Nadene Goldfoot
Can you imagine not having some sport to follow that takes up some of your free time? Can you ever dream of not working in a building from 9 to 5, 6 days a week? That's mostly a life of today's men, but not the women. Our work is never done, today or thousands of years ago. There was a time when Jewish men had to spend most of their time fighting for their lives, or slaving, building for the enemy.
Jews had overstayed their welcome in Egypt in 1500 BCE and wound up as slaves, building storage cities. They had entered Egypt and couldn't leave until Moses freed them 400 years later.
From 722- 721 BCE, the Assyrians attacked Israel's 10 northern tribes. Probably all men were called into service of fighting against them. It was Shalmaneser V's siege of Samaria and its capture by Sargon who annexed the country, and deported 27,290 Israelites to Assyria and Media. Then he replaced the Jewish population with Syrian and Babylonian prisoners.
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General Pompey of Rome entered in 63 BCE and stayed. They had the strongest army in the world at that time. Jerusalem was under occupation. Thousands of Jewish men were hung on the cross for minor acts that irked the Romans. When the Romans occupied Jerusalem during Pompey's stay, they came with the background of watching sports, only their sport was watching people being killed before their very eyes. They allowed it to happen in several ways, in a 2 man combat fighting to the death of one, or in an arena full of lions and watch while they were being mauled and eaten. This shows the Romans' mental development . They enjoyed the watching. They lacked empathy. Huge arenas had been built in Rome for such entertainment. Often, it was the Jews who did the building, as slaves. Here they were again, building things for the enemy.
Romans had become involved in Judah during the civil war between Pompey and Julius Caesar (c. 49–45 BCE), when the
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Idumaean Antipater ruled Judea from 63-43 BCE (died 43 BCE)father of Herod, and ingratiated himself with Caesar and was rewarded by being made governor of Judaea (Latin from Judah) . The Jews were rewarded through the promulgation of a number of decrees favourable to them, which were reaffirmed by Augustus (reigned 27 BCE–14 CE) and later emperors.
Augustus (also known as Octavian) was the first emperor of ancient Rome. Augustus came to power after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE. In 27 BCE Augustus “restored” the republic of Rome, though he himself retained all real power as the princeps, or “first citizen,” of Rome.
Antipater’s son Herod, king of Judaea, b:73 BCE-4 BCE an admirer of Greek culture, supported a cult worshipping the emperor and built temples to Augustus in non-Jewish cities. Because he was by origin an Idumaean, he was regarded by many Jews as a foreigner. He captured Jerusalem in 37 and married the granddaughter of the High Priest, Hyrcanus, Mariamne. They were Hasmoneans. Later he killed Mariamne and his 2 sons, Alexander and Aristobulus. He was a horrible person.
Herod ordered the Massacre of the Innocents at the time of the birth of Jesus, although most Herod biographers do not believe that this event occurred. That was the incident in the nativity narrative of the Gospel of Matthew in which Herod the Great, king of Judea, orders the execution of all male children two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem. It's a repeat of the pharaoh who did the same thing in the days of when Moses was born in 1391 BCE.
Jewish men had to fight for almost a thousand years and be on the guard of invading countries.
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About a thousand years ago, a Jewish man's life was filled with studying the Torah instead of fighting. One man would become the teacher and have his own school, and others would vie to become his students. They would have debates which sharpened their wits. If either the teacher or pupils were married, the women would take over the business to allow their husband the time to do this. .
Germany's Rhine Valley hosted such schools at Mainz but were expelled in 1012 and attacked by Crusaders in 1096. They suffered in the Black Death by being accused of causing it in 1349, causing expulsion edicts in 1438, 1462 and 1470. Speyer's history started in 1070 with Crusaders hit there in 1096. Worms-10th century on saw the city destroyed by Crusaders, Trier in 1066 and by 1096 suffered martyrdom, Crusaders, Black Plague, the works, expelled in 1418.. They all suffered pretty much the same each time. Usually they also had commercial activities going on, too.
Hillel, born in 110 BCE in Babylonia and died 10 CE in Jerusalem, was a Jewish religious leader, sage and scholar associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud and the founder of the House of Hillel school of tannaim. He is popularly known as the author of two sayings: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And being only for myself, what am I? He lived about 100 years before Jesus came along.
Rashi (R. Solomon Yitzaki{ben Isaac) was born in 1040 in Troyes, France d: 1105, studied in the Rhineland and opened his school in Troyes.. He earned his livelihood not from his school but from his vineyard. His school had a great reputation. Rashi's comments are found today in our prayerbooks. There's a good thousand years between Rashi and Hillel.
Jewish society faced new social and economic conditions of life in Poland–Lithuania, the rabbinic responsum played a significant role in helping Jews come to terms with unfamiliar situations while remaining within a halakhic framework. There is also evidence that, for decades before the Council of Four Lands was founded around 1580, leading Polish rabbis would occasionally meet at the great annual fair of Lublin as a kind of rabbinic high court for Polish Jewry.
The Jews of Lithuania come from a part of eastern Europe located today in northeastern Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and parts of Latvia and Russia. The area (roughly between 20° and 30° E and 50° and 60° N) has dense forests and a moderate continental climate.
Schools were established in Lithuania, which turned out to be a country producing some pretty famous rabbis who usually established these schools of learning. Elijah ben Solomon Zalman (1720-1797), better known as the Vilna Gaon was very well known.
Torah study in Poland in the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, along with the literary creativity that grew up around it, constituted an extraordinary phenomenon in Jewish culture, directly connected to the institution of the yeshiva. Unlike the Ashkenazic yeshiva of the Middle Ages, which was the private preserve of the rector (the rosh ha-yeshivah or resh metivta) and was conducted without any direct connection to the
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community, the yeshiva in Eastern Europe in the early modern period was a decidedly communal institution, financed and managed by the community. Usually, the yeshiva was directed by the rabbi of the community.
This is how a young man gained respect among his peers, being an intelligent student.
Anti-Semitism developed like COVID in the 1930s culminating in the Holocaust from 1939-1945 killing 6 million Jews; men, women and children.
Israel was reborn on May 14, 1948 and all able bodies turned into soldiers once again to defend their lives and the lives of their families from another enemy, the Palestinians and neighboring Muslim countries. The days of fighting are upon Jews living in the Middle East once again. This IDF soldier is doing his morning prayers.
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://litvakai.mch.mii.lt/religious_tradition/rabbinical_works.htm
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Judaism/The-Roman-period-63-bce-135-ce
https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Rabbinate/The_Rabbinate_before_1800
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