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  • Period
    • Prehistory3000000 BCE - 5001 BCE
    • Antiquity5000 BCE - 399 CE
    • Middle Ages400 CE - 1500 CE
    • Age of Reason1500 CE - 1879 CE
    • Modern Times1880 CE - 1980 CE
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  • he
  • Login
  • Register
  • Period
    • Prehistory3000000 BCE - 5001 BCE
    • Antiquity5000 BCE - 399 CE
    • Middle Ages400 CE - 1500 CE
    • Age of Reason1500 CE - 1879 CE
    • Modern Times1880 CE - 1980 CE
  • Home
  • Contact Us
  • Subscribe
    • English subscription
  • News
  • Past Issues
  • Reviews
    • Book Reviews
  • Holidays Archive
    • Holidays Archive
    • Festivals of Tishrei
    • Hanukkah
    • Tu BiShvat
    • Purim
    • Pesach
    • Holocaust
    • Independence Day
    • Lag baOmer
    • Jerusalem Day
    • Shavuot
    • Tisha B’Av
  • en
  • he
  • -3000000
  • -2900000
  • -2800000
  • -2700000
  • -2600000
  • -2500000
  • -2400000
  • -2300000
  • -2200000
  • -2100000
  • -2000000
Prehistory
  • -1900000
  • -1800000
  • -1700000
  • -1600000
  • -1500000
  • -1400000
  • -1300000
  • -1200000
  • -1100000
  • -1000000
  • -900000
Prehistory
  • -800000
  • -700000
  • -600000
    • 500000 BCE :

      Flints Galore
  • -500000
    • 500000 BCE :

      Flints Galore
  • -400000
  • -300000
  • -200000
  • -100000
    • 60000 BCE :

      Not Just Cave Dwellers
    • 20000 BCE :

      Rhinos in Samaria
    • 7000 BCE :

      Masking Death Prehistoric City
    • 3000 BCE :

      What would you like, Egyptian or Philistine ?
    • 2000 BCE :

      4,000 Year Old Jerusalem Tomb: a Treasure Trove of Decapitated Toads
    • 1150 BCE :

      Where did the Philistines come from?
    • 1100 BCE :

      Is This Ziklag?
    • 1000 BCE :

      Babylonian Deluge
    • 800 BCE :

      Horses in the rain Ruin of Samaria!
    • 750 BCE :

      Which Isaiah? How many clerks ?
    • 650 BCE :

      Temple Off the Mount
    • 590 BCE :

      Stamped by the Mayor
    • 586 BCE :

      Signs of Destruction
    • 516 BCE :

      Who are You, Samaritans?
    • 480 BCE :

      Esther – the Persian Version
    • 460 BCE :

      Nehemiah on the Wall
    • 200 BCE :

      Forgotten Archive
    • 167 BCE :

      A Brief History of the Hasmoneans
    • 164 BCE :

      Pools and Palaces
    • 160 BCE :

      Fighting for Heart and Soul The Youngest Maccabee
    • 150 BCE :

      Telltale Tremor
    • 141 BCE :

      Cast a Giant Shadow
    • 110 BCE :

      A Dig Full of Holes
    • 100 BCE :

      אוצר ממצולות ים Anonymous Hasmonean
    • 20 BCE :

      Mystery of Caesarea’s Disappearing Port Jerusalem Potters
    • 18 BCE :

      Paving the Past
    • 0 BCE :

      Nabateans in the Bible Lords of the Desert Pilgrim City
  • 0
  • 100000
  • 200000
Prehistory
  • -5000
  • -4980
  • -4960
  • -4940
  • -4920
  • -4900
  • -4880
  • -4860
  • -4840
  • -4820
  • -4800
Antiquity
  • -4780
  • -4760
  • -4740
  • -4720
  • -4700
  • -4680
  • -4660
  • -4640
  • -4620
  • -4600
  • -4580
Antiquity
  • -4560
  • -4540
  • -4520
  • -4500
  • -4480
  • -4460
  • -4440
  • -4420
  • -4400
  • -4380
  • -4360
Antiquity
  • -4340
  • -4320
  • -4300
  • -4280
  • -4260
  • -4240
  • -4220
  • -4200
  • -4180
  • -4160
  • -4140
Antiquity
  • -4120
  • -4100
  • -4080
  • -4060
  • -4040
  • -4020
  • -4000
  • -3980
  • -3960
  • -3940
  • -3920
Antiquity
  • -3900
  • -3880
  • -3860
  • -3840
  • -3820
  • -3800
  • -3780
  • -3760
  • -3740
  • -3720
  • -3700
Antiquity
  • -3680
  • -3660
  • -3640
  • -3620
  • -3600
  • -3580
  • -3560
  • -3540
  • -3520
  • -3500
  • -3480
Antiquity
  • -3460
  • -3440
  • -3420
  • -3400
  • -3380
  • -3360
  • -3340
  • -3320
  • -3300
  • -3280
  • -3260
Antiquity
  • -3240
  • -3220
  • -3200
  • -3180
  • -3160
  • -3140
  • -3120
  • -3100
  • -3080
  • -3060
  • -3040
Antiquity
  • -3020
    • 3000 BCE :

      What would you like, Egyptian or Philistine ?
  • -3000
    • 3000 BCE :

      What would you like, Egyptian or Philistine ?
  • -2980
  • -2960
  • -2940
  • -2920
  • -2900
  • -2880
  • -2860
  • -2840
  • -2820
Antiquity
  • -2800
  • -2780
  • -2760
  • -2740
  • -2720
  • -2700
  • -2680
  • -2660
  • -2640
  • -2620
  • -2600
Antiquity
  • -2580
  • -2560
  • -2540
  • -2520
  • -2500
  • -2480
  • -2460
  • -2440
  • -2420
  • -2400
  • -2380
Antiquity
  • -2360
  • -2340
  • -2320
  • -2300
  • -2280
  • -2260
  • -2240
  • -2220
  • -2200
  • -2180
  • -2160
Antiquity
  • -2140
  • -2120
  • -2100
  • -2080
  • -2060
  • -2040
  • -2020
    • 2000 BCE :

