V

Ramon Llull was granted permission to preach in the synagogues and mosques of the kingdom of James II on the 30 October 1299. There is one particularly interesting feature in this letter which already serves to set Llull apart from the mendicant preachers. Presumably at the insistence of Llull, the King gives the Jews permission to reply freely and without constraint to Llull's sermon.[45] Llull, as we know from other places in his writings, would have deemed the whole operation vain if there was not, at least in theory, a frank debate over the issues being discussed.[46] His idea of preaching was not to dictate the truth, but to encourage debate over the important issues being discussed. It was by engaging his audience in debate and introducing them to the Art that Llull believed he would be able to convert them. It was this theory that Llull wished to put into practice when preaching in the synagogue.

We must now try to set the scene of Llull's arrival at the synagogue in the call of Barcelona probably during the winter months of 1299.[47] Llull was in Paris until August or September 1299, when he must have made his way back to Barcelona. It is during this stay in Barcelona that he received permission to preach and was also writing the Dictat de Ramon, and the Oracions de Ramon dedicated to the King and his wife.[48] Llull is to be found back in Majorca at the start of 1300 where he completed the encyclopaedic Començaments de filosofia started in Paris and wrote the long poem Medicina de peccat.[49] The letter given to Llull was signed by the King on the 30 October, and the former, having been given permission, is unlikely to have wasted much time.

Llull would have been likely to announce his pending visit to the synagogue to the leaders of the Jewish community. This would have had a dual purpose. The first, to assure the presence of those important Jewish figures in the synagogue and secondly as a matter of courtesy.[50] It is to be remembered that Llull wanted to assure a reasonably tranquil ambience to encourage discussion and debate rather than an atmosphere of fear and distrust. It is also for this reason that Llull would probably have come to the synagogue with not more than two or three companions, perhaps some of his disciples, in order not to intimidate those present. This is further attested by the lack of any mention in the letter given to Llull by the King of the number of people allowed to accompany Llull.[51] Presumably, the King realised that, unlike the mendicant preachers, there would be no incitement to riot or attempts at forced conversion.

Who can we have expected to be present in the synagogue? From an incipit to one of Llull's works, quoted many times in scholarly literature, we know that Llull was in contact with three of the important figures of the Jewish community in Barcelona at this time. Solomon ibn Adret (c. 1233 - 1310) was a disciple of Nahmanides and, aside from being an expert in law, was also a Kabbalist who received direct transmission of esoteric teachings from his teacher.[52] Rabbi Aaron ha-Levi, the second rabbi addressed in the incipit, is more of an unknown quantity. It is clear that he was a great legist. Where he disagreed with the rulings of Solomon he wrote treatises upholding his, and criticising Solomon's, position.[53] He and Solomon ibn Adret were appointed judges in a dispute between a Joseph ibn Baruch and the Call of Saragossa by Peter III and he was asked by the same Peter to be the Rabbi of Saragossa in 1284.[54] There are some who attribute to him the Sefer ha-Hinuch (`Book of Education') which is an exposition of the 613 commandments in the Torah. This work fits in very well with a new but important genre of mystical literature called ta'amei ha-mizvot (`the mystical reasons for the commandments'). There are literally thousands of unpublished fragments in manuscript of this genre of literature. Important figures like Joseph Gikatilla and Moses de Leon wrote widely on this subject.[55] If Sefer ha-Hinuch is indeed the work of Aaron, then he too was the recipient of Kabbalistic tradition.

The third figure is the least known of all and has been identified with Judah Salmon.[56] It is of great significance that Llull should have been in contact with him, because he was also the mediator between Solomon b. Adret and the famous Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia (1240-c.1290). He is found in connection with Solomon ibn Adret as the two of them were judges in a divorce case referred to them in 1281 by Peter III and they both sat together as judges on the Jewish council of Barcelona.[57] Sometime during the 1280's (as attested in a responsum concerning the prophet of Avila in 1295) Solomon ibn Adret put out a ban against the writings of Abraham Abulafia. In his defence, although he was probably in Sicily at the time, Abulafia sent a long letter explaining his teachings and accusing Solomon b. Adret of hypocrisy. This letter, known to scholarship as Ve-Zot li-Yehuda (`And this is for Judah') is extant, and the Judah addressed is Judah Salmon.[58] Otherwise, not much else is known about Judah, and who his Kabbalistic teachers were remains unclear. We can expect these three figures to have been present as well as probably some of their disciples and the rest of the Jewish community which probably numbered in this period between two and three hundred families.[59]