HISTORIC RESPONSE OF ADRIANAPOLI RABBIS REGARDING YOUTHS OF THE CITY, AGAINST PLAYING GAMES WITH DICE Adrianapoli . ...

HISTORIC RESPONSE OF ADRIANAPOLI RABBIS REGARDING YOUTHS OF THE CITY, AGAINST PLAYING GAMES WITH DICE Adrianapoli . 1555 .
A Historical Response from Adrianople’s Rabbis regarding the Decree of the City’s Residents against Dice Games.

Adrianople, 1555

A rare response of historical importance in the history of one of the most important and ancient Jewish congregations

in Turkey.

The background to understanding the response: In the month of Shevat in 1555, the residents of the city all agreed

not play with dice. The agreement was not signed by the city’s rabbis, but by the city officers. After some time elapsed,

it became clear that this was a decree the public could not abide by. Therefore, several of the city’s citizens requested

to annul the agreement and they were backed by several rabbis from different communities in the city.

They referred the question to Constantinople’s rabbis – Rabbi Abraham Yerushalmi, Rabbi Shmuel Seba and Rabbi

Yehoshua Tzontzin, who ruled that the agreement is null and void. This is what was found printed in the response of

Nahlat Yehoshua of Rabbi Yehoshua Tzontzin (Constantinople 1731), Section 17.

In the response before us Adrianople rabbis write a response to Rabbi Yehoshua Tzontzin with comments to the

ruling of Constantinople’s rabbis, where they draw his attention to the fact that most of the city’s rabbis agree that the

decree should be upheld.

When Rabbi Tzontzin heard the claims of Adrianople’s rabbis, he accepted their view and wrote that the decree is

still valid; see towards the end of the response mentioned, the section starting with the words “Harim hagevohim...”.

The response is signed by fifteen community rabbis of Adrianople

The first signatory is Rabbi Yehoshua Baruch – eventually, one of the great rabbis of Safed on the Beit Din of Rabbi

Yosef Karo. His responsa have been published in the Avkat Rochel Responsa (Sections, 58, 59, 85, 113, and more, and

he signed alongside Safed rabbis in the HaMabi”t Responsa, Part 2, Section 202). See also in ‘Shem HaGedolim’ on

Rabbi Moshe Baruch.

In that that year, 1555, mention was made of him among Andrianople rabbis in the Mahr”i Ben Lev Responsa, Section

4, paragraph 36 (in the new edition) and mentioned by the Maharch”u in Sefer HaZichronot (Shuvi Nafshi edition, p.

233) and see Yosef Bechiri, p. 315, who counts him among the pupils of the Beit Yosef.

[3]. Pp 15*20 cm, excellent condition. On the response is the following inscription: Netzer Meshorshei hayachas

shatul al palgei nachalei ha-chochma ve-hamada Hachacham HaKolel HaShalem Kemahara”r Yehoshua Shontzino

Nar”u BeKushtadnia – MeAdrianopoli.

Adrianople was one of the most important ancient communities in Turkey. After the expulsion from Spain, Jews,

including many rabbis, emigrated there, including HaBeit Yosef, who had a Torah Academy there, and Rabbi Shlomo

Alkabetz, author of ‘Lecha Dodi’. Communities of various origins lived there (from Portugal, Aragon, Toledo and

more). Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz wrote his book Brit Halevy to mark the covenant concluded with the dwellers of that

important city and he writes in his introduction: ‘It was G-d’s will that he led me from my father’s house to a great city

of the Almighty – Adrianople – where He enabled me to find favor with the great, Torah scholars of valor, performing

G-d’s will.. and seeing all these with their great righteousness, piety and Torah purity, I longed to join them and my

heart yearned to be part of their group... and I made an everlasting covenant with them...’

Documents of the history of Adrianople’s Jewry from this period are few and far between; see: Chayyim Berger, Jews

in Edirne (Adrianople) in the 16th and 17th Centuries, Sefunot 18, p. 35.