Jewish History
The Jewish history spans 3,000 years. However, many historians date the birth of King Josiah in Judaism -640.
As is common for a religion , the Jews had different currents or schisms. The Jewish people is different from other peoples by its distribution in the world, its unity around the transmission of cultural values through religious books ( Torah , Talmud ) and ritual practices Commons ( Shabbat , Passover , Yom Kippur , Kosher ...).
For a history of Jews on a particular country, you may refer to articles ( Jewish history ).
Summary |
First Tracks, -1200 to -880
The early Israelites did not seem literate (see Archaeological Data on the first written in Hebrew ), we do know that the writings of other peoples, including Egyptian and Assyrian. It would be a people inhabiting the original Canaanite highlands Canaan (now West Bank). The northern part (Samaria present) more and more accessible irrigated grows faster than the southern part (Judea present). Two distinctive features characterize it: the houses are oval-shaped and can not find any trace of pig farms and in food.
Early centralized states: the two kingdoms, -880 to -722
Two separate kingdoms seem to claim the same people:
- north in Samaria (northern West Bank today), the Kingdom of Israel was founded by Omri at -880 (see data on archaeological and Omri Omrides )
- south to Jerusalem Judah much poorer and less populated. (See Data archaeological David and Solomon )
They are polytheists, but like many people in the region, with a principal god. This variant of polytheism is called a monolatry.
As written by John Soler
Beginnings of the Jewish religion: monolatry of Yahweh, to -722 - 587
In the north the kingdom of Israel was destroyed in -722 by the Assyrians. The inhabitants fled south with its capital Jerusalem was then experiencing a development important.C is the reign of Josiah, it seems, around 620, that the idea has prevailed, in the hope of preventing Jerusalem suffer the fate of Samaria, that Yahweh was a god "jealous" that tolerated no rivals in the reverence demanded that Israel - which also proves that the worship of Yahweh had previously lived with that other gods, as was common in monolatry national gods in the Middle East. Monolatry is just one of the terms of polytheistic beliefs and the reform of Josiah, who demanded that people worship only the Lord, in one place, moreover, the temple of Jerusalem, is a variant made to the previous form of monolatry. King Josiah (- 640 - 609), which many historians consider this title as the true creator of the new religion, is the first to establish the draft rules of the Jewish religion by proclaiming that:
- There are many gods but among them, we can only worship Yaveh
- the 2 populations are the same people with the same principal god
- there should be only one place to commemorate the god
Samaria belongs to the people as well as Judea and must be reconquered from the Assyrians. The legend of a former grand unified kingdom from Damascus to the Red Sea, founded by his ancestor David, was probably developed around the same time to support this claim.
Josiah, feeling the Assyrian empire totter, wants to cater to the Egyptians, his opponents, but the agreement fails and is killed by them in 609 BC. BC The Assyrian empire was later crushed by the Babylonians, who also captured Jerusalem and exiled -587 a small portion of the population, its intellectual elite in Babylon their capital.
Exile in Babylon, the birth of Jewish monotheism, -587 to -517
Refugees face in Babylon monotheistic Zoroastrians and they wrote the bible made up of: their own history, tales of a glorious past of a great kingdom, legends like the Babylonian King Sargon rescued from the water. The new religion Zoroastrian incorporates the principle of a single god but it has elected a people, the Jewish people, and ordered him to return to Canaan and to reestablish the Temple of Jerusalem.
The era of the Second Temple 515 BC. BC to 70 AD. AD
This period extends from 515 ACS (completion of construction of the Second Temple ) to the year 70 AD (the destruction of the Second Temple). 70 years after the beginning of the Babylonian Exile , the Judeans to return to their land during the reign of Cyrus (Koresh), under the leadership of Ezra , Nehemiah and Zerubbabel , which succeeded the Great Assembly. Reconstruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem lasts 520 BC. BC to 515 BC. AD. It is a time of religious reforms and "ethnic cleansing" (see the reforms of Ezra and the repudiation of wives Canaanite). The inhabitants of the kingdom northerner are not allowed in the Assembly and form the Samaritanism. The province of Judea through several successive rulers. Several religious groups are competing for both the power to determine orthodoxy.
