Survey of Jewish History

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Survey of Jewish History

• Introduction to Judaism
• Winter 2008

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Admin

• Response Paper
• Key Terms Quiz

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Part 3 The Hasmonean Dynasty A Brief Moment of
Sovereignty (164-63 BCE)
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Rule Under Antiochus IV (175-163 BCE)

• Seleucid Empire succeeds Ptolemid Empire
• Antiochus IV converts Temple into a Pagan Shrine
  (167 BCE)
• Enforced Hellenization
• Abrogates Jewish Law (no Sabbath, circumcision)
• Beginning of persecution

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Competing Responses

• Reorganize Temple
• From Joshua to Jason
• Build Gymnasiums
• Good for my Pocketbook

• Protect against pagans
• Resist foreign influence
• Maintain Jewish culture
• Not good for rural Jews

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Maccabee Rebellion (166-60)

• Mattathias and his son Judah The Maccabee (The
  Hammer)
• Rededicate Temple in 164 BCE
• Rule of Hasmonean Dynasty until 63 BCE
• From priestly protectors to Hellenistic despots
• Sovereignty under rulers such as Aristobulus I,
  Alexander Jannaeus

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A Moment on Hanukkah

• Holiday celebrates rededication
• New Holiday-Story of Military Victory
• More complicated
• Jews vs. Jews
• Chrismukkakwanza

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Roman Rule in Judea (63 BCE )
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Rome and Jerusalem

• General Pompey annexes Land of Israel in 63 BCE
• Continuation of Greco-Roman culture
• Look to local authorities to rule vassel state

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Herod The Great? (37-4 BCE)

• Edomite-Grandfather converted under Hasmoneans
• Insider/Outsider
• Allegiance to Rome
• Tyrant-Massacred Family Members
• Leaves a tremendous legacy

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Rebuilds the Second Temple
One of the Seven wonders of the Ancient World
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A Winter Home on the Dead Sea-Masada
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Complete with a heated sauna and a synagogue
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A Culture of Sectarianism

• Leaves power vacuum
• Jews split into sects
• Sadducees
• Pharisees
• Essenes
• Zealots

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Sadducees

• Party of Priests
• Political Power and Status under Herod
• Aristocratic

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Essenes

• Monastic Sect in Qumran
• Reject Jerusalem priest as corrupt
• Messianic-Final Battle
• Ritual Purity
• Great Library! How do we know?

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The Scrolls of Qumran
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Life in Qumran
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So Whats the Big Deal?

• Window into Second Temple Period
• Biblical Work, Apocryphal (Book of Enoch), and
  Sectarian (Manual of Discipline)
• Canon in development
• Variety of Judaisms at this period

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Pharisees

• Non-priests with expertise in religious law
• Focus on religious law, not sacrifice
• Forerunners of the Rabbis

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A Common Judaism?

• Tremendous Diversity among Jews
• Sabbath, Circumcision, Dietary Restrictions
  (Kosher)
• Strategy for interpreting texts
• Religious sources
• Temple as Central

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The Great Revolt

• Revolt against Rome begins in 66 CE
• Sectarian or unified force?
• Emperor Vespasian and his Son Titus
• Temple destroyed, Population enslaved
• Masada

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The Great Revolt (70-66 CE)
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Bar Kochba Revolt (132-135)

• Hadrianic Persecutions (135-138)
• Popular revolt lead by Bar Kokhba
• Deport Population of Judea
• New Name Syria-Palestine and Aelia Capitolina

Year One of the Redemption of Israel
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What are the Challenges?

• Religious
• Demographic/Geographic
• Leadership
• Persecution

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Rise of Rabbinic Culture

• From Temple-Based Sacrifice to Culture Rooted in
  Domestic/Local Practice
• Establish religious and political dominance
• Sanhedrin-legislative authority (c 140 CE)
• Patriarch (Judah the Prince)
• Center moves to the Galilee

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The Mishnah or Oral Law

• Dont add scripture, Interpret
• Chain of Tradition, Not Revelation
• Hermeneutic (Interpretive) Principles
• How does this strategy solve tradition/change
  dilemma?

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The Rabbinic Strategy

• Before the destruction of the Temple, when a New
  Year fell on the Sabbath, the shofar (rams horn)
  would only be sounded in Jerusalem. The amended
  law allows for the shofar to be blown wherever
  the Jewish court of Sanhedrin would sit.
  (Mishnah-Early Rabbinic Text)

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Sepphoris-Seat of the Patriarch and Site of the
Mishnas Codification
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The Mona Lisa of the Galilee (3rd Century)
The Cardo/Main Street
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The Cultural matrix of Rabbinic Judaism

• Greek Gods (Dionysus), pagan symbols
  (constellations) alongside Jewish symbols
  (menorah)
• Hellenistic Material Culture
• Piyyut Liturgical Poem
• Mikvah (Ritual Baths)

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Palestinian Jews and the Rise of Christianity

• Constantine I adopts Christianity (Early 4th
  century)
• What are the new challenges?
• Religion as a new category
• Christian vs. Roman Imperial Power
• St. Augustine (354-430) and the Jews
• The Frail Theological Lifeline

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Power of Patriarch Diminishes

• Palestinian Talmud completed (4th century)
• Written in Aramaic
• Decentralization of religious worship
• Weakening Political Power of Sanhedrin (end of
  the 4th century)
• Laws diminish Jews religious and commercial
  activities

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To Sum Up..

