Jewish Questions

Responsa on Sephardic Life in the Early Modern Period

Matt Goldish

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9780691122656, 9780691122649
• eBook ISBN: 9781400829002
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Jewish History
• Index: History

In Jewish Questions, Matt Goldish introduces English readers to the history and culture of the Sephardic dispersion through an exploration of forty-three responsa--questions about Jewish law that Jews asked leading rabbis, and the rabbis' responses. The questions along with their rabbinical decisions examine all aspects of Jewish life, including business, family, religious issues, and relations between Jews and non-Jews. Taken together, the responsa constitute an extremely rich source of information about the everyday lives of Sephardic Jews.


The book looks at questions asked between 1492--when the Jews were expelled from Spain--and 1750. Originating from all over the Sephardic world, the responsa discuss such diverse topics as the rules of conduct for Ottoman Jewish sea traders, the trials of an ex-husband accused of a robbery, and the rights of a sexually abused wife. Goldish provides a sizeable introduction to the history of the Sephardic diaspora and the nature of responsa literature, as well as a bibliography, historical background for each question, and short biographies of the rabbis involved. Including cases from well-known communities such as Venice, Istanbul, and Saloniki, and lesser-known Jewish enclaves such as Kastoria, Ragusa, and Nablus, Jewish Questions provides a sense of how Sephardic communities were organized, how Jews related to their neighbors, what problems threatened them and their families, and how they understood their relationship to God and the Jewish people.

PART I

LIFE AMONG MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS

1

CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF
OTTOMAN-ITALIAN WARS (GREECE, 1716)

(Hakham Solomon Amarillo, Kerem Shlomoh, H.M. #29 and 31)

Introduction

Lepanto and Patras are neighboring cities in southwestern Greece. Lepanto is best known to historians as the site of a critical naval battle in 1571 in which the Ottoman fleet was beaten by Christian forces. Nevertheless, the city of Lepanto itself, which had become a Venetian port in 1407 and later fell to the Turks in 1499, remained in Ottoman hands. From 1687 to 1699 Lepanto was reoccupied by the Venetians, but at the peace of Karlowitz it reverted to Ottoman control once again. Patras had a small Jewish community since ancient times. The town was held by the Ottomans from 1460 until the Venetians took it in 1532. Throughout the seventeenth century the Ottomans and Venetians fought back and forth over Patras, and the Jewish population fled when life there became untenable. When the Turks decisively recaptured Patras in 1715, the Jews returned and lived in relative peace. It is presumably on the background of these battles that the following episodes occurred.

Bibliography: EJ, s.v. “Greece,” “Patras.”

(29) Question: Reuben owned a house in the city of Lepanto that was mortgaged to the Vakıf [Turkish religious foundation], and he could not find the means to redeem it from them. It remained in the hands of the Turks who ran the Vakıf, for Reuben had given them permission to sell the house in order to pay the debt he owed them. Now, no Jew would purchase the house from the Turks without the permission of Reuben, until finally Reuben came and gave permission to Simeon to buy the house from the Turks. Simeon did indeed buy the house from the Turks, and they prepared a deed for him according to their laws, statutes, and customs.

After Simeon had purchased the house, the city was given up to the Christians, who had been fighting for it. The house was already in the buyer’s hands under the Turks, as was mentioned, before the Christians captured the city. But then, the Turks came back and took the city away from the Christians! A rule was issued by the sultan that anyone owning a house in that city would continue to own the land, but the structure would now belong to the sultan. Anyone who wanted ownership of his house would have to pay the value of the structure to the sultan. Builders were brought to calculate the value of every house structure. Simeon came and paid the sultan the value of his house—the one he had previously purchased from them when they held the mortgage on it. They made him out a deed according to their law and custom.

Now, the heirs of Reuben have come forward to file suit against Simeon and remove the house from his possession without paying any money or price. They claim the house belonged to Reuben, their benefactor, and they know nothing whatsoever about what all occurred concerning the house. Simeon’s version is explicit and needs no proof. Guide us, our teacher and righteous instructor, as to whether Reuben’s heirs have a legitimate case against Simeon and can take the house from him without payment or price. For he has two deeds in hand, one showing he bought the house from the Turks in charge of the Vakıf, and the second from the government, as mentioned above. Moreover, the first purchase took place with Reuben’s permission. May your reward be multiplied by heaven.

