Modus: Prace z historii sztuki (20.2020)

3. Wilhelm Wachtel, title
piąte - Scapegoat, ca. 1935,
Museum of the Borderlands
in Lubaczów, inventory no.
ml/106ia/i. Photo after:
<https://tinyurl.com/
n879x7re>
a see p. 250

the Russian troops entered Galicia. In turn, the scene with Christ was painted
in 192088 as a response to the pogroms in Ukrainę in 1918-1919, carried out by
Semen Petliuras army.
Title page - Scapegoat89
The whole cycle opens with a piąte showing a white goat sitting in a circle of ten
black scorpions (see: Fig. 3). It is complemented by two inscriptions - in the upper
part in a vocalized notation in Hebrew alphabet | bUDl 2Nt”, and at the bot-
tom “WiL Wachtel | Golus.” The focal point of the composition is the animal on
a hill outlined with two arches. The goat is represented in a linear drawing, with
wavy lines reflecting the fur; it is sitting with the front legs tucked in, giving
the impression of being calm, with its head slightly turned towards the viewer.
However, this calmness is deceptive, because in the middle of the animals body
we see two circles resembling a shooting target, and both pairs of limbs are tied
with a ropę that prevents it from escaping. Contributing to the sense of danger
is a circle of black scorpions circling around the defenceless mammal.
The representation is symbolic, and each element finds reflection in Jewish
culture. The bound animal is the symbol of sacrifice associated with Yom Kip-
pur.90 During the holiday season, the high priest, by drawing lots, decided on
the destiny of two goats - one “for the Lord” was sacrificed on behalf of the na-
tion, while the other “for Azazel” was chased out of the city into the desert after
appropriate prayer, symbolically bearing the sins of Israel. In the Jewish tradition,
the goat is also associated with innocence, symbolizing a newly born man without
sin.91 The animal also appears in the song Chad gadya, sung during the Passover
Seder, in which it is a victim of a cat. This tale was symbolically read as the story
of the persecution of the people of Israel. In the circle of Ashkenazi culture,
the animal is present in many lullabies, but the most famous is the text of Raisins
and Almonds by Abraham Goldfaden, in which the white goat goes to the mar-
ket to bring the child the said delicacies.92 The song was part of the Shulamis
operetta, read as a metaphor for exile, a promise of redemption and a return to
Zioń. The animal also features in many other texts of Yiddish culture, and apart
from lullabies, it appears in the works of Mendele Mojcher Sforim, Icchak Perec,
Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Kadia Mołodowska. In art, however, the most famous
depiction of this motif is found in the paintings by Marc Chagall. Therefore, it
seems reasonable to read the image of the goat on the lithograph as a symbol
of the Jewish community, suffering for their sins, bound by the life in the diaspora
and awaiting redemption by returning to the Promised Land that Zionism will
bring. Scorpions, on the other hand, are common in the Sinai Peninsula and
the El-Tih desert, and they are also featured in religious literaturę. In the book

88 Currently in a private collection.

89 W. Wachtel, title piąte - Scapegoat, ca. 1935, lithograph, 59.5 x 43.5 cm, mkl, inventory no.
ml/io6ia/i, <http://judaika.polin.pl/dmuseion/docmetadata?id=6564&show_nav=true> (ac-
cessed on 25.04.2020).

90 N. Kameraz-Kos, Święta i obyczaje żydowskie. Warszawa 1997, pp. 47-49.

91 M. Sieramska, Znaki zodiaku, <https://delet.jhi.pl/pl/psjTarticlekU19036> (accessed on
10.11.2020).

92 A. Goldfaden, Rozinkes mit mandlen, 1880; for English translation of the lullaby s lyrics see:
<http://www.songsofmypeople.com/rozhinkes-mit-mandlen.html> (accessed on 01.05.2020).

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Maksymilian Puzio