Jewish History - Terms and Concepts #1

Yohanan ben Zakkai

Yohanan ben Zakkai was a Jewish sage who, according to the Talmud, established a school for rabbinical Judaism after the destruction of the Second Temple. The school was located in town of Yavneh in the Land of Israel. Ben Zakkai was the main contributor to the Mishna, the core text of the Talmud. He had a major role in transforming the Judaism of the destroyed Temple into a portable religion adapted to diasporic conditions. Because there are no contemporaneous non-Jewish sources that refer to Yohanan Ben-Zakkai, many historians conclude that he never existed. (Likewise, there are no contemporaneous non-Biblical sources that refer to Abraham, the founder of the Israelite religion, which later became Judaism, no contemporaneous sources that refer to Muhammad, and no contemporaneous sources outside of the New Testament that refer to Jesus Christ.)

Sicarii

sicarius (from the Latin sica, "dagger") was the general Latin term for "assassin" or "hit man" and was also synonymous with "murderer." The term was used by the Romans for hundreds of years, but during the first century C.E. became more specialized, and was often used to refer more specifically, in the plural form Sicarii, to a Jewish extremist group in Judea who were determined to drive the Romans (and any Roman sympathizers) out of Judea. They were particularly active during the First Jewish-Roman War (66-74 C.E.)

A.D.

A Latin term meaning "the Year of our/the Lord (Anno Domini). This method of time calculation takes the birth year ("The Year") of Jesus Christ ("our Lord") as its starting point. Because this method of assessing time is Christological, many scholars prefer C.E. (Common Era).

Muslim

A Muslim is a follower of the religion called Islam.

Babylonia

A Semitic culture/nation that was part of ancient Mesopotamia. Its major city was Babylon. In 587 B.C.E. (under king Nebuchadnezzar II) the Babylonians conquered the kingdom of Judah, destroying Jerusalem and the temple there (the First Temple). Much of the Jewish population of Judah was deported to Babylon at this time.

Ashkenazic Jewry

Ashkenazic Jewry refers to Jews who trace their origins to Central and Eastern Europe. These Jews typically spoke Germanic languages, including Yiddish (a Jewish form of medieval German). The term is derived from "Ashkenaz," the Hebrew word for "Germany." Relevance to course: Most Jews in the world today are Ashkenazic. (By contrast, in the 8th century, 8 out of 9 Jews in the world were indigenous to Muslim lands.)

Torah

The "Torah" (Hebrew: תּוֹרָה, "teaching, instruction"), in its most specific meaning—the one used in this class—refers to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible (what Christians call the "Old Testament"). The Torah was said to have been handed down by God to Moses during the Israelites' wandering in the Sinai desert after the Exodus from Egypt. (The five books are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.)

Ten Tribes

The "Ten Tribes of Israel" (also referred to as the "Ten Lost Tribes of Israel") refers to the ten tribes that made up the Israelite population of the Kingdom of Israel before that kingdom was conquered and exiled under the Assyrians in ca. 722 B.C.E. There is no documentation about the post-exile fate of these tribes and all reputable historians agree that they assimilated into local Assyrian populations and disappeared as distinct groups. However, according to a lively myth cultivated among many peoples, including Jews, the ten tribes survived in a supernatural land or were present in isolated locales throughout the world. One belief that emerged after 1492 was that the Native Americans represent the lost ten tribes.

Lachrymose Approach

The "lachrymose approach" to Jewish history refers to the tendency to view the Jewish past as characterized by unceasing persecution and suffering, and to ignore Jewish creativity and successful integration in the Diaspora. The term was coined by Salo Wittmayer Baron (1895-1989), the preeminent Jewish historian of the twentieth century.

Hellenistic

"Hellenistic" refers to the exportation of Greek culture outside of Greece proper. Hellenistic influence transformed arts, exploration, literature, theatre, architecture, music, mathematics, philosophy, and science. Greek culture abroad absorbed elements of indigenous cultures. Therefore, Hellenistic culture was actually the fusion of the ancient Greek world with cultures of Near East, North Africa, & Southwest Asia. The Hellenistic period dates from the death of Alexander the Great (323 BCE) to the emergence of the Roman Empire (1st century BCE). At this time, Greek cultural influence and power was at its peak in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Etymology (word origin): "Hellas" means "Greece" (Ἑλλάς)". One can speak of the Hellenistic Empire or Hellenistic culture.

