A Mother’s Plea That Saved Her Son’s Soul

In 1285, in the small Jewish community of Daroca in the Saragossa region of Spain, the synagogue attendant awoke in the middle of the night to strange sounds coming from the synagogue. It was the sound of hammering and sawing. Curious and concerned, he went to investigate. Peeking through a window, he was shocked at what he saw: Isaac ben Avraham was sawing through the doors of the Holy Ark. Through the opening, he was reaching in, trying to take the money and valuables that had been placed atop the Torah scrolls.

Isaac had long been known as a troublemaker. He had no honest trade, never studied Torah, and often drank, stole, and cheated. But even with all his faults, no one imagined he would violate the sanctity of the Holy Ark. The attendant quickly gathered other members of the community, and together they restrained Isaac and locked him in a room used for holding offenders in the Jewish community building.

The next day, the Daroca rabbinical court met to decide his fate. They ruled that Isaac, along with his wife and children, would be expelled from the community for five years. In those days, Jews were not allowed to live outside the Jewish quarter without communal approval. The court issued a severe excommunication order: no one was to house him or rent him a room, and for an entire year he and his family would be publicly cursed and ostracized in the synagogue, with shofar blasts and community members wrapped in tallitot. If they defied the decree and entered Daroca, they would be publicly humiliated, whipped, and denied funeral prayers or Kaddish if they died.

The decree was final and any attempt to interfere with it carried a fine of one hundred gold coins.

It seemed Isaac’s fate was sealed. But then his mother appeared before the rabbinical court, pleading for her son. She had learned that he was considering converting to Christianity. Even though it was strictly forbidden to interfere with a punishment once decided, the judges listened. She begged them to have mercy, reminding them of the kindness her late husband had shown by performing all the burials in the community, and of her own service helping Jewish women in childbirth. Her plea was heartfelt:

"Do this for the honor of Hashem, not for me, so he won’t be tempted by idolatry. My son is ashamed and wishes to repent. Do not turn him away but bring him back under your shelter."

The judges realized this was no ordinary case. To determine what was right, they wrote to one of the greatest rabbis of the generation, Rabbi Yom Tov Ashvili, the Ritva, in the nearby city of Saragossa. They asked: Could an excommunication be annulled if it meant preventing a Jew from abandoning his faith?

The Ritva’s answer was clear:
"If you believe that Isaac might indeed leave Judaism because of this decree, and that by lifting it he will truly repent and accept proper punishment, then you may annul it. All sinners who repent are to be accepted, as it says, ‘Return, wayward children.’ It is a great mitzvah to save a Jewish soul. Therefore, the excommunication can be lifted for the sake of a mitzvah."

And so, Isaac’s punishment was lifted. What became of him afterward is unknown but we can hope that his mother’s tears and the Ritva’s compassion helped him return to the right path.