Procrastination Device

Posted by Daily Medieval

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-sefer-yetzirah.html

While there are older Jewish mystical traditions, Sefer Yetzirah is the first book of what might be called proto-Kabbalah, the school of Jewish mysticism that emerged in the 13th century. Sefer Yetzirah has its own sacred structures and ways of understanding the world that differ in significant ways from the kabbalistic understanding, but many of its concepts significantly influenced later Jewish mystical tradition and practice. [source]

It primarily seems to be a linguistic work, because it claims the Hebrew alphabet is the key to understanding how the universe was created. It even distinguishes how letters and words are formed by the mouth:

In contrast to the Jewish grammarians, who assumed a special mode of articulation for each of the five groups of sounds, the "Sefer Yeẓirah" says that no sound can be produced without the tongue, to which the other organs of speech merely lend assistance. Hence the formation of the letters is described as follows:  with the tip of the tongue and the throat;  between the lips and the tip of the tongue;  in the middle ([?]) of the tongue;  by the tip of the tongue; and by the tongue, which lies flat and stretched, and by the teeth (ii. 3). The letters are distinguished, moreover, by the intensity of the sound necessary to produce them, and are accordingly divided ... [Jewish Encyclopedia]

The illustration above (a poster available here) shows each of the letters and explains its importance according to the Sefer. 

And the letters show how they connect to the creation of the universe:

The linguistic theories of the author of the "Sefer Yeẓirah" are an integral component of his philosophy, its other parts being astrological and Gnostic cosmogony. The three letters are not only the three "mothers" from which the other letters of the alphabet are formed, but they are also symbolical figures for the three primordial elements, the substances which underlie all existence. The mute מ is the symbol of the water in which the mute fish live; the hissing ש corresponds to the hissing fire; and the airy א represents the air; while as the air occupies a middle position between the fire which reaches upward and the water which tends downward, so the א is placed between the mute מ and the hissing ש. [Jewish Encyclopedia]

The "32 paths of wisdom" that the Sefer Yetzirah claims God used to create the universe are the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the ten sefirot, later referred to as ten emanations or attributes of God. These sefirot are crucial to later Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism. Let's next take a look at how Jewish mysticism developed.

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-sefer-yetzirah.html

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http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-book-of-formation.html

Not only is its origin a topic for debate, so is its purpose. It has been considered to be a mystical work about the Kabbalah, an explanation of how the universe came to be, and a work about linguistic theory. Each of these theories can be supported by its opening statement:

By thirty-two mysterious paths of wisdom Yah has engraved [all things], [who is] the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, the living God, the Almighty God, He that is uplifted and exalted, He that Dwells forever, and whose Name is holy; having created His world by three [derivatives] of [the Hebrew root-word] sefar : namely, sefer (a book), sefor (a count) and sippur (a story), along with ten calibrations of empty space and twenty-two letters [of the Hebrew alphabet], [of which] three are principal [letters] (i.e. א מ ש‎), seven are double-sounding [consonants] (i.e. בג"ד כפר"ת‎) and twelve are ordinary [letters] (i.e. ה ו ז ח ט י ל נ ס ע צ ק‎).

(This idea, that the Hebrew alphabet is the guide to God and the universe, found new life in the Modern Era in something called the Bible Code.)

There are different versions of it extant that have been annotated by different scholars. One shorter version annotated by Dunash ibn Tamim, a pupil of Isaac Judaeus, argues that Hebrew was the original universal language and Arabic is derived from it. He states:

If God assists me and prolongs my life, I shall complete the work in which I have stated that Hebrew is the original tongue of mankind and older than the Arabic; furthermore, the book will show the relationship of the two languages, and that every pure word in the Arabic can be found in the Hebrew; that the Hebrew is a purified Arabic; and that the names of certain things are identical in both languages.

A bold claim. The Sefer Yetzirah is the subject of almost as much speculation and annotation as the Bible. We'll continue our exploration of it tomorrow.

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-book-of-formation.html

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http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/12/isaac-judaeus.html

He was born in Cairo and became known as an oculist (we've talked about medieval eye treatment before).  About 904 he became the court physician to Prince Abu Mudhar Ziyadat Allah III in Kairouan, capital of Tunisia. He studied general medicine while there.

After the death of Ziyadat in 909, Isaac became doctor to Caliph 'Ubaid Allah al-Mahdi, the founder of the Fatimid dynasty. The caliph enjoyed the witty repartee of his Jewish physician. Isaac began lecturing on medicine, and many people came to hear him speak as his fame spread. He continued to learn, studying astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and natural history.