Exodus

"The Exodus" generally refers to the departure of the Israelites from Egypt ca. 1250 B.C.E., as told mainly in the book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible. The basic narrative says that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt who then left voluntarily and against the will of the Egyptian Pharaoh. They wandered through the wilderness (the Sinai desert) for 40 years until they arrived at the Promised Land (Canaan, i.e. the Land of Israel). The historicity of the Exodus is much debated, and there is no archaeological or textual evidence outside the Bible to support the historicity of the event, but it is central to the major tenets of Judaism. According to the Exodus narrative, God gave the Torah to the Israelites in the Sinai desert after they fled Egyptian slavery. [exodus, n. < Greek ἔξοδος, exodos, "a going out, an exit, a departure"]

Second Temple

(Recall: The First Temple was destroyed ca. 587/6 B.C.E. by the Babylonians.) Like the First Temple, the Second Temple was an edifice that was the administrative and religious center for the Land of Israel (by then identified with the southern Kingdom of Judah). It was built sometime after the Persians allowed the Jews to return to Judah, ca. 538 B.C.E., but was destroyed by the Romans during the siege of Jerusalem during the first Jewish-Roman War in 70 C.E. The Second Temple period is a period in Jewish history from ca. 539 B.C.E to 70 C.E. during which the Second Temple stood in Jerusalem.

Constantine I

(ca. 288-337) Also called Constantine the Great, he was Roman Emperor 306-337 C.E. The Roman Empire was formally divided into the Western and Eastern Empires in ca. 284/5 C.E, as two emperors were necessary to govern the vast territory—an emperor for the eastern provinces and an emperor for the western provinces. Constantine won a battle against the western Emperor Maxentius in 312, thus becoming Emperor of the western provinces; in 324 he defeated the Emperor of the eastern provinces as well (Licinius), and thus became sole Emperor over the entire Roman Empire. At this time the west was Christian and Latin-speaking, while the east was largely Pagan and Greek-speaking. For this class, the relevance of Constantine is that he was the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity, which he did ca. 312, just before his battle against Maxentius. He renamed Byzantium "Constantinople" and established it as a Christian city. Under Constantine's rule, Christianity became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire, although polytheism was not formally outlawed until the 390s under the emperor Theodosius. Constantine became the first Roman emperor to enact actual laws (rather than just prohibitory regulations) to radically limit the rights of Jewish citizens. Some of these laws (many enacted in 329 C.E.) included: Jews were forbidden from trying to convert Christians (no proselytism allowed). Jews were forbidden from owning Christian slaves. Jews were forbidden to circumcise slaves. Marriages between Jews and Christians were forbidden; the death penalty was imposed upon any Jew who transgressed this law. The hostile attitude of the Christianized state toward Jews thus seems to have owed its origin to Constantine.

Diaspora

A diaspora [< Greek, dia "apart" + speirein "scatter"] with a lower case "d" is a geographical dispersion of people who had a common origin; the settlement of a group of people away from their ancestral homeland to two or more locales. Note: a relocation from a historic homeland to just one locale is a migration, not a diaspora. The Diaspora (with a capital "D") usually refers specifically to the population of Jews exiled from the northern Kingdom of Israel by the Babylonians in 587 B.C.E. as well as the later population of Jews exiled from Judaea in 70 C.E. by the Romans to various locales outside the historic Israelite/Jewish homeland. Thus, the Diaspora = the Jewish diaspora.

Ur

A major city-state in ancient Mesopotamia, said to be the birthplace of Abraham, patriarch of the Israelites (c. 2000 B.C.E). It is also notable for its ziggurat (the Ziggurat of Ur), a type of stepped pyramid used for religious purposes. The Ziggurat has been partially preserved and is still visible along with other archaeological remains at Ur.

