How did the ancient Jews live? The artificial origin of the Jewish people - nikolay_istomin — LiveJournal. The impact of Jewish history on world civilization

The Jews are one of the most ancient peoples of the world, having known freedom and slavery, prosperity and poverty, national unity and dispersion throughout the world over 4 thousand years of their history. It is unlikely that we will find a country on the map where the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would never have lived. At all times, Jews protected their national shrines, kept the memory of the Promise and the Testament, and found a source of spiritual strength in their sacred books - the “portable homeland” of the Jews, in the words of Heinrich Heine.

History of the House of Israel

... Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will tell you. (Deuteronomy 32:7)

The Age of the Patriarchs

The ancestors of the Semitic peoples led a nomadic lifestyle. Not having their own, they wandered along with their families, property and herds through the territories of the Ancient East and from time to time camped near cities. Sometimes nomads settled for a long time and then, having enlisted the patronage of local kings, they acquired plots of land in the city suburbs. Probably Terah, the father of Abraham, the legendary Jewish patriarch, led such a semi-sedentary life.

In the second half of the II millennium BC. e. Semitic tribes were ousted from Upper Mesopotamia and joined the struggle for Canaan (Palestine). In the Bible, Palestine is called a country "flowing with milk and honey." There were fertile valleys and mountains with snowy peaks, abundance and generous vegetation. The eighth chapter of Deuteronomy lists some of the grains and fruits that grew in the Holy Land: wheat, barley, grapes, fig trees, pomegranates, and olives. But Palestine was not only a "paradise" - the most important trade routes passed through it, connecting the civilizations of antiquity. The desire to possess Canaan in order to be able to control the trade of a vast region, for several centuries, brought together the powers of the Ancient East and warlike nomads on the battlefields.

According to the biblical tradition, Terah left Mesopotamian Ur “to go to the land of Canaan”, however, before reaching it, he stopped in Haran and soon died. Abraham, led by his patron God Yahweh, continued the path of his father and reached Palestine, where he established several altars to the Lord. Then a drought broke out, and the wanderer of Ur for some time "descended" to Egypt, from where he returned a very wealthy man, the owner of herds and treasures.

God does not leave his chosen one; convinced of Abraham's devotion, he enters into a sacred alliance with him - the Covenant (brit). Yahweh promises to make Abraham "the father of many nations" and to give his descendants Canaan "for an everlasting possession"; in exchange, he demands: "Circumcise your foreskin: and this will be a sign of the covenant between me and you."

Thus, the cult of Yahweh, the tribal God of the aliens, was established in Canaan, and the active son of Terah, who rejected the "other gods", became the ancestor of the Jews (through Isaac - the son of Sarah), Arabs (through the sons of Hagar and Keturah) and Edomites (through his grandson of Esau). The origin of the Moabites and Ammonites is also associated with him. In later Jewish literature, the image of the “first monotheist” is supplemented by the features of a cultural hero - the first teacher of astronomy and mathematics, the inventor of the alphabet, etc.

Throughout his long life (175 years), Abraham does not come close to or become related to any of the local pagan tribes. When the time comes to marry his son Isaac, he sends a matchmaker to Harran to find a bride from among his relatives.

Ishmael, the son of Abraham from the slave Hagar, behaves differently. He marries an Egyptian and forever separates his descendants from the Holy People. Esau, the eldest son of Isaac, also departed from the Covenant. In his youth, he exchanged the gift of birthright for lentil stew, and later brought into the house the pagans, who "were a burden" to his parents - Isaac and Rebekah.

Abraham's work was continued by his other grandson, Jacob, the youngest son of Isaac and Rebekah's favorite. He married his cousins ​​- Leah and Rachel, as well as their maids - Balla and Zelfa, and produced from them 12 sons - the ancestors of 12 tribes (tribal associations) of Israel. Joseph, the son of Jacob from the beautiful Rachel, enjoyed the special disposition of his father. The brothers, prompted by a feeling of envy, sold Joseph into slavery to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver, and they took the young man to Egypt.

Betrayed by his brothers and separated from his loving father, Joseph could only rely on his own. And he managed not only to survive in a foreign country, but also to make such a dizzying career that even a well-born Egyptian would envy. Thanks to the natural mind, administrative talent and a special gift of foresight, Joseph became the right hand of the pharaoh and the first official of Egypt. The exaltation of a Jew was a deed unheard of in this country, but this Jew was worth the exaltation. He carried out large-scale transformations in the administration of Egypt, enriched the treasury, carried out agrarian reform and ensured the food security of the state for many years.

Having become a faithful servant of a pagan ruler and having married, according to his will, the daughter of a pagan priest, Abraham's great-grandson lost his main asset - participation in the Covenant. But the apostate never forgot his God or his people. Remembering the betrayal of the brothers, he did not hide evil against them. After all, they were only tools in the hands of Yahweh. When the brothers came to Egypt to ask for bread (“for there was a famine in the land of Canaan”), Joseph explained to them the plan of the Almighty: “... God sent me before you to save your life.” Thanks to Joseph, the entire House of Israel was saved and found refuge in the Egyptian land of Goshem, in the Nile Delta.

Historians perceive the version of the 400-year stay of the Jews in Egypt with skepticism: at present there is no convincing evidence in its favor. However, this is hardly essential for understanding what is said in the Book of Genesis. The sacred history of any nation is always based on myth, that is, on a reality of a higher order than historical fact.

The period of prosperity of the Jews in Egypt was short-lived. The descendants of Jacob, who remained faithful to Yahweh, remained outsiders in the eyes of the Egyptians. The authorities did not trust foreigners, seeing them as a threat to the country's security: "Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more numerous and stronger than us ... when a war happens, they will unite with our enemies." The Jews were enslaved and humiliated by the Egyptians for several centuries.

So it was until Yahweh heard the groans of His people and remembered "His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." In order to restore Canaan to Israel, He called Moses and made him the leader of the Jewish people and the agent of His will. In Judaism, Moses is revered as the greatest of the prophets, who is called Rabbeinu ("our teacher"). Ahead were 40 years of wandering in the desert, during which all former slaves had to die so that only free people could set foot on the Holy Land.

7 weeks after the exodus from Egypt, the wanderers approached Mount Sinai. There a central event in the sacred history of Judaism took place: Yahweh called Moses and through him gave Israel the Ten Commandments and the Torah. The Sinai Revelation is considered the moment of the emergence of Judaism as a national religion. In the desert, the people of Yahweh built the first tabernacle, or mishkan, a portable prayer tent, which became the prototype of the future Temple and synagogues. The most sacred object in the tabernacle was the Ark of the Covenant, the place of the earthly stay of Yahweh - a chest in which two stone tablets (slabs) with the Commandments carved on them were kept.

Moses was not destined to enter Canaan. He died when the Promised Land was already visible in the distance. The conquest of the Holy Land was led by the successor of Moses, the prophet Yehoshua (Joshua).

Age of Judges

It took several centuries to develop a new territory, the right to which had to be defended in battles against warlike neighbors (the Hittites and Egyptians), as well as against the indigenous Canaanite population. The Israelites were surrounded by peoples close to him in origin (Moabites, Ammonites, Arameans), and the ancient Amorite states of Geshur and Maaha. Each of the 12 tribes of Israel received its allotment in Canaan, and these territorial and tribal frameworks were fixed for many centuries.

This period is called the "age of the Judges". The commander of one of the tribal associations (“tribes”) or large clans, who proved his right to power by feats of arms and the ability to mobilize the population to repel an external enemy, became a judge (supreme ruler). The generals and ordinary Israelis were inspired by the prophets - religious ideologists who had outstanding oratorical abilities and the gift of foresight. Among the famous personalities of that era, tradition includes the prophet Samuel and the prophetess Deborah, Ehud of Benjamin, who stabbed the Moabite king-enslaver with a sword, and the hero Samson, the hero of folk tales, who managed to beat the army of the Philistines with a donkey's jaw.

Historian Martin Noth suggested that the judges belonged to a permanent tribal leadership, and called their form of government amphictyonic, by analogy with Ancient Greece, where there was a special kind of "sacred unions" - amphictyons. They formed around the religious center and united 12 cities or tribes. In Canaan, the main religious center arose at Shiloh.

The sources do not indicate what the duties of individual tribes were in relation to the religious center. He was probably supported by gifts and offerings. Here was the residence of the family of the high priest and the seat of the Ark of the Covenant. In Shilo, all-Jewish meetings of the tribal nobility were convened to elect a leader or decide on declaring a "holy war". Apparently, this was how the war of all Israelite tribes against the tribe of Benjamin was declared, the rulers of which grossly violated generally accepted moral norms (Book of Judges 19:21). A military campaign against the Philistines, the most formidable enemy of the Jewish tribes, was also organized in Shilo, starting from the 13th century. BC e.

The fate of Samuel, a judge and a prophet, is connected with this center, during which royal power was first established in Israel. The family of the future prophet annually made a pilgrimage to the Shilo temple, and Samuel himself was brought up and lived in the temple from childhood.

As a rule, the judges mobilized only those tribes that were directly under threat. By the end of the XI century. to i. e. the Philistines, having established themselves on the fertile coastal strip of Canaan, were ready to completely conquer the country. The danger rallied the Jewish tribes and accelerated the process of turning the union of the tribes into a single state.

The people turned to Samuel, who had reached advanced years, with a request to appoint a worthy king over Israel. The choice fell on the brave Saul, who became the first Israeli monarch (about 1030 BC), united the military forces of all the tribes and opposed the Philistines.

So at the end of the XI century. BC e. The Hebrew State of Israel was established. At first, Saul had military success, but in one of the battles he suffered a crushing defeat and, in order not to become a prisoner of the pagans, stabbed himself with a sword. The strength of the Philistines was still too great.

David

Saul's son-in-law David (1004-965 BC), who ruled Israel for more than 40 years, was able to put an end to the external threat. Almost all this time the legendary warrior king spent in battles and by the end of his life he owned a small empire. Galilee and the cities of the Saron and Ezdrelone valleys were annexed to the Israeli state. Of particular importance was the conquest of the fortress of Zion, the citadel of the city of Jerusalem, inhabited by one of the ancient Canaanite peoples. David fully appreciated the strategic advantages of Jerusalem, located in the geographical center of the country, at the crossroads of trade routes (and not far from the allotment of Judah, from the tribe of which the monarch himself came). This city was in all respects the most suitable capital of the united state.

During the reign of David, all civil and military administration is concentrated in Jerusalem. The Ark of the Covenant is transferred here, accompanied by the priests and Levites serving it, after which the new capital becomes not only a political, but also a religious and judicial center of the country. Now David controlled all trade between Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Syrian kingdom became a tributary of Israel. David also conquered Idumea, thus bringing the southern borders of Israel to the Red Sea.

The strengthening of the monarchical system was accompanied by the emergence of a new ideology about the sanctity of royal power. In Psalm 110, apparently written by one of the court poets, Yahweh tells the monarch: “You are a priest forever…”

The historiography of the last years of David's reign attributes all the disasters that befell his house (fratricide, rebellion against David by his son Absalom) to the unforgivable sin committed by the king. Once, in order to take possession of the beautiful Bathsheba, he sent her husband, his military leader, to certain death. The moral condemnation of a powerful lord is a unique phenomenon in the historical literature not only of the Ancient World, but also of later eras.

Solomon

After the death of David (965 BC), his youngest son Solomon (965-928 BC), having killed his brother and his supporters, became the new king. Under him, the Hebrew state reached power and prosperity. The monarch entered into an alliance with Egypt and Phoenicia, established control over the Gulf of Akoba in the Red Sea, built a harbor there and engaged in maritime trade. Revenues from domestic and foreign economic activities poured into the royal treasury like a river. Hundreds of stone buildings were erected in the cities with the help of Phoenician architects and artisans. Against the background of the new urban landscape, modest prayer tents did not make the proper impression, and Solomon decided to build a stone Temple - in the center of Jerusalem, on Mount Zion.

