Jewish women participated in local commerce and in overseas trade and travel. In Mediterranean countries Jewish women brokers were common. Women commodity brokers, as did men brokers, provided instructions to their agents and provided their money. Agents often were their sons, brothers, other family members, or close friends in overseas positions of trust and responsibility. Men in the family of such professional women took their “l(fā)ast names” from them, an early form of matronymic in which family name was derived from the mother’s profession. Family names derived from the father’s trade are patronymics. Progeny of an English male baker, for example, used the surname Baker, while the inheritor of a woman’s professional baking career was Baxter. Likewise for brewing beer the male family name was Brewer; the professional woman’s heritage was Brewster. For fabric weavers the male name was Weaver or Webber. Those tracing inheritance to a woman weaver had the family name Webster. In Cairo geniza documents men are named as “Son of the Woman Commodity Broker” and “Brother of the Woman Broker named Lady Gazelle.” Maimonides’ brother David identified his travel companions as “My company in the Malabar Sea will be Salim, son of the Woman Broker, Salim’s brother’s son Makarim al-Hariri, and the brother of Lady Gazelle” (Responsums and Letters 37v). Another common “family” name, Ibn al-Hajja, meant “Son of the Woman Pilgrim.”

? ? ? ? ? Shelomo Dov Goitein出版的 geniza 信件顯示，一些猶太婦女在貿(mào)易商隊(duì)和海上航行中陪伴丈夫或兄弟。一些商人帶著家人到巴勒斯坦定居，因?yàn)檫@里離他們近，而且生活費(fèi)用相對(duì)低廉。一位名叫Nahray ben Nissim的海外商人在他 1046 年的賬簿中記錄了他妹妹的交通費(fèi)和生活費(fèi)，她可能是他的管家。付款人是他的雇主Barhun ben Ishaq，付款方式是常見(jiàn)的“里薩拉”（risala）商業(yè)安排。

The geniza letters published by Goitein show that some Jewish women accompanied their husbands or brothers in trade caravans and on sea voyages. Some traders took their family to settle in Palestine for proximity to them and for the city’s comparatively inexpensive cost of living. An overseas merchant named Nahray ben Nissim in his account books dated 1046 charged payments for transport for his sister and her living costs abroad with him, perhaps as his housekeeper. The person paying was his employer, Barhun ben Ishaq, via the common business arrangement of risala. ?

? ? ? ? ?根據(jù)猶太律法，如果沒(méi)有兒子，女兒可以繼承父親的全部財(cái)產(chǎn)。約瑟夫的兄長(zhǎng)巴爾洪去世后，約瑟夫的女兒們有權(quán)分享（11世紀(jì)突尼斯）家族貿(mào)易生意。

In Jewish law daughters inherited the entire estate of their father if there were no sons. When Joseph Taherti’s older brother, Barhun had died, Joseph’s daughters were entitled to a share in the family trading business in 11thcentury Tunisia.

? ? ? ? ? 大量有關(guān)女性的雜文證實(shí)了中世紀(jì)猶太商人對(duì)等待他們歸來(lái)的妻子、女兒、母親和姐妹的尊重和敬意，以及他們常用母親的名字或職業(yè)來(lái)識(shí)別男人的身份。一位名叫佩拉亞（Perahya）的男子盡管忙于生意，還是為母親寄來(lái)了藥方。一位男子向陪同他出國(guó)的妻子致以問(wèn)候，他們兩人都在家里孝敬他的祖母。另一位商人向拉結(jié)和她的母親致以親切的問(wèn)候。一位商人與以撒（the son-in-law of Giovanna’s son，不知道是不是“那個(gè)意思”，不太好翻譯）一起啟程。邁蒙尼德的兄弟戴維向他的妻子致以親切的問(wèn)候，他用親切的小短語(yǔ)“小家伙”來(lái)稱(chēng)呼他的妻子，他也向她的妹妹和自己的姐妹致以問(wèn)候。

A copious miscellany of references to women corroborates the respect and esteem that medieval Jewish traders expressed for their wives, daughters, mothers, and sisters awaiting their return, as well as their common use of a mother’s name or profession for identifying a man. A man named Perahya sent a medical prescription for his mother, despite his preoccupation with business problems. A man sent greetings from his wife accompanying him abroad, and both of them honored at home his paternal aunts. Another trader sent affectionate greetings to Rachel and her mother. One merchant embarked with Isaac, the son-in-law of Giovanna’s son. Maimonides’ brother David sent loving greetings to his wife, whom he called by the affectionate diminutive phrase “the little one,” and sent affection also to her sister and to his own sisters.

? ? ? ? ? 并非所有婦女都依賴(lài)丈夫的支持。在 15 世紀(jì)的意大利和西班牙，猶太婦女從事手稿印刷和書(shū)籍裝幀工作。在新印刷業(yè)中，女編譯是這門(mén)技藝中“神圣工作的執(zhí)行者”，使一個(gè)人可以“用許多筆寫(xiě)字”。一些婦女在葡萄酒、麥酒、面包和食品市場(chǎng)從事專(zhuān)業(yè)工作。

Not all women were dependent on their husbands’ support. In 15th-century Italy and Spain Jewish women worked in manuscript illumination and bookbinding. In the new trade of printing, women compositors were “performers of holy work” in the art, allowing one individual “to write with many pens.” Other women worked professionally in the wine, ale, bread, and food market trades.

