Journey To Amsterdam - Full Journey

this Tower class is brought to you by torahanytime.com this is our first stop here in the cemetery in Amsterdam and it's really a great privilege to be at the grave at the cover of one of the all-time great Personalities in the Jewish people just to give you a little bit of a background of what Menasha and Israel was dealing with when he came to Amsterdam first of all Menasha and Israel came from we don't like to use the word but from a Murano family his family is from either Madeira or from Lisbon and they were crypto Jews and they were accused of judaizing by the Inquisition and his father escapes just in a split second timing from being burnt at the Otto defe and he comes to Amsterdam you have to understand the Jews in Amsterdam at the time had been indoctrinated with Christian theology for a very long time and many of the works that Menasha and Israel wrote were to address the corrupted Christian views that Jews had maintained and held on to very strongly so Menasha and Israel wrote a safer called nishmashkayam actually there's a rub in Kew Garden Hills who republished item was the book proving the immortality of the Jewish Soul Menasha bin Israel wrote Israel or in Spanish Esperanza de Israel which expressed the yearning for the coming of mashiach all of these Works were translated into number languages into Latin into Portuguese into English Menasha and Israel believed that the American Indians were the Assassin he writes that the American Indians were the ten tribes by the way menashement is also writes something very interesting he says that when the when mashiach comes American Jews will return Terrace Israel with their money with their money he says so um but some say American Jews refers to Jews of Central America he doesn't have any predictions of the Jews of Borough Park and Flatbush he writes the book penne rabba an index of the medusaraba he writes the book Israel he writes the book conciliador so I have the title page over here conciliador reconciled all of the difficult passages in the Tanakh now Menasha and Israel comes to Amsterdam and in a certain sense he would he was shortchanged because the leading Rabbi at the time was rabbi shul mortera next Rabbi at the time was and all of these rabbanim joined to be uh one one congregation called Navy Shalom now if you have one congregation and three salaries it does not leave a lot of money for the assistant assistant Rabbi which was the position that was offered to Menasha and Israel so he figures he can't support himself even his writing wasn't enough to support himself by the way he opened up the first printing press here in Amsterdam in the Netherlands and he published many works but he was not able to support himself in all likelihood he was shafted to this position because the community did not like the books he was writing which were trying to weed out these Christian views that they so strongly held anyway nationalism was about to settle in the New World in Brazil just as he's about to settle in Brazil yes offered the rabbin in Brazil which frees up the assistant Rabbi job here in Amsterdam which was given to manage Venezuela now he believed very strongly that in order for mashiach to come Jews need to be exiled to all four corners of the world to all the extremities of the world the furthest extremity Menasha and Israel believed that was possible was England and therefore he held that until the Jews are readmitted to England the mashiach could not come and therefore in that context nation and Israel traveled to England he had audience with Oliver Cromwell and he petitioned for the return of the Jewish people to England the bottom line is Cromwell did not allow the Jewish people to return to England Israel felt very dejected he comes back to Amsterdam with his son nebuch his son passes away in this area on the second day of Rosh Hashanah all likelihood buried right here and then menashev and Israel himself had a premature death at the age of 53 here in Amsterdam however the petition of um Madison Israel was effective to the extent that Oliver Cromwell allowed the Jewish people to return unofficially so that sort of opened the doors to The Unofficial Return of the Jews to England now nationalism was a great philosopher he was a great talmudist and he believed very strongly in the zayar hakadish which was which was not common in those times so he was a synthesis of emuna and Tamir babli akadash he writes about gilgulim so it was not common for a Portuguese philosopher to believe in the Taurus hagelgol and again the safer nishmas is safer about the immortality of the Jewish Soul so it's a great school to be here at his cover the man who began to pave the way for Portuguese Jews to come back to traditional Jewish beliefs Israel okay we're at a very important cover here this is a cover of shawl halavi mortara Who and the three kihilos are united he was the chief Rabbi of all three kihilis now in his lifetime he gave more than 500 Russia's of these 500 Russia they were condensed synthesized into something called give us 50 drushas if you want to know about the community here in in Amsterdam you study the drashas of martero he wrote a a work work in Los Angeles attacking Christianity a very powerful work he also wrote a work in Portuguese attacking Calvinism which was never published so just getting a picture for the times of what the Jewish Community was like the types of ideals and ideas and perspectives that had seeped into their practice and Consciousness like we saw by the earlier Graves you saw the icons and