From Mesopotamia to Modernity

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 Ten Introductions to
Jewish History and Literature

edited by
Buvton L. Vkotzky
The Jewish Theological Seminary New York

and
Wavid E. Fiskman
The Jewish Theological Seminary, New York

Westview Press
A Member of the Pcrseus Books Group
All rights wserved. P ~ ~ ~ tine the c l Unitecl States of America. No part: of this publicalion may
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Copyright 43 1999by Burton L. Visntzky ancl Bavid E. F i s h a n

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Library ul CC)IIRS(L%S
Catalctgirkg-in-Publicatict~r
Data
Frctrn Mesopota~~~ia to mctderniIy : ten introductions to Jewish Itistctry
and literature / edited by Burturrl L. Visotzb and David E. Fishmaj~.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISDN 0-8133-67l16-6 (hc) -- fSBN 0-8233-6717-4 (~pbk).
1. Jewrs-Ffistctv. 2. Judaism-History. 3. jewisll literattir-
History arrd criticism. 4, fews--Trrtellect11aI life. I. Visotzky,
Brnrtun L. 11. Fishmnl~,David E., 3957-
B11T.F77 1999
909'.04924-d~21 99-227117
CTP

The paper used in tltis publicatictn meets tlte requirements of the American Ndtional Starr-
dard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials 5339.4&1984.
 Contents

Zntroduction, Bulct-osz L, Visotzky and David E. Fishman

1 m e Hebrew Bible, Ora Horn Progser

2 Jewish Histozy- and Culture in the Hellenistic: Pel-iod,

Alk;lerS I. Raumguuf-et.z

3 JudaismUnder Roman Domination: From

the Hasmoneans Through the Destruction of
the Second Temple, Sfiaye J. D, Catten

4 The Literature of the Rabbis, Barton L. Visstzky

5 The History of Medieval Jewry, Xiohert GI-2nznn

6 Medieval Jewish Literature, Ray~zondR Seht.z"ndEi~t

7 Medieval Jewish Ph31osophy, Warre%Zev Havvey

8 Modern Jewish History;Da-uid E, Fish~zan

Zvi Gifelegasz
9 History of Soviet Jewfr~;

10 Modern Jewish.Literature, Davz'd G, Roskies

Abozzf the Editors alzd Contributors

fndex
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 ntroduction
IBUXXTON L. VXSOTZKY A N D U A V f D E. F I S H M A N

T H E EXPLOSIVE G R O W T E ~OF JEWISH P T U D I E P PROGRAMS in Ameri-

can universities is testhony to the arceptance of Judaism as part of
the fabric of modern Alnerican life. 11-tthe Jewish cornunity itself, the
quest_ionis no longer, "Am 1 a Jew first or an American first?" Rather,
Jews in America express their patriotism and American identity t h r a s h
a broad range of Jewish ~ l i g i o u idcntjries.
s 326s identification leads them
to explorcl. Jewish history and literaturt;. in the institution that they cm-
sider Che key to their success as Americans---the universitp, Furthermore,
Christians sholv a keen hterest in, the academic st-udy of the religion that
was the source of their own. Particularly since World War 11, an ever
gro"i"g interest in ihe Judaism of Jesus has gripped Christian scrholar-
ship,.As a result, Jewish studies courses in tmiversities are populated by
both Jews and Gentiles.
I h e plethora of course offelings on Judaism, particufilrly 01%an intro-
ductor)i course level, has been hampered by the Lack of a textbook that at-
tends to both the histov and the literatufe of the Jews, Perhqs uniquely
among peoples, the history of the Jews is ineluctably er~htvinedwith its
literature. The peofle of the book is also the people of linear history;
therefore, the history and literat-ure of the Jews fom the woof and warp
of the fabric of Jewish civilization. There are works that address Jewish
history. Likewise, there are books that survey Jewish literature*326s book
attempts, for the first time, to encompass both aspects of Jewish civiliza-
tion in its pages.
1n order to do so, this textbook consciously eschews the treatment of
what might be d e e m d ""eunent eventsf"n its pages. For the most p a t ,
both .the history a r ~ dthe litcraturc. considered do not go heyor~dthe ad-
vent of the State of Israel, just following World War XX, There are a variety
of reasons that we editors have chosen to end the text short of our own
era. First, it seemed ur~likelythat there could be any sellse of objectivity
writhg about events (or baoks) that we oursellves kvere part of. Scond,
2 Burtan L. Visclttky and David E. Fiskrnan

readers will notice an absence of separate chapters on modern Israel,

America1 Jewry, a r ~ dthe I-lolocaust. We are aware of the ubiquity of indi-
vidual course ogerillgs on each of these topics in American miversity
curricula. 1x1other words, we chose not to include in our llntroductory
textbook those topics that we k7ew were most likely to be p ~ s t m k c lin
discrek courses*
Readers might notice other lacunae in our choices for this book.
Womeds studies has gmwn to he a particularly importalit discipline on
Americm campuses, na less so in Jewish studies. Yet we have neither de-
voted, a separate chapter to nor particularly emphasized feminist views in
our various chapters. There is no x~egativejudgment of women's studies
in this Choice, quite the contrary. Our very first chapter, 0x1 the central
work of Jewish literatznre, happily employs feminist readings as a strategy
for reading the Bi:ble. But we have tried to avoid priviieging one disci-
pline over m y other. As such, womer"t%studies takes its place amoxlg the
other academic disciplines employed by the scholars here assembed. Xn-
deed, where q p r o p r i a t ~authors write explicitly &out each disciplinary
approach in order to educrate stude~~ts about ihe vxious methodologies
employed.
Readers will find, then, a variety of methods throughout the range of
chapters. Primrily of course, the discipliws of history and literabre arc.
the focal points ol this collection.
General surveys of both histoqy and literature in virtually every area of
Jewish civilizatiorr have hem presented. In some instances, broad brush
strokes suffice, parti,cularly kvbere there is a great swathe ol fnjstory cov-
ered in a given period, or where the literature is either obviously central
(e.g., t-he Bible) or overwkimingly plentifuQe.g., modern literature?). In
some cases the chapters are mare encyclopedic, particularly when the au-
thors were aware of a lack of such an exhaustive overview (e.g., rnbbinic
literature).
m e differences in style amd content reflect the individual tastes of the
authors, each an expert in her or his own field. This latitude of style was
promised to the aulhors, as is appropriate for recogl7ized schotars. At the
s m e time, these schojars were asked to limit idiosyncratic content and to
be reprcsenhtive of their discriglisle as a whole. W tmst that readers find
trhe result is a unique textgo& in its survey of both Jewish literature and
Jewish history This dualie reflects, perhaps, a peculiarity of Jewish stud-
ies: Literature holds such a central position that historic eras afe often re-
ferred to by the books written in them.
It is not untrsual to find a Jewish studies course on the biblical era,
which is tn say the period from approxirnakly 1500 B.C.E. to approxi-
mately 400 R.C.E. That bmad mi,llenmium, is reprr.ser?ted par excellence in
the Jewish library by the Hebrew Bible, Any student of history will un-
 Introduction 3

derstand that covering more &an a thousand years by focusing on the lit-
erature of one unique anthology is an w~usuala p p o x h to the subject.
Furthermore, to reduce a thousand years of literattire to one canonical
work is equally unusual. Yet in Jewish studies, the power of the biblical
canon is so great, arlid the paucity of other works so notable, that the earli-
est era of Israelite development is necessarily represented in this volume
by a chapter on the Hebrew Bible.
The opening chapter is meant to inboducre the novice to tlte various
genrc.s of literat~~re conlained withil7 the Hebrew Bihte while at the s m e
t h e covering its major historic periods. Because of the enormous c o m a -
trration of time and topics in the chapter, this a p p a c h steers a middle
course &rough the deh&es m o n g modern scholafs on metlliotods oi Bible
study and the meaning of the canon to historians and religion scholars
dike. The chapter takes the neophyte &rough the basks of biblicaZ his-
tory and literature trugether. At &e same time, the scholar in those fields
will appreciate how Ora Horn Prouser has carefully balanced her exposi-
tion to include the range of viewpoints in the academy on this esscntid
work and histmic period.
Ta introduce the student of Judaiea to approaches that will persist
throughout the rest of the chapters in this book, there is a section on
methodoiogy at the end of &e chapkr on the Ilc.hrc.w Bible m d a sclction
on academic study in the rabbinic literature chapter. The intention is to
make the student aware of the options that scholars choose as they ap-
proach their variclus su$jects. Conscious~~ess of method should allow the
student to critiqzie bath the primay materials cited as welt. as the mdyses
that will be found in this book and. &roughout the field of Jewish studies.
As the biblical er;? drew to a close, Hellenism begali to make its impact.
The Grcek-speabg worM strc.lt&ed fmm, the islmds of the Mediterrmean
in the west all. the way east to hdia, Central to &e geography of the Hel-
lenisGc world conquered by Akxalider the G ~ awas t the Liurd of Israel, the
Holy I:.,and ol the Jews and the Bible. Furt.her east, the Jews who first suf-
kred and then Bourished in the BabyIonian Exile h e d their lives in full
copizance of the Helle~~istic revolution in culture, lalipagc; and & m e t .
So although the Bible looms large for the early period, works preserved in
Hebfew#Aramaic, m d Greek oft-er further evidence for the Hellenistic pe-
riod of Jewish history. These varied literary works, consider4 in Chapter 2
by Albert Bamgarten, teach us a greal deal about both tlne history al?d the
thou@ of the Jewish communitjes of that postbliblical perid,
lhese works of Jewish l-frlle~liisliclikrature are importalit because there
is otherwise a paucity. of historic material on Judaism in that period, Yet it
is the period, in which much of later Jewish thought took its first shape.
Mreover, it wits hthe Hel1e11istic era that the synagogue slid other Jew-
ish instituiiions that still persist fomd their orighs. The chapter includes a
4 Burtan L. Visclttky and David E. Fiskrnan

discussion of literaturn up to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in

the year 7'0 of the common era, or~gthe fiteratu~of this latter part of
the Hdanistic period are the Dead Sea Scrolls. The library of the sectarian
community that produced those scrolls has been much studied since its
discovery in the mid& of the twentieth century and has shed g ~ alight t
on early and middle fudaism m d the orighs of Christimity.
Followhg the consideration of the literature of the Hellenistic period
comes a brief survey in Chapter 3 of the histmy of the HeHex~kticand Ro-
m m periods. This era is semhal in, Jebvish history for it marked the end
of the JcmsaXem Temple cult, and the successive rule of Greeks, fiomans,
and Christians over the Jews in the Land of Ismet. EII Chapter 3, Shaye
1. D. Colhen sketches the history of the Jews under Greek a r ~ dRomm d e .
He focuses cm the Jewish w a s agahst Rome and the consequences of the
losses of Ihose w a s , although the chapter =lies on Greek and Latin as
well as H&rew and Aramaic sources, it narrows its focus to the advex~t
and growth of rabbhic Judaism,
The literat-ure of the rabbinic movement in both the Lmd of Israel and
Babylonia is the su:$jcct of Chapter 4, by Burtar~L. Visotzky. A broad sur-
vey of rabbbie literature covering almost a millennium carries readers
through the consequences of Rome" destructim of the Jenlsalm Temple
and the concorrtititnt emergmce of the synagowe as the decentl^alized in-
stitut.ian of Jewish life. The various genres of the literature are considered,
and some of the issues in the modem study of this varicd libraq of works
arc discussed. The b a d sweep of years covered in rabbinic literatm ne-
cessitates a survey approach. The reader will note the exclltlsion of
nonrabbinic literature. Although such literaturt-.exists, particularly in
Greek, but also in H e b ~ w a ~ Aramaic,
d the wealth of rabbhGc matel-lal
and limits of space necessitated the narrower focus. h this chapter, as in
most of the others, the methodologies of research considered and the ap-
proaches taken present the historic mail7stream of scholarship. Recent
trends and as-yebunproven methods have been eschewed in, falrar of the
classical xnethods pioneered by European scholars well before VVorld War
IL These methods are still relia$iy, if not exclusively, employed in the
academy;
The literature of the rabbis was revolutimaq in that it transformed Ju-
daism from a cultic religion centered in a p k e (the Jemsalem Temple)
into a religion of study The priest gave way to the rabbi-teacher, who em-
bodied a portable sanctuary. The broad range of the literature fhese men
produced is cor~sideredin its evolMior~.As time passed and outside influ-
ewes cf-tanged the shape of rabbin,ic literalure from its dialectic Tm$ Mel-
lenistic modes, rrew influences from Christianity and 1 s l . m and particu-
lirrly /?\rabic literature began to hold sway. The literature of the rahbis
became poetry philosophy, legal codes, and mysticism.
 Introduction 5

Of course, this literature was not created in a vacuum, and the rabbis
and sages whr, produced mdieval literature often partook of the secular
world. The broad expanse of medjeval Jewish history is considered by
Robert Chazan in Chapter 5, a survey of the outside forces and internal
institutior~sof Jewy. The focus of this chapter is European history. M-
though it would be possible to write a history of the Jewish East, not only
the area under Islam, but also the area east of the Holy Lmd, this book
keepGts gaze prhar* upon Europe. 'The choice of EuroceMric history
allows an examination of the interplay of Christianity, Islam, and Ju-
daism. Et also betrays the background of both the scholars who wrote
these chapkrs and OUT expected rttadersh*.
The iiterature of the rncdiewal period includes, however, both works
written in lmds where Arabic held sway as well as in lmds kvhere Latin
ruled, The Jewish library remahed primarily Hebrew and Aramaic, but
works ~IIArabic, Latin, fudeo-Arabic, m d Ladkto are considered in the
"Medieval Jewish Z,iterature," Chapter 6, by Raymond I". Scheindllin.
Here, the distinction beween secular and mligious literature can be first
observed, particulariy in works of Jewish poetry corrtgosed under Mus-
lim rttle. Thus the very definiPim ol Jewish literatz~reexpands from reli-
gious volumes tcr all works composed by Jews. The debate &out what
cmstitutes "Jewish literahref3hegan in lfie medievd period but has con-
tinued to the preseM day.
Athough an ivnportant component of medieval Jewish literature, 'Jew-
&h philwophy is t ~ a t e d separaeeiy h Chapter 7, by Warren Zev Harvey.
Like much other medieval Jewish literatznre, the philosophic works writ-
ten by the Jews of the Middie Ages betray distinct outside influences, par-
ticuhr(y from Arisiotelim philosophy as it reached the Jews ihrough the
Arabic-speakixlg world. But the philosophy of the medieval Doctors of
the Church also had its influence, These soulrces of fructification wedded
with tradjtior~alJewish thought, particutarly the ~~otoriously unsystem-
atic, organismic rabbirtic thought, to produce a new floweri.ng of litera-
ture. The power of medieval Jewish philosophy was such that it contin-
ued to hold swity even Ifirough tbe E~~lighte
In addition, medieval Jekvish mysticism is considered in Chapter 7.
This mysticism was largely ignored in the nineteen* century but in the
trtver~tiethcentury a rebirth of intct~stled to a rediscovery of many, mmany
medieval mystical texts. Previously th.e province of a rarefied group of
mystical practitioners, medievd mystical literature is nt>w studied by
scholars. The academic study of mediewal mysticrism :has shed much light
on what were previously considered esoteric m d aberrmt texts. The con-
sideration of medieval Jewish mystical literature among the works of me-
dieval and modern Jewish literahzre appropl-iately places these works in
their broader Jewish context for st-udent m d scholar alike.
6 Burtan L. Visclttky and David E. Fiskrnan

The conveIltions adopted for this volume's treatment of the Middle

Ages were also observed for the modem era. fn Chapkr 8, "Modern Jew-
ish Ffisto"yf" the focus remains on Jewry in the West, centered upon Eu-
rope. David Fishman's surwey of Jewish history in this period includes, of
course, careful co~~sideration of the rise of erican Jewry. The other pole
of Jewish history in the post-European context is the establishment of the
State of Israel. T%ese two communities have been central to Jewish con-
sciousness and identity in the latter half of the twentiet-h century, The
chapter considers b t h the internal forces in Jewish life and interactions
with the broader world,
We reserved a separate "hapte'; Chapter 9, for the history of Soviet
Jewry The history of Russian Jewry is $0 important-to the broader history
of the Jews in the twentieth century that it deserves a separate treatment.
American Jewry imd Israel have been written ab0u.t exterrsively, but the
history of Jews in the fomer Soviet tlmion, the third-largest Jewish corn-
munity of the twerrtieth century, is virtually unknown to American read-
ers. The oppressio~~ of Soviet Jewry and Lhe subseyuent exodus of Rus-
sian Jetvs were closeIy followed by a rebirth of Judaism within Russia..M-
trhough this situation is still in flux,trhe importance of the his to^ of Srlvict
Jewry to the Amencan audience must be recognized. Zvi Citellman has
undertaken m exposition af these events."
:In Chapkr IQ,the h a l chapter of the book, David Roskies considers
modem Jewish literatu~. Again, as with the medievill period, a heuristic
disthctio~~ can be made betwee11 secular and religious wl-lting. Here liter-
atum in the broad range of modern la~~guages, including Hebrew, Yid-
dish, Engtish, and Russian, is treated. Ihis chapter breaks new ground in
pointing to the subversive effect that literature plays withk the Jewish
commmit-y in particular and in the society at large. As a bvhale, Roskies
casts a broad net in m attempt to capture modem Jewish literatax. ^The
enlhusiaam of the author is a direct challenge to the reader to taste the
fmits of this rich meIIu of works.
:Indeed, our inter~tionis to share the er~thusiasmof the contributing
scholars for thg works and histov they discuss. Jewish history and litera-
ture cover a braad swathe of time m d territory*It would be impossible for
one volume, even many volumes, to capture the breadth and depth of
Jewish civilization throughout the ages. Since this is a volume of "intro-
ductions," there is a marked disthction among the various styles of each
author p r e ~ n t i n ghis or her area of h~terest.Although authors were re-
que"ed to offer a somc.w:hat encyclopedic overview of their area of study,
individual tastes and theories do surface- The scholars represented here,
each a recognized expert in his or her niche af Judaica, offer an hdividual,
oveniiew of Jewish history and literature for each period.
 Introduction 7

TThis book is an introductory volume. hacdcrs are encouraged to read

further and,we hope, be infected by the entbusiasms of each author. To
that end, we have irrcluded a "'Suggested Readings'' "section at the end of
each chapter. Thus, studmts wilf have the opportunity to broaden their
horizo~~s and scholars will have a clue to the sources and authorities that
support: the theories of each chapter. We hope this introduction will in
s o m small way capkrre the vast riches of Jewish history and lilerakrre.
As a famous tale in rabbinic literahnre tells it: "'All the rest it;cornme~~titry,
Go now study"

1.It is noted with pride that most of the authors in this volume have taken an
active role in the rebirth of Jewish life in the former Soviet Union. All but one of
the cctntributors to this book have taught classes in Moscow, Indeed, this work
was first commissioned as a vtlfurne for Russian students and pubfished there.
The current textbook has been thctroughly revised for our American audience.
This page intentionally left blank
 The Hebrew Bib
013A HORN PROUSER

T HE: HEBREW BIBLE, a book valued and treasured by varied groups of

people, is ,l,, refared to as the "Old Test.amertt,'br the "Tanafi."
Each designation makes a spec.ific theological statement. The Hebrew
term "Tarlaw is used to refer to rougltiy the same books hlowil to Cfiris-
tians as the ""Old Testament.'The term "'Old Testament" implies that
there is a "New Testament" that atsupersedes it, a theologicral assertiorz
once at the core of Clhristiitnity The odering of the books in the 'Qld Tes-
tament" "supports this theology. The books are arranged more or less
chronologically, except for the propheljc books, which are all, at the end,
highlighting tlte Christian ~ a d i n gof the prophets as revelations of the
coming of 'Jesus. The term "Hebrew Bible" refers to the same group of
books as the "Tma&," in the traditional Jewish order.
"Ta~liakh"k actua1ly a :Hebrew acronym composed of initials for the
original tripartite divisioln of the Hehrew Bibe, which differs from the
Christjan ordering. The Hebrew Bibk consists of three sections: Torah
(Pe~ltateuch),Newi"im (Prclphcts),arid Ketuvh (Writings). The three divi-
sions differ in content m d style, and each will be treated rlJE this chapter.
There arc many differat methodologies used to understand and inter-
pret the bibijcal text. They ralge f m traditiord religious commentaries
to madern historical and literary analyses. Each methodology differs in
its approach to the text, thus deriving additional memings h r n the He-
brew Bible.

Torah
The Torah, d s o cailed the Berltateuch, or Five Books of Moses, begins
wieh the creatio~lof t-he world arid then follows a particular ge~lealogical
line as it develops from family, to clm, to nation. It is significmt that the
10 Ora Horn Prouser

Torah, althou* it is primarily interested in the People of Israel, begins

wieh lrhe C ~ a t i o nof the world. Many &sues of releva~ceto the study of
the Torah are raised in the description of Creation. The Torah beg;ins with
two different Creation stories, The frst, found in Genesis I r portrays m
orderly perfectly p l m e d Creatiorr.

When God began to create heaven and earth-the earth being m f o r m d and
void, with darkness ctver the surface ctf the deep and a wind from God
sweeping over the water-God said, ""Let there be tightH";nd there was
light. God saw that the light was good, and God wparated the light From the
darkness. Gad called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And
there was evening and there was morning, a first bay."CGen. 2:1-S)

By means of artfui word repetition, the most important elements of this

chapter of Gmesis are stressed. God created the world by word alone in
an orderly thozrght;out: mmner. Hurnmkhd was the climax af this cre-
ation. Gad. was pleased with every step of the creation, and especially
wieh the cumulative achieveme~nt.Like the Cosmos it describes, the first
chapter of Genesis is crafted in a highly orderly mamer. The first three
days establish the precise panem for what will be crtrated on each of the
remaining three days. The creation of lrhe light osn the first day parallels
the fourth day's creation of the luminaries. The second day's creation, the
sky, is filled with birds on the fifth day. The land, on which the Divine
Creator put lrhe finishing touches on lfie third day, is occupied by animafs
and hmmms on the sixth day. The creation af the Shtaatltn, hawever, is be-
yond this structure. It stands out on a thematic and structural level, which
empha"izes its unique importance.
Genesis 1, presents the world as we would ideally like to perceive it.
Genesis 2, however, conveys a very different portrayal, of crctation. :It lacks
trhe repetitive stylc. and vocabulary &at gawe such a reliable order to Gezn-
esis 1. Chapter 2 mirrors the world more as we experience it, There the
Creation was not plamed out to pedection, The process reflected no spe-
cific order and cozntained elernexnts of trial and error.

The Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth. He blew into the nos-
trils the breath of life, and man became a living being. The Lord God placed a
gxden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom He had Fcjrmed.
. . . The Lord God said, "It is nctt good for man to be aitune; I will make a fit-
ting helper for him." Fen. 27'-8,18)

:In this second chapter, God created a man, placed him in a garcten, and
trhexn added other creations to satisfy the manfssneeds. A major need noted
by God was for companianship..God created the animals to be partners
with man, but they were not appmphate. Finally God cxated the m a n
out of the mm%rib.
m e fact that the Bible begins with a doubling of the creation story is a
significant statement &out the genrr; of the book. Although, it is possible
to expiain the mpeated cmation as comir~gfrom two dift'erent sources
(this wiU be discussed), it still behooves us to make sense of the text jn its
present form. The text c m be understood. if one keeps in mind that the
Bible is not a history book, even Irhough there is a sip~ificantamowlt of
historical information kvithin it. Rather, the Bible is a theological. work
dealing with issues such as EsraeXite heritage, chosemess, an understand-
ing of God. History is a m e w of transnnitting that irlformation because
history is God's arena for action. Ihus, the doublhg of the creation stories
indieaks that the Bible is a theological masterpiece explaining God and
humankind's plxe in the world.
There are sigllificant differences betweal the two c ~ a t i o nstories, in-
cluding the or& m d method of c ~ a t i o nespecially
, as they relate to the
humans, the place of humankhd within crcatim, the characterizalion of
God, and more. Genesis I partraymmrgitr"~izedworld with a trmsee17-
dent God, whereas Genesis 2 presents a world in. progress with a more
ivnrnment God, The juxtaposition of the two chapters can be understood
as arl attempt to satisfy humankind's need for both sides of God; a r ~all-
po\verful Gad, who creates a perfect world, and a more intimate God,
who is concerned for a humm" lonelhess.
I h e creatio~~ of the womarl differs sigxGficmtIy in the two narral-ives as
well. h Genesis 1 the m m and the woman are created simultmeously,
whreas in Genesis 2 the woman is created second, and using a part of the
man's body Classical readhgs of the B i b have long ir-tfened an hferior
status for women based on the creation story h Genesis 2. Mare recently;
as many newer methodologis, including literary and feminist cfiticism,
have been brought to bear on the biblical text, it has become clear that
more egalitarim readhgs are possible. For example, it has been suggested
that just as humans are c m s i d e ~ dthe pinnacle of creation in Gcmesis 1,
because t-hey are created last, when all is ready for them, so too, because of
the t-iimingof her arrival, the wornm in.Genesis 2 should be considered the
high. poillt of creation. Others have read creation out of the man's body as
an attempt to i~nitatethe female &ility to reproduce. Mthough these
points may be argued, it is clear It-tatassumptions about the Bible" view of
women based on the process of creation are tenuous at best,
Ihus, from a brief pmu="ff the crrtration story, one may learn about the
geme of the Tf.,ra.h,begin to understand the relationship between God
and humankind, and evaluate the vasious characterizations of God.
The theme of creatiol~is revisited several times in the Torah. a l e h-
portmt element of creation is the fr~~itfuhess of humans and animals in
12 Ora Horn Prouser

filling and inhabiting the world (Gen. 1:28). This motif is repeated after
the flood, when Noah and the animals are simil.arly encouraged to be
fruithl and to hhabit the earth (Gen. 8:%7).The imagery of creation is
also used to refer to the creation of the Israelite people, God promised
Abraham several times in Gex~esisthat he and his descendants would be
fruitful and would multiply vastly. There are further allusions to the cre-
ation of the world in Exodus 1:1-10, the story of Moses" birth. niloses was
described as "'goodlyf"by his mother, using the same words with which
God characterized evey day of creation. In addition, to save him, Moses"
mother placed him in a teba. Although this word, is often translated as
%asket,'> more precis translation is "ark,""as it is the same word used
tru describe Noahls vessel. These allusions poh~tto paralfeis betwen the
creation of the world and the birth of Moses..The creation of the Israelite
people, which begjns in Exodus, can be c o m p a ~ din importance to the
creation of the world. Both are puqoseftll divine acts of tremendous con-
sequence.
Another important motif is that of chosenness and election. God
chooses and rejects Fndivicjuals in lfie Torah, often for m appare~~t reason.
Initially, God chose Abel and rejected Cain (Gem. 4). This choice had dev-
astating consequences fur both individuals, Perhaps in imitation of Gad,
parents in the book of Gexlesis choose favoritcs from a m o q their Chil-
dren. Sarah chase Isaac, lsaac favored Esau, Rebecca favored Jacob, and
Jacob h o s e Joseph, In the majority of the patriarchal narratives, it was the
matriarch Mrho decided Mrhich son should receive the blesshxg ta carry on
the covenantal line-Although it was the father who had the power to pass
on this blessing, it was often the mother who engheered the sikation so
that her favored one, who was also Godfs chosen, wa"rhc recipiex~t.For
exmple, Sarah arramged to have Xshmael harrished from their home, and
Rcbecca directed Jacob to deceive his father into tJ"L'mkinghe was Esau. In
each case, the matriarchd ralr was essential to the appropriate carrying
on of the covenantal line.
Throughout the Hebrew Bible, God continues to choose some hdividu-
als over otherr; in the sekctio~~of Moric.5, Joshua, individual judges, Samuelf
Saul, and David. IT7 s o m cases this state of chosenness lasts for a person's
lifetime, and in some situagons the favoritism is trmsferred to the indifsid-
uai's descerrdar~ts.For exmple, Samuel was Chose11 by God to be a
prophet, m d his special position lasted &roughout his lifethe but was not
trmskrred to his &Mm,David was chosen by God to be king, and by his
merit, the Davidic h e retah~edthe mo~~archy for a h u s t 500 years..How-
ever, God rejected p e v l e as well. Sad was &osen by God to be king, but
when he subsequently disllibeyed God's orders, Gocf rejected him.
lhesc cases of chose~x~ess anzox~gindividuals highlight trhe idea of the
election Of the Israejite people. God chose the Isr-neEte people b m among
d others to ibe God's "chosen people.'" 'This invohes both added benefits
ar~dardded respo11sibiiiCy The Israelites were the recipicmts of God's special
care, prokction, m d concern. At the s m e t h e , however, they were desig-
nated to be "a light unto the nations," Their status obligated them furtfner
to follow God's cca andme~~ts and direcGo~tsas a model ta the world.
God's election of the Israelite people caused them hardship m d p a h at
times, but never completef3stihscured the rewards =aped through chosen-
ness. tn additio~~, the state of being chosen war; whotly dependent upon
God's wiZ1. m d w h h , This supports the tremendous emphasis in the Bible
on God's stmgth and the need, to a p p ~ c i a t ethe extent of God's power
ar~dhumankind's dclpe~~dence upon its divine benefactor.
To the reader af the Bible, some of God's choices seem arbitrary ar~ddiffi-
cult to understmd. Certah patterns do, however, emerge. One consistently
repeated theme is the elevation of the younger sm. According to ancient
Near Easten~and bihlicd law, the eidest son inherits the major portio~~ of
his father 'S property, m d is the true m d blessed heir of the fmily. The nar-
rati:ve bihlicral texts, howevtll; do not fojlow that pattern. For val-ious rea-
sons m d by various m a r ~ s the , eldest was gmaally eliminated m d the
younger son received the blesshg m d became the true heir. This can be
seen very clearly throughout the book of Genesis. In the fist set of sibhngs,
A:bel was kiued, Cajn was bar~ished,ar~dit was the youngest son, Scjth, who
conthued the family line traced by the Bible (Gen. 4-5). h the patriarchal
narratives, Isaac inherited the patriarchal blessing from Abrahm after
A:hrahirm"s elder son, Ishmael, was bankhed (Gm. 21). Isairc's younger
d patriarchal blessing by stealfi (Gen. 27-28). Jacobfs
son, Jacob, ~ e r i t e the
oldest son, Reuben, was pased over for the patriarchal bkssing perhaps
because he engaged in illicit relations with his fatfit.rfsco~~cubines (Gen.
35:22; 49:4), It was one of the yomger sons, Jud&, who became the mces-
tor of King David and of the southern tribe that maintained its identity
eve11 after the destmctio~~ of the Terrrple m d the Bahylonian Exile. 'This pat-
tern continues througfiout the Bible. Moses was younger than his brother,
Aaron, who served as his aide, King David was the y m g e s t in his faxnily.
Solomon was m o n g the yount;er sons of David.
l%e consistency ol this pattern leads the reader to question the whole
institution of inheritance through the older son. One way of interyrctjng
this persiste~~t theme is as a pointed presentatior.1 of Israel's place in the
ancient Near East. Israel was a very small comtry compared to the major
powers of the day, Except for the brief period of united monarchy in the
t h e of David and Solomol~,Israel and later the divided b g d o m s of Is-
rael, m d JuQahwere mixlor players in. the ixlternational arena. Evenwally
they lost their bnd dtogether m d their populatims were exiled to Baby-
lonia. 'fhmughout these periods, howcsver, Israel considered itself to be
God's chosen people. The disscana~cecaused by this contradiction led to
14 Ora Horn Prouser

the idea of the ascendancy of the yomger son, Although logic and soci-
etai n o m s dictated t-hat the older son wouid htherit, appearances can be
deceivijrrg. Just as it was the youngec weaker son who hherited his fa-
ther's blessing (or became prophet, priest, or king), the smaller, weaker
people would r m a i n heir to God's covenant a r ~ dblessing. TM"tgsare not
as they appear to be. This was a message of great hope to the Israelites at
every stage in their histrozy;
lhis theme goes hand in hand with the theme of deception in bihlical
narrative. n r ~ u g h o uthe
t Bible we see hdlviduals achieve their goals by
means of deception, In most of these cases, not only are the biblical heroes
not co~"tdem"ted, but they are lauded and rewarded for their clever~~ess. A
dear case is t-hat of Jacob's cjeceiving his father into blessing him instead
of his brother Esau (Gen. 27). Rebecca was both the mastermkd and the
behind-the-scenes actor in this scheme, The narrative is fraught with
que"io1"ts about Esaurs worthiness and charactcir, as well as Isaac's level
ol awareness of what was beirtg done. S o m read Esau as an unworthy
son, and others understmd Esau as a loving, obedient son who became a
tragic virth. Isaac, too, can be read as innocmtly blessing Jacob, since he
was unaware of the scheme, ar as a conscious ar unconscious coconspira-
tor who wmted to bless lac& without openly rejecting his beloved Esau.
Rebecca can be understood as a col"tnivi17g wife with her own agenda or
as a lovhg wife who helped her husband to accomplish what seemed too
difficult for him to do alme, Ttegardless of the accepted reading, facob re-
ceived the blessing and was not punished for his actions. Rebecca too suf-
fered no consequences for her part in the scheme. Jacob did need to leave
home, but that was not banishment in m y way.
Jacob, probahiy the strongest of the patriaxhs as the father of the
twelve sons who would become the t-vvelwe tribes, received the covenan-
tal blessing through stealth. The :Lack of mrimination can be understood
as a further stakment of the understmcting of Israel in the ancie17.tworld.
In biblical narrative, deceptim seems to be a kgitimate tool for the we&
to use against stronger powers. The ancient braelite audience probably
was amused and e1"tcouragt.dby the thought that there are many ways to
achieve one's gads. Israel, as a weaker country; could not accomplish
much through outright means agaislst the stronger powers, However, the
message inherent in biblical narrative is that t-herc? are alternative means
to be used in order to succeed. Israel could find its way in the ancient
world with the dual hope that the smaller can be the chosen one m d that
there are many routes to strength and success.
Although today we may be able to look at this narrative and analyze
the predominmt :Literary motifs and themes, historicdly, Jacob's decep-
tion has been a difficult one for Jewish comme~~tators. 'The charactel-iza-
tion af Jacob as lying and deceptive was used in mti-Semitic circles to re-
inforce the caficaturr; of the sneak5 lying Jew In order to deal with this
sihnation, some medieval Jewish comme~~tators went to great le~~gths to
interpreuhe text in. such a way as to make facob an honest mm.
In modem t i m s there is no need, we hope, to save Jacob from anti-
Semitic readers. We still have the prohlem of reading biblical ethics. How
does one learn ethics from the Bihe, and what should be done with por-
tions of the Bible that encourage behavior that can be wnoralv wrong?
These ~ e s t i o go
~ ~b es y o d &sues of dc.ceptiol3, to larger matters such as
violence m d the treament af women. At times, these difficult passages,
through deeper analysis or deconstmction, can be found to have alterna-
tive readings that argue against the viole~~ce or the immoral hehavior de-
picted. There are actions in the Bible, however; that might cause the
reader to wmt to state publicly that this behavior c m no longer be con-
sidered acceptable. The issue of the ethics of reading is coming into the
fore in bibljcal studies, and as it is pursued further, there is a chmce that
new Tlnswers m d directions wilt be found, Deception in bibijcal narrative,
however, does not need to be a major theological problem. These narra-
tives shouid be read as providing a mixture of hope m d h
ple, small in. number, yet covenantally promised a special portion.
Israelite hope in response to nationaf adversity was extended through
other biblical themes as well. The di\iine deliverance of the people from
Egypt in the book of Exodus is probably the climactic mornent of the
Torah. Throughout the b& of Exodus the Israelites are,for the first time,
presented as a people, not simply a single hmily line. 'That is the fulfill-
ment of God" b1essin.g to AbrAam: that his "'descendants would be as
great as the stars in the sky." This newfound nationat, standing, however,
raised new issues of relittionships with outside culbres. It was lrhc first
time the Israelites could be considered a major threat, which led to their
enslavement and poor situation in Egypt. At this point, God forged a new
relatimship with tt7e Israelites as well. In order for God to free them from
oppression m d rehurn them to their land, God needed to be reestablished
as the omipotent deity (Exod. 6:&8).
Neither the Israelites nor the Egyptians believed, at first, in God's
polver aver the Pharaoh, God" divine polver was proven to them in a
steady strttam of miraculous events. Magical acts we= folhwed by ten
major $isasters, which affected only t-he Egyptims, not the Israelites.
Through these disasters, Gad's supremacy over the Pharaoh and the
Egyptian deities, along with God's intense faithfuhess to the Israelites,
was displayed. Arl areas col~sideredunder tfne aegis of the Egyptian
deities, such as fertilityf nature, water, life, and death, were claimed by
God. In Israel" escape from Egypt, Cad's s a t i n g of the sea added addi-
tional miraculous elements. The comhh~edeffect of all these miracles il-
lt~stsatedGod" supremacy aver the natural world and aver all earthly
powers, as well as aver ail human prctendws to divinity. In the process,
God also became klown as the redeemer from slavery and *ustice, the
God of the oppressed. l%e relationship between God a c t Israel became
one of protection m d guidance on God's part, with gmteful, indebtedness
expected from the Israelites.
T h i s powerful view of God and of the relationship between God m d Is-
rael is a m;.ljor theological focus of the Tor&, and of the Bible as a whole.
Mmy narrative texts refer back to the Exodus. Legal texts often give t-he
Exodus as the explana.lion of specific laws or as the motivati,on to obey
the Iaw This idea of p~cedencebegixls in the Ten Commandm~ntsm d
continues through laws pertaining to slaves, foreigners, festivals, and
more

Bear in mind that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and the Lord your
God redeemed you; therefore i enjoin this cclmmandment upon yclu today,
(Deut. 25:15)

l%e Exodus from Egypt also serves as the model for all fut-ure redemp-
tions. The prophets of the Kabyloniitn Exite ofen d u d e to the Exodus in
describing God's ffuhrc redemption of the EsrneZites from exile. Fw exam-
ple, tt7e sixth-century prophet klown as Deutero-Isitiah descrihed 1srael"s
hture return from Babylomitl, ttsislg images ham, the Exodus story:

Go farth frorn Babylon, Gee frorn Chaldea! Dedare this with loud shouting,
announce this, bring out the word to tl-re ends of the earth! Say: "The I,ord
has redeemed His senrant Jacob!""They have known no thirst, thaugh he led
them through parched places; He made water flclw for them from the rock;
He cleaved the rock and water gushed farth. (Isa. 48:2Q-21)

The Exodus symbolizes God's protective care over Israel as well as the in-
debtedness of' the Israelites toward God.
This persistent ~ l a t k n s h i pof chosenness and obligation is a ma~or
portion of two otrher foci of the "fbrah: covenirnt and law. God made sev-
eral covenmts with humm beings, coverlants that cover differenl groups
m d differat situations, God's first covenant was with No&, his family
and all living things present on the ark (Ge~l.9:8-17).

And God said to Noah and to his sons with him, "I now establish My
cclvenant with you and your offspring ta cclme, and with every living thing
that is with you-birds, cattle, and every wild beast as well-at1 that have
cctme out of the ark, every living thing ctn earth. 1 will maintain My covenant
with ycm; never a g a h shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and
never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." F e n . 9:8-21)
.After the flood, in an unconditional covenant, God prolnised that the
worXd a ~ its ~ idabitants
d would never agirin be destroyed by a flood.
God's all-ixlclusive covenant with life on earth is followed soon afterward
by anotl-ter unconditional covenant with one g m q of humans, AbrAarn
and his d e s c e ~ ~ d a(G~II.
~ t s 157-21).

On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham saying, """To your ctff-
spring T assign this Xand, from the river ctf Egypt to the great river, the river
Euphrates." Fen. 15:18)

The most important c o v e ~ ~God a ~ tmade with the kraelites was t-he Sinai
covcmmt. This covertat $iffered in that it was conditional, placing
obligations on the Israelites. God's continued electi,on and protecti,on of
the Israelites were directly tied to the Israelites%maral, cultic, and civil be-
hawim A u n i v e aspect to this covenant is that it was hetwectn God and
al( the Isrilefites. Mthough God's earlier covenant with Abraham r e f e r ~ d
to his descendmts, the covenmt itself was between God and Abraharn,
At Sinai, however, Moses was the facilitator a r ~ dintemediary, but Lhe
covenantal parties cvere God and the Israelites en masse.

Moses went and repeated to the people a13 the commands of the Lord and all
the rules; and all the people answered with one voice, sayingf "All the things
that the Lord has commanded we will dctl" ( ( E x o ~ , 24:3)

Further on in the Bible, God made an unconditional covenant with

David (2 Sam. ?:E-36). hSter God promised. David to he with him
trhroughout his reign, God added that David"s son and his descendants
would mle forever under God's pmtection as well,

Vc~urhouse and your kingship shall ever be secure before you; your throne
shall be established forever. (2. Sam. 7':16)

This promise was not dependent upon the descendmts"roper behavior,

but cvas sirn,ply a graM to David. After Solomm's death, thc Israeliee m-
pire was split into tnlo separate kingdoms, Israel in the nor&, and b d a h
in the south. According to the Bible, the small state of Judah was pre-
served as a separate entity only because of God's promise to David. Even
if individual kings did not seem to be desewling of the privilege, the Da-
vidic line coz~thuedfor a h o s t five hundred years, until the fall of Judah
h 587/586 B.C.E.
Just as the Bible is clear regarcting what God promised the Israelite peo-
ple, the mspansibilities of the Israelites arc? ddineakd as well. Major par-
tioms of the Tor& consist of the legal, cultic, amd ethical &ligations ol the
18 Ora Horn Prouser

Israelites. The laws in the Torah are portrayed as coming directly horn
God, and failure to obey the law was a direct rebellio~~ against God. The
mi,ddle of the five books in the Torah is IJeviti.cus,cvhicb contains a large
portion of the :Legal texts, both civil and cultic. The very placement of the
book highlights the central rale of law in the Torah. The laws are not sim-
ply m accompmiment to the narrative text but are, ratclner, at its very core,
It is significant that biblical law rested on God" authority. Although
there arc cases in the Bible in which individual laws were enacted by
kings, the overwhelming sense is that God was the source d the law,
adding weight to the Israelites' sense of obligation to Observe the laws. It
was an essentiai part of their covenantal Obligation, and their observance
or no~~obsel.vance of Che law had direct consequmces f-or their daily lives.
Observance of tf?e law msured the fulfilhent: of Goct's covenmtal ohjiga-
tions, including enough rainfall, peace, and the presence of God in their
community. The continued survival of the Israelite people rested on their
covemantill mlationship witb. God and the fulfillment of the responsibili-
ties that this covenmt placed on its respective partks.
after the Israeliks had left Egypt and established their covenantnl rela-
tionship with God at Mount: Sinai, they experienced m extremely forma-
tive period. The Israelites developed from a group of runaway slaves to a
community in cove~~ant with Cod ready to conquer the Land of Imael.
This time period was characterized on one level by a close relationship
between the Israelites and God. As they traveled, God continuously led
them with a pillar of fire or a pillar of smoke (Exod. 13:21--22). They codd
always sense God's presence in their community*However, as this trmsi-
tional time was difficult, the peoyle were trjuemlous and rebellious. The
difEiculties of desert wandering led the Israelites to complain about scant
water, food, m d loss of a settled life (Nt~wn.21, 26). l%eir lack of faith in
Cod's ability to successfully lead them in conquerhg the Lmd of Israel
ultilnatcly caused God to punish those who had left Egypt by condemn-
ixlg them to live out their lives wmderhg in the desert without enterkg
the Promised Land (Num. 13-14),
At times both God and Moses despaired of being able to transform the
Israelites into a miG,ed, God-fearing commmity On several occasions
Cod threatened to wipe out the vvhole nation and save only Moses, from
whom would come a new "chosen people.'" Moses repeatedly intcrcecjed
on the people" behalf by remkding Gad of the covenants made with the
patriarchs. Perhaps more important, Moses asked God what the other na-
tions would think of God if the Israelites all died in the desert. Time and
agah God relented m d saved the Israelites, though pmishing them for
their acts of rehdion, Moses also lost faith in the people at several points,
ciaimhg that the b u r d e ~of~"carryir"t$"he Israelites t h r a s h the desert
was just too great. In res;ponse to Moses' despair, God showed a protec-
tive nature to the Israelites and offefed Moses additional help and sup-
port structures to enirble hiln to lead the peoyle.
By the end of the book of Deuteronomy, the Israelites were poised to
enter the Promised Land. Moses gave a lengthy farewell speech in the
book of Deuterommy, remindirrg the peopk of their obtigations to God
and to each other. He recounted their wilderness experience, warning
them to follow God's laws in o d c r to be abbe to retah the land that God
was wing them (Deut. 5-81, He transferred his leadership to Joshua, his
successor who had been chosc;.nby God, before atl ot the Israelites (Nzam.
2218-23; Deut. 34:9), There was no doubt that Joshua was continuing
:Moses"& and that he had been invested with :Mosesbulhority. This
sense of conlinuity wa"rn essentiirl elemernt of ihe people" abifity to de-
velop and to conquer the Land of Israel.

The Former Prophets

The Torah ends with the death of Moses m d the Israelites poised on the
border of Cmam, ready to enter the land. The section of the Bibbe callled
the Proyhets continues where the Torah If off. It begins with the book of
Joshua, which describes the conquest of the land of Car~aan(which then
becomes Israel) by the Israelites, ably led by Joshua, Gad contintred to be
actively involved with the Israelites, helping them to win their battles
against the settkd Ca~aanitepeoples.
The book of Joshua descri[bes the Israeliteskonquest of the L,and of Is-
rael as a series of successfuZ military battts against major cities. The Is-
raelites were ordered by God to anrtfiilat-e i h e Canaar~itepeople totally
This entailed killing every human being and animal, and burning the
land, A11 booty was forbidden to the people and left "for God." GGod or-
dered a 'Woly Warf" against the Canaanites. It is reported that the
Canaades had sinned to tbe point where the bnd was "vomitkg them
up,""m d now it was time for the Israelites to dispossess them of the land.
These battles wel-c not decided by numbers of soldiers or sophistication
of kveaponry God determined who the wimers were to be. Only when
the Israelites sinned did God cause them to lose in battle,
It seems urdikely that the Israelites cornirrg out of the desert would be
able to conquer the Canamite cities, whi& were so much more techo-
logically advanced. The Kble, however, compensates for this situation by
depicti~ligeach battle fought using quite unconwmtional tactics. In the
most f a m u s such battle, the conquest of the city of kricho, the Israelites
marched around the city once a day fur six days, On the seventh day, they
marched arour~dthe city six times, and on the seventh t h e , blew their
horns and created a very loud ruckus, catrskg the walls of "Ie city to fall
20 Ora Horn Prouser

down. In figtnthg other cities, the Israelites used military strategitzs such
as attacking at night of splitting the camp into tkvo and trapping the ell-
emy between them. According to the baak of Joshua, the Israelites con-
quered all of Canaan and divided the land among themsehcs as directed
by Cod.
m e next baak of the Bible, the book of Judges, paints a different pic-
ture. In this book, the fsraelites were living in Canaan/lsrael but we=
constal7tly havjng difficulty with their no11-Israelite neighbors. This is a
direct contradiction of Joshma, in that it is clear k Judges that the peoples
of the :Land we= not all conquered and destroyed.. This contradiction has
been studied by many scholars who have tried to uderstar~dthe settle-
ment of the IsraeliLes in Canaan .from a historical perspective. Some schol-
ars support the picture of the Israelites conquerhg the land in a series of
lightning atbcks, as portrayed in the book of foshua. Others favor a more
moderate approach, closer to the hook of fudges. Rather than seeing a
desed people easily conpering a strong, scttted city-state, some scholass
favor an immigration m d c l of conquest. Perhaps the Israelites moved
into the w~occupiedhiIl country of Canaan and settled them while grow-
ing and becornkg st-ronger. As they grew they needed more room, and
over a :Longperiod of time, they begm to fight with their Cmamite neigh-
hors until they ultimately eor~queredt-he h o l e lmd. Mortunatcly, there
is no unequivocal archaeological or extrabiblical. evidence to validate one
theory or the other, Until such evidence is found, we w i l not be able to in-
tegrate fully the books of Joshua and fudges from a historical standpoin.
There is much to be learmed, however, from the theologiclzl message of
the book of Judges. A cyclical pattern exists in the book: The people
would sin, causil7g God to place them under lrhe oppresion of a neigh-
borhg peaple. After some time, the people kvould repent, cryhg out to
God to help them. God wodd send a sav.lor, wl-ro wodd lead the people
in battle and overthrow the oppressor. After a period of peace, the cycle
would begin anew. Each of these leaders was unlikely in some regard,
fighting with smaller numbers against greater tribes. This inequality
help"o reinforce the role of God in human affairs. The message that is re-
peated many tirnes is that if the Israelites obeyed God's law, they wodd
live in peace and prosperity; if they displeased God, they would fall un-
der the oppl-ession of foreign peapiet;.
Another repeated theme, related to the previous one, in the book of
Judges is that many of these difficdties occuned because there was no
king in the hnd and every person anarchically did what was right in his or
her owrt eyes (e-g., Jwdg. 1R4; 18:1; 19:l; 21:E). The reader of the hook of
Judges begins to sense that if only there were a king, none of these prob-
lems would exist. As one conthues into the books of Samuel, the situation
becomes more ambiguous. The text vacillates bet-vveen promanarchic m d
mtimonarchic agenda, When the people requested a king, Samuel re-
sponded with a long diatribe about ihe evils of kingship. Immediately
the~after,God ordered Samuel to heed the people's request m d anoint a
king, chosen by Gad. Saul was chosen and prweeded to act as both a suc-
cessful Isklig, saving Israel from warring enemies, and as a negatke charac-
ter, issuing foolish orcters and disobeying God's m d Samuel's instructions.
This tension contia~ues&roughout biblical literature, At times, the monaab
chy is portrayed as appropriate mlid the king as God's chosen one. God's
special relationship kvith David is a clear example of that pattern. Else-
wkre, however, the idea of a monarchy is abhorrent, since God is the Is-
raelites"'~ligrf' and thus an eartbly king is wxliecessary
I h e stories of Saul and David are cases for understanditlig the fieme of
chosenness in, the Bible. Saul was originally chosen by God m d described
in very complimentary krms. He had tremendous physical stabre, was a
good, brave man, cared for his family, and valued God's word as ex-
pressed through a prophet. Not long after he was anoh2ted king, however,
he was rejected by God. The reason given for this rejection was a lack of
obedience to God" direclions as expressed throu& the prophet Samuctl (I
Sam. 15). Satrl was ordered to destroy the Amalekites, killing all litrhg
things accordirrg to the mles of holy war. Instead, he spared the king and
trhe choice alihals. Alehough those actiozlis were clearly in violation of the
bm, he was not the first to make accommodations to his sitt~atian.h the
book of Joshua, when the Israelites destroyed bricho, they saved the h-
ily of Rahah, who had protected t-heir spies. That too was theoretica:ily in
vialation of the ban but was not considered a punishable act by Gad. In
addition, David, God" chosen, committed such serious siris as adultery-
arlid murder but was not removed from tcingship..Thus, wlianswered ques-
tions throughout Samuel are why Saul was chosen m d then rejected and
why David was chosen but never rejected. As was seen earlier, God" rea-
sons for choming alid rejeclring are not necessarily made clear, Pctrhaps,
just as all. the older sans were elimkated in the book of Genesis, so too
Saul, of such great stature, was like an older son who must he considered
arlid climitliated before choosing the sborter, younger, Dauid.
David was a successful ruler who transformed Israel into one of the
skonger empires of his time. He also was fai.thful to Cad and God" l w s ,
as commuzliicakd to him ihrough ihe prophets. At times, it is diftricult to
get a clear picture of David's chstxacter. He was a very politically savvy h-
dividual who xemed to h o w intuitively the route to kingship. He ingra-
tiated hilnself to ma~liyalienated those wham he had to, and managed to
distance himself from much of Ihe violence m d killing that helped to so-
lidify his monarchy. At the same time, he is portrayed as righteous and
God-fearing. W e n Uavid did co it sins, he accepted God's judgments
and pmishments. However, many of David's actions become very hard
22 Ora Horn Prouser

to evaluate. Was he mourning for Saul and Jonathm because he was tmly
sad, or was it a politicai act? Uid he really love Jmathtln or did he recog-
nize that the route to klngship must necessarily irrvolve the king's son?
@estions like those abound in David's life, and the text supports con-
flicth~grcadh"tgsof David"s character.
David's son Soloman also had a lengthy reign and managed to keep the
empire strong, He expanded international relatio~~s, wh.i.ch were "onefi-
ciai for cdtural and Ilterary development within ancient Israel. Slomon
also engaged in grmdiose building projects, the most importmt of which
was the buildillg of the Temple in Jerusalem*The Temple hecame Israel's
most holy place of worship a d sacrifice. All of this b u i l h g , however,
placed a tremendous fir~a~ciai strain on the people of the kingdom. They
were taxed to pay for the projects, and they needed to contribute labor as
well, This led to a significant amount of discontent arnong the populace.
Upon the death ot:Solomon, his son informed the pen* that he wo d d
continue m d intensify the demmds that his father had put upon the Is-
raelites. This caused a large part of the countv to secede, establishing a
separate state. ':The major* of the land, ten of the twelve tribes, h k e off
to form the northern Kingdom af Israel. The tribes af Judah, David's
home tribe, and of Benjamin, which. was only a tiny remainder of a tribe
at this point, became ihe southern Kingdom of Jutfah. 'The tribes; nevw
agah were a mited monarchy, existhg kstead as two separate entities, at
times allies, but occasionally warrhg with each other:
The Kingdom of Israel was the larger of the two lands. This proved
both an asset m d a liability. It was a stronger b g d o m in. possession af
more territory thm its ncighbor Judah. However, the size of its territory
and papdation led to a much more heterogeneous papufatior~,and thtls
more jl-itemd strife. N'o one dynasty ruled Israel for m y significanl. pe-
riod of time. Rather, there we= r e c u r ~ n eras
t of usurpation, revolt, and
civil war, Israel's territory hcluded part of the main trade routes beween
Egypt anct Mesopotamia. This Iocatitln led to external difficdties m d
skuggles with greater foreip powers. h addition, t%ie Temple, the center
of Israel's religious life, was in the south, in the Kingdom of Judah. The
first king of Israel attempted to rectify the sikation by creathg two alter-
native centers of worship in the north. Those sites were denounced by the
south as idolatrous a r ~ dwere evidently never accepted by the Israelite
peaple on a par with the Temple in.Jerusalem.
Juclah was mu& smaller than Israel both in territory and in population.
This relal;ive size was bex~eficidbecause it meant that Jud& had a much
mare homogeneous population. The Davidic dynasty was able to reign
for hundreds of p a r s until the hX1 of the kingdom. Geogra,phically Judah
was out of the way of the main trade routes;, which made it a less likely
target of expansionist kingdoms.
 These differences between the lands led to different developments, suc-
cesses, and failures. In the irrtenrational world, lsrael was far strozrger and
more importmt than the small, Ki.ng$om of Juddt. Ho'~vever,JudA's in-
ner strength enabled it to exist l,%years longer than Israel. The Mhgdom
of Israel feu to the Asyrfans in 721 B.c.E., ard Judah was conquered by
the Babylonians in 586 a.c.E. The people of Israel were exiled by the As-
sy"ms; they assimilated into the Assyrian culture and were not heard
from again. The Judaeans, however, retained their identiity &roughout
their exile in Babylonia until they were able to return to their l&,
around 70 years later. Several factors contributed to this situation, the
most import& of Mihich was lrhe role of the prophets.

Latter Prophets
A1thoug:h various forms of prophecy existed in Israel from early times,
prophecy reached its height .from the eighth century through the sixth
century B.C.E. fn this period, we see what is known as "classical
proghecy," 'and the prophets arc called "latter prophets." This terminol-
ogy is to distirtguish them from the ""former prophets," also &%ownas
"preclassical prophets." m e for~xerprophets were those who appear in
the books of Judges, Samuel, and Kings, proclaiming God's word, per-
forrrring miraculous, seerrringly magical acts. They interacted primarity
with the government, informing the kings ol God's desires and w a r ~ ~ h g s .
TKe latter prophets, in cmtrast, were c a k d by God to deliver m e or
more a s s a g e s to the Israelites. This could be a temporary calling or a
lifetime vocatim. Prophets we= not paid by those to whom they prophe-
sied. They were not available to the people at all times to answer specifjr
qu~""fo~rs Rather, these prophets were at God's beck and cdf, perfoming
God's work, and brhgixlg Gad's message to the Israelite people. For ex-
ample, in the eighth cenkrry h o s , chronologically the first of the classi-
cal prophets, described his mission to Amaziah the priest:
1 am not a prophet and 1 am not a prophet" ddliscipfe. 1 am a cattle breeder
and a tender of sycamore figs. But the Lord took me away from ft>llowingthe
FIock, and the Lord said to me, ""Go prophesy to my people Israel." (Amus
7:14--25)

The prophets worked alomw, and in general had very lonely lives. They
delivered, unfavornhle messages to the Israelites and thus were often the
objects of physical and emotio~ralabuse. Nevertheless, the prophets car-
ried on their work, conveying Gad's message to the Israelite people.
24 Ora Horn Prouser

These pm""phetsspoke in miversal tones. They understood the Israelite

God to be the solo God of the world, controlling al:l peoples 'They also
p ~ s e n t e da new understanding of f i a t Gocf desired ffom people. m e y
explained, that God, did not want the people merely to obey the ritual
laws, worsfipph~gexclusiwly through prop"' sa'ificcs and Temple ser-
vice. Mthough that kvas importmt to Cod, it was more important that the
people lead moral and ethical lives. The prophets declared that r i t d acts
were essentiaily meaningless if performed by those l e a d i ~ ~unethical
g
lives. They even raised the importmce af moral laws to the point of say-
ing that the people would be punished with the destruction of the state
for the omission of ethical acts. The eighth-century prophet Micah made
this clear when he stated:

He has told you, 0molz, zc~hntis good,

Arzd r u h f the Lord reqraiws of y0z.r;
Only fct do jtkstice
Arzd t o love goodness
ArzQ f.n wnlk nzo&stly zr?ttI~your God.
(Mie. 6:8)

The prophets preached against idolatry ancf sin, hut always included
morals and ethics an a pas wiP1.l rituals. Nthozlgh later Chistian interpre-
tation embraced the prophetie books as ~flectinga rejection of ritual law,
it it; important to uderstar~dthat the prophetic works were not ahandon-
ing ritual and cultic warship of God. Rather, they were claiming that
those modes of wurshiy are essential, but cannot sumive in a vacuurn.
They must he accompanied by appropriak maral and ethical behavior.
Tl-te prophets acted as social. critics, accuskg the Israelites af abandon-
ing the poor and the me@. They errtphasized the need to slapport and
provide for those in society who w r e without protectior.2, such as wid-
ows and orphams. Individual profietdlashed out at the Isriaelites for the
large gap that they saw between the rich m d the poor. The Israelites
should have considered the situation unte~~ahle and acted to realip the
balance of wealth. Although these prophetic messages are stmdard ethi-
cal messages, it is very significant that the prophets included this type of
c o ~ ~ d e m ~ a tini otheir
z ~ words to the Israelites. The inclusio~~
of social criti-
cism makes clear that Gad's demands an humankind incllude not only
cdtic and sacrificial responsibilities but also both personal and commu-
nal ethical behavior.
The latter prophets were continuously kvarning the Israelites that if
they did not change their ways, God would destroy their land. They
preached &is to &c. people of Israel, whasc k h g d m was ultilnatcly de-
stroyed in 723 B.C.E. They then pmached to the citizens of Judah, point-
edly adding that they should learn from Israeys mistakes and fate. The
people in general, though, did not heed the proghc.tskords. This sounds
difficult for the modern reader to understand, since the Judaeans had al-
ready seen that the fall of the north. had been prophesied, and that it c a m
about. Hwever, it rwst he borne in mind that even trhough the words of
these prophets were immortalized by the Bible, there were ot-her pmphets
circulating at the time, manqi of h o r n were equally convincing, but mis-
gUided "false prophets." From the people's point of view, though, it was
not clear which prophets were true and kvhich were false, Opposing
prophecies sounded similar in style, and prophetic competitors accused
one another of fraud. It is only human to want to believe good news.
The~fore,the job of the. biblical prophetwas difficuit at best.
When the Babylanians conquered Judah and destroyed Jerusalem in
587-586 n.c.E., they destroyed the Emple that had been built by King
Solomon. By this point, the Emple was considered lrhe only legitimte
place to sacrifice to God. An in.&ica&set of laws involving ritual purity
was legislated about the Temple and the Israelites"elationship with God,
Thus, the fall of the Temple was not simfly the razing of a holy site, but
the destruction of a way of life, It kvould seem natural for the Israeljtes to
rc3sp"nd like others in the ancient world, understanding the deskruction
as ihe fall of their God tru the Babylonim god, and therefore assimilating
into Babylonian religion. m a t did not happen. because of the efforts of
the prophets They taught the Israelites to understand the fall of
Jerusalem as a punishment for lrheir sins.
Instead of viewkg the Israelite Gad as powerless agahst the Bhylonian
god, the prophets claimed that God had controlled the Babylmians and
used them to pur~ishthe Israelites. The prophets also advised the Is-
raelites to contintre to worship their God in Bilbylonia and repent over
their past sins in order to be returned to Israel. The kraelite God was the
God of the world ar~dcould be worshiped on foreip soil. n i s new Lheo-
logical approach allowed the Israelites to remain loyal to Gad while in. ex-
ile met to retain their identity as a peoy?le and as a religim. The prophets
saved the Israelites from being ahsorbed and helped them to rctain a
unique identity. While the exiles were in Bhylonia the prophetwitfso p=-
pared them to =turn to fudah and to rebuild their Temple and their land,
"fhe sixth-century proghet Ezekiel, who lived in ertile in Babylo~~ia, in-
st-ructed the exiles not to believe those kvho told them that they no longer
had a land or a God,

Thus said the Lord God: " N a v e indeed removed them Ithe judaeans] far
among it-re nations and have scattered them among the countries, and X have
become to them a diminished sanctity in the countries whither they have
gone. . . . I will gather you [the exiles] from the peoples, and assemble you
26 Ora Horn Prouser

out of the a>untrieswhere you have been scattered, and T will give you the
Land of Israel." "zek, 11:16-37)

God promised that although the exiles had no Temple in which to wor-
ship, and although they were not in the Land of Israel, ihe God of Israel
was with them in Babylonia. In Babylonia they could not achieve the holi-
ness they experiemed in Jerusalem, but God was still with &em.
A closer look at the life of one prophet Jaemiah, sheds light on ihe dif-
ficult issues of biblical. prophecy Jeremiah" prophetic career trnfolds in
Judah in the late seventh and early sixth centuries, immediately before
and dwk-rg ihe destmctiox-r of Jerusalem by Babylmia in 587 a.c.E. Jere-
miah was called by God to be a prophet as a yomg man. God informed
him that he had been chosen even before birth to be a prophet. Although
Jeremiah complained to God of his inadequacies, it was clear that he had.
no choice but to obey God's orders. God wanled bim from the b e g h ~ i n g
that his task would be difficult, but that God kvould be there to save him,
throughout.

So YOZ~,gird U P your loins,

Arz'se and speak to them
All t h t 1 comnzand yrrzr.
Drr nof bre~kdown before them,
Lest I break you befow ffienz,
1 @lakeyou this day
Aforf $c8 city,
Arzd nlz inn pillar,
And bronze walls
Against tfle whole llz~~d-
AgcEinst judalz's ki~zgsand ~~ficers,
And against ifs priests and eiCize~zs.
T l r q zvill attack you,
But they shall not aueucome you;
icor I am with you-declu~s the h r d - f o sane you.
(Jeu, Z:17-2 9)

Jeremiah faithfully preached the divine message to the people, accus-

ing them, of iwoting God and wamin.g them of thc coming destructisn.
At the same time, he performed another essential duty of a prophet: inter-
cession ol-r behaif of the people beforc. God. He cox-rtinuouslyprayed to
God to forgive the Israelites and not to punish them, so severely. This form
of arguing with God should not be considered. a rebellion against God,
but rather a fulfiliment of God's wishes. God's l w e ax-rd mercy were
weighed against a contrasthg capa"ity for angcr and a sense of justice. God
h e w that the Israelites should be punished for their sins but called upon
the prophets to pray for the peopfe and to forestrall the divine punish-
ments. In fact, Jeremiah interceded for the people so often that at times
Cod was compelled specificaUy to direct him not to do so.

As for you, do not pray for this people, do not raise a c17 of prayer on their
behalff do not plead with Me; for J will not listen to you. Don't you see what
they are doing in the towns of judah and in the streets af Jerusalem? . . . As-
suredly, thus said the Lord Gad: My wrath and My fury will be poured out
upon this place, on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and the fruit of
the soil. It shall bum, with none to quench it. (Jer,?:l&-17,20)

Jeremiah is a particularly interesting prophet because of his strong

emotional nature. Ilis propheticr c m e r m d its requirement that he cm-
stanf;ly ~ b u k thc.
e people made him feel isolakd from ihe Israelite com-
mulniv T%ey, in turn, often treated hin? very poonty to thc point that he
needed to go into hiding to save his life, Similarly, despite his dosencss
wieh God, he sensed a distinct separation hemeel7 himself and tt7e Divine
due to his constant intercession on behalf of the peopie, and his belief "chat
Cod did, not prokct him. sufficiently or as promised. This led to intense
isolation and, sorrow; on several occasions Jeremiah bmke dawn a ~ at- d
tempted to reject his prophetic callling. Each time, though, Jereuni* recov-
ered, and God took him back. Humm pain m d anguish, however, were
very real in the life of a pmphet.

O Lord, you k~~azo-

Xerz2enzkr me nlzd f;itkethniiglt @me,
Avel-rge me on tfrosc zuho per5ccuf.c m,
Dct not yield to your Fle~zce,
Do 802.lef mr perish!
Consider how I lzuve borne insulf
On your acccrzant,
Whezz Yo~arwords were oferc.d, I dtwaurrd them;
Your word bmzighf me the delight and joy
Of knnwirg tI2at X1~lrname is at facited fo me,
0Lord, God of Hosts.
i' have not slnt irz the company o/revelers
A;r-rdmade merry!
J haw sat lonely because of Nzar halzd rlyon nze,
FOT Yozh hve,(ilEcd MC with gloom.
Why nzlrst my pain be mdless,
My woz-r~zinczirable,
d
Resishnt to healing?
 Ora Horn Prouser

Although, kremi& gave voice to his sorrow more than other prophets, it
should be assumed that his was not a unique sihratiox~.Prophetic artivity
had repercussions on very personal areas of the prophets9lives, keephg
&ern from living the "normal" lives they might othewise have pursued.
afthough much of Mi.hat is read in the prophetic books consists of con-
demation, calls to change and repent; m d threats, there is also prophet-ic
consolation m d camfort, This is seen very clearly in the secand half of
Isaiah,
T%e book of Isaiah is generally understood as being the work of eifier
hn30 m three diffctmt prophets, First Isaiah. is composed of chapkrs 1-39.
The prophet Isaiah lived during the seco~~d half of the eighth ce~~tury,
a dat-
ing based on his interactions with eighth-cent-ury h g s , such as &az m d
Hezekiah.. He counsekd them during some very diffjculttimes inbdaean
history mI"ir"tg IsaiaWs years as prophet, Isracl attacked Jullah in a r ~at-
tempt ta overfirow Assyrian domhation, in what is hewn as the Syra-
Ephraimite War; Assyria conquered Israel; and Jud;ih became a vassal state.
h the n7idst of these events, Isaiah dealt directiy with the Judac.a~kirrg, ex-
presskg God's word, encouraging appropriate responses, m d trying to
keep 'Judahfrom suffering a fate similar to that of Israel, IsaiA encouraged
neutrality vis-h-vis other x~atio~~s, with an emphasis 0x1 correcthg Judah's
internal failings. For a time, the kings did not heed his di~ctions m d Judah
becme a smaller, weaker, vassal state under A s s y ~ m domination,
1Ke scond half of the book of Isaiah reflects a much later time period.
Chapters 40-55, h~own,as Deutero-Isaiah, are kvords of comfort m d con-
solation adcliressed to an exiled Judaem people. In these chapters, the
p r v h e t addresses Lhe exiles, explahh~gto t-hem the reasom for the de-
struction, =minding them of God's iove and of their cboscn status, and
encouraging them with thoughts of their future return to judah. Finally,
chapters 55-66 are &%ownas Trito-Isaiah, reflecting the po"t"xilic life of
the Jews afttr they rcturrsed to Judah. The division between Deutero-
Isaiah. and =to-Isaialn is not too clearly defined, and some scholars view
trhe two sections as the wofk of fhe same prophet, b e g h ~ i n ghis work in
Elaibylonia and fhishing it after retznrming with the exiles to Judah. Others
consider T~b-1saia.ha disciple of Deutero-Isaiah, Athough there is some
continuation of theme and inagery from one sectiox~to the next, the
prophets are separated from each other in both time and space- The cu-
mulative work of the various prophets in Isaiah expsesses in microcosm
the fudaean experience in bot%rinternal a d exterx~dstruggle, through
destruction and exile, md, fkally; rebuilding.
The third division of the Hebrew Bible is holvn. as the "'Ketznvim," the
"Hagiographa," or the "Writings." As may be inferred from these terms,
this diverse secticm of the Hchrew Wt. is sigrrilicantly more difficuit to
characterize. Several different genres of literature are contained in the Ke-
tuvim, including poetry, wisdom literature, narrative, and histo"y.
I h e largest corpus of bihlical poetry exists in the KeWim, speciSicafly
in the book of Psalm. This book involves p s a h s kvrittm and used for
many difiSerent occasions, There are psalms of petition, asking sornethivlg
of God, such as direct help and saIvatio11 from enemies (e.g., Pss. 3,5,42).
Psalms of t%lanksgivjng(e.g., 30, 32, 43, 92)ack~owledgeGod for bless-
ings in general or far specifc acts of kindness. Psalms of lament (e.g., 4,
60,533) and psalms of praise (e.g., 8,1OO,146) also resgmd to specific occa-
sions, as well as tru more gex~eralsituatio~~s. t.zihatc;tvcl-fhe original stting
ol the psalms, most are written in such a way that they can be used for
varied occasions bp different groups of people. Many of these were proh-
ably used in liturgical settings in the ancient world, and some are still re-
peated in kvorship today.
Biblical poetry has a variety of characteristic katures. The most distin-
gUishable trait is that of pardlclism. tn general, poetic lines cox~tilintwo
phrases that repeat, state opposites, or most commonly; reiterate with
small. changes of nuance, For example, in Psalm 51:3 the author first asks
God for mercy, appealing to God's faithful~~ess, and then appeals to
God's compassion.

Nnuc nzercy uynn me, O God, as befits ynzarfait)?lfulness;

In k e p i ~ ~with
g yoar alat_lnllnlzf~ o m p ~ i sblot
i ~iluf
~ , my
transgressions.

When appealing to God's faithfulness, or devotion, the author hints at

God" past dealings with the Israelite people and their covenantal rtla-
tionships. Perhaps the autbor could receive mercy for the sake of his an-
cestors. God% compassion, holvever, is a trait totally wi.1Erin the divivre
character. The author adds that if he does not deserve mercy because of
past tra~sgressions,he is still appcaiing to God's irherex~tsexlse of com-
passion. Thus, although these two lines appear to make the same polnt
twice, the differing nuances present in the wording make this far from a
simple repetition.
This small section of the psalm exhibits mother importmt literary de-
vice. The h e s are chiastic in structux, which meam that the second part
of the verse uses fhe reverse order in its parabl statemmt. Ihus, both the
first clause of the first line m d its parallel, the second clause of the second
30 Ora Horn Prouser

lineI ask God to act in a certain way. Similarly the second clause of the
first line aid the first clause of the secoxld line both give ihe reasorls why
God should respond to the psalmist. Chiastic stmcture abounds in. bibli-
cal literatu~,adding literary artktry and poetic skcngth to the verses.
Wereas I"sahs it-;a hook usable for many different occasiox~s,two other
examples af biblical poetry in, the Ketmvh each focus on one situation. One
of these, the SORg of Songs, is a collftctim of love p o e q ibetvlreen a m m and
a woman. The man and woman descrfEte each other's heauv, delight in
their love, and long for each ather when they are apart. The book teems
with imagery of the naturd work!, including both flora and,hrtna, which
leads the reader to see tit-relove portrayed as an inherent part of Che natural
w r M . It is s t r i h g to have a book ceiebmting physiciti love so explici"rty -as
part of the biblical canon. The tracf it-ional,Jewish interprtrtatian of the b w k
is rillegorifal, referrjng to the love between God m d the Lsraelite people.
This il7terpretaCion has enabled the book to be accepted by Lf-rosc who
might otherwise be scmdalized by descrintians of the beauty of physical
love. Howevtll; others i n t c . ~the ~ tbook as beautiful love poeky eitl-ter a
callection of ulwelated poems or almost a drama played out in poetry.
One very beautiful analysis of the book involves m intertextual ~ a d i n g
of the Song of Songs m d the Gardm of Eden narrat-ive in Gmesis 3. Ac-
cording to this hterp~tatioxl,everything that went wmng beween man
and wornan h the Garcfe11 is ri,gl?ted in the Smg of Smgs. Both stories fo-
cus on a garden and life among much flora. a d fauna. h both stories the
focus is on love ar~dnot marriae and pmc~atiox~. Most sipgicantly the
rare word for "'desire" or "lust" i s repeated in bath stories hopposite con-
texts. Genesis 3:16 the woman is told that her lust will be for ker hus-
bmd, but he wili rule over her, fn Sax~gof Santiys Ell, hwever, the woman
proclaims that she is her beloved" s d his lust i s for her. Thus we have
come full circle, m d relationships have been =paired. &sire and lust c m
be reciprocal, withouL one p a r t ~ ~needing
er to rule over lrhe other.
Several baaks in Ketuvim are poetic in, style but should be considered
wisdom literatuse. Classic& wisdom Iiterature teaches that by leading a
righteous, failthhl, discjplimd, a d prudent life, one may ackiewe suc-
cess..However, sin will always lead to punishment m d failure. The book
of Proverbs makes this abundantb clear.

Ne who l i v e hlnmelessly zuill be deiiuered,

But he ~ 1 ~ 2 2 is
0 erookd in his ruays millfall af orzce.
Ilc wiln tills his land will havefood ilz yleuty,
Nut he w h pnrszies zilmities will have pozlerfy i~ ple~iy.
A dqe~llnblcman ruill ~ e c i m many blessit~gs,
But one in a hz~rryto get rich will ~ c tgo t nl.tpzlnished.
 He 1172211 trusts his own instinct is a dullard,
But he ~ 1 1 1 liues
) by wisdonz shall escape.
Ne who gives E i l fhc poor mill not be i l ~wnE,
~
But he zc~hoshuts his eyes will be routrdly C I C ~ S C ~ .
(Pruv. 28:2@-20,26-2 7)

Wisdom literatznre is hstsuctional in. tenor, teachhg people the pmper

way to lead a successful life, Parts of the book of Proverbs are written in a
didactic styte, words of advice given from a father to a son.In this con-
text, the author is trying to teach younger people what he has learned
from his life. The information given is not book learning, brat rather life
exyerience.
As can be expected, the appmach to life taught by kvisdom literature is
not always affirmed by daily experience. In theory, people find, cornfort in
statix~gthat riighteous people art. rewmded and sinr~ersare punished.
However, in. reality, life does not consistently work that kvay Righteous
people suffer along with the unrighteous, Two expressions of this rcality
exist in the Bible. The books of Ecclesiastes and Job both cor~tradictthe
conclusions of classical wisdom literature as expressed in the book of
Proverbs. In Ecclesiastes and fob, the authors attmpt to urrdesstmd how
God can allow evil to befal:i those who are in no way deservhg of punish-
ment. T%ey come to the conclusion that there are many elements of the
world that are incomprehensiE>Ieto hulnan beings,
:In the book of J&, God rr.spol7dec.l to Job's complaints that he was he-
ing punished when he never sinned, and that he was suffering unde-
semedly God claimed that Job was speakhg from a hurnan perspectitre,
which was, by r~ature,limited in scope. The divine view is inscmtable.

ri\i!zre zuere you 117t!ze~1 Inid the earfh'sfoznzdrrl tz'011s.3

Syc~akfz yctrl haw tindwstanding.
Do p z know~ zufzofixed its dimensions
Or 117l10 mmszlred it ruith a litze?
Onto what were its bases su~zk?
W o sef its cornerstone?
(Job3 8 : H )

Only a divhe being could comprehend God's plans for the world, and
it was yresumphtous of fdb to think he had the right or the ability to un-
derstand God's actions. While God's speeches are very er7igmatic, it
seems that God is affirmkg that there is a plan for the worid, but that it is
. world is full of many species of flora
not rtecessarily human c e n t e ~ dThe
and fauna, all of which are of concern to God and thus affect divhe ac-
tions.
32 Ora Horn Prouser

One fascinatinf: interpretation of the book of Job understands this dy-

namk someMi.hat differe~~tiy, Rather than rea* God'.; speeches as de-
scribhg a just m d p1 ed-out world that is beyond human comprehen-
sit,n, perfiaps the mswer is that Gad is not just. Although elsewhere in
trhe Bible, Israel would rc.cc.ive that prccious commodity rain, only when
observhg God's laws, in. Jab it is observed that God causes it to rain on
unixlhabited places. If rain is the classic sign of reward and plmishrnent,
why w u l d God waste rain on places where people do not exist to er-tjoy
it? Thus, perhaps the world is not based on principlemf reward m d p m -
ishrnent and on divine justice, Whereas in Proverbs wisdom is God's first
creation, ii7 God's speeches in fob, the sea monsters are among God's first
creations. The v e s t i m that lrhen arises is, if divine justice is taken out of
the ewation, why observe Cod's laws, amd why lead ;a moral Me? The an-
swer, according to this intevretation, is that one must lead a mord life
because it is the right fiing to do.
Early Israelite *ought f a v o ~ dcolXective respmsjhility, m d thus m h e
cent persm could be punished by Cod because of the sins of his or her com-
munity or ancestorti. As this belief waned and illnocenl: people wre still
seen to suffer, a new ~mderstmdlstgneeded ta be reached. Thus, fob came
to say that we do not mderstnd the world, m d per.haps &ere is no divine
justice as we have w~derstoodit. Never&eless, one must lead a moral a-td
ehical life because that is what humms as moral be;ings should do.
The book of Ecctesiastes differs somewhat in that it is a frst-permn ac-
cour-tt of a m m who has lived the ""life of wisdom" and f o w ~ dthat it did
not i-vork.l%is book is a direct attack an the philosophy es;poused by the
book of Proverbs. It disputes the basic premises of classical wisdom
trhought and c m e s to startling cor~clusions.Accordir-tgto his experience,
the atrthor perceives that nothing is determined by one's proper or im-
proper behavim "A season is set for e v e ~ t h i n ga, time for every experi-
ence under heaven'" (Eccles. 3:l). These ""times'bill occur regardless of
humm behaviar; they are not rewards or pmishments. Though occasion-
ally he contradicts himself, claimjng that God wifl bold each person re-
spomi:b[e for bis of her aclim~s,the ihntst of the book is that people need
not live a certah cvay in order to influeme God's dekrmit.m.eions. ''Rert.
is nothing worthwhile for a man but to eat and drink and afford himelf
er-tjoymentwith hiti means""(Eccles. 2~24).
The varied natznre of the material in the Ketuvim, the Writings section
of the ESjbZr, is made very clear in the juxtaposi.tjon of the pessimism m d
fuLility of Ecclesiitstes with the happhess and hope of Rutl-t and Esthcr.
n o s e two books are narratives that both center on the lives of women.
The book of Ruth is an idylliic story h-acing the life of a family that en-
dured hadship and death and, finally birth and happiness. Two women
struggled against hunger and death to attajn the basic needs of life. Not
only were they wefe sraccessful in survking, brat Ruth's child becme the
ancestor of King Uwid.
The book of Esther is set in Persia and describes the attempted destmc-
tion and the ultimate salvation of the Jewish people. Esther managed to
save the Jewish populatio~~ of Persia through a combination of good for-
tune, cleverness, m d bravery It is noteworthy that in both Ruth and Es-
h e r God is not a visible actor. God is not even explicitly mentioned in the
Hebrew book of Eather. Al.thou5i;:h &is can be understood in many ways,
it seems to point to an emphasis on htxman action in the world. God
works behind the scenes, but humans need to initiate activities and take
~sponsihilityfor themselves a r ~ dtheir people. Significantly, it is the
womm who act and attain success and good fortune through their brav-
ery, cclwrness, m d hitiative*Just as in the b e g b i n g of the Bible, the ma-
triarchs ensured that God" chosen sons would iderit Ihe blessing, so too
toward the end of the Bible, when God's direct pl~stmceis not fetft,it was
the w m e n who ensured that bracl wowld survive and that futurc3 gencr-
ations would carry on with appropriate leaders.

Methodology
Since the H&rew Bible is of such importance to such large numbers of
people, it is natural that it is approached with different assumptions and
varied methodo(ogies. RabbirTic, or classical Jewish, interpretatio~~ of the
Torah assumes that the Bibe is ditrine in origin. This leads to a belief in
the historical validity of the Bible. The desire?to derive moral and didactic
lessons even from the placement of single ktters and words is a rdection
ol the perfection and divinity ascribed to Ihe Bihle-
Two main methods within this school, are pyeslzat. and deraslz, The peslzat.
it; the cmte>ttualmea~liir~g of the text: the plain sense of ehe wods. Derasl?,
in contrast, is Ihe derived mearning of the text, OfZen the demstl attempts to
give a moral or didactic understanding of the verses in v e s t i m . Rabbinic
commer~tatorsfail into these two main methods of interpretathr~,with
some of them engaging in bath. A rabbiaic didum descritnes the Torah as
havhg "seventy facets." The rabbis saw the beauty, perkction, and corn-
pieteness of the ':lbrah demonstrated in that the same text sustairrs so
mmy interpretations-Chapter 4, "'II-te 1,iteratureof the Rabbis," &discusses
these ideas in more detail.
Moden~critical shdies of the Rible ge~~erafly include diff;erentassump-
tions and methadologies. In the nineteenth century' Jlulitas Wellhausen
theorized that the -Torah was not the work of a single, divine authol; as
was commol7Iy believed. :Ele demonstrated that the bit7Iical text wits an
artful compilation of the work of several authors or s o u e s . He attrib-
34 Ora Horn Prouser

uted the texts to four main schools, The "Yahwist" texts, h o w n as ""5,"' are
narratitre texts that use the divine appefiatim VHWH, ihe tetragramma-
tm, for the name of God. According to Wellhausen, t k s e texts otiginated
in fudah, in the south, in the tenth century. "Efyis the ""Eohist," who
wrote in tfie narth in the ninth C ~ L I ~ W Y using
, the divine name "Elohim.'"
"D" is the book of Deutemomy from the seventh century The priestly
material is from a priestly school, "P," which emphasized holiness and
cmtinuity. Dcbate cox-rthuesto rage as to lfie dating of "I),""rmgiI?Lgfrom
the seventh century, preexilic times, to a postexilic period.
This source approach has been benefjrial in alleviating issues of contrn-
dicticm witbin the bihlical text. For example, in the food story, Genesis
6-9, conflicting accounts arc. given oi trhe number of animals taken into
the ark one pair of each, or seven pairs each of '*clearn'%nimals and one
pair each of "unclean" animals, It is very difficult to harmonize the two
statements. Howver, using Welihausia1.1 s o m e criticim, we can at-
tribute the conflicting verses to different sources and remove the contra-
diction. &owing the sources is also helpful in understanding the bias
and approa" of a specific text.
M m y scholars, kvhile accegthg the premises of source criticism, do not
ary metbodolog far several reasms. At t k e s th.e bias of a
text, that is, its pro-priestly outtook, is used by modem critics to determhe
its source, resultjslg hcircular reasonhg. Source criticism is also less help-
ful in understanding the bibliral text as a whole than as ipldividuat stories.
MTI7e1.1using this method, scholars sqarate the pieces of the text in search
of original authors, but they rarely put the fragmf3nt.s back toge"claer to be
mderstood as a littrrary uniw. M j l e looking for the pre-text, one can :Lose
sight of the text in its presex~tfom. S o m e critics gain insight into the migi-
nal resources of the biblical "Redactor," m d readers are left to marvel at the
crtctative genius that wove the skmds into the Bible W how.
Other melhodologies used in modem biblical critickm include the c m -
parative approa&, which seeks to place the Bible in its mcie12t Near Easkm
context and to use bowledge about these cultures in understmdhg the
biblicd text. 'This cor~texh-2aliatiois hlpful in understa~dinghistorical
events, specific words, hagery, legal con~rentions,poetic m d literary de-
vica, and literary &ernes, h c i e n t Near Eastern historical texts, such as m-
nals of h g s and records of battles, can be used to elucidate not 01.11~7the
general world in which the Israelites lived but also specific events men-
timed in the Bible. Certain Israelite md fudaean khgs are even mentioned
in Assyrim and Rabylonia~texts as vassals and those who must pay tribute.
Literary epics from the ancient Near East are hvaluable sources of irn-
agerq: themesymetaphors, and poetic and literary devices, many of which
arc found in the Bible. These ancient Near Eastern texts are compeliing,
not only as records of cultural similarities, but even more so in the con-
trast they provide. Unique elements of braelite c u l t u ~ can be determined
f m Lhese comparisons. Analysis of these diff'erences often leads to a bet-
ter understnndkg of the ~volutionarynaturc3 ot t%le BMe. To engagc: ef-
fectively in this type of comparative effort, biblicists s b d y the cultufes
and languages of the Ak:kacfian, ksyrian, Babylonian, Sumcfian, and
Egypt-i;ancivilizations. Extensive study and backgmund are crucial to the
comparative approach to the Bible, but the rewards are commensurate.
&lother modem method of studyhg ihe Bible is the literary appmach.
This entails studyhg the Bible as a piece of great literature; carefully ma-
lyzing struct-uare, characterization, word choice, themes, intertexhality'
and much more. Close readings of biblical texts often reveal beilutiful nu-
ances, symbolism, a d imagery withjn hiblicaf literature that can be
missed using other approaches. When literary theory is applied to the
Bibte, the beaut): richness, and depth of the text come through, showinf:
trhe Bible to be trdy a work of art. Literary interpretatio~~ is a very accessi-
ble approxh in that it recjuil-es far less background on the part of the
practitionel: Of course, the more familiarity with the biblical text and its
milieu, the greater the possibilities for undc.rsta~dir"ig.
A relaljvely new m d exciting m e t b d of biblical study is kmjriist jnter-
pretation of the Bible. Using hminist me.thodology, one may analyze how
&sues of gex~derand power impact on the biblical text. Some scholars try
to rend from. a minor female character's point of view in order to gain
new perspectives on old texts. Often what needs to be done is to strip
away cenhtries of malc-cenkred assumptions about and intevretations
of the text in order to read it anew. This process allows fresh readings of
the Bible, which are usually far more positive toward women than the
g m r a t i o ~of
~ sscholars* allow.
Mmy methods of biblical. studies exist; only a small sampling of the
major ones have been mentioned here. Perhaps the best approach is one
that does not h i t itself to a single discipline but seeks to edend and
broaden memixlg in. numerous ways. By gaiurhg perspective on as mmy
facets of the biblical text as possible, s b d m t s of the Bible most effectively
reveal its remarkiltble h~tricacies.

Notes
l.-Tramlatiom of biblical verses are from the New JPS (Jewish Publication Soci-
Eze Holy Scl-rptures.
ety) translation, T~~mklz:

Suggested Readings
Bremer, Athalya, md CaroZe Fc)ntaine, eds. A Fenzitlisl" Ct?mnyatliunto Reading the Bible:
Apyonchlrs, MetIzu&, arzd Strategies. Sheffief d : Sheffield Academic Press, 3 997.
Childs, Brevard. Tnfmductz'o~zfu the Old Rpsfnmend as Scripfzfre, Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1979.
Fox, Everett. The Five Books oJMoses. New York: Schacken Books, 1995.
Friedrnan, Richard Elliott. WIlo Wrote flzc Bible? Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-
Hall, 1987.
Gorwald, Norman. The Hebrew Bible: A Socz'o-Lilemuy Intuaductiun. Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 3983.
NcKenzie, Steven L., and Stephen R*Haynes, eds. -iru Each 11s Own M e ~ l z i ~AIZ~ g :IE-
f rodzrcfiorz fu Biblical Crificisms land Tjzeir A~?pIZ'catio~~.
t~uisvifle, KU: Mrestrnin-
sterljohn Knox Press, 4 993.
Pritchard, Jarnes B., ed. Altcient Near Easfevlz 7irxl-s Relating fu the Old Tes'esZatlzegl.
Princeton: Princeton Universiq Press, 3969,
Sarna, Rdahum M,, and Chaim Potok. The )PS ircrrrrrfl Commcr~tr.rry. Philadelphia: The
Jewish Publication Society, 3989-1995-
 ALBERT 1. BAUMGARTEF;;"

The Political and Legal Context

h the year 539 B.c.E., the Persian king, Cyrus, allowed the Jews, who had
been exiled to Babylonia in 586 n.c.E. by King Nebuchadnacr; to re-
home to Jerusalem. A new era in the history of the Jews of Palesthe thus
began, one in which they were to live in, their own lmd, but as subjects of
a world empire. This situation was to persist until the Jcws achieved for-
mal independence under the Mitccahees, in 140 R.C.E. 'Thus, for almost
four hundred years, conditions of Jewish life in Palestine we= dependat
on the arrangements instituted. by the empire conkolling that part of the
world, a role that was to pass from the Persians to tt7e Macedonians at Ehe
time of Alexander the Great (333B.c.E.), and after his death in 323 B.C.E. to
his successors, at first Ptolernaic (mtil the Battle of the Bmia in 198 D.c.E.)
and later Seleucid.
mese successive empires were conservative, and Persian policy, once
established, was carried on with. little i f m y change until the end of Seleu-
cid rule. The bitsic principle of this policy was autonomy. Mthough the
world empire coMrded foreign and rnilitary matters and coliected taxes,
local affairs wefe in the hmds of native officials, =cognized by the impe-
rial rc?gime and empowered to rule Ihe Jews in i t s name. The king" llaw
for governing the Jews bvas Jewish law as interpreted by Jewish religious
authority (Ezra 17~25-26).
:In effect, the Temple persolx~elin Jemsalem became imperiai ofiicials.
As such, they were entitled to compensation, bvhich they duly received
indirectly in the f m of exemption froxm taxes (Ezra '724). As a comple-
ment to these arrangemmts, the Jews proved thcrir loyalty to the king by
offering a daily sacrifice for I-ris welfare (Ezra 6:WC); 7:17).This sacrjfice
was funded by the king; hhece it was not a financial burden on the Jews.
Offering it on the altar, howver, was an act of g ~ asyrnbolie
t meaning, as
it was an ach~owledgmenlof fealty
:In addition to the Temple ofIicials, there was a political rulier, or gover-
nor, appohlted by ihe king, of whom N e h c ~ i a his one cxampie. In gal-
eral, the regimc did not encourage the emergence of a strong local poli,ti-
cal (as opposed to religious) leadership. Effective local p o m r was
cmcexrtratcd in the hands of the priesthood, so m c h so that Hecataeus of
A:hdera, a Greek describing the 'Jews in t.he early Ptolemaic era, wrote that
the Jews were ruled by their high priest and had always been so gov-
erned, never having had a king. Hecataeus was obviously wrong, as his
remarks overlook tt7e history of kingship in Israel from Sad, David, and
Saloman until the Babylanim Exile. Nevrtrthelless, Hecataeus's ccomments
testify to the sense of yermmence of priestly rule that he encountered in
ferurialem. It seemed to him as if things had always been as he k ~ e w
them,

The conquests of Alexander the Great changed the natznre of the iXlterac-
tions between Jews and Greeks. Although there had been some contact
bet\.veen the two peoples prior to the time of Alexander, his successors
brought many Greeks to live aid work in the service of their empires in
the East, thus altering the nature of the connection. Greeks such as
Hecataeus of Abdera began to write about the Jews and their history'
whereas Jews began to lean7 &out the ways Greeks viewed lrhe world. At
first, the Ptolemies mmy not have been kterested in brhging outsiders
into the orbit of Greek culture, Nevertheless, whether actively promoted
by lfie regime or not, the witys of the f o ~ i g n
rders began to trickle down
into ever widenkg Jewish circles.
The book ofeht."" Preacher," Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), is early evidence for
the impact made by Greek ways on Jews of Jerusalem. Atthough this
book is attributed by the tradition to King Sslaman, son of David and
king in brusalem (Eccles. 1:1),it can be dated on a linguistic basis to the
Hellenistic period, late in the years of Ptolemaics mle. The most pr~minent
exmple of such evidence is the emptoyment of the Persim/Greek word
pnrdes to mean orchard in Ecclsiastes 2:5. The word acquired that mean-
ing onfy after it had passed from Ifie Persimzs to the Greeks in the third
century B.C.E.
 f i e t-feitlenisticPeriod 39

The author of Kohelet was a rich man, with m acquisitke attihrde typ-
ical of the era; he was anxious to accumuiatc as much property as possi-
ble but worried about:the meaning of life- For exmple, he asked whether
he woulci have the opport-unity to enjoy his wealth (6:l-2). Would his
heir, who a e r i t e d his fortune, h o w haw to use it wisely f2:llF--19,21)?
IThe ""X'eacher" shared some of the kaditional wlmes: For example, he
urged his reader to he careful in making vows and to hlfill them scrupu-
lously (5:2-5). Nevertheless, he also had corrosive doubts cor~cerr~ing
many wictely held beliefs. Life, for him, lacked meaning and nature was
repetitive (1:9-10). The social order was full of wickedness (3:1.6; 4:1), m d
God's justice took too long to pur~ishthose deserving chastisemnt
(8:IO-17). The same fate affected m m a ~ t-hed m h a k (3:19), the righteous
as well as the wicked, the good and the evil, those who sacrificed and
those who did not (9:2), and the wise as well as the foolish f2:1.516)+
About all. the author could recommend was a cautious enjoyment of
the pleasures of the kvorld:

Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart;
for God has already approved what you do. Let your garments be always
white; let not oil be lacking ctn your head, Enjoy life with the wife whctm you
love, all the days of your vain life which He has given yclu under the sun, be-
cause that i s yclur portion in life and in your toil under the sun.(9:7-9)"

h its orighal form Pefore it was brought more into line with traditional
thought by the addition of a new conclusion, %2:9-Is),his book ended an
the same pessivnistic note with which it had begun: "Vanit)i of vanities,
says the I'rcjacher; all is var7ityf"I2:& cf. 1:2).
HOWdo those thoughts indicate the Preacher" sonnectian with the
Greek worlci? Despite what is sometimes argued, the pessimistic mm-
mer~tscited were certainly not of Greek origin, as those attitudes had
been h o w n in. the Near East well before the arrival. af the Greeks..One
can, for example, compare the Preacher" recommendation to enjoy the
pleasure of the world with the follo\iving from the a ~ ~ c i eRabylonian
nt
Epic of Giigmesh, written centuries before the encounler with Hel-
lenism. Gilgamesh, troubled about the meaning of life, like the author of
Kohelet, received the following advice:

Thou Gil'qamesh, k ff ~ ~ lbel ttly belly,

Make thotr mery by day and by tzigIzzt,
Of each day make thtrt~U feasf of rejoiC'Lt~g,
Day nlzd night da~zcethou and play!
Let thy gar~zentsb p syarkliqfiesh,
Pry Fzc~adbe wslzed; b a l k thou in zuuk,r:
 Pay heed ta the little one that holds onto fF~yh n d ,
Lct tlzy sf?ousc delight irz thy brlsr,rrr(
For this is the task of[mankhdj.
Tablet X, it'i, 6-34

At most o t ~ ecan say that pesimi"iic attitudes, which have existed vir-
tually from time imm,emrial, may have ~ceivectsome reinforcement as a
result of contact with Greeks.
What then is decisiz~elyindicative of cor~tactwith the world of the
Greeks in Kohelee Perhaps the clearest example c m be found in the atti-
tude toward women:

1 fc~undmore bitter it-ran death the woman whose heart is snares and nets,
and whose hands are fetters; he who pleases Gad escapes her, but the sinner
is taken by her. Behold, this is what i ft>und,says the Preacher, adding one
thing to another to find the sum, which my mind has sought repeatedly, but I
have not fc~md,Che man among a thausand 1 fc~md,but a woman among
all these 1have not found. (7:26-28)

Put baldiy, t-he author was a misogynist. Iizdike other biblical authors, he
did not contrast good women with bad ones, warz~inghis reader to avoid
the latter and seek out the former (cf. Prov. 31:IO-31). In his mind, no
woman was ever g o d : The one decent person m o n g a thousand he
found war; certainiy a rarity, but that one was never a woman. Excep-
tional as these attitudes were for the world of the Bible, they were typical
of the Greek world of the HeUenistic period, in which the km "misogy-
nist" itself was coined Cby the comic poet Mer~ar~der-e~~d of the fourth,
be&iming of the third centuries B.c.E.-aa the title of a play), Apparently,
the circumstances that encouraged the emergence of misogyny in Greek
society also we= present in Jewish Jerusalem. Hence this thoroughfy
"modem" attitude also appealed to the author of Kahelet, and he in-
cluded it in his work.
Equitlty indicative art-. the author" comme~~ts 0x1 you& and old age.
For example, he urged his reader to enjoy the days of hit; youth, before
bodily decay impaired his ability to fjnd pleasures in life,

before the sun and the fight and the moon and it-re stars are darkened and the
clouds return after it-re rain; in the day when the keepers of the house trem-
ble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are
Pew and those that look through the windows are dimmed. (12:2-3)

Here too, the contrast betkveen the perspective of the author m d that usu-
ally fomd in. the Bible is significant. Clld age, in biblical texts, was nor-
 f i e t-feitlenisticPeriod 42

mally perrreived as a time of blessing and of wisdom. The old shodd in-
struct the young concernillg the meaning of life, on the basis of their back-
ground (see, e.g., Deut. 32:7). In the traditional Greek kvorld, too, parents
were norxnally seen as the repository of :knowledge and experience, All
this, howevel; changed among the Crwks with the sophists of the fifth
century R.(T.E., cvho c o d argue-shocking to the ears of conservatives-
that a wise son had the same right to beat his foolish father as the father
had to chastise his infarnt son. Old age was thus no longer seen as a bless-
ing, but as a possible burden, or even a curse.
These Greek ideas had permeated upper-class circles in Jerusalem, as
represe~ntedby lrhe author of Kohelet. In the new world of w~abashedac-
quisition opened up by the Greeks, Jewish sockty bacf chaxnged suffi-
ciently to make these new ideas appeal to the elite of ferusalem. Xn their
eyes, the old m m was as likely as not to he perceived as a fool (4:13), As
they saw matters, Lv:hakver small pleasures might be found iIn life were
no longer necessarily appreciated in old age (12:l).

