Women in Judeo Hispanic Folk Songs PDF

“Sewing by the Window:” Women in Judeo-Spanish Folk Songs

Talya Alon, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
Abstract
This article examines the image and representation of women in Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) popular
music. It seems that the observation of the folklore scholar Galit Hasan-Rokem, who claims that
popular folk culture is a multiple-voice culture, expressing, among others, feminine perspectives,1 is
reinforced when examining Judeo-Spanish folk songs. The Ladino musical tradition is a feminine
genre, sung and transmitted by women. Furthermore, in her article, “Text-Tiles: Reflections of
Women’s Textiled World in the Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) Poetic Tradition,” Michal Held breaks down
the word ‘textiles’ into ‘text-tiles,' “text that depict and decipher the Sephardic woman by building
layers of meaning."2 The article offers a close comparative reading of four popular songs that portray
the world of Sephardic (Judeo-Spanish) women, and relates to the dialectic between private and public
spheres, "women's work" and feminine identity.
Sephardic Jews – History and Poetic Heritage

The Jews in Spain experienced prosperity and persecutions alike. The Sephardic
Jewry's golden age that enriched the world with unique philosophy, literature, and
science was cut short in 1492, when King Ferdinand declared the expulsion of Jews
from Spain. Many of the expelled Jews found safe haven in the territories of the
Ottoman Empire, and continued to create a lively Sephardic (Judeo-Spanish) culture.3
A central part of this Sephardic cultural identity is its ethno-musical tradition.

This article discusses songs of two genres:
1. Romansas – narrative songs reflecting the melodies and themes that

characterized the Jewish experience in medieval Spain.
2. Kantigas - lyrical songs created after the expulsion and often adopted to the
music of popular songs in Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Israel, and
other countries surrounding the Sephardic experience.
Women's Singing in the Judeo-Spanish Tradition
In his article “De-gendering Jewish Music: The Survival of the Judeo-Spanish Folk
Song Revisited,” Edwin Seroussi explores the survival of Sephardic folk music as a
feminine genre, transmitted orally by women. He relates to the Talmudic segregation
that forbids men to listen to women singing, and to the rabbis who denounced these
songs as obscene music, and tries to understand how Judeo-Spanish folk songs
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prospered despite these adverse conditions. The answer he finds lies within the
understanding of the significance of this music for women.
"Sephardi women of all ages engaged in the active, assertive behavior of singing as a form of
resistance, not as passive "vessels" of song transmission…singing of folk songs was one of the
most powerful means for the expression of female self-identity in traditional Sephardi
4
societies"
One example for women's active voices is the 'companas,' weekly home meetings
where women sung together, making music in their own domestic sphere, away from
the watchful eyes of the rabbis.5 These gatherings indicate the importance of this
music for Sephardic women, who wished to preserve this culture as an integral part of
their lives, and attest to the Sephardic women's ability to create their own alternative
sphere.
Aside from these meetings, Seroussi points out that in addition to singing in
the domestic sphere, Sephardic women sang in public—at weddings and funerals—
where men were exposed to their singing. Moreover, Sephardic female singers gained
enormous success, singing at parties in front of Jews and non-Jews alike. The Rabbis,
unsuccessfully, tried to discourage them and ordered them to stop.6 Hence, these folk
songs are not only uncanonical, but represent a culture that thrived despite the
opposition of gatekeepers and opinion leaders through inter-generational transmission
(from mother to daughter) in the safe spaces created by women.
Women in the Judeo-Spanish World
In her book, A Jewish Woman’s Prayer Book, Aliza Lavie examines women's prayers
in the Jewish tradition – prayers composed by women or on their behalf. She
mentioned, among others, two prayers for women written in Judeo-Spanish: 'Birkat
Hamazon,' (Grace After Meals) and 'Shema' (a prayer said in bed before sleeping.)7
These prayers indicate that women's prayers were bound to the domestic sphere,
chanted in a spoken language and much shorter than the original Hebrew prayers.
Following Lavie, Vanessa Paloma categorizes Judeo-Spanish as a “'feminine'

language because it was the home-based Jewish language, whereas Hebrew was used
for synagogue, the public sphere “[and is therefore] 'masculine' [language]."8 Thus,

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the division between the feminine and masculine, domestic and public, is also a
linguistic division, codified by the differences between the spoken language and the
written language known only to educated men.
However, as Paloma points out, one can observe somewhat of a feminine

presence in the masculine synagogue. Women were an implied presence within the
rhythm and liturgy with Hebrew prayers sung to melodies of folk songs "known by all
members to belong to the women's domain."9 Paloma describes also a unique
situation in the Jewish communities in Turkey and Rhodes, where the 'feminine
language,' Judeo-Spanish, was integrated into the cycle of holidays: La Ketub'a de la
Ley, Megilat Ruth, and the Piyut Achot Ketana (“Song of the young sister”) were sung
in Judeo-Spanish at the synagogue.
La Ketub'a de la Ley and Megilat Ruth are sung during the Jewish holiday of
Shavuot. La Ketub'a de la Ley symbolizes the marriage between God and the Jewish
people, and Megilat Ruth tells the story of Ruth, a Moabite woman who embraced
Judaism and the Jewish people, and became King David's grandmother. The Piyut
Achot Ketana is sung on Rosh Hashana, welcoming the Jewish New Year, allegorized
as a “young sister.” In all these texts, "women are present as mother, bride, or sister –
fulfilling a female role, not simply speaking as nongendered members of the
community, in their own voice."10
Another example of female presence in the religious sphere is the biblical

romansas, folk songs that relates to biblical stories. In her article "Feminine
Historicizing in the 'Romancero Novelesco'," Teresa Catarella defines the biblical
romansas as "a woman's genre par excellence. Women both signify and are signified;
they are both the speakers of the ballads and the spoken-about. This double-faceted
dimension…reveals a unique correlation between the narration and the narrators in
orally-transmitted poetry."11
Interestingly, in analyzing these folk songs, it can be seen that women were
not just the singers and transmitters of these songs, but the content of the songs
themselves revolved around women. In his article “Judeo-Spanish Romansas as a

