If 1148 marks the end of the Golden Age of Spain, the beginning of the end of Spanish Jewry as a whole begins in 1391. By that time the Christians had re-conquered much of Spain, a process that began soon after the Muslim conquest and was completed in 1492.
It was in March of that year – on Ash Wednesday – when a pogrom began in Seville and quickly spread throughout Spain.
Unlike conversion to Islam which is allowed in order to save one’s life[1], there was universal agreement amongst rabbinic sources that one was to give up one's life rather than convert to Christianity. Its belief in the trinity automatically defined it as idolatry. Their claim of supersession, that Christianity replaced Judaism as G-d’s chosen religion, meant Jewish-Christian relations would always be fraught.
Whatever negative views Judaism may have had against Christianity – and there were plenty of such views – the view of classic Christianity towards Judaism was much harsher. Not only did we reject their god, we allegedly killed him. Yet despite the act of deicide and the continuing refusal of the Jewish people to recognize the truth of Christianity, official church doctrine was that the Jewish people should be downtrodden, wanderers, with few rights but should not be killed. They were to give testimony to all of the suffering that awaits those who reject the truth of Jesus and Christianity.
This approach helps explain why medieval Jewish communities were situated next to the local Cathedral which literally towered over the Jewish community. This arrangement offered protection to the Jews, while at the same time enabling the authorities to keep a close watch on the community. Tragically, but not at all surprisingly, the people often went beyond what the Church taught and physically harmed, at times killing, the Jews. The pope did not encourage the Crusaders to kill Jews on their way to the Holy Land, but church teachings, even if unintentional, played a major role in these tragic events[2].
Many, including rabbis and communal leaders, converted in 1391 to save their lives[3]. While such reflects a failure to fulfil the mitzva of kiddush Hashem, sanctifying the name of G-d, it would be foolhardy of us to judge them – would Jews today act any differently if faced with such a daunting choice? Let us hope we never have to find out.
Over the next hundred years many more Jews converted, some fully and some as conversos, those who outwardly converted but maintained Jewish practices in private. It was [only] through conversion that one could be fully accepted in Spain. The attraction of conversion was so great that some historians estimate that by the time of the expulsion more than half of the Jewish population of Spain had converted to Christianity.
Yet conversion did not guarantee freedom from persecution. The authorities suspected that many of the conversions were insincere and hence a danger to Catholic hegemony over Spain. Thus in 1481 Ferdinand and Isabella, the royal rulers of Spain and devout Catholics, set up the Inquisition to root out the conversos and their heresies. Crucially, the Inquisition was directed only against the conversos. Those who identified as Jews were spared and were never targeted by the Inquisition. They were relatively safe – at least for the moment.
When one was accused of secretly practicing Judaism – or Islam for that matter[4] - one was given the option to confess – and if one did not, one was then tortured. To the inquisitors such torture was actually for the conversos' benefit, allowing them to suffer in this world, admit the error of their ways and be spared eternal damnation. Only repeat offenders were subject to death and in the vast majority of cases were killed before being burned at the stake.
In 1492 the re-conquest of Spain by the Christians was complete with the Muslim surrender of Granada. Fearful that Jews were influencing the conversos, Ferdinand and Isabella ordered the expulsion of all Jews from Spain. While exact numbers are hard to come by, somewhere between 50,000-100,000 Jews were expelled with likely an equal number converting – at least outwardly - to Christianity. That this was one of the great tragedies of Jewish history need not be stated[5], bringing to an end a community that flourished for over 1,000 years and contributed so much to Jewish life. While that mattered little to Ferdinand and Isabella what should have mattered to them is the tremendous contribution the Jewish people were making to Spain.
That they had an understanding to some degree of what they were doing to Spain can be seen in their offer to Don Isaac Abarbanel to remain in Spain. It is only because he declined the offer and went with his people that you have heard of him. The official chief rabbi, Abraham Seneor did convert and that helps explain why so few have heard of him.
The expulsion was almost as harmful to Spain as it was to the Jewish people. Spain which had been a world power, soon became a shadow of itself and 500 years later has yet to recover its former glory.
[1] In our last post we noted the view of the Rambam that one should and must convert to Islam in order to save one’s life. It is worth noting that the Ritva, Rav Yom Tov ben Abraham of Seville, one of the great rabbinic figures of Spain, disagrees, arguing that one must martyr oneself rather than convert to any religion, such conversion by definition being an unacceptable repudiation of Judaism.
[2] The fear of taking a teaching beyond its intended application is the reasoning behind the law that one must help one's enemy load an animal before helping a friend unload such a burden. Jewish law stipulates that one should first help a person unloading an animal, and only afterwards help those loading an animal.
Our Sages assert that this enemy includes a sinner to whom one is allowed to display a modicum of hatred. Our Sages, with their deep understanding of human nature, feared that the permitted hatred of the sin was likely to develop into forbidden “total hatred” towards this person. They thus insisted that the our "enemy" be helped first even though he is the one loading the animal. (See Tosafot, Pesachim 113b s.v. shera'ah)
[3] It is important to note that those who practice idolatry under duress are not considered idolaters. Rather, they failed in their duty of sanctifying the name of G-d.
[4] The last of the Moriscos (former Muslims and their descendants whom the Catholic Church forcibly converted to Christianity) were expelled in 1609.
[5] Yet compared to later tragedies the expulsion was much more benign. Jews were given the option to convert or leave, but no attempt was made to kill them. Tragically such was not the case during the Chelminski massacres or the Holocaust.
