Tisha B'av: The "Golden" Age of Spain - Rabbi Daniel Glatstein

[Music] Tish it's the worst day of the year nobody wants to be here such a miserable day that the Novi Yia cursed the day of Tish the day of his birth ymy anovi was born on Tish and he cursed the day of his birth fact the M says at the end of that five tragedies occurred on Tish beginning with the first Tish in history where theal tell us that the MIM the spies came back with their bad report about and the says that the Jewish people cried on that night and God looks down from heaven and he says why are you crying I told you it's a good land I told you and you're crying you're crying for nothing I'll give you good reason to cry on this night and the M continues the first B was destroyed on second temple was destroyed on Tish the city of betar was destroyed on and toris Rufus harasha plows the city of Jerusalem on Tish the prophet yyu had very good reason to curse the day of his birth but amazingly throughout history Tish has been somewhat of a lightning rod for Jewish tragedy the city of Alexandria which was much greater than bear was destroyed on Tish the Jewish community of England they were expelled on Tish France in the year 1295 the year I'll tell you a little secret if you ever see a Jewish date and you were wondering well what does that correspond to in the English calendar there's a very easy formula to remember if you add the year 1240 to the Jewish date you get the secular date in the year kala kala is 55 if you add 124 in the year 1295 French jewry was expelled World War I broke out on Tish I remember when I was a kid it was a year like this year when Tish came out on chabis and it was the week before my Mitzvah and I'm walking to my I'm walking to shove and I look a block ahead to where the sh was supposed to be sh was gone the sh burnt down on Tish but likely the worst tragedy that happened since mikash and it happened on Tish was the tragedy of the Gad the tragedy of the Spanish Inquisition we know already from the time of the destruction of the first B mikdash when the Jews left Israel where did they go well many Jews went to Europe many Jews went to Spain and at the end of the Exile the end of the 70 years Ezra issues a declaration and he calls all the Jews from all over the world back to ER Israel and not too many Jews came with him most Jews stayed in Buel many Jews stayed in Europe many Jews stayed in Spain and then after the destruction of the second temple you have more Jews being exiled to Spain so just imagine in the year 68 of the Common Era you have these two groups of Jews in Spain Jews who had been there since and now Jews who are there after the destruction of the second temple and then in the 10th Century upon the decline of the great Torah in surra and Pisa Spain becomes the epicenter of Torah jury so you should know Spain was a major Torah Community for about 14400 years from the year 68 of the Common Era until 149 to I just want you to know a a point of historical interest I'm sure many of you are familiar with the expression the Golden Age of Spain there never was a golden age of Spain it's true there was never a golden age of Spain Spanish history was replete with Massacre pagram murder persecution nonstop hundreds of thousands of of Jews were burned alive tortured converted you see Jewish history is relative golden age of Spain there was no golden age of Spain Kito writes this is a classic Jewish phenomenon they could torture us they could throw us in the fire they could persecute us and as soon as we leave we're like wow the good olden days back in Spain same thing when we left mitzraim mitz was a holocaust they threw our babies in the Nile they built our babies into their buildings and as soon as we leave remember the fish remember the Cucumbers MIT was like a Sushi Station CLA said but that's Jewish history we could be tortured we could be thrown in the gas Chambers and then we look back longingly at the good old days of how things used to be there was no good now you should know there was a 200-year window where things we had a degree of resit and ironically it was only under the control of the Arabs as soon as the Christians came and took over Spain it was one Massacre after another now we may know a lot of information about Spanish jewry but most of all we know probably comes from secular sources what I would like to present to you today is what is considered the most authoritative firsthand account of the Spanish Inquisition from one of the greatest Torah sages who were alive in the time none other than reidel theel who lived from 1438 to 1508 now of course we know that Abel wrote many great he wrote a commentary on tanak which is his magnumopus but Abel also wrote a commentary on the called pel wrote a commentary on the coming of Messiah he wrote a Trilogy the name of the trilogy is mdal yeshu and Abel begins his career in Portugal what's he doing in Portugal what's a nice Jewish rabbi doing in Portugal well he's an adviser to King Alfonso the year 1481 alfanso dies Alonso was a righteous ruler aranso was taken over by his son w j o AO with a little zarka over the A and wow immediately executes all of his father's advisers and Abel gets an email he gets a message that wow would like to ask AA and barbanel is prised that wow does not want to ask AA W wants to chop off his head so abarbanel flees Portugal and W gets wind of the fact that AB barbanel is running and the pursuers are at the Abel's back and the abarbanel crosses the border into Spain with pursuers right at his back just seconds ahead of his pursuers and abarbanel comes to Spain penniless in complete anonymity which is a good thing for Rabbi and he arrives in Toledo nobody knows who he is that's the best thing he writes his he writes a commentary on yahushua onim on Shu but it's not not long until the abarbanel is summoned by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella they recognize his talent the abarbanel becomes the finance minister of Spain and in a very short amount of time the abarbanel raises Spain up to become the world financial center the world superpower Ferdinand and Isabella then embark on their great ambition the name of their ambition was Recon esta reconquest means to free the Iberian Peninsula from Arab control in the year 71 the year 7-Eleven the Arabs came they crossed the street of Gibralter and I happen to know there are some people from jalter they email me they watch Anar