Is Jewish Tragedy a Mystery? - The Burning of the Talmud in Paris in 1242

this torah class is brought to you by torahanytime.com and welcome everyone hope everybody's having a good day today is a very special day today is the 26th day of tamils so first of all the 26th day of tamas is of course the most important day of the year because it's my birthday and besides that it's also my son's bar mitzvah and you know say that when misha comes the three weeks will be transformed into days of simcha and happiness so that means shavasvatamas will be a and tishbok will be a yamtif but there's only one day in the three weeks that's the shame so probably the 26th day of thomas will be a young divoso okay today i want to talk about um an episode in jewish history do you want to send out the uh yeah they're they're they're noma kairos today and um i want to talk about an episode of jewish history um i will have the opportunity in two days to be standing there at that making i can't say it's a privilege to be at that place it's not a pleasant makoim but it's one that is worthy of our attention if we look at the 41st kinah that we say on tish above the kennel begins sha ali srifa baish and this kenna mourns the burning of the 24 cartloads of shas and the commentaries publicly in the streets of paris in the year 1242. so you could go to the louvre today and think you're going to an art museum and uh not saying that you should go in there you know we know what one thing the humish says about a malcolm like that well so you know ask your local orthodox rabbi about the appropriateness of that but actually in the square in front of the louvre is the square where in 1242 they burnt 24 cartwheel cart loads of shas now the author of the kinna was the marami rothenberg uh one of the last of the ballet toys this in fact the poins if you look at the yuma you'll notice the taisusin were written in a little bit of a different style than other taisusan and chassis and in fact it's because the author of taisis in masekta yuma is the maram me rotenberg maramo was a prolific author he wrote over a thousand chuvas and the yamcha much says about maram the maram was the student of the arzarua that's very interesting who's our zara rabbit of veena the reason why he's called our zero is after the safer he wrote are zarua and we've spoken out that the reason why he named his seifer or zarua is because he was writing about how to spell different names in gitan and he had a shiloh about the name akiva how do you spell akiva do you spell akiva with a aleph at the end or did you spell akiva with the hay at the end and he had a dream and in the dream hashem showed him the passage and he realized that the soy fe tavoise of these words spelled out and from there he derived that akiva spelled with the hey by the way we don't ask in that way we pass can you spell akiva with an aleph tamaram was born in 1220 and in the second half of the 13th century he's the leader of german jewry in the final years maram's life it became intolerable to live in germany pogroms taxes blood libels many jews had a flea and they made the difficult trip to arts israel the emperor rudolph the first didn't want to lose his jewish population it was adversely affecting the economy so he declared in 1286 the jews were his personal property serfs of the emperor's treasury no one was allowed to leave germany anyone who did have their property confiscated the maram attempted to flee but he was recognized of course by a jewish apostate by the way the biggest problems in the history of the jewish people were inflicted on the jewish people by jews okay the spanish inquisition the most vicious inquisitors including turkmeyer turkamata had jewish blood what what the russian revolution could not accomplish in 10 years the bolsheviks who were led by a jewish bolsheviks destroyed our people more than anybody else this is a constant problem the biggest threat to judaism is the the falsifiers of of our religion anyway the maram tries to flee with his family and he's recognized by jewish apostate at lombardi and the emperor imprisoned him at a castle in eisensheim and the great ransom was demanded 23 000 pounds of silver and the maram passkind that the community was not allowed to redeem him because it says in getting in the mayhem right you're not a redeemed captives more than their value because we're afraid that it would just encourage the gentiles to kidnap more and um the rush on the other hand as we're going to see was the primary disciple maharami ruthenberg he disagreed with maram he said that for the god of hadar you're allowed to pay an exorbitant son so anyway the 23 000 talents were actually um raised by a uh a wealthy man by the name of alexander wimphim he paid for the maram's release and as we mentioned the rush disagreed with the maram and the rush personally guaranteed that he would raise the requisite son some but unfortunately maram died by the rush raises the sum the problem is now the rush is afraid that he's next and um they held the remains of the maram uh hostage and the rush basically had to flee to spain where he died in um 1327. now the the whole story of when the rush came to spain and he tried he was received very warmly in