to the punishment of pork eaters; although they were to stop eating pork “since that day” – since the day God proclaimed, “Whoever has not partaken of swine’s flesh, let him come and take his reward,” they will be punished. Hence, the 550

Midrash Hagadol (ed. A. Steinsaltz), Shemini 11.7, 248-249. My Translation. Italics mine. ‫" תנו רבנן מעשה ששלחה מלכות קצרה לרבנן אמרה להם שלחו לנו מכם קסילופניס אחד נתישבה סנהדרין על דעתה‬.‫"ואת החזיר‬ ‫כמה נירות וכמה פניסין מאירין למלכות כמה אבנים טובות ומרגליות יש להן והן מבקשין ממנו פנים אחד דומה שאין מבקשין‬: ‫אמרו‬ ‫ וכיון‬.‫ ולמה נקרא שמו מאיר? שהוא מאיר פנים בהלכה ובחכמה‬.‫ מה עשו? שלחו להן ר' מאיר‬.‫אלא מי שמאיר להן פנים בהלכה‬ ‫ דייך מאיר "אין כל‬:‫ אמרו לו‬.‫ שהוא עתיד לחזור‬:‫ למה נקרא שם חזיר חזיר? אמר להן‬:‫שנכנס לרומי שאלוניה בני רומי אמרו ליה‬ .(‫ ט‬,‫חדש תחת השמש" )קהלת א‬ ‫ כל מי‬:‫ לעתיד לבוא הקב"ה מוציא כרוז ואומר‬.‫ עתיד להחזיר מתן שכר לבעליו‬:‫ למה נקרא שמו חזיר? אמר להם‬:‫ועוד שאלו אותו‬ ‫ באותה שעה‬.‫שלא אכל בשר חזיר יבוא ויטול שכרו והרבה מאומות העולם שלא אכלו בשר חזיר מאותו היום והן באין ליטול שכרן‬ ‫ ישתכרו אלו בשני עולמים לא דיין שאכלו עולמן אלא מבקשין עוד לאכול עולמן שלבני? והקב"ה מוציא כרוז ואומר‬:‫הקב" ה אומר‬ ‫ כל מי שלא אכל נבילות וטרפות שרצים ורמשים יבוא ויטול שכרו ואין לך מאומות העולם שלא אכל נבילות וטרפות‬:‫פעם שנייה‬ :‫ עליו הוא אומר‬,‫שקצים ורמשים ואם לא אכל טיבל ברוטב ואם לא טיבל ברוטב בישל בקדרה ונמצא מחזיר שכר טוב לבעליו‬ .‫ ועוד היה ר' מאיר אומר עתיד חזיר להיות גוזז מילתין וכלב גלקטינין‬.(‫ כו‬,‫"מזרה רשעים מלך חכם וישב עליהם אופן" )משלי כ‬

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conclusion that the pig “will restore (lehaḥzir) the reward to its owners.” The overall message of the midrash is that in the messianic era nature will not change; “that which hath been is that which shall be and that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecc. 1:9). The messianic era is described as an era of restoration: the pig [Rome] will return the kingdom to Israel, God will punish the pork eaters but not will not change the pig´s nature (make it pure/eatable), for as the sages state elsewhere: “The only difference between the present and the Messianic era is that political oppression will then cease” (B. Sanhedrin 91b).551 In this line, the midrash limits the messianic expectations, and probably polemicizes with the radical conception of the messianic era in Judaism and especially in Christianity.

Discussion Famously, in the Dispute of Tortosa (1413-1414), the convert from Judaism Geronimo de Santa Fé (Joshua Halorki), brought against the Jews another version of the midrash, “why is it called ḥazir? that it will be restored to Israel.”552 Santa Fé / Halorki

551

B. Sanhedrin 91b. ‫אין בין העולם הזה לימות המשיח אלא שעבוד מלכויות בלבד‬. “‫ ”למה נקרא שמו חזיר ? שעתיד הקב"ה להחזירו לישראל‬see: Géronimo de Santa Fe, Sefer ha-Pikkurim, 9.A “Propter quid porcus vocatur hazir, quod idem est quod redibile? Quoniam Deus restituet ipsum ad Israel.” Lopez Antoni Pacios, La Disputa de Tortosa, II, Actas, (Madrid: Iselan, 1957), 262. Isaac Abarbanel (d. 1509) in his Rosh Amanah and Yeshu'ot Meshiho. See: Don Yitzhak Abravanel, Rosh Amanah. The Priniciples of Faith, ed. Menachem Kellner (Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1993), 102 (Hebrew). And Yeshu'ot Meshiho, 258. Yitzhak Abravanel, Yeshu'ot meshiho (Konigsberg, 1861), 70. Baer argues that the Jews did not answer honestly when they argued that they do not know the midrash ‘why is it called ḥazir?” Baer, “The forged Midraschim of Raymond Martini,” 40, note 1. H. Albek, argues that the Jews only ask to see the book mentioned by Joshua Halorki before they debate the midrash. H. Albek. “Addition to Y. Baer, ‘The forged Midraschim of Raymond Martini and their Place in the Religious Controversies in the Middle Ages,’” in Studies in Memory of Asher Gulak and Samuel Klein (Jerusalem: Center for Judaic Studies Hebrew University, 1942), 49. 552

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argued that in the messianic era the Jews will be authorized to eat pork. The midrash appeared much earlier in Peter Alfonsi´s Dialogue against the Jews (wr. 1109):553 “Even your sages attest to this, who said that after the advent of Christ all meats ought to be permitted and eaten. But also on account of this they said that the meat of a pig is called “ḥazir” (‫)חזיר‬, that is, “changeable,” since after the advent of Christ it had to be changed from inedible to edible.” 554

Approximately one century later, the same midrash appears in An Anonymous Treaty against the Jews (ca. 1200-1235): 555 “Why is it called ḥazir? For it will be returned to be eatable to Israel.”556 The Christian versions, especially that of the Dispute of Tortosa, are similar to a common version in High and Late Medieval Jewish soruces: “why is it called ḥazir? for the Holy One, blessed be He, will return it ( ehaḥzira ‫)להחזירה‬ / will return it ( ehaḥziro ‫ )להחזירו‬to Israel.” 557 Hence, Adin Steinsaltz believes tha t

553

On the influence of this work, see: John Tolan, Petrus Alfonsi and his Medieval Readers (Gainsville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1993), 95-131. 554 “Hoc etiam testantur doctores vestri, qui dixerunt post adventum Christi carnes omnes absolvendas esse et comedi. Sed et propter hoc “ḥazir [‫]חזיר‬, id est “convertibilem”, appelatam esse dixerunt carnem porci, quod post adventum Christi de incomestibili in comestibilem debebat converti.” Petrus Alfonsi, Di ogo contra os jud os, ed and trans. John Victor Tolan, Klaus-Peter Mieth, Esperanza Ducay, and María Jes s Lacarra (Huesca [Spain]: Instituto de Estudios Altoaragoneses, 1996), 189. Translation by Irven M. Resnick, Petrus Alfonsi, Dialogue Against the Jews (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2006), 268. The text is cited also in Francisco Machado, Espelho de Christãnos novos (Mirror of the New Christians) (Alcobaça, Portugal, 1541). Francisco Machado, The Mirror of the New Christians, ed. trans. and introd. Evelyn Vieira Mildred and Ephraim Frank Talmage (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1977), 184. On Francisco Machado’s use of Petrus Alphonsi, see: John Tolan, Petrus Alfonsi and his Medieval Readers (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993), 119-120. 555 On the date of the Tratado, see: José M. Millás Vallicrosa, “Un tratado an nimo contra los judios,” Sefarad 13 (1953): 8. The midrash is told after arguing that God permited all foods during creation, for He declared all his Creation good (Gn. 1:1-25). It further argues that the reason for the food avoidance in the Old Testament was to avoid idolatry among the Israleites, and that the real sense of the commandments is allegorical. The author argues that with the coming of Christ, the new convenant abolishes the food avoidance. The midrash “why is it call ḥazir?” is told in order to reinforce this argument. 556 “Lama nicra semo ḥa ir ha ssum sse ah ir eheho isçrae .” Millás Vallicrosa, “Un tratado,” 33. Josep Hernando, “Tractatus adversus Iudaeos. Un tratado an nimo de polémica antijudía (s.XIII),” Acta historica et archaeologica mediaevalia 7-8 (1986-1987): 74. 557 The answer “‫שעתיד הקב"ה להחזירו‬/‫ ”להחזירה לישראל‬is found inter alia in: Ibn Shaprut, Even Bohan 11.15 (wr. 1385). Norman E. Frimer The Preparation of a Critical Edition of the Manuscript Eben Bohan by Shem Tob bar Yitzhak Shaprut, Phd Dissertation (New York: Yeshiva University, 1953), 82. RITVA’s (Yom Tov ben Abraham Asevilli, Spain, 1250-1330) interpretation to B. Kiddushin 59b. Ritva, Commentary to the Talmud (Hiddushei ha-Ritva), Kiddushin, ed. R. Avraham Dinin (Jerusalem: Mossad HaRav Kook, 1985), 526 (Hebrew). Rabbi Abba Mari of Lunel in his Minḥat kenaot 2. 20-30 (wr. c. 1310). Rabbi Abba Mari of Lunel, Minḥat kenaot in Solomon ben Adret, Teshuvot ha-Rashba le-Rabenu She omoh b.R. A raham ben Adret; ṿe-tsoraf la-hen Sefer Minḥat ena ot e-R. Aba Mari de-Lunil, vol. I.1

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Hamidrash HaGadol’s version (“Because it is destined to return ( aḥzor ‫)”)לחזור‬, which comes from the Muslim world, is the original uncensured version, while Ecclesiastes Rabbah’s version (“Because it is destined to restore (lehaḥzir ‫ )להחזיר‬the sovereignty to its owners”) was a result of Jews’ self-censorship in Christian Europe. 558 If so, how should we explain that the most ancient version - in Leviticus Rabbah (“For it restores (meḥazeret ‫ )מחזרת‬the crown to the one who truly should have it.”) – offers a similar idea to that of Ecclesiastes Rabbah? As Shraga Abramson notes, we find this idea in the sixth century piyyut of Yannai, where it is stated that God in the messianic era “will break down the pig (ḥa ir ‫ )חזיר‬and kingship [to Israel] will return ( aḥzir ‫)יחזיר‬.”559 Rather tha n trying to identify the original, uncensured version of the midrash, we can see in the diverse answers to the question, “why is it called ḥa ir?” a reflection of diverse opinions concerning the messianic era (table 8). In fact, if, as Steinsaltz proposes, the Hamidrash HaGadol’s version is the oldest one, it contains a polemic between two messianic interpretations of the name of the pig. The first is that the pig is called ḥa ir for it will “return,” in the sense that the pig will become pure (edible) to Israel, but this interpretation is rejected for “there is nothing new under the sun’” (Ecc. 1:9). Hence comes the second interpretation, which is the correct one: “It will restore (lehaḥzir) the reward to its owners,” in the sense that God will punish the pork eaters.

(Jerusalem: Mosad ha-Rav Ḳuḳ; Makhon le-hotsaʼat rishonim ṿe-aḥaronim, 1990), 232 (Hebrew). Jacob ben Sheshet of Gerona, Sefer meshiv devarim nekhohim 3, lines 82-92 (wr. c. 1240). Jacob ben Sheshet, Sefer Meshiv Devarim Nekhohim, ed. Georges Vajda (Jerusalem: Israeli Academy of Science, 1968), 81-82 (Hebrew). Menahem Tzioni (14-15th Cent.). Sefer Tzioni (Jerusalem, 1964), 47 (Shemini) (Hebrew). And Isaac Abarbanel (d. 1509) in his Rosh emuanah and Yeshu'ot Meshiho. Abravanel, Rosh Amanah, 102; Ibid. Yeshu'ot meshiho, 70. 558 Adin Steinsaltz, “Atid ha-Kadosh Baruh Hu le- aḥa iro,” Tarbiz (1967): 297-298 (Hebrew). 559 Yannai, Keroba to Deutronomy 2:2. My translation. Menachem Zulay, Piyyute Yannai, (Liturgical Poems of Yannai) (Berlin: Schocken 1938), 230. Abramson, “Ma'amar Chazal U-Perusho,” 423 (Hebrew). .‫ ומלוכה יחזיר‬/]‫ויבקע חז[יר‬

213

Source Midrash HaGadol

Date 13th cent.

Ecclesiastes Rabbah Leviticus Rabbah 13.5

7th-9th cent. 4th-5th cent.

Answer ‘Because it is destined to return´ ( aḥzor) ‘It will restore (lehaḥzir) the reward to its owners.’ ‘Because it is destined to restore (lehaḥzir) the sovereignty to its owners.’ ¨For it restores (meḥazeret) the crown to the one who truly should have it´.

Hebrew ‫שהוא עתיד לחזור‬ ‫עתיד להחזיר מתן שכר‬ .‫לבעליו‬ ‫שהוא עתיד להחזיר את‬ ‫המלכות לבעליה‬ .‫שמחזרת עטרה לבעליה‬

Table 8: The different answers to the question, “why is it called ḥazir”? in midrashic literature

The Christians argue that the pig was pure since the creation of the world, and that the coming of Jesus did not change the pig´s nature but rather changed the nature of the Hebrew Bible law. The avoidance of pork traded its literal meaning for a spiritual one: God does not ask man not to eat pork, but asks him not to behave like a pig. The avoidance of pork was imposed temporarily on the Jews because of their sinful nature. In a sense the Christians argued that, regarding animal purity, “That which hath been is that which shall be” (Ecc. 1:9), that the impurity of animals was an innovation of Sinai. Hence, with the coming of Christ, the status of the pig returned to its original one. The sages, on the other hand, made the pig stand for the future punishment of Rome for its sins against Israel, for “that which hath been is that which shall be” (Ecc. 1:9). Furthermore, not only will the avoidance of pork not cease to be respected in the messianic era, but also God will punish the eaters of pork. This idea is elaborated in the Midrash on Psalms (Buber)’s interpretation of Ecclesiastes 1:9: “The Lord sets prisoners free,” (Ps. 146:7). What does “sets prisoners free” mean? Some say: every animal that is unclean in this world will be purified by the Holy One, blessed be he, in the World to Come, and so it is written: “What was is what will be, and what was made is what will be made” (Eccl. 1:9); “what was made” - whatever [animals] were made [created] before the time of Noachides were [considered] clean, and so it is written, “I gave you everything as the green herb” (Gn. 9:3). Just as I gave the green herb to everyone, so [I gave] beasts and animals to everyone from the beginning. Why, then, did he forbid it? In order to see who would obey his command and who would disobey; in the World to come, he will permit everything that he forbade. But some say that he will not permit them in the World to Come for, as it is written: “those who eat swine’s

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flesh…[shall come to an end together]” (Is. 66:17). If he cuts down and destroys whoever ate them, how much more so [God will consider impure] the unclean animal [itself]? 560

The midrash seems to interpret “the Lord sets prisoners free (matir asurim)” (Ps. 146:7) as “the Lord permits the prohibited (matir isurim).” The midrash provides two additional interpretations, besides the abrogation of food avoidances: 1) the abrogation of the prohibition of Niddah, of having intercourse during menstruation (because women will have no more menstruation), and 2) The resurrection of the dead (‫)תחיית המתים‬, when God will liberate the dead from the prison of death. 561 The first interpretation regarding impure foods opens with the argument that in the times of Noah it was declared that all food was pure (based on Gn. 9:3), which the Christians used as proof that the food avoidances of the Hebrew Bible were temporary. This idea is rejected by the argument that God gave the commandments to Israel to test the willingness of Israel and the nations of the world. The idea of the abrogation of the food avoidances in the messianic era is rejected by the citation of Isaiah 66:17. This verse is understood not only as proof that the nations of the world will be punished in the future, but also as an argument a priori that if God will be so severe with those who eat impure animals, how much stricter will he be concerning the impure status of those animals themselves. The midrash on Psalm 146 560

