Jewish History Channel

The Origin of the name "shnayer"

2009-12-20T00:17:00.020-05:00

Shnayer is a very common personal name, popular both among Chassidic and non Chassidic Jews[1].

Where does this unusual name come from? Unlike most Jewish male personal names, shnayer is neither biblical nor of yiddish origin. Its etymology is somewhat controversial with Anthroponomasticists disagreeing as to its exact origin.

Shnayer= Two Lights?

I recently came across an interesting article by Yechiel Gumperz in TARBIZ Vol. XXV which discusses the origin of the name Shanyer among others. Gumperz writes:

. Rabbi Shmuel Vidaslow in his book Beth Shmuel on the Even Haezer section of the Shulchal Aruch explains the name's etymology: "when both the paternal and maternal grandparents of the child is named Meir, he shall be called shnei-or". The Maharashal in his commentary yam shel shelomo on tractate Gittin, Chapter 3, article 26 relates an incident that occurred in his family ”a son was born to his grandfather who wanted to name the child Meir after his own father, however the mother wanted to name the child after her father whose name was Yair so they compromised by naming the child shnei or". However the name Shneir predates all of this and its origins are much older. shnayer is not equivalent to senior as shenei-or contains an aleph whereas the Sephardic sinior (Ladino for Moses) does not[2].

Gumperz does not expand on it but rather adds cryptically: "see Shem Hagedolim on the entry Shnayer b. Yehuda".

Indeed Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai in Shem Hagedolim likewise relates the aforementioned story of the maharshal but adds:

However It seems that the name shnayer is much older because Rabbi Yonah already quotes from his teacher Rabbi Samuel b. Shnayer. And likewise other Rabbi were named shnayer and therefore they named the aforementioned child shnayer because this name already existed in the world and it (also) alluded to the “two great lights” Meir and Uri[3].

Romance Elements in the Yiddish Language

Max Weinreich

(considered one of the foremost experts on the Yiddish language)

in  History of the Yiddish language opines that Yiddish arose via a fusion

of Hebrew, Loez (Western Loez is Judeo-French and Southern Loez is

Judeo-Italian) and German.





According to Weinreich, the Ashkenazic community began in what is now

Lorraine, France(referred to as Loter) and absorbed successive waves of

Jews from other parts of France and Italy.



Weinreich also puts forth a possible explanation as to how the

erroneous (in his opinion) etymology for the name

Shnayer may have come about:

The name Shnayer...is very old in Loter-Ashkenaz. Toward the end of the eleventh century there lived in Loter, apparently in Worms, an eminent Halachist, R. Shneur son of R. Judah son of R. Baruch. Among the victims of 1096 (the "First Crusade") the name Shneur is found four times in Mainz, once in Cologne, once in Worms. Despite its Hebrew orthographic garb, the name is of Loez derivation. Its proto ancestor is Latin SENIOR (the older). The traditionalization of the orthography came apparently in Ashkenaz, where the coterritorial population spoke no Romanic and the Jews no longer understood the original meaning; the /sen/ could have been conceived as a shin with a shva and a nun, and thereafter the name was interpreted by folk etymology as shne+ur (two lights)[4].

George Jochnowitz writes here:

French Jews fled to what is now Germany. Their language may have survived for a generation or more, but there is no record of it. Instead, we have Isolated words: cholnt from an Old French word meaning hot, related to Spanish caliente and modern French chaud; bentshn, 'to bless', perhaps from French but more likely from Provencal benzir or Italian benedicere; leyenen, which we have already mentioned. Then there are given names: Beyle from belle, meaning 'beautiful', which coexists with the names Sheyne and modern Yafa; Yente, probably from Judeo-Italian yentile, standard Italian gentile, meaning 'noble' and a man's name, Shneyer, from French seigneur meaning 'nobleman' or 'lord'. Nowadays people say Shneyer comes from Hebrew shnai or 'two light', but there never was such a Hebrew name before there was Yiddish.

I would also add an additional reason why shnayer can't mean "2 lights", because it would be grammatically incorrect. In Hebrew 2 lights would be "shnei orot", ("or" being the singular noun and "orot" being plural).

NOTES:

[1]. particularly Chabad where boys are often named after the founder of the movement, Rabbi Shnayer Zalman of Liadi[photo left]) and the Lithuanian "yeshiva world" ,particularly Lakewood, where boys are often named after Rabbi Shnayer Kotler[photo right]).

[2]. See Gumperz, Yehiel. Keriat Shemot B’yisrael in TARBIZ Vol. XXV April 1956, p. 346

[3]. See Shem Hagedolim p. 128 and Kuntres Achron ibid.

[4]. Weinreich Max, History of the Yiddish Language. p. 399

Claiming Descent from the Maccabees

2009-12-17T01:58:00.017-05:00

The Talmud in tractate Bava Batra 3:1 relates that the Hasmonean dynasty came to a tragic end with the death of the last survivor of Herod’s purges, a young woman whose name is not given.

Herod was a servant of the Hasmoneans, and there was a “little girl” among them upon whom he cast his eyes. One day he heard a voice saying that a servant who should rebel that day would succeed. Then he slew all his superiors except this little girl; and when she saw that he intended to marry her, she ascended to the roof and proclaimed: "If it happen that one shall claim himself descended from the Hasmoneans, be it known that he is a slave[1], for all the Hasmoneans were slain except myself, and I now commit suicide by throwing myself from this roof.

Likewise in tractate Kiddushin 70b:

Whoever says that he is from the household of the Hasmoneans is surely a slave.

The Talmud is unclear as to who the “little girl” was. Some assume that she was Miriam, the daughter of Alexander and Alexandra, both of whom were descended of Alexander Jannai and Shlomit Alexandra (see genealogical chart top right). The problem with this interpretation is that (according to Josephus) the aforementioned Miriam did actually marry Herod and bore him four children: Alexander, Aristobolous, Shlomzion and Cyprus.

The Hasidic thinker Rabbi Zadok of Lublin puts forth a different explanation. In his book Resisei Layla (Paragraph 57) he writes (translation mine):

Even after the death of the young maiden, there remained remnants of the Hasmonean house, however they were forced to go into hiding out of fear. And what the Talmud relates that nothing remained (of the Hasmonean house) means that they hid and disappeared from the public eye. God forfend to say that the seed of those who brought such great salvation to the Jewish people (the Hasomenans), became extinct.

Josephus indeed writes that Herod had to contend with claimants to the Hasmonean throne well into his reign.

Are Descendants of the Hasmoneans Really Slaves?

The Talmudic dictum(?) that Hasmonean descent constitutes tainted ancestry apparently was never taken too seriously. How else to account for numerous families of distinction, throughout Jewish history claiming Hasmonean ancestry (although one may counter that those claims should likewise not be taken seriously, however just the fact that these devout Jews would make such a claim proves my point).

The following are several examples:

FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS

The great Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (alleged bust, top) in the opening chapter of his autobiography Vitae, writes:

The family from which I am derived is not an ignoble one, but hath descended all along from the priests; and as nobility among several people is of a different origin, so with us to be of the sacerdotal dignity, is an indication of the splendor of a family. Now, I am not only sprung from a sacerdotal family in general, but from the first of the twenty-four courses; and as among us there is not only a considerable difference between one family of each course and another, I am of the chief family of that first course also; nay, further, by my mother I am of the royal blood; for the children of Asamoneus חשמונאי from whom that family was derived, had both the office of the high priesthood, and the dignity of a king, for a long time together. I will accordingly set down my progenitors in order. My grandfather's father was named Simon, with the addition of Psellus : he lived at the same time with that son of Simon the high priest, who first of all the high priests was named Hyrcanus. This Simon Psellus had nine sons, one of whom was Matthias, called Ephlias: he married the daughter of Jonathan the high priest, which Jonathan was the first of the sons of Asamoneus, who was high priest, and was the brother of Simon the high priest also. This Matthias had a son called Matthias Curtus, and that in the first year of the government of Hyrcanus: his son's name was Joseph, born in the ninth year of the reign of Alexandra: his son Matthias was born in the tenth year of the reign of Archclaus; as was I born to Matthias in the first year of the reign of Caius Caesar.

Josephus considered himself a Pharisee (the antecedents of Rabbinic Judaism). Assuming the "problem" of Hasmonean ancestry was known during the time of Josephus (the Tannaitic period), why would Josephus make such a claim?

THE SEPHARDIC PERAHIA FAMILY

The Perahia ha-Cohen family (some link the Perahias to the Pereiras of Sephardic reknown) were a distinguished family of Rabbis and and scholars in the Balkan Peninsula (particularly in Salonika) . This family prided itself with their pedigree, and traced themselves to the aforementioned Jewish historian Flavius Josephus[2].

The Sephardic historian Michael Molho wrote a monograph on the Perahia family under the title Essai d’une Monographie sur la Famille Pérahia à Thessalonique (Salonica, 1938) that also records this claim and mentions the founder of this branch who came to Salonika from southern Italy in 1502.

This claim is also cited by the historian David Conforte in his book Kore ha‑Dorot, among others.

Some members of this family living closer to our time includes the contemporary Kabbalist Rabbi Chaim Hacohen Perahia, also known as the "Milkman", because he rolls up his sleeves every morning to go milk the cows at his sisters farm see here

See also the accomplished Pianist and Conductor Murray Perahia

THE GOLDSMIDS OF ENGLAND

The Goldsmids were a family of wealthy Anglo-Jewish bankers and barons.

A.M. Hyamson in A History of the Jews in England records an early family tradition among the Goldsmids claiming “descent from Moses Uri haLevi (1544-1622) who had come to Emden from Poland, the first recognized Ashkenazi rabbi of Amsterdam, brought there by the earliest of the ex-Marrano settlers. But there is a far more distinguished ancestry to which the family more or less lays claim – one however which the Heralds are not as yet prepared to accept – and that is the princely Hasmonean family of Judaea and the Maccabee hero-sons of Mattathias the priest. Rabbi Uri claimed this illustrious ancestry and the Goldsmid family, inheriting the claim, took as its motto Mi Camocha Baelim Adonai, “who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the Gods”, the basis of the name of Maccabi if an acrostic is accepted.

The descendants of Rabbi Uri haLevi formed several branches, known severally as Moses, Levi, Letteris, as well as Goldsmid. ... The name Goldsmid is supposed to be a kinnui or civil name, the equivalent of Uri. According to Exodus, Bezalel ben Uri was the goldsmith employed in the decoration of the Tabernacle”.

Some Distinguished Members of the Goldsmid Family

*Isaac Lyon Goldsmid was born in London and entered the family firm of Mocatta and Goldsmid bullion brokers to the Bank of England. He became a very successful financier, his estate at death being valued at over £1 million. Throughout his lifetime he used his wealth and status to advance educational, social and religious reform and to pursue Jewish political emancipation, playing a pivotal role in the founding of UCL. Goldsmid abhorred the division of the London Jews into distinct Ashkenazi (German- and Yiddish-speaking) and Sephardi (Spanish and Portuguese) communities. In an attempt to remedy this he was instrumental in founding a distinct “British” synagogue – the West London Synagogue of British Jews, opened on 27 February 1842.

It is also interesting mention that when Theodore Herzl visited England in 1895, he found an instant ally in the person of a wealthy and well- connected Colonel Goldsmid who became an enthusiastic supporter of Herzl's plans.

CONVERSOS IN BRAZIL

I came across an additional curious anecdote, this one about a converso family that settled in Brazil which claimed to possess a deed of nobility proving its descent from the Maccabees. A similar claim existed in the family of Joseph Salvador, an eccentric thinker of converso origin who lived in 19th century France [3].

Notes:

[1]. see here for discussion on the halachic status of Herod's descendants

[2]. Unfortunately, many people tend to confuse Josephus (whose hebrew name was Yosef Ben Matityahu) with another obscure figure Yosef ben Gurion who was his contemporary. The popular medieval work Sefer Yossifon is not the Hebrew version of Josephus History of the Jews (which Josephus-by his own account- did write but has subsequently been lost) but rather a later medieval adaptation. see here and here for a more in depth discussion on this.

In the Venice edition of Yosifon, first published in 1544, there are numerous gushing approbations by leading Italian Rabbis, testifying to the saintliness of the man (whom they evidently thought was Josephus, one of the commanders of the Jewish War) , some went so far as to call him, Yosef Hacohen "Hagadol"(literally, the High Priest)!.

