The Mazalot of The Stanton St. Shul

By Miriam Aranoff and Elissa Sampson

Mazalot are a Jewish Zodiac rendition, once prevalent throughout Lower East Side and Eastern European shuls. At Stanton Street (Anshei Brzezan) one of the poorest neighborhood shuls, the Mazalot have been crumbling into ruin and are now being stabilized in order to conserve them for the future. Once a staple in many Lower East Side synagogues, Mazalot are now a rare and precious artifact — the Stanton Street Shul and the Bialystocker Shul contain the two last examples in active shuls. Even more remarkably, these zodiac paintings represent an almost two thousand year old synagogue tradition that has endured from the Roman era. The Talmud provides a window as to how the Jewish zodiac became integral to an understanding of how time was ordered in the Jewish world. This living tradition over the centuries continued to be adapted as part of synagogue art and Jewish life, particularly in Galitzia, and lastly in the Lower East Side. An essential element of the Stanton Street Shul’s appearance, their authenticity appeals to members and visitors looking for the distinctive cultural and religious tie-ins that the historic Shul can offer. The full restoration of the Mazalot will be a fitting chapter in the Shul’s renewal and allow a new, younger demographic to connect to this unique space and its immigrant past.

The antiquity of this tradition can be seen in the 4th-6th century Hellenistic-Roman era synagogues where zodiacs existed (e.g., Hammath-Tiberias). The zodiac has taken on a number of meanings within Jewish thought; there is a long tradition of heeding the stars and referring to the zodiac as an instructive metaphor. A variety of sources including the Talmud, the 13th century scholar Nachmanides, and Isaac Luria (the Holy Ari) of the 16th century have written about astrology and Jewish tradition. Mentioned in the Talmud and reflecting long-standing rabbinic ambivalence about Hellenism and notions of destiny, mazal can be seen as something in between divine providence and free will, more akin to the natural order of the world.  It is not in the hands of God (directly), nor is it in the hands of humans to alter (though on occasion humans may remove themselves from nature’s influence). The Mazalot religiously and culturally became increasingly associated with the 12 Hebrew lunar months and often with the Tribes, and disassociated with astrological worship over time (i.e., with Helios). In modern common usage, mazel, as in mazel tov, signifies one’s luck or constellation or fortune (e.g., the month of Elul is seen Jewishly as lucky).

Ancient synagogue zodiac mosaics can be found in Israel (Roman Palestine): Beit Alpha from the 6th century; Husifa from the 4th century; Hammath, near Tiberias, from the 4th-5th century; Susiya, near Hebron, from circa 5h century; Yaifa, south of Nazareth, early 4th century; and Sepphoris in the Galilee, 5th-6th century. Mosaics have also been found in the Na’aran Synagogue dated from the 6th century.

Texts such as the Midrash Tanchuma, a compilation of a homiletic midrashim (exegetical texts) reveal the association of the astronomical signs with months and steps of creation (chapter 4, Pesikta Rabbah).

“Why did the Blessed Creator create the universe during the month of Nissan (whose sign is Aries)?  Because when god decided to create the universe, he told the Master of Darkness, ‘Depart from me, for I wish to create the universe with light’ (the sheep symbolized by Aries is white in color). Whereupon the Master of Darkness (whose sign is Taurus, the bull, who is black in color) asked, “And after the light, what will you create?’ and God answered, ‘Darkness,” the sign of the month of Iyar (Taurus). ‘After darkness, what will you create?’ ‘Twins (Gemini), for man is destined to see through both light and darkness, and Gemini is in the form of man.’ ‘And afterwards, what will you create?’ ‘The sign of the crab (Cancer), for man, when he rises from his toil and reaps from it, will become strengthened like a lion.  then I will create the virgin (Virgo), because man will then be happy, like a virgin at her nuptials. After that I will create the scales (Libra), for then, man’s deeds will be measured as on scales. Afterwards I will create the scorpion (Scorpio), for when man’s deeds will be weighed, it will be discovered that he also sinned, and he will have to descend to Purgatory; whereupon I will create the bow (Sagittarius), for man will surely plead for mercy and he will then be sprung for punishment, like an arrow from a bow. Then I will create the goat (Capricorn), for when man ascends, he will dart like a mountain goat. I will then create the dipper (Aqaurius) to pour upon him the cleansing waters. Last, I will create fish (Pisces), to show that just as the evil eye has no effect on fish in the water, who are hidden from sight, so too Israel rises above this mundane world and neither star nor hour has absolute determination over it.”

In Poland, particularly in poorer regions such as Galitzia where wood was used for most religious architecture until the 19th century, Jews continued the tradition of depicting the zodiac on synagogue onto painted wooden walls and ceilings, and after that on newer stone structures. The earliest depictions of Mazalot that we have from this area are of synagogues from the 17th century. However, given the mass destruction wrought by the Holocaust, even the few Polish shul buildings with Mazalot that were saved after the war are no longer active shuls, i.e., they have become municipal archives, a tourist destination, etc., and no wooden shuls are left at all. In the Ukraine, there are only two buildings left. Therefore, the water-damaged Stanton Street Shul murals and the restored ones at the Bialystocker Shul on Willet Street are among the remaining living heirs to this rich tradition.

Eastern European Jewish traditional folk art disallowed the full representation of the human body and avoided pagan and Christological associations. At Stanton Street,  the Virgo counterpart for the harvest month of Elul is a B’sullah (Virgin) depicted solely as a woman’s outstretched hand holding a sheaf of wheat (thus honoring the prohibition on showing the face). There is also a lobster portrayed for Tamuz, perhaps due to a tradition or to a misunderstanding as to what a scorpion may have looked like. Each mazel shows the successful transformation over 1,500 years ago of each astrological sign into an uniquely Jewishly identified symbol and its subsequent transformation in Europe. In parts of Eastern Europe, this became Jewish religious synagogue art. By the 20th century it was less common as stone and brick synagogues became more prevalent and wooden shuls and local traditions less so. The preservation of Mazalot in the Lower East Side is all the more remarkable for this and reflects the depth of association and affection that immigrants had for their towns, shuls and religious traditions.

The disappearance of the Stanton Street Mazalot would be like having a page torn out of a history book of the immigrant story. It’s one thing to hear about people who migrated from Eastern Europe; it’s quite another to see what they thought was pious art and their interpretation of life in both of these places. The replicas of wooden shuls from Gwozdziec (Eastern Galicia) from 1729, and Targowica (19th Century) show Mazalot remarkably similar to those at Stanton Street and Bialystock (excepting the lobster). Adopting a mazel for restoration will allow future generations to see how an ancient Jewish tradition was brought to the Lower East Side.

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Thank you for your support!