Season 1: Episode 17 - Rav Saadia Gaon

Generated automatically from the audio and lightly corrected. It may contain errors; the recording is the authority.

Rav Sadia Gaon says, God does not leave his nation at any period without a scholar whom he inspires and enlightens, so that he in turn may so instruct and teach her, and that thereby her condition shall be bettered. While I'm not so enlightened, an inspiration is rare, but I do have an aspiration to teach and instruct and thereby better our condition. Because I'm Rav Mike Foyer, and this is The Jewish Story. Episode 17, Rav Sa'adjaga'on. You know, there's a fundamental question about the role that individuals play in shaping history. It's called the Great Man Theory. Do circumstances shape the individual, or does the individual drive circumstance? And no matter what side you take on the question, and it's quite a debate, it's beyond question that there was one figure who did more than any other to lay the intellectual and spiritual groundwork for the Jewish Middle Ages, and that's Rav Sa'adjah Gaon.

But before we can actually speak about him, we've got to ask a very simple question. What were the Jewish Middle Ages? Now recall that piratization, This post facto attempt to break up the undifferentiated flow of time into digestible chunks is a dangerous endeavor. Though it can facilitate our ability to digest what amounts to an endless quantity of information about the past, it's never a neutral act. For instance, the Middle Ages. Round about the 14th century, European thinkers, writers, and artists began to look back and celebrate the art and culture of ancient Greece and Rome. This was the neoclassical longing which fueled the Renaissance. Now, we've spoken about the danger of placing an ideal of what could be in a bygone era.

And because of their idealization of the past of Greco-Roman culture, these thinkers dismissed the period after the fall of Rome as middle or even dark ages. It was really even more than a dismissal. It was a judgment which asserted that the culture of the previous 8 or 9 centuries was a failed endeavor. And as I said in the past, I believe that the Jewish story is not a neoclassical tale. We love our past. We honor it. We bring it forward by fighting with it. But our redemption lies ahead, not behind. The story we're telling is one of cultural evolution. and that means that every age, no matter how dark, is a context for some critical aspect of life and meaning to emerge. So, at the risk of compressing a complex and lengthy period into a soundbite, don't worry, we'll unpack it in the coming episodes, I'm going to say that the Middle Ages were a time filled with two things, the quest for right knowledge of God, and the battle to maintain the boundaries of identity.

Really, another way to say this is that it was a time of kedushah, of sanctity. And we have to remember that that word has two faces within Hebrew, separate and devoted. The core mission of Am Yisrael is to maintain the connection between heaven and earth, that place with a finite and infinite touch. Remember when Ezra and the returnees came back from the Babylonian exile? Their focus was on rebuilding the altar. and that remained the symbol of this connection point throughout the entire second temple period. And then, with the second destruction, the oral law emerged as the meeting point between God and creation, with the Mishnahh as the portable homeland within which our conversation between the finite and the infinite could progress.

And now, as the exile has deepened and dispersion has become more extreme, it will be the communities that build themselves around a devotion to God and Torah, which will maintain that contact between the bounded and the unbounded. Like I said, in the ideal, devotion is the essential aspect of Kiddusha, and separate, basically a function of that. It's like marriage, which in Hebrew is known as Kiddushin. You are devoted to another person, and it's because of the devotion of that relationship that you are therefore separate from others. Kiddusha is primarily defined by devotion, and symptomatically identified by separateness. But that's the ideal. In reality, it's all too often much easier to train people to be separate from others in hopes that you can ultimately teach them what they're meant to be devoted to.

So, the desire for divine knowledge is actually going to drive Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in very similar fashions in the Middle Ages. nevertheless their identity battles are going to be somewhat different because the Christian and Muslims will form empires they'll establish state religions and wage war on what amounts to a global scale whereas the Jewish minority within these Christian and Muslim societies will struggle to maintain communal integrity in the face of both majority culture and internal divisions and Rav Sa'adj Gaon is going to play a critical role in both the quest for the divine and the defense of the community of the faithful. So, Rav Sa'adjah. He's born in the year 882 in Fayum, which is in Upper Egypt.

That's why they call him the Fayumi. And we know that his early education actually set him on a track which would make him fundamentally different than any of his predecessors in the GONIT. He was actually such a pioneer in the fields in which he worked that 200 years after his death, Rav Abram Ibn Ezra actually applied to him a phrase reserved to the Tanayim, the great masters of the Mishnahh, calling him Rosh Hamidabrim Bekom HaKom, the first head of words in every place. Because Rav Sajjah actually revolutionized the entire literary field within which the Gaonim worked. His predecessors kept themselves exclusively to writing responsa, that was the question and response structure that we discussed in the last episode, and legal commentaries basically on specific questions within the Talmud.