images on the graves so this is what the rapunan we're dealing with Menasha in Israel is sort of bringing claudiso back to the true belief in Islam and the immortality of the nashama but there are many foreign beliefs that their abundant were fighting here in the 17th century with shalhalevi mortaro amazing okay we're here in Amsterdam and again this is one of the great all-time personalities of the last the Thousand Years that many people don't know about you look in the shame so he says on his entry to the safer Yakov he was a RAV mayori hamarov a rabbi from the West he came to the east so that doesn't necessarily give us the full picture of the life of rabbiakov sasportas by the way sasportas is a Latino name so it means sheish six portas ports six Gates is born in 1610. what's very interesting is a direct descendant of the ramban direct descendant of the ramban now he's 12 years old he makes Siam hashas in the year Shin pegas 1628 he's 18 years old he's one of those and he becomes the abbezen of talmi-san in Morocco 20 years he's a rub in Morocco okay so he's a Moroccan God of from the umarad most famous work and what he is renowned for is that when shop tight reveals himself in the year 1626 shinpev and the the majority of the Jewish world gets swept along including many great Torah personalities many great Robin was the most outspoken Rabbi against shop type 3 he led the battle fiercely at Great personal expense and there's a big question how was it that rabbiakov sasportas was the only one who saw through the charade he's the only one who had the conviction and had the honesty and one of the primary reasons was he was not hired by his congregation but rather he was an independent man and therefore he was not subject to the will of the congregation fought a valiant war against the shabdate SUV there were a few Moroccan sadikim who joined him Rabbi Daniel toledano and others was the most absolute now he collected all of his the whole entire polemic in a work called Abridged it in a work called kitsursasvi he was a very dear friend of menashev in Israel so when Menasha and Israel goes to audience with Oliver Cromwell menashiv and Israel is accompanied by none other than rabba Yakov SAS portas he was a rabbi in Sally he was then the rabbi in Amsterdam he writes letters to the Abundant Venice and he fought valiantly against the shaptit sui he then became a rabbi in Hamburg and amazingly with all the difficulties of his life 86 years old he was really Midas haddin and throughout history and he is in the hundreds of years since he's really the uh visionary and the compass that Claudius has always looked to when their questions regarding Redemption and false masonism is the the goal post the the compass of now yes supports us know that he was not the mashiach well he writes many arguments number one he pointed to the rambam and the garast Taman that the mashiach has to be born in Israel so right you don't even get to first base number two he has to build the base hamiktas it's irrelevant that it creates a worldwide shuva movement many rabbanim didn't want to speak up against shop.c because they said well let let the repentance sweep the people react obsess Porta says that's not relevant to the issue of whether somebody is mashiach or not so he really identifies the specific criteria that are needed to judge whether somebody in fact is the true mashiach so we should uh standing in this place of somebody who is able to weed out false mashiach you know he was challenged he said well do you not believe in mashiach he says no you don't believe in meshiach so you're willing to accept falsehood I truly believe him writes that the famous account that the reason why mashiach came from the Benoist light is because they could have created a false Messiah and claimed they were pregnant from the srina and because they didn't they were to the true so this is a for the Redemption of the Jewish people amen okay just a brief word we mentioned in 1639 the three cahillas United kahila rafshal mortara rabitza and Israel so he was now ranking number two Rabbi Isaac now he was then offered the job to be Rabbi in Brazil which opened up the second job for Menasha and Israel so it gives you a little bit of a picture for his Eminence he's from 1605 to 1693 and we have to research further the life of this great personality thank you which actually was made it's not in English okay just another brief word of a very important personality of Isaac then Abraham Lucia reviews 1560 it is 1622 15 60. this 16 22. well what do we know about rabitza kuzia Menasha and Israel's family comes to Amsterdam they're running away from Inquisition and by the way Menasha and Israel's name was Manuel Diaz soira Manuel he comes Amsterdam the father says you know we need to embrace open practice of Judaism so they adopt the name Ben Israel that's why they have the name Ben Israel menashev in Israel is educated thoroughly in tamad babli who taught Menasha Ben Israel Gomorrah for two years in Israel he was the one who gave him his Torah education immediately when he came from Portugal so it's a personality who would even remember but through menashiv in Israel the the transmission from rabisa Brazil continued okay it's a great list to be here at the Jewish ashkenazic cemetery in the Netherlands in muderberg now this cover is not one which is even advertised or known about we just stumbled across it because we're opposite the cover of RAB shul of Amsterdam who was the son of Arya live of Amsterdam so we figured perhaps for Valley lab is in the vicinity and sure enough