This final episode of the Rome series traces the dramatic passage from Renaissance promise to persecution and Ghetto life. Jewish life experienced a period of relative protection as popes rebuilt the city and focussed on art. But this fragile security collapsed in the sack of Rome in 1527, when imperial troops devastated the city and its Jewish community.
At its heart is Rav Ovadiah Sforno: physician, dayan, philosopher and commentator, whose years in Rome included teaching the Christian Hebraist Johannes Reuchlin. The episode also explores his defence of Torah and the discovery of his teachings through a student’s manuscript. His recently published Final Will, witnessed by a baker, knight, church deacon & builder, adds a personal glimpse of his property, business interests and charity. Sforno’s anguish over exile and his warnings against communal division lead into the darker Rome that followed: the burning of the Talmud in 1553 and the establishment of the ghetto in 1555.
The episode then returns to its larger question: what does Edom mean in Jewish writings and thought, through history? And how far does Rome’s spiritual and cultural influence exist in the modern West, including the USA?
00:00
Introduction: Rome During the Renaissance
02:10
Renaissance Popes and Jewish Life
05:30
The Sack of Rome in 1527
08:15
Jewish Communities in Renaissance Italy
10:40
Introducing Rabbi Ovadia Sforno
11:50
Johannes Reuchlin and the Defense of the Talmud
17:05
Sforno’s Medical Career and Family
20:10
David Reuveni and Sforno’s Imprisonment
25:00
Sforno’s Years in Bologna
26:05
Sforno’s Writings and Philosophy
32:40
Manuscripts and Religious Teachings
40:20
Sforno’s Will and Family Fortune
44:50
Jewish Unity, Faith, and Scholarship
48:45
Burning of the Talmud and the Roman Ghetto
53:40
Edom, Rome, and Western Civilization
1:01:15
Visiting Rome and Its Jewish History
1:04:00
Closing Reflections