anytime and they cross the straight of jalar and they head into the Iberian Peninsula and the Arabs take control of the Iberian Peninsula and King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella their mission is Rec conquesta they're going to reconquer Spain they're going to reconquer the Iberian Peninsula comes the year 1487 Malaga Falls to Christian control there's only one more Arab stronghold in the entire Iberian Peninsula who knows what that is Granada Granada is the one area of the Ian Peninsula now under control of the Arabs and Ferdinand and Isabella all steam ahead they're going to they're going to attack Granada this was considered one of the greatest military moments in history the attack of Granada and Ferdinand and Isabella conquer Granada now the Iberian Peninsula is totally under Christian control and this arrogant King comes back to his Palace and he says to himself how can I appease my God after all Spain had newly embraced Christianity as the religion of the Arab the only way I could show gratitude to my God is to gather all The Wretched Jews who walk in darkness and teach them the True Religion and if they don't accept they're out of here going to expel them from the country say and you should know it happened in the ominous here 1492 many of the gim who lived in those times many of they looked for a rem in the where is the year 1492 alluded to in the of the and writes it's alluded to in the 252 I told you before if you want to translate a Jewish date into a secular date you add what 1240 what's 252 + to 1492 by the way the Rama comes from the of the the had AAL his name was RAV Gans RAV Gans was a young boy living in Germany but he had a Chuka he had AEK he had a desire to learn Tyra from the Rama so you know what he did he walked from Germany to krackow hundreds of miles hundreds of miles had he get there he walked why because he wanted to learn Tyra the shear it's too far it's 12 minutes away it's too hot outside he walked hundreds of miles as a young boy why you have a good rebi the raama you got to go no excuses by the way the ra this talid was a great historian he encouraged him to write a work on History called the he was one of the great astronomers of the time he conversed we have correspondence between the and the great astronomers of the time Tao Braha Johan Kepler says AB barel the decree went forth that in three months time every last Jew in Spain either convert or they're expelled and what month was the was the scheduled exposion a the month of a says Abel frighteningly not only did Ferdinand pick the month of a but the dagger in the heart was Thursday August 2nd Tish was the scheduled date of the exposion says Abel did Ferdinand know anything about tish how do you know about Tish says he knew nothing of the date he was divinely guided to to choose the day of Tish says abbel I was sitting in the palace and I couldn't keep my mouth closed I risked my life I screamed with every fiber of my being what do you want from these people what do you have against them you want money I'll pay you a hefty son ransom for every Jew money's not an issue what do you have against them says Abel I screamed at the king I screamed at the queen and I shook them up and you should know about a day before the is the edict was about to go into effect Ferdinand and Isabella were about to reconsider but then storming into the room was turata turata was the terrible and great Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition Thomas D turkum he came running in with his cross ranting and raving he shook Ferdinand and Isabelle to the core Abel says as bad as Ferdinand was it's always the wife it was her fault she was the says Abel she was inciting him and they asked Abel to step out and they signed the edict by the way Turk was Queen Isabella's Confessor you know what the Confessor was they would take a Jew they would put him on wooden planks they would tie his hands on one end his feet on the other end they would start stretching him out like in sad they would then take Rusty screwdrivers and screw them up your fingernails and your toenails and they would say are you a Christian or are you dead and Turk this was his job he was the mash on this he was the great Confessor and in 1492 he became the grand Inquisitor by the way within a few years of his Assumption of the post he took some 30 ,000 lives in Spain when you walk down the street in Spain you heard the cries of the torture victims of Turk when you walk down the street and you looked up you saw smoke from flesh burning of people who did not want to convert says Abel since the destruction of the B mikash we never had a tragedy like the Spanish Inquisition how many Jews were forced to to leave Spain during that period of time primarily 3 months between and Tish 300,000 Jews says Abel I among them I was given exclusive rights to remain the Finance Minister but I chose to go into Exile with my brethren and as we were leaving August 2nd Thursday 14 92 we were comforted by one thing only we felt the presence of Hashem leaving together with us and where did we go we had no idea where we were going some went to Portugal some went to Nar we suffered we were broken many took ships many of the ships sunk I myself says Abel made my way to Naples in the year 1493 says the year g g is gatria 253 you add the 1240 1493 one of the great works of Jewish history the S I once met a in man he's a descendant of the [Music] S is such an important work the himself wrote footnotes on the S records was just one of the most awful incidents you'll ever hear there was one particular man and his young son who are escaping by ship their elderly grandfather was with them the man was starving he was diving dying of starvation the father doesn't know what to do how's he going to take care of his aged father he goes to the baker he says Baker I need a loaf of bread the baker said nothing doing the man takes his young son he trades in his son for a loaf of bread to feed his ailing father comes back to his father his father had already went to the next World goes back to the baker says give me my son back Baker says no thanks keep the bread says abar benel since Goos we never had a tragedy like the Spanish in position you think about this historical incident you think about the facts and I have one very simple question for you here we are it's Tish it's a day of crying you look through the K we don't just cry for we cry about the 10 