This powerful kinnah is the first one that deals with a topic other than the Beis Hamikdash.  It describes the destruction that befell the Jewish people of the Rhineland – Worms, Speyer, and Mainz - in Germany during the First Crusade in 1096.  During this time period, we know of the heart-wrenching phenomenon of people committing suicide in fear of yielding to torture and converting and of parents slaughtering their own children to prevent them from being reared as Christians.  What is their halachik basis? [1]

In Mishnaic and Talmudic sources, we mainly see martyrdom as passively allowing oneself to be killed instead of doing certain sins.  But during the crusades, we see people killing themselves and their own families to prevent being forced to convert.  Indeed, we do find sources in the Aggada of people killing themselves to prevent sin and being praised for it.  The gemara (Gittin 57b) speaks about 400 boys and girls who were led into captivity to be taken to brothels.  They jumped into the sea and drowned themselves to be saved from this fate.  The gemara says they entered the world to come.  The martyrs of 1096 were probably also aware of the story of the priests jumping into the fires to be burned along with the Beis Hamikdash, and also the story of the woman whose seven sons were put to death because they refused to commit idolatry, after which the mother committed suicide and is praised by the gemara. The Aggada occupied an important place in early Germany as a source of psak, as valid as any other halachik source, which was not the case in Spain and Babylonia. This importance can be seen in the responsa of Rabbeniu Gershom who lived in the 11th century as well as in Sefer Hasidim which was written in Germany in the beginning of the 13th century.                                                                                                                        

The strong attachment of the Jews of the Rhineland to Aggada can readily explain their willingness to kill themselves, but we still do not see a source to permit one to kill one’s family.  The Book of Josippon was greatly appreciated in early Germany and influenced the way they perceived the events of the second Temple.  Rabbenu Gershom hand copied this book and others copied it from him.  He only copied books that he considered holy, including the Bible, the Mishnah, and the Talmud so the fact that he copied Josippon shows how much he valued it.  At the end of the book, the self-sacrifice of R. Elazar Ben Yair and his followers in Masada is described as great heroism.  Not only did they kill themselves, they also killed their children.  Josephus also tells us of 5,000 habitants of Gamla who threw themselves with their wives and children into the valley and died.  It is true that the Book of Josippon was found in the Islamic countries as well, but it didn’t have the same holy status that it had in Germany.  It is not surprising that the Book of Josippon does not appear in the writings of the Ashkenazik sages as of the mid-12th century because that is when the teachings of the Spanish sages penetrated France and to a certain extent, Germany.  But before that, the Book of Jossipon had strong influence in Germany and that was their source for the permissibility to kill the whole family.

[1] This is addressed in an article written by Rabbi Avraham Grossman called “The Cultural and Social Background of Jewish Martyrdom in 1096 in Germany” which was pointed out to me by MZ Binter.