What does it mean to be a Jew? Let's go back 1,500 years ago to Spain to find out...

[Applause] thank you welcome my name is Aubry hash and I'm an historian who for the past 20 years has taken groups to Europe in order to teach them history in the places where the events actually occurred about two years ago I started the podcast called history for the curious and in many ways that is what today is about history for the curious let me start by introducing you to a country with a history so powerful so important that we brought you across the world in order to see it over the next few days we will be visiting three specific cities with three specific stories Segovia Madrid and Toledo but in order to understand these stories we need to ask a question that has been asked almost since time immemorial what does it mean to be a Jew what is Judaism how is it survived for so long the answer incredibly enough is to be found in the 1500 years of Spain's Jewish history our nation has an unbreakable and eternal identity expressed by the most famous verse in Judaism U adinoi ehad hear o Israel God is one know that God exists but critically the Shema not only tells us that there is one unchanging God that gives us an instruction how we attach ourselves to God not simply words but a moral code to love God with heart soul and mind over the centuries that sentence has infused life with meaning with Choice it has forged the connections of heart soul and mind and over the next few days we will visit three cities each will bring one of these to life heart soul and mind that which the kabbalists call nephesh roach and the Sharma connection which the Shema identifies as with all our loyalty the choices of life and death the truth of Judaism the value system of a Jew as we will see the choices made here in this Century this country centuries ago have allowed the Jewish people to exist to continue to live to live with the values of selflessness of self-sacrifice ordinary people who became Heroes and once we are aware of our past we can ask ourselves what choices we will make when we will build our future let's meet Spanish jury not long after the temple was destroyed in Jerusalem nearly 2 000 Years Ago by the Romans Jews were brought to this country partly as slaves partly as Traders and eventually unusually this land became partly Muslim and partly Christian eventually starting right here in the city in which we are Spain became a Catholic land and the Jews became a target with no rights and no protection they were subject to discrimination to isolation and to attack yet by the 1300s hundreds of thousands of Jews lived across the country they lived they built they brought children into the world they were active in science in trade and in education but in 1492 a terrible decree was visited upon all those Jews expulsion every man woman and child was to be driven from their homes their cities where to to nowhere of course they could always save themselves by making the choice to convert to Christianity take the painless route remain in this land retain all their possessions their houses their fields and keep their children safe from physical attack at least but the choice required one thing the Betrayal of everything everything that was true to betray God to betray your religion a choice of loyalty that would affect the next 500 years of History would we have had that strength to choose what gives you that strength one man the Finance Minister to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella a brilliant man and a scholar of tremendous note Fearless courageous he told Spanish jury that they had to leave and take the Path of Exile become a refugee and through that truly keep Judaism alive and this man whose writings and works are to be found in the house of every religious Jew today whose writings are as relevant now as when they were first authored was no stranger to making that choice three times in his life he abandoned everything in order to hold on to his Judaism with all his emotions with all his heart with all his loyalty in 1472 he became the advisor to King Alfonso of Portugal and a leader of the Jewish people a man of great wealth and great knowledge open-minded and open-hearted but in 1483 a new ruler came to the throne and in the middle of one night he was told that the king wanted him dead and were he to remain here for 24 hours they would be his last so he fled overnight a man of wealth of position suddenly a penniless Refugee condemned to death and he recorded all of his story in his own writings we will encounter him and more of his story in Segovia today Segovia the choices there were not limited to 1492 the year of the expulsion a thousand three hundred years earlier the Jews were witness to Roman creativity an aqueduct that functioned for over one thousand years built in the first century at exactly the same time that the Jewish temple in Jerusalem was being destroyed a Triumph of Roman superiority the Empire that ruled the world and would rule forever look at the pitiful exiled Jews and the might of superior Rome it would have been appropriate to ask who will be around 2 000 years from then and the answer would have been should have been obvious the Romans yet despite the predictions and against all the odds the Jew Remains the Romans are long gone think about that think about that when you view the incredible Ingenuity of Roman know-how later today why did they disappear and how did we persevere there are big decisions that we will learn about the choices that were once made in this land in Segovia in Madrid and in Toledo in Segovia today we will see the choices of the heart of loyalty I recall many years ago being on a train when I was roughly your age and one row behind me there were two people talking disparagingly belittling the Jews back then I didn't know much but I knew enough and the question was would I stand up both figuratively and literally for my people would I be loyal I have to admit I didn't but I should have when emotion or convenience pulls us one way and Liberty demands otherwise returning finally to that terribly difficult choice of 1492 how many Jews were loyal as we'll see today the thousands of Jews converted became Catholics hopefully hoping that someday somehow they would revert but on Mainland Spain none remained today as Jews they were wiped out as surely as if they had been put to the sword there is a description written by an eyewitness of those who left they went along the roads and over the fields in much Misfortune and wherever they went the Christians invited them to be baptized some in their misery did so and remained but few very few and the rabbis continually gave them strength and told the women and girls to sing and play tambourines to raise the people's Spirits so the spardim left Spain with music filling their ears it was an exodus like the one that God had carried out in Egypt 2500 years earlier gold would eventually provide Miracles and Lead his loyal Nation from servitude to the promised land even if the journey would be centuries long choice is a very powerful tool we need to know how to use it be aware of its power because loyalty requires commitment and in return it gives you life thank you [Applause]