A Reioinder-Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus)

The challenge to traditional beliefs found in the pessimism of Kohelet
would not be ignored. .A first instance of am attempt to deal with these
views can be found in the rabbinic tradition attributed to Sirnon the
Righteous, in all likelihood the. high priest who served in Jerusalem at lfie
time of the Selettcid conquest, at the beginning of the second century
n.c.E. Simon mai~ntainedthat the world was sustained by three Ifiings: by
the Law, by Temple service, a d by acts of loving-icindness (Mishnah
Abot 12). Kahelet, as we have seen, had expressed doubts about the
value of &serving the Law, declaring that the same fate awaited one who
sacI..ificed as orne who did not sacrifice. Social action, for Kohelet, was a
matter of enkhtened self-interest, at best (Eccles. U:I-2). 'ln contrast to
these attitudes, Si~nonthe Righteous reasserted the traditional under-
standing of ihe Law, of the cowenant betkveern God and his people, of the
vdue of the Temple service, m d of the need for Jews to help each other as
a matter of fulfiilment of a divine commandment. 811 these pmcticres, ac-
cording to Sirnon, sustained the world: If they we= to end, the world
would rehrn to a state of chaos.
A more elaborate dcfense of the traditional worldview in the face of the
challe~ngeof Hellernism can be fow~din the Wisdom of B e t Sira (Ecclesias-
ticus). T h i s book was not preserved in the canon of the Jews of Palestine,
brat only in translatjon, in Greek (and from Greek into other larrgusages,
such as Syriac), as part of the camn of the Jews of Aiexandria and later of
the Roman Catholic church. Thanks to their discovery in the Cairo Ge-
niza, sections of the Hebrew original of this book have been known since
trhe end of the nineteer~thcentury. h excavatitln~at Masada conducted by
Yigael Yadin from I963 to 1965, a copy of part of this work, deposited
there before the fall of Masada at the end of the Great Revolt (66-7314
c.E.), was found. We therefore k7ow the work in the original Hebrew
from manuscripts that cover large portions of the book and can recon-
skuct the Hebrew for the remaining parts on the basis of the translations.
The author of Be21 Sira lived ~ IJerusalem.
I He c m be dakd on the basis
ol the translation of his work into G ~ e kpreparcd
, circa "132 R.C.F. by his
grandson. Thereforr;, the author li:ved. in Jerusalem around 180 B.C.E. His
persor~alhero was 5imm, 5017 of O d s , the high priest of his day (Ben
Sira 50:1), p""s"jhlythe sam person as Simon the Rightreous (already
mentioned). Xt is t h e r e f o ~not surprising to find Ben Sira sharing points
of view with Sirnon the Rghteous.
Far Ben Sira, wisdom was intimately comected with the observa~ceof
the Law of God, as alt wisdom c m e horn God (l.:1). Llihm propmly sub-
jugattzd to the fear of God, the wise persm realized that the= we= limits
tru human understanding and did not ask too many difficuft questior~s.He
=cognized that he was inadequi3le to fully c o m p h e n d issues that he
was permitted to investigate, hence he did not push to attempt to under-
stand fctrbidden matters, cel-titinlybeyond his grasp:

Seek not what is too difficult for you, nor investigate what is beyond your
power. Refect upon what has been assigned to you, for you do not need
what i s hidden. Do not meddle in what is beyond yclur tasks, for matters too
great far human understanding have been shctwn you, (3:21-23)

Such a wise man would never deviate into error, He would never be
one of those whose "hasty judgment has led them astray, and wrong
opinior~has caused their thought to slipf"(3:24). He would hor~orhis fa-
ther (3:l-'116). He kvoz-tld fulfil1 his duties to the poor as a matter of
covmantal obligation (4:l-10). He would rely on the reward of God, even
if it seemed late in coming, putting his trust in God%record over history
in always forgiving and saving the f;zit%ltulin times of aMi;ctisn (2:7-11).
He would "fear the Lord and honor the priest, and give him [the priesq
his portion as is commandedf"(7:31).
Virtually every assertion on the list above stands in distinct contrast to
a conclusion argued by Kohelet, Ben Sira's most direct-challenge to his ri-
val's work can be found in chapkr 24, Kohelet had cor~centratedon the
search for wisdom and its consequences, seeking above all to be wise and
to live his life in accordance with the precepts of wisdom: "And I. appljcd
my mind to seek and search out by wisdom all that is done under
heaven" "(~ccles. I:13). To such seekers, Ben Sira offered his answer of
 f i e t-feitlenisticPeriod 43

what is true wisdom, Wisdom, he asserted, was created by God at the be-
gi'7"ing of creatiorn. Personified as a woman, she was uni\iersal, helong-
in,g to every people and nation (Ben Sira 24:l-6). Nevertheless, this wis-
dom had a special home, decl~edby God. Hes dwelling was in Jacoh, her
inherita~cewas in Israel f24:8). It was there that she ministered before
God in his Temple in. Jerusalem and found her resting place in. Jerusalem
(24:10-11). Sbe flourished m o n g the people of brael (24:13-17).
Lest the reader have missed the point, the author made his cornclusion
even more explicit. The wisdom that all people sought, which was most
consistent with the world as a whole, "cosmic" h the broadest sense of
the term, ""isthe book of the covenar~tof the Most High God, the law
which Moses commaded us as arn inheritance for the cmgregations of
Jacob" "(24:24). All other peoples may search (possibly in vain) for that
wisdom. For Jews it was available in its purest and most divine form in
the Torah.
As is the case with many ideologies, the l4ew af what bvas needed in
the present was supported by a historical survey of the past, Ben Sira sup-
plied this element in his world in his chapters in praise of f m o u s men,
summarizing the Jewish past from Enoch and Noah to Simon son of
Onias of his own day (chapters 44--50). Ben Sira described in loving detail
trhe service in the Temple conducted by Simon (50:5-21). The r d e of the
Jews by Sirnon constituted for him the f?j&e" ffwffilment of ill1 God's
blessings in history, with little left to desire. The author therefore con-
ciuded his section on Simon by blessing God, "who does grmt things and
exalts our days" @(50:22). He prayed (according to the Hebrew anginal):

May he give you gladness of heart and grant that peace be in our days in Js-
rael as in the days of old. May his love abide upon Simon, and may he keep
in him the covenant of Phinehas; may ctne never be cut off frc~rnhim; and as
for his offspring, [may it be] as the days of heaven. (50:23-24)

The author" hopes wcsre stated explicitly e1noug:h: his aspiratiolns wel-c;
for the co~~thnued rule of the house of SFnrrorn, forever: Such was not to be
the case, as events bvoulld mfold immediately in, the next generation.

Relations between Jews m d %leucids begm on a note af cont-inuity, At

the time af the conquest af Jerusalemby Antiochus III in 198, the essential
conditions of Jewish lift;.under the world empires were maintained. Jose-
phus cited provisiolns of the %leucid constitution of J e m d e m ( A 1 2 t - 12,
l3%14),' which continued the basic arrmgements laid down by the Per-
sians outlined above. Mofeover, as a means of enforcing these regula-
tions, Jmephus noted the contents of a decree of ARtimhuti HI cmtrofling
access to the R m p k in Jerusalem and reinforcing the holy character of
the city (A;r-rt,12,145-146).
Circumstances were not ta remain the same under the successors of
Antiochus 111. Tke most extreme example of a break with the past was the
decrees against traditional Jewish observance promulgated by Antimhus
IV in Che winter of 168/167 B.C.E. Antiochus IV forbade all regulations
that reinforced the differences bet-vveen Jews and their neighbars, from
the calendar and other speda.1 practices in the Bmple, to food laws and
circumcision. Jews would make themselves abominable, unclea~,and
profane by t-he sta~dardsof the 7brah, forgetting the Law ar~dabandoning
its ordinances (1. Mace. 5:4449). T%e mtives of Antiochus XW in issving
these d e c ~ e remain
s a s u b j ~oft intense scholarly debate, Were these acts
undertake1 at the irlitiatilul-eof Jewish reformers, who wanted to moder11-
ize their rclligion and rernove from it alt tmces of practices which sepa-
rated Jews from. their neighhors, as suggested by Bickeman? Were the
tlllllenists of Jerwalem, i11 fact, the instigators of these actioxw by the
king? Alternately, perhaps Hellenization in Jerusalem was not sufficiently
advmced by that time for there to be a group "modern" enough to at-
tempt such a program. Ch-r that possibilit~as suggested by Tcherikover,
perhaps the decscl.t.s of htiocf-tus IV wero pumishment for rebellion. On
that view Jewish Hellenists collaborated with these royal decrees, but
they were not- at all the initiators ot: I-he royal policy These are two of the
eadirtg answers that have been proposed by scholars in this cent-ury to
resolve the puzzle of why Antiochus %Vtook the steps be did.,
Whatever explanation is adopted, two facts r m a i n clear: first, that
some Hellenizing Jews coliaborated, at the very least, with, the royal de-
crees; second, that these decrees led to an armed revolt, first raised by
Mattathias the H a s m o ~ ~ eunder
a ~ , the command of his son Judah Mac-
cabee. This revolt, taken together with the troubles afflictjr-rgthe Seleucid
empire on other fronts, was sufficiently successful to have the Temple re-
stored to its original worship and purified (l Macc. 4:36-60; 2 Macc.
20:1-9). This success was memorialized in the holiday of Hantrkkah ( 2
Macc. 121-2:18). Furthermore, the decrees of Antiochus IV were amulled,
and Jews mturned to their former legal dispositia~~s (2 Macc. 11:22-26).
ZTlthately; the Hasmonem family mder the leadership of Judah Mac-
cabee and his yomger brothers, was to achieve a double goal, both national
ar~dfmifiak By the year 140 R.c.E., the Jews would be independent of all
world empires m d the high priesthood would be in the hmds of their fam-
ily This accomp%ishmentwas made possible by mems of a Wetrack pol-
icy:(l) utilizing the compelition between forces cox~testingfor contml of the
Seleucid empire to obtah the greatest possible privileges for the Jews and
 f i e t-feitlenisticPeriod 45

the Hasmonem hmily, m d (2) maintainkg Romm support for the emcrg-
ing Jewish state (I Macc. 8). Thus, a lor~g-ternresult of the persecutions of
htiochus IV was the achievement of Jewish independence after close to
four hundred years of domination by various world empires,

independence and its Consequences

The nature of the chmge that had taken place should not be mderesti-
mated. One measure of that transformation is supplied by the Creek
trar7s:latior-t of Ben Sira 50:24. The :Hebrew original of that verse, as we
hawe seen, had been a rfngh-tgaffirmation of loyalty to the houw of Simon
son of Qnias, and an expressio~~ of hope of its conthued reign as supply-
ing high priests, for as lmg as the days of heaven. Events did turn out as
Ben Sira had ferver-ttly hoped. By B 2 B.c.E., when Ben Sira's grmdson
translated the work into Greek, it was clear that some of S h o n %descen-
dants were those who collaborated with the decrees of Antiochus Ilv 0th-
ers had left Palestine to f o u d a rival tempk hLeor~topolisin Egypt. The
fiigh priest%toodin Jerusalem was nnw in the harrds of the Maccabees. In
light of the situation, what was Ben Sirs" grandson to do? If lne rendered
the original titerdy, ~ a d e r of s his day would have been aware of the
painful contrast betkveen the hopes expressed by his grmdfather and the
way matters had turned out, It seemed better to the grmdson to conceal.
this a d w a r d situation by modifying the tmmlaticm. So g ~ ahad t been
the changes in the two generations that separated,author from transfator!
Therefore his version is as follows: "May He entrust to us His mercy and
let Hirn deliver us in our days." This verse was harmless and nonspecific
enough to avoid all possible embarrassment to the origirtal author.
Fos the Maccabees, now ruling the Jews, the political game they were
playing was a most dmgerous one. In the midst of the htrigues oi a dis-
ixltegsating empire, with rival cliques contesting the right to rule its re-
mairning fragments, the price of backing the wrong contestant was paten-
tially fatal. Some alternate source of power war; therefore essmtial for the
ill-fated day idten the Maccitbees might be on thf. losilng side of the inter-
minable wars of succession, This was the reason that successive Mac-
cabem leaders, from Judah Maccabee on, assiduousiy cultivated Lhe con-
nection with Rome (1 Macc. 8)+Rome was the superpokver of the day.
Rome" ddiplomatic backing mifSht prove vital to survival, if the emergent
Jewish state were th~atel-ted.Roman Frzterests at that jur-tcture favored
any group that seemed to be weakenhg the Seleucid empire, whose rem-
nants were viewed by the Romans as a potmtial source of a coalition that
might threaten Roman cor-tquests; hence t-he Romans were glad to ler-td
their support to the Jews mder the leadership of the Maccabees.
 Internally there were difficulties of mother sort. The Maccabees had
achieved the high priesthood on the basis of an appointment by Seleucid
rulers..What hdicdion did they have that their r d e bvas legal and legiti-
mate by Jewish criteria-me, the Maccabees had loyal Jewish soldiers
wiliing to fight with them, in whose eyes they must hiwe been legitimate
rulers, whom they could offer to the Seleucid bidders. Nevertheless, haw
codd Macciiibean rule be justified formally in Jewish terns, in particular
whe21 it had come at the expense of the reig11 of the high priestly fmily of
the Bniads, who traced their ancestry back to Zadok, high priest at the
time of King David?
One way the Maccabees attempted to deal with this probtem was to
convoke a nationai assclmbly of at1 the. differe~~t constitue~~tparts of t-he
people in the early fall of 140 B.C.E. This body probably did not have full
freedom to take any decision it chase, and its conclusions must have been
largely detemined in advance, before its sitthg, at the h t e r v e ~ ~ tof i othe
~~
rut.ing family. Nevertheless, the determinalion of this body gave Mac-
cabean rule a more solid basis in 'Jewish eyes. Sirnon, J u d h Maccabee's
youngest survi\ring brot-fner and ruler of t-he Jews at that time, was con-
firmed as leader and high priest forever, until a trustworthy prophet
should arise (1Macc. 14:41). Me was to be governorf in charge of the sanc-
tuary, and obeyed by all; all contracts would be written in his name, and
he bvould be clcltkred in purple and gold (1Macc. 14:4243).
Most inkresting of all. is the provjso that Sirnon was to be leader and
high priest ""until a tr-ustworthy prophet shouid arise.'The meaning of
this clatxse is elucidated by mother passage in 1 Maccabees (4:46)+ At the
time of the purification of the Temple the question arose of what to du
wieh the stor7c.s of the origil7al altar, which had hem &fiiod by tt7e sacri-
fices offered on them during the time of the decrees of Antiochms IV. It
was clear that these stones could no longer be used and that a new altar
must be col~structed,but shouid t-hese olcl stones be destroyed? (31 t-he
m e hmd, they had k e n defiled, but on the other hand, they had once
been holy. The decision taken was to store 'The stones in a convenient
place on tl-re Tempk hill until there shodd come a propkt to tell what to
do with them." Waiting for the decision of a prophet was thus a mems of
dealhg with m insoluble vestiurr. Whatever inevitable steps had to be
taken in the present could then be taken, but the irresolvable problem in
the p ~ s e n was
t thus brackekd by having a final decision deferred until
the coming of a true prophet.
What irresoivable issues might: have faced the aswmbly in 140 B.C.F. that
rc.quirc?ddeferral unlil the corning oC a tmst-kvor&yprophet? Perhaps they
were the status of Maccabean mle as a whole, the Maccabeeshss
of the office of high p ~ e sini spite of the fact that their fmily had not been
in, that position previously"!atever the situation might have been, the
 f i e t-feitlenisticPeriod 47

decision of the assenrtbly of 140 B.C.E. I t the political redity of Maccahean

ation prweed with a greater measure of Legitimacsy white allowh~ga
small openjng t.o remak-more theoretical. tF-rmpractical, but trseful never-
fieless-for aose who might want to express a resewation on this mattee
On the religious front, the Hellenists had abandoned much of tradi-
tional Jewish religion as conventionally mderstaod, The challenge posed
by their actions seemed serious enough to require a response. Biblical
cove~~antal theology insiskd on Lhe belief in one God, and one God only.
As had been stressed by Ben Sira, this theology upheld performance of
the commandments and reliance on the reward of God, even if the latter
mi&hthe late in coming..Much of this must hitwe seemed in need of rein-
forcement in the aftemath of the decrees of htiochus IV and their corlse-
quences. It is t h e ~ f o r enot surprisil-tg that an institzltion of wl?ose exis-
tence we did not hear before the xnid-second century B.C.E. begm to take
a pr~minentplace in the lives of Jews: the daily recitation in the Temple of
a number of biblical passag'tls-Deuteronomy 6:4-9,11:23-24, and Num-
bers 15:3741., h o w conventionally as the Shema, the opening word of
trhe series of verses, and the Ten Cornma~cime~~ts. 'This practice was given
even higher status by means of the claim that it went back ta Moses.
Pries& in tlne Ttmple were thus reminded regularv that their rczligion
promoted belief in o d y one God, that God rewarded and punished men
in accordance with their deeds, and that God had redeemed the Jews
horn Egypt (a redemption in the past, which also hinted at future re-
demptior.l). These priests could then spread these hetiefs as part of their
~ g u l a responsjbility
s for instructim of the people in the ways of God
(see,e.g., Ben Sira 45:17).
The context in which this innovatioll was introduced was a sensitive
one. How could one alter the daily ritual in the Temple, where the divine
service was essential to maktainhg the world order (see the discussion
of the statemnt of Sirno11 the Righteous above)? 'This dilemma was re-
solved in part by attributirtg the inxlovation to Moses, but also by a simple
practiclal step: The mcitalion of the Shema took place away from the sacri-
ficial area, in the Charrrher of Hewn Stone in the Terrrple, after the sacrifi-
cial.rites had been completed unaltered (Misb& Tarnid 4:3). The old kvas
perfomed without any change, whereas the status of the new was iun-
pkitly achowtedged by executing it elsew:here in t-he Terrrple precinct.
In the end, the iyrstitution of the recitation of the Sherna was to prove ef-
fcctke and successful, fts opening verses would be so well known by
Jews that they would he cited as the most inrportmt of tt7e c o m a ~ ~ d -
ments, accordhg to Jesus in. the Gospels (Mark %2:29-31;Matt. 22:3740;
Luke 10:2&2i"), Even the Dead Sea Scroll sechrians, whose attitude to-
ward lrhe Maccabees was equivocal at best, adopted it as part of their lives
(Qumran Cave 2, Sera4 H a Y a b d [Rule of the Community] 10,10-l$), and
authors such as Josephus had no doubt that Moses himself had ordered
the JewS to recite the Shema daily (Arzl.4,196).
Independence also had other consequences, not all af which were logi-
cally contjistent with the steps discussed above. For example, the poli.tical
circumsta~cesunder which the Maccabees achieved these results were
such that they required the family to become well versed in, the surround-
ing world and its culture. How could one judge which camp to join,
which pretex~derto back, without some assessment of who was likely to
win the forthcoming contest? Mow codd one reacwhese judgmenls
without extensive :knowledge of the larger political environment and its
culture? Thus one of the irox~iesof Maccabem rule was that it led. to ex-
tex~siveHellenization of its leaderti, LVhiCh also trickled d w n alax~gvari-
ous paths to the members of the nation as a bvhale. This HelXenizatian can
be seen in any n u m k r of aspects, but perhaps the easiest is to point to the
asserrthiy of the people that ratifkd the ruie of Simon ard Etis sons. Such
an assembly had no traditional status in the Jewish poEty, but it was a
regular feature of Greek city life. When faced with the necessiw of ~ g u -
larking the. rule of the Hasmowan dynasty, use m s made of an instib-
tion drawn. from the bvorld af the Greeks,
Yet anotfzer indicat-imof this same tendency can be seen in the m i p of
Salome AIexandra (7667 B.C.E.). In her day, according to Josephus, real
power bvas in, the hands of the Pharisees, and she bvas idealized by the
rabbis as the embodiment of the ideals of the Tor&. Nevertheless, the no-
tion of a queen as sovereip is f o ~ i g xto~ihe s t r u c t u ~ of
s the priedhood
or the monarchy as envisaged in the Bible. m a t might have been the
source of inspiration for Salme Akxandra's rule? At least one likrly pos-
sibility is to look to ihe role of ihe CIeopat"^awfEgypt of her day; Wth
contemporaneous female rulers staking out a position in their olvn name
in a neighboring place, it is not surprising that Salorne Alexanctra con-
ceived the notion of being sovereign queen in her o w l right.
The Maccabees thus were torn in contrary directions, a conflict that
they did not always resolve in a consistent way S m e of their actions in
the aftemath of indeper~der~ce were intended to bolster the tmditional
'aith, an behalf of which they had fought m d come to rule. mhers of thgif
actions were little d i f f e ~ nthan
t those that might have been taken by their
initial tlellenizing oppanex~tshad the latter been victorious. Such, how-
ever, were the consequences af independence-

Josephus and Philo

Much af the hforrxation in the previous sections comes from 1. m d 2 Mac-
cabees, books that were considered sacred by the Jews of Alexmdria, hence
preserved in Grctek, hut not by the Jews of Pakstine, Thus the Hebrew orig
 f i e t-feitlenisticPeriod 49

inal of 1 Maccabees has not srarvived, The time span covered by these
books ends with the rise of J o h Hyrcmus
~ (Hyrca~us I), on the death of his
fa*er, S h o n Macchee, in 134 B.c.E., as narrated in 1Macci-\bees-From that
point until the destruction of the Temple by the R o m m in 70 c.E., our yrin-
cipd source of hfomatio1.1 is the works of the historian Josephus Flavius.
Born to Phe priestly fmily in Jmsalcm circa 38 CA., Josephus was a de-
scendmt of the Hmtsmonem f m g y on his mother" side, He received m ex-
cefint eduration, eventually k~vestiga&~g the d i f f e ~ nJewish
t groups a ~ d
spending three years as the Collower of a destrrt hermit named K
becme hvolved inthe rebellion agahst Rome in the heady day
the initial victory over Cestius Gallus (fall of 66 c.E.)
commander of the Galilee by the rctvoiutionary gove
the Romans,he went over to their side, bcmefiting h-o
the Romm commmdm Vespasian woulrt becomc emperor. As a protGg4 of
the bouse of the Flavians, he spent the remaining years of his life k~their
service, writbg m accomt of the rebellions, The fattish War-firt;l in h a -
maic and then in Greek (only the latter has survived)-after the defeat of
the rchela Addresed at least in part to Jewish readers, this book was in-
te-nded to dissuade them from t a h g up arms agairrst Rarne. Later h his
caxer Josephus wrote three works: Atzt.icjzliCifsq f h efavs, an accomt of Jew-
ish history up to the oufbrcak of the war agak-rstb e ; L*, his autobiogra-
phy; m d Against Apion, a book d i ~ c t e dagahst a well-horvn. mti-%mite
from Alexm&ria;in that book Josephus wered charges that had been di-
rected against thl? Jews by various ancient authors.
.I\rro*er m,ajor source of ixrformaeion is found in the works of the Jewish
philosopher Philo of Alexmdria, vvho lived in Egypt a generation or two
prior to foscphus. Philo kaches us most &out the Egyptia~community
about its imtellectual ambitions and social standing..He was a member of
the leading Egypgm Jewish family and had ~ c e i v e dthe h e s t Jewish and
Greek education available. His works show a special se~~sitivity to the proh-
lem of k i n g on the interface bemeen two words, that is, tying to be loyal
unity while remaining sophisticakd intellectually
In spite of their inevitable focus on the Jewish community in Egypt and
its needs, Philo" works teach us a good deal about events in Palesthe.
We learn much froan him, for example, about the attempt by the Emperor
Caligula (3Wl c.E.) to introduce his statue into th.e Temple in Jemsillem,
and of the steps taken by the Jews to try to avert the decree.

The Emergence of JewishSedarianism

One last phenomenon of Jewish life beg;inning in the second century B.C.E.
deserves attention: the emergence of groups such as Plrarisees, Sad-
ducees, Essenes, m d the Dead Sea Scroll sect. These parties and sects
were to offer alternate ways of being Jewish as respmses to the vastly
changed col~ditionsof ehat era. Their proliferation was to he a characteris-
tic of those days, and their connict m important factor in Jewish history
down to the destruction of the Temple by the Romms in i"(3 c , ~ .
011e of the fundamental characteristics of these g r o q m a s that they
drew purity boundaries between thernsclves and other Jews. .A melllber
of the Essenes would not eat food prepared by other Jews and might
starve to death rather than violate this obligati ox^. A member of the Dead
Sea Scroll group had similar rest_rictions. He was also supposed to have
no business kalings with. other Jews, except for cash &ansactions, aa only
in the latter was t-he purity barrier between a Dead Sea Scroll sect member
and an outrsider adequately milintai~~ed. Czihat factors in life during the
second centutrry B.C.E. mi&t have been ~ s p m s i b l efor the emergence of
these movements, and of such practices?
Complex social phenomna normaIly require nuanced explanations.
Neverthekss, one factor shodd be stressed. Prior to the czises of the early
second century B.c.E., such as the e~~cour-tter with Hellenizatiox~m d the
refoms oi Antiochus W, the purity barriers erected by Jews had divided
them from their non-Jewishneigfibors. Much the same dynamic had been
taking place between Greeks and nathes in Egypt, as we learn from
Herodotus. With the onset of the predicaments of the early second cen-
tury, these barriers kvere trnder severe pressure, as the htention of "Ie re-
forms of Antjochus IV was to prohibit many of &P practices that created a
divide betwee11 Jews and outsiders.
Csne might have expected that the victory of the Maccabees would lead
to a restoration and rekforcement of these divisions. In fact, such was the
case, but as we have sea1 ahove, only in part. Maccabem pradlice was in-
consistent: Their success also resulted in. an ever jncreasing exposure of
Jews to the world, around lhem and to the adoplion of many "foreign"
ways of thought and hehwior.
What then were those loyal to the old kvays to do? One answer was to
form new groups of their own, with firm boundaries surrounding them
on which they codd rely. New purity rewlittions w u l d be creilted, still
separathg hsiders m d outsiders, nolv not on the national perimeter but
on that of the new secc di:viding its members and other Jews. The groups
that arose in the secor~dcentury B.C.E.---the Pharisees, Sadducees, Es-
scnes, and the Dead Sea Scrdl, sect-were joined during the first century
C.E. by a number of wen 1Iewer groups, including the early Cbristiians.
The Pharisees are h o r n to us d i ~ c t l yfrom Josephus, the New Testa-
ment, and rabbhic literature. Two paints should be stressed about the
Pharisees: first, that Bey supplemented the written law of the Torah with
their ""tadiaicm,'" pargdosis in Greek. 'This trradition, although not writtell in
the Torah, taught them how to apply its laws m d thus was at the heart of
 f i e t-feitlenisticPeriod 51

their dispute with other group%who had supplements of their own to fill
&at rde. The kaditim of the I'harisees was thus very conboversial, a point
that emerges clearly from the stov told by Josephus (Anf.13,288-298) con-
cerning the aband0nin.g of the Pharisees for the Sadducees by John Hyr-
cmus (1.34-1M B.c.E.), as well as from the debate reflected in the Gospeis
(Mark 7 and parallels), The 13hariseesattempted to bolster their tradition by
calling it the tradition of the elders, thus giving it a pedigrce going back to
&e leaders of the natim from the most remote past.
The exact teachings contained in this tradition are poorly b o w n : Per-
haps they included, the law of abrogation of vows (Mark 7; Mishnah
tliigigah 1:8),the basic forms of w r k prohibited m the $&bathr and the
laws of the festival offering, as well as those 0x1 the abuse of sacred prop-
erty. Consistent with the path that led to the rise of sectarianism as a
whole outlined, above, as well as reflecting the meaning of their name
(separatists), the Pharisees pobabiy kept themselves somewhat apart
from other Jews inmtters of food and purity. Furthgr details about 13ha,r-
isaic practice are becoming available as a result of publication of new
Dead Sea Scroll texts; hence more information should be TOWE ET as the
project of publisking Dead Sea Serolf material approaches completjon.
The tradition of the Pharisees like@ served as the basis for the second
of tbeir cex~traiclaims: &at Chey (md only they) kww how to observe the
law accurately, strictly; in all of its details (in Greek, the claim to akribeil?).
Against other groups, who almost definitely made similar claims, the
Pharisees mainfaked that only t-he traditior~of the elders that was in their
possession was exact. On the basis of comments in Jasephus m d remarks
in Dead Sea Scroll texts, it seems that the Pharisees enjoyed special pres-
tige, and that their claim to preeminence had a distinctive stabs in the
eyes of the people.
The Pharisees are of particular importance for one additional reasm.
Me11 Jewish life was restored in the aftermath of the destructio~~ of the
Temple by the Romans in 70 CA, the family of Gamaliel and Simon son of
Gamaliel, promhent Pharisees in predeshuctim Jerusalem, came to play
trhe leading role. The Pharisaic way of life thus was a sig~~ificant compo-
nent in the mix that bvas to emerge as Rabbhic Judaism.
:In contrast to the Pharisees, who derived new applications of the law
by means of interpretation preserved in trarlition, the early Cf-tristiar~s
claimed to be the beneficiaries of a new revelation, a "'new" "stament.
This new revelation had been embodied in the pcrson of Jesus of
:Nazareth, reveaied to ail througb teaching and miracles durir~ghis life-
time m d confirmed after h.is death by the empty tomb where he had been
bufied (Mark 16).
The Cl~ristianswould genemte many vafieties of their group in the gen-
erations jmm,e&ately foIlowistg tbe death of Jesus. Some of these would he
more insisknt on the observance of Jewish law as understood by other
Jews, others less so, hut many wouid try to rernain in Ihe broad band of
movements confahed. hthe Jewish world. With the trkimate domhmce of
PauIhe Christianity, which did not require converts to Christimity from
Ihe pagal world to accept circumcision as a condiaio~lof elltry and with the
inea~sificationol the debate between Jews m d Christiansf the gap between
Jews and Christi.arms began to grow, Ultimakly the Christians would find
trhernsei\.es as m indepedent religio~~, rnaintair-rirlg their ties to the Me-
brew Bible, but hsistkg that Christimity was the only legithate fullfill-
ment of the promises of the Bible. Christians both usuved and denied the
status of the Jewish people a?;the group with Lvhom God had est;lblished
an ekri~alcove~~ant. A sect within Judaism had become a religio~lof its
own, a nekv, third way between the realities of Jews m d non-Jews.
The path of the Dead %a Scroll sect was different from that of the CShris-
tians: The fomer were ~ ~ ) e m o mork ,inte~~sely b o w ~ dto fie Law, and
the latter were ta become mtinamic, ar unbomd from the Law Mereas
Christimiw became an independent religion, the dominant one of the XZo-
man Empire, the Dead Sea comrnmity Led to a &ad end. Nevertheless,
the group whose texts have become h o w n to the world thmks to the sen-
sational discovefies in the area of @mrm, by the shores of the Dead Sea,
discoveries that began in 19-42 and muitipfied in the decade thereafter
(now first being fulry pukliskd), has taughl us much TltsoM the warid of
mcient Jewish sechrimism. Removed from contact with other Jews as a
result of purity and food regulation of the m s t extreme sort, the D a d %a
Scroll groug was also at odds with practices jC1 the Rmplc. They thus kvere
willirtg to sever ties with other Jews amzd with the most central institution
in Jewish life of their time in order to remain faiehfuf to the practices they
believed correct. Dividing mmkhd trp into ""sns of light" and "'sons af
darkmzess," they k l k v e d that the blesshgs promised in the Bible we= E-
saved for Ihe former (.themselves),where% ail the rest were co~~sigxled tru
eternal punishment by a divine decree that could not be hanged.
The Qumran covenanters had little choice but to concede that their un-
derstanding of the Torah bad not been klown in ihe eras that p ~ c e d e d
the emergence of their movement. They could not appeal, as the Phar-
isees had, to a tradition that went back to the elders of the nation from
time immemorial. Aul%torsclose ta the Qurnran sect therefore wrote
pseudepigrapha, in which voices of great authariv from the past gave an
encore of sorts on the stage of history, modifying what they were believed
to have said in p~~"\I;ous appearances in favor of teachings dear to the
heart af the Qumran comrnunit_y*One example af such a text is the Tem-
ple Scroll, a new version of God's direct revelation to Moses. As another
path to t-he same objective, t-he Dead Sea Scroll cove~~anters also devel-
oped the notion of m origind esoteric Torah, event-ually lost to the nation
 f i e t-feitlenisticPeriod 53

as a whole, uihich they (and o d y they) had been privileged to (re)leam as

a resuit of ongoing reve1atior.r. Through these ectchrriyucts those at Q u m r a ~
attempted to retah s m e sort of camection with the past while cutthg
the comectim with the traditional institutions that were widely accepted
as represeninthg the xlational experiez~ce.At the same time, the beliefs of
the Qumran sect rehforced their olvn sense af conviction that they were
right in holding fast to practices rejected by the nation at large.
The Qumriiu.~ community was small. Its administra.tive cenkr has been
excavated, and its d k h g room could seat no mare than 128-150 people at
a time. Its cemettzry contains 1,100 graves, which must s p ~ a dover the
two hundred or so years of the life of ihe cornunity (ca. 125 B.c.E.--70
(I.E.). 32Iese figures also suggest that the number af ~ a b i t a n t at
s any one
time during those years c ot have been high. 32Ie way of life advocated
by those at m m r m :had no significant continuation in the years that fol-
lowed the destructio~~ of tht. %mpIe in 20C.E. In a sense, Qurnran is there-
fore little more than a footnote to Jewish history Nevertheless, the oppor-
tmity to read documents of Jewish sectarians at firsthmd, without the
interventiox~of Josephus or the New Testamalt, makes these texts a re-
source of inestimabte importance and fascination.
Close to the fled Sea Scroll community indeed, to be identified with
them in the view of many scrhofars, wel-e the Essenes, known from the
wrimings of Philo of Alexandria, Josephus, m d the Roman authos Pliny
the EIdes: The Essenes, in my opinion, were different from the @mran
cover~anters,s o m w h a closer to the middle of the spectrum. Thus, al-
though the Essenes offered their olvn ptrrificatory sacrifices and thereby
denied the validiv of those offemd in the Bmple, Essenes could be found
in Jerusalem in t-he vicirGty of Lhe Temple, udikc?:their Qumran counter-
parts off jn the desert. Essene rejecei,on of the legitimacy of all that was
done in the Temple was not as extrttme as that of Qumrm mern:bers,
Of ali the groups under cox~sideratior~ here, the Jerusalem 5adducees
we= the least sectarim in clnaractes, dosest to being idenlifid with the rul-
ing elite of the Tempk, As fosephus =marked. about them, they came from
the highest circles of Jewish sociew of their day @nt. 18,17f.The Sadducees
are somethes maligned as being asshdatianists, eager to please the rulistg
power at the expense of 'Tewish" interests. In fact, they werc not so. The
Jerusalem Sadducees fought for the practices they believed to be correct
m d took a leadkg role in the war agahst the IXomms. Their laws were dlf-
fcrent, and they did not acccpt the tradition of the marisees jAlzt. 13,2971,
but they kad an interpretive supplemer~tof their own by which they lived,
which taught them how to apply the laws of the Tor&, m d whi& they tied
to the ulZirnate source of wriitten authoriw in the Torah,
Since the discovery and pubfication of Qumrim texts such as Mikfzaf
Mw'asei Tomb from Qumritn Cave 4 f4QMMT), a possble connection be-
Ween the Sadducees and the @mran community has been raised and
cor~sideredat le~~gth. Sadducea~law, as attributed to them by the rabbis,
turns out to have a nurnber of overlaps with the practices approved by
the Dead %a Scroll sect (such as the stabs required of all those connected
wieh offerii'lg and utilizhg the ashes of the Red Zleiictr: Mishnah Para 32,
4QMMT E1:13-16). What these overlaps teach us about the relationship
between the Sadducees and the Qumrm sect has been much discussed,
tlow c m we identify Ehe members of one group, whose members served
in the Temple (Jerusalem Sadducees), with another, which rejected that
central institution ( B a d Sea Scroll group)? This is an example of olle of
the ve"ion"at would have to be resohed before making a fim idex~ti-
ficatior~of the Jerusalem Sadducees with the Dead Scroll sect.

Jewish inkpendence was not to last lmg, as Roman policy tow& t-he
Jews changed, a r ~ dRoman support, as we have seen, was an essential
plmk of Macc&em politics. The Romms tf--remselvesconquered Jerusalem
irz 63 B.c.E.,inaugurating a x~ewera in Jewish histor?/ in which the issue of
how to contmd wi& forrrig~rule under the domit~ior~ of a world empire
was problematic. This dilemma sparked at least three Jewish revolts, the
G ~ a Wevcflt
t ( 6 6 % c.E.), t-he Diaspora Revolt (115-117 c.E.), a ~ the
d Bar
Koaba Revolt 032-135 c.E.).Tbe period of the Macc-aibeesthus stands as a
brief s h h h g moment of sevenw-seven years (14M3B.c.E.), when the Jews
enjoyed the blessings and probltlms of independmce. It was the interlude
between or~eera of subjugatior~m d the enhance to yet anot%ter.
The issues faced by the Jews during the Hellenistic period as a whok,
from the prOhlem of how to retain their identity in the face of a dominmt
foreign culture to the competitior~between the various arxswers to the
meanivrg of being Jewish in. changed times, made a major contribution to
s h q i n g the naturet of Judajsm. Ultimately, Rabbinic Judaism emerged as
dominant, in the period oE the Mishnah and Talmud, from the second
century C.E. on. As Rabbinic Judaism had a substantial Pharisaic basis, its
vktory wodd not have been possible without the foundations laid in the
Hellenistic era,

Notes
1. All biblical translations are from the Revised Standard Version.
2. Quotations from Josephus" A Atiquiti~s
Z~ of the Jews (abbreviated in the text as
Aflt.) are from the translation by Ralph Marcus, toeb Classical Library (Cam-
bridge, Mass: Harvard Universily Press, 1976).
 f i e t-feitlenisticPeriod

Suggested Readings
Bickerman, E. J. Four Stmttge Books of the Bible, Mew York: Schocken, 1967.
Bickerman, E. 2. Fmm Ezm to ttw Lasii of tlte Maccabees. New York: Schosken, 3962.
Bickerman, E. J, T f ~jezus
c ilz t l ~ cGreek Age. Cambridge, Mass.: P-iarvard University
Press, 19138,
CharXeswarth, J. The Old Estatnenii fieckdbyigrnphn, Garden City, W.V.: Dciubleday
1983,
Hengel, M-.Jtrhisrn alzd Flellenisnr. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 2917.4.
Sanders, E. P. jesus and ludaisnz, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985.
Sanders, E. P. Ifnzal alzd P~lesl-iniainnfzidnistrz. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 2977.
Sandmel, S. Plzr'lu of Alexa~zdria:AE fntrt~dz~etiolz. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1979.
SchGrer, E. History of thc jezus in the Age ofjeszas Cfzrir;l,rev. ed., ed. G. Vermes. Edin-
burgh: Cfark, 1973-1987.
Smith, M, filestirzia~z firties nlzd F70litics Tlzaf Shaped the Old Tesfamenf,Idondon:
SCM, 1987,
Tcherikover, V, Hellenisiiz'c Civ-ilizalio~tn~tdfile It~zus.Philadelphia: Jewish Publica-
tion Society; 1959.
Vermes, G. The Dead Sea Scrt?-lllfsin E~~glish. Sheffield: JSQI- Press, 1987.
This page intentionally left blank
 udaism Under
an Domination:
From the Hasmoneans
gh the Destruct
e Second Temp
SHAYE J-. D. COHEN

I T 1s IRONIC THAT THE ROMANS mtered Judaem politics by invitation

of one Jewish faction that was in a power struggle with mother, fn 76
B.C.E. Alexander J aeus, the last great king of the Hasmonean line, died.
He was succee&d by his wjctolv, Salalnc dexandra, who hetself died in
6 h . c . ~ The
. royal couple" two sons, Hyrcm~usand Aristobulus, then
fought each other for succession to the t%lrone.Both Hyrcanus (usuafiy
called by scholars Hyrcmtrs 12) and Aristabulus (usually called by schol-
ars Aristobulus 11) appeared before the Romn legate in SyTia, each ask-
ing to be recog~ized-as the ruier of fudaea. Other Jews appeared as well,
asking the Romms to reject the claims of bath-by this time many Jews
were thoroughly disillusioned with Hasmonean rule,
'The Romans at first sqported Aristobulus II, but when they realised
he was a potential troublemaker, a suspicion amply codirmed by subse-
quent events, they transferred their support to Hy~cranus11, Aristobulus
co~~sidered fighting the &mans, but reaiizing the overwhhing n7ig:hl: of
R m e and thr? hopelessness of his situation, he surrendered in 63 B.C.E. to

Chapter 3 was first pubfishec3 as two separate chapters in Herschel Shanks, ed., Rtlcient 1s-
Cliffs, N.J.: Prer-ltice Hall, l"Sriff),and Herschet Shanks, ed., Cjzristiir~zityalzd
rael (Er\g-teli.b~oc~d
1;labbinic Judaisnr (Washir~gtnrt,D.C.: Dlblicai Archaeology Sclrciety, IcB2). They have been
edited and concleilsed for use in this volume with the kind permission of the author and
publishers.
the Roman general Pompey The supporters of Hyrcanus opened the city
of Jerusalem to the Romallis.
But that was not the end of the battle for Jerusalem. Allthough the city
was in Roman hands, many of hristohulus%supporters garrisoned Ihem-
selves in ihe Temple and refused to swre~lidel-.After a three-month siege
and some fearsome fighting, ferowekrer, the Temple fell to Pompey's le-
gions (63 B.c.E.),
Pompcy's corliquest of Jerusalem closed one chapter in Romm-Jewish
relations and opened another. A h~xndredyears earlier Judah Maccabee
had sought and obtained an alliance with the Romans, who were then
just becomhlig the dominant power in the easkrn Mediterranean. At that
h e , the Romans eagerly supported anyone who would help them
weaken the polver of the 9leucid khgs of Syria. Judah" successors fol-
lowed the s m e strategy of seeking Roman support in their stmggles for
indepmdence from the Seieucids.
Gradually; Rome" power grew; its policy in. the region, however, never
wavered: h y power that mi&t pose a thrc?at to Roman interests was to
be weakerlied. Whelli the Jews we^ a useful ally against the Seleutrids,
they were embraced. W e n the Hasmonean state expanded, the Romms
had no desire to see it become in turn a new threat: to Romm interests. By
the m a d e of the first cenhnry B.c.E., when the Romans had at long last
decided that the time had come to incorporate the eastern Mediterrmean
into their empire, the Jews we= no longer allies but just mother e t h i c
group that was to be brought into the inchoate imperial systrctm.
As the Romms were chmg;ing their mode of government; so were the
Jews. Under _the Persian and the He13enistk msnarchies, the Jews had been
led by high priests who wielded poiitical as well as re:iigious powr, How-
ever, durifig the initrial period of Roman r d e after Xsompey's conquest of
Jemsalcm, the high priesthood lost virkrally alli its temporal powers a d a
new royal dynasty emerged that was not of pries* stock. Its opponents
claimed that it was not even wholly Jewish! The Ramms, for their part,
were delighted to install a dynasty that owed its existence to Romm favor
arlid therefore could be counkd on to provide l v a i support,
This new dynagfyl usually called the Heradim after its most famous
mennber, was founded by Herod% father, Antipater the Idumean. The
Idumems, who lived in tht. area sou& of J d a h , had been incovorated
into the Hasmonean empire and converted to Judaism by J o h Hyrcmus
(Hyrcanus I). Antipater grdually hsinuated himself into the circle of
t l y ~ a n u 11.
s When Jutius Caesar came to Syria in 47 R.c.E., he conferred
various benefits on the Jews. Hyrcimtrs E1 was appointed etjtnarch (ruler of
the nation), and Antipater the Icturnem was appointed proarmtor (cart;.-
taker). A rival so011 assassinated Ar~tipater,and his mantle then fell to his
son Herod,
 Judaism Under Roman Domination 59

Herod remined the undisputed leader of the Jews for more than thirty
years (374 B.c.E.). Herod is arr erGgmatic figure. Tyra* madman, mur-
derer, builder of great cities and fortresses, kvily politician, successful
king, Jew half-Jew Gentjle-Herod was all these and more. He is perhps
best k ~ o w nto posterity as the m d e r e r of several of his wives, children,
and other relations. The murders were prompted by Herad" suspicions
(oftenjustified,) of all lhose who had, an equal or better claim to the throne
than he. In the first years of his r e i p , Herod execukd the survivi~~g mem-
bers of the Hasmonean aristocracy Since he was married to Mariame,
the daughter of the Hasmmem khng H y r c m s 11, that meant that Herod
m u r d e ~ dhis wife's relatior~s-her broa~er,her aunt, and her falrher. Fi-
nally he murdered Mariam~etoo. At the end of his r e i p ~he , cxecuted the
two sons Mariame had borne him..
Herod c ~ a t e da new aristocracy that owed its status and prestige to
him aione, He raised to the high priesthood men from families that had
never previously suppljed @h priests, inciudirtg famllies from the Dias-
pora (the Jewish commmities outsicfe the Land of Israel).
Herod was also a great buitcler. Many of the most popular tourist sites
in Israel today were Hel-ad's projects-Masada, Herodium, Caesarea, and
many of the most conspicuous remains of ancient Jerusalem, inchdjvlg
the Tower of David, the Western Wall, and much of the Temple Mount. As
a result of Herod's works, Jerusalem became "one of t-he most famous
cities of the Eaat," m d its Temple, which he rebuilt, was widely admired.
III the new city of Caesarea, Hemd c ~ a t e da mapificent harbor, utilizing
the latest technology in hydraulic cement amd ttnderwater cnnstmctisn.
Herod also founded several other cities, notably Sebaste (on the site of an-
cient Samria). He bestowed gifts and benefactior~s0x1 cities and enter-
prises outside his own kingdom. Athens, Sparta, modes, and the
Olyrrrpic games all elljoyed Herod's laqess.
Hemd tried to win support a r ~ drecopition from both the Jews and the
pagans, within his kiclgdoln and outsicf,eit. The support of his groups,
however, would have =ant nothing if Herod had not been supported by
Rome. In 37 a.c.;E., as we have seen, the Ramms made Herod the leader of
Judaea. In the struggle that developed soan thereafter between Mark
Antorly and Octaviarl, Herod supported Antomzy. That was perhaps be-
cause A17to11y was headquarte~din the East. But at the Battle of A c t i w
in 32 B.c.E., Octavim defeated Antonyf m d the entire Mediterranean, in-
cluding Egypt, came to the hands of Octavian,
Herod had supported the losin$ side. He was obviowly in deep trou-
ble. But ever the survivor, Herod managed to convince Gdctavian that
everyone" best interest would be served if he, Herod, were to remain
king of Judaea. He had been loyal to Ax~tolly,Herod argued, al?d now
would be layat to Gdctavian. actavian accepted Herod" argument and
never had cause to regret his decision. Herod was true to his word, and
g course of his lor~greign was rwilrded several times by trhe
d u r i ~ ~the
emperor (renamed Augustus) with grants of additional territory*
The An tiqtritz'esc$ theJEUS by Josephus recomts two major compfakts She
Jews had ag&~stHerod, aside from their despising his viole~~ce ar~dbrutal-
ity. First was his \liolrttion of traditionai Jewishlaws. He buill a theakr m d
m mphitheakr in Jerusalem (wither has yet been discwered by archaeol-
ogists), where he staged gladiatorial g m e s and other forms of enkrtain-
mek~tthat kvere foreip to Judilism ilnd i n h i e d to m,al?y Jews He built pa-
gan cities and temples and seemed to favor the pagan and Samaritan
elements in the pogulation over the Jews. Many of his judicial ar~dad
trative enactme~~ts were not ~IIaccordance with Jewish law Certain ele-
ments ist the population were offended at his htroductit-ion of Rornm tra-
phies into the Temple and his erection of a goldm eagle m r its entrmce,
I h e second reason for the general dislike of Herod was Etis oppresive
taxation. Someone had to pay for Herad" smificent benefactions to the
cities of the Eaat, generous gifts to the Romans, an$ exkavagant building
projects at home. The Jewish citize~~s of Herod's kingdom had to h o t the
bill, and they objected.
Herod's death =leased the accumulated passions and frustratjon of the
people who had been kept in check by hjs brutality. As Merod lay or1 his
deathbed, two pious men and their followers removed the eagle that
Hmod had erectcld over the entrance to the Temple and hacked the statue
ediately after Herod's death, riots and rcbellior~sbroke out
daea, Galilee, ancd the Transjordan (I)ert.a). The leaders of
the riots had diverse goals. Some we= sirnply venting their anger at a
hated and frmed regim; others were eager to profit from a period of
chaos Tlnd disorder; still others dreamed of ridding themselves of Roman
rule and proclaiming themselves king.
These riots illustrate the underside of Herodian rule, Herod" high
taxes and extravagant spending catrsed, or at least accelerated, the im-
poverishment of a broad section of the p lation. A clear sign of social
distl-trss was fhe resurgence of brigands a ~ d l e s men
s marauded the
corntryside in groups and were eilher hailed by the peasants as k o e s or
hunted, aa villains. This phenomenon had surfaced earlier, in the decades
after Pompcy's conquest in 63 B.C.F. AIthough Ponnpey himself had re-
spected the Tern* m d the prmperty of tfie Jews, the governors he left be-
hind (Gabinius and Crassus) did not. They engaged irr I-obbery and pil-
lage; Crassus even plundered the Temple. Perhaps as a result of these
depredations, Galilee was almost overrun by brigands. In 4716 B.C.E.
Herod routed and suppressed the brigamzds. Several years later, they
rcsurked ar~dHerod again suppressed them. Brigandage reemrged in
the years after Herod" death, especially, as we shall see, in the period
 Judaism Under Roman Domination 63.

from 44 C,E. to the outbreak of the Jewish rebeIlion against Rome in 66 C.E.
The impoverishmnt of Lhe country and its consequerrt social distress
were m unfortmate legacy of Herod the Great.
Judaea was governed by Romm prefects from 6 C,E. on. Of the six or
sewen Roman prefects who were the governors, most are just names to us.
The except-i;onis the Roman prefect Pantius Pilate (ca, 26-36 c.E.). Pillate
~ c e i v e as negalive assessment in the Gospels, in Phito, as well as in Jose-
phus. According to the Christim Gospels, Pilirte mssacred a grouy:, of
Galileans (1,trke 13:l) and brutally suppressed a rebellion (Mark %5:?),
quite aside from crucifying Jesus. AccoPdjng to Philo, Pilate introduced
into Herod% former palace in Jerusaiem some golden shields inscribed
wieh the name of the emperor Tiberius. The Jews objected stre~~uously be-
cause they felt that any object associated with, emperor worship, not to
mention emperor worshjp itself, was idolatrous and an offense agakst
trhe Jewish rdigi01.1. Pmious Roman goverxlors had respwted Jcwish scm-
sitivities in this matter, but Pilate did not. After bejllg petiSzioned by the
Jews, the emperor ordered. Pilate to remove the shields from. Jerusalem
and to deposit them in the t e ~ p l oie Augustus in Caesarca, a mixed Jcw-
ish-pagan city. Jfasephus narrates a similar incident (or perhaps a different
version of the same il~cident)involving the importation of militar)r stan-
dards (which of course contained images) into Jerusalem. The people
protested loudly, saying they would rather die than see the ancestral law
violated. Pilate relented and ordered the images to be removed. Ulti-
mately, Pitate was removed from office when Jews complained enou@ to
his superiors.
The R m m s realized that Judaism was unlike the numerous other na-
tive retigions of tbe empire; the Jews rtrfused to wmship m y god but their
own,=-used to acknowledge the emperfaCs right to divitse honors, re-
fused to tolerate images in public phces and buildings, and refused to
perform any sort of work every seventh day. h a r e of these peculiarities,
the Romans per~xittedJewish citizens to refrain from participation in pa-
gan ceremonies; allwed priests of the Jemsaltm Temple to offer sacri-
fices m behalf of, rather than to, the emperor; minted coins in Judaea
without irnages (even if many of the coins that circulakd, in tke comtry
were minted elsewhere and bore ifnages); e x e q t e d the Jews from mili-
tary service; and ensured that they woutd not be called to court 01%trhe
Sahbath or lose any offjeial benefits as a result of their Sabbath, obser-
vances. In many of the cities of the East, the Romans authorized the Jews
to create pclliteumafu, autox~omousethnic communities, which i\fforded
the Jews the opportunity for commtxnal self-government.
The mad emperor Caligula m$ his legate in Egypt withdrew or at-
tempted to withdraw these rights and pliviieges. Riots erupted first in
Allexmdria-the "Greeks" (that is, the Greek-speaking population of the
city m s t of whom were not "Greek" at all.) against the Jews. Exactly who
or what started the riots is not clear. The root cause of the col~fiict,how-
ever, was the ambiguous statzns of the city" Jews. On the one hand, the
Alexmdrians resented the Jewish politczrnzn and regarded it as a diminu-
tion of the p ~ s t i g eand a u t o n o v of their o m city. On the other hand,
the Jews t%lotrghtthat membership in their okvn yolifeunla shouid confcr
on them the s m e rights and privileges the citizens of the city had. The m-
sult of these conflicting claims was bloodshed ar~ddestmction. Aided by
the Roman govemos of Egypt, the Greeks attacked the Jews, pillaged Jew-
ish property desecrated or destroyed Jewish synagogues, and herded the
Jews into a "ghetto." The Jews were hardly passive during t-hese events,
resisting bolh nnilitariiy and diplomatically. The most distint;uished Jew
of the city, the philosopher Ptnilo, led a delegation to the emperor to argue
the Jewish cause,
I h e trouhies in Alexa~lidriawere wttled by Cladius, Caligdil's succes-
sor, who ordered both the Jews m d the C;rceks to retztm to the status cpo:
The Jews were to mahtain their polifezdma but- were not to ask for more
rights than wem their due.
Perhaps one of the most significant aspects of these events was the re-
fusal of Irhe Jews even to consider rebellion against the empire, tn alexan-
dria, the Jews took up arms only in self-defense and only Mi'ith reluc-
tance-at least that is i-vbat I'hito tells us. The Jews dimted their fighting
against their enemies, not against the emperor or the Roman E q i r e .
The years after Caligufa's r e i p saw fhe growth of violmt resistmce to
Roman rule. Cdigulds madness seems to have driven home the point
that the beneficence of Roman rule was not secure, m d that the only way
tru ensure the saftlty and sanctily of the Temple was to expel trhe Romans
from the country and to remove those Jews who actively supported them,
This process might have been prevented had Agrippa I been blessed
wieh as ior~ga reign as his grmclfather Herod t l ~ eGreat. Instead, &rippit
I ruled fur only three years ( 4 1 4 c.E.). Despite his short reign, he was a
popular king; bath Josephus and rabbinic literature have only nice things
tru say about him. In some respects he resembled hi.;grandiather. He was
a wily and able politieim. He sponsored pagan games at Caesarea and
bestowed magnificlent gifts on Beirut, a pagan city, But unlike Herod, he
was not criticized for these donations, for in other respects he was
Herad" superior. He lacked Herod" brutality, Whereas Herod had re-
frained from flouting traditional.Jewish laws in the J w i s h areas of his du-
main, Agrippa was conspicuous for observing them. In the politic&
sphere, he tried to attairr a modest degree of *dependence from Rome.
He even begm the construction of a new wall on the northern side of
ferusalem; had it been completed, Josephus says, the city w o d d have
been impregnable durhg the Jewish revolt. that erupted in. 66 C.E.
 Judaism Under Roman Domination 63

Had b r i p p a reigned a long tiwne, perhaps the disagecrted elements in

Judaea would have been reconded again to foreigl~dominion. On
Agrippa" death in 44 c.E.,however, Judaea once again became the do-
main. of the k n n m procurators. There was no longer a kwish authority
who, despite uitirnak subservience to Rome, could satisfy Jewish nation-
alist aspirations. Moreover, the procurators after 44 C.E. were incnmgelent
m d insensitive at besk, c o m p t and wicked at worst.
In the fall of 66 c.E., after Gessius Florus (who would be the last of the
procurators) had stolen money from the Temple treasury (for overdue
taxes, he daimed), a particularly violent riot led to the rnassacre of the Ro-
man garrison in Jemsaiem. The governor of S ~ i ir~tervened,
a but even he
failed to restwe the peace. He was forced to witt7draw from Jerusalem,
suffering a major defeat. The Jews of Judaea had rebelled agaixlst the Ro-
man Empire?.
The Great Revolt of 66-7(> C.E. was in large part, especially in its early
phases, a civil struggle m o n g Jews-between the rich and the poor, be-
Wren the upper classes and the lower, between the city dwellers and the
country folk. Besides the brigandage that had i n c ~ a s e dsig~ificantlyin
the countryside after Agrippa X's death in 44 CE., Jemsailm too was
racked by social turmoil. Aristocrats in Jerusalem and throughout the
country maintitined b a ~ d of s armed retakers to tlzreatcn their opponents
and to work for their own irtterests. Wthin t%le priesthood there was strik
m d violence between the upper m d the lower clergy. Peasants in Galilee
in 66-67 C.E. wanted nothing more than to attack and loot Sepphoris,
Tiberias, m d Gabara, thc three lizrgest se%lem,entsof the district. After the
Great Revolt begm in 66 c.E., many peasants of both Galilee and Judaea
fled to Jerusaiem, where they b n ~ e don both tt7e city aristocracy and the
priestly elite. 'These tensions kvithin Jewish society often surfaced vio-
ltzntlg during the Great Revolt, For many of the garticipmts in the war,
trhe primary enemies were not Roman but Jewish.
The revolutionaries may also have believed that they were living at the
threshold of the end time, Josephus writes that "what more than all else
incited them to t-he war was an ambiguous oracle . . . fowd in t-heir sacred
scriptu~s,to the effect that at that time one from their country would be-
come ruler of the world," In the years immediate@ preceding the revolt,
many "'eschatological prophets" were active, predictint; the imminent ap-
proach of the end time or attemptbg, by mems of a symbolic action (for
example, splitting the Jordan River), to hasten or implement its arrival.
I h e social te~~sio~lisar~deschatological expectations that drove Judaea
to war with fiome were not uniquely Jewish, In fact the war of 66-7(J C.E.
follows a pattern evident in other native rebellions against the R o m n
Empire. Tensiom betwem ricl and poor and between city and country
were endemic to mcient society and often contributed to such rebellions.
Like the upris.ing in Judaea, other native rebeHions were often led by aris-
toer&, although peasants, day l a b o ~ r s and , landless poor formed the
bulk of the revolutionary army. As so often happms in revdutions an-
cient and modem, in its i-t-ritialphases the struggle is led by aristocratk (or
bourgeois) elements, w:hich, as the struggle conti-rrues,arc? ousted, mually
with great violence, by more-extremist (or proletarian) groups. Like the
Jews, other rebels in ulCiyuity too d r e m e d of subjugating the universal
Roman Empire. The revolt of the Gads irr 69 C,E. was prompted in part by
a muid prediction that Rome cvould be destroyed m$ that the rtrie of the
empire would devolve on the tribes of Ransalpine Gad. The bwish re-
volt was, themfore, hardly unique hthe a d s of Rome.
In the fall of 66 c.E.,no one knew that a war between the Jews and the
Rornms was immkent. Same revolutionaries, perhaps, were drearnivrg of
a final conflict, but even they bad no way of knowing predsely when the
corrflict woufd erupt or what f o m it would take.
m e spark was pmvided by the procurator Florus when he seized sev-
enteen talents from the ?i.mple treasury to compensate, he said, for uncol-
lected back taxes. This act was not si~~i.ficantly worse than t-he depreda-
tions m d misdeeds of previous pmcurators, and the riot it provoked cvas
not significantly worse than the riots that had erupted during the tcnures
of pl-evitzus procurators.
This riot, hawever, turned into the first act of a cvar because it came at
the end of a period of almost Wenty Fass of mxlieved tcrmsim and law-
lessness. kVhen Florus brutally suppressed the riot, the people responded
with even greater intensity, with the result that Florus had to flee the city.
At this point various revolutimary factions stepped forward. It is difi-
cutt to determine the inter~lationshipof ail these groups. Some scho:iars
argtre that all the anti-Roman forces formed in the aggregate a single
"war party" which for purposes of convenience can be called Zealots, af-
ter its mctst disri~~ctivc constituent group- Others argue that no single
"war party" ever existed m d that each of the groups and fi.gurc?shad its
own history The diverse groups shared a commm willhgness to fight
the Roman?;but differed hom one another in many respwts, which ex-
plains why they spent so much time fighting one another. The ktter inkr-
pretation is much more plausible than the former.
At the outbreak of the war, an aristocratic priestv ~ v d r t t i m a r yparty,
led initially by Eleazar, son of the high priest Ananias, seems to have con-
troll.ed the revolut-im. Eleazar suspended the sacrifice for the welfare of
the emperor and the Roman Empire, which ilntij then had been offered
every day in the T e q l e . 'This act cvas tantarnowt to a declaration of war,
As if to emphasize the point, after FZorus retreated., Eleazar and his sup-
porters turned on the Romxr garrisorrs Horns had left: in the city, a r ~ dbe-
sieged them.
 Judaism Under Roman Domination 65

These pricstv revolutionaries we= soon ecl@x"d'oy another group, the

Sicarii, led by one Menahem. In the fall of 66 c.E.,the Sicarii entered
Jerusalem. In addition to athcking the Romm forces that remained in. the
city however, the Sicarii also attacked the Jewish arist-ocracy. They looted
trhe homes ot:the well-to-do and massacred many of the nobiliq; thc:most
prominenf: of Cheir victims was Analnias the high priest, the falher of
Eleazar, who had led the priestly revdutionaries, The priestly group,
headquartered in trhe 7"c?mI?fe,fought hack m d killed the Sicarii leader;
Menahern, Menahern" followers then fled to Masada, one of Herod's
great fortresses, in the fudaean wifderness, There they remained for the
rest of lrhe war, doh~gnolhing to help the struggle. Other bands of fight-
ers, however, were already, or would so011 become, active in Jerusalem.
RevoSutionary ardor allso spread outside Jerusalem. h Caesarea m d in
many other cities of Palestine a d Syria, Jews m d pagans attacked each
other. 'The hostility to~vardpagms and pagmism that motivated the revo-
lutionaries inJerusalem seems allso to have motivated Jews &roughout the
country The pagans, for their part, gave vent to the s a m anhosities that
had exploded in the arti-fewish riots in Alexa~drinthirty years earlier.
The Romm governor of Syria went ta Judaea to restore order, but after
enterkg Jerusalem, he decided that he was not strong enough to take the
Temple from the ~volutio~~aries. In the course oi his withdrawat, his troops
we= beset by the Jews and had to abmdon mu& of their equipment.
After the defeat of the Romm governor-general of Syria,the revolu-
trionaries, k d by the priestly rwoiutionay party, assigned generds to
each &strict in the country. Mast of the commissioned generals were
priests. Their task was to prepare the country for w a ~in , mticlipation of
either negotiatio~~s or hostilities with the Romans.
With thc appearance of the Rom,m army led by the Romm general Ves-
pasian, inthe suvnxner of 67 c.E.,Lhe northern revolutimary a m y oi 'Jose-
phus all but disappeared, and the Romans had little difficulty in subdu-
ing Galilee. Chly one location gave them trouble, the fortress of Jotapata.
It held out for almost seven weeks before hlling to the Roman assault.
Galilee had beer1 pacified.
m e revolutionaries h the Galan congregated at Gamla, but after some
fjcfce fighting, that fortmss too was taken. The entire northern part of the
country was once a g a h brought under Romm rule.
After taking a winter break, Vespasian resumed operations in the
sphng of 68 C.E. and by early summer had pacified the elltire cowltryside;
Jerusalem done (4 some isolated fortresses, notably Masada) remained
in the hands of the rebels. Everythizsg seemed p r e g a ~ dfor an immediate
attack on fernsalern, but dufing the sumlner of 68 Vespasian Iearned of
trhe emperor Nero's assassinatio~~. The death of a rciping emperor meant
that Vespasim" commission as general expired; accordhgly, he disson-
thued his militaq activities, The cessation was extended because in the
summer of 6'3, Vespasian had hlmself proclaimed emperor. He If Judaea
to establish his own imperial power in Rom. By the end of the year 6'3 he
was successful-In the spring of 70, kspasiar~once again t u m d his atten-
tion to the sitruation in fudaea.
T%e two-year f-riahsshould have been a great boon to the revolutionar-
ies in Jerusalem, allowing them time to organize their forces, fortify the
city, lay m a y provisions, amzd so on. But the opposite was the case. As the
refugees entered Jcrusalcm from the countryside, interrmecine st& intensi-
k d . The party of Zealots, cmskting for the most part of Judaean peasants,
emerged. They trurned a g h s t t-he -aristocratic prksts, who until that point
had been in charge of ihe war, and appointed a new high priest by lot.
Thus 68 C.E. was spent in fighting betvvem the aristacsatic (or "moder-
ate"")evol~~tionary groups and the more radical proletarim ones-The latter
tfiumphed. fn 69 the radical revolutionaries themsehes fell to attacking
one mother, John of C;ischala, supported by his contingent of Galjkans,
w e d on his fomer dies, the Zeatots, and u l h a t e b succeeded in oust-
ing their leader and brilTging them under his co~~trol. But a new revolution-
ary factiox~then emerged, led by Sirno11 hen Giczra, a natfve of Gerasa (a city
ol the Trmsjordan). Like the Zedots, he had a radical social program m d
drew much of his support Pom freed slaves. The intense fighting a m o q
these various groups had disastrous consequences. Large stocks of grain
m d other provisions we= destroyed. W e n the Roman siege begm in
earllest in 70 c.E.,a fmine so011 folllowed.
Vespasian had by then securety established himseIE as emperor and
wanted a resounding success to legitimate his new dynasty. In his propa-
ganda, Vcspasian had depicted hirnsejf as the savior of the empirrj, the
man who, after a year m d a half of pditical chaos, had restored order and
stability. There was no better way to prove this point than to bring to a
successhl conclusion the prohracted. war in Judaea. fn order to emphasize
trhe dynastic hplications of the virtory, Vespasian appointed hi?; son Titus
tru command the Roman a m y in its assault on the holy city of the Jetvs. In
the sprhg of 70 C.E. the Romans, mder Titus, besieged the city m d cut off
all supplies and all mems of escape.
T%e fightin: for the city and the Emple was intense. T%emajor rdlying
point of the revolutionaries and, consequentl~the major hrget of the Ro-
mans was the Temple, The Temple was a veritable fortress, but it still was
a temple.
I h e Romar~sacfvanced mei-hodically toward fheir goal. The Jews had
been weak;ened by famine and interneche strife, and although Titus
made some serious tactical errors in prosecut.ing the siege, the Romm vic-
tory was only a maner of time. Each of the city" three protective walls
 Judaism Under Roman Domination 67

was breached in turn, and the Romans fhally found themselves, by mid-
er 71) c.E.,just outside the sacred precincts.
At this point, accordbg to Josephus, Titus called a meetkg of his gen-
eral staff and asked for advice. What should he do with the Jewish Tem-
ple? Some of his adjuti-tnts argued that it shoutd be destroycsd because as
long as it was left standing, it wuwld serve as a focal pojxtt for anti-Roman
agitation. According to the "rules of war" in antiyui.ty, temples were not
tru hct moleskd, but this Temple had become a fortress and fierefore war; a
fair xxrilibi-zrytarget. No opprobrium would be athched to its destruction.
Titus, however, argued that the Temple should be pxserved as a monu-
ment to Romar~mag~a~imity.
But "fiitus" plan was tinwarted. Ck-i the day after the meeting, a soldier
acting agaizsst orders tossed a firc.bfand into the sanctuary, and flames
shot up, immediately out of conkol. On the tenth. of the mmth. of AV (in
rabbil7ic chronology 01.1 the ~-rir"tth), t c.E.,the Temple was de-
late A ~ g u S70
stroyed. Titus and his troops spent the next mmth sUbdUimg the rest of
the city and collecthg loot as the reward fur their labors.
Upon his retun1 to Rome in 71 c.E., Titus cctebrated a ~ointtriumpj7
with his father, the emperor Vespasim. In the triumphal procession were
the enemy leaders Sinton ben Giora and John of Gischaliit and various ob-
jects from the Temple (notably the menorah, table, and trrumpets). Sirnon
was beheaded, John bvas probhly enslaved, and the sacred objects were
depoiited in f i e Temple of Peace in Rome. Two triumphal afches wefe
erected in Rome in the following years to celebrate the victory; one the
Arch of Titus, with its famous depiction of the sacred objects from the
Temple c a ~ e in d the prwession. The other arch, which is now deskoyed,
bore the following inscription:

The senate and people of Rome [dedicate this arch] to the emperor Titus . . .
because with the guidance and plans of his father, and under his auspices, he
subdued the Jewish people and destroyed the city of Jerusalem, which all
generals, kings and pectples before him had either attacked without success
or left entirely unassailed."

To pw1i5h the Jews for the war the Romans imposcd thefisczis fiddnictls,
the "Jewish tax." The half-shekel tax, which Jews throughout fhe empire
had fomerly contributed to the Temple in Jerusalem, was now collected
for the Temple of Jupiter CapitoZinus in Rome, The irnpositim of this taxl
collected throughout the empire until at Ieast the micldie of the secor~d
century C&., shows that the Romans regarded, all the Jews of the empire
as partly respon&ible for the war.
The Roma~sdid n o t however; institute other harsh measures against
the Jews. 'They confiscated mtxch Jewish land in Judnea, distributing it to
their soliiiers and to Jewish collaborators, but that was a normal pmce-
dure after a war. 'They did not engage in religious persecutio~~ or strip the
Jews of their rights.
The Jewish revolt- was not a reaction to an unmistakable threat ox
provocatio~~ by the state. In the fall of 66, the Jews of Palestine went- to
war against the Roman Empire-as the result of the social: tensimr;; im-
poverishment of large sections of the economy; religious speculations
about the immir~entarrival of the end time and the messianic redeemer;
nationalist stirrings against foreign rule; and the incompetent and hsen-
sitive administration of the pfocurators. The war was characterized by in-
trcrnecine fightrix~g.The fighting was not only betrwem revoluticmary
groupdhut also between t l ~ erevolutionaries and large sgments of the
populace. Many Jews had no desire to participate in the struggle. It bvas
one thing to riot against fie procurator, quite another to rebel against the
Roman Empire. Wedthy and poor alike were -afraid Lhat war would mean
the loss of everythhg they had, m d since the Romans had not done any-
thing inblerable, there was no cmpelling rctason to go to wareThis attj-
trude was widesp~ad.Aside from kmsalem, only Gamla was the site of
fierce fighting. Galilee Perea (the Transjordan), the coast, Idmen-afl
these saw some anti-Romm activity, but all werr quickly and easily paci-
fied immediately upm the arrival of the Roman forces. Jerusalem was the
seat of thg rebellim: where it began, wherc. it ended, and the stronghold
of the vast majority of the combatmts.
I h e causes of the failure of the war arc not h a d to see. I h e war began
with little advance plaming, the revolutionaries were badly divided' and
the timing was off, Had they rebelled a few years earlicl; while the Ro-
mans were fighting the Partl-rians, the rebels might have been able to suc-
ceed at least to the point of exactkg various concessions from the Rornms
in ret-urn for their surrendeu: Had they waited two years-after Mesa's as-
sassinatio~~ in 68 c.e.-their odds would have been immeasurably better.
At that time the empire was in, chaos; the succession was vigorously dis-
puted; Gaul had risen in revolt. That would have been a perfect moment
for revolt, but for the Jews it came too late.
The destruction of the Temple did not mean the end of Jmdaism, how-
ever. The theological m d religious crisis the destmction caused seems to
hawe been much less severe tha3.1 that experienced in the aftermath of Che
Babylonian destruction of the First Temple in 5% B.c.E.,pefhaps because
during the Second Temple period new Jewish institutions and ideologies
had been created that prepared Judilism for a time vhJhcn the Temple and
the sacrificial cult wodd no longer exist. By the time the Second Temple
was destroyed, the Temple itself had been supplemenled by synagogues,
the priests had been supplemented by scrholars, the sacrificial cult had
been sugplemerrted by prayer and the study of Cbe Torah, ancd = l i m e on
 Judaism Under Roman Domination 69

the intermediation of the Temple priesthood had been supplemented by a

piety that emphasized the o$servance of the cornmandmer~tsof the Torah
by every Jew.
In short, the path to the future was already clearll; marked. The suffer-
ings of this world would be compe~~sated by rewards in the hereaftel: The
disgrace of Rome's trimph over the God ol Xmel and destrttction of the
Temple wodd be effaced by the glory of the new kjngdorn to be estah-
fished by God for his people in the end tirne. The cessation of the sacrificia.l
cult did not mean estrmgemerrt from God, since Gad could be worshiped
through good deeds, prayer, the observarmce of the commandments, and
trhe study of trhe Torah. Synagogws coufd take ihe place of the Temple, and
rabbis couid takc the place of the priests. These wre the respolxses of the
Jews to the catastrophe oP 7'0C.E. and were greatly elaborated during the
wowing cmturies.

Notes
1. Translated in Naphtali Lewis and Neyer Reinhold, Runmtz Givili;zalkn Suul-ce-
book II: The Erayire (New b r k : Harper &r Row 1966), p. 92.

Suggested Readings
Cohen, S. J. D., Front the Maccthbees to thc Mishtzlalt, Philadelphia: Westminster Press,
1987.
Shanks, E-I., ed. Ancie~ztIsmel. Englewtlod Cliffs, F;;",J,: Prentice Hall, 1988,
Shanks, H., ed., Christlianity n~zdRabbinic fudtzklrz Washington, D.G.: Biblical Ar-
chaeology %?ciety, 3 992.
Smallwood, E. M., The Jews UfzderRoma~zRzile. Leiden: Brill, 1976,
This page intentionally left blank
 The Literature
the Rabbis
BURTON L. VXSOTZKY

m THE ROMANLEGIONS LEFT the Jerusalem Temple in mok-

ing rubs in 70 c.E., a new chapter began hJewish history and lit-
erature. The daily and festival animal offerings had been t-he cornersto~~e
O( the prieslly ~lligionthat most Jews observed. Before the destsuctim,
thmksgiv.lng, purification, atoplement' and the calendar cycle we= all
achieved through the bringing of animal and grain gifts to God at the al-
tar in Jerusalem. The central text of Jebvish tradition (the Torah, or Five
Books of Moses) was a document that attested to the centrality of the sac-
rificial cult Jerusalem. The disastrous results of the Jewish rebellior~
agajrtst Rome brwght an end to the cmtrality of the Temple altar as the
prime locus for Jewish religious practice.
Even befort3 the destructitrr~of the Temple, there had been some move-
ment withh Judaism away from the Jerusalem center. Groups such as the
community at Qumran and the nascent Christian community showed
somc. opposition to the priesthood that ran the Temple cult. The founding
of synagogues as places of prayer and study away horn the Jerusalem
sanctuary had already taken place while the Temple still stood. Non-
priestly leadership of charismatic, maitary, and inteHectuirl groups was
budding. The canonizalion of a Bible that included exilic books and
works of prophets who f,,cely denollnced thc potential emptiness of the
priestly sacrificial cult had also begun in earnest.
me first cent-ury folltcbwhg the dest_ructian of the Temple found these
phenomena serving as the cornerstones of a new f o m of Judaism. While
co11sister"ttly claimit~gcontinuity with lrhe sacr~icialcdt, Judaism contin-
ued to devclv nonpriesay leadershjy of an inte1.1Cectual amd charismatic
nabre. This leadership cut across class m d economic bonds to form a cat-
egory of religious adepts who led more by ~ c e i v e dknowledge and tearh-
ing than by fantily h e a p or priestly pxemgative. The finill canonization
of Scrigturtt gave these master teachers (rabbis) the opporhnity to focus
their traditims a r o u ~ ~
and
d apart .from the Bible. 'They passed on their tra-
ditions m d exegeses of the Bible in disciple circles, which began to exert
m incmasingly pmminent jueticial role in the Palestinian Jewish cornmu-
nity FinallyI the lack of a temple allowed the places of prayer and study to
come to the fore as loci par excelfence for the expression of Ju$aism,
The synagogue (Iset !1ake~ressef) became the piace for Jewish. worship-
prayer and studiy. It appealed to a fairly large sepenl: of the Jewish pop-
dation, and there they gathercrd on Sabbaths, New M o m , amd Jewish
festivals for celebrations of Judaism that had previously taken place at the
ferusalem sanctuar"y. A seconrl. locus, m r e f i r d y ur~dercontrol of the
rabbil7ic leadership, was the academy (bet midrash). WheC1-rer takh~gplace
in homes and market stalls or in peripatetic master-disciple sessions,
skrdy of received tradition and bibkal exegesis became the method for
developing Jewish iaw, lore, m d theology.
This for~xativeperiod of Jewish history was buffeted by two military
debacles subsequent to the disastrous rebellion of 66-'70 C.E. that had
brought about the destruction of the furusaiern Temple. Widespread riot-
ing in 115-117 c&.,often referl-ed to as the War of the Uiaspora, left thou-
sands of dead in Jewi.sh cornunities fhroughout the Roman world. The
influace of those comunities within their local Ileknic s p h e ~ was s
accordingly diminished for same time- Then, agah in. Palestine, a second
revolt against Romm rule erupted in the years 1.32-135 C.E. This revolt,
under the apparent d i t a r y leadership of Simon ben Cosi:ba (Bar
Kofiba), also ended in crushing defeat for the Jews.
The utter destruction of Jewish military pretensions further paved the
way for t-he rabbis. Tlneir regimen of ~ l i g i o uobserwance,
s study, teaching,
and judging on local levels gave them a firm (if not universal) foothold in
the kwish. cmmunity. The Rornm government's countenance of the Jew-
&h patriarch of Balesth~eand the latter's good relatio~~s with the rabbinic
community dwjJlg the second and third centuries furtber st~ngtherred
the rabbinizatim of Judaism following the destruction of the Temple. C)rme
other phenomnon that m r i t s r n e ~ ~ t was ~ sbift in popuiittion M-
i o ~ the
lolvhg the two wars against Rome- The Jerusalem Temple had been the
religious focus of a Judaean, agrarian peoyle, butby the end of the second
century, Judaism had become a largely Galilean, urban-cente~d,syna-
gogue, and rabbbic movement.

Tannaitic Literature
In the two centuries following the destruction, the rabbis had an enor-
mous task. n e y sought to preserve Judaism m d keep its vital links with
 The Literature of the Rabbis 73

the Torah and the now-defunct Temple cult. At the same time, they we=
rcvired to expand and refocus Jewish practice to ellcompass t-he growing
trends toward scholasticisr27, synagogue, and rabbinic leadership. With-
out a Jerusalem Temple as the focal point for Jewish cultic practice, the
rabbis shifted the loci to communities collstituted a r o u ~ ~a dcanall (the
Bible), whi& rabbinic (md not priesay) leadership interpreted to guaran-
tee contjnuity with the very cult these communities had replaced. From
the destruction of the "fi?my>tein 20 c.E., through the redactiorl of their
own loose canon of rabbhic literatznre-the Oral Tor&-by the mid-third
cent-ury the rabbis largely met that task.
Chne of the primal?, meals the rabbis had of preserving col~tinuivwith
the moribund priestly c d t was c er~tal-y01%the 'Ibrah, which first en-
shrked it m d then preserved its memory. One of the results of this com-
mentary, a constant meditation of the Torah as the revelatory word, of God,
was to keep the Temple cult alive to Jewish m e w r y But as with ali acts of
mernov, the Temple in recollection differed from what it had been in,pxac-
tice. h looking backward, ia ccmstmtly examhhg and ~cxanriningevery
"fbrah mle &out the CUR,the rabbis made the Temple of nncmory mrc a
rabbhic phenommon than a priestly one. Xn a subtle yet persistent way, the
rabbis' commentaq on the cultic passaps md their constant ~-eferenceto
the Temple u s q e d for themselves ihe very priesthood. h the eyes and
ears of their Esteners and disciples, thc rabbis bccame the irtf-teritoxsof the
Temple cult and the natural, legitimate continuers of Jewish tradilion,
At the same time, the rabbis were expaimenthg with their newfound
atrthority in another fashion. Even as they based their power within
Scripture, through their various intevrehtions and exegeses of matters
practical (Z-iaiakhic) and theological (Aggadic), t-he rabbis gave woke to
another form of their okvn authhority. Mthough they clajmed continuity
m d legitimacy by basing their teachirngs in the authority of biblicd Scrip-
ture ("'as it is writtm . . .""'"as it is said . . ."), fhey also found their own in-
dependent voice of authority ('"ilbbi so-and-so says . . ."). One source of
their authoriv was biblical exegesis, the adept iPlteryretation of S c r i p t u ~
desigtled to prove through bememutic m a n s &at the rabbinic agmda
was script-urally determhed.
The other source of their authoriv was the "traditions of the fathersw-
an ur-tbroke~~ chain of authoritative teaching that lhked them with the
Jewish community of the %sand Tmple, perhaps as f a back as the latter
prophets. The further back the rabbis could trace t h i s intellectual (and
nonscripturaf) lineage, the better. Since ihe teachings were tra~smitted
from master to disciple, they gave a very strong buttress ta rabbinic
claims of authority, one that was difficult to refute. Not surprisingly, rab-
binic literahre claims sources of tradiit.ion as far back as Moses at Sinai.
This type of tradition was also well b o w n in, the philosophic schools of
the Heurnistic world and gave the riibhis authority as tc-rachers within the
broader Greco-Roman w orld.
Each of these types of authoritdive kachhgs found voice cvithh the r&-
binic :Literatureof f i e early yel-ioct. Both wese claimed by the rabbinic com-
munity as Oral "fi,r&, tralsmi2ted alongside a7.d equal in authoriv to the
written Tor&, which detailed the priesay cult. The exegetic materials, in,
partidar those on the latter four books of the Torah, c a m to redaction by
the mid--third ce~~hnry in a form close to what we hawe today These works
aitic ar Halafic midrashim. They will be discussed in,
r but merit mention now simce their earliest oral foma-
tion precedes or is co~~comitant with the other type of rabbinic Iiterature..
That other type, too, ip; Tarmaitic m d p r h a ~ l yHatakhic in nature. Be-
fore it is described in. detail, a brief definition af same terms is in order.
aitic" "refers to the literatuse of the rabbis of the first bva cenbl-ies C.E.
A htzna (sii'lgdar) is a rabbi and/or oral rrJciter of traditio~~s who lived in
the era circa 7&25C). "'Mala&ic" refers to rabbhie literattxre concerned pri-
mari)y with behavioral norms, m Halakhnh fshgular).The tr111mim(plural)
st-udied Halakhah by exegesis (midrash, singuial-) of Scripture, which
yielded Hitlafiic ar aitic midrashm (plural). These collections of ex-
egeses may have also included *eological, nonbehavimal, folklot.istirfand.
legendary materials called Ati;gadah. Aggadic midrash consists of scrip-
tuml exegesis that yields nornbehavioral ntsults. TO sumntarizc, the rabbis
of the early period. Itannninz) studied Scriptme (using midrash), which
yielded b&avioral (Walaadric) or other (Aggadic)teachings.
Vel. these s m e rilbbis d e n made pronouncements based on their awn,
rattncr than bihbcal, aut%iority,This form was not midrash but took its
own scparate a r ~ dil~depedentorgm~izatio~l. O f t e ~ihe
~ , rrtidrash and the
separate materials quoted the same rabbis, even the s m e oral sources af
these exegeses and traetitions. Sometimes a riibhinic exegesis was recast
as a rabbir~cpronow~cement.Sometimes, a traditio~~ was justified by rah-
bhic exegesis. hevitably, by the time the aitic literature was edited
and redacted in the early third ccetntury it was very difficult to untmgle
the complicated rdatio~lshipsand the give-and-take b e t w e n exegetic
and traditional pronouncements. The Tamaitic midrashirn often quote
auth.oritativc rabbinic pronouncements, whereas the edited works of
those pronou~lceme~~ts quote cxegeties or rabbinic statments f-ound also
in, the Tamaitic midrashh.

