#Midrash Tanḥuma

[hyperpotamianarch]

Well, yes. But also... begging your pardon on advance [pulls out a megaphon]

THIS PARTICULAR STORY IS NOT FROM THE TALMUD.

Sorry, got... carried away there a little. I might be a little cranky regarding small things lately, but I do think this is a misconception I've seen often enough: seeing some Jewish non-Tanachic source and assuming it's the Talmud. It's bad enoough when people can't differentiate the Talmud from the Mishanh. Being unable to tell the difference between the Talmud and the Midrashim... well, it's still understandable, I suppose. Midrash Tanḥuma was supposedly compiled by Rabbi Tanḥuma, who I believe was an Amora, so it's plausible that the style is similar. The content and the way it's presented is different, however - outside maybe of that one portion of the Talmud which is full on Midrash on the Book of Ester.

This would be a derailment, but basically: the Talmud is framed around the Mishnah and its primary purpose is to discuss the Halacha. It's very associative in nature, though, and will derail the topic to talk about another thing this particular rabbi said or to dive into some side point that was cited previously.

The Midrash, on the other hand, is studying the Torah, sometimes the Tanakh in its entirety. There is also a difference between Midrash Halacha and Midrash Agadah, which is a whole different topic. A standard characterization of Midrash is starting by citing a Tanakhic verse from somewhere other than the portion you're talking about that seems to be completely unrelated and use it to explain something about the portion in discussion - this is called a Ptikhta, a type of Midrashim used at the start of a given portion. Then you have a lot of taking Tanakhic verses and studying them in a somewhat weird way, I didn't really study enough Midrash to explain that. Derailments exist withing Midrashim, but they look a little different.

The particular story here was actually a part of a Ptikhta in the manuscript in which it was found. This is a Ptikhta for Prashat Ki Tissa of all places - the one where the commandments for the Tabenacle are finalised and the whole Golden Calf fiasco happens. The slightly larger context is about how G-d fills His time with matchmaking. The even larger context is somehow about the Golden Calf Fiasco, but I need to study it a bit more to understand how that works exactly.

Sorry for pouring it all out on you, I just really don't like misinformation on those topics.

All right, you know what? My Jewish Fantasy/Disney Princess thread is a little long now, so I'm putting the story of the daughter of Shəlomo HaMelech here, in its own post. To attract traffic I'm sorry, be nice sorry again, to keep people in the conversation, I will tag the people who were a part of this particular reblog chain. I hope this will interest you, at worst you can just ignore another notification. @wanderingmadscientist, @alyssumlovesthecosmere, and @springstarfangirl. Sorry again.

So, this didn't really take a lot of digging, but it appears that my book Kol Agadot Yisra'el wasn't lying about the existence of this story! The source is, as mentioned in the post linked, in the preface to the Buber publication of Midrash Tanḥuma. Now, I've the Buber Tanḥuma cited regularly, so I think it's possible to find under regular circumstances. I did use resources that aren't available for everyone, though - Otzar HaChokhmah, a pay-based resource for thousands of scans of various Jewish religious books. Its name literally means "the Treasury of Wisdom/Knowledge", and a treasury it is - though I'm lucky enough to not be the one to pay for it. My college has access to their stuff, which is currently very convenient to me.

Anyway, that wasn't very helpful, because it was very easy to realize that this preface is long and I had no idea under which section this story is. So I did what every sane person would do in such a situation: I looked up the story in the Internet. To make a long story short, I found a website centered around Bialik's Sefer Ha'Agadah which gave a precise location to the level of pages. This was a little less helpful than you might think, because this website and the Otzar clearly had different ideas on where a page count should start. Fortunately, I expected that obstacle and went looking around a little more until I've found the story. I shall attach a picture of it in the end after the cut, but since it's in Hebrew it may not be of much interest to those here who do not speak the language.

One more not before I tell the story itself and lay down my thoughts: the particular section of the preface this story was found in was a listing of particular deviations in one of the manuscripts Buber was using in editing his edition of Midrash Tanḥuma. Specifically, the third manuscript he found in Oxford, which probably still exists in Oxford (or somewhere else). This is probably an old manuscript but... I'll get to my point after I tell the story.

