The Life of Don Yitzhak ben Yehuda Abravanel

Don Yitzhak ben Yehuda Abravanel was a Jewish politician and treasurer. He has served kings of Portugal and Spain, viceroys of Naples and Doges of Venice. He also worked as a Bible commentator and philosopher. He is by far the most prominent Jewish personality of Portugal of the classical Sephardic pre-expulsion period (before 1496).

Abrabanel was born in 1437 into a well-to-do Jewish noble family that had close relations to the Portuguese royal court. The family traced its roots not only to the Spanish city stronghold of Sevilla, but according to the tradition, all the way back to ancient Israel and King David. Yitzhak’s grandfather, Shmuel Abaravnel, was the Royal Treasurer of King John I of Castile.

During the Great Pogrom of 1391, Shmuel was forcibly converted to Christianity and adopted the name Juan Sánchez of Seville. Abravanel was never particularly proud of this and never mentioned this in any of his works, although he was well aware of it. His family, however, fled from the inquisition to neighbouring Portugal and immediately returned to Judaism.

Shmuel's son Yehudah – the father of Yitzhak Abravanel Tana“chand the grandfather of Yehudah Abravanel (known as ”Leone Ebreo“) and Shmuel Abravanel – became the rosh kehilla of the entire Portuguese Jewish community. He also became the treasurer of the Portuguese king Ferdinand I and, later, of the Duke of Bragança.

Yitzhak was successful in commerce and public finances. After the death of his father, he took over his position as treasurer at the court of Alfonso. He also started his literary career in Lisbon. Isaac had received extensive training and studied Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Latin as well as the works of Plato and Aristotle. This was in addition to traditional Jewish studies. All these opened his understanding of Renaissance culture. His son Yehuda ben Isaac Abravanel was born in Lisbon.

Abravanel’s career in Portugal as treasurer of King Alfonso V ended gedolimabruptly after the king’s death in 1481. Alfonso' successor, John II, opposed the dukes of Bragança and Beja-Viseu, cousins of the king, as they were leaders of a strong nobility opposition. Both were executed in 1483 by order of the king. Abrabanel and other people associated with the Bragança house were also charged with treason.

Abrabanel fled back to Spain in 1483 and was sentenced to death in May 1485 in absentia. He settled in Alcalá de Henares, where he became tax collector to Cardinal Pedro González de Mendoza. Seven years after his arrival in Spain, he held a position similar to that previously held in Portugal. He worked as a tax collector of the powerful Mendoza family and as financial advisor to the Catholic Monarchs Isabella I and Ferdinand II. Their campaign against the last Moorish city of Granada was supported by Yitzhak’s loans and other financial operations.

The expulsion of all Jews by the Decree of Alhambra, which was signed by the Catholic Monarchs on March 31, 1492, came as a surprise to him. In vain he had tried together with Abraham Senior to prevent his royal clients from making this decision. Unlike Senior, he resisted the kings' conversion attempts and decided to emigrate again. From Valencia he fled with his family to the Italian city of Naples.

Again, in the service of Ferdinand I and his son Alfonso II, Abrabanel again proved to be a successful businessman. He was able to acquire a considerable fortune over the course of two years. In addition, he also had time for philosophical and theological occupations. He wrote numerous commentaries on the Pentateuch, the biblical prophets and Maimonides.

Before the approaching soldiers of the French King Charles VIII, Abrabanel followed Alfonso II to Sicily. After Ferdinand I first recovered Naples, Abrabanel gave up his plan to flee to Constantinople, and returned from Corfu to Monopoli, a small port on the Adriatic coast. After the Kingdom of Naples finally fell into the hands of the Spaniards, Abrabanel moved in 1503 on to Venice, where his son Joseph worked as a doctor.

 The latest Portuguese discoveries called into question Venice's leading role in the spice trade. Abrabanel offered to negotiate with the Portuguese for the Council of Ten. Although the Portuguese, proud their new expeditions, showed no interest and the mission failed, it shows how Yitzhak Abravanel must have been incredibly politically and rhetorically gifted and had mastered the ”art of shmoozing“.

