HERE WE START ON A VERY INFORMATIVE STUDY OF JUDAISM OVER THE LAST 150 YEARS..... HOW IT EVOLVED INTO VARIOUS RELIGIOUS FORMS.
THIS IS TAKEN FROM THE LECTURES BY PROFESSOR SHAI CHERRY, AND HIS 24 LECTURES CALLED "INTRODUCTION TO JUDAISM" FROM THE TEACHING COMPANY - THE GREAT COURSES.
WITH THIS LECTURE WE MOVE INTO THE MODERN PERIOD AND SPECIFICALLY WE'RE GOING TO BE LOOKING AT ISSUES LIKE EMANCIPATION, ENLIGHTENMENT, AND THE BEGINNING OF REFORMED JUDAISM IN GERMANY IN THE 19TH CENTURY.
BUT BEFORE WE GET THERE, WE SHOULD SPEND A MOMENT AND TRY TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THE POLITICAL SITUATION WAS LIKE FOR JEWS IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE AGES THE JEWS LIVED IN SELF-GOVERNING AUTONOMOUS CO-OPERATIONS, AS "GUESTS" OF THE HOST COUNTRIES. IN OTHER WORDS A SOVEREIGN FOR WHATEVER REASONS, UNUSUALLY HAVING TO DO WITH ECONOMICS, WOULD INVITE THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN, AND WOULD BE VERY SPECIFIC ABOUT THE KINDS OF VOCATIONS AND KINDS OF EMPLOYMENT, THAT THE JEWS COULD ENGAGE IN, IN THAT COMMUNITY; SOMETIMES THEY ADHERED TO THE LATTER OF THE LAW AND SOMETIMES THEY DIDN'T.
BUT USUALLY THESE ECONOMIC INCENTIVES BROUGHT JEWS TO NEW COMMUNITIES AND THE TAXES THAT WERE COLLECTED WEREN'T COLLECTED FROM EACH INDIVIDUAL JEW, BUT IT WAS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE "KELA" - THE SELF-GOVERNING AUTHORITY TO COLLECT TAXES FROM THE INDIVIDUALS AND TO PAY THE SOVEREIGN.
AND THERE WAS NOT ANY EXPECTATION THAT THE JEWS HAD THE RIGHT TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY. THEY WERE GUESTS OF A HOST COUNTRY, AND WHEN THE HOST DECIDED THEY WERE NO LONGER WELCOME, THEN THE GUESTS WERE ASKED TO LEAVE. AND THIS DID HAPPEN PERIODICALLY THROUGH JEWISH HISTORY.
THIS USUALLY CONTRIBUTED FOR THE JEWS TO GO INTO MORE "MOBILE" BUSINESSES, AND NOT INVESTING IN REAL-ESTATE, CAUSE THERE WERE LAWS THAT PREVENTED JEWS FROM OWNING REAL-ESTATE, VERY OFTEN. BUT THE JEWS HAD A REPUTATION, AND IT IS A TRUTHFUL REPUTATION, FOR BEING INVOLVED IN BANKING, MONEY LENDING, THINGS THAT ARE EASY PORTABLE; SO YOU CAN GET UP, IN CASE YOUR HOST ASKS YOU TO LEAVE, OR THE SOCIAL SITUATION BECOMES UNBEARABLE; YOU CAN PICK-UP AND TAKE OFF. SO THE JEWS LIVED AT THE SUFFERANCE OF THE RULER OF THE SOCIETY.
AS WE MOVE INTO THE MODERN PERIOD, WE GET DIFFERENT IDEAS OF GOVERNMENT, PEOPLE LIKE JOHN LOCKE [1632-1704] WHO ARE THINKING ABOUT THE NATURAL RIGHTS OF INDIVIDUALS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO THE GOVERNMENT; THIS BEGINS TO FILTER DOWN INTO THE SOVEREIGNS ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE JEWISH COMMUNITY.
AT THE CLOSE OF THE 18TH CENTURY, NOW, FALLING FAR SHORT OF POLITICAL EQUALITY THE EDICT OF TOLERANCE, 1782, WAS DESIGNED AND HERE I'M QUOTING" "IT IS OUR GOAL TO MAKE THE JEWISH NATION USEFUL AND SERVICAL TO THE STATE. MAINLY THROUGH BETTER EDUCATION, ENLIGHTENMENT OF ITS YOUTH, AS WELL AS DIRECTING THEM TO THE SCIENCES, ARTS, AND THE CRAFTS."
