March 15,1391, anti-Jewish riots broke out in Seville. Religious fanaticism, though the Grown tried to check it, swept from Seville through city after city in Castile. Hysterical mobs sacked the Jewish quarters, murdered, looted houses, destroyed synagogues. Jews were promised their lives on condition of conversion to Christianity, but contemporary Spanish chronicles indicate that the greed for Jewish wealth was greater than the desire for converts. Jewish sources tell of martyrdom, of suicides “for the sanctification of the Name of God”—but also of many Jews who yielded to threat and, outwardly at least, accepted the new faith. Christians discovered sheltering Jews were punished. Some noblemen extracted huge sums from Jews whom they hid in their castles; others acted more generously. A similar fate would have overtaken the other religious minority left in Christian Spain, the Moslems, but those who controlled the mobs were afraid of what would happen then to the Christian minority in Granada, which was still a Moslem kingdom.
When the passion had spent itself, Spanish Jewry was broken. Seventy Jewish communities in Castile had been attacked, and the example of Castile was followed in Mallorca. Barcelona’s Jewish community disappeared; not a single Jew remained of the five thousand who had lived in Valencia. All in all, over seventy thousand Jews had been killed. Spain was no longer “home” to the Jew, but had become galut, exile, foreign soil in the fullest sense.
This is the historical background of Iggeret Musar (An Epistle of Ethical Admonition) which Solomon Alami, an eyewitness of the persecutions of 1391, addressed to one of his disciples in the year 1415. The learned author, himself a Jewish community leader, tried in this epistle to answer the question haunting the minds of the survivors of 1391: why had it happened? Like the prophets, Solomon Alami does not recognize “external” reasons. Neither the iniquity of the others nor the faults of the Jews in their relations with the others had brought on the catastrophe; Jews alone were at fault. We were punished for our moral and religious deterioration, and any subsequent improvement of “conditions” had to start with self-improvement. The first part of Alami’s epistle was thus taken up with advice on ethical living. Here, however, we print only the concluding part.
The Iggeret Musar was first printed in 1510 in Constantinople and saw several editions. A. Jellinek published it in 1854 in Leipzig, and Leopold Zunz translated into German certain passages from its second part (Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. II, Berlin 1876). In 1946, A. M. Haberman edited the Parma manuscript of the epistle from a photostat in the Schocken Library in Jerusalem. The present English translation of the original Hebrew rhymed prose is my own; the condensation and arrangement follow Zunz’s example.
—Nahum N. Glatzer
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Rejoice not, O Israel! Exult not like the peoples (Hosea 9:1). Forget not the evil decrees hurled against us since the year 4908 [1148], when the Almohades made themselves masters in Spain and persecuted our communities and seats of learning. A few years later destruction came to the eastern countries. Moses Maimonides lived at that time; both in his youth and in his old age he witnessed the hardships of his people. Because of our many sins the community of Lucena was reduced to ruins, Lucena “a city and a mother in Israel,” a center of learning for many generations. The next period brought the expulsion from England [1290], from France [1306], and from other realms. From that time on we sank deeper and deeper, and our Torah was delivered unto flames. Our wives and daughters were defiled; the others were deprived of their honor. Deep calls to deep, calls for sword, famine, and captivity. Death seems preferable to such a life. Very recently, in the year 5151 [1391], we suffered much destruction in all the provinces of Castile and in the kingdom of Catalonia. Our communities in Aragon, too, were gravely tried and had to endure famine and thirst, homelessness and the death of many children.
This we cannot forget. But if we ask ourselves why all this happened to us, then we have to accept the truth: we ourselves are at fault. God is just and righteous and it was in His power to help us. We and our own iniquities caused this evil to happen.
Our sages were jealous of each other and disrespectful. Their main attention was given to minor details, to novel explanations, clever elucidations. They did not pay much attention to the Book before them, and its counsel of justice and sanctity. There was much quarreling among the wise men. What the one proved, the other disproved; what the one forbade, the other permitted. Thus the Torah, which was one, fell apart. People did not feel obliged to follow such blind leadership, and no wonder.
