The Parsha שופטים (Shoftim – judges)1 that we read this Sabbath is directly related to justice.
Discovered2 in 1979, the Sublime House of Rouen is considered the oldest Jewish monument in France. It is an architectural complex3 of Romanesque style located at the heart of the Rouen Palace of Justice. It served as both a synagogue and a rabbinical school. The significance of the medieval Jewish community in Rouen suggests that the building likely functioned as a rabbinical tribunal4. A deeper double cavity was certainly the mikveh.
The inscription וְהַבַּיִת הַזֶּה יִהְיֶה עֶלְיוֹן (And let this house be sublime)4, engraved on a wall, connects the idea of grandeur, dignity, and justice.
For a visit 👉
1 Deuteronomy 16:18 – 21:9.
2 Norman Golb, an American paleographer specializing in Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic manuscripts, had foreseen this discovery after studying Hebrew parchments from the Genizah of Cairo. Today, we know that the first Jewish settlement in Normandy dates back to the Gallo-Roman era and that the Carolingian Empire established a “Jewish Kingdom” in Rouen.
3 The theory of a building with mixed usage is advocated by the French medievalist and paleographer Judith Olszowy-Schlanger.
4 The designation of an Israelite king is mentioned in the Parsha, and the inscription giving his name to the building is extracted from 1 Kings 9:8.