Journey to Italy: The History of the Abarbanel - Prince From Shevet Yehuda Part 2

this tour class is brought to you by torahanytime.com I hope everyone had a wonderful evening uh good morning good morning so this is going to be my last bus day with you so uh yeah I know okay thank you um so I want to speak to you about one of my favorite all-time personalities but first I want to take the opportunity we have Moshe with us on the bus we want to give a big round of applause for our most important noise for all of his hard work and effort and for ens tours Ellie slamowitz and we look forward for to many good times together with you in the future so it's a great schools to have the opportunity to tell you about one of the all-time great leaders and princes of cloud Israel someone that I feel a very deep personal connection with who lovingly is known to Claudia as via barbanel or in scholarly circles they call him abravenel okay be it as it may abarinel is most well known for his magnum opus for his commentary on Tanakh which is one of the most creative ingenious commentaries that we have on Tanakh in fact the perus of the malbim is very much based on the Parish of the abarvenal what's not so well known is the comments of rabiac of kamonesky robyakov once commented that people think that that barbanell was just a Farish on Tanakh says in reality the abarbanel is part of the long halachik messal for instance if you look in the Rama in Hillcrest he says that maranpasi raised the question on the rambam in a public forum in front of the and in front of them the neshar haggadal hurab so let me tell you a little bit about the Barbarian one of the most fascinating historical accounts now barbanell begins his career in Portugal he was born in the capital in Lisbon in the year so if you remember the formula says what is 1438 and because of his manifold talents he becomes the treasurer of King Alfonso uh barbanell describes King Alfonso as a righteous ruler but Alfonso dies in 1481 and he succeeded by his son j-o-a-o with a little zarka on the a wow wow becomes the king he executes almost all of his father's officers and falsely accuses them of treason is summoned by wow says to the messenger what does wallow want he says don't worry wow wants your advice wow doesn't want the other advice wow wants to chop off the ababinel's head so the barbinell flees running running pursuing out of Portugal literally the pursuers were at his back when he crosses safely into Spain he arrives in Spain penniless and in complete anonymity which is always good for a rabbi he arrives in Toledo and for the first time in his life he has some respite and he begins to ride his perush on Tanakh in Toledo you didn't know why it was called holy Toledo now you know it's because that's where the abarvenel began to write his commentary to Tanakh his literary outfit output was almost Supernatural listen to these dates rabbi he begins to ride his perus on safer Yeshua on the 10th day of Rajiv mem dalid what year is Reish mamdalid 1484 excellent 1484. you just add 12 40 and he completes it on the 26th day of that very month can you imagine he wrote his entire commentary on safer yahshua in only 16 days his commentary on shift him he wrote between slave he completed it on Hanukkah his whole perus and shoved him 25 days his commentary on shmuel only two and a half months from yud gimul Adar until until but it's not long the talents of the babanel are discovered and he's summoned to serve as the Finance Minister to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella and in this capacity assisted the king and queen to become the financial superpower of the world but his times of Peace will not last long Ferdinand and Isabella had embarked on their ambition of reconquesta what's reconquesta the ambition to reconquer the entire Arabian Peninsula does anybody know what year the Muslims came in and took over the Iberian Peninsula what year did the Muslims take over that Baron peninsula I'll give you a hint on this day they give out free Slurpees 7-Eleven that's right in the year 7-Eleven the Muslims conquered the Iberian Peninsula while King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were the leaders of what is called reconquesta where they wanted to reconquer the Iberian Peninsula from Arab control in the year 1487 Malaga fell to the Christian monarchs with only one Arab stronghold left to reconquer the entire Arabian Peninsula and then the ominous year of 1492 arrived on January 2nd 1492 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella won a great Victory they attacked Granada they conquered Granada Granada is one of the greatest military victories in World History by conquering Granada reconquesta was complete the the uh Christian world now retained control of the entire Iberian Peninsula and this arrogant King Ferdinand returns from Victory and he says how can I thank my God how can I appease my God for reconquering the entire Arabian Peninsula the only way I could do that is to gather all the miserable Jews who walk in darkness and force them to embrace the True Religion and then if not I will banish them from the Iberian Peninsula foreign for the year 1492. the abar benel in his commentary to hoichaya parakeetzayan says the Remus to 1492 is an apostle we landed on Rosh Hashanah Missouri Israel akabseno Missouri yes the gamatria of misery is 252. what year is 252 in the Jewish calendar what's the formula add 12 40 1492 by the way so that's the remnants of 