The zodiac: Renaissance of the astrological symbol in Eastern European wooden synagogues from the 17th and 18th centuries

Abstract

The article presents a multidisciplinary analysis of the complex relationship between intangible elements of culture that led to the presentation of the zodiac in Jewish folk art and architecture. The zodiac appears to be one of the most common astrological symbols that are found in both ancient and contemporary synagogal art. Although it primarily originates from Chaldean and Babylonian astrology, and despite strong culture-based differences, the zodiac was used in a form of floor mosaics in ancient Jewish art as well as in ceiling paintings from wooden synagogues of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The article summarises an analysis of the ancient origin, meaning, and renaissance of the artistic application of the idea of the zodiac in the art and architecture of Eastern European vernacular wooden synagogues from the 17th and 18th centuries. The comparative research is made on the basis of an identification of related canonical and non-canonical texts, their interpretation, studies on the partially preserved ancient buildings, and the available photographic documentation of wooden synagogues and their reconstruction. Secondarily, the article contributes to a recognition of the main cultural factors influencing the development of Jewish art and architecture in this part of Europe.

Keywords:

• The zodiac
• Jewish architecture
• Jewish culture
• Jewish astrology
• synagogal art

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

The zodiac in Jewish culture has an ambiguous meaning, and is not accepted by numerous religious and philosophical scriptures. Thanks to the influence of other cultures and the appearance of new interpretations of the Jewish tradition throughout the centuries, Jewish folk culture has adapted the symbol in its art. However, in architecture, the zodiac did not appear in the Middle Ages. The astrological signs of the zodiac in the wooden synagogues of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the 17th and 18th centuries are the first application of the symbol in synagogue art since antiquity. This artistic representation can thus be recognized as a Renaissance of the zodiac typical for Eastern European architecture

Research methodology

To recognize the relationship between intangible and tangible cultures, a multidisciplinary research methodology has been applied. This has made it possible to gain a much more holistic approach in the research on the symbolism of the zodiac in architecture from late antiquity in Lower Galilee and Eastern European Jewish architecture in the 17th and 18th centuries. The multidisciplinary research was based on qualitative comparative analysis, secondary source material—including both literature and existing photographic documentation—and social research based on analysis of religious texts. Comparative analysis, as an architectural research method, focused on searching for both common artistic patterns and differences. Similarly, the analysis of secondary sources was based on the historical research methodology, with a strong poststructuralist approach (Groat & Wang, 2013). Social research generally aims to investigate complex social and religious phenomena, and there the focus was on the development of Jewish culture as influenced by other predominant, at least at some fields, cultures. The most important problems related to the complex, evolving, and ambiguous attitude of Judaism to astrological symbols throughout the history and not documented scope of painting renovations in wooden synagogues (Table 1).

Table 1. List of the synagogues compared that contain the symbol of the zodiac

Ancient synagogues with the typical representation of the zodiac
			Hammat Tiberias’ synagogue	Synagogue in Beth Alpha		Synagogue in Ein-Gedi
Current country			Israel	Israel		Israel
Country at the time of erection			Eastern Roman Empire	Eastern Roman Empire		Eastern Roman Empire
Historical region			Lower Galilee	Lower Galilee		Judea
Date of zodiac creation			Late 4th to early 5th century	518–527 or 565–578		Mid-to-late 5th century
17th and 18th-century wooden synagogues with representation of the zodiac
	Synagogue in Hvizdets	Synagogue in Khodoriv			Synagogue in Mogilev		Synagogue in Wolpa
Current country	Ukraine	Ukraine			Belarus		Belarus
Country at the time of erection	Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth	Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth			Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth		Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Historical region	Province of Lesser Poland	Province of Lesser Poland			Province of Lesser Poland		Province of Lesser Poland
Date of the zodiac creation	17th and 18th century	1714			In or after 1740		In or after 1648

The main research question was if the appearance of the zodiac in synagogue art in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 17th and 18th centuries could be recognized as the renaissance of the symbol in architecture. In the case of the Italian and Western European Renaissance, which obviously covered a much larger area of culture, the application of this artistic representation appeared after a long time gap since antiquity. Because the zodiac was not a part of synagogue art of the time its appearance in the wooden synagogues in the Commonwealth, its appearance is surprising, although it may represent the development of the mystical tendencies of Judaism due to the external, often hostile, conditions.