He wrote medical manuals in Arabic which, in the Arabic-speaking world, were considered gems, but were unknown in Western Europe. The 12th century saw translators in Toledo striving to make many works available to a wider audience. Gerard of Cremona translated Isaac's Liber de Definitionibus (Book of Definitions) and Liber Elementorum (Book on the Elements) into Latin. Christian scholars started noticing his work, such as Albertus Magnus, Aquinas, Roger Bacon, Nicholas of Cusa, and Vincent de Beauvais.

One of his works dealt with the urinary tract, which I covered a few years ago.

The years of his life are given as different dates according to the source. Encyclopedia Britannica says born 832/855, Egypt—died 932/955) and that he lived more than 100 years. His death has been declared as 932, 940, 942, 950, and 955.

One of his pupils, Dunash ibn Tamim, wrote a commentary on a work of Jewish mysticism that quotes Isaac so extensively that later scholars thought it was written by Isaac himself. Dunash and this work, the Sefer Yetzirah, will be our next line of topics.

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/12/isaac-judaeus.html

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http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/12/gilbertus-anglicus.html

His name was Gilbertus Anglicus (c.1180 - c.1250), called so because he was born in England, although after some initial education in his home country he went to Europe to study, particularly at the Salerno medical school. He actually returned to England for a time to assist a bishop, but that bishop died in 1205 and Gilbertus went back to Europe.

After 1230, he produced a seven-volume work in Latin called Compendium Medicinae. This work was copied and distributed as one of the foundational works of medical education for centuries (along with Gaddesden's). It was translated into Middle English in the early 1400s. It first saw formal print in 1510 with further editions, one as late as 1608. Chaucer includes him in the Canterbury Tales as one of the great physicians.

Among its seven volumes was a section on gynecology that was sometimes circulated separately as The Sickness of Women. Later it was called The Sickness of Women 2 after having a different author's work added. These became even more widely distributed than the Trotula.

One of the aspects that made Gilbertus' Compendium so valued was its inclusion of the knowledge of so many others. Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Galen are there, of course, but also Avicenna and Averroes, Macrobius, Boethius, several Arabians, Isaac Judaeus, and the Salernian writers.

Isaac Judaeus was mentioned briefly here regarding Charlemagne and an elephant, and I'd like to tell you more about him, starting tomorrow. Isaac, that is, not the elephant.

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/12/gilbertus-anglicus.html

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http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/12/medieval-dentistry.html

Although the biggest danger to healthy teeth these days is sugar, and sugar was not found in many diets until about 1400, cavities, toothache, abscesses, and other dental problems could arise. Consequently, the Middle Ages developed ways to deal with them.

Food buildup on teeth was rubbed or brushed away by the use of rough linen cloth or twigs frayed at the end. Other substances applied to teeth to help clean them could include ground sage and salt, or a mix of pepper, salt, and mint (after which you were advised to swallow the stuff). Another recommended tooth cleaner was the charcoal made from burning the woody part of the rosemary plant.

Having sweet breath was desirable, and methods to deal with halitosis included mouthwashes of vinegar or wine, sometimes with herbs steeped in them. Fennel seeds or parsley or cloves could be carried around and chewed in case the need arose to sweeten one's breath on the fly.

Still, daily wear and tear occurred on the teeth. Stoneground bread sometimes had grit that could wear away at the enamel, leading to cavities and tooth loss. When the pain became too much, a trip to the barber-surgeon was necessary. By 1210, in France there was guild of people who specialized in dentistry. They called themselves "barbers," and tried to regulate the practice. France made royal decrees in 1400 to ensure that those performing dentistry had the proper training.

Books of medicine did not neglect teeth. Trotula had a solution for woman with black teeth:

… take walnut shells well cleaned of the interior rind, which is green, and … rub the teeth three times a day, and when they have been well rubbed … wash the mouth with warm wine, and with salt mixed in if desired.

She had a more elaborate recipe:

Take burnt white marble and burnt date pits, and white natron, a red tile, salt, and pumice. From all of these make a powder in which damp wool has been wrapped in a fine linen cloth. Rub the teeth inside and out.

After this rinse with wine again, then wipe the teeth with a new white cloth (have to get ride of the wine stains, after all!).

The advice to swallow the pepper and salt mixture came from Gilbertus Anglicus, who wrote a Compendium of Medicine. Let's talk about him and it tomorrow. 