The story begins with Shəlomo HaMelech having had a beautiful daughter, and wandering who G-d might have meant for her to marry. So he used his vast knowledge of astrology to divine that... she was going to marry a poor, lowborn man. So, he built a tower in the middle of the sea, one without any doors, and put there his daughter - along with seventy eunuchs of the elders of Israel. He also put there enough food for all of them to live by for a long time, and then left it all to see how G-d will turn events about. In the meantime, the girl's soulmate was starving and dying of hypothermia somewhere, so he went to draw some heat from a bull cracass, and went to sleep in it. A large bird (likely of a scavenging kind, regularly said to be a vulture) carried the carcass to the top of the tower to eat it. When the boy woke up, he found himself in the tower with Shəlomo's daughter. She asked him how he came to be there and he told her. Then they fell in love, yadda yadda yadda, they got married with G-d and the angels Michael and Gabriel as their witnesses (no, they do not directly appear in the story, it's about as good as the story about the Pit and the Rat which I'm not going to tell now), they did what married couples do, she got pregnant, Shəlomo came to see and asked her husband how she got there, finishing it all off with "bless G-d who matches a man", more or less.

In many ways, this sounds like a classic European fairy tale. Which has an upside and a downside. The upside is, it might make it easier to Disneyfy (without having to do the whole schtick with no loyalty to the source Disney constanty does) since it already has the esential parts of a Disney story: we've got a girl in need of saving (sort of), a boy for the love interest, a magical story of how they met and a happy ending. Add in a few songs, make her somehow randomly meet him prior to her time in the tower because getting to know him in the tower is kind of creepy even if this is exactly what the original story said (all right, I might consider this part of Disneyfication a way of being disloyal to the source material, but I'm not sure) and you basically have a classic Disney Princess story!

The downside is I'm not sure how Jewish it sounds, in addition to how it's a tiny bit too similar to Rapunzel. Both problems that can be dealt with, of course - so long as we don't let Disney itself actually deal with the story. Can't say I trust them with it. The way to treat both problems, I think, would be to enhance the background story to the "trapped in a tower" trope.

It's really hard to say what consists of a Jewish theme. Certainly, using Shəlomo as a character isn't enough: Christians have already tried to claim him as theirs, and merely having the setting of the story include him won't cause anyone to think "ooh, this must be a Jewish story!"

So, what can we enhance to make this story sound more Jewish? Well, firstly, the mindset of Shəlomo when doing all of this. This isn't too obvious in the story itself - but is a likely read IMO - that Shəlomo actually fully expects for G-d's plan to be fulfilled. He's not attempting to spite destiny, he's attempting to test it, to see the wonders that may result from it. This isn't, to my knowledge, a common mindset in European fairy tales. What he does is still kind of cruel - he locks her in a tower without enterance, with only 70 old men to keep her company, which is unideal to most any young woman. But still, this somewhat unique mindset is worth exploring. (On a side note I should say that the 70 elders thing is also very Jewish, but I'm not sure that there's much to do with it really, so I'm going to leave it here.)

Secondly, there's how, in the story, the male love interest is described as very smart - and a scribe. I kind of forgot to mention that, along with the fact he wrote their Ketubah in his own blood, but it's all there in the source. Either way, idealizing scribes is also a pretty Jewish thing, I think. I don't really know of any Disney prince who is known for his writing abilities. Now sure, in modern times where many people are literate it's not as significant. And yet... there could be something there. An emphasis on caligraphy, perhaps, or being a scribe for Torah scrolls... (I could segue here to a curse allegedly placed upon such scribes to never be rich - but that would be anachronistic, because it was placed by Ezra the Scribe. Don't ask.)

Of course, there are also the very clearly Jewish wedding traditions, which can help. Also, a vulture taking a carcass could actually work interestingly with Jewish symbolism - G-d says once that he talk the Israelites "upon the wings of vultures" and brought them to Him. Also, an eagle dives for the carcasses in Berit Bein HaBetarim, AKA the Covenant of the Pieces (a decent translation, I suppose), and some interpreters actually say it's symbolising G-d, but that's a long story.

