Judensau 2010
Daniel N. Leeson*
The public display of Judensau—dehumanizing images of Jews and pigs
depicted in stone, paintings, and various other anti-Jewish representations—are generally thought of as an art form from the Middle Ages,
specimens of which have not survived outside of museums. Yet, at a
number of locations in contemporary Europe, Judensau are still present
and can be viewed in their original settings.
JUDENSAU DEPICTIONS
The centerpieces of this essay are the infamous and public Judensau
depictions of medieval Europe, statuary that frequently contained both scatological and COPROPHAGOUS elements. The known examples seem to have
been in the German realm, even those now found in France, Switzerland,
Poland, and Sweden; Poland and Sweden were under heavy German influence, if not actually populated by Germans.
The depictions continue to exist even after almost eight centuries,
though their locations and particulars are not well known. Not until the late
Isaiah Shachar documented a variety of them did their presence and scope
in the twentieth century become rediscovered.1 Because Shachar’s pamphlet is not generally available, I have created this summary of the subject,
after visiting the Judensau shown in this essay.
The Judensau had no standard form, except for an unclear connection
of unknown origin between Jews and pigs. A Jew, frequently reading,
might ride on the back of a pig, occasionally in a reversed position. Or else
a Jew might embrace a pig, sometimes in a position that implied some form
of copulatory behavior. One or more Jews, sometimes children, may be
seen underneath the pig, suckling at its teats. There may be a Jew positioned
behind the pig, being sprayed with or eating excrement, or drinking the
pig’s urine, or pointing at the pig’s rectum. A Jew might be seen kissing the
snout of the pig or the pig kissing a Jew.
Though the term “Judensau” does not allow one to conclude either the
reasons behind its creation or what its specific content might be depicting,
the general subject was always the same—i.e., Jews and pigs in a derogatory portrayal.
1. Isaiah Shachar, The Judensau: A Medieval Anti-Jewish Motif and Its History
(London: The Warburg Institute, 1974, 101 pages plus 62 plates).
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Rev. Martin Luther gave a personal interpretation of a specific Judensau, one still on public display in Wittenburg, Germany, described and
shown below. Luther entirely invented perspective associated Jews with
deviltry, while the filth of the pig was given as a metaphor for the Talmud.
But prior to Luther’s description, there was no general understanding of
what these Judensau meant, outside of relating a Jew and a pig in some
unclear way. One interpretation that has been offered expresses the notion
that the Jews belonged to the sow, the sow to the Jews—i.e., both were
examples of an abominable category of filthy beings. While early Judensau
representations may have been nothing more than a repulsive joke of which
Jews were the targets, Luther’s interpretation has incorrectly often been
applied retroactively to all Judensau carvings, statuary, and decorations.
The earliest known surviving examples of Judensau are badly weatherworn stone carvings dating from the 13th century. Unless one is familiar
with medieval Jewish dress, specifically the pointed or horned Jewish hat,
or Jewish badge, few of these Judensau images appear to have any relation
to Jews; that is, if one does not recognize the men (or children) as Jews by
their hats (and occasional side curls or objects of Jewish dress mandated by
the authorities of the era), it would be difficult to relate these items to medieval anti-Jewish statuary.
JEWISH DRESS
AND
IDENTIFICATION
IN THE
MIDDLE AGES
The Fourth Vatican Council convened and presided over in 1215 by
Pope Innocent III resulted in 70 papal decrees, one of which (Canon 68)
established the matter of Jewish dress in the Middle Ages. Specifically, it
stated:
In some provinces, a difference in dress distinguishes the Jews or
Saracens [i.e., Muslims] from Christians, but in certain others such a confusion has grown up that they cannot be distinguished by any difference.