Apparently Italian Jewry took great pride in one of their own sons (after all Josephus was the first famous Italian Jew) and obviously looked at the man from a biased perpective(Ironic, since Josephus adopted the name of his patron[and the Jews' persecutor], Flavius Vespasian Caesar, the father of Titus.). As mentioned, the Perahias too were of southern Italian origin.

First Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Isaac Herzog wrote a short article of his observations after reading Josephus works. In the article he attempts to address several difficulties, including the question of whether the man should be considered a traitor (he leaves the question open). He also comes to the conclusion that Josephus was no big torah scholar. He was assailed for this by Rabbi Greenwald in the latter's Toledot Hacohanim Hagedolim. see here

Mireille Hadas-Lebel in Flavius Josephus: Eyewitness to Rome's First-Century Conquest of Judaea writes:

Whether Josephus was a traitor or a wise man who tried to salvage the Jewish kingdom is a question that modern historians still argue. In 1937 a group of law students in Antwerp reopened the case of Flavius Josephus, and after a mock trial found him guilty of "treason." In 1941, in the midst of the Second World War, a group of young resistance fighters who were strong supporters of Zionism reacting as French and Jewish patriots accused Josephus of "collaboration." Today, Josephus' works are read more widely in Israel than in any other country. Archaeology, Israel's "national sport," could not do without him.

[3]. See Bodian, Miriam Hebrews of the Portugese Nation; Conversos and Community in early modern Amsterdam p. 89

The Curious Case of Benedict Spinoza

2009-12-10T23:48:00.034-05:00

Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza (1632 – 1677) was a Sephardic Jew whose forbears had fled Catholic persecution in Portugal and settled in Amsterdam.

Young Spinoza attended the local Jewish Sephardic school and studied under Rabbis Saul Morteira and Manasseh ben Israel.

His early life was one of hardship and suffering. His mother Chana Deborah died when he was only six. His father, Michael followed her to the grave 12 years later and the family fortune was lost. Spinoza decided to retreat from normal life and devote himself to the study of philosophy.

The Jewish community of Amsterdam did not look with favor on his new enterprise. They held his views to be anathema to normative Judaism (specifically his views on the immortality of the soul) and he was eventually excommunicated (put into herem) as a result. Subsequent to that we find Spinoza living a modest life as a lens grinder and living in a simple apartment owned by the painter Mr. Henryk Von Der Spijk.

Spinoza died at the age of 44 of a lung illness (which may have been caused by his profession which caused him to ingest particles of glass on a daily basis), and was buried in the churchyard of the Nieuwe Kerk in The Hague, or was he?...

WHO STOLE SPINOZA'S CORPSE?

Antonio Damasio in Looking for Spinoza describes a "pilgrimage" he made to Spinoza's grave site (pictured bottom) thus:

Gates surround the churchyard but they are wide open. There is no cemetery to speak of, only shrubs and grass and moss and muddy lanes amid tall trees. I find the grave much where I thought, in the back part of the yard, behind the church to the south and east, a flat stone at ground level and a vertical tombstone, weathered and unadorned. Besides announcing whose grave it is, the inscription reads Caute! which is Latin for "Be careful!". This is a chilling bit of advice considering Spinoza's remains are not really inside the tomb and that his body was stolen, no one known by whom, sometime after the burial when the corpse lay inside the church [1].

Damasio wonders why Spinoza- who never formally converted to Christianity, was buried in a Christian cemetery. I would also add, moreover, that his excommunication by the Jewish community was motivated in large part by the concern that his ideas, were as offensive to "normative" Christians (even in liberal Holland) as they were to Jews, and it would endanger the limited freedoms that the Jews had achieved in Amsterdam[2] (Spinoza's works also made the Index Librorum Prohibitorum [List of Prohibited Books] by the Roman Catholic Church).

Why is Spinoza, who was born a Jew, buried next to this powerful Protestant church? The answer is as complicated as anything else having to do with Spinoza. He is buried here, perhaps, because having been expelled by his fellow Jews he could be seen as Christian by default; he certainly could not have been buried in the Jewish cemetery Ouderkerk. But he is not really here, perhaps because he never became a proper Christian, Protestant or Catholic, and in the eyes of many he was an atheist. And how fitting it all is. Spinoza's God was neither Jewish nor Christian. Spinoza's God was everywhere, could not be spoken to, did not respond if prayed to, was very much in every particle of the universe, without beginning and without end. Buried and unburied, Jewish and not. Portugese but not really, Dutch but not quite, Spinoza belonged nowhere and everywhere[3].

But before we attempt to decipher who may have been behind the theft of his corpse (stealing bodies from graves is apparently still in vogue, see this piece of recent news), let us examine Spinoza's connection to Judaism.

SPINOZA'S JEWISH SELF-IMAGE

Steven Smith in Piety, Peace, and the Freedom to Philosophize examines Spinoza's relationship to Judaism and to the notion of Jewish self determination. He writes:

Despite his attack on the ceremonial laws of Judaism as an instrument of worldly well-being, despite his denigration of Moses and the prophets as men of vivid imagination and feeble intellectual powers, Spinoza remains a recognizably and unmistakably Jewish thinker...Spinoza was, in the first place, the first modern thinker to advocate the restitution of Jewish sovereignty and a Jewish state. ...(in Theologico-Political Treatise) we read the following surprising sentence: "If the foundations of their religion did not effeminate their hearts, I would absolutely believe that some day, given the opportunity, they will set up their state again, and that God will choose them anew, so changeable are human affairs".

On the basis of this statement Spinoza has entered the history of Jewish thought as the spiritual ancestor of Zionism and the state of modern Israel. At least this is the way it was read in the last century by Moses Hess and Leon Pinsker and in this century by David ben Gurion. It is on the basis of this passage that Joseph Klausner on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Spinoza's birth opened his speech at Hebrew University with the call "Baruch Spinoza, you are our brother[4]."

Likewise, Yirmiyahu Yovel in Marrano of Reason writes in a more tempered tone:

Was Spinoza a "closet Zionist"? Perhaps he saw in the renewal of Jewish sovereignty an answer to the anomaly of Jewish existence in the exile. After all, Zionists of three generations regarded him as their forerunner- all on the basis of his somewhat obscure, though moving remarks at the end of the third chapter of the Theologico-Political Treatise. After explaining that the hostility of the gentiles is what preserves the Jews, Spinoza goes on to say:

"The sign of circumcision is, I think, so important that I could persuade myself that it alone would preserve the nation forever. Nay, I would go so far as to believe that if the foundations of their religion have not emasculated their minds, they may even, if occasion offers, so changeable are human affairs, raise up their empire afresh and that God may a second time elect them."

This passage appears in the chapter entitled "Of the Vocation of the Hebrews" which is designed to demolish the entire concept of election (Jews as the "chosen people" j.d.)....he argues that even from the viewpoint of the bible, the election of the Hebrews refers solely to "dominion and physical advantages". This also implies that the election is temporal, not eternal; and while Spinoza as a philosopher recognizes neither, he uses the Bible's own language and authority as a weapon against itself. If the election of the Hebrews is a mere temporal, earthly event, nothing will remain of the idea of eternal transcendent election... All things happen in accordance with the laws of nature- and this is the meaning (and part of the intent) of Spinoza's remark about the return to Zion.

Although Spinoza's point is strictly philosophical, it has a particular bearing upon current issues of his time. Spinoza is writing only a few years after the upheaval fomented by Shabbetai Sevi, the false Messiah who unleashed a wave of mystical enthusiasm throughout the Jewish diaspora...the effect was particularly fierce in Amsterdam....In Theologico-Political Treatise, Spinoza says, the renewal of the Jewish kingdom is not inevitable but if the return to Zion should take place, it will be because of the immanent laws of nature and not by providence, divine revelation or messianism. For Spinoza, the Jewish vision of redemption is thus not devoid of sense but the content is entirely historical and secular.

This then is the import of Spinoza's Zionist dictum, to which later Zionists clung. They failed to see that Spinoza does not recommend the establishment of a Jewish state; he merely posits it as one of the possibilities offered by secular history.

...still Spinoza clings to several of the deepest motifs in Jewish consciousness-the eternity of Israel, the vision of redemption (understood as political liberation), and the covenant with God as symbolized by circumcision. But true to himself he submits them all to an utterly prosaic, natural and secular interpretation.

Spinoza discloses that at some level of consciousness he views himself too as a Jew-perhaps by deterministic necessity...Thus in generalizing his critique of Jewish history into a message for humanity Spinoza does not commit the kind of "apostasy" or "defection to the enemy" that Jews had seen in converts to Christianity. From that standpoint, too, it is significant that Spinoza refused to convert even while following the Pauline pattern-which he reenacted, in contrast to Paul, on the level of universal reason...

Jewish life in the diaspora is another example of the medieval conception of polity that Spinoza seeks to expunge...Spinoza's ideal state is a single, all-embracing sovereign body, independent of any prescriptive authority, in which the citizen or subject is recognized by virtue of his individual identity rather than any collective quality vested in him....

The logic of Spinoza's analysis seems to favor a quasi-Zionist solution...the Jews must either relinquish all self-rule and disperse as individuals among the gentiles or establish their own political state. This implication may well have attracted Zionists like Ben-Gurion, Nahum Sokolow, and Joseph Klausner.

...was Spinoza then the first secular Jew? What can be said confidently is that Spinoza took the first step in the eventual secularization of Jewish life by examining it empirically as a natural phenomenon...the concept of Jewish national existence, as separate from religion, did not yet exist for him as a defined theoretical concept. Existentially, in his singular life and experience, Spinoza was indeed the harbinger of this idea but he did not articulate it consciously[5].

Jonathan Edelstein wrote an entertaining fictional account about Spinoza's secretary Chacham Saltiel establishing -with the tacit support of his master- a settlement of "rational Jews" in the holy land .

AN ORTHODOX RABBI'S DEFENSE OF SPINOZA

Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn translated parts of Spinoza's Ethics into Hebrew. He wrote a commentary on selected portions of it entitled Sources and Spider Webs. In his writings Hirschensohn vacillates between unrestrained criticisms of Spinoza and almost blind reverence. I won't focus here on his criticisms but rather his remarkable defense of Spinoza against charges of atheism and idolatry. In fact Hirschensohn writes: "The nature of Spinoza's faith in God's unity is clearer and more understood and of purer faith than all those who preceded him in the matter"[6].

Hirschensohn came to this conclusion based on the following passage from Ethics:

"No attribute of substance can be truly conceived from which it follows that substance can be divided".

This opinion, writes Hirschensohn, "redeems Spinoza and saves him from the idolater's valley of the dead and puts him in the company of the completely righteous who believe in the absolute philosophic unity of God, for his concept of extension is not at all physical extension" [7].

However Hirschensohn explained that Spinoza's error was in substituting primordial matter for the spiritual God. But this was merely an error on Spinoza's part, rather than heresy, which is why he concludes that the Herem against Spinoza was justified.

I also wish to advocate for Spinoza that he only erred and is not an idolater, for an idolater is one who considers a creative being as divine, but one who says that God is created is a heretic (apikorus) and not an idolater. Spinoza did not consider the primordial matter divine, he only said that God is physical and has extension, and this is not included in the prohibition of idolatry [8].

SPINOZA RETURNS TO HIS PEOPLE IN DEATH

Is it possible that members of the Jewish community or perhaps one of his admirers (or maybe even extended family) decided to remove his body from the church and give him a proper Jewish burial somewhere? I would venture to say yes, but we will probably never know for sure (the mysterious disappearance of Spinoza's corpse conjures up the story of another Jewish bachelor whose body mysteriously disappeared from his tomb about 1500 years earlier. Not for naught did Gilles Deleuze refer to Spinoza as "the Christ of philosophers"....., see Ben Atlas's post here).

Interestingly enough, the German philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi in a letter to Moses Mendelssohn writes: "perhaps we will live to see the day when a dispute will arise over the corpse of Spinoza, like that over the corpse of Moses between the archangel and satan...." (Jacobi is here referring to a passage in The New Testament, see here )

And indeed like Moses "no man knows his (true) burial place until this day"....

