Historical background
Castrum Iudeorum or Castro ludeorum, the "Castro of the Jews," is a site and the name of the historic Jewish quarter (aljama or Jewish quarter) of León.
It is currently associated with the old town, and current neighborhood of this city, known as Puente Castro. However, this site was actually located on the southern slope of La Mota hill, along the left bank of the Torío River, east of the capital of León.
This settlement dates back to at least the 11th century, according to a document in the Cathedral Archive dated March 22, 1049, and was a significant center for the Jewish community of the Kingdom of León during the Early Middle Ages.
Cerro de La Mota (Puente Castro, León)
At the Council or Cortes of León in 1020, held under the authority of King Alfonso V, equality between Jews and Christians was recognized and permission was granted to purchase houses and land, allowing the establishment of a significant Jewish community in the fort.
Archaeological excavations carried out between 1999 and 2005 revealed residential structures from the early medieval Jewish quarter, confirming its importance as a residential and cultural center. These excavations have provided evidence of the daily life and organization of the Jewish community at the time.
Its strategic location near the capital of León allowed it to be an important center of commercial, artisanal, agricultural, religious, and cultural activity. Documentary sources and chronicles of the period mention its importance, highlighting its role in the economic and social life of the Kingdom of León.
Founded in 910, this ancient Hispanic kingdom was a key player in the Reconquista and in the formation of the subsequent Christian political entities of the Iberian Peninsula. The Jewish community of Castro Iuedorum benefited from the relative religious tolerance of the time, although it faced growing tensions due to social and political conflicts.
The importance of this enclave, particularly between the 11th and 13th centuries, is partly due to its traditional association with the birth of Moses de León, a key figure in Jewish mysticism and author of the Zohar, the masterpiece of Kabbalah.
The capital of the kingdom was for many years a place of tolerance that allowed figures like Moses de León to flourish intellectually before social and political tensions profoundly affected the Jewish communities, including that of Castro Iuedorum.
On July 23, 1196, the armies of Peter II of Aragon and Alfonso VIII of Castile attempted to take the city of León to overthrow Alfonso IX, besieging and attacking Castro Iodeorum, east of the capital. The Jews held out for two days. On July 25, Aragonese and Castilian troops managed to overcome the defenses and razed the fort, which remained uninhabited until the 15th century.
The Jews who had not died or fled were taken as slaves. Those who managed to escape crossed the Torío River and settled in the Santa Ana neighborhood, within the walls.
The sacrifice of the Leonese Jews at Castro Iodeorum possibly helped buy time and prevented the fall of the Kingdom's capital, as they gave their lives defending the remaining population against the Christian troops of Aragon and Castile.
At the end of the 13th century, the atmosphere in the capital became more hostile due to political instability under the reign of Alfonso X (wise in history, literature, justice, and science, but with significant shortcomings in economics) and the tensions and clashes between nobles, the crown, and religious communities.
The disastrous economic policy of Alfonso X, who constantly schemed and spent money to crown himself Holy Roman Emperor (he was the son of Beatrice of Swabia), and the ensuing social unrest, led to the outbreak of civil war upon the death of his heir, Ferdinand, between supporters of his sons and those of his brother, the future Sancho IV. Alfonso X, in need of money, razed the kingdom's Jewish communities.
The situation calmed down during the reign of Sancho IV but deteriorated after his death, when the Jews, fearing his own fate, took refuge in the Jewish communities of León and Castile, retreating into their religion, the study and mystery of their Sacred Books, performing penance, and preparing for the Redemption.
It was then that mystical and purity movements emerged, such as Kabbalah, which means "received tradition." Medieval Kabbalists adopted it as a term for their own doctrine to express the belief that they were not innovating, but merely revealing the ancient, hidden esoteric tradition of the Torah. Academic scholars consider it a synthesis originating in the Middle Ages, but which assimilated and incorporated earlier forms of Jewish mysticism, possible continuations of ancient esoteric traditions, as well as medieval philosophical elements.
Cultural importance
Castro Iuedorum was an important center of Jewish learning and mysticism, home to rabbis and scholars such as those of the Shem Tob family, to which Moses de León belonged. It was rare for a significant Jewish community of the time to not have a rabbi, sage, or judge at some point in its history who was not a Shem Tob.
The Jewish community of León contributed to the development of Kabbalah, a mystical current of Judaism, fostering coexistence and the necessary exchange of culture and ideas between Jews and Gentiles on the Iberian Peninsula during the 13th century.
At the beginning of this century, and under the protection of the new Christian powers, a period of splendor began for the Jewish aristocracy. Their sophisticated and liberal way of life clashed with the more orthodox and rationalist groups, and both clashed with the simple faith of the majority of the population. Meanwhile, in the Christian kingdoms, the common people and the middle classes were beginning to realize that they were truly the authentic custodians of the concept of both nation and religion, and this change reached even the most isolated, poor, and dispersed Jewish communities.