      4,000 Year Old Jerusalem Tomb: a Treasure Trove of Decapitated Toads
  • -2000
    • 2000 BCE :

      4,000 Year Old Jerusalem Tomb: a Treasure Trove of Decapitated Toads
  • -1980
  • -1960
  • -1940
Antiquity
  • -1920
  • -1900
  • -1880
  • -1860
  • -1840
  • -1820
  • -1800
  • -1780
  • -1760
  • -1740
  • -1720
Antiquity
  • -1700
  • -1680
  • -1660
  • -1640
  • -1620
  • -1600
  • -1580
  • -1560
  • -1540
  • -1520
  • -1500
Antiquity
  • -1480
  • -1460
  • -1440
  • -1420
  • -1400
  • -1380
  • -1360
  • -1340
  • -1320
  • -1300
  • -1280
Antiquity
  • -1260
  • -1240
  • -1220
  • -1200
  • -1180
  • -1160
    • 1150 BCE :

      Where did the Philistines come from?
  • -1140
  • -1120
    • 1100 BCE :

      Is This Ziklag?
  • -1100
    • 1100 BCE :

      Is This Ziklag?
  • -1080
  • -1060
Antiquity
  • -1040
  • -1020
    • 1000 BCE :

      Babylonian Deluge
  • -1000
    • 1000 BCE :

      Babylonian Deluge
  • -980
  • -960
  • -940
  • -920
  • -900
  • -880
  • -860
  • -840
Antiquity
  • -820
    • 800 BCE :

      Horses in the rain Ruin of Samaria!
  • -800
    • 800 BCE :

      Horses in the rain Ruin of Samaria!
  • -780
  • -760
    • 750 BCE :

      Which Isaiah? How many clerks ?
  • -740
  • -720
  • -700
  • -680
  • -660
    • 650 BCE :

      Temple Off the Mount
  • -640
  • -620
Antiquity
  • -600
    • 590 BCE :

      Stamped by the Mayor
    • 586 BCE :

      Signs of Destruction
  • -580
  • -560
  • -540
  • -520
    • 516 BCE :

      Who are You, Samaritans?
  • -500
    • 480 BCE :

      Esther – the Persian Version
  • -480
    • 480 BCE :

      Esther – the Persian Version
    • 460 BCE :

      Nehemiah on the Wall
  • -460
    • 460 BCE :

      Nehemiah on the Wall
  • -440
  • -420
  • -400
Antiquity
  • -380
  • -360
  • -340
  • -320
  • -300
  • -280
  • -260
  • -240
  • -220
    • 200 BCE :

      Forgotten Archive
  • -200
    • 200 BCE :

      Forgotten Archive
  • -180
    • 167 BCE :

      A Brief History of the Hasmoneans
    • 164 BCE :

      Pools and Palaces
    • 160 BCE :

      Fighting for Heart and Soul The Youngest Maccabee
Antiquity
  • -160
    • 160 BCE :

      Fighting for Heart and Soul The Youngest Maccabee
    • 150 BCE :

      Telltale Tremor
    • 141 BCE :

      Cast a Giant Shadow
  • -140
  • -120
    • 110 BCE :

      A Dig Full of Holes
    • 100 BCE :

      אוצר ממצולות ים Anonymous Hasmonean
  • -100
    • 100 BCE :

      אוצר ממצולות ים Anonymous Hasmonean
  • -80
  • -60
  • -40
    • 20 BCE :

      Mystery of Caesarea’s Disappearing Port Jerusalem Potters
  • -20
    • 20 BCE :

      Mystery of Caesarea’s Disappearing Port Jerusalem Potters
    • 18 BCE :

      Paving the Past
    • 0 BCE :

      Nabateans in the Bible Lords of the Desert Pilgrim City
  • 0
  • 20
    • 40 CE :

      Wanton Destruction on a Calamitous Scale Golden Nostalgia
  • 40
    • 40 CE :

      Wanton Destruction on a Calamitous Scale Golden Nostalgia
    • 44 CE :

      King’s Canopy in Shilo
Antiquity
  • 60
    • 62 CE :

      The Pilgrims’ Progress
    • 66 CE :

      Don’t Call Me Joseph Dead Sea DNA
    • 67 CE :

      Romans on the Roofs of Gamla
  • 80
  • 100
  • 120
    • 130 CE :

      Backs to the Western Wall
    • 132 CE :

      Bar Kokhba in Jerusalem
  • 140
  • 160
  • 180
    • 200 CE :

      Bathing Rabbis
  • 200
    • 200 CE :

      Bathing Rabbis
  • 220
  • 240
    • 250 CE :

      Trio in Togas
  • 260
Antiquity
  • 280
    • 300 CE :

      Washed Out by the Rain
  • 300
    • 300 CE :

      Washed Out by the Rain
  • 320
  • 340
    • 350 CE :

      זה השער
  • 360
  • 380
    • 400 CE :

      Blessed Wine
  • 400
    • 400 CE :

      Blessed Wine
  • 420
  • 440
  • 460
  • 480
    • 500 CE :

      Shofar – Blasting Away Pilgrims’ Riches Playing with Water? Byzantine Cistern in Jerusalem Playground
Antiquity
  • 400
    • 400 CE :

      Blessed Wine
  • 410
  • 420
  • 430
  • 440
  • 450
  • 460
  • 470
  • 480
  • 490
    • 500 CE :

      Shofar – Blasting Away Pilgrims’ Riches Playing with Water? Byzantine Cistern in Jerusalem Playground
  • 500
    • 500 CE :

