Shira Greenberg's Historiah Notes

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The Battle Between the Christians and the Muslims
Spain was Muslim. In the late 12th century, the Christians were re-conquering Spain, the Reconquista. When the Almohads were persecuting the Jews, the Jews ran to the Christian part of Spain. The Christians held debates to prove Christianity between an Apostate (a Christian Jew) and a Jew. Apostates claimed to have a stronger proof because they were in both religions.
Disputation of Barcelona
Friar Paul (Pablo Christiani) had a debate against ic‘‘nr in 1263. The ic‘‘nr was
a kcuen and the rsv exp. He recorded the debate in juehpv rpx. When the Jews were
treated harshly, they ran to the Christians. But now, when the Christians gained power
they didn’t need the support of their Jewish residents and they too persecuted the Jews. In
1468 Isabelle became Queen of Castille. She wanted a unified Catholic Spain. To unify
Spain she married Ferdinand of Aragon. But there were two problems preventing the
Catholic part of her mission: Granada, a part of Spain, was under Muslim (Moor) control,
and there were many Conversos (Converts, New Christians, Moranos) whose sincerity
was questionable.
Inquisition
In 1391 Ferrand Martinez forced many people to convert. The Spanish Inquisition was established to verify converts’ sincerity. The Inquisition was a section of the government. Jews were arrested, tortured, and burned at the stake. in 1483 Thomas de Torquemada, Isabelle’s personal confessor, became in charge of the Inquisition, the Inquisitor General. Burnings were common, especially on special occasions. The Inquisition spread to Europe and South America. The Inquisition was only abolished in 1834.
Abarbanel
The Abarbanel was born in 1437 in Portugal. His grandfather falsely converted
to Christianity and smuggled his son, the Abarbenel’s father, out of Spain to live with
family in Portugal, and to live as a Jew. His father was the royal treasurer of King
Alfonso and when his father died, the Abarbanel took over. The Abarbenel was fluent in
many languages and was good at math, science, and many other things, he was a
Renaissance man. He was the leader of Portuguese Jewry. He intervened with the king on
behalf of the Jews. In 1481, there was a new king, King John II, who was very
suspicious of the Abarbenel and thought the Abarbenel would over-throw him. He took
bribe money from the Abarbenel but didn’t actually help the Jews escape persecution. He
made restricting laws. The Abarbenel ran to Spain, where most people were running
from. He realized that maybe he was spending too much time with the government and
not enough with ‘v. But when Ferdinand and Isabella found out he was in Spain, they
appointed him as treasurer. He financed the war in Granada and it was successful.
Ferdinand wanted to thank his god so he decided to give him the Jews. Jews were
expelled from Spain and had to leave by ct ‘y 1492. The Abarbanel was offered to stay
but he said no. He dedicated his time to be ezjn the Jews from Spain. He helped them
rebuild their lives. He wanted to stay in Naples, but the king of Naples also drafted him
to be his treasurer. When the French attacked Italy all of his handwritten manuscripts
were burned. When he died, vandals destroyed his grave. After the expulsion from Spain,
many ran to Portugal. King John II died and King Manuel wanted to unite the Iberian
Peninsula, so he married Isabella, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. They agreed to
the marriage on the condition that King Manuel expel his Jews also. In December 1496
the Jews of Portugal were expelled. King Manuel was crueler than the rulers of Spain.
They were forced to convert or die. Later, the Inquisition started in Portugal weeding out
the insincere Christians in 1531.
hbcutrv sus
After the expulsion many people went to Egypt. There was a rea jhan there.
