SPECIAL C0111111ENTARY

A Disputation To Remember

DR. MORTON I. TEICHER

Special to the Jewish News

Miami

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my 20 is the anniversary of an
event in Jewish history that
deserves to be better known.
On that day in 1263, an
important "disputation" began in the
royal palace of Barcelona, Spain, in
the presence of James I of Aragon.
The king's court, church dignitaries
and knights were present.
A "disputation" was a public debate
on religious subjects in which Jews
and non-Jews were the contestants.
Verbal arguments between Jews and
pagans and between Jews and Romans
were known to have occurred, but it
was the disputations between Jews and
Christians that moved from bitter sar-
casm to ironfisted persecution. In
pressing for these debates, the Church
sought to demean the Jewish dis-
putant in order to persuade masses of
Jews to convert.
The rules for these contests favored
the Christian representatives. Nothing

Dr. Morton I. Teicher is founding

dean of the Wurzweiler School of Social
Work at Yeshiva University in New York
City and dean emeritus, School of Social
Work, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill. His work appears regularly
in the Jerusalem Post, Publisher's
Weekly and the Jewish Journal of
South Florida. He can be reached via
e-mail at mteicher@waldenu.edu

offensive to Christianity could be
uttered, and it was the priests who had
full power to determine whether a par-
ticular statement was objectionable. The
Jews were not allowed to say anything
considered sacrilegious, thus limiting
their ability to participate freely.
At the end of the debate, if the Jews
were deemed to have lost, they had to
convert. If they won, they were physi-
cally attacked. Since this was clearly a
lose-lose situation for Jews, they tried
vainly to avoid disputations.
The first disputation took place in
Paris in 1240; it resulted in the burn-
ing of 12,000 copies of the Talmud
because the Christian debater insisted
it was violently anti-Christian. The
Barcelona disputation, whose anniver-
sary we observe this year on Thursday,
July 20, involved Nachmanides and
Pablo Christiani, an apostate Jew who
had become a Dominican monk.

Defending The Faith

Nachmanides, known as the Ram-
ban, was a Talmud authority and physi-
cian. Born in northern Spain in 1194,
his writings brought him high regard
while he was still young. His commen-
tary on the Torah enhanced his reputa-
tion as a genius with vision. He was the
chief rabbi of Catalonia when the call
came for a debate with Pablo, who was
stung by his failure to persuade other
Jews to follow him in converting.
Pablo convinced the king that he
could win the debate, by using the
Talmud and other rabbinical writings

to support his position. He knew that
Nachmanides would be restrained by
fear of antagonizing the Christian
observers. To protect himself, Nach-
manides persuaded the king to agree
that complete freedom of speech
would be granted.
Three issues were debated: Has the
Messiah already appeared? Is the Mes-
siah divine or human? Is Christianity
or Judaism the true faith?
Pablo tried to prove that the Messi-
ah had appeared in the person of Jesus
by citing some haggadic passages from
the Talmud. Nachmanides stated that
Jews believed the Bible but were free
to question haggadic interpretations in
the Talmud since they represented
individual opinions. Besides, he
argued, how could the Messiah have
come if there were still wars?
As for the second issue regarding
the divinity of Jesus as the Messiah,
Nachmanides questioned this con-
tention since Jesus was clearly a
human being. With regard to the third
question, Nachmanides asserted that
the commandments of the Torah were
still applicable, proving that Judaism
was the true faith.
After four days, the disputation
ended in a triumph for Nachmanides.
The king gave him 300 gold coins as a
token of his respect.
However, the enemies of the Jews
claimed victory for Pablo: To help set-
tle the controversy, Nachmanides pub-
lished his statements. This further
enraged the Dominicans, who insisted

that the statements were blasphemous.
Although the king had given Nach-
manides an assurance of free sp ech,
he now felt that he had to placate the
Dominicans. Accordingly, he banished
Nachmanides for two years and
ordered that the pamphlet containing
Nachmanides' presentation be burned.
Dissatisfied with what they considered
to be too mild a rebuke, the Domini-
cans persuaded the Pope to decree that
the banishment was to be permanent.
After three years in southern
France, Nachmanides moved to
Palestine, where he spread his Jewish
learning to students and friends. He
died at age 76, still longing for the
peaceful and happy life he had
enjoyed before.
Disputations continued until the
18th century as melancholy episodes
in Jewish-Christian relations. The
theocratic nature of government in
those days, with its intertwining of the
monarchy and the Church, makes us
appreciate all the more the value of
church-state separation. When politi-
cal power blends with religious belief,
as it did during the disputations, we
have a dangerous situation for Jews.
The American forefathers who
drafted the U.S. Constitution were
wise in their insistence on erecting a
wall between church and state. Would
modern Israel benefit from a similar
separation? The Barcelona disputa-
tion, which took place 737 years
ago, has a vital lesson for us in the
year 2000. ❑

Real Cost
Of Vouchers

math or reading skills, he probably
will not be admitted to a private
school.
These private and religious schools
do not offer support services (such as
reading recovery, speech, special edu-
cation) to students. By law, these ser-
vices are provided by public school
districts.
On the issues of teacher testing and
administrative costs, these are not
defined by proponents of the voucher
movement. There is no clear idea
about how teachers will be tested,
[and] when and how often they will
be tested. Will private and religious
schoolteachers be tested along with
public school teachers?
Funds for vouchers will be taken
out of public tax dollars along with
administrative costs set up to run the
voucher system.
Another very important point that

e

LETTERS

School Vouchers
And Separation

The Greater Detroit Chapter of Hadas-
sah, as a sponsoring organization of the
Jewish Coalition Against Vouchers,
endorses the longstanding national
Hadassah position for the separation of
church and state ("The Great Voucher
Debate," June 9, page 6). [This is] based
on the core belief that "separation of
church and state and the protection of
religious freedom are cornerstones of our
democracy and have played a key role in
preserving the rights of Jews in the Unit-
ed States."
Therefore, Hadassah, the Women's
Zionist Organization of America, acts
to:
• Oppose the use of public money to
pay for religious and private schools
• Oppose all legislative efforts to

7/14

2000

38

introduce religion into the public
schools
• Urge members to advocate against
any measure to introduce prayer in
public schools or to use public money
to pay for private or religious schools
• Urge members to join coalitions in
their communities to preserve the sep-
aration of church and state
Consistent with national Hadassah
policies, the Greater Detroit Chapter
of Hadassah, in partnership with the
Jewish Coalition Against Vouchers and
ALL Kids First!, strongly objects to
any ballot proposal that would amend
the Michigan Constitution to allow
public dollars to support private and
religious school education.
Elaine Sturman

president,
Greater Detroit Chapter of Hadassah
West Bloomfield

Let's be truthful about the voucher
issue on the November ballot ("The
Voucher Debate," June 9, page 6).
While one family on the west side
of the state has almost entirely funded
this proposal, many people through-
out the state, public and private
school parents, have donated dollars
toward defeating the proposal.
A few points:
Vouchers are aimed at students in
struggling schools. While I agree all of
us need to help these students, there is
no guarantee that voucher users will
be accepted at a private or religious
school. Private and religious schools
have the right to discriminate for a
multitude of reasons. If the student
receiving the voucher is behind in