Yirmiyahu Yovel writes:

...I was interested to note on a visit to the newly reopened Jewish Museum in Amsterdam, that without fanfare, Spinoza has been readmitted by his erstwhile community. In a section devoted to "Jewish Identity", the has a text explaining that for many centuries, being Jewish had entailed belonging to the Orthodox Jewish community; but ever since the act of civil equality (1796), granting political emancipation to the Dutch Jews"every Jewish person could decide what expression to give to her or her Jewishness" ....the text is illustrated by an impressive gallery of Jewish characters...at the very end the severe and distinguished face of Rabbi Isaac Aboab, one of the signatories of Spinoza's ban. So finally the banned dissenter and the banning Rabbi end up together in this minor pantheon of Jewish diversity. What better way for the Amsterdam Jewish community to readmit Spinoza, not by a declamatory gesture like lifiting the ban, but by recognizing, with good historical sense, the new situation which Spinoza's own case had anticipated and tragically embodied[9].

DID SPINOZA LEAVE ANY PROGENY?

Amadeo Modigliani (1884-1920) was a famous Italian Jewish artist born in Livorno (Leghorn) into a Sephardic family. He was a tragic figure who struggled with drugs and alcohol throughout his life and ended up dying destitute and emaciated in Paris. Modigliano was born into a family of means but his family went bankrupt shortly after his birth. He also, strangely enough, claimed descent from Benedict Spinoza through his mother Eugenia Garsin. All the biographies of Modigliani mention this "fact", which makes it apparent that Modigliani prided himself with his supposed pedigree. There is only one problem with this claim. All the biographical sources regarding Spinoza's life expressly state that Spinoza never married or had any children (although the aforementioned fictional account of Spinoza's life by Edelstein has him marrying and starting a family) .

It's also interesting to add what Modigliani's close friend and fellow artist, Jacques Lipchitz said about his relationship to his faith. While Modigliani's work -unlike Chagall for instance- does not reflect his roots, he was a man aware (and perhaps even proud) of his heritage

"Modigliani was not a physically strong man," he wrote, "yet one day in a cafe, he attacked all by himself a gang of royalists, who in France are known for their soldierly courage. He wanted to fight them because he heard them speaking against the Jews in a dirty way. Modigliani was naturally conscious of his Jewishness and could not bear any unfair criticism of a whole people [10]."

NOTES:

[1]. Damasio, Antonio R. Looking for Spinoza: joy, sorrow, and the feeling brain p. 19

[2]. Another "tortured soul" Uriel Acosta (1585-1640) preceded Spinoza and met with a similar fate; he was placed in Cherem by the Sephardic community of Amsterdam for his views against both Judaism and Christianit. Acosta eventually committed suicide out of isolation and humiliation.

[3] Damasio, p. 22

[4] Bagley, Paul J. Piety, peace, and the freedom to philosophize p. 205

[5] Yovel, Yirmiyahu. Spinoza and Other Heretics: The Marrano of Reason pp.190-204

[6] cited in Schwartz, Dov Fascination and rejection: Religious Zionist attitudes toward Spinoza, Journal of Israeli History,(1993) p. 166

[7] Ibid

[8] Yovel, p. 167

[9] Yovel, p. 204

[10] Lipchitz, Jacques Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) p.7

Sephardim in Eastern Europe. The Sephardi Synagogue in Sighetu, Rumania

2009-11-29T21:19:00.009-05:00

My good friend Ian Pomerantz directed me to this series of great photos of the Synagogue in Sighetu Marmatiei, Romania (Incidentally the birthplace of Eli Wiesel). The edifice was built between 1900 and 1904 by the Sephardic community and was frequented by both the Sephardi and Ashkenazi communities of Sighetu.

It is one of the only remaining examples of a completely intact Romanian Sephardi esnoga with full Moorish architecture from the mid 19th century.

More on the the Jewish community of Sigheti Marmatiei.

How's Nimrod for a Nice Jewish Name? How about Balaam? Call me Ishmael?

2009-11-25T05:33:00.026-05:00

Anyone who has read any of my posts probably knows by now that I am fascinated by names, especially Biblical names. Names reveal a great deal about the beliefs, hopes, superstitions and fears of the people that bear them.

With the birth of Zionism and the first and second aliya, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jewish settlers in Eretz Israel began giving their children names that probably had not been utilized since Biblical times. For the first time in Jewish history since the days of the Bible, nice Jewish boys were walking around with such names as Nimrod (a particularly evil Mesopotamian king who some identify with Gilgamesh), Omri (another evil Israelite king), and Amatziah (an evil Judean king).

But is it true that these names (among many others) were considered non-kosher throughout Jewish history (as Rabbi Avi Shafran would have us believe, see here ) until the Zionist movement made them Kosher again[1]?

Let's first begin with the name Nimrod and its seemingly inexplicable popularity in Israel. The following article sheds some light on that particular phenomenon.

The main founders and leaders of Zionism in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century were mostly non-religious, sometimes anti-religious. Zionist thinkers, historians and writers reinterpreted the whole of Jewish history (including, and especially, the Bible) from a secular nationalist viewpoint considerably different from and sometimes diametrically opposite to the religious Jewish tradition.

Specifically, the search went on for past historical or mythical figures who could be depicted as National Heroes, such as those which inspired the European national movements of the 19th Century. Those fitting the role were often placed on pedestals even when Jewish tradition frowned upon or strongly condemned them (for example King Omri of ancient Israel, which the Bible describes as an evil idolater but which Zionists approved of as a victorious warrior king and the founder of a strong dynasty).

Sculptor Yitzhak Danziger, who was born in Germany and emigrated to the then British Mandate of Palestine, created his statue "Nimrod" in 1938-1939 (pictured top).

The "Nimrod" statue is 90 centimetres high and made of Red Nubian Sandstone imported from Petra in Jordan. It depicts Nimrod as a naked hunter, uncircumcised, carrying a bow and with a hawk on his shoulder. The style shows the influence of Ancient Egyptian statues.
The unveiling of the statue caused a scandal. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem which had commissioned Danziger's statue was not happy with the result and religious circles made strong protests.

Within a few years, however, the statue was universally acclaimed as a major masterpiece of Israeli art, and has noticeably influenced and inspired the work of later sculptors, painters, writers and poets up to the present.

The Nimrod Statue was also taken up as the emblem of a cultural-political movement known as "The Cannanites" which advocated the shrugging off of the Jewish religious tradition, cutting off relations with Diaspora Jews and their culture, and adopt in its place a "Hebrew Identity" based on ancient Semitic heroic myths - such as Nimrod's. Though never gaining mass support, the movement had a considerable influence on Israeli intellectuals in the 1940s and early 1950s.

One tangible lasting result is that "Nimrod" has become a fairly common male name in present-day Israel. In the 1940s, bestowing it upon a newborn child was something of political statement. In the present generation, however, it is taken simply as a name like any other (as English-speaking parents giving their child the name "George" do not necessarily spend much thought on the legendary dragon-slaying saint who bore that name)

An alternate explanation offered for the popularity of Nimrod has to do with the politics of the Yishuv during the British Mandate. The name Nimrod which means "rebellion" was used as just another weapon in the Zionist struggle against British rule.

Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli a senior editor at MEMRI was born in Iraq in 1933. Perhaps his parents gave him the name for the reason mentioned in the article or maybe Nimrod was an acceptable name for a nice Jewish boy living in Iraq in the 30s.

Nimrod as an Insult

In English, Nimrod has a very negative connotation. From the Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears. Fourth Edition.
2007 :

nimrod [ˈnɪmrɑd]

n.
a simpleton; a nerd. : What stupid nimrod left the lid off the cottage cheese?

I feel bad for those Israeli expats named Nimrod who now live in LA and Miami....

Controversy

In 2007, Rabbi Avraham Yosef, Chief Rabbi of the city of Holon and the son of former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef came under heavy criticism after he publicized a ruling on his weekly radio show stating that people who possess such"wicked names" as Herzl (in Israel, Herzl as a proper name used to be quite common especially among mizrahi Jews) and Nimrod must change them immediately (see here).

It was his condemnation of Herzl that aroused the ire of many. Religious Zionist commentator Uri Orbach took issue with Yosef's characterization of Herzl as wicked and accused him of pandering to anti-Zionist Charedim.

The Name Ishmael

One of the stranger recurring names throughout Jewish history is that of Yishmael. In the Bible, Yishmael is considered to the be the wicked son of Abraham and is banished from his household along with his mother Hagar. In later Rabbinic tradition Yishmael is considered to be the ancestor of the modern Arab nation.

In the Midrashic tradition however, Yishmael repented towards the end of his life and reconciled with his brother Isaac thus rendering the name Kosher (?).

The question still remains why the name Yishmael pops up even after the rise of Islam, when the name would probably have taken on a "heavier" connotation. Yet we see at least 2 Yishmaels, one in 18th century Italy (see here) and one in 16th century Egypt (see here) . S. from the onthemainline blog opines that Yishmael was an acceptable name only among Cohanim because of Rabbi Ishmael the High Priest who was martyred in circa 70 c.e. (the aforementioned 2 were indeed cohanim).

The Name Balaam

Balaam son of Beor though a prophet is reviled in the Bible as a "wicked man". Balaam attempted to curse the Israelites after being commissioned to do so by the evil Moabite king Balak. He failed all three tries, each time producing blessings, not curses (Numbers 22-24).

In Numbers 31:7 the text mentions in passing that the Israelites killed him"They warred against Midian, as God commanded Moses, and killed every male. They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain ... and they also slew Balaam the son of Beor with the sword".

Later Rabbinic views are likewise harsh. In Tractate Sanhedrin 2:90A the Rabbis state that he has no share in the world to come.

Given all the above, it is astonishing to find a major Jewish grammarian in medieval Spain by the name of Rabbi Judah Ibn Balaam(!) see his commentary on Judges here

Update:

After digging around for some more information. I came across an interesting clue here

את שמו יש לבטא, ככל הנראה, בפתח: אבן-בַּלְעָם; השם 'בַּלְעָם', על פי הידוע כיום, אינו אלא קיצור של אבן-אלעם, שם
המופיע בכמה כתבים שנמצאו בגניזת קהיר.

Translation:

The name should be pronounced with a patach, Ibn Balaam (and not Bilam with a chirik). Balaam is a shortened version (or a corruption?) of the name Ibn Alam, which appears numerous times among the documents found in the Cairo Genizah

This is all a bit confusing because in the English language Balaam is always pronounced Balaam and never Bilam. However in Hebrew it's always Bilam בִּלְעָם and never Balaam בַּלְעָם.

The Name Amnon

Amnon is an interesting case. In the Biblical account, Amnon one of King David's sons is portrayed as a rapist and an overall unsavory individual, yet the name does appear sporadically throughout Jewish history (not to mention modern times where it is but another very popular name in Israel among religious and secular Jews alike, examples include Amnon Yitzchak, Amnon Lipkin-Shachak and many others). Among the most notable Jewish figures with the name Amnon was a German Rabbi Amnon of Mainz who is said to have composed the most important prayer of the High Holidays liturgy, namely "unetaneh tokef". Some historians maintain however that this Amnon never existed and he was certainly not the composer of that prayer [2].

The Name Korach

The Biblical Korach is another figure in the gallery of Biblical villains. He was severely punished for daring to foment a rebellion against the leadership of Moses. Some Rabbinic authorities were also of the opinion that he has no share in the world to come. It is perhaps fitting then that the name Korach does not reappear (at least to my knowledge) anywhere in Jewish literature. Well, that's not entirely true, it doesn't appear as a proper name but it does appear as a surname. There is a prominent Rabbinic family of Yemenite origin in Israel with the surname Korach (apparently there are also Ashkenazic Jews with the surname Korach, see here ). The most well known member of this family is Rabbi Shlomo Korach, Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Bnei Brak. The tradition maintained in this family of Levites is that they are directly descended of the Biblical Korach.

By the way, I should point out that in Rabbinic sources, the sons of Korach are said to have repented and they hold an exalted position in the Jewish narrative. Many of the compositions found in the book of Psalms are attributed to the sons of Korach.

Here is a video of Rabbi Korach:

A Tosafist Rabbi named Peter?

I may as well also direct the interested reader to a fascinating post by my good friend S. over at onthemainline blog regarding the use of the (christian) name Peter among Jews.

NOTES:

[1]. If the reader thinks that Nimrod is a strange choice for a Jewish name, see here for an example of 14th century Polish Jews with names like Canaan(!) and Jordan.

