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God rested, then chose the Jews

by
29 November 2013

Anthony Phillips on a people's perseverance in that conviction

COURTESY OF NATIONAL MUSEUM OF DAMASCUS, SYRIA/© ZEV RADOVAN/THE BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY

From Simon Schama's book: third-century-CE synagogue wall-paintings that "demolished the assumption that Judaism abhorred images"

From Simon Schama's book: third-century-CE synagogue wall-paintings that "demolished the assumption that Judaism abhorred images"

The Story of the Jews: Finding the words 1000 BCE-1492 CE
Simon Schama
Bodley Head £25
(978-1-847-92132-1)
Church Times Bookshop £22.50 (Use code CT205 )

IN HIS foreword, Simon Schama describes the story of the Jews as "one of the world's great wonders". What follows more than lives up to his claim - although, unlike the accompanying television programmes, this volume reaches only 1492 CE.

Schama's genius is to bring events and people he describes vividly to life, so that the reader becomes the spectator. But this story is not for the squeamish. Jewish history is survival against the odds, and the odds make sickening reading. This is a book not just for Jews, but Gentiles, too, especially Christians, who have been responsible for so much Jewish bloodshed. Crimes against Jews in England are usually omitted from our history lessons.

A central problem for Judaism throughout its history is how to remain Jewish in a Gentile world. Schama begins his story with the flourishing Jewish community at Elephantine, with its temple and irregular lifestyle. In contrast, in Jerusalem Nehemiah and Ezra delineated a Jewish exclusivism on what had been a freer society. The same issues resurface in the Talmud, and continue to divide Judaism.

Turning to the last period of Jewish nationhood under the Hasmoneans, Schama raises another issue relevant today: what is the proper relationship between power and piety? And does the former damage the latter? This is a problem that, until modern times, Jews have rarely had to face, more often being the victims of others' authority.

As Schama puts it, the destruction of the temple by Titus marked the point when "Jewish time stops," although Judaism would endure through the synagogues of the Diaspora. While the apocryphal writings found at Qumran gave hope that, ultimately, victory was assured, Josephus's account of the mass suicide at Masada provided a template for subsequent generations that faced similar annihilation. But Schama asserts that there was no Jewish "dark age". While synagogue art in mural and mosaic flourished, the Mishnah (and later the Talmud) provided the necessary guidance for everyday life.

With the exception of Arabia, Schama points out that the Jews had a much better existence under Islam, as is reflected in the Cairo Geniza. In Christian Europe, from the first Crusade onwards, Jews were seen as the most despicable of all races, and faced a plethora of obscene charges, often resulting in Jews' facing a choice between conversion and annihilation.

Part of the Jewish problem was that they acted as bankers for the Gentiles, who found that a convenient way of wiping off their loans was to expel or kill the lenders, and, in addition, enrich themselves from their property.

Schama highlights the importance of the extraordinary Moses Maimonides. Faced with death or conversion, the doctor/theologian argued that saving life was the higher obligation. Further, he held that reason and faith were not contradictory. The importance of his Mishnah Torah and Guide to the Perplexed for the rejuvenation of Judaism cannot be exaggerated.

The remainder of Schama's story is of increasing persecution, culminating in the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, and then from Portugal. It is a sorry tale, in which those already exiled become exiled again.

It was during the exile in Babylon, however, that a theologian borrowed an eight-day creation account, and, squashing two events into days three and six, made the sabbath the climax of creation. As the only people in the world who kept the sabbath were the Jews, he thereby asserted that they were fixed in God's scheme of things; provided they had sufficient faith, nothing and no one could obliterate them. Nothing and nobody has - as Schama's eagerly awaited second volume will undoubtedly affirm.

Canon Anthony Phillips is a former headmaster of The King's School, Canterbury.

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