Rav Shlomo Molcho

Early years

Rav Shlomo Molcho zt"l, known as HaKadosh (the holy one), was born around 1500 in Lisbon, Portugal, as Diogo Pires. His family were Marranos (Jews forced to convert to Christianity, who held on to their heritage in secret). A gifted child, he mastered several languages, and as a young man he rose to the post of royal scribe at the court of King Manuel I of Portugal.

In 1523 the adventurer Dovid Reuveni, who claimed to be a prince of a lost Israelite tribe, arrived in Portugal, and Diogo felt moved to return to the faith of his ancestors. It is told that dream visions commanded him to undergo bris milah. He asked Dovid Reuveni to help him draw closer to Yiddishkeit, and when Reuveni, fearing Christian persecution, refused, Diogo circumcised himself. He nearly bled to death. Chassidim and others relate that he awoke with a vast knowledge of Hebrew and Torah.

He left the luxury of the palace and Portugal, took the name Shlomo Molcho and traveled to Salonika. There he joined the yeshiva of Rav Yosef Taitazak and began to learn Kabbalah.

Torah and leadership

Wherever he went, Rav Shlomo gave passionate derashos calling for heartfelt davening, fasting, teshuvah and tikkunim (spiritual repairs) to bring the geulah, the final redemption. He preached in Turkey and Italy, and in Eretz Yisroel at the gates of Yerushalayim and Tzfas. In Tzfas he met Rav Yosef Karo, and he met and influenced Rav Shlomo Alkabetz as well. Rav Yosef Karo would later write in Maggid Meisharim of his envy of Rav Shlomo's martyrdom.

Christians, even some priests, came to hear him alongside the Jews, and his passion moved them too, which made him a thorn in the side of the Church. His words inspired many Marranos to return openly to their faith. Rav Shlomo spoke of the coming fall of Rome and Christendom and of the revival of the kingdom of Judea, and he announced that Moshiach would arrive by the year 1540.

In Rome, it is told, his dream visions continued, and he was commanded to live among the paupers on the bridge over the Tiber. He is said to have foretold the flood of the Tiber on October 8, 1530 and the earthquake in Portugal on January 26, 1531, and both came to pass. A plaque on the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome still marks how high the flood rose. The Lisbon earthquake struck between four and five in the morning, and it and the tsunami of the Tagus that followed took about 30,000 lives.

These events raised his standing with the religious and political authorities. He was received in audience by Pope Clement VII and won his favor and that of some cardinals. He warned the Pope to leave Rome before the flood, sent word to the king of Portugal of the coming earthquake, tried to convince the Pope that the redemption of the Jewish people was near, and asked him to halt the campaign against the Marranos.

Not everyone welcomed his prophecies and visions. His messianic fervor risked stirring up the Inquisition against the Jews, and his strongest opposition came from certain Jews, some of whom tried to inform on him to the Inquisition itself. His main opponent was the court physician, Dr. Jacob Mantino, who repeatedly tried to have him arrested and tried for returning to Judaism after being born a Christian. His main protector was the Pope, who was impressed by his personality and by the accuracy of his predictions. When the Inquisition did arrest him, it is told, the Pope intervened, hid him personally and smuggled him out of Rome, and had a different man burned in his place.

After escaping Rome Rav Shlomo returned to Turkey. In 1532 he traveled to Regensburg (Ratisbon) to meet Emperor Charles V, carrying a flag bearing the Hebrew word Maccabi, the initials of the verse "Who among the mighty is like You, Hashem?" (Shemos 15:11). The meeting lasted about two hours. What was said is not recorded, but letters from the court suggest that he proposed a joint Jewish-Christian army to defend the emperor against his foreign enemies and perhaps to reconquer the Holy Land. Together with Dovid Reuveni he sought to persuade the emperor to raise an army of Marranos to fight the Turks and free Eretz Yisroel, and perhaps even to urge him to convert to Judaism. Rav Yoslimon had sent them a strong warning of the disaster that such a meeting could bring, and he himself left the city to avoid being linked with them.

The emperor was not impressed. He had both men arrested in Regensburg, sentenced Rav Shlomo to death for heresy, and exiled Dovid Reuveni to Spain, where he died in prison. Because of his own conflict with Charles V, the Pope could not save Rav Shlomo this time.

Teachings and seforim

Rav Shlomo's Sefer HaMefoar is a collection of derashos from his travels, mostly in Italy, including twenty-two essays on the redemption according to the secrets of Kabbalah. In its introduction he placed a short poem made from verses of Tehillim 119, in which the first letters of the lines spell his name. His Chayas Kanah describes visions he saw and the Kabbalistic mysteries revealed to him in dreams, and includes details of his own life.

Some of his personal effects are on display in the Jewish Museum in Prague, including his robe and flags. They were first given to Rav Yoslimon when he met Rav Shlomo before the meeting with the emperor, and were later kept in the Pinchas Shul in Prague. His tzitzis and one of the flags have been lost over the years. A copy of his signature has been preserved, in which he stretches the lamed into the shape of a flag.

The Magen Avraham, in Hilchos Tzitzis, cites his minhag that the winding of the strings should equal the gematria of the Shem Havaya: ten windings around the first set of knots, then five, six and ten. Rav Shlomo also had his tzitzis dyed green, as techeles. The Tosfos Yom Tov, in his commentary on the Rosh, records that he himself saw Rav Shlomo's tzitzis in the Pinchas Shul in Prague, where he learned before he was appointed Av Bais Din. The strings were made of silk and had a yellowish-green tint.

Later years and passing

On 5 Teves 5293 (December 13, 1532), Rav Shlomo was burned at the stake in Mantua, Italy, at the age of 31. He had been offered the emperor's pardon on condition that he return to Christianity, and he refused, choosing instead to sanctify the Name of Heaven.

It is told that he said his heart was bitter and troubled over the time he had lived in their faith, and that they should do as they saw fit and let his soul return to its Father's home as in its youth, when it was better off. In another account he said that he had once been counted among their faith and had learned to tell falsehood from truth, and that serving Hashem, the One, is worth giving our lives for with joy. He called out the words of Shema Yisroel. Because of his martyrdom he is known as HaKadosh.

Legacy

Rav Yosef Karo's envy of Rav Shlomo's death al kiddush Hashem is recorded in Maggid Meisharim, and Rav Shlomo's life became a source of strength in emunah in the geulah. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rav Menachem Mendel Schneerson, spoke of him in a sichah on Parshas Tzav, Shushan Purim 5714, calling him a great Kabbalist who was moser nefesh to debate the Pope in Rome in his quest to bring the final redemption. The generation was not worthy of it, the Rebbe said, and Rav Shlomo merited to be burned al kiddush Hashem, a merit that the author of the Bais Yosef had davened for all his life. He left behind his sefer and a flag that hangs in the Maharal's shul in Prague, which strengthens our faith in the geulah.