Avidov Lipsker

The Legend of Worms in the Works of S.Y.Agnon: From Ashkenaz to Poland and the

Land of Israel

Legends of Origin in the Tradition of Ashkenaz Ashkenazi legends known to us from a wide-range ofhagiographies, moralistic tales and fables inYiddish and Hebrew have left a significant mark onModern Hebrew literature. The present article willfocus on a single story in Juspa Shamash’s Book ofMiraculous Tales (Sefer Ma‘aseh Nissim) which pertains tothe founding of the Jewish community of Worms, andits influence on the prose works of S.Y. Agnon, oneof the greatest Jewish writers of all times.

The genre of ‘founding legends’ reflects anessential collective identification with thefounders of a real or ideal locale, and serves as arule to establish an etiology not by chroniclinghistoric events but through a semiotic depiction ofcultural memories and communal ties to a formerabode.1 Such etiologies do not always glorify the1 Etiological legends, a classification used by Haya Bar-Itzhak

in her study of Jewish folklore in Poland, is a genre thatclaims historical validity, as opposed to myths or Märchen oforigin. For a detailed discussion of the difference, see HayaBar-Itzhak, Legends of Poland - Ethnopoetics and Legendary Chronicles, TelAviv: Sifriyat Poalim, 1996 (Hebrew), pp. 11-14. For adiscussion of the term “etiological legend”, see ibid., pp. 23-29, as it refers to the distinction in Bernard Dov Weinryb, TheJews in Poland: A Social and Economic History of the Jewish Community in Poland from1100 to 1800, Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society ofAmerica, 1973, pp. 17-19. A similar distinction appears in Sara

primordial moment, as we shall see, but may onoccasion manifest the inhabitants’ apprehensionsand distress or even outright scorn for thecircumstances of their settlement. The best knownfounding legend about the communities of Ashkenaztraces their origins to Babylonia whence the Sagesof the Kalonymus family migrated first to Italy andeventually to Ashkenaz. This tradition has itsroots in a family chronology written in 1054 byAḥimaaz ben Paltiel (Capua 1017-Oria 1060),2 aliterary and historical forerunner of 12th centuryhagiographical works such as “The Legend of R’Meshulam,” an early Ashkenazi sage (930-1005),found among the ninety-nine stories of the BrüllManuscript (document 39), copied in the 16th centuryby Moshe Ben-Gershon (Heb. 8° 3182).3

Most foundation legends in Jewish hagiographycenter on a leader – a rabbi vastly knowledgeablein matters of Halakhah and often possessing

Zfatman’s Between Ashkenaz and Sepharad: The History of the Medieval JewishStory, Jerusalem: Magnes, 1993, p. 59, n. 1 (Hebrew): “[…] theHebrew term ma’aseh (in counterpoise to ma‘asiya) is arguably moreappropriate than aggadah to signify realistic legend.” In view ofthis, Zfatman might have chosen ma‘aseh yisud - etiological legend.

2 About this story as an etiological legend dealing with thetransmission of knowledge from Babylonia to Italy see thehistorical and hermeneutic introductions to Robert Bonfil,History and Folklore in a Medieval Jewish Chronicle: The Family Chronicle of Aḥima'azben Paltiel, Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2009, and the chapter on“The Story of Aharon” (pp. 53-66). See also A. Grossman aboutAshkenazi Jewry in the tenth and eleventh centuries: “[…] Thedevelopment of the splendid centers of Mainz and Worms would beinconceivable without a close affinity to the Halakhic sourcesof the Babylonian Sages on the one hand, and the Palestinian andItalian schools of piyut on the other […]. Avraham Grossman, TheFirst Sages of Ashkenaz: Their History, Public Leadership, and Spiritual Works from theTime of Their Initial Settlement to the Edicts of 1096, Jerusalem: Magnes, 1989,p. 19 (Hebrew).

3 The story was first printed in the Brüll yearbook, N. Brüll,“Beiträge zur jüdischen Sagen– und Spruchkunde im Mittelalter”,Jahrbücher für jüdische Geschichte und Literatur, 9 (1889), pp. 36-37. For adetailed description of this manuscript, with a listing ofrelevant scientific literature and a meticulous analysis of “TheLegend of Rabbi Meshulam”, see Zfatman, Between Ashkenaz andSepharad: The Origins of Medieval Jewish Tales, Jerusalem, Magnes, 1993, pp.81-111, especially the fourth section “The Legend of RabbiMeshulam as an Ashkenazi Founding Legend,” ibid., pp. 97-111.