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Source of Women's Spirituality,” Messod Salama examines the biblical romansas and
claims that, "Religious and social segregation removed Jewish woman from the public
domain; but this very same isolation seemed to open new perspectives and convey a
significant degree of religious spiritual autonomy."12
Salama describes how the biblical romansas granted a voice to a number of
female biblical characters beyond their limited voice in the Hebrew bible. As he
states,
"The prominent role and voice granted to Sarah, Miriam, Thamar and Hannah by the Sephardic singers
may be considered a counter-tradition to Abraham and Moses, representing a recurrent plea from
female singers and protagonists in the romancero for a restoration of justice…Herein lies further proof
of the domestication of religion. Without being overtly anti-patriarchal, the reorientation of some of
these romansas is partly restorative. The ballads express a number of vindications and reveal a need to
expand further sources of spirituality." 13
The scholars mentioned above describe the ways in which Sephardic women
were able to create environments in which they were able to perform and promulgate
folk songs despite condemnation and attempted enforced restrictions. The research of
Susana Weich-Shahak and Seroussi bears testament to the ways, in which women
accomplished this within the domestic environment. However, the studies of Salama,
Theresa Catarella and Paloma highlight the dichotomy between the public and
domestic spheres and describe the integration that developed between them, in which
women were able to traverse the boundaries of their own homes and enter into the
more public domain. The melodies of both the popular and condemned songs
penetrated the synagogue walls, as well as the spoken Judeo-Spanish language. The
women, excluded from traditional religious learning, created 'domestication of
religion,' in their own feminine biblical matriarchal narratives.
“Mother I Have Never Seen”
The song 'Mama yo no tengo visto' (Mother I have never seen), is a kantiga sung in
the Sephardic communities in Israel in the early 20th century (see the lyrics in the
appendix below).
The song opens up with a conversation between a girl and her mother about a
unique bird. In the second verse, the bird gets an affectionate nickname—
‘pasharico’—and the relationship between the bird and the girl, the narrator, becomes
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closer; it is not just an object of observation as it is in the first verse. In the second
verse the bird becomes part of the narrator's world; it enters her room, and into her
heart, where it builds its nest.
Up to this point, there is a correlation between the harmonic melody and the
lyrics that tells allegorically about a young romance. The change occurs in the first
two lines of the third verse. The narrator is sewing by the window. Sitting in her
room, engaging in her craft, she hears that her beloved is engaged to another.
As opposed to the first two verses, where she is protected in her own personal
space, in this verse, the outside world penetrates through the window and shatters her
dreams. Sitting by the window is a liminal situation; she is sitting on the verge
between her world and the outside. The proximity to the outside exposes her to the
harsh reality. As opposed to the indirect allegorical references in the first two verses,
her heartbreak is described directly. Her beloved, the blue-eyed bird, is engaged to
another. The movement in this verse stands in stark contrast to the first two verses. In
the beginning of the song, the narrator is protected in her own world, the same world
into which her beloved entered, whereas, in the third verse the outside world
penetrates her room and destroys her loving idyll.
In the last verse, the narrator speaks to her beloved, calling him ''my dear,''
asking him to send her candy to sweeten her bitterness and tears. He returns yet again
to her personal sphere but this time in the form of the candy he sends her, and not in
the form of a magical bird, with a sense of despair and disappointment as opposed to
the joy and anticipation at the beginning of the song.
“Miserable Young Girl”
The kantiga 'Miserable Young Girl' (see appendix below), which was thought for
years to be an anonymous folksong, was recently discovered to be written by Asher
Mizrahi, a musician, cantor and songwriter, who reached great popularity in
Jerusalem and Tunisia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.14
The kantiga 'Miserable Young Girl' was known also as 'La hevronica ke es
povereta muchachica' (The girl from Hebron is a miserable young girl). It appears
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that this kantiga is based on the folktale 'A Jerusalem Tragedy,' a story that describes
the unrequited love of a girl from Jerusalem to her neighbor, who eventually marries a
rich girl from Hebron. Prior to the marriage, on her mother's advice and disguised as a
man, the heartbroken girl attends the engagement party of her neighbor in an attempt
to establish whether or not he has feelings for her and if there remains any possibility
to call off the engagement. On discovering that her daughter has taken a knife with
her, the mother goes to the party to try to prevent her daughter from doing anything
dangerous. Unfortunately, she arrives too late to discover that her daughter has killed
the bride to be.15
As opposed to the previous version, which deals with the engagement's

