The Darmstadt Haggadah
The Darmstadt Haggadah is a magnificently executed work depicting
fashionably dressed men and women, in various positions and in fanciful
architectural settings, raising their cups of wine or reading with expressive
gestures of speech. The pointed arches and vaulted ceilings are characteristic
of Gothic architecture, and the clothing represents contemporary dress.
The modest necklines and covered heads of most figures (male and female)
have no religious-Jewish basis, as similar figures may be found in non-Jewish
manuscripts.
The names of ten commentators on the festival
of Passover and its manner of celebration are a common feature of all haggadot.
These men belong to the tannaitic period, comprising the last years of the
Second Temple, which was destroyed in 70 CE, and continuing to the uprising
of Bar Kokhba, about 130 CE. Five of the sages — Eliezer, Joshua, Elazar
ben Azariah, Akiba and Tarfon — appear early in the story. They are
gathered in Bnei Brak, a city near Jaffa where Rabbi Akiva had his academy,
and are "reclining" and discussing the Exodus from Egypt. This Bnei Brak
scene is one of the central topics for illustrators of haggadot. In the
Darmstadt Haggadah, the one and only scene which is directly related
to the subject matter of the haggadah is an illustration of the seder,
depicting [in this author's opinion] the Five Sages in Bnei Brak.
Five Sages and Four Sons
The
Darmstadt manuscript has puzzled students of Hebrew iconography in that,
unlike most Ashkenazi haggadah manuscripts, it lacks many common
text and ritual illustrations and has no biblical scenes at all. The one
haggadah-related scene that does appear and that we describe here,
is inserted in the decorative framework of the text beginning with "Pour
out thy wrath upon the heathen."
It is a peculiar seder. There are no
women present, only nine men. Of these, six are seated and three are partly
behind those seated, but their faces are seen very clearly. Five of the
seated men hold one hand on a book and the other raised in speech. They
are evidently the five rabbis mentioned above. The sixth man, who is young,
holds one hand on a book and the other in his lap under the table. He is
the wise son. He touches the book while asking his questions, but does not
gesture because he is not required to reply. The three in the rear have
strikingly moronic faces. Their hands are not visible, nor do they sit at
the table. They are inarticulate and are excluded from the symposium.
(While the interpretation of the five figures representing the rabbis at
Bnei Brak is offered here for the first time, the four others were correctly
identified as the Four Sons by August L. Mayer, co-author of the Darmstaedter
Haggadah. However, Bruno Italiener, the editor of the work, rejected
his suggestion without elaboration.)
Thus
the illustrator of the Darmstadt Haggadah converted the four different
sons (Wise, Wicked, Simple, One who doesn't know to ask) into students.
The wise student is admitted into the company of the teachers, while the
three others are excluded. There are certain telltale facial expressions
in the three poor students. The student on the left with shifting eyes may
be intended as the wicked son. The one with a chin band attached to his
headdress may be the feeble-minded, while the figure on the right listening
intently but unable to understand, seems to be the student whose mind is
not yet mature enough to absorb and digest. The two rabbis to whom he listens
ignore him completely.[*]
Women in the Haggadah
Women
are rarely mentioned in most Passover haggadot, as in the mishnaic
period, the Passover meal was attended only by men, and the haggadah
was created for fathers to relate to their sons and for teachers to instruct
their students (who were only male). The haggadah illustrator (from
the 13th century) sought to bridge this gap, given the considerable social
differences between the period when the text of the haggadah was
compiled and the time the illustrations were first conceived. Illustrations
of women, girls and even servant girls begin to appear in the medieval haggadah
as participants in the seder, and in galleries of biblical figures.