1492. Missouri Israel that was the year we were scattered by the way there's an amazing safer David guns was the talmud of the Rama by the way the Gans grew up in Germany he had such a hay check to learn from the Rama that he walked from kraka all the way excuse me he walked from Germany all the way to Krakow to learn Torah from the Rama he became one of the most renowned astronomers of the time he conversed he corresponded with Taiko Braha Johann Kepler this is it samach David he wrote a famous work of Jewish history he also finds a remes to the year 1492 Robin the word Ram is gamatria 252 what Jewish year is that says the other the decree went forth that in three months any Jew who would not accept the Christian faith would be banished from the country and everybody knows by the way in what month did this fall out on in what month did the decree of the king fall out on of and frighteningly what day of the month did it fall out on Tish above Thursday August 2nd 1492. Tish above was the date selected either conversion or explosion the king had no idea it fell out on tishimov he did not plan that it's above he says it's as if his hand was directed from Heaven to fall out on this lightning rod of a day the day of the Corbin of the tubate I'm going to ask you a question to think about and maybe we'll answer it at the end of The Talk you know if you look at the Kenneth of Tish above we speak about many Jewish tragedies that occurred on throughout history we talk about xeros tatnu we talk about the Crusades of 10 of 1096 we talk about the burning of Shahs in 1242 we talk about many Jewish tragedies did you ever think for a moment why in the world do we not talk about the Spanish explosion where this is a tragedy not only did it happen enough it happened on tischemov and we talk about every Jewish tragedy we even have Echidna for the Holocaust why is there no kinna for the Spanish Inquisition do you ever think about that question we did leave three hundred thousand why is there no Kenna okay you're backing up a good treat but we're going to come back to that and the law went out that any Jews living in safarad in Sicily in Mallorca Sardinia either convert or expulsion Cesar barbanell I was sitting in the palace I could not keep my mouth closed and I risked my life and I screamed to the king with every fiber of my being save these people what do you want for them why are you doing this you want money it says I personally will give the king a tremendous donation if he saves the lives of all the Jews and the Barbarella was persuading persuading says that barbarell the king and the queen were about to relent and what happened says then as the king and queen were about to reconsider in walks the terrible Inquisitor of the Inquisition Turka Mata Thomas turkamada came running in waving across ranting and raving and he's screaming he was a ballistic and he scared the king he scared the king and queen and he asked about benell to leave the room and at that day the edict was signed it was completed Thursday August 2nd Tish above 1492. as bad as King Ferdinand was it wasn't him it was the rashantai says it was always it was his wife barbarino writes the words by the way turkomato was the king's Inquisitor in 1483 he became the grand Inquisitor of the Inquisition within a few years of his Assumption of that post thirty thousand year then had already lost their lives and the cries of the torture chambers in Spain reverberated throughout the country if you think life was good before the Inquisition every street corner you went to they were hidden writhing screaming in pain they would describe a little bit what it was like if they caught somebody who was suspected on of converting to Christianity secretly practicing Judaism they would try to get them to be my dad they would take Rusty Nails and they would push them up people's toes and fingers until they until they were my dad and very often even if people were not practicing Judaism they in pain in the agony they were my dad wrongfully there were fires on every street corner in Spain the pyres of the Otto defe hovered like a dark cloud all over that Baron Peninsula says abar benel since the golos of you shall I am we never had such a tragedy how many Jews left Spain by the way most yiddin left between Shiva user batamos and tishabab how many yiddin 300 000 yeden left Spain hundreds of thousands of Jews converted by the way the first time in history that Jews converted to Christianity was 101 years earlier in 1391 in 1391 nebuch 000 yet then converted I left now I just want to digress for a moment as the Jews were living Spain Israel of the time now barbinel among them task and that they should play music so here it is on Tish above and bands are playing music as the Jews are leaving Spain why so that barbarinal explained another gun was saying firstly the Jews were so depressed they were so demoralized that it was to play music to raise their spirits but says that barbanel another important you said yes the Holocaust is a great tragedy the Crusades was a great tragedy was a great tragedy but the Spanish Inquisition we do not commemorate you know why because we never cry when we leave the Galas we only cry when we leave yerushalayim as bad as the Spanish Inquisition was we weren't leaving our home we were leaving the Galas don't get too comfortable in the United States of America writes the Jewish people have to experience 10 Exiles before mashiach comes Babel North Africa Spain Italy Lita Poland and so on and