Nobility priestly Sadducees and Bothusiens
The Sadducees and Boethusiens , priestly classes of disciples and Zadok the Priest Boethus, close to the government, recognize no other authority than the Torah , taken literally, and maintain extremely accurate records to support the priestly lineages. It is this concern that led the family theorists of the documentary hypothesis to speculate an editor P (Priest).
The Pharisees
The Pharisees , descendants of zougot , based on certain prophetic exhortations ("I hate your feast days") to seek to apply the rites in both the letter and spirit, the latter has sometimes prevail. They are passed to do an exegesis of oral Tanakh from father to son and from master to disciple. They receive strong support from the people, and since the time of Shimon ben Sheta'h dominate religious life through the Sanhedrin.
The Essenes
The Essenes , folding ascetics in the desert, advocate a path of detachment. They are close enough to the Pharisees , but develop own ideas sounding apocalyptic , talking, for example, a son of the struggle of light against those of darkness.
The Zealots
The Zealots ( Sicarii ), are also close to the Pharisees, but very likely in the guerrilla war against the invaders, especially Romans. Instigators of the revolt against Rome, their movement disappears following the siege of Masada. This classification depends on the story of Flavius Josephus and his "four sects". However, it is likely that other movements existed and that the hegemony of the Pharisee Judaism will take several centuries to establish.
Hellenistic Judaism
The Jews of Palestine become a distinct minority in Judaism overall, widespread throughout the Middle East and Egypt, where Jewish communities Hellenized thrive. The definition of strictly national "Jewish people" (language, territory, political leadership) is fading. The Sadducees show themselves open to the dominant culture, that the Pharisees make a point of honor to refuse. After translation of the so-called Septuagint , is what Judaism speaking and thinking in Greek Dynasty Hasmonean , which consists of books Apocrypha of Jewish inspiration that will be discharged from the Tanakh : Book of Enoch , Jubilees , Book of Tobit , Prime Book of Maccabees and Second Book of Maccabees , the Book of Wisdom , Ecclesiasticus (Sirach), Book of Baruch , the Dead Sea Scrolls , Passages of Greek Book of Esther and the Book of Daniel , etc.. His most famous representatives are Philo of Alexandria and Flavius Josephus
In exile
Writing of the Talmud and Rabbinic Judaism
After the destruction of the Second Temple ( 70 AD. ), the Sadducees , Essenes and other sects disappear or become Jewish Judeo-Christian or Judeo-Nazarenes. The rabbis Pharisees alone remain in contention, and their vision of Judaism is the norm. They start writing of the Talmud, written form of the Oral Law received by tradition from Moses at the same time as the written law of the Pentateuch. The mishnayot (Mishna plural) are being written by Rabbi Yehuda HaNassi (Prince)
Writing the Talmud was a collective enterprise that lasted until the sixth century. There were several steps, the Midrash , the Mishnah (in Hebrew , written in the second century of the Common Era) and Gemara (commentary on the Mishna, written in Aramaic ). There are two versions of the Gemara, corresponding to the two diaspora Jewish largest, that of Galileo , and that of Mesopotamia. The Talmud itself consists of the Mishna and the Hebrew Gemara Aramaic. Since there are two Gemara, there are also two versions of the Talmud, the Jerusalem Talmud ( fourth century of the Common Era) and the Babylonian Talmud ( sixth century of the Common Era).
The Talmud brings innovations on social organization, particularly interest rates , the use of bills of exchange , and limits the profit (the notion of price fair), that Christian civilization will discover later.
The Karaism
According to the Karaite tradition, the Karaism born in Babylon between the seventh and eighth century CE, when a young scholar of Persian descent from David, Anan ben David , proclaimed himself anti-exilarch following a disagreement more political than ideological, and decides not to decide questions of Halacha (see below) than on the written law, the total detriment of the Oral Law. In these troubled times of Muslim conquest and religious questioning, this attack on monopoly Geonim , heads of Talmudic academies of Babylon, the Jewish life is welcomed.
