Ten Introductions To Jewish History And Literature

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 ~ ~ ~ t e c l in the Unitecl States of America. No part: of this publicalion may he reprc3duced or tmnsmitted in any form or by nny mear~s, eelectro~~ic ar mechanicni, inclucl- i n ~ p h ~ t o c o p y ~ reeurc3ing, or any informatioi~ storage and retrievat system, without permis- sicm in wFitii18 from the prrblisher.

Copyright 43 1999 by Burton L. Visntzky ancl Bavid E. F i s h a n

P~~blished in 1999 in the United Slates ctf America by Wetihiew Press, 5500 Central henue , Boulder, Colctrado 80301-2877, arrd in the Ulrited Kilzgdorn by Westview Press, 12 Hid's Copse Road, Cun~nor Mill, Oxford QXZ 9JJ

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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 0-81 33-67l16-6 (hc) -- fSBN 0-8233-671 7-4 (~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 Judaism Under 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~zond R Seht.z"ndEi~t

7 Medieval Jewish Ph31osophy, Warre% Zev Havvey

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

9 History of Soviet Jewfr~; Zvi Gifelegasz

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

Abozzf the Editors alzd Contributors fndex

ntroduction IBUXXTON L. VXSOTZKY AND UAVfD E. FISHMAN

T HE EXPLOSIVE G R O W T E ~ OF JEWISH PTUDIEP PROGRAMS in Ameri- can universities is testhony to the arceptance of Judaism as part of

the fabric of modern Alnerican life. 11-t the Jewish cornunity itself, the quest_ion is 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 ig ious idcntjries. 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 scrholarship,. As a result, Jewish studies courses in tmiversities are populated by both Jews and Gentiles.

Ihe 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~htvined with 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 civilization in its pages.

1n order to do so, this textbook consciously eschews the treatment of what might be deemd ""eunent eventsf"n its pages. For the most pat , both .the history ar~d the litcraturc. considered do not go heyor~d the advent 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~likely that 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, ar~d the I-lolocaust. We are aware of the ubiquity of individual course ogerillgs on each of these topics in American miversity curricula. 1x1 other words, we chose not to include in our llntroductory textbook those topics that we k7ew were most likely to be p~stmkcl in 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 devoted, a separate chapter to nor particularly emphasized feminist views in our various chapters. There is no x~egative judgment 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 discipline 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 employ ed.

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 covered in a given period, or where the literature is either obviously central (e.g., t-he Bible) or overw kimingly plentifuQe.g., modern literature?). In some cases the chapters are mare encyclopedic, particularly when the authors 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 studies: Literature holds such a central position that historic eras afe often referred 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 approximately 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 literature of one unique anthology is an w~usual a 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 earliest 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 history and literature trugether. At &e same time, the scholar in those fields will appreciate how Ora Horn Prouser has carefully balanced her exposition 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 approach 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 ~ a t was 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, md Greek oft-er further evidence for the Hellenistic period 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~liislic likrature 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 h the Hel1e11istic era that the synagogue slid other Jew- ish instituiiions that still persist fomd their orighs. The chapter includes a


discussion of literaturn up to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in the year 7'0 of the common era, or~g the fi teratu~ 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 ~ a t light 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~ktic and 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 ar~d Romm d e . He focuses cm the Jewish w a s agahst Rome and the consequences of the losses of Ihose was , 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:$jcct of Chapter 4, by Burtar~ L. Visotzky. A broad survey of rabbbie literature covering almost a millennium carries readers through the consequences of Rome" destructim of the Jenlsalm Temple and the concorrtititnt emergmce of the synagowe as the decentl^alized institut.ian of Jewish life. The various genres of the literature are considered, and some of the issues in the modem study of this varicd libraq of works arc discussed. The b a d sweep of years covered in rabbinic literatm ne- cessitates a survey approach. The reader will note the exclltlsion of nonrabbinic literature. Although such literaturt-. exists, particularly in Greek, but also in H e b ~ w a ~ d Aramaic, the wealth of rabbhGc matel-lal and limits of space necessitated the narrower focus. h this chapter, as in most of the others, the methodologies of research considered and the approaches taken present the historic mail7stream of scholarship. Recent trends and as-yebunproven methods have been eschewed in, falrar of the classical xnethods pioneered by European scholars well before VVorld War IL These methods are still relia$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 embodied a portable sanctuary. The broad range of the literature fhese men produced is cor~sidered in 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~s of 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 ~II Arabic, 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~re expands from religious volumes tcr all works composed by Jews. The debate &out what cmstitutes "Jewish literahref3hegan in lfie medievd period but has continued 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 written 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~al Jewish thought, particutarly the ~~otoriously unsystem- atic, organismic rabbirtic thought, to produce a new floweri.ng of literature. The power of medieval Jewish philosophy was such that it continued 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~tieth century a rebirth of intct~st led 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 consideration of medieval Jewish mystical literature among the works of medieval and modern Jewish literahzre appropl-iately places these works in their broader Jewish context for st-udent m d scholar alike.


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 consciousness 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 readers. 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 li teratu~. 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. T̂he enlhusiaam of the author is a direct challenge to the reader to taste the fmits of this rich meIIu of works.

:Indeed, our inter~tion is to share the er~thusiasm of the contributing scholars for thg works and histov they discuss. Jewish history and literature 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 "introductions," there is a marked disthction among the various styles of each author pre~nt ing his 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.

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 g of 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 divisions 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, dso cailed the Berltateuch, or Five Books of Moses, begins wieh the creatio~l of 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 n of the world. Many &sues of releva~ce to 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 creation. 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 beyond 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 specific 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 manfs sneeds. 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~g from two dift'erent sources (this wiU be discussed), it still behooves us to make sense of the text jn its present form. The text cm be understood. if one keeps in mind that the Bible is not a history book, even Irhough there is a sip~ificant amowlt of historical information kvithin it. Rather, the Bible is a theological. work dealing with issues such as EsraeXite heritage, chosemess, an understanding 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 n stories, including the or& m d method of c~at ion, especially as they relate to the humans, the place of humankhd within crcatim, the characterizalion of God, and more. Genesis I partraymmrgitr"~ized world 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.

Ihe 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 ~ d the pinnacle of creation in Gcmesis 1, because t-hey are created last, when all is ready for them, so too, because of the t-iiming of 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~nitate the female &ility to reproduce. Mthough these points may be argued, it is clear It-tat assumptions 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~esis that he and his descendants would be fruitful and would multiply vastly. There are further allusions to the creation 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~t to 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 ~ d in 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 amoq their Chil- dren. Sarah chase Isaac, lsaac favored Esau, Rebecca favored Jacob, and Jacob hose 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'mking he 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, md 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~ed the mo~~archy for ahus t 500 years.. How- ever, God rejected pevle 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~g individuals 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~d ardded respo11sibiiiCy The Israelites were the recipicmts of God's special care, prokction, md 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~ts as a model ta the world. God's election of the Israelite people caused them hardship m d pah at times, but never completef3s tihscured the rewards =aped through chosenness. 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 app~ciate the extent of God's power ar~d humankind's dclpe~~dence upon its divine benefactor.

To the reader af the Bible, some of God's choices seem arbitrary ar~d difficult 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, md is the true m d blessed heir of the fmily. The narrati:ve bihlicral texts, howevtll; do not fojlow that pattern. For val-ious reasons m d by various mar~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~d it 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 son, Jacob, ~ e r i t e d the patriarchal blessing by stealfi (Gen. 27-28). Jacobfs oldest son, Reuben, was pased over for the patriarchal bkssing perhaps because he engaged in illicit relations with his fatfit.rfs co~~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 pattern continues througfiout the Bible. Moses was younger than his brother, Aaron, who served as his aide, King David was the ymges t in his faxnily. Solomon was mong 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 JuQah were 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~ce caused by this contradiction led to

14 Ora Horn Prouser

the idea of the ascendancy of the yomger son, Although logic and soci- etai noms dictated t-hat the older son wouid htherit, appearances can be deceivijrrg. Just as it was the youngec weaker son who hherited his father's blessing (or became prophet, priest, or king), the smaller, weaker people would rmain heir to God's covenant ar~d blessing. TM"tgs are 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 u t the 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 received the blessing and was not punished for his actions. Rebecca too suffered 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 covenantal blessing through stealth. The :Lack of mrimination can be understood as a further stakment of the understmcting of Israel in the ancie17.t world. 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.d by 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 deception has been a difficult one for Jewish comme~~tators. 'The charactel-ization 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 ims 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 portions of the Bible that encourage behavior that can be wnoralv wrong? These ~ e s t i o ~ ~ s go beyod &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 alternative readings that argue against the viole~~ce or the immoral hehavior depicted. There are actions in the Bible, however; that might cause the reader to wmt to state publicly that this behavior cm no longer be considered 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 narratives 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 fulfillment 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~sidered under 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 sat ing of the sea added additional miraculous elements. The comhh~ed effect of all these miracles il- lt~stsated God" 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 act 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~cedence begixls in the Ten Commandm~nts m 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 example, 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 indebtedness of' the Israelites toward God.

This persistent ~ l a t k n s h i p of chosenness and obligation is a ma~or portion of two otrher foci of the "fbrah: covenirnt and law. God made several 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 agah shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." Fen . 9:8-21)

.After the flood, in an unconditional covenant, God prolnised that the worXd a ~ ~ d its idabitants 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 desce~~da~ t s (G~II. 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 ~ ~ a ~ t God made 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 un ive 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 ar~d intemediary, 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~ur house 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 bdah in the south. According to the Bible, the small state of Judah was preserved 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~thued for ahos 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 people, 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 simply 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 responsibilities that this covenmt placed on its respective partks.

after the Israeliks had left Egypt and established their covenantnl relationship with God at Mount: Sinai, they experienced m extremely formative 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 nations 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 support 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 odcr 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;.n by 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 develop 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~aanite peoples.

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 ihe Canaar~ite people 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 ordered 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 techologically advanced. The Kble, however, compensates for this situation by depicti~lig each battle fought using quite unconwmtional tactics. In the most famus 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~d the 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 fi gtnthg 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 conquered 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 picture. 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 J oshma, 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~d the settlement of the IsraeliLes in Canaan .from a historical perspective. Some scholars 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~occupied hiIl country of Canaan and settled them while growing and becornkg st-ronger. As they grew they needed more room, and over a :Long period of time, they begm to fight with their Cmamite neighhors until they ultimately eor~quered t-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 wi 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 repeated 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 under 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 problems 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 responded 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 successful Isklig, saving Israel from warring enemies, and as a negatke character, 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

Ihe 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 expressed 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 questions throughout Samuel are why Saul was chosen m d then rejected and why David was chosen but never rejected. As was seen earlier, God" reasons 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" lws , 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~liy alienated 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 recognize 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~g rcadh"tgs of 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 bu i lhg , 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 w odd 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. period of time. Rather, there we= recur~nt eras 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 alternative centers of worship in the north. Those sites were denounced by the south as idolatrous a r~d were 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~eficid because 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, successes, 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 inner 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 &%own as "preclassical prophets." m e for~xer prophets 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 war~~hgs .

TKe latter prophets, in cmtrast, were c a k d by God to deliver m e or more a s sages to the Israelites. This could be a temporary calling or a lifetime vocatim. Prophets we= not paid by those to whom they prophesied. 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 example, in the eighth cenkrry h o s , chronologically the first of the classical 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>llowing the 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~ral abuse. Nevertheless, the prophets carried on their work, conveying Gad's message to the Israelite people.

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These pm""phets spoke in miversal tones. They understood the Israelite God to be the solo God of the world, controlling al:l peoples 'They also p~sen ted a new understanding of f i a t Gocf desired ffom people. mey explained, that God, did not want the people merely to obey the ritual laws, worsfipph~g exclusiwly through prop"' sa'ificcs and Temple service. 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 leadi~~g unethical lives. They even raised the importmce af moral laws to the point of saying 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, 0 molz, zc~hnt is 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 interpretation embraced the prophetie books as ~flecting a rejection of ritual law, it it; important to uderstar~d that 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 abandoning 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 ethical messages, it is very significant that the prophets included this type of co~~dem~at ioz~ in their words to the Israelites. The inclusio~~ of social criticism makes clear that Gad's demands an humankind incllude not only cdtic and sacrificial responsibilities but also both personal and communal 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 khgdm was ultilnatcly destroyed 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 already 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 Baby lanians 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. ma 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~ish the 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~d could be worshiped on foreip soil. n i s new Lheo- logical approach allowed the Israelites to remain loyal to Gad while in. exile 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, inst-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: "Nave 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

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out of the a>untries where 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 worship, 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 holiness they experiemed in Jerusalem, but God was still with &em.

A closer look at the life of one prophet Jaemiah, sheds light on ihe difficult 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 begh~ing 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~k down before them, Lest I break you befow ffienz, 1 @lake you this day Aforf $c8 city, Arzd nlz inn pillar, And bronze walls Against tfle whole llz~~d- AgcEinst judalz's ki~zgs and ~~ficers, And against i f s priests and eiCize~zs. T l rq zvill attack you, But they shall not aueucome you; icor I am with you-declu~s the h rd - fo 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: intercession ol-r behaif of the people beforc. God. He cox-rtinuously prayed 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 cmer m d its requirement that he cm- stanf;ly ~ b u k e thc. 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 ~ d attempted to reject his prophetic callling. Each time, though, Jereuni* recovered, 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;itke thniiglt @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~ar words were oferc.d, I dtwaurrd them; Your word bmzigh f me the delight and joy Of knnwirg tI2at X1~lr name is at facited fo me, 0 Lord, God of Hosts. i' have not slnt irz the company o/revelers A;r-rd made 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~zd inczirable, Resishnt to healing?

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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 dating based on his interactions with eighth-cent-ury h g s , such as &az m d Hezekiah.. He counsekd them during some very diffjcult times in bdaean history mI"ir"tg IsaiaWs years as prophet, Isracl attacked Jullah in a r ~ attempt 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 'Judah from 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 md 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 consolation adcliressed to an exiled Judaem people. In these chapters, the prvhet addresses Lhe exiles, explahh~g to t-hem the reasom for the destruction, =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 &%own as 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, begh~ing his work in Elaibylonia and fhishing it after retznrming with the exiles to Judah. Others consider T~b-1saia.h a 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 cumulative work of the various prophets in Isaiah expsesses in microcosm the fudaean experience in bot%r internal a d exterx~d struggle, 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.

Ihe largest corpus of bihlical poetry exists in the KeWim, speciSicafly in the book of Psalm. This book involves psahs 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~owledge God for blessings 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 occasions, as well as tru more gex~eral situatio~~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 prohably used in liturgical settings in the ancient world, and some are still repeated 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~tilin two 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 ~ ~ g with yoar alat_lnllnlzf ~ o m p ~ i s i ~ ~ , blot 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 ancestors. God% compassion, holvever, is a trait totally wi.1Erin the divivre character. The author adds that i f he does not deserve mercy because of past tra~sgressions, he is still appcaiing to God's irherex~t sexlse of compassion. 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 device. 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. biblical l i teratu~, 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 mm 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-re love portrayed as an inherent part of Che natural wrM. 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 bwk is rillegorifal, referrjng to the love between God md 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 . ~ ~ t the book 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 focus on a garden and life among much flora. a d fauna. h both stories the focus is on love ar~d not marriae and pmc~atiox~. Most sipgicantly the rare word for "'desire" or "lust" i s repeated in bath stories h opposite 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~g of 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 part~~er needing 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 success.. 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 0 is 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~llnblc man ruill ~ e c i m many blessit~gs, But one in a hz~rry to get rich will ~ c t t go 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~ho shuts 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 context, 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 exy erience.

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~g that riighteous people art. rewmded and sinr~ers are 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~tradict the 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 punishment. T%ey come to the conclusion that there are many elements of the world that are incomprehensiE>Ie to 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 earf h'sfoznzdrrl tz'011s.3 Syc~ak zf 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?

(Job 3 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 understand 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 not rtecessarily human cente~d. The world is full of many species of flora and fauna, all of which are of concern to God and thus affect divhe actions.

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One fascinatinf: interpretation of the book of Job understands this dy- namk someMi.hat differe~~tiy, Rather than rea* God'.; speeches as describhg 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 answer, 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 ~ d colXective respmsjhility, m d thus m h e cent persm could be punished by Cod because of the sins of his or her community or ancestorti. As this belief waned and illnocenl: people wre still seen to suffer, a new ~mderstmdlstg needed ta be reached. Thus, fob came to say that we do not mderstnd the world, md per.haps &ere is no divine justice as we have w~derstood it. 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 fow~d that 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-tg to his experience, the atrthor perceives that nothing is determined by one's proper or im- proper behavim "A season is set for eve~thing, a time for every experience under heaven'" (Eccles. 3:l). These ""times'bill occur regardless of humm behaviar; they are not rewards or pmishments. Though occasionally 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-tjoyment with 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 destmction and the ultimate salvation of the Jewish people. Esther managed to save the Jewish populatio~~ of Persia through a combination of good fortune, cleverness, m d bravery It is noteworthy that in both Ruth and Es- he 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 ~sponsihility for themselves a r~d their people. Significantly, it is the womm who act and attain success and good fortune through their bravery, cclwrness, m d hitiative* Just as in the begbing of the Bible, the matriarchs ensured that God" chosen sons would iderit Ihe blessing, so too toward the end of the Bible, when God's direct pl~stmce is 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>ttual mea~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 vest im. Rabbinic commer~tators fail 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,iterature of the Rabbis," &discusses these ideas in more detail.

Moden~ critical shdies of the Rible ge~~erafly include diff;erent assumptions 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 se texts otiginated in fudah, in the south, in the tenth century. "Efy is 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-rthues to rage as to lfie dating of "I),"" rmgiI?Lg from 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 contradiction. &owing the sources is also helpful in understanding the bias and approa" of a specific text.

Mmy 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 h circular reasonhg. Source criticism is also less helpful in understanding the bibliral text as a whole than as ipldividuat stories. MTI7e1.1 using 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. Mj le looking for the pre-text, one can :Lose sight of the text in its presex~t fom. Some 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-2aliatio is hlpful in understa~ding historical events, specific words, hagery, legal con~rentions, poetic m d literary de- vica, and literary &ernes, hcient Near Eastern historical texts, such as m- nals of h g s and records of battles, can be used to elucidate not 01.11~7 the general world in which the Israelites lived but also specific events mentimed 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: themesy metaphors, 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 better understnndkg of the ~volutionary naturc3 ot t%le BMe. To engagc: effectively in this type of comparative effort, biblicists sbdy the cultufes and languages of the Ak:kacfian, ksyrian, Babylonian, Sumcfian, and Egypt-i;an civilizations. 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 nuances, 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 accessible 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 me tbd of biblical study is kmjriist jnter- pretation of the Bible. Using hminist me.thodology, one may analyze how &sues of gex~der and 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 ~ ~ s of scholars* 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, sbdmts of the Bible most effectively reveal its remarkiltble h~tricacies.

Notes

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

Suggested Readings Bremer, Athalya, md CaroZe Fc)ntaine, eds. A Fenzitlisl" Ct?mnyatliun to Reading the Bible:

Apyonchlrs, MetIzu&, arzd Strategies. Sheffief d : Sheffield Academic Press, 3 997.

Childs, Brevard. Tnfmductz'o~z fu 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 Me~lz i~~g: AIZ IE-

f rodzrcfiorz fu Biblical Crif icisms land Tjzeir A~?pIZ'catio~~. t~uisvif le, 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 formal 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 (333 B.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 my 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 imperial 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~el in 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 ~ a t syrnbolie meaning, as it was an ach~owledgmenl of fealty

:In addition to the Temple ofIicials, there was a political rulier, or gover- nor, appohlted by ihe king, of whom Nehc~ iah is one cxampie. In gal- eral, the regimc did not encourage the emergence of a strong local poli,tical (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 governed, 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 of "".the 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 meaning onfy after it had passed from Ifie Persimzs to the Greeks in the third century B.C.E.

f i e t-feitlenistic Period 39

The author of Kohelet was a rich man, with m acquisitke attihrde typical of the era; he was anxious to accumuiatc as much property as possible 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~ish those deserving chastisemnt (8:IO-17). The same fate affected m m a ~ d t-he 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, because 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).

HOW do those thoughts indicate the Preacher" sonnectian with the Greek worlci? Despite what is sometimes argued, the pessimistic mm- mer~ts cited 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~~cient Rabylonian 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 f f ~ ~ l l be 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~zce thou and play! Let thy gar~zents b p syarkliqfiesh, Pry Fzc~ad be wslzed; b a l k thou in zuuk,r:

Pay heed ta the little one that holds onto fF~y hnd , Lct tlzy sf?ousc delight irz thy brlsr,rrr( For this is the task of[mankhdj.

Tablet X, it'i, 6-34

At most ot~e can say that pesimi"iic attitudes, which have existed virtually from time imm,emrial, may have ~ceivect some reinforcement as a result of contact with Greeks.

What then is decisiz~ely indicative of cor~tact with the world of the Greeks in Kohelee Perhaps the clearest example cm be found in the attitude toward women:

1 fc~und more 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 1 have 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~ing his 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 "misogynist" 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 included 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 usually fomd in. the Bible is significant. Clld age, in biblical texts, was nor-


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 background (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 blessing, but as a possible burden, or even a curse.

These Greek ideas had permeated upper-class circles in Jerusalem, as represe~nted by lrhe author of Kohelet. In the new world of w~abashed ac- quisition opened up by the Greeks, Jewish sockty bacf chaxnged sufficiently 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~ntained that 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~non the Righteous reasserted the traditional understanding 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, according 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~nge of Hellernism can be fow~d in the Wisdom of Be 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~th century. 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 ~ I I Jerusalem. He cm be dakd on the basis ol the translation of his work into G ~ e k , preparcd circa "132 R.C.F. by his grandson. Thereforr;, the author li:ved. in Jerusalem around 180 B.C.E. His persor~al hero was 5imm, 5017 of O d s , the high priest of his day (Ben Sira 50:1), p""s"jhly the sam person as Simon the Rightreous (already mentioned). Xt is therefo~ not surprising to find Ben Sira sharing points of view with Sirnon the Rghteous.

Far Ben Sira, wisdom was intimately comected with the observa~ce of 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 comphend issues that he was permitted to investigate, hence he did not push to attempt to understand fctrbidden matters, cel-titinly beyond 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~or his father (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%ltul in 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 rival's work can be found in chapkr 24, Kohelet had cor~centrated on 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


what is true wisdom, Wisdom, he asserted, was created by God at the begi'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 wisdom had a special home, decl~ed by God. Hes dwelling was in Jacoh, her inherita~ce was 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, ""is the book of the covenar~t of 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 supplied this element in his world in his chapters in praise of fmous 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~rn him; 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 Jerusalem by 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 Jemdem ( 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 regulations, 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~dards of the 7brah, forgetting the Law ar~d abandoning its ordinances (1. Mace. 5:4449). T%e mtives of Antiochus XW in issving these d e c ~ e s remain a s u b j ~ t of intense scholarly debate, Were these acts undertake1 at the irlitiatilul-e of Jewish reformers, who wanted to moder11- ize their rclligion and rernove from it alt tmces of practices which separated 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 attempt 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 %V took the steps be did.,

Whatever explanation is adopted, two facts rmain clear: first, that some Hellenizing Jews coliaborated, at the very least, with, the royal decrees; second, that these decrees led to an armed revolt, first raised by Mattathias the H a s m o ~ ~ e a ~ , under the command of his son Judah Mac- cabee. This revolt, taken together with the troubles afflictjr-rg the Seleucid empire on other fronts, was sufficiently successful to have the Temple restored 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~d fmifiak 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 family This accomp%ishment was made possible by mems of a Wetrack policy: (l) utilizing the compelition between forces cox~testing for contml of the Seleucid empire to obtah the greatest possible privileges for the Jews and


the Hasmonem hmily, md (2) maintainkg Romm support for the emcrg- ing Jewish state (I Macc. 8). Thus, a lor~g-tern result 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-tg affirmation 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 Shon% descendants were those who collaborated with the decrees of Antiochus Ilv 0th- ers had left Palestine to f o u d a rival tempk h Leor~topolis in Egypt. The fiigh priest%tood in 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 s of 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 ~ a t had 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 connection 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 remnants 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 rde bvas legal and legitimate 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~~t parts 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 ~ ~ t i o ~ ~ of the 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 confirmed as leader and high priest forever, until a trustworthy prophet should arise (1 Macc. 14:41). Me was to be governorf in charge of the sanctuary, and obeyed by all; all contracts would be written in his name, and he bvould be clcltkred in purple and gold (1 Macc. 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 sacrifices 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 t was 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?d deferral unlil the corning oC a tmst-kvor&y prophet? Perhaps they were the status of Maccabean mle as a whole, the Maccabeeshss of the office of high p ~ e s i in spite of the fact that their fmily had not been in, that position previously"!atever the situation might have been, the


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~g a

small openjng t.o remak-more theoretical. tF-rm practical, 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 traditional 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 i f the latter mi&ht he late in coming.. Much of this must hitwe seemed in need of reinforcement in the aftemath of the decrees of htiochus IV and their corlse- quences. It is the~fore not surprisil-tg that an institzltion of wl?ose existence we did not hear before the xnid-second century B.C.E. begm to take a pr~minent place 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 ody 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 s responsjbility 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 sacrificial area, in the Charrrher of Hewn Stone in the Terrrple, after the sacrificial. 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 toward lrhe Maccabees was equivocal at best, adopted it as part of their lives (Qumran Cave 2, Sera4 HaYabd [Rule of the Community] 10,10-l$), and

authors such as Josephus had no doubt that Moses himself had ordered the Jew S to recite the Shema daily (Arzl. 4,196).

Independence also had other consequences, not all af which were logically contjistent with the steps discussed above. For example, the poli.tical circumsta~ces under which the Maccabees achieved these results were such that they required the family to become well versed in, the surrounding world and its culture. How could one judge which camp to join, which pretex~der to 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~ies of Maccabem rule was that it led. to ex- tex~sive Hellenization of its leaderti, LVhiCh also trickled d w n alax~g various paths to the members of the nation as a bvhale. This HelXenizatian can be seen in any numkr 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-im of 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 notion of a queen as sovereip is f o ~ i g x ~ to ihe s t ruc tu~s of 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 possibility is to look to ihe role of ihe CIeopat"^awf Egypt 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 owl 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 fe~nt than those that might have been taken by their initial tlellenizing oppanex~ts had the latter been victorious. Such, however, were the consequences af independence-

Josephus and Philo

Much af the hforrxation in the previous sections comes from 1. md 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


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 1 Macci-\bees- From that point until the destruction of the Temple by the Romm 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 fmgy on his mother" side, He received m ex- cefint eduration, eventually k~vestiga&~g the diffe~nt Jewish groups a ~ d spending three years as the Collower of a destrrt hermit named K becme hvolved in the 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 inte-nded to dissuade them from t a h g up arms agairrst Rarne. Later h his caxer Josephus wrote three works: Atzt.icjzliCifs q f h e favs, an accomt of Jew- ish history up to the oufbrcak of the war agak-rst b e ; L*, his autobiography; md Against Apion, a book d i~c ted agahst a well-horvn. mti-%mite from Alexm&ria; in that book Josephus wered charges that had been directed 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 ~ce ived the h e s t Jewish and Greek education available. His works show a special se~~sitivity to the prohlem 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 Jewish Sedarianism

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~ditions of ehat era. Their proliferation was to he a characteristic 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 e for 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-Jewish neigfibors. 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 century, these barriers kvere trnder severe pressure, as the htention of "Ie reforms 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~d century 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 y from 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


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) concerning 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 13harisees attempted 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 bown: 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 property. 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 in mtters 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~trai claims: &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 prestige, 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 component 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~g his lifetime m d confirmed after h.is death by the empty tomb where he had been bufied (Mark 16).