[2]. Thank you to Professor Menachem Kellner and Menachem Butler from the Seforim Blog for posting the following wealth of sources on Rabbi Amnon and "unetaneh tokef".

For a useful discussion of what is actually known about the poem (as opposed to what we have all been taught about Rabbi Amnon), see Ivan G. Marcus, "Kiddush HaShem in Ashkenaz and the Story of Rabbi Amnon of Mainz,” in Isaiah M. Gafni and Aviezer Ravitzky (eds.), Sanctity in Life and Martyrdom: Studies in Memory of Amir Yekutiel (Jerusalem; Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 1992), 131-147 (Hebrew); Menahem Shmelzer, “Sefer Or Zarua and the Legend of Rabbi Amnon,” in Adri K. Offenberg (ed.), Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana: Treasures of Jewish Booklore: Treasures of Jewish Booklore Marking the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Leeser Rosenthal, 1794-1994 (Amsterdam University Press, 2003), available online; David Golinkin's discussion online; as well as Jacob J. Schacter's lecture, "U-Netaneh Tokef Kedushat Ha-Yom: Medieval Story and Modern Significance" (sources [PDF]).

The Use of Human Skulls for Ritual and other Purposes

2009-11-24T15:53:00.005-05:00

The Biblical Archaeology Review of Mar/Apr 2009 carried a very interesting (and creepy) article about an ancient Jewish inscription on a human skull from Babylonia (modern day Iraq).

From BAR:

Not long ago, the well-known collector Shlomo Moussaieff acquired two earthenware bowls, the open ends of which were adjoined to form a kind of case—inside the case was an ancient human skull (see top photo). A magic incantation, written in Aramaic, was inscribed on the skull.

Ofri Illani writes in Haaretz:

Newly published archaeological evidence attests to the fact that ancient Jews used human skulls in ceremonies, despite a strict Halakhic prohibition on touching human remains.

British researcher Dan Levene from the University of Southampton published findings in Biblical Archaeological Review about the human skulls, known as incantation bowls, some of which bear inscriptions in Aramaic.

The skulls were unearthed in present-day Iraq (formerly Babylonia) and are believed to have been used during the Talmudic era. At least one of them appears to be that of an anonymous woman.

"When I presented these findings in Israel, people told me, 'It is not possible that this is Jewish,'" said Levene. "But it is certainly Jewish."

Levene added that, despite going against conventional wisdom, the talisman was likely used by someone desperate, and that there have been past cases of skulls being used to ward off increased ghosts or demons.

"The fact remains that belief in demons was widespread at this time among Jews as well as other peoples," writes Levene. "Incantation bowls are known not only from Jewish communities but from other communities as well."

To combat demons - who cause medical problems as well as other mishaps and ills - people invoked numerous magic rites and formulas. The Jewish versions are written in what is commonly known as Jewish Aramaic.....One of the names, Shilta, is derived from an Aramaic word meaning “after-birth.” The skull itself was probably that of a woman. The exact manner in which this skull was used, however, remains a mystery. A contemporaneous source, the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 65b, offers a possible clue: “There are two kinds of necromancy: the one where the dead is raised by naming him, the other where he is invoked by means of a skull.”

The use of skulls for ritual and other purposes cuts across all ethnic lines and cultures. Skulls are used in Haitian voodoo worship as well is in places like Nepal. But lest one think that this macabre usage is confined to the non-western world, one should familiarize him or herself with secret fraternal societies such as the Skull and Bones (see also this piece of recent news) which has long been known to use human skulls in their bizarre oath ceremonies.. The Skulls and Bones was founded in 1832 at Yale University, its most famous members over the years include former President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry. The society has been accused of possessing the stolen skulls of Martin van Buren, Geronimo and Pancho Villa but this has never been proven (nor will likely ever be).

I find it interesting that the use of a skull for writing purposes was in use as late as the High Middle Ages -even among Jews. Bernard M. Baruch(1870-1965) (pictured top) in his autobiography mentions an old family relic in the possession of his grandfather "a skull on which was recorded the family genealogy. It appeared that the Baruchs were of a rabbinical family and of Portuguese Spanish origin."[1].

Of course none of this is consistent with normative halacha (Jewish law).

Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz writes:

In halacha, the body of a dead person is treated with enormous respect. The Bible prohibits mistreating any dead body, even the bodies of an executed prisoner or military opponent (Deuteronomy 21:23; Joshua 8:29). In addition, one is prohibited to derive any benefit, financial or personal, from a dead body (Avodah Zarah 29b). According to the Mishnah (Yadayim 4:6), the reason why the Torah considers one who comes into contact with a dead body to be ritually impure (tamei) is to prevent people from fashioning household objects such as spoons from the bones of family members; because dead bodies are ritually impure, it is extremely inconvenient to make regular use of body parts. (It should be noted that the concern of the Mishna is not an imaginary one; it was not uncommon for sorcerers to use human bones).

NOTES:

[1]. See Baruch Bernard, My Own Story. Henry Holt and Company NY, 1957 p.3

Memorial Lecture for the Great Saul Lieberman in New York

2009-06-03T04:50:00.003-04:00

I would greatly appreciate if anyone attending this lecture can tape and upload it.

The Significance of Given Names in Tanach, Part 1

2009-03-24T03:06:00.007-04:00

When did the Jewish practice of naming children after someone (In the Ashkenazic tradition children are named only after someone who is already deceased but in the Sephardic tradition children are often named after living relatives) begin?

The practice seemed to have been instituted in Judea sometime between the years 500- 300 BCE . Before that period, children were named after a significant event or occurrence in the life of the parent(e.g. Moses naming his son Gershom, ger- stranger, sham- there, to signify his sojourn in a foreign land).

In Bereisheit Rabba 37:7:

Rabbi Shimon ben Gamaliel said, the first ones were endowed with divine inspiration therefore they named their children after an event, however we who do not possess that quality we name after our ancestors.

However, we do see certain unique given names repeated in Tanach. Some examples include Gad, Eleazar, Saul etc.[1]

But the name that captured my greatest interest is Menasheh/Manasseh. In Genesis 41, Joseph’s wife Osnat, daughter of Potifera, gives birth to two sons. Joseph is said to have named the firstborn Menashe, (etymologically derived from the Hebrew word “nasha” which means to forget and it was commemorating the fact that Joseph “forgot his troubles”), and the younger one he named Ephraim (etymologically derived from the Hebrew word “poriah” which means to be fruitful).

I would venture to say that it is entirely possible- if not probable- that Menashe and Ephraim were in fact Egyptian names and not Hebrew. Joseph himself was not known to the Egyptians as Joseph but rather by his Egyptian name tzofnat paneach[2]. Firstly, why would Joseph give his sons Hebrew names? It seems unlikely he would burden his children with something that would be nothing less than a handicap for them; Egyptians were not known to be too friendly to foreigners and jealously guarded their own culture. Not to mention the fact that Joseph was the viceroy of Egypt! Why would the viceroy of Egypt give his children Hebrew names? (Imagine the taunts they would have received from their Egyptian playmates). Wouldn’t that serve to delegitimize his claim to the throne? After all, Joseph is a Hebrew foreigner. Would he really want to remind the Egyptians of his “lowly” (at least according to the Egyptians—“ki cherpa hi lanu..”) origins?

Let us take a look at a similar example of a name whose etymological root is given as Hebrew but is more likely Egyptian, namely Moses. In Exodus 10, he is said to have been named Moses by the daughter of Phaaroh, “ki min hamyaim meshitihu” literally because he was pulled from the water. The obvious problem with this explanation is how could Pharaoh's daughter have known the Hebrew language? and even if she did, why would she give him a Hebrew name? An additional problem lies in the fact that we don’t see the word masha (as in pulling), anywhere else in tanach (other than one obscure passage in Psalms 17: yamsheini mimayim rabim).

Therefore a much more logical explanation would be the one given by Ibn Ezra (and many other commentators) on the verse in Exodus, namely that Moshe was in fact an Egyptian name [3].

Egyptian meaning of the name Manasseh

Thomas Kelly Cheyne, John Sutherland Black in Encyclopædia Biblica cite the possibility that Manasseh is in fact a combination of two names of Egytpian deities deities: Men and Sa. Or perhaps Sa is used in this context to mean “son of” i.e. son of Men. Another possibility is that Manasseh is derived from Menes, a common Egyptian name (Menes is considered to be the first king of a unified Egypt).

Mannaseh King of Judah

Now let us for a minute turn to a different Manasseh, not Joseph’s son but rather the son of Hezekiah King of Judah (687 – 642 BCE). Although he reigned for a quite a long time, relatively little information is revealed about him in Tanach. What is clearly apparent from the Biblical account however is that he was wicked and an idol worshipper.

What struck me most about him is the fact that his is a pretty unique name in Tanach (see comment 1) . Why did Menashe’s righteous father Hezekiah give his son this name? Was it to commemorate forgetting something (as in Joseph’s case) or was it something more significant?

In order to attempt to answer this question let us for a moment take a look at the Talmud in Berkahot 10a. The Talmud relates that Isaiah the Prophet went to tell Hezekiah that he was going to die (the narrative of Hezekiah's sickness and miraculous recovery is found in 2 Kings 20:1, 2 Chronicles 32:24, and Isaiah 38:1) because he (Hezekiah) deliberately did not have children. This was on account of the fact that Hezekiah had seen prophetically that his child would be an idolator and therefore he preferred not to have children.

Isaiah told him he was required to fulfil the biblical commandment of "be fruitful and multiply" and not outguess God about what the future would bring. Isaiah then suggested perhaps if his own daughter married Hezekiah in the merit of righteous parents their children would also be righteous. Hezekiah agreed and Isaiah's daughter bore him Manasseh who was an idolator and later murdered his grandfather Isaiah.

Forgive me if this sounds overly casuistic but a thought struck me when I read that. Perhaps, as Hezekiah shuddered to bring a child into a world awash in idol worship, he thought back to a time when another Hebrew monarch, at different time and place was faced with a similar dilemma. Joseph in Egypt, living in a land full of idol worship, surely had second thoughts about having children. Yet he did have children and not only did they not grow up to become idol worshippers but they have since become the prototype of “good children”. To this day fathers bless their sons with the blessing that the Patriarch Jacob gave to the sons of Joseph יְשִׂמְךָ אֱלֹהִים כְּאֶפְרַיִם וְכִמְנַשֶּׁה, "May God make you like Efraim and Menashe" (Genesis 48). Perhaps Hezekiah seized upon the name as a sort of “segula” (lucky charm) that his son may turn out righteous after all . And in fact, we see (in 2 Chr. 33:11-13) that Manasseh did repent during the end of his life. There is even an Apocryphal book “the Prayer of Manasseh” that commemorates this event (see here).

I also came across an interesting verse in Judges 18 that seems to link Moses and Manasseh. There we find mention of a priest, closely associated with an idol worshipping cult called pesel micha. His name is given as Yehonatan ben Gershom ben Menashe. However the "נ" in Menashe is superscripted, which does not occur elsewhere in the Tanach. The correct reading is probably Moshe and Rashi and other sages suspected as much, arguing that the name was changed to Manasseh to avoid embarrasing his grandfather Moses. So here again we have illustrious ancestors and wayward idol-worshipping children ( I would also add that Moshe, like Menashe [the first] is raised in the king's palace in an atmosphere permeated with idol worship. Yet he too, like Menashe, is steadfast in his monotheism).

The Strange Cases of Menashe in the Bible

While researching the name Manasseh in the Bible, I noticed the strange themes and undercurrents surrounding the name. Francesca Stavrakopoulou in King Manasseh and Child Sacrifice points out the infrequency of the name Manasseh in the Bible and also mentions the possibility of an "anti-Manasseh polemic in the Hebrew Bible"; whenever Manasseh is mentioned there is the theme of idol worship or "gentile ways" present. The first would be the idol-worshipping priest Yehonatan ben Gershom ben Menashe (with Menashe substituting for Moshe), the second would be King Menashe and the third Menashe is mentioned in Ezra as having been chastised by Ezra for marrying foreign wives. The switching of order between the firstborn Manasseh and the younger Ephraim by Jacob is also explained by Stavrakopolou as part of “an anti-Manasseh polemic pervading the Hebrew Bible”. I would also add King Jehu of Israel who is said to be of the tribe of Menashe פסיקתא רבתי פרק ג (probably because of the peculiar name of his supposed father Nimshi, which sounds similar to Menashe). Yehu is the only Israelite King who instituted major reforms in the religion of the Northern Kingdom and made an initial effort to stamp out idol-worship (מלכים א יט:טז-יז, מלכים ב ט-י, דברי הימים ב כב ) before he himself succumbed to it.

