72 Friday, March 21, 1975 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS The Messiah at the Seder __By DR. JOSEPH GUTMANN (Editor's Note: The fol- lowing article, written by Joseph Gutmann, profes- sor of art and art history at Wayne State Univer- sity, is excerpted from the Raphael Mahler Jubilee Volume, edited by S. Yeiven and published by Merhavia. It is entitled "The Messiah at the Seder -- a 15th Century Motif in Jewish Art.") Rabbi Joseph Yuspa Hahn, who -lived during the latter half of the 15th Cen- tury at Frankfurt -am Main and died there in 1637, wrote in his "Sefer Yosif Ometz:" "After drinking, as is cus- tomary, from the cup of blessing [i.e. third cup of wine], he [the head of the house] grasps the fourth cup of wine and opens-the door. The moment that the door is .,opened, he recites shefokh. When the recitation of she- fokh begins, someone comes (fall) into the doorway in or- der to demonstrate, on the night of our first redemp- tion, our strong faith in our final redemption. This cus- tom performed in memory of the Messiah, is good and pleasing." Antonius Margaritha, a convert to Christianity who was born at Regens- burg around 1500, where his father Jacob Margo- lioth was a rabbi, and who died at Vienna, also stated in his "Der gantz judisch Glaub:" "At the moment they open the door, someone who has disguised himself comes quickly into the room, as if he were [the prophet] Elijah himself who had to proclaim the gospel of their Messiah's [coming]." These two 16th Century writers testify for the first time to the now cherished Ashkenazi custom of open- ing the door to welcome Eli- jah and the Messiah when the biblical verses, begin- ning with "Pour out Thy wrath upon the nations that do not know Thee" (Ps. 79,6 and Jer. 10:25), are recited from the haggada at the seder ceremony. When and why did this custom of opening the door for Elijah-Messiah at the seder during the shefokh recitation arise? As is so frequently the case, traditional sources are silent and do not docu- ment the time the custom originated, 'where it arose, or the reason for its adop- tion in the first place. We search traditional literary sources in vain to discover answers to our questions. We are fortunate, how- ever, in having at our dis- posal another major source, which helps to shed consid- erable light on this interest- ing custom, namely the il- lustrations in surviving haggada manuscripts. The Ashkenazi custom of opening the door to greet the Messiah exactly as de- scribed by the Frankfurt Rabbi Hahn, is to be found in a haggada manuscript (Washington,. Library of Congress, fol. 19v), made by Joel ben Simeon in North- ern Italy and definitely dated 1478. In this illustra- tion, the head of the house opens the door of his home, holding the prescribed 1 -4 This haggada manuscript, housed in the Library of Congress in Washington, depicts the Ashkenazi custom of opening the door to greet the Messiah during the Pas- sover seder. Printed in the late 15th Century in Northern Italy by Joel ben Simeon, the manuscript shows the head of the household opening the door of his home and hold- ing the prescribed fourth cup of wine in order to recite shefokh to greet the messianic guest. fourth cup of wine in order to recite shefokh, to greet the messianic guest. The Messiah is shown as a bearded old man riding upon a splendidly adorned ass. Seated behind him on the ass are a man and boy, a woman holding a cup of wine and a girl are seated on the tail of the ass, while still another youngster clings to the tail. The messianic ass and its many occupants no doubt symbolize the house- hold of Israel riding with the Messiah to the promised redemption. Seminary Chancellor Acclaims JPS liaggada . and History' Widely acclaimed as the most fascinating book the Jewish Publication Society of America has produced in its 100-year history, "Haggada and History" by Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi is being welcomed enthusiasti- cally by scholars as well as laymen. iental,- Italian, Greek, Yid- dish, American, Israeli — and every great and many an unknown Jewish settle- ment vividly remembered. It is, in short, a mirror of Jew- ish life and activity that fo- cuses on one institution which is still not only very much alive but forever imv=-tn "r4Sc C7 17rt "ttr;1-71÷1 * n/7 7711 `TilVf4:::771117,i, 77p 1.1":771, TIM ,: 7tr-7.721 rtt-rt7;4; rrArqlstlrgim; trrit.mc 17. 7:7 -ti-rcrtt 771rrnzr‘ c.11‘ r*4171 - 7 =VT trr rit5 Tore0 7-71...4:11.1.s7;? '1.71.t.rT tiv31:•; _, rrl_ yet,: r„..1.-1:1 r;.7t,t; 7,1t7,777,1=1 rat sr":70-immlra-7-7 r=t7.1 Vc_77); Trra 7,:err+71,rt"'" )., 11 tyrt< 174.177-ar.7.7 t rrrzn: rzt ts'r TX: `,.rIrn: - The illustrations in Ash- kenazi haggada manu- scripts clearly reveal that the custom of opening the door to greet the messianic guest, while the verses of shefokh were recited, had already been current in 1-5th Century Southern Germany and Northern Italy, and suggest that the custom probably origin- ated in these areas. As lit- erary evidence of this cus- tom is not recorded prior to the 16th Century, hag- gada illustrations are the only evidence for this in- teresting practice in the 15th Century. There can be little doubt, that constant persecutions and vicious vilifications, such as blood-libel accusa- tions, prompted these im- ages in 15th Century Ger- many and Northern Italy. The unbearable miseries, to which Jews were daily sub- jected in the declining medi- eval structures of these lands, demanded a much- needed escape; an escape which only the fervent hope for the actual coming of the Messiah on the Night of Redemption (Pesah) could fulfill. 