MidrPss 146. Translation by Rokeah, Justin Martyr, 112-113, with slight alteration. Rokeah translates the final phrase of the midrash as, “how much more so [will he destroy] the unclean animal [itself]”. However, it seems to me that that this phrase refers to the question of the status of impurity of animals in the messianic era, with which the midrash opens. ‫ מהו "מתיר אסורים"? יש אומרים כל הבהמה שנטמאת בעולם הזה מטהר אותה הקב"ה לע תיד‬.)‫ ז‬,‫"ה' מתיר אסורים" ( תהלים קמו‬ : ‫ וכה"א‬,‫ ומה שנעשה טהורים היו מקודם לבני נח‬,)‫ ט‬,‫ "מה שהיה הוא שיהיה ומה שנעשה הוא שיעשה" (קהלת א‬:‫ וכה" א‬,‫לבוא‬ ,‫ ולמה אסר אותה‬,‫ אף החיה והבהמה לכל מתחלה‬,‫ מה ירק עשב נתתי לכל‬,)‫ ג‬,‫"להן כירק עשב נתתי לכם את כל" (בראשית ט‬ : ‫ שכה"א‬,‫ ויש אומרים אינו מתירן לעתיד לבוא‬.‫ ולעתיד לבוא הוא מתיר את כל מה שאסר‬,‫ ומי אינו מקבל‬,‫לראות מי שמקבל דבריו‬ .‫ הבהמה הטמאה לא כל שכן‬,‫ ומה אם למי שהיה אוכלם הוא מכרית ומאביד‬,)‫ יז‬,‫"אוכלי בשר החזיר וגו'" ( ישעיה סו‬ 561 MidrPss 146. ‫ ולעתיד לבוא הוא‬,‫ שהאשה רואה דם ואסרה הקב"ה לבעלה‬,‫ ז)? אין אסור גדול מן הנדה‬,‫ומהו "מתיר אסורים" ( תהלים קמו‬ ‫ "ואל אשה בנדת‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫ ואין טומאה אלא נדה‬,)‫ ב‬,‫ " וגם את הנביאים ואת רוח הטומאה אעביר מן הארץ" (זכריה יג‬,‫מתירה‬ ‫ שביום שנגלה הקב"ה על הר‬,‫ תדע לך שכן הוא‬,‫ ויש אומרים אף תשמיש המטה היא אסורה לעתיד לבא‬,)‫ יט‬,‫טומאתה" (ויקרא יח‬ ,)‫ טו‬,‫ "היו נכונים לשלשת ימים אל תגשו אל אשה" (שמות יט‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫סיני ליתן התורה לישראל אסר תשמיש המטה שלשה ימים‬ ,‫ ומהו מתיר אסורים‬,‫ לעתיד לבא שהשכינה ביניהם אינם אסורין‬,‫ומה כשנגלה עליהם יום א' אסרן מתשמיש המטה שלשה ימים‬ .‫אסורי מות ואסורי שאול‬

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perhaps originated from Bereshit Rabbati of Moses ha-Darshan (11th cent.) and was integrated into Midrash on Psalms between the eleven and twelfth centuries. 562 The midrash therefore seems to reflect a High Medieval polemic with Christianity. A later midrash which plays with the idea that the pig will return asks, “Why is it [Rome] compared to the pig (ḥazir)?” answering, “Because the Holy One is going to pay it (lehaḥzir) with strict judgment,” 563 as for example in Midrash Tanḥuma: ‘These, However, you may not eat (…): The camel (…); The rock badger (…); The hare (…); And the pig’ (Lev. 11:4-7). The camel (gamal) represents the kingdom of Babylon, since it is stated: ‘O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, [blessed is the one who repays you the recompense (gemuleh) with which you recompense (shegamalt) us’ (Ps. 137:8). The rock badger represents the kingdom of Media, since it is stated: So humans sought to destroy [all the Jews]…(Esth. 3:6). The hare alludes to Greece, because it brought low the Torah from the mouth of the prophets. The pig represents the evil kingdom of Edom, since it is stated: ‘The pig of the forest gnaws at it’ (Ps. 80:14). Why is it compared to the pig (ḥazir)? Because the Holy One is going to pay it back (ḥazir) with strict judgment. How? In the age to come the Holy One will issue a proclamation: Whoever has been engaged in the Torah may come and receive his reward. Then the gentiles also will say: Give us our reward, for we also have performed such and such a commandment. The Holy One [however] has said: Whoever has not eaten abhorrent creatures and creeping things may receive his reward. At that time they [will] receive their judgment ( ‫)איפופסין‬,564 as stated: ‘Those who eat the flesh of the pig, the abhorrent creature, and the mouse shall be consumed together, says the Lord’ (Is. 66:17). 565 562

On the date of the midrash, see: Mack, “The Source,” 68. The midrash cited in Raymond Martini’s Pugio fidei tells a similar version: ‫ כל הבהמה‬.)‫ ז‬,‫ " יהוה מתיר אסורים" ( תהלים קמו‬:‫ זה שאמ' הכתוב‬,)‫א‬,‫" ויהי מקץ שנתים ימים ופרעה חולם” (בראשית מא‬ ‫ "כירק עשב נתתי לכם את כל"(בראשית‬:'‫שנטמאת בעולם הזה הב" ה מטהר אותה לעתיד לבא כשם שהיו טהורים תחלה לבני נח שנ‬ ‫ מה הירק עשב טהור לכל אף החיה והבהמה היו טהורים להם ואף לעתיד לבא הוא מתיר את כל מה שאסר ולמה אסרם‬,)‫ ג‬,‫ט‬ ‫ ז)? אין אסור גדול מנדה שהאשה רואה‬,‫בעולם הזה לראות מי מקבל דבריו ומי לא מקבל ומהו " יהוה מתיר אסורים"( תהלים קמו‬ ‫ ואין‬,)‫ ב‬,‫ " וגם את הנבואים ואת רוח הטומאה אעביר מן הארץ" (זכריה יג‬:'‫ואסרה הב" ה ולעתיד לבא הוא מתירה וכן הוא אומ‬ ‫ יט) ויש אומ' אף תשמיש המטה הוא יהיה אסור‬,‫ "ואל אשה בנדת טומאתה לא תקרב" (ויקרא יח‬:'‫טומאה אלא נדה וכן הוא אומ‬ ‫בפעמים לעתיד תדע לך שכן יום שנגלה הב" ה על הר סיני אסרם בתשמיש המטה שלשה ימים שנ' "היו נכונים לשלשת ימים אל‬ ‫ למה כי ביום השלישי ירד יהוה על הר סיני ואם יום אחד שנגלה הב"ה אסר עליהם שלשה ימים‬,)‫ טו‬,‫תגשו אל אשה" (שמות יט‬ .‫לעתיד לבא בימות המשיח שהשכינה בינהם לא כל שכן אלא מהו מתיר אסורים? אסירי שאול אסירי המות‬ Raymond Martini, Pugio fidei adversus Mauros et Iudaeos 3.3.11. Raimundus Martini and Joseph de Voisin. Raymundi Martini Pugio fidei adversus Mauros et Iudaeos.: Cum observationibus Iosephi de Voisin (Lipsiae, 1687), 802-803. 563 Midrash Hagada (ed. Buber), Leveticus 11.5. Tan (ed. Buber), Shemini 14; YalkShim, Shemini 536. 564 On the word ‫ איפופסין‬see: Daniel Sperber, A Dictionary of Greek and Latin Legal Terms in Rabbinic Literature (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1984), 52-54. 565 TanB Shemini 14. Translation by John T. Townsend, Midrash Tanhuma (S. Buber Recension), vol. 2. Exodus and Leviticus (Hoboken, NJ: Ktav, 1997), 235-236. ‫ "בת בבל השדודה [אשרי‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫ זו מלכות בבל‬- "‫ "את הגמל‬.)‫ז‬-‫"את הגמל ואת השפן ואת הארנבת ואת החזיר" (ויקרא יא ד‬ ,‫ "ויבקש המן להשמיד וגו'" (אסתר ג‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫ "את הארנבת" – זו מלכות מדי‬.)‫ ח‬,‫שישלם לך את גמולך שגמלת לנו]" ( תהלים קלז‬ "‫ " יכרסמנה חזיר מיער‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫ זו מלכות אדום הרשעה‬- "‫ "ואת החזיר‬,‫ זו יון שהשפילה את התורה מפי הנביאים‬- "‫ "את השפן‬.)‫ו‬

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In Yalkut Shimoni, Shemini 536 we find another configuration of the idea that the in the messianic era God will punish the pork eaters on the basis of Isaiah 66:17: “Every word of God is pure ]tzrufa [(Prov. 30:5) – and does God care if one gorged [ritually] an animal and ate [it according to the law] or if one killed [the animal] and ate it ? But the precepts were given for the purpose of purifying [leṣaref ‫ ]לצרף‬peoples [briot ‫]בריות‬. Come and see: in the beginning of the world it is written: “[Every moving thing that lives will be food for you], as the green herb have I given you everything” (Gen. 9:3) and when Israel were on Mount Sinai [God] multiplied to them Torah and commandments. Said the Holy One, blessed be He: A minor commandment I command him [the nations of the world] and he transgresses it, all those commandments how can he fulfill? In the Hereafter the Holy One, blessed be He, will send forth a herald to announce, ‘Whoever has dealt with the Torah will come to receive their reward. And the Kutim [Samaritans, but here in the sense of non-Jews] will come and say: “give us our reward for we also followed the commandments.” The Holy One, blessed be He, will say: “any one that did not eat pig’s flesh, and abominations or creeping things will come and receive his reward.” In this hour they [the nations of the world] will receive their verdict [‫ ]איפופסין‬as it is written: “the eaters of the flesh of pig, vermin, and mouse, shall come to an end together, says the Lord” (Is. 66:17). 566

The first part of the midrash originates from Leviticus Rabbah 13.3-4. However, while in Leviticus Rabbah the idea that the food avoidance is as a test to the Jews is emphasized, later midrashim placed greater importance on the future punishment of Israel’s enemies in the messianic era for not respecting the food avoidances.

‫ כיצד? לעתיד לבא הקב"ה מוציא כרוז כל מי‬,‫ למה נמשלה לחזיר? שעתיד הקב"ה להחזיר עליה את מדת הדין‬.)‫ יד‬,‫( תהלים פ‬ ‫ כל מי שלא אכל‬:‫ אמר הקב"ה‬.‫ ואף הגוים אומרים תן לנו שכרינו שאף אנו עשינו מצוה פלונית‬,‫שעסק בתורה יבא ויטול שכרו‬ ‫ "אוכלי בשר החזיר והשקץ והעכבר יחדו יספו‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫ באותה שעה הם נוטלין איפופסין שלהן‬,‫שקצים ורמשים יבא ויטול שכרו‬ .‫ חסלת פרשת שמיני‬.)‫נאם ה'" ( ישעיה סו יז‬ Compare to: Midrash Haggadah (ed. Buber), Shemini. ‫ יד) ולמה נמשלה לחזיר? שעתיד‬,‫ " יכרסמנה חזיר מיער" ( תהלים פ‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫ שנמשלה לחזיר‬,‫ זו אדום הרשעה‬- "‫"ואת החזיר‬ ‫ ואף‬,‫ כל מי שעשה מצווה פלונית יבוא ויטול שכרה‬:‫ והאיך? לעתיד לבוא הקב"ה מוציא כרוז‬,‫הקב"ה להחזיר עליה מדת הדין‬ ,‫ איזה מצווה עשיתם? והם שותקים‬:‫ אמר הקב"ה‬,‫ שאף אנו עשינו מצוה פלונית‬,‫ תן לנו שכרינו‬:‫ ואומרים‬,‫הגויים באים ליום הדין‬ ‫ באותה שעה מתקבצין כל‬.‫ יבוא ויטול שכרו‬,‫ והעכבר ורמשים‬,‫ השקץ‬,‫ כל מי שלא אכל בשר החזיר‬:‫באותה שעה אמר הקב"ה‬ .)‫ יז‬,‫ "אוכלי בשר החזיר השקץ והעכבר יחדיו יספו נאם ה'" ( ישעיה סו‬:‫ שנאמר‬.‫ והקב"ה מענישם‬,‫הגוים‬ 566 YalShim, shemini 536. .‫אמרת ה' צרופה וכי מה א יכפת לו להקב"ה בין שוחט בהמה ואוכל בין נוחר ואוכל? הא לא נתנו המצות אלא לצרף בהן את הבריות‬ .‫ "כירק עשב נתתי לכם את כל" ומשעמדו ישראל על הר סיני הרבה להם תורה ומצות‬:‫בוא וראה מתחלת ברייתו של עולם כתיב‬ ‫ לעתיד לבא הקב"ה מוציא כרוז כל מי שעסק‬.‫ מצוה קלה צויתי אותו ועבר עליה כל המצות האלו ה יאך יכול לקיים‬:‫אמר הקב"ה‬ ‫ כל מי שלא אכל בשר חזיר‬:‫ אמר הקב"ה‬.‫ תן לנו שכרנו שאף אנו עשינו מצות‬:‫בתורה יבא ויטול שכרו ואף הכותים אומרים‬ ‫ "אוכלי בשר החזיר והשקץ וה עכבר יחדיו יסופו‬:‫ושקצים ורמשים יבא ויטול שכרו באותה שעה הן נוטלין איפופסין שלהן שנאמר‬ (.‫ יז‬,‫נאם ה'" ( ישעיה סו‬

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Conclusion The midrash “why is it called ḥazir?,” dated from as early as the fourth or fifth century, in the High and Late Middle Ages had diverse versions which have been explained in diverse ways.567 As we have seen, the midrashic playing with the Hebrew word for the pig, “ḥa ir” and the verb to return (leaḥzir) is also found in piyyut of Yannai in the sixth century, where it is described how God in the messianic era “will break down the pig (ḥa ir) and kingship [to Israel] will return (yaḥzir).”568 Similarly, it is wrriten in a piyyut by Yehuda (Eretz Israel/Palestine, 6th-7th century?): Until when shall the daily offering [tamid] be void from your multitudes, and in the hands of those who eat pork [beshar aḥa ir] shall your residence be given? Be zealous for our zeal to return [ eaḥziro] it [Israel] to your dwelling. Let my prayer be counted as incense before you (Ps 141:2). 569

We find this construction later in several Medieval liturgical poems, as for example in the line of Yehuda Halevi (1070-1140 CE): “And [God] will expel Shamah [one of Esau’s descendents] the eater of Pork (ḥa ir) and we will bless there “Blest the one that returns (maḥzir).”570 The links between the pig and return is also found in the later medieval Psikta Zutara’s explanation that the pig is so called because it “turns all its

567

Rabbeinu Behaye (d. 1340), Biur al ha-Torah,vol. II, Exodous, Leviticus, ed. R. Hayyim Dov Chavel (Jerusalem: Mosad ha-Rav Ḳuḳ, 1967), 458-459. For further sources, see: Karlinski H., “He-ḥa ir ve-‘ etero e-Atid Lavo,” Shanah be-Shanah (1972): 243-254. 568 Yannai, Keroba to Deutronomy 2:2. My translation. Zulay, Piyyute Yannai, 230. For the link between this piyyut and the midrash “why is it called ḥazir?” see Shraga Abramson, “Ma amar Ḥa a Pirusho.” ‫ ומלוכה יחזיר‬/]‫ויבקע חז[יר‬ 569 Yehuda, Quedusa for Vayishlach. Translation by Wout Jac van Bekkum, Hebrew Poetry from Late Antiquity: Liturgical Poems of Yehudah (Leiden; Boston; Köln: Brill, 1998), xv. ‫ תכון תפלתי‬/ ‫קנא קנאתינו להחזירו למעוניך‬/ ]‫ וב[ יד אוכלי] בשר החזיר ניתן ביד מלו[ניך‬/‫עד [מתי בטל] התמיד [מה]מוניך‬ .‫קט[רת] ל[פנ[יך‬ 570 Israel Levin and Angel Saenz-Badillos, Si me o ido de ti, erusa em… Cantos de as sinagogas de al-Andalus (Cordoba: Ediciones el Almendro, 1992), 68. The poem probably originates from after the first crusades since the pig eaters are in the Temple. .‫ונברך שמה ברוך מחזיר‬/‫ויגרש שמה אוכל החזיר‬

