{"id":1821,"date":"2022-02-07T06:33:21","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T14:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/?p=1821"},"modified":"2022-02-07T01:39:02","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T09:39:02","slug":"difficult-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/2022\/02\/07\/difficult-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"Difficult thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s book is a slow read, an absorbing one, and occasionally a very difficult one. It\u2019s Polin<\/em><\/a>, volume 22. Polin is a series of studies of Jewish history from a particular region. Polin 22 looks at social and cultural boundaries, mainly from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century. I\u2019m taking a break from it because reading about the blood libel sucks. It always does. If my life were easier I\u2019d not have to even think about it, but I can\u2019t consider space and boundaries without considering those where there is intentional transgression.<\/p>\n

Imagine someone making up a nasty lie. Imagine people being killed over it. Other people say \u201cIt\u2019s a nasty lie.\u201d People who support those who invented the lie in the first place don\u2019t listen to the proof of it being a lie, but add torture to the questions posed to prove the victims have done the thing they actually didn\u2019t do. The question in this chapter, I suspect, is whether the innocent people who are being blamed for this thing they didn\u2019t do die from the torture or from the punishment.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m reading it to understand how the trial could even take place and how it operates. Is there even a modicum of fairness or justice? None. Not a skerrick. This is why I need to understand the trial itself. This is the chapter I need a break from.<\/p>\n

The thing that stopped me in my tracks was the way questioning was done, before any torture. The subject was sprinkled with Christian holy water and forced to wear Christian religious items and made to eat some blessed salt and to say a Psalm. This was to defeat any Jewish lies he might tell. All the alleged child-killer (who was guilty only of being Jewish, and who murdered no-one) did was repeat the same simple truth: there was no requirement in Judaism to drink the blood of children, and it was something that no Jew would ever do. Over and over again he was forced to explain this and over and over again it was disbelieved. I\u2019ve seen reports from blood libel trials where the Jew was blamed even when the child appeared, perfectly alive.<\/p>\n

The whole blood libel was an invention and still is, today. When I was accused of it in primary school and of eating unleavened bread that contained the blood of newborn Christian children, I brought a whole box of matzah to school, and made the accusers read the ingredients on the box. The ingredients were water, flour and salt. I was told I was a liar, but other children were there and they passed the box around and everyone read the ingredients aloud. Primary school children believe in the printed word and someone (not one of the accusers) took some of the matzah out of the box, ate it, and we began to talk about its flavour. That particular episode was finished for that moment. My trial was very light.<\/p>\n

The chapter brought back that memory. There was no way out for the three on trial in this case. Innocence was irrelevant, but likewise so was the concept of evidence.<\/p>\n

At first I kept reading, despite the gut punch because I found a piece of evidence I hadn\u2019t seen before (I wasn\u2019t looking for it, to be honest) and I stopped to think. I wondered\u2026 how much of the nineteenth century \u201cKeep vampires away\u201d tricks began as \u201cKeep Jews away.\u201d I\u2019m not sure I want to find out.<\/p>\n

I have to read it, because it\u2019s telling me important things about what happens when Jews are victimised at a time and place when things were pretty good, compared with other times and places. I\u2019ll get through it and then take a deep breath and, from the moment the next chapter begins, I\u2019ll be less full of misery. Something deep inside me hurts, every time I read a trial record or a description of one where everything is set up to make the innocent look guilty.<\/p>\n

The next chapter is by one of my favourite scholars. I\u2019ve never met her, but I read anything I can get hold of by her. I can\u2019t get hold of much, being in the wrong corner of a far-flung globe, but\u2026 I want to skip straight to the Carlebach chapter on a chronograph. I want to skip seeing people hurt and enjoy contemplating time and space.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to return to reading and I\u2019m going to finish the chapter. That\u2019s the fastest way of not carrying the weight of history on my shoulders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s book is a slow read, an absorbing one, and occasionally a very difficult one. It\u2019s Polin, volume 22. Polin is a series of studies of Jewish history from a particular region. Polin 22 looks at social and cultural boundaries, mainly from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century. I\u2019m taking a break from it because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[335,16,56,15,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-2","category-essays","category-life-experiences","category-memoir","category-nonfiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1822,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1821\/revisions\/1822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}