Jewish History Blog
Hitler at a 1914 rally celebrating the outbreak of World War I
Among the tragic events that occurred in this mourning period of the Jewish calendar was the outbreak of World War I. Naively termed the “Great War,” it was the catalyst for World War II, the Holocaust, and all the other murderous events that would follow in the 20th century. It was brought about by catastrophic miscalculations of the great European powers, a combination of reckless politicians, stupid generals, and strong jingoist fervor. Yet when it first broke out, people all over Europe cheered – in London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Moscow, St. Petersburg. Here is a picture of a cheering crowd with Hitler himself right in the middle of it. The First World War was going to raise the art school reject out of his anonymity.
The war was a total war and therefore a total disaster. But in a perverse and not too surprising twist of events, the Jewish population of Europe suffered most. As individuals, the Jews fought in the armies of all sides, becoming super-patriots in their respective countries, determined to prove that they really “belonged.” This was especially true of German Jewry. Over 12,000 Jews died fighting for the “Vaterland.” Their patriotism and sacrifice would turn to ashes, literally, within twenty years.
German Jewish soldiers fighting for “der Vaterland". Picture courtesy of Leo Baeck Institute for the Study of the Culture and History of German-Speaking Jewry
But in spite of their super-patriotism, the Jews in Germany were subject to accusations of disloyalty. In 1916, the German General Staff ordered a census of all Jewish soldiers in the army to determine how many actually served on the front line. The fabricated census was publicized with great fanfare, intimating that the Jews were shirking their duty. The actual results showed that 80% of all Jewish soldiers served on the front lines, far higher than the general population, but this was never released to the general public.
Anti-Semitism had been virulent in Germany even before World War I. Germany’s subsequent defeat only served to exacerbate it. The stage was already set for the “Jewish-led-stab-in-the-back” betrayal theory that brought Hitler to power.
For the Jews in Eastern Europe, the war also brought unmitigated tragedy. A quarter million died in battle, and over a million became refugees because the Czar accused them of being German collaborators, forced them to leave their homes, and settle in inland Russia. Because of the Czar’s behavior towards the Jews, many actually welcomed the conquering Germans and Austrians as liberators and benefactors. The Jewish infrastructure in Eastern Europe, socially, economically, culturally and religiously, was almost completely destroyed by the war.
The war also served to radicalize much of Eastern European Jewry’s youth into secularists and Marxists. The yeshivot were scattered, and many of the Chassidic courts and dynasties were decimated. The Bolshevik revolution brought on by the war attempted to destroy the practice of Judaism. The anti-Semitism of the Polish and Lithuanian nationalists became overt and violent. In perfect hindsight, it seems clear that even without the Holocaust, Eastern European Jewish life was on the wane.
As we see in current times, divides within the Jewish world are not easily bridged. But what we must appreciate is that the ideologies that drive them were annealed in the heat of the First World War. The Jewish people are still paying the bill for it.
To learn more about World War I, please see our film, “Faith & Fate, Part II: The Implosion of the World Order“
“The Tribunal of the Inquisition” by Francisco de Goya
The current three-week period on the Jewish calendar carries with it many sad and bitter memories for the Jewish people. The destruction of both the first and second Temples occurred on the 9th of the Jewish month of Av, so we are in a mourning period that will culminate with a fast on that date. However, over the long centuries of Jewish exile other tragic events occurred during this season, and their importance and effect on Jewish history should not be overlooked. One of those events was the final expulsion of the Jews from Christian Spain in 1492.
Faced with the choice of converting to Christianity or leaving Spain, the Jewish community divided. About half left Spain searching for new homes in the Mediterranean basin, Asia Minor, the Middle East and Europe. The remainder accepted Christianity as their faith, mostly in a pro forma manner, attempting to retain their Jewish identity and faith in the secrecy of their cellars. Eventually, most of these crypto-Jews became Christians and were thus lost to the Jewish story and people. Even today a significant number of Christian Spaniards are descendants of Jews whose Jewishness was lost after the trauma of the decree of 1492.
