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Jacob the Knight in Ezekiel's Chariot: Imagined Identity in a Micrography Decoration of an Ashkenazic Bible

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2016

Sara Offenberg
Sara Offenberg*
Affiliation:
Bar-Ilan University
*
offenbergs@gmail.com

Abstract

In an Ashkenazic Bible produced in the thirteenth century, we find a unique micrography decoration portraying Ezekiel's vision. On the bottom margin the Masorah micrography shows the full bodies of the four creatures: the lion facing the ox, and the man, in full armor and holding an object in each hand, facing the eagle. I suggest that the choice to portray the human figure in this micrography as an armored knight can be explained by reference to the tradition describing seeing Jacob's image engraved on the throne in Ezekiel's vision, as also reflected in the writings of Hasidei Ashkenaz. The decoration identifies the human figure as Jacob, which may illustrate the verse 'Avir Ya‘akov, meaning “mighty one of Jacob” or Jacob the Knight.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
AJS Review , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , April 2016 , pp. 1 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Jewish Studies 2016 

And out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance. … As for the likeness of their faces, they had the face of a man; and they four had the face of a lion on the right side; and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four had also the face of an eagle.

—Ezekiel 1:5, 10

An Ashkenazic Bible (London, British Library, Or. 2091, fol. 203a), produced in the second half of the thirteenth century, contains a unique micrography decoration portraying Ezekiel's vision (fig. 1).Footnote 1 The page includes three columns of text:Footnote 2 on the right are the final verses from Isaiah (66:21–24), and the center and left columns include the beginning of Ezekiel (1:1–23).Footnote 3 The Masorah micrography shows two portrayals of the four creatures from Ezekiel's vision. On the upper Masorah line, from right to left, are the upper bodies of an eagle, a man wearing a helmet and chain mail, a lion, and an ox. The Masorah on the bottom margin creates a rectangular frame that encloses the full bodies of Ezekiel's creatures, but in a different arrangement: the lion on the right is facing the ox, and the man, in full armor and holding an object in each hand, faces the eagle, whose wings are spread.Footnote 4 There is a striking micrography decoration under the verses in the right-hand column: a four-winged creature with a face drawn with its tongue out. This image, positioned just below the Tetragrammaton at the end of the book of Isaiah,Footnote 5 may represent the cherub mentioned in Ezekiel 10:4: “And the glory of the Lord mounted up from the cherub to the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord's glory.”Footnote 6 The combination of verses from Isaiah and Ezekiel with the portrayals of the creatures suggests that the page is a visual representation of the merkavah (chariot). Of particular interest is the portrayal of the knight—this essay will focus on his depiction in this micrography decoration as a reflection of the writings of Hasidei Ashkenaz.

Figure 1.

London, British Library, Or. 2091, fol. 203a. Ashkenaz, the second half of the thirteenth century. © The British Library

Most depictions of the four creatures in medieval manuscripts from Ashkenaz and Spain follow the Christian convention of portraying the three beasts—understood to be symbols of the evangelists and associated with the Second Coming of ChristFootnote 7—with wings, and rendering the human figure as an angel. For example, in a micrography decoration from another Ashkenazic Bible (London, British Library, Add. 21160, fol. 192v) known as the Yonah Pentateuch, also produced in the second half of the thirteenth century, all the creatures are winged (fig. 2).Footnote 8 In these two portrayals, the creatures are set in a single row, unlike their settings in other Hebrew illuminated manuscripts, where two of them are illuminated on the top and two on the bottom (as in Christian art).Footnote 9 In the case of the Yonah Pentateuch depiction, it makes sense that the creatures are set in a single row, as the Masorah text is on the bottom of the page; however, in the decoration under study here (fig. 1), the upper and lower Masorah could have been rearranged, but both sets of creatures were illustrated in single rows. Katrin Kogman-Appel has demonstrated that images in illuminated manuscripts figure the creatures as separate entities, rather than as one being with four faces as described in Ezekiel, owing to the halakhic restriction regarding visualization of the tetramorph.Footnote 10 The image of the knight, however, makes this particular micrography decoration unique.

Figure 2.

Yonah Pentateuch, London, British Library, Add. 21160, fol. 192v. Ashkenaz, the second half of the thirteenth century. © The British Library

The motif of the knight is not new to Jewish historiography. In recent years, several scholars have investigated the imagined identities of Jews who portrayed themselves as knights. Ivan G. Marcus, whose study focuses on the self-representation of Jews as knights, primarily in written sources,Footnote 11 discussed the dissonance between real Christian knights in the Middle Ages, whom he identified with the Crusaders, and Jews who saw themselves as knights. This self-identification in Jewish literature and art, which began after the First Crusade, reached a climax around the year 1240 and continued during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Warriors, especially knights, are portrayed in Ashkenazic manuscripts, both in miniature paintings and in micrography, as both Jewish and Christian figures. As Sarit Shalev-Eyni has shown, they are depicted as noble and aristocratic, at least in fourteenth-century illuminated manuscripts made in and around the Lake Constance region. Shalev-Eyni has found that among other aristocratic features, these depictions indicate the adoption of the iconographical projection of holding coats of arms and other chivalric appurtenances.Footnote 12

