~Emernbering Sepharad

RE YE S C O LL-TELLECHEA ~e mernbering Sepharad Accompanying Christopher Columbus on board the Sal/ta Marfa as it left the Iberia n Pe ni ns ula on August 3,1492, was Luis de Torres. De Torres, a polyglot , was the expedition's inkrpreter. Like many other Iberian JeWS , de Torres had recently converted to Christianity in an attempt to preserve his right to live in Sepharad, the land Iberian Jevvs had inhabited for twelve hundred years. The Edict of Expulsion, dated March 31, 1492, deprived Jews of all their rights and gave them three months to put their affairs in order and go in to exile. Implicit in the edict was exemption if jews con verted to Ch ristianity. It was only implicit, of courSe, becaLlse neither the laws of th e land nor the laws of the Catholic church provided for forced conversion. Although conversos would be granted full rights of citizen ship, the Inquisition, in turn, had the right to investigate and persecute the "new" Ch rist ians in order to prevent deviations from church doctrine. Those who did not accept conversion would be expelled from the land forever. The fate of Sepharad was irreversible. Now We can only remember Sepharad. Remembrance cannOt restore that which has been lost, but it is essen tiul to recognize the limitless power of human action to create as well as to destroy. Memory is not a maner of the past but a fundamental tool for analyzin g the prese nt and marching into the future with knowledge and conscience. Warnings about previous catastrophes caused by human ac tions are not enough to ensure a sate future. Remembrance should not be limikd to the destructive chapters in the past, as it often is. The histori ography of Sepharad has been overshadowed by the historiography of the Inquisition. That is to say, many kllOw about the end of Sepharad, but far fewer know aboul its creation, its development, and the conditions that made her ve ry exist ence possible. Certainly, knowledge of the past can -1 I nelli<!lIiberilib SephdrU.1 RE Y ES COLL-TELLEC HEA 5 provide us with many lessons about the irreversibility of human actions. condit ions reached? How did the leader~ of those communities illleract? Moreover, it can provide the means to recognize the irreversibility and HO\v did t.he common men and women interact? unpredictability ofour actions in the present. This is why I believe that the What Iberian Jews called Sepharad in the Middle Ages was not, and is remembrance of Sepharad should not be limited to her death but should not, the equiva lent of Spain, for the nation we call Spain had not yet been also embrace her life. born. Sp ai.n as \I/ e know it today was not yet an official entity in 1492. Sepharad was an imagined community that was contemporary with jev"s had inhabited the Iberian Peninsula since at least , the third cen man)' kingdoms. 2 Sepharad lived within those kingdoms and across them. tury and lived continuously in it for at least twelve hundred years -longer At one time or another, Sepharad encompassed Hispanic Jews (from Ro than they had lived in any other area of the world. During the Middle man Hispania), Andalusian jews (those from Muslim al-Andalus), Castil Ages, the Iberian community became the most important Jewish commu ian Jews, Aragonese Jews, Portuguese jews, and Navarre Jews . They shared nity in the world. It was larger than all the other Jewish communities of traditions and ways of thinking. They recognized each other as members Europe combined. To rder to the peninsula they inhabited, Jews used the of the Sephardic community, even if they were subjects of different kings, Hebrew word Sepharad, from verse 20 of the Book of Obadiah. To refer to inhabitants of difierent lands, and spoke different languages. their culture, tradition and their own kind, they used the term Sephardim, Christianity came to the Iberian Peninsula with the Romans, who meaning "from Sepharad." called the region Hispania By the fourth century Christianity had become For centuries, the Iberian Peninsula was occupied and successively the official reli gio n of the Roman Empire, which included Hispania. In controlled by Romans, Visigoths, Muslims, and Christians. The Sephar the fifth cent ury the Roman Empire fell, and Hispania was occupied by dim, therefore, always lived under the rule of non-Jewish peoples. The non-Chrislian Visigoth tribes. But in 586 Recaredo, king ofthe Visigoths, Sephardic contribution to Jewish and Western ci vilization at large remains converted to Christianity. Soon after, in 613, King Sisebuto ordered forced unparalleled to this day. conversions in all of his dominions. This was the first official persecution Nevertheless, Sepharad was crushed on tvlarch 31, 1492. Although gen suffered by the Iberian Jews. erations of historians have studied evidence left behind, more than five In 711 Arab colonizers