The Al Hambra Decree that expelled the Jews from Spain
There was a significant and vital Jewish community for almost nine hundred years in Spain before the decree of expulsion. Under Moslem rule, the Jews enjoyed a “golden age.” There were Jewish courtiers and even prime ministers, financiers and army generals. Jews excelled in medicine, philosophy, poetry, astronomy, diplomacy, finance, and naturally in Torah study and creativity. The advent of the rise to power of the fanatical Almohad sect of Islam in much of Spain in the twelfth century signaled the end of the “golden age.” The gradual Christian reconquest of Spain by the Christian armies of the north culminated in total victory in the fifteenth century, putting even greater pressure on Spanish Jewish life. Yet Jews were still better off than their Ashkenazic brethren in the rest of Europe who were expelled from England and France and faced continuing and unrelenting pogroms and persecution in Germany and Central Europe, eventually driving them eastwards to Poland and Lithuania. The Christian rulers of Spain exploited the skills of their Jewish subjects and a thin layer of upper class Jews remained wealthy and influential. The Jewish population of Spain generally still felt comfortable there. After all, they had lived as Spaniards for many centuries. Why should the situation change now?
However, the pressures of the Spanish Catholic Church against the Jews mounted. Frustrated by the Christian inability to defeat the Moslems in the Crusader wars, the Spanish Jews were to serve as a convenient outlet for Christian fanaticism. Radical priests, some of them apostate Jews, preached against the Jewish presence in Spain and demanded the forcible conversion of Spanish Jews to Christianity. A furious demagogic preacher by the name of Ferrer instigated a countrywide pogrom against the Jews in 1391. Thousands of Jews were slain, maimed and/or forcibly dragged to the baptismal fount. Don Isaac Abarbanel’s grandfather was forced to convert to Christianity, though he managed to send the rest of his family out of Spain to then safer haven of Portugal. The Catholic Church created the Inquisition to make certain that the newly converted former Jews behaved like true Christian believers and not as secret crypto-Jews. In fact, most of the Inquisition’s attention was directed towards the New Christians, as the former Jews were called, and not directly against openly practicing Jews who had never converted even under duress. But the last century of Spanish Jewry, from 1391 to 1492, was hardly a happy time for the Spanish Jews.
Approximately fifty years before the expulsion, the Church forced the rabbis of Spain to debate theological issues with it before a less than impartial tribunal. The Jews were led by the great Rabbi Yosef Albo, but all arguments and evasions advanced by him were to be of no avail. When King Ferdinand married Queen Isabella, thus uniting Aragon and Castille, the Christian reconquest of Spain was complete, with the last Moslem territories in the south of Spain overrun by the Christians. The Jews were next on the list. By midsummer 1492 (on the 9th of Av) all Jews who refused to convert to Christianity had to leave Spain. So many Jews left port that day that the explorer Columbus was delayed a day before embarking on his historic journey. Meanwhile, thousands of Jews died trying to make their way to new homes and climes. The glory of Spanish Jewry came to a sad end. For this reason, the story of Spain and its Jews should be part of our 9th of Av remembrances.
This post concerns Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, seminal contributor to the Constitution, and third President of the United States. He was so towering an intellect that when President Kennedy hosted the 1962 Nobel Laureates at the White House, he said, “This is the most extraordinary collection of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”
What is much less known about Jefferson is that he had a great connection to the Jewish people, and to appreciate this, we first have to understand the prevalent attitudes toward the Jews at the time.
The founding fathers were people of tremendous vision who wanted to try a new experiment in government, a nation without monarchy. And because they had seen how religious warfare racked England, they also had a healthy antipathy toward organized religion.
Of all the founding fathers, Jefferson was the fiercest fighter of religious intolerance. In his home state of Virginia, for example, he repealed “the Law of Disabilities for Dissenters and Jews,” a carry-over from English rule that limited Jews and dissenters (meaning Protestants that aren’t “my kind” of Protestant) in property rights and banned them from holding public office. To the Jews, this was not a major issue; they were accustomed to legal disabilities. As long as nobody was making pogroms against them, they felt they were ahead of the game. They didn’t care that they couldn’t serve on the Virginia House of Burgesses. But what was no problem to the Jews was a problem for Jefferson, not so much because he loved the Jews – he had hardly any contact with them – but because he had not led the revolution to have a country that enforced legal disabilities against minorities.
Thomas Jefferson's gravesite
Jefferson replaced that law with a new bill, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the precursor to the Bill of Rights. He considered this bill one of the major accomplishments of his life. The epitaph on his gravestone, which he wrote himself, reads: “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and father of the University of Virginia.”
