Journey to Spain: The Cherem of the Rashba in 1306 Against Philosophy

this tour class is brought to you by torahanytime.com okay let's take this opportunity to get especially kayak to my Portnoy for a tremendous nobody even realizes how much work he puts in for every detail on the trip it's probably up the whole night making sure that everything should run smoothly and uh well Hashem we got out of here on time and we're gonna have a wonderful day together this is our last day in Spain so just want to uh cover really another amazing topic uh yesterday we spoke about the Harem about not about not returning to Spain and we mentioned that very likely there never was such a harem but it was sort of self-understood you don't come back to the country where they're either going to convert you or kill you today we're going to speak about another Harem this is a fascinating serum just to give you a little bit of the backdrop of historically what was taking place you have to understand there was a major divide between two areas of Tyra and Europe you had the valetis in Germany and in France and the climate there the atmosphere there was very different than it was in Spain in Germany and in France it was more of a traditional approach focused only on talmadably there was no studying other disciplines Rashi tices [Music] they sat and they learned Tyra they did not involve in other Pursuits and other disciplines however Spain was more open-minded more broad-minded and many of the godalia Israel focused heavily not only on learning but also on philosophy including as we know the rambam and that was one of the controversial points about the ramen where the rabbonim of France primarily northern France were against the rambams but the regime of Southern France supported the ramamura with the exception of they actually vehemently opposed the ramam and the emphasis on philosophy became very troubling specifically to a reshine by the name of hayaki hayaki now what is the word means the Moon yes that's why what his name was he was born in lunel lunel moon lunel comes from the Moon even even in English right the lunar calendar or you know La havdo there's a word lunatic what's lunatic he gets set off by the moon he's a mashugana people are considered connected to the Moon somebody who's overly influenced by the moon so he was called avamori hayaki he was from lunel France and he compiled the work a very important work it's called minhas which is a collection of letters that he wrote pleading to the rajva the rajva was the leading personality in Spain in the 13th and 14th century the Raja was born in Barcelona in the year 1235 he passed away in the year 1310. we mentioned that the rajva wrote more than 000 the chuvais we only have about 3 000 sugar the Raja actually wrote more than three thousand shivas interesting the Raja was spent a few years as a financier and but when people recognized his Godless entire he was called upon to serve as the rub of the community of Barcelona and he petitioned the rajva to write a harem to write a theorem against those who are studying philosophy now I just came across something very interesting that I want to share with you to us it sounds strange you know to us we're very much on guard you know when we hear that Atomic hawkam is learning other disciplines we don't necessarily swallow it so comfortably but you have to understand and this is what I'm going to share with you mad over nifla from one of the great mikhubalem that the name of this book was the leshem the Bible Lesson the grandfather Rebel yashiv the lesham was considered one of the greatest event he wrote The Supreme halashem and he writes in the safer hadaya a very important idea that many are not aware of and this is writes about and and others as well and that is the gemara says there's a area there's a Mexican well says the lessham in the times of the reshinam this is in the times of the reasoning they never saw the zayat desire had not been discovered yet they didn't have the Zion so to them to understand my separations and understand my summer kava they delved into philosophyem in order to understand the workings of the Bria but says the lashem now that nasgali Allah now it's clear to us that it's not necessary to venture out of the Torah to understand briasm everything is in this but in this time desire had not been found yet maybe I should be aware of writes a certain approach that ration toys was take says avnenezer the only reason rasheantis has learned the Sugi a certain way is Linus Galileo him but if they would have seen the Zaya they would have learned the sugya differently let me Veer off just an interesting topic I wasn't planning on speaking about this I'm sure everyone on this bus will be able to fill in the blank ETS anyone who gets angry it's as if they survivals I'm over I believe so where does it say that I'm sure most people would say oh it must be somewhere in shots does not appear anywhere in shots it says in Shahs call him if you break Caleb in your anger yeah but it doesn't say anyone who gets angry to be like they sort of Zara look in the rambam in hillsara where the rambam get it from the zoyar hakodo is right did the rambam see the Zaya it says in the galaxy ramban okay maybe it also says in the Galaxy the rambam says the words though Kalah it does not appear in chass does not appear in chess so value yourself rights either the rambam had access to manuscripts that later brings many instances where the rambam says things that are only in the Zaya and the ramam didn't have the Zaya it's a very interesting topic but the rajwa gets this letter from abamura Mori hayaki and about Mariachi says we got to do something about the fact that so many people are learning uh philosophy now if you look in the chubas of the rajva I'll tell you on your sheets you have it in shuva simmen tough you dalid Simon tough testez the rajva wrote and he was the chief signer of the Harem in the year 1306 against learning philosophy