Jews in Palestine
The accumulation of disasters in the Middle Ages--expulsions, crusades, and the Black Death, to name a few--inspired a steady stream of Jewish immigration to the Holy Land.
The Community Shifts Inland
When the Mamluks conquered Palestine [in 1260], destroyed the coastal towns, and eliminated the last vestiges of crusader rule, the map of Jewish settlements in the land was radically changed.
With the disappearance of the Acre community, which until then had been the most prominent, the inland communities of Safed, and especially Jerusalem, took its place. Gaza and Hebron harbored smaller communities, and several Jewish villages remained on the Upper Galilee.
The Jewish villagers lived on agriculture, crafts, local trade and rural peddling; the city dwellers were artisans (weavers, saddlers, jewelers) and petty traders--mostly wine merchants--a trade prohibited to Muslims. Some European immigrants who specialized in what might be called a tourist industry supplied information, hostels, local products and money exchange to Christian pilgrims from their countries of origin.
A tradition of Jewish pilgrimage to holy places in the Galilee as well as in Jerusalem, which began in the Ayyubid period [1187-1189], continued to bring many visitors from all over the Eastern diaspora, particularly in the spring months between Passover and Shavuot (Pentecost)
Cairo Was In Charge, Troubles Frequent
The leader of the Jews in the Mamluk state was the nagid (leader of the community) in Cairo. Nominally he stood at the top of a hierarchy ruling over the communities of the three provinces—Syria, Palestine and Egypt. A deputy leader represented the nagid in the provinces, first in Damascus and from 1376 in Jerusalem. In practice, however, the Palestinian communities during the Mamluk period were self-governing, and the title of deputy nagid was only honorary. The Mamluk authorities, fanatic and intolerant, harassed the Jewish population. At times there were outbreaks against the “protected people” followed by discriminatory legislation.
Immigration from the West continued regardless, but contacts with the source communities became extremely difficult after the collapse of the crusader state. Groups of scholars would prepare foraliyah to the Holy Land years before they undertook the journey itself, and on arrival in Palestine, they formed communes based on a division of labor: some worked to support the whole group, while other studied the Torah.
A Productive Meeting Place for Jewish Cultures
In the second half of the fourteenth century, Palestine (this time Jerusalem rather than Acre) once more became a meeting place for three Jewish cultures—Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Oriental. After the Black Death and the anti-Jewish violence which erupted in its wake, a group of scholars from the Rhineland, inspired by messianic expectations, founded an Ashkenazi yeshivah in Jerusalem that was active at least until the end of that century. Spanish Jews arriving at the same time were soon joined by Jewish intellectuals from Muslim countries and from Byzantium. Dozens of manuscripts produced in Jerusalem towards the end of the fourteenth century, some original and some copies of older works, on Halakhah [Jewish law], Spanish Kabbalah [mysticism], Ashkenazi mysticism, and philosophy, attest to the rich blend of cultural life in this city.
Messianism Fed Immigration
In 1392, the anti-Jewish outbreaks in Spain, the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and the frequent expulsions from German cities formed an accumulation of disasters, which aroused messianic tensions in Jewish society. The liquidation of the Byzantine Empire, for example, led many Jews who had suffered its persecutions and intolerance to believe that the end of Christianity was imminent. Such spiritual fermentation resulted in a continuous trickle of emigration from Europe to the Land of Israel.
Those who announced their intention to “ascend” to the Holy Land enjoyed a privileged status within their communities, as these felt an obligation to support such devoted members. Nevertheless, when they came to Palestine, these immigrants, who in many cases were the religious elite in their former communities, encountered hostility on the part of the parnasim--the native secular leaders of the local communities--who were afraid of losing their authority.
Towards the end of the Mamluk period, and particularly after the expulsion from Spain in 1492, it was the Spanish immigration (enthusiastically encouraged by the last nagid, Isaac ha-Kohen Sholal) which made its mark on Palestinian Jewry. Like all other communities in the Ottoman Empire, the community in the Land of Israel would be a predominantly Sephardi community until the nineteenth century.
The Land of Israel in Medieval Jewish Thought
Most medieval Jews lived outside the Land of Israel.