? ? ? ? ? 中世紀(jì)猶太女性從事醫(yī)學(xué)和外科手術(shù)的人數(shù)之多令人驚訝。許多人都是眼科醫(yī)生。1349 年，拉比本·阿什在西班牙托萊多去世前，感激地講述了他與兩位猶太眼科醫(yī)生的交往經(jīng)歷。第一位試圖治愈他的醫(yī)生失敗了。然而，第二位醫(yī)生治療了他兩個(gè)月后去世了。拉比感嘆說(shuō)，如果她還活著，他可能會(huì)完全恢復(fù)視力，但他感謝上帝至少讓他恢復(fù)了部分視力。在美因河畔法蘭克福的檔案中，猶太醫(yī)生（Juden-Ercztin）名單中出現(xiàn)了女眼科醫(yī)生。這些神秘學(xué)女外科醫(yī)生的技術(shù)很嫻熟，據(jù)說(shuō)她們的手術(shù)速度比人們描述的還要快。

Surprising numbers of medieval Jewish women practiced medicine and surgery. Many were eye surgeons. Rabbi Ben Asher before his death in Toledo, Spain, in 1349, gratefully recounted his experiences with two Jewish ophthalmologists who treated his near blindness. The first who tried to cure him failed. However, a second doctor treated him for two months before she herself died. The rabbi lamented that had she lived he might have fully regained his eyesight but gave thanks to God for at least permitting him to regain part of his eyesight. In the archives of Frankfurt am Main, women eye doctors appear among the lists of Jewish physicians, the Juden-Ercztin. So skillful were these female occultist-surgeons that they were said to operate more quickly than one could describe the operations.

? ? ? ? ? 無(wú)論是職業(yè)婦女還是不工作的猶太妻子，當(dāng)丈夫外出經(jīng)商時(shí)，留在家中的她們都間接參與了陸地和海上的商業(yè)活動(dòng)。她們的兩項(xiàng)習(xí)慣性法律保護(hù)是由親戚或代表（wakil，商人的受托人）保管的貨幣基金。這取決于丈夫能否在合理的時(shí)間內(nèi)以合理的健康狀況返回。他的親戚或受托人每月向妻子支付津貼，并處理不在家商人的一般商業(yè)事務(wù)。對(duì)商人妻子的第二項(xiàng)法律保護(hù)是丈夫在踏上遙遠(yuǎn)或危險(xiǎn)的旅程之前簽署的有條件離婚協(xié)議。無(wú)論夫妻之間的感情有多深厚，有條件離婚的前提是丈夫一去不復(fù)返，或因意外、戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)、暴力而喪生，或因傷病而死亡，且沒(méi)有證人證實(shí)他的命運(yùn)。有條件離婚減輕了失蹤丈夫生死未卜的痛苦，也避免了婦女陷入“agunah”（它被用作借用術(shù)語(yǔ)，指的是丈夫拒絕或無(wú)法準(zhǔn)予離婚的婦女（猶太法）決定）這一脆弱的法律地位。

Both the working woman and the nonworking Jewish wife left at home while her husband traveled on trade indirectly participated in the commercial drama on land and sea. Her two customary legal protections were the monetary fund in the safekeeping of a relative or a wakil, the trustee of merchants. This was predicated on the husband’s returning in reasonable time in reasonable health. His relative or trustee paid the wife a monthly stipend and cared for general business affairs of the absent merchant. The second legal protection for a merchant’s wife was the conditional divorce that the husband signed before embarking on a distant or dangerous journey. No matter how great the love between the spouses, the conditional divorce was predicated on the husband’s never returning, the man killed by accident, war, or violence or dead from injury or disease, without a witness to confirm his fate. The conditional divorce mitigated the anguish of not knowing whether the missing husband was dead or alive and prevented the woman’s entrapment in the tenuous legal status of agunah.

來(lái)自遠(yuǎn)方的愛(ài)與離婚

一位印度商人的來(lái)信將猶太婦女在 13 世紀(jì)早期猶太法律中的地位表現(xiàn)得淋漓盡致。信中詳細(xì)描述了一個(gè)特殊家庭的苦惱和這對(duì)夫婦的離婚，體現(xiàn)了猶太人的性、法律、道德、責(zé)任、選擇、利益和樂(lè)觀主義的社會(huì)背景。

The letter of a trader located in India dramatizes the status of Jewish women in early 13th-century Jewish law. Its details of a particular family’s anguish and the couple’s divorce exemplified the social context of Jewish sex, law, morality, responsibility, choice, profit, and optimism.

一位飽受饑荒和瘟疫肆虐埃及之苦的婦女寫(xiě)信給她的丈夫，責(zé)備他常年出差在外，并要求離婚。丈夫在 1204 年給她的回信與邁蒙尼德同時(shí)代，這封信現(xiàn)存于紐約猶太神學(xué)院圖書(shū)館的 E. N. Adler 藏品中。丈夫（出奇意料的）坦率地寫(xiě)下了他不在妻子身邊的這些年里對(duì)妻子的思念和渴望。妻子的斥責(zé)讓他感到受傷、羞愧和憤怒，他抗議自己的清白和永恒的愛(ài)，他說(shuō)，沒(méi)有一個(gè)男人的心會(huì)像他一樣始終如一地離開(kāi)妻子。他直截了當(dāng)?shù)乇磉_(dá)了對(duì)妻子的性渴望。她在信中寫(xiě)道，他違反了他們的婚約，即克圖巴 (Ketubah)，其中列出了雙方的義務(wù)，包括她每周性交的法定權(quán)利，即“onah”禮（該詞的字面意思是“適當(dāng)?shù)募竟?jié)、時(shí)期、階段”，丈夫?qū)ζ拮拥幕橐隽x務(wù)）。

A woman who had suffered the terrors of famine and plague that ravaged Egypt wrote letters of reproach to her husband for his many years of absence on business and asked for a divorce. His answer to her in 1204, contemporary with Maimonides, now rests in the E. N. Adler Collection of the Jewish Theological Seminary Library in New York City. With notable candor, the husband wrote of his feelings of longing and yearning for his wife during all the years of his absence. Hurt, shamed, and offended by his wife’s rebukes, he protests his innocence and his eternal love, saying that no heart of any man traveling away from his wife as long as he has remained as constant as his. Forthrightly, he states his sexual yearnings for her. She had written that he had violated their marriage contract, the ketubah, that listed reciprocal obligations including her legal rights to weekly sexual intercourse, the mitzvah of onah.