But his “test case” for religious tolerance was not Virginia, but Maryland. Maryland was founded as a haven for Catholics, but Section 33 of its Constitution read: “the State grants equal and religious rights to all persons professing the Christian religion.”
That law went unchallenged until 1818 when Maryland legislator Thomas Kennedy proposed to amend it to read “all persons” and not “all persons professing the Christian religion.” Thomas Jefferson came to Maryland to lobby with him. But revered a figure as he was, the bill lost by a margin of 50 to 24.
Kennedy and Jefferson refused to give up the fight, and in 1819, the bill was reintroduced and lost again. It lost in 1820, 1821, 1822. . . They reintroduced it every year, and it lost each time. Even when Jefferson’s health began to fail, he continually bombarded the legislature. He felt that if Maryland would rescind the law, no other state would again dare to have such a clause in its Constitution, and his idea of religious freedom would be attained. Interestingly, he did not pursue it in the Supreme Court. He did not want the Court forcing it upon the people; he wanted the people, or at least their legislators, to change their minds.
In 1824, Jefferson took a different tack. He approached Maryland legislator William Worthington with the argument that Jews in other states were building up the economy, and if Maryland continued this discrimination, it would be economically crippled. That argument won the day, and in 1824, the Maryland Constitution was amended so that equal and religious rights were granted to all persons, period.
Jefferson saw that as one of his major victories. He felt that the treatment of the Jews was the true test of how much America really meant “all men are created equal.” In that way, the Jews were the forerunners of all other minorities in America. It is therefore not difficult for us to appreciate his pride in obtaining rights for Jews. That guaranteed that the ideas he wrote into the Constitution were actually followed in practice.
Jewish inmates of Theriesenstadt, taken by the International Red Cross, June 23, 1944. Copyright, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC
On June 23, 1944, one of the worst charades in history occurred: the Red Cross visited Thereisienstadt, a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. According to the testimony of survivors, it was not the only such visit, but as you will see, we have pictures and records of that day. First, however, read the testimony of Mordechai Ansbacher, a survivor and witness:
“Whenever the visitors arrived. . . the whole ghetto would be turned upside down. Certain areas were under absolute curfew, and people living there had to remain indoors because their appearance would be too unsightly. Generally, only those who still preserved a more or less human appearance were allowed to move about outside. A beautification process would be on. Places had to be cleaned and made ship-shape. Houses were painted on the outside and large signboards put up saying, “Central Synagogue,” “Ghetto Theatre,” “Children’s School.”
“They even prepared teams of children in uniforms as if for soccer games. They had a children’s club for such occasions. Ice skating was installed, and ponies were brought in. Children were put into small beds with engraved hearts on the bed, as though in a veritable palace. Rehearsals were held with the children, and they were given food, which the children unfortunately ferociously devoured. They therefore had to repeat the rehearsals because we kept sending them new children each time to get food, so that as many as possible would eat well at least once.”[1]
Listen to the sadism involved here:
“To keep up the pretense and make a profit on the side, the Gestapo would sell prospective deportees apartment condominiums in Thereisenstadt. The newcomers arrived brandishing titled documents, but they were fortunate if they were allocated a plank in an attic of an old fort or a piece of floor in an army hut.” [2]
A scene staged by the Nazis for the International Red Cross inspection of the Theresienstadt ghetto. The people are probably watching a soccer match. Czechoslovakia, June 23, 1944. — Comite International de la Croix Rouge - Copyright, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC
But in spite of all that, the charade worked. Here is the Red Cross report, prepared by Dr. Norbert Masur:
“Thereisienstadt is not a camp in the ordinary sense of the word, but a town inhabited by Jews and governed by them, in which every manner of work is to be done. This type of camp was designed by me and by my old friend Heidrich and was as we intended all camps to be.” [3]
And perhaps the bitterest irony of all is that Thereisienstadt really was the “best” camp, the one with the best survival rate. And perhaps without that charade and the report that resulted from it, something more might have been done to ease the worst crime against humanity in all of history.