The Astrology part is, admittedly, somewhat un-Jewish. The retelling in my book avoided it by changing it to the Urim V'Tumim, which can be a fun way to go, but... honestly, astrology plays a part in many Jewish stories. Plus, while the Urim V'Tumim reflect the will of G-d better than the stars, asking them about your daughter's soulmate is a bit odd, even if you are the king. So I think it's better to stick to the original version in that.

And... that's it for now, I suppose. A picture of the story will be added here, with description after because it's too long for ID text:

[ID: מב) בפרשת (כי) תשא באמצע אות ה' אחרי המלות: "ומביאו מסוף העולם ומזווג לזו בסוף העולם", כתוב בכתב יד: ומעשה בשלמה המלך שהיתה לו בת יפיפיה אין כמותה בכל ארץ ישראל, הביט במזלות מי בן זוגה ומי ישאנה, וראה שהוא עני אחד ואין בישראל עני כמותו, מה עשה, בנה מגדל גבוה בים, וה(/ח?)יה מסביבו בכל עברים מסביב, לקח בתו ושם אותה באותו מגדל הגבוה, ושם עמה שבעים סריסים מזקני ישראל, ובמגדול לא עשה פתח שלא יכנוס אדם בו, ושם בו צידה הרבה, אמר אראה פועל השם ומעשהו, לימים היה אותו עני שהוא בן זוגה והיה יוצא בדרך בלילה, היה ערום ויחף רעב וצמא ולא היה לו במה ישכב, ראה נבלת שור מושלכת בשדה, נכנס בה בין הצלעות הנבלה להפיג צינתו היה ישן בא עוף גדול ונטל אותה הנבלה ונשאה על גג אותו מגדל על חדר הבחורה, ושם היה אוכל העוף את בשר הנבלה, וישב שם על הגג כשהאיר השחר. יצתה הבחורה מחדרה ללכת הגגה כמשפטה בכל יום וראתה אותו בחור, אמרה לו מי אתה ומי הביאך הנה, אמר לה יהודי אני מבני עכו אני, אמנם עוף הביאני הנה, מה עשתה לקחתו והביאתו בחדרה והלבישוהו והרחיצוהו וסכתו ונתיפה מאד עד שאין כמותו בכל גבול ישראל, ואהבתו הבחורה בלבה ובנפשה, ונפשה קשורה בנפשו, והיה הבחור חריף ומפולפל וממולח וסופר, יום אחד אמרה לו רוצה אתה לקדשני, אמר לה ומי יתן, מה עשה הקיז דם וכתב לה כתובה ומוהר מדמו, וקידשה ואמר עד ה' היום ועדים מיכאל וגבריאל. בא עליה כדרך כל אדם ונתעברה ממנו, כשראו אותה הזקנים מעוברת אמרו לה כמדומה לנו שאת מעוברת, אמרה להם הן, אמרו לה וממי נתעברתה, אמרה להם מה לכם לדעת, נפלו פני הזקנים שהיו מתייראין משלמה המלך פן ישים עליהם עלילות דברים, ושלחו אליו לבוא לדבר אליהם, נכנס שלמה בספינה ובא אליהם ואמרו לו אדונינו המלך כך הדבר ואל ישים אדונינו בעבדיו עון, כששמע קרא לבתו ושאל לה על הדבר, אמרה לו בחור אחד הביא לי הקב"ה יפה וטוב תלמודי וסופר וקדשני, קראה לבחור ובא לפני המלך והראה לו הכתובה שעשה לבתו, ושאל לו המלך על אביו ועל אמו ועל משפחתו ומאיזה עיר הוא והבין מתוך דבריו שהוא אותו שראה במזל ושמח שמחה גדולה ואמר ברוך המקום שנתן לאיש וזהו מושיב יחידים ביתה. "מוציא אסירים בכושרות כו'" כמו בנדפס. /end ID]

(Note: added punctuation in the ID for the sections written by the publisher, the text from the manuscript is mostly left how it is in the picture.)