The Land remained a central theme in Jewish learning and liturgy, but it was abstract, an object of speculation and imagination. Indeed, in several instances, the Zohar--the most important work of medieval Jewish mysticism--erroneously describes the Land's physical features.
However, not all medieval Jewish thinkers philosophized about the Land. Saadiah Gaon (882-942) avoided the subject entirely. This might be attributable to Saadiah's polemic against the Karaites, a heretical Jewish sect. The Karaite group known as Avelei Zion (Mourners of Zion) were defined by their grief over the exile and the destruction of the Temple, and they stressed the importance of re-settling the Land.
Perhaps the most important medieval statement about the Land came not from a philosopher, but from Rashi (1040-1105), the greatest of the medieval exegetes. Rashi's first comment on the Torah quotes the tradition that the Torah begins with Creation, and not the first commandment, to stress God's ownership of the world. Since God is the Creator, God can give the Land of Israel to whomever God pleases. The significance of this cannot be overstated. Traditional education includes Torah study with Rashi's commentary. Thus, for generations, the very first lesson learned from the Torah has been the Jewish People's right to the Land of Israel.
A number of philosophers employed natural or pseudo-scientific theories to explain the uniqueness of the Land. According to Judah Halevi (1086-1145), the Land of Israel has the best of all possible climates, and it is in the middle of the inhabited earth. The Land's geographical centrality and spiritual centrality are intricately connected. The Land lingers on the border between physical and metaphysical realms. Indeed, its physical qualities facilitate metaphysical perfection. According to Halevi, perfection and prophecy is only possible in the Land.
Similarly, Abraham Ibn Ezra (1089-1164) believed that the Land of Israel was astrologically superior to other lands. The Land's coordinates made it particularly attuned to the power of the stars. Within the Land there were gradations of astral excellence, too. Jerusalem was the best-situated city, and the Temple Mount was Jerusalem's prime astrological real estate.
In the Middle Ages, astrology was a science, not a superstition. Ibn Ezra's astrological insight was his way of rationally explaining the Land's distinctiveness. Still, like Halevi, Ibn Ezra believed that the physical and metaphysical were linked. Star power was influenced by the observance of certain commandments, which in turn affected the Land. When the Jews ignored certain commandments, astrological conditions deteriorated, resulting in exile.
Unlike Halevi and Ibn Ezra, Maimonides (1135-1204) believed that the Land of Israel was inherently like all other lands, but this didn't mean it was philosophically insignificant. According to Maimonides, intellectual perfection is the goal of human existence, and exile and instability make it more difficult to achieve these goals. In addition, certain commandments could only be observed in the Land. In these regards, however, the Land is a means, not an end in itself. In fact, Maimonides did not believe that settling the Land was one of the 613 commandments.
Nahmanides (1194-1270) severely criticized Maimonides for this position. According to him, not only was the settlement of the Land a commandment; all of the commandments were meant exclusively for those residing in the Land. They are observed in exile in preparation for the return to the Land. In addition, Nahmanides approved of--perhaps encouraged--militarily conquest of the Land.
Nahmanides' devotion to the Land was rooted in kabbalah, medieval Jewish mysticism. In the kabbalistic theory of the sefirot (the ten divine attributes/emanations), the Land of Israel was an important symbol of Malkhut (Kingship), a female divine attribute also known as Shekhinah. In the sexual imagery of kabbalah, it was desirable to try to unite this female attribute with the male attributeTiferet (Glory). This conjunction was facilitated by commandments fulfilled in the Land of Israel, and it increased harmony in both the divine and human realms.
The Crusades
The quest to recapture the Holy Land
While the Crusades were a holy war against Muslims, the term “crusade” is also used more generally to mean a campaign against those who did not believe in the Christianity of the Church.
While the following article outlines the origins and consequences of the Crusades to recapture the Holy Land for Christianity, it is important to recognize that the Church also conducted crusades against heretics, or groups of Christians that did not agree with official church doctrine.
