THE LANGUAGE, LITERARY WORKS AND LITURGY OF THE POPE’S JEWS IN SOUTHERN FRANCE
THE LANGUAGE, LITERARY WORKS AND LITURGY OF THE POPE’S JEWS IN SOUTHERN FRANCE

Summary/Abstract: The author retraces the originality of the cultural and religious universe of the “Pope’s Jews” of Southern France, living in the ‘four communities’ (arba kehilot) set up in the Venaissin County (Avignon, Carpentras, Cavaillon and l’Isle-su-Sorgue). Special attention is given to their vernacular – the shouadit (deriving from the Hebrew yehudit), a mixture of Provencal and Hebrew –, the theatre plays written in this language, and writer Armand Lunel’s testimonies on the survival of a certain number of Judeo-Provencal phrases unto this day. The paper also focuses on the three types of literary works characteristic of the “Pope’s Jews”: in Provencal – the famous “Lamb Song” (Cansoun dou cabri) of the Passover ritual; in Provencal and Hebrew – “lis obros” or pioutim, “stuffed” poems which alternate a Hebrew and a Provencal verse; and in Hebrew – pinkassim, nishmatim and tehinot. A third and last focus is laid on liturgy, with its most important prayer rituals and synagogal chants.

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