A lot more happened in 1492 than Columbus sailing the ocean blue. Upon their marriage, Ferdinand and Isabella are determined to make newborn Spain a unified country, which means that there is no place for Am Yisrael. The tools of Inquisition and war will earn them the title of the Catholic Monarchs, and will birth…
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The forced conversion of tens of thousands of Jews may have seemed like a great victory for Christianity, but in reality these conversos were a ticking bomb in the heart of Christian culture. In this episode Rav Mike speaks about the lead up to the great expulsion – the last great Christian/Jewish debate of the…
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When the storm broke in 1391, thousands were dead and even more converted. A new model of identity was born in the century before the expulsion, and it poses challenges that are present down to our day. Want to help tell the Jewish Story? Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/mfeuer
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When faced with the choice between the cross and the sword, the Ashkenazi communities of the middle ages chose martyrdom. Why was the decision of their Spanish contemporaries so different? Want to help tell the Jewish Story? Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/mfeuer
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In the thirteenth centuries the stories of Ashkenaz and Spain begin to draw together. This is the great age of Christian expansion, which brings on book burning and religious disputation. It is also the age in which the kabbalah emerges as an answer to the challenge of evil. Want to help tell the Jewish Story?…
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The twelfth century was a time of spiritual expansion as the Tosafists transformed the Talmud and the Pietists of Ashkenaz awakened new depths of the soul. Darkness grew as well, as the Crusades rolled through Europe and the terrible new accusation of the blood libel was born. But it was specifically out of this darkness…
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The origins of Ashkenazi Jewry are bound up with the rise of Christian Europe. As the kingdoms of the Middle Ages began to take shape, teachers like Rashi gave form to a kingdom of the Torah which the Jews could inhabit while living among their neighbors. But the tranquility of the early years was shattered…
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The Rambam was the second famous Moses in Jewish History. His accomplishments in Jewish law and philosophy tower over his contemporaries, and are pillars of of the Torah to this very day. Nonetheless, he was the source of great controversy in his day, igniting a struggle which ended in excommunications and book burning. Want to…
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Yehudah Halevi was the poet of a generation, and perhaps the most celebrated poet of medieval Spain. He also swam against the tide of philosophical rationalism and invited his readers to experience the Torah from the inside. But how did the national poet of Jewish Spain die outside the walls of Jerusalem? Want to help…
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The 10th and 11th centuries of Jewish life in Al Andalus were so rich and productive that they were known as the Golden Age. The Jews struck root deeply in the soil of Muslim culture, and produced warriors, philosophers and poets. In this time of passion, it was not clear what would define Am Yisrael…
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