One of the known sites of medieval Jewry in Oxford is the location of the synagogue, currently the site of Christ Church, established in 1532 by Henry VIII. I would like to outline the history of the site from the medieval period until today and provide a study in Jewish teaching relating to the sanctity of an historic sacred site in Judaism and how that relates to the site of the medieval Oxford synagogue.
The Jewry in Oxford settled in what is now the area of St Aldate’s Street, then known as Great Jewry Street. There were Jewish houses on both sides of St. Aldate's Street, situated in St. Martin’s and St. Aldate’s parishes and bordering the Parish of St Edward’s. The main street in th… Read More »
In the Torah portion of Ekev, it discusses one of the principles in Jewish teaching of reward for keeping the Mitzvot (commandments). It states:[1]
The portion of Mass'ei discusses the enumeration in detail of the forty two travels of the Jewish people after the Exodus in the desert until they arrived on the east bank of the Jordan river before entering the land. The Torah states:[1] ‘These are the journeys of the children of Israel who left the land of Egypt in their legions, under the charge of Moses and Aaron.’ The question that arises is: why does the Torah repeat all the places of the encampment of the Jewish people in the desert when this has been enumerated in detail previously in the Torah in the book of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers?