Masterpieces of Hebew Literature: Selections from 2000 Years of Jewish Creativity

OBADIAH DA BERTINORO: Introduction

The Letters of Obadiah da Bertinoro Obadiah Yareh da Bertinoro (1450-1520) was born in Italy and served as rabbi in the city of Bertinoro (and hence his name). Although he led a life of ease and wealth in Italy, he was drawn to the Land of Israel, and left his home in 1486. In Obadiah's day a Jew was not permitted to sail from Venice to Palestine, lest he be thrown overboard if his destination became known. The prohibition stemmed from the dispute between the Franciscan monks and the Jews, wherein the former wrongly suspected the latter of wanting to buy the Temple Mount and the grave of Jesus. Obadiah, therefore, proceeded to Rome, Naples, Palermo, Greece and Egypt, where he took a camel caravan to Jerusalem. According to his description, the city was desolate, containing only seventy poor Jewish families out of a total population of four thousand. However, subsequent to the 1492 expulsion of Jews from Spain, the refugees began to arrive in Jerusalem and added to its community. Arriving in 1488, Obadiah immediately set out to improve the lot of the physically and spiritually impoverished Jews in the Holy Land. Aside from being a religious leader Obadiah was also a political and public figure: he intervened with the governing authorities to abolish an unjust tax that had been imposed on the Jews; established a hospital, a Talmudic academy and charitable institutions; and received contributions for the upkeep 477 478 MASTERPIECES OF HEBREW LITERATURE of the needy not only from Jewish communities in Turkey, Egypt and other places, but also from his family in Italy as well. Obadiah 's reputation as a man of impeccable character spread even to the Muslim community, whose members would come to him to adjudicate disputes. Obadiah is best known for his Commentary on the Mishnah, which by now has achieved the status of a classic. Just as Rashi's Commentary is printed with virtually every Pentateuch, Obadiah 's Commentary—since its first publication in Venice in 1549 —appears in nearly all editions of the Mishnah. His popular, easily-ready commentary is based to a large extent on those of Rashi and Maimonides. Other works by Obadiah da Bertinoro include a commentary upon Rashi's explication of the Torah, one of the many extant supercommentaries to Rashi's text, and several liturgic poems. His most personal and revealing work, however, is in the nonsacred field—his letters from Palestine wherein he depicts the status of Jews in the various countries he visited, gives an unbiased account of the Karaites and the Samaritans, and provides a picturesque account of the Jews in Palestine. LETTER TO HIS FATHER My departure has caused you sorrow and trouble, and I am inconsolable because I have left you at a time when your strength is failing; when I remember, dear father, I cannot refrain from tears. But since I am denied the happiness of being able to serve you as I ought, for God has decreed our separation, I will at least give you an account of my journey from beginning to end in the way which you desired me to do in your letters, which I received in Naples about this time last year, by describing the manners and customs of the Jews in all the places I have visited and the nature of their intercourse with the other inhabitants of these cities. On the first day of the ninth month [Kislev, 1486], after having arranged all matters in my place of residence, Citta di Castello, I repaired to Rome, and thence to Naples, where I arrived on the twelfth of that month and where I tarried for a long time, not finding any vessel such as 1 wished. I went to Salerno, where I gave gratuitous instruction for at least four months and then returned to Naples. In the fourth month, on the fast day [the 17th of Tammuz, 1487], I set out from Naples, in the large and swift ship of Mossen Blanchi, together with nine other Jews; it was five days, however, before we reached Palermo, owing to a calm. Palermo is the chief town of Sicily, and contains about 850 Jewish families, all living in one street, which is situated in the best part of the town. They are artisans, such as coppersmiths and ironsmiths, porters and peasants, and are despised by the Christians because they wear tattered garments...