During the 1460s, Abrabanel began his work as a writer of philosophical works and as a biblical interpreter. He wrote the ”Zurot ha-Yesodot“ (”Forms of the Elements“) and ”Ateret Sekenim“ (”The Crown of the Ancients“). They showed his thorough understanding of Arab philosophy and Jewish theology.

In Naples, he wrote a commentary on the Two Books of Kings and ”Zedek Olamim“ (”Eternal Justice“), on the theme of Divine Providence. In Corfu he finished a commentary on Isaiah. In Monopoli he wrote ”Yemei Olam“ (“ Days of the World“), as well as a commentary on the Pessach Haggadah. The two books of Bible commentary entitled ”Migdal Yeshu’ot“ (”Fortress of Security“) and “Ha’Shem“ (“Acts of G-d“) deal with the Divine Creation. His Bible commentaries deal with all the books of the Tanakh . After printing three of his works in Constantinople in 1505, he ended his commentaries on the books of the Bible and on Maimonides; the latter has been preserved only incompletely.

Yitzhak ben Yehuda Abravanel died in Venice in 1508 and was buried in Padua, but his legacy is still alive to this day, which you will easily find out if you take a kosher tour to Portugal.

The City of Belgrade and its Jewish Heritage

When Jewish travelers think of going on kosher tours to Europe, they might think of countries like Germany, France, and the like. But there are also gems to be found in places like Serbia, particularly in the city of Belgrade.



Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia, a landlocked country situated at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. The urban area of Belgrade has a population of 1.23 million, while over 1.68 million people live within its administrative limits.

One of the most important prehistoric European cultures, the Vinča, evolved within the Belgrade area in the 6th millennium BC. During antiquity, Thraco-Dacians inhabited the region. After 279 BC, Celts conquered the city, naming it Singidūn. It was conquered by the Romans during the reign of Augustus, and was awarded city rights in the mid-2nd century.

It was settled by the Slavs in the 520s, and changed hands several times between the Byzantine Empire, Frankish Empire, Bulgarian Empire and Kingdom of Hungary before it became the capital of Serbian king Stephen Dragutin (1282–1316). In 1521, Belgrade was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and became the seat of the Sanjak of Smederevo. 

It frequently passed from Ottoman to Habsburg rule, which saw the destruction of most of the city during the Austro-Ottoman wars. Belgrade was again named the capital of Serbia in 1841. Northern Belgrade remained the southernmost Habsburg post until 1918, when the city was reunited. As a strategic location, the city has been in 115 wars and was razed 44 times.

Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia from its creation in 1918. Belgrade has a special administrative status within Serbia and it is one of its five statistical regions. Its metropolitan territory is divided into 17 municipalities, each with its own local council. The city of Belgrade covers 3.6% of Serbia's territory, and around 24% of the country's population lives within its administrative limits.

The Belgrade Jews

The first written records of Jewish presence in Belgrade date back to the 16th century when the city was under Ottoman rule. At that time Belgrade boasted a strong Jewish Ladino-speaking Sephardic community that mostly settled in the central Belgrade neighborhood called Dorćol. Many of the city's Ashkenazi Jews, were from Central Europe and nearby Austria-Hungary. They mostly lived near the Sava river, in the area where the current active synagogue Sukkat Shalom stands.

The Jewish community in Belgrade flourished most notably in the 17th century when Belgrade had a yeshiva, community and cultural centers, Jewish charitable organizations, societies and shops. A beautiful early-20th century Sephardic synagogue, then one of the most prominent buildings in the city, stood in today's Cara Uroša Street, together with a mikve.

Before World War II, some 12,000 Jews lived in Belgrade, 80% of whom were Spanish- or Ladino-speaking Sephardim, and 20% Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazim. Most of the Jewish population of Serbia was exterminated during the German occupation. Only 1,115 of Belgrade's twelve thousand Jews survived.

There were three concentration camps for Jews, Serbs and Gypsies in the city at the time. Most Jewish men perished at the Autokomanda site near the city center, apart from those killed at the Banjica camp. The camp at Sajmište was on Independent State of Croatia territory and it mostly saw to the killing of women and children.