The Cl~ristians would genemte many vafieties of their group in the generations 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. h the 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~l of elltry and with the inea~sification ol 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~al cove~~ant. A sect within Judaism had become a religio~l of 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 m k , or inte~~sely bow~d to 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 lkved 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 understanding 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%tors close 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 developed the notion of m origind esoteric Torah, event-ually lost to the nation


as a whole, uihich they (and ody they) had been privileged to (re)leam as a resuit of ongoing reve1atior.r. Through these ectchrriyucts those at Qumra~ 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 d over 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 s at 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 followed the destructio~~ of tht. %mpIe in 20 C.E. In a sense, Qurnran is therefore little more than a footnote to Jewish history Nevertheless, the opportmity to read documents of Jewish sectarians at firsthmd, without the interventiox~ of Josephus or the New Testamalt, makes these texts a resource 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, although 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 counterparts 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 ruling 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 md 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~t of 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~sidered at 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 cm 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, ar~d Roman support, as we have seen, was an essential plmk of Macc&em politics. The Romms tf--remselves conquered Jerusalem irz 63 B.c.E., inaugurating a x~ew era 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 t Wevcflt ( 6 6 % c.E.), t-he Diaspora Revolt (115-117 c.E.), a ~ d the Bar Koaba Revolt 032-135 c.E.). Tbe period of the Macc-aibees thus stands as a brief shhhg moment of sevenw-seven years (14M3 B.c.E.), when the Jews enjoyed the blessings and probltlms of independmce. It was the interlude between or~e era of subjugatior~ md 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 shq ing 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" AAZ~ tiquit i~s 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-feitlenistic Period

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 ~ c jezus ilz t l ~ c Greek 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-iniainn fzidnistrz. 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~t n~td file It~zus. Philadelphia: Jewish Publica-

tion Society; 1959. Vermes, G. The Dead Sea Scrt?-lllfs in E~~glish. Sheffield: JSQI- Press, 1987.

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~us and Aristobulus, then fought each other for succession to the t%lrone. Both Hyrcanus (usuafiy called by scholars Hyrcmtrs 12) and Aristabulus (usually called by scholars Aristobulus 11) appeared before the Romn legate in SyTia, each asking 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 subsequent events, they transferred their support to Hy~cranus 11, 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- rael (Er\g-teli.b~oc~d Cliffs, N.J.: Prer-ltice Hall, l"Sriff), and Herschet Shanks, ed., Cjzristiir~zity alzd

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 P ompey 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 legions (63 B.c.E.),

Pompcy's corliquest of Jerusalem closed one chapter in Romm-Jewish relations and opened another. A h~xndred years 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 followed 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 th ic 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 rde 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 s 11. 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 n to 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 (often justified,) of all lhose who had, an equal or better claim to the throne than he. In the first years of his reip, Herod execukd the survivi~~g members 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 ~ d his wife's relatior~s-her broa~er, her aunt, and her falrher. Fi- nally he murdered Mariam~e too. At the end of his reip~, he cxecuted the two sons Mariame had borne him..

Herod c ~ a t e d a 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 d a mapificent harbor, utilizing the latest technology in hydraulic cement amd ttnderwater cnnstmctisn. Herod also founded several other cities, notably Sebaste (on the site of ancient Samria). He bestowed gifts and benefactior~s 0x1 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 ar~d recopition from both the Jews and the pagans, within his kiclgdoln and outsicf,e it. 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 because A17to11y was headquarte~d in the East. But at the Battle of Ac t iw in 32 B.c.E., Octavim defeated Antonyf m d the entire Mediterranean, including Egypt, came to the hands of Octavian,

Herod had supported the losin$ side. He was obviowly in deep trouble. 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 d u r i ~ ~ g the course of his lor~g reign was rwilrded several times by trhe emperor (renamed Augustus) with grants of additional territory*

The An tiqtritz'es c$ the JEUS by Josephus recomts two major compfakts She Jews had ag&~st Herod, aside from their despising his viole~~ce ar~d brutality. First was his \liolrttion of traditionai Jewish laws. He buill a theakr md m mphitheakr in Jerusalem (wither has yet been discwered by archaeol- ogists), where he staged gladiatorial gmes and other forms of enkrtain- mek~t that kvere foreip to Judilism ilnd inh ied to m,al?y Jews He built pagan cities and temples and seemed to favor the pagan and Samaritan elements in the pogulation over the Jews. Many of his judicial ar~d ad trative enactme~~ts were not ~II accordance with Jewish law Certain elements 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,

Ihe 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 hot 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~s broke 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~dless men 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 behind (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~d Herod 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;on is the Roman prefect Pantius Pilate (ca, 26-36 c.E.). Pillate ~ce ives a 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 because 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 e oi 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 native retigions of tbe empire; the Jews rtrfused to wmship m y god but their own, =-used to acknowledge the emperfaCs right to divitse honors, refused 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~xitted Jewish citizens to refrain from participation in pagan ceremonies; allwed priests of the Jemsaltm Temple to offer sacrifices 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); exeqted the Jews from military 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~omous ethnic communities, which i\fforded the Jews the opportunity for commtxnal self-government.

The mad emperor Caligula m$ his legate in Egypt withdrew or attempted 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, however, 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 e and au tonov of their o m city. On the other hand, the Jews t%lotrght that 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~d destmction. 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,

Ihe trouhies in Alexa~lidria were wttled by Cladius, Caligdil's successor, 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 refusal of Irhe Jews even to consider rebellion against the empire, tn alexandria, 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 Eq i re .

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~g a reign as his grmclfather Herod t l~e Great. 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 Jwish 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 wodd have been impregnable durhg the Jewish revolt. that erupted in. 66 C.E.


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 domain. of the k n n m procurators. There was no longer a kwish authority who, despite uitirnak subservience to Rome, could satisfy Jewish nationalist aspirations. Moreover, the procurators after 44 C.E. were incnmgelent m d insensitive at besk, compt 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 a ir~tervened, 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 inc~ased sig~ificantly in 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 s of 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,ents of 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 d on 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 become ruler of the world," In the years immediate@ preceding the revolt, many "'eschatological prophets" were active, predictint; the imminent approach of the end time or attemptbg, by mems of a symbolic action (for example, splitting the Jordan River), to hasten or implement its arrival.

Ihe social te~~sio~lis ar~d eschatological 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 Romn 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 labo~rs , and landless poor formed the bulk of the revolutionary army. As so often happms in revdutions ancient and modem, in its i-t-ritial phases 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 revolt was, themfore, hardly unique h the 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 seventeen 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 depredations 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~lationship of 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, after 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?s had its own history The diverse groups shared a commm willhgness to fight the Roman?; but differed hom one another in many respwts, which explains 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 ~vdr t t imary party, 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 Teqle . 'This act cvas tantarnowt to a declaration of war, As if to emphasize the point, after FZorus retreated., Eleazar and his supporters turned on the Romxr garrisorrs Horns had left: in the city, ar~d besieged them.


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~g nolhing 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 md pagans attacked each other. 'The hostility to~vard pagms and pagmism that motivated the revolutionaries in Jerusalem 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~drin thirty 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, in the 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 agah 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 ~ d for 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 attention to the sitruation in fudaea.

T%e two-year f-riahs should have been a great boon to the revolutionaries 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 "moderate"")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 revolutionary 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 propaganda, 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%e major 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.

Ihe Romar~s acfvanced 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 victory was only a maner of time. Each of the city" three protective walls


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 general 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-zry target. No opprobrium would be athched to its destruction. Titus, however, argued that the Temple should be pxserved as a monument 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), late A~guSt 70 c.E., the Temple was destroyed. 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 ~oint triumpj7 with his father, the emperor Vespasim. In the triumphal procession were the enemy leaders Sinton ben Giora and John of Gischaliit and various objects 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 d in 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~s did not 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~ent arrival 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~e revolutionaries 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 anything inblerable, there was no cmpelling rctason to go to ware This 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 pacified 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.

Ihe causes of the failure of the war arc not h a d to see. Ihe 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 succeed 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 assassinatio~~ 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, however. 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 ime on


the intermediation of the Temple priesthood had been supplemented by a piety that emphasized the o$servance of the cornmandmer~ts of 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 7'0 C.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~zt Ismel. Englewtlod Cliffs, F;;",J,: Prentice Hall, 1988, Shanks, H., ed., Christlianity n~zd Rabbinic fudtzklrz Washington, D.G.: Biblical Ar-

chaeology %?ciety, 3 992. Smallwood, E. M., The Jews Ufzder Roma~z Rzile. Leiden: Brill, 1976,

The Literature the Rabbis

BURTON L. VXSOTZKY

m THE ROMAN LEGIONS LEFT the Jerusalem Temple in mok- ing rubs in 70 c.E., a new chapter began h Jewish history and lit-

erature. The daily and festival animal offerings had been t-he cornersto~~e O( the prieslly ~lligion that 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 altar 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 sacrificial 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 movement 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~g continuity with lrhe sacr~icial cdt, Judaism continued to devclv nonpriesay leadershjy of an inte1.1Cectual amd charismatic nabre. This leadership cut across class m d economic bonds to form a category of religious adepts who led more by ~ce ived knowledge 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 rou~~d and apart .from the Bible. 'They passed on their traditions 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 popdation, 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~der control of the rabbil7ic leadership, was the academy (bet midrash). WheC1-rer takh~g place 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~xative period 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 thousands of dead in Jewi.sh cornunities fhroughout the Roman world. The influace of those comunities within their local Ileknic s p h e ~ s was 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 ig ious obserwance, 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~e and 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 mri ts r n e ~ ~ t i o ~ ~ was the sbift in popuiittion M- 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, synagogue, and rabbbic movement.

Tannaitic Literature

In the two centuries following the destruction, the rabbis had an enormous 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 ~ ~ d a canall (the Bible), whi& rabbinic (md not priesay) leadership interpreted to guarantee contjnuity with the very cult these communities had replaced. From the destruction of the "fi?my>te in 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~tinuiv with the moribund priestly cd t was c er~tal-y 01% the 'Ibrah, which first en- shrked it m d then preserved its memory. One of the results of this commentary, 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 ~cxanrining every "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 ~-eference to 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-teritoxs of 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 independent voice of authority ('"ilbbi so-and-so says . . ."). One source of their authoriv was biblical exegesis, the adept iPlteryretation of Scr ip tu~ 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 th is 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, rabbinic 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 :Literature of f i e early yel-ioct. Both wese claimed by the rabbinic community 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 y Hatakhic 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 exegeses may have also included *eological, nonbehavimal, folklot.istirf and. 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 ar~d il~depedent orgm~izatio~l. Ofte~~, 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~c pronow~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~lships and the give-and-take betwen 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 traditions and, to a much lesser extent, some of the earlier exegeses contpose


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 community are best exemplified by bis designation in subsequent litemturn as simply '*R(.rbbi." Rabbi Judh , 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~ah was 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~d Sacred '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 &Shah) , 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 Miha l t .

It is said that Yehudnh HaNasi" pprt.decessors had already begun the process of orga~izing the 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%-ren the nascent rabbinic authority, Even as the Mishnah seemingly eschewed biblical domination, it embraced the Temple cult. The order of Sacred Thix~gs was all about the &- h c t Temple. The order of Taboos dealt with issues of ritual fiwess, originally legislakd bp the Permtateuchal book of Leviticus for the priests in the sanctuanl, Even the order on Caie~lidar contained 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"cErentic leadership.

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 " ~ d fresh 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~ah in a category of a ~ c i e ~ l t literature, it is equdly difficult to guess at its intended function. In adcttition to recording disputes about case law, the Mishnah offers a schernatized version 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,

Ihe 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~lal document that Rabbi Ychudah HaNasi p ~ p a r e d for publication. Was the Mishah pubished "'crrally" by recitation of the memory expert of the academy? Or might it have been a written 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, supported by generatims of rabbinic scholars who knew the text by memory Recer~t studies, however, have questioned t-he absolute oral nahnrc? of the document. Shce it is clear that within the rabbinic commmity of the second 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~ic literature 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


tractates. The Tosefta often quotes Mishnah; herefore, it camot be understood outside the cox~text of the Mishnah. However, the Tosefta sometimes contradicts the rulhgs of the Mishnah. Furthermore, the Tosef a repeatedly 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"~ rulings, This determination is, however, essential in understanding just how authol-ltative the Mishlal.1 was 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 authol-ity for the same mlings that the Misbx~h offers 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-rim arc. 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, Ishael , which begins at Exodus 12:1, that is, at the opening of the legal rnatcllrials of Exodus. Thus, the Tav~aitic rrridmrihim (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-century hititorims 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~n attributed 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 ~ d the book of Exodws mixes narrative with law, the Mekilia I,fRubbi klmmel has 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 noms 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 &ifferences between 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 s of Rabbi Ishmael. M a t follows is a series of close readirrgs on a small portion of Leviticus, mostly followkg the opinions and exegetical metl.iods of Aqiba. The arcane nature of tlne priestly material 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 ~ c l narrative 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 :Rabbi Ayiba and Rabbi I s h a e l will help put this dixussio~~ into perspec.tive. Rabbi Aqiha (much like the Church Father Chigen a cernhrry later) belicved the Torah to be a divine 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 h mu& bter rabbinic literature to


infer HaIakhah from the letker "uav" (a common conjunction), and. in one n g g d ~ he is reputed to ir-tfer Halab& from the calligrapbic a d o r ~ ~ m e ~ ~ t s on 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 noms 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 ~ d that this was done h the face of Chris- tian ascendance in the fourtl? century' the majority opinion =mains in favor of m early datjng far the itic midrashirn. mough th been rc~dacted in 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 ce~~tury The style of the

aitic midrashh also argtres far a dating contemporary with the Mishnah, Thus it maybe concluded that these Tannaitic midrashim contairT authentic eady rabbinic exegeses sometimes in common 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~naitic midrashim. There is one additional ex ta~t source 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. Mish& bvas

compared, to the Tosefta, to a lesser extent to the Tannaitic midrashim, and to Ta~naitic statements 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 rabbinic study of Mishab, These texts themselves, mmy of which appeilr to be records of the discussions about Mishnah that took place in the rabbinic academies, were redacted into co entary on the Mishnah known as Gemara. The combination of Mish& and Gemara together make up Talmud.

'There are aciually two col:lectio11s called "f8lmd. 'The earlier was compiled in the fifth century in Palestine and is accordin& r e f e r ~ d to 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~s of 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~listnlal Impurities) 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 con tent,

Many sectims of fhe Yerushalmi appea word-h-word ~ I I more than one place. Entire egments are found in various tractates, apparently inserted on the basis of a commm topic of Jewish law or by means of a com- m m m~emonic device 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-


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~stitutes the bulk of the Mish~aic comme~~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 exemplary lives and occasionally stories of their reputed mnrtyrdoms. There are also many stories of case law irrt which local rabbis offer opin- i l )~~s to litigants about issues directly raised or alluded to in the Mishnah. These seemingly historic incidents often stand in contrast to the legendary accounts found in the Yemshalmi about events of the rahbixlic era. (e.g., Bar :Kolihhafs rebellion).

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 pat , the Christianization of the West prevented the growth of the P alestiniarr communi"cy, Xn part, the laws and customs of Sassarrian Babylonia proved fertile grow~d for the gmwth of ra$binic Judaim there. h m y case, the Fertile Crescent provided the econmic ectrrity for the bwish comuni ty 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 monument 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 lacking from Sacred n ~ ~ g s (Kodas:him), m d all of "fgboos (Rhorat) is wi&out commentary, ssare tractate 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 %rushh 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 inserted into the fifth chapter of tractate Gittin (Divorce). Legendary materials, 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~naitic and 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~ian rabbis carried a fair d e g ~ e of authority within the social and political str-uctures 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~eratim of rabbhic scholars, and the long pmcess of redaction of the Elavli began. In addition to xportinf: actual disagreements of Babylonian masters, the successive editors of tkc? ':IBlmuci took ear:lier traditions and presented them, too, as dialogue between rabbis.. It seems that the later, monymous, editors 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 presentation of the rabbhic materials, Indeed, even stories of the rabbis m d biblical 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-roritative commentary 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-


ion in one place is normative in mother. Argument, dialectic, and constant recor~sideration are 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 being podwed, 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 synagogue 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~d and narrative rather than on law, dates from the d d d l e to latter 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 reading, 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 consideration 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 rabbinic 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 solecisms, or perceived morai lapses of biblical heroes. 'Thus Ahraham, for example, 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 age~~da to be imposed ~II the gaps rex~dered in 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~ciples were 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 ~ ~ cycllcs of the Patestiniar~ synagogues.

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 in this period 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;ah cycle to be completed. This varyi.ng lengtfs of time was complicated by the fact that there was na fixed custom for Lhe so-cdled triem~ial cycle 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~ough this presented a chdler~ge to the itinernnl preacher, it did not bother the villagers of a f=iven synagogue, 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, my 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. Assuing that the various 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-


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 theories of cosmology, questions of posticism, and Jewish mysticism. h the family narratives of Ger~esis the comer~taries impose 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~achronisticaily read back into Ge~~esis with t-he pretense that the chamcters of the Bible lived a rabbillic Jewish life. Again, this imposition 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 s Rabbah 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 exegeses 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 exegetical fashion. Thus, in lfie Lewiticai makriai haling with the laws of lepras)t/, the midrash pursues the theme of the evils of gossip. The comection 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.zoracl and 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 actually avoids the subjects of Lcwiticus in favor of his own rabbinic didactic 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~sciousness form 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; howel~r , scholars have determined that these are literary forms imposed by the editor of kvi f icus Rnhbah on disparate matdals ar~d serve 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"t synagope.

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 ~ c i leave the iljusion of being synagogue 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 some, As we have t-hem in kvif iclas 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~cing the rabbirlic agenda in tt7e (loose) guise of Bible exegesis.

The Pesikfa deRaa f ihnm 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 ki t tarn, 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~d the 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 ~ w ~ t . throughout the early moder11 era, In


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~ary cycle 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 contemporary 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-rgs is never taken by tt7e rabbis literally 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. 'Iil these scholars, the S~x-rg of Songs is trhe focus for early ritbbinic my&i,cd speculation on God" throne room,, Go&s chariot, and even, God's bboy. However, Sfzir HnShirif~z Rabbah at most contains allusions 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-rcy to alle- gorize the biblicd book, that Smzg rrf So~gs Rabbah may carry a record of conversation or polemic between Church and Synagogue on the issue of "Vems Israel," or which religio1-r was the authel-rtic Meritor of biblical religion. 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~~g of stories, many with parallels elsewhere in rabbinic literature, on the subject of heresy. This phenomenon of collection is repeated throughout the midrash, so that it remains 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~ing over the loss of the First Temple to mourr~ing and tkod- icy over the 9cond Temple m d later wars as well. Stories af the destmction of the Second Temple hound hew 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'fifaot served as a r ~ organizational 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-"tg on the Lectinnary cycle. In hmentaf inns Rabbah, however, all of the petib2ta material is found at the beginning of tbe midrash, without rr;gard to its lectionary di\iision. Since the hiblical book of Lamentalions is read at one sit- ting in the symagogtre on the Ninth af Av (h commemoratian of the destruction of the First and Second k p l e s ) , this point m y be moot.

Ihe thirty-six petihCi-E pieces found at the outset of Lam~nhlfictns Rabbah cmtain some original materials, s o m maeriai aiso found in thc remaining (less highly s tructu~d) segments of this midrash, and much xnaterial paraileled elsewhere il-I the rabbinic corpus. &e petihfa (number II) consists 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 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~ztntirrns dinbbah.

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 (md 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-consciousness associative process, deals with the contents 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~rtury ar~d was 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-Karaitc fa group that rejected 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 commentary 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~h and 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 s , since 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 medieval H e b ~ w , much 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 eighteen be~liedictions of 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.

Ihe contellits of Pirqi. Rabbi Elkzer are highty iciioyncratic, humorous, and often l jnkd to medieval (Geonic) customs. It also exhibits a thorough fmiliilrity with Islam. For cent~sies this midrash was associated, with the early Talinaitic teacher, Rabbi Eliezer ben H ~ a n u s , whose 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 Mishah tractate Avot, Much like the Tosefia, this rrridrash comer.lts upon and expa~~ds the Misbah text. Since Avot itself is entirely Aggadic, Avot deXabbz' NatJml.2 also is thoroughly Aggadic in nature. The work abounds with legads 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~lhhi MatJmn 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 ar~d remah~s untied 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


deRnv Kafana. Although the two works are organized on the s m e principle (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 mysticism of this period*

Mention should also be made of a remarkable work of the eighth century 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~iquct for many reasons: It is the first rabbinic text published 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 locales tends to level both larrgmage and custom. %ctions of this work arc?

translated into Hebrew in Sefer Vchizhir, a rabbinic commenta~y on the "fbrah from, perhaps, two cex~twies later. This latter work also quotes freely, in Hebrew translation, from a legal codificalion called Halakhof Gdols t'

Ihere is yet moiher Aggadic collection on the entire Torah that is similar to the 5heell"ul" in, structure and fomat. The Tanhurrra-Yelamdenzl literature constitutes a library unto itself. Primarily written in Hebrew and prohabty stemming from Palesthe in the cex~turies following 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'f icus Rnbbnh)., Tanhu~ ta -Ye la~~zde~w is notable for its format 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 together 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~g fragments 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 ar~d talmudic wrks, biblical texts, m d wholly secular texts, Jragmerlts of Mishah 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~cisely such 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 promoting t-he rabbinic ageda 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:iiii7g of 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 in Hebrew, 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~d of 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 Men 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


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, Dez n/lacho, Lhis Targum has been the subject ol much debate, Its content is not as expansive as Targum Vcrrushalmi traditims nor as rigid as %kelos, h other words, it ~prestmts a Targm tradition 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 attempt 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 teaching and congregationa1 thought. 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 biblical topics, popular theology and practice may be we31 rep~sentecf in the various survivhg Tarpm texts.

Rabbinic Mysticism

If Targum rey~sents the 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 speculation is limited to initiates, studying together in very small groups. It is con~ectured that 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 "mmtrasff by 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~za text 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 ilniflatio dei 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.~n learning 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 literature into the open light of modern scholarship. Many of his s tuda~ts and st-udents%tudents are 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, practices, 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 rabbinic 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 Birk~ t Haslzachr.). Thus, the central text for the study of Jewish litwgy became 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 t h ce~~tury c.E.). h a re- sponsum to a Malakhic questim, Rav A m m put in writkg the first rabbinic orda of prayer (Siddur Rav Aunram), It included not only the da ib Sabbath, holiday and Hi& Holiday ode= 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 contains 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 rahbinic &rash on the stmy of the Exodus from Egypt found in Deuteron-


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 ar~d subsequent rahbirTic authorities (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 poetry, make every comunity" siddur unique t~ t-hat comunity. &ly trhe advent of printing forced ~ e h i r " t g at i\lI like u~Gformily onto rabbinic liturgical texts. Particular distinctions may be drawn between Franco- German (Ashkenazic) and %erian-Oriental (Sephardic) rites. Further distinctions 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%so forms an intersection among various forms of rahhinic literature. The earliest Jcwish poetry may be found irr the Bible. But postbiblical poetry bursts forth h the late talmudic era and conthues unabated throughout the more thm mille~~nium of rabbinic literay artivity

321ercl is a vast and varied corpus of liturgica:l poetry. Poems were written to accompaIly various segments of the Sabbath and holiday synagogue 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 ' ~ u t tied to t%te sylagogue liturgy but same of the earliest piyyut, in hamaic, is fomd as part of the Targu" c o ~ u s . Since both litur-

gical md 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 hpor tmt mgestone in the comphension of the literature as a whole.

Shce the puetry is dense and allusive, study of piyyzlt stands as a scholarly 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 publication of medieval texts combine with a gr0win.g interest in t-he field per se to promise a rich harvest of scholarship h the 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 written about- the intimate comection between Aggadic a d : Halabic literature. 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 extensive 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~st iYZ 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~z on those narrative sectio~~s of Talmud. By and large, it would not "n wror~g to characterize the main focus of Geonie commentary as Halakhic. 326s commentary is complemented by compilations of Geonic resyonsa, answering legal quu""ies through 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~ity h that way, rabbinic aut-hority was exte~~ded further over the Jewish world. Works such as HaEakFtot Cedvlot m d Halaklzot Peszcbt


are organized under the broad pfinciple of tahudic co particular i n t e ~ s t in goupirTg aspects of Jewish life under particular headings. These collections then offer a cock of Jewjsh Law that may be con- sulted by issue rather than by random appearmce in the vast talrnudic corpus. 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 codification. In his work (called Halrakhut HnKIF [Rabbi Isaac al-Fasi]), al-Fasi comments on the B;rbylonian Talmud but ignores all the Aggadic passages. By discussi~lig Walakhic 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 (and remahs) a stmdard talmudic commentaq

Ra$bi Moses ben Maimon, or Maimo~~ides, was a prdgic -If&-century Spmish m d North Afi.icm authority He wrote on medicke, philosophy; and mmy aspects of Jewish law. A p community leader, Mai- monicfes wrote epistles md responsa m endurkg work of Jewish law. His sists of fourteen books al-rmged top y on Halab&. Bonowhg an ap- pmntly Islamic systematization, dcs quokdrom talmudic and post-tahudic authorities, mostly monymously, offerkg what he expected to be the autl.ioritati:ve corpus of Jewish law. This work, wPitten in Hebrew ( d i k e all his other works, which w e e in Ara:$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 ultimately 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 bh 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 extract of his father's great Halakhic commenta~ (called Kitzur I-7iskei HaRaSh [Eyitame of fktc HaJUkhiG L)CcjSions ~f Rahhi Asj~r.]). Jacob was not to be bomd by the frame of commmtary md, followhg Maimonides"lead, orgmized

his next work accordkg to sub~ect area. 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 ~ ~ ~ E HaMZ'shyaf), The 'Arba"n1z Turim (the Four Pillars or ehe Rlr) became the stmdard organizational frmework for Jewish Malabic literature &rough the hentieth cenbv.

:In part, lfie orgm~izationai power of the 7irr was guaranteed by a commentary 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 ar~d cities (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 comments on Maimonides and an the Halakhot af al-Fasi and of the RoSH, often basing his own decisions on a majority found among these three great teachers. In additiox~, Garo includes leanled discussion a ~ d comme~~tary 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~dite work of Jewish law called the Sfitllchan 'Anich (Set Table). n e r e he skp ly offers the results of his life-

his t>wn various studies md Esponsa. tely became the pree"i"ent Xlaiabic

work of rabbhic lliterattxre and has remahed so to this day Asmenazic authorities, particularly Carofis corrtemporary 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 ~ ~ t a l code of 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"


fjce at this point. Ext~dzis Rabbuh, Numbcvs Rabbah, and fiuterorzo17zy &bhh were all corrrposed hetwem the tenth a ~ d thirtemth centuries. Each has a large portion of text that is part of the Tanhumn-Velu?nde~zz{ format, discussed 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~irirsh Rlabbuh is a dispitrate c o k c t i o ~ ~ of five differing mjdmshim composed in varying time pel-ioh. The unifying factor 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'llim, also called Mz'dmsft Shucher 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 perhaps 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 ~ d is 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 (thirteenth cenhtry) in his disputation text, Pz~gio f idei.