The creation of the new shrine of Israel was completed by 958. Over the next 1000 plus years, the Jerusalem Temple was the center of the spiritual life of the Israelites and a symbol of the national unity of all Jewish tribes.

The highest category of clergy was the priests (cohanim), who had the exclusive right to perform temple services. Only the Aaronids, the descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses, could be priests. They were served by the Levites - people from the tribe of Levi. The priests of the Jerusalem Temple constituted the highest stratum of Hebrew society. Their descendants still perform special ritual functions and observe additional prohibitions. For example, cohanim should not be under the same roof with a dead body, marry a widow or divorcee, etc.

The beginning of "scattering"

During the life of Solomon, his native tribe of Judah received significant privileges, which caused discontent of other tribes. After the death of the king, his son Rehoboam was rejected by many of the tribes of Israel. The northern tribes rebelled against Rehoboam and founded their own kingdom, which retained the name Israel. The two southern tribes formed the state of Judah.

In 722, the kingdom of Israel was conquered by the mighty Assyria and forever disappeared from the historical stage, and its inhabitants, taken into captivity, disappeared among the population of the Assyrian state. After 100 years, the tiny kingdom of Judah was in the grip of a conflict between Babylon and Egypt. In 586, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed the Jerusalem Temple, and most of the Jews were forcibly relocated to the Babylonian lands.

Jewish settlements that arose outside the Holy Land from the end of the 8th century. BC e., received the general name "diaspora", that is, "scattering". After 586, most of the settlers were concentrated in Babylon. At this time, the main spiritual leader of the Jewish people is the prophet Ezekiel, who preaches the idea of ​​the coming of the Messiah, who will return the Holy Land and the Jerusalem Temple to the Jews.

In 538 B.C. e. Cyrus the Great, the Achaemenid king of Persia, conquered Babylon and allowed the Jews to return to their homeland. Jerusalem remained part of the Persian Empire, but received the status of a self-governing city (VI-V centuries BC).

However, many did not want to leave the thriving communities established in Babylon during the years of exile. Those who returned to Judea set about rebuilding the Temple. But even here, in the homeland of the Promise and the Covenant, there was no former unity among the Jews. The leaders of the new religious community, Ezra and Nehemiah, agreed to recognize as Jews only those Jews who had gone through the Babylonian captivity (where they continued to observe Jewish customs and remained faithful to the One God). Others were considered apostates, defiled by intermarriage and worship of pagan gods.

The rejected part of the Israelites created their own special community of Samaritans, which has survived in Israel to our time. Since the time of Ezra, the idea of ​​God's chosen people of the Jewish people has been of paramount importance in the teachings of Judaism.

Fall of Judea

By 323 B.C. e. The Iranian state, which included Judea, was conquered by Alexander the Great. Hellenistic forms of art, literature, philosophy, and government spread throughout the subject territories. When the Greco-Syrian king Antiochus IV (175-163 BC) under the threat of death forbade the worship of Yahweh to all the Jews of his empire, the opponents of Hellenization rebelled, and the long Maccabean War (142-76 BC) began. ), which ended in victory and the establishment of the Jewish monarchy, which lasted until the invasion of the Romans.

In 63 BC. e. over Israel is established Roman domination - much more severe than the Greek. By the beginning of our era, several religious and political groups had developed in Jewish society, whose representatives - Sadducees, Pharisees, Zealots and Essenes - were in intense discussions about what forms resistance to cruel pagans should take. It was not possible to work out a common program of action, and there was no single ideology corresponding to the historical moment.

In 66 a.d. e. there was an armed clash between the defenders of the Covenant and the Hellenized Jews, supported by Rome. The Roman garrison was slaughtered by warlike Zealots, after which the uprising swept all of Judea. Many of the Pharisees initially joined the rebels, but then went over to the side of Caesar. Among them was the commander Joseph Flavius ​​- a representative of a noble Jewish family who belonged to the Jerusalem priesthood. The author of the famous "History of the Jewish War" not only went over to the side of the Romans, but also helped them in the conquest of Judea.

During the Jewish War, the Jerusalem Temple was again destroyed (70). In 132 a.d. e. under the leadership of Bar Kokhba (“son of the star”), a new wave of resistance broke out, the impetus for which was the decision of the Roman authorities to create a pagan sanctuary on the site of the destroyed Temple. The rebels managed to expel the Romans from Jerusalem and establish their power there for three years.

In 135, the resistance of the Jews was broken, they were forced to leave Judea, and they settled throughout the territory of the Roman Empire and in the countries of Asia, forming a vast diaspora.

Almost 2,000 years passed before the Jews were able to regain a sovereign state on their land.

Diaspora

With the formation of the Diaspora, a new stage in the history of Judaism begins. Traditional temple services were replaced by collective prayers in synagogues. The synagogue was not only a prayer house, but also a venue for public meetings, where important political and civil law issues were resolved.

At this time, the priestly class loses its dominant position. The leadership of synagogues and Jewish communities as a whole passes to rabbis - teachers of the Torah (rabbis in Hebrew - "my teacher"), the rabbis were experts in the religious tradition and spiritual mentors of the Jews. They ruled the court, taught religious disciplines, and also took part in the development of halacha, a system of religious and customary law that governs the life of Jewish communities around the world. From the very beginning, the institution of the rabbinate had no hierarchy; the acquisition of the title of rabbi depended on personal abilities, knowledge of the Torah and the ability to interpret it. Only men could become rabbis (today, some areas of Judaism recognize this right for women as well).

Jews in Babylon (586 BC - 1040 AD)

The largest Jewish settlement was in Babylon. The descendants of the Jews expelled from Judea by Nebuchadnezzar lived here in abundance. In some areas, they founded independent principalities and even helped local rulers in wars with Rome. In Babylon, Torah study reached its highest level. Here the Masoretic Code of the Tanakh and the Talmud were compiled; Babylonian gaons (heads of Jewish academies) advised Jews around the world on issues of halachic legislation. The last Gaon was killed in 1040 CE. - at a time when Jewish life in Babylonia had already begun to decline.

At the beginning of the 8th century Judaism spread among part of the Turkic tribes that were part of the Khazar Khaganate. Their descendants - the Karaites - formed a separate branch of Judaism. The Karaites recognized only the books of the Tanakh and rejected the Talmud.

Judaism in the Middle Ages

In medieval Europe, many treated the Jews as deicides who crucified Christ. Periodically, laws were passed that humiliated Jews or restricted their freedom. Sometimes they were forced to live in ghettos (separate quarters surrounded by a wall with gates locked at night), ordered to wear special clothes, go into the sewer, giving way to Christians. Jews rarely managed to get high positions. In a number of cases, the governments of cities, and sometimes entire countries, simply got rid of the Jewish population. For example, in the XII century. Jews were expelled from Kievan Rus at the end of the 13th century. - from England, at the end of the 15th century. - from Spain.

Despite all this, the study of the Torah in the Middle Ages reached new heights, both in Europe and in the Arab world. Medieval studies of the Talmud formed the basis of modern Talmudic scholarship.

At the same time, already in the early Middle Ages, many Talmud prescriptions ceased to be fulfilled - either because of their archaism (such as the law on sacrifices), or because they were supplanted by the legal norms of those countries where the Jews lived. Starting from this period and up to the present day, most Jews observe only the main rites of the life cycle (primarily circumcision), as well as that section of Talmudic law that is associated with traditional holidays.

Islam was more tolerant of other religions than Christianity, and the Jews of the East were generally better off than their brethren in Europe. Jews were allowed professional activities, up to work in the government. At the same time, the Muslims never forgave the Jews for not recognizing Mohammed and periodically “reminded” them of this. For example, in one Iraqi city, Jews were not allowed to wear shoes, touch fruits and vegetables, or build balconies overlooking the street so as not to look down on Muslim passers-by. These restrictions persisted until the 20th century. The rulers of the Almohad dynasty, which conquered North Africa and Spain in the 12th century, imposed special clothing on the Jews and imposed restrictions on the right to trade.

As in Europe, prominent Jewish sages lived in the East at that time, such as Maimonides, the author of the most important legislative code and philosophical works.

Sephardim and Ashkenazim

Over time, various ethnic communities formed in the diaspora, with their own linguistic, everyday and ritual characteristics. A significant ethnic group of Sephardic Jews developed in medieval Spain during the period of Arab domination (Sephardic is the Jewish name for Spain in the Middle Ages). After the expulsion of the Sephardim from Spain in 1492, they settled in the countries of the Middle East, in Turkey and the Balkans, where they retained the way of life that had developed in Spain, as well as the Ladino language, which was formed on the basis of Old Spanish. Later, all Jews of Asian origin began to be called Sephardi, as opposed to European Jews.

Since the late Middle Ages, the formation of the Ashkenazi community has been taking place, the ethnocultural center of which arose in Germany in the 9th-12th centuries. (Ashkenaz is the Hebrew name for Germany in the Middle Ages). Among the Ashkenazim, the colloquial Jewish language Yiddish arose, which developed on the basis of a mixed German-Slavic lexical and grammatical base and Hebrew writing.

Today, the most significant ethnic community in the Jewish people is the Ashkenazim, who live in most European countries, the United States, Latin America and South Africa.

Age of change

The development of European culture of the XVII-XVIII centuries. takes place under the sign of secularism - separation from religion and the church. The central character of the European Enlightenment becomes a free-thinking personality, subjecting to a critical revision the previously dominant views on society, the state, and religion. Lawyers put forward the concepts of natural law and social contract, prove the need for legal equality of people before the law, regardless of their nationality and religion.

Under these conditions, many representatives of the Jewish intelligentsia joined the struggle for the emancipation of the Jews and the abolition of discriminatory restrictions on ethnic or religious grounds. In the middle of the XVIII century. one of the leaders of this movement is Moses Mendelssohn, whose bright philosophical works aroused interest not only in the Jewish environment, but also in enlightened German society.

Mendelssohn and his followers urged Jews to change their traditional way of life, to study European languages ​​and secular disciplines along with the Torah and the Talmud, to master agriculture and crafts, and to abandon Hebrew when keeping business records. The idea of ​​a compromise between Jews and the non-Jewish world formed the conceptual basis of the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment); its adherents were called maskilim. Among the maskilim there was no unanimity on the question of how much the Jewish way of life should change in order to reach a compromise. Some believed that the changes should be purely external, without affecting the foundations of Jewish life. Others considered it necessary to reform Judaism, making it more consonant with the spirit of the times. The latter laid the foundation for the reformist movement that spread in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century.

The governments of a number of European countries were ready to recognize the Jews as full members of society, but on the condition that they renounce some of their religion. So, in 1789, she proclaimed "freedom, equality, fraternity" for all inhabitants of France, including Jews, but in exchange she demanded that the latter consider themselves French. Napoleon shortly after coming to power declared that "in ten years there will be no difference between a Jew and a Frenchman." In 1807, he founded the Sanhedrin (the highest Jewish council), from which, among other things, he demanded the approval of a law allowing mixed marriages.

From the end of the nineteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century. Zionism begins to gain strength - the national-political movement for the re-establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine, in the historical homeland of the Jewish people. The founder of Zionism is the outstanding Jewish publicist from Austria Theodor Herzel (1860-1904), the author of the book The Jewish State. The result of the vigorous activity of the Zionist organizations was the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, the return of a large number of Jews from Europe and the USA to it, and the revival of religious life associated with this process both in Israel itself and in the Diaspora.