      Shofar – Blasting Away Pilgrims’ Riches Playing with Water? Byzantine Cistern in Jerusalem Playground
Middle Ages
  • 510
  • 520
  • 530
    • 539 CE :

      Georgians in Ashdod
  • 540
  • 550
  • 560
  • 570
  • 580
  • 590
  • 600
  • 610
Middle Ages
  • 620
    • 630 CE :

      The Fire of Faith
  • 630
    • 630 CE :

      The Fire of Faith
  • 640
  • 650
  • 660
  • 670
  • 680
  • 690
  • 700
  • 710
    • 717 CE :

      What’s a Jewish Menorah doing on early Islamic coins and vessels ?
  • 720
Middle Ages
  • 730
  • 740
  • 750
  • 760
  • 770
  • 780
  • 790
    • 800 CE :

      Whose Head is it Anyway? Potter’s Treasure
  • 800
    • 800 CE :

      Whose Head is it Anyway? Potter’s Treasure
  • 810
  • 820
  • 830
Middle Ages
  • 840
  • 850
  • 860
  • 870
  • 880
  • 890
  • 900
  • 910
  • 920
  • 930
  • 940
    • 950 CE :

      Cave of Revenge
Middle Ages
  • 950
    • 950 CE :

      Cave of Revenge
  • 960
  • 970
  • 980
  • 990
  • 1000
  • 1010
  • 1020
  • 1030
  • 1040
  • 1050
Middle Ages
  • 1060
  • 1070
  • 1080
  • 1090
    • 1096 CE :

      Heroes on the Walls of Haifa
    • 1099 CE :

      Heroes on the Walls of Haifa
  • 1100
  • 1110
  • 1120
  • 1130
  • 1140
  • 1150
  • 1160
Middle Ages
  • 1170
  • 1180
    • 1187 CE :

      Locking Horns at the Battle of Hattin
  • 1190
  • 1200
  • 1210
  • 1220
  • 1230
  • 1240
  • 1250
  • 1260
  • 1270
    • 1280 CE :

      Z-rated: For Forties Plus
Middle Ages
  • 1280
    • 1280 CE :

      Z-rated: For Forties Plus
    • 1286 CE :

      Mystery of the Zohar Zohar Unzipped
  • 1290
    • 1300 CE :

      Ancient Ring in the Flowerbed
  • 1300
    • 1300 CE :

      Ancient Ring in the Flowerbed
  • 1310
  • 1320
  • 1330
  • 1340
  • 1350
    • 1354 CE :

      Ready for Elijah
  • 1360
  • 1370
  • 1380
    • 1390 CE :

      Divinely Plagued
Middle Ages
  • 1390
    • 1390 CE :

      Divinely Plagued
  • 1400
  • 1410
  • 1420
  • 1430
  • 1440
  • 1450
  • 1460
  • 1470
    • 1475 CE :

      A Widow in Print
  • 1480
  • 1490
    • 1496 CE :

      Once Bitten, Twice Shy – Portuguese Jewry
Middle Ages
  • 1500
    • 1501 CE :

      Portuguese Messiah at the Stake
  • 1510
    • 1520 CE :

      Salonika’s Mystic Quartet
  • 1520
    • 1520 CE :

      Salonika’s Mystic Quartet
    • 1526 CE :

      Who Was David Ha-Reuveni?
  • 1530
    • 1533 CE :

      Kabbalists in Salonika
  • 1540
  • 1550
  • 1560
  • 1570
  • 1580
  • 1590
  • 1600
Age of Reason
  • 1610
  • 1620
    • 1630 CE :

      The Price of Dissent
  • 1630
    • 1630 CE :

      The Price of Dissent
  • 1640
  • 1650
  • 1660
    • 1667 CE :

      Was ‘The Jewish Bride’ Really Jewish? Messianic Mania
  • 1670
    • 1675 CE :

      Topsy Turvy
  • 1680
  • 1690
    • 1700 CE :

      Newton’s Fourth Law In the Service of the Czar Haman’s Pockets Trying to Belong
  • 1700
    • 1700 CE :

      Newton’s Fourth Law In the Service of the Czar Haman’s Pockets Trying to Belong
  • 1710
Age of Reason
  • 1720
  • 1730
  • 1740
  • 1750
  • 1760
  • 1770
  • 1780
    • 1790 CE :

      Groping for Truth
  • 1790
    • 1790 CE :

      Groping for Truth
  • 1800
    • 1806 CE :

      Napoleon’s Jewish Court
  • 1810
    • 1812 CE :

      Red Rose of Petra
  • 1820
    • 1827 CE :

      A Soul Divided
Age of Reason
  • 1830
    • 1832 CE :

      Blackface Minstrel Shows
    • 1840 CE :

      With Thanks from Damascus
  • 1840
    • 1840 CE :

      With Thanks from Damascus
    • 1842 CE :

      Charlotte Rothschild – First Jewish Female Artist
    • 1845 CE :

      The Angry Convert
    • 1848 CE :

      Jewish? French? Italian!
    • 1850 CE :

      Matza – More Than Just Crumbs
  • 1850
    • 1850 CE :

      Matza – More Than Just Crumbs
    • 1852 CE :

      Mum’s the Word Mum’s the Word
    • 1860 CE :

      Written Off
  • 1860
    • 1860 CE :

      Written Off
    • 1868 CE :

      Hungarian Schism
    • 1870 CE :

      A Man unto Himself The Kaiser’s Cap
  • 1870
    • 1870 CE :

      A Man unto Himself The Kaiser’s Cap
    • 1873 CE :

      Boy Wonders
    • 1875 CE :

      The Many Faces of Maurycy Gottlieb Shtreimel Variations: The History of a Hat
    • 1877 CE :

      Off the Boat
    • 1880 CE :

      Fastest Jew in the West
  • 1880
    • 1880 CE :

      Fastest Jew in the West
    • 1881 CE :

      The Jewish Girl who Set the Wild West Ablaze
    • 1882 CE :

