An Introduction To Kalomynos Ben Kalomynos
Last week’s article, entitled “An Introduction To Mesekhet Purim” introduced the somewhat ritualistic, entirely parodic text Mesekhet Purim (Here is the article if you wish to read it). This week's article will continue where the prior article left off. While last week's article discussed the text, this week’s article will discuss the fascinating maybe-man behind the text, Kalonymos ben Kalonymos (I have seen many variant spellings while researching this article, this spelling will be the one I shall use).
Kalonymus ben Kalonymus is one of the most fascinating figures in Jewish History. A Rabbi, philosopher, satirist, and poet, while Kalonymos ben Kalonymos’s works are mostly unrepresented now, they touch on many important aspects of religious history and modern discussion.
Kalonymos Ben Kalonymos was part of a very important family in Rome, Italy. The Kalonymos line had many impressive poets, including the subject of this article1. Kalonymos, as J. Chotzner reports, was born in Arles in 1287. He was the son of Kalonymos ben Meir, the Nasi (prince) of his community. For this reason, Kalonymos was a prominent member of his community. It is worth noting that this was a community facing persecution from Christians in the area
He was also very well educated and acquiesced in scholarship. Kalonymos worked as a translator, translating Arabic and Latin math books into Hebrew. He was successful in this and became known as a great scholar and linguist. For this reason, he was accepted by scholarly communities in Rome. He was also viewed highly by Jewish contemporaries. The poet, Immanuel di Romi, spoke highly of Kalonymos ben Kalonymos and even called him “Nasi”2.
Kalomynos’s most impressive work is Evan Bohan, a compilation of philosophical and poetic writings. It was likely written sometime in the early 1300s. More specifically sometime between Friday, December 10, 1322, and Friday, January 7, 1323, in the Jewish month of Tevet of the year 5308 of the Jewish calendar3.
In this work, Kalonymos ben Kalonymos offers two fascinating works. The first has gained some widespread popularity from the seemingly modern themes found in this fourteenth-century text. It reads as follows
“Cursed be the one who announced to my father:
“It’s a boy!
He will be intelligent and superior to a prophet.
The holy work will be his as with Yishmael ben Pavia
Upon the mountains of spice he will run like the gazelle and like the deer
He will not be defiled from the start by the filth-idols of his people
He will erect the hall of science on its mound.
The candle will shine from his head
and those who walk in darkness will follow his radiant halo.”
This messenger shall be held guilty of bloodshed; cursed be he.
How could he twist the course of the stars so much?
How could he have erred so in his astrology?
A lying tongue, a fool’s mouth it had given him
For he foolishly transformed justice to poison
He altered the law and transposed the lines” (Prayer for Transformation)
This poem has gained modern attention for its seemingly transgender themes (which there are some reasons to doubt). In fact, this fourteenth-century work is The Open Sidur Project’s choice prayer for Transgender Day of Visibility (March 31st) and Transgender Day of Remembrance (November 20th).
In this poem, Kalonymos shows a continued mastery of biblical, liturgical and rabbinic sources.
When both, requesting a miracle and accepting his fate, Kalomynos references such texts:
“who did miracles for our ancestors with fire and water
You transformed the fire of Ur Kasdim so it would not burn [Avraham]
You transformed Dinah in the womb of her mother [Leah, to a girl]
You transformed the staff [of Moshe] to a snake before a million eyes
You transformed (Moshe’s) hand to (leprous) white
and the Sea of Reeds to dry land.
and the sea floor into solid and dried-up earth
You transformed the rock into water,
hard flint to a fountain.” (Prayer for Transformation)
As Tova Rosen points out, Kalonymos mirrors Jerimiah's cursing the day he was born. Compare these two texts.
“Cursed be the one who announced to my father:
“It’s a boy” (Prayer for Transformation)
and
“Cursed be the man
who brought the news to my father, saying,
“A child is born to you, a son,” (Jeremiah 20:15 NRSVue)4
Reading the entirety of the text, the idea is as follows: Kalonymos wishes to be a woman but has been made a man by god and thus must accept that fact. The question relating to whether this poem can be seen as a transgender piece relies on why Kalonymos has such desires. As per the DSM-5, if Kalomynos was expressing some form of gender dysphoria we would see
“A strong desire to be rid of one’s primary and/or secondary sex characteristics because of a marked incongruence with one’s experienced/expressed gender”5
However, we do not find Kalomynos’s issues emerging from incongruance. Rather it seems to me it emerges from the burdens of masculinity. It is true that Rabbinic Judaism in earlier times tended to see men as being greater than women but the text of the poem supports Kalomynos flipping this idea6
He treats manhood as a deficiency.
“Woe to me, my mother, that you ever bore a son.
What a great loss and no gain!” (Prayer for Transformation)
It is also an added responsibility that Kalomynos cannot handle.
“Uncircumcised of heart and flesh was I born.
At three days, they cut my umbilical cord,
and at eight days my foreskin.
However, my ears, heart, and mind [remained uncircumcised and]
were not ready to join Hashem’s covenant.” (Prayer for Transformation)
The inability to uphold the law is a recurring theme for Kalomynos but is not the whole of his issues with manhood. Kalomynos is also concerned with societal pressures.
“Woe to him who has male sons
Upon them a heavy yoke has been placed of restrictions and constraints.
Some in private, some in public
some to avoid the mere appearance of violation
and some entering the most secret of places.” (Prayer for Transformation)
He also prefers the ease of womanhood. Kalomynos writes,
“Oh, but had the artisan who made me created me instead – a worthy woman.
Today I would be wise and insightful.
We would weave, my friends and I
and in the moonlight spin our yarn
and tell our stories to one another
from dusk till midnight
we’d tell of the events of our day, silly things
matters of no consequence.” (Prayer for Transformation)
This does not reflect the modern ideas associated with being transgender. This text rather reflects a wish to avoid the difficulties and burdens created by male Jewish life. We can find a similar pessimism in another work quoted by Chotzner.
“Have only suffering to endure;
This is caused by their Jewish creed,
Whose yoke is hard to bear, indeed.
Its many laws and regulations,
Which are unknown to other nations,
Every Hebrew must observe,
With watchful eye and straining nerve;”
This almost anti-Jewish writing makes Kalomynos somewhat countercultural. He is a figure with a deep knowledge of Jewish sources but some degree of resentment toward those sources. Still, texts like Mesekhet Purim show that Kalomynos was not all gloom and had some appreciation for Jewish customs.
Broydé, Isaac Broydé, and Gottheil Richard . “KALONYMUS - JewishEncyclopedia.com.” Jewishencyclopedia.com, 2021, www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9168-kalonymus. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
Chotzner, J. “Kalonymos Ben Kalonymos, a Thirteenth-Century Satirist.” The Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 13, no. 1, 1900, pp. 128–46. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1450670. Accessed 7 Feb. 2025
Dunkelgrün, Theodor. "Dating the Even Bohan of Qalonymos ben Qalonymos of Arles. A microhistory of scholarship." European Journal of Jewish Studies 7.1 (2013): 39-72.
Rosen, Tova. "Circumcised Cinderella: The Fantasies of a Fourteenth-Century Jewish Author." Prooftexts 20.1-2 (2000): 87-110.
DILIP V. JESTE. "Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders." American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC (1980): 205-224.
Elior, Rachel. "‘Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, who hast not made me a woman.’." Men and Women: Gender, Judaism and Democracy (2004): 81-96.