Einführung in die jüdische Literatur und Kultur Treffen IX

Black Death ( ) In the matter of this plague the Jews throughout the world were reviled and accused in all lands of having caused it through the poison which they are said to have put in the water and the wells…that is what they were accused of and for this reason the Jews were burnt all the way from the Mediterranean into Germany, but none in Avignon for the pope protected them there…

Black Death ( ) On Saturday-that was St. Valentine´s Day-they burnt the Jews on a wooden platform in their cemetary. There were about two thousand people of them…And everything that was owed the Jews was cancelled and the Jews had to surrender all pledges and notes that they had taken for debts. The council, however, took the cash that the Jews possessed and divided it among the working men proportionally. The money was indeed the thing that killed the Jews. If they had been poor and if the feudal lords had not been in debt to them, they would not have been burnt. (aus der Chronik von Jacob von Königshofen, )

Judah der Fromme (c ) Was heißt Frömmigkeit? Täglich sich üben im Enthalten von dem, wozu Leidenschaft und böser Trieb den Menschen leiten, wie Verleumden, leeres Geschwätz, Lügen, Angaffen der Frauen, Neuigkeiten umhertragen, Umherschlendern. Man schwöre nicht, damit man den Namen Gottes nicht unnütz ausspreche; man zeige sich in allen Dingen widerstandskräftig, in denen eine Leidenschaft den Menschen niederzukämpfen sucht. Allein in dem Kampf gegen sie wird der Mensch leicht erliegen, wenn er nicht von Kindheit auf gewöhnt wird; darum erziehe man seine Kinder von klein auf, um sie stark zu machen gegen die Versuchungen, die das Leben mit sich bringt; wozu das Kind in der Jugend angehalten worden, davon wird es im Alter nicht lassen. Ja, es wird ihm geradezu schwer werden, den Weg zu verlassen, auf den ihn die Erziehung in der Kindheit gewiesen hat. Es würde dem Manne, der der Tora, die man ihn gelehrt, der Pflichtübung, zu der man ihn angehalten, plötzlich den Rücken kehren sollte, geradezu den Tod bedeuten; würden doch die Menschen sagen, alles, was er bisher getan, sei nur Trug und Heuchelei gewesen. (aus Sefer Hasidim, das Buch der Fromme, um 1300)

Eleazar ben Judah of Worms (c c. 1230) The root of love is to love the Lord. The soul is full of love, bound with the bonds of love in great joy. This joy chases away from his heart all bodily pleasure and worldly delight. The powerful joy of love seizes his heart so that at all times he thinks: How can I do the will of God? The pleasures of his children and the company of his wife are as nothing in comparison with the love of God. Imagine a young man who has not been with a woman for a very long time. He longs for her, his heart burns for her. Imagine his great love and desire when he cohabits with her and how when his sperm shoots like an arrow he has so much pleasure. All this is as nothing compared with his desire to do the will of God, to bring merit to others, to sanctify himsef, to sacrifice his life in his love just as Phinehas sacrificed himself to slay Zimri (Numbers 25,1-9), and like Abraham who said: I have lifted up my hand unto the Lord, God Most High, Maker of heaven and earth, that I will not take a thread nor a shoelatchet (Gen. 14,22-3), like Elisha who refused to take anything from Naaman (2 Kings 5,16). The love of Heaven in his heart is like the flame attached to the coal. He does not gaze at women, he does not engage in frivolous talk, but he concerns himself only to toil to do the will of God and he sings songs in order to become filled with joy in the love of God. (aus: Sodei Razaya, Secrets of Secrets)

Barcelona Disputation (1263) not that the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ which because of its certitude cannot be placed in disputebe put in the center of attention with the Jews as uncertain, but that the truth of that faith be made manifest by destroying the Jews´ errors and in order to shake the confidence of these many Jews.