Then there were those scholars who attempted to interpret the Scriptures in the Greek manner and clothe it in a Greek dress. They believed that Plato and Aristotle had brought us more light than Moses our Master.
Now, if a man should not be able to “live by his faith,” why should he suffer death for it and endure the yoke and the shame of dispersion among the nations? It serves no good purpose to quote Scriptures as support for philosophical opinions; the way of reason and the way of faith are too far apart and will never meet. No prophets are found among the followers of Aristotle, while many prophets, young and old, arose in Israel’s ancient land. Those who read a few columns in a book of Greek philosophy will soon tear to shreds the scroll of the Torah, scoff at the laws, and dispute the validity of tradition. They will never know the thought of the Lord, never understand His counsel.
The next in line of decadence were the leaders of the communities and those favored and trusted by the kings. Their riches and high position made them forsake humility and forget the general misery. “Israel hath forgotten his Maker and builded palaces.” They acquired costly wagons and horses, dressed in precious garments; the wives and daughters of these leaders carried themselves like princesses, and proudly displayed their jewelry.
They gave up study and industry, and cultivated idleness, vainglory, and inordinate ambition. Law and wisdom, our ancient heirloom, no longer counted for them. Everyone chased after coveted positions; envy estranged a man from his fellow and they didn’t mind denouncing one another before the Court. Little did they realize that their souls were the price they paid and that they faced a bitter end. They oppressed the wretched, and the poor became the victims of their tyranny. The burden of taxation they shifted to the poorer class. In the end, the Court itself found them despicable and removed them from their power. No Jew was left who could represent the cause of the people before the king and say a good word in behalf of a fellow Jew in need. Down to the ground fell the glory of the “mighty.” It is time to wake up from the slumber of foolishness.
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There are still other reasons for our miseries and hardships. Our heart lacks faith and modesty; we refuse to admit our failings; our good deeds lack sincerity; our prayers are light-hearted. If you take from your face the mask of hypocrisy and if you have eyes to see you will recognize that the majority of our nation have abandoned truth.
The Sabbath is being profaned and those who try to voice admonition are quickly silenced; no one likes the moralist. The seer shall not see. Speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions (Isaiah 30:10).
There are many among us who repudiate the belief in Divine Providence, and only few who retain the idea of reward and punishment.
There is no communal spirit among us. People quarrel over trifles. Strict honesty is no longer observed; there is overreaching, and deceit is practiced even in dealing with the people at large: thus do we desecrate in their midst the Holy Name of our God.
Who among us is ready to give up the love of the world and to consider his end? Who will repent his treason and return to his God with a perfect heart? Who will again dedicate himself to the Covenant of Israel, and in his youth or, later, in his maturity enter the service of his God? Not one man will you find among us who will seriously reflect on the fall of our own kingdom, the decline of wisdom, the cessation of prophecy, the destruction of our Temple, and the desecration of the Name of God who is our glory. Not one will divest himself of his ornaments in mourning over the disgrace of the Torah, the martyrdom of our sages—events which our eyes have seen and our ears have heard—the loss of our congregation and our homes.
Surrounded by people suffering persecution, expulsion, forced conversion, some there are who manage to hold banquets, listen to music, and imitate the Gentiles in their clothes and hairdress.
The nation in whose land we sojourn offer tithes and generous contributions for the support of their scholars, and this strengthens their religion; princes and noblemen desire to dedicate their children to the service of the church. Our own eminences, on the other hand, keep their sages on bread and water; no one can maintain even this meager subsistence without suffering humiliation; utterly disgraceful is the way in which the secretaries in charge of charity are dealt with. Our notables are not at all eager to have their sons become scholars. The word of God is not wanted by these proud men. Seeing the low state of scholars, simple people, too, prefer to let their sons learn the humblest of crafts rather than enter into the humiliating world of learning.
If you look around you in a place of worship where a teacher expounds the Law, you will find the rich people asleep, the others engaged in idle talk, and the women in chatter. Should the speaker reprimand them the situation would grow even worse. Here we could learn much from our Christian neighbors, who listen quietly and reverently to their preacher, and who are responsive to his scolding; no one will nap while he delivers his sermon.
