Jewish+History

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9/15/10 we are learning medieval Jewish history the breakdown of history is · ancient- greek roman, bible, egypt · medieval, - knights, castles, feudalism, plague, christianity, blood libel · modern- technology, science, democracy,

petrarch called the early medieval period the dark ages. He said that there was war, bad language etc. but the middle ages was rich and had many developments. It was also a good time for the Jews.

10/5/10 500 CE beginning of the medieval period of the Jews
 * MEDIEVAL JEWISH HISTORY**

background 1st -2nd century · 70 CE o beit hamikdash destroyed · 135 o defeat of bar kochba § bar kochva ú lead a revolt against romans but eventually fails both these dates were major issues for the Jews. and once he failed Jews lost a lot of hope. Because of this the center of Judaism left Israel and developed all over the world as the Diaspora or galut. Most of the Jews went to bavel.

Why bavel? There was already an established Jewish community. As a result bavel becomes the largest Jewish community.

Until the 3rd century bavel was ruled by the parthians
 * How did Jews relate to the host culture?**

· parthians o polytheistic § politically polytheistic societies are good for Jews because they believed in many gods so having one more didn’t make a difference and didn’t go against their religion ú Jews were given religious and political autonomy( self rule) o feudal system § a few dukes would rule over the people making it a non-centralized government and a less strong king. · Persians and sessanians (224) o Monotheistic religion- Zoroastrianism § More against Hashem and jews o Centralized government § Less autonomy o There was a rollercoaster persecution then autonomy then persecution again…

**How did the Jewish community function** Because of autonomy the Jews had self government

Jewish autonomy in bavel · political leadership o reish galuta (aramaic for reish hagliyot or exilarch) § political leader of ALL Jews in bavel. § the Babylonian rulers empowered him to rule the Jews. § He was a member of the davidic dynasty 10/13/10 Yeshivot · Sura o Most important institution in Babylonian Jewish life o Founded by Rav in the 3rd century § Established a yeshiva in the city of sura · Pumbedita (Nehardea) o Shmuel was the leader in this yeshiva o It was originally in nehardaa but after persecutions it was destroyed and the yeshiva was moved to pumbedita The heads of the yeshivot were called rashei mitivta
 * Religious leadership** of Jews in Bavel

Twice a year there was a major gathering of people in the yeshivot during ellul and adar. The gatherings were called yarcheit kallah or kallah months.

The months adar and ellul were chosen because they were in a farming society and this time of the year they didn’t have to work. Adar was right before harvesting and ellul was right after.

At the end of the month the leaders would announce an amount of mishna to prepare for when they came back. The next kallah month they would be tested and if they did well they would get money.

At the end of the 3rd century the Parthians fell to the sessenians. The year 500 marks the start of harsh religious persecution. Also the Gemara was concluded around this time.

Eras of rabbis Tanaiim- mishna Amorim- Gemara Savora’im- we don’t really know Gionim Rishonim Achronim

For the savora’im we have very little literature by them but historical sources (rabbi sherira gaon) say that they existed Sherira wrote egeret rav shirira gaon whoch explains the history of the mishna Gemara, savoriim. Savoraim comes from the root hesber which means explain so they probably added some comments to the Gemara.

**The rise of islam** Before islam many people in the arabian pennisula were polytheistic and nomads. A few cities popped up because they were on the trade routes

Mecca- had the kabaa which was a pagan shrine. Because there were pilgrimages it helped establish mecca and give it a source of revenue.

Mohamed was born in 571 in mecca. Muhammed was a religious person and claims that at around the age 40 he received a prophecy from gabriel that he was the true prophet of the 1 god.

10/15/10 he was kicked out of mecca and went to madina in the “haj” or “hijrah”. He was accepted as their religious and political leader mouhamed goes around capturing people and forces religion on them.

In 630 muhammed comes back and captures Mecca. He purged the kaabah of idols and made it a muslim shrine which it remains to this day

In 632 muhammed died.

Right after muhhamed died muslism began attacking other people and spreading. All of the non arabian penninsula countries were attacking each other and muslims were united so islam was able to be spread.

In 655 there was a civil war in islam between the ummayads and ali (son in law of muhammed) The ummayads said that one does not have to descend from muhamed and ali said that they had to The ummayads won The two families split into sunni and shiite

The sunnis were umayads which were about laws and the shiites were ali (more mystical)

In 750 the abassids took over and moved the capital of the muslim empire to baghdad (major impact on the Jews).

