Jewish Life Digital Edition February 2014 | Page 12

THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW YOU NEVER KNEW

TESTIMONY OF THE NATIONS
IN THE EAST END OF LONDON
“Some years ago, when I was living in Europe, I went for six months to reside in the very
poorest part of the East End of London, when I made friends with a poor Jewish woman.
Though the tiny one-roomed tenement had all the misery and confinement which extreme
poverty means in a great city, I had yet often a curious feeling that it was a home. With
however much difficulty, a few pence would be saved to celebrate, if it were but in a pitiful
little way, the festivals of their people; though it were by starving themselves, the parents
would lay by something for the education of their children or to procure them some little
extra comfort. And the conclusion was forced on me that, taking the very poorest class of Jew
and comparing him with an exactly analogous class of non-Jews earning the same wages and
living in the same locality, the life of the Jew was, on the whole, more mentally healthyful,
more human, and had in it an element of hope that was often wanting in that of others. I felt
that these people needed but a little space, a little chance, to develop into some far higher
form. Therefore, I would welcome the exiled Russian Jew to South Africa, not merely with pity,
but with a feeling of pride that any member of that great much-suffering people, to whom
the world owes so great a debt, should find a refuge and a home among us.”
Olive Schreiner. South African author, anti-war campaigner and intellectual: born 1855 – died 1920

AARON OF LINCOLN
Lincoln, the county town of Lincolnshire,
England, was formerly the second most
important town in the country, and was
largely populated by Jews in the preExpulsion period.
Aaron was born in Lincoln circa 1125.
He was an English Jewish financier, and is
believed to have been the wealthiest man
in England at that time – his estimated
fortune exceeding that of the King.
He specialised in the lending of
money for the building of abbeys and
monasteries. Among those built were
the Abbey of St Albans, Lincoln Minster,
Peterborough Cathedral, and no less
than nine Cistercian abbeys. At Aaron’s
death, they remained indebted to him
in no less a sum than 6 400 marks.

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Aaron not only advanced money
on land, but also on corn, armour, and
houses, and in this way acquired an
interest in properties scattered through
the eastern and southern counties
of England. By the time of his death
in 1186, Henry II seized his property
merely on the basis that Aaron was a
Jewish usurer, and the English crown
thus became universal heir to his estate.
The actual cash accumulated by Aaron
was sent over to France to assist Henry
in his war with Philip Augustus, but the
ship containing it sank off the coast of
Dieppe. However, the indebtedness
of the English barons and knights still
remained. So large was the amount that
a separate division of the exchequer was
constituted, entitled “Aaron’s Exchequer”,
and was continued till at least 1201. In
1190, Richard de Malbis, a debtor of
Aaron of Lincoln, led an attack on the
family of Aaron’s late agent in York that
resulted in the death of the entire Jewish
community, 150 men, women, and
children, at York Castle.
A house associated with Aaron of
Lincoln still stands, and is probably
the oldest private stone dwelling in
England. Originally, the house had no
windows on the ground floor – probably for security reasons.

A MATCH MADE IN

Heaven

Torah Temimah notes that the Talmud
frequently refers to the wife as the ‘bayit’ – the foundation of the home.
In the Book of Bereshit (2:24), following the creation of woman from man, the
Torah states, “Al kein ya’azav ish et aviv
v’et imo v’davak b’ishto v’hayu l’basar
echad – therefore, a man shall leave his
father and mother, and cleave to his wife
and they shall be as a single body.”
The gematria of three significant
words in this verse points to a very important factor essential in any successful
marriage. The gematria of the word
“isha” (woman) is 306.
The gematria of the word “bayit” is 412.
The numerical difference between
these two words is 106. And the number
106 also happens to be the numerical
value as the word ‘davak’ (cleave).
The Torah is teaching that if a man
wants to build a ‘bayit ne’eman’ – a solid home, and a happy marriage, then
he must first ‘cleave’ to his wife. A husband who cleaves to his wife will find
that she reciprocates by establishing a
strong home that becomes a refuge of
peace, intimacy, love, support and understanding.

THE 1 200-YEAR-OLD SIDDUR
The oldest siddur in the world dates back to
840 CE and was donated to America’s Green
Collection in 2008. The book is formed of
bound leaves of parchment and contains
Hebrew script so archaic that it incorporates
Babylonian vowel pointing. That vowel
pointing has led researchers to place the
prayer book in the times of the Geonim
(Babylonian, Talmudic leaders during the
Middle Ages). There are six distinct sections
in the siddur, including: 100 blessings/
morning prayers (the earliest form of what is
in today’s Jewish prayer books, even older
than those of Rabbis Amram Gaon and
Saadia Gaon); the Passover Haggadah; a
poem on the Song of Songs in conjunction
with Sukkot; a poem on the End Times
(apocalyptic text of an international battle); a
poetic form of the book of Zerubbabel; and a
unique section entitled “Salvation in Zion”.

TEXT: LIZ SAMUELS; PHOTOGRAPHS: WIKIPEDIA.PRG

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