The choice to portray the human figure in this micrography as an armored knight can be further explained by reference to the tradition of seeing Jacob's image engraved upon the throne in Ezekiel's vision—indeed, the micrography decoration identifies the human figure as Jacob. This notion is rooted in the Aramaic version of Genesis 28:12, which relates Jacob's dream, describing the angels climbing up the ladder to view Jacob's image engraved upon the throne.Footnote 13 Elliot Wolfson, who has studied this tradition at length, explored the mystical aspects of this motif both in rabbinic literature and in the writings of Hasidei Ashkenaz,Footnote 14 demonstrating in detail how this motif evolved and was used in the commentaries on Ezekiel's chariot.

The knight in this micrography decoration may illustrate the biblical phrase 'Avir Ya‘akov (אביר יעקב), meaning “mighty one of Jacob” or “Jacob the Knight,”Footnote 15 a phrase found four times in the Bible: in Genesis 49:24, in Isaiah 49:26 and 60:16, and in Psalms 132:2, 5. A closely related 'Avir Yisra'el is also mentioned in Isaiah 1:24. According to Rachel Neis, when the phrase 'Avir Ya‘akov appears in most texts (including hekhalot literature, the late antique mystical Jewish writings), it represents the Lord as the guardian of Jacob (mighty one of Jacob).Footnote 16

Although the idea of Jacob's image engraved on the throne has been well known since the rabbinic period, the association between that topos and the phrase 'Avir Ya‘akov first appeared in the thirteenth century when Rabbi Eleazar of Worms (d. ca. 1230) connected 'Avir Ya‘akov with the image of Jacob on the throne.Footnote 17 As this micrography decoration appears in a Bible and there are no other texts within it, it is hard to pin down the particular verses that the designer had in mind when planning the image. In a recent article Annette Weber has identified the ideas of ritual piety of Hasidei Ashkenaz expressed in the micrography decoration of the initial words in some Ashkenazic monumental Hebrew bibles.Footnote 18 Similarly, what helps to place the knight in our manuscript is the intellectual atmosphere at the time and location this manuscript was produced, which suggests that this portrayal visualizes some of the ideas of Hasidei Ashkenaz.Footnote 19

An illumination of Jacob on the throne can be found in the Leipzig Maḥzor (Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek, V 1102/I, fol.31a), produced in Worms around 1310 (fig. 3), and studied in depth by Katrin Kogman-Appel.Footnote 20 The figure of Jacob is represented as one of the four creatures that adorn the initial panel of the piyyut “ʾEl mitnaseʾ” for tractate Shekalim.Footnote 21 According to Kogman-Appel, the image reflects ideas based on the mystical writings of Hasidei Ashkenaz, especially those of Rabbi Eleazar of Worms, regarding a vision of Jacob on the throne.Footnote 22 Although the human figure in the Leipzig Maḥzor can be interpreted as representing Jacob, Bible Masoretes went even further by portraying him in accord with the biblical verses as “Jacob the Knight.”

Figure 3.

Leipzig Maḥzor, Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek, V 1102/I, fol.31a. Worms, c. 1310.

The narrative of Jacob's image engraved upon the throne (or, more accurately, as Jacob representing one of the creatures) was portrayed literally in the micrography decoration we are considering, since in this depiction “Jacob the Knight” is in full armor. Hence, instead of understanding the biblical verses as referring to the Lord as the knight, the knight is identified as Jacob. This understanding of the text is apparent in Rabbi Ḥayim Palti'el's commentary on the Torah. A student of the Maharam of Rothenburg, Rabbi Palti'el, born in Falaise around 1240, wrote his commentary around the year 1300, basing it on the writings of the Tosafists as well as those of Rabbi Judah the Pious (d. 1217) and his student Rabbi Eleazar of Worms. On Genesis 49:24 he wrote: “‘By the hands of the mighty one [of] Jacob.’ Meaning: Who caused him all of this might and honor? It is 'Avir Ya‘akov, that is, Jacob, the hero/champion.”Footnote 23 While the explanation of the iconography of the human figure as a knight should not be limited to these texts, they are important for our understanding of the sort of text that was likely familiar to the authorship of this manuscript. In our image, 'Avir Ya‘akov is transformed from a divine epithet to a sort of pun on the image, which emerges not from knowledge of specific texts, but from the image itself. A closer look at the details (fig. 4) reveals connections to the ideas of Hasidei Ashkenaz regarding Jacob's image engraved upon the throne.

Figure 4.

