Solomon Alami

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Salomo Alami , probably Salomo Ibn Lachmisch (* around 1370 in Spain , † 1420 in Portugal ), was a Spanish Jewish moralist . He left behind a work, Iggeret ha-Musar ( German : Letter on Morality ), a thirty-page warning letter written in 1415.

Life

Solomon Alami, about whose life little is known, left Spain and fled to Portugal after witnessing the rioting of the Christian population against the Jews in 1391 . There were many thousands of deaths here. Many Jews then decided to convert to Christianity.

In his warning letter Iggeret Musar , written in rhyming Hebrew prose to a pupil in exile in Portugal in 1415 , Alami lamented the living conditions of the Jews in Spain, who had to suffer from the persecution and anti-Jewish legislation that had been frequent since 1391, but at the same time he castigated the decay of morals among his Jewish contemporaries, whom he blames for the persecution.

He describes the consequences of an anti-Jewish edict issued on January 12, 1412 as follows: “Those who lived in palaces were sent to miserable corners, to low, dark huts. Instead of the rustling robes we had to wear miserable clothes and were despised. Instead of the shaved beard, we had to walk like mourners. The rich tax farmers got into poverty because they didn’t know how to make a living from it. And the craftsmen found no food either. Noth arose with everyone. Children died on their mothers' laps from hardship and nakedness. "

Alami's epistle used to be widely read. It first appeared in Constantinople in 1510 and was reprinted several times, the last time in Jerusalem in 1946. Best known in the German-speaking world is the edition by Adolf Jellinek , published in Leipzig in 1854 , who wrote in the foreword that “the rich, the distinguished, the learned, the merchants, the rabbis, the rulers , the reformers and the pilul heroes could learn from this work which task Judaism sets its believers ”.

Leopold Zunz translated parts into German and published them in the Vienna Yearbook for Israelites in 1844 and included them in his collected writings under the title “an old voice” .

Expenses (selection)

  • Iggeret Musar (אגרת מוסר). First printing Constantinople 1510, several editions.
  • R. Solomon Al'ami's moral teachings in the form of a letter to a pupil in Portugal in 1415. Edited by Adolph Jellinek. Leipzig 1854, Vienna 1872 online , (Hebrew with German foreword by the editor)
  • Iggeret Musar . Published by Abraham Meir Haberman. Jerusalem 1946

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jane S. Gerber: The Jews of Spain. A history of the Sephardic experience. Free Press, New York 1992, ISBN 0-02-911573-6 , pp. 116f. online , (english)
  2. ^ Heinrich Graetz: History of the Jews from the earliest times to the present. Eighth volume, second half: History of the Jews from Maimuni's death (1205) to the exile of the Jews from Spain and Portugal. Fourth unchanged edition. Oskar Leiner, Leipzig 1890, p. 110 online
  3. ^ Nahum N. Glatzer (ed.): Why Catastrophes Come. Solomon Alami . In: The Judaic Tradition . Behrman House, Boston 1982, ISBN 0-87441-344-3 , p. 397 online , (with English translation of the last part of the epistle)
  4. ↑ Leopold Zunz: An old voice . In: Collected Writings . 2nd volume. Gerschel, Berlin 1876, pp. 177-182 online
personal data
SURNAME Alami, Solomon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish Jewish moralist
DATE OF BIRTH around 1390
PLACE OF BIRTH Spain
DATE OF DEATH 1420
Place of death Portugal