Out of the Vessel
The Layered Meaning of the Chalice as a Symbol in Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64166/j5ehdj17Abstract
This article examines the symbolic role of the chalice in fourteenth-centuryHebrew illuminated manuscripts, tracing its layered religious, historical,cultural, and polemical meanings. Focusing on the biblical scene of the״Plundering of Egypt ״ as depicted in four Catalan Haggadot—the GoldenHaggadah, the Sister Haggadah, the Brother Haggadah, and the RylandsSephardic Haggadah—I argue that the chalice functions not merely as aliturgical vessel, but as a charged visual emblem of Jewish identity and imaginedtriumph. Through the visual appropriation of Christian iconography, mostnotably the myth of the Holy Grail, the chalice becomes a site of ideologicalnegotiation and cultural agency. It thus transforms from a simple ritual objectinto a densely symbolic arena that reflects the community that created it.
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