Mishnah and Tosefta

The edited works af authoritative rabbirtic pronauncements based an tra-
ditions and, to a much lesser extent, some of the earlier exegeses contpose
 The Literature of the Rabbis 75

a set of rabbinic materials known today as Mishnah and Tosefta, The

M s h a h was edited in its r0ugh:iy final form around lrhe year 200 C.E. by
the patriarch of the Palestinian Jewish community, a scholar and Roman
grandee named bdah. His esteem and authofiv in the rabbinic commu-
nity are best exemplified by bis designation in subsequent litemturn as
simply '*R(.rbbi."Rabbi J u d h , also h o w n in, Hebrew as Vehmd& HaNasi
(fudilh the Pah.iarch), was mbbi par excellence. Not only did he rule the
Jewish commul7ity with the approvd of Rome; he also led the rabbinic
community and established the power of its second l'arah, the Oral
Torah, through the redaction m d publicalion of the Mishnah.
The Mshr~ahwas an indepmdent docurncnt of rabbinic authoriq. It
was 11ot mga~~i%ed according to biblical pasage&ut by six broad so-
cioanthropological categories. Thus rahbinic pronouncements are sum-
marized under the rubrics: Agriculture (Zcraim), Calendar (Moed),
Women (Nashim), ':lbrts (Nezikin), Taboos (Rhorot), ar~dSacred 'Things
(Kodashjm). Each of the broader orders (sed~rim,the plrard of seder) has
subcategofies. Calermdar (Mwd), for example, has the folhwing subdki-
sions: Sahbath, Rortlfers for Sabbath Movement (Emin), Passover; Sheqd
(a tclnple coin) Offerhgs, Day of Atonement Ritual (Yomiz), Festival of
Booths (Sukkah), Lesser Holiday Rulings (Betza), New Year (Rosh
& S h a h ) , Fast Days (Taa~it),Puriln (Megill*), Intermediate Days of
Festivals (Moed Katan), and Festival Offerings (Hagigah).
Each order (seder) is broken down into various tractates (nwsccl-let,sing.)
and each tractate into appropriate chapters. There are sixiy-three tractates
m o n g the six orclers of M i h a l t .
It is said that Yehudnh HaNasi" pprt.decessors had already begun the
process of orga~izingthe oral traditions of the rahbimic community into
earlier recensions of the Mishnah, Thus the second-century sage, Rabbi
Aqiba, is reputed to have gathered and sorted traditions, much as one
would galher and sort grain. ayihafs discipk, Rabbi Meir, is said to have
continzzed the process of winnowing and refinclment, It was left to the
third generation of editorial activity under Yehudah Ha.NasL, to fjnalize
and "'publishf%e work called Mishnah (Repetition or Second [Toraw).
m e rcrvolulionary mature of the Mishnah may be seen in part ft-om its
very organizatictn into orders and trachtes. No lmger dependent upon
Scripture, indeed only occasionaily quoting it as a source of support,
Rabbi's Mishnah served to strengt%-renthe nascent rabbinic authority,
Even as the Mishnah seemingly eschewed biblical domination, it em-
braced the Temple cult. The order of Sacred Thix~gswas all about the &-
h c t Temple. The order of Taboos dealt with issues of ritual fiwess, origi-
nally legislakd bp the Permtateuchal book of Leviticus for the priests in the
sanctuanl, Even the order on Caie~lidarcontained laws pertaining to the
festival sacrifices, not offered since the Temple had been destroyed. Again
and again the MishnA makes the issues of the priesthood the issues of
trhe rabbis. Again and again, one is kft with trhe impression that the rabbis
replace the priests as Israel's aatr"cErenticleadership.
Other characteristrics of the Mishnah deserve notice. It is very difficult
to classiiy as a work of titeraturn. Although it deds regularly with law
(Halakbah), it is by no mealns a normative lacv code. On the contrary, i t
revels in cmtradictory rulings, rc.cor$ing miz.lori.ty opinions d q s i d e the
majmity orles. Perhaps that practice merely recounts the value of case law
in the Mist-maic cvorldview-each precedent needs to be on record, so
that a subsewent jurist will have the right to rule other than clrcording to
the earlier majoriq opinion. This spirit of contirluing change in Jewish
law an orgitrlic a " ~fresh
d approach for each generation of jurists, is very
much in keeping with the rakbinic view that the revelation that thejr Oral
Tor& embodied was an ongoirrg m d not static process.
If it is difficult to classify the Mish~ahin a category of a ~ c i e ~litera-
lt
ture, it is equdly difficult to guess at its intended function. In adcttition to
recording disputes about case law, the Mishnah offers a schernatized ver-
sion of certain historic events-a kind of NL.ilsgesclzichteI sacred history---
rather than any modern notion of history. The Mishnah also contains
moral and ethical maxims, scattered exegeses of biblical passages, and
even aggadnf; or legends &out characters of tt7e Bible. Stories &out the
rabbis and their practices (Halakbic m d atherwise) may also be found in
the corpus of Mishxlh,
I h e Mishah is terse, srtemirlgly fmmutakd for memorization, with the
mnemonics still apparent in, certain tractates. Yet the consistent reedithg
of Mishnah away from emonic organization and toward a topical m e
raises questions about the fi~laldocument that Rabbi Ychudah HaNasi
p ~ p a r e dfor publication. Was the Mishah pubished "'crrally" by recita-
tion of the memory expert of the academy? Or might it have been a writ-
ten document (despite its "Oral Torah'btatus) at its final recension? For
mmy centuries the oral statzns of M i s h h has been unq~~estioned, sup-
ported by generatims of rabbinic scholars who knew the text by memory
Recer~tstudies, however, have questioned t-he absolute oral nahnrc? of the
document. Shce it is clear that within the rabbinic commmity of the sec-
ond and third centuries there were rabbi-scholars who read and wrote
and there were those who did not, it is imaginable that there were written
and oral recensions of the Mishmah in circulatiom. In any case, the ?dish.-
nah became the core work of rabbh~icliterature for the next few centufies.
:Much of the literary production of the ralobis was bent to commentary, ex-
plication, and expansion of this crucid text.
The first of these works was a companion piece to the Mishnah called
the Tosefta. It is gex-terally assumed to have been edited in early- to mid-
third-century Palesthe. It, too, is organized into six orders and sixty-three
 The Literature of the Rabbis 77

tractates. The Tosefta often quotes Mishnah; herefore, it camot be under-

stood outside the cox~textof the Mishnah. However, the Tosefta some-
times contradicts the rulhgs of the Mishnah. Furthermore, the Tosef a re-
peatedly expands the purview of the Mishnah" legal interests and,
through such a shift, suhtly alters the range of Hatafiic opinions. Much
of the material in the "lissefta consists of pronouncements of the rabbis
that Ilehud* HaNasi did not choose in his own editorial process, It is
hard to determhe whether the editors of t-he 7bseAa preserved this rnate-
rid for the mere sake of prc?serv&im or to ttndemifie the Mishnah"~rul-
ings, This determination is, however, essential in understanding just how
authol-ltativethe Mishlal.1was in rabbhGc circles.
Al&ough it is true that the Mishnah became the docurnent of Oral 'Ibrah
upon which all others seemingly commented, it is not clear what that indi-
cates about the legal status of the Mishnah, Xf the Mishnah was conis-
tent& overtunled by the "fbsefta and iater commentaries, it does not seem
to have carried much absolute weight in the rabfohic world. However,
whesc. the Halakhic rnidrashim (to be discussed) indicate scripturd au-
thol-ity for the same mlings that the Misbx~hoffers on rabbinic authority,
it would seem that these rulings are mimpeachafole. The Tosefta offers
some caution in the reificatian of the Mishnah and forces one to ask
whether the Tamailic rnidrashim perhaps were redacted to buttress the
Mish&% stmder~xhed. authority..Did those midrashim provide scriptrural.
support for Uehudah HaNasYs views, or did, they redact the very sources
that Rahbi khudah used for his rabbinic pro~~ouncementsl

aitic midras:t-rimarc. ara2gc.d as commentafies 01%the 'Torah, cov-

books of Exodus, Leviticus, Nrtmhers, and Deuteronomy. It it;
generally assumed that there is no edited aitic midrash on the book of
Genesis because of the preponderaxlce of narrati:ve and the paucity of Ha-
l&& in that first Rook of Moses. This theory is also evidenced in the 'Tan-
nailic commentary to Exodus attributed to the School of Rithbi, I s h a e l ,
which begins at Exodus 12:1, that is, at the opening of the legal rnatcllrials of
Exodus. Thus, the Tav~aiticrrridmrihim (despite the sipificant proportion
of Aggadic material) are also referred to as Halabic midrashh.
With respect to the School of Rabbi Ishmael, it was a commonplace
among xlineteenth-ce~~tury m d early-iwentieth-centuryhititorims to refer
to two schools of Tamaitic interpretation of Scriptszre: the School of Rabbi
Ishrnael and the khool of Rabbi Aqiba, Wether these groups constituted
actual schoots that produced discrete texts is currently under debate.
Neverthelless, there are discernible differences between the hermeneutic
technique of Rabbi Aqiba and that of Rabbi Ishmael, and these differences
are noticeable in the various Tannaitic midrashi~nattributed to their
schools. Tltere are two sets o itic midrashim for Exodus, Ntrmbers,
m d Deuteronomy, wcYfrich a ditionally divided between the two
"schools.'~owwer,each Tannaitic midrash co~~tains sections that appear
to favor the hermeneutie rules of the other school. Rather than enforce
strained identifications of each Tannaitic midrash with each school, the
works will be noted by name and their corlitent briefly described.
Can the bihliral book of Exodus, the Mekilfa [colfnction] of Rabbi fsh8lac.l
covers exegesis of a large number of verses from Exodus 12 on. Shce the
exegeses fol:tow the pattern of the Bible a ~ the d book of Exodws mixes nar-
rative with law, the Mekilia I,fRubbi klmmelhas about one-half midrash Wa-
lakhah and the other half ntidrat;h Aggadah. 'The latter materia is repli-
cated in .the second aitic contrnentrzry on Exodus, the Mekilta qf Rabbi
Shintern? be8 Yctwi. 7'his work achtally begins earlier in the Exodus ~~arrative
and thus conraills morc. Aggadh. The Mekilb of Rabbi tsr"tmai.I does b l o w
the kgal norms of that rabbi whereas the Mekilt@qf Rilhbi Shimrcln foIIows
the n o m s of his &=her, A@a, Curre~~t scholmhip favors the theory that
each redaction drew on a common stock of Aggadic (nonlegal) materids,
slince the &ifferencesbetween the rabbjs weE limited to legal hermeneutics.
That woutd account for the s h e d (of cr.1 ide~~tical) Aggadic materials.
There is only m e e x t m h a i t i c midrash on the book of Leviticus,
called Sips deBei Rav or Toraf: Kuhatzillz. This work opens with a preface: the
thirteen hemeneutic r ~ o m of s Rabbi Ishmael. M a t follows is a series of
close readirrgs on a small portion of Leviticus, mostly followkg the opin-
ions and exegetical metl.iods of Aqiba. The arcane nature of tlne priestly ma-
terial in Leviticus combines with the very laconic style of the midrash tru
make this one of the most haccessilble texts of rabbjinic tradition.
The book of Numbers has Tamaitic cornmenta~in the form of Sifre
Barnidbar and a second work, Sipre Zutu. Tkese works cover much of the
biblical book of Numbers and deal equally with the legal and narrative
sections of the book, Finally, there is the Sgre Deuferanomy, on the last
Book of Moses. This work also covers both legal a ~ cnarrative l materiais,
sometimes with extensive Aggadic sections. There is a work called
Midmsh irunnaim on Deuteronomy reconstructed from quotatjms f o u d
in medieval commentaries. It rour~dt;out the parity of commentaries from
the two ""shoals."
A brief exposiGm of the krmeneutic theories of :RabbiAyiba and Rabbi
I s h a e l will help put this d i x u s s i o ~into
~ perspec.tive. Rabbi Aqiha (much
like the Church Father Chigen a cernhrry later) belicved the Torah to be a di-
vine code, in which no word or even ktter could he superfluous, Aqiba is
quoted inferring Hdafiot fmm extrmlieous words in a verse, from dou-
blets, and from solecisms. He is reported hmu& bter rabbinic literature to
 The Literature of the Rabbis 79

infer HaIakhah from the letker "uav" (a common conjunction), and. in one
n g g d ~he is reputed to ir-tferHalab& from the calligrapbic a d o r ~ ~ m eon ~~ts
certain of the Tomh's ktkrs. This extreme hermeneutic affftrded Aqiha the
opportuniv to find virbally the entire rabbinir agenda "within Scriptu~.'"
Aqiba" ccolleague Rabbi Ishmael (much like the Antiochcne Church Fa-
thers of the fourth amd fifth centruries) demurrctd*'The Torah speaks in
normal human discourse," h retorted to A@a in Sgrc Barnidbar, Rabhi
I s h a e l insisted on reading the Torah with nornative reading rules m d
making inferences that were well within the reading strategies of the
Creco-Rmn rhetorical system. His list of thirteen n o m s appears to Row
each fmm a situation in the ':lbrah text itself; that is, they appear to be
cornmollsense rules. It is well advised to remember that common sense in
the second century may not seem so in the twentieth, nor may i"ceven
have seemed. so to a second-century colleague. Tastes differ, reading
strakgies differ, Halaklnic communitiies differ. Al:i of these differences are
apparent within the literatznre that constitutes the Tmnaitic midrashim.
As stated above, these midrashirn often touch on the scriptural passages
of Halabah that are found in the Mishnah as based or1 r&binic (not
midrashic) tradition. Although it has recently been suggested that these
rnidrashirn were composed for the express purpose of grounding the
M s h & in scriptural atzehority,a ~ that d this was done hthe face of Chris-
tian ascendance in the fourtl? century' the majority opinion =mains in fa-
vor of m early datjng far the itic midrashirn. mough th
been rc~dactedin their cument f o m in the early t-hird ce~~tury,
after the M i s h h , they contaiXI material contemporary to or
Iclishnaic corpus, The Dead Sea ScroIls, PhiIo, a d Josephus certahiy give
evide~~ce of dose extlgesis of Scripture in t-he first c e ~ ~ t u The
r y style of the
aitic midrashh also argtres far a dating contemporary
with the Mishnah, Thus it may- be concluded that these Tannaitic
midrashim contairT authentic eady rabbinic exegeses sometimes in com-
mon with the MishniJh, but morc often in adcdition and sclparate from it.
The Tmnaitic corpus consists, then, of Mishnah, Tosefta, and the texts
of the Ta~naiticmidrashim. There is one additional e x t a ~source t of Tan-
naitic materials: the traditions quoted in the two Talmuds. We turn now
to these towcrhg works of rabbinic literatufe.

h o r t z i c Literature
Ta[mud
During the period followhg the publication of the Mishnah, the activiv
of the rabbinic academies focused on close study of it. M i s h & bvas
compared, to the Tosefta, to a lesser extent to the Tannaitic midrashim,
and to Ta~naiticstatements otherwise not redacted. These latter texts are
h o w n as barajtot (plural of iinmifa), non-Mishtsaic apocrypha. Tfne barnifof
were never edited in a systmatic way but are preserved, scattered m o n g
trhe vast compilations of commentay and other texts amassed in the rab-
binic study of Mishab, These texts themselves, mmy of which appeilr to
be records of the discussions about Mishnah that took place in the rab-
binic academies, were redacted into co entary on the Mishnah known
as Gemara. The combination of M i s h & and Gemara together make up
Talmud.
'There are aciually two col:lectio11s called "f8lmd. 'The earlier was com-
piled in the fifth century in Palestine and is accordin& r e f e r ~ dto as the
Palestinim or Jerusalem Talmud, T%e tatter (which will be discussed in
detail) was edited in the late sixth, century in the Jewish community of
Sassanian Rabylo1'1i.a~It is called the Rabylonian Talmud (Bwli). Rabbis of
the talnzttdic era., that is to say, the rabbis of the Land of Israel and of
Babylonia, are called amoraim. The talmudie era is also referred to as the
Amoraic era.

MI turn now to the Palesthian Talmud (Uemshalmi) to exmine its irn-

portance and characteristics, It is arranged ostensibly as commentary to
the Mitihnah, Hocsbevcr, lal-ge portiox~sof the Mishnah remain cntirefy
without Yerushalmi commentary For example, there is no Gemara to the
order Kodashin (Sacred Things), and of the entire order of Tohoxot
(Taboos), only chapters 1-3 of tractate Niddah (Me~listnlalImpurities)
have commentary. Moreover, in, the order of Nezikh (Torts), there is no
commentary on tractates Eduyot (Testimmies), Avot (Sayings of the Fa-
trhers), or to MakEtot (Stripes) chapter 3. There is also Gcmara lacking to
the find four chapters of tractate Shabbal in the order of Moed (Calen-
dar). All told, there is Talmud Yerusha1m.i to thirty-nhe of the sixp-three
tractates of the Mishnah. In additio11 to these structural matters, certah-r
ediCorial principles of the krushalnzj should be m k d before turning to
that Talmud % method and content,
Many sectims of fhe Yerushalmi a p p e a word-h-word ~ Imore I than
one place. Entire egments are found in various tractates, apparently in-
serted on the basis of a commm topic of Jewish law or by means of a com-
m m m~emonicdevice that links the pericope, or unit of argume~~t, to the
bmader subject matter d e r discussion. This dttplicatim of segmenb is
one of a number of signs of the style of composition of the krushalmi.
Other signs of a re:iati\sely sirnple style hclude large segments of Qgadic
materials dropped into tractates. In readhg the Yerushalmi one must can-
 The Literature of the Rabbis 81

clude that the editorial principles are radically different from modem
redactinn kch~iques.Earlier ger~eratio~~s of scholars often refcrred to the
Yemhalmj's crude or mfintished style of:editkg. It is, rather, far m m as-
sociati:ve in naturtt than current Western styles of editing.
Much of the Vc.rushalmi"s dialectic is given to harmonization of the
Mishnah with other Tannaitie sources. This harmonization, combined
with the exercise of finding biblical authoriv for statements in the Mish-
nah, cor~stitutesthe bulk of the Mish~aiccomme~~tary. Added to that is a
vitriety of Aggadic material. Sonte of:it relates to biblical characters. Most,
however, consists of anecdotes and elzrilke (Greco-Roman pronouncement
stories) about the rabbinic sages. l'his makrial makes up a ""ives of the
sab~ts"of rabbhGc Judaism. It Fncludes didactic narral-ives about their ex-
emplary lives and occasionally stories of their reputed mnrtyrdoms.
There are also many stories of case law irrt which local rabbis offer opin-
il)~~ toslitigants about issues directly raised or alluded to in the Mishnah.
These seemingly historic incidents often stand in contrast to the leg-
endary accounts found in the Yemshalmi about events of the rahbixlic era.
(e.g., Bar :Kolihhafsrebellion).

Over the centufies, the krushalmi was far less st-udied than the other Tal-
mud, the Bavli. That was due to Ihe political m d social ascendancy of the
Babylonian Jewish cammurGty from tahudic times through the Middle
Ages h p a t , the Christianization of the West prevented the growth of
the Palestiniarr communi"cy, X n part, the laws and customs of Sassarrian
Babylonia proved fertile grow~dfor the gmwth of ra$binic Judaim there.
h m y case, the Fertile Crescent provided the econmic ectrrity for the
bwish c o m u n i t y of Babylonia to support a rich complex of ra:bhinic
academies devokd to the study of the Mishnah and rabbinic Judaism. It
was durkg the period from the third through the seventh. centuries that
this rich and powerful Jewish community produced the lasting monu-
ment of rahhinic Judaism: the Babyloniitn Talmud.
Like the Yerushalmi, the Babylonian Talmtxd (Bavli) does not, in. fact,
contain cmxnentary to all of the M i h a h , All told, only thirty-six or thirty-
seven of the sixty-&ree tractates have c e~~tal-y.tn the order of Ag.ricul-
ture ( B r a b ) , only the first tractate, t (Blessings),is treated. There
is no 'Talmud for tracbte Sheqalim (a Temple coin) of the order Mmd (Cal-
endar), no commentary m AVot (Sayings of the Fathers) or Eduyot (Testi-
monies) in the order Nezikin (Torts), two and a hall tractates-Middat
im (Nests), aPld part of Tarnid O>aily Offering)-are lack-
ing from Sacred n ~ ~ (Kodas:him),
g s m d all of "fgboos (Rhorat) is wi&out
commentary, ssaretractate Niddizh (Menstrual Impurities),
 Desplte these omissions, the Bavli is a much larger work than the
Yemshalmi. h its :Wlishr~&comme~~tary, the harmor7izatior1 of Tau~aitic
sources m d the presentation of biblical supports are carried out with a
much mre extmsivc dialectic. There are far more Aggadic sections in the
Bavli than in the % r u s h h i . Not only do sage tales proliferak, but the
Elavli also has ntrmerous places where lengthy sections of Aggadah have
been inserted. Excellent examples of this phenomenon are an entire
dream book inserted into the ninth chapter of tractate Berakhot and a
lengthy cycle of legends about the destmction of the Second Temple in-
serted into the fifth chapter of tractate Gittin (Divorce).Legendary materi-
als, incrluding stories of primeval monsters (in tractate Sanhedrin) long
suppressed in hiblical accounts of Creation, abow~d.
Although the Bavli teems with Aggadh, its natznre differs in yet other
ways from the krushal~ni,Unlike the latter, the Bavli contahs traditions
from two countries. The Tar~naiticand early Amoraic traditions of the
Land of Israel are well reported in. the Bavli. Added to those are not only
the dialectics of BabyIonian rabbis but also the stories of their :Lives and
teachings. It is clear f r m these accounts that the Rahylor~ianrabbis car-
e authority within the social and political str-uctures of
ried a fair d e g ~ of
Sassanian Babylonia-at least far more than did their Palestinian col-
leagues.
Much of the Elavli reSfects the studies of the various academies in Elaiby-
lonia-notably those of Sura, P edita, and Nehardea, Apparently &e
rabbj,ic arpmernts were coilected hy the fifth or sixth gel~eratimof rab-
bhic scholars, and the long pmcess of redaction of the Elavli began. In ad-
dition to xportinf: actual disagreements of Babylonian masters, the suc-
cessive editors of tkc? ':IBlmuci took ear:lier traditions and presented them,
too, as dialogue between rabbis..It seems that the later, monymous, edi-
tors of the Bavli consistently provided this dialectical framework as a
meam for redacting the many and varied traditions of their predecessors.
h its latest redactions, then, dialogue is the primary means of presenta-
tion of the rabbhic materials, Indeed, even stories of the rabbis m d bibli-
cal legends are often presented with didectical interruptiom. Question
and answer, give-and-take, and, above all, indeterminacy are the hall-
marks of the IBahylonian Tdmud.
:In some profound way, the Bawli is autl-roritativecommentary 017 the
blishnnfi. Just as the blishnnh revels in mmy opinions, so too does the
Bavli. Just as the Mishszah remains open-ended, without clcar resolu-
tio~~yglorying in possibilities rather than firm acSjudication-SO too does
the Elaibylonim Talmud. As one modern talmudie scholar has put it, it is
as though the Bavli makes it clear that God's ultimate will is unhowable,
All that is left to hmanity is the pmcess of arwme~~tation. Thus, what is
law for one community may not be so for anoi.h.er.M a t is minority opin-
 The Literature of the Rabbis 83

ion in one place is normative in mother. Argument, dialectic, and con-

stant recor~siderationare the ways in which God's revelation is mar+
fested Sn the folios of the Babylonian Talmud.

Durhg the same period in which both the Yerushalmi and Bavli were be-
ing p o d w e d , the rabbis of Palestine were also busy composing Bible
commentaries. These works, based on certajrt books of the Bible as they
were read in the spagogue liturgical cycle, or lection, tend to be odd col-
lectims. Some cover virtually every verse of the biblicai book on which
they are focused. Others seem to consciously ignore the content of the
biblical book while paying some scmt attention to the lectionary cycle.
Still othcrs seem rigidly tied to this c d e d a r of Torah readings in the syn-
agogue ant[ resemble synagogue homilies. The most that can be said
about the overall editorial principles for these Arntlraic Aggadic
rnidrashim (as opposed to the rather uniform approach of the
midrashk) is that they lack w~ifomity.Each editor, even whe11 sharing
material with other contemporary midrashirn, seems to ixlvent mew the
structure of the midrash,
Foremost a m q the h o r a j c Aggadic midrashim is Genesis, or
Bmesizil, R~bbauli.To review it is a work redacted in the h o r a i e period,
circa 20&6(10 C.E. Most li:kely, Gnesis Rabhh, which concexrtratcs on lore
and legex~dand narrative rather than on law, dates from the d d d l e to lat-
ter part of the period. It covers the bihliical book of Genesis with start-
thoroughness-virtually every verse in the work is commented upon in
Geneis Xabbah. The style of midrash is atomistic, &at is, it does not a&rd
contextual irttegrity to the stories. fnstead, each verse is b&n into small
parts from which sgeciaIized. meanifig is derived. This form of close read-
ing, or exegesis, is also found in the Dead Sea Scrolls at @mran, notably
in the Pesker (exegetical solution) to Elabhakrrk. In Gerzeiiis Rabbah each
verse of Genesis is palicntly explained-sometimes grammatically some-
trimes alIegorically, sometiznes philobgicaily. The dlegories in Gettesis
Rabhwh tend to relate the fragments of scriptural. verses mder considera-
tion to events of the mhbis' own days or to the rnessianic jmd smetim.es
apocafyptic:) future.
Genesis IZabbah parses each verse into small parts. Sometimes a phrase is
considered, sometimes merely m individual word. In what earmarks rab-
binic hermenc.utics as unusuat, s m t i m e s even parts of words or single
letters are considered by the exegete. It is, however, true that Alexandrian
grammarians sometimes read Homer's works with similarly odd
hermneutics in mder to explain away difficuities of grantmar, logic, or
ethics. The rabbis, too, read the Bible with every "'madern" eexgetical tool
at hand in m attempt to explain away con&adictions, grammatical sole-
cisms, or perceived morai lapses of biblical heroes. 'Thus Ahraham, for ex-
ample, is most often presented as a paragon of virtue, a moral exemplar,
and as father of the monotheistic faith-although a close modern reading
of Gcmesis in context may call these readings into vestion.
This constant atomization of the narratives of Genesis into much
smaller sense units breaks up the flow of the narrative, allowistg a thor-
oughiy rabbinic a g e ~ ~ dtoabe imposed ~IIthe gaps rex~deredin the text.
This ""rbbinis Gez~esis"is the essence of all midrash and particularly Cen-
esis Rubbah. f i e might conjecbre that the title of the work, literally' "the
Greater Genesis," refers ta this rabbanizatior~of the biblical text. Other
theories to account for the n m e of the work have been ofl"el.ed, but over
the years efforts to explain the title have fomdered against manuscript
evidence,
Genesi,.;Rabbah, as we have it in a variety of manuscript famiIies, that is,
groups ol mmuscripts with common rc.l?dings, varies in length from, 49 to
704 chapters-in other words, a highly exyanded mading of the biblical
work. It is not at ail clear what prit~cipleswere used by the editors or
scribes for dividing the work into chapters. Despite a theory offered in the
twc?rztieth ceaztur);, the division into chapters does not seem to be con-
nectcid to the possible f e c t i o n ~ ~ of the Patestiniar~synagogues.
cycllcs
A word on the various Torah readkg cycles is in. order at this point. In
the Babylonian Jewish cornunity the Torah, or Penhteuch, was read in
trhe course of one year, in fifty-four annual Snbbath readings in the Jewish
lunar year. This amtral cycle has persisted in synagogue customs to this
day. In the Palcsthim synagogues, however, there was a vague inthis pe-
riod to read shorter selections of the Torah each Sabbah. "Ihus it took
from three to three m d one-half years for the enl.ire Tf.,r;ahcycle to be com-
pleted. This varyi.ng lengtfs of time was complicated by the fact that there
was na fixed custom for Lhe so-cdled triem~ialcycle of Torah reading.
Orre Palestinian synagogue could be at odds with another as to the
weekly scriptural reading. A given synagogue might he in Leviticus while
its neighbor was in; Deuteronomy. Altl~oughthis presented a chdler~geto
the itinernnl preacher, it did not bother the villagers of a f=ivensyna-
gogue, who were not wont to travel very often. They heard the Torah read
through in due course, shndving whatever scriplural portion came before
them in, m y given week.
This broad variance of local custom has confounded scholars of the
ninekmth and tkventieih cmtulies seeking to undersbnd the prin"ipi"s
behind the redaction of the Aggadic midrashixn. A s s u i n g that the vari-
ous intevretations of Scriphre found in these works arc, in fact, rr;lated
tru what was preahed in synagogues and acadenties, one woutd expect a
certiltin correspondence between the edited midrash and the apparent lec-
 The Literature of the Rabbis 85

tionaq cycle, With the notable exception of Pesiktcl dediav &hang (to be
discrussed), &at is emphatically not the case. Cbapter dhisions in Genesis
RabhFz seem to have more to do with word count than with subject matter
or with lectionary cycle.
Ge~~esis Xrthbak covers the entire rmge of the biblicitt book from Cre-
ation through the death of Joseph. In the early materials it touches on the-
ories of cosmology, questions of posticism, and Jewish mysticism. h the
family narratives of Ger~esisthe comer~tariesimpose rabhiHic values
into the dynamics of the narrative*%metimes the text serlres as pretext
for rabbinic polemics against paganism, gnosticism, or Ch~stiarrity,Over-
all, rabbhic religio~~, law, custom, m d the rabbisf Hellenistic-stoic world-
wiew are a~achronisticailyread back into Ge~~esis with t-he pretense that
the chamcters of the Bible lived a rabbillic Jewish life. Again, this imposi-
tion of the rabbjnic agenda is lypical of all the Aggadic midrashim. Since
Genesis Rcrbhh is among the earliest and longest, it is well to emphasir.e
these characteristics of Aggadic exegesis h a , G ~ t e s i sRabbah is also the
Aggadic midsash that all subsequent midrashirn depend upon; they bor-
mw from it and often rework its material for their own redactive pm-
poses. It stands as a key work of the rabbinic canon.
Leviticus Kabbah is roughly contemporary with Genesis Rabbah, its
provenance a17d date being Palestine? circa 435-550. Many of the rabbis
mentioned by nalne in Genesis Rahbak me dso found woted in Leuificus
Rabbni'z. Yet, the work differs profoundly in chapter structure and exegetj-
cal forms. I,r.viticut; RGkhbajZ does incjude some very close atomistic exege-
ses of verses in Z,eviticus, but by and large it ignores the legal. details of
the biblical priestly document in favor of pursuing a much more frce-
wheelhg and homiletic& (raeher than exegetical) rabbinic agenda.
Ltzliticrrs Rahhah is composed of thirty-seven chapters, each of wl?ich
shares a similar overarching structure. Furthermore, each individual
chapter seems to cohere with some sort of thematic unity Often this unily
is akin to the themes of Leviticus" biblical. material, but Leviticus Ibbbah
pursues the relationship to Leviticus in a metaphysical rather than ex-
egetical fashion. Thus, in lfie Lewiticai makriai haling with the laws of
lepras)t/,the midrash pursues the theme of the evils of gossip. The comec-
tion is the biblical punishment meted out to Miriam for her gossip about
her brother Moses. Even more startlbg, the midrashic narrator bases the
link between lepyosy (mef.zoracland gossip on a play on words ("'gossi-p"
in HCEtbrew: ~ ~ F z o ~ z Z 'rac).Thus it is clear that the editor of LeuiiFicus Rabbah ac-
tually avoids the subjects of Lcwiticus in favor of his own rabbinic didac-
tic and homiletic agenda.
Each chapkr of Leviticus Rnbbnh opens with a number of very highly
stylized proem forms, called petthtaot in rabbinic Hebrew. Each petifzta
(singular) opens with a verse from the Gtuvisn, or Mlr-itings, section of
the Bible. This verse is then expounded in an, almost strem-of-
cox~sciousnessform until the midrash comes to a close by quotixng the
verse of Leviticus under consideration* Many critics feel the Z,eviticus
verse was the lectionary verse being expounded in the local Palestinian
sylwgogue and that the pefihta form of mi&ash represents a r ~authentic
synagogue homily, Mare recently; h o w e l ~ r scholars, have determined
that these are literary forms imposed by the editor of kvificus Rnhbah on
disparate matdals a r ~ dserve as introductory pieces; to each chapter of
the midsash, Again, as iz7 Gelzrrsis Rnbbah, the chvters (and, therefore,
these petihfa midrashiun) do not comespond to any h o w n lectionary cycle
in t-he Pa1estirGa"tsynagope.
Et is more likely that the editorial principk of t-he redactor of Le-oificus
Rabbah was to anthologize around various loose themes conveniently at-
tackd to verses of ScPipture. These expositions am presented in tfne order
of scriptural verses in l,e?titiczrs Ic'abbah a ~ cleave
i the iljusion of being syn-
agogue homilies. It should be noted, however, that the sermons of kviki-
clrs Rabbatl are thematic, have a beginning, middle, and end, and thus
may have ge11uhe sermons; arr; their s o m e , As we have t-hem in kvificlas
Rabbah, the work is a highly polished, self-conscious literary document
that ymders the themes of Leviticus without detaikd. comentary on the
verse-by-verse co11te11t of the biblical book.
Many entertainhg tales are recorded in Leviticus Kabbah. Some of them
are legends of the sages, Some are stories of biblical characters that are
patent rabbinir expalsions of the biblicai ~~arrative. Some of the material
in Leviticus Ruhbah is folklore (Includ-ing at least one of Aesop's fables). It:
is a thoroughly entertaining work that miaintaifis the pp-irnary goal of ad-
var~cingthe rabbirlic agenda in tt7e (loose) guise of Bible exegesis.
The Pesikfa deRaa fihnm is a work contemporary with, Levifkzrs hbbah
and closely aliped to it in h a t five chapters are shared virtuay verba-
tim. Each of these chapters focuses on scriptural readings from the book
ol Leviticus. These five chapters, like the o h r s in IfrYsikEl.1 deRau kittarn,
are devoted to lectionary port-ions from the various special Sabbaths and
holirlay readimgs. Xn other words, lrhe organizing principle of fisiktu deRao
h h m a is the liturgical calendar-a principtc. sought but, in fact, lacking
in Genesis Rabbah and Leviticus Rabbah,
Ihe stl-ict organizalion arow~dthe lirurgical-synilgogal readirngs leaves
the reader with an imgscrssion that the homiletic materials found in this
midrash indeed find their origins in oral semons, Yet, here too, literary
editing has left its mark. As is -always the case in nlidrashic literat-, the
oral Sitz im Lehsw (life situalicm) that may be behind the midrash is over-
shadowed by the literary form in which the midrash is transmitted.
This midrash is also notable for its transrrtissim history. Et is cited by
the medievals but was t ~ n b ~ wthroughout ~t. the early moder11 era, In
 The Literature of the Rabbis 87

4832 Leopold Zunz, the great G e m m midrash scholar; postulated the ex-
istel-rce of the work, He theonzed the cox-rtent m-rd order of the midrash,
By the end of the cmtury, mmuscripts ol Pesikfu deElau Kafuznu bad been
discovered that proved Zunz" theories in every particular except chapter
order. When a new, critical edition of the midrah was puhlishecl in 1962,
a ncw manuscript family also verified Zutsz's pscldiction of chapter order.
Thus, Pesikta deliav Kahana serves as a wonderful example of fifth- to
sixth-century h,miletic midras:h based on the synagogue lectiox~arycycle
as well as a testimony to midrash scholar Zunz;" genius.
Midmsh Skir HUShiri~~z, 01 Shir HaShirinz Rabbah, is also known by its
opening phrase (citfng Prov. 22:29) as Mildmslz, or Aggndal: Huzifah. It u1-r-
eve111y works its way thmugh the verses of Sor-rg of Smgs with proems
{petihfaotf, o d i e s , amd exegeses on various aspects of Song of Somgs.
There is much material in common with Leviticus Rabbah, Pcsikta ddeRav
htzana, Genesis Xnbbah, and the Talmud Uemshalmi, 'This common fund
of text leads scholars to assume that Midmsh Shir HaShirirn is either con-
temporary with these other rabbinic works (fifth to sixth centuries c.E.) or
that it borrows from them.
Sfzir NcrSlzirilla RabbaI-2 cortsistmly reads the Song of Songs as allegory
refcrrinf:to C:od and Israel. Eilrher God is the beloved of Israel at the Exo-
dus from Egypt (spcjcifically, the crossing of the Red Seaf or God is the
beloved of Israeli at Mount Sinai. These readings are in keeping with
Ralclbi Ayiba" dichm that all poetry is holy and the S m g of Songs is the
Holy of Hcllies. 'Thus the. Song of Sox-rgsis never taken by tt7e rabbis liter-
ally as erotic poetry It is always read as reterring to Gad and Israel, much
as in Christianity it is read as referring to Christ and, the Chuxh,
'This constant dlegorizing of the pshat, or contexhtd mear.ling, of the
bi:blical Song of Songs leads somc scholars to suggest that the drash, or
communal reading of the rabbis, goes even beyond the allegory sug-
geded above. 'Iilthese scholars, the S~x-rg of Songs is trhe focus for early
ritbbinic my&i,cdspeculation on God" throne room,, Go&s chariot, and
even, God's bboy. However, Sfzir HnShirif~zRabbah at most contains allu-
sions to this mystical reading. The standard midrash of Shir HuSlzil-ini Rab-
&l? is to read the bibjcd book against the deliverance at the Red Sea or
the covenmt at Shai.
Others have suggested, in Iight of the Church" similar tel-rdex-rcyto alle-
gorize the biblicd book, that Smzg rrf So~gsRabbah may carry a record of
conversation or polemic between Church and Synagogue on the issue of
"Vems Israel," or which religio1-rwas the authel-rticMeritor of biblical re-
ligion. Here, too, though each ecclesiastical body does read the work alle-
gorically?there is insufficimt evidence to suppose that the two sets of h-
terprctation (e.g., Skiv HuShirinz Rabbah and the wofks of Origen or, fater,
Augustline) must be in. dialogue. Each may have been composed in isola-
tion from the other, nevertheless using HeUenistic hermeneutics and allc-
gory to "he the "problem'" of the erotic nahre of the bi:hical work.
Ecclesiastes IZabbl-lh, known in Hebrew as QohelEet Rabbah, is a loosely
structured commentary on the biblical book by the same name. It is
unique amorlg the early Aggadic nnidrashim in its organizatimal method.
Through the h d of associative thinking also found in the Talmtxds, this
midrash collects materials on various topics. It is as though QolzelEet Kwb-
bah uses the vases of t:he Rihk as topic heaciings for vasi-encycIopedic
entries on a given topic. Thus, for *stance, on the verse ""All things are
wearisome" (Eccl. 1:8), the rnidrashic editor comments: "Thhgs related to
heresy are warisome." Then follows a s t r i ~ ~ ofgstories, many with paral-
lels elsewhere in rabbinic literature, on the subject of heresy. This phe-
nomenon of collection is repeated throughout the midrash, so that it re-
mains a valuable compendium of rabbinic thought in the fifth to sixth
cer~turies.
Lamentations Rabbah, or Eichah IZabbah, is rabbhic midrash on the book
of Lamentations. 'The dirgelike quality of the biblical book is extended
f m mourr~ingover the loss of the First Temple to mourr~ingand t k o d -
icy over the 9cond Temple m d later wars as well. Stories af the destmc-
tion of the Second Temple h o u n d h e w too, with pardlels elsewhere in
rabbirGc literature, In addition to such stories, there are mmy other folk
legends and wisdom tales collected in this work. The rhetoric of tameufa-
tz'ons Rabbalz is very much in keeping with that of the Helknistic Second
Sophistic.
f,amc.ntations Rubbaiz is ttnique in rabbinic titerature for its array of
proems or prstikctnot. Bs in Gerzmis Rnbhalz and, more particularly, Leuit-ieus
Rubbclh and Pesikta deXaao Krrhuna, m a ~ y literary pett'fifaotserved as a r ~or-
ganizational structure for the editor of this work. In the other works,
however, thc petihta always came at the head of each chapter, leaving an
impression that the petiiiltu nnight be associated with synagogal readil-"tgon
the Lectinnary cycle. In hmentafinns Rabbah, however, all of the petib2ta ma-
terial is found at the beginning of tbe midrash, without rr;gard to its lec-
tionary di\iision. Since the hiblical book of Lamentalions is read at one sit-
ting in the symagogtre on the Ninth af Av (hcommemoratian of the
destruction of the First and Second k p l e s ) , this point m y be moot.
I h e thirty-six petihCi-E pieces found at the outset of Lam~nhlfictnsRabbah
cmtain some original materials, s o m maeriai aiso found in thc remain-
ing (less highly s t r u c t u ~ dsegments
) of this midrash, and much xnaterial
paraileled elsewhere il-I the rabbinic corpus. &e petihfa (number II) con-
sists entirely of verses af Pentateuch contrasted with verses af ZJamenta-
tions and presented. in a reverse alyhabeticd acrostic, so that the pefiltta
ends on the opening verse of the hook of Lmmtations. Ihis extreme ell-
slavement to structure has given rise to mmy theories on the function af
 The Literature of the Rabbis 89

the petihta in general and the functim of the petiljtn section of bme~zfatirins
Rlabbni'? in particulirr. Mlhatever resolution these debates about stmcture
and fmction may have, alr scholars agree that theodiey and consolation
arr; the chief agenda of Lnnze~ztntirrnsdinbbah.

There are many other midrashim in the rabbinic corpus. Some of these
works are linked to books of "Ie Bible; others are struct-urally hdependent
of Scripture and follow their own agenda. These midrashh genrtrally were
composed f o l l o w i ~the redaction of the Talmuds, in the Gemic (ca.
600-1000 c.E.) m d later periods. 'This sumey will touch upon representative
works, but it should be noted that dozens of smaller ( m d some larger) Ag-
gadie midrrashirn are not survey& he% chiefly for lack of space. It is not
the purpose of this chapter to be encyclopedic; the reader sbould co~~sult
the reference works at the end of this chapter for mare infornation.
Midrashim are found to the biblical. scrolls of Ruth and Esthcr, Each of
these works is organized around the biblical book and, in the now-
familiar stream-of-consciousnessassociative process, deals with the con-
tents of the respective Scripturr;. Large@ due to the contcrmt of Esther and
the frivolity with which Purim (the holiday that marks the events
=corded irt the book) is celebrated, EsIlter Zabbah is lighlkmed and often
humorous, Ruth Xabbah shares a good deal of material with the early Ag-
gadic midrashim. Xt either is contemporary with them or borrows from
them. If the latter is the case, then both works most probably date from
the early Geonic period.
Midrmsh Mishle dates hom the mid-11inth ce~rturya r ~ dwas cornposed
somewhere irt the tradng orbit ol Rabflonia on the east to the Land of Is-
rael: on the west, This work seems to be aware of customs of both Jewish
communities. Moreover, it contains a clear a~ti-Karaitcfa group that re-
jected rabbinic law and depended upon biblical strictures only) polemic,
which helps dale it as contemporaneous with the Karaite leader, Daniel
al-Qurnisi. Midrash Mishle generally comernb on verses of the biblical
book of Proverbs (Mishle), although some cfivterti are Witbut commen-
tary and the first half of the work is denser in cornmentasy than the latter
half, Occasionally the text breaks free of its terse comme~~tarial style and
spins Aggadic Jegendl; about biblical and rabbink figures. Midrush Mlshtlr
is signsicant in thc history of rabbhic literatux, as it marks the begin-
nings of the transition from atoIllistic midrash to more context-based
commentary
Seder Elkhtr Rabb~hand Z~kta,also h o w n as Tatzna DeBei Eliahtl hbbatz
and Zutn, is a work redacted roughly in the same time period as Midrash
Misftle m d shares a similar mti-Karaite polemic. It does, however, con-
tain signifimt amounts of matct-ial recorded. in the Babylonian Talmud
as "The Greater (and Lesser) Teachhligs of Eliahu.'"e midrash holds a
unique place in. the rabbinic c o ~ u ssince, it is narrated in. first-person sin-
p l a z Although we do not know the name of the author/redactor, t%ie in-
divihal stamp of his style is as clear as the sirligutar voice he employs.
T'his midrash is not tied to any scriptural book but rather wanders from
topic to topic, always with a char ethical and didactic agenda.
Equally keen on its own agenda (and anti-Karaite polemic) is Pirqe
Rabbi I:lillu!r. This work is tied to the Torah narmtive by retellhg it in me-
dieval H e b ~ wmuch , as the Tagurn (as we will see) did so in Aramaic or
as I"hilo and Josephus did so in Hdenizing Greek. The work as we hawe
it is fragmmtary, consisting of fifty-four chaptms, which stop abruptly
with the death. of Mirim. Since the Pirye Rabbi Eliezcw operls at Crealicm
m d since there am structural elements left incompletcr (ties to the eigh-
teen be~liedictionsof the rahbinic daily liturgy and to fhe rahbinic iegend
of the Ten Descents of God to Earth), it is likely that this was jntended as
(or once may have been) a much larger work.
I h e contellits of Pirqi. Rabbi Elkzer are highty iciioyncratic, humorous,
and often l j n k d to medieval (Geonic)customs. It also exhibits a thorough
fmiliilrity with Islam. For cent~siesthis midrash was associated, with the
early Talinaitic teacher, Rabbi Eliezer ben H ~ a n u swhose , name appears
at the otrtsclt: of the midrash. Citations of much later sages and contents, as
well as the midrashim that the work cites (and others that subsequently
cite it) firmly date the midrash hli the first third of the nhlith ce~litury.
Avof deRabbi Mafhan illso was redactest in this period. It contains at its
care, however, a Tannaitic commentary on the M i s h a h tractate Avot,
Much like the Tosefia, this rrridrash comer.lts upon and e x p a ~ ~ the ds
Misbah text. Since Avot itself is entirely Aggadic, Avot deXabbz' NatJml.2
also is thoroughly Aggadic in nature. The work abounds with l e g a d s of
trhe rabbis and "tives,'kr hagiographic renderings of their ""biographies,"
in m effort to teach the didactic pohts of the rabbinic curriculum.
The &brew language and the ideas often contained in the work seem
tru indicate that despite trhe early core work on Avot, the final editing came
in the Geonic period. The cwrent text of Auot deR~lhhiMatJmn is in two E-
tensions, apparently &&ring from the earliest eras. Perhaps oral trans-
missiorli may accomt for these differing rece~lisiorlis;or perhaps historic
development or even scribal laxity may account for the varying versions
of this Aggadic work. Shce it is primarily tied to m early versim of h o t ,
it it; orgal7ized aourlid t-hat tractate of Mshnah a r ~ dremah~suntied to any
biblical work*It does, however, contain occasiond exegeses of scattered
biblical verses.
Brief mentiorli should be made here of Pesikfa Xabbati, a late-Geonic
work. This work should be distinguished from its predecessor, Pesikfa
 The Literature of the Rabbis 91

deRnv Kafana.Although the two works are organized on the s m e princi-

ple (specid Sabbath and holiday lectionary cycle) the Pesikta RGkbhati is
distinguished by its apocalypt-i;~ contents. This work often slips into tours
of heaven with mgels abounding. It is not unrelattzd to the rabbhic mys-
ticism of this period*
Mention should also be made of a remarkable work of the eighth cen-
tury that is also orgmized according to the order of the Torah. The Sheel-
tot of R. Ahai Gaon were prcrbably composed in Babylonia, atthough later
ritbbinic literature reports that the author immigrated to the I:.,and of Is-
rael late in his l&, The work is 771 chapters, beginning at Genesis m d
workirlg thrmgh a variey of selected texts to lrhe end of Deuteronomy. In
each chapter a rare combination of i?\ggadah and Halakhah provides
Torah text exposition and Mishnah text teaching. Each chapter deals with
a question of Jewish law that is homileticallq; connected to the Torah text.
The Skeeltclt is w~iquctfor many reasons: It is the first rabbinic text pub-
lished under the name of a known author, it mixes Halabah and Ag-
gad& freely' it appears to be Babylmian in provenmce, and its Aramaic
it; largeiy Babylonian, al&ough t-he frequency of travel betwem these lo-
cales tends to level both larrgmage and custom. %ctions of this work arc?
translated into Hebrew in Sefer Vchizhir, a rabbinic commenta~yon the
"fbrah from, perhaps, two cex~twieslater. This latter work also quotes
freely, in Hebrew translation, from a legal codificalion called Halakhof
Gdolst'
Ihere is yet moiher Aggadic collection on the entire Torah that is simi-
lar to the 5heell"ul"in, structure and fomat. The Tanhurrra-Yelamdenzl litera-
ture constitutes a library unto itself. Primarily written in Hebrew and
prohabty stemming from Palesthe in the cex~turiesfollowing t-he S'heelfrtt,
the Tnnhzdma-YeEa1rrde1~1a comments on each \veeE;'s lectionary portion with
midrashic-Aggadic materials mostly borrowed from. earlier sources (such
as Getzesis m d Levz'ficus Rnbbnh)., T a n h u ~ t a - Y e l a ~ ~ z dise ~notable
w for its for-
mat question: "Yelamdenu Rabbenu" "each us, 0 Master). The openhg
formula follows with a questim of Jewish law, which is answered by a
Mshah text. The latter text is dilated at;gadicaily and linked to the Torah
lection. As in, the Sheelfof, Mishnah and midrash on Torah are lhked to-
gether in the E1zl-2~tnzn-Yelu17zdenzi literature. mere are many versions of
midrashim ii7 this fomat, so that the description of Bnhunzu-Yelunzde~r~~
"literature" is more accurate than the designation of it as a specific
midrashic work.
Amor~gfragments discovered in the Cairo Gmiza, the used-book de-
pository of the synagogue in Fustat, Old Cairo, many rabbinic texts were
found, In addition to hundreds of fragments and complete texts of
midrashim, Hafakhic a r ~ dtalmudic w r k s , biblical texts, m d wholly secu-
lar texts, Jragmerlts of M i s h a h sktdy lists have been found (T-S box 21.8,
frag. 24aib). These are arranged on a weekly basis, that is to say there
was a cycle of Mishah texts linked to the annual Torah reading cycle. It is
p ~ c i s e l ysuch cycles that give fmther testimony to the lhkage of Mish-
nah and Pcntateuchal midrash, a ljnkage to which the Sizeelfat and Talz-
bzunza-Yelunzde~~z?t attest. It also demnstrates the attempt of preachers to
teach Mishnah as part of the weeHy synagogue lessons and relate their
rabbinic teachling to Torah text. The latter served t%ie puvose of promot-
ing t-he rabbinic a g e d a among lrhc broader Jewish popdace and did so at
a time when Karaism was perceived as a threat to rabbinic hegemany in
the Jewish community.

Anotrher popuiar approach to Torah text in this period was lrhc retelll1:iiii7gof
trhe Torah in the vernacufar; Armaic. 'This opm-ended kar~slation,done
live in synagogues m d interspersed with ptlhii,c reading of the Penta-
teuchal text inHebrew, is called T a p m . Such translation of sacred. Scrip-
ture into tlte local language has an ar~cier~t history in the Jewish world. It
i s already reported in the Bible that the scribe Ezra translated the Torah
into Aramaic (or retold it) to the community that had returned from exile.
In the third cenbry R.C.E. the Torat? had been translated into C;reek for the
Alexandrian Jewish community. The custom persisted throughout the
Jewish world, and hmdreds of 'TTargum versions coexisted. Most shared, a
comrnon fur~dof traditiwral materhis, c(ose1y lillked to Aggadioradi-
lions. In the Islamic period, Aramaic Targum still persisted in Palestinim
spagogues and these &aditions w r e sometimes written down.
Many of these Aramaic texts from varyhg periods surviwr today; a
brief survey of the major traditions follows-Targ~~m OnkeXos is the closest
text we have to an "oofficial"' Targurn, hvered by the Jewish community,
esgeciaily -the M e n i t e s , "fkrgun? 0nke:ios is attributed to a seco~td-
century proselyte. It i s said that Clnkelos (or Aquila) wrote his Targum
under the auspices of the great tnnna, Rabbi Aqiba. h any case, the Ara-
maic is a ul7ique mix of Western (PalestirGan) and Eastern (BahylorGan)
Aramaic with a fair touch of earlier imperial Aramaic. The translation is
very close to the Tor& text, but not slavishly literal.
Recat discoveries, particularly among Cairo Gmiza hagments, hitwe
unearthed other works ol Tnqurn. These arc? mostty of the later period
(sixth to ninth centuries) and occasionally betray post-Islamic corztent.
They are grouped under the ruhric of Paiestir~im'fargum or Targum
Yerushalmi. Though a misnomer, the most complete of this group of Tar-
p m s is cdled Targum Uonathan (or Pseudo-Jonathan). Many fragments
of like Tarpm texts are also extant. This entire group of texts tends to he
much more expansive retellings of the Pentateuchtal text, often waxing
 The Literature of the Rabbis 93

into lengthy narratives that are entirely ext-ralbiblical, These narratives

&are a great deal of plot with the midrash Pirqe Ruhbi Eliczer.
The Vatican Library contains a camplete Targtrm, referred to by the
name of its Vatiran cataloguer, NeofiZi, Discovered. and published bp the
Sp""ish scholar Alejmdn, D e z n/lacho, Lhis Targum has been the subject
ol much debate, Its content is not as expansive as Targum Vcrrushalmi tra-
ditims nor as rigid as %kelos, h other words, it ~prestmtsa Targm tra-
dition that might be described as middle-of-the-road. The Ammair seems
to also date somewhere between the earlier language af OnkeXos m d the
po&-fslamic Aramaic of Yemshalmi Grgums. Catholic scholars (Diez Ma-
Cbo a m o q t k m ) have claimed a very early dating for this text in an at-
tempt to recover trhe first-centiury Aramaic of Jesus. It is douhtful ii Tar-
gum Neofiti represents such an early tradition.
Recent trmslations and studks of the various Targum texts pronnise a
rich harvest of scholarship in the caming decades. Tarpm study, still in
its in,fancy, wit1 teach a grcl?l deal about the intersection of rabbinic teach-
ing and congregationa1thought. That is because most scholars agree that
Targum is the best example of rabbinic literature? explicitly directed at the
masses of congregmts. Although by defbition Targtrm is limited to bibli-
cal topics, popular theology and practice may be we31 rep~sentecfin the
various survivhg Tarpm texts.

Rabbinic Mysticism
If Targum r e y ~ s e n t sthe most public, or exoteric, face of rabbinic cdture,
rabbinic mystical texts are the most esoteric. As early as Tamaitic tjxnes,
trhe Mish~~ah wan5 against pubfic study of mystical texts. Such specula-
tion is limited to initiates, studying together in very small groups. It is
con~ecturedthat the earliest forms of rabbhic mysticism centered on exe-
8""s of Ezekiel" chariot vision (Ezck, l) and, perhaps, mysticaf inkrpre-
tation of the Sang af Songs, Other likely biblical texts ripe for mystical
speculatim include Isaiah chapter 6 and Dmiei chapter 7.
By Geo~~ic times, rabbinic mysticism was well f0undc.d in the rabbinic
commttnity, though still reserved for the enlighCened few. These texts
were most often theurgic and included specdatim on God's throne room
{kikkzulot), chariot {mrurkaba),and even God" body (sltiur qonta). Permuta-
tions af God% name (the tetragrammaton) were the "mmtrasffby which
the mystics achieved their various goals, Magical texts from this period
include clearly rat7blnic works rich in angclology such as $cfe I-luRnzim,
whjcts offers mystical formulas for success at the mcetrack. A ninth-
cenbry Shillr Qo~zatext contains an incantation for warding oft: mospi-
toes! Alihough this seems to he an &surd end f-or such esoteric mystical
speculation, it is wise to remember that control over the forces of nature is
a form of ilniflatiodei and thus an apposite goal for the mystic. If me can
co~~trol the smallest of God's creatures (the mosquito), one may hawe be-
gli.~nlearning the secrets of Maasei Rereshif (the Creation o f Lbe Wverse),
Rabbinic mysticism has a good, deal in common with early forms of
Christian and perhaps pagan Gnosticism. Gershorn Scholem was amoI7.g
the first scholars to write on this phenomenort and others in the skrdy of
rabbinic mysticism, It is he who gets credit for bringhg this esoteric liter-
ature into the open light of modern scholarship. Many of his s t u d a ~ tand
s
st-udents%tudentsare now publishing mmuscripts and preparing critical
editions and translatjons. The study of rabbinic mysticism is still in its in-
fantry, and a great deal remains to he leamed &out the theology, prac-
tices, and fhoughts of the various rabbinic mystical cornunities from the
texts they produced.

Liturgy
A rdated aspect of rabbinic literature? is prayer. Much of the f'ca~mjZedff
rabbinic liturgy has same textual roots in Lhe earlier and contemporary
mystical literature, The earliest ritbbinic liturgical texts are found in the
M i s h h , Tosefia, md, subsequently, in the two Talmuds. Synagogue and.
academy prayer practice has its ofighs the wedding of hihtical lihxrgies
(particularly Psalms) and rabbinic texts (notably the Eighteen Benedic-
tions). This intcweavfng of mcicnt biblical liturgks with more recent rab-
binic prilyers continues &roughout all subsecjue~~t rabbinic liturgicill texts.
From, the earliest record, rabbiaic prayer took place in two loci, the
horne and the synagogue. The fomer enveloped prayers related to bodily
activities (absbake~~ing, dressing, eliminating, eating), whereas the latter
was focused on the thrice-daily Eitzlrgies. As time went on, home p y e r
was formalized and even canonized into the spagogal service (e.g., the
B i r k ~ Haslzachr.).
t Thus, the central text for the study of Jewish litwgy be-
came the prayer book, ar Siddur.
The easliest recorded Siddur came to be as a result of a formal query
asked of the Babylonim gaol^, Rav ram W - ~ ~ h ce~~tury
th c.E.). h a re-
sponsum to a Malakhic questim, Rav A m m put in writkg the first rab-
binic o r d a of prayer (Siddur Rav Aunram), It included not only the d a i b
Sabbath, holiday and Hi& Holiday o d e = of prayer, but even Ihe earkst
rabbhic li"curgy,the Passover Haggad*. Amramfs commentary to a11
of this liturgy is also part of this valua'ble early work m Jewish psapr,
Ihe Passover Haggadah is probably the oldest rabbinic titurgy It con-
tains the order (Seder = Siddur), or the home ritual for Passover eve.
lclodeled on the HeI1cnistic synrposium banquet, the Passover Haggadah
combines ritual recitatiom from the Torah and Second %mpIe with rah-
binic &rash on the stmy of the Exodus from Egypt found in Deuteron-
 The Literature of the Rabbis 95

omy 26. This c d i n a t i o n of ritual reenachnent with rabbinic study and

exegesis marks the classic rabbinic attitude toward Jewish liturgy. Like aIl
other prayer texts, the Passover Haggadah is laden with accretions from
virhaally every subsequent century.
FoHawing the Passover ritual, Ammm a r ~ dsubsequent rahbirTic author-
ities (such as Saadia Gaan, Maimonides, Rashi, and the community of
Vitw France) outlined the daily liturgies. Holiday and High Holiday
(Rosh Eldhanah, or New %a,and k m Kippur, or Day of Ator~emer~t)
texts soon follo\ved. The Jewish communities each shared a basic core
liturgy, but the additims of later texts, particularly mdieval hturgical po-
etry, make every comunity" siddur unique t~ t-hat comunity. &ly
trhe advent of printing forced ~ e h i r " tat
g i\lI like u~Gformilyonto rabbinic
liturgical texts. Particular distinctions may be drawn between Franco-
German (Ashkenazic)and %erian-Oriental (Sephardic)rites. Further dis-
tinctions may be drawn between Hasidic rites (which, though Ashke-
nazic, draw on Sephardic texts) and other premodern Siddur rites. In the
madem era, some distinctions may be noticed between Israeli and Dias-
pora Liturgical texts.
In summary rabbkic liturgy is marked by a tension between modern
expsession and kaditional text forrrluia. Communal particularity is often
at odds with ancient Jewish formdas lirrhchg J e w worldwide. These
tensions, jncluding biblical. versus rabbinic liturgical. formulas, mark the
creative spirit and conservative traditions of Jewish prayer.

As already mentioned, Jewish prayer is richly expanded by each commu-

rrjty's lihrgical pocltry Synagogue poetry is abundant ancd not d y marks
a separate literatufe wit_hjn the rabbinic l i b r a ~
but a%soforms an intersec-
tion among various forms of rahhinic literature. The earliest Jcwish po-
etry may be found irr the Bible. But postbiblical poetry bursts forth h the
late talmudic era and conthues unabated throughout the more thm mil-
l e ~ ~ n i uofmrabbinic literay artivity
321ercl is a vast and varied corpus of liturgica:l poetry. Poems were writ-
ten to accompaIly various segments of the Sabbath and holiday syna-
gogue services. EII addition, trhe High Holiday liturgies acornpassed
some of the most poignmt poetry throughout the Middle Ages..A further
locus of this poetry was in the form of biblical)y inspired poetsy, Lhking
trhe holiday liturgy with the biblical lection for that day. All of this poetry
(called in Hebrew piyylrt) displays a remarkable creatikrity and a vast
howledge of rabbinic tradition.
Not only is p i z ' ~ utied
t to t%tesylagogue liturgy but same of the earliest
piyyut, in hamaic, is fomd as part of the Targu" c o ~ u sSince . both litur-
gical m d targumic piyyzrf draws on and alludes to the themes of Aggadic
(and even Ilaiakhk)rrridrarih, this pmky is an importmt crossroad of ra$-
binic literav traditions. Moder11 scholars debate the exact relationship of
piyyuf (both Aramaic and Hebrew) to each of the three other rabbinic opera
(the Midrash, Targ ,and Siddur), but all agree ihat this poetry. m r k s an
h p o r t m t mgestone in the comphension of the literature as a whole.
Shce the puetry is dense and allusive, study of piyyzlt stands as a schol-
arly field on its own merit, too. The intertexkal nabre of the piyyut, like
other poetry its allusions to biblical. m d earlier rabbinic texts, its adher-
ence to strict formalistic requirements, all of these and more make the
study of piyynt exwthg a d rewal-ding. Here, too, the discovery and pub-
lication of medieval texts combine with a gr0win.g interest in t-he field per
se to promise a rich harvest of scholarship hthe cornkg decades..

Ha takhic Literature
Thus far the discussior~has cmcexrtrakd on Aggadic literature, liturgy,
and poetry. It is necessary to recognize fhe towering role that Halakhic
(legal)literahre plays kvithin. the braad rabbhic corpus- M m y have writ-
ten about- the intimate comection between Aggadic a d : Halabic litera-
ture. These m,as it were, the s o d and body resgectfvely,of rabhinic life.
Thtrs, the Mishnah, Tosefta, Halabic midrashim, and both Talmtrds
skess t%ie iYnportance of regulated behavior, Halakhah, in Jewish life. As
wieh the other literature we have seen, Halakhic literature is rich and ex-
tensive throughout the rabbinic pc.riod.
The earliest post-talmudic works of Ilalakhah arr; commenhries to the
Babylonian Tahud. Gonitrz of Rabyf onia wrote both shorter and longer
works commenting on the Talmud kvith a particular iXlte~stiYZ the legal
aspects of the work. Geonic commentary seeks to codify phncigles for
Halakhic interpretation of the often open-e17ded talmudic arguments..
Sj.nce commentaries tend to cover the ruming text mder consideration,
there am also Aggadic commentaries horn the porzir~zon those narrative
sectio~~sof Talmud. By and large, it would not "n wror~gto characterize
the main focus of Geonie commentary as Halakhic. 326s commentary is
complemented by compilations of Geonic resyonsa, answering legal
quu""iesthrough extmsive citation and discussion of the relevant tdmu-
die passages on each question. In the modern era, these kvorks have been
collected in a Thesnunrs of Gacmica ( 'Ofzer FinGucnzim) on She Talmud, di-
wided into commentaries a7.d responsa,.
Other Geonic wmks are more focused on coltecli,ng, o~gaizing,and,
perhaps, codifying ra:bbinic Halakhah for the Palestinian, or Babyhian
Jewish commw~ityh that way, rabbinic aut-hority was exte~~ded further
over the Jewish world. Works such as HaEakFtot Cedvlot m d Halaklzot Peszcbt
 The Literature of the Rabbis 97

are organized under the broad pfinciple of tahudic co

particular i n t e ~ sitn goupirTg aspects of Jewish life under particular head-
ings. These collections then offer a cock of Jewjsh Law that may be con-
sulted by issue rather than by random appearmce inthe vast talrnudic cor-
pus. The push toward this type of topical codificatiox~(and movement
away from commentary) persisked throughout the subsequent centuries.
The magnum opus of the eleventh-century North Afi-icarm rabbi Isaac
ben facob al-Filsi also displays this tension between commentary and cod-
ification. In his work (called Halrakhut HnKIF [Rabbi Isaac al-Fasi]), al-Fasi
comments on the B;rbylonian Talmud but ignores all the Aggadic pas-
sages. By discussi~ligWalakhic passages only and by supplementing his
discussion with brief comments of post-talndic sages, al-Fasi succeeds
in creathg a commentary that is primarily a Halafiic code. His work be-
c a m (andremahs) a stmdard talmudic commentaq
Ra$bi Moses ben Maimon, or Maimo~~ides, was a prdgic -If&-century
Spmish m d North Afi.icm authority He wrote on medicke, philosophy;
and mmy aspects of Jewish law. A p community leader, Mai-
monicfes wrote epistles md responsa
m endurkg work of Jewish law. His
sists of fourteen books al-rmged top y on Halab&. Bonowhg an ap-
pmntly Islamic systematization, dcs quokdrom talmudic and
post-tahudic authorities, mostly monymously, offerkg what he expected
to be the autl.ioritati:vecorpus of Jewish law. This work, wPitten in Hebrew
( d i k e all his other works, which w e e in Ara:$ic),became a pillar of Jewish
legal literature. In the centuries after its pubhtication, all subsequent Jewish
scholars have quoted it, w h e h r in support or disagmement. Mainrmides,
in typical genius fashioq completed the t r a n s f r , r m t i from talmudic
commentary to topical Malakhic codification.
:In the following century, an unusual rabbinic authority wed the works
of al-Fasi and Maimox~ides.Rabbi Asher ben Uehiel, born in wester11 Ger-
many, studied with the great Ashkcnazic auehoriey Rabbj Meir of Rolhen-
burg. He was forced from Germany, first to southern France and ulti-
mately to Toledo, Spain. There, Asher became rahbi of the SepharGJic
commmit.)r. His major Halamic work is a commentary to the Talmud that
serties primarily as a commentary on the extracb that make up the earlier
Wulakhitt HaXIf. Using d-F;zsi"s organizhlt; prin"iples, f i b h i Asher
(RaSH) hcorporates the legal fjlldings of Makonides and of Ashkenaaic
authorities (the fosafot). His work was widely accepted in both the Ashke-
nazic and Sphal-dic Jewish comunities.
Rabbi Asher's son Jacob begm his Halabic work by publishing m ex-
tract of his father's great Halakhic c o m m e n t a ~(called Kitzur I-7iskei HaRaSh
[Eyitameof fktc HaJUkhiG L)CcjSions ~fRahhi Asj~r.]). Jacob was not to be bomd
by the frame of commmtary md, followhg Maimonides"lead, orgmized
his next work accordkg to sub~ectarea. He imovated m d divided rabbhic
law into four broad Pillars (Rruint):Daily Lifk (Orah Hayyim), Forbidden
and Permitted (especial?,relaling to foods) (YoreIr DeaIf), Pe~omal:Life (in-
cludhg marriage and divorce) (Even HaEzrr), and, finally Civil Law, or
Tods ( M D s ~ ~HaMZ'shyaf),
~E The 'Arba"n1z Turim (the Four Pillars or ehe Rlr) be-
came the stmdard organizational frmework for Jewish Malabic literature
&rough the hentieth cenbv.
:In part, lfie orgm~izationaipower of the 7irr was guaranteed by a com-
mentary written on it by the sixteenth-century mystic and towering legal
authority, 'Joseph Caro. Born in Sepharad (name given to Spain and Portu-
gaL) circa 1488,Caro emigrated when trhe Jews were expdted and travded
trhroughmt Sephardic lands a r ~ dcities (Turkey, Adrianople, Saioniki, and
Constmtixroplr;1)until settling in Safed, in Palesthe- It was possibly there,
in the legendav home of Jewish mysticsl that Caro wrote his own mysti-
cai work, Maggid Mishnckll, or Naggd Mcsharinz (a diary of Cards conver-
satiolns wi& the hligostasized Mishnah). Far m r e izsfltlential were his
Halamic works,
'These Xlalakltic works begm with his mowmental comme~~tary on the
'Arba'alz Rlrilrr called the Bet Yose5 Xn this commentary Caro discusses the
origins and development of each of facob ben Asher" legal decisions.
Caro fimly offers decisions wilfiin the Sephardic traditio1.1. He -also com-
ments on Maimonides and an the Halakhot af al-Fasi and of the RoSH, of-
ten basing his own decisions on a majority found among these three great
teachers. In additiox~,Garo includes leanled discussion a ~ comme~~tary
d
of Geonic works, largely ignored by his predecessors.
In his later years (ca. 1550-1575) Garo condensed his vast co
into a more accessible and less recol~ditework of Jewish law called the
Sfitllchan 'Anich (Set Table). n e r e he s k p l y offers the results of his life-
his t>wn various studies m d Esponsa.
tely became the pree"i"ent Xlaiabic
work of rabbhic lliterattxre and has remahed so to this day Asmenazic au-
thorities, particularly Carofiscorrtemporary Moses Isserles, criticized the
work. III an effort to keep Ashkenazic custom from being swept away by
the power of Carok SSzzzrlcl~~n 'Aruch, Isserles composed glosses to Ihe work
indicating Franco-German custom. The Slllrlchan 'Aruch with the glosses of
the R M A f%bbi Moses Isserles) remahs the m o ~ ~ u m e ~code ~ t a of
l Jewish
law to this very day and an appropriate place to end this brief survey of
Halahic literature,

Medieval Midrash~m
During this past-Geonic, medieval period, the production of Aggadic
mi,drrsshim continued apace. Brief mention of sigrtjficmt works must suf"
 The Literature of the Rabbis 99

fjce at this point. Ext~dzisRabbuh, Numbcvs Rabbah, and fiuterorzo17zy & b h h

were all corrrposed hetwem the tenth a ~ thirtemth
d centuries. Each has a
large portion of text that is part of the Tanhumn-Velu?nde~zz{ format, dis-
cussed above. Each of these three rnidraShim contain lengthy quotations
of earlier matel-lal coupled with some medieval material. The redactorfs
hand and thcl linguistics of the &brew text confirm a later dating for
these texts, which round out the Midmsk Rabbah on the Pentateuch. As
will be clear, &is so-called Mi~irirshRlabbuh is a dispitrate c o k c t i o ~of~five
differing mjdmshim composed invarying time pel-ioh. The unifying fac-
tor of the Midmsh Rabbabz is that each of the five constit-uent texts is on a
book of the Pentakurrh.
The midrash to Psalms, Midraslz I"ef.lz'l lim,called Mz'dmsftShucher
also
Ew,is possibly also from this late period (although some scholars date it
earlier). It may have been composed in Italy (itccordirrg to Zunz) or per-
haps in the Middie East or the Fertile Crescent. It cover.; all of the 150
Psalms in the biblical collection by means of exegetical and occasional
homiletical midrakim on selected verses of each psalm. The first half of
the work covers Psalms 1-118 a ~ isd found in a variety of recensio~~s in
mmuscripts. m e latter half of the work (Psalms 119-150) is fomd only in
printed, editions and appears to be borrowed from Vnlkzrt SFziiPnoni (to be
discussed).
Bereshif Rabbaki is a medieval midrash on the book of Genesis. Cam-
posed by Rabbi Moshe HaUarshaxl (Moses the Preacher) in Narbonne,
France, in the early eleventh century, it quotes earlier nnidrashim (such as
Gemsis Rgbbal-z),and has orighal material: from Moshe" school (he was a
disciple of Rabbi Nathan ben M i e l of R m e ) and even certaill Christian
interpolations (e.g., to Genesis 30~41).The work is also notahle for having
been extensively quoted by the Christian monk hymtxndo Marthi (thir-
teenth cenhtry) in his disputation text, Pz~giof idei.
No survey of midras:h (or rabbinics) wodd be complete w i ~ o umm- t
tion of Rabbi Solornon ben Isaac, Rashi, who flourished in Troyes, France,
from 1040 to 41.05 C.E. Rashi wrok commel~tarym the h b y l o a i a ~Tal- ~
mud that is so influex~tidthat every printed edition of the Talmud text
has the Rashi commentary appended. hshi" commentary on the Penta-
teuch is also a standard reference in rabbinic sbdies and is commended
here as a rich epitome of earlier midrashic texts.
Cdne final compilation of Aggadah merits menti,on in this strrvey. Yalqzrf
Shinzcnzi, attributed to Shimon Haarshan, was prdbably composed in
Spain in lrhe thirtee~~th century It is an mthotogy of rabbinic midrashim,
quoting from more than fifty rabbinic works m d commenting on every
book of the Bible, This rich collection is in hnro parts: the first on the Pen-
takuch (with 961 sctions) and the second on the Prophets a ~ Writir~gs d
(with 1,085 sectiorrs). The first edition of the Valyrkt Shilnoni has im appen-
dix of Aggadic midrashic traditions from the Yerushalmi (256 sections)
The ValquC Shilrzctni is valuable
and the Velanlzdezz~imidrashim (55 sectio~~s).
as a testimony to early texts and as a resource for rabbirtic traditions on
the entire Bible.

The Academic Study of Rabbinic Literature

A s the preceding survey testifies, rabbirtic literature covers a broad span
of time, counthes, and cultures. X n the modem period the s b d y of mk-
binic texts has undergone a revolution, as m0derr.1 academic methods
have been brought to hear on this trraditimd, religious iiterature. Af-
though traditional methods of study continue m o n g pious Jews world-
wide, in semhades and universities the critical, s b d y of these texts has
been ur~derway for m o than ~ a century and a half. Like a:Il reiigious
texts, rabbinic literature presents certain problems for scholarly study.
Some of these prdblems are found in the study of any traditional litera-
ture, some with any oral literature, some with any ancient lileratureI par-
ticularly with mmuscript transmissian to account for.
Wthout detailing the prhlerns, I must mention certain issues uIlique
to the study of rilbbinic literature. r2mo11g these, this surwey alreaciy
points to the problem of perio$iz&ian. More thim m o s t canons of W s k m
literature, rabbinic literature is intertextual, that is, texts about earlier
texts, Because of the constant cital-io~~ and reworking of biblical a ~ ear-
d
lier rilbbinic texts, it is difficult to fix ecurely the date of any rabbinic tra-
dition withh a text. 11is also difficult: for the same reason even to fix se-
cure dates for lfie editing of many of these rabbinic volumes.
326s problem is complicated by the general monymity of rabbhic val-
lames, Not until the late Middle Ages do we actually b o w the names of
authors and editors of rabbhic works. Furthermore, citations of rabbhic
authorities within given texts are often unreliable. A tradition cited in the
name of Iiahbi X in one work may have a parallel in another work, hut in
trhe name of Ralnhi U. It is f-or this reason that many modern scholars pre-
k r not to speak about individual traditions of hdividual r;lbt?is but
rather of the general trend of a given rabbinic work, its "documentaq in-
tegrity.'" Although tl~ism y give ";me idea as to what the Mkhnah or
Gems& Rubbah, for example, says &out a given sutoject, it limits ~ s c a s c h
to broad generalizations only and to regardirrg monzymtrus works rather
trhax~ individual opinions. This caution, although mthodologically
sound, leaves little to be said about: speciGc eras or the rabbis in them.
Shce earlier works on rabbhics have tended to take citations of indi-
d u a l rahbis at face value and presume t-hem to be true, this caution is
welcome but, nonetheless, extreme. kholars are currently searching for a
 The Literature of the Rabbis 101

middlc ground in the study of rabbinic literature. One means of finding

this grow~dhas been to treat rahbinic literature as literature rat:her than as
a source for Jewish history AIthotrgh this tsatment does violence to a
major source of Jewish history in the period under discussion, it does en-
able scholitrs to &scuss works of rabbinic literabre using a k ~ w aca- n
demic method.
This literary method also speaks to documentary integrity, since it
treats entire works as literay products, much as one might treat Criw~e
and Punishmerzt. Inte~sljngscholarship on literary intm, deconstnnctive
readings, poetics, and the like is being pursued in the fjsld of ancient mh-
bi~liicliterature. Appmpriatriy, these literary a t h o d s also serve for the
writing of rahkinic theology Cliluti011 must be raised, however, at the
blmket application of the literary method to works not necessarily com-
posed as literature per se. Other problems and considerations beyond
method, that is to say, aside from the debak 01%histmic and literary mod-
els, also must be noted here.
Siwificant segments of rilbbinic litemture deal with "the other." Unfor-
tru~~atellyit was tiie rahhinic tendex~cyto suppress the other in blla~ketcon-
demation and obscure epithets rather than to cite and debate differhg
opinions, as the Church did. This mitude should be clarified, since mh-
binic literalure, arr; a whole, glories in debate and diffefi~gopinion. How-
ever, debate is promated only so long as the partners are withh the pale af
the rabbhic commmity. h c e they are outside, they are treated as sectari-
ar~s,heretics, or total outsides. M e n one reads rabbinic polemic, it is of-
ten difficult to discern exactly which sect the rabbis are engaged kvith. It is
somtimes even h a i l to tell whether pagmism or Christimiv is the t,bject
of a rabbi's barbs. Although certair.1texts arc clearly disputrative, it is hard
for the histarim to deter~xhewho the precise disputant may be. This ob-
scuri? is occasionally overcome by carr;ful scholarship and modest expcc-
tatioz~s,yet it remains vexing to the historian of rabbinic literatu~.
Although the scholar of religions may study rabbinic literatznre with the
hope of learnkg more about Greco-Romm refigions (pagmism), Chris-
tianities of late antiyuiq, or f-ormativeIslam, the problems just alluded to
often make that a d i f f j d t task. The very orgmismic nat-ure of the Etera-
ture precludes m ideal systematic presentation, exacerbating this diffi-
culty- Clearly, k~owledgeof these '"outside" ~ l i g i o n is s desirahie and
even necessary for the appreciation of rabbinic texts, but it is difficult to
be precist? in compasatke study.
One last issue in the s b d y of rabbinic literature is the theological pri-
macy of the Land of Israel. The importmce ahrdect the Land of Israel in
all rabbinic literatme often obscures the provenance of authorship of a
given wmk. Her~ce,a work composed in Babylonia or Europe may ap-
pear to be th.e product of the I:.,and of Israel. Momove~,the distinction be-
Ween Israel and the Diaspara may contribute m obfuscat-ing, rather than
clarifying, lens for viewi~~g the materiafs. Rdated to this matter is the
problem of considering this Hebrew and Aramaic literature as wholly
distinct from flelleplistic fiterature, rather than as an eastern variev of it,
Each of these issues must be addressed in findir~gan apgmpriate method
for thg study of this importmt and vast iiteraq monument. Despite the
cautions raised here, the modem study of rabbkic literafrure has been rich
and rewarding for the theologian, historian, and titerary critic alike.

Suggested Readings
Holtz, Barry, eed. Back fa flze Sozrrces: Reading the Classic Jewish Texfs. New b r k :
Summit Books! 1984. An elementary work written by Jews fur a Jewish audi-
ence.
Multder, M, J., ed, Mikra: Text., Ealzslafiouz, Reading ntld Interyretatio~xof the Hebrez~i
Bible irz Atacie~ztJtrhisrn and Early Christi~nify, Compendia Rerum ludaicarurn
ad Novurn Testamenturn [CRiniT] 21. Assen/&Maastrichtand Philadelphia:
Van Gorctrm and Fortress Press, 13988. A scholarly work written for scholars by
a mixture of Jews and Christians.
Safrai, S,, ed. The titeratuw of the Sages, CRIllVT 2:3. Assen/MaastricEFI and
Philadelphia: Van Gorcum and Fartress Press, 1987. A scholarly work written
largely by Jews for scholars.
St-rack, H. I,., and G. Sternberger. I~froductionfo the Talmud and Midmsfi, Philadel-
phia: Fortress Press, 1992. This work i s available in a variety of European Xan-
guaget;. A scfiularly handbook written by Christians for a schotarly audience.
Visotzky, B. Xmdi~zgthc Book: Makillg Gbe Bible Q Tinzetess Ext, 2nd ed. New York:
Schocken Press, 1996. A popuXar work on rabbinic interpretation of Scripture.
 The History
Medieva

D URING THE MIDDLE

AGES,Jews lived all across the western world,
The largest and oldest Jewish cmmunitks were found in the Mus-
lim-co~~trolled Near East important Jewish c ities, w~derboth Mus-
lim m d Christim mle, ringed the Mediterr ;new but vibrmt Jew-
ish seBlernents were established from the tenth century on across Christim
northern Europe. As the balawe of power in the western world w u n g
from the MztsTjms to the Christians, larger numbers of Jrws found them-
selves living mder Christian mle. Somethes, as irz Spain, the tramition re-
sulted from Christian conquest of k n i t prwiously
~ held by Mudirns;
elsewhere, as innorthern Europe, Jews chose to m0\9 into ChrisGm territo-
ries where promising developments made
Both Christianity and Islam prwided a iramework for Jewish life that
was at one and the same time protective m d restrictive*Bath recognized
Judaism as a legitimate religion and assured Jews fttndarnental safety and
security. Jews were not to be persecuted for praciicing their religion, nor
were they to be forcj-bly converted. At the same time, Jews were to com-
port themsekes in ways that brought no harm to the r d h g faith, whether
Christianit.~or Islam. Jews were forbidden, for example, to proselytize or
to vilify the rulhg religion. The precise balance bet-vveen protection and
limitation was often difficult to define and miaintain, More impurtmt, the
particular social circumstances and spiritual e~~vironment of a given time
and place often swzrng the balance in one or the other direction, either to-
ward camful protection or toward zealous linnitation.
In both Christendom and the world of Islam, Jews tended to live
largely among themselves m d to organize effective internal agencies for
nhancing Jewish life. The impetus for this segregation
nt came b m both without ar~dwithin. Majority soci-
ety in, the Christian and the Muslim spheres preferred to see minorities,
including the Jews, live among themselves and conduct their own affairs.
The reiigious establishme~~t of the ruling faith, ever col~cemedabout mi-
noriey irnpact upon members of t-he majority, reinforced the broad social
indination toward segregation. For their part, the ternporal authorities
derived considerde benefit from the self-goven~ir~g arrangeme~~tsof the
mbanty communities. Effective self-government by the mborities memt
that the temporal authorities could achieve maximal menut. at minimal
cost. The self-govemil~gapparatus of such nninority groups as the Jews
raised tax revenue for their rulers in a m er that was painless and to
the rulers, cost-free,
Ibhe sure, the Jews had their own reasorrs for desiring segregation m d
self-goven~ment,'Jetvswere ge~~erally karfu1 and suspicious of lheir non-
Jewish. neigfibors and thus cvished to errjoy the security that lirving in a
Jewish neiglzborhood under Jewish leadership afforded.. At times of social
tex~sion,living in a Jewish v a r t e r provided psychological security and
often physical safety as well. Although. paying taxes and accepting ad-
verse court decisions are always distasteful, the discomfort felt by me-
dieval 'Jews was certainfy dixnir~shedby having fellow Jews serve as tax
and court persomel. In addition, segregation m d self-government insu-
lated Jews from the blandishmen&of non-Jewish life, an objective dear t-o
the hearts of the Jewish religious estahlishme~~t, Relative isolation also
meant the possibility of livhg Jewish life to the maximum. Jewish court
procedures, for example, were those ordained by talmudic law. For all
these reasons and others, Jews were as enthmiastk about segregatior.3and
S & - g o v e r n a t as were their non-Jewish neighbors and rulers.
Self-governmentmeant the empowerment of a Jewish r d h g dass, usu-
aily in contact with and supported by the n0x.r-'Jewishauthorities. Not
surprisingly, the wealthy tended to dominate the self-governing appara-
tus of the Jewish community Weafth nomally generated. considerablg in-
fluence withjirr the commu~~ity a ~ atd the same t h e , well-to-do members
ol the community tended to bcz precisely those Jews who had most con-
tact with the non-Jewish rulers. The other group that wielded power ixr
the medieval Jewish commw~itywas the rabbinic elite. Given the Jewish
commitment to observance of diwijrre commandment; the rabbis, whose
standing was grounded in their knowledge of Jewish law obviously rep-
resented a potent force withill the community. Ger~erally,t-he elite of
wealth and the elite of learning cooperated effecticrely with each other; in
some instances friction m&s t ~ f developed.
e
The level of sophistication of Jewish self-governmer~tvaried. The
smaller the commtxnity, the more hfor~xalthe arrangements for conduct-
ing Jewish, affairs could. be; in larger Jewish communities, elaborate elec-
toral a ~ govemarxce
d mles had t~ be developed. Slf-govenling power in
the Jewish world was heavily concentrated S_n the local Jewish commu-
 The History af Medievatf ewry 105

nity. Ch occasion, particularly in the lcluslirn sphere, central institutims

of Jewish sctf-government sought and achieved authority over Jewish
commmities spread across vast geographic areas.
The coalescing majority and minority desim for Jewish segregation and
self-goven~mentshould not conjure up a picture of radical isolation from
sociev at large. Jews we= in mmy wnys bound up inthe life of the larger
ent i-r\ which they found themselves. The two most obvious av-
ellues of Jewish involvmellt in the larger milieu were eco~~omic interac-
tion and language. Rarely durhg the Middle Ages were Jews able to live
and support aemsehcs within their own circumscribed community. tn-
stead, in almost all instmces, Jews werr;. inthatety linked to fhe largel-
economy and interacted extensively with their ~~eighbors. These interac-
tions seem to have been by and large benign, with normal patterns of hu-
man trust and respect manifest. As we shall see, in some cases, particu-
larly in the immigrant cammur~itiesof r~orthemEurope, Jews were
shunted into limited and unpopular economic specializatians, with nega-
tive impact orz social relations between these 'Jews and their neighbors.
Such instances represent, however, the exception and not t-he rule.
m e other index of Jewish jntegratian into the non-Jewish milieu bvas
language. Although H e b m dornhated the Je classics and 'Jewish
prayer, Jews in their daily activities generaiiy w~icatedin the ver-
nacular of the particular area of settlement. This linguistic integration
was, in part, simply an extension of Jewish econornic iultegratim. Given
that the Jewish mk~orityhad to carry on business with trhe majority, Jetvs
had to be able ta use the vernacular- Jewish utilization of the vernacular
involved morc? than simply economic realities, however. ' J w s were, to a
corniderable degree, integrated in more gelleral terms in their enviro1.1-
ment. In some of the older areas of Jewish settlement, Jews in fact felt
themselves mar@ deeply rooted than most of their neighbors, many of
whom had corne onto the scene relatively recently Lar~guagewas only
the most obvious reflection of such rootedness.
Language integration Icd to and reflected broader cultural integration
into the larger er~vironment,Modt.rr~resczarcrhe-t-shave at times becm n7is-
led by negative Jewish comments on the surrounding civilization. Jews
were of course anxious to insist on the superiority of their community and
its heritage. This i n h e ~ ncorrrpetitivewss
t notwitfnstar~dirlg,Jews could
hnrdly maintain isolation from their milieu. Jewish cnl.eurai interests were
shaped in considerable measure by the surromding environment. In some
instalces, particularly in the mediewal Muslim world, new culhlral outlets
such as science, philosophy, and secular poety emerged from interaclion
with a vi:brmt intdlectual context. In other cases, new foms of religiosity
exerted influence 01%Jewish thinking and behavior, in the directio~~s, for
example, of self-sacrifice, ascetidsm, and mystical specdation.
 Let us examine h more detail develyments in three major arenas of me-
dieval Jewish fife-&e largest and oldest medievd Jewry; that of the Mus-
lim Near East; the vital Jewry of the tberialn peninsula; m d the young im-
unities of northern Europe. The focus will be on these three
sets of Jewish settleme~~b because of fheir importmce on tLte rncdiewal
scene' because they illuminitk broad develoyments inmecfjevalJekvisln life,
and because of their sipificance for poshnedieval Jewish histoq

Medieval Jewryin the Muslim World

h late mtiquity, the Near East m d the Mediterranean basin were home to
the vast majority of the world" Jews. During the cmluries that preceded
the emergence of Islam, the Jewish communiw of Mesopotamia c a m to
dominate wofld Jewry numcricafly 'The Jewish p o p d a t i o ~of~ Palestine,
although diminished, was still considerable, and Jewish communities
ringed the Mediterranean, with the largest m d oldest on the eastern
shores of the sea m d the newest a ~ smallest
d fur&er westkvard. All these
Jewries had lengthy histories, were well rooted economically and socially,
m d were protected by safeguards that extemzded back to early antiquity,
Particuli-trly important for Jewish circumstances in t-he Near East and
around the Mediterranean basin (and subsequently elsewhere as well)
was the evolution in Christianity of recognized status for the Jewish mi-
nority. Aithough the ealiclst writings of the Christian commu~~ity in-
cluded harsh condemnation of the Jews for their refusal to ach~owledge
Jesus of Nazareth, Christian leadership, as it moved to a position of
power in the Raman world, worked out a modus vivendi with the Jewish
mkority in those areas mder Christim control. Xn line with the Jewish
stabs that had developed over the centuries under polytheistic rule, the
Christian au&orities acknowledged the Jewish right to physical securiiy
and to practice of the Jewish religion. Naturally; these minority rights
were balanced by the needs of the Christ-ian majority Jews had to com-
port themselves in ways that w o d d bring no harm to Christim and
Christianity Mareover, there was an element of the transitory in these
arrangements, as it was mticipated that upon the full dawning of mes-
sianic ~ d e m p t i oJews
~ ~ , would be among ihe first of the ~011-Cbristiianstru
acknowledlr;e Jesus and the Christian faith.
During the early seventh centur~i,an unsuspecting Near East and
Mediterra~eanbasin full prey to remarkable co~~quest by the forces of Is-
lam. T%e MusEm religious faith, as it developed on the Arabim penixlsula,
owed tihvious debts to the prior western monzotl.teisms, bdaisrn m d Ckris-
tiarity Bath were ach~oLvledgedin the @ran directly and through cita-
tim. The stance of Idinn was e@vocal toward the prior monotheisms, ac-
 The History af Medievatf ewry 107

howledgi.ng them as forerunners in appretliation of the one true God,

while projecting itself as the final a ~ fuli
d rwelatory dispe~~satio~~.
With re-
spect to Jews m d Judaism specifically;both the (;2urm m d au*oritative re-
ports about Mhammad indicate veneration mixed with antipathy.
Critical for the future status of the Jews under Muslim rule was the
early develupment of treaties between conquered groups of Jews m d
their Muslin concyuerors, These treaties invoked a fairly simply quid pro
quo: Jews would he elltitled to protection by their new d e r s and tru free-
dom of retigiotrs expressim, in return for which they would w e loyalty
and taxatim, With the acceleratim and expansion of the Muslim con-
quests, this mdimerntary wrangement came to appmxirnate inc.reasingly
trhe balanced sbtus developed f-or Jews in the Christim sphere.
During the seventh century the realities of prior Jewish demography
and the remarkabkt extemzt of the Muslim conquests combined to bring the
overwhelming majority of world J e w y under the control of Islam.. The
largest Jekvish. commtxnity, that of Mesopotamia, fell trnder the sway of
the Muslims, as did the smaller communities of Palestine, the eastern
shores of the Medikrrilnean, a r ~ dall of North Africa. By ancf large, the
Jews of the conquered areas were comfortiltble in accepthg upon them-
selves the new overlords, For a varietfi of Rasorms, the Muslivn cmyuerors
w e broadly c o ~ ~ g e ~to~the i a lJewish minority commw~itiesthat became
part of their realm. The Muslim conquerors had in fact good reason to
treat the Jews positively. Constituting a consideriibk population element
all across the c o n q u e ~ dterritmies, i h e Jews bad,prior to the Muslim con-
quest, lived as a subjugated rninorilt-y; nowhere did they constitute a dis-
placed rding class. Whereas the Nuslim armies had to he wary of dis-
placed ruling elomer~tssuCh as the Zoroastrims in t-he eastern areas and
the Christians in the western regions, Jews fallkg mder Muslim domka-
tion were far more comfortable in their submission than much of the rest
of the conquered population. tVith the passage of time, a high level of co-
operation between Muslims and Jews became widely b a w n and in-
clined Jews who lay along the path of the conquest to be increasingly well
disposed to ihe h p e ~ ~ d i n change
g ~ Icircumstances,
I By the time the Mus-
lim forces had reached the western end of the Mediter~anem~ the Jews of
the Iberian peninsula seem to have beert quite ready to cast their lot
quickly a d comfortabIy with the new rulers.
Dllring the early centuries of Muslim rule, the circmstances of the
Jewish cornunities ensconced in the oibit of Islam changed little. Bs Is-
larnic potitical and theological theorizirzg matured, a tripartilte view of hu-
rnnn society dc.veloped. At the poles of this tripartite structure lay the
world of fslam, perceived as the realm of t-ruth, and the world of poiythe-
ism, permive"ds the reaim of error. Between these two poles lay the
dftr'mmipeoples, those who mi&t be viewed as precursors k the rnave-
ment toward the full monotheistic: truth ern:bodied in Islam. Carefully de-
fined stabs emerged for these subject peoples, not ail that far r e m w d
from the statzns that Christimity in, power had accorded to its Jewish mi-
nority community. The dlzimmi peoples, 'Jews included, were accorded
fundamental tolerance in Irhe Muslim scheme of things, including physj-
cal security m d the right to open practice of their religious traditions- Bal-
ancing this tolerance was a series of limitations, meant to asswe that
dhimnzi peoplewould bring no harm tru the d i n g Islamic faith and com-
mulnity and that the secondary standirng of these dlzinlrni peoples would
be fully ohious through &e patterns of their behavior.
Mthough political theory is of great importance, theoretical status is al-
ways played out agahst a backdrop of societal realities. Buttressis~gfew-
ish political status ali across the Muslim world were the ~ a l i t i e sof siz-
able Jewish population, age-old Jewish presence, and a dive~ifiedJewish
economy Jews were well enough settled throughout the Muslirn world to
=inforce their &oretied protections with everyctay acceptance. Unlike
Christianity, Islam projected no fundamental anwewish tcachhg as part
of its e s ~ n t i amythology
l As a result of the positive economic and social
realities m d the absence af anti-Jewish mythology, the circumstances af
the Jews in the medieval Muslim world were relatively benign. Conspicu-
ous by their absence we= the affliefiox~sof large-"iale anti-Jewish via-
lence and massive expulsion.
mere seems to have been no radical shift in Jewish population from
one sector of the Muslim world to amther, although there was considw-
ahie mokrement in all directions. In the brge Muslim world, with its far-
flung network of transportation and communication, Jews traveled
extensiwely and mintairred colwiderable contact from community to
community The most important demographic change involved the
movement off the land and into the centcrs of urban living. The Muslim
tax stmcture discriminated harshty agairlst ~~ox~-Muslim agricdturafists,
and dtrring the early centuries of Muslirn rule, the Jews seem to have
shifted Ina decisive way off the Iand and out of agriculture,
Beyond this one dlscrete chmge, there is no evidence of \svide-rar~ghg
alteration of economic activity Jews were active in all nonagriculturat
facets of the econom)i, conthuing the diversification evident in antipity.
The extensive documentary evidence available from the Cairo Geniza
shows Jews involved in h t t n d ~ d ol
s identifiable economic pursuits, from
the most prestigious and lucrative d o m tl-trouighthe most menial and de-
spised.. This ccronomic diversificatiox~renectcid the profouxld social root-
edness af the Jews in, those sectors of the western world that became the
realm of Ifslam. As noted, economic dkersification in turn conthbuted to
the relative stability of Jewish circumstances in the medieval Muslim
world.
 The History af Medievatf ewry 109

In all areas of the vast Muslim domah, Jews tended to live in their own
neighborhoods and to organize their ow11 efkctive web of self-goven~ing
agencies..As was generally the case all across the medieval. world, groups
tended to clump together demographicallji throughout the ~ a l m of Is-
lam. In larger tow~ls,sizable Jewish populations usually created more
than one Jewish neighbarhood. WircXnin the Jewish neighborhood, a vari-
ety of social welfare, educational., and religious facilities were to be found.
At times of stress, the Jewish neighborhood offerctd more than psycholog-
ical. securiq; on occasion, it offered physical security as well,
The multifaceted agencies of the local Jewish community reflect a high
level of orgmizationd need and expertise. Institutions for promoting
Jewish social welfare, education, and religio~~ abounded. To some extent,
these were \rolluntary associations, dedicated ta specific objectives. In
other cases, the speciaEzed agencies derked their funding m& backing
f m the. unified Jewish communal structurt.. Leadership in these institu-
tions of Jewish social welfare, ehcation, and reljgion i2svdved both
trahed specialists and elected permmel. Beyond and above the special-
ized agencies stood a unified Jewish communal aulhority, with responsi-
bility for the overall mmagemnt of affairs wit%rinthc local Jewish com-
munity. Leadership in this unified Jewish communal authority was
genemlly vested in the etites of wealth and rabbinic prestige, Mi'ho m-
joyed the quiet but important backing of the non-Jewish powers as well.
In the medieval Muslim world, centralized organs of Jewish self-
govema~cereached unusual levels of recop-ri~onand arhieveme~~t. These
central agencies received consi,derablesupport fm the Muslim auefiorities,
mxious to bolster their control over the Jewish min,ori@.At the same b e ,
ma7y of the ins~itutio~ls of ce~ltralizedJewish sellf-governance had wenera-
ble roots within the Jewish world and commanded allegiance and compli-
ance for rear;orns of both long-stmdirrgcustom and religious ohtigation.
:I-"er%rapsthe best &%ownof these centraljzed age~~cies was Ihe office of
the rusft-golalz, or exilarch. 326s office is attested during the period preced-
ing the Muslirn conquest, although its precise prerogatives are not alto-
g e t k r clear. a i m i n g auihority by virtue of Dawidic descent, the witarch
was, at leaat in the early centuries of Muslim, rule, closely allied with the
caliphate, derivjng considerable backing and prestige from the Muslirn.
d e r s . The exilarch seems to have played a role of some hportmce in
representing Jewish interests in, the Muslim court, and Jews seem to fersrkre
taken cmsidernble pride in the standing of their exilarch, in court circles.
As the M u s l h world became increasixzgly fragme~~ted, it served the best
hterests of breakakvay political rulers to encourage the *dependence of
their Jewish subjccts from the Baghdad-catered exilarchate.
Pre-Islarrric Mesogotarnian Jewry had cJevehpcd, dongsidc Lhe exilar-
chate, central. institutions of rabbkic st-udies as i-vell.Given the role of tal-
mudic law in the judicial, social, and religious life of medieval Jews,
k~owledgeof that law was of paramount importance, and proper train-
ing and certifica.lion of cxpmts kverc. critical. Mmy centuries prior to the
emergence of Islam, Mrrsopotmian Jewry had founded outstanding
acadenties devoted to the study of Jewish law, and it was out of these
academies that the Babylonian Talmud evolved. Like the exilarchate,
these central institutions of talmudic law survived into the era of Muslim
r d e ar~dindeed emere;ed as yet stronger forces in Jewish life. The acilrle-
mi,es of Sura and Pumbedita and their leaders, the geonim, eventudy re-
located in the capital city, Baghdad. These two great centers of learning
attracted oubtanding s b d e ~ ~from t s a wide area and legal ~ a i e froms
communities spread across the length and hrt3adt-h of the. Jewish w r l d .
Once again, as the unity of thcl caliphate disintegrated, Jews m d their
more localized rulers incxasingly s o u e t to establish independent rilh-
hhic authorities ar~dto diminish reiiance upon t%le academies located in
the heartland of the cdrj;phate. By the tkvelftlh century the Spmish Abra-
ham fbn Daud and the Spanish-Egyptian :Moses hen Maimon were force-
futly championing lrhe il7depende~"tce of t-heir own leanling centers from
the academies and geunim of Baghdad.
Indeed., the concentration of bolh political and religious authority in
trhe exilarrhate and the gaonate occasioned more than friclrio~~ wilh rab-
binic leadership in diverse geographic areas of the Jewish world. Not star-
prisingly, the centralization of Jewish power in the medieval Muslifn
world led to the c ~ a t i o nof the most endurhg schism in medieval Jewish
fiistory. The Karaite movement began in Baghdacd, the very heartland of
rabbinic authoriv; in fact, Anan, the dominant figur@initial.1~~ was pur-
portedly from the. famity of the exilarch himself. Wth lrhe passage of time,
Karaites spread widely through the Muslim world, creating especially
important centers in Palestine and Byzantium, The loosely organized
movemmt was rooted in opposition to the dominance oi rabbinic prerog-
atives of leadership; it eventually illbsorbed ather important elements as
well, including a focus on the smctity of the Holy Land and an emphasis
on rationa[ity in mligiout; thought ar~dlife. Although a h a y s a fairly s m d
mi,norily on the mcdievat Jewish scene, the Knraites created a Eveiiy chal-
lenge in many Jwish communities and were strong enough to survive
down to the presernt day.
Discussion of the academies, the gaonate, and the opposition they
evoked serves as a useful bridge to the in.tell.ectuallife of the Jewish corn-
mu~~ities in the medieval M u s l h world. As noted, a measure of social
segregation and effective internal communal organization should not be
taken to imply rigid Jewish separatism m d intellectual isolation.
:Nohere in the medieval world were Jews m r e fully integrated into the
'ahric of genemi intdect-ual life than irt the sphere of medieval Islam.
 The History af Medievatf ewry lill

The key to inteUectual involvement lay in lmguage: Jews absorbed the

larguage of their env ent more hlly hr the Islamic context &ar else-
where.. They used Arabic as their spoken tongue and for most ol their writ-
ing as well. In wady eveq fjeld of Jewish intellectual mdtzavor, including
the traditional areas of biblical ard talmudic study, Jewish authors were
comfortable fomulating and sharing their learrrir-rg in Arabic. To be sure,
the utilization of the Arabic lmguage is but one significmt index of the im-
pact of the b a d emiro~rmenton Jewish intellctctual creativity.
Sb~cethe Bible forms, from many polints of view, the core of Jewish reli-
gious traditim, it seems appmpriate to begin with biblical study, The
Bible wits edensively read ard pond"red by Jews liVii'lg in t-he medjeval
:Muslk world, arr; they sougbt to fattlom the wellsprings of t-heir tradi-
tion, to buttress their commitment to that tradition, m d to meet the seri-
ous challenges momted by the competing monotheisms and the skepti-
cal philosophies that played an importmt role on the medievd scene.
Biblical study began in childhood and continued throughout adult life.
Many outstanding Jewish thinkers devoted a major portion of their intel-
lectual energy and cmativity to leadilng their followers to a deeper under-
standing of biblical truth. Ranslations of the Bible into .Arabic were m-
dertaken as a way of maching Jews who lacked the xguisite Hebrew to
engage the text in its origind. Biblical commerrtary was utilized to guide
readers to a rigorous, lhguisticallly accurate understanding of the text in
its pristine sense; to introduce some of the key philosophic ideas and
ideals common in the medieval *slim world and to a r p e their compat-
i[bility with biblical teachkgs; to rebut biblically based argumentation of
competitor faiths; and to plumb the deeper spiritual meanings of the bib-
lical corpus. The biblical commentaries composed in the medieval Mus-
lim world in fact provide a striking introduction to the diversified thrusts
of Jewish htellectuad.endeavor in that environment,
l"almur.2ic study was universai as wetl, sitlee the "fdmud and its related
literature played so major a role irt the everyday fives of Jewish c o m u n i -
ties and individual Jews. Again immersion began at an early age, and
again opportunitiedor ihe development of expertise had to be provided.
The Mesopotamian academies reigned supreme for a time, but eventually
institutions of higher talmudic shxdy were established all across the Mus-
lim w r l d . These academies occupied thmselves, of course, with lrhe text
of the Talmud; at the same time, they addressed the concerns of the com-
munity as fomulated in cciiiefully crafted queries. As the corpus of few-
&h law expanded, efforts were hunched f m time to t h e to m k e this
ever expancding corpus avdable in digest fom. Altf-tough a n u b e r of
major codes of Jewish law were created in the medieval Muslim sphere,
perhaps the. m s t remarkable was Mainronj.desfMishfih-7brulz, renowned
for the learning of its author; for the audaciously rational organization of
the sprawling domain of Jewish law, and for the formulatjon of that law
into a remarhbly pure &brew style.
Whereas biblical. and talmudic study bvas traditional far Jewish life all
through late anti@ty m d the Middle Ages, Jews in the Muslim. sphere
ovalive directio~~s as well. Islarnic civiIization preserved
and &sorbed the science and philosophy of the Greeks. hdeed, Greek
thought underwent significant development in the Muslim world, en-
riched by the investigations a d speculations of Muslims, Christians, and
Jews..Jews, stimulated by the general environment, made considerable
contributim to both scknce m d philosophy.
Tb be sure, the Greek patterns of scientific and pfilosophic t h i n h g
posed a fu~~damental challenge to some of t-he key dogma and lines of
thhking of the three monotheistic faiths. Fm some Muslims, Christians,
m d Jews, traditional beliefs were undone by scientific m d philosophic
thought; for others, the traditiond patterns of Muslim, Christian, and
Jewish thinkkg remained supreme and the scientific-philosophic chal-
lenge was dismissed out of hmd. In many ways, the most interesting al-
ten~ativeinvoked t-he effort at arcommodation, the a t t e ~ pto t find of cre-
ate a synthesis betkveen the traditional patterns m d the new. In the Jewish
sector of the Muslim world, some of the most creative mhds were bent to
this task. &cc. more, as in the realm of talmdic shndy, the figure of Mai-
manides dominates. The prafttndiv of Mairnonides' command of bath
traditional Jewish thought m d the Greco-Roman legacy as mediated
through its medieval Arabic formulations assured that his efforts at syn-
thesis had an impact from his own days until the modem perioct, Of
course, efforts like those of Maimonides at synthesis were not greeted
wieh miversal acclaim in the medieviti Jewish world. Despite t-he wide-
spread veneration far his talmtrdic knowledge, many medieval Jews
ranged themselves in opposition to his philosophic. writirzgs, his accep-
tance of Greco-Roman ideas and icfeds, and his perceived reformulation
of trad3imal. Jewish teachjngs, Creative pc.riods are often higlnly con-
tentious, and so it was in the medieval Muslim world.
By the twelfth c e ~ ~ t uunmistakable
ry s i p s of a swing in the pendulum
of power from the Muslim sector of the western world hthe direction of
Christendom bad begun to emerge. The Muslirn conquest of Jerusalem in
1094 was greeted by Christians as a sip of the new poww baiitxe; Mus-
lims argued that the failure of the Christians to maintain their grasp on
the Holy Lmd suggested. tfne evanescence of purported Christian gains.
tlowever, Christians infact began to dislodge Muslims permane~~tly from
their stmngholds on tkct Italian peninsula. amd from their near control of
the Iberian peninsula.. The tide of power was indeed shifiing. Jewish. corn-
munilies that had lox~glived ~ l r ~ dMuslim
er cor~trol,for a m p l e in Spain,
found themsdves passing into Christian hands. Areas of the Chiistian
 The History af Medievatf ewry 113

world that had historically been of littIe interest attracted Jewish immi-
grants, as these regions matnured economically and cu1tural1.y. By trhe end
of the RiIiddle Ages, the Jews of the w e s t m world wercl fairly well bal-
mced between the worlds of Islam and Christendom, a radical change
f m the domina-tce of lrhe klamic sphere from the seventh &rough t-he
twelfth cent-uries.