Thus it happens at times that through error have sexual intercourse with
Christian women. Therefore, that they may not, under pretext of error of
this sort, excuse themselves in the future for the excesses of such prohibited intercourse, we decree that Jews and Saracens of both sexes in every
Christian province and at all times shall be marked off in the eyes of the
public from other peoples through the character of their dress. Particularly, since it may be read in the writings of Moses, that this very law has
been enjoined upon them.2
2. The citations vary, depending on which sources are examined. They are
probably Leviticus 19:19, which speaks to prohibitions against mingling seed when
sowing a field, and wearing garments made from mingled linen and wool; Deuteronomy 22:5, which prohibits men from wearing women’s clothes and vice versa;
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The effect of Canon 68 required that Jews and Muslims were required
to retain their traditional form of dress and not assimilate in clothing to the
Christian population—i.e., though who thought differently should look different. The dress defined by the Lateran Council included the conical hat
and full-length garments. The hat establishes the Jewish affiliation of the
individuals pictured in the Judensau. All the forms of the medieval Jewish
had developed from the basic form of the pointed hat. The cone could be
could be bent forward or it could be pointed; it could be rounded on top or
it could taper to a funnel shape, with or without an ending bobble.3
The ring or circle that Jews were required to wear on their garments,
and that eventually became the Jewish Star, has a different origin. In 1727,
the synod of Narbonne ruled: “That Jews may be distinguished from others,
we decree and emphatically command that in the center of the breast (of
their garments) they shall wear an oval badge, the measure of one finger in
width and one half a palm in height.” This is illustrated in the image shown
here.
A DISPLAY
OF
22 EXTANT JUDENSAU DEPICTIONS
All the examples described here were in existence in 1974. Shachar’s
pamphlet contains 62 plates, most of which are devoted to these anti-Jewish
carvings, drawings, woodcuts, broadsheets, glass paintings, engravings,
and Numbers 15:37-39, which speaks to the matter of fringes on the borders of
garments worn by Jews. The text of Canon 68 is, with slight modifications, taken
from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/lateran4.html.
3. Much of the text dealing with Jewish dress is taken from Heinz Schreckenberg, The Jews in Christian Art: An Illustrated History (New York: Continuum,
1996): 15.
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etchings, and other forms. In several recent visits to Europe in the last decade of the 20th century, those for which the author searched were seen.
While the literature mentions a number of Judensau that no longer
exist, with a single exception I do not include them here, as they can no
longer be viewed at the site where they once appeared. Most were either
destroyed or removed to unknown locations, such as the Judensau of Salzburg, Austria, a marble frieze affixed to the town hall in late 1486—replacing an earlier Judensau made of wood—and taken down in 1785, probably
at the request of the Enlightenment Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus von
Colloredo (1732-1812) of Salzburg. Remarkably, von Colloredo once visited a synagogue in Amsterdam and eased some of the restrictions on Jews
living in his territory. His most grievous mistake (though it became a benefit to the world) was his dismissal of Mozart from his employ, which caused
the young genius to leave Salzburg and move to Vienna, where his destiny
was achieved.
A woodcut image of the Salzburg Judensau, shown below, holds special significance because its location was only a short distance from
Mozart’s place of birth. Since Mozart remained in Salzburg until 1781, he
must have seen it on many occasions. Yet, despite the presence of this
antisemitic statue overlooking the Judengasse (the street still carries that
name today) only a block from his birthplace and residence at 9 Getreidegasse, Mozart appears to have been a tolerant person.4 During the time
when this Judensau was publicly displayed, its location on the Rathaus
overlooked the synagogue. Such placements of Judensau depictions directly
facing the Jewish community were a common practice, deliberately
intended to mock the Jews.
The brief descriptions of extant Judensau, along with their images, are
now presented in chronological order. When the location of the site is sufficiently remote, the city or village spoken of will be related to a larger
4. Mozart’s relations with Jews and former Jews is discussed in Daniel
Leeson, “Mozart, the Jews, and Late 18th Century Austria,” Mozart Jahrbuch,
2002: 155-167. Also see Stan Nadel, Salzburg and the Jews, A Historical Walking
Guide, ed. Will Deming (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2009); previously published in German by Jung und Jung, Salzburg.
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nearby community. In some cases, the dates are approximate, both because
almost eight centuries have passed since the creation of some of the Judensau, and exactly when the carvings were created in the often lengthy building cycle is uncertain. Where current images of the Judensau were not
available, scans of photos in Schacher’s book were used.
1. The earliest extant example of a Judensau dates from c. 1230. It
may be seen at the Cathedral of Brandenburg, specifically in the
eastern wing of the cathedral’s cloisters. The weathered and partly
damaged terra-cotta image depicts a huge sow that suckles five
unclear things, some of which appear to be piglets. However, one
of these has a human hind leg and head. The sow has a human
head and wears a pointed Jewish hat.
2.
Lemgo is a city in the Lippe of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is southwest of Hannover, and has a current population of
42,000. In the Marienkirche at Lemgo, built between 1275 and
1325, is a badly weatherworn sculpture known locally as the
Judensau. It depicts a man in what appears to be a Jew’s hat. He is
kneeling, his knees wide apart, embracing an animal whose head
is broken and partially missing. The shape of the snout as well as
local tradition points to it as being a pig. The embrace has obscene
connotations.