Whereas he actually was involved in many, many other things. And interestingly enough, the root of most of them lay in the land of Israel. So, from the little documentation we actually have of his early life, We know that Rav Sajah spent many years studying in the land of Israel, likely in the academy in Tveria. Because though the sages of Eretz Israel had actually dropped out of any leadership role in the law, like we spoke about last episode, they nevertheless continued to be a critical source of an incredible narrative creativity. And this creativity would have many outlets. But the most dramatic amongst them was certainly the composition of piyutin, liturgical poetry. You know, the word piyut is actually from the same Greek root that gives us the English words poet and poetry.

Now, the writing of these piyutim was not simply art. It was actually a living tradition of prayer, a tradition that shows, in its records, a regular deviation from the formal liturgy in response to significant days in the calendar. And through the piyutim, prayer was maintained as always new and timely, and, of course, beautiful. Now, also beyond the simple poetry, and even this liturgical creativity, Piyotim are actually often Midrash in poetic form. They're a vehicle for creative textual exploration, which the Paitan, the author, would write, and then the congregation would participate in as they prayed. And in this sense, they're a perfect parallel form to all the classic works of Midrash, which were mostly actually compiled in Aries Israel in the early Gaonic period.

Perhaps the best known Paitan poet is Rabbi Eleazar HaKalir. His poetry, if you recognize at all the Ashkenazi rite, still takes a central role in the penitential prayers we say in the month of Elul and in the mourning songs that we say on the 9th of Av. And we'll get to it more when we get to Spain, about how passions run high-bound poetry. But you should know that legend has it that the Kalir was actually assassinated by a jealous rival who slipped a scorpion into his shoe when he wasn't looking. Now, piyut, this liturgical poetry, is of course rooted specifically in Eretz Yisrael because this is where Hebrew remained alive and rich language. In fact, piyut was such an Eretz Yisrael specialty that the Gronim, as we spoke of last week, who were attempting to make Babylonian tradition supreme, actually made every effort to discourage it and to restore what they considered to be the proper and legally binding words of prayer.

But nevertheless, Rav Sadia carried the day. And it's clear from his earliest writings that he was committed to poetry. In fact, what may be his first published work is known as the Agron, the Gatherer. And it is, in many ways, the first dictionary ever of the Hebrew language. Now, it's not a complete dictionary. It's actually a rhyming dictionary. which means that it is meant to assist in the composition of poetry and in general, as he says in his introduction, to lift the contemporary standard of Hebrew speech. It's an introduction, some word lists to help with rhyming, and some general rules on composition. So as I said, it was Rav Sanjay that actually brought poetry into the Gaonic circles, although really his efforts would strike their deepest roots in medieval Spain.

So another definitive element of the culture of the Jewish Middle Ages which was introduced into the Goenic mainstream by Rav Satya was biblical exegesis It a fun word but what does it mean anyway It very simple It's a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, and usually referring to sacred texts. Because Rav Satya not only began the process of biblical exegesis for the Goenim, he practically created Hebrew philology. That's right. What's that? it's a branch of knowledge that deals with the structure, historical development, and relationship of a language to other languages. And of course, a mastery of the development of language is the absolute necessary prerequisite for sound analysis. Rav Sajjah's grammatical works, which we really only have in fragments, mostly from the Kairogeniza, were actually the first attempt we have recorded at any scientific knowledge of the Hebrew language.

now he also took a particularly radical stance which we'll see its far-reaching implications when we get to medieval Spain and that was his explanation of Hebrew vocabulary through the Arabic particularly in translation of certain biblical words by Arabic terms which have the same sounds now in the land of Israel at this time not only were the Paitanim the poets hard at work but the Masoretes the masters of the traditional text of the Bible were also hard at work as well. They were deeply immersed in the task of language, and in this case, the clarification and codification of the traditions around how to read the text of the Bible. Remember, Hebrew has no vowels or punctuation in its native form.

And also remember that the meaning of words in the biblical text can shift radically according to how a sentence is punctuated, much less how words are vocalized. Now all the way back in the Gemara, in Shabbat, we see that it was the Nevi'im who taught the people the five final letters of what's known as Manzabach, the Mem Nun Tzari Pei Chet, the five letters in Hebrew which actually have a final form when they come at the end of a word. There's also a Yushama that says this came from Moshe with the Torah originally. No matter how you understand these traditions, What they're teaching us is that the most powerful bastion of oral law, the integrity of transmission of how you actually read the written text, is as old as the text itself, because without these final letters, without a knowledge of how to pronounce the words, it's just an unbroken string of letters.

Furthermore, we have a significant testimony from as early as the 2nd, 3rd century before the Common Era that there was a definitive text of the Torah which resided in the temple courts, and which was used as a proof text to correct other versions. But nevertheless, the masteries as we know them, the schools of rabbis, who were the inheritors of the oral tradition of how the text was to be properly read, really began their work in the 6th or 7th century of the Common Era. And it was a parallel process, actually, to the redaction of the Mishnahh. They took a tradition that had always remained oral, and committed it to writing in various forms that you may recognize now, marks, dots, abbreviations, acronyms.