10/20/10 pact of omar- how to deal with non-muslims under the rule of the muslims. The y called christians and Jews ani al kotas (people of the book)

the muslims considered Jews and chritisans ahl al kitab- people of the book

the Jews can’t do anything that is in violation of islam

- Be recognize as Jews from dress -No arabic -Can’t teach the koran to their children || Distinction between muslism and non muslims || -rise from seats - no slaves that were alloted to muslims || Muslim social superiority || -No display of religious signs - no conversion to christianity || Muslim religious superiority ||
 * **Law** || **Reason for law** ||
 * No alcohol || Offensive to islam ||
 * -Dress differently than muslims
 * -“quatering act”
 * -No new churches etc.

The Jews and christans have religious freedom but they have to know that they are inferior to them. They established superiority but also established tolerance. Jews and chritians become dhimmi or protected peple under these laws.

10/22/10 this lasted into the 20th century even sometimes when the laws weren’t kept and Jews were treated even better. The dhimmi also had to pay a tax.

The muslim empire spread throuought europe. Once this happened all Jews living in the major cultural centers were united under one empire and one king which gave the Jews more unity

This lead to the time of the All the Jews still refer to the reish galuta and sura and pumpadita was still big.
 * Geonim**

1) hierarchy of Jewish leadership **2)** **how the communtiy viewed the reish galuta** 3) the status of the reish galuta in the muslim court(king).

1) a) riesh galuta b) gaon of sura c) gaon of pumpadeta

3) he would give money to the kings servants to show that he was a powerful and important man. He has a seat in front of the king and could ask for anything of the king.

10/27/10 Responsa- sheilot vitishuvot- answers to halachik questions These were real life cases with halachik questions.

Poltoi gaon Jews are traders (clothes) Ashkenazi vs babulonian Jews Trae with non-Jews Women were involved in trade Talmud bavli was cited which shows that it was halachickally accepted · they are spreading the authority of the bavli exposure to other religions trade fair had element of religion connected to it

netronai Jews are converting to other religions but they still have some connection to their Jewish families

Amram There were false messiahs

Sherira Not as many rabbis to answer talmud question Jewish history

**Saadiya gaon** Born in egypt in 882 Wrote polemics or ideological debates

1) religious authority- conflict between bavel and Israel 2) political authority- conflict between reaish galut and gaonim 3) challenges from within judasim-karites 4) challenges from outside- philosophy

10/29/10
 * GET NOTES FROM BEGINNING**

Conflict between bavel and Israel+religious authority 921- aharon ben meir- rosh yesiva of Israel

kislev chesvan à 30 vs 29- à 2days

1) centrality of the calendar 2) realtionship between bavel and Israel 3) how saadia gain his reputation à lead to him becoming a goan

challenges from within judaism Sects- a subgroup within a bigger group

Pharisees- pirushim · torah she’bial peh Sadducees- tzadukim · rejected pahrisaic judaism
 * Second temple period**

__karites__- kara’im-mikra-bible anan ben david is credited with creating the karite sect.
 * medieval time period**

11/10/10 there were always Jews who didn’t accept the rabbis and anan was one of them ||
 * || **Rabbinite accounts** || **Karite account** ||
 * **Ana’s level of torah scholarship** || Great scholar || Great**est** scholar ||
 * **piety** || Not pious “unmitigated unruliness unreverence” || Pious, humble, saintly, unmatched by his contemporaries ||
 * **Why didn’t ana become the reish galuta** || He wasn’t pious and his brother got it instead || He did become the reish galuta and then he quit ||
 * **Is karaism a new sect or old one?** || anan is making up a new sect because he was rejected || “sect of tzaddikim” à sadukim/saducees
 * **Why did anan split from the rabbis** || Because he was rejected and he wanted power || Because rabbis were wrong ||
 * **Why anan remained alive** || He bribed and lied to the king || He was saved by God ||

Anan wasn’t actually a karite but he was a father of karaism the same way jesus wasn’t a christian he was Jewish. Promoted a non-rabbinic form of Judaism.

Anan wrote asefer hamitzvot of karite laws One of the laws is that you can’t allow a fire that was burning before shabbos to keep burning on shabbos.

“lo **t**ivaru eish bichol moshavoteichem”

“lo **ta**aseh kol milacha”

he doesn’t reject the idea of interpreting the torah because he interprets it to learn about no fire. He just rejects the talmud. Later karites claim that you can’t interpret the torah and they base it on the saying by anan “seek well in the torah and do not rely on my words”

11/12/10 the karites used the phrase “seek well in the torah and do not rely on my words” as inspiration. They use the quote to mean that everyone could reach their own conclusions and they don’t have to rely on authority. About 100 years after anan karites started that based themselves off of anan and rejected torah shebial peh. Saadiya gaon lead the fight against the karites during his time.

We need the torah shebial peh to help us with the interpretation of the torah shebichtav. Pri etz hadar literally means a fruit from a beautiful tree. We know that it is an etrog but karites could say its anything.

