A Historical Moment: The Tale of Avner, Who Disappeared at Sea

On Yom Kippur in the year 1260, Rabbi Moshe Ben Nachman of Girona stood in the synagogue, immersed in prayer, when one of the young boys rushed to him: There is a police officer urgently calling for the rabbi! The Ramban broke from his reverie and slowly made his way out to the synagogue courtyard. The officer remarked to him: Minister Alfonso demands that you present yourself immediately.

Alfonso was a converted Jew. In his youth, he was a student of the Ramban, learned and taught Torah, engaged in medicine and philosophy, and like many Jews in Spain at the time, he succumbed to the test and converted to Christianity. However, he was not content with that. Since his conversion, he had tried with all his might to influence Jews to follow him, in order to justify his conscience.

His former student, Rabbi Yitzhak Pulker, authored a special book titled "Aser HaDat" to counter Avner's arguments, as he was a quick writer.

In his audacity, Avner-Alfonso would occasionally summon his former teacher, the Ramban, who was forced to comply due to his closeness to the monarchy. He would trouble him from time to time with absurd questions in defense of Christianity, wanting to use him in writing his polemical works, in which he found supposed sources from the Bible or from the words of the sages to justify their farcical messiah.

But this time, Avner crossed all boundaries. In the midst of the holy day, he summons the Ramban to him?

The Ramban sighed and walked toward Avner's house, as he had no choice but to comply.

The moment he exited from the Jewish quarter to the main street, the Ramban felt the transition from the elevated sanctity of the synagogue on Yom Kippur to the mundane and physical atmosphere of the Gentile street. A noisy market, animals, people drinking wine and eating meat, the smells of foods. A great sorrow enveloped the Ramban, along with great anger.

Upon entering Avner's home, to his horror, he saw Avner eating pork in the midst of the holy day, and he exclaimed before him: Rabbi, look, I have transgressed four prohibitions punishable by kareth. The Ramban rebuked him: Bold and ignorant! You have transgressed five prohibitions! Avner tried to argue until he realized his mistake, and then said in bitter tones: Rabbi, when we studied the Torah before you, you told us that everything is hinted at in the Torah. Please, tell me right now where I am hinted at in the Torah, and if not – you shall surely die!

The Ramban did not hesitate for a moment and replied immediately: In the parsha of Ha'azinu, it says "I said, I will scatter them, I will make their memory cease from among men." Every third letter forms your name: Avner. In your hands is the choice whether to die a death of the righteous, or to die a death of the wicked. Avner listened, and the words entered his heart, he left all his belongings and family behind and ran to the nearby shore, boarded a small ship, sailed into the depths of the sea, and did not return.

It is said: From Bashan I will return, I will return from the depths of the sea.