martyrs the G Tatu the year 1096 the Crusades it didn't even happen on Tish we cry for the Crusades sh we cry for the burning of the T 1242 didn't happen on Tish but we recognize we understand all Jewish tragedy traces back to mikash isn't there something so glaringly and conspic ously absent from the Liturgy on Tish what happened to the tragedy that barbanel writes is the single greatest tragedy since not one word we don't mention one word about the Spanish Inquisition on Tish and here it is we even have for the Holocaust the 10 Martyrs the Crusades kitki everything not a word for the Spanish Inquisition and re it happened today it didn't happen at a different time of the year it's the one tragedy that happened on Tish and we don't mention a word are we missing something I want to share with you a historical fact August 2nd Thursday morning 1492 as the yiden are leaving leing their home as they're leaving Spain the of the time that among them Pas as a onetime measure that orchestras should play orchestral music for the Exiles as they're leaving on Tish music yes how could they do such a thing firstly to boost their Spirits it was P they could have died of depression secondly it was a way of expressing gratitude that they did not succumb to the pressures of conversion you know in 1391 101 years earlier 200,000 yeden converted to Christianity first time in history but most importantly you know why they played music when we left Spain in 1492 to drive home a very important lesson to teach CLA is we never cry when we leave Galos we only cry when we leave Yus yeah it was tragic it was devastating 300,000 Yin homeless evicted but we never belonged in Spain yeah we had nice homes we had nice houses we drove nice cars we had nice watches we had nice clothing but it was Galos and we don't cry when we leave Galos cuz we're not comfortable in Galos because we're not supposed to be in Galos and it's only a matter of time until we're out of here tell you a very frightening thing the say writes that during the times of the Crusades of all the communities in Europe the one that was massacred and devastated more than any other community was verisa worms in Germany why worms because when Ezra went back to rebuild the second M mikdash he sent the message to the Jews of worms return come back to ER Israel join your brethren and the community of Arisa said no thanks you stay where you are in your great Jerusalem and we stay we'll stay where we are in our small Jerusalem said the in the name of the that was their undoing they were too comfortable in Galos their homes were too nice they were too established R RAB is one of the greatest of the writes what was the reason for the downfall of Spanish jewry because they invested all their time in building nice houses that showed they were under the illusion that they would remain in Spain forever and I believe very firmly that the reason why there's no mention of Spanish jewry in the kinnis of tshav is for the same reason why they played music when they left Spain because we never cry when we leave Galos we we only cry when we leave Yim that's the lesson of the downfall of Spanish jewelry don't get too comfortable not in America not in New York not in Forest Hills not in Q Garden Hills not in the five towns and not in Muny don't get too comfortable because we don't belong here and it's only a matter of time because as grandiose an age the Golden Age of Spain it doesn't hold a candle to the Golden Age of America you want to know how comfortable we are in America they never got this comfortable in Spain intermarriage rate of 70% they never even cracked 10% they weren't that comfortable and even Among Us from yiden how much emotional energy do we invest on our homes on our cars on our possessions because we think what a wonderful gas Gus America hate to break it to you it's only a matter of time the father of the concept of Yeshiva the concept of Yesa as we know it today is from and one day in the Yeshiva or the Tam daving and all of a sudden they hear a wailing coming from none other than himself and the frighten are scared why is rash crying the primary disciple of the and they're they're too embarrassed to ask so they send please go to the rash ask him why are you pained right after the daving goes into his private study follows him into the study says rebba You Shook us up why were you crying R was reluctant to reveal but he figures if you broke out in front of the whole Yesa must be a message from Heaven he tells the the following you know my dear student the day will come when the pillars of European jewelry will tapple and the yeshivas will be destroyed and uprooted says I want you to know there's one more stop before Messiah comes America America is the last stop this is 200 years ago America is the last stop Babylon B North Africa Egypt Italy Spain France Germany Poland Lithuania America the 10 stops of the T by the way this is not a legend raron Cutler and the M raron records this as an authentic tradition he writes America so here we are last stop on the train no one knows how much longer we're going to be here we hope we hope we could be here B until the stop is over but the verdict of history is we're lucky if we make it out with the shirt on our back and if there's one thing we learn from the omission of Spanish jewelry in the K in the Tish service if there's one thing we could learn from the music that they played when they left Spain in 1492 is that we don't and we will not cry when we leave Galas because we never belonged in Spain and we never belonged in North Africa or Egypt or Russia or any country we ever we're in we never belong there because we belong in AR Israel we belong in and if we're breathing and we're alive and we have a pulse all you need to do is open your eyes and you see how every decade every Prophecy of the Nim come true in front of our eyes I remember when I was a kid you had Iranians Persians living in the basements in Flatbush Mass immigration and then it was the Russians and then it was the Ethiopians every decade God takes another 100,000 Jews out of Galas to Israel only a few months ago we saw French jewry they're all going to isra there not too many countries left on the list and I guarantee you we're coming up and just as we left Spain triumphantly don't forget one day when the ream takes us out of America we don't cry when we leave gas don't get too comfortable we don't belong here may we all go up to together