No survey of midras:h (or rabbinics) wodd be complete w i ~ o u t mm- tion of Rabbi Solornon ben Isaac, Rashi, who flourished in Troyes, France, from 1040 to 41.05 C.E. Rashi wrok commel~tary m the h b y l o a i a ~ ~ Tal- mud that is so influex~tid that 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 ~ d Writir~gs (with 1,085 sectiorrs). The first edition of the Valyrkt Shilnoni has im appen-

dix of Aggadic midrashic traditions from the Yerushalmi (256 sections) and the Velanlzdezz~i midrashim (55 sectio~~s). The ValquC Shilrzctni is valuable 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. Xn the modem period the sbdy 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 worldwide, in semhades and universities the critical, sbdy of these texts has been ur~der way 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 literature, some with any oral literature, some with any ancient lileratureI particularly 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 ~ d earlier rilbbinic texts, it is difficult to fix ecurely the date of any rabbinic tradition withh a text. 11 is also difficult: for the same reason even to fix secure 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 integrity.'" Although tl~is m y give ";me idea as to what the Mkhnah or Gems& Rubbah, for example, says &out a given sutoject, it limits ~scasch 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


middlc ground in the study of rabbinic literature. One means of finding this grow~d has 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 n academic 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~sljng scholarship on literary intm, deconstnnctive readings, poetics, and the like is being pursued in the fjsld of ancient mh- bi~liic literature. 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 composed as literature per se. Other problems and considerations beyond method, that is to say, aside from the debak 01% histmic and literary models, also must be noted here.

Siwificant segments of rilbbinic litemture deal with "the other." Unfor- tru~~atelly it was tiie rahhinic tendex~cy to suppress the other in blla~ket con- 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~g opinion. 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 often difficult to discern exactly which sect the rabbis are engaged kvith. It is somtimes even hai l to tell whether pagmism or Christimiv is the t,bject of a rabbi's barbs. Although certair.1 texts arc clearly disputrative, it is hard for the histarim to deter~xhe who 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-ormative Islam, the problems just alluded to often make that a di f f jd t task. The very orgmismic nat-ure of the Etera- ture precludes m ideal systematic presentation, exacerbating this difficulty- Clearly, k~owledge of these '"outside" ~ l i g i o n s is 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 sbdy 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 appear 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~g an 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 audience.

Multder, M, J., ed, Mikra: Text., Ealzslafiouz, Reading ntld Interyretatio~x of the Hebrez~i Bible irz Atacie~zt Jtrhisrn and Early Christi~nify, Compendia Rerum ludaicarurn ad Novurn Testamenturn [CRiniT] 21. Assen/&Maastricht and 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~froduction fo the Talmud and Midmsfi, Philadel- phia: Fortress Press, 1992. This work is available in a variety of European Xan- guaget;. A scfiularl y handbook written by Christians for a schotarl y audience.

Visotzky, B. Xmdi~zg thc 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~der both 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 themselves living mder Christian mle. Somethes, as irz Spain, the tramition resulted from Christian conquest of k n i t ~ prwiously held by Mudirns; elsewhere, as in northern Europe, Jews chose to m0\9 into ChrisGm territories 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 toward 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~d within. 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~cemed about 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~~ts of the mbanty communities. Effective self-government by the mborities memt that the temporal authorities could achieve maximal menut. at minimal cost. The self-govemil~g apparatus 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, Ib he sure, the Jews had their own reasorrs for desiring segregation m d

self-goven~ment, 'Jetvs were 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 varter 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 medieval 'Jews was certainfy dixnir~shed by 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.3 and S&-governat as were their non-Jewish neighbors and rulers.

Self-government meant the empowerment of a Jewish r d h g dass, usu- aily in contact with and supported by the n0x.r-'Jewish authorities. Not surprisingly, the wealthy tended to dominate the self-governing apparatus of the Jewish community Weafth nomally generated. considerablg influence withjirr the commu~~ity a ~ d at the same t h e , well-to-do members ol the community tended to bcz precisely those Jews who had most contact with the non-Jewish rulers. The other group that wielded power ixr the medieval Jewish commw~ity was 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 represented 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 e developed.

The level of sophistication of Jewish self-governmer~t varied. The smaller the commtxnity, the more hfor~xal the arrangements for conduct- ing Jewish, affairs could. be; in larger Jewish communities, elaborate electoral a ~ d govemarxce 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 1 05

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~ment should not conjure up a picture of radical isolation from sociev at large. Jews we= in mmy wnys bound up in the 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 interaction 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 interactions seem to have been by and large benign, with normal patterns of human trust and respect manifest. As we shall see, in some cases, particularly in the immigrant cammur~ities of r~orthem Europe, Jews were shunted into limited and unpopular economic specializatians, with negative 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~icated in the vernacular of the particular area of settlement. This linguistic integration was, in part, simply an extension of Jewish econornic iultegratim. Given that the Jewish mk~ority had 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. ' Jws 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~guage was 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-s have 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 ~ n t corrrpetitivewss 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 medieval 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 in mecfjeval Jekvisln life, and because of their sipificance for poshnedieval Jewish histoq

Medieval Jewry in 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 w ofld Jewry numcricafly 'The Jewish popdat io~~ 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 ~ d smallest 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 minority. Aithough the ealiclst writings of the Christian commu~~ity included 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 wodd 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 messianic ~ d e m p t i o ~ ~ , Jews would be among ihe first of the ~011-Cbristiians tru acknowledlr;e Jesus and the Christian faith.

During the early seventh centur~i, an unsuspecting Near East and Mediterra~ean basin 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~oLvledged in 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 ~ d fuli rwelatory dispe~~satio~~. With respect to Jews m d Judaism specifically; both the (;2urm md au*oritative reports 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 freedom of retigiotrs expressim, in return for which they would w e loyalty and taxatim, With the acceleratim and expansion of the Muslim conquests, 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 Jewy 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, ar~d all of North Africa. By ancf large, the Jews of the conquered areas were comfortiltble in accepthg upon themselves the new overlords, For a varietfi of Rasorms, the Muslivn cmyuerors w e broadly c o ~ ~ g e ~ ~ i a l to the Jewish minority commw~ities that 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 conque~d territmies, ihe Jews bad, prior to the Muslim conquest, lived as a subjugated rninorilt-y; nowhere did they constitute a displaced rding class. Whereas the Nuslim armies had to he wary of displaced ruling elomer~ts suCh 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 g change ~II circumstances, 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'mmi peoples, those who mi&t be viewed as precursors k the rnave-

ment toward the full monotheistic: truth ern:bodied in Islam. Carefully defined 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 minority 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 always played out agahst a backdrop of societal realities. Buttressis~g fewish political status ali across the Muslim world were the ~al i t ies of sizable Jewish population, age-old Jewish presence, and a dive~ified Jewish 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 a l mythology 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~s of 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 In a 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 s ol identifiable economic pursuits, from the most prestigious and lucrative d o m tl-trouigh the most menial and despised.. This ccronomic diversificatiox~ renectcid the profouxld social rootedness 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.


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 variety of social welfare, educational., and religious facilities were to be found. At times of stress, the Jewish neighborhood offerctd more than psychological. 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 institutions 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%rin thc local Jewish community. 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~ce reached unusual levels of recop-ri~on and arhieveme~~t. These central agencies received consi,derable support 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~ltralized Jewish sellf-governance had wenera- ble roots within the Jewish world and commanded allegiance and compli- ance for rear;orns of both long-stmdirrg custom and religious ohtigation.

:I-"er%raps the best &%own of these centraljzed age~~cies was Ihe office of the rusft-golalz, or exilarch. 326s office is attested during the period preceding the Muslirn conquest, although its precise prerogatives are not alto- getkr 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 Muslh 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 exilarchate, 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~owledge of that law was of paramount importance, and proper training 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~d indeed 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 ~ ~ t s from a wide area and legal ~ a i e s from communities spread across the length and hrt3adt-h of the. Jewish wr ld . 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~d to 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 rabbinic 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 n of 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 prerogatives 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~d life. Although ahays a fairly s m d mi,norily on the mcdievat Jewish scene, the Knraites created a Eveiiy challenge 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.ectual life of the Jewish cornmu~~ities in the medieval Muslh 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 elsewhere.. They used Arabic as their spoken tongue and for most ol their writing 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 impact of the b a d emiro~rment on Jewish intellctctual creativity.

Sb~ce the Bible forms, from many polints of view, the core of Jewish religious 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 tradition, to buttress their commitment to that tradition, m d to meet the serious 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 intellectual energy and cmativity to leadilng their followers to a deeper understanding 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 biblical 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 comunities 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 wr ld . These academies occupied thmselves, of course, with lrhe text of the Talmud; at the same time, they addressed the concerns of the community 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.desf Mishfih-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, enriched 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 challenge was dismissed out of hmd. In many ways, the most interesting al- ten~ative invoked t-he effort at arcommodation, the a t t e ~ p t to find of create 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 synthesis 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 widespread veneration far his talmtrdic knowledge, many medieval Jews ranged themselves in opposition to his philosophic. writirzgs, his acceptance 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 ce~~tury unmistakable s i p s of a swing in the pendulum of power from the Muslim sector of the western world h the 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 in fact 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~g lived ~l r~der Muslim cor~trol, for a m p l e in Spain, found themsdves passing into Christian hands. Areas of the Chiistian


world that had historically been of littIe interest attracted Jewish immigrants, as these regions matnured economically and cu1tural1.y. By trhe end of the RiIiddle Ages, the Jews of the westm 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-wranean Sea, 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 themselves, not without reasm, on the longevity of their sojourn there and their rootedness k-t the 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"d a 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 leadership 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 ciwi:lizatio~~ of Muslim Spain, the successes of tho Ckristiar~ reconquest were frightening.. To some extent, the discomfcrd was occasioned by the simple realitJi of disruption and chmge; mo~over , the 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 introduced 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 practical 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.ced s o m Sp""ish Jews that lrhe end of lfie ueafiw epoch in their history had arrived,. The two most important proponents of that rnctcal conclwion were the philosopher and historian Mraham %n Daud and the philosopher a ~ d poet Judah Walewi. Ihn Daud, in his highly Muential Sefer h- hbbalr-rh, advanced a n~~mber of historical theses, including the poignant argument that fberian Jewry had enjoyed WO centuries of creative endeavor 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 decision to leave Zberia for the Holy Land and in s o m of the most sti,rring poetry ewer composed in tt7e I-lebrcw languati;e.

These two highly creative figures, even in their despakf remhd us that periods of p ~ s s u r e aPld tension need not be devoid. of cuiturrzl creativiq. Xn fact, twelffi-ce~~h"y Iberia was home to a galaxy of remarkahie Jewish intellects kvhose talcnts we= dbected to the study oC the Bible, to the malysis and expansim of talmudk law, to scientific inquiry to philoqhical speculation/ 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~nself as an %aim JewI and we are justified. in per- cei\ring him as a representative of the creativity of Spa1is:t-r Jewry

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


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 vision 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 uhan elomer~t on 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 ~ d the 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 primarily as ecor~omic and 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 position within western Christe~~dorn. This more powerful Cburch was profoundly 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 priority on the Church agenda; at the same time, hawever, they were not a negligible item. Particularly in Spain, vvhere the 'Jews constituted a sipificant element 0x1 the urban scene ar~d r/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~g the 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~ message into the Jewish commuxlity The techiques of dissemination involved 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 ~ ~ g of the Jews themselves, in, m ef-

fort to identify new h e s of arprnentation that might pmmise some success 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 efforts 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 compe~~clium entitled the PEW& Fii;aei. Rooted in t-housa~ds of rabbinic citations, the Pzigio Fidei was meant to guide Christim missionaries in mounting 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 centrality 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 md declined-by the early fourteenth century the Jews had been ba~ished from the important kirngdoms of England and Fmnce. Nevertheless, Xberian Jewy had its own problems. The fourteenth century was beset with difficulties all across western Christendom, ar~d Sp"in was not hmu17.e. Spain"s Jews were doubly affected by the economic and socid dislocations of the period. On the one hand, they suffered 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 re t renche~~t . The voices of d i s c o ~ ~ t e ~ ~ t were those noted earlier-~e no- bidjty, the burghers, the Church. The calls for inc~ased limitations 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 commi 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


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 converts 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 converts. 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 important# 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 authorities, 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~d educational deficier~cies had to be redressed, posttrauma despair had to be combated, and the vexjng problems associated with the New Christims had to be dealt with. In considerable 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 spiritual 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. Fmm lfie Chistian ~aspec t ive~ the cor~verts were by no means fews gone astray; they were simply Christians and as such off-limits far any religious persuasion. The practical problems were exacehated by larger spiritual 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 ultimately more costly way. T'he New Christims co~~stituted a serious problem for the Church, concerned about their integration into the Christian

fold. W h e ~ a s small 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 grouping 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 rejected 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~s tech~ically fit-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 approach was to see h e ~ t i c s as 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 widesp~ad heresy t-he supportas of a pu"itive program for the backslid- ers urged, along with, the establi-ent of an inquisitorial network, thc expulsion 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 backsliding cmstituted mgOjrtg md unacceptably h a m h i Jewish. behavior.

The expulsion of 1492 b m the h ~ g d o m s of 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~Ch centuryf Jews had been mmoved from all the kingdoms of western Ewpe , those m a s that stood irtdisptllaby at the forrjfront of the


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 controlled 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 Jewish prctsence on western Europem soil. AJl across the westem 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 hovat iue patterns of Jewish existe~nce, intmducing us to a new and rapidly developing 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~nter of western civifizatio~n. Once the process af vitalization began, Jews were hcreashgly atlracted to the area. h fact, in many instarmces Bey were actively ~cru i ted 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~nt in northern 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~neral well-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 interesting 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 duding 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~~-Jewish 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 instances. hvol\remmt ist trade sgiHed over hevitably in a ntrmber of related di~ct iam. Exchange of coinage was a major ecmmic need in &is rapidly developir~g area, and Jews seem to have been active in this arelxa. Extension of credit const-it-uted yet 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~ts came 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 clear2 y resented by others, particular1 y 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 gened 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~ditions of safety a ~ d security 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 te~~th- and eleventh-century norther11 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 nm- Christians in a region u~tified by Christian identity The business orientation of the Jewish i igrants reinforced resentments felt toward Jews as newcomers m d dissidents, Anti-Jewish business senti~nent on the one hand, enflmed those who were s"spicioumf the new business clirnate of northern Europe. 013 the other hand, Christim burghers, who were themselves 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 tom, many Llf the Christian businesspeople surely felt othewise,

Overshadowing all these realistic elements in Jcwish fife that aroused antipathy-Jewish newness, Jewish dissidence, and Jewish busbess ori-


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 members 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" depending 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 accelerating 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 constituted 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~s a 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~rce indigenous 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 development of a yomg Jewry is exeepljonal, a ~flection of 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 eventually conque~d Jemalem 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~ture in 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 garal ized into a dogm of hatred tward 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 engage the M u s h enemy in the Ncar East while a profow~der enemy-the Jews of Ger~xmy-was living nearby. The animosity toward Jews that developed in some crusader circles out of the traditional Christ_ian motif of fewi?;h guilt for the crucifixion of fesus resonated among some of tfne burghers of the Wheland cities as welf. A po ta 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.

Ihe 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 associated with rcnetved crusading. athough the call tru a new crusade always aroused anti-Jewish passions and sporadic attacks on Jews did occasionally take place, the level of violenre manifest in 1096 was never repeated. Ecclesiastical leaders war~~ed against anti-Jewish assaults, the secular authorities 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 reflected among its 'Jews as 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-


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 dynamism agaimt the backdrop of a Frighly creative majority mbiance,

However, a number of disquieting developments were mar~ifest as 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_v occasio~~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 moneylending-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 ~ d to ernforce ot?ligat-ions made to Jews, in return for tax revenues, which might well be seen as a pe~entage of the Jewish. profits. The result was considerable Jewish busir~ess success, 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 ar~d as a ~ s d t of the traditional legacy of Christian anti-Jewish imagery. To the prior anti-Jewish thinking, two new motifs were added: the intense mimosity that money- le12dir"tg gemrally produces and the anger normally ciirected at those perceived as lackeys of the ruling class. Jebvish moneylending across northern 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 themselves 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 northern 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, responsible 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 discove~d in suspicious circmstances, as frewently happe~~ed, many Christim immediately faste~~ed respo~~sibility for 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 animosity. 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~ce of 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, culminating 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 blasphemy. 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~~s 0x1 Jewish lendir78, aimed at protects Ckristians----par&- larlly the poorer classes-frown the negative impact of Jewish moneylend-


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 authorities. By the end of the WeIfth century, the alliance belween the Jews and their royal and bamx~ial sponsors had begun to fray. In part, the problem 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 ecclesiastical 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~imosity for 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.1 Jewry. By the end of that century the king of England had expelled his Jews, and the turn of French Jewry c m e shortly thereafter: 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~ose aRas that had mahtred sufficiently to dis- pense with the Jewish contribution. In central m d eastern Europe, the areas of Gemany and Poland, need for the Jews remahed, and so did the Jews. By the end of the Middle Qes , 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 Jwish population were to be found in the Turkish Empire, where the earlier Arabic- speakir~g Jews 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~sed that 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 westerly 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, TIIP fews ofAl"t7b L a ~ ~ d s (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Soci- ety, 1479); fix the Jews of western Christendom, see Robcrt Chazan, Ch~drcb State, 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 His tuv of tlze fer~~s in 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~lzy alad tilzc Jews (Philadelphia: University <of 1X3ennsyfvania Press, 1989); far the Jews ctf medietraj England, see the opening chapters of Cecil Roth, A His fo~y of 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 "fgimud and Midrash themsdves, though much was also writtm~ by poets whose names are known. The Byzmtine pijiylit belongs to the same cultural 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~tine Age. 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"te has 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 establishing 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 activity.. 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 befm the Muslim conque"~". 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 development of the liturgy, and both processes arc? obscure. Scholarti no longer believe 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~serrted by 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~ns of the rules gover~ning prayer kvere in existence, and some communitie~ preferred pmyer texts in verse form, The earliest liturgical poetry is therefore not- tru he conside~d a 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 community 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.1 oi 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, ""Eletised are 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 in manuxript 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.ncIudil7g formda described above, for example, ""Blessed are You, Lord, who loves His pea-

Medievat Jewish Literature 129

ple Israel." In this case, too, the concluding formula is fixed, but the opening text may be in prose or verse, a ~ d many versiol~s of 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~gations were prohably satisfied with familiar and simple versions 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 versions 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 mah groups of poetic benedictions became standard, based an the two mah groups of benedictions composing the morning and evening savices. These are the Shema, which cox~sists of 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 occasion. Series of poetic helwdictions based on the fo rmr are called ywrttt, and series based on the latter are called yerttvtlt. The individual poems that together constitute the series take their names from the benedictions 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 middle; its language was close to biblical Hebrew the course of the Byzan- tine period, these simple poems evolved into complex for~xs with distinctive dictim and style. These reached their fullest development in the work of Ua~nai and 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 poetry Ihe rhyme frequently imposes lrhe diffiicuit requirement of two identical 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~stics are 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 h KaIlir, 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 nonstandard, 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 inte-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 numbers 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 conceal the contents of the poehly from non-Jewish pditical aulJlorities, trttough both theories were current in earlier stage of mearch and am still acorn- 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-ric history, a kgal institution, or simply a patisage of %ripture as ir7.terpretc.d by 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~mt fieme. Piyyut rehease~ the text of the Bibk in ir-tfi- nite per~~utations and combhations, based on hom2etical and legalistic interpretations 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-lt inkrpre 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 ~ d to 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 designed rather to imitak or even induce the visionary's state of mind.

The mah sufrtject of a paticula piyyzf is partly detemined by the benedictions 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, resurrection, God as sacred king (benedictions 1-3); the Temple service, grdtude, ar~d peace 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


service penediction 4 on Sabbaths and kstivals). But the poets often expand 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 them 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'm is thus very similar to that of the contempormeous prose homiletic midrashim, in which the author begins with a verse horn f%te Rihle 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 passages 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 readings. h the practice of Pdestinian syl~ag~)fjr;ues of the time, there wre approximately 150 such readings, spread over a period of three m d a half years, Ymnai" qeerovot are mstly 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~tical 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.2 to the recitatior.2 of 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 biblical passages, which, together with the poems that link them, am known as the Qedusha. In the communities that used poems of &is type, this ritual 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 benedictions for the ~mainde r of 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 coqosed by Kallir and later pwts contain a$ditiar.~al pwrns ei;lbo- rating lrhe Qedusha of yc t~r , t hugh these poem 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 s of 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 community 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 poetry was to have its grclatesl eff?lorc.scerrce in 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 . iJment for n&ional suffering, amger at the oppressor, and hope for national redemption, themes that suffuse Hebrew liturgical poetry of atX types and at all periods, were promine~~t already in trhe Byza~thle period and coz~centrated in 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 smti ty 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;raelrs intercessors; 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 collapse of tine sacrificial system wilh its expiatory rites.

3. Ilosi"la'~ot are litxlies desigzled to accompaly the processioz~s of 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 h akhabetical order, and to which tt7e congregation kvoulld respond, ""Sve us." But this mcient form was carried on by prominent liturgical poets, and new hosha'lzot we= c~mposed thmugh 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, creativity was more a matter of rehventing the language than of imitating nature or baring his sod. Thus, all.hotrgh it has been possibk to chart the development of poetic forms for the piyyuf, it has not been possible to sktch trhe literary persondity of any of its c~ators , nor has it been possible to relate the vast majority of "Ihe thousands of extmt piyy~"tirn from the Byam-


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 psychological 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 literary productio~~ was dominated by the talmudic academies of Sura and Pumbedita, tt7e heads of which were klown as geonim. As the most prestigious 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 s t r a ~ ~ g Hdakhic 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~ic period arc. respollsa, written alswers to Halabic questions sulbmil-ted for ac-tjudication by 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 narrative than is evident in earlier midrashim.

The synagogue poets of the Cemic period conkued to produce liturgical poeky irr paetems largely inherited from the earlier pefioc-l. But liturgical poetry c m e increasingly into colnnict with the ~l jgious pmgrarn of the georzim. The gel~ninz strove to consolidate their conkol over Jewish law md 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 Tahud as the sole autho~tafjve base of religious law, the chief subject of r abh ic education, and the most pestigious Jewish book after the Bible the 8e11rrin;E afso aEempted to u n i ~ synagogue ritual. The result was the nearly completrtt suppressio~~ of the I'alttslinian liturgcal kadition in favor 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~ces never disappeared, the geolzinz were quite successful in irrrposh~g a unifom text. But this program of mgicalion could not tolerate prayer services dominated bp cmstmtly chmging poetic texts that varied from week to week and from place to place; the geolzi~l therefore 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 ~gulations but dso to insert the liturgkal poetry in suitable places-not always the or~es for 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 e of liturgical poetry throughout the Jewish world are Miidely attested by several facts: It continued to he composed


throughout the Midde Ags; most important riibbis made some attempt tru compose liturgicd poetry; ar~d it was the subject of leanled commm- taries, like other religious texts. Its popularity is also attested by descriptions 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 odha ry 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 opposition movements arose durir~g the 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~g 1:Iivi"s ohjeciior~s. III the Geonic heartland of Iraq arose the Karaite movement, which proved very influential 21 the later development of Jewish litet-alure, Beginning in the eighth century, 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.loritative guide to religious life.

Karaism developed into an important force in the ninth ar~d te11th centuries, growing in numbers and inAmence, so that in many corntries two distinct Jewish communities existed side by side, From a :Literary point 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 attached 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 z , their 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 groundb~ki~l ig for later Jewish lirterature was the fact that much of their wriling on religious subjects was in Arabic. We shall see that in their concern with the Bible, their interest in Hebrew language and grammar, ar~d their 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~t for 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?er heralded 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 hceful persmdity, a driving ambition, a broad educritlicm, and a fluent pen. He is the first medieval Jewish figurtt whose biogaphy is known in some detail. Some aspects of Saadia"s career had antecede~~ts m o q his p~decessors in 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 literary 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 ritual matters when speaking or writing Arabic, this la~guage was completely 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 01.1 many 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 n postbiblical Jewish writer to


compose treatism d m t e d to a single topic and organized by logic& principles not deriwir.18 from earlier fewitifn works. Saadia, in effect, introduced 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 natural and obvious to madern readers, was e n t i ~ l y new 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~v amounting 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~ond ing to 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 miraculous 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 decline and appmnt 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 ~ d sovwignty but -also for Lhe dehaseme~~t of the He- brew languager with the result that the superiority of Hebrew had been temporarily obscu~d; it was a religious duty to cuitivate and at tmpt 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 poetry 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 ic t iona~ for poets, he laid trhe intellczchnal foundixtions for the fiowerhg of Hchl-ew poetry ~ I I Spain, 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, written 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 evidence of a cultural fact of g ~ & ilnportance for t-he development of fewish literatz~re. The adoption of habic 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 e d the witers' intdlectud Arabizalion as well. It ~ f i ec t s the tendmcy of the Jewish intelfigen6ia to acquire m habit education, in addition to their Jewish education, and to join in the intellectual activities that were cuftivakd by contemporary R/luslh intellectuals, especially 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 k science and philosophy that h d been translatect into Ara- bic during the eighth m d ninth crmzturies.

Ihe 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 antiquity 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 attended by Muslims, Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, atheists, and members 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 participated in such gathehgs, his work rekcts the interyenekation of alti- tudes, methods, a ~ d ideas charactel-lstic of the highest intellecbal life of the times. His desire to put the Jewish tradition on the basis of pure rea-


son emerges out of the spirit of the time and established the problematics of Jewish philosophy for the duration of the hiliddte Ages.

As i f Rlf these innovations were not enough, Saadia left Jewish li(erature 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 personality 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, writing 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.emry device. 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-and they 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 d a 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,ough they also employed sporadkally s o m new prose forms); in content, to ~ l i g i m , especially 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 remained at the ccntcjr of their concern, but secular themes increasingly took root among 'Jewish writers, both in Arabic and in HCEtbrew Even their writing on religious ~Uhjects was stroll& marked by contact with habic writillg, as can be seen in the influence both of Islamic ter~xinology and ideas on 'Jewish religious writers and, especially in the influence on Shem of Greek philosophicat and scientific ideas. Above afl, their inteIlectuaf interests 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 advmed 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~owledge of Arabic

necessary to afford lhem access to the prevailing high cdture, whereas the Jews of Christiandom were blocked even from the much narrower intellectual life availa:blc there because it was controlled mostly by monas- teries ar~d because 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~xit easy 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 n simply as Tdzc Pnlvertls of Sn'id be Bafislud, is a colkctim of versified proverbs in hymed, metricai couplets. It defir~es t-he goal of religio~~ as h w i r ~ g God 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/ze Alpr'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 pm- pose of this musual book has not yet been explained; oddly it was carried to Italy and Ashkenaz, where it was taken seriously by the Ashke- nazic Pietists ( v ~ s i d e wslzke~uz). Thc Tule of thl. ~ r u s is an elaborate s tov based on the widespread folklore motif ot' a man who marries a female 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 ~f Sendefillr, 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,

Medievat Jewish 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 extent, 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 century, when the collapse of the Byzanthe Empircl. and the arrival of large nuxnbers of ~ f u g e e s from Iberia brought about the %phardization of the region.

Byzanthe Italy also had importar~t centers of rabbinic scholarship that rernair~ed in close contact with Palestk~e, and maxy rabbis of this community wrote litztrgicd poetry. Of these, the most notable were Silano (Venosa, early nhth cmhry), Amittai ben Shehtia (Oria, late nhth-early t e ~ ~ t h century), and Solomon b. Judah of Rome, usuaify called Solomon the Babylonim (second half of the tenth century).