right behind him he's here now this is a very old uh mateva so for instance this matseiva the words are engraved in so one perhaps is allowed to read it it's not Kosher but these are boilate so the question is whether you let a reader we'll just read selected lines and is it counteracts the effects of kashalashikra so it says that levite of Amsterdam Hussein he's the son of RAB shul of Krakow who's of shell of Krakow the son of the rubber of hashal of Krakow so he is the grandson of the rubber of how shall he lived from 1690 to 1753. he did not publish and he works his khadu shim are mentioned in the works of the Binion Ariel also chuva iron he brings the khaduation of his son-in-law rabariyalib of Amsterdam it's very interesting he gives the huskama to the safer Mira dahya and he writes about the importance of learning diktok he says it is primary in other words it's the first one person in the city but it's required not only for learning it's required for Learning mishnah and it's required for learning talmud now his son was rafshal of Amsterdam the billionaire and his uh son was also Berlin and ravchol of hug Holland was also a son-in-law so this is a now the battery life of amps as mentioned was the son-in-law of the three and in terms of his stance on the with the shop.c of course he was a very strong supporter of his brother-in-law rabiac of emden and robyaka when we're then um came to Amsterdam so of course it was through the help of Reba aguilib of Amsterdam son-in-law of the yoginolino amen we have the great zuchus to be at first before to be at to find the cover of rub shol of Amsterdam who's born in 1717 he was not there in 1790 of Amsterdam you see over here binyan Ariel is the son of rabarie labe of Amsterdam who is the son-in-law of the so he's also the grandson of RAB shul of Krakow which makes him the great grandson of the rubber represhal so you see a very long line of a great Dynasty he wrote the safer on Hamish binyana real he wrote that he published in 1762 we have piske halacha on him about the status status of Dutch cheese that he wrote in a country is now he was the first arrive in Hungary he was arrived in dubna he wrote and this is very interesting in the year 1778 who came to Amsterdam um went to visit rupshal of Amsterdam and says to receive the countenance of the shrina when I was coming to Amsterdam to collect for the yeshivas this is taken in by the beautiful Aroma of his sanusoi and from his humility in his wholesomeness to a very great Sadiq now this Sadiq his whole life they pursued him the rabbis of Venice pursued him and he comes to Amsterdam now now into the ram of Venice pursue him wrote very strongly against however we do know that they both retracted so you say how do we know that they retracted against rampal because the binyans are real who is this the son of Robert of Amsterdam not only retracted but wrote a haskama for the ram Khal on one of his latest Forum he retracted they retract their original opinion when they met him personally when the ram Khan came to Amsterdam so in one of the later storm of the ramcha we have a hasakama of RAB shul of Amsterdam from the Binion Ariel now when the Binya real passed away and they took out his coffin they took out his beer from his house it started pouring in Amsterdam and the moment the Mita left Amsterdam the sky is cleared up and that was named he was a and he was nifter at 73 years old Shabbos and he was buried on Sunday the Eighth Day of tamus in the year foreign and now we stumbled across the cover of Miriam the tamasha Miriam who's Miriam she is at the daughter of the so she is the rabbit sin of Amsterdam the representative of Ariel live of Amsterdam the daughter of sister of rabiac of emden and she's buried here in Amsterdam and she's nifter ilama on the day of the svira salukreis Shiva sabatamas which is 1753. and then she was buried on Arab Shabbos okay it's a great stress to be here in Amsterdam and we discovered the cover of the great grandson of the penne Ashura of shmuel Falk great grandson Today Show is buried next to other dinam in Amsterdam uh for instance review Donner and rev sadaik tal but the river small great grandson of the Panacea how's that son of ravisa khabarish grandson of the great going the penne Aria great grandson of ravan Harris and he was the abbezen in Amsterdam and of being the makuminas so the stone was placed here not in 1839 when the great grand 17 show passed away but rather Anita tessello toughrish pay in the 1920 they refurbished this event because it says over here it used to be here but it was broken because of its age so they left it in there and it's it's still in there otherwise very little was taken from this as well um what is it another thing in the synagogue that that might expect it do you have to sign with the the Ten Commandments in the place I don't know if you're going to the same Senegal but do you have a sign like that or just out of that game on boards but many do yeah this was the very first synagogue in the world where they did it and you can see it right here and it's got just the first two words it's not the complex and to rectangular place the letters are actually Parton groups and they're bolted onto the board that's behind I I was asked to stand over here because this is the official location of the foreign and another great rub in this General kahila was the binyana real rafshol of Amsterdam actually the came to Amsterdam on two occasions 1754 1778 by the way the khidar writes in magaltov he is walking in the streets of Amsterdam and he didn't wasn't familiar with