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body, and does not turn its neck.”571 Likewise, it is found in the Greco-Roman image of the pig returning to the mud after the bath. This saying, attributed to Heraclitus, 572 is found in 2 Peter 2:22: “’The dog returns to its vomit’ and ‘The pig, once washed, wallows in mud.’”573 Hence, a biological, behavioral conception of the pig as an animal that turns/returns converged with the Hebrew etymology of the pig’s name as containing the root ḥ.z.r, which is also that of the verb to return, and this made the pig particularly apt to be manipulated in the idea of messianic return. Judah Rozental collected several midrashim which transmit the idea of the abrogation of the commandments in the messianic era.574 While not all the examples he cites are convincing, it is clear that the idea of the abrogation of the commandments existed in early rabbinic literature and probably even earlier. This idea is central in Christianity, as the coming of Jesus is understood as abrogating the old Law. Therefore, the tension between the idea of the eternity of the Law and its messianic abrogation which is inherent to Judaism itself became one of the most important differences between Judaism and Christianity. In the fourth century, Julian the Apostate ironically asks whether the nature of the pig changed after Peter’s vision in Jaffa (Acts 10: 9-22), arguing that “if, after the vision of Peter, the pig has now taken to chewing the cud, then let us obey Peter; for it is in very truth a miracle if, after the vision of Peter, it has taken to that habit.” 575 It seems that similarly, the midrash “why is it called ḥa ir?” seems to reject the same idea that the pig will change its nature in the messianic era, at least in 571

Psikta Zutra, Leviticus Shemini 29b. .‫ שמחזר כל גופו ואינו מחזר צוארו‬.‫ואת החזיר‬ Courcelle, “Le thème littéraire, 281. Jungkurtz “Fathers, Heretics, and Epicureans.” 573 Brown, An Introduction, 767. 574 Judah Rosenthal, “Abrogation of the Commandments in Jewish Eschatology,” in Meyer Waxman Jubilee Volume on the Occasion of his Seventy-Fifth Birthday, ed. Judah Rosenthal, Leonard C. Mishkin, and David S. Shapiro (Chicago: College of Jewish Press; Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem: Mordecai Newman, 1966), 217-233 (Hebrew). 575 Julian, Against the Galilaeans 306B-314E (Apud Cyril of Alexandria, Against Julian). 572

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amidrash ha agado ’s version. While this version mentioned an interpretation of the name of the pig which seems to propose that it will became pure in the messianic era, this interpretation is mentioned solely with the aim of being rejected. As Jonathan Boyarin notes, Christianity made the pig, or more exactly eating pork, a passage, a poros from Judaism to Christianity, from the past to the future. 576 The midrash “why is it called “ḥa ir?” makes a similar move, but in the opposite direction: the pig is a poros, a passage from Rome (Christianity) to Israel, in the sense that in the messianic era Israel’s power will be restored. To this idea was added the punishment of the pork eaters in the messianic era, which later midrashim based on Isaiah 66:17: “Those who eat the flesh of the pig, the abhorrent creature, and the mouse shall be consumed together, says the Lord.”

576

Boyarin, “Le porc en dieu Pôros.”

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Chapter 10 The End of the Pig The tension between binary oppositions can be managed in different ways: It might be maintained, elaborated, or limited. However, it might come to its end by a synthesis of both oppositions or by the destruction of both or one of the opposites. Messianic thinking tends to imagine - after the messianic overcoming - a neutral, pacific world, a world free of tensions. If the pig incarnated for the sages the antithesis of Israel, did they believe that the tension between the two binary oppositions would come to end in the messianic era? And if so, did they imagine the end of the pig? As we have seen, the midrash “why it is called ‘ḥa ir’?” imagines that the pig in the messianic era will restore the kingdom to Israel, but the midrash does not speak of the end of the pig´s existence or its impurity. A more radical version of this midrash hints that at the end of time, the pig will become pure, and hence the tension which it embodied will end. However, while some Kabalists understood this midrash as proposing that in the messianic era the pig will become pure (as a Shabatian author of the seventh century also believed), this opinion is marginal.577 Another midrash states that the eaters of pork will be punished a t the end of time, but it does not imagine the end of the pig, its killing, or its extinction. In fact, only one midrash, in Esther Rabbah, mentions the killing of the pig.

Esther Rabbah Midrash Esther Rabbah twice mentions the pig: in chapters four and seven. In chapter four, Vashti (the former wife of King Ahasuerus) is compared to a sow: “What shall we do [unto the queen Vashti] according to law” (Esther 1:15).- R. Isaac said: [To think that] that sow is treated according to law, and a holy nation not according to 577

Mack, “The Source,” 59.

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law, but with barbarity!? “unto the queen Vashti” (Ibid) - And how much more with a queen who is not Vashti!” 578

The simile of the better treatment of the sow as a symbol of Israel’s enemy´s current superiority is found also in Genesis Rabbah 44.23. In this midrash, the paradoxical existence of the elected people under the subjection of the Roman Empire is addressed in a paragraph which interprets God’s blessing to Abraham in Genesis 15 in what is known as the Abrahamic covenant (Brit bein HaBetarim, the "Covenant Between the Parts”). The midrash must overcome the contradiction between the blessing that promises Abraham´s offspring that they will inherit the land of the ten nations of Canaan, 579 with the reality of the Roman occupation during its time of composition. The midrash resolves this problem with the idea that in the past God gave the Jews the seven nations of Canaan but not the remaining three nations that Israel will inherit in the future. 580 Later on, the midrash compares this injustice to that of the fecundity of the impure sow and the barenness of the pure sheep: 578

EstherR 4.5. Translation by Maurice Simon, Midrash Rabbah, Esther (London: Soncino Press, 1939), 60. ‫ במלכה ושתי על אחת כמה וכמה במלכה‬,‫ אמר רבי יצחק לחזירתה כדת ולאומה קדושה שלא כדת אלא באכזריות‬,‫כדת מה לעשות‬ .‫שאינה ושתי‬ 579 Genesis 15:19: “The Kenite, and the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite.” 580 “R. Dostai said in the name of R. Samuel b. Nahman: Because the Hitite is not mentioned here [V. Deut. 7:1] the Rephaim are substituted in their stead. R. Helbo said in R. Abba’a name in R. Johanan’s name: The Holy One, blessed be He, did at first contemplate giving Israel possession of ten peoples, but He gave them only seven, the other three being the Kenite, and the Kenissite, and the Kadmonite. Rabbi said: They are Arabia, the Shalamite and the Nabatean. R. Simeon b. Yohai said: They are the Damascus region, Asia Minor, and Apamea. R. Liezer b. Jacob said: Asia Minor, Thrace, and Carthage. The Rabbis said: Edom, Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon are the three nations that were not given to them [to Israel] in this world, as it is said, “For I will not give you of their land, [not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread upon]; because I have given Mount Seir to Esau for a possession” (Deut. 2:5). But in the days of the Messiah they shall once again belong to Israel, in order to fulfill God’s promise. Now, however, He has given them but seven, as it says, “Seven nations greater and mightier than thou” (Deut. 7:1).” GenR, Lech Lecha 44. 23. Translation by Freedman, Midrash Rabbah, Genesis, vol. I, 563-565. ‫ רבי חלבו בשם רבי אבא‬.‫ לפי שאינו מזכיר כאן החוי לפיכך הוא מביא רפאים תחתיהם‬:‫רבי דוסתאי בשם רבי שמואל בר נחמן אמר‬ ‫ ולא נתן‬,‫ ואת הקדמוני‬,‫ את הקיני ואת הקנזי‬,‫ כך עלה בדעתו של מקום להנחיל להם לישראל ארץ עשרה עממים‬:‫בשם רבי יוחנן‬ ‫ ולמה נתן להם‬.‫ הרי שבעה‬,‫ ואת היבוסי‬,‫ ואת הגרגשי‬,‫ ואת הכנעני‬,‫ ואת האמורי‬,‫ ואת הרפאים‬,‫ ואת הפרזי‬,‫ את החתי‬,'‫להם אלא ז‬ ,‫ דרמוסקוס‬:‫ רבי שמעון בן יוחאי אומר‬.‫ נוטייה‬,‫ ערביה שלמייה‬:‫ ואיזה הם הג' שלא ניתן להם? רבי אומר‬,)‫שבעה (פירושן לעיל‬ ‫ הם הג' שלא נתן להם‬,‫ וראשית בני עמון‬,‫ אדום ומואב‬:‫ רבנן אמרי‬.‫ אסיא ותרקי וקרטגינה‬,‫ ר"א בן יעקב אמר‬.‫ ואספמייא‬,‫ואסייא‬

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R. Isaac said: The sow grazes with ten of its young whereas the sheep does not graze even with one. Thus, all these, viz. “The Kenite, the kenizzite, etc.” (Gn. 15:19). [i.e. the Romans who were promised to Abraham’s seed], yet so far, “Sarai Abraham’s wife bore him no children” (Gn. 16:1)!” 581

The Sages learn from Genesis 16:1 that as Sarah finally became pregnant with Isaac, hence Israel´s redemption finally will come. If now “the sow [Rome] grazes with ten of its young [allusion to the ten nations] whereas the sheep [Israel] does not graze even with one,” in the future Israel will inherit Rome. 582 The problem of the unjust asymmetry between the pig/sow (Israel’s enemy) and the pure animal (Israel) is resolved in the “porcine” midrash in Esther Rabbah’s chapter seven:583 After those things, Ahasuerus, the king, promoted Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, etc” )Esther 3: 1(. As the writing said: “But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs” )Psalms 37: 20(. For they are not fattened for their own sake but for slaughtering; similarly, Haman was promoted just for his downfall. As in the parable of a man that had a filly, a she–ass and a sow, who gave to the sow without measure and to the she-ass and the filly only their due. The filly said to the she-ass: “what is this fool doing ? To us, that are working for the master of the house, he gives only our due and to the sow, who is idle, he give without measure?” She answered her: “the time will come and you will see her downfall, for she is not fed more for her glory but rather for her damnation”. And as Kalandes arrived, they took immediately the sow and slaughtered her. They started to give barley to the daughter of the she-ass and she blew on it and didn’t eat. Her mother told her: “my daughter, it is not the food that is the cause, but the idleness, as it was written: “and he set his seat above all the princes that were with him” (Esther 3:1), therefore, “so they hanged Haman” (Esther 7:10). 584

‫ "אל תצר את‬:‫ "כי לא אתן לך מארצו ירושה כי ירושה לעשו נתתי את הר שעיר (דברים ב) ובמואב כתיב‬:‫ אדום שנאמר‬,‫בעוה"ז‬ ‫ אבל לימות המשיח יחזרו ויהיו לישראל‬.‫ קיני וקדמוני הוא מעמון ומואב‬,‫מואב ואל תתגר בם מלחמה" (דברים ב) קנזי הוא מעשו‬ .)‫ “ש בעה גוים רבים ועצומים ממך" (דברים ז‬:‫ אבל עכשיו שבעה נתן להם שנאמר‬.‫כדי לקיים מאמרו של הקב"ה‬ 581 Ibid. ,'‫ כל אילין אמר הקב" ה לאברהם דיהב ליה את הקיני ואת הקנזי וגו‬.‫ חזירתא רעיא בעשרה ואימרתא ולא בחד‬:‫אמר רבי יצחק‬ . ‫ועדיין ושרי אשת אברהם לא ילדה לו‬ 582 In the late Midrash Shir-ha-Sirim Zuta (1.15) Israel is compared to a ewe that is sheared and grows wool each year, and is contrasted to the pig that is not sheared and does not grow anything. See: Midrash Zuta on Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations and Ecclesiastes, ed. S. Buber (Berlin, 1894) (Hebrew). 583 According to Arnon Atzmon, this midrash is from the earlier stratum of Esther Rabbah. Arnon Atzmon, Esther Rabbah II – Towards a Critical Edition, PhD Dissertation (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University, 2005), 58-64. (Hebrew) 584 EstherR 7.10.

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The story seems to be a version of Aesop’s fable 414: The Pig, the Donkey, and the Barley: 585 There was a man who had vowed that he would sacrifice a pig in honour of Hercules if the god agreed to rescue him from danger. When the man fulfilled his vow and sacrificed the pig, he then ordered that the pig’s leftover barley be given to the donkey. The donkey, however, refused to touch it. ‘This is the kind of food that would normally arouse appetite,’ said the donkey, ‘but not when it is the result of the previous diner having had his throat cut!’ [Moral] This fable taught me caution und I have avoided risky ventures ever since – but you say ‘those who grab wealth get to keep it’. Just remember how many of them are eventually caught and killed! Clearly, the ones who have been punished constitute the larger crowd. A few people may profit from reckless behavior, but more are ruined by it. 586

Esther Rabbah’s version has the moral that, “it is not the food that is the cause, but the idleness,” but the general message does not change much from the Aesopian origin. The use of the Aesopian fable in Esther Rabbah could be clarified by an episode from the Byzantine Life of Saint Symeon (wr. 764/5-844/5), where the saint prophesies the death of Emperor Leo V on Christmas day of the year 820: For once when God-loving men were sitting with the holy man at the column and conversing, they spoke [as follows] about this impious man [emperor Leo V]: “Have you seen, father, what a lawless emperor God has made to live long because of our sins? He subjects the orthodox to continuous banishments (…). So what do you say, holy one, what? Encourage us your children.” And opening his mouth our divine father Symeon said nothing scriptural but a country saying known by all: “Endure patiently, brothers, for squeals of swine [come] around the Kalends.” Which in fact happened; for during Christmastide in the church of Stephen the first martyr, the one within the palace, in the

‫ "כי רשעים יאבדו ואויבי ה' כיקר‬:‫ זה שאמר הכתוב‬, ]‫ א‬,‫אחר הדברים האלה גדל המלך אחשורוש את המן בן המדתא וגו' [אסתר ג‬ ‫ משל לאדם שהיתה לו‬,‫ כך המן הרשע לא נתגדל אלא למפלתו‬,‫ שאין מפטמין אותן לטובתן אלא לטבחה‬.(‫ כ‬,‫כרים" ( תהלים ל"ז‬ ‫ מה שוטה זה עושה? אנו שאנו‬:‫ אמרה סייחה לחמורה‬.‫סייחה וחמורה וחזירה והיה נותן לחזירה בלא מדה לחמורה ולסייחה במדה‬ ‫ שאין‬,‫ תבא השעה ואת רואה במפלתה‬:‫עושין מלאכתו של בעל הבית נותן לנו במדה ולחזירה שהיא בטלה שלא במדה? אמרה לה‬ ‫ התחילו נותנין שעורים לפני בתה של חמורה‬.‫ כיון שבא קלנדס מיד נטלו לחזירה ונחרוה‬.‫מאכילין אותה יותר לכבודה אלא לרעתה‬ ‫ " וישם את כסאו מעל כל‬:‫ כך לפי שכתוב‬,‫ בתי לא המאכל גורם אלא הבטלה גורמת‬:‫ אמרה לה אמה‬,‫והיתה מנשבת בהן ולא אכלה‬ .]‫ י‬,‫השרים אשר אתו" לפיכ ֿך "ויתלו את המן" [אסתר ז‬ 585 For a different suggestion as to which of Aesop’s fable the midrash transforms, see: Yassif, The Hebrew Folktale, 199-200. 586 Aesop, Fable 599: ”The farmer and the Pig.” Translation by Laura Gibbs, Aesop’s ab es (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 194. The same is found in Latin in Phaedrus 5.4 (‘The Ass and the Pig’s Barley’).

