During those many years, Jews became the intellectual and economic elite of the country, intimately involved in all aspects of Portugal\u2019s famous navigation and exploration, financing sailing fleets as well as making scientific discoveries in the fields of mathematics, medicine and cartography. Jews were often given preferential treatment by kings, treated with respect and carrying their stature proudly.<\/p>\n
All that changed on Tisha B\u2019Av, 1492.<\/p>\n
Schoolchildren know the year because it was the year a famous explorer set sail to discover the New World.\u00a0 We Jews know the date as the date all Jews were expelled from Spain.\u00a0 Soon after, King Manuel of Portugal issued the same order to the Jews of Portugal but then abruptly changed his mind and ordered all Jews to remain instead; to remain and to be forcibly baptized.\u00a0 At the time, he promised the Jews that they could continue their private religious practices for twenty years with no inquiry.<\/p>\n
Scholars suggest that King Manuel\u2019s second edict created a distinct group \u2013 outwardly Catholic but inwardly Jewish.\u00a0 These citizens came to be known as \u201cNew Christians\u201d or Marranos.\u00a0 And, while his edict granted a twenty year \u201cgrace period\u201d for these New Christians, the following three centuries saw them experience the full horror of the Inquisition, terrorized, imprisoned, tortured.<\/p>\n
In his essay, \u201cFinding Portugal\u2019s Anusim\u201d Mark A. Merlis writes in Ami Magazine, \u201cThe Jewish areas were, for the most part abandoned once the Inquisition took hold, those who did not manage to leave the country became \u201cNew Christians\u201d who outwardly professed Christianity but secretly kept up Jewish practices.\u201d\u00a0 This does not mean that they remained observant and adhered to mitzvot <\/em>as we understand it.\u00a0 What it does mean is that these New Christians maintained some connection to Judaism, however tenuous.\u00a0 As time went on, those connections took on a Jewish \u201clook and feel\u201d but became further and further from the \u201creal thing\u201d. \u00a0After all, they could not be real Jews.\u00a0 Doing so would put their lives at risk.<\/p>\n A Rabbi Litvak who came to serve as a rabbi in Porto, in responding to a question about the B\u2019nei Anusim<\/em> went so far as to say that, \u201cit would be difficult to find many Portuguese that don\u2019t have some Jewish blood.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Between the great Jewish community that existed prior to the Inquisition and all the subsequent generations of New Christians, Jewish blood is flowing everywhere in Portugal, to one extent or another\u2026\u00a0 Throughout the years of persecution and hidden rituals, they maintained their Jewish traditions and Jewish family matrilineal line from generation to generation through limiting marriage within the crypto-Jewish community and through oral transmission preserved and handed down by their women.<\/p>\n But many of the rituals and observances as we know them fell by the wayside. The Anusim<\/em> did not practice brit milah <\/em>and shechita<\/em> since the 16th century \u2013 such rituals were too obvious and therefore dangerous. Syncretism with Catholic ritual was inevitable. Marriages took place in Church, but privately the officiating elder intoned, \u201cIn the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob I unite you; receive your blessing.\u201d\u00a0 The Hebrew language was lost except for the term Ad-nai<\/em>. Pesach survived as Santa Festa and matzah pao azumo<\/em> (bread of the poor) was baked secretly. Yom Kippur was celebrated on the 11th of Tishrei<\/em>,\u00a0presumably to throw off the Christian neighbors. Although they seemed to know of Queen Esther, Purim and other Jewish holidays were lost in the mists of time.\u00a0 Certainly, Chanukah was too open a festival to have been able to survive.<\/p>\n Hundreds of years of secrecy have made the \u201cJewish\u201d residents very hesitant to talk to outsiders. It became second nature to be\u00a0Jewish in secret.<\/p>\n There was simply no other way.\u00a0 These Jews, driven ever inward to deeper and deeper places of secret Jewish identity and expression, might have been lost to history if not for the meticulous record keeping of the Apostolic Catholic Church \u2013 and the determination of memory.<\/p>\n While the records of the Church might have accurately documented the lives \u2013 and cruel deaths \u2013 of the poor souls terrorized and tortured by the Church, there were other ways that Jewish life and identity continued and could be marked, ways that continued despite deep oppression, ways in which Jewish identity identified its beauty and grace just as surely as the flower rises through a crack in the hard asphalt.<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n What are we to make of these Jews, these hidden <\/em>Jews who \u201cabandoned\u201d their faith and identity?