There is also another Menashe mentioned in Antiquities by Josephus who left the Jerusalem Temple and joined the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim.

Other Opinions as to Why Hezekiah Named his Son Menashe

Some Bible scholars opine that Hezekiah's naming of his only son, Manasseh, was meant as a good will gesture toward the northern tribal kingdom (who were ruled chiefly by kings of Manasseh and Ephraim) "What could better show the desire to let all past offences and discord be forgotten than give the heir to his throne the name in which one of their tribes exulted" Hezekiah wanted to "to take advantage of the overthrow of the rival kingdom by Shalmaneser and the anarchy in which the provinces had been left, to gather round him the remnant of the population... it was at least partially succesful, divers from Asher Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover" [5].

NOTES:

[1]. However, I have noticed one case in Tanach where someone was named after a dead ancestor, albeit with a slight variation: one of Cain's descendants was apparently named after him, namely תּוּבַל קַיִן (בראשית ד:כב, thus indicating that the general practice of naming sons after dead ancestors and relatives may be much older than I previously thought.

While the names of the three patriarchs are not repeated anwhere in Tanach, some of the names of the 12 sons of Jacob are:

There is a Bohan son of Reuben in Joshua 15, a Shimon in Ezra 10, There are four Judahs in Nehemiah and one in Ezra, There is a Isaachar son of Oved Edom in Chronicles I, 26, A prophet named Gad mentioned in Samuel and in Chronicles, a Yigal son of Joseph mentioned in Numbers 13, a Asaf son of Joseph mentioned in Chronicles I, 25 and two more Josephs, one in Ezra and one in Nehemiah respectively It seems that the Jewish practice of naming sons after famous Biblical figures only became widespread during the second temple period. Thus we see many personages in the books of Ezra and Nehemia with very familiar Biblical names.

[2]. See an interesting discussion here on the possible meaning(s) of that name.

[3]. Heres a rundown of the different opinions as to the origin of the name Moses, the majority of whom posit an Egyptian origin of some sort: Strongs's concordance gives the name Moses as from the Egyptian mes ses.

In Egyptian the name "Moses" means mes (birth) ses (protect) so named by Pharaoh's daughter after she had pulled the infant from the banks of the river. (Shemot Rabbah 1:26, Chasidah p.345) Further, Moses led the Israelites across the Red Sea, which also shows deliverance out of water. Josephus also cites this etymology.

Some medieval Jewish scholars had suggested that Moses' actual name was the Egyptian translation of "to draw out", and that it was translated into Hebrew, either by the Bible, or by Moses himself later in his lifetime.

Some modern scholars had suggested that the daughter of the pharaoh might have derived his name from the Egyptian name element mose, which means "son" or "formed of" or "has provided"; for example, "Thutmose" means "son of Thoth", and Rameses means "Ra has provided (a son)".

According to Islamic tradition, his name, Mūsā, is derived from two Egyptian words: Mū which means water and shā meaning tree (or reeds), in reference to the fact that the basket in which the infant Moses floated came to rest by trees close to Pharaoh's residence. A growing number of critical scholars believe that Moses actually had a full Egyptian name, consisting of the root word -mose and the name of a god (similar to Rameses), but the name of the god was later dropped, either when he assimilated into Hebrew culture or by later scribes who were dismayed that their greatest prophet had such an Egyptian name

[4]. The Prophet Isaiah’s martyrdom at the hands of Menasseh is referred to in both ancient Jewish and Christian texts. In addition to the account in Berkahot, it is also mentioned in a Christian apocryphal work called “Lives of the Prophets” and in “the Martyrdom of Isaiah” which has been preserved in part in the Christian work “the Ascension of Isaiah”.

[5]. Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature By John McClintock, James Strong

See also How the Bible Became a Book by William M. Schniedewind

The Difference Between Sephardim and Nusach Sefard

2009-02-05T02:23:00.019-05:00

Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer (1698-1760) known as the "Baal Shem Tov" founded the Chassidic movement in Eastern Europe and began spreading his teachings in circa 1734 . One of the results of this movement was the practical application of Kabalistic concepts and ideas into daily Jewish ritual. If until then most Eastern European Jews followed the (generally non-Kabbalistic) customs and traditions that they inherited from their Western European forbears (known as Minhag Ashkenaz), Chassidut now felt that Kabbalah should be dominant. One of the results of this was the complete change of Nusach (prayer liturgy) from the Ashkenazic tradition to the Sephardic one. The reason for this change was because the Chassidim felt that the Sephardic liturgy was more Kabbalistically oriented and therefore superior. This radical change was accompanied by much controversy and was one of the leading complaints against them by their opponents (known as the Mitnagdim).

To be sure, the Chassidim did not adopt the Sephardic nusach in its entirety, but rather modified the existing Ashkenazic nusach and incorporated within it many Lurianic formulae. The master Kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria known as the ARI, was himself part Sephardic and part Ashkenazic, however he was raised and studied in a purely Sephardic milieu. In essence, it can be claimed that the preeminent figure in the Chassidic movement is not the Baal Shem Tov, but in fact it is Rabbi Isaac Luria.

To confuse matters even more, different versions of this new hybrid called "Nusach Sefard" abounded. Various Chassidic groups have different versions of it. The founder of the Chabad-Lubavitch dynasty, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (pictured third from top) was the first to publish a new prayer book "according to the rite of the Arizal", known as "Nusach Ari". However, as mentioned, his version was not accepted by all Chassidim as in fact being that of the Arizal.

In some parts of Eastern Europe, Orthodox Jews sometimes used the term Sephardic to distinguish themselves from their less traditional coreligionists. In Hungary, the election of a moderate religious Zionist, Rabbi Moses Glasner to the post of Chief Rabbi of Cluj, Transylvania (better known as Klausenberg) in 1878 precipitated the establishment of a newly formed “Sephardic” community in that city. The group consisted of about one hundred Chassidic families who decided that they could no longer remain subject to the authority of a Zionist Rabbi. The term “Sephardic community” was a sort of legal fiction designed to gain the recognition of the secular authorities that would recognize only one Orthodox community within a given town or district. The only “Sephardic” aspect of the community was that they recited prayers in “nusach sefard.” [1]

There were also many Ashkenazic Jews in Eastern Europe who adopted the Sephardic pronunciation of Hebrew because they felt it was the correct one, but we'll leave that for a different post.

A CHASSID OR A SEPHARDI?

The portrait (second from top) of Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Falk (1710-1782), (I mentioned this enigmatic figure before in a previous post) known as the "Baal Shem of London" is often confused with that of Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov and founder of the Chassidic movement.

An indication of the confusion that the misuse of the term “Sephardic” often engenders can be seen from the following example.

Former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, Rabbi Dr. Herman Adler in his fascinating biographical sketch [2] of Rabbi Falk writes that Falk referred to himself in his personal book as “the son of Raphael the Sefardi”. However Adler is quick to point out that the term “Sephardi” in this case does not necessarily denote Iberian origins but rather refers to the (then) newly emerging sect of Chassidim who were often called “Sephardim” or “Anshei Sfard” because they prayed in a modified Sephardic rite. In a later republishing of the same article, Adler provides more clues as to the origins of Falk. This time no mention of his possible Chassidic connection is made. Adler merely wonders, “It is unclear why and how he (Raphael the Sephardi) received this appellation (Sephardi). Had he immigrated from Spain or Portugal?” and adds that “Falk's Sephardic pronunciation of Hebrew may have been due to his parentage”. Additional evidence seems to bear this out. In the comment on that passage, Adler writes that Falk gives his name in his commonplace book as חיים שמואל יעקב דפאלק מרדיולה לנידו (Chaim Shmuel Yaakov d’falk Mardiola Laniado) and wonders whether he might possibly be related to the Laniados, a Sephardic family that settled in Italy and the Middle East. The answer seems to be in the affirmative.

Falk's personal assistant, a Polish Jew by the name of Zvi Hirsch of Kalisch (not to be confused with this man. Paranthetically, Kalisch's descendants later anglicized their name to Collins and became part of the upper crust of British society) kept a personal journal where he described his masters daily activities magical experiments. The journal is an intimate window into Falk's life, it describes Falk's frequent quarrels with his wife. One entry records an incident where he threw a dish of food at her head, saying it was cooked so badly that any Sephardi who tasted it would laugh outright....[3].

Falk’s Sephardic ancestry is also briefly mentioned in the recently published Mibaal Shed L’baal Shem (translation mine) “it seems that his father Rabbi Joshua Refael the Sephardi was a descendant of Marranos who arrived in Poland in the 16th century and retuned openly to Judaism. Additional information on Falk’s family is unknown”. [4]

So it can be stated with assurance that the portrait which is purportedly that of the Baal Shem Tov is in fact not the Baal Shem Tov at all, but rather a Polish Kabbalist of Sephardic origin.

Another possible indication of how the conflation of the terms "sephardim" and "nusach sefard" can lead to assumptions and erroneous information can be seen from the case of the Bitterman family of Hrubieszow, Poland. The Bittermans had an oral tradition of Sephardic descent, however recent genetic testing has shown that the family falls within a large group of Ashkenazic families who have no tradition of Sephardic ancestry. The administrator of the Bitterman family website therefore concludes that “It is quite possible that Biterman ancestors were not Sephardim but rather part of a Nusach Sephard congregations, in the region where Hassidism developed” see here

AUTHENTIC SEPHARDIC CONGREGATIONS IN EASTERN EUROPE

(The following is a brief synopsis of a subject that is dealt with in much more detail in my upcoming paper).

However, there were authentic Sephardic congregations in Eastern Europe. Dr. Moshe Montalto, a Sephardic Physician who settled in Poland in the 17th century built a Synagogue in Lublin where the congregants prayed in the Sephardic (Spanish-Portuguese) rite. In Zamocz too, a Synagogue (pictured first from top) was established by Sephardic Jews who settled there in the 16th century and was still called the "Sephardic Synagogue" up until World War II, long after the descendants of the original Sephardic founder assimilated into the Ashkenazi community or moved out.

In Krakow, the historic capital of Poland, a community of Sephardic Jews, who arrived in Poland via Italy, maintained a separate existence until the middle of the 17th century. They kept their own traditions, including praying in the Sephardic rite and only marrying among themselves.

In Lithuania too, authentic Sephardic congregations existed. Shlomo Katzav in his booklet Hasefardim be'eretz Lita lists Sephardic congregations in places like Otian, Biraz, Dolhinov, Heidozishok, Vilkomir and Kopishok. Katzav lists several congregations with the name "Alsheikh" (in Horodna and Shavel, which probably indicate eastern origins). There are also two "Alfas" (indicating origins in Fez, Morocco) congregations, one in Tabarig and one in Lida.

Arthur Menton in The Book of Destiny: Toledot Charlap mentions one Lithuanian town whose Jewish community seems to have been founded by Sephardic emigres, namely Vilkaviskis (Vilkovishk). The community kept accurate records and as recently as 1920, a massive tome containing information about 400 years of Jewish life in Vilkaviskis was cited by several researchers. The book was unofrtunately lost or destroyed in the decades after World War I.

The book indicated that a Jewish settlement existed here at the beginning of the 16th century...Princess Bora Sforges made a gift of lumber to the community to build prayer houses and the copper domed synagogue known to its last days as "the old shul". Its ark... housed the profusely embellished Sefer Torahs which originated in Spain.

Menton's book also recounts the fascinating story of the Charlap/Don-Yahya family; a Sephardic family that settled in Eastern Europe.

In Budapest, Hungary there once existed both a Sephardic and Mizrachi synagogue (the former composed of Spanish and Portuguese Jewish refugees and the latter composed of Syrian Jews who settled in the city). As their numbers decreased, gradually their seperate minyan folded up everywhere and those who remained joined the Ashkenazi minyan (a process that was repeated all across Eastern Europe). [5]

NOTES:

[1]. For the background and more information about the reasons behind the secession see http://www.dorrevii.org/. I am indebted to David Glasner (a descendant of Rabbi Moses Glasner) for this inormation.

