The Hebrew Story in the Middle Ages

Abstract

Hebrew narratives of the Middle Ages covers a period of about a thousand years, starting approximately from the Moslem invasions in the mid-7th century to mid-17th century. It also covers a great variety of cultural spaces, from Palestine to Babylon (Iraq), Europe, North Africa, and parts of the New World. It should be emphasized that Hebrew was not the only language in which narratives were created and disseminated in Jewish culture of the time; Aramaic, Judeo-Arabic, Yiddish, and Judeo-Spanish were among the Jewish dialects in which narratives were created. However, the following article will deal with Hebrew narratives only, which, like medieval Latin narrative, was the all-inclusive Jewish language that could establish communication between the various communities and cultural spaces. Hebrew narrative of the period is characterized by a great diversity. This is seen from the sources in which these narratives were included: collections of tales, historical chronicles, biblical and Talmudic interpretations, legal (halachic) codices, philosophical tractates; travel journals, sermons, mystical visions, and more. However, the world of Jewish storytelling in the Middle Ages stood for many years in the shadow of Hebrew poetry of the period, due to cultural and social Jewish ideologies of the 19th century, that continued into the 20th century. It was not until the late 1960s that this discipline was established as a legitimate branch of Jewish literature. Since then it became a full field of study: research of individual tales to full study of large collections of medieval Hebrew tales; critical editions of central books; studies of typical genres such as fables, exempla, legends, and demonological and fabulous tales; and studies of surveys of seminal archives and libraries as the Geniza and the Bodleian Library. Studies also center around the main stages and historical events of this long period: the establishment of Jewish medieval communities, the transfer of Jewish wisdom centers from the East to the West, the events around the Crusader movement, the expulsion from Spain in late 15th century: actually every major or local event in Jewish history of the time was followed by narratives of some kind. Hebrew narratives of the Middle Ages, was an essential part of Jewish culture of the period. It did not only react to the major historical events but also reflected important aspects of Jewish life that were not known from any other historical or legal sources. It also, and even more important, took part in the major debates and controversies that conducted Jewish life of the time, and reflected its diversity and changes.