Solomon Molcho

Nothing is known of Molcho's family or even the exact date of his birth. He was born in Portugal sometime between September 1500 and August 1502, probably to Marrano parents.Kitvei Shlomo Molcho, The Collected Writings of Shlomo Molcho, molchobooks, Jerusalem, 2019, {{ISBN|978-965-91936-3-9}}, p. 125 (Hebrew) His original name was Diogo Pires. He held the post of secretary to the High Court of Appeals of his native country. When the Jewish adventurer David Reubeni arrived in 1525 to negotiate with the king, ostensibly on a political mission from some of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, Molcho wished to join him, but was rejected. He then circumcised himself, though without thereby gaining Reubeni's favor, and was forced to emigrate.Lechu Neranena Le'et Hageula, Jerusalem 2019 {{ISBN|978-965-91936-2-2}}, p. 7 (Hebrew)

Molcho became a master Talmudist and biblical exegist and then studied the Kabbalah with Joseph Taitazak. Although it is not certain that Joseph Karo and Solomon Alkabetz met Molcho, he inspired them, mainly because of his martyrdom.{{Cite book |last=Werblowsky |first=R. J. Zwi |title=Joseph Karo: lawyer and mystic |date=1980 |publisher=Jewish Publ. Society of America |isbn=978-0-8276-0090-4 |location=Philadelphia |pages=97-99}}Lechu Neranena Le'et Hageula, pp. 5, 37. He then wandered as a preacher through Italy and Turkey and achieved a great reputationGedaliah ibn Yahya ben Joseph, [https://www.hebrewbooks.org/6618 Shalshelet Ha-Kabbalah] Jerusalem 1962, p. 112 in PDF (Hebrew) and suggested that the Messianic kingdom would come in 1535 or 1540. In 1529, Molcho published a portion of his sermons under the title Derashot, a book later renamed Sefer ha-Mefo'ar. Returning to Italy, he was opposed by prominent Jews including Jacob Mantino ben Samuel, who feared that he might cause unrest among the Jews. He was given an audience before Pope Clement VII and gained his favor, as well as that of some Judeophile cardinals at Rome. He warned the Pope to leave Rome as the city would soon be flooded and sent a message warning of an imminent earthquake to King John III of Portugal. The occurrence of a deadly flood on 8 October 1530, and an earthquake in Lisbon on 26 January 1531,Kitvei Shlomo Molcho, The Collected Writings of Shlomo Molcho, p. 109. raised Molcho's reputation among the religious and political authorities.

In company with David Reubeni, his mentor, he went in 1532 to Regensburg, where the emperor Charles V was holding a diet. On this occasion, Molcho carried a flag with the Hebrew word Maccabi, the four letters {{lang|he|מכבי}} that also signify an abbreviation for Exodus 15:11 "Who among the mighty is like unto God?".Singer, Isidore; Bloch, Phillipp. "Molko, Solomon" in Jewish Encyclopedia. Funk and Wagnalls, New York. 1901-1906. The three met for two hours. While the exact content of the meeting was not recorded, letters written from the court at the time indicate Molcho proposed the establishment of a joint Jewish-Christian armyJ Kracuaer, Rabbi Joselmann de Rosheim, REJ, XVI, 91. to fend off the emperor's foreign enemies and, possibly, to reconquer the Holy Land. The emperor had Molcho and Reubeni arrested and took them back to Italy. In Mantua, an ecclesiastical court sentenced Molcho to death by fire. Molcho was taken to the stake in November or December 1532 (a Jewish tradition lists the date as the 5th of Tevet 5293, but no records confirm the date). It is claimed that the emperor offered to pardon him on condition that he return to the Catholic Church, but Molcho refused, asking for a martyr's death.Gedaliah ibn Yahya ben Joseph, [https://www.hebrewbooks.org/6618 Shalshelet Ha-Kabbalah] Jerusalem 1962, p. 112 in PDF (Hebrew) His mentor, David Reubeni, was exiled to Spain, where later he died.

Molcho published a book of homilies Derashot on the Bible entitled [https://hebrewbooks.org/42660 Sefer Hamefoar] ("The Magnificent Book"), based mostly on the Talmud and Midrash, in Salonika in late 1529. Two of his biographical letters, which also recount his dreams, were first published, in bowdlerized and censored form, in Amsterdam in 1660, in a book entitled Hayat Kaneh. Modern scholars have discovered several more works by Molcho, including a second book, which he had prepared for publication at the time of his death and which focused on Messianic redemption and emphasized the Kabbala, and a song, and the transcript of a synagogue lecture Molcho delivered in the spring of 1531. His second book, along with his homilies and other writings, including uncensored versions of his letters, were published as Kitvei Shlomo Molcho (The Collected Writings of Shlomo Molcho) in Jerusalem in 2019.

Molcho's writings and speeches highlighted the roles of the Messiah ben Joseph and the Messiah ben David in the process of redemption and stressed that redemption could come if Jews were faithful to God and his commandments or if the non-Jewish religious and political powers were exceedingly evil and oppressive. A dream Molcho had in 1526 apparently led him to believe he was destined to be either the Messiah ben Joseph or his precursor, but in none of his writings or speeches did he ever explicitly state this or proclaim himself the Messiah.Lechu Neranena Le'et Hageula, p. 11.

In 1925, Max Brod published the novel Reubeni, Fürst der Juden (Reubeni, Prince of the Jews), that describe the adventure of Molcho and David Reubeni.{{Cite book |last=Max Broad |url=https://archive.org/details/reubeniprinceofj0000maxb/page/n7/mode/2up |title=REUBENI, PRINCE OF THE JEWS; A TALE OF THE RENAISSANCE |date=1928-01-01 |publisher=New York A. A. Knopf |others=Internet Archive}} In 1928-1929, Aaron Abraham Kabak published a historical fiction novel in three parts about the life of Molcho.{{Cite web |title=שְלֹמֹה מוֹלְכוֹ / אהרן אברהם קבק - פרויקט בן־יהודה |url=https://benyehuda.org/read/1667 |access-date=2024-12-23 |website=benyehuda.org}}

• List of people burned as heretics
• Jewish Messiah claimants
• David Reubeni

• [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9053227 Encyclopædia Britannica]
• {{EB1911|wstitle=Molko}}
• {{JewishEncyclopedia|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?letter=M&artid=714|article=Molko, Solomon}}
• Benmelech, Moti (2016). Shlomo Molcho : the life and death of Messiah Ben Joseph (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Yad Ben Zvi.

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• The Jewish Museum of Prague preserves [https://web.archive.org/web/20070607033225/http://www.jewishmuseum.cz/en/aroucho.htm a robe and a flag of Molcho].
• [https://www.jewishpress.com/sections/features/the-kabbalist-who-wanted-a-jewish-army-in-1532/2020/01/02/ The Kabbalist Who Wanted a Jewish Army in 1532]

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Category:1500 births

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Category:16th-century converts to Judaism

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Category:Executed Portuguese people

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Category:People executed by burning

Category:People executed by the Spanish Inquisition