Introduction
In this discussion we explore an aspect of space that is often overlooked in studies of Jewish life in the early modern period: the interactions between Jews and the natural world. Our session will focus around Jewish engagement with rivers, and how waterways shaped the spatial dimensions of daily life. In European settlements across the continent rivers bisect cities and towns, and were arteries of commerce, trade, and travel. Waterways also connected settlements, were a site of contact for non-elite Jews, and, as a force of nature, impacted the lives of Jewish and Christian neighbors. Rivers could be used as a resource for cleanliness and hygiene, but they also posed danger to residents during periods of excessive rain and flooding. The various rivers that we will discuss were both within and beyond human civilization. They were also a subject of legal conundra. Our discussion will revolve around three sources from Central Europe that examine the ways in which thinking with rivers can lead us to explore not only the human-made spaces of a landscape, but also the natural elements at their outer limits. Each source is from a different genre, yet each one highlights how a consideration of rivers enriches our understandings of Jewish and Christian spaces. One, drawn from custom literature, explores the topography of flooding and the experiences of rising water levels; another, drawn from the archives of Prague, explores class and religion from the perspective of state administration, and a third, from halakhic literature, demonstrates how rivers connected and divided urban and rural communities. Each source sheds light on an aspect of the experience of environment and the role of space in Jewish life, and together offer a portrait of the place of water as a zone of physical and cultural interaction.
Source 1 Translation
Juspe Schammes, Minhagim K”K Warmaisa, eds. B.S. Hamburger and E. Zimmer, 2 vols.
(Jerusalem, 1988) 2, Appendix 1.
“A flood was in the land” according to the small counting [a numerical equivalent to the year]
“The water was on the surface of the land” according to the small counting [a numerical equivalent to the year]
“Tevet” according to the small counting [a numerical equivalent to the year] Namely, the year [5]411
In the month of Tevet on Sunday, 22 Tevet [5]411 [15 January 1651], the waters of
the Rhine river swelled, and they came into our place, Warmaisa [Worms], up until
in our street, people would enter the lower gate by boat, and from there, anyone
who wished would cross through the Rheinpforte [a gate] and beyond. And
similarly, one would enter the Viehpforte by boat, and in Wollgasse, and also in
Schmidtgasse and also in Hahngasse, and in order to access all of these [streets],
people crossed through the Rhine Gate. And similarly, it was necessary to use a
boat to cross from one street to another, because all of the streets that abutted the
shore of the Rhine were filled with water. And I, Juspe Schammes, saw with my
own eyes the water that went so high that it reached level of the windows of the
guest house known as Zur Rosen. And the upper bucket that was hung on the chain
of the well that was in Rheingasse, opposite the opening of the well, was under
water, and the well itself was not visible, for it was submerged beneath the water.
And all of the residents of the Rheingasse street and the abovementioned streets,
were forced to leave their homes and to empty [their homes] of all of their
possessions, and to reside in other homes that were secure from water. And even
in some of those streets in which the water had not reached, the basements were
filled with water, and it was necessary to make an effort to save the wine barrels that were in them [the cellars] and to weight them down so that it was certain they
would remain in their place. And thus I saw with my own eyes in our street, in the
house of Itzik zum Riesen, and in the house of the parnas [lay leader] Rav Anshel
zu Wolfen, how many barrels of wine were submerged, and they were not visible
because the water had covered them, no one could see them, and most of the
cellars on the street had water in them, and they [the water] came into the cellar of the parnas, the honorable R. Baruch zur Sonnen. Only the cellars in the lower part
of the street were filled with water, and the upper ones were not filled with as
much water, and so it was with everything — the more you ascended, the less
water there was when compared to [buildings] on lower ground.
And on the other side of the Rhine river, the [overflow of ] water stretched 2-3
parasangs [inland] such that travelers were unable to traverse the imperial roads,
but rather, they needed to take a large detour, [which lasted] for a long time until
the water receded. And even when the waters of the Rhine went down to their
normal level, in any event, the water that had reached the fields in some of the low
places remained for a long time until they receded, and it caused great delay to
travelers, and this began in [5]411 in the month of Tevet, as was mentioned above.