Silano9s few rr;mafing poems are selibot l m e ~ ~ t h g the 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 ta 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.ierallarlly noteworthy in this regard is a poem describing Moses%scmt through the ranks of the angels to receive

ttai's impage is not as opaquc, -as that of most liturgicill poetry, and the small part of MS production 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 extensive 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~t, cvhich are somebes 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 fmed for his monume~~tal yogr for Passover, one of the most iwlp~s"ie c 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 concluding 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, members of a single family, k ~ o w n arr; the Kalonymides. C)f^ them, the most im- pnrtanl. wese Noses ben Kalonyxnos, autf7or of the q~dzlrshtu for the last day of Passover in the Ashkenazic rite; Kalonymos b. Moses the Elder, author of a series of poems for Yom Kippm in the AsI-tke~~azic rite; and, especially, Mehullam, ben Kalonymos, aulhor of one o f the q~dushfuct f fos Yom Kippur in the Ashkenazic rite and especially famous for his 'nsroda, which is still recited evm cox~gregations that 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 reflect more exter~sive literary 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~t biblical Wcbrcw a narra'tive style so vivid that it has ~ m a i n e d extremely popular thoughout the cotlrsc of Jewish history Since the twelfth, centulry, manuscripts of X~sif 'ol~ have in- c o ~ o m k d the Aexar~der Romance, a cycle of stories about Mexander the Grcat deriving from the Hef,lenistic memoirs 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 mystics that lisrcluded Silmo and Amit 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 literary productions of the Middle Ages. Replete with folklore, fasrhstir stories, and fachnaf information, it is witten from beginr~ing to end in rhymed prose. This is a techique that was used in Hebrew liturgicd poety at least

Medievat Jewish Literature 2-43

slince the time of Vannai, but that was first applicd to narrative by Hebrew w.l"iters of al-Andalus in imitation of the Arabic ~zaqBrtu, a gelwe that will be defined l&r in this &apter. Xf Abhabz adopted this technique in imitation 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 ~ e kvith great mastery.

:In the tenth cenhry, the center of creativit3, in the field of l i tu~i ra l p m t v shifted from Italy to the mheland, as in the col~crete case 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 ~ d S k e o l ~ b. Isaac, k ~ o w n as "Sheorni the Great" were both importar~t lifn_lre;icai poets. 5imeo11 is f i e ce~~tral Eigure of the famous legad of 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~d day 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~ctions of 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 creativity SelihttZ:, originally intended for fast days, were also recited on days that w e e estilblished for the ax~ua i commemorittio~~ 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 sk - 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. Aceordhglyf they are far more inte-nse mQ mguished thm most of the earlier selwt. Furtrhermore, unlike most Ilebrew librgicai poetry, which almost 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 suicide. 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"s poipmtly 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 slaughter of children by fathers who wished to prevent them from falling into the hands of the mobs; selilfKlt 011 this theme are called 'aqedot. Ihe 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~t of tlhe suicide of King Saul and his son fo11athar.l was, quite i\ppmpriatctly brought into the poetry.

The g ~ a t e s t Ashkenazic 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).

Ihe 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~sists of 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_ian exempla works, a g e m that reached full flower in this very period. But unlike the Christian exempla works, the stories in T h e Nook of flze Pious, rather than merely ~tel t ings of mcient stories, are mostly new stories, many of k m prohahiy inventions of Ralsbi 'Judah the Pious himseli. Ihe masters of the Ashkerrazic Pietist school themselves became the sutrjects of Ifgmds, which evenhtally found their w q into postmedieval collections 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~usual phenamcnon in Jewish Iiturgical history. These poems, li;no'~vn as 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,


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 ~II the Muslim wmld in the late Geox~ic period, as already described, and belongkg to the inl.esnational folklore tmdition shared by the Ambic-speaking MiddXe East and the Latin West. Et is generally 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~stantly being reworked, ehdlished, ar~d abridged, and some continued to gmw and develop after the Middle Ages. They form a continuum bet-kveen folklort. 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 the i~lifluer~ce of the l i i s f o y ~f Ben Sir@. Beymd that, its history is obscure,

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 cmhry 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 fifteen& 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 m . In the tenth century, when Istamic Spain broke openly with the Abbasid diphate 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~t Jewish culture, after1 referred to as the Golde11 Age of Hebrew literature. This culture reflected the eas y 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~~ough in medicine to have a positiol~ in the court at Cordoba and to have been jnvolved, on the hdalrasim caliph" behalf, jn a translation 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~d thus 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 history' something outstmding, something of permanent value, From today" 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 finally has outshone the hda lus im 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 secretary, 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 contact 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~ique of mo~~orhyme. Except for the absence of a consistent meter, it closely reselnbles Arahic political poetry;

Medievat Jewish 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[asdaiJs father 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 wodd 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 epistle 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&tle show great refhement and literary mastery.

r-(asdai% oother protriigk was Dw~ash be11 Lahrat, author of rdgious poems, a few of which are still in liturgical use today; Dunash had been a skrdent of Saadia" in Iraq, He a ~ v e d in 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 consisting of two lines or of one hundred. (Far a thorough discussion of Golden Age metrics, see the E~cyclopadia bdalca, 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 liturgical 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 mmners of the Mustims in many olthtjr ways, imitating irt their social lives the patter115 of the Muslb 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~~tertainment consistir~g of music, dance, wine d r h h g , md firlation. rli, what extent the poetry reflected real life is hard to determke; but it seems =asonable to msume that at least some of the Jewish gmdees were lealdir~g the life of pleasure ard refhement described in. their Hebrew poetry h n a s h wrote a poem de- scrjbing a drhkkg 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~g these arc short poems on themes of pleasure: 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 s are formal poems, often having a puhlic fixnction. Typical themes am the praise of a patron 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 pa~nt") ; 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 described again and again; and the same imagel-y is used and reused in comparisons* me situation of lovers is alkvays the same. Yet poets exercised great hgmuity in exploiting the conventions t~ des ip 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 ody a m s s of lovely conventional poetv but also a set of precious documents of human imagination and aspiration.

Besidcrs hicating Arabic prosody and themes, the poets made extensive use of mother t e c ~ q u e adoptcct from Arabic: rhetorical devices and figures of speech* Although psesent to some extent in all poelry, these had come into vogue in Arabic in the 1-rir"tth century and the Arabic poets of Spah who provided the Hebrew poets with their hmediate models made


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-ral t-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 meaning. This device was co on in Hebrew poetry long before the Jews c m e into contact wi_tkl Arab 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~lid to 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-ffers from t%le classical Arabic pwm F17 being 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 final 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, mQ wine d r k ~ h g , but 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 himself 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 ar~d productive both irt the rahbinic tradition and in the new ljterasy fields. Me is said dso to have co rnpo~d poetry 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 panegyrics, but they are written by the subject himsclf. Arabic poetry includes a genre of poems in which the poet describes his own prowess, and some of the Nagid" booasting tme 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 traditionally 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 Smuel the Nagid's, was the first of the great Golden Age poets who bvas ext~nrely productive 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 mentimed, 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

Medievat Jewish Literature l51

ALongside this older tradition, a new type of :liturgical poetry 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 poems he wrote in, this style are among the most characteristic parts of his work. They are mostly either reshrryut, short poem intended to he inserted 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 inserted 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 im4er ivcd from contemporary phitosoyhical ideas-&at the soul of man is actually derived. from Cod and longs to be united with Him, prayer being a verhl ma11ifc.station of this yearr~ing on the part of Lhe soul.. fbn Gitbirol deweloped this r~eoplatonic theme 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 extensive 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 addressed 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 ~ imp~ssive quantity of personal poetry sometimes in the form of indc.pe~~derlit poems deaiiiq with his own life ar~d corn- plaints, and sometimes in the first part of his qa$fdas ilcfdrcssed to otbers. h bath kinds of poems, he presents a complex persona, He is sickly, or- phmed, lonely; and destitute; he is a philosopher, so obsessed with death and with his philosophical speculations that he neglects worldly concerns, caring nolhhg for the false honors that this world can bestow, At the s m e time, he complains bi t tdy that his philosophical attainmmb hawe not gained him recognition from his fellow men; he expresses determination to force the world to grant him f m e and glory. Xbn Gabiroi's philosophjcal work, The Source of L$, 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 pwt of the period whose poetry (as far as is Zcsrown) was exclusively Ijturgicd; very few of his liturgical poems are in the new, intimate 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~ztific data, far removed from trhe trraditio~zal themes of Liturgical poetry, but subjects of intense study among hdalusian Jewish intellechnals.

Moses fbn Ezra (ca, 1055-ca. 1.135) held public office in Grmda, where he v e n t the first part of his life; later; for reasons not well understood, he was 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 ~ a t deal 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 example, to make use of the desert encampment theme in the opening part of his qasfdas. fn his later pa r s in exile, he wrote mmy long poems of personal 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 tvics 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 rhetorical 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 DebateF a treatise on Hebrew poetry, whjch is one of our mah 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 religious poetry i s dominated by an attiwde of piows awe and tranquillity, a

Medievat Jewish Literature I53

willingness to let God take over all initiative, But the most distimtive feature 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 ina t ionasemin plan, for it meant abandoning his farnily and a cornfortahle life (Waievi was a physicim and a bushessmm) for a dmgerous journey and an old age of hardship h a war zone (these were the years just prior to the Secmd Cmsade) with only a small. and poor 'Jewish community.

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 AV but also hspirc.d m n y imita- tio~~s). Findily, he wrote a series of poems descI"ibir7g the wean voyage itself. Some of tk se poems may have been products of p m intaghation, written in advmce of the journey, "ot others may have been written during his stay &I Akxa~dria d u k ~ g the 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 o ~ ~ in an age in which most poetic form was dktal.ed by conve~~tio~~~.

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.Gi irz 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 ~ ~ t i o ~ ~ to leave 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 occasionally illclining toward pmtheism. H e also wote a rhymed prose t ~ a t i s e containing 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 territories, 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, md 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 literature in. thg corntries to which the dugees 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 i t was these works that first introduced the Italian and Ashkenazic Jews lacking in philosophical and scientiiic training to the linguistic m d philosophical outlotlEc of the hdalusjan commnity. Those kverc. the fjrst biblical commentaries in l-licbrw to illcorporate the new learning. Abraham %II Ezra also wrote books in H&rew on mathematics and science, He introduced 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 partially 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-tce that Tbn EZTB'S religious 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 tu~ical poetry, 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 spa 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 Ta~~bum 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 Hebrw poet Judah al-uarizi managed to find patron"ere for his maq2m2f.

Medievat Jewish 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 ~II Castile and Catalonia. It is importmt to remember that in the twelfth century contrary to all previous 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~d titerar)i figures begm 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 appea~d, the nzlaq8~1~~7, narratives in rhymed prose studded with s h t poems. 'The pattern is derived from m Arabic geIIre of the same nme. h the Arabic rnaqgn~a, the narratives fallour a hirly ~ g u t a r gattern m d al.e mostly designed to pmvjde an qpor-~iv 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:iy popular.

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~ce lileralurcs. One of trhe outstar~ding He- brew fictions is Book of Delight, by Josepf-1 Ibn Zabara of Barcelona (born ca. 1340), which resembles the muygmw in its uscl of rhymd prose ill- terspersed with poems, but whose naraCive technipe and stress on character recall the romance. Like the maqgma, the book descsibes the travels and adventu~s of 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~w narmti:\ies in rhymed prose hterspased with poms 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~y and devote his life instead to scholarship but who is duped into m out-rageous marriage by m mgry commtxnity of women who fear that his example will be deleterious to the world ar~d to them. The story is preceded by a lor~g mis~gynistic haranwe 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 philosophical 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 period. 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 various types.. Some are philosophical allegories of a type attested in Hebrew in Muslim countries at this time; others resemble more the European vernacular romances of the period.

The great krariety of narrative types suggests the growing independence of Hebrew writers from Arabic models. Wth the important exception 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 hdalus im Jewish culkrre off at the root. The Jews of Iberia would retain their link with Arabic for at least another 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 in Spain and soon became the sole :Language for 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.lout the Arabic-speaking world, the daily language of the Jews was merely a variety of the fan-


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, &%owing the 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 e to the other w m m more difficult for Arabic-speaking Jews than for their Muslim neighbars. m e situation 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 almost exclusi.vely in the hands of the clergy, so that it was much more difficult for a Jew to became lear~~ed in Christia~ 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 therefo~ 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 ~ d Latin.

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~fluence of 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 ~ d science were still being studied (but from Hebrew rather thm Arabic texts) and Arabic-styk secular poetry continued to he written by such poets as Meshallam Dapiera (d. after 1260), the empha"is was now on such htrinsically Jewish suhjects arr; mmud, 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, Nammides (Rabbi Moses b. Nahmm, 214Q+a, 12701, represents quite a different cultural type from the conttzmporaneous few- &h courtiers 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 hdalusia had. But in matters 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 rationalism 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 epigrams 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 in Arahic forms m d even translated a short poem by the eleven*-ce~~tury Svillian 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-----a tour 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 H e b ~ 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 narrative 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 development 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-


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 Z m 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 culminated 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 be loq to lrhe traditior~al genre 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 several 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 author % imagination. The language and imagery of the Zohnv were eventually 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~g in an hmediate rise af interest there in the sciences m d lmguage. The Barcelona

astronomr and mosalist Abrahm bar m?/ya (d. 1136) spent consi$erdble tirne in Pwenlce, disseminating kabic scholal-ship in Hebrew to a community ignorant. of the contemporary language of scjentific culture. He was one of the first Jewish scholars to use Hebrew for this purpose,

Ihe influe~~cr of Hispano-Jwish cuttrure on Provence was reir~forced by the Right of Mnlus ian Jewish intellectuals from the Mmohads, beginning in the 1140~~ Abraharn Ibn Ezra also spent some time in Provence, after 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.3 as 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 trmslated 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~qai scholars 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 ~ d the %II n b b ~ ~ ~ s but an itinerale scholar, also visited Prove~lce on 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 Maho~~ides ' Gztide 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 Muslh world md, for a while, ever7 in Christial7 Spain. Some ProvenqaI translators found patrons for their activities outside the Jewish communit.y, like Jacob ha to l i (1200-1250), who eventually joined the court of Frederic :I1 in Naples, or Kalor~ynlos b. 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 employed 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 disciple Abraham Bedersi (Perpignan m d Narbonne, second half of the thirteen& century) was a grammarian m d author of a long poem entitled ""The Revolvint; Sword," which, in part, is an invaluable survey of the hit;- tmy of Hebrekv poetry in Spain and Provence; in an explicit recognition of


the relationship between Hebrew poetry and that of t%ie fews%ost cultures, 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 P rovengal poet.;. Many of his poems are polemics against his contemporaries in the spirit of the Romance felzsc:, (a kind of romance polemical poem). His poetry represents an extreme development of the manneristic style cultivated 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 P r i t ~ r of the Mtmms," in which each word begins with the letter mem.

The mast inkresting of the Proven~al poets wadsaac of Aire (k~own ~II 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 ~ s t career to that of a jongleur that Hebrew litefature has to offer- The series of fensos exchanged 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 ~flectjng the 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~ected to 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 hpor tmt role.

With the arrival in Italy of such Iberim Jews as Abraham Tbn Ezra (1140) and of the lexicographer Solomon I'arhon fbefcsre Ha?), 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 narratives in rhymed prose interspersed with poetry, \very similar h prosodic form and rhetorical technique to the mnq;mzsi- 05 the fieria~li Hcbrcw writers, but significmlitly differex~t in 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~lisidercd his w d to be the cont-inuation of al-Harizi". Here is a clear case in which a classical. literary form has been adapted to new cultural circumstances, resulting in a product with features of the old and new literary worlds, ':f'he same 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~w quantitative 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 invented ody 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 h romances. 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


nieti"s verse form md the tribute paid by his book3 form to Christen- dom's gre"te" poet, the wofk is cot~servative in 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 incorporated into the Italian rite,

Late medieval Italy, like all centers of Jewish culture, produced a quantity 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~parat ion for 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 local culture, Arabic declined in p~s t ige , and as Christians acyuired linguistic 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 ar~d fell until 1391, when pogoms and mass comrsiot~s heralded the collapse of the Jewish community But individual memlncrs of the Jewish elite mahtahed the Arabic scholarly tradition and the Hetbrew literary c d t m that was so ctosdy tied to it. We hear of Jews, even in the fifteenth centuryy trmsliathg 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 synagowe 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 (1 350-1369). The use of a poem to commemorate the fou~lder of a synagogue 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~za called Tlie Baffle nf the Pen arzd the Scissors. We was also m expert Arabist who trmslated a Hallabic work h to Hebrew. But he achieved fame in the wider world for the Prouerbia Moraltus, dedicated to Pedro lrhe Cruel. Written in Spa~ish just as the El Tra~sito synagogue was mder constntctim, this colleclion of p r ~ v d s was an important a ~ d influential 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~own to 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 Meshdam 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 present 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 poem in Hchrew, with Bonafed ushg this medium for hastjsing trhe co~~verts for their unfaithfuh~ess. Thus, among the oddities of Spanish Jewry's last cenlury; we fn.d Christians writing poew 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 poets 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 formal features, like the frequent practice of ending a poem by repeating or


alluding to its opening words, l-his prxtice is not n r e ~ l y a technical device but a structural principie, for it lends many poems a closed, circular feelkg that is different from the open-endedness of the monarhymed poetry inherited from Arabic by the Colden Age poets. SSrophic Hebrew poetry 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~ssion that contempormeous 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 serious ir"tvestigilliorr of m importmt creative moment in Hebrew Letters.

115 what was left clf M u s h Spain, the Jewish community had been reduced 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%troughout Christian 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 poetry 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~ish Jews four and a half centuries earlier 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~aissance as 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"hc Re~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~eru h 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 ZEV 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~onphilosophic book, 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~t works 0x1 &is subject. He composed the first h~own, Hebrew dictionary He trmslated the Bible h to 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~aiclst the Karaites. Mc. also wrote Hebrew poems. His one systematic philosophic work, written in Arabic, is called the Book of Beliefs a r ~ d Opil~iCft~s (Kjtab aE-Xmarzat wnl-Ttlqndnt; Hebrew translation: Sefir h-Emunot 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 vibrant 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 contains 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 devhped 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, mQ who had a great impact an Mairnanides.

The Nook ofBdi#s alzd Opilzio~rs consiSts of m iYltroductiOn and ten treatises. 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 3-45 deal with the divine Law, that is, the rlisrah, its observance and transgression, and its rewards and punishenb. Treatises 6-9 discuss the soul, resurrection, redemption, and the world to come. Treatise 10 discusses virtuous hu rna~ 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 central 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 Saadiafs discussion, 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 universal 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 idolatry 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 ~zature are not mentimed.

Let us now tun1 to Saadia's Book ofReIit"fs ancl Opinions, Treatise 3, chapter 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~al laws 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 mount to (1.) a religiun ofeason, or a rmt- zlmE wlipi f l~ (namely the comma~ds to show gratitude to God ar~d not to blaspheme), and (2) a m t i o ~ a l momlity, 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~li to all hu- m m behgs by means of their re.cYason alone.

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 (required 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 (c f . AristotleJ Mefaplzysics 4.3.1.005b), so it is t-he four.~dation of all mordity Saadia also add~sses the argumex~t of 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-

1 70 Warren Zev Harvey

able to set aside times for rest fx̂m work, study, and yraper. Fux: Saadia, trhe prohibition oi murcicr is h o r n by u~~aided reasall 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 propositions, 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" "laws differs from the talmudic distinction between '"ordinances" and '%statutesw in two i ~ ~ r t i - t n t ways. First, it explicitly uses the philosophii. tern "reason," absent in the tahudic discussioll. Seco~~d, it is an ehaustive distkction, 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 1 and 2, Saadia defends a strong version of the Naturaii Law trheory Hwwer , 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 ~ ~ d us pmphets? 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 reward and happiness). However, he then adds that pro")phecy is also necessary 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 1 and 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- diaFs distinction may be aptly applied to a y legd system, divine or human: There are laws that are k~owable by 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 cm imalyze the laws of m y legal system, b r ex-

ample, that of Russia, the United. States, Israel, A person who holds a s t ro~~g Natural 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 framework for debaling questions concerning the theory of Natural Law

Judah ben Smuel Halevi is primarily k~own, as a poet, perhaps the greatest 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 destruction of the First and Second Temples). However, Halevi is also k ~ o w n for a philosophicill dialowe he wrote h Arabic, 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~g bis 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 people 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~ly pokmical, and its JormaI title is 71hr N I I O ~ of Prc?tl/ nnd De~nonst~atirlrz in Defense of fize De- 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 (md 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>latmic philosophy. He had a negati\re attitude toward the Kalam. h his viewf the Kalamic theologians do not b o w


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 drem, an mgel appears to him, arid says, "Your iute~zfit,n is 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 contemplation, 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 common 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 ~ d Jacoh, who liberated the IsrallliLes from borldage in Egypt, and pmbmed other miracles in hjstory (1.w. Halevi emphasizes throughout the Kuznri that the Jewish religion is based m the Cod of history 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, ~UIa16 are 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~owil h w to talk iheoreticaily about action, but only now does he act.

The Kzizari treats of mmy topics. Having discussed Saadia" distinction between ratio~lal a ~ d auditory 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'bounds more noble than "'pof,itid.rToofSowillg Plato (ICqtlf71Ic, 1.351C), he observes that even a

gang of robbers observes among itself the basic laws of justice (i.e., the rational laws). 'The rational laws, therefore, co~~stitute the the divine laws constitute the maximum (Kazgri 2.48) that there is a rational or natural lawI but true mligion is masri in the auditory laws, which tr d the ratior~al o~les (see also 3.7',11).

Halevi emphasizes that w t rationally understmd how the auditory 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~imal sacdices seem both to be an a b s d and silly preoccupation with the flesh; but after nine mor~ths a human being is born and the sex act is proved to be purposeful and sublime; similarly, ir,vhexr the 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 '"'rational" 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~lderstmds the "'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 something 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~g gifts from him, this wodd prove his existe~lce. So too, the philosophic "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 h g messalgers (the prophets), who brought t ~ s gifts 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) cmnot 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).


Thus, mligious experience, clccording to E-falevi, concerns a 'Udivie order" 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 (1 27, 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~al senses. The association 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~~tial Jewish philosopher of the medieval period. I-fis Gzride of the 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~e Mishnah 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-r to 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 subjects 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~d the L a d of:lsrael, 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~Jde of fhe Iff?vlexcd was 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 commands 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 ~ s religiun; 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~de 2.40; 3.27).

The C~.lide is divided into three parts. Part 1 presents a critique of the errors of the imagination, beginning with crass an throy amorphism (l., l ) and conclucfirng with the sophisticated but (at least in Maimol~ides' judgment) 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 s the 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 ancient Ca~aanite idolatry (3.25-50); a ~ d its famous discussion of the love of God is not Aristatelim but mystical, hflluenced by Sufism (3.51). Its final chapter (3.54) teaches that despite everything, the true human excellence is &at of the intellect, and thc? political activity of the excellent hdividual is z'mihfrcl Dei.

The Guide is m esoteric book, a book of puzzles. Since it seeks to replace 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 teachings 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-


ated in the &vine image (Genesis 1:26-27)? Mairnonides explahs that the term ""imagef" ( H e b w : ~ l e m f denotes Aristotelian form, not physical form or shape, and concludes that the divine image of the hmmm being is the intellect,

Mako~~ides next (Guide 1.2) discusses the Garden of Eden story (Genesis 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 illustrates bow politics and law come into being. His k~tevretatio~li is based on a radical distinction between the concepts ""lf;ueM and "false" md the concepts "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. OUP judgments of true and false are theace~~tric or cosmcentric (from the impartial pok~t of \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 rational person. According to Mairnonideskxegesis, Adam and Eve were c ~ a t e d with perfect intellects ("in the 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~g objective 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 regulated 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 desires. The sexual relatio~~ ht-11.tiee11 m m i-u.~d womm 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~al A 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@~ation conquers 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 popularly accepted opinions. fn a discussion in the Eight Chapters, 6, he explicitly 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 nature, 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 moneychanger (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 messimic era refers to the time when the Tor& will, finally succeed in creating a community of peace and howledge (3.17).

Questiox~s of law a l~d politics have an importmt place in the Guildrr, and the Cuidc m y \veil be defbed as primarily a book of legat or polilical philosophy. 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 figurative. "me Torah speaks according to the :language of humm beings," that is, according to imaginative lirx~guage, m t philOsophic languse (1.29, 46). Even the statement "'Cod exists" is isnot literally true, for how cm 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~lexctE has 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 r is a mythico-mysticd &rash (m the Pentateuch and other parts of the Bible. It is bvritten h Armaic, 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 md 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~hav to her husband has been acceptcti by most modem scholars, 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 bc fm him Mahonides' Guide of the Perplexed, a fewish 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. mey 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 ratio (reason) stops, trhe kabbalist's imaghatian takes over.

Maimorrides had taught that one cmnot speak about God. The khbal- ists agreed that one caxx~ot speak about God, the EM Sc$(II~fh~ite), but they added that one cm 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~s or 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:

1, Keter (Crown), no sex, the indescribable first erna~atiox~ from Erz 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 ~ h k portrait 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)" .is 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.shiEU had 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_j of His way"'). The rilhbis had identifkd this 'Wisdomf%ith trhe preexfste17.t Torah. The Zc>lznq however, 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 "6araJrr precedes "TElollim." " E h - 12im" is held, to refer here to the &id sefirah, nanncly, Binah. Thus, the verse now reads: "By means of the sefi'mjl h, [ . . . 1 created the sefirah 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 transformed 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 ineffable 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 cannot 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 inked the philosophers had taught, is beyor~d words 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 n of 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 diffe~nt placcs m d who difctrc3d on fundamental questions; I have also discussed briefly the mystical Zohar, It it; hoped that these brief discussio~~s will have gi\ren the s tude~~t a taste 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~ztsaltrun Studies in Ambic and I s l~m 2 (1 9W), pp. 2 6-5-4251.

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~al jewisll Pliilosoplty, New York: Atheneurn, 1973. Lewy Hans, Alexander Attmann, and Tsaak Heinemann, eds. Tlzme Jcr:.wislz Pizilso-

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. FISHNAN

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 ~ d much 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 continued eastwrd ~rtigration (in the sixteenth century) and natural increase (in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries), 80 percent of the world% 2.5 million Jews lived in. the Near East and eastern Europe in. 1800,

:In many 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 s ; their isttermal affairs were gokremed by Jewish communal bodies ( f ie knlunl) =c- opized by the Crown; and the revealed apld binding nature of Jewish rcrli- g imdaw remahed the cornerstone of Jewish social values. Jewy was boulnd together by a shmd 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 traditional 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 ~ d greatfy h m that of their non- Jewish neighbors, with Ashkenazirn speaking Yiddish-a Germanic language-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~gation of 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~tlnusiasm the 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 movement called Hasidi.sm mse , which stressed religious joy and faith in the salvationary powers of holy men called, zaddikirn, Seen from the perspective of these developments, the period ktween 1500 and 1750 can be con- s i d e ~ d the "late Middle Agesf" in Jewish Etistory

But in. other important respects, the period marked the begbing of social, political, and cultural transfamations, In the early seventeenth century, 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~ationd commerce a ~ d banking 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~red seats on the ZJondon Stack Ex- change were held by Jews. In the Geman principalities, 'T~ourt Jews" 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 behavior pattuns of the Christian alistocrac, ibccomifig quite lax in their Jewish religious obser~rance-

Modern Jet(vist-r, History 1 83

Skctpticim and religious laxity crept into @wish sod.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 adjust 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 r s , such as Mmtesyuieu, advmced the idea of Jews b m m beings md 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 md heroic Jewish daracters in order to show his readers that such Jews could ar~d did 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 md Volta onsidered it a superstiticlus m d narm-mhdcd rcttigion that b lity 'The men of the Edighte1.1- mend as mtagonists of Christim Church, asc~bed mmy of t k latter's "ddepravitiies" to Judaism, its moth

lhis ambivalmt kgacy of the Elllight m social and political ~al i t ies in 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 society. ;:lb the asto~~ishment of his conkmporaries, Mendetssh 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 h his book Jerusalem that t k state and society should afford equal tderance toward the followers of all religions, as long as they cOllf~med to "natural law'' a ~ d that Judaism w s , in a ~ ~ y event, 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 sed Jews

to learn and use the language of their non-Jewish neighbors, to acquire general sciedificr knnwledge, to eschew social separatism and rcrligious superstition, and to consider &emselves loyd subf ects of their lands of residence. It also cdkd for the prodwctivizatio~~ oi Jewish MiC i l~thity that 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 skdy oi the Eble ar~d the literav use of Hebrew. Impkit in its ideology was the anlicipation that the modemizd Jew kvould be accepted into surromdlstg s0ciet.y. md 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 11 of Austria, in 37MZ.T%is edict sought to bring down some of the legal barriers separating Jews from, sur- mwding socieity, It &&shed several (though not ali) 1011g-star~ding rest-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~alogous Nor- 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 save 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 d Joseph's 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 panteel , Miitrds "If' Pea= and TYU th, 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~al autonomy (education, courts, business) md that threatened to weaken Judaisrn by entic- ing m d f t ) ~ i P l g Jews into Gmtile swie+ This codict between hlightcned.

traditiona[ist Jews was to persist over the next several ge~~erations, first in central Europe, md the12 in eastern Eurs?pe. h Germany md Austria the

was unmistak&Jy on the side of the Enlightened cmp.