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mystical and magical powers, who leaves his home(oftentimes because of some unwitting sin) and

establishes a newcommunity which,thanks to him,becomes animportant center ofJewish learning. Acase in point isthe story of R.Judah the Hasid whojourneyed fromSpeyer toRegensburg, andthere founded not acommunity but aYeshivah, one thatrose to eminenceamong German-speaking Jewishcommunities alongthe Rhine andDanube in the lateMiddle Ages; thislegend too ismarked by motifs ofreligioustransgression, such

as magical practices or laxness with respect tomagical writings.4

Notwithstanding Aḥimaaz ben Paltiel’s impliedcriticism, the seemingly geographical drift of4 The story of R. Judah the Hasid was first introduced in the

Responsa of Rabbi Shlomo Ben Yeḥiel Luria (the Maharshal, 1510-1574), and printed in Lublin where Luria resided in 1574: “[…]father of Rabbi Kalonymus the Elder, father of the holy Hasidand prophet, Rabbi Samuel, father of Rabbi Avraham and RabbiYehuda the righteous Hasid of Speyer who was exiled from hisplace of birth to the province of Regensburg for the reason thathis wife touched his strongbox although he had warned her not toapproach it in her impurity, and she forgot his warning andtouched it, and this strongbox contained tracts with holysecrets written therein […]. See Maharshal’s Responsa, Jerusalem:Jerusalem Edition, 1969, Paragraph 29, p. 88 [Hebrew].

Juspa Shames, Sefer Ma’aseh Nissim, Amsterdam: 1696.

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thought in these etiological legends of theRhineland would seem to aim at enhancing thecharacter of the rabbi-founder.

In contrast to the hagiographical tradition, anopposing trend cast blame or guilt for a primal sinon the founding community. Examples of this typeare rare, the most remarkable being the introduc-tory story in a prototypical collection about thecommunity of Worms, from Juspa Shamash’s manuscriptThe Book of Miraculous Tales (Sefer Ma‘aseh Nissim). For themost part these stories grew out of a larger corpusJuspa had collected in his capacity as rabbinicalcourt scribe and correspondent of Worms from 1623(the year he arrived from his native Fulda inHesse, to attend the Yeshiva of R. Elia Loans)until his death in 1678. Juspa also composed the‘Book of Customs’ (Sefer ha-minhagim), a vitaldocument of mid-17th century community life inWorms. Additional stories were copied into themanuscript of his Book of Miraculous Tales (Sefer ma‘asehnissim) (Oxford) by Juspa’s son and published intheir complete form, twenty-five stories in all(Amsterdam, 1696). This book, which achieved widecirculation in six further editions5, was a smallervolume than earlier collections in old Yiddish,such as the Mayse-bukh (“The Book of Tales”)published in Basel, 1602, and comprising twohundreds and fifty eight tales.

5 Sefer Ma‘aseh Nissim by R. Juspa Shamash, Story 1: “Why Many TroublesCame upon the Jews of Worms and What Their Sin Was” in ShlomoEidelberg, R. Juspa Shamash of Warmaisa: The Jewish World of the 17th Century,Jerusalem: Magnes, 1991, p. 59 (Hebrew). First edition: SeferMa’aseh Nissim, Amsterdam: Asher Anshil Press, 1696; this editionincludes an introduction by Juspa Shamash’s son, EliezerLieberman and represents the Yiddish version. I am grateful toDr. Claudia Rosenzweig for her transcription of the text for mefrom this edition and its translation into Hebrew. See a loosetranslation into Hebrew, and thence into English in Eidelberg,R. Juspa Shamash of Warmaisa, p. 53. See the German translation ofthe story with an introduction in Fritz Reuter und UlrikeSchäfer, Wundergeschichten aus Warmaisa: Juspa Shammes, seines Ma'assehnissim und das jüdische Worms im 17. Jahrhundert, Warmaisa: Gesellschaftzur Förderung und Pflege jüdischer Kultur in Worms, 2005, S. 2.

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As previously noted, the first story, “Why ManyTroubles Came upon the Jews of Worms and What TheirSin Was” falls in the category of an etiologicallegend. It recounts the founding tale of theJewish community, here in Yiddish followed by anEnglish translation:

ןןןן ןןןןןןן ןןן ןןן) ןןןןן (ןןן ןןן ןן ן (ןןןן) ןןן ןןןןןן ןןןן ןןן (ןןןןןן) ןן ןןןןןן .ןןןן ןןן ןןן ןןןןןןן (ןןןןן ןןןןן ןןןן"ן ןןןן) .ןןןן ןןן' ןןןן. ןןן ןןןןןןן ןןןןןןן ןןןן ןןן ןןןן ןןן ןן ןןןן ןןןןן ןןןןן ןן"ן ןןןןןן ןןן'ןןןן ןןן ןן (ןן"ן ןןןןן ןןן) ןןןןןן (ןןן ןןןן)ןןן' ןן ןןןן ןןןן ןןן ןן ןןןןן ןןןןן ןן"ן ןןןן.ןןן' ןןן ןןןןן ןןןןןןן ןןןןןן ןןן ןןןן ןןןןןןןןןןן ןןןן ןןןןןן. ןןן ןןןן ןןן ןןן ןןן ןןןןןןןןןןןןן. ןןן (ןן ןן"ן) ןןן ןןן (ןןןן ןןן ןן)ןןן' ןןןן). ןןן ןןןן (ןן"ן ןןןןןןן ןןן ןןןןן (ןןןן ן"ן ןןןן) ןןןן ןןןן (ןןןן) ןןן ןןן ןןןןןןןןן' ןןןןן ןןן ןןן ןןןןןן ןןןןןן ןןן ןןןןןןןןןן (ןןן ןןןןן ן"ן). ןןן' (ןןןן ן"ן) ןן ןן ןןןןןןןןן (ןן"ן ןןןןןן). ןן ןןן ןןן ןן ןןןןןן ןןןןןןןן) ןןןן ןןןן ןןן ןןןן ןןן (ןןןןן) ןןןן ןןןןןןןןן. ןןן ןן ןןןן ןןןןןןן ןןןן ןןןןן ןןן ןןן(ןןןןןן ןןן ןןןןן). ןןן ןןן ןןןןן (ןןן ןןןן"ןןןןן ןןן ןן"ן ןןן ןןןןן). ןןן ןןן ןןןןןן ןןןןןןן ןןן ןןן) ןןןןןן ןןןן ןןןן"ן (ןןן ןןןןן (ןן"ן) ןןןןןן ןןן ןןןןןן ןן (ןן"ן ןןןןןןןן) ןןן(ןןןןןןן) ןןןן ןןןןןן ןן ןןן ןןןןן (ןןןןןן) ןןן'(ןן"ן ןןןןן ןןןן ןןןןןן ןןן (ןןןןןןן). ןןןןן ןןןןןןןן) (ןןןןןן ןןןן ןןןןן) ןןןן ןןן ןןן ןןןןןןןן ןןןן ןןןןן ןןן ןןןןן ןןןןןן ןןןןןן. ןןן'ןן ןןן ןןןןןןן ןןן ןןןן (ןןןןן ןןןן) ןןןןן ןןןןןןןןןן (ןןןן ןןןןן) ןןןןן ןןן ןןןן ןןןןןן ןןן'ןןן ןןן' (ןןןןןןן) ןןן ןןןןן ןןן ןןןן ןןןןן). (ןןן ןןן ןןןןן ןןן ןןןןן (ןןןןןןןן) ןןן' ןןןן ןןןןןן ןןן (ןןןןןןןן). ןןן' ןןן ןןןן(ןןןןןןןן ןןן ןן ןןןןןן ןןןן (ןןןןןןן) ןןן ןןןןןן). ןןן ןןןןן ןן ןןןן ןןן (ןןןןן) ןןן ןןן'ןןןןן ןןןןןן ןןן (ןןן ןןןןן) ןן ןןן (ןןן ןןןןן)

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ןןן ןןן ןןןן ןןן ןןןן ןןןן) (ןןןן ןןןן ןן ןןן ןןן ןןןן ןןן ןןןןןןן ןןןןןן (ןןןןןןןן) (ןןןן ןןן) ןןןן . ןןן ןן ןןן ןן ןןןן ןןןןןןןןןן ןןןן (ןןןןןןן) ןןן ןןן ןןןן ןןן ןןןן ןןןןןןןןן ןןן' ןןןן ןןןן ןןן (ןןןןןן) ןןןןןן. ןןןןןןןןן ןןן ןןןן (ןןןןןןן) ןןן ןןןןןן ןןן (ןןן ן"ןןןןן ןןן ןןן (ןןןןןןן) ןןןןן ןןן ןןןןןןן) ןןןןןןן ןןן ןןן (ןןןן) ןןןן ןןן (ןןןן) ןןןןןןןןן' ןןןן ןן ןןןן ןןן ןןן ןןןן ןן ןןן' ןןן ןןןןן ןןןןןן ןןןןןן. ןןןן ןןןן ןןן ןןן ןןןןןןןןן ןןןן ןןןןןן ןןן ןןןן ןןן' (ןןןןן) ןןן ןןןןןןן ןןן ןןןןן (ןןן) ןןן ןןןן ןןן (ןןןןן) ןןןןןן ןןןן (ן"ן ןןןןןןןן) ןןןן (ןןןןןןן) ןןן ןןןןןן ןןןןן (ןןןןןן ןןן' ןןןןןןן). ןןן ןןן ןןן ןןן

ןןןןן ןןןן ןןןן (ןןן ןןןן"ן ןןןן ןן"ן ןן"ן):

I, Juspa Shamash, was a student in the days ofmy youth at the Yeshiva of Fulda, the rabbi ofwhich was the great gaon R. Pinchas Segal,formerly of the appeals court in Prague, whencehe was taken to the rabbinate of the holycongregation of Fulda, and after serving thereas head of the rabbinical court and teacher ofrighteousness for some years, he returned inold age to the holy congregation of Prague asan appelant. And he was an important man, beyondcompare in the knowledge of Torah, and he knewall six tractates of the Talmud by heart, anddied a man of good name in the holycongregation of Prague and was mourned forthirty days like Moses our teacher of blessedmemory. In the year 1629, while he still servedin the holy congregation of Fulda, I toostudied at his Yeshiva. One time the rabbis ofthe yeshiva gathered to speak about the annalsof the communities of Ashkenaz and our teacherand rabbi Pinchas Segal spoke thus: “I heard from my rabbi, our teacher RabbiFalk, may his soul be in Eden, who wrote thebook “Sefer Me’irat Einayim” that the reasonthe congregation of Worms was visited by worsecalamities than other communities and provinces