Detail, London, British Library, Or. 2091, fol. 203a. Ashkenaz, the second half of the thirteenth century. © The British Library

The knight is dressed in a surcoat, a sleeveless garment worn over hauberk-type chain mail (i.e., a mail shirt; fig. 5), a part of a knight's apparel during the first half of the thirteenth century, which continued to be worn for approximately a hundred years. The purpose of the surcoat was, on the one hand, to protect the chain mail from the weather and, on the other, to identify men in battle—since the warriors’ faces were covered by helmets, the heraldic sign on the surcoat clearly indicated the side to which the warrior belonged.Footnote 24 The figure shows heraldic symbols shaped like stars.

Figure 5.

Mail shirt, Germany, fifteenth century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of William H. Riggs, 1913, 14.25.1540. www.metmuseum.org.

The noble knights of higher status, such as cavalrymen, wore great helms, devices developed during the 1220s (fig. 6),Footnote 25 which covered the entire face, except for the eyes. On the helmet is a crest of a round object and two crescents.Footnote 26 According to Charles Ashdown, heraldic features on the crest were in use as early as the mid-twelfth century, but the great crests (such as the one in the image here) only appeared in the second half of the thirteenth century. The great helms were worn in tournaments but never on a field of battle.Footnote 27 Unlike warriors engaged in combat, who could earn their knighthoods regardless of their social status, the competitors in tournaments were all nobles.Footnote 28 This could well be one of the reasons for choosing to portray the knight in the Jewish manuscript as a tournament participant, as doing so hinted at his aristocratic position.

Figure 6.

Great helm. Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin / A. Psille.

Evidence for Jewish knowledge of tournaments is found both in texts and in visual culture.Footnote 29 In one of his responsa, the Ra'avyah (Rabbi Eliezer ben Yo'el ha-Levi of Bonn, 1140–1225) discussed a quarrel between Reuven and Shimon regarding a set of chain mail that Shimon gave as collateral to Reuven, who testified that he had lost it after he returned from a tournament.Footnote 30 The tournament is described as a normative place to visit and the chain mail as an object that Jews might acquire. It is known that at times during the thirteenth century, Jews loaned money to knights who had lost a game and were required to pay a forfeit.Footnote 31 In this light, perhaps Ra'avyah's response testifies to the situation of two Jews engaged in pawning;Footnote 32 regardless, the text shows that Jews were familiar with tournament apparel.

In his left hand, the knight in our micrography decoration holds a rectangular object, which, if turned around, might be taken for a shield, but it is too small for a rectangular shield (nor could it be a heraldic banner); further, from the way he is holding it, it seems that this object is not a shield.Footnote 33 In the scene in the Leipzig Maḥzor (see fig. 3), Jacob is holding a book, which characterizes him as a scholar.Footnote 34 In the micrography decoration in the Ashkenazic Bible under discussion something similar is portrayed: outlined with the horizontal lines, the object in his hand looks more like a document or a writing tablet than a shield, but its abstract form makes it more difficult to identify, since it is not in the shape of a scroll or a codex (fig. 4).Footnote 35

An image of Jacob holding a document or a book matches his identification as a tam (innocent) scholar seated in a tent and studying, in contrast to Esau, the wild hunter. For example, in the piyyut “Ve-ḥayyot meruba'ot” by R. Elazar ha-Kallir,Footnote 36 all the details of the chariot are mentioned in their biblical order, but the poet identified the human form seated upon the throne as Jacob.Footnote 37Sefer gematriot by Rabbi Judah the Pious, copied in an Ashkenazic manuscript from the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century, offers an explanation for Jacob's image engraved on the throne related to his (Jacob's) study of the Torah, placed beneath the throne.Footnote 38Sefer gematriot connects the image of Jacob on the throne and the study of the Torah. The micrography decoration under discussion also seems to combine the image of Jacob as the creature with a human face, and his depiction not only as a heroic knight, but also as a scholar. Jacob studying the Torah seems to be most fitting in the context of a micrography decoration in a Bible manuscript.

In his right hand, the knight is holding what seems to be a long mace, probably of the type known as the “Gothic mace,” where the flanges on the head were thick and pointed (fig. 4). The Gothic mace was a popular weapon of war and a secondary weapon in tournaments. The mace was the weapon of militant churchmen, who sought to avoid the denunciation of those who “smite with the sword,” and from the twelfth century onward it was also used as a symbol of authority. In time, a ceremonial mace appeared, which had similar characteristics to those of the mace in this micrography image: it was about as long as a human being was tall, heavily ornamented at the top, and often pointed at the bottom.Footnote 39

The choice of the Gothic mace may thus not be accidental—Jewish sources also identify Jacob with authority, as reflected in his other name, “Israel,” which is derived from the word serarah, meaning “authority.” The name “Israel” also contains the word “ruler” (sar) and “God” ('el).Footnote 40 Another object frequently associated with Jacob in the written sources, based on two verses in Genesis, is the rod/staff. The first verse relates to the deal he made with Laban concerning the sheep and the goats: “And Jacob took his rods of fresh poplar, and of the almond and of the plane-tree; and peeled white streaks in them, making the white appear which was in the rods” (Genesis 30:37). The second verse is the staff mentioned when he met Esau: “For with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two camps” (Genesis 32:11). R. Judah the Pious used the numerological association (gematria) of this verse in the Sefer gematriot to identify Jacob: “my staff gematria Jacob.”Footnote 41 Hence, the so-called ceremonial mace or staff in this micrography decoration could relate to these verses as portraying both a mace and a staff (both the rod of authority and a weapon), reinforcing Jacob's image as an authoritative character of higher rank than the other creatures.