Religious textson “Astral Science” and its representation in Jewish art and architecture

Due to the complex nature of the relationship between Judaism and astrology, the most important representation of the latter in art and architecture is an element of astrology in a form of the zodiac located mostly on floors of synagogues. Therefore, the analysis of its origin and the most prominent examples of its application are crucial for research; it should also be underlined that the use of astrology in all aspects of Jewish culture has been widely discussed and subjected to various studies. As Charlesworth (1977) claims, the only preserved Jewish pseudepigraphic document that consistently advocates astrology is the Treatise of Shem, existing only as an unbound 15th-century Syriac manuscript. According to Phillip J. Long (2016) from Grace Christian University, who specialises in the Bible and biblical languages, the Treatise of Shem, which includes numerous information related to the zodiac, has been called by John Collins “the most striking endorsement of astrology by a Jewish author”. Charlesworth also claims that three stories attributed to Samuel (the 2nd to the 3rd century) and R. Nahman b. Isaac (died ca. 356), and one of the most outstanding Tannaim, R. Akiba (ca. 50–135), focus upon astrological predictions.

What seems to be clear is astrological knowledge, including its interest in extraterrestrial objects and supernatural beings that is presented, for instance, in The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch). It has origins in Babylonian civilization in Mesopotamia (Rochberg-Halton, 1988) and has subsequently been adopted by more recent Jewish cultures as well as other cultures. The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch), one of the pseudepigraphic documents not considered a canonical rabbinic text, whose fragments are preserved in Latin, Aramaic, and Greek, according to Charlesworth (1983, p. 6) has been found complete only in Ethiopic. The Secrets of Enoch (2 Enoch), which currently exists only in Old Slavonic, includes astrological descriptions and explanation of various phenomena together with astronomical observations. Also, its section The Book of the Courses of the Heavenly Luminaries (chapters LXXII—LXXXII), also called The Astronomical Book, includes the movement of the moon in its phases, schematic meteorology, and the movement of the stars in relation to the seasons of the year (Tervanotko, 2012). The Secrets of Enoch describes, above all, the “twelve animals”: “And the sun goes in accordance with each animal, and the twelve animals are the succession of the months. And I assigned their names and the animals of their seasons” (2 Enoch 30). The Book of Enoch also consists of issues that could be directly recognised as one of the sources of Kabbalah, for example in terms of mentioning Merkabah, the Tree of Life in its section entitled The Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 24:2–6; 25:2–6), and seven archangels (1 Enoch 20:1–8). It is also worth mentioning that it describes chariots running in the world with one larger than others (chapters LXXV and LXXX), symbols which, both in Kabbalist and Chassidic art, are sometimes connected to the wheel of the zodiac.

On the other hand, there are numerous examples of both similar and contrary attitudes in the Torah and Talmud following different conceptual patterns; this means that the relationship between Judaism and astrology was not constant but rather was constantly evolving, which seems logical due to the long-term evolution of the religion as well as its development in various parts of the globe. In the fifth book of Torah, Deuteronomy, worshipping the sun, moon, and any other “heavenly host” is strictly forbidden (Deuteronomy 17:2:5), but it remains an open question whether astrology is understood as worshipping or just the interpretation of existing, hidden information. In Mishna, the statement that “the Jewish people are not subject to the influence of astrology” (Shabbat 156a:12) presents a wish for immunity to astrology rather than an actual state or law. However, in the same part of the Talmud (Shabbat 156a:14), God says to Abraham, who is widely acknowledged for his astrological knowledge: “emerge from your astrology” and “there is no constellation for Israel”. The meaning is quite obvious: it is no longer necessary to use astrology, and it is time for further development. The clearly negative attitude towards astrology that includes its deprecation occurs relatively late, for example in Halevi’s Kuzari from the 12th century: “This means: Forsake astrology as well as any other doubtful study of nature” (Kuzari 4:40), and surprisingly in Maimonides’ Sefer Hamitzvot: “He prohibited us from doing actions chosen by astrology” (Negative Commandments, Mitzvah 31) as well as 16th-century commentaries to Torah: “They will have no reason to be afraid of what astrology portends, seeing that they are far more honoured by Me than are the celestial planets, etc.” (Sforno on Exodus 29:45:2).

It should be underlined that the Kabbalists, as well as Maimonides, seem to present an unambiguously negative attitude towards any kind of astrology. This follows, as I assume, the significance of the Kabbalist theosophy, which had little in common with astrological predictions. On the contrary, in the Kabbalah humans are not subjects of any kind of power which deprives them of their strength; this system provides them with free will and the possibility to make their own choices on the basis of understanding the rules of the world.

