upright=1.1|thumb|right|[[Adam clutches a child in the presence of the child-snatcher Lilith.]]
The Alphabet of Sira () is an anonymous text of the Middle Ages inspired by the Book of Sirach and written in the Islamic world between 700 and 1000. It is a compilation of two lists of proverbs, 22 in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and 22 in Medieval Hebrew, both arranged as alphabetic acrostics. Each proverb is followed by an aggadic commentary. Adolf Neubauer and Abraham Epstein argued for a satirical character, which reading was rejected by Louis Ginzberg.
It has been translated into Latin, Yiddish, Judaeo-Spanish, Judeo-Persian, French and German. An English translation by Norman Bronznick appeared in Stern and Mirsky (1998). A critical edition under the title was published by Eli Yassif in 1984.
Aramaic proverbs
The Aramaic proverbs are the older part of the book. Five of them can be traced to Talmudic-Midrashic literature. The Hebrew commentary, illustrating the proverbs with fables, is much younger.
In the reading of Ginzberg:
Editions
- Salonica, 1514, two known surviving copies
- Constantinople, 1519, one known complete copy in the British Library, a defective one at the Bodleian, and another defective one in Basel.
- Venice, 1544, reprinted by Steinschneider, 1854; most later editions are based on this one.
References
Sources
- Eisenstein, J.D., Alpha Beta Ben Sira, in: Otsar Midrashim vol. 1 (1915).
- Steinschneider, Moritz Alphabeticum Syracidis, Berlin (1854).
- Steinschneider, Moritz Alphabeticum Syracidis utrumque, cum expositione antiqua (narrationes et fabulas continente), Berlin (1858).
- David Stern, Mark Jay Mirsky (eds.), Rabbinic Fantasies: Imaginative Narratives from Classical Hebrew Literature, Yale Judaica Series (1998).
- Taylor, C., The Alphabet of Ben Sira, in: JQR 17 (1904/05) 238–239.
- Taylor, C., The Alphabet of Ben Sira, in: Journal of Philology 30 (1907) 95–132.
- Tobias Lachs, Samuel, The Alphabet of Ben Sira, Gratz College Annual of Jewish Studies 11 (1973), 9-28.