I've been doing a lot of reading recently, keeping this brain of mine at peak performance, and I've noticed something strange. In the most difficult times Jews had no problem standing up to whatever trials and tribulations they encountered. However, at the first signs of freedom everything basically flew out the window.
Case in point: Germany. German Jews, who had it somewhat easy, at least relative to its other European Brethren, jumped at the first opportunity to erase any and all observance of Judaism. It also did not take much. Most of the reformers who instituted the changes were either "Reverends", Hebrew Teachers, and dropouts who were banished from Yeshivos, but they had no trouble "convincing" the masses that what they had kept with Mesiras Nefesh was totally outdated and pointless. By the time Hitler came to power most of German Jewry was already long assimilated, so much so that a Jew 1/16th Jewish was also not "Aryan".
In Eastern Europe, it took a little longer, but the result was more of the same, although to a lesser extent. The pogroms and daily encounters with Anti-Semitism did little to diminish their belief in Hashem and his Torah, whereas emancipation, the ability to own property, and being accepted into Universities did. In America it only took one generation, and in some cases, the Tefillin were deposited at the bottom of the Atlantic for the fish to consume.
The point of this blurb is not to discuss what it was that kept the observant from being swept away with the tide, but to examine the "cause" of why the tide did sweep away so much with it.
In no way do I mean to speak evil of our ancestors, I just wish to know: was it fear of G-d all those centuries, or fear of.....?
Very thought provoking piece. I can't answer your question, but I am waiting with bated breath for all the educated viewers of this blog to put in their two cents.
ReplyDeleteHere is my guess: The vast majority of human beings submit easily to peer pressure. So people’s actions depend to a large extent on their environment. Under Anti Semitic and despotic regimes, where Jews were forced to live separate lives, they clung to their traditions.
ReplyDeleteWhen those countries started to "open up", many Jews started seeing the populace at large as their peers, and hence began imitating their ways.
Ah, but you forget the peer pressure at other times. Then, too the future looked so bright if only they would convert to Christianity.
ReplyDeleteAs the graet German -Jewish historian Heinrich Graetz stated Jewish history is more than Leiden and Literatur ( persecutions and scholarship).
ReplyDeleteThus in order to answer your questions one must study general European hstory (enlightenement , Nationalism , the R.C. Church and its role etc), one must also study the economic and social situation of the jewish community.
Let me just cite a case where the opposite was true the austro-Hungarian empire under emperor Franz Josef(Kirah) granted the jews of his empire a grat deal of fredom., while many Jews chose not to become Orthodox a great deal chose orthodoxy . While at the same time period in Russia the various Czars ending in Nicholas 2 persecuted the Jews and by 1918 the majority of Jews in Russia had "started on the apth away from orthodoxy".
But in general your statement is correct.
The difference between Austria-Hungary can be blamed on one factor, the economic one. Jews in Hungary had it much better than their brothers in Russia/Poland, so while Judaism always was of the opinion that the test of riches is greater than the test of poverty, the opposite seems to be the case.
ReplyDeleteI thought that it was the lack of yeshivos that are to blame, but I then I remembered that the Yeshivos, or at least the students, probably are more to blame than those who neverateended Yeshivah in their life!
ReplyDeleteThe late Kloizenberger rebbe had many Teyres where he spoke of the importance of riches in leading a torah lifestyle ...
ReplyDeleteMr. Tzig,
ReplyDeleteI have too much to say about this, so I will try to be short.
I think there are 2 elements involved:
1. Spirit of the Times
We see throughout history there are struggles that each generation/era is confronted with. They are tailor made to a certain Yetzer Hora, and they differ greatly. (There are Mamorei Chassidus about this, in Chabad and other places as well.)
2. Human Nature
Let's take it to the microcosm, and it will be a little clearer. When all is B"H well, we often tend to become complacent and lax, and expect everything to go smoothly. This is human nature, and not unique to our antecedents.
Zol der Aibishter haben nor grois rachmanus af Klal Yisroel.
Kurenitzer,
ReplyDeletethen he and the Lubavitcher Rebbe were the only ones, because all others were very focused on the "Vayishmon Yeshurun Vayivot".
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThat is a false statement. They were far from the "only ones."
Your point is well taken, but you exaggerate the condition.
Nice article, but perhaps posted for the wrong target market? The article is powerful if directed for not yet frum people, but rather bland mind food for the average yossi.
ReplyDeleteWhy direct it to non-frummies?, please explain.
ReplyDeletewhat about the golden age in spain did people "fry" out?
ReplyDeleteWell, according to something I read, "only" 3000 Jews were burned at the auto-da-fes, and many hundreds of thousands chose to remain as marranos. That shows that they would not part with their belongings no matter what the religious price.
