Seder Olam Revisited: C43- Mysticism
- Albert Benhamou
- 5 days ago
- 22 min read
CHRONOLOGY OF JEWISH HISTORY
Generation 43: Hebrew years 5040-5160 (1280-1400 CE)
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Introduction
This chronological generation is marked by the development of events following the 100th Jubilee from Creation (100 x 50 years = Hebrew year 5000), and the survival of the Jews despite all the hardship through a revival in their faith through mysticism (see previous document C42b, Hebrew year 5000).
Importantly, this chronological generation starts the last series of 7 chronological generations and witnesses the revival of Jewish faith, the return of Jews to Sion, and the times of pre-Messianic era.
Hebrew Year | CE | Event | Source |
5040 | 1280 | Diffusion of the Zohar | |
5040 | 1280 | The Rashba, Shlomo ben Aderet | |
5046 | 1286 | The Maharam of Rothenburg | |
5050 | 1290 | Expulsion of the Jews from England | |
5051 | 1291 | Fall of Acre, end of the Crusader presence in the Holy Land | Thomas Wright, "Early Travels in Palestine" |
5066 | 1306 | Expulsion of the Jews from France | |
5067 | 1307 | The curse of the Templars | |
5080 | 1320 | The Shepherds' Crusade | "J-M Vidal, "L'émeute des Pastoureaux en 1320" |
5083 | 1323 | Lithuania welcomes the Jews | |
5095 | 1334 | Casimir III of Poland protects the Jews | |
5097 | 1337 | The Hundred Years' War | |
5108 | 1348 | The Black Plague | Joseph Ha-Cohen, "The Vale of the Tears" |
5117 | 1357 | The Jews of Toledo | Theophile Malvezin, "Histoire des Juifs de Bordeaux" |
5135 | 1375 | Disputation of Pamplona | "Even Bohan" manuscript |
5151 | 1391 | Pablo de Santa Maria | |
5151 | 1391 | Hasdai Crescas of Barcelona | |
Year 5040 – 1280 CE – The diffusion of the Zohar
A mystical book called the Zohar first appeared in Castile around 1275. It was later (wrongly) attributed to Moses of Leon, who may have been his first compiler. The book had existed for centuries as it was composed by Simeon bar Yohai and his son during their years of hiding from the Romans (see document C33a, year 126). It had been taught since then, but always kept away from broad knowledge. It was only accessible to those involved in secret mystical studies. Some of the knowledge detailed in it would have been sensitive to the Christian world who held other beliefs, for example the Zohar's description of the shape and movement of the Earth (see document C35, year 350). But the demand for mystical studies in these days, as witnessed by the works written by Abraham Abulafia and others from Spain to Languedoc, made it relevant to bring the book of Simeon bar Yohai to this eager audience. And its success was immediate among the Jewish communities who reproduced the manuscript throughout Europe.
Year 5040 – 1280 CE – Shlomo ben Aderet, the Rashba
Shlomo ben Aderet, the rabbi of the Synagogue of Barcelona since 1260, who had witnessed the Disputation of Barcelona with Nahmanides firsthand (see document C42b, year 1263) and pleaded to stop it to avoid reprisals against his Jewish community, could also witness the spread of mystical works in Spain. This situation had been triggered by Nahmanides himself when he discussed the venue of the Messiah during the debates and had even stated his expectation as for the year of this venue. Such a bald announcement surely excited the thoughts of the communities of that time, and it is not mere coincidence that the apparition of the Zohar as a mystical source, and of people like Abraham Abrabanel, emerged around that same time.
Yet Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet, the Rashba, was determined to oppose this trend, by means of advice and responsa to the many communities of Europe who consulted him about this question first raised publicly in Barcelona. He is the one who excommunicated Abrabanel and forbade the study of his books. But he could not stop the hunger of his brethren for these questions and could only attest to their wider spread over the years. In 1306, he wrote:
In that city [Barcelona] are those who write iniquity about the Torah and if there would be heretic writing books, they should be burnt as if they were the book of sorcerers. (H.Z. Dimitrovsky, "Teshuvot HaRishba", Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, 1990, Vol. 2, p. 361, cited in Wikipedia)
The Rashba also opposed the Franciscans and Dominicans who endeavored to convert the Jews in these times. One, called Ramon [Raymond] Llull, had been the tutor of king James I of Aragon, and had surely been kept appraised of the Disputation of Barcelona. Following that remarkable event, he focused on building an argument, based on logical deductions, that the Church was right and the Synagogue was wrong. His work, Ars generalis ultima, published in 1305, served as a reference for the subsequent debaters of the faiths, even until the 18th century. Llull met his death in 1316 when he went to Bougie, North Africa, to convert the Muslims using his own method.