revelation, this version describes what occurs thereafter. Like the previous version,
this song is a dialog, in which the girl tells her story: how she found out about the
engagement, dressed up as a man, came to the engagement party, and killed her loved
one's fiancée.
The connecting link that indicates that these songs are two versions of the
same story is the verse in which the narrator tells how she found out about the
engagement while sewing—working on the 'bastidor'—by the window, which appears
in both songs almost in the same words. Accordingly, Michal Held sees the 'bastidor'
(round embroidery) as a chronotope, a repetitive object that symbolizes a culture's
archetypic character. For Held, the bastidor is a microcosm of Judeo-Spanish
women's hopes, faiths and identities, bound to a strict frame, limited in the activities
and the space allocated to them.16
As such, it seems that the narrator in the song 'Mother I Have Never Seen'
remains in this framework. She does not cross the domestic sphere and accepts her
destiny. The only one who crosses spheres and boundaries in this song is her beloved,
who enters her room allegorically. The narrator in the song 'Miserable Young Girl,' on
the other hand, crosses boundaries and enters the public sphere. She replaces the
needle with a knife,17 and so, her needle turns into the knife when she learned about
her beloved engagement.

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The transformation of the needle from an instrument of craft to one of murder

echoes the fairytale 'Snow White,' a 19th-century German fairytale published in 1812
by The Brothers Grimm. Snow White is a young beautiful princess who lost her
mother as an infant. She runs away from her evil stepmother but her stepmother tracks
her down disguises herself and tries to kill her using tight lace bodices, a poisoned
comb, and a poisoned apple. The fairytale opens with a young woman, a queen,
sewing by the window. As opposed to the girls in the Sephardic songs, the queen does
not hear anything from the outside world and sees nothing but snow. When she pricks
her finger on the needle, she wishes for a baby according to her visual reality— hair
as black as the ebony windowsill, skin as white as the snow she sees from her window
and lips as red as the blood dripping from her recently pricked finger. Unlike the
miserable young girl, it seems that in this case the sewing woman, the queen, stays in
her private inner world, and unlike the narrator of the kantiga 'Mother I Have Never
Seen,' the outside world does not penetrate her idyll as she is sewing her dreams by
the window.
The needle, in this case, creates life, when a short while after the queen pricks
her finger Snow-White is born: a baby-girl with black hair, pale skin and red lips
befitting her mother's wishes. However, it seems that the new life led to the passing
away of the queen, who dies right after the birth of her child. In addition, in this case,
the needle is creating life and ending life at the same time.
Unlike the queen and the narrator of the song 'Mother I Have Never Seen,'
who stay in the domestic sphere, the girl in the song 'Miserable Young Girl' is not
limited to her room. She goes out into the public sphere and adopts male practices.
She dresses up as a man, carries a knife, and kills her loved one's bride-to-be. She
ends her life in prison, shut out from any social order.
The objects in the song transform to advance the plot. A knife replaces the
needle, and the bastidor, the embroidery, is replaced by men’s clothing. The
transformation of objects allows the protagonist to change her identity and break free
from limitation, but it comes at the price of social ostracism and enforced passivity.
The young girl who crossed gender boundaries and acted in the public sphere finds
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herself handcuffed in prison, a non-sphere. Both songs ratify the patriarchal order by
presenting a positive model of a passive woman, who accepts her fate humbly, and a
negative model of an active woman, who uses trickery and creativity to wreak havoc
and destruction.
The image of the creative woman, who creates catastrophes, stands in the
center of the article “The Queen’s Looking Glass: Female Creativity, Male Images of
Women, and the Metaphor of Literary Paternity.” In this article, Sandra Gilbert and
Susan Gubar characterize the conflict between Snow White and her stepmother, who
tries to kill her as "the conflict in the mirror between mother and daughter, woman
and woman, self and self."18 They do not observe Snow White and her stepmother as
two different characters, but rather as two sides of the same female psyche, destined
by the patriarchy to the dichotomy between a passive angel and an active witch.
In connection to this analysis of the ‘Snow White’ story, a similarity can be

drawn to the two female principle characters in 'Mother I Have Never Seen' and
‘Miserable Young Girl.’ The assertion that these two characters are in fact two sides
of the same character is self-explanatory since they are probably both adaptations of
the same folktale. However, it can be argued that the connection is also drawn from
the tools contained within the lyrics. Just as Snow White and her stepmother
temporarily unite by biting the same apple – one bites its regular half and one bites its
poisoned half— the interface between the two girls is represented by the action and
imagery of sewing by the window. This observation reflects the importance of
"women's work" in the Judeo-Spanish world. The verse that discussed the girl sewing
by the window and finds out about her beloved’s engagement is the common thread
and represents the core of each of these songs. It creates the plot-twist, motivates the
narrator, and portrays the characters as two sides of the same coin of female-
representation.
Just as Held, mentioned above, who characterizes the bastidor as a chronotope

