Victory dances and worship in the post-biblical period - a look at cultural and religious phenomena in the historical landscape
For the previous episode: Am Yisrael song 34, the dance parade
At the beginning of the period under discussion, which also included the Hellenistic era, there were indeed fundamental-substantial changes in the subject under discussion, i.e. music and dance, from the biblical period. Although, a number of elements remained in place, as in the previous period. The form of the dance, the answer dance, the torture, remained unchanged. There were victory dances, such as in the book of Yehudith, after the miracle in Alexandria (Yehudith 12:120 ff.) and even in a passage from the Wars of the Jews with the Romans (Joseph ben Mattathias XNUMX:XNUMX) after a Jewish victory over the Romans (section XNUMX). who played for them the Jews mocked the Romans who fell into their cunning trap, and by waving their shields to the sky they danced Acceptable or not, it seems to raise a number of questions. Let's compare this to the dance of Bat Yaftah upon his return from the war. A difference of heaven and earth.
Women also took an active part in the dance. What stands out about victory dances in the biblical references. Presumably, during these dances, scenes taken from the battlefield between the opposing armies were shown. And perhaps in a kind of modern transition we note that a seemingly strange custom appears at the end of a basketball game at the end of the season. The players of the winning team cut the net around the hoop of the opponent's net installation and wear the net around their necks and dance to the roars of joy of the winning team's fans. Perhaps in terms of reflecting a phenomenon in Kahnali of the end of ancient battles. In Mexico, for example, the heads of the players of the team that was defeated in the ancient basketball economy of the Incas were beheaded. By the way, the stone hoop was not parallel to the ground but perpendicular to it.
We also find changes in the nomenclature and the definition of the action and its subjects: while the verb "danced" appeared in the Bible in connection with the gaiety of youth, in the days of the Second Temple it was used for the joy of adults and was closer to the root verb "sand". This is a change that probably originates from the refinement of dance as music, an examination of a phenomenon that we will discuss later.
It is worth paying attention to the fact that the dance did not make its way to the Temple, and that is with the exception of the Beit Sho'eva celebration, which we will deal with immediately below. This is a dance that served as a very important element in the religious enthusiasm, in the sacral stickiness of the days of the First Temple, but it did not penetrate to the heart of the ritual activity that took place in the Temple. However, precisely the absence of dancing in the temple fits nicely and is in line with the immanent essence of the music during the Second Temple period, music which, for well-known reasons we dealt with in the previous chapters, requested to be refined, pleasant to the ear, and Arab. Such music, which was neither rhythmical nor cacophonous, a request to move away from any rhythmic expression, tumultuous and venting passions through movement. This is a phenomenon that was laid at the foundation of dance in general and religious dance in particular.
Simchat Beit HaShouva (The Shuva)
Only in the joy of Beit HaShuava, or as it is written in various texts on the basis of the archaeological alphabetical relationship - "Hashuava", and perhaps in a personal note - "Hashuava" is more appropriate than "Hashuava", we find the dance when it is integrated into the temple ceremonies, and this is not for nothing, since this joy It was steeped, all of it, in popular signs of external expression, of revealing all the feelings and capillary experiences in public. But it should be noted that this is not about the sacrificial worship ceremonies, where music took an important place.
The Mishnah tells about "the Hasidim (those who are careful, light and serious) and the people of the deeds" (those who do good deeds) who "would dance before them (before the priests who performed the lighting in the joy of the house of worship) with torches (torches) of light (of fire) in their hands and say (sing) before them Words of service and praise..." (From Sukkah 4:XNUMX). It should be noted that other dances in front of the burning fire were forbidden, both because of the physical and mental danger involved and because they are "the ways of the Amorites", that is, due to the event's affinity with pagan worship, in terms of belonging to the Semitic fire worship, which was a completely pagan worship. And perhaps the ban actually reflects accepted customs at the time. And in any case, due to the joy of the house of worship, a permit was introduced here, because of the joy of the holiday, because of the compilation of a mitzvah. And in any case, all the above permits reflect a fact of submission to local folk customs.
