
1370 BC to 1390 BC, Psalm 116: Temptations.
This generation is that of the 1370s and 1380s.
In France, following [1] the outbreak of the Hundred Years War, the King of France, John II, the good, had recalled in 1361 the Jews for a limited period. He granted them protection for a period of 20 years. Returned Jews are often lenders, and with the taxes they pay, are an important source of income for the sovereign. During the reign of Charles V in France (1364-1380), the situation of the Jews stabilized, partly thanks to the personal affection carried by the king to the head of French Judaism, Rabbi Mattathias Ben Yossef. The latter can thus revive the community and reopen Yeshivot. This break in France will be short-lived since a new expulsion will occur in the next generation in 1394 that will last several centuries.
Charles V [2] maintains a few but excellent troops, led by seasoned leaders like Du Guesclin (who also accompanied in Spain the victory of Henry Trastamare on Peter the Cruel). […] In 1380, when Charles V dies, the conflicts stop on all the fronts, the war seems almost finished. […] In 1389, the two young sovereigns, Richard II, grandson of Edward III, and Charles VI, successor of Charles V, conclude a truce that will last until around 1415: Calais, Guyenne and Gascogne except , the French have taken over all English conquests
(extract of the psalm 116 associated to this generation, verses 1 to 6 )
- I wished that the Lord would hear my voice [in] my supplications.
- For He extended His ear to me, and I shall call out in my days.
- [When] bands of death surrounded me and the boundaries of the grave befell me, and I found trouble and grief,
- And I called out in the name of the Lord, « Please, O Lord, save my soul!
- The Lord is gracious and righteous, and our God is merciful.
- The Lord protects the simple; when I was poor, He saved me.
- Joseph Pichon [3], the Jew of Seville named treasurer by Henry II of Trastamare, was accused of embezzlement by other Jews. He was imprisoned and tried by the Jewish court of Burgos. The aljamas, or qahal (Jewish communities of Burgos), had the privilege of a court and could sue their whistleblowers. The internal vengeance that swept Pichon helped to upset the legal framework that had hitherto been granted to the Jews and inaugurated sad persecution. Taking advantage of this institutionally delicate moment, the death of Henry II and the rise to the throne of Jean 1st in 1379, exactly during his coronation in Burgos, some Jews obtained with the complicity of the police chief the sentence of Pichon, without revealing the identity of famous accused. When John I realized that he had been played and that his father’s old collaborator had been murdered by a conspiracy, he sent the guilty to death, deprived the Hebrew courts of their power of intervention, ordered further restrictive measures against proselytizing. Then in 1385, he made arrangements then unusual: no Christian nannies, no Christian slaves in Jewish homes.
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- Henry of Trastamare [4] relied on the Christian bourgeoisie, to whom he multiplied concessions. Is it any wonder that the classical anti-Jewish dispositions were part of it? Particularly heavy consequences for the aljamas was the suppression of their judicial autonomy (in 1380); the royal edict recalled that captivity was the natural lot of the Jews, since with the coming of Jesus Christ they had lost their sovereignty; the liberties granted to them in Castile were described as sin and scandal. The right of high and low justice over their co-religionists was thus withdrawn from the Jewish communities; the keystone of their power was collapsing. A few years later, the Council of Palencia, sitting in the presence of the Cortes, posited the principle of the separate dwelling of the Jews, that is to say the ghetto, a principle whose application was soon to come. At the same time frequent cancellation of the interests of the debts, or partial cancellations of the debts themselves, for the benefit of the big or small Christian bourgeois, and to the detriment of the Jewish creditors.
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(extract of the psalm 116 associated to this generation, verses 7 to 11 )
- Return, my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
- For You have rescued my soul from death, my eye from tears, and my foot from stumbling.
- I shall walk before the Lord in the lands of the living.
- I believed so that I spoke; I humble myself exceedingly.
- I said in my haste, « All men are liars. »
(extract of the psalm 116 associated to this generation, verses 12 to 15 )
- How can I repay the Lord for all His favors upon me?
- I shall lift up a cup of salvations, and I shall call out in the name of the Lord.
- I shall pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people.
- Difficult in the eyes of the Lord is the death of His pious ones.
(extract of the psalm 116 associated to this generation, verses 16 to 19 )
- Please, O Lord, for I am Your servant; I am Your servant the son of Your maidservant; You have loosed my thongs.
- To You I shall slaughter a thanksgiving offering, and I shall call out in the name of the Lord.
- I shall pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people,
- In the courtyards of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Hallelujah!
[1] According to: www.histoiredesjuifs.com, « chronology ».
[2] (preface by) Georges Duby: « A history of the medieval world ». Chapter: « A Hundred Years Conflict, 1337-1453 ». (French: « Une histoire du monde médiéval ». Chapitre : « Un conflit de cent ans, 1337-1453 ». (p. 350-351) ).
[3] Riccardo Calimani: « The Jewish Wandering ». Chapter: « Discrimination, Persecution, Survival ». (French: « L’Errance juive ». Chapitre : « La discrimination, la persécution, la survie ». (p. 201,202) ).
[4] Léon Poliakov: « History of anti-Semitism: 1. The age of faith ». Chapter: « The Spain of the Three Religions » (French: Léon Poliakov : « Histoire de l’antisémitisme : 1. L’âge de la foi ». Chapitre : « L’Espagne des trois religions » (p. 144 à 146) ).