
1350 AD to 1370 AD, Psalm 115: Samuel Halevi.
This generation is that of the 1350s and 1360 years.
While many Jews have taken refuge in the lands of Eastern Poland and Lithuania, or Spain, they have not yet rebuilt communities comparable to those destroyed.
(extract of the psalm 115 associated to this generation, verses 1 and 2 )
- Not for us, O Lord, not for us, but for Your name give honor, for Your kindness and for Your truthfulness.
- Why should the nations say, « Where is your God now? »
- When [1] you beget children and children’s children, and you will be long established in the land, and you become corrupt and make a graven image, the likeness of anything, and do evil in the eyes of the Lord your God, to provoke Him to anger,
- I call as witness against you this very day the heaven and the earth, that you will speedily and utterly perish from the land to which you cross the Jordan, to possess; you will not prolong your days upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.
- And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will remain few in number among the nations to where the Lord will lead you.
- And there you will worship gods, man’s handiwork, wood and stone, which neither see, hear, eat, nor smell.
- And from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
- When you are distressed, and all these things happen upon you in the end of days, then you will return to the Lord your God and obey Him.
(extract of the psalm 115 associated to this generation, verses 3 and 8 )
- But our God is in heaven; whatever He wishes, He does.
- Their idols are silver and gold, the handiwork of man.
- They have a mouth but they do not speak; they have eyes but they do not see.
- They have ears but they do not hear; they have a nose but they do not smell.
- Their hands-but they do not feel; their feet-but they do not walk; they do not murmur with their throat.
- Like them shall be those who make them, all who trust in them.
The synagogue El Transito (name given later), which Samuel Halevi completed in 1357 marks the peak of Spanish Judaism under Christian rule. The following years will quickly remedy this exception and the Jews of Spain will soon be forced to convert or exile. The synagogue itself today bears this name because it was later transformed into a church, the name « El Transito » coming from a painting representing the death (the transit) of the Virgin who was exposed thereafter.
- Israel, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield.
- House of Aaron, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield.
- Those who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield.
- The Lord, Who remembered us, will bless; He will bless the house of Israel; He will bless the house of Aaron.
Under [2] the reign of Peter the Cruel an illustrious representative of the family Abulafia Ha Levi of Toledo, Don Samuel ben Meir Ha Levi, got high charges, and another, Abraham ibn Carçal, was doctor of the court. Internal struggles in the royal family eventually compromised the Jews who had sided with Maria de Padilla, mistress of the king. Don Samuel chose the right camp, that of the conqueror, and obtained great benefits for him and for the other Jews of Toledo and the kingdom. It was, however, his great power and his influence at the court which ruined him: the king, his great protector, rose up against him, without knowing it very well why, and ordered the confiscation of his fortune, duplicates, gold and silver, and one hundred and eighty slaves. Thrown into prison, the powerful Jewish counselor was tortured, no doubt because his accusers wanted to extort from him the secret of his rich hiding
places, and he died in great suffering. These events had no immediate repercussions on the Jews, but King Peter was soon accused of their weakness by his brother Henry of Trastamare who also desired the support of the pope. Toledo fell and the Jewish community was punished for his loyalty to Peter Le Cruel by high taxes. In the end, Henry, seconded by the French troops, finally killed his brother Pierre and his faithful in 1369. Urban V celebrated this victory as a triumph of the papacy, expressing satisfaction for the
disappearance of the tyrant, rebel to the Church and protector of the Jews. But Henry of Trastamare preferred not to punish Jews loyal to Peter the Cruel: he even appointed Don Joseph Pichon Minister of Finance and took to advise Don Samuel Abrabanel, both of the community of Seville, which aroused jealousies and suspicions in the nobility Castilian. To quell the protests, the new sovereign, forced to some zeal vis-à-vis the pope, imposed the « rouelle » on the Spanish Jews and forced them to give up their Castilian names to take back their names.
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- Thanks [3] to the wisdom of his counsels, to the skill of his financial administration and to the zeal he displayed for the cause of Mary of Padilla, Samuel grew more and more in the favor of Don Pedro. His influence was considerable, his wealth immense, and he had at his service eighty black slaves. But he seems to have been able to do anything for the cause of Judaism and the future of his coreligionists. An inscription says, it is true, that he worked for the good of his brothers, but he did not understand what this well-being should consist of. While protecting the Jews against malevolence, by calling them to public office and providing them with the opportunity to get rich, he did not know how to be useful to them, like Hasdai ibn Schaprout and Samuel ibn Nagrela. He does not appear to be interested in science or poetry either. For if he had synagogues built in several cities of Castile, he did not found a single school for teaching the Talmud.
(extract of the psalm 115 associated to this generation, verses 13 to 18 )
- He will bless those who fear the Lord, the small together with the great.
- May the Lord add upon you, upon you and upon your children.
- Blessed are you to the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
- The heavens are heavens of the Lord, but the earth He gave to the children of men.
- Neither will the dead praise God, nor all those who descend to the grave.
- But we shall bless God from now until everlasting, Hallelujah!
[1] Devarim – Deuteronomy – Chapter 4, verses 25 to 30.
[2] Riccardo Calimani: « The Jewish wandering ». Chapter: « Discrimination, Persecution and Survival ». (French: « L’errance juive ». Chapitre : « La discrimination, la persécution et la survie ». (p. 200-201) ).
[3] Henri Graetz: « HISTORY OF THE JEWS / THIRD PERIOD – DISPERSION ». Second time – Science and Jewish poetry in their prime. Chapter XI – The Black Death Massacres of the Jews – (1325-1391). (French: « HISTOIRE DES JUIFS / TROISIÈME PÉRIODE — LA DISPERSION ». Deuxième époque — La science et la poésie juive à leur apogée. Chapitre XI — La peste noire. Massacres des Juifs — (1325-1391) ).