"Sefer Hasidim" and the Ashkenazic Book in Medieval Europe. Ivan G. Marcus
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that when they are not found in our Sefer Hasidim (ha-sefer she-be-yadeinu), meaning mainly in Parma, they derive from the lost “original sefer hasidim” (sefer hasidim ha-meqori).25 But such paragraph texts are not traces of “the original Sefer Hasidim” because there is no evidence that one original Sefer Hasidim ever existed, and the paradigm that assumes Judah himself wrote only one edition of his short passages needs to be set aside. The paradigm I am proposing instead is of an inverted pyramid. It assumes that Judah first wrote thousands of individual paragraph traditions. He combined these into some of the dozen or so editions preserved in over twenty manuscripts. Some editions are made up of topical notebooks, but others contain short passages with no obvious similarities. The origins of how Sefer Hasidim came into existence should be sought not in the long edited texts but in the short paragraph units that circulated and that the author, and then others, combined into the dozen or so parallel editions of Sefer Hasidim that survived. The rest of this chapter illustrates how individual paragraphs circulated throughout the corpus of Sefer Hasidim manuscripts and in the first edition.
Single Paragraph Parallels in Short Manuscripts of Sefer Hasidim
One way to see how single paragraphs circulated as Sefer Hasidim is to consider the shorter manuscripts and compare how parallel single paragraphs vary within blocks of text parallels from manuscript to manuscript. This section of the chapter is not a description of the different manuscripts of Sefer Hasidim. That is found in the Catalog. Rather, I want to illustrate here how individual paragraphs differ when we compare blocks of parallel texts in different manuscripts. Although the analysis that follows requires paying close attention to many details, this is the best way to demonstrate how paragraphlength texts circulated throughout the corpus of Sefer Hasidim parallel editions.
Of the dozen editions of Sefer Hasidim (see below), six are found in only one manuscript each. They are: Frankfurt Oct. 94; Zurich Heidenheim 51; Oxford Mich. 568 (Neubauer 1098); the Zurich Fragment; Vatican 285 A, and Freiburg 483. When we look at each of these manuscripts and compare any parallel passages in other manuscripts, we find the presence or absence of individual parallel paragraphs. These comparisons demonstrate that single paragraphs circulated throughout the corpus of Sefer Hasidim manuscripts.
For example, in the Frankfurt manuscript, single, unnumbered paragraphs on different topics are mostly found as single paragraph parallels in other manuscripts. Unnumbered paragraphs are indicated below in square brackets. Three different paragraphs each claims that it is a shortened version of a fuller parallel paragraph found elsewhere. For example, in Frankfurt f. 270r, line 11, [1] the text says: “and he elaborated on this further” (ve-he’erikh sham yoter). A parallel passage with such additional sources is found in parallels in Milan Ambrosiana X.111 sup. [18], Oxford Opp. 340 (Neubauer 875) [18], Moscow 103 [18], as well as in Nîmes 26 [18] and SHB 18. Only Frankfurt par. [1] abbreviates the text, and that paragraph is more derivative than the parallels that contain the fuller version of the passage.
Or, Frankfurt, f. 270v, [14] ends with the phrase “and he expanded further with verses and other proof texts” (ve-he’erikh yoter bi-fesuqim u-re’ayot). The version of the same passage but with biblical and other proof texts is found in SHB 1120, its only parallel.
In contrast to these two examples of MS Frankfurt abbreviating a paragraph that has a parallel elsewhere with more sources, Frankfurt, f. 271r, [19] refers at the end to such a parallel but it does not exist: “and he added many talmudic proofs” (ve-he’erikh harbeh re’ayot min ha-talmud). But in the parallel to Frankfurt [19], SHB 1065, there are no additional references, and this means that the expanded paragraph to which Frankfurt [19] refers apparently has not survived.
