History of the Jews, Vol. 3 (of 6)

Although the rabbinate of Cordova was merely an honorary office, and Chanoch derived no income from it, nevertheless it gave rise to contention after Chasdaï's death. The followers of Joseph Ibn-Abitur, amongst whom were the numerous Ibn-Abitur family, and the brothers Ibn-Jau, silk manufacturers, who were employed at court, endeavored to put their favorite at the head of affairs. The greater portion of the Jews of Cordova clung to Chanoch. The quarrel became too serious to be peaceably settled, and each party appealed to the Caliph on behalf of its favorite. Seven hundred influential men, partisans of Chanoch, betook themselves, in festive apparel, several days in succession to Az-Zahra, Alhakem's residence, not far from Cordova, in order to obtain the Caliph's favor for their rabbi.

The opposition party made up in zeal what it lacked in number. Alhakem decided in favor of the majority, and confirmed Chanoch in his rabbinate. But as Ibn-Abitur would not relinquish his claim, he was excommunicated by the victorious party. In spite of this he did not abandon hope. He appealed in person to the Caliph. He hoped to gain him over through his knowledge of Arabic literature, and through his service in translating the Mishna, and so effect a reversal of the decree. But his hopes were vain. The Caliph addressed him in the words: "If my subjects scorned me, as the community of Cordova scorns you, I would abdicate my kingdom. My only advice to you is to emigrate." The wish of the Caliph appeared to Ibn-Abitur a command, and he left Cordova (975). When he saw that he could not gain any followers in Spain, he set sail for Africa, traversed Maghreb, the Fatimide dominion, and probably also Egypt, without finding favor anywhere. Meanwhile, however, affairs suddenly took a favorable turn for Ibn-Abitur. One of his chief supporters was raised to a high position, and used his influence on his behalf. This was the silk manufacturer, Jacob Ibn-Jau, whose checkered career bears witness to the arbitrariness dominant in the Spanish Caliphate after the death of the last just and cultured Caliph, Alhakem (976).

The title of Caliph appears to have descended to his son Hisham, a sickly youth, but the chief power lay in the hands of Mahomet Almansur, the terror of the Christians in the mountains of northern Spain and of the Africans in their fortresses. Under this Mahometan "Major Domus," Jacob Ibn-Jau, the supporter of Ibn-Abitur, obtained great respect and considerable power over the Jewish-Spanish community. The circumstances of his good fortune are rather extraordinary. Jacob Ibn-Jau and his brother Joseph supplied the court with costly embroidered silk. Their goods were admired and sought after. Their business brought them into contact with Almansur, and on one occasion they found a considerable sum of money in the court of his palace, which had been lost by some provincials who had been ill-treated. The brothers Ibn-Jau spent the money in presents for the young Caliph and Almansur, so as to obtain their favor, and procure the recall of the banished Ibn-Abitur. Their attempt succeeded. In 985, Almansur appointed the elder brother Jacob as prince and chief judge of the various Jewish communities in the kingdom of the Andalusian Caliphate on both sides of the strait, from Segelmessa in Africa as far as the Douro. He had the sole right to appoint judges and rabbis in the communities, and to determine the taxes for state purposes and for communal wants. Jacob Ibn-Jau held court, as it were, had eighteen pages in his retinue, and drove about in a state carriage. The community of Cordova, proud of the distinction shown to one of its own members, recognized him as its chief, paid homage to him, made his office hereditary, and the poets sang his praises.

As soon as Ibn-Jau was appointed chief of the Jews of the Andalusian Caliphate, he tried to realize the purposes for which he had sought the favor of the court. He gave Chanoch notice to discontinue his rabbinical functions, threatening that, in case he disobeyed, he would be set adrift at sea in a ship without a rudder, thus returning to the place whence he had come. Ibn-Jau next made preparations to recall his favorite, Ibn-Abitur, and to invest him with the dignity of the rabbinate. But before he could do that, the ban of excommunication had to be removed, and for this act the consent and approval of the whole community were required. Out of regard for Ibn-Jau, who was respected at court, all the members of the community, amongst whom were his former opponents, sent a flattering letter to Ibn-Abitur, inviting him to accept the rabbinate of Cordova. Chanoch was deposed. When the community of Cordova, and especially his friends, had made preparations to meet Ibn-Abitur in a worthy manner, they received a letter from him which speedily undeceived them. He inveighed, in harsh terms, against their reckless treatment of his opponent. He praised Chanoch in unmeasured terms, saying that in all his wanderings he had never met with a man like him in virtue and piety, and at the same time he advised the community of Cordova to re-instate him in his office.

