COURSE: HISTORY OF ISRAEL
ASSIGNMENT: POST-EXILIC
JUDAISM
CLASS: BDP2
POST-EXILE JUDAISM
In 538 B.C.E, Cyrus, conquered Babylon and permitted
the Jews to return to Jerusalem. He was sure in gratitude for this favour they
would become a stable nation in this outpost of his domain. Nehemiah and Ezra,
who had been leading members of remaining strong community of Babylonia and
held high offices with the king, returned to Jerusalem about 100 year later.
TEMPLE RESTORATION: The first thing Ezra did was to start the teaching of
the torah and rebuilding of the temple. He declared solemn assembly and read
the Torah to the people from morning till evening so as to instill the fear and
restore the worship of Yahweh in Jerusalem. The restoration of the temple
worship was met with oppositions from the Samaritans (the Samaritans were a
judiaized mixture of native north Israelites and gentile deportees settled by
the Assyrians in the erstwhile northern
kingdom). A new religious inspiration attended the governorship of Zerubbabel
(6th century BCE), a member of Davidic line, who became the centre
of messianic expectations during the anarchy attendant upon the accession to
the Persian throne of Darius 1 (522 BCE). The prophets Haggai and Zechariah
understood the overthrow of the Persian empire, as a world wide manifestation
of God, and as a glorification of Zerubbabel (see books of Haggai and
Zechariah). Against the day of the empires fall, they urged the people to
quickly complete the building the temple. The labour was resumed and completed
in 516, but the prophecies remained unfulfilled. Zerubbabel then disappears
from the Biblical narrative and the spirit of the community flags again.
The one religious constant is the
vicissitudes of the restored community was the mood of repentance and desire to
win back God’s favour by adherence to the rules of his covenant. The anxiety
that underlay this mood produced a hostility to strangers and encouraged a
lasting conflict with the Samaritan who asked permission to take part in the
temple of the God whom they too worshipped. The Jews rejected the Samaritans on
ill-specified but apparently ethnic and religious grounds: They felt the
Samaritans to be alien to the Jewish historical community of faith and
especially to its messianic hopes.
THE TORAH: The decisive
constitutional event of the new community was the covenant subscribed to by its
leaders in 444, which made the Torah the law of the land. A charter granted to
Ezra by the Persian king Artaxerxes 1 empowered the latter to enforce the Torah
as the imperial law for the Jews of the province Avar-natira (“Beyond the
River”), in which the district of Judah (now reduced to a small area) was
located. The charter required the publication of the Torah, which in turn
entailed its final editing-now plausibly ascribed to Ezra and his circle. The
survival in the Torah of patent inconsistencies and disagreements with the
postexilic situation indicate that its materials were by then sacrosanct, to be
compiled but no longer created. But these survivals made necessary the
immediate invention of harmonizing and
creative method of textual interpretation to adjust the Torah to the need of
the times. The Levites were trained in the art of interpreting the text to the
people; the first product of the creative exegesis later known as Midrash
(meaning “investigation” or “interpretation’, plural midrashim) is to be found
in the covenant document of Nehemiah, chapter 9-every item of which shows
development, not reproduction, of a ruling of the Torah (see books of Ezra and
Nehemiah). Thus, the publication of the Torah as the law of the Jews laid the
basis of the vast edifice of Oral Law so characteristic of later Judaism.
Concern over observance of the Torah
was raised by the contrast between messianic expectations and the harsh reality
of the restoration. The contrast signified God’s continued displeasure, and the
only way to region his favour was to do his will. So, the book of Malaachi,
named after the last of the prophets, concludes with an admonition to be
mindful of the Torah of Moses. God’s displeasure, however, had always been
signaled by a break in communication with him. As time passed and messianic
hopes remained unfulfilled, the sense of a permanent suspension of normal
relations with God took hold, and prophecy died out. God, it was believed,
would some day be reconciled with his people, and a glorious revival of
prophecy would then occur. For the present, however, religious vitality
expressed itself in dedication to the development of institutions that would
make the Torah effective in life. The course of this development is hidden from
view by the dearth of sources from the Persian period. But the community that
emerged into the light of history in Hellenistic times had been radically
transformed by the momentous, quiet process.
