Page 246 - גנזי קדם ז

16* Jay Rovner

Description of the Micrographic Carpet Page and its Purpose
The outer, framing text of our carpet page is composed of biblical
“beatitudes,” i.e., a florilegium9 of verses that begin with the word A shre
(“happy/fortunate is the [person] who ...”). There are forty such verses in
the Hebrew Bible, four from Prophets, twenty-six from Psalms and ten from
elsewhere in the Hagiographa (K etuvim ). As our text contains twelve or thirteen
(the top line is illegible), a careful selection has evidently been made.10 All but
two of the verses are from Psalms; the remainder are from Proverbs. The verses
regard as fortunate one who is humble and follows in God’s ways, and who
stays away from sinners or false gods. The one legible line at the top praises the
person who listens to God, coming early to his house every day (Proverbs 8:34).
The line may be particularly significant, in view of its prominent location.

9 A florilegium is an anthology ofpassages, here scriptural verses, treating a similar theme or
“more frequently, similar language,” e.g., ashre. See R. Langer, “Biblical Texts in Jewish
Prayers: Their History and Function,” in A. Gerhards and C. Leonhard (eds.), Jewish and
Christian Worship: New Insights into its History andInteraction, (Leiden 2007), pp. 63-90,
esp. p. 71. See the following note, and cf. n. 15 below on the employment of ashre-type
florilegiato introduce or define an “ideal type.”

10 Jewish liturgy contains many collections of selected verses, e.g., the Yehi khavod (the
section before Ashre in Pesuke de-zimrah), Barukh Adonai le-olam (before the recitation
of the nightime ‘Amidah), or the introduction to the Havdalah. Ashre verses have been
accreted in substantial sections in some traditions. Langer (n. 9 above), p. 75, and Appendix
D, p. 85, presents a medieval florilegium of thirteenAshre verses from a liturgy originating
in London, and cites another consisting of eight verses, in an exemplar from the Cairo
Genizah (p. 76, from E. Fleischer, Eretz-Israel Prayer and Prayer Ritual as Portrayed in
the Geniza Documents [Jerusalem 1988], p. 283) [Hebrew], as well as a larger collection
in Mahzor Vitry, ed. A. Goldschmidt (Jerusalem 5764), vol. 1, p. 106. It should be noted,
however, that both of these were placed at the head of Psalm 145 in Pesuke de-zimrah,
whereas our florilegium is a freestanding creation; some Ashre verses are shared, but each
textual composite represents an independent selection. While it is always possible that
ENA 2630 represents a Karaite reusage of a discarded rabbinic parchment leaf, and while
Karaite liturgy abounds in pericopes made up of scriptural passages, recourse to such an
interpretation is unnecessary in view of the unique nature and function of the selection
and design employed here, in which an outside border corresponds to the social-spiritual
context of the person for whom it is intended, and the inside group of verses corresponds
to his interior spiritual life.