? ? ? ? ? 作為商人，丈夫在國(guó)外逗留，通常不是因?yàn)橛?jì)劃、愿望或無(wú)能，而是因?yàn)闉?zāi)難。這位寫(xiě)信人顯然是遭遇了海難。為了挽回?fù)p失，賺取利潤(rùn)以支付遠(yuǎn)航的費(fèi)用，這位丈夫選擇了許多geniza通信者的路線。他盡可能地遠(yuǎn)行，盡可能地長(zhǎng)途跋涉，盡可能地艱苦奮斗，以進(jìn)行貿(mào)易和價(jià)值交換來(lái)獲取利潤(rùn)。此人繞過(guò)印度周邊，來(lái)到印度大陸東南部的科羅曼德海岸，這是在 geniza 文件中提到的 1000 多名猶太印度商人中最遠(yuǎn)的一次航行。

Trader husbands tarrying abroad usually stayed away not by plan, desire, or incompetence but by disaster. This letter writer apparently had been shipwrecked. To recoup losses and make a profit to justify expenses of distant voyaging, the husband elected the route of many geniza correspondents. He traveled as far, as long, and as hard as necessary to trade and to exchange value for profit. This man had traveled around the perimeter of India to the Coromandel coast in the southeastern sector of the continent, one of the farthest voyages of the more than 1,000 Jewish India traders referred to in the geniza documents.

? ? ? ? ? 他的旅行范圍之廣，廣為人知，只是因?yàn)樗诩抑械钠拮訉?duì)丈夫從遠(yuǎn)方帶來(lái)的香水禮物（珍貴芳香的龍涎香）極為挑剔。她不知道尋找或寄送香水的危險(xiǎn)。他氣憤地說(shuō)，如果她知道他為購(gòu)買(mǎi)龍涎香禮物所付出的艱辛和代價(jià)，她一定會(huì)忍住不說(shuō)。他接著講述了他如何獲得龍涎香的冒險(xiǎn)經(jīng)歷，他說(shuō)他遇到了海難，被遺棄在船上。由于失去了一切，他被迫貸款，并遠(yuǎn)渡重洋，來(lái)到了 al-Mabar 以外的地方。

His prodigious scope of travel became known only because his wife at home was hypercritical of her husband’s gift from afar of perfume, valuable fragrant ambergris. She did not know the perils of its finding or sending. He remarked with exasperation that had she known the trouble and expenses he had to incur to purchase the gift of ambergris, she would surely have held her tongue. He then went on to relate the adventure of how he acquired it, saying that he had shipwrecked and been left for dead. Having lost everything, he was forced to take out a loan and to travel the distance beyond al-Mabar.

? ? ? ? ? 他理解妻子對(duì)自由的渴望，于是允許妻子與自己離婚。在之前的一次航行中，他的妻子拒絕了有條件的離婚。丈夫給妻子送去了肉豆蔻、上好的高良姜、白屈菜、芳香的木材和孩子們用的布匹。他承認(rèn)，根據(jù)猶太法律，她有權(quán)決定接受或拒絕離婚。他在離婚信中寫(xiě)道，他不能責(zé)怪她的離開(kāi)，但在等待了這么久之后，他不想空手而歸。他把決定權(quán)交給妻子，說(shuō)無(wú)論如何他都會(huì)接受，只是請(qǐng)她慎重考慮，因?yàn)樗赡軙?huì)后悔自己的決定，到時(shí)可能就無(wú)濟(jì)于事了。最后，他莊重而溫柔地祝愿妻子無(wú)論如何決定，都能在雅威（上帝）的啟示下做出決定。

Understanding his wife’s desire for freedom, he granted the writ of divorce she craved. Before a previous voyage his wife had refused a conditional divorce. Now he sent her nutmeg, good galingale, celandine, fragrant woods, and cloth for the children. He acknowledged her contractual right of decision under Jewish law to accept or reject the offer of divorce. In resignation he wrote that he could not blame her for leaving him, but at this point after waiting for so long, he was loath to go home empty handed. He left the decision up to her, saying that he would accept it, no matter what, only asking that she consider carefully since she might regret her decision, which then might be of no avail. He concluded with dignity and tenderness, wishing that however she may decide, she reach her decision with the inspiration of God.

