Spain 2023 - B'nai Tikvah

Report from Spain 1

Modern Madrid and the Jews

May 5, 2023

Our group arrived early this morning in Madrid and after breakfast and a nap we began a walking tour of modern Madrid (14,000 steps today). From the expulsion of the Jews (1492) until Franco’s death almost no Jews lived in Spain. We passed a plaque marking the first synagogue in Madrid. Later we visited the main Orthodox synagogue which is the seat of Spain’s chief rabbi. The shul hosts a small, but comprehensive museum of the Jews of Madrid in the 20th century (the photo shows our guide Kayla and the six of us from B’nai Tikvah.
We are 20 all together.

Madrid’s architecture is stunning and we saw grand palaces and public squares, including the square where suspected secret Jews were burned at the stake.
We also visited the Sepharad cultural center which is funded and run by the Spanish government, and a public Holocaust memorial.

Our opening dinner was at an amazing restaurant that prepared a five course gourmet meal that included watercress soup with chickpeas and cauliflower with mint and ginger. Dessert was orange cake with a big dollop of chocolate.

Tomorrow we drive back in time to Toledo (the phrase “holy Toledo” came to America from Jewish refugees after the expulsion). The two synagogues are museums. Then back to Madrid for Friday night services and dinner with the local Reform congregation in Madrid.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Lenny

B'nai Tikvah
www.BnaiTikvahMA.org | 781.828.5250
1301 Washington St | Canton, MA 02021
Office Hours: Mon, Weds, Thurs, 9-3 | Tues 9-5 | Fri 9-12

Report from Spain 2

Toledo, Spain

May 6, 2023

Our second day was spent in Toledo, an hour outside Madrid. Toledo was the capital of Spain before Madrid and its Cathedral was declared by the Pope as the major Cathedral of Spain. When the Jews were expelled in 1492 Jews were a third of the population of Toledo.

There are two medieval synagogues left in Toledo, though both
became churches, and both were built by Muslim architects.
Islamic influence is dominant. Strikingly one of the synagogues has no women’s section! Three cultures are mixed in both buildings, Islamic design, Hebrew on the walls, a cross indicates the later use of the building. Three cultures interacting. Reflecting the history of coexistence and conflict, one of the synagogues is called
“the synagogue of the assumption of Mary.”

Tonight we leave at 7:30 to join Madrid’s Reform community for Kabbalat Shabbat and a pot luck vegetarian community dinner. Franco moved Spain to be the same time zone as Germany so Shabbat starts (and ends) late. Shabbat we study in the morning, kiddush and motzei and then the Prado museum. Sunday: off for Andalusia.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Lenny

B'nai Tikvah
www.BnaiTikvahMA.org | 781.828.5250
1301 Washington St | Canton, MA 02021
Office Hours: Mon, Weds, Thurs, 9-3 | Tues 9-5 | Fri 9-12

Report from Spain 3

Into Andalusia

May 8, 2023

On Sunday morning we headed south to Cordoba to begin the part of our trip exploring the Muslim-Jewish encounter. Along the way we explored conversó literature in La Mancha, home to windmills and castles
on the route of the fictional Don Quixote.
Question: might Cervantes have been a conversó?

One final note about Madrid-eating in Spain is a unique experience. Small plates (tapas), wine at every meal, dinner at 9 pm (and that’s early).

In Cordoba we went to CASA D’SFARAD, a museum of the Sephardic experience. The museum was opened and is sustained by non Jews as a service to Spain to remember and acknowledge its Jewish past. The man (who looks a bit like Lin Manuel Miranda) sang four songs from the Sephardic tradition from four countries the expelled Jews of Spain visited. One was a Ladino Chad Gadya where the mouse the father bought his child survives.

And, of course, the statue of Maimonides. I got to teach there about the conflict between followers of Plato and Aristotle in medieval Jewish thought. Another packed day.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Lenny

B'nai Tikvah
www.BnaiTikvahMA.org | 781.828.5250
1301 Washington St | Canton, MA 02021
Office Hours: Mon, Weds, Thurs, 9-3 | Tues 9-5 | Fri 9-12

Report from Spain 4

In the footsteps of Washington Irving?

May 10, 2023

We arrived last night in Granada, home to the magnificent palaces that make up the Alhambra, built during the high point of Muslim power. I was surprised to learn that Washington Irving lived in the Alhambra (see the dedicatory plaque) before he served as President Tyler’s ambassador to Spain.
His book, Tales of the Alhambra is celebrated here.

On the way between Cordoba and Granada we stopped at an olive oil factory for a tasting and then we went to Lucena, a majority Jewish city for a while where one of the greatest European Yeshivot was established
(home to, among others, Maimonides’ father).
See the photo of Judy taking a picture at the old Jewish cemetery.

I share a few photos of the palace highlighting the beautiful water ways and verdant green, the ceilings that look like the stars in the sky,
and the 12 lions at the central fountain.

We are making connections between the symbolism in the palace
and contemporary Jewish mysticism
(7 heavens, God’s glory, power and kingship, 12 lions and the zodiac).

Lunch in Central Granada, churros and hot chocolate, paella, etc.
Tonight, tapas and a Flamenco performance.
Tomorrow we leave early for our final city —Barcelona.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Lenny

B'nai Tikvah
www.BnaiTikvahMA.org | 781.828.5250
1301 Washington St | Canton, MA 02021
Office Hours: Mon, Weds, Thurs, 9-3 | Tues 9-5 | Fri 9-12

B'nai Tikvah: Final report from Spain

Barcelona, Gerona and our final Shabbat

May 15, 2023

Our trip ends in Barcelona.
We visited a small medieval town outside of the city with its iron gate
and signs of a once thriving community.
A Mikveh, doorpost that once had a mezuzah.

The group gathered for a photo in front of a church getting
ready for the flower festival.

We also drove to Gerona, once a thriving Jewish center, and the home of the Zohar, the greatest work of late medieval Judaism.

Friday night we went to a reform synagogue, services started at 8:20 pm, dinner at 9:30pm. This morning I went to a small Orthodox synagogue.
Best moment: the only thing they did not sing/chant in Hebrew was the Ladino Eyn Kelohenu (which we have used and is in our prayer book).
The small kahal (7 men, 2 women) couldn’t figure out how the American
who obviously did not know Spanish knew it by heart!

Tonight we made havdalah on the rooftop of a Jewish cultural center
that hosts, amongst other things, Muslim-Jewish events.
We spoke about the need for shared learning about the expulsion of both Jews and Muslims from Spain. So much still to explore.

So ends a wonderful trip.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Lenny

B'nai Tikvah
www.BnaiTikvahMA.org | 781.828.5250
1301 Washington St | Canton, MA 02021
Office Hours: Mon, Weds, Thurs, 9-3 | Tues 9-5 | Fri 9-12

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