[hyperpotamianarch]

All right, you know what? My Jewish Fantasy/Disney Princess thread is a little long now, so I'm putting the story of the daughter of Shəlomo HaMelech here, in its own post. To attract traffic I'm sorry, be nice sorry again, to keep people in the conversation, I will tag the people who were a part of this particular reblog chain. I hope this will interest you, at worst you can just ignore another notification. @wanderingmadscientist, @alyssumlovesthecosmere, and @springstarfangirl. Sorry again.

So, this didn't really take a lot of digging, but it appears that my book Kol Agadot Yisra'el wasn't lying about the existence of this story! The source is, as mentioned in the post linked, in the preface to the Buber publication of Midrash Tanḥuma. Now, I've the Buber Tanḥuma cited regularly, so I think it's possible to find under regular circumstances. I did use resources that aren't available for everyone, though - Otzar HaChokhmah, a pay-based resource for thousands of scans of various Jewish religious books. Its name literally means "the Treasury of Wisdom/Knowledge", and a treasury it is - though I'm lucky enough to not be the one to pay for it. My college has access to their stuff, which is currently very convenient to me.

Anyway, that wasn't very helpful, because it was very easy to realize that this preface is long and I had no idea under which section this story is. So I did what every sane person would do in such a situation: I looked up the story in the Internet. To make a long story short, I found a website centered around Bialik's Sefer Ha'Agadah which gave a precise location to the level of pages. This was a little less helpful than you might think, because this website and the Otzar clearly had different ideas on where a page count should start. Fortunately, I expected that obstacle and went looking around a little more until I've found the story. I shall attach a picture of it in the end after the cut, but since it's in Hebrew it may not be of much interest to those here who do not speak the language.

One more not before I tell the story itself and lay down my thoughts: the particular section of the preface this story was found in was a listing of particular deviations in one of the manuscripts Buber was using in editing his edition of Midrash Tanḥuma. Specifically, the third manuscript he found in Oxford, which probably still exists in Oxford (or somewhere else). This is probably an old manuscript but... I'll get to my point after I tell the story.

The story begins with Shəlomo HaMelech having had a beautiful daughter, and wandering who G-d might have meant for her to marry. So he used his vast knowledge of astrology to divine that... she was going to marry a poor, lowborn man. So, he built a tower in the middle of the sea, one without any doors, and put there his daughter - along with seventy eunuchs of the elders of Israel. He also put there enough food for all of them to live by for a long time, and then left it all to see how G-d will turn events about. In the meantime, the girl's soulmate was starving and dying of hypothermia somewhere, so he went to draw some heat from a bull cracass, and went to sleep in it. A large bird (likely of a scavenging kind, regularly said to be a vulture) carried the carcass to the top of the tower to eat it. When the boy woke up, he found himself in the tower with Shəlomo's daughter. She asked him how he came to be there and he told her. Then they fell in love, yadda yadda yadda, they got married with G-d and the angels Michael and Gabriel as their witnesses (no, they do not directly appear in the story, it's about as good as the story about the Pit and the Rat which I'm not going to tell now), they did what married couples do, she got pregnant, Shəlomo came to see and asked her husband how she got there, finishing it all off with "bless G-d who matches a man", more or less.

In many ways, this sounds like a classic European fairy tale. Which has an upside and a downside. The upside is, it might make it easier to Disneyfy (without having to do the whole schtick with no loyalty to the source Disney constanty does) since it already has the esential parts of a Disney story: we've got a girl in need of saving (sort of), a boy for the love interest, a magical story of how they met and a happy ending. Add in a few songs, make her somehow randomly meet him prior to her time in the tower because getting to know him in the tower is kind of creepy even if this is exactly what the original story said (all right, I might consider this part of Disneyfication a way of being disloyal to the source material, but I'm not sure) and you basically have a classic Disney Princess story!

The downside is I'm not sure how Jewish it sounds, in addition to how it's a tiny bit too similar to Rapunzel. Both problems that can be dealt with, of course - so long as we don't let Disney itself actually deal with the story. Can't say I trust them with it. The way to treat both problems, I think, would be to enhance the background story to the "trapped in a tower" trope.

It's really hard to say what consists of a Jewish theme. Certainly, using Shəlomo as a character isn't enough: Christians have already tried to claim him as theirs, and merely having the setting of the story include him won't cause anyone to think "ooh, this must be a Jewish story!"