However, sources Karaites of the twentieth century (the books of Al-Ya'acov Qirqisani ) tend to suggest Anan ben David is founded "and" pineapple, which differed significantly from Karaism and never joined in the centuries that followed. Ya'acov Al-Qirqisani also mentions the current Benjaminite which, although based on the letter rather than the spirit of the text, also does not break formally with the Pharisees, which became Rabbinic Judaism, and is initially counted as separate Karaism.
The Karaism dependent personal exegesis, other trends have emerged, including the groves and, more recently talmide.
The most important Karaite communities were in Crimea and Egypt. They are currently in the United States and Israel ( Ramla ), after being expelled from Egypt around the years 1952 - 1956. A few small groups remain in Lithuania.
The Middle Ages
The period of Geonim
The era of Geonim ranges from 589 (4349 in the Hebrew calendar), at 1038 (4798).
During the Middle Ages , the anti-Judaism is growing among Christians. It takes a theological form in the seventh century with the introduction of the term ' pro perfidis judeais "in the liturgy of Good Friday. With hindsight, it is considered that this contributed to legitimize some of the subsequent violence Christians against the Jews.
The era of the Rishonim
The Rishonim are the rabbis who lived and Posqim era between the Geonim and Shulchan Aruch , that is to say from 1250 to 1500.
In the Eastern Roman Empire , culture yvanique of Romaniotes develops and diversifies the legacy of Geonim , which will broadcast in both urban Sephardic with philosopher Maimonides , than in Ashkenazi Kalonymos with the sage of the Rhine. In the twelfth century , Jews, Christians and Muslims were involved in the vast movement of translation of works of Aristotle , which contributed to the renewal of Western thought.
But the Empire is also undergoing Christian intolerance, and more crusades were accompanied by successive often violence against Jews.
Jewish thought had distinguished itself in the twelfth century of the common era with Maimonides. Persecuted by the power Almohad of Andalusia , he fled to North Africa and then Egypt. In the thirteenth century , theological questions were raised about the loan interest , not in Christianity, but then authorized by the Jews against non-Jews (only). The Jews were so often relegated financial functions, which were forbidden to Christians.
At the end of the fourteenth century , the Jews were often blamed for the terrible ills that have devastated the Europe during this century (including plague black, actually brought from Crimea by a Genoese ship). In 1391 , two synagogues were converted into churches in Seville, and develop anti-Jewish violence in Toledo and Valencia in particular.
In France , the deportation struck the Jews in 1306 , in 1322 and 1394.
At the end of the fifteenth century , the persecution reached its climax with the Spanish Inquisition , which established a system of blood purity ( limpieza de sangre ), and measures against the Marranos who was accused of continuing the practice of Judaism.
Period Rishonim ended with the Shulchan Aruch , a compilation of all laws set forth by the Talmud , and the views and comments of the great legalists and policymakers who have examined, which was written by Rabbi Yosef Karo.
The sixteenth century is marked by a series of expulsions of Jews in Europe. After the expulsion from Spain in 1492 , Jews were expelled from Arles (1493), Sicily and Sardinia (1493), Florence (1494), Lithuania (1495), Portugal (1495), Tarascon (1496), Provence (1501), the kingdom of Naples (1510), Regensburg (1519), Southern Italy (1541), Wrttemberg (1555), Bavaria (1555), Brandenburg (1573) and Brunswick (1590).
The Maghreb (the Algeria of Zianides , the Morocco of Watassides , the Tunisia of Hafsids ) and the Ottoman Empire became a haven for some of these Jewish communities, including Istanbul , Adrianople , Salonica , Smyrna , Trebizond , Safed in Crimea and in the Danubian principalities ( Moldavia , Wallachia ). They join communities yvaniques living there since the days of the Byzantine Empire , and ladinisrent (Judeo-Spanish to supplant the Judeo-Greek).
Judaism underwent profound changes from 1492. Rabbinic Judaism was the unity of the Jewish people a central point of the Act, and in fact, knew no major changes, except for liturgical changes in the various communities through, inter alia, in drafting legal codes which culminated with the production Shoulhan Arukh. Some contenders for the Messiah , whom Jacob Frank and Sabbatai Zevi extolled the crowds, causing some people in the dissident movement that would eventually lead to their conversion to Islam or Christianity.
