Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz. Elisheva Baumgarten
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Название: Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz
Автор: Elisheva Baumgarten
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: История
Серия: Jewish Culture and Contexts
isbn: 9780812290127
isbn:
The practice of fasting connected the body and its physical needs with less tangible values, such as self-denial and repentance.7 Rituals performed by individual bodies are often attributed to the social body as well, thus reflecting the community as a whole.8 By definition, fasting was conducted on a personal level by each individual who practiced this ritual; in the case of collective fasts, hunger and self-denial were simultaneously individual and communal experiences. Since communal fasts were accompanied by public rituals (e.g., prayer services with related liturgical content), these experiences were internally and externally based for a community and its members. Fasting can thus provide a window onto individual and collective practice.9
This chapter seeks to outline Jewish fasting practices in medieval Ashkenaz in terms of communal and personal piety alongside notions of repentance and atonement (teshuvah) that developed during the High Middle Ages. In this analysis of sources on fasting, close attention is given to the particularities of the practice itself, including the treatment of both men and women, as well as to gender as a determining factor in the significance ascribed to fasting.10 In light of the abundant scholarship on fasting and penance in medieval Christian Europe,11 this study assesses Jewish fasting practices in the context of fasting among medieval Christians.12
My discussion of medieval Jewish fasting within Christian contexts is founded on three assumptions. First, although fasting has held a central role in nearly all religions and confidence in its efficacy has remained cogent over time, the precise modes of fasting are particular to each religion and vary relative to the others. In fact, religious communities distinguished themselves from one another in many ways, most notably here via their distinct ritual calendars and their interpretations of fasting as reflected by their own ideals and beliefs. These differences honed the identities of those who fasted even when they participated in a general practice that transcended the particularities of their own community (e.g., by fasting during a drought).
Secondly, no special designation or officially conferred status serves as a prerequisite for pious fasting. This point has far-reaching implications for the accessibility of this pious practice in its medieval context: fasting did not require specialized knowledge or publicly recognized stature, nor was it hierarchically controlled or determined, although rabbis and Christian clergy had a role in instructing when and even how fasts should be conducted. Each individual, whether learned or uneducated, could fast as an act of devotion. Neither was this custom geographically or logistically restrictive: one could fast at home, in the church, or on the road. These qualities render fasting a readily accessible expression of piety.
Figure 4. A community fasting. © Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg. Cod. Heb. 37, fol. 153r, detail. Siddur, fifteenth century.
Finally, a comment on the broader medieval cultural landscape is in order. As is well known, Islam advocated fasting in a manner that resembles Judaism and Christianity. Goitein and others have compared Jewish fasts to parallel customs among Muslims and Christians.13 A presentation of practical and conceptual comparisons between Jewish and Muslim fasting extends beyond the scope of this study which focuses on the Jewish and Christian praxes only.
Jewish Fasting in Late Antiquity
Since medieval Jewry cannot be fully understood without an awareness of earlier Jewish practices and norms, I lay the groundwork for our examination of medieval Ashkenazic fasting by surveying the practices among Jews in antiquity.14 Starting with the Bible, ancient Jewish texts discuss fasting in various contexts, the most prominent being Yom Kippur (Lev. 16), the day designated for the atonement of sin.15 The Bible emphasizes self-denial as a central component of the Day of Atonement, “made for you to cleanse you of all your sins” (Lev. 16:30), a day “when atonement (kapparah) takes place” (Lev. 23:28). The Bible also presents fasting as a primary means of expressing submission and devotion to God, preparing for contact with the Divine, and responding to critical situations.16 Critiques of fasting are also included in the biblical text, as frequent fasting sometimes evoked disapproval from prophets who argued against outward displays of piety if they were not accompanied by comparable inner reverence.17 It is noteworthy that these exhortations against fasting are rarely referenced in medieval Ashkenazic sources.18
Late antique sources, among them Tractate Ta’anit, discuss communal and individual fasts. Besides longstanding annual fasts like Yom Kippur and Tish’ah beAv (the day that commemorates the destruction of the Temples), communal fasts responded to crises—with drought being the classic example from antiquity. The Mishnah and the Talmud each delineate clear and graduated procedures at those times, beginning with fasts by community leaders and progressing in intensity and inclusiveness until the entire community participated.19
Individuals also fasted for a range of personal reasons during that period.20 Two common motivations that led people to fast were the hope of neutralizing an omen envisioned in a threatening dream (ta’anit halom)21 and the desire to honor a parent’s memory on the anniversary of his or her death.22 Some Jews fasted at critical times in the calendar cycle: specifically during Elul and Adar, the months that precede the High Holidays and Passover, respectively.23 Further substantiation that fasting had become widespread appears in Megillat Ta’anit, which lists the days when fasting was not permitted.24 Such instructions would not have been necessary if fasting were not practiced extensively.
Numerous talmudic discussions consider the reasons for fasting and its efficacy, as Eliezer Diamond discusses at length in his study of ascetic fasting in the Talmud.25 In his presentation of the dilemmas associated with frequent fasting, Diamond demonstrates that some rabbis cast this practice in a positive light, as exemplified in a passage in Tractate Berakhot that records personal prayers that certain rabbis would add to their recitation of communal liturgy. On fast days, Sheshet was reputed to include these words:
Sovereign of the Universe, You know full well that when the Temple was standing, when a man sinned, he would bring a sacrifice and even though only its fat and blood was given as an offering, atonement was granted to him. Now, having fasted, my own fat and blood are reduced. May it be Your will to reckon the diminishment of my fat and blood as if I had offered them on the altar before You, so You will favor me.26
The power of fasting is also emphasized by the third-century amora Eleazar b. Pedat: “Fasting is more efficacious than charity … for the former is performed with a man’s money, but the latter with his body.”27 However, Eleazar is quick to clarify that prayer is the preferred way to reach God.
Amram Tropper has suggested that some Jews, particularly in the intellectual strata of society, adopted fasting as a form of self-discipline during the Second Temple period as one aspect of their embrace of Hellenic ideals and ideas.28 Diamond also describes holy men in the talmudic period who fasted in an effort to fortify their reputation for piety.29 While men are depicted in the majority of antique Jewish sources that mention individual fasts, this should not be taken to imply that women did not fast. Rather, this rhetorical pattern suggests that in a society where men represented the norm, women were aggregated into the general community so did not merit special mention.
The talmudic descriptions of women fasting can be divided into two categories. Most focus on mandatory communal fasts, such as Yom Kippur, discussing whether pregnant and nursing women are required to participate and clarifying their responsibilities.30 In the remaining texts, women who fast are featured in anecdotal passages. This vignette from the Palestinian Talmud, which appears in numerous medieval СКАЧАТЬ