So, what can we enhance to make this story sound more Jewish? Well, firstly, the mindset of Shəlomo when doing all of this. This isn't too obvious in the story itself - but is a likely read IMO - that Shəlomo actually fully expects for G-d's plan to be fulfilled. He's not attempting to spite destiny, he's attempting to test it, to see the wonders that may result from it. This isn't, to my knowledge, a common mindset in European fairy tales. What he does is still kind of cruel - he locks her in a tower without enterance, with only 70 old men to keep her company, which is unideal to most any young woman. But still, this somewhat unique mindset is worth exploring. (On a side note I should say that the 70 elders thing is also very Jewish, but I'm not sure that there's much to do with it really, so I'm going to leave it here.)

Secondly, there's how, in the story, the male love interest is described as very smart - and a scribe. I kind of forgot to mention that, along with the fact he wrote their Ketubah in his own blood, but it's all there in the source. Either way, idealizing scribes is also a pretty Jewish thing, I think. I don't really know of any Disney prince who is known for his writing abilities. Now sure, in modern times where many people are literate it's not as significant. And yet... there could be something there. An emphasis on caligraphy, perhaps, or being a scribe for Torah scrolls... (I could segue here to a curse allegedly placed upon such scribes to never be rich - but that would be anachronistic, because it was placed by Ezra the Scribe. Don't ask.)

Of course, there are also the very clearly Jewish wedding traditions, which can help. Also, a vulture taking a carcass could actually work interestingly with Jewish symbolism - G-d says once that he talk the Israelites "upon the wings of vultures" and brought them to Him. Also, an eagle dives for the carcasses in Berit Bein HaBetarim, AKA the Covenant of the Pieces (a decent translation, I suppose), and some interpreters actually say it's symbolising G-d, but that's a long story.

The Astrology part is, admittedly, somewhat un-Jewish. The retelling in my book avoided it by changing it to the Urim V'Tumim, which can be a fun way to go, but... honestly, astrology plays a part in many Jewish stories. Plus, while the Urim V'Tumim reflect the will of G-d better than the stars, asking them about your daughter's soulmate is a bit odd, even if you are the king. So I think it's better to stick to the original version in that.

And... that's it for now, I suppose. A picture of the story will be added here, with description after because it's too long for ID text:

[ID: מב) בפרשת (כי) תשא באמצע אות ה' אחרי המלות: "ומביאו מסוף העולם ומזווג לזו בסוף העולם", כתוב בכתב יד: ומעשה בשלמה המלך שהיתה לו בת יפיפיה אין כמותה בכל ארץ ישראל, הביט במזלות מי בן זוגה ומי ישאנה, וראה שהוא עני אחד ואין בישראל עני כמותו, מה עשה, בנה מגדל גבוה בים, וה(/ח?)יה מסביבו בכל עברים מסביב, לקח בתו ושם אותה באותו מגדל הגבוה, ושם עמה שבעים סריסים מזקני ישראל, ובמגדול לא עשה פתח שלא יכנוס אדם בו, ושם בו צידה הרבה, אמר אראה פועל השם ומעשהו, לימים היה אותו עני שהוא בן זוגה והיה יוצא בדרך בלילה, היה ערום ויחף רעב וצמא ולא היה לו במה ישכב, ראה נבלת שור מושלכת בשדה, נכנס בה בין הצלעות הנבלה להפיג צינתו היה ישן בא עוף גדול ונטל אותה הנבלה ונשאה על גג אותו מגדל על חדר הבחורה, ושם היה אוכל העוף את בשר הנבלה, וישב שם על הגג כשהאיר השחר. יצתה הבחורה מחדרה ללכת הגגה כמשפטה בכל יום וראתה אותו בחור, אמרה לו מי אתה ומי הביאך הנה, אמר לה יהודי אני מבני עכו אני, אמנם עוף הביאני הנה, מה עשתה לקחתו והביאתו בחדרה והלבישוהו והרחיצוהו וסכתו ונתיפה מאד עד שאין כמותו בכל גבול ישראל, ואהבתו הבחורה בלבה ובנפשה, ונפשה קשורה בנפשו, והיה הבחור חריף ומפולפל וממולח וסופר, יום אחד אמרה לו רוצה אתה לקדשני, אמר לה ומי יתן, מה עשה הקיז דם וכתב לה כתובה ומוהר מדמו, וקידשה ואמר עד ה' היום ועדים מיכאל וגבריאל. בא עליה כדרך כל אדם ונתעברה ממנו, כשראו אותה הזקנים מעוברת אמרו לה כמדומה לנו שאת מעוברת, אמרה להם הן, אמרו לה וממי נתעברתה, אמרה להם מה לכם לדעת, נפלו פני הזקנים שהיו מתייראין משלמה המלך פן ישים עליהם עלילות דברים, ושלחו אליו לבוא לדבר אליהם, נכנס שלמה בספינה ובא אליהם ואמרו לו אדונינו המלך כך הדבר ואל ישים אדונינו בעבדיו עון, כששמע קרא לבתו ושאל לה על הדבר, אמרה לו בחור אחד הביא לי הקב"ה יפה וטוב תלמודי וסופר וקדשני, קראה לבחור ובא לפני המלך והראה לו הכתובה שעשה לבתו, ושאל לו המלך על אביו ועל אמו ועל משפחתו ומאיזה עיר הוא והבין מתוך דבריו שהוא אותו שראה במזל ושמח שמחה גדולה ואמר ברוך המקום שנתן לאיש וזהו מושיב יחידים ביתה. "מוציא אסירים בכושרות כו'" כמו בנדפס. /end ID]