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place named Daphne, during the night he [Emperor Leo V] was cut to pieces limb from limb and departed to gloomy darkness. 587

Being an iconoclast, Emperor Leo V is portrayed as the enemy of the Church, and therefore as a boar.588 In Kalends (kalendae), the first day of the Roman month, it was the custom to sacrifice to Juno a porca (sow) and agna (sheep) near the regina sacrorum in Regia. 589 However, it seems that the Kalends which is mentioned in the Life of Saint Symeon and in Esther Rabbah is that of January, the New Years Eve of the Julian year. 590 “Squeals of swine come around the Kalends,” seems to be proverbial expression equivalent to the French-Spanish proverb: “À chaque porc vient la Saint-Martin”/“A todo cerdo le llega su San Martín” – “To each pig comes [it’s] Saint Martin´s Day.” Since pigs are traditionally slaughtered on this day, November eleventh, 591 the proverb´s message is that each criminal will one day pay for its crimes. Both in the midrash and in the Byzantine life of the saint, the killing of the pig on the Kalends symbolizes the execution of the tyrant, an idea that we find in a version of another Aesopian parable concerning the criminal pig, which Aelian relates in the third century CE:

587

Life of Sts. David, Symeon and George of Lesbos 16. Italic mine. Translation by Dorothy Abrahamse and Douglas Domingo-Forasté, “Life of Sts. David, Symeon and George of Lesbos” in AliceMary Maffry Talbot, Byzantine Defenders of Images: Eight Saints' Lives in English Translation (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1998), 182-183. 588 Interestingly enough, in what might parallel the Jewish tradition of the pig entering the Temple, the rise of Leo V is symbolized as a pig that enters the Church. Life of Sts. David, Symeon and George of Lesbos 14. Talbot, Byzantine Defenders of Images, 177. 589 Jaan Puhvel, “Victimal Hierarchies in Indo-European Animal Sacrifice,” The American Journal of Philology 99.3 (1978): 359. 590 Hadas-Lebel, Jérusalem contre Rome, 310-312. Ibid. “Le paganisme à travers les sources rabbiniques des IIe et IIIe siècles. Contribution à l’étude du syncrétisme dans l’empire romain.” ANRW II, 19, no. 2 (1979): 427-429. For the Kalends in Rabbinic sources, see: Moshe Benovitz, “Herod and Hanukkah,” Zion 68, no. 1 (2003): 39-40 (Hebrew). Emmanuel Friedheim, Rabbinisme et Paganise en Palestine romaine: étude historique des Realia talmudiques (Ier-IVème siècles) (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2006), 332-335. 591 On the day following Saint Martin Day the forty days of Advent begin, during which it is forbidden to eat meat. See: Sillar and Meyler, The Symbolic Pig, 156. Fabre-Vassas, The Singular Beast, 77. Compare to the Arabic proverb, “Every dog will have its day.”

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This is the story from Phrygia; it is from Aesop the Phrygian. It says that if one touches a pig, it squeals, and quite reasonably: it produced no fur or milk, nothing but meat, and it has visions of death because it knows in what way its nature is a source of profit for others. Tyrants are like Aesop’s pig: they suspect and fear everything, because they know that they too, just like the pig, are at mercy of everyone. 592

If, as Joseph Tabory remarks, the tale in Esther Rabbah is not “Jewish,” as expressed by the fattened sow which is sacrificed for the Kalends, 593 it nevertheless serves to relay a “kosher” message. When told in a Jewish context, the non-kosher elements take on a particular Jewish meaning. The question is, who “Judaizied” the story? The phrase cited by Esther Rabbah: “But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fattened lambs” (Ps 37:20) speaks of the killing of fat lambs, a pure animal. However, the story that follows, speaks of a sow, an impure animal. Haman, symbolized by the sow, is, according to the sages, the descendant of Esau, who is identified with the pig. The midrash proposes that the execution of Haman (Esther 7:10) resembles the killing of the pig. 594 Now we can see how the porcine midrash in chapter seven answers the injustice expressed in the porcine midrash in chapter four: “[To think that] that sow is treated according to law, and a holy nation not according to law, but with

592

Elian, Historical Miscellany 10.5. The original Aesopian parable, entitled The Sheep, the Goat, and the Sow: A story about a sow, teaching us to give each man his due: “A man had rounded up a sow, a goat, and a sheep from his farm. While the donkey carried them all to the city, the goat and the sheep settled down quietly, but the sow’s screams bothered their chauffeur, so the donkey said to the sow, ‘Why on the earth can’t you go along quietly like the others?’ The sow replied, ‘The goat is being brought here for her milk, the sheep for his wool, but for me this is a matter of life and death! The moral of the parable is that “each man has his own reason for acting as he does.” Translation by Laura Gibbs, Aesop, “Fable 397: The Sheep, the Goat, and the Sow,” in Aesop’s ab es (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 185. 593 Tabory, “The Proems, 12. 594 For Purim’s vengeance fantasies, see: Hagit Sivan, Palestine in Late Antiquity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). In Sephardic communities it was the custom during Purim to write a “Marriage Contract” (ketubah) for Haman and his wife Zeresh. In one example from Salonika (in Ya'akov Tzidkuni’s collection) Haman is portrayed as the “cursed, stupid, notorious wild boar, enemy of the Jews,” see: YomTov Lewinsky, “ eit ad Ḥiku Et Haman biTefutzot Yisrael (How Haman was beaten in the Jewish Diasporas),” Yalkut Folkloristi lePurim (Tel-Aviv: HaḤevra Ha’Ivrit lyeda Am, 1947), 14 (Hebrew).

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barbarity!?” 595 The reply: injustice is temporary, for in the end the sow will be slaughtered!596

Discussion While the pig is the emblematic animal of the evil empire, it is quite surprising that we find just one midrash concerning its killing. However, as we have seen, the later Midrash on Psalms imagines the future extermination of the pig (Rome=Esau):

595

EstherR 4.5. Translation by Maurice Simon, Midrash Rabbah, Esther (London: Soncino Press, 1939), 60. ‫ במלכה ושתי על אחת כמה וכמה במלכה‬,‫ אמר רבי יצחק לחזירתה כדת ולאומה קדושה שלא כדת אלא באכזריות‬,‫כדת מה לעשות‬ .‫שאינה ושתי‬ 596 For the image of Vashti in Rabbinic literature, see: Yael Shemesh, “Gilgu eha she ashti Mi ra, midrash Ḥa a , ha-parshanut ha-femiistit,” Beth Mikkra 47 (2002): 356-372 (Hebrew). To the midrashim mentioned above, we may associate a story in Hekhalot Rabbati (c. 650-900 CE) in which the killing of the Roman emperor is associated with pigs. According to the legend, Emperor Lupinus, who condemned R. Ḥanina ben Teradyon to death, is miraculously transferred by an angel from his palace to a pig sty [where the Rabbi was jailed]. In the morning, the emperor’s soldiers came and killed the emperor, who seemed to them to be the condemned rabbi: “R. Ishmael said: Suriya, the prince of the countenance, told me: “Beloved, Let me tell you what HDR THWR HDR ‘WHYHM, the Lord, the God of Israel, did at that hour. He ordered me to descend, and I harassed and pushed Emperor Lupinus out of his palace, where he slept at night, and I led him to the pen of the pigs and dogs. I brought R. Hananyah ben Teradyon in and led him to the palace of Emperor Lupinus. The next morning, the guards who were angry with R. Nehunya ben haQanah came to say: ‘(He is) sitting performing wonders in the house of study, sitting teaching the noble ones of Israel Torah.’ ‘Chop off his head!’ Emperor Lupinus appeared to them as R. Hananyah ben Teradyon [as R. Nehunyah ben ha-Qanah] and they cut off his head, while R. Nehunya ben ha-Qanah was in his house. Meanwhile, R. Hananyah ben Teradyon went and bound the crown of his kingdom and reigned over wicked Rome in the guise of Emperor Lupinus for six months, during which he killed six thousand generals, a thousand generals each month. They displayed him in the form of R. Hananyah ben Teradyon before the people of wicked Rome, and they seized him and threw him into the fire. Who was it whom they had thrown into the fire in place of R. Hananyah ben Teradyon? (It was) Lupinus, since – after they had killed him – they revived him again in the upper court of justice. They seized him, threw him into the fire, and he suffocated in the flames.” Hekhalot Rabbati 8.3.120-121. Translation of MS O5135 by Raʻanan S. Boustan, From Martyr to Mystic: Rabbinic Martyrology and the Making of Merkavah Mysticism (T bingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005), 233-236. ‫אמר ר' ישמעאל סח לי סווריא שר הפנים ידיד אומר אני לך מה עשה הדר טהור הדר אוהיהם [אוריהם] יוי אלהי ישר' באותה שעה‬ ‫ציוני וירדתי וטרדתי ודחפתי את לופינוס קיסר מהיכלו שהיה ישן בו בלילה והולכתי אותו בבית להקת חזירים וכלבים והכנסתי את‬ ‫ר' חנניא בן תרדיון וחילמתי והולכתי אותו בבית לופינוס קיסר למחר באו ההורגים שכועסין על ר' חנניה בן תרדיון לומד נפלאות‬ '‫יושב ועשה בבית המדרש ויושב ומלמד לאבירי ישר' תורה התיזו את ראשו נדמה להם לופיינוס קיסר כר' חנניה בן תרדון [כר‬ ‫נחוניה בן הקנה 'ס'א] וחתכו את ראשו ור' נחוניא בן הקנה בתוך ביתו ור' חנניה בן תרדיון קשר כתר מלכותו והלך ומלך על רומי‬ '‫ והעמידו בצורת ר‬.‫הרשעה בצורת פניו של לופיינוס קיסר ששה חודשים וה רג בה ששת אלפים הגמונים אלף הגמונים לכל חודש‬ ‫חנניה בן תרדיון לבני רומי הרשעה ותפשוהו והטילוהו באש ומיהו שהיטלו באש תחת ר' חנניה בן תרדיון לופיינוס שמאחר‬ ‫שהמיתוהי חזרו והחיו אותו בבית דין של מעלה ותפשוהו והטילוהו באש והיה בשינוק בית השרפה ובמדה הזו כל עשרת חכמי‬ .‫ישראל‬

227

“My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace” (Ps. 120:6). Is there any man who hates peace? Esau hates peace. Scriptures says, “I will give you peace in the land” (Lev. 26: 6). When will there be peace? The verse goes on to answer, “After I will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land” (ibid.). Evil beasts can refer only to the boar, for it is said “The wild boar out of the wood doth root it up, and the wild beasts of the field devour it” (Ps. 80:14), and the boar is none other than wicked Esau. 597

While the famous prophetic image in Isaiah 11:6 of the messianic era as a time when animals will change their nature - when “the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid” - the Midrash on Psalms imagines the messianic extermination of the evil beast, the boar. However, this midrash is isolated in its extreme vision of the end of the boar and does not change the overall picture of the rarity of the image of the killing of the pig in rabbinic literature. This rarity might be conected to the many versions of the Islamic Hadith according to which, in the end of the days, ‘Isā (Jesus) will descend upon earth and will kill the pigs, as in, for example, the ninth century version of Muslim’s Sahih: I swear by God that Jesus will descend from heaven and that he will be an equitable judge, he will destroy the cross, he will kill the pigs, he will abolish the tax to the nonMuslims, he will leave the young she-camels and no one will be interested in them; spite, mutual haters and jealousy will disappear, and when he calls the people to accept wealth, no one will do so. 598

Some later versions speak of how ‘Isā (Jesus) “will kill the swine, break the cross, destroy chapels and churches and kill the Christians except those who believe in him,” 599 or how ‘Isā (Jesus) “shall break the cross and slay the pigs and the Jews, so that the Jew will hide near a rock. And the rock shall say to the believer: ‘O believer, come, for there

597

MidrPss 120. Translation by Braude, The Midrash on Psalms, vol. 2, 293. ‫ "ונתתי שלום‬:‫ וכה"א‬.‫ וכי יש אדם שונא שלום? עשו שונא השלום‬.)‫ ו‬,‫"רבת שכנה לה נפשי וגו'" [עם שונא שלום] ( תהלים קכ‬ ‫ אימתי יהיה כן? "והשבתי חיה‬.)‫ ו‬,‫]" (ויקרא כו‬:‫בארץ [ ושכבתם ואין מחריד והשבתי חיה רעה מן הארץ וחרב לא תעבר בארצכם‬ .‫ זה עשו הרשע‬- )‫ יד‬,‫ " יכרסמנה חזיר מיער" ( תהלים פ‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫ ואין חיה רעה אלא חזיר‬,)‫ ו‬,‫ ויקרא כו‬,‫רעה מן הארץ" (שם‬ 598 Muslim, Sahih, 1.136.155 cited in: Roberto Tottoli, Biblical Prophets in the ur ān and Mus im Literature (Richmond: Curzon, 2002), 157. 599 Al-Baydāwī, Tafsir (13th Century), on Sūra XLIII, v. 61, cited by: Hava Lazarus-Yafeh, “Is there a Concept of Redemption in Islam?” Some Religious Aspects of Islam: A Collection of Articles (Leiden: Brill, 1981), 52-53.

228

is a Jew near me: kill him’” 600 Hence, the killing of the pigs in some versions is analogous to the killing of the Muslims’ others. Although the hadith represents a common tradition while the Midrash on Psalms is a unique text, both imagine the messianic era as a violent end of tensions which the pig represents, as an era of the end of the pig, the end of the other. It is not surprising that in Christianity, we find a very different messianic construction. If the end of time is not imagined as a period where all humanity will eat pork, the idea that in the end of time all humanity will be Christian implies that the historical process of Christianization of the world will lead to an increase i n pork eating until it is consumed by all humanity. 601 However, part of the messianic move of Christianity, by the abrogation of the prohibition of pork, makes it a locus of abrogation of the old testament´s binary tension between pure and impure, between Israel and the nations. The sages, to the contrary, insist upon maintaining the tensions that the pig incarnates. In fact, they strengthen the meaning of the avoidance of pork as a locus of separation between Israel and the nations. Therefore, even in their discourse on the messianic era, the sages usually take care not to go too far, insisting that the nature of the pig, or the law concerning it, will not change. Hence, the important simile for the sages is not the killing of the pig, but rather avoiding association with it, first by avoiding the real animal, especially consuming its meat, and secondly by disassociation from what it

600

Ta’yīd al-milla, foll. 44r (Spain, Huesca, 1360). Cited by: David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence. Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), 197. 601 In Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice (3.5.1) Lancelot complains about Jessica’s conversion: “This making of Christians will raise the price of hogs – If we grow all to be pork eaters, we shall not shortly have a rasher on the coals for money.”

229

stands for (Rome, the Empire, Christianity). For the sages, to not kill the pig and not consume it in some sense means to be devoid, to be controlled, to be powerless. The pig is not the object of violence for the Jews; it is not the subordinate but rather the dominant, the ruler, the Empire. For the sages, avoidance became an important principal in their relation with the non-Jewish world and the Empire in particular, and they asked their fellow Jews to avoid as much contact with non-Jews (sex, marriage, eating, etc.) as possible. Avoidance became an active force of resistance to respond to a passive political existence. In other words, avoidance became one of the Sage’s solution to their being devoid of political power. Pork became one of the foci of this “politics of avoidance.” The pig is the Roman Empire which devours Israel, who is devoid of power in this world; however, by avoiding pork Israel will reverse this situation in the world to come. In the messianic era Rome, being devoid of political power, will be devoured, while the kingdom will be restored to Israel.