奴隸制

? ? ? ? ? ?蘇丹艾德哈布（Aydhab）港口大約于1144 年發(fā)生的一起法庭誹謗案引人注目，它讓我們得以一窺中世紀(jì)猶太人、基督徒和穆斯林生活中司空見(jiàn)慣的奴隸制度。根據(jù) 12 世紀(jì)的穆斯林法律，男子可以將自己的女奴納為妾?；浇毯酮q太教法律規(guī)定，自由人之間的婚姻是發(fā)生性關(guān)系的先決條件。據(jù)說(shuō)，一個(gè)名叫Abu Said ibn Jamahir的猶太商人在他的女奴生下兒子后將她遺棄在非洲。他以誹謗罪起訴了指控他的人。他有女奴嗎？他拋棄了她嗎？這段關(guān)系的真相被永遠(yuǎn)埋葬在時(shí)間的塵埃中，無(wú)人考證。然而，其他的 geniza 文件則涉及獲得自由的婦女與非其主人的猶太男子結(jié)婚的婚約，這表明愛(ài)上女奴的猶太人有義務(wù)釋放她并娶她為妻，或者反過(guò)來(lái)說(shuō)，釋放她并提供嫁妝使她能夠嫁給另一個(gè)男人。

A fascinating 12th-century court case for slander dated around 1144 from the Sudanese port of Aydhab permits a glimpse of slavery, a familiar institution in medieval Jewish, Christian, and Muslim life. Under 12th-century Muslim law a man could make his slave woman his concubine. Christian and Jewish law required marriage between free people as a prerequisite for sexual relations. A Jewish trader named Abu Said ibn Jamahir was said to have abandoned his slave woman in Africa after she had given birth to their son. He sued his accuser for slander. Did he have a slave woman? Did he abandon her? The truth of that relationship is buried forever in time’s unexamined detritus. Other geniza documents, however, pertain to marriage contracts for freed women marrying Jewish men who had not been their masters, suggesting that a Jew in love with a slave woman was obligated to free her and marry her or, conversely, free her and provide a dowry to enable her to marry another man.

感性與虔誠(chéng)的情色

? ? ? ? ? 作為讀書(shū)人，猶太人崇尚思想。但同樣重要的猶太傳統(tǒng)是贊美身體的性感與性欲。對(duì)一些中世紀(jì)猶太人來(lái)說(shuō)，身體就是書(shū)。摩西·本·納賀蒙（Moses Nachmanides，1194-1270 年）和法國(guó)塔木德學(xué)者阿夫拉姆·本·戴維（Abraham ben David，又稱(chēng)拉瓦德（Raavad，1125-98 年），這兩位 12 世紀(jì)與邁蒙尼德同時(shí)代的猶太哲學(xué)家都寫(xiě)過(guò)美化人體感官的文章。學(xué)者們敏銳地欣賞人體，將其視為一本書(shū)來(lái)研究、珍視和解讀，并像其他靈感圣典一樣，將思想和精神引向上帝。

Jews as people of the book cherished the mind. But an equally potent Jewish heritage celebrated the body’s sensuality and sexuality. For some medieval Jews the body was the book. Respected medieval Jewish philosophers such as Moses Nachmanides (1194–c. 1270) and the French Talmudist scholar Abraham ben David, also known as the Raavad (1125–98), both 12th-century contemporaries of Maimonides, wrote texts glorifying human sensuality. Scholars sensitively appreciated the human physique as if it were a book for studying, cherishing, interpreting, and, as do other inspirational holy texts, directing the mind and spirit to God.

? ? ? ? 人們認(rèn)為，婚內(nèi)性交的神圣義務(wù)，即“onah”禮，是對(duì)虔誠(chéng)的肯定。維多利亞時(shí)代的審慎主義將中世紀(jì)的性斥之為彌天大罪，那些只從這一黑暗的視角來(lái)了解中世紀(jì)的人，會(huì)被這一閃亮的定義所震驚：性交是成人禮，是神圣的義務(wù)，是必須接受并快樂(lè)使用的禮物。性愛(ài)不僅是生育，而且是一種神圣的方式。它是一種深刻“了解”愛(ài)人的方式。對(duì)于一些猶太思想家來(lái)說(shuō)，性高潮是真正的信徒與上帝之間激情神秘結(jié)合的世俗預(yù)示。

The blessed obligation of sexual intercourse in marriage, the mitzvah of onah, was thought to affirm piety. Those who know the Middle Ages only through the dark Victorian lens of prudery that castigated medieval sex as mortal sin are startled by this shining definition of sexual intercourse as mitzvah, a divine imperative, a gift obligatory to accept and joyous to use. Sex was consecrated as more than procreative. It was a way of profoundly “knowing” a beloved. For some Jewish thinkers, sexual orgasm was earthly prefiguration of passionate mystical union between true believer and God.

? ? ? ? ? 中世紀(jì)猶太人的婚禮儀式和象征中充滿(mǎn)了性的意味?！妒ソ?jīng)》中關(guān)于生育的禁令為最初的“天篷”（chuppah 代表猶太家庭，以布頂篷和四根柱子為象征；chuppah也代表著對(duì)客人的熱情款待，這個(gè)“家”最初缺乏家具，提醒人們猶太家庭的基礎(chǔ)是里面的人，而不是財(cái)產(chǎn)；從精神意義上講，chuppah的覆蓋代表上帝在婚姻之約上的臨在）增添了活力，在“天篷”中，一對(duì)新人在婚禮當(dāng)天完成了他們的結(jié)合。新郎在鞋底踩碎的玻璃杯最初是民間傳說(shuō)中的生育子宮符?？藞D巴 (Ketubah)婚約列舉了夫妻雙方的性義務(wù)。違反性義務(wù)是離婚的原因。挑逗性的婚禮食品和飲料是婚慶感官享受的頂峰。食譜規(guī)范了性感，膳食、菜單和節(jié)日食品都是為了刺激或抑制肉欲以及治愈渴望的身體而精心制作的。

Sexual implications graced medieval Jewish wedding ceremonies and symbols. Biblical injunctions to fertility animated the original huppah, in which the couple sexually consummated their union on the wedding day. The glass that the groom crushed beneath his shoe originally was a folklore fertility womb charm. The ketubah marriage contract enumerated the couple’s mutual sexual obligations. Violation of sexual obligations was cause for divorce. Provocative wedding foods and drinks were the culmination of the sensuality of nuptial celebration. Recipes regulated sensuality. Meals, menus, and festival foods were crafted to stimulate or suppress carnality and to heal the yearning body.

