Architects for Jewish Living: A Series
Ezra and Nehemiah: Centuries of Crisis
By Rabbi Benjamin H. Englander
In the course of my first talk in this series, I discussed the man Moses, and tried to make the point that it was he who established the authority of the Torah as a Divine Covenant between God and His people. It was he who had outlined in broad terms what was to be the Jewish way of life. However, Judaism today cannot be understood from the study of the Five Books of Moses alone. They must be examined in the light of the Commentaries and historic development. It would be extremely incorrect to designate present-day Judaism as the "Mosaic faith" - in fact the life of a Jew would be very difficult, if not altogether impossible, were he to attempt to live in strict conformance with biblical injunction. However, we do maintain that the teachings of Moses form the basis for Jewish thought and Jewish living.
The half of a millennium between the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE are centuries of tension, unrest, frustration, and crisis. Large segments of that period remain blotted out to history, and it becomes difficult to pinpoint the progress of development and historic evolution of the Jewish traditions during those trying days. Like the phoenix from its ashes, there rises from the midst of this volcanic eruption a dynamic Jewish way of life, and this period gives birth to its sister-religion, Christianity. It is possible that the detailed records of these historic developments were destroyed in the constant strife and unrest, or perhaps people living in that time were unaware of what was taking place because of their proximity to these events. But we who study history find ourselves generally confronted with fait accompli. For example, scholars and students have tried to trace the history and development of the Sanhedrin, which functioned as the High Court during this period with little success. The men of the Great Assembly - Anshe Knesset Hag'dolah - supposedly established by Ezra and Nehemiah, remain an enigma in Jewish history despite their great contributions to Jewish life. Some maintain that the Sanhedrin originated in the days of Moses, when he appointed the seventy eldest to help him in ministering to the needs of the Jewish people. Others maintain that the Sanhedrin evolved from the men of the Great Assembly established by Ezra, The synagogue, in all probability, also has its beginnings in these years. Yet its origin remains a mystery.
In the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, we meet the two leaders who brought about the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, and the establishment of what has become known in history as the Second Commonwealth, approximately seventy years after the destruction of the First Temple. Who were these men? Other than the few sparing remarks found in their writings to the effect that they were officials in the court of Cyrus, King of Babylonia, there is no data as to who they were. Moreover, a new title is introduced in connection with Ezra. He is called a Sofer, or "Scribe." This title is found only once before, in the Book of Jeremiah. Nevertheless, the contributions of these men, of their contemporaries, and their successors during this period revolutionized Jewish life for all generations to come.
Tradition mainatins that the Five Books of Moses were formally closed either by Moses at the end of his life, or by Joshua immediately after the death of Moses. Critics maintain a much later date, and that many parts of the Torah were not known to Moses but were interpolated by later authors. We prefer the traditional belief that Moses is the author of the Pentateuch. Sometime during the early part of the Second Commonwealth, under the aegis of the aforementioned men of the Great Assembly -- Knesset Hag'dolah - the other books in the Bible -- the early and late prophets and writings -- were gathered together. This volume, too, was sealed at this time so that no further additions could be made. These, together with the Torah, became known as the TANACH, the HOLY SCRIPTURES, or THE OLD TESTAMENT. There were many more books than those that were included in these Holy Writings. What happened to them? Many of them were preserved by the Church in the apocrypha, whereas others were lost completely. The closing of the Tanach gave rise to a new trend in Jewish study: the application of Mosaic teachings to new situations through the process of interpretation of the written word.
The synagogue, not known in the Torah, and prayer as a medium for worship, rarely alluded to in the earlier days, became fundamental parts of Jewish life. The Second Temple proved to be a disappointment to those who remembered the glory and the grandeur of the First. One of the last of the prophets, Zechariah, sought to comfort the people by promising them that the grandeur was yet to come. However, the Temple did not command the interest of the people for a number of reasons: (1) Many had outgrown the institution of sacrifice, which Maimonides points out was a compromise with prevailing conditions in the first place. (2) Many Jews chose to remain in exile, and even spread out to more distant countries than Babylonia. Regular pilgrimages to Jerusalem became a practical impossibility. The Temple therefore could not function as it did in the past, as a rallying point where people from all over Palestine would come to worship, although Jews the world over continued to look to it as their religious center and made their contributions for its maintenance. However, their personal needs remained unsatisfied, and this gave rise to a new and changed form of worship: prayer in place of sacrifice, the synagogue or Beth Hat'fillah in place of the Temple.
Making the Torah the property of the people was another decisive departure from tradition. Previously, the priests had kept the Torah to themselves. It was a priest who found the Book of Deuteronomy and read it to King Josiah. However, Ezra, who was neither a priest nor a prophet, is credited with introducing the reading of the Torah to the Congregation on Saturday morning and on Monday and Thursday mornings, the market days, as a means of instruction. The scribe and the sage replaced the priest and the prophet as the teachers and mentors of the Jewish people.
When the Torah became the property of all the people, further elucidation became necessary in order to make it understandable to the artisan, the farmer, and the merchant, Many legends and parables were created to illustrate and embellish the written word. A two-fold system of study developed in what became known as the oral law: the Midrashic or Sermonic approach and the Legalistic, the Midrash and the Talmud.
Two of our minor holidays have their origin in these centuries of confusion: Purim and Chanukah. The Purim incident of Mordecai, Esther, and Haman took place sometime during the Babylonian exile, between the destruction of the First Temple and the restoration. Until a very recent date, its historicity was questioned, and the Book of Esther was looked upon as an allegory. No mention of the incident is found in the monumental work on Jewish history written by Heinrich Graetz. However, recently discovered Persian manuscripts of that period generally confirm the story of Purim as we know it.
The Maccabean struggle took place closer to our time, in 165 BCE, about four hundred years after the story of Purim. Chanukah was established as a second minor festival. Whereas the Book of Esther is included among the Sacred Writings, we do not find a similar document depicting the wars of the Maccabees for the simple reason that by that time, the Scriptures had become a closed book. However, the Book of Maccabees became part of the apocryphal literature. It is interesting to note that both of these holidays were accepted as though they were commandments from God, even though they do not stem from the Mosaic tradition, but were created by the people themselves.
An eminent historian of our day, a dear personal friend of mine, Dr. Solomon Grayzel, begins his study THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE with the Second Commonwealth. Perhaps he has a point, for Judaism as we know it today is not that which Moses had outlined at Mt. Sinai, nor that which was known to the Jews of the First Temple. It is the ritual and religious practice promulgated since the days of Ezra within the framework work set up by Moses and upon the foundations he had established.
When we are able to penetrate the thick clouds surrounding these centuries of confusion and void, we can see the labors of scholarly groups, the men of the Great Assembly, the Sanhedrin, the emergence of the schools of Hillel and Shammai, the many unheralded architects and builders who fashioned and defined our traditions and beliefs - in brief, the development of the oral law, which was to form the guiding principles by which the Jews have survived to our present day. When the door was shut to the Sacred Writings and no further additions could be made, the oral law, the Talmud, was created to expand and develop Jewish ideals and religious practices. The strength of the Jewish way of life rested in its ability to accommodate itself to changing environments and yet preserve its pristine original form.