[1] Gideon Hausner, Justice in Jerusalem, p. 158
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid., p. 159
Nassar and Egyptian pilots pre-1967
Probably the most euphoric event in recent Jewish history was the recapture of the Western Wall in the Six Day War. The backdrop to the war is complicated, but basically, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the president of Egypt, had the goal of unifying all the Arab countries under his domination. He had many problems reaching this goal, most of them having to do with the Arabs themselves. Nasser had many enemies in the Arab world, foremost of whom was King Hussein of Jordan. He was also on poor terms with Syria, and was aiding one side of a bitter civil war in Yemen and losing. But there was a short-cut to achieving his dream in one fell swoop: destroy the state of Israel.
The Soviet Union also played a role in this. It was at about this time that the first trickle of Russian Jews were allowed to immigrate to Israel. The Soviets, who were supporting the Arabs and providing them with arms, used this as blackmail. Many a time they told the Arabs that if they didn’t follow the Soviet line, then another three or four hundred thousand Russian Jews would be allowed to go to Israel. Yet in May, 1967, for reasons of its own, the Soviet Union falsely informed Egypt and Syria that it had learned of a forthcoming Israeli attack. Based on this report, Nasser felt the time was propitious. He felt he would be able to conquer Israel handily. Meanwhile, Israeli celebrated its 19th anniversary blissfully oblivious as to what was going to happen in the next three weeks.
Nasser announced that the Egyptian army was going to go on maneuvers in the Sinai, which was a violation of the agreement that had prevailed since the end of the Sinai Campaign. But Sinai belonged to Egypt, so there was no way to keep the Egyptian army out. It crossed with great fanfare and in extremely large numbers. Israel protested, but nothing happened. It was almost a repeat of Hitler. Hitler took over one country, looked around to see if there were repercussions, and when there weren’t any, he went on to the next country. Here, Nasser saw that the U.N. took no action, so then he moved to the second step: he prevented Israeli shipping from coming up the Gulf of Aqaba. He claimed to have installed guns to stop them, though later it was found out to have been a bluff. This was in violation of the hallowed principle of international law: free navigation of the waterways of the world. Naturally, President Johnson even considered sending one of the U.S. flagships up the Gulf of Aqaba to test the blockade, but for all the good intentions and soothing words, nothing happened.
The next step came when Nasser ordered the United Nations peace-keeping troops off of Egyptian territory. The Egyptian government had invited them there in 1957, but now, ten years later, he said he was inviting them all to go home. The General Secretary of the United Nations agreed that Nasser had a right to request it, so the peace-keeping troops left.
Now, Israel began to take notice. Israel warned Egypt not to continue along that line because it would certainly defend itself and go to war. The United States, as is its custom, issued pronouncements that everybody should take two aspirin and be in touch later. That really didn’t do anything for anyone. All it showed was the impotence of the United States.
The United States attempted to get the Soviet Union to restrain Egypt, but it did just the opposite. The Soviet Union felt that it had everything to gain here. If the Arab states won, it would enhance Soviet power. And if they lost, they would become more dependent, which would also increase Soviet power. That’s a terribly cynical policy, but it was correct. The Soviet Union had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Now, Nasser, in his diabolical plan, wanted to surround Israel on all sides. Deep down in his heart, he was afraid Israel might successfully defend itself against Egypt. He therefore made an alliance with Syria, who agreed to shell the Israeli positions in the north, in the Galil and the Golan Heights, which Syria then controlled. But the Syrians, to a certain extent, double-crossed Nasser because they never sent their army into Israel in the Six Day War. They shelled and fired on the Israeli targets and they pinned down a certain number of troops, but they never sent their army in.
What really clinched the matter was King Hussein of Jordan. Hussein was afraid that he would miss the train. He saw now that Syria and Egypt, his two archenemies, had made an alliance. His military analysts showed him that there was a very strong likelihood that Egypt and Syria would win. They also convinced him that diplomatically, the world would do nothing to support Israel. And he was afraid that once Egypt and Syria were successful, they would come not only against the Israeli part of Palestine, but the Jordanian part of it, too. He was afraid that he’d be expelled from the Old City of Jerusalem and lose all that stature and tourism. Well, he was, but not by Egypt and Syria.
So King Hussein joined Nasser. The two archenemies were shown in The New York Times embracing each other in the anticipated victory over the state of Israel and throwing the Jews into the sea.
Temple Valley Beth Shalom decorated for Shavuot. Photo published under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike.