Meanwhile Ibn-Jau could not maintain his authority. His patron, Almansur, deposed him, and cast him into prison, the reason of his condemnation being his probity and disinterestedness. The regent (Hajib) had believed that the Jewish prince would use his power over the communities of the western Caliphate for the purpose of extorting money, and would make him the recipient of rich presents; but Ibn-Jau did not burden the community, and, consequently, could not satisfy Almansur's avarice. For this he was deprived of his liberty. After he had been imprisoned for a year he was set free by the Caliph Hisham, and restored to his former dignity (987). Since, however, Almansur was unfavorable to him, he was practically powerless. When Ibn-Jau died, one of Chanoch's relatives hastened to convey the news to him, thinking that he would receive it with joy. But this noble rabbi wept at the death of his enemy, and said, "Who will now care for the wants of the poor like him who has just departed? I cannot take his place, for I myself am poor."

Chanoch lived to see the beginning of the decadence of Cordova, and the first general persecution of his co-religionists in Germany, Africa, and in the East. He was killed by the fall of the reading-desk in the synagogue on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles (September, 1014).

The condition of the Jews in France and Germany at this time shows how dependent their spiritual life was upon external circumstances.

During the feeble rule of the last Carlovingians, and even under the first Capets in France, when the temporal and spiritual vassals became more powerful than the kings, and also under the Saxon emperors, the Jews were oppressed, and their literary activity almost entirely checked. The canonical laws had long before this debarred them from filling offices. They did not seek honor, but only desired to be allowed to live quietly, and to observe their religion. But the chiefs of the Church disturbed their peaceful condition without any profit to themselves. In the French territory, the chief power lay in the hands of the barons and the clergy. The power of the kings was as yet limited on all sides, and could not protect the Jews from tyrannical caprice. Only the fanatical clergy had entertained prejudices of a theological nature against the Jews, but their zeal aroused the hatred of the people against the Jews. The people, uncouth, brutish, and slaves to superstition, looked upon the sons of Israel as a cursed race, unworthy of compassion. They accused the Jews of employing evil spells against Christians. When the king, Hugh Capet, died of a dangerous illness (996), after having been treated by a Jewish physician, the people gave credence to the report that the Jews had murdered him. The chroniclers, too, looked upon this as a fact, and entered it upon their annals.

The Jews, it is true, had fields and vineyards, but they lacked personal safety, which could be granted only by a strong government. In the south of France, in Provence and Languedoc, where the king's power was insignificant, the fate of the Jews was still more dependent upon the caprice of the counts and viscounts. In one place they possessed landed property and salt mines, and were even allowed to become bailiffs (Bailli); in another they had to submit to be treated as bondmen. The chief community was that of Narbonne. There had been a Talmudical school there since the time of Charles the Great, but it does not seem to have been well supported. There suddenly appeared on the scene a Talmudist from the school of Sora, who instilled true zeal for the study of the Talmud into the Jews of southern France. This may have been Nathan bar Isaac, the Babylonian, but more probably it was his pupil Leon or Leontin (Jehuda ben Meïr), who, although he left no works behind him, was yet the first founder of the scientific study of the Talmud, which henceforth flourished in France and Germany. His famous pupil, Gershom, confessed that he owed all his knowledge to Leon.