11/17/10 Sadia gaon and philosophy · which is better, how to reconcile them etc. Sadia goan was the first person to write abook on philosophy. He used the existing greek philosophy and tried to connect it to Judaism.
 * Faith and Reason** or **Faith vs reason**

Why did this just start appearing in judasim now? Because the muslims got very interested in philosophy so the Jews also saw it a lot People will use philosophy to go against religion.

Sadia says that they are equally valid.

Faith/ revelation · Not everyone is capable of understanding reason

reason · deepens faith

sadia gives a mashal he gave $500 to all of his friends there are 2 ways to prove it. he could count the amount that he gave to each person or he could collect all of it and weigh it.

faith is the fast route reason can also prove it but it takes longer to understand the truth

this stems from the muslim philosophy of __kalam__ which is a rationalist muslim philosophy that said that everything in the Quran must be backed by reason.

4 sources of knowledge · sensory perception (see if its true with senses) · self evident principles (know its true) · prove logically (try and find out its true; argue its true) · true revelation or torah

categorization of mitzvot 1) mitzvot sechliot · we would have known the mitzvot without torah like don’t kill 2) mitzvot shimiot · mitzvot that we would not have known without the torah like shabbos sadia says that in the end of the day both mitzot have to make sense.

11/19/10 get notes

11/24/10 the kidnappings were basically mythis

1) no revenue going to yeshivot a. economic  2) no students going to yeshivot (they go to smaller hoem yeshivot) a. social/religious 3) political conflict among muslims a. political
 * Decline of gaonate**

PERSIA- study of history

Spain was part of Roman Empire In 410 visigoths attack the roamn empire and capture spain. Visigoths were originally aryan (type of chritianity but not catholic) When they were aryan they were pretty good for the Jews. But spain was mainly catholic During the 7th century they said all Jews must convert. At the beginning they didn’t really enforce it At the end of 7th century they started enforcing it
 * SPAIN**

During the 8th century, muslim general tarik ibn ziyyad capture spain and make it into a muslim country. The name of spain was changed to Al-Andulous or Andalusia

In 755 abd al rahman declared spain independent of the rest of the muslim caliphate. This was good for the Jews.

What is the uniquely Jewish culture of al andalous and what is the background of the culture.
 * Andalusian Jewish culture**

Spain will produce Jewish scholar-statesmen (involved in Judaism and politics) Chasdai ibn shaprut He was a super-genious, he was a doctor, scientist, knew many languages, andtalmud chacham He became the doctor of the caliph and while he was there the caliph found out that he spoke latin and greek which was very benficial. The muslims spoke arabic but the christians spoke greek and latin so he could reahc out to them. He became a leading diplomat of spain at that time and went to other countries and accepted foreign diplomats He also became the leader of the Jewish community. The leader of the Jewish community was usually called the nagid. A nagid is a Jewish but also political leader.

Chasdai appointed moshe ben chanoch the rabbi of spain and he started the first big yeshiva in Spain. Chasdai · supported traditional torah scholarship he saw that the muslims were studying many things like poetry an darabic grammar. He wanted something like that for Jews so he supported Jewish poets.

Menachem ibn saruk wrote the book called the machberet which is a grammar book on torah and was the first hebrew grammar book.

12/1/10 Jews wanted to copy the muslism in the sense that they do similar things like understanding grammar of the holy texts

After menachan came **donash ibn Laboat** He was a poet and wrote dror yikra.

Spain wil become well known for the Jewish songs as well as learning.

**Shmuel hanagid** He lives after chasdai in granada. He was a nagid. He was a king, poet, talmid chacham, and general. This was unusual because jews didn’t really fight let alone become generals. He also designed the palace of al habra He is another example of a scholar-statesmen. Yosef, shmuel’s son, inherit the nagid position. He took advantage of his position and Jews as well as non-Jews didn’t like him. on a Friday nigh there was an attack on the Jews and he was taken and murdered. This shows that the nagid isn’t always noble. It was also called the golden age and it wasn’t always golden. There was a lot of Jewish culture but life wasn’t always so great for the Jews**.**

**YEHUDA HALEVI** Poet He even wrote poetry about women. Some of the poems are secular but there still is religious imagery and content.

