JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

ezekiel, abraham ezekiel
the people of Jerusalem (9:1–6), the prophet taken up by the
hair and transported to the Valley of the Dry Bones, and
the winds breathing life into the bones. The sixth-century
Rabbula Gospels (Laurentiana, Florence) portray Ezekiel
in conjunction with Jesus and David. In Oriental art he appears
in frescoes in Greece (Hosios David, Salonika, fifth century),
and in the church of Bachkovo, Bulgaria (12th century),
and frequently in icons in those lands influenced by the Byzantine
tradition. In the West, Ezekiel is first encountered in
illumination, as in the ninth-century Bible of San Paolo Fuori
le Mura. The earliest Western monastic example is the fresco
in San Vicenzo de Galliano (c. 1007). There is a 12th-century
statue by Benedetto Antelami on the facade of Borgo San Donnino,
Fidenza, and a cycle in the lower church of Schwarzheindorf,
near Bonn, Germany. Thirteenth-century portrayals in
French churches are on the portal of Saint-Firmin, Amiens, on
a window, at Bourges, and in La Sainte-Chapelle, Paris. The vision
of the divine chariot also appears in Lesnovo, Serbia (14th
century), and in the Pitti Palace, Florence. The Valley of the
Dry Bones appears in miniature painting from the ninth to
the 14th centuries in both East and West; it culminates in the
Signorelli fresco in the cathedral of Orvieto and the Tintoretto
painting in the Scuola di San Rocco, Venice. Michelangelo’s famous
representation of Ezekiel among other prophets of Israel
appears on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508–10). In the
early 19th century the English poet and artist William *Blake
produced a fine engraving and a painting of the prophet.
Ezekiel’s vision, in contrast to that of Isaiah, mentions
only “sounds” and “voices,” but even this unspecific conception
would seem to call for some musical embodiment which,
however, must inevitably fall short of the sublime suggestions
in the biblical source. This is, for example, true of cantorial
interpretations of the Ve-ha-Ofanim prayer and of the many
ofan poems (see *Piyyut). In art music the major composers
have generally avoided the subject of Ezekiel’s vision, whereas
that of Isaiah (with its explicit “tonal” description and established
place in Christian liturgy) offers far more promising
material to the composer. The two visions, combined in the
Prologue to Goethe’s Faust, have an ambitious setting in the
prologue act of Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele (1868, 18753). The
Valley of the Dry Bones is described by Franz Liszt in his Ossa
arida for choir and organ (1879) and a symphonic work, The
Valley of Dry Bones, was composed by A.W. *Binder (1935).
The biblical text has also been set by several Israel composers,
generally for choir. In a very different musical tradition
the Afro-American spiritual “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel,” with
its simple rhythmic tune, is interesting for its text: this swiftly
turns from the description of “a wheel in a wheel – way up in
the middle of the sky” to criticism of the behavior of certain
members of the congregation. Another popular spiritual, “Dry
Bones,” which has often been effectively arranged for vocal
or instrumental ensembles, transforms the terrifying biblical
scene into a syncopated, jocular description of the gradual
joining together of the bones and of their subsequent separation
in reverse order.
Bibliography: COMMENTARIES: A.B. Davidson and A.W.
Streane (Eng., 1916); G.A. Cooke (ICC, 1937); G. Fohrer and K. Galling
(Ger., 1955); W. Zimmerli (Ger., 1955–69); J.W. Wevers (Eng., 1969);
R. Eliezer of Beaugency, ed. by S. Poznański (Heb., 1910); S.D. Luzzatto
(Heb., 1876). OTHER WORKS: Kaufmann, Y., Religion, 401–46;
Kaufmann, Y., Toledot, 3:475–583; J. Lindblom, Prophecy in Ancient
Israel (1962), index; G. von Rad, Old Testament Theology, 2 (1965),
220–37; M. Buber, Torat-ha-Nevi’im (1942), 168–72. SPECIAL STUD-
IES: C.C. Torrey, Pseudo-Ezekiel and the Original Prophecy (1930);
S. Spiegel, in: Harvard Theological Review, 24 (1931), 245–321; idem,
in: JBL, 54 (1935), 145–71; V. Herntrich, Ezechielprobleme (1932);
C.G. Howie, The Date and Composition of Ezekiel (1950); G. Fohrer,
Die Hauptprobleme des Buches Ezechiel (1952); H.H. Rowley, Men
of God (1963), 169–210; S. Krauss, in: Ha-Shilo’aḥ, 8 (1901), 109–18,
300–6; Y.N. Simḥoni, in: He-Atid, 4 (1912), 209–34; 5 (1912), 47–74;
M.H. Segal, in: F.I. Baer et al. (ed.), Magnes Anniversary Book (1938),
168–77; A. Margolioth, in: Tarbiz, 22 (1950/51), 21–27; D.N. Freedman,
in: Interpretation, 8 (1954), 446–71; K.S. Freedy and D.B. Redford,
Journal of the American Oriental Society, 90 (1970), 462–85.