Wartime bombing destroyed most of the Jewish monuments as well as much of the city. According to some reports, the current synagogue was used by the occupying forces as a brothel. The building was re-consecrated after the war.

Since 1944 there has only been a very small Jewish community in Belgrade and Serbia as a whole. Many people emigrated to Israel after the war. But despite the size, Belgrade currently has a very active community center that houses the Federation of Jewish Communities of Serbia and the Jewish Historical Museum.

The city also has several commemorative monuments to Jewish suffering in past wars, the newest of which was unveiled at Autokomanda, near the site of the mass killing of Jews during World War II. There are Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish cemeteries in Belgrade, but only the Sephardic one is in regular use today.

The Sukkat Shalom synagogue, built in 1925 in neoclassical style – formerly the Ashkenazi Synagogue – is currently the only functioning shul of the city. It regularly serves over shabbes and holidays to the approximately 1200-strong kehilla. Its pre-war address was Kosmajska Street but today is located at Marsala Birjuzova 19. It is served by a Serbian-born resident chief rabbi, who is also a shochet.

Chatam Sofer: A Pride of Jewish Bratislava

Chatam Sofer

Chatam Sofer was one of the leading Orthodox rabbis of the European Jews in the first half of the nineteenth century. He was a teacher to thousands and a powerful opponent to the Reform movement in Judaism, which was attracting many people from Jewish communities in the Austrian Empire and beyond. As Rav of the city of Pressburg, he maintained a strong Orthodox Jewish perspective through communal life, first-class education, and uncompromising opposition to Reform and radical change.

According to the Jewish calendar, he was born on 7th Tishrei 5523 and died on the 25th of the same month in 5600. That is, on the 24th  of Septmber 1762 and the  3rd of October 1839. He was born as Moses ben Shmuel Schreiber to a very pious and learned Jewish family in Frankfurt am Main. His father was a rabbi and a sofer (hence the surname) and his great-grandfather was the Gaon of Frankfurt, Rabbi Shmuel Schotten. Schotten was known as the Marsheishoch, one of the leading religious authorities of the town in the 18th Century and its chief rabbi.

Though Moses Sofer used his civic name when communicating with the outside world, in the world of the Torah, he is known by his Jewish acronym, Chatam Sofer. The name Chatam, which he chose himself, is itself an acronym of Chidushet Torah Moshe, that is, “Moshe’s innovation of the Torah“. His surname Sofer means scribe, after the German word “Schreiber“.

Sofer established a yeshiva in Bratislava (Pressburg in German), the Pressburg Yeshiva. It became the most influential yeshiva in Central Europe, producing hundreds of future leaders for Hungarian Jews. It was considered the largest Yeshiva since the time of the Babylonian Talmud.

This yeshiva continued to function until World War II. Afterwards, it was relocated to Jerusalem under the leadership of the Chatam Sofer's great-grandson, Rabbi Akiva Sofer and is active until this very day. But during his early career, he was active in various cities in Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia.

Chatam Sofer lived in the spiritual world of the Torah, its study, explanation and practice. This did not exempt him from the turbulent outside world of the 18th and 19th centuries. He has also had conflicts with his own father and later with his mother too. But he reconciliated with them eventually . He lived through the death of his wife and child, but was blessed enough to be able to raise his sons and help cultivate their spiritual lives.

When he was a four-year-old pupil in a cheder, he questioned the melamed's interpretation of a portion in the Torah. Soon he became a personal pupil and protegé of Rabbi Nathan Adler. His reputation as a child prodigy quickly spread. When he was 10, he openly disagreed with the views of the rabbinical authorities in Frankfurt. This case brought his father to trouble and in front of the local beth din. He then moved to his teacher and later left for a yeshiva in Mainz.