230

Discussion and Conclusion When was Rome identified with the pig in rabbinic literature? After addressing this question, we will discuss the meaning of this identification of Rome with the pig in the light of the broad context of the rabbinic discourse concerning pigs and the avoidance of pork. Following this, we will examine the link between the sages’ identification of Rome with the pig and the use of porcine symbolism by the Romans themselves. Then we turn to the question of time in the model of the four kingdoms and in the typological pair, Jacob and Esau, before concluding.

When was the equation “Rome = Edom = Esau = The Fourth Kingdom=Pig” Established? If the topos of the replacement of the tamid by the pig is as early as the Maccabees (2nd cent. BCE), we can presume that its transfer to the destruction of the Temple by the Romans was somehow natural, and could have occurred in an early period. If we consider a possible impact of the boar emblem of the legion X Fretensis, a remote memory of a sacrifice of a pig that might have been carried out in the Temple Mount, and the presence of boar images on the coins of Aelia Capitolina, we can presume that the linkage of the pig to the legend of destruction, known already to Origen (d. c. 254 CE), was made in the Tannaitic period. However, the question remains as to when the equation “Esau = Edom = Rome = the fourth beast = pig” was established.602

602

Aminoff, The Figure, 223-233. In Jewish fundamentalist circles the identification of Christiantiy with the pig remains commonplace up to this day. See for example: Yoel ben Aharon Schwartz, Yemot Olam: Mabat al-Tekufatenu veMasmauta (Jerusalem: Dvar Yerusalym, 1980), 15. Cited in: Abraham Amsallem, Bein Israel LeAmim (Between Israel and the Nations) (Jerusalem: Publisher unknown, 2000/2001), 23-25 (Hebrew).

231

While the identification of Esau with Edom is biblical, 603 the identification of Esau and Edom with Rome seems to originate from as early as the thirties of the second century, if we accept as authentic the attribution of this identification to the sages of the generation after the Bar Kokva revolt. 604 As for the identification of Rome with the fourth kingdom of the book of Daniel, this likely occurred in the first century CE. 605 The connection of Esau with the boar is found in 1 Enoch and the Book of Jubilees (2 nd cent. BCE), 606 which led several scholars to propose that “the wild boar may have been a common Jewish term of abuse for the Edomites during the Antiochan crisis.”607 However, it is not clear if this early connection to Esau with the boar contributed to the identification of Edom/Esau with the pig in rabbinic literature. Mireille Hadas-Lebel believes that the identification of Rome with the pig originated with the allegorical interpretation of Psalms 80:14: “The boar out of the wood,” as a prophecy of the

603

Feldman, Josephus's Interpretation of the Bible, 322. Adiel Schremer, “Midrash and History: God’s Power, the Roman Empire, and Hopes for Redemption in Tannaitic Literature,” Zion 72 (2007): 29 (Hebrew). Cohen, “Esau as Symbol.” S. Zeitlin believes that Rome was identified with Edom only since the fourth century, see: S. Zeitlin., “The Origin of the Term Edom for Rome and the Roman Church,” JQR 60 (1970): 262-263. An earlier date was proposed by Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, vol. V, 272, note 19: “The use of the names Edom, Seir, Esau, and similar ones, to describe Rome is very old, and was probably coined at the time of Herod, whose designation "the Idumean" was applied to his masters, the Romans. When Rome adopted Christianity, the same appellations were transferred to the Christians and Christianity. (…) In the Amoraic portions of the talmudic and midrashic literature, the use of Edom for Rome is met with quite frequently.” Jacob Neusner argues that ‘Esau’ and ‘Edom’ begin to function as nicknames for Rome only in the later Rabbinic works, and not in the early, Tannaitic, sources. For criticism of this opinion, see: Adiel Schremer, “Eschatology, Violence, and Suicide: An Early Rabbinic Theme and Its Influence in the Middle Ages,” in Apocalypse and Violence, ed. A. Amanat and J. J. Collins (New Haven: Yale Center For International and Area Studies, 2002), 20, note 7. 605 Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 10.206-210; The Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch 39; The Apocalypse of Edras, 12.11,13. See: Hadas-Lebel. “Rome,” 98-99. 606 Bryan, Cosmos, 117, note 70. According to the book of Jubilee, Esau, attacking Jacob, says: “If the boar can change his skin and make bristles soft as wool, or if he can make horns to sprout out of his head like the horns of a stage or a sheep then will I observe the tie of brotherhood with you.” Jubilee 37.20. The text continues: “When Jacob saw that he was adversely inclined toward him from his mind and his entire self so that he could kill him and (that) he had come bounding along like a boar that comes upon the spear which pierces it and kills it but does not pull back from it, then he told his own (people) and his servants to attack him and all his companions.” Jubilees 37. 24-25. Traslation by James C. VanderKam, The Book of Jubilees (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001), 249. 607 Bryan, Cosmos, 117-18 [following: A. Dillmann, Das Buch Henoch (Leipzig: Vogel, 1853), 259.] 604

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destruction of the Temple by Rome. 608 Frenkel appears to be correct when he argues tha t this assumption is not probable for it is not mentioned anywhere in the midrashic literature.609 In his opinion, the midrashic equation came into existence in two phases: 1) in the second century CE the identifications of Rome with the four beasts of the Book of Daniel and Rome with Esau and Edom were shaped simultaneously, and 2) One hundred years later the four impure animals mentioned in Leviticus chapter eleven were linked to the four beasts (kingdoms) of Daniel (Leviticus Rabbah 13.5). 610 Both Frenkel and Hadas-Lebel tend to date the identification of Rome with the pig, according to the date of the speakers to which the different midrashim are attributed. But how can we know that the saying indeed reflects the ideas of these sages and not those of later generations ascribed to them? The Talmud and Midrash are difficult if not impossible to date exactly, given that for many generations they followed the oral tradition and were only compiled and edited much later. 611 In any case, it seems that from the fourth century on, for the sages, the equation “Esau = Edom = Rome = the fourth kingdom = pig,” was, as Frenkel

608

Hadas-Lebel, Jerusalem Against Rome, 507. Hadas-Lebel, “Rome,” 305. Fraenkel, Darchei Aggadah VeHamidrash, vol. II, 618, note 128. 610 According to Frenkel, Leveticus Rabbah is the most ancient misrashic source of the identification “Pig = Edom = Rome.” Fraenkel, Darchei Aggadah VeHamidrash, vol. I, 219. 611 Daniel Boyrin notes, “By speaking of talmudic culture, I am emphatically not suggesting that there was one homogeneous form of this culture for the nearly six hundred years and two major geographical centers which attest to it. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, there were consistent differences between the earlier and later forms of the culture and between its western version in Palestine under Hellenistic cultural domination and its eastern version in Babylonia, where Persian culture reigned supreme. (…) But the texts, particularly the later ones, such as the Talmuds, are encyclopedic anthologies of quotations, comprising all of the places and times of rabbinic culture production. We can assume with confidence neither that a given passage quoted from a particular authority represent an expression of that authority’s time and place, nor that it doesn’t and that it only belongs to the culture in which the text was put together […]. Indeed, even, the redaction of the midrashic and talmudic texts cannot be assigned with any certainty to a particular time, place, or set of persons. Even within the individual texts, there is evidence that different sections received their final forms in very different historical moments. (…) By default, then, I am generally constrained to write of rabbinic culture as a whole, even knowing that such discussion represents only a gap in our knowledge.” Daniel Boyarin, Carnal Israel: Reading Sex in Talmudic Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 24-25. 609

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notes, “commonplace.” 612 This observation is supported by Jerome’s (d. 408) comment that the Jews identified Rome both with the fourth beast of the book of Daniel and the boar of Psalm 80:14. 613 The broadness of this equation in Judaism after the fourth centur y is observed in Yannai’s piyyutim, liturgical poems from the Land of Israel (6 th cent.). For example, in a Kedushah to Yom Kippur, Yannai uses the idea which is found as early as Leviticus Rabbah 13.5, that the pig (Rome - the fourth kingdom) blasphemes: The reign of the pig gnaws at us, it eats our power, and crushs our labour, (cf. Daniel 7:7); It tramples upon us and treads down our land, with no end, [saying]” "I am, and there is no one besides me” (Is. 47:8), to the nation you have said: “I am God, and there is no other” (Is. 45:22). 614

In a Keroba to Genesis 32:4, Yannai uses another idea which is origi nally found in Leviticus Rabbah 13.5, that the fourth kingdom, the pig, is more dreadful than the three kingdoms which preceded it: 615 612

Fraenkel, Darchei Aggadah VeHamidrash, vol. I, 219. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel 7:7. PL 25. Translation by Gleason L. Jr. Archer, Jerome's Commentary on Daniel, (Michigan, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House, 1958), 71-82. See: George H. Van Kooten, “The Desecration of the ‘The Most Holy Temple of all the World’ in the ‘Holy Land’: Early Jewish and Early Christian Recollections of Antiochus ‘Abomination of Desolation,” in The Land of Israel in Bible, History and Theology: Studies in Honour of Ed Noort, ed. Jacques van Ruiten and J. Cornelis de Vos, 291-316 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2009). 614 Yannai (Keroba to Yom Kippur). My translation (partly following W. Jac. van Bekkum, “The Classical Period of the Piyyut: the Paytan Yannay (Sixth Century A.D.),” in Jaarbericht van het vooraziatisch-egyptisch genootschap Ex Oriente Lux 27 (1981): 138. Menachem Zulay, Piyyute Yannai (Liturgical Poems of Yannai) (Berlin: Schocken, 1938), 336. ,‫] ה אני ואפסי עוד ( ישעיה מז‬...[ ‫ רופסת עלינו ורומסת גבולינו איך קץ‬/ ‫ומשולת חזיר מכרסמת בנו אוכל ת כוחינו ומדקת עמלינו‬ (‫ כב‬,‫ לעם אשר אמרתה אני הוא " אל ואין עוד" ) ישעיה מה‬/ )‫ח‬ 615 We find the theme in an anonymous lament: “Alas, the gnawing (animal) had seized the Temple (hadom)/ Pouncing upon me with iron clad teeth that tore me to the bone (kedom)/ And I was plunged into the turbulence of Sodom/ Oppressed for 550 years under the kingdom of Edom (= Rome).” Translation by Hagit Sivan, “From Byzantine to Persian Jerusalem: Jewish Perspectives and Jewish-Christian Polemics,” Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 41 (2000): 284. Y. Davidson, Otzar ha-shirah v'-ha-piyut (Treasury of Song and Liturgical Poetry), vol I (New York: 1924–1933 (repr., New York: Ktav, 1970)), 1712. .‫ עישנו תק ונ שנה במלכות אדום‬/ ‫שמני כמהפכת סדום‬/ ‫ניבוהי די פרזל אותי לקדום‬/ ‫אוי כי מכרסם תפש הדום‬ The printed manuscripts of prayer books (mahzorim) read: “Alas, the gnawing (animal) had seized the Temple (hadom)/ it stabbed me like a pig which tears to the bone (kedom)/ Dirty and loathsome as the turbulence of Sodom/ It Oppressed ” me some years, made me its footstool (hedom).” My translation. .‫ שמני לרגליו הדום‬,‫עשקני כמה שנים‬/ ‫סחי ומאוס כמהפכת סדום‬/ ‫נעץ כחזיר אותי לקדום‬/ ‫אוי כי מכרסם תפש הדום‬ Or in the anonymous lament: .]‫ סוגר מקץ חמש מאות (ושמונים) [וחמשים‬/ ‫ ניבוהי די פרזל – זה מזה קשים‬/ ‫מכרם לחזיר חרשים‬ J. Yahalom, “The Transition of Kingdoms in Eretz Israel (Palestine) as Conceived by Poets and Homelists,” Shalem 6 (1992): 8 (Hebrew). 613

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Edom which [terrified me?] and cause me dread; your animal name was not given; his body is comparable to a brave boar; more terrifying than its companions [the other three empires], [that the prophet Daniel] saw in his imagination. 616

In another piyyut (Keroba 23 to Genesis 25:19), Yannai enumerates a long list of differences between Jacob (Israel) and Esau (Rome), contrasting “The history of lamb and pig/ lamb to sacrifice (korban ‫ )קרבן‬and pig to destruction (ḥurban ‫)חרבן‬.”617 The destruction associated with the pig could refer to the past destruction of Israel/the Temple by the pig (Rome), but also to the future destruction of Rome in the messianic era. 618 In his Keroba to Deuteronomy 2:2, Yannai ask his fellow Jews not to revolt against the Empire, but rather to pray for its punishment in the messianic era: I adjure you the sons of rightness (cf. Song of Sol. 1:7), do not awaken; in your love, his animosity does not wake up. And early in the morning, solicit without lighting fire /until it will be desired (cf. Ibid. 2:7), the time of the nightingale (cf. Ibid. 1:51)/ the time to reap the corn will come, when the harvest matures, and the vintage rots, the chaff dries, and the pig will be broken, and He will return the kingship to its holy possessor. 619

616

Yannai, Keroba to Genesis 32:4. My translation. The Liturgical Poems of Rabbi Yannai according to the Triennial Cycle of the Pentateuch and the Holidays. Vol. I. ed. Zvi Meir Rabinovitz (Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1985), 199 (Poem 30, lines 88-89) (Hebrew). . ‫ גושמה מתיל בחזיר גיבר; דחילה בחברתה חזות דמיונה‬/ ‫ א אימתני; כחיוותא לא התפרשת בשם‬...‫אדום אשר‬ 617 Yannai, Poem 23, lines 24—35. My translation. ‫ כבש לקרבן וחזיר‬- ‫ תולדות כבש וחזיר‬/‫ יחיד לחד ויהיר ליחת‬- ‫ תולדות יחיד ויהיר‬/‫ טלא לטילול וזאב לטלטול‬- ‫תולדות טלא וזאב‬ .‫ למוד לחניך ולץ לגרש‬- ‫ תולדות למוד ולץ‬/ ‫לחרבן‬ The Liturgical Poems of Rabbi Yannai, 162-163. 618 This is an idea also found in Yochanan HaCohen´s (Levant, 7 th century) apocalyptic siluq (final section of the Piyyut before qedusha) to Lamentations: ”.‫ בכן יסגירנה בסיגור כל סער‬/‫ כי גפן כרסמה מיער‬/‫ להוללנה בסופה ובסער‬/‫“העת לגעור חיית יער‬ Cited in: Yahalom, “The Transition,” 6. 619

Yannai, Keroba to Deutronomy 2:2. My translation. Zulay, Piyyute Yannai, 230. ‫ ועונת עמיר‬/‫ עד שתחפוץ עת הזמיר‬/‫ ואשכם בקשו בלי להבעיר‬/‫ אה[בת]כם באיבתו בלי להעיר‬/‫השבעתי אתכם בני צדק מיעיר‬ .‫לבעליה קדוש‬/ ‫ ומלוכה יחזיר‬/]‫ ויבקע חז[יר‬/‫ ויבש חציר‬/‫ ויבאש בציר‬/‫ויבשל קציר‬/ Yannai is playing here with the Songs of Songs 2:7, 12. ‫ח קֹול דֹודִ י ִהנֵה זֶה בָא‬. ‫ְּעֹוררּו אֶת הַָא ֲהבָה עַד שֶתֶ ְּחפָץ‬ ְּ ‫ז הִשְּ ַבעְּתִי אֶ תְּ כֶם ְּבנֹות י ְּרּושָ ַ ִלם ִבצְּ ָבאֹות אֹו בְַּאי ְּלֹות הַשָ דֶ ה אִם תָ עִירּו וְּאִ ם ת‬ ‫ט דֹומֶ ה דֹודִ י ִלצְּבִי אֹו לְּעֹפֶר הָאַ יָלִים ִהנ ֵה זֶה עֹומֵ ד ַאחַר כָתְּ לֵנּו מַשְּ ּג ִי ַח מִ ן ַהחֲֹּלנֹות מֵ צִיץ מִן‬. ‫מְּ דַ לֵג עַל ֶהה ִָרים מְּ קַ פֵץ עַל ַהּג ְּ ָבעֹות‬ ‫יב ַהנִ ָצנִים נ ְִּראּו‬. ‫יא כִי ִהנֵה הסתו [ ַה ְּסתָיו] ָעבָר ַהּגֶשֶ ם ָחלַף ָהלְַך לֹו‬. ‫י ָענָה דֹודִ י וְָּאמַ ר לִי קּומִ י לְָך ַר ְּעיָתִי י ָ ָפתִי ּו ְּלכִי לְָך‬. ‫ַהח ֲַרכִים‬ .‫ָָארץ עֵת ַהזָמִיר ִהּג ִי ַע וְּקֹול הַתֹור נִשְּ מַ ע בְַּארְּ ֵצנּו‬ ֶ ‫ב‬ For the link between this piyyut and the midrash “why is it called ḥazir?,” see Shraga Abramson, “Ma'amar Chazal U-Perusho (A Rabbinic Saying and Its Interpretation)” Molad 27, new series 4 (1971): 421-429 (Hebrew). The piyyut’s ideas are to the ones found in Genesis Rabbah 63.25.