\u00a0 Maimonides suggests we should be forgiving.\u00a0 The New Christians who continued secretly to observe the precepts of Judaism as much as possible after their conversion were not regarded as voluntary apostates. Although Judaism teaches that one should allow oneself to be put to death rather than abandon one\u2019s faith in times of persecution, Maimonides taught that, \u201cnevertheless, if he transgressed and did not choose the death of a martyr, even though he has annulled the positive precept of sanctifying the Name and transgressed the injunction not to desecrate the Name, since he transgressed under duress and could not escape, he is exempted from punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n Accordingly, other rabbis determined that those New Christians, who remained in their countries because they were unable to escape, if they conducted themselves in accordance with the precepts of Judaism, even if only in private<\/em>, were full Jews.<\/p>\n Consistent with this view, rather than rendering judgment and condemnation, we praise their determination in clinging to any remnant of our faith and identity; we should recognize their survival as a testament to their strength and determination.\u00a0 So many of these brave souls wanted to hold on to their Jewish heritage, even in secret.\u00a0 They wanted to live but not to forget!<\/p>\n They lived and they remembered.\u00a0 They remembered in ways large and small, desperate and delightful.\u00a0 The most delightful way that Jewish life and ritual seems to have survived the centuries of oppression happens to coincide with the joy and delight I take in a particular aspect of another miraculous time in our history \u2013 Chanukah.<\/p>\n How these things came together \u2013 the historical and profound with the delightful and miraculous \u2013 is a simple tale.\u00a0 Last year, Clary and I journeyed to Portugal, a land with a rich and cruel Jewish history.\u00a0 We made sure to tour the sites of the terrible times, saying Tehilim <\/em>at the only memorial erected at a public square where Jews were burnt to death.\u00a0 However, even during the darkest moments I carried within me a prospector\u2019s awareness.\u00a0 As anyone who knows me knows, that I am a collector of dreidels.\u00a0 In my home, I am surrounded by dreidels.\u00a0 From the most elaborate to the simplest, I believe that these twirling \u201ctoys\u201d represent the essence of who we are, individually and collectively.\u00a0 Nes Gadol Haya Po\/Sham<\/em>!\u00a0 A great miracle happened here\/there!<\/p>\n Yes, our history is a story of tragedy and pain.\u00a0 It is also a testament to miracles and joy, delight and blessing.\u00a0 We have been oppressed and beaten but always, always a nes gadol <\/em>happened, always there has been redemption.\u00a0 Always, a flower has broken through the barrenness of the asphalt as testament to that greatest miracle of all – life!<\/p>\n Dreidels are my talisman, my touchstone.\u00a0 They reassure me in the most innocent and delightful way that our miracles will continue. \u00a0And so, wherever I am, I look for dreidels.\u00a0 My collection spans the globe and so, finding myself in Portugal I naturally sought out dreidels.\u00a0 But where might I find one?\u00a0 There were no Judaica shops in Portugal.<\/p>\n As we continued our tour, I continued my search.\u00a0 During one conversation, I was told of a store which sold dreidels with English letters.\u00a0 English letters!\u00a0 On a dreidel?\u00a0 In Portugal?\u00a0 This, I had to see.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I was not able to get to the shop.\u00a0 However, upon my return home to New York, I continued my search.\u00a0 If there was such a thing as a Portuguese dreidel then I had to have one!<\/p>\n As it turned out, I could not locate a dreidel.\u00a0 The closest I could find was a Rapa-dreidel, a wooden, dreidel-like top with English letters.\u00a0 I contacted the store proprietor through the Internet.\u00a0\u00a0 She informed me that children played with the Rapa during the holiday season and it had something to do with pretend gambling.<\/p>\n Really?\u00a0 \u201cWhich holiday?\u201d I inquired.<\/p>\n \u201cChristmas.\u201d<\/p>\n Why, I asked, would they use a dreidel at Christmas?<\/p>\n She did not know but she did assure me that, \u201c\u2026Jewish also used to play this game.\u201d<\/p>\n Intrigued, I pressed for more information. But she said that was all she knew.\u00a0 She could not explain to me why Portuguese children would take this wooden top, where the letters RTDP adorn the sides.\u00a0 She could not explain why children gambled on buttons, beans or candy or why the \u201cR\u201d (rapa \u2013 take all), or the \u201cT\u201d (take one) or the \u201cD\u201d (leave everything in) or the \u201cP\u201d or why the \u201crules\u201d of Rapa were so much like the rules of the dreidel.<\/p>\n
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