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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000>From: "Gershon
Dubin" <A href="mailto:gershon.dubin@juno.com">gershon.dubin@juno.com</A> [on
Areivim]<BR><BR>>> 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.<BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000>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?
<<<BR><BR>Gershon<BR><A href="mailto:gershon.dubin@juno.com">gershon.dubin@juno.com</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In a footnote, he writes: </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>--quote--</DIV>
<DIV>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. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>--end quote--</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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).</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>PS. One of the Maharam's students was the Rosh, who later fled
to <st1:country-region><st1:place>Spain</st1:place></st1:country-region> 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).<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The Rosh’s
son wrote the<EM> Arba’ah Turim,</EM> whose form was used as a template by
R' Yosef Caro, two centuries later, for his <EM>Shulchan Aruch.</EM>
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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><B><FONT color=#0000ff>--Toby Katz<BR>==========<BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 color=#000000 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"></B>--------------------</FONT></DIV>
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