began conquering Christian Hispania and soon hundred years after the end of Sepharad they are still attempting to find occupied most of the peninsula. For almost eight hundred years, from answers to fundamental questions. Why did it happen? How did it hap 711 to 1492, the lands of the Iberian Peninsula changed hands numerous pen? There is no agreement among experts on these or on many other times, and Iberian Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived together in cities, iss ues regarding Sepharad, and great confusion reigns in the realm of towns, and villages. All peoples needed to adapt rapidly to each new cir popular knowledge.1 Confusion, in turn, facilitates the manipulation of cumstance - a new ruler, new laws, a new war with new allies and new ene public opinion and knowledge. Remembrance is at stake. More academic mieS , a new language, and often a new religion. Only pluralistic societies scholarship is required, as is in-depth revision of popular versions of it s produce citizens able to survive this kind of living conditions. Only rulers history. It is a matter oftransmission of knowledge. Knowledge is essential who understand plurality can effectively rule over such societies. And , in if we wish to anticipate and avoid catastrophes such as that of Sepharad. the end, only the daily and conscientious actions of average citizens can Furthermore, we must seek answers to other fundamental questions provide the context tor coexistence. regarding Sepharad. For not only is it her end that is of great importance. Against all odds, medieval Iberians maintained long-lasting friend Of critical relevance to us, and to future generations, is the knowledge ships and alliances and bought and borrowed from each other. Jews, Mus of her very existence, of the social conditions and actions that gave birth lims, and Christians lived together, worked together, and fought togelher. and nurtured that civilization. How did Jews, Muslims, and Christians co There is ample historical evidence of this daily coexistenceJ exist in the Iberian Peninsula ? What conditions and actions made coexis Most Jews lived in small villages farming and sheep breeding. Some tence possible? What conditions and actions were necess ary to produce Jews lived in to wns, where they were often shopkeepers, grocers, dy the sophistica ted advances in all areas of knowledge, culture, and art that ers, and weave rs. Daily cooperation enabled collaboration on a difi"crent characterized Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Iberia? How were those life level. On the Iberian Peninsula, ?vluslims, Jews, and Christians shared th eir 6 I [.?,L'IIIC'lIliJaillt: ::io:pli'll'< ul It E Y lS C OL L-TELL lC H lOA (7 knuwledge and actively sought to compkment teach other's knmdeJge ut J uba. Their Illi~sion w.e, [ 0 enter into intellectual di:.tlogue with the native the world and of humarLKind, In the great cities of medienllberia, such as J.: ws and to contribute to Andalusi culture. And, together with the Sephar Cordoba, Granada, Toledo, Barcelona, and Salamanca, interethnic groups dim, the newly arrived dhim 11lis set the stage for the Jewish religious re ot scholars worked incessantly on the transmission of knowledge old and nais~ance in Muslim territory. new, Their patrons were Muslim caliphs, Christian hugs, rabbis, and rich Among those who chose to move to al-Andalus was Dunash ibn men otall kinds, Muslim artisans built Jewish temples, and Jewish temples lab rat, born in Fez anJ train ed ill Baghdad. Dunash's greatest accomplish were dedicated to Christian kings, Some Jewish scholars, such as Maimo ment was the writing of Hebrew verse that follO\ved, not Hebrew meter, nides, wrote in Arabic. Christian leaders employed rabbis to translate the but the meter employed by Muslims in Arabic poetry. Soon Jewish poets Bible as well as Arabic manuscripts otenormous scientific and philosophic began adopting the forms and genres of Arabic poetry. But they wrote in importance, Hebrew, thus creating a new type of Hebrew literature. Then the Jews of Of co urse, mistrust and envy were also present in medieval Iberia, as al-Andalus devel oped a new type of synagogue poetry. Instead of using in all human affairs at all times. But it can be said that in rhe Middle Ages the language of rabbinic li terature , they chose to adopt biblical Hebrew as Iberia \vas home to several pluralistic, multicultural societies. Moreover, their c1assicall a nguag~, an d this, in turn, produced the renaissance of the the end of plural and mu lticultural Iberia historically coincides with the language of the Heb re\,' Bible. Among the most important Hebrew poets age of intolerance, the manipulation of inherited know'ledge and coUec of Sepharad are Samu C:'1 ~Jgi d (933-1055), Salomon ibn Gabirol (ca.

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