Year 5046 – 1286 CE – The Maharam of Rothenburg
Rabbi Meir ben Baruch, so-called the Maharam, was a leading Jewish authority in Rothenburg, Germany. In 1286, he set out to emigrate in Israel, hoping to flee from the persecutions in Germany, but he was arrested in Lombardy and sent back to Germany where he was imprisoned in a fortress. As he forbade the Jewish community to pay for the huge ransom being asked for his release (20,000 marks), he was held imprisoned. During his years of captivity, his disciple, Rabbi Shimon ben Tzadok, was allowed to visit him and he recorded his teachings which later formed the book called Tashbetz. When the Maharam died in 1293, his body was still held for the ransom. Finally in 1307, after 14 years, Rabbi Alexander Suskind of Frankfort paid it and the later obtained the promise to be buried next to this great Jewish scholar in the cemetery of Worms. In fact, Rabbi Alexander died one year later, and his wish was accomplished. The two tombstones still stand to this day, side by side.
Year 5050 – 1290 CE – Expulsion of the Jews from England
King Edward I of England was a warrior king, nicknamed Edward Longshanks and also "the Hammer of the Scots". His campaigns against Wales and Scotland led him to growing debts, because he used to pay bribery to adversaries to break up the unity of his enemies. And, as previous English kings had done before him, he extorted from the Jewish community, which accounted for about 3000 people in England, all their assets over the years.
By 1290, his Jewish subjects had no more financial resources to help the king with his debts, so he passed the Edict of Expulsion which meant the formal expulsion of the Jews from England. They resettled in Holland, France, and Germany where centres of Judaism had developed. The Jews were not allowed back to England for 350 years, until Cromwell nullified the edict in 1657.
Year 5051 – 1291 CE – Fall of Acre
Since their victory against the Mongols (see document C42b, year 1260), the Mamluks ruled from Egypt to Syria, and over most of the Holy Land. They tolerated the presence of the remaining Christian lands, mostly in Galilee and on the coastline. The capital of this former Kingdom of Jerusalem was no longer in Jerusalem but in Acre, on the coast of Upper Galilee. But local disputes between Christians and Muslims led the Mameluks to conquer one by one the Christian strongholds in Galilee: Nazareth in 1263, Arsuf in 1265, Safed in 1266, Jaffa in 1268, and all the fortresses around 1270-1272. At the time, Jerusalem was already in their hands and a small Jewish community, led by the presence of Nahmanides, started to flourish again in the city.
The only Christian stronghold that remained was the city port of Acre. During his years in the Holy Land, Louis IX of France had improved its city walls, moats, and defenses. In 1272, the Mamluk leader, Baybars, who defeated the Mongols, signed a 10-year truce with Acre. The Mamluks took the opportunity of these peaceful times to launch the construction of many edifices in the Holy Land. Baybars died in 1277 in Damascus and was succeeded by Qalawun who mostly built in Jerusalem, over 100 edifices that can still be seen today: palaces, public fountains, shrines, and so on.
In 1284, Qalawun renewed the 10-year truce with Acre. But in 1290, Italian merchants arrived in Acre and slaughtered peaceable Muslim merchants and peasants who were active in the city. This murder was the trigger that ended the truce with the Christians. Qalawun sent a big army towards Acre and started the siege. But in died in Cairo before end 1290. His son, El-Ashraf, continued the siege. The city fell on 28 May 1291. This was the last presence of Crusaders in the Holy Land.
The Holy Land remained in possession of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt until 1518 when the Ottomans, under the reign of Selim of Constantinople, conquered it.