ReplyDeleteThe Lubavitcher rebbe had a secho about the klipah of Zarfas which I presume is a euphemism for the enlighenment brought forth by the French Revolution and spread by Napoleon.
ReplyDeleteClearly in Chabad the preference was fro the Czarist persecutions rather than the freedom granted by Napoleon and the new french enlightenement.
This was shown by the choice made by the Baal haTanya at the time of the Napoleonic wars.
I was reffering to the golden age which lasted for a couple of centuries before the inqusition.
ReplyDeleteThere was tremendous assimilation and acculturation of the jews in Spain thrughout and the Chassid jawetz writes in his perush al hatEyre (I think Reb Don Isaac abrabnael brings it down ?) that the wealthy and intellectual Jews including the Chokrim and Schlars stayed and converted and the perhute am left Spain to remain as Jews !
ReplyDeleteHizharu miBnai Aniyiim !
thrughout the golden age?
ReplyDeleteThe "Golden-Age" was really not all that long, and yes, assimilation was supposed to have been very high. I remember reading that many leaders at the time felt that the high assimilation was the cause for the inquisition.
ReplyDeleteAlso, leaving was not a simple as it sounds. Anyone who desired to leave instead of converting, had to give up all their possessions and go. Not only that, but Spain made it very difficult to leave even if you wanted to, and for those that did leave things were not simple.
Many went to Portugal, where they were invited. Not long after that there was a shidduch between a Spanish princess and Portuguese monarch, and one of the conditions to the marriage was that they had to impose inquisition tactics there as well... and they did.
The Yidden who had fled there from Spain packed up to move again, but the Portuguese did nit want them to leave - so they closed the borders until the departure date passed and then declared all Jews Xtians... after which many Yidden committed suicide. But the newly-arrived Yidden to Portugal were forced to become morranos there.
This concept is explained in a maamar D"H V'kibail Hayehudim of the Frierdiker Rebbe, elaborated on by the Rebbe in V'ato Tetzaveh.
ReplyDeletedoes that mean that we'll never learn to live side by side with "good times"?
ReplyDeleteJews and Judaism never survived because of numbers . We survived because a small minority of Jews had a high quality Jewish life.
ReplyDeleteIn the Greek times there were many Jews in Alexandria shel Mitzraim as described by Chazal. Most were assimilated and acculturated. That includes Philo the great philosopher.
The same was true all over even in Egypt under the Rambam a great deal of the Jews there were karaites.
The same is true in Modern Times , most German Jews married out and converted or at best assimilated but a small minority of 10-15% remained staunckhley Orthodox and survived .
In Russia too , under the Communists most Jews were forcibly asimilated , but an even greater number did these for economic and social prurposes with no coercion. Yet here again a small mnority kept things alive.
In the uSa too most American Jews have embarked on atrip to tohu Va Vohu, aone way trip at that , but the small Orthodox minoriry of at most 5-10% keeps things going fairly well.
In Spain thre were all sorts of heresies including philosophical heresies, false Messiahs (long before the Shatz kas), some karaites and Conversion to the RC Church, Disputations yet a minority of Jews kept the Messorah alive and well.
A place like Telz in Lithuania hd a cheder, talmud Torah, Yeshiva, kolel, Girls high school, Yavneh Seminary etc all with a Jewish pop of a few thousand. How many Jews live in gateshead today about 700 and look at their mosdos !
Kurenitzer, let's talk about today. frum yiden are better off the world over than ever before in history, do you have numbers re: influx & outflow (fry out & bt's) in these times or is it to early in the game (60 years post shoah)?
ReplyDeleteToday, people may have it good, but the Charedi society is coming apart at the seams, and I don't relish the fact. The combination of Kolel/Unemployment and the emphasis placed only on exterior appearance are a one-two punch that will knock us out.
ReplyDeleteMesires nefesh gives life to healthy yiddishkeit...frum with no mesiras nefesh and a yid is artificial on an existential level. The corolary to mesiras nefesh from exterior sources, (in good times)is to expend effort in ahavas yisroel and strengthening yiddishkeit. The more taxing the effort, the more mesiras nefesh, and the the healthier the individual yid who is taxed and the healthier the general jewish population who is the beneficiary of all these efforts. Why not adopt the grandest of all goals, the culmination of history and future existance for those niftar, alive, and not yet born in order to tax ourselves, creating mesiras nefesh, and a healthy reinvigorated puposeful yiddishkeit and existance? Moshiach now!
ReplyDeleteyou mean to "shray" yechi?
ReplyDeleteshray nothing. I mean do something. Real ahavas yisroel with a live person. and I don't mean sending a check to yemin for kids that may not exist!
ReplyDelete