• What cultural survival strategies did Jews employ
  to weather rule by external powers?
• Is there anything that defined Jews as a distinct
  culture?
• Is acculturation necessary for survival or does
  it lead to national suicide?

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Two Centers Babylon and Jerusalem (4th-10th
Century)
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Jews in the Sassanid Empire

• Long history in Babylon
• Is this Exile?
• We have made ourselves in Babylonia the
  equivalent of Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel.)
  (Talmud)
• Cultural split between Jewish communities

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The Sassanid Empire (224-642)
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Life Under the Sassanids

• Political and religious autonomy
• Exilarch (Resh Galuta)
• Centralized and Recognized Leadership
• Operate outside Roman Empire
• Cultural autonomy (still demons!)
• No need to respond to Christianity
• Paradox of acculturation in Palestine vs. Babylon

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Babylon as Jewish Authority

• Central academies move to Babylon
• Babylonia Talmud (5th Century CE)
• Longer, more sophisticated than Jerusalem Talmud
• Central text from Babylon not Jerusalem

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The Babylonian Talmud
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Jews Under Islam and Christendom

• What are similarities?
• Theological place for Jews
• Jews as second class citizen
• Differences?
• Islam sees Judaism as venerable precursor
• Christianity ambivalent about Jews
• The Problem with Monotheistic Truth

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Judaism and Early Islam

• Jews already highly integrated into Arabian
  culture
• Biblical Culture had become Arabized
• Abraham as founder of sacred shrines
• Muhammad expects Jews to become Muslims
  (submitters)
• Jews (as recorded in Quran) refuse to accept
  Muhammad

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The Rapid Rise of Islam

• Muhammad (570-632) from Mecca
• Emigrates to Medina with Followers
• Following death, Islamic Empire spreads rapidly
• Global Jewish popular share one culture

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The Spread of Islam and the Jews
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Jews Under Islam

• Fight against those who do not believe in God or
  in the Last Day, and do not forbid what God and
  His messenger have forbidden, and do not practice
  the religion of truth among those who have been
  given the book, until the pay the juzyaspecial
  tax of hand, humbled. (Quran 929)

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The Jew in Islamic Society

• What do you know about Islamic-Jewish relations
  today?
• Jews and Christians People of the Book
• Christians suspect--Trinity
• Second Class Status-Dhimmis
• Economic Restrictions
• Social Restrictions (clothes, horses)
• Religious Restrictions (new churches)

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Jews Thrive Under Islam

• Islamic World center of culture, science,
  philosophy (7-13th century)
• Center of Jewish life moves to Baghdad
• Saadia Gaon (882-942)
• Jewish philosophy in Arabic
• Refers to God as Allah
• First Jewish theology
• Karaites-People of Scripture (8th century)

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The Golden Age of Spain (9th-12th Century)

• Islamic Conquest spreads to Iberian Peninsula
• Jews Completely integrated into society
• Multi-ethnic, multi-religious
• Polygamy
• Rabbi Courtiers and Arabic love poetry
• Kahal-Jewish Communal Infrastructure

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The Golden Age in Andalusia
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Cordoba Synagogue, 1314
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Wine, Woman, and Death

• There came a voice Awake!
• Drink wine at mornings break
• Mid rose and camphor make
• A feast of all your hours
• How can we be carefree
• Or raise our cups in glee,
• When by all men are we
• Rejected and despised? (Dunash ben Labrat)

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End of the Golden Age

• Almoravides from the South (12th Cent)
• Christians from the North
• Growing Pressure to Convert
• Inquisition (1480) and New Christians
• Expulsion in 1492 and Sephardim

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Jews in Medieval Christian Europe

• Christendom vs. Islamic Empire
• Frankish Kings bring Jews to Central/Western
  Europe (9th century)
• Sets up basic economic tension
• Not in Feudal hierarchy
• Rely fully upon King, baron, or bishop
• Corporate communities

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Rabbinic Leadership

• Scholasticism generates interest in Jewish texts
  by Rabbinic leaders
• Rashi (1040-1105) in Troyes and disciples
• Best way to study Old French!

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The Crusades and Medieval Persecution

• Rescue Christian Holy Sites (1099)
• Widespread massacres and forced conversion
• Blood Libels (1144)
• Fourth Lateran Council (1215)
• Limited Usury, Jewish badge
• Talmud on-trial-Why?
• Black Death and Poisen Wells (1348)

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Jewish Expulsion

• 1290 Expulsion from England
• 1306-1394 Jews expelled from France
• 1492 Expulsion from Spain

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To Sum Up A Millennia

• What new challenges does post Second Temple
  Judaism pose?
• Is there a Jewish geographical, textual,
  linguistic center?
• How do Jews fare similarly/differently in
  Christian vs. Islamic societies?