Jacob's other name, Israel, also held particular importance in the context of Jewish-Christian polemics, in which the name Israel or the Verus Israel (true Israel) had special resonance.Footnote 42 According to the Christian view, the true aristocrat (i.e., true Israel) was not a person of noble origin, but rather one who believed in Christ. The Jews, in contrast, identified themselves as aristocrats, for they considered themselves the subjects of God, the true king.Footnote 43 By employing the Christian iconography of aristocratic knights in Jewish manuscripts, Jews inverted these symbols to point at Jews as the Verus Israel, affirming their true nobility. The fact that this knight, although dressed in an authoritative and chivalric costume, is not armed with lethal weapons is thus not accidental. Marc Michael Epstein and Sarit Shalev-Eyni noted a similar way of figuring “Jewish knights” in the Duke of Sussex Pentateuch (London, British Library, Add. 15282, fol. 179b), produced in the Lake Constance region (c. 1312–1322), where the representatives of the tribes are dressed as warriors holding banners, but without weapons (fig. 7).Footnote 44 According to Ivan Marcus, “the Jewish writers portray Jews as knights of the God of Israel in contrast to the Christian knights and rabble, who travel toward a worthless goal.”Footnote 45 According to Marcus, the Jewish writer sees the positive value of the knightly code of honor and valorous behavior, and implies that the Jewish Pietist should behave in this manner and serve the Lord fearlessly without expecting any reward.Footnote 46 Therefore, knights in Jewish writings, with neither a sword nor any other deadly weapon, suggest more spiritual aspects of noble warriors, and point to a different nature of heroism.Footnote 47 The knight here fits Rabbi Palti'el's interpretation of 'Avir Ya‘akov, as “Jacob who is a hero/champion.” The entire visual design of the page is intended to reflect Ezekiel's vision and thus offer the reader/viewer of this Bible a frame for the text, which reflects some of the most mystical notions of the time, in the image of the four creatures and Jacob's image as the Verus Israel and true scholarly knight, engraved upon the throne.

Figure 7.

Duke of Sussex Pentateuch, London, British Library, Add. 15282, fol. 179b. Lake Constance region, c. 1312–1322. © The British Library

References

1. This micrography decoration has been mentioned in previous research, but without any interpretation beyond noting that it portrays Ezekiel's vision. George Margoliouth, Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: The British Museum, 1899), sign. 117; Therese and Mendel Metzger, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages: Illuminated Hebrew Manuscripts of the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth Centuries (New York: Alpine Fine Arts Collection, 1982), 269, 271; Ilana Tahan, Hebrew Manuscripts: The Power of Script and Image (London: The British Library, 2007), 133–135. See also the British Library website: http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=or_2091_f203r.

2. Only in Hebrew, without the Aramaic translation. On this issue see Stern, David, “The Hebrew Bible in Europe in the Middle Ages: A Preliminary Typology,” Jewish Studies: An Internet Journal 11 (2012): 4–7Google Scholar (http://www.biu.ac.il/JS/JSIJ/11-2012/Stern.pdf).

3. The books are not organized according to the regular order; on this topic see Donald Coggan, “The English Bible,” Encyclopaedia Judaica, ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik (Detroit: Macmillan, 2007), 3:580–583.

4. An iconographical borrowing of the Holy Roman Empire's eagle.

5. The verse from Isaiah 66:23 is repeated after the last verse in Isaiah (66:24): “All flesh shall come and worship Me said the Lord.”

6. According to Gershom Scholem and others this phrase was the core text of the so-called “special cherub” circle within Hasidei Ashkenaz, and it is very tempting to relate this image to the “special cherub”; however, I could not find any strong support for this possibility in the texts. Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York: Schocken, 1954), 113–116.

7. On this see Herbert L. Kessler, Spiritual Seeing: Picturing God's Invisibility in Medieval Art (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000). It should be mentioned that the depiction of the chariot beings is a topos from the Hebrew Bible, borrowed by the writers of the book of Revelation, made manifest visually in art made for early and medieval Christians and then “reborrowed” by the authorship of art made for medieval Jews.

8. Margoliouth, Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts, sign. 75; Metzger, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, 304; Tahan, Hebrew Manuscripts, 132. See also the British Library website: www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=50753.