During this period, the Jewish quarter of León was a bustling center of Jewish learning, where ideas were developed that later solidified and enriched the works of Moses de León and were synthesized in the Zohar.
This environment provided Moses de León with an environment rich in Jewish tradition and the necessary interfaith contact, which influenced his humanistic and mystical vision of religion.
On the contrary, in the following 14th and 15th centuries, Jewish communities in Spain faced increasing persecution, culminating in the expulsion of 1492 following the Edict of Granada.
Moses de León
Moshe ben Shem Tob, known as Moses of León, was born around 1250 (some sources suggest 1240) in León, into the illustrious Shem Tob family, a dynasty of rabbis and sages established in Castro Iuedorum since at least the 11th century and later in the Jewish quarter of the capital.
Raised and educated in an environment of Jewish scholarship and influenced by the Kabbalistic tradition of Castile and Catalonia, especially by figures such as Nachmanides and Azriel of Gerona, Moses of León is primarily known as the author or editor of the Zohar (Sefer ha-Zohar, "Book of Splendor"), published around 1280, a masterpiece of Jewish Kabbalah and comparable, according to Unamuno, "to Saint Teresa, Saint John of the Cross, Lull, and the Muslim mystics" capable of "uniting poetry, philosophy, and religion."
This work, written in Aramaic (curiously, the same language spoken by Jesus of Nazareth and used in many religious texts of the Eastern Christian churches), is considered the fundamental text of Jewish Kabbalah and one of the most important works of universal mystical literature. Although Moses de León himself attributed the Zohar to the second-century Tannaite rabbi Shimon Bar Jochai, modern scholars consider him to be its principal author, combining the Kabbalistic traditions of Girona and the Gnostics of Castile into a monumental work that interprets the Torah and other Jewish texts from a mystical perspective.
In this sense, Moses de León is part of a humanist philosophical movement, closely linked to mysticism and rooted in many Hispanic Jewish communities, especially in Catalonia, which sought the connecting threads between all humankind and the universe.
The Zohar, which along with Sefer Yetzirah, "The Book of Creation" is the doctrinal pillar of Kabbalah, addresses themes such as the unity of souls with the divine, the symbolism of the sefirot (divine emanations), and creation as an act of divine thought. Its poetic and allegorical style distinguishes it from systematic theological treatises, reflecting the religious thought and social situation of its time.
Quoting Unamuno again, the Zohar contains an intense mystical breath of "a deeply Hispanic religiosity" creating new philosophical concepts and "the fantasy of those who dreamed of the life of the soul in our eternal Spain, that of the three peoples".
In his other books written in the years following the completion of the Zohar, Moses de León concealed many of his most daring and heterodox ideas, for which the guise of Aramaic had been very appropriate.
He was the first to compile, under the acronym "pardes," the four conventional categories by which the Torah could be interpreted: the "pesat" or literal sense, the "derat" or hermeneutical sense, the "remez" or allegorical meaning, and the mystical or kabbalistic "sod."
His other works include Sefer ha-Rimmon, which provides a kabbalistic explanation of the entire Jewish cult; Ha-Miskal, a refutation of the philosophical systems so fashionable at the time, which aimed at the rational explanation of religion; and Sefer ha-Sadot, a vision of hell and glory according to the mystical tendency of the apocryphal Book of Enoch.
Despite his prestige as a mystic and his association with influential Gentile (Christian and Muslim) and Jewish figures, Moses de León lived modestly. He was regarded as a holy man by people of all three religions. He was known as "the man of the Name" for his supposed ability to perform miracles by invoking the name of God.
He was friends with mystics from various traditions, such as the Italian Ménahem Ricanetti and Isaac ben Samuel of Acre, and maintained ties with the Franciscans, with whom he shared ideals of poverty and love of nature.
He lived in various cities, such as the Aljama of Guadalajara (1280-1290), in Ávila (around 1295), and in Arévalo, where he died in 1305. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery of Ávila, in what is now the Huerta del Monasterio de la Encarnación (Monastery of the Incarnation). His widow and daughter lived there after his death. Interestingly, a certain Don Yosef de Ávila, a tax farmer under Sancho IV, offered to marry his son to Moses' daughter in exchange for his widow handing over the Zohar manuscript, highlighting the work's value in his time.
Its influence spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula, France, Italy, North Africa, and the Near East, making his work an essential pillar of Kabbalah, which powerfully influenced later Jewish thought and universal mysticism.
Today, Moisés de León Street in the Polígono X neighborhood, opposite the hill where Castro Iuedorum was located, honors his legacy and serves as a reminder of the importance of the Jewish imprint on the city. Also, since 1997, a monolith standing in a park in Puente Castro preserves the memory of the Jews who lived there.
César J. Pollo - 2025 ©