? ? ? ? ? 在中世紀(jì)的猶太歌謠、動(dòng)物寓言、諷刺詩(shī)、愛(ài)情詩(shī)和戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)詩(shī)，以及在哲學(xué)性愛(ài)手冊(cè)中，猶太人的性欲得到了熱情和智慧的滿(mǎn)足。令人捧腹的《森德巴爾的故事》（Mishle Sendebar）包括性冒險(xiǎn)、對(duì)人體的贊美以及對(duì)女人床上智慧的頌揚(yáng)。羅馬的諷刺作家以馬內(nèi)利在他的《Mahberot》中所寫(xiě)的騷動(dòng)詩(shī)歌既優(yōu)雅放肆，又粗俗不堪。

In medieval Jewish song and story beast fables, satires, poems of love and war, and in philosophical sex handbooks, Jewish appetite for sex was satisfied with enthusiasm, and intelligence. The hilarious Tales of Sendebar (Mishle Sendebar) include sexual adventures, exaltation of the human body, and celebrations of woman’s wit in bed. The satirist Immanuel of Rome’s riotous poems in his Mahberot were elegantly insolent and imperially vulgar.

? ? ? ? ? 早先在穆斯林安達(dá)盧西亞，猶太朝臣、將軍和詩(shī)人塞繆爾·伊本·納格里拉（Samuel ibn Nagrela，約 990-1056 年）寫(xiě)下了充滿(mǎn)神秘色彩的、得到上帝“保證”禮儀詩(shī)和戰(zhàn)歌。他還寫(xiě)了希伯來(lái)文、阿拉伯文和西班牙文的情詩(shī)，這些詩(shī)歌都帶有明顯的性色彩。后來(lái)在 12 世紀(jì)的西班牙，詩(shī)人猶大·哈列維（Judah Halevi，約 1080- 1141 年）也寫(xiě)過(guò)火熱的情歌。塞繆爾·伊本·納格里拉（Samuel ibn Nagrela）、猶大·哈列維（Judah Halevi）和詩(shī)人兼音樂(lè)家羅馬的以馬內(nèi)利（Immanuel of Rome，約 1261 年至 1328 年），以及他們同時(shí)代最好甚至最差的人都有寫(xiě)過(guò)性色彩作品。他們的性色彩作品坦率且露骨。他們以驚奇和尊重的態(tài)度描述了男性和女性身體的感覺(jué)和快感能力。 ??

Earlier in Muslim Andalusia, the Jewish courtier, general, and poet Samuel ibn Nagrela (c. 990–1056) wrote mystically inspired, God “assured” liturgical poems and battle songs. He also wrote Hebrew, Arabic, and Spanish love poetry that was blatantly sexual. Later in 12thcentury Spain, the poet Judah Halevi (c. 1080– 1141) also wrote fiery love lyrics. Samuel ibn Nagrela, Judah Halevi, and the poet and musician Immanuel of Rome (c. 1261–c. 1328), and none of their best or even their worst contemporaries wrote pornography. Their erotica was candid and explicit. It described with wonder and respect the male and female bodies’ capacities for sensation and pleasure.

? ? ? ? ? 雖然《森德巴爾的故事》等是由民間傳統(tǒng)發(fā)展而來(lái)，但它們的作者和讀者都是聰明人，而且往往是博學(xué)的思想家和讀者。在層層疊疊的性暗示之間，隱藏著引用或轉(zhuǎn)述《圣經(jīng)》和《妥拉》的雙關(guān)語(yǔ)和文字游戲。有些性文字游戲隱藏在明顯的圣經(jīng)注釋之中。這種 “大眾的文學(xué)”而非“律法的文學(xué)”的阿加達(dá)寫(xiě)作（猶太教古典拉比文學(xué)中出現(xiàn)的非法律解釋?zhuān)貏e是《塔木德》和《米德拉什》），讓各個(gè)社會(huì)階層和各種教育程度的人都樂(lè)在其中。感性的贊美并不是常規(guī)的例外，而是中世紀(jì)猶太人欣賞身體的常規(guī)表現(xiàn)。

Though stories such as the Tales of Sendebar developed from folk tradition, nevertheless they were written by and for intelligent, often learned thinkers and readers. Hidden between layers of sexual allusion were puns and wordplays quoting or paraphrasing the Bible and the Torah. Some sexual wordplay was hidden amid apparent biblical exegesis. This aggadic writing, a literature of the people, not halachic literature of the law, delighted all social classes and all degrees of education. Sensual praise was not an exception to the rule but expression of a routine medieval Jewish appreciation of the body.

身體與道德

? ? ? ? ? 是什么導(dǎo)致了中世紀(jì)猶太文化中對(duì)性的公開(kāi)、強(qiáng)烈的尊重？猶太藝術(shù)家至少賦予了性六種尊嚴(yán)，高揚(yáng)其精神力量。首先，上帝以其無(wú)限的慈悲賦予了人們強(qiáng)大而敏感的身體，以補(bǔ)充強(qiáng)大而敏感的心靈。如果上帝不希望我們使用生殖器并產(chǎn)生快感，他就不會(huì)賜予我們生殖器及其在性愛(ài)中產(chǎn)生快感的能力。13 世紀(jì)偉大的哲學(xué)家和醫(yī)生納賀蒙尼德（Nachmanides）如是說(shuō)。喬叟的《坎特伯雷故事》中的淫婦巴斯也在一個(gè)世紀(jì)后表達(dá)了同樣的觀點(diǎn)。

What caused open, exuberant respect for sexuality in medieval Jewish culture? Jewish artists ascribed at least six dignities to sex, exalting its spiritual potency. First, God in his infinite compassion gave people powerful, sensitive bodies to complement powerful, sensitive minds. God would not have given us genitals and their capacity for pleasure in sex if he did not expect us to use them and to generate pleasure. Certainly, if God wished us simply to purge urine from those orifices, he would have made them simpler and less exquisitely sensitive, so said the great 13th-century philosopher and physician Nachmanides. Chaucer’s lusty voluptuary, the Wife of Bath in the Canterbury Tales, voiced that same argument a century later.