In 1322, Sir John Mandeville, a traveller from England who visited the Holy Land expressed the fact that God must have been keeping a watch over His promised land and condemned sinners to lose their hold of it:
This country and the land of Jerusalem have been in the hands of many different nations, and often, therefore, the country has suffered much tribulation for the sin of the people that dwell there. For that country has been in the hands of all nations, that is to say of Jews, Canaanites, Assyrians, Persians, Medes, Macedonians, Greeks, Romans, Christians, Saracens, Barbarians, Turks, Tartars, and of many other different nations. For God will not let it remain long in the hands of traitors or of sinners, be they Christians or others. And now the heathens have held that land in their hands forty years and more, but they shall not hold it long, if God will. (Thomas Wright, "Early Travels in Palestine", London, 1848, chapter The Book of Sir John Mandeville, A.D. 1322-1356, p. 165)
Year 5066 – 1306 CE – Expulsion of the Jews from France
Philip IV so-called "the Fair" (Philippe le Bel) succeeded his father Philip III "the Bold" (Philippe III le Hardi) in 1285. He had several sons, so his succession was ensured, and this would secure the continuation of the Capetian dynasty. He only had one daughter, Isabella.
In 1302, he lost an important battle in the north and, with it, all his designs to acquire the Flanders region. Weakened and lacking funding, he resolved to secure his alliances, by marrying his only daughter to the heir to the throne in England, the future Edouard II son of Edward I "the Hammer of the Scots" who had expelled the Jews from his kingdom (see above, year 1290). Philip also married his sons to the heiresses of dukedoms or kingdoms neighbors with France (Burgundy, Navarre). His dynasty, he thought, was saved.
Philip had, like Edouard I of England, a taste for conquest and wars. As a result, he needed money and, as his English rival, started to seize what he could from the Jewish community of France. Then, in 1306, his treasury completely ran out of cash, so he decided to expel all the Jews from France to put a hand on their assets. At the time, the Jewish community had an estimated 100.000 people, much larger than the one expelled from England. The exact date of the edict of expulsion has been lost because the document itself was lost. But the expulsion started on 22nd of July 1306 (in the fateful Jewish month of Av). It is therefore estimated that the edict of expulsion was established six months earlier, to allow the Jews to either convert or leave the country. The date of 21st January 1306 corresponds to Hebrew date of 26 Tevet 5066.
The Jews relocated in neighboring regions outside the French kingdom, such as Provence, Burgundy, Languedoc, and the Rhine Valley. As a result, the Jewish population in Provence grew to about 10,000 people. But most of the Jewish refugees from France went east rather than south. Some families also emigrated to Spain, for example 60 families in Barcelona, 45 families in Anglesola (Source: Archivo de la Corona de Aragon, Reg. 203, folio 134, August 1311), 30 families in Alcaniz, and so on.
Year 5067 – 1307 CE – The curse of the Templars
But Philip IV needed more money. After the Jews, he turned his attention to the Templars, this wealthy order created during the First Crusade, who was in possession of properties and acted as an international bank for all pilgrims to the Holy Land. They had a lot of cash, but little use now that the Holy Land was lost after the fall of its last bastion, Acre.
In Rome, a new Pope was to be elected, and with lot of maneuvering, a French bishop, bought to Philip's interests, was chosen as Clement V. At the request of Philip, this new pope mounted a series of accusations against the Templars, on heresy, immorality, blasphemous practices, and so on. Due to bad politics, Clement V conflicted with Rome so moved his seat to France in 1309, first to Poitiers for a few years, and then to Avignon.
Meanwhile, with this official papal backing, Philip had all the Templars arrested on Friday 13 October 1307, and their assets and money seized. The rest was a long procedure of tortures to push the Templars to agree to their sins and be released on clemency. The head of the Order, Jacques de Molay, refused any admittance of wrongdoing. He was burnt to the stake in March 1314, not without cursing Clement V and Philip of France as well as his dynasty. What happened next?
One month later, in April 1814, Clement V died soon after Jacques de Molay.
Edouard II, husband of Isabella, daughter of Philip IV, was defeated in June 1814 by Robert the Bruce and lost Scotland, a possession that had made his father famous as the "Hammer of the Scots".
Philip IV died in November 1314, in the same year as Jacques de Molay.
Philip IV's daughters-in-law were found guilty of adultery and were banished to convents or assassinated in their jail.
Within the next few years, all the sons of Philip IV, being without male issue, succeeded one after the other on the throne of France but died in accidents.