The lherian penii7sula was neither tt7e oldest nor the newest site of Jewish
settlement durir-tg the Middle Ages. Poised at the weskm end of the
blcdit-wraneanSea, the Iherian penifisula was, in all, likelihood, tf7c final
settlement point for Jews filtering westward &rough the Mediterrmean
basin. Surely a much younger Jewfy than that of the eastern Mediter-
ranean or Mesopotamia, the Jewish commmities of Spain prided them-
selves, not without reasm, on the longevity of their sojourn there and
their rootedness k-tthe soil of Iberia.
The Jews of Spain had lived mder pagan Rome, under the Christian-
ized Roman Empire, and under the Christianized Germanic conquerors
of Iberia by ihe time that the Muslim amies made their first appcrarmce
on the penhsula, For more than a century prior to the Muslim conquest,
the Visigo.thic rulers of Spain had exerted cmsidcrahle pressure on %erim
Jewry Bs a result of anti-Visigot9lic sel-ttime~~t and accelerating awilreness
of the comfortable Muslim-Jewish alliance farther east, the Jews of the
peninsula seem to have been fully prepared to cooperate with the ncw
rulers.
Durhg the period of almost total Muslim control, of Spah-stretching
from the eighth century through the eleventh-the Jews p1.aq"f"da usehl
and pmfitahle role as allies of the authorities. In t-he tmth century, we ~ I I -
counter the fascinating figure of vasdrti Ibn S h a p r u i p l m a t in the
semice of the M-uslisn ruler, exyert physician, serious scientist, m d patron
of Jewish culture Frz both its traditional and innovative forms. Iberian
Jewry of the tenth and eleventh cerrturies is =veilled as well established
politically and socially, as increasingly well organized under the leader-
ship of wealthy and powerful families, as rooting itself morc profowdly
in ritbbinic triadition m d learning, and as exp:lori,ng new avenues of c=-
ativi2-y along lines sketched out in the vibrant majari2-y culture, Particu-
larly s t r i h g at &is jw-tchnre is t-he emergence of a nc.w poetic style.
The vitalization of Christendom that began in the closing decades of
the tenth century and accelerated thereafter was fated to have a decisive
inpact on the Iberian peninsLtla. Pressures began to mount from the
north, as Christian armies of both Iberim and northern European w a -
riors pushed southward. For the Jews, who had grown accust-orned to the
of Muslim Spain, the successes of tho Ckristiar~reconquest
ciwi:lizatio~~
were frightening..To some extent, the discomfcrd was occasioned by the
simple realitJi of disruption and chmge; m o ~ o v e rthe , Christian forces
=presented two specific liabilities----a lower level of civilization and a
more intrinsically negative stance toward Jews. Jewish fears kvere quicHy
augmented. by a turn for the worse in those sectors of the pmjnsula still
contmlled by the :Muslims. Waves of North Mrican troops wcsre intro-
duced in order to stem the tide of the Christian advance. These troops
brought with them less hvorabk attitudes and policies. Indeed, the Al-
mohads of the early twlfth century introduced onto the peninsula a per-
secutim~of Jews that was highfy unusual for trhe Mudim world.
The combination of seemhgly hostile Christians streamhg down from
the north. and overtly jntolerant Muslim counterattacking from the south.
posed a dilemma for the Jews of beuth-century Spain. h its most practi-
cal terms, the d i l e m a involved a choice of whom to support pditicauy
and economicallq.; in more profuund terms, the dilemma cmv-in.ceds o m
Sp""ish Jews that lrhe end of lfie ueafiw epoch in their history had ar-
rived,. The two most important proponents of that rnctcal conclwion
were the philosopher and historian Mraham %n Daud and the philoso-
d Judah Walewi. Ihn Daud, in his highly Muential Sefer h-
pher a ~ poet
hbbalr-rh, advanced a n ~ ~ m bof e rhistorical theses, including the poignant
argument that fberian Jewry had enjoyed WO centuries of creative en-
deavor and that this crmtive interfude was; coming to a close. I"erltaps
better h o w n is Jmdah Halevi" expression of his despondency in his deci-
sion to leave Zberia for the Holy Land and in s o m of the most sti,rringpo-
etry ewer composed in tt7e I-lebrcw languati;e.
These two highly creative figures, even in their despakf remhd us that
e tension need not be devoid. of cuiturrzl creativiq. Xn
periods of p ~ s s u r aPld
fact, twelffi-ce~~h"y Iberia was home to a galaxy of remarkahie Jewish in-
tellects kvhose talcnts we= dbected to the study oC the Bible, to the malysis
and expansim of talmudk law, to scientific inquiry to philoqhical specu-
lation/ m d to creative belles lettres. 'The intellectual gi& Maimor~ic_Zes
was
a native of Spain whose family was forced to flee the Ahof-tad persecution.
He cmtislued to see hi~nselfas an %aimJewI and we are justified. in per-
cei\ring him as a representative of the creativity of Spa1is:t-rJewry
The intellectual m$ poetic brillimce of Albraf?arn Ibn Daud m d Judah
Halevi does not mean that their radical. conclusions were shared by all or
even most of their Jewish contemporaries. Diverse views swirled &out in
the Jewish commmity The mast activist stance was that of the wealthy
and powerful Jewish courtiers, who began to transfer their loyalty and
skills to the Chrisrian kingdoms. These courtiers made a fairly simple
reckoning: The increashgly successful Christim monarchs were going to
 The History af Medievatf ewry 115

need considerable assistant financial aid and expertise, bureaucratic

know-how, urban skills----as t h y displaced more sophisticated ruling
classes and civilizations. In the event, the pragmatic reckoning of the
courtiers proved more accurattz than the despair of the historian or the vi-
sion of the poet- h fact, Iberian Jewry, led by its courtiers, made a fairly
smooth transition in allegiance and alliance horn the Muslim autharit.ies
to the ascendant Christian monarchies, The Jews, as an established u h a n
elomer~ton the penhsula, proved themselves inwaluable to the Christian
rulers, as the latter expmded their control of Spain,
Royal support was invaluable, but serious problems remained. fsrdeed,
the alliance betwee11 the Jews a ~ thed Christia~h g s was not without its
complicatior~s.Elements in lrhe Christim populace that chafctd under e11-
hanced royal authority deeply resented the Jewish contribution to that
eAanced authority. At the s m e time, urban Christians saw the J e w pri-
marily as ecor~omicand politicat competitors. Equally sig~~ificant was the
stance of the Roman Catholic chtrrch. In the late twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, the Church had improved its internal organization and its posi-
tion within western Christe~~dorn. This more powerful Cburch was pro-
foundly committed to clarification of required Christian behavior and
thought and to aggressive lobbying for imposition of policies that would
adwarce the cause of Christian living. The Jews were not the highest pri-
ority on the Church agenda; at the same time, hawever, they were not a
negligible item. Particularly in Spain, vvhere the 'Jews constituted a sipif-
icant element 0x1 the urban scene ar~dr/vielded considerable power in the
royal courts, ecclesiastical demands for traditional lhitations on Jewish
power and Jewish fratemizjng with Christian contempararies were un-
refitting. With tt7e passage of t h e , these cJemmds were slowly met and
took their toll on Jewish life.
Particularly striking in Spain was the ecclesiastical commitmcmt to mis-
sionizlng among Jews ancf Mrasiims. Represcnth~gthe frontier betwee11
western Christendom m d Islam, the Pberim peninsula gave birth to the
most intermse yearnings toward expandhg the sphere of Chsistian belief.
"fb some extent, these yearnings expressed themselves rrrilitarily through
the contmitmenl to pushing back the fmtiers oC M u s h domhation on
the penirtsula. At the same time, the Spamzish Church led the way in win-
ning over new adherents through tt7e force of argumentatior~,rather than
the force of anns. By the middle of the thirteenlh century, Spajn was the
scene of a considcrable effort to win over Jews. Key to this effort was the
establishme~~t of regular cha~x~els far disseminatio~~of the Christiar~mes-
sage into the Jewish commuxlity The techiques of dissemination in-
volved the forced sermon and the forced debate,
Chul-chmcn led by corrverts from Jdaisnr to Christiani.ty immersed
themselves in, the writkgs and t h h k i ~ ~ofgthe Jews themselves, in, m ef-
fort to identify new h e s of arprnentation that might pmmise some suc-
cess with Jewish auditors. A leader in this movement was the fomer Jew
turned Darnkicm preacher, Friar Paul Christian. Friar Paul pioneered in
the effort to comb Jewish sources for effective xnissionizing materials.
Mlith the hacking of King James :l of Arago~~, he engaged one of the great
Jewish intellects of the Middle Ages, Rabbi Moses ben Nahman of
Cerma, in a public debate inknded, to prove Christian truth from hlmu-
dic soul-ccs, with the rabbi strictly limited to rehuttaf of the Christia~~
thrusts from the Talmud and not to braad counterargumentation. The ef-
forts of Friar Paul we= subsequently taken up by Friar riaymmd Martin
and a group of associates, who composed a m a m o t h missionizing com-
pe~~clium entitled the PEW& Fii;aei. Rooted in t-housa~dsof rabbinic cita-
tions, the Pzigio Fidei was meant to guide Christim missionaries in mount-
ing Talmud-based arguments for all major Christian doctrines. Although
evidence of real success in this campaip is not availakle from thirtemth-
century sourc-er;,the mlssionizing effort proved subsequenlly to be one el-
e m n t in a complex of factors that led to substantial Jewish conversion on
the peninsula.
By the fourteenth century, fberian Jewry had achieved a position of cen-
trality in the Jewish world, fargely by dehult, The older Jcwries of the Is-
lamic spherc?,although still numerically strong, were 110 longer associakd
with the cenkrs of power in the western world; the nekv Jewries of nor&-
em Europe had already g r o m m d declined-by the early fourteenth cen-
tury the Jews had been ba~ishedfrom the important kirngdoms of England
and Fmnce. Nevertheless, Xberian J e w y had its own problems. The four-
teenth century was beset with difficulties all across western Christendom,
ar~dSp"in was not hmu17.e. Spain"s Jews were doubly affected by the eco-
nomic and socid dislocations of the period. On the one hand, they suf-
fered along with all others; on the other hmd, the growing pressures of
this difficult period moved majority Christians toward less tolerance with
respect to minority Jews. Resentmen& that were easy to swallow in times
of growfi m d expmsim dcttpened cmslnerably in m era of declhe and
r e t r e n c h e ~ ~The
t . voices of d i s c o ~ ~ twere
e ~ ~ tthose noted earlier-~e no-
bidjty, the burghers, the Church. The calls for i n c ~ a s e dlimitations on the
Jews were, however, ddivered in far more strident and threaten* tones
than p~viously-Iberian Jewry negotiated this dgficult period, but s i p s of
both. external and internal pmblem abounded.
The crisis enlpted in 1391, with the explosion all itcmss the peninsula of
wide-ranghg assaults on the Jewish minority Underlying these assaults
were simmering discontents, socioeconomic grievmces, and tradi"cona1
religious hatreds, Thousands of Jews lost their lives, and scores of Jewish
c o m m i t i e s disappeared, never to he reconstituted.. Thc. efforts of the
royal cowrts to stem the tide ot violence were largely mavailing, m d even
 The History af Medievatf ewry 117

when order was reestablished on the peninsula, there was litSle effective
punishme~~t of malefactors. Bmicularly notewort* in the 1301 assaults
was the f?igh percentage of Jews Who chose to avoid deatl by accepting
the traditional alternative of conversion*To be sure, many of these con-
verts saw their acrceptance of Christimity as a temporary expedient,
which kvou2d be cyuickly undone when life returned to nor~xal.By the end
of the fourteenth. century, however, the decision to convert had proved
imposibble to reverse, which had been coma11 in prior ccmhnries. Thus,
the assautts ol l391 left in their wake devastation, the inevitabte despair
that follows such a catastrophe, and a new and problematic gmup of con-
verts. These New Christians w r e destined, over lfie ellsuing cer~tury,to
create c o n s i d d i e problems for Sgmish society, for the Church, and for
the Jewish c o m m i t y of Spain as it sought to rebuild itself.
Athough the attention of scholars has focused heavily on the impor-
tant#distressing, m d moving story of the Ncw Christians, the efforts of
the Jews of the peninsula are noteworthy in their own right. Clne thrust af
the reconstruction effort lay in the economic m d political spheres, as Jews
sought to reestablish themsehes, tru reconstibte their links to the authori-
ties, and to recoup their influence over their prior pmtectors. At the s m e
time, the internal problems of the community had to be addxssed and
were. In particuiar, organizatio~~al ar~deducational deficier~cies had to be
redressed, posttrauma despair had to be combated, and the vexjng prob-
lems associated with the New Christims had to be dealt with. In consid-
erable measure, the rebuilding was successhl, although Iberian Jewry
never regained its pre-4392 st-rength.
mmughout these mbuitding efforts, the pfoblem of the New Christians
hovered over the Jewish community. In its most direct form, the New
Chdstians challenged their former fellow Jews in both practical and spiri-
tual terns. Practically, the issue was how to behave toward relathes and
friends who had comrted. h Jewish eyes, co~~verts out of the hith were
ultimately to be treated as Jews, with every effort expended to bring them
back into the fold. However, such a policy was impossiklle, To make m y
overture toward reintegralion of the converts w u l d entail transg~ssion
ol one of the basic rules governing the Jewish pface in Christian society
Jews were rigorously forbid.den from attracting Christians into Judaism.
e ~ cor~vertswere by no means fews gone
Fmm lfie Chistian ~ a s p e c t i v the
astray; they were simply Christians and as such off-limits far any reli-
gious persuasion. The practical problems were exacehated by larger spir-
itual issues: fews had to ask Lhemselves about tt7e viability of a faith Lhat
so mmy relatives and neighbors had abandoned.
The NW Christians imp@ed on Iberim Jewry in a less direct 'out ulti-
mately more costly way. T'he New Christims co~~stituted a serious prob-
lem for the Church, concerned about their integration into the Christian
fold. W h e ~ a ssmall sets of converts had historically been integrated in
relatively smooth fashion, the large nun7bers of fifteenth-century New
Christ-ians posed vexing problems. The Christim majority was ixlevitably
reluctant to extend easy social acceptance. Givm the size of the New
Christian commurGlry, its members could in effect create their own social
grouping. Even though the emergence oi a New Christim social group-
ing is perfectly understmdabk, this anmgement threatened the process
of religious integration. Zncreasitlgly, trhe New Christians were perceived
as socially recalcitrant and religiously backsliding. Their social recalci-
trance is difficult to measure, since they were to a considerable extent re-
jected by the ""C>ld"Chlistians. The qwstion of r&gious backsliding is
equally pmhkmatic and has been much debated by historians recently.
For sanne, religious backslidkg was real; for others, the allegations were
nothing more thm a pretext masking swial animosities m d economic cu-
pidity. Matever the truth of the matter might "n, lrhe C h m h began to ag-
itate for measures to combat real or alleged religious relapse in New
Chdsrcian ranks.
By the fiftemth centur)l, the Christim world was familiar with the p&-
lem of heresy m d had adumbtated a number of approaches to it. A liberal
approach argued that heretics-a category into which backdiding NW
Christia~stech~icallyfit-should be treated with respect and warn& and
should be won over to full espousal of proper Christimity &rough a corn-
b a t h of intellechal suasion and loving accqtance. h akmaSive ap-
proach was to see h e ~ t i c sas criminals and to expose them t~ the full
severity of the law It was the latter approach that won out: in fifteenth-
century Iberia, with the estaHishment of an Inquisition to ferret out
heretics among the :Ncw Christians, to conwince suCh hercltics tru accept
Christian tru& fully, m d to punish those unwilling to do so. Persuaded
that the Jews of the peninsula played a sigrmiiicmt role in the pul-portedly
w i d e s p ~ a dheresy t-he supportas of a pu"itive program for the backslid-
ers urged, along with, the establi-ent of an inquisitorialnetwork, thc ex-
pulsion of the Jews, The hquisition was established a d began its work,
a r ~efiort that: would stretch &rough a number of ce~~tiuries. The call to cx-
pulsion was eventually heeded as wellC..Alt.hough the motivations for the
expulsion of 1492 were complex, the justification for banishment of the
Jews was rooted in the notion that Jews were prohbited .from bringing
harm on Chriskn society and that alleged support nf New Christim back-
sliding cmstituted mgOjrtg m d unacceptably h a m h i Jewish.behavior.
The expulsion of 1492 b m the h ~ g d o m of s Aragon and Castile m d
the subsequent expulsion of the Jews from the kingdorn of Portugal con-
stituttzd the last of the great medieval banisbents of Jews. By the end of
trhe fifteer~Chcenturyf Jews had been mmoved from all the kingdoms of
western E w p e , those m a s that stood irtdisptllaby at the forrjfront of the
 The History af Medievatf ewry 119

western world. The hisbry of Iberian Jewry did not, of course, come to a
cioscl with removal f m the pe~ninsula.The Jews of Aragorn, Cast*, and
Portugal made their bvay eastward, largely into the Islamic prkci_palities
of North Africa and the rapidly deve1opin.g Turkkh Empire, which con-
trolled the easterrn Mediterranean basirn. Many of the New Chkstians who
remained on the peninsula subsequently played an impartant role in
opening up areas of western Europe to Jewish resettlement. Moving to
westerrn France, t%le Low Countries, and England as Christians, some of
these descendmts of Jews returned to their ancestral faith, thereby treat-
ing a new Jewishprctsence on western Europem soil. AJl across the west-
em world, the Iberian heritage wits reestahlisfned in new settings.

Medieval Northern European Jewry

The focus thus far has been on the well-established Jewries of the Near
East m d the Iberian peninsula. Ashkenazjc Jeuiry presents h o v a t i u e
patterns of Jewish existe~nce,intmducing us to a new and rapidly devel-
oping sector of the western world and to immigrant Jews strugglkg to
f h d a place for themselves in an exciting, promising, and problematic
majority enviro~nme~n t.
Northem Europe lay outside the rmge af Jewish set-llement in mtiquity
m d the early Middle Ages, Although Jews travekd across mrthern Eu-
rape, the backward state of life in tfie rcrtgion made it wnappealhng for per-
mment settlement. hcentives for Jewish igratian to norther11 Europe
developed only in the tcn& centuv, as a result of the general. vitalization.
desthned to turn this backward area into the ce~nterof western civifizatio~n.
Once the process af vitalization began, Jews were hcreashgly atlracted to
the area. h fact, inmany instarmces Bey were actively ~ c r u i t e d
by the most
farsit;hted rulers of nor&em Europe. Jewish settlemalt in ~nort%lem Europe
began in. thc core areas of northern Frmce and Germany, eventualf y ex-
tending westward to England met eastwad into Polmd.
Jewish settleme~ntinnorthern E"rope was fueiod by Jewish perceptions
of economic vibrmcy in that heretofore backward area and by a sense an
the p a t of many barons that Jewish ixnmigrmts might broadly contri:bute
to the ge~neralwell-behng of their domains and might, at the same time,
directly enrich baronial coffers. Unfortunately, na memoirs in. bvhich Jews
identified their motivations for moving northward are extmt. In m inter-
esting document irn which he invited Jews to settle in Speyer in 1084,
Bishop Rudiger, as temporal lord of the town, suggests that the irnmigra-
tion of Jews would enhmce the glory of his town a hausandfold, What
the bishop seems to be d u d i n g to is the econorrtic advantage that: woutd
accrue from Jewish settlement.
 The early Jewish settlers seem to have been involxd primarily irz the bur-
geonir7g trade of nor&er~~ Europe. Uonlmnts both Jewish m d ~ ~ o ~ ~ - J e w i s h
show these Jews buying itnd s e h g a wide rmge of goods, interacthg with
a variep of CT-hTistian rreighbors, set-ting up shop in t o m in some cases,
trravding considerable distances to carry on their business in other in-
stances. hvol\remmt ist trade sgiHed over hevitably in a ntrmber of related
d i ~ c t i a mExchange
. of coinage was a major ecmmic need in &is rapidly
developir~garea, and Jews seem to have been active in this arelxa. Extension
of credit const-it-utedyet mo*er bushess-related enterprise, m d Jews seem
to have done that as well, although only in the most mdhentary w"y".
There is little evidence of f;enuk~e Jewish economic diversification. 'The Jew-
igra~tscame as businesspeople and smm to have rctmained busi-
nesspeopk. The process of settling ist did not hclude movement into crafts
or agrictllhre. The essential@bushess orimtation of the early Ashkenazic
Jews was appreciated by many in majority society; nevertheless, it was
clear2y resented by others, particular1y those for whom the burgeoning
business of this rapidly developing aEa was both new and &reatming.
The major obstacle to Jewish settlment in 11orther-r Europe was the
g e n e d insecurity and instability of the area. Tle maturation of northern
Europe was predicated m the capacity of the ruling class to govern more
effectiwely m d to establish better col~ditionsof safety a ~ security
d For the
Jewish immigrmts, improved governmce held the key to successful 'Jew-
ish immigration, To be ssue, the occasional mti-Jewish violence notable in
trhe sources for t e ~ ~ tand
h - eleventh-centurynorther11 Europe of-ten reflects
animosiv and cupidiq directed against Jews as businesspeople, rather
than against Jews as Jews, In many cases, Jews suffexd sirnply as traders
trawersing the unsafe roadways of the regioz~.
In some instances Jews were, holvever, assaulted specifically as Jews.
The &wish immigrants were not enthusiasticaIly welcomed by the bulk
of majority society for a numher of Rasons. nroughout the world, i m i -
grmts tend to be tmpopulaz; viewed as newcomers and trsurpers. More-
over, the Jews immigrating northward represented the only n m -
Christians in a region u~tifiedby Christian identity The business orienta-
tion of the Jewish i igrants reinforced resentments felt toward Jews as
newcomers m d dissidents, Anti-Jewish business senti~nenton the one
hand, enflmed those who were s"spicioumf the new business clirnate of
northern Europe. 013 the other hand, Christim burghers, who were them-
selves part of the new business enviro ent, saw the Jewish immigrmts
as u~~welcome competitors. although Bishop Rudfger of Speyer imagined
Jewish immigrants as a boon to the t o m , many Llf the Christian business-
people surely felt othewise,
Overshadowing all these realistic elements in Jcwish fife that aroused
antipathy-Jewish newness, Jewish dissidence, and Jewish busbess ori-
 The History af Medievatf ewry 122

tntation-was the traditional Christian sense of the Jew as more than

simply a no~~betiever. From the earliest stages in its Etistory, Christianity
had perceived and portrayed Jews as ranged in hurtful opposition to
Christianity-qposition lo its cenkal divine-human fipre, to the mem-
bers of the community founded by Jesus, and to the Christian religious
visim. T%e most colllpelljxlg symbol of this purported Jewish at-rtjyathy
was the alleged role of the Jews in pressing for the crucifixion of the di-
wirTe-humar~figure that Christians saw in Jesus of r.lazarc?th. To be sure,
the sense of the Jrrws as hate-filled enemies varied over the age" depend-
ing on gmeral conditions and the specific circumstances of Jewish life in
Christian society. In the early stages of Ashke~~azic Jewish history, percrep-
trions of the immigrating Jews as historic enemies do not seem to have
been too intense. Such perceptions, holvever, were o ipresent m d ever
threatening.
a c e pote~~tialiy ~~egative anli-Jewish stereotypes were widespreacf,
the key to successfut Jewish immigralim lay with the authorities of bath
Church and state. 7i-, the extent that the ecclesiastical leadership could
maintah the normat& Cl?urcb doctrine of the right of Jews to safety and
security, and-morcj importmt-to the extent that the secular authorities
could in actuality protect those Jews whose presence they w r e interested
in sponsoring, Jewish settlement could proceed smoothly. The selrse of ac-
celerating Jewish immigration all through the eleventh century suggests
that the protection of the authorities was effective in limiting anti-Jewish
wiole~~ce and encouraging Jewish movement northward.
The early Ashkenazic Jews fashioned h r themselves rudimentary but
effective structures of self-government. The Jewish community consti-
tuted a town within a town, with Jews raising their own revenues, adjudi-
cating their own disputes, caring for their own nee$y, and providbg for
their own releious and educational needs. Especially striking is the rapid
intellectual and spiritrual maturation of early Aswenazic J e w y Migrants
arc? normaliy the least well rooted and least conservative members of Jew-
ish for m y other) society Most new Jewries take centuries to create viable
cultural institutior~sa d to exhibit sig~ificanl:intellectud and spiritual
creativity..Although the earliest Ashkenazic Jews were surely of the ad-
venturous type, within an urlusdliy short time their descendants began
tru erect tlte necessary institutional framework for cuf tural activity and to
prod~rceindigenous htellectual and spiritual leadership" Within the first
century and a half of its founding, early Ashkenazic Jewry spawned a
number of major figures, culminating in Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac of
Troyes (Rashi). Rashi's massive commentaries on the Bible and the Tal-
mud are a m 9 the most widely copied, printed, and read books in Jew-
ish history Fol- such important works to emerge so early in the develop-
ment of a yomg Jewry is exeepljonal, a ~flectionof the vigor of these
new Jewish settlements and-not to be overlooked-f the vitality of the

The first major crisis encountered by early Ashkenazic Jewry c m e in

7036, as a result of the call to the First Crusade. Pope Urban II, who ex-
horted the warriors of weskm Christe~~dom to fight agairlst the Mudim
forces holding the Holy Land, surely made no reference to Jews, and the
org""izd cmsadhg armies that responded to his exhortation and even-
tually c o n q u e ~ dJemalem in Itfcd9 innicted no harm on Europem Jewry
as they made their way eastward. The papal call, however, aroused a
wide variety of knights, preachers, and common folk. In mmy hstances,
the popufar militias that were formed saw the crusading ver~turein
highly idiosyncratic ways. Particuiarly extreme in both their thinking and
behavior kvere the popular German crusading bmds. For some of these
bands, the call to take up arms against the Mudinas in the Holy Land was
g a r a l i z e d into a dogm of hatred t w a r d a d revellge up011 all enemies
of the Cf-rristim faith. This radicat generaliza.lim led the German cru-
saders to ask thtlmselves why they were journeying long distmces to en-
gage the M u s h enemy in the Ncar East while a profow~derenemy-the
Jews of Ger~xmy-was living nearby. The animosity toward Jews that de-
veloped in some crusader circles out of the traditional Christ_ianmotif of
fewi?;h guilt for the crucifixion of fesus resonated among some of tfne
burghers of the Wheland cities as welf. A p o t a t coaljtion of crusilders
and burghers assaulted the major Rhineland Jewish communities of
Worms, Main;;.,,and Cologne, wiping out these three g ~ centers & of early
Ashkenazic Jewish life. Although the attacks of 2094 were localized and
the bulk of early Ashkmazic Jewry sumhed. unscathed, the ferociw of the
assaults, the devastation that they wrought in those three Rhineland
cities, and the remarkable Jewish responses combhed to make the events
of 1.096 both disquieting and memorable.
I h e leaders:hip of the Church, the barons and h g s of northern Eurc)~)e,
and the Jews themselves learned well the lessons of 1096. None of these
three groupings would subsequently be dlivious to the dangers associ-
ated with rcnetved crusading. athough the call tru a new crusade always
aroused anti-Jewish passions and sporadic attacks on Jews did occasion-
ally take place, the level of violenre manifest in 1096 was never repeated.
Ecclesiastical leaders w a r ~ ~ eagainst
d anti-Jewish assaults, the secular au-
thorities made arrangements to forestall them, and the Jews of northern
Europe took inteiligent steps to protect tl-iemselves.
Jewish life flourished across mrthenl Eul-oge Lhrough most of the
twelfth century me general growth m d development of the area were re-
flected among its 'Jewsas well. Jewish business affairs proqexd; the 'Jew-
i?ih alliance with the secular authorities deepened; Jews four3dc.d new
settlements for themselves in, the burgeonixlg toms; Jewish cultural ac-
 The History af Medievatf ewry 123

tivities pmliferatcd. Excitjng new developments took place in the realms

of talmudic study, biblical exegesis, historical narrative, and mystical
speculi-llion.In afl this, the Jews we= once again exhibithg their own dy-
namism agaimt the backdrop of a Frighly creative majority mbiance,
However, a number of disquieting developments were mar~ifestas
well. The first was the increasing Jewish specialization in moneylending,
indcred, in a particular kind of moneylending. The rapid development of
norehcrn European socic..t_voccasio~~ed trhe need for augmnted sums of
capital to finance ever larger armies, building programs, and btrsiness
ventures. At thc salne time, the Church was engaged in a strenuous effort
tru prohibit Christians from engaging in usury. 'The cornhination of firtan-
ciai need and ecclesiastical restriction opened up fertile bushess ground
for the Jews, who kvere not included by the Church in its attack on trsury
Once again, farsighted rulers recognized that support of Jewish money-
lending-like their eartier support of Jewish immigration and trade---
could prove generally trseful to their domains and specifically profitable
to their treasu-ies. S o m of the most powerful rulers of northern Europe
became, in a sense, business partmrs of the Jews. T h y backed fc.wish
loms and p r o m i ~ dto ernforce ot?ligat-ionsmade to Jews, in return for tax
revenues, which might well be seen as a p e ~ e n t a g eof the Jewish. profits.
The result was considerable Jewish busir~esssuccess, with a number of
highly visible Jewish financial magnates emerging both in England
and across northern France. This business success came at a high price,
however.
As already noted, the Jews af norther11 Europe had, from the outset,
been unpopular as a result of the realistic contours of their existence as
newcomers, dissidents, a d businesspeople a r ~ das a ~ s doft the tradi-
tional legacy of Christian anti-Jewish imagery. To the prior anti-Jewish
thinking, two new motifs were added: the intense mimosity that money-
le12dir"tggemrally produces and the anger normally ciirected at those per-
ceived as lackeys of the ruling class. Jebvish moneylending across north-
ern Europe was highly useflal to that rapidly developing society.
Certainiy, many Christia~~s benefited enormously from Lhe capital that
Jews put at their disposal, Many ather Christians, however, felt them-
selves severe@ disadvantaged by Jewish lenders. In a more general way,
Jewish lenders became symholic of the Erind of change that mal7y were
coming to resent. The htensified alliance between Jews m d the temporal
authorities, particularly the most successful temporal authorities, can
similarly he seen as a sig~~ificant conkibution to the mahnration of north-
ern Europe; kowever, mmy felt themse1vc.s lnarmed by the devdopment
of myal power in axas such as England and France. When a minority
group S"&as the Jcws is perceived as allkd to the temporaf autrhorities, it
is far easier to vent anger at the minority partner than at the potent rulers.
On both these scores, the already questimable Jewish image in northern
Europe was further damaged by the new speciaiization in moneyle~~ding.
Dtnrir-rg the middle decades of the twelfth century, a new sense of the
'Jews and their alleged, hostility to Christian society and Christians
emerged. The prior perception of the Jews as historic e~~errries, responsi-
ble for the cruc%xion, expancded to a seme of the Jews as he=-and-now
foes, ever ready to do ecmoxnic and physical h a m to their neighbors.
The most striking form of this new sensibility was the ailegatio~~ that Jews
took every opportmity available to them to murder Christian neighbors,
partjcularly youngsters, Thus, when corpses wer(3 d i s c o v e ~ din suspi-
cious circmstances, as frewently happe~~ed, many Christim immedi-
ately faste~~ed respo~~sibilityfor the crime upon the Jews. By and large,
the temporal authorities, hcreasingly mare powerful m d effective, were
able to protect their Jews in the face of these dangerous auegations. The
long-term ixnpact, however? was col~siderable,:Indeed, the -anti-Jewish
sentiment of the middle decades of the twelfth century must be seen
against the broader context of growing mti-outsider anxiety and animos-
ity. Northerr1 European society felt itself increasingly threatened by such
groups as Jews, heretics, homosexuals, lepers, and witches. AI1 these
groups began to suffer enhanced hostilily and increasing persecution.
The Cburch, it will be recalled, had always called for a balance between
protection of the Jews and Judaism and requisite restriction. 4"0 the extent
that churchmen came to share the sense of Jews as malevolent and harm-
fut, they begm to hit;hlight the importar~ceof limiting Jewisb behaviors
and to expand the range of behaviors to be h i t e d . hcrcming press=
was brought to bear on Jewish social contacts with Christians, culminat-
ing in the early-fiirtcenth-ce1"ttury dema3.7.d that Jews wear apparel that
wotrld distinguish them from their Christian neighbcrrs. Intended lnrtgcly
to promote more effective social segregation of the Jews, this distix~guish-
ing garb-which often took the form of either a patch on the Jews' outer
garments or a special Jewish hat-came to have demeaning overtones.
Another area of traditional ecclesiastical concern was Jewish blas-
phemy. In this regardI it was suggested by a nun7ber of P.hirtee11th-ce1"thry
cmverts from, Juciaism to Christimity that Jewish lirtuqy and the Talmud
were replete with negative references to Christiartity and Christians and
should be censored or banned. Talmudic Iiterahnrc was c a d d y cxam-
ined in a number of locales. In some places it bvas prohibited, m d in 0th.-
ers it was regularly censored to remove allegedly injurious material. The
ovative Church efforts were aimed at Jewish bushess activities.
Sensing that their own assault on Christian usury had opened the way for
kwish specialization in moneylendin.g, churcbmn began to press for
linritatio~~s0x1 Jewish lendir78, aimed at protects Ckristians----par&-
larlly the poorer classes-frown the negative impact of Jewish moneylend-
 The History af Medievatf ewry 125

ing. The effect of all these ecclesiastical efforts was to shift the balanced
Church program far in the dimction of limitation of the Jewish minoriiy
in northern Europe and to set in motion protracted efhrts to win the
backing of the temporal authorities for these new restrirtions,
From the begiming of their sojourn in northern Europe, the early
Ashkenazic Jews had lemed heavily on the support of the temporal au-
thorities. By the end of the WeIfth century, the alliance belween the Jews
and their royal and bamx~ialsponsors had begun to fray. In part, the prob-
lem lay with the increasing strength of the temporal authorities and the
augmented Jewish dependence upon them. As the kir\gmand barons c m e
tru invohe themselves m m fully in lucrative Jewish moneyla~ding,they
inevitably came to be better informed about Jewish transactions and
wealth. Pressing fiscal needs led many of the strongest d e r s to exploit
their Jews increasingly, even to the point of destroying Jewish bushess.
At the same time, lrhe Church campaign for limitation of Jewish behaviors
slowly took its own toll, with the temporal authorities accedhg to ecclesi-
astical dernands for implementation of the new ChurCh regulations. Fi-
n a l l ~some of the rulers of northern Europe c m e to absorb personaily
the negative image of Jews that had developed. It is clear, for example,
that the great king of France, Louis EX, recognized subsequently as Saint
Louis for his piety, felt illtense visceral ar~imosityfor t-he Jews of hit; ever
exparrdislg domain. CJoss of the support nf their royal m d baronid protec-
tors was the most grkvous of the blows suffered. by thirteenth-century
n0rt.hel.n Eufopear.1Jewry. By the end of that century the king of England
had expelled his Jews, and the turn of French Jewry c m e shortly there-
after: With the removal of royal and baronial support, the poktion of
nort.hern Europe" Jews was untctnable.
To be sure, not all rulers in northern Europe expelled their Jews. h a
general way, the Jews wefe banished from the better-developed westerly
arcas of northem Europe, ef~oseaRas that had mahtred sufficiently to dis-
pense with the Jewish contribution. In central m d eastern Europe, the ar-
eas of Gemany and Poland, need for the Jews remahed, and so did the
Jews. By the end of the Middle Q e s , the great centcrs of Ashkenazic Jew-
ish life lay in Gerlnany and Potand, In the norrhern sectors of western
Christendom, as in the south, the pendulum of Jewish settlement had
swung eastward.
In the sixteent.h century the two largest cmers of J w i s h population
were to be found in the Turkish Empire, where the earlier Arabic-
speakir~gJews had maintained their continuity and the immigrating
Spanish Jews had found their refuge, and in the kjngc-lom 05: Poland,
where the vigorous new hhkenazic Jewry had implanted itself. Few
Jews couid have, at the time, ser~sedthat m t h e r swing of the historic
pendultlm would bring Jews back into the countries of western Europe
from which they had been removed, Resettlement in these more west-
erly areas is one of the defining developments of the moderr1 Jewish
experience.

Suggested Readings
Primary documrsnts are extremely useful for studying history. For the Jews in the
medieval Muslim world, a valuable collection of such documents is provided in
Norman A. Stillman, TIIPfews ofAl"t7bL a ~ ~ (Philadelphia:
ds Jewish Publication Soci-
ety, 1479); fix the Jews of western Christendom, see Robcrt Chazan, Ch~drcbState,
ntzd few in the Middle Ages (New York: Behrman House, 3980). Ovemiews of the
Jewish fate in the medieval Muslim world are provided by S. D. Goitein, Jews and
Artzbs: Tfzeir Corztacts Rzrough tlze Ages (New York: Schocken Books, 1955), and
Bernard Lewis, The IPWS of Islam (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984).For
medieval Jewish life con the Iberian peninsula, see EIiyahu Ashtor, The jews of
Moslrr~Sp~z'rz,trans. Aarc3n KIein and Jenny Machfowitz Klein, 3 vols. (Philadel-
phia: Jewish Publication Society, 1973-19841, and Yitzhak Baer, A H i s t u v of tlze
fer~~sin Ghristz'ntz Spain, tram. Lctuis Schoffman et al., 2 vols. (Philadelphia: Jewish
Publication Society, 1951-1966), For the Jews of northern France, see Robert
Chazan, iGledie.rlaE fewry iz'n rvilrthmtz Frntzce (Baltimore: johns Hopkins Universiq
Press, 19731, and Wililiam Chester Jordan, The French Molza~lzyalad tilzc Jews
(Philadelphia: University <of1X3ennsyfvania Press, 1989); far the Jews ctf medietraj
England, see the opening chapters of Cecil Roth, A Hisfo~yof fhc Jews irz Ellgland,
3rd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964); unfortunately, there is no handy
overview of the Jews in medieval Germany; for the nascent Jewish community. in
Poland, see the opening chapters of Bernard D. Weinryb, The lews of Pufnnd
(Philadelphia: Jewish PublicaGon Society, 1973).
 Medieva ewish Literature
RAYMONU P. SCHElNDLTN

Byzantine Palestine
The sages of Byzmtine Palestine (fourth to mid5eventh centuries) pra-
duced, besides the Palestinian TalmtxQ and midrashim, a great mass of
liturgical poetry called piyyut. Much of this poetry is monymous, like the
"fgimudand Midrash themsdves, though much was also writtm~by poets
whose names are known. The Byzmtine pijiylit belongs to the same cul-
tural and religious matrix as the Talmud and the midrashim and has
points of contart with the Midl"ash both as to its themes and literary kch-
niques. It would therefore be logical to treat the piyyut together kvith the
Talmud and Midrash as a third lserary product of rabbinic Judaism of the
Byzal~tineAge. Yet, for reasons hawing more to do with the history of
scholarship than with the subject itself' it is customary to treat the Tahtrd
m d Midrash as the end point of Jewish antjqui'cy m d the pz'yyut as the
starting point of ihe Jewish Middle Ages. The stude21t should be aware
that all three bodies of literature look bath backward m d forward in ap-
prmirnately the s m e degree.
A huge mass of liturgical poetry from Byzantine Pa:Lestir"tehas been pl-e-
served, but like the traditions embedded in the Talmud and Midrash, this
material is hard to date. Although some progress has been made in estab-
lishing a relative chronology based on the development of the poetic
forms, there has been little success in fixkg absolute chronology The ear-
hest poet h o w n to us by name was Yose ben Yase, but his clates are un-
k"town and he must have been prc'ceded by a l o q tradition of poetic ac-
tivity..Two later poets, ai m d Eleazar Kallir (Qilliri),are said to have
been master and disciple, and Kallir is thought to have been active no
later than tt7e begin11ir"tg of t-he seventh cexrtury b e f m the Muslim con-
que"~".A few other poets are b o w n to have been active in the s m e pe-
I-iod. It is best to &ink of Vaslnai and :Kall.ir as representixlg the classical
period oi Byzantine H e b m piyyuf and of Vose ben Yose, along with
many annnymous authors, as their fore
The emergence of piyyut is closelq. connected with the early develop-
ment of the liturgy, and both processes arc? obscure. Scholarti no longer be-
lieve that liturgical poetry came into being after the prose liturgy was
fixed in approximately its present form. Today it is thought that at the
stage of the liturgy rtrp~serrtedby fhe Mish~~ah, worshipers, especiitliy in
Palestke, had the freedom to improvise the text of the prayers, as long as
they adhered, to rabbinic rules regulating the forms and the sequence of
trhemes. In ihe course of the Amoraic period, certaill fomufas came to be
adopted that satisfied these rtrquircjmex~ts,and these evmhnally emerged
as the fixed liturgy that would eventually be cmonized by the geonim. But
given the freedom that existed before the Geonic canonimtion of the
liturgy (late ninth century), many different tcxtuai realizatio~nsof the
rules gover~ningprayer kvere in existence, and some communitie~pre-
ferred pmyer texts in verse form, The earliest liturgical poetry is therefore
not- tru he conside~da supplemnt to the liturgy or evm a replacement
for it, but rather an acceptable variant of it,
The process of canmization turned the piyyut into an optimal supple-
ment to the standad t a t . Lilxurgical poetry retairned its freedom well past
the poi,nt of. the Geonic camonizat.ion of the btt~rgy;new piyyzrtim (poems)
were contjtantly being written, so that the prayer service in eilch commu-
nity was cor.nstantly being varied and renewed within a traditioml and
s t a t u t v framework. Rut graduatly, the different communities adopted
parljcdar sets of liturgical poems, and these in turn became fixed, as had
trhe prose prayers before them. Even after this process was completed,
some genres of liturgical poetry retained .their freedom well into the Mid-
dle Ages,
Most Jewish liturgy takes the f o m of series of benedicl;ions {bemkhof),
statements of praise b d t on the formula ""Blessed are b u , Z.,orcl.'%me-
tFvnes the prayer begins with this fomula and continues with a relative
&use describing some actior.1oi God's that is lrhe su:$ject of t-he praise. In
this case, the prayer will end with a second "'Blessed are You, Lord," "l-
lowed by a two- or &l-ee-word summaq of the theme. In such prayers,
trhe conclucfirng formula, for exmple, ""Eletisedare Vou, Lord, Mi'b~) makes
everling fall,'' is fixed, but the materid betwen the two recitations of the
fomula may be in prose or in verse, and many versions of both types
hawe survived inmanuxript frapents.
Many benedictions take a simpler form, in whi& the opening benedie-
tion-fomula is absent, The prayer begins with a statement praising God
in the second person and ends with the s m e kirnd of cor.ncIudil7gformda
described above, for example, ""Blessed are You, Lord, who loves His pea-
 MedievatJewish Literature 129

ple Israel." In this case, too, the concluding formula is fixed, but the open-
ing text may be in prose or verse, a ~ many d versiol~sof both types have
survived.
The service in mcient Palestinian spagogues was mostly perfomed
by the precentor, who would recite the bel~edictions;the congregation
wotrld particiaate mostly by ~sportdinii"; ""amen"&er each benediction.
Most cmg~gationswere prohably satisfied with familiar and simple ver-
sions of the prayers that were recited day in and day out, but in others,
the precentor was expected to vary the service by reciting different ver-
sions of the prayers, and these versions were often in verse. If verse was
chosen, t-he precexrtor would versify not just a single benedictio~~ but the
entke series required for the service.
Two m a h groups of poetic benedictions became standard, based an the
two m a h groups of benedictions composing the morning and evening
savices. These are the Shema, which cox~sistsof a passage from ihe Torah
accompanjed by tbree or four benedictions, and the Tefila, a series of
benedictions that fluctuates from seven to rrineken, depending m the oc-
casion. Series of poetic helwdictions based on the f o r m r are called
ywrttt, and series based on the latter are called yerttvtlt. The individual po-
ems that together constitute the series take their names from the benedic-
tions that they present. In the earlier Byzantine period, the poems
within each series kvere trsually identical to one another in farm (with one
exception of outstanding imporlance, the qdushta, to be discussed), but
later, specific verse pattern became associated wittl each be~~ediction.
m e earliest H&rew liturgical poetry was mrhymed and was based on
a loose meter of eight stresses to a line with a strong caesura in the mid-
dle; its language was close to biblical Hebrew the course of the Byzan-
tine period, these simple poems evolved into complex for~xswith distinc-
tive dictim and style. These reached their fullest development in the
work of Ua~naiand Kallir, the two poets whose work, together with that
of poets sharirrg their style, is regarded as constitzrting the classical piwut.
Their huge production consists almost enlirely of rhymed, str0phj.c po-
etry Ihe rhyme frequently imposes lrhe diffiicuit requirement of two iden-
tical root consonitnts, dictating a very forced use of the bnguage. Meter
continues to be based on stress, with a great variety of stanza types based
on trhree- or four-stress lines. Aer~sticsare nearly i\lwilys present, usually
alphahetical or reverse alphabetical, oftm with an acrostic of the poet's
name in addition to or inslead of the alphabetical acrostic.
Ihe most notable hrmill feature of the classical piyyzit is its distinctive
lmguage, which is partly present in ai and full-Bedged hKaIlir, a =g-
ister of Hebrew that was never adopted for any other purpose, Its disthc-
trive features are the nonstandard morphological treatment of common
roots; the use of the vocabulary of rabbinic Hebrew m d kvords of Armaic
and Greek origin; the replacement of most nouns by epithets d r a m from
biblicd texts associated with them; and m aliusive mauler of referfi7.g to
talmttdic and mictmshic motifs. These featms bestow on the Eturgical go-
etry an opaweness that would render much of it nearly hcomprehensible
if it were not h r several miZigatiflg features: 'The movhology thou$h non-
standard, is quite regular and thus constitutes a grammar that can be
learned; the epithets, altk.rough freely counposcct, tend to become stmdard-
ized and based OII biblied phrases associated with the person or Ihing in-
te-nded; and the subject matter is fairly circumscribed by tradition. Despite
these mitigating features, the language can be quite difficult, The poets
probabiy did not expect to be understood in detail except by small num-
bers of auditors possessiizg extensive rabbinic educatio~~. The reasons for
the creation of this dhtinctive poetic register are still being debated, and no
consmsus has yet emerged to explain it. Today alii woulll agree that it does
not rctfiect iporance of I-iehrw on the part of the writers or a desire to con-
ceal the contents of the poehly from non-Jewish pditical aulJlorities, trttough
both theories were current in earlier stage of mearch and am still a c o r n -
tered in the secondary literakire.
The vast majority of pi%~zifim are variations on a rabbinic theme, whether
belmg.ing to a holida~an event in Israel's spyll-richistory, a kgal institution,
or simply a patisage of %ripture as ir7.terpretc.dby the rabbis. Thus, with the
ifllprtUlt exception of one category of piyyzrt, the subject matter is not d i -
gious expedence per se, nor is it philosophy, &eologI or nature; revelation
itself is the predomk~mtfieme. Piyyut rehease~the text of the Bibk in ir-tfi-
nite per~~utations and combhations, based on hom2etical and legalistic in-
terpretations such as hose of the rAbbis of the Tdmud apld Midrash; in fact,
piyyut may well have been one of thct arellas i r ~which horrtiktirr-ltinkrpre
tations were devisd, as it i s not m mcommon occurrence to find a pi'wzkf
evnbodying a midrash not found in any krnown source,
The excreptior~r e f e r ~ dto above, qed~shta,is the complex of p*yzifim R-
ating to the Qedusha, Nthough many of lhese poems focus on homjleti-
cal expositim of biblical passages involving visions of the divine world,
trhe mjority arc ecstatic hymns, ofte11 in litany form. Such p o m s are far
less rich in htellectual content than ordhary piyylafim, but seem to be de-
signed rather to imitak or even induce the visionary's state of mind.
The m a h sufrtject of a paticula piyyzf is partly detemined by the bene-
dictions whose text the pi,wzrt was intended to supply; replace, or suppke-
ment, Xn the cycle of benedictions sumrndillg the Shema, the themes are
creation, Torah, God's love for Israel, and redempLior7. In the cycle co~~stihlt-
istg the Tefila, the themes are God's covenmt with the mcestors, resurrec-
tion, God as sacred king (benedictions 1-3); the Temple service, grdtude,
ar~dpeace Cbcnediciions 5-7 01%Sabbath and most festivals; henerlickions
16-18 or 17-19 on cveekdays); and the sacrcd cltaracter of Lhe occasion of L?he
 MedievatJewish Literature 132

service penediction 4 on Sabbaths and kstivals). But the poets often ex-
pand their keatment of the subject of the benedic~or.~ by introducing other
subjects, especially homiletical materials asswiated wit31 the readhg of the
To&. Poets exercised m&ingcnuiv in l a i n g the t h e m of the "onedic-
tion to passages from the fbrah reading of the day Mi'hifh is often quoted
verhatim in the text of the poem; they often elaborate lnidrnshicatly at
leng& m the Torah xading, somethes seeming to lose sight of the theme
of the be~~edictim, the12 artfully rehkoducing it just before the co~~cluding
benediction formula. The pattern of such piyyl~tr'mis thus very similar to
that of the contempormeous prose homiletic midrashim, in which the au-
thor begins with a verse horn f%teRihle that appears to be remote from the
one he wishes to expomd and then artfully leads the discussion in such a
way that a link betkveen the two is d%covered.h liturgical poetry, the pas-
sages from the Torah phy the role of the seerningty inelcvant biblical vase
that is arthlly show11 to have reference to the be~~ediction at h a ~ d .
Yamai i s the first known author of cycles of qeroltof contajnhg a set of
piyyufim corresponding to each week" readhg in the cycle of Torah read-
ings. h the practice of Pdestinian syl~ag~)fjr;ues of the time, there wre ap-
proximately 150 such readings, spread over a period of three m d a half
years, Ymnai" qeerovot are m s t l y of the type called qedtishta; in this type,
the first two benedictior.~s of the Tefila are represented by p o m s of idex~ti-
cal form, as in, the normal qprclvn (skgular). But the third benediction i s
preceded by a :large nurnber of poems of varyi.ng foms, all. designed as an
introductior.2to the recitatior.2of the verse: "I-loly, holy, hc,fy is the Lord of
Hosts; the whole earth, is fult of His glory" (Xsa, 6:3)and certain. other bib-
lical passages, which, together with the poems that link them, am known
as the Qedusha. In the communities that used poems of &is type, this rit-
ual must have been the climax af the service, for qedlishtnot do not hclude
poems for the reminder of the TefiIa as in the normal. qemua; presumably
after trhe QedusEta, ihe precentor wodd recite the standard pmse benedic-
tions for the ~ m a i n d e rof the Tefila. Like other liturgicd poets, k m a i
composed sirnilar cycles for festivals and other notable occasions,
unities incorporated ihe Qedusha not into the 'Ieiiia but into
the first bemdiction Of the Shema, hnown as yc?gr; accordhgly the cycles of
yogrot c o q o s e d by Kallir and later pwts contain a$ditiar.~alpwrns ei;lbo-
rating lrhe Qedusha of yct~r,t h u g h these p o e m are rrot ils elaborak as
those of the yedrrshfu. The prominc.nce oC the Qedushiz in the f"a)estfim rite
is probably related to the ymiPlence of mcrkba (relathg to God's chariot,
parGcdarly as dmcribed in Ezekiel, chapter 1)mysticism throughout the
period, though the extent of this relationship is a m a ~ e of s dcibate.
hang the many genres of liturgical poetry some am defjned as much
by theme as by function, fn additior.2 to the types already rne~~tioned, a
few must be briefly descrilbed here:
 1. Selibut are poems that were originally designed as an expansion of
the benediction in the Tefila deafing with the forgiveness of sins. They
were recited on fast days, expressing the contrition of the entire commu-
nity for sins, especidy with reference to the idea that the persecution and
exile of the Jews am puni"ment for these sins. Although this type of po-
etry was to have its grclatesl eff?lorc.scerrcein the period nf the Crusades, it
played an important part as early as the Byzantine period, when even
fews living in the natior.la:i hornland suffered systematic p e r ~ w t i o n .
i J m e n t for n&ional suffering, amger at the oppressor, and hope for na-
tional redemption, themes that suffuse Hebrew liturgical poetry of atX
types and at all periods, were promine~~t already in trhe Byza~thleperiod
and coz~centratedin tlze selihot. EventuaUy the selihot were detached from
the Tefila and recited in special prayer sessions held before dawn, espe-
ciallJr during the week before and after k s h HaShanah,
2. Auodot are poems that describe the ritual of the Temple in Jerusalem
on Yom Kippur and were designed for insertion in, the fourth benediction
of the Vom Kipyur Tefila, the benediction dealLng with the s m t i t y of the
day. Nearly all 'avodot begin with a sketch of the creation of the world, the
election of Israel, m d the election of Aaron and his descerrdmts to serve
as Er;raelrsintercessors; they then quote LeviZicus 46:30 to mark thcl fie-
matic transition and go on to describe t-he ritual. The account focuses on
the role of the high priest and concludes with poems of lament far the col-
lapse of tine sacrificial system wilh its expiatory rites.
3. Ilosi"la'~otare litxlies desigzled to accompaly the processioz~sof the
Sufiot festival, a ceresnnny that was &opted by the synagogue from the
Temple service. They are v i t e different in origin and function from the
bulk of liturgic& poetry since they did not come illto being as variarTt
f m s of rabbinic prayets. Nor are they poetical@ so rich; they consist
mostly of lists of epithets for Cod, the Temple, or the Lmd of Israel,
which the leader would recite hakhabetical order, and to which tt7e con-
gregation kvoulld respond, ""Sve us." But this mcient form was carried on
by prominent liturgical poets, and new hosha'lzot we= c~mposedthmugh
trhe M d d e Ages.
Piyyuf is, on the bvhole, a ritualistic kind of poetry, as befits its hnctian
as a public liturgy and as a vehicle of official doctrines and points of view
Its mane lmguage, its rigid strophic stmchnres, its typological treahnent
of events, and its mtxltitzrde of conventions make it more conducive to
technical artistf)i than to self-expression; for the author of piyy~rt,creativ-
ity was more a matter of rehventing the language than of imitating na-
ture or baring his sod. Thus, all.hotrgh it has been possibk to chart the de-
velopment of poetic forms for the piyyuf, it has not been possible to sktch
trhe literary persondity of any of its c ~ a t o r snor
, has it been possible to re-
late the vast majority of "Ihe thousands of extmt piyy~"tirn from the Byam-
 MedievatJewish Literature 133

tJne pePiod to specific historical events. Even those poets whose names
arc h o w n can be chamcterized only by the ways in which they managed
the conventions rather than by their particular religious outlooks ar psy-
chological profiles. Nevertheless, despite its remoteness from the more in-
diwihal kind of poetic expressia~~ characteristic oi romantic titerature, its
obsession with language, and its hermetic mamer of expression, piyyut
sometimes seems surphisingly congenial to the modernist temperament.

Iraq in the Early Cjeonic Period

With the Muslim conquest of the main centers of Jewish population in the
seventh century and the establishment of Baghdad as the capital of the
fibasid Empire in thc eighth, the center of Jewish cultural Iife shifted
f m I'destine to lraq (which 61ne Jews col7tinued to call Rahyfo~~ia). Ih~r-
in,g the heyday of the Abbasid Empire (until the tenth. century), Jewish lit-
erary productio~~ was dominated by the talmudic academies of Sura and
Pumbedita, tt7e heads of which were klown as geonim. As the most presti-
gious figures in the htellectual life af the hbbanite commtxnity in, Iraqt
these authori.ties lent their name to the enti.re period until the demise of
the academies in the eleventh cenbry; but the changes that occurred in
the tenth century make it appropriate to treat the latter two cent-uries af
the academieskexistexrce separately
Ihe literary wofk of tbe gemzinz consiskd mostly of Halakhic writing in
Aramaic. The first importmt Geonic work, the Sheelkof, by R. (Rabbi)Ahai
of Shafia (fist half of the eighth centuf~i),is a homiletical work with a
stra~~ Hdakhic
g compoxlent. h u n d the same time appearcd the HalWlrlt
Pesuqr>t of R. Yehudai Gaan, a primitive legal code, In the ninth century
appeared. the HaIakfzot Getlob!, another code of law, by Sirneon Qayyara of
Basra. Also vpicai of the Geor~icperiod arc. respollsa, written alswers to
Halabic questions sulbmil-ted for ac-tjudicationby rabbis from variows
parts of Ihe world to the geolzim as the final authorities,
:In the field oi Aggada, new nnitlrash collections such as 7ianlza Devei
Eliyakzi and Pirqc Rabbi Eliezer appeared, Both works are raher differeM
in structuae from the midrashjrn of the Arnoraic period; the former clearly
reflect the Islamic milieu alcl attest to more devdoped hterest in narra-
tive than is evident in earlier midrashim.
The synagogue poets of the Cemic period conkued to produce liturgi-
cal poeky irr paetems largely inherited from the earlier pefioc-l. But liturgi-
cal poetry c m e increasingly into colnnict with the ~ l j g i o upmgrarn
s of the
georzim. The gel~ninzstrove to consolidate their conkol over Jewish law m d
ritual tfirau@out the terribrieti of their influe~~ce,
which during the height
of the Abbasid Empke hcluded, at least thearetical3yI nearly all the territo-
ries reached by the Arab conquests. Isr additim to propagatixzg the Bdby-
lo11i;m T a h u d as the sole autho~tafjve base of religious law, the chief sub-
ject of r a b h i c education, and the most pestigious Jewish book after the
Bible the 8e11rrin;Eafso aEempted to u n i synagogue
~ ritual. The result was
the nearly completrtt suppressio~~ of the I'alttslinian liturgcal kadition in fa-
vor of the Rabylonim m d the emergence of a more or less canonical text of
the prayers intended for use in all co unitks, Mthough mhor local dif-
ferer~cesnever disappeared, the geolzinz were quite successful in irrrposh~ga
unifom text. But this program of mgicalion could not tolerate prayer ser-
vices dominated bp cmstmtly chmging poetic texts that varied from week
to week and from place to place; the geolzi~ltherefore discouraged the use
of liilurgcaf poeky, ssomethes prohibiting it outright.
Despite their success in imposixlg a canonical iiturgy, the getmim failed
to banish poetsy from the synagogue. By this tiwne, rnany specific poems
had becom so familiar and widely used that they were incorporated into
the canonical text itsef;f.Some communilcies had cycles of: Murgical, poems
that were so well estilblished that they would not give them up. And in
many commur~ities,the desire for liturgical variation remaimd s t r o q
enough that they refused to give up the practice of commissionhg new
poetry. The compromise that was evenhally reached and that is still the
practice in those traditinnal communities in lNhiCh librgicai poetry has
survived is to recite the canonical service in accordance with the Geonic
~gulationsbut d s o to insert the liturgkal poetry in suitable places-not
always the or~esfor which the poems were originaify designed-as a sup-
plement to the fixed liturgy. h this way the prayer ritual came to be seen
as consisting of a fixed, stalutory text mostly in prose m d fairly uniform
trhroughout the Jewish world and a body of pwtry regarcied theoreticitfly
as optional and varying f-rom commttnity to community.
:In the course of the Middle Ages, most commnities gave up commis-
sioning new poetry and adopted a set of poems for the e~~tirc. year, creat-
ixlg local rites authoritative for large areas (like the French rite, the Italian
ritei and the Western Ashkenazic rite) or for particular towns or groups of
fiu~i'ns(like the rites of Frankfurt am Main; of Aleppo; or of Asti, Mont-
calvo, and Fossano). To this day, the deviations in the canonical prayer
text worldwide remah nugatory; the local rites clre mainly distinguished
by t-heir differe~~t selections of poetry Though the Hebrc?w poets of early
Geonic Iraq cont-inued to experiment with the forms of lituqical poetry,
they did, not innovate much with regard to the liturgiral functims of the
poetry, its lar~guage,or co11te11ts. "Ihere werc? also some rites, such as that
of Yemen, from which liturgical poetry largely disappeared, though there
is none from which it is wholly absent.
Ihe popularity and p ~ s t i g eof liturgical poetry throughout the Jewish
world are Miidely attested by several facts: It continued to he composed
 MedievatJewish Literature 135

throughout the Midde Ags; most important riibbis made some attempt
tru compose liturgicd poetry; a r ~ dit was the subject of leanled commm-
taries, like other religious texts. Its popularity is also attested by descrip-
tions of Jewish liturgy by medieval observers. O f those, one of the most
memrahle is a satire by Judah ai-1;Tarizi (d..3225) implying that o d h a r y
pevle-absurdly from the point of vjew of rdigious lakv-illtcnded the
synagogue more for the sake of the puetry &an for the canonical payers.
M-IMrizi's satire presupposes that this prefemnce was widespread.
Local liturgical practices were not the only centrifugal force with which
the geolrinz had to contend in consolidat-ing their control. A number of op-
position movements arose durir~gthe early Geonic period, of whiCh two
were literarily productive. In a remote corner of Iran, a Jewish heretic
named vivi of Bal& wrote a treatise attacking the Bible for its apparent
internal contradictions and irrational statements, Saadia Gaon wrote a
treatise? in Hebrew verse rtrfutir~g1:Iivi"s ohjeciior~s.III the Geonic heart-
land of Iraq arose the Karaite movement, which proved very influential 21
the later development of Jewish litet-alure, Beginning in the eighth cen-
tury, this moveme~~t broke with Geonic authmity denying the authentic-
ity of the rabbink tradition and attemptjng to restore the Rible as the sole
aulE.loritativeguide to religious life.
Karaism developed into an important force in the ninth a r ~ dte11th cen-
turies, growing in numbers and inAmence, so that in many corntries two
distinct Jewish communities existed side by side, From a :Literarypoint of
wiew, Karaism was a stimulus to intensified study of t-he Bible, which the
ritbbis had tended to neglect in favor of the study of ritbbinic tradition.
Karaite scholars we= the first to develop two iYnportant areas of Jewish
studies that camcj to appear to be characteristic of Jewish scrholarship: the
writing of commentaries on the books of the Bible and the systematic
study of the Hcbrew language. The Raklbaniks responded to t%ie Karaite
challrtrrge by themselves taking up these actiwities. 'Thus, it is theorized
that the Masoretes, who developed the \"we1 and cmtillation marks at-
tached to the words of the Hebrew Bible, created authoritative biblical
codices, and were the first to explore H e h w grammar, were Karaites
and that they kverc3 led to these studies by the centraljty of the Bibfe in
their mligious outlook. So responsibly was their work performed that it
was accepted as authoritative even by the circles of the ~ o n i n ztheir
, arch-
enemies..To this day, the standard editions of the Bible are based on the
Masoretic text.
h t h e r feature of Karaite writillg that was g r o u n d b ~ k i ~ lfor
i g later
Jewish lirterature was the fact that much of their wriling on religious sub-
jects was in Arabic. We shall see that in their concern with the Bible, their
interest in Hebrew language and grammar, a r ~ dtheir use of Arabic for
writing on religious subjects, they were followed by one of the greatest
rabbinic authorities of the Middle Ages, Saadia Caon, &rough whose
prestige these subjects would become importar~tfor rabbinic Judaism as
well.

The Later Geonic Period

It was precisely during the deciine of the A:hbasid Empire that a fiwre
arose in Iraq whose cizrr?erheralded a radical shift in the nature of Jewish
literature, paving the way for the scarcely pardteled achievements of the
next two cenuies. Saadia ben Joseph, a rabbi of Egyptian origin who
mse to the pogition of gaon of Sura in 928, had a h c e f u l persmdity, a
driving ambition, a broad educritlicm, and a fluent pen. He is the first me-
dieval Jewish figurtt whose biogaphy is known in some detail. Some as-
pects of Saadia"s career had antecede~~ts m o q his p~decessorsin the
gaonate, but he was the first to trnite a number of particular interests,
skilk, and character traits, and to generate from them a substantjal liter-
ary production that became a landmark in the histmy of Jewish literature.
We start by considerhg lmguage. By the tenth. century, Aramaic m d
Grrctek, the languages spoken in the Jewish heartlands (Palesthe, fracl, and
Egypt), had becm replaced by Arabic. The Jews spoke, 01.1 the whole, the
same Arabic as that spoken by Muslims and Christians. When kvriting,
Jews prefened to use the Hebrew alphabet, just as Christians in Iraq often
preferred to continue using the Syriac alphabet. Today, the tanwage of
Jewish kvritings in Arabic using the Hebrew alphabet is called Judeo-
Arabic, but except for Hebrew technical terms used by Jews to refer to rit-
ual matters when speaking or writing Arabic, this la~guagewas com-
pletely intelligible to non-Jews Tlnd hardly at all different fmm the Arabic
generally spokcrm. It was only after the Middle Ages, with. the incrtrasing
segregation of Mddle Easkm Jews from the Muslim populace, that
Judeo-Arabic kvould diverge significimtly from Muslim Arabic. For most
of the Middle Ages, it is simpler and mortr accurattz to sgeak of the Arahic
writings of the Jews as $&g in Arahic.
m e early geonim kvere slow to adopt Arabic as a written language, and
even when they did so, they did not attempt to use it for major literary
works. Saadia was the first of the geozzim to use Arabic as a matter of
course as the language of his books. He lent Arabic qtrasi-liturgical status
by tmnslathg the Bible into it; he aXso composed a lengthy commenhry
on the Torah and comentnries 01.1many other bibfical books in Arabic.
But commentaries kvere a traditional form of Jewish literary praduc-
tion. Saadia went further, adopting not only the language of the Arabs but
also their literal-y ger71.e~and breaking with the genE categories of the
Jewish tradition: He was the first b ~ w postbiblical
n Jewish writer to
 MedievatJewish Literature 137

compose treatism d m t e d to a single topic and organized by logic& prin-

ciples not deriwir.18 from earlier fewitifn works. Saadia, in effect, intro-
duced to Jewish literature the modern idea of the book- Each of his books
has an inhoduction in which the motives for writing it are described, the
thesis succinctly stakd, and the conte~~ts outlined. This procedure, so nat-
ural and obvious to madern readers, was e n t i ~ l ynew to the Jews and
may be regarded as an important legacy of Arabic, and uiitimately of Hel-
lenic, literature-
Saadia's books were not all written in. Arabic. He kvrote some works in
Hebrew and also devoted sipifjcant effctrts to promoting the use of He-
brew. Most notable in this regard is his dictio~~ary, the. Agnttz, orgal7ized to
facilitate the efforts of Hebrew poets to find appropriate acrostics and
rhymes and prefaced with an introduction in Hehre~vamounting to a
manifesto for a program to revive the use and study of H&rew, perhaps
even as a spoken language. From this introductior.~,it is clear that Saadia
was r e ~ o n d i n gto the challenge of the Arabie idea of 'arahi-wa,the notion
of the unsqassable perfection of the Arabic language, an idea that was
reinforced far Muslims by theological doctrhe of :jna al-qzlr'&.t, the mirac-
ulous character of the Arnbit style of the Quran. Iriaadia &tempted to
counter this challenge by promoting the talmudic idea that H&rew was
trhe original a d most perfect lr-znguage of mankind- The cause of its de-
cline and a p p m n t imperfection vis-8-vis the other l,mguages, especidly
Arabic, was the Jewish exile, which was rcspmsible not merely for the
loss of territory a ~ sovwignty
d but -also for Lhe dehaseme~~t of the He-
brew languager with the result that the superiority of Hebrew had been
temporarily o b s c u ~ dit; was a religious duty to cuitivate and a t t m p t to
restore the languirge to its original sple~~dor.
Saadia saw the writillg of poetry in Hebrew as an important part of this
hguistjc agenda, given t-he tremenduus prestige of dassifal Arabic po-
etry thmughout the M u s h world. He wrote Hebrew liturgicai poetry
extensively, much of it in an extremely difficult style that he seems to
have devised in a conscious attempt to =-create the Hebxw poetic idjom
along fines rtriated to his polcrrtical linguisticr agnda, He seems to have
viekved Hebrew liturgical poetry as the Jewish literary heritage corre-
spmding to classical Arabic puetry for Mtlsllms m d saw its cultivation as
a part of the attcrrtpt to establish Hebrew language and Iiteratw within
the Jewish commtxnity as a cultural force of corresponding weight and
prestige. In this regard, he seems to have been in disagreement with the
other gelminz, fhough in lihrgical practice he may have come around to
the mare conservative view. By experimenting with poetry, by using it
outside the sphere of liturg~r,m d by writing a d i c t i o n a ~for poets, he laid
trhe intellczchnal foundixtions for the fiowerhg of Hchl-ew poetry ~ ISpain, I
as we shall see.
 A large part of Saadia" career was devokd to polemics, and several of
these resdted in innovative litermy works. His book on the catendar
played a central part in the notorious controversy bet-vveen the georzim and
the Palestinian rabbi Ben Wir. His Bctak of the Festiillnls, a commemoration
of the controversy, was written in two versiol~s,one in Arabic and one in
Hebrew The Hebrew version bvas in a ceremonious, quasi-biblical style
and p r w i d d with vowel and accent markings, like a biblitat codex. Saa-
dia iollowed this procedure also with the Hebrew inkoduction to his dic-
tiomary for poets, and with his fliYm "~tlok, a defense of his gaonate, writ-
ten during the perjod of his exile, when he bad been temporarily
deposed. Other poledcitf works by Saadia include his Elehrew poem re-
futing the critique of the Bible by the Jewish heretic kIivi of BaIkh; his
poem against the Masorete Ben Asher; and, especially; works directed
against the Maraites.
5aadia is best known today for his Arabic theological treatise, The Boc:~k
off-feliqs and Opinbns. This book; again shows Saadia as m innovator, fos
it is the first iknown fewish book of systematic theology f.t. is also early ev-
idence of a cultural fact of g ~ ilnportance
& for t-he development of few-
ish literatz~re.The adoption of h a b i c as the chief language ol Jewish in.-
tellectual life from the time of Saadia was not merely a linguistic
development but s i ~ ~ a l the e d witers' intdlectud Arabizalion as well. It
s tendmcy of the Jewish intelfigen6ia to acquire m habit edu-
~ f i e c tthe
cation, in addition to their Jewish education, and to join in the intellectual
activities that were cuftivakd by contemporary R/luslh intellectuals, es-
pecially in the fields of poetry; Arabic gra ar, science, philosophy, and
theology, Their Arabic edwation gave them access not onfy to kaditional
Arabic lore but also to the literary tradition of late antivily in lrhe form of
works of G ~ e science
k and philosophy that h d been translatect into Ara-
bic during the eighth m d ninth crmzturies.
I h e Jewish inkltecbals%rafiization made it possible for at least some
ol them to share in the activities of thefaylnstgs, habic-speaking irttellec-
tuals of varied xligious commitments, who cultjvated the learning of an-
tiquity a d who wodd meet for discussion of topics of common interest.
Improbable as it may seem in. a world domkated by religious absolut.ism,
the dimate in the late Abbasid and Buwayhid periods was favorahk to
interconfessio~~al intellectual life. There were intellectual gatheril7gs at-
tended by Muslims, Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, atheists, and mem-
bers of all manner of sects, where serious discussion was nude possible
OIT Im-rguage,Arahic, and the common inkllecbal gujdelh~es
ol formal logie. Mthough it is not h o w n whether Saadia personally par-
ticipated in such gathehgs, his work rekcts the interyenekation of alti-
tudes, methods, a ~ ideas d charactel-lstic of the highest intellecbal life of
the times. His desire to put the Jewish tradition on the basis of pure rea-
 MedievatJewish Literature 139

son emerges out of the spirit of the time and established the problematics
of Jewish philosophy for the duration of the hiliddte Ages.
As if Rlf these innovations were not enough, Saadia left Jewish li(era-
ture mother importmt legacy in the fom of a literary personality. R&-
bhic literature had always been commuml literalure. In the thousands of
Hebrew poems written in the period preceding Saadia, not one personal-
ity is in evidence, even where the poetshames are known. In the Talmud,
traditions are attached to the names of authorities, but no personality is
attached to m s t of these nmes, whiCXl, from a literary pojnt of view,, are
virtualZy interchangeable. Most stories of the famous rabbis of the %l-
mud anrt midrashim tend towad the exemplary anrZ the typological, and
autobiqraphical stakmnts are disconneckd arid rare. By contrast, in the
htraductlons to his works and especially in his Open Book, Saadia, writ-
ing in the first person, describes his own experiences, his own motiva-
tion~,his own attitudes. It does not matter whether these stateme~~ts are
1iterilXXy true or are a 1i.f.emrydevice. Saaciia is the first rabbillic writer to
use the word 'T' to create a convirtcing literary persona. The only h o w n
postbiblical precedents in Jewish writi~~g-andthey cannot. hawe been
h a w n to Saadia-are Josephus m d 13hilo,jln the Hellenistic period.
From the time of Saadia, Jewish writing in the Islamic world a c ~ i r e da
character w:hoHy distinct from Jewish writkg in Christian Europe. Writ-
ers in, the Christian territories contbued to be limited in lmguage to He-
brew; in literary forms, to those established by the mcient rabbis, such as
commentaries, codes, and liturgical poetry based mostly on midrash
(t.h,oughthey also employed sporadkally s o m new prose forms); in con-
tent, to ~ l i g i mespecially
, mligious law; and in htclllect-ual backgrourrd,
tru the Jewish tradition (including, of course, whatevcl- foreigl ideas had
been haphazardly hcorporated into the rabbhic tradition). Writers iYr the
Islamic. world had three larrguages at their disposal (tlebrcl.~ Arabic, m d
Aramaic) for their books and a wide ralge of IIC'W sUkjects. &&ion re-
mained at the ccntcjr of their concern, but secular themes increasingly
took root among 'Jewishwriters, both in Arabic and in HCEtbrew Even their
writing on religious ~Uhjectswas stroll& marked by contact with habic
writillg, as can be seen in the influence both of Islamic ter~xinologyand
ideas on 'Jewishreligious writers and, especially in the influence on Shem
of Greek philosophicat and scientific ideas. Above afl, their inteIlectuaf in-
terests were as broad as those of Arabic-speakhg, non-Jewish inkllectuals.
These differences can be accounted for by three factors. The Islamic
world il.tha$ited by the Jews embodied a stro~lg,complex, and a d v m e d
culture, which was actually the dominmt culture of the Western world
m d the Middle East for mmy centuries, whereas intellect-ual life in Chris-
tian Europe during this period was relatively stagmnt. Furthermore, the
Jews of lslarndom enjoyed both the weallh, and the h~owledgeof Arabic
necessary to afford lhem access to the prevailing high cdture, whereas
the Jews of Christiandom were blocked even from the much narrower in-
tellectual life availa:blc there because it was controlled mostly by monas-
teries a r ~ dbecause its official i m p a g e was Latin rather tha3.1 the vemacu-
hr.E;inally, Islamic society, in its periods of damhation, was sufficiently
secure to per~xiteasy irrteraction between Muslims m d non-Muslims.
The differences between the htellectual state of Christendom and Is-
lamdorn and the f e w s ~ o s i t i m within them account for the fact that until
the declia.ae of Islam after the Crusades, the center of Jewish intellectual
activity and literary productiorz would be the Islamic countries. Jewish
Cbristiandom, for all its attainments in the field of reiigious law and lihxr-
gical pwtry would never he so vibrant.
Tl-te cosmagolitm character of Judaism in. the Islamic world of the tenth
century is reflected in a work that has only recently come to attention. m e
author, Sa'id b. Rabshad, is oe-herwise unknown. His book, h ~ w simply n
as Tdzc Pnlvertls of Sn'id be Bafislud, is a colkctim of versified proverbs in
hymed, metricai couplets. It defir~est-he goal of religio~~ as h w i r ~ God g
and asserts that this &%&edge is achieved through intelfectual i\ctivit)i a
position quite natural to thefnylasafs of thc age; the "Torah and the Jewish
covenant with God arc? scarcely mentioned. fn PIne fcrllowilng century, such
attitudes kvould become commonplace among the Jewish ktellectuals of
Spai.11. Other, a n m p o u s works refiect a pattern of literary inkrchange
betwem Jews mcl environment on the level of the folktalc. T/zeAlpr'znbet of
Ben Sim, a collection of cy11ica1, parodic stories a d prover2ns attributed to
trhe inEant Ben %a, unfords in a generally prwient atmosphe~.The p m -
pose of this musual book has not yet been explained; oddly it was car-
ried to Italy and Ashkenaz, where it was taken seriously by the Ashke-
nazic Pietists ( v ~ s i d wslzke~uz).
e Thc Tule of thl. ~ r u is ans elaborate
s t o v based on the widespread folklore motif ot' a man who marries a fe-
male demon. ^This story too was carried to Ashkenaz, and was even at-
trfbuted to the Ashke~~azic Pietisis. Also possibly from this period is The
Tales ~fSendefillr, the Hebrew versiox~of a piece of Fntelg~atio~~al lore that
originated in fndia or Persia m d exists in mmy languages..Like the Thou-
sand cnrzd One Nighis and other collections of folktales m d kables of the
age, it consists of a collection ol stories kvithin a framework story: In the
fralnework story, a king accuses his wife of attempting to seduce his sun,
but the son is barred from defending himself by the warnings of as-
trologers that he will die if he speaks for a cwtain period. The wife tells a
series of stories intended to prove that sot~s are d i d y d to f a t k s , and the
king's comselors tell stories that are htended to pro\" that kvornen are
deceitful to their husbands. The work is franHy misogynistic. It too was
dissemhated throughout the Jewish world,
 MedievatJewish Literature

Byzantium and Ashkenaz

Although the geonim held sway in most of the Islamic territories, Palestin-
ian likrgiral kaditions wem camied on in Palestine itself and, to some ex-
tent, in adjacent Egypt, but especiaily in the Byaantine Empire. In the
eastern part of the empire, the liturgy of the Greek-speaking Jews came to
be known as the h m m i o t rite. There it persiskd until the sixteenth cen-
tury, when the collapse of the Byzanthe Empircl. and the arrival of large
nuxnbers of ~ f u g e e from
s Iberia brought about the %phardization of the
region.
Byzanthe Italy also had importar~tcenters of rabbinic scholarship that
rernair~edin close contact with Palestk~e,and maxy rabbis of this com-
munity wrote litztrgicd poetry. Of these, the most notable were Silano
(Venosa, early nhth cmhry), Amittai ben Shehtia (Oria, late nhth-early
t e ~ ~century),
th and Solomon b. Judah of Rome, usuaify called Solomon
the Babylonim (second half of the tenth century).
Silano9sfew rr;mafing poems are selibot l m e ~ ~ t the h g exile and suffer-
i n g ~of the Jews. One of them still forms part of the Ne'ilu service in the
Ashkenazic rite. Amittai also kvrote a number of selibot, some of which
were inspired by the persecution of the Jews of Byzantine Italy by the Em-
peror Basil :I, some of which rernain h the Ashkenazic liturgy. In conso-
nmce with the religious spirit of his time m d place, h i t t a i ' s poetry is
much concerned with mgels; it describes the h d of religious experience
and cmploys the h d of religious lanpage associi\ted with the h&haltlt
(throne mysticism) literature, X"art.ierallarllynoteworthy in this regard is a
poem describing Moses%scmt through the ranks of the angels to receive
ttai's i m p a g e is not as opaquc, -as that of most liturgicill po-
etry, and the small part of MSproduction that is extmt is of high quality
This preoccupation of h i t t a i and the other pocrts of this period with
mysticism is reflected in a major prose work of the te11th cenhnry, the ex-
tensive comentary by Shahetaj Dollnolo on Sefer Ye~iralz.The work is
prefaced with a long poem with an acrostic of Donnolo" same, wri.tten in
order to guarantee that his name would be forever attached to the work,
The third of the great 1taliia.n Eturgisal, poetm"fthe period was S o l m m
the Babylmian, whose work strongly influenced the Ashkenazic rite. H e
it; known for his setik~tcvhich
, are s o m e b e s called slmlntcmiyot, &er his
name; they are powerful lnmertts b r the suffering5 of Israel in exile and
petitions for divIne retribution against the enemy. I-Ie is especially f m e d
for his monume~~tal yogr for Passover, one of the most i w l p ~ s " i ec m -
poneMs of th.e Ashkenazic liturgy imd dso one of the most difficdt. T%e
many individual parts of which it is composed are strung together on the
literary thread of the So11g of Songs, with each successive stanza conclud-
ing with a quotation from, the successve verses ol that bibljcal book, one
of the cornerstones of the homiletic traditions of Passover: Later Italian
and Asbke~~azic poets were to compose intitations of this great work.
m e tenth century also saw the rise of a group of poets in the northern
I t a l h city of Lucca. There, most of the pocrtic activitJi sprmg from, mem-
bers of a single family, k ~ o w narr; the Kalonymides. C)f^ them, the most im-
pnrtanl. wese Noses ben Kalonyxnos, autf7or of the q~dzlrshtufor the last
day of Passover in the Ashkenazic rite; Kalonymos b. Moses the Elder, au-
thor of a series of poems for Yom Kippm in the AsI-tke~~azic rite; and, es-
pecially, Mehullam, ben Kalonymos, aulhor of one o f the q~dushfuctffos
Yom Kippur in the Ashkenazic rite and especially famous for his 'nsroda,
which is still recited evm cox~gregationsthat have drastically reduced
trhe amount of Iit-urgical poetry in their services. As we shatl see, several
pnets of this h i l y m v e d to the Winelmd in the teMh century; they
thus serve as a bridge between the Palesthian-Italian poetic tradition and
the IWW Ashkenazic rile.
Several importmt pmse works have come down to us from the early
I t a l h Jewish community; they am of such high yuality that they must re-
flect more exter~siveliterary activity in the artla than can be reconstructed
today. In 953, a Hebrew historical work called Vosqon qpeared, recnunl-
ing &c history of the Jews from the cfeation through the Second Com-
mor~wealth,Attributed to an otherwise ur"t1ow11 Yosef ben Gurior~,the
work is m abridgment and adaptation of the historical work in Greek by
the first-cmkrry Jewish wP.iter fosephus, whose name is =acted in the tj-
tle. Yos$o~z is written in exceilex~tbiblical Wcbrcw a narra'tive style so
vivid that it has ~ m a i n e dextremely popular thoughout the cotlrsc of
Jewish history Since the twelfth, centulry, manuscripts of X~sif'ol~ have in-
c o ~ o m k dthe Aexar~derRomance, a cycle of stories about Mexander
the Grcat deriving from the Hef,lenisticmemoirs of Nexander the Great,
h o w n as Pseudo-Callisthenes, and widdy disseminated throughout me-
d i e d Christian Europe. This is a cycle of literary fore that the Jews
shared with their Christian neighbws. fn Hebrekv there are no fewer than
six works on the subject; they are not sLmply translations of an original
text but, like the versions in other Emopean lanpages, dev&p the story
fsclely, someti,mes drawing on legends of Alexmder from the Taimud that
are independent of the Hellenistic source. The earliest Hebrew version
prohably appeared in the elevenCh cel7hnry.
Finally, Abh$az b. Palliel, a scion of a notable family of rabbis m d mys-
tics that lisrcluded Silmo and A m i t t ~told
, of the acfivities and advenbres
of his ancestors a c b m i n g chrox~ick,The Scvull of Ahi~znuz,writtex~in
Capua h 1054, This musual work is one of the outstandkg Hebrew liter-
ary productions of the Middle Ages. Replete with folklore, fasrhstir stories,
and fachnaf information, it is witten from beginr~ingto end in rhymed
prose. This is a techique that was used in Hebrew liturgicd poety at least
 MedievatJewish Literature 2-43

slince the time of Vannai, but that was first applicd to narrative by Hebrew
w.l"itersof al-Andalus in imitation of the Arabic ~zaqBrtu,a gelwe that will be
defined l&r in this &apter. Xf A b h a b z adopted this technique in imita-
tion of Tbehn Hebrew writers, it would be the earliest known case of Ara-
bic in8wnce on Hebrew literature h Italy in this period- In any case, he
hmdled the t e b i q t ~ kvith
e great mastery.
:Inthe tenth cenhry, the center of creativit3, in the field of l i t u ~ i r apl m t v
shifted from Italy to the mheland, as in the col~cretecase of the
Kalonymides, who actuizlly =located there. The founding fathers of the
great religious academies of the Wineland, R Ccrshom, "the tight of the
Exile," a ~ Sdk e o l b.~ Isaac, k ~ o w nas "Sheorni the Great" were both im-
portar~tlifn_lre;icai Eigure of the famous l e g a d of
poets. 5imeo11is f i e ce~~tral
the rabbi whose son, abducted by a maid, was baptized and rase through
the rarmks of the Church untif he eventualIy becamc pope. This ltitgend was
attached to bis poem in the Ashkmazic rite for the secox~dday of Rosh
HaSharnah because of its acros-l%c "Sim,eon b. Xsaac . . . t:,l.hanan my son."
Most of the poetry of the writers named so far in this section continue
the forms and liturgic& fuur~ctionsof fhe Palestinian school of iibrgical
poets. The tenth to the t w d f h centuries sacv the consolidation of the
Ashkenazic liturgical tradition, including fixed cycles of yagntf. and
qemvut for the liturgical occasions of the year; this tradition was cm011-
ized in the Mlakirr %try (ca. 7100). Wth t%ie consolidatim of the liturgical
tradi"r_ion,new poems in many genres of ljturgical poetry were no lmger
in d e m d ; according& the composition of new yogertxi and qerovclf
ceased; rrcw composition came to be limited mostly to sclihof., a genrf, in
which greater liturgical freedom prevailed, though a few new types of
liturgical poetry were also cJevised.
T%e selib becme the m s t distinctke aEa of Ashkenazic puetic creativ-
ity SelihttZ:,originally intended for fast days, were also recited on days that
w e e estilblished for the a x ~ u acommemorittio~~
i of local persecutions. Such
commemarative days multiplied as a result of the persecutions camected
with the Crusades md, latert with the Black Plague, and so did the number
of sdi.hilt. The sclihot of the period of the Cnasades have kahrres that d i s k -
gukh them from those of Byzantkc?Palestine and Italy. They often deal ex-
pliritly with the m s s murders apld with the mass suicides that were a dis-
trinctive expression of Ashkenazic piety undel- Christian attitck.
Aceordhglyfthey are far more inte-nse mQmguished thm most of the ear-
lier selwt. Furtrhermore, unlike most Ilebrew librgicai poetry, which al-
most never rcfiectt; actuaf eve~~ts, they often mentjol~and sometimes even
describe specific incidents, naming particular Jewish communities that
were destroyed and individuals who were killed or who committed sui-
cide. There arc cases of sr.lihut describing the expaieme of m indivictual
with m explichess ordinarily asswiated more with the Hebrew poety of
Spah-for example, Rabbi Eliezer h. Juda_h"spoipmtly detililcd poem on
the death of his wife a7d hughters in the First Cmsade.
But most of the poetry, li,ke Hebrew liturgical poetry in general, contin..
ued to operate on the basis of typology The theme of the near-kining of
Isaac by Abraham becam a characteristic su$ject of selmt, for this story
came to be associated in the minds of the congregations with the slaugh-
ter of children by fathers who wished to prevent them from falling into
the hands of the mobs; selilfKlt 011 this theme are called 'aqedot. I h e stories
ol tfig ten rabbhic martvs ol the Hadrianic persecuticms and of Hannah
and her seven sons from the Maccabean age were also worked up into
stirring poems. Even the biblical accow~tof tlhe suicide of King Saul and
his son fo11athar.l was, quite i\ppmpriatctly brought into the poetry.
The g ~ a t e s Ashkenazic
t s e l i b poets we= Ephrnim of Born (not only
because of his famous 'aqedtz), his hrot-her Hiltel, Eliezer b. Natm, and
:Meir of Rothedurg (who made a remarkable attemp to write a long
poem h the style of fudak Mdevi's ode to Zjon, ttsjng the Arabic panti-
tative meters, which werr mostly unknowrz to Ashkenazic writers).
I h e Crusades were also respo~~sihle for the creatio1.r of a prase literary
genre in Ashkenaz, the crusade chronicle. The authors of the surviving
works on the First Crusade were Solomon b. Sarnson, Eliezer b. Nati-tn,
and an anonymous writer; and 01%the Secmd Cmmde, Ephraim oi Bo171-1.
m e circles of the hhkenazic Pietjsts produced a major prose work, Tile
Book of the Pious, b y Rabbi Judah the Pious (beginning of the Shirteenth
century). This work, which became a religious classic, col~sistsof some
400 exempla (moral instmctians in the form of stories and anecdotes). Re-
markably, its form and conlent recall in many ways those of Christ_ianex-
empla works, a g e m that reached full flower in this very period. But un-
like the Christian exempla works, the stories in T h e Nook of flze Pious,
rather than merely ~ t e l t i n g sof mcient stories, are mostly new stories,
many of k m prohahiy inventions of Ralsbi 'Judah the Pious himseli. I h e
masters of the Ashkerrazic Pietist school themselves became the sutrjects
of Ifgmds, which evenhtally found their w q into postmedieval collec-
tions like the Maase Bzlch, in both its Hebrew and Yiddish versio~~s.
m e Ashkenazic Pietists also wrote poetry; which, though htended for
=citation in the synagogue, did m t belong to any already existing genre,
a most w~usualphenamcnon in Jewish Iiturgical history. These poems,
li;no'~vnas the "Hymns of ij'njty" and '*Hymrts of Glory,'-were medita-
tions on mystical theological doctrines, and some of them are still in use,
Medievitl Jewry produced a variety of Hchl-ew prose works ol a literary
nature. The midrashic tradition of Elyzmt-ine Palestine had an afterlife in
the Middle Ages, produdng encplopedic compilatims of mostly older
material, suCh as CL'EYS~S Rnhbati, by the discipies of :Moses the Preacher
(Narbonne, eleven& century); Lekah To% by Tobias b. Eliezcr (Balkans,
 MedievatJewish Literature 2-45

eleventh century); Ya2qzlt Shimcoolzi, attributed to Simon the Preacher

(Frar~kfort,thirteenth century); and many others. Besides these late
midrashirn, there are mmy prose stories that elaborate an bi[blical m d tal-
mu& stories. There are also longer works consi.sSing of reworkings of
stories that orighated ~IIthe Muslim wmld in the late Geox~icperiod, as
already described, and belongkg to the inl.esnational folklore tmdition
shared by the Ambic-speaking MiddXe East and the Latin West. Et is gen-
erally not possihle to determine exactly the dates and proveIIarlce of these
work in the form in which they have come dokvn to us, as their trmsmis-
sion history is often so complex that it carnot be untangled.,Some exist in
several versions, rlone of h i & is deiinitive; they were cox~stantlybeing
reworked, ehdlished, ar~dabridged, and some continued to gmw and
develop after the Middle Ages. They form a continuum bet-kveenfolklort.
and formal Iikratum. Of this type is the Akxander Romutzce, mentjoncd in
cox~r~ectim with Yosqon; and 'The History offisus, a parodic biography of
Jesus that exists in many versions. This work contahs elements that are
found already in the Talmud and in Ceonic literatax, but it also reflects
of the l i i s f o y ~fBen Sir@.Beymd that, its history is obscure,
the i~lifluer~ce
Rather more formally a titerary work, The Fox Fables, by Berefiya
Hmaydan (Iczielfth-thirkenth cenhtries), is written in hymed prose, T h i s
collectior~of animal fables is heavily depend& m the European M l e
tradition gohg back to Aesap via Marie de France- The author was a Jew
of NOrmmdy or Norman England.
'The fourteenth c m h r y marked the emergence of Viddish as a literary
language, beginning with the adaptation in rhyme of bi,blicd tales. Stories
of Abraham, Moses, Esthel; and of the binding of Isaac are known; a
poem of Moses dates from 1382. Important biblical epics in Yiddish arc.
the Shmrlel Wuch and the Melokltim Rrrch, presurmably written in the fif-
teen& century;

