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| Imprint of the personal seal of the Ramban, found at Tel Kissan, Israel. You can see an image of the actual seal here. |
It was in his twilight years that the great Ramban (R. Moshe ben Nachman, “Nahmanides” in Christian Renaissance parlance) left Girona, in the northeast of Spain, where he had resided all his life. Born c. 1194, he departed Spain for Israel in 1267, aged over seventy. The legacy he left behind was a rich, complex, and enduring one that would continue to shape Sefardi culture in Spain for generations to come. It consisted of a robust halachic tradition nurtured in the “school” of the Ramban, eventually settling at the great beit midrash (study hall) of Barcelona and encompassing the scholarship of the Rashba, Ritva, and Ran, to name but a few of the most prominent of Ramban’s protégés and students-of-students. In addition to this, an early school of Kabbalistic tradition runs through the intellectual legacy of the Ramban. Scholars debate whether and to what extent Ramban’s Kabbala was a part of the Gironese school, or whether it belongs to another strain altogether. It was, to be sure, one of the most important pre-Zoharic esoteric traditions circulating in Spain. Together this twin legacy of halachic rigor and esoteric wisdom would characterize Sefardi intellectual culture in the Christian period.
In some regards, there are lines of similarity to be drawn between the trajectories of the Ramban, the exemplar of Christian Sefard, and of R. Yehuda ha-Levi, the paragon of Muslim Sefarad. Both men were not only steeped in the local Sefardi culture of their time, they were celebrated representatives of it. Both turned away, in later life, from the institutions they had built and towards the faraway promised Land. And both men had deep spiritual stirrings that led them to undertake aliyah. However, the character of Ramban’s move is strikingly different from R. Yehuda ha-Levi’s. Ha-Levi’s aliyah—which has been described as a pilgrimage—was intensively documented, in a spiritual sense, in his poetry and embedded in his philosophy. There are also many physical documents, such as letters, attesting to his pilgrimage. It was a principled turning-away, a statement about the nature of life in Spain. Ramban, in contrast, despite deep feeling for Eretz Yisrael and a sustained exploration of its spiritual dimensions in his work, left Spain as a matter of necessity and less so as a turning-away. Ramban’s move occurred more abruptly, with less explicit literary exposition, though he left rich testimony to his aliyah in his works, as we’ll see.
The Disputation of Barcelona and its Prosecutorial Aftermath
The long thirteenth century was marked by a paradigm shift in Jewish-Christian relations in the Latin West. This shift, which I wrote more about here, was caused by a confluence of developments within the Western Church, including the consolidation of the power of the papacy. Another major development was the Christian “discovery” of the Talmud, due in part to increasing Jewish-Christian contact. The very existence of the Talmud and its centrality to Jewish practice abrogated the basic Christian “doctrine of witness,” originating with Augustine of Hippo in late antiquity, which held that Jews were to be tolerated in Christendom insofar as they were remnants of a miserable people clinging to the Biblical religion—and who would be shown their folly (i.e., witness the truth, from the Christian perspective) at the end of times. A third critical factor was the rise of the mendicant movements, particularly the Franciscan and Dominican orders of monks, which bore deep stirrings of populist protest. (The movements were called “mendicant” as in intentionally poor; they protested the opulent wealth and rampant spiritual profiteering in the papacy and bishoprics.) The Church took a calculated—and ultimately very effective—risk in subsuming the mendicant friars into its fold. The Dominicans and Franciscans, especially in France and Spain, took on with gusto the challenge of the Talmud and spearheaded a new mission, to convert the Jews of Europe and attain the dream of a unitary Christian society. In part, this mission attempted to use rabbinic literature, especially Midrash, to prove the errancy of Judaism and the truth of Christian doctrine. This conversionary thrust marked the beginning of the end for the Jews of Western Europe.
Caught in the crosshairs of this paradigm shift, unfortunately, was the great Ramban. In 1263, he was called by the king of Aragon to appear in a public disputation in Barcelona to defend Judaism from the attack of a Jewish convert to Christianity, Pablo Christiano. As a former Jew, Pablo had facility in Jewish texts that was valuable to the Church, and his polemical strategy was to become an archetypal example of Christian missionizing to Jews, as it ultimately crystallized in the conversionary manual Pugio fidei (Dagger of Faith). Interestingly, King James I (r. 1213-1276) was sympathetic and even protective of Ramban, even as he acquiesced to the friars’ demand for a public disputation, which was a formal debate spearheaded in the nascent Scholastic universities of the Latin West. Not surprisingly, the Latin account we possess of the Disputation of Barcelona depicts the friars as the victors; Ramban’s own lengthy Hebrew account tells a more complex story, even as it boasts of Ramban’s success. It seems that the friars, knowing that Ramban had a strong showing the debate, continued to harass him. Under the advice of the king, Ramban decided to leave Spain.
Arriving at Akko, Settling in Jerusalem, and back to Akko Again
It has been pointed out that Ramban faced many choices of places to settle, even as he was driven for reasons of political persecution out of his home: he might well have crossed the Pyrenees and settled in Provence, for example, a region in which he had strong ties. Deliberately, however, Ramban chose to make aliyah, some six-week’s journey by sea, in his old age. Though the move was, by his own accounts, difficult personally and undertaken under duress, it was also the fulfillment of a deep spiritual desire and intention—as well as a not insignificant thirteenth trend of aliyah from Europe, especially, as we’ve seen, from northern France and Provence.
