Jewish prayer against enemies7/5/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Local clergy who encouraged and participated in the violence against Jews were in violation of the rules of their own church. David Nirenberg, a scholar of medieval Jewish-Christian relations, argues that this violence reenacted the violence of Jesus’ suffering and death.Īnother scholar of this history, Lester Little, argues that the attack on the Jewish community was meant to be a revenge for the death of Jesus and a ritual act that reinforced the boundary between Jews and Christians. Often these attacks were led by the clergy. It was common for Jewish houses to be attacked with stones. This language about Jews in the medieval Good Friday liturgy often carried over into physical violence toward local Jewish communities. Medieval Christians thus received the message on Good Friday that the Jews who lived in their midst were the enemies of Christians who killed their savior and needed to either convert to Christianity or face divine punishment. In this piece, the voice of God accused the Jewish people of faithlessness in rejecting Jesus as their Messiah and crucifying him instead. During the medieval Good Friday service, Christians prayed for the “perfidious” – or deceitful – Jews that God might “remove the veil from their hearts so that they would know Jesus Christ.” In another part of the service, a crucifix was placed in front of the congregation so people could venerate the crucified body of Jesus.ĭuring this time, a chant known as “the Reproaches” was sung. ![]()
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