Plan
Introduction
1 The uniqueness of Jewish history
1.1 Historical memory in the collective Jewish mind
1.2 Geographical identity of Jewish history

2 Ancient (biblical) history (XX-XI centuries BC)
2.1 The era of the patriarchs, the founders of the Jewish people (XX-XVII centuries BC | ~ 250 years)
2.2 Migration to Egypt and Egyptian slavery (XVI-XIV centuries BC | 210 years)
2.3 Exodus from Egypt and wandering in the desert (XIV century BC | 40 years)
2.4 Conquest of Canaan (c. 13th century BC | age 14)
2.5 The Age of Judges (XII-XI centuries BC | ~ 300 years)

3 Ancient history (XI-IV centuries BC)
3.1 The period of the "united kingdom" (XI-X centuries BC | 80 years)
3.1.1 Reign of Saul (c. 1029-1005 BC)
3.1.2 Reign of David
3.1.3 Solomon's reign

3.2 The Age of the First Temple (IX-VII centuries BC | ~ 350 years)
3.2.1 Period of divided kingdoms (978-722 BC)
3.2.2 Kingdom of Judah under the rule of Assyria and Babylonia (720-586 BC)

3.3 Babylonian captivity (586-537 BC)
3.4 The Age of the Second Temple (6th century BC-I century AD)
3.4.1 Judea under Persian rule (537-332 BC)

4 Ancient period
4.1 Judea under Greek rule (332-167 BC)
4.2 Hasmonean Wars of Liberation (167-140 BC)
4.3 Hasmonean kingdom (140 - 37 BC)
4.4 King Herod I and his successors (37 BC - 6 AD)
4.5 Judea under Roman rule (6-66 CE)
4.6 War with the Romans and the fall of the Jewish state (66-70)

5 Period of the Mishnah and Talmud (I-VII centuries)
5.1 From the destruction of Jerusalem to the revolt of Bar Kokhba (70-138)
5.2 In Palestine until the completion of the Jerusalem Talmud (200-425)
5.3 In Babylonia before the conclusion of the Babylonian Talmud (200-500)
5.4 In the Roman Empire and Byzantium

6 Early Middle Ages (VI-IX centuries)
6.1 In Palestine
6.2 Jews in the East until the end of the age of the Gaons (500-1040)
6.3 In Byzantium
6.4 In Europe before the Crusades (500-1096)

7 High and late Middle Ages (X-XV centuries)
7.1 In the Islamic world
7.1.1 Jewish revival in Arab Spain (950-1215)

7.2 In Western Europe
7.2.1 In Christian Europe during the era of the Crusades (1096-1215)
7.2.2 Ages of lawlessness and martyrdom until the expulsion of the Jews from France (1215-1394)
7.2.3 The last Jewish century in Spain (1391-1492)

7.3 In Poland and Russia (XII-XV centuries)

8 Modern times (XVI-XVIII centuries)
8.1 In Turkey and Palestine before the decline of Sabbatianism (1492-1750)
8.2 In Western Europe
8.3 In Poland and Russia

9 Transitional period (1750-1795)
10 Modern times (XIX-XX centuries)
10.1 In Western Europe
10.2 In Eastern Europe
10.3 In Russia
10.4 In Palestine
10.5 Haskalah
10.6 Catastrophe of European Jewry (Holocaust)

11 Modern history (after 1945)
Bibliography

Introduction

In Islamic countries
In Asia
In Western Europe
In Eastern Europe
In Russia
in the new world

1. The uniqueness of Jewish history

Indicating the time of the ethnogenesis (formation) of the Jewish people, most scientists indicate a date between 2-1 thousand BC. e., although the fact of the existence of another civilization in this territory is not disputed, thereby "ancient" history of the Jews. A much larger task for many historians is to find material evidence described in the history of the Temples. By the time of the formation of the idea of ​​Zionism, the first wave of repatriation of the 17-18th century. n. e., in the territory of modern Israel, not a single building from those described in the Bible has been preserved. The Wailing Wall itself is part of a fortress wall built by the Romans in a later era.

Jewish identity is a unique combination of ethnic, religious and ethical elements, and none of them can be ignored.

“What is a Jew? This question is not at all as strange as it might seem at first glance. Let us see what kind of special creature this is, whom all rulers and all peoples insulted and oppressed, oppressed and persecuted, trampled underfoot and persecuted, burned and drowned, and who, in spite of all this, is still alive and well. What is a Jew who has never been able to lure any of the temptations in the world that his oppressors and persecutors offered him, if only he would renounce his religion and renounce the faith of his fathers?<…>The Jew is a symbol of eternity. He whom neither massacre nor torture could destroy; neither fire nor the sword of the Inquisition could wipe it off the face of the earth. He kept the prophecy for so long and passed it on to the rest of mankind - such a people cannot disappear. The Jew is eternal, he is the personification of eternity.

Leo Tolstoy, essay "The Ark of the Covenant". 1891

“According to statistics, Jews make up less than 1% of the world's population, they are like a small nebula that disappears in the glow of the Milky Way. It would be natural if we heard about the Jews only occasionally, so that less than 1% of the news was devoted to them. However, in reality, the opposite is true - we hear about them all the time. The Jewish people are famous all over the world, and their importance is recognized regardless of their numbers. Its representatives made an immeasurable contribution to the development of literature, science, art, music, economics, medicine, and the humanities. This people fought amazing battles in this world, in all ages, even when their hands were twisted behind their backs, they can be proud of this - and for this we must forgive them for their arrogance.
The great empires of antiquity, the Egyptians, Babylonians and Persians, were not. Yes, at one time they too rose up and filled the earth with their noisy voices, brilliance and splendor. But their time was running out, and they withered, turned into ghosts and disappeared. After them, the Greeks and Romans came, raised a great noise - but they also passed and left ... And other nations woke up, raised a lit torch, but only for the time being, until it died out, and now they are either in the pre-sunset light, or completely disappeared, as if they were not there at all. The Jewish people saw them all, eventually defeated them all, and today it is the same as always, showing neither fading nor aging; his strength does not decrease, and his soul is awake, active, enterprising and bright. Everyone is mortal - except the Jews. The great nations have passed, and only the Jews have remained. What is the secret of the eternity of the Jews?

Mark Twain, 1899

“Amazing, incomprehensible Jewish people! … He passed through dozens of centuries without mixing with anyone… melting in his heart age-old sorrow and age-old flame. The motley life of Rome, Greece and Egypt has long since become the property of museum collections... and this mysterious people, already a patriarch in the days of their infancy, not only exists, but has retained... their faith... preserved the sacred language of their inspired Divine books, their mystical alphabet... There is no trace left of his mysterious enemies, of all these Philistines, Amalekites, Moabites and other semi-mythical peoples, and he, flexible and immortal, still lives, as if fulfilling someone's supernatural predestination. His story is imbued with tragic horror and all covered in his own blood ... How could he stay alive? Or, in fact, does the fate of peoples have their own, incomprehensible to us, mysterious goals?.. Who knows: maybe some Higher Power wanted the Jews, having lost their homeland, to play the role of eternal leaven in a huge world ferment? »

A. I. Kuprin, "Zhidovka", Sobr. op. 1902

“In the days of my youth, when I was attracted by the materialistic understanding of history, when I tried to test it on the fate of peoples, it seemed to me that the greatest obstacle to this was the historical fate of the Jewish people, that from the point of view of the materialistic fate this fate is completely inexplicable. It must be said that from any materialistic and positive-historical point of view, this people should have ceased to exist long ago. Its existence is a strange, mysterious and wonderful phenomenon, which indicates that special plans are connected with the fate of this people. This fate is not explained by those processes of adaptation by which they try to explain materialistically the fate of peoples. The survival of the Jewish people in history, its indestructibility, the continuation of its existence as one of the most ancient peoples of the world, in absolutely exceptional conditions, the fatal role that this people plays in history - all this points to the special mystical foundations of its historical destiny!

N. A. Berdyaev, The Meaning of History. Obelisk, Berlin, 1923

“Israel is not a nation like any other, despite the fact that many of its representatives have striven for it for centuries. Israel is a people like no other in the world, for it is the only people that from the very beginning was both a nation and a religious community.

Martin Buber (cf. Num. 23:4)

“... attributing Status in Statu to persecution and a sense of self-preservation alone is not enough. Yes, and there would not be enough perseverance in self-preservation for forty centuries, it would be tired of preserving oneself for such a period. And the strongest civilizations in the world did not reach even half forty centuries and lost their political strength and tribal appearance. It is not self-preservation alone that is the main cause, but a certain idea that moves and attracts, something global and deep, about which, perhaps, humanity is not yet able to utter its last word.

F. M. Dostoevsky, "A Writer's Diary for 1877". Berlin, 1922

“Jews ... were witnesses and participants in many human Acts. They have shaped and developed them to a greater extent than anyone else. They also suffered from them more than any other people.

Psychoanalyst Ernest van den Haag

“What is history? A sequence of events whose totality makes no sense? Is there really no essential ethical difference between the history of the human race and, say, the history of ants? Is there really no Higher plan, the executors of which we are? No people has ever insisted as strongly as the Jews that history has a purpose and mankind a destiny. Already in the very early stages of their collective existence, they believed that they had succeeded in unraveling the Divine plan for the human race, and that their people should be the executor of this plan. They worked out their role in great detail. With heroic fortitude they held to it in the face of cruel persecution. Many of them still believe in it…”

This "nerd" in the video tells everything for too long and half either does not know, or hides or is afraid. Brotherhood explains easier and faster.

The real history of the Jewish people briefly: The events took place at a time when the Roman Empire had already captured Egypt. Despite the fact that the Roman Empire was strong in the Middle East, the Gauls continued to resist in France and Spain. Gauls are mostly Slavs! The name Gala (Galina) remained in Russia and not by chance.

In order to subdue the Gauls, in Rome they came up with the idea of ​​​​relocating some evil people to the territory of France. The idea was that the Gauls would be happy to negotiate with Rome. Egypt complained to Rome that over a long history they had accumulated bands of Semitic peoples, with whom the "police and army" of Egypt were constantly at war. Gangs are the same bastards as those who are now doing chaos with the civilian population and attacking the Syrian army. They decided to transfer this same scum from Egypt to France. Here comes Moses!

Moses is one of the leaders of a gang of scumbags in Egypt. After the murder of an Egyptian official in front of witnesses, he was put on the wanted list. Moses fled to Rome. There he was found and became a snitch. After the recruitment, the Romans sent Moses to Egypt and three years after the murder in Egypt, he is back in Egypt to "lead the Jewish people out of captivity" (1 year = 1 month according to the Jewish account). Moses told that he was PROMISED with rich lands, where there is a lot of water and endless pastures. The bandits stabbed him, but he held on and did not surrender Caesar: - "God promised!" (See the Jews on the topic "promised land" - "promised land").

The transfer of these gangs took a long time. Traffic was on Roman roads. The settlers were urged on by the threat of persecution from the Egyptian troops. The crossing of the Mediterranean in Roman ships is hidden behind the miraculous "parting of the sea". This allows not to explain that the Roman authorities organized the crossing.

Road map from Italy to France - old roman road through SION (Switzerland)

At Lake Geneva, the road diverges. To the west went the tribes that became "Sephardi" (from the name of Spain), and to the north - "Ashkenazi" (from the name of Germany).

This gang entered the south of France and Spain mercilessly exterminating the entire population. They captured France with the support of the Roman troops and began to rule there. Jerusalem is the Hebrew name for Paris at that time.

