A New Creation One Day, A New Wilderness the Next:

The Precarious Position of Jews throughout their

Middle Ages
 Part 1:


The Jewish Middle Ages and the Rise of
Monotheism
 8 total periods in the
 Exodus and era of Judges History of the
 Kingdoms Jewish experience
 Exile and Return
 Hellenistic period
 Hasmonean kingdom
1-6 = Ancient
 Roman Empire World.
 Flow Map of Empires

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lTduTwqtjY
 1,000 years : 7th to 17th


 FROM Arab-Moslem Conquests in 632
 TO Shabbetai Tzvi (false Messiah) 1666

What prompted the shift to the Jewish Middle Ages?

Ancient World Middle Ages

1> Religion Paganism Monotheism

 Constantine Converts 4th
Century

A gold multiple of "Unconquered Constantine" with Sol Invictus, struck in 313 AD. The use of Sol's image
appealed to both the educated citizens of Gaul, who would recognize in it Apollo's patronage of Augustus and
the arts; and to Christians, who found solar monotheism less objectionable than the traditional pagan pantheon
 • begins with Jesus the
Jew
•followers believe he's
Messiah of the Jewish
people
•Followers initially
Torah observant...
•Saul becomes Paul
•Constantine converts
•Official religion
•Christianity gains
dominance via a slow
philosophical takeover
Crash course in
Christianity
Mural painting from the catacomb of Commodilla. Bust of Christ. This is one of first bearded images of Christ.
Earlier Christian art in Rome portrayed Jesus most often as the Good Shepherd, disguised as Orpheus, young,
beardless and in a short tunic. During the 4th century Jesus was beginning to be depicted as a man of
identifiably Jewish appearance, with a full beard and long hair, a style not usually worn by Romans. The
symbols on either side are Alpha and Omega signifying "I am the beginning and the end".
 •begins with
Mohammed (570-632)
•encounters many
Jews and Christians,
inspired by Torah
•at 40 claims the angel
Gabriel visited him,
writes the Qur'an
•Arabs descendants of
Ishmael and have
forgotten the one God
•mission to re-establish
one god belief in the
Arab lands
•death of Mohammed
signals Caliphate in
Crash course in 636-637
•Islam gains
Islam dominance via rapid
physical takeover

Mohammed receiving his first revelation from the angel Gabriel. Miniature illustration on
vellum from the book Jami' al-Tawarikh (literally "Compendium of Chronicles" but often
referred to as The Universal History or History of the World), by Rashid al-Din, published in
Tabriz, Persia, 1307 CE Now in the collection of the Edinburgh University Library, Scotland.
 comparison
Christians & Jews Muslims & Jews

See Jews as having killed their God See Jews as having rejected their
prophet
Use the entire Tanakh as Scripture***
Have the Qur'an***
Jews their only rival for 600 years
Jews share the rivalry w/Christianity
Jews not accepting “their own king”
causes a philosophical crisis ….First 400 years relative peace

…persecution

Synagoga and Ecclesia in Our Time.

Artwork by sculptor Joshua
Image of a cantor reading the Passover
Koffman. Exhibited in Philadelphia
story in Al Andalus, from the 14th
in July 2015
century Haggadah of Barcelona.
 Ancient World Middle Ages

1> Religion Paganism Monotheism

6 major events

defining the impact of religion on Jews
in their Middle Ages

Consider how you picture the Middle Ages…

Many took a vow to not leave a
town until they had killed a Jew. Why be a crusader?

1. immediate entry into

heaven

2. chance to escape the

land you were trapped on
as a worker

Thus Crusaders as usually

a very low economic class
of Christian.

Consider the crusader

imagery in England
today from the
1 The Crusades (begin 1096) perspective of a Jew

Auguste Migette, 1802-1884 - http://pages.usherbrooke.ca/croisades/big_images/_images_en.htm

Massacre of Jewish people in Metz (France) during the First Crusade

 Christian churches discover
financial incentive in saying
such a thing about Jews:
• boy a saint because he died
for his faith.
• church builds monument
• people make pilgrimages
• town's economy bolstered

2. The Libels (accusations)

pt 1-Blood Libel
(begins 1179)

The crucifixion of William of Norwich depicted on a rood screen in Holy Trinity church,
Loddon, Norfolk
http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/loddon/images/DSCF7330.JPG
 Aligns with the Christian
Church’s Fourth Council
of the Lateran to make
transubstantiation official

Depictions of Jews
as demonic begin to
develop now…

Libels pt 2: Desecration of the Host (begin 1215)

The second panel of Paolo Uccello's Miracle of the Profaned Host (c.1467-1469) from the Urbino
Confraternity of Corpus Domini predella. Based on the Paris 1290 legend, a Jewish
moneylender is cooking the host, which emanates blood. The Jew's wife, her unborn child, and
her children look on in terror as the blood pours into the street in rivers while soldiers break
through the door. The painting is structured around the Golden Section.
Jews depicted as demons and the reason for rumours spread that the
the end of the world Jews were poisoning the
water wells of Europe