symbolizing the patriarchal restrictions in the Judeo-Spanish tradition, it seems that
these limitations apply not only to women's actions, dreams and hopes, but also to
their popular image and cultural representation. The only choice given to women
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since the dawn of time is to choose between the dichotomy of Lilith and Eve, angel
and witch.
Moreover, both the miserable young girl and Snow White's stepmother use
"women's work" for their schemes. The stepmother uses tight lace bodices, a poisoned
comb, and a poisoned apple. She disguises herself and entices Snow White to try each
one of those objects until she finally falls dead. Snow White's death seems to derive
from "the female arts of cosmetology and cookery."19 Like the stepmother, the
miserable young girl uses her knowledge in textile to disguise herself, and hide her
weapon. Both women use their domestic skills to end the life of the 'other woman,'
who disrupts their happiness. The attempt to domesticate women creates an
intimidating monster that uses the same objects that symbolize forced restrictions in
order to break boundaries and avouch catastrophe.
Textiles
The theme of embroidery and clothing that stands in the center of the kantigas
‘Mother I have Never Seen,’ and ‘Miserable Young Girl’ is prominent in Sephardic
songs. The medieval romansa 'The Fair Young Woman' (see appendix below)
portrays the same themes: "women's work" and the liminal sphere between the
domestic and public.
In his book, The Knight and the Captive Lady, Shmuel Refael points out two
distinctive features of the romansas. First, he explains that they are set in the Middle
Ages, regaling stories of kings and knights. Second, they present a feminine
perspective of the world, in which they describe women’s unfolding dreams, passions,
sorrows, and hopes20.
While this romansa depicts a world of knights and kings, and tells about a
knight who comes back from war, at the same time, the song does not focus on the
adventures of the knight, or his heroic battles, but on the woman left behind, her
emotions and daily routine. As such, "women's work" in this case becomes a
metaphor. The woman who washes her clothes with her tears and gathers them with

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her sighs cleans not only her clothes, but also her soul. It allows her to process and
express her feelings and her grief.
Like the kantigas 'Mother I Have Never Seen' and 'Miserable Young-Girl,' this
romansa depicts a woman engaged in domestic work with textile. It also reflects the
Judeo-Spanish woman's limitation: the woman in this song does not know what
happened to her husband, and can do nothing but cry over her misfortune. In contrast
to the kantiga ‘Mother I Have Never Seen,’ which starts with a revelation of love and
ends up with tears of lost, this romansa opens with a woman weeping over an absent
lover and ends with their union. However, both songs deal with heartbreak, whether it
is a lover's absence or his engagement to another, and in both songs, the truth is
revealed during a domestic activity in a liminal sphere through an intrusion from the
outside world.
Both female characters act in the same way. They are equally passive in their
action, but active verbally; they cry, talk about their emotions and speak about their
misfortune. These Judeo-Spanish popular songs show women processing a wide
spectrum of emotions, a process that leads to a catharsis of sorrow and grief.
Women's Talk
The ability to discuss problems and convey emotions stands in the center of the
romansa 'Silvana,' Sephardic interpretation of an Iberian medieval romansa (see
appendix below).
As in the kantiga 'Mother I Have Never Seen,' the romansa 'Silvana' opens
with harmonious exposition. In both songs, the male character infiltrates the girl's
private world. However, as opposed to the allegoric bird that builds its nest in the
protagonist's heart, in this case the incursion is not physical, but vocal. Also, the king
is not an allegoric bird, but a man of flesh and blood, and the song does not convey
the image of young love, but the threat of incest. This song does not present an image
of a loved one, but the presence of a father watching his daughter from a tower.
Moreover, as opposed to the young man in the kantiga 'Mother I Have Never Seen,'
who builds his nest in the narrator's heart and enters her emotional world, the father,
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in this case, wants to bring Silvana to his own world – to his room and his bed – with
the intention to violate her body.
The king watches Silvana, compares her to her mother, and wishes to replace
his wife with Silvana and turn his daughter into his beloved. Silvana understands his
intentions and tries to delay the seemingly inevitable. In response to his request, she
continues with the comparison to her mother and asks permission to do as her mother
would have done — to go to the bathhouse before entering the king's room.
Interestingly, nowadays, the meaning of the Spanish word baños is bathroom;
however, in this context it could be referring to a 'Mikveh,’ a bath used for the
immersion ritual in the Jewish tradition. If this is the case, it is evident that Silvana is
trying to confront her father and emphasize the sinfulness of his intention: a violation
of the laws of purity.
In addition, the exposition unfolds the relationship between the characters: the
father and the mother are largely separate, communicating only through Silvana,
whose actions eventually result in them coming together into a physical space.
Silvana cries out to God and to her mother, but only her mother answers her. In
contrast to her father's ambiguous words, she does not try to embellish his request,
and says directly that her father pines for her. Silvana, who previously referred
indirectly to the laws of purity that her father intends to defy, speaks openly about her
father's attempts to violate the prohibition of incest.
Like the king, the queen asks Silvana to come to her tower. Not only that, but
the mother's solution suits the father's request: he asked to exchange the mother for
his daughter, and she intends to do exactly that – she will pretend to be Silvana and
come to the king's bed. In other words, the queen will restore the disrupted order, and
return to her role as king's wife. The king came up with one plan, but the queen and
Silvana will abrogate his plan and execute it in their own way: Silvana will agree to
come to his chamber, but her mother will come instead.
A comparison between the kantiga 'Miserable Young Girl' with the romansa
'Silvana' reveals many similarities: First, in both songs one sees a violation of the
social order. It is the male figure who makes the wrong decision in choosing the
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wrong woman (a loved-one engaged to another and a father who desires his daughter)
and a mother who supports her daughter and facilitates a creative solution.
Moreover, the solution offered in each of these songs involves the use of
clothing as a disguise. The miserable young girl wears men's clothing in order to
sneak in to her beloved's engagement party, while Silvana's mother wears her
daughter's clothes in order to enter the king's room. Clothes are used in both songs to
hide one's identity and enable the crossing of gender boundaries (in 'Miserable Young
Girl') and generational differences (in 'Silvana').
The mother's solution in 'Silvana' demonstrates the balance of power in the
patriarchal society: the daughter cannot refuse her father's request and the mother
cannot leave him or stand up to him. Their power is not equal to the king's, and so
Silvana must go to his room. But what they are able to do is use their cunning and
sophistication to trick him while ostensibly following his orders.
Silvana's mother answers her daughter's call with an encouraging message: she
can talk about her problem and solve it. As mentioned before, women in this
patriarchal society operated in a limited sphere, but as seen here, they have the ability
to create their own sphere, a world of conversations and emotional support. The
conversation between Silvana and her mother echoes Fern Johnson and Elizabeth
Aries's article, “The Talk of Women Friends.”21 Based on in-depth interviews,
Johnson and Aries claim that women's friendship is based on personal conversations.
The women they interviewed declared that the first feature of a good friend is her
willingness to listen and pay attention, and the second feature is being supportive. It is
apparent that this type of female-friendship, examined hundreds of years after the
romansa 'Silvana' was written, is present in the relationship between Silvana and her
mother, who listens to her and supports her. Together, there is no problem that they