Isabella, also accused of adultery in England, returned to France in 1325; she raised an army in 1326 to wage a successful war against her husband Edouard II; he was imprisoned then assassinated in his jail in 1327; she was nicknamed the "She-Wolf of France"
Edouard II and Isabella had one son, the future Edouard III, born in 1312, who later claimed the crown of France as legitimate heir and started the Hundred Years War.
Year 5080 – 1320 CE – The Shepherds' Crusade (Croisade des Pastoureaux)
In 1320, a young shepherd from Normandy asserted that he was visited by the Holy Spirit to raise a crusade and free Spain from the Moors. He gathered many followers (up to 10,000 according to Medieval chronicles) and, although they did not get support from the king of France, the mob marched south killing Jewish communities on their way. In the Papal State of Avignon (since Clement V moved the papal seat there), they were stopped so the Jews of Provence didn't suffer from their passage.
But in Toulouse for example, the Jewish community was massacred after having found refuge in the so-called Château Narbonnais at the entrance of the city. To avoid being killed, few Jews accepted to convert. One of them, Baruch, converted and but returned to Judaism once the mob had passed his city. But he was denounced as an apostate and brought a month later to trial by the Inquisition after a "confession", which often meant torture. His trial, for which the Church kept the record and proceedings in a manuscript of the Library of the Vatican, gives some insight of what happened to the Jews when the Pastoureaux came to Toulouse:
The people [of Toulouse] followed them [the Pastoureaux] and together they rushed in the street where the Jews lived, shouting: "Death! Death to the Jews!" Then the massacre started. Baruch was taken by surprise in his house, torn away from his studies, and ordered to choose between baptism and death. By seeing the carnage carried out on his brethren who refused baptism, he thought it more wisely to agree to it. He was immediately accompanied to St Stephens' Cathedral where he was passed to the care of two clerics in charge of executing the given orders. He tried in vain to gain time to escape cunningly from the ceremony that was loathful to him. In vain he tried to invoke influential characters who would have helped him. Nothing worked. So finally, he was given the baptismal water that made him a Christian whatever happened next. The massacre continued outside and only finished at the time of the Vespers [evening prayers]. That day claimed the life of 115 Jews. ("Confessio Baruc", manuscript MSS 4030, Biblioteca Vaticana, cited in J-M Vidal, "L'émeute des Pastoureaux en 1320", Rome, 1898, pp. 18-19, translated by Albert Benhamou)
In another city nearby, in Verdun-sur-Garonne, 500 Jews found refuge in a tower. But they committed collective suicide rather than fall into the hands of the mob. In total, this "crusade" destroyed about 110 Jewish communities in western and southern France.
After their rampage in France, the Pastoureaux tried to cross into Spain but were prevented to do so by King James II. They ignored the order and moved to Navarre where they continued to kill all the Jews, then passed the Pyreneans and attacked Jewish centres such as Tudela, until James II sent an army to get rid of them and killed 2000 of this mob, the rest fled back to France where they continued to lay waste its southern regions.
Year 5083 – 1323 CE – Lithuania welcomes the Jews
The city of Vilna (modern-day Vilnius, Lithuania) probably came to existence about 1250 CE after a new ruler of Lithuania was crowned in its castle. Later, in 1323, the grand-duke Gediminas called for men of all professions and skills to come to his city and settle there. This has been shown by letters he addressed to German states and to the pope John XXII (for these letters in Lithuanian, click here). Several Jews from the German states took this opportunity to move east to Lithuania, fleeing the persecutions they had to suffer in the Christian kingdoms. This open door to Jews contrasted with the expulsions from England and France and was followed by many Jews of Europe.
Year 5095 – 1334 CE – Casimir III of Poland protects the Jews
Following the policy of his predecessors, the king of Poland Casimir III so-called The Great extended the right to the Jews on 9 October 1334 (25 Tishri 5095) with a set of laws such as prohibition to force a Jewish child to conversion, prohibition to desecrate a Jewish cemetery, and so on. Such policy was guided by the desire of building a nation and to attract skills to build cities in a country which was otherwise mainly populated by peasants at the time.