      When Etrogim Briefly Grew on Trees
    • 1883 CE :

      Kafka – Too Short A Story
    • 1884 CE :

      The Original Zionist Congress
    • 1886 CE :

      Place in the Sun
    • 1887 CE :

      Marc Chagall – the Surrealist Jew
    • 1889 CE :

      New York – A Community in Flux
    • 1890 CE :

      PIONEER POET
  • 1890
    • 1890 CE :

      PIONEER POET
    • 1892 CE :

      When Shakespeare Spoke Yiddish
    • 1894 CE :

      Herzl’s Psychodrama Egypt’s Jewish Molière The Too Jewish Missionary
    • 1895 CE :

      Zionist with Cello
    • 1897 CE :

      The Jewish Father of French Impressionism The Congress that Founded the Jewish State The Pied Piper of Yom Kippur
    • 1900 CE :

      Healing Minds with Sigmund Freud
  • 1900
    • 1900 CE :

      Healing Minds with Sigmund Freud
    • 1906 CE :

      The Saga of a Budapest Family Sukka
    • 1908 CE :

      The Jewish American Secret Police
    • 1909 CE :

      black wedding
    • 1910 CE :

      One Hundred Good Years
  • 1910
    • 1910 CE :

      One Hundred Good Years
    • 1913 CE :

      Planting Seedlings Mark Gertler – Nothing but Art
    • 1914 CE :

      Did Jew Know? Tomorrow’s War Ticket to Riches
    • 1915 CE :

      Albert Einstein’s Quantum Leap Forgotten Jews of Bisan
    • 1916 CE :

      Amedeo Modigliani – Jewish Expressionism
    • 1917 CE :

      The Gateway The Viscount of Megiddo Return of the Spies Guard Down Long Before Balfour
    • 1918 CE :

      Luboml City Post Dying in Vain
    • 1920 CE :

      Isidor Kaufmann – Jewish Ritual Beauty My Son, the Gangster The Fourth Commandment and the Eighteenth Amendment
  • 1920
    • 1920 CE :

      Isidor Kaufmann – Jewish Ritual Beauty My Son, the Gangster The Fourth Commandment and the Eighteenth Amendment
    • 1921 CE :

      Make Art, Not War
    • 1924 CE :

      God Save the Dutch Queen It Takes a (Hasidic) Village
    • 1927 CE :

      Painter of Jerusalem Breaking the Sound Barrier No Business Like Show Business
    • 1929 CE :

      Painting Propaganda
    • 1930 CE :

      The Wedding That Wasn’t
  • 1930
    • 1930 CE :

      The Wedding That Wasn’t
    • 1933 CE :

      Haifa and Salonika – the Jewish Ports
    • 1935 CE :

      Gefilte Jazz
    • 1936 CE :

      Megilla with a Secular Twist
    • 1940 CE :

      A Beautiful Mind 9 Things You Didn’t Know About Hedy Lamarr
Age of Reason
  • 1880
    • 1880 CE :

      Fastest Jew in the West
    • 1881 CE :

      The Jewish Girl who Set the Wild West Ablaze
    • 1882 CE :

      When Etrogim Briefly Grew on Trees
    • 1883 CE :

      Kafka – Too Short A Story
    • 1884 CE :

      The Original Zionist Congress
    • 1886 CE :

      Place in the Sun
    • 1887 CE :

      Marc Chagall – the Surrealist Jew
    • 1889 CE :

      New York – A Community in Flux
    • 1890 CE :

      PIONEER POET
  • 1890
    • 1890 CE :

      PIONEER POET
    • 1892 CE :

      When Shakespeare Spoke Yiddish
    • 1894 CE :

      Herzl’s Psychodrama Egypt’s Jewish Molière The Too Jewish Missionary
    • 1895 CE :

      Zionist with Cello
    • 1897 CE :

      The Jewish Father of French Impressionism The Congress that Founded the Jewish State The Pied Piper of Yom Kippur
    • 1900 CE :

      Healing Minds with Sigmund Freud
  • 1900
    • 1900 CE :

      Healing Minds with Sigmund Freud
    • 1906 CE :

      The Saga of a Budapest Family Sukka
    • 1908 CE :

      The Jewish American Secret Police
    • 1909 CE :

      black wedding
    • 1910 CE :

      One Hundred Good Years
  • 1910
    • 1910 CE :

      One Hundred Good Years
    • 1913 CE :

      Planting Seedlings Mark Gertler – Nothing but Art
    • 1914 CE :

      Did Jew Know? Tomorrow’s War Ticket to Riches
    • 1915 CE :

      Albert Einstein’s Quantum Leap Forgotten Jews of Bisan
    • 1916 CE :

      Amedeo Modigliani – Jewish Expressionism
    • 1917 CE :

      The Gateway The Viscount of Megiddo Return of the Spies Guard Down Long Before Balfour
    • 1918 CE :

      Luboml City Post Dying in Vain
    • 1920 CE :

      Isidor Kaufmann – Jewish Ritual Beauty My Son, the Gangster The Fourth Commandment and the Eighteenth Amendment
  • 1920
    • 1920 CE :

      Isidor Kaufmann – Jewish Ritual Beauty My Son, the Gangster The Fourth Commandment and the Eighteenth Amendment
    • 1921 CE :

      Make Art, Not War
    • 1924 CE :

      God Save the Dutch Queen It Takes a (Hasidic) Village
    • 1927 CE :

      Painter of Jerusalem Breaking the Sound Barrier No Business Like Show Business
    • 1929 CE :

      Painting Propaganda
    • 1930 CE :

      The Wedding That Wasn’t
  • 1930
    • 1930 CE :

      The Wedding That Wasn’t
    • 1933 CE :

      Haifa and Salonika – the Jewish Ports
    • 1935 CE :

      Gefilte Jazz
    • 1936 CE :