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cannot solve, and in the queen's words, there is a cure for everything in life. The
romansa 'Silvana' portrays an empowering female alliance in the Middle Ages.
Despite the limitations of patriarchal society, their relationship protects them, and
creates a safe female sphere in a world dominated by men.
However, the end of the song reaffirms the existing order. Following
Seroussi's claim that despite the fact that these songs are sung and transmitted by
women, they are conservative and confirm the patriarchal order,22 the wrongful father
is not banned from the social order, and the family reunites. Moreover, the queen does
not condemn the king, but answers him with humor and sophistication when he asks
for her honor (virginity): “to the mother who gave birth to Silvana – where can she
find her honor?” and thus he realizes that he was outwitted. He expresses his remorse
and thanks Silvana and her mother who stopped him from committing a terrible
crime.
In her article “The Power in Transmission: Haketia as a Vector for Women’s

Communal Power,” Vanessa Paloma Elbaz describes the role of the traditional songs
transmitted from mother to daughter:
"Through the female characters in the sung narratives, women provided examples of
problematic situations that related to women’s sexual purity. They were able to broach
subjects that were not as easily spoken about such as adultery, incest and kidnapping. It was
through these narratives that older women taught the younger generation what their role and
importance was for the continuity and purity of the community. Interestingly though, the most
powerful communal teaching of this sensitive information was within the women’s private
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sphere and in Haketía" .
When a mother sings the romansa 'Silvana' to her daughter, she teaches her about her
heritage and culture, but most importantly, she teaches her that she, as her mother, is
forever approachable and that her daughter should come to her in any time of need.
There is a solution to every problem and there is always someone to lean on.
Conclusions
The discussion of the female characterization in the Sephardic songs

concludes by relating to the music that accompanies these songs. The songs that often
express pain, grief and heartbreak are always accompanied by harmonious music,
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with long, lingering notes that seem to savor the moment, elevating the melody and at
the same time adulterating the disappointment and pain described by the lyrics.
Like Held, who sees the 'bastidor' as a representation of the limitation of
women's dreams, and the restricted image and representation of women in the Judeo-
Spanish culture, it seems that the 'bastidor' can also be considered an image of a
protected female sphere in the patriarchal world, a place where women can
communicate, express their feeling and elevate them through music.
These observations echo Vanessa Paloma Elbaz's views regarding concepts of
power. Paloma Elbaz argues that contrary to Foucault's theory of power relations,
there are other forms of power besides public and ritual/political power.
"The power relations choreographed by women in the private sphere, and that affect the public
sphere in multiple ways, is one of the relevant and often overlooked sources of communal
power in these communities…. If you consider that the family is the center of Jewish life and
that the woman has the primary responsibility for organizing and guaranteeing the ritual and
moral purity of the family unit, then you begin to understand the primary role of the woman in
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Moroccan Jewish life."
Paloma-Elbaz discusses the religious Jewish institutions that segregate women from
religious studies but at the same time assign to them the keeping of Jewish laws
within the home and family. The domestic sphere thus takes on a new form of power,
one that has the potential to influence the public sphere and serve as an alternative
feminine sphere.
One is able to observe women's ability to create their own sphere of creation
and support in a patriarchal world as an embodiment of a new power dynamic within
traditional patriarchal Jewish communities. The feminine sphere provides Sephardic
women a safe space in a patriarchal world, where they can deal together with the
challenges of being a woman in a conservative society, while gradually penetrating
the public sphere and changing it.
Appendix
The following are the Ladino songs discussed in the article:
Mama yo no tengo visto/ Mother I Have Never Seen
Mama yo no tengo visto