For example, in the 13th century, Pope Innocent III launched a crusade to destroy the Albigensians, a group judged heretical for their dualist theology. The crusade was “successful” after 50 years of bloodshed. The legacy of this crusade includes the Inquisition, a mobile tribunal that judged heretics based on information obtained through torture and secret testimony. The Inquisition would play a central role in Jewish history when it was established in fifteenth century Spain as a means of dealing with the crypto-Jewish population there.
The Crusade for the Holy Land: The First Crusade of 1096
The origins of the Christian Crusade to liberate the Holy Land are found in the spread of a warrior Asiatic tribe. In 1071, the Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantine army at the Battle of Manzikert, thereby occupying all of Asia Minor, including Palestine. As stories of atrocities committed against Christian pilgrims filtered back to Europe, the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus appealed for help against the Seljuks. Pope Urban II called for a crusade against the Muslims in 1095. The stated goal of this crusade was to recapture the Holy Land and ensure safety for Christian pilgrims visiting sacred sites. However, many of the crusaders saw it as the perfect opportunity to serve God and simultaneously make a fortune in looting and ransom.
By 1096, a large army (25,000-30,000 men) was prepared for battle. They marched from southern France to Constantinople, where friction immediately arose between the Byzantines, who were unprepared for such an army, and the crusaders. In 1097, the crusaders left Constantinople and marched towards Jerusalem, which fell in 1099. The goal of the Crusade had been achieved. In celebration, the crusaders ruthlessly slaughtered all of the Muslim inhabitants of the city. The Jewish community in Palestine was forced to surrender to the new rulers, or face execution.
The Crusades Devastated the Jewish Rhineland
The events of 1096 temporarily stopped the intellectual and social activity of Ashkenazic Jewry. Urban II’s call for the Crusade did more than arouse interest in the armies that went to Jerusalem. Two other groups formed, both of which harmed the Jews: itinerant preachers and bands of German peasants. For the most part, the itinerant preachers were only interested in exploiting the Jews financially, demanding money for provisions. The peasant groups were much more dangerous. These bands coalesced around a charismatic leader and engaged in spontaneous violence against Jews.
In the early stages of the Crusade, these latter groups destroyed the Jewish communities in Speyer, Worms, and Mainz. There are accounts of these peasants ruthlessly slaughtering defenseless people, attacking Jews while in synagogue, and storming royal buildings to massacre the Jews.
Acts of Jewish Martyrdom Met Crusader Violence
These anti-Jewish attacks reveal an interesting trend in medieval Jewry: the willingness of the Jews to die for their faith. This act, known as kiddush ha-shem (sanctification of the Divine Name), was quite common, according to the three extant Hebrew chronicles of the First Crusade. These chronicles report Jewish parents killing their children in a manner similar to Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac and Jews examining knives to ensure that the killing of their brethern was done according to the laws of kashrut. In some instances, Jewish martyrs insulted their Christian attackers before being killed as a way of displaying their ultimate faith in God.
The Legacy of the First Crusade
Even though a large percentage of Rhineland Jewry was destroyed in these events, French Jewry escaped unscathed. The First Crusade did a great deal to expose how vulnerable Ashkenazic Jews were, but the status of the Jews in the eyes of royal authorities did not change. The authorities had not instigated the violence; in many instances, the authorities attempted to protect the Jews.
While the events of 1096 debilitated Rhineland Jewry, the First Crusade should not be seen as a watershed event that inevitably lead to the decline of Ashkenazic Jewry. Several Rhineland Jewish communities were destroyed, but they rapidly rebuilt in the early 12th century. Jewish economic activity flourished; moneylending in particular, increased as subsequent crusading ventures needed cash. There was certainly no decline in intellectual creativity among Ashkenazi Jews; the study of law continued, although the focus shifted from Germany to northern France.
Later Crusades Spurred Jewish Travel to Palestine
Although Crusades continued over the next 300 years, subsequent crusades did not affect the Jews in the same way. After the events in the Rhineland in 1096, the Church realized the importance of reigning in the popular armies and protecting the Jews. During the Second Crusade, the preaching of Bernard of Clairvaux, the moving spirit behind the Crusade, condemned anti-Jewish preaching and actions. However, Bernard’s rationale demonstrated that anti-Jewish sentiment was alive and well: for Bernard, the Jews were living witnesses to what happened to Jesus. Their dispersion throughout the world served as proof of their guilt and of Christian redemption.
