FROM JEWS OF JUDEA TO PALESTINIAN JEWS

To understand more about the State of Israel, it is also essential to distinguish between the different groups that comprise Israel. This multiplicity of groups will also help us understand Judaism in the diaspora (outside of Israel). As this is a complex topic, making it difficult to explain everything in detail, we will look at the most important and general elements of this complexity.

In the 1st century, when God incarnated in the Messiah (Jesus), there were Jews within the Roman province of Judea and Jews dispersed throughout the empire. The latter had synagogues to study and pray but could not participate in the temple service unless they could visit Jerusalem, which was not easy. They were known as the “separated” or the “apostates,” not only due to their distance but also because they could not go to the temple whenever they wanted. Thanks to the service of Pharisaic teachers and apostles who constantly visited these communities, they could stay connected with the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem and with traditional teaching, but despite this connection, all in the diaspora were highly influenced by Greek philosophy, what we call today Gnosticism.

The Jews of Judea, on the other hand, were divided into three main groups, although most citizens did not belong to any specific group: The Sadducees, who were very similar to those in the diaspora, only recognized the five books of Moses as Scripture, and did not believe in the resurrection. The Essenes, a kind of desert monks very traditional who considered themselves the authentic priests. The Pharisees were the most accepted by all the people and led all the religious teaching of the nation. This group, when we read the New Testament, seems to be a unified group, but they were actually divided into different schools: Hillel’s and Shammai’s. When Jesus was born, Hillel was alive, and his school was in the region of Nazareth, so Jesus had to relate to that school to some extent. Gamaliel, mentioned in the book of Acts, was his grandson. Shammai, on the other hand, who differed from Hillel by being more extreme, was the leader of the Sanhedrin when Jesus was sentenced. His school was considered the Zealots’, so Paul, although a disciple of Gamaliel, often presented himself as a Zealot (zealous), which explains why he led the mob that killed Stephen and intended to kill the Christians of Damascus as well.

After the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out, the group of those who accepted the Messiah Jesus also grew to the point of becoming a fourth group. Sadly, the first and second Jewish-Roman wars quickly followed, and with the elimination of the territory of Judea, the Jewish followers of the Messiah found it easier to take refuge within the Gentile believers than to continue as a community that did not belong and had no rights to anything.

However, at the end of these wars, neither the Sadducees nor the Essenes were equally fortunate and simply disappeared, while the Pharisaic teachers mainly took refuge in Babylon. There they developed the Talmud, which is nothing more than their oral tradition or, as Jesus said, the tradition of the elders put into books to prevent it from being lost.

One of the things these Pharisaic teachers understood was that the temple no longer existed and there was no near future hope for its reconstruction. So that moment warranted an update and unification of their Pharisaism if they wanted to survive as the religion of Israel. This adjustment they undertook had several key points: A new calendar that would allow them to fix those celebrations that depended on them so that the people could observe them wherever they were, instead of calling themselves Pharisees, they started using a more universal name like Judaism, they adopted the liturgy of the diaspora and enriched it to not depend on the temple in worshiping God, they began to use the name rabbi which until then was an honorary title for teachers of the Bible and the Talmud, and they sent missionaries to teach this to the different communities around the world. This strategy was very successful and achieved its goal.

However, over the centuries and with the little communication of the time, each community adapted this teaching to their own experiences, and thus different groups emerged depending on each area. For example: in the region of Spain were the Sephardim, in Eastern Europe the Ashkenazim, in Mesopotamia the Mizrahi, in Yemen the Yemenites, and others. And although each group continued moving to other regions whenever a kingdom arose that wanted to eliminate them, they maintained their own identity wherever they went.

It was in the modern era that a phenomenon occurred that had not happened since the times of the temple, within one of those groups, the Ashkenazim. Among them appeared a fraction called the Masorti (conservatives), who began to see traditions as useful but, depending on the country where they lived, not so important to fulfill, but it was more important to implement the country’s laws to avoid disharmony. Then two groups appeared: the Masorti and those who had always been called orthodox (those we usually see dressed in black and white). Because of these Masorti, another group appeared within the orthodox, who, out of fear of being liberal, went to the opposite side and became ultra-orthodox (those who obligatorily dress in black and white). And after that, like an explosive bomb, more groups began to appear, some leaning more towards radicalism and others more towards liberalism. It is good to clarify that this only happened within the Ashkenazim, the other groups like the Sephardim or the Mizrahi are simply considered orthodox.

This Ashkenazi group was always a minority, but with the massacres carried out by Nazism, 90% of the crimes were against the Sephardim, which is why today this group is the most visible.

Parallel to this, and as we explained in a previous article, in the 19th century, the Zionist movement arose within the Masorti, although it quickly began to gain adherents within the rest of the orthodox Ashkenazim as well. That is why when the State of Israel was founded, it was within them that the largest number of incorporations into the government and its management began to occur. However, they never received such support from the ultra-orthodox, because for them the Messiah should be the one to form and lead the nation and any other management would bring judgment upon them for usurping the leadership of the nation that belongs only to the tribe of Judah and the direct descendants of David.

Today, most Jews in Israel are on the most liberal end, feeling free to observe the traditions they have always had without even thinking about God. Now do not be alarmed by this, although it makes you want to cry, because something similar happens in the Western world in this post-Christian era where someone says to you: God bless you, and it turns out the person is a witch; or you find a Christmas celebration with lots of drunkenness and even orgies, while the same majority does not think the least about God, just the enjoyment of another celebration.

So when analyzing the State of Israel, we must consider all its complexity, because many times we will analyze the State of Israel for what it is not, although we know that God will make them what He has planned. Sadly, we see many evangelists and preachers today talking about the State of Israel as if they were already the nation that God has planned and promised to the patriarchs and prophets. We know that for some reason God has allowed the Zionists to achieve their dream, but it is God who will take them where He wants just as it will happen with His Gentile people.

In another series, we will see what has happened to those who did accept the Messiah in the nation of Israel throughout history.

To be continued…

Author: Dr. Liber Aguiar