Ruderman David B. Early Modern Jewry: A New Cultural History

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400 km.

M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A

B A L T I C S E A

N O R T H S E A

I T A L Y

S P A I N

F R A N C E

E N G L A N D

S W E D E N

S W I T Z E R L A N D

H U N G A R Y

G E R M A N E M P I R E

P O L A N D

L I T H U A N I A

The Expansion of Ashkenazic Civilization

- 18

Centuries

Barcelona

Avignon

Lucca

Padua

Venice

Augsburg

Regensburg

Prague

Krakow

Bamberg

Wuerzburg

Mainz

Worms

Speyer

Strasbourg

Metz

Paris

Cologne

Amsterdam

London

Hamburg

Poznan

Kalisz

Lwów

Lublin

Loutsk

Brest

Grodno

Riga

Vilna

Rome

Salonika

Ashkenazi cultural sphere

till 11

century

till 13

century

till 14

century

till 16

century

Sephardic cultural sphere

Map 1. the expansion of Ashkenazic Civilization, 15th–18th Centuries

150 km.

Tiber

M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A

SICILY

SARDINIA

CORSICA

TUSCANY

PIEDMONT

SAVOY

MILAN

GENOA

VENICE

PAPAL

STATES

KINGDOM

OF NAPLES

A D R I A T I C S E A

The Ghettos of Italy, 16

- 18

Centuries

Brindisi

Reggio

Paterno

Messina

Palermo

Nicosia

Marsala

Cagliari

Sassari

Naples

Rome

Ancona

Rimini

Florence

Sienna

Pisa

Genoa

Trent

Mantua

Cremona

Modena

Padua

Venice

Bologna

Turin

Milan

Leghorn

(Livorno)

Ravenna

1515

1541

1569

1593

1550

1571

1575

1597

1489

1515

1550

Alghero

Agrigento

Ragusa

Scicli

Syracuse

Jews expelled from Spain (1492)

and from Portugal (1496-1497)

Jews expelled from Spanish

territories in Italy (1492-1493)

Expulsion to the interior

of Italy

Ghetto

Map 2. the Ghettos of italy, 16th–18th Centuries

Map 3. Jewish Migration within the ottoman empire

100 km.

S P A N I S H

T E R R I TO R I E S

A E G E A N

S E A

Salonika

Istanbul

Jewish Migration within the Ottoman Empire

Major community

Community deported to Istanbul, 1453

Messina

Naples

Bari

Zara

(Zadar)

Zagreb

Belgrade

Sarajevo

Ragusa

Skoplje

Vidin

Sofia

Nicopolis

Tirnovo

Yambol

Rodosto

Ankara

Adana

Tyre

Safed

Haifa

Jaffa

Tiberias

Jerusalem

Kastamonu

Sinope

Samsun

Gallipoli

Brusa

(Bursa)

Provadija

Philipopolis

(Plovdiv)

Andrinople

(Edirne)

Stip

Prilep

Monastir

Kastoria

Ioannina

Arta

Trikkala

Larissa

Lamia

Patras

Thebes

Miletus

Antalya

Smyrna

(Iz mir)

Athens

Mistra

Khania

Heraklion

Salona

(Amfissa)

Vlora

(Valona)

Taranto

Syracuse

C O R F U

R H O D ES

KO S

CH I OS

B L A C K S E A

M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A

A D R I A T I C S E A

Map 4. the World of the Cardoso family, spanish Conversos

Madrid

Tripoli

Tunis

Alexandria

Candia

Athens

Bursa

Istanbul

Rodosto

Gallipoli

Salonika

Adrianople

Smyrna

(Izmir)

Cairo

Jaffa

Safed

Algiers

Oran

Biarritz

Tartas

Toulouse

Nantes

Rouen

London

The Hague

Amsterdam

Hamburg

Frankfurt

Krakow

Zamosc

Kiev

Emden

Rotterdam

Antwerp

La Rochelle

Bordeaux

Lyons

Avignon

Marseilles

Nice

Pisa

Florence

Pesaro

Ancona

Rome

Leghorn

(Livorno)

Bayonne

A T L A N T I C

O C E A N

U N I T E D

P R O V I N C E S

S A V O Y

P R U S S I A

S W I T Z E R L A N D

S P A I N

F R A N C E

G E R M A N Y

H U N G A R Y

P O L A N D

R U S S I A

E N G L A N D

Vienna

Verona

Ferrara

Genoa

Venice

PA PA L

S TAT E S

S A R D I N I A

S I C I LY

C R E T E

CH I OS

C Y P R U S

C O R S I C A

T U S C A N Y

400 km.

The World of the Cardoso Family, Spanish Conversos

Conversos who returned to Judaism

“Judaizers”

Isaac (Fernando) Cardoso, 1604 - 1681

Abraham (Miguel) Cardoso, 1626 - 1706

Map 5. the territory of the Council of the four Lands

100 km.