The Enlightenment to the period between the wars
Emancipation
Ashkenazi Judaism was again subject to controversy with the advent of the Enlightenment , which led to considerable controversy in the Haskalah , exacerbating the dispute between Hassidim and Mitnagdim (opponents) in Eastern Europe that sought to appease the "moderates" "intermediaries" such as Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, whose motto was Madah Torah ("Torah and Science").
Jews were accepted as French citizens during the Revolution, after two decrees, one of 28 January 1790 and the other 27 September 1791 , under the leadership of Abb Grgoire and Adrien Duport.
These new laws allowed the French armies of the Republic and Empire to emancipate the Jews in the conquered territories. But generally, this first emancipation was repealed in the fall of Napoleon 1st. Only during the nineteenth century that many States European accordrent full citizenship to Jews. In France itself, the more Judaico oath that was not abolished under Louis-Philippe.
Diversification of rabbinic Judaism in the nineteenth century
The rabbinic Judaism has historically built around rabbis , experts of the oral law. However, it has diversified in the nineteenth century and has emerged on a contradiction in terms: the rabbis do not follow the law strictly oral.
- The Orthodox Judaism places the halakha in the center of his value system. Orthodox Jew is one who acknowledges having to behave according to the Halacha (corpus of rules laid down by oral tradition from the Talmud until today).
As at the time, the Halakha has been codified by statute books authoritative for future generations.
- Example: the Rambam ( Maimonides ) wrote a code of laws called the Mishneh Torah, which was, with the works of Roch (acronym wise Rabbeinu Asher ) and Rif ( Rabbi Yitzhak Elfassi ), a pillar of Shulhan Arukh. The Shulhan Arukh written by Rabbi Yosef Caro in the sixteenth century marks an important milestone in the development of halakha. Indeed, after the Shulhan Arukh, it becomes difficult to go against the decisions considered the ultimate synthesis in halakha.
Difficult does not mean impossible in many cases the great masters of Jewish Tradition (Gaon of Vilna, Hafetz Hayim) have nonetheless decided differently Shulhan Arukh.
However, an Orthodox Jew recognizes the chain of transmission of the Halakhah in its entirety, unlike liberal Jews (who do not grant major) and Masorti (who claimed a decision to go back to the Talmud then handed affected by the chain of Masters of the oral tradition to justify a practice more consistent with the mores of the modern era).
Orthodox Judaism thus puts particular emphasis on accession to the Law of the Torah to Jewish law, and respect for established traditions.
The Orthodox consider as invalid the decisions taken by other currents, conversions to Judaism and they carry the authority of their rabbis.
If the respect due to the Halacha is essential for the Orthodox, the Orthodox Jewish landscape is very colorful, however depending on the importance given to the study, community life, education profane or importance of the Earth Israel.
The Hasidim, the Zionist -religious, the modern-orthodox United States or 'Haredim in Israel are Orthodox Jews.
- The Reform Judaism appears in Germany in the first half of the nineteenth century , based on the ideas of Moses Mendelssohn. Ardently defended by Rabbi Abraham Geiger and opposed by orthodoxy, he remains focused on the rabbis, but rather calls into question the widely Oral Torah, denies its divine origin, but accept it may have been inspired (but not codified even less prepared) by God. Halakha is subject to personal choice of the faithful.
Originally designed to "bring the Jews into the synagogue" in "modernizing" the religion, Reform Judaism was a great success in the U.S., but remains much smaller in the rest of the world.
In France, he knows less success-Orthodox Judaism, much of the Jewish population is Sephardic and rather inclined to preserve its traditions.
Judaism "liberal" and "reformed" are not necessarily synonymous: there are two distinct communities in England , and although the theoretical basis is the same, the "reformed" are much more traditional than "liberal."
- The Jewish "conservative" (or "traditionalist" or "Masorti") was born in reaction to Reform Judaism, while positioning themselves differently from orthodoxy by a positive-historical conception of Jewish law, saying it operates and always evolved with the times.
Current income, attached to tradition, it brings together elements "orthodoxisants" as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel , and liberal tendencies.