Interestingly, the Jews of Europe were motivated by the journeys of Christians to the Holy Land, and aided by the increased maritime transportation between Palestine and Europe, to make a greater number of pilgrimages themselves. For example, “The Aliyah of Three Hundred Rabbis” occurred in 1211. This emigration of several hundred rabbis from western Europe (mostly France and England) marks the beginning of an active period of aliyah that continued through the 13th century.
Jewish Immigration to Palestine
The story of who went to Palestine, and how these successive waves of Jewish immigration shaped Jewish life there from 1881-1939.
Historians often point to 1881 as a turning point in modern Jewish history. That year saw the passage of the May Laws by Russia's Tsar Alexander III. These "legislative pogroms" coupled with actual pogroms made life unbearable. The Jewish response to these events was one of unique and definitive action. World Jewry rallied resources to help assuage the situation in Russia, while Russian Jews zealously pursued one of three main escape strategies: socialism, Zionism, and emigration. The decision to leave Russia for Palestine combined all of these strategies. The following article by Eli Barnavi traces the waves of immigration (aliyot) and their effects on Palestine. It is reprinted with permission from A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People, published Schocken Books.
In the history of Jewish Palestine, the year 1881 inaugurated a new era. For many centuries, Jews from all over the diaspora had been "going up" to the Land of Israel, to live and die there, but the immigration of 1881 did not resemble any other. Inspired for the first time by an essentially modern national movement, this aliyah laid the foundations for the national rebirth of a Jewish society.
Everywhere else society preceded the nation; in this case, the national sentiment came first, and then, in order to be transformed into reality, it needed to go through a stage of immigration to an ancestral homeland where the nation‑building process could begin. This was a unique case of a society of potential immigrants who felt they belonged in a specific land long before they had set foot on its soil, and in less than two generations succeeded in forming a nation endowed with all the attributes of national "normality." Thus, although a minority in the demographic sense, the Jews of Palestine were not a minority in the national sense. The mandate of the League of Nations represented them as a national community aspiring to independence, and the relations between the mandatory authorities and the yishuv (the Jewish community in Palestine) did not resemble the usual interaction between a ruling power and ethnic minorities.
The nature of this new society, its structures, and the pace of its growth were determined by several factors.
· First, the magnitude of each wave of immigration and its social composition, both largely determined by the immigration policy of the Mandate and the division of the immigrants into categories--workers, capital holders, and professionals.
· Second, the financial resources available to the colonizing institutions and the volume of private investment (between 1918 and 1945, the investment foreign capital amounted to 153 million pounds, 109 million of which were private funds). This enabled the leaders of the yishuv to establish a network of agricultural settlements embodying the predominant collectivist ideology, and marking the borders of the future state.
· Third, the nature of this emerging society was shaped also by political tensions within the Zionist leadership, and ideological conflicts among the immigrants who perceived the Zionist enterprise in vivid utopian colors.
Therefore, dividing the history of modern Jewish Palestine according to the successive aliyot is well justified, since each wave of immigration brought with it specific ideological and social characteristics which shaped the development of the yishuv. The First Aliyah (1881‑1903) created the moshavot,villages of independent farmers; the Second Aliyah (1904‑1914) brought the collective settlement (the kibbutz); the Third (1919‑1923), Fourth (1924‑1928), and Fifth Aliyot (1933‑1939) were responsible for spectacular urban and industrial growth.
In 1880, the total number of Jews in the country was 20,000‑25,000, two‑thirds of whom were in Jerusalem; on the eve of independence they numbered about 650,000, in old and new towns and in hundreds of settlements throughout the land. There were 44 Jewish agricultural settlements, mostly moshavot, when the British conquered Palestine in 1917; by the time the State of Israel was established in 1948, the pioneering ideology of "conquest of soil and labor" of the Second and Third Aliyot added another 148 kibbutzim and 94 cooperative villages (moshavim). Even more impressive was the development of the urban sector, which absorbed more than three‑quarters of the immigration. Tel Aviv, the "first Hebrew city," numbered 40,000 inhabitants in 1931, 135,000 at the end of the Fifth Aliyah, and 200,000 in 1945.