9. On other scenes of the chariot's four creatures in Ashkenazic and French manuscripts see Sara Offenberg, Illuminated Piety: Pietistic Texts and Images in the North French Hebrew Miscellany (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2013), 65–71. The Ambrosiana Bible (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, B. 32 inf., fol. 135a), produced in 1236; the London Miscellany (London, British Library, Add. 11639, fol. 354b), produced in northern France around 1280; The Double Maḥzor (Wrocław, University Library, Cod. Or. I, 1, fol. 89a), probably produced in Esslingen around 1290; and the Leipzig Maḥzor (Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek V 1102/I, fol.31a), produced in Worms around 1310 (fig. 3); The Copenhagen Maimonides (Guide for the Perplexed) (Copenhagen, The Royal Library, Cod. Hebr. 37, fol. 202a), produced in Barcelona 1348. The creatures in the Leipzig Maḥzor are portrayed without wings. In all of these examples, as well as in the Yonah Pentateuch, the lion is always facing the ox and the man is facing the eagle. On the lion facing the ox as symbolizing harmony and peace see Michael Schneider, Ha-masorot ha-genuzot shel ha-mistikah ha-Yehudit (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2013), 239–242. I could not find other illustrations of the four creatures in medieval Hebrew manuscripts.

10. For example, in 'Orḥot ḥayim, a compilation from the end of the thirteenth or early fourteenth century, Rabbi Aharon ha-Kohen of Lunel quotes a responsum by the Rashba (Rabbi Solomon ibn Adret of Barcelona, d. 1310): “It is forbidden to create the form of the four creatures as one figure with four faces, but creating one of them alone is not [forbidden] … and that is why it is allowed to create the form of the lion, the eagle and the ox—each on its own.” 'Orḥot ḥayim: Hilkhot ‘avodah zarah 7, ed. Moshe Schlesinger (Berlin: Druck von H. Itzkowski, 1902), 232–233. I used Katrin Kogman-Appel's translation: A Mahzor from Worms: Art and Religion in a Medieval Jewish Community (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012), 176; Kogman-Appel, “The Scales in the Leipzig Mahzor: Penance and Eschatology in Early Fourteenth-Century Germany,” in Between Judaism and Christianity: Art Historical Essays in Honor of Elisheva (Elisabeth) Revel-Neher, ed. Katrin Kogman-Appel and Mati Meyer (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 314. Beyond this halakhic restriction, there may be another reason for choosing to differ from the conventional mode of depicting the evangelist symbols in late thirteenth-century Christian culture in Franco-Germany: the masoretor avoided such images due to their christological ideas.

11. Ivan G. Marcus, “Why Is This Knight Different? A Jewish Self-Representation in Medieval Europe,” in Tov Elem: Memory, Community and Gender in Medieval and Early Modern Jewish Societies: Essays in Honor of Robert Bonfil, ed. Elisheva Baumgarten, Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin and Roni Weinstein (Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 2011), 139–152. For more on illuminations of “Jewish knights” see Offenberg, Sara, “A Jewish Knight in Shining Armor: Messianic Narrative and Imagination in Ashkenazic Illuminated Manuscripts,” The University of Toronto Journal of Jewish Thought 4 (2015): 1–14Google Scholar.

12. Sarit Shalev-Eyni, Jews among Christians: Hebrew Book Illumination from Lake Constance (London: Harvey Miller, 2010), 85–92; Shalev-Eyni, “Ba‘alei hon Yehudim be-‘ir noẓrit: Ha-mimẓa’ ha-ḥazuti ve-ha-miluli,” in Temunah ve-ẓelil: ‘Omanut muzikah historiyah, ed. Richard I. Cohen (Jerusalem: Merkaz Zalman Shazar, 2007), 107–130. Her study relies, among other sources, on research of the decoration on a Jewish house found in Zurich, where we find many coats of arms portrayed on the walls; for more on that see Dölf Wild and Roland Böhmer, “Die spätmittelalterlichen Wandmalereien im Haus «Zum Brunnenhof» in Zürich und ihre jüdischen Arbeitsgeber,” Separatdruck aus dem Bericht «Zürcher Denkmalpflege, Stadt Zürrich (1995/96): 15–33. This is also in line with the Jewish seals found from medieval Europe, see Daniel M. Friedenberg, Medieval Jewish Seals from Europe (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1987).

13. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan of the Pentateuch: Text and Concordance, trans. E. G. Clarke (Hoboken, NJ: Ktav, 1984), 33; David J. Halperin, The Faces of the Chariot: Early Jewish Responses to Ezekiel's Vision (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1988), 121.

14. Elliot R. Wolfson, “The Image of Jacob Engraved upon the Throne: Further Reflection on the Esoteric Doctrine of the German Pietists,” in Along the Path: Studies in Kabbalistic Myth, Symbolism, and Hermeneutics (Albany: SUNY Press, 1995), 1–62.

