avakesh

Luis de Torres

 

Luis de Torres(died 1493), was born as יוסף בן הלוי העברי, Yosef Ben Ha Levy Haivri , (”Joseph the Son of Levy the Hebrew”). As a Marrano, he  was Christopher Columbus’s interpreter on his first voyage and the first person of Jewish origin to settle in the New World, in Cuba.

While still a Jew, de Torres served as an interpreter to the governor of Murcia due to his knowledge of Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Portuguese. In this capacity, he mediated between Jewish, Arab and Spanish communities. Once the Jews were expelled, there was no farther use for his services and  de Torres converted to Catholicism shortly before the departure of Columbus’s expedition, which was also the deadline for converting or leaving Spain in the Edict of Expulsion. Columbus thought that a skilled interpreter will enable him to communicate with the people whom he expected to find at the end of his voyage, to speak to the Jewish businessmen  in Asia or because the believed that he might find the descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. He came off on the coast of San Salvador, Bahamas and brought back gifts of wood and tobacco leaves. Not knowing what they were, Columbus disposed of them.

After arriving at Cuba,  Columbus sent de Torres and the sailor Rodrigo de Jerez for an expedition inland on November 2, 1492.  They did not find the Great Khan but they did report on the native custom of drying leaves, inserting them in cane pipes, burning them, and inhaling the smoke. Rodrigo brought the habit of smoking back to Spain and was imprisoned by the Inquisition for three (some say seven) years. By the time he was released, smoking became common in Spain.

When Columbus set off for Spain on January 4, 1493, Luis de Torres was among the 39 men who stayed behind at the settlement of La Navidad founded on the island of Hispaniola, now Cuba. Coming back by the end of that year, Columbus learnt that the whole garrison had been wiped out by internal strife and by an Indian attack, which had occurred in retaliation to the Spaniards’ abducting native women. The Indians remembered that one of the settlers had spoken “offensively and disparagingly” about the Catholic faith, trying to dissuade anybody from adopting it. According to Gould(1), this man may have been de Torres, who had probably not converted voluntarily. One must remember, however, that 5 Marranoes in total sailed with Columbus.

The Luis de Torres Synagogue in Freeport, Bahamas is named after Luis de Torres, and there is a great amount of traditions on his life. The most wide-spread one, which can be found in the Encyclopedia Judaica and similar reference books, affirms that he became in his latter days a wealthy and honored landowner in the West Indies. This version goes back to Meyer Kayserling’s book Christopher Columbus and the participation of the Jews in the Spanish and Portuguese discoveries (1894). In fact, Kayserling confused de Torres with another Spanish explorer who in 1514 was granted an estate and Indian slaves in Cuba.

The story of de Torres addressing an Indian crowd, who sometimes smoked tobacco through their noses, in Hebrew after Columbus’s first landfall on San Salvador is a product of novelists’ imagination. De Torres is also believed to have discovered the turkey and named it after the Hebrew tukki (parrot) of the Bible. Still another legend has him return to Spain and smoke tobacco there, which led to his being accused for witchcraft by the Inquisition.

Without mentioning de Torres’s Jewish origins, some Islamic websites have claimed the participation of “an Arabic-speaking Spaniard” in Columbus’s Atlantic crossing as a proof for the antiquity of Arab American history. The legendary San Salvador speech is said here to have taken place in Arabic. These conjectures have been given credentials in an article by Phyllis McIntosh in the U. S. State Department’s publication Washington File (August 23, 2004): “It is likely that Christopher Columbus, who discovered America in 1492, charted his way across the Atlantic Ocean with the help of an Arab navigator.”

(1) Alicia B. Gould y Quincy, "Nueva lista documentada de los tripulantes de Colón en 1492: Luis de Torres"

The facts in this post have been gathered from various publications and web sites during my research on a related topic.

Chumras and Pesach

Why is even a tiny piece of Chametz forbidden on Pesach? Radvaz (Rabbi David ben Zimra, 1479-1573) askes this question in She'elot uTeshuvot Radvaz, 3:546 (977). After finding that there is no other halacha that makes quite such  stringent demands, he concludes that this is because chametz symbolizes the yetzer hara (evil inclination). One place where this idea is expressed is in Brochos 17a, where it says that when Rabbi Alexandari finished saying the amidah, he would add a tefillah: "Master of the Universe, You know full well that it is our desire to act according to Your will; but what prevents us from doing so? The se’or in the dough..." This also the reason why we expend such a tremendous effort seeking out and clearing away chametz before Pesach. I can say that this thought helped me tremendously, for it makes what is otherwise a dreary and difficult task into an inspiration. The message is that there is zero tolerance for the yetzer hara.

However, there is a problem. In his sefer about the reasons for mitzvos, Radvaz raises the following objection: If chametz represents the yetzer hara, why then is it allowed the rest of the year? He presents two answers:

 

The first answer is that matzah is hard on the stomach! According to the Radvaz, it would indeed be preferable spiritually to eat matzah and ban chametz all year round, but that is not practical. For this reason, Torah limits the war on chametz to one week a year. He likens it to Yehoshua’s circling of the walls of Yericho for seven days.

