Christ First Forum

by **Jeani** » 13 Mar 2011, 23:04

Sinai, South of the Border

Sinai, South of the Border
By Wendy Wippel

Here's a trivia question: Name two historical events of major significance that occurred in 1492. Ask a hundred people on the street and you'll get the same obvious answer: Columbus discovered America. What's the second? The Spanish Edict of Expulsion Ferdinand and Isabella, Spanish monarchs that financed Columbus' venture, also ruled in 1492 that all their Jewish subjects must leave or die, naming August 3 as the final deadline. Coincidence? As Albert Einstein once observed, "Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous."

Efforts by some influential Spanish Jews to rescind the edict failed, and eventually the dreaded day arrived August 3 dawned and hundreds of ships set sail from Spanish ports. Out of one specific port (Palos de la Frontera), sailed a few that might be surprisingly familiar: the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Jews came to be in Spain primarily from fleeing the destruction of Israel in 70 AD by going west through northern Africa and then north into Spain. These "Sephardic" Jews, as they came to be known, enjoyed relative security for more than a thousand years, largely under tolerant Muslim in which Jewish culture flourished and the Jews became a prosperous middle class. Eventually, however, the Crusades and then the Black Death began to stir up public hostility in Europe against the Jewish population.

Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile were cousins who married in 1469. Like most royal marriages of the time, it was a means to a political end: in this case a unified and strengthened Spain. Once supportive of their Jewish subjects, Ferdinand and Isabella began to fear the power of their growing middle class. They also desired religious unity. A numerous Jewish population was part of the fabric of Spain, and a Muslim population had controlled Granada, in southeast Spain, since the eighth century. Under increasing pressure from the Catholic church, they had established a Holy Office of the Inquisition in 1481. The Muslim stronghold was finally conquered on January 2, 1492, and Ferdinand and Isabella could now turn their attention to the Jewish problem. Ferdinand also needed to find new land to conquer for Spain. Enter Christopher Columbus.

It was actually widely accepted among European thinkers at the time that the earth was a sphere, and that theoretically it would be possible to reach China from Europe by sailing around the back side of that sphere. The sticking point was that no one knew exactly how far it was. Columbus, from a reading of an apocryphal Old Testament book, 2 Esdras, believed that the earth's surface was six parts land to one part water, and that the water separating China from Europe had to be relatively minimal. (2 Esdras 6:42) Convinced that he could open up a trade route to the west and also make his own fortune, Columbus approached many of the courts of Europe, including Spain, for support. He was unanimously rebuffed, the monarchs believing uniformly that he had underestimated the distance.

The defeat of the Moslem stronghold at Granada changed things. Columbus was in fact summoned to Grenada immediately, arriving in time to witness the official witness the transfer of authority at Granada to the Catholic monarchs. He finally had a green light. By the end of the same month (March 1492), the monarchs, still at the Alhambra palace in Granada, issued their edict of expulsion, which ordained that all Jews "depart and never to return". Conversion to Catholicism, which was not directly listed as a third option, had been a longstanding objective of the church's policy toward the Jews, and those who converted to Catholicism were at least initially, welcomed to stay. The Spanish Edict of Expulsion was followed closely by a similar edict in Portugal.

Columbus had always been fairly sketchy about his origins. Many today speculate that he was himself Jewish; Intense pressure to convert the resident Jews of Spain and Portugal had existed for centuries and many did convert (called conversos), although only a fraction of that number were genuine. We may never know about Columbus. What we do know for certain is that his voyage opened up an avenue of escape for many Spanish (and later Portuguese) conversos, who on August 3 of 1492 were now sentenced to death. How do we know this? Stanley Hordes.

Stanley Hordes became State Historian of New Mexico in 1981 and began to hear stories about native New Mexicans whose families had been residents of the state from its very earliest days. One grew up watching his grandmother light candles in the shed on Friday nights and bake flat biscuits around Easter. One told of a family that spun tops at Christmas . Another family had a special set of knives to butcher sheep. All of the families involved were good Catholic men and women, with no knowledge of why their families followed those practices. "We were told not to eat pork after sundown because it would make you sick." "They always told us not to tell anyone about our family traditions, but didn't explain why."

Hordes suspicions eventually culminated in some genetic testing in one of the oldest parishes in Albuquerque. Seventy-eight men were tested, and the results astounded everyone involved. Thirty of the men tested (37%!) were clearly of Jewish roots, carrying the chromosome set identified with Aaron himself. Most families had completely lost the knowledge of their heritage. Some had retained it, but with the shroud of secrecy intact. In those families, boys were often told on or around their thirteenth birthday, sometimes being "unbaptized" by a Jewish ritual. As the heritage of the community in Albuquerque became known, many others recognized Jewish practice in their own families…" all of a sudden, I realized that we had these strange food and customs, these strange services we used to do. We were hidden Jews".

Hordes' research has now documented the history of those early ancestors. It is estimated that up to a third of Spain and Portugal's population in the 15th century was Jewish, and what is now obvious is that many conversos took advantage of route of escape opened by Columbus' expeditions. The first Governor of New Spain, Luis de Carvajal, was himself from a converso family, and the New World very quickly became a haven for conversos who, with thousands of miles between them and the inquisitioners, felt free again to practice their true faith openly. So many so, in fact, that the Holy Office of the Inquisition followed. An office was up and running in Mexico city by 1580 and the conversos were again driven underground. Inquisitions against Mexico's "secret", or crypto-Jews began anew, and most of Mexico City's Jewish residents moved to a new settlement in the area now known as Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

For some Crypto-Jews, learning of their Hebraic heritage was unsettling. For many, however it has felt like a journey home. Many, many of the recently revealed Crypto-Jews have embraced their Jewish heritage and incredibly, many are even returning to the land of their fathers to live.

Which is, by the way a fulfillment of prophecy. Jeremiah wrote that "My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place. … But I will bring Israel back to his own pasture...at that time," declares the LORD, … for I will forgive the remnant I spare. Jeremiah 50:6-7, 19-20 Jeremiah prophesied, through the word of God, that when the scattered Jews were brought back to Israel, among them would be Jews that had forgotten where they came from! Obadiah also prophesied that "The exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will possess the towns of the Negev." Obadiah 1:20; incredibly enough, a center for returning Sephardim has, in fact, been built in the Negev.

So back to that coincidence thing. When God promised the Jews that they would be scattered throughout the whole earth, he also promised them that he would protect them, so that they would not be wiped out. (Jeremiah 30:10-11) This was no coincidence, but God providing an escape. It just took us a thousand years to figure out exactly which window God opened.

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Sinai, South of the Border

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