Introduction
Pinkas Pisa, Volume 1: Central Archive for the History of the Jewish People, Film HM 887
How carefully did Jewish individuals observe halakhic requirements regarding kashrut, and how strictly did Jewish communities enforce them? Such questions seem pivotal when we consider a community such as that of Pisa/Livorno, newly established in the 1590s and overwhelmingly composed of, and led by, Portuguese conversos only recently arrived from the Iberian Peninsula. After all, these Jews had been living outwardly Christian lives for almost a century. How quickly did they accommodate, for example, the new rules of food consumption? How were such rules justified? And how effectively could they be enforced? While halakhic codes paint an idealized picture of uniform conformity, the deliberations and decisions of communal lay leaders point at a more complex reality and a less straightforward acceptance. We shall examine three separate rulings by the Massari of Pisa/Livorno between 1606 and 1616, in order to explore these questions.
Our exploration of these specific cases and the mechanics of communal authority may lead us to broader considerations:
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The relation between an official rhetoric and “lived religion.”
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The particular effectiveness of food regulation in establishing group identity.
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The effort in these early-modern Jewish communities to establish (or invent) what is religiously acceptable in comparison with what occurred in Jewish communities elsewhere, for example in Poland which Moshe Rosman labeled “innovative tradition.”
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The relative roles of lay and rabbinic authority in these newly institutionalized communities, and the role that halakha played in community discipline.
Suggested Bibliography:
Food history is an expanding field and takes many approaches that cannot be touched on here. The following brief list is meant only to suggest lines of further research into themes touched on in our texts.
Francesca Bregoli, Mediterranean Enlightenment: Livornese Jews, Tuscan Culture, and Eighteenth-Century Reform (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2014): Chapter 6: “Coffee and Gambling: Jewish Recreation and ‘National’ Separation,” pp. 152–180.
Bernard Dov Cooperman, “Defining Deviance, Negotiating Norms: Raphael Meldola in Livorno, Pisa, and Bayonne,” in Religious Changes and Cultural Transformations in the Early Modern Western Sephardic Communities, ed. Yosef Kaplan (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2019), pp. 157–194.
Tamar El-Or, “A Temple in Your Kitchen: Hafrashat Hallah—The Rebirth of a Forgotten Ritual as a Public Ceremony,” in Jewish Studies at the Crossroads of Anthropology and History: Authority, Diaspora, Tradition, ed., Ra’anan S. Boustan, Oren Kosansky and Marina Rustow (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), pp. 271–293 and 404f.
David M. Freidenreich, Foreigners and Their Food: Constructing Otherness in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Law (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011).
Moshe Rosman, “Innovative Tradition: Jewish Culture in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,” in Cultures of the Jews, ed. David Biale (New York: Schocken, 2002), pp. 519–570.
Ariel Toaff, Mangiare alla giudia: la cucina ebraica in Italia dal Rinascimento all’età moderna (Bologna: Mulino, 2011).
Source 1 Translation
Pinkas Pisa —Volume 1. CAHJP, Film HM 887, fol. 85v.
In Pisa on the 32nd day of the Omer, in the year 5376
The members of the ma’amad [council] together with the Haham[^1] Azariah Picho and the accompanying members to the number of ten order that no Jew of whatever quality or condition whatsoever may take [i.e., purchase] meat in any way, for himself or others, nor may he order [someone else to] take in any fashion meat from any butcher shop or any other place outside of our butcher shop, whether it is known to be kosher or not, whether or not in the company of the ritual slaughterer. This does not apply to meat from the head or ribs [?] or other internal organs [de meudo—in modern usage, “tripe”] that is not liable for the quattrino [a small coin] for the communal charity fund. The reference to tripe is meant to refer to kosher meat.
The punishment for anyone who takes such meat from outside our butcher shop as above in any possible way is that of herem, nidui and sematha [various levels of excommunication, here collected for emphasis]. The same punishment will be applied to anyone who sees any Jew taking meat as above and does not come to testify within two days, that he will be declared as “hermado” [under a decree of excommunication]. This being noted, the members of the maamad will be obliged to publish it, and no Jew may engage in commerce with him, nor communicate with him. All of the said men [of the ma’amad] shall send and order such that no one will incur the danger [hiero] of eating non-kosher meat by mistake [carne trefe por cazer] and other misadventures, may they not occur [que nisto poden aconteser [i.e., acontecer]], and also so that the public charity fund will not lose any of the money from the quattrino for meat which is collected at its order, as well as for other reasons considered by those men.
Similarly, they further order that no bodek [Hebrew: person who checks, equivalent to modern kashrut supervisor called a mashgiah]] or anyone else may store, or cause to be stored, meat outside the communal butcher shop. So that no one complains [quexar] and to avoid scandals and troubles that may henceforth arise.
They order that this ruling be announced from the reader’s desk of the sacred synagogue on a day when the Torah [is read in public], so that it becomes known to everyone. Further it should be read and publicized together with the other escamos [rulings; literally, “agreements”] that they further prohibit and order.
They sign their names in Pisa.
Haham Azariel [!] Picho. Ishac Coen. Tobias do Campo. Jacob Gabay. Abraham de Lucena. Rafael Moreno. Rafael Valensi. Daniel Ferro. Daniel Salon. Jacob Machorro.
[^1] Hebrew: scholar, a term used in Sephardic communities as an honorific and as a term for communal rabbi.
Source 2 Translation
Pinkas Pisa, Volume 1. Ben-Zvi Institute, MS 4009, fol. 34v.[^1]
[Patronizing Non-Jewish Taverns; Drinking Non-Jews’ Wine]
In the name of God, Pisa, 19 of the month of Shevat of the year 5373, February 10, 1612 according to the Florentine calendar.[^2]
The members of the ma’amad [council] together with the accompanying members together with the Haham [^3] Azaria Picho to the number of a minyan,[^4] all signed below.