[2]. The article is available in its entirety online here

[3]. see Roth, Cecil. Essays and Portraits in Anglo-Jewish History, p. 146

[4]. See Oron, Michal. Mibaal Shed l’baal Shem (Hebrew). Mossad Bialik, (Tel Aviv, 2002). p. 29.

I was surprised to find descendants of Rabbi Falk in present day England, searching for their roots on this website. Unfortunately, until the present moment, I was unsuccessful in initiating contact with them.

[5]. See Jewish Budapest; Monument, Rites History

Other parts of Hungary and Transylvania (not to mention Romania) also had Sephardi and Mizrachi populations. In Bekeczaba, Hungary, many Jews had a tradition they were descended from Mizrachi Jews who came from the region of Armenia. Recent genetic testing has vindicated this claim. More about this in a future post.

Calahora, a remarkable Sephardic family in Poland

2009-01-15T00:01:00.034-05:00

What is the connection between a city in Spain, two Jewish martyrs, a moralist Rabbi, and a Socialist activist?

My upcoming paper (now over 30 pages and counting) explores the history and genealogy of Sephardic Jews who settled in Eastern Europe. It is a subject that I find fascinating and I believe is woefully unexplored.

In the course of my research I stumbled across a remarkable family -about whom I will cite here only several tidbits- namely the Kalahora/Calahora family of Poland.

Dr. Solomon Kalahora, Personal Physician to the Polish Monarch Sygmund August(1520-1572) and his successor King Stephen Bathory (1533-1586), was a Sephardic Jew (in some sources a converso) who settled in Cracow, Poland in the 16th century[1]. Though the Kalahoras (The name would later undergo many variations and changes including: Kolhari, Kolchor, Kolchory, Kalifari, Calaforra, Kalvari, Landsberg Posner, Zweigenbaul, Rabowsky, Olschwitz and Milsky) had come to Poland from Italy, the family name was based on the name of the Spanish town of Calahorra from where the family originated.

Of the Patriarch Solomon’s six children, Moses continued the family branch in Cracow, and Israel Samuel (1560-1640), the Rabbi of Lenchista founded the Poznan branch. One of Israel Samuel’s sons was Matityahu Calahora(pictured, third from top), who according to the contemporary Polish historian, Kochowski was a “well-known physician with an extensive practice in Christian and even clerical circles”. Matityahu’s life came to a violent end when he became embroiled in a religious dispute with a Dominican friar named Havlin. The Russian- Jewish historian Simon Dubnow describes the event, disturbing in its sheer brutality:

The priest invited Calahora to a disputation in the cloister, but the Jew declined, promising to expound his views in writing. A few days later the priest found on his chair in the church a statement written in German and containing a violent arraignment of the cult of the Immaculate Virgin. It is not impossible that the statement was composed and placed in the church by an adherent of the "Reformation or the Arian heresy" both of which were then the object of persecution in Poland. However, the Dominican decided that Calahora was the author, and brought the charge of blasphemy against him. The Court of the Royal Castle cross-examined the defendant under torture, without being able to obtain a confession. Wit- nesses testified that Calahora was not even able to write German. Being a native of Italy, he used the Italian language in his conversations with the Dominican. In spite of all this evidence, the unfortunate Calahora was sentenced to be burned at the stake. The alarmed Jewish community raised a protest, and the case was accordingly transferred to the highest court in Piotrkov. The accused was sent in chains to Piotrkov, together with the plaintiff and the witnesses. But the arch-Catholic tribunal confirmed the verdict of the lower court, ordering that the sentence be executed in the following barbarous sequence: first the lips of the " blasphemer " to be cut off ; next his hand that had held the fateful statement to be burned; then the tongue, which had spoken against the Christian religion, to be excised ; finally the body to be burned at the stake, and the ashes of the victim to be loaded into a cannon and discharged into the air. This cannibal ceremonial was faithfully carried out on December 13, 1663, on the market place of Piotrkov. For two centuries the Jews of Cracow followed the custom of reciting, on the fourteenth of Kislev, in the old synagogue of that city, a memorial prayer for the soul of the martyr Calahora. [2]

Matityahu’s son Michael and his two grandsons were also notable physicians in Poland. Matityahu's brother, Solomon Calahora married the daughter of the Posen physician, Judah de Lima (another Sephardic family that settled in Poland, of whom we shall talk more later).

One of Solomon's sons was Joseph (1601-1696), also known as Joseph Darshan (literally, preacher) of Poznan who authored a popular work on ethical and moral obligations, Yesod Yosef , published in Frankfurt, in 1679 (pictured first from top). Joseph's son, Arye Leib Kalifari, a preacher in Posen was the founder of the Landsberg and Posner families. Arye Leib became the second member of this family to be martyred when he was arrested and tortured by the Catholic authorities in 1735 in the course of a blood libel. Heinrich Graetz describes the event in his History of the Jews:

Adalbert Yablonowitz, a son of a prominent citzizen disappeared from his home and his mutilated body was found in a village near Posen. The Christian population of Posen....at once charged the Jews with the crime. The majority of the Jews of Posen-fearing violence- fled for their lives. The preacher, Aryeh Leib; the communal representative Jacob ben Pinhas and 2 parnasim Isaac and Hertz were seized and thrown in prison. The preacher and the representative were tortured and died in prison (Arye Leib rebuffed an offer to spare his life if he converted--J.D.) . The trial of the parnasim and 5 other prominent Jews dragged on for nearly 4 years when a foreign community, Vienna, it seems, procured an able advocate who succeeded in proving the innocence of the acccused and the latter were released in 1740. [3]

Aryeh Leib's great-grandson, Solomon Posner (1780-1863) was the author of a family chronicle, Toar Penei Shlomo.

Stanislaw Posner(pictured, fourth from top), pseudonym: Henryk Bezmaski(1868-1930) was a grandson of the aforementioned Solomon Posner and a Polish socialist activist, senator, lawyer and publicist. He also authored Poland as an Independent Economic Unit. See more about him here.

Notes:

[1]. Calahora was only one of a number of Jewish physicians who settled in Poland at that time. Other notable personages include: Samuel de Lima, Samuel bar Meshulam, Shlomo Ashkenazy, the brothers Levi-Lieberman Fortis Ostila, and Moses Montalto.

[2]. History of the Jews in Russia and Poland by Semen Markovich Dubnow

[3]. Popular History of the Jews by Heinrich Graetz. p. 284

I'm back (and better?) after a long hiatus

2008-11-30T05:22:00.004-05:00

I apologize for being away for so long. Alot has changed for me over the past couple of months. I am currently residing on the west coast and teaching history at a local High School. Thank God, things are great here.

I am currently hard at work on an article of mine that explores the history of Sephardic Jews who settled in Eastern Europe. I have decided to devote more time writing comprehensive papers rather than continuing to do what i used to do, posting little snippets and teasers. Wishing all my loyal readers and fans a Shavua tov u'mvurechet.

English translation of Tzvi Zohar's review of the Artscroll Aleppo book

2008-02-18T18:00:00.002-05:00

"And Artscroll Created Aleppo in its Own Image": The Positioning of Aleppo as a Holy Ultra-Orthodox Community in Aleppo, City of Scholars

By: Zvi Zohar

Translated from the Hebrew by Inbal Karo

Read it here in word format.

A blog worth checking out

2008-02-15T15:07:00.001-05:00

The Orthodox Freelancers Guild blog discusses Jewish history and politics with a particular focus on American Orthodox Jewish history. See his latest post on the late Rabbi Soloveitchik and the Agudath Israel of America.

Leaving to Israel tomorrow

2008-01-09T02:38:00.000-05:00

If you would like to contact me, please don't hesitate to email me at hahistorion@gmail.com

Who is the Sephardi and who is the Ashkenazi?

2007-12-24T21:20:00.003-05:00

Inspired by the very enthusiastic response to this post, I decided to try this again.
This is not just a simple trivia question but rather an interesting story (I should say two very interesting stories) lies therein.

I originally thought that Rabbi Kaplan- scion of an old Sephardic family (see excerpt later) completely assmilated into the Ashkenazic (chiefly Lithuanian Yeshiva) mileu in which he was raised most of his life. Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar -on the other hand (bottom photo) was of Ashkenazic parentage; his mother remarried a Sephardic Rabbi -after his father died- who had a major influence on the young Yaakov Shaul (then all of 7). He was raised among the Sephardim eventually being appointed Chief Rabbi of the Sephardic community (Rishon Leziyyon). However, it appears that the Elyashars are of Sephardic ancestry, the only apparent Ashkenazic connection is the latter's grandmother (father's mother) who was the daughter of Rabbi Vilna (see more on this in the comments section of this post). So in conclusion, both Rabbis Elyashar and Kaplan are of mixed Sephardi-Ashkenazi parentage (Ashkefardi?).

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan mentions his Sephardic ancestry in the introduction to his Passover Haggadah:

He writes:

A number of people have inquired about the parenthesized "Carmona" after my name. This was the original family name of my paternal grandfather, Rabbi Yosef Kaplan (Carmona). The name denotes the place from which out family originated, a city in southern Spain, not far from Seville. Upon arriving in the United States around the turn of the century my grandfather changed his name to the more Ashkenazic sounding Kaplan for business reasons. (Incidentally, "kaplan" means tiger in Turkish.) Although I was educated in Ashkenazic yeshivoth such as Torah Vodaath and Mir, I have maintained a strong link with my Sephardic background. The MaAm Lo'ez project merely brings it full cycle.

A lament on Jewish passivity: a Kibbutznik take on a Hebrew Chronicle of the Chmielnicki massacres

2007-12-20T04:09:00.003-05:00

The Sefer Yeven Metzulah was written by Rabbi Natan Nata Hanover, a survivor of the Chmielnicki-led massacres of Jews in Poland and Ukraine in 1648-1649 [1]which came to be known as גזירות ת"ח ות"ט.

This edition (pictured) was published in Tel Aviv in 1966 by the Socialist Zionist ha-kibbutz ha-meuchad publishing house. In the introduction to this edition, the poet Yaakov Fichman expounds upon the nature of this work and the rich literary style employed by its author . The last paragraph of the introduction- in particular- caught my eye as it sheds light on the thinking of the Kibbutzniks 'of old' and the frustration and anger that reverberated even to that day over the passivity and meekness displayed by Jews in 'exile' (culminating in the Holocaust). It also helps explain the resentment many Eastern European Jews developed toward a leadership (particularly a religious leadership) they felt had acted cowardly and betrayed them [2].

Bear in mind that this was written one year before the outbreak of the Six Day War in 1967.

(Translation is mine):

When reading this book one can not help but draw a parallel between the events of that time and our current situation. Bearing in mind that the Jewish concentrations were at quite a distance of each other and transportation was difficult- how encouraging is the fact that all the Jewish communities, both near and far spared no effort in sending assistance to the stricken Jews and redeeming their captives. The Jewish heart feels the pain of his distant brothers and is filled with kindness and mercy towards them. At the same time, the epic tragedy of all this lies in the fact that the Jews (in the affected lands) hesitated to fight back and wreak vengeance upon their enemies -even when they had the chance to do so. Typical of this was the behavior of the Jews of Tulcyn. When the Jews of that town realized that they had been double crossed by the Poles (who were ostensibly their "allies") they sought to avenge themselves (first) on the Polish noblemen for betraying them. At that point, the Rosh Yeshiva stood up and loudly proclaimed ''o hearken to me brothers and sisters, we are in exile among the nations, if you will strike the noblemen, all the kings of edom will hear and they will then seek revenge by attacking our brothers in their lands, g-d forbid. Therefore, if it is decreed from heaven (that we die), we shall accept it gladly, with joy''.

Fichman continues:

This was the galut mentality (הפסכילוגיה הגלותית) that reigned at the time and -which for 300 years -we are trying to uproot but -to our great shame and regret- we have not met with success. To this day, this mentality is still among us, this "tradition'"of stretching out our collective throats to the knife- which serves to inflame the blood lust of our enemies. Even in our day, when we have the opportunity to assert ourselves and we need not hesitate and be unsure, or to ask for whom to live and whom to die, we still have not matured as a nation with self respect. We have only produced a small number of people who were willing to stand up while the rest of the nation sat back. They are still waiting for others to rescue them. They have not yet come to realization that the future of Israel and their very lives depend on the readiness and willingness to sacrifice, both in body and in spirit [3].

