Two Tales: Betrothed & Edo and Enam (15 page)

8. Solemn vow / It is from this Hebrew phrase,
shevu’at emunim
, that the story takes its title; the English title “Betrothed” captures this partially in its etymology “to pledge troth”, to make a vow or oath of faithfulness.

9. Rose / The symbolism of the rose is lost in translation; in Hebrew a rose is
shoshanah
, the name of our story’s female protagonist.

10. Katharinenhof / A resort outside of Vienna.

Franz Joseph I

10. Emperor / Franz Joseph I (1830–1916), Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

13. There is a time for all… / Ecclesiastes 3:1.

13. Great War / World War I.

14. Sappho / Greek lyric poetess from the island of Lesbos, c. 630–570
BCE
.

14. Medea / In Greek mythology, Medea was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis and granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason (of Argonaut fame). She is the central character in Euripides’s play 
Medea
.

14. Yeshivas / Traditional Talmudic academies. (Many of the eastern European Jews who arrived in the Land of Israel during the early 20
th
century left behind their traditional learning and strict religious lifestyle.)

14. Seven Planets / Classical heavenly bodies visible to the eye and known in the ancient world: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, together with the Sun and Moon; cf. Shabbat 156a for Talmudic astrology and mentions of these seven planets.

16. Intimate
du
/ Conversations between Rechnitz and the Ehrlichs would have taken place in German, which differentiates between the informal
du
for second-person address and the more formal
Sie
.

Ahad Ha’am

21. Ahad Ha’Am / Pen-name of Asher Ginsberg (1856–1927), journalist, essayist, and preeminent Zionist thinker; founder of “cultural Zionism” aiming toward the establishment of a “Spiritual Center” as opposed to Herzl’s political Zionism. The pen-name Ahad Ha’Am (taken from Genesis 26:10) means “one of the people”.

Moshe Leib Lilienblum

21. Lilienblum / Moshe Leib Lilienblum (1843–1910), writer and figure in the Jewish Enlightenment movement and leader of the
Hovevei Zion
in Russia.

21. Ussishkin / Menachem Ussishkin (1863–1941), Russian-born Zionist leader and head of the Jewish National Fund which was responsible for land acquisition in Palestine

22. Jerusalem Talmud / Rabbinic commentary on the Mishnah, composed in the 4th–5th centuries in the Land of Israel; counterpart to the later, and more authoritative, Babylonian Talmud.

22. Collector of donations and tithes / Kashrut supervisor who assured that the various agricultural tithes from produce of the Land of Israel were properly separated.

22. Baron Rothschild / Baron Edmond James de Rothschild (1845–1934), French-born member of the Rothschild banking clan, and a strong supporter of Zionism. His charitable support aided the movement and helped establish various settlements and agricultural endeavors in the Land of Israel.

Baron Rothschild

23. Political Zionists / Followers of Theodor Herzl’s platform at the First Zionist Congress (Basel, 1897), which aimed at establishing a politically and legally assured Jewish homeland in Palestine.

23. Uganda schism / 1903 proposal to create a Jewish homeland in a portion of British East Africa. The plan created a major schism within the larger Zionist movement, drawing support from Herzl, and opposition from Ussishkin and others. Ultimately rejected at the 1905 Seventh Zionist Congress.

23. Zionists of Zion / Nickname for the followers of Ussishkin; opponents to the Uganda Plan, who remained loyal to the notion that Zionism could only be fulfilled in the Land of Israel.

23. Bilu / Zionist movement to promote agricultural settlement in the Land of Israel, founded by students in 1882 in Kharkov.

24. Galicia / Geographic region comprising parts of contemporary southern Poland and western Ukraine, historical home to a large Jewish population (including Agnon himself).

25. Mikveh or Sarona / Mikveh Israel was the first Jewish agricultural school in Israel, established on the eastern outskirts of Jaffa in 1870. Sarona was a German Templer colony founded in 1871, about 4 km. northeast of Jaffa; today a neighborhood of Tel Aviv.

26. Rays of sunrise / Cf. Yoma 28b and Rashi s.v.
“Timor”
.

29. Sefardim / Descendants of the Spanish Jewish community, expelled from Spain in 1492.

29. Ashkenazim / Jews of the central and eastern European tradition.

Jaffa orange logo from Sarona

29. Yemenite Jews / Members or descendents of the ancient Jewish communities of Yemen (which began emigration to the Land of Israel in 1881). The community follows distinct religious traditions which separate their practices from that of the Ashkenazim and Sefardim. Many Yemenite Jews were known for their skills as craftsmen and artisans, a role they played in the early Settlement.