A Dialogue about Dialogue

R. Yehuda ha-Levi and an Ancient Poetic Drama

Abstract

At the center of the present article stands an extensive silluq composed by R. Yehuda ha-Levi for his qedushta for Shabbat Zakhor. The silluq is composed largely as a dialogue between the wicked Haman, the enemy who counsels evil against Israel, and God, who scorns him and brings his counsel to naught. As is traditional, the angels are mentioned at the silluq's end, which serves as a bridge to the qedushta. The present article investigates the structural roots of the silluq, which turn out to reach back to classical, primarily Qillirian, piyyutim. The choice of the dialogue's dramatis personae, Haman and God, is represented here as a possible poetic response to an early Eastern piyyut, dubiously attributed to Qillir, in which a dispute is conducted between Haman and Ahasuerus: Haman attempts to convince Ahasuerus to destroy the Jews, while the latter resists out of fear. The representation of God as the one who answers Haman casts the drama in a new light: it is not Ahasuerus, nor any other Gentile king, who can nullify the counsels of Israel's enemies, but rather God.