כיצד מכבדים: על פיוטי הדיבר החמישי. (Hebrew)

HOW SHOULD WE HONOR: THE LITURGICAL AND POETIC ADAPTATIONS OF THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT. (English)

Medieval Hebrew liturgical poems (piyyutim) were often poetical paraphrases of biblical verses. The present essay explores poems that were written as poetic adaptations of the Fifth Commandment (Exodus 20:12). These poems were all part of larger piyyut cycles called Dibberin that were performed in the synagogue on Shavu'ot. A few of these poems are presented in this article, some of which have been published before and others that were found in manuscript form. The readings of these poems appear under three headings: How does One Interpret, How does One Speak, and How does One Honor. These headings convey three interlinked processes that occur within the poems: as the medieval poet writes his poetic paraphrase of the verse, he necessarily interprets it, laying emphasis on one of its aspects, or suggesting some rationale for the Commandment. Yet the poet is not only an interpreter, he is also a director of a certain scene, in which a dramatic persona utters the Commandment, intones, and personalizes it, thus the piyyut is always also a renewed speech act. Lastly, this same poet necessarily confronts the question of honor, as he is required to write a new poem and somehow honor the canonical and sacred words of Torah. Thus the authors of these piyyutim were faced with multiple, overlapping challenges. Various poets, from different eras, addressed these challenges, and the present article aims to contribute to an understanding of the techniques they used to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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