It was 769 years ago this week that Dominican priests incited frenzied masses as thousands of Talmudic manuscripts were seized and tossed into the flames in the center of Paris. Although the mob assumed they had destroyed every painstakingly handwritten copy of the Talmud they could get their hands on, some folios survived the inferno. Those pieces of scorched parchment from 1242 are hidden away in the private archives of the Alliance library in Paris – but with a little pull, anything can be revealed.
Paris 9 Tammuz 5002 (1242 CE) Bloodcurdling hate-filled cries echo through the streets of Paris. “Bring the books!” shouts the frenzied mob. Over twenty wagons filled with close to 12 000 handwritten manuscripts of the Talmud are brought to a stake that has been set ablaze in a public square. The proceedings are overseen by the priests who have front-row seats to view the event. Royal guards lift the seforim from the wagons and cast them into the raging fire.
Paris which would eventually be nicknamed the City of Light is now illuminated by flames of darkness the light of evil. The fire consumes the seforim as well as the hearts of the Jews looking on in horror.
The pain of those days has remained forever ingrained on the collective soul of the Jewish People commemorated in the elegy Sha’ali Srufah Ba’eish written by the Maharam of Rothenburg and recited each Tisha B’Av morning:
“Those who yearn for the earth of the Land and are pained and astonished by the burning of your scrolls they have gone into the darkness where there is no light. They hope for the light of day to shine upon them and upon you. [Inquire also about] the welfare of the men who sigh and weep with broken hearts always mourning the pain that has beset you.”
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