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halakhic norms and the behaviors of traditional
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Jewish martyr figures. As we have seen recurrently, it is the aggressive and activist Jewish martyrs,
the ones who preempt the Christian persecutors in spilling blood, that dominate the Mainz Anonymous
and the other narrative records. These Jewish hero figures are even more radical than David ben
Nathaniel and Simhah ha-cohen. In the narratives their actions are bellicose and martial; they are
warriors in the service of God, ranged against another set of warriors who deem themselves also
servants of God, but who are in fact thoroughly misguided in that regard. Indeed, the bellicosity of the
Jewish martyrs is matched by the aggressive air of the depiction of their martyrdom.
Activist and aggressive Jewish martyrdom is highlighted in the depiction of Jewish group behaviors
in Worms and Mainz provided in the Mainz Anonymous. For Worms, the narrator offers a brief
description of pitched battle at the gateway to the episcopal palace, with the Christian
forces composed of crusaders, burghers, and villagers eventually victorious. At that point, the Jews
who were now exposed directly to their enemies "accepted the divine judgment and put their trust in
their Creator and offered up true sacrifices. They took their children and slaughtered them willingly for
the unity of the Name that is revered and awesome."[21] The same emphasis is to be found in the
portrait of group behaviors in Mainz. There the description is somewhat fuller, including extensive
reconstruction of the utterances of the martyrs, with an accelerating stress on self-sacrifice rather
than submission to the weapons of others. When all the speeches come to a close, the narrator
concludes: "They then all stood, men and women, and slaughtered one another."[22]
What is true for the portrayal of the group highlighting the activist and aggressive style of Jewish
martyrdom is equally true for the individual portraits that dot the Mainz Anonymous. Although the
author acknowledges a variety of styles of Jewish martyrdom, the activist martyrs dominate. As noted,
the most prolonged and moving of all the individual portraits is that of Rachel of Mainz, who represents
the epitome of aggressive, self-inflicted martyrdom.
Throughout this study, I have noted recurrently the adroit movement from group depiction to
individual portraiture, with the latter deepening and intensifying the impact of the former. At this
point, it would do well to signal a further significance to this interplay. Most martyrological literature is
profoundly individualistic, with great figures holding center stage. This is the case with the precursor
figures so regularly cited in our Hebrew narratives. Daniel and his three friends, the woman and her
seven sons, and Rabbi Akiba and his associates are all outstanding
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figures who embody high virtue in the eyes of those who depicted them. To be sure, there is a certain
hollowness to such depiction of individual giants. To what extent do they represent a norm? Put more
negatively, to what extent do they merely represent personal idiosyncrasy?[23]
For our Jewish narrators, all such questions are unthinkable, for to them the uniqueness of the
events they describe lay in the mass character of the Jewish martyrological behavior. The Jewish
heroes of 1096 were individuals in all their specificity; the phenomenon, however, was a group
phenomenon. For the Mainz Anonymous, this was the overwhelming reality in Worms and Mainz,
where massive martyrdom involved every element in a diversified community. Indeed, this is the
closing and truncated note on which our present version of the narrative ends:
All these things have been done by those whom we have specified by name. The rest of the community [of Mainz] and
the leaders of the congregation [perhaps a reference to Meshullam ben Kalonymous and his followers] what they did
and how they acted for the unity of the Name of the King of kings, the Holy One, may he be blessed, like Rabbi Akiba
and his associates.[24]
There is much more to tell, because every element in the community sanctified the divine Name.
The reference to Rabbi Akiba and his associates is striking. The willingness for martyrdom may be
parallel, but (without explicitly saying so in this particular case) our author surely felt that the Jewish
martyrdoms of 1096 represented far more of a group phenomenon than did those of the Hadrianic
persecutions.
Once again, it should be recalled that our authors do not claim that every Rhineland Jew sanctified
the divine Name. Much attention is lavished on efforts to survive, and some Rhineland Jews did
survive. Likewise, despite the sense of battle that dominates the Hebrew narratives, there is
unflinching testimony to spiritual defeat that is, conversion (to be sure, justified and exonerated). All
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