When I was a lawyer in Chicago over thirty-five years ago, I attempted to obtain a new date for a trial. The judge, a scion of a great Eastern European rabbinic family, asked me the reason for my request. I told him that the original trial date was to fall on the holiday of Shavuot, and as such, I would not be able to attend court that day. He sneered at me, “Counselor, there is no such Jewish holiday!”
That is an illustration of the alienation and assimilation of much of Diaspora Jewry. The holiday of Shavuot has been completely forgotten, except by the small sector of observant Jews. Out of all of the Jewish holidays, Shavuot has no distinguishing mitzvot or ritual attached to it. It lacks the ‘glamour” of the Passover seder or the shofar of Rosh Hashanah. Yet, it is the Shavuot holiday that is the backbone of all Jewish life and vitality.
According to Jewish tradition and the Talmud, Shavuot marks the anniversary date of the revelation at Sinai and the granting of the Torah to the people of Israel. The Torah itself phrases it thusly: “Today you have become a nation!” The nationality of the Jews is founded upon its shared experience of receiving the Torah at Sinai 3922 years ago. Shavuot is the uniquely Jewish holiday. It does not represent the universal ideal of freedom as does Passover, nor is it a harbinger of all human happiness, prosperity and bountiful harvest, all of which characterize the Succot holiday. It stands in splendid isolation as a uniquely Jewish event that attests to our role in society and civilization, as the people who accepted the Torah when others refused.
It is therefore difficult to be assimilated and celebrate Shavuot. Shavuot prevents assimilation by reminding us of the event that is baked deep into the DNA of the Jewish people – the revelation at Sinai. Shavuot is therefore not just a commemoration of an historical date, but rather it poses the challenge of defining Jewish nationhood and of its relation to each and every one of us. Because of this challenging aspect of the holiday, it is easy (though painful) to understand why Shavuot just does not exist for so many Jews. It is much easier on one’s mind and conscience to simply ignore and then even deny its existence.
There are certain questions that have remained constant in Jewish life over the millennia. “Who is a Jew?” “Why be Jewish?” “Why marry Jewish?” and “Why all of the fuss, anger, hatred and jealousy in the world over the Jews?” Ignoring Shavuot and what it represents allows for seemingly easy answers, or worse, evasions of these questions. But none of those answers has yet been able to stand the test of time and circumstance.
Forgetting Shavuot has always led to spiritually dire personal and national consequences. The great Rabbi Yosef of the times of the Babylonian Talmud celebrated Shavuot with great enthusiasm, saying, “If it were not for this day of Shavuot, I would not feel chosen and unique, for many Yosefs can be found in the market square.”
This is certainly true of the Jewish people generally. If it were not for Shavuot, we would not be a special people, let alone “a light unto the nations of the world.” Shavuot therefore becomes our reason for existence, the justification of our intense role in the development of a better and more civilized world. Shavuot therefore demands some sort of mental and spiritual preparation to be truly appreciated. Since we still have some time until its arrival, now would be a good time to start thinking about it and its personal relevance to our lives.
Old synagogue in Troyes.
May 8, 1146 was the date of one of the most extraordinary incidents in Jewish history, the rescue of Rashi’s grandson, Rabbeinu Tam. Like his grandfather, Rabbeinu Tam was the leading rabbi of his generation, but in personality, they were radically different. Whereas Rashi was the gentle commentator whose work became the backbone of Jewish scholarship, Rabbeinu Tam was similarly influential, but much more outspoken. He was also one of the most colorful personalities in Jewish history. He does not fit the stereotype of the typical rabbi.
Though Rabbeinu Tam was a formidable scholar who operated the largest yeshiva in France, he was also a successful businessman and was able to support his yeshiva single-handedly, and it had hundreds of students. He had three main businesses. First, like many Jews of the time, he was a money lender, but he dealt only with noblemen. We even have evidence that he loaned money to the king of France. This could be a very dangerous position for a Jew, but it was also very profitable. His other businesses were inherited; he inherited his grandfather’s winery and later he inherited his older brother’s business, which dealt with goats, producing milk, cheese, etc. So not only was he able to support his yeshiva, he supported his family – all his nephews and cousins – and he was in charge of the finances for many of the top noblemen in France. We’ll see how that saved his life in the Second Crusade.