After such grief people are desperate for something good to happen and they are very
vulnerable. hbcutrv sus came riding onto Egypt on a white donkey. He said he was from
the ohycav ,rag and he had a letter from the Jewish king. He said he had a mission to
get the Pope to join with the Jews to get Israel from the Muslims. The Christians would
benefit from the access to the Mediterranean ports for the spice trade. hbcutrv sus met
with the Pope and he agreed but hbcutrv sus needed to get each individual king’s
approval. He traveled through Europe. When he got to Portugal, which was full of
Conversos, they thought it was the true vguah. Many Rabbis spoke out against him. sus
hbcutrv would have just disappeared after a while, but Dr. Diego Perez, a prominent man
from a Converso family joined him. Dr. Diego Perez was unhappy with Christianity so he
searched for Judaism. When he joined hbcutrv sus he called himself vfkn vnka. The
Inquisition was furious. They ordered hbcutrv sus to convert or leave. hbcutrv sus left to
Italy and vfkn vnka went with him. When they got to Germany, the Emperor thought it
was a mockery and arrested them. hbcutrv sus was imprisoned. vfkn vnka was burned at
the stake as a Converso/Christian who returned to Judaism. They offered him a last
chance to convert to Christianity, but he refused saying that he had no regrets. hbcutrv sus
disappeared, and many Jews were demoralized. People now wanted to go to Muslim
countries, the Ottoman Empire. Those who didn’t convert during the expulsion resented
the Conversos who escaped and came to live in their communities. People called
themselves y‘‘x, which means rvy hsrpx. There was also tension between ohsrpx and
ohzbfat. ohsrpx were the first Jews to come to America. Holland was good to its Jews.
Greece was mostly Jewish and the harbor was closed on ,ca. It was good to its Jews
until WWII.
Mendez Family
The Mendez family was a Converso family of prominent bankers in Portugal.
They owned a wealthy international bank. They knew that had to leave Portugal but
running away would look suspicious especially if they wanted to take their money with
them. The head of the family died so Dona Garcia, now a widow, decided they would go
in groups and meet up in Turkey. She chose her nephew Don Juan to go first and form a
relationship with the Sultan, which he did. On the way to Turkey they stopped in Venice,
where someone figured out what they were doing and got them arrested. Dona Garcia
sent a message to Don Juan and he went to the Sultan. The Sultan threatened the
Venetian government that they wouldn’t be able to use the Turkish ports for trade and the
Mendez family was freed. Don Yosef (Juan) was asked to be the assistant to the Sultan,
which put him in a position to help the Jews. The Sultan wanted to give the Jews land, so
he promised Don Yosef land near Tiveriah and he planned a silk trade there. The Arabs
near there complained and instead he gave the Jews an island off Greece, Naxos, which
Don Yosef ruled, receiving the name thabv ;xuh is.
vkce
Jews who ran from the expulsion went to the northern part of Israel where there
were no Christians. They also went to ,pm, known as ohkcuenv rhg. The Jews suffered a
lot and were looking for a deeper reason for their pain. hjuh rc iugna ‘r wrote the rvuz,
which iuhks van ‘r published. At first the rvuz was controversial but it was slowly
accepted. The rvuz is a rpx on the vru,, written in Aramaic, and is the main vkce book.
thruk ejmh ‘r heukt, or the kz‘‘hrt was the student of rcusre van ‘r, or the e‘‘nr. His brother
was .cekt vnka ‘r, who wrote hsus vfk. The e‘‘nr died and the kz‘‘hrt was the kcuen from
1548-1572. The kz‘‘hrt had many students but his main student was kyhu ohhj ‘r. The kz‘‘hrt
didn’t write down his ideas, kyhu ohhj ‘r wrote his ohrpx. He wrote ohhj .g. The world is a
mask covering the world of vkce. The kz‘‘hrt had asev jur. Before the kz‘‘hrt came, many
ase hnuen were forgotten, and when the kz‘‘hrt came he found them. The kz‘‘hrt had a
piece of ubcr van’s vnab. kyhu ohhj ‘r only learned under the kz‘‘hrt for a year and a few
months. Everyone asked the kz‘‘hrt why he didn’t write a rpx, and he said because when
the power of vkce suddenly comes upon him he couldn’t handle writing. Then how come
kyhu ohhj ‘r could? Because he got smaller pieces. The kz‘‘hrt lost his father and he went
with his mother to her brother in Egypt. He married his cousin. When the e‘‘nr died he
thought someone told him not to teach vkce but thcbv uvhkt came to him and told him to.
The people who studied vkce make a few ,ube, for themselves: 1) jn‘‘d, which
stands for ohsxj ,ukhnd, a free loan. 2) ,umj iue, to mourn the icruj. 3) Visible ,uhp.
