History of the Jews, Vol. 3 (of 6)
A similar state of affairs was to be met with in the extreme west of Europe, in the Pyrenean peninsula. As Mahometans here also dwelt in proximity to Christians and Jews, the Church was not able easily to carry out its purpose, prompted by intolerance, of crushing the Jews. To this it must be added, that the higher culture of the Jews and their participation in all internal and foreign affairs, were circumstances in their favor here, and they forced respect from their enemies. Although Alfonso the Wise, king of Castile, had promulgated a law precluding Jews from filling state offices, yet he himself continued to appoint Jews to important posts. Amongst others, he promoted Don Zag (Isaac) de Malea, the son of Don Meïr, to be the royal treasurer. He was severely rebuked for doing so by Pope Nicholas III (1279), but still he did not remove the Jews from their offices. On one occasion, indeed, he became very angry with Don Zag, and caused his displeasure to be felt by the Jews generally in an ebullition of rage; this, however, was not out of respect for the Church, but emanated from discordant family relations. Don Zag had large sums of money belonging to the state under his custody, which the king had destined for the carrying on of a campaign. The Infante Don Sancho, who cherished hostile intentions against his father, compelled the Jewish treasurer to surrender the public money to him. King Alfonso was extremely enraged at this action, and, in order to teach his son a lesson, he had Don Zag arrested, put in chains, and thus fettered conducted through the city where the Infante was staying at the time. Don Sancho in vain exerted himself to procure the freedom of the Jewish Almoxarif, who was suffering for no guilt of his own; but Alfonso at once ordered his execution (1280). His displeasure was also visited upon all the Jews of Castile, who were forced to expiate their kinsman's act, which assuredly cannot be termed an oversight. The "wise" King Alfonso issued an injunction that all the Jews be imprisoned on a certain Sabbath, and exacted heavy fines from them, 12,000 maravedis every day for a stated period. The congregations were thus made to replenish the empty treasury. However, in a short time the king had to suffer severely for the violent injustice he had done to Don Zag. His son, who was embittered against him on this account, and took the ill-treatment and execution of Don Zag as a personal affront, openly rebelled against Alfonso, and drew to his side the greater portion of the nobility, the people, and the clergy. The unhappy king, who had indulged in extravagant ideals at his accession, and had hoped, as the emperor of Germany, to found a world monarchy, felt himself so deserted in his old age that in despair he appealed to a Mahometan prince to come to his help, seeing that he was "unable to find any protection or defender in his own land."
The condition of the Jews under Don Sancho, who ascended the throne when his father died grief-stricken, was tolerable, but was dependent upon caprice. This king was the first to regulate the payment of the Jew-tax (Juderia) by the congregations of New Castile, Leon, Murcia, and the newly-acquired provinces in Andalusia (la Frontera). Hitherto, every Jew had paid a capitation-tax of three maravedis (thirty dineros, about thirty-seven cents), in memory of the thirty pieces of silver guiltily paid for the death of Jesus. Don Sancho assembled deputies of the congregations at Huete, and named the total amount which every district was required to pay into the royal coffers, leaving it to the deputies to apportion this sum among the congregations and families (Sept., 1290). The commission for the newly-acquired territory in Andalusia was composed of four men. If these men found themselves unable to come to an agreement, they were to call to their aid the committee of the congregation (Aljama) of Toledo, and especially the aged David Abudarham, probably a highly respected personage. The Jews of the kingdom of Castile, whose population numbered nearly 850,000 souls, contributed 2,780,000 maravedis, part of which was the poll-tax and part the service-tax. In these provinces there were over eighty Jewish congregations, the most famous being in the capital Toledo, which, together with the adjacent smaller cities, numbered 72,000 Jews. There were also very large communities in Burgos (nearly 29,000), Carrion (24,000), Cuenca, Valladolid, and Avila. Over 3000 Jews dwelt in Madrid, which at this time had not yet attained any degree of importance. The king granted certain Jews who were his especial favorites immunity from taxation. This was the cause of much dissension, seeing that the freedom enjoyed by these usually wealthy persons fell as a heavy burden upon the body of the community, and on those less endowed with worldly goods.