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/12/medieval-dentistry.html

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http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/11/skeletons-in-closet.html

It is said that "dead mean tell no tales"—a phrase nowadays associated irrevocably with Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride, but probably originated by John Dryden in The Spanish Friar (1681), act IV, sc. i—but in fact we can learn a lot about dead men by examining their bones.

Someone who is learning a lot about the Middle Ages from bones is anthropologist Sharon DeWitte.* She spends her summers traveling from the University of South Carolina to London where she is able to analyze the bones from medieval English skeletons.

What can she tell from skeletons?

DeWitte says where the two halves of the pelvis meet in the front and join in the rear provide consistent signs of adult aging. For children, teeth and the fusing of certain bones are among the best indicators of age. To determine sex, she looks for a wider pelvis in women and a squared jaw and skull made rugged along the forehead and back by testosterone in men.

...

She also examines for linear enamel hypoplasia, or little horizontal grooves that form on the teeth of children whose enamel formation was interrupted by malnutrition or infectious disease. Visible to the naked eye, these defects remain through adulthood and tell DeWitte the ages of when the health disturbances would have occurred.

There is a whole field of study referred to as Medieval Bioarchaeology. Let's look more into that tomorrow.

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/11/skeletons-in-closet.html

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http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/11/controlling-workforce.html

“Whereas late against the malice of servants, which were idle, and not willing to serve after the pestilence, without taking excessive wages, it was ordained by our lord the king… that such manner of servants… should be bound to serve, receiving salary and wages, accustomed in places where they ought to serve… five or six years before; and that the same servants refusing to serve… should be punished by imprisonment…”

This competition for labor did not sit well with most of society, who saw it as a disruption of the way things had been for centuries. The first Ordinance of Laborers was established by Edward III in 1349 to try to prevent the disruption of society that a "free market" could create. It stated:

• Everyone under the age of 60 must be willing to work
• Employers must not hire more workers than they need
• Wages must remain at pre-Pestilence levels
• Food prices must not be increased

Did it work?

• 1350 saw the Stature of Laborers that fixed the wages of laborers and artisans.
• 1356 saw regulations placed on the trade of masons. (Freemasons use this as proof that Freemasonry has been fighting "the Man" for centuries.)
• 1368 saw the Statute of Laborers reaffirmed.
• 1377 saw an act restricting the freedom of serfs to move from domain to domain.

Clearly, the laws had to be re-enacted because no one was listening. The attempt to suppress the freedom of the lower classes continued for the next two centuries. In England the above led to the Peasants' Revolt of 1381

What else can we learn about life immediately following the Black Death? You'd be surprised what you can learn from examining skeletons. I'll explain that tomorrow.

(Full disclosure: much of this post is a repeat from 2012, with new info added.)

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/11/controlling-workforce.html

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http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/11/after-black-death-part-2.html

Unfortunately, this increase in wages did not result in an increase in quality of life. Inflation is not just a feature of modern economics. Because of the disruption in trade, etc., prices went up. Estimates from one scholar put the price increase at 27% just from 1348 to 1350. 

On the other hand, individuals had more cash on hand. With the deaths came a transfer of wealth to relatives, so there was more money in the hands of each individual. Barbara Hanawalt's research found, for instance, that the money lender in a town or village was likely to be a widow who inherited from her husband (sometimes a few husbands in a row) and used it to support her neighbors.

The changes mentioned in the preceding two paragraphs helped lead to the decline of the class called "serfs." There was more mobility, and the attempts to keep laborers tied to one lord's manor or demesne became increasingly difficult. Serfs could ask for higher wages or a larger percentage of the crops they harvested. The peasant class began to accrue more wealth. A generation or two would see a larger "middle class" forming.

Another change (difficult to quantify) came in the Church. St. Boniface centuries earlier was said to lament that "In the old days our priests were of gold and their chalices of wood; now the priests were of wood and their chalices are gold." The Black Death left many Church positions and parishes empty. The Church had to ordain many new priests quickly to fill appointments.

When the Black Death struck Europe in 1347, the increasingly secular Church was forced to respond when its religious, spiritual, and instructive capabilities were found wanting. The Black Death exacerbated this decline of faith in the Church because it exposed its vulnerability to Christian society.

... 

Part of the reason why the Catholic Church was so negatively affected by the plague was due to the deterioration in the quality of its clergy. A great number of priests succumbed to the pestilence, and the individuals whom the Church recruited to take their place could not adequately perform their duties. [link]

Tomorrow I'm going to talk about England's attempts to control the movement of peasants away from their obligated land to find new jobs.

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/11/after-black-death-part-2.html