The Jews in Germany at this time of the Saxon emperors did not suffer oppression, though they were not specially favored. The feudal system which existed in Germany forbade them to possess landed property, and thus compelled them to be tradesmen. Jew and merchant were synonymous in Germany. The rich were bankers, those of moderate means borrowed money in order to visit the fair at Cologne, for which loan they had to pay a low, reasonable interest. The German emperors continued the custom, which had been introduced by the first Carlovingians, of exacting a fixed tribute from the Jews. When Otto the Great wished to grant a subsidy to the newly-built church at Magdeburg, he made it a present of the revenue he derived from "the Jews and other merchants" (965). Otto II likewise presented "the Jews of Merseburg" to the bishop of that town in 981. In the retinue of this emperor was an Italian Jew, Kalonymos, who was greatly attached to him, and on one occasion assisted him at the risk of his own life (982). But the much praised rule of the Ottos gave the Jews subject to them no chance of raising themselves from their lowly position. The Christian peoples had learnt much from the Arabs, but they had not learnt to encourage science amongst members of religions different from their own. The German Jews in consequence, although they led more moral and industrious lives than their Christian brethren, were not more cultured. They had not even any Talmudical teachers of note of their own, but got them from abroad. Their first Talmudical authority was Gershom. He, together with his brother Machir, spread the seeds of Talmudic knowledge from the south of France to the Rhine, and gave it an importance that it had not obtained even in the Gaonic schools.

Gershom ben Jehuda (born 960, died 1028) was born in France, and emigrated for some unknown reason to Mayence. As was mentioned, he was a pupil of Leon. In Mayence, Gershom founded a school which soon attracted numerous pupils from Germany and Italy. The respect for Gershom was so great that he was named "The Light of the Exile." He expounded the Talmud to his pupils with a lucidity unattained by any of his predecessors, and his commentaries to the Talmud are also distinguished for clearness and directness.

Gershom was the first commentator of the vast Talmud, and he who knows the difficulty of such a work will appreciate how much energy, devotion, and patience were required for it. He was at once recognized as an authority by the German, French, and Italian communities. Questions were submitted to him, and unwittingly he became the rival of the last Gaon Haï, although he looked upon him with the reverence of a disciple. Through a peculiar combination of circumstances those who respected the Gaonate most, contributed to its decay. Gershom's commentaries on the Talmud, written in Hebrew, had the result that the Gaonic school could be dispensed with, and thus severed the German communities and those of northern France from it. Any one who chose to do so could obtain a deep knowledge of the Talmud without first seeking aid from Babylonia. Gershom also busied himself with the Massora, and made a place for its study, which until then had been pursued only in Mahometan countries, in Germany and in France.

Gershom became even more famous through his decrees than through his commentaries. They produced a very wholesome effect upon German and French Judaism. Amongst other things he forbade polygamy, practiced even among European Jews, allowing it in extreme cases only. He decreed further that the consent of the wife was necessary for a divorce, whilst, according to the Talmud, the husband could give her a bill of divorce against her wish. He also made an important rule about the carrying of letters, viz., that the bearer must not read a letter, even though it be not sealed. In those times intercourse with one's friends was carried on by means of travelers who happened to be going in the direction required. Hence this regulation was of the utmost importance. Those who transgressed this decree were to be laid under the ban of excommunication. Although these and other institutions were without synodal formality, and the author of them was in no way invested with official authority, yet, so great was the respect felt for Gershom, that they were received by the German and French communities like the decrees of a synhedrion, and scrupulously obeyed.

Contemporary with this authority of the German-French communities, there lived in Mayence a man whose merits were, until recently, unappreciated. This man was Simon ben Isaac ben Abun, of French descent, from Le Mans. He was learned in the Talmud, and wrote an original work (Yessod) on it. He was, besides, a versatile and prolific Hebrew poet (Poetan), and wrote a number of liturgical compositions in the style of Kaliri, as heavy and ungraceful as his, in which he introduced the Agadic literature, often in an enigmatical way. Simon ben Isaac was wealthy, and was thus able to avert the storm which had gathered, and was threatening to break over the Jews of Germany.

