The War of the Holy Days

Nothing is known about the life of Zalman Sofer, who composed a poetic debate between wine and water. Hebrew and Yiddish versions of this poem appear in an anthology of secular Hebrew and Yiddish poetry edited by Menaḥem ben Naphtali Olendorf, which was completed in 1516. Zalman’s name appears in an acrostic in the poem. This debate between wine and water was written in the medieval tradition of “debate” or “controversy” poems depicting an argument between two opposing parties. This tradition was also popular among medieval Hebrew poets. The versions in Hebrew and Yiddish are very different, and some scholars have described them as completely different poems. A competition among the Jewish holidays written in rhyming narrative form is also attributed to Sofer.