Yesterday someone sent me a link to a post on Rabbi Shlomo Aviner's Facebook page where his assistant had typed out an answer Rabbi Aviner had given during a Q&A session. The rabbi had been asked a question regarding the late Queen of Britain and what followed was a very fascinating summary of how Jews had a hand in forming the current royal lineage during the time of King Henry VIII. I can't get the story out of my head. It was a serious subject at the time but it seems so hilarious now.
For less relevancy, I'm not translating the entire post, just the portion regarding Henry VIII:
https://www.oxfordchabad.org/templa...-the-Rabbis-of-Venice-in-the-16th-Century.htm
The Italian Rabbi Who Tried to Talk Henry VIII Out of His First Divorce » Mosaic
https://www.bethelmc.org/2010/03/reading-leviticus-with-henry-viii/
That there was some background involvement of Isabella I is very interesting to me, because in Jewish history she's considered evil for taking part in the expulsion of the Spanish Jews in 1492. It seems that the Jews got some form of revenge against her daughter, at the very least (though of course, this probably also had ramifications regarding the British-Spanish treaty).
For less relevancy, I'm not translating the entire post, just the portion regarding Henry VIII:
"500 years ago Henry VIII King of England decided to separate from his wife Catherine of Aragon because they had been married for 14 years that had been filled with miscarriages, save for one daughter, Mary. He was convinced that the marriage was cursed and resolved to marry Anne Boleyn. Problem was, divorce was not allowed according to the Catholic religion.
And so, he turned to Pope Clement VII, requesting he nullify his marriage after the act.
And so, he turned to Pope Clement VII, requesting he nullify his marriage after the act.
He claimed that Catherine had been married prior to his brother Arthur, who had died shortly after. And then it had been decided that the new king, Henry, would marry her, to strengthen the British-Spanish treaty.
The Church had been against that marriage, because it says in the Torah that a widow cannot marry her husband's brother (Leviticus 18:16). However, according to Catholicism, if the marriage hadn't being consummated and the wife was still a virgin, such a marriage would be allowed. Of course, according to Jewish law, there is no such thing, but this is what they believed. So at the time, it had been necessary to check whether Catherine was still a virgin. But Isabella of Castile, Queen of Spain and Catherine's mother, pressured the then-Pope Julius II to exempt her daughter from the checkup, and so the marriage had been approved.
The Church had been against that marriage, because it says in the Torah that a widow cannot marry her husband's brother (Leviticus 18:16). However, according to Catholicism, if the marriage hadn't being consummated and the wife was still a virgin, such a marriage would be allowed. Of course, according to Jewish law, there is no such thing, but this is what they believed. So at the time, it had been necessary to check whether Catherine was still a virgin. But Isabella of Castile, Queen of Spain and Catherine's mother, pressured the then-Pope Julius II to exempt her daughter from the checkup, and so the marriage had been approved.
Now Henry turned to the pope and claimed that the approval had been unlawful, and that when he had married Catherine, she had not been a virgin. But it was all for naught, because Pope Clement VII refused to nullify the marriage, and so came about "The King's Great Matter".
Henry VIII wasn't about to call it quits and declared that the pope was unqualified and was ignoring an explicit verse, that a widow cannot marry her husband's brother. But the pope likewise wasn't going to surrender and turned to rabbis learned in the Talmud, and per their advice, used the following argument: Catherine and Henry's marriage was a levirate marriage, which allows a childless widow to marry her husband's brother. Therefore, the marriage is legitimate.
Henry VIII wasn't about to call it quits and declared that the pope was unqualified and was ignoring an explicit verse, that a widow cannot marry her husband's brother. But the pope likewise wasn't going to surrender and turned to rabbis learned in the Talmud, and per their advice, used the following argument: Catherine and Henry's marriage was a levirate marriage, which allows a childless widow to marry her husband's brother. Therefore, the marriage is legitimate.
Henry VIII also decided to turn to learned rabbis. Problem was, there were no local rabbis in Britain because all of the Jews been expelled some 200 years prior. So he sent agents to Italy to ask some Italian rabbis. They turned to Rabbi Eliyahu Menachem Chalfon of Venice, who explained that after the Cherem (censure) of Rabbeinu Gershom, the law of levirate marriages was no longer acted upon, and people instead turned to Chalitzah (nullification of the obligation of performing a levirate marriage). Thus Henry argued that the marriage had never been legitimate. Of course, it must be said that according to Jewish law, this is not correct (i.e., if a levirate marriage does take place, it is legitimate (and though fairly-to-highly rare over the past millennium, some have taken place, even in modern times)). In any case, this was the king's argument, but the pope refused to surrender and again turned to learned rabbis, who told him that the Cherem of Rabbeinu Gershom was only relevant to Ashkenazis, but Queen Catherine, being Spanish, was Sephardic (Spanish). And so the marriage was actually legitimate.
So Henry also turned again to the rabbis he had been in contact with and asked them what to do. They told him: Duh, get a divorce. Why? Because according to the Torah people can get divorced. When Henry learned that according to the Torah a person can get divorced, he attacked the pope for being facetious with him and for picking and choosing from the Torah only what suited him, such as banning in-law marriage but also banning divorce. He decided that the pope was an unlearned ignoramus and decided to separate from the Catholic Church. A year later, the new Archbishop of Canterbury announced the nullification of the marriage."
As an aside, I checked the story and it seems that this is only one version of what happened. Some more links with discussions, including different versions:
https://www.oxfordchabad.org/templa...-the-Rabbis-of-Venice-in-the-16th-Century.htm
The Italian Rabbi Who Tried to Talk Henry VIII Out of His First Divorce » Mosaic
https://www.bethelmc.org/2010/03/reading-leviticus-with-henry-viii/
That there was some background involvement of Isabella I is very interesting to me, because in Jewish history she's considered evil for taking part in the expulsion of the Spanish Jews in 1492. It seems that the Jews got some form of revenge against her daughter, at the very least (though of course, this probably also had ramifications regarding the British-Spanish treaty).