The Second Crusade began in 1146. It did not cause as much damage to the Jews of France and Germany as did the First Crusade, which was fifty years earlier in his grandfather’s lifetime, but there were pogroms nonetheless. On May 8, 1146 (the holiday of Shavuot), a Crusader mob came to Rabbeinu Tam’s town of Ramerupt, dragged him out of the synagogue and was about to crucify him – literally. Using nails, the Crusaders put five marks on his forehead, saying it was for the stigmata from the crown of thorns. Then they erected a cross and said, “If you’re the leader of the Jewish people in France, it’s no more than right that vengeance should be taken upon you for what the Jews did to our lord.”
Artistic rendering of a Crusader.
At that very moment, a nobleman rode by. He was a client of Rabbeinu Tam’s bank, and he owed Rabbeinu Tam a great deal of money. Rabbeinu Tam had also done favors for him; he’d extended his loans; he’d waived interest. So when the nobleman took in the scene, he knew that the mob was not going to be satisfied with anything less than Rabbeinu Tam’s death.
Then the nobleman hit upon a brilliant idea. “If you kill him, that’s just killing another Jew!” he told the Crusaders. “Give him to me! I will convert him to Christianity. If after two days, he still refuses, I will bring him back to you.”
The mob thought about it and agreed. They gave Rabbeinu Tam over to the nobleman, and as soon as the two of them were away from the crowd, the nobleman told him, “All right, Rabbi. Start walking.”
And this is how Rabbeinu Tam escaped. He got his family, his children, and left behind their house, the businesses, and their wealth and property. He went back to Troyes, to Rashi’s town, and started from the beginning, all over again.
[The historical source for this incident is A Book of Historical Records by Ephraim ben Jacob (1132-1200).]
Jewish cemetery in Worms, Germany. Photo by Gerard Eichmann. Published under the Creative Commons License.
The weeks after Passover are marked as a period of semi-mourning on the Jewish calendar. Among the historical events that happened at this time were the pogroms that accompanied the First Crusade in 1096. Before the Christian Crusaders embarked on their mission to free the Holy Land from the domination of the Moslem infidels found closer infidels – the Jews – at hand.
The three main towns that the Crusaders targeted were the Rhineland communities of Speyers, Worms, and Mainz. They were the heart of Ashkenazic Jewish life in France and Germany; the great Rashi was born in Worms and studied in Mainz. The communities were prosperous, well-established and seemingly secure. But when the fury of the Crusaders fell upon them, hundreds were slaughtered and property was burned and looted. The Crusaders dragged their Jewish victims to the baptismal fount demanding their conversion to Christianity. Some Jews succumbed, but most accepted death, even killing their own families rather than accepting any form of conversion. It was a dark time in Jewish history and remains as deep and dark a page in the annals of the Christian Church.
By the end of the Second Crusade in the twelfth century, it was obvious that the Jewish future in France and Germany was dismal. In the thirteenth century, after the failure of the Third Crusade, King Louis IX of France expelled all Jews from living in his domain. In effect, this ended Jewish life in France for many centuries.
As far as the Christian world was concerned, the Crusades were a complete failure. They laid the seeds for the omnipresent hatred of Christians and Christianity in the Moslem world. They failed to establish Christian control over the Holy Land. They weakened the power and control of the Church over the European monarchs and nobles. Eventually, the failure of the Crusades led to destabilization of much of Christian Europe. Kings no longer set off on far-off adventures as easily as before.
For the Jews, the Crusades represented a rude awakening as to their truly precarious position within Christian Europe. In the end, all attempts to reach accommodation with their neighbors proved to be fruitless.
The hatred and anti-Semitism bred into Europe by the Crusades and their aftermath unfortunately still find expression today in the open hostility towards Jews, Israel and the free Jewish life that marks current European society. To blame all of this solely on increased Moslem population in Europe is to whistle past the graveyard. The memory of the Crusades is not only present within us in our commemoration, it exists in the memory of the descendants of the Crusaders.
The shadow of the Crusades haunts European Jewry till our day. It was the first of the Christian Holocausts perpetrated against the Jews of Europe. Tragically, it would not be the last. However, the enormity of the later Holocausts – Chmelienicki’s, Hitler’s, Stalin’s – has caused the memory of the Crusades and their bloody cruelty to fade into the background of Jewish consciousness.