      Megilla with a Secular Twist
    • 1940 CE :

      A Beautiful Mind 9 Things You Didn’t Know About Hedy Lamarr
  • 1940
    • 1940 CE :

      A Beautiful Mind 9 Things You Didn’t Know About Hedy Lamarr
    • 1942 CE :

      Flowing But Not Forgotten All-American Rebbe
    • 1943 CE :

      Fight for the Spirit Spark of Rebellion Drawing for Dear Life
    • 1945 CE :

      Damned If You Do Lights, Camera, Zionism!
    • 1946 CE :

      Escape Room
    • 1947 CE :

      United Nations Vote – 29 November 1947
    • 1948 CE :

      Posting Independence The Battle on the Hill Sky-Heist Scent of Freedom The Best Defense Cable Car to Jerusalem
    • 1949 CE :

      Shmuel Zanwil Kahane and the Legend of the Holy Ashes
    • 1950 CE :

      Lost in Eilat Eilat’s Treasures Strength in Numbers The Shrine on the Mountain Voice Behind the Iron Curtain
  • 1950
    • 1950 CE :

      Lost in Eilat Eilat’s Treasures Strength in Numbers The Shrine on the Mountain Voice Behind the Iron Curtain
    • 1951 CE :

      Curator or Creator
    • 1952 CE :

      The Night of the Murdered Poets
    • 1955 CE :

      The Hitchhikers’ Guide to Jew York
    • 1957 CE :

      Shmuel Zanwil Kahane’s Map of Holy Sites
    • 1960 CE :

      Jewish as Can Be
  • 1960
    • 1960 CE :

      Jewish as Can Be
    • 1967 CE :

      1967 Declassified Comments Through Lions’ Gate De-Classified Comments New Life in Jerusalem’s Old City
  • 1970
    • 1973 CE :

      Faith Under Fire
  • 1980
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Divinely Plagued

Plague after Plague
Panic and Chaos
The Soul’s Farewell
Deathbed Rites
Hand of God
By: יעקב בן זאב

Identifying perhaps more with the plague-ridden Egyptians than with liberated Israel, the scribe of the prized Wolff Haggada referred readers to his epic testimony concerning the horrors of the Black Plague and how he reconciled them with his faith // Yaakov Ben-Ze’ev (Simkovitz)

Seldom can any individual distill the defining events of his sojourn in this world into a single sentence. Yet sometimes a few words from a familiar, seminal text can evoke just such a sense of identification and déjà vu.

As Umberto Ecco commented in his Name of the Rose, “ […] this explains why we often find in the margins of a manuscript phrases left by the scribe as testimony to his suffering.”

Such is the heartbreaking marginal note recorded during the last decade of the 14th century in the illuminated Passover Haggadah handwritten by Yaakov ben Shlomo Ha-tzarfati. One can easily picture him weeping over the page in his haggada on which he’d carefully inscribed the names and mnemonic of the Ten Plagues of Egypt, including that of dever (pestilence), which in the Exodus narrative killed only cattle but in the 14th century denoted the Black Plague.

Within months, the “Black Death” had consumed three of Yaakov’s progeny, leaving him inconsolable. Unable to complete his handiwork without some mention of how he, too, had been stricken by one of the plagues of Egypt, Yaakov ben Shlomo referred readers to the end of his magnum opus, Yeshuat Yaakov (Jacob’s Salvation).

Whoever wishes to truly know, without dissembling, why Rabbi Yehuda gave this mnemonic and none other [for the Ten Plagues – detzakh, adash, be-ahav], the answer is given in a book I authored, which I called Jacob’s Salvation. (Wolff Haggada)

There, in a treatise entitled Evel Rabbati (Great Mourning), he’d recalled his children’s tragic, painful deaths during the resurgence of the Black Plague in Avignon in the autumn and winter of 1382-3.

Vain attempt to avoid contagion? Bound by the Hippocratic oath to provide hope and healing despite personal risk, doctors wore masks when venturing out to treat the sick. This copper engraving, entitled Dr. Beak, dates from a much later outbreak in 17th-century Rome.

Vain attempt to avoid contagion? Bound by the Hippocratic oath to provide hope and healing despite personal risk, doctors wore masks when venturing out to treat the sick. This copper engraving, entitled Dr. Beak, dates from a much later outbreak in 17th-century Rome

Plague after Plague

Evel Rabbati records the final moments of Yaakov ben Shlomo’s daughter Esther (Trina), in the spring of 1383. Only a few months earlier, Yaakov himself had almost died of the Black Plague. He’d recovered only to find that his son Yisrael (known in French as Monriley) had also been infected. Yaakov buried Yisrael amid the holiest days of the Jewish year, in Tishrei 5143 (October 1382). Shortly afterward, a second child, Sara, whom her father described as possessing “wisdom of the heart, intelligence and knowledge,” succumbed on her first wedding anniversary, roughly a week before Purim, on 5 Adar (February 8, 1383). Esther’s death was the last straw. Thus, the note found in the Wolff Haggada, as Yaakov’s masterpiece has become known (see Lost, Found, and Fought Over, pp. XX), obliquely refers us to the devastation of the Black Plague as the story of his life.

I tell everyone that because of this plague, all my days are pain. Even on Sabbaths and holidays, I sigh and weep with grief, and even now I write in tears […]. (Evel Rabbati, p. 84)

Accused of trapping spiders, poisoning wells, and all other means of spreading plague, the Jews of terrified Europe were defenseless scapegoats in the chaos. Jews in discriminatory headgear, burning to death. Nuremberg Chronicles, 1493

Accused of trapping spiders, poisoning wells, and all other means of spreading plague, the Jews of terrified Europe were defenseless scapegoats in the chaos. Jews in discriminatory headgear, burning to death.

