Los sentidos de tres trminos controvertidos referidos al

pueblo judoaljama, judera y sinagoga

Autores: Gisela Roitman

Localizacin: e-SLegal History Review, ISSN 1699-5317, N. 8, 2009
Idioma: espaol
Ttulos paralelos:
The meaning of three controversial terms related to the jewish people: aljama,
judera and sinagoga
Resumen
Espaol

En el presente trabajo se intenta desambiguar los sentidos de los trminos aljama, judera y
sinagoga utilizados durante la Edad Media, sentidos que se fueron perdiendo a partir de los
textos relativos a las controversias religiosas de finales del siglo XV, y que terminaron
incorporndose en los Diccionarios y los textos modernos, completamente resemantizados.
Como intento demostrar, en su devenir textual y lexicolgico, segn la ltima versin del DRAE,
la palabra aljama se vaci de su sentido tcnico institucional, dndosela como sinnima de
judera, de comunidad religiosa y hasta de templo (mezquita o sinagoga); a judera, referida al
complejo habitacional topolgico y ecolgico se le agregaron significados relativos a impuestos
o bien a judasmo, y a sinagoga, finalmente, se la relacion con la congregacin de creyentes
judos, con el edificio cltico (nico significado medieval rastreado), e incluso con un sentido
peyorativo, reunin para fines ilcitos. Por esto, difcil ser entender los textos notariales,
diplomticos, legales y literarios medievales utilizando para la base de lectura de los mismos
los diccionarios. Todo medievalista debera encontrarse con el sentido prstino del trmino, si es
que desea que los textos medievales vuelvan a adquirir una voz autnoma e ideolgicamente
determinada.
o

English
This paper aims to clarify the ambiguity of the meaning of the words aljama, judera and
sinagoga as they were used in the Middle Ages, meanings that were vanishing after the texts
related to the religious disputes at the turn of the 15th century and were included in the
dictionaries and modern texts semantically changed. As I try to proof, the word aljama became
at the last edition of the DRAE a synonym of judera, religious community and even place of
worship (a mosque or a synagogue); judera, as a topological and environmental complex, was
added meanings related with taxes or with Judaism; sinagoga, became the gathering of Jewish
believers, the worshipping building (only meaning tracked during the Middle Ages) and even
with a pejorative meaning, a gathering with illicit purposes. Therefore, it will be hard to
understand the notarial, diplomatic, legal and literary documents using the dictionaries. Every
scholar dealing with the Middle Ages should find the original meaning, so medieval texts can
regain a certain autonomous and ideological voice.[ Agradezco a Eliezer Nowodworski su
traduccin al ingls.].