Response: [Hakham Amarillo replies that it is obvious Reuben’s heirs have no case.]

(31) To Larissa (may God preserve it), at the request of the wise and great Rabbi Moses Mishan (may God watch over him!), in the month of Tevet 5476 [1716].

Question: Instruct us, our teacher, the great light of Israel, concerning that which has happened under the sun and is already known to be true. The city of Old Patras was in the hands of the Greeks for thirty years. Some of the homes belonging to Jews, members of our covenant, had been destroyed and were rebuilt under Greek rule. Others were completely destroyed, and in their place are orchards and olive groves.

After thirty years, the sultan (may God raise him up) waged war and battled his enemies until he overcame them and captured all these cities, including Old Patras. A decree was announced stating that all men, women, elders, and youths should return to their dwellings, their courtyards and fortresses, but with the following condition: any house that was built new under the Greeks must be sold, and its proceeds deposited in the coffers of the sultan (may God raise him up), whether it belonged to Turks or to Jews. However, any that was not built new, but remained as it had been under the rule of our lord the sultan (may God raise him up) in earlier years [before the Greek conquest] would be given for each person to return to his birthright, whether Muslim or Jew.

We now come to solicit the view of our master [Hakham Amarillo], so he will guide us in which path to take in dealing with houses that were built new, and sold according to the command of the sultan (may God raise him up). If a house had belonged to Reuben, and was bought [from the sultan through forfeiture] by Simeon, does the transaction stand up and remain valid according to the [Jewish] laws and statutes, or not? May your reward be multiplied by heaven.

Response: [Hakham Amarillo says that according to both Jewish law and communal agreements, Simeon may keep the house; Reuben no longer has a claim on it.]

2

THE FINANCIAL FALLOUT
OF A BLOOD LIBEL (RAGUSA, 1622)

(Hakham Astruc Ibn Sangi, She’elot u-Teshuvot, #28)

Introduction

In the period from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries, Jews were regularly charged with blood libel or ritual murder—false claims that Jews kidnapped and murdered Christian children as part of a Jewish religious ritual. These calumnies are usually associated with the Ashkenazi world because the most numerous and infamous of them happened in Italy, Germany, and England. We have already seen in the introduction, however, that a ritual murder accusation—the “Holy Child of La Guardia”—was directly associated with the expulsion of Spanish Jewry. A large number of such incidents occurred elsewhere in the Mediterranean as well. Several better-known episodes happened in the nineteenth century, but recent research has discussed cases in Istanbul in 1633, Zante in 1712, and many others. Here we will encounter two additional cases from the Sephardi context. The Ragusa case occurs in a Christian setting, the Algazi case (perhaps just a general murder accusation) in the Muslim world.

The Ragusa case is well known from other sources. In 1622, a Christian girl was found murdered in the home of a woman who was apparently somewhat mad. The woman admitted to committing the murder, but claimed that a Sephardic Jew of the community, Isaac Jeshurun, had enticed her to do it because he needed the girl’s blood for Jewish rituals. He was given a very harsh sentence, but this was commuted after three years, which was considered a miracle by the Jews.

The Ragusa query before us really focuses on the financial stresses placed on the community by the ritual murder accusation. It is interesting that the governors squelched the accusation and accompanying potential for violence, but charged the Jews a huge amount of money for this benificence. This outcome looks very different from many German and Italian cases, where conflicts between local and national authorities often left the Jews vulnerable to the physical fury of the locals.

The incidental details of the case are extremely revealing as well. They give us an excellent sense of the kind of trade going through Ragusa, how it developed, and how Ragusa Jews saw their situation as different from those in the rest of Europe and the Ottoman Empire. The case also suggests something about the impact of individual wealth on the dynamics of the kahal.