Jew

A monotheistic people who are associated with the Jewish religion, identify their historic patriarch as Abraham, and trace their remote origins to the Hebrew language and the Land of Israel. The term "Jew" is derived from the Hebrew territory called "Judah" (pronounced in Hebrew as "Yehuda"), which formed the southern kingdom of the ancient Land of Israel.

Hellenistic Greece

A period in ancient Greek history lasting from ca. 323-31 B.C.E.—i.e. from the death of Alexander the Great to the Roman conquest of Egypt. Main characteristics: three "Greek" or Hellenistic kingdoms (Egypt, mainland Greece, Asia Minor) rise of Rome in the west Roman annexation of Greece, which soon became a Roman province (27 B.C.E.) This period saw an increasing awareness of Jews and their customs/culture/civilization, largely because Alexander had previously marched through the Levant (the eastern Mediterranean lands) and came into close contact with the Jews.

Dead Sea

A salt lake in the southern region of the State of Israel, in what was the ancient region of Judea. Masada, one of the main fortresses/palaces of King Herod the Great, was on the western bank of the Dead Sea. Also, it was in a cave near the settlement of Qumran, about a mile from the Dead Sea, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered by a Bedouin shepherd.

Abraham

According to Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew Bible, Abraham was the founding father of the Israelites. Born in the Mesopotamian city-state of Ur, he was called upon by God to leave his home and journey to a new land, Canaan, which became known as the Land of Israel. (Canaan is the term used of the land before the Israelites settled there.) Because there are no contemporary non-Biblical sources that refer to Abraham, the founder of the Israelite religion, many historians conclude that he never existed. Likewise, there are no contemporary non-Jewish sources that refer to Yohanan Ben-Zakkai, the founder of rabbinical Judaism, no contemporaneous sources that refer to Muhammad, and no contemporary sources outside of the New Testament that refer to Jesus Christ.)

Arab

An Arab is a member of an ethnic group that originates in the Arabian peninsula and neighboring territories, inhabiting much of the Middle East and North Africa. The original Arabs were polytheists and Arabs can theoretically espouse any religion (e.g. Islam, Christianity, Judaism, or Baha'i). Today, most Arabs are Muslims. However, most Muslims are not Arab. Relevance to the course: The first Muslims in history were Arabs and Islam originated in the Arabian Peninsula.

Masada

An ancient fortification built on a high plateau (mesa) on the southwestern edge of the Dean Sea in Judea. During the First Jewish-Roman War (The Great Revolt), non-Sicarii Jews expelled the Sicarii Jews from Jerusalem. The Sicarii then fled to Masada. The settlement they established there became the last outpost for the Revolt after the Romans overran Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple. Nearly all of our information about Masada and the events there comes from the historian Josephus, who describes the suicide of the Sicarii at Masada as a Roman legion (Legion X), under the command of general and governor Flavius Silva, besieged the site. (The arrival of the Romans and the siege itself occurred from 72-74 C.E.) (The site was fortified and used as a palace by Herod the Great (Herod I, a Roman client king of Judea) in the 30s B.C.E.)

Augustine

Augustine (345-430 C.E.) was the Bishop of Hippo (in North Africa) whose view regarding Jews and Judaism became the dominant Christian theological view. Augustine taught that Jews deserve death for murdering Christ but, like the biblical Cain, are not to be killed, but rather doomed to wander as punishment for deicide, to serve as living witnesses to the truth of Christianity (since, according to Augustine, Jews were living proof of the Bible and also preserved the Bible), and because Jews would get a second chance to repent of their sin and embrace Christ and Christianity at the end of days. For class, we read an excerpt from from his work Contra Judaeos ("Against the Jews") which explains his view.

B.C.

Before Christ. Because this method of assessing time is Christological, many scholars prefer B.C.E. (Before the Common Era).

B.C.E.

Before the Common Era. This method of marking the progression of years is theologically neutral in value, but is still based on the year of the birth of Christ.

