Rabbi Shelomo ibn Verga (ca. 1460-1540) and “La vara de Yehuda”

Shelomo Ibn Verga was a rabbi, an historian, an astronomer and a famous physician.  He was born in Spain (probably Sevilla) in 1460. He was the nephew of rabbi Yehuda ibn Verga, and the father of rabbi Yosef ibn Verga, author of the famous book she-erit Yosef, a book on the methodology of the Talmud (the Sephardic last name “Ergaz” comes from this prestigious family).

In 1492, the year of the expulsion of Spain, he was one of the many Jews (probably, more than 100 thousand) that abandoned Spain and went to Portugal where the king Joao welcomed them.  As we know, in 1496 the new King Manuel reversed this good attitude toward the Jews, converted them forcefully to Christianity and set the tribunals of the Inquisition to ban and punish any form of Jewish practice.

Among many important things he did, Rabbi Verga went in a mission to the Spanish communities to collect funds for the ransom of the Jewish prisoners of Malaga. He also attempted to save the Jewish children that were kidnapped in Portugal by the order of King Manuel to be sent to the island of Saint Tome and converted to Christianity.   Rabbi Ibn Verga also witnessed the massacre of the Jews of Lisbon, in 1506.  That year, he escaped to Turkey where he completed his book Shebet Yehuda, “The scepter of Juda.”

In this book the author describes the persecutions, tribulations, expulsions, massacres and pogroms that the Jews suffered since the times of Marco Antonio (1st Century BCE) until his own days (the beginning of the 16th century). The book was published by the author’s, son Rabbi Yosef ibn Verga,  in Adrianople  in 1554.

Shebet Yehuda contains 64 chapters. Except for two chapters (chapter 42 which describes the ceremony of the installation of the Babylonian exilarch o resh galuta, and chapter 64 where he describes the Bet haMiqdash built by Shelomo haMelekh)the book deals with the persecutions and massacres of the Jews in Spain, but the author also refers to the progroms and expulsions of the Jews in Italy, France, England, Germany and all over Europe as well as North Africa and Middle East.

A significant part of the book is dedicated to the account of the theological debates between Jews and Christians. Chapter 40, for example narrates the story of the Disputation of Tortosa.  In many instances, but particularly in chapter 63, Rabbi Ibn Verga asks himself about the causes for the persecutions of the Jews, especially the Jews from Spain, who up until his days “suffered from persecutions more than any other people”. He brings many arguments philosophical, theological and historical reasons.  He also does not endeavor to conceal the faults of the Jews. In this way,  as he said in his introduction, he tries to exhort his people to  turn to God in order to end their persecutions and tribulations.