Toledo, Spain
The Synagogue of El Tránsito
בֵּית הַכְּנֶסֶת שֶׁל שְׁמוּאֵל הַלֵּוִי Beit HaKnesset shel Shmuel HaLevi
A fourteenth-century prayer hall whose carved plaster still carries its Hebrew inscriptions, kept now as the Sephardic Museum of Spain.
Built about 1357; a church after the expulsion of 1492; a museum since 1964
Visiting the Synagogue of El Tránsito
- What to wear
- Ordinary clothes. The museum has no dress code.
- Photography
- Generally allowed without flash or tripod. Notices at the entrance override that and they change.
- Cost
- A modest state museum ticket, with the reduced and free admission periods Spanish national museums keep. Check the current schedule, and note the usual Monday closure.
- When to go
- Opening time, before the tour groups climb up from the cathedral. Late afternoon, when light reaches the upper walls, is the other good hour.
- Access
- The prayer hall sits on one level and is reached without stairs from the street. Getting to the street means the steep cobbled lanes of the old town.
Etiquette
- DoThis is a museum rather than a working synagogue, so no head covering is required. Plenty of Jewish visitors put one on anyway and nobody minds either way.
- DoRead the inscription bands from right to left, standing back far enough to take a whole band at once. Those letters are much of the reason the room survived.
- AvoidNo flash and no tripods. The plaster is the reason, and the notice at the entrance is the authority on anything else.
- DoVoices carry badly under the wooden ceiling. Guided groups are asked to keep it down and it is very obvious when they do not.
- DoThe garden and the excavated remains outside the hall are covered by the same ticket. They take ten minutes and most visitors walk straight past them.
- AvoidDo not lean on the walls or touch the carving, however low it comes.
Local tip
Do both Toledo synagogues in one walk, and in this order: Santa María la Blanca first, then El Tránsito. Nearly two centuries separate them, and the second only lands if you have just stood in the first.
Hours, prices, access and security arrangements change: check official sources before you go, and follow the instructions of site and security staff. In an emergency, call the local emergency number (in Israel: police 100, ambulance 101, or 112 from a mobile).
The history of the Synagogue of El Tránsito
The king’s treasurer built it
Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, treasurer to Pedro I of Castile, built the synagogue beside his own house in about 1357. Within a few years he had fallen from favour. He was arrested on the king’s orders in 1360 and died in custody in Seville.
Islamic craft, Hebrew text
The hall is Mudéjar work: Islamic building and ornament made under Christian rule, usually by Muslim craftsmen. Carved stucco covers the upper walls, a painted and inlaid wooden ceiling spans the room and bands of Hebrew inscription run around it, psalms among them, alongside praise of the king and of the man who paid for the building.
What 1492 did to it
The expulsion decree of 1492 gave Jews in Castile and Aragon roughly four months to accept baptism or leave. The Toledo community ended, and the empty synagogue passed to the military Order of Calatrava. It became a church, and the name El Tránsito comes from a chapel there dedicated to the passing of the Virgin.
A museum around a room
The building was protected as a monument in the nineteenth century and has housed the Sephardic Museum since 1964. The collection covers Jewish life in Spain before the expulsion and the Sephardi diaspora that followed it, and the prayer hall is the largest object in the museum.
Hebrew for the visit
Phrases
- אֵיפֹה הָעִיר הָעַתִּיקָה?eifo hair haatika?Where is the Old City?In Jerusalem this means the walled quarter around the Kotel. Akko, Jaffa and Tzfat have old cities too.
- כַּמָּה זֶה עוֹלֶה?kama ze oleh?How much does this cost?Hebrew says a price “rises”. The same verb means to go up and to immigrate to Israel.
- תּוֹדָה רַבָּהtoda rabaThank you very muchרַבָּה is feminine because תּוֹדָה is a feminine noun. Adjectives always agree with their noun.
- זֶה הַבִּקּוּר הָרִאשׁוֹן שֶׁלִּי בְּיִשְׂרָאֵלze habikur harishon sheli beYisraelThis is my first visit to IsraelA reliable opener. Be ready for recommendations, and for someone to insist you visit their own city.
Words
- בֵּית כְּנֶסֶתbeit knessetsynagogueLiterally “house of gathering”. The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, shares the root.
- אֲרוֹן קֹדֶשׁaron kodeshthe ark holding the Torah scrollsSet into the wall facing Jerusalem. Everyone stands when it is opened.
- גָּלוּתgalutexile; the diasporaA charged word. Many prefer תְּפוּצוֹת (tefutzot), dispersion, for Jewish life outside Israel.
- עַתִּיקatikancientFeminine: עַתִּיקָה, as in הָעִיר הָעַתִּיקָה.
- עִירircity; townFeminine, with an irregular plural: עָרִים.
Getting Around: all the phrases · All 157 phrases in the phrasebook
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