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 1 85

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) prevented 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 ~ d followed a different religion"" wodd make a -key of the Declaration of th.e Rghts of Man. Abbe5 Gregoire argued that ft?wish depravities 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~hal system meant that religious observance and indeed identification 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 in exile md a farm of polgical rederrrptio2-t. Attainme~~t of Emmcipatio~~ was the primary political 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 (h 1796), h sou&er~~ Gemmy m d northem Italy (in 1806-1807). But Napoleon himself considered rescinding the JewsTErnancipatio~~ ar-td conve~wd an 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 secd-c lass 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 transformed 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. Tl~e service became m0l.e decorous and dignified-and resembled mare closely the form of prayer in a Protestmt church,

Ihe 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 incident, 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 ar~d religious 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 recognized 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 adhe~nce to traditional doctrines a d practices with an embrace 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; 'Jews became 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 ZJtrQwig Baerne 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; h Prussia, 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 nations" 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 successful 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 persecuted Jewish communities h1 Czasist 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 reactiox~ary backlash 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~mernt of 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- roded an u~~hoMJj l~g sociey fTm withil?r with their ""Jewish'" traits.

One of the early exponents of this anti-Semitic view, the Geman composer 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's cultural de- generation, sbce Jews were hherently the antithesis af beauty. The term alzfi-Sewlitism was coiYled by Wilheh Man, 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 exchange 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~d cut off Jewish i igrati01.1 to Gemany.

The Russian-Jewish Experience (until 1881 1

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-


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~ct Jewish residence 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 geographic containment, which was fully abolished only in 1915, the vast majority of Jews lived in regio~~s that were popubted p~dominantty by Poles and Ukrainians-----and not 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 suspicion toward the J e w reached a peak. The co~~scriptiom of fc.wish youths into the I<ussim army, 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,nfj of 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 wodd 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~ounced than 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 g audieme, 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 extremely popular and inf uential,

The era of the g ~ a t =forms 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~s appeared in such Russimz cultural 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 supported 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, traditional Jewish ~lfgious culture 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 (In Volozhin, Mir, Sfobodka); a ~ d the Musar movement, aimed. at moral introspection and rejuvenation, captured the irnaghation of rabbinic circles, Thus, Rustiian Jewry divided by social class, legal status, geocdhnral er"twiror~ment, and idc.ological orientatio~~, was a highly differentiated 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~g the "temporary law s'kf May 1882, which resulkd in. the large-scale expulsion of Jews from the R~~ss im countryside.

The trauma of Be pogroms led muskitim such as M, L. Lilienblum and Russihd intellechnals such as Lean Pinsker to cor~trlude that Emancipa- tion kvas a hopeless cause. Far them, the only solut.ion to the Jews"recar-


ious condition was their settlement in a ttzrr_itorp of their own, prtrfcrably in their ancestral hometand in the Land of Israel. Groups of Jwish university 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_ted by the trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfusl a Jew who was corwicted of trumped-uy:, charges of treason and espionqe against France. Cor~vinced that anti-Semitism was a permaner~t and 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 coming 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 affirmation 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 strengthening 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 culture 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 settlement, The issue of whether to accept, even temporarily, a territory other than the Lar~d of 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 movement in 1905.

Other Solutions: Emigration, Radicalism, Diaspora, Nationalism

DwiI71; Lhe period between 1881 and 1974, lfie eco~~omic and political position 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 fewish students in the universities, intraduced in 2887 m d tightened in, 1901, limited the en tq of Jews into the professions. The civil seniice did, not accept Jews. Laws on Sunday rest forced fc.wish shops 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~cariousness was 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 ritual 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 d a f1OQ,000 between 1901 and 2914). The Russian authorities did not prevent or discourage Jewish emi-


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 emigration] is open."

lhis massive social moveme~~t was facilitated by an international network of Jewish social semice orgmiz;ations. Xn Gemany, committees provided food, shelter, medical care, and pocket money to rcfzlgees and directed &em to Mamhurg ar~d other ports. In part, lfie Gemar~ 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 md 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 announced ambitjous plans to settle Russian 'Jews m fams 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 rem 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 (3.5 percent 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~ds between the U.S. Jews ar~d those 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 commw-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 increasingly popular= En 1&97,25 p e ~ e n t of all political anestces in Russia. we= Jewish. Social democracy was particularly attractive, because of its universalist 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- cra tic L,abor Part-y (RSDLP).

The development of a Jewish proletariat, whose mem:bers were over- whelrnit~gly employed by Jewish bosses, led to the emergene of a Jewish workers' and socialist movement, whi& propagated its ideas in Yiddish. In

7897, the rep~sentatkes of 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~lig the Jewish masses. It helped fomd the BDLP (in 1898) 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 ideological 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.)

:In the ellsuing yeas, the Bw~cl"s national. orientation gew: It organized Jewish selbdefense units agakst pogromists and supported the development of modem Yiddish cultural hstitutions. At the s m e time, the Bund was stridently alti-Zionist a ~ d opposcld ernigratiorl as a so:iutio~~ to the Jews' problems, enunciating a doctrine of doihy f ("herernss'". Buncaists were staunch anticlericalists and advocated the cultivait_lomz of a secular Jewish idel-rtity based or1 the language of the workini; masses-Yiddish. h general political and tactical matters, the Bund adhered ta the program of the RSDLP.

:In between the Bmd and Zionj.sm t-here was a sizable ideologicai middle gromd ol smaller parties m d trends. "fhe prontkent Jewish historian Simon Dubnow founded the Folkspartei, which proclaimed Jewish national mto~~omy in 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~ce in 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 revolutionary 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.w as a spokn language. Yiddish also came to be viewed as a valued rwurce and was declared a national l m ~ a g e of the Jewish people 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~aires papetrated 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~ist Organization &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,

Ihe 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 supported ""The establishme~~t in Palestine of a nationd b m e for lfie Jewish peaple." "e motives for this declaration were a combbation of sympathy 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, mQ Sir 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-trl e l ~ n t for Jews to emerge from the war period was the Russian Revolution of February 1917, C ~ I April 2, 191TI the Provisional Gaven~me~~t officially 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~izational life flourishc.d, dections were held to estahlish 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 %enig~ ~~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,

Ihe German and East Eurc"~)ean imig rmts transp1a"~tc.d their divergent social and cultural traditions in America. The "Germans" were a middle-class group that experienced rapid socioecoazomic mohifity. They were best k ~ o w n for 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 ig ious life 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~d social 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 n iiandstnanshgffn) served as primary socid t~nits and 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-


pmsslng the immigrmtskommorz concerns, memories, and ideals. As an urban pmletaria t-he immigrants developed a stror.11; Jewish tahor movement, bvhose federation of unions, the United Hebrew Trades, had 250,000 members in 1917,

Until Wr id 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----and for 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~ded in 1886 m d headed by Solomon Schechter &ginning in 1902). Conservative cong~gations offered more traditional ritual and more? Me- brew liturgy than Refor~n congregations, 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 multifaceted Jewish comuna l center, which i l l co~ora td within 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-secuted Jews 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 eth~ic ide21tiEication a d pride for American Jews.

The generation of the children ofimmigrants was hericanized 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~lce of artgewish attitudes among the country'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~d in 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, &%own as 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 migration), 25,000 Jews lived h Palestine, 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 political 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 labor, 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 WIO1 members of t-he Second Aliyah establishrcj the first collective agricuitural settlement, 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 enterprise 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~ized as one of the official languages of Palestine, m d official status was afforded to the Zionist organization and, later (in 19291, to the Jewish Agency for Palestine to partid- pate in administering the socicx_.conornic -aMairs of the fc.wish population. Britain was to facilitate Jewish migration, while at the same time protect- ing the civil rights of Muslim and Chsistim inhabitmts,

Tl~e Balfour Declaration and establishl-nertt of the British Malldate spurred the growth of national consciousness among the Palestinian


Arabs, h Arab congress that was convened in 1919 called for the declaration'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~r 1920 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~rt historical 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 (In the 1930s) led to the urbmizafiio~r a ~ d hrdustriah 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," hhad developed into a city of 160,(ff)(l inhabitarts by 193. IR &is plaiod, the General Federation of Hebrew Workers h the ZJmd of Israel (Histadmt ha-Ovdirn) e m e ~ e d as a powerful orgmizatim, providing: for the medical, social, md. culbral needs of Jewish apiculhral and urbm workers a ~ d of the Yishuv at large. The Kstadrtrt Labor Federation estnblished enteq"sedm construction, and food products, sponsored schools and newspapers, and served as a cenh.al~raGon-building agelrcy in hterwar Palesthe.

Interwar Europe

The rehawing of the map oi Eurve 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[rand and the Allies

s iped the "Mhorities Treaty," wbhjch guarmteed full equal civil I-ights for the memhers of nninority ethnir and religious groups, ar-td r/vhich recognized 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-rare of 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-tational presswe, ar-td did not honor its provisions. In the fiercely nationalist atmnsphere of revived Poland, the Jews were treated as an alien element, which threatened 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 in election 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 national 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-ts as ur-tdernacratic and 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 s Siberties 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~tral life 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 organized cornmurGties in history.

Yiddish-language culture reached its greatest strength, with an explosion of newspapers and theaters and the emergence of highbrow magazines 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, represented 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 assimilation and jntegration seemed all but complete in the Fars 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 philosophers Martin Buber and Fram Rosenzwig. Its crow~liing achievement 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~d persa~~al rdigious terns.

Memwhile, the pokver of the mti-Semitic Eght, which blamed Jews for Germaxry"~ humiliation in the Great War, gxw 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 influence 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) h the 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; Jw we= 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 developme~~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 ~ ~ m Jews left t%ie country beween 1933 and 1939-more fhm half of Ule total number. 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~g ihe 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 border. The Nazis il~stigated a 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 f3alestine and 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 Judenr~ f (Jewish Council) to mahtain order and irnplemclnt their policies. These included supplyiz~g labof contingents m d exacth~g tributes. 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~d starvatia~~. 'The Jews attempted to cope with these ovewhelmhg problems directly through social welfare agencies and house committees and, indirectlyf through cultural institutions (schools, fieaterr;, ar~d libraries, 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 attack 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"


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 in January 1942, the plan for the "ffinal solution of the Jewish ques- tio~~'%as adopted. 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(fU Jews 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 reported 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 performed ""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 uprising. 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 e ~ . 'This 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~rd credence 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 to 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~rocide by bombing the camps. Ihe 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 returned 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 migration 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~rse orgmization, the hagana, resorthg to sabotage against British military installations and rail- ways, The Revisionist lrgm Zvai Leumi (National Military Organization) engaged h assassinatio~r attempts 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.

Ihe intertwined issues of the European Jewish rc-lfugees and ihe future of Palestine led U.S. President Harry Trumm to exert diplomatic pressure


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-ts passed 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-t its first p~sident . The 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 emader 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~d the elhnic composition 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 in h 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 kws had particular reason to fight, strengthened the consciousness of shared values, Judaism gained g ~ a t e r respect"bility in Amrican society and came to be viewed as Americds third religion (Rfter Protestantism and Catholicissn),

:In the 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 (in particularr, Florida and Cdiforr~ia). The proportion of fews h the 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-ions in tlze suburban and '"sunbelt" areas of settlement.

The Americm Jewish community reacted with euphoria to the establishment of the State of Israel, but it refused to view America as a land of Jewish "'exile" "alzrf), h accordmce 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 ta~~h~krfere~~ce h the others' affairs, m d 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;bl Madenl 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. Sarna, Jonathazl, ed. The Ar~lericlirt~ je;euisli Experience. New York: Hofmes and Meier,

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 ~ i r e con- stjtukd the itar,vest Jewish populatim in the world; by the end of the century the number of Jews in the former Soviet Union will be smaller than that h either of the two cow~tries to 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-----several varimts 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 Govement 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~ciatcl the 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 confronted with a dilemma: They wanted to rule over Polish territory brat that area co~~taiued nearly a miliion Jews Since 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 hem 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 percent-ad 32 percre~~t were classified as nnanual labmers, domestic ar~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 1898 near@ 20 percent of the Jewish popuiation h the Pale appIied for assistar~ce in m a h g the Passover holiday, 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 imposed 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~t abroad to seek it. We11 the czarist wtboritie?; did cncourage Jews to enter government 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.

ho the r attempt to con~vrt Jews to aristianity was made in. what be- c m e h ~ w n as 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 beginna of class struggle amoI7.g the Jews because the kchith, or orga~ized Jewish 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 ~ y ar~d the 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 imposed 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 ~ d further 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 mused 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 proletariat 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\vish probim" (which cvas, after all, as much a prclbem of Gentile attitudes 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, purposes, 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.

The 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 operations, 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 orgmizations 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~af home 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 organizat io~~~was its mi\in 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 argued 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-unit y

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~ist Party 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~al members, 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 members of the balshevik Central Committee in Atrgust 1917,Ij were of Jewish origin. At Party cmgrc?ssc.s held betwren 1917 and 1.922,15 to 21) percent of the delegates were Jews.

T%ose Jews who d d join the Bolsheviks in the early days we= largelqi ""non-Jewish Jews," h Isaac 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 religion would not matter, *deed, would cease to exist. No doubt, this idea was amacthe to those who had a highly arnbipous sense of ethnic identity. 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 to 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 govemmt , 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~g the 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 ~ d their familics m d feUow Jews. Trotsky; commissar of war, warned agahst ad~xitting too 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 families, and their homes, rather than to fight for Bolshevik idenls.

Jews also found that the Bolsheviks had opened the doors to educational 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 officials, 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 rp~ ted as revoiu~ons in G e m m ~ ; Elmgary, ar~d elsewhere in Europe. Same became persuaded that world rwolution

bent mQ that 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 d the left wings of the M; Fareynigte, a Jewish socialist party; m d Poalei %ion, a Zor~ist-smialB;t party to merge with the Bol- sheviks. These mergers h u g h t badly needed persomel into the rmks of the Ifewir;h Sections (Eztsektsiil of the Communist Pare.

:In 1918, the governme~~t established a Commissariat for Jewish Affairs, kaded by %men Dimmshtah, one of the very few Old BolsheviJrs who


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 Comunist Party, it suddedy gainl.d experienced politicians, editors, writers, and organizers, most of whom labored under the burden of having "come late to thg ~~?vol~fiian" and seemed to feel they had to compensate for their tardiness by exhibiting great zeal in the pursuit of the Party's gods.

Revofution on the Jewish Street

The Evsektsii assumed lrhe lead in makiizg the "revolution on the Jewish street." Achowlcdghng that m o ~ n g Jetvs there was still little genuine support for Bolshevik ideals and programs, Emcklsii activists were determined to "revolutionize" the JeMiish population by deskoying the irzstitu- tions and uprooting the traditio~nat values of Jewish socie@. 11% the 1920s, they idenlified three targets and munted cantpaigns against each of them: Zionism, Judaism, and the Hebrew language. TThe campaigns agaitnst Zionism md reli@on were 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.~nts a co~nthuation of the prerevolutio~n- my K~~lturkampf, which had pitted the adherm6 of Yiddish, most ol them socialists, against the promoters of Hebrew, most of them Zictnists.

Zionism had long been considered a "petit bourgeois, reactionxy nationalist" 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 ~ a t achievement, 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 exception of a tiny party called the Evreiskaya Kommunistirheskaya Par- tiya-Poalei "fjion, all Zionist orgmnil;atio~ns and acthitics were outlacved and mmy activists were arrested. Same were sent h to 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 inkgal 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 ~ d pojitical positions, to the ex te~~t that they werc? involved 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 Bw~d was mare a~ticlerical than 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 ~ d recitation 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~gs were 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\g Syna- 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 ~ ~ e d to the somewhat puzzled Commissar of Enlightenment Anatoly Lunacharsky, Yiddish was the language of the proletarian mmses ar~d &brew was used o ~ ~ l y by 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 research 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 language to be cast into a kind of political imprisonment or exile. Despite the


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,e in Central Asia, where Viddish was unbown, and in a few tightly controlled. courses in uniwersities in Lertingrad a d 'Tbilisi. The Jewish Cornmis 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 m Viddish orthography in such a way that He- brew words that codd not be easily substitutred for wouid he respelled phmeticdly in Viddish. Thus, Comunist riddish c m e to have a distinctive form, s e t k g it apart from the Yiddish written in the rest of the world,

atthough religious practice and kl~owledge faded victrly amox~g So- viet Jews, it is likely that this was due morcj to urbanization m d indust-ri- aljzation, coupled with t%ie unavailability of ~ l ig ious instmction and materials, 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 holidays, 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~d Soviet 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 w revival among sorne segments of Jews in the for~xer Soviet 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 beliefs," they were to blend in with the peoples among whom they lived and abadon their* pahcular cu l tm 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 economic needs specific to them, "jcwish work" was justified. The thjrd faction held that Jews would retah a distinct identity for the foreseeable future 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 languages, and the flowering of non-Russian cultufes, many of which had been supp~ssed under the czars, was to be encouraged. This allowed the Ez~st.bctsii to expmd their role from %it.illi,on arrd propaganda to economic plannhg and organizalion and a wide r q e of cultural activities.

Ihe Jwish Sections promoted thee programs in the attempt to bring the Bolshevik message to the Jewish masses and to rehi-rbilitate them economically and remake them culturally Yiddishization was the maisl cultural program adopted. The Evsektsii advocated Yiddisb schools, newspapers, theaters, researc-h instituks, m d ~ournals imd 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. Ihe number of studer~ts in 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 ~ d between 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


in the Russim Soviet Fedaatcld Socialist &public (RSFSR). Whereas in 1924 there was not a single Cornmunitit Party cell operati~lig in 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 traditional 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 perhaps 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~lce examinations 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.d of trhe proletariatYf>htdnned Yiddish 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 hssian with science, idustry progress, high culhre, a ~ d the 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.yH as 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.

Ihe second type of construclive artivity promokd by the Evsiokfsii was ecor~omic rehabilitatiol~ of the Jewish population. Wr, revolution, civil war, mationalization of private properv and business, m d emigration had left the sdzfetlektz economically devastated. In 43 Belomssim slzfeflekh studied in the nnid-I920s,o11ly a quarter of the 91,011C) it~habitants had m identifiable 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 bs tar s . The hope was that they wouid work h co- operative setlhgs or move on to larger hdust_rial mterprises. 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 movements 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 ekme~~t , and 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)O Jewish 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 financial and poijtical support abroad. Jews begar~ to settle in old Jewish agricultural 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-


lies in Ukraine who mgistered for settlement in 7925,i"I p e ~ e n t could be ciassified as '"productive.'" The colo~~ies lacked the culturai and phy"i"ifl amenities that an urban population was used to. Local peasants, especially 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~duct a more religious 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 mav Jewish peasants, as it d d the peasitntry as a whole. Mortrover; the P arty-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-tere colonies 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 ahos t immediately 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~ce that most EvseEit~ii activists covertly opposed it as ur~realistic and h a r ~ ~ f u t to the 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 17695 Jews livhg in that

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~hm to Israel mQ tlne 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 md salary earners seems to have &creased more than two md a half these The number of mazual workerri appears to have kebled. At the s m e t h e , owing to oppofw~ities in t-iigher education, the nurnber of Jewish p f e s - sionals, e~ecially engineers m d tehicims, 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 ig ion was 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 proportion of the secret poj.ice, the NKVD, amd functionaries of the Gdag we= of Jewish nationality. However, the last vestiges of Jewish cdtural autonomy 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, ahos 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- tionaitismrr was 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 between the two totalitarim states. The USSR jnvaded eastern Polmd six-


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~ligious and anti-Zionist policia their c m h i c s in the USSR had experienced twe~~ty years earlier, Many polit-ical and religious leaders were arrested m d deported to the Soviet hterior. "I%e Soviet government thereby inadvertmtly saved the lives of those who were able to survive forced labor a ~ d iflcarceratioz~; had they remah~ed. in their home terI"itol-ies, they would have fat:le~~ victfm to the Nazis.

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 latter 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 consciousness rewiwed and Zionist activity reemergcrd, led in part by the "'Zapad- niki" (Jews of 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 ~ d increasingly anti-Semitic regimes. In Poland, Jews had been restricted in higher education, the mi1itar)i and the professions, and there was an effective boycott of Jewish shops ar~d nnanufacturers. Plliysicai attacrks on Jews became more frequent. Political groupings, including the mjliti-try oligarchy that controlled the government, becanre explicit@ antj-Snsitic. In Rman ia , 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 attachments to religion or Zionism, welcorned it as a Iiberathg force, .Among the Soviet sddiers were Jewish m m and officers. Ihe Soviets vicWy sent Yiddish cdtural figures into the '*liberatedM territories. CJocal Jews 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 y twenty years. For t km,

the Jews' actions confimed the idea of a "zyd~~komlcnn," that is, that com- munism and Jewish~ess were 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~ia by 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 collaborators. So although some Jews saw the 5ovjt?t army as rescuers from oppression, 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 ~ s for tfte systematic annihilation of tt7e Jews. In Kaunas, for example, about 3,000 Jews were killed in the streets by Lithuanian "partisans" "fore the Gemms 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~ts of the local poputatior~s of few as Co unist s ympathizers.

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~d administratiol~. . . .'The Jewish-Rolshwist system must be exterminated once and for all. The sddier must appreciate 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 remembe~d Germans as ""decent peopkU from their encounter during World War X. Many wert. therefore unp~pared for the actions 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 ~grrlar German arm;).;


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~z ntrmbered only about 3,000 men, but they were assisted by larger numbers of Lithuarmian, Lat- vian, Estol~ia~, a ~ d Ukrainian 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~ored tRe 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 collaborators, 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~ned Jews, 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~ally e ~ c t e d reads: "Here in 2941-4943, the Ger~xm fascist invaders executed mare &an 100,000 citizens of Kiev and prisoners of war." When Evgeny kvtushenko pmtested trhe absence of a monumnt in his poem "Bahi Yar,'%e was roundly criticized 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~ed after 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 mention 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, presents a sympathetic portrayal of Jewish sufftzrjng during the Holocaust and an undistortd wcount of Jewish participation in the amed stmggle agahst the fascists, ack~owledghg also 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 population, basically older Jews.

Whatever the reasons for this peculiar t~a tmcn t of the Holocaust, it managed to avoid raisirTg the ernbarrassis~g issue of collaboration with the Nazis on the part of same Soviet ci"czens-all of whom kvere dismissed as "bourgeois natimalisb" wwho had Red to the Wst-hut it led fews to wonda &out the moti\,ations of their govement . 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 efforts to prevent this. Because part af the local poptrlation had collaborated. with the Nazis, Jews also learned to distrust some of their neighbors. They certaidy were disiliuriioned &out Saviet claixns to have achieved "'durrzhb~ nandox~" (frienhhip of peopes) m d "'brafsl"v0 nart~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 researchers so that the full story of the Hofocaust in the USSR may cwez~tually 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 gu~s , the dramatist Shtomo Mihoels and the poet 1tsi.k Feffer, were sent to the Uznited States ar~d other countries to raise funds for the Soviet nnililary, A Soviet Xddish newspaper, Einigkit (U'nity), was puiblished, p is -kg up a


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, ar~d its 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~s were 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~d more 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 (assimilation), 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 reports of physical attacks on Jews, a ~ d many peoge freely insulted Jews in public.

The climax came in November 1952 when a headline in Pravdlcl announced 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-ia agahst Jewish medical personnel, ar~d then Jews in general, spread to many parts of the country. Meksandr Solzbenitsyn reports h his 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 explained the 1952 "D~octms Plot" 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~usies s u f f e ~ d by hem. Xt certainly made

itmernts to restoring the Jews to lfie positio~n of 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~itioln of being forcibly accdturated----with rno access to their own languages m d culture, they had become fully Russian- izd-without being allowed to assimilate, that is, to change their identities 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 o d brought relief from the threat to their physical survival, Jews were increasingly marghalized in the Soviet s y s- tern. W e r e once they had been advantaged by their urban =sideme and prope~nsity to 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


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~ically that 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 ~ d w~achowledged restrictions on Jewsf vocational 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 ~ d rentairtint; 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~g of 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~izm Kez Pvikms (Judaism Withozzl Embeltishment), pubtished in KieV in 1.963, whose rhetoric reminded many of Nazi propagmda. Many other works in a ski tar 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 historic homeland of the Jewish. people, Israel, was defined by Soviet authorities 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 ~ a t revdsion 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 01 Israel m d Zionism: Fashizm pd

Grrlwboi Zvezdni (Fascism Under the Blue Star), published in Rsxssian in 1971; IfsCour,zlzlzr.~~ Sicrittiznz! (Caution, Zio~~ism!), published in several lan- gtrages in 1.970; Sioniznz-Prufivfzik Mim 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'ki Nertkofoniaiizma (By Crimes 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 admitted, "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 restrictions 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 attempted 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 conventions guaranteeing the I-ight of free emigration, Soviet au&orities wefe extremely relucta~t to 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 movement 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~ged their destination at the Vie~x~a transit poht (the USSR had broken relations with Israel in 1.967 a d refused to allow dirPect flights


there); and more and morc? imigrated to the United States. Following trhe Soviet invwion of Afghmistm in 1979 ar~d trhe worse~~i~lig of relations with the United States, Soviet aufionties turned down thousands of applications to emigrate, t h e ~ b y signaling 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 "refuseniks," people who had been =fused permissinn at least twice to emigrate. 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)s by Mikhail <;or$achc.v chmged trhe situation of tbe Jews radically as they changed the systm 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 demands 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"s fra~~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.2 Jewry 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~stitutions had 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 developments 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~d plrtralizatiorr 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;t7zyat1 adopted st-ridently anti-Semitic slogms and warned of attacks on Jews, Ironically, as ecmomic reforms were hplemented and new political groupings appeared, 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~ed to 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~ment announced 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 situation 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& Jew y 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 emigrated. 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 conditions are propitious for the unfettered dcvelopmt 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. i z tlte USSR (Bloom- ingtcm: Indiana University Press, 1997).

Suggested Readings Altshulel; Mordechai. Soviet Jt.w~y Since 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 Gen tzrry of Anzbivnlelzce: The ]curt; of Xzissia mid the So~ic t Uplio~f,

2881 to the Presefzt. New York: Sclhocken, 1988. Gitelman, Zvi. lewislz Aiatio?znlity a d Soviet Politics. Princeton: Princeton Univer-

sity 13ress, 1972. Gitelman, Zvi, ed. Bitter Legacy: Cotafindz'fzg the Halucraust i ~ z flze Soviet Union.

Bloomington: Tndiana CinkersiQ Press, 1997. Kuchan, I,ionel, ed. 7'hc Jews in Soviet Russla Si~zce 1937". 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: Russ i~ 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~rlic Universiv Press, 11393.

