January 7 1256 – 2 Shevat 5016
London
Berechiah De Nicole, an English Tosafist and Chief Rabbi of Lincoln (Nicole in Norman-French) was released after having been imprisoned in London with a hundred other Jews in history’s first blood libel case. The body of “Little Hugh” had been found in Lincoln the previous August and all the town’s Jews were implicated in his ritual murder. Eighteen of them were hanged, and the others’ trial was allowed to drag indefinitely. Rabbi Berechiah was cleared before the rest of the prisoners, and all his confiscated property was returned.
The son of Rabbi Moses ben Yom Tov of London, Rabbi Berechiah was a recognized halakhic authority whose decisions included allowing the evening prayer to be recited earlier than nightfall on Sabbath eve (critical for England’s hours-long summer twilights) and forbidding nuts pickled by non-Jews while still bitter for Jewish consumption.