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in Ashkenaz is that the Jews of Worms arrivedat the time of the destruction of the FirstTemple and how they arrived there you willpresently hear. And when the seventy years ofthe Babylonian Exile had passed and the peopleof Israel were redeemed and settled inJerusalem and the Land of Israel, those wholived here in the holy congregation of Wormsdid not go up to the Land of Israel butremained in Worms. And the people of Jerusalemwrote to the Jews of Worms telling them thatthey too should return from the Exile andsettle in the Land of Israel in order tofulfill the three yearly pilgrimages toJerusalem because if they remained in Wormsthey would not be able to make the pilgrimagesfrom such a distance to Jerusalem. But they didnot return and answered in these words: Youlive in the greater Jerusalem and we live inthe lesser Jerusalem. Because in those days theruling powers were important to them and theywere looked upon with favor by the gentiles,and were rich and proud and thus averse to theredemption and unwilling to leave the exile,and on account of this sin the holycongregation of Worms was punished with manycalamities, more than other communities andprovinces. And all this I heard from our rabbiand teacher R. Falk of blessed memory,mentioned above.

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The History of the Legend: Lovers of the Templein Krakow and Lwów

The brief opening passage provides an abundance ofvaluable historical information about thecommunity’s past. The story was undoubtedlyrecounted in Yiddish or Hebrew in R. YehoshuaFalk’s Beit Midrash in the city of Lemberg / Lwów(1555-1614) but was brought to Germany by his pupilR. Pinchas Segal (d. 1652) and transcribed andadapted by R. Pinchas Segal’s pupil Juspa Shamashin the contemporary lingua franca of Hebrew mixed withJewish-German. The manuscript of Maaseh Nissim inconjunction with Sefer Minhagim, “The Book ofCustoms”, achieved canonical status, largely due to

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Ma’aseh Nissim: First Page

the writer’s introduction which gave it a broadercontext than the specific city of Worms. Theprinting of the composition in Amsterdam (1696)raised its status further still. Indeed, as notedby Old-Yiddish specialist Yaakov Maitlis in his TheExempla of Rabbi Samuel and Rabbi Judah the Pious (A Study inYiddish Folklore).Apart from any folkloristic interest,such tales reflect the culture of a scholarlyelite.6

Hence, this etiological legend was born far awayfrom Worms and Ashkenaz, in the Beit Midrash orstudy hall of R. Yehoshua Falk, author of acommentary on the code of Jewish law, Shulḥan Arukh,called “Sefer Me’irat Einayim”. Falk was aninfluential rabbi in the early 17th century (one ofthe aḥaronim, or latter-day rabbis and legaldecisors) whose seat of learning was Lemberg.7 Thislegend may have expressed the pervasive sense ofautonomy and dignity among rabbis of the new Torahcenters in Poland, which had reached a turningpoint in the 16th and 17th centuries and were nolonger reliant on the Ashkenazi hegemony of the 13th

and 14th centuries.It is not unlikely that this story also expresses

a new relationship to the Land of Israel and theprospect of an actual return. In point of fact,when R. Yehoshua Falk died in 1614, his learnedwidow Bella settled there. He may also have been6 Yaacov Y. Maitlis in his The Exempla of Rabbi Samuel and Rabbi Judah

the Pious (A Study in Yiddish Folklore), London and New York: 1961. See hisdiscussion of Ma‘aseh Nissim. In the context of what he calls"The Old Yiddish Sphere of the Danube and the Rhine” p. 11.

7 The source of the story, according to Juspa Shamash, was R.Yohoshua Falk (Krakow 1555 - Lwow 1614) who studied with two ofthe greatest aḥaronim, Rabbi Shlomo Ben Yeḥiel Luria (Maharshal)and Rabbi Moshe Isserlis (Rama), and was the author of SeferMe’irat Enayim about the Shulḥan Arukh (Ḥoshen Mishpat). Apparently hisbeit midrash was animated by a strong yearning to ascend to theLand of Israel, for when he died, his learned widow Bella madethe long journey there and settled in Jerusalem. His student, R.Pinḥas Segal of the Horowitz family of Prague (d. 1652) was theav beit din, chief of the rabbinical court in Fulda, Juspa Shamas’birthplace, and taught at the yeshiva there. R. Pinḥas recountedthe story at this yeshiva in 1620, and Juspa attributes thestory to R. Pinḥas’ teacher, R. Yehoshua Falk.

