For Ashkenazic Jews in the Middle Ages, the pig continued to serve as the symbol of Daniel's fourth and final kingdom in the famous prophecy by which Jews calculated the hoped-for coming of the messiah. Christendom with its seat in Rome was but an extension of the unrelieved cruelty of Roman dominion. At the same time, however, it was in the German lands of the Holy Roman Empire that the pig as symbol was thrown back at the Jews in the form of an obscene anti-Jewish motif. From the 13th to the 16th century, Christian iconography adorned churches and public buildings with the scatological representation of Jews sucking at the teats of a sow. The one on the church in Wittenberg gained national notoriety when Martin Luther in 1543 in one of his two virulently anti-Jewish tracts fixed on it to prove that the pig is the source of the Jews' uncanny wisdom and power.
Truth is often stranger than fiction.
The story of the pig as taboo and symbol tells us as much about the course of Jewish history as about the value system of Judaism. The road to hell is paved with the stereotypical images of the other. The electronic distribution of Dr. Schorsch's comment on Parashat ha-Shavua has been made possible by a generous gift from the members of Temple Beth Sholom, Cherry Hill, NJ, in honor of Rabbi Albert L. Lewis in celebration of the 50th anniversary of his ordination from the Seminary, and his 50 years as the rabbi of Temple Beth Sholom. Home Browse Talk Shop Sign Up Search Courses Receive the JTS Torah commentary and Shabbat candlelighting times sent to you weekly by e-mail. Click here to sign up for free membership.