(Note: added punctuation in the ID for the sections written by the publisher, the text from the manuscript is mostly left how it is in the picture.)

[hyperpotamianarch]

Well, do you know how, in a haste to find stuff, you find out just how sourceless they can be?

I have a very nice book in my house, called Kol Agadot Yisra'el. I got it as a Hannukah present once upon a time, when I wanted the final book of the Inheritance cycle before it even came out. I was immensely disappointed at the time, but in hindsight my grandfather probably had the best idea... and I'm digressing.

Point is, it's a very nice book that retells many ancient Jewish stories from various sources. It is from this book I've heard about the story about the daughter of Shəlomo that had some uncomfortable similarities to Rapunzel. And the source it has for this story? The preface to a particular old publication of Midrash Tanḥuma. Or, to be more accurate, "based on" this preface. I can't wait to find out how much creative liberty was taken.

It's still a nice Jewish story, but I'm going to delay talking about it further until I find the actual source.

So, Jewish Fantasy! A very nebulous idea that tries to catch form in many different ways. I don't know much about how it works outside of Israel - I saved the recommendation list that circulated around here but didn't try anything from it yet (outside of Spinning Silver, which I read before I ever saw the list). So, if anything of what I say seems ludicrous to you because you've seen a book that does it well - don't hesitate to recommend it to me! Though I'm not sure how applicable it will be for what I'm about to say.

There are a couple of angles from which one can try to get at Jewish Fantasy: through using Jewish folklore and myth as a basis for your story, through using Jewish characters or by writing out of a Jewish cultural context. In certain stories, different angles tend to be more pronounced - Charashta is based on Midrashim and Jewish folklore, Spinning Silver has Jewish characters, and Agam HaTzlalim is written out of some degree of Jewish culture. Yeah, two of those are Israeli books that weren't translated, feel free to give alternative examples but those are the only one I can safely talk about since I've actually read them.

I could elaborate more on that, but what actually made me want to write a post on the topic was a post about how so much of Fantasy is Greek (in a way) and Sci-Fi is Roman. And that made me think, what about Jewish Fantasy? And while this is a topic I've thought of and been somewhat involved in conversations on for some time now, this is looking at it from a particular angle. An angle which could be examplified by the simple question: why is there no Jewish Disney Princess?

All right, all right, settle down. I know about the Vanollope von Schweetz thing. Quite frankly, considering the source for it is the word of the actress and that it has no effect on the story whatsoever, I think I'm fine with ignoring it. Feel free to shout at me in the comments, hopefully the rest of the post will explain this better.

