| (February 2, 2010) “…In medieval Spain – now this is centuries before the hell-fires of the Inquisition –the great Rabbi Moses ben Nachman a/k/a among Jews The Ramban and among Gentiles Nachmanides was 69 years old in the year 1263, well advanced in years especially for that time, in the twlight of his life, when he received an order from the King of Catalunia Jaime/James I to appear in his court in Barcelona to answer charges against Judaism and to explain his refusal to convert Cristianity, he and all the Jews of the kingdom.The catalyst for this royal demand came from Pablo Cristiani who had called on the king in the name of the head of the regional Dominican Order of Roman Catholic monks, Master General Raymond de Penyafort, to tell the king that he, Pablo Cristiani, could prove the truth of Christianity by using the Talmud and other rabbinical writings; and if the king summoned the famous Rabbi Moses the son of Nahman to court to answer charges against Judaism, in the process he would convince him to convert. And he could do that because Pablo Cristiani was not his real name – which escapes me at the moment, a classical Jewish name, something like Yitzhak ben Haim – for Pablo Cristiani was a convert to Cristianity who could prove, he said, using the Talmud, that Christianity was the true religion…” |
|
