The Burning of the Talmud Notre Dame on Fire! On April 15, 2019, soon before Pesach, at 6:20 in the evening Paris time, the news broke that the Notre Dame, a large cathedral in Paris, was burning. Paris, the capital city of France, is divided into half by the River Seine which flows through it. In the middle of the Seine, there are two islands. On the larger of the two lies, a medieval cathedral called the Notre Dame. A cathedral is a prominent and central church in a city with a large Christian population. Every large city had a cathedral headed by a bishop and many smaller churches, each under the command of the priests. “Notre Dame” is French for “our lady” or “our mother,” a reference to the mother of the founder of Christianity. Ecclesia and Synagoga As the cathedral burned, news agencies the world over rushed to cover the event. Peculiarly enough, 777 years earlier, in front of this very cathedral, the infamous burning of the Talmud transpired. It was an incident of such note that 1 Rabbeinu Meir from Rottenburg wrote the special kinah (elegy) about it that we read each Tisha B’Av, “Shaali Srufa Ba’aish.” Included in the kinah are the ominous words, “Therefore, praised is the one who will give you what you deserve…and in the end a fire will burn where they tread.” In our own times, we have witnessed the fulfillment of this prediction. Synagoga Ecclesia and Synagoga 2 Ecclesia and Synagoga Ecclesia and Synagoga The Burning of the Talmud Let us look at the Magen Avraham (O.C. 580:29). He quotes the sefer Tanya as follows: Some have the custom to fast on the Friday of Parshas Chukas. On that day, twenty wagons full of holy books were burned in France. A fast day was not designated for a specific day in the month because the question about the date was 3 asked via a dream, and the answer was that the day of the week (Friday) caused the decree on the Torah. ‘Zos Chukas HaTorah’ means that there was a decree on the Torah (that it would be burned). The Sefer Tanya Rabbasi, in the section of “The Four Fasts” states the following: In Shebulei Haleket it is written: Now that we are discussing the subject of fast days and the burning of the Torah, we write in commemoration of what occurred due to our sins that Hashem’s Torah was burned in the year 4 on Friday, Parshas ‘Zos Chukas HaTorah.’ It was known that twenty-four wagons full of holy books of Talmud, Halachah and Aggadah were burned in France. We also heard that the sages then sought to ascertain by way of a dream whether this was a decree from Heaven and the reply was that indeed it was. From that time on, Friday of Parshas Chukas was designated for individuals as a fast day (and not on the day of the month). Shebulei Haleket was written by Rav Tzidkiyah the son of R’ Avraham HaRofeh, who wrote it in the year 1260. Here we have a report written less than sixteen years after the incident occurred. On Friday of Parshas Chukas in the year 1244 in France, they incinerated twenty-four wagons full of books of Talmud, Halachah, and Aggadah. The date was 1244, 775 years ago, not the commonly accepted 777 years. The Pope’s Involvement On June 20, 1239 (Monday of Parshas Pinchas, the eve of the 17th of Tammuz), on the day that Apostemos burned the holy Torah (Taanis 4:6), the Pope wrote a letter addressed to the bishops of the Dominican and Franciscan brothers in Paris. Here is an excerpt from the Pope’s letter, translated from the Latin: If what was said about the Jews of France and other lands is true, this would explain why the Jews stand by their principles. We order you with legal authority to force the Jews living in France, England, Aragon, Navarre, Castille, and Portugal, to give up their books. If you should discover that they do not comply, you should see to it that they are burned in a public venue in a show of strength of Christianity and the church. Only then will you have quieted all those who oppose us. Please keep us apprised of your progress in this particular situation. July 20, Year 13.” The kings in the countries mentioned above at the time were: 25-year-old Ludwig IX of France 32-year-old Henry of England 26-year-old Jacob of Aragon 38-year-old Theobald I of Navarre 39-year-old Ferdinand of Castille 30-year-old Sanko II of Portugal In a letter from the pope a few days earlier, he divulges that he had the help of another in coming up with this plot. The letter is dated June 9th, eleven days earlier than the first letter mentioned and is addressed to the bishop of Paris: By our authority, we are ordering you to receive our letter, which was given to us via Nicholas, who was once a Jew and the courier of this letter. Please study the correspondence about the situation of the Jewish literature and then pass it on to the archbishop and our beloved sons, the kings of France, England, Aragon, Navarre, Castille, Lyon, and Portugal. Written on the 5th before the Ides of June, Year 13. Donin the Karaite In Paris in the year 1225, there was a rosh yeshivah and Tosafist, R’ Yechiel the son of R’ Yosef Halevi of Meaux, who was renowned as “Sir Vives.” He was a talmid of the famed Tosafist Rabbeinu Yehudah “Sir Leon” from Paris. There was an individual in his yeshivah named Donin. Donin was born in the French city of La Rochelle, a port city in the west of France. There is not much else known about him aside from the fact that Donin had a problem understanding the Gemara, or he had a problem with wanting to understand. It seems that he followed the Karaite mindset in that he did not believe in the validity of the Oral Torah. When his Rebbe R’ Yechiel saw what Donin was doing, the wayward student was warned repeatedly and excommunicated. Everyone would know to stay far away from this dangerous person and his toxic ideas. R’ Yechiel, in front of the entire community enacted the cherem. They believed that if Donin 4 was in cherem they would no longer have any trouble from him. For fourteen years they did not hear from him, but then he resurfaced as a different person. While in cherem, having no connection to the Jewish community, Donin befriended the Christian community. It took a while for Donin to make his final decision and he converted a few years later in the year 1236. We do not know what went on in his head in the interim years, but one thing is clear, he was bent on eradicating the Oral Torah. His goal was not to convert to Christianity initially but to live as a Karaite. Since he knew that the only way, he could succeed in erasing the Oral Torah from Judaism was to bring the Pope into the picture, Donin converted and chose a new name, Nicholas. Holier than the Pope In the year 1239, Nicholas went to Rome to meet with Pope Gregory IV. In his request to the pope, he said: “The Jews are not happy with the old laws that G-d sent written via Moshe, and they totally ignore them. They rely on another law that is called Talmud, which means learning, which was given to them from G-d via Moshe orally, and it was planted in their minds.” Christians were uninterested in what a Jew learned in yeshivah. That all ended in the year 1240 after Nicholas informed the Pope about the Talmud and the golden opportunities that this presented for them. Nicholas’ Request from the Pope We can read the words of Nicholas’ request in the following letter from the Pope. This was written the same day as the previous letter and was also sent out to the archbishop of France: “If what was said about the Jews of France and other lands is true, then there is no punishment great enough for this crime. Because they are not happy with the old text that G-d gave to Moshe in writing, and they totally ignore it and declare that G-d gave them a new version that they call Talmud, which means learning, that was given over to them orally via Moshe. They falsely claim that it has become embedded in their minds and although it is not written, they followed and treasured it until sages and scribes recorded it all in the written word for fear it would be forgotten from the minds of their people. The Talmud is a more lengthy text than the Bible and contains material that is so insulting and unmentionable that it shames those that cite it and fear in those that hear it. Therefore, it appears to be the reason that the Jews are lodged in their principles, and we thought you should be warned and aware. We are ordering your decision that Shabbos morning of the coming spring when the Jews are gathered in their shuls, you should confiscate all the books of the Jews who live in your borders. The books should be guarded on the property of the Franciscan and Dominican brothers. If need be, and you require additional help, you may call in the civilians to assist you.