Islamic Spain
The Jewish community of Islalnic Spain, like that of the rest of the fvlustim
world, was part of the cdtural sphere. of Iraq and the ~ o n i mIn. the tenth
century, when Istamic Spain broke openly with the Abbasid d i p h a t e and
became an independent caliphate, the Jewish commmity; formerly quite
obscure, s u d d d y bwst into world prominence and produced a distjnc-
tive and brillia~tJewish culture, after1 referred to as the Golde11 Age of
Hebrew literature. This culture reflected the easy interaction between
Jewish and Muslim intellectuals that we have already seen in tenth-
century :Iraq; it was &SO the cu:iminatiox~of lrhe Arabizing Jewish c d t m
propagated by Saadia Gaon.
 We h o w little of Spanish Jewry until the time of ljlasdai fbrm Shaprut
(915-gm), except that by the tenth century it was sufficiently prosperous;
and cultured to have produced a man of his accomplishments and
stabre, Though he was not h o w n to have been a wrjtcr hi.mself, he was
learned e ~ ~ o u ginh medicine to have a positiol~in the court at Cordoba
and to have been jnvolved, on the hdalrasim caliph" behalf, jn a trans-
lation project iRVO1Ving a Greek phamacolqi"a1 text. In Jewish writings,
he is rderred to as hr(~111~i(the chief); we do not know cxactly whether the
title was merely an honorific or whether it cteggnated a particular office
within the Jewish,coxnnunity. But he does seem to have controlled, the life
of the commu~~ity ar~dthus may be regarded as ihe first of the 'kmrtier-
rabbis" who were to be characteristic of Muslim Spain and influentid in
the development of Hebrew letters there.
A twelfth-century Hispano-Jewish wrjter said, "In the days of Ij[asdai
trhe Chief, they begm tru chirp, and in the days of Samuel the Nagid, they
lifted their voices." This m a x h expresses the akvareness of Andalusian
Jews themselves that their time was a Golden Age of Hebrew literature,
that their writers had achieved somethinf: completely new in Jewish his-
tory' something outstmding, something of permanent value, From to-
day" perspective, it appears that the achkvment of Andalusim Jewry
from the tenth to the twelfth centuries was not to be surpassed until our
owll time, when Hebrc?w Reborn has prmduced a new fiowering that fi-
nally has outshone the h d a l u s i m one, Social histrohans no longer look
upan the experience of thc. contc;mparary Jewish commllrTily as a Golden
Age; but: for the li,ter;ary hjslory, the term is as apt tocday as when i t was
first applied, to the Hebrew likratum of Andalusia,
)Itasdai is ge~~erally regal-ded arr; the immediate founder of the Hebrew
Golden Age partly because of Lhe two poets who we= his prolkgbs. These
poets addressed poetry to him, dedicated books to him, and produced
poetry for his use as the chief spokesman for Andaiusian Jewry
Menabem ben Saruq must have served uasdai as a kind of Hebrew sec-
retary, for he composed a :letter in Hebrew that Hasdai sent via Jewish
mercha~~t-travelers to the king of the Khazars in an atkmpt to make con-
tact with that commmity. The letter is written in simple, dignified He-
brew, modeled on the Hcbrt3w of the Bible. It is prefaced with a Hebrew
panegpic poem, the language of w:hich is also close to biblical Hebrew
but with some d u e n c e of the language of Eturgical poetry This p m
may probably be regarded, as the first manifestation of the new Hebrew
poetry in Spain. It is a secular pwm, in the sellse that it was written for a
nonliturgical purpose; it praises a humm being in elaborate-perhaps to
us, extravagant-languatge, in the style of Arabic panegyrics {n2ndi[1)of the
time; it uses the Vpicaliy Arabic tech~iqueof mo~~orhyme. Except for the
absence of a consistent meter, it closely reselnbles Arahic political poetry;
 MedievatJewish Literature 2-47"

and in writing it, Menabern was playing the role of a Muslim court secm-
tary within the Jewish communiv In light of trhis acltievement,
blen&emfs activity as a lexicographer secms less innovative, though his
Hebrew-Hebrew dictionary was to achieve no little fame and would
eventually become krtowlli to Ashkenazi scholars.
Menabem did not begk his career as a H&rew poet under vasdai; we
h o w that be had already served Ij[asdaiJsfather as a poet as well, though
we $o m t krliow what );iasdai% father's position was. Merliabem also
wrote fomal m0umin.g pcxms on the death ot frrasdalj's parents, and such
poems (mar8ll'l* are also part of the Arabic literary tradition. Finally,
when, as w o d d often happerli to courtiers, Menahem feu out of favor
wieh tIasdai and was treated brutaily, Menabm wrote a formal epistle,
complaining of how he had been abused and demanding justice; the epis-
tle is a long work of sustained power and d i p i y in nearly perfect biblical
Hebrew. Even without considering that Me~li*em appears at t-he very be-
ginsling of the Golden Age,, his Hebrew poems and tlne ep&tleshow great
refhement and literary mastery.
r-(asdai%oother protriigk was Dw~ashbe11 Lahrat, author of rdgious po-
ems, a few of which are still in liturgical use today; Dunash had been a
skrdent of Saadia" in Iraq, He a ~ v e in d Spain with a literaq invention
that pmvided the one element missing in Me~"~*em% system of imitating
Arilbic literary style: wantitative metrics. m e system, of cvsiting poetry in
a metsieal pattern based on the alternation of long and short syllables, as
in Latin and Greek, was s t d a r d in Arabic but had seemed impossible to
duplicate in Hebrew. Dunash solved the problem samewhat artificially
by considering the Hetbrew reduced vowel called ?c\) and its vasiants
as equivalmt to the Arabic short vowel; all other vowels, he consicfered
lmg (except the prefix 3, bvbich is also short). fn this way, he w s able to
iunitate the myriad permitted. combinations of h g and short vowels that
make up the Arabic system Such poems are molliorhymd, wbett-rer con-
sisting of two lines or of one hundred. (Far a thorough discussion of
Golden Age metrics, see the E~cyclopadiabdalca, s,v. "Hebrew Prosody"")
Dunash" innovation aroused a violent debate; he was attacked by
Menabem" disciples because of the grammatical distortions that his sys-
tern inwitably caused when it was applied to Hebrew. But these attacks
did not prevent the new system from becoming popular immediately.
From the time of Dunash on, all secular Hebrrzw poetry-md same litur-
gical poetry as well-written in Spain m d in the communities influenced
by Jewish Spain is in Arabic quantitative metrics.
The adoption of literary models from Arabic was only one part of a
larger pattern, for the Jewish grandees of Muslim Spain adopted the mm-
ners of the Mustims in many olthtjr ways, imitating irt their social lives the
patter115 of the M u s l b upper classes. Their Hebrew poetry refiects a Jewish
world that resembled the Muslim world in every respect but religion, a
world of luxury, fine m ers, sopltisticakd e~~tertainmentconsistir~gof
music, dance, wine d r h h g , m d firlation. rli, what extent the poetry re-
flected real life is hard to determke; but it seems =asonable to msume that
at least some of the Jewish gmdees were lealdir~gthe life of pleasure ard
refhement described in. their Hebrew poetry h n a s h wrote a poem de-
scrjbing a d r h k k g pmty held by uasr3ai; the poet descril>ed enfiusiasti-
cally the varied senmxal pkariurcs o f f e ~ d by the banwet, and he balmed
agaillst these worlctty delights the sober &ought: that such pleasures west.
inappmpriatc for a people mdergoing punishment by God for exile.
l'he poetry of the Golden Age w d d embrace many gcmms adopted
f m Arabic literature, Amor~gthese arc short poems on themes of plea-
sure: poems describing wine and the pleasures of drinking wine kvith
friends; love poems describing beautiful w m e n or beautiful boys, often
expressing the poet" frustration at their coquettish refusal to he drawn
into a love relationship; poems lamenting the brevity of such a delightful
life, There are also short poems of worldly and religious wisdm,
There are also several genrtrs of longer poems. Many of these are in the
qn$$da f m characteristic of Arabic poetry of ail periods; these poems are
constructed of two parts: The first deals with a general theme, often love
or nature description, m d the second part deals with the poem's actual
purpose. The two parts are linked by a trimsition. Part of the poet" skill
consists in making this trmsitim a cowinciXIg one. Q i l ~ a a sare formal po-
ems, often having a puhlic fixnction. Typical themes am the praise of a pa-
tron or friend; praise of a person who has died (in which case the qa$fdg
semes as a formal eulogy of the kind that Men&ern must have composed
for Hasdai"s p a ~ n t " )and
; complaint or repoach. All the poetry is domi-
nafed by converltions borrowed from Arabic. The s m e features of the
wine, of the girls, of the gardens, of the patron, or of the fl-iend arc de-
scribed again and again; and the same imagel-y is used and reused in
comparisons*me situation of lovers is alkvays the same. Yet poets exer-
cised great hgmuity in exploiting the conventions t~ d e s i p lovely arti-
facts. And the fact that they were heirs to a stylized tratlitiox~did not prc-
vent them from stsikixlg out on their olvn. Each of the great poets found
ways to exploit the rigid conventions of Arabic poetv in order to make a
persond stateme17.t.As a result, they have left us not o d y a m s s of lovely
conventional poetv but also a set of precious documents of human imag-
ination and aspiration.
Besidcrs hicating Arabic prosody and themes, the poets made extensive
use of mother t e c ~ q u adoptcct
e from Arabic: rhetorical devices and fig-
ures of speech*Although psesent to some extent in all poelry, these had
come into vogue in Arabic in the 1-rir"tthcentury and the Arabic poets of
Spah who provided the Hebrew poets with their hmediate models made
 MedievatJewish Literature 2-49

heavy use of them. Hebrew poet7 m k e s extenske use of simile,

metaphor, alitithesis, pardlelism, puns, arlid wordplays of all kirlids. An-
other litermy device hewn to Arabic poetry but cent-ralt-o the literary te&-
nique of the Hebrew poets is quotation: Hebrew poets made artful use of
biblicd quotaths, oftell creathg interesthlig effects by distorkg tihr mean-
ing. This device was co on in Hebrew poetry long before the Jews c m e
into contact wi_tklArab rature, and the Golden Age poets developed it
into one of the mairvtays of their art. That was possible because the basis of
a Hebrew literav education was the memorization of the Bible; a Hebrew
poet could count on his audience being able to recopize any quotation
from it and to respo~lidto his manipuiation of the quotation.
Besides composing poems in classical Arabic verse pattenlis, the Hebrew
pnets used an Arabic verse pattern that was invented mound the time
when uasdaik prot&g&s were inventing the new Hebrew poetry. This new
form, which Ar&k literay Lheorists never considered completely re-
spectable, but kvhich, nevertheless, was extremely poptrlar in Spain, is
called muruashshah in Arabic. It di-ffersfrom t%le classical Arabic pwm F17 be-
ing strophic, not mmorhymed. It normally has five stanzas. Each staliza
consis&of two parts: Tke first, consisthg of three to five h e s t has a rhyme
peculjar to that stanza; a d the s e c d , cmsisting of two lines, has a rhyme
shaed with the last two lines of all the stalizas, The last two lhes of the fi-
nal stanza are caled the h r j a , or exit. In Arabic mzk7ucnshslnl&tI the kfzarja is
not in classical Arabic but in vernacular Arabic or Rommcc, the vernacular
descended from Lath Chat: was comrnonty spakm alongside Arabic in
Muslim Spilin. It is theorized that these lhes are a wohtion from popular
songs around uihich the Arabic poet built his poem. Hebrcltw ciid not have a
col:ioquial registrer, as it was not a spo:ken language; therefo~,Hebrew
muz~ashslt~@t ordinarily have their k22arjr;l in Romnnce, ccolloquial Arabic, or
even in a mixture, though smetimes they simply end in E-iebrew.
Mnzo@slzslur&t originally were poems on the light Il-temes of love, gadens,
mQwine d r k ~ h gbut , they soon came to deal with most of the themes of
secular poetry: friendship, panegyric, and even religious themes. The
mzizuushshul-!form was soon adopled by liturgical poets as well, wj&out, of
course, the colloqujal klilzujll.
:It does not seem that many Hebrew poets could have earned a full-time
living as pwts writhg for patrms, hut there must have been some who
did. The first h o w n by name is Zsaac %r\ mallun (late tenth cent-ury).He
wrote formal panegyrics lso witty poems to friends complaining
about his persoxlial trouble g his patrons was a m m who was him-
self a poet of first rank, the first trdy grcrat Golden Age poet: Samtlel the
Nagid (993-1056), also known as Ismg'il Xbn Naghralla.
Samuel was a courtier kli the service of the ruler of Grmada, an inde-
p d e n t kingclom during most of the cleventh century The power he
massed in this position makes him outstanding among Jewish courtiers
of Ihe Middle Ages. But he was also a scholar, lcarrted a r ~ dproductive
both irt the rahbinic tradition and in the new ljterasy fields. Me is said d s o
to have c o r n p o ~ dpoetry in Ariabic, but none has come down to us,
His poetry has survhed in three big cotiectior.~~, named &er books of
the Bible. Ben Tehilinz contiains his long p w m w n a large number of topics.
Some describe the battles he attended in his capacity as a courtier (some
say as a gelleral). These poems also speak of his personal ambitions, his
doubts about the propiety of his pubtic roley hs hopes for his son
Vehosef, and his anxiety about old age and death. These poems were
probably writtell with an eye to enhance his ovvn positioxl wis-his the
Jewish commurlity of Cranada; they thus serve the s m e function as pan-
egyrics, but they are written by the subject himsclf. Arabic poetry in-
cludes a genre of poems in which the poet describes his own prowess,
and some of the Nagid" booasting t m e derives from this type of poetry.
But he keeps the poems close to the Jewish tradition by constmt reference
to bilcllical models b r his own career, such as the courtier M~rdechai~ and
especiaily King Uavid. He seems to base his claim for religious legitirMacy
on the parallel between his own career m d that of David, who was also a
statesmm, a warr_ior, and a poet (for according to traditim, King David
was the author of the Psahs). This typobgy is prohabty what suggested
to the Nagid the idea of callkg one of hjs co11ections of poetq Ben Tehilirn,
"The Little Book of Psalms*"
His other two collections of poetry, both named after biblical books tra-
ditionally by King Solomon, are actually collections of poetic epigrams.
Rerz Mishle is a book of advice dealhg with courtly life. Xt belongs to the
genre, widespread in the Middle East, of a comiel." advice to his son.
Ben Kohelef deals with thoughts Of life m d death. Like tf7c book of Ecclesi-
astes, for which it is named, it is somber in tone and secular in attitude,
Solomor.~ Ibn Gabirol (1021 or 1022-1(>58),a younger contcmporary of
S m u e l the Nagid's, was the first of the great Golden Age poets who bvas
ext~nrelyproductive both in secular m d Iiturgicd pmtry.
:In d e a h g with religious poetry, it is importalk to make a distinction
bet-vveen two types. The old tradition of litzrrgical poetry had not died out:
with the conning of the Go1nfi.n Age; rather, the eastern tradition of piyyzrf
was cal-ried 017 in lrhe late teneh cexrtury by such major figures arr; Jl,seph
Tbn Avitur and Xsaac Tt3n Mar Saul, whose work reflects almost, no iurflu-
ence of the excithg new developments. This h-adition was carried m by
the grctat poets of the Gotden Age. But with the exceptions to be men-
timed, the bulk of their liturgical poetry follows the old patterns and
themes*Its diction is somewhat simplified; hut its forms and functions
derive .from the old traditior.3, and its language, while simpler than that of
the old piy~jzrt,is not in the neobiblical style of the secular poetry
 MedievatJewish Literature l51

ALongside this older tradition, a new type of :liturgicalpoetry c m e into

being in the Golden Age. The first known example is a penitemztial poem
by Isaac Ztjn Mar Saul still widely in use; though intemzded for the liturgy
it is very personal in tone, with the speaker addressing God di~ctly,as if
in private conversation. 'The poem uses Ara$ic-style rfnyme and meter.
This imovation was followed up intensively by Tbn Gabiroll, and the po-
ems he wrote in, this style are among the most characteristic parts of his
work. They are mostly either reshrryut, short p o e m intended to he in-
serted in the morning semice at one of several points between the prkate
and public parts of the service; or geklot, short poems intended to be in-
serted in the benediction on the redemption of Israel. The reshuyot are
very intimate in tone and give much attentio~~ to the nature of prayer it-
s&; some of them are little phifosopltical poems in which the nature of
the human soul is the theme, not didactically, but based on the assump-
t i m 4 e r i v c d from contemporary phitosoyhical ideas-&at the soul of
man is actually derived. from Cod and longs to be united with Him,
prayer being a v e r h l ma11ifc.station of this yearr~ingon the part of Lhe
soul..fbn Gitbirol deweloped this r~eoplatonictheme in a work witten 011 a
much bigger scale, his monumental pe"itential mdiltation, The Royal
Crown. This is m e of the greatest pieces of medieval Hebrew writirtg, and
it is stilt recited by Jews throughout the non-Ashkenazic world on Yam
Kppux. Besides its metaphysicd concerns, the prayer is notalblc for its ex-
tensive citation of astt.moxnicat. data and its depiction of the spheres of
heaven in terns then thought of as scientific.
:Ibn Gabirol also composed much secular poetry Some of it is ad-
dressed to patrons; in,his y oath, he bvas apparently supported by a Jewish
courtier in Saragossa named Yeq~~tiel fin uasssn. Tbn Gabiroll dedicated
panegyrics to him and, upon his death, a massive lament as well as a
four-line epigram that will keep Yept-icl" name alive as long as Hebr@w
is still hewn, He also wrote pmegyrics to Samuel the Nagid. B u t Ihn
Gabird also wrote a r ~i m p ~ s s i v equantity of personal poetry sometimes
in the form of indc.pe~~derlit poems deaiiiq with his own life a r ~ dcorn-
plaints, and sometimes in the first part of his qa$fdas ilcfdrcssed to otbers.
h bath kinds of poems, he presents a complex persona, He is sickly, or-
phmed, lonely; and destitute; he is a philosopher, so obsessed with death
and with his philosophical speculations that he neglects worldly con-
cerns, caring nolhhg for the false honors that this world can bestow, At
the s m e time, he complains b i t t d y that his philosophical attainmmb
hawe not gained him recognition from his fellow men; he expresses deter-
mination to force the world to grant him f m e and glory. Xbn Gabiroi's
philosophjcal work, The Source of L$, was soon forgotten by the Jews,
though its Latin translation survked,
 Isaac Ibn Ghiyat%r(sometinres spelled Ibn Ghayyath, 1038-1.1189) w s
trhe one major p w t of the period whose poetry (as far as is Zcsrown) was
exclusively Ijturgicd; very few of his liturgical poems are in the new, inti-
mate style of the reslzuyot and ge'ldlot. In a way, therefore, he might he
trhought of as a traditionalist. Such a characterization would wem in con-
formi"cy with his career, for he was the only one of the great Golden Age
poets who made a career as a ra:bbi, serving as the head of the famous
academy of Lucena. Yet even Ihn Ghiyath's liturgical poetry reflects the
pecuiar charackr of hddusim Jewry#for some of the h y m s hcluded
in his great cycle of poems for Yam Kippur deal with cosmological and
scie~ztificdata, far removed from trhe trraditio~zalthemes of Liturgical po-
etry, but subjects of intense study among hdalusian Jewish intellechnals.
Moses fbn Ezra (ca, 1055-ca. 1.135)held public office in G r m d a , where
he v e n t the first part of his life; later; for reasons not well understood, he
w a s compelled to wazder in the Christian territories in the north of Spain.
Much of his secular poetry consists of poems on the life of pleasure and
poems of praise to fl-iends. H i s mtrmmshsha&k cantain particularly auda-
cious recornendations of the life of pleasure. Yet he wrote a g ~ adeal t of
religious poetry as well, especially- selibod, which are as sober and as
somber as is customary for the geme. Much of his secular poetry follows
trhe models of fomal Arahic courtly poetry wen more exactly than that of
the other Golden Age poetry; he is the only one among the poets, for ex-
ample, to make use of the desert encampment theme in the opening part
of his qasfdas. fn his later p a r s in exile, he wrote mmy long poems of per-
sonal complairrt, in. which he bewaits his isolation in a lmd of lesser cul-
tuml sophistication, where he rnissed the material pleasures of Andalu-
sian courtier life azd the sophisticated adience for his poetry that that
world affoded. He composed a book of poetiwepigrams on such t v i c s as
gardens, love, wine drinking, asceticism, and friendship; the little poems
all share ihe device of having hommyms h r their rhyme words. Given
the fascination ol both Arabic and Arabi2.ing Hebrew poets with rhetori-
cal devices, this book was greatly appreciated and was imitated by later
poets. Ibn Ezra also wrote several prose works in Arabic, hcluding The
Boclk of Discussion and DebateFa treatise on Hebrew poetry, whjch is one of
our m a h sources of hformatiost about the literary theory common to the
poets of the age. h o t h e r Arabic treatise, Tlie Book offhe &&B: On FWum-
tiae and Metaphorical Language, is a study of figurative lmguage in the
Bibk and in Hebrew poetry.
Judah Ilakvi (ca. 1075-1141) was the most pdific of t-he Golden Age
poets. His secular poetry, inc1uct;irrg the trszaal light verse on the pleasures
of life and qn$aas to friends and associates, reRecb a witty, outgoing, sexz-
suous persoxzaliq, a man who took rwch pleasure in social tik. His reli-
gious poetry i s dominated by an attiwde of piows awe and tranquillity, a
 MedievatJewish Literature I53

willingness to let God take over all initiative, But the most distimtive fea-
ture of his work is his series of poems co~x~ected with his late-life decision
to abandon Spah, go on pilgrimage to the L,md of Israel, m d spend his
last years here, That was a shocking, even i n a t i o n a s e m i n plan, for it
meant abandoning his farnily and a cornfortahle life (Waievi was a physi-
cim and a bushessmm) for a dmgerous journey and an old age of hard-
ship ha war zone (these were the years just prior to the Secmd Cmsade)
with only a small. and poor 'Jewishcommunity.
In several long poems, Halevi lays out his reasoning m d his view of his
religious mission, gi-ving the hpression that he felt the need to justify fnis
behavior to others and to himself. He aiso composed several &W poems
celebrilting hnnsillem and the Holy Land and mourning their desolation
(one of these pmms, "'Zion, Will Vou Not Greet Y,ur Captjves?" not only
becme part of the liturgy for the Nin& of AVbut also hspirc.d m n y imita-
tio~~s). Findily, he wrote a series of poems descI"ibir7g the wean voyage it-
self. Some of t k s e poems may have been products of p m intaghation,
written inadvmce of the journey, "ot others may have been written during
his stay &IAkxa~driad u k ~ the g Lvinter of Il4Gll4l, when he had already
experienced the sea, or even on the deck of the ship itself. Not belangh2g to
any existing genre, these poems are a @or achievement of individual ex-
p ~ s s i in o~
an~age in which most poetic form was dktal.ed by c o n v e ~ ~ t i o ~ ~ ~ .
Halevi laid out the theoretical basis of his decision m d provided a
statement of the natum and meanhg of Judaism in a theological treatise
written in Arabic. 'The book is generally howl7 as The Kztzari, but its Ara-
bic title was The Book of Pvolrfand Demonsluul;ic,lz.Giirz Defense of Ghc Despisd
Pcc~ple,The book" f o m reflects Ilalevi's literary propensities, for he clhose
tru present his rehgious thought as a r ~ imaginary didogue ibctween a rabbi
and the king of the mazars, a dialogue occasioned by the king's interest
in convcrtjng from paganism to a more satisfactory religious system. In
trhe process of wiming the king's attention, co~~vincing him of the right-
ness of Judaism, and cont-inuhg the king%education after his conversion,
the rabbi expomds f-lakvi" v i m and concludes by
t e ~ ~ ttoi oleave
~ ~ for the Holy Land.
Abraham Ibn Ezra (ca, 1092-2267) was a younger conternparairy of
Halevi, as well as his close associate. Ibmz Ezra" secular poetry includes
some clever epigrams describing hit; impoverished condition and some
good mrd7i~ashshn&t,but it is as a religious poet that he was strongest and
most prolific. FXis religious verse has a strongly neoplatonic bent, even oc-
casionally illclining toward pmtheism. H e also w o t e a rhymed prose
t ~ a t i s econtaining a fantasy of a journey through the cosmos, entitled
Alive, fhc Sorr c$Azualct., based on a similar work in Arabic by the famous
Istamic philosopher Avkenna. Abraham Ihn Ezra would achieve lasting
fame as a Jewish writer for his commentaries on the Bible.
 With Judah Halevi and Abraham fbn Ezra, the most intense part of the
Golden Age comes to an end. This occurred because of an extraliterary
circumstance. Muslim Spah, having already lost much territory to Chris-
tian invaders from, the north, was conquertrd in the 1140s by a fanatical
Berber dynasty from North Africa. These inwaders, known as the A h o -
hads, outlawed the practice of Jmdaism m d Christianity in. their territo-
ries, putting an ahrupt halt to all.Jewish. intellectual life in Muslim Spain.
Many of the elite families left: Maimm, the Cordoban judge, to& his
family, hcluding his young son Moses (later h o w n as Maimonides), to
Iclorocco, Palestine, m d eventually, Egypt; Joseph bi m d Samuel Ibn
Tibbon took their families to Provence; Abraham ben David went to
Christian Spain. 'These migrations had a stimulating effect 0x1 Jewish liter-
ature in. thg corntries to which the d u g e e s went, as we shalt see.
When abralnarn fin Ezra left Spain, he embarked on a life of wmdering
&roughout western Europe, living in Italy, Frove~~ce, France, and England.
In Europe, he became a prolific kvriter of biblical. commentaries, and it
was these works that first introduced the Italian and Ashkenazic Jews
lacking in philosophical and scientiiic training to the linguistic m d philo-
sophical outlotlEc of the hdalusjan commnity. Those kverc. the fjrst bibli-
cal commentaries in l-licbrw to illcorporate the new learning. Abraham
%II Ezra also wrote books in H&rew on mathematics and science, He in-
troduced the Italian and French Jews to the Andalusian techniques of
prosody. R. Jacok, Tarn, a h o u s talmudist, tried his hand at writjng short
secular poems in Arabic: metrics, even though the vstem was but par-
tially understood. He addxssed these pwms to Ihn Ezra, to the latter's
amusement. As we have seen, Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg wrote a poem in
imitation of one by %n Ezrafs friend Jud& Halevi. There is evidex-tcethat
Tbn EZTB'Sreligious ideas kvere of great ixlterest to the Ashkerrazic Pietist
movement,
The main infuencr of h d a l u s i a ~Hebrew poetry, however, was in the
Arabic-speakixlg world. Although few poets of stature arose outside of
Spain, Andalusian poetry especially l i t u ~ i c a poetry,
l was admired and
imitated everywhe~.When Halewi arrived in Egypt, hc.found mitI.7.y ad-
mirers who appreciated his poetry and circulated it. Zsaac, the son of
.Abrahm lbn Ezra, vvho accompanied Hdevi to the East, fclund a patron
for his poem" Syria. Maimox~ides,who arrived in Egypt a generation
later m d s p a t thg rest of his life there, wns unusual for aa hddusjan
Jewish scholar in not writing poetry- Egypt did not produce any major
poets until tfne late thirteenth centmy, when Jaseph ben T a ~ ~ b u m
Yerushalmi and Moses Daii, the latter a Karaite, were active. Iraq also
produced few poets except for EIeazer b. Jacoh (2195-1250), but the Span-
ish H e b r w poet Judah al-uarizi managed to find patron"ere for his
maq2m2f.
 MedievatJewish Literature

Christian Spain
h Spa*, Jebvish literature did not come to an end. Jews were welcome in
the burgeoning Christian khgdorns, and after a period of adjushnent, a
new generatio11 of H&rew writers came forth ~IICastile and Catalonia. It
is importmt to remember that in the twelfth century contrary to all previ-
ous experience, the Jews of Spain saw the Christims as their saviors and
trhe Muslims as their enemies. At trhe very time that Jewish life was drying
up in the once-glorious al-Andialus, it was reconstituting itself in the
Chrisrcian khgdams.
Hebrew litemkire feU siIe11t for about a ge~~emlion, but toward the end of
the Welfth ce~~tur)i, new poets ar~dtiterar)i figuresbegm to emerge. Nor did
the influace of kabic literature. on Hebrew sudde~~ly end. At the time of
these dislucations, a new genre of Hebrew writing a p p e a ~ dthe , nzlaq8~1~~7,
narratives in rhymed prose studded with s h t poems. 'The pattern is de-
rived from m Arabic geIIre of the same n m e . h the Arabic rnaqgn~a,the nar-
ratives fallour a hirly ~ g u t agattern
r m d al.e mostly designed to pmvjde an
q p o r - ~ i v for a r ~elnhorate display of rhetodc. The Hebrew maqmgf (the
plural), bvhile retaining a strmg rhetmical ekmertt, tend to have mart.
elaborate narratives, A good exunple is the first known filcbrew Inl-rqB@za,
Solomm b. Saqbei's love stoy Asher ben Izidalz. 'This story, the only extar~t
one of a group of stories now lost, appemd just before the Almohad cata-
clysm, at about the me that the Arabic 1~aq817~85. of aEE;Zariri reached al-
Andalus, where they were deskled to become enormous:iypopular.
The Hebrew rhymed prose narrative, for all its roots in the Arabic-
speaking world, bloomed in Chfistian Spain, as if Hebrew writers we=
still connected with Arabic literary life. But for all their rhetorical similar-
ity to the maqam21" of the Arab East' most of the Hebrew fictions in
rhymed prose are different from the knbic models in ways that seem to
link them to the nascent Rurnar~celileralurcs. One of trhe outstar~dingHe-
brew fictions is Book of Delight, by Josepf-1 Ibn Zabara of Barcelona
(born ca. 1340), which resembles the muygmw in its uscl of r h y m d prose ill-
terspersed with poems, but whose naraCive technipe and stress on char-
acter recall the romance. Like the maqgma, the book descsibes the travels
and a d v e n t u ~ of
s a narrator, who plays the straight man, with a rogue,
who begdes the narratm into taking the jowey. But in the r~Zuyama,the
successive brief episodes are not related to one another, and though the
characters may appear in many guises, they never grow or change. fs7 The
Bltlllr of Delight, the characters, and therefvre the relationship between
thern, change in the cowrse of an extended narrative, so that by the end,
the narrator dominates the t:riickster and resolves to return home.
Other I-ieb~wnarmti:\iesin rhymed prose hterspased with p o m s also
diverge to one degree or another front the pure maljanla genre, The Offeritzcq
oflul-dnh:The Misi~~wnisf, by J u d h Tbn Sabbetai, is the story of a youth who
footishly wants to escape matrimor~yand devote his life instead to scholar-
ship but who is duped into m out-rageousmarriage by m mgry commtx-
nity of women who fear that his example will be deleterious to the world
ar~dto them. The story is preceded by a lor~gmis~gynisticharanwe put in
the mouth of the youth's father, and it ends with a literar~;trick of great
cleverness, Incidentally, the theme of misogyny is prominent in The Book of
Delight as well and must have been in vogue in the thirteenth century
A third Barcdona author of the period, Abrahm %n f?asdai, used the
form of rlnymed prose intct-spersed with short poems as the vchicle for a
very influential work, The Prince nlzd the Monk. Partly a translation from
Arabic and partly origir~al,the book it; a collection of proverbs and philo-
sophical discussions within a narrative framework derived from the story
of the childhood of Buddha.
Works reaching l-frbrcw from India via Arabic had a vogw in this pe-
riod. Jacob b. Eleazar of Toledo (twelfth-thirteenth centuries) trmslated
Kalila and Dimna, a book of animal fables, into &brew kymed prose, He
also composed an original narraCive work, a cokction of stories of vari-
ous types..Some are philosophical allegories of a type attested in Hebrew
in Muslim countries at this time; others resemble more the European ver-
nacular romances of the period.
The great krariety of narrative types suggests the growing indepen-
dence of Hebrew writers from Arabic models. Wth the important excep-
tion of JudiXEt al-Varki, as we will see, we may say that in form, the He-
brew rrarrative prose of tlne period seems to look hack to the sylnhiosis
with the Arabic-speaking world, but in theme, it looks forward to a po-
ter~f;ial
new symbiosis with the belles lettl-es of Christendom. Certainly,
such a shift seemed possible at the end of the twelfth century.
The Almohad persecution bad cut h d a l u s i m Jewish culkrre off at the
root. The Jews of Iberia would retain their link with Arabic for at least an-
other century; but signs of change were evident almost as soon as the new
Hebrew literahse emerged in the triumphmt Christim kingdoms. One
such sip1 was the abmpt cessation of hdeo-Arabic literaturn in Spain.
From the mid-twelfth century on, Hebrew predominated as the language
of Jewish writing inSpain and soon became the sole :Languagefor inttzrnal
purposes. A wave of translations of fudeo-Arabic works into Hebrew for
the use of Jews in Christian Europe, as well as for Spanish Jews no longer
familiar with Arabic, dates from this period, This trend is disthct from
the strcam ot: trmlisla.tions of philosophical and scientific works intended
for the use of Christians-
This internal shift faom Ambic to Flebrew reflects a significant change
in the ljl7guistic situation of the Jews. n~rougt.loutthe Arabic-speaking
world, the daily language of the Jews was merely a variety of the fan-
 MedievatJewish Literature I57

p a g e h a t also served as the medium of hjgh culture. Although vemacu-

lar Arabic was not the same as learned Arabic, &%owingthe vernacular
gave access to the lmguage ol philosophicn:l and scientific writings and
provided a solid fomdation for learning the lmguage of high literature;
movhg from one register of the l m ~ a g to e the other w m m more diffi-
cult for Arabic-speaking Jews than for their Muslim neighbars. m e situa-
tion was cmpletelJi different in Christian Europe, where the Latin ver-
nacdars had dherged so radicaily .from Latin that bowing a Roma~ce
language did not provide access to higher literatznre, Furthermorcj, the Is-
lamic worM boasted a class of scholars who were not clergy su that there
was m c h that a non-Muslim could study withoul coming into contact
tor_,intimately with religious scholarship.
In Christendom, scholarship bvas more tied to the Church m d bvas al-
most exclusi.vely in the hands of the clergy, so that it was much more dif-
ficult for a Jew to became l e a r ~ ~ ine dChristia~high culture, even if he did
manage to learn Latin. With th,e s p ~ a d of Christianity t h r o u e u the
Iberian peninsula, the linguistic, and t h e r e f o ~the cultural, situation of
Iberian Jetvry became more like &at of the Jews of the rest of Eurve. Rut
this process bvas gradual and did not affect everyone equally. Even as late
as the fifteenth century we still encounter Jews in Castile who are learned
in Arabic a ~ Latin.
d
Catalonia had never been deeply Arabized m d had close links to the
south of Frmce, There, the hdalusians soon lost their connection with
Arabic and came under the ir~fluenceof intellectual and cultural trends
from beyond the Pyrenees. By the thirkenth cent-ury;the Jewish culture of
the northeastern 1f3jgi~n of the Iberian peninsula had largely lost its Arabic
cast. Aithough philosopt-ry a ~ scienced were still being studied (but from
Hebrew rather thm Arabic texts) and Arabic-styk secular poetry contin-
ued to he written by such poets as Meshallam Dapiera (d. after 1260), the
empha"is was now on such htrinsically Jewish suhjects arr; m m u d , which
was studied according to northern European methods, and kabbalh,
academy of Gerona, which became a major cmttzr of both HalaMnic m d
kabbatistic witing in lrhe thirteenth century, reflected this development.
Its great-rjst leader, N a m m i d e s (Rabbi Moses b. Nahmm, 214Q+a, 12701,
represents quite a different cultural type from the conttzmporaneousfew-
&hcourtiers of Mfonso X in Castile, who, though no longer writing much
in Arabic, remaked much more in the Judea-Arabic cultural tradition.
Nahmanideskorks are exclusively Halbakhic, exegetical, m d mystical;
although he tried to calm the passions of the anti-Maimunist movement,
he was opposed to the widespread study of philasophy. Individual Jews
continued to serve the Aragmese government as Arabic htevreters,
Meshulram Dapiemfs pwtry ernbodies some of the cox~Cradictiox~s of
the age. Dapiera was a bon vivmt who celebrated the pleasures of life in
his Arabic-swle poetry, much as the poets of h d a l u s i a had. But in mat-
ters of doctrine, he was a traditionalist, being both a friend of Nah-
manides and close to the circles of thc mystics of Germa. He parti,cipakd
vigorously in the conh.oversy that raged, beghning in 1232, over rational-
ism and Aristotelianism in Jewish philosophy, especially in the writings
ol Mainzonides. tnkllectuals from Spain and Provence took positions as
pro-Maimunists and mtj-Maimunisls, and a sipificant body of writ.@
accumuiated, most[y f-ormal epistles in rhymed prose, in which each side
denounced the other, Dapiera" contribution to this ugly episode was a
spate of Hebrew poems using Arabic prosodyf by now m old traditim of
Sp""ish Hebrew poetry no longer associated with lrhe cosmopolitmism of
its origins, denounckg the pro-Maimunists. He also exchanged verse epi-
grams with lrarious mti-Maim~misb
mough. reactimafies could be found in Castile as well, Castilian Jewry
retained its ties to Arabic lmguage and culhnre longer. Toledo had been a
major center of Arabic civilization prior ta its reconq~~est in 1B5, m d Ara-
bic cmtinued. to be spoken there long after it was forgotten in Aragon.
Jews in Castile continued to bear Arabic traditio~~s: Meir Abulafia (d.
1.2441, a famnus Toledaxl rabbi and a literarily prolific mti-Maisnunist,
wrote Flebrew secular poetry inArahic forms m d even translated a short
poem by the eleven*-ce~~turySvillian prince al-Mu'tmid Ibn 'Abbad
into Hebrew. Ahrham Tbn al-1F"aabar (d. 1.240), a Jewish grmdee m d a
patron of Hebrew poetry, wrote Arabic poetry considered good enough to
be transmitted by Muslim sources; one is in praise of Alfonso VIlf of
Castile. Jmd& alcvarizi was a major Hebrew writer who bvas notably un-
touched by new Romance influmces. Active as a translator, he rendered
many Judeo-Arabic works ink, Ilebrew, ir-tcludhg-----atour de fom
n2aqBnzBf of a%-l-fariri,a notoriomly difficult masterpiece of ArAbic rhymed
prose. He foll.owed this achievement by composing his own colledion of
Heb~w vlaqG~urat,the 7irbkmoni. &re, he reverted to the llarratitre type of
the pure Arabic mraqsmw, showing little interest in the new type of narra-
tive cultivated by writers like %n Zabara or by his fellow Toledan Jacob
be11 Eleazar. al-Harizi left. Spain and trawled, via Proveme, to the Muslim
East, where he was probably culturally mare at home. The importmce of
his literaxgi activity in Provence will be discussed,
Under ALfonso X El Sahio (1252--1284), Jewish actkity in ihe field of
translation took a new direction, for the king encowraged the develop-
ment of the Castilian language, and under his patronage many works
wcsre translated into the vernacular, with fews being prominent arnox-rg
the translators. This project, undertaken for the benefit of non-Jekvish
scholars, mahly involved scientific works, but Alfonso also sponsored
trhe translation of Jewish and Islamic: religious writings for fit!use of the
Church- Hebrew literatznre also contintred to flourish. Todros b. Jud& Ab-
 MedievatJewish Literature I59

ulafia, a Jewish man of letters who was close to several.of Alfonso" court
Jews, left a huge dIwsn (corpus of poetry), inciuding s m Hebmw verses
addressed to the king. They were. supposedly engraved on a goblet that
Todros presented to Alfmso.
Todros's Hebrew poetry is mostly in forms derived from Arabic, hut he
experimented with verse foms derived from Romnnce, as in his W r n w
canzone, which is also dedicated to Alformso, He also cultivated pattern
verses, Mrhich became fashionable at this time. It is a sign of the times that
the htroduction to his ~ R O G I Zm d the headings to the poems describhg
the circumstmces of their composition are in Hebrew rather than in Ara-
bic. Particularly inkresting is his love poetrp which includes, alo~~gside
salacious verse, poems that bespeak a more spiritual idea of the nature of
love. h a radical break with the traditions of the Golden Age, he even has
Love itself speak.
7he worldliness of the courtiers of Castile war; countered by the kabbai-
ists' distaste for aristocratic pleasures amd f-rivolous writing. Kabhatism
was not, strictly speaking, a literary movement; but it must be mentioned
here because its flourishing in Spain during the thirteenth century culmi-
nated in the composition of one of the most origkal Jewish works of the
Middle Ages, the Book of Spler-lditr f the Zohar), probably by Moses dc Leon
(ca. 124fr1305). The hook appeas to b e l o q to lrhe traditior~algenre of
commentaries on the Torah, hut it: is ilclually very innovat.ive. It is a
pseudepigraph attributed to a secoazd-century rabbi; it was written in
Aramaic, a language not spoken a~~ywhcrre in Europe and long &an-
doned by the Jews as a literary language; it is not a shgle book but sev-
eral books interwoven with one another; md, above all, it is a work of a
most original imagination. Although the ostensible purpose of the bo& is
to propomd certah esoteric doctrines, it does not teach its doctrines by
means of exposition or even, really, of exegesis, though its form might
make this seem to he the case. Rather, it manipulates t-he tradiitio~~al a-
egetical system of rabbinic Judaism, turning it into a vehicle of the au-
thor % imagination. The language and imagery of the Zohnv were eventu-
ally to have an important influence on Hebrew poetry, but mostly after
the expulsion from Spah.

Provence
Skce Provence had long been part of the Carolkgim Empire, its Jewish
cultural life resembled that of the mheland, with the emphasis on Tahud
and rabbinic learning. But much of the territory fell to Catafmia in the early
Welfth century, linking Provence with Spanish Jewry and resultit~gin an
hmediate rise af interest there inthe sciences m d lmguage. The Barcelona
astronomr and mosalist Abrahm bar m?/ya(d. 1136) spent consi$erdble
tirne in Pwenlce, disseminating k a b i c scholal-ship in Hebrew to a com-
munity ignorant. of the contemporary language of scjentific culture. He was
one of the first Jewish scholars to use Hebrew for this purpose,
I h e influe~~cr of Hispano-Jwish cuttrure on Provence was reir~forcedby
the Right of M n l u s i a n Jewish intellectuals from the Mmohads, begin-
ning in the 1 1 4 0 Abraharn
~~ Ibn Ezra also spent some time in Provence, af-
ter his period in ItalyI which will be discussed in the section Ytaly.'"
Provenqal Jekvish culture was enriched by the presence of these Arabic-
speaking 'Jews. Kinzhi, with his grmmatical works and commentaries on
trhe Bihle, mediated the exgetical and linwistic tmditioz~;his son David
(kmowr.3as Radaq, 1160-1735) composed an extensive commentary 017
mmy of the books of the Bible that is widely studied to this day. Judah Ibn
Tibbon (1120-after 1190), his son Smuel, and his g r d s o n Moses trms-
lated Maimm~ides'Gttide, Walevi's Kuzuri, Saadia" BBeefs and Opinio~zs,
Rabya tbn Paquda's pietist classic Intductiun to the Dztlk of the Heads,
m d other works, creathg a corpus of philosophical works upon which
later Praven~qaischolars were to build. Moses expanrted the rqertoire of
H&rew philosophical kvritkg by translating many works of non-Jewish
ofigin, Judah al-earizi, not a refuge from the Aimohads like the Kmbis
a ~ thed %II n b b ~ ~ but
~ an
s itinerale scholar, also visited Prove~lceon his
way to Iraq, as we have seen; he helped to satisfy the thirst of the
Provengal Jews for the sciences by translating Jewish philosophical works
like M a h o ~ ~ i d eGztide
s ' from Judeo-Arabic. Provenlce becarne a major cell-
ter of translations and a bridge between the Ashkenazic kvorld and the
Judeo-Arabic culture that continued to flourish in the M u s l h world md,
for a while, ever7 in Christial7 Spain. Some ProvenqaI translators found pa-
trons for their activities outside the Jewish communit.y, like Jacob h a t o l i
(1200-1250), who eventually joined the court of Frederic :I1in Naples, or
Kalor~ynlosb. Kalonymos (1287-1333, whose patron was Robert of Anjou.
Provence flourished as a center of Jewish culture from the end of the
t\.velft-h to the fourteenth centufies. The greatest Provengal-FXcbrew poets
w e active in lfie thirtealth and fourteenth cmturies. In many respects,
they may be viewed as corttinucrs of the hdalusian tradition; they em-
ployed the Arabic prosodic system pioneered by the Andalusians, and
their themes remained close to those oi Muslim Spain. But there wta-e
some distinguishhg features and some distinguished poets.
Joseph Ezovi (ca. 1230) of Perpignan was the author of a collection of
rhymed maxims called The Silver Bawl and fine liturgical poetry. His disci-
ple Abraham Bedersi (Perpignan m d Narbonne, second half of the thir-
teen& century) was a grammarian m d author of a long poem entitled
""TheRevolvint; Sword," which, in part, is an invaluable survey of the hit;-
tmy of Hebrekv poetry in Spain and Provence; in an explicit recognition of
 MedievatJewish Literature 162

the relationship between Hebrew poetry and that of t%ie fews%ost cul-
tures, he named four noxl-Jetvish poets as well, two Provencal and two
Arabic. He also orgmized "'courts of poetry," pet-ic contests held in. the
presence of wealthy patrons, as was done a m n g the Christian Provengal
poet.;. Many of his poems are polemics against his contemporaries in the
spirit of the Romance felzsc:, (a kind of romance polemical poem). His po-
etry represents an extreme development of the manneristic style culti-
vated by Hebrew writers in Christian Spain. It is often based on artificial
prhciples; he wrote a prayer in. poetic style called "A nousand Alefs," in
which there. are one thousand words, each beghning with the letter al$
Ihe third in this succession of mastert; and discigkls was Bedersi's son,
Uedaya ha-Penir~i(1280-2340). His fame as a writer rests 0x1 an ethical
treatise, "The Contemplation of the World," and a didactic text, "'The
r the Mtmms," in which each word begins with the letter mem.
P r i t ~ of
The mast inkresting of the Proven~alpoets wadsaac of Aire ( k ~ o w ~II n
Hebrew as ha-Gorni), whose life is obscure. He seems to have spent it as a
wandering poet, since he is found in all Ihe ilnportant towns of southern
France, writing poetry for money. His it;thus lrhc n e a ~ scareer
t to that of a
jongleur that Hebrew litefature has to offer- The series of fensos ex-
changed belween him and Bedersi is troubadour-like. He is celebrated for
his poems boasting of his amorous adwentures and for his m a c a b ~ reflw-
tions on death.
Malonymos ben Kalonymos, who has already been mentioned as a
translator; was also active as a Hebrew beltetrist. He composed the first
parody for Pzrrh, a genre that became popular among Jewish writers in
mmy lands, and a social satire in rhymed prose saturated with parody
The T"ronf.'Xock.The book's canclusion, writtex~years after its main part, is
a somber palbode ~flectjngthe gersecutions of the Shepherds' Crusade.
But the direction of cultural influence was not only from Spain to
Prover~ce~ The twetfth century saw the rise of kab27itlistic writing in
I'mvence, apparently as a local devejopment; this type of jntellecttlai acliv-
ity spilfcd over into Cataloh, along with Ashkenazic Halakhic innuences,
Both developments were coxu~ectedto a generally traditionalist, a ~ t i p h i l ~ -
sophical reaction against thg InCT,uence of Judeo-Arabic culhn., which, as
we have seen, had becaune a pmerful force in Provence, mese traditimal-
ist te~~dencies came to a head in the conboversy over the wri.tir7.g~ of &hi-
monides, in which the rabbis of Provence played m h p o r t m t role.

With the arrival in Italy of such Iberim Jews as Abraham Tbn Ezra (1140)
and of the lexicographer Solomon I'arhon fbefcsre H a ? ) , ltaliitll Hebrc!w
literature may be said to enter a secmet phase, in which Hebrew writers
experimerlit with forms cJ,rj\red from Arabic and,hter, from Itillian.
We have seen that Abraham %n Ezra introduced the Italian Jews to
Arabic metrics in Hebrew Tbn Ezra also attacked the tradition of liturgical
poetry prevderlit among the Italian Jews. In his co entary on Ecclesi-
astes, written in Rome, he included a tirade on the distinctive Hebrew
dictim of Palestinim liturgical p o e t r ~insisting that only the srapposedly
pure biblical diction of the Andalusim poets had the requisite digliity
and purity for prayer. Witt? Isaiah, de Trani fh. 1220) we have the first ma-
jar Hebrew liturgkal. poetry by an Italian Jew written in the new Andalu-
sian style; and Benjamin Anav (Di Mansi) composed a Hebrew work R-
sem:b[ing a mnqarnn, a rhymed-prose satire entitled "The Propktcy of the
Valley of the Revelation."
But the first major literary figure among Italian Jewry was Imm;anuel of
Rome (1265-1330), the author of the Mahbarot., This is a collection of nar-
ratives in rhymed prose interspersed with poetry, \very similar hprosodic
form and rhetorical technique to the mnq;mzsi-05 the fieria~liHcbrcw writ-
ers, but significmlitly differex~tin mrrative struchre. S o w of Imma~uel's
racy narratives are closer in spirit m d stmcture to the Italian novella than
to the Arabic mayBnza that had inspired Eberian Hebrew poets like al-
I:Ializi. Yet there is no question &at lmmanuel co~lisidercdhis w d to be
the cont-inuation of al-Harizi". Here is a clear case in which a classical. lit-
erary form has been adapted to new cultural circumstances, resulting in a
product with features of the old and new literary worlds, ':f'hesame may
be said of Immanuel" Hebrew sonnets, which are hterspersed in the text
of the nznhbttmf. They are cunningly composed so that they may be
scanned accordirlig tru the d e s of the Arabo-fleb~wquantitative meters,
whjle at the same time,they satisfy the requirements of Italian versifica-
tion. The sonmzet was a new genr(" in Immanuel% time, havhg been in-
vented o d y in lfie lfiirteenth cmtury; Immanuel"~t:hirty-eight solxliets am
the first in any lmguage other tham Itdim. The last of Innmanttel" sah-
bamf is called "The Mabb~ret.on Hell and Paradise,'"inspired by Dante's
Divirze C~nzedy,though far more modest in scope.
A more modest work attesting to the interest of Jews in the lore of
Christian Europe is King Arflis, composed in 1279, extant only as a fi.w-
ment. It derives from a lost Italiar~Arthurian work deriving from old
F ~ n c romances.
h It covers the birth of King Arll?ur amd the destruction of
the Round Table.
Dante" most ambitious Hebrew hitator was Moses Eeti f 1393-146Q),
the author ol Tkc Little Suncfzanry. Tlis work, making the first use in He-
brew of krza rima, surveys many philosophical. and scientific ideas. It
also describes, in the maxlier of Dante" Paradisa, a visit to the heavenly
&ode of the Jewish religiotrs heroes. Despite the innovative character of
 MedievatJewish Literature 163

nieti"s verse form md the tribute paid by his book3 form to Christen-
dom's gre"te" poet, the wofk is cot~servativein the extrcrme, to judge by
the tiguxs excluded by fijeti horn paradise. One passage from the poem,
a prayer, became popular as m independent work and was evenbally in-
corporated into the Italian rite,
Late medieval Italy, like all centers of Jewish culture, produced a quan-
tity of new liturgical p o e t r ~mostly selibut, as well as a mi.ijor narrative of
biblical history called Sefcu I-fayashar,But this second phase of Italo-Webrew
literature was only a p ~ p a r a t i o nfor the great flowefing of Hebrew letters
that would occur after 150,past the period of this survq.

The Final Chapter in Spain

As the reconqtkista progressed into the mid-thirteenth century; the Chris-
tian rulers found themselves less in need of Jewish administrators and
courtiers, Wth the completi.on of the conyuest and the kvelopment of lo-
cal culture, Arabic declined in p ~ s t i g e ,and as Christians acyuired lin-
guistic skillls, admhistrative experience, and scientific training, the Jews
graduaUy lost their role as indispensable adminish-ators and mediators of
Arabic culture. At the same time, the anti-&wish presure from the
masses and the Chttrch mounted. By the end of the century, Spain was fas
less hospitable to Jews than it had been at the begi.nning. Jewish foPtunes
mse a r ~ dfell until 1391, when pogoms and mass c o m r s i o t ~ sheralded
the collapse of the Jewish community But individual memlncrs of the
Jewish elite mahtahed the Arabic scholarly tradition and the Hetbrew lit-
erary c d t m that was so ctosdy tied to it. We hear of Jews, even in the fif-
teenth centuryytrmsliathg Arabic texts into Latin or Hebrew and secular
Hebrew poetry cast in Arabic mekrs 1-md rhyme schemes was witten in
Spain right up to the expulsion in 1492.
A monument to the continuhg prestige of Hebrew poetry withh the
Jewish community may be observed to this day in the El Transito syna-
gowe in Toledo (dt?dicated in 1,753,where the dedicatory inscription is
in Mebrekv verse, employir"g the Arithic metries of the Golden Age. T%e
synagogue" founder was Samuel Halevi, a financier to Pedm the Cruel
(1350-1369). The use of a poem to commemorate the fou~lderof a syna-
gogue is consistent with the practice of Spanish Jewish grandees since the
t h e of fjtasdai fin Shapmt, four centuries earlier, as we saw in the epistle
of Menahem.
One of Samuel's ccontemporaries, Shemtav ben Ardutiel, known in
Spanish as Santob de Canibn, exemplified a potmCia.lly new development
in the literary history of Iheriar~Jewry. Shemtov was disti-nwished as a
Hebrew kvriter: He was the author of a lerrgfiy poem of confession for Yom
Kippur that is still found in some prayer books, a kabhalistir treatise, and a
charming Webrew nzaq;-il~zacalled Tlie Baffle nf the Pen arzd the Scissors. We
was also m expert Arabist who trmslated a Hallabic work h t o Hebrew.
But he achieved fame in the wider world for the Prouerbia Moraltus, dedi-
cated to Pedro lrhe Cruel. Written in Spa~ishjust as the El Tra~sitosyna-
gogue was mder constntctim, this colleclion of p r ~ v d was s an impor-
tant a ~ influential
d contribution to the nascent Sparrish fiterature. In it,
Shemov does not hesitate to call atkntion to his being Jewish.
As one who drew an both Hebrew and Arabic literary traditions while
writing in Spanish, Shemtov is a pivotal figure in Iberian l i t e r q history
Other writers of Jewish origin m d e contributions to Spanish literatm in
this period, but Shemtov is the only bdetrist kl~ownto us who was active
as a Jew both in Hebrew m d in Spanish.
Toward the end of the fourteenth century a circle of pwts appeared
who revived lrhe traditio~~ of M r e w literature in Spain. These poets were
comected with the de la, Cabdleria family of Saragossa, an ilnportilrrt
Aragonese Jewish farnily of hanriers and courtiers who were also devo-
tees of Hebrew letters. Solomo~"~ Dapiera, a descendant of M e s h d a m
Dapiera, served as Hebrew semtary to three successive heads of the f m -
ily and exchanged poems with many of the distinguished Jewish leaders
of the W e . His Merary circle included Etis disciple Vidal Benvenist, a
member of the de la Cilballeria hmily, who besafne his pahon; Jose* hen
Lavi; and S o l o m Bonafed. These poets were among the members of a
kind of poets' club kl~owr~ as lrhe ""The Congregation of Singers"; they ell-
gaged in. poetic competitions and addressed poems to one anather, They
were, however, destined to endurct the hard tixnes of Spanish Jewry The
peninsula-r/vide pogroms and foxed conversio~~s of 1391 caused trau-
matic upheaval, which is re8ected in the synagogue poetry nf the period.
.Along with other leaders of the 'Jewish co h l . y , these pwts were pres-
ent at the fateful Tortosa taispulatio~"~ in 141,2--141.4,in the wake of which
many Jewish grandees converted to Christianity. Among the converts
were Dapiera and Vidd Benvenist, while apparently Solomon Bonafcd
and Joseph ben tavi =mined Jewit;h. But their poetic relationship did
not end; even after their conversion, severall of them cantintred to ex-
chmge p o e m in Hchrew, with Bonafed ushg this medium for hastjsing
trhe co~~vertsfor their unfaithfuh~ess.Thus, among the oddities of Spanish
Jewry's last cenlury; we fn.d Christians writing p o e w in Hebrew!
The poetry of this gmeration carries on many of tlne formal traditions
of the Golde~"~ Age. The pmsody remai~~s complekly in accorda~~ce with
the Arabic practices adapted by Dunash four centuries earlier, m d the po-
ets frequently alludfi. to poems of the classical period., Some of the genres
cuttivakd by the earlier poets also remained illtact. But t-here are new for-
mal features, like the frequent practice of ending a poem by repeating or
 MedievatJewish Literature 165

alluding to its opening words, l-his prxtice is not n r e ~ l ya technical de-

vice but a structural principie, for it lends many poems a closed, circular
feelkg that is different from the open-endedness of the monarhymed po-
etry inherited from Arabic by the Colden Age poets. SSrophic Hebrew po-
etry m secular themes had become much less coma11 in Spain----whw
it had origi;nated-than in other Mediterranean lands, which had learned
it from earlier Spanish Hebrew poets, or which were adopting new
strophic forms from Itaiian. One has the imp~ssionthat contemporme-
ous tendencies in Spmisla literatznre left little mark on H&rew poetry; but
this topic has not been investigated sufficiently. Traditional Hebrew
scholars have been co~~tent to label it epigoniq .theby discouraging seri-
ous ir"tvestigilliorrof m importmt creative moment in Hebrew Letters.
115 what was left clf M u s h Spain, the Jewish community had been re-
duced by the Almohads to insignificmce, never to recover, Jews =turned
tru Granada after the establishment of the Nasrid dynasty in the thirteex~th
century, but we have little inlormation ab0u.t them. .After thc mti-bwish
riots and forced conversions that raged t%troughoutChristian Spain in
1341, many converso.; made their way to -slim Cranacfa, where they
could =turn to Judaism. The last Hebrew poet of Muslim Spain was a
Cranadan Jew, Saadia Tbn Danan, who was ammg the Jewish exiles of
1492. He went to Morocco, where he wrote a treatise on the craft: of po-
etry Among the last Hebrew poets of Christian Spain was Jmdah Abra-
vanel. In 1503, he wrote a long poem, still uskg the Arabic prosody first
adqted for use in Hebrew by Spar~ishJews four and a half centuries ear-
lier to describe his experiences at the time of the expulsion and the dislo-
cation he experienced thereafier, Under the n m e Leone Ebreo, he was to
become famous among Italian writers of the Rex~aissanceas the author of
a treatise on love. He is thus a bridge figure h t o the Renaissance. But that
is another chapter in the lmg and colorful history of Hebrew letkrs.

Suggested Readings
Carmi, Ted. The Perzgzti~Book of Hebrew Verse. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin
Books, 1981.
Cole, Peter. Selected Pocms I;tf ShlnrneI HaNngid, Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 2 996.
Elbogcn, Ismar, Iewislz Liturcw: A G o n z p r i e Histolyj. Translated b y Raymond P),
ScheindXin. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication SocieQ 1993.
Fagis, Dan. Hebrezu Poetry of thc Middlc Ages nnd l"hcRe~aissattce.Berkeley: Univer-
sity ctf California Pressl 1991.
Rtuchawski, Jakob. Studies in the Medievat Piyyui". tondrm: Routledge and Kegan
Paul, 3978.
%heindlin, Rayrnund P. 7'hc Cnsrrlle: MedierlaE Heb~eruh e m s un Cod, Israel, alzd the
Soul, Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1991.
Scheindiin, Raymond R Wine, Women, nrjd Deatfi: Medietpal Hebrew hems 012 tlte
Good L$e, Philadelphia:Jewish Publication Society; 1986.
Stern, David, and Mark Mirsky, eds, khbinic Fatztnsies. Philadelphia: Jewish Pub-
lication Saciew, 1990.
 Medi
ewish Ph
WARREN Z E V H A R V E Y

M Y DXSCUSSION OF JEWISH PHILOSOPHY will focus on three major

medieval philosophers, Saadia Cam, fudah Halevi, m d Moses
mi-monides. I also shall discuss one r~onphilosophicbook, the Zrtlzal; t-he
classic text of the medieval. kabbala; this strange baak may be seen as a
mythopoetic critique of philosophy.

Saadia Gaon (892-942)

Saadia ben foseph al.-Fayyumi, kmlown as Saadia Gaorz, was a prodigious
scholar in many fjclds. He was the leading authoP-iv of his time in tafmu-
dic law and wrote importa~tworks 0x1 &is subject. He composed the first
h~own,Hebrew dictionary He trmslated the Bible h t o Arabic, and wrote
commentaries in Arabic on several biblical books, He compiled an au-
trhoritative edition of the Siddur (the Jewish prayer book). He engaged in
many pdemics, in particular ilf~aiclstthe Karaites. Mc. also wrote Hebrew
poems. His one systematic philosophic work, written in Arabic, is called
the Book of Beliefs a r ~ dOpil~iCft~s(Kjtab aE-Xmarzat wnl-Ttlqndnt; Hebrew
translation: Sefir h - E m u n o t ve-ha-&'of). Philosophic discussions are
found atso in, his Arabic commentary m the old Hebrew mystical book,
S&r Yr&rah ("'Book of Creatjon").
Saadia bvas barn in.892 in Fayyum, Upper Egypt. He lived also in Pales-
the, Syria., and Iraq. Tn 928, he was appointed the gam wean) of the great
talmdic academy in Sura, near Baghrlad. RagMad war; at trhe time a vi-
brant hub af Arabic culture m d the world center a l philosophy. Saadia
died in 942.
5aadia was an eclectic philosopher, His Doclk $Beliefs and Ogiazinns con-
tains Platonic, Aristoteltim, and Stoic elements. However, it: is probably
168 Warren Zev Harvey

best seen as belonging to the school of Kdam (philosophical or dialectical

trheology). Although the Kalam was d e v h p e d mostrfy by Muslims, it also
had Jewish and Christialn actvocates. SaadSs pfiilosophy is thus often
classified as "Jewish Kalam." Saadia seems to have been influenced by his
older co~~temporary, al-Jubbai (850-9151, head of the Mtl"tazili~t;
school of
Kalam ir.1 Basra. Howevex, he was not notice;lbly hauenced by al-Ash'ari
(873-935), founder of the Ashharite school of Kalarn, or by Alfarabi (ea.
&m-95501,founder of the Arabic Aristotelian traditio~~, who lived for a
while in, Baghdad, mQwho had a great impact an Mairnanides.
The Nook ofBdi#s alzd Opilzio~rsconsiSts of m iYltroductiOn and ten trea-
tises. The irttmdtlction discusses the existe~~l-ial anguish caused by doubt
and cxpounds a method for the attainment of certitinty; Treatise 1 trttats
Creation, m d Treatise 2 treats God, This is in, accordmce with a strategy
common in the Kalam according to which the existence of God is proved
from the creatiol~of the world. Treatises 3-45deal with the divine Law,
that is, the rlisrah, its observance and transgression, and its rewards and
p u n i s h e n b . Treatises 6-9 discuss the soul, resurrection, redemption,
and the world to come. Treatise 10 discusses virtuous h u r n a ~co~~duct and
criticizes various vulgar views on the natznre of humm happhess.
ALtltough the book deals with r n a v different Ihemes, perhaps its cen-
tral subject is legal and moral philosophy. One famous discussion is that
concerning two different kinds of laws, the ""rational" and the "auditory."
This discussion is important in the histov of the meory of "Natu.ralfr'or
"Rationa1,'"aw. It is found in Treatise 3, chapters 1-3.
Before t-urning to Saadiafsdiscussion, I shozzld like to jnsert two brief
comments, one about the meanirsg of rational or natural law, and one
about a relevant talrnudic discussion.
The meory of Rational or Natural Law is usually associated with the
Stoics. Cicero (Kcpzlhlica 3.22) set down three conditions for rational or
natural law: (1) it is h o w n by unaided humar~reason (ratin), since it
agrees with nature (nufzira); (2) it is zrniversal (i.e., it holds equally in
ABnens, Rome, and everywhere else); (3) it is e k m l (i.e., it holds equally
in ehe pas& prese~~t, and future). Thus, to say that a law is "rational,'Qr
"'natural," is to say that it is valid ir.1 every place and tiune, regarctless of
customs or traditions, In other wads, moral laws are understood to be
similar to physical laws: Just as the law of gmvil;v is uni\iersal and e t m d
and cmnot be illbrogated, so the law against robbery or murder is univer-
sal and eternal and cannot be abrogated.
?he rabhis in ihe "f'nlmud did not speak about ""rtional" or ""natural"
law. However, a passage in the ElaibyXonim Talmud (Uoma 67%; see also
Sgm on Leviticus 1&4)deals with a somewhat siwnilar notion. hterpmting
Leviticus 18~4,Lhe rabbis disthguish between "ordinantres'~(nzi?;hprrtin.I)
and "stat-utes" (hzlqqirn). "'C)rdin.amces"are laws that, "'had they not been
writte~1,should have been written"; they include the prohibitions of idol-
atry sexual crimes, murder; robbay m d blasphemy. ""Stat-utes" are laws
that seem to be vain or purposeless; they include the prohibition of wear-
ing a mixed wool and linen gament (Deuteronomy 22:14), the ceremony
of removing the brother-ill-law's shoe (Deuteronomy 25:5), and so on.
The interpretation here of "ordhances" is similar to rational. or natural
law, although the terns reason and ~zatureare not mentimed.
Let us now tun1 to Saadia's Book ofReIit"fs ancl Opinions, Treatise 3, chap-
ter l. Saadia dstinguishes k r e between two kinds of labvs: rati,onal (Ara-
bic: 'aqliyyat; Hebrew: sikhliyyot) and auditory (Arabic: saniiyyat; Hebrew:
sl.zivlCiyyof).Rcltiox~allaws are required by unaided reasor1 (Arhic: 'aqf; He-
brew: strkkel). They include gratitude to God; the prohibitior~of hias-
phemy; and the prohibition of aggression, Ear example, lying, robbery'
murde~;aduitery. Auditory laws are those that are not: required by un-
aicfed reasor1 and are accepted or.rly because they have been heard from
the lawgiver,
Saadia's '"rational laws" thus m o u n t to (1.) a religiun ofeason, or a rmt-
zlmE wlipifl~(namely the comma~ds to show gratitude to God ar~dnot to
blaspheme), and (2) a m t i o ~ a lmomlity, or naftcral mclrtzlity (namely, the
prohibition of aggression), In other words, the foundations of religion
and mor&ty arc commoxl to all hurnan beings; they are know~lito all hu-
m m behgs by means of their re.cYasonalone.
The "auditory bws," Saadia explains, are m t recyuired by reason alow.
The auditory laws of the 7brah were given by God "in order to increase
our reward and happiness.'' Moreover, these laws, while not rational (re-
quired by reason done), are generally m s m n b k (they am beneficial, they
have utilital-ian value).
In. chapter 2, Saadia amplifies his discussion of rational and auditory
laws. Me gives arguments to show that murder, adultay, theft, and lying
arc: irral-ior~al.For exampl.e, if murder permitted, the hurnan race
would amihilate itself, thus contradicting all purposes; or if theft bvere
pemitted, there would be no private propmy and thus nothing to steal.
He remarks that trulh tellinj; may be the basic rational law; that is, just as
the law of noncontradiction (i.e+,A camof be bath B and not-El) is the
foundation of all rational *ought (cf.AristotleJMefaplzysics 4.3.1.005b), so
it is t-he four.~dationof all mordity Saadia also a d d ~ s s e the
s argumex~tof
the hedonists, who justify murder and other crimes on the grounds that
they give plcasure to the aggmssor. He retorts that the pain of the victim
outweighs the pleasme of the victimizer.
As examples of auditory labvs, Saadia mentions inter alia laws of the
Sabbath and the other holy days, the dietary laws, and various laws regu-
lathg sexual intercourse. These laws are not ratiorlal but are reasonable.
Although reason does not require US to rest on the Sabbath, it is reasan-
170 Warren Zev Harvey

able to set aside times for rest fx^mwork, study, and yraper. Fux: Saadia,
trhe prohibition oi murcicr is h o r n by u ~ ~ a i d ereasall
d just as certainly as
the proposition that 1 -t- 1 = 2, The commmd to observe the Sabbath is not
h o w n by unaidrcrt reason and thus is not silnitar to mathematical propo-
sitions, but it is reasrml-rble.We expect ail human beings, regardless of tbeir
customs m d traditions, to know the propositions of mat.hermatics m d
morality; but we do not expect them all to know that they slnould rest on
the Sabbath.
Saadia's distinction between "'rational" and "atrditory" "a lws differs
from the talmudic distinction between '"ordinances" and '%statuteswin
two i ~ ~ r t i - tways.
n t First, it explicitly uses the philosophii. tern "rea-
son," absent in the tahudic discussioll. Seco~~d, it is an ehaustive dis-
tkction, kvhile the talmudic distkction is not: all commandments of the
Tor& are either ""rtional" or ""auditov"; but many (if not most) of them
(e.g., those concer~~ing the Sabbath and the other holy days) arc neither
"'ordinances" nor "statutes."
:In chapters 1and 2, Saadia defends a strong version of the Naturaii Law
trheory H w w e r , in chapter 3, he moderak.; his position.
Chapter 3 opens with a, question regarding the theory of Rational Law
expounded in chapters 1 and 2: If universal religion and morality are
klown by unaided reasall, w:hy did God need to s e ~ us ~ dpmphets? Saa-
dia ansvers, as we wodd expe" on the basis of chapters '1 m d 2, that
prophecy is nccessary for the auditoq laws (in order to increase our re-
ward and happiness). However, he then adds that pro")phecyis also neces-
sary for the rational laws because their practice c ot be comglete unless
prophets show us haw to perform them. For example, there is a rational
law to show gmtikud to toad, but we do not- h o w how to do &is until a
prophet teaches the commandment of prayer. Agah, there is a rational
law agahst theft, but we do not h o w what ownership is until a prophet
sets down the appropriate pule.;. By affiming that prophe" is necesmry
for the rational laws, Saadia weakens the theory of Natural Law, which he
had developed in chapters 1and 2. The rational laws concerning reiigion
and morality are now brned into general prhciples, whose collcrcte C~II-
tent is tmclear.
Saadia clpplies his distinrtion between 'kational" and '"uditoq" laws
to the commandments of the Torah; thus the auditory laws are ide~ttified
by him with ""rvelational," or "prophetic," laws. In fact, however, Saa-
diaFsdistinction may be aptly applied to a y legd system, divine or hu-
man: There are laws that are k~owableby reason alone, and that we
would expect to find in every legal system in every time or place; and
there are other laws that are particular to a given legat,t;ystem, and whose
authority is not hurnan reasoxl, hut only the word of the latvgiver. Ushg
Saadia's djstirtction, one c m imalyze the laws of m y legal system, b r ex-
ample, that of Russia, the United. States, Israel, A person who holds a
stro~~ Natural
g Law theory wift maintain that most laws should in fact he
universal, that is, common to all legal systems; a person who holds a
weak Natural Law theov will maixltain that only a few laws are univcr-
sal; and a persor.1 who denies Ni-ltural Ilaw theory holds that no laws are
universal*In m y case, Saadia's discussion provides an excellent frame-
work for debaling questions concerning the theory of Natural Law

Judah ben Smuel Halevi is primarily k~own, as a poet, perhaps the great-
est Hebrew poet since biblical times..He wrote both secular and liturgical
poetry. Tn some of his religious poems, he speaks of his own viaions of the
divine. a l e of his most famous poems is trhe IMe fn Zirttz, a poem recited
in, many rites on the Ninth of Ab (the Fast Day commemorating the de-
struction of the First and Second Temples). However, Halevi is also
k ~ o w nfor a philosophicill dialowe he wrote hArabic, called the Knztari.
Halevi was barn jn Tudela before 1075. He lived in. Grmada and later
Toledio, where he worked as a physicim. He completed thtl Kuzuri in 1140
and left Spain for the Lmd of Israel in 1141. He ddarkecf in Mexandria
and spent several months in, Egypt. It is not clear whether he ever reached
the Land of tsrad, According to a folk legend, he arrived in Jemsalern,
and while kissing its stones and recitk~gbis Ode fo Zir,rz, he was trampled
to death by m Arab horsemm.
The Kuzari is a philosophic (or antiphilosophic) dialogur? set in the
kingdm of the mazars in the eighth cenhnry when the king and the peo-
ple converted to Judaism. The book is a fictionalized reconstruction of the
king's conversations with a philosopher, a Christim schofar, and a Mus-
lim scholar, but primariiy with a Jewish rabbi. It is oger~lypokmical, and
in Defense of fize De-
its JormaI title is 71hr N I I O ~of Prc?tl/ nnd De~nonst~atirlrz
spiscd People, The main target of the polennic is Aristotelian phjlosophy
particularly the Ax~daiusim school represented by Ihn Bajja (ca.
2070-4138). Secondary targets of the polemic jnclude Christianity, Islam,
m d Karaism,
Halevi's critique of Aristotelianism is clearly influenced by algazali
(ll)58-ml),the famed Muslim mystic m d critic of ATistotelianism,
Halcvi made much use of hicenna (980--IU37), especidly ( m d maybe ex-
c1usive:iy) in the last three parts of the Kuzuri; Halevi's attitude toward
fiir is fundamentally sympathetic, for alt-hough Avicenna was an h i s -
totcllian, his Aristoteliaxrism was temperctd by a pious mysticism. flalevi
was also influenced by Neoy>latmicphilosophy. He had a negati\re atti-
tude toward the Kalam. h his viewf the Kalamic theologians do not b o w
172 Warren Zev Harvey

Cod, but merely know about Him, just as professors of poetry know
about poetry, but cannot write a verse (Kt4zal-i 5.16).
The bzari is divided into five parts. It begh2s with a dream that hatrnts
the king of the mazars night after night, In the d r e m , an mgel appears
to him, arid says, "Your iute~zfit,nis fleasing to God, but yew action is
not" "tizari 2.1). To help him ixltevret this dream, the king summons a
phiIosopher. The philosopher explains that what is important is contem-
plation, not action. The king deems the phifosopher3 advice ir~leva*
since the dream had clearly required a chmge in acffivn (1.24). He then
summons a Christian schalatr (1.4-5) and a Muslim scholar (1.5-9); m d he
h d s that they disagree about many things but agree that at one time God
had chosen the Jews and had spolien to the Jewish prophets. The com-
mon testinnmy of the Christian m d the M u s h leads the king to s ~ -
man a Jew (1.10). The Jew, a rabbi, states that Jews believe in the God of
A:hraham, Isailc, a ~ Jacoh,
d who liberated the IsrallliLes from borldage in
Egypt, and p m b m e d other miracles in hjstory (1.w. Halevi emphasizes
throughout the Kuznri that the Jewish religion is based m the Cod of his-
tory and expaience, whereas the religio~~ of the philosophers is based on
the gad of nature and rclason (1.12,25; 4.16--.1.7). As opposed to the Aris-
tottzlians, Halevi argues the priority of praxis to theorin. The king is iun-
pressed by the rabbi's teachings concernhg the importmce of action, and
he and his subjects convert to fudaism (2.1).
The king m d the rabbi continue?their discussions. The rabbi soon tells
the king about the wondrous quaIities of the Lmd of Israel, and the h g
asks him: If so, ~UIa16are YOU doing here? 'lfau have embarrassed me, the
rabbi replies meekly (2.9-24). At the end of the book, after much tdk, the
rabbi announces he is leavhg for the Land of Israel. He explains that in-
teMicm without action is insufficient (unless of course the action is innpos-
sible), and thus he must act m his intention to go to the Land of Israel
(5.22-28). Suddenly we realize that the king's dream was not directed to
him alone, but also to the rabbi! In leaving for the Holy Land, the rabbi
shows that he has learned the lesson of the king" dream: htent-ion rc-
quires action! Prwiously he had h ~ o w i h l w to talk iheoreticaily about
action, but only now does he act.
The Kzizari treats of mmy topics. Having discussed Saadia" distinction
between ratio~lala ~ auditory
d co mdme~~ts, let us now look at Halevi's
development of this djstrinction. Halevi accepts Saadiix's disthction, but m-
like Saadia, he artgws that &e most noble laws are the auditory mes, not
the rational olles. In a brillimt rhetol-ical move, he identifies the rational
laws with the "'political" ones, and the atrditary laws with the "divine"
ones (Ktkzari 2.48). He thus in effect belittles the rational laws, 'Xational'"
may sowld more r~oble&an ""auditoryf3but"divi~e'boundsmore noble
than "'pof,itid.rToofSowillgPlato (ICqtlf71Ic,1.351C), he observes that even a
gang of robbers observes among itself the basic laws of justice (i.e., the ra-
tional laws). 'The rational laws, therefore, co~~stitute
the
the divine laws constitute the maximum (Kazgri 2.48)
that there is a rational or natural lawIbut true mligion is masri
in the auditory laws, which tr d the ratior~alo~les(see also 3.7',11).
Halevi emphasizes that w t rationally understmd how the audi-
tory laws are efficacious. he continues, we also do not really
understand how the laws of the natural science efficacious. Kmt-
ian terns, we percreive only the pI'I~nome?'ia;we c t h o w the nourrrcna.
He illustrates this idea by aefcrring to sex and animal sacrifices. The sex
act arc3 ar~imalsacdices seem both to be an a b s d and silly preoccupa-
tion with the flesh; but after nine mor~thsa human being is born and the
sex act is proved to be purposeful and sublime; similarly, ir,vhexrthe divine
Presence descends from haven, the act of mimal sacrifice is pfoved to be
purposefui and suhlirne (3.53).
It should be noted that Halevi adds a new category to Saadia's '"'ratio-
nal" and "aauditory" 'laws; namely, the "psychic" laws (Arabic: rzafsiyynt;
Hcbrew: ncifshiyyot). These include the hor-ror toward God required by
the opening oC the Dcca'togttc? (Exodus 2U:f-71, plus the doctrine that
God knows our actions and thoutghts, and rewards m d punishes us
(Ktlmri 3.33). It is not- dear how Halevi u~lderstmdsthe "'psychicf"laws
in relation to the rational and auditory ones- He seems to consider them
to be a third independent category. However, it is also possible that he
has divided ihe "raticllnaI"" laws into two classes: the political and the
psychic.
Halevi" commitment to the Theoq of Rational or Natural Law is illus-
trakd by his farnous parable of ihe king of India (9,19-25). Aithough the
parable is told in order to make a theological point, it also reveals some-
thing about Halevi" political thinking. According to the parable, the just
and virtuous behavior of the people of India would not prove that there
exists a king of fndia, since their justice and virh3e mlght be ''naturd." If
however one we= to be visi.ted by messengers from the king of India,
bearir~ggifts from him, this wodd prove his existe~lce.So too, the philo-
sophic "argument from design'" does not prove the existence of G d ,
since the design of the universe m y simply be ''nalurat." Howevelr, our
&lowledge of God is based on his s e ~ ~ d messalgers
hg (the prophets),
who brought t ~ sgifts from him (the Torah. and its commandments),
Halevi"~position is clearly srapematuralist: The C:od of religim is not the
god of nature, and similady true rc-lligioxl tramcenh r~ature.At the same
time, Halevi is saying that philosophy (i.e., tmaided human reason) cm-
not prove the God of religion, and human beings do not need religion in
order to live justly or virkously. The divine law, the Torah, is concerz~ed
with raising hurnm beings above natznre (see 2.2942).
174 Warren Zev Harvey

Thus, mligious experience, clccording to E-falevi, concerns a 'Udivie or-

der" highcjr than reasall. In a few regrettable passages (almost exclusiv*
in, parts 1 m d 21, Halevi explains this divine order as behg trimsmitted
by hertrdiv from Adilm through Noab, through Abraham, tsaac, and Ja-
c&, and to their offspring (127, 63, 75; 2.12). In doing so, he borrowed a
dubious argument from certiltin Muslim t.lneologians m d appmpriakd it
for Judaism.! However, in more sipificant passages (e.g., $3,16-17),
tla.levi identifies this supral-atimal reaim wieh experience, imgination,
and tasie (Arcsbic: ddharuq; Hebrew: fa'am),as it is written: "Task and see
that God is good!" (Psalms 34:9). Whtreas the Aristotelhns held that God
it; known by the illtellect, Halewi teaches that he is klown by taste; that is,
by the. immediate experieme of our external and inten~alsenses. The as-
sociation of the religious experience with direct sensual and imaginative
experience is also fuund in many of Halevi's poems.

Moses Matnzonides (4135/&1204)

Moses ben Maimon, known by acronym in Hebrew as Rambarn (Rabbi
Moses ben Maimon), and in Lath as Maimonides, was without doubt the
most ir-rflue~~tialJewish philosopher of the medieval period. I-fis Gzride ofthe
Perplcwd revolutionized Jewish philosofiy and had a strong impact on
Christian philosophers, such as Albert the Great and mmas Ayuinas, Like
Saadia, MaimonicSes was also a great rabbi; indeed, he wits prctbabiy the
foremost authority on Jewish law since the tallmudic period. His works on
Jewish law include the Cornmentaq otz fF~eMishnah and the Book of the Corn-
r~zkznd~nents,both writtell in Arabic, and the Mz'shnejl Torah, his monume~ltal
fourteen-volume code of Jekvish labv, written in Hebrew. He bvrote two
philosophic hooks, both k Arahic: an Intrtpsd~ictz'or-rto Logic, whjch he wrote
as a yowlg man; and the G~lide ofthe Pnplexed (Arabic: LIIIlaEnt al-Fk'iri~z;He-
brew trmslation: Morclt it~-Nehzlkftim),completed iYZ the last decade of his
life. In adctitim, he wrote scores of cpistfes and respmsa m rabbjnic sub-
jects ant[ many importmt books on mdiral subjects.
Maimonides was born irt, Cordcriba in, 1235 or 2138. After the htolermt
Almofiads conquered the town in 1148, the Maimm family was forced
into exile. Wlaimonides wmdered in Spain, Morocco, ar~dthe L a d of:ls-
rael, bef0;t.e settling in Egypt ia. 1165, In Egypt, Mainnonides served as a
physician in the court of Saladin and was head. of the Jewish community
His opinims on Jewish law were sought by Jews throul;hout the world.
me Gr~Jdeof fhe Iff?vlexcdwas wriCten for oulstmdjrlg young sktdents,
""p~1cxed'"y the apparent contradiction betwem religion and pl-riloso-
phy (as he said in the dedication, "Epistle Dedicatory to Joscph ben Ju-
dah"") In Mahonides' view, religion m d philosophy are not contradictav,
but compklmenta~Religion =quires philosophy; for the divine Law com-
mands the hlowkdge and love of God, which can be truly achieved ody
by the scientific study of the miverse. Conversely philosophy r e q u i ~reli-s
giun; for it explains that the divine Law is of great utililt\i in leading h u m
beings to thl? true gods of peace m d knowledge (Gz~de2.40; 3.27).
The C~.lideis divided into three parts. Part 1presents a critique of the er-
rors of the imagination, beginning with crass anthroy amorphism (l.,l )
and conclucfirng with the sophisticated but (at least in Maimol~ides'judg-
ment) sophjstic doctril-tes of th.e Kalam (3.71,--76).The difference b e m e n
the Kalamic thecr1ol;;iar.t~m d the philosophers, ~cordinl;; to Maimonides,
is that the former try to make the world fit their ideas, w h e ~ a the s latter
try to make their ideas fit the world (1.71); this description of the Kalarn
might, if one wishes, be applied eqtrally to mcient Greek sophism or to
modern ideology. I f part l destroys unphilosophic religion, part 2 con-
structs a pltilosophic one in its place. It offers Aristotelian proofs of the
existence, unity; and corporeality of God (2.1-2), and explains creation
(2.13-31) and prophecy (2.32-48)in Aristotelian terms. However, the con-
fident rationalism of part 2 is shatterrd in part 3. Its discussiolw of
Ezekiel's vision of the chariot (3.1-7) of Job (3.22-23) raise grave doubts
&out the possi:toility of certainv in metaphysics or even in physics; its
analysis of the problem of evil (3.8-14) is a~ltianthropc,ce~litric and an-
titeleologicd; its examindion of t k commmdments of the Torah is de-
tachcrd and sociological, explaining them against the background of an-
cient Ca~aaniteidolatry (3.25-50); a ~ its d famous discussion of the love
of God is not Aristatelim but mystical, hflluenced by Sufism (3.51).Its fi-
nal chapter (3.54) teaches that despite everything, the true human excel-
lence is &at of the intellect, and thc? political activity of the excellent hdi-
vidual is z'mihfrclDei.
The Guide is m esoteric book, a book of puzzles. Since it seeks to re-
place naive faith with reaso11c.d co~~viction, it risks causing p"ofou"d
harm to some readers, namely, those who traderstand enough ta lose
their naive faith, but not enough to acquisc reasoned conviction. h order
tru hide the potentially subversive doctrines of the Gnide from unprepared
readers, Maimonides trses various methods of indirection (see Introduc-
tion to Gtrildcu); for example, he puryoseb affirms contradictory proposi-
fions, one being arguctci logically (for the sake of the philosophic reader,
who accepts only logic), the other being stated rhetorically (far the sake of
the unphilosophic one, who is moved only by rhetoric), Studying the
Guide thus meals solving its puzzles, trying to discover its esoteric teach-
ings hidden beneath, its exoteric ones. These puzzles make the Gzride an
espe"i.ally exciting book.
'The Guide begins (1.1) with a discut;siol~of trhe biblical km "'image of
God." "at does the Bible mean when it says that human beings are cre-
176 Warren Zev Harvey

ated in the &vine image (Genesis 1:26-27)? Mairnonides explahs that the
term ""imagef"( H e b w : ~ l e m fdenotes Aristotelian form, not physical
form or shape, and concludes that the divine image of the hmmm being is
the intellect,
e s (Guide 1.2) discusses the Garden of Eden story (Genesis
M a k o ~ ~ i dnext
2:8-3:22). His novel exegesis is in essence adopted by Sphoza ist his Etllr'cs
4.68. Mairnonides uses the story as a "state of nature" parable that illus-
trates bow politics and law come into being. His k~tevretatio~li is based on
a radical distinction between the concepts ""lf;ueM and "false" m d the con-
cepts "good" a11d "bad," Tme m d false are objectke concepts, intelligibilia:
"'truef"means correspmcling to existence, and "false" m a n s not corre-
spmding to it. Gaod bad, however, are subjective concepts, popularly
accepted opi"i"nz '""Cooct" mems corrcrspon&ng to one's purpose (cf.
Glainc 3.13), and "bad" 'ems not corresponding to it. OUPjudgments of
true and false are theace~~tric or cosmcentric (from the impartial pok~tof
\liew of God or nattxrc?);but our judpents ol good and bad are egocentric
(from our own partial point of view). Rue m d false thus are the same for
all human beir~gs,hut goad and had vav: What is good for me may be bad
for you. Notions of "good" and "bad" arise in the imagination (on the
imagination, see Gllide 1-73,pmposition 10; and Eight Chapfers, 1-3.Shce
they are not itztlliligibilk, they could not eve11 be co~~ceived by a purely ra-
tional person. According to Mairnonideskxegesis, Adam and Eve were
c ~ a t e dwith perfect intellects ("inthe irnage of God"), howing true md.
false, and hitving m notions of good and bad; hut they forsook the way of
Reason, went after their imaginary desires, m d begm to judge the world in,
terms of "good" md. "bad" "(that is, they ate ffom the Tree of QwIedge of
Good m d Evil). A d m and Eve thus s d by fosaklt~gobjective scieneific
bolvledge (true and false) for subjective egocentric opinion (good and
bad). B e f a they rebelled, they had m need for fig leaves; for they regu-
lated their sex l& ratio~~ally that is, in accordance with impartid evalu-
ation of their combhed true biolagieal needs; but after their rebellion, they
needed the fig leaves to protect themselvclls from their selfish imaginary de-
sires. The sexual relatio~~ ht-11.tiee11m m i-u.~dwomm reprcse1"tts the he@%-
rrj,g of society; ilnd the fig leaf symbdizes the begiming of law. If h u m
beings were purely rational (like Adam and Eve before their belli ion),
there would he no need for law. Ratior~alA d m could not eve11 6knk of
rapkg Eve, but egocentric Adam was a threat to her, and socieq had to
provide protectim: namely, the fg leaf, The poktical problem begins when
irna@~ationconquers intetlect and egme~~trism conquers co~c-sratio~~.
W& regard to the westion of Rarj.onal, or NaCural, Law, it is clear that
Maimonides, as opposed to Saadia m d Halcsvi, does not think that moral
norms are "rational'" or "'nahral'" rather he considers them to be popu-
larly accepted opinions. fn a discussion in the Eight Chapters, 6, he explic-
itly rejects Saadia's description of the moral comandments as "ratio-
nal." h Maimonideshiew, our laws (like the fig leaf) come into " o i q
precisely when hurnan b&ngs cease to be rational. They ainl to help us
live morcj rationally, but they themselves are not rational, and thus they
arr;not universal. Howevex; since iarational behavior is part of humm na-
ture, law may be said to fulfill a natural h u m a ~need. In this sex-tse, law
has something to da with nature but is not "nat-ural" p.40).
:It is interesting to compare Mairnonides' parable of the weak money-
changer (1.46) with I-laievi" pparahle of the kin$ o i India, If the big bully
does not rob the weak moneychanger, it is ortry because there is a mler in
the city. Similarly, if there is order in the universe, it must have a ruler,
Maimonides distinguihes between iwo kfnds of politicat I w : nomic
law (from the Greek Bornus, '"aw"")~d divine Law. The iwo are distil%-
guished by theif goals. The god of a nontic law is the establishmet7t of
peace. The divine Law sees the establjshmnt of peace as its inkmediate
goal, but its uitimate goal is scknlific knowledge, that is, the knowledge
of God. 7-he Tmah is divine Law' since it seeks to promote both pbysicd
m d spiritual welfare, that is, peace and truth. There may be m n y divine
laws, but the Torah of:Wloses is the origillai one (2.40; 3.27-28). The mes-
simic era refers to the time when the Tor& will, finally succeed in creating
a community of peace and howledge (3.17).
Questiox~sof law a l ~ dpolitics have an importmt place in the Guildrr, and
the Cuidc m y \veil be defbed as primarily a book of legat or polilical phi-
losophy. Howevel~,tlne book is famous a'iso for its discussions of God.
Mahonides; holds the extreme positim that there is absolutely nothing
that c m be literally predicated of God. All descriptions of him are figura-
tive. " m e Torah speaks according to the :languageof humm beings," that
is, according to imaginative lirx~guage,m t philOsophic l a n g u s e (1.29,
46). Even the statement "'Cod exists" is isnot literally true, for how c m the
creator of existence be said to exist? The term existe~zct.,explaisrs Mai-
monides, is used in a purely equivocal sense with regard to God (1.56).
According to Mahonides' mcompmmising via negativa (use of negative
defhitions) (1.59), we can say what God is notf "at not what he is. Ulti-
mately, all attributes of created things we to be negated of God; and thus
the upshot ol the via negatizjr-r is that God is not tfle created unimrse.
For m r e Ihm 800 years, Nlairno~linesT~-~lide of the Pe~lexctEhas fasci-
nakd, challe~~ged, enraged, and pe"plexed readers. Shtdyfng it remains a
singular philosophic experience.

