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Thursday, September 15, 2022

Nostradamus , Jew of France Born Into World-Wide Anti-Semitism

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              


Michel de Nostredame (December 1503 – July 1566), usually Latinised as Nostradamus, was a French astrologerapothecary, physician, and reputed seer, who is best known for his book Les Prophéties (published in 1555), a collection of 942 poetic quatrains allegedly predicting future events.  He was Jewish, born during the time of the Spanish Inquisition.    He probably wasn't a practicing Jew, but that doesn't matter. They were Jewish Christians, and hated the Catholic Church, so they say. Nostradamus's father's family had originally been Jewish, but had converted to Catholic Christianity a generation before Nostradamus was born, which could have been done in about 1478 in France.  Jews were not wanted in France.

Nostradamus’ prophecies speak of dark futures—mass exterminations, famines, wars of epic proportions, and scientific disasters—all things which have come true over the centuries. They were predicted by a man who claims he saw it coming hundreds of years ago. If Nostradamus truly did know the future, what else could we learn from his foreseeing? 

Nostradamus was born on either 14 or 21 December 1503 in Saint-Rémy-de-ProvenceProvence, France, where his claimed birthplace still exists, and baptized Michel. He was one of at least nine children of notary Jaume (or Jacques) de Nostredame and Reynière, granddaughter of Pierre de Saint-Rémy who worked as a physician in Saint-Rémy. 

Jaume's family had originally been Jewish, but his father, Cresquas, a grain and money dealer based in Avignon, had converted to Catholicism around 1459–60, taking the Christian name "Pierre" and the surname "Nostredame" (Our Lady), the saint on whose day his conversion was solemnised. The earliest ancestor who can be identified on the paternal side is Astruge of Carcassonne, who died about 1420. Michel's known siblings included Delphine, Jean (c. 1507–1577), Pierre, Hector, Louis, Bertrand, Jean II (born 1522) and Antoine (born 1523). Little else is known about his childhood, although there is a persistent tradition that he was educated by his maternal great-grandfather Jean de St. Rémy—a tradition which is somewhat undermined by the fact that the latter disappears from the historical record after 1504 when the child was only one year old.

So he was Nostradamus, son of Jaume the notary and Reyniere, son of Cresuas, a grain and money dealer;  his father and grandfather and possibly ggrandfather-Astruge of Carcassanne.  They all had to convert to Catholisicm during this period of anti-Semitism from the Catholic Church.  

 His father was too afraid to do anything for fear of being killed.  His prophecies have come true for those who believe they understand his hidden meanings.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO9R7-ZOcs4  They say they are the countdown to the apocalypse.  2/3s of his writings have come true.  We have 1/3 more to go.  He used astrology a lot.  

The stage was set for anti-Semitism; hatred and fear of Jews.  From 640, 721 and 873, Jews in the Byzantine Empire were forcibly converted to Christianity, and still there were Jews in the world. The Romans had set their meetings to speak of excluding Jews from everything. They didn't want their new religion of Christianity to have any competition.  It was enough that Constantine preferred his old religion from Mt. Olympus and his polytheistic beliefs.


Being France borders the Mediterranean Sea, Jews had been trading with port cities since before 70 CE when Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed by fire by the Romans, trading during the period of the Roman Empire.

France had the 1st Crusade in 1096; Blood Accusations in Blois in 1171;  !st Lateran Council in 1215;  .Disputation in Paris in 1240 where book burning was done to the book, Talmud.  Louis IX from 1226 to 1270; and expelled in 1306.    


1040-1105:  Rashi was born in Troyes, France before the 1st Crusade and would have been 56 when they hit France. This is our most famous Jewish biblical commentator and teacher that we have had.  Rashi is the abbreviation for Rabbi Solomon Yitzhaki ben Isaac.  He studied in the Rhineland and then returned to Troyes.  His comments are still in our prayer-books.   

The Spanish Inquisition:  The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition, was established in 1478 by the Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile.  However, the abhorrence of Jews started happening much earlier.  

Back in 1306, Jews had been expulsed from France.

By 1420, a Jewish community in Toulouse, France was annihilated. This happened before Nostradamus.   

 It was in 1290 that Jews were expulsed from England because they were Jewish.  They wouldn't be allowed to return for 365 years. 

Even in Spain, in 1355, 12,000 Jews were  massacred by a mob in Toledo.  