Pope Clement VI appeals

to reason, people ignore
him

many killed before the

plague had even reached
them

August 1349, the Jewish

communities of Mainz
and Cologne were
exterminated

3 The Black Death (1340s – 1356) February of same year,

the citizens of Strasbourg
Spread of the Black Death in Europe (1346–53) murdered 2,000 Jews.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death

4 Conversions (1390s)
Secret Seder in Spain during the times of
inquisition, an 1892 painting by Moshe
Maimon
Muslim conquest of Spain in
711.
next 500 years Golden Age of
Spanish Jewry
by 1390 Christians gain back
much of Spain.
Many Jews forced to convert--
called Marranos, “pigs.”
Jews called them Anusim,
which is Hebrew for “forced
ones.”
Jews' conversion opened up a
whole sector of Spanish society
to Jews.
Anusim flourish 100 years.
 Inquisition = branch of the
Christian church that was
charged with the task of
identifying and charging
heretics of the faith.

Marranos become the

focus, not openly practicing
Jews.

Church encourages
Christians to turn in
cryptic Jews, produces a tip
sheet on how to spot one

“auto de fé” act of faith,

when the Church would
5 The Inquisitions (1480) decorate the town square
and burn convicted
First Cemetery of the Spanish and Portuguese marranos at the stake for
Synagogue, Shearith Israel (1656-1833) in Manhattan,
New York City. their heresy.
6 The Expulsions
(1492)
A signed copy of the Edict of
Expulsion: The Alhambra Decree.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al
hambra_Decree#/media/File:Alha
mbra_Decree.jpg
A lane in the old
Jewish Quarter,
called "El Call", of
Girona, Spain.
pimpilipausa -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50
773238@N08/4695222257/sizes/l/

A narrow laneway with stairs in

the Jewish Quarter, Gerona, Spain
 the Spanish expulsions
sends shockwaves
through Europe and
other countries begin to
feel emboldened by
Isobella and
Ferdinand's move.

Jewish Quarter in Cordoba,

Spain
 Ancient World Middle Ages
What else prompted the shift to the Jewish Middle
1> Religion Ages?
Paganism Monotheism
2> Socio-Economic Empires Feudalism

Part 2

The Jewish Middle Ages and the Rise of
Feudalism
Rome in Chaos
Sack of Rome by the Visigoths on
24 August 410, by J.N. Sylvestre,
1890 CE. Musée Paul Valéry
 In the name
of Jesus!

Feudalism Order
Acceptance of the oath of fealty
(Lehnseid) in 1512

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fe
udalism_in_the_Holy_Roman_Emp
ire#/media/File:Lehnseid.png
 Ancient World Middle Ages

1> Religion Paganism Monotheism

2> Socio-Economic Empires Feudalism

3 major developments:

defining the impact of socio-economic
development on Jews in their Middle
Ages
Many took a vow to not leave a
town until they had killed a Jew. Why be a crusader?

1. immediate entry into

heaven

2. chance to escape the

land you were trapped on
as a worker

Thus Crusaders as usually

a very low economic class
of Christian.

Consider the crusader

imagery in England
today from the
1 The Crusades (begin 1096) perspective of a Jew

Auguste Migette, 1802-1884 - http://pages.usherbrooke.ca/croisades/big_images/_images_en.htm

Massacre of Jewish people in Metz (France) during the First Crusade

 Why? To solve the problem that the feudal system causes
for Christianity and Islam (the land owners)


Jews become merchants

(Map of Eurasia and North Africa, c. 870 CE. Trade routes of the Radhanite Jewish merchants are shown in blue. Other major
trade routes shown in purple. Cities with sizable Jewish communities are shown in brown. Some routes are conjectural.)
 Why? To give Christians a way to take out credit.

Exodus 22:24 (25)—If you lend money to any of My people, even to the poor with
you, you shalt not be to him as a creditor; neither shall you lay upon him interest


Jews become Moneylenders:

Jewish moneylenders, as depicted in a 15th century Spanish illustration.

http://jewishstudies.washington.edu/converso-cookbook/jewish-ham-story-behind-recipe/
 Why? Jews are detested but still needed to make the Christian financial
world go ‘round as moneylenders.


Jews moved into Ghettos

the old Ghetto (Ghetto Vecchio) over a bridge. The upper floors of the houses
around the Campo di Ghetto Nuovo conceal Venice’s three oldest synagogues.
 Part 3

Torah Learning in the
Jewish Middle Ages
 Rashi:
R. Shlomo Yitzchaki (1040 –1105), (Hebrew: ‫ רש"י‬,RAbbi


SHlomo Itzhaki)

Tosefos Rashi
 Maimonides
(1135-1204) Moshe ben Maimo ,)acronymed Rambam
Hebrew: ‫ – רמב"ם‬for "Rabbeinu Moshe Ben Maimon",


https://en.wikipedia.org/w
iki/Maimonides#/media/Fi
le:Maimonides-mishna.jpg
 Rav Joseph Caro:
also spelled Yosef Karo, or Qaro (1488 -1575)

Title page of
Caro's Shulchan
Aruch

Illustration from
Brockhaus and Efron
Jewish Encyclopedia
(1906—1913)
Kabbalah
10 Sefirot

Mfor more see:

http://www.amazon.co
m/Gershom-Gerhard-
Scholem/e/B001IXS1YA
/judaism101