Yaakov ben Shlomo had been born into the chaos accompanying the first outbreak of the pandemic known as the Black Plague, in 1348-9. Little is known of his early years or of the traumatic events he surely experienced. Europe plunged into darkness as Church control slipped and religious movements such as the Flagellants overran the continent, seeking scapegoats and massacring Jewish communities. In all likelihood, Yaakov’s parents found refuge in the papal states of southern France. A contemporary chronicle describes the devastation:

In this and the following year [1348–9] there was a general death of people throughout the world. It began first in India, then it passed to Tharsis, thence to Saracens, Christians and Jews in the course of one Easter to the next […]. In one day there died 812 people in Avignon according to [a] reckoning made by the pope. […] 358 Dominicans died in Provence in Lent; in Montpellier only seven friars were left from 149 […]; at Marseilles only one Franciscan remained of 150 […]. (Knighton’s Chronicle 1337–1396, ed. and trans. G. H. Martin [Oxford University Press, 1995], p. 94)

The plague can indeed be traced to Mongol invaders and caravans of merchants sweeping across Asia, who transmitted the disease via rats and fleas. Before succumbing themselves, these men resorted to one of the first instances of biological warfare at its most literal, catapulting their dead over the walls of the besieged Black Sea port of Caffa. Sailors and refugees fled in Genoese trading vessels, bringing the scourge to the Sicilian port of Messina in October 1347.

The sumptuous Golden Haggada was written and illuminated in Catalonia, Spain, around 1320, before the “Black Death” hit Europe. It describes scenes illustrating the tenth plague, the death of the firstbornPhoto: British Librar

The sumptuous Golden Haggada was written and illuminated in Catalonia, Spain, around 1320, before the “Black Death” hit Europe. It describes scenes illustrating the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn

Those gathering at the docks to meet the incoming ships were horrified at the sight of the dead and dying. Though the Sicilian authorities hastily drove the ships away, the damage had been done. Plague spread throughout Europe within the year, killing over a third of the population – some twenty million people. Both clergy and laymen desperately attempted to liquidate the purported source of the outbreak: the Jews. Herman Gigas, a Franciscan friar from the German region of Franconia, recorded both the hearsay and its horrific consequences:

In 1347 there was such a great pestilence and mortality throughout almost the whole world that in the opinion of well-informed men scarcely a tenth of mankind survived. The victims did not linger long, but died on the second or third day. The plague raged so fiercely that many cities and towns were entirely emptied of people. In the cities of Bologna, Venice, Montpellier, Avignon, Marseilles, and Toulouse alike, a thousand people died in one day, and it still rages in France, Normandy, England, and Ireland.

Some say that it was brought about by the corruption of the air; others, that the Jews planned to wipe out all the Christians with poison and had poisoned wells and springs everywhere. And many Jews confessed as much under torture: that they had bred spiders and toads in pots and pans, and had obtained poison from overseas; and that not every Jew knew about this wickedness, only the more powerful ones, so that it would not be betrayed.

As evidence of this heinous crime, men say that bags full of poison were found in many wells and springs, and as a result, in cities, towns, and villages throughout Germany, and in fields and woods too, almost all the wells and springs have been blocked up or built over, so that no one can drink from them or use the water for cooking, and men have to use rain or river water instead.

God, the Lord of vengeance, has not suffered the malice of the Jews to go unpunished. Throughout Germany, in all but a few places, they were burnt. For fear of that punishment many accepted baptism, and their lives were spared.

This action was taken against the Jews in 1349, and it still continues unabated, for in a number of regions many people, noble and humble alike, have laid plans against them and their defenders, which they will never abandon until the whole Jewish race has been destroyed. (Chronicle of Herman Gigas [1349], quoted in Rosemary Horrox, The Black Death [Manchester University Press, 1994], p. 207)

Panic and Chaos

The initial outbreak of the Black Plague in Yaakov’s early years caused wholesale panic, depopulating entire towns. Crops were left to rot unharvested, resulting in famine and starvation. Those infected were isolated, often locked within their sealed homes to die painfully alone. A letter written by one Louis Sanctus of Yaakov’s native Avignon and dated April 27, 1348 provides graphic illustration:

It has come to pass that, for fear of infection, no doctor will visit the sick (not if he were given everything the sick man owns), nor will the father visit the son, the mother the daughter, the brother the brother, the son the father, the friend the friend, the acquaintance the acquaintance, nor anyone a blood relation – unless, that is, they wish to die along with them at once. And thus an uncountable number of people died without any mark of affection, piety, or charity – who, if they had refused to visit the sick themselves, might have escaped. […]

To be brief, at least half the people in Avignon died; for there are now within the walls of the city more than seven thousand houses where no one lives, because everyone in them has died, and in the suburbs one might imagine there is not one survivor […]. (ibid., p. 43)

The last rites – and particularly confession – could no longer be administered by the Church. Ralph of Shrewsbury, bishop of the English town of Bath, documented the extent of this calamity in his diocese:

We understand that many people are dying without the sacrament of penance, because they do not know what they ought to do in such an emergency […] if, when on the point of death, they cannot secure the services of a properly ordained priest, they should make confession of their sins […] to any layperson, even to a woman, if a man is not present. (ibid., p. 271)

Miniature from the Toggenberg Bible, Switzerland, 1411, depicting the plague of smallpox

Dying a “good death” is of paramount importance for a Christian. A person’s last moments in this world are considered a crucial test, passed only when the departing soul has been prepared for the next life by a priest. Prolonged illness or old age allow ample time for the confession and penance that secured salvation. The souls of those who die suddenly, on the other hand, with no priest to administer the rites of penitence, the Eucharist, and Extreme Unction (Final Anointing), are doomed to everlasting torment in Hell. The Black Plague thus left the masses terrified of being deprived of the rituals safeguarding their ascent to Heaven.

Our scribe’s depictions of his daughter Esther’s last moments, in the pandemic of 1383, could not paint a starker contrast.