The main challenge connected with the adoption of astrological knowledge by Jewish society arises on the basis of its attitude towards old beliefs; yet the then-new Jewish religion remains strictly focused on the one and only God, Jahwe. Moreover, as Collins (2000, p. 49) assumes, because of the existence of a deep connection between national identity and religion, ancient Jews were recognising astrology as knowledge or rather knowledge-related belief of a strange origin that could endanger their distinctive identity. It is also worth noting that Greek culture developed these beliefs to the extent that all the Chaldean and Babylonian traces constitute rather a small part of the whole ancient Greek astrology (Rochberg, 2010; Rochberg-Halton, 1988, p. 53). This point of view, considering antagonism between astrology and Judaism, is discussed by Charlesworth (1977), who claims that astrological documents found in Cave 4 near Khirbet Qumran and numerous zodiac wheels in ancient Palestinian synagogues prove the opposite. Astrology, on the other hand, was adopted by the Greco-Roman civilization without any evidence of long-lasting conflict.

Archetypical representation of the zodiac in ancient synagogal art: The genesis

It follows that the above-mentioned influence of astrological beliefs was at least partially not allowed in traditional Jewish culture due to its non-Jewish origin. Most probably, this negatively affected Jewish art and architecture, although there are ancient synagogues with astrological symbols; it is also worth remembering that synagogues have never been “sacred spiritual places” but a representation of a material world (Krinsky, 1985, p. 7). According to Sonne (1953), three-panel mosaics in the group of ancient synagogues from the 3rd to the 6th century were not specifically designed for them but rather remained copies of stereotype models that had been applied in Jewish architecture. However, this concerns only the aesthetic part of the mosaics; Sonne (1953) also argues that if two out of three panels possess deep cultural meaning, thus also the third one. I agree, on the basis of religious accuracy presented by Jewish literature at that time, that there is no randomness in the mentioned case.

In the current research study, I compare two of the ancient synagogues mentioned above in which the wheels of the zodiac have been discovered: the earliest example (Hammat Tiberias; Figure 1) and one of the examples built later (Beth Alpha; Figure 2) with the mosaic made by Marianos and his son Hanina (Sukenik, 1932, p. 47). The zodiac symbol in the first one served as a model for not only synagogue Beth Alpha but also Sepphoris, Khirbet Susiya, Huseifa, Yaphia (badly preserved), and Na’aran (with removed human and animal figures). Only in the case of the Sepphoris synagogue, as claimed also by Hachlili (2002), is the zodiac not the central panel of the mosaic.

Figure 1. The zodiac wheel in the Hammat Tiberias synagogue (CC by 3.0). Phot. by Yael Alef.

Retrieved fromhttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Tiberias_and_Hammat.jpgon the 15th of March, 2022.

Figure 2. The zodiac wheel in the Beth Alpha synagogue (CC BY 2.0). Phot. by Gerd Eichmann.

Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beth_Alpha-04-Mosaik-2010-gje.jpg on the 29th of March, 2022.

Although the zodiac symbols in both synagogues Hammat Tiberias and Beth Alpha are relatively similar, there are some important differences between them. One of these symbols is the well-preserved zodiac made in the late 4th to early 5th century as a stone floor mosaic in the Hammat Tiberias synagogue in Israel. In the central point of the three-panel mosaic, the Sun God, Helios, is located together with an aura around his head and a whip in his hand, standing on a quadriga, surrounded by the moon and stars. The signs of the wheel of the zodiac have their Hebrew names; the wheel represents a circle of the year and thus could be helpful with the organisation of religious celebrations. The signs of the zodiac are presented in counterclockwise order and are separated from each other and other parts of the wheel in their trapezoidal fields by a twisted ribbon. In the corners of the central panel, the personified four seasons are represented. One of the panels depicts the Arc of Covenant (Aron ha-Kodesh) surrounded from two sides by the menorah (as in the case of Khirbet Susiya synagogue) (Hachlili, 1976), in addition to a shovel with incenses, shofar, etrog and lulav (citron and palm frond) used during the Sukkot celebration. The second of the two rectangular outer panels presents nine squares with names of the donors, flanked by lions; the writings are in Greek and Aramaic. What is interesting is that all the animals are in motion; two figures of the zodiac, Aquarius and Libra, are naked; and the goat representing Capricorn has a fishtail. The latter representation follows the legend of Bacchus, who got a fishtail and the head of a goat while fighting Typhon and was rewarded by Zeus with a picture of a goat-fish in the sky, thus the constellation of Capricorn.