IN THE AGGADAH: Ginzberg, Legends, index. TOMB OF EZEKIEL:
R. Joseph Hayyim Alhakam, Mamlekhet Kohanim (Bagdad, 1873).
EZEKIEL IN ISLAM: “Ḥizḳīl,” in: EIS2, 3, 535 (incl. bibl.); H. Speyer,
Die biblischen Erzaehlungen im Qoran (1961), 412–3. IN THE ARTS:
L. Réau, Iconographie de l’art chrétien, 2 pt. 1 (1956), 373–8, incl. bibl.
Add. Bibliography: W. Eichrodt, Ezekiel (OTL; 1970); J. Levenson,
Theology of the Program of Restoration of Ezekiel 40–48 (1976);
W. Zimmerli, A Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel 1–24
(Hermeneia; 1979); idem … Ezekiel 24–48 (Hermeneia; 1983); A.
Hurvitz, A Linguistic Study …Priestly Source…and Ezekiel (1982); M.
Greenberg, Ezekiel 1–20 (AB; 1983); idem, Ezekiel 21–37 (AB; 1997);
R. Klein, Ezekiel (1988); L. Boadt, in: ABD, 2, 711–22; L. Allen, Ezekiel
1–19 (Word; 1994); idem, Ezekiel 20–48 (Word; 1990); J. Galambush,
Jerusalem in the Book of Ezekiel: The City as Yahweh’s Wife (1992); S.
Bondì, in: V. Krings (ed), La civilsation phénicienne et punique (1995),
268–81; P. Bartoloni, ibid., 282–89; D. Block, The Book of Ezekiel 1–24
(NICOT; 1997); Ezekiel 25–48 (NICOT; 1998); M. Cohen (ed.), Mikra’ot
Gedolot ‘Haketer’ Ezekiel (2000); R.L. Kohn, A New Heart and a New
Soul: Ezekiel, the Exile and Torah (2002); M. Goshen-Gottstein and
S. Talmon (eds.), Hebrew University Bible: The Book of Ezekiel (critical
text-edition; 2004).
EZEKIEL, ABRAHAM EZEKIEL (1757–1806), English
artist, son of the silversmith Abraham Ezekiel (d. 1799) who
helped to build the synagogue in Exeter in 1763 together with
his brother Benjamin. The son, practicing as a silversmith,
watchmaker, and scientific optician, was a successful miniature
and portrait painter enjoying a high reputation locally.
He also engraved portraits by Opie (1783), Reynolds (1795),
and others and executed several bookplates.
His son, SOLOMON (Isaac) EZEKIEL (1781–1867), a
plumber and tinsmith by trade, settled in Penzance in Cornwall.
He founded “The Penzance Hebrew Society for Promoting
the Diffusion of Religious Knowledge,” printed (1844–47)
the lectures on Abraham and Isaac which he gave before it,
and published an incisive letter (1820) which prevented the
establishment of a Conversionist Society in Penzance.
Bibliography: Rubens, in: JHSET, 14 (1935–39), 104–6; C.
Roth, Rise of Provincial Jewry (1950), 60; JC (March 22, 1867), and supplement
(May–June 1933). Add. Bibliography: ODNB online.
[Cecil Roth]
646 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6