The Soul’s Farewell

Stricken by the plague after her father’s near fatality and the deaths of her brother and sister, languishing on her deathbed a few weeks after Purim (26 Adar 5143), Esther requested the traditional rite of Viddui (confession). First her hands had to be washed, then she recited the prayer in the presence of all those gathered around her. Apparently, however, Esther spoke much more than the formal Viddui text as we know it today. As Yaakov wrote of her final words:

It would have been unbelievable had it not been heard by the crowd of men, women, and children standing in the antechamber. Those who came to console me heard a speech inspired by the Almighty. (Evel Rabbati, p. 76)

In the outbreak of 1383, unlike that of 1349, loved ones were no longer abandoned to their fate. Perhaps by now, the survivors were accustomed to the recurring plagues of the 14th century and no longer reacted with terror and panic. In this light, the fact that Esther’s last moments were witnessed by family and friends is highly significant.

The bereaved father highlighted his daughter’s erudition:

[She] knew how to read the Bible and could eloquently pronounce the verses with the requisite accents and vocalization, without stammering. (ibid., p. 77)

He noted Esther’s determination to observe every detail of Jewish tradition even in her final hours. Despite her terrible agony, she issued clear instructions. Her money was to be given to charity. Her uncle Moshe – whose priestly status forbade him proximity to a corpse – was to leave the room immediately, as she was about to die. She asked that candles be lit, signifying the departing soul, and reminded her husband not to touch her, for she was ritually impure as a result of her menstrual period. In addition, despite past fears of contagion, she bequeathed her clothes to the needy.

Women clean for Pesach, reaching up to ceilings and down to skirtings, while men search hidden crevices by candlelight for crumbs, each playing their part in the ritual of removing leaven from the home. Illustration from the Golden Haggada, circa 1320Photo: British Library

Women clean for Pesach, reaching up to ceilings and down to skirtings, while men search hidden crevices by candlelight for crumbs, each playing their part in the ritual of removing leaven from the home. Illustration from the Golden Haggada, circa 1320

With virtually her last breath, Esther ordered a pregnant woman to keep her distance lest she miscarry or fall prey to infection. Esther’s thoughts then turned to her recently deceased sister, Sarah, and to her own burial, requesting to be laid to rest with her wedding ring and the “pure, white headscarf” of a married woman. At the same time, she wisely suggested precautions to prevent embarrassment later:

Indeed you will cry for Sarah, my lady, my sister, the fairest among women, my dove, and my undefiled one. Beside her, make a place to bury my body, because she taught me knowledge. And you, my beloved [father] and master, please remove the rings from my fingers […] so they won’t fall off or become lost, and you won’t suspect any innocents as the grieving crowds lament like Philistines. But on my little finger, leave the ring with which my husband married me and designated me his own among women. This you will do, and furthermore, place the pure, white headscarf on my head to set an example, and as a good omen for the life of my man, my husband. (ibid., p. 80)

Having dealt with these details, Esther faced the future. Still childless, having been married for only a year, Esther knew that her husband, Natan, would remarry. Should a daughter be born, the dying woman asked that the infant be named in her memory,

so you, my father and teacher, will find a little pleasure. And after I am gone, my mother will be somewhat consoled by dandling her on her knees. (ibid., pp. 78–9)

Esther rebuked her aunt for suggesting that her younger sister, Yentish, step into her shoes as Natan’s wife, pronouncing the girl too young for her “great and mighty Natan” (p. 79). She requested that an influential family friend, Don Comfort, resolve a financial dispute between Natan and Astrug of Carcassonne, his former partner, lest their case wind up in a non-Jewish court, contrary to Jewish law. Dispensing peace as well as wisdom with her final breath, she instructed her father to reunite his household with Natan’s family, that the in-laws should once again “eat bread at one table, as at first” (ibid.).

Deathbed Rites

Knowing that immediately upon her demise, the women present would begin purifying her body for burial, Esther asked them to allow her father to remain by her deathbed awhile before they covered her corpse and placed it in the casket.

Yaakov ben Shlomo declared that his daughter’s last confession would atone for all who heard it.

Even if she had no testimony on her behalf other than the movement of her lips, the pleasantness of her voice, and the loveliness of her speech as she prepared for death, these would be sufficient grounds for showering her with praise. (ibid., p. 77)

Unlike the Christian superstitions surrounding the last rites, the deathbed confessions of the Jews of Provence as reflected in Evel Rabbati evidently had nothing to do with ensuring a soul’s entry into the “world to come.” Judging by Ben Shlomo’s account, his contemporaries had no specific format for Viddui or any other prayer to be recited prior to death. The Talmud, for instance, discusses deathbed rites only in general terms, without indicating whether Viddui should be a private affair or if a prayer quorum is required:

Our rabbis taught: If one falls sick and inclines toward death, he is told, “Confess,” for all put to death make confession. (Shabbat 32a)

In a mid-14th-century halakhic work from Provence, however, Yeruham ben Meshulam expanded the Viddui tradition, basing his rulings on Nahmanides (1194–1270, Spain and Tiberias) and Aaron Hakohen of Lunel (circa 1300, Narbonne). His Sefer Toledot Adam Ve-Hava (1350) is discussed in depth by scholar Elliot Horowitz, who concludes that Viddui became a formal ceremony only in the 1300s:

Rabbi Yeroham [sic] not only prescribes the washing of hands before the recitation of pre-death confession, but insists also that this be done with ritual blessing. The dying Jew is also instructed to don his prayer shawl before reciting confession. (Elliot Horowitz, “The Jews of Europe and the Moment of Death in Medieval and Modern Times,” Judaism 44, no. 3 [summer 1995], p. 274)