3.
On the far left of two sculpted figures of Mary in the choir of the
Cathedral at Xanten (in the German state of Westphalia near the
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Dutch border), and dating from c. 1263, is a carved scene containing a half-naked Jew and a pig. A second Jew crouching beneath
the sow sucks on a teat.
4.
The church of St. Maria Magdalena in Eberswalde (in the state of
Brandenburg, 31 miles northeast of Berlin) has a terra-cotta image
of a pig kissing a Jew. The building of the church began in 1284.
5.
In Wimpfen im Tal, Germany, a small village about a mile from
the larger Bad Wimpfen on the Neckar River, a Judensau is present on one of the gutter spouts in the Ritterstiftskirche St. Peter. It
appears as a gargoyle in the form of a sow suckling a Jew, who
pushes a piglet aside to have access to the teat. The figure is high
on a buttress of the southeastern choir of the church, the facade of
which was completed between 1280 and 1300.
6.
In Magdeburg, Germany, equidistant from Hamburg to the northwest and Berlin to the northeast, a carved frieze on the south wall
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of the Ernestine Chapel (formerly the atrium of Magdeburg Cathedral), is an elaborate Judensau that dates from c. 1270. The figure
is on the right as one enters the cathedral through the main
entrance. A huge sow stands with a bearded Jew by its side.
Beneath it, a kneeling Jew sucks on a teat. The carving continues
around the corner of the corbel though the material presented there
is not a Judensau depiction.
7.
On the northern corner of the Chapel of St. Anne, next to the
Marienkirche in Heiligenstadt, Germany, east of Kassel, is a gargoyle fragment of a Judensau, now broken, badly damaged, and
very much weatherworn. It appears to consist of a pig with a man
beneath it, sucking from a teat. The condition of the gargoyle
causes some question if another man, or else a piglet, was also
under the sow at some previous time. The statue dates to c. 1300;
its condition is so deteriorated and unclear that I chose not to display it.
8. There are several reliefs carved in the choir stalls of the great
Cathedral of Cologne, two on the front of the wing and another on
the back. The first two are Judensau representations that date from
c. 1322. The first presents a standing Jew holding a sow in midair,
a second Jew is feeding the animal, while a third sucks on a teat.
In the second scene, two standing Jews, one of whom holds a
haloed boy carrying a bag in his hand, turn over a large trough out
of which tumbles a dead sow and some piglets. All five adult Jews
have long beards, sidelocks, tall conical hats, and wear long cloaks
with capes. The meaning of this second scene has been given several interpretations. One of these involves the allegation of kidnapping and murder of the Christian child, Werner of Oberwesel (a
small city on the west bank of the Rhine, south of Koblenz and
west of Wiesbaden), for which the dead animals are a metaphor.
Werner was the center of an accusation in which, as a boy of 14,
he was allegedly murdered by the Jews of Oberwesel in 1286.
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9.
In France, a Judensau is found in the Chapelle du Mont-Carmel of
the Cathedral of Metz, though its identification as such appears to
be known only through Shachar’s pamphlet. It depicts two Jews
sucking at a sow’s teats. A third man, without sufficient identification to establish him as a Jew, feeds the sow. The carving is dated
to the first third of the 14th century when Metz was a German
town in Lothringen.
10.
Northeast of Munich at the western edge of the Bavarian Forest,
the Cathedral of the city of Regensburg has, on the south wall, a
partly mutilated and deeply weathered Judensau sculpture dating
from c. 1350. It shows a sow and a group of three Jews.
O,riginally it faced the former Jewish Quarter.
11.
A Judensau, dating from 1340-1350 and involving four Jews and
a sow, is found in the cathedral at Uppsala, Sweden.
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12.
On the portal leading to the Chapel of St. Andrew in the Cathedral of Gniezno, Poland (the sister city of Speyer, Germany),
northeast of Posnan, are two carvings with Jewish figures, only
one of which is a Judensau. The portal on the right contains a
scene in which a large sow suckles seven piglets, six under her,
and the seventh between her front legs. A Jew kneels behind the
sow, holding its hind leg, his face lifted toward her rectum. The
tail of the sow rests on his hat. In front of the sow, another Jew is
pushed toward the animal by a horned demon. The Jew is opening the sow’s snout with his hands; the two are in a position to
suggest that they are about to kiss. The carving may be dated to
the middle of the 14th century.