4) iye f‘‘uh on j‘‘r crg. 5) ,ca ,kce. 6) To check each other’s ,uzuzn. 7) To give each other
rxun and not to speak back for three days.
vfkv
Until now the basis for vfkv were the ;‘‘hr, the ic‘‘nr, and the ohru,v kgc.
urte ;xuh ‘r was born in 1488 in Turkey. He wrote the ;xuh ,hc based on the ru, but traced
all the sources and explained why the ru, followed this. During this time he moved to
,pm. He had to travel to Italy to have it printed. Then he wrote a simpler version of his
own rpx, the lrug ijkua. The t‘‘nr was also writing a rpx, called the van hfrs.
urte ;xuh ‘r and the t‘‘nr didn’t know they were writing the same type of rpx until the
lrug ijkua was almost printed. The t‘‘nr didn’t print his, he wrote something else only
containing the parts where he differed from urte ;xuh ‘r. He called this rpx the vpn.
urte ;xuh ‘r also wrote the ;xuh ,hc and the ohrahn shdn, both vkce hrpx and vban ;xf on
the ic‘‘nr’s vru, vban.
;‘‘hr ,ufkv rpx
oc‘‘nr vru, vban/vezj sh
ic‘‘nr ‘v ,njkn
vbuh ‘r ,ucua,u ,ukta/ Responsa
arv ic cegh ‘r ohru, gcrt
kbcrct ejmh is l‘‘b, kg aurp
iuhks van ‘r rvuz
kyhu ohhj ‘r ohhj .g
urte ;xuh ‘r lruh ijkua, ;xuh ,hc, ohrahn shdn, vban ;xf
ohhj .pj vrurc vban
t‘‘nr vpn
shrpxbd vnka ‘r lrug ijkua rume
The Jewish Situation at This Time
Until this point, break off groups still tired to keep the vru, the way they thought
it should be. If someone wanted to leave Judaism completely, he went to a different
religion. Now people were Jewish and proud but didn’t keep anything. To people who
were chased out, Judaism represented freedom. But there was so much assimilation that
Rabbis made the ihs ,hc very strong and there wasn’t as much freedom as they thought, so
they left.
tzubpa lurc, Benedict d’Espinoza, a Portuguese Jew, resented the enforcement of
Judaism. He reinvented the idea of what it meant to be a Jew and serve ‘v. Rabbis begged
him to stop but he didn’t listen. They put him in orj but it wasn’t so effective because he
had many Christian friends so he didn’t feel the loss so much.
Martin Luther was a Christian monk who saw the corruption in the Catholic Church. He started the Protestant Reformation to reform the Church. The Jews thought this would be good for them. Martin Luther was really anti-Semitic. He was sympathetic in the 1520’s only to say that he wants to convert us but there is so much corruption that who would want to convert. But once he made his changes in the 1530’s and the Jews didn’t want to convert anyway he let his anti-Semitism show. There were many Christian wars and Jews were caught in the middle and killed. The Thirty-Years War from 1816-1846. The Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation both seemed to be good for the Jews, but they weren’t. No one could question the Church.
In Eastern Europe there was a feudal system. Jews came and made a thriving
middle/upper class. people made laws to try to convince the Jews to come and that no one
would bother them. They made ,uchah and brought ohnfj hshnk,. Soon people started
"exporting" ohnfj hshnk, from Poland. ekp cegh ‘r was born in Poland but went to school
in Germany. He came back and made a vchah that learned kpkp. Originally it was
controversial because it is sort of light fighting. His main student was tbja ouka ‘r and he
took over when ekp cegh ‘r died. Poland became the center of vru, sunk,. The Jews made
liquor, lenders money, and were excluded from regular trades. In Poland they could
manage rich people’s land. Jews became identified as cruel because they usually
collected rent. Overall Poland was still good to the Jews. ihs h,c were given legal powers.
Each year there was a trade show in Lublin. All the Jews came and decided many
things and this formed the ,umrg gcrt sgu. Eventually it became an official counsel. The
t‘‘nr was the main student of tbja ouka ‘r. t‘‘nr married tbja ouka ‘r’s daughter. He
joined the ihs ,hc when he was twenty. he didn’t follow kpkp so much. He was a little
more into vkce. He made a vchah in Krakow. There was a lot of sucf for ohnfj hshnk,.
y‘‘,u j‘‘, ,rzd
408- 409/ 1648-1649.isnt cegh ‘r’s grandfather, etz cegh ‘r, lived during this time.