The second synagogue significant for this research, Beth Alpha, originally named Ilfa after an Amora according to Sukenik (1932, p. 11), is situated in the Gilboa mountains of Israel. According to Sukenik (1932, p. 38) and Avi-Yonah (1933, p. 145), the three-element, colourful mosaic depicting the zodiac wheel (333 cm in diameter) was made during the reign of Justinian I the Great rather than in that of Justinian II (thus in the years 518–527 or perhaps 565–578). Inscriptions on the mosaic are in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. The very centre of the wheel presents most probably Greek-originated Helios driving a quadriga surrounded by stars and moon, a symbol of the sun. However, due to a description in the Book of Enoch mentioned above, it is possible that the picture presents “the chariot running in the world”. However, it would go too far to claim that the driver is God himself, because this type of symbolic representation of the supreme being, as in a form of eagle painted in 1714 in the interior of the wooden synagogue in Khodoriv described by Yaniv (2012), appears much later.

Here, the 12 signs of the zodiac, of relatively primitive artistic quality, oriented towards the centre, are presented in counterclockwise direction in the outer circle, with Hebrew inscriptions. Among the most interesting signs of the zodiac, Virgo is represented in an innovative way as a woman sitting on a throne, Aquarius as a man drawing water with a bucket, Libra as a man with a pair of scales, and Cancer as a Potamon potamios species, thus a local semi-terrestrial crab (Sukenik, 1932, p. 36).

The wheel or circle depicts the repetition of the months and seasons. Both circles are decorated with a guilloche pattern. Two other elements of the mosaic depict the Arc of Covenant with animals and a simplified figural depiction of the offering of Isaac. In comparison with Byzantine art of this period, these figural representations are relatively primitive, and animals stay in static positions; the primitive figural representation may follow the prohibition against depicting humans in the Jewish culture or a deep symbolic meaning of the mosaic. Similarly, the connection of two parts referring to biblical stories, with the central panel depicting the zodiac and chariot as the sun or, allegorically, as God, may be interpreted as a sign of a more symbolic approach. In this case, the use of Greek-originated mosaic simply provides physical support of its actual meaning. In the four corners, in contrast to the case of the Hammat Tiberias synagogue, four winged busts representing seasons are situated. They are named in Hebrew, after the first months of each of the seasons; all three elements of the mosaic are surrounded by representations of various animals and geometrical patterns. Wings of the busts could suggest that they also represent archangels remaining in charge of subsequent seasons; the four most common archangels who appear in most of the canonical texts, above all the Talmud, as well as the non-canonical texts are Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel, mentioned in aggadic-midrashic comments on Torah (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 4:3). What is different in terms of the composition of the mosaics in the synagogues is that the zodiac figures in Hammat Tiberias, Sepphoris, and Huseifa keep their heads directed towards the centre, while those in Beth Alpha are directed outwards, like in the case of Naʿaran (Bonnie, 2020).

In summarising, a comparison of the two mosaics in the ancient synagogues Hammat Tiberias and Beth Alpha clearly shows a large level of similarity, with differences that include the artistic level of representation, application of wings to busts depicting the seasons, movement of animals, and the existence of direct reference to Greek mythology. This latter difference resembles the case of the Dura-Europos synagogue in Syria, built in the 3rd century, where scenes from the last days of Jacob are surprisingly combined with the figure of Orpheus (Sonne, 1953).

There is one more example of the zodiac in the synagogue in Ein-Gedi, presented only in a descriptive form. According to Hachlili (2002), in that case, inscriptions replaced the picture of the zodiac. Due to the new research insight, the inscription includes 118 words in 18 lines (Levine, 1981; Magness, 2005; Misgav, 2021); lines 3–7 describe the names of the zodiac signs and, respectively, the names of Jewish months starting with the beginning of the religious year: 3 Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo; 4 Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, and Aquarius, Pisces; 5 Nisan, Iyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Av, Elul; 6 Tishrei, Marheshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat; 7 Adar (Misgav, 2021), followed by the names of three patriarchs. The building existed until the 7th century; thus we may think of it as the last expression of the zodiac symbol in all ancient synagogues; as far as we know after this case, there was no more of this type of zodiac representation in Jewish synagogal architecture for the next few hundred years, at least.

Yet one issue remains open to discussion: what is the real reason for depicting the zodiac, especially together with the figure of Helios, in synagogues? There are different opinions on the topic. According to Magness (2005), who argues with Millar (2011), it is possible that Jewish authorities, including above all Sanhedrin, located in Tiberias, did not forbid its presentation due to a lack of adequate power under Roman-Byzantine rule. Alternatively, in my opinion, there was simply no long-term agreement on the case within the community. What certainly played an important role was the cultural factor; as claimed by Gilad and Schuster (2020), starting from the end of the 4th century BC, a part of Jewish society was prone to assimilation with the dominant Greek culture that is currently known as Hellenistic Judaism. At least some level of assimilation was necessary in order to thrive in the ancient Greek world, followed later by the Roman conquest. This could result in the acceptance of foreign influences in synagogal art and architecture, as elsewhere; nevertheless, the lack of rabbis’ power at that time seems to be indisputable.