spain and he was he was uh elevated to the status of the one of the leading rob on him but the one thing he couldn't do is he could not change the sephardic customs which he attempted to do well okay so it's very interesting they tried um when the maram died that they would not release his remains until as we mentioned alexander wimfin paid for the release on condition that he'd be allowed to be buried one day right next to the maram and incredibly although they're very very few kwaram of re-shining today you could still go to the cover of the marami rotenberg and buried right next to him is alexander wimphim now during the period that the maram was imprisoned he was very active shilohs came to him from all over the world many of his talmudim were allowed access into his prison cell and many of his teachings he taught while he was in prison are recorded so for example the tash baits written by a student of the maaram the taj mahal says he records five hundred and ninety pisces that maram taught him while in jail i'll tell you a few of them one is by my mousekwitz you ready for this one you're gonna like this one the taj made said what does the word israel stand for what's the meaning of it the taj maid says israel stands for yud stands for yaakov yitzhak the shin stands for sarah the rage stands for rivka rakhel the aleph stands for avraham and the lamb it stands for leia israel encompasses all the avoids that was one of the revelations of the marami rotenberg when he was in jail and the taj bates writes and always tough tests above that the maram taught him as follows that kisha adam goimer when a person makes up his mind to give up his life for hashem the im sarnabh he gives up his life for the ultimate challenge commas then whatever they do to him hans kilah whether they stone you hein srifa whether they burn you foreign it doesn't hurt when a person makes up his mind to give up their life okay there's no pain involved and laram brought araya from the messiah two times in tanakh it says hikuni it says hikuni pizza uni he smites me he wounds me and it says hikuni balcalisi he smites me and i am not sickened this teaches me kesha hey me kuni that when the hit and they wound baal khaleesi kalamalai or koyabi it doesn't hurt that's a tradition that maram taught when he was imprisoned in einstein and the maram brought araya he says vitae da shikenu i'll bring you a proof the proof is there's no one in the world like is there anyone in the world they can put their hand in fire and not scream no no anyone who puts their hand in fire is going to scream but virab maestromatsu many have given up their life to be burned they don't scream not oi and they don't scream avoid so this indicates says maram when a person gives up makes up their mind to die or kill this hashem they are not harmed it's amazing that the king of france in the time in 1242 was king louis ix known as saint louis not for his piety to the jewish people but rather for his religious zealousness which was expressed most clearly by the favor he showed jewish apostates saint louis by the way and that's the reason why the cardinals have never won the pennant anyway nicholas donan was a jewish apostate who is especially vicious to his co-religionists and he caused personally the baptism of the jews of anjoy and potier 500 jews under the threat of death baptized while the majority of the jews 3 000 and all were all murdered now this is very important to know and that is there was a very big difference between sephardic jewry and french jewry while sephardic jewry there were instances of hundreds of thousands of forced conversions in ashkenazic jewry in france it was a it was a rarity jews did not allow themselves to be baptized they sooner were moisture and the distinction to a great degree lay in the uh the hundreds of rishonim that a very profound influence in france now there was an apostate by uh as we mentioned nicholas donan he realized that the backbone and the foundation of judaism was the oral law of the gemara and therefore he made a formal accusation to pope gregory ix that the talmud contained passages that were heretical to christianity the pope ordered all the copies of the talmud to be confiscated and in march 3rd 1240 while the jews were in show all copies of the shas were forcefully confiscated on june 12th a public debate was held in paris between nicholas donnen and four of the most eminent robotim in paris rabbi hill of paris ramos of kusi the smug and as you can imagine this was a very fair trial well the verdict was a forgotten conclusion before it even began the talmud would have been burnt immediately if not for the jews only ally in the bishop of sens his arguments averted the decree for one year but at the end of the year the bishop convulsed and he died in the presence of king louie well the priests were able to convince the king that god had punished the bishop for defending the talmud the talmud was contempt to be burned manuscripts of the talmud were confiscated and we have to understand that you know this this was 200 years before the advent of the printing press and a volume of shots could take years to write many recently written works so that we shined them were burnt and destroyed