Episode 26: Rabbi Moshe Saves a Jew from Christianity

00:01 We continue the story of Rabbi Moshe. He is now at the Vatican. A debate with the cardinals has begun, and Rabbi Moshe has shown them that the debate is unequal. It has been postponed until they can resolve that issue, and in the meantime Rabbi Moshe remains there. Some of the cardinals like him, though of course they do not dare express their affection for a Jew. Among Rabbi Moshe’s secret admirers is the cardinal in charge of the Vatican Library. As we recall, Rabbi Moshe had established a relationship with him. He was the one who praised Rabbi Moshe to the other cardinals, which led to the debate. It became clear that although the debate’s stated purpose was an academic contest between spiritual forces, behind it lay a plot to publicly disgrace and humiliate the Jewish religion. These developments caused the cardinal librarian great distress. As though to make up for the suffering he had caused Rabbi Moshe, he welcomed him even more warmly on his visits to the library. Rabbi Moshe continued to spend his time there, studying various manuscripts. The librarian expressed his esteem for Rabbi Moshe, as though to atone for having drawn him into a very dangerous predicament. Meanwhile, something else was troubling Rabbi Moshe. When he delivered the speech that brought the debate to a halt, he noticed a face in the audience that caught his attention. He thought it was the face of a Jew. A young man was sitting among the distinguished Vatican guests who had come to hear the debate. Rabbi Moshe did not have time to study his face closely, but it was clear to him that his words had made an impression on the young listener. Rabbi Moshe wondered how a young Jew had come to be among the Vatican dignitaries and what

02:59 he was doing there. Immediately after the debate began, the young man disappeared. Rabbi Moshe’s questions about his identity received only vague, evasive answers. Moshe decided to ask the cardinal librarian, who had shown him friendship, but the cardinal said that, regrettably, he could not provide the details: it was a closely guarded secret. Naturally, this only heightened Moshe’s curiosity. Several days passed. The cardinal from the library approached Moshe and said he had decided to tell him everything he knew about the young Jew. The young man was highly educated and learned, and came from Poland. He had gone to Venice to study astronomy. He was also interested in the history and development of the various religions, so he attended lectures on the subject. The professor who taught the course at the University of Venice advised him to travel to Rome and study the religions at the Vatican, where, he said, he could pursue the subject at an especially high level. The Christian lecturer’s real intention was to push the talented young Jew into the clutches of Catholic soul-hunters. The young man apparently failed to see the danger and took the professor’s advice. He had already been in Rome for about half a year, diligently studying the religions. As Moshe learned, the young man had initially been careful to observe the mitzvos, but the priests’ influence over him kept growing, and little by little he began to give up various mitzvos. He still kept kosher and observed Shabbos, though. His Christian teachers were full of hope that the day was not far off when he would convert completely. Until they achieved that goal, they kept all details concerning him closely guarded. They feared that word might reach a Jew who would try to save him from the trap laid for him. To the priests, this learned young Jew was a prize

05:50 worth winning for their desire to convert Jews. As soon as Rabbi Moshe heard the story, he felt that the opportunity to save a Jewish soul from destruction had been placed in his hands. Until then, Rabbi Moshe had been filled with sorrow and regret that he had ever come to the Vatican Library. That visit had led to his acquaintance with the librarian, who, in his great admiration, had told the priests about him, setting the whole debate in motion. Now Moshe understood that Divine Providence had arranged all these events so that he could save this Jew from conversion. Rabbi Moshe praised and thanked Hakadosh Boruch Hu for granting him so great a merit: the mitzvah of saving a life. He immediately began thinking hard about how to rescue the educated young man from his situation. He had not even met him yet and had no connection with him or way to reach him. And who knew whether he could persuade a young man standing at the threshold of the forty-nine gates of impurity? This also depended on what the cardinals decided about continuing the debate. A few days later, Rabbi Moshe was informed that the Vatican had decided to hold the debate in two weeks. It would be between Rabbi Moshe and just one Vatican representative. The two debaters would choose a third person to serve as judge and decide between them. All this was meant to demonstrate the Vatican’s desire for fairness and equality in the debate. With free time before the debate, Rabbi Moshe asked his friend, the cardinal librarian, to arrange a meeting with the young Jew who was in danger of conversion, G-d forbid. At first, the cardinal in charge of the Vatican Library refused. He feared the Vatican spies who watched the actions of every official, however senior, and especially those of the young Jewish man. Nevertheless, the cardinal gave Moshe important details about the young man’s daily routine. It turned out that he still went every day, once