The Russian prince came from the north to Paris and was indignant at the savagery of the rites and the faith of these reptiles. Our Russian saint preached to them all the faith about the cross and showed miracles in the holy spirit. They crucified him on the cross. Events date back to about 11-12 centuries! Then later we our own faith our own peasants Jews and Greeks began to talk.

Muslims need to force Iran and Syria to publish archives of manuscripts. There were battles between Muslims and Jews in Spain.

Coats of arms of the cities of Saint-Nazaire (Nazareth) and the city of Paris ("Jerusalem" in Hebrew at that time). And here is the well-known Russian boat. Christ was a Russian prince! Europe knows. Jews, Greeks, Anglo-Saxons fool the Orthodox. Orthodoxy is our faith, and by our Spirit the sick were healed and the dead were raised. The meaning of our faith is unchanged: Russians do not die, but go to heaven and are reborn again into new warriors of Russia in order to continue this battle with the devil. When the soul becomes large enough for the Kingdom of Heaven, Russians sit down with God, with their father Triglav (Holy Trinity) at a feast in the Garden of Eden of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jewish rabbis claim that Christ's name was Rodomir and he was a Russian prince. We need to deal with this story. The Jews of the Russian language did not know, and so to this day they did not understand that Rodomir is the "Give birth to the world" - God himself is before them! He introduced himself to them as God, and they wrote it down as a name.

The meaning of the cross is that it connects all the forces of the four worlds into one point, unites them: the past, present, future and the other world where there is no time (Yav, Nav, Rule, Glory). The cross is usually depicted with a circle in the center - the Sun - Divine light. This symbol has been known for many thousands of real years throughout the continent and the source of faith is Russia, the Slavs, our God Triglav (Holy Trinity).

Neck crosses.

Depicting the suffering Christ on the cross is a non-Russian tradition and came to us from the West from the Catholics. On the Orthodox cross, Christ does not die, but freely stretches out his arms, as if embracing all of humanity.

The cross was a sacred symbol before Christ and has remained sacred with us after Christ. The Jews wanted to declare the cross an instrument for the execution of the saint, God, and thereby discredit him. But with us the cross is holy and Christ is holy. Everything is fine with us, but the Jews have big problems! Apart from the capture of Paris (France and Spain) and their expulsion from there, they have no more history. They composed their faith and accepted it during this campaign from Egypt. Those. Judaism is a sect of Islam with a mixture of Egyptian and other different times. The Jews have nothing. Jews are extremists and rabble expelled from Egypt and declared themselves a single people, adopting a faith invented for them.

After the expulsion of this gang from Paris and the destruction of their Temple in Paris, the European Jesuits made a Bible, where they pasted a map with the image of Palestine, to show these demons their place - to rid Europe of the Jews. The further history of their wanderings and the capture of Palestine today is known to all and is ridiculous.

The history of the Jews is typical schemes for the military use of Jews against other peoples. They are locusts in the service of other peoples whom they want to weaken and destroy. These are degenerates and idiots, destroying everything around them. These talents of the Jews are used by the enemies of the peoples. Jews are hereditary revolutionary destroyers. They were bred as a special breed in that Egypt, in the Middle East.

1513 - 1515. Michelangelo made a sculpture of Moses with horns. It's Satan!

At this time, the Jews were expelled from Florence - "New York" of the post-Roman era.

The Jews simply have no other history! The history of the "Jewish people" begins with the adoption of Judaism by settlers on their way to France in northern Italy - Switzerland - Mount Zion. The rest is made up.

Check. Everything is just like that. This tradition is known in Russia, and this is the essence of dual faith.

Jews came to Russia under Catherine II at the request of European rulers in order to get rid of the invasion of this gang, which was expelled from the now holy city of Paris. The roots of the Holocaust are also in this story and come from France, where Jewish rule is clearly visible, and in fact the rule over the Jews for their own extermination.

The moment of the first arrival of Jews in Russia is also known in connection with the funny story of that time. Officials report to Ekaterina that they cannot take into account and document the arriving Jews because they do not have names and surnames. "They, like animals, have only nicknames - Mushka, Hai, etc." Catherine ordered to give them animal names. Thus, Jews with Russian surnames were formed in Russia: Zverev, Solovyov, Medvedev, etc.

For 200 years they have come a long way of civilization and joined the Russian society. Now they are called "Russian Jews" and they are mostly patriots of Russia. Jews arriving later already had German, Polish, etc. surnames. These and now cause concern among the population of Russia. No one knows what to expect from them (All cosmopolitans, in principle, are schizophrenics. Experts explain http://youtu.be/ryf1HDmoxC0).

In view of the fact that the main region of residence of the Jews was Poland, until the 20th century it was the Polish name for the Jews that was used for their name - Jews. It was not considered an insult and was used in official documents. The city public mocked and called the Jews "French", which had good reason.

Will we be offended by this text from gangster Russia, where the entire color of Russia passed through the Gulag and everything is known? The ROC also seriously falls under the distribution! Among the "thieves in law" there have always been mostly Jews, and therefore the history of gangster Russia is known so multifaceted.

Scientific source on dual faith in Russia:

Russian Orthodox Church since the middle of the XV century. becomes autocephalous, independent of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Orthodoxy adheres to most of the believers in Russia. The overwhelming majority of believers are Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Georgians (in Georgia there is an autocephalous Georgian Orthodox Church headed by the Catholicos-Patriarch), Moldavians, Gagauzians, Gypsies, Karelians, Vepsians, Komi, Komi-Permyaks, Udmurts, Mari, Mordovians, Chuvash, Khakass, Shors, Yakuts, a significant part of the believing Ossetians, Abkhazians, Altaians, Buryats, representatives of the small peoples of the North, etc. - various forms of earlier beliefs (shamanism, etc.) are woven.

Literature:
"Desk book of an atheist" / S. F. Anisimov, N. A. Ashirov, M. S. Belenky and others; Under total ed. Academician S.D. Skazkin. - 9th ed., Rev. and additional - M.: Politizdat, 1987.-431 p., ill.
The full list of authors of the publication includes only doctors, candidates of philosophical and historical sciences.

The Uniqueness of Jewish History

Jewish identity is a unique combination of ethnic, religious and ethical elements, and none of them can be ignored.

Historical memory in the collective Jewish consciousness

The collective memory of the Jewish people is expressed in written sources compiled by ancient generations. These are Tanakh, Talmud, hagadic literature, mystical, philosophical and halachic works of the Middle Ages, Jewish literature of the New Age. This national memory is supported by the Jewish way of life, refreshed by the yearly cycle of Jewish holidays, and encourages each new generation to experience communion with the people's past.

Jews feel a moral connection with the past generations, as if the forefathers were alive today. This property of the Jewish tradition is illustrated by the following words of the Talmud: Rabbi Zeira, having completed the prayer, said this: “Thy will be done, Lord, our God, so that we do not sin, and do not disgrace ourselves, and do not make our forefathers ashamed”"(Berakhot 16b).

Geographical identity of Jewish history

At the dawn of Jewish history, events centered around the Land of Israel. The history of the Jewish people is inextricably linked with the Land of Israel (Eretz Israel), even when the people or part of them are not physically located in their own country.

According to the biblical story, the beginning of Jewish history is God's promise to Abraham, a Mesopotamian, of the land intended for the people who would descend from Abraham. Jewish history begins with the aspiration of the forefather of the Jewish people to the Promised Land. The same desire was the determining factor in the formation of the people of Israel during the wanderings in the Sinai desert after the Exodus from Egypt: the Israelites rallied into a people thanks to the common future in the Land of Israel guaranteed by the Covenant with the God of Abraham, Yitzhak and Jacob. The conquest of Canaan was the fulfillment of a promise given by God to the patriarchs, and, having taken possession of the country, the Israelite tribes immediately changed their traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle to a settled one: nomadism turned out to be nothing more than a forced way of life in anticipation of the fulfillment of the promise.

Since that time, the physical presence of Israelis in the Land of Israel has not been interrupted - despite the periodic expulsions from it of a significant part or majority of the people. The country of Israel is not only the cradle of Jewish history, but also the center - actual or ideal - of the Jewish religious and national consciousness, both of the part of the Jewish people that is in its own country, and that part of it, which, according to political (primarily, as a result of mass expulsions) and for economic reasons found herself outside her homeland.

The Jewish tribes seized the lands of the Canaanite peoples and began to call Canaan the Land of Israel.

Until the end of the XI century. BC e. Jewish tribes lived apart in their destinies. Ruled by leaders who went down in history as judges. The tribes fought wars against neighboring peoples and against each other, while entering into alliances with each other and with the surviving remnants of the local Canaanite population.

The two Jewish states coexisted until the end of the 8th century. BC, participating in regional politics. In 722 BC The kingdom of Israel was taken over by Assyria. In 601 BC Judea was taken over by Babylon. In 586 BC The Jerusalem Temple was burned.

A cultural and political movement of Hellenism arose, striving to introduce Greek culture into all areas of Jewish life. The Syrian king Antiochus IV Epiphanes wanted to forcibly Hellenize the Jews completely. In 165-141 BC. e. there was an uprising (Maccabees), ending with the liberation of Judea. The Hasmonean kingdom emerged (164-37) with its capital in Jerusalem. At this time, Hellenized groups and non-Jewish Semitic peoples of the Negev and Transjordan merged into the Jewish people.

In 63 BC. e. as a result of internecine wars of pretenders to the throne, Judea fell under the rule of Rome. With his support, the last Hasmonean king overthrew the Idumean aristocrat Herod I the Great. He expanded the temple in Jerusalem. In 6 AD e. Judea was subject to the Roman procurator.

The population of Judea resisted Roman influence. Numerous political currents arose, hostile to Rome and to each other. In 66, they raised an uprising against the power of Rome (the Jewish War), which turned into a civil war. Jewish detachments killed many Jews in the course of fighting with each other. The result was the military defeat of Judea, the destruction of the Second Temple, the death and expulsion from the country of hundreds of thousands of Jews.

Captured Jews carry mnora from the Temple. Detail of the Arch of Titus in Rome.

Information about Jewish communities that formed in antiquity outside the Land of Israel is incomplete and needs archaeological confirmation. Modern science is constantly finding new information on this topic.

Jewish communities abroad arose as a result of mass emigration, deportations undertaken by the conquerors and as communities of people who arrived in a particular country on business.

From the destruction of the Temple to the Arab conquests (II-VII centuries)

This period is often called the period of the Mishnah and the Talmud in Jewish history sources.

Basic period properties

The large empires that arose in the Old World (Roman, Parthian, Kushan) during this period came to the idea state religion and ideological control over all his subjects.

Entire communities were destroyed as a result of this policy - some of their members were baptized, some emigrated, some were destroyed.

A similar policy was pursued by the Parthian Empire.

During this period formed Great Silk Road- a trade route from China to the Atlantic, on which communities of Jewish merchants and financiers worked.

In many countries, part of the population accepted Judaism as an alternative to obsolete pagan cults. By the end of the period, in some of the new states of the Old World, Judaism had become the state religion.

What happened in the IV - VI centuries. Great Migration, that is, the invasion of barbarians on civilized states, led to the mass death of the population, including Jews.

The barbarians who managed to seize power and create their own states often entered into an alliance with the churchmen and began to oppress the Jews. But in a number of countries under their rule, the life of the Jews became better. The new owners did not see the difference between the Romans, Greeks, Iranians, etc. - and Jews. They needed educated people in the public service. Spheres of employment, closed under the previous government, were opened for Jews.

In the Land of Israel

The Roman authorities encouraged foreign colonization of the Land of Israel, giving advantages to the colonists over the Jews. Increased economic pressure - taxes and extortions from the Jews. This led to numerous uprisings of the Jewish people against Rome (Jewish wars, I - II centuries AD, uprising of the Jews of the Diaspora 115-117).

