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Rosh Hashana 5767- 2006: Martyrlogy
by David Saphier
 

There are two stories to be told during this service. The first is about the millions of Jews and others who have been tortured and killed because of their religious beliefs.  This story will be told through the readings I have selected. The second is about the underlying meaning of this service.  My talk will be about this.

Since the middle ages the traditional story told at the martyrology service is the story of the Ten Martyrs.  This is a story, like many Jewish stories, that encompasses many different levels of understanding and it raises a number of questions.  Why was this story written?  Why is this story important?  And why is it in the Yom Kippur service?

In order to answer these questions we need to start with the traditional story.

During the time of Roman rule, around the time of the destruction of the Second Temple, Rome was persecuting Jews and putting restrictions on religious practices.  The Roman governor of Judea studied enough scripture from learned sages that  he was able to turn his knowledge against the Jews by bring together ten great sages and asking them: “Judge this matter objectively, pervert it not with falsehood but pass on it truthfully:  If a man is caught kidnapping one of his brothers of the children of Israel, treating him as slave and selling him, what should be done?”  They answered: “That thief shall die.”  Then he exclaimed: “Where are your fathers who sold their brother Joseph and battered him for shoes?”  “You must atone for the iniquity of your fathers.” 

The sages asked for a one day reprieve and they turned to Rabbi Ishmael, the most learned amongst them for an answer.  Legend has it that Rabbi Ishmael ascended to heaven and inquired of one robed in linen, presumably an angel of God, who said: “Submit, beloved saints, for I have heard from behind the curtain that this would be your fate.”   Rabbi Ishmael descended back to earth and told his colleagues the word of God.  It was God’s divine decree that they should die for the sins of the Jewish people and they all submitted to be put to death.

The story continues with Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel dieing by beheading.  Rabbi Ishmael died next.  The governors daughter thought him so beautiful she wanted him spared.  The Governor instead peeled  off his face and had it preserved.  Rabbi Akiva died next and famously uttering the Shema;  gaining final and complete understanding of what it means to love God with all your soul, all while his skin was being raked off his body.  Rabbi Yehudah ben Bava died fourth burnt at the stake while wrapped in a torah scroll. 

We remember the agonies of the Rabbis.

They brought him and wrapped him in the Torah scroll and surrounded him with bundles of twigs with which they lit the fire.  They brought wads of cotton that had been soaked in water and put them on his heart so that he would not die quickly.  His daughter said to him: Father, must I see you thus? He said to her:  were I to be burned alone, it would be hard for me, but now I am being burned along with the Torah.  When someone comes to avenge the insult done to the Torah, he will avenge mine as well.  His students said to him, my master, what do you see?  He said to them: the parchment is burning and the letters fly up into the air.

Eleh Ezkerah

* * *

He watched in wonder as the letters of the Torah danced around him and soared upward.  His executioner for unknown reasons was overtaken and plunged himself into the flame and died.

There is little description of the death of the other martyrs though we do know who they are and their life’s work.

So why was the story of the Ten Martyrs written?

Although the events supposedly take place about 66 CE, at the time of the Jewish revolt that resulted in the destruction of the second temple,  the traditional story as we know it was not written until the end of the Rabbinic period in the 6^th century.  The Ten Martyrs’ place in Jewish history is elevated by this story in two ways.  First, they are depicted as achieving a special spiritual awakening and closeness to God through their deaths. And second, they died atoning for the collective sins of the Jewish people. This bears a striking resemblance to the story of Jesus.  This story was written during the time of Christian ascendancy.  Jews were given  their own story of resurrection,  atonement and martyrdom.

During the middle ages when this story became part of the service it served an additional purpose.  This was the time of the Inquisition and the Crusades in Europe.  A time when many Jews were slaughtered.  Martyrology literature in Europe became popular.  It glorified death in order to shore up the Jews and prevent them from converting.  Some of these martyrology poems or piyyuts written during the 12^th century are traditionally recited during the Yom Kippur service.

We remember the suffering of Jews through the ages.

Behold, I have made libation to my king, said Solomon to God.

And to please Him, I have arranged my affairs.

I bow on my knees to confess my transgressions,

To illuminate my darkness, I offer my head and my face,

My hands and my feet – for in Him is my Source.

I shall make libation with blood and tears.

On the fiery altar, my heart is laid out, my soul is my offering.

My pain is nectar to my palate, and the fire of my tormentors has no power over me.

Solomon Simhah haSofer

Written for the martyrs of Troyes (1288)

* * *

In contrast to the elevation of martyrdom by European Jewry,  Maimonidies, who lived through the early Inquisition and Muslim persecutions,  famously wrote an open letter to the Jews of Yemen telling them that it was better to convert “on the outside” to save their lives.  He ruled that they would not be considered idol worshippers or as having committed a capital transgression if they secretly continued to live by the basic tenets of Judaism. He did not believe that Jews should be martyrs in the name of God.  This was a radical shift to practicality and reason over religious zealotry, but it was not the prevailing thinking in Europe at the time.

We remember the tortures of the Inquisition.

During the Spanish Inquisition, Jewish women – particularly conversos and crypto-Jews – were the primary targets and victims of torture. We remember Maria and Isabel Lopez, accused of abstaining from pork and wearing festive clothes on the Jewish Sabbath. The Lopez family was subjected to a form of water torture called the "escalera," in which defendants were bound naked to a scaffold with their feet over their heads and their faces covered with headpieces. Victims experienced a sense of suffocation when water was poured over their faces and pressure progressively increased through tightened ropes.