At this period the Jews in the new kingdom of Portugal were very favorably placed, both under King Alfonso III (1248–1279) and King Diniz (1279–1325). Not only were they exempt from the canonical decrees which compelled the wearing of a distinctive sign and the payment of tithes to the Church, but prominent persons among them were appointed to fill very important positions. King Diniz had a Jewish minister of finance, named Judah, the chief rabbi of Portugal (Arraby Moor), who was so wealthy that he was able to advance large sums of money for the purchase of a city. Jews and Mahometans were commissioned to mete out punishment to the rebellious clergy, who, at the constant instigation of the papacy, strove to alter the national laws in accordance with canonical decisions, thus kindling fierce strife between the monarchy and the Church. In order to be at peace with the quarrelsome Church, King Diniz at length yielded, and introduced the canonical laws into his country, but made no serious attempt to carry them into effect.
Thus the Jews in the Pyrenean peninsula, in spite of the growing encroachments of the Church, in spite of its wicked desire to humiliate them, and the fanatical preaching and disputations of the mendicant friars, maintained a position superior to that held by Jews in the remaining countries of Europe. Here the pulse of spiritual life was strongest, here the character of Judaism was moulded, here questions of vital importance sprang up, were discussed, debated with passionate energy, and finally decided. Here the doctrines of Judaism were made the subject of warm debate, and the results of the scholarship and erudition of the Spanish Jews only gradually passed into the possession of the inhabitants of other countries and continents. Spain was once again, as in the ante-Maimunic epoch, elevated to the dignity of representing Judaism for the space of two centuries, and this was effected by a rabbi of remarkable genius. This rabbi was Solomon ben Abraham Ben Adret, of Barcelona (abbreviated into Rashba, born about 1245, died 1310). He was a man of penetrating and clear understanding, full of moral earnestness, of pure and unwavering belief, of mild temperament, combined with an energetic character, which prompted him to pursue with perseverance anything that he had discovered to be right. The Talmud, with its labyrinthine tracks and its hidden corners, with all the explanations and supplements of the Spanish and the French Tossafist schools, presented no more difficulty to Ben Adret than a child's primer, and he handled this enormous mass of material with such ease that he aroused the astonishment of his contemporaries. His probity at the same time guarded him from that subtle sophistry which had even then begun to be adopted in the treatment of the Talmud. Ben Adret, in Talmudical discussions, went straight to the core of a question, and did not stoop to employ stratagems or subterfuge. A Spaniard by birth, he did not altogether lack a knowledge of general science, nor disdain to pay some regard to philosophy, as long as it kept within its own province, acknowledged the doctrines of religion, and did not intrude with the desire of becoming a ruling power. He felt the necessity of interpreting those Agadic stories which gave offense by their simple literalness, and to explain them in a rational manner. While on the one side, then, he did no more than display a spirit of tolerance towards philosophy, he, on the other, had profound respect for the Kabbala, perhaps because his master Nachmani had paid such great homage to it. He confessed that he had not dived very deep into the subject, and maintained that his contemporaries who occupied themselves with the study were likewise not very profoundly initiated, and that their pretended secret traditions were idle boasts. He desired that the Kabbala be taught only in secret (esoterically), and be not expounded in public. Ben Adret's greatest power, however, lay in his acquaintance with the Talmud, because this represented to him, as it had to his teachers, the alpha and omega of all wisdom. In this he lived with his whole soul. Every Talmudical expression appeared to him to be an unfathomable well of the profoundest knowledge, and he believed that a mind completely absorbed in the study was necessary in order to reach its depths.