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influenced in thisdirection by hisresidence in Krakow asa pupil of Rabbi MosheIsserlis (the Rama,1520-1572), author ofTorat ha-Olah (publishedby Mordechai benGershon Katz of Prague,in 1570) about themystical and cosmicsignificance ofsacrificial rites atthe Temple inJerusalem.

What R. Yehoshua Falkrelates here for thefirst time in storyform is a distinct callto worship at theTemple embodying theidea of a return to

Zion and the negation of the Diaspora (shlilat ha-galut).8

From Lemberg to FuldaThis etiological legend journeyed with R. Falk’spupil, Pinḥas Segal of the Horowitz family to thecity of Fulda where he was appointed head of therabbinical court following his teacher’s demise. R.Pinḥas recounted it in 1620, that is, two yearsafter the outbreak of the Thirty Years War (1612-

8 Yonah Ben-Sasson, The Rama’s Philosophical System, Jerusalem: IsraelAcademy of Sciences, 1984. See particularly the section on “TheTemple of Allusions – The Complex Symbolism of the System,” pp.19-22 (Hebrew). This book is one of a series along hundred yearsoccupied with the same idea of the holiness of Zion and thetemple: R' Yehuda Liwo (Mahra"l mi-Prag), Netzach Yisrael, Prague1599; R' Shlomo Luria (Mahrsha"l), Menorat ha-Zahav, Prague 1669.

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Rabbi Moshe Isserles, Torat ha-‘Olah, Prague: 1570

1648).9 The more recent historical context shedsnew light on the story; the narrator, himself anoutsider to the Worms community, blames its woesand those of other communities in the days of theCrusades (1096) on the sin of the firstgenerations. This primal sin dating back to theSecond Temple period had brought about thepersecutions of 1620. The long chain of calamitiesin Worms, Juspa charged, had resulted from thecommunity’s refusal to heed the call of Ezra theScribe and join the returning exiles in order torebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and fulfill thebiblical injunction to assemble there on thefestivals. They had rejected heavenly Jerusalem infavor of the earthly one, or in the reported answerof the Worms congregation: “You live in the greaterJerusalem, we live in the lesser Jerusalem.”

This version of the story, told in 1620 at theFulda yeshiva by R. Pinḥas and recorded by JuspaShamash, derives from the century-old tradition ofMoshe Isserles. Set down around 1630, it is one ofthe first written documents to ‘negate theDiaspora’. For the first time, an important, well-established congregation with a venerable rabbinicbackground in the forging of custom and Halakhahwas blamed by its own members for a heavy sindating from the distant past.

9 See Eidelberg’s explanation of the story in Id., Juspa Shamashœ,p. 12. In the introduction to the second part of the book herepeats this claim concerning the first story in the collection,p. 49. See also Shlomo Eidelberg, “The Antiquity of the JewishSettlement in Germany,” Newsletter of the Scientific Association of JewishStudies, 17-18 (1981), pp. 19-25. The tradition associating thefoundation of the Worms community with the destruction of theFirst Temple is mentioned at the beginning of the second story,“The Story of Heidelburg,” edited by Eidelberg, p. 60. Thistradition is unrelated to Juspa’s addendum to the first storybrought from the yeshiva in Fulda.

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Etiology Marked by the Sacred: Agnon’s PolandIn this section I shall examine two etiologicaltales, one concerning Polish Jewry in general andthe other dealing with the Jews of a specificcommunity, Buczacz, as related by one of thegreatest story-tellers of our times, S.Y. Agnon.The first story about the Jews of Poland appears inthree different versions, all dating from his earlywritings in Germany and Palestine during the 1920s.The story about the Jews of his native Buczacz wascomposed in the 1950s, towards the end of his life,and was published posthumously.

Agnon, as folklorist Haya Bar-Yitzhak has shown,was deeply fascinated by the stories of the Jews ofPoland, not merely as a writer but as ananthologist and scholar with a keen eye fordocuments and traditions related to his writing.10

When he arrived in Germany, Agnon published someearly works with Jüdischer Verlag, the firstJewish-Zionist press in Western Europe todistribute fine editions in various fields ofJewish culture: literature, art, philosophy, andJewish ethnography. Jüdischer Verlag also broughtout a distinguished anthology called The Book of PolishJews (Berlin 1916)11 edited jointly by Agnon andAhron Eliasberg, director of the press. Thisanthology opens with a long chapter containing twoof Agnon’s tales about the origins of Polish Jewry,later titled in Hebrew “Kedumot” (“Antiquities”)and “Geshem” (“Rain”).

10 See Haya Bar-Itzhak, Legends of Poland - Ethnopoetics and LegendaryChronicles, Tel Aviv: Sifriyat Poalim, 1996, pp. 36-38 (Hebrew).See also Dan Laor, The Life of Agnon: A Biography, Jerusalem and TelAviv: Schocken, 1998, pp. 91-92, 107 (Hebrew). The historicalaspect of the Polish community in Agnon's work was widelydiscussed by Shmuel Werses, S.Y. Agnon Literally: Studies of his Writings,Jerusalem: Mossad Bialik, 2000 (Hebrew), pp. 215-222.

