Nahmanides left Aragon and sojourned for three years somewhere in Castille or in southern [[France]]. In [[1267]] he made [[aliyah]] to the [[Land of Israel]] and came to [[Jerusalem]]. There he established a synagogue in the [[Old City]] that exists until present day, known as the [[Ramban Synagogue]]. His re-establishment of Jewish communal life in Jerusalem (which had been interrupted by [[Crusader]] repression) is notable in that it marked the beginning of almost 700 consecutive Jewish years in Jerusalem until the [[1948 Arab-Israeli War]]. Nahmanides then settled at [[Acre]], where he was very active in spreading Jewish learning, which was at that time very much neglected in the Holy Land. He gathered a circle of pupils around him, and people came in crowds, even from the district of the Euphrates, to hear him. [[KaraitesKaraims]] were said to have attended his lectures, among them being Aaron ben Joseph the Elder, who later became one of the greatest [[Karaim]] authorities.
It was to arouse the interest of the Israeli Jews in the exposition of the Bible that Nahmanides wrote the greatest of his works, the above-mentioned commentary on the Torah. Although surrounded by friends and pupils, Nahmanides keenly felt the pangs of exile. "I left my family, I forsook my house. There, with my sons and daughters, the sweet, dear children I brought up at my knees, I left also my soul. My heart and my eyes will dwell with them forever."