Jews mark the time of the Crusades with days of semi-mourning and bitter memory. General society should appreciate what religious and secular fanaticism can cause. Tolerance and moderation should be the watchwords of any civilized society.
Cave where Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son Rabbi Elazar hid for thirteen years. Photo by Miss Samuel.
Today is the minor holiday of Lag B’Omer, a break in the semi-mourning period after Passover, and the anniversary of the passing of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. This great sage was the primary disciple of Rabbi Akiva, who inherited from his great mentor a strong antipathy towards Roman rule and culture.
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his teacher Rabbi Akiva lived in one of the most turbulent periods in Jewish history. The Roman emperor Hadrian was in power, and though he had originally treated the Jews fairly, he underwent a radical change in the middle of his reign. At first, he had been involved in other wars, and didn’t want trouble with the Jews, who had fought so fiercely in 66-70 CE (though they ultimately lost). He was open to the idea of allowing the Jews rebuild their Temple, as long as they would remain under Roman rule. But five years later, he decreed that not only shouldn’t the Temple be rebuilt, the ruins should be razed so that the Jews would have no hope of trying.
This was brought about the popular revolt led by Bar Kochba, who was a tremendous warrior and organizer. But once he was victorious and in a position of leadership, Bar Kochba turned paranoid. By definition, a leader is in the public view, and everybody can take shots him, which they always do. So Bar Kochba “lost it.” His paranoia was so extreme that he killed his own uncle. Upon seeing this brutality, Rabbi Akiva withdrew his original support of Bar Kochba.
After Bar Kochba’s defeat, Hadrian began to persecute the rabbis unmercifully. He realized where the leadership really lay, and he figured the only way to make the Jews docile was to get rid of the rabbis. Thus, Rabbi Akiva, along with nine other great sages, was tortured to death.
But rabbis are hard to get rid of. The Romans may have killed Rabbi Akiva, but his disciple Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai rose up in his place. And Rabbi Shimon was neither reticent nor politically correct. Some of his contemporaries openly praised the Romans for rebuilding the physical infrastructure of the land. They felt the Jews should compromise with them. Rabbi Shimon, however, was outspoken in his condemnation, stating that even the Romans’ seemingly positive actions stemmed from sinister motives. Then, a Jewish spy working for the Roman government reported Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s words to the Roman authorities, and a warrant for his arrest was issued. Rabbi Shimon, together with his son Elazar, fled to the desert and found refuge in a cave where they spent thirteen years in hiding.
During that long and isolated sojourn in the desert cave, Rabbi Shimon was able to delve into the hidden, mystical level of Torah and comment and explain its mysteries. It was at this time that he wrote The Zohar, the essential book of Kabbalah, though the book was not published until the fourteenth century by a Spanish Jew, Moses de Leon. Though there was much debate over the authenticity of the book, tradition holds fast that it was Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai’s. The Zohar has such depth and spirituality, the majority opinion is that it was beyond the ability of Moses de Leon to write himself.
After thirteen years in the cave, there was a regime change in Rome, and Shimon bar Yochai and his son were granted amnesty. This marks the beginning of the melting of the ice in Roman relations with the Jews, which would reach its height with Rabbi Judah the Prince, who would develop a friendship with Emperor Antoninus Pius. That friendship is what allowed the oral tradition of Judaism, the Mishnah, to be written.
When Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai emerged from their cave and returned to the society of the land of Israel, he had achieved such a level of spirituality that he could not countenance the ordinary workday activities of his fellow Jews who did not spend every waking moment in the study of Torah. Clearly, he was someone who brooked no compromises.
Lag B'Omer bonfire in Jerusalem. Photo by Shimon Z'evi.
Tradition ascribes the minor holiday of Lag B’Omer as the anniversary of the death of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. He is buried on Mount Meron in the Upper Galilee, and up to 500,000 Jews visit the site each year on this day. Large bonfires are lit, young boys are given their first haircut, and entire families encamp on Mount Meron in commemoration of the day. The custom of bonfires has spread from Mount Meron throughout the rest of the Jewish world, inside Israel and out, though there is much rabbinic opinion that disapproves of this custom. Nevertheless, it is apparently here to stay, acrid smoke and dangerous sparks notwithstanding.
