The Excerpta Reportage #113000
Poetic Works Forbidden (or else!)

‘The reasons for banning a book were not confined to theological difficulties. Moral concerns also came into play.

‘For example, in describing the sort of reading that is appropriate for the Sabbath, the Shulhan Arukh forbids Jews to read the works of Immanuel. The personage in question is not identified by the standard commentators but is well known to students of Hebrew literature. He is indeed one of the most colourful Jewish figures of the Italian Renaissance, the poet Immanuel of Rome (1261-1330).

‘Immanuel, a contemporary of Dante, was a typical sort of bohemian poet, wandering about the Italian towns looking for part-time work (often as a synagogue secretary) or--better still--for generous patrons.

‘He was responsible for introducing the sonnet form into Hebrew poetry. He composed his own Hebrew tour of heaven and hell in the style of Dante’s Divine Comedy. He also appears to have penned the earliest version of the Yigdal, the rhymed version of Maimonides’ “Thirteen Articles of Creed” that has become one of the favourite hymns of the synagogue.

‘In a manner typical of his age, Immanuel had no qualms about mixing the sacred with the extremely profane. Much of his poetic output is downright lewd, going on, at sometimes tedious length, about his erotic conquests, with graphic appreciations of female anatomy. In one sonnet he muses that, given the choice, he would prefer to be sent to hell, because that is where all the beautiful women are to be found.

‘As noted, Jewish law as codified in the Shulhan Arukh has forbidden the reading of Immanuel’s verse. The fact that such a prohibition was felt necessary does, of course, testify to Immanuel’s popularity as reading material for leisurely Shabbat afternoons. To the best of my awareness, however, no Jewish religious authority went so far as to order Immanuel’s assassination.

‘Cultures and traditions are normally judged by the literary works that they have produced and honoured. Nonetheless, it is not entirely inappropriate to characterize them also by those works which they have banned and condemned.’
--Eliezer Segal “Why Didn’t I Learn This in Hebrew School? Excursions through the Jewish Past and Present” (Jason Aronson Inc. 1999)

‘To the best of my awareness, however, no Jewish religious authority went so far as to order Immanuel’s assassination.’

This statement, written almost as an afterthought, could not possibly be presented here, in this manner, were it not common knowledge among Jews that their so-called “religious authority” did indeed, engage in assassinations, as a matter of fact.--Jana