13.
In Colmar, France, south of Strasbourg (and a German territory
at the time), in the church of St. Martin are two Judensau depictions. One is on the west facade, and dates from c. 1350, shortly
before the entire Jewish community of Colmar was put to death
by fire following an allegation of well poisoning. It shows a
bearded man with a pointed Jewish hat kneeling and sucking on a
teat. Only the upper half of the animal survives. The other Judensau is a gargoyle on the southeast corner of the choir showing a
large sow and four Jews. It dates from 1390, shortly after a new
Jewish settlement began in Colmar in 1360.
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14.
A small Judensau, dating from c. 1380, appears on the choir
stalls in the cathedral at Nordhausen, Germany, north of Erfurt.
The principal scene is of a boy and a monk officiating at a mass.
At the bottom of the scene (and marked with a black rectangle I
inserted) are a sow and two Jews. An enlarged extraction of that
section is shown on the right.
15.
The Judensau of Wittenberg near Dessau, Germany, is a badly
weathered sculpture set on the exterior of the southeast corner of
the Stadtkirche. It dates from the 14th century. A narrow tiled
roof offers some protection from the elements. The image is of
four Jews—one of whom is twice as big as the other three—and
a sow. At the foot of the Judensau is a contemporary memorial
plaque put in place in 1988. The text, in both German and
Hebrew, consists of a warning against repeating past mistakes by
forgetting history. What is particularly important about this
Judensau is the fact that, in 1543, Martin Luther gave an
antisemitic interpretation of its meaning. But since Luther’s comments were written at an uncertain interval after the creation of
the scene—perhaps 100-200 years later—his remarks shed no
light on the relief’s original purpose. Above the scene is a twoline inscription that reads “Rabini Schem Ha Mporas,” which is
the title of a 1543 book by Luther in which he refers to the Wittenberg Judensau. The senseless inscription is partly a transmogrification of the Hebrew expression “sem ha-meforasch,” which
is a reference to G-d’s immeasurable name. In 1988, on the 50th
anniversary of Kristallnacht, there was a debate on the fate of the
Wittenberg Judensau. Finally, it was decided to retain the sculp-
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ture and leave it in place, along with the accompanying
memorial.5
16.
The earliest Judensau from the 15th century, dated to c. 1400, is
found on the choir stalls in Germany’s Erfurt Cathedral. This is a
complex Judensau, though, at first blush, it appears to be a struggle between Church and Synagogue. The scene consists of a battle between two riders, one a young knight on a horse, his shield
bearing the device of a fish. He holds a lance pointed at the head
of an unarmed male Jew riding a bridled sow. However, in all
medieval representations of Church and Synagogue, the images
of women are used to represent both parties. Further, should they
be shown riding, their animals are a ram (signifying deviltry) or
an ass for the Synagogue, and a four-legged abstract animal (i.e.,
a unicorn, dragon, or other tetramorph) for the Church. Such
scenes never show the pair in battle, or riding horses or sows.
The absence of these typical attributes appears to imply that this
particular scene alludes to an actual clash and has a specific
meaning. The device of the fish on the knight’s shield is a symbol of Christianity and used as such even in contemporary times.
17.
A Judensau is carved on a choir stall of the Minster of Basle,
Switzerland (again a German territory at the time). In consists of
5. Text adapted from Billie AnnLopez and Peter Hirsch, Traveler’s Guide to
Jewish Germany (New York: Pelican, 1998).
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a large sow and, under it, two Jews sucking on its teats. The stalls
date from 1432, though some parts may be earlier.
18.
A Judensau stone relief is on a buttress on the northeast side of
the choir of the Nikolaikirche in Zerbst, Germany, which lies
between Dessau and Magdeburg. Though the choir dates from c.
1446, the stone relief may have been added later. Here a large
sow is itself marked with the Jewish badge (in the form of a
circle on the pig’s neck, below which a more recent addition of a
swastika is also present—the image made especially large so that
the swastika could be seen clearly). Two Jews suckle underneath
it; a third stands behind and lifts the tail, while a fourth hugs the
animal’s head from the right.
19.