SO THERE'S CHANGES, WINDS OF CHANGE HAPPENING IN CENTRAL EUROPE. THE "EDICT OF TOLERANCE" WAS BY THE HAPSPUR EMPEROR "JOSEPH II - 1782. SO THIS INVOLVED THE GOVERNMENT WANTING TO EDUCATE THE JEWS, THROUGH A SECULAR EDUCATION. UP TO THIS POINT JEWS HAD HAD ONLY A JEWISH EDUCATION, AND THEY WERE IN PARTICULAR TRADES. BUT HERE YOU CAN EASILY SEE WHAT THE "EDICT OF TOLERANCE" WANTED TO DO; TO EXPAND THE KINDS OF TRADES JEWS GO INTO. TO MAKE THEM MORE LIKE THE OTHER CITIZENS OF THE STATE. THIS DOESN'T GIVEN THEM THE FULL RIGHTS, GIVING THEM VOTING RIGHTS, BUT IT'S ONE OF THE FIRST MOVES.
THE FIRST REAL EXTENSION OF POLITICAL LIBERTY AND POLITICAL RIGHTS TO THE JEWISH COMMUNITY WAS AS A RESULT OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION IN 1789.
SO THAT BY THE YEAR 1790 JEWS WERE RECOGNIZED AS CITIZENS OF THE COUNTRY WHEREIN THEY LIVED; THEY WERE EXPECTED TO BE FIRST, AND FOREMOST, FRENCHMEN AND ONLY SECONDLY MEMBERS OF THE JEWISH RELIGION. SO THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE MORE IN COMMON WITH THE FRENCH CATHOLIC, NOT NECESSARILY NEXT DOOR, BECAUSE MOST IN THIS PERIOD, THE JEWS STILL LIVED IN GHETTOS. THE WORD "GHETTO" IS ITALIAN, PROBABLY MEANS "AN IRON FOUNDATION" WHICH WAS THE FIRST GHETTO IN VENICE, ITALY, AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 16TH CENTURY, AND WHETHER THE GHETTO WAS IMPOSED BY THE GOVERNMENT OR NOT, IT WAS SOMETHING THE JEWS DECIDED TO LIVE IN AS NEIGHBORHOODS VOLUNTARILY; THAT WAS THE NORM IN EUROPE FOR THE ENTIRE MIDDLE AGES. THE JEWS DIDN'T BREAK OUT OF THE JEWISH NEIGHBORHOODS, THE GHETTOS, UNTIL THE 19TH CENTURY AT THE VERY EARLIEST.
SO THERE WAS AN EXPECTATION AMONG THE GENTILES THAT BY EXTENDING CIVIL RIGHTS THE JEWS WOULD ACCULTURATE; DOESN'T MEAN THEY WOULD ASSIMILATE AND GIVE UP THEIR JEWISHNESS, AND THEIR RELIGIOSITY, BUT IT MEANS THEY WOULD, DRESS LIKE THEIR NEIGHBORS, AND SPEAK LIKE THEIR NEIGHBORS, AND NOT CONTINUE TO SPEAK "YIDDISH" WHICH WAS THE GENERAL LANGUAGE OF THE EUROPEAN JEWRY.
YIDDISH IS A COMBINATION OF STREET GERMAN AND HEBREW, A FEW HEBREW WORDS THROWN IN.
SO THE VERNACULAR OF FRANCE OR GERMANY WOULD COME TO CROWD OUT THOSE DISTINCTIVELY JEWISH LANGUAGES. IN OTHER PLACES THEY SPOKE "LADENO" - WHICH IS SPANISH AND HEBREW, ALTHOUGH JUST LIKE YIDDISH MOSTLY SPANISH.
THE HOPE WAS THAT JUDAISM WOULD BECOME JUST ANOTHER CONFESSION, JUST ANOTHER RELIGIOUS FAITH. SO YOU WOULD HAVE THE "HUGUENOTS" FRENCH PROTESTANTS AND FRENCH CATHOLIC, AND THE FRENCH JEWS, AND WHAT WOULD UNITE THEM ALL WOULD BE THEIR FRENCHNESS AND THEIR COMMITMENT TO FRANCE AS A NATION, AS WELL AS THEIR LOYALTY TO FRANCE AS A NATION. THIS MEANT ALSO THAT, THE IDEA OF GOING BACK TO ISRAEL, TO ESTABLISH THE THIRD JEWISH COMMONWEALTH WOULD NO LONGER CLAIM THEIR LOYALTIES.
UP TO THIS POINT THE JEWS, NO MATTER WHERE THEY LIVED, WHETHER IN EUROPE OR ASIA, OR NORTH AFRICA, THEY UNDERSTOOD THEMSELVES TO BE PART OF A SINGLE NATION. AND SO THIS RADICAL PROJECT OF EMANCIPATION TO BRING THE JEWS INTO THE NATIONS WHERE THEY LIVED, REALLY REQUIRED A WHOLE SHIFT IN HOW THE JEWS PERCEIVED THEMSELVES, AND HOW THE GENTILES PERCEIVED THE JEWS. THE HOPE WAS THEY WOULD LOOSE THEIR ETHNIC PARTICULARITY.
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TO BE CONTINUED
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