Jewish Martyrdom and Conversion in the Riots of 1391: The Early Signs
Jewish Martyrdom and Conversion in the Riots of 1391: The Early Signs

Summary/Abstract: This study presented a series of halakhic rulings that preceded the riots of 1391 and provided the moral infrastructure for the conversion of Rivash and many other Jews. This ideological effort took place on several planes. The article shows that in many areas of halakha, Rivash adapted Jewish law to reflect the Christian norm. The willingness to subject the Torah’s laws to Christian law is a step toward the recognition of the moral legitimacy of the prevailing faith. In this way, Rivash also minimized the gap between the communities and facilitated integration into the majority society. This mode of action created a structure enabling the abandonment of Judaism at the end of the day, though this result was not a necessary one. In additional rulings, Rivash touches upon the issue of choice between conversion and martyrdom. This category includes Rivash’s ruling whereby it is preferable that communities endure spiritual sins rather than suffer physical danger. The ruling Rivash attributed to Rashba whereby the commandment “He shall live by them” applies even when a Jew is forced under the threat of death to abandon is faith and the claim whereby the choice of martyrdom is a secondary religious commandment were both revolutionary statements. This provided legitimacy to the religious elite - and as a matter of course, to the simple folk - to choose life. As shown in the article, the members of Rosh’s family objected to the ideological infrastructure for conversion laid by Rivash and his circles. The early evidence of the split between the academies in Spain sheds new light on the academic polemic regarding martyrdom in the riots of 1391

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