The Romans completely eradicated Jewish self-government. Power among the people passed to moral and religious authorities (wise men). Under the direction of the Jewish center in Yavne, and later of Rabbi Yehuda ha-Nasi, autonomous judicial and educational systems were organized. They were calculated on the fact that someday conditions will arise for the revival of the Jewish state in the Land of Israel.

After the division of the Roman Empire in 395, Palestine became a province of the Byzantine Empire. Despite a significant decrease in the number of Jews by the second half of the 5th century, a Jewish majority remained in Galilee during this period.

Jewish communities outside the Land of Israel suffered greatly during the barbarian invasions in the 4th and 6th centuries, but some of them were able to recover. At the end of the period, many new states that had risen from the old empires became havens for the Jews.

Early Middle Ages (VII-X centuries)

Radanite trade routes

After the Arab conquest of the Land of Israel (638), heavy taxes were imposed on the Jews. This made it economically impossible to engage in agriculture and some other activities. Many Jews moved to the cities and moved on to highly profitable occupations (trade, financial transactions, the production of expensive handicrafts, liberal professions) or emigrated.

Most of the Jews were dispersed in other countries. Living conditions in them varied greatly - from the presence of autonomous regions with their own governing bodies (in the former Babylonia) to the position of a discriminated caste, as in Byzantium. Jews had to develop new forms of social organization that would allow them to preserve their spiritual heritage and assert their autonomous status in non-Jewish society.

This form was the medieval community, which fit into the general corporate structure of feudal society and created the conditions for meeting the social, religious and economic needs of the Jews. The leadership of the Jewish communities not only coped with the task of survival, but also created the conditions for economic and spiritual development. The Jews did not close themselves in the traditional system of ideas, but sought to master the achievements of the society around them. As a result, a medieval Jewish culture was formed, which included both ancient cultural layers and the fruits of the creative activity of new generations.

In Europe and the Mediterranean basin, the beginning of the early Middle Ages was an era of great migrations of peoples. New states arose in place of the Western Roman Empire and its outskirts. Some of them, parting with paganism, adopted Judaism as the state religion. Numidia (in present-day Algeria) and Himyar in Yemen were soon conquered by the Muslims. And Khazaria in the steppes of Eastern Europe became a regional superpower and retained its position until the end of the 10th century. Its presence forced many other states to reckon with the Jews.

The peoples who created new empires (Franks, Arabs, Turkic tribal unions) were rather backward culturally and could not manage their possessions without the participation of local personnel. Wherever there were Jewish communities, they supplied the rulers with educated advisers. The Jews during this period played in many countries the role of a civilizing factor, the heirs of ancient culture among the barbarian peoples.

They established international trade (radanites) and education, revived ancient technologies, translated ancient scientific works into Latin and Arabic. One of the first Muslim mathematicians, Al-Khwarizmi, having formalized a number of rules, called the treatise he wrote "Al-Jebr", that is, Jewish.

Jews often became commercial and cultural intermediaries between the warring Christians and Muslims. They did not close themselves in the traditional system of ideas, but sought to enrich their inner world at the expense of the achievements of the society around them. The result of this process was the formation of a diverse and original medieval Jewish culture, which included both ancient cultural layers and the fruits of the creative activity of recent generations.

The priests of competing religions (Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism) in all countries carried out hostile actions against the Jews, inciting the authorities and the people against them. In some countries, the rulers persecuted the Jews.

The end of the early Middle Ages brought another wave of great migrations of peoples. From Western Europe to the Far East, nomadic tribes attacked more or less cultured areas, generally lowering the level of civilization in the Old World. The result of this was, in particular, increased religious fanaticism, feudal fragmentation and internecine wars. All this sharply worsened the living conditions of the Jews..

High and Late Middle Ages (XI-XV centuries)

In the Land of Israel

Outside the Land of Israel

Settlement of Jews in Europe (XII - XVI century)

Living conditions for Jews in Western Europe deteriorated greatly from the 10th century onwards. Religious oppression intensified. In all countries, the economic and personal rights of Jews were curtailed. Laws less and less protected their safety and property. In moments of social and religious upheaval, Jews became the first victims of violence.

The development of medieval societies in different countries everywhere led to a deterioration in the life of the Jews. The property of the Jews was constantly the object of robbery by the feudal rulers. Jewish land ownership was gradually abolished everywhere. The few remaining Jewish areas of employment began to be claimed by other segments of the population, who used attacks on Jews as a way of competition.

This was used by the clergy in all parts of the old world to increase religious oppression and forcibly convert Jews to another religion. The practice of the Crusades, which began in the 11th century, led to an increase in fanaticism (both Christian and Muslim) and hit the Jews of Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Mass murders of Jews, the extermination of entire communities, forced baptisms occurred along the route of the Crusaders during the Crusades in Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. This practice continued after them. The communal revolutions of the 11th-12th centuries in European cities were accompanied by pogroms, the expulsion of Jews or severe infringement of their rights.

In the Muslim countries of the Mediterranean basin, a trend of oppression of the Jews (including forced conversion to Islam) appeared, especially strong in the state of the Almoravids-Almohads in the Maghreb and Spain of the 11th-12th centuries. It took the organized resistance of the Jewish sages, the main of which was Rambam to resist religious violence.

The Jewish communities of Asia suffered greatly under the invasions of Genghis Khan in the 13th century and Tamerlane at the end of the 14th century. But in the initial period of the existence of the Mongol Empire, the Jews received certain rights and opportunities. The empire of the Ottoman Turks that arose at the end of the period turned out to be a relatively favorable place for the life of the Jews. Many Jews from Europe and the Maghreb moved there.

The 14th century saw a climate change known as the Little Ice Age. A severe cooling changed the structure of the economy in all countries of the Old World, shifted trade routes, and also caused mass death of the population from hunger and cold and social degradation. In 1348-49, the Jews were accused of spreading the plague and exterminated in many cities. From the 13th century blood libels against Jews began to spread in Western Europe, followed by additional anti-Jewish rulings by the Catholic Church.

Under pressure from the townspeople, the Jews were gradually banned from all activities, except for financial transactions and the sale of junk. In the 14th century, in most cities of the Roman Empire, Jewish communities were prohibited from doing business.

The kings and large feudal lords of Western Europe expelled the Jews from their possessions, taking away all their property from them. Then they were called back, and the Jews were allowed to make fortunes in order to take everything again. With time Jews were turned into serfs, obliged to supply their masters with money and not having the right to leave them.

At the same time, belonging to the king or duke did not save from pogroms and persecution by the Inquisition. By the end of the period, in many countries of Western Europe, Jewish communities were destroyed, Jews were expelled or forcibly baptized. Entire communities were forced to leave for countries where local authorities still needed the economically active population more than the support of the clergy and townspeople.

Medieval (XV century) German engraving "Burning of the Jews" From the book of G. Schedel "Weltchronik", 1493. (from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia)

In Eastern Europe, after the disappearance (at the end of the 11th century) of the remnants of the Khazar Khaganate, the Jews found themselves under the rule of the Russian states, and from the 13th century - the Tatar Empire and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (which also included the territory of modern Ukraine and Belarus). In Lithuania, Poland and the Balkan possessions of Turkey, by decrees of the supreme rulers, Jews were given the rights to communal self-government and economic activity. Until the end of the 14th century, more or less favorable conditions existed in the Christian kingdoms of Spain, which fought with Muslim neighbors and with each other.

Jews migrated en masse from Germany to Poland and Lithuania. By XIV, the center of Ashkenazi Jewry was in Poland. Similar processes took place in other parts of the world. Jews were squeezed out by religious and economic oppression to the periphery of the then civilized world.

In many states, possessions and cities, Jews were ordered to wear a special costume. As a rule, a separate quarter in the city was allocated for them.

But intellectual activity in the Jewish communities did not stop even in the most difficult conditions. Wherever circumstances permitted, Jews made a tangible contribution to science and art. Religious and philosophical works, fiction in different languages ​​were created. Jewish physicians, alchemists, mathematicians, and engineers greatly advanced European technology and nascent science.

Acquainted with Greek literature from Arabic translations, the Jews translated many classical works and studied Greek and Latin authors in the original. During the Renaissance, Jews were the teachers of many humanists.

New time (XVI-XVIII centuries)

In 1517, the Land of Israel was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and became part of the Ottoman Empire. There, the Jews had the status of "dhimmi" - that is, they enjoyed relative civil and religious freedom, but they did not have the right to carry weapons, serve in the army and ride horses and were required to pay special taxes. During this period, the Jews of Palestine lived mainly on charitable receipts from abroad (Halukkah).

During the 16th century, large Jewish communities took root in the Land of Israel in the four holy cities of Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and Tiberias.

The transition from the Middle Ages to the New Age in Europe was marked by religious wars and an explosion of fanaticism. The Inquisition stepped up the hunt for the Marranos. Jews were expelled from France.

In the 16th century, the Catholic Church launched a campaign to ban the Talmud and destroy Jewish books. For the first time, prominent scientists spoke out against the church in defense of the Jews: Reuchlin, Richard Simon and others.

In parallel, there were wars of European countries with Turkey in the territory of Central and Eastern Europe and the war of Russia against all its western neighbors. In the 16th - 17th centuries, mass uprisings took place in the eastern part of Poland, the last of which (Khmelnychyn) turned into a major war. In the war zones, Jews suffered severe disasters and died en masse.

In the 17th century, Jewish communities appeared in South and North America.

The ruin of the Jews in the southwestern part of the Polish state created fertile ground for mystical movements and sectarianism. The false messiah Shabtai Zvi appeared in Smyrna (1668).

In the middle of the XVIII century. among the Jews of Galicia, Podolia and Volhynia, the mystical teaching of Hasidism spread. In 1700, about a thousand Hasidim from various European countries arrived in Jerusalem.

At the same time, a semi-Christian sect of Francoists appeared in Podolia and Galicia.

In 1800, the population of the Land of Israel did not exceed 300,000, of which 25,000 were Christians. The Jews numbered 5,000 and lived mainly in Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias and Hebron. The rest of the country's population (about 270 thousand) were Muslims.

Modern times (XIX-XX centuries)

The penetration of Jews into all spheres of public and cultural life and, as a result, the activation of anti-Semitic movements. The birth of the Jewish national movement and the beginning of the construction of a "national home" in the Land of Israel. The catastrophe of European Jewry (the Holocaust).

The formation of national ideologies in Europe led to a slowdown in the integration of Jews in the surrounding society. As a reaction to their activities and active presence in various spheres of the life of nation-states, anti-Semitic concepts have become widespread. At the same time, under the influence of the general national awakening of the peoples of Europe, the Zionist movement arose, which laid the foundation for the creation of a Jewish "national home" in Palestine. The growth of anti-Semitism at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries led to the scope of the Zionist movement, especially among assimilated Jews.

The emancipation of the Jews in Western Europe began with the French Revolution. In 1791 the Jews of France received general civil rights. In Germany, the equality of Jews was promised in different countries during the years of the national liberation upsurge of 1812-1814. In 1858 Jews were admitted to the English Parliament. In fact, the gradual equalization of the rights of German Jews was completed in 1848-1862. The German constitution of 1871 recognized the equality of Jews.

At the beginning of the XX century. everywhere in Western Europe Jews enjoyed all civil and political rights.

Along with the equalization of civil rights in Western Europe, Jews from the end of the 18th century. join European enlightenment and, starting with Moses Mendelssohn, put forward a number of figures, scientists and writers working both among the Jewish masses in order to educate them, and on general political and literary soil (

The Jewish identity is a unique combination of ethnic and religious elements, and none of them can be ignored.

