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darkness we cannot [truly] rest and observe it properly.
Overflowing blessing will be the reward for the acts of self-sacrifice about to be undertaken.
From the grace after a meal, to the table, to the surrogate altar to the afterlife such is the
trajectory of this remarkable soliloquy, which ends by bringing Rabbi Moses's auditors and our
narrator's readers back to the earthly starting point, the special grace after a meal. Moving to one of
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the later segments of the grace after a meal, Rabbi Moses intoned: "May the merciful avenge in the
days of those who remain after us and in their sight the blood of your servants that has been spilled
and that is yet to be spilled. May the merciful save us from wicked men and from conversion and from
idolatry and from the impurity of the gentiles and their abominations." According to our narrator,
Rabbi Moses continued to intone such special pleas, appropriate to the occasion.
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Our narrator closes his description of this remarkable address by suggesting that it achieved its
purpose, moving the Jewish auditors to the anticipated acts of martyrdom. He emphasizes in particular
the glee and zest with which these acts of martyrdom were undertaken. Rabbi Moses had created a
mood that carried the Cologne Jews gathered at Xanten much beyond themselves, into a frenzy of
desire to serve the Lord in what seemed the highest possible manner.
I have focused on two of the most successful passages in our narrator's depiction of the fate of
Cologne Jewry. Other instances of heroic behavior and artful rhetoric abound. The author of the
Cologne unit was uninterested in a number of facets of the events of 1096; he was, however, highly
skilled in his effort to depict Jewish martyrdom in the richest terms.
At this point, we should shift from the ostensibly independent Cologne unit to the editor's use of
his source and the ways in which he adapted it to his overall objectives for the collection as a whole. A
question, however, intrudes: is this in reality an independent unit, or are the author of the Cologne
unit and the editor of the collection in its entirety in fact one and the same? We have earlier noted the
curious passage at the end of the description of the fate of the Cologne Jews gathered in
Altenahr that identifies the author as one Solomon bar Simson. At an earlier point, I indicated that it
has not been clear whether this Solomon bar Simson was the author of the Altenahr passage, the
author of the Cologne unit in its entirety, or the editor of the entire compilation.[41] At this juncture, I
see no foolproof way of solving this riddle, although I am inclined to the view that the author of the
Cologne report and the editor of the Solomon bar Simson Chronicle are one and the same.
In a general way, there are more editorial glosses in the Cologne unit than elsewhere in the
collection, suggesting that perhaps the author and editor are one. The glosses are suffused with the
same themes and much the same terminology found in the editor's prologue and epilogue. To be sure,
this similarity may merely reflect an editorial penchant for glossing the Cologne unit more richly than
the others, perhaps in part because this unit was more appropriate to the editor's overall concerns.
More significant is the fact that the content of the Cologne unit corresponds rather fully to the
central themes of the editorial prologue and epilogue. I would draw attention, for example, to the
heavy emphasis on revenge in the soliloquy of Rabbi Moses in Xanten, noted just above. Revenge
hardly appeared as a significant element in either the Mainz
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Anonymous or the Trier unit; it is certainly central to the Cologne unit, perhaps indicating again that
author and editor are one and the same.
Equally significant is the recurrence of key images from the editorial prologue in the Cologne
report. Thus, for example, we recall the prologue imagery of God creating an obstacle to the ascent of
the prayers of the Jews of 1096, so that these prayers might not reach him and sway him from his
decree. Precisely such imagery is found early in the description of the fate of those Cologne Jews who
sought refuge in Xanten, a point in the narrative that is so integral to the tale that it can hardly be
viewed as an editorial gloss. The evidence is hardly overwhelming, and the point is not at all central to
the theses of this study. I would suggest tentatively, however, that the Cologne report was penned by
the editor of the broader chronicle.
In any case, we do have, in the Cologne unit, an account that is clearly distinct from the
Speyer-Worms-Mainz narrative and the Trier narrative, embellished with glosses that reinforce the
central message of the Solomon bar Simson Chronicle in its entirety: The Jewish martyrs were the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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