B"H
Even after centuries, this story makes me cry. It doesn't matter how long ago it was, when the people look like you, share your genes, share your traditions and your ways.
I can hear the screams of the mothers as they are parted from their children. I can hear the crying of the children, especially the two-year-old, who was probably picked up by one of the teens as a last act of comfort before death.
There is a good reason people were thrown into wells. It was to poison the well, so that no one could ever use it again. The story says that the community lived around this well, so it was probably the main source of water.
I wonder why those who attacked the family didn't kidnap the children and force them into a convent, which was common at the time. My only answer comes from the well.
I imagine that the family is that of the rabbi or other important leader of the community. I imagine that the whole community was gathered to watch the horror in order to force them to leave. I imagine the adults were probably tortured by hanging them upside-down, putting them in the water, pulling them up, then, finally, when they lost consciousness, dropped.
I imagine that the community was forced to leave them in the well, and that it was guarded to make sure no one removed the bodies for a proper burial.
I wonder, after centuries and centuries, why the BBC has to talk about money-lending, trying to find a "reason" for the persecution, attempting to excuse the persecutors--even after all these years.
Disgusting.
Finally, and most importantly, I wonder when this poor family will be buried in a proper Jewish grave, when we can lay them to rest.
I think the bones have been "studied" enough, don't you? Must the pain and anguish of their last moments be on display forever?
These are not "archeological relics," they are the bones of Jewish people who now, after so many centuries, deserve the respect of a grave.
M
