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Tumultus Et Rumor in Sinagoga: An Aspect of Social Life of Provençal Jews in the Middle Ages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2009

Joseph Shatzmiller
Joseph Shatzmiller
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Extract

It is impossible to discuss the social life or the organization of the Jewish community in the Middle Ages without noting the fact that the synagogue was its center. In many cases the synagogue was the only building owned by the community as such, the only institution that actually was at everyone's disposal. It did not always happen to be a special kind of building constructed or dedicated to the worship of God: sometimes one of the city's houses, or an apartment, or a room, would serve as a synagogue. Thus we hear that in the town of Manosque in Southern France—the location of our episodes—there was in the year 1311 a synagogue located at what had formerly been the house of Macip, one of the community's members.

Type
Research Article
Information
AJS Review , Volume 2 , April 1977 , pp. 227 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Jewish Studies 1977

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References

1. Some aspects of the life of the Jewish, Manosque community in the Middle Ages are discussed in my book, Recherches sur la communaute juive de Manosque au Moyen Age, 1241–1329 (Paris and The Hague, 1973)Google Scholar. On the house previously belonging to Macip and by 1311 a synagogue, see Ibid p. 34: “Omnes iudei de Manuasca habitatores, congregati simul in domo que condam fuit Macipi iudei et nunc est (ebreuorum) ubi faciunt scolas.” For similar cases, see e.g., Agus, I.A., Responsa of the Tosaphists (New York, 1954), p. 175 (no. 91);Google ScholarBofarully, D.F. Sens, Los judios en el territorio de Barcelona (Barcelona, 1910), p. 57 (no. 33).Google Scholar

2. “[She] said to her rudely and insultingly in the synagogue in the presence of many: Quiet, quiet, you evil one, you should not talk in a place where respectable ladies are, nor where I am.” See next note for reference.

3. The court registers of Manosque in the Middle Ages are located at present in the departmental archives of Bouches-du-Rhone in Marseilles, in the series of the Order of Malta, classed 56H. For references to the four cases here presented, see nn. 6, 7, 10, and 12 below. These documents are published wholly or partly as appendices to this article. For the trial for the insults of Blanca, see trial register 56H954, 119v (Aug. 25, 1292).

4. Finkelstein, Louis, Jewish Self-Government in the Middle Ages (New York, 1965), pp. 177, 194, 210. For similar legislation in Spain (Tudela, 1305),Google Scholar see Baer, Y.F., Die Juden im chrisllichen Spanien (Berlin, 1929), 1:952–53.Google Scholar

5. Finkelstein, p. 194.Google Scholar

6. See 56H979, 19r-v (April 4, 1329) and see Appendix A.Google Scholar

7. See 56H964, lOv-11/- (July 26, 1311) and see Appendix B. There is some question of a paleographic nature about the July 26 date. The number 25 is clear, written in Roman numerals XXV, and there is definitely a symbol following it. In my opinion, this is a “I,” so that we could read XXVI. But this is uncertain; and if we have instead an erasure, the date would be the twenty-fifth, in which case the commotion took place on the day before the Ninth of Ab.Google Scholar

8. 8. See Meir ben Baruch of Rothenburg, Responsa, ed. Cremona, 1557–8, no. 190 (ed. Prague, 1608, no. 137), as quoted by Dinur, Benzion, Yisra'el ba-Golah (Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, 1971), 2.5:473Google Scholar

9. See Finkelstein, p. 227, also quoted by Dinur, p. 493.

10. See 56H978, 5r-v (Sept. 26, 1324) and see Appendix C.Google Scholar

11. On this see my book (n. 1 above), p. 134: “Cum nullum Forchalquerio haberent...iudei cimiterium.” The document dates from 1306.

12. See 56H984, 32v–35v (Sept. 25, 1338) and see Appendix D.

13. See Kalonymos, Kalonymos ben, ‘Even Boljan, ed.A.M., Habermann (Tel Aviv, 1956), p. 122: “I finished the letter in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, the world being five thousand eighty-three years old.” The month of Tebeth began that year on December 10, 1322, and ended on January 7, 1323. The translation of this passage was done by my friend Dr. A. A. Greenbaum, and I take this opportunity to thank him and his wife Miriam for their help in translating this article.Google Scholar

14. pp. 28–29.Google Scholar

15. This Isaac de Alamania is, in all likelihood, identical with the “Yishaq Me'ir de Alamania” whose signature appears on one of the deeds (of the year 1326) that were copied into the Responsa of the Sages of Provence, ed. Abraham Schreiber (Jerusalem, 1967), p. 323.Google Scholar

16. For documents on this matter see Dinur, p. 473, and the following two notes

17. See Isaac ben Moses of Vienna, ‘Or Zaru’a, pt. 1, no. 114, as quoted by Dinur, p. 473.Google Scholar

18. See Meir ben Baruch of Rothenburg, Responsa, ed. Cremona, no. 21 as cited by Dinur, p. 473.Google Scholar

19. See the testimony of Abramonus de Besanduno in our trial: “Dixit fore verum quod cum inter ipsos judeos sit ordinatum quod nullus judeus sit ausus dicere in magnis eorum jestis misterium nisi ille qui ordinatur ad dicendum ipsum per sindicos ipsorum judeorum.”

20. Rabbi Vitalis conversed with Abraham in Provencal. The notary wrote down his words in our text verbatim, as quoted in Abraham's testimony. There is difficulty in reading one word of what the rabbi said, and consequently the whole is hard to understand. One can read in the text the sentence: “Laysas li far si fa sa folia (el) la si bona,” which should mean: “Let him do it, if he did the foolish thing [verb] if it is good.” The difficulty consists in reading the word “el” or “ol.”

21. Cf. in this connection the material cited in my article, “Une exp6rience universitaire meconnue: le studium de Manosque, 1247–1248,” Provence historique 24 (1974): 468–90.Google Scholar

22. See “L'inquisition et les Juifs en Provence,” Melanges Edouard Baratier, Provence historique 22 (1973): 326–38.Google Scholar

* “Cocerius,” “coscerius,” etc.: the collector of a tax on grains called “cossi” or “cossia.” SeeIsnard, M.Z., Livre des Privileges de Manosque (Digne and Paris, 1894), p. xiv.Google Scholar

** In all probability, a corruption of the Hebrew ha-qinyan. An oath, “acquinia,” is known from several documents concerning the Jews of Provence in the Middle Ages. See the recent article by Iancu-Agou, D., “Topographie des quartiers juifs en Provence medievale,” REJ 138 (1974): 75–76.Google Scholar

† MS: legat nee dicat.

$ Apparently: “controversy.”