Colonization

Colonization is an ongoing process of by which a central system of power invades and dominates another land, its people, and its resources. The term is derived from the Latin word colere, which means "to inhabit." Both lands and peoples can be colonized. Relevance to the class: One of the questions we will explore over the course of the semester is whether, as students of history, we may regard Jews as a colonized group. Here are some examples of the colonization in antiquity. Judea, the Southern Kingdom of the ancient Land of Israel, was colonized by a number of successive powers, including the Egyptians, the Hellenistic Greeks, and the Seleucids (whose center of power was in Syria). One can also say that the Jews of Judea were colonized by these powers.

C.E.

Common Era. This method of marking the progression of years is theologically neutral in value, but is still based on the year of the birth of Christ.

Josephus

Flavius Josephus was a Jewish soldier who became an official Roman historian and lived during the first century C.E. (ca. 37-100). He was born in Jerusalem, which was a Roman province at the time. He fought against the Romans in Galilee at the beginning of the First Jewish-Roman War (The Great Revolt), but surrendered to Vespasian in 67. Vespasian, then still a military and not yet emperor, kept Josephus as a hostage and interpreter; upon becoming emperor, Vespasian gave Josephus his freedom. Josephus became a Roman citizen, but took a great interest in recording Jewish history. His main works are: The Jewish War (written c. 75 C.E.), which chronicles the Jewish revolt against Roman occupation of Judea, 66-70 C.E. This includes his account of the events at Masada a few years later. Jewish Antiquities (written c. 94 C.E.), a history of the world focusing on the Jews and Judaism. Against Apion (written c. 97 C.E.), a defense of Judaism against its Roman detractors. Autobiography (written c. 99 C.E.), more a recap of The Great Revolt than an actual account of his life.

Graeco-Roman

Graeco-Roman is a very general descriptive term used to refer broadly to geographical areas culturally influenced by the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome (including in language, art, religion, etc.) when those regions were at one time under Greek and/or Roman rule. This includes much of the ancient Near East, Europe, and North Africa. Greek civilization emerged in the 8th century B.C.E. and peaked in the 5th century B.C.E.; Roman civilization peaked in the 2nd century C.E. The western Roman Empire collapsed in 476 C.E.

Kehilla

Kehilla is the Hebrew word for Jewish community. In the diaspora, the kehilla was the fullest expression of Jewish autonomy (partial self-rule).

Emancipation

In Jewish history, Emancipation refers to the granting of equal civic and political rights to Jews in the countries where they lived. France was the first country in the world to legally emancipate its Jews. It did so first in 1790, by emancipating Portuguese Jews living in southern France, and then in 1791, by emancipating local Ashkenazi Jews. The ideology behind the Emancipation was the Enlightenment, which taught that all human beings have the same nature and if you give them equal treatment, they will behave act the same. Emancipation demanded that Jews become citizens, but could not remain a national within a nation. Thus, Jews were pressured to redefine themselves as members of a religious group, not as members of the Jewish people. Thus, they were to be French citizens whose religion happens to be Judaism. Such pressure, particularly in the German states, encouraged Jews to alter their religion in order to make it more similar to Protestantism. The Reform denomination of Judaism emerged in 1818 in Hamburg, Germany. The Emancipation of the Jews had its limits. Jews were not socially integrated in terms of both residence and marriage (many continued to live in their own neighborhood or new ones that were predominantly Jewish, many preferred to marry among themselves), Europe's countries remained nominally Christian in both symbolism and concepts, and many organizations remained closed to Jews. The ultimate failures of Emancipation was the Dreyfus case of 1894 and the persecution of Nazis against Jews (1933-1945). Etymology (word origin): e=out of + mancipium=ownership, purchase (Latin). More loosely, Emancipation means to free from oppression, bondage, authority or restraint; to liberate. Emancipation in Jewish history is different from Emancipation in the U.S. The Emancipation Proclamation in the U.S. (effective January 1, 1863 under President Abraham Lincoln) declared free all slaves in territories still at war with the Union. Jews as a group were never enslaved in Christian Europe. On the contrary, according to the servi camerae nostri ("servants of our Royal Chamber") theory, a King was not permitted to enslave his Jews.

Christianity

In the first-century of the Common Era, Christianity was a sect of Judaism. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., Christianity definitively broke from Judaism, developing into a monotheistic religion that regarded Jesus Christ as messiah and God, and the New Testament as the religion's sacred text. Christianity is a faith-based religion. (By contrast, Judaism and Islam are nomistic, or law-based religions.)