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The Edom to which Yannai refers stands for his contemporary Christian Byzantine Empire. In a Keroba to Yom Kippur, Yannai states that the Christians “will be humiliated, ashamed and disgraced,” inter alia because they “arrange a sacrifice [ minḥah ‫ ]מנחה‬of pig’s blood.”620 In a fragment of another Keroba to Yom Kippur of Yannai the Christians are similarly described as “the ones who kill a human being and slaughter an ox/ who are fervent about the ones that see their secret/ who are yearning to ma ke an offering of pig's blood.” 621 Yannai seems to refer to Isaiah 66:3,17, in which, as we have seen, later midrashim were used to refer to the punishment of the nations (Rome/ the Christians) in the messianic era. To summarize, the nature of the sources does not permit exact dating of the process of the identification of Rome with the pig, but rather only an approximate, hypothetical reconstruction is possible (fig. 23). Prior to the destruction of the Temple, in seventy CE a topos of porcine profanation of the temple existed. This tradition included

620

Yannai, Keroba to Yom Kippur ("‫)"האומרים לכילי שוע‬. Zulay, Piyyute Yannai, 333 (poem 51). .‫העורכים מנחה דם חזיר‬ Translation by Steven Fine, “Non-Jews in Synagogues of Late-Antique Palestine: Rabbinic and Archeological Evidence.” in Jews, Christians, and Polytheists in the Ancient Synagogue, ed. Steven Fine (New York: Routledge, 1999), 232-233. 621 Yannai, Keroba to Yom Kippur. My translation. Zulay, Piyyute Yannai, 382. .‫ הכמהים לעלות מנחה דם חזיר‬/‫ המכים איש ושוחטים שור; הלוהטים למביטי סודם‬/‫הנוחרים ועורפים שם תבל‬ We find the same accusation in the Muslim Animal's epistle. which is part of “Rasa’il Ikhuan al-safa,” an encyclopedic composition written in Arabic by the Brethren of Purity who lived near Basra, Iraq in the 10 th century. Here the pig says “The Romans, on the other hand, eat our meat with gusto in their sacrifices and believe that it makes them blessed before God.” Ikhwān al-Safā’, The Case of the Animals versus Man before the King of Jinn. A Tenth-century Ecological Fable of Basra, trans. Lenn Evan Goodman (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1978), 63. The text was translated by Kalonymus ben Kalonymus in Provence in 1316 under the title Igeret Baale Haim. Kalonymus Ben Kalonymus, Igeret Baale Haim, ed. I. Toporovesky, ep. A.M. Habermann (Jerusalem: Mosad haRav Kuk, 1959) (Hebrew). ".‫" ובני הרומיים יתענגו באכילת בשרנו בקרבונותיהם וחגותיהם ושמחתם ויתברכו בנו ויגדלונו עדרים עדרים בבית ובשדה‬ This paragraph was not included in the English translation and adaptation of the Hebrew translation: The Anima s’ Lawsuit against umanit . A Modern Adaptation of an Ancient Anima Rights Ta e , trans. and adap. by Rabbi Anson Laytner and Rabbi Dan Bridge. Intr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr (Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 2005), ix.

236

Psalm 80:14, Isaiah 66:3,17 and the memory of an alleged sacrifice of a pig/sow in the Temple by King Antiochus during the Macabeean crisis in the second century BCE. Old Testament

The four kingdoms (Daniel 7)

Esau=Edom

2nd cent. BCE

“The Boar out of the wood” (PS 80:14)

Isaiah 66

The topos of the profanation of the Temple by a pig

Esau=Boar Jubilee

1st cent.

Esau=Edom=Rome

? 4th

Rome= the fourth kingdom

The destruction legend Esau=sus (gr.)=sow

cent.

Genesis Rabbah

Esau=Edom=Rome=The fourth kingdom=Pig=The boar out of the wood Leviticus Rabbah 6th-9th cent.

Why is it called hazir?

Ecclesiastes Rabbah

The messianic punishment of the pork eaters

Fig. 23: Hypothetical reconstruction of the midrashic process of identification of Rome with the pig.

In the first century CE, the identification of Rome with the Esau=Edom and the fourth kingdom were established. The legend of the Temple destruction by a pig was established perhaps as early as the second century CE, probably due to the influence of the earlier topos of profanation of the Temple by a pig. The identification of Esau with the boar of psalm 80:14 was established before the end of the fourth century CE. The interpretation of the name Esau as sow in Greek was probably also from this period. In Leviticus Rabbah (4th-5th cent.), the equation “Rome = Esau = the fourth kingdom = the pig = The boar out of the wood” appeared in its complete, fully developed form. In later period (6th-9th cent.), the midrash “why is it called ḥa ir?,” found as early as Leviticus Rabbah, was developed to reject the idea that pork will become pure in the messianic era,

237

and this midrash was aggregated with the midrash on the future punishment of pork eaters by God, which has Isaiah 66 as its proof text. In short, the identification of Rome with the pig was a result of a configuration of diverse exegesis readings and topoi which exagetical combined to create the equation “Rome = Esau = the fourth kingdom = the pig = The boar out of the wood.” This, however, is found in its complete form only in Leviticus Rabbah and later midrashim which cite it, such as Yalkut Shimoni and Midrash Tanḥuma. In other sources (mostly from the Land of Israel), we find only variants of parts of this equation.

The identification of Rome with the pig and the rabbinic discourse concerning the pig and the avoidance of pork The association of Rome with the pig directly or indirectly linked it to everything associated with this animal by the sages: prohibition of breeding/commerce/touching, plagues, leprosy, impurity, sin, filthiness, excrement, sexual corruption, the destruction of the Temple, hypocrisy, injustice, harmfulness, persecutions, forbidden sexual relations with non-Jews, sexual lust, heresy, and drunkenness. To this sphere is contrasted the sphere of Israel which stand for purity, Torah, justice, the Temple, the Land of Israel, and other positive qualities. The two spheres are separated, and mixing between the two (especially raising pigs, heresy, learning Greek wisdom, or eating pork) is conceived as a transgression (fig. 24). Mary Douglas, in her classic book Purity and Danger (1966), argues that impurity, like uncleanness, “is matter out of place,” an anomaly within a given classificatory system. Anything that crosses or blurs the boundary of a given category is considered

238

defilement. 622 To illustrate this idea, Douglas analyzes the abominations o f Leviticus, particularly its dietary rules. She points out that in Leviticus, “holiness requires that individuals shall conform to the class to which they belong. And holiness requires that different classes of things shall not be confused. (…) to be holy is to be whole, to be one; holiness is unity, integrity, perfection of the individual and of the kind. The dietary rules merely develop the metaphor of holiness on the same lines.” 623

Impurity

Purity

Sexual lust Proselytes

Torah’s learning Jacob Justice

Torah

Israel Temple Land of Israel

Destruction

Drunkenness

Raising pigs Jews who do not learn Torah

Forbidden sex

Learning Greek wisdom

Purity

Excrement Idleness Leprosy

Pig

Heretics

Gluttony

Nations of the world

Hypocrisy Uselessness Rome Harmfulness

Esau

Filthiness

Prostitution Death

Fig. 24: The Discursive spheres of Israel and the Pig in Rabbinic literature.

In this system, “cloven hoofed, cud chewing ungulates [cattle] are the model of the proper kind of food for a pastoralist.” The pig is one of the borderline cases of this order, an anomaly, and thus impure. She notes that the failure of the pig “to conform to

622

Douglas argues that defilement must be analyzed in the light of the total system of classification of a given culture: “Defilement is never an isolated event. It cannot occur except in view of systematic ordering of ideas. Hence any piecemeal interpretation of the pollution rules of another culture is bound to fail. For the only way in which pollution ideas make sense is in reference to a total structure of thought whose key-stone, boundaries, margins and internal lines are held in relation by rituals of separation.” Douglas, Purity and Danger, 42. 623 Ibid., 55.

239

the two necessary criteria for defining cattle is the only reason given in the Old Testament for avoiding the pig; nothing whatsoever is said about its dirty scavenging habits,” suggesting “that originally the sole reason for its being counted as unclean is its failure as a wild boar to get into the antelope class (…).”624 Hence, the pig stands for the distinction between pure and impure, or more exactly for the refusal to mix categories, as Seth D. Kunin notes: Both [Israelite] myth and ritual include mediators; these, however, are always problematic and need to be transformed. Thus, the pig in the food rules system appears to mediate between the categories of permitted and forbidden animals – the system denies this mediation by making the pig especially negative. This is a consistent process whereby all mediators are denied by transformation, usually in the negative direction but occasionally in the positive. What is significant is not the direction of transformation but the denial of mediation. 625

This denial of mediation is manifested in the sages´ primary relationship with the pig: that of avoidance. Contrary to the polyvalent Greco-Roman porcine discursive sphere, the rabbinic porcine discursive sphere is binary, the product of a world order which pivots around the distinction between pure and impure. 626 Other binary couples are parallel to the fundamental binary couple “pure-impure;” these include : Pure Israel Pure animal Shepherd Torah learning To rule oneself The impulse to do good

Impure Nations of the world Pig Swineherd Learning Greek wisdom To be ruled by desire The impulse to do evil

624

Ibid., 56. Seth D. Kunin, We Think What We Eat: Neo-Structuralist Analysis of Israelite Food Rules and Other Cultural and Textual Practices (London and New York: T&T Clark International, 2004), 16. 626 As Walter Houston notes, “Judaism inherits from the development of custom and thought in prebiblical and biblical times a law of animal kinds that summarizes in itself a great richness of symbolic themes. It stands for the order and peace of civil society over against the disorder and violence of the wild; for the just and traditional ordering of society against anarchy; for the purity of the sanctuary against the permanent threat of pollution; for the holiness of the people of God as his devoted ones; for their protection against pressures from without, and their separation from all that would threaten their dedication to their one God; for the possibility, not confined to Israel alone, of living in peace with God’s creatures and in the experience of his presence. It does not merely symbolize these things; by the constant practice of rules it actually inculcates them.” Houston, Purity and Monotheism, 258. 625

240

Justice Proselytes Avoiding pork Jacob

Injustice Heretics Pork eating Esau

The highly associative nature of rabbinic literature links these binary couples in several configurations. However, Rome does not only stand for the negative qualities associated with the pig, but also for what makes the pig abominable: the mixing of categories. This is particularly manifested in the identification of Rome with Esau (Jacob´s twin brother) and in the midrash which presents Rome as doing injustice while pretending to do justice in the same manner in which the pig presents its hooves, pretending to be pure while not ruminating the cud.

Reversing Rome’s porcine discourse If any real use of the pig or porcine symbols by the Romans contributed in some way to the identification of Rome with the pig, the rabbinic literature does not refer to them at all. Hence, any interpretation which attempts to explain the identi fication by a reaction to real historical events or causes is reductionist and highly speculative. Rather, it is more probable that by identifying Rome with the pig, the sages to some extent are in dialogue with the use of porcine symbolism in Roman political discourse. Insofar as the Romans did have positive porcine political symbols (Aeneas’s sow, the boar as emblem, the emperor as boar’s hunter), the sages´ negative reversal of the pig became more powerful. The equation ‘Rome = pig” was not less Roman than Jewish: in a countersymbolism, the sages reverse this reference from positive to negative. The pig served both sides to express two opposite political conceptions: that of the powerful and that of

241

the powerless, that of the ruler and that of the subjected. While for the sages the Jews are the victims of Rome - the boar which gnaws at them - the Roman rulers saw themselves as not only comparable to the boar, but also as those who defend the Empire from its enemies, comparable to a wild boar which one must destroy. The sages, rejecting the politics of raw power, reject the boarish/boar hunter metaphor of the ruler. Rather, they invert the Roman identification with the boar from a sign of legitimacy to a sign of illegitimacy; thus, the Roman boar went from being the symbol of power and victory to one of destruction; the sow of fortuna and prosperity became a curse. The sages did not resist with the enemy’s (boarish) terms of (boar) hunting, but rather longed for a future where the boar (ḥa ir) will return the rule to Israel. This messianic projection avoids the politics of force, which may give rise to a direct violent confrontation with the Roman Empire. Rather, the sages advocate a non-violent politics of subjection to the non-Jewish rule. However, the rabbinic resistance to the Empire was not only a passive messianic solution. By equating the pig, the impure animal par excellence, with the Empire, the avoidance of pork became an act of concrete resistance, in the here and now. A daily act of eating became an act of resistance to the omnivore-homogenized politics of Imperial universalism. Not partaking of pork meant not partaking in the Empire. Usually, Greek and Latin distinguish between the domestic and wild pig, thus facilitating the Greeks´ and Romans’ distinction between hoggishness and boarishness, or between the pig as a symbol of earthly desires and the boar as a symbol of courage and power. Hebrew on the other hand, uses only one word, ḥa ir, for both the domestic and wild pig, which facilitates the sages argument that the positive value of the boar should be rejected, that the courage and power of the boar is nothing more than earthly desires. 627 One who 627

The pig and the boar are indeed one biologcal species. As Francois Poplins remarks: “ils sont deux

242

identifies himself with the boar as a symbol of power is nothing more than a pig, a slave to his desires.628

The Fourth Kingdom The model of the four kingdoms gave a new meaning to the avoidance of pork: if in the Hebrew Bible it is inscribed mainly in a non-temporal order, with its main axis being pure-impure, in the midrashim it is inscribed in a temporal process, with its main axis being subjection-redemption, viewed as a concrete succession of four empires: Babylonia, Media, Greece, and Rome. The pig became a powerful political symbol, inscribed in concrete relations over time between the subjected Israel and Imperial Rome. The (non-historical) model of the four kingdoms inscribed the relationship with Rome (Christianity) in a historical pattern. This construction makes the existence of the other tangible according to the inner Jewish grammar of time; the sense of the existence of the Empire is understood according to an inner grid (or logic) which is foreign to the Romans. We can see in this construction what was for Jean Piaget the premise of structuralism: “an ideal (perhaps a hope) of intrinsic intelligibility supported by the postulate that structures are self-sufficient and that, to grasp them, we do not have to make reference to all sorts of extraneous elements.” 629 The model of the four kingdoms is total: it explains

chose divisée en deux par l’homme. “Poplin, “Que l’homme cultive aussi le sauvage que le domestique,” 528. 628 The same process happened in the Christian symbolism at the end of the Middle Ages: “De fait, à partir du millieu du XIIIe siècle, dans les somme théologiques sur les vices, dans les recueil d’exempla puis dans les bestiaires littéraires ou iconographiques associés aux sept péchés capitaux, le sanglier semble additioner sur sa personne tous les vices et péchés autrefois distribués entre le porc domestique et le porc sauvage : sorditas, foeditas, libido, intemperantia, gula, pigritia, d’un coté ; violentia, furor, cruor, ira, superbia, obstinatio, rapacitas, impietas, de l’autre.” Pastoureau, “La chasse au sanglier,” 18. Bryan notes that the fourth beast in Daniel 7 is “the unclean beast par excellence,” which stands in contrast to the one “who is like a ‘man’, the archetypal clean land creature,” created in the image of God.” Bryan, Cosmos, 238. 629 Jean Piaget, Structuralism, 9

