- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Dedication
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Transliteration and Conventions Used in the Text
- Introduction
-
Chapter One Agobard of Lyons, Megillat Aḥima’ats, and the Babylonian Orientation of Early Ashkenaz -
Chapter Two Dialectics, Scholasticism, and the Origin of the Tosafot -
Chapter Three Minhag Ashkenaz ha-Kadmon: An Assessment -
Chapter Four The Authority of the Babylonian Talmud and the Use of Biblical Verses and Aggadah in Early Ashkenaz -
Chapter Five On the Use of Aggadah by the Tosafists: A Response to I. M. Ta-Shma -
Chapter Six Characterizing Medieval Talmudists: A Case Study -
Chapter Seven Communications and the Palestinian Origins of Ashkenaz -
Chapter Eight The Palestinian Orientation of the Ashkenazic Community and Some Suggested Ground Rules for the Writing of Halakhic History -
Chapter Nine The ‘Third Yeshivah of Bavel’ and the Cultural Origins of Ashkenaz—A Proposal - A Response to David Berger
- Introduction
-
Chapter Ten Between Cross and Crescent -
Chapter Eleven Halakhah, Hermeneutics, and Martyrdom in Ashkenaz -
Chapter Twelve Maimonides’ Iggeret ha-Shemad: Law and Rhetoric -
Chapter Thirteen Responses to Critiques of ‘Maimonides’ Iggeret ha-Shemad: Law and Rhetoric’ -
Chapter Fourteen Classification of Mishneh Torah: Problems Real and Imaginary -
Chapter Fifteen Mishneh Torah: Polemic and Art - Bibliography of Manuscripts
- Source Acknowledgments
- Index of Names
- Index of Places
- Index of Subjects
Between Cross and Crescent
Between Cross and Crescent
- Chapter:
- (p.223) Chapter Ten Between Cross and Crescent
- Source:
- Collected Essays: v. 2
- Author(s):
Haym Soloveitchik
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
This chapter explores martyrdom for Jews in Christian Spain and in Islamic countries. The Jews in both areas experienced religious persecution, but the common phenomenon of mass conversion elicited radically different responses. In Spain, the large-scale defection of both the common folk and the religious and cultural elite shattered the community's self-image, broke its pride, and generated a constant, corrosive brooding over why it had been unequal to the challenge and betrayed its covenant with God. In Islamic countries, however, nothing of the sort occurred. No doubt, many were racked with guilt and wrestled with a heavy conscience. However, these feelings produced no outpouring of self-criticism or self-examination, no pained inner reckoning with their deepest beliefs. The chapter examines the differences in assuming martyrdom between these two religious cultures.
Keywords: religious persecution, forced conversions, Spain, Islamic countries, martyrdom, religious cultures, religious conversions
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- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Dedication
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Transliteration and Conventions Used in the Text
- Introduction
-
Chapter One Agobard of Lyons, Megillat Aḥima’ats, and the Babylonian Orientation of Early Ashkenaz -
Chapter Two Dialectics, Scholasticism, and the Origin of the Tosafot -
Chapter Three Minhag Ashkenaz ha-Kadmon: An Assessment -
Chapter Four The Authority of the Babylonian Talmud and the Use of Biblical Verses and Aggadah in Early Ashkenaz -
Chapter Five On the Use of Aggadah by the Tosafists: A Response to I. M. Ta-Shma -
Chapter Six Characterizing Medieval Talmudists: A Case Study -
Chapter Seven Communications and the Palestinian Origins of Ashkenaz -
Chapter Eight The Palestinian Orientation of the Ashkenazic Community and Some Suggested Ground Rules for the Writing of Halakhic History -
Chapter Nine The ‘Third Yeshivah of Bavel’ and the Cultural Origins of Ashkenaz—A Proposal - A Response to David Berger
- Introduction
-
Chapter Ten Between Cross and Crescent -
Chapter Eleven Halakhah, Hermeneutics, and Martyrdom in Ashkenaz -
Chapter Twelve Maimonides’ Iggeret ha-Shemad: Law and Rhetoric -
Chapter Thirteen Responses to Critiques of ‘Maimonides’ Iggeret ha-Shemad: Law and Rhetoric’ -
Chapter Fourteen Classification of Mishneh Torah: Problems Real and Imaginary -
Chapter Fifteen Mishneh Torah: Polemic and Art - Bibliography of Manuscripts
- Source Acknowledgments
- Index of Names
- Index of Places
- Index of Subjects