Islam

Islam is a monotheistic faith founded by the Prophet Muhammad who lived ca. 570-632 C.E. Islam is the religion; Muslims are the followers of Islam. According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad was born in Mecca, a city in the Arabian Peninsula, and received God's revelation through the archangel Gabriel, who dictated to him a message of monotheism, sacred scriptures, and the final day of judgment, and commanded him to spread that message in Arabic. That message is the Qur'an, the sacred text of Muslims. According to Islamic tradition, the message Gabriel transmitted to Muhammad was the original message of God to humanity, but humanity had either lost this message or had willfully or unintentionally lost or corrupted it. The Qur'an was intended to recover or correct that lost or corrupted message. Within less than a century, Islam had conquered a territory roughly half of the size of the Roman Empire. As for the Jewish patriarchs and Jesus Christ, there is no contemporaneous evidence that Muhammad actually existed.

Judaea

Judaea, inhabited by Judaeans or Jews (the terms can be synonymous) was a Roman client kingdom from 63 B.C.E. until its more formal incorporation as a Roman province in 6 C.E. Judaea is the Roman word for the Kingdom of Judah (in Hebrew: Yehuda), the southern kingdom of the Land of Israel before the Romans conquered it.

Judah

Judah was the southern kingdom of the ancient Land of Israel. After the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah and destroyed its capital Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E., the region became the Babylonian province of "Yehud." When the Persians conquered the region they also called it "Yehud." In Hebrew, "Judah" is pronounces "Yehudah." The Romans called it Judaea.

Judaism

Judaism is a monotheistic religion whose cornerstone teaching is that the Hebrew Bible was revealed to the ancient Israelites by God, through the prophet Moses, that all Jews are obligated to fulfill the laws contained in that book, and that the historic homeland of the Jews is the Land of Israel.

Palestine

Like "Israel," this term has multiple meanings. 1. When the Romans conquered the kingdom of Judah, they renamed it "Palestine" after the Philistines. The Philistines were one of the "Sea Peoples" inhabited Acre in the Land of Israel. They self-identified as the "Peleshet," a word that signifies 'foreigner' or 'wanderer.' In biblical Hebrew they are known as Pelishtim. In Greek their land became Palaistina, whence the terms 'Philistine' and 'Palestine'. They probably arrived in the region gradually beginning around 1,300 BC. 2. The British, who controlled the region from 1917 through 1948, called the Land of Israel Palestine. 3. The indigenous Muslim and Christian groups of the region have referred to themselves as "Palestinians" and their historic land of "Palestine."

Muhammad

Muhammad (c. 570-632) was, according to biographies written hundreds of years after his lifetime, the founder of Islam. According to Islam, he is the final of prophets, the messenger of God, and transmitted God's final message to humanity. Because there are no contemporaneous sources that refer to Muhammad, many historians conclude that he never existed. (Likewise, there are no contemporary non-Biblical sources that refer to Abraham, the founder of the Israelite religion, which later became Judaism, no contemporary non-Jewish sources that refer to Yohanan Ben-Zakkai (the founder of rabbinical Judaism), and no contemporary sources outside of the New Testament that refer to Jesus Christ.)

Nomistic

Nomistic means law-based. It comes from nomos (plural: nomoi), the ancient Greek word for "custom, usage, law." Judaism and Islam are predominantly nomistic, or law-based, religions, while Christianity is predominantly a religion of faith.

Persia

Now modern-day Iran, ancient Persia was once a powerful empire that rose as the Babylonian empire started to decline in the 6th century B.C.E. With the end of Babylonian dominance, the Jewish people—who had been deported from Judah in 587/6 B.C.E.— were allowed to return in ca. 538 B.C.E. (though not all of them chose to). Jerusalem was re-established and the temple rebuilt at this time, leading to the Second Temple Period.

