Rav Amnon of Magentza zt"l
הרב אמנון ממג'נצא זצ"ל
Cheshvan 1 , 4771
Rav Amnon of Magentza zt"l
Rav Amnon of Magentza was one of the gedolei hador of the tenth century circa 4771 (1011). He was learned in Kabbalah and knowledgeable in all forms of wisdom. He was wealthy, handsome and of distinguished yichus. There was a miraculous ner tamid in his beis medrash that burned all week long without oil! (Seder HaDoros)
Rav Amnon was close to the king, and the royal ministers tried daily to get him to renounce his faith and become an apostate. He never paid them any heed until one day the king himself asked Rav Amnon to give up his faith. Feeling uncomfortable in front of the king and seeking a way to push off the issue, he asked for three days to think about it. Not because he would ever consider the request at all, nor did he need any time to think about it before refusing; he was just giving an excuse to extricate himself from the king’s scrutiny. Nevertheless, the matter gave Rav Amnon no rest or respite. He chastised himself: how could he have given the king the impression that he was willing to even consider renouncing his emunah in Hashem and the Torah?! Rav Amnon’s friends and family tried to console him to no avail. The three days passed and he refused to appear before the king. When the king called him to judgment for disobeying his promise and failing to arrive, Rav Amnon told the king that he would pass judgment on himself and decree the punishment for his misdeeds: “My lying tongue, that even implied I might consider leaving my faith, should be cut out,” he said, feeling it would be a kiddush Hashem and just retribution for his equivocation. “No,” the king demurred, “Your tongue spoke well. Rather I will cut off the feet that failed to bring you before me, and will torture your body.” As they cut off each of his limbs, piece by piece, they cajoled him to avoid further torture by reconsidering and renouncing his faith and accepting theirs. But despite his horrific suffering, Rav Amnon staunchly refused. Finally, after the brutal punishment was completed, the king had the grievously injured Rav Amnon placed in a wooden box together with all his dismembered limbs and thusly sent him home. Seder HaDoros states that this is why he was named Amnon (related to the word ‘emunah’): because he believed with full faith and self-sacrifice in the living G-d – Kel Chai [Translator’s note: perhaps Amnon is a pseudonym given to him as a result of this incident, or alternatively it was his true given name and the statement is a drash that his name reflected his essence, his true faith in Hashem.]
On Rosh Hashanah, Rav Amnon requested that they bring him in his aron, along with his dismembered limbs, to the shul, where they placed him by the chazzan. In great and terrible pain, he accepted his suffering lovingly as penance and atonement for his misdeed. When the chazzan reached the Kedushah, Rav Amnon asked him to pause and “let me sanctify Hashem’s name in public.” He recited the famous liturgical poem Unesaneh Tokef and then his soul departed. Three days later he appeared in a dream to Rabbeinu Kalonymous ben Rabbeinu Meshulam and taught him the words to the liturgical poem, requesting that it be taught and disseminated among Klal Yisrael and established to be recited annually each Rosh Hashanah, as a plea that the Jewish people be remembered favorably before Hashem.
(Based on handwritten accounts from old machzorim belonging to Rav Yitzchak of Vienna, author of Ohr Zarua, who testified that he found this story in the manuscripts of Rav Efraim ben Yaakov of Vienna. Additionally, the Seder HaDoros writes that he saw it in an ancient German machzor.)