08:24 a day, to pray in the synagogue. He had not yet severed his ties with Judaism entirely. He also went to the Jewish inn every day for a meal. Rabbi Moshe concluded that he had two opportunities to meet the young man without attracting particular attention: at the synagogue or at the inn. After careful thought, he decided that the inn was the better place. Rabbi Moshe began taking his meals there. His opportunity came on Shabbos. Moshe was sitting at the table, eating his Shabbos meal, when the young man came in, washed his hands, and sat down at the table too. Suddenly he noticed Rabbi Moshe. He had heard him debating the cardinals at the Vatican. He immediately rose, approached Rabbi Moshe, and said with great emotion, “Ever since I heard your speech to the cardinals, your words have stayed with me. They raised serious doubts in my mind about the truth of Christianity. I had some compelling conversations about it with my teacher, but he could not restore my faith in it. I asked him to arrange a meeting with you so we could clarify the questions that had arisen, but he told me you had already left Rome.” The young man’s innocence was plain to see. Rabbi Moshe advised him not to tell his Catholic instructor about their meeting. From then on, they would meet secretly to talk and discuss matters of faith. That was exactly what the young man wanted. At their first meeting, he told Rabbi Moshe that he came from Vilna and that his name was Gedaliah Moshe Gordon. The details of his life, as he related them to Rabbi Moshe, told an interesting story of thirst for Torah and, separately, for general knowledge. Gedaliah Moshe’s father was a great Torah scholar and a physician in Vilna. He had studied medicine in Padua, Italy, traveling there at the expense of a well-known Vilna philanthropist. In Vilna, he gained

11:05 He earned renown for treating poor patients without charge, and was never seen sitting idle; he devoted all his free time to study. As a typical Vilna man, the learned physician initially opposed the teachings of Kabbalah. But in Padua, he not only trained in medicine; he also came to know the city’s leading Torah scholars and studied under them. Through them, he gained an appreciation of Kabbalah, an interest in it, and some knowledge of its teachings. When he returned to Vilna, he continued studying Kabbalah and taught it to his sons, including Gedalia Moshe. But Gedalia Moshe was more drawn to the study of medicine and the sciences in general. After studying a great deal of Torah, his desire to advance in the sciences grew, and he decided to seek out a center of learning where he could satisfy his thirst for study. He especially wanted to devote himself to learning different languages, so he traveled to Venice, where he studied theology. He then traveled to Rome on his teachers’ advice, as we have already related. There, at the Vatican, he began to come under the influence of his Catholic teachers. As a result, he developed an inclination toward Christianity, and senior priests at the Vatican hoped he would soon fall into their net like ripe fruit and convert. But when Gedalia Moshe met Rabbi Moshe, it became clear that he was still far from taking that final step. His doubts and inner struggles came to the surface and could not be brushed aside. At that meeting, Gedalia Moshe also had interesting stories to tell about various characters on the Vatican campus, among both the students and the lecturers. To Moshe’s great surprise, it turned out that there were a considerable number of Jews in both groups. Gedalia Moshe also told him the names of several senior Vatican lecturers, leading clergymen who were Jews who had converted. On the other hand, there were Jews there whose connection to Judaism was exceedingly slight, but who were not Christians because they had not converted. One of them was a man named

13:55 Professor Lambran[?], originally from France. Though an assimilated Jew, he was far from Christianity. This Lambran[?] taught Gedalia Moshe mathematics, and he played a major part in rekindling the young man’s doubts about the Jewish faith. Coupled with the influence of his Catholic teachers, some of whom were fanatical converts, this began Gedalia Moshe’s slide down the slope toward the abyss of Christianity. It was therefore just the right moment for Rabbi Moshe to take Gedalia Moshe under his wing. Gedalia Moshe held Rabbi Moshe in very high regard, and Rabbi Moshe was able to show him, through reason and extensive knowledge, that the true answers to all questions of faith are found in the Torah. Before long, Gedalia Moshe had firmly reconnected with Judaism. On Rabbi Moshe’s advice, and to escape the net the priests had spread for him, Gedalia Moshe moved out of the student residence and into the home of a Jewish family in Rome, coming to the academy only for lectures. Gedalia Moshe was pursuing two courses of study at once: one in the exact sciences, mathematics and astronomy; the other in philosophy and the theory of the development of religions. The head of the science department, where the assimilated Jew Lambran[?] also taught, was a Catholic scientist who respected Judaism and knew the Tanach in its original language. In this course, the young Gedalia Moshe made enormous strides and was soon on track to complete it with high honors. In the second course he took, only priests served as lecturers. These priests were among the most influential figures in the Vatican. As long as the clergy thought they could win Gedalia Moshe over to the Church, they welcomed and advanced him, showing him affection and esteem. But as soon as they realized that he was growing stronger in his faith as a Jew—and especially when, following his conversations with Rabbi Moshe, he began forcefully and skillfully to reject all the priests’ arguments against the Jewish religion—they began to show him

16:37 hatred and contempt, and even to persecute him and obstruct his progress. Gedalia Moshe began to feel that he was no longer wanted, especially in that department of the papal academy. He found comfort in his long conversations with Rabbi Moshe. Those conversations were a source of encouragement and strength for him, as he came to see more and more clearly the eternal truth of Judaism.