The First Edah

Now that Hanuka is behind us (it seems to go faster every year for me!), we turned our attention during the final weekday session of our first semester to our next major unit of study - that of the Iraqi Jews, or, as they refer to themselves, the Babylonian Jews. This was the very first edah in Jewish history. It was the edah which developed the earliest form of Judaism, and which established the pattern of existence for Jewish Diaspora communities to follow. It was the first edah whose members could truly be called "Jews," and not ancient Israelites.

Historians are pretty much in the dark as to the origins of the Beta Yisrael community in Ethiopia. But when it comes to the origins of the Iraqi/Babylonian Jewish community, the opposite is true. We have an enormous volume of documentation, not only from our own Hebrew Bible, but from archaeological finds and historical documents left by the Babylonians and Persians (who conquered the Babylonians and whose king, Cyrus, allowed the exiled peoples in Babylon to return to their homes again in 537 B.C.E., including the Judeans).

In order to truly understand how momentous an event the establishment of the Babylonian exile community was in Jewish history, I had to first review with the students the earliest history of the ancient Israelites. Using interactive maps on the "Heritage: Civilization and the Jews" dvd-rom program, we reviewed what the students had learned beginning in third grade about Abraham's journey to Canaan from the Sumerian city-state of Ur (according to the Book of Genesis). We followed the successive journeys of the ancient Israelites on the map from Canaan to Egypt and back to Canaan under the leadership of Moses and then Joshua. Then I became a storyteller, sharing in as dramatic a way as possible how a simple, nomadic people became a nation when they left Egypt (according to the Book of Exodus), and eventually settled down as farmers and shepherds and tradespeople in Canaan's hill country. The ancient Israelites lived an egalitarian life under the leaders of their tribes called judges (Books of Joshua and Judges). But when the people demanded that one leader be appointed by God to unify them as they fought against the Phillistines (Book I of Samuel), their lives changed drastically. Suddenly, a noble, privileged class arose which became corrupt, and corruption spread to the merchant class. Men called prophets arose (Samuel was the first) in the 10th to 5th centuries B.C.E., who railed against the corruption of the upper classes - men like Isaiah and Amos. Kings David and Solomon had built and fortified a united kingdom of Israel, but following Solomon's death, ten of the twelve tribes separated and formed their own northern Kingdom of Israel, while the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin (the largest and smallest tribes, respectively), formed the southern Kingdom of Judah.

With the advent of the prophets, a moral concept of history began to develop, along with the beginnings of a new concept of a more powerful God who could control mighty empires and send them to punish the Israelites if they rejected God's covenant made with Abraham and subsequently with all the Israelites at Mt. Sinai. No longer was their God - Yahweh - a local deity whose power faded outside the borders of their land.

At this point, I shared two video segments from the "Heritage" program with the students. The two segments tell the story of how the northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.E. and how its inhabitants were exiled to Nineveh and Assur - two of Assyria's great city-states, never to be heard from again. They are referred to as "The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel." It's very likely that the inhabitants intermarried with the Assyrians, forgetting their history and laws - their very identity.  The story continues when, about 100 years later, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia conquered the Kingdom of Judah and exiled about 10,000 Judeans. It's very likely that they remembered what had become of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Israel, and thus very consciously did what they had to in order to preserve their history and language and laws for future generations. The first video segment is from "A People is Born" chapter of the Heritage Program (begin with minute 49:18 and view to the end of the chapter). The second segment is from "The Power of the Word" chapter (view the beginning to minute 10:25).

I used the time allotted for our Hebrew Through Movement Program this past week to review all the vocabulary I introduced over the past semester. I'm impressed at how much the students have learned from this program!

I'd like to wish all our Edot families a very enjoyable winter break. We return in 3 weeks (Tuesday, January 5th and Wednesday, January 6th), at which point we'll continue to investigate the history and culture of the Iraqi/Babylonian Jews. Please be sure to put Sunday, January 31st on your calendars for our Family Chamsa Workshop. This will be the culminating activity for our unit of study about the Iraqi/Babylonian Jews, and will take place during both Sunday sessions, at their regular time. 

HAVE A HAPPY AND HEALTHY 2016!