Why Does the Golden Haggadah Represent the Tannin as an Everyday Snake?
Aimee Resnick - April 5, 2023
On Passover, the Jewish people celebrate their escape from brutal slavery in Egypt. This is referred to as the Exodus: in this tale, Moses and Aaron repeatedly beseech the Pharaoh under the guidance of God to free the Jewish people. The Pharaoh repeatedly refuses. In response, God punishes him through a series of increasingly severe plagues. The first such miracle that God performs is the transfiguration of Aaron's staff into a tannin, the staggeringly majestic mythical creature associated with the aquatic realm. Upon this transformation, the Pharaoh ordered his magicians to turn their staffs to snakes, but Aaron’s tannin voraciously “swallowed their rods” in a swift array of sacred power 1.
The tannin is traditionally interpreted in visual Jewish folklore as a fantastical, winged composite of a crocodile, snake, and whale. However, the Golden Haggadah—arguably the most important medieval Spanish illuminated manuscript to survive into the modern day—breaks from this artistic tradition and instead depicts the tannin as an everyday snake 2. As this rendition lies directly contrary to contemporaneous cultural constructions of the tannin, the Golden Haggadah’s banal characterization of the monster begs exploration.
Many scholars propose the tannin is represented as a normal snake to promote skepticism of seemingly sacred acts and to abide by Rabbinical associations of dragons with idolatry. The tannin, usually represented with grandeur and magnificence, was a common decorative element in the Middle Ages. Deeply rooted in the Torah, the beast first appears when it is created by God on the fifth day of Genesis 3. Enmeshed with creation, the tannin was commonly featured in medieval Spanish synagogues as a visual interpretation of God’s generative powers 4. Ilia Rodov argues that medieval synagogal tannin were commonly “great, simple, and long creatures” with “fire emerg[ing] from their mouths,” illustrating their bizarre, impressive design 5.
These artistic expectations of the tannin transferred to Haggadah illumination. Medieval Spanish Jews generally held whimsical, majestic cultural conceptions of the tannin ; for example, the famous 13th-century Dragon Haggadah is a similar document densely decorated with a multitude of tannin 6. In this Haggadah, swirling green serpents intertwine the Hebrew Text. Garishly green with crimson tongues, the Dragon Haggadah’s tannin are fringed with shaggy coats and goat’s ears. Equally silly and terrifying, these tannin replicate the sketchy lines of typical folk art to evoke their culturally-grounded histories.
In contrast to the Dragon Haggadah, the Golden Haggadah’s illustration contradicts these concurrent popular representations. The tannin is only presented in one panel of the Golden Haggadah: here, having just transfigured his staff, Aaron’s tannin swallows the Pharaoh’s magican’s serpents whole. Moses looks on in fearful awe, pointing towards God’s presence in the sky. The Pharaoh is unphased. The piece has a deep gold leaf background, and the figures are painted in rich, vibrant dyes. Generally, the figures follow medieval conventions: the scene lacks depth and perspective as the characters float mid-air. Framing the scene, a cobalt border envelopes and separates the characters.
In the Golden Haggadah, Aaron’s tannin is simple: with a shallow slither and an unexaggerated presence, this tannin looks like a common snake. Unlike the Dragon Haggadah’s tannin, Aaron’s beast has tallow-brown skin and is minimized against the shimmering gold background. The tannin physically melds with the Pharaoh’s snakes, becoming indistinguishable from the serpents produced by Pharaoh’s magicians. The Golden Haggadah thus meaningfully departs from traditional differentiation between the mythical tannin and the ordinary serpent.
One possible explanation for this divergence from tradition is that the artist intended to juxtapose the grounded, worldly will of the Pharaoh with the unlimited, celestial strength of God. Rendering Aaron’s tannin identical to the Pharaoh's snakes, the Golden Haggadah would issue a warning against false divinity. Renowned Spanish medieval scholar Rabbeinu Bahya argues in his Torah commentary that the Pharaoh’s magicians executed mere “sleight of hand” in their serpentine apparitions, with such “illusion” being humbled by the godly power of Aaron’s tannin 7. Extending upon this, Bahya argues that one must approach the seemingly divine with cautious disbelief, as power, like Pharaoh's snakes, can easily be falsified 8. Under this interpretation, the Golden Haggadah represents the tannin as an everyday snake to discourage idolatry: although the divinity of Aaron’s tannin cannot be isolated from profane magic by eye, it is intrinsically differentiated by God’s invisible support. Thus, the Golden Haggadah’s serpentine depiction of the tannin encourages doubt in divine manifestations, as idolatry is only detached from worship by God’s imperceptible presence. Moreover, the illustration extricates the moment in which God’s durable verity overtook Pharaoh's ephemeral falsehood as Aaron’s tannin swallowed the magicians’ snakes. In this manner, the Golden Haggadah depicts the tannin as a typical snake to deter idolatry of the seemingly divine, as all false holiness will inevitably fall before God’s ultimate control.
Another possible justification for the Golden Haggadah’s depiction of the tannin is that it constitutes an intentional effort to distance Aaron’s staff from the idolatry associated with dragons. The connection between dragons and idolatry originates in the biblical texts: Daniel is thrown into his famed lion’s den for slaying a dragon falsely worshiped by the Babylonians 9. Such associations persisted into medieval times; according to Ephraim Shoham-Steiner, the dragon was frequently deemed a perpetrator of “idol worship” by Rabbis of the Middle Ages 10. Considering that traditional depictions of the tannin are similar to those of dragons, it is possible that the Golden Haggadah purposely presented the tannin as a normal snake to avoid coincident controversy surrounding the idolatrous dragon. By visually distancing the tannin from the dragon, the absolute holiness of Aaron’s staff could be maintained.
The Golden Haggadah offers critical insight into medieval Spanish Judia. Thus, its alienation from traditional depictions of the tannin suggests a deeper significance. The construction of the tannin as a common snake implies two interpretations: first, it is possible that the artist intended to promote skepticism and prevent false idolatry. Second, it is feasible that the artist wished to divert the tannin’s controversial association with the dragon. Overall, the depiction of the tannin in the Golden Haggadah begs additional scholarship on the tannin as a concept, the Jewish perception of the medieval dragon, and other Judaic separations of the sacred and the profane in similar illuminated manuscripts.
Exodus 7:12:1
“Haggadah for Passover (the 'Golden Haggadah').” The British Library Digitized manuscripts. The British Library, 1320. https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/.
Genesis 1:21
Muñoz-Garrido, Daniel. “The Medieval Synagogue of Molina De Aragón: Architecture and Decoration.” Arts 9, no. 1 (2020): 9. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts9010009.
Rodov, Ilia. “Dragons: A Symbol of Evil in European Synagogue Decoration?” Ars Judaica, 2005, 63–85.
Ursula and Kurt Schubert Archive. “Dragon Haggadah, Front Cover.” The Center for Jewish Art. Accessed January 24, 2023. http://cja.huji.ac.il/sch/browser.php?mode=alone&id=225266.
Rabbeinu Bahya, Shemot 7:12:1
ibid.
Daniel 14:23–30
Shoham-Steiner, Ephraim. “The Clash over Synagogue Decorations in Medieval Cologne.” Jewish History 30, no. 3-4 (2016): 129–64. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10835-017-9267-z.
