#ramban

These Questions are the result of suggestions from the previous iteration.

This category may include suggestions made too late to fall into the correct earlier time grouping, hence the occasional random item waaay out of it's time period.

In some cases a culture lasted a really long time and I grouped them by whether it was likely the later or earlier grouping made the most sense with the information I had. (Invention ofs tend to fall in an earlier grouping if it's still open. Ones that imply height of or just before something tend to get grouped later, but not always. Sometimes I'll split two different things from the same culture into different polls because they involve separate research goals or the like).

"Michael... But I'm no innocent! In my hubris, I drove an innocent man-- Michael Landau-- to hang himself in his cell. In my grief and rage, I destroyed an entire country! I killed innocent beings! What sins did the children commit who died that day?! How am I better than those I was sent to judge?!.. I have failed to understand. Amy tried to teach me and I wouldn't hear. Without mercy, there is no justice-- only vengeance. I must confront evil and understand better the darkness, the evil, within my own soul."

The Spectre (1992-1998) Vol. 2: Wrath Of God. "Final Judgements."

9 Elul - Nachmanides - 1267 BCE

On this day in 1267 Rabbi Moshe Ben Nachman, also known as Nachmonadies or the Ramban, arrived in Jerusalem. He was forced to flee his native Spain in the aftermath of the great debate of Barcelona where he was challenged by and beat the apostate jew Pablo Cristiani. He first fled from Spain to Castille in France but eventually made his way to Israel.

When the Ramban arrived in Jerusalem, the city had just been through two centuries of crusader wars. Most Jews had fled to other parts of the country. The Ramban wrote that he only found 2 Jewish men in the holy city when he arrived. He subsequently traveled the country paying people to relocate to the historical capital of the Jews. He built a synagogue that was active until the War of Independence in 1948 when it was destroyed by the Arabs along with every synagogue in the old city. In stark contrast, when the Jews took control of the city in 1967, they left every single mosque intact. The Ramban’s synagogue was then restored, and functions until this day.

Many look at this day of the beginning of the resettlement of Jews in Jerusalem. They were kicked out by the Crusaders in 1095. In 1187, Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt, allowed the Jews to return upon his victory over the Crusaders, but it wasn’t until the initiative of the Ramban that the city’s Jewish life became reignited.

וַיֹּאמֶר קַיִן, אֶל-יְהוָה גָּדוֹל עֲו‍ֹנִי מִנְּשֹׂא: הֵן גֵּרַשְׁתָּ אֹתִי הַיּוֹם מֵעַל פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה, וּמִפָּנֶיךָ אֶסָּתֵר וְהָיִיתִי נָע וָנָד בָּאָרֶץ וְהָיָה כָל-מֹצְאִי יַהַרְגֵנִי: -And Cain said to G-d, "My sin is too big to carry. For today you have banished me on earth and I will hide from you, and I will wander the land and all those who find me will kill me".

I really like the parshanut the Ramban gives to this. It's so believing in humans.

Anyways

the Ramban says that when Cain is saying that his sin is too heavy to carry he is recognizing that what he did was horrible. (And the hiding thing is from shame.)

And what's more, he is telling G-d when he says that all that find him will kill him that G-d is in charge of everything and without G-d's protectieven animals can kill you (it is generally agreed that "all those who find me" are wild animals, not other people).

And so he is saying I know that I did something horrible, and I understand this because you banished me, but if you don't protect me I will die because you are great, which I obviously didn't understand properly before from my sacrifice. (

הֵן גֵּרַשְׁתָּ אֹתִי הַיּוֹם מֵעַל פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה וּמִפָּנֶיךָ אֶסָּתֵר וְהָיִיתִי נָע וָנָד בָּאָרֶץ וְהָיָה כָל מֹצְאִי יַהַרְגֵנִי. וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ יְהוָה לָכֵן כָּל הֹרֵג קַיִן שִׁבְעָתַיִם יֻקָּם וַיָּשֶׂם יְהוָה לְקַיִן אוֹת לְבִלְתִּי הַכּוֹת אֹתוֹ כָּל מֹצְאוֹ.-For today you have banished me on earth and I will hide from you, and I will wander the land and all those who find me will kill me." And G-d told him, "Because of this anyone who kills Cain will be cursed for seven generations", and G-d put to Cain a sign that all those who find him will not kill him.

note: I translated the "seven generations" according to Unkulus, and not according to the Ramban's commentry, because I'm not paying attention to that commentry and I needed a translation to use because it was hard to understand. All the rest is my own translation.