SAADIA GAON When We Interrupted This Series of "Jewish Pn>F11es" Last

,,, i ,, ,7? V g Q ‘ ' ’LJ‘ S j I 28/") /rr l ' ~ - SAADIA GAON ' @ LT! -_-----'_--_ 174.7 (KEV ) V When we interrupted this series of "Jewish Pn>f11es" last April we had dealt with some of the outstanding personalities of the Rabbinic .Age,'from Hilfel 1n the first century B.C.E. to Rgv Ashi, who flourished in Babylonia about the year 400 CrE- We are nowXKg going to mAce a Jump of half a millenium to concern ourselves with a very great Jewish leader who flourished in the early part of the 10th century. This is a long Jump; and yofi will want to know, to begin with, A~pA what haypened 1n the intervening 500.years. As you can imagine, many things did happen; but you will also gather, from the fact that we gre making fine Jump, that no really outstanding person appeared in Jewry}:Er 031 during that period. 510mg Throughout this period the centre of gravity of Jewish life remained in Babylonia, to which country it'had shifted from Palestin /‘kawgn ) about 300 C.E. At the beginning of our period there were, perhaps, 303?o two million Jews in Babylonia. I said something in my last talk about the way they lived. Most of them fiere farmers, though some were artisans,_merchants and sailors. They formed a collection of mofe .. \N‘x—V or less concentrated and autonomous communities, mainly in the region of the larger cities such as Bagdad and Mahhza. Politically they were ruled by an Exilérph, or Resh Galuta. whose status was virtually that of a prince. The office was hereditary, and its holders claimed descent, possibly rightly, from the ancient House of David. The Exilaroh was reaponsible for maintaining order in the Jewish communities, and for collecting taxes from them on behalf of the Emperor. He also administefled Jewish Law, and apgointed Judges and the heads of the I - 2 _ Jewish academies. The two principal academies were those of sura and Pumbedita. She forme} had been established by Rev in th“ first half of the 5rd century; the latter £00k the place of Nehardéa some thirty yearé later. The heads of these two academies were the religious leaders of Jewry; and not only so far as Babylonia is concerned, for their advice and guidance was often sought by Jewish communities thousands of miles distant. At some stage the heads of these by the Government academies were given official reoognition/and'invested with the title Gaon, whiéh means "Excellency". This meant tfiat the? could exercise absolute authority in religious matters, without reference to the Exileroh. It is not known for certain when this happened; but it is probable that the honour was conferred on the President of Sura in the 7th century, and on the President of Pumbedita two centuries later. 'As can be imagined, there were frequent controversies between the heads of the academies and the Exilaroh. For the EXXIKXHHH power and wealth possessed by the Exilarohs ofteh went to their heads and enticed them to rule in a tyrannical and corrupt manner. Thane controversies, which greatly weakened Jéwish life in Babylonie, reached theif climax in the lifetime of Saadia which we are about to consider. At the beginning of our 500 year period Babylonia was part of the Persian Empire; but in the middle of the 7th century it fell into the hands of the rapidly expanding Arab Empire inspired by the Mohammedan faith. During. as well as before and after. this upheaval, there were disturbances and persecutions which dauged the Exilarchate to be suspended and the aeqdemies to be closed down. But each time these institutions were re-established within a few years. -3- In the secdnd half of thé 8th century a new mpvement arose among the Jews. It began in Babylonia. but spread throughout the Jewish world. It was founded byba certain Anan ben David, who aspired to the position of Exilaroh but was disapéointed. The movement which he founded became known as-Karaism, from the word Kera or Mikra. meaning Scripture. As that name impliés, the Karaites wanted to révert to the way of life prescribed in the Hebrew Bible, and rejected all the embellishments and accretions of the Oral Law. This meant that they overthrew the wholé development of Rabbinic Judaism which had taken pléoe during the past 1000 years and which had become crystallised 1n the Mtshna and Talmud. The aim was to sihplify and purify the practice of the Jewish Faith and to offer an alternative to Rabbinid Judaism. But the course which the Karaites reGOLmended was neither wise nor practical. It was impossible to live by the Bible alone, since its laws required to be adapted to altered conditions of life. And indeed the Karaites were forced to revive many post-biblical traditions or to create new ones which were no more authoritative and no better than those evolved by