'God Wants It!'

Examines three Jewish chronicles of the First Crusade: the Chronicle of Solomon ben Simson, the Chronicle of Eliezer ben R. Nathan, and the Anonymous Chronicle of Mainz, with the goal to analyze the ideology of martyrdom found in them and to trace its background. Notes the characteristic motifs in these chronicles: joy of martyrdom, heavenly reward to the martyrs, martyrdom as a decree of God, death of martyrs as a promise of the Messianic redemption, and the most unusual for the Jewish literature motif - active martyrdom. The communities suffered a disaster that surpassed all the previous outbursts of anti-Jewish violence in the region, and they wanted to come to terms with it and to infuse it with a meaning. Concludes that although some Biblical and midrashic motifs can be found in the chronicles, the ideology of martyrdom in them share many of its characteristics with the Christian contemporary counterparts. This fact may be attributed either to Christian influence or to a common contemporary European discourse of martyrdom. Notes that medieval Ashkenazic Jews were part of their non-Jewish surroundings in a greater degree than it has been supposed.