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<font size=3>Av HaRachamim was written in the late eleventh or early
twelfth century, after the destruction of the
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jews">Ashkenazi</a>
communities around the Rhine River by Christian crusaders during the
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Crusade">First Crusade</a>.
<br><br>
RSRH has written what is in my opinion a most moving and insightful essay
about this period and this prayer. See
<a href="http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/Iyar_III.pdf" eudora="autourl">
http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/Iyar_III.pdf</a><br><br>
The following is from this essay. <br><br>
Yes, an entire world had joined together to drag the spirits of our<br>
fathers down into the dirt of sensuality and baseness, attempting to<br>
transform them into the most self-seeking, unprincipled people,<br>
degenerate because of their misery and their distress. And still
they<br>
remained the nation most receptive to all humane, godly and pure<br>
ideals. Still they remained the people most capable of cheerful
self-sacrifice<br>
for these ideals.<br><br>
They were able to soar lightly, in the manner of eagles, above all<br>
the grime and misery of the earth. From their spiritual nest amid
the<br>
high rock they were able to expunge all elements hostile to their
feelings<br>
of morality, spirituality and serenity. And they had the wisdom to<br>
preserve the pure strength of their spirit and mind unmarred and<br>
unbroken for the most ideal life that is granted to mortals.<br><br>
"They were stronger than lions!" They had the courage to defy
the<br>
whole world for the sake of the truth which lived in them. They, the<br>
scattered, unarmed, most insignificant, and most defenseless handful<br>
of people had the courage to constitute a perpetual living protest<br>
against the convictions cherished by the rest of the world. They had
the<br>
courage to bear the fury of an entire population gone mad. And what<br>
is more, they had the courage and the strength, the lion-like
strength,<br>
to remain loyal to their convictions despite all the threats of
violence<br>
and all the enticements to stray.<br><br>
Truly, our era is quite unaware of what courage and power of
self-control,<br>
what lion-like strength being a Jew entailed in our fathers'<br>
times. Our era does not realize that the sword dangled every moment<br>
over the heads of our fathers, and that the naming torch hovered<br>
threateningly over their dwellings. With every step that they took
in<br>
this world, mockery and threats greeted them.<br><br>
Our generation does not realize with what sacrifices their fathers<br>
purchased the privilege to be Jewish. Few are aware of the price, so
to<br>
speak, at which they purchased every mitzvah which they practiced,<br>
and kept far from every aveirah. In the archives of the nations are<br>
found the so-called documents dealing with Jewish rights. Within the<br>
motley contrivances of these documents, designed to place
constraints<br>
upon Jewish existence, each form of madness surpasses the next. They<br>
are the copious, unintentional testimonies to Jewish courage, the<br>
voluminous record of Jewish triumph. They are the documents, too<br>
numerous to count, which unintentionally extol a tenacity, an energy<br>
and strength, a lion-like courage and loyalty to duty, such as no
other<br>
nation on earth has ever exhibited.</font></body>
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