* * *

European Jews during the middle ages used this story of the Ten Martys and others like it to elevate martyrdom to a high spiritual plane.  Through all the pain and suffering and death Jews could hold true to their faith knowing that martyrs achieved a closeness to God that others could not.  And they knew that as martyrs they were joining others who died atoning for the sins of the Jewish people.  These stories provided strong spiritual support for Jews to resist the temptation to convert in the face of torture and death.

But of all the Jewish deaths due to persecution to choose from, why the story of the Ten Martyrs?  In order to answer this we need to understand the importance of the lives of the Ten Martyrs not the importance of their deaths.

We remember the torments of Crusader Europe.

The Crusader period saw the advent of blood libels and the condemnation of entire communities to torture and death; in 1171, the false accusation that a Jewish man had murdered a Christian child induced the Count of Blois to enchain and imprison all of the local Jews, then torture fifty men and women and burn them at the stake.

* * *

Before the destruction of the Temple, a group of scribes, mostly from the Pharisees formed what was known as the Tannaim. This was a group of the most learned Jews, that over a period of about 100 years created a written interpretation of Jewish law that became known as the Mishnah,  the interpretation of Jewish scripture that had developed orally over the preceding centuries.  This was the first Rabbinic work written in Hebrew, but it was not a major movement in Judaism at the time since the Temple was the center of Jewish life. 

The Ten Martyrs were all prominent members of the Tannaim.  After the destruction of the  Temple, Yochanan ben Zakai, the leader of the Tannaim, founded the Council of Yavneh from which the Mishnah and Rabbinic Judaism emerged.

The Tannaim  maintained that literature and life were co-extensive. The Pirke Aboth is one part of the Mishnah.  What stands out when reading it is that the acts of study and living a righteous life are conceived as the supreme act of religious devotion.  In chapter 6:2, Rabbi Joshua ben Levi writes:

All who practice Torah,
Attending to life and revealing Truth,
Will be exalted.
Taking up the path of justice and compassion,
they lift up the world
and thus are themselves uplifted.

Samuel Heilman in The Gate Behind the Wall writes:

To study Torah is to make oneself part of the chain of being, and thereby achieve union with a process which is vastly larger than the individual and for all practical purposes, immortal.

He goes on to state:

Becoming part of the Torah process through study is not an act that brings salvation as its reward.  It is itself salvation.

What the Mishnah is saying by its very existence is that God can be found through study.

We remember the unspeakable persecution of the Holocaust.

We remember not only the gas chambers and the mass graves, but also the assaults on dignity and precious religious commitments: the presentation of pork on Yom Kippor to starving inmates; the shaving of beards; the sexual violation and rape of women and men. We remember the humiliation and disgust of those forced to stew in their own excrement, refused access to latrines and toilet paper.

Readings 3 through 5 borrowed from Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg with Melissa Weintraub

Rabbis for Human Rights

Mamdouh Habib was subjected to rendition by the United States. The Americans took him to an airfield, cut his clothes off with scissors, dressed him in a jumpsuit, covered his eyes with opaque goggles, and placed him aboard a private plane. He was flown to Egypt.  He was beaten frequently with blunt instruments, including an object that he likened to an electric “cattle prod.” And he was told that if he didn’t confess to belonging to Al Qaeda he would be anally raped by specially trained dogs. Habib was shackled and forced to stand in three torture chambers: one room was filled with water up to his chin, requiring him to stand on tiptoe for hours; another chamber, filled with water up to his knees, had a ceiling so low that he was forced into a prolonged, painful stoop; in the third, he stood in water up to his ankles, and within sight of an electric switch and a generator, which his jailers said would be used to electrocute him if he didn’t confess. Last month, after a three-year ordeal, Habib was released without charges.

OUTSOURCING TORTURE

The secret history of America’s “extraordinary rendition” program.

by Jane Mayer

Reading 7 (Responsively)

Today lets us remember all those good and righteous souls who died for their faith.

From the breath of life to the flame of death

A holy life, a life of kindness, a life of the heart

“A good heart is the way” said Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai

“By the sweat of your brow/Shall you get bread to eat” said Hashem to Adam

“Everything is seen, yet freedom of choice is given; the world is judged by grace, yet all is according to the work”, said Rabbi Akiva.

I may ascend to heaven and meet a figure in linen

I may die full of grace with His name on my lips

I may die surrounding by the dancing letters of His words

Or I may simply fade away back to dust and ashes, the stuff of life

I have my choice as do my enemies.  Whatever the world to come may bring,

I choose to die with the fullness of heart

Rather than live with the hollowness of a compromised life

Today I choose to return to goodness and away from evil.

I choose to live a life of grace and kindness

I choose to make the world a better place

I choose to work for peace and understanding

I choose to be guided by my heart so that one day

There will be

No Jewish Martyrs

No Christian Martyrs

No Muslim Martyrs

No Hindu Martyrs

No Buddhists Martyrs

No Black Martyrs

No Gay Martyrs

No African Martyrs

No Israeli Martyrs

No Arab Martyrs

No more Martyrs