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portrait of the inception of the First Crusade. This mammoth and eventually harmful enterprise was set
in motion by genuine religious enthusiasm. Let us look once more at the description in the Mainz
Anonymous, purposely truncated for the moment:
It came to pass in the year 1028 after the destruction of the [Second] Temple, that this calamity struck Israel. Barons,
nobles, and common-folk in France arose, took counsel, and decided to ascend, to rise up like eagles, to do battle, and to
clear the way to Jerusalem, the Holy City.[9]
Breaking for a moment at this point, we are surely inclined to see the undertaking in a positive
light. This certainly looks like a movement inspired by laudable goals. More important, our author
clearly perceives history as set in motion by the arousal of human will and spiritual passion.
Although history was set on its course by the arousal of human will and although the goal of the
enterprise seemed noble, there was in fact a profound problem with the precise objective of the
campaign, which to the Jewish observer could only have been seen as hopelessly misguided. The
specific goal of the crusade was to attain "Jerusalem, the Holy City [for both Christians and Jews] and
to reach the sepulcher of
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the crucified, a trampled corpse that can neither profit nor aid, because he is vanity."[10] Intense
spiritual sensitivities set the crusade into motion; the depth and impact of these feelings were, for the
Jewish observer, beyond question. It was the orientation of these sensitivities or, more precisely, the
erroneous goal of these feelings that transformed piety into folly, religious enthusiasm into vanity.
Humans set in motion the events of 1096 and controlled the direction of these events. The tragedy of
1096 lay in the fundamental errors of the Christians and their worldview.
As noted, the crusaders responsible for the atrocities of 1096 are not portrayed as moved by venal
motivations. They were cruel in the extreme, but their cruelty was rooted in their intense commitment
to a misguided religious vision. We recall, for example, the story of the lad Daniel ben Isaac of Worms.
This young man, upon refusing baptism, had a rope slipped around his neck and was dragged
throughout the town, up to the church. All the while, the crusaders and burghers urged him to relent
in his devotion and to convert, which he steadfastly refused to do.[11] Likewise, in Mainz, after
storming the chamber in which a number of Jews had found refuge, the crusaders of Count Emicho
killed all those whom they found, stripped the corpses naked, and threw them to the ground below.
Those victims who had somehow survived the attacks and were lying in their death throes were yet
again urged to convert, even at this very last moment.[12] The Christians thus exhibit intense and
consistent commitment, a commitment that the Jewish author seems to admire for its intensity and
consistency, while excoriating it for its vacuity and error. Most important is the sense that it was this
driving human will on the majority side that set the tragedy into motion. Humans in this case the
crusaders and their allies supply the energy that sets history on its in this instance tragic course.
What is true for the Christian persecutors and their role in 1096 is yet more obvious for the Jewish
heroes, their actions in 1096, and the impact these actions will exert upon the further course of
history. The Jewish hero figures are, like their Christian counterparts and persecutors, intensely
human, with their will and commitments looming large. They may not seem to dominate the scene in
1096, at least in military and political terms, but to our Jewish authors they in fact constitute the most
significant facet of this tumultuous period. They more than match their Christian counterparts in the
intensity of their commitment and the depth of their devotion. More important by far, they supersede
their Christian counterparts in the propriety of their goals. Christian aspirations are focused on a
human deity that is a sham; Jewish eyes are set
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upon the one God, creator of heaven and earth, enunciator of the covenant and its demands, and
shaper of history in ultimate terms. The behaviors of the Jews of 1096 will, in the long term, turn
history in new directions. It is hard to imagine a profounder respect for human potential and a deeper
sense of the human role than that expressed by our Jewish narrators.
The Jewish hero figures of 1096 are drawn far more fully and forcefully than their Christian
counterparts. They are, first of all, real people, and their behaviors are realistically portrayed. While
many of the descriptions are painfully graphic, there is nothing folkloristic or unbelievable about the
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accounts. This is in striking contrast, for example, to the stories of Daniel and his associates and of the
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