Such was the nature of the man to whom was allotted the task of bearing aloft the standard of Judaism in these greatly disturbed times, and of combating the extravagant stories that arose on two sides – from the philosophers and from the Kabbalists. For forty years the authority of the Rabbi of Barcelona was paramount in the religious affairs of the Jews, not alone in Spain, but also in other parts of Europe, as well as in Asia and Africa. Questions for his decision were sent to him from France, Germany, Bohemia, Italy, and even from St. Jean d'Acre (Accho) in Palestine and from northern Africa. Students from Germany sat at his feet to hear him expound the Talmud. This is the more noteworthy, as the German rabbis were proud of the learning of their own country, and would not admit the superiority of the academies of any country over their own. When David, the grandson of Maimuni, was in great need, he turned to Ben Adret to obtain assistance. David Maimuni (born 1233, died 1300), who, like his father and his grandfather, was the prince (Nagid) over all the congregations in Egypt, had been calumniated by some evil-minded enemies before the Sultan Kilavun, and accused of some crime. He put his detractors under a ban of excommunication, but it appears without effect. At all events, David hoped to be placed on a safer footing, if he succeeded in appeasing the Sultan by gifts of money. He applied to Ben Adret, and laid the story of his sufferings before him; his request met with a ready response. Ben Adret sent an envoy with a letter to the Spanish congregations to collect funds, and all the communities joyfully contributed large sums of money to aid the grandson of the highly revered Maimuni. Whenever any event of importance took place within Jewish circles, Ben Adret was appealed to for advice or assistance.
The unique distinction enjoyed by the Rabbi of Barcelona can certainly not be attributed entirely to his comprehensive knowledge, for at that time there lived many learned rabbis, and even in Spain there was one equal to him. His fellow-student and countryman, Aaron Halevi (born about 1235, died after 1300), was equally well grounded in the Talmud, also composed works on the subject, and was not his inferior even in secular knowledge.
Ben Adret, nevertheless, exercised supreme authority over all the congregations, both far and near. This superiority was conceded to him on account of his energetic, ever ready defense of Judaism against attacks from within and without.
The clouds, pregnant with destruction, which burst upon the Jews of the Pyrenean peninsula two centuries later, began to collect in the time of Ben Adret. The means which the fanatical General of the Dominicans, Raymond de Penyaforte, had devised for the conversion of the Jews, were beginning to be used. The attempts made in Spain during the period of the Visigoths, on the one hand, to work upon the feelings of the princes and legislators by means of anti-Jewish writings, and, on the other, to prevail upon the Jews to desert their faith, were renewed on a larger scale. There now came forth from the institution which had been established by Raymond de Penyaforte for the purpose of instructing the Dominican monks in the literature of the Jews and Arabs to be used as a means of conversion, a monk, who was the first man in Europe to sharpen weapons of learning for the contest against the Jews. Raymund Martin wrote two books full of malevolent hostility against Judaism, whose very titles announce that the prison cell and the sword were to be employed against its adherents. They are called "Bridle for the Jews," and "Dagger of Faith" (Capistrum Judæorum, and Pugio Fidei). Martin possessed a thorough knowledge of Biblical and rabbinical literature, and was the first Christian who was better acquainted with Hebrew than the Church Father Jerome. He read with ease the Agadic works, the writings of Rashi, Ibn-Ezra, Maimuni and Kimchi, and used them to show that, not alone in the Bible, but also in the rabbinical writings, Jesus was recognized as the Messiah and the Son of God. As might be expected, Raymund Martin laid especial stress upon the argument that the Jewish laws, although a revelation from God, were not intended to have force for ever, and they would lose their validity, particularly at the time of the Messiah. To demonstrate this point, he adduced apparent proofs from the Agadic literature of the Talmud. He also urged that the Talmudists had tampered with the text of the Bible.
Although Raymund Martin's "Dagger of Faith" was neither sharp nor pointed, and although the book is so devoid of spirit that no person could be seduced by it, yet it made a great impression because of the amount of learning displayed therein. By means of the subjoined Latin translation of the Hebrew texts, Christians for the first time were able to peer into the recesses of the Jewish world of thought, which had hitherto been an impenetrable secret to them. Dominicans, eager for the fray, were provided with weapons from this well-stocked arsenal, and aimed blows with them which, to the superficial observer, appeared to strike the air only, but which were regarded by Solomon ben Adret as fraught with danger. He very frequently had interviews with Christian theologians, and, it appears, with Raymund Martin himself. He heard from them various statements, and all sorts of arguments to prove the divine character of Christianity, and was afraid that the weak-minded and the immature might be induced thereby to abandon the Jewish belief. In order to counteract this, he wrote a small pamphlet, in which he briefly refuted all those arguments which were employed at the time by Christians against Judaism. In this refutation and justification, Ben Adret manifested a remarkable spirit of moderation and calmness: no bitter or passionate utterance escaped him.