The above-mentioned archetypical representations of the zodiac in ancient synagogal art through the ages evolved and spread into many European countries. However, there is no zodiac in the interiors of Spanish and German synagogues from this period. In those countries, the symbol existed mostly in books, sometimes in a simplified form, popular amulets (Figure 3), or in pottery art; one of those books is the Worms Mahzor, currently in the National Library of Israel, with its coloured Signs of the Zodiac and the Labors of the Months with Hebrew explanation. It is important to mention that, in opposition, Kabbalist books in the medieval era did not show signs but rather their description in circles.

Figure 3. Box-shaped metal amulet with Hebrew inscriptions, 16-18th C (?), length 5.70 cm; the emblem of Sagittarius is depicted on one wheel of the chariot and possibly Pisces on the other (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). ©the Trustees of the British Museum.

Except for symbolic paintings, this approach is even more recognisable in the application of any hidden Kabbalistic meaning, including Gematria, in architecture itself; according to philosophical interpretation of the relationship between the unmaterial and material world, they simply do not exist. Therefore, the first re-emergence of the zodiac in Eastern European synagogal art after antiquity is a new deployment of the symbol in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Re-emergence of the wheel of the zodiac in synagogal art of Eastern Europe

Due to the development of Jewish culture in the multinational Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1791), some of the most prominent examples of the zodiac appear in synagogues in the area that today covers Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, most of contemporary Ukraine, and the western parts of Russia and Estonia. Astrological symbols in the form of the zodiac are common in wooden and later brick- or stone-built synagogues of Eastern Europe. Apart from the former Commonwealth, they appear also in the area of contemporary Romania and Moldova, especially those connected with the orthodox form of Judaism. The more abstract and figurative examples of Chassidic synagogal art that remain, in terms of the continuation of the Lurianic Kabbalah, require further studies.

It is important to emphasise that all the synagogues from this time in the capital city of Cracow do not have any zodiac symbols but have mostly ornamental decorations and inscriptions; the zodiac does not appear there before the beginning of the 20th century. The symbol of the zodiac after antiquity can be found in Sefer Evronot manuscripts, among others from 1778–1781 (The Hebrew Union College); numerous marriage contracts (the Jewish Museum [JM], 1700; Marriage contract, 1793); caskets (such as the German casket with zodiac signs and other motifs, 15th–16th century, later additions 1737–1738); Torah binders; and multiple types of amulets. In the 16th through the 18th centuries, the zodiac was a part of Jewish folk art. The zodiac at this time was thus popular above all in small Eastern European cities and villages inhabited by Jewish communities, which represented various and sometimes oppositional and warring factions of Judaism.

Apart from Rabbinic Judaism, Chassidism had started to flourish not long after the disastrous Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648–1657) and the even more catastrophic Swedish Deluge (1655–1660). Soon after that the Sabbatean Movement (the second half of the 17th century) and Frankism (the beginning of the 18th century) appeared, which shocked the more conservative part of the Jewish community with its new, controversial interpretation of Judaism and sometimes “heretic” customs (Derman, 2018). In particular, Frankists received the protection of the Polish bishops from other parties, which resulted in the long-lasting persecution of the followers of Rabbinic Judaism; the unfolding decline of the Commonwealth just made the sociopolitical situation of the community more dramatic.

In the tumultuous territory, as mentioned above, “the synagogue was a sanctuary, the town hall, a place of learning, and the venue for religious holidays; it was the heart of Jewish shtetl” (Barry, 2000); very often a few synagogues in one town belonged to different communities. Among all of these synagogal buildings, wooden synagogues in the area of Eastern Europe represent aesthetically the most unique and attractive zodiac paintings, joining in the more determinist part of the religion. The wooden synagogue in Hvizdets, with a Polish-style mansard roof, was damaged during World War I, then rebuilt and burned to the ground after 1941. Its ceiling, which was rebuilt in the years 2011–2014 in the scale of 1:85 for the second time, remains one of the most significant examples of Jewish art and architecture. According to Supeł, as cited in Replika dachu synagogi w Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich (Dzieje, 2016), it remained one of the three oldest examples of wooden synagogues for which documentation has been collected and preserved at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The “square” of the zodiac, instead of a wheel, is a part of the colourful ceiling (red, blue, green, yellow, and black) with originally 17th- and 18th-century polychromies (Brown et al., 2014) as presented in Figure 4. The vivid 17th-century paintings were made by Isaac Ber and his son, Israel ben Mordechaj Liśnicki (Lissnitzki) from Jaryczow (after c. 1652 known as Israel ben Mordechaj Shen), and they were eventually restored by Isaac ben Yehuda ha-Cohen, also from Jaryczow, in 1729 (Małkowska-Bieniek, 2013).

