In the year [1096] * * * the year in which
we anticipated salvation and solace, in accordance
with the prophecy of Jeremiah:
>> note 2 "Sing
with gladness for Jacob" [Jeremiah
31.7] — this year turned instead
to sorrow and groaning, weeping and outcry.
Much hardship and adversity befell us,
the like of which had not occurred in this
kingdom from the time it was established
till the present. All the misfortunes related
in all the admonitions
>> note 3 written,
those enumerated in Scripture as well as
those unwritten, befell us and our souls.
Our sons and our daughters, our elders
and our youth, our servants and our maidservants,
our young and old alike were all stricken
by this great vicissitude.
There arose arrogant people of strange speech,
a nation bitter and impetuous, Frenchmen
and Germans, from all directions. They decided
to set out for the Holy City, there to seek
their house of idolatry, banish the Ishmaelites,
>> note 4 and
conquer the land for themselves. They decorated
themselves prominently with their signs,
by marking themselves upon their garments
with their sign — a horizontal line
over a vertical one — every man and
woman whose heart yearned to go there,
until their ranks swelled so that the number
of men and women, and children exceeded
a locust horde; of them it was said: "The
locusts have no king yet go they forth
all of them by bands" [Proverbs 31.27].
Now it came to pass that as they passed
through the towns where Jews dwelled, they
said to themselves: "Look now, we are
going to seek out our profanity and to take
vengeance on the Ishmaelites for our messiah,
when here are the Jews who murdered and crucified
him. Let us first avenge ourselves on them
and exterminate them from among the nations
so that the name of Israel will no longer
be remembered, or let them adopt our faith
and acknowledge the offspring of promiscuity."
When the Jewish communities learned of this,
they were overcome by fear, trembling, and
pains, as of a woman's travail. They
resorted to the custom of their ancestors:
prayer, charity, and repentance. They decreed
fast days, scattered days as well as consecutive
ones, fasting for three consecutive days,
night and day. They cried to the Lord in
their trouble, but He obstructed their prayer,
concealing Himself in a cloud through which
their prayers could not pass.
On the eighth day of Iyar, on the Sabbath,
the foe attacked the community of Speyer
and murdered ten holy souls who sanctified
their Creator on the holy Sabbath and refused
to defile themselves by adopting the faith
of their foe. There was a pious woman there
who slaughtered herself in sanctification
of God's Name. She was the first among
all the communities of those who were slaughtered.
The remainder were saved by the local bishop
without defilement.
On the twenty-third day of Iyar the steppe-wolves
attacked the community of Worms. Some of
the community were at home, and some in the
court of the local bishop. The enemies and
oppressors set upon the Jews who were in
their homes, pillaging, and murdering men,
women, and children, young and old. They
destroyed the houses and pulled down the
stairways, looking and plundering; and they
took the holy Torah, trampled it in the mud
of the streets and tore it and desecrated
it amidst ridicule and laughter. They devoured
Israel with open maw, saying: "Certainly
this is the day that we hoped for; we have
found, we have seen it" [Lamentations
2.16].
They left only a few alive and had their
way with them, forcibly immersing them in
their filthy waters; and the later acts of
those thus coerced are testimony to this
beginning, for in the end they regarded the
object of the enemy's veneration as no
more than slime and dung. Those who were
slain sanctified the Name for all the world
to see, and exposed their throats for their
heads to be severed for the glory of the
Creator, also slaughtering one another — man
his friend, his kin, his wife, his children,
even his sons-in-law and daughters-in-law;
and compassionate women slaying their only
children — all wholeheartedly accepting
the judgment of Heaven upon themselves, and
as they yielded up their souls to the Creator,
they all cried out: "Hear, O Israel,
the Lord is our God, the Lord is One" [Deuteronomy
6.4].
Seven days later * * * those Jews who were
in the court of the bishop were subjected
to great anguish and the enemy dealt them
what they had dealt the others, tormenting
them and putting them to the sword.
There arose then a young man named Simha
ha-Cohen. When he saw that they were bringing
him to the house of their idolatry, he remained
silent until he arrived there. When he arrived
there, he drew a knife from his sleeve and
slew a knight who was a nephew of the bishop.
They immediately cut his body to pieces.
And it is of him and his like that it is
said: "They that love Him shall be as
the sun when it goes forth in its might" [Judges
5.31].
For these righteous people do I wail and
lament bitterly:
I keen, mourn, and lament over the extolled
community;
In my heart there is wailing, for my wound is severe:
Clothed in horror is the sorrowful remnant,
For the great diadem of gold has fallen from their head.
Friends and beloved ones, the wicked have consumed —
My malevolent neighbors, who have struck at the heritage.
* * *
May the strength of their virtue, and their righteousness as well,
Stand their survivors in good stead forever and ever, Selah.
