Sephardi values 1992
Raphael Loewee
Like the name Greece, Sepharad is a geographical expression, with quasiethnical associations. I well remember my realization, as a young student of classics some 55 years ago, that in virtue of my vocation for its study. I was entitled to consider myself as being no less an heir to the heritage of Greece than those born there or having modern Greek as their mother-tongue.
The same, of course, applies to Sephardism, particulary in an age when, partly due to the ingathering of exiles to Israel, the intermarriage of Sephardim, Ashkenazim and Jews from eastern and other communities has done so much to break down earlier divisions based on language and social custom. My own family of Ashkenazi origin, has been associated with the Spanish and portuguese Congregation in London for some 150 years, and for the last 80 we have been formally yehidim of it.
But the privilege of an inheritance carries with it responsability for maintaining one’s heritage and that requires something more than affection and pride: it means also the effort of commitment to its study, not only to deepen our own appreciation, but in order to enable the next generation to understand their heritage and to cherish it.
Enthusiasm and sentimentalism on their own can prove to be blind alleys. For example, you cannot begin to enjoy the Hebrew poetry produced in Spain without acquiring full competence in pre-modern Hebrew Bible, and you cannot undersatnd the religious philosophy of Rambam and Ralbag unless you know the institutions of Judaism (festivals, laws, customs etc) intimately, since these form its hidden substructure. In recent years, quite a lot of my work has concerned translating Sephardi poetry into English verse form, with annotations; and my constant hope has been that those who read the result will feel encouraged, or impelled, to make themselves competent to read the originals, and so dispense with my own substitute for it. Simililary with Ladino. There is little justification for exploiting superficial approaches to talking it, merely in order to wallow in memories of one’s grandparents’home. One has to learn to observe the Jewish factors (e.g. the influence of Hebrew word-order etc) that have modified Castillan, Aragonese, etc. (Why is it that the word for God in Spanish is Dios, but in Ladino Dio?)
Of course, not everyone has the temperament, or the opportunity, to devote him – or herself to scholarship, but what has been said implies no more than is expected of those at school in England in order to equip themselves to appreciate Shakespeare. If you are moved by a particular Sephardi prayer or poem – for example, et sha’arey ratson – mainly because of your familiarity with its music and memories of Rosh Hashanah down the years, do not leave it at that: study the Hebrew wording, the metrical structure (and, incidentally, the poor literary quality of the Ladino translations) and so on. In that way you can make it really something of your own.
There are romantic aspects of Sepharadism as well, which we should deepen by using them as a challange to attain greather than cheapening them by merely sentimental luxuriation. Three years ago I was in Spain for a conference commemorating the 900th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Ibn Ezra. The conference visited Tudela, his birth-place, where (it being the anniversary of his birth) we said minhah and made a hashkabah. We were also taken to Toledo, and some of us said minhah (no doubt for the firts time since 1492) in Santa Maria la Blanca – a recently secularised church, which had originally been a synagogue, as well, of course, as visting the more publicised “El Transito” synagogue. These are occasions memories of which become part and parcel of our spiritual fibre – too precious sometimes, for the vulgarisation of enthusistic demonstivess.
1492 is a significant anniversary, not just because of the expulsion from Spain; that calls for sober reflection on its tragedy, and the solemn commemoration of Jewish martyrdom. It is significant because it provides on opportunity for reviewing how much Sephardi Jewry gave to Spain and how much it received from it. In assessing such things there is naturally room for pride – but as the counterpoint only: the main theme must surely be our determination to equip ourselves to appreciate, and to pass on, our Sephardi heritage.
Raphael Loewee
|