From the beginning, the Zionist movement considered the yishuv as a territorial political entity, a united, autonomous, and democratic community, even before the British conquest and at an accelerated pace afterwards. The Palestinian Jewish community created governmental institutions based on universal suffrage and principles of western democracy--notably the Assembly of Deputies and the National Council--which had departments corresponding to government ministries.
However, the most typical feature of political life in Palestine was the central role played by the parties--comprehensive political societies with networks of clients, colonization federations, economic, cultural, and sports institutions, even para‑military units. And first among them was the left‑wing Labor Party which held sway over the yishuv and later over the State of Israel for several decades.
The Jewish Connection to Jerusalem
Remembering Jerusalem permeates Jewish belief, thought, and practice in profound and powerful ways.
This article provides an overview of the importance of Jerusalem in Judaism.
The role of Jerusalem is so important that a single article cannot cover all aspects. In addition to the examples given here, Jerusalem was of great importance in the Jewish mystical tradition, especially in the Zohar. The memory of the city was a driving force that shaped the destinies of great figures in Judaism, such as Yehuda Halevi, whose poetry reflects his yearning. In modern times, the centrality of Jerusalem is an important element in Zionist thought.
Building From Broken Shards
With the sound of shattering glass at the conclusion of the wedding ceremony, generations of Jews were reminded that Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jewish people were in exile. With this ritual the vow recorded in book of Psalms was actualized: "If I forget thee Oh Jerusalem, let my right hand wither, let my tongue stick to my palate if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my greatest joy" (Psalm 137).
While we are overjoyed for the couple, at the same time, we remember that this small shattering glass is filled with sad memories mixed with hopeful dreams.
Beginning to Remember
Yehuda Amichai, a well-known Israeli poet, wrote about remembering Jerusalem in a collection called "Songs of Zion the Beautiful":
Jerusalem's a place where everyone remembers
he's forgotten something
But doesn't remember what it is.
This spiritual process of longing to remember and thereby touch that which is eternal is the essence of Judaism! And this remembering always connects to Jerusalem in one way or another…
Remembering Jerusalem
While referred to a number of times in early Biblical accounts from Abraham to Joshua, Jerusalem has been the central city of Judaism since the year 1000 B.C.E., when King David conquered this small, remote Canaanite town and made it the capital of his kingdom. With the building of the Temple by King Solomon following the death of King David, the city becomes the focus of three pilgrimages each year for thousands of Jews celebrating the festivals of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. These pilgrimages are in keeping with the command in the Torah to visit and worship "…in the place that God will choose, for the Lord God blesses you with produce and blesses the work of your hands and you shall rejoice" (Deuteronomy 16:16).
Jerusalem is a major focus of Biblical literature and the likely venue where much of this literature was written and preserved. The kings of Judah lived and died here, as recorded in the Books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Prophets were based in Jerusalem, interpreting the Torah and establishing the great moral and ethical standards of Judaism. The Book of Lamentations, often attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, laments over the destruction of First Temple Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E. The destruction of the First Temple and the rebuilding of the Second Temple (60 years later) are recorded in the books of Kings, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles.
Continuing to Remember
Following the Biblical accounts, the Second Temple period added 500 more years of memories. These memories are recorded in many of the Apocryphal books, such as the books of the Maccabees, relating the events (mostly in the Jerusalem area) leading to and following the revolt against the Greeks in the second century B.C.E. (commemorated during the Hanukkah festival).
With the rise of the Roman Empire, the city of Jerusalem grew and underwent a major facelift by Herod, the Roman appointed Jewish king who conquered Jerusalem with a Roman army in the year 37 B.C.E. Rabbinic literature records hundreds of events, stories, and descriptions of life in Jerusalem from this period.