Later in 1356, Casimir III fell in love with a beautiful Jewess and took her for mistress. The Jews naturally nicknamed them Ahasuerus and Esther (or Esterka in Polish). Her family name was Cudka which means 'jacket' in Polish (her father was a tailor). She gave him two sons who were brought up in the Christian faith: Niemierz and Pelka. Many Polish people bear such names today and are said to come from this union. Some also mention that she had a daughter as well, who was kept in the Jewish faith.
When Casimir died, one of his nephews reigned because he had no official male heir. Only Esterka gave give two sons.
It is from the reign of Casimir III that the Jews of Europe came to Poland in vast numbers, fleeing persecutions, expulsions, and more, and thanks to his favorable policy.
Year 5097 – 1337 CE – The Hundred Years' War
In 1328, the king of France and last son of Philip IV died for some unknown reason, and without issue. This signaled the end of the Capetian dynasty in France which had been so bad for the Jews. The crown was given to Charles of Valois, a regional vassal to the king of England. Edouard III refused to pay homage to this new "king", who was his vassal, and claimed that he was the legitimate king of France, from his mother Isabella, only surviving child of Philip IV, and himself being the only grandson of Philip IV. The French brought to light an old law of succession, valid in France but not in England, that heirs to the throne could only be male heirs, which disqualified Isabella for this purpose, and thus her son Edouard III.
Charles used this pretext of non-submission to his title to attack the English possessions in the southern region of Aquitaine. This led to the Hundred Years' War between France and England from 1337 until 1453.
Year 5108 – 1348 CE – The Black Plague
The European Christendom was cursed by a major epidemy of bubonic plague in the years 1348-1350. It started in Asia Minor or the Black Sea region and spread from the harbors in southern and northern Europe into the rest of the continent. It was devastating in large cities because of the density of their populations, and killed an estimated 30 million people in Europe, anywhere between 30% and 80% of the population depending on the city.
Of course, Jews were accused of this evil or used as scapegoats everywhere in the affected regions where they had settled after the expulsions of England and France:
In Strasbourg, two thousand of them [the Jews] were burned together in a huge stake. Some beautiful Israelite maidens were taken away from the stake by young bourgeois, but they threw themselves in the stake again. In Bern, the Magistrate gave himself the signal for the Most Christian massacre. In Meinz 12000 Jews, in Erfurt 6000, in Lubeck 9000. Many other cities followed suit, such as Soleure, Zofingue, Stuttgart, Augsburg, Landsberg, Burren, Memmingen, Lindau, Basle. The massacre spread like a flame in France, Spain, Savoy, and Switzerland. The communities were destroyed one after the other. Those in Essling, Spire, and Krems, threw themselves in the fire. And those of Vienna immolated themselves in the synagogue. The slaughter was so big across all Europe that, in many regions where the Jews had been numerous, there was none left. Half of the Jewish population [of Europe] died a violent death. (Joseph Ha-Cohen, "The Vale of the Tears", translation Albert Benhamou)
In the city of Chinon, in the Loire Valley, a French witness narrated:
A very big pit was dug where a big fire was lit and where about a hundred of Jews of both sexes were burned. Many of them, women as men, threw themselves in the fire while singing, as if they went to a wedding celebration; some widows threw their small children to the flames fearing that the Christians would take them away to baptise them. (Theophile Malvezin, "Histoire des Juifs de Bordeaux", 1875, page 46, translation Albert Benhamou)
Those among the Jewish communities who wanted to stay alive, and could do it in time, had to flee further east.
Year 5117 – 1357 CE – The Jews of Toledo
Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia inaugurated the completion of his private synagogue in Toledo in 1357, as he was the wealthy treasurer for the King of Castile, Pedro. This Pedro (Peter in English) was known as the Cruel or the Just depending on historians. Pedro was however in favor of the Jews and punished harshly anyone who harmed them.
The walls of the synagogue featured rich stucco decoration as seen in the Alhambra, and scenes taken from the Bible.