Vespasian

One of the Roman emperors during the first century C.E. (ruled 69-79); founder of the Flavian dynasty (which included his two sons, Titus and Domitian). Before becoming emperor, Vespasian was a renowned military commander, one of whose main accomplishments was subjugating Judea during the Jewish rebellion of 66 C.E. One of the major events of his reign as emperor was the successful campaign against Judea, which included the destruction of Jerusalem, carried out by his son Titus in 70 C.E. Vespasian was also the patron of Flavius Josephus.

Titus

One of the Roman emperors during the first century C.E. (ruled 79-81). Son of Vespasian. Before becoming emperor, Titus gained renown as a military commander, helping subjugate Judea during the uprisings of 66 C.E. After Vespasian became emperor, he left Titus in charge of ending the Jewish rebellion. In 70 C.E., Titus destroyed sacked and destroyed the Second Temple along with the rest of Jerusalem. The Arch of Titus in Rome commemorates his victory in Judea.

Eleazar ben Yair

One of the leaders of the revolutionary Sicarii during the First Jewish-Roman War (66-74 C.E.). He managed to escape the Roman attack on Jerusalem in 70 C.E. and fled to the stronghold of Masada with several hundred followers. There they continued their resistance to the Romans until, as the Tenth Legion besieged the fortress, Eleazar exhorted them to take their own lives. The story of Eleazar and the mass suicide at Masada appears in Josephus, Jewish War 7.8-9.

Sephardic Jewry

Sephardic Jewry refers to Jews who trace their recent origins to the Iberian Peninsula (what are today Portugal and Spain). Sephardic Jews spoke the same languages as their non-Jewish neighbors, including Romance (an early form of Spanish) and Portuguese. Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 and in 1497 the entire Jewish community of Portugal was forcibly converted to Christianity. The word is derived from Sefarad, the Hebrew word for "Spain." Jews have resided in the Iberian Peninsula since the first century C.E., but so-called Sephardi identity only emerged around the tenth century C.E.

Beit Aplha Synagogue

The Beit Alpha synagogue dates to the sixth century and is located in northeast Israel in the Beit Shean Valley. Its floor is constructed of a mosaic that features the sun god in a chariot surrounded by the Zodiac. (The Zodiac is a representation of a belt of the heavens specific to Greco-Roman pagan culture and includes indirect references to pagan deities. For example, the story of Aries is linked with the myth of the Golden Ram, which saved two kids, a brother and a sister, from being sacrificed in order to appease the gods.) The Bet Alpha synagogue mosaic is significant for the study of ancient Judaism because it shows that the limited influence in antiquity of the rabbis, who were opposed to pagan gods and symbols.

Dura-Europos Synagogue

The Dura-Europos synagogue was built in what is today Syria in the third century C.E. It is the mos extensive surviving example of ancient Jewish pictorial narrative. The paintings on its walls consisted of three band of narrative panels, one of which depicts God's outstretched hand leading the ancient Israelites out of Egyptian slavery. The synagogue, discovered by archaeologists in the 1930s, is significant in that it shows the limited influence of the ancient rabbis, who were opposed to pictorial depictions of God.

First Temple

The First Temple was an edifice in Jerusalem that was the administrative and religious center of the Land of Israel. The First Temple Period in Jewish history is usually dated from ca. 1006 to 587/586 B.C.E. The First Temple was destroyed during the Babylonian conquest of Judah in 587/6 B.C.E.

Pact of Umar

The Pact of Umar was a treaty between the the Muslim caliph Umar ibn Khattab (ruled 634-644) and Sophronios, the Christian patriarch of Jerusalem, in the seventh century. It served as the template for relations between Muslim rulers and non-Muslim monotheistic subjects throughout the Muslim world thereafter. There are several versions of the pact, and many historians doubt that the original Pact of Umar actually existed. In general, the Pact states that monotheistic peoples with a revealed text are ahl-al-kitab (people of the book) and therefore dhimma, or protected people. It is the responsibility of the Muslim government to protect their lives, religion, and property, and in return dhimma must abide by various laws that humiliate them and identify them as second-class, subjugated people.