11 S. Y. Agnon and Ahron Eliasberg, Das Buch von den polnischen Juden,Berlin: Jüdischer Verlag, 1916.

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The first of these, “Kedumot”, tells about thefounding of the Jewish community of Poland, andafter the publication in German of The Book of PolishJews, Agnon published a Hebrew version in the annualreview “Ha-Tkufah” (“The Era”) (1920, pp.23-24). Onreturning to Palestine, Agnon included this storywith minor changers in a book called Poland: Legends(Hedim, 1928), eventually re-published among hiscollected writings, Of Such and Such and The Fire and theWood.12

Thus, “Kdumot”, a founding legend about theJewish community of Poland, appears in threeversions, one in German and two in Hebrew, asdiscussed at length in Haya Bar-Yitzhak’s researchon the sources of Agnon’s stories. Agnon’s12 S. Y. Agnon, Poland: Legendary Stories, Tel Aviv: Hedim, 1928

(Hebrew). Also also Id., “Poland: Legends,” The Complete Stories ofShnuel Yosef Agnon: Of Such and Such, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv: Schocken,1960 (Hebrew), pp. 353-403. See “The Beams of Our House” and“Fine Stories by Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov,” The Complete Stories ofShmuel Yosef Agnon: The Fire and the Wood, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv:Schocken, 1962 (Hebrew), pp. 23-82, 91ff.

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Version I Version II Version IIII: Agnon’s first version of ‘Polin’ [in German], in S”Y Agnon,

A. Eliasberg, Das Buch von den polnischen Juden, Berlin: JüdischerVerlag, 1916, p.1-8; II: Agnon’s second version: ‘Polin’, in:Ha-Tekufah, Warsaw (1920), pp. 23-24; III: Agnon’s third

intention had been to tell a eulogistic tale aboutthe history of Jewish settlement in Poland. In thethree versions of the story mentioned here Agnonwrites:

When the calamities came upon the Jews and theywondered where they might find refuge, a notefell from heaven telling them, “Go to Poland!”And so they left and when they reached Polandthey came to a forest near Lublin [where animportant rabbinical center would beestablished in the 16th century], and on eachtree they found engraved a different tractateof the Babylonian Talmud. Seeing this they saidto themselves, We have come to the land whereour forefathers settled and learned Torah. Andthis is why they called the land Po-lin (inHebrew, Sojourn here), for they said, We shallsojourn here until we ascend to the Land ofIsrael.

In the first German version, Agnon added thefollowing words: “So erzählten uns unsere Väter:Ist dies Überlieferung, so nehmen wir sie alssolche hin. Wer aber sichere Kunde von der Ankunftvernehmen will, der höre, was nun berichtet wird.”(S. 5) [“So said our fore-fathers: If this is theirteaching, we too shall accept it. But those whowish to hear a more reliable account should listento the following tale:”]Agnon wished to give his version the authenticityof a time-honored legend. At the same time, he washighly dissatisfied with Eliasberg’s translationand in the first Hebrew version published in Ha-Tkufah Agnon condensed the final passage to fourwords “If this be kabbalah, (received tradition) weshall accept (receive) it.” [Im kabbalah hi – nekabla]This version expresses Agnon’s sense of an imposedtradition he is obliged to accept despite his owninner resistance. And indeed, in the third version,“Kedumot”, he does away altogether with thisconcluding sentence, and ends the story with what

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the forefathers were commanded to do, “Sojourn hereamong us for the night of exile until you lead usto the Land of Israel!”

In light of these three versions it would seemthat Agnon began by imitating a wonder tale inwhich the site is found through heavenly signs, anote from heaven13 and the engraving on the trees,and in his final Hebrew version, qualifies themiraculous choice of place with the metaphor “thelong night of exile”. Here the narrative space isdescribed as dark, and as such it must be leftbehind in the day redemption. The transition fromthe former to the latter version points to adichotomy in Agnon’s approach to the space of

exile: as a providential place,one towards which the community isguided by heavenly signs; and as adark, demonic space in time, theprolonged night of history that

must be brought to an end through redemption.

The Founding of a City Marked with Guilt - the Precedent of Worms, from Berlin to the Land of Israel

Why did Agnon resort in his prose to suchconflicting depictions of his birth place: with ameta-historical apotheosis on the one hand, and onthe other, a dark demonic night that can only endthrough settlement in the Land of Israel?

The answer was provided years later by Agnonhimself in the epic literary project he embarked onabout his native Buczacz in Galicia. In 1965, Agnonannounced that he was planning a massive tomefilled with stories about Buczacz, to be called The

13 And see also the story “For Torah and Prayer” from The City withAll That is Therein, about the site of the synagogue of Buczacz, whichwas betokened by a sheet of parchment ripped out by enemies thathad rolled around until it came to rest there. Ibid., p. 14.