Like Reform Judaism, Conservative Judaism is most prevalent in the USA. He also knows some success in Israel.
- The Reconstructionist Judaism founded by Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan , broke away from Judaism traditionalist.
See infra.
Late nineteenth century - a href = "Entre-deux-guerres" title = "Between the two world wars"> Between the two world wars: the rise of Zionism
The end of the nineteenth century saw the rise of Zionism : the first pioneers, driven by pogroms and Russian supported by wealthy Western donors, dry out swampy areas where they could settle in the coastal plain of Palestine , then under sovereignty Ottoman the Dreyfus affair raises the vocation of the Viennese journalist Theodor Herzl. But emigration to Palestine of Jews sceptically "assimilated" to Western Europe and the opposition of most Orthodox rabbis, let alone supporters of a new Israel in North America, or Jews for which the Socialist total emancipation can only come by the proletarian revolution.
November 2, 1917 , the Government UK publishes the Balfour Declaration. In 1922 , the League of Nations entrusted the administration of Palestine (mandate) to the United Kingdom. The political convulsions in Europe , resulting from the disintegration of Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian, German and Ottoman, will soon be exacerbated with the rise of fascist movements and regimes and anti-Semitic, which leads to the Holocaust.
Since the Second World War
Actions against Jews in Germany and Holocaust
The Nazi regime came to power in 1933 , took early action against the Jews.
From 1941 to 1945 , the Holocaust is 6 million dead and countless physical, psychological and family. Father Patrick Desbois lists a little under 2 million Jews killed by the so-called Holocaust by bullets.
In France , the Vichy regime establishes a special status for Jews, which prevents certain functions, then collaborated with the deportation of 75 000 of them. Carmille Rene , head of National Statistics, and many French (see the Righteous ), succeeded in limiting the number of victims.
Birth of the State of Israel
On 29 November 1947 , the General Assembly of UN approves plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state, the area of Jerusalem , called corpus separatum, gaining status as an international city. The Jewish side accepted this division of territory but the Palestinian Authority and Arab states reject them. The Palestine war of 1948 marked by clashes broke out between Jewish and Palestinian Arab and the intervention of Arab armies after the proclamation of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948.
Reconstructionist Judaism
The Reconstructionist Judaism founded by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan , is a branch of rabbinical Judaism originated in the United States in 1968 , which split from Judaism traditionalist.
Born as a philosophical naturalist trend, he believes in a God closer to Plotinus as the Torah , to which he disclaims any sanctity. Sometimes suspected of atheism, he still insists on tradition, but gives the prerogative to define what the community is to respect tradition.
Revision of the Church's position on Judaism
The Holocaust made Christians aware of some of their responsibilities on a historical level in the genocide, through the anti-Jewish sentiment propagated by the Church since the fourth century or so. At the instigation of Jewish leaders, Protestant and Catholic was first held a conference in Seelisberg for the consequences of this tragedy. The revision of the Church's position relative to the Catholic liturgy took another few years. Thanks to John XXIII , the liturgy of Good Friday was amended with the deletion of the words "pro perfidis Iudaeis", then the declaration Nostra Aetate at the end of Vatican II ( 1965 ) defines the relationship with Judaism in particular.
Between 1997 and 2000 , the Church made several declarations of repentance , of which two were specific to Judaism in 1997 for the Church of France, and 1998 for Rome.
For details, see the article deicide people.
Judaism today
Current Trends in Judaism
Nowadays, if the antagonism Hasidim / Mitnagdim disappeared, the Jews between "secular" and "religious" remains valid and has taken a new twist in Israel, where leftist parties are primarily and essentially non-religious people the right is a small religious party. Diaspora coexist Reform Judaism , Orthodox Judaism in Western Europe, plus the Conservative Judaism in the United States.
Names Jewish Israel
Although the previous names are known to Israelis, they tend to classify Jewish identity of the individual based on his religious observance Notes Bibliography
I. From the origins to the early Christian era ( ISBN 978-2130386674 )
II. The first centuries of the Christian Era ( ISBN 978-2130386681 ) Quadriga. PUF, 1986 See also
External Links
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