Get notes [12/1,3,8] 12/15/10

halevi seems racist he puts gehrs on a lower level than the rest of the jews

According to halevi what makes avraham unique and connected to Hashem · Divine influence · Inyan haeloki · In each generation there is one person that has divine influence until yaakov and then it was passed on to everyone · Adam · Sheit · Enosh · Noach · Avraham · Yitzchak · Yaakov · Yaakovs sons · Now all of Bnai Yisrael has it How was it passed down? · It was an inheritance Rambam- how did avrham get his connection to Hashem? · He was like a philosopher and pondered about avoda zarah and how it doesn’t make sense How did he pass it to his children · He taught it What is the difference between halevi and Rambam · Passive vs active · Metaphysical vs rational o Rambam is a rationalist in everything · · Make bets that we cnt beat s1

1135-1204 rabbi Moshe bein maymon he was born in cordoba, his father is the dayan of cordoba. In 1148 the almohades, who were morrocan muslim extremist, invaded Spain. They offered them to convert or die. They left Spain and traveled around and eventually went to egypt. They settled in fostat which was near cairo. Originally Rambam just learned torah and his wealthy brother supported him. however his brother died in a shipwreck and he was very depressed. He could have become a rabbi but he was very against the concept of making money from torah. He then turned to medicine. He was so good that he became the personal physician of the chief vizier (the second in command to the sultan). The sultan was named Saladin. The vizier did most of the day to day rule over egypt. He becomes the head of the Jewish community of egypt and is already a famous man.
 * Rambam**

Books Mishna torah- work of halacha Moreh nivuchim- guide to the perplexed- philosophy Before this he wrote more books Milot hahaigayon more philosophy Clanedar Peirush hamishnayot Sefer hamitzvot Medical writings Seilot vitishuvot Letters Talmud yirushlami

12/22/10 RAMBAM’s PHILOSOPHY Rambam is a rationalist Rationalist believe that evrything has to conform to science or something that has basis. They believe in people like aristotle and plato and follows other greek philosopher. Rambam believed that all religion and philosophy had to work with science and logic and science and logic wee derived from arsitotle and plato.

His rationalism is routed in 2 basic principles.

Mishna: there are 2 subject areas that should not be taught publically. 1) maaseh biraishit- you will get to discuss difficult and sticky issues 2)Maaseh mirkavah- mystical prophet of seeing Hashem

Rambam’s interpretation- each one is referring to some area of philosophy. Maaseh beraishit doesn’t actually mean biraishit but it is a codeword for a specific philosophical idea. They are natural sciences or physics (how the world works). (back then people thought that science and philosophy were one thing) Maaseh mirkavah means things like the soul, intellect, Hashem, angels or metaphysics. (metaphysics was the study of heaven like sky moon stars angel soul intellect etc.) Everyone wants to know the truth and science is the truth but you can’t just jump in you have to learn in stages. You can’t teach these things t large groups of people because some people are uneducated and don’t have the basis that they need to understand it

Rambam belives metaphysics and physics is rationalism and the torah has to fit into it. he was an elitist. Only the elite can get the rationalist meaninsg of the torah.

Pardes- 4 rabbis went to pardes. They went to learn the secret of torah. P-pshat, R-remez (allegory), d-drash (derivations from words usually halacha), S-sode (secret mystical meaning of the torah). Only one rabbi made it out the same.

The rational interpretation of the torah is called pardes according to Rambam. (before you learn philosophy you have to know the torah). Anyone could learn halacha. The study of philosophy is just for some people. To really grasp how Hashem works you have to learn philosophy and not just halacha all of the truths of the torah can be understood through philosophy. All of the Jewish leader (naviim, Moshe, tanaii etc). do it because they are rationalist philosophers.

12/29/10 Rambam on reasons of mitzvot Wisdom vs Will

Wisdom- rational (there is a reason for the mitzvah) Will- we do mitzvot because Hashem told us to.

Rambam believes in wisdom. We might not know the reason behind the mitzvah but there definitely is a reason. Sometimes we ignore the reason because if you believe that everything has a reason and a cause if you can get that reason and the cause why do you need the mitzvah to do it.

Chukim- the non-Jews and yetzer harah looks at chukim and don’t believe it. Hashem told us to do it and not think about it. but if there is no reason behind it then it would be considered frivolous action. Chukim have a reason but we don’t know it.

Consequences of Rambam’s rationalism 1) taamei mitzvot- all mitzvot have a rational reason. 2) Moshiach a. A king b. No suspension of the laws of nature. 3) Negative theology- it is impossible for any human being to say anything about Hashem (like you can’ a.

MOSHIACH A king from beit david who is learned and observant and keeps the written and oral torah. They have to make the people be observant as well. They will fight the wars of god. If he fulfills that then he //can// be moshaich. Iif he succeeded and gathered in all of the nations and built the beit haikdash then he definitely is moshiach.

If he did not succeed or was killed we know that he was not the person that the torah promised.

The wolf and the lamb living together is a metaphor for a tiem of peace when the nations dwell together. The laws of nature will not change (actual wolves will eat lambs etc).

It comes from his rationalism It stems from his belief on tichiyat hameitim. He believes it is going to happen and puts it in his 13 middot but he doesn’t think it will happen physically it will be spiritual
 * Maimonodian controversy**

People didn’t like it because they said he disagreed with tichiyat hameitim. He had to write a book on his defense. This starts the controversy but it continues in the future.