Over the centuries the search for
meaning in Torah went deeper and deeper,
in debate, discussion, rabbinic decision and commentaries. This growing body of
interpretations was transmitted for centuries by word of mouth, Oral Torah
evolved, and eventually, when the subject matter became too voluminous and
persecution endangered the lives of the rabbis who held the knowledge, this
“Oral Torah” was written down. This has come to be known as Mishanah (Review),
which then became the source for additional commentary, the Gemara (addition),
completed in Babylonia. Both Mishanah and Gemara from the Talmud (compendium of
learning). It has remained the “encyelopeida of the Jew”.
When need arose, Torah was even
translated to remain the guide for those Jews who had lost their facility in
Hebrew. Translated into Greek, supposedly the work of seventy scholars, this
early translation is known to us as the Septuagint from the Latin world for
seventy.
HELLENISTIC JUDAISM
The emergence of Alexander the great of Macedonia on
the stage of history opened wide the gates to the influence of Greek culture
(Hellenism). In (336-323 BCE), Alexander conquering the world, entered
Jerusalem, and was so gracious to the Jews that made many name their sons after
him. Upon his early death, Judah first fell under the rule of the Ptolemics of
Egypt (the first ptolemy was one of the generals who had divided up Alexander’s
empire). So strong was the influence of Hellenism that many of the pious Jews
of Egypt no longer understood Hebrew, hence the translation of the Septuagint,
already mentioned.
Soon, however, Judah became attached
to the kingdom of Syria, the house of Seleucids. One of the kings, Antiochus in
Epiphanes, desirous of unifying his empire by means of Greek worship and
thought, but also inspired by Jewish Hellenists, endeavoured to suppress Jewish
religion. In 167 B.C.E this brought on a rebellion, led by Judah Maccabee
(Judas Maccabacus, the Hammerer) of the house of hasmon, not for independence
but for freedom of religion. It resulted incomplete independence. The victory
is celebrated in the festival of Hanukkah. The Hasmoneans traced their descent
to Aaron the high priest; they were, therefore, members of the priestly caste,
the only one entitled to conduct the service in the temple and to provide the
high priest. The Hasmoneans now assumed the power of the royal purple as kings,
adding to it the office of High priest. Their power was truly absolute and soon
became corrupt. Possessed by political and dynastic ambitions the rulers had
forgotten that they were the guardians of the covenant.
MARRIAGE LIFE
Ezra and Nehemiah were bent and very strict on family
purity, they even compelled the setters to divorce their non-Jewish wives.
Priests who married non-Jewish wives were depressed they vowed never again to
give their daughter to non Jews, nor their sons to marry them. The Jewish
kinship had to be deepened among all those who were committed to unyielding
obedience to God and Torah. It was felt that only a family uncompromisingly
committed to Torah and Mitzvot and brought up in them for generations could
assure Jewish survival. The Samaritans a people of Jewish and non- Jewish
ancestry with synthetic religion composed of many practices, were rejected.
ATTITUDE TO CONVERTS
The attitude of Judaism toward
converts thereby underwent a charge under the impact of external forces.
During their early settlement, Jews
had been hospitable to converts. They were the first and only people in
antiquity to receive the stranger willing to become a Jew, while all other
nations exclude the “Barbarians”. The book of Ruth, attests to this
hospitality, the convert lovingly accepted, became the ancestress of king
David. Now, faced with the dangers of erosion, a barrier was put up. Since
those days, the Jewish attitude toward conversion has remained ambivalent. At
times (for instance, during the period of the Roman participate) conversion
activity was widespread. At the height of Jewish conversion activity, which
includes the period of the emergence of Christianity, a very broad outlook
prevailed. Even those who were not prepared to accept all of the Jewish laws
could as “associate members” the convert became a “ger toshau” a resident
aline, entitled to enjoy the full measure of sustaining brotherhood of the
Jewish people, though restricted in his religious privileges. He could, of
course, become a full-fledged Jew, if he so desired. The feeding was: if men
offer it. Later, efforts at conversion became minimal, portly, of course, as a
result of the prohibition of Christianity against it. At present, there seems
to exists a more liberal outlook, at least among non orthodox Jews. The convert
becomes a full-fledged and beloved member of the Jewish people.
CONCLUSION
Post exilic era brought drastic
changes to the Jews both socially, religiously, politically and economically.
Without which, there will be nothing like the nation of Israel today. It allows
non Jews who desired to worship Yahweh to do so, provided they are ready to
obey the Torah. Post exilic Judaism is the brain behind what we have today as
the nation of Israel.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Leo
Trepp
Judaism
Development and Life
Second
Edition
Moshe
Greenberg