Was this Right Side of History Wrong?

Ps. 110:1

On July 20th, 1263, the royal palace of King James I of Aragon in Barcelona was buzzing with anticipation: The religious debate that would later be known as the Disputation of Barcelona was about to begin.  The debate was a formal tradition, and in this case held between representatives of Christianity and Judaism regarding whether Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. Catholic Spain was represented by the Dominican Friar Pablo Christiani, a convert from Judaism to Christianity. The Jewish community was represented by its venerable leader, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, known as Nachmanides, a philosopher, physician, kabbalist, and biblical commentator.

The first verse of today’s psalm was the centerpiece of the disputation and, in some circles, still a source of great debate. Who is mentioned by King David as the master sitting to God’s right?  Could it be Jesus?  And why would that matter? These theological concerns had everything to do with the social and fiscal attitude towards the Jews of the Iberian peninsula  and these debates often serves as a pretext to attack, kill or exile the local Jews.  This ritual dispute, thanks to Nachmanides' wisdom, ended up as a victory for the Jewish perspective and did not end up badly for the local Jews - but the church announced that it wone anyway — and the rabbi was forced to flee for fear of the church’s revenge. 

What was in that verse to begin with? 

לְדָוִ֗ד מִ֫זְמ֥וֹר נְאֻ֤ם יְהֹוָ֨ה ׀ לַֽאדֹנִ֗י שֵׁ֥ב לִֽימִינִ֑י עַד־אָשִׁ֥ית אֹ֝יְבֶ֗יךָ הֲדֹ֣ם לְרַגְלֶֽיךָ׃

Of David. A psalm.

GOD said to my lord,

“Sit at My right hand

while I make your enemies your footstool.”

Ps. 110:1

The rest of the psalm includes triumphalist tropes with which we are already familiar - but it’s that first verse that caught people’s eyes over the ages. 

Many commentators have pondered who it is that David is alluding to. If he’s the king - who would outrank him to sit on God’s right hand side of prominence -- while the enemies are beneath - literally as footrests, and utter humiliating defeat? 

Christian tradition reads this as supporting the appearance of Jesus as the Messiah.   The verse already appears in the New Testament's Book of Matthew  as a story of contention between Jewish groups that will later become bitter rivals:

“While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they replied. He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.” ’ If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.” 

Jewish tradition took another route, of course. In response to the Christian reading of their sacred texts, ancient Jews developed a counter-hermeneutic – a way of reading Psalm 110 that would question an association with Jesus. Who is the ‘master’ that David is referring to here? Abraham. The Midrash offers a complex and layered reasoning for this option,  and cites Psalm 110:4 as proof of Abraham’s status as both leader and priest -worthy of God’s covered right hand position. 

The Barcelona disputation included a close reading of this verse, with Nachmanides successfully proving that this was not the original intent. The king, apparently, was impressed enough to declare the Jewish as winners. He even spoke at the local synagogue the following Sabbath - an incredibly rare and unusual gesture. 

But the favor didn’t last. Tensions between Christians and Jews continued and Nachamnides fled to the Holy Land, where he established a synagogue and died shortly after.  Whether it was Abraham or Jesus who was imagined as the right hand man of God - their descendents found themselves on opposite sides.  When conflicts led to the next round of the crusades, with horrendous Jewish losses throughout Europe, one of the verses from today’s chapter was integrated into the Saturday morning prayers, still used today in many Ashkenazic congregations. The prayer seeks solace and sanctuary, and wishes for the people’s enemies to be silenced and slaughtered in turn:

יָדִ֣ין בַּ֭גּוֹיִם מָלֵ֣א גְוִיּ֑וֹת מָ֥חַץ רֹ֝֗אשׁ עַל־אֶ֥רֶץ רַבָּֽה׃

“May God work judgment upon the nations,

heaping up bodies,

crushing heads far and wide.”

Ps. 110:6

It’s humbling and horrifying to be reminded of the layers of history, of all the battles and disputes, debates and conflicts between pious people who stem from the same source. 

When myth and religious liturgy become sites of sacred contention and debates turn to death, it’s on us to reimagine the divine source that we share and not the reasons for division. We’ve had enough tof those. Whoever or whatever gets to sit on the main stage, along with the ancestral wisdom and systems of power - may there be no need for public debates that champion the binary either/or realities but celebrate the common source that lifts us up instead of belittling each other’s claims and aspirations. 

Nachmanides will join us tomorrow, to add his voice to yet another contentious debate in which scriptures become the cornerstone of political conflict and a blood battle, waged right now, for the sovereignty of the sacred soil.

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