forever and here's what i want to focus on this morning when did the burning take place the burning of the 24 wagon loads of swarm occurred arab shabbos parashas the shiboile haleket writes of the time inquired from the heavens via dream which is a way to inquire from the heavens to discover if the decree was indeed decreed from the banisham and on arab shabbas parshas they received the following response da this is the decree of the torah doug izeros arrives as the targum the aramaic translation of the first words of parish zoys by the way so to me this is very interesting in other words if you were to ask well what's the reason why hashem allowed the talmud to be burnt i would have said the reason that was communicated via the heavens was it's a decree it's a heavenly decree it's a khoik but i want to share with you another piece of information because while the shibale alaket says that they made a sheila's came back with a response that it was a hoik it was doug zera sairaisa there was another take on this incredibly the tragedy was not viewed as a mysterious suffering that the jewish people had to undergo but there was an understanding it was a direct punishment and divine retribution for the destruction of the works of the rambam now you have to understand there's a very big difference between french jewry and spanish jury french jewry were single-minded in their focus on the talmud and its commentaries and the study of torah to the exclusion of all other disciplines including philosophy and mathematics the rashi and the toy smiths were interested in the talmud and the talmud only but in spain in spain they were broader they were interested in philosophy poetry art and many reshine him especially in southern france actually more in northern france but even though in provence there were many who defended the rambam but the rambam had his most outspoken adversaries in southern france they did not agree with the rambam's philosophical ideas in the al-hazagan ramadan or and some re-showing them most notably rob they put the works of the rambam and the controversy erupted and some of the members of the anti-rambam camp submitted the works of the rambam to the monks of the dominican order to determine whether the works were heretical or not the monks were only too eager to declare the rambam's works heretical and the works of rama were burnt in montpellier in 1234 and in paris 1242 writes raphila verona who was an eyewitness to the burning of the shas he says hashem looked down from heaven and avenged the honor of our master the rambam whose works were burned says rav hillel the rambam was almost second only to maisha and if you ask how can we be sure that the burning of the talmud was retribution for the burning of the works of the rambam says hillel this is the sign this is the proof not even 40 days have passed between the burning of the works of the rambam and the burning of the talmud on the very spot that the rambam's works were burned they burned the talmud the ashes of the rambam's works mixed with the ashes of the talmud and i tell you the truth i was thinking about this this morning and there's something not consistent over here i just want to mention the destruction of the talmud was a crushing blow to the ancient communities in france and the conditions worsened rabbi hill emigrated in 1260 with many of the french thou sophists and they settled in akka and they established the madrishagada of paris in eretz israel where rebeccil of paris is believed to have died in 1267. in 1306 the glorious chapter of jewish history of medieval france came to a close when king philip ix expelled the jews from all of france french jewry that had enriched torah legacy from the year approximately um 10 um came to an end french jewry was no longer in a 1306. so let me share with you my question this is a brand new question something is not consistent over here the shibali haleket says they made a sheila to determine why was the talmud burnt in 1242 and the answer they received is da gezeras it's a decree it's a heik it has no reason and on the other end rather hello verona was who's standing there said there is no question why did this happen this is not a mystery in the very same spot where they burnt the works of the rambam they birthed the talmud this was a direct retribution from heaven to burn the talmud meet the caniga meda he said this is the sign this is the proof not even 40 days have passed between the burning of the works of the rav and the burning time so question is it a heik or is it a punishment neither can i give me that it's a good question it can't be both it can't be a haik and could it so maybe you'll say the shibaile halaquet argues of the verona i rev hilla verona shiba lake it says it's a punishment media connectivity by the way rabino yoino took this lesson to heart and he accepted upon himself that because he spoke out so antagonistically against the rambam he has to do chuva and he accepted upon himself to defend the honor of the rambam until he would get to tavaria and personally beg the rambam forgiveness at his grave but what was troubling me again is how do we reconcile that which is writes that it was a choice with the report of rav hilo of verona that