They have observed the waste and great scandals that occur and are created in many ways by Jews going to eat and drink in the taverns and houses of goyim [Hebrew: gentiles]. They [therefore] order and command that from today forward, no Jew, whether adult or a minor, whether married or single, or a woman, whether a Jew with goyim, or a Jew with another Jew, or a Jew alone, under pain of nidui, herem and shmata [categories of excommunication], and a fine of ten ducats, half for the redemption of Jewish slaves [or: captives] of His Most Serene Highness [the Grand Duke of Tuscany] and the other half to be applied to the sedaca [charity fund] of this escola [community] for each time they do the opposite. If there are two Jews together or more who do this and one should quickly accuse the other, the accuser is absolved. Any Jew who sees or has knowledge, and any Jew or Jewess who has gone to such places for these reasons [_efeitos—_literally, effects], is obligated within twenty-four hours to come [villo] to inform the members of the maamad then in office, and those officials have the duty to act on it. It is declared that any Jew can freely try the said wine for the sole purpose of carrying it back to their house. And it is declared that any person who is or goes on the road may eat and drink in those non-local [de fora] hostelries, although they may not leave the city for that purpose to eat and drink in those hostelries, under the above-mentioned penalty. All of this is to be observed correctly and truthfully, without being able to sanction any of the above through any deception or trick. If any word should be missing or be extra [soubejar] in this haskama [ruling] all shall be understood as strengthening and enlarging this haskama [^5]. Thus did they approve and order and they signed their names. And I, David Abenine, sofer [scribe], have written at the command of the said Officers on that day and year.
Azaria Picho [Hebrew] Selomo Zaquto
Mose Israel Mose Baru[ch]
Rafael Coen Fero Jacob Gabay
Semuel Valenci Mose Cavaleiro
Abram Salom Josef Crispin
[^1] The text, taken from a few pages of the first Pisan Pinkas which were extracted from the original volume and preserved in the collection of Isaiah Sonne, were eventually preserved in the library of Ben-Zvi Institute in Jerusalem. The text of the original, provided here in Portuguese, is lightly emended from the transcription published by Renzo Toaff, La Nazione ebrea a Livorno e a Pisa (1591–1700) (Firenze: Olschki, 1990), pp. 496–497 after consulting the original, Ben-Zvi Institute MS 4009, fol. 34v.
[^2] Equivalent to 1613 in the Pisan and Roman calendars
[^3] Hebrew: scholar, a term used in Sephardic communities as an honorific and as a term for communal rabbi.
[^4] Hebrew: quorum. For ritual purposes, Jewish tradition required ten males.
[^5] This is quite unusual language for the pinkas and may relate back to the standard ending inserted to confirming the authenticity Hebrew legal documents: והכל שריר וקיים. As to the legal question of interpreting the intent of unclear community regulations, see for example Joseph Goldberg, Tovei ha-Ir (Jerusalem: 1999/2000) or Israel Schepansky, The Takkanot of Israel (Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, 1993), IV: Communal Ordinances, chapter 1.
Source 3 Translation
Pinkas Pisa —Volume 1. CAHJP, Film HM 887, fol. 18v
[Cheese Not Prepared by Jews]
B”H[^1]
In Pisa, [Sunday,] 16 July, 5366.[^2]
The members of the ma’amad [council] together with the accompanying members being gathered and Master Haham[^3] Semuel Chajes totaling ten, order:
Seeing the so great sin which is incurred in eating cheese not made by the hand of a Jew as well as [poinas e leito], they were in agreement and the vote was taken and it came out unanimously in favor. Then [?] they discussed the penalty that such eating deserved for contravening the words of our Sages of blessed memory. The said officials ordered that the punishment of excommunication [niduy] with all of its severity be imposed, and that this be publicized on the first day on which the Scroll of the Law [is taken out to be read in the synagogue] [^4] so that after the publication, anyone who transgresses that niduy, there being witnesses, shall be immediately publicly declared as menude. All the measures applied to the menude should be applied to him. And if he eats covertly the ban will enter his bones since he would be motivated and is motivated. All of the curses written in the book of the Law apply to him. Thus they order and rule today, the said day and month and year mentioned above, ve-shalom al ha-peturim [and peace be upon the innocent]. And I, David Abenine, sofer, have written by order of the said officials. David Abenine.
Abrão Fraqo Velho
Sanuel Boguati
David Mont[esin]os
Abram Framco
Mose Sullama
[The said niduy regarding cheese is withdrawn]
On 18 Tishre, 5368[^5]
The members of the ma’amad being present, as well as the greater part of this Holy Congregation, and among them the Haham Semuel Hajes, it was voted on whether the punishment of niduy imposed above concerning cheese should, or should not, be lifted. The vote was taken. The results were 18 votes that it should be lifted and 10 that it not be lifted. For that reason, noting that the kahal was content and voted, the said niduy is removed_,_ and it remains to be observed as before the imposition of that punishment.
And I, David Abenine, sofer, have written. David Abenine.
Abram Montesinos
Abraham Munhão
Moseh Israel
[^1] Standard invocation in Hebrew characters variously read as be-ezrat ha-shem (with the help of God) or be-shem ha-shem (in the name of God).
[^2] Equivalent to 1606 in the Florentine and Roman calendars, and to 1607 in the Pisan.
[^3] Hebrew: scholar, a term used in Sephardic communities as an honorific and as a term for communal rabbi.
[^4] I.e., either the first Monday or Thursday following the decision.
[^5] Equivalent to Oct. 9, 1607 in the Florentine and Roman calendars, and to 1609 in the Pisan.