Bogdan Chemielniki (khnj) was the leader of the Ukrainian Cossacks. When the
Cossacks came people ran. etz cegh ‘r’s wife and cold got away, but he was captured.
The Cossack told him to bend down and stretch out his neck to die. The Cossack had pity
because he was so young and hit him with the dull side of the sword. He stayed there so
no one would realize he was alive. When the Cossacks went to sleep he ate grass for
eight days until the Cossacks left town. Two people saw etz cegh ‘r "die" so they told his
wife to remarry. karhv ‘r was trying to find ohryv for women to remarry. But luckily ‘r
etz cegh found his wife before she remarried. The whole thing started because poor
uneducated people wanted land, bread, and power, so they revolted. They appointed
themselves a leader who was angry at Roman Catholic nobility for taking his wife.
These peasants had nothing left to lose. The Tartars sometimes joined up with the
Cossacks. The Tartars sold people as slaves. The Cossacks targeted Rabbis and ,uchah.
They killed 100 to 300 thousand Jews, basically wiping out Eastern European Jewry.
People ran away and died of hunger, cold, and disease. The ,umrg gcrt sgu made iuhx ‘f a
fast day for that generation. But ohnfj still wrote ohrpx. kdx hukv sus ‘r known as the z‘‘y,
cvz hruy, wrote the ohkf taub. ivf h,ca ‘r wrote ohnfj h,pa.
Effects of y‘‘,u j‘‘, ,rzd
1) There was no more controversy over the lrug ijkua because people were learning it
instead of the ;xuh ,hc because there was no time to go so deep.
2) People viewed the people who were expelled differently, they weren’t looked down upon anymore.
3) There was more of an interest in vkce.
4) There were more rea hjhan.
hcm h,ca
hcm h,ca was supposedly born on ct ‘y. His followers said that he was born then
because jhan is supposed to be born then. His parents were from the ohaurd and his father
was a merchant. He was a good student and he slowly rose to the level of a ofj shnk,. He
learned vkce in his early twenties and he started doing some strange Kabalistic practices.
He was divorced many times. He had a forceful personality, yet he had very high highs
and very low lows, probably bipolar. His followers said that when he was fighting some
deep vtny and was fighting it, he was very sad (low) and when he conquered it, he was
happy (high). He explained the many ohtyj he did by claiming they were necessary to
release the vrvy in that object. He told his dreams where he was miraculously saved from
very dangerous situations. In 1650, in Smerna, Turkey, he claimed to be jhan. ohbcr put
him into orj and when that didn’t work, they kicked him out. He went to Cairo and
stayed with hckd k-tpr who was renowned for having guests. He told hcm h,ca to marry
vra, a known vbuz. He then traveled to vzg and met h,zgv i,b who decided to be hcm h,ca’s
thcb. They then traveled together to ohkaurh. There, the Sultan had given the Jews a huge
tax, which they could not afford to pay. The ohbcr rejected hcm h,ca, but when he got the
money from hckd k-tpr, the people trusted him. He was kicked out of ohkaurh and went
back to vzg, his new center.
When he came back to Turkey, people lined the streets to greet him. On ,ugca of
1665, hcm h,ca instructed there to be a mass vcua, from all the Jews. ohbcrWhen hcm h,ca
came into power, people added ,ukhp, and lrca hns for him. still rejected him, but were
scared to say anything or wanted to keep their posts so they could try to have more of an
influence on the people and make them see hcm h,ca for what he truly was. cegh ‘r
xyrupxx wrote hcm khpb e,m (but of hcm withered). He was against hcm h,ca and was
thrown out of Amsterdam. The zy’s students asked him about hcm h,ca and he said he
couldn’t determine anything without meeting him, so he sent his son and son-in-law to
check him out. They came back and said that he seemed okay. The zy didn’t suppoert
hcm h,ca but he wasn’t against him.