His polemical writings against a Mahometan writer are much more severe. This author, with scathing criticism, attacked the three revealed religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and directed his arrows very cleverly against their weak points. But Ben Adret's defense is feeble: it proves the correctness of the Bible from the Bible itself, and combats his critical opponent with Talmudical weapons. He thus continually reasons in a circle, and by no means did he achieve a glorious victory. Ben Adret's activity was productive of better results within the ranks of Judaism than beyond them. His time was one of great agitation, in which science and religion were diverging more steadily and noticeably than before: piety daily widened the gulf between it and thought; and thought continually separated itself more and more from the sphere of religion. The Kabbala, growing ever bolder, interfered in the fierce battle of opinions and religious beliefs, and cast its dark shadows over the dimly illuminated basis of Judaism. The old questions, whether Maimuni was to be termed a heretic or not, whether his philosophical writings were to be shunned or indeed consigned to the flames, or whether they were to be considered a satisfactory exposition of Jewish principles, – these questions now burst into new life, and again caused divisions. In Spain and in southern France, the strife had been extinguished by the solemn repentance of the former anti-Maimunist, Jonah I. Since his time, the rabbis of these congregations held Maimuni in great reverence, and considering his ideas as indisputably conducive to the strengthening of religion, they made use of them with more or less skill and lucidity of thought. Even the most orthodox Talmudists in Spain and Provence quoted sayings of Maimuni in their expositions of religious questions. But the battle for and against Maimuni was waged on another scene of action. In the German and Italian communities, it inflamed the minds of men anew, penetrated as far as Palestine, and, as it were, enfolded all Judaism in its embrace. The German Jews, who hitherto had not shown any liking for science, and who had limited their thoughts to the narrow circle of the Talmud, were unacquainted with the work of the active spirits of Montpellier, Saragossa, and Toledo. They did not suspect that Maimuni, in addition to his code of religious laws, which they accepted, had left writings of a more questionable nature. They were now rudely awakened from their happy religious slumber, and their minds agitated with speculations upon the consequences involved in the Maimunist philosophy of religion.
The man who rekindled this bitter strife was a learned Talmudist, named Moses ben Chasdaï Taku (Tachau?), who flourished from about 1250 to 1290. An eccentric, orthodox literalist, he considered all philosophical and rational views concerning Judaism equal to a disavowal of the truths of the Torah and the Talmud. Taku was quite logical in his opposition. He denounced as heretics not only Maimuni and Ibn-Ezra, but also the Gaon Saadiah, because the latter, in his writings on philosophy, had been the pioneer in this path. The new study had thus originated with him; before his time it had been unheard of in Jewish circles. Led by an unerring instinct, Taku justly affirmed that these men had paved the way for the Karaites. He maintained that it was the bounden duty of every pious Jew, who believed in the written and oral Law, to keep himself aloof from their folly. Moses Taku, with his curious notions, certainly did not occupy an isolated position among the German rabbis. Other men, who had been nurtured in the same school, undoubtedly were in entire agreement with him: but they did not all possess the courage or versatility to take part in a contest against the well-armed representatives of the philosophical school. The most distinguished among them was Meïr ben Baruch of Rothenburg on the Tauber (born 1220, died 1293), on whom the last rays of the dying school of the Tossafists continued to linger. He probably was the first official chief rabbi in the German kingdom, having perhaps received this title from Emperor Rudolph, the first of the house of Habsburg. Although he is sometimes reckoned among the Tossafists, yet his Talmudical writings reveal comprehensive erudition rather than originality or acuteness. He can in no way be compared with Ben Adret; however, he was an authority in Germany and northern France. His piety was of an exaggerated kind. It had been agreed by the French rabbis that in winter rooms might be warmed on the Sabbath by Christians. Meïr of Rothenburg would not allow the Sabbath to be desecrated in this indirect way. He therefore tightly fastened up the doors of the stoves in his house, because the servant-maid had several times made a fire unbidden. In general, the German Jews were more scrupulous than those of other countries; they, for instance, still observed the fast of the Day of Atonement for two consecutive days.
What position the German rabbis took in reference to the denunciation of philosophy and of Maimuni, revived by Moses Taku, is not authentically known, but may be inferred from an event which was the cause of much scandal elsewhere.