15. On the pronunciation of ʾAbir Ya‘akov as ʾAvir Ya‘akov see Samuel Rolles Driver, Alfred Plummer, and Charles A. Briggs, The International Critical Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1895–1929), 530–531. I thank Leor Jacobi for this reference. On the phrase ʾAvir Ya‘akov, ʾAvir Isra'el, or simply ʾavir as referring to angels in the Hekhalot Rabbati see Yaron Zini, “ʾOẓar ha-milim ve-ẓerufei ha-lashon shel hekhalot rabbati” (PhD diss., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2012), 211–214.

16. Neis, Rachel, “Embracing Icons: The Face of Jacob on the Throne of God,” Images 1 (2007): 48–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The importance of the hekhalot literature here is that it was familiar to Hasidei Ashkenaz, who indeed elaborated on it, as meticulously studied in recent years by Annelies Kuyt. See Annelies Kuyt, “Traces of a Mutual Influence of the Haside Ashkenaz and the Hekhalot Literature,” in From Narbonne to Regensburg: Studies in Medieval Hebrew Texts, ed. N. A. van Uchelen and I. E. Zwiep (Amsterdam: Juda Palache Institute, 1993), 62–86; Kuyt, “The Haside Ashkenaz and Their Mystical Sources: Continuity and Innovation,” in Jewish Studies in a New Europe: Proceedings of the Fifth Congress of Jewish Studies in Copenhagen 1994, ed. Ulf Haxen, Hanne Trautner-Kromann and Karen Lisa Goldschmidt Salamon (Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzel A/S International, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, 1998), 462–471. In what follows we shall return to the issue of Hasidei Ashkenaz.

17. Wolfson, “Image of Jacob,” 131 n. 132. On this idea in relation to the verse and term ʾAvir Ya‘akov along with other sources cited by Wolfson, see, for example, Eleazar of Worms (Rokeaḥ), Pirushei siddur ha-tefillah la-Rokeaḥ, ed. M. and Y. Hershler, 2 vols. (Jerusalem: Makhon Ha-Rav Hershler, 1992), vol. 2, sign. 81, 522.

18. Weber, Annette, “The Masoret Is a Fence to the Torah: Monumental Letters and Micrography in Medieval Ashkenazi Bibles,” Ars Judaica 11 (2015): 7–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On other examples of the ideas of Hasidei Ashkenaz in Hebrew illuminated manuscripts see Dubrau, Irmi, “Motiv ʾikonografi shel re‘im ʾahuvim be-maḥzorim ʾashkenazim me-ba‘ad le-darkei ha-parshanut shel torat ha-sod be-ʾAshkenaz bi-yemei ha-benayim,” Kabbalah 24 (2011): 209–240Google Scholar; Katrin Kogman-Appel, Mahzor from Worms; Kogman-Appel, , “Sephardic Ideas in Ashkenaz—Visualizing the Temple in Medieval Regensburg,” in Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook 8 (2009): 245–277Google Scholar; also Offenberg, Sara, “Crossing over from Earth to Heaven: The Image of the Ark and the Merkavah in the North French Hebrew Miscellany,” Kabbalah 26 (2012): 135–158Google Scholar; Offenberg, Illuminated Piety.

19. I should mention Rabbi Judah the Pious's statement in Sefer Ḥasidim that “one who hires a scribe to write the Masorah for the twenty-four books (i.e., the Bible) should make a condition with the scribe that he should not make the Masorah into drawings of birds or beasts or a tree or into any other illustration … for how will he be able to see [and read the Masorah]?” Sefer Ḥasidim, ed. Jehuda Wistinetzki (Frankfurt a. M: M. A. Wahrmann, 1924), par. 709, 184. However, according to David Stern: “Whether or not Judah was the first to oppose the practice, it is clear that his and any other objections were manifestly ignored by Ashkenazic scribes and Masoretes. Indeed, there is hardly anything more common in Ashkenazic Bibles (and other Ashkenazic books) than micrographic illustration.” Stern, “Hebrew Bible in Europe in the Middle Ages,” 52–53. See also Fronda, Rahel, “Attributing of Three Ashkenazi Bibles with Micrographic Images,” Ars Judaica 9 (2013): 45–56Google Scholar; Shalev-Eyni, Jews among Christians, 4–5; Halperin, Dalia-Ruth, “Decorated Masorah on the Openings between Quires in Masoretic Bible Manuscripts,” Journal of Jewish Studies 65, no. 2 (2014): 323–348Google Scholar. It is important to note that there is a gap between what R. Judah the Pious wrote and the actual acceptance of all his instructions by his followers. One example of that is his ban on writing in the margins (found just after the aforementioned section), however, his own book Sefer gematriot was copied on the margins in the North French Hebrew Miscellany produced around 1280; for more on that see Offenberg, Illuminated Piety, 73–100.

20. Kogman-Appel, Mahzor from Worms, 175–182; Kogman-Appel, “Scales in the Leipzig Mahzor,” 315–316.

21. Israel Davidson, ʾOẓar ha-shirah ve-ha-piyyut, 4 vols. (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1924), vol. 1, sign. 3853.