the Rabbis. In other respects Karaism made Jewish life too hard. For example, the prohibition against kindling lights on the Sabbath was taken so literally that the Karaites actually sat in darkness during the Sabbath day, and so transformed it from a day of Joy into one of gloom. Rabbinic Judaism, on the other hand, permitted peoyle to benefit from any illumination on the Sabbath provided that it had been kindled before the Sabbath‘began. Rabbmnic Judaism. in other words, was more adaptable than Karaite_Judaism. Nevertheless, many of the Karaites were great scholars, especially of the Bible, as well as pious.and nbble persons; and so they exercised a considerable infhuenoe. » - 4 _ V That their influence was not stronger was due to the determined opposition of the defenders of Rabbinic Judaism; the Rabbanites. Among these the most illuétrious and influential was Saadia. From the blow which he struck against Kara1sm, the movement never recovered. It declined more and more thfough the centuries, though a héndful of Karaites have shrvived 1n variofis parts of the world to the'present day. But it must not be-imagined that all the Jews lived in Babylonia. For one thing many migrated eastwards, following the trade-routes, to India and China. Some travelled north to what is now Southern Russia, between the Black Sea agd the Caspian See, where, in'the 7th century. a whole Mongolian people, the Kingdofi of the Khazars, or at least its ruling family, embraced the Jewish Faith in preference to its two rivals, Christianity and Mohammedanism. Some Jews, again, migrated in a north- westerly direction, settling in Asia Minor and the Balkan countr1es and penetrating as far as what is now Southern Poland. Apart from these migrations from the Babylonian centre, Jewish life also continued in Palestine, through all sorts of vicissitudes. Palestine was, of coursé} part of the Roman Empire at the beginning of our half- millennium; and by this time Christianity was‘the official religion of Rome. 0n the whole the Jews fared badly under Christtan rule. ESpecially 1n the 6th century they suffered severely under the Christian Emperor Justinian I. But when Palestine was conquered by the Mohammedan Arabs in 635 conditions improved sufficiently to permit a revival of Jewish life and learning. During the following centuries the Midrashio literature was committed to writing. An important school was established at Tiberias where many great Jewish scholars flourished. Some of them wrote religious poetry (piyyutim) much of which was inoorpdrated into _ 5 - the Jewish liturgy. Even more important was the study of the Bible which took place at Tiberiés. It wés during this per1od that the‘fiXWIK text of the Bible was clarif;ed and consolidated by the introduction of vowels, punctuation marks and accents. The scholars who undertook this task are known as Masoretes, for they established the Masorah, the trad1tion which regu;ated the reading And writing of Scripture. Thereby the foundations were laid for the study of Hebrew Grammar to which our Saadia made an impértanp contribution; One of the greatest Masoretes was Ben Asher whom Saadia met personally onfia visit to Tiberias. From Palestine, too, Jews migrated to other lands. some of them Journeyed south into the Arabian Peninsula and established themselves especially ehong the coast of the Red Sea: It was here that Méhammed appeared in the 7th century. He was a Pagan Arab of very humble birth who was greatly impressed by Judaism and Christianity. He decided to convert 1H3 his fellow-Arabs to a higher religion, partly compounded of Judaism and Christainity, and partly 9f his own making. He declared. himself to God's messenger, the greatest Prophet since Moses and Jesus both of whom he recogniseias such. In 622 Mohammad left his native Mecca for Yathrib, which was re-named Medina, to proclaim the New faith. He expected to be welcomed by the Jews, if not by the Christians. But when the Jews rejected the primitive and distorted Judaism which he proclaimed, he turned against them with bitterness and violence. Nevertheless, Mnhammcdahism conquered the Arab masses, partly by persuasion, and partly by the sword. Mohammed's sayings were written down and emfiellished and became the Koran. Equipped with the Koran and . a _ 6 _ with the sword, the Arabs, in a remarkably short space of time, conquered kingdom after kingdom finti; they had established an Empire stretching from Spain in the west to India in the east. Under Muhammedan rule Jewish life was often rstrioted and insecurg; and yet, on the whole, less seriously molested than in previous-centuries. Mohammedanism not only plaoefl the Jews in a different.politiéal and religious finvlronment: it also affected their ianguage.

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