The Zohar (late thirteenth century)

The Z ~ h a is
r a mythico-mysticd &rash (m the Pentateuch and other parts
of the Bible. It is bvritten hArmaic, the lmguage of the Tahud, and,pur-
parts to contain the esoteric discussions of the second-century Rabbi
17%' Warren Zev Harvey

Sirneon bar Yohai m d his circle in the Gabilee. h fact, it was written eleven
centuries later in Spain.b b b i Moses de Leo11 (ca. 3230--13(15), a phiioso-
p h e m d mystic from Guaddajara, was active in copying m d distributing
the Zolzav. After his death, when his widow was asked about the where-
ahouts of the mcient mmuscript born vhJhich he had supposedly copied ihe
Z&@r, she replied: "'We wrok it erntizev from his w n heact!" Her atkibu-
tion of the Zc~havto her husband has been acceptcti by most modem schol-
ars, afthough some &ink he was merely m e of a group of coautbsrs. Some
thirteenth-century. k&balists held that in a mystical sense both Rabbi
Sirneon bar Vohai and de Lcon wrote the Zohar: that is, de Leon mystically
united in spiriC with Rahbi Simco~~ m d his companions, they dictated the
Zohm to him, and he wrote it by meals of "automtic writit~g."
Zoharic myth is extravagant m d wild, but far from being primitive or
naive. It may be described as posthiblical and postphilosophic myth. Both
trhe biblical and the philosophic traditions me basicafly ar~timyehofogicraf.
IThe biblicd God, d i k e the gods of ancient mythologies, fig& no bloody
wars with other gods and has no sordid love affairs with seductive god-
desses. He creates the world by speech alone: "Let there be fight!" ((Ger~e-
sis 3:3). Sirstilariy, the phiiosophic tradition =placed the cotorful and fas-
cinatjng gods of the sea, the winds, and so on, by the "principles" larchail
of wakr, p e m , m d so on.Thus, a Jewish philosopher in the fhirteex~th
century belonged to two antimythological traditions: the biblical and the
philosophic. Me had b c f m him Mahonides' Guide of the Perplexed, a few-
ish book and a philosophic book, which methodicaily pushed both an-
tirnythicd traditions to m extreme. Of cozzrse, it lnight be argued that life
without myths i s arid, banal, boshg, m d spirihally deprived. The g ~ a t
trhirtmnl-h-century kabbi\lists seem to have thought this. In any case, they
boldly sought to revive mytholoa. m e y believed that myth could take
them beyond the intellect-ualism of MaimonidesT~zlide,Mabbalah, they
asserted, beginqust where philosophy ends. m e r e the philosopher's ra-
tio (reason) stops, trhe kabbalist's imaghatian takes over.
Maimorrides had taught that one cmnot speak about God. The khbal-
ists agreed that one caxx~otspeak about God, the EM Sc$(II~fh~ite), but they
added that one c m hdeed speak about God's presence in the universe.
They explnined that God i s present in the universe by virtue of ten sifirt~f.
(manifestatiox~sor emanations; sir-rgular: srfirah). As mor~otheists,they
could not speak about wars or romances between the gads, but they
could speak about wars and romnces inside Cod; that is, they could
speak about wars and romaxlccs amollg the sefi'ntt. There are ten sefimf:
one suprasexual, five masculine, and b u r femjrtine. They are as follows:

from Erz
1, Keter (Crown), no sex, the indescribable first erna~atiox~
S o t hokvn also as Nothingness ('ayit?).
 vo&m;zh (Wisdom),male, the primor$ial point.
Binah (Understanding),female, thc. spiritual womb of all existe~~ce.
@iesed(Love), male, the right arm.
Geburah (Power), female, the left arm,
Tiferet (Beauty),male, the torso.
Ne,srah (Eternity), male, the right leg.
Hod (Majesty), female, the left leg.
Yesod (Fuundation),male, the penis.
Malbut (Khgdom) or Shebinah (Presence),female, the presence
of Gad in histoqy;

The sefirot eo~~stitute an a ~ ~ t l t r o p m o ~

portrait
h k of God, but they are
also *dependent powers, each havhg his or her own loves and hates.
:In order to show how the Zohur "goes beyond" pphosophy let us look
at its expositio~~ of ihe first verse in the Bible (Zvlar 1.15a)"si. verse is
usuafly translated: "h the begiming [be-reshiff, God [Eluhiwzf c ~ a t e d
[bar@']the heaven and the earth." The first word "h-rc.shiEUhad already
been interpreted in the classical :Midrash as meaning '%by means; of Wis-
dom," in accordmce with Proverbs 8:22 ("The L,ord made me [Wisdom,
12oklzmahl the bcghnhg [reslzil_jof His way"'). The rilhbis had identifkd
this 'Wisdomf%ith trhe preexfste17.t Torah. The Zc>lznqhowever, now iden-
tiaies it with the second srlfiruh, mmed ""!fo&mah.'TThtls, '*be-).t.slzit"is to
be understood: "by means of the sefirah fifokhmah." The cwsrd "Elohirrz" is
taken by the Zvlar to be the direct object of the verse, not the subject %is
is because in the Hebrew text the word "6araJrrprecedes "TElollim." " E h -
12im" is held, to refer here to the &idsefirah, nanncly, Binah. Thus, the
verse now reads: "By means of the sefi'mjl h,[ . . . 1 created the se-
firah Bir-raf-t.m e verse therefore does not speak about cvhat Elohim creakd,
but ratl-ter it speaks about the creation of Edohinz! The Zohar has trans-
formed the God of Genesis 1:1 from Creator to Created! It has mytholo-
gized the verse. But what is the subject of the verse? It is either the ineffa-
ble m d unhowable first sefira-atz(Keter) or the ineffable and anknowable
E1-z S($. But since Keter and E n S($are ineffable and unhowable, they can-
not appear in, our verse or in any other text. m e verse thus has no subject.
The grammatical defect is a theological.boon. The Infinite God (Er? S($), as
i n k e d the philosophers had taught, is beyor~dwords or undc.rsta~di~lig,
but, affim the kabbalists, the Bible never tried to speak &out the fnfinite
God. The Bible speaks only about God" scrated preseme in our universe.
The first verse of Genesis tells us &out the creation of God's presence in
the t~niverse,that is, the crclation of the sefirof. By means of the primordial
point, the sefirah ErfuMnmah, the E1-z Sstj" creakd the sefirah Bin& m d the
seven other sefimt (i.e., the heaven and the earth). H0khmal-t is mascuIine
and K i n a h femitljne, and the c ~ a t i o nof Efohinz has a sexual interprets-
180 Warren Zev EJfarvq

tion: The masculine divine being emanated the feminine divine being and
then impregnated her with the divine seed (zera'), which is also the divine
ighl Czohud.
Not suqrisingly, many students of the Bible and philosophy are out-
raged by the Z a h r . Nonetheles;s, shce the Zohar is posfbiblicd and post-
phjSosophic myth, it can be truly appred;xted only by stude~~ts of the Bible
and philosophy.

1 have discussed brieny some views of three major Jewish philosophers

who lived at different times m d in d i f f e ~ n placcs
t m d who difctrc3d on
fundamental questions; I have also discussed briefly the mystical Zohar, It
it;hoped that these brief discussio~~swill have gi\ren the s t u d e ~a~taste
t of
the rich tradi"con of Jewish philosophy m d encourage further study

Notes
1. See S. Pines, "Shi ite Terms and Conceptions in Judah P-ialevi" Kuzarift'
Jc~ztsaltrunStudies in Ambic and Isl~m2 (19W), pp. 26-5-4251.
2. D, C. Matt, Zohnr, the Book of Enlightennzctzt (New York: Paulist Press, 19831,
pp. 49-50.

Suggested Readings
P-iusik, Isaac. A His tolyj of Mediez~aljewisll Pliilosoplty, New York: Atheneurn, 1973.
Lewy Hans, Alexander Attmann, and Tsaak Heinemann, eds. Tlzme Jcr:.wislzPizilso-
y1zer.s: Plzifo,Saadya Gnon, juclalz H~Lcvi,Mew York: Atheneurn, 1969.
Matt, Daniei. Zulzarf flze Bcwk of Elzlightenment. New York: Paulist Press, 29233.
Scholem, Gershom. Major Petzds in lcwislz Mystici,~m,New York: Schockcm, 1941.
 Modern
ewish History
DAVXD E. F I S H N A N

The Early Modern Period (1500-1750)

The expulsiol'~of the Jews from Spain, in 1492, culminated t-he gradual
process Irhrough which the Jews wem expelled from Westerr1 a ~ much d of
central Europe in the M d d e Ages. tn its ilflermdh, the centers of Jewish
life shifted eastward: to ftaly and. the Ottoman Empire (including the
Land of Israel) for the 5pt-rardh (Jews of Iherian origin), a d to Poland
for the Ashkenaaim (Jews af northern European angin). Becatrse af con-
tinued eastwrd ~rtigration(in the sixteenth century) and natural increase
(inthe seventeenth and eighteenth centuries), 80 percent of the world%
2.5 million Jews lived in. the Near East and eastern Europe in. 1800,
:Inmany respects, Jewish life in the lands of resenlement comthucrd along
medictvitl lines: Jews were legal@ a separate category of ~ a b i t m t stheir
;
isttermal affairs were gokremed by Jewish communal bodies ( f i e knlunl) =c-
opized by the Crown; and the revealed apld binding nature of Jewish rcrli-
g i m d a w remahed the cornerstone of Jewish social values. J e w y was
boulnd together by a s h m d Ijttxrgical m d litmay tonguc-Hebmlw-ad
by a common messimic fai& in their eventual return to the Land of Israel,
In many rrtspects, the Jews"separateness, distinctiveness, and tradi-
tional religious culture not only persisted but actually intensified in the
sixteenth to eighteenth cmtmies. Wth their geographic shift eastward,
trhe Jetvs' spoken laxwages now d i f f e ~ dgreatfy h m that of their non-
Jewish neighbors, with Ashkenazirn speaking Yiddish-a Germanic lan-
guage-in a Slavic environment, and Sephardim speakkg Judezmo---a
Romance language-h Turkey. The Catholic Comter~formatior~ led to
more strictly enfi?rced pNSjcal seg~gationof Jews in Italy and Poland.
(In Italy, the enclosed Jewish quarters were known as ghettos.) kwish
messianic fervor b u r i s k d mox-rg t-he Sphardirn in lrhc aftermath of the
Spanish exptrlsian, an event that aroused poptrlar hopes and mystical
speculations of imminent redemption. h 1665 and 1666, most of world
Jewry embraced with excited er~tlnusiasmthe claims of a Jewish mystic
horn Smyma, Turkey, named Shabbetai Zevi, that he was the Messiah,
His eventual conversion to Islam disabused them of this behef. Nearly a
century later, in Polar~d,a powerful Jewish mystic& and pietistic move-
ment called Hasidi.sm m s e , which stressed religious joy and faith in the
salvationary powers of holy men called, zaddikirn, Seen from the perspec-
tive of these developments, the period ktween 1500 and 1750 can be con-
s i d e ~ the
d "late Middle Agesf"in Jewish Etistory
But in. other important respects, the period marked the b e g b i n g of so-
cial, political, and cultural transfamations, In the early seventeenth cen-
tury, the geographic pendulum began to shift westward. Groups of Span-
ish and Portuguese New Christims settled in. HolXand in. the 1590s, and
by the 1610s they were publicly coxzducting Jewish religious services in
Amsterdam, which became ox-re of the mast vibrant Jewish commurGties
in Europe. At about the same time, in southern Frmce, groups of New
Christian ""E"rtuguese Merchants" "began to revert to Judaism, without
being expdled or persecuted by the. local autl-rorities. h d the Jews were
formally allowed to reenter England in 1656, following appeals from
Dutch Rabbi Manasseh Ben Israel and deliberations by the gove
Oliver Cromwell. Jews also settled in the Dutch, French, and British
colonies in the New World-most notably in Dutch New Amsterdam
(fater called New York), in 1654,
Ihis Jel.vish resettlement in the West was made possible by the deciine
of traditional Christian theological thinking about the Jews-md by the
rise of pragmatic economic considerations,In the era of mercantilism, the
Jewsqlong-standhg involveme~~t in interr~ationdcommerce a ~ banking
d
came to be viewed as desirable assets*In a related development, the idea
of religious tolerance begm to take hold in western Europe and was artic-
ulated with specjfic regard to t-he Jews by a number of prominent jurists
and politicat thinkers.
Early capitalism and mercantilism enabled a small elite of Jewish
bar-rkers to rise to positions of promhence and power in the surrour-rding
societies. In 1697, 12 of the 124 reser~redseats on the ZJondon Stack Ex-
change were held by Jews. In the G e m a n principalities, 'T~ourtJews"
saved in a combination of capacities-as financiers, pwveyors, and close
advisers-to dukes m d monarchs. Livhg at court, rather than in a Jewish
commul-tity or enclosed ghetto, they adoyted many of the styles and be-
havior pattuns of the Christian alistocrac, ibccomifig quite lax in their
Jewish religious obser~rance-
 Modern Jet(vist-r, History 183

Skctpticim and religious laxity crept into @wishsod.et.5 particularb in

tloiiand, Englar~d,and Italy, Ambivale~~ce toward Judaim was cbaracter-
istic of many of the ex-Marranos (Jewish converts to Christianity) and
their descendants who had lked as Christiitlns on the fieriarr peninsula,
before ernigrathg and professing Judaism..Many of them couid not ad-
just to traditional Jewish practice and faith. The mast prominent Jewish
heretic an$ naturalist philosopher of the seventeenth cenbry-Benedict
(Barn&) Spil7ozewas a a t c h Jew with :Marraw ancestors.

The Enlightenment and the Jews

The ideas of the European Enligh ent, which proclaimed the supremacy
of reason and equaliw of all a complm impact on modem Jewish
fistory (31 the one hmd, E t ~ ~ k e rsuch
s , as Mmtesyuieu, ad-
vmced the idea of Jews b m m beings m d condemed their
persecution aa the barbarous product of religious superstition and the
&uses of t-he Church,.The Gemar~writer G. E. Lessing wrote a numher of
drmatic works (e.g., Natlun the Wise) &at revolved aromd virtuous m d
heroic Jewish daracters in order to show his readers that such Jews could
ar~ddid exist, and to argue 01%belhatl: of refigious tolerance. the other
hmd, Judaism itself was viewed with distaste by Enlighte-nment philose
phert; such as fiousseau m d Volta onsidered it a superstiticlus m d
n a r m - m h d c d rcttigion that b lity 'The men of the Edighte1.1-
mend as mtagonists of Christim Church, asc~bedmmy of t k
latter's "ddepravitiies" to Judaism, its moth
lhis ambivalmt kgacy of the Elllight
m social and political ~ a l i t i e sin cent
tfia, in the 1770s. The admission of Moses Merrdelssohn into Enlighten-
ment circles in Berlin, the close frie~~dsf-rip that devdoped betwem him
and Lesshg, m d his rise to a central position in German philosophy and
letters sipaled the beginning of the integration of Jews into European so-
ciety. ;:lb the asto~~ishment of his conkmporaries, M e n d e t s s h maskred
the Germm language, literature, m d social mmners, but remahed an ob-
semant Jew FXe rejected several public challenges to the effect that, as a
man of reason, he ought to c o m r t to Protestantism He responded hhis
book Jerusalem that t k state and society should afford equal tderance to-
ward the followers of all religions, as long as they cOllf~medto "natural
law'' a ~ thatd Judaism w s , in a ~ event, ~ y the religion most compatible
with the Enlightenmm since it was itself tolerant and commanded laws,
not irrational dogmas of faith. Mendelssohn thus ted to combine
and synthesize Judaism and the European Eniigh
attachment to two commmities and cultures-a duality that was to be-
come a central hature of the modern Jewish experience-he came to be
cmsidered the father of moder11 Jewry.
Under Mendelssoh" model m d inspiration, there developed a Jewish
ent movement in Gemml/; called the Haskdh, It u s e d Jews
to learn and use the language of their non-Jewish neighbors, to acquire gen-
eral sciedificr knnwledge, to eschew social separatism and rcrligious super-
stition, and to consider &emselves loyd subf ects of their lands of residence.
It also c d k d for the prodwctivizatio~~ oi Jewish MiC il~thitythat is,
their adoption of crafts m d agriculture in place a erce-Neverheless,
the Haskal* did not advocate the aband dical alteration of
Jewish religious practice, ard its members embraced the s k d y oi the Eble
ar~dthe literav use of Hebrew. Impkit in its ideology was the anlicipation
that the modemizd Jew kvould be accepted into surromdlstg s0ciet.y.m d
would be afforded an equal legal status with Christians.
'The first partial rtralbation of this hope came in the Edict oi Ib:lrtl.ation,
issued by the d g h t e n e d e m p a r Joseph 11of Austria, in 37MZ.T%isedict
sought to bring down some of the legal barriers separating Jews from, sur-
mwding socieity, It &&shed several (though not ali) 1011g-star~dingre-
st-rictions on Jewish residence and occupatians, and it elimbated special
Jewish taxes m d signs (such as the '"wish hat")).It reyuised Jews either
tru send their children to state public schools or to create ar~alogousNor-
mnlschrrlen of their own, and it prohibited the use of H e h w and Yiddish
in business records. In subsequent years, Joseph I31 also required Jews to
s a v e in the Austrian army arci 3bolishc.d Jewish judicial autonomy.
Enlightened Jews, such as M:en&lssohn's associate Naftalj Merti:
(Hartwig)Wesscly, g ~ e k Joseph'sd refoms as beneficent acts to brjng Jews
out of their backw ardness and isolalim, an3 to grant them a higher status,
sin?ilar to that of Chtistian subjects. Wessely composed a p a n t e e l , Miitrds "If'
Pea= and TYUth, that calkd upon Jews to reform their elementary school (the
heder) in a~corc-tm(lt" With Joseph'S dkectiws. But traditionalist Jews, led by
Rabbis Raphael Ha-Cohen oS Hamburg and Ezekie'f Lmdau of Prague,
viwed these measures with mspicim and trepiciation. For them, Jaseph's
reforms were evil decrcres that interfered in thc? Jews' inten~alautonomy (ed-
ucation, courts, business) m d that threatened to weaken Judaisrn by entic-
ing m d f t ) ~ i P l gJews into Gmtile swie+ This codict between hlightcned.
traditiona[ist Jews was to persist over the next several ge~~erations, first
in central Europe, m d the12 in eastern Eurs?pe. h Germany m d Austria the
was unmistak&Jy on the side of the Enlightened c m p .

Emancipation and Reform

The French Revolution of 1789, which created the modern nation-state, also
radicaly altered the Aation of Frme" Jews to the State, Despite the rev*
 Modern Jewish History 185

lution" "Declaration of the Rights of M m and the Citizen," Jews weR not
incorporated immediately into the Fre~~ch citizenry. after Jewish delega-
tions submitted petitions, the French Nationall Assembly debated the issue
of Jewish enfranclnisement, or, as it would later be caIled, Emanciyation.
Opponmts argued that Jews were a foreign natiml, that they prayed for
their return to their mcestral homeland, m d that they followed their own
laws and considertrd Frenchmen to be strangers; thertrfm, they should be
treated as residex-tt aliens, not as citizens. Indeed, it was claimed that the
Jewsbeligian (particularly the dietary laws and Sat-urday Sabbath) pre-
vented them from assuming the respmsibilities of French citizens and.
that their moral depravity disqualified them from this hctz-tor.Supporters
of Jewish Emancipatio~~, such as Stanislas de Clemont-Tox-tnerre, a r p e d
that-the principle of religious liberty charngioned by the revolution was at
stake; denying citizenship to people who had lived in France for centufies
just because they ""wore beards, were ci~urncised,a ~ followed d a differ-
ent religion""wodd make a -key of the Declaration of th.e Rghts of
Man. Abbe5 Gregoire argued that ft?wishdepravities were themselves the
consequmce of Christian persecutkn, and that Jewish separatism and
messimism would whither abvay if the Jews were admitted into the citi-
z e n q h the end, the Sephardic Jews of southern France were emanci-
pated in Jar~uar~r 7790, and the hhkenazim of Alsace-Lorraine one and a
hnlf years later, in Sepkmber 17Cil.
Emallcipatioml meant that the Jews nct longer misted as a separate legal
category in the eyes of Lhe State. In practical terms, all sorts of grofes-
sional, educational, and social opportunities were opened trp to them.
Howevel; Emancipation also meant the dissolutim of the legallq. man-
dated Jewish commu~~ity {kahul) with its administratim, taxes, and
courts. Clermont-Tonnerre had stated in the National Assembly 'S debate,
"The Jews should be denied everyfiing as a nation, but must be granted
everything as individuals. 'There cmz-tot be a nation in a nation." Aboli-
tion of the fc~halsystem meant that religious observance and indeed iden-
tification wifh the Jewish communiv altogether became a matter of indi-
d u d , voluntary choice.
Must Jews welcomed the grmting of Emmcipation: some viewed it in
nearly messianic terms, as the cmd,to Jewish suffering inexile m d a farm of
polgical rederrrptio2-t. Attainme~~t of Emmcipatio~~ was the primary politi-
cal goall of Europe's Jews for most of the nheteenth centuv; its spread was
unwen and dependent upon local politiral conditions and social attitudes
toward Jews. At first, Emancipalion was advaxed by the c o n v s t s of
Napoleon" armies in Hallmd (h1796), h sou&er~~ G e m m y m d north-
em Italy (in 1806-1807). But Napoleon himself considered rescinding the
JewsTErnancipatio~~ ar-td conve~wdan Assembly of Jewish Notables from
throughoul his empire in 1806, as well as a rabbinic synod {Snnhedrin), to
oaths of loyalty to Frmce, its laws and ihabitmts.
 The most difficulf struggle was in Pmssia, where Jews acculturated
rapidly but did not secure equal civil anrl politic& ril;hts until very late.
Emancip&icnn was first granted in 1.812, then rcltracted at the Congress of
Vienna in 1815, reinstated by the revolutions of 1848-only to be ahol-
ished by the ipo&revolutionary reactiox~.It was firtally granted in 1869.
Dzlring the course of this protract4 strt~ggle,G e r m Jews ~defincld
their identities and produced a varietJi of modem Jewish ideologis.
Among upward:ty mobile German Jews, one solution to the frustrations
of s e c d - c l a s s status was conversion to Christianity. Four of
Mendelssohn's six children converted, as did the parents of Karl Marx
and the Getrmm poet Heinrich Heine, who declared that "the baptimd
font i s the ticket of admission to European So~ieV~"' Most, however, rede-
fined Judaism rather than abandoning it altogether. They relegated Ju-
daism to the synagogue service white eagerly joining the ranks of the
German urban bourgeoisie.
Associated with this was the rise of Reform Judaism, which trans-
formed Jewish religious practice as well as doctrjne in accordance with
trhe new spirit and demands oi the 11ir1etee11th century In the first R e h m
Temple (a tenx used instead of ""synagogue"), founded in Malnburg in
7818, and in its successors, much of the liturgy was recited in Geman,
and the "'natio~~al" prayers for the r e t u r ~to~ the Land of Israel were
deleted. A choir, accompanied by an organ, was introduced and the don-
ning of the Jewish prayer shawl (faliii) and head coverhng was discontin-
ued. Strict formal decorum was maintained. T l ~ eservice became m0l.e
decorous and dignified-and resembled mare closely the form of prayer
in a Protestmt church,
I h e Ieadiq thirlker of Reform Judaim, Ahraham Geiger; emphasized
the universalist aspects of Judaism and contended that its essence was
Ethical Monotheism-the moral teachings of the prophets and faith in
0x10 God. Many religious laws and rituals (such as the complex dic.tary
laws) kvere expendable externalities, products of more primitive times. In
a few mortr-radical Reform congregalims, the Sabbath service was shifted
tru Sunday and trhe p c t i c e of ckumcisiox~was discontinuctd. This form
of Judaism, whi& mhirnized the areas of tension and conflict with the
d m i n m t culture while accentuating its lofty moral teachings, was most
attractive in a period when Jews were skuggfing for social accepta~~ce
and political Emmcipation.
More traditionally disposed rabbis accused the reformers of "orterhg
wily Jewish tradition i11 exchange for hancipation. a famous inci-
dent, Rahbi Zacharias Fmnkel walked out in protest from a Reform rab-
binical conference in 1843, after a dispute with Mraham. Geiger over the
import""" of Webrew in fc.wit;h prayer a r ~ dreligious educatiox~.fiankel
created the movement for "'Positive-Historical" Judalsm (later called Con-
 Modern Jewish History 187

semative Judaism), which affirmed traditional religious y ractices but rec-

ognized their historkal evolutrion over time a d the legitimacy of adjust-
ing them to new circumstances. A third religious trend, callled Neo-
Orthodoxy, was led by Sannson RaphaeI FIirsch of Frankfurt; it combined
a dogmatic a d h e ~ n c eto traditional doctrines a d practices with an em-
brace of German cutturc and the adoplion of some ""itestheticrbdorz7n,s in
the spagogue service.

Jews in European Society and Modern Anti-Semitism

Durhg the course of the nineteenth century; 'Jewsbecame a highly urban-
ized group, Ely 1905,86 percent of the Jews in Prussia lived in cities, and
70 percent of Frmce's 'Jews lived in Paris a h e . Jews were heavily-and
disproportionatel~~co~~ce~~trated in small business, manufachrk~g,and
the prcaScssions. In 1861, more than half of all I'mssinn Jews kvere shop-
keepers, In Berlin, where Jews made up 4.8 percent of the total. population
in 7881,12 percmt of the physicians wel-c Jewish, as wem 8.6 percmt of
all writers.
As an urban, middle-class group, subject to various legal disabilitigs,
most Jews sympathized with European liberalism and the struggle for
democracy and individual rights. Heinrich Heine and ZJtrQwigBaerne
were m m g the most prominent spokesmen of German 1i:beralism in the
mid-~"tinetee~~th century. Jews widely sympathized with the revolutions
ol 38iM3, and their participalicm on the barricades and in political events
was quite striking. In Vienna, Adolph Fischoff and Joseph Coldmark
were the de bcto heads of state during the rwolution; hPrussia, Gabriel
Resser was elected second vice president of the Frmkfort Assembly; and
in Paris, Adolphe Cr4micux became minister of justice. The appearmce of
Jews in positions of politic& authority k i n g the brief "springtime of na-
tions" was an importmt historical milestone.
Much smaUer, but more visible, was the upper-class stratum of Jewish
invesment bankers, The house of Rothschild, headed by five brothes in
ZJondon, Paris, Viema, Frankfurt, and Naples, was one of the most suc-
cessful banking establi.shments in Europe, issuing bonds and credits to
several Europem gowe ents. The Roihschildskvrrriding interest was
in the political stability of existing regimes and slates, m d they offerc!d
loans to Mettemich to help crush the Austriul, revolution of 1848, f i e of
trhe famiIy's mernbers, Sir Moses n/ionlt.fiore of figland, activc.iy utilized
his finmcial clout to intercede with the authorities on beh& of the perse-
cuted Jewish communities h1Czasist Russia (where he met with Nichalas
I in IN6) and in Damascus, Syf-ia(where a group of Jews were accused of
the blood libel in 1840).
 With the influx of Jews into the mahstream of society there came a re-
actiox~arybacklash in the form of modern ar~ti-Sernitism,which iypical)v
ascritned society's ills to the Jewish "invasion.'Wne ol the features ot the
new, modem anti-Sennitism of the mid-nineteenth century was its overtly
radicalist character, its contation t-hat Jevvish depravity was biologically
h a t e - Whereas in. the Middle Ages, Jewish converts to Christianity were,
in t h e o ~considered
' "the most beloved children of Christ," for modem
anti-Semites, the abandox~merntof Judaism and conversio1.1 to Christianity
were no solut.ian to the ""Jewish problem." 013 the contrary converts and
their descendants were the most dangemus peril of all because they cor-
l~g T
roded an u ~ ~ h o M J jsociey f m withil?rwith their ""Jewish'"traits.
One of the early exponents of this anti-Semitic view, the Geman com-
poser Richard Wagner, argued in his widely read essay ""fwry in Music"
(1850) that the entry of Jews such as composer Felix Mendelssoh and
Heinrich Heine into Geman arts was the cause of Germar~y'scultural de-
generation, sbce Jews were hherently the antithesis af beauty. The term
alzfi-Sewlitism was coiYled by Wilheh M a n , one of its leading expments,
precisely to emphasize its racial (rather t h a ~religious) nature.
hti-Sernitism could be and bvas wedded to a remarkable variety af so-
ciopolitical ideologks. The French Utopian Socialist Alyhmse Toussenel
warned that Jewish bankers and fhanciers were the true rulers of France,
and the yomg Karl Marx, in, his essay "On the Jewisln Question," Hamed
the Jews fclr the evils of modern capitalisml declaring "the bill of ex-
change is the true God of Israel.'" Fwthemore, conservatives ascrihed the
weakenhg of Christim values to Jewish influence m d blamed them for
the hardships encomtered by the Geman middle class.
:In the I87(_ls,anti-SemiCism becam an organized political force in Ger-
many. Marr founded the "'League of Anti-Semites," whose goal was to
roll back Emmcipatim, and political parties emerged which i.ncovorated
anti-Semitism into their platforms. fn 1880, a petition with 22fi,Cb(f(f signa-
tories was submitted to the chmcellsr, Otto von Bismarck, calling upon
Gemany to exclude fews from the civil service, ban them from teaching
in pU$lic scho&, ar~dcut off Jewish i igrati01.1 to Gemany.

The Russian-Jewish Experience (until 18811

The mdernization of Russim Jewry occurred both later m d diMrre~~tly
than that of German a d French Jewries. firoughout the sixtee~~th, wv-
enteenth, and eighteenth centuries, the Muscovite state had bmned and
expelled Jews from its midst. Ivan the 7"esrifolc refused to allow Polish-
Jewish merchants to visit :Wluscovy for the purposes "f trade, and the 1655
Russan invasioln of Polmd was accmpanied by massacrrrs and expul-
 Modern Jet(vist-r, History 189

sions of Jews, In the eighteenth c e n t u ~there

, was a period. of Jewish. "in-
filtration'hcross the border, o1.1ly to be followed by Empress Elizabeth's
expulsion order of 1742, at which time she declared, ""Iesire no profit
from the enemies of Christ."
Russia first acquired a sizable Jewish popdation, of nearly one million,
through the partition of Paland (1772, 1793, 1795). Russian policy, initi-
ated by Catherine If's decrees of 1791 and 1794, was to rest~ctJewish res-
idence to Lhe former Polish provinces and "New Russia'";an area that was
calied the ""Pde of Jewish Settbent." As a result of this policy of geo-
graphic containment, which was fully abolished only in 1915, the vast
majority of Jews lived in regio~~s that were popubted p~dominanttyby
Poles and Ukrainians-----andnot by Russim. Ixwide the P&, and the
Russian-controlld Kingdom of Poland, most Jews lived in cities and
towns, where they constituted the majority or the largest single ethnic
group. Combined, these factors contrihuted toward a dow pace of social
and cultural integration with Russia.
Du*g the reign of Nicholas I (1825-18551, official hostility and suspi-
cion toward the J e w reached a peak. The co~~scriptiom of fc.wish youths
into the I<ussimarmy, introduced in 2827, bvas utilized by the regime as a
device to draw the conscripts away from Judaism and induce them to
cowert to Christianity. The fact that lrhe task of fii:ling the conscription
quotas was assigned to Jewish commtxnal leaders created severe tensions
between the elite and masses of the Jewish community. Traditional Ju-
daism was assaulted through other state measures as well: the forced
closi,nfjof m s t &brew prhting presses in the empire in 1836, a c m -
paign by the M i n i s t ~of Education, begun in 18-il.0,to create a network of
obligatory C r o m schods for Jewish chilldre~~, and the abolition of the h-
haE in 1.844,
The Haskalh (Jewish Enlighte ent movement) first gained strength
in Russia throu$h its support for and involvement in the system of Jewish
Crokvn. schools, kvhich hcluded State Rabbhical Semharies in Vilna and
Zhitomir. Mindful that they were a small mu7ority of fttussian Jewry and
that through persuasion alone they w o d d be unahlc to realize their pro-
grant of czrlturat anct social change, maskilim ("ent.ighteners"), such as
Ilsaac Ber Levinsohn, "the Russim Mendelssoh," allied themselves with
trhe state and applauded its program of compdsory Entightenme~~t. This
position brought them into sharp conflict with traditionalist 'Jews.
In eastan Europe, the Haskalahk attachment to Hebrew and to treat-
ing a humanistic Hehrw culture was more pror~ouncedthan in Germany.
The poetic works of J. 2,. Gordon, the historical treatises of S. S. Fuenn, and
says and autobiogrqhy of Moshe Leib Lilienblum stand
cles of Haskalh literature, In effort to reach out to a
broader ~ a d i n gaudieme, Russian nlllskilinl also took to cvsiting in Yid-
dish, despite the fact that they despised the "corrupt jargm" and looked
forward to its disvpearawe. The Uiddish satiric& novels of Mendele
Moyber Seforim, the pen name of S. V. Abramovitsh, mmy of which
were set in a prototypical shtetl caned GIupsk ("bolstown""),were ex-
tremely popular and inf uential,
The era of the g ~ a=formst of Alexiznder XI wns a period of hope and
dynamism for Russim Jew~y.The xktichlzinn (cmscriptim) and other op-
pressive measures were terminated, and various categories of Jews were
allowed ta reside outside the Pale of Settlement-merchants, artisans,
and urriversitp graduates. For the first time, a significant number of
young Jews e~~rolled in Russia1 gym~asia(secondary schools) m d uni-
wersiticzs, and sizahle Jewish populatior~sappeared in such Russimz cul-
tural centers as Gsdessa m d St. Petersburg-md were jnauenced by their
ambiace. In these cities, there emerged a Russian-Jewish intelligentsia
and bourgeoisie trhat identified with Russian culture and loyally sup-
ported the empire on the Pofish question. As early as the %87Qs, parts of
this intelligentsia (and of the Hebrew-writinf: Haskalah) came under the
influence of Russian radical and nihilist literahre.
Despite the grokvth of modernizing and integrationist trends, tradi-
tional Jewish ~ l f g i o u sculture rremained quite vibrant inside the Pale of
Settlerner~t.The Hasidic courts in Lubavikh, Tahoe, and Gora Kalvaria
(in Yiddish: Ger) kvere bastions of mystical. and pietistic activity; acade-
rnics for the study of the Talmud (yeshivot) flourished in Belorussia and
Lithuania (InVolozhin, Mir, Sfobodka); a ~ the d Musar movement, aimed.
at moral introspection and rejuvenation, captured the irnaghation of rab-
binic circles, Thus, Rustiian Jewry divided by social class, legal status,
geocdhnral er"twiror~ment, and idc.ological orientatio~~,
was a highly differ-
entiated commt~nity.

The Emergence of Zionism

The will" of pogroms that swept across the ZThaine in. 1881-1882 came as
a great shock to the Jewish intelligentsia, which had been confidenl that
Russi? and its Jews were mmhing down the path of Enlight
Efnancipatior~,Their sense of isolation and vuinerability was heightened
by the fact that bath the czarist regime and the revolutionary circles of
Narodnaia Vdya blamed the violent outbursts on Jewish abuses. The au-
trhol-ities respoded by issuk~gthe "temporary law s'kf May 1882, which
resulkd in. the large-scale expulsion of Jews from the R ~ ~ s s icountryside.
m
The trauma of Be pogroms led muskitim such as M, L. Lilienblum and
Russihd intellechnals such as Lean Pinsker to cor~trludethat Emancipa-
tion kvas a hopeless cause. Far them, the only solut.ion to the Jews"recar-
 Modern Jewish History 192

ious condition was their settlement in a ttzrr_itorpof their own, prtrfcrably

in their ancestral hometand in the Land of Israel. Groups of Jwish uni-
versity students departed for Palestine, where they fomded colliective
agricultural colonies. Pinsker and Lilienblum founded the ""lovers of
Zion" organization in 1883, which propagated the Palestinophilic idea
and raised funds an behalf of the colonies.
A similar dynamic developed in central m d western Europe m o than ~
a decade later. Theodor Herzl, a relatively assimilated Jcw who w m k d
as the Paris correspondent of a Vxmese newspaper, was shacked by the
mti-Semitism exhibi_tedby the trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfusl a Jew who
was corwicted of trumped-uy:, charges of treason and espionqe against
France. Cor~vincedthat anti-Semitism was a permaner~tand dangerous
feature af European society and politics and that assimilation was an irn-
possibie dream, Herzl proposed a national solution to the Jewish question
in his epochal pamphlet "The Jewish State""(1.896).He organized the First
Zionist Congress, held in Elasel, Switzerland, in August 1897, at which the
goal of securing a home for the Jewish people in Palestine based on public
law was proclaimed.
l%e Zionist idea generated much controversy withh Eurapean Jewry
The established leadership of western Jewries viewed Zionism as a dan-
geroummoveme~~t that added fuel to the flames of anti-Semitism hy con-
irmjng that Jews wercl aliens in their lands of residence. Memwhik, in
eastern Europe, the traditional rabbis viewed Zionism as a rebellion
against God, a rejection of the traditiond rcligioudoctrine that the in-
gathering of the exiles would take place in the end of days, with the com-
ing of the Messiah. But despite these circles of opposition, the Jews' ddete-
riorating political and social position in czarist Russia made Zionism an
increasixlgly popular movement among East European Jews. T%e affirma-
tion of Jewish. nationhood m d quest for stattzhood also fit well. in a region
where numemus groups wel-c undc.rgoing natioml revivab.
Herzl engaged in active diplomatic eHorts to secure a char- for Jewish
migration to Palestjne, mgotiatjarg with the Turkish sultan, Kaiser Wil-
helm of Germany, the pope, British offiicials, and even Russim minister
Vyacheslav van Plehve. Others in the movement, called ""pactical Zion-
ists," advocated focusing energies on building and strengthening the few-
&h settlement in Pdestim proper. A third, highly influential stl-cam was
"'Spiritual Zionism," kted by Ahad Ha%m (pseudonym of Asher
Ginzherg), which viewed the movement" m& goal to be the strengthen-
ing of the Jewish natio~~al spirit. According to Ahad Hakm, the Land of
Israel was to serve as the cultural center af Jewry' where Hebrew lan-
p a g e m d fiterahre would flourish and m integral modern Jewish cul-
ture woufd grow, free of the dmger of assimilation. Spiritual Zioxlistrs
devoted much af their energy to work in the Diaspora: establishkg na-
tiomlly oriented Jewish schools and supporting H&RW literature and
scholarship.
The Zionist movement faced a crisis in 1903, when Herzl, reacting to
the lack of progress with the Turks m d the outburst of a bloody Easter
pogrom in Kishinev, negotiated an offer .from the Brilish government to
designate the British colony of Uganda as a territory for Jewish settle-
ment, The issue of whether to accept, even temporarily, a territory other
than the Lar~dof Israel divided the Fifth Zionist Congress, with leaders of
the Russian Zionist movement walking out in,protest agahst Herzl" pro-
posal. The Uganda project wam1tlti"ately rejected by the Zionist move-
ment in 1905.

Other Solutions:
Emigration, Radicalism, Diaspora, Nationalism
DwiI71; Lhe period between 1881 and 1974, lfie eco~~omic and political po-
sition of Russim Jetvry deteriorated dramalically The Jewish smd-town
economy entered an extended crisis owing to the emancipation of the
serfs m d the growth, of the railway system, and Jewish mral businesses
(xnills, distiileries, taverns) were largely eliminated by the "temporary
laws" of May 1882 and subsequent state measures. Jews fiocked in great
numbers to the cities of the Pale of Settlement and Russian-controlled
Poland but faced great economic difficulties there as well. Quotas on few-
ish students in the universities, intraduced in 2887 m d tightened in, 1901,
limited the e n t q of Jews into the professions. The civil seniice did, not ac-
cept Jews. Laws on Sunday rest forced fc.wishshops to he closed two days
a week, rather than one, thereby decreasing their income*The overall
trend was tow& pauperization.
The Jews' sense of poli2ical p~cariousnesswas heightc-t~~ed by events
such as the violent expulsion from Moscw in 1891, the rise of right-wing
organizations, such as the Union of True Russia.n People and the "Hack
hundreds,"" and the scores oi pogromvperpetrated between l903
(Kishinev) and 1906, with a climax in October 1905. The 2921-1913 show
trial of Mendel Beilis in Gev on c h q e s of using CShristian blood for rit-
ual purposes added a macabrc. and for&odirTg fee:iing to the politicai at-
mosphere.
The most widespread Esponse to the economic and political crises was
emigration westward, mainly to tfne United States. Between 1881 and
2914 more than 2 million Jews \vent from Russia to the United States.
Smaller numbers settled in England (105,000 between 1881 and 1905
alor~e),France, South Africa, and C a ~ ~ a df1OQ,000
a between 1901 and
2914). The Russian authorities did not prevent or discourage Jewish emi-
 Modern Jet(vist-r, History 193

gration, much of which was cmducted illegalW. As Count Ipatiev told a

Jewisb delegation in 1882, "The Easkm border is closed to you [i.e., the
Pale of Settlement will not be abolished]; the Western border emigra-
tion] is open."
lhis massive social moveme~~t was facilitated by an international net-
work of Jewish social semice orgmiz;ations. Xn Gemany, committees pro-
vided food, shelter, medical care, and pocket money to rcfzlgees and di-
rected &em to Mamhurg ar~dother ports. In part, lfie G e m a r ~Jews' aid
was motivated by self-interest: to ensure that their impoverished and
""backward" eastern bre&ren moved on m d did not settle in Gemmy m d
fester into a social pro$lern, which would f a 7 the flames of anti-Scjmitism.
Attempts were made to contrd a-rd direct trhe migratiorr. h-r 1891, Baron
Maurice de Hirsch founded the Jewish Colonization Association m d an-
nounced ambitjous plans to settle Russian 'Jews m f a m s and nlral amas
in Argentir-ra. American Jewish leaders attempted at one point to settle
thousands of migranls in Texas. Rut despite these efforts, t%le great s t r e m
of migration continued to the major cities on the eastern coast of the
United States. h the years following the 7905 revolution, more than
200,000 Russian Jews arrived in New York City
As a result of the great xnigration, the United States became the preemi-
nent Jewish center in the world. Its Jewish populatio~~ increased fmm
271,000 irt, 1.888(3.5percent of the world total) to 5,556,000 in 2939 (or 33.5
percent of the world totd). Because of the strong personal, ethic, and
cultural box~dsbetween the U.S. Jews a r ~ dthose of Russia/Pola-rd, the
provision of material aid to East European Jewry m d political interven-
tions on its behalf becme ilnportant features of h e f i c a n Jewish com-
mw-ral life.
Memwhile, the migration barely diminished the Jewish population of
czarist Russia, which remalned stable at slightly above 5 million. For the
Jews who remained i17 fhe m i s t empire, t-he revolutionary movernex~t,
with its promise of a new world of equality and justice, became increas-
ingly popular=En 1&97,25p e ~ e nof t all political anestces in Russia. we=
Jewish. Social democracy was particularly attractive, because of its uni-
versalist ideology of the brotherhood of all workers m d its opemess to
Jews participating in its ranks. b u n g Russified Jews found in Social
Democratic circles a milieu in which t-hey could realize their aspiration
for social acceptance and cultural assimilation. Some of them, such as
Leon Trotsky (Lev Davidovich Bronstein) and Yulji Martov (originally:
Eederbaum), rose to leadership positiox-rs in the Russian Socid Demo-
cratic L,abor Part-y (RSDLP).
The development of a Jewish proletariat, whose mem:bers were over-
whelrnit~glyemployed by Jewish bosses, led to the emergene of a Jewish
workers' and socialist movement, whi& propagated its ideas in Yiddish. In
7897, the r e p ~ s e n t a t k e sof Jewish Social Democratic groups, led by
Arks* Krr~rrrer,met cl~."~destinely
in Virna to estah1isf.l thl? General Jewish
Workers' Union of Lithumia, Russia, m d PoZmd, or the Bmd. The Bmd
was exbaordinarily successful in orgmizing workers%ssas (unions) and
spreadhg socialist literature in Viddish amo~ligthe Jewish masses. It helped
fomd the BDLP (in1898)m d kvorked closely wi& the latter.
At frst, the only specifjcaXJr Jewish point in the Bundfs platform was
its call for equal civil rights for Jews. But in 1901, lrhe Bwld endorsed the
principle of Jewish nationality and adopted a platform calling for cultural
autonoxny for all nationalities in. Russia. This, in turn, created m ideologi-
cal rift bemeen the Bund and the WDLZ",whose leaders-hlcluding Trot-
sky arid Martov-declared ihe idea of Jewish nationality reactionxy This
issue m d others led the Bund to secede from its mother party (perhaps
more comectly called its daughter parv) in 1903. (It rejohed in 1906.)
:Inthe ellsuing yeas, the Bw~cl"snational. orientation gew: It organized
Jewish selbdefense units agakst pogromists and supported the develop-
ment of modem Yiddish cultural hstitutions. At the s m e time, the Bund
was stridently alti-Zionist a ~ opposcld
d ernigratiorl as a so:iutio~~to the
Jews' problems, enunciating a doctrine of d o i h y f ("herernss'". Buncaists
were staunch anticlericalists and advocated the cultivait_lomzof a secular
Jewish idel-rtitybased or1 the language of the workini; masses-Yiddish.
h general political and tactical matters, the Bund adhered ta the program
of the RSDLP.
:Inbetween the Bmd and Zionj.sm t-here was a sizable ideologicai mid-
dle gromd ol smaller parties m d trends. "fhe prontkent Jewish historian
Simon Dubnow founded the Folkspartei, which proclaimed Jewish na-
tional m t o ~ ~ o miny the Uiaspora as the cornerstones of its pmgram, and
which supporkd the Constitutional Democratic Party on general political
questions. The idea of natimal autonomy was even endorsed as an in-
terim measure by the Russian Zionist maveme~~t as its 1906 corlferex~cein
Helslinki. Socialist Zionism also straddled the fence between the two maixr
rival camps. AIthough it set as its ultimate goal the creatim of a Jewish
socialist state in Palestine, it affimed the need for national and revolu-
tionary stmggle in, Russia as well. The movement was divided between
Marxist and non-Marxist parties, headed by Ber Borobov m d Nahrnan
Syrkin respecctively.
h integral part of the national revival at the turn of the cent-ury kvas
the flourishing of Jewisl-r culture: of Hebrew and Viddish literature, the
Yiddish press and Ifieater, and Russian-lanwage puklicists and historical
scholarship"Spiritual Zionists established modern Jewish schools, kvhich
used E-Idrt7.was a s p o k n language. Yiddish also came to be viewed as a
valued r w u r c e and was declared a national l m ~ a g of e the Jewish peo-
ple at a 1908 conference in Czerno\vitz.
 Modern Jewish History

World War I: Devastation and Hope

Durhg World War I, European Jewry was divided between the Axis and
Allied powers and Jews served in the armies of both sides. fvluch of the
Great War was waged in the lands betwee11 Gemany and Russia, where
Jews were most hcaviy concentrated, and they swffered greatly along
with the other local inhabitants. But they were also the victims of specifi-
d l y al-lti-fewish violence: In 1915-1916, the Russian military expelled all
Jews from the provinces near the front (first Zdthuania, later Gallicia and
Bukovina) on the suspicion that they weR spying h the Germms, an act
that created a stwam of tens of thousarcfs of rehgees into inner Russia.
"fbward the end of the war, Polish legionr~airespapetrated bloody
pogroms in. numerous citks under the pretext that Jews supported their
enemies (the Ukrainians, Bolsheviks, and/or Lithuanians), By far the
bloodiest massacEs, in which a1 esl;imated 50,000 Jews were killed, took
place in the Ukrahe in 2919, by the "Whites," Ukrainim nationalist forces
m d various other bands.
The Zionist movement was c[ivided over the position it sEtould take in
the war. Same urged support: far Germany which would liberate the
Russian Jews from czaAst oppressim m d prevail upon its ally, Turkey to
protect the Jewish settlement in Palestine. Others wged support for
England, in its struggle against German imperialjsm, an behalf oC the
principle of selr-determination by smlX nations. Officially, the World
Zior~istOrganization &clared its ~~eutrality; unofficiaily Zionist leaders in
Germany and England tried to extract pro-Zionist commitments from
both sides, in exchange for the movement's srapport,
I h e leader of the pro-Rritish hction, Chailn Weizmann, engaged in ne-
gotiations that led to a breakthrough. C)n November 2, 1917, the British
foreign ministel; Sir James Balfour, issued a declaration that Britain sup-
ported ""The establishme~~t in Palestine of a nationd b m e for lfie Jewish
peaple." "e motives for this declaration were a combbation of sympa-
thy for the plight of Ule Jews m d the Zionist cause, coupled with wartime
reaipolitik. Britain had its own imperial goals of establishing a pmtec-
torilk aver Palestine; it also hoped to sway Jewish public opinion in Rus-
sia and the United States to srapport the M i c s k a r effort. Soon thereafter,
trhe Balfour Declaration became more thnn just words 01.1 papel.; in early
2918, British troops conquered Palestine, mQSir Herbert Samuel, a Jew,
was appointed high comissioner, Hoyes for the realization of the Zion-
ist ideal were higher than ever bdore.
Another momentous and hopeft-trle l ~ n for t Jews to emerge from the
war period was the Russian Revolution of February 1917, C ~ April I 2,
191TIthe Provisional G a v e n ~ m eofficially
~~t removed all legal restrictions
based an religion m d nationality thereby finally emanci_pating the Jews
of Russia. In the hmeymoon period between Fdruary m&(Ilctdbex;Jew-
&h cuitural and orgiil~izationallife flourishc.d, dections were held to es-
tahlish democr&ic Jewish kejzifes (communities), and plans we= made to
convene an all-Russian Jewish congress. The Bolshevik coup, which was
cmdemned by all the Jewish political parties, broughl most of these ell-
deavors to m abrupt halt.

The American Center

The United States was t-he one Westem country in which Jewish Emanci-
pation was never M a k d or granted by special e~mctmerrt.The prhciples
of religious liberty and equality before the law were enshrined in the
American Cmstitution without my particular attention to the Jews (who
were, at t-he time, very few i17 number). 'The multiethnic composition of
the mass migrations af the nineteenth century; which brought people
from all parts of Eufope to the shores of the New Miorld, facilitated the
% e n i g ~~~eglcct'kf the Jews as a distinct "problem."' :Not surprisingly,
many of the German Jews who settled in h e r i c a between the 3.840s and
1860s, md the East Europeans who came between the 1880s and 1 9 2 0 ~ ~
igration in terms of the bi:hical story of the Exodus from
Egypt-from slavery to freedom, from the House af Bondage to the
Promised Lmd,
I h e German and East Eurc"~)ean i m i g r m t s transp1a"~tc.dtheir diver-
gent social and cultural traditions in America. The "Germans" were a
middle-class group that experienced rapid socioecoazomic mohifity. They
were best k ~ o w nfor their role in establishhg lfie first large American de-
parhnent stares (May's, GimbeYs), but they dso established Refctm Ju-
daism as the predominant form of Jewish ~ l i g i o u life s in h e r i c a , crtrat-
in8 a network of co17gregatio11s and an institution for the training of
rabbis, the Hebrew Union College. In nineteenth-century America, Re-
form assumed a more univcrsalist posture than it had in Europe. The
platfom distinguished beween the morai ar~dsocial parts of biblical leg-
islation, an the one hand, which it declared sacred, and the national and
most of the ritual parts, whkh it declared outdated.
The East Eurc?peans settled in dense ethnic neighborhoods such as the
ZJower East Side af Madattan, in New York, and worked overkvhelm-
ingly as laborclrs in the garment industv. They created a disthctive social
and cultural milieu in which associations of Jews from the same tow11 or
~ g i o niiandstnanshgffn) served as primary socid t~nitsand helped new
ivnmigrmts find fellowship, work, housing, and loans. These associations
also served as the bases for thousands of small sy~~agoguelcorrgrega-
tions. The Yiddish press and theater became the public outlets for ex-
 Modern Jewish History 197

pmsslng the immigrmtskommorz concerns, memories, and ideals. As an

urban pmletaria t-he immigrants developed a stror.11; Jewish tahor move-
ment, bvhose federation of unions, the United Hebrew Trades, had
250,000 members in 1917,
Until W r i d War :l, the organi.zed leadership of Amrican Jewry was
made up exclusjvely of German Jews who did not have any sympathy fos
k u l t u d foreigrmness-whether it be their old-iashi.oned
religion or their Yiddish languirge----andfor their aggressiwly actkist pal-
itics (whether Socialist or Zionist). l'ensions between the two groups
abounded. But a distinctly Americm synthesis of these two Jewish sub-
cuttures began to emere;@,with the maturation of tt7e first generation of
Americarl-born children of East Europeans.
In religion, this synthesis led to the rise of Conservative Judaism,
whose rabbis were trained at the Jewish nenlogicd Seminary of America
(fow~dedin 1886 m d headed by Solomon Schechter &ginning in 1902).
Conservative cong~gationsoffered more traditional ritual and more? Me-
brew liturgy than Refor~ncongregations, but introduced hmovatims that
made religious practice mart3 compatible with h e r i c a n ways, such as
mi,xed seating of men and womerr and after-dinner Friday night services.
The Amrican (especi.ally the Conservative) synagogue became a multi-
faceted Jewish c o m u n a l center, which i l l c o ~ o r a t dwithin it a religious
school for children (m Sundays andim weekday afternoonsf after ptrblic
school instruction),as well' as social and recreational activities for families
and adults.
Zionism was also trmsformed m d Americanized, especially once the
leadership of the h e r k m Ziozlist Federation was assmed in 1914 by
Louis Rrar~deis,t-he first Jew to serve on the United States Supreme Court.
Rrmdejs argued that there was no connict between Zionism m d h e r i -
cmism. Its goal was to attah liberty and social justi
American vafues-for the pe-t-secutedJews of Eurclpe through t-he building
of a free and pmgressive Jewish homeland in Palestine. This version of
Zionism made Palestine/Israel an object of phaanthropic and political
support m d a source of e t h ~ i cide21tiEication a d pride for American Jews.
The generation of the children ofimmigrants was h e r i c a n i z e d
through the agency of the public schools, and a very high proportion of
them wtnt on to university educatio~l.The children of poor garmcnt
workers becme small,busixlessmen, -women, and professionals (accoun-
tants, lawyers, journalists, academics), and the socialism of the fathers
was transmuted into the liberdim of the sons, in the form of support for
the New Deal, advocated by f resident Frmklin D. Roasevelt. Along the
path of upward mobility, the second generation did encounter some oh-
stacles;, owing to the prevale~lceof artgewish attitudes among the coun-
try's Anglo-Saxon elites. In the 2920s, prestigious unikrersities, such as
Harvard, established strict quotas on the admission of Jewish students,
and major law firms and hospitals refused to hire Jewish professionals,
who were considered "'aggressive trpstarts." Anti-Semitic images also
played a role in the "Red. Scare," which warned of CornmuElist subverske
plots against America, ar~din the Natiwist maveme* which bmught an
end to mass migration in the 1920s.

The Growth of the Yishuv in Palestine

:Much like American Jewry, the JeMJish cornunity in Palestine, &%ownas
the Yishuv, arose as a result of inrmigration, refermd to as aliyah (Hchrew
for ""mccnt"').In 1890, at the conclusion of the First Aliyah fwitve of mi-
gration), 25,000 Jews lived hPalestine, mountjng to roughly 5 percent of
the total popdation. By 1914, after iwo waves of aliyah, the number of
Jews bad grown to 85,000, m e most significmt numerical incrctase took
place in the interwar period; by 11939 the size of the yishuv had reached
450,000.
m e %cond Aliyah, bet-vveen 1904 m d 1924, which consisted primarily
of emigrants from Russia., had a formatirie ivnpact on the social m d politi-
cal portrait of the Vishuv. Its memlners were adherents of the socialist
trend kvithin Zionism and were endakved with a distinct pioneering
spirit. Their mentor was A, D, Gordon, who propagated, the idea of the
Jews>ehrz~to physicai lahm and the soil. They ez~de'avored,through la-
bor, to revive the desolak Lancd of Israel, transfom their own way of life,
md, most important, to forge a new type of self-relid Jew. fn WIO1mem-
bers of t-he Second Aliyah establishrcj the first collective agricuitural set-
tlement, or kibbutz, in Deganya. Several pioneers of the 9 c m d Myah
subsequently assumed leadership in the State of Israel, including David
Bm-Gurion, Israel's first prime mhister.
T%e 1417 Bdfour Deckration gave golil.icaf legitimtacy to the Zionist en-
terprise m&raised the prospects for its malization. In 3922, the Balfour
Declaration was endorsed by t-he League of Nations, which assig~~ed to
Great Britah a mandate to administer Palestine, with the object of treat-
ing on its territory a ""Jwish national home." h accordance with the
terms of the man$ate, :Hchrew was recogz~izedas one of the official lan-
guages of Palestine, m d official status was afforded to the Zionist organi-
zation and, later (in19291, to the Jewish Agency for Palestine to partid-
pate in administering the socicx_.conornic-aMairs of the fc.wishpopulation.
Britain was to facilitate Jewish migration, while at the same time protect-
ing the civil rights of Muslim and Chsistim inhabitmts,
T l ~ eBalfour Declaration and establishl-nertt of the British Malldate
spurred the growth of national consciousness among the Palestinian
 Modern Jewish History 199

Arabs, h Arab congress that was convened in 1919 called for the decla-
ration's repeal; it was foflowlrd by an Arab uprising in 142G1921, which
stmned the 3fishm-v and the British admiuristration. Confronted with in-
tensifying, violent Arab opposition, Britain attempted to retreat from its
commitme~~ts to the Zionist moverne~~t. The British minister for colonial
&@airs,Winston Churchill, issued a I922 ""White Paper," according to
which support for a Jewish national home in Palestjne meant merely as-
sisting trhe dwelopment of the land's existing Jewish cornunity Accord-
ixlg to the new turn in British policy, the Vishm-v bvas to remain a part of a
united Palesthe under British costtroj.
Durfng the course of the next tkVe11v-five years, the cycle oi events be-
trtvee~r1920 ard 1922 repeated itself several times. After a wave of Jewish
immjgration, there fdiowed a scries of Arab proles& and disturbances,
which in turn led to shifts in British policy in a direction more favorable
to the Arabs,
The Zionist movement entertained a wide range of prospective solu-
tims to the Arah-Jewish conflict, The left wing of the Yishuv, includ-ing
such organizations as Ha-Shomer Ha-'I'za'ir ( k u n g Guartl) and Rrit
Shalam (Covenant of 13eace),supported creati,on of a bindional Jewish-
Arab state. The mainstream of the Zionist movement, led, by Chaim Weiz-
manm, agreed to the idea of partitionjng Fatesthe into two states, which
was proposed by a British Royal Commission in. 1937. The Zionisme-vi-
sionists, headed by Viadimir Jabutisrsky, insisted upon creation of the
Jewish state within the arcie~rthistorical borders-"on both banks of the
Jordm rivererf
The migration to Palestine of middle-cbss Jews from Poland (in the
1920s) m d G e m a ~ y(Inthe 1930s) led to the urbmizafiio~ra ~ hrdustriah
d
ization of the Mshuv. Tel Aviv, which bvas estirblished by a small group of
pioneers in 1909 as "the first Jewish city in the Lmd. of Israel," h
h
a
d devel-
oped into a city of 160,(ff)(linhabitarts by 193. IR &is plaiod, the General
Federation of Hebrew Workers hthe ZJmd of Israel (Histadmt ha-Ovdirn)
e m e ~ e as
d a powerful orgmizatim, providing:for the medical, social, md.
culbral needs of Jewish apiculhral and urbm workers a ~ ofd the Yishuv
at large. The Kstadrtrt Labor Federation estnblished enteq"sedm con-
struction, and food products, sponsored schools and newspapers, and
served as a cenh.al~raGon-buildingagelrcy in hterwar Palesthe.

Interwar Europe
The rehawing of the map oi E u r v e at Versailles resdkd in the creation
of several new natio11-staks, hrcludhg Polard, w h e Jews
~ colrstituted 10
percent of the overall poptrlation. In June 1919, 130[randand the Allies
s i p e d the "Mhorities Treaty," wbhjch guarmteed full equal civil I-ights
for the memhers of nninority ethnir and religious groups, ar-td r/vhich rec-
ognized their group rights 521 the admhistration and public h d b g of
schools with instruction in minority languages, religious affairs, and
charity. The treav stipdated that a propo"io~-taI sf-rareof state funding be
aliocated to Jewish schooJ; and ensured the protection of the Jews' right
to Satrurday rest.
Polar-td signed the treaty relucta-ttLy, un&r int-en-tationalpresswe, ar-td
did not honor its provisions. In the fiercely nationalist atmnsphere of re-
vived Poland, the Jews were treated as an alien element, which threat-
ened the country"s economic ar-td cultural sovereignty. The combination
of pervaskc. anti-Semitism witb ekctoral democracy ar-td trhe fmedom of
assembly and expression made interwar Poland a fruitful breeding
ground for Jewish national politics m d culture.
The Jewish politicai movements competed freely inelection campaips
m d chose deputies to the Polish Assembly, Scnate, and city councils,
where they pursued divergent strategies. The Zionists, led by Yitzhak
Gmenhaum, wre lrhe mast aggressiw in demanding Jewish civil ar-td na-
tional rights. In the 25322: electians, Gmenbaum orgmized the Minorities"
Bloc of Jewish, Ukrainian, and Germm parties, which scored rcmarkable
electoral success in the face of a discriminatory curial syskm. This high-
risk confrontational tactic htensified the crisis in Polish-Jewish relations
and was eventually abandoned. The Bund, in contrast, boycotted
Poland's national electiox-tsas ur-tdernacraticand allied itself with the Psl-
ish Socialist Party on the municipal level. But the two movements dis-
agreed sharply over whether the sdutim to the Jews' plight was assiPni-
lation or national rights. Meanwhile, Orthodox Jewry organized a
powerful party of its okvn, Agudat "Y'israel,which was statrnchly anti-
Zionist and pursued a strategy of quiet supplication and deal making
with Polish political parties. Agudat Visraei succeeded in securing Jewish
~ l i g h u Siberties
s and special privi,lcges for its w n inStitZttions, but it did
not press for civjl rights (e.g., eyuai access to universities and government
employment) or natiol-tal rights (e.g., state recognitim and lul-tding of
Jewish Sxtstitutians).
The political movements becam dominant forces in Jewish social and
cutt~trallife in I'nland. Each pmty e"t"27khed its own l-tewspaper,school
system, youth mvement; publihing house, loan fund or bank, and cul-
tuml associa.tim Polish J e w was ~ one of the most mobilized and orga-
nized cornmurGties in history.
Yiddish-language culture reached its greatest strength, with an explo-
sion of newspapers and theaters and the emergence of highbrow maga-
zines on cultural and social affairs. The establishment of the Yiddish
Scientific Institute (YXVG)) in Vilna in 1925, with divisions of historyt
 Modern Jet(vist-r, History 202

philologyf demographics-statistics, and pedagogy-psychology, repre-

sented a high-water mark in &is regard. Nonetheless, &ere was a gradud
process of linguistic Pollonizatian, with slightly more than half of the Jew-
ish children attmding Polish public schools, il-rcluding special schools
that did not conduct classes on Saturdays.
The other great European arena was Weimar Germany; where assimila-
tion and jntegration seemed all but complete in the F a r s after the end of
trhe Great War. Retwem 1'321 ancl 1927,45 percent of all marriages of Jetvs
in, Germmy were intermarriages with Christims- A milnarity movement
for the renewal of Jewish learnkg and culture, outside the framework of
trhe established religious de~~ominations, wa"red by the Jewish philoso-
phers Martin Buber and Fram Rosenzwig. Its crow~liingachievement
was the Jewish 1,ehrhatrs (House of Study) in. FrmHurt, where classical
Jewish texts were studied by groups of laymcn and prokssional scholars
in both critical ar~dpersa~~al rdigious terns.
Memwhile, the pokver of the mti-Semitic Eght, which blamed Jews for
Germaxry"~ humiliation in the Great War, g x w steadily The assassination
of the country"^ Jewish &reign minister, Walkr Raihmau, in 1922, by a
ri@-wing gnlrrp was an early omen. An.ti-Smitic pamphlets by Alfred
Rosenberg were reprinted in scores of editions and we= a formative in-
fluence 0x1 Rdolf Hitler and his Nazi Party. In Mein Hitler declarcd
the "removal" m d "elimin,ation" of Jews from Germmy to be one of his
prirnary go&. And as Germanvs economic crisis deepened, the Nazi
Party's elector& popularity grew, until i t girmerd 14 million votes (33
percent of the total) hthe 2932 elections and seized power.
Nazi policy toward the 'Jews went through several stages, At first, a
brief reign of extralegal terror was instigated by t-he party a d its paramil-
itary arms: Jewish busilnesses we= vmdarized, then boycotted; Jwwe=
expelled horn the bar, the civil service, and horn much of public life. In
1935, the Jews%exclusio~~ from German society was codified in the form of
the Nuremberg Laws, which denied Jews the rights of citizens. A person
with one Jewish grandparent was defined by the law aa Jewish. These de-
velopme~~ts were accompanj.ed by the il7troduction of medieval trappings
of Jewish subjugation, such as the Jewish badge-a yellow Star of
David-md a ban on sexual relations beween Jews and Germans.
l'l-rroughout the 1 9 3 0 ~Nazi
~ policy had as one of its goals to incfuce
Jews to emigrak from Ger~xmy,and hdeed, over 300,000 G e r ~ ~Jews m
left t%ie country beween 1933 and 1939-more fhm half of Ule total num-
ber. Rut the possibilities for emigration were severely limited by tfne
British M i t e Papers regarding Palestine and by American immigration
restrictions, A July 7938 international conference at Evian, France, on
solvh~gi h e plight of Jewish refugees led to expressio~~s of sympathy-but
to no tangible results. The inaction of the West emboldened Germany,
which proceeded to forcibly deport 50,000 resident Polish Jews to the bor-
der. The Nazis il~stigateda natio~~wide e y t i o n of anti-Jewish vioknce
on November 9, 1938, which came to be h o w n as "'Kristallnacht" (the
night of the broken glass), fn one night, 100 Jews were killed, 191, syna-
goguemere destroyed, 7,800 Jewish businl.sses were looted, a d ,31),0(10
Jewish men were sent to concentration camps.
Meanwhile, Germany's bwish policy had a profound impact on
Poland arr; well, especialty &er the rise to power of a military regime in
2935. The government supported a massive economic boycott against
Jewish "osinesses and allowed a wave of 150 pogroms to sweep across
the c o m t ~Adding
. insdt to injul-y, it passed a law prohibiting the
slaughlt'r of kosher meat and instituted separate "ghetto benchesr' in the
classrooms of Polish tmiversities..AS Jewish des-peration m d mger grey
so did the popdarity of the militant Revisionist Zionjsm of Vladimir
J-abotinsky, which callud for the immediate evacuatim of Jews from
Poland to f3alestineand kvhieh glorified military might and dissiplhe.

The Holocaust
The German invasion of Poland in September 2939 was skvift, and
roughly 350,OW Jews mmaged to flee east-vvard, to the Soviet Union, its
exed tenitories, and Lithuania. The remahder were forced into sealed
ghettos, where they were kept under inhumane conditions and used as
slave labor. In each ghetto, the Germans appointed a J u d e n r ~(Jewish
f
Council) to mahtain order and irnplemclnt their policies. These included
supplyiz~glabof contingents m d exacth~gtributes. The trtrmendous C~II-
gestion Sn the ghettos-in Warsaw 580,000 Jews were crowded into 1,500
buildings-the meager food rations, and the poor sanitary cmditions led
tru mounting problems of disease ar~dstarvatia~~. 'The Jews attempted to
cope with these ovewhelmhg problems directly through social welfare
agencies and house committees and, indirectlyf through cultural institu-
tions (schools, fieaterr;, ar~dlibraries, maIy of them clandestfnc.), which
lifted morale and created a semblance of normalcy
The ghetto hhabihnts sought to persevere, make themsehes useful to
the Nazis through their labor, and outli.\ie the enemy, Physical resistmce
was considered ""foolish heroism," since the Germans took reprisal
agailxst hundreds of Jews for the act of a single resister.
The systaatic large-scale m d e r of Jcws began during the Geman at-
tack on the Soviet Union in June 1942. Specially trained killing squads
(Einsatzgruf~pen) attached to German army uruts rounded up Jtws, took
them tru large pits, and stripped and shot them. The most famous site of
this kind was Babi Uar, where 52,000 Jews of Kiev were killed in two days"
 Modern Jewish History 203

time. In the roundups and s h o o k g ~the , Nazis we= assisted by local in-
habita~ts(Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Romanians).
At a corrference of high-ranking German officials in Wahnsee, Ger-
many inJanuary 1942, the plan for the "ffinal solution of the Jewish ques-
tio~~'%asadopted. Et called for fhe constnxction of five death camps at
o, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblbka, and Auschwitz, which would carry
out techologically efficient mass murder using gas chambers m d dis-
pose of the bodies through crematoria. By April of that year, t-he death
camps kvere fully operational, and the ghettos begm to be ""liquidated,"
as their inhabitants were deported. By the end of September 19.12, only
45,(f(fUJews were left in the W a r m ghetto. French Jews we^ rclu~~ded up
by the cclllitborationist Vichy regime and were sent by r d , -along with
German, Austrian, Czech, and other Jews, to the death c m p s in, Palmd.
The "final solution" was implemented in strict secmy, under the cover
of "resettlemnt to the East.'Xlthough escapees and eyedtnesses re-
ported back about the death camps, many in, the ghettos m d in the West-
ern world considered such systematic genocide incredible and comter-
productive to the German war effort.
T%e Jrrdenrats were made responsible for choosing which Jews would
be awarded work passes and thereby avoid immediate deportatim to the
death camps. As Jews hid in underground bunkers and sewage drains,
the Germms conducted "Aktaiclnen," riiids into the ghettos, m d then per-
formed ""selections" to determine which Jews should be sent to the death
camps We11 it became clear to the head of lfie Warsaw Judenr* A d m
C~emiakow~ in,July 1942, that the G e m m plan for total am&ilation was
unavoidable, he committed suicide,
?"he mowemcnt for m e d resistance gained strmgth only once the
ghettos were severely depleted and it had become clear that certiltin death
awaited the remahder as well, The resistance movement was organized
by members of the various Jewish youth moveme~~ts, from Communist
and Bundist to L,;tbor Zionist and Revisionist Zionist. Its goal was not to
rescue lives or score military vict-ories agahst the Nazis but to "die like
men of honor a d not like sheep to the slaughter,"' in the words of
Mardechai Anielewiez, the leader of the April I943 Warsaw ghetto upris-
ing. The Warsaw uprising lasted three weeks and was not defeated until
trhe Germans burnt the elllire ghetto to fhe ground, buifd* by building.
Similar trprisings were conducted in most major ghettos, as well as in
concentration camps.
Et is estimated that 6 million Jews periskd in the Holocaust4 d l i o n
in the dea& camps and concentration camps (1.5 million in Auschwitz
a2me) and 2 million in the ghettos and in the mass shootings by the Eiiz-
s n t ~ ~ q r u p p'This
e ~ . figure represented more than one third oi tke world
Jewish papzallatian. T"he Germans considered the "'Final Solution" to be
one of their highest wartime objectives, and siphoned off signifimt mian-
power and resources to it even after they were in retreat from the Mied
forces..
The Allied governments dawnplayed the degree and unique nabre of
fewish sufferi~rt;in the war, so as not to le~rdcredence to the German
claim that it was a ""Jbvish war." Numerous warnings to the West about
the mass murders went unheeded. A member of the Pdish underground,
fan Karski, was smuggled h t o the Belzec death camp in 1942, where he
saw the gas chambers in opem"tion. He subsequently reported to British
Foreign Secretary htlhony Eden m d to American President: Roasevelt on
trhe death camps but was unable to extract a commitment from them to
stop trhe ge~rocideby bombing the camps. I h e U.S. State Department was
amoyed by the su'lbject, kvhereas the British worried that highlighting the
Jewish issue would complicate their situation in Palestine.

The conclusion of the war in Europe left several hul-tdred thousand Jews
in '"isplaced perstms" c m p s in Germany. These f w s had no homes to
rebrzr to (their homes had hem destroyed or were occupied by o&ers)
and had nowhere to emigrate- A few hundred thousand Polish Jews re-
turned to Poland from the Soviet Union in 1945-1946 but were received
wieh hostility. A 1946 pogrom in Kielce, which killed forty-orre Jews, sent
shock waves through the remnants of Polish Jewry and stimtxlated mmy
of t h m to seek emigration.
As the enormous proportions of trhe I-lolocaust becam k r w i r to the
world public, the problm of Jewish "'cl,isplaced persons" and refugees
festered.. The Zionist movement organized the berichn, m illegal migra-
tion mwement from Europe to Palestine, using shipdrom Italiar ports.
But the British reftrsed to let the ships dock in Palestine, sending mmy of
them to Cypms, where the passengers were kept in internment camps. In
a famous incident, the ship Exodzlr; 1947 was sent back to Hamhurg, Gm-
mmy, with its 4,200 passengers.
Against this background, the conflict between the Uishuv and the
British au&orities grew, with the main Jewish defe~rseorgmization, the
hagana, resorthg to sabotage against British military installations and rail-
ways, The Revisionist lrgm Zvai Leumi (National Military Organization)
engaged hassassinatio~rattempts arrd acts of terror, such as the bombing
ol the King David Hotel. The British, in ~taliation,arrested the Executive
of the Zionist movement, headed by David Bm-Gurim.
I h e intertwined issues of the European Jewish rc-lfugees and ihe future
of Palestine led U.S. President Harry Trumm to exert diplomatic pressure
 Modern Jewish History 205

on the British and to declare in Septmber 1.946 his srapport for "a viable
Jewish State in a part of Pdestine." fn April 1947, Britain tunled the entircl
question over to the United Nations, kvhere the Soviet representative, An-
drei Grompko, spoke out in favar of the creation of a Jewish state. With
both supevowers in agreeme~~t, the United :hfatiol-tspassed a resolution
partitioning Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab (with an
internationdid Jerusalem),by a vote of thirty-three to thirteen, on No-
vember 29,1947.
Civil war bet-vveen Palestinim Jews and Arabs brake out immediately,
and the British quick@ removed. their forces and administration. 'The
State of Israel dedared indcrpedence on May 14, 1948, with Bm-Gurion
as its first prime minister; and TvVeizrna3.u-tits first p ~ s i d e n tThe
. new state
was immediately attacked by the neighboring Arab states. In the ensu3ing
war, 650,000 Arab refugees fled from the territov of Israel to Egypt and
Jordm, where tl-tey werc? xttled in refugee camps. Jemsaiem was divided
between Israel and Jardim, as was the r e m a d e r of the territory desig-
nated for the Palesthim Arab State.
:In the three years immediately fOllowi~-tg Israel's War of fndependewe,
its JeMiish population doubled, from 750,000 to 1.5 miUion, because of an
influx of European Holocaust survivors and Jews from Arabs lands fespe-
cidly Iraq, Yemen, and Morocco). The rrrigmtion allre~dthe elhnic com-
position of Israel to mwghly half Ashkenazic and half Oriental. ClTle of the
first laws to be passed by the Knctsset (Israel's parlidant) was the Law of
Return, which recognizes the right of every Jew to immigrate to Israel
and obtain Israeli citizenship.
Meanwhile, h e r i c a n Jewry emerged from the war as by far the largest
and most securc and influential Uiaspora community. Not only was
American Jewry left intilct, mscathed by the devastaMon of war, but its
social position inh e r i c a was enhanced. The large-scale participation of
young Jews in the US. armed forces broke down social barriers b e m e n
them and other Americans. Tke battle against a common e n e q , which
k w s had particular reason to fight, strengthened the consciousness of
shared values, Judaism gained g ~ a t e respect"bility
r in Amrican society
and came to be viewed as Americds third religion (Rfter Protestantism
and Catholicissn),
:Inthe po"t~"" years, erican Jews partkipated in fhe massive strcam
of migration from lar ities to neighboring suburbs, and from the
Northeast to the southern and western parts of the countv (inparticularr,
Florida and Cdiforr~ia).The proportion of fews hthe new suburban set-
tlemerlb was much less tham in the old ttrbitn neighboshoads, and formal
institutions began to take ace of the "nakrral" ethnic miheu in per-
petuating Jewish idel-ttity icm Jews were heavily involved in the
process of commmity buil$lmg irt the late 19Ms and 1950s' as they con-
skucted spagogues, Sunday Schools, and new branches of Jewish orga-
rtizal-ionsin tlze suburban and '"sunbelt" areas of settlement.
The Americm Jewish community reacted with euphoria to the estab-
lishment of the State of Israel, but it refused to view America as a land of
Jewish "'exile" "alzrf), haccordmce with classicai Zionist ideology. Ren-
Gurion caused a public furor among thc leaders of the Americm Jewish
community when, on his first state visit to the United States, he gave
speeches predicting ihe evtmtual decline and assimiiation of American
Jewry m d trrged Jews to emigrate to Israel. Event-ually; Ben-Gurion and
David Blaustein, president of the American Jewish Committee, a g ~ e d .
upan a relatiomhip of mutual r t a ~ ~ h ~ k r f e r h ~ c eothers' affairs, m d
e ~the
de facto parity betwee11 the world" two major Jewish centm.

Suggested Readings
Dawiduwicz, tucy. Tfze War Agaiitzst the Jews, New \ulork: Holt, Rinehart and Win-
ston, 1975.
Matz, Jacob. Qzrt ofC?te Ghetto. Cambridge, Mass.: Haward Universiq Press, 3972.
Mendelsoh, Ezra, O;blMadenl jewish Politics. New York: Oxford University Press,
1995,
Nendes-Flohr; Paul, and Jehuda Reinharz, eds. 7'hc Jcru in file Modern World, 2nd.
ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 3995,
Neyer; Niehael. Response fo Modenzit'y. New Yc~rk:Oxford Universiv Press, 1988.
je;euisli Experience. New York: Hofmes and Meier,
Sarna, Jonathazl, ed. The Ar~lericlirt~
1986.
Stazlislawski, Michael. Tsar Nicliolns 1 and thc jew. Philadelphia: Jewish Publica-
tion Suciety ctf America, 2983,
Vital, David, Zl'orzisnz: Tjze Fumzatizpe Years, Mew York: Oxford University Press,
1988.
Wertheimer, Jack, ed. The Modenz Jcruislz Ex~~erknce: A Render's Guide, New York:
New York Universil-y Press, 1993,
 History o

T HE ~zs~oxzu ox;.THE JEWS in the Soviet Union and its successor states
is replete with paradoxes, complexities, and ironies. At the beginning
of the twentieth century, the 5.2 million Jews of the Russian ~ m ~ icon-
re
stjtukd the itar,vest Jewish populatim in the world; by the end of the cen-
tury the number of Jews in the former Soviet Union will be smaller than
that heither of the two cow~triesto which most Russian/Soviet Jews mi-
grated en masse dzrrhg the century, Israel m d the United States. It bvas in.
the Russjan Empire that all the modern Jewish political movements and
ideologies-----severalvarimts of Zionism, B d i s m , territorialism, Uid-
dishism-emerged. Yet, all were suppressed by the Soviet government
and were invisible for about seventfi years. Only in the late 1.980s we=
Soviet Jews reconnected to the Jewish world. They had to '"catch up" to
religious, political, social, cultural, and ideological developments among
world Jewry,
A fur&= irony is that when the Rolshewiks came tru power in 1912, they
=affirmed the commilment ol the Provisional G o v e m e n t to guammtee
civil and politic& rights: to the Jews m d grant them the educational and
wocatio~~al opportu"ities denied to them by the czars. But by tt7e end of
Communist rule, most Jews perceived themselves as second-class citizens
and were seen as such. in many sectors of Soviet society Finally, the Soviet
state, which was always a bitter critic of Zionism and from 1967 a leadel-
of the anti-Israeli camp in world affairs, "'exported" more Jews to the
S&te of Israel than any other, though it must be achowkdged that of the
1,215,000 Jews who emigrated, nearly 30 percent left between 1992 and
2994, after the Soviet Union had collapsed, and 73 percent left between
4989, when radical changes occurred in the system, and 1994. When one
cmsiders that, like all Soviet citizens, Jews experienced two world wars,
two revolutions, a civil war, radical alterations in their economic m d cul-
tural h e s , Stalinist purges and collectivizatiol-t,and the political vicissi-
tudes of the past forty years-and that, as Jcws, they also experienced the
horrors of "Ie Holocaust and the privations of governmental m d societal
anti-Sexnitism-one can begin to app~ciatclthe turmoil experienced by
several ge~~erations in this century

Before the Revolulion

'Jews had been barred by law from residence in the Russian Empire,
trhoug:h some had managed to live there nevertheless, until the Russian
annexation of easter11 Poland in the late eightee~~th century. lAJhcn Poland
was divided among Russia, Prtrssia, and Austria, the czars kvere con-
fronted with a dilemma: They wanted to rule over Polish territory brat
that area co~~taiued nearly a miliion JewsSince this was before genocide
and "ethnic cleansing" h d been perfected, the solution devised by the
czars was to keep the t e r r i b ~
m d its population, hut to confke the Jews
to what hecamc the fiiieen western provinces of the Russian Empirc.
IThese lands constituted, the "'Pale of SetllementM-roughly, present-day
Lithuania, Belarus, western Ukraine, Moldova, and northeastern Poland,
In 3892, &out 97 percent of the Jewish papulatio~~ lived there. The Pale
was abolished only in 2915, not because the government wmted to relax
its resthctims on the Jews, but because the authorities suspected h e m of
disloyalty and, kal-fng they would collaborate with the invading Cenbal
Powers, drove them from their homes irt the westem borderlands, exiling
them to the deep interior of the empirt;.
:In the czarist period the Jews were aiso restricted h other ways. At a
time when 80 percent of "Ie empire" population was dependent on agri-
culturct for its lkclihood, Jews were generally barred from owning land,
trhough .from time to time the czars would grant a s m d numbel- of Jetvs
the right to acquille land, especially in newly acquired areas of Ubcraizse
and southern Russia. This restriction created a Jewish occupational pro-
file that was radically different from that of the rest of the population. 'T'he
Jews had no landowning aristocracy m d hardly any peasmtry. The great
majority were urbm dwellers, and the rest of the population was over-
whelmingly rurai. Jews were abo& a Lfiird of the urban populatiol~in
Ukraine and about a half in ZJithuania and Belarus*In 2897, about two
thirds of the Jcws were craftsmen, aftisnns, storekeepers, petty traders, or
peddlers. Laffrrrcnslzen (people of the air), those wi*out a stable mems of
earnhg a living, were counted as 8 percent of the Jewish population-
though in some communities they were said to be as many as 40 per-
cent-ad 32 percre~~t were classified as nnanual labmers, domestic a r ~ d
private employees. n o u g h not as poor as mast peasants, most Jews lived
 History of SoGet Jfeuvy 209

in painfully modest circumstances. :In 1898near@20 percent of the Jewish

popuiation hthe Pale appIied for assistar~cein m a h g the Passover holi-
day, In 1900 over 60 percent of the Jewish dead in Odcssa, a rather
wealthy communityf were buried at communal expense, Little woazder
that about 1.5 milliox~Jews entigrated from Russia betweer7 1897 and
1914, about 70 percent of them gohg to the United States.
Jews were restricted in ehcatiorr as well. The czarist g o v e m m t s im-
posed a numems clausus, or quota, which restricted the numher of Jews
to 2 or 3 percent of the students in. higher education and even in the sec-
ondaq schools. This restriction effectivcib baned Jews from the free pro-
fessio~~s, and mmy Jews who aspired to higher education wex~tabroad to
seek it. We11 the czarist wtboritie?; did cncourage Jews to enter govern-
ment schools, Jews regarded this, correctly, as a ploy to wean them away
from Judaism and win them over t-o Russim ethodoxy Nevertheless, in
1897, over 30 percent of Jewish men and I6 percent of JeMdfsh women
could read and kvrite in non-Jewish lmguages, at a time when only 21
percent of the germeral populatjon could do so. I'he proportion literate in
Hehrew or Viddish was much higher.
h o t h e r attempt to con~vrtJews to aristianity was made in. what be-
c m e h ~ w as n the ""Cantonist" episode, h 1827, Czar Nikolai I decreed
that each Jewisb community suppty a certain numher of Jewish h o p to
what was already one of the largest stmdhg amies in, the kvorlct. These
boys would be assigned to special military districts (cmtons) far from the
Pale and would serve terms of Wenty-he years. The aim was ciearly not
so much military as to wem the recmits away from their faith, since they
wodd be far from their families, kachers, and supportive environment. It
it; estimated that 70,000 Jevvish boys-some as young as thirtem---wem
drafted in this way and arozmd 50,008 did, indeed, leave the Jewish fold.
Mamist historians have arigued that this was the b e g i n n a of class strug-
gle amoI7.g the Jews because the kchith, or orga~izedJewish comntux~iy,
charged by the government with delivering the quota of the recruits,
would snag the poor a d the neker-do-wells, while protecthg the children
of the w e a i ~ yar~dthe leaned. There is no doubt that great social te~~sions
we= aroused by this episode and that these lingered for many years.
Jews were blamed for the assasshat-ion of Czar Alexander 111 in 1881,
and a wave of pogroms swept over Ukrairle. The May Laws, which im-
posed hrther restrictions on Jews, sent a clear signal to them that they
would continue to be treated as an alien element. Together with the
pogroms, Lf-re new restrictions s p u r ~ dfurther Jewish emil;ratio~~. In a
sense, the Jews gave up on Russia. Some other Jews who had acculturated
into the Russi?n milieu and had been drawn into the rrarodrzik (populist)
movemat were shocked w h e their ~ ~ revolutio~~ary comrades approved of
the pogroms on the grounds that although the peasantry might have
missed the target in venting their spleen on the Jews, at ieast the peasants
had been m u s e d from their torpor and this ~~ewfound aclrivism might be
mobilized to change the social, pufitical, and economic order, S o w of
these radical Jews, disilusimed by the behavior of their comrades, gave
up on the peamntry as the ertgine of revolutimry change and were
drawn into the nascent Marxist movement; which pokted to the prole-
tariat as the revolutionary class. Moreover; Marxism assured its adkrents
that ihe revolution did not depend on voluntilristic actions but was the
ixlevitable result of the clash of inexarable social farces.
Still other Jews gave up not only on Russia. and on ~znrod~zichestvo (pop-
ulism), but on the Diaspora as a wbole. They wre drawn to Lhe emerging
Ziol7ist movement, which postulated t-hat there was no solution to the
"'fe\vishprobim" (which cvas, after all, as much a prclbem of Gentile atti-
tudes and actions as it was a p r & h inherclxzt in the 'Jews) other thm the
establishment of an il7deperIdc.nt Jewish state whose sovereigny woutd
guarantee the Jews the ability to develop economicalfy m d culturallCy and
to defcnd themselves. The bankmptcy of czarism was illustrated gcner-
ally by Russia" poor military perfomance during World War I and, for
Jews, by the ksistence of the czarist regime in, prosecuthg Mendel Beilis,
a poor Kievan Jew accused of murderhg a Christian child for ritual, pur-
poses, even after a Russian cmrt had acquitted him. Little wonder .that
when the czarist regime collapsed in February--March 1927, its demise
was greeted with universal enthusiasm m m g the Jewish populatjon.

T h e Promise of the Revotution

The Provisional Government abolished all restrictions on the Jews, who
set about kverisbly to reconstmct their communal and personal lives. Ke-
hillas, now with a broader franchiscl and more demcratic in lrheir opera-
tions, were formed in, most localities. Plans cvere made for an all-fZussian
Jewish cowress, where representatives of all, communities would chart
the f u t w course of Russinn Jewry. Jewish political and cdtural orgmiza-
tions becme very active*Shce the British government amounced in Na-
vember that "His Ma_jesty%government view with favor the estahlish-
ment in Palestine of a natior~afhome for the Jewish peoyie""(the "'Baliour
Declaration"") the Zionist idea, which had been dismissed as unrealistic
by Bundists and 'keactionary" by Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, gained
credibility Zionists won control of m s t kclzillus in local electio~~s and
emerged as the shgle largest political.grouphg among Rzrssian Jews, T%e
Jewish L&or Bund, founded in 1897-the same year as the world Zionist
o r g a n i z a t i o ~ ~ ~ its
w ami\in
s rival. The Bund was a Marxist ofga1izatior.l;it
had helped organize the Russim Social Democratic L,;tbor Party in I898
 History of SoGet fewy 2212

but was expel)ed from that party in 3903 because the Bund insisted on a
federakd party with the nationalities retakil7g their own organizations
and on national-t-ultural autonomy in a future socialist state. Lenin ar-
gued that these demands weakerme&the unity of the drive against czarisrn
and impeded Jewish assimilation, which, wcording to him, was the o1.7.ly
realistic and ""pogressive" wiution to the "Jewish problem." Other Jew-
ish pxties active at this time we= non-Marxist socialist parties, religious
(C)I.thodox)parties, and parties represe11tilTg middle-class aspirations for
civil rights and equal economic opport-unity
When the Bolsheviks mounted their coup d%tat in October-November
1917, the Bund, ccrhoing the Menshevik position, criticized them for sciz-
ing power "prematurey" in a country that had not yet gorle t-hrough the
capitalist: stage of histosy and was therefore. not ready for a prdetariaa
revolution. Most Jews saw the Bolsheviks' hostilit-y to Zionism, religion,
and private enterprise as irGrnicai to their interests. Contrary to popular
myth, propagated both in. Russia and abroad, before and even during the
=volution, Bolshevism had little support among the Jewish masses. h a
census of Commur~istParty memhers taken in 1922, only 958 Jews were
identified as havhg been "Old B~lshevilks,"that is, members of the party
before 1917, Considering that the Bund had 35,000 members in 1917 and
that the Zionists had about 300,000 nomk~almembers, the number of Jew-
ish Bolsheviks, in, a Party that claimed 23,600 members in. Jantrary 1917,
was tiny indeed, However, in the Bolshevik leadership there was a high
proportio~~ of people of at least partially Jewish origins. Thus, of 21 mem-
bers of the balshevik Central Committee in Atrgust 1917,Ij were of Jewish
origin. At Party cmgrc?ssc.sheld betwren 1917 and 1.922,15 to 21) percent
of the delegates were Jews.
T%oseJews who d d join the Bolsheviks in the early days we= largelqi
""non-JewishJews," hIsaac Deutscher % phrase, That is, they were m o n g
the small minority born outside the Pale (e.g., Yakov Svercflov) or wel-e
half Jews or converts to Christianity (@*g., Lev Kamenev, Grigory Zi-
noviev), Lev Davidovich Trotsky, who became a Bolshevik only h 1917,
was horn 01.1 a farm in Khersor~provjnce-his parents were a m o q the
few Jews who wercl granted the possbility of ownhg land-& told in
his autobiography how alienated be was from Jewish religion, culture,
and even people. Such Jewish Bolsheviks were "clouhly alie~~akd,'" They
were estranged from the Jewish milieu, and bvhen they discovered that
they were not accepted into Russian society t h y found a countercuiture
in Bolshevism, which promised that in socialist society ethnicity al-rtl reli-
gion would not matter, *deed, would cease to exist. No doubt, this idea
was amacthe to those who had a highly arnbipous sense of ethnic iden-
tity. Despite the unpopularity of Rolsbevism among the Jewish massc.s,
the myth of a ""fdeo-Bolshevik" conspiracy was propagated by the
White ledership during the Civil War m d by those hostik to Bolshevism

Ironically; what drove Jews h t o the rmks of "Ie Communist Party and
the offices of the Soviet government were the pogroms of the anti-
Bolsheviks, on the one hand, and the opportclrGties giwn to Jews by the
Soviet g o v e m m t , on the other, In 1918-.1921, in the course of the Civil
War, at least 35,000 Jews were murdered, mostly in Ukraine, primarily by
Ukrainian nationalists, White armies, and baldits. There were some
pogroms carried out by Red Army tmits, but these actions were counter
to Bolshevik policy and were condemned by the Party leadership. The
pogromxonfronted the Jews with the "dilemma of the one alternative."
The only a r m d force not attackir~gthe Jews was the Red Army, and
therefore mmy ideological opponents of Bolshevism-socialists, Zionists,
religious Jews-joined its ranks. Jews were also considered ""rc33iiableY%le-
ments for police and counterrevol~ior~ary work, tiince there was no dan-
ger that they wodd be secret supporters of the White forces or Ukrainian
nationalists,Jews such as Isaac Babel joined the security forces partly out
of a desire for revenge against those who had m u r d e ~ dtheir familics m d
feUow Jews. Trotsky; commissar of war, warned agahst ad~xittingtoo
many Jews to the ranks of the Red Army because, he pointed out, they
w e joinirlg for the "wrong'beasor~s-to &fend themsetves, their fami-
lies, and their homes, rather than to fight for Bolshevik idenls.
Jews also found that the Bolsheviks had opened the doors to educa-
tional and vocational opportunities that they had been denied previously.
They could now enter ixlstitutions of higher education as long as they had
academic qualifications; they could become policemen, government offi-
cials, factory manqers, a d army officers, all positions unavailable to
them mder the czars. Even those who had religious or political reserlra-
tions about the Bolsheviks could not d a y that the latter had opened hith-
erto closed doors to them.
h o n g Jewish saciafists, opposition to Elalshevism begm to erode when
they ribsewed what they h t e r p ~ t e das revoiu~onsin G e m m ~Elmgary,
;
ar~delsewhere in Europe. Same became persuaded that world rwolution
bent mQthat the Bolshevik seizure of power was not premature.
It was such people who cmstituted the left wings of swia.list parties, which
now split over f i e issue of support for the Bolsheviks. Ry 1921, the issue
was moot because the Bolshevik rczghe had driven all other parties out of
wistence m d h ~ e the d left wings of the M;Fareynigte, a Jewish social-
ist party; m d Poalei %ion, a Zor~ist-smialB;tparty to merge with the Bol-
sheviks. These mergers h u g h t badly needed persomel into the rmks of
the Ifewir;hSections (Eztsektsiil of the Communist Pare.
:In 1918, the governme~~t established a Commissariat for Jewish Affairs,
k a d e d by %men Dimmshtah, one of the very few Old BolsheviJrs who
 History of SoGet Jfeuvy 2213

h e w Yiddish and had an intimate howledge of Jewish cdture (he had

even been ordained a rabbi by the LubavitchlHabad Hasidic moveme~nt).
IThe Jewish Commissariat (Evkom) tried to estaiblish a mnopoly "on the
Jewish street" by abolishing the keklllas and hking over all Jewish corn-
munai il7stitutions. Ewkom was hampered by a lack of qualiiied perso~nnel
willkg to work with the Bolshevik government. The same was tme of the
Emekfsii, Whcn the Bolsheviks attempted to publish a newspaper in Uid-
dish, fhcy couid not find people willing to write for or edit it, despite the
fact that Yiddish was the mother tongue of the vast majority of Soviet
Jews, However, when ex-socialists and even Zionists entered the ranks of
the C o m u n i s t Party, it suddedy gainl.d experienced politicians, editors,
writers, and organizers, most of whom labored under the burden of hav-
ing "come late to thg ~~?vol~fiian" and seemed to feel they had to compen-
sate for their tardiness by exhibiting great zeal in the pursuit of the
Party's gods.