When hcm h,ca went to ohkaurh, he expected the Sultan to take off his crown and
hand it right to him, but he didn’t. He put hcm h,ca in jail. The Sultan had known that
hcm h,ca was coming and he knew his intentions, but he didn’t stop him because hcm h,ca
brought along many followers and it boosted the economy. With the help of many bribes,
hcm h,ca was given many liberties in jail. With his great affect on the Israeli economy,
they let this slide. His followers claimed that the fact that hcm h,ca was in jail was the
jhan hkcj to test them to see if they’d continue to follow him. The Sultan called hcm h,ca
and asked if him if he believed he was jhan and he said no. The Sultan then offered
hcm h,ca to convert to Islam or die and he converted and took on a new name, Aziz
Memed Effedni.
The Aftermath of hcm h,ca
When he converted many people were shocked. Those who believed in him were
devistated. Non-Jews mocked Jews, saying that if we had embraced the fact that the
Messiah had already come (uah) they you wouldn’t be suffering like this. People lost
hope. Some comitted suicide. Many people lest Judaism. Many people had less .rt lrs
for ohbcr as they had ignored the ohbcr when they said not to follow hcm h,ca. The people
who had never believed in him were disgusted. Most people realized the falsehood that
they were wrapped in but some claimed that this was still jhan hkcj and hcm h,ca had to
release the vause from Islam and converted along with hcm h,ca. For generations these
people, the vnbus, learned vkce and believed that hcm h,ca was jhan, even after he died!
They claimed that others were reincarnated versions of hcm h,ca.
The ohbcr tried to make sure that every tiny piece of the hcm h,ca movement was
destroyed. hcm h,ca sympathizers, oh,ca or Sabatoim, were tracked down. Some people
were wrongly accused, but most were not. ihsng cegh ‘r tried to expose the Sabatoim. He
focused mainly on ohkcuen because hcm h,ca was a kcuen. kj‘‘nr was wrongly suspected.
kj‘‘nr wrote ohrah ,khxn. He was born in Padua, Italy in 1707. He was a kcuen. He was a
non-conformist. He wrote in a very flowery style. He learned vkce when he wasn’t
married, which was forwned upon. Rabbis in Italy put him in orj, so he went to
Germany, and then to Amsterdam. He kept moving because he was constantly suspected
of being one of the Sabatoim. In the end, ihsng cegh ‘r cleared him, but he lived most of
his life in the shadow of accusation. kj‘‘nr had such great ,usn to be able to handle such a
life. He never fought, so it never blew into an out-of-control situation. In 1743, he moved
to Israel, and in 1747 he died.
.hachht i,buh ‘r was suspected but it got blown out of control. .hachht i,buh ‘r wrote
a arp on trnd and was a vchah atr in Prague. .hachht i,buh ‘r was offered the position of
Rabbi of u‘‘vt (three communities in one), a position chosen by the Emperor. ihsng cegh ‘r
lived in u‘‘vt and they were both ohkcuen, except .hachht i,buh ‘r practiced more practical
aspects of vkce. He wrote ohgne (amulets). ihsng cegh ‘r studied to understand how ‘v
runs the world but he was against practicing anything from vkce. Someone brought
ihsng cegh ‘r a vhgne written by .hachht i,buh ‘r and asked what ihsng cegh ‘r thought.
ihsng cegh ‘r said it had hints to hcm h,ca and put the author in orj. The community split
over this disagreement and some people went to the secular authorities. ihsng cegh ‘r’s
shul and printing press were forced to shut down and they were both forced to run away.
The Emperor of Denmark removed .hachht i,buh ‘r from his position, but he might have
been bribed. It went on for five years. ihsng cegh ‘r died in 1776 after .hachht i,buh ‘r. He
died on a Friday and it takes a long time to dig a grave but he had to be buried. There was
an open grave next to .hachht i,buh ‘r. There is an ihbg not to burry enemies next to each
other because their followers would fight there. They asked tsbk kezjh ‘r/ vsuvhc gsub and
he said to burry him because they didn’t have a personal fight. Right before he died, ‘r
ihsng cegh said he saw .hachht i,buh ‘r calling to him.
ebrp cegh/ Jacob Frank
One hundred years after hcm h,ca, Jacob Frank was born. There was a group of
Sabatoim in Galitzia, and a farmer had a son, Jacob. He moved to Romania and became a
snkn. Jacob was wild and into physical things and would brag that he didn’t know sunk,
and the vandalism he did. He became the apprentice of ,hkdrn hfsrn, a shady character,
who traveled to Turkey and took jacob with him. He became involved in the vnbus and
married and had a baby. He converted to Islam. He promised the Polish Monarch
baptized Jews if he could debate those against hcm h,na. He then became a Sabatoim thcb.