Figure 4. Reproduction of polychromies in the rebuilt synagogue in Hvizdets (the zodiac in the upper part of the ceiling). Phot. M. Starowieyska. By courtesy of Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich POLIN.

All the zodiac symbols are put into a clockwise order, represented clearly, in separated circles, and divided into four groups surrounding the square-shaped upper part of the ceiling: Capricorn (presented as goat), Aquarius (crane with well), and Pisces; white Aries, Taurus, and Gemini (two sleeved arms with sickle and ears of grain); Cancer, in terms of shape and colours strongly resembling scorpion, Leo, and Virgo (sleeved arm with both blossoming flowers and burgeons; no direct relation to the Greek mythology, in which the constellation of Virgo corresponds to the goddess Astrea who ascended to heaven); Libra (a pair of scales which, due to the date of Yom Kippur in September—October and following pictures of the Greek goddess Themis), Scorpio looking rather like cancer, and Sagittarius (static bow with an arrow which resembles one of the Polish coats of arms). Except for Taurus, which is presented as a head and just part of its torso, with static legs partially outside of the circle, other animal symbols are painted as a whole. The portrayal of Aquarius, different from the one in ancient synagogues, originates in Slavic mythology in which Aquarius—Waterman was living in streams, lakes, or wells.

What is interesting is that the groups do not apply to the currently known four seasons but rather to zodiac-originated seasons in which the new year starts with Aries as the first sign of the zodiac, marking the beginning of Astrological Spring. Therefore, so-called fixed signs, which are the most representative of each of the seasons, are in the middle of those groups; thus there are Taurus (spring), Leo (summer), Scorpio (autumn), and Aquarius (winter). In the corners, between the zodiac signs, there are ornaments enclosed in trapezoidal forms, and between the circles with the signs there are plant motifs.

In comparison with its ancient predecessors, there are two main differences in depicting the astrological symbols: the authors of the zodiac were certainly of Jewish origin and the colourful zodiac was located in the ceiling, not as a part of the floor three-panel mosaic; also, all the writings describing the sign together with the names of the corresponding months are in Hebrew. There is also a significant lack of any human figures that existed in the ancient synagogues, following the directive that “You are not to make yourself a carved image or any figure that is in the heavens above, that is on the earth beneath, that is in the waters beneath the earth” (Exodus 2:4). However, this only refers to the treatment of those figures as idols, and that is why the artists’ attitude to the presentation of figures has been evolving starting from antiquity. Most probably, that is the main reason why in the synagogue in Hvizdets the animals are still presented and human arms may depict Gemini; it also seems that in ancient times artists felt freer in terms of interpretation of the less numerous Jewish religious texts concerning figural art.

The wooden Ashkenazi synagogue in Khodoriv was built in 1652. The creator of the colourful paintings in its interior, made in 1714, is the same as in the case of the synagogue in Hvizdets, Israel ben Mordechaj Liśnicki from Jaryczow (Yaniv, 2012). In general, analysis of paintings in this synagogue gives a strong impression of a serious attitude of the artist towards reality which slowly evolves into hardly hidden irony. This fits into a long tradition of the Jewish sense of humour, especially developed in hard times; here, the polychromies were made not more than 60 years after the Khmelnytsky Uprising (1948–1954), during which the Jewish community of the Eastern part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had been continuously persecuted. Fishkoff (2011) has a different opinion on the Jewish sense of humour based on interview with professor Mel Gibson; according to her, in July 1661 the rabbis put a ban on most Jewish comics in the country due among other reasons to a recognition of the tragedies that fell upon the nation as a result of lack of piety. Only badkhn, a kind of Jewish comic, were allowed to make their harsh jokes at weddings, so any other kind of humour had to remain hidden; paintings in synagogues provided the possibility to present humour in a more or less covert way, giving way to further development of satirical art in the form of caricatures.