Revofution on the JewishStreet

The Evsektsii assumed lrhe lead in makiizg the "revolution on the Jewish
street." Achowlcdghng that m o ~ n Jetvs
g there was still little genuine sup-
port for Bolshevik ideals and programs, Emcklsii activists were deter-
mined to "revolutionize" the JeMiish population by deskoying the irzstitu-
tions and uprooting the traditio~natvalues of Jewish socie@. 11%the 1920s,
they idenlified three targets and m u n t e d cantpaigns against each of
them: Zionism, Judaism, and the Hebrew language. TThe campaigns
agaitnst Zionism m d reli@onwere of a piece with general pal-ty-govemme~xt
st-rtxggles agakst non-Bolshevik political mavements m d parties, on one
hmd, m d religions, on the other. But the cmpaign agahst Hebrew was
a n Ewektsii initiative and represc.~ntsa co~nthuationof the prerevolutio~n-
my K~~lturkampf, which had pitted the adherm6 of Yiddish, most olthem
socialists, against the promoters of Hebrew, most of them Zictnists.
Zionism had long been considered a "petit bourgeois, reactionxy na-
tionalist" deology by the Bolsheviks because Lenin regarded it as at-
tempthg to "isolate" "the Jewish proletariat and prrserve its natimal cm-
sciousness, thus artiticially retardirng trhe progression oi Jews towad full
assimilation into the peoples among whom they lived. Assimilation
would be a. g ~ aachievement,
t in Lenin" skw, because fews would show
the way to other peoples in crrcating a world without natio~ns,as Karl
blam had prescribed for the postcapitalirst era. fn the 1920s, with tf7c ex-
ception of a tiny party called the Evreiskaya Kommunistirheskaya Par-
tiya-Poalei "fjion, all Zionist orgmnil;atio~nsand acthitics were outlacved
and mmy activists were arrested. Same were sent h t o exile in the ZTrals,
Siberia, and Central Asia, whereas others were allowed to emigrate to
Palestine. Some Ziol7ist agricultural communes were permitted to exist,
sime they were priacticing "progressive"' forms of agrictrltm, but by the
end of the decade they too were closed down.
The attack on Judaism was, of course, an i n k g a l part of the attack on
religion generally. However, unlike R~~ssian Orthodoxy Judaism had
never been part of the czarist order. But its leaders had generally adopkd
co~~servativc. social a ~ pojitical
d positions, to the e x t e ~that
~ t they werc? in-
volved with such issues at all, for fear ol bringing down the wsath of the
czarist government on the Jews, The Bund had criticized this conser-
vatism a17d the tendency of most rabbis to side with Jewish capitalists
rather than with Jewish workers, but the B w ~ dwas mare a~ticlericalthan
it kvas antireligious. Now, however, the Evsektsii mot?ilized the fufl force
of state power against Judaism and its practitioners, &er 600 synagogues
and over 1,000 religious schools well.e closed down in less than a decade.
The Eusektsii used four tactics in the cmpajgn agai,nst Judaism: (1) They
employed agitation and propaganda, which included, show "trials" of
Jewish rituals such as the Passover sedier (a ritual meal a ~ recitation
d of
the story of the Exodus of the Israelites frorn Egypt), ritual preparatioll of
(fcosher) food, and religious holidays. (2) There was feiped accession to
trhe ""will of the masses.'" Public meeth~gswere held in which Bolshevik
supporters kvoz-tld demand that synagogues or religious schools be
turned over for use as workersklubs, or that religious properties be
seized. (3) There were Bolshevik substitutes for traditions and rituals.
Thus, there kvere attempts, highly unsuccessful, to create a '*"LvJiu\gSyna-
gogue" (parallel to the ""Living Church"') m d "Red Passover Seders"
complete with a "Red Haggadah"7the hook which is used at the seder).
(4) Coercion was used to seize religious properties and arrest and deport
rabbis, ritual slaughterers, religious teachers, and cantors.
HtJEtrew was defined hy the @wish ComuI7ists as "the language of
the class enemy." As they a r g ~ ~ toe dthe somewhat puzzled Commissar of
Enlightenment Anatoly Lunacharsky, Yiddish was the language of the
proletarian mmses a r ~ d&brew was used o ~ ~by l y clerics, Zionists, m d
pretentious melnbers of the bourgeoisie. Therefore, E-fcrbrew was an alien
and enemy tongue, whereas Mddish should be srapported by t%ie state of
the working people. The Jewish Communists emph""i""d that: Viddish
was not an end in itself but only m hstsument for conveyhg the Bolshe-
vik message to the Jewish masses. It would disappear once those masses
lemled Russian. On the one hand, no other state in history has supported
Yiddish schools, newspapers, journals and magazines, theaters, and re-
search inst;itutes to the extent that the Soviet state did in the 1920s m d
early 1930s. 01% the other hand, Hc$rc?w remahed prababiy the onfy lan-
guage to be cast into a kind of political imprisonment or exile. Despite the
 History of SoGet fewy 2215

fact that there were many Hebrew writers, pocrts, and dramatists in the
US%, none was allowed to puhlish in that hnwage, though, thanks to
the intervmtion of Maxim Gorky's wife, some of the most prominmt He-
brew writers were allowed to emigrate. For those who stayed behind,
even "'writing for the kawer" was a dangerous enterprise. No il7struction
in Hebrew was given anywhercl. except for a short \vhiJ,ein Central Asia,
where Viddish was unbown, and in a few tightly controlled. courses in
uniwersities in Lertingrad a d 'Tbilisi. The Jewish C o r n m i s t s tried to
el.im3wlat.c.even th.e Hebrew elemertts ir.1 Yiddish-perhaps 20 perc-ent of
the languag-md to ~ f o Viddish
m orthography in such a way that He-
brew words that codd not be easily substitutred for wouid he respelled
phmeticdly in Viddish. Thus, C o m u n i s t riddish c m e to have a dis-
tinctive form, s e t k g it apart from the Yiddish written in the rest of the
world,
atthough religious practice and kl~owledgefaded victrly amox~gSo-
viet Jews, it is likely that this was due morcj to urbanization m d indust-ri-
aljzation, coupled with t%ie unavailability of ~ l i g i o u instmction
s and ma-
terials, than to the Evseklsii's antireligious campaigns. As Jews moved out
of the shfett&h amd to the larger cities, like their relatives who hci mj-
grated abroad, they abandoned their language (Yiddish), changed their
cbthes and foods, developed new social mhorks, celehrakd new holi-
days, m d generally changed their ways of life. Customs, traditions, and
beliefs fell by the wayside as Jews traveled from one milieu to mother,
tlowever, surveys of Soviet Jews ar~dSoviet Jevvish 6migrks over lrhe past
twenty years show that religious belief, as opposed to howledge and
practice, was not eljzninated by the Soviet experience. This result seems to
im@y the passibility of a ~ l i g i o wrevival among sorne segments of Jews
in the for~xerSoviet Union.
Similarly although Zimist organizations and ideas were forbidden by
trhe Soviet regime, when conditions we^ conduciwe to their revival and
expression, as they were after 1967, they revived remarkably*The study of
Hebrew was revived by the small dissident circles of the 1970s, and &er
1989, when mass emigrafion tru Israel began, Hebrew study becme very
papdar as a means of preparing for kmigration to the Jewish State-

Postrevolutionary Construction
According to both Lenin and his Evsekfsii disciples, once the Jews had
abmdoned their "outmoded, medieval. superstitious and reactionary be-
liefs," they were to blend in with the peoples among whom they lived
and a b a d o n their*pahcular c u l t m and ethnic consciousness. I-lowever,
the Bolsheviks realized that this process bvould be mare gradual than
originally antkipated. They were prepared tC) take what they considered
intermediate steps, which would involve the constructio~~ of a socialist,
secular, Soviet substitute for the culture that was being destroyed and
ahandoncd. Within the Evsektsii there were three schools of thought on
the h h r e of Soviet Jewry. Some bekved that Jews could move directly tru
assimilation, m d therefore no "Jewish work" by the Party was necessary
Othas took a '"neutralist" pposin, arguing that it was impossible to tefl
how quii.kly Jcws would assimilitte; at; long as Jews had cdtural and eco-
nomic needs specific to them, "jcwish work" was justified. The thjrd fac-
tion held that Jews would retah a distinct identity for the foreseeable fu-
ture ard &at they had pressing needs, so "Jewish wmkl' wmld have to
accrlerate and be co~~tinued for quite a while. 'The Party's policy of b r -
enizatsil'n, which entailed "'implant-ing" "Bolshevik ideas among the non-
Russian peoylcs, by bringing the message of Marxism-Leninism to them
in their native lmguages, stre11t;t;hened t%le second and lrhjrd s h o l s of
thought-. Soviet and Party institutions kvere now to operate in local lan-
guages, and the flowering of non-Russian cultufes, many of which had
been s u p p ~ s s e dunder the czars, was to be encouraged. This allowed the
Ez~st.bctsiito expmd their role from %it.illi,on arrd propaganda to economic
plannhg and organizalion and a wide r q e of cultural activities.
I h e Jwish Sections promoted t h e e programs in the attempt to bring
the Bolshevik message to the Jewish masses and to rehi-rbilitatethem eco-
nomically and remake them culturally Yiddishization was the maisl cul-
tural program adopted. The Evsektsii advocated Yiddisb schools, newspa-
pers, theaters, researc-h instituks, m d ~ournalsimd pushed fos the w e of
Yiddish in local and regional soviets, trade unions, and even Party orga-
nizatiax~s.These would simultaneously weaken the Hebrw language,
bring Bolshevik ideas to the masses until such time as they could learn
Russian, and preserve Jewish cultural consciousness. The number of Md-
dish books and hrochurc.~published went from 76 in 1924 to $31 in 1930.
Wereas there were 2%Yiddish newspapers in 292%1924, there were 40 in
1927. In 1923-1924 there were 366 Yiddish schools, but by 1930 there were
approximately 1,300. I h e number of studer~tsin these schools increased
f s m 54,173 to 130,00(f in the same time period. Mmost half the Jebvish
children attending school in Belorussia and Ukralisle were enrolled in a
YidcJish school, thou& sig~ificantly,in Russia, which was outside Lhe
old Pale area, only 17 percent of Jewish schaolchildren were in Yiddish
schook. Just as senificant was the fact that about 40 percent of the Jewish
childre11 in Z;lkraine a ~ between
d a quarter and a half of the childre11 in
Belorussia attended no schaal at all.
By 1930 there were 169 soviets operating in Yiddish, most of them in
Ukraine, in areas where about 12 percent of t-he Jewish popdation lived.
h 1931, there were 46 Yiddish courts jz7t ZThaine, 20 in Belorussia, m d 12
 History of SoGet Jfeuvy 2217

in the Russim Soviet Fedaatcld Socialist &public (RSFSR). Whereas in

1924 there was not a single Cornmunitit Party cell operati~ligin Yiddish, by
2926 there were 25 such cells in Belomssia m d 55 in Ukrairre. Nearly 60
trade union cells conducted their busjiness in Yiddish,
Impressive as these numbers nnighl: seem, they reprewnted 'Yid-
dishization from above," rather than an organic growth of institutions
genuinely rooted in the masses. For exampk, the schools wrestled with
the problem of Jedsbish cont&. 011ce one rmoved rdigion, traditions,
and the idea of a historically tmified Jewish peopl rejected by Cornmu-
nists as a petit bourgeois notim that negatcld the ciple of class dilfer-
entiatior~and class confict-what was left, save t-he Yiddish languirge? In
fact, since the antireligious teachings in lfie Vicldish school were directed
against Judaism, whereas parallel, teachings in Russim, Ukrainian, and
Relorussian schools were focused mainly on Christianity, maIly tradi-
tional Jewish parents preferred to send their children to 1%~-k-iddish
schools becatrse there, at least, they would not be exposed to as much
anti-fudaism propagmda. Momover, Viddish schools had to teach several
languages: Yiddish, Russian (the languirge of "ixltematio~~al co
tionff),Ukrainian or Relomssian, and a Eoreign language, usuallqi Ger-
man. That was an unrealistic burden that few schoolchildren (and per-
haps their teachers) b m successfutly llferhirps the greatest weakless of
the Yiddish school was that it did not prepare its students to compete on
equal terms with graduates of Russim schools in the competition to gain
admission to higher education, since the entra~lceexaminations to highel-
educational hstlitzxtions were given only in Russim. Jewish parents who
had higher educational and vocational aspiratim for their children were
reluctant to send lrhem to Viddish schools and were often compelled to do
so by zealous Evscktsz'j activists.
Yiddish courts ddi not work very well, because Jewish legal terminol-
ogy was derived from rabbhic lawI anathema to the Gol-nmunists, 'There
were few Yiddish-speaking la'~vyel-s, since Jews had been very restricted
in this groiession before the revolutim. Procurators and the militiia rarely
referred cases to Viddish courts. Moreover; there were no appeals courts
operating in Yiddish.
n?lost Jewish Communists, thinking of trhemselves as "yrogrctssive"' and
trhe ""\/a~~gual.dof trhe proletariatYf>htdnnedYiddish in favm of Russian.
Clf 45,000 Jewish members of the Party in the late 292Qs,18,000 listed Yid-
dish as their mot2ler tongue lradtzoi inzyW, but only 2,0(10 (2.2 percent)
were members of cells said to opera& in Yiddi*. The trade unions were
the weakest link in the chah of Yiddishized institutions-One calculation
showed that of 1,6526 trade union cells with a majority of Jews (35,523
members), only 57 cells conducted husinc?ss in Yiddish. The reasoll was
that Jewish workers and others associated Yiddish with the shtetl m d its
poverty and backwardness, and h s s i a n with science, i d u s t r y progress,
high culhre, a ~ the d fubre. As one porter explained when asked why be
so adamantly opposed union work in Yiddish: ""IFor many years I have
carricd hudreds of paclds [thirty-six pounds] on my back day in and day
out Now I want to lean1 some Russim~and become a kctnt-urshchik [balk
teller]." Just as their h e r i c a n cousjns insisted m speaking broken English
rather t h the Yiddish of the "old counh.yHas they attempted to becorne
accepted into Americm sockty, so did Soviet Jews jump at fhe chance to
learn Russim, become Russianized, and hence be accepted into Russian
society-or so they thought.
I h e second type of construclive artivity promokd by the Evsiokfsii was
ecor~omicrehabilitatiol~of the Jewish population. W r , revolution, civil
war, mationalization of private properv and business, m d emigration had
left the sdzfetlektz economically devastated. In 43 Belomssim slzfeflekhstud-
ied in the nnid-I920s,o11ly a quarter of the 91,011C) it~habitantshad m identi-
fiable vocation. The Jewish Commmists debated whether the kustars, or
smaU craftsmen, should be rr;gard.ed as a ''petit bourgeois" or "yroletar-
iar"tr'element, deciding that they w r e at least pote~~tial proletarians and
that they should be assiskd in entering cooperiltives such as rrrtds. Credit
cooperatives and savings-and-loan associations were organized for the
poor and middle-level bstars. The hope was that they wouid work hco-
operative setlhgs or move on to larger hdust_rialmterprises. In 1926,15
percent of the Jewish population were classified, as workers, 23 perclat as
sataried employees, 19 percent as kzlsliirrs, and 12 paccrrt as petty traders.
About 9 percent were peasmts, whereas 91 percent of Ukainians and 52
percent of Russians in Ukraine were classified,as peasanb.
Agricuttural worEr for Jews had been made into an ideal by the Zionist
mavement and had been the goal of several non-Zionist Jewish move-
ments in the late nineteen& and early twentieth centufies. The Evsekfsii
saw in agricultural work a solution to several problems: Xt would right
the imbalance in the Jewish social st-ructure, provide work for the unem-
ployed and those without a fixed vocation, dispel the notion that Jews
were too lazy to work lfie land and were a parasitical e k m e ~ ~and t , off'ur
an alternative to Zionism. In 1926, a committee was established to settle
the Jews on land (Komzct in Russia, and Konzerd in Viddish). .R plan was
devised to settle 100,CK)OJewish families, &at is, about a warter of the ~ I I -
tire Jewish poptrliztion, on the land, Itrr.1"(Gezerd in Xddish) bvas formed
as a nm-Party organization to recruit potermtial coloIlists and rally finan-
cial and poijtical support abroad. Jews begar~to settle in old Jewish agri-
cultural colonies in Ukraine and established new ones in Ukrahe, Be-
lomssia, and Crimea. By 1928, it was estimated that 220,000 Jews had
settled on the hnd as peasa~ts.
The problem was that the colonies did not attract the d4classk and un-
ernploycd as much aa they drew those already employed. Of 15,000 hmi-
 History of SoGet Jfeuvy 2219

lies in Ukraine who mgistered for settlement in 7925,i"I p e ~ e ncould

t be
ciassified as '"productive.'" The colo~~ies lacked the culturai and phy"i"ifl
amenities that an urban population was used to. Local peasants, espe-
cially in Ukraine, were resentful of Jewish settlers whom they saw as
"taking over our land.'" There was a lack of maChinery and livestock,
though foreign sympathizers tried to supply these, along with agricul-
tuml expertise. The Orgmizatim for Rehabilitatim and Training (ORT);
an agricultural agency of the Joint Dstributior~Committee, Agro-Joint;
and the Jewish Colonization Sociev (XCOXT) kvere foreign organizations
that spmmred fewisln colonies and assisted Jewish peasants. Some Jews
used the coloxlies to '"hide" from the authorities and cox~ducta more reli-
gious life in the colonies than they codd in the cities, ancf same colonies
served as a mask for Zionists, training people for agricultural work in
Palestine,
W o developments effectivev halted the experirncnt in agriculture.. The
collectivization campaign hitiated in 1928 brought with it "'international-
izatim," meaning the consolidation of many colonies with ncighhorhg
wiltages so that the specific Jewish character of t"ne colony was lost. Collec-
tivization also alienated m av Jewish peasants, as it d d the peasitntry as
a whole. Mortrover; the Party-probably Stalin himself-decided to open
up an area in sou&err~Siberia, Rirobidzhan, to Jewish colonization. Bor-
dering on Manchtxria and threatened by Japanese and Chinese incur-
sions, the area. was sparsely settled, Jewish colmizatim would beef up
the Soviet p s e n c e would also lessen tensions between Jews and
others in the European areas wf-terecolonies h d been estabtished. M&-
ever Stalin" moljves, the declaration of Birobidzhm as a potentjal fatuse
Jewish reguhlic-"me Land of lsriiel in our very own country,""as ell-
thusiastic Jewish womm was reported to have cried at a meeting in. Be-
lomssia to recruit settlers-meant that resources and settlers were di-
verted away from the colonies in Belomssia, Crimea, and Ukraine.
Hwever, since the men was so remote from tmditional places of Jewish
habitation and was so underdeveloped-nothing was done to prepare the
regior~for mass settlemel~t-half the initial arrivals left a h o s t immedi-
ately m d a year later 60 percent of the inilial settlers were gone. The
Emektsii edorsed the Birobidzhan scheme, of course, but there is strong
evidel~cethat most EvseEit~iiactivists covertly opposed it as ur~realistic
and h a r ~ ~ fto
u tthe preservation of a compact Jebvish populaticm.
Some colonies survived in Ukraivre m d Crirnea until the Nazi hvasion,
when they were easy targetdm the Einsalqrupm, whose mission was to
murder Jews and Co mists. None of these colonies kvere reconstituted
after the war. h Birobidzhan, Jews never cmstituted m m thm 10 p e ~ e n t
of the population, and many of the agricultural colonists moved to the
cities. Nevertheless, in 2934 the government declared Birobidzhan the
"Rwish Autonomous Oblast." In 1939, there were 17695Jews livhg inthat
obbast. 1958, there were 14,269 Jews jll Birobidzhm, Their numbers have
steadily declirled, and after 19% there has been a significar7t emi8r;ltior.l
from Birabid~hmto Israel mQtlne United States. Mast obsemers believe
that the Birobidzhm scheme was deliberately desiped to fail and to simul-
franeously cripple the agriculbrai senlement of Jews in the European USSR.
T%e "'high road" to the modernization af Soviet society was hdustrid-
izatim. Many more Jews entert3d the factories and plants than settled on
the land, since they were alrcady an urban element, uniike most of the
other Soviet peoples. Between 1926 and 2935 the a m b e r af Jewish wage
m d salary earners seems to have &creased more than two m d a half t h e s e
The number of mazual workerri appears to have kebled. At the s m e t h e ,
owing to oppofw~itiesin t-iigher education, the nurnber of Jewish p f e s -
sionals, e~eciallyengineers m d t e h i c i m s , hcreased rapidly, so that by
7939, the nurn:ber of mmual workers, which had shot up earlier in the
decadct, was acbally declining. Migratim to the cities broke fmily ties ard
drove tlne migrants, especially the younger ones, further away from. ka&-
timal w y s of life. Vid.dish was hgely abandoned; ~ l i g i o nwas obsemed
by the otder generation, if at all; Hebrew couid not be strzdied; and Jews
married non-Jews at much higher rates than ever before.
Like all Soviet ci.tizens, Jews were victimized by the pur2i;es. There is no
evidence that they werc? especidy singled out, and a substantial propor-
tion of the secret poj.ice, the NKVD, amd functionaries of the Gdag we=
of Jewish nationality. However, the last vestiges of Jewish cdtural auton-
omy were erased. The Evsekfsii were abolished in 1930, Komzel and Qzel
were abolished later in the decade, many Yiddish schools were closed,
and several Viddish rrewspapers ceased publication. The Institute of few-
islh Pmletarian Culhnre in Kiev was IrhorougMy purged and reduced to a
small department. The leaders af the Evsektsii-Semen Dimanshtain,
Alexander Chernerisky, Rakhmiel Veinshtayn, Esther Frumkin, Yankl
Levin, and many others-were arrested, a h o s t all of them peri"hing in
the Gulag. At the same time, like other %viet citizens, many Jews threw
themselves enthusiastically into what they saw as the constmction of sn-
ciaiism, believing that in the course of this process "'p'oletarian interna-
tionaitismrrwas being achieved and that they would enjoy full equality
with everyone else in the reconstructed society. These illusions were
rudev shattered by the invasim of the German amies in 1941,

The t-folocaust and the "Black Years" of Soviet Je

In 1939, the Soviet tinir,n and Nazi Gemany signed a nonaggression pact
whose secret codicils divided s o w of the lands in Easter11 Ewope be-
tween the two totalitarim states. The USSR jnvaded eastern Polmd six-
 History of SoGet fewy 221

teen days after the G e m m amies%ptember 3, 7939, e c k on Poland.

The USSR then took over the three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia, and
ZJithumia, and took Bessarabia and Bukovina from Rornmia, creating the
Moldttvian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) out of the former and adding
the latter to the Ukrainian SSR. These territorial acquisitio~~s d d e d &out
2.5 million Jews to the Soviet Union. h r h g the years 1939-1941. they kvere
subjeckd to the same anti~ligiousand anti-Zionist policia their c m h i c s
t y earlier, Many polit-ical and reli-
in the USSR had experienced t w e ~ ~years
gious leaders were arrested m d deported to the Soviet hterior. "I%eSoviet
government thereby inadvertmtly saved the lives of those who were able
to survive forced labor a ~ iflcarceratioz~;
d had they remah~ed.in their home
victfm to the Nazis.
terI"itol-ies, they would have fat:le~~
Since the Jews from the Baltic states, Palmd, and Romania were still
strongly connected to traditional.Jewish culture and to modern Jewish
ideologies and mowme~~ts, they ocposed Soviet Jews to these ideas and
ways of life that had already disappeared in the USSR. Though Soviet
ideafs and institut-ions wel.e quickly forced upon the ncwcoxners, the lat-
ter marwged to preserve some of their values, ideals, and practices and, at
great risk, sometimes transmitted them to Soviet Jews. 'This holvledge
was especially significant in the 1960s when Jewish national conscious-
ness rewiwed and Zionist activity reemergcrd, led in part by the "'Zapad-
niki" (Jewsof the new western territories).
t3y the time the Sovkt a r v enterc?d eastern Poland, the Baltic states,
and Bessarabia-Bukovha, all of them had been under dictatorial a ~ in- d
creasingly anti-Semitic regimes. In Poland, Jews had been restricted in
higher education, the mi1itar)i and the professions, and there was an ef-
fective boycott of Jewish shops a r ~ dnnanufacturers. Plliysicai attacrks on
Jews became more frequent. Political groupings, including the mjliti-try
oligarchy that controlled the government, becanre explicit@antj-Snsitic.
In R m a n i a , the Irm Guard kscist organj.zatior.~was flexing its polilical
muscle agahst an already mti-Semitic regime, and in the Baltic states, all
of which were dictatorships by the mid-1.930~~ fascist groups were bccom-
ing more prominent. Little wader that when the Soviet army e17tered
these areas same Jews, especially younger people who had no attach-
ments to religion or Zionism, welcorned it as a Iiberathg force, .Among
the Soviet sddiers were Jewish m m and officers. I h e Soviets vicWy sent
Yiddish cdtural figures into the '*liberatedMterritories. CJocalJews we=
ivnpressed by the fact that Soviet Jews had the kinds of positions that they
could not attab1 their own countries.
m e fact that some Jews kvelcomed the Soviet invaders impressed itself
forcefully on the :Local poyulations, the great majority of whom saw the
Soviets not as liberators but as imperiaiist invaders deprking t-hem of the
independence that they had exEjcryed for b a ~ l ytwenty years. For t k m ,
the Jews' actions confimed the idea of a "zyd~~komlcnn," that is, that com-
munism and Jewish~esswere somehow organically related. Despite the
fact that Cmmunists were a tiny fraction of the Jewish population-less
than 1. percent of the Polish Jewish population m d pekaps 1 percent of
Lithuanian Jewry---& despite the efforts made by the Soviet autl-rorities
to keep down the number of Jews in. local politics m d admkistration, the
image of Jews as CommuIlists became very popular. The fact that Jews
co~~stihted about a quarter of the peogslie deported f m Lithua~iaby the
Soviets, when t h y wert. less than I0 percent of the population of Lithua-
nia, did not keep many Lithuanians from seeing the Jews as Soviet collab-
orators. So although some Jews saw the 5ovjt?tarmy as rescuers from op-
pression, the non-Jewish popdations saw it as a fomigr~b a d i n g force
and the Jews as traitors and collaborators.
These divergent perceptions had tragic results. When in June 1.941 the
Soviet army retreated hastily from the Gel-mm ox~slaught,in parts of
Polmd that had been renmed West ZTkaine m d West Belorussia m d in
Lithuania and Latvia, local people attacked Jews even before the Cermms
could initiate their p h r ~ sfor tfte systematic annihilation of tt7e Jews. In
Kaunas, for example, about 3,000 Jews were killed in the streets by
Lithuanian "partisans" "fore the G e m m s had full contml of the city The
events of this period reinforced the iirrage m m g some Jews of the local
nationalists as fascists, es;pecially after mmy of the locals enlisted in Nazi
police forces and SS divisions, a d rehforced the image m m g some seg-
mer~tsof the local poputatior~sof few as Co unist sympathizers.
m e 3 million Germm troops who irrvaded the USSR q~~ickly occupied
main centers of bwish population in Bdorussia and Ukraine, The Nazis
had loxlg been exp[icit &out their consuming hatred for both Bolshcwiks
and Jews, whom they equated with each other. General V;on Manstein
wrote: "More strongly than in Europe, [Jewry]holds all the key positions
in the potitical leaderslip ar~dadministratiol~.. . .'The Jewish-Rolshwist
system must be exterminated once and for all. The sddier must appreci-
ate the necessiv for harsh punishment of Jewry, the spiritual bearer of the
Bolshevist terror."l However, marry Svviet Jews were not fuily a w m of
Nazi atrocities against Jews, because the Soviet media had ceased report-
ing and criticizing these following the August 1939 pact with Gemany
Older people r e m e m b e ~ dGermans as ""decentpeopkU from their en-
counter during World War X. Many wert. therefore u n p ~ p a r e dfor the ac-
tions of the four Eilzsatzgncpper?, or mobile kitling syuads, who liquidated
much of Soviet Jewry by machine-pnning them in or near their home-
towns. Other Jews were confined in ghettos, such as in Minsk, Vihius
(Vilna), m d Kaunas, most of which were liquidated., along with their in-
habitar~ts,by 1941-1942, Within five months, the E i n s & z had
killcd ahotrt 0.5 mi:tlion Jews. The Wehrmacht, the ~grrlarGerman arm;).;
 History of SoGet Jfeuvy 223

also pastic$atrd in killkg operations, claixni.ng that since Jews we= Bol-
sheviks who encouraged parlisan warfal.e against the Germa~s,killing
Jews was a military measure*The Einsafzgruppe~zntrmbered only about
3,000 men, but they were assisted by larger numbers of Lithuarmian, Lat-
vian, Estol~ia~, a ~ Ukrainian
d collaborators. A11 told, about 1.5 milliol~or
mare Jewish civilians were ElIed in the USSR, m d about 200,000 of the
500,000 Jews who served in the Soviet armed forces died as well,
Soviet historiography ge~~erally downplayed or igr~oredtRe Hofocaust
of Soviet Jewry, though no consistent line was faIlowed. It was not denied
that 6 million Jews had been murdered by the Nazis and their local col-
laborators, hut the Hidocaust was see11 as part of a larger phex~omex~on----
trhe murder of ci\iiIians-which was said to be a nahnral consequmce of
racist fascism. Monuments to victims of fascism rarely menti~nedJews,
but only "peaceful Soviet citizens," At Babi kr, in Kiey where over
33,fX)O Jews had been shot to death on September 29-30,1941, and where
no monument at all stood until 2959 when Russian writer Viktor
Nekrasov prottzsted plans to "ouild athlcti.c fjelds and a housing p*ect on
trhe site, the inscription on ihe monument fir~allye ~ c t e dreads: "Here in
2941-4943, the Ger~xmfascist invaders executed mare &an 100,000 citi-
zens of Kiev and prisoners of war." When Evgeny kvtushenko pmtested
trhe absence of a monumnt in his poem "Bahi Yar,'%e was roundly criti-
cized by ofllicialti of tf7c Soviet Writers Union. When h i t r i Shostakovich
included the poem il-r his thirteent-h symphony the syrrrphorry was
baru~edafter its predere in Moscow.
The Rkck Rook, a compilation of eyekvitness accomts of the murder of
Soviet Jews, edited by flya Ehrenburg and Bssily Grossman, was ready
for pub1icatior1 in 1946 and had aiready been printed when orders came
not to distribute m y copies. Indeed, only h 1993, after the brc3akup of tke
Soviet Union, was it published in that part of the world-but in Vilnius-
1011t; after its appearance in Israel al?d the United States. Soviet school
texts ignored the HoIocaust. In other works the nationalit-y of Jewish par-
tisms and fgllters was often ipored. S. S, Sxnimov, in a popuIar multi-
volume history of the war, described the defense of the ZSrest fortress a ~ d
mentions its heroes as '*the Russians Anatoly Vinogradov and Raisa
Abakmova, the Amenim Samvel.Matevosim, the Ukrahim Aleksandr
Semertenko, the ZSelorussiar~Aleksander Machnach . . . the Tatar Petr
Gavrilov" and even "the German Viacheslav Meyer." The only hero
whose nationalit-y was not mentioned was Efim Moiseevich Fomh, who
was described as "short . . . dark-haired with intellige~~t and mournful
eyes," horn Vitebsk, where his father was a smith and his mather a seam-
skess. An extensive history of Ukraine, published in 1982, dues not men-
tion Jews even once, not even in co~~nection with the Holocaust, ehough
Jews have lived there for nearly a millennium. In a documentary collec-
tion on Lithuania, a Geman document is reproduced whercz it says
clearly that 4,000 fews were given ""special handlingf"&@ Nazi eu-
phemism for ki1.1.hg)ir.1 the Sanierai death camp, whereas the t-ranslation
in Russim says, "the Hitlerite secufity police =port: another 4,000 people
[emphasis added] have been killed.""01% the other hand, a study of
wartime Estonia, where there were anly 5,000 Jews before the war, pre-
sents a sympathetic portrayal of Jewish sufftzrjng during the Holocaust
and an undistortd wcount of Jewish participation in the a m e d stmggle
agahst the fascists, ack~owledghgalso that same Estonims participated
in atrocities agaislst the J w s . The literature in Yiddish throughout the
postwar period often and explicitly discussed the Holocaust, but that
was, of course, 1ikratuI.e accessible only to a very small part of the popu-
lation, basically older Jews.
Whatever the reasons for this peculiar t ~ a t m c n oft the Holocaust, it
managed to avoid raisirTg the ernbarrassis~gissue of collaboration with
the Nazis on the part of same Soviet ci"czens-all of whom kvere dis-
missed as "bourgeois natimalisb" wwho had Red to the Wst-hut it led
fews to wonda &out the moti\,ations of their g o v e m e n t . After all,
every skgle Jew had been affected by the Nazi occupation, and to ignore
the fact that Jews we= killed just for being Jews meant that the Soviet
regime was deliberately overlooking an important part of theifiistory
and not condemjlng the greatest genocide suffered by the Jewish people
in their long histosy. Perhaps that oversight explains why in the 1960s m e
of the first activities of young= JCWS det-mined to assert their ethnic
idenlity was to make pilgri;mages to sites of mass kjllings of Jews-
Pmierai, Rumbuli, Babi Uar, areas near Minsk and markov-md to try to
hold memorial meetings and constmct memorials there, despite KGB ef-
forts to prevent this. Because part af the local poptrlation had collabo-
rated. with the Nazis, Jews also learned to distrust some of their neigh-
bors. They certaidy were disiliuriioned &out Saviet claixns to have
achieved "'durrzhb~nandox~"(frienhhip of peopes) m d "'brafsl"v0nart~dov'"
(brotherhood of peoples). Establishing the bjstorical record and con-
fronting some painful issues of the wartilne experimce are high 0x1 tfie
agendas of Jews m d others in post-Sol7ie-t:Z,ithtrania, ZThaine, Latvia, and
elsewhere, For the first time since the war, archjves are open to re-
searchers so that the full story of the Hofocaust in the USSR may cwez~tu-
ally be told.
During the war, the government established the Jewish Anti-Fascist
Committee, whose purpose was to rally support among foreign Jews for
the Soviet wilr effort. To that end, prominmt Jetvish cultural f i g u ~ sthe,
dramatist Shtomo Mihoels and the poet 1tsi.k Feffer, were sent to the
Uznited States a r ~ dother countries to raise funds for the Soviet nnililary, A
Soviet Xddish newspaper, Einigkit (U'nity), was puiblished, p i s - k g up a
 History of SoGet Jfeuvy 225

thread lost when the last Viddish newspaper from before the war, Ernes
(Tmth), had ceased publication in 3938. The Jewish Anti-Fascist Commit-
tee was erroneously regarded by Soviet Jews as represerrt-ing them. It be-
c a m a clearinghouse for those seeking relatives who disappeared during
trhe war, a r ~ dits leaders saw as part of their*mission phn'ing trhe re:hahil-
itation of the Jewish population after the war. 'They put forth a plan to
create a Jewish popdatiun cmter, perhapueven a Soviet republic, in
Crimea.
mese plans were cut short by a campaign against Soviet Jews latrnched
"from the top." Beginning in 1948, when S.hlorno Mikhoels was mrdered
in a staged "accidentf"in Mir~sk,Jewish cultural institutiox~swere shut
down one by one. The Jetvish A11ti-Fascist Committee was diss~lved,the
last Yiddish publishhg house was closed and even its Yiddish type bvas
melted, down, m d the State Jewish Theater was closed. Not a shgle Md-
dish book, journal, or newsp"p"r appeared, with the exception of the
provincial newspapcr of the Jewish autonomous reginn, Nircrhidzkaner
Shtert-I. Many Yiddish writers, actors, and researchers were arrested as
%'bourgeois nationalists,'h~dmore Lhan me17.t~of Ihe most pron7ilIent-
including writers Dovid Bergelsort and Perets Markish m d poet Its& f'ef-
fcr-were shot in August 1952. At the same time, a campaign was
hunched against "rootfess cosmopolitans," that is, fews. The campaign
began with attacks on Jewish literary m d drama critics, who, it was said,
could not possibly understand Russian culture, because they were alien
to the Russian people and its culture, men trhough they had assumed
Russian names and had nothing to do with Jewish culture. This was a
clear signal that not even sbliztrenk (closeness),let alone sllialzz'e (assimila-
tion), had been achieved as far as Jews were concerned. Thousands of
Jews were dismissed from their jobs or demoted, and most found it very
difficult to be admitted to institutions of higher education. There were re-
ports of physical attacks on Jews, a ~ many d peoge freely insulted Jews in
public.
The climax came in November 1952 when a headline in Pravdlcl an-
nounced that a plot by "murderers in vhJhite coatsf%ad been u~~covered
among Kremlirr physicians whose aim was to murder medically top So-
viet leaders, These doct-ars, dmost all of whom were Jewish, were said to
be age11ts of the American Jewisb Joint Distribution Comkttee, a philan-
thropic orgmization that bvas accused of behg a front for Z1.S. jntelligence
services. The Kremlin. doctors were amested, Mass hyste-t-iaagahst Jewish
medical personnel, ar~dthen Jews in general, spread to many parts of the
country. Meksandr Solzbenitsyn reports hhis GtiJag Archipelago that rrew
barracks were being built at this time in labor cmps, apparently in expec-
tation of a large number of deportees. Eiya Ehe11bu-i.g recalled that he was
told to sign a petition to Stalin in which prominent Soviet Jews achowl-
edged their collective ""gilt" and asked to be punished accordingly.
Stalirz's dealrh in March 7953 put a halt to these plans. One molnth later So-
viet newspapers anrnounced that the doctors had been falsdy accused
and wefe being released. The fear of mass governmental persecution of
the Jews abakd.
Dmrhg the "'Black Years," 194SH952, what was left of Yiddish culture
and institutions was dest-Tcoyed,along with any remahing illusions about
the benevolernce toward the Jews of the Soviet government and Cornmu-
rrjst Party. As a result of puhlic hsults and official criticisms, the loss of
jobs, and very restricted access to institutes, universities, and ~sponsible
positiolns, most Jews became colnvi~~ced that they werc?, at hest, second-
&ss citizens. Aithough Nikita n r u s h h v denounced S t a h in his ""s-
cret speech" at the Twentieth Party Congress in February 1956, he ex-
plained the 1952 "D~octmsPlot" as a persmal caprice of Stalh's, and that
Stalin had been prepmi"g a purge of the top leadersf-rip. Khrushchev did
not mention the anti-%mitic element h, or consequences of, the "plot."
Furthermo~,while denouncing the deportation of the 'liolga Germans
and other nationalities, nrushchev made no merntion of Stalinist anti-
Semitism. De-Stalhization bvas welcomed by most Jews, but: it stopped
far short of addressing past in~usiess u f f e ~ dby hem. Xt certainly made
itmernts to restoring the Jews to lfie positio~nof equality they had
exEjoyed in the first decade after the revolution, though they had been
forcibly deyrived of most of their religious and cultural traditions. Thus,
Jews were now in the po~itiolnof being forcibly accdturated----withrno ac-
cess to their own languages m d culture, they had become fully Russian-
izd-without being allowed to assimilate, that is, to change their identi-
ties from Jews to Russians or any other naticlnality. Not a single Jcwish
school of any kind existed, anywkrr! in the counlry There was no central
religious body for Jewish behevers, as there was for other xligions, and
cioscl to mthilng was publishd on Jewish history traditions, and cdture.
Not surgrisbgly, Jews had become mast-ly Russians culturally, but they
were s a l Jews legally and socially, since they were identified as Jews on
their intennal passports and rcgarded as Jews, not Russians, by the rest of
society.

"Invalids of the Fifth Category"

Though the ~ r u s h c h e \ ~ e r i obrought
d relief from the threat to their
physical survival, Jews were increasingly marghalized in the Soviet sys-
tern. W e r e once they had been advantaged by their urban =sideme and
prope~nsityto pursue higher educatioln, other peoples of tt7e USSR had
"'caught up" to the Jews, m d the latter no longer played as crucial a role
 History of SoGet Jfeuvy 227

in the advanced. sectors of the economy As Khrushchev explained to

somc. foreip visitors, Wow we have our own cadres.'T'I'he impkation
was that Jews were not "our own." Increasingly, Jews saw themselves as
disadvantaged by their identification as such in the fifth paragraph of
their internal passports. 'They joked sardol~icallythat they had become
"'invalids of the fifth category," fn 1965, Prime Mkister Alexei Kosygin
declared, "There is no and there never has been anti-Semitism in the So-
viet Unio~~," But unofficial a ~ w~achowledged
d restrictions on Jewsf vo-
cational and educational mobility continued to exist, and several political
campajgns had a negative impact on them.
Between 1957 -and 1964 Khrushchev tried to reinvigorate the drive
against retigims. Several h u n d ~ drentairtint; synagogues were closed.
Although campajgns against Christial7ity and Islam pohted to no specific
nationality (because Christimity and Islam were trmsnational religions),
trhe campaig~~ against Judaism clearly implicakd the only nationality that
practices Judaism, the Jews. mough the vast majority of Jews had long
ceased tct practice their religion, they we= associated in the popular mind
with the attacks on Judaism and with the closis~gof synagogues on t-he
grounds that they had become "'nests of speculators." Tradi"cona1 anti-
Semitic stereotypes were employed liberally by Soviet cartoonists and
writers: Jews with hooked noses and wearil7g religious garb wem shown
counting and hoarding moneyt exploiting naive Russian peasants, and
following the lead of their Americm and Israeli, capitalist msters. The
Ukrainian Academy of Sciences gave its imprimahnr to Trofirn Kichkofs
lud~izmKez Pvikms (Judaism Withozzl Embeltishment), pubtished in KieV
in 1.963, whose rhetoric reminded many of Nazi propagmda. Many other
works in a s k i t a r vein were puiblished in Russian, Ukrainian, Moidavian,
and ather languages that non-Jews could read, so that: the campaign
against Judaism was not necessarily conducted among Jews.
A second campaip that had a negative sgillovw effect lor Jews was
that against Zionism. Accelerated aft= Israel embarrassed the USSR by
defeating its Soviet clients in the June 1967 war, the campaign clearly
linked Jews everywhere to Israel and Zionism. Zionism, the moventmt
that held that Jews are a nation that should have its own state in the his-
toric homeland of the Jewish.people, Israel, was defined by Soviet author-
ities as a fasGist ntovemel~t.As ox-re S0vic.t comentator put it: "There arc.
many forms of fascism. Zionism is one of them and it is no better than
Nazism." h light of the sufiering of Soviet and other Jews under Nazism,
such an equation could not hut arouse g ~ arevdsiont even among those
who had no sympathy for Zioxlisrn or Israel. Israel wlls clwsified as a
racist state, along with South Africa, and was considered a leader of the
"hperialist" camp. Soviet images of Zionj.sm we caphnred in Lhe titles of
some of t k very many works criticd 01Israel m d Zionism: Fashizm pd
Grrlwboi Zvezdni (Fascism Under the Blue Star), published in Rsxssian in
Sicrittiznz! (Caution, Zio~~ism!),
1971; IfsCour,zlzlzr.~~ published in several lan-
gtrages in 1.970; Sioniznz-PrufivfzikMim i Sofsinl'lzrtfro Progmsr; (Zionism-
Enemy of Peace and Social Progress), published in Kiev in 1984; and
Presfupfeniem i Obrnazzo.ul.2:Melody i Sredstva Sionizma.v Osztchchestvle~z'i
Pt3lifr'kiNertkofoniaiizma (ByCrimes and Lies: Methods amd Means of Zion-
ism in fie Implementation of the Policy of Neocolonialism), Kiev, 1989,
Most works like those went beyond political polemic and criticism;
much of their content could fitirly be described as mti-Scmjtk. Indeed, in
February 1989 Soviet political commentators Rogov and Nosenko admit-
ted, "This critique blurred the border hehtveen the concepts of a Zionist"
and a Jew when it treated Judaism as the most misanthropic of world
religions and declared virtually any display of Jewish national self-
identification as a Zionist caper." The eguation of Judaism and Zionism
wikh anyoIIe of Jewish nal-ionality began under nmshchev m d c o ~ ~ t h ~ -
ued durbg the ""years of stagnation," until the end of the 1980s.
J w s tended toward the scimces and technology because these werr
the least politicized fields, h e r e a s journaiism, the military, the Party, and
secret police work-all areas w h w Jews were once quite prominzsent-
were generalb closed to Jcws. Against this background of continued re-
strictions and direct and indinlct criticism, when Jews saw their countr-y
line trp tmequivacallty with the Arab states agahst Israel in 1.967, supply-
ing ams, ammunition, military training, and political and economic as-
sidance to countries that declared their intention of eliminating Israel
from the map of the Middle East, some decided that they could no longer
live in the USSR. A small tricWe of Jews had been permitted to leave the
Soviet Zlnion for Israel, but &er 1967 many Jews m d e public demands
that they be allowed to da so. Some were so desperate that they at-
tempted to hijack a Soviet plane and were caught and tried, drawing
world atte~~tion to their cause.
Des;pite the fact that the USSR had signed three international conven-
tions guaranteeing the I-ight of free emigration, Soviet au&orities wefe
extremely relucta~tto allow Jews (or any others) to leave. However, be-
ginn,ing in March 1971 substatid numbers were allowed to emigrate,
perkaps in the mistaken belief that i f the leaders of the emigration move-
ment were to &part, the moveme~~t woutd die a natural death. Instead,
the success of the first kmigrks inspired others to follw their lead. In 1.971
nearly 13,000 immigrated to Israel, but in eeach of the next two years over
30,000 did so. Between 1968 and 1980, 160,000 Jews left the Soviet Unio11
for permanenl. residence in Israel, Begi,nniJng in 1.974, follo\ving another
war in the Middlc East, increasing numbers of Jcws left the USSR for Is-
rael but char~gedtheir destination at the Vie~x~a transit poht (the USSR
had broken relations with Israel in 1.967a d refused to allow dirPect flights
 History of SoGet Jfeuvy 229

there); and more and morc? imigrated to the United States. Following
trhe Soviet invwion of Afghmistm in 1979 ar~dtrhe worse~~i~lig of relations
with the United States, Soviet aufionties turned down thousands of ap-
plications to emigrate, t h e ~ b ysignaling their displeasure with the West.
In 1986, for example, only 91.4 Jews were pemitted to leave the corntry
Ely the end of the Z98Os, it was estimated &at there were about 11,000 "re-
fuseniks," people who had been =fused permissinn at least twice to emi-
grate. Of those who were allowed to leave, in trhe 1980s almost 90 percent
immigrated to the United States.

Cjlasnost, Perestroika, and Their impact on Soviet Je

The refoms intmduced in the late 1981)sby Mikhail <;or$achc.vchmged
trhe situation of tbe Jews radically as they changed the s y s t m and society
general,^ Glasnost allowed people to express themselves more freely
than they ever had. Many nationaliticrts, including Jtws, took advmhge of
trhe new freedom to express their grievances and to articufilte their de-
mands a d aspirations. Ierestroika allowed the fomali,on of "'informfl
organizatiorzs-those not sponsorcld by the government or Party-and
many nationaiities began orgm~izing""poplee"sfra~~ts"' and cuttural orga-
rrjzations. In 1988, the first Jewish schools wero fonnded jn Rga, Mosco\~;
and a few other localities. At the same tjme, Jewish cultural oganizations
w e being organj.zed spol7taneously in the larger cities. h the fail of 1989
a national roof osganization calling itself the Vand (committee or c m -
cil)-echoing Vaad Arhn Amtsot, the name of the regional body of Polish-
LithuitI.1iar.2Jewry in the sixteentl'l--c"ightee~~th
centuries-was fomed. It
clilimed to =present Soviet Jewry at home and ilbroad. This cvas the fjrst
independent national Jewish orgmization in Soviet history. Within a year
or two, hetwen 4 0 and 500 focal Jewish cultural orgmizat-ions had been
established, 40 Jewish newspapers we= being published, m d 27 full-day
Jew-lsh schools and nearly 200 supplementary Jewish schools had been
orga~ized.With very k w exceptions, these h~stitutionshad not existed
belore 1988.
This sudden eruption of Jewish communal and cultural activity
seemcd to indicate that despite the ddespread accufturatiox~of Jews,
Jewish national consciousness remained strong, though perhaps it had
been sustained mostly by negative pressures, However, two develop-
ments sudde~~ly threw h7to question the revival and development of Jew-
ish life. n e s e were the massive emigration that begm in the latter half of
7989 and the breakup of the Soviet Union in late N91,
Glasnost ar~dplrtralizatiorr of Soviet political fife allowed spontaneous,
rather than golrernment-gtrided, expressions of anti-Semitism. This
change was part of the general asserljon of ethnic kelings and prejudices
that came with heer expression. h1 Febmary 1988 ihe stmggle between
h e r r i a n s and Azerbaijanis broke out in Nagorno-Karabafi. In 198"3in
the Baltic xpublics there were public calls fur declarations of sovereignty
and even indepe~~dence. In Russia a gmup calling its& Pa;t7zyat1adopted
st-ridently anti-Semitic slogms and warned of attacks on Jews, Ironically,
as ecmomic reforms were hplemented and new political groupings ap-
peared, and as lrhe tight grip of gove ent and Party on sociev was R-
laxed, Jews and others began to fear that order, always a cherished Soviet
value, was crumbling and that "dark forces" could gain control of the
country. Rumors were rife that mass pogrom would take place in con-
neciiox~with the celebration of the millennium of Chistianity in Slavk
lands, In the event, nothing of the sort occzlrred and what grassroots anti-
Semitism appeared was mostly verbal, But the number of Jewish enni-
gra"ts went from 8,155 in 14K7 to 18,965 in 1988 and then batloox~edto
71,217 in 1989. Grolving instability in the USSR, and the presence of so
many relatives and ffientris in Israel and the United States, escalated tmi-
gration to unpl-ecedenkd bights. 11%late 1989 the 1J.S- goven~mentan-
nounced new restrictions on the number of immigrants to be admitted
from the USSR; as a resuk the bulk of those leaving went to Israel, which
has no stricti ions on Jewish immigration. Thus, in 1990, 21,3,042 Jews
and their non-Jewish relatives left the USSR, 181,759 of them going to Is-
rael, In the next two years emigration declined somewhat, but beween
1991 and 1994 about 0.5 million Jews left the USSR and its successor
states. Obviously, this vitiated attempts to rebuild public Jewish life in the
country, especially since younger people we= overrepresented in the ern-
igration, as they usudly are.
The collapse of the USSR led to a splinterkg of the k a d into republic-
level coordinathg bodies. The local Jewish cultural orgmizations began
tru operate in er~viro~~~ments that had become increasingly digerentiated
and k states kvhose economic and political.characters varied widely Jews
in the Cenkal Asian ~publics,like Europeans, sensed a rise in what is
loosely called "Muslh fundamentalism" or at least in Asia1 ethnacen-
trism, and many of them decided to leave for Israel. The L,ithumian Jew-
ish c o m m n i was~ shrunk considerably by emigration. mough Ukraine
has consistmtly maintained itself as a civic state for all its peoples, rather
than an ethnic state exciusively for tlkrainians, large numbers of Jews
have emigrakd from there, possihly because of Ihe difficdt ecmornic sit-
uation in the early 1990s or because they are over"whelmingly Russo-
phone and thus may feel dowbly mcomfortable in a Ykrainim state, as
Jews and as Russim speakers.
Allother challe~~ge to trhe reconstrucriion and continuity of ihe Jewish
cornunity is dermngraphic. The Jewif;h population has been decli.ning
 History of SoG&Jewy 23 1

steadily since the turn of the century, owing to wars, emigration, the
Hoiocaust, low fertility, and high rates of illtemarriage. In 1.989, them
were 1,45,000 Jews iXL the USSR. S k c e then, over 750,6300 Jews have emi-
grated. The ratio of bi,rths to deaths among Jews is said to have reached
1:7, and the median age of JCWS in Russia and Ukraine is ower fifty. h
what may be the final irony in a long history just when poljtical condi-
tions are propitious for the unfettered d c v e l o p m t of the Jewish people
and its culture in the fomer USSR, &that people is qerien"ing dramatic
decline.

Notes
1.Zvi Citeirnan, ed., Bitter Legacy: Couzfiotztiittg the Holocnltst. iz tlte USSR (Bloom-
ingtcm: Indiana University Press, 1997).

Suggested Readings
Altshulel; Mordechai. Soviet Jt.w~ySince the S m n d World War: Po~~ulatbn nlzd Suck1
Strzsctzire. New York: Greenwtlod Press, 1987.
Gilboa, Yehoshua.TIze Black Years of Soviel:Jewly Boston: Little, Brown, 2971.
Gitelman, Zvi. A Gentzrry of Anzbivnlelzce: The ]curt; of Xzissia mid the So~ictUplio~f,
2881 to the Presefzt. New York: Sclhocken, 1988.
Gitelman, Zvi. lewislz Aiatio?znlitya d Soviet Politics. Princeton: Princeton Univer-
sity 13ress, 1972.
Gitelman, Zvi, ed. Bitter Legacy: Cotafindz'fzg the Halucraust i ~ zflze Soviet Union.
Bloomington: Tndiana CinkersiQ Press, 1997.
Kuchan, I,ionel, ed. 7'hc Jews in Soviet Russla Si~zce1937".Qxfcjrd: Oxford Universiv
Press, 1970.
Pinkus, Benjamin. The Jczus ofthe Soviet Union. Cambridge: Cambridge Universiv
Press, 1988.
Pinkus, Benjamin. Tfie Soeriet Covcr~zlne~lf nzzd the fews, 2948-2967, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 19884.
Ro'i, Yaacov, ed, fews nzzd Jewisi!~Lfe ivi: Russi~mzd flte Soviet Uzziotx, London: Frank
Cass, 1995..
Ro?, Uaaco.cr; and Avi Beker, eds, fewistl Culture nzzd ldetztr'ty is2 the Soviet. Urzion.
New York: New 'r'c~rlicUniversiv Press, 11393.
This page intentionally left blank
 Modern
ewish Literature
DAVID G . ROSKIES

Jewish Literature or the Literatures of the J e m !

We are living at a t h e when it is ever more difficult to deterrnirte the
boundaries of a national literature. kVh& do Chaucer, Shakc.sgeare, Ml-
ton, Wardsworth, and Dickens have in. common with English writing in
the United States, Canada, Australia-New Zealand, India, and South
erican literahtre hclude vhJithin its purview the wit-
ings of Native Americms, t-fispanics, and other e t h i c groups? Is Franz
Kafka a marginal figure in Geman literatux, or does he represent its
very core? The muiticulturai experie~~ce of the Jewish people may cast a
new light on these vexhg issues..
For one thi32g Jewish cdture has proved to be a h o s t infinitely adapt-
able, whether one points to the influence of Heknism on the Books of the
blaccitbees and on the Guide offhe P e ~ l e x e dor to the syxnbiosis with Arab
cdture that produced the Golden Age of Hebrew poetry Closer to our
own times, ihe European Entigbtte~mentgave rise to a cultural revolution
in fetivisk life. So new were! these forms of sell-expression that their entire
repertoq could be described only in borrowed terms, beghning with "Lif-
cuntzlrf5itself,a lomword into Uiddish f r m Germal. The purveyors of Eu-
ropem cdturrr m o n g the Jews, who calied *emselves nwskilim, hoped to
legitimate this rrew medium, likrakrre, by basing the Hebrew name for it
on the (very obscure) word for f'rec~rd,ff siifrah, found in Psalms 56:9.
Coined by Sholem Yaalkolr Abramol4tsh (1836-15)47), the current term
sifizlf did not come h t o being until 186, m d even t-he great Abramovitsl-1
never found a H e b ~ wequivale~ltfor his very fworik genre, the mnzan
(novel).With amazixrg rapidity such terms as mise-en-ss&ne,novella, feuil-
leton, reportage, humoresque, monologue, biographp autobiographl/, po-
ema, baltad, epic, lyric, satirc., realisq romanlicism, symbolism, iuturism
began to appear in literary fora never before seen in Jewish society-al-
manacs, newspapers, journals, political pmphlets, amzd volumes contain-
ing nothing but secular verse, prose fiction, or plays. ""My purpose in writ-
ing this novel," Sholern (Iteichem (1,859-7916) instructed his Yiddish
readers in the preface to Sfe~~zpelzyu (18881, "was to create three pesms, or
as they are cafled (in Gmman] hajipt-k"tdn [main characters].'To make this
first of his "Jekvish novels" seem morc? fieymislz, or familiar, he cast the
whole preface in the form of a letter to his '%beloved grandfather Reb
a n k l e Moykher Seforimff"abramavitsh" p m " m e . Notfing could
hide the novelty of Sholem Aleichem" venue, however: a literay miscel-
lany consciously st-yled ta imitate the Russim "thick" journal.
A second characteristic of jewish culture is its internal bilingualism.
Prior to tt7e Enlighte~~ment Irhere existed a division of labor bemeen He-
brew-Aramaic, a language reserved for canonical works of Jewish law
m d lore, m d the varims vernacular languages. Maimonides, fur exam-
ple, wrote the IWi~hl~eh Tifrah, his monume~~tal code of fc.wish law, in He-
brew but produced his phi1osophi""i Gzcide o f t h d 2 q l e x e d in Arabic, On
the Europem conthent, Yiddish served to mediate the Hebrew-Armaic
ciassics for tt7e cornmo1.I folk and also provided t-he folk with light enter-
tainment. Because the assurrnption was that no m e lmguage could iwlfili
all one's spiritual and intellectual needs, a coherent ""polysystm" "me
into being, which dlowed for parallel ar~dcomplementary developments,
both at the center and at the periphery of Jewish culture..
From 1800 on, however, the sudden explosion of new literary forms
and fora was accompar^iied by lix~guisticfragmer~tation."f'he "macnzd
tmgue" was being increasingly used h r avowedly ecular ends m d the
po~"ibi2ityof creating high litczrrary works in Yiddish was becoming ever
more apparex~t.Moreover, the absorption of Jews into the Cltristian body
politic suggested a third m d even more radical solution: trshg the coter-
ritorial lmguage to address a Jewish m d non-Jewish audience alike. h
order to reach the totality of one%potentid Jewish readership, intelleccriu-
als now had to translate t?le same zuovk, pay to have it translated, m d oth-
erwise learn to adapt to an audience differentiated as to language, class,
educatiomal level, ideologicai outlook, and geography, Thus Ahramovitsh
became the "'grandfather" of two literatu~sby translathg hir; major Yid-
dish novels into a modern Hebrew style of his own inventim. Sholem
Aleichem gai~liedan intematio~~al following by writing primarily in Yid-
dish but also in Hebrew and Russian. Abraham Cahan (1868-4951),
whose first literary language was Russian, learned the craft of fiction
writing for the Onznzezitll Advertiser, a ""prog~ssive""E21glist-r-language
newspaper in New York City, before becornhg the czar m d chief architect
 ModernJewish Literature 235

of the American-Mddish press, Until 1914 a Jewish writet- limited to a sin-

gle language was the exception rather than the rule.
So thoroughly had a Eurapem sensibilifrytaken hold of Jewish literary
culturct that at the turn of the nineteenth century when m y jewish in-
tetleccriuals experienced a crisis of faith in the Enlightenmer~t,they found
thernsclves cut off from the sousccs of theif w n past. 1-amchinga coun-
termovement to reclaim "lost" "wish forms in the name of culhnral rc-
newal, I, L. Peretz (1852-1915) discovered the beauty of Yiddish love
songs, medievat romances, and Masidic tales; Sholem A)t.ichem turned to
writing folk monologues; and Hayyixn Nahrnan Bialik reclaimd the bib-
lical massa (oracle) to denok a "'prophetic""poem of natioml ehortation.
The folklore revival even inspired Biaiik and his colleague Yeboshua
IZw17itzky to r e ~ a dthe Bahylonialn Talmud in search of Jewish legend
m d lore, Thus was born their Srfev ha-aggadah (1909), the Jewish amwer to
the Brothers Grimm.
This dialectic of tradition and revolution-the third characteristic of
Jewish cultm-was to be replayed again and again, in the graphic arts
(one thhks of Marc Chagall) and music (the current revival of Mezmer
music), but especially in literature. Moreover, many a career was marked
by m ongohg tension between storytell;iurgand the novel, between tradi-
tional and overtly secular foms of self-expressim It is pmhaps not coin-
cidental that two of the four Jewish Nobel Prize laureates in literatznre-
Shmlael Yosef A p o n (1.966) and Xsaac Bashevis Singer (1.978)-are
exemplars of Ctle 'kevotutiol~arytraditiondist."
There are many other writers, however, m d their ntrmber is ever grow-
ing, who do not fit this mold, As modea~Jewish culture enters its third
cenhxry, one must increasingly ask: m a t is Jewish l i t e r a t e ? M y is it
that of the two Jewish writers who most jrtfluenced the course of modern
Jewish writing-Hcjnrich FIeine and Frmz Kafh-ne was a convert to
Christianity and the other never orwe mmtioned the word 'TleMi'iin his
fiction, and both kvrote excltrsively in German? By what logic can one
place the Hebrew novels of the Israeli Arab novelist Anton Shammas
alox~gsidethe writing of Galician-bom Shmuctl k s e f A g ~ o nborn , Cza-
czkes? Shall 1. El, Skger be considered an American writer to the extent
that he himself collaborated in the translation of his later work and in-
sisted that all su:bsequex"tttranslatior~she made from the Englisb, instead
of the Viddish origkal? Is it the very cortdition of exile, exterritoriality,
linguistic displacement, m d marginality that defines what is Jewish, as
somc. contmporay critics have argued? Or shall one say, with thcj Russ-
ian Formalists, that just as the center and periphery of m y literary "'sys-
tem'hre in a constant state of flux, so will modem Jewish writing con-
tinue to exist in the tel"tsio11 bewee11 home and homelessness, i~x~ovation
and rrzclamatian?
 Perhaps the identity crisis now facing so many national literatures
across the globe can profitably be shndied through ihe prism of modem
Jewish writhg, which seems to thrive on a per~xmentstate of lhguistic,
ideological, and historic-geograyhic tension. To test this approach, :l offer
trhe hlfowitlg overvitlw, =ranged not by period of by authot- but accord-
ing to literary genre.

Autobiography
Rousseaufs Cnl$essil,ns (1778) stand at the juncture between two literary
traditions: the plot of a religious conversion expaie~~ce as laid out in 77%
Confessbns of Saint Augustine (354430) m d the modem autobi,ography
Neither model has yet taken root in Jewish culture. Although the nana-
tive of a writer baring his soul has become cornonplace in the Christian
West, neilher the arcto nor the biography enjoys automtic citizenship in the
republic of Jewish letters. To be sure Solomon Maimon produced a Selbst-
biogaghie (9793) to rival Rousseau", but Mahozlfswas written Eor a Gm-
man audjence p ~ c i s e l yto mark the distance traveled from th.e medkvai
backwaters of Jewi.sh Eastern Europe, and nuthing compamble was to ap-
pear among t-he Jews for almost a century. fn 1876 Moses Leib Lilienblurn
p~xblishedSitzs of Vowth (Hattot ue'auim). It told the true-life story of a
mnskil from Lithuania, code-named Zelophehad (from the book of Num-
bers), whose search for love and secu:iar leanling fowldered 0x1 the shoals
of rigid Jewish legalism, medievalism, and patriarchy. Many a young
Jewish male was to relive the "days of apostasy, crisis and renunciation"
described so vividly by LiIienbium. Still, the precise form of the literary
confession had few imitators.
Quite the qposite. AS Jewish writers becme public figures, they we=
expected to write a17 autobiography that would reflect not their true
selves but their literary personae. ~ b r a m o l ~ t sobliged
h. by partrayhg the
future artist Shloyme Reb KIzayims as a true son of the shtetl K. (the White
Russian market tow1 of Kapulie). Only in the preface did he playfuily re-
veal that "Mendele the Bookpeddler" was not to be conf~~sed with Reb
Shloyme the Maskil. Abramovitsh's chief disciple, Sholcrn Alejchern,
played an even m m elaborak g a m . "Sholem Aei&em the writer,"' he
announced in the p ~ f a c eto Fanem yarid f k o m the Fair), would recount
"the true-life hisbry of Sholern Aleichem the person." Neither, of course,
bore a " ~msemblance
y to the "real" Solomon Rabinoviltsh, a onetime mem-
ber of the Kiev bourgeoisie in wkose home Russian, not Yiddish, was the
everydaylanguage.
I h e rebellion a d apostasy that accompanied the Eves of ewery profes-
sional Jewish writer m d artist were best kept hidden from a readership
 ModernJewish Literature 237

hungry for new folk heroes. Besides, Jewish history itself soon provided. a
narrathe of mpture, as millions of Jews left their small towns fol-ihe me-
tropolis, the Old Country for the New. h America, where "the pursuit of
haf)pinewu is comlside~da constitutional sight, the Jewish autobiography
fh~allycame into its own. Hundreds of Jewish i igrants have produced
autobi,ograghical accormts in Yiddish, Hebrew and English.h o n g the
first was Abraham Cahatn" The Rise o f k v i d tevi~sky(2913). Written, like
:Maimon's Srlbstbiilgmpbzie, for Gentile readers and based on a non-Jewish
literay model, this fictional. autobiography stands the h e r i c a n "'success
s b ~ on " its head. Cabm himse%fapparently viewed this novel as so 'kn-
Jewish" that he himself never translakd it into Yiddish. By coz~trast,Ca-
han's five-volume BleEwfic??vfayrz lebn (Pages from My Life, 19261931) is
a s'rraigbtforward account of his public life as a ~volutionary,llabor
umalist, and editos. It is 90 percent biography, 10 p e ~ e n"auto."
t
rican-Jewish writer whr, used the mtobiographical form to re-
veal the full extent of his self-betrayaf as u fiw is Henry froth, His multi-
vohrne Mercy cf n Rude Stream 0994-1997) kaces the pahful move of a
fewish imntigrant from a17 ethnically homogeneous neigtnborhood in
Brooklyn and Lower New York ta East Harlem, and from there to the
haven of the self-hating Jewish intelligenlsia, Greenwich Villi-tge.
I h e rupture caused by ilnmigratim was nothing compared to the mui-
tiple catastrophes visited u p m the Jews of the twentieth cmtury: czilrist
pogrom" World War I, the Bolshevik &volution, the Civil War that fol-
lowed, the Arab riots, and the Shoah. These hturn, s p a m e d a subgem
of Jewish atrtobiography that focused exclusively on the catastrophe it-
self. That the 'Jews of Eastern Europe experienced VVorld rN;ar f as a Inolo-
caust car1 be sea1 from S. An-ski's four-volume K h u r b ~Galitsye
~ (The De-
st-ruction of Galicia, 291&1917). Based on a real diary that An-ski kept jn
Russian as he crisscrossed the occupied war zone, this chronicle of de-
struction suppresses the autrhor" iinctividud experience in fwor of a
broad historical cmvas. Fighting on the oppo"te side and using a con-
trasting literary approach was k i g d o r Harneiri, whose Ha-sliliga"~~ hn-
gadol (The Great Madness, 1925) refracted the slaughter of trcznch w a h r e
through the autobiographical consciousness of m urbane Central Euto-
pean Jewish intellectual. It compares very favmably with Erich Maria Re-
marque" All Quiet on the Westem Fmnt.
m e same sgli"lbet-vveen a collective and jndividual perspective on the
catastrophe has become far more pronounced in the wake of the Shoah, In
g"11"ral, the survivors who continuctd to write in Uitldish endewortrd tru
mnke their personal saga into a memorial for their cornunitye I:,."@
Rochman" U Uilz ~ dayn bluf z0Zstz-l lebn (translated as Tile Pi1" ntzd the Tray,
1949) is a model of this approacrh. 'Those who either adopted new lan-
guages after the war or who returned to a home devoid of Jews tended to
embrace the existentialism then current in intellectual circles: the individ-
ual in his face-to-hce ellcounter with cJeath. A case i-rr poht is survivor-
writer Elie Wiesel. His first autobiographical work was published in. Yid-
dish as Ven di z~clfhot geshvign (When the world Was Silent 3956), and it
ended with a call to caphre the :Nazis still at large. The s m e work, which
he recast into French as La Nuif (Might, 1958), omitted any appeal to a
community of like-minded readers,
'The gro"ing fragmel~tatimof modem Jewish culhnre is most evident in
the atrtobiographicd genre. Yiddish kvriters who escaped from Europe
prior to the war spent thl'if p o s h = years erecting memorials to a lost civi-
lizafjo~~.The very title of Yehie1 Isaiah k"s sevell-volume autohiogra-
phy says it all: Poyl~z/PoEnlzrZ(1961953). h1 marked cmltrast, the su-calkd
New Wave of Israeli fiction bvas haugurated by P d a s Sadeh in his arztobi-
ographical novel Ha-hnyyim ke-nzashnl (Life as a Parable, 3958). Though
hh.;c.If a vetera1 of Israel" War of hdepe~ldence,Sadeh proclaimed t%te
absolute autonomy ol the self, divorced from the claims ol the colective
and from the mglr histofy of the Jews. The h g of ~Jesus~ as the God of
love looms wry large in this work, And there arc? mi-U.7.yexplici-tlove scenes.

The Novel
Indeed, auttihiographers aid ~~ovelists alike have equated lrhe frustrated
desire for love and sexual freedom with trhe hem(i_ne)'squest for personal
autonomy; This goes back to the first madern novel, Don Quimfe,by Cer-
vantes, culnninating in Flaubert's Madl~nzeBovary and Tolstoy's Anl~a
hlenilza. Writers who r/vished to rmder Jewish life through lfie colIveIl-
tions of the realistic novel were thus faced with a serious probkm: Can
one write ""a roman on a ra172an" (Yiddish for ''a novel without a love
strory'")?:Here, as elsttwhere, S. V. Abramovitsh paved the way with his
Fisfike der krumer (Fisltke the I:.,me,1.869,1888),the story-within-a-story of
a hunchbacked beggar who falls in love with a blind waif. The novel c m
be read as indictment of Jewish family life amrlg both the merchmt
and the lower classes, a life so enslaved to money m d sex that it robs the
individual of m y chance of self-fulfillment, Less strident: (and much less
innovative) was Sholem Aleiclem, who broughl: together two semithe
souls, the Jewish to& fiddler, Stempenyu, and the righteous datlghtes of
Israel Rokhele the Beautiful. But Rokhele is m a ~ e d and , the norms of
Jewish society do not aiiow for aduitery So Rokhele rejects Stempenyu's
advamces, =turns to her husband, and the two leave their stiflhg hone
ent for Kiev, where they live happily ever after!
Was it tlze ideal of romantic love or the novel form itself that was Jew-
ishly tmasshiliable"Zar Sholem Aleichem, form was synonymous with
 ModernJewish Literature 239

content. He played out his comedy of dissolution, not in the neatly plot-
ted novel, but in the messy, repetitive, cyclical, monologicd, and dialogi-
cal tale, mrough a cycle of shz, monollogues within dialogues, creatisrg
the itltasion of live narration, Sholem Aleichern pitted the patriarchal
world of Tevye tt7e Dairyman against t-he anarchic power of love, of sex-
ual and political passons, of hir;tory itself. Through the zany letters of
Menabem-Mend1 to his wife S.heyne-Sheyndl, S.holem Aleichem pitted
the madness of capitalism agilinsi the pwanoia and claustrophobia en-
gendered by a mecfieval sociev in a state of coiiapse. Judging from the
Yiddish and Hebrew novel in the twentieth century, romantic love re-
mains an absolutely umttainable goal, not because of soGietal constraints
and cormptions, but because of the emptiness, depravity, of neuroses of
human existence. This holds true whether the novel is set in the small
towns of Russin, Polmd, or Galicia-as are Dovid Bergelsm's Nokl2 ale-
rneiz (When All Is Said and Done, 19131, Micah Uosef Berdyczewskifs
Miviam (1920), and S. Y. +on's Sipprrr pat;hilt (A Siw1e Story, 1,935)-or
Zikhrc7-1~
in Tel Avisr, as is Yaakov Shabti3.i"~ duarinz (translated as Past Con-
thuous, 1970).
Shce its ixlcept-i;on,the novel has been associated with the city, both for
its subject matter m d its most avid ade er ship, Among Jewish novelists,
somc. me irresistibly drawn to a particular urban lmlidscape, usuatly the
city of their youth: Lodz for Israel. Rabon, Warsaw for 1. B* S;inger, Viha
for CShah Grade, New Vork City for H a y Roth, Chkago for Saul B d -
low, Newark, NW Jersey, for Philip Roth, Jerusalem for Amos Oz, Haifa
for A. B. Yehashua, and Tel Aviv for Yaakov Shabtai. But Yiddish and He-
brew writers found equal scope for their ilnagination in the shtetl, the
"'Jevvish""market t o m of Easten~Europe. If anything, the collapse of the
shteti as a seff-~gwlatingsocid orgmism made it that much more appeal-
ing as a fictional laboratory Unlike the hero(ine) of a city novel, who was
expected to strive for aulonomy the shtetl itself became a kind of cdec-

The image of the shtctl is perhaps the g st single inventim of mod-

ern Jewish fictio~~. m a t the Western is t mica1 popular culture, the
shtetl novel and novella are to the Jewish imag;ination. Its symbolic lmd-
scaye is etched into the East Euroyean Jewish psyche, Main Street is domi-
nated by the marketglxe and is 0ccupic.d solely by Jews. Instead of the sa-
oon, there is the bes112edresh(the house of study); instead of Lht. & m h , the
s h ~ lThe
. kohol-slztibl where the Jewish notilblcs meet replaces the sheriff's
office. h d of course there is the train depot, either nearby or smewhat
rc.mo\red, through which unwelcome news and t-ravelerscome to town.
With thjs symbolic map fim l y in place, the variations on the theme of
the small town in a b g e r o u s w d d were almost i~liexhaustible.I, M.
Weissemlberg's A Slztetl(1906) opens in the house of study wit-h a scem of
class warfare. VVeissenbe~'mnimuswas partly fueled by Sholern Asch's
The Sheell, whirh 3pgearc.d two years before. Whereas Asch had written
the fist of many ectrmenical hntasies in which the prayers of Jewish and
Chdstian believers ascended to the same God, Weissenberg charts the ris-
ing tide of anti-Semitism and political reaction that culminates with the
czilrist forces carting tke sht.et.1 revolulionaries off to prism at the
novelfds end.By 1909, the shtetl had become the scene of ennui. and exis-
tential despair in Dovid krgelson's Artam i-)rlgzat(At the Depot),
As World War I m d the Bolshevik Revalution added the physical de-
struction of the shtetl to its earlier economic and social decIhe, Yiddish
and Hebrew writers explnited the shktl more ar~dmore as shorthand for
Jewish callective survival. Lamed Shapiro (1878-7998) provided a de-
tailed anatomy of violence in a masterpiece of literary impressionism
irormically titled Di yi&she nzel2rkj2e (The Jewish State, 1939),The holy corn-
munity of Krivodov, first seen at prayer in the d d synagogue on Uom
Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, is reduced by novella" end
to a few traumatized survivors being led. into exile by a senile woman
named Slove, A year later, Oyzer Varsl-iavski (189&194.il) portrayed the
Polish shtetl in wartime as notlning m m than a den of Shnrrglares (Smug-
glers). Meanwhile, in the USSR, the shtetl itself was cast in the d e of vil-
lain, as an 'kugl a~~achronism inimical to the illterests of the working
class." To disarm the apparatchiks, novelist Itsik Kpnis (1896-2974) re-
lived the aadoshim rtlz feg (Mmths m d Days, 1926) of the pogrom in his
native t o m Of Slovesh~e(Ukraine) through the eyes of a childlike adult,
modeled on the characters of Sholem Alleichem. What survives the
slaughter h Mipnis? scheme is love,
By the 3930s, the shtetl of modem Jewish fictio~~ became not merely a
Jewish community ist mhiatmre, but the microcosm of a whole civilization
standing on the brlink of destruction. Thus, Agnm set out to rescue the
complex layers of Jewish custom, legend, and leami% in a mock-epic
novel set in early-nineteenth-century Gaticia. Hakjzirlrzscni- kuhh (The Bridal
Canopy, 1931) was folfowed by two novels set in the fictional town of
Szihusz (a2 anagram of Buczacz, but also meming ""h.ifle," or "'mix-up'":
Sippur pasheid (A Sinnpe Story, 1935), which focuses on the marketplace as
the seat of bourgeois conformity and l)realz fzlaftz lnluiz (A Guest for the
Night, 3939), which rwisits the "'dc house of study'" as the seat of ali the
spiritud values laid waste by Wrld W a 1and the forces of srrcularizatiun.
The protagonists of both novels strugge with madness, and though both
are able, fh3al)yl to awake11from the ~Ggh.t;mare, no hope is held out for the
creative survival of the shtetl per se. Memwhile, in Der scltn in Goraj (Satm
in Goray 1933), 1, B. Singer refracted the apocalyptic evcnts of the 392&
ar~d1930t; through the lens of Sabbatianism, a Jewish messianic movement
in, the seventeen& century Singer's nhilism, as opposed to Agnon" Zian-
 ModernJewish Literature 241

ism, allows for no consolation. Possessed by a dybbuk and exploited by all,

Shgefs heroine is left to die, and only the atificiai impotiieion of a moral
order rescues the Polish shtetl of Goraj from self-destmctian.
With Hitler" rrise to power, Jewish novelists turned to the family saga,
a genre that threw the questiol~of col~tinuityinto fhe sharpest possible fo-
cus. Mdhat would destroy the family first, they asked, its own pathology
or the forces of historical destruction? Set in Lodz, the Manchester of
Polad, Israel Joshua Singer" Di hrider AshkL'uazi (The Brothers h h k e -
nazi, 1936)places the blame squarely on such historical forces as &dust_ri-
alizat_ion and anti-Semitism, Set in nineteenth-century Berdichev, Der
:Nister"s Di nzishpokhe iGlushbrr (The Farnily Mas:hber, 1939--19t2.1)pays lip
s a k e to Marxi.sm by exposing the inten~aldecay of the Jcwish market
economy, personified by the eldest Mash:ber brother, Moyshe, The red
culprit in this msterpiece of Soviet-Yiddish lfierature, fiowcver, is the
middle brother; Luzi, a religious ar1arc:hist and a prototype of a Bolshevik.
(The fkal volume of this novel was seized by the NMVD. Der Nister per-
ished in the Gulag.) True to his pessimistic outlook m life, t. B. Singer
portrays the declFue of Difnmily~Moshkaf.(The Fmily Moskat, 1945) as a
process that cuts across generation and gmder. For Singer, the dest-ruction
of Warsaw by Nazi bombs m l y compfetes an ir;tevitableprocess of ethical,
metaphysiral, and societal crisis
Hebrew novelists, in contrast, resgondhg to a Zionist readkg of his-
tory have held out some hope that the fmily m y be ablc to w3hstand
even the crisis of LZiol~istideOtC)gy itself. Moving backward in t h e , from
2982 to 1.848, and divided into five ""conversations," A. B. Yehosht~a's
novel Mar Mani (Mr. Mani, 1990) radically challenges the Zionist enter-
prise in the light of h u m sexuality, neurosis, and family history. In
much the same bvay as Yehoshua uses the &sights m d techniques of psy-
choamlysis to westiozr all natimalist or ethx~icschemes to haraless the
col~tradictionsof human existence, Meir Shalev" Roman russi (tra~slated
as The Blue MoztnEain, 1.988) revisits the generation of Russian-born ha-
l u t z i ~ ~(pioneers)
z in Palestine, using the "magic realism" of Latin-
American novelist Gabriel Garcia Mhrquez Despite the great sacrifices
demanded of these pioneers, and despite the terrible mess their Israeli-
born offspring then make of their own personal lives, Shalev ends this
tragicomical family saga with the birth of a third-and presumilhly hap-
pier-generation, m d names them after their deceased grmdparents.
A.%.thougfi S a d Bellow has never employed the family satga genre per
se, his novels m d novetlas consistently argue for fhe importance of the
fitrnily as the bedrock of memory and moraljty. Whether he describes
Moses EIkanah Hcrzog (Flcvzr~g~ 1964), whose overilbundant love for fm-
ily and frier~dsmakes him so vuineralole to defeat, or Holocaust survivor
Artur Sammler of Mre Sam~nlevSlflnnef (1970), who Zeams the lesson of
human responsibjlity, not from books, not from historical experience, but
f m his dying nephew, it is the family that affords them the best school-
ing for a degree of humme letters. Whether American- or European-born,
mort.over, Bellow" heroes are rnostIy Jewish intellectuals of a high order
of intelligence and worldliness. kliow himsc.If was awarded the Nobel
Prize for 1,iteratznre in 1976.

Betwen the Real and the Fantastical

Bellow's work-scrupulous@ realiseir, ""old-f;zshior~ed"in its plotth-rg, m d
maxhal in its intellecktal dema-rds of the reader-sta-rds as a secular hu-
mmistie bulwark against certah modernist trends in contemporary cul-
ture. The modemistt; have used the novel to challenge the rational met opti-
mistic assumptior-rsof bourgeois society. Everythhg is now called into
question: character, plot development, authorship, morality society, his-
tory, md, above ail, the distincl-ionbehnrreen fiction m d fact. The w ~ t ewho
r
almost sk-rgle-hmdedlyeffected this shift was Franz Kafka (1883-1924).
Beneath the microscopicaI,Iy alnplified details of evesyday life in Kafids
novels m d short stories :Liesthe perception of reality as m mending series
of gmticssque miracrles. The sembla-rceof nomalcy ant[ civility, lnui m d or-
der, authority m d rank, is constantly belied by the existernce of irrational
forces out to destroy the hdividual, Joseph K., the hero of Der Prozess (The
Trial, 19151, iti tried and executed Lyithout actually stmding trial or even
learnhg of his crime. Gregar Samsa, the hero of "The Metamorphosisff
(1915), wakes up one morning to find that he has turned into a cockroilch.
Because his wrk iti so precariousiy poix"detween the red and fal-rtastical,
Karka has innucnced modem Jewish writing in two opposite directions:
backward toward a rediscovery of Jewish rnytbs m d archetypes; forwasd.
m m t nightmare of the Soviet and Nazi regrrtes.
it is now possible ta trace the origins of modern Jewish
culture not only back to the m n t but also to the fmtasticallq.elab-
orakd fairy tales of Rahbi N Brablav (1V2-1810)- True, these thir-
teen tales told by a zaddik, mast-er, who left no successor, remain
a unique phenomenon, Rabbi Nahmm was the first Jewish intellectual to
place storytelling at the cexrter of his work, and these tales remain a sa-
cred-and esoteric-document for his Hasidim (called the "'Dead Ha-
sidhf') until this very d ~Alongside
. the traditional interpretas, however,
who read these tales k-r &c. ligkt of Scripture and kabbalah, each successive
generation of moder11 Jewish writers has discovered h b b i N&mm mew.
Pereti: was fascinated by the lonely figurt3 of Reb N m strugghg with
messial7ic hope and pcrs c.fespair. Der NistCjr, dming his years as a
Symbolist, brought Reb N m%complex plots, repetitive style, and per-
 ModernJewish Literature 243

sonal symbolism to the height of aesthetic perfection. ha our own day, Elie
Mliesel a r ~ d%has Sadeh hawe both rewritten R& Nahmads corpus in
whale or part. But it is Ka&a, above aU, who brake down the disthctions
betLveen storytelling m d the novel, gothic rommce m d ~alisns,logic m d
paradox, and who forms the critical link betwca~the mystical a ~ m d d-
ernist tradit-ions. hspircld, ir.1 turn, by Kaa'ka's parables, Agnon wrote SePv
12u-mn'usim (The Rook of Deeds [or Exemyla], 1932), modern-day talcs that
defy ir1terpretatio1.1. 'The personal and hit;* a a ~ c i m d mythology of Pol-
ish-Jewish moder~~ist B o Schufz (1892-2942) is lilkewise attributable to
Ka&a-and to Kafka's bizarre portrayal of women,
h co~~trast, D a ~ i l oKiS"s r~ovelA Tombfir Bovk DauicEouich f 1978) takes
Joseph K. for an almost surrealistic tour of Stdin's Gulag----fromSiberia to
Republican Spain. As Jewish nightmares becilme reaiity, Kafka'ti "'The Fe-
na%Colony" (1.919) wodd seem to provide an accurate blueprint of the
:Nazi death camps. The H e b ~ w nov& of Holocaust survivor Ahamr~Ap-
pellfeld are skilarly cast in, a "'Kafiaesque" mYnald.
Kafka as a literary figure, h a l f 5 has come to exemplify the paradig-
matic Jewish artist: neither German nor Czech, neither ghetto Jew nor
cosmopolitan, neither bourgeois nor bohemim, neither true son nor true
lover. Contclmporary American-Jewish novelists Philip Roth and Cynthia
Chick identify themselves with Kafka most strong@ Critic :Irving Eiowe
even used Kaf2ta's hterest in Yiddish to reconnect American-Jewish read-
ers with their East European past.

Poetry: The Oracle

What Kafka i s to Jewish modernist prose, Hcinrich Hcine (1.797-1856) i s
to poetry. Hehe was long dead, however, before he becme the stepfather
of modern Jewish poetry. The poets of the Jewish Entightenme~~t, who ell-
jayed easy access to the German language, did not take kixldly to Heke's
apostasy, his liberal politics, or his poetics. Ifeine" surface simplidty
overt eroticism, his pervasiwe irony and parody! we= anathema to the
neochssicism of the Maskalafi. C)nly in the HWs, when European Deca-
dence began to make inmads in Russia and Poland, m d the Symbolist po-
ets took up Heinefs cause, did Hebrew a r ~ dViddish poets claim :Eleine as
one of their own, a soul brother.
This points to a peculiar feature of modern Jewishculkrre: that the iwnpe-
h f s to reclailn pieces of the d i s c d e d Jewish past inwxiably comes, not
from within Jewish culture itself, but from the culture at large* It was
Heine's ''Rmanzero" that inspired 1. L. Peretz to collect Yiddish love
songs. It wa"reine% l w e aft'air with trhe Sepf-rardic culbre of meditlval
Spa& that sparked a s h i l a hterest h Bialik m d David F r i s c h
Heine's use of the ballad &at paved the way for the ballad revival in mod-
em Yiddish poetry, Heit~eproved to this second galeration of Jewish rebels
and revolutionaries that one could hvent a usable past with materials long
sislce abmdoned and r e n d e ~ diibsolete. M y those who had made a clean
break with the tradition, however, were free to do so. Heirte, in other
words, became the progenitor of the "~volutionarytradjeionalist.'"
Weirze" g ~ achampion
t in modem Hebrew c d b e was Hayyim Nah-
man Rialik (187S1934). Like Heine, Bialik was unsparing in his crikicim
of what he deemed to be the dead wei&t of the past. "What did t get
from the poetry of the prayer book?" asks Kialik in "Shiratii" (My Song,
1901). Endtess boredom and depression is the answer. What of the zwrir.~.~,
trhe Sabhaih songs that he would Gng at born al011g with his hther? "fhey
represent the terrible poverty and psychic wounds of his chiIldhood. T%e
whole of Jewish tradition is reduced at poem" end to a spider in a dark
corner of the house dewourhg Lhe innads of the last fly.
From this poetic and spiritual impasse, Bialik t-urned to the prophet-ic
oracle, the 172assa~Why, of all classical forms, did Bialik fix on the oracle?
Why not a more lyrical form, like the Psalms? A17d why did he identiiy
with the prophets instead of the priests? Because Bialik" point of depar-
ture was God's absence, not Gad's prc;.sence. Because prophecy was the
form best suited to express one's rage at the natio~l,the People of Israel.
Because the new Christim readhg of the Bible turned the prophets and
not the priests into the source of biblical monotheism. .And because
Pushkin had made the cal:i to prophecy synonymous with tt7e lonely fate
of the poet.
Never was Bialiks anger at his people kkdled more skongly than in the
wake of Phe Kishinev pogrorrr, in the spring of 1903, Se17.tby Ahad Ha'am
and the ad hcx: Union of Hebrew Indsiters to recod eyewibess accomts of
the pogrom, BiaLik xnade histov by publishing &stead a ferwiousb angry
poetic reportage. He called it "B'ir ha-haregah" (In the City of Slaughter),
but the czarist censor chmged the title to " R e Oracle at Nemirow," to sug-
gest an hihistorical chronick about the Ckmiehicky Massacres. More shock-
ing than the poet's descl-iplion of the murder, rape, and plunder was that
the entire poem was written in Cod3 o z u ~voice.
~ It is God who leads the tour,
God who calk mhis prophet to strike out agilinst the heavenly throne, the
people, m d the world. At its deepest level, the poem pokes to the absur-
dity of writhg a Great Oracle when one no longer believes in God. At the
time, ho-cvever, Be poem was understood to be a denunciath of Jewish
passive a ~ adcall for seH-defe~lse.It l a m b e d the thirty-year-old poet -as
the prophetir voice of his generation.
By translating this great poem from FXebrew into Mddjsh, Bialik chal-
1e11gc.d all Jewish-language poets to respond accordir~glyin times of na-
t i m l catastrophe. And respond they did. %n the very lnidst of World War I,
 ModernJewish Literature 245

American-Yiddish poet Moy&h"-eyb Halpern (1886-1932) wrote "A

:Nigh&"wmbining trhe personal and historical nightmares into one. Mak-
ing expficit that which was only implicit itlBia1ik"s poem, Halpem denied
national and religious meaning to this catastroyh-d to all of Jewish
history. Soviei-Yitldish poet Perets Markish (1895-3952) went hrther stitl
in his oracular poem ""f> iupe" m e Heap, 2921). Here it is the mound of
pogrom victims of the CJkrainjan Civil War that blasphemes against God
and eclipses aII sacred mountaius, .from Mount Sinai to Golgotha.
Mbho was to b l a m for the cycle of catastrcnpks? Eqressivnist poet Uri
Zvi G ~ e n b e r g(1895-1981) issued his own ""Oracle to Eumpe" h 1926,
which proclaimed that it was not the Jews witl-t their pmsivity ar~dtheir
fafse messiizr~icexgectations but Christim Europe with its lust for Jewish
blood. Greenberg prophesied that only in. their olvn lmd would the spiri-
tual unification of the Jews take place, to be led by King Ahasver$ the
Wmderir~gJew of Christian myth. G ~ e n b e r g lived to see both p m t w f i i s
prophecy fulfilled
The last great outpouring of oracular poems wcurred. during the FXolo-
caust proper. Mlithin the Nazi ghettos Bialik was the poet most often
cited, as every Jewish community, large or small, became a veritable "City
of Slaughter." In a poem with the bitterly ironic title "Spring 1942f''
SimBe-Bunem Shayevitsh (1907-1944) '"invited'" Rid& to visit the Lodz
gletto and be huxnbled by the sight of so muet7 human suffering, Six
months before the final lividation of the Vilna ghetto, in March 1943,
poet Abraham Sutzkever (1913- ) took up Bialitc's de~~~ntriation of Jewish
passivity Tlnd moral bankruptcy in "Song o r the t,ast.'Wabg good on
his anger, Sutzkever left the ghetto with a group of Jewish fi;ghters and
took up arms against the Germans. h d in 1944, poet Vitzhak Katse~~el-
son comgleted his Song of the Murdered Je-iuish 12eqle, which combined the
epic sweep of Liamenhtions with the visionary sweep of Ezekicl m d Isaiah.
Soon thereafter, Katzenelson was shipped off to Auschwitz, where he and
his eldest son Zvi were gassed upon arrival.

Poetry: The Lyric

Heine's last years in Paris (where he died of tuberculosis) were m early
instance of the state of exile experienced by so many modem Jewish po-
ets. Jewish poets, after all, were nut sons of the noktitity, like Pushkin, By-
ron, or Mickiewicz. At best, their fathers were small-tow11m e ~ h a r ~who ts
sometimes tmveled to the iJeipigfair. Few kvere the Jewish poets, m m -
over, who died in their native land, and those who stayed behind fin
Poland or the USSR) wem murdered. Poetic la~guagethemfore became
for mmy a surrogate home and homeland.
 Hehe" most enthusiastic reception was in America, where his English-
speaking adnrirers unveiled a monwent tru him in 3899. 'That is because a
new generation of Yiddish poets, all recent immigrants frown Eastern Eu-
rope, found themsehcs, like Heine, uprooted from home, whift. refusing
tru accept the previtiling spirit oi their n..w borne: sociafism and natiox~al-
ism at one extreme, materialism at the other. Even as they were importhg
the aesthetics and the music of ftussim Symbolism to Mddish verse, these
so-called Voungsters (Di yunge) leanled to mastclr the lyrical stanza by
transli-lling into Viddish Tfzr.Conzplete Works rrf H r i ~ r k hmini.(1918)-Two
of his gxatest admimrs, :Moyshe Nadir and Moyshe-kyb Halpem, ran a
joint colurn11 ~IIa Viddish satire magazine in which they alkmilted tltcir*
own poetry with their &ansIalions f m Hcine; the readers were irlvited
to guess bvhose was whose! The first self-consciously modernist work of
.American-Yiddish p0etl.y Halpem"s In N ~ EVOrk O (1919),was also the most
Heinesque. It portrayed thc. tormented inner life of an immig.t-aMthrough
disparate paerns of varying length and contrasting moods: an urban,
Wenticth-century counterpart to Heine's Ruch der ticdev.
Ihe first generation of Yicfdish poets tmly at home in Amrica were the
so-called Introspectivists, led by Jacob Glatstein. (18961971). New York
City was the ideal setting for their comopolitm worldview and for the
"'kaleidoscopic" vality of modern life that they wished to collvey in their
verse. Glatstein rendered "1919" as m apocalyptic mhdscape. The high
point of his modernism c m e in Yidishfaytsh~(3929-1936), an extravagant
celebration of ""Yiddish in M1 Its Meanings."' In respollse to Hitler ar~dthe
immiurent destruction of Polish Jewry, however, GXat-steindiscovered that
language was fate, and the particular fate of the Jews made of :him the
greatest national poet in trhe Yiddish lan;uag the heir of Hayyim Nah-
m m Bialik. Gtatstein" Gedelaklidcr (Memorial ms, 1943) is the first val-
ume of verse on the Holocaust to have been written in m y language. Like
Bialikc, Glatstein lrhe nonbeliever found a way of addrcl.ssil7g a di~niniskd
Go$, sometj.m,esthrough the persolla of Rabbi N&mm of Bratsiav. M e n
not assessing the fate of his ed language, Glatstein cast a satiric
glance at suhurhan Judaism
T'%e problem of fhding a homelmd was grel?lly exacerbitted for those
Yiddish poets who stayed behind in Europe. Yiddish folklore became the
surrogate homeland for Romanian-born Itsilc Manger (39(31-1969).
Mmger fell- so at hom,e in his ballads and Bible hcrlzs that he adopted the
freewheeling lifclstyle of a Yiddish troubadouln Expelled from Peland for
lack of a proper passport, Manger survi:ved the war in Lmdon, a l ~ dhe
never fwlfy recovered horn the loss of his \/iddish-speaking folk.
Abraham Sutzkever's search for a homeland led him in yet a third di-
rectiox~.Not New York, and not the reirnagil~edfolM~c.31 oi Yiddish-speaking
Jews, but the forests outside V i h a provided the very young Sufizkever
 ModernJewish Literature 247

with his "world of a thousand colors." Rather than free verse or folk-
verse, a profusion of rhymes ar~dmetrical schumes displayed t-he poetfs
krirtuasity Then c m e the Nazis, in 194%.With ghetto walls blocking all
access to naturc3, survival itself became a rrightmare ("How?"")And so the
poet cast about for new analogies, new meaning, new rhyme, -and he
hshioned an epic of "'The Lead Plates at the Item Press" being melted
down into bullets for the uprising to come. Fated to swvive the Holo-
caust, Sutzkever made his way to Palesti~~e in 1947, where he has trans-
lated the isreconcilables of natural beatrty and humm barbarity, of na-
tional desttuction m d mbirth, into tightly wrought :lyrics of extraorctinary
power. In a sequence of metaphysical Paemsfianz u Dinry (1974-19811,
Sutzkever brought together all the landscapes he ever Mabited, both in
this world, where Vjddish poetry is by very few, m$ in the world to
come, where;. the dead make up his; most loyal madership.
Russia, home to this century's gmatest Hebrew poets, was cruel to the
ones who stayed behind. Mayyim Censki (1905-19423) studied at the Me-
brew Teacher" Seminary in Vilna before settlilsg in Leningrad. By day he
worked at producing iron, by night-at writing &brew sonnets and dra-
matic ballads, Arrested in l934 for the latter c r h e , he spent most of his
=main@ years at hard labor in the Gtllag, where he perished. No vol-
u r n of Lens&%poetry has ever been published in his nati\re lar7.d. In Is-
rael he is considered a major voice of the posbBia1ik generation.
Even those Hebrew poets who escaped underwent a difficult &ansition
when they reached the Promised Land. 'That is because a new H&rew
culture had come into being that bvas militantly secular both in. substance
and in sound. The Ashkerrazi accent used in study and prayer by all Euro-
pean J e w was abmdoned in favor of the so-called Sephardic accent. Bia-
lik, who settled in Palestine in 1924, was never able to make the trmsi-
tion, and today his regular meters simply do not scm. Compare these
famous openhg lines writtm in strict trochaic tetrameters with the irreg-
ular way they are likely to be read by the average Israeli student:

(Tak me under.yorlr wing, / / Q be my motlter; my sister./

7izk my head to your breast, /my banished pmyt.us. to FEIT ~lrsf,)
Haklr nise 'mre ta 'hatkenafe'kh,
Va-hayc'e lee e ' m UP-U_~ZO 'I,
Ve-yek 'E heke 'klt mikla 't roshc 'F,
Ka 'lz-trfilota 'y hanidaho 't.
 The insistent hythm of the one gives way to the hesitmt rhythm of the
other. Meter and rhyme work together in ihe first and work a g a k t each
other the second. The ey m d oy sounds, so crucial. to the meanirrg of
this plaintive love song, disappear entirely in its Sephar$ic renderirng.
:It is therefore -all lrhe more astonishing to consider lfie poetic career of
Elialik" great contemporary, Saul Tchernichovsky (1875-1943): Not only
did he a ~ v ine Palestine at a latter age (Tchen~ichovslkyat 56; Bialik at 51)
and make the transition to the Sephardic acccmt, hut also he produced
some of his m;-\jorwurk irt the last years of his life. Perhaps thjs difference
has to do with the fact that Tchernichovsky was thoroughly at home in
Eur~geancdturt-. and drew his main inspiration from nature. The o d y
Hebrew literary past to r/vhich his early poetry alludes wieh any imagina-
tive richess is the Bible. The pagan world exercised a contintrhg fascina-
tion over Tchernichovsky,and his trmslations of the Iliad and Odyssey are
trhemselves considered classics. Me11 rtrspo~~dirng most directly tru the vi-
olence of the twentieth c m t ~ r yTchernicbovsb
~ chose the most demand-
ing neoclass-ical form, the sonnet corona-"To the Sun" "(1922) and "On
trhe Klaod""(1423)-as; he would later respond to the Holocaust using the
ballad. In these kvorks the poet tries to shore up his sense of beauty
against the moral. chaos around him with m artistric control that demmds
restrair~t,col~trol,a ~ balance.
d Abr&am Sutzkever would later follow in
Tchernicllzovsky's footsteps+
The Hebrew p o e t w h o succeeded Bialik m d Tchernichovsky arrived
in Palestine at a much earlier age and thus made easier tra~sitionto its
Hebrew idiom: Yehudah Amiehai. at twelcre, Avraham Shlonsky at thir-
teen, Natm Altermm at fifteen, Dm Ilagis at sixteen. Yonatam Ratosh was
the rare instmce of a European-born poet who already came speaking
moder11 Hebrew. He then \vent on to found the neo-Canaanite move-
ment, whose members tried to sever all cultural ties with the European
and, particularly, Eul-~pem-Jetvishpast.
A bona fide Israeli poetry as disthct from the Hebrew poetry of ""X-us-
sia m d I"alestineFfkonlyc m e into being after the War of Independerne.
Immediately recognized as the voice of the new state, German-born
Yeh~~dah Amichai. (b. 1924) made the theme of war central to his lyric
muse. By including even his father" pparticipation in World War 1,
Amichai crc?ated a continuity wieh t-he past. Ry stressing the eternal pres-
ence of war throughout: this century analogous to love, he has domesti-
cated the subject of death, stripped it of its xnythic-and political-signif-
icance. U ~ ~ l i kprior
e ge~lierationsof &brew poets, who drew their
inspiration from German and Russian poetry, Amichaj has adclpted the
conversational tone m d the understatement so wpical of Anglo-American
poetry. Though t-he actuai setting of his verse is Jerzlsalem, the ir017ic sen-
sibility is that of 'IJondonm d Berkeley.
 ModernJewish Literature 249

Not suryrisingly, it is women, once the guardians of the Jewish hearth

and h m e , who have given the most poignant voice to a sellse of home
and homelessness. American-Jewish poet Emma ZJazarus (1849-1887)
composed the lixles that greet every immigrmt to h e r i c a on its Statue of
Liberty:

. . . Gizv me your tired, ~ O Z ( Yp ~ ~ r !