Rif- rabbi yitzchak alfasi · Took out non-halachik things from the gemara Ri migash R maimon Rambam- rabbi Moshe bein maimon
 * Rambam’s approach to halacha**

They taught each other. Mishna torah Why did ramabm write the book What is the nature of the book How is it different from books that came before.

If you want to learn torah you have to learn everything and it takes too much time. We don’t have the time, intelligence, or strength. The Rambam said he could solve the problem. You could learn everything from his book and there is only the final halacha. He organizes (systematizes) it based on topic. He said you don’t need Gemara and study the chumash and then the mishna torah. __Raavad__­ he’s not doing anything better he is abandoning the traditional way of learning.peopel who paskin care about debates.

2/4/11 Jews of Christendom (domain of Christianity the Christian sphere of influence)

He wanted to bring Christianity to non Jews and he got rid of a lot of the Jewish mitzvot. He also was a major author of the new testament He feels ambivalent to the Jews
 * Paul** takes a Jewish sect and makes Christianity to a separate religion.

313 CE beforehand the romans were pretty good to the Jews and persecuted the Christians in 313 Constantine was the emperor and he converted to christinity. Then everyone else converted and the romans were good to the christians. Judaism was still tolerate and they felt ambivalent to them. Also Jews were treated as somewhat second class citizens. (they couldn’t convert people have christian slaves etc)

st. Augustine formulates the augustinian doctrine (the most important thing formulated in the middle ages) augustine says that the Jews didn’t accept their god and possibly killed jesus so why do we accept them. But they shouldn’t be killed and they should be kept around. The Jews were the chosen people and they messed up by not accepting jesus. They have to be kept to be a witness of 1) the bible and prophets (jesus is prophecized in niviim)  a. we attest to the truth of jesus  2) the Jews were punished for not accepting jesus and are now doomed and powerless have no land or temple

because Augustine said this there wasn’t really genocide against the Jews.

There was a man named ashkenaz in the torah and the Gemara says that ashkenaz is “garmamiyah shel edom” so Jews started calling germania ashkenaz.
 * Ashkenaz**

2/9/11 how did Jews get to ashkenaz? We don’t exactly know but at a point there was a mass settlement in germany.

This happened because of the carolingians 1) Charlemagne 2) Louis the Pious (his son) they decided to promote the economy by bringing in trade and in order to bring in trade they brought in the Jews.

The Jews were mostly Jews of italy that came after the destruction of the beit hamikdash and exile by the romans

The carolingians identified specific familes and brought them to germany. They were given economic rights and religious rights. The askenzaik community grew out of specific families and they will produce the elite politicians and rabbis. obviously the Jews wil have a lot of rights.

The Jews basically lived off the rhine river The three main communities are mainz,worms,speyer Speyra vrmiza and magendza were called the cities of shoom for the acronym

The latin document- written by rudiger the bishop of speyer He wanted to make his village into a city by bringing the Jews.

He wanted to protect the Jews by building a wall around them. The bad people were the burghers- drunken peasant residents of town.

No economic limitations

Land from Jewish territory coming from church lands A traveling jew pays no toll Autonomy

The burghers would did not like the Jews because the Jews were treated well.

2/16/11

1) how did the ashkenazi-germany community function? 2) 2) rabbu gershon the 1st great ashkenazik scholar

bavel · autonomy · centralized (Jewish communtiy reish galuta) · reish galuta- o official appointed by the babyonians o hereditary leadership from davidic dynasty ashkenaz · autonomy · decentralzed o every community governed itself and was independent · leader o appointed because he was a worthy individual intellectual made rules based on the torah

there were some laws that culdn’t be based on the torah so the people created **takanot** they would be made when a community would make a rule and it would be binding on everyone. They would all have to listen to the laws. They might make a law that there could only be a certain amount of butchers and they wouldn’t make any more butchers they used to enforce the laws through cheirem or excommunication. It was enforced and it was hard to be in cheirem. They were also enforceable through communities.

First great ashkenazik leader Lived in mainz germany Nicknamed mei’or hagolah “light of the exile” More influential and greater than the gaonim He was famous for his takanot and some of them became famous as part of halacha and we can learn about history from his takanot
 * Rabeinu gershom** (960-1028)

Takanot involving women · ban on polygamy (man can only have one wife) · ban on coerced divorce o banned men from divorcing their wife and getting a ghet without the wife’s permission what we learn from them · polygamy was not around at this time · women demanded respect. when men were traveling their wives were taking care of the business and, therefore, required women to be more respected rise in wealth à rise in status of women à demand for equal rights à takanot

Takanot involving tishuva cohen who converted to christianity and then came back to Judaism. Is he still considered a cohen? And can he do priestly duties? Yes he can: cohanim bless the people through Hashem. Since the person abandoned Hashem maybe He will want to abandon the person. The niviim say that if you want to return I will accept you. That is what happens to this cohen and there’s no proof to invalidate the cohen. Proof he is valid: “don’t verbally oppress one another” Ex. Reminding a person who did tishuva that he once sinned. If you tell the cohen that he can’t do things, when the other cohanim do their jobs he will be reminded that he sinned. If we were to ban cohanim from doing the jobs of cohanim they won’t want to come back in the first place. He may think back to the days of his christianity and feel humiliated that he did tishuva.