? ? ? ? ? ?上帝創(chuàng)造的性工具本身并不邪惡。但身體使用它們的方式卻可能是邪惡的。上帝創(chuàng)造了手，讓它可以完成最崇高的行為。手可以書(shū)寫(xiě)《圣經(jīng)》。手可以在藝術(shù)中塑造圖案。然而，同樣的手也可以偷竊和謀殺。那么這只手就是可憎的、邪惡的。

No evil is inherent in the sexual instruments that God has made. But there can be evil in the way the body uses them. God made the hand an instrument that can perform the most exalted acts. A hand can write a Torah. A hand can shape designs in art. Yet that same hand also can steal and murder. Then the hand is loathsome and evil.

? ? ? ? ? 同樣，如果使用和濫用不當(dāng)，比如使用時(shí)的意圖和想法是錯(cuò)誤的，生殖器也可能成為墮落、惡心和罪惡的工具。上帝賦予人類(lèi)的器官和能力本質(zhì)上并不壞。它們是有用且重要的，而不僅僅是用來(lái)生兒育女。正如人的手在書(shū)寫(xiě)《圣經(jīng)》或裝飾書(shū)卷時(shí)是高尚和精致的，但在偷竊或謀殺時(shí)卻是邪惡和可憎的，性行為也可以是有辱人格和令人厭惡的。對(duì)于真正有思想、有道德的男人和女人來(lái)說(shuō)，性行為也可以是一種圣潔而偉大的精神活動(dòng)。

Likewise, genitals can be instruments of degradation, disgust, and sin if inappropriately used and abused, as when the intention and the thought accompanying their use are wrong. God endowed people with organs and capacities that by their nature are not bad. They are useful and important and not only for making children. As can the human hand, exalted and exquisite when writing a Torah or decorating a scroll, but evil and detestable when it steals or murders, so sex acts can be degrading and disgusting. Or sexuality can be an exercise of sanctification and spiritual magnificence for the truly thoughtful, ethical man and woman.

“Onah”成人禮

? ? ? ? ? 其次，為了贊美身體及其創(chuàng)造者，人們必須履行“onah”禮，即例行和頻繁的性交。亞伯拉罕（Raavad）在 12 世紀(jì)出版的《圣潔之門(mén)》（Shaar ha kadushah）一書(shū)中描述了根據(jù)健康、工作和社會(huì)需要而適當(dāng)安排的“onah”義務(wù)。

Second, to celebrate the body and its creator one must perform the mitzvah of onah, routine and frequent sexual intercourse. The Raavad’s 12th-century book Gates of Holiness (Shaar ha kadushah) described the appropriate schedules for onah obligations according to health, work, and social necessities.

? ? ? ? ? 亞伯拉罕（Raavad）直接引用了《妥拉》中的一個(gè)時(shí)間計(jì)劃。一個(gè)身體健康、在家附近工作的男人應(yīng)該與妻子每晚都行“onah”禮。從事繁重體力勞動(dòng)且離家較遠(yuǎn)的男子，如果每周只做兩次，則可以免去其“onah”的義務(wù)。妥拉學(xué)者在學(xué)習(xí)和辯論中耗費(fèi)了大量精力，以至于他們每周只有一次“onah”的時(shí)間。

The Raavad quoted a time scheme directly from the Torah. A man who was healthy and worked close to home should indulge his wife in onah nightly. A man who performed strenuous manual labor and worked at a distance from home was excused if he performed onah duty only twice a week. Torah scholars expended so much energy in study and debate that they had energy for onah only once weekly.

? ? ? ? ? 猶太教法律對(duì)經(jīng)期和生育期婦女的性行為做出了規(guī)定。在妻子的月經(jīng)期（niddah），丈夫不得與妻子發(fā)生性關(guān)系。同樣，丈夫和妻子必須在分娩后的規(guī)定期限內(nèi)禁止性交。在被稱(chēng)為“mikvah”的猶太公共浴室或溫泉中，宗教儀式與衛(wèi)生習(xí)慣相結(jié)合。在禁欲后恢復(fù)性關(guān)系之前，儀式性沐浴是婦女的義務(wù)。有些婦女在星期五晚上性交前后都要沐浴。

Jewish laws regulated sex for menstruating and childbearing women. A husband was not to approach his wife sexually during her monthly menstrual period, called niddah. Likewise, a husband and wife must abstain from intercourse until after a prescribed period postchildbirth. Religious ritual united with hygiene in the Jewish communal bath or spa called the mikvah. Ritual bathing was a woman’s duty before resumption of sexual relations after abstinence. Some women bathed before and after Friday night intercourse.

? ? ? ? ? 性權(quán)利既屬于女性，也屬于男性。婦女對(duì)“onah”的權(quán)利尤為重要。如果丈夫出差或更換工作影響了她在“onah”上的可能性和樂(lè)趣，她可以阻止丈夫出差或更換工作。納賀蒙尼德和亞伯拉罕（Raavad）描述了猶太丈夫必須對(duì)妻子溫柔體貼，保證妻子的性快感，并建議用誘惑的語(yǔ)言喚起妻子的性快感。 ??

