[Avodah] Burning of the Talmud [was: Zos Chukas haTorah]

[T613K at aol.com]

From: "Gershon  Dubin" _gershon.dubin at juno.com_ 
(mailto:gershon.dubin at juno.com)  [on  Areivim]

>>  Today, erev Shabbos Chukas, is the yahrtzeit of  the burning of 24 
cartloads of sefarim in France.  Rabbenu Yonah said that  this was a punishment 
for the burning of sefarim of the Rambam in the same place  40 days earlier.


I had heard that  Rabbenu Yonah wrote Shaarei Teshuva in response to this 
incident and this  observation.  Is this true and if so is there a source?   
<<

Gershon
_gershon.dubin at juno.com_ (mailto:gershon.dubin at juno.com) 

 
>>>>>
In his book *Herald of Destiny: The Story of the Jews in the Medieval Era,  
750-1550*,  Berel Wein writes that a ban was issued against "the  
philosophic works of Rambam" in 1232 and that Rabbi Yonah of Gerona was one of  the 
signatories.
 
In a footnote, he writes:  
 
--quote--
Rabbi Yonah of Gerona (1180-1263).  A great Talmudic scholar whose  
commentary to the Talmud and Rif are widely used and quoted.  He is best  known for 
his great work on piety and ethics, *Shaarei Teshuvah (Gates of  
Repentance)*.  This classic work of Torah thought was itself a byproduct of  his 
participation in the conflict against Rambam's works.  He was an orator  of note 
and, at the bidding of his mentor, Rabbi Shlomo, he traveled to many  
communities of Christian Spain, Provence and France preaching in favor of the  ban 
against the study of Rambam's works. 
 
He later regretted these actions and repented of his active and public  
opposition to Rambam.  *Shaarei Teshuvah* was part of his penance.  He  also 
pledged to journey to Tiberias to visit Rambam's grave and ask for his  
forgiveness.  He never fulfilled this vow, dying in Toledo while heading  the 
great yeshivah in that community.
 
--end quote--
 
R' Wein does not give a source but his work is not meant to be original or  
scholarly -- though it's a very good resource for the average reader with 
some  interest in Jewish history.  R' Wein himself probably relied on  
secondary sources in the writing of his book.  If anyone knows him, you can  ask 
him what he based this information on.  But whatever -- yesh raglayim  
ladavar, obviously.
 
BTW I highly recommend that you read the fascinating footnotes in the  
ArtScroll Kinos -- with the Three Weeks fast approaching -- to the Kinah  
"Sha'ali Serufah Ba'eish -- Ask, You [the Torah] who was consumed in fire...."  
(pg. 360).  This kinah was written by the Maharam of Rotenburg (the  one who 
famously spent the last 14 years of his life in prison rather than allow  his 
co-religionists to pay an exorbitant ransom).
 
The Maharam was a student of R' Yechiel of Paris -- the great rav and  
Talmudist who was forced to debate Nicholas Donin, the meshumad.  The  
fore-ordained result of that "trial" was that the Talmud was condemned to be  burned 
in the streets of Paris, in 1242.  In those pre-printing days, the  
confiscation and destruction of every extant ms in France was an unimaginable  
catastrophe.  The Maharam poured out his anguish over this tragedy in his  Kinah 
for Tisha B'Av.
 
PS.   One of the Maharam's students was the Rosh, who later fled  to Spain 
and  taught Torah there, resulting in the cross-fertilization of Torah 
between the  Ashkenazic and Sephardic communities (not the only time such 
cross-fertilization  occurred, of course).  The Rosh’s  son wrote the  Arba’ah 
Turim, whose form was used as a template by  R' Yosef Caro, two centuries 
later, for his Shulchan Aruch.   This is the ultimate game of Jewish Geography -- 
tracing the links between the  most famous Jews of all time, their 
countries, their seforim and their  connections with one another, and the way the 
chain has come down to our own  time.  Incredible Hashgacha Pratis, all of it.
 
 
 
--Toby Katz
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