his surroundings he got knocked over by a carriage he seems he had a concussion he came into the Shoal or woozy so you got to watch where you're going in the streets of Amsterdam in any event says that he met rafshol of Amsterdam and I want to share with you three that the writes of what to think upon entering a show okay which means every time a Jew enters a shul they're supposed to have the following three thoughts number one that's not enough one has to think I am I have Moira not just I fear the miktas I have fear for my college world who who resides in the mikdash and number three before you enter a shul you should think I'm being neutel resus from to be able to enter his house you can't just enter a shul you have to ask permission now it's very interesting because the board in this shul was very powerful very strong and aside from all the individuals we mentioned were abunem and Israel the job was offered to a notable rub his name was Silva anybody know who's huskyo di Silva Dash said he's thinking about it the board said like this we're going to pay you a handsome salary just don't tell us exactly what to do turn them down not to take a position that he's subject to the board we'll see actually in the shul there's a special boardroom a room for the Mahmud the turn down the job he went to shalim he's buried on harazison but this was a position offered to him in the kihila of Amsterdam so this uh there are many great rabbanim who did serve here and this shul was in effect for uh for many hundreds of years every time you enter a show remember to enter all of our thrillers [Applause] good for you what do I get out of it okay here we go picture thank you you try it on we're here at the Spanish Portuguese synagogue in the my mid room we know that the my mud in the time of the 17th century was exceptionally strong of sasporta said that he ruled the fact that the magnet was so strong and because of that he felt that the rabbanan were not the ones who had the power but rather the power rested in the hands of the Mahmud in fact we've mentioned many times that the says that the prihadash was offered a job in Amsterdam and the Praises the prihadash that he did not take the job because he it would be a job which was conditional dependent on him following the dictates of the uh the leadership of the shul and this room represents the power that the monument had and it was a power that not only did the kahila have to reckon with it was a power that the rabbonim had to reckon with and many rabbana made the decision not to serve in such a capacity okay everyone before we leave we just want to say this was the Shula of sasportas this is a big Ashkenazi show so before we leave we're going to say over a famous question three asked the contradiction between that if you have a cotton he could light the menorah and we might see the whole household yet when it comes to reading McGillis Esther says cannot be might say What's the difference between Magilla where the cut and canapi might say and narchanica that the Katan could be might see that's the Kasha the khakansi by the way asks the same question says devolves on the house not on the person so the khatron the midst of megillah devolves on the person so therefore the Katan cannabi might see since he's not yet this is okay I'm very honored to be here with my good friend Rabbi Jonathan Siegel of Amsterdam Community involved with the Kaila and other important afghanists in the city um and we were discussing today it was a pleasure to meet you the Shabbos about this idea that we set over on shavasa batamas in a nutshell the idea is you know in preparation for coming here we uh we're learning a lot about the Greek goddam that lived in the city most notably Rabbi Yak of sasportas and his work and all the terrible tragedies that came about as a result of the false nashik throughout history and it's wondering probably from the greatest disasters in our history were the force mashiach why don't we have a fast day to commemorate these tragedies and a friend of mine um Isaac yoslovsky reminded me we had learned from his opinion that when kaiso made the egal the golden calf which in effect was a false savior false mashiach and it's a punishment punishment for it is visited Upon Us in every generation in the form of in every generation there's a false mashiach so in effect shavascript is a fast day to commemorate the false mashiach and at the same time we have said over from that means oived was conceived on shavasa batamas so at the same time is a day that could bring about the possibility for truma Sheikh and so the Clipper comes and tries to Sully it with the uh that's why the egal and probably why shopdite C was insistent on eating on Shiva Tama so Shiva subhatamas and really the three weeks in general it's a time of uh really the possibility for the true Redemption and at the same time we're mourning all the false mashiach that throughout history so you share with me a story today that I was very moved by and appreciative could you share it with us pleasure okay so um so yes I was uh as usual listening to Rabbi gladstein who I find to be an amazing uh uh speaker and uh with amazing ideas and I saw this uh I saw this I came across this uh Sherry just apparently just put it out when I saw it it was in the afternoon as you know it's a very long fast day here and the Amsterdam when is the fast over yeah fast is over at 11. this year was over at 1103 which was early this year okay okay so uh in the late afternoon I heard this year and it was about it was all about uh and haravyakov support this