In 1267, Ramban entered the Land of Israel at the major port of Akko (Acre), which had been reconquered by Crusaders in 1191 during the Third Crusade, after Salah al-Din (Saladin) had taken it from them in 1187. Akko was then the Crusader capital, with Jerusalem under Muslim rule. Ramban made his way to Jerusalem, arriving on the 9th of Elul, 1267, and finding the city and its Jewish community in poor conditions. He immediately organized to improve the community’s state, arranging for the bringing of Torah scrolls to Jerusalem and establishing a synagogue that bore his name. (The present-day shul known as the Ramban Synagogue dates from later in the Middle Ages and is most likely at a different location, but is among the oldest continually functioning shuls in the city.) Ramban stayed for some unknown length of time in Jerusalem and then in Chevron (Hebron), before returning to Akko, where he settled. There he served the community and, importantly, made changes to his Torah commentary reflecting knowledge he had gained firsthand by living in Eretz Yisrael.
The Rosh Hashana Derasha (Sermon) and Changes to the Torah Commentary
Among the attestations of Ramban’s life in Akko is his famous sermon for Rosh Hashana, which he delivered there. At the end of the derasha, he mentions the hardships of his move to the Land of Israel:
וזה מה שהוציאני מארצי וטלטלני ממקומי, עזבתי את ביתי נטשתי את נחלתי, נעשתי כעורב על בני, אכזרי על בנותי
And that which compelled me to leave my land and upended me from my place, such that I left my home and abandoned my inheritance, and became like a raven towards my sons, cruel towards my daughters.1
Sermon for Rosh Hashana, in C. Chavel, ed., 1:291
But he closes the derasha with a meditation on the unique goodness of Eretz Yisrael:
הדר העולם ארץ ישראל, הדר א”י ירושלים, הדר ירושלים בית המקדש, הדר בהמ”ק בית קודש הקדשים…
The beauty of the world is the Land of Israel; the beauty of the Land of Israel is Jerusalem; the beauty of Jerusalem is the Beit ha-Mikdash (Temple); the beauty of the Beit ha-Mikdash is the chamber of the Holy of Holies…
Sermon for Rosh Hashana, in C. Chavel, ed., 1:292
The sense of privilege and awe in reaching Eretz Yisrael in general and Jerusalem in particular is also expressed by Ramban in a letter he wrote to his son from Jerusalem.
One of the most distinguishing marks aliyah made upon Ramban was in his understanding of Tanach. He made extensive and substantive changes to his commentaries, adding newfound geographical knowledge, interspersing insights from works that he had not previously had access to in Spain, and, notably, expanding his discussion of Neviim (the Prophets). These changes are attested in autograph manuscripts, copied manuscripts, and several lists of changes made by Ramban or his contemporaries. Among the most stunning of his many additions is Ramban’s remark about the shekel coin, which he made at the end of Sefer Devarim after encountering realia—that is, an actual ancient shekel coin:
ברכני השם עד כה שזכיתי ובאתי לעכה ומצאתי שם ביד זקני הארץ מטבע כסף מפותח פתוחי חותם, מצדו האחד כעין מקל שקד ומצדו השני כעין צלוחית, ובשני הצדדים סביב כתב מפותח באר היטב. והראו הכתב לכותיים וקראוהו מיד, כי הוא כתב עברי אשר נשאר לכותיים כמו שמוזכר בסנהדרין, וקראו מן הצד האחד שקל השקלים, ומן הצד השני ירושלים הקדושה. ואומרים כי הצורות מקלו של אהרן שקדיה ופרחיה, והצורה השני צנצנת המן.
G-d blessed me so greatly that I merited to come to Akko and to find there, in the hands of one of the elders of Israel, an embossed silver coin made with a stamp. On its one side it had a sort of sprouting almond branch and on its other side a kind of saucer. On both sides, around it, it had finely embossed writing. We showed the writing to Samaritans and they read it immediately, because it is Hebrew script which was preserved by the Samaritans as is mentioned in [Tractate] Sanhedrin, and they read on one side “Shekel ha-shekalim”2 and on the other side “Yerushalayim ha-Kedosha.” They say that the figures are of Aharon’s staff that blossomed almonds, and the other is a jar of manna.
Ramban, emendation at the end of the commentary on Sefer Devarim
Ramban goes on to relate how he carefully weighed the coin and determined the veracity of Rashi’s position on its weight. Once again, the mission to verify and experience the antiquity of Jews’ presence in the land is movingly depicted by a medieval oleh.
Reads and Resources
There is a rich literature on the changes Ramban made to his Tanach commentary after making aliyah, much of it technical. See a wonderful overview here on Al HaTorah, and don’t miss the detailed images of the manuscripts highlighted below the text. There is also a thorough review of a recent book on Ramban’s emendations here.
Al HaTorah also has an amazing tool for viewing the additions to Ramban’s commentary here (click on the side navigation to toggle between books of the Torah).
Always indispensable: the edition of Ramban’s writings of R. Chaim Chavel (published by Mosad ha-Rav Kook, which has been translated into English as well.
Based on Ketubbot 49b, and its discussion of Tehillim 147:9.
In the sixteenth century, R. Azariah dei Rossi, a fascinating figure we’ll have to hang out with another time, mentioned seeing a similar coin and reading the first side as “Shekel Yisrael,” also based on Samaritan knowledge. It may be that Ramban’s interpreters erred due to the similarities of the letters, or vice versa.
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