After graduating, he briefly returned home, only to leave in 1781 and to follow rabbi Adler to his new post in Moravia. Chatam Sofer was then employed as a Torah teacher in Prostějov. He married Sarah Yerwitz, the daughter of the local rabbi. She died in the year 1812 after a quarter-century long and childless marriage. A year later, he married Seril, the widow of rabbi Akiva Eger. In 1825, as a 73-year-old, he married--for the third time--the widow of Zvi Hirsch Heller, a Talmudic scholar.

From 1794 to 1798 he was a rabbi in Strážnice, then left for Mattersburg. Later, the community offered him the post of chief rabbi in nearby Bratislava. He remained in office from 1806 until his death. He taught at the local yeshiva, which he also founded. Unlike Yeshivas in Czarist Russia which were forced to operate in secret, the Pressburg Yeshiva was recognized by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Emperor Franz Joseph I  had sympathized and respected the Jews and their leader Rabbi Sofer.

The Yeshiva was licensed by the Minister of Education of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Under the law, the school required the four upper grades to study secular studies. These secular studies were not taught in the yeshiva, but students attended and took exams at another Jewish school in Pressburg run by the orthodox Jewish community. All of the yeshiva's students were exempted from military service. Most of the military rabbis who served in the Austro-Hungarian Army were graduates of the Pressburg Yeshiva and held officers’ ranks.

Nobody questioned Sofer's authority on halacha in the Community. But rabbis from far and near--practically from all corners of Europe--would consult different legal matters with him and his responsa throughout from the years contributed a great deal of his legacy.

 

 At the end of the 18th century, however, the effects of Haskala, the Jewish enlightenment, had taken root among the Jews of Bratislava. A conflict between the two camps in the community broke out when there was an attempt to establish a secular school where profane subjects would also be taught.

Chatam Sofer resolutely opposed that, as he valued only religious life according to the Torah and mitzvot. He believed that any secular teachings was a step towards assimilation and the abandonment of the Torah. For Sofer, Judaism as previously practiced was the only form of Judaism acceptable. In his view, the rules and tenets of Judaism had never changed — and cannot ever change.

This became the defining idea for the opponents to Reform. It has also  continued to influence the Orthodox response to innovation in Jewish doctrine and practice.

Sofer applied a pun to the Talmudic term “chadash asur min ha Torah“, "new is forbidden by the Torah" (referring literally to eating chadash, "new grain", before the Omer offering is given). He used this as a slogan for his opposition to any philosophical, social or practical change to Orthodox practice. He did not allow the addition of any secular studies to the curriculum of his Pressburg Yeshiva.

Sofer published very little during his lifetime. His posthumously published works include more than a thousand responsa, novellae on the Talmud, sermons, biblical and liturgical commentaries, and religious poetry. He is an oft-quoted authority in Orthodox Jewish scholarship. Many of his responsa are required reading for semicha (rabbinic ordination) candidates. His Torah chiddushim (original Torah insights) sparked a new style in rabbinic commentary, and some editions of the Talmud contain his corrections and additions.

The five-volume work of Sha'elot Vetešuvot Ha-Chatam Sofer (Respond to Chatam Sofer), as well as comments to the Torah (Chidushe Torah Moshe) and to the Talmud, were only published after his death. Besides religious issues, he also dealt with poetry, inspired mainly by Jewish holidays. It was published by the name Shirat Moshe (Song of Moshe).

At the time of the Napoleonic siege of Bratislava, Chatam Sofer, pressured by his community, left for Sväty Jur, a little village in the Slovakian Hills. The synagogue there was the only one where he was active. The result of his stay is, among other things, his only autobiographical work, named Sefer Hazikaron (Book of Remembrance).

Chatam Sofer died in 1839 and was buried at the Old Jewish Cemetery of Bratislava – now known as the Chatam Sofer Memorial – on one of the boards of his yeshiva table. Chatam Sofer was such an influential and important figure for the town of Bratislava and its non-Jewish population. that not only the cemetery is named, but also the entire area of that city, including a nearby train and bus stop. Chatam Sofer is often regarded as one of the top ten most influential people in Slovak history.

If you are taking a kosher cruise along the Danube river, chances are that one of your stops will be in Bratislava. It would be a good idea to take this as an opportunity for a pilgrimage to his grave and pay his respects!