**In the year** 4856 there were evil decrees because the Notzrim went to war against Jerusalem against the Ishmaelites, and they passed through the regions of Ashkenaz and they killed many communities in Speyer and Worms and Mainz and Trier and Metz and Pis on the way and Prague and other cities of Ashkenaz and France. And there were decrees and killings and great slaughter from the month of Iyar until the month of Av, and what we have heard, the sum of those killed and drowned in sanctification is more than five thousand, and those who converted were without number.

And likewise within a few days there were other decrees in the kingdom of Hungary. And likewise in the western lands they gathered together with a great multitude to go to Jerusalem, they too, and they killed the Jews in all the places they passed through until a place called Avotriiv.

Thus you will find at length in the chronicle of Rabbi Yosef HaKohen, and I the young one saw an error in Tziduk HaDin that among the foreign languages it says "how many thousands of us in the year 856 all together," the Tzeda LaDerech should read "all in the 29th day of Iyar 4856 to 856" because great decrees are not found except at this time [(Seder HaKabbalah chapter 119, page 71). Tzeda LaDerech writes] in Ashkenaz and France, in England, Italy, Hungary, they killed and slaughtered for the sanctification of HaShem several myriads and tens of thousands, and many killed themselves and their sons and daughters and the wife of their bosom, young women, virgins, brides and grooms, and there was no such thing, many in number.

And the selichah "Brit Kerutah" is based on this decree. [Thus concluded.

Therefore it appears from what is written in Seder HaKabbalah that the killed and drowned were more than five thousand is a printing error, for there were several myriads of those killed, see Sefer Maaseh Nissim section 101. And so it is.] I found written in an old manuscript book, chapter of Machzor and Selichah, that in the decrees of 4856, several good people in the community of Metz saw two elders who walked in the Jewish street and said in a pleasant voice to everyone "Yitgadal veyitkadash," etc.

And they went and asked Rabbi Shimon the Great, the head of the yeshiva, "What is this matter, and are these elders Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov who warned us because of the decree?" And they accepted upon themselves the judgment of Heaven and acted in secret so that the wicked Ashmadai the king sent his son with a great army to meet the enemies and to fight for the Jews. And He gave the Jews a sign: if the banner is red it will be good, and if it is green, what was will be.

And so they found that Ashmadai was killed with them. And so it is a tradition that Rabbi Shimon the Great, the aforementioned, asked the Holy One Blessed Be He that he not see the decree and he died two days before.

And the whole matter is hinted at in two of the last verses in the selichah for Musaf of Yom Kippur that begins "Brit Kerutah from the chambers," etc. [Thus concluded. And the Maharshal wrote in Responsa section 29 that Rashi received from Rabbi Yaakov bar Yakir and from Rabbeinu Yitzchak Segan Leviya and from Rabbi Yitzchak bar Yehuda, and in his days this decree of 856 was decreed in the year 4856.

Upon it he composed "The oppression of troubles we cannot bear" and he hinted it in the word that begins "Tehu 1350 for disgrace and curse" (and the Yotzer Zulat for the Shabbat before Shavuot that is ordered in alef-bet and is signed Shmuel bar Yehuda year 4856 from "Mishkatei Anusah" and explains that 856 to the sixth millennium - in my opinion this is an error for he meant 4856, and in Arba Turim Bach section 62, chapter 292, for the Yotzrot between Pesach and Atzeret he composed on 4856). Rabbi Shimon the Great of Mainz wrote in the book Dan Yadin that he composed the book Eduyot, and in the kabbalah that his origin is from the men of the Great Assembly of Ezra the Scribe].

**The Maharshal wrote** in Responsa section 29, Rabbi Yitzchak bar Menachem who is buried in Orleans received from Rav Chananel and Rav Yekutiel the aforementioned, and in their days were Rabbi Shimon the Great, the aforementioned, and Rabbi Elazar [(and this is not Rabbi Elazar the Kalir)] - both of them were in Mainz at the time of Rav Alfasi and Rav Natan author of the Aruch and Rabbi Shlomo HaBavli and Rabbi Kalonymus his father from Lucca [(Seder HaKabbalah chapter 52b writes Rabbeinu Aharon and Rabbi Kalonymus of Lucca and Rabbeinu David his son, as cited in Mordechai chapter 2 of Shabbat, and Rabbeinu Avigdor, student of Rabbi Simcha of Vitra, and Rabbi Chaim his father-in-law and Rabbi Meir of Innsbruck and Rabbi Yitzchak of Porysh and Rabbi Yitzchak bar Peretz lived in the generation of Rashba)] and from them received Rabbi Gershom of Metz, and these were the greatest who are mentioned in several places. And from them: Rabbi Yaakov the Elder bar Yakir [(see year 4830)] and Rabbeinu Yitzchak bar Yehuda called Mitz, and Rabbi Yitzchak Segan Leviya [(see year 4830)] and Rabbi Kalonymus, a Roman man [(see Rashi chapter Ein Tzadin Atah it came to a great man from Rome whose name was Rabbi Kalonymus, expert in all the Talmud, and he agreed to the matter, thus concluded.

See year 4867, Seder HaKabbalah chapter 42b - Rabbi Kalonymus bar Yehuda was the uncle of Rashi's mother as is seen in the commentary of the Tur)] and Rabbi Avraham HaKohen who composed Birkat Chatanim, and Rabbi Yehuda HaKohen who composed the Book of Laws [(see Rabbeinu Gershom, year 4830)]. Rabbi Binyamin bar Shmuel the paytan lived in that time, and in his days was Rabbi Meir Shatz.