From the dancer from Caesarea, who designed the performances in the Roman theater during the time of the Amora Rabbi Abba, to other figures from different periods who played Gentile music, the artistic performances of Jews reflect the complex combination of Jewish culture and foreign influences.
The Land of Israel has always been full of symbols and customs foreign to it, due to the foreign civilizations that settled there and were generally very close to its borders. As for the subject of our discussion, there is much evidence of foreign customs that were accepted in dance, since dance occupied an important place in both Semitic and Greek, Hellenistic and Roman cultures.
The sources indicate an expression called "enketamin", "nektmon" or "nektamin". It is possible that this refers to a percussion instrument, and it is possible that the reference was to long trees on which clowns danced. We are unable to say, but there is no doubt that this is a foreign, post-Jewish custom.
In Caesarea, during the time of the Amora Rabbi Abbahu, a figure of a Jew emerged whose job was to decorate the local Roman theater, hire musicians and dancers, and play and dance before them. This was a "mimus" or "pantomimekon," a figure formerly called "dancer" and in Greek - "orchestas," to whom the Sage sources treated with contempt and negation, and it is interesting to note the relevant connection between this term and "orchestra." There is no doubt that this approach was based on the assumption that there were indeed Jews who chose to engage in this profession, and we are talking about the years of economic depression and social hardship, due to which Jews were forced to choose these types of jobs in order not to starve for bread, but we are certainly not dealing with a widespread phenomenon.
Various types of clown-dancers were deeply immersed in the atmosphere of the foreign Hellenistic and Roman society in the Land of Israel, as well as the Persian society in Babylon. This phenomenon certainly dominated the minds of the Sages, and the sages of the generation strongly opposed those Jews who tried to imitate the Dionysian-Bacchanalian dances. However, most of all, they railed against the magical-sorcerous symbols that were immersed in the dances of the peoples, and even explicitly claimed that anyone who dances "into the flame" (Tosefta Shabbat 2 (XNUMX) XNUMX), or "before chicks that will not die" (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat XNUMX, p. XNUMX), is "following the ways of the Amorites," that is, they are tantamount to idolatry.
These claims were based on a popular reality, one that sought to imitate the customs of the environment and behave like them as a means of magic and sorcery like the Kushites. And it seems that even the sages, the Amoraim, used a linguistic coinage, one that was borrowed from the world of the foreign environment, namely - "the dancing devil" (Babylonian Talmud, Blessings 51, p. 1), but in a colloquial manner.
In general, the Sages sought, as they did with the "magic" of the shofar, to transform the magical aspects into heavenly-eschatological aspects. And it seems that if we accept the testimony of Philo of Alexandria in his work "Life of Contemplation" (11:XNUMX), then even the Essenes, like the Therapeim, the sect of hermit monks who lived in the forests of Egypt, would dance in their synagogues in Karkurim, which contain hints about the movements of the armies/heavenly bodies.
And in this spirit, the Sages discussed the angels ascending and descending Jacob's ladder in relation to the dance of the righteous.
But most interesting of all, and again similar to the Sages' relationship to the shofar, the Sages linked the dance with the presence of the Holy Spirit on earth, which, I believe, they owed to the early Christian approach that emerged from the New Testament. For example, they taught about sixty thousand angels who danced before Jacob, and emphasized there that "the Shechinah does not dance with less than sixty thousand" (Genesis Rabbah 15:XNUMX). And before us, it seems, is more than a thin allusion to the above.
There is no doubt that this approach of the Sages was tendentious and purified its essence from the difficult situation in which the land was given (similar to many other tracts of land) in the third century CE and onwards. This approach was not rooted in the secular plane, but in that which is closer to religious existence. That is, dances that took place at public-social-religious events.
In conclusion: While dance occupied a prominent place in the biblical period, the situation was different in the periods that followed. Dance did not penetrate the temple, the sacred rituals, which indicates the refinement of the music, and even in the Simchat Beit Hashoeva, which took place outside the temple. Even dances in the desert lacked signs of sexuality and physical fertility, also due to the absence of women who took part in it, unlike in the biblical period. These dances, such as the virgin dance, wedding dances, were used in social-community events. The honorable role of women in biblical dance as a whole was gradually dwarfed, and the sages, in their struggle against foreign ritual symbols, sought to enclose dance, similar to music, in a framework with heavenly - messianic symbolism.
Epilogue
It seems that at the end of the research in question, we are allowed to draw several conclusions based on the historical sources before us, as follows:
- Temple music developed during the Second Temple period as a result of special conditions, and reached impressive levels of organization, development, and institutionalization toward the end of the Temple period. Its development also reflected various social problems within and outside the Temple.
- Temple music, in the Temple itself and in the synagogues, served as an important conduit, among other tools and means, for strengthening the connection between the public and the worship, and thereby also between the public and its leaders.
- Jewish music during the period in question was mostly from the Land of Israel.
- A certain degree of foreign influence, mainly Hellenistic, was reflected in Jewish music at the time.
- Various improvements took place in the musical instruments, and interesting changes also took place between the biblical and post-biblical periods, both in the instruments and in the craftsmen.
- The involvement of the Sages in various issues, as in many other diverse topics in the Jewish world, gave a special and interesting dimension to the examination of various musical issues.
- A study of the various musical issues reveals interesting, abstract symbolism that has taken shape and simplified form over the years.
- Interesting changes occurred in Jewish dance, one that developed simultaneously with music in its general teaching.
- The destruction of the Second Temple was an event of enormous significance, one that marked a clear distinction between the days of the Temple and the period of the Mishnah and Talmud regarding the subject of our discussion.
- Interesting social and public aspects emerge from the discussion of secular music, and alongside them – evidence regarding the organization of music in the context of those events.
Finally, it is worth noting that this study did not pretend to prove the existence of a Jewish musical society, which did not exist, such as those that existed in the famous ancient civilizations such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome. Music in Jewish society did not occupy a prominent place like that which existed in classical Greek society and even Hellenistic society, but it is worth emphasizing that Jewish music existed in the period in question, one that was radically different from that of the biblical period, both in form and content and essence. This is music that paved the way for its establishment in Middle Eastern synagogues on the one hand and in medieval synagogues on the other. And as it took on and lost form over the years, absorbing expressions of external influences from the European Christian Church and the Muslim mosque in the East, it has reached our modern day in its diverse and multifaceted guise.
However, one must qualify the above statement about the existence of any musical society in the Jewish context, of course. In other ancient societies, music, both vocal and instrumental, did not occupy a central, dominant place, "who-knows-what," more than that which existed in Jewish society. But who?! The ancient non-Jewish archaeological, literary, and numismatic evidence was, "what to do," much more prominent than the Jewish ones. However, this comment stands in some contradiction to the Jewish musical evidence that is rooted and immersed in the Book of Psalms, for example.
Problem? Indeed, indeed, and in the future/in the future I have revealed, perhaps that attitude will change and place the history of early Jewish music on a higher shelf, one that it deserves.
We are done and we will not finish…
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