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Nicholas Donin (French : Nicolas Donin) of La Rochelle, [1] a Jewish convert to Christianity in early thirteenth-century Paris, is known for his role in the 1240 Disputation of Paris, which resulted in a decree for the public burning of all available manuscripts of the Talmud. [2] Latin sources referred to him as "Repellus," referring to his native La Rochelle. [3]
In 1225, Donin was excommunicated [4] from the ghetto of Paris by Rabbi Yechiel of Paris. While the precise reason for his excommunication is not known, Yechiel himself claims that it was because Donin had become a Karaite, rejecting the authority of the Talmud along with the Rabbinic tradition of biblical exegesis. [5] After ten years of living in excommunication, Donin was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church and joined the Franciscan Order. Other sources, however, claim that he converted well before meeting Rabbi Yechiel of Paris. [6]
In 1238 Donin went to Rome, presented himself before Pope Gregory IX, and denounced the Talmud. Thirty-five articles against the Talmud were drawn up, which Donin charged with making virulent attacks on the Virginity of Mary and the divinity of Jesus.
The Pope was persuaded that the accusations were true and dispatched to the authorities of the Church transcripts of the charges formulated by Donin, accompanied by an order to seize all copies of the Talmud and deposit them with the Dominicans and Franciscans. If an examination corroborated the charges of Donin, the scrolls were to be burned, as they were an "insult to Christianity".
This order was generally ignored, except in France, where the Jews were compelled under pain of death to surrender their Talmuds (March, 1240). Louis IX ordered four of the most distinguished rabbis of France—Yechiel of Paris, Moses of Coucy, Judah of Melun, and Samuel ben Solomon of Château-Thierry—to answer Donin in a public debate. The rabbis were forbidden from denying the holiness of Jesus or Mary, as well as disputing any other central Christian doctrine, and Donin was declared victorious by the Christian officials presiding. Following the disputation, Louis IX condemned the Talmud to be burned. In 1242, fire was set accordingly to twenty-four carriage loads (ten to twelve-thousand volumes) of written works.
The Talmud is, after the Hebrew Bible, the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (halakha) and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewish cultural life and was foundational to "all Jewish thought and aspirations", serving also as "the guide for the daily life" of Jews.
Disputation is a genre of literature involving two contenders who seek to establish a resolution to a problem or establish the superiority of something. An example of the latter is in Sumerian disputation poems.
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Rabbi Moses ben Jacob of Coucy, also known as Moses Mikkotsi, was a French Tosafist and authority on Halakha. He is best known as the author of one of the earliest codifications of Halakha, the Sefer Mitzvot Gadol.
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Shem-Tob ben Isaac Shaprut of Tudela was a Spanish Jewish philosopher, physician, and polemicist. He is often confused with the physician Shem-Tob ben Isaac of Tortosa, who lived earlier. He may also be confused with another Ibn Shaprut, Hasdai ibn Shaprut, who corresponded with the king of the Khazars in the 900's.
Samuel ben Solomon of Falaise was a French rabbi, a tosafist of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. His French name was Sir Morel, by which he is often designated in rabbinical literature. "Kadesh Urchatz", the now ubiquitous poem at the beginning of the traditional Haggadah, is attributed to him.
Judah of Melun was a French rabbi and tosafist of the first half of the 13th century. He was the son of the tosafist David of Melun.
The Disputation of Paris, also known as the Trial of the Talmud, took place in 1240 at the court of King Louis IX of France. It followed the work of Nicholas Donin, a Jewish convert to Christianity who translated the Talmud and pressed 35 charges against it to Pope Gregory IX by quoting what appeared to be a series of blasphemous passages about Jesus, Mary, or Christianity. Four rabbis defended the Talmud against Donin's accusations.
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Kaufmann Kohler; Isaac Broydé (1901–1906). "Donin, Nicholas, Of La Rochelle". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia . New York: Funk & Wagnalls.| International | |
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