On the third of the week, the third of the
month Sivan, a day of sanctification and
abstinence for Israel in preparation for
receiving the Torah — the community
of Mainz, saints of the Most High, withdrew
from each other in sanctity and purity, and
sanctified themselves to ascend to God all
together, young and old. Those who had been "pleasant
in their lifetime . . . were not parted in
death"
>> note 5 [2
Samuel 1.23], for all of them were gathered in the courtyard of the bishop.
The enemy arose against them, killing little
children and women, youth and old men, viciously — all
on one day — a nation of fierce countenance
that does not respect the old nor show favor
to the young. The enemy showed no mercy for
babes and sucklings, no pity for women about
to give birth. They left no survivor or remnant
but a dried date, and two or three pits,
for all of them had been eager to sanctify
the Name of Heaven. And when the enemy was
upon them, they all cried out in a great
voice, with one heart and one tongue: "Hear,
O Israel," etc.
Some of the pious old men wrapped themselves
in their fringed prayer shawls and sat in
the bishop's courtyard. They hastened
to fulfill the will of their Creator, not
wishing to flee just to be saved for temporal
life, for lovingly they accepted Heaven's
judgment. The foe hurled stones and arrows
at them, but they did not scurry to flee.
Women, too, girded their loins with strength
and slew their own sons and daughters, and
then themselves. Tenderhearted men also mustered
their strength and slaughtered their wives,
sons, daughters, and infants. The most gentle
and tender of women slaughtered the child
of her delight.
Let the ears hearing this and its like be
seared, for who has heard or seen the likes
of it? Did it ever occur that there were
one thousand 'Akedot
>> note 6 on
a single day? * * * But the heavens did not darken and the stars did not
withhold their radiance! Why did not the sun and the moon turn dark, when
one thousand three hundred holy souls were slain on a single day — among
them babes and sucklings who had not sinned or transgressed — the souls
of innocent poor people? Wilt thou restrain Thyself for these things, O Lord?
Sixty people were rescued on that day in
the courtyard of the bishop. He took them
to the villages of the Rheingau in order
to save them. There, too, the enemy assembled
against them and slew them all.
For the pious ones of Mainz I shall let
out wailing like a jackal:
Woe is me for my calamity, severe is my
wound, I declare:
"My tent has been pillaged and all my ropes have been broken:
my children have left me" [Jeremiah 10.20].
* * *
Avenge me, avenge the blood of Your Saints,
O Lord my Master,
For naught can take their place. You have assured and told me —
I will avenge their blood which I have not avenged; and my dwelling is
in Zion.
* * *
The news reached Cologne on the fifth of
the month, the eve of Pentecost, and instilled
mortal fear into the community. Everyone
fled to the houses of Gentile acquaintances
and remained there. On the following morning
the enemies rose up and broke into the houses,
looting and plundering. The foe destroyed
the synagogue and removed the Torah Scrolls,
desecrating them and casting them into the
streets to be trodden underfoot. On the very
day the Torah was given, when the earth trembled
and its pillars quivered, they now tore,
burned, and trod upon it — those wicked
evildoers regarding whom it is said: "Robbers
have entered and profaned it" [Ezekiel
7.22].
O God, will You not punish them for these
acts? How long will You look on at the wicked
and remain silent? "See, O Lord, and
behold, how abject I am become" [Lamentations
1.11].
That very day they shed the blood of a pious
man named Isaac. The enemy led him to their
house of idolatry, but he spat at them, reviled
and ridiculed them. Isaac did not desire
to flee from his home, for he was happy and
eager to accept the judgment of Heaven. They
also slew a pious woman.
The rest were saved in the homes of acquaintances
to which they had fled, until the bishop
took them to his villages on the tenth of
the month, to save them, and dispersed them
in the several villages. There they remained
until the month of Tammuz, anticipating death
each day. They fasted daily, even on the
two consecutive festive days of the New Moon
of Tammuz, which that year occurred on Monday
and Tuesday. They also fasted the following
day.
On that day, the enemies marked with insignia
[i.e., the cross], as well as those unmarked
[i.e. members of the local population], came,
for it was St. John's day. They all gathered
in the village of Neuss. Samuel, the son
of Asher, sanctified God's Name for all
to behold, as did his two sons who were with
him. After he and his sons were slain they
defiled their bodies by dragging them through
the muddy streets and trampling them. Then
they hanged his sons at the entrance to his
home in order to mock him. "How long,
O Lord, will You be angry," etc. [Psalms
79.5].
For the sacred community of Cologne let
me raise my voice in bitter lament:
For those who have martyred themselves
in sanctification of the
Name let me wail and wander about to all the cities,
And clothe myself in sack and ashes, and drink bitter water;
And go to sing songs of lament on the mountains.
And let all the survivors mourn and grieve, all pure hearts,
For the holy community let them mourn forever.
May their death be a source of forgiveness and pardon for us.
Prepare hastily, mourning and wailing for the pious of Cologne.
* * *