Also completely burned by the Nazis in 1941 along with all the buildings during World War II, the synagogue’s ceiling has been reconstructed in Beth Hatefutsoth, Tel Aviv. In comparison to the zodiac in the synagogue in Hvizdets, there are some differences. First, there is a real wheel of the zodiac in the shape of a richly decorated circle in the upper part of the ceiling, visible in the rebuilt ceiling from Khodoriv (the original one presented in Figure 5), in which subsequent signs in clockwise order are encircled by double frames with Hebrew inscriptions inside. Hebrew passages from scriptures and prayers also cover large parts of the ceiling. Second, the central part of the wheel, around which the zodiac signs are painted, depicts a double-headed, metaphoric, vengeful eagle keeping hares. Sagittarius is presented as sleeved arms keeping a bow with an arrow; Virgo as female sleeved forearms making fancywork, thus a common human activity, hardly showing any seriousness; Taurus is looking at the observer, as in the case of Leo, with its front legs partially outside of the circle in somehow relaxed and a bit ironic human manner; and Gemini is depicted by two arms, one with a cup and the other with a bucket of flowers. Here, Scorpio is painted as a smaller animal, only vaguely resembling the real eight-legged arachnid; it can be assumed that the author had not seen any in his life. Libra (a pair of scales), Capricorn (blue goat), Pisces (two fishes in the same colour), and Aries, a detailed Cancer (which looks like one of the Polish species common in lakes and rivers), and Aquarius (related to Slavic mythology with a crane) are presented as in the previous case.

Figure 5. The original ceiling of the wooden synagogue in Khodoriv; zodiac. Black and white photography by Alois Breyer (1885–1948) between 1905 and 1912. Retrieved from public domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wooden_synagogue_in_Khodoriv,_zodiac.jpg#/media/File:Wooden_synagogue_in_Khodoriv,_zodiac.jpg on the 6th of April, 2022.

This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 70 years or fewer.

To summarise, in the synagogue of Khodoriv, a high level of iconographic similarity with the zodiac from Hvizdets is preserved together with a lack of knowledge about the real look of scorpions as well as a relation with Slavic beliefs. As in the case of ancient synagogues, with the impact on their mosaics of Near East wildlife as well as Greek culture, here the influences of surrounding nature and the local culture are recognisable in the form of both images of indigenous animals and references to Slavic folk mythology.

The Cold Synagogue in Mogilev, built around 1680 and dismantled in 1938 after the preparation of partially preserved documentation of its polychromies by El Lissitzky and Cubist Issachar Ber Ryback, is another example of richly decorated wooden buildings with the wheel of the zodiac in their ceilings. The wheel starts with Aries above the Aaron ha-Kodesh. The signs are presented inside circular framed shapes with Hebrew verses inside the frames. All the polychromies were made in or after 1740 by Chaim ben Ytzchak ha-Levi Segal of Sluck (Dukhan, 2007), and they are known mostly thanks to sketches and a short description in the form of an essay written by L. M. (El) Lissitzky (2019). According to Lissitzky:

The zodiacs stand in a row above the rope ornament. Twelve compositions within circles, linked together in one complete whole. The zodiac paintings are very distinctive and some of their signs are especially concise and powerful. For example, the Archer (mazl kashes). In its entirety it consists of two hands; one holds the bow, the other pulls on the string. This is the ‘powerful hand,’ the ‘punishing hand’ of the bible. And above all of this, in the centre point of the ‘yarmulke — a three-headed eagle: a combination of the Russian and the Polish eagles’ (a significant reminder of the fact that from the beginning of the 18th century the Russian influences in the Commonwealth were continuously increasing).

The most interesting point made in the text is Lissitzky’s interpretation of Sagittarius (the Archer); perceiving the sign as a kind of biblical punisher, he implicitly describes the perception of the symbolic meanings of the zodiac and other paintings by the local Jewish community. It follows that the meaning of the subsequent zodiac signs could be consciously enriched and hidden by the creator of the paintings. In the same essay from the visit to the synagogue, Lissitzky also points out “a rabbinical face” in the lion’s head of the zodiac; in fact, the head of a lion in his sketches of the original paintings remains virtually a human one. There are no more detailed signs of the zodiac that have survived; the only monochrome photos of the ceiling with the zodiac, originally preserved in the Russian Museum of Ethnography and also digitised by The Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art, were probably made by Alexander Miller in 1908 and present just a part of the wheel. In the picture, at least seven zodiac animals, comprising Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Cancer (resembling paintings from two synagogues describe previously), Lion (in a jumping movement), Virgo, and Libra (a pair of scales, as in the other cases) appear as coming out from dark clouds, which announces a fantasy-oriented development of synagogal art with a large field of interpretation. Gemini is depicted as three hares running around as the zodiac sign of Twins in engraved bands of Keter Torah typical for Eastern European Jewish art in the 19th century. In the synagogue in Mogilev, Jewish cultural influences in the form of artistic irony for the first time start to be if not predominant over the meaning of the zodiac signs, then at least significant; this presents a piece of clear information about the course of the evolution of Eastern European Jewish art.