but I just want to point out a Dover nifla that the rajbar writes that if it just would have ended with the learning of philosophy it would have been I held at Sarah it would have been a how about Sarah but where did the philosophy take them he says something very interesting that they started reinterpreting of Hamish allegorically instead of learning the sukim literally they started started learning that the Torah was just Parable so for instance avraham and Sarah avraham represents climera raw material and Sarah represents Surah the final product they started learning that there were never 12 the 12 spot them just represent the 12 masalas and I'm awake is the yitza Hara and light is sehal and his wife is Heimer that's why she turned into salt and the rajbar rides that what led them to interpret the sukim so differently than tradition was the fact that they were being led Away by learning philosophy the Raja writes and Simmons number three on your sheets in other words they they've violated they've misinterpreted the meaning of our of our of exactosium avraham and Sarah they interpret to be Heimer and Surah they say they interpreted that the KLM of the mikdash were not literal that the Calum of the mikdas were scientific um tools for example they said that the urimbatumin was the Astro lab which was one of the tools of the Ancients and they learned that the war of the Four Kings and the five Kings was not literal the Four Kings represent the four you said and the five Kings represent the five hargesium and then they learned that whatever is in Paris is voracious until Mata and Torah it's all a martial well the rajba signs a theram against these people and it's interesting the rajma was somewhat tolerant of this the rajwa didn't arrive that you're not going to learn philosophy I'll tell you what he wrote he said one is in Hiram if they learn philosophy before the age of 25. interesting the rajma did not forbid it entirely and we'll see the rajma writes in the milkhask and you have it on your sheets you'll take a look at it the rajma says these people think that I'm answering philosophy because I don't know anything about it sister couldn't be further from the truth I'm well acquainted with every concept of philosophy it's just that if a person learns philosophy in their youth and they're not grounded but you say they are Torah then we'll lead them astray but says the Rajah first the person has to be Malay crayside and at that point they have the usaid and then the philosophy which is called in the maid servants the main wife is the Torah the cleaning ladies are the other disciplines of knowledge and the rajva said I'm not going to forbid philosophy entirely but one should not learn philosophy until they're 25. now don't make a mistake the rajva was not being liberal here you have to realize back then the age of 25 was like the age of 75 today the life expectancy back then was about 30 years old okay we're gonna see an amazing thing back then in the 13th century if you live to the age of 35 you were lucky most now it's a little it's not quite the way I'm saying it it's not that most people would pass away by the age of 30. it's just never made it out of childhood so those who did would often live a little bit longer but the yeah the life expectancy the age of 25 or you you've already been uh you've been around the block by the age of 25. and also another thing the Raj was said was was this harem was only in effect for 50 years for 50 years because again you don't make a theorem forever and ever because you can't be myself to the Tyra but you could make it as a a specific measure a one-time measure Rabbi I want to share with you an amazing uh historical fact you know we we hear about all these haramim that they made and we think to ourselves oh come on did anybody listen to it like you know the rabbanim got together the other year and they they forbid the internet so la Misa did they have the kayak are people listening to that you decide for yourself but what clay after the coming have back then it's a mamish Marvel Orion there's a chuva in the rush and we're going to talk about the rush you have it on your sheets I want to just bring to your attention the rush is found in number 17. in as we mentioned the rush was born in Germany he was Tamanna marami rotenberg but he had to escape he had to escape to Spain he comes to Toledo and ultimately he becomes the rub of Toledo with the help of the rajvan listen to the story there was a certain person in the community who blasphemed who was mccallo assatsumoy he cursed the name of Hashem and there's a chuva to the rush listen to this the best in in Spain had the kayak to give capital punishment and they did in Spain the reshinam used to give capital punishment you say how do they have the kayak to give capital punishment well we mentioned that the two great we shine them at the time in Spain were the rajva and the ra let's talk a little bit about the uh the Ra was rabaran halavi wrote by the wayana let's talk a little bit about the uh let's talk about the ra of Aaron halavi of garona Spain was also Robin Barcelona together with the rajwa and both the and the rajwa were recognized by King Pedra and the government of Spain authorized the bate dinam in Spain to give capital punishment and they did they did and the question that was offered to the Russians do you support the uh procedure of the Jewish courts to give capital punishment and the rush says like this in all my life I never saw a bezden give capital punishment until I came to Spain and I understand the government gives us authority to do that but for Abes then to take away nefesh Mi Israel I don't support it but I don't stop them why don't I stop them because it would be a civil Hashem possibly if we don't give capital punishment because all the goyam they give capital punishment when people violate their law and if we don't treat our law as severe as the golium treat their law Shem so what happened was somebody