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 th ic 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 ahos 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 d or to the syxnbiosis with Arab cdture that produced the Golden Age of Hebrew poetry Closer to our own times, ihe European Entigbtte~ment gave 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 mong 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 to being until 186, m d even t-he great Abramovitsl-1 never found a H e b ~ w equivale~lt for 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 containing nothing but secular verse, prose fiction, or plays. ""My purpose in writing 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 example, 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~d complementary 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~guistic fragmer~tation. "f'he "macnzd tmgue" was being increasingly used h r avowedly ecular ends m d the po~"ibi2ity of 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 otherwise 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~s by translathg hir; major Yid- dish novels into a modern Hebrew style of his own inventim. Sholem Aleichem gai~lied an 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

Modern Jewish Literature 235

of the American-Mddish press, Until 1914 a Jewish writet- limited to a single language was the exception rather than the rule.

So thoroughly had a Eurapem sensibilifry taken 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-amching a 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 biblical 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 d the 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;iurg and the novel, between traditional 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~ary traditiondist."

There are many other writers, however, m d their ntrmber is ever growing, 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 terate? 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~gside the writing of Galician-bom Shmuctl ksef Ag~on, born 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 insisted that all su:bsequex"tt translatior~s he 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 my literary "'system'hre in a constant state of flux, so will modem Jewish writing continue 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~xment state of lhguistic, ideological, and historic-geograyhic tension. To test this approach, :l offer trhe hlfowitlg overvitlw, =ranged not by period of by authot- but according 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 Mahozlfs was written Eor a Gm- man audjence p~cisely to mark the distance traveled from th.e medkvai backwaters of Jewi.sh Eastern Europe, and nuthing compamble was to appear among t-he Jews for almost a century. fn 1876 Moses Leib Lilienblurn p~xblished Sitzs 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. ~bramol~tsh. obliged 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 reveal 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 gam. "Sholem Aei&em the writer,"' he announced in the p ~ f a c e to Fanem yarid fkom the Fair ) , would recount "the true-life hisbry of Sholern Aleichem the person." Neither, of course, bore a " ~ y msemblance to the "real" Solomon Rabinoviltsh, a onetime member of the Kiev bourgeoisie in wkose home Russian, not Yiddish, was the everyda ylanguage.

Ihe rebellion a d apostasy that accompanied the Eves of ewery profes- sional Jewish writer m d artist were best kept hidden from a readership


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~d a constitutional sight, the Jewish autobiography fh~ally came 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%f apparently 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 t "auto." rican-Jewish writer whr, used the mtobiographical form to re-

veal the full extent of his self-betrayaf as u f iw 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.

Ihe rupture caused by ilnmigratim was nothing compared to the mui- tiple catastrophes visited upm the Jews of the twentieth cmtury: czilrist pogrom" World War I, the Bolshevik &volution, the Civil War that followed, the Arab riots, and the Shoah. These h turn, spamed a subgem of Jewish atrtobiography that focused exclusively on the catastrophe itself. 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 Khurb~~ 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 destruction suppresses the autrhor" iinctividud experience in fwor of a broad historical cmvas. Fighting on the oppo"te side and using a contrasting literary approach was k igdor 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 U ~ ilz dayn bluf z0Zstz-l lebn (translated as Tile Pi1" ntzd the Tray, 1949) is a model of this approacrh. 'Those who either adopted new languages after the war or who returned to a home devoid of Jews tended to

embrace the existentialism then current in intellectual circles: the individual 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~clf hot 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~tatim of modem Jewish culhnre is most evident in the atrtobiographicd genre. Yiddish kvriters who escaped from Europe prior to the war spent thl'if posh= years erecting memorials to a lost civi- lizafjo~~. The very title of Yehie1 Isaiah k"s sev ell-volume au tohiogra- 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.y explici-t love scenes.

The Novel

Indeed, auttihiographers aid ~~ovelists alike have equated lrhe frustrated desire for love and sexual freedom with trhe hem(i_ne)'s quest for personal autonomy; This goes back to the first madern novel, Don Quimfe, by Cer- vantes, culnninating in Flaubert's Madl~nze Bovary 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 my 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


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 sexual 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 remains 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 in Tel Avisr, as is Yaakov Shabti3.i"~ Zikhrc7-1~ 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-~gwlating socid orgmism made it that much more appealing 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 modern 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 dominated 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. &mh, the s h ~ l . The 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-ravelers come to town.

With thjs symbolic map fi m 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~'mnimus was 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 destruction of the shtetl to its earlier economic and social decIhe, Yiddish and Hebrew writers explnited the shktl more ar~d more as shorthand for Jewish callective survival. Lamed Shapiro (1878-7998) provided a detailed 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 fz la f t z 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 1 and the forces of srrcularizatiun. The protagonists of both novels strugge with madness, and though both are able, fh3al)yl to awake11 from 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~d 1930t; through the lens of Sabbatianism, a Jewish messianic movement in, the seventeen& century Singer's nhilism, as opposed to Agnon" Zian-


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~tinuity into fhe sharpest possible focus. 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 hhke - 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~al decay 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 perished 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 mly compfetes an ir;tevitable process of ethical, metaph y siral, and societal crisis

Hebrew novelists, in contrast, resgondhg to a Zionist readkg of history have held out some hope that the fmily m y be ablc to w3hstand even the crisis of LZiol~ist ideOtC)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 enterprise 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~ic schemes to haraless the col~tradictions of 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 ~ ~ z (pioneers) 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 Sad 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 fmily and frier~ds makes him so vuineralole to defeat, or Holocaust survivor Artur Sammler of Mre Sam~nlevS lflnnef (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 culture. The modemistt; have used the novel to challenge the rational met opti- mistic assumptior-rs of bourgeois society. Everythhg is now called into question: character, plot development, authorship, morality society, history, md, above ail, the distincl-ion behnrreen fiction m d fact. The w ~ t e r who almost sk-rgle-hmdedly effected this shift was Franz Kafka (1883-1924).

Beneath the microscopicaI,Iy alnplified details of evesyday life in Kafids novels m d short stories :Lies the perception of reality as m mending series of gmticssque miracrles. The sembla-rce of nomalcy ant[ civility, lnui m d order, 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 thirteen 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 sacred-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-


sonal symbolism to the height of aesthetic perfection. ha our own day, Elie Mliesel ar~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 ~ d m 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, Da~i lo KiS"s r~ovel A Tomb f ir Bovk DauicEouich f 1978) takes

Joseph K. for an almost surrealistic tour of Stdin's Gulag----from Siberia 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 readers 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 poets took up Heinefs cause, did Hebrew ar~d Viddish poets claim :Eleine as one of their own, a soul brother.

This points to a peculiar feature of modern Jewish culkrre: that the iwnpe- h fs to reclailn pieces of the d i scded 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% lwe aft'air with trhe Sepf-rardic culbre of meditlval Spa& that sparked a s h i l a hterest h Bialik m d David Fr i sch

Heine's use of the ballad &at paved the way for the ballad revival in modem Yiddish poetry, Heit~e proved to this second galeration of Jewish rebels and revolutionaries that one could hvent a usable past with materials long sislce abmdoned and r ende~d iibsolete. 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 "~volutionary tradjeionalist.'"

Weirze" g ~ a t champion 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.t by 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 suggest an hihistorical chronick about the Ckmiehicky Massacres. More shocking 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 m his prophet to strike out agilinst the heavenly throne, the people, m d the world. At its deepest level, the poem pokes to the absurdity 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 ~ d a call for seH-defe~lse. It l ambed 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~gly in times of na- t i m l catastrophe. And respond they did. %n the very lnidst of World War I,


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 itl Bia1ik"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 am for the cycle of catastrcnpks? Eqressivnist poet Uri Zvi G~enberg (1895-1981) issued his own ""Oracle to Eumpe" h 1926, which proclaimed that it was not the Jews witl-t their pmsivity ar~d their fafse messiizr~ic exgectations but Christim Europe with its lust for Jewish blood. Greenberg prophesied that only in. their olvn lmd would the spiritual unification of the Jews take place, to be led by King Ahasver$ the Wmderir~g Jew of Christian myth. G~enberg lived to see both pmtwfi is 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~~elson 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 poets. Jewish poets, after all, were nut sons of the noktitity, like Pushkin, By- ron, or Mickiewicz. At best, their fathers were small-tow11 m e ~ h a r ~ t s who sometimes tmveled to the iJeipig fair. 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~guage themfore 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 h mini. (1918)- Two of his gxatest admimrs, :Moyshe Nadir and Moyshe-kyb Halpem, ran a joint colurn11 ~II a 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 ~ E O VOrk (1919), was also the most Heinesque. It portrayed thc. tormented inner life of an immig.t-aM through 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~d the immiurent destruction of Polish Jewry, however, GXat-stein discovered 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,es through 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 P eland for lack of a proper passport, Manger survi:ved the war in Lmdon, a l~d he 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~ed folM~c.31 oi Yiddish-speaking Jews, but the forests outside Viha provided the very young Sufizkever


with his "world of a thousand colors." Rather than free verse or folk- verse, a profusion of rhymes ar~d metrical 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 translated the isreconcilables of natural beatrty and humm barbarity, of national 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 dramatic ballads, Arrested in l934 for the latter c rhe , 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 'hat kenafe ' 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 e in Palestine at a latter age (Tchen~ichovslky at 56; Bialik at 51) and make the transition to the Sephardic acccmt, hut also he produced some of his m;-\jor wurk irt the last years of his life. Perhaps thjs difference has to do with the fact that Tchernichovsky was thoroughly at home in Eur~gean cdturt-. and drew his main inspiration from nature. The ody Hebrew literary past to r/vhich his early poetry alludes wieh any imaginative richess is the Bible. The pagan world exercised a contintrhg fascination over Tchernichovsky, and his trmslations of the Iliad and Odyssey are trhemselves considered classics. Me11 rtrspo~~dirng most directly tru the violence of the twentieth c m t ~ r y ~ Tchernicbovsb chose the most demanding 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 ~ d balance. Abr&am Sutzkever would later follow in Tchernicllzovsky's footsteps+

The Hebrew poetwho succeeded Bialik m d Tchernichovsky arrived in Palestine at a much earlier age and thus made easier tra~sition to its Hebrew idiom: Yehudah Amiehai. at twelcre, Avraham Shlonsky at thirteen, 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 movement, whose members tried to sever all cultural ties with the European and, particularly, Eul-~pem-Jetvish past.

A bona fide Israeli poetry as disthct from the Hebrew poetry of ""X-us- sia m d I"alestineFfkonly c 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 presence 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 ike prior ge~lierations of &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 sensibility is that of 'IJondon m d Berkeley.


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 ( Y p ~ ~ r ! Your ftuddled Imsses yearnz'lzg to breathe freeI 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-Jewish poet Else L,asker-SchGXer (1869-1945) considered her Hcbraische Balladen (Hebrew Ballads, 1913) to have contributed ta the buildi~lg of Palestine. Kadya Molodowsky's cycle of "Wornern% Songs" (1924) exambed the madern legacy of the Biblical Matriarchs; her children'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 ody the sar~d of 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 sonnet. 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~lrai legacy of t-he Jewish drama lies in its having greatly expanded the fmd of Jewish collective 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 fmous 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 understood, the Jews would wed not onk a bona fide folklore and high literary 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 finally 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~olish belief 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:~rw Days)

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, generals, and soldiers we were not; we had no romantic attachments with lovely princesses; we didn? tght 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 collective 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,


fairy tales, and sentimental romances. The historical record of how the Jewish family a " ~ d cornunity 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 visionary 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~~~~iurrr by 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 Di go lde~e keyt (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 ecstatic 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:kcewise attempts a reversal of the nahtral order and faces defeat with* his olvn Hasidic court, but for sheer poetic and psychological force, none can match Reb Shlo~irne" defiance of history itself.

me physical. destruction of the Hasidie heartland in World War I followed by the Bolshevik seizure of power suggested, the need for a more dramatic plot to eyewibess a d cl-rronicler S. h-sk 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: nonon, 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~miered in 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 ethgraphy, embellished his plot nf star-cmssed lovers with manilold layers of Masidi,~ m d East Euro- pean Jewish lore. As a ~ s u l t , the 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.wish culture, 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 service 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 cm 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-


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"tv in 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, reinforced 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 likewise 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, mv ing 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"tew form of Jcwish discourse. Even writers who write only in Hebrew do so with an eye to their translators, and it is not uncomunm Eor a Hebrew novel to appear in English before 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 interpretive tools for a proper undwtanding of Jewish literaturr;. are the s m e as for the stzldy af any other literature: bibliography; biography, history, aesthetics, stylistics, folklore, philosophy, p sychology, 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~~ md 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 ~ d the stubborn refusal of Jews to he &fined out of their particular existence-all this and morcj have given rise to a madem literature worthy of a people whom Muhammad called the People of the Book,

Notes

1. Ruth Wisse, ed,, A Stefl n~zd Other 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 Ficf io~z in 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 ~ a t Is 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??g qf 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~rk University; H i s most recent books are Barcelona alzd Beyafzd (1992), In the Ymv 1096 . . . : The First Crusadr n~zd the Jews (1996), and iGlediez2al Stereotypes n~zd iG1oden.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 Jem , 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>editor of nine books and more than eighty articles in scholarly journals. The most recent work is Bitter kgacy: Go%jrutzting tlre Holomust in the Sovief Union (1 997).

256 About the Editors and Contributors

Warren Zev Harvey is professor of medieval Jewish philosc~ghy at the University of Jerusalem. He is author of easdni GrescasTritiqlne of file Tlzeofy ofAc- qzrired Ir~telkct and 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~e Plzenornenol~gy (f:?f^llze Lie 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 Destracf io;~" (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~rclitforn Usable Past, was published in 1999. Roskies is cofounder and editor of Prooftcxts: A jour~zal oflezukll Literary Hktory, established in 1983.

Rapond 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 at~d Lfmks.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 author of many scholarly articles and books, including Reading flze Book, The Cefzesis of Ett~ics, and The Road to Redcmyt.ior.~,

Index

Anroll, 13 Abnkurnovn, h i s n , 223 Abbasid Empire; 133,138,145 Abel, 12,13 Abraf-mxrr, 12,15,17, M, 144,145 Abrailnm bar eiyyii, 150 Abraf-mm ben Bavid, 154 Abramovitsl~ Sholern Yaaki~v, 190,233,2,34,

236,238,250 Abravditel, Judnh, 165 Abrc~gation cjf vows, law of, 51 Abuiafia, Meir, 158 Acrosticsf 129,237,143 Adarn nrtd Eve, 10, 30, 176 Aesop, 86,145 Agc~insf Apian ffosephns), 49 Aggadic midrashim, 74,78,79,98--10Q

A~~ora ie , X,%92 Aggac3ic kraciliticm, 73, 81, 82, 96, 133 Agnsn, Shmuef Yc>r;eE, 235,239,240,2113,

249,253 Agricuitrtre, 108, 120,184, 191, 198,208,214

in Soviet Union, 21&220 Agrippa I (Roman statesrnai~), 62 Agro-Joint ODC), 219 Agron (Saadia), 137 Agudat Visraef, 200 Ahdd Halam, 191 Ahai Gaon cjf Shavha, Rabbi, 91,133 Alzas1.e~ King, 245 Ahixm'az b. Paltiel, 142 Aktziolten, 203 Al-Asliari, 168 Albert the Great {Christian philosopher),

I 74

Aleichern, Shctlem, 234,235,236,238-239, 250

Alexander the Great (king of Macedon), 37, 1 42

Alexander Ja~r~raezus (Hasmoxrean king), 57 Alexander Romnr~ce, 142, 145 Alexander IX (czar of Russia), 190 Alexnnctria (Egypt), 61-62 Alfarabi, 168 Al-Fasi, lsaac ben Jncnb, 97,911 Alfctnso X (El Sabio], 158 Algazati (Riluslim mystic), 171 Al-eariri, 155, 1 58 Al-earizi, f udah, 135,154, 156,158, 160, 162 Alive, t k Son ofAri?ake (Abmf-mm Ibn Ezm),

153 Aliyah, 198 Al-fubhni, 168 Afmohads, 114,154,156,165 AIphaCllrhct O ~ B C I Z Sir@, T ~ c (anon,), 140 Alteri~~an, Natax~, 248 Amalekites, 21 Amaziah, 23 American Jewish Committee, 206 A~nedcan Jewish Joint Plistributim

Committee, 219,225 A~neAcan Zionist Federa tior~, 197 Amiclw i, Yehtldah, 248,253 A~nittai ben Sl~efatia, 141 Amoraie literat-tire, 79-10Ct, 128 Anroruim, 80 Amos, 23 Anan (Karaite leader), 110 Aitaitias, M, 65 AllatoXi, Jacob, 160

Anav, Benjamin, 162 A~~dafusian Jewry 143,146,154,154,160,162 Anielewics, Mordechai, 203 Ar~imal fables, 145,156 An-ski, S., 237,251-251 Ar~tiochus 111,4344 Antiochus W, 44,50 Alltipater the Id~~rnean ffati~er of Herod), 58 Rt?tiquiti~s of flze Jews Uosephus), 48,49,51,

GO Anti-%xrrritis~r~, 14--15, 49

in Easterrz Euri2pe, 200,221 in France, 191 in Germany, 1%,2111-202 in R~~ssia/Soviet Ux~ior~, 225-227,228,

229-230 in U.S., 197-198

Apocalypse, 91 Appelfdd, Aharon, 243,253 'Aqedol, 144 Aqiba, Rabbi, 75,77,78,79,87,92 Acluiln (proseiy te), 92 Aquinas, nornas, 174 Arabic language, f ewish use of, 11 1,136

in Geonic period, 135, 136, 137, 138,139, 167

in Islamic Spain, 97 in ftaly, 143 in Spain, 97,171,174 venmcutal; 149,157

Arabic literary innuence on Ashke~xazic writes, 144 in Christian Spair~, 155, 156, 157-158, 163,

164,165 in Geonic pel"iod, 136-137,138-139 in f slnmic Spain, 144-1541, 151, 152,154,

156,1Mf 165 in ftaly, 162 in Provex~ce, 160, 161

Aramaic lnnguage, 91,92,93,95,133,159 'Arltn'alz Ennz (Jacclb), 96 Argentitla, 193 Arist~fbulus (Hasmor~ean), 57,58 Aristotle, 158, 171, 175,176 Asch, ShoXem, 240 Asher bet1 Juldtlh (Solomon h. Saqbel), 155 Asher ben Ye11iel (RoSH), Rabbi, 97,98 Ashkenaz, 140,144 Ashkenazic Pietisks, 1140, 143,144, 154, 140 Ashkenazic rite, 95, 134, 141, 142, 143 Ashkenazic tradition, 97,98, 119,122-122,

144,161,185

in poetic meter, 247-248 Assimilation

in Eumpe, 184,186,201 in Sclfviet Union, 184, 211,213,215-216,

217-218 See .eulso Ecc~ixomic it~teraction; f~~teilectual

i~~teractioxr Assyrians, 23,28 At t?zr Depot (Rrtlnt zrogmli (RergeXson), 240 Ausclnwitz dent11 cnmp, 203 Austria, 183, 184, 187 Autobiography, mocleriz, 236-238 Atricenna (Islamic philosopher), 153, 173 'Avoda, ki-tvsdt, 132,142 Azlol delZabbi Natltarr, 90

Babel, Tsaac, 212 "Babi Yar" "e~rturjhenki~), 223 Babi Yar exemtians, 202-203,223,224 Babylonim exile, 13,16,23,25-26 Babylonian Sewis11 coxrrxnunity, 39,881,91,

96,133,134 Babytanian TaXmud, 80,81-83,90,99,110,

134,16&169,235 Baghdacl, 110,133,167 Balforu; Sir Jnmes, 195 Balfour Dwlaration (1917), 195,198 Ballads, 244,246,247,248 Banking, in Europe, 182, 287,188 Baixr~urj (desert: hermit), 49 Bargitctt, 80 Bar Kokhba Retroll (132-135 C.E.), %,72, XI Battle of t k Pen utrd the Scissors, The

ffji~emtnv hen Ardutiel), 164 Bavti. See Talmud Bavli Bedersi, Abmhnm, 160-161 Behavior, Sclp Moral behnvior Beilis, Mendel, 192,210 Befarus (Belorussia), 19U, 208,216,218,219,

222 Bellowf Saul, 239,241-242 Beizek death canzp, 2113,204 Bell-Ami, Mordechal', 2% Ben Asher (Mamrete), 138 Be~~edictions, Byzanti~~e Palestixxian,

128-129,1311-231,132 Be11 Guric311, Bavid, 198, 204,205,206 Belljamin, 22 Brn Koltelt.t (Samuel the Nagid), 150 Ben Meir, Rabbi, 138 Brn Misltle (Samuel the Nagicil), 150 Ben Sirzr, 4143,45,47, 140, 145

Re~l Tehilint (Saxnttel the Nagid), 150 Be~tvenist, Vidal, 164 Berbers. Sm Almohads Berdyszewski, iMicah Usef, 239 Rereshit Xubb~ztz', 99 Bergelson, Dovici, 225,239,24ti Rericha, 204 Bcsftzedrcslt, 239 Besriarabia, 221 Bcl Izukctzessct, 72 Bet midmsh, 72 Bci Yosej" (Cam), 98 Biaiik, Hayyim Nalman, 235,243,244,245,

246,247,252 Bible. SW Hebrew Bible; Torah. Bib/<. hmzs (Manger), 246 Bicken~xnn, E.J., 44 Bitingunlism, $(v 2ansiations Biz~alt, 179 Birkot Hnsltachar; 94 Birobidzhar~, 219-220 BirclhldzIu~ncr Shter~z, 225 Bismarck, Otto vom, 188 Black Book, Tk*, 223 Black Hundreds (organization), 192 Black Plague, 143 Black k a r s f 19413-1452), 225226 Blaustei~t, David, 206 Bloocl rituals, 124, 192,210 BEuc Mounfain, TIE (Romarz russi) (Shalev),

241 Bodily nctivitim, biessi~tgs for, 94 Boerr~e, ttrdwig, 187 Bolshevism, Bolsheviks, 211-213,222,223.

Set* also Erps~ktsii Bonnfed, SRlomon, 164 Rook of Betz'cfs latzd Qpi~lz'atrs, Thc (Saadia),

138,160,167,168,169-171 Rook of fjze Cont~mt~dnretrts (Maimc~nides),

1 74 Rook of Deeds (SC7fbr I w - ~ Y u I ' u s ~ ~ ) (Apon), 243 Book ~$*Uclig,:llt, The (Ibtz Zabnm), 155, 156 Rook ofDiscussiun and Deblate, "X'lte (Moses

fbn Ezril), l52 Rook of the Ft>stiz?als (Saadia), 138 Book ~$*tlre Garden, TIzc (Ambic tmnlise), 152 Rook of the Pious, Tlie otxdah the Piotls), 144 Book ~$*Prijofand Llcmot2stration in Dgerzse of

the Despistid P~iioplet, The (t-latevy), 153, 171-174

Rook o f f pletzhr (Moses de Leon), 159 Borc~khov, Ber, 194

Brancleis, Lorxis, 197 Bridal Cat?upy, Tlte (I.kiznr.6snt k lah)

(Apon), 240 Brit Slzalorn, l99 Bmtj?ers Aqhketrazi, Tlze (Di brdpr Aqhketrazi)

(Singer), 241 Bt~ber, Marti~~, 201 Buddha, 156 Btlkovina, 199,221 Bund, 194,2f~0,210-211,212,214 Bt~sirress. fee Econo~nic ix~teraction Buwa yhid period (Iran), 138 By Crit~zes atrd Lies (Prestuyski~rzim i

Obtnarznm), 228 Byzantix~e Exnpire, literature of, 127-133,

141-143

Caesnren, 50, 65 Cnhnn, Abraham, 234,237 Cai~z, 12, 13 Cairo Ceniza frapents , 91,92, 108 Calei~dar (Saaclia), 138 Cnligula (Rorrrnn emperor), 49,61 Canann, 19-20 Cnnnda, l92 Cantonist episode (R~~ssia), 209 Cnro, Jowph, 98 Catherine l1 (empress of Russia), 189 Cat4 tion, Zionisnt! (Ostorozi'Ftrof, 228 Chagnll, Marc, 235 Chefmno death. camp, 203 Chemerisky Aklexiinder; 220 Child murder, Sclp Btoocli rituals Chmieinicky massacres, 244 ChAstr'an gospels, 47,61, See also itldl'z~iti~i~l

gospejs ChAstiax~ity, early, 51-52 Christian rule, 103-3ll4, 105, 112-113, 124

in northern Europe, 114,120,121,122, 123,124,125126,182

in Spain, 11>124,115, 116-117,118,155, 163, 165

Sclp also Conversion; New Christians Chrtrchill, Wiixqton, 1913 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 Clemont-Tonnerre, SlaitisIas de, 185

Cainmiissariat for Jewish Affairs (Soviet Unii)~~), 212, 213

Camnuxnal self-government, SW Self- goverlme~tt

Cainm~inist Party (Soviet Unio-rz) f ewislr sectioi.rs of, 212-21 3 programs of, 21S220

ComyleEc Works of Heitlrich Hcine, Thp (Yicltlifih translation), 246

Coltcentration camps, 203,224 ""Cct~zgregatton of Singers, The" (poets'

club), 164 Carwewa tive Jtrtilaisrn, 1%-187, 147 Col%titul-it~~ral Democratic Party (Russia),

1 94 ""Co~ttemplation of the World" [Peltini), 161 Calzversion, 103,153, 171

in Germany, 186,188 in Russia, 189,209,211 in Spain, 115-115,1&3,1M, 165, 183 SW also New7 Cl~ristians

Cosmopolitans, 225 Caul-tiers, Court Jews, 123,182

in Spain, 114-115,146,147,149-150, 163 Caverzant o f Peace (Zirjrzist), 199 Crafts, 184, 218. See also Ecrmamic:

i~zteraction Crassus (Roman goventor), 60 Creation, t 0-12,82, "L2, 179 Crbmieux, AdoIpl~e, 187 Crii~zen, 218, 219, 225 Crc>mweil, Oliver; 182 Crucifixicm of Jesus, 121,122 Cr~~sades 122,132,143,1311,161 Cultural Integraticm. See IztteflectuaX

iltteraclioit; Lirzguistic integratim Cutturaf reizetval, in i~moderxl literature, 235,

243,244 Gyms (king of Persia), 37 Czerrtiakc~w; Adam, 203

Daniel, 93 Dante, Alighieri, 162 Dapiera, Mesl-ruf lam, 157-1 58,164 Dapiera, Soloi~zorz, 164 Daii, Moses, 194 David, 12,13, 17, 22-22,150 Dead Sea Scrt>lls, 51, 79,83

Dead Sea Scrttll sect, 47,452, 55(1,52, Den& camps, 203,224 Deal11 squads, 202,203, 21gt 222,223 De fa Caballel-ia family, 1164 De Lcctn, Moses, 159,178-1 80 Umgsh, 33 Der Mister, 241,242-a3 Ueslrztctiu~z c?f C;aiicia ("Tje (E=hurhtz Galitsye)

(An-ski), 237 Deutero-Isaiah, 16,28 Det~teronomy, 19, ,%, 77,78,94, 164 Ueuteroizo~zy f(lnbbnh, 99 Det~tscher, Isaac, 21 1 Uhinrmi gec>pies, 107-108 Diaspora, 59 Diaspora Rcrvoit ( 1 15-117 C.E.), 54,72 Dictiomaries, 137, 147,167 Dietary law, 551,52,186 Diez MacXto, Alejandro, 93 Dimaitshtniit, %men, 212, 220 Di Mansi (poet), 162 Dispiaced persorzs, after WW 11,204 Biz~ine Cotfredy (Dante), 162 U R L ~ ~ ~ Z , 159 Dc.ctors Plot (1952), 225,226 Uoikayl", 194 Dunnofo, Shabetai, 141 Drama, 249-253 Bmsh, 87 Dress requirements, 124,184,201 DreyfEts, Atfrec3, 291. Dt~bnow, Sirnon, 194,250 h n a s h ben Labmt, 247-148 Uybhzsk, Thc (An-ski), 251-252