Source 2 Translation
Yair Hayyim Bacharach, Havot Yair (Frankfurt, 1699), no. 115.
A question [was asked] when I was the rabbinical judge and rabbi of the Trier
region in lower Germany in Koblenz. And directly across the Rhine river from
Koblenz, there lived a wealthy and honorable man named Berman, in the town of
Tal [Mülheim-im-Tal]. And on every Sabbath morning, he went to synagogue in
Koblenz, for there was a bridge that was constructed out of large boats [that were
docked] from one end of the aforementioned river to the other. Only for
approximately three months, during the great cold, when ice would [accumulate]
on the river, the artisans would dissemble the boats and move them to a special
place where the force of the flowing ice would not damage them. In any event,
[people] would regularly cross the river using small boats, even on cloudy days,
when the cold and ice were not great [severe]. And the wealthy and honorable head
of household asked me if he could come to Koblenz in the mornings on the holy
Sabbath in order to pray with a quorum of ten [men] and to hear the Torah reading,
via a boat that he would rent on Sabbath eve [Friday] from a captain who would
ferry him across. And I did not wish to permit this, for I had inquired and heard
from older rabbis that rabbis of previous generations had been asked this and did
not permit it….
Source 3 Translation
Národní Archiv, Praha (National Archives of the Czech Republic, Prague), SM J4/ 34
Concerning /titles…/ their excellence and gracious masters, the royal Stadthalter, /titles…/ To respond to the chief’s of the royal Old Town of the City of Prague account of the matter of the Jewish bathers, which was submitted on the 5th of September. The royal governor was able to to gather from the report the causes that moved the magistrate of the Royal Old Town of Prague to have the city judge take away the clothes of the scandalous Jewish bathers and as well as the fact that the collected clothes and reported objects were returned to the Jews, therefore the Jews ought to no longer complain. However, even though the private Jewish quarrel has been solved, it is an entirely reasonable thing of public interest to further restrain to a certain extent this presumptuous and scandalous Jewish bathing in the Moldau, and to proscribe how the boisterous Jewish community will bathe in the future, by rationing the means and times of their bathing, and to stringently punish those who behave otherwise. Thus the Stadthauptmann should indicate the following points to the Jewish community and require their observance, and to publicize them in all of the Jewish synagogues to make it known that:
- Each and every Jew—except for on their Sabbath—are not permitted to bathe at any other time than first after 10 in the long days and first after nine
in the short days.
2. On Sabbath-times after 7 o’clock in the evening or in the very early morning
they may peform their bathing.
3. The bathing Jews should do so without any tumult and in small numbers,
behave honorably and cause no annoying frivolousness. And no Jew may bathe in the Moldau that does not appear fully surrounded by a bathing shirt,
and nothing less than that.
4. On the great and mother-of-God holidays the Jews are entirely proscribed
from bathing and are hereby prohibited, by which all of the Jewish
community will come under stringent punishment without exception, and the
Stadthauptman will make sure this order will be obeyed in all points.
Thereby the magistrate will ensure that any transgressions of the Jewish
community will not be handled in an unorderly way and cause any tumult
between Jews and Christians.
Furthermore the Stadthauptman will instruct the Old Town magistrate in all the
above mentioned points and explain that in case there will be another Jew with a
scandalous way of bathing, first the court has to inform the Jewish Elders so they
can deal with it and should not immediately proceed with tumultous actions.
From the Prague Consistory
9th September 1712
Decree to the Old Town Hauptmann concerning the restricted Jewish bathing in
the river Moldau
de dato 9th Sept. anno 1712
Concerning the report of the Old Town Hauptman with attached files and
interrogations related to the robbing of Jews during the recent Jewish bathing
tumult