Pasharo kon ojos Mavis
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Ruvio como la Canela

blanco como el Jasmin
Quen es este Pasharico

que en el mi salon entro
pircuro hacerse nido
al dentro de mi Corazon
Asentada en mi ventana
Lavorando el Bastidor
haber Muevo me Trusheron
que el mi amor se desposo
Despozates Mi Querido
Confiticos me Enviaras
Comere con Amargura
tambien con mucho llorar
* * *
Mother I have never seen
A bird with light-blue eyes
Red like cinnamon
White like Jasmin
Who is this little bird
That entered my room
Who prepares himself a nest
Inside my heart?
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Sitting by the window
Working the embroidery frame
A piece of news was brought to me
That my lover got engaged [to another]
You've gotten engaged my dear

Send me sweets
To sweeten the bitterness
And my tears.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnloRxslQ4s

Povereta muchachica/Miserable Young Girl

Povereta muchachica
De qué sufres del amor?
De que 'sufres en cadenas,
En esta escura prizión?
Ven te contaré mi 'stroria

Lo que vengo a sufrir
Por un Mancevico 'Rmozo
Que por 'el me vo morir …
Tiene Mustachico preto

Y los Ojicos Mavis
Su puerpo parece un cadro

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Lavrado en el Yaldiz
Asentadán mi ventana
Lavrando el Bastidor
Haberico me Truxeron
Qu'el mi amor se despozó
Mi Querida Mama mia

Digame qué rijga yo?
Vistete com'un mancevico
Va al baile de tu amor
Vestido preto me vesti yo

Un Mancevico M'hizi yo
Me armi cuchillo al laso
Me fuí al baile del mi amor
A la entrada de la Puerta
Mi Querido vido
Mira estre-mancevo hermozo
Al Mi Lado Traeldo
En medio de la nochada,
a su 'spoza engani yo,
L'enfinqui cuchillo al lado,
Al punto cayo, murio.
* * *

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Miserable young girl

Why are you suffering for love?
Why are you cuffed
In this closed prison?
Let me tell you my story

About my suffering
Because of a handsome man
I will die ...
He has a black mustache

And blue eyes
Looks like a picture
Made of gold.
Sitting by the window

Working on the frame embroidery (bastidor)
A piece of news was brought to me
That my beloved got engaged [to another].
My dear mother
What should I do?
You should dress up as a young man
And go to your loved one's wedding.
I wore black cloths.

I turned myself into a young man.

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I take a knife with me.

I dance my love.
At the entrance
My darling saw me
'Such a handsome man'
Bring him close to me.
At midnight
I deceived his wife
Stabbed her with a knife
She fell and died right away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x4R2SeoBrE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSiKm8a5r1w
The Fair Young Woman
Cuando la blanca niña lavava y espandía
Con lágrimas lo lavava con suspiros l’acojia.
Por ahípaso un caballero, un copo d’agua le demandó,
De lágrimas de los sus ojos siete cántaros l’hinchó
¿De qué lloráis, blanka niña? niña blanka ¿ de qué lloráis
Todos tornan de la guerra y el su marido no hay tornar.
Deisme siñal, mi siñora, yo vo lo iré a buscar.
- Alto alto es como un pino, derecho, como es la fleche,

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Una barbica rúbia tiene emepezándole a despuntar
…..
- Yo era el vuestro marido el que esoeriás de la guerra

- Si érais el mi marido siñal de mi el pecho diérais.
- En el pecho derecho un lunarico teníais.
se bes'aron y s'abrazaron juntos se fueron a (e)char.
* * *
When the fair young woman laundered and dried.
With tears she laundered, with sighs she gathered.
A knight passed from there, a cup of water he asked her for
With tears of her eyes seven pitchers she filled for him.
Why do you cry, fair young woman? Fair young woman, why do you cry?
Everyone came back from the war, and for her husband there is no return.
Give me a sign my lady, I will look for him right away
He is high as the pine tree, straight as an arrow,
Red beard he had in its early growth.
I am your husband who returned from the war.
If you are my husband, give me a sign from my body.
In your right breast you had a beauty spot.
They embraced and kissed and together they went
Silvana
Se paseava Silvana - por un koral ke tenia,

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Berguela d’oro en su mano - i mujeres ke la tenyian.
Mijor tanye i mijor dize - i mijor romanso tenia.
De ayi la oyo su padre - de altas torres de ayi arriva.
Ke bien paresesh Silvana - i kon sayo de seda fina.
Mijor ke la reyna tu madre - i ke de oro se vestia.
Si vos plazia Silvana - de ser vos l’amiga mia.
- Plazer me azesh mi padre - i plazer(r) i deskortezia.
Deshame ir a un banyo - i a un banyo de agua fria,
A lavarme i a afeitarme - i a trokarme una kamiza,
Komo azia la mi madre - i kuando kon el rey dormia.
Ya s’espartiya Silvana - ya s’esparte, ya se iva.
De los sus ojos yorava - i de la su boka dezia:
- Oyidme vos la mi madre - i tambien la madre mia...
- Una boz siento yorare - de Silvana me paresia.
Suviresh aki Silvana - i suviresh aki arriva.
Kontaresh vuestros enojos - i la vuestra marekia.
Ke, ke vos konte la mi madre? - ke verguensa me paresia.
Un padre ke me a kriado - de amores me mantenia.
Agora el me demanda - de azerme su amiga.
- Para todo ay remedio - i para la muerte non avia.
Trokaremos muestros vestidos - i yo los vuestros me meteria.