Earth {Kom), 249 Ebreo, Leorze, f 65 Ecclesiastes, Books of, 31,32,3&41,150, 162 Ecclcsiasfes liiabbah, K8 Ecclesiasticus, 4143 Economic interaction, 196

in r~orthem Europe, 105, 119-120,122, 123,124--125, 182,184, 187

in R~lssiaiSoviet Union, 192,218-220 in Spailk 1114-115,116,117 See dso Bnnkmg; Moneylending

Eden, Alztl~cmy, 204 Eden, Garden of, 10, 30, 176 Educatiom. See Rabbinic academies; Schools Egypt, 15-16,45,49,91,154,174 Ehrenburg, Ilya, 223,225 Eicjtini~ I;labl3~zh, 88

Eight Chapters ((Maixnonides), 176 Eighteen Benedictions, 94 Eilzigk~it (newspaper), 224 Einsufzlqru;~pmz, 202,203,219,222,223 Eleazar, 64 Elenzer b. Jncnb, 1% EU1ana1-t~ 143 Eliezer ben E-Lyrmnus, 90 Eliaer ben Judah Rabbi, 144 Eliezer b. Natan, 19.2 Elizabeth (empress of Russia), 189 Elohist texts, 3.4 El Tmnsito Syl-tagagne, 163 Emrs (newspaper), 225 England, 116,119, 123,125,182,183,192,

195 and Palestine, 198-19, 2111,204,2135 durhxg WW 11,204

Enlightenxrrent, 18S184 En SoJI178 Ephraim of Bom-tt 144 Epifonzc qf ?Illre Halakhic Decisious of lkbbi

Asher (Rabbi Asher), 97 Equ;llity. Sce Jewish Emdintipation Esau, P2,lil Essenes, 49,50,53 Esther, 32,33,145 Esllrer linbbalt, 89 Estonia, 221,223, 224 Et.hicnl belnavior: See Moral behirvior Ethical Monotheisxn, 1% Ethics fSpi-rzoznf, 1% Eutuw. Sec Qasida Evin~l cunfere~nce (Fmnce), 201 Evkoxn (Je~rish Cox~nmissariat), 213 Evreisknya Kc>mmurtislichesknyn Partiya,

21 3 Ei.?stvktsii (Communist Party), 212-213

programs of, 21S220 Exempln, 144 Exilarch, 109 Exile, See Babylonialn exile; Expulsions Exodus, 12,15--16,7T, 78 Exodus 1947 incideint, 204 Exodus h b b l ~ k , 99 Expulsioi~s

from eastern Enrope, 18ft-189 from lnolxt.herrn Europe, 125, 181 fro111 Russia, 188-1 89, 192 from Spain, 118-119, 174,181 SW also Migration

Ezehel, 25-26,93

Family, in literature, 241-242,251 Family Maslzf7er (1)i P Y I I ' S J Z ~ O ~ ~ P ZMas!zl?er) (Der

Nister), 241 Family Moshkut, Tlze (Difiz~~tilye Muslzkut)

f Singer), 24 1 Fareynigte Uewish socialist party), 212 Fascism, 221,223,227 Fascism Ut~der the Blue S f ~ r (Fashiztyt pod

Goluboi Zz~ezduil, 228 Father, reverence for; 42 Faylastg; 138 Feffer, ltsik, 224,225 Feminist study, of' Hebrew Bible, 11,35 Fiction, 238-243 Fig leaf, 176 Final sojution, of Nazis, 203-2019 Fisthoff, Adc~lph, 187 Fishdir the Larne CFishke elP krumer)

fAbrdmovitsl-r), 238 FIorus (Roxnan prc~curator), 64 Folklore, 74,86,88,140,145,235,242,246 Fotkspartei, far Jewish. r-tational autonorrry,

194 Foxnin, EArn Moiseevich, 223 Four Ijillars uncob), 48 h x Fables, Tlrf (Harmqcian), 145 Fmince

literature of, 159-161 in Middle Agm, 116,119,123,125,1611 18th-19th C., 184--185,187, 188,191 20tl-t c,, 142, 2113

Frankel, Rabbi Zacharias, 186 Fmnk, Jncob, 231 French Revolution (1789), 184185 Frischnrun, David, 243 From the Fair CFunt*m yaril;E) (Aleicherrrr), 236 Fmmki~~, Esther, 220 Ftxe11r-t~ S. J., 189

Gabi~-tius (Roxmn governor), 60 Galicia, 195 Galilee, 60,63,65,72 Gulut, 206 Garmlef, 51 Guun, geotzi~l-r, 96, 110, 128, 133, 167. See ~ulso

Geonic periojii Garcia Marquez, Gabriel, 241 Gavrilcw, Pekr, 223 Geiger, Abrahnm, 184

Cexmra, 80 General Federation of E-lebrew Workers iitt

the Land of Israel, 195, General Jewish Workersr Uttion (Blmd), 194 Cetresis (Btaresl~it) fibl~ah, 83-85,87,8X Genesis, 10-12, 77, 179 Cetresis Rubbati, 144 Geonic periocl(6(10-1(NlO C.E.), 89,9(1,93,

145 in fraq, 133-140 SW also Gaol?, plzirn

Germany in Micldle Ages, 119,122,125,143 17th-18th C., 182,183,184, 185 14th-211th C., lSl87,tt38,193,201-202 Nnzi, 202-204, 220-221

Cerc~~~a , 126, 157, 158 Gershom, Rabbi (Ligl.r-1: of t l~e Exile), 143 Cessius Flonis (Eorrrran procurator), 63 GLliultjt, 151 Gezerd, 21 8 Ghetto, 62, 182,202,203,222,245 CiXgamesh, Epic of, 39-40 Gittzberg, Asher, 191 Clasncst, 224 GLatstein, Jacnb, 246 CI IC~ ticism, 94 Gocl, 11, 16

and cl-roser~r~ess, 12-1 3, 16 n~td cnmpitssio~~, 29 and conquest of Cnnnan, 18-20 coveitants of, 16-19 and creation, 10-11 n~td Egypt, 15-16 and h~trnan comprehensic311~ 31,32,42, K2 n~td i~ttercessians, 17,18,26-27 and love, 26,30 obedience to, 18,21 omnipotence of, I& 1516,18,25 pmtective~tess of, 15-16, 17, 18 and redemptioi~~ 16,47 n~td sin and purtisl~ment, 19, 20, 21, 25,

30-31,32 ns sole Cod, 18,24,47 worlcl plan of, 31-32 Zohlar on, 17'7, 178-174 SW also Hebrew Bible

Goidberg.;;, Led, 249 Cotc3c.11 Age of I-lctbrew literature, 145-1%Ci4;,

I64

Golclfaden, Abrahm, 251 Goldmark, Joseplz, 28'7 Golem, Tlif (Leivick), 252,253 Goril Kalvarid (Ger), 190 Gorbachev, MikhniI, 229 Gordort, A. D., 198 Gordor~, J. L,, 189 Gorky, Maxim, wife of, 215 Govemrnent. Sm %If-government Grade, Chnim, 239 Greizt M~zdness, The (Ha-shigrion i~@-pdu l )

(Hameiri), 237 Great Revolt (66--74 C.E.), 54,6348 Greek infitle~tce. Sre HeHenism Greek-speaking Jews, 142 Gree~tberg, Uri Zvi, 245 Grkgoil.e, Abb4,185 Grc3m yko, Andrei, 205 Grussinan, Vassi'ty 223 Grue~tba~m, Yitzhak, 201) Gaestfor t k Nigizt (Orc-nh tmtu IaEun)

(Agnon), 240 Gtiidt? of tkr I ' f ~ p l e ~ f d (Maii~lonides), 160,

17'4-1 77 Gtilgg Archipflag0 (Solzhenitsyn), 225

Haram, Alrad, 244,250 E-lnbbnkuk, 83 Ha-Coheir, Rabbi Raphael, 184 E-lnDarshan, R/lc3sile, Rabbi, 99 HaDarshan, Sl~ixnon, 99 Hadke asfiircc~~zaz, 140 Hadrianic persect~tions, 144 Hagfzna,204 Hagiogrpha, 24 E-ln-Gcjri~i, I61 Halakhitc literature, 96-98,133, 157,161, 164 E-lnlakhic midrasl~im, 73, 74, 77,713,79,91,

96 Haiakjzof Gcdolal, 91,9697, 133 HaEaHzot HaliiZi": 97 NaElakizol. l~e~mkc?t, 96-97 Halevi, Jtrdah ben Sarrrruel, 114,144,

152-153,154,160 Halevi, Sanuxet, 163 Haiklzot lJesuqot (Yehudai Gatan), 133 Halpern, Moyshe-Leyb, 245,246 E-lnmeiri, Arrigdor? 227 Hannqdan, Berekhyn, 145 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-tonean dyltasky 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 canonization o& 71-72 chosenness in, 12-15,16,18,21, 174 commentary an, 135,153,154,160 coveitants of, 16-19 ns~d exile, 23,25+26,28 and exodus fr011-t Egypt, 15-16 fruitfulness in, 11-12 in Golden Age poetry, 149, 150 ns~d hope, 14,15, 32-33 kings/ ki~tgdoxrrrs of, 17,21--23 ns~d law, 18, 19,20,24 literary stucly of, 10,34-35,111,135, 152 ns~d moral behaviol; 14-15'24 and iratinr~at adversity 13-14,15--16,

19-20,21 poetry of, 29-30 prophets of, 19-28 and reward, 32,42,47 ns~d sorls, older nncI younger; 13-14 and suffering of righteous, 3t,32 translations of, 136,167 vo~7el and cantiltation marks of, 135 ns~d wedltlt, 24, 39 wisdom Literatltre in, 30-31, 32 women in, 11,14, 32-33 SW also Creation; God; Te11tple in

Jer~~sdfern; Torah; itzdi~?id~aai hooh Hebrew langtiage

meciietrill literature 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 Jewislt obsewance, 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-listztdrut ha-ardim, 1% Histacln~t tabor Federatioit, 199 Hisfoyy of Ben Siru (folklot-ic traditit>n), 145 H i s t u ~ L?fjesus, TIze (folkXol-ic tradition), 145 E-Litler; Actolf, 201 Fjtivi of Balklt, 135,138 E-lc>khmail, 179 Holland, 119,182,183,185 E-lol~~~ust , 202-204

literature on, 237-238,245,246,2198 in Soviet Union, 220-24

Home, hornelt3ssltess, 18--14,213,152,245, 249

Hosfzu' nut, 1 32 "Hc~w?" "utzkever), 247 Howe, Xrsri~tg~ 243 "E3ym11s of Glory" ((Petist poems), 144 "Hymns of UniQr"(Pietisl pcterns), 144 E-lyrcanus X (John Hyrcanus), 49,51,58 Hyrcanus XX (Hasjnonean king), 57,58,59

Iberian Pe~ti~~suta. SW Spain fbll 'Abbacl, ni-~rr"hrnid (%\~illian prince),

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 Ibn Zdhnra, foieph (of Plarceions), 155 Idumeans, 58 Igs~ntrev, Cotmt (Russia), 193 tltsd i t ramlat~u~~j , 238 In~manuelol Ikme, l62 Irn~rllgrirhot~ $cts M~lgrntluii "Irl Iht C ~ l y of Slz~ughtcr LB'lr ha-haregd11Y'

(Blalrkf, 244 Irldra, 156 Xn NPW York (Walper*~, 241 I i~~lul i~l ion (14xF1831; Spain), 118-119 Irrtegratton. iw Econcrlruc i!~te~adtCIn;

fl~tellec t~ldf lnlerdd1011, Jew141 tiriarrcipntiorr

h~tegralion. Set. As.;~lmfahon; Jeinzish Enl~ghteiiment

fntellect, 176 lntrllectrial ~i-ttcract~on, t 05

r ider Chrnslian rule, 121-122, 123, 139# I40, 157, 163, IW

t~rz~ier fhlanblc rrdr, Ilibl11, 112, 119 114, 138 1411,146

" P P RISO S~-~el~Stttt Ch~~igh? ititt,il!g~b?l~a, 176 h~termarrtage, 2111 Itrirod:rc irorr tc ihr Drities of f ir t~ Heiicrrfr jlbi'~

Paquda], 1 ctil lil#rt,iint tzort to Liigrl jlfaiix.rorr~de~), l74 k1vatrd5 of the fiftlt cat<-gore 226-227 Iraq, 133-140, 145, 1-54 f g u n 218a1 Leurni, 204 Iron Cilnrcl (Rommua), 222 I i ad~ , 12,13, 14, 144, 135 Isaat of Am, I61 lsaat Lbn Khalfrrn, 119 fsnldh, 28,93,131 lst11r1ac4, 11, 13 Ishmaet, Rabb~, 77. 78,79 I%lam, 1~0,10G-108 Islamic fundnn~ental~c;nt, 230 Iilan~rc nile

113 Near Fa%t, 306-109,111,112-113 In Spazu, 113, 11.5, 145, 147-148, 1% Se'e uLlr Arnbic larrguage, A~<>bic Itkerary

mtltterrce I\II.~& i l Il~rr YnglzrC;lld, 749-1 50 Israel, Ibngd:clont of, 17 22-23,24,28 hrael, as Pmrxt~srd I,nrid, 18- 19 15rc%el, %ale of, 205,227,153 Fsradites

as c h u s e ~ ~ people, 12-14, 16, 17, IS

aitd co~~quei l ot Lditd of lwael, L8 20 drv~cron of, 17, 22 and exile, 25- 26 aid excxir~s trorn Egypt, 1516 ctl7lrgahcv of , 16,27-18,Ic) Sre iiilsu G&; I-iebrew Bible

TiwrIe., Mows (RahilA), 98 Ital\i, 14Il,16f-163.181,182,18~, 185

Byzdntitxe, 141-143 Ivan the Tenhle (c zar cif Rtlma), 1 88

jabots~~iky, Vlacimus, IW, 202 lac& (sot1 of Itabbr Asher), cV-C)8 ]~cc>IT, 2 2, 13, 14 Jacoh b. Etti 'ri~r of Toledo, 156 james 1 I knkg of Aragon), 116 Jeremiah, 2b- 1-28 jencho. conquest of, 19-21), 21 Jertrsalem, 54,57-59,()3+"e 66, 205 <re nlsu

're:i~t>le 111 Jerusalem jianr2iitlent (Lfeitdelssohr~), 183 Jertl..aleril (~'ii~tii.ti~lld11) raltrlitd, 8081 Iesus, 121,122,145 Je~itt~,~h Anti-f-a~c14t 'nmmitt~r, 223,225 lew~ih Coloirrzntlor~ Asicrimticrr~, 193 jeur~sll Coltr11rzatlo1l5ociely (ICOK), 219 Jp\vlsh COIIIIIILIII~~I~ZI SBP Sel f -g i )ve~~t~~ie~~t Iewl>lt Emitl~clpation, 185-187,188, I')i) je\vxi.h Ei~tltr;hierunent, 183-184,189,243 jewrzh Labor Bru~il, 21U jewrih law, 41

cc>iiiirhcatior\ of, 9b, 97, 98, 133, 174 rrtual, 24,25, 134

Jew141 Lehrl~atn illouse of Sttldj), 2112 le~vrnh I~terature, 233-236,253 2%

develoyiuel~ t ol modern, 137,138-1 W 5erp ulat Arabic 11 terc3r> ~riflut~nce,

17rd1i~dtmf gc'1117'b

jcwzsh phtlosnphrcal thought, 158, 160 a ~ t d rgc~eenlrirm, 276 and good and bad, 176 and inlentictn anif actwn, 172 and phrloiaphy and relrgron, 171-172,

174-175 nrtd pt~lllical nrtd divlrie laws, 172-13 arid p~.!cIlis I ~ v Y ( * - 171 ariti rat~ortal ~ i l d auclitrny laws, 168,

169-171,172-173 ant3 rwyon, 176-177 and rea~oliecf c o i ~ ~ ~ ~ r t x ~ n , 175 and rex~elatm~~al a id prophet~c laws, 170 a~trf true mct klse, 176

jczuish Slate, TIze (Di yidishe rnelukI.~til (Shnpiro), 240

"Jewish Slate, Ther"HerzX), 191 Jewish Theolngical Semii~ary of America,

197 Jewish War, Thc Uosepi~urj), 49 "Jewry in Music" (Wagner), 188 J&, 31-32 Jahn c j f Cischala, 66,67 J o n a h i ~ , 144 Jaseph, 12 Joseplr. ben Lavi, 164 Jasepl-r ben Tanf~~m Verushatmi, 154 Joseplr. 11 (emperc~r of Austria), 1% Jasepl-nxs, 4344,48,49,50,51,53,611,61,62,

63,65,67,79, 142 Joshua, 12,19--20,21 Jotapaln fc>r&er;s, 65 Judahi, I3,17, ,M, 58 Judah, Kingdom 06,22-23,24-25,28 Judah. Maccabee, 44,58 Judah the Patriarch, 75 Judah. the Piotls, Rabbi, 144 fudaism Witizoul. Enrhellis/in-renl (ludaizm Bcz

IDrI'ICras) (Kichko), 227 Judea, 57,60,61, 63

jtfdenuaf, 202, 2113 Judec3-Arabic ta~zguage, 136 Judezrno lar~guage, 181 Judges, 2 Julit~s Caesar (Rnrrmn ger~ernl), 58

Kabbatah, 157,159,161,164,178 h fka , Franz, 235,242,243 E;IU/zuI, 181,185, 189 hlarn, school of, 168,171-172,175 k l i l n and Dim~za (Ix~ciian fables), 156 hllir, Elenznr; 127, 1128 KaXony-xnides faxnily, 142,143 hlony mos b. Kalonymos, 160, 161 KaXony-rr~os b. Moses the Elder, 142 hmene-v, Lev, 211 Karaites, Karaite mover~lent, 89,90,92, 110,

135-136,138,1%, 167 Karski, Jalh 204 b s s a s , 194 Katze~~elson, Mtzhak, 245 hunns, 222 Kazirrrrir the Great (king), 251. Kcltilfus, kelzil~s, 196,2119,210, 213 Ketttvim, 9,29-33 Warkov, 224

MI~azars, 171 Khr~~sl-rchet; Nikila, 226,227,228 Mlchiko, Tmfim, 227 Kielce (Poland ), 204 Mlmfi, Bavid, 160 Kimfi, Joseph, 154,160 Kirtg Artlrs (anon,), 162 Kings (bctok of E-LE.larew Bbile), 21-22,23 Mlpnis, ltsik, 240 K%, Danilch 243 Mlshil-rev pogrolll, 192, 244 Klezmer music, 235 Kohelet @oak of the Preacher), 3841. SW

also Ecelesiastes Kohal-stibl, 239 Komerd, 218 Komzt*t, 218, 220 Kom, Rakl~l, 249 Kosygin, Alexei, 227 Kremer, Arkady; 194 Kristallnacht (Cen~~any-), 202 Kttslars, 218 Kumri (Hatevi), 153,16l), 171--174

Larnetrl-utiolzs hlabal-r, 8tt-89 tandau, Rabbi Ezekiel, 184 tandX.roIcli~~l;, 108,208, SP~? also Agriculhre LarZL1"sf?zanslz@f1nI 196 tasker-ScJ-tGler, Else, 249 Latin vernacmlar language, 157 tatvia, 221,222 taw. See Jewish law taw of Return (Israel), 205 tazar~~z;, Ernma, 249 "Lead Plates at the Rom Press, Thef'

(Sutzkeverf, 247 League c j f Anti-Semites, 188 tegei-rds, 74,865,143,144,235,252 teivick, H., 252 Lekah TOP (Tobias b. Eliezer), 144 Lenin, V. I., 211,213 teixski, Hay yim, 247 tessing, Gotthold Ephrnii~l, 183 tevil%t~I~n, Isnilc Bel; 189 tevir~, Yankl, 220 teviticms, 18, 77, 78, 132, 168 Lei:~iticus Xahbgh, 85-86,87,88 Liberalism, 187,197 LVe gosephus), 49 L@ as a I) lr~ble ( H ~ - ! E ~ Y Y ~ I I I ke-maslzuii

(Saclelz), 238 tilie~lblum, Moshe teib, 189, 190, 191,236

Lir~gtiistic integra ticm, 105, 111. SW also Arabic language; Hebrew language; Translations; Yidcjish lar~guage

Liternb~re, See Jewish literature; individtiai @*fires

Liti~uania, 190, 194, 195, 200, 2113,208,221, 222,223,224,230

Liturgical poetry, Sce 13iyy~tl Liturgy, 9445,128, Sty also Ber~edictions;

IJiyyzrC Louis IX (kix-rg of Frmce), 125 Love, 26,30,41,159

physical, 3Q,39,40 See atso Pleasures, worldly

Lovers of Ziorr (organization), 191 Lowe belt Bezalel, Rabbi judah, 252 Lubnvitch, 190 Lz$llrzcnshmz, 208 Luke, Gospel of, 47,6l Lunaclarsky, Anat~ly, 214

Muase Uztch, 144 Maccabees, 337,4548,54,144

text of, 44,45,46,4849 Nachnach, Aleksnnder, 223 MudkJ 146 Maggid nilrs/~arim (Cam), 9 Maggid Misft nah (Carcl), 98 Magickn qf lnblin, Tjzt~ (Sii~ger), 253 Majbarol (Ifi~~manuel of Etorne), 162 "Mafier(>'L't OLI Hell and I1aradise, Thef'

(Immanuel of Rome), 162 M~fzor Vifry, 143 Maimon (bther of Maimcl~tides), 1% Nairnoniciles (Moses ben Maimon), 95,97,

38,111-112,134,154, 168,174-177 controversy aver, 157, 158, 161

Maimcl~t, Solomon, 236,237 Nanasseh Ben Israel, Rabbi, 182 Manger; Itsik, 246 M~q871ta, nfaq2nz8ff 143,154,155, 158,162,

164 Margoliz~, Anna, 249 Marie de France, 145 Nark, Gospel of, 47,53,61 Markir;ln, Perets, 225,245 Narranos, 183 Marr, WiUnelrrz, 188 Martini, Raymndo (Raymollcl Martin), 99,

116 Nartov, JtrXii (Tsederbarur~), 193, 194 Marx, Knrl, 186,188,213,241

Masncla, 42,59,65 Mskil, muskilittz, 189-190, 233, 236 Masoretes, 135,138 Mssa, 233,244 Matevosian, Samvel, 223 Mattathias the Hasmonenn, 44 Matthew, Gospel of, 47 May taws (Russia), 209 Mecfieval Jewry. See Cl~ristian rule; Istarnic

rule; i~diaidual counlritrs Meir, Rabbi, 75 Meir 05 Rothenburg, Rabbi, 97,144,154 Mfkilla ctf Ruhbi Ishnrn~l, 78 Mekifta ofRabbi Sizi?neon hen Volzni, 78 Mflokizirn Btrclz, 1 45 Mefnorinl f3ucnzs (GcdetzWittmI (Glatstein), 246 Mennhexn, 65,163 MeilafEzern belt Snrucl, 146-147 Mennklnem-MenclI of Kotsk, 251 Meildelssol~~h Felix, 188 Mendelssohr~, Nmes, 183 Mercy q f ~ 1 Rc~de S I ~ P U Z I ~ (Roth), 237 M f r h h a mysticism, 131 Meshullam hen Kafonymoa 142 Mesopotarnian communities, 106,1Q7,

109-110,111 Messianic faith, 177, 181, 182, 191, 240,

251 "Metarnarphosis, Tl~e""iKafl<a), 242 Meyer, Viacheslnv, 223 Micah, 24 Midrnsl-rirn, ?7,130,177

Aggatilic, 74,78,79,83-92,9&IOU, 133 of Byzantitle Pafestit~e, 144-145 Hatakhic, 73,74,77,78,79,91,96 and Mishai~, 92 Tannaitic, 77--79,90 and Torah lectionary cycle, M, 85,86,87,

88,91,131 M i d r ~ s h Mishie, 89 Midrash I<ubbah, 99 Midmsh Shiv Hashirim, 87 Midraslz Sk1oclu.r 7'02% 99 Midmsh Taizlznaim, 78 Midraslz Telfl'llim, 99 Migratioil, 21)

in Europe, 1103,119,120,121,125,181, 182, 192

to Israel, 228,230 in literature, 245-246,249 Nazi-era, 201 to Palesth~e, 201, 20.3.,205, 249

fro111 Russia /%vie t Unic)11,192, 207,209, 228-229,230-235

to U.S., 192-193,148,2111,229, 230,249 Sre also War~dering

Nikbels, Shtorrro, 224,225 Military service, 184,189, 595,2119,212,221 Minorities' Bloc (Poland), 200 Mi~~orities Treaty (1%9), 200 Ninsk, 222,224 Mir (Lithuania), 190 Mirianr (Berclycsewski), 239 Mirtz~xt Makgsei Bualt, 53 Misltl~al~, 74-76,80, "3-92,93,94,961 128

nl~d L%liidrasi~, 92 oral traditiorz ctf, 76 orders of; 75 and sc~ptuml nuthoAty, 75,713,82 nl~d Torah fectinlwry cycle, 92 and Rsefta, 76-77

Mitil-rr.~nl~ kbnt, 41,W Nishr~ah Hagigah, 51 Mislztzclz Tornlz (Mnirncmides), 97,111-1 12,

f 74 Mitisionizi~~g, 11 5-1 1 G. Sre also Col~krellsion Nolclo~va, 2118 Mofodowsky, Kaciya, 249 Noneyte~rcling, in norther11 Europe, 123,

124-125 Nontefiore, Sir Noses, 187 Momtmquieu, Charles Louis de Secundnt,

183 Motzllrs and Days (KIzu~doshim utz Icg)

(Kipnis), 240 Moral hel-ravior, 74,96,144

and action and intenticm, 172 nl~d auditory law, 168,169 biblical, 15, 17, 24,32,33 Sre also Halnklzic literature; Halaicilic

midrashiixn; Jewish philosophical thought; Sociai nctiorx

Norat philosophical thot~ght, 16S171, Sec ~Eso f ewi& philosophical ti~ought

Nordechai, 150 Morirlr Izu-Mebztkhim (Maimonides), 174 Mcxes, 12,13, 17, 18--19,48,52,141, 145 Moses ben Kaionyrnos, 142 Nmes be11 Maimon. Ser Mairnonides Moses ben Nafman of Gerona, Rabbi, 116,

157 Moses the Preacher (Moshe HaDarslnan),

99,144 Mosonzoi~, Uigal, 253

Mr. Mntzi Citlar Mlani) (Yehoshna), 241 Mr, SartlmkrS Piatzel: (Betlow), 241 Mtlsar movement, 190 Muslim rule. Sre Islamic mie Mui:unslzsf~a&t, 149, 152, 153 "My Song (Shirati)" f Biafik), 244 Mysticism, 131, 141, 144, 157, 167, 178, 182,

190, 243 mbbil-ric, 87,91,93-94,98 See ~ulso Ashkenazic Pietists; Hasidism

Myth, 177, 180, 242

Nadir, Moyshe, 246 Naf$iiiyyot, 173 Nahman of Bratslav, Rabbi, 242,243,246 NahrnnlGdes (R. Moses b. Nahman), 157 Nagoleo11 (emperor ctf France), 185 Narc3dzzaiai Volya, 190 Nathnn ben Yehiel of Rome, hbbi , 99 Nall?an the Wisc (Lessing), 183 Natiomal autor.lc)~~~y, 194,211, Sclp also

