Jewish History (2021) 34: 107–123 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2021 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10835-021-09376-5 Home and Away: The Opposition to Travel in Sefer H . asidim AHUVA LIBERLES Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba, Israel E-mail: ahuvalib@post.bgu.ac.il Accepted: 5 January 2020 / Published online: 9 April 2021 Abstract This paper examines R. Judah he-H . asid’s approach towards journeys to distant places, including pilgrimage to the land of Israel. Unlike other twelfth-century rabbinic author- ities who did not object to travel for various purposes and, in certain cases, even encouraged it, R. Judah he-H . asid held a uniform, consistent approach that opposed almost any journey beyond the local area. Some scholars have suggested that R. Judah he-H . asid’s opposition to undertaking a pilgrimage to the land of Israel reflects his opposition to messianic activism. However, this study suggests that R. Judah he-H . asid’s negative approach towards traveling to Palestine ought to be examined in light of his overall rejection of travel. In his writings, R. Judah he-H . asid laid out a new path to achieve redemption and atonement for one’s sins. This path does not depend on physical journeys to holy places or on the national redemption of the Jewish people, but rather aimed at achieving personal redemption, through the adoption of the pietistic way of life as detailed by R. Judah he-H . asid in Sefer H . asidim: repentance by confessing one’s sins before a sage and performing the prescribed mortification rites. This ap- proach remained unique in Jewish thought, yet one can find parallels in Christian theology of the tension between stability and inner self-improvement, on the one hand, and the advantages of a physical journey to holy sites to achieve atonement for sins. Keywords Travel · Jewish-Christian relations · Family · Atonement · R. Judah he-H . asid Many medieval texts express the yearning to set out from home on a journey beyond the walls and towers of one’s city. Homo viator, the traveling per- son, 1 saw a journey as both a spiritual and material opportunity, despite the price the traveler and his surroundings would pay as a result. Medieval men and women traveled for a variety of reasons—some for business, some to visit distant family members, yet others to settle in newly established cities. Wanderers undertook journeys to collect alms, to evade debts or prosecution, to visit sacred shrines, make pilgrimages, or wage war. The twelfth century in particular was one in which Europeans were on the move—both Christians and the Jewish minority that lived among them. The Crusades, which enlisted Europeans to a sacred war in the Holy Land, were a significant impetus for travel. These years also saw a rise in the number of Jewish pilgrims who 1 Gerhart B. Ladner, “Homo Viator: Mediaeval Ideas on Alienation and Order,” Speculum 42, no. 2 (1967): 238.