Haggadah:Avadim Hayyinu in Art/0

Avadim Hayyinu in Art

Introduction

At the beginning of the Maggid section of the Haggadah, we read the passage, "We were slaves to Paroh in Egypt" ("עֲבָדִים הָיִינוּ לְפַרְעֹה בְּמִצְרָיִם"). The two miniatures from the Munich Haggadah¹ and from the Barcelona Haggadah,² both depict this passage, while the image from the Rylands Leipnik Haggadah illustrates one part of the "Arami Oved Avi" section of the Haggadah, which also references the slave experience. The artists' different portrayals of the bondage and the slaves' dress, gender, and age suggest different possibilities as to the nature of the Israelite oppression as a whole.

Contrasting Images

Munich Haggadah

This miniature depicts several slaves working in various stages of building construction. Two adults mix raw materials, while three younger males form and carry the bricks. On the left side, another slave uses these bricks to build a tower. All are dressed in cloaks of various green or pink shades. In the middle, an Egyptian slave master looks surprisingly similar to the slaves over which he stands guard. He is distinguished only by his accusatory stance and the club he holds in his hand.

Rylands Leipnik Haggadah

In contrast to the Munich Haggadah, this engraving portrays both male and female slaves, all dressed in tattered clothing. In the foreground, a man bends under the weight of four heavy bricks, while an elderly slave slumps in exhaustion next to him. One woman carries a jug on her head ,and another kneels on the floor, her hands held to her head in distress. To the left, a richly garbed Egyptian watches over the slaves with a raised staff in his hand. In the background, another Egyptian lifts a child to throw him into the river, while the anguished mother protests behind him.

Barcelona Haggadah

The top half of the page displays several Israelites building a brick tower. They are clothed in dull grey tunics and white bonnets, and appear to be female.³ On the right, a slave master beats one of the slaves, while two other Egyptians sit on horses and watch. The bottom of the image depicts the various stages of brick building, with one slave mixing the mortar, another forming the bricks, and a final slave carrying the finished product. The entire page is framed by fanciful creatures and foliage scrolls.⁴

Relationship to the Text of the Haggadah

The artists' choices reflect certain ambiguities in the text of the Haggadah and different possible interpretive stances:

Who Was Enslaved?

The artist of the Munich Haggadah depicts only male slaves, with children working alongside adults. The images in the Barcelona Haggadah are somewhat androgynous, but at first glance appear to be predominantly female. Who was included in the edict of bondage? Were only men expected to work, or also females?⁵ Did children work beside their parents, or were they exempt? What about the elderly? Finally, if women were enslaved, were they expected to do the heavy work of brick building, or were they assigned tasks generally performed by females?⁶  See Who was Enslaved in Egypt? for more.

Masters and Servants

In the Barcelona Haggadah, there is a clear demarcation between masters and servants.⁷ In the Munich Haggadah, in contrast, master and slave look almost identical. The only indications that one is the Egyptian are the club in his hand and his accusing finger. How different were the Israelites from their neighboring Egyptians? Was their slave status evident to all? Did the Israelites maintain distinctive dress or habits that separated them from others, or had they assimilated to the extent that they appeared and acted just like the Egyptians amongst whom they lived? See Israelites' Religious Identity for elaboration.

Type of Work

All three images mark the brick building of the Israelites, but the Leipnik Haggadah also depicts people working in the field and carrying water. Was the work of the Israelites limited to construction of storehouses or did they work in other areas as well? Were they slaves to the state or also to individuals? The majority of verses would suggest the former, though one might suggest that "בְכָל עֲבֹדָה בַּשָּׂדֶה" refers to fields of individual Egyptians. RambanShemot 1:11About R. Moshe Nachmanides further suggests that the word "מִצְרַיִם" in the phrase "וַיַּעֲבִדוּ מִצְרַיִם אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּפָרֶךְ" refers, not to the government of Egypt, but to Egyptian laypeople.⁸

Penniless and Ragged?

Perhaps surprisingly, the slaves of all three Haggadot appear to be decently attired rather than dressed in rags as might be supposed. Was poverty part and parcel of the Egyptian slavery experience? Did the Israelites have any possessions they could call their own? Though one tends to think of slaves as people who get no wages and therefore own nothing, the verses attest to the Israelites having their own homes and cattle. At the same time, before leaving they are told to ask for gold and silver vessels and dresses, suggesting that these might have been lacking.  See Nature of the Bondage for elaboration.

עָרֵי מִסְכְּנוֹת In both the Munich and Barcelona Haggadot, the Israelites work to build a tower. This is lacking in the Rylands Leipnik Haggadah, which instead highlights the Israelites bringing wheat into a walled area. The different depictions might relate to a debate regarding the meaning of "עָרֵי מִסְכְּנוֹת".  While a majority of commentators assume the term refers to cities for food storage, the Septuagint, which translates the phrase as "fortified cities", built for defense.

¹ The illustrated Haggadah was produced in South Germany in the late fifteenth century and was once part of the library of the Monastery at Tegernsee. It contains a prologue written by a contemporaneous Dominican friar, Erhard Von Pappenheim, and was apparently used as a study book by the monks to learn about Jewish rituals. The Haggadah is owned by The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich and is cataloged as BSB-Hss Cod.hebr. 200.

² This illuminated Haggadah was made in Catalonia during the second half of the 14th century. It is richly decorated with over ornamentation on over a 100 of its 322 pages. It is currently housed in the British Library.

³ Their gender is difficult to ascertain as the faces are somewhat androgynous.

⁴ A unique scene in the frame of this page is the dog serving the hare at the center top. Some have suggested that this is a variation of the often depicted hunting scenes found in many Haggadot. The prevalence and role of such scenes in a Haggadah are themselves often questioned. Some suggest that they are a play on the mnemonic "yaknehaz" ("hare hunt" in German is "jag den Has") which directs the Seder leader as to the order of the blessings in the combined Kiddush-Havdalah service. Others instead suggest that the hunt scene is an allegory for persecution of the Jews, a major theme of Pesach. If so, the image shown here may invert the allegory and hint to salvation and Messianic times.

⁵ See the graphic description of the bondage in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer47About Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer which describes a pregnant woman working alongside her husband.

⁶ See, for instance the description in TanchumaVayetze 9About the Tanchuma which suggests that the Egyptians purposefully gave the women men's work while the men were assigned tasks traditionally done by women. Efficient labor was less important that causing humiliation to the slaves.

⁷ In Foster's illustration, the slaves are dressed in rags, while the master is garbed in a full cloak. Similarly, the Barcelona Haggadah depicts the masters with headgear and richer attire than the slaves.

⁸ He suggests that there were two stages of oppression. The first constituted a labor tax in which Israelites worked for Paroh on a rotational basis. Afterwards, though, the decree of bondage expanded, and even individual Egyptians were welcome to enslave any Israelite they wished.