Medieval Jewish History
Alanna E. Cooper
Fall 2012
SESSION 2
History and Memory
READING:
Yosef Yerushalmi, Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory, 1996
NOTES:
Before delving into our study of the Middle Ages, we pause to consider a critical question: Why are we interested in knowing about the past? How does out quest to gain insight into the Jewish past overlap (or not) with the injunction—so prevalent within the Torah and rabbinic tradition—to “remember”?
Yosef Yerushalmi’s book, Zakhor, provides us with a framework to address these questions. I encourage you to read the book in its entirety. In class, however, our discussion will focus on chapters 1, 2 and 4. A few notes on each of these chapters are presented below:
Chapter 1: Biblical and Rabbinic Foundations
Yerushalmi begins this chapter by explaining that the Jewish tendency to write the story of the past comes to an end with the closing of the Biblical canon. He elaborates by describing rabbinic literature as historically anachronistic. Rather spinning narratives that move forward in time, the rabbis played with time “as though with an accordion, expanding and collapsing it at will.” In class we explore what the “collapse of ordinary barriers of time” looks like. And, we will discuss the reason Yerushalmi offers for the rabbis’ turn away from historical narrative.
Yerushalmi uses a subtle and complex set of terms to discuss the Jews’ engagement with the past. For example, he points out that the rabbis were not “historians” and did not practice “historiography,” yet they were preoccupied with the past, and worked to transmit the memory of it.
One helpful way to distinguish between the various forms of remembering that Yerushalmi addresses, is to think about the difference between the ways in which university professors have their students “remember," and the ways in which rabbis (or other spiritual leaders) help their congregants to remember. What tools does the professor use, and what tools does the spiritual leader use to aid memory (what, in other words, are their “vehicles of memory” p.45)? And what is the goal of each?
Chapter 2: The Middle Ages
In the bulk of this chapter, Yerushalmi argues that throughout the Medieval period little (if any) Jewish historiography was produced. Jews, in other words, did not use the act of writing and reading history as a means to remember their past. Instead, the tools they used to remember included prayer, fasting, and commemorating.
Along these lines, pay attention to the case study presented at the end of this chapter. Three historical events are discussed: the accusation of ritual murder leveled against the Jews in Blois (1171) the Crusades in the Rhineland (1096) and the Chmielnitzky pogroms in Ukraine (1648). How were these events marked and remembered by Medieval Jews? How do they become linked?
Chapter 4: Modern Dilemmas
If the historian is a “physician of memory," then who is the patient, what is the illness, and what is the cure?
Yerushalmi takes issue with this metaphor. Who does he believe should take on the role of “physician of memory,” (if anyone)?
In class we will talk about what all of this has to do with the study of history in the Me’ah classroom. What does it mean to study history in a synagogue and community setting? What is motivating our study – as a group, and as individuals?
Yosef Yerushalmi, Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory, 1996
NOTES:
Before delving into our study of the Middle Ages, we pause to consider a critical question: Why are we interested in knowing about the past? How does out quest to gain insight into the Jewish past overlap (or not) with the injunction—so prevalent within the Torah and rabbinic tradition—to “remember”?
Yosef Yerushalmi’s book, Zakhor, provides us with a framework to address these questions. I encourage you to read the book in its entirety. In class, however, our discussion will focus on chapters 1, 2 and 4. A few notes on each of these chapters are presented below:
Chapter 1: Biblical and Rabbinic Foundations
Yerushalmi begins this chapter by explaining that the Jewish tendency to write the story of the past comes to an end with the closing of the Biblical canon. He elaborates by describing rabbinic literature as historically anachronistic. Rather spinning narratives that move forward in time, the rabbis played with time “as though with an accordion, expanding and collapsing it at will.” In class we explore what the “collapse of ordinary barriers of time” looks like. And, we will discuss the reason Yerushalmi offers for the rabbis’ turn away from historical narrative.
Yerushalmi uses a subtle and complex set of terms to discuss the Jews’ engagement with the past. For example, he points out that the rabbis were not “historians” and did not practice “historiography,” yet they were preoccupied with the past, and worked to transmit the memory of it.
One helpful way to distinguish between the various forms of remembering that Yerushalmi addresses, is to think about the difference between the ways in which university professors have their students “remember," and the ways in which rabbis (or other spiritual leaders) help their congregants to remember. What tools does the professor use, and what tools does the spiritual leader use to aid memory (what, in other words, are their “vehicles of memory” p.45)? And what is the goal of each?
Chapter 2: The Middle Ages
In the bulk of this chapter, Yerushalmi argues that throughout the Medieval period little (if any) Jewish historiography was produced. Jews, in other words, did not use the act of writing and reading history as a means to remember their past. Instead, the tools they used to remember included prayer, fasting, and commemorating.
Along these lines, pay attention to the case study presented at the end of this chapter. Three historical events are discussed: the accusation of ritual murder leveled against the Jews in Blois (1171) the Crusades in the Rhineland (1096) and the Chmielnitzky pogroms in Ukraine (1648). How were these events marked and remembered by Medieval Jews? How do they become linked?
Chapter 4: Modern Dilemmas
If the historian is a “physician of memory," then who is the patient, what is the illness, and what is the cure?
Yerushalmi takes issue with this metaphor. Who does he believe should take on the role of “physician of memory,” (if anyone)?
In class we will talk about what all of this has to do with the study of history in the Me’ah classroom. What does it mean to study history in a synagogue and community setting? What is motivating our study – as a group, and as individuals?