22. Kogman-Appel, Mahzor from Worms, 179–182.

23. Perushei ha-Torah le-R. Ḥayim Palti'el, ed. Isaac Lange (Jerusalem: Daf Chen, 1981), 164. My translation.

.מידי אביר יעקב. כלומר מי גרם לו כל הגדולה הזאת והכבוד הזה זה אביר יעקב, כלומר זהו יעקב שהוא גבור

24. Charles Henry Ashdown, European Arms and Armor (New York: Brussell & Brussell, 1995), 88–90; Martin J. Dougherty, Weapons and Fighting Techniques of the Medieval Warrior, 1000–1500 AD (Guilford, CT: Lyons, 2008), 32–37; David Edge and John Miles Paddock, Arms and Armor of the Medieval Knight: An Illustrated History of Weaponry in the Middle Ages (New York: Crescent, 1988), 55–61. The three “tails” of the surcoat are portrayed according to the standard iconography of a knight's garment's contour. For more on heraldry see Stephen Slater, The History and Meaning of Heraldry: An Illustrated Reference to Classic Symbols and Their Relevance (London: Southwater, 2004).

25. On the great helm see Ashdown, European Arms and Armor, 82–85, 112–113; Kelly DeVries, Medieval Military Technology (Peterborough, ON: Broadview, 1992), 70–73; Edge and Paddock, Arms and Armor of the Medieval Knight, 53–55; Slater, History and Meaning of Heraldry, 52–59.

26. I could not find a heraldic equivalent to identify it. Perhaps celestial figures were chosen for the heraldic symbols because they are related to Jacob's image engraved not only upon the throne, but also upon the stars and moon. On this see Wolfson, Along the Path, 27–28, 31–32. A fourteenth-century Jewish seal of a scribe from Trier called “Jacob the scribe” shows a shield with letters forming Jacob's name (IACOB), and a crescent moon on the right side face of a man. Friedenberg, Medieval Jewish Seals, 222–223. I thank Andreas Lehnertz for drawing my attention to this seal.

27. Ashdown, European Arms and Armor, 90–92; Edge and Paddock, Arms and Armor of the Medieval Knight, 53–55.

28. Ashdown, European Arms and Armor, 111–112. For more on tournaments see Joachim Bumke, Courtly Culture: Literature and Society in the High Middle Ages (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 247–273; Dougherty, Weapons and Fighting Techniques, 70–79; Edge and Paddock, Arms and Armor of the Medieval Knight, 154–174.

29. Shalev-Eyni, Jews among Christians, 85–92; Gabrielle Sed-Rejna studied the knights illustrated in the French manuscript of Mishneh Torah in the Kaufmann Collection, produced in 1296 (also called Codex Maimuni) (Budapest, Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Kaufmann Collection, Ms. A.77, vol. 1, fol. 16b; vol. 3, fol. 3b). See the manuscript on the web site: www.kaufmann.mtak.hu/index-en.html (accessed September 3, 2014). Sed-Rajna, Gabrielle, “The Illustrations of the Kaufmann Mishneh Torah,” Journal of Jewish Art 6 (1979): 64–77Google Scholar. This manuscript contains scenes of jousting knights and even of their practice for the games. Also see, for example, a scene in the bottom margin of the first page of 1 Kings of a Hebrew Bible (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, heb. 4, fol. 249b), composed in Lorraine, in 1286. The scene portrays two jousting knights identified by an inscription over their heads as David and Adoniyahu. On this scene and others see Stern, “The Hebrew Bible in Europe in the Middle Ages,” fig. 13, 48–49.

30. Eliezer ben Yo'el ha-Levi, Sefer Ra'avyah, ed. Victor Aptowitzer (Jerusalem: Mekiẓe Nirdamim, 1938), sign. 12, 213.

31. Bumke, Courtly Culture, 253–254, 269; Shalev-Eyni, Jews among Christians, 90–91.

32. Elsewhere the Ra'avyah noted that one should be careful not to watch the tournament games. Sefer Ra'avyah, sign. 89, 444. I thank Leor Jacobi for providing me with this reference.

33. On the shield see Ashdown, European Arms and Armor, 92–96.

34. Kogman-Appel, “Scales in the Leipzig Mahzor,” 316.

35. It could look more like a “horn book” (although it does not look as if it has a handle), and I thank Ilia Rodov for this idea. We can compare it with a later example of Moses receiving the Torah in the shape of a “horn book” from the fifteenth-century Second Darmstadt Haggadah (Darmstadt Hessische landes- und hochschulbibliothek, Cod. Or. 28, fol. 9v). On this image see Ilia Rodov, “The King of the King of Kings: Images of Rulership in Late Medieval and Early Modern Christian Art and Synagogue Design,” in Interaction between Judaism and Christianity in History, Religion, Art and Literature, ed. Marcel Poorthuis, Joshua Schwartz and Joseph Turner (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 464.

