THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW YOU NEVER KNEW
THE KING
AND THE TALMUD
The Tudor king, Henry
VIII, is probably the
most famous of all
English kings – his
celebrity due as much
for having six wives,
two of whom he had
beheaded, as for having
separated the English
church from the church
of Rome. At the time of
Henry’s marriage to his
first wife, Catherine of
Aragon, England was a
Roman Catholic nation.
When Queen Catherine
was unable to produce
a male heir for Henry,
he approached the Pope to have his marriage
annulled on the grounds that Catherine had
formerly been married to his brother, Arthur,
who had died in 1502. He argued that his
marriage to Catherine should be dissolved
since it was biblically forbidden for a man to
marry his sister-in-law. But the Pope ruled
that the Bible also commands a man to marry
his widowed sister-in-law if his brother died
without children. Since Arthur died childless,
he argued that Henry was now fulfilling the
biblical requirement of levirate marriage. That
being the case, his marriage was legal and
could not be dissolved.
To study the matter further, Henry ordered
his messengers to purchase the first complete
edition of the Talmud Bavli, the printing of
which had only been finished two years earlier
in Venice, at Daniel Bomberg’s printing press.
Whether Henry realised he had been mistaken
and acted out of pique, or he had just become
impatient with the whole process is not
known. But the outcome of his confrontation
with the Pope was that Henry instructed the
Bishop of London to concoct an argument for
nullifying the marriage to Catherine that involved not an appeal to the Talmud, but a rejection of papal authority, setting into motion
the English Reformation. Interestingly, this
edition of the Talmud found its way into the library of Westminster Abbey in London, where
it lay quietly for over 400 years until it was
purchased by a Jewish collector of antiquities.
Its current whereabouts are unknown.
8 JEWISH LIFE
ISSUE 86
PASHKVILIM
A pashkvil is a poster or notice which is glued on to walls, or scattered onto the
streets, in Haredi neighbourhoods of Israel. They are often used to protest about
a certain action or to inform about general matters affecting the community, like
halachic rulings or notices about conferences – although any topic has the potential to be aired. Pashkvilim have a very short life-span, remaining visible for no
more than two days. Those with a longer visibility are ones ‘posted’ on the walls
on Friday afternoons, since street cleaners do not work erev Shabbos. The content of pashkvilim are not as superficial as one might think. The text often incorporates a pun on phrases from Tanach or midrashim, and some are cleverly composed with many layers of meaning. Only someone with knowledge of the finer
points of Haredi society can understand all the nuances contained within.
However, the use of Pashkvilim is not without controversy. Often posted anonymously, they have been used to make unsubstantiated claims – both of a political
and personal nature. The National Library of Israel has a significant collection of
Pashkvilim, some dating back over 80 years. It is a fascinating record of the attitudes and ideals which prevailed at the time – including the condemnation of the
use of any electricity on Shabbos and having a telephone in one’s home.
On a possibly apocryphal note, the Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, zt”l,
was said to have claimed that it was the glue from Pashkvilim which held up the
walls in Meah She’arim in Jerusalem.
INNOVATIVE ISRAEL
THE ORCAM
Brainchild of Amnon Shashua, a professor of computer science at The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, the OrCam is
an intuitive wearable device with a
smart camera designed to assist people
who are visually impaired. The device
comprises a mini-camera and bone-conduction earpiece, which are strapped to
the user’s spectacles. With help from a
smartphone-sized computer, it recognises and identifies writing, signage,
products and faces. Since many familiar
people and items are different from user to user, the wearer can teach it to recognise, for instance, faces of people they encounter and objects they use often,
such as credit cards. The wearers need only point to what they want to identify
and the device instantly begins to ‘whisper’ in their ear. A single press of a button and the OrCam device will remember the face or product – the wearer says
who or what it is, and it will be stored and recognised in the future. The distance the OrCam can see depends on size. Large text, on
a billboard sign, can be seen from dozens of metres
away. If you’re reading a newspaper, it can see from
30cm to 40cm away. The OrCam doesn’t depend on
the internet or WiFi, but is powered with a rechargeable battery that lasts a whole day of average use. Currently available in the United
States, the company promises to
expand to additional regions
and languages
soon. JL
TEXT: LIZ SAMUELS; PHOTOGRAPHS: SUPPLIED, WIKIPEDIA.ORG
INSIDE STORY