In the eleventh century occurred the first persecutions of the Jews in Germany. It is possible that the conversion of a churchman to Judaism, which the chroniclers mentioned in their annals as an unlucky event, roused the anger of the clergy against the Jews. The convert, whose name was Wecelinus, was chaplain to Duke Conrad, a relative of the emperor. After his conversion to Judaism (1005), Wecelinus wrote a lampoon on his former religion, bearing witness to his own great hatred of Christianity, and to the coarseness of the taste of the time. The emperor Henry, however, was so angry at the conversion of the chaplain, that he commissioned one of his clergy to write a reply. This he did, and it was couched in equally coarse and undignified language. Some years later (1012), the emperor decreed that the Jews should be expelled from Mayence, as a punishment for their refusal to be baptized. The decree was probably not confined to Mayence, but applied to other communities. The poet, Simon ben Isaac, composed dirges, lamenting the expulsion, as though it were a terrible persecution, intended to uproot Judaism from the hearts of its followers.

Gershom, too, though by no means a poet, gave utterance to his grief at the severe persecution of Henry II in penitential hymns. "Thou hast made those who despise Thy Law," he says, "to have dominion over Thy people; they bow down to senseless images, and would compel us, too, to worship them. They urge Thine inheritance to change Thee for a God of their own making. They are determined no longer to call Thee God, and to overthrow Thy word. If I say, 'Far be it from me to forsake the God of my fathers,' they gnash their teeth, put forth their hand for plunder, and open their mouth in scoffing. Thy people are driven from their homes, they raise their eyes in longing to Thee." During this persecution many Jews became Christians, either to save their lives or their possessions. Among them was Gershom's son. When the latter died a Christian, his hapless father observed the mourning ceremonials for him as for one who had died a Jew.

Simon ben Isaac, by his zeal, and probably by bribing the officials with large sums of money, succeeded in staying the persecution, and even in obtaining permission for the Jews to settle again in Mayence. Those Jews who had been compelled to submit to baptism now gladly returned to their religion, and Gershom protected them from the scorn of their brethren on account of their temporary apostasy, by threatening to excommunicate any one who reproached them.

The grateful community was anxious to perpetuate the memory of Simon. It was done by mentioning his name in the synagogue every Sabbath, and adding, "that he had exerted himself on behalf of his brethren, and that through him persecutions had ceased." The name of Gershom was likewise perpetuated, because "he had enlightened those in exile through his decrees."

The school that had been founded by Gershom in Mayence flourished for more than eighty years, and became the center of Talmudic activity for Germany, France and Italy. At the same time, about the end of the fourth century of the Hejira, when the Karaites expected the coming of the Messiah, persecution broke out against the Jews in the East and in Egypt, and lasted longer than that in Germany. The German Jews had been persecuted because they did not believe in Christ and the saints; the Eastern Jews were now oppressed because they would not believe in Mahomet and the immaculate Imam, in the heavenly guide (Mahdi).

This persecution was originated by the mad Egyptian Caliph Hakim, a Mahometan Caius Caligula, who believed that he was the incarnation of the divine power, and the vicegerent of God on earth. Hakim persecuted all who dared doubt his divinity – Mahometans, Jews, and Christians, without distinction. At first he decreed that if the Jews of his dominion did not become converts to the Shiitic Islam, they would have to wear round their necks the picture of a calf in commemoration of the golden calf of their ancestors in the wilderness. In addition, they were to be distinguished from the believers by their external appearance, as ordained by Omar. Those who transgressed were to be punished by exile, and by the loss of all their possessions (1008). A similar regulation was enacted against the Christians. When Hakim heard that the Jews evaded his decree by wearing a golden image of a calf, he added a further clause, viz., that they should wear in addition a block of wood six pounds in weight, and have little bells attached to their garments that they might be known at a distance as unbelievers (1010). He afterwards ordered the churches and synagogues to be destroyed, and drove both Jews and Christians out of his kingdom (1014). The Fatimide dominions at that time were very extensive. They embraced Egypt, northern Africa, Palestine and Syria, and since Hakim had adherents also in the Caliphate of Bagdad, there were but few places of refuge open to the Jews. Many, therefore, outwardly conformed to Islam, while waiting for better times to come. The persecution lasted till the Mahometans themselves grew tired of the half-witted Caliph, and assassinated him (1020).