Bibliography: Barnai, “Blood Libels”; Ivana Burdelez, “The Role of
Ragusan Jews in the History of the Mediterranean Countries,” in Ginio,
Jews, Christians and Muslims, 190–97; Moises Orfali, “Doña Gracia
Mendes and the Ragusan Republic: The Successful Use of Economic
Institutions in 16th-Century Commerce,” in Horowitz and Orfali, Mediterranean
and the Jews, 2: 175–202; Yehudit Wimmer (Goldner), “Jewish Merchants
in Ragusa as Intermediaries Between East and West in the Sixteenth
and Seventeenth Centuries,” in Rozen, Days of the Crescent, 73–150;
Zvi Loker, “Spanish and Portuguese Jews Amongst the Southern Slavs—
Their Settlement and Consolidation During the Sixteenth to Eighteenth
Centuries,” in Barnett and Schwab, Sephardi Heritage, 2: 283–313. My
description of the case comes from Moshe Amar’s note 2 (p. 176) in his
edition of Ibn Sangi’s responsa, with some additional bibliography.

Question: In a little city by the edge of the sea [Ragusa, now called Dubrovnik], in which a few Jews live, a very terrible and bitter affair occurred. A certain Jew from among them was arrested on a blood libel charge. The fury was visited upon the whole community with anger, rage, and suffering. They depleted large amounts of money, to the point that they had to pawn communal property in order to save the life of this Jew and pay other expenses. When God was kind to them and they were delivered from darkness into light, they concluded among themselves to institute a tax on merchandise passing through their hands from people of other cities, that is, from Turkey to Europe and from Europe to Turkey, through there. [The wording and conditions of the agreement follow.]

They agreed that the tax would be in force until they had collected enough to pay the debt on their pawned items along with the interest. They drew lots for each of them to collect the tax for three months; and anyone who failed to collect would have to pay from his own pocket. This tax ordinance was placed on the books and everyone signed, with the exception of Reuben. He had arrived in town only about two months previous to the establishment of the tax with his household (that is, his wife), to settle there. He had not been called by them to their council and they paid no attention to him. They began collecting the tax on merchandise passing from Turkey to Europe, but not on the merchandise passing from Europe to Turkey, for a period of two years. [The author explains later that at first there was not much trade going in this direction, but that it increased greatly afterward.] This Reuben became a trading agent and gave account of everything he handled going from Turkey to Europe; but they paid no attention, nor did they demand accounts from him, of merchandise passing from Europe to Turkey.

In the third year, when the majority of the holy community saw that the interest payments were eating away the communal possessions and had accumulated into a huge sum, and that everything they collected in taxes was going right back out in other expenses, they came and spoke to Reuben. Reuben told them, “I will pay half the debt from my own money, and all of you together will pay the other half. Thus we will redeem the pawned items so that the interest payments do not consume them. Afterward, each of us will collect money out of the taxes, every one according to the amount he paid in. The men were happy with this. Reuben paid more than half the debt from his own money and the community members paid the rest, so the items were returned to the holy congregation.

Now, some of the congregants asked if there was a way to recoup their property that they expended to redeem the items. This group consisted of a father and his two sons, another man along with his secretary, and two other individuals—a group of seven who took counsel together. They said, “Why should we be silent in the matter of this tax when it comes to goods passing from Europe to Turkey? It is written and sealed in our agreement that we should collect it both on what passes from Turkey to Europe, and on what passes [from Europe] to Turkey! Let us now go and implement this tax collection at the rate decided at the time of the agreement.”

Everyone was happy with this except Reuben, who protested. He said to them, “What is this, and what is it all about? You want to renew the tax on goods passing from Europe to Turkey, after this entire time since you established that tax during which you never bothered to collect it? Do you want to tell me that it is because of the money you expended to redeem the property of the congregation? I alone paid more than everyone else! I am satisfied to recoup [my money] from the tax on merchandise passing from Turkey to Europe, and from the charity raised through donations the way they have been in this city for many years. It is enough that God favored us so that we were able to retrieve our pawned belongings from the hands of gentiles. Let us be repaid slowly rather than instituting new taxes, for God does not want that. Furthermore, from the start this tax was instituted unlawfully, for the great R. Solomon ha-Kohen, of blessed memory, and R. Aaron Sasson, of blessed memory, in their books, forbade the establishment of such taxes without the will and permission of the merchants themselves. You...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Short Biographies of the Hakhamim
• Part I: Life among Muslims and Christians
• Part II: Trade and Other Professions in the Sephardi Diaspora
• Part III: Life within the Sephardic Community
• Part IV: Ritual Observance and Jewish Faith in Sephardic Communities
• Part V: Marriage, Family, and Private Life
• Bibliography
• Index