Notes:

[1]. For more background on the Chmielnicki massacres see Graetz

[2]. For more on this, see Steg's comment to my post here and my response. See also what inspired Chaim Potok's fictional 'Am Kedoshim society'. Conversely, see Hungarian Rabbi Michael Weissmandel's scathing criticism of the Zionist leadership of his time for abandoning the Jews of Europe to their fate ('Ten questions to the Zionists') where he states: We must depose the atheist-Zionist "statesmen" from their role as Jewish leaders, and return to the faithful leadership of our sages.

[3]. ספר יון מצולה להרב נתן נטע הנובר. הוצאת הקיבוץ המאוחד תשכ"ו. 13-14

Rabbis teaching Kabbalah to non-Jews: not a new phenomenon

2007-12-14T09:05:00.002-05:00

Madonna embraces Kabbalah, Hollywood celebrities flock to the Kabbalah center, etc. etc. etc.

Think this is something completely new? think again.

In Transaction By Jewish Historical Society of England, Rabbi Dr. Herman Adler, Chief Rabbi of the British Empire has a very interesting article about the enigmatic figure of Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Falk, known as the 'Baal Shem of London'[1]. The paper seeks to dispel the hagiography which seems to have surrounded Falk -at least in England where he was apparently held in high esteem. R' Adler writes:

R' David Azulai (Chida) in his small book Maagal Tov (p.13) mentions that when in Paris in 1778, he met the Marquis de Toma and the Marchesa de Croua (in in his previously published unedited article Adler gives the name as de Crona-H), who had saved many Jews from falling into the clutches of the Inquisition. This high-born dame intimated to Rabbi Azulai that the Baal Shem of London had taught her practical Kabballah-a circumstance which greatly roused the ire of the worthy Rabbi[2].

Later R' Adler excerpts the relevant passage from Chida's travelogue מעגל טוב:

On Thursday, the Marquis de Toma came with the Marchesa de Croua. She sat with me and asked that I might pray for her. She afterwards said that she studied the scriptures, and that she had visions of angels and demons who spoke to her. She gave a louis as a charitable gift for Hebron, and mentioned the Baal Shem of London. She said that the Jew gave her a book on Kabbalah, and she told some other remarkable things. I answered her accordingly. Afterwards she said that she was a very highly placed princess, that she had saved many Jews from the Inquisition, that she was the daughter of a Marquis and other exaggerations. How much mischief did this so called Baal Shem work, who in his conceit and arrogance revealed practical kabbalah and conjuration to many prices and princesses to aggrandize himself! Many asked me about him.

Intrigued, I did a google search (what else..) on the aforementioned Madame de Crona (or Croua), which sadly turned up no results. But it's safe to assume that she was the equivalent of a modern day celebrity, a Parisian socialite, probably of royal blood.

Some wonder why it is that so many celebrities (Madonna being the most notorious among them) "get into" Kabbalah.

To me it seems quite simple. Eastern mysticism has always held an allure to westerners. It used to be Hinduism, Buddhism etc. now its Kabbalah.

It's interesting to note that in ancient Rome many of the aristocrats were likewise drawn to exotic eastern religions (with Judaism considered to be one of the most prominent) and many of the Roman nobility and upper class; the celebrities of Rome, practiced these faiths and followed its ritual either overtly or covertly. This later made it easier for Paul (or Shaul of Tarshish who some claim was a disciple of Rabban Gamaliel) to peddle his creed to the Greeks and the Romans, as they were already accustomed to many Judeo ideas and beliefs.

Notes:

[1]. It is interesting to note that the once widely circulated image of the Baal Shem Tov-the founder of the Chassidic movement-in in fact a portrait of Falk.

[2]. On the issue of the prohibition against teaching gentiles Torah (אין מוסרין דברי תורה לעכו"ם see tractate Chagiga 13a), there were of course many cases of Rabbis who did teach gentiles (Eliyahu Bachur, Da Modena to name a few). However that was often defended by asserting that the issur only applies if it is done out of religious conviction but not if the motivation is purely 'love of knowledge'. Interestingly, Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg writes that the term מוסרין (transmitting) used by the Talmud (ibid) indicates that the prohibition is only against transmitting סתרי תורה literally 'the mysteries of the Torah' (see שרידי אש ח"ב נה-נו) which would make this whole phenomenon doubly problematic.

Ashkenazic families of Sephardic descent and a word about bigotry

2007-12-07T00:22:00.000-05:00

Not long ago, I came across this story:

Talmud Torah school rejects four-year-old due to Sephardi grandfather. Principal says child has ‘stain’ in genealogy

Leaving aside the obvious chillul hashem such stories generate (just do a google search and see for yourself how many anti-Semitic websites picked up this story and relished it with gusto), it also struck me how ridiculous the terminology (the princpal is using) is. I am willing to bet that a cursory glance at that individual's family tree would uncover more than a few such stains.

At the risk of causing hardship to many Ashkenazi children, I am about to release a bombshell (tongue in cheek). As someone who has long had an interest in Jewish genealogy I have discovered that many of the most prominent Ashkenazi Haredi families in have numerous such 'stains' in their genealogy. The following is a very partial list:

* The Skulen Hassidic dynasty founded by Bessarabian Rabbi Eliezer Zusia Portugal, and later transplanted to Brooklyn, NY. This family is descended of Jews expelled from Portugal in the 15th century who relocated to Roumania, hence the surname. In fact R' Eliezer was known to often sign his name with the appellation מיוצאי פורטוגל ( literally 'of the exodus from the kingdom of Portugal')

*The Vizhnitz Chassidic dynasty (The Hager family also of Roumania) also has a tradition of Sephardic descent. According to family lore the name derives from the fact the family fled Spain to Holland (the Hague).

*The Epstein-Halevi family of Lithuania is descended from the Sephardic Benvensite family members of which settled in Ebstein, Germany before moving further east into Lithuania [1]. The Horowitz-Halevi family (members of which include the Bostoner Rebbe of Boston and Jerusalem)also claims descent from this family. See here and here

* Rebbe Chai Yitzchok Twersky, Grand Rabbi of the Chassidic Rachmastrivka sect based in Brooklyn, NY and Israel is descended from the Colorful Sephardic Rabbi and scholar Chayyim Yosef David Azulai (known as the Chida) on his maternal side.

It is interesting to note that R' Azulai himself was Ashkenazic on his maternal side (his mother was the daughter of Yosef Ben Pinchas Biala who came to the holy land with the mystic Rabbi Yehuda Chasid in 1700 -not to be confused with the medieval Kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Ha-chasid) and even understood Yiddish.

Several other prominent Haredi Rabbis are also descended from R' Azulai including Rabbi Baruch Mendelbaum Admor of Turav-Stolin, Rabbi Eliezer Brizel, and the brothers Rabbi Avraham and Mendel Atik (See the family tree below). Interestingly, there was plenty of intermarriage between Sephardim and Ashkenazim in the old Yishuv. This is no longer the case.

*The first Rebbe of Chabad, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi was descended from a Portugese Jew named R' Baruch Portugeli. Among the Chabad Chassidim in Russia were also many Sephardic Jews who settled in the region including the Chen family, the Don-Yichye (also Charlap, Sahr) family (more on this prestigious family some other time). It is noteworthy that anti-Sephardic racism is almost unheard of in Chabad.

This should all be superfluous since almost all Ashkenazim have some Sephardic ancestry[2] (after all Avraham Avinu was an Iraqi..) . The Kabbalists -that the Chassidim admire and follow-are almost all Sephardim. The Arizal himself was an Ashkefardi (a term I coined to denote someone who is half-Sephardic and half-Ashkenazic). There is plenty more to say on this subject but I'll leave it for now.

Notes:

[1]. See מקור ברוך חלק א by Rabbi Baruch Halevi Epstein where he mentions this tradition. There are numerous other Lithuanian families who were once Sephardim including the Wein family, Carmel family (Eliashiv(?) and many others. See Shlomo Katzav hasfardim asher belita for a listing of all the Sephardic families who settled in Lithuania.

[2]. One personage who shows up in many Ashkenazic family trees is Rabbi Akiva Katz of Uban (old Budapest) who had 12 sons and 12 daughters and who was descended from Rabbi Akiva Kohen Tzedek of Salonika, A Sephardic Jew.

For my previous posts mentioning some prominent Ashkenazim of Sephardic descent and conversely, that of Sephardim of Ashkenazic descent see here here here and here.

Are Sephardim 'black' and Ashkenazim 'white'?

2007-11-29T13:45:00.000-05:00

Marc Shapiro writes here:

I read about the outrage taking place in Emanuel, where in the local Beit Yaakov Sephardi students are being segregated from Ashkenazim to the extent that the two are not even permitted to play together. The Shas party has referred to this as nothing less than Apartheid, which it surely is.What’s next? Mehadrin buses where the Sephardim sit in the back? Of course, when this happens the justification given will once again be that Ashkenazim are on a higher spiritual level and that’s why they can’t sit with Sephardim, not that they are racist, chas ve-shalom.I mention this because R. Mazuz has made a comment that is relevant in this regard. Speaking to Ashkenazim who like to imagine the tannaim as “white”, he has called attention to Negaim 2:1, where R. Yishmael states that Jews are neither black nor white, but in between. In other words, the tannaim looked like Sephardim.

One of the commenters then noted:

Is that necessarily so ? Ashkenazic Jews are not generally white either like certain European non-Jews are and there are some Sepharadim that are quite light - so to say that Sepharadim are dark and Ashkenazim are light is not totally correct.

I was reminded about something the late Menachem Begin wrote in his memoir The Revolt.

(Context: Begin is discussing a unique group within the Etzel Jewish undeground -which he commanded -called the 'shock troops'. The unit's mission was to spy on the Arab population and thus was composed mostly of Jews from Arab countries who-because of their dark features and familiarity with the language- could easily blend in).

Begin writes:

but it is not only the people from Arab countries that are dark skinned. There are many Ashkenazi Jews from Europe who are no less dark- and are sometimes darker- than the purest Sephardi (Here Begin commits the common error of conflating Sephardi and Mizrachi JW). The only two members of the unit I knew personally came from Lodz in Poland [1].

The difference in appearance between Sephardim and Ashkenazim however is already noted by 14th century Spanish Rabbi, Menachem Ben Aaron Ibn Zerach:

It is well known that the appearance of people in Germany is different from that of the people of Spain and that of the Ethiopian is different again by reason of the climate, the varying strength of the sun which affects the air, and consequently the plants and fruits vary. Those partaking of them change accordingly. Hence the difference in Language and appearance. This is known to every wise man [2].

It is also interesting to note that one of the questions posed to the Ramban by Pablo Christiani at Barcelona was why Jews are dark skinned and not 'fair and attractive' like gentile Spaniards (who were presumably white(?). Ramban replied that this is because Jewish women refrain from marital relations during their menstruation cycle(!) (I don't have a copy of the disputation at hand and am citing from memory).

See also here how 17th century Sephardim in the new world dealt with contentions that they were anything less than white.

And who doesn't appreciate some good old fasioned trivia.

Guess who is the Sephardi and who is the Ashkenazi in these photos. The aforementioned commenter's point is well taken indeed.

Notes:

[1]. Begin, Menachem. The Revolt. Nash Publishing Company, 1977. Page 77-78

[2]. ספר צידה לדרך ,ל"ו and cited in Zimmel H.Z. Sephardim and Ashkenazim . Oxford, 1958. page 2.

On Artscroll revisionism: Professor Zvi Zohar reviews "Aleppo City of Scholars"

2007-11-27T20:05:00.000-05:00

In this review, Zohar shows how Artscroll recreated the Syrian-Jewish Aleppo community in its own (Charedi) image. He cites numerous examples of how the book (pictured) glosses over those Rabbis whose outlook did not conform to current Charedi standards and conveniently omits and outright distorts facts to suit its agenda.

Professor Zvi Zohar, is scholar of modern Middle Eastern Rabbinic Halacha. He has written two seminal books on the subject - masoret u-tmura and he-iru penei mizrah. He is currently teaching at Bar-Ilan University and is a musmach of the Hartman Institute.

link in PDF format
(note: this review is in Hebrew, an english translation and synopsis is forthcoming).