so forth America is the last golus every single country we were ever in we were thrown out of but we have the false complacency but not America America is our home we have beautiful homes in America we have bungalows in America we could go to Miami in America don't get too comfortable the verdict of history is that a day comes and that's our last day in the country and we're not going to be crying when we leave America the same way we didn't cry when we left saying well yeah now that you mentioned Columbus let me tell you a little bit about Christopher Columbus it's well known that in his travels to America he used the maritime charts of Rabbi avram zakuto not to be confused with zakuto but we were at his cover wrote Maritime charts by the way one of uh Columbus's expeditions he was captured by cannibals in America and they already put him in the pot and Christopher Columbus and Columbus said if you don't release me I will pray to my God and blot out the light of the Moon now Christopher Columbus was very smart he had the maritime charts of ramzakuto and zakuto predicted a lunar eclipse in the upcoming day says Christopher Columbus who started mumbling prayer and the cannibals look up into the sky and suddenly the Moon is disappearing and they start worshiping Christopher Columbus as a god they bestowed on him great honors and that is how Christopher Columbus was saved from the cannibals and if you want to look you could go to the museum in Lisbon today where you will see the safer hayuksen of Rabbi avram zakuto with the footnotes of none other than Christopher Columbus well as the Jews are leaving Spain on Thursday August 2nd on the very next day Friday August 3rd King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella commissioned three ships to leave the port city and they were going to discover America the Nina the Pinta and the Santa Maria there is historical account that as the Jews were leaving the country of Spain taken off as prisoners they waved to the three ships of Christopher Columbus as a message from the revana that yes you're going to Exile but I am already Paving the way for the next safe haven for claudiuswell for many years hopefully well says the other nail where did I go we left Spain in 1492 I had I had the opportunity says to have the exclusive rights to remain as the only Jew in Spain as the Finance Minister of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella and as we're going into Dallas we feel the presence of something very great with us the yatza mouth we felt the shrina accompanying us out of the Galas and where were we going we had no idea some went to Portugal others to Navarre we suffered we were broken we were hungry many of the ships we went on sunk many were capsized I myself says abarvenel made my way to Naples by the way there was once a great Rabbi who went to Naples who's that he went to the great aquarium in Naples that is where he came up with his first version of trelas um unfortunately the radina red bell was duped by a uh a an Italian Fisherman who who put in some organic material into his concoction to make it turn blue but that's a discussion for another time so azina Rebel was in Naples comes to Naples some barbarino comes to Naples in the year 1493. rabbis is the gamachia 253 that's the year 1493. here that barbanel begins his commentary on safer malachim then comes to Monopoly in southern Italy he comes to Venice in 1503 in Venice that barbanell finishes many many of his farm he writes the commentary to the marinavukam called Roy shamana he wrote a Trilogy on the coming of mashiach called yeshua's Yeshua he wrote A Commentary to pierce called I want to tell you something remarkable that the abarbanel writes in the sixth parag of percivals he says for the first time in his life he saw something very unusual in Italy what did he see in Italy says Italia matsason I come to a show in Italy and there are these people sitting in the front of the shul facing everybody else who are these guys with beards looking at me when I dive in and then I heard they're called rabbis what's a rabbi in it says in the Hamish there's something called a rabbi is if you have smika from Maisha from Yeshua in the times of Yehuda bin Baba there's no more Smitha says you know where rabbis come from from the in the goyam have doctors so we were jealous so we appoint rabbis says I never saw such a thing in Spain yes but for someone to be a rabbi that wasn't originally a Jewish a Jewish concept says okay anybody remember what is the name of that barbanell's commentary to the Haggadah amazingly there's a kitzer of the Zara called sliage who wrote the kitsura of the babanel on hagada that's right of Modina wrote Seifert sliage my favorite character what can I tell you you know um now that barbadell was able to see a very important aspect of practice from leaving Spain I believe Rabbi Shapiro may have mentioned this briefly he said as long as I was Finance Minister in Spain I was busy with dvorim battalum with nonsense with finances I had no time to learn I come to Italy with no Fame and no money and all of a sudden I'm able to accomplish this is the meaning of the gamara when you don't have anything oh now there's time to learn was nifter at the age of 71 in the year 1508 does anybody remember what do we call the year there get missing why because during that year we lost two great cadella Israel and five days earlier we lost mints let me conclude Rabbi say I want to tell you something stunning something