Why make a takanah like this? In medieval ashkenaz there was a time when people were forced to convert either by others of for economic reasons

· Greatest figure in ashkenaz history o Community o Intellectual commentary · Inspired future generations · Traditions teaches that Rabenu gershom died in 1040 and it is said that when one tzadik dies another one is born · Born in trayes, france · His name is shlomo and we don’t know much about his father · At 20 he moves to germany to study at mainz and worms (learned from the students of rabbeinu gershom) · After 10 years he returns to france and becomes a great talmid chacham o Torah learning is moved from germany to france o Many students came to him · Peirush hakuntris- literally “the notebook” the book that Rashi wrote. Rashi’s methodology Eh says that many commentaries explain what the voice of Hashem is but he won’t. he focuses on the pshat or simple meaning of the text. He also focuses on midrashot and agadata, stories that are simple or straightforward. He quotes a midrash to explain what happens in the pasuk.
 * Rashi** (1040-1106)

3/2/11 the christians believed in the old tesment but they interpret it to follow jesus. So Jews wanted to show it was a Jewish book and not christian.

Zechariah- your king who is the redeemer of the Jewish people will be poor and riding on a donkey. Christian literature is full of portraying jesus as the king of the Jews so here they would say zechariya is talking about jesus.

__Rashi-__ it is impossible to give another interpretation other than that this is moshiach. And we never found anyone who ruled over Israel during the second temple (jesus’ time therefore this is not talking about jesus).

Many commentaries on the torah were censured. If we compare the censured version to the manuscript version the differences can change the approach to the text.

Tehilim 2:2 Who is Hashem’s annointed one?

Censured Rashi- our rabbis say this is talking about moshiach but the way this pasuk sounds it seems to be talking about david himself. It seems that Rashi is saying there is drash and pshat on this pasuk and you should listen to pshat

Manuscript of Rashi- rabbis say it is talking about the future moshiach. It also says tishuvat hamin which means the answer of Christians was included here. Rashi isn’t doing this to say to interpret pshat but he is saying this a response to Christians and to refute the jesus interpretation of it.

3/9/11 Rashi- running commentary He was most influential person of ashkenaz and tosfot probably had the most influential methodology Rashi’s goal on commentary of Gemara is to explain all of it. he doesn’t quote contradictions or other sources. The point is to help us understand the text

For most people, before Rashi came along, the Gemara was a closed book and you didn’t have access to what Gemara meant. His accomplishment was huge.

Not a running commentary. Ideology: 1) compare talmudic passages and reconcile contradictions.
 * Tosafot**

· Maharshal- tosfot made the Gemara cohesive and view it as a ball. It might look like they find a contradiction that we don’t see. According to tosfot everything in Gemara is tied together.(in this case you can nevr have contradictions so that is why tosfot tries to reconcile the passages).

2) (ideology 2) reconcile talmud with ashkenazik customs.

· What can you do on chol hamoed and what can’t you do? · The Gemara says you can’t do full fledge pragmatia (business) on chol hamoed but rabbeinu tam says you can lend money. 3/16/11 methodology difference

Gemara- todos of rome said chananiya mishael and elezar refused to bow down to a statue and they were thrown into a kivshan haeish. We learnt a kal vichomer from frogs. The frogs from Egypt jumped into the ovens and they jumped into hot ovens. It is as if they died al kidush Hashem. The frogs don’t have the torah and they died al kidush Hashem so therefore obviously people should do it.

__Rashi__- you choose violate a mitzvah over deat becaue of the pasuk chay bahem. They shouldn’t have died. But because of the frogs they were allowed to.

__Tosfot__- he quotes rashia nd is an add on. The Gemara doesn’t make sense because the Gemara is saying that they should have been allowed to live. There is a Gemara in Sanhedrin contradicts this Gemara. It says if you are supposed to violate a mitzvah you should die. Our Gemara implies that the idol isn’t avoda zarah but it was a statue made by nebuchadnezzar so therefore they weren’t asked to violate anything so they should have bowed.

Maybe rabbeinu tam is trying to expand the definition of martydom. It is no longer just for the three main mitzvot but it is for anything. Rabbeinu tam is mentioning it because at this time the crusades were occuring and more Jews wee dying because they were Jews. T the time of the crusades Jews interpreted al kidush Hashem vry liberally and allowed themselves to die for it.