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Dezilde a vuestro padre - ke non aiga kandeleres,
Ni a la ‘ntrada - ni a la salida.
A la fin de media noche - la onra le demandaria.
- Madre ke pario a Silvana - ke onra le kedaria?
- Bendicha sea Silvana - i bendicha sea la madre de Silvana,
Ke de este pekado - me eskaparia
* * *
Silvana was strolling with one of her choir
holding a golden wand and playing it.
She plays so well – she sings so well and even more - wonderful romansas.
Her father heard her from his tower:
You are so fair, Silvana, with your light-silk dress
More than the queen, your mother, who wears golden cloths
Would you like, Silvana, to become my friend?
Allow me to go to the bath house to dip in cold water,
I will wash my skin, comb my hair and change my gown,
Just as my mother does when she sleeps with the king.
Silvana is parting, walking away,
tears in her eyes, her mouth mumbles so:
Listen God above and my mother too!
Father who created me, promises me love.

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Her mother hears her from her castle, from her tower.
Climb up here, Silvana, climb up here, my daughter,
Tell me what is bothering you, why are you so bleak.
What can I say mother, shame covers my face,
My father, who created me, wants to impose his love on me.
- There is no medicine to death, but life withholds many medicines.
Change your cloths, put on mine
To your father you will say that he should not light a candle
In dark you enter, in dark you leave.
In the middle of the night he demanded her honor (virginity)
- The mother who gave birth to Silvana how can she has honor!
- Bless will be Silvana, and bless will be Silvana's mother
That from a crime saved me so.

1
Galit Hasan-Rokem, Web of Life: Folklore and Midrash in Rabbinic Literature (Stanford:Stanford
University Press. 2000)
2
Michal Held, "Text-Tiles: Reflections of Women's Textiled World in Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) Poetic
Tradition," in Stitching Resistance: Women, Creativity, and Fiber Art, ed. Marjorie Agosín
(Massachusetts: Wellesley College. 2014), 133
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23

3
Susana Weich-Shahak, en buen siman ! Panorama Del Repertorio musical Sefaradi (Haifa: Pardes
Publishing. 2006), 13 [Hebrew]
4
Edwin Seroussi, "De-gendering Jewish Music: The Survival of the Judeo-Spanish Folk Song," in
Revisited Music and Anthropology 13 (1998).
Online: h ttp://www.umbc.edu/eol/MA/ma_stg/altri/seroussi.htm
5
Susana Weich-Shahak, "Jewish Music, Sephardi Folk Songs," in The New Grove Dictionary of Music
and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie ( London: MacMillan 2001).
6
Edwin Seroussi, "De-gendering Jewish Music: The Survival of the Judeo-Spanish Folk Song."
7
Aliza Lavie, A Jewish Woman’s Prayer Book (Tel Aviv: Miskal – Yedhiot Ahronot Books and
Chemed Books. 2005), 38-39. [Hebrew]
8
Vanessa Paloma, "Gender and Liturgy in Music: Masculine and Feminine Forms of Language and
Ritual in Sephardic Secular and Sacred Music," in Perspectives on Jewish Music: Secular and Sacred,
ed. Jonathan L. Friedmann (New York, Toronto: Lexington Books, 2009), 77.
9
Ibid, 84
10
Ibid, 94
11
Teresa Cataerella, "Feminine Historicizing in the 'romancero novelesco,'" in Bulletin of Hispanic
Studies 67. (1990): 332
12
Messod Salama, "Judaeo-Spanish Romancero as a Source of Women’s Spirituality," in Languages
and Literatures of Sephardic and Oriental Jews, ed. David Bunis (Jerusalem: Misgave Yerushalayim,
2009), 374
13
Ibid. 371-374.
14
Held, "Text-Tiles: Reflections of Women's Textiled World in Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) Poetic
Tradition," 138
15
For the full story 'A Jerusalem Tragedy' see Mathilda Cohen-Serano, Konsejas i konsejikas del
mundo djudeo-espanyol (Kana: Jerusalem. 1994), 388-392. [Hebrew and Ladino]
16
Held, 139
17
Ibid.
18
Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, "The Queen’s Looking Glass: Female Creativity, Male Images of
Women, and the Metaphor of Literary Paternity," in The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer
and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination (New Haven: Yale University Press.1979).
Online: http://www.en.utexas.edu/amlit/amlitprivate/scans/qlg.html
19
Ibid.
20
Shmuel Raphael, The Knight and the Captive Lady (Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University Press. 1982),
27.[Hebrew]
21
Fern L. Johnson and Elizabeth A. Aries, "The Talk of Women Friends," Language and Gender: A
Reader (Oxford: Blackwell. 1997).

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24

22
Seroussi, "De-gendering Jewish Music: The Survival of the Judeo-Spanish Folk Song"
23
Vanessa Paloma Elbaz, "The Power in Transmission: Haketia as a Vector for Women’s Communal
Power," Judeo-Spanish and the Making of a Community, ed. Bryan Kirschen (UK: Cambridge Scholars
Publishing. 2015), 184.
24
Ibid, 178-184
Works Cited
Cataerella, Teresa. "Feminine Historicizing in the 'romancero novelesco.” Bulletin of

Hispanic Studies 67. (1990): 331-343
Cohen-Serano, Mathilda. Konsejas i konsejikas del mundo djudeo-espanyol, Kana:

Jerusalem. 1994. [Hebrew and Ladino]
Gilbert, Sandra, and Susan Gubar. "The Queen’s Looking Glass: Female Creativity,
Male Images of Women, and the Metaphor of Literary Paternity." In The Madwoman
in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination.
New Haven: Yale University Press. 1979.
http://www.en.utexas.edu/amlit/amlitprivate/scans/qlg.html
Hasan-Rokem, Galit. Web of Life: Folklore and Midrash in Rabbinic Literature.