Your ftuddled Imsses yearnz'lzg to breathefreeI
The wretched ref~lsr 9fy1711r teenziag s l z o ~ .
Send tlaese, the illc?meless, tempest.-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp besicdt. the GoldLtn door!

Ger~xan-Jewishpoet Else L,asker-SchGXer (1869-1945) considered her

Hcbraische Balladen (Hebrew Ballads, 1913) to have contributed ta the
buildi~lgof Palestine. Kadya Molodowsky's cycle of "Wornern% Songs"
(1924) exambed the madern legacy of the Biblical Matriarchs; her chil-
dren's vase turned the Warsaw s l m s into a place of everyday miracles.
In Erd (Earth, 1928), Rskhl Korn (1898-1982) reclaimed Galicia as the
home of love, labar, and longing for both Jew and Gentile, Casting a
harsher light on both the anrimt and the more recent past was American-
Yiddish poet h11a Mitrgolin (1887-1952). It was in the face of Nazism
that Nelly Sachs (1891-49m) returned to her Jewish roots, even as she bvas
forced to flee from Germany. From her Swedish exile Sachs eulogized her
people Israel, of vvhom there remained o d y the sar~dof their plur~dered
shoes, now mingled with, the sands of the S.inai. Sachs bvas awarded the
Nohel Prize for Literature in 1966 along with S. \I/, Agnon.
Israeli women poets, like their male counterparts, are less likely to
touch on historical.themes..Lea Goldberg (1941-1970) returned ta the son-
net. Zelda (1914-1984) was a contemplative poet who drew directly from.
the rabbinic and Hasidic imagery of her orthodox upbringing. D&
Ravikovitch (b. 19361, in contrast, combhed a sexually explicit thematies
with clements of pure fantasy IVIore often than not, the speaker in
RaviksvitcWs poems is homeless within her own body,

Jewish Drama and the Search for a Vszlble Past

Jewish cdture has yet to produce a major dramatist. There is as yet no
Jewish Ili>sen,Stril-tdberg, or Che:khov. Rather, the cult~lrailegacy of t-he
Jewish drama lies in its having greatly expanded the f m d of Jewish col-
lective memory That is all the mortr significant given the extreme paucity
of historical novels on Jewish tltcmes. Jewish readers who hunger for a
broad ihislorical canvas must turn to Tolstoy, For portraits of f m o u s men
they must read Lion Feucht-Lvmger (a Germm Jew) on Nero or Napoleon
M o l e miilennia of Jewish history main untapped by writers of prose
fiction or by poets.
This problem became the more acute with the rise of nationalism
trhroughwt Europe, when fhe Jews were suddenly thrust into competing
for national legitimacy. To qualify as a nation, the Jewish intellectuals un-
derstood, the Jews would wed not o n k a bona fide folklore and high lit-
erary art, but also a full-blown, secular history And so, with their wives
dutifully serving them tea, the Qdessa Circle 05: Sirnon Dubnow,
Mordechai Ben-Ami, and h a d Hakm convened in the salon of Sholem-
Yankev Abramovitsh to prevail upan the crolchety old ge~~tleman to fi-
nally write his memoirs.
"Our people have no memory of past experience," says the anonymous
gue" who espouses Dubnow%posjlion:

and even events in our ctwn times disappear into oblivion Xike a dream.
Many things have happened in our lifetime that have nctt been recorded in
any book only because of the fc~olishbelief held by many people that nobody
but the historians of the next generation can properly ascertain the true facts
and form a correct and balanced picture. By- that time, many of the events of
our age will have been forgotten. (from the ""ftrsduction" to taSfllnytne Xeb
Klli-tyiy~gs,CIF LZygr:~rwDays)

But "Reb Shloyme" (Le., Abramovitsh) c m give as good as he gets. In

his lengthy and acerbic rebuttal, he sholvs the absurdity of holding trp
Jewish corporate existence in Russia-Po1md to Western criteria:

None of us ever did anything to set the world on fire. Dukes, govemnors, gen-
erals, and soldiers we were not; we had no romantic attachments with lovely
princesses; we didn? t g h t duels, nor did we even serve as witnesses, watch-
ing other men spilZ their blood; we didn't dance the quadrille at balls; we
didn" hunt wild animals in it-re fields and forests; we didn? make voyages of
diwavery tt3 the ends of the earth; we carried on with no actresses or prima
donnas; we didn't celebrate in a lavish way. In short, we were completely
lacking in all those colorful details that grace a story and whet the reader8s
appetite."

Devoid of politkal hit;tory hereft of individual acts of heroism or treason,

all the Jews couid off-er was an unbroken and utterly banal record of col-
lective suffering.
Three schools of historical thought developed out of this debate, The
first, represented by Abramovitsh and Sholern Aleichem, asserted that
mly social history was worth recordjng, not the nonsense of legends,
 ModernJewish Literature 251

fairy tales, and sentimental romances. The historical record of how the
Jewish family a " ~cornunity
d collapsed or were severely challeqed in
the face of modernity was the stuff of the ~ d i s t i c"Jewish novcl,'kfrzich
they had introduced, The second school went back to Abraham Gold-
fade11 (1840-1908), the father of the moden~Yiddish theater. Goldfaden
divided his repertory clean down the middle betkveen satires set in. the
here-and-now and historical melodramas set in the time of Bar Mohba
and trhe biblicai Shulamit. Almost sin@-ha~~dedly, Goldiade~~ created a
Jewish heroes"a1lery closely aliped with ""dukes, governors, generals,
or soldiers'kor who othewise performed deeds of true historical import
and engaged in '2omar.rtic attachments.'" Goldfden" heirs were soon to
(re)discowr the. heroic saga of the Ger Tsede:k, Comt Valentin Potocki,
who was burned at the stake far having converted to Judaism; the
tragedy of facoh Frank, the Pdish Jew who clahed to be the Messiiilh;
and most suggestive of all, the marriage of King Kazimir the Gwat to his
Jewish consort, Esterke.
The third school owed its existence to Nietzsche and celebrated the vi-
sionary leaders who transcended historical exige~~cy Bnd that is bow the
rabbis and mystics, who had led their flock for close to two thousand
years but had been shunted aside by the cultural revolution, were finally
brought back to center stage.
Early Hasidism served the poet and playwright I. 2,. Peretz (1852-1925)
as the b r e e h g ground for a true spiritual leader who could hasten the
mille~~~~iurrrby severing the bonds of historical determinism, Enter R&
Shloyme, the mast famous zaddik in the mnals of Yiddish literature, the
first: and most vital link in Dig o l d e ~ ekeyt (The Golden Chain.) of Jewish
messianic struggle.
Reb Shloyme desires nothing less than the abrogation of Time. Calling
for a race of spiritual giants, much as the reclusive Menabern-Mendl of
Kotsk (47t7;7--1859)had cried out for "ten m m of truth,'" Reb lihloyme's ec-
static vision of shahE7c.s-ymfefdik~yid~z(observant Jews) who w d d hrce
God's hand by ushering in the mssianic Sahbath is doomed from the
start. Each of his succesors li:kcewiseattempts a reversal of the nahtral or-
der and faces defeat with* his olvn Hasidic court, but for sheer poetic
and psychological force, none can match Reb Shlo~irne"defiance of his-
tory itself.
me physical. destruction of the Hasidie heartland in World War I fol-
lowed by the Bolshevik seizure of power suggested, the need for a more
dramatic plot to eyewibess a d cl-rronicler S. h - s k i . An-ski's Betrueelz
Rue Worlds, or The I)ybbnk (1917) depicted the Jecvjsh spirit strugding to
mainhisl itself agaislst forces of oveqowering des&uction. Thus, in each
of the play% four acts, there is one figure who tries to rrtconcile This
World with the Next: n o n o n , the young kabbalist; Leah, his predestined
bride; Reb Azrklke, the za.ddik of Mimpolye; and the town rabbi, Reb
Shimsho~~. The play ends tragic* for all concerned.
h - s k i had intencded The Dybbzrk to provide generalions of Russim au-
diences with a window on the Jewish past. It was to have p ~ m i e r e din
the Moscow Art Theater-where Stanislawski had an active hand in
shaping the script. Instead, An-ski had to Bee for his life across thc Soviet-
Polish border, and Tjze Bybbrrk became the single most popular play in the
Yiddish &eater. An-ski, a pioneer of Jewish e t h g r a p h y , embellished his
plot nf star-cmssed lovers with manilold layers of Masidi,~m d East Euro-
pean Jewish lore. As a ~ s u l tthe
, play has challenged costme d a i p e r s
to learn how trhe Jews of Eastern Europe once dressed. it has inspired
choreographers to learn hOw they may have damed. It has taughl direc-
tms hokv they spoke, prayed, and told stories. h d it has shown actors
how m n behaved in the company of other men as opposed to how they
behaved in the company of wornell; differe~~tly at stucly and on the s t ~ e t ;
differently durhg the workaday week and at wedding celebrations. Most
exacting of all, An-ski's '"dramatic legendF'taught a few exceptionally tal-
ented actresses how to project their voice when possessed of an evil male
spirit, oar dybbuk.
Whereas Tke Dybbzlk has become a classical guide to the semiotics of
East European fc.wishculture, H. teivickfs The Gokm (1920) used Jewish
fiistnricd legend as m allegorical cloak for the major upheaval of the
Wentjcth century: t%ie Bolshevik Revolution. Through the historical per-
sonage of ihe great Maharal, Rabbi Jud& Lowe ben Bezaiel(1525-1609),
who fashioned a clay figure to protect his people from imminent harm,
Lei:vick explored what happens when brute force is unleashed in the ser-
vice of spiritual, messiizr~ic,ends. What happens is &at the Gojem turns
agahst thc. Jews of Prague-A verse d m m of enorlxous power, The 1;olem
was unfortunattzly beyond the physical m a n s of the Mddish theater and
was m s t successfully staged in Polish translatio~~ (1928).
m e importmt role played by Jewish historical drama in the process of
nation building c m be seen most clearly in the case of the Hcbrew stage,
The premiere production of lrhe Habimah Theater, founded Moscow
was Tile DybbufC, in a masterful translation by Hialik (1922). m e expres-
sionist staging of the play by the Armenian director Vakhtmgov turned
trhe play into a revolutio~~ary protest against ihe co~~straints of bowgeois
societ.y, Meanwhile, in Palestine, a group of young pioneers staged the
play in the stone quarry where they worked. h e of their nurnber had
just committcld suicide, and it was hoped that the playfs performance
would help exorcise the demon of his death. Cln the occasion of the
Habimah production in Palestjne in 1926, howevex; TFze Dyhhuk was
"sought to trial" by leadhg members of the Zionist intelligentsia and
"convicted" of being a pastiche of ""legendary; realistic and symbolist ele-
 ModernJewish Literature 253

ments." Yet the jury was forced to admit the play" tremendous audience
appeal and expressed the hope that "'the new life in the Land of Israel""
and the awakening of a Hebrekv sclcular culture would somedq do the
same. That day lay far in the fuhre: The Habimah" second most popular
production was Leivick" Tke Galem.
As long as Zionism was viewed as a national liberation movement, the
Hebrew theater =read the struggle for the Land and for politiclal saver-
eig1"tvin the light of Jewish synlbols and historicai themes. Wi6h the kVar
O( hdependence, the fledgling state finaliy had a contemporary theme
worthy of the stage, and the native-born playwri@ts Moshe Shamir and
Yigd N o s m m t u r x d that 2710oEJY conffict into Ziol7ist melodramas.
Soon thereafter a disenchanme~~t with Zio~~isnrt.
and the state set in, rein-
forced by postwar European trends such as the Theater of the Absurd.
When Israeli playwrights, who now favor a minimalist stage design and
ordinary dialogue, turn to historical t-ltemes, they do so in the name of
leftist poijtics.
In its militmt secularism, Israeli drama contrjhutes to the deep split be-
trtvee1"t the religious and secufar, The portrayal of rabbis ranges fmm the
laughable to the grolesque, Outside of Israel, where Jewish flays are
staged mostly for reasons of nostalgia, the porkayal of the past can like-
wise produce comical results, In 1993, I. &. Singer's The Itilqkilln of Lublin
was adapted into a musical on the Warsaw stage. The Polish actor chosen
to play the rabbi sbdied for his part by attmding performances at the
state-run Uicfdish theater (a legacy of the Co =list regime). There he
saw the veteran mernber of the troupe, a m m in his eighties, m v i n g in a
sh.mge mianner, Havjng never seen a rabbi in the flesh, his Polish under-
study co~~cluded that a rabbi alczrays shuffled when he waiked. h d that
is how a Xddish actor's infirmity became enshrined in the Polish theater!

A Literature in Translation and Transition

Modern Jewish literature, born to explain the Jews to the world and the
world to the Jews, has nolv moved far beyond its origixlal mandates..It is
international and multiiingual in scope, and thmks to the rapid pace of
translation, anyone can eavesdrop on this 1"tewform of Jcwish discourse.
Even writers who write only in Hebrew do so with an eye to their transla-
tors, and it is not uncomunm Eor a Hebrew novel to appear in English be-
fore beillg pubiist-red in the original. Some writers, of course, translate
more readily than others. h a r a n Appelfeld" spare Hebrew style loses
next to nothing in trmslation. Avon's richly allusive style loses almost
evef.yt:hing. Amichai" poetics travel much more easily than do Sutz-
kever's. I. B. Singer has a much larger following irt Polish and Italian than
he does in either Mddish or l-licbrw.Whereas once upon a tirne, a person
had to master a rig~roufl~udaic cul-ricufum in order to decipher the main
works of the canon-the Rihle, m?idrashim, piyyzrf, the Bahy Ionian and
Palestinian Talmuds, the commentaries and ~sponsa-today the main in-
terpretive tools for a proper undwtanding of Jewish literaturr;. are the
s m e as for the stzldy af any other literature: bibliography; biography, his-
tory, aesthetics, stylistics, folklore, philosophy, psychology, and literary
history. As Hehe said, ""S oie ecs christelt zich, so jiidelt zich" (As it is
among the Christims, so it is among the Jews).
h d yet. The ability of so many Jewish writers to straddle m r e than
one cufture; tlte unbroken bond betuieen Jcwish religio~~ m d natio~~hood;
trhe rebirth of the H e b ~ w lmguage and the rc-ltum of a dispersed people
to its limd; the vast and tmprecedented array of possible Jewish identities;
the coexistence of traditional and modern, sacred and secular forms of
Jewish self-expression;a ~ the d stubborn refusal of Jews to he &fined out
of their particular existence-all this and morcj have given rise to a mad-
em literature worthy of a people whom Muhammad called the People of
the Book,

Notes
1.Ruth Wisse, ed,, A Stefl n~zdOther Yiddish No~~elEas,
trans. 13. l? Sclheindlin (De-
troit: Wayne State University Press, 1986).

Suggested Readings
Alter, Rc~bert.After file Tradition: Essays on Modenz Jcruislz Wz'tl'ng.New York: Dut-
tan, 197'3.
Niron, Dan. A Ramler Disguised: The Rise f:)f Viddisfz Ficfio~zin file Nineteenffi Cen-
tury, 2nd ed. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. 1996.
Roskies, David G. A Bridge of Lorzging: Tfze Cost Art of Yiddish SforyteEfing. Cam-
bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995.
Sandraw, Nahma, Vngahrid Stars: A Wodd History of flte Yiddish Tlite~fer~ 2nd ed,
Syracuse: Syracuse tiniversiv Press. 1996.
Wirth-Nesher, E-fana, ed. W f ~ aIst fczukh Litemtz-rre? 13hil;zdelghia:Jewish Publica-
tion %?ciety,1994.
Zinberg, Israel. Histoy of lewislz Liferature, 12 vols. 'Eans, 8E ed. Bernarb Martin.
Cteveland and New York: Ktav Publishing House. 1972-1978.
 About the Editors
and Contributors

Aibert f, Ifaurngaxten is professor in the Department of Jewish his tor^^", Bar Itan
University, Ramat Gan, Israel, where he is also the director of the jacob Taubes
Ninerrva Center far Religious Anthropology He specializes in the history of the
Second Temple Period, as welt as in the times of the Mishnah and hfmud. His
most =cent books include: The Flozrrishi??gqf Jewish Secfs in flze Maccabca.nlz Em
(1997) and Se$ Soul attd Body is2 Religious E,rpcrz"L.~zce
(19981, which he ccledited with
J. Assmann and G. Straurnsa.

Robert Chazirn is the Scheuer Prclfessor ctf Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New
Yc~rkUniversity; H i s most recent books are Barcelona alzd Beyafzd (1992), In the Ymv
1096 . . . :The First Crusadr n~zdthe Jews (1996), and iGlediez2al Stereotypes n~zdiG1oden.z
Atatisetnitisnr (1997). Prof. Chazan serves currently as president of the American
Academy for Jewish Research,

Shaye J, D. Cohen is Ungerfeider Professor of Judaic Studies at Brown University

and director of the Judaic Studies program there. He is author ctf Josqfztls in Gafilec
and Xonzc and Fro.otn Maccabecs to Mishnnh as welt as editor of a number of scholarly
volumes,

David E. Fishman is associate professor ctf Jewish history at the Jewish Theofogi-
eaf Sxninaxy (JTS) and wnior research associate at the VIVO Institute for Jewish
&search, He is coeditor of this volume and author of XussiaS First Modern J e m ,
Diunensions of Yiddisi"~ Culfui.e, and other studies on the history and culture of East
European Jews. In additic~n,Fishman is editor-in-chief of Yi270 Bkeli-er and director
ctf Project Judaica, a joint program of the Russian State University for the Human-
i ties, Moscow with JTS and UIVO.

Zvi SiteXman is professor of political science and Preston R. Tisch Professor of Ju-
daic Studies at the Universiq ctf Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he is also director of
the Frankel Center for Judalc:Studies. He is the author, editcir; or a>editorof nine
books and more than eighty articles in scholarly journals. The most recent work is
Bitter kgacy: Go%jrutztingtlre Holomust in the Sovief Union (1997).
256 About the Editors and Contributors

Warren Zev Harvey is professor of medieval Jewish philosc~ghyat the

University of Jerusalem. He is author of easdni GrescasTritiqlne of file Tlzeofy ofAc-
qzrired Ir~telkctand is a frequent contributor to scholarly journals,

Ora Horn Prouser is visiting assistant professor of Bible at the Jewish Theological
Sminary She is author of Tl~ePlzenornenol~gy(f:?f^llzeLie irz Biblical Teaching and is a
regular cctntributor to scholarly journals ctn such topics as literary approaches to
biblical study and feminism and gender issues.

David S. Roskies is professclr of Jewish literature at the Jewish Theological Semi-

nary. He is author of two books on Jewish responxs ta catastrophe-Against the
Apocalypse (1984) and The Literature of Destracfio;~" (1989)-and two ctn the return to
ft3lklore in modern Jewish culture: A Dybbuk and Qfher Writings by $. A~zsky(1492)
and A Bridge of tozzgi~tg:The Lost Art of Viddblz Stor:/tellilzg (1995). His latest book,
The 1ewiss.l~Se~rclitfornUsable Past, was published in 1999. Roskies is cofounder and
editor of Prooftcxts: A jour~zaloflezukll Literary Hktory, established in 1983.

R a p o n d f?, Scheindlin is professor of medieval Hebrew literature at the Jewish

Theological Sminary He is authcsr of many book, including 201 Arabic Verbs, A
Short History of the Jewislz People, and Wine, Wonzen a t ~ dLfmks.l~.

Burton L. Visotzky holds the Appleman Chair of Midrash and Interreligious

Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He is coeditor of this volumrs and au-
thor of many scholarly articles and books, including Reading flze Book, The Cefzesis
of Ett~ics,and The Road to Redcmyt.ior.~,
 Index

Anroll, 13 Aleichern, Shctlem, 234,235,236,238-239,

Abnkurnovn, h i s n , 223 250
Abbasid Empire; 133,138,145 Alexander the Great (king of Macedon), 37,
Abel, 12,13 142
Abraf-mxrr, 12,15,17, M,144,145 Alexander Ja~r~raezus (Hasmoxrean king), 57
Abrailnm bar eiyyii, 150 Alexander Romnr~ce,142, 145
Abraf-mm ben Bavid, 154 Alexander X I (czar of Russia), 190
Abramovitsl~Sholern Yaaki~v,190,233,2,34, Alexnnctria (Egypt), 61-62
236,238,250 Alfarabi, 168
Abravditel, Judnh, 165 Al-Fasi, lsaac ben Jncnb, 97,911
Abrc~gationcjf vows, law of, 51 Alfctnso X (El Sabio], 158
Abuiafia, Meir, 158 Algazati (Riluslim mystic), 171
Acrosticsf 129,237,143 Al-eariri, 155, 158
Adarn nrtd Eve, 10, 30, 176 Al-earizi, f udah, 135,154, 156,158, 160, 162
Aesop, 86,145 Alive, t k Son ofAri?ake(Abmf-mmIbn Ezm),
Agc~insfApian ffosephns), 49 153
Aggadic midrashim, 74,78,79,98--10Q Aliyah, 198
A ~ ~ o r a iXe,%,92 Al-fubhni, 168
Aggac3ic kraciliticm, 73, 81, 82, 96, 133 Afmohads, 114,154,156,165
Agnsn, Shmuef Yc>r;eE,235,239,240,2113, AIphaCllrhct O ~ B CSir@,
I Z T ~ (anon,),
c 140
249,253 Alteri~~an, Natax~,248
Agricuitrtre, 108, 120,184, 191, 198,208,214 Amalekites, 21
in Soviet Union, 21&220 Amaziah, 23
Agrippa I (Roman statesrnai~),62 American Jewish Committee, 206
Agro-Joint ODC), 219 A~nedcanJewish Joint Plistributim
Agron (Saadia), 137 Committee, 219,225
Agudat Visraef, 200 A~neAcanZionist Federa tior~,197
Ahdd Halam, 191 Amiclw i, Yehtldah, 248,253
Ahai Gaon cjf Shavha, Rabbi, 91,133 A~nittaiben Sl~efatia,141
Alzas1.e~King, 245 Amoraie literat-tire, 79-10Ct, 128
Ahixm'az b. Paltiel, 142 Anroruim, 80
Aktziolten, 203 Amos, 23
Al-Asliari, 168 Anan (Karaite leader), 110
Albert the Great {Christian philosopher), Aitaitias, M, 65
I 74 AllatoXi, Jacob, 160
Anav, Benjamin, 162 in poetic meter, 247-248
A~~dafusian Jewry 143,146,154,154,160,162 Assimilation
Anielewics, Mordechai, 203 in Eumpe, 184,186,201
Ar~imalfables, 145,156 in SclfvietUnion, 184, 211,213,215-216,
An-ski, S., 237,251-251 217-218
Ar~tiochus111,4344 See .eulso Ecc~ixomicit~teraction;f~~teilectual
Antiochus W, 44,50 i~~teractioxr
Alltipater the Id~~rnean of Herod), 58
ffati~er Assyrians, 23,28
Rt?tiquiti~s of flze Jews Uosephus), 48,49,51, At t?zr Depot (Rrtlnt zrogmli (RergeXson), 240
GO Ausclnwitz dent11 cnmp, 203
Anti-%xrrritis~r~, 14--15,49 Austria, 183, 184, 187
in Easterrz Euri2pe, 200,221 Autobiography, mocleriz, 236-238
in France, 191 Atricenna (Islamic philosopher), 153, 173
in Germany, 1%,2111-202 'Avoda, ki-tvsdt,132,142
in R~~ssia/Soviet Ux~ior~,
225-227,228, Azlol delZabbi Natltarr, 90
229-230
in U.S., 197-198 Babel, Tsaac, 212
Apocalypse, 91 "Babi Yar" "e~rturjhenki~),223
Appelfdd, Aharon, 243,253 Babi Yar exemtians, 202-203,223,224
'Aqedol, 144 Babylonim exile, 13,16,23,25-26
Aqiba, Rabbi, 75,77,78,79,87,92 Babylonian Sewis11 coxrrxnunity,39,881,91,
Acluiln (proseiyte), 92 96,133,134
Aquinas, nornas, 174 Babytanian TaXmud, 80,81-83,90,99,110,
Arabic language, f ewish use of, 111,136 134,16&169,235
in Geonic period, 135, 136, 137, 138,139, Baghdacl, 110,133,167
167 Balforu; Sir Jnmes, 195
in Islamic Spain, 97 Balfour Dwlaration (1917), 195,198
in ftaly, 143 Ballads, 244,246,247,248
in Spain, 97,171,174 Banking, in Europe, 182, 287,188
venmcutal; 149,157 Baixr~urj(desert:hermit), 49
Arabic literary innuence Bargitctt, 80
on Ashke~xazicwrites, 144 Bar Kokhba Retroll(132-135 C.E.), %,72, XI
in Christian Spair~,155, 156, 157-158, 163, Battle of t k Pen utrd the Scissors, The
164,165 ffji~emtnv hen Ardutiel), 164
in Geonic pel"iod, 136-137,138-139 Bavti. See Talmud Bavli
in f slnmic Spain, 144-1541, 151, 152,154, Bedersi, Abmhnm, 160-161
156,1Mf 165 Behavior, Sclp Moral behnvior
in ftaly, 162 Beilis, Mendel, 192,210
in Provex~ce,160, 161 Befarus (Belorussia),19U, 208,216,218,219,
Aramaic lnnguage, 91,92,93,95,133,159 222
'Arltn'alz Ennz (Jacclb), 96 Bellowf Saul, 239,241-242
Argentitla, 193 Beizek death canzp, 2113,204
Arist~fbulus(Hasmor~ean),57,58 Bell-Ami, Mordechal', 2%
Aristotle, 158, 171, 175,176 Ben Asher (Mamrete), 138
Asch, ShoXem, 240 Be~~edictions, Byzanti~~e Palestixxian,
Asher bet1 Juldtlh (Solomon h. Saqbel), 155 128-129,1311-231,132
Asher ben Ye11iel (RoSH), Rabbi, 97,98 Be11 Guric311, Bavid, 198, 204,205,206
Ashkenaz, 140,144 Belljamin, 22
Ashkenazic Pietisks, 1140, 143,144, 154, 140 Brn Koltelt.t (Samuel the Nagid), 150
Ashkenazic rite, 95, 134, 141, 142, 143 Ben Meir, Rabbi, 138
Ashkenazic tradition, 97,98, 119,122-122, Brn Misltle (Samuel the Nagicil), 150
144,161,185 Ben Sirzr, 4143,45,47, 140, 145
Re~lTehilint (Saxnttel the Nagid), 150 Brancleis, Lorxis, 197
Be~tvenist,Vidal, 164 Bridal Cat?upy,Tlte (I.kiznr.6snt k l a h )
Berbers. Sm Almohads (Apon), 240
Berdyszewski, iMicah Usef, 239 Brit Slzalorn, l99
Rereshit Xubb~ztz',99 Bmtj?ers Aqhketrazi, Tlze (Di brdpr Aqhketrazi)
Bergelson, Dovici, 225,239,24ti (Singer), 241
Rericha, 204 Bt~ber,Marti~~, 201
Bcsftzedrcslt, 239 Buddha, 156
Besriarabia, 221 Btlkovina, 199,221
Bcl Izukctzessct, 72 Bund, 194,2f~0,210-211,212,214
Bet midmsh, 72 Bt~sirress.fee Econo~nicix~teraction
Bci Yosej"(Cam), 98 Buwa yhid period (Iran), 138
Biaiik, Hayyim Nalman, 235,243,244,245, By Crit~zesatrd Lies (Prestuyski~rzimi
246,247,252 Obtnarznm), 228
Bible. SWHebrew Bible; Torah. Byzantix~eExnpire, literature of, 127-133,
Bib/<.hmzs (Manger), 246 141-143
Bicken~xnn,E.J., 44
Bitingunlism, $(v 2ansiations Caesnren, 50, 65
Biz~alt,179 Cnhnn, Abraham, 234,237
Birkot Hnsltachar; 94 Cai~z,12, 13
Birobidzhar~,219-220 Cairo Ceniza f r a p e n t s , 91,92, 108
BirclhldzIu~ncrShter~z,225 Calei~dar(Saaclia), 138
Bismarck, Otto vom, 188 Cnligula (Rorrrnn emperor), 49,61
Black Book, Tk*, 223 Canann, 19-20
Black Hundreds (organization), 192 Cnnnda, l92
Black Plague, 143 Cantonist episode (R~~ssia), 209
Black k a r s f 19413-1452), 225226 Cnro, Jowph, 98
Blaustei~t,David, 206 Catherine l1 (empress of Russia), 189
Bloocl rituals, 124, 192,210 Cat4tion, Zionisnt! (Ostorozi'Ftrof,228
BEuc Mounfain, TIE (Romarz russi) (Shalev), Chagnll, Marc, 235
241 Chefmno death. camp, 203
Bodily nctivitim, biessi~tgsfor, 94 Chemerisky Aklexiinder; 220
Boerr~e,ttrdwig, 187 Child murder, Sclp Btoocli rituals
Bolshevism, Bolsheviks, 211-213,222,223. Chmieinicky massacres, 244
Set*also Erps~ktsii ChAstr'an gospels, 47,61, See also itldl'z~iti~i~l
Bonnfed, SRlomon, 164 gospejs
Rook of Betz'cfs latzd Qpi~lz'atrs,Thc (Saadia), ChAstiax~ity,early, 51-52
138,160,167,168,169-171 Christian rule, 103-3ll4, 105, 112-113, 124
Rook of fjze Cont~mt~dnretrts (Maimc~nides), in northern Europe, 114,120,121,122,
174 123,124,125126,182
Rook of Deeds (SC7fbr I w - ~ Y u I ' u s(Apon),
~~) 243 in Spain, 11>124,115, 116-117,118,155,
Book ~$*Uclig,:llt, The (Ibtz Zabnm), 155, 156 163, 165
Rook ofDiscussiun and Deblate, "X'lte(Moses Sclp also Conversion; New Christians

fbn Ezril), l52 Chrtrchill, Wiixqton, 1913

Rook of the Ft>stiz?als(Saadia), 138
Book ~$*tlreGarden, TIzc (Ambic tmnlise), 152
Rook of the Pious, Tlie otxdah the Piotls), 144
Book ~$*PrijofandLlcmot2stration in Dgerzse of
the Despistid P~iioplet,The (t-latevy), 153,
171-174
Rook o f f pletzhr (Moses d e Leon), 159
Borc~khov,Ber, 194
Church-synagngte dialogue, 87
Cicerc? f Roman statesman), 168
Cira~rncisicm,52, 186
Citizenship, 185,201
"City of Slaughter" (Biaiik), 245
Civil dghts, 186,200. See also Jewish
em and patio)^^; Jewish E~tlightenrrrent
Class slnxggle, 63-f", 209
Claudius (Roman emperor), 62 Dead Sea Scrttll sect, 47,452, 55(1,52,
Clemont-Tonnerre, SlaitisIas de, 185 Den& camps, 203,224
Deal11 squads, 202,203, 21gt 222,223
De fa Caballel-ia family, 1164
Cainmiissariat for Jewish Affairs (Soviet De Lcctn, Moses, 159,178-1 80
Unii)~~), 212, 213 Umgsh, 33
Camnuxnal self-government, SWSelf- Der Mister, 241,242-a3
goverlme~tt Ueslrztctiu~zc?f C;aiicia ("Tje (E=hurhtzGalitsye)
Cainm~inistParty (Soviet Unio-rz) (An-ski),237
f ewislr sectioi.rs of, 212-21 3 Deutero-Isaiah, 16,28
programs of, 21S220 Det~teronomy,19, % , , 77,78,94, 164
ComyleEc Works of Heitlrich Hcine, Thp Ueuteroizo~zyf(lnbbnh, 99
(Yicltlifih translation), 246 Det~tscher,Isaac, 211
Coltcentration camps, 203,224 Uhinrmi gec>pies,107-108
""Cct~zgregatton of Singers, The" (poets' Diaspora, 59
club), 164 Diaspora Rcrvoit (115-117 C.E.), 54,72
Carwewative Jtrtilaisrn, 1%-187, 147 Dictiomaries, 137, 147,167
Col%titul-it~~ral Democratic Party (Russia), Dietary law, 551,52,186
194 Diez MacXto, Alejandro, 93
""Co~ttemplation of the World" [Peltini), 161 Dimaitshtniit, %men, 212, 220
Calzversion, 103,153, 171 Di Mansi (poet), 162
in Germany, 186,188 Dispiaced persorzs, after WW 11,204
in Russia, 189,209,211 Biz~ineCotfredy (Dante), 162
in Spain, 115-115,1&3,1M,165, 183 U R L ~159~~Z,
SWalso New7 Cl~ristians Dc.ctors Plot (1952), 225,226
Cosmopolitans, 225 Uoikayl",194
Caul-tiers, Court Jews, 123,182 Dunnofo, Shabetai, 141
in Spain, 114-115,146,147,149-150, 163 Drama, 249-253
Caverzant o f Peace (Zirjrzist), 199 Bmsh, 87
Crafts, 184, 218. See also Ecrmamic: Dress requirements, 124,184,201
i~zteraction DreyfEts, Atfrec3, 291.
Crassus (Roman goventor), 60 Dt~bnow,Sirnon, 194,250
Creation, t 0-12,82, "L2, 179 h n a s h ben Labmt, 247-148
Crbmieux, AdoIpl~e,187 Uybhzsk, Thc (An-ski), 251-252
Crii~zen,218, 219, 225
Crc>mweil,Oliver; 182 Earth {Kom),249
Crucifixicm of Jesus, 121,122 Ebreo, Leorze, f 65
C r ~ ~ s a d122,132,143,1311,161
es Ecclesiastes, Books of, 31,32,3&41,150, 162
Cultural Integraticm. See IztteflectuaX Ecclcsiasfes liiabbah, K8
iltteraclioit; Lirzguistic integratim Ecclesiasticus, 4143
Cutturaf reizetval, in i~moderxlliterature, 235, Economic interaction, 196
243,244 in r~orthemEurope, 105, 119-120,122,
Gyms (king of Persia), 37 123,124--125,182,184, 187
Czerrtiakc~w;Adam, 203 in R~lssiaiSovietUnion, 192,218-220
in Spailk 1114-115,116,117
Daniel, 93 See dso Bnnkmg; Moneylending
Dante, Alighieri, 162 Eden, Alztl~cmy,204
Dapiera, Mesl-ruflam, 157-1 58,164 Eden, Garden of, 10, 30, 176
Dapiera, Soloi~zorz,164 Educatiom. See Rabbinic academies; Schools
Daii, Moses, 194 Egypt, 15-16,45,49,91,154,174
David, 12,13, 17, 22-22,150 Ehrenburg, Ilya, 223,225
Dead Sea Scrt>lls,51, 79,83 Eicjtini~I;labl3~zh,88
Eight Chapters ((Maixnonides),176
Eighteen Benedictions, 94
Eilzigk~it(newspaper), 224
Einsufzlqru;~pmz,202,203,219,222,223 Family, in literature, 241-242,251
Eleazar, 64 Family Maslzf7er (1)i P Y I I ' S J Z ~ O ~ ZMas!zl?er)
~P (Der
Elenzer b. Jncnb, 1% Nister), 241
EU1ana1-t~143 Family Moshkut, Tlze (Difiz~~tilye Muslzkut)
Eliezer ben E-Lyrmnus,90 f Singer), 24 1
Eliaer ben Judah Rabbi, 144 Fareynigte Uewish socialist party), 212
Eliezer b. Natan, 19.2 Fascism, 221,223,227
Elizabeth (empress of Russia), 189 Fascism Ut~derthe Blue S f ~(Fashiztyt r pod
Elohist texts, 3.4 Goluboi Zz~ezduil,228
El Tmnsito Syl-tagagne,163 Father, reverence for; 42
Emrs (newspaper), 225 Faylastg; 138
England, 116,119, 123,125,182,183,192, Feffer, ltsik, 224,225
195 Feminist study, of' Hebrew Bible, 11,35
and Palestine, 198-19, 2111,204,2135 Fiction, 238-243
durhxg WW 11,204 Fig leaf, 176
Enlightenxrrent, 18S184 Final sojution, of Nazis, 203-2019
En SoJI178 Fisthoff, Adc~lph,187
Ephraim of Bom-tt 144 Fishdir the Larne CFishke elP krumer)
Epifonzcqf ?IllreHalakhic Decisious of lkbbi fAbrdmovitsl-r),238
Asher (Rabbi Asher), 97 FIorus (Roxnan prc~curator),64
Equ;llity. Sce Jewish Emdintipation Folklore, 74,86,88,140,145,235,242,246
Esau, P2,lil Fotkspartei, far Jewish.r-tationalautonorrry,
Essenes, 49,50,53 194
Esther, 32,33,145 Foxnin, EArn Moiseevich, 223
Esllrer linbbalt, 89 Four Ijillars uncob),48
Estonia, 221,223, 224 h x Fables, Tlrf (Harmqcian), 145
Et.hicnl belnavior: See Moral behirvior Fmince
Ethical Monotheisxn, 1% literature of, 159-161
Ethics fSpi-rzoznf,1% in Middle Agm, 116,119,123,125,1611
Eutuw. Sec Qasida 18th-19th C.,184--185,187,188,191
Evin~lcunfere~nce(Fmnce), 201 20tl-t c,, 142, 2113
Evkoxn (Je~rish Cox~nmissariat),213 Frankel, Rabbi Zacharias, 186
Evreisknya Kc>mmurtislichesknynPartiya, Fmnk, Jncob, 231
213 French Revolution (1789), 184185
Ei.?stvktsii(Communist Party), 212-213 Frischnrun, David, 243
programs of, 21S220 From the Fair CFunt*myaril;E)(Aleicherrrr), 236
Exempln, 144 Fmmki~~, Esther, 220
Exilarch, 109 Ftxe11r-t~S. J., 189
Exile, See Babylonialn exile; Expulsions
Exodus, 12,15--16,7T, 78 Gabi~-tius(Roxmn governor), 60
Exodus 1947 incideint, 204 Galicia, 195
Exodus h b b l ~ k99
, Galilee, 60,63,65,72
Expulsioi~s Gulut, 206
from eastern Enrope, 18ft-189 Garmlef, 51
from lnolxt.herrnEurope, 125, 181 Guun, geotzi~l-r,
96, 110, 128, 133, 167. See ~ulso
fro111Russia, 188-1 89, 192 Geonic periojii
from Spain, 118-119, 174,181 Garcia Marquez, Gabriel, 241
SWalso Migration Gavrilcw, Pekr, 223
Ezehel, 25-26,93 Geiger, Abrahnm, 184
Cexmra, 80 Golclfaden, Abrahm, 251
General Federation of E-lebrew Workers iitt Goldmark, Joseplz, 28'7
the Land of Israel, 195, Golem, Tlif (Leivick), 252,253
General Jewish Workersr Uttion (Blmd), 194 Goril Kalvarid (Ger), 190
Cetresis (Btaresl~it)fibl~ah,83-85,87,8X Gorbachev, MikhniI, 229
Genesis, 10-12, 77,179 Gordort, A. D., 198
Cetresis Rubbati, 144 Gordor~,J. L,, 189
Geonic periocl(6(10-1(NlO C.E.), 89,9(1,93, Gorky, Maxim, wife of, 215
145 Govemrnent. Sm %If-government
in fraq, 133-140 Grade, Chnim, 239
SWalso Gaol?,plzirn Greizt M~zdness,The (Ha-shigrion i~@-pdul)
Germany (Hameiri), 237
in Micldle Ages, 119,122,125,143 Great Revolt (66--74C.E.), 54,6348
17th-18th C., 182,183,184, 185 Greek infitle~tce.Sre HeHenism
14th-211th C., lSl87,tt38,193,201-202 Greek-speaking Jews,142
Nnzi, 202-204, 220-221 Gree~tberg,Uri Zvi, 245
C e r c ~ ~126,
~ a ,157, 158 Grkgoil.e, Abb4,185
Gershom, Rabbi (Ligl.r-1:of t l ~ eExile), 143 Grc3myko, Andrei, 205
Cessius Flonis (Eorrrranprocurator), 63 Grussinan, Vassi'ty 223
GLliultjt, 151 Grue~tba~m, Yitzhak, 201)
Gezerd, 218 Gaestfor t k Nigizt (Orc-nhtmtu IaEun)
Ghetto, 62, 182,202,203,222,245 (Agnon), 240
CiXgamesh, Epic of, 39-40 Gtiidt?of tkr I ' f ~ p l e ~ f(Maii~lonides),
d 160,
Gittzberg, Asher, 191 17'4-1 77
Clasncst, 224 Gtilgg Archipflag0 (Solzhenitsyn),225
GLatstein, Jacnb, 246
C I I Cticism,
~ 94 Haram,Alrad, 244,250
Gocl, 11, 16 E-lnbbnkuk, 83
and cl-roser~r~ess, 12-1 3, 16 Ha-Coheir, Rabbi Raphael, 184
n~tdcnmpitssio~~, 29 E-lnDarshan, R/lc3sile,Rabbi, 99
and conquest of Cnnnan, 18-20 HaDarshan, Sl~ixnon,99
coveitants of, 16-19 Hadke asfiircc~~zaz,
140
and creation, 10-11 Hadrianic persect~tions,144
n~tdEgypt, 15-16 Hagfzna,204
and h~trnancomprehensic311~31,32,42, K2 Hagiogrpha, 24
n~tdi~ttercessians,17,18,26-27 E-ln-Gcjri~i,I61
and love, 26,30 Halakhitc literature, 96-98,133, 157,161, 164
obedience to, 18,21 E-lnlakhic midrasl~im,73, 74, 77,713,79,91,
omnipotence of, I& 1516,18,25 96
pmtective~tessof, 15-16, 17, 18 Haiakjzof Gcdolal, 91,9697, 133
and redemptioi~~ 16,47 HaEaHzot HaliiZi": 97
n~tdsin and purtisl~ment,19, 20, 21, 25, NaElakizol.l~e~mkc?t,
96-97
30-31,32 Halevi, Jtrdah ben Sarrrruel, 114,144,
ns sole Cod, 18,24,47 152-153,154,160
worlcl plan of, 31-32 Halevi, Sanuxet, 163
Zohlar on, 17'7, 178-174 Haiklzot lJesuqot (YehudaiGatan), 133
SWalso Hebrew Bible Halpern, Moyshe-Leyb, 245,246
Goidberg.;;, Led, 249 E-lnmeiri, Arrigdor?227
Cotc3c.11Age of I-lctbrew literature, 145-1%Ci4;, Hannqdan, Berekhyn, 145
I64 Hatzasi, 146
Hannah, 144
E-lnnukkah, 44
Ha-Slto~~ter Ha-Tza ir, 199
Hasidiss~~, 95,182, l%),242,231. Sre also
Ashkenazic Pietists
Hasknlah, 184, 189,190,243
Hasil-toneandyltasky 44,48,49,57,58, 59
"Heap, T11e (E kupe)" (Mitrkish), 245
Hebugisclfe Nglltzden (tasker-khGler), 244
Hebrew Bibie, 9,33-35,135
battles of, 19,20,21,28
canonizationo&71-72
chosenness in, 12-15,16,18,21, 174
commentary an, 135,153,154,160
coveitants of, 16-19
ns~dexile, 23,25+26,28
and exodus fr011-t Egypt, 15-16
fruitfulness in, 11-12
in Golden Age poetry, 149, 150
ns~dhope, 14,15, 32-33
kings/ ki~tgdoxrrrsof, 17,21--23
ns~dlaw, 18, 19,20,24
literary stucly of, 10,34-35,111,135, 152
ns~dmoral behaviol; 14-15'24
and iratinr~atadversity 13-14,15--16,
19-20,21
poetry of, 29-30
prophets of, 19-28
and reward, 32,42,47
ns~dsorls, older nncI younger; 13-14
and suffering of righteous, 3t,32
translations of, 136,167
vo~7eland cantiltation marks of, 135
ns~dwedltlt, 24, 39
wisdom Literatltre in, 30-31, 32
women in, 11,14, 32-33
SWalso Creation; God; Te11tple in
Jer~~sdfern; Torah; itzdi~?id~aai
hooh
Hebrew langtiage
meciietrillliterature in, 97,128, 129, 135,
137,138,139,142,1414-145,146-148,
154,156,142, 2,%
modern literature in, 189,194,234,
247-248
in Russin/%viek Ui~iort,194,214-215
spoken, 194,247-248
Hebrew Reborn, 146
Hebrew Union College, 196
Hwataelxs of Abdern, 38
Hpder, 1%
Heine, Heinrich, 186, 187,188,235,243-2M,
245-246,254
Heklzalot, 141
Hellenism, 37'-38,85,88, (3.1, 138
in Ecclesiaskes, 3841
and Jewisltobsewance, 41,4344,4748,
49-54
E-lerod (king of Jer~~sdlern), 5&61,62
Heroclium, 59
E-Leri3d~~tus (Creek historian), 50
Herzl, Theodor, 192,192
Hmzug (Bellow), 241
Hiltel (hrother of Ephraiin cjf Bonn), 144
E-lirsch, Baron Maurice de, 193
Hirsch, Samson Raphnet, 187
E-listztdrutha-ardim, 1%
Histacln~ttabor Federatioit, 199
Hisfoyy of Ben Siru (folklot-ictraditit>n),145
H i s t u ~L?fjesus, TIze (folkXol-ictradition), 145
E-Litler;Actolf, 201
Fjtivi of Balklt, 135,138
E-lc>khmail,179
Holland, 119,182,183,185
E - l o l ~ ~ ~ 202-204
ust,
literature on, 237-238,245,246,2198
in Soviet Union, 220-24
Home, hornelt3ssltess, 18--14,213,152,245,
249
Hosfzu' nut, 132
"Hc~w?" "utzkever), 247
Howe, Xrsri~tg~ 243
"E3ym11s of Glory" ((Petist poems), 144
"Hymns of UniQr"(Pietisl pcterns), 144
E-lyrcanusX (JohnHyrcanus), 49,51,58
Hyrcanus XX (Hasjnonean king), 57,58,59
Iberian Pe~ti~~suta.SWSpain
fbll 'Abbacl, ni-~rr"hrnid(%\~illianprince),
158
fbll nl-Fakhkhsr, Abrahdm, 158
Xbn A%~itur,Joseph, 150
fbll Damn, %ndia, 165
Xbn Daud, Abraltarn, 110,114
fbll Ezra, Abrallarn, 153,154,160,162
Xbn Ezra, fsaac, 154
fbll Ezra, Moses, 152
Ibn CabirstX, Solornort, 1150, 151.
fbll Ghiyatl~,Xsddc, 152
Ibn E-fasdai,Abraltam, 156
fbll wassan, Yequtiel, 151
Xbn Mar Saul, Tsaac, 150,151
fbll Pay uda, Bafya, 160
Xbn Sabbetai, Judah, 156
fbll Shnprut, @asQai,113,146,148,163
Xbn Xbbon, Judal-t,160
fbll Tibbon, Moses, 160
lbn fibbor~,Samuel, 151, l60 aitd c o ~ ~ q u eoti lLditd of lwael, L8 20
Ibn Zdhnra, foieph (of Plarceions), 155 drv~cronof, 17, 22
Idumeans, 58 and exile, 25- 26
Igs~ntrev,Cotmt (Russia), 193 aid excxir~strorn Egypt, 1 5 1 6
tltsd i t r a m l a t ~ u ~238
~j, ctl7lrgahcv of, 16,27-18,Ic)
In~manuelolIkme, l62 Sre iiilsu G&; I-iebrew Bible
Irn~rllgrirhot~ $ctsM~lgrntluii TiwrIe., Mows (RahilA),98
"Irl Iht C ~ l y of Slz~ughtcr LB'lr ha-haregd11Y' Ital\i, 14Il,16f-163.181,182,18~, 185
(Blalrkf,244 Byzdntitxe, 141-143
Irldra, 156 Ivan the Tenhle (c zar cif Rtlma), 188
Xn NPWYork (Walper*~, 241
I i ~ ~ l u l i ~ l(14xF1831;
ion Spain), 118-119 jabots~~iky, Vlacimus, IW, 202
Irrtegratton. i w Econcrlruc i!~te~adtCIn; lac& (sot1 of Itabbr Asher), cV-C)8
fl~tellect~ldflnlerdd1011, Jew141 ]~cc>IT, 2 2, 13, 14
tiriarrcipntiorr Jacoh b. Etti'ri~r of Toledo, 156
h~tegralion.Set. As.;~lmfahon;Jeinzish james 1I knkg of Aragon), 116
Enl~ghteiiment Jeremiah, 2b- 1-28
fntellect, 176 jencho. conquest of, 19-21), 21
lntrllectrial ~i-ttcract~on, t 05 Jertrsalem, 54,57-59,()3+"e 66, 205 <re nlsu
r i d e r Chrnslian rule, 121-122, 123, 139# 're:i~t>le111 Jerusalem
I40, 157, 163, IW jianr2iitlent (Lfeitdelssohr~),183
t~rz~ier fhlanblc rrdr, Ilibl11, 112, 119 114, Jertl..aleril (~'ii~tii.ti~lld11)
raltrlitd, 8 0 8 1
138 1411,146 Iesus, 121,122,145
"PP RISO S~-~el~Stttt Ch~~igh? Je~itt~,~h Anti-f-a~c14t'nmmitt~r,223,225
ititt,il!g~b?l~a, 176 l e w ~ i hColoirrzntlor~Asicrimticrr~,193
h~termarrtage,2111 jeur~sllColtr11rzatlo1l5ociely(ICOK),219
Itrirod:rc irorr tc ihr Drities offirt~Heiicrrfr jlbi'~ Jp\vlshCOIIIIIILIII~~I~ZI SBPS e l f - g i ) v e ~ ~ t ~ ~ i e ~ ~ t
Paquda], 1ctil Iewl>ltEmitl~clpation,185-187,188, I')i)
lil#rt,iint tzort to Liigrl jlfaiix.rorr~de~), l74 je\vxi.h Ei~tltr;hierunent, 183-184,189,243
k1vatrd5 of the fiftlt cat<-gore226-227 jewrzh Labor Bru~il,21U
Iraq, 133-140, 145, 1-54 jewrih law, 41
f g u n 218a1 Leurni, 204 cc>iiiirhcatior\of, 9b,97, 98, 133, 174
Iron Cilnrcl (Rommua), 222 rrtual, 24,25, 134
I i a d ~12,13,
, 14, 144, 135 Jew141Lehrl~atnillouse of Sttldj), 2112
Isaat of Am, I61 le~vrnhI~terature,233-236,253 2%
lsaat Lbn Khalfrrn, 119 develoyiuel~t ol modern, 137,138-1 W
fsnldh, 28,93,131 5erpulat Arabic 11terc3r>~riflut~nce,
lst11r1ac4,11, 13 17rd1i~dtmf gc'1117'b
Ishmaet, Rabb~,77. 78,79 jcwzsh phtlosnphrcal thought, 158, 160
I%lam,1~0,10G-108 a ~ t drgc~eenlrirm,276
Islamic fundnn~ental~c;nt, 230 and good and bad, 176
Iilan~rcnile and inlentictn anif actwn, 172
113 Near Fa%t,306-109,111,112-113 and phrloiaphy and relrgron, 171-172,
In Spazu, 113, 11.5, 145, 147-148, 1% 174-175
Se'e uLlr Arnbic larrguage, A~<>bic Itkerary nrtd pt~lllicalnrtd divlrie laws, 172-13
mtltterrce arid p~.!cIlis I ~ v Y ( *171
-
I\II.~& i l Il~rrYnglzrC;lld, 749-1 50 ariti rat~ortal~ i l auclitrny
d laws, 168,
Israel, Ibngd:clont of, 17 22-23,24,28 169-171,172-173
hrael, a s Pmrxt~srdI,nrid, 18- 19 ant3 rwyon, 176-177
15rc%el, %ale of, 205,227,153 and rea~oliecfc o i ~ ~ ~ ~ 175 rtx~n,
Fsradites and rex~elatm~~al a i d prophet~claws, 170
as c h u s e ~people,
~ 12-14, 16, 17, IS a~trftrue mct klse, 176
jczuish Slate, TIze (Diyidishe rnelukI.~til MI~azars,171
(Shnpiro),240 Khr~~sl-rchet; Nikila, 226,227,228
"Jewish Slate, Ther"HerzX), 191 Mlchiko, Tmfim, 227
Jewish Theolngical Semii~aryof America, Kielce (Poland), 204
197 Mlmfi, Bavid, 160
Jewish War, Thc Uosepi~urj),49 Kimfi, Joseph, 154,160
"Jewry in Music" (Wagner), 188 Kirtg Artlrs (anon,), 162
J&, 31-32 Kings (bctok of E-LE.larewBbile), 21-22,23
Jahn c j f Cischala, 66,67 Mlpnis, ltsik, 240
J o n a h i ~144
, K%, Danilch 243
Jaseph, 12 Mlshil-revpogrolll, 192, 244
Joseplr.ben Lavi, 164 Klezmer music, 235
Jasepl-rben T a n f ~ ~Verushatmi,
m 154 Kohelet @oak of the Preacher), 3841. SW
Joseplr.11 (emperc~rof Austria), 1% also Ecelesiastes
Jasepl-nxs,4344,48,49,50,51,53,611,61,62, Kohal-stibl, 239
63,65,67,79, 142 Komerd, 218
Joshua, 12,19--20,21 Komzt*t,218, 220
Jotapaln fc>r&er;s,65 Kom, Rakl~l,249
Judahi, I3,17, ,M, 58 Kosygin, Alexei, 227
Judah, Kingdom 06,22-23,24-25,28 Kremer, Arkady; 194
Judah.Maccabee, 44,58 Kristallnacht (Cen~~any-), 202
Judah the Patriarch, 75 Kttslars, 218
Judah.the Piotls, Rabbi, 144 Kumri (Hatevi), 153,16l), 171--174
fudaism Witizoul. Enrhellis/in-renl(ludaizm Bcz
IDrI'ICras) (Kichko), 227 Judea, 57,60,61, Larnetrl-utiolzshlabal-r, 8tt-89
63 tandau, Rabbi Ezekiel, 184
jtfdenuaf, 202, 2113 tandX.roIcli~~l;, 108,208, SP~? also Agriculhre
Judec3-Arabicta~zguage,136 LarZL1"sf?zanslz@f1nI
196
Judezrno lar~guage,181 tasker-ScJ-tGler,Else, 249
Judges, 2 Latin vernacmlar language, 157
Julit~s Caesar (Rnrrmn ger~ernl),58 tatvia, 221,222
taw. See Jewish law
Kabbatah, 157,159,161,164,178 t a w of Return (Israel), 205
h f k a , Franz, 235,242,243 tazar~~z;, Ernma, 249
E;IU/zuI,181,185, 189 "Lead Plates at the Rom Press, Thef'
h l a r n , school of, 168,171-172,175 (Sutzkeverf,247
k l i l n and Dim~za(Ix~ciianfables), 156 League c j f Anti-Semites, 188
hllir, Elenznr; 127, 1128 tegei-rds,74,865,143,144,235,252
KaXony-xnidesfaxnily, 142,143 teivick, H., 252
hlony mos b. Kalonymos, 160, 161 Lekah TOP(Tobiasb. Eliezer), 144
KaXony-rr~os b. Moses the Elder, 142 Lenin, V. I., 211,213
hmene-v, Lev, 211 teixski, Hayyim, 247
Karaites, Karaite mover~lent,89,90,92, 110, tessing, Gotthold Ephrnii~l,183
135-136,138,1%, 167 tevil%t~I~n, Isnilc Bel; 189
Karski, Jalh 204 tevir~,Yankl, 220
b s s a s , 194 teviticms, 18, 77, 78, 132, 168
Katze~~elson, Mtzhak, 245 Lei:~iticusXahbgh, 85-86,87,88
h u n n s , 222 Liberalism, 187,197
Kazirrrrir the Great (king), 251. LVe gosephus), 49
Kcltilfus, kelzil~s,196,2119,210, 213 L@ as a I)lr~ble( H ~ - ! E ~ Yke-maslzuii
Y~III
Ketttvim, 9,29-33 (Saclelz), 238
Warkov, 224 tilie~lblum,Moshe teib, 189, 190, 191,236
Lir~gtiisticintegra ticm, 105, 111. SW also Masncla, 42,59,65
Arabic language; Hebrew language; Mskil, muskilittz, 189-190, 233, 236
Translations; Yidcjish lar~guage Masoretes, 135,138
Liternb~re,See Jewish literature; individtiai Mssa, 233,244
@*fires Matevosian, Samvel, 223
Liti~uania,190, 194, 195, 200, 2113,208,221, Mattathias the Hasmonenn, 44
222,223,224,230 Matthew, Gospel of, 47
Liturgical poetry, Sce 13iyy~tl May taws (Russia), 209
Liturgy, 9445,128, Sty also Ber~edictions; Mecfieval Jewry. See Cl~ristianrule; Istarnic
IJiyyzrC rule; i~diaidualcounlritrs
Louis IX (kix-rgof Frmce), 125 Meir, Rabbi, 75
Love, 26,30,41,159 Meir 05 Rothenburg, Rabbi, 97,144,154
physical, 3Q,39,40 Mfkilla ctf Ruhbi Ishnrn~l,78
See atso Pleasures, worldly Mekifta ofRabbi Sizi?neonhen Volzni, 78
Lovers of Ziorr (organization), 191 Mflokizirn Btrclz, 145
Lowe belt Bezalel, Rabbi judah, 252 Mefnorinl f3ucnzs (GcdetzWittmI (Glatstein),246
Lubnvitch, 190 Mennhexn, 65,163
Lz$llrzcnshmz, 208 MeilafEzern belt Snrucl, 146-147
Luke, Gospel of, 47,6l Mennklnem-MenclI of Kotsk, 251
Lunaclarsky, Anat~ly,214 Meildelssol~~h Felix, 188
Mendelssohr~,Nmes, 183
Muase Uztch, 144 Mercy q f ~ 1Rc~deS I ~ P U(Roth),
Z I ~ 237
Maccabees, 337,4548,54,144 M f r h h a mysticism, 131
text of, 44,45,46,4849 Meshullam hen Kafonymoa 142
Nachnach, Aleksnnder, 223 Mesopotarnian communities, 106,1Q7,
MudkJ 146 109-110,111
Maggid nilrs/~arim(Cam), 9 Messianic faith, 177, 181, 182, 191, 240,
Maggid Misft nah (Carcl), 98 251
Magickn qf lnblin, Tjzt~(Sii~ger),253 "Metarnarphosis, Tl~e""iKafl<a),242
Majbarol (Ifi~~manuel of Etorne), 162 Meyer, Viacheslnv, 223
"Mafier(>'L't
OLI Hell and I1aradise, Thef' Micah, 24
(Immanuelof Rome), 162 Midrnsl-rirn,?7,130,177
M~fzorVifry, 143 Aggatilic, 74,78,79,83-92,9&IOU, 133
Maimon (bther of Maimcl~tides),1% of Byzantitle Pafestit~e,144-145
Nairnoniciles (Moses ben Maimon), 95,97, Hatakhic, 73,74,77,78,79,91,96
38,111-112,134,154, 168,174-177 and M i s h a i ~92,
controversy aver, 157, 158, 161 Tannaitic, 77--79,90
Maimcl~t,Solomon, 236,237 and Torah lectionary cycle, M, 85,86,87,
Nanasseh Ben Israel, Rabbi, 182 88,91,131
Manger; Itsik, 246 M i d r ~ s hMishie, 89
M~q871ta,nfaq2nz8ff143,154,155, 158,162, Midrash I<ubbah,99
164 Midmsh Shiv Hashirim, 87
Margoliz~,Anna, 249 Midraslz Sk1oclu.r 7'02%99
Marie de France, 145 Midmsh Taizlznaim, 78
Nark, Gospel of, 47,53,61 Midraslz Telfl'llim,99
Markir;ln, Perets, 225,245 Migratioil, 21)
Narranos, 183 in Europe, 1103,119,120,121,125,181,
Marr, WiUnelrrz, 188 182, 192
Martini, Raymndo (Raymollcl Martin), 99, to Israel, 228,230
116 in literature, 245-246,249
Nartov, JtrXii (Tsederbarur~),193, 194 Nazi-era, 201
Marx, Knrl, 186,188,213,241 to Palesth~e,201, 20.3.,205,249
 fro111Russia /%vie t Unic)11,192, 207,209, Mr. Mntzi Citlar Mlani) (Yehoshna),241
228-229,230-235 Mr, SartlmkrS Piatzel: (Betlow), 241
to U.S., 192-193,148,2111,229, 230,249 Mtlsar movement, 190
Sre also War~dering Muslim rule. Sre Islamic mie
Nikbels, Shtorrro, 224,225 Mui:unslzsf~a&t,149, 152, 153
Military service, 184,189, 595,2119,212,221 "My Song (Shirati)" f Biafik), 244
Minorities' Bloc (Poland),200 Mysticism, 131, 141, 144, 157, 167, 178, 182,
Mi~~orities Treaty (1%9), 200 190, 243
Ninsk, 222,224 mbbil-ric, 87,91,93-94,98
Mir (Lithuania), 190 See ~ulsoAshkenazic Pietists; Hasidism
Mirianr (Berclycsewski),239 Myth, 177, 180, 242
Mirtz~xtMakgsei Bualt, 53
Misltl~al~, 74-76,80, "3-92,93,94,961 128 Nadir, Moyshe, 246
nl~dL%liidrasi~, 92 Naf$iiiyyot, 173
oral traditiorz ctf, 76 Nahman of Bratslav, Rabbi, 242,243,246
orders of; 75 NahrnnlGdes (R. Moses b. Nahman), 157
and s c ~ p t u mnuthoAty,
l 75,713,82 Nagoleo11(emperor ctf France), 185
nl~dTorah fectinlwry cycle, 92 Narc3dzzaiai Volya, 190
and Rsefta, 76-77 Nathnn ben Yehiel of Rome, h b b i , 99
Mitil-rr.~nl~
kbnt, 41,W Nall?an the Wisc (Lessing), 183
Nishr~ahHagigah, 51 Natiomal autor.lc)~~~y, 194,211, Sclp also
Mislztzclz Tornlz (Mnirncmides), 97,111-1 12, Zic~nism
f 74 Natiomai history; 250,251
Mitisionizi~~g, 115-1 1G. Sre also Col~krellsion National %cialists [Mazis),201-204,
Nolclo~va,2118 220-221,222
Mofodowsky, Kaciya, 249 collnbctrators of, 283,222-223,224
Noneyte~rcling,in norther11Europe, 123, Natural law, 168,170,171,176,183
124-125 Nahral world, in Literature, 9344,2127,248
Nontefiore, Sir Noses, 187 Neharden rabbinic academy, 82
Momtmquieu, Charles Louis de Secundnt, Neherniah, 38
183 Miila service, 141
Motzllrs and Days (KIzu~doshimutz Icg) Nekrasot; Viktor, 223
(Kipnis),240 Neo-Orthodox fudais~n,187
Moral hel-ravior,74,96,144 Neoplattonism, 153,171
and action and intenticm, 172 Neviqirn, 9,19--28
nl~dauditory law, 168,169 New Christians, 117-119, 182
biblical, 15, 17, 24,32,33 Nicholas I (czar of Russia), 189,209
Sre also Halnklzic literature; Halaicilic Nietzscl~e,Friedrich VVill~eLm,251
midrashiixn; Jewish philosophical "Night, A" (Halpen~),245
thought; Sociai nctiorx "1919"" (GLatstein),246
Norat philosophical thot~ght,16S171, Sec Nonh, and the ark, 12,26--17
~Esof ewi& philosophical ti~ought Nomic law, 177
Nordechai, 150 Northern European Jewry. Sre ChAstr'an
Morirlr Izu-Mebztkhim (Maimonides), 174 cozlrzlrics Novels,
ride; itzdiz~il-lual
Mcxes, 12,13, 17, 18--19,48,52,141,145 283-242
Moses ben Kaionyrnos, 142 Nuif, Ln (Wiesel),238
Nmes be11Maimon. Ser Mairnonides Ntx~~~bers, 77, 78
Moses ben Nafman of Gerona, Rabbi, 116, Ntlrnljcrs Xnbbah, 99
157 Ntxrenberg Laws, 201
Moses the Preacher (Moshe HaDarslnan),
99,144
Mosonzoi~,Uigal, 253
Ocd:yssty (translation),238 Penini, kdaya h-, 161
0f;lrifzgoff udah, TIZP(fbn Sabbetni),155-156 Pentmteudn. See Torah
Old age, 40--41 Perestroika, 229
Old Testament, 9 Pewtz, l. L., 235,243,251
""On the Blood" Qchernichovsky), 248 Persea~tion
""QII the Jewisln Qr~estion"(Marxf,188 in Middle Agm, 103,114,120-121,124,
Open Book (Saadia), 138,139 13Z814&%1M
""Qrncleof Nernirt?~"' (Bialik), 244 19tl1-2Oti1 C,, 180, 190, 195, 201-2112,212,
Omcles, ojracutar poetryj 63,243-245 221,222,226
"Oracle to Einrc3peU(Greenberg), 245 See also Expulsions; Holocmust; Pogmrns
Oral Torah, 73,74,75,77 Persian ernpire, 37-38
Orgitnizatiori for Rehirbilitatini~and lJesltal,33
Traillilig (ORT), 219 X3rsheu,83
Origen, Father, 78 lJesikl.adelka hlzann, 85, 8(-87,88
Other, study of, 101 X3rsiktaalabati, 90--91
Oz, Amos, 239 Pessi~~tism, 32, 39,40
Ozet, 218,220 X3rtilrtaot,rJLG81i,87, 8&89
Ozick, Cynthia, 243 Pharisees, 48,49,5512-1,54
P11iXo of Alexaridriia, 49,53,62,62, 79
Pagan obsewance, 60,61,65 Philosophical thought. Sec Jewish
PugesffonrMy Life ((BE~tc2rfidn nrrzyn Iebtz) philosc?phicalthc311ght
(Cahirn), 237 Pietists, Asltkenazic, 140,143, 144, 154,190
Pagis, Dan, 248 Pinsker, Leon, 190,191
Pale of Jewish Settlement (Russia), 189,190, lJir(feRabbi EIiaer, 90,93, 133
192 X3itand thr Tkp, TIP (Un in dayn 171r4t zalstu
Palestine, 37, 106, 10'27 Iebni (Roclmnn), 237
literature of, 96,127-133, 134,141,143, X3iyyut, 9546,127-133
247,252 in Byzantine Itaiy, 141-133,162
arid Zionism, 191,194,145,198-199, in Byzantine Palestine, 127-133
204-205 i of, 133-134
c a n o n i ~text
Palestinian Arabs, ancl Jewish settlexrrrent, in Islaxnic Spairi, 115&151, 152,153
199,2(14,205 language of, 129-1 30
Palestinian Talmud, 8&81 for local rites, 134
1""llmyaC"230 in medievnl Tray, 133-135,137
Panegyrics, 149,1.W, 151 in Wineland, 143
Panierai death cnrnp, 224 Pleasures, worldly, 39,40, 147-148,152
Panthesisxrr, 163 Ptehve, Vyacheslnv vorr, 191
Parables Pliny tlte Elder (Roman nutlnorf,53
of king of hiclia, 173 Poalei Tsiom (Zionist party), 212,213
of state of nahret 176 lJoetnsfmm n Diary (Sntzkever), 247
hmrliso (Dante), 162 Poetry, 87,160-161
1""llrtzdosis,50 Ambic literary ilrfluence on, 146, 147,
Parents, 41 14&144,150,151
Parlnon, Solt~rnon,l61 biblical, 29-31), 95
Parody 161 contests for, 161,164
Passover Haggitdah, 9695,141-142 dietiortary b r i 137,138
Passover secjer, 9 4 214 in Italy, 162
1%stCouztinnaus IZiklzr~ondvarilz-r],239 love, 30,159
Paut Christiart, Friar, 116 modern, 243-244
Pe;tsnnts, Jewish, 218,219 in Prc)vence, 16Q-161
Pe~irotlie Cruel (Spaiz~),163, 164 in Wineland, 144
""PertnlColony, The" "afka), 243 in Russia, 189
 in Spain (G(6olde11Age), 145-1.54 X3ugioFidei (MartixG),99, 116
in Spain, 113,114, 159,163,164-165 Purnbedita talmudic acadern~82,110,133
women's, 244 Prurinz, 89, 161
Sre also 13iyyul Purity ritual, 25,5(1,51. See uulso LJietary law
Pogroms, 163,190,209
in literature, 244,245 Q a 3 ; f d ~148,151,152
s
20th C., 192,202,2114, 212,231) Qayyara, Sinneon (of Basra), 133
Poland, 119,125 Qedusha, 130,131
16th-18th C., 181,182,188, 189 Qdztstrta, 1, 129, 1.30, 131, 142
19th-20th C., 192, l%, 195,1W-200, Qnoz~a,qoozmh 1129, 131, 153
202--203,204,208,253 Qiltiri, Eleazar, 127, 128, 129
Nnzi-ern, 202-203,220-221 QolrciEct lbbhul~,X8
I)olitetrrtmfu,61,62 mrrrisi, r)aniet al-, K9
PolitiaI law. Sce Jewislrphilosophicnl @mram curnrnuniQ; 47,52-54'71
thottght motas, 192,198,209
Pompey (lic3marx generai), 58
Pontius Wlate (Roman prefect), 61 Rabbnnite cc)~~~munity (Iraq), 133,135
Ponr, 24,42,63 hbbinic acndemies, 72,79,80, XI, 82, (3.1
Portugal, 182 in Middle Ages, IIZO, 111,133,143, 157
Positive-HistoricalJttdaism, 1156-187 in Russia, 190
Potncki, Vales~tk,251. Rabbinic leadership, 41,51, 54,71--74,101
l~jln/1701nnd(Tn~nk),238 and congregatiolxal thought, 93
I)rarp&, 225 in Middle Ages, 104,110
Prayer, 94,161,170 hbbinic literahn*e, M,85
synngc)gue, W, 95,128,134,141 ncndenric stltcty of, 111&102
"hraiyer of the Menzs, The" (Penini),161 hbbinic sages, narratives on, 81,82, X6,90,
Preacher, the. See Kohetet 139
Press, in Sc~vietUi~ioix,215,224-225,229 hbitlovitsh, Solomon. See Akci~ern,
Priesthooc3,34,132 Shotem
duriT1g Hellenistic period, 38,44,45,46, h b o n , Israel, 239
58 Racilaq (David Kixnfi), 160
durhrg Roman male, 59,63, M, 65 h h n b , 21
replacement of, 71,73,75--76 Rarnbaxrr. Sm Mailnonides
l%ri~ceaard ti'tr' Moltk', The (1bn easdai), 154 h s h i (R, Soiomolz ben Isailc of Trc~yes),95,
I)rt>ofRack,:k,lzt3 (Klalo~~ynrm), 161 99,121
Prc?phecy,23,244 h t l r e n i l ~VVnlter,
~, 201
"fiophecy of the Valley of the Revelation"" Raticmnlism, reason, 138-1 35ft158
(EMimsi), 162 hCini.ral law, 168,169, 176, 177. Sec uiso
Prophets, 25,63,170 Jewish philosophical tl-tottght
former, 9,19-23,99 htosil, Ycjnatnn, 248
ftlture arrival of, 46-47 Rav Amrarn, 94,35
latter, 23-28,% hvikc~vitch,Dalia, 249
Protection, 15-16, 17, 24. See also &curity Ravnitsky, khosl-nxn,235
Prc?veirce, 159-1 61 Rebecca, 12,14
I)rt>r?erDinMornEes (Shexntov ben Ardutiel), Reci Heifer, 54
164 Refcjrrn Judaism, 186,196
Proverbs, 3&31,40,89,1?9
l%ruverbs of SaYd b. Unbslzild, 140 Refuseniks, 229
Prussia, 186,,187 lZ.ekrtirhinu,190
Psalms, 29,cf4,W Religious libe~yf 185,200
Psha t, 87 Religiotts philosophical thotlght. Sclp Jewish
Ptcrlernnic rule (Macedonian), 37 philosophical tlrc~uglrf
Rel~gioustolerance, f 82,163 iire niso Pate ofiew~sh%teltlernent; %vret
ReiiiC~ril~we, Errclz Maria, 237 Ullil~ll
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ f l1.51
!lKJt. W~rs~ian Soera1 Uc.rnocrattc Labor Party
Respctns't, 133 (RSDLP), 193, 194,210-21 1 Ruth,
Iteube~t,13 32-33
L\?ev~slnlust Lionlsm, 202 Kl!lh Klthkh KI->
"Rewrlx rrtg Sc\ord, Tlle" (Dtdrrsr),
IN Saaclxa Garm (Saadld ben loscph al-
Rh~itelan~t, 143. <rr.:rlsc~4 s h k r 1 1 ~ i c Eaj ynr~rz),95, 135, 1136-139, 157, 160,
trrldrtioit, Gennanv 167-171
Rzei~txr,Gabr~ei,187 Sabbath, 10, V,61,8-1, 169, 171),18(,
IZzet~,MOW, 152- 1b3 S a ~ h sNelEp,
, 249
K?%c7ofDvc,rd Lccvrl$kz/, f/?c{ C n i ~ n j237 , Sacrifice, 25, 132, 173
Iirtual Iaw, M, 23 in I I t * l I ~ ~ i iera,
\ t l ~38, 47, 53, 9-1
ttnificatro~t, of, 1%. tri~derRoman mle, 51, 69,71
Sc-culso Je~vtshla*, lewish pli~lo\ophrcal Sadcltrceeq 10,5>55
thougl-tt; Moral b e i ~ dior .~ Sadeh, Pnni~as,238
Rot hrnm, Lryb, 237 %i'ltf b Babshdtl, l4(1
Kogo~anti Noserrko (%)l tet Saialonir AIexairJin (l iawlr>tleariqnee~r),4S,
coxnmez~talurs},2% 57
Ronsan Calholic church, 91,181 Sasnaua, 59
dnd "Jew Clu'ishans, 117 118 Samuel, 14,211 21
in northern Europe, 123, L24 Samrrel, Sxr Herbert, 1%
111 Spiiuk, llF115,117-119,158 %1111.~1 are Ndgld, 140,1411-150, 151
Romance (Arab vemna~lar),149 S u i r I a ~ i h t185
~~
Korliance lflernt~~res, 155, I59 Salztiib dc Carndn, 163
Ron~dnla,2117,221 Sarnh, 12
Ri.rmanlot ntt: I41 Satarz 1 n i;e?rita/ f D t &'?fix
~ ZIZ GrnrlJ(Singer),
Rontdn rule, 45,49,51, &4,57-59 240-241
d11d lewsh obserl a i m , 6U, 61 Salre, 161,162
resistance to, 1C2a G 1 h2,63 Saui, 12,21,144
See tdso Great Rer d t Sc$~el~&el; Soiornnrt, 197
"Tl\'t*inastrrro"(Heirre), 243 Sch~Iem,i;t~rsl~orn, 'M
Roosevrlt., Franklm D., 197, 2f14 Schools, l g, 197,200,201
Ro.;c~~lberg, Alfred, 201 In Rmsla/Sovrct Uniort, 189, lull, 192,
Iioien~we~g, r r a n ~201
, ^?oC~,212,210,226,227,229
Nasfr-plah, lOg Schulz, B~uno,213
Rir+tl I JnCEI~arldi~ 143 '2 ierkhlk tl~t~tigl~l, 112, 191, 152, 154, 160,
Rot11. 1lenry, 237, 23') 177,184
~ o t hrhtlrp,
, 239, 247 S: roll ~$Aii:iufus,Thr (hhltna'az), 132
Rolhichild, hvuve at, 137 Sebasle, 50
Ro~tsse~~ir, Iisa~r-j~ircluea 183 %c tandrar%zn,in k.lrllem*tic pencxi, 49-54
f\"oy(rlCru<i*rl,I?tr (Ibii Gnb~rt~l), 151 Secular jec\,mh ~ d e ~ r t ~111t yRuzsia,
, 194,
lit~digcrB1~11op~ 11c) 215 2111,227
Rtrn-rh~~llr krll~ngsite, 224 Secular literature, 179
Russia, 18&1"30,208-410 modern, 233-234,253
rrrrrgratictl~frcnri, 192, 207, 204 s t i r ~ ~ t ~ Enntpe,
h e n ~ l"., 158
f ~ ~ 1 s IC. l~ ~ ~ LuI,
I E 189-1'30, 194, 196, 211 U%Spam, 14~s147,1-CX, 14Y,150,151,152,
revolutioilaq movsme~ltrt~, 193 194, 153, t34, lh3, f65
1'J5-191t, 207, 209-210 Sec~~rtlt, 120, 121, 124, 14il
d u r u ~ gWW WI, 202 S&r, 75,M
&ridZionrsrn, tYi,110 St6fC~r flmizit &2ltnrh nrzd Zufa. X%%
S@imha-uggadah (Bialik and Ravnitsky), 235 ShtetX, 190,218,239-241
Sqtv ItaE;Uhb~zlah(1b1-iDaud), 114 Shfelt,A (Weissenberg), 239
5 4 ~ ha-tnu'izsim
r (Agnon), 243 Slztt~tl,7 q ~ (Asch),
p 240
Sqtv NU~ZCZZ~NE, 93 Shmlc/m.la~ 2rucj1 (Cart>),98
5 4 ~ Hayashar,
r 163 Sicarii, 65
Sqtv V~l~izfiir, 91 Siddur, %,95,96, 167
5 4 ~ Vesiruh,
r 141, 167 Siddur Sav h r a r r r , 94
Scfirot, 178-1 79 Sfr~xdeBei Rat?,78
%forh~,Mendcle Moykher, 190,234 Sqmh, sifrut, 233
Segl.rrgation,50, 51 Sfre Banridbl~r,78, 79
ax~ddress requirements, 124, 184,2131 Sqre Beutrro.anornyI78
iit Middle Ages, 103-.104,115,124, 181 Sfre Zuta, 78
in maciern era, 184,185 Silano (poet), 141
Sre also Gl~etto;%if-gc>verrtrneitt Sikler BozrlI, The (Ezoni), 160
Selbstbiogrgphie (Maimon), 236,237 Simec)n bar Vohai, Rabbi, 178
Seleurid nlle (Macedonian), 37,41,43,44, Simec~nb. Isaac (SFmeon the Great), 143
58 Siman @rother of Jtrclah Maccabee), 46,49
Self-defense, 194,244,245 Simon (SOIIof Garnaliel), 51
%lf-gc)ver~~xr~ent, 61-62, 181, 184, 185 Siman (son of alias), 42,43,45
tmder Chl-isliilln rule, 103-104,105, 109, Simon Ben Cosiba (Bar KcyM~bn),72.
119-120,121 Siman ben Giora, 66,607
iit E-lelile~~ist-ic
period, 37-38 Simon the Preacher, 145
under Islaxnic rule, 103-104, 105, Siman the Rightec)~xs,41,42,47
108-109,115 Si?rzpteStory, A (Siypur i~ashzrt)(Agnan), 239,
in Russia, 195-196,210--211 240
Scli&, scIi&t, 132, 141,14.3-144,152,163 Sin
Semexrenkrt, ATekandr, 223 of ancestors, 32
Sephardic badifion, 95,9X, 181,185 and purtishment, 19,20,2Ei, 27,30-31,47,
in poetic meter, 247--248 132
Seth, 13 Sinai cavei-iai-it,17, 18
Sex act, 373,176 Singer, lsaac Bashevis, 235,239,240-241,
Shnbtai, Yailkc~v,234 253
SI-rale\: Meir, 241 Singer, Israel Joshua, 241
Shlmoniyut, 141 Sills oJVoutlz (Hattot niizriml (Lilie~~bl~m),
SI-rarxlmas,Allton, 235 236
Shnpirt~,Lamed, 240 Skaz, 239
SI-ravir,Nmhe, 253 Slauglrter of chitdren, 144. See also Blottd
ShnyeviCsi~,Sirnithe-Durtem, 245 ritual
SlzeeEfof.{RAhai Cacm of Shnvha), 91, 133 Slobodka (Lithuania), 190
Shernd, 47'48,129,130,131 Smirxtov, S. S., 223
SI-remtc)vben Ardtlliet, 163-1M Sobibor death camp, 203
Shephercjs' Cmsade, 161 Social action, 24,41. See ulso Moral behaviol:
SI-rilneon,Rabbi, 78 Saciat de~nocraticxrrraverrrrent, 193-194
SCEir HaSjZirim Ikbbah, 87 Socialsts, in Soviet:Union, 212,213,220
51zit.rr Qomu, 93 Socialist Zionism, 194
Shlot~sky,Avraham, 248 Social sew ice organizations, 193,196, 199,
51z1opre Xeb Klrayirns (Xf!f;cltzrBails) 202
(Abrarnovitsh),236,250,251 Solomon, 13, 17,22, 1541
51zmuel Buclr, 1-45 Salo~nonben lsaac of Troyes, Rabbi, 99,121
ShmligIarlrs (S?wugglos)(brshavski), 240 Solomon b. Iudah of Rome (the
SI-roa1-r.5~ Holocaust Babyloxlian), 141
Shostakovich, h i t r i , 223 Solomon b. Sarnson, 144
Solorno11b. Saqbet, 155 Syrbns, 63,6S
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksar~dr,225 Syrkin, Nalman, 194
""Sut~gfor the Last" "utztzkever), 245 Syro-Ephmirnitcc.War, 28
Song of f he illurticrd jez:rlisfz I%qytle
(Katzenelson), 245 TaMentoni (al-Harizi), 158
Song of Simgs, 30,87,93, 141 Tale of the fenlsaleml'tc, The (anon.), 140
Source of Lqe, T ~ E(k11 C Gabirc)f), 151 Bles o f S ~ u f d e l ?The
~ r ~(itrter~~ational
tale), 140
South Africa, 192 Talmud, 79-83,94,96,111,145,157,190
Soviet Unio11,2137-208,220 and Alexander the Great, 142
ngriculhrral colonies in, 218-220 and Christian doctritre, 116, 1124
assimilation in, 211,212,213,215216, commentary on, 97,121,167
217-218 in liturgicnf poetry' 130
and Eastern Europe, 220-222 ordinances and statutes in, 168-1 69, 170
emigmtirti~from, 209,222&229,2313-231 in Russia, 190
and f a r e i p Jewish support for WW XI, Sclp also Rabbinic acadexr~ies
224-225 Talmud Bavli, 81-83
and glasuost/perestroiknI 229-231 Talmud Uen~shalmi,8&81,87
historiograpl~y06 22,3-24,226 Talnoe, 190
Jewish cultural activity in, 229,230 Tarn, Rabbi Jacclb, 154
f ewish popuhtion centers in, 219-20, TanaMn, 9
225 l"anhnrnu-Ye~a1~~~f1~1~ 91, 99, 100
untier Uruslnchet; 22C~228 Tal'ulzfxaDrBei Eliafiu Rubball and Zztk (Talzna
langrlage in, 213-215,2216,217,218 Dezwi EIiyfzhm),89-90, 133
ni~dNazi Germany, 232-203,220-24 Tanr~aiticliterature, "1-83,9O
practice of Jrrdaisrn in, 214,217, 221, Tannaitic midrashim, 77-79,90
225-227 Tal'ulzfxa,l-ranlzainz,74
under Stalin, 22.%226 Targfm, 92-93,9%%96
Yiddish ~ult~~rdlization in, 215-218, 220, Targum Neafiti, 93
221,226 Targfm a ~ k e l o s92 ,
ni~dZiotrism, 213-214,221,227-229 Targum Yer~~sl~afmi, 92
SWalso Russia Targfm bnathan (Pseudcj-Jo~~athn), 92
Spain, 113-119 Taxation, 61),@, 67,104, 1%
literature of, dttritng Cl~ristianrule, Tchekkcver, V,, 44
155-159,163-165 Tchen~ichc~\~sky~ Saul, 248
literature of, dttritng lslaxnic rule, 145-1.54 Tcrfila, 129,13(f, 131,132
Spi~roza,Benedict f Bnrukh), 176,183 Tet Aviv, 199
Spiritual Zionism, 191 Tmpte, 186
""Srizzg 1942" (Shayevitsh), 245 Temple in Jerusalem, 41,43,46,47,132
St.al11, Josef, 22-G226 cult of, 73, a
Stnnislnwslu, Konstantin, 252 First, 22,25,37-38,43,44
Stempenyi~(Aleichem),2,% %>cond,M,46 49,58,59,60, M, 67, K2
Stc~ryteili~rg, 242 Tempte Mount, 59
Sufisi~~, I75 Tmple Scroll, 52
Sukknl, 132 Ten Commandments, 47,173
Sura tatrnudic acade~ny;82,110, 133, 136, Theater, 249-253
167 TRec~logy,systematic, 138
Sutskever, Abralmrrr, 245,246--247,248,253 T ~ t ~ s ~ z uof mGaonica,
~s 96
Sverdlov, J akot; 211 "TL-tc~usand Aiefs! A" (Bedersi), 1621
Syi~ago&cfes, 94, f 86, 214 Titus (son of Vesgasian), 66,67
and cor~gregatianalt-l~ought,93 Tobias b. Eliezer, 144
developme~litof, 68,71,72 Todros b. Juctah Abulafia, 158-159
ni~drihrdi urrificntiorz, 1% Toledo, 158,163
Tolerance, 183, 184 Vakhtnngov (Armenian theater director),
Tolerirtictn, Edict of (17921, 1% E2
'lirmbfor Ztoris DazpiejovicJ.r, Tlw (Kis), 243 Varshavski, Oyzer, 240
Torah, 9-39,43,50,52-53,177 Vatican Libraq, 93
atxtltorship of, 33-34 Veittshtayn, Rakhmiel, 220
nitd heitedictio~ts,131 Vespnsiarz (Roman emperor), 49,65,66, 67
corrmter~tariaor^^ 73, 136-137, 1% Vichy regime (France),203
laws of, 169,170,173,177 Vilr~ius(Vitlln), 200, 222, 223
Oral+73,74,75,7T Vir-rc)gradav,Ana tofy 2223
redcling cycles of, M, 85,86, 87,88,91,92, Viote~zce.Sre Perwcutiort
131 Visigoths, 113
redcling strategies of, 78-79 Vitry (France) cnmmurrity, 95
translatiox~of, 92 Volozhin (Lithuania), 190
Sre also Hebrew Bible Vi>lttire,Fra1tc;nis-MdrieAmuet, 183
'%rat Kaltgt?int, 78 Von Manskein (Nazi Gerx~tanger~eml),222
Torliosa Disputation f 1413-14141,164
?-;Qsafii)t,
97 Wagner, Echnrd, 188
Tosefta, 75, 76-77, %,% Waltiwee coitkreitce (Gemany), 2113
"To tI-teSun" (Tch~michovsky),248 Waxrdering, 18-19,20,152,245,244. See also
Toussenei, Alpltonse, 188 Migration
Tower of Bavid, 59 Wanclering Jew, 245
Trade. See Ecmomic interaction War%w $het@, 2(12,203
Trani, Isaiah de, 162 Weissenberg, I. M,, 239
2ansiationf; Wiznzann, Chaiin, 195,1953,205
in Mid~illeAges, 158,160,163 well ha user^^ Julius, 33-34
modern, 2,34,246,248,252, E3-254 Wssely, Naftali Hertz (Hawig), 184
Peblinka death. camp, 203 Western Wall, 59
Trial, The (Ucr Prozessl (Kaka), 242 W l z ~ nAll is Said utzd Uottc {Nokjt anknzen)
Pito-Isaiah, 28 (Bt?rgelso)n),239
Trc~tsky,Lean (Let. bviciovich Br(>ltstei~tf, WIzcn the World Was Siletlt t lien di z)clE !rot
l%, 194,212 geslnrignl (Wiesel),238
7i-uman, Harry, 264-205 Wiesef, Etie, 238,243
Eunk, Yehiet Isaiah, 238 Withelm (king of Prussia), 191
Tsedek, Ger, 251 Wisdcsm, 4243,179
7Lr (Jacob), 98 Wisdom literature, 30-31,32,88
Turkislr E~npire,119, 125, 181 Wc~men,35,43,48
biblical, 10,11,12, 14,32-33
Ugzmda, 192 and misogyny, 40, 140, 156
Ukrairre, 190,195, 203,208,209,216,218, poetry of, 249
219,222,223,230 "Wc7men's Songs" ((Moiodowsky),249
Ui~ionof Hebrew Writers (Russia),244 Wads of P~acratzd Putlr CinJessely),184
Utrion of True Russian Propie, 192 Wc~rldWar 1, 135,237,245
Ui~itedNatior~s,205 Worlcl. War XI, 2132-204,220-225
Utrited States 198-198 Wc~rldZionist Organizatiolt, 195
im~r~igratiom to, 182,192, 193, 196,201
literature iit, 237,241,246 Yid HaNazakall (Mairnonides),97
and WW I1 and afterx~tath,204,2115-206 Yadirr, Yigael, 42
Urban H, 122 Yahwist texts, 34
Usury ",3,124, SWalso Noneytencjing Vtzfqut Sllidoni (Simoxr the Preaclrer),
W-100, 145
Ya~rnai(poet), I27,128,131,143
Yelntoshua, A. B., 239,241
2 74 Index

Yehudah. HaNasi, 75,77 Youngsters (di yitrjg~),246

Yehudai @non,h b b i , 133 Youth, 40,41
Yemenites, 92,134
Yeruslwt~ni.See Talrnud Yemsi~almi Z a d d i b , l82
Yesi.rir~ot,190 Zapahnikr', 221
Ywtushenki~,Evgeny 223 Zealots, @,M
Yiddish laxrguage, cultt~re,182,196 Zelda (poet), 249
literature a&189-190, 224,234,235,237, Zevi, Sl~abbetai,182
238,243,244,246 //in Midclle Ages, Zincwiev, Grigory, 211
145 Zionism, 1903-192, 194,195,202,211)
in Polar~d,200-.2Q1 in literature, 241,253
in Russia/So.rri& Union, 193,194,213,214, in Rtissia/Soviet Union, 191,210,
215,216-21 8,220,22%-225,226 213-224,221,227-22(3
theater in, 196,2(XI,251-252 and U.S., 197,206
Yiddish Scientific institute (YXVO), 2013-.201
Vidisfrtaytshlz (yi6ddish ir l All Its Mearzilfgs) Ziotzism-En~my of 12eaceulzd Sclcialli IJrogress
(Clatstein), 246 (Sionizn~-l-"uoti~~nik~~
228
MsIIuVr198-199 Zionist Revisionists, 144
b i n Kippur, 132,142,151,152,16>16it. "Zion, Will You Not Greet Your Captixra?''
Yose ben Vase, 127,128 (Halevi), 153
Uosef be11 Gurior~,l42 Z1.ni~c.s~
244
Vo&r, Yoktruol, 129, 131, 141,143 Zohr;lr (Moses de Lec~n),159,177-180
Yos$3n (Yasef ben Gurion), 142 Zunz, Leopoicl, 87,W
Yo~rrtgGuard (Zionist), 199 Zydukomuna, 222