Journey To Spain 2023: The Exiled Royalty of Jerusalem In Spain

this Tower class is brought to you by torahanytime.com welcome to uh our trip I want to uh on behalf of uh Avi roquea my name is Daniel gladstein and we look forward to having an amazing couple days together learning about the history of Spanish jewelry of Jews in Amsterdam in Portugal and right off the bat I want to present you with the following feeling that may even stir your heart because as traveling through this country an era of curiosity and mystery should fill one's heart because I assume most of the Travelers here are of ashkenazic descent although not exclusively nevertheless 300 000 Jews according to the abarabanel were expelled in 1492. and it is very possible and very likely that many of us if not most of us have roots in this country and if you're thinking to yourself come on I'm a thoroughbred Ashkenazi I'm from Poland Hungary Russia Romania I refer you to the family of the arachan who remembers the name of the Arkham Epstein was the great place in Lithuania while his son the tarte Mima writes in his very interesting and very controversial work Makar Baruch that he writes that the family name Epstein was originally not Epstein it was benefici which was one of the most prestigious families of Spain that was expelled in 1492 benavist a well-known family of wealth and acclaim and was one of the illustrious families exiled by Titus by titos from yushalayim and let's begin the trip Everybody Must remember the following public it's the Posse at the end of sefro evadia the pasta goes as follows Israel if you want to know about Jewish Exile Now where's canaanim where is that country we think canaanim is Israel nope ad serfas so we're sent to kananim to sarfas but vigolos yerushalayim the most the nobility the royalty of the Jewish people Asher bispharad yarsha the radak explains as follows Titus exiled the Jews of Jerusalem to canaanim which is Germany to start fast which is France but the royalty of yerushalayim were specifically sent to Spain the most prestigious Jews were sent to Spain so I always think you know the navi says saira was that always true in Jewish history what about during the gaulas no during the Galas also because Spain was considered cyan relocated so the rashva the ramban the rush all lived in Spain so it's like the torah's emanating from seon because this is galocyan now interestingly the about illustrates how the finest of claudiso were exiled to Spain so I'm gonna we're gonna go through a list of great kadale Israel and when they signed off their letters they consider themselves golos yerushalayim so the first name I want to mention is of 10th Century he was a great Statesman he was a linguist he is responsible for laying the foundations of what is known as the Golden Age of Spain he wrote in the year 959 in a letter to the khazar kingdom he writes benezralayim so that means in the 10th Century recognized that he is a descendant of the Jews of Jerusalem here in Spain the rambam would sign off his letters he would end off his letters mayor benitezvarad the smug he says right said in 1235 so ready from the 10th Century for hundreds of years the Jews of Spain recognized they were the royalty of the Jewish people he writes in Seville 1391. that he had a dream and there was a malach standing upon him and the malach tells him get up here get out of here this is 1391 1391 was the beginning of the forced conversions in Spain that means for 1500 years the heavens recognized that Spain was a location of the most prestigious families of Claudia now it's very interesting the baltartsima writes that the benefici family split into two some went to Germany and they stopped there others went to Turkey kushta Salonika Izmir they retain the original name benavisti because they felt they were far enough away from the Inquisition that they can maintain their spartic name but the part of the family remains in Germany and they stopped at a place called Epstein and they settled there because that was the first time they could rest their weary feet and they were afraid to call themselves benefici because they were afraid of the tentacles of the Inquisition so they wanted to change their name they couldn't be labeled a benefici I mean if your name is benefici then you're pegged as a spider right away so they changed their name to Epstein writes the macarbara of the tartumima he says that we did not retain the name benavisti and we took on an Ashkenazi name if only we would retain the prestigious name benavisti so that we could recognize that we are from the family of David and I have to say that my grandfather's family settled in the city of lynchets in Poland that was a city of the kliacar and of all the cities in Poland the goile safarad only settled in Lynch It's the only polish city that was settled by goyles farad so perhaps my family as well has roots over here but you should know that as you're walking the streets as you're riding the bus according to even secular historians notably Howard M Sachar he writes 80 percent of Spaniards today have Jewish blood eighty percent eighty percent not only that some even say that Francisco Franco himself had Jewish blood and although he did give away uh Jews to Hitler he didn't always and when asked about it he said if I would follow the Nuremberg rules I myself have to would have to give myself an so it's somewhat haunting to walk through this country which has really soaked in Jewish blood but recognizing that we have a lot of roots here and even today the effects of the Inquisition are still uh in the air we know it was not put to an end officially until the 19th century and it still was in effect to some extent until 1960s so I hope everybody enjoys the trip this is Hashem looking forward to meeting everyone personally and we're headed to the show for chakras we're going to be diving in makaimos that reshine him lived you know once we're on the topic the gemara tells us that someone who is so when they pass away they say they complement the person for his humility that one is there's an amazing idea that when a person's philosophy what a person is recognizing is that they're relying on the kayakadusha of their earlier Tila so that the TV they're offering again now will be more effective if a person Dives in a different place every day so then they're saying might Fila is effective in and of itself but when you stay in the same makaim you have a certain humility that you're relying on the kayak hakadush of yesterday's Villa to propel today's trila so we're relying on that we're going to be diving in these cities where we shine them lived where the Raj will live where the rush lived whether Barcelona whether Toledo we're being a we're davening in the place where the oilam were misspellah and even though we don't have clarem of these good Island but nevertheless we're soy Mech on the Filas they offered over here so wherever we may be may all of our tools be answered you've just experienced another Torah 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