But this policy towards the Jews was short-lived because Pedro was defeated by Henry, pretender to the throne, in 1366. Then the crown passed to Henry, supported by a French army. He behaved openly against the Jews as he saw them former allies to Pedro who had even been nicknamed the "King of the Jews". During this civil war, the Jews often sided with the legitimate king, and this caused terrible reprisals against them from Henry's forces when cities fell one after the other. A French account of this war however mentioned that the Jews fought valiantly in Burgos and Toledo. Yet the massacre was inevitable after the cities fell:
The massacre that Henry's soldiers perpetrated was terrible. In Toledo, 12,000 Jews perished by the sword or fire; the shops, the Alcana were razed, and aljamas [Jewish quarters] looted. Samuel ha-Levi [Abulafia], accused of having received with no right the royal revenues, died under torture. The winning king imposed to them a fine of 20,000 gold doubloons. The persecution against the Jews even reached those who lived with the prince. Don Meir, Henry's own physician, was accused of desecrating a consecrated ostie, which was a common and dreaded accusation, and of having tried to poison the monarch. (Theophile Malvezin, "Histoire des Juifs de Bordeaux", 1875, page 64, citing Sire de Joinville (translation: Albert Benhamou)
Then, after the civil war, Henry often organized pogroms to force Jews to convert. His attitude towards the Jews was pursued by his son, Juan of Castile, during all his reign until 1390. This caused many Jews to leave Castile, but their situation was not much better in Aragon so several of them moved to Northern Africa where the Jews enjoyed better tolerance at the time. This was the first massive arrival of Spanish Jews to Northern Africa, while the second one took place about 100 years later, in 1492.
After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, the synagogue was given to the Knights of San Juan de Calatrava in exchange for the Alcazar of Toledo. The synagogue was later transformed into a church named "El Transito" (from a Christian topic called "Transit of the Virgin"). Today it is a museum about Jewish culture called the "Sephardi Museum".
Year 5135 – 1375 CE – The Disputation of Pamplona and the Even Bohan
Shem Tov ibn Shaprut was a physician and Jewish scholar born in Tudela, Spain, about 1340. He was also a polemicist and engaged in several public debates with Christians. His most known debate took place in Pamplona, on 26 December 1375, against Cardinal Pedro de Luna, a former Jew converted to Christianity. The topic of the disputation was about the Original Sin and the Redemption, and, of course, whether Jesus was the Messiah expected by the Jews. After the debate, Shem Tov moved out of Navarre into Aragon in 1378 because of the war in his country. There he authored a book about 1380-1385, Even Bohan (the Touchstone), in which he gave details of the disputation and also criticized the Jews who converted to Christianity (the Maranos). As part of this effort to convince his brethren to remain in the Jewish faith, he also translated the four main Gospels into Hebrew and added a critical commentary.
An example of the argumentation presented in Even Bohan is as follows. After citing the passages of the Torah that contradict the belief that the Jewish Messiah who had already come, Shem Tov explains why the Jewish condition of exile continued to prevail, by citing from Leviticus 26:33 and 20:22, as well as Deuteronomy 28:15-64, 30:2-3, and 32:46-47:
From these passages, six principles emerge concerning our Redemption contrary to the opinion of the Christians. The first is that the neglect of the Torah will bring curses and exile upon the Jews, while its observance will make their standing in the land of Israel permanent, which is opposite of the opinion of the Christians who say that our exile is for the sin of killing their Messiah. The second, that it was because of the neglect of the commandments that our king was exiled, and our rule was discontinued, while they say that this was caused by the killing of the aforementioned. The third, that it is destined for us that even if we sin and go to exile, if we turn back to Him, blessed be He, He will gather us and bring us back to our land, etc., that it this depends on our repentance, and if we do turn back to Him, blessed be He, He will inevitably bring us out of the exile. The fourth, that the Redemption will consist of the bringing back of all of us to our land, and He will circumcise our hearts to love the Lord our God and to observe His commandments. And from this, it can be seen that Jesus, who did not fulfil the commandments, was not the [Jewish] Messiah. (Shem Tov ibn Shaprut, Even Bohan)
The Even Bohan was highly successful among the Jews of Spain, who experienced various forms of critics from the Christians and, as many of them lacked arguments to defend their faith, they accepted conversion.
As for Cardinal Pedro de Luna, he became Antipope Benedict XIII in 1394. An antipope is a person who opposes the elected pope and makes a competing claim to be the pope. In the Middle Ages, there were many disputes about the election of the pope and this resulted in the existence of an antipope until the 15th century (to see a list of Antipopes, click here).