Sexual rights were women’s as well as men’s. A woman’s rights to her onah were especially important. She could prevent her husband from traveling afar on business or from changing his job if it interfered with her possibilities for and her pleasures in onah. Nachmanides and the Raavad described the Jewish husband’s mandatory tenderness and assurance of his wife’s sexual pleasure and suggested language of seduction to arouse her to sexual delight.

? ? ? ? ? “Onah”作為成人禮，既是祝福也是義務(wù)，它鼓勵(lì)真正、深刻而又崇高的相互理解。希伯來(lái)語(yǔ)中“性關(guān)系”的意思是“yediah”，即知識(shí)、理解。當(dāng)他“了解”她（或她“了解”他）時(shí)，他們所了解的不僅僅是彼此身體的構(gòu)造。他們的知識(shí)淵博而高深，他們的理解力超越了單純的書(shū)本知識(shí)，最好的性愛(ài)是一種教學(xué)、一種靈魂的升華、一種終極的祈禱。

Onah as mitzvah, both blessing and obligation, encouraged a true, deep, yet exalted mutual understanding. The Hebrew word for sexual relations was yediah, knowledge, understanding. When he “knew” her and she “knew” him, they knew more than simply the anatomy of one another’s bodies. Their knowledge was profound yet soaring. A comprehension beyond mere book learning, best sex was anagogical, soul-uplifting, and the ultimate prayer.

身體的狂喜是天堂的預(yù)言

? ? ? ? ? 這種大膽的身體觀并不否認(rèn)心靈的榮耀。身體和心靈具有同等的力量，兩者相互影響。猶太教迷戀感官和性行為的第三個(gè)原因是，他們相信最狂喜的性行為預(yù)示著天堂的狂喜。與其他 11 和 12 世紀(jì)的作家一樣，醫(yī)生、哲學(xué)家和詩(shī)人猶大·哈列維從身體的奇跡中看到并感受到了與上帝合一的奇跡。與追求理解上帝的邁蒙尼德不同，猶大·哈列維激發(fā)的是對(duì)上帝的愛(ài)。有時(shí)，他在寫(xiě)作時(shí)仿佛沉醉于上帝的榮耀之中。他的狂喜擴(kuò)大了單純思維的局限性。在猶大·哈列維的詩(shī)歌中，很難分清主題是他深?lèi)?ài)的女人還是他崇敬的上帝。他沉醉于上帝的偉大，使他擺脫了許多單純理性的束縛。

Such a bold view of the body did not deny glory of the mind. Body and mind were equivalently powerful, each influencing the other. The third reason for Judaic fascination with sensuality and sexual acts was the belief that the most ecstatic sex forecasted ecstasies of paradise. As did other 11th- and 12th-century writers, the physician, philosopher, and poet Judah Halevi saw and felt in the miracles of the body predictions of the marvels of unity with God. Unlike Maimonides, who sought understanding of God, Judah Halevi inspired loving God. Sometimes he wrote as if drunk with the glory of God. His ecstasy expanded limitations of mere mind. It was hard to tell in Judah Halevi’s poetry whether the subject was his deeply beloved woman or his exalted God. His intoxication with God’s grandeur freed him from many restrictions of mere rationality.

模仿創(chuàng)造

? ? ? ? ? 中世紀(jì)猶太人熱衷于性的第四個(gè)原因是《舊約全書(shū)》對(duì)性的政治權(quán)威的證明。畢竟，在《創(chuàng)世紀(jì)》中的猶太原始神話中，上帝的憤怒很可能就來(lái)自于性的力量。在伊甸園中，亞當(dāng)和夏娃被禁止吃知識(shí)之樹(shù)的果實(shí)。亞當(dāng)和夏娃是如何表現(xiàn)出他們的知識(shí)的呢？他們發(fā)現(xiàn)了自己的裸體、生殖器、在性交中的用途以及創(chuàng)造能力。這種創(chuàng)造生命的能力是對(duì)上帝創(chuàng)造世界和人類(lèi)的喜悅和力量的模仿。在夏娃大膽地咬下果實(shí)之前，她和亞當(dāng)都不知道上帝創(chuàng)造的秘密。當(dāng)亞當(dāng)和夏娃知道如何創(chuàng)造生命的奇跡時(shí)，上帝似乎對(duì)他們的新知識(shí)感到憤怒，因?yàn)樗麄冞`背了上帝不讓他們知道的意圖。性交不僅贊美了上帝，還模仿了上帝創(chuàng)造力的崇高榮耀。

A fourth reason for medieval Jewish preoccupation with sex was the Old Testament’s attestation to the political authority of sex. This power of sex, after all, probably was behind God’s anger in the Jewish primal myth in the Book of Genesis. In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve were prohibited from eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. How did Adam and Eve manifest their knowledge? They discovered their nakedness, their genitalia, their uses in sexual intercourse, and their capacity for creation. This ability to create life was an imitation of God’s joy and power in creating the world and its people. Until Eve boldly bit the fruit, neither she nor Adam knew God’s secret for creation. When Adam and Eve learned how to perform the miracle of creating life, God seemed as furious at their new knowledge as at their disobedience of his attempt to keep them ignorant of it. Sexual intercourse not only praised God but imitated his high glory in creativity.