A French or Rhenish Kabbalist, who had emigrated to Jean d'Acre (Accho), was stirred up by even more intense zeal than Moses Taku. This man, whose name was Solomon Petit, made it the aim of his life to kindle again the pyre for the wholesale burning of the writings of Maimuni, and to plant the standard of the Kabbala upon the grave of philosophy. At Accho he gathered a circle of pupils around him, whom he initiated into the knowledge of the secret art, and to whom he related marvelous stories in order to cast disrepute upon philosophy. Accho was at this time a very nest of Kabbalists and mystics, of whom the greater number were pupils of Nachmani. Although the days of this town, the last stronghold of the much reduced Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, were numbered, these dabblers in the mystic art conducted themselves as if they were destined to remain there for ever. Solomon Petit thought that he could command sufficient support to venture upon carrying into execution his plan of publishing once more a sentence of condemnation upon Maimunist writings, of forbidding under penalties all scientific study, and excommunicating men engaged in independent research. His fanaticism was especially directed against Maimuni's "Guide" (Moré); in his opinion it deserved to be proscribed, like other heretical works. He enlisted many followers in Palestine to aid him in this attack on heresy. Who would not obey, when the voice of the Holy Land had caused itself to be heard? Who would attempt to justify what it had condemned? But the zealot Solomon Petit met with unexpected opposition.
At the head of the Eastern congregations at this time, there stood an energetic man, Yishaï ben Chiskiya, who had obtained the title of Prince and Exilarch (Resh-Galuta) from the temporal authorities. Those communities of Palestine which were under the rule of the Mahometans and of the Egyptian Sultan Kilavun, naturally belonged to his diocese, and he also claimed obedience from the community at Accho, although it was in the hands of the crusaders. The Exilarch Yishaï held Maimuni in the highest respect, and was on friendly terms with his grandson, David, the Nagid of Egypt. As soon as he received information concerning the doings of Solomon Petit, the mystic of Accho, he dispatched a sharp letter to him, and threatened to excommunicate him if he persisted in his attacks on Maimuni and his writings. Several rabbis, whom Yishaï had called in, to add the weight of their authority to his, expressed themselves to the same effect. But Solomon Petit was not a man to permit himself to be overpowered by obstacles. He undertook a journey to Europe, visited the large congregations, and described the danger of the Maimunistic writings to the rabbis and other distinguished persons. He overawed them by his knowledge of the Kabbala, succeeded in persuading many to join him, and announce, in documents bearing their signatures, that the philosophical writings of Maimuni contained heresies, that they deserved to be put aside or even burnt, and that no Jew ought to read them. Nowhere did Solomon Petit meet with such hearty support as with the German rabbis. They showed their approval of his action in letters, even some of those who had recently been in agreement with the Exilarch Yishaï.
Being assured of the assistance of the German and of some of the French rabbis, Solomon Petit started on his return journey through Italy, and sought to obtain partisans in that country also; but there he met with the least response, for just as Maimuni was finding fresh antagonists in Germany, so his admirers were increasing in Italy. The Italian communities, which hitherto had rivaled the Germans in ignorance of every kind, were just awakening from their torpidity, and their recently opened eyes turned to the light which emanated from Maimuni. Their political condition was not unfavorable; in fact, within the precincts of St. Peter, they were at that time in more propitious circumstances than any of the Jews of central Europe. The canonical laws against the Jews were nowhere more disregarded than in Italy. The small states and municipalities, into which the country was split up at this time, were too jealous of their liberty to permit the clergy to exert any influence over their domestic concerns. The city of Ferrara passed a statute in favor of the Jews, granting many liberties to them, and containing a clause stating, that a magistrate (podestà) could be empowered neither by the pope nor by any one else to deprive them of these privileges. Not only had the king of Sicily, Charles of Anjou, a Jewish physician, Farraj Ibn-Solomon, who, under the name of Farragut, was held in high repute as a scholar in Christian circles, but even the pope himself transgressed the canonical decree which forbade any one's taking medical assistance from a Jew. One of the four popes who reigned during the short period of thirteen years (1279 to 1291) entrusted his holy person to the care of a Jewish physician, Isaac ben Mordecai, who bore the title of Maestro Gajo.