The Chassidic son of Rabbi Dr. Bernard Revel?

2007-11-22T23:13:00.000-05:00

Some time ago my uncle showed me a small קונטרס (booklet) he came across in a shemot pile. The booklet entitled שמחה ע"פ דרך החסידות 'Joy according to the Chassidic Method' was written by none other than the son of Rabbi Dr. Bernard Revel (pictured top) the renowned President of Yeshiva College from 1915 to 1940 . The author's name is listed as Eliezer Tzvi Revel author of

(pictured bottom) אוצר הסוטה והמסורת בדברי הרמב"ם

and the booklet was first published in 1953 (תשי"ג) and reprinted in Tel Aviv in תשמ"ג) 1983).

It is worth reproducing here part of the introduction to the booklet, to get a bit of a clearer understanding of the younger Rabbi Revel.

יש הרבה והרבה המשתוקקים למצוא ספר אחד שיסביר באופן מקיף את עיקרי החסידות של הבעש"ט ותלמידיו. הגם שיש כמה ספרים על תולדות החסידות אבל לדאבונינו אין ספר אחד המסביר כל עיקרי החסידות. פרק זה הוא חלק מן החומר שאספתי עד עתה מיותר מג' מאות ספרים קונטרסים ומאמרים של הצדיקים היותר מפורסמים והסיפורים עליהם. ואי"ה כשירחיב הקב"ה את גבולי אקווה בעז"ה להוציא ספרי 'עיקרי החסידות' .פרק זה סדרתי במהירות ומצמצום הזמן והוצאת הדפוס סמנתי רק שמות בעלי המאמרים...

Apparently, this work was only a precursor to a much larger and exhaustive study on the Chassidic movement. However in basic internet searches, I have not come across any work by that name (עיקרי החסידות) by this particular individual. if anyone has any more information about this intriguing figure, i'd appreciate it[2].

Notes:

1.) It is interesting how he refers to his father with almost Chassidic reverence. In אוצר הסוטה he calls him רכשבה"ג literally 'Rabbi of all the exiles' (see photo of titlepage above).

2). I do know (and I am indebted to S. from onthemainline for this tidbit) that according to Aaron Rakeffet's PhD thesis/ book on the elder Rav Revel-which I have not yet had a chance to read- he (R' Bernard) married into a Chassidic Chabad family, the Travises of Oklahoma who incidentally were wealthy oilmen(!). Perhaps this may explain the younger Revel's (he lists his name as 'Hershel' and his birth year 1915) enrapture with Chassidut?
See Rakeffet, Aron. Bernard Revel; builder of American Jewish orthodoxy. Feldheim (1981)

Greek Romaniote Jews in NY ; a visit to a rare Jewish community

2007-11-04T21:34:00.002-05:00

read about it on my other blog

Sephardic Jews and Communism

2007-10-09T19:55:00.003-04:00

Though most of the leading Jewish communists in Europe were Jews of Ashkenazic origin, there were a substantial number of Sephardim too who were active in Socialist and Communist movements, particularly in Yugoslavia whose Jewish population had been majority Sephardic for some time [1].

One of the senior Communist leaders in that country was a Sephardic Jew [2] by the name of Moshe (Mosa) Pijade (1890-1957), a close confidante of Yugoslavian leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito. Pijade (self portrait) was born to a prominent Sephardic Jewish family of Bulgarian origin in Belgrade, Serbia. He first went to study art in Munich and Paris but soon took up Journalism and developed a penchant for radicalism. He was imprisoned along with many others after the first world war for his pro-Communist sympathies. In prison he met and befriended many of the people who were later to become the leaders of Yugoslavia, including Tito. He fought in the Anti-Nazi resistance among the Partisans (who unlike the ones in other parts of Eastern Europe were not anti-Semitic and openly welcomed Jews into its ranks). He quickly rose through the ranks and was appointed by Tito (who was an ethnic Croat) to suppress all 'counter revolutionary activities'. Pijade became so feared and hated by the Serbs (especially in places like Montenegro) because of his policies, that mothers would warn their children that if they misbehaved 'Mosa' would come and get them.

What I find fascinating about Pijade is his ambivalence and the absence of outright hostility toward religion in general and Judaism in particular. This hostility towards Judaism as a religion was the hallmark of most of his Ashkenazic communist counterparts in Russia (though it should be pointed out that Pijade was certainly an assimilated Jew who didn't hesitate to marry out of the faith). This sentiment is clearly illustrated by what happened at the end of world War II. With Belgrade the capital of Serbia lying in ruins, the last remaining remnant (1,115 or 6% survived) of the city's once glorious Sephardic community gathered for services at the only Synagogue still standing - which was the large Ashkenazic one and had previously been used by the Nazi forces as a brothel (the Sephardic one had been completely destroyed). Among the participants was none other than Moshe Pijade, dressed in his army uniform laden with medals and weeping uncontrollably during the Yizkor prayer (!). One wonders if Lazar Kaganovich could have gotten away with something like this in Russia under Stalin...

Some have suggested that the outright hatred for Judaism as exemplified by people like Leon Trotsky and Lazar Kaganovich was a decidedly missing factor in the Sephardic 'version'. This is something that can still be observed in contemporary society (though much has changed). It is not uncommon to see staunchly secular Sephardic Jews (who identify themselves as Communist, Socialist etc.) taking part in Jewish ritual and expressing reverence and respect for its cult [3].

Another interesting figure is Avraham Benaroya, leader of the workers movement in Greece. Benaroya eventually emigrated to Israel where he died in 1979.

I was also going to bring up the Israeli black Panther movement which was founded and led by

disaffected Sephardim [4] and had a decidedly socialist bent (some members later joined Israel's Communist party) and (perhaps disturbingly) openly sympathized with the American Black Panther movement . Though that is a post worthy in and of itself, I think the overwhelming purpose (and impetus) behind that movement was not soviet-style revolution but rather social justice and equality, it also definitely lacked the anti-religious component (many of its members were observant Jews, others were staunchly nationalist and anti-Palestinian) [5].

Notes:

[1]. In other parts of the Balkans, Communism was making inroads among the Sephardic youth as well. A friend recalls her great-grandmother telling her about the Jewish communists in her native Salonika "Some of them published newspapers, and one of the articles said that now that we have planes and have been in the sky, we can see that G-d doesn't exist,It really horrified my great grandmother. It's such a childish reasoning though".

[2]. One can't help but chuckle when reading what American Nazi party 'leader', George Lincoln Rockwell had to say about him "Tito, was the protege of Moses Pijade,Jew Khazar, who does the "suggesting" for the strutting Mr. Tito" what can one expect from a paranoid old Bachelor like Rockwell who spent his nights in his mothers room .... Parenthetically the myth that Ashkenazic Jews are descended of Khazar Turkic tribesmen (popularized by Hungarian Jewish author, Arthur Koestler, himself an interesting and complicated figure) has been disproved by recent genetic research

Academic Publishers

[3]. See Stillman, Norman A. Sephardi Responses to Modernity. Luxemborg: Harwood,(1995)

[4]. The Israeli Black Panther movement was modeled after its American counterpart though it differed sharply in many ways (It is important to point out that the American group often expressed virulent anti-Semitism). It was a movement founded and led by disaffected Mizrachi Jews (a disproportionate number of whom, were of North African origin). The Black Panthers were Israel's own version of counterculture figures and fighters for social justice, people like Charlie Bitton (former Knesset member of the Hadash, Jewish/Arab Communist party and now a graying man expressing Likud-like tendencies), Saadya Marciano (formerly Knesset member of the Sheli party and now a poverty-stricken man , and Avi Berdugo (who later made a good life for himself as an Attorney).

[5]. In this context it is also worth noting the notorious terrorists and (ostensibly) Christian Arab Communist George Habash's (founder of the PFLP) frequent invoking of Allah's name, most famously after the PLO and the IDF faced off in 1982 in Beirut. Thomas Friedman in his From Beirut to Jerusalem has him (Habash) excitedly exclaiming:

I thank God that I lived to see the day that a Palestinian army fought an Israeli army. Now I can die. I dont need to see anymore.

Friedman points out the irony of all this saying Habash was "oblivious to the irony of the great Arab Marxist invoking the almighty". See Friedman, Thomas L. From Beirut to Jerusalem. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1989. pp. 150-151

Apparently, in the middle east, the line between communism and religion isn't as clearly delineated as it is in the west.

Yashar of Candia and his equally colorful descendants

2007-09-21T04:04:00.001-04:00

Yashar (pictured, right) (Yosef Shlomo Rofe) Delmedigo of Candia, Crete (1591-1655) was a colorful Jewish personality of the 17th century, what some might call a true 'Renaissance Rabbi'. A wandering Jew, he toured most of the major European capitals, temporarily settling in some of them and even accepting Rabbinical posts in others. He finally settled in Prague and died there in 1655.

Continuing in his tradition are his descendants: the Nachmani family [1]. At the end of the 19th century, the patriarch of the family, then 18 year old Mordechai Gorodinsky (pictured, left) (later changed to Nachmani in honor of a biblical figure who ascended to the land during the time of Nechemia), a passionate Zionist, left the Volozhin Yeshiva-where he had just received his Rabbinical ordination- and his hometown Gorodin in white Russia, to work in the swamps of the burgeoning yishuv. He did not belong to any particular organization or group but was motivated solely by religious Zionism. In fact the family maintained close ties with the Ashkenazic chief Rabbi, and seminal religious Zionist figure Rabbi Abraham Kook. Mordechai married there and went on to become one of the founders of the city of Rechovot.

Two of Mordechai's six children later left Israel to study in the United States where they settled permanently . One of them, Amihud studied engineering in New York and is remembered fondly by the writer Reuven Alpert who remembers him as one of the jolly old timers in the Synagogue he attended as a child. Alpert, in his Caught in the Crack: Encounters with the Jewish Muslims of Turkey [2] describes Amihud as a bit of an eccentric. His (Amihud) testimonies and visions (one describes a ship of Hebrew sailors-what Alpert calls the Jewish version of the 'flying Dutchmen'- another talks of the Yiddish poet Yehoash coming to him and his wife in a dream appealing to be reburied in Israel) appear in Aaron Zeitlin's [3] book on parapsychology[4] המציאות האחרת .

Notes:

[1]. See the family tree (Hebrew) here

[2]. Alpert Reuven, Caught In The Crack. Wandering Soul Press, 2002. pp.151

[3]. See my brief biographical sketch of Zeiltin here

[4]. Zeiltin, Aaron, Ha-meziut ha-aheret (The other Dimension). Tel Aviv: Yavneh, 1967.

More on Rabbi Da Modena and gilgul - follow up on previous post

2007-08-13T16:44:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I came across a book in Hebrew entitled Or Hachayim, which is a listing of Rabbinical biographies organized in alphabetical order and written by one R’ Chaim (ben Yosef) Michel (1792-1846) . R’ Michel was a Habmburg-born wealthy merchant who spent his leisurely time -and beyond- authoring works of Jewish and scholarly interest. He was friendly -and often corresponded- with the Wissenschaft scholars of his day such as Zunz, Shir and Shadal.

In the bibliography for the entry 'Yehuda Aryeh Mimodena' [1] he lists the latter's seforim, among which is a work entitled Ben David against the popular belief in gilgul (the book is also mentioned in his seminal anti-kabbalistic work Ari Nohem). Under the entry Chayei Yehuda -the book in question- he writes, (translation mine):

And know that in the manuscript that I have before me, there is absolutely no mention of the story brought down by the Chida (pictured) in Shem Hagedolim about the sick infant who said 'Shema Yisrael'. It is also not found in the manuscript version of Rabbi Uri Chai Sarval. Therefore Yashar is certainly correct in his assertion that that particular manuscript which Chida saw, was undoubtedly written by on of his (Da Modena’s) disciples who was partial to belief in Kabballah and he added it to the manuscript to show that in his later days Da Modena recanted. [2]

Notes:

[1]. in the margins, he points out that the proper way to write the name is ‘mimodena’ and not 'da modena', as the Rabbi himself wrote “I sign my name Leone Modena Da Venezia and not Da Modena”, See Graetz, B.X.S. 141 (p. 439 (אור החיים, הוצאת מוסד הרב קוק, תשכ"ה

[2]. Ibid, p. 443