Teaching Team

The Alhambra Decree

By Toby Janicki  | Comments (3) | Posted on July 13, 2007

As we approach the ninth of Av it would behoove us to remember another tragic event that took place on the 8th of Av. It was the issuing of the Alhambra decree in Spain. The Alhambra decree required all Jews to leave Spain by midnight July 31, 1492 (the 8th of Av). What is most astonishing about this is that the decree names Judaizers as the problem and interaction between Jews and Christians as its cause. A Judiazer is often times defined as a believer who decides to once again observe the Torah of Moses.

This is a portion of the text of the decree from wikipedia:

It is well known that in our dominion, there are certain bad Christians that became 'Judaized' and committed apostasy against our Holy Catholic faith, much of it the cause of interactions between Jews and Christians. Therefore, in the year 1480, we ordered that the Jews be separated from the cities and towns in our domains and that they be given separate sectors, hoping that with such separation the situation would be remedied, and we ordered that the Inquisition be established in such domains; and at the end of twelve years it has worked and the Inquisition has found many guilty persons. Furthermore we are informed by the Inquisition and others of the great harm that persists to the Christians as they interact with the Jews, and in turn these Jews try by all manners to subvert our Holy Catholic faith and are trying to prevent faithful Christians to grow close to their beliefs.

These Jews have instructed these Christians in the ceremonies and observances of their laws, circumcising their children, and giving them books with which to pray, and declaring unto them the days of fasting, and meeting with them to teach them the histories of their laws, notifying them when to expect the celebration of Passover and how to observe it, giving them the unleavened bread and ceremonially prepared meats, and instructing them in things from which they must abstain, both with regard to food items and other things requiring observance of the laws of Moses, making them fully understand that there is no other law or truth outside of this. And this is made clear based on the confessions from such Jews as well as those perverted by them that it has resulted in great damage and detriment of our Holy Catholic faith.

The second paragraph brings chills down my spine. How much does that sound like us? It is scary to think that in 1492 in Spain people were not permitted to exercise their freedom in returning to Torah and that the Jews had to pay a high price for their actions. In a sense these Judiazers are our predecessors. They were FFOZ so to speak in 1492. Let us pay tribute to these pioneers in this season and remain thankful to HaShem for the freedom that we experience today.

About the Author: Toby Janicki is a teacher, writer and speaker for FFOZ. He is also a writer for messiah magazine and the author of the Restoration Workbook and a new book on the Mezuzah.

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