✨ The Return of Nachmanides to Jerusalem – 758 Years Ago Today ✨
✨ The Return of Nachmanides to Jerusalem – 758 Years Ago Today ✨
“I write you… from the holy city of Jerusalem. Praise and thanks be to the Rock of my Salvation, I was privileged to arrive safely on the ninth of the month of Elul plus will stay here in peace until the day after Yom Kippur.”
These words were written 758 years ago (some say 759) by Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, better known as Nachmanides or Ramban. His arrival in Jerusalem marked the beginning of a new chapter in Jewish life in the Land of Israel.
Nachmanides reached the country via the port of Acre after a perilous journey from Spain. His voyage came in the wake of a dramatic public disputation with Christian leaders in 1263, followed by growing pressure from Pope Clement IV. Some saw his departure as forced exile, yet Nachmanides himself described it as a deeply spiritual mission:
“I left my home, abandoned my inheritance. I was like a raven to my sons, as cruel as that bird to my daughters – for I wished my soul to be cradled in my mother’s bosom.”
When he reached Jerusalem, he found a city devastated by the Mamluk conquest, which had driven out the Crusaders. In a letter to his son, he wrote:
“What shall I tell you of the land? Desolation plus ruin abound. The holier the place, the greater its neglect. Jerusalem is the most desolate of all… yet in all its devastation it is still goodly.”
At that time, only two Jewish brothers lived in the entire city. Sometimes they gathered a prayer quorum of ten people in their home. Despite the devastation, Nachmanides refused to give up.
He rallied the tiny Jewish community, and on discovering an abandoned building with marble columns he claimed the ruins & began repairs, creating what became the Ramban Synagogue.
Entrance to the Rambam Synagogue (below the iconic domed Hurva Synagogue)
Inside the Rambam Synagogue
Torah scrolls that had been hidden in Shechem [Nablus] were brought back to Jerusalem, symbolising the renewal of Jewish life in the holy city.
In a letter to his son Nachman in Spain, Ramban wrote about Jerusalem:
"...for all its destruction it is exceedingly good, its inhabitants numbering close to two thousand, among them some 30 Christians, refugees from the sultan’s sword; and there are no Jews within it, for at the coming of the Tatars they fled from there. From those that were killed by their swords, only two brothers who were painters [remained], who bought [the right to] paint from the ruler. A minyan (prayer quorum) would gather in their homes on Shabbat.
And now we have strengthened them by finding a ruined building build with marble columns and a beautiful dome and making it into a synagogue - since the city is ownerless and and anyone who wants to assume a ruin does so. We volunteered to renovate the building, and as soon as they had begun, they dispatched [people] to the city of Shechem to bring from there Torah scrolls that had originated in Jerusalem but had been smuggled out to there at the coming of the Tatars. And so we founded a synagogue there and there the people pray, since there are many who come regularly to Jerusalem, both men and women, from Damascus and Tzova [Aleppo] and all the regions of the Land to see the [site of] the Beit ha-Mikdash and weep for it. One who merits to see Jerusalem in its destruction will also merit to see it in its rebuilt and rehabilitated state, when the glory of the Shechina will return to it"
After the High Holidays, Nachmanides travelled to Hevron, visiting the Tomb of the Patriarchs plus arranging a burial place for himself. Today, several locations across Israel claim to be his final resting place - from Acre to Tiberias to Mount Carmel - reflecting his enduring influence on Jewish history.
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