Free Rashi by Elie Wiesel

flutter and wriggle but cranes his neck.” And he continues: “this virtue of self-sacrifice can only astonish the other nations of the world, and lead them all to ask: in what way is your God different from the others that you are ready to be burned and crucified for Him?”
    The Song of Songs, therefore, is a story written for present and future exiles, but also a moving prayer in their memory to bring them closer to Redemption.

4
Sadness and Memory
    R ashi was fifty-five at the time of the first Crusade: rumors about it must have reached him. How did he react?
    Let us broaden our canvas.
    The eleventh and twelfth centuries were a time of political turmoil, military turbulence, and religious upheavals. Christendom and Islam pursued their religious wars by making territorial conquests. Norway, Sweden, Burgundy, Spain, France … too many kings wanted to reign over too many countries. The Byzantine emperor Roman III seized Syria. In Constantinople, Patriarch Michael I Cerularius was excommunicated, precipitating the schism between the Christian East and Christian West. Benedict IX, a corrupt and cruel man, was crowned pope only to be deposed and reelected. He then sold his title and office to Gregory VI who abdicated a year later. In the Islamic world the situation was hardly more commendable. Shiites and Sunnis lived in fear and with the constant desire to win supreme domination through violence. There was the victory of William the Conqueror atHastings and his tumultuous reign; the invasion of the Byzantine Empire by the Turks; the appearance of anti-Papists; Rome’s efforts to weaken the authority of the local princes; Gregory VII’s excommunication of the German king Henry IV; the latter’s forced walk to Canossa in penitence; the battles among Arabs for the reconquest of Spain; the capture of Capua by Robert Guiscard’s Norman troops …
    What a century!
    Before it drew to a close, Rashif ed-din Sinan founded the secret Shiite society called the
hashishiyyin
, or “assassins,” whose suicidal and murderous fanaticism is still active today. Sent to the four corners of the Islamic empire, its leaders trained flawlessly efficient professional assassins whose record of achievements would make the best specialists under contract to the Mafia jealous.
    And what about the Jewish world?
    While the Gentiles were busily waging bitter battles and bloody wars among themselves, by and large they still found time to take their anger out on the Jews. But less so in the eleventh century. Chroniclers related no major catastrophe. The Jews in Europe and in the Holy Land lived in relative safety, which means in relative danger. In Spain, for instance, they enjoyed the fruits of the Golden Age, a time so vibrant in our collective memories. The great thinker and poetShmuel ha-Nagid was commander in chief of the armies of the Catholic kings; his role in the defeat of the Muslims on several battlefields has never been questioned. Shlomo Ibn Gabirol and Yehuda ha-Levi paved the way for Maimonides…. The prevailing sentiment must have been, “Let’s hope it lasts!” Well it didn’t last. For the Jews of Western Europe the century ended in a deluge of blood, fire, and death, all in the name of a man who was born Jewish of Jewish parents, whose beautiful dream was to bring love into the hearts and souls of believers.
    The Crusades. We have returned to the topic.
    Don’t be surprised, reader; we are not drifting away from our main subject. The Crusades concern Rashi.
    It is impossible to read or reread the blunt and detailed chronicles of the period without feeling a broken heart and being overcome with despair.
    It all started in Clermont-Ferrand on November 27, 1095, when Pope Urban II appealed to the Christians to go to Jerusalem and use force to liberate Christ’s tomb and all the holy shrines then under Muslim rule.
    Initially, the undertaking was directed against Muslims alone. The Jews were not to be affected. But some members