You see, the problem is that Disney Princesses mostly come from stories about Medieval Europe, and in that particular time and place "Jewish" and "royalty" were inherently contradictory. A Jewish girl couldn't have been a princess, because Jewish communities were never a part of the ruling class. At least not in medieval Europe.

Now the reason what I'm saying is rubbish is because of other contradictory examples, like Mulan or Tiana, and maybe Pocahontas or Esmeralda. And based off of those examples I could probably whip up a couple of ideas on how to do an interesting Jewish Princess story - base it on the Book of Judith, for example, or offer a Jewish twist on some European folktales (which might be hard considering some of them actually have straight up Jewish characters playing as the villains), or... have a movie about Jews assimilating into European culture... Yeah, I can see why Pocahontas or the Hunchback of Notre-Dame might feel a little uncomfortable. But the point is: Fantasy is based on Medieval times, and Jews' role during that time wasn't one of royalty.

You can't really write a medieval Jewish kingdom, because there wasn't really any. And yes, many people try using the Khazarians for that. However, their kingdom was only Jewish for a century, maybe, before it was completely destroyed. Plus, we barely have any data on what it looked like, and its culture was likely very different from Jewish culture. So the medieval presentation of Jews would have to be of a persecuted minority. That, essentially, is what we see in Spinning Silver: a Jewish family in medieval times, a member of which serves as our protagonist. And Maryem is pretty much constantly angry about the antisemitism flourishing all around her. So I suppose that could be an example to follow - along with the stories about Maharal of Prague and the Golem, fighting blood libels.

So, you can portray Jews as an oppressed minority, constantly fighting their persecution. An alternative could probably be following the example of Ḥassidic stories, talking about the Rebbe, the Renter, the Trader and the Widow (regular character archetypes in such tales). You could have the antagonist be the local Pariz, nobleman, or perhaps the gentile that decided to be a robber, or occasionally a fellow Jew who out-leassed your protagonist from their home. All regular tropes in the day-to-day life of an... (checks notes) early modern Eastern Europen Jew? Huh. I suppose it's not exactly the same period.

Either way, if you want your story to be more fuly Jewish, to not always play against the backdrop of a non-Jewish kingdom, you have some interesting options. The first question would be: are you taking from the past or the present? If you choose present, well, you can choose between Diasporan or Israeli culture. In addition, this will more or less constrain you to some type of Urban Fantasy or other Hidden World stories, with not much of an option to delve into Epic Fantasy. If that's what you want to do - great! Go ahead and do that. Personally, I have some degree of a problem with how I've seen Israeli culture portrayed in stories so far, but that's a story unto itself.

If you choose past... well... Jewish history is nothing if not long. And if we're really trying to make a more Jewish backdrop, we'll probably need to pull from Jewish independant states or kingdoms. Of which there are a couple that can be used - Ancient Israel throughout the time of the Tanach, from the Judges through the first kings and the divided kingdoms of Judea and Israel; Yehud Medinta, which while it existed under the Persians had a Jewish governor for certain periods; the Hasmonean Dynasty, with all its ups and downs; the Kingdom of Adiabene, which converted to Judaism for a time; some short-lived Jewish independant states in defiance of the Romans; and of course, the infamous Kingdom of Khazar. There are also legendary kingdoms of the lost 10 tribes, which could possibly work as interesting additions. It is also important to note that in the Tanachic period I included a pretty vast array of periods, including the Judges (periodical local saviors and heroes), the House of Sha'ul (which isn't too easy to characterize), the Davidic Dynasty (Temple! Prophets! A bloodline promised to last! Evrything you might want from a kingdom), and the Kingdom of Israel (a couple of dynasties have their own characteristics, but most didn't survive for long).

Maybe I'll try my hand in suggesting what a kingdom based on the Hasmonean Dynasty could look like later. For now, let us start with: there is no medieval Jewish kingdom, so we'll take one from the Hellenistic period or from the Bronze Age to cover it up! Either that, or we'll try figuring out the structure of the early medieval kingdom that converted to Judaism that one time.

I'm not sure how much of a point I made, really. Thank you for reading, and have a good day!