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire existed from 27 B.C.E. to 476 C.E. During this time, Rome was ruled by a series of emperors, whose reach also extended to the Roman provinces. The Roman Empire definitively split into Western and Eastern Roman Empires in 395 C.E. because two emperors were necessary to govern the vast territory. The Western Empire fell in 476 C.E., while the Eastern Roman Empire, also called the Byzantine Empire, fell in 1453 to the Muslim Turks. It was under the Romans in 70 C.E. that the Second Temple was destroyed.

Talmud

The Talmud [Hebrewתַּלְמוּד talmūd "instruction, learning"] is a multi-volume legal code of central importance to Jews and Judaism. It is in part a commentary on the Hebrew Bible, but also includes rabbinical discussions of legends, historical events, and other disparate topics. It is written in Hebrew and Aramaic. Edited in ca. 550 C.E., it contains several thousand pages of text, representing the thoughts and opinions of over 1,000 rabbis who lived over 17 successive generations (ca. 200-550 CE). It is comprised of two texts, the Mishna (edited ca. 200 C.E.) and the Gemara (edited ca. 550 C.E.).

Mesopotamia

The ancient region roughly coinciding with modern-day Iraq.

Temple

The building in Jerusalem that was the religious and administrative center of the Jews in the ancient Land of Israel. The First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587-586 B.C.E. The Second Temple stood from 516 B.C.E. until 70 C.E., when it was destroyed by the Romans. Many polytheistic Romans believed that since all religions needed a cultic center in order to survive, Judaism would disappear after the destruction of the Temple. According to Jewish tradition, the Jewish messiah will rebuilt the Third Temple.

Feudalism

The dominant social system in medieval Europe, in which the nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service, and vassals were in turn tenants of the nobles, while the peasants (villeins or serfs) were obliged to live on their lord's land and give him homage, labor, and a share of the produce, notionally in exchange for military protection. The etymology of the word is uncertain, but it was understood as a "land grant." relevance to class: In medieval Europe, Jews had no formal position in the feudal system (they were not priests, knights, or peasants), but their status was closest to that of knights.

Jerusalem

The principal city of Judea. It was established as the capital city of the Land of Israel by King David (ca. 1000 B.C.E.).

Circumsicion

The ritual removal of the foreskin of a human male's penis. According to Biblical and rabbinical law, this ceremony had to be conducted eight days after birth. Circumcision was not unique to ancient Jews (see below), but its conception as a covenant between the monotheistic God and the Israelite (and later: Jewish) people was unique to Jews. According to one ancient Greek source (i.e. Herodotus in the 5th c. BCE), the Cochians, Egyptians, and Ethiopians were the only nations that have from the first practised circumcision. The Phoenicians and Syrians of Palestine acknowledge that they learned the custom from the Egyptians and Syrians say that they recently learned it from the Colchians.

Quran

The sacred text of Islam. According to Muslim tradition, the entire Quran is God's final message to mankind as dictated to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel.

Jewish-Roman Wars

The three Jewish-Roman wars were revolts against the Roman Empire. 1. First Jewish-Roman War (the Great Revolt), 66-73/4 CE 2. Second Jewish-Roman War (the Kitos War), 115-117 CE 3. Third Jewish-Roman War (the Bar Kokhba Revolt) 132-135 CE The first and third wars were fought mainly over Judaean rule; the second was a Diasporic revolt fought largely in the provinces (though also in Judea), concerning Jewish rebellion against the Roman Empire more generally.

Israel

This term has multiple meanings. 1. Originally it was the self-designation of the northern kingdom of "Israel." 2. After the conquest of the kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians in 722 BCE, and the exile of its Israelite residents, the kingdom of Israel disappeared form the map. Meanwhile, the kingdom of Judah, to the south, appropriated the traditions and self-conception of Israel. Gradually, the terms "Judah" (or Judeans) began to fuse with "Israel" (or Israelites). 3. The entire territory, comprising the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, is referred to as the "Land of Israel" (in Hebrew: erets Israel). 4. In medieval and modern rabbinical literature, Israel is often a synonym for "Jew." 4. The Assyrian turned the northern kingdom of Israel they had conquered into the province of "Samaria," named after the kingdom's capital. 5. Israel is sometimes shorthand for the modern-day "State of Israel," established in 1948.