Historical memory in the collective Jewish consciousness

The collective memory of the Jewish people is expressed in written sources compiled by ancient generations. These are the Tanakh, the Talmud, Aggadic literature, mystical, philosophical and halachic works of the Middle Ages, Jewish literature of the New Age. This national memory is supported by the Jewish way of life, refreshed by the yearly cycle of Jewish holidays, and encourages each new generation to experience communion with the people's past.

The Jews, like many other nations, appeal to the past generations, but at the same time they feel a moral connection with them, as if the forefathers were still alive today. This property of the Jewish tradition is illustrated by the following words of the Talmud: Rabbi Zeira, having completed the prayer, said this: “Thy will be done, Lord, our God, so that we do not sin, and do not disgrace ourselves, and do not make our forefathers ashamed”"(Berakhot 16b).

Geographical identity of Jewish history

At the dawn of Jewish history, events were tied to a relatively small area of ​​the Middle East and concentrated around the Land of Israel. Starting from the Talmudic period and further into the early Middle Ages, most of the Jewish people lived in the countries of Islam. In the late Middle Ages and in modern times, the central events of Jewish history move to Europe. Over time, the spread and development of the Jewish communities of the Diaspora leads to the fact that North Africa, Western and Eastern Europe, and North America become the scene of events in Jewish history. With the emergence of the Jewish "national home" and then the State of Israel, the Land of Israel again begins to play a central role in Jewish history.

The geographical peculiarity of Jewish history had a formative influence on the culture of the Jews. Originating at the crossroads of ancient civilizations in Palestine, Jewish culture developed in constant contact with the surrounding peoples both in their own country and in exile. The Jews had a significant impact on the development of Christian and Muslim civilizations, but they themselves were not isolated from external influences. As a clearly defined minority among other peoples, Jews have always engaged in a fruitful dialogue - open or hidden - with other cultures, seeking to identify and strengthen the foundations of their identity within the framework of this dialogue.

Ancient (biblical) history (XX-XI centuries BC)

The beginning of Jewish history is connected with the biblical era. biblical history of the Jewish people covers the period from the appearance of the Jews in the arena of history in the time of Abraham, as the ancestor of the Jewish people, to the conquest of Judea by Alexander the Great.

The main source for studying the ancient history of the Jewish people is the Old Testament (Tanakh). An important source are also the writings of Joseph Flavius ​​(“Jewish Antiquities” and “Jewish War”), Philo of Alexandria and others.

As a nation, the ancient Jews took shape in 2000 BC. e. in the territory of ancient Canaan. Geographically, the "national home" of the Jewish people arose at the "crossroads" of the Ancient World - where the paths connecting Mesopotamia and Egypt, Asia Minor and Arabia and Africa meet.

The era of the patriarchs, the founders of the Jewish people

According to the Bible, the ancestor of the Jewish people Abraham (through Eber, descended in a straight line from Shem, the son of Noah) came from the city of Ur in Mesopotamia (south of modern Iraq, west of the Euphrates River). As can be judged from the archaeological data presented by the latest excavations and research, Chaldea was already at a significant height of cultural development, so that Abraham, in obedience to a higher calling, moved to Canaan already as a person who possessed all the most important elements of cultural life, and was a very prosperous and an influential head of an entire tribe.

In Canaan, a Covenant was concluded between God and Abraham, an agreement that determined the future fate of Abraham's descendants. After some time, Abraham had to visit the banks of the Nile, where the finally formed Egyptian civilization already flourished, with its grandiose pyramids, numerous temples and obelisks, and all kinds of manifestations of the peculiar culture of the wisest people of the ancient East.

Jewish patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob led a lifestyle of modest nomads, therefore [ ] their names are not mentioned either in the cuneiform tablets of the Babylonian archives or on the stone stelae of the Egyptian pharaohs. At the same time, the Bible (Tanakh) preserved a living memory "in the faces" of the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians and many other peoples for many millennia.

Ancient Egypt was destined to become later the cradle of the Jewish people, when the grandson of Abraham, Jacob, moved there with his whole house.

Apparently, the Abrahamic period corresponds to a group of nomadic tribes, the Khapiru, often mentioned in the documents of various states of the Middle East (Akkad, Ugarit, Mitanni, Ancient Egypt) in the period of approximately 18-15 centuries. BC e.

Migration to Egypt and Egyptian slavery (XVI-XIV centuries BC / 210 years)

The resettlement of Jews in Egypt took place at a time when the Hyksos dynasty ruled there [ ], or “shepherd kings” (from the 17th century BC), which belonged to a foreign people who forcibly invaded Egypt and seized the throne of the pharaohs. It is not known exactly where the conquerors came from and to which tribe they belonged; but one can think that these were nomads who lived in the Syrian steppes and constantly disturbed Egypt with their raids, so that he had to protect himself with a special stone wall that stretched almost across the entire Isthmus of Suez. Taking advantage of the weakness of the government, the nomads conquered Egypt, and the first time of their rule was marked by all sorts of manifestations of wild barbarism [ ], which, however, soon submitted to Egyptian civilization, so that after several generations the court of the Hyksos kings did not differ in any way from the court of the native pharaohs. Under one of the representatives of this dynasty, in all likelihood, Joseph ruled Egypt, since only under the pharaoh of the shepherd dynasty was it conceivable that an insignificant slave, who came out of shepherds despised by natural Egyptians, could be appointed to the post of supreme ruler of the country. The name of this pharaoh is Apapi II [ ] . In order to strengthen their position, the Hyksos patronized foreigners and gave them the best lands in order to find loyal allies in them in case of need. Such a policy can also explain the fact that Apapi II gave the newly arrived settlers - Jews one of the richest districts of the country.

Settled on rich soil, surrounded by all the influences of a highly developed culture, using the advantageous position of the tribe (kinship to the first minister and benefactor of the country), the Jewish population began to grow rapidly. Meanwhile, an important change took place in the life of Egypt. A liberation movement emerged from Thebes, which overthrew the Hyksos dynasty and the Hyksos were expelled from Egypt (about 1550 BC).

For the Jews, this political upheaval was fatal. A new, native XVII-th dynasty reigned on the throne of the pharaohs. Under the influence of a long and stubborn struggle with the Hyksos, a spirit of militancy and conquest, hitherto unknown in Egypt, developed in it, and at the same time, an extreme political suspicion of everything non-Egyptian, and especially shepherd, developed [ ] . In view of this, it is quite natural that the new dynasty not only had no inclination to preserve the former privileges and liberties of the Jewish settlers, but, on the contrary, due to their well-known connection with the Hyksos, began to treat them with suspicion and hostility. Since they had already significantly increased in number and represented an important political force, a system of oppression began in relation to them, which became stronger with each new reign. The most difficult serf border work began, and the gratuitous labor of the Jews was used for them. The pharaohs, as it were, tried to surpass each other with their military glory and grandiose buildings and palaces that decorated their residences; but the more famous the pharaoh was, the more brilliant his reign, the more the people groaned under the weight of overwork. In parties, exhausted workers were taken to the quarries, forced to carve huge blocks of granite and, with incredible effort, drag them to the place of buildings; they were forced to dig and build new canals, to make bricks and knead clay and lime for the erected buildings, to raise water from the Nile into ditches to irrigate the fields, under the blows of cruel overseers with sticks, as the Pentateuch clearly depicts: “The Egyptians cruelly forced the children of Israel to work and made their lives bitter from hard work with clay and bricks and from all work in the field”(Ex.).

According to the traditional view, Egyptian slavery lasted 210 years.

Exodus from Egypt and wandering in the desert (XIV century BC | 40 years)

According to the Bible, the living conditions of the Israelites in the years leading up to the Exodus become unbearable. When Pharaoh saw that the measures he had taken could not stop the growth of the young people, he issued a cruel command, first secretly, and then openly, to kill the born boys from the tribe of the Israelites. And the groans and cries of mothers joined the people's groans under the weight of exhausting work, but among these groans and cries of the Israeli people, their great deliverer Moses was born.

Among his fellow tribesmen, Moses saw their suffering up close and one day, in a fit of indignation, he killed an Egyptian overseer who severely punished an Israelite slave. Moses buried the Egyptian in the sand, trying to hide the traces of his involuntary homicide, but the rumor about this managed to spread, and he was threatened with the death penalty. As a result, he was forced to flee from Egypt to the mountainous, inaccessible Sinai Peninsula, to Midian, where he led a quiet shepherd's life for 40 years.

When the time came, Moses received from God a great call to return to Egypt in order to bring his people out of captivity from slavery and lead them to the service of the God revealed to him. Returning to Egypt already as a messenger and prophet of God, Moses, in the name of God, demanded that the pharaoh release his people, demonstrating miracles designed to convince the pharaoh and his entourage of the divinity of his destiny. These miracles were called the ten plagues of Egypt because each miracle demonstrated by Moses was accompanied by terrible disasters for the Egyptians. After a long and persistent struggle, Moses led the people out of Egypt. Just a week after the Exodus, the Pharaoh's army overtook the Jews at the Red, or Red, Sea, where another miracle is performed: the waters of the sea parted before the Israelites and closed over the Pharaoh's army.

Wandering in the wilderness following the pillar of fire, the Israelites, seven weeks after the Exodus, approached Mount Sinai. At the foot of this mountain (identified by most researchers with Mount Sas-Safsafeh, and by others with Serbal), with formidable natural phenomena, the final Covenant (contract) was concluded between God and the Jews as a chosen people, destined from now on to be the bearer of true religion and morality for the spread of their later on all mankind. The basis of the Covenant was the famous Ten Commandments (the Decalogue), carved by Moses on two Tablets of the Covenant after forty days of seclusion on Mount Sinai. These commandments express the basic principles of religion and morality, and to this day form the basis of all legislation. A religious and social organization of the people also took place there: the Tabernacle (camping Temple) was built, by the will of the Almighty the tribe of Levi (Levites) was allocated for its service, and from the tribe itself were allocated kohanim - descendants of Aaron, brother of Moses, for the priesthood.

After a one-year camp at the sacred mountain, the people, numbering more than 600,000 people capable of bearing weapons (which for the whole people will be more than 2,000,000 souls), moved on a further journey to the Promised Land, that is, to Canaan.

Despite the fact that the purpose of the wanderings - the land of Canaan, was established even when they left Egypt, the people spend 40 years on the road as a punishment for murmuring against God, doubting the success of the outcome, when 12 spies sent to Canaan, frightened by the local population, did not recommend Jews to enter there. The path of the Israelites through the desert was accompanied by both difficulties and disasters, as well as divine miracles: the gift of manna from heaven, the appearance of water from a rock, and many others. The movement was slow, only after 40 years of wandering did a new generation come to the borders of Canaan north of the Dead Sea, where they made their last stop on the banks of the Jordan. There, from the top of Mount Nebo, Moses looked over the land of his hopes, and having made the necessary arrangements and appointed Joshua as his successor, he died without entering the Promised Land.

Conquest of Canaan (c. 13th century BC | age 14)

According to biblical traditions, having become the head of the people, Joshua led an offensive war with extraordinary energy and, taking advantage of the fragmentation of the local Canaanite princes, in a short time defeated them one by one, while exposing the entire population to wholesale extermination, which found justification, in addition, and in that terrible degree of religious and moral corruption in which the Canaanite peoples were and in which they became decisively dangerous for the religion and morality of the chosen people. The conquest was completed in seven years, and the conquered land was divided among twelve tribes, into which the people were divided (according to the number of their twelve ancestors, the sons of Jacob), with the allocation of the thirteenth tribe of Leviticus for sacred service.