Frankfurt [33–40] and [46] correspond to single parallels in the same sequence but with omissions in Ox. Opp. 614 (Neubauer 2275) and Ox. Or. 146 (Neubauer 782) [1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 15, 17, 18] (for both). An exception to the parallel sequence is Frankfurt [46] that corresponds to Oxford Opp. 614 (Neubauer 2275) [13] and Oxford, Or. 146 (Neubauer 782) [13] and also to SHP 211 and former JTS Boesky 45, 103. There also are single paragraph parallels for each of these paragraphs in SHP and former JTS Boesky 45 but, with one exception, not in SHB and its parallels.26 Frankfurt [42, 44, 45, 47–49] seem to be unique to this manuscript, but Frankfurt [43] has parallels in SHP 72 and former JTS Boesky 45, 56; in Vatican 285 [30] and JTS 2499 [30]; and in SHB 21–22. This pattern is a good illustration of how single paragraphs circulated. Even when blocks of paragraphs appear in two or more manuscripts, some individual paragraphs do not appear in all of the parallel blocks.
Another illustration of how individual paragraphs circulated from manuscript to manuscript is seen in Zurich Heid. 51. It consists of unnumbered single paragraphs on different topics, some of which have single parallels elsewhere. The first three paragraphs are about women and have single parallels in SHP (and its parallels not listed here) in a topical notebook on women (SHP 1084–1193): Zurich [1]=SHP 1169 and former JTS Boesky 45, 471; Zurich [2]=SHP 1136 and SHB 498; and Zurich [3]=SHP 1154 and SHB 506. Following this we find single paragraphs about prayer: Zurich [4] is parallel to SHP 574 in a topical notebook on prayer (SHP 391–585); Zurich [PUSHD 5] on hasidut is parallel to SHP 1049 in a topical notebook on that subject (975–1065), and so on.27
From an annotated published version of Oxford Mich. 568 (Neubauer 1098), we see that most of the single paragraphs are about praying or writing liturgical items connected to prayer. Only [1] and part of [6] and [8] have any parallels. The manuscript is mid-thirteenth century, and in the same codex is a copy of Judah he-hasid’s “Shir ha-Kavod (Song of Glory).”28
The Zurich Fragment consists of two short blocks of topically related paragraphs. The first block, [1–8], is on the dead and has parallels in SHP 331–337, former JTS Boesky 45, 147–148, and also in SHB 733–739, but Zurich Fragment [5] is also found in Vatican 285 [52] and its near twin, JTS 2499 [52].
The second block, Zurich Fragment [9–12], is on prayer and is parallel to SHP 394–397, former JTS Boesky 45, 167–168, and SHB 754–757, but [10] is also found in Vatican 285 [60] and JTS 2499 [60]. Large notebooks on the two topics of the dead and prayer appear in the same order in SHB III, and nearly together in other topical editions in SHP I and SHB I and II. When we compare the parallel blocks, individual paragraphs are found in some manuscripts but not in others.29
Vatican 285 A, a separate edition of Sefer Hasidim, consists of 37 paragraphs that have single parallels mainly in SHB and not in SHP or former JTS Boesky 45. A significant number of them are from the first 152 paragraphs of SHB, that is, the separate text known as Sefer ha-Hasidut. Vatican 285 A is now numbered in PUSHD with paragraph numbers added to the longer text in Vatican 285 from [148–184]. A new numbering just of this text would run from [1–37]. Although some paragraphs may be unique [1–2], and others found as single parallels in SHB, the largest part is a block parallel to SHB 68–113 with several single paragraphs missing from Vatican 285 A.
Another example of parallel blocks of text that differ with respect to single parallel paragraphs is seen in the torn Freiburg manuscript. It consists of three short groups of paragraphs that have blocks of parallels in SHP. Freiburg [966–969] is parallel to those numbered paragraphs in SHP I in a topical block about honoring parents (kibbud av va-em) (SHP 929–974); Freiburg [979–986] is parallel to those numbered paragraphs in SHP I in a topical block on pietism (hasidut) (SHP 975–1065); and Freiburg [1056–1073] is parallel to those numbered paragraphs in SHP I in a topical block on pietism and ritual slaughter and purity (hasidut, shehitah ve-taharah) (SHP 1066–83).
One of the parallel paragraphs found in both Freiburg and SHP is not in the parallel block in SHB. Although Freiburg [966, 967, and 969] are found in SHB 579 and 580, Freiburg [968] is not there. This difference also shows how single paragraph parallels can vary within parallel blocks of text in different manuscripts.30
Single Paragraphs in Editions with More Than One Manuscript
The independence of single paragraph units can be further illustrated when we compare Sefer Hasidim editions that each contains two manuscripts. Some manuscripts were copied from others, resulting