Zic~nism Natiomai history; 250,251 National %cialists [Mazis), 201-204,

220-221,222 collnbctrators of, 283,222-223,224

Natural law, 168,170,171,176,183 Nahral world, in Literature, 9344,2127,248 Neharden rabbinic academy, 82 Neherniah, 38 M i i l a service, 141 Nekrasot; Viktor, 223 Neo-Orthodox fudais~n, 187 Neoplattonism, 153,171 Neviqirn, 9,19--28 New Christians, 117-119, 182 Nicholas I (czar of Russia), 189,209 Nietzscl~e, Friedrich VVill~eLm, 251 "Night, A" (Halpen~), 245 "1919"" (GLatstein), 246 Nonh, and the ark, 12,26--17 Nomic law, 177 Northern European Jewry. Sre ChAstr'an

ride; itzdiz~il-lual cozlrzlrics Novels, 283-242

Nuif , Ln (Wiesel), 238 Ntx~~~bers, 77, 78 Ntlrnljcrs Xnbbah, 99 Ntxrenberg Laws, 201

Ocd:yssty (translation), 238 0f;lrifzg off udah, TIZP (fbn Sabbetni), 155-156 Old age, 40--41 Old Testament, 9 ""On the Blood" Qchernichovsky), 248 ""QII the Jewisln Qr~estion" (Marxf, 188 Open Book (Saadia), 138,139 ""Qrncle of Nernirt?~"' (Bialik), 244 Omcles, ojracu tar poetryj 63,243-245 "Oracle to Einrc3peU (Greenberg), 245 Oral Torah, 73,74,75,77 Orgitnizatiori for Rehirbilitatini~ and

Traillilig (ORT), 21 9 Origen, Father, 78 Other, study of, 101 Oz, Amos, 239 Ozet, 218,220 Ozick, Cynthia, 243

Pagan obsewance, 60,61,65 Pugesffonr My Life ((BE~tc2rfidn nrrzyn Iebtz)

(Cahirn), 237 Pagis, Dan, 248 Pale of Jewish Settlement (Russia), 189,190,

192 Palestine, 37, 106, 10'27

literature of, 96,127-133, 134,141,143, 247,252

arid Zionism, 191,194,145,198-199, 204-205

Palestinian Arabs, ancl Jewish settlexrrrent, 199,2(14,205

Palestinian Talmud, 8&81 1""llmyaC" 230 Panegyrics, 149,1.W, 151 Panierai death cnrnp, 224 Panthesisxrr, 163 Parables

of king of hiclia, 173 of state of nahret 176

hmrliso (Dante), 162 1""llrtzdosis, 50 Parents, 41 Parlnon, Solt~rnon, l61 Parody 161 Passover Haggitdah, 9695,141-142 Passover secjer, 94 214 1%st Couztinnaus IZiklzr~on dvarilz-r], 239 Paut Christiart, Friar, 116 Pe;tsnnts, Jewish, 218,219 Pe~iro tlie Cruel (Spaiz~), 163, 164 ""Pertnl Colony, The" "afka), 243

Penini, kdaya h-, 161 Pentmteudn. See Torah Perestroika, 229 Pewtz, l. L., 235,243,251 Persea~tion

in Middle Agm, 103,114,120-121,124, 13Z8 14&%1M

19tl1-2Oti1 C,, 180, 190, 195, 201-2112,212, 221,222,226

See also Expulsions; Holocmust; Pogmrns Persian ernpire, 37-38 lJesltal, 33 X3rsheu, 83 lJesikl.a delka hlzann, 85, 8(-87,88 X3rsikta alabati, 90--91 Pessi~~tism, 32, 39,40 X3rtilrtaot, rJLG81i, 87, 8&89 Pharisees, 48,49,5512-1,54 P11iXo of Alexaridriia, 49,53,62,62, 79 Philosophical thought. Sec Jewish

philosc?phical thc311ght Pietists, Asltkenazic, 140,143, 144, 154,190 Pinsker, Leon, 190,191 lJir(fe Rabbi EIiaer, 90,93, 133 X3it and thr Tkp, TIP (Un in dayn 171r4t zalstu

Iebni (Roclmnn), 237 X3iyyu t, 9546,127-133

in Byzantine Itaiy, 141-133,162 in Byzantine Palestine, 127-133 canoni~i text of, 133-134 in Islaxnic Spairi, 115&151, 152,153 language of, 129-1 30 for local rites, 134 in medievnl Tray, 133-135,137 in Wineland, 143

Pleasures, worldly, 39,40, 147-148,152 Ptehve, Vyacheslnv vorr, 191 Pliny tlte Elder (Roman nutlnorf, 53 Poalei Tsiom (Zionist party), 212,213 lJoetns fmm n Diary (Sntzkever), 247 Poetry, 87,160-161

Ambic literary ilrfluence on, 146, 147, 14&144,150,151

biblical, 29-31), 95 contests for, 161,164 dietiortary bri 137,138 in Italy, 162 love, 30,159 modern, 243-244 in Prc)vence, 16Q-161 in Wineland, 144 in Russia, 189

in Spain (G(6olde11 Age), 145-1.54 in Spain, 113,114, 159,163,164-165 women's, 244 Sre also 13iyyul

Pogroms, 163,190,209 in literature, 244,245 20th C., 192,202,2114, 212,231)

Poland, 119,125 16th-18th C., 181,182,188, 189 19th-20th C., 192, l%, 195,1W-200,

202--203,204,208,253 Nnzi-ern, 202-203,220-221

I)olitetrrtmfu, 61,62 PolitiaI law. Sce Jewislr philosophicnl

thottght Pompey (lic3marx generai), 58 Pontius Wlate (Roman prefect), 61 Ponr, 24,42,63 Portugal, 182 Positive-Historical Jttdaism, 1156-187 Potncki, Vales~tk, 251. l~jln/1701nnd (Tn~nk), 238 I)rarp&, 225 Prayer, 94,161,170

synngc)gue, W, 95,128,134,141 "hraiyer of the Menzs, The" (Penini), 161 Preacher, the. See Kohetet Press, in Sc~viet Ui~ioix, 215,224-225,229 Priesthooc3,34,132

duriT1g Hellenistic period, 38,44,45,46, 58

durhrg Roman male, 59,63, M, 65 replacement of, 71,73,75--76

l%ri~ce aard ti'tr' Moltk', The (1bn easdai), 154 I)rt>ofRack, :k,lzt3 (Klalo~~ynrm), 161 Prc?phecy, 23,244 "fiophecy of the Valley of the Revelation""

(E Mimsi), 162 Prophets, 25,63,170

former, 9,19-23,99 ftlture arrival of, 46-47 latter, 23-28,%

Protection, 15-16, 17, 24. See also &curity Prc?veirce, 159-1 61 I)rt>r?erDin MornEes (Shexntov ben Ardutiel),

164 Proverbs, 3&31,40,89,1?9 l%ruverbs of SaYd b. Unbslzild, 140 Prussia, 186,, 187 Psalms, 29,cf4,W Psha t, 87 Ptcrlernnic rule (Macedonian), 37

X3ugio Fidei (MartixG), 99, 116 Purnbedita talmudic acadern~ 82,110,133 Prurinz, 89, 161 Purity ritual, 25,5(1,51. See uulso LJietary law

Q a 3 ; f d ~ s 148,151,152 Qayyara, Sinneon (of Basra), 133 Qedusha, 130,131 Qdztstrta, 1, 129, 1.30, 131, 142 Qnoz~a, qoozmh 1129, 131, 153 Qiltiri, Eleazar, 127, 128, 129 QolrciEc t lbbhul~, X8 mrrrisi, r)aniet al-, K9 @mram curnrnuniQ; 47,52-54'71 motas, 192,198,209

Rabbnnite cc)~~~munity (Iraq), 133,135 hbbinic acndemies, 72,79,80, XI, 82, (3.1

in Middle Ages, IIZO, 111,133,143, 157 in Russia, 190

Rabbinic leadership, 41,51, 54,71--74,101 and congregatiolxal thought, 93 in Middle Ages, 104,110

hbbinic literahn*e, M,85 ncndenric stltcty of, 111&102

hbbinic sages, narratives on, 81,82, X6,90, 139

hbitlovitsh, Solomon. See Akci~ern, Sho t em

hbon, Israel, 239 Racilaq (David Kixnfi), 160 hhnb, 21 Rarnbaxrr. Sm Mailnonides h s h i (R, Soiomolz ben Isailc of Trc~yes), 95,

99,121 htlrenil~~, VVnlter, 201 Raticmnlism, reason, 138-1 35ft 158 hCini.ral law, 168,169, 176, 177. Sec uiso

Jewish philosophical tl-tottght htosil, Ycjnatnn, 248 Rav Amrarn, 94,35 hvikc~vitch, Dalia, 249 Ravnitsky, khosl-nxn, 235 Rebecca, 12,14 Reci Heifer, 54 Refcjrrn Judaism, 186,196

Refuseniks, 229 lZ.ekrtirhinu, 190 Religious libe~yf 185,200 Religiotts philosophical thotlght. Sclp Jewish

philosophical tlrc~uglrf

Rel~gious tolerance, f 82,163 ReiiiC~ril~we, Errclz Maria, 237 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ f l ! l K J t . 1.51 Respctns't, 133 Iteube~t, 13 L\?ev~slnlust Lionlsm, 202 "Rewrlx rrtg Sc\ord, Tlle" (Dtdrrsr),

IN Rh~itelan~t, 143. <rr.:rlsc~ 4shkr11~ic

trrldrtioit, Gennanv Rzei~txr, Gabr~ei, 187 IZzet~, MOW,, 152- 1b3 K?%c7 ofDvc,rd Lccvrl$kz/, f /?c {Cni~nj , 237 Iirtual Iaw, M, 23

ttnificatro~t, of, 1 .% Sc-c ulso Je~vtsh la*, lewish pli~lo\ophrcal

thougl-tt; Moral bei~d.~ ior Rot hrnm, Lryb, 237 Kogo~ anti Noserrko (%)l tet

coxnmez~talurs}, 2% Ronsan Calholic church, 91, 181

dnd "Jew Clu'ishans, 117 118 in northern Europe, 123, L24 111 Spiiuk, llF115,117-119,158

Romance (Arab vemna~lar), 149 Korliance lflernt~~res, 155, I59 Ron~dnla, 2117,221 Ri.rmanlot ntt: I41 Rontdn rule, 45,49,51, &4,57-59

d11d lewsh obserl a im, 6U, 61 resistance to, 1C2a G 1 h2,63 See tdso Great Rer d t

"Tl\'t*inastrrro" (Heirre), 243 Roosevrlt., Franklm D., 197, 2f14 Ro.;c~~lberg, Alfred, 201 Iioien~we~g, r r a n ~ , 201 Nasfr-plah, lOg Rir+tl I JnCEI~arldi~ 143 Rot11. 1 lenry, 237, 23') ~ o t h , rhtlrp, 239, 247 Rolhichild, hvuve at, 137 Ro~tsse~~ir, Iisa~r-j~ircluea 183 f\"oy(rl Cru<i*rl, I?tr (Ibii Gnb~rt~l), 151 lit~digcr B1~11op~ 11c) Rtrn-rh~~llr krll~ng site, 224 Russia, 1 8&1"30,208-410

rrrrrgratictl~ frcnri, 192, 207, 204 f ~ ~ 1 s I . l C ~ ~ ~ L I E uI, 189-1'30, 194, 196, 211 revolutioilaq movsme~lt rt~, 193 194,

1'J5-191t, 207, 209-210 duru~g WW WI, 202 &rid Zionrsrn, tYi,110

iire niso Pate ofiew~sh %teltlernent; %vret Ullil~ll

W~rs~ian Soera1 Uc.rnocrattc Labor Party (RSDLP), 193, 194,210-21 1 Ruth, 32-33

Kl!lh Klthkh KI->

Saaclxa Garm (Saadld ben loscph al- Eaj ynr~rz), 95, 135, 1136-139, 157, 160, 167- 171

Sabbath, 10, V, 61,8-1, 169, 171),18(, Sa~hs, NelEp, 249 Sacrifice, 25, 132, 173

in I I t* l I~~i i \ t l~ era, 38, 47, 53, 9-1 tri~der Roman mle, 51, 69,71

Sadcltrceeq 10,5>55 Sadeh, Pnni~as, 238 %i'ltf b Babshdtl, l4(1 Saialonir AIexairJin (l iawlr>tleari qnee~r), 4 S,

57 Sasnaua, 59 Samuel, 14,211 21 Samrrel, Sxr Herbert, 1% %1111.~1 are Ndgld, 140,1411-150, 151 Sui r Ia~ih t~~ 185 Salztiib dc Carndn, 163 Sarnh, 12 Satarz 1 n i;e?rita/ f D t ~ &'?fix ZIZ GrnrlJ (Singer),

240-241 Salre, 161,162 Saui, 12,21,144 Sc$~el~&el; Soiornnrt, 197 Sch~Iem, i;t~rsl~orn, 'M Schools, l g, 197,200,201

In Rmsla/Sovrct Uniort, 189, lull, 192, ^?oC~,212,210,226,227,229

Schulz, B~uno, 213 '2 ierkhlk tl~t~tigl~l, 112, 191, 152, 154, 160,

177,184 S: roll ~$Aii:iufus, Thr (hhltna'az), 132 Sebasle, 50 %c tandrar%zn, in k.lrllem*tic pencxi, 49-54 Secular jec\,mh ~de~r t~ ty , 111 Ruzsia, 194,

215 2111,227 Secular literature, 179

modern, 233-234,253 s t i r ~ ~ t ~ h e n ~ Enntpe, l"., 158 U% Spam, 14~s147,1-CX, 14Y,150,151,152,

153, t34, lh3, f65 Sec~~rtlt , 120, 121, 124, 14il S&r, 75,M St6fC~r flmizit &2ltnrh nrzd Zufa. X%%

S@im ha-uggadah (Bialik and Ravnitsky), 235 Sqtv ItaE;Uhb~zlah (1b1-i Daud), 114 5 4 ~ r ha-tnu'izsim (Agnon), 243 Sqtv NU~ZCZZ~NE, 93 5 4 ~ r Hayashar, 163 Sqtv V~l~izf i ir , 91 5 4 ~ r Vesiruh, 141, 167 Scfirot, 178-1 79 %forh~, Mendcle Moykher, 190,234 Segl.rrgation, 50, 51

ax~d dress requirements, 124, 184,2131 iit Middle Ages, 103-.104,115,124, 181 in maciern era, 184,185 Sre also Gl~etto; %if-gc>verrtrneitt

Selbstbiogrgphie (Maimon), 236,237 Seleurid nlle (Macedonian), 37,41,43,44,

58 Self-defense, 194,244,245 %lf-gc)ver~~xr~ent, 61-62, 181, 184, 185

tmder Chl-isliilln rule, 103-104,105, 109, 119-120,121

iit E-lelile~~ist-ic period, 37-38 under Islaxnic rule, 103-104, 105,

108-109,115 in Russia, 195-196,210--211

Scli&, scIi&t, 132, 141,14.3-144,152,163 Semexrenkrt, ATekandr, 223 Sephardic badifion, 95,9X, 181,185

in poetic meter, 247--248 Seth, 13 Sex act, 373,176 Shnbtai, Yailkc~v, 234 SI-rale\: Meir, 241 Shlmoniyut, 141 SI-rarxlmas, Allton, 235 Shnpirt~, Lamed, 240 SI-ravir, Nmhe, 253 ShnyeviCsi~, Sirnithe-Durtem, 245 SlzeeEfof. {R Ahai Cacm of Shnvha), 91, 133 Shernd, 47'48,129,130,131 SI-remtc)v ben Ard tlliet, 163-1M Shephercjs' Cmsade, 161 SI-rilneon, Rabbi, 78 SCEir HaSjZirim Ikbbah, 87 51zit.rr Qomu, 93 Shlot~sky, Avraham, 248 51z1opre Xeb Klrayirns (Xf!f;cltzr Bails)

(Abrarnovitsh), 236,250,251 51zmuel Buclr, 1-45 ShmligIarlrs (S?wugglos) (brshavski), 240 SI-roa1-r. 5~ Holocaust Shostakovich, h i t r i , 223

ShtetX, 190,218,239-241 Shfelt, A (Weissenberg), 239 Slztt~tl, 7 q ~ p (Asch), 240 Shmlc/m.la~ 2rucj1 (Cart>), 98 Sicarii, 65 Siddur, %,95,96, 167 Siddur Sav hrar r r , 94 Sfr~x deBei Rat?, 78 Sqmh, sifrut, 233 Sfre Banridbl~r, 78, 79 Sqre Beutrro.anornyI 78 Sfre Zuta, 78 Silano (poet), 141 Sikler BozrlI, The (Ezoni), 160 Simec)n bar Vohai, Rabbi, 178 Simec~n b. Isaac (SFmeon the Great), 143 Siman @rother of Jtrclah Maccabee), 46,49 Simon (SOII of Garnaliel), 51 Siman (son of alias), 42,43,45 Simon Ben Cosiba (Bar KcyM~bn), 72. Siman ben Giora, 66,607 Simon the Preacher, 145 Siman the Rightec)~xs, 41,42,47 Si?rzpte Story, A (Siypur i~ashzrt) (Agnan), 239,

240 Sin

of ancestors, 32 and purtishment, 19,20,2Ei, 27,30-31,47,

132 Sinai cavei-iai-it, 17, 18 Singer, lsaac Bashevis, 235,239,240-241,

253 Singer, Israel Joshua, 241 Sills oJVoutlz (Hattot niizriml (Lilie~~bl~m),

236 Skaz, 239 Slauglrter of chi tdren, 144. See also Blottd

ritual Slobodka (Lithuania), 190 Smirxtov, S. S., 223 Sobibor death camp, 203 Social action, 24,41. See ulso Moral behaviol: Saciat de~nocratic xrrraverrrrent, 193-194 Socialsts, in Soviet: Union, 212,213,220 Socialist Zionism, 194 Social sew ice organizations, 193,196, 199,

202 Solomon, 13, 17,22, 1541 Salo~non ben lsaac of Troyes, Rabbi, 99,121 Solomon b. Iudah of Rome (the

Babyloxlian), 141 Solomon b. Sarnson, 144

Solorno11 b. Saqbet, 155 Solzhenitsyn, Aleksar~dr, 225 ""Sut~g for the Last" "utztzkever), 245 Song of f he illurticrd jez:rlisfz I%qytle

(Ka tzenelson), 245 Song of Simgs, 30,87,93, 141 Source of Lqe, T ~ E C (k11 Gabirc)f), 151 South Africa, 192 Soviet Unio11,2137-208,220

ngriculhrral colonies in, 218-220 assimilation in, 211,212,213,215216,

21 7-218 and Eastern Europe, 220-222 emigmtirti~ from, 209,222&229,2313-231 and fareip Jewish support for WW XI,

224-225 and glasuost/perestroiknI 229-231 historiograpl~y 06 22,3-24,226 Jewish cultural activity in, 229,230 f ewish popuhtion centers in, 219-20,

225 untier Uruslnchet; 22C~228 langrlage in, 213-215,2216,217,218 ni~d Nazi Germany, 232-203,220-24 practice of Jrrdaisrn in, 214,217, 221,

225-227 under Stalin, 22.%226 Yiddish ~ult~~rdlization in, 215-218, 220,

221,226 ni~d Ziotrism, 213-214,221,227-229 SW also Russia

Spain, 113-119 literature of, dttritng Cl~ristian rule,

155-159,163-165 literature of, dttritng lslaxnic rule, 145-1.54

Spi~roza, Benedict f Bnrukh), 176,183 Spiritual Zionism, 191 ""Srizzg 1942" (Shayevitsh), 245 St.al11, Josef, 22-G226 Stnnislnwslu, Konstantin, 252 Stempenyi~ (Aleichem), 2,% Stc~ryteili~rg, 242 Sufisi~~, I75 Sukknl, 132 Sura tatrnudic acade~ny; 82,110, 133, 136,

167 Sutskever, Abralmrrr, 245,246--247,248,253 Sverdlov, J akot; 211 Syi~ago&cfes, 94, f 86, 214

and cor~gregatianal t-l~ought, 93 developme~lit of, 68,71,72 ni~d rihrdi urrificntiorz, 1%

Syrbns, 63,6S Syrkin, Nalman, 194 Syro-Ephmirnitcc. War, 28

TaMentoni (al-Harizi), 158 Tale of the fenlsaleml'tc, The (anon.), 140 Bles o f S ~ u f d e l ? ~ r ~ The (itrter~~ational tale), 140 Talmud, 79-83,94,96,111,145,157,190

and Alexander the Great, 142 and Christian doctritre, 116, 1124 commentary on, 97,121,167 in liturgicnf poetry' 130 ordinances and statutes in, 168-1 69, 170 in Russia, 190 Sclp also Rabbinic acadexr~ies

Talmud Bavli, 81-83 Talmud Uen~shalmi, 8&81,87 Talnoe, 190 Tarn, Rabbi Jacclb, 154 TanaMn, 9 l"anhnrnu-Ye~a1~~~f1~1~ 91, 99, 100 Tal'ulzfxa DrBei Eliafiu Rubball and Zztk (Talzna

Dezwi EIiyfzhm), 89-90, 133 Tanr~aitic literature, "1-83,9O Tannaitic midrashim, 77-79,90 Tal'ulzfxa, l-ranlzainz, 74 Targfm, 92-93,9%%96 Targum Neafiti, 93 Targfm a~kelos , 92 Targum Yer~~sl~afmi, 92 Targfm bnathan (Pseudcj-Jo~~athn), 92 Taxation, 61),@, 67,104, 1% Tchekkcver, V,, 44 Tchen~ichc~\~sky~ Saul, 248 Tcrfila, 129,13(f, 131,132 Tet Aviv, 199 Tmpte, 186 Temple in Jerusalem, 41,43,46,47,132

cult of, 73, a First, 22,25,37-38,43,44 %>cond, M,46 49,58,59,60, M, 67, K2

Tempte Mount, 59 Tmple Scroll, 52 Ten Commandments, 47,173 Thea ter, 249-253 TRec~logy, systematic, 138 T ~ t ~ s ~ z u m ~ s of Gaonica, 96 "TL-tc~usand Aiefs! A" (Bedersi), 1621 Titus (son of Vesgasian), 66,67 Tobias b. Eliezer, 144 Todros b. Juctah Abulafia, 158-159 Toledo, 158,163

Tolerance, 183, 184 Tolerirtictn, Edict of (17921, 1% 'lirmbfor Ztoris DazpiejovicJ.r, Tlw (Kis), 243 Torah, 9-39,43,50,52-53,177

atxtltorship of, 33-34 nitd heitedictio~ts, 131 corrmter~taria or^^ 73, 136-137, 1% laws of, 169,170,173,177 Oral+ 73,74,75,7T redcling cycles of, M, 85,86, 87,88,91,92,

131 redcling strategies of, 78-79 translatiox~ of, 92 Sre also Hebrew Bible

'%rat Kaltgt?int, 78 Torliosa Disputation f 1413-14141,164 ?-;Qsafii)t, 97 Tosefta, 75, 76-77, %,% "To tI-te Sun" (Tch~michovsky), 248 Toussenei, Alpltonse, 188 Tower of Bavid, 59 Trade. See Ecmomic interaction Trani, Isaiah de, 162 2ansiationf;

in Mid~ille Ages, 158,160,163 modern, 2,34,246,248,252, E3-254

Peblinka death. camp, 203 Trial, The (Ucr Prozessl (Kaka), 242 Pito-Isaiah, 28 Trc~tsky, Lean (Let. bviciovich Br(>ltstei~tf,

l%, 194,212 7i-uman, Harry, 264-205 Eunk, Yehiet Isaiah, 238 Tsedek, Ger, 251 7Lr (Jacob), 98 Turkislr E~npire, 119, 125, 181

Ugzmda, 192 Ukrairre, 190,195, 203,208,209,216,218,

219,222,223,230 Ui~ion of Hebrew Writers (Russia), 244 Utrion of True Russian Propie, 192 Ui~ited Natior~s, 205 Utrited States 198-198

im~r~igratiom to, 182,192, 193, 196,201 literature iit, 237,241,246 and WW I1 and afterx~tath, 204,2115-206

Urban H, 122 Usury ",3,124, SW also Noneytencjing

Vakhtnngov (Armenian theater director), E 2

Varshavski, Oyzer, 240 Vatican Libraq, 93 Veittshtayn, Rakhmiel, 220 Vespnsiarz (Roman emperor), 49,65,66, 67 Vichy regime (France), 203 Vilr~ius (Vitlln), 200, 222, 223 Vir-rc)gradav, Ana tofy 2223 Viote~zce. Sre Perwcutiort Visigoths, 113 Vitry (France) cnmmurrity, 95 Volozhin (Lithuania), 190 Vi>lttire, Fra1tc;nis-Mdrie Amuet, 183 Von Manskein (Nazi Gerx~tan ger~eml), 222

Wagner, Echnrd, 188 Waltiwee coitkreitce (Gemany), 2113 Waxrdering, 18-19,20,152,245,244. See also

Migration Wanclering Jew, 245 War%w $het@, 2(12,203 Weissenberg, I. M,, 239 Wiznzann, Chaiin, 195,1953,205 well ha user^^ Julius, 33-34 Wssely, Naftali Hertz (Hawig), 184 Western Wall, 59 Wlz~n All is Said utzd Uottc {Nokjt anknzen)

(Bt?rgelso)n), 239 WIzcn the World Was Siletlt t lien di z)clE !rot

geslnrignl (Wiesel), 238 Wiesef, Etie, 238,243 Withelm (king of Prussia), 191 Wisdcsm, 4243,179 Wisdom literature, 30-31,32,88 Wc~men, 35,43,48

biblical, 10,11,12, 14,32-33 and misogyny, 40, 140, 156 poetry of, 249

"Wc7men's Songs" ((Moiodowsky), 249 Wads of P~acr atzd Putlr CinJessely), 184 Wc~rld War 1, 135,237,245 Worlcl. War XI, 2132-204,220-225 Wc~rld Zionist Organizatiolt, 195

Yid HaNazakall (Mairnonides), 97 Yadirr, Yigael, 42 Yahwist texts, 34 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 Yehudai @non, hbbi , 133 Yemenites, 92,134 Yeruslwt~ni. See Talrnud Yemsi~almi Yesi.rir~ot, 190 Ywtushenki~, Evgeny 223 Yiddish laxrguage, cultt~re, 182,196

literature a& 189-190, 224,234,235,237, 238,243,244,246 //in Midclle Ages, 145

in Polar~d, 200-.2Q1 in Russia/So.rri& Union, 193,194,213,214,

21 5,216-21 8,220,22%-225,226 theater in, 196,2(XI, 251-252

Yiddish Scientific institute (YXVO), 2013-.201 Vidisfr taytshlz (yi6ddish ir l All Its Mearzilfgs)

(Clatstein), 246 MsIIuVr 198-199 b in Kippur, 132,142,151,152,16>16it. Yose ben Vase, 127,128 Uosef be11 Gurior~, l42 Vo&r, Yoktruol, 129, 131, 141,143 Yos$3n (Yasef ben Gurion), 142 Yo~rrtg Guard (Zionist), 199

Youngsters (di yitrjg~), 246 Youth, 40,41

Z a d d i b , l82 Zapahnikr', 221 Zealots, @,M Zelda (poet), 249 Zevi, Sl~abbetai, 182 Zincwiev, Grigory, 211 Zionism, 1903-192, 194,195,202,211)

in literature, 241,253 in Rtissia/Soviet Union, 191,210,

213-224,221,227-22(3 and U.S., 197,206

Ziotzism-En~my of 12eace ulzd Sclcialli IJrogress (Sionizn~-l-"uoti~~nik~~ 228

Zionist Revisionists, 144 "Zion, Will You Not Greet Your Captixra?''

(Halevi), 153 Z1.ni~c.s~ 244 Zohr;lr (Moses de Lec~n), 159,177-180 Zunz, Leopoicl, 87,W Zydukomuna, 222

Ten Introductions To Jewish History And Literature

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