World-wide Expulsions:  1349-1360 Hungary;  1421-Austria, 1495-Lithuania, 1497-Sicily, Sardinia, Portugal, 1502-Rhodes Jews forcibly converted, expelled or taken into slavery;  1541-kingdom of Naples;   and it continued.

1392:  Massacres of Jews in Spain-forced baptism of Jews and in Portugal later, and Dominican campaign led by Vicente Ferrer at beginning of 15th century.  

 

In 1492, 180,000 Jews were expulsed from Spain.  50,000 converted to Christianity in order to remain in Spain. Had happened in 1146 as well.   This is the period that we remember with the poem, "In 1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue".--. remembering that even Columbus is thought to have been Jewish as he wrote to his son in Hebrew.  His ship sailed at the time Jews were forced to leave Spain or face death.  Several of his crew were said to have been Jewish.  If Columbus was Jewish, he was one of the "hidden Jews,"  pretending to be Christian to protect his life.  They were called "Marranos- meaning Swine in Spanish."  Today they have the name of the Anusim.  

1497: forced conversion from Portugal  of almost all Jews .

1540-Spanish Inquisition rules, expusion.  

All over the world, Jews were being kicked out of the country.  Jews had to dare to board flimsy ships that might sink hoping to find some unknown land where they could settle in.  

What was happening in Palestine at this time?  Jews had been told to stay out ever since 70 CE.  The Crusaders had been there, ruling.                             

1096-1291:  The Crusades were a series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims started primarily to secure control of holy sites considered sacred by both groups. In all, eight major Crusade expeditions — varying in size, strength and degree of success .  

  • 1470: Al-Suyuti: "Syria is divided into five provinces, or sections:— First, Palestine,

  • 1496: In the hands of the Arabs. 
  • 1566:  Nostradomus died during the Ottoman Empire's Rule in Palestine.  

  • 1517:  Ottoman Empire Rule from Turkey until 1917.  
  • Individual Jews returned to Palestine, many tried and didn't make it.  There were many dangers in traveling alone in those days on land and in the seas. Safed (Tzfat) in the mountains was one city that saw people from the galut. 

    1882:  First Aliyah from Eastern Europe's Jews
  • The influx of immigrants into the Land of Israel during the years 1882-1903 is known as “The First Aliyah.” This was the first large wave of immigrants that were motivated by nationalism. During these years some 25,000 Jews emigrated from Russia and Rumania, and 2,500 arrived from Yemen. 

Nostradamus knew of the horrors his own Jewish family had to face, from grandfather to father and himself, so he was ready to face nothing but bad events in the future.  

He married a woman in Agen, France of uncertain name (possibly Henriette d'Encausse), with whom he had two children. In 1534 his wife and children died, presumably from the plague. After their deaths, he continued to travel, passing through France and possibly Italy.

The Black Death was present in France between 1347 and 1352. The bubonic plague pandemic, known as the Black Death, reached France by ship from Italy to Marseille in November 1347, spread first through Southern France, and then continued outwards to Northern France.  At the time, Pope Clement VI resided in Avignon in present-day France during the Western Schism, and issued his condemnations of the Jewish persecutions during the Black Death, as well as the flagellants. 

Many of Nostradamus's supporters believe his prophecies are genuine. Owing to the subjective nature of these interpretations, however, no two of them completely agree on what Nostradamus predicted, whether for the past or for the future. Many supporters, however, do agree, for example, that he predicted the Great Fire of London, the French Revolution, the rises of Napoleon and Adolf Hitler, both world wars, and the nuclear   destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Popular authors frequently claim that he predicted whatever major event had just happened at the time of each of their book's publication, such as the Apollo moon landings in 1969, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986, the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, and the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. This 'movable feast' aspect appears to be characteristic of the genre.


Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_name_Palestine

https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/crusades#:~:text=The%20Crusades%20were%20a%20series,occurred%20between%201096%20and%201291.

   https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/nostradamus

https://www.pastchronicles.com/fast-gallery/nostradamus-and-his-bleak-predictions-for-the-world-to-come/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwmouZBhDSARIsALYcourpsx8g0AlQETxn46Ls1H5h5J0d4qeD4H6F42wUnL6_c6r_Dzgc6HcaAuqkEALw_wcB

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death_in_France

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostradamus#:~:text=Marriage%20and%20healing%20work,-Nostradamus's%20house%20at&text=There%20he%20married%20a%20woman,through%20France%20and%20possibly%20Italy.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/nostradamus

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia:  France


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