The synagogue in Volpa, built in the year 1648, is another example of a wooden building with a painted zodiac which did not survive the turmoil of World War II, being destroyed, as were most of them, in the same year of 1941. The building of the synagogue has been recently reconstructed (the last artistic works are currently ongoing) in Bilgoraj, nowadays Poland, together with “the most magnificent of all known wooden ceilings, even on European scale” (Piechotka & Piechotka, 2004, p. 84). The hexagonal part of the ceiling, adapted to the roof shape, presents the zodiac wheel rich in colours and ornamentation. The separated signs of the zodiac are located in circular shapes. Most of the zodiac signs that resemble the previously described figures of animals and symbols of the synagogue in Khodoriv are also put in a counterclockwise order; probably this follows the idea of reconstruction partially based on the preserved documentation of other buildings. In the corners of the ceiling, images of other animals are included: an elephant (as a symbol of strong faith and hope), a bear (strength), a swan (purity and grace), and, as a representation of messianic times, a white unicorn fighting a lion over a pot with roses, with two birds above.

None of the synagogues with the zodiac symbols described above exist anymore due to continuous, destructive conflicts in this part of Europe; however, reconstruction of some of them on the basis of rare, still existing documentation has brought to light the level of Jewish folk art development. Although it cannot be proved, it can be assumed that many other synagogues which existed in the territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had rich polychromies with representations of the wheel of the zodiac. In addition to those described above, the wooden synagogues in Polaniec and Targowica are among other Jewish sacral buildings known for the wheel of the zodiac in their ceilings, which remain undocumented.

Conclusions

Inside the wooden synagogues of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the 17th and 18th century, there are unique examples of the zodiac symbol with no European architectural predecessors after antiquity; therefore, they represent a real renaissance of symbolism in art and architecture. All of these synagogal representations of the signs of the zodiac are inspired by their ancient archetypes, popularised mostly by drawings in Jewish religious books or other types of art. Moreover, the similarity between ancient and Eastern European representations of the zodiac in wooden synagogues is clearly visible in the simplification of figures made by Jewish artists and in explicit references to indigenous wildlife as well as beliefs about the social environment in which the Jewish communities lived.

It is worth mentioning that the application of the symbol of the zodiac into the synagogal art of the wooden buildings in the countryside, sometimes regarded as neglected, laid a foundation for its further development in brick synagogues of larger shtetls, towns, and cities, including Cracow. Due to an increase of interest and search for a national identity in art and architecture at the beginning of the 20th century, the wheels of the zodiac, together with other symbols that were painted on the ceilings and walls of synagogues, have started to be re-interpreted. Their use as the source of inspiration by Jewish Cubist and Expressionist artists was recognisable both in simplified, emotionally meaningful, and colourful forms as well as through delicate irony. It is worth mentioning that Marc Chagall, one of the quintessential French-Russian-Jewish artists deeply focused on creating a Jewish folk-originated dreamlike fantasy, claimed Chaim ben Yitzchak ha-Levi Segal to be one of his ancestors (Harshav, 2003, p. 40). Clearly, artistic inspiration is the main focus of the claim.

What is certain is that the popularisation of the zodiac and other paintings from once vibrant Eastern European synagogues eventually laid a firm foundation for the imminent development of Jewish identity in art and architecture in the 19th and 20th centuries. The most significant factor, from the creative point of view, is not the continuation of the use of the simplified artistic forms depicting the zodiac, but rather the use of irony, which significantly changes the approach to both art and life. Due to its educational characteristics, this is of the utmost importance. Therefore, the real cultural impact of the zodiac symbol is recognizable in the intangible Jewish culture, not in the tangible cultural remains: art has played its most attractive role.

Correction

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Tomasz Eugeniusz Malec

Tomasz Eugeniusz Malec is an architect, lecturer, and researcher in the field of spatial development, including tangible and intangible culture, human needs in architecture, interdisciplinary relationships between spatial units, and Jewish architecture and urbanism. Between 2000 and 2013, he was the author and coauthor of multiple architectural designs, mostly connected with renovating historical buildings. He authored the textbook Simple Introduction to Architecture for new architecture students, and the monograph Jewish Architecture and Urbanism in the Years 1495–1815: The Jewish City in Casimir, Cracow along with over 25 articles in scientific journals. Results of his research on the role of cultural and noncultural conditions in spatial development provide insight into the basis behind the process of human-centered design. His work may be also used for future culture-related architectural research.