 

The second answer of the Radvaz is that the reason that Hashem gave us the yetzer hara is to test us to see if we can withstand it. After all, the world needs the yetzer hara. If not for its life force, everything would come to a grinding halt. The Gemara recounts that the rabbis once prayed that the yetzer hara for women be removed. Hashem granted their request -- but hens would not produce eggs(Yoma 69b). This is why chametz is permitted all year-round -- as a test to see if we can overcome our yetzer hara.

This also relates to the concept that all chumros are permitted on Pesach. A common Chabad teaching is that "Pesach is Andersht", that is, that all kinds of chumros, with or without a clear source, are laudable on Pesach. The  Mei HaShiloach quotes Reb Bunim MiParshischa who said that all the stringencies that the Jewish People adopt on Pesach are adornments to holiness, and this is alluded to in the verse that states (Shir HaShirim 1:!0) tzavareich bacharuzim, your neck with necklaces. This means that every limb of a person’s body has a corresponding ornament or garment, whereas the neck can be adorned with an ornament that is not unique to the neck. A precious stone is not designed to clothe someone. Rather, it is intended to be suspended from a person’s neck. Similarly, the stringencies that have been adopted by the Jewish People on Pesach is due to the fact that the neck is the vehicle through which the food enters, and it is specifically regarding food matters that all the stringencies on Pesach apply.

Here is how I understand this concept. Generally, a chumra is praiseworthy thing and an expression of loving G-d, except that a person should not take on stringencies that are far above his or her current level of observance. Doing so exposes his other deficiencies and represents  Kefitsas Hamadreigos which is not the right way in serving Hashem. However on Pesach even chumros that are far above the observance level are fully legitimate. Pesach is the time of mortal combat with Yetser Hara and in a fight to the last, any weapon is acceptable. It is no dishonor to a warrior in the midst of the battle to slay his enemy with a tree trunk, should a sword not be available. Similalry, Pesach is a "time-out" during which the usual cosiderations in Derech Hoavoda do not apply. 

Mesilar Yesharim writes in Ch. 18:

We notice at all periods and at all times, between all lovers and friends - between a man and his wife, between a father and his son, in fine, between all those who are bound with a love which is truly strong -that the lover will not say, "I have not been commanded further. What I have been told to do explicitly is enough for me." He will rather attempt, by analyzing the commands, to arrive at the intention of the commander and to do what he judges will give him pleasure. The same holds true for one who strongly loves his Creator; for he, too, is one of the class of lovers. The mitzvoth, whose behests are clear and widely known, will serve as an indication to him of the will and desire of the Blessed One. He will not say, "What has been explicitly stated is enough for me," or "In any event I will discharge my obligations by doing what is incumbent upon me." To the contrary, he will say, "Since I have seen that God's desire inclines towards this, I will use it as a sign to do as much as I can in relation to it and to extend it into as many areas as I can envisage the Blessed One's desiring its being extended into." Such a man may be called "one who gives pleasure to his Creator."

 

For a different perspective, at least in the public sphere, see here and here (From Sichos Haran). Also an argument that even on Pesach chumros must be examined for reasonableness and source.

 

Dr. Finkel on American Jewish composers

Overheard: Clever and wise

There are many clever people but not many people who are wise.

Editorial on violence and immorality

Targum Yonason on Yacov's blessing (Gen, 49:4) says this: "How beautiful are the eyes of the king Meshiha, as the pure wine! He cannot look upon what is unclean, nor on the shedding of the blood of the innocent; and his teeth, purer than milk, cannot eat that which is stolen or torn; and therefore his mountains are red with wine, and his hills white with corn, and with the cotes of flocks."

So apparently, Moschiach, may he come soon and speedily will not have ever watched television or been exposed to the internet.

This week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association explores what is known about the effect of the media on child development. It is instructive and worth looking at. It is in a file, here:

Download JAMA Editorial

Rare footage of Abraham Joshua Heschel

Niggun from Baal Hasulam in a very modern rendition

One hundred thousand hits

Thank you, dear readers. We have now passed the One Hundred Thousand hits since starting about a year and 9 months ago.

Thank you for reading and for the chizuk.

Turning around South Bronx

How a Lubavitcher turned around the most dangerous school in the Bronx.

Antisemitism: a response in song

"Rav Shmuel is a rabbi who hangs out in Greenwich Village and plays original compositions on his guitar. He has a beard and sidelocks and he loves The Dead. He does not see an inconsistency between these two identities. Rather, he thinks of Judaism and music as complementary and often coalescing tools and methods for communication So what we're talking about here people is a forty-something Orthodox Hasidic rabbi with six kids who is rocking the pants off of the East Village's freshest scene!"

from: http://www.ravshmuel.com/