Introduction
During the late fifteenth century, two sad dates stood out for the Jews on the Iberian Peninsula. In 1492 the Jews were expelled from Spain and in 1497 they were expelled from Portugal. This article, based extensively on the research by Andrée Aelion Brooks,[1] discusses the expulsion from Spain in 1492 and examines the question of the expulsion from Portugal in 1497.
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| A 1767 edition of Abravanel's Mashmia Yeshua. |
The Portuguese statesman and
commentator R. Don Yitzchak Abravanel (1437-1508) had lived through the harsh
period of the Expulsion of practicing Jews from Spain and Portugal in 1492 and
1497 respectively. He sought to inspire his people by encouraging messianic
hope in order to counter the general feelings of hopelessness and despair.
Between 1496 and 1498 he wrote three messianic works: מעייני הישועה, "The Wellsprings of Salvation", a
commentary on the Book of Daniel; ישועות משיחו,
"The Salvation of His Anointed", an interpretation of rabbinic
literature about the Messiah; משמיע
ישועה,
"Announcing Salvation", a commentary on the messianic
prophecies in the prophetical books. These form part of the larger work
entitled מגדל
ישועות,
"Tower of Salvation". Abravanel counts Daniel - a symbol of
the messianic idea - as one of the prophets, which goes against the Talmudic
and rabbinic tradition which places the book under Ketuvin (Writings)
and not Nevi’im (Prophets)[1].
This article, based extensively
on the research by Professor Eric Lawee[2]
deals with some of these messianic ideas expressed by the so-called ‘father’ of
Jewish messianic movements, Abravanel. After the Expulsion, Abravanel believed
that the messianic arrival was imminent. Most of Abravanel’s messianic writings
took place in the post-Expulsion period.
Generally speaking, scholars have
held that Abravanel’s messianism was influential in shaping future messianic
trends within Judaism, but as we shall see, Lawee points out that that assumption
is not always so clear.
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| A leaf from Seridei Bavli. |
INTRODUCTION:
I have
always been fascinated by the often incidental discovery of old important texts
that are constantly being made in modern times. These include writings like
those of Abulafia, for example, which Gershom Scholem happened to identify in Archives
of the Bavarian State Library when he was writing his dissertation in 1919.
There were also recent discoveries of the Meiri texts, as well as unpublished Rashi
commentaries and other works and even the recovery of some of the more recent
censored writing of Rav Kook.
In this
article, we shall explore the accidental discovery of parts of the 500-year-old
Spanish Talmud which was thought to have been lost forever.[1]