On the southern aisle of the church in Heilsbronn (on the Neckar
river between Heidelberg and Stuttgart, close to Bad Wimpfen
mentioned in number 5 above), contains a Judensau dating from
the 15th century. The details of the image cannot be given in a
single photo. It is necessary to show three sides of this Judensau;
only then can one see the six Jews clinging to a large sow, two
behind (far left image), three sucking at teats (central image), and
one seated under the sow’s neck (far right image).
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20.
A Judensau on the gate of the castle at Cadolzburg (near Fürth) is
next to the coats of arms of the castle’s owners, the Hohenzollern
of Nuremberg. The extremely weathered stone relief is referred
to by the inhabitants of Cadolzburg as “die Judensau,” despite
the fact that the detail of the image is difficult to make out. On
the left, behind the pig, a person is leaning forward toward the
pig’s rectum. Another person sits underneath the pig and sucks
from a teat.
21.
A stone-relief Judensau from the 15th century is on a private
house in Spalt (in Nürnberg’s Frankonia Lake district) on what
was the Herrengasse, today Stiftsgasse 147. A large sow stands
with a Jew, lying on his back, sucking beneath the animal.
22.
In the choir stall of Notre Dame in Aerschot, Belgium (near Antwerp) is an image of a Jew riding backwards on an animal of
some sort. While this image is not a Judensau because the animal
is not a pig, it is a derivative of a Judensau. Though Aerschot is
in the German cultural area, the Judensau could be an older symbolism of the Judensau rather than derivative of it.
23.
A Judensau originally on a private house in the Austrian city of
Wiener Neustadt, located south of Vienna in the state of Lower
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Austria, is now found in the Stadtmuseum of the same city. The
scene is quite crowded and difficult to make out. A large sow
stands with its head on the left side of the stone. Four Jews suck
at its teats, a fifth lies on the ground, and a sixth holds fast onto
the tail.
This list of extant 23 Judensau is incomplete. There are said to be
additional Judensau in the cities of Bayreuth, Heilsbronn, Nuremberg,
Strasbourg, and Warburg. There may be more Judensau that exist without
being recognized—e.g., high up in inaccessible areas of the church’s interior, though this is unlikely because the propose of a Judensau was to be
seen. Alternately, Shachar’s research may have missed some in his otherwise comprehensive pamphlet. A number of Judensau that no longer exist,
such as the image, shown earlier, of the Judensau of Salzburg, which was
removed c. 1786. Others that have been removed include Judensau in
Anhalt-Köthen (near Dessau), Diesdorf (near Magdeburg), Frankfurt am
Main (a particularly vicious example, because it not only portrayed the
offensive Judensau but also included an image of the alleged martyr, Simon
of Trent, this being a blood libel), Freising (taken down in 1921), Friedberg,
Heidingsfeld, and Kehlheim (on a private residence until taken down by
order of the royal district judge), another on the city pharmacy removed in
1945 on the order of an officer of the U.S. Army, and Torgau, a town on the
banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony.
MISCELLANEOUS JUDENSAU USAGES
Jews were also lampooned for their support of medical discoveries. In
Hamburg, for example, c. 1799, there was a satirical cartoon involving a
pig, and in which Jewish support of vaccination was ridiculed.6 There were
Judensau depictions that occurred in France during the events of the Dreyfus affair, when Emile Zola, the author of J’accuse, for his actions in
defending Alfred Dreyfus. An example is an open letter published on Janu6. See plate 57b in Shachar for the cartoon.
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ary 13, 1898, in the newspaper L’aurore.7 The letter, which was addressed
to the president of France, Félix Faure, accused the government of
antisemitism and the unlawful jailing of Dreyfus, a French General Staff
officer sentenced to penal servitude for life for espionage. Zola pointed out
judicial errors as well the lack of serious evidence. The letter was printed on
the front page of the newspaper, and caused a scandal in France and abroad.
So what we have here was a medieval pejorative assault on Jews being
used to attack a nineteenth-century Christian author (whose father was a
foreigner, the general target for the anti-Dreyfusards), because he acted to
defend a French Jewish army officer, though the Judensau accusation
directed at him predates J’accuse.
Today, skinheads and neo Nazis use the term Judensau as part of their
hateful vocabulary. It has long been a Nazi and antisemitic term—though
offered as sau Jud (pig Jew) instead of Judensau. It is clearly related to
Judensau depictions, but it is not the same. It is possible that, if the insult is
old enough, it might have led to the depiction rather than the other way
round.