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Much ado is made about charity; the rich talk a lot and do little; what they pledge on the Sabbath they regret on Sunday; the collectors call on them ten times before they receive the promised donation. Woe unto the poor who depend on their kind hearts. The Prophet had them in mind when he said: And He looked for justice, but behold violence; for righteousness, but behold a cry (Isaiah 5:7).
Often I hear you, my brethren, complaining about having been snubbed. It serves you right. Rarely do you yourselves respect each other. Quite often is the wise man excluded from your circles; instead, you welcome dandies and bearers of titles. In Andalusia I knew rich Jews who never invited anyone but equally rich Jews; they played hosts to monks, imams, government officials, dance masters, court contractors, comedians, circus proprietors, doubtful characters of all colors and creeds; but no Jewish scholar was ever invited, no serious author, no teacher of the ancient nobility of Israel. Jewish issues are discredited and renounced; people forget that this leads to the rejection of the human.
The imitation of the customs of the ruling Church assumed frightful proportions, especially in Mallorca. Some Jews avoided speaking the word “Jew” in the presence of Christian servants. Presents were exchanged on Christmas, not on Purim as Scripture and ancestral usage decreed. Parties were tendered on Easter; Passover, the holiday commemorating Israel’s liberation from slavery, was treated like a weekday. The Sabbath was no longer observed, at least not as a day of joyous rest. Grace after meals was interrupted in honor of any Christian acquaintance who entered the door. The daughters of rich families could no longer read Hebrew. Indeed, not much remained of these families; in my youth most of them had already joined the Church.
Others were satisfied with preserving the outer forms of religion while disregarding its inner content. On a day of penitence they got rid of their prayers but not of their vices. They used adulatory words in the street; at home you heard only incessant squabbling and quarreling. There is no understanding between father and son; mothers are despised by their “educated” daughters. In the prayers on the Day of Atonement, the only true things are the listings of sins; the transgressions enumerated must sound familiar.
Much time was needed for the pursuit of pleasure, especially by the rich families of exuberant Seville; no rime was left in which to pay attention to the poor, to friends, to teachers, or scholars. Festivities and banquets ate up leisure, money, and—mercy. Luxurious living bred egoism, arrogance, a negative attitude to the Law of our fathers, and a callousness towards Israel’s needs.
Among the scholars, teachers of the laws, authors of books, you find vanity and contentiousness competing with scholarship and piety. Many study in order to get a position, they teach for the fee; pretense rates higher than quiet work; the handsome speaker displaces the solid one, the flatterer pushes aside the honest man. Simple teachings are made complicated by unproductive sophistry, just in order to parade something “novel.” Little men, poor of mind, write books of no use to anybody; they carry copies to their sponsors, who give them some money; they should be ashamed to disgrace our ancient writings.
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Worse, of course, is the half-educated crowd, philosophers in their bedrooms who, blind to true knowledge, believe that the world stands and falls on their doings. What they read but don’t understand, they reject as of no value; what they do grasp, they have known all along. In Portugal I found a whole class of semi-scholars who had put their noses into various books; yet before they had time to learn anything they already felt qualified to judge others. They appeared as the protagonists of whatever was being much talked about; they memorized pertinent quotations from fashionable philosophers and from writers in vogue; they were the heralds of every newest craze. Recently, in Elvas, a man was ready to found a society for the support of some latest rage, sure of the acclaim of the young ladies.
The right way is to listen to the teachings of the prophets and of the sages of old; to advance humility, lovingkindness, and virtue; to love Israel and its Law, and to be forbearing with the faults of our brethren. May they learn to act out of true fear of God and not out of worldly vanity. If people could be taught to restrain their desires, to be content, and to trust in Divine Providence, then much of what saddens my heart would be overcome and our good would increase with the good of man. May what happened to our philosophers in Catalonia not happen to us: their strength of faith was surpassed by simple people, by women and children.
The promise of our Scriptures upholds me; so great is the power of this promise, so deep the fountain of our hope, that I do not despair of the future of Israel, which one day will recognize its failings and receive forgiveness.
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