Even when the Italians are frowning on amor, they can't help being amorous

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What a find! My thanks to Abe Ehrenfeld for showing me this rather unusual, probably unique, page in all of rabbinic literature, for it features a woodcut of exactly what it looks like: an amorous couple being, well, amorous (on the edge of a scorching sword, actually). (link)

Detail:



The Italian Jews particularly enjoyed the genre of chidos, enigmas, and the author (R. Immanuel Hai Ricchi [1688-1743], Aderet Eliyahu, Livorno 1742) included a few at the end of this, mainly halachic, work.

The riddle describes a thing "that can burn aflame in water, all the sinners do it in secret" and so on. The answer is - AMOR. Love. Ricchi has a good time punning on "Amor" and ×”מור, as in ×”ר המור, a mount of spices, because both words sound alike (the Italian Jews, being Italian, did not pronounce the ×”). Ricchi even helpfully explains that one must not wonder at this Romance word being used to explain Hebrew, for the Torah was given in four languages - Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, and Latin - according to the Sifre. The full line reads "He does not do this, who feareth the Lord. He is on a Mountain of Myrrh, and not a Mountain of Rupture." (That was my attempt to preserve the rhyme. His point is that har hamor, indicates amor, love, while har bater, indicates the opposite of love).