3/18/11 The first crusade happened in 1096

Crusade is a holy war fought to get back christinaity in order to get back Israel

The word crusade has the word cross in it.

1) stated reason a. muslims are conquering chrsitian lands  b. liberate holy sepulcher (where jesus was buried) from the illusions  2) background a. reunify western and eastern chrsitianity b. unify the chrsiitans and turn their vioence towards muslims c. pope is asserting his authority over the king

In 1095 in clermont the pope, Pope Urban II called for the crusade.

The pope was talking about what was happening in the byzantine empire which was eastrn orthodox and a break off of Judaism.

The motto was “deus Vult”- this is the will of God.

Those of youwho were robbers now become knights

The knights were sitting there and attacking each other because they were bored. · The poep s saying istead of fighting against the faithful they should all join and fight the infidels

The pope said absolutely nothing about the Jews and the Jews probably shouldn’t have been so scared. What happened to the Jews were huge for the Jews but for the rest of the world history it is only a footnote.

Investicher cintroversy- who was the most powerful; kings or popes?

3/23/11 peter the hermit (hermits are monks in the middle ages) he was probably most instrumental for making the crusades a big thing (he heard the pope’s speech.) he was fiery and charismatic preacher who popularized the idea of the crusade. He starts spreading the idea that maybe the Jews should be the target of the Christian wrath. It isn’t clear whether his group actually attacked Jews. He is credited for “the people’s crusades” the crusade that the pope started was more for the nobility and knights. Ultimately his group never made it to jerusalem.

Count emicho- he was a german count/nobleman who actually led the attack on Jews of the rhineland

The french communities were not directly effected by the crusades and the Jewish communities managed to bribe their way out.

Emicho went during the spring of 1096 went to the jewih communites of the rhineland between pesach and shavuot. Jews were offered a choice convert or die. Many Jews refused forced baptism. The bishops in the towns actually tried to protect the Jews (rudiger was just 12 years earlier). They locked the town gates. The burghers, however, opened the gates of the towns. With basically one exception the bishops failed.

Why did the burghers attack the Jews? · 1) economic resentment · 2) Jews are aliens and newcomers. · 3) Jews are Christ killers and they are avenging it st augustine and the bishops didn’t want the Jews to be attacked so why did the burghers atatck them? They were uneducated and probably couldn’t understand it.

sefira really became a sad time not because of rabbi akiva but because of the crusades.

4/1/11

how did the Jews view themselves and percieve of themselves.

There is a postive impression of the large scale death. They compared them to yitzchak and korbanot.

__Torah concepts__ yihoreg v’al yaavor Akeidat yitzchak · holy act · test of fate. Covenant Korbanot

For the most part the Jews kill themselves and the children. The deatsh were all active and not passive (they didn’t jst let themeselves be killed.) Jews were active and this makes them have more control. They aren’t just passive victims but made adecision to conrol their own fate.

4/8/11 is suicide ok?

Rabbeinu tam tris to justify what they did He says if you are afraid that the non-Jews are going to do bad things to you and you won’t be able to endure it and you will convert to christianity, you are able to kill yourself and it is a mitzvah to do it.

Proof from Gemara in gittin. There were people being brought as sexual slaves and they knew that. So the women jumped off the ship and the men followed.

__Smak__- if you are in private you can violate the mitzvah and not be killed. If you want you can get killed in order to not violate any mitzvot. The intention is what matters. If your intention is for Hashem then you can kill yourself. Just as shaul committed suicide for Hashem so should they. There was a story when people went back to a wedding to die and that was good.

Because martyrdom is happening so much in their time they expanded the definition of kiddush Hashem.

__Orchot chaim__- a midrash says you are not allowed to kill yourself. chananiyah mishael and azariya was a shaat hashmad so they were allowed to kill yourself only then. The rabbis didn’t like what shaul di dbecause it wasn’t a shaat hashmad. The people that kill children during the shaat hashmad use this midrash as proof.there are some who prohibit killing children chanaya mishael and azariyah didn’t kill themselves so it is ok and what shaul did wasn’t good. A rabbi killed children at a shaat hashamd and another rabbi called the first one a murderer but the first rabbi didn’t listen. The rabbi who tried to get the other one to stop said that the crusaders would get him and kill him in a painful way and it came true so it seems as though one should not kill him or herself.