人在存在計(jì)劃中的位置

? ? ? ? ? 上帝賦予人們性特權(quán)，是為了讓人們真正理解上帝的宇宙秩序以及人類(lèi)在其中的位置。性行為的第五個(gè)原因是教導(dǎo)人們自己的凡人地位。性教導(dǎo)人們，人可以模仿上帝作為創(chuàng)造者，但卻不是上帝。人們雖然理解創(chuàng)造生命的概念，但只是偶爾、緩慢、費(fèi)力地創(chuàng)造，通常一次只創(chuàng)造一個(gè)微不足道的生命，而且永遠(yuǎn)不確定創(chuàng)造的是什么。九個(gè)月的孕育可能造就一個(gè)新的男人或女人，一個(gè)美人或怪物，一個(gè)睿智或有缺陷的頭腦。因此，“性”告訴我們，人的本性是什么：人類(lèi)脆弱而強(qiáng)大，孱弱而持久，壯麗而平凡。

God gave privileges of sex to enable people truly to understand God’s order of the universe and the human place in it. The fifth reason for sexuality was to teach people their mortal place. Sex taught the lesson that people may imitate God as creator but are not God. Apprehending the idea of creating life, people do it only occasionally, slowly, laboriously, usually one paltry creature at a time, ever uncertain of what has been created. Nine months of gestation might make one new man or woman, a beauty or a monster, a magnanimous intellect or defective mind. Sex, therefore, taught that people are what they are: humanly frail yet powerful, feeble yet durable, magnificent yet mortal.

猶太人在世界政治中的地位

? ? ? ? ? 身體還教導(dǎo)人們，猶太人與世界上其他民族不同。猶大·哈列維稱(chēng)猶太人是世界上受苦受難的心靈。以色列之于其他民族，就如同心臟之于身體的其他部分：它為整個(gè)身體受苦受難，比任何其他成員都更容易被悲傷刺傷。一個(gè)世紀(jì)又一個(gè)世紀(jì)的大屠殺、驅(qū)逐和戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)，使一些國(guó)家的猶太人除了身體之外，再也沒(méi)有任何有價(jià)值的東西可以獻(xiàn)給上帝。在 12 世紀(jì)德國(guó)的《虔誠(chéng)者之書(shū)》（Sefer hasidim）中，Judah Kalonymous堅(jiān)持認(rèn)為，除了猶太人，世界上沒(méi)有其他民族受命為上帝的圣名獻(xiàn)祭自己。當(dāng)然，猶大深知其他民族也曾遭受迫害和殉難。然而，他重新定義了“天選之民”一詞，因?yàn)樵诘诙问周姈|征和那個(gè)暴力時(shí)代的血腥襲擊之后，猶太人受到了殘暴對(duì)待。

The body also taught that Jews were different from the world’s other people. Judah Halevi called Jews the world’s suffering heart. Israel was to other peoples as the heart was to other parts of the body: It suffered for the whole and was more acutely pierced by grief than any other member. Century after century of pogrom, expulsion, and war left some Jews in some countries with nothing valuable left to sacrifice to God other than their bodies. In the 12th-century German Book of the Pious (Sefer hasidim) Judah Kalonymous insisted that no other of the world’s people but the Jews were commanded to sacrifice themselves for the sanctification of God’s name. Judah, of course, knew well that other peoples were persecuted and martyred. He redefined the phrase “the Chosen People,” however, because of the brutality to Jews after the Second Crusade and the bloody attacks of that violent age.

? ? ? ? ? 如果每個(gè)猶太人都要為上帝的話語(yǔ)成為殉道者，那么猶太人就有義務(wù)愛(ài)上帝勝過(guò)愛(ài)自己的生命，愛(ài)上帝的話語(yǔ)作為來(lái)生的密碼。當(dāng)憎恨猶太人的人給猶太人帶來(lái)難以言表的恐怖和痛苦，以至于只剩下赤裸的身體而沒(méi)有書(shū)籍時(shí)，身體就成了贊美上帝的圣書(shū)，因?yàn)樯系圪n予了他們所剩無(wú)幾的生命。用殘存的生命進(jìn)行祈禱，微不足道但卻具有實(shí)質(zhì)意義的軀體用它殘存的任何意義進(jìn)行祝福。他們的思想或靈魂在死后以另一種狀態(tài)存在，他們的身體是其留給上帝的全部。

If each Jew was required to become a martyr for God’s word, then the Jew was obligated to love God better than he loved life and love God’s word as the password to the next life. When people who hated Jews inflicted terror and pain so unutterable that only naked bodies remained and no books, then bodies became holy books praising God for whatever life was left. Praying with the residue of being, the paltry yet substantive body made benediction with whatever sense remained to it. With minds or souls persisting in some other state after death, their bodies were all that they had left to give back to God.

? ? ? ? ? 猶太人的這種感性遺產(chǎn)表明，猶太人長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)不僅是智力的創(chuàng)造者，也是激情的創(chuàng)造者。中世紀(jì)的猶太人以心靈和身體為榮，以上帝的名義承受痛苦，同時(shí)也享受情欲的快樂(lè)。從理論上講，中世紀(jì)的猶太人追求的是綜合的生活：身體與心靈同等重要，日常生活與精神生活息息相關(guān)，凡人的身體擁有不朽靈魂的光輝。

This Jewish sensual heritage demonstrated that Jews long have been creatures not only of intellect but of passion. Medieval Jews were proud of mind and of body, grateful to suffer pain in God’s name but also to enjoy erotic pleasure. Theoretically, medieval Jews strove for the integrated life: body as important as mind, daily life connected with spirituality, and mortal body possessing intimations of the glory of an immortal soul.

《Handbook To Life in The Medieval World》（2008）

By Madeleine Pelner Cosman and Linda Gale Jones?

資源推薦：雷丁博物館（貝葉掛毯）：https://www.readingmuseum.org.uk/edward-and-harold-westminster-followed-harold-heading-for-bosham（不用梯子）