publicly blasphemed Hashem and the community was asking the rush what should we do to do to this guy if we don't kill him it's going to be a Khal Hashem because the guy am I going to say we don't respect our God so Rush said like this if you want to kill him I'm not going to stop you but my age is to have rahmanas on him what's the rahmanas remove most of his tongue cut it off and this way we'll deal with him Barack on him and he'll be punished I but we're not authorized to do that bezen is authorized to do that says the rush one thing is for sure he won't do it again one thing is for sure and this is the sack of the rush and the chuva sarash so you have to understand back then if through China made their main business not like today if you violated The Harem the courts had full authority over your life let's talk a little bit about the rajba for a moment the rajma was as we mentioned the chief family in Barcelona there's basio safe in number six on your sheets there's a halacha and yordea that a Jew is not supposed to eat pasakum when China eat the the bread of an anju however if it's a commercial Baker then there's certain uh dispensations we're allowed to eat the bread of a commercialized non-jewish Baker fast powder so now there's a mahoikas between the rush and the the rajva what if kosher bread is available and some reason say well if kosher bread is available then you're not even allowed to have the bread of a commercialized non-jewish Baker however the rajba says even if it's available but if you like the non-jewish bread better you're allowed to eat it comes the tour look at number five and the tour says that in his opinion the opinion of the rajva is against you xiaomi okay it seems like an honest question the rajva seems to be uh disagreeing with you xiaomi comes the base you are safe and the basically safe says the tour stepped out of line by saying the rajma is against you xiaomi what does that mean do you think the Raj will missing you xiaomi do you think the rajua didn't know you xiaomi says he should not have written this why mandini here in laish Villa De rakia the rajbah who all the highways and byways of the heavens were open would never have missed are you xiaomi so we're not even allowed to say about the rajma that he's against you xiaomi he never would have missed the usami what's very interesting about boys I is that part of this Harem part of the serum was that people started to be oiker started to uproot the simple meaning of the sukim but what's half of a fella as we mentioned before they started to say avraham is Surah you ever hear of the safer told us Yak of your safe who wrote the safer to the sack of Yosef 1710 1784 the foremost disciple of al-shem he writes that avraham and Sarah are a martial then I'm looking number seven the nashama that Surah is called avraham the Goof is called Sarah so the shot that the Russia and the Raj were put into Hiram is the entire Foundation of civil casidos a what the Russian is the yes of Yosef who else says this look at number eight he quotes the matters hanelam that the parishes Sarah is Goof and ashama and fatama Sara zuha gov the curious it's a pillar the Russian those who understands like this and this is the inside of and the explanation there are two levels of explanation here firstly what the Russian Raja put into here and it's important to know this because if you're familiar with the Chua sarajma it seems like a lot of our safarim are going with a different Mahala first of all the danger and the times of the Russia and the rajva what were that they were being oikeri menopauseat and that the sukim only mean climber and Surah and it's only a martial but the literal literal meaning is just a disguise but it doesn't really mean that there was an avram avinu of course of course of course they were Clea miktas but they're also deeper in interpretations and there are many levels and layers of interpretation but the Russian the rajma never meant that only the literal interpretation was true but Rabbi say it goes more than this you have to understand that I called him in the times of the Russian the rajbah Greek philosophy was causing people to interpret the Torah in different ways and it was diminishing it was taking them away from itself was promoting and enhancing our decision not every time something is impairment one generation is it not only not in Harem in another generation it doesn't even mean it's bad it's how cool everybody has to know it depends on the time depends on the environment it depends on the circumstance huh let me tell you just a few things about the rush firstly when the rush came to Spain it's a very unique phenomenon you have an Ashkenazi Rabbi as one of the chief rabbanim in Spain and he was very well respected here in Spain however when he tried to change some of them and hug him to manhogi astronauts that they didn't go with you know they said we respect you greatly you are you're our godo you're our leader but Armin hagimar Armand hagam the rush however was not satisfied with certain certain practices that were taking place here in Spain for instance the study of Gomorrah was not focused on in Spain and Spain they focused on the riff and the rush said it's not enough just to learn piske halafa it's not enough just to learn the bottom line you have to be familiar with the chocolate of osugus because if you don't know the lumdus you don't know the back and forth you don't know the reasoning and the rationale then you can never extrapolate from one case to the next so the rush was not in favor of the dark halimo here in Spain and also with those who passed in based on the rambam and the rush in achuva I want to refer you to number 23 it's Clau laminate for ice Tess the rush said that we cannot pass again straight from the rambam why the rush rides very interesting lotion the rambam was different than all the other is shown him the rambam never brings us macaros the random never tells you where he gets something