Stanford: Stanford University Press. 2000.
Held, Michal. "Text-Tiles: Reflections of Women's Textiled World in Judeo-Spanish

(Ladino) Poetic Tradition." In Stitching Resistance: Women, Creativity, and Fiber
Art, edited by Marjorie Agosín, 131-144. Massachusetts: Wellesley College, 2014.
Johnson, Fern L. and Elizabeth Aries. "The talk of women friends." Women's Studies
International Forum 6, no. 4 (1983), pp.353-361.
Lavie, Aliza. A Jewish Woman’s Prayer Book. Tel Aviv: Miskal – Yedhiot Ahronot
Books and Chemed Books. 2005. [Hebrew]

th
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25

Paloma, Vanessa. "Gender and Liturgy in Music: Masculine and Feminine Forms of
Language and Ritual in Sephardic Secular and Sacred Music." In Perspectives on
Jewish Music: Secular and Sacred edited by Jonathan L. Friedmann, 77-96. New
York, Toronto: Lexington Books, 2009.
Paloma Elbaz, Vanessa. "The Power in Transmission: Haketia as a Vector for

Women’s Communal Power." In Judeo-Spanish and the Making of a Community,
edited by Bryan Kirschen, 172-193. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing,
2015.
Raphael, Shmuel. The Knight and the Captive Lady. Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University
Press. 1982. [Hebrew]
Salama, Messod. "Judaeo-Spanish Romancero as a Source of Women’s Spirituality."

Languages and Literatures of Sephardic and Oriental Jews, edited by David Bunis.
Jerusalem: Misgave Yerushalayim, 2009 .pp. 362-386.
Seroussi, Edwin. "De-gendering Jewish music: The Survival of the Judeo-Spanish

Folk Song Revisited." Music and Anthropology 3 (1998). 15pp.
http://www.umbc.edu/MA/index/number3/seroussi/ser_0.htm
Weich-Shahak, Susana. "Jewish music, Sephardi folk songs." In: The New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie; executive editor, John
Tyrrell. London: MacMillan. 2001.
_______. en buen siman ! Panorama Del Repertorio musical Sefaradi. Haifa: Pardes
Publishing. 2006. [Hebrew]

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“Sewing by the Window:” Women in Judeo-Spanish Folk Songs

“Sewing by the Window:” Women in Judeo-Spanish Folk Songs

Sephardic Jews – History and Poetic Heritage

A central part of this Sephardic cultural identity is its ethno-musical tradition.

1. Romansas – narrative songs reflecting the melodies and themes that

Women's Singing in the Judeo-Spanish Tradition

Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal Volume 14 Number 2 (2017)

Women in the Judeo-Spanish World

Following Lavie, Vanessa Paloma categorizes Judeo-Spanish as a “'feminine'

Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal Volume 14 Number 2 (2017)

However, as Paloma points out, one can observe somewhat of a feminine

Another example of female presence in the religious sphere is the biblical

Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal Volume 14 Number 2 (2017)

“Mother I Have Never Seen”

“Miserable Young Girl”

As opposed to the previous version, which deals with the engagement's

Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal Volume 14 Number 2 (2017)

The transformation of the needle from an instrument of craft to one of murder

In connection to this analysis of the ‘Snow White’ story, a similarity can be

Just as Held, mentioned above, who characterizes the bastidor as a chronotope

Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal Volume 14 Number 2 (2017)

The mother's solution in 'Silvana' demonstrates the balance of power in the

sophistication to trick him while ostensibly following his orders.

Aries's article, “The Talk of Women Friends.”21 Based on in-depth interviews,

Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal Volume 14 Number 2 (2017)

romansa 'Silvana' portrays an empowering female alliance in the Middle Ages.

creates a safe female sphere in a world dominated by men.

In her article “The Power in Transmission: Haketia as a Vector for Women’s

The discussion of the female characterization in the Sephardic songs

Mama yo no tengo visto

Ruvio como la Canela

Quen es este Pasharico

Mother I have never seen

A bird with light-blue eyes

Red like cinnamon

White like Jasmin

Who is this little bird

That entered my room

Who prepares himself a nest

Sitting by the window

Working the embroidery frame

A piece of news was brought to me

That my lover got engaged [to another]

You've gotten engaged my dear

Povereta muchachica/Miserable Young Girl

Ven te contaré mi 'stroria

Tiene Mustachico preto

Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal Volume 14 Number 2 (2017)

Mi Querida Mama mia

Vestido preto me vesti yo

Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal Volume 14 Number 2 (2017)

Miserable young girl

Let me tell you my story

He has a black mustache

Sitting by the window

I wore black cloths.

Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal Volume 14 Number 2 (2017)

I take a knife with me.

The Fair Young Woman

Cuando la blanca niña lavava y espandía

Con lágrimas lo lavava con suspiros l’acojia.

Por ahípaso un caballero, un copo d’agua le demandó,

De lágrimas de los sus ojos siete cántaros l’hinchó