um he was the main opponent uh opponent of shoptite's fee in the world and um and he spoke over there about how chapters V had made a war basically on yuzima Thomas and Tish above and declared them uh days of uh ayontov and said that it made a decree that we must eat on them and the Rob brought a a a a a drush of about okay thank you thank you very much and the Rob brought a um uh uh first of all he said that chapter's fee made a no tricking of his name do you remember how backwards backwards is spelled something eating on on on tischieve and he also brought from the pasok uh the that they they exchanged the the the mirrors for them and I immediately thought that that that actually maybe the public was actually being maramis actually did that he he created an ego by saying uh on on I'll tell you what I want to have this discussion because just the power of um they're very tired today because you said you heard this year on Shabbat right yeah so so what happened was first of all I have a always had a soft spot for of yaakov supports us because his York side is the same as my father's yard so every year I visit his Giver on uh on uh on uh his your side is valid ER so I go there every year and um and I dominate his cover when I heard this I I had always known that he had fought that I knew but when I heard the sheer of gladstein um I didn't realize that he was the main opponent I didn't realize what a war and what mysterious nephish he did to fight chapters fee and how he was one man against you know the whole world basically who had succumbed to this terrible cognitive dissonance of wanting to believe something that just wasn't true and um it just it gave me a new appreciation for what he stood and and then I'm thinking today is Usain batamus because the Rob just spoke about it and I never realized that it was this this war was connected with yodai in batamus so I said you know I live it's a it's a six minute bike ride from my home to ryakov support this so I said why should I not go there so I decided I have to go there today and I have to dominate as Kevin I was so inspired and I said I have to do it today this was his War so because of the sheer I uh after minha it was nine o'clock still light outside still before skia I got on my bike went there and was so dis disappointed that the basic for us was locked and I couldn't get in but I work with so I you know you were around I know I know my way around uh I I was able to get in I went I found my way okay and I went in and uh I dominated for a long time we have plenty of time in Amsterdam and uh it was very meaningful and uh yeah and uh it was just um I got the share gave me a new appreciation a new insight to the whole the whole the whole episode and who this person was and it's a big hammer to me to know that I have a neighbor six minutes away who was such a God will be used sir so just to conclude I want you to share with me and with uh listeners um there's a I know there's some connection between Amsterdam was considered like the usual I'm of Europe what what what is that yes so what I have learned since I've been here is and this is this is very interesting because a lot of the Old Dutch people like it's only in it's only in actually in Amsterdam there were many many Eden that lived in Amsterdam before the war um like I mentioned today uh there was the I got to know Mr Rosen who used to dive in the old lextrot synagogue and he he could personally tell me he was 18 years old you know before the war he was put in camps but he he told me you know that there were 800 people there on a shot this morning 200 out in the street you know and there were so many yet in in Amsterdam it was at least one-fifth of the city where we're eating and so just like we find in New York that words creep into um into the language like you know like Mensch and Nash and you know these become these have become American words yeah so this this happened to the language here especially especially in Amsterdam where most of the year didn't live and there are certain words but one of them is very interesting because the the yiddin called Amsterdam hamokum that's how they pronounce it it means the word hamakum right we know that the base of migdash and Jerusalem are called hamako man there's a reason for that the moral explain means because it's the makaim of the world Malcom is the world makayam and it's the makaim of the world but that's that's why it's called that but Lamesa yerushalayim is called uh hamakum and so Amsterdam was considered uh the Jerusalem it was called it was nicknamed the Jerusalem of the west of Western Europe of Western Europe so so the nickname for Amsterdam was called they pronounce it with a very Dutch accent hamokum and actually there was some kind of songwriter that made a song a popular song called Hamilton really yeah so and there are other there are other words also like a a prison is called the bias and uh and five is called Hey and there are many words in in the Old Dutch people if you say these words they don't even know what they are they don't even know their Yiddish or words but they know these words it's very interesting um Rabbi Siegel we very much appreciate uh taking a few minutes to spend with us and we should both Merit together the Amsterdam should be built up to the area of Envy Israel and we should go back to the real Malcolm which is yushalayim we should be there together with the restoration of Marcus David it's time thank you very much thank you thank you thank you you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you like torahanytime.com