Meshullam of Volterra

Meshullam of Volterra.

In 1481 Meshullam of Volterra visited the city (see his letter in Luncz, l.c. i. 202). He found there 10,000 Mohammedan and about 250 Jewish families (Brüll's "Jahrb." vii. 123). The Gate ha-RaHamim, he says, is 4 cubits above the earth and 2 cubits below; and he solemnly records that on every Ninth of Ab, when the Jews go to pray near where the Temple was situated, the lights go out of their own accord. Of the twelve gates in the Temple area, five were closed: the two Ha-RaHamim mentioned above and three others which had been built up by the Moslems, but the traces of which could still be seen. He speaks of the buildings in Jerusalem as large and beautiful; and it is interesting to note that he gives the name "Mt. Zion" to the hill on which the Temple stood (pp. 202, 207). He mentions as parnas R. Joseph de Montaña Ashkenazi, and as vice-parnas R. Jacob b. Moses. The chief rabbi was R. Shalom Ashkenazi. It seems probable that the custom of regularly sending out "sheliHim" commenced at this time. The first of them seems to have been R. Moses Twenty-four (). The two letters of Obadiah of Bertinoro, dated respectively 1488 and 1489 (ed. Neubauer, Leipsic, 1863), give an interesting picture of the Jerusalem Jews at this time. Among the 4,000 inhabitants he found seventy Jewish families, all in poor circumstances, and in the ratio of seven women to one man. The community was in debt to the extent of 1,000 gold pieces. Even the ornaments on the scrolls of the Law had been sold. Jews lived not only in the Jews' street, but also on Zion. He was especially interested in the Ashkenazic Jews, to whom all the houses around the synagogue belonged.

Jerusalem