Hope from Ruins
After the destruction of the Second Temple Jerusalem, the memory of the city came to embody the hopes and aspirations of the Jewish people within the developing tradition of Rabbinic Judaism. Jerusalem was now an ideal that represented redemption, perfection, and wholeness that Jews would study about, pray for, and try to spiritually experience from afar. While Earthly Jerusalem may be in ruins, controlled by foreigners and unreachable, Heavenly Jerusalem was in every Jew's heart, waiting in the wings for the Messianic day when the promise of rebuilt Jerusalem would be fulfilled by God.
How were the Jewish people to keep these memories and hopes alive and part of their lives?
Remembering What Might be Forgotten
A series of "reminders" (rituals, prayers, and special days) developed in Jewish antiquity, and were designed to keep the memory of Jerusalem alive from generation to generation, for example:
-Jerusalem is a central theme in Jewish liturgy and religious poetry. For example, one of the 19 blessings of the Amidah (silent prayer central to all Jewish prayer services) reads: "Return to Your city Jerusalem in mercy, and establish Yourself there as you promised…Blessed are you Lord, builder of Jerusalem." The Amidah prayer is traditionally recited three times a day, while facing Jerusalem.
-Synagogues traditionally face toward Jerusalem.
-At the end of Passover seder and at the conclusion of Yom Kippur, we exclaim "L'shanah haba'ah b'Yerushalayim--Next Year in Jerusalem." (In Israel, one concludes, "L'shanah haba'ah b'Yerushalayim habenuyah"--"Next year in the rebuilt Jerusalem.")
-On Tisha B'Av, the Ninth of Av, we mourn for the destruction of both Temples, sitting on the floor of the synagogue to read the Book of Lamentations to a haunting cantillation.
In addition to ritual "reminders of Jerusalem," many contemporary Jewish practices, customs, and beliefs can be traced to Jerusalem, providing a constant "meta-message" of the primacy of Jerusalem for anyone who scratches the surface. For example, the order of the synagogue service is modeled after the daily Temple service (Avodah) in Jerusalem. The weekly reading of the Torah was established in Jerusalem after the return from the first exile. The seder meal on Passover is based on seders held by generations of Jewish pilgrims in Jerusalem. There are many more examples of home rituals, burial practices, and synagogue practices that can be traced to Jerusalem.
Remembering Leads to Action
During the centuries following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., the Jewish connection to Jerusalem was mostly one of distant hope, but there was always a core of people waiting to visit and live in the city whenever the opportunity presented itself. According to the Church Father Jerome, the Jews of the fourth century would pay for the special privilege of entering Jerusalem on the Ninth of Av in order to mourn. The desire to stand as close to the area on which the Temple stood established the Western Wall area as a focus of pilgrimage and worship from as early as the seventh century.
In 1099, Jews and Muslims fought the Crusader invasion together, standing side by side on the walls of Jerusalem. The great rabbi Nachmanides arrived in the city from Spain between 1265-67, establishing a synagogue that still exists, the kernel around which the present Jewish Quarter grew. By 1844, the Jewish community was the largest single community in Jerusalem, numbering 7,120 people (almost one half of all inhabitants).
In modernity, the powerful pull of Jerusalem is expressed in the memoirs of Natan Chofshi, one of the early Zionist pioneers who arrived in the Land of Israel 100 years ago from Russia:
"I used to pray…for the return to Zion…I particularly recall the prayers during Rosh Hashanah… 'And on that day the horn will blow proclaiming the return of the lost in Assyria and Egypt and their return to the holy mountain of Jerusalem.' These were sentences my father repeated at the holiday table. I was deeply affected by both the content and the tune of these words, and the tune resounds within me to this day. Thus I undertook the task of combining my own modest abilities and my best efforts…to hasten salvation."
And now, in our lifetime, we live with the reality of Jerusalem as the capital city of the Jewish State of Israel. This did not just come about on its own, but is the result of the Jewish people's active remembering of Jerusalem throughout the generations, leading to the deeds of pioneers such as Nachmanides and Natan Chofshi. In this way, the prophet Zechariah's words have been fulfilled: "Thus says the Lord of Hosts: The day will come when old men and old women will populate the streets of Jerusalem…And the streets of the city will fill with boys and girls at play" (Zechariah 8:4).
No comments:
Post a Comment