He claimed to know the secrets of vru,. He mixed everything he said with some vkce.
His followers were involved with ;uahf. They turned him into a god. In places where they
said ‘v in vru, and vkhp, they said .‘‘a cegh (.‘‘a standing for hcm h,ca). His followers, the
Frankists, thought he was a reincarnation of hcm h,ca.
Ghettos
Jews in Eastern Europe in the 16th century lived in ghettos. The influences from
the outside world were kept out. The non-Jews locked the Jews in, but Jews kept a lock
from the inside also to keep the non-Jews out. Most people think that ghettos were bad
but not everything was. The first time the Jews were told not to live with non-Jews and
the law was enforced was in 1516 in Venice. The Venetian government made Jews live
in one place and the idea spread very quickly. The Italian Jews used to celebrate the day
that they were put into the ghetto. They Jews had to hire a Christian gate keeper and were
required to pay tolls that non-Jews weren’t. It was normal in society to think that Jews
were lover and deserved different (worse) treatment. There was a curfew and only one
entrance to the ghetto. On Christian holidays they weren’t allowed out, but in reality this
saved their lives because during the holidays anti-semitism was at its highest. Ghettos
were normal areas that turned to cramped quarters only because the ENTIRE Jewish
community was forced to move into such a small area. Also, just because they moved
into the ghetto didn’t mean that people stopped having children and the population
continued to grow within the ghetto walls without the walls moving at all. Jews were not
allowed to own real estate, so they were required to rent from non-Jews would could
charge a lot of money because they Jews had no other choice. The Jews got together and
decided not to outbid each other. They also decided that even though Jews didn’t really
own their homes they could still be passed down to someone from the family if the
"owner" died. Jews had to wear a badge. In Rome, Jews had to race without clothes for
the pleasure of the non-Jews. Jews were also require to donate money that went to trying
to convert Jews to Christianity. Jews couldn’t employ Christian servants. Jews had to
take an oath in court saying that even though I never told the truth before I will now.
Many ohrpx were banned because they had "anti-Christian content." Germany was worse
than any other country to their Jews. They controlled weddings and said that only the
oldest in each Jewish family could get married, so the rest of the people got married only
according to Jewish law. Legally, however, the children from these marriages were born
out of wedlock and therefore weren’t entitled to anything from the government. Italy
allowed only one funeral per family, so obviously everyone was buried, but only one
member of the family had a vcmn. In Poland, Jews were limited to very few jobs, so they
davened in shuls according to their job. Shuls were not allowed to be taller than a church
and they couldn’t be decorated. Sometimes shuls were built many floors underground.
Some ghettos were only allowed to have one shul. Each ghetto celebrated different
oum hnh and vjna hnh depending on what happened in their area.
Emancipation of the Jews
After the French Revolution, Jews were allowed to be normal citizens in their
countries. However, they were allowed to be citizens as individuals, not as a nation.
Napoleon came into power in the 1790’s and at first he was very sympathetic to the
Jewish cause. He wanted to free the jews and assimilate them into society. Many ohbcr
were very scared that he would succeed. Ghettos may have been very tight but they kept
Jews together as a whole. After this there was a lot of assimilation. No one was allowed
to be restricted with regard to religion, unless his religion disturbed public order. This
should allow Jew to be citizens, but it doesn’t. The Count of Clermont-Tonnerre was
pro-Jewish rights only because he wanted to be politically correct. Assimilated Jews
didn’t want to to be grouped with religious Jews because they had their citizenship
already and would lose some of their social stature if they were all considered one. The
Emancipation didn’t give the Jews any special privileges, just citizenship. In the Roman
Emancipation the Romans physically destroyed the ghettos to remove evidence that they
were once so cruel. Napoleon gathered 70 men, i.e. irsvbx, to say that one could be a
Jews and a good Frenchman. After the irsvbx did what he wanted it to, he abolished it.
ohvzbuz sus ‘r was the head of the "irsvbx". Napoleon wanted them to say that if French
law conflicted with vfkv then vfkv was secondary. They said that where there’s a
conflict there is tbhs t,ufkns tbhs. Like this answer, they answered all of Napoleon’s
questions in a round about way to make Napoleon happy but not to minimize vfkv. Jews
were usurers and they were forced into the job and then punished for it. After the
Emancipator, all transactions where a Jews benefited were void. Jews in emancipated
countries helped Jews that were not. Sir Moses Montefiore, born in 1784 in Italy. He
was very rich. He retired at 40 and spent the rest of his life helping Jews. he died in 1885.
