by Dr. Israel Jamitovsky
Dedicated to evoking the memory of my late father Dr. Marcos Jamitovsky (of blessed memory) as these days mark 42 years since his death
The enormous variety and richness of the Pesach Haggadot is public knowledge, that is, the text that recounts the departure of the people of Israel from Egypt and obviously the opportunity is ripe to address them given the imminent proximity of the Hebrew Passover. I begin by pointing out that illustrated Hebrew manuscripts begin to see the light towards the end of the 13th century and beginning of the 14th century while the printed Passover Haggadot see the light and are published from the 15th century onwards.
On this occasion I will try to briefly address a truly unique Haggadah. It's about the Bird's Head Haggadah, even the very special label attracts attention and therefore it is worth reflecting on its profile. It is a manuscript prepared in Germany at the end of the 13th century and constitutes the oldest Ashkenazi Haggadah in the Jewish heritage, which was preserved in its entirety and is currently exhibited in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Its very particular name is due to the fact that it appears profusely illustrated in which human figures appear accompanied by birds on their respective heads, an unusual phenomenon indeed.
The manuscript has 94 pages, 27 centimeters long and 18.2 wide, originally it had 50 pages divided into five chapters, it currently has 47 pages. Half of this Haggadah is extensively illustrated.
Regarding the author of his writing, it is estimated that his given name was Menachem, given that the words that make up this name appear highlighted and emphasized in this Haggadah when indicating the term munajim in Hebrew
The Haggadah appears extensively illustrated and in color, mostly in the margins of the text. Parts of the illustrations address events from the biblical text, such as the sacrifice of Isaac, the departure from Egypt and the delivery of the Scrolls of the Law. Others, as expected, allude to the different characteristic signs of this special night in tradition. Jewish: typical foods, the ritual washing of the hands, the hiding of the afikoman (a piece of unleavened bread that is hidden and that the children of the family have to locate once the Passover meal is over) as part of the ritual of reading the Haggadah.
Nothing is left to chance and its pages reflect the profiles of the time. The men appear with the typical hats that Jewish men were obliged to wear in the Middle Ages in which this Haggadah was made. An interesting detail to note is that the birds do not appear outlined in gentle figures like the Pharaoh, but in this space the faces of humans emerge although they appear covered.
As expected, the question that emerges is why it is, what is the reason for the presence of the birds above the heads of the Jews and in this space different elaborations were woven. The most popular explanation is that Ashkenazi Judaism refrained from depicting human faces due to the biblical prohibition against erecting images, statues and idols.
This approach appears in Hebrew manuscripts of the time, in which their authors refrained from outlining human faces and instead depicted animal figures or an amorphous face lacking its characteristic signs. The explanation given by some exegetes is that the children of Israel, upon leaving Egypt, resembled and identified with eagles, as expressly appears in different biblical verses from Exodus and Deuteronomy.
Another explanation given was that the eagle was the symbol of the Emperor of Germany and its use by the Jews reflected the desire to clearly show their identification with the Empire. Notwithstanding this, its reading and interpretation were widely questioned.
Historian Ruth Malinkoff in her book Anti-Semitic hatred with Hebrew signs, illustrated manuscripts from the German Middle Ages holds a radically different position. The Jewish figures outlined are nothing more than grotesque anti-Semitic caricatures that were clearly aimed at making the Jew ridiculous. According to this historian, the illustrations were the work of Christian artists and the figure of the bird above the heads of the Jews constitutes an obvious insinuation to the elongated nose and large eyes that anti-Semites in their phobia attributed to the Jews. To strengthen the reading and position of it, this historian maintains that in part of the illustrations the ears of pigs emerge in said Jews. In addition to this - Malinkoff points out - the fact that birds of prey settled on their heads - ritually impure and prohibited according to religious tradition - further accentuates the anti-Semitic sign of the aforementioned manuscript.
On the other hand, the historian Meyer Schapiro, who prefaced the first exact copy of the Haggadah edited by M. Spitzer in 1965 in Israel, maintained that the illustrations of this Haggadah, far from being anti-Semitic, dignify the image of the Jew in different spaces.
Who did the Haggadah belong to?
In reality, no one knows for sure who was the first owner of this unique Haggadah. Its binding indicates that in 1864 it was acquired by Baruch Benekdit. One of his descendants - Johanna Benedikt - received it as a wedding gift when she married the German-Jewish lawyer and parliamentarian Ludwig Marum, who took care of it in his study. This family lived in the city of Karlsruhe, in southern Germany. .
In 1934, Marum was arrested by the Nazi regime, his wife and children managed to flee to France and at that time the fate of the manuscript was unknown. It resurfaces and reappears in Jerusalem when Herbert Kahn, a German Jew from Switzerland, settles in the Land of Israel in 1946. The latter, unaware of its enormous historical and religious value, sold it to the Bezalel Museum for the amount of 600 US dollars and later it is Haggadah went to the Israel Museum where it is permanently displayed to this day.
As I noted previously, in 1965 the Tarchich Publishing House and under the direction of Michael Spitzer published this Haggadah, arousing great interest in the international sphere and making it possible for the first time to directly access the text in its entirety.
In turn, in 1997, the Israeli Koren Publishing House, together with the Israel Museum, published the Passover Haggadah, incorporating illustrations from the Birds' Heads Haggadah, and accompanying its translation into English.