Riddles (Hebrew)

Riddles in Hebrew are referred to as ḥidot (singular ḥidah). They have at times been a major and distinctive part of literature in Hebrew and closely related languages.

Riddles in the Bible and other ancient Hebrew literature

Riddles are not common in the Bible,[1] nor in Midrashic literature,[2] though other tests of verbal wit are. The most prominent riddle in the Bible is Samson's riddle in Judges xiv.14: Samson outwitted the Philistines by posing a riddle about the lion and the beehive until they learned the answer from his Philistine bride, costing Samson 30 suits of clothes (Judges 14:5-18).[3] However, Joseph Jacobs believes 'it would appear that some of the proverbs in which sets of three and of four objects are mentioned (e.g. xxx.15 et seq.) were originally in the form of riddles', while Ezekiel xvii.1-10 is also a riddle of sorts.[4]

The Bible describes how the Queen of Sheba tests Solomon with riddles, but without giving any hint as to what they were (I Kings 10:1-13). On this basis, riddles were ascribed to the Queen in later scholarship: four riddles are ascribed to her in the eleventh-century Midrash Proverbs, and these plus another fourteen in the Midrash ha-Ḥefez.[5] For example, the Midrash Proverbs include 'She said to him: "Seven exit and nine enter, two pour and one drinks". He said to her: "Surely, seven days of menstruation exit and nine months of pregnancy enter, two breasts pour and the baby drinks".’[6] The early medieval Aramic Targum Sheni also contains numerous riddles.[5]

The Aramaic Story of Ahikar contains a long section of proverbial wisdom that in some versions also contains riddles.[7]

Sirach mentions riddles as a popular dinner pastime, and the Talmud contains several, such as this one from the end of Kinnim: 'What animal has one voice living and seven voices dead?' ('The ibis, from whose carcass seven different musical instruments are made').[4]

Hebrew riddles in the Middle Ages

Under the influence of Arabic literature in medieval al-Andalus, there was a flourishing of literary Hebrew riddles in verse during the Middle Ages. Dunash ben Labrat (920-990), credited with transposing Arabic metres into Hebrew, composed a number of riddles, mostly apparently inspired by folk-riddles.[8] Exponents included Moses ibn Ezra, Yehuda Alharizi, Judah Halevi, and [4] Abraham ibn Ezra.[9] Immanuel the Roman wrote riddles, as did Israel Onceneyra.[10] The tradition extended to Italy from the twelfth century, beginning with the work of Yerahmiel Bar Shlomo.[9]

For example, Moses ibn Ezra asked 'What is the sister of the sun, though made for the night? The first causes her tears to fall, and when she is near dying they cut off her head'. (The answer is 'a candle'.)[4] Judah Halevi asked:

Evincing the infinite--
the size of your palm--
what it holds is beyond you,
curious, at hand.[11]

(The answer is 'hand-mirror'.)

There is also 'a curious riddle' at the end of the Haggadah.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Harry Torcszyner, 'The Riddle in the Bible', Hebrew Union College Annual, 1 (1924), 125-49, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43301983; Othniel Margalith, 'Samson's Riddle and Samson's Magic Locks', 'Vetus Testamentum, 36 (1986), 225-34, DOI: 10.2307/1518382; http://www.jstor.org/stable/1518382.
  2. ↑ Dina Stein, 'A King, a Queen, and the Riddle Between: Riddles and Interpretation in a Late Midrashic Text', in Untying the Knot: On Riddles and Other Enigmatic Modes, ed. by Galit Hasan-Rokem and David Dean Shulman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 125-74 (at p. 127).
  3. ↑ Margalith, Othniel, "Samson's Riddle and Samson's Magic Locks", Vetus Testamentum 1986; 36, pp. 225-234 (p. 226) http://www.jstor.org/stable/1518382.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Joseph Jacobs, 'Riddle', in The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, ed. by Isidore Singer (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1901-1907), s.v.
  5. 1 2 Jacob Lassner, Demonizing the Queen of Sheba: Boundaries of Gender and Culture in Postbiblical Judaism and Medieval Islam. University of Chicago Press, 1993, pp. 9-17
  6. ↑ Annikki Kaivola-Bregenhøj, Riddles: Perspectives on the Use, Function, and Change in a Folklore Genre, Studia Fennica, Folkloristica, 10 (Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2001), p. 13; http://dx.doi.org/10.21435/sff.10; http://oa.finlit.fi/site/books/detail/12/riddles/.
  7. ↑ Archer Taylor, The Literary Riddle before 1600 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1948), pp. 41-42.
  8. ↑ Archer Taylor, The Literary Riddle before 1600 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1948), pp. 33-35, citing Nehemya Aluny, 'Ten Dunash Ben Labrat's Riddles', The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, 36 (1945), 141-46, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1452496.
  9. 1 2 Dan Pagis, 'Toward a Theory of the Literary Riddle', in Untying the Knot: On Riddles and Other Enigmatic Modes, ed. by Galit Hasan-Rokem and David Shulman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 81-108 (p. 104 n. 1).
  10. ↑ See further Archer Taylor, The Literary Riddle before 1600 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1948), pp. 35-37.
  11. ↑ The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950–1492, ed. and trans. by Peter Cole (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), p. 150.
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