the eighteenth century we find instances where suggests that the oppressive czarist monarchy, 2. For a discussion of the phrase "a red rooster" and God is depicted similarly, through either an eye or symbolized here by the crowned angel of death, the painting by Ryback, see Haia Friedberg, "Lissitzky's Had Gadia'," Jewish Art 12­13(1986­87): 298­99. 3 was rendered powerless in the face of revolution­ a sword set within a circular cloud or sunburst. Still, there is a forcefulness to Lissitzky's image ary justice. 3. For examples of these images, see Emile G. L. Schrijver that can be ascribed to a more contemporary and Falk Wiesemann, eds., Die Von Geldern Haggadah und Heinrich Heines "Der Rabbi von Bacherach" (Vienna: influence: on the first Soviet stamp—with which NOTES Verlag Christian Brandstatter, 1997), pi. 26r; and Haviva Lissitzky certainly would have been familiar—an 1. It is interesting to note that in many of the words in the Aramaic Peled­Carmeli, Illustrated Haggadot of the Eighteenth Century, phrases, Lissitzky represents the vowels as if he were writing in exh. cat. (Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 1983), pis. 10511,107,117. outstretched hand underneath a circular sun Yiddish. For example, in the word WW (came), Lissitzky positions grips a sword.4 The conflation of the hand of the vowel point under the final alef, rather than under the preced­ 4. For an illustration of this stamp, see Friedberg, "Lissitzky's God with the hand of the Soviet people implies a ing consonant ta\z­WlK—as it would be in either Aramaic or Had Gadia'" (note 2), 302. Hebrew. Likewise, Lissitzky's word NQK (father) would be written divine component to the revolution; but it also in Aramaic as his word (cat) as xyw, and so on. VOCABULARY YIDDISH ENGLISH YIDDISH ENGLISH ARAMAIC ENGLISH HEBREW ENGLISH father devoured rrn "7n the only kid shohet bought dog i that mon T*ftD the angel of death for tOP­BPaETTK gobbled up father T­ra ttmpn the Holy One/ "TIX two stick P3T bought Kin Blessed be He 1 zuzim beat 1 then/and 2 a TP'*] fire came 1 3 kid burnt Him cat 1 4 came water dog n 5 NOTE n the (fern.) quenched KTOITT stick Translated here are the Yiddish, i 6 Aramaic, and Hebrew words—all TP! the (masc.) ox arm fire written in the Hebrew alphabet— T 7 that appear in Lissitzky's illustra­ an the (neut.) drank water tions. The use of Hebrew words in n 8 XI Yiddish and Aramaic texts is dis­ cussed above in the iconography cat slaughtered Him ox section, as is Lissitzky's treatment 9 of vowels in the Aramaic words. and God * 10