from says the rush if you don't know Shas then you can't learn the rambam because you're going to make a mistake and say oh the ram mam says a then we can apply it to B but if you don't know the round mountains in the car you don't know the source then you don't know how to extrapolate from the words of the RAM mount properly I'm gonna tell you an interesting thing we don't we no longer have the cover of the rush we don't know where it is but there's a safer called avne zikarain and to me it was very startling that the rush and his Robinson not only are buried side by side but there is a beautiful pasok on their on their cover and on the cover of the rush and the ra of the Russian his wife it says not necessarily something you would expect it to say on the cover of a reshine the rush is buried side by side with his wife and the save around this guy brings and it's interesting in the igueres and the orchestraim of the rush so Rush speaks about the cover that one has to have for their wife the rush says never get angry at your wife the M Bismillah if you ever has to push her away voice you should always bring her clothes with your right side so the rush was somebody who emphasized and stressed the Indian of so perhaps it's no wonder that the rush was to eight Sons Yehuda I want to end off telling you a just there are no words to describe this story and it's not my story this is a story that is recorded by the hidah and you have it on your sheet of number 25 it's a story recorded by the hida says I found in the writing of ital okay this is quoting the handwritten documents writes he found the the handwriting of the son of the rush Rabino Yehuda writes you know I don't know so much about my family history we had to flee Germany when I was very young but let me tell you one tradition that I have about my zaida who was Robin Hooda was the son of Rabino Asha and the rush was so he writes a story about his Zeta hezeda was one of the ashkenaz hezeda was born in the year in the year 1210 Yeshiva named they made an agreement they made a pact they made a Brisk that they made a deal that whatever learns he'll split with and whenever split without in other words they decided they're going to divide all their mid-sliced older Tyra now if you remember there's a Minogue in ashkenaz there's a minigun in Germany that arav yamaki Purim you light candles and you bring it to the shore and they would treat those candles very seriously and if the candle lit the whole the whole yamakipuram they took it as a cementite and if the candle blew out it wasn't a good cinnamon and the candle of Robin did not last through Yom Kippur and he was very scared and sure enough a few days later he passed away and the minogan ashken as was that before they would bury the mess they would lay the mess out on a bed and straighten out his limbs you know maybe he won't be comfortable if the elbow is in a bad position they would make sure the messes is comfortable that was the minigun asking us I remember in my first Jewel it was more like an old-time uh one of the first Orthodox rules in Queens a lot of old people in the show now it's a Yankee hila but back then when uh when I was starting in the job there were a lot of levias I remember uh I had to drive a fuse a kingdom about a bunch of Alta yudinos in the backseat to lavaya so they're talking about you know where they would like to be buried which cemetery they like so one said to the other you know I don't like this cemetery on the island there's a highway there it's very noisy you know and the other one said Rose don't you know when you're six feet under you don't hear the cars on the highway but anyway in the minute I'm asking as was that before they would put the the mess into the cover they would straighten out their limbs and ah they're about to bury ravino you heal the father of the rusha comes and he starts crying and he says when you get to the islands remember our deal remember that we split equally our Tara mitzvahs we're upon with gives a wide grin and a white smile and these mitsake in front of kalamba Eda that's what the writes the story doesn't end here a few days after the death of learning in the base of medrish and all of a sudden who walks into the basement the father of the rush he says was Master what's going on how's everything is wonderful I don't understand even to come back he says that's right that's why I'm not going home I don't want word to get out then I'm coming back but you should know my Ms I have a very special place it's amazing thing the father of the rush was they was able to come back another the story doesn't end here one night his wife is sleeping and it was a Friday night and his wife wakes up in the middle of the night and she looks and who's there her husband is there Robin the father of the rush and he says my wife get out of here you should know that tomorrow morning the guy are going to wipe out the whole city flee with all the kinderlock I was Miss following shamayam really they would have wiped out the entire region but I was only zoja to save the rest of Germany except for this city so come get out and that night the wife of energy takes all of her children including the rush and he was matzo his entire mishbacha just to give you a little glimpse of the rush I just want to tell you that of all that we shine and we speak about the Russia and the rajma so Kabbalah brings down the Russia and the Raja were together for approximately we don't know doesn't say for how long it's brought down in the sun they were together for eight days when the Magid when the malach came to learn what the basically safe the malach told the base if about the rush we mentioned this the first night we said about the Russian Asher kadishi is the holy the holy reshine and he said about the rajva so we're talking about mamish luminaries the result there to to be in the same land that these great luminaries lived in and their light 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