Work

Wrathful Rites: Performing Shefokh ḥamatkha in the Hileq and Bileq Haggadah

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: This essay explores a remarkable manuscript, the so-called Hileq and Bileq Haggadah (Paris, BnF Ms. Hébreu 1333), illuminated in southern Germany in the fifteenth century. Our focus, in particular, is on the image that accompanies the Shefokh ḥamatkha prayer, an invocation of God’s vengeance upon nonbelievers. Here, we posit the role of the Shefokh ḥamatkha folio within the context of the Hileq and Bileq Haggadah, suggesting that its prominent position and extravagant visual program involve the reader–viewer in a performative scenario that inflects the meaning of the other images in the book as well as the enactment of the Seder ritual itself. The messianic import of the folio is underscored by its enactive language, both visual and oral, and predicated on the emotional communities that coalesced around the Passover ritual in the later Middle Ages.

Source: Religions

DOI: 10.3390/rel15040451

Authors: Elina Gertsman, Reed O’Mara

Institution: Case Western Reserve University

Language: English

Topic: Medieval Literature and History

Subfield: Classics

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,046

Funder: Case Western Reserve University