The Cultural Code "Bestiary" in the Jewish Pictorial Semiosis

The subject of the study is the cultural code "Bestiary", which combines symbolic images of animals and chimeras in the Jewish pictorial semiosis. The object of the study is traditional symbolism in Jewish pictorial practice. The article uses the methods of semiotic analysis in deciphering the meanings of the elements of the traditional pictorial Jewish semiosis, the method of analyzing previous studies, the method of synthesis in substantiating sets of signs. In their work, the authors consider the following aspects of the topic: the main codes of the Jewish pictorial semiosis are highlighted, their morphology, interrelationships, key meanings and the main code are substantiated. The Bestiary code, its features, etymology and reading are considered in detail. The main conclusions of the study are: 1.Based on the study of Jewish traditional culture, five main codes of pictorial semiosis in Judaism were identified, uniting a group of symbols: skewomorphic (subject), phytomorphic (plant), zoomorphic (animal), numeric. The primary source of all codes and the unifying code is the Sefer code (Book). The interactions between the codes are revealed, the key meanings are the symbolism of Creation, Paradise, Torah persons and Messianic aspirations. The semantic center of the codes – the Torah and Aron Hakodesh, as a repository of the Torah, is revealed. 2.The Bestiary code considered in detail represents the symbolism of traditional images of animals and chimeras, which is connected with the prohibition in Judaism on the image of a person. Images of representatives of the world of animals, birds, fish, as well as mythical creatures in the Jewish reading convey the meanings of human virtues and negative qualities, and also indicate Messianic hopes laid down in the Torah and especially in the Midrash Talmud.The scientific novelty of the study consists in the fact that for the first time a culturological analysis was carried out and the interrelationships of cultural codes in the Jewish pictorial semiosis were structured, with an emphasis on the Bestiary code.

Cultural code, Judaism, Bestiary, Pictorial semiosis, Zoomorphic symbols, Torah, Aron Hakodesh, Talmud, Midrash, Mythology