Thursday, June 02, 2011

One thousand years ago

Until recently we knew very little about what transpired 1,000 or so years ago in Eretz Yisrael. Jewish history was a huge lacuna during that period and to many it was convenient to believe that the Jews had abandoned the Holy Land. But, we now know that that was false. Through a great piece of good fortune we now know in great detail about the lives of Jews who inhabited the Eastern Mediterranean during that period.

The story begins in 1896-97 when Solomon Schechter, a Jew teaching Talmud at Cambridge, visited the Ben Ezra synagogue in Cairo and found there a huge deposit of ancient manuscripts in the genizah or depository. Under Jewish law any written document that is of religious value and particularly mentions the name of God should not be destroyed. To make this easier many ancient synagogues had a cupboard or depository where such manuscripts were stored. In the case of the Cairo genizah they kept not only holy books, but all manner of documents written in Hebrew that tell us about the life and works of many individuals who lived throughout the period ca 1,000 years ago. Solomon Schecheter collected about 140,000 fragments of manuscripts and took them back to Cambridge University Library where they are held to this day. In the past 40 years with modern methods, great strides have been made in analyzing and translating these documents.

Stefan Reif, Emeritus Professor of Medieval Hebrew Studies at Cambridge University and Founding Director of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, spoke at the AACI Netanya about the background and analysis of typical fragments of such documents. During this analysis many previously obscure or unknown topics became clear. One such was the intense rivalry between the Jews in Eretz Yisrael who adhered to the Jerusalem Talmud and the Jews in Egypt and elsewhere who followed the Babylonian Talmud. In the final analysis the "Diaspora" was more numerous and more aggressive than the inhabitants of the Holy Land and their interpretations and customs prevailed. So much so that today few study or use the Jerusalem Talmud and the differences between the practices and beliefs of the two communities have been obscured by time. Fragments of the genizah documents provide us with a detailed account of the disputes between these two schools.

Also, documents that relate to such mundane things as house construction, grocery bills and personal relations are found in the hoard of the genizah. As they are translated they reveal a rich patchwork of the life and customs of the Jews who were very much active and alive in the Land of Israel and the local Diaspora throughout the period from ca. 1,000-1,200 bce. There are also fragments that relate to more recent times. Many of these fragments are available on line, although not yet their translations. Prof. Reif believes that these documents are as important for knowledge of the life of Jewry in the Land of Israel as are the Dead Sea scrolls of an earlier era. Unfortunately many other archives were destroyed over the centuries by Muslim actions. One thing is for sure, the Jews never left the Land of Israel and were active here long before it was called Palestine.

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