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The City With All that is Therein , Jerusalem : Schocken, 1973

City with All That is Therein.14 The bookwas published posthumously in1973, three years after Agnon’sdeath, and was indeed massive,with some seven hundred pages. Itopens with a brief founding storycalled simply “Buczacz,” in whichAgnon relates the circumstances ofthe city’s founding. The narratorremarks parenthetically that“seekers of chronology” (meaninghistorians) “have wearied of theirdiligent inquiries”, whereas thenarrator himself who “writes inthe script of truth” will set

forth the real version of Buczacz’ foundation.Agnon’s ‘real version’ is not a historicalchronicle as such but a prehistoric legend in thestyle of his story “Antiquities” in the Polandanthology.

The story is about an ancient settlement of Jewsat the dawn of history who decide to sell theirbelongings somewhere in the Diaspora and ascend tothe Land of Israel. The story’s setting at the dawnof history is not restricted to any particular eraor locale, nor are its characters. They are merelyfounding fathers from a distant past, the pre-history of his birthplace, Buczacz. The ‘wanderingcommunity’ of the story carries out the meta-historical commandment to reunite in the Holy Land,journeying through many realms until it reaches awilderness in Poland with nothing but forests,lakes and streams. The wandering Jews don’t knowthe way to the Land of Israel so they follow theirhearts. Thus, Agnon carries on the journey-narrative tradition, as in the story “In the Heartof the Seas.” The legend loses its wonder-taleelement as soon as he begins to paint thecharacters with all their flaws and weaknesses.

14 See the afterward by his daughter, Emunah Yaron, “The Makingof the Book” in S.Y. Agnon, The City with All That is Therein, Jerusalemand Tel Aviv: Schocken 1973 (Hebrew), pp. 717-718.

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They feel the approach of winter and with it theDays of Awe, which they wish want to observe in aplace Agnon describes as “filled with forests andstreams, with no sign of habitation for a trek ofseveral days in all directions.” Thus, a Europeanwilderness as it were, is superimposed over thestory of the exodus from Egypt. They even buildsukkot or booths from the trees in the forest, andhaving brought along the ritual etrog (citron), lulav(bound palm fronds) and hadas (myrtle boughs) fromtheir former home, they pick willow boughs alongthe stream near their encampment. The allusionhere, in this act of gathering willow boughs andsettling on the banks of the stream, is to Psalm137, “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat downand wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willowsthere we hung up our lyres.” In this way theybecome a chorus of exiles restored to the Diaspora.

The main resource of this pre-historic “wanderingcommunity” on a journey to the Land of Israel is ametaphysical quest, but this they give up for atangible historic habitation which becomes a“settled community.” Buczacz, then, is foundedduring a literary pause in the journey. Commercebegins to flourish in the new surroundings, thePolish nobility sends envoys, and they forget theholy quest that led them thither.

In this etiological story, Agnon employs the sametheme of enticing foreignness which he found in thestory of Worms in Juspa Shamash’s Book of MiraculousTales. Here, too, the Jewish community considers itsforeign (Polish) milieu benevolent and rationalizesthe decision to remain in exile.

Agnon uses the legend of the founding of Worms tosuggest a meta-historical reason for the calamity,and adapts it in his description of the foundingand tragic end of Buczacz, the city of his birth.Thus, there are two forms of settlement in alienlands: one occasioned by flight from persecution toa place of refuge indicated by heavenly signs, andthe other, by the choice of a comfortable life inthe Diaspora over the idea of redemption and areturn to Zion. To the first type of settlement

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Agnon ascribes the legend of Poland. To the second,the founding legend of Buczacz, he ascribes theprecedent of Worms as a city founded on a primalsin that led to its destruction in the Holocaust.

Beyond their structural similarities, the storiesof Worms and Buczacz resemble each other in theirvivid literary metaphors. This becomes evident inanother story told by Juspa Shamash called “Why theCity Is Called Worms, and Why There Is a Key on ItsCoat of Arms”. The text of Juspa’s legend, of the“antiquities” type, bore no relation to the historyof the Jewish community there, yet it registeredprofoundly in their visual imagination. The storyconcerns a great Lint worm or dragon that emerges outof the wilderness, lodges by the city walls andcommands the inhabitants to feed it human flesh.The inhabitants triumph over the Lint worm dragonthrough their faith in Jesus, and call their cityWorms.15

In the introduction to The Book of Miraculous Tales,Eidelberg provides a lengthy discussion of Juspa’sanomalous inclusion of Christian material in hisJewish writings. And the story as described byEidelberg is indeed visually impressive, so much sothat it found its way into the sphere of 18th

century eastern European Jewish folklore. The moststartling discovery is that when the artist Hayyimb. Yitzhak Segal of Slutsk finished decorating thewooden synagogue of Mogillev in 1740, and on itseastern wall a picture of Worms, and in it, awalled castle surrounded by a dragon. A detailed15 Shlomo Eidelberg, (The Book of Miraculous Tales) R. Juspa Shamash of

Warmaisa: The Jewish World of the 17th Century Worms, Jerusalem: Ibid.,pp. 71-72 (Hebrew Section), and see Eidelberg’s commentary onthe design of Hayyim b. Yitzhak Segal (after a copy by A.L.Lissitzky); the artist adorned the synagogue of Mogilev withthis emblem of the city of Worms between two trees: the Tree ofLife symbolizing continuity in earthly life, and preventing thereturn from the Diaspora, and the other, a palm tree (the treeof Israel) as the tree of knowledge (Ibid, p. 74). See adetailed research upon this emblem in this book: Anette Weber,Auf der Spur des Drachen: “Zur Darstellung der Stadt Worms mit dem Lindwurm in derSynagoge von Mogilev.”