Other sources tore a window to an interesting show that would have been performed at the Beit Ha'Shuaba celebration by no less than the distinguished presidency of Beit Hillel. And the source is here before us: "... there was (Rabbi Shimon ben Gamaliel - Rashbagh) the old man
He dances with eight torches of light (and in another source: "of gold" - Talmud Yerushalmi Sukkah, Chapter 5, 95, p. 3) and none of them (of the torches) touches the ground (falls, falls to the ground). And in another place it is written that: "... and not one of them (of the flames) touched its fellow (each other) (Talmud Yerushalmi Sukkah, ibid.) And in the Babylonian Talmud the wording was as follows: "Tanya, they said about him, on Rashbagh, when he was happy (in) the joy of the house of worship, he would take eight torches of light and throw one and take one (in the case of acrobatics and unusual jingol) and they do not touch each other..." (Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 13 p. 1)
These sources continued and were scrolled down on the above-mentioned president, on the Rashbagh as follows: "(f) When he bows, he places his finger on the floor (and in the continuation of the source - "He consults his two (a) sizes in the land (Sukkah, there), stays (pauses) And kisses (and in another source: "And swims (bends down to the ground) and kisses the floor and erects (his body, rises) immediately" (Sukkah, ibid.).
All the above sources explicitly emphasized: "And no creature (human creation) can do that (Tosefta Sukkah 4:XNUMX). And the scriptures testify, doubtless with irony, doubtless with jealous sorrow, about other sages who tried to do like him, like the Rashbagh, and failed and some of them collapsed and became disabled (Talmud Babyloni and Yerushalmi ibid.).
Whether it was or not, we don't know, and even if it wasn't, we are shown a ceremony that required extraordinary physical activity and at least a kind of fiction that ran around in the public for generations. And although this certainly shows social phenomena, somewhat frenetic, which arouse a lot of attention, and above all, within it, the Presidency House occupied an interesting place, and even if everything was not and was not created, even if it is a parable... it should be noted and emphasized, the interesting conclusion is one that presented the Presidency House in all its popular glory and even Examining me, you will see and do the same. And even those who are seen, perceived in the public as contemptible and disdainful in religious contexts such as the above, must be held accountable for their mistake.
Other Sage sources testified about jumps that were performed in the discussed simcha
And they point out the praise of Ben Yehozedek who "was praised for his leaps" (Yerushalmi Talmud ibid, end of p. 2 - beginning of p. 3). And in this regard, let's not forget that most of the dances of the ancient period did not resemble in nature and form the classical delicacy of "modern" dances at that time, i.e. aristocratic court dances such as the "French minuet" and even faster dances such as the "zig" in a rhythm of six eighths, which ends almost every Bach suite or sonata. Or the Polish "Mozorka". The dances of the ancient world were blessed with many jumps, like the jumps of the animals.
And for our purposes, in the joy of Beit HaShoeba physical and acrobatic antics were expressed which are closely related to dance. And it should be noted here that if the presidency was praised in these activities, while the Sages glorified and extolled the praise of the president (that there was no yoke for days...), it is easy to say that all of Israel, at least a part of it, was invited to give vent to itself on this night of joy by dancing passionately and enthusiastically. Whether it was or not, we do not know. However, its appearance in the scriptures indicates at least the positive attitude towards orchestrated physical activity, whether it was or not.
So much for the connection between the dance and one of the temple ceremonies. From here on we will discuss the integration of the dance in the events in the sand. Events, in some of which the Greek, Hellenistic and Roman influence stuck, the fruit of the period of course. And it is known that the Greeks and their successors were attracted to dance, no less than they were attracted to music and the Romans, even though they lacked the Greek uniqueness expressed in the affinity between dance, as
in music, and the emotion, soul and intellect.
It is not for nothing that dance in Judaism has taken an important place in the religious-ritual-temple connection, both on the principle basis of Greek-Hellenistic and Roman influences that were placed on archaic Jewish phenomena of biblical times as we delved into them in the previous chapter. Ostensibly, this is a pagan phenomenon, foreign to Judaism, perhaps, but the people of Israel were not in the sense of "a nation alone shall dwell and the Gentiles shall not be considered", but were exposed like every culture and civilization to the somewhat social and ritualistic world of the occupying power. And in this historical evidence, when we connect the above phenomenon with the somewhat dance charge of the biblical era, and with the participation and encouragement of the patriarchal Jewish leadership, we will take for granted the phenomenon of dance in the ancient Jewish world.