1a 1:rorl 7711ri -nr., "%`".1"Cit4t :":7_17 1 Tnt MTIR 17117....4-alirT .:71F17 trr TIN rtt:17 ierrtoi rrri.;I:s1.; 11;777. =VI Seder Scene from Augsburg (Germany) 1534 Haggada re- produced in JPS volume. In a statement issued upon the appearance of this volume, Chancellor Gerson D. Cohen of the Jewish Theological Seminary, said: Of the many thousands of works that have appeared in Hebrew print in the half millennium since the begin- ning of Hebrew printing, none so poignantly reflects the continuity and change, the uniformity and diversity of Jewish history and cul- ture as the Passover Hag- gada. Furthermore, it was cus- No other classical Jew- tomary, especially in medi- ish work has been so inti- eval Southern Germany, to mately tied up with the have processions on Palm history of Jewish book il- Sunday, in which sculp- lumination and illustra- tured wooden figures of tion. The art of the Pas- Christ and his messianic ass sover Haggada is at once a (Palmeser) were carried on repository of folklore and carts, and wheeled to the of changing aesthetic gates of a mock Jerusalem. tastes, and above all, a record of migration, settle- This practice may have ment and acculturation. A exerted some influence on history of this small liturg- the actual depictions in ical handbook thus affords our discussed haggada a cross-sectional view of manuscripts, and caused religious leaders to under- . many facets of Jewish life in the past five hundred score the traditional Jew- years. ish belief that the Messiah Professor Yerushalmi's was yet to come. Mo- "Haggadah and History" reover, in the light of the omnipresent Christian represents the first pictorial anthology of the history of emphasis that the mes- sianic prophecy of Zechar- the printed, and especially, iah 9.9 was fulfilled with of the printed-illustrated Christ's coming (Mat. Haggada. His compendium provides 21:1-9, and John 12:12-16), the reassertion of the Jew- a new tool and perspective ish claim became an abso- on a pillar of the Jews in the last five centuries. lute necessity. Spanning the days before Both theological and eco- the expulsion from Spain to nomic reasons, therefore, contemporary America and may have been responsible Israel, this anthology re- for calling into being, in the flects the impact of art, 15th Century, the now popu- technical progress and lin- lar custom of opening the guistic and ,ideological door to welcome the Mes- change on Jewish life. Many Jewish languages siah at the seder and its de- piction in Ashkenazi hagga- and traditions are here rep- resented — the Ladino, Or- dot. changing before our eyes. Yerushalmi's introduc- tion is a masterly combi- nation of impeccable scholarship with stylistic beauty and lucidity. An enchanting introduction to the fascinating record of Jewish history embedded in bibliography, his essay carries the reader into fa- miliar and unfamiliar by- ways of a Jewish history with a dexterity that 'has won Yerushalmi wide ac- claim as an original scholar of profundity and originality. Not the least significant aspect of the work is the tes- timony it provides that America today has un- matchable repositories of Jewish information, notably in two great libraries on whose resources Yerush- almi drew — Harvard Uni- versity and The Jewish Theological Seminary of - America. Both compiler and the Jewish Publication Society are to be congratulated on an aesthetic and informa- tive tour de force. Hope- this superbly executed work will find its merited place on the shelf of every- one interested in the Jewish experience. Moslems to Build Mosque in Texas SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS (JTA) — Plans to build a Moslem mosque and com- munity center here, the first of its kind in the United States, was announced Wednesday by the Interna- tional Islamic Association. The mosque and center will serve Moslem.soldiers being trained at U.S. military bases nearby. According to Amed Rafiq, a 38-year-old Palestinian representing the Interna- tional Islamic Association of Mecca, there are 1,400 Moslems from Saudi Ara- bia, Pakistan, Iran and other Moslem countries liv- ing here, and 3,000 addi- tional Moslems living nearby. He said that hundreds of Moslems are being trained at local mili- tary. bases. The proposed center will have its own religious leader, a meeting hall, li- brary and residential quarters.- Rafiq did not disclose the cost of the fa- cility. Official sources main- tained their usual stance of -refusing to comment about training personnel from such Moslem states as Saudi Arabia or Pakistan. San An- tonio is the site of the Alamo, an historic fortress that a Saudi Arabian sheikh recently offered to buy as a present for his son. Weizmann Memorial The forged box, shown above, commemorating the Chaim Weizmann centennary has been produced for the national Weizmann memorial in Israel, the Yad Chaim Weizmann, by the Heritage Collection Jerusalem. The box incorporatei a tree of life design, and measures just over 31/2 inches in diameter by 11/2 inches high. Lifting the lid exposes a finely,drawn portrait of Weizmann. In- formation on the commemorative box is available through the Heritage Collection Jerusalem, 29 Sheshet Hayamim St., Jerusalem, Israel. ,•