He was a frum Jew. In Turkey, a priest, Father Thomas, disappeared and the non-Jews
made it into a blood libel, which was later called the Damascus Affair. They blamed a
Jewish barber and beat him until he confessed. Sir Moses Montefiore, who was friends
with Queen Victoria, asked her to intervene. The prisoner was released but the entire
community was still in danger. Sir Moses traveled to Turkey to meet with the Sultan who
publicly stated that the prisoner was innocent, there would be no blood libels in his
country, and the Jews would be protected. From then on Sir Moses was called upon many
times to help Jews. However, he was not always successful. Edgardo Mortata, a Jewish
boy, was kidnapped and baptized. Sir Moses met with the Pope but the Pope refused to
let the boy revert to Judaism. Sir Moses went to Israel in the 1850’s when the Jews lived
only in the Old City. He saw the poverty that the Jews lived in and realized that they
needed to expand. He built the windmill to provide jobs for the Jews and built two cities:
van ihnh and ohbba ,bfan.
,ushxj
After hcm h,ca there was a vacuum in Judaism because only the greatest learners
went to vchah and the rest felt empty and disconnected.
,ushxj:
- stresses vru, sunhk through vjna
- includes a basis of vkce "uvhgs lfrs kfc"
- stresses that ‘v is imminent versus ,usdb,v that stresses that ‘v is removed
- emphasizes vbfv and vbuf, so they daven later because they’re preparing "ifun hbbv
inuznu"
- followed vfkv unlike other groups that have "broken off" from Judaism that have
always veered from vfkv
- is strict ONLY if it will help get closer to ‘v, otherwise they’re usually khen
- stresses that mundane things can be made ase
- has a Rebbe and everyone follows him unconditionally
The Baal Shem Tov started the movement. Reform say that the Baal Shem Tov
reformed Judaism so they could also, but he didn’t change anything, he just stressed other
things. The Baal Shem Tov was born in 1698/5458 and his parents died when he was
very young. He was different from the other children- ‘v was his only father. When the
Baal Shem Tov got married, his brother-in-law was not so happy about the marriage,
because he had not known how great of a ofj the Baal Shem Tov was.
R’ Dov Bear (Maggid of Mezerich/ The Maggid)was the Baal Shem Tov’s
main student. He was great already when he met the Baal Shem Tov. He led ,ushxj after
the Baal Shem Tov and he spread ,ushxj further. He was put in orj by the Vilna Gaon,
but continued to teach ,ushxj anyway.
R’ Yaakov Yosef of Polonye (,usku,) wrote the ;xuh cegh ,usku,, a main book on
,ushxj. Originally he was against ,ushxj until he saw what it was like for himself. He
showed that ,ushxj was only for people who couldn’t learn because he was such a
learning giant.
R’ Menachem Mendel of Ktebsk was a student of the Maggid of Mezerich. He
ended the single central leadership in ,ushxj because he didn’t want to be the only
teacher, even though he could have been. He was one of the original immigrants to Israel.
R’ Elimelech of Lizensk (Rebbe Melech) wrote the lknhkt ogb, the most popular
book on ,ushxj. He inflicted an exile upon himself but told his students not to do it to
themselves.
R’ Levi Yitzchok of Berdichov wrote the huk ,ause which was also very popular.
He was also a student of the Maggid of Mezerich. He was forced to leave town because
he followed ,ushxj like R’ Yaakov Yosef of Polonye.
R’ Shneur Zalmun of Liadi (Alter Rebbe/v-hb,v kgc) was Lubavitch. He
founded Chabad (,gs 'vbhc 'vnfj). Vilna and Meserich wanted him to come to them and
he went to Mezerich. He wrote v-hb, and crv lrug ijkua. He was put into jail, released,
and fled further into Russia, away from Napoleon.

More Coming SOON!