gorgeous from the about brunelles commentary to the Torah it's mamish beautiful you know there's a major subject in the Torah that none of the mafarsham are able to explain and that is what we call right remember does anybody know does anyone have any clue what's a bracha really it's a bracha so yakovino says to Ruben you're impetuous that's a bracha he tells Sherman and Levy you have a temper that's a bracha he tells you're going to live by the Seacoast that's a bracha he tells Yehuda you're a lion well what exactly is the bracha there maybe you'll say you know yaakov is just speaking his mind it's very hard to understand and to come up with one thematic approach what is none of the mafarshim have been successful in explaining one theme what is Yakov doing some brothers get a bracha others get a criticism others are given real estate advice others are given about their future what is the breakfast Yakov our barbanell clarifies this episode of Tyra like a lightning bolt in darkness Cesar barbanel jacovino is laying in his deathbed and he sees a beautiful mishbacha but he knows it's not long before this mishbacha they become shivim nafeesh and they become three million people and they become a nation and they're going to need a king every arm needs a melach and yaakov avinu now has to decide who is going to be mirak Israel so he's going through all of his children and explaining do they have what it takes to be the melach do they have the personality the character the future the real estate so yaakovino starts with ruvane he says Ruben you're impetuous this is not a criticism it's not a callah it's statement of fact your personality is impetuous and you don't have the personality and the ability to think things through very thoroughly you don't have the character to be the king shimming and Levy you have a temper wonderful so you'll be a hater Abby you'll be clichesh it's not a problem if you have energy you have enthusiasm you have uh you have passion you'll teach tinako Shabbat Shaban it's not a criticism it's a compliment but you can't be the king the king can't the king can't be a balcas zavulan zavulan you're a great businessman but listen you know between me and you imagine if you went to visit the king and the King said you know Ty I want to take it to the side and he takes it to the side he opens up his jacket you want to buy a watch you want to buy an umbrella you know that's not exactly the nature that is conducive for malachos so zavulan you're a great guy you're terrific you're going to be successful businessman you're going to support Tyra but you can't be the melach and one by one yakovino is not complimenting he's not criticizing he's not saying prophecy he's not giving real estate advice yaakovino is merely analyzing if each brother has what it takes to be the melach Israel what about your safe Joey safe would be the Natural Choice to be a malach no says the brothers hated you even though you have the Persona and the Majesty to be the king you do not command the respect of the brothers there's only one brother who has the gevura the power the Midas the character the enthusiasm to be the melchisrael Yehuda Guru Arya Yehuda Yehuda you have it what it takes throughout history the leaders of Claudia Israel for the most part Ruba de rhubarb godala Israel come from Yehuda Cesar barbanel whether it was the rosh sanhedren whether it was the race galusa says even in our own times even the leaders of Spanish jewry are descendants of Shiva Yehuda and David amalek by the way Rashi came from David the rambam came from David came from David Hillel came from David Ram gum Leo came from David foreign there is no one who these words apply to more than a barbinal himself because opens his commentary to the navi Hosea says do you know who I am mizera David I am a direct descendant of David Umi writes he was a branch from the trunk of ishai was a true leader of kalisrael he was a Raya Neman he could have remained in Spain remained as a loyal executive and minister to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella but he decided to be with his people to lead his people out of golus he was a Melech Israel just want to share with you one prophecy of that arbanel and I said it in Spain it was on tour anytime and um I'm going to tell you what happened one of the great Prophecies of the barbinal in his commentary to the navi is that at the end of days the Muranos who were forced to abdicate the religion they will return back to Judaism one day and I was contacted by a wonderful lady who is an a descendant of Muranos and she was so moved by these words of the ababanel that I made a burst recently she came from Connecticut all the way to the brisk she was shaken by the prophecy of that barbanel at the end of days she traced back her family she became a Garrett sedek a giorg not because of the sheer although you know but not again and so this is what we see in our times courtesy of torahanytime.com this is what we see in our times that there are many many uh families in Mexico in Puerto Rico today in Spain today there's um they say that the percentage of Jews in Spain today is very very high and they don't even know about it so we hope before mashiach comes Missouri we hope not only is that a nivua about 1492. we hope that's an avoo about our times that all the Jews who never when lost 500 years ago retrace their Roots come back to Cloud Israel Where Mrs the cabins you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by torahanytime.com