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On the burning of the Talmud in 1244 in Paris and its later persecution in the middle ages. The title page states that it is on the persecution of the Talmud in the middle ages. The title, appropriately, is from the verse, “they persecute me wrongfully (sheker redefuni)” (Psalms 119:86). Concernoing the burning of the Talmud, the catalyst for this event was the apostate Nicholas Donin. In 1236, Donin left the faith of his fathers and became a Christian. This apostate, who it appears had been less than an ideal Jew, having been excommunicated, possibly for Karaism, by the famed R. Yehiel of Paris, became a bitter opponent of the Jews and the Talmud. Based upon Donin's charges, Pope Gregory IX issued Apostolic letters to the Archbishops that on the first Saturday of the Lent to come (i.e. March 3, 1240) in the morning while the Jews are gathered in the synagogues you shall by your order seize all the books of the Jews who live in your districts and have these books carefully guarded in the possession of the Dominican and Franciscan Friars. It appears that the Apostolic letters were only heeded in France, then under the rule of Louis IX, known as Saint Louis, and disregarded elsewhere. On the appointed date in France, the Jewish books were seized, were delivered over to the Dominicans, and proceedings were initiated against the Talmud and Rashi's Talmud commentary. The investigation consisted of a famous trial (disputation), presided over by the Queen Mother Blanche, who was in an advanced stage of pregnancy. The judges were high Church dignitaries, such as the Archbishop of Sens, the Bishop of Paris, and the Chaplain to King Louis IX, none of whom, incidentally, knew Hebrew. The trial began on Monday, June 25, 1240. Testifying in defense of the Talmud were R. Yehiel ben Joseph of Paris (head of the rabbinical academy of Paris), R. Moses of Coucy (Semag), R. Judah ben David of Melun (head of the rabbinical academy in Melun, and R. Samuel ben Solomon of Chateau-Thierry.
R. Yehiel defended the Talmud well. To Donin's charge that the Talmud was only four hundred years old, R. Yehiel replied that rather than being a heretical innovation, the Talmud, and the traditions it contained, had been accepted by all of world Jewry for 1500 years. He further stated that the writings of Jerome had noted the Jews' devotion and fidelity to the Talmud, an allegiance that Christendom had never previously attacked. On the contrary, he continued, Donin, in his opposition to Talmudic Judaism,was the real heretic, justifiably excommunicated by the Jewish community fifteen years before the debate, concluding:
And you [the audience] know that every biblical statement needs an interpretation, and therefore [because of his rejection of the Talmud] we have excommunicated him and anathematized him. From then until now he has plotted against us to destroy [us] completely. Yet in vain has he striven, because for it [the Torah<197>including its rabbinic interpretation] we shall die, and one who [even] touches it is like one who touches the pupil of our eye. And if you punish us, we [Jews] and this our law are dispersed throughout the whole world [punishing French Jewry for the Talmud will be of no avail]; in Babylonia, Persia, Greece, the lands of Islam, and the seventy nations beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, there this law of ours will be found.
R. Yehiel responded equally well to the other charges but to no avail. No matter how capable the defense, the matter was predetermined, and well before the court's formal decision was rendered, it had been decided to burn the condemned books. In June, 1244, twenty-four wagon loads of Hebrew books, containing thousands of volumes, were seized and burned in Paris. |