it was a punishment and i think this should take us back to the para duma you know on the one hand the para duma is the quintessential hike it's metahim um i thought i would become wise but it's distant from me so even did not know the reason for the paradigma only mashable knew the reason by the way the uh ben lo ashrie says kyrah perhaps cracked the code of the para duma qurach may have known the the reason for the paradigma and on the other hand you look at rashi and rashi quotes from shahadarshan was one of the sages of narbon in southern france and ramos darshan explains the whole well the whole um rationale for the paraduma rama shaddasha says you know what the reason for the para duma is the para duma well it's matami the tahirim it's matami the taharim just like the eggel it rendered claudius throughout tommy but it's also mitami the tahoe it's the tamayim because they use the ashes of the para duma to purify those who worship the para duma they use the ashes of the eggo to purify those who worship the ego and the reason why you have to take three species the azov the three ingredients in the para duma is connected the 3000 jews who died because of the ego and the reason why you need allah cayenne to be involved in the paraduma is because it can't be arrowing because our own made the ego and the reason why the para duma has to be tamima is because khloe saw before the hedera ego were tamima and the reason why the parademon cannot have a yoke on its neck is because cloudy so cast off the yoke of shamayim so here it is doesn't know the reason for the paradium but darshan knows the reason for the para duma i understand couldn't figure out that the reason why the paraduma is matame to holyroom is because the ego may call you so tummy and it's matahir to mayhem because the eggel was used to purify the jewish people as well so what what is the dichotomy over here it's an exact parallel from the keto ego so it's a great mystery what was the mystery what's the mystery of the para duma well soma milk didn't know rashi rashi brings from asha'a darshan and i think the answer to this question is a very important principle and that is not every answer i'm not sure not every answer makes a question reconcilable there are some things in this world that so trouble the mind and and stretch the imagination that even though you may be able to give an intellectual approach to reconcile seeming contradiction it doesn't mean that it fully answers the difficulty of the question the paradum is a great dichotomy you have someone who's tum a mace and he's spritched with the answer to the paradium and that person is tara and the person who does the spritzing he becomes tummy say oh i have a very simple reason because anybody who was involved in the ego became tame but then they used the very ashes the eagle to make okay that's very nice then that might be a certain level of illustration of an example of saying which is but that doesn't make it comprehensible necessarily how the paraduma is able to operate through this dichotomy and i think it's the same thing with jewish tragedy just because rapidly verona says we know why the talmud was burnt it was burnt in the very same spot that the rams were burnt yes so we know it's quid pro quo and it's me that can i get meda that doesn't necessarily make it fully comprehensible why the almighty would allow something like that to happen yes we understand there's a certain justice and there's a certain rationale but that doesn't necessarily make it fully comprehensible to the human mind it's not a contradiction for something to be a hike and for to have elements of reason to it just because rashi quotes from darshan it doesn't mean the paradigm is not the quintessential a a shot a approach does not necessarily make it fully comprehensible by the human mind that's what we see from the para duma didn't understand it and yes new rama darshan's rush ramosha darshan's approach does not necessarily allow the limited capacity of the human mind to fully comprehend the dichotomy of the paradigma and we could say the same thing about the tragedy we could say the same thing about the tragedy of the burning of the talmud in the 1242 just because rapidly verona gave the jewish people an insight into why what precipitated it yes it was the outspokenness of the deuteronomy against the rambam and that's why in the very same spot the rams were to burn the talmud was born but does that really explain why the bansham would allow the bulwark the backbone of the jewish people to be destroyed i mean without the talmud french jewry was decimated the whole tradition of the ashkenazi valley was ruined these included newly published works of the reshinam so okay we have me the connected me but that does that does that really allow the human mind to comprehend what was taking place in the times of um the tragedy of the burning of the talmud we know that there are various approaches toward the holocaust and it is not my place to offer interpretation i leave that to people much greater than myself my grandfather zechak lavraka who was a survivor of all the dark places auschwitz and i tell you this morning i had the privilege to put on philly my son naftali nero yaya and i myself