243

the political reality in the past, present, and future. It provides the reasons, or the inner grammar, of the relationship between Israel and foreign powers, as well as the conditions that will cause this relationship to change in the future. This model served the sages’ politics of submission, where liberation is projected into a messianic era, where frustrations of being powerless here and now are contained by the expectations of a messianic redemption. In the model of the fourth kingdoms, we find what Mircea Eliade calls the “Eternal return”: In studying these traditional societies, one characteristic has especially struck us: it is their revolt against concrete, historical time, their nostalgia for a periodical return to the mythical time of the beginning of things, to the “Great Time. The meaning and function of what we have called “archetypes and repetition” disclosed themselves to us only after we had perceived these societies’ will to refuse concrete time, their host ility toward every attempt at autonomous “history,” that is, at history not regulated by archetypes. 630

Although Eliade thought that Judaism does not have such a conception of time, Moshe Idel notes that the difference between archaic religions and rabbinic Judaism is not very significant. 631 Indeed, in the model of the four kingdoms we can see how Rome is understood as an archetype, or as a cyclical phenomenon. This corresponds to the predomination of memory over history in Judaism, as demonstrated by Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, 632 a historical memory which tends to be understood in terms of patter ns (what Neusner called paradigmatic history). 633 This cyclical conception of history, as Gabrielle M. Spiegel summarizes, is manifested in the repetition of the liturgy:

630

Mircea Eliade, Cosmos and History: The Myth of the Eternal Return (New York: Harper, 1954), xi. Moshe Idel, “Afterward,” in Mircea Eliade, The Myth of Eternal Return, trans. Yotam Rehuveny, ed. Ronit Nikolsky (Jerusalem: Carmel, 2002), 146-147 (Hebrew). See also Ibid. Ascensions on High in Jewish Mysticism: Pillars, Lines, Ladders (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2005), 232. 632 Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Zakhor, Jewish History and Jewish Memory (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1982). 633 Jacob Neusner, “History, Time, and Paradigm in Classical Judaism,” Approaches to Ancient Judaism 16 (1999): 189-212. Ibid. “Paradigmatic versus Historical Thinking: The Case of Rabbinic Judaism,” History and Theory 36 (1997): 353-377. Ibid. The Presence of the Past, the Pastness of the Present: History, Time and Paradigm in Rabbinic Judaism (Bethesda: CDL Press, 1996). 631

244

Although the historical events of the biblical period remain unique and irreversible, psychologically they are experienced cyclically, repetitively, and hence atemporally. In liturgical commemoration, as in poetic oral recitation, the fundamental goal is, precisely, to revivify the past and make it live in the present, to fuse past and present, chanter and hearer, priest and observer, into a single collective entity. The written text, when it represents a transcription of a once-live recital, commemorates both the past which is sung about and performance itself. History, in the sense that we understand it to consist of unique events unfolding within an irreversible linear time, is absorbed into cyclical, liturgical memory.” 634

By identifying the fourth kingdom with the forbidden animals of Leviticus 11, history is also manifested by the praxis of food avoidance. Through this link, categorical thinking of the food classification system is interwoven with a paradigmatic conception of history. In this manner, the relational tension between Jews and non-Jews, between Judaism and Rome, is shifted from the historical-political arena of the present to an inner Jewish activity that is deeply inscribed in messianic aspiration. Because Rabbinical thinking is marked by a paradigmatic-analogical reading of history that sees history in terms of patterns, the sages could easily express history by classificatory categories of pure and impure animals. Hence, different aspects of the world converge, and a more solid, global vision of existence is achieved - a more crystallized order. The midrash turns the pig, the fourth kingdom, into a time capsule. The micro-chronic dimension, the time of the ritual, repeats the macro-chronic time of history. The micro-chronic dimenstion of the here and now (this world) came to contain the macro-chronic dimension, the historical pattern, which leads to future redemption (the world to come). Rome (Christianity) is not the end of history, but a cyclical phenomenon that will disappear, as have its predecessors. However, the model of the four kingdoms does not only manifest the idea of historical recurrence, that history repeats itself, but also that this

634

Gabrielle M. Spiegel. “Memory and History: Liturgical Time and Historical Time.” History and Theory 41, no. 2 (2002): 152.

245

repetition is linear, that it will come to an end. 635 In a sense, the midrash “why is it called ḥa ir?,” which reads the name of the pig (ḥa ir) as the verb to return (lehaḥzir), holds the basic principle of cyclic time, of the eternal return, but also the idea of its end. Thus, while the model of the four kingdoms contains the idea of cyclic movements of rise and fall, it does not possess the concept of the arbitrariness of the wheel of fortune. In the future, the wheel will turn and Rome (Christianity) will fall while Israel will rise.636 The midrashic discursive sphere of the identification of Rome with the pig might be understood as a social drama, following Victor Turner’s definition of social drama as the unity of a process of disharmony occurring in a situation of conflict, divided into four principal phases: breach, crisis, redressive action, and reintegration/schism (table 9). 637 The first phase, the breach, is a violation of the norm generated by a symbolic trigger of confrontation, corresponding to the destruction of the Temple by the pig; the crisis is the period of the subjection to the boar (the Roman Empire); the redressive action is the keeping of the law, including the avoidance of pork, which will bring the Messiah; and the reintegration is the messianic era, when the pork eaters will be punished.

635

For the limits of the distinction of cyclical and linear history in Judaism and Christianity, see: G. W. Trompf, The Idea of Historical Recurrence in Western Thought: From Antiquity to the Reformation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979), 116-220. 636 For the fourth kingdom model in Late Antique Christianity and Judaism, see: Alexei M. Sivertsev, Judaism and Imperial Ideology in Late Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 9-20. 637 Victor Turner, Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors. Symbolic Action in Human Society (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1974), 37.

246

Turner’s social drama The midrashic terminology

Breach

Crisis

Destruction (ḥurban)

Subjection to Rome, Exile (galut)

Time Midrashim

Past The legend of destruction

Present The identification of Rome with the pig

The Pig

The destructor

The oppressor

Redressive action The fulfillment of the commandments (avoiding pork) Present Leviticus Rabbah 13

The tool of redressing

Reintegration Redemption (geula)

Future The pig will return the kingdom to Israel; God will punish the pork eaters. The tool of redemption/ the messianic punishment

Table 9: The Pig in the historical model of the Midrashic discursive sphere.

Jacob and Esau What is the logic behind of the identification of Esau with the pig? Avshalom C. Elitzur proposes to link the Jews’ hate for Amalek to the Jews’ hate for

the pig.

According to his terminology, both are manifestations of a “metaphysical hate,” a hate that originated from the proximity between the hated and the hater. Elitzur notes that as much as the hated Amalek is a relative of Israel, so the hated pig is close to human. 638 Although Elitzur speaks about Amalek, his reading is even more relevant to Amalek’s “grandfather,” Esau. 639 The problem of animality in general, and that of the huma n relation to the pig in particular, lies in the proximity of the human animal to other animal s. The pig, like man, is an omnivorous mammal, and its inner organs resemble those of man. This is probably also the reason that if, as the French proverb says, “Each person has in 638

Avshalom C. Elitzur, “Amalek and the swine: The anatomy of metaphysical hatred.” in Sefer HaYovel Lichvod proffesor Shlomo Shoham, ed. Chemi Ben Nun et al. (Tel-Aviv: Ydihot Haḥronot, 2004) (Hebrew). On line version: Consulted August 23, 2011. 639 On the midrashic association between Amalek and Esau, see: Aminoff, The Figure, 162-117. For the subject of twinship, see: Sharon Roubach, In Life, in Death, they were not Parted: The Idea of Twinship in Western Christianity, PhD Dissertation (Jerusalem: The Hebrew University, 2003).

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his heart a dormant pig (Tout homme a dans son cœur un cochon qui sommei e),” often humans tend not to recognize their own proximity to the pig but rather associate its nature with their fellow man. Proximity brings with it the risk of the blurring of frontiers, and hence is a source of anxiety. From the sages´ perspective, the twin, like the pig, is a mixture of two categories, as the pig is half pure (parting the hoofs) and impure (not chewing the cud); the twin Esau, is half pure (being the descendant of Isaac) and half impure (being an evil person). Hence, the nature of the pig is the nature of Esau, or Rome, being a family member and stranger at the same time, or being a mixing of pure and impure, and hence abominable.640 During the period of the First Temple, Edom and Israel kept hostile relations. The myth of the origin of Israel also tells us the origin of its neighboring nation, explaining the proximity between the two as well their enmity. 641 In the myth of Jacob and Esau, the history of Edom is the history of Israel in negative. The birthright or the Election is absolute and unique. The Election is by the Father, and it is vis-à-vis the Other, the twin brother. The Election of Jacob (Israel) is the “Diselection” of Esau (Edom). 642 As Gershon D. Cohen notes, the couple “Jacob-Esau” was particularly apt as a model for the

640

Carol Bakhos, “Figuring (out) Esau: The Rabbis and Their Others,” Journal for Jewish Studies 58, no. 2 (2007): 250-262. 641 For the diverse relational configurations of Esau and Jacob as a dialogical model, see my article: Misgav Har-Peled, “Entre l’âne et le bœuf, réflexion sur la machine dialogique,” dans Adam et ’astraga e ssais d’anthropo ogie et d’histoire sur es imites de ’humain, ed. Gil Bartholeyns, Pierre-Olivier Dittmar, Thomas Golsenne, Misgav Har-Peled et Vincent Jolivet (Paris: Les éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme, 2009), 87-97. 642 Seth D. Kunin notes that in Genesis, “genealogical closeness was indirectly related to ideological closeness.” In the Talmud, he argues, the “nature of these relations will change as Israel becomes less politically significant; with the contraction of political relations, there will be a similar contraction in nations that are ideologically negative – within this contraction, those nations that are genealogically close will remain strongly negative and equally will be associated with nations that remain politically significant.” Kunin, We Think What We Eat, 5 [see “chapter 6: Israel and the Nations” (pp. 211-237) and Kunin’s earlier publication: “Israel and the Nations: A Structuralist Survey” JSOT, 1999. 82:19-43.]

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relationship of Israel and Rome because of the proximity of the claim of election between the Jews and the Romans: (…) there was a basic similarity between Rome and Judea in patterns of thought and expression. Neither of them could accept their existence as a mere fact. Each considered itself divinely chosen and destined for a unique history. Each was obsessed with its glorious antiquity. Each was convinced that heaven had selected it to rule the world. Neither could accept with equanimity any challenge to its claims. This collective self-consciousness and obsession with past and future, with duty and destiny, came to its greatest expression in Rome in the Augustan age and most notably in the works of Livy and Virgil. Though shaken by civil wars and the decline of ideal Roman society, the average learned Roman echoed of his people what the Jew said of his own: “Thou didst chose us from among all peoples; thou didst love and favor us; thou didst exalt us above all tongues and sanctify us with thy commandments. Thou, our King, didst draw us nearer to Thy service and call us by Thy great and holy name.” [Jewish holidays’ prayer 643] As the Jews spoke of an eternal covenant between Israel and God, the Roman could quote the promise of Jove to Rome: “Imperium sine fine dedi [“I have given empire without end”].” 644

The idea that the Roman empire will be “without end,” the discourse of eternal Rome, extended with time to the Empire and Caesar, reached its climax in the times of Hadrian (early 2nd cent.), 645 and sharply contradicted the Jewish concept of election. The Jews subjected to Rome are confronted with the gap between the biblical promise of election and the real political condition of exile and subjection to Rome. In Particular, the sages had to explain how this could be the case if the commandments were suppose to protect and glorify Israel, as Deuteronomy 26:15-19 declares: This very day the Lord your God is commanding you to observe these statutes and ordinances; so observe them diligently with all your heart and with all your soul. 17 Today you have obtained the Lord's agreement: to be your God; and for you to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, and his ordinances, and to obey him. 18 Today the Lord has obtained your agreement: to be his treasured people, as he promised you, and to keep his commandments; 19 for him to set you high above all

643

The sanctification of the Day: Kedushat HaYom. ‫ וקידשתנו במצוותיך וקרבתנו מלכנו לעבודתך; ושמך‬, ‫ אהבת אותנו ורצית בנו ורוממתנו מכל הלשונות‬,‫אתה בחרתנו מכל העמים‬ .‫ עלינו קראת‬,‫הגדול והקדוש‬ 644 Cohen, “Esau as Symbol,” 25. 645 Benjamin Isaac, “Eternal Rome,” Historia 1-2 (1998): 19-31 (Hebrew). F. G. Morre, “On Urbs Aeterna and Urbs Sacra,” Transactions of the American Philological Association 25 (1984): 34-60.

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nations that he has made, in praise and in fame and in honor; and for you to be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised. 646

Hence, while keeping the commandments was supposed to set Israel “high above all nations,” the political reality was that the Jews were subjected to Rome´s power and, in the life of a Diaspora minority, fulfilling the commandments poses practical hardships on the Jews in daily life. The sages resolve this problem, and others, with the idea that the commandments and suffering come to purify (leṣaref ‫ )לצרף‬Israel. The yoke of the commandants is not a punishment, but rather proof of the virtue of the Jews, a virtue for which they will be recompensed in the messianic era. The promise of Election is conditioned: if Israel will follow God’s commandments, it will be free and sovereign, but if not it will be subjected to others. If Israel will repent for its sins and will accomplish the Law, then it will be liberated. In this scenario, there is a constant tension between election and subjection, between past (the promise), present (exile/subjection to Rome), and the future (messianic redemption). As Daniel Boyarin notes, “after 312, Esau, or Edom, his descendant, is most often read as referring to the Christian Church, or as the sages themselves put it: “The Principate turned to sectarianism” (B. Sotah 49b and parallels). 647 Hence, as the identification of Esau passed from Rome to the Church, the identification with the pig passed to the Church as well, and by extension to Christians, the “pork eaters.” Contrary 646

Deuteronomy 26:15-19. ‫י ְּהוָה‬- ‫ יז אֶת‬.‫נַפְּשֶ ָך‬- ‫ ְּל ָבבְָּך ּו ְּבכָל‬- ‫ ְּבכָל‬, ‫הַמִשְּ ָפטִים; וְּשָ מַ ְּרתָ וְּעָשִיתָ אֹותָם‬- ‫וְּאֶת‬-- ‫ ַהחֻׁקִ ים הָאֵ לֶה‬- ‫ י ְּהוָה אֱֹלהֶיָך מְּ ַצּוְָּך ַל ֲעשֹות אֶת‬,‫ַהיֹום ַהזֶה‬ ‫ ִלהְּיֹות לֹו‬,‫ִירָך הַיֹום‬ ְּ ‫ יח וַיהוָה הֶאֱ מ‬.‫ ְּולִשְּ מ ֹר חֻׁקָ יו ּומִ צְּוֹתָיו ּומִשְּ ָפטָיו ְּולִשְּ מ ֹ ַע בְּק ֹלו‬,‫ ִל ְּהיֹות לְָּך לֵאֹלהִים ְּו ָל ֶלכֶת בִדְּ ָרכָיו‬:‫ ַהיֹום‬, ָ‫הֶאֱ מַ ְּרת‬ - ‫ְָּארת; ְּו ִלהְּיֹתְָּך עַם‬ ֶ ‫ש ם ּולְּתִ פ‬ ֵ ‫ ּו ְּל‬,‫לִתְּ ִהלָה‬, ‫הַּגֹוי ִם אֲשֶ ר עָשָה‬- ‫ עַל כָל‬,‫ יט ּו ְּלתִתְָּך ֶעלְּיֹון‬.‫מִ צְּו ֹתָיו‬- ‫ כָל‬,‫לְָך; ְּולִשְּ מ ֹר‬- ‫ ִדבֶר‬,‫ כַאֲשֶ ר‬,‫ְּלעַם ְּסגֻׁלָה‬ . ‫ כַאֲשֶ ר דִ בֵר‬,‫קָ ד ֹש לַיהוָה אֱֹלהֶיָך‬ 647 Boyarin, Dying for God, 3. As Guy Stroumsa notes, “It is precisely when “the barbarians” threaten the Empire from within and without, in the late fourth and fifth century, that the Christians ceased to see themselves as “barbarians”, or peregrine, and identified, for the first time unambiguously, as Romans.” Guy Stroumsa “Philosophy of the Barbarians: On Early Christian Ethnological Representations,” in Geschichte-Tradition-Reflexion: Festschrift Martin Hengel, vol. II, ed. H. Cancik, H. Lichtenberger and P. Schäfer (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1996), 347.