B A L T I C S E A

The Territory of the Council of the Four Lands

Important community

Average-size community

Market town

Administrative division of the Council of the Four Lands

Vilna

(Vilnius)

Grodno

Slutsk

Pinsk

Brest

Ciechanow

Tykocin

Vysokoye

Gniezno

Torun

Poznan

Grodzisk

Leszno

Krotoszyn

Kalisz

Checiny

Wodzislaw

Olkusz

Cracow

Pinczow

Opatow

Belzec

Lublin

Leczna

Chelm

Sandomierz

Jaroslaw

Lvov

Zolochev

Zamosc

Belz

Vladimir

Volynski

Kovel

Loutsk

Dubno

Ostrog

Brody

Kremenets

Izyaslav

Satanov

Szydlowiec

Leczyca

Wegrow

A U S T R I A

M O R A V I A

S I L E S I A

P R U S S I A

D U C A L P R U S S I A

O T T O M A N S

R U S S I A

L I T H U A N I A

Early Modern Jewry

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introduction

ince my rst college course in european history

some forty-ve years ago, the historical period usu-

ally called “early modern” (roughly comprising the late

fteenth to late eighteenth centuries) has held a special

fascination for me.

displays so conspicuously the

trends and processes historians delight in studying: radi-

cal change, social and cultural crises, and the complex

and often unexpected mingling of the old and new.

one

hard-pressed to understand how such developments

as the new geographic and scientic discoveries, the in-

vention of print, the emergence of new national politi-

cal structures and policies, protracted and devastating

famines and wars, economic contractions and expan-

sions, and religious individualism countered by religious

discipline and control can all be subsumed easily under

one overarching interpretative framework.

such

labels

as “a period of transition,” of “paradox,” or of “seem-

ing contradictions and inconsistencies,” often evoked to

characterize early modernity, transparently betray how

challenging it is for the historian to make some sense

of the epoch as a whole in relation to its diverging and

contrasting parts.

such

is the case for those who study early modern

Jewish history as well.

take,

for example, the story

enjoy

relating to my students about three prominent

rabbis and writers who lived and worked in

venice in

the

rst half of the seventeenth century, although one

of them spent much of his life traveling to other parts

of the

european

continent and to the Middle

east.

would

be safe to say that each of them was aware of and

2 i N t r o d U C t i o N

appreciated the others and that each highly respected

the others for their intelligence and erudition.

the

rst, Leon Modena (1571–1648), served as rabbi,

cantor, and preacher in the ghetto while composing many

works (both published and unpublished) including an

autobiography, a collection of rabbinical responsa, ser-

mons, a critique of the kabbalah, a work composed in

italian

explaining Judaism and its practices to non-Jews,

and several books defending the integrity of the rabbinic

tradition and the

talmud.

Modena also composed an

unnished work called Sha’agat Aryeh (

the roar

of the

Lion) responding unfavorably to another composition

called Kol Sakhal (

the voice of

fool),

a radical and

devastating critique of the very foundations of rabbinic

Judaism. Given the apparently lame response Modena

offered to counter this work, it has often been assumed

that he also penned the Kol Sakhal. (

this

assumption

informs the most thorough and compelling treatment

of this work by

talya fishman.) the

colorful rabbi and

educator was not only a writer of many genres and a

holder of the many professions that he lists at the end of

his autobiography but also appears to have been a dis-

simulator, simultaneously defending the

talmud and

the

rabbis while criticizing and holding them accountable

for the miseries they had allegedly inicted on the Jew-

ish community. Modena was also going against the grain

in challenging the predominance of kabbalistic sapience

in a Jewish culture saturated with esoteric books and

their teachers. Modena’s life and thought is one of the

most documented of any rabbinic gure in early modern

europe,

but ironically it may be the least understood.

Modena’s rabbinic colleague, simone Luzzatto (1583–

1663), was a similarly enigmatic gure, functioning as a

i N t r o d U C t i o N 3

rabbi and educator for more than fty years in venice,

but appearing to have little sustained interest in rabbin-

ics or in traditional Jewish subjects given the paucity

of his Hebrew writing in these areas.

indeed,

Luzzatto

is primarily known for two works he published in

ital-

ian,

apparently written for non-Jewish readers.

the

rst,

the Discorso circa il stato de gl’ hebrei et in partico-

lar dimoranti nell’inclita città di Venetia (A

discourse

the

state

of the Jews, Particularly

those dwelling

the

illustrious

City of

venice) represented

a vigorous

defense of the Jewish presence in

venetian society

, argu-

ing that their economic utility to the state, their political

allegiance, and their high cultural prole entitled them

to live peacefully and creatively among their Catholic

neighbors. Luzzatto later published a work titled Socrate

ovvero dell’humano sapere (

socrates,

or Concerning Hu-

man Knowledge), his own highly original reconstruction

of the

socratic

trial, containing rich discourses on many

of the philosophical and scientic issues of his day.

the

work

purports to argue that without the aid of divine

revelation human beings are incapable of understanding

the truth and knowing the world. At least this seems to

be the theme of this work from a perusal of its long title

page. But alas, the reader who persists in reading the

book from beginning to end will discover only a skepti-

cal bent with no discussion whatsoever of the virtue of

revelation—Jewish or otherwise.

in fact, there are few

references to the Jewish provenance of this work other

than the name of the illustrious

venetian rabbi!

What

could have motivated this allegedly prominent spokes-

man of Judaism to compose a text in which his faith

appears to be totally absent?

despite

the considerable

learning and eloquence of both works, one written to