THE JEWISH OATH
I conclude this pictorial essay with a discussion of an additional indignity that the Jewish community had to endure whenever a Jew was required
to take an oath affecting a Christian. The manner in which the oath was
taken was particularly repulsive, and to make the situation even more painful, both emotionally and physically, the Jew who took the oath was
required to do so barefoot and with bare chest while standing on the bloody
skin of a freshly killed pig. His right hand had to be placed on an open
Torah and his Jewish hat held in the left hand. While the practice began
roughly around the same time as the earliest Judensau depictions, the image
here, showing a Jew from Breslau taking such an oath, is from the seventeenth century.
This unspeakably cruel and senseless practice came about because of a
Christian misunderstanding of the Kol Nidrei declaration, which introduces
the evening service on erev Yom Kippur. A free translation of the text of
the declaration reads, “All personal vows we are likely to make, all personal
oaths and pledges we are likely to take between this Yom Kippur and the
next, we publicly renounce. Let them all be relinquished and abandoned,
null and void. Let our personal vows, pledges and oaths be considered
neither vows nor pledges nor oaths.”
7. See Maya Balakirsky-Katz, “Emile Zola, the Cochonnerie of Naturalist
Literature, and the Judensau,” Jewish Social Studies,13, No. 2: 110-135.
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Because of this misunderstanding, it was presumed that a Jew’s testimony was untrustworthy—i.e., since it was believed that all vows were
renounced in adherence to the Kol Nidrei declaration, any oath taken by a
Jew before civil authorities was worthless. The Christian presumption of
Jewish perjury caused great resentment from the Jews. An added complication was the fact that no Jew would swear in the Christian manner, because
to do so would have meant a recognition of Jesus or the Trinity. Thus, when
a Jew was required to take an oath before civil authorities, he underwent a
process allegedly designed to be “according to the Jewish custom,” though
the details of the oath were so bizarre as to be entirely unrelated to Jewish
custom, practice, or tradition. What the Christian world refused to comprehend was that the Kol Nidrei declaration spoke of vows between man and
G-d, not vows between man and man.
With the passage of time and the acceleration of Jew-hatred, the form
and content of the Jewish oath became more formidable in both language
and ceremony. The text of the oath was thought to be so appallingly awful
as to frighten the Jews into truthfulness. Later, torture was imposed and
Jews were required to wear crowns of thorns on their necks and around the
knees. Long branches with thorns on them were pulled between the legs
during the administration of the oath. This hateful activity persisted in
France until 1846, in Prussia until 1869, and in Romania until 1912.
The text of the oath varied from place to place, but here is how it was
administered in the police courts of Frankfurt as late as 1847:
The Jew shall stand on a sow’s skin and the five books of Master Moses
shall lie before him, and his right hand up to the wrist shall lie on the
book and he shall repeat after him who administers the oath of the Jews:
Regarding such property of which the man accuses you, you know nothing of it, nor do you have it. You never had it in your possession, you do
not have it in any of your chests, you have not buried it in the earth, nor
locked it with locks, so help you G-d who created heaven and earth, val-
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ley and hill, woods, trees, and grass, and so help you the law which G-d
himself created and wrote with His own hand and gave to Moses on
Sinai’s mount. And so help you the five books of Moses that you may
nevermore enjoy a bite without soiling yourself all over, as did the King
of Babylon.
And may that sulphur and pitch flow down upon your neck that flowed
over Sodom and Gomorrah, and the same pitch that flowed over Babylon
flow over you, but two hundred times more, and may the earth envelop
and swallow you up as it did Dathan and Abiram. And may your dust
never join other dust, and your earth never join other earth in the bosom
of Master Abraham if what you say is not true and right. [This refers
either to a proper burial or to resurrection.] And so help you Adonai you
have sworn the truth.
If not, may you become as leprous as Naaman and Gehazi, and may the
calamity strike you that the Israelite people escaped as they journeyed
forth from Egypt’s land. And may a bleeding and a flowing come forth
from you and never cease, as your people wished upon themselves when
they condemned G-d, Jesus Christ, among themselves, and tortured Him
and said: “His blood be upon us and our children” [Matthew 27:25]. It is
true, so help you G-d who appeared to Moses in a burning bush that yet
remained unconsumed. It is true by the oath that you have sworn, by the
soul that you bring on the Day of Judgment before the Court, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. It is true, so help you G-d and the oath you have sworn.
Amen.
*Daniel Leeson is retired from IBM. In addition to holding degrees in mathematics,
he is a musician in several symphony orchestras and a leading Mozart scholar.