The reason for Pedro de Luna's decision was that the papacy was moved back from Avignon to Rome, and a new Pope (Urban VI) was elected there. However, Avignon remained a center for the dispute against the legitimacy of the papacy to be based in Rome, and antipopes were elected in Avignon instead (Clement VII and then Benedict XIII). This situation caused the Western Schism within the Roman Catholic world, from 1378.
Year 5151 – 1391 CE – Pablo de Santa Maria
The ha-Levi family had been very prominent in Burgos, Castile, and was respected by all the Jewish community. But the pressure to convert became too harsh in the years of the reign of Henry and his son. In July 1391, Rabbi Solomon ha-Levi decided to abandon the Jewish faith after the great massacres that preceded in June 1391 and converted publicly to Christianity. He was followed by his brothers and sons, but not by his wife who remained Jewish. His high position enabled him to become the Bishop of Cartagena around 1400, then of Burgos in 1415.
One of his sons, Pedro de Cartagena, became an able army commander and friend to the royal family. One of Pedro's daughters, Teresa de Cartagena born in 1425, entered the Franciscan Order and soon after became deaf around 1455. She was a writer considered in Spain as the first feminist writer.
Unfortunately, it was due to Pablo's earlier Jewish scholarship and knowledge of the Jewish scriptures that, because of pamphlets he wrote against Judaism, the Church had been able to direct precise accusations against the Jews or the Talmud and caused further disputations.
Year 5151 – 1391 CE – Hasdai Crescas and the Jews of Barcelona
Hasdai Crescas was born in Barcelona in 1340. He became a famous Jewish philosopher, precursor to Baruch Spinoza but attached to the Jewish faith. He was considered as the main spokesman of the Jewish communities of Spain at a time when these communities started to suffer more than ever before. Crescas wrote a letter to lament about the fate of his native community of Barcelona in August 1391 (Av 5151) which he witnessed:
The following Shabbat [5 August 1391, 26 Av 5151], the Lord poured out His anger like fire, shook His sanctuary, and desecrated the crown of the Torah that is the community of Barcelona, which was overtaken on that day. The number of dead reached two hundred and fifty souls. The rest of the community escaped to the fortress where they took refuge while the enemies looted the Jewish streets and put some on fire. The city leaders were not in a position to do anything, but they desired to save them with all their might, and they provided them with bread and water, and they prepared to pass judgment on the criminals. Then the masses and the mobs rebelled against the city leaders. They attacked the Jews who were in the fortress with bows and catapults. They struck and killed them there in the tower. The city leaders sanctified the names [of the victims] among them my only son, a one-year-old son-in-law, innocent, whom I offered as a sacrificial lamb. [...] Many committed suicide, some by throwing themselves from the tower, and did not reach half the tower until they were torn apart limb from limb. Some others went out from there into the street and sanctified the Divine Name. All the rest converted. Only a few escaped to baronial cities, so few that even a child could count them. They were among the elite. Because of the greatness of our sins, there is no one in Barcelona today named "Israel". (Letter from Hasdai Crescas to the Jewish community of Avignon, October 1391, translation Albert Benhamou)
The toll of the anti-Jewish riots of 1391 was high: thousands of Jews were murdered or forcibly converted to the Christian faith. In the sole city of Sevilla, 4000 Jews were massacred in a single day; and it has been estimated that one third of the Jews of Spain converted to Christianity in 1391 by fear of violent death.
Some escaped to nearby Spanish kingdoms, others to Granada (still a Muslim land) and even to Northern Africa. The famous disputation of Barcelona in 1263 should have acted as a warning for the Jewish community of that city. Nahmanides had to escape from there and settled in the Holy Land. More of his brethren should have followed him at the time. For about 500 years, no Jews lived in Barcelona after this massacre. Jews settled in the city again only in the 19th century.
As of Hasdai Crescas, he spent the rest of his life trying to rehabilitate the lost communities of the Spanish cities, but to no avail. The restrictions against the Jews became more severe over time and culminated with their expulsion from Spain about a hundred years later in 1492. The two events, the massacres of 1391 and the expulsion of 1492, have the Hebrew years of 5151 and 5252 respectively.
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Albert Benhamou
Private Tour Guide in Israel
Tishri 5786 - October 2025