Northern Africa, too, which had enjoyed a brief efflorescence under Isaac Israeli, Dunash ben Tamim, and the alien R. Chushiel, produced its last set of great men in the latter part of the eleventh century, and then sank into oblivion. Its two great authorities were Chananel, the son of Chushiel, the immigrant, and Nissim bar Jacob Ibn-Shahin (1015–1055). They lived in the same place, and are usually named together, but they do not appear to have been on friendly terms with each other. On the contrary, there appears to have been the same rivalry between them as there had been between Chanoch and Ibn-Abitur, Nissim, like the latter, being a native, and Chananel, like the former, the son of an alien. We are not even certain which of the two was the official rabbi of Kairuan; both of them, however, presided over the school. Chananel, in addition, had a large business; whilst Nissim was so poor that he had to be supported by the Jewish minister in Granada. They, however, showed remarkable similarity in their ideas; they pursued the same studies, and wrote works on the same subjects, but Chananel made use of the Hebrew language, and Nissim of Arabic.

A new element in the study of the Talmud, which established it on a firmer basis than that on which the Geonim had been able to place it, was added by the labors of these two men. The Jerusalem Talmud, although more ancient than the Babylonian, had suffered considerably by the fate to which books as well as men are exposed. Whilst the Babylonian Talmud was known and studied in the East to the boundaries of Khorasan and India, and in the West to the end of the ancient world, its companion remained for a long time unknown outside of its birthplace. The former had commentators, who explained and expounded it thoroughly; the latter was for a long time neglected. In consequence of the connection of northern Africa with Palestine, brought about through its conquest by the Fatimide Caliphs, the Jewish teachers of the two lands came into contact with each other, and the Talmud of the Holy Land (as it was called) became known in Kairuan. The two great Talmudists, Chananel and Nissim, were the first in Talmudic circles to busy themselves with it. In their Talmudical writings, which consisted partly of commentaries, explanations of separate words and the subject-matter, and partly of practical decisions, they gave prominence to the Jerusalem Talmud. Both wrote commentaries to the Pentateuch, in which they followed the path marked out by Saadiah for rational exposition of difficult passages in the Pentateuch.

They were both in constant communication with Babylonia on the one hand and with Spain on the other, and formed, so to speak, the link between the two lands. They lived to see the utter extinction of the Gaonate, but after their death the school of Kairuan sank into complete insignificance. One of its pupils, who afterwards became famous as a rabbinical authority, owed his fame solely to his emigration to Spain.

The institutions, too, and the traditions of Babylonian-Persian Judaism showed manifest signs of decay at this time. They possessed, it is true, two men of extraordinary ability, viz. Haï and Samuel ben Chofni, but these were not in a position to stay its dissolution, and could only throw a dim light upon the dying Gaonate.

Haï (or Haya, born 969, died 1038), who had in his eighteenth year been raised to the highest office next to the Gaon, at the age of thirty years succeeded his father Sherira in the Gaonate of Pumbeditha. At his installation the high honor was accorded him of having his name mentioned when a portion from the Prophets was publicly read, and he was compared to King Solomon. Foreign communities, as well as the Babylonians, showed him the highest respect. His character was noble, and he was a man of independent thought. He was versed in all branches of science as they were then taught, and displayed great literary activity. Haï reminds one of Saadiah, whom he took as his model, and whom he defended from attacks, but he was essentially a Talmudist, whereas Saadiah was a religious philosopher. Like him Haï was a thorough Arabic scholar, and made use of that language in many of his letters, and in numerous scientific treatises. Like the Gaon of Fayum he was free from that narrow-minded exclusiveness which permits men to see the truth only in their own religion, and causes them to look upon everything outside as untrue. He was on friendly terms with the head of the Eastern Christians of Bagdad, and on one occasion, when in his exegetical lectures he chanced upon a difficult passage, he did not hesitate to consult the Patriarch (Mar-Elia I.).

In his explanation of rare and archaic words in the Bible, Haï boldly sought assistance from the Koran and the old traditions of the Mahometans in order to confirm their meaning. He was an unprejudiced sage, who loved the light and avoided darkness. He often had disputations with Mahometan theologians about the relation between Judaism and Islam, and is said often to have silenced them by his eloquence. His main study, however, was the Talmud. In this he resembled his father Sherira, but his study was productive of better results. He wrote a terse commentary, in which he explained the words in the most difficult portions of the Mishna and the Talmud.