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account of this folk motif is provided by AnnetteWeber in this volume.

There is yet another literary innovation in thestories of Agnon’s The City with All That is Therein, writtenthe 1960s, that merges the tradition of the earlyJewish settlement in Poland with the story of Wormsfrom The Book of Miraculous Tales and the picture in theMogilev synagogue. Agnon was very much familiarwith the picture thanks to its appearance in thejournal of Jewish art, Rimon, published in Berlinduring his residence there and widely reviewed, orfrom scientific works about eastern European Jewishart that came out during the 50s and 60s. 16

The motif of the medieval city surrounded by athreatening aquatic dragon demanding human victimshad a powerful impact on Agnon. Throughout The Citywith All That is Therein Agnon describes Buczacz as a citysurrounded by a river (the Strypa ), where balefuldark waters rise to drown the Jews, as in thestories “The Depths” (Ha-Metzulot) and “Why theRabbi Fled”. The Worms community surrounded by awater dragon demanding more and more human fleshand devouring the holy vessels to prevent them fromreturning to Zion, becomes merged in Agnon’sconsciousness with Buczacz surrounded by theStrypa:17

16 Eliezer Lissitzky, “The Synagogue of Mogilev (a Memoir)”,Rimon 2 (1923), pp. 12-19.

17 See for instance the story “The Tale of the Menorah”, thedrowning of the Jews and the synagogue menorah in the Strypa, inAgnon, The City with All That is Therein, pp. 30-31.

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Worms and Buczacz: Literary & Iconic Resemblance

In retrospect and in time, Agnon departed from theglowing legends of Poland and took up on its steadthe image of medieval Worms, an urban Jewishcommunity whose sages and citizens are besieged anddoomed to die. The founding legend of Worms is theappropriate prelude to his lamentation in The City withAll That is Therein, over a community that existed andperished owing to its primal sin of forgettingredemption.

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Berlin: Jüdischer Verlag, 1916Agnon, S. Y., Poland: Legendary Stories, Tel Aviv: Hedim, 1928

(Hebrew).Agnon, Y. S., “Poland: Legends,” The Complete Stories of Shnuel Yosef

Agnon: Of Such and Such, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv: Schocken, 1960Agnon, S. Y., The Complete Stories of Shmuel Yosef Agnon: The Fire and the

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Schocken, 1973 (Hebrew)Bar-Itzhak, Haya, Legends of Poland - Ethnopoetics and Legendary Chronicles,

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Chronicle of Aḥima'az ben Paltiel, Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2009Brüll, N., “Beiträge zur jüdischen Sagen– und Spruchkunde im

Mittelalter”, Jahrbücher für jüdische Geschichte und Literatur, 9(1889).

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Eidelberg, Shlomo, “The Antiquity of the Jewish Settlement inGermany,” Newsletter of the Scientific Association of Jewish Studies, 17-18(1981), pp. 19-25

Grossman, Avraham, The First Sages of Ashkenaz: Their History, PublicLeadership, and Spiritual Works from the Time of Their Initial Settlement to theEdicts of 1096, Jerusalem: Magnes, 1989 (Hebrew)

Laor, Dan, The Life of Agnon: A Biography, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv:Schocken, 1998 (Hebrew)

Lissitzky, Eliezer, “The Synagogue of Mogilev (a Memoir)”,Rimon 2 (1923), pp. 12-19

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Luria, Shlomo Ben Yeḥiel, Maharshal’s Responsa, Jerusalem:Jerusalem Edition, 1969 (Hebrew)

Fritz Reuter und Ulrike Schäfer, Wundergeschichten aus Warmaisa:Juspa Shammes, seines Ma'asseh nissim und das jüdische Worms im 17.Jahrhundert, Warmaisa: Gesellschaft zur Förderung und Pflegejüdischer Kultur in Worms, 2005

Weinryb, Bernhard Dov, The Jews in Poland: A Social and Economic History ofthe Jewish Community in Poland from 1100 to1800, Philadelphia: TheJewish Publication Society of America, 1973

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Werses, Shmuel, S.Y. Agnon Literally: Studies of his Writings, Jerusalem:Mossad Bialik, 2000 (Hebrew)

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Jewish Story, Jerusalem: Magnes, 1993 (Hebrew)

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