Hand of God

Aside from being the scholarly author of Yeshuat Yaakov (which examines the divine nature of miracles) and a master scribe, Yaakov ben Shlomo was a Paris-trained physician and may well have been the same Yaakov ben Shlomo described as the doctor attending to the family of Pope Clement VI. Nonetheless, other than Ben Shlomo’s attempt to feed Esther broth (which she could no longer even swallow), Evel Rabbati mentions no medical treatment. Yaakov regarded the plague as an act of God against which medicine was useless. Evel Rabbati thus attacks the “philosophers,” as Ben Shlomo calls those who dismiss the biblical plagues and other wonders as mere allegory:

They maintain […] that the tales recorded in the book never happened at all, save as an allegory for the enlightened. And the reason [for their doubts], they aver, is the length of time [that has passed] since those early days, so that all has been forgotten and no memory remains of what was then [to be passed down] to those coming afterward. (Evel Rabbati, p. 86)

Medieval family celebrates the Seder together. Each man has a haggada; the women turn to listen while tasting the food. Known as the Sister Haggada for its illustrations’ similarity to those of the Golden Haggada, this volume was also crafted in 14th-century Spain, though a few decades laterPhoto: British Library

Medieval family celebrates the Seder together. Each man has a haggada; the women turn to listen while tasting the food. Known as the Sister Haggada for its illustrations’ similarity to those of the Golden Haggada, this volume was also crafted in 14th-century Spain, though a few decades later

In the margin of his haggada, Yaakov ben Shlomo immortalized the sad epic of his plagued life next to the acronym of the Ten Plagues, specifically pestilence. For him, his tragedy proved that the suffering of Job, for instance, actually occurred. The rationalists, in contrast, “who abandoned the literal meaning of the Hebrew Bible, were also those scholars who repudiated the notion of plague as divine punishment, interpreting it instead according to the laws of natural science” (Susan Einbinder, No Place of Rest: Jewish Literature, Expulsion, and the Memory of Medieval France, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009, p. 113).

 With understandable trepidation considering his medical background, Yaakov records how Esther kissed her family goodbye:

And I kissed my sweet one, my daughter, on the familiar lip. And she seized me and kissed me, until I feared that disaster would overtake me and I would die. Then she kissed [her husband’s] brothers and relatives, and her relatives, with kisses of the mouth that were sweeter than honey. Afterward she lost her breath and nearly died with a kiss.

When her soul departed, word spread throughout our community that she had died, and people were aghast. Young and old, their hearts went out to her, for she was no more: Esther was taken away to the house of the King, the Lord of Hosts. (Evel Rabbati, pp. 81–2)

Life and death in the hands of the Almighty. God reaches down from heaven to stay the hand of Abraham, raised to smite his son Isaac upon the altar. Hispano-Moresque Haggada, circa1300, central Spain; among the earliest known illustrated haggadas Photo: British Library

Life and death in the hands of the Almighty. God reaches down from heaven to stay the hand of Abraham, raised to smite his son Isaac upon the altar. Hispano-Moresque Haggada, circa1300, central Spain; among the earliest known illustrated haggadas

In view of Esther’s strict observance of Jewish law, it is surprising that she kissed her male relatives. This gesture, the stuff of Hollywood melodrama, would surely be censored by most observant Jewish communities today. How is it that Esther’s last act was a kiss? Why did she not choose to die like Rabbi Akiva and other martyrs, with a prayer on her lips?

For Esther, a “good death” meant leaving this world in an orderly fashion, expressing her deep love for her family. Perhaps she also sought to differentiate her end from those of the many martyrs preceding her, butchered or burnt at the stake as in Herman Gigas’ account above. “Hear O Israel,” the affirmation of God’s oneness, was their final, defiant denial of the Christian Trinity.

But for Yaakov ben Shlomo, Esther’s death too was fraught with meaning. To die of the Black Plague was to die by the hand of God. Like her father, Esther apparently accepted her calamity and trial of belief with a whole heart. Her confession was a model of Provençal Jewish tradition. Even her tender kisses were biblical allusions, drawn from metaphors of devotion in the Song of Songs. And in Jewish exegetical tradition, Moses himself relinquished his soul to God’s kiss, signifying the ultimate human dissolution in the divine. The lesson Yaakov Hatzarfati took from his daughter’s deathbed and inscribed in the margin of his haggada was a bold affirmation of Jewish faith and observance in the face of utter tragedy.

“And Miriam answered them: Sing unto the Lord” (Exodus 15:21). Miriam singing while her companions grasp lute and timbrel; illustration from the Golden Haggada. Unlike the lavishly illustrated haggadas of Spain, which abound with human images despite the biblical prohibition, Yaakov ben Shlomo’s volume from Avignon was embellished only by enlarged, colored letteringPhoto: British Library

“And Miriam answered them: Sing unto the Lord” (Exodus 15:21). Miriam singing while her companions grasp lute and timbrel; illustration from the Golden Haggada. Unlike the lavishly illustrated haggadas of Spain, which abound with human images despite the biblical prohibition, Yaakov ben Shlomo’s volume from Avignon was embellished only by enlarged, colored lettering

*

Further reading

Susan Einbinder, No Place of Rest: Jewish Literature, Expulsion, and the Memory of Medieval France (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), pp. 112–36; Einbinder, “Theory and Practice: A Jewish Physician in Paris and Avignon,” AJS Review 33, no. 1 (April 2009), pp. 135–53; M. Garel, “The Rediscovery of the Wolff Haggadah,” Journal of Jewish Art 2 (1975), pp. 22–7; Elliot Horowitz, “The Jews of Europe and the Moment of Death in Medieval and Modern Times,” Judaism 44, no. 3 (summer 1995), pp. 271–81; Rosemary Horrox, ed. and trans., The Black Death (Manchester University Press, 1994), pp. 41–4; Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century (Random House, 1987), pp. 92–125.

*

Dedicated by the author in memory of his mother, Esther bat Yaakov

Middle Ages

1390
CE

Tags

black death, Golden Haggadah, Passover, smallpox, Wolff Haggadah, Yaacov ben Shlomo
By: יעקב בן זאב

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