Commentary

The line numbers in the commentary correspond to the line numbers in the translation, which sometimes differ slightly from those of the Hebrew original.

Epigraph

The epigraph and the prose introductions to the individual cantos may have been composed not by Rieti but by a copyist, as they are absent in a number of the manuscripts.

Introductory poem: A double acrostic spelling appears in the first two words of each of the three verses. The third word of the first two verses seems to begin an incomplete third acrostic.

1. Ideas: , in medieval philosophical Hebrew, ordinarily signifies the intelligences (Maimonides, Mishneh torah, Hilkhot yesodei torah 4:8). Here, it seems to signify the Platonic ideas, which, according to philosophically minded kabbalists, are engraved in the form of letters on God's throne. The overall idea of the epigram is: from the infinity of eternal truths, I am selecting a few fundamental notions to make into this book.

This sentence structure, with the direct object first, followed, after a delay, by a predicate that includes the grammatical subject, is typical of Rieti's style. Here, it enables the author to bring out the subject of the book—divine wisdom—and to subordinate the pronoun referring to himself.

in God's own shadow: The phrase recalls Lam. 4:20, used by Ibn Gabirol (Keter malkhut, sec. 1) to express the Neoplatonic idea of emanation. Perhaps here, it is to be understood as an image for the first hypostasis, which arises as the shadow of the divine light.

2. roots . . . topmost boughs: The mixed metaphor recalls the inverted tree of the kabbalah; cf. Gershom Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, trans. Allan Arkush (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1987), 68-76; for another occurrence in the Hebrew poetry of Italy, cf. the poem by the seventeenth-century Mantuan Joseph Barukh of Urbino, in Ḥayim Schirmann, Mivḥar hashirah haʿivrit beʾitalyah (Berlin: Schocken, 1934), 274. Dante (Purgatorio 22.127-41) describes a tree that grows upside down so that nonbelievers cannot ascend on it to salvation.

3. sachet . . . breasts: Song of Songs 1:13.

Canto 1

Preface

for the unique activity: i.e., for the success of the unique work that The Little Temple is. For this use of the word , see Klatzkin, , 4 vols. (Berlin: Eshkol, 1928-33), 2:190-91, citing al-Ḥarizi's . In lines 19-24, Rieti specifies the unique features of his work, highlighting its form as well as the content. The prayer "for the unique activity" occupies lines 1-6. Other prayers are found in lines 22-24.

his inadequacy: This meaning of , reflecting the Arabic qaṣr or quṣūr, is common in the Hebrew of philosophical translations. The apology is found in lines 37-84.

the causes . . . in his time: The causes are named in vv. 49-84 (49-60: general causes; 62-84: causes specific to Rieti's age).

the name of the book and its parts: lines 121-23.

other things . . . prefaces: These are named in lines 85-120 and 127-39.

1-3. The first letter of the three lines yields an acrostic of the author's name, .

1. Locus-of-All: The poet begins by invoking God in prayer, as the classical epics and the works modeled on them open with an invocation of the Muse. Cf. Dante Paradiso 1.13-19: O buono Apollo, a l'ultimo lavoro / fammi del tuo valor si fatto vaso / come dimandi a dar l'amato alloro ("O good Apollo, for this last labor make me such a vessel of your worth as you require for granting your beloved laurel"). Cf. M. A. Shulvass, The Jews in the World of the Renaissance (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1973), 221. But whereas Dante addresses his prayer to Apollo, Rieti addresses God in person. For the Christianization of the address to the muses in medieval poetry and for Dante's exceptionality, see Ernst Robert Curtius, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages (New York: Harper & Row, 1953), 228-46.

The phrase derives from the rabbinic paradox (Gen. R. chap. 68 [ed. Theodor and Albeck], 777-78); Sefer...