The Age of the Judges (XII-XI centuries BC | ~ 300 years)

After the death of Joshua, the people were left without a definite political leader and actually broke up into twelve independent republics, the only unity for which was the unity of religion and law and the consciousness of their brotherhood by blood. This division naturally weakened the people politically, and at the same time morally, so that they quickly began to submit to the influence of the Canaanite population that had not been exterminated and to get carried away by the immoral forms of its idolatry, which consisted in the deification of the productive forces of nature (the cult of Baal and Astarte). Both the native and surrounding peoples took advantage of this and, taking revenge on the Jews for their previous victories, subjugated them and subjected them to cruel oppression.

The people were delivered from these disasters by the elders and valiant leaders, the so-called judges, among whom the famous prophetess Deborah, the valiant Gideon and Samson, famous for his miraculous power, the storm of the worst enemy of the Israeli people - the Philistines, stand out especially. Despite these feats of individuals, the entire history of the period of the judges (which lasted about 350 years) is a history of gradual errors, lawlessness and idolatry of the people, with disasters inseparably following them. Among the Jewish people, the true religion of worship of the One God was almost completely forgotten, and miserable superstitions appeared in its place, spread by various dissolute, wandering Levites. Immorality became so universal that adulterous cohabitation was considered a common thing and, as it were, replaced marriage, and in some cities even such heinous vices were divorced, by which Sodom and Gomorrah once incurred the terrible wrath of God.

Internal lawlessness and general arbitrariness complete the picture of the life of the Israeli people in those days, "when he did not have a king and when everyone did what seemed right to him"(Court. ). In this situation, the chosen people were threatened with final death, but they were delivered from it by the last and most famous judge Samuel. Having discovered the very source of the misfortunes of his people with his penetrating mind, he devoted his whole life to its good and decided to make a radical religious and social transformation in it. Concentrating both spiritual and civil power in his personality and being an ardent zealot of the faith of the fathers, with the aim of reviving the people, being himself a prophet and teacher of the faith, he came to the idea of ​​founding an institution that could forever serve as a source of spiritual enlightenment and from which enlightened zealots of faith and law. Such an institution appeared in the form of prophetic schools, or the so-called "hosts of prophets." Those valiant men who fearlessly spoke the bitter truth to the powerful of this world subsequently came out of these schools. Encouraged by selfless zeal for the true welfare of the people, they were fearless champions of the true religion and acted as resolute defenders of it in every danger that threatened it. Their activities developed and grew stronger as the historical life of the people progressed, and over time they became formidable avengers for any violation of religion, truth and justice. From that time on, by their tireless preaching, they never ceased to awaken the conscience of the people and their rulers, and thereby supported in them the spirit of true religion and good morality.

The wise reign of Samuel continued into his old age; but the lawless actions of his worthless sons again threatened the people with a return to their former disasters, and then an irresistible desire arose among the people to decisively end the period of anarchy, and they began to ask the aged judge to appoint a king over them, who would "judge them, like other peoples." This desire was caused in the people by the final consciousness of their inability to self-government according to the lofty principles of theocracy, as they were set forth in the legislation of Moses, although the very establishment of royal power did not at all contradict the beginning of theocracy and, on the contrary, in the very legislation of Moses it was foreseen as a necessary step in the development of historical the life of the people. (Deut.)

Ancient history (XI-IV centuries BC)

The period of the "united kingdom" (XI-X centuries BC | 80 years)

Around the 10th century BC e. in the territory of Canaan, a united Jewish kingdom was created.

Saul's reign (c. 1029-1005 BC)

The new king, and after being elected to the kingdom with true patriarchy, continued to indulge in the peaceful labor of a plowman, soon showed his military prowess and inflicted several defeats on the surrounding hostile peoples, especially the Philistines, who since the time of Samson have become the worst oppressors of Israel. But these feats turned his head, and from the initial simplicity he began to turn abruptly to an arrogant autocracy, not shy in his actions even by the instructions of the aged prophet Samuel and the law of Moses. From here, a clash between the secular and spiritual authorities inevitably occurred, and since everything showed that Saul would continue to go in the same direction, directly threatening to undermine the basic principle of the historical life of the chosen people, it turned out to be a sad need to stop this royal family and he was chosen as his successor young David from the tribe of Judah, from the city of Bethlehem.

Reign of David

The era of the First Temple (IX-VII centuries BC | ~ 350 years)

Main article: First Temple Judaism

In the X century BC. e. The Temple was built by King Solomon Beit a-miqdash , "House of Holiness") in Jerusalem. For many centuries, the Tanakh (Jewish Holy Scripture) has been created.

Despite the battle between the great ancient powers of Egypt, Assyria, and later the Neo-Babylonian kingdom for hegemony in this region, despite the internal split that led to the creation of two Jewish kingdoms, sometimes at war with each other, the Jewish people, its political and religious leaders were able to to strengthen the connection of the Jews with this land and Jerusalem, that even the destruction of the Jewish state and the Temple of Jerusalem and the expulsion of the Jews to Mesopotamia did not put an end to their national history.

Period of the divided kingdoms (978-722 BC)

After the death of Solomon, under his successor, the inexperienced and arrogant Rehoboam, the people of Israel were divided into two kingdoms, of which the larger one (ten tribes) went to Jeroboam from the tribe of Ephraim (about 978 BC). These halves began to be called the Kingdom of Judah and the Kingdom of Israel, and a fierce rivalry began between them, which exhausted their internal and external forces, which was not slow to take advantage of the neighbors, and already under Rehoboam, the Egyptian pharaoh Sheshonk I made a quick raid on Judea, took and robbed Jerusalem and many other cities of the country and immortalized his victory in images and inscriptions on the wall of the great temple of Karnak. With the rupture of political unity, a rupture of religious unity also began, and in the kingdom of Israel a new cult was established in political forms, allegedly representing the worship of the God of Israel under the guise of a golden calf - in Bethel. The great zealots of monotheism, the prophets, protested against this in vain; the new cult took root and entailed an inevitable deviation into the grossest superstition and idolatry, which in turn was followed by a complete decline in morality and a weakening of the socio-political organism. The whole history of the kingdom of Israel is a constant internal turmoil and political upheavals.

In 722, the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel - Samaria - was defeated by the warriors of Assyria, and its population, the descendants of ten of the 12 tribes of Israel, were resettled by the Assyrians in Media. The people of the kingdom of Israel, taken captive, were lost there without a trace among the surrounding peoples of the East. The legends of the "Ten Lost Tribes" were popular in Jewish, Christian and Muslim folklore, and are still common among Eastern Jewish communities and among Judaic movements. According to one of the legends, they will return before the coming of the Messiah (Mashiach).

Kingdom of Judah under the rule of Assyria and Babylonia (720-586 BC)

Babylonian captivity (586-537 BC)

The Babylonian captivity, however, did not become a grave for the people of Judah, unlike the Assyrian captivity, which became fatal for the population of Israel. On the contrary, it served as the first step towards the spread of pure monotheism among the pagan peoples, since that very time began that great process of Jewish dispersion, which was of such enormous importance for preparing the pagan world for Christianity. After 70 years, by virtue of the decree of the magnanimous Cyrus the Persian, who broke the power of Babylon, the Jews were able to return to their land and build a new Temple in Jerusalem.

The era of the Second Temple (6th century BC-I century AD)

The development of a peculiar Jewish culture based on ancient tradition and under the influence of the Hellenistic world. Formation of the biblical canon. The emergence of the Jewish diaspora associated with Jerusalem and the Jewish population in the Land of Israel.

Judea under Persian rule (537-332 BC)

Hasmonean Wars of Liberation (167-140 BC)

With the passage of the Jews under Syrian domination, under Antiochus IV Epiphanes began severe persecution of the Jewish cult and the desire to forcibly Hellenize the Jews. For the purpose of national self-defense among the Jews, under the leadership of the priest Mattathia and his sons (Maccabees), an uprising arose (165-141 BC) against the Syrians, which ended with the liberation of Judea from the rule of Syria. In 141 BC. e. liberated Judea proclaimed the ruler of the son of Mattathea, Simon (Shimon), the ancestor of the Hasmonean dynasty.

Hasmonean kingdom (140 - 37 BC)

The Jewish uprising not only secured the religious independence of Judah, but also led to the creation of an independent Hasmonean kingdom (164-37) with its capital in Jerusalem.

At this time, Hellenized groups and non-Jewish Semitic peoples of the Negev and Transjordan merged into the Jewish people.

Simon's successor was his son John Hyrcanus (135-106 BC), who combined in himself the royal title and the rank of high priest. His descendants were already far from the traditions of the era of the national upsurge of the first Maccabees, and completely succumbed to the influence of the Hellenic culture. After John Hyrcanus, his sons Aristobulus, 106-105, and Alexander Yannai, 105-79, reigned. The latter was succeeded by his wife, Salome Alexandra, 79-70.

In 63 BC. e. a feud broke out between the sons of Salome, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, as a result of which the Roman commander Pompey was called as an arbitrator, who took Jerusalem and turned Judea into an ethnarchy that was part of the Roman province of Syria and was under the control of Hyrcanus. In 40 BC. e. Antigonus, the youngest son of Aristobulus, became king with the help of the Parthians.

King Herod I and his successors (37 BC - 6 AD)

In Palestine until the completion of the Jerusalem Talmud (200-425)

The national tragedy prompted the Jewish world to rebuild itself internally. The activities of the Jewish center in Yavne, and later the activities of Rabbi Yehudaha-Nasi, led the Jewish leadership to establish an autonomous judicial and educational system, in the hope that sooner or later conditions would arise for the revival of the Jewish state in the Land of Israel. This process is reflected in the Mishnah and the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmud created on its basis. Thus, Jewish communities developed forms of spiritual life aimed at preserving national identity in the absence of their own state.

In Babylonia before the conclusion of the Babylonian Talmud (200-500)

After the destruction of the Temple and especially the defeat of the uprising Bar Kokhba, the bulk of the Jews went to Mesopotamia, where for eight centuries there was a spiritual and intellectual center of the Jews, Jewish Talmudic academies operated, and the spiritual heads of the Jews lived: exilarchs and gaons (this period of Jewish history is called the exilarchy and gaonate).

In the Roman Empire and Byzantium

At the same time, vast streams of Jewish emigration headed to Egypt, along the entire African coast to Morocco, and crossed to the Iberian Peninsula. Another emigration flow went to the Balkan Peninsula, along the entire Black Sea (Crimea), from here it reached Kyiv along the Dnieper. Extensive Jewish colonies also sprang up in Rome, in northern Italy, southern France, and in the cities along the Rhine.

Before the adoption of Christianity in the Roman Empire, Jews everywhere lived peacefully among other peoples, engaged in agriculture, crafts, and conducted trade relations between East and West. In Italy, France and Germany, the Jews were not subjected to any restrictions in their studies until the beginning of the Middle Ages. In Lombardy and southern France, they were engaged in agriculture along with trade.

With the emergence of the Christian empire, Jewish communities found themselves in a fundamentally new situation. If the pagan Roman Empire physically deprived the Jewish people of their homeland and capital, then the Christianized Rome claimed control over the spiritual life of the Jewish people.

The persecution of the Jews began in Byzantium under Theodosius II (401-450), who was distinguished by religious fanaticism and a desire for police regulation of inner life.

Early Middle Ages (VI-IX centuries)

The existence of Jewish communities in the diaspora between two civilizations - Christianity and Islam. Formation of the main institutions of community self-government.