36. Davidson, ʾOẓar ha-shirah ve-ha-piyyut, vol. 2, sign. 189; Daniel Goldschmidt, Maḥzor la-yamim ha-nora'im: Le-fi minhag bnei ʾAshkenaz le-khol ‘anfehem, kolel minhag ʾAshkenaz (ha-ma‘aravi) minhag Polin u-minhag Ẓarfat le-she‘avar, Rosh Hashanah, 2 vols. (Jerusalem: Koren, 1970), 1:216–217; Idel, Moshe, “Perushav shel R. Neḥemiah ben Shlomo la-piyyut ha-'oḥez be-yad middat mishpat,” Kabbalah 26 (2012): 187–189Google Scholar; Kogman-Appel, Mahzor from Worms, 178, 180; Wolfson, Along the Path, 8.

37. Kogman-Appel, “Scales in the Leipzig Mahzor,” 315–316; Wolfson, Along the Path, 8–10, 12, 121 n. 65. See also Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, héb. 850, fols. 57a, 58a.

38. MS Jerusalem, the National Library of Israel, Heb. 28° 7234, fols. 15b–16a; Sefer gematriot le-R. Yehudah ha-ḥasid: Mahadurat faksimiliyah, with introductions by Daniel Abrams and Israel Ta-Shma (Los Angeles: Cherub, 1998), 54–55; Sefer gematriot le-R. Yehudah ha-ḥasid, ed. Jacob Israel Stahl, 2 vols. (Jerusalem: Y. Y. Stahl, 2004), vol. 1, sign. 152, 157–160. On the study of Torah and gazing at the merkavah (chariot) see Idel, Moshe, “Tefisat ha-Torah be-sifrut ha-hekhalot ve-gilgulehah ba-kabbalah,” Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 1 (1981): 34–37Google Scholar. On the connection between Jacob's name and the Torah see Wolfson, Elliot R., “The Mystical Significance of Torah Study in German Pietism,” The Jewish Quarterly Review 84 (1993): 52Google Scholar n. 33.

39. On the mace see Ashdown, European Arms and Armor, 329–331; DeVries, Medieval Military Technology, 25–28.

40. Wolfson, Along the Path, 5, 33–35. See also Abrams, Daniel, “Special Angelic Figures: The Career of the Beasts of the Throne-World in ‘Hekhalot’ Literature, German Pietism and Early Kabbalistic Literature,” Revue des études juives 155 (1996): 379–380CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41. Stahl, Sefer gematriot, 2:146. See also Perush ba‘al ha-turim ‘al ha-Torah, ed. J. K. Reinitz (Bnei-Brak: Feldheim, 1971), Genesis 32:11, 87; Perushei ha-Torah le-R. Ḥayim Palti'el, Genesis 32:11, 99.

42. Marcel Simon, Verus Israel: A Study of the Relations between Christians and Jews in the Roman Empire (135–425) (Oxford: Littman Library, 1986).

43. Sara Offenberg, “Resisting Conversion or the True Aristocrat: Jews Imagining Themselves in Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts,” in Sefer Ha-yovel for Burton D. Morris, ed. Menachem Butler (New York: Hakirah, forthcoming).

44. Marc Michael Epstein, Dreams of Subversion in Medieval Jewish Art and Literature (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 1997), 88–90; Shalev-Eyni, Jews among Christians, 85–86.

45. Marcus, “Why Is This Knight Different?,” 148.

46. Marcus, “Why Is This Knight Different?,” 151–152.

47. On Friedrich II's 1236 ban on Jews carrying weapons see The Saxon Mirror, trans. Maria Dobozy (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), book 3, 2, 117: “Regarding priests, tonsured according to their rule, and Jews: when they carry arms in transgression of the law, they shall be compensated as laymen if they are attacked because those who are included in the king's peace are not permitted to bear arms.” See also Guido Kisch, The Jews in Medieval Germany (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949), 107–128; Joseph Isaac Lifshitz, “Ha-te'oriyah ha-politit shel ha-Maharam me-Rotenburg” (PhD diss., Tel Aviv University, 2006), 36–37.

Figure 0

Figure 1. London, British Library, Or. 2091, fol. 203a. Ashkenaz, the second half of the thirteenth century. © The British Library

Figure 1

Figure 2. Yonah Pentateuch, London, British Library, Add. 21160, fol. 192v. Ashkenaz, the second half of the thirteenth century. © The British Library

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Figure 3. Leipzig Maḥzor, Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek, V 1102/I, fol.31a. Worms, c. 1310.

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Figure 4. Detail, London, British Library, Or. 2091, fol. 203a. Ashkenaz, the second half of the thirteenth century. © The British Library

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Figure 5. Mail shirt, Germany, fifteenth century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of William H. Riggs, 1913, 14.25.1540. www.metmuseum.org.

Figure 5

Figure 6. Great helm. Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin / A. Psille.

Figure 6

Figure 7. Duke of Sussex Pentateuch, London, British Library, Add. 15282, fol. 179b. Lake Constance region, c. 1312–1322. © The British Library