4/13/11 Jews had to wear identifying features like a hat and long coat. 1215- fourth lateran council. Meeting to decide beliefs, policies etc. one of the policies was that Jews and muslims ahd to be indetified as separate. (social anti-Semitism) 1) Jews had to wear distinctive clothing (theological anti-Semitism)2) transubstantiation- changing something to another · Holy Eucharist- communion · Real presence in the eucharist and they think that when the ingest the wafer it is actually jesus 1) blood libels aka accusations of ritual murder a. accusations appeared in different towns that Jews kidnapped and murders Christian boys.  b. It might be connected that we killed Jesus and that we are trying to kill Christ again  2) Host deacration libel a. Jews broke into churches and stabbed the eucharist, thus “killing” jesus
 * LIBELS**

Economic anti-smetiism Jews were exclsuded from guilds and thus forced to be money lendeers Also Christian couldn’t do usury or lending on interest. Jews were charging a lot on their loans.

Get notes from 4/29/11

5/4/11 avraham is sitting outside his tent on a hot day and Hashem speaks to him and then he sees three men (angels).

__Ramban__- **Rashi** says Hashem appeared to avraham for bikur cholim. 3 angels appear. One to give the news to sarah, one to heal avraham and one to destroy sdom.
 * Rambam__-__** it is klal oprat. Hashem appearing to avraham is the klal or general and the prat or specific is the three men. When avraham says don’t pass me by it is a nivuah and the three men didn’t actually appear. None of the things actually happened it is just a vision, sarah never laughed or prepared foods etc.
 * Ramban**- did yaakov emerged from a nivuah physically hurt? Didn’t avraham say that he saw Hashem face to face etc. the residents of sdom also saw the three men where they also prophets? The Rambam says everything is a mareh but these words contradict what the torah says. You are not allowed to listen or believe these words.

Rambam is rationale

Ramban is living with Christians where the bible had to be true and accurate.

Get notes??? 5/13/11 it is always around and but sometimes something makes it flare up.
 * maimonidean controversy**

The original flare up happened when he was alive and people charged him with heresey etc.

1230-1235

why does it flare up now? 1) early 13th century a. Jewish culture turning toward mysticism.  i. Most likely because christianity had that and they were influential  2) Christians persecute heretics a. They went against groups who challenged the authority (by saying it isn’t literal etc.) of scripture. 3) Rambam’s stature a. His views were spread all throughout the world. People though rationalism would lead to non-observance.

Who was involved · Ashkenzi, french (anti-Rambam) vs Sphardi, spanish pro-Rambam) · Upper class Jews (pro Rambam) vs the lower class Jews)

1232- the anti-rationalists put a cherem on study of philosophy. Rambam’s book were therefore banned. The pro-ramabam group issued a counter-cherem.

In order to make peace they brought the ramban (who was anti-rationalists interestingly). He sent a letter to the french that Rambam was written for intellectual and philosophical Jews who thought about leaving judaisma dn the Rambam taught them that they didn’t have to.

There was no reconciliation and in 1234 a group of dominican friars (monks) confiscated and burned Rambam’s books. All of the Jews were shocked by this because they know it won’t end with the Rambam.the pro-Rambam side accuses the anti-Rambam side that they encouraged it. the controversy died down because of it.

Legends that emerged Rabbeinu yona of geronah (anti-Rambam)- he was inspired to right the book of doing tishuva when he saw the books being burned.

5/18/11 the roman catholics wanted to show that they were correct and ruled over everything

church vs. synagogue church motif (strausberg cathedral)

dominican friars

He was a jew who converted and said that the Jews got their religion from the talmud, which was heretical to chrsitianity.
 * DISPUTATIONS**
 * Paris disputation-1240, nicholas donin**

They therefore called his rabbis, rabbi yechiel of paris. They said he could defens Judaism but can’t say anything offensive against chrsitianity. They couldn’t defend the Gemara and in 1242 24 cartloads of handwritten gemaras were burnt.

Nicholas had a disciple named pablo chrsitiany Pablo decided to prove that Christianity is correct according to the Gemara. He approached james I the king of aragon who had the personal preist raymond de penforte.
 * Barcelona disputation**

Ramban insists that he has to be able to speak freely.

5/20/11 pablo uses the midrash to show that the moshiach was already born and that the Jews are wrong by just sitting and wiating around. The ramban said that he didn’t believe it (this goes against his usual stance that all stories are true because he was in a catch-22). Pablo said that Jews don’t listen to the books and Rambam said even if it were true it wouldn’t be talking about jesus because jesus was born before the destruction.

Pablo quotes another midrash that shows that the sufferng for the mesiah (who he believes to be jesus) would allow for the ressurection.

Rambam responds that it could not be true because ehe didn’t resurrect the people from the first day day until now. The messiah also can’t be divine if he was suffering or if he had to pray.

The king said Rambam won. He didn’t say he was right btu he argued well. On the next shabbos the king an draymond show up in school and show how jesus was the redeemer.

After the debate Rambam published his account of what had happened because the dominicans were saying that they won. Then they went to the king to say it is one thing that he won the debate but worse that he published the works about it. the king banished him for 2 years and the domincans were still angry so they permanently banish him and Rambam ends up in Israel.