The combination of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai’s fierce opposition to Roman ways, his superhuman devotion to Torah study, and his contributions to the rebuilding of Jewish life after the Hadrianic persecutions, all combine to make him one of the giants of Jewish history and tradition.
Caesarea, the seat of the Roman government over Judea. Photo by Ian and Wendy Sewell. Published under the GNU Free Documentation License.
The current period of time on the Jewish calendar (the seven weeks after Passover) is a time of semi-mourning for the Jewish people. Numerous tragedies occurred in Jewish history at this time of year, and the earliest one recorded in the Talmud was the death of 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva during the Hadrianic era of the second century CE.
Rabbi Akiva is one of the most famous and beloved figures in Jewish history. The Talmud records that when a certain scholar met him for the first time, he exclaimed, “Is that you, Akiva ben Joseph, whose name and reputation is known from one end of the world to the other?” Rabbi Akiva’s name and reputation have not only journeyed from one end of the world to the other. They have journeyed for almost 1900 years in the hearts and souls of the Jewish people.
Rabbi Akiva was the ultimate outsider in Jewish life. By this I mean that he came to his greatness not because of family lineage. He was descended from converts to Judaism, and for the first forty years of his life, he was completely unlettered and ignorant. He even freely admitted that in those years, he had a deep and abiding hatred towards the Torah scholars.
Like many of the greatest leaders of the Jewish people (Jacob, Moses, and David,) Rabbi Akiva served as a shepherd. His employer was Kalba Savua, the wealthiest Jew of the day. Kalba Savua’s daughter Rachel fell in love with Rabbi Akiva, married him, and then encouraged him to go away to study Torah. Her father, angry over the “mismatch,” disowned them both. But Rabbi Akiva remained in the yeshiva and applied himself diligently even though it was difficult and sometimes humiliating for him. When he ultimately returned to Rachel, it was no longer as an ignorant shepherd but as the greatest scholar of the time, teacher to thousands of students. As he said to them, “All that I am and all that you are is entirely to her credit!”
Kalba Savua was quick to reinstate the couple into his good graces. Rabbi Akiva thus became the inspiration not only for converts and their descendants but for those who come to Torah study later in life.
The surprising backdrop for all these accomplishments was oppressive Roman rule. The Roman Empire was at its height, and the land of Israel was under its control. With only a few short spells of respite, the Jews were persecuted fiercely under the caesars and their puppet governors. The first Jewish attempt to overthrow their Roman oppressors occurred in the years 66-70 CE. The Jews fought long and hard, but to no avail. The Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, killed tens and thousands of Jews, and sold tens of thousands more into slavery.
Coins from Bar Kochba's rule. Published under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Some sixty-five years later, there was another attempt for Jewish national independence. This one was led by a man named Bar Kochba, and Rabbi Akiva was one of his stauchest supporters. According to some historians, Bar Kochba successfully re-instituted Temple service in Jerusalem, though he was unable to rebuild the Temple itself. The coins we have from his era are inscribed with the words, “in the first year of Jewish freedom,” “in the second year of Jewish freedom.” But that Jewish freedom lasted only four years. Again, the Romans put down the rebellion, slaughtering tens of thousands. That was the end, literally until our time, of the idea that there could be a national Jewish homeland in the land of Israel.
After this national tragedy, Rabbi Akiva rallied his students around him to rebuild the Jewish people through the only trusted and time-proven method known to us – the study and practice of Judaism. Such great personal resilience speaks volumes about his character. He taught future generations of Jews never to give up. As we have seen throughout Jewish history, the resilience of Torah scholars and their students has saved the Jews from destruction and possible extinction numerous times. Rabbi Akiva showed the way toward Jewish survival.
Rabbi Akiva himself suffered a terrible fate at the hands of the Romans. He was arrested and tortured to death, dying as a martyr. But he has remained the symbol of Jewish optimism throughout the ages of exile and despair. His faith in a better tomorrow for Jews and humanity, his upbeat outlook on life in spite of all adversities, never wavered. The ability of all later generations of Jews to look beyond current troubles and see a great dawn of hope for the future is predicated on his example and teachings. Thus, Rabbi Akiva, who began as the ultimate outsider in Jewish life, became the hero not just of converts and the unlettered, but the hero of all Jews for all times.