From the 7th century AD e. the position of the Jews became more difficult. The Jewish communities in the Diaspora were divided between two civilizations - Christianity and Islam, which, although they were historically associated with the ancient Jewish spiritual heritage, in fact declared their fundamental dissociation from Jewry. The new Islamic civilization waged a struggle with the Christian civilization both for political dominance in the Land of Israel and for the spiritual values ​​of the peoples living in it, including the Jews.

The Jews, who had neither their own state nor their own army, had to develop new forms of social organization that would allow them to preserve their spiritual heritage and assert their autonomous status in non-Jewish society. This form was the medieval community, which fit into the general corporate structure of feudal society and created the conditions for meeting the social, religious and economic needs of the Jews. The leadership of the Jewish communities not only coped with the task of survival, but also created the conditions for economic and spiritual development; moreover, Jews often became trade and cultural intermediaries between the warring Christians and Muslims.

Faced with new forms of social life and coming into contact with a new culture for them, the Jews did not lock themselves in the traditional system of ideas, but sought to enrich their inner world at the expense of the achievements of the society around them. The result of this process was the formation of a diverse and original medieval Jewish culture, which included both ancient cultural layers and the fruits of the creative activity of recent generations.

In Palestine

The ethnic center in Palestine practically ceased to exist after the Arab conquest (638).

Jews in the East until the end of the age of the Gaons (500-1040)

In Mesopotamia, under the Caliphs of Baghdad, and in Spain, under the rule of the Moors, Jews enjoyed equal rights and were admitted to the highest government positions.

In Byzantium

In Europe before the Crusades (500-1096)

High and Late Middle Ages (X-XV centuries)

Relocation of the demographic and cultural center of Jewry to Eastern Europe.

In the Islamic world

In the XII century. in Spain and North Africa, significant numbers of Jews were forcibly converted to Islam by Muslim fanatics, the Almohads.

Jewish Revival in Arab Spain (950-1215)

In Western Europe

The expulsion and persecution of the Jews led to the dispersion of the Jewish people in all corners of the world - from North Africa and the Ottoman Empire to America discovered by Columbus and was accompanied by increased isolation of the Jews and their displacement to the periphery of public life in Europe.

Despite the difficult economic conditions and constant persecution, the creative life did not stop among the Jews. Familiar with Arabic translations of Greek literature, they translated many classical works into Hebrew, studied Greek and Latin authors in the original. During the renaissance, the Italian and Dutch Jews were the teachers of many humanists who, with Reuchlin at their head, took the Talmud under their protection when fanatics raised fires against Jewish books.

In Christian Europe during the era of the Crusades (1096-1215)

In moments of social and religious upheaval, Jews became the first victims of violence. The bloody persecution of the Jews began at the time of the First Crusade (1096), when the rich Jewish communities on the Rhine, in Trier, Speyer, Mainz and Cologne were defeated. Jews were exterminated, women were abused, and children were forcibly baptized. From that time until the end of the 18th century, Jews in Western Europe were periodically subjected to persecution. Kings (for example, Philip II Augustus and others) and princes, when they were in need of money, expelled Jews from their possessions, took away all their property and called them back to revive trade, allowed Jews to make fortunes in order to take everything back for themselves .

In many states, possessions and cities, Jews from the XII century. they were subjected to various harassment: they were forced to be baptized (marrans), live in special quarters (ghettos), wear a special costume, it was forbidden to own land, engage in agriculture and many crafts; in many places they were allowed to engage exclusively in giving money on interest and trading in old clothes.

Ages of lawlessness and martyrdom until the expulsion of the Jews from France (1215-1394)

From the 13th century in Western Europe, blood libels against the Jews began to spread, followed by additional anti-Jewish decrees of the Catholic Church. In 1290 the Jews were expelled from England, in 1394 from France. In 1348, the Jews were accused of spreading the plague and exterminated in many cities.

Golden Age of Jews in Spain (VIII-XII centuries)

From 750 to 1100, the golden age of Islam and Spanish Jewry lasted. Jewish merchants spoke many languages: Latin, Hebrew, Greek, Persian, Arabic, and therefore were used by the rulers not only of Spain, but of other countries, for diplomatic work. Traveling to other countries, they could not only trade, but also negotiate. One of the most successful diplomats was the Spanish Jew Khazdai ibn Shaprut. And although the Jews lived better among the Muslims who then ruled Spain than among the Christians, however, fundamentalist awakening movements arose there, and Muslims could oppose the Jews and massacre them. Said leader Khazdai ibn Shaprut acted as the protector of his people, and appealed to Muslim leaders to calm the fundamentalists and protect his people.

The Last Age of Jewry in Spain (1391-1492)

In 1391, 5,000 Jewish families were massacred in Seville/Spain; 23 synagogues destroyed. In the same year - 20,000 Jews were burned at the stake and severe persecution of Jews began in Spain. In 1492 - Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile issue a decree regarding the Jews who lived in Spain for more than one and a half thousand years. Faced with a choice - either accept Christianity or get out, most of the Jews refused to betray their faith and were expelled from the country. As a result, their property was confiscated, and the royal couple's huge debt to Jewish creditors was thus embezzled by the authorities. Although ecclesiastical inquisitions existed throughout Western and Central Europe from the twelfth to the nineteenth centuries, in Spain they were unusually brutal and widespread. According to existing estimates, 30 thousand Marranos - baptized representatives of the Jewish people, were burned at the stake of the Spanish Inquisition from the 15th century to 1808. In addition to this, in 1492 all unbaptized Jews were expelled from the country. They were deprived of all their property and had no means of self-defense, so the order for mass expulsion from the country was a virtual death sentence for them. Spanish Jews (together with many others who lived in different countries in different centuries) were constantly "between a rock and a hard place."

In the same 1492, about 300 thousand Jews were expelled from Spain and Portugal, where for 7 centuries the second Jewish spiritual center was under the rule of the Moors, and New Jewish literature flourished. From Spain, the Jews went to the Netherlands, Italy, where they enjoyed the patronage of some popes, and Turkey. In Germany, the Jews were taken under the protection of the emperors for the payment of a special tax.

In Poland, Lithuania and Russia (XII-XV centuries)

In the South and South-East of Russia and in Kyiv, Jews have been found since the 9th-11th centuries. Jews settled in Poland and Lithuania from the 11th century. Jewish settlements have been especially strong here since the cruel persecution of Jews in the 12th-14th centuries. Kings Bolesław II the Pious (1264) and Casimir III (1334-67) granted Polish Jews charters, in which the Jews were granted various rights and privileges, as well as the rights of internal communal self-government and courts. Letters of the same content were given to Lithuanian Jews by Grand Duke Vytautas (1388) and King Sigismund I (1507). Until the end of the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian state, Jews enjoyed the rights granted to them.

New time (XVI-XVIII centuries)

The gradual integration of Jews into European society, accompanied by the weakening and radical restructuring of traditional community institutions.

The restructuring of medieval society under the influence of new socio-political views (absolutism, mercantilism, the Enlightenment) and the growing secularization of society led to a revision of the traditional attitude towards Jews in Europe. The transition from the Middle Ages to the New Age was marked by the beginning of the emancipation process, the gradual granting of civil rights to Jews equal to non-Jews. Emancipation led to the emergence of diverse contacts between Jews and their neighbors: Jews penetrated into all spheres of social and cultural life.

In Turkey and Palestine before the decline of Sabbatianism (1492-1750)

In Western Europe

After the liberation of the Netherlands from Spanish oppression, a Jewish community flourished there, from which Baruch Spinoza emerged. After the victory of the English Revolution in 1640 over the absolutism and clericalism of the Tudors, Jews were allowed to settle again in England.

In Poland and Russia

In the 17th century During the Cossack raids into the Polish regions, the Jews suffered greatly, especially in the era of Bogdan Khmelnitsky and the Gaidamachina. The ruin of the Jews in the southwestern part of the Polish state created fertile ground for mystical movements and sectarianism. A strong impression not only on Polish Jews, but also on the Jews of Western Europe was made by the appearance in the Decree "On the deportation of both Great Russian and Little Russian cities, villages and villages," all "Jews"

After the first Polish partition, the Jews were promised in the decrees of Catherine II (1772 and 1785) - the use of benefits and rights "without distinction between the law and the people", on an equal footing with persons of other states taken under the scepter of the Russian state. However, the Jews were soon subjected to various restrictions.

Transition period (1750-1795)

Modern times (XIX-XX centuries)

The penetration of Jews into all spheres of public and cultural life and, as a result, the activation of anti-Semitic movements. The birth of the Jewish national movement and the beginning of the construction of a "national home" in the Land of Israel. The catastrophe of European Jewry (the Holocaust).

The formation of national ideologies in Europe led to a slowdown in the integration of Jews in the surrounding society. As a reaction to their activities and active presence in various spheres of the life of nation-states, anti-Semitic concepts have become widespread. At the same time, under the influence of the general national awakening of the peoples of Europe, the Zionist movement arose, which laid the foundation for the creation of a Jewish "national home" in Palestine. The growth of anti-Semitism, associated with the national self-affirmation of the peoples of Europe at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, led to the scope of the Zionist movement, especially among assimilated Jews.

In Western Europe

The emancipation of the Jews in Western Europe began with the Great French Revolution. In 1791 the Jews of France received general civil rights. In Germany, the equality of Jews was promised in different countries during the years of the national liberation upsurge of 1812-1814. In 1858 the Jews were admitted to the English Parliament. In fact, the gradual equalization of the rights of German Jews was completed in 1848-1862. The German constitution of 1871 recognized the equality of Jews.

At the beginning of the XX century. everywhere in Western Europe (with the exception of Romania, where the resolution of the Berlin Congress of 1878 on granting equal rights to Jews was not enforced) and in America, where during the 19th century. more than 1 million Jews were resettled, Jews enjoyed all civil and political rights.

At the same time, the Jews often lost the privilege of their special religious and social laws. Working out a response to the new situation, emancipated Jews in European countries came to different forms of the existence of religious tradition, up to an indifferent attitude towards it. This is how Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Judaism arose and the assimilation of Jews among other peoples within their nation-states began.

In Eastern Europe

The Jewish center in Eastern Europe acquires special significance during this period. The original culture of Eastern European Jewry, formed back in the Middle Ages, becomes the basis of the most significant socio-cultural phenomena in the Jewish society of the New Age as a whole. The ideologies and movements that originated in Eastern Europe are exported to other communities around the world through the massive migration of Jews from this region to the West and Palestine that began at the end of the 19th century.

In Russia

In Russia, Jews have been living in large numbers since the annexation of the Polish-Lithuanian regions at the end of the 18th century.

In the inner life of Russian Jews during the XIX century. there have been significant changes. From the beginning of the 1860s. the desire of the Jews for a pan-European education was significantly intensified, which was favored by the liberal policy of the government of the 1860s and 70s. A class of Jewish intelligentsia appeared, taking an active part in public life, Russian literature and free professions. The political correction of the reforms was marked in 1881 immediately after the death of Alexander II by a series of pogroms and riots in the southern provinces and the publication of new restrictive laws of 1882 and 1891. The restrictions on the Jews had a negative impact on their economic situation and contributed to the spread of poverty in the territories controlled by the German Nazis and their Allies carried out genocide, during which about 6 million Jews were destroyed.

Modern history (after 1945)

The revival of the Jewish state with its capital in Jerusalem; Arab-Israeli conflict; modern Jewish diaspora, its connection with Israel.

The mass extermination of the Jews of Europe prompted the peoples of the world to agree to the revival of the Jewish national state Israel with its capital in Jerusalem. The strengthening of the state of Israel takes place in the context of the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict, and the modern Jewish diaspora serves as a support for Israel.

/ Mark Cohen; per. from English. Love Chernina. - Moscow: Scribes; Text, 2013.