Obadiah the Proselyte

He was born Johannes, son of Dreux, around 1070 in Oppido Lucano, a small town in South Italy, today in the province of Potenza, Basilicata.{{cn|date=December 2024}} He converted to Judaism in 1102.Golb 1965, p. 155 It was common practice for proselytes to choose the name "Obadiah" because of the tradition that Obadiah the prophet was an Edomite converted to Judaism."Obadiah the Proselyte" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians{{cite web | url=https://www.sefaria.org.il/Sanhedrin.39b?lang=he | title=Sanhedrin 39b }}

His reasons are not entirely clear.{{cite journal|author1=M. L.|title=Medieval music unmasked|journal=University of Chicago Magazine|date=2004|volume=96|issue=6|url=http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0408/research/music.shtml|accessdate=8 May 2016}} It is believed he had been inspired by the Jewish people during the First Crusade, as well as the story of Andreas, the archbishop of Bari who had converted to Judaism circa 1066–1078.Golb 1987, pp. 10–11 Obadiah's understanding of the Bible may have also played a role.{{cite web|author1=Eliezer Segal|title=Obadiah the Proselyte|url=http://people.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/Shokel/920617_Obadiah.html|accessdate=8 May 2016|date=1992}}

He is known for recording medieval Jewish chant in Gregorian notation.Golb 1965, pp.153–156 There is a dispute whether this Gregorian melody used is of Jewish origin or of non-Jewish origin.Golb 1967

File:Cairo Geniza - Obadiah the Proselyte, Document I - colophon of a prayer-book (HUC fragment 8) text1 converted in 1102.jpg is the 6th month of the Hebrew calendar, corresponding to August–September. "4862 of Creation" refers to the Anno Mundi system, still used by Jews today, and translates to 1102. So does "year 1413 of Documents", referring to the "era of Documents", also known as "Alexandrine era", system that had been used in Israel since the time of Alexander the Great (see Gold 2004, p. ii, n. 2).]]

File:Cairo Geniza - Obadiah the Proselyte, Document I - colophon of a prayer-book (HUC fragment 8) text2 with his own hand.jpg

Obadiah is known to us exclusively through a variety of documents from the Cairo Geniza, all but one in his own hand.Golb 2004 The key piece of evidence for reconstructing his own varied output came from a single colophon leaf, all that remains of a prayer-book, now preserved in the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati (MS H.U.C. Genizah Collection no. 8). An inscription on the colophon says, in Hebrew, that "Obadiah the Norman proselyte" who converted to Judaism "in the month of Elul" of 1102 has written the prayer-book "with his own hand".Golb 1965, p. 156, n. 9Golb 2004, p. 1 So, although in all of his writings he invariably refers to himself in the third person,Golb 2004, p. 1, n. 2 by directly comparing the handwriting we can be sure that it is indeed he who wrote it.

It took scholars over half a century to build a full picture of Obadiah's life and deeds. The name "Obadiah the Proselyte" first came up in 1901 in the second volume of Ginzei Yerushalayim ({{lang|he|גנזי ירושלם}}, Treasures of Jerusalem), a collection of scientific and literary works from rare manuscripts, compiled by Jerusalem rabbi Solomon Aaron Wertheimer, an amateur scholar and small-time Cairo Geniza material trader.[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14869-wertheimer-solomon-aaron Wertheimer, Solomon Aaron] in Jewish EncyclopediaReif 2000, p. 71Golb 2004, p. iFor the Hebrew name, see [http://www.virtualjudaica.com/Item/23336/Ginzei_Yerushalayim this auction] From a letter of recommendation written for Obadiah by Baruch ben Isaac, the head of a large yeshivah in the city of Aleppo, Syria,{{cite web|title=Obadiah, the Norman Proselyte|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0015_0_14998.html|website=Jewish Virtual Library|accessdate=11 May 2016}} Wertheimer published only the more poetic parts, mostly the lament for the plight of the Palestinian Jews in verse from the introduction; from what remained, hardly anything but the names could be deduced: "This letter was written in his own hand by our mas[ter Baru]kh ... son of ... [Isaac] ... that it might be kept by Obadiah the Proselyte [for use] in all communities of Israel to which he might go." It took another 30 years for the letter first to make its way into the Bodleian Library (where it remains to this day){{cite web|title=MS. Heb. a. 3/1|url=http://genizah.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/profile/manuscript/c5844e03-5c01-4d0f-a2ca-7c2a4425e874|website=Cairo Genizah Collection of the Bodleian Libraries|accessdate=12 May 2016}} and then to attract the attention of Hebrew Union College professor Jacob Mann, who published it in its entirety in 1930.{{cite journal|title=Obadya, Prosélyte Normand converti au judaïsme et sa Meguila ...|journal=Revue des Études Juives|date=1930|volume=89|pages=245–259}}

All of the Cairo Geniza documents relevant to the life of Johannes of Oppido = Obadiah the Proselyte are available at a website dedicated to his life and writings.{{Cite web|url=http://johannes-obadiah.org/|title=Johannes of Oppido {{!}} Home|website=johannes-obadiah.org|access-date=2018-08-21}}

{{Reflist|2}}

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• {{cite journal|author1=Norman Golb|author-link=Norman Golb|title=Obadiah the Proselyte: Scribe of a Unique Twelfth-Century Hebrew Manuscript Containing Lombardic Neumes|journal=The Journal of Religion|date=1965|volume=45|issue=2|pages=153–156|doi=10.1086/485773 |jstor=1200142|s2cid=170333605 |doi-access=free}}
• {{cite journal|author1=Norman Golb|author-link=Norman Golb|title=The Music of Obadiah the Proselyte and His Conversion |journal=Journal of Jewish Studies|date=1967|volume=18|issue=1–4|pages=43–63|url=http://www.jjs-online.net/archives/article/549|doi=10.18647/549/JJS-1967}}
• Norman Golb (1987). [https://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/jewish_proselytism.pdf Jewish Proselytism — A Phenomenon in the Religious History of Early Medieval Europe], 10th annual Rabbi Louis Feinberg memorial lecture in Judaic Studies, University of Cincinnati.
• Norman Golb (2004) [https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/individual-scholarship/autograph-memoirs-obadiah-proselyte-oppido-lucano-and-epistle-barukh The Autograph Memoirs Of Obadiah The Proselyte Of Oppido Lucano, and The Epistle Of Barukh B. Isaac Of Aleppo]
• Benjamin Z. Kedar (2005) "The Voyages of Giuan-Ovadiah in Syria and Iraq and the Enigma of his Conversion", in [https://books.google.com/books?id=ke3aXnldRMEC Giovanni-Ovadiah da Oppido, proselito, viaggiatore e musicista dell'età normanna]
• {{cite book|author1=Stefan C. Reif|title=A Jewish Archive from Old Cairo: The History of Cambridge University's Genizah Collection|date=2000|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=9780700712762}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=LPON0YDp4XwC&pg=PA152&lpg=PA152 google books preview]

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Category:Year of birth uncertain

Category:11th-century births

Category:12th-century deaths

Category:12th-century converts to Judaism

Category:Italian musicians

Category:People from the Province of Potenza

Category:Converts to Judaism from Roman Catholicism

Category:11th-century Italian Jews

Category:11th-century Italian writers

Category:12th-century Italian Jews

Category:12th-century Italian writers

Category:Byzantine Jews

Category:Jewish musicians