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to pagan Greeks or Romans, for the Christians eating pork became an affirmative act of being Christian. If the biblical laws were surpassed by Jesus, then to avoid pork is to reject the coming of the Savior, and eating it an act of acceptance. Hence, avoidance of pork became not just the marker of Jewishness in the eyes of Christians as it was in the eyes of Jews, but a marker of Judaizing, of heresy. The pair Jacob-Esau in the patristic reading serves as a model for the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. Jacob henceforth represents the Christians, and Esau the Jews. As the primogeniture passed from the older to the younger, in the same way the Election passed from Israel according to the flesh (the Jews) to Israel according to the spirit (the Christians).648 The true Israel is not defined by the flesh but by the faith. This idea is found as early as Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Romans: “And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth; It was said unto her, ‘The elder shall serve the younger’ (Gn 25:23). As it is written, ‘Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated’ (Malachi 1:2)“ (Romans 9:10-13). The reading of Genesis 25:23 with Malachi 1:2 reinforced the original sense of the story. That is to say, it is the case that not only “the elder shall serve the younger” but also that the one is loved and the other is hated. Paul reversed the biblical role of Esau as the dialogical Other of Israel. Here Esau comes to represent Carnal Israel, the dialogical other of true Israel (verus Israel). 649 As Israel 648

See: Limor Ora, Jacob and Esau, in: Jews and Christian in Western Europe. Encounter between Cultures in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Unit 1 (Tel-Aviv: The Open University, 1993) (Hebrew). Martine Dulaey, “La figure de Jacob dans l’exégèse paléochrétienne (Gn 27-33),” Recherches Augustiniennes 32 (2001): 75-168. 649 An exegetical reversal much like that achieved by Paul for Isaac and Ishmael in Galatians 4: 28-31. see: David Nirenberg, “The Birth of the Pariah: Jews, Christian Dualism, and Social Science”, Social

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Yuval remarks, for both Judaism and Christianity the pair Jacob and Esau was understood typologically as a model of their relations: It uses an existing narrative system based on Scriptures and charges it with the later conflict between Israel and Edom, Judaea and Rome, Judaism and Christianity, a conflict between chosen and rejected, persecuted and persecutor. This involvement with the question of who is chosen and who is rejected, who is “Jacob” and who is “Esau,” reflects a process of self-definition as well as, ipso facto, a definition of the other, the persecutor and rival. The tension evoked by typology is one between subjugation, suffering, and exile, on the one hand, and dominion, primogeniture, and victory, on the other. For Christianity, it is viewed as the tension between the Old Testament and the New Testament; for Judaism, it is that between Exile and Redemption. 650

But if Jacob and Esau are a common typological pair for both Judaism and Christianity, they understood them in different ways. As Daniel Boyarin notes, “If for the Church Judaism ultimately was a superseded ancestor of the true heir to the promise, for the Rabbis, the two entities were more like constantly struggling twin siblings.” 651 In a sense, it seems that Christianity tends to understand the model of Jacob-Esau more as representing a dialectical process, where the accent is put on the progressive nature of their relations, while rabbinic Judaism understands it more dialogically, where the two pairs are imagined has having diverse relations over time.

652

Likewise, if pork

consumption for the Christian was a locus of passage from Judaism to Christianity, from the old law to the new one, 653 for the sages the avoidance of pork was the locus of passage (that is conceived to be more as a return than a turn) yet to come in the messi anic era.

Research, 70, no. 1, (2003): 201-236, 212. For the elabroation of Paul´s reading by the Church Fathers, see: Limor Ora, Jacob and Esau. Adiel Schremer, “Midrash and History: God’s Power, the Roman Empire, and Hopes for Redemption in Tannaitic Literature,” Zion 72 (2007): 13 (Hebrew). 650 Israel Jacob Yuval, Two nations in your womb: perceptions of Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), 1. 651 Boyarin, Dying for God, 3. 652 For the Bakhtinian distinction between dialectics and dialogics, see: Tzvetan Todorov, Mikhail Bakhtin: The Dialogical Principle (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984 (1981)), 104. 653 Boyarin, “Le porc en dieu Pôros.”

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Fabre-Vassas, following Mary Douglas’ work, notes that “if forbidden foods manifest the categories of a culture, they also necessarily demonstrate the indigenous distinctions between societies. They are only fully affirmed, and can only be understood, in the context of this confrontation.” 654 The sages not only admit the inter-cultural confrontation around the avoidance of pork, but they also resolve it in a sense by thinking of the abominable animal dialogically as embodying their relationship with the Roman Empire and later on with Christianity. Mary Douglas argues that, “if two symbolic systems are confronted, they begin to form, even by their opposition, a single whole,” 655 If this is true, then this “single whole” is full of holes, or gaps, and hence is highly partial. In some sense, in the Judeo-Christian dialogic, being one is in some sense being and not being the other. However, we should not make this dimension the essence of their relations. The question is not to discover “agency” in Jewish texts and hence establish the “dialogic” nature of Jewish Christian relations, but rather to learn how both Jewish and Christian texts construct the other dialogically. Hence, we should separate dialogism as referring to an aspect of inter-group relations from dialogism as referring to the way identity is constructed by incorporating the real or imagined voice of the other in one discourse. In both cases, one’s logic is created vis-à-vis the other’s real or imagined logic, and hence is dialogical.

654

Fabre-Vassas, The Singular Beast, 6. Also: Claudine Vassas, “Questions anthropologiques autour de l’interdit du porc dans le judaïsme et de son élection par le christianisme,” dans De la domestication au tabou: le cas des suidés dans le Proche-Orient ancien, éd. B. Lion et C. Michel, Travaux de la Maison René-Ginouvès 1 (Paris: De Boccad, 2006), 229. 655 Douglas, Natural Symbols, 43-44.

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After the fourth century, Christianity not only condemns the avoidance of pork, but makes pork eating a legal obligation, as for example in the Apostolic Canon from the (4t-5th cent.): The Christians would not imitate the Jews on the subject of abstinence from [certain] foods but would even eat pork, the Lord having said that “what enters the mouth does not sully the man but [rather] what exits the mouth, as if coming from the heart” (Mt 15:11;17-18); that they would not be attached to the letter [of the law] but wo uld conduct themselves according to [its] spirit and [its] elevated meaning, for the carnal synagogue of the Jews execrates pork but is possessed by unkindness in keeping with the prophetic word: “they gorged themselves on pork and left the scraps for their little ones” (cf. Ps. 16:14). 656

Hence, the contradictory Jewish and Christian practices are mutually related dialogically: if one eats pork, he rejects the position of those who abstain from pork, and vice versa. At the end of the eleventh century, Tobiah ben Eliezer in his Misrash Leqah Tob (Psikta Zutara), explains the struggle of Jacob and Esau in their mother´s womb (Genesis 25:22) in dialogical terms: “And the sons struggled” )vitrozezu ‫ )ויתרוצצו‬- they were cutting [each other] inside the womb, as it was said “and [she] crushed (vataretz ‫ )ותרץ‬his skull.” (Judges 9:53): a sign for generations: the [first] one runs to kill the other, and the other runs to kill the first one - as says Rabbi Yohanan. And Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish says: the one permits the commands of the other, and the other permits the commands of the other. How? That one forbid the day of Sabbath and the other forbid the day of Sunday; the one forbid pork and the other permitted it, for this reason it was said: Vitrozezu [they struggled] – two words are: ‘viter zivuyo – [he permits his commands]’.657

The rabbinic dialogue, of “this says this and this says that” is transformed here from constituting the nature of rabbinic learning to that of the basic principle of relations

656

The Apostolic Canon 5. Charles Joseph Hefle, istoire des conci es d’après es documents originaux, tome 1, vol. 2 (Paris: Le Clère, 1907), 1076-1077. Claudine Fabre-Vassas partially cites this source in her: “Juifs et chrétiens, autour du cochon,” Identité alimentaire et altérité culturelle [Actes du colloque de Neuchâtel, 12,13 novembre 1984 (Neuchâtel, Belgium: Institut d'ethnologie Saint-Nicolas, 1985(, 61. and Fabre-Vassas, The Singular Beast, 247 (Fabre-Vassas confused this text with the Council of Antioch in 325 CE). 657 Psikta Zutara (Midrash Lekah Tob), Genesis 25:22. Psikta Zutara (Midrash Lekah Tob), ed. S. Buber (Vilna, 1884). My translation. ‫ וזה‬,‫ זה רץ להרוג את זה‬,‫ סימן לדורות‬,)‫ ותרץ את גלגלתו (שופטים ט נג‬:‫ כענין שנאמר‬,‫ היו מחתכין בתוך הבטן‬.‫ויתרוצצו הבנים‬ ‫ כיצד ? זה אוסר את יום‬,‫ וזה מתיר צוויו של זה‬,‫ זה מתיר צוויו של זה‬:‫ ור" ש בן לקיש אמר‬.‫ כדברי ר' יוחנן‬,‫רץ להרוג את זה‬ :‫ ויתר ציוויו‬:‫ שתי מלות הן‬,"‫ "ויתרוצצו‬:‫ לכך נאמר‬,‫ וזה מתירו‬,‫ זה אוסר את החזיר‬,‫ וזה אוסר את יום ראשון‬,‫השבת‬

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between Judaism and Christianity. This is a later source, but it seems to express well the dialogical dimension of pork in the Judeo-Christian context: the Christians ate pork (in part) to distinguish themselves from Jews, while Jews did not eat pork (in part) to distinguish themselves from Christians. This symmetry did not exist before the rise of Christianity. In the Roman world, Jews perhaps abstained from pork (also) in order not to be Romans, but Romans did not eat pork in order to avoid being Jews. Perhaps the Jewish avoidance of pork seemed strange or negative to some Romans, but it did not have any special importance for them: it did not have any relation to the ways in which they generally understood their pork consumption.

Conclusion: The Dialogical Beast A people without history Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern Of timeless moments. So while the light fails On a winter’s afternoon, in a secluded chapel History is now and England. T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding, No. 4 ‘Four Quartets, V. 658

For Judaism, history is now and practice. The timeless moments are historical, and the unhistorical practice is history. The avoidance of pork is a manifestation of being part of the sacred history of salvation - to be part of a process, and at the same time part of the condition that the process will be achieved, i.e. the Gehula, the redemption of the Messianic age. This inscribing of the avoidance of pork in time goes hand in hand with imagining it in the inter- relations with the other. This might correspond to Emannuel Levinas´ conception of time itself:

658

T. S. Eliot, “Little Gidding,” V. T. E. S. Eliot, Collected Poems 1909-1962 (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1963), 208 [first published in Four Quartets, 1942].

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Relationship with the future, the presence of the future in the present, seems all the same accomplished in the face-to-face with the Other. The situation of the face-to-face would be the very accomplishment of time; the encroachment of the present on the future is not the feat of the subject alone, but the intersubjective relationship. The condition of time lies in the relationship between humans, or in history. 659

Time is not an external quality to which events correspond, but rather inherent to the relations with the other. In the midrashim, the pig is a unit of time which contains and marks the relations with the other (animal, the divine (God), and humans (Rome/Christianity). The avoidance of pork marks a distinction between the Jews and omnivorous animals, for it is by self-control that the Jews distinguish themselves from their own animality, from a piggish nature, and from the animal kingdom. It is by a total acceptance of the avoidance of pork that the Jews accept and confirm their particular relation with God; it is by refusing to partake of pork that the Jews resist the omnivorous Empire, whether pagan or Christian. If the pig is a symbol of otherness, of the Other, all the more appropriate that the sages called it “another thing.” Like the heretic par excellence, Elisah ben Abuya, is named: Aḥer, Other. The pig became the “other” par excellence, a symbol of “otherness” itself - otherness understood as that of the brother twin. Midrash Temurah (13th cent.?), while speaking of the need for contradictions in the world and noting that without purity there is no impurity and vice versa, says that “the pig and other unclean animals said to the clean ones: You should be grateful to us, because were it not for the uncleanness of us and our friends you would not be known as clean. If there is no just [man] there is no wicked [man]; said a wicked man to a just man: you should thank me for if I were not evil, how would you be known [as just]? If all men

659

Emmanuel Levinas, Time and the Other: And Additional Essays (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 2002 (1947), 79.

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were just, you would have no advantage.” 660 If Judaism and Christianity (and Isla m) should not thank each other, they should at least give thought to the measure by which their identities are mutually constructed. The case of the pig, the dialogical beast, may help us think in this dialogical dimension: the way each religion constructs its fundamentals (identity, morals, anthropology, conception of history, etc.) in dialogue with the other real or imagined voice; by inventing the other in the particular discourse of each religion. We should ask ourselves to what extent the reason or logic of each of these religions is the fruit of dia-logics, of being between diverse logics.

660

Midrash Temurah 4. Shlomoh Aharon Wertheimer. Batei Midrashot, vol. 2. (Jerusalem: Mosad Harav Cook, 1953), 192-193. ‫ צריכים אתם להחזיק לנו‬,‫ החזיר וכל מיני בהמה טמאה לבהמה טהורה‬,‫ אמרו‬.‫ואם אין טהרה אין טומאה ואם אין טומאה אין טהרה‬ ‫ אמר רשע לצדיק צריך אתה להחזיק לי‬,‫ אם אין צדיק אין רשע‬.‫טובה אילולא אני וחברי שאנו טמאים לא נודעתם שאתם טהורים‬ .‫ אלו היו כל בני אדם צדיקים לא היה לך יתרון‬,‫טובה לולי שאני רשע מאין היתה ניכר‬ For the rhetoric of Midrash Temurah, see: Mauro Perani, Il Midrash Temurah: la dialettica degli opposti in un'interpretazione ebraica tardo-medievale (Bologna: EDB, 1986).

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VITA Misgav Har-Peled was born in Jerusalem, Israel, on April 3, 1973. He studied at The High School for Environmental Education, Ben Gurion College, in Sde-Boker, Negev, Israel, where he majored in Environmental Studies and Archaeology. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Biblical and Classical Archaeology and General Studies (with a specialization in Philosophy and Medieval History) from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1999. He then moved to Paris, France, where he received a Master’s Degree in History from the University of Paris I – Panthéon – Sorbonne (L’espace io . Etude sur la transformation des églises en écuries par les musulmans durant les croisades, 1095-1291) in 2002. After one year as an exchange student at the École Française de Rome and at The University of Rome, La Sapienza (Programme: Histoire et Anthropologie des sociétés méditerranéennes de l’antiquité à la période contemporaine), he recieved his DEA from the Ecole de Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), entitled: Le

ier d’Abraham et L’Agneau de Dieu. Une étude comparative de

’anima it dans e judaïsme et e christianisme). Misgav currently resides between TelAviv, Israel, and San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico.

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