was very moved because maybe you've heard the story about my grandfather but my grandfather smuggled filling into one of the notorious camps in terradum and he put on filing every morning with his beloved brother haenach and one morning there was a particularly brutal lager furor and if he would catch them putting on film they would be shot on the spot and one morning my grandfather put on filling out the crack of dawn that he would do every morning and then he gave the tvilla to uncle hainach and uncle put on the phone and as he's about to put on the troll in sha rush ficus walked in he sees this sadiq putting on phone he picks up the pistol to shoot but then when he got a good look and that fill in shall rush he hopped at sitter he put down the gun and he ran out in fear and i heard my grandfather tell the story so to me the midst of filling uh is very important and to be able to to put on to my son realizing that i have this because my grandfather was moist or nephesh to put onto one in the darkest places and my grandfather never questioned hakodesh barco when he was asked you know rabbi you saw the massacre of your brothers and sisters of european jewry did you ever lose faith in the promises of the torah do you ever lose faith in god my grandfather said did i ever lose faith yes of course i lost faith i lost faith in man how could a civilized society like germany shed their conscience how could united states and great britain who knew the jews were being gassed and they could have bombed the camps they turned the other way and they bombed other areas so yes i lost faith in man but my faith in god only became stronger and again i'm not here to give reasons i'm i would like to share one particular insight we know in general probably the opinion of most leading sages have been has been the ways of god are mysterious the ways of god are beyond comprehension we cannot question um the ways of heaven and we cannot provide reasons for what happened from 1939 to 1945. i had the merit for many years to go to harav viktor miller zeke attack levrakha and he had a different approach to this issue and he was very outspoken that for the reasons for the holocaust and he would say that and he would explain this in very great detail he even uh wrote a book about this um which i believe i have it's called a divine madness and he connects it to the origins of reform in germany and mass defection from the torah lifestyle and because of that it was sort of a cleansing process and i'm not here today to inject my opinion into this great matter um israel i'm just presenting one particular insight namely even in a situation where gedulim provide reason for jewish tragedy it doesn't mean it's still not a hike it doesn't mean it's still not beyond human comprehension that's the insight i am offering aniha qatan here you have the burning of the talmud where minha shamayim they said it's a heik it's a statute dog but at the same time rabbi hillel of verona said i'm telling you why it happened it's me though can i get me that for destroying the works of the ramba so that gives us an approach that even when godoil would say rav miller would explain particular reasons for the holocaust that doesn't mean that oh how could he say that how could he offer insight into the ways of heaven that doesn't make what happened comprehensible to the human mind it's still to our limited mind is a like it's still beyond comprehension and again i'm not trying to um take sides in this dispute i'm merely offering the humble insight that the same way when it comes to para aduma shloimai hamelach ultimately did not understand the reason for the paraduma despite certainly knowing the insights and the approach of ramosa darshan which at first glance it helps us assimilate and understand the reason for the para aduma so certainly shamayim has its calculations for whatever transpires and an important idea always to be remind and we'll end with this is when you see somebody suffering let's say you see a poor man it's not really your job to say well god made him poor because he must have sinned and he deserves it so i'll let him suffer and i won't give him sadaka because the ways of god are just and hashem's at sadiq and if the person is poor then shamayim was going or he's poor who am i to challenge with no your job is actually to say you know look why the abundant has a calculation with this person why this person has to be poor why this person has to have a sarah why this person is suffering that's between them and the ribansham my job is to alleviate the person's plight so unless you're a great torah sage and you're a god of israel it's your job so to speak to add to in terms of practice to say yes heaven decreed they should suffer but heaven wants me to alleviate their suffering yes there is a philosophical reason why this happened but my job is not to be the philosopher my job is to be the person who tries to mitigate and alleviate that person's situation okay rabbi i will see everybody again in two weeks no i'm not going to be with you next monday we'll be together the monday before tish above and uh we hope tish above shabbiness [Music] you've just experienced another torah class brought to you by torahanytime.com