Rabbi Abraham Saba was born in Castile, Spain, in 1440. When the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, there was no safe place to go. No route was safe from pirates, hunger and the ever present threat of plagues and epidemics. 120,000 Jews fled to Portugal. At that time, Portugal appeared as the most reliable place. No sea to cross, a very similar language and an Iberian culture. Rabbi Abraham Saba was one of those Jews who left Portugal pursuing a new beginning. But the poor Jewish refugees from Spain soon discovered that the horrors and tragedies they were living, were not over.
The Portuguese king John II, eager to increase his treasure, approved the admission of Jews requiring them to pay a large sum of money, 100 Cruzados. Those who could not pay that amount, could reside in Portugal for a maximum of eight months, for a smaller sum, 8 Cruzados a head. Most Jews, including Rabbi Saba, moved to the city of Oporto, Portugal’s main port, hoping to navigate soon to a new destination in Italy, Turkey, Greece or North Africa. But the shortage of ships made their exit impossible. And after the eight months ended, King John proclaimed that those who could not renew their residence paying for 8 additional months, should convert to Christianity or would be automatically considered his slaves. No one had money to pay. The refuges had left Spain with empty hands. The families who refused conversion witnessed one of the worst tragedies ever suffered by Sephardic Jews. King John ordered separating the children from their parents, something not even the cruel Spanish Inquisition dared to do. Thousands of young children were swept into the convents to be raised as Catholics. 700 adolescents boys and girls were sent on a ship to Sao Tome and Principe, a remote island off the coast of Guinea, recently colonized by the Portuguese explorers, famous for the abundance of carnivorous alligators. According to reports from that time, most of these children died, some eaten by the large reptiles, and others by hunger or neglect.
Rabbi Saba describes this terrible event in his book Tseror Hamor, parahsat ki Tabo.
זאת היא קללה אחרת שקרה לנו בעוונותנו בפורטוגאל, שלקח המלך את הבנים ואת הבנות הקטנים ושלחם בספינות לאיי הנחשים כדי לעשות שם יישוב
“This is the great tragedy that befell us in Portugal, the King took the children and sent them in boats to the islands of alligators, to populate that place”
Two of Rabbi Saba’s children were taken from him in these circumstances, and rabbi Saba never saw them again. Searching for his children, he tells, he dressed as a Gentile and visited numerous convents. In each convent he recited aloud the Shema Israel. Hearing the voice of Rabbi Abraham, attracted by the sweet and familiar melody of the Shema, the Jewish children would came to him and cried inconsolably.
In 1495 King John II died and King Manuel ascended to the throne. The situation of the Jews did not improve. He married the Spanish Princess Isabel, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabel יש”ו, hoping to bring the entire peninsula under a single monarchy The Spanish kings agreed to this marriage with one vicious condition: Manuel had to expel the Jews from Portugal. In December 4, 1496, Manuel stipulated that by November next year no Jew could reside in Portugal. Those who do not want to convert should abandon their possessions and leave the country. When Manuel saw that the Jews were willing to risk their lives and go, leaving everything behind instead of converting, he realized that the departure of the Jews would negatively affect the economy of Portugal, as it was happening in Spain. He decided then to make a mass conversion “by decree”. In other words, instead of expelling the Jews from Portugal, he decided to expel the Judaism from the Jews. And declare all of them new Christians de facto.
There was a group of 20,000 Jews in Lisbon, including Rabbi Saba, desperately waiting for some boat that could take them out of Portugal. But the King ordered to forcibly baptize them and he said: “You can leave, if you wish, but your children are already baptized, and they must remain here” The poor Jews had to choose between their children and their faith …. These Yehudim were the bravest, those who fled Spain, leaving everything behind, to keep their faith intact…
Rabbi Saba was taken to prison. And there he saw the chief Rabbi of Portugal, Ribbi Shimon Maimi (or Meimi) זצ”ל. He, his wife, his daughters and his sons in law were tortured by the Inquisition, hoping to force them to convert, and thus serve as an example for the other Jews. But the elder Rabbi Maimi and all his family chose to suffer the terrible tortures, and died al qiddush haShem, rejecting conversion.
After spending six months in a prison Saba Rabbi was sent with a group of Jews to the city of Arcila or Assilah, in Morocco, a fortified prison. After a few months, Rabbi Saba miraculously escaped and came to Fez, a city with a large Jewish community. It took a few years for rabbi Saba to recover from his physical and emotional deterioration. After a long convalescence, he became one of the Rabbis of the city, and began to rewrite his books.
Six of his books remained in Portugal. One of the most famous books of Rabbi Saba, where the story I presented today is written, is “Tseror Hamor,” a commentary on the Tora. He also wrote Eshkol ha-Kofer, a commentary on Megillat Ruth and Megillat Esther. These two are the only books of Rabbi Saba we have today. Some of the manuscripts which were left in Portugal were Tseror haKesef, a rabbinical responsa on issues related to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Tseror haHayim, a commentary on the treatise Pirqe Abot. A commentary on the Psalms, a commentary on the Gemara Berakhot and a qabbalistic book in which he explained the ten Sefirot.
From Fes Rabbi Saba traveled to Adrianopoli (now the city of Edirne in Turkey). He died on the 9 Tishri 5269 (1508) on a boat. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Verona, Italy.
The granddaughter of Rabbi Abraham Saba married Rabbi Yosef Caro, author of the Shulhan Arukh