And it was the Masoretists who produced the text that we have today, based in Tiveria, with centuries of work. And if you're familiar with the famous Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex, both of which date from the late 10th, early 11th centuries, then you have seen the final product of their work. And you should know that scholars look at the Masoretic pointing and punctuation as possibly one of the greatest literary and linguistic achievements in history, because without their works, there would be irreconcilable arguments about how you read our most sacred texts. And, of course, Rav Saadja was their student, because in addition to his mastery of the poetic and grammatical aspects of the Hebrew language, Rav Saadja is said to be the first non-Kerite authority who began writing biblical commentary.

It's astounding. Something which is a hallmark of medieval Jewish culture did not exist before Rav Sajah in Rabbinic Judaism. So, not only did he write a systematic commentary in Arabic, he actually translated the Torah and perhaps the entire Bible into Arabic as well. Why? Because at this time there was actually an Islamic diaspora, as we spoke about. The Islamic Empire encompasses more than 90% of world Jewry, and they are progressively becoming foreigners to the Hebrew language. Arabic is their native tongue. And therefore, Rav Sajj's Arabic translation of the Bible is going to be a central factor in the interpenetration of Arabic and Jewish culture. This will have consequences way beyond the ability to read the text.

And in that respect, it actually belongs in the same category as the Septuagint. that Greek translation of the Bible we spoke about from the 3rd century before the Common Era, and another one which we'll speak about, please God, in the coming episodes, and that's the German translation of the Torah, which is undertaken by Moses Mendelssohn in the 18th century. Now, though Rav Sajjah was actually the first of the Goenim to engage in any literary efforts in Arabic because of the versatility of the style of language and because of the needs as we spoke of this Arabic-speaking diaspora, Nevertheless, there was no doubt in his mind that it was the Hebrew language which was the true vehicle for the expression of the divine, which was the role of Am Yisrael in the world.

I'll give you a quote from his introduction to the Agron. There was one language throughout the land, from the days when God created man on the face of the earth into the days of that stormy herd. He's referring to the Tower of Babel. And the holy tongue remained in the mouth of the children of Eber alone after the people were dispersed because they were found to be true before God. He goes on to say that this ability to be true before God is linked inextricably with the ability to speak the Hebrew language. And thus, he fought a tremendous battle to bring Am Yisrael's commitment and mastery of that language back to life. Now, the idea that Hebrew is the primeval language has its roots in a Midrashic reading of the Torah itself.

It's just that in the Adgron and elsewhere, Rav Sajah actually elevates this idea into a neoclassical ideal, once again a longing for a lost linguistic golden age. So though he is, as I said, the first of the Gaonim to produce any literary works in Arabic, nevertheless he's also the prime mover of a renaissance of Hebrew language, a return to Lashon HaKodesh, the holy tongue, as the pure tongue of the Jewish people. an ideal which, once again, will truly flower in the poetry and philology of medieval Spain. So, we've seen a number of literary products, and Ramsagio was actually also the first of the Gronim, as far as we can tell, to engage in large-scale polemics, public argument as well. One of his earliest works is Refutation of Anan and his attacks on the Karites.

And he was also involved in a very important fight between the Gronim and the sages of Eretz Yisrael. now it's assumed by historians that Rav Sadio was known to scholars as an author and scholar already from his days in Eretz Yisrael but he was elevated to public fame during the last phase of the struggle between the authorities of Eretz Yisrael and the Geonim of Babylon the great calendar controversy as we spoke about in the last episode the calculations surrounding the Hebrew calendar were actually one of the last strongholds of a halachic authority that still resided in the land of Israel up until the late 9th, early 10th centuries when the Go'onim of Babel had gotten hold of more or less everything else.

And in the year 921 of the Common Era, an argument arose concerning the calendar which threatened the unity of the entire Jewish world. Now, I hope you recall, if you don't, you can do some review of previous episodes, that since Hillel II, around 359 of the Common Era, the calendar had been based on a series of rules rather than what the Torah requires which is the observation of the moon's phases and live testimony given to the Sanhedrin, the High Court and one of these rules required that the date of Rosh Hashanah be postponed if the appearance of the new moon of that month was calculated to occur at noon or later during the day you got that? so Rabbi Aron Ben Meir was the leader of the academy in Israel, then located in Ramle.

And he claimed a tradition based in the traditions of the sages of Eretz Yisrael, according to which the cutoff point was actually 35 minutes afternoon. You may not think that that's such a big deal, but in that particular year, the difference was going to result in a two-day schism with all of the major communities in Bavel. because according to Rav Ben-Meir, the first day of Passover would fall out on a Sunday, while according to the Gaonim in Babel, it would be on a Tuesday. Everybody exploded. The Gaonim erupted in protest. They started writing letters to Rav Meir and the entire diaspora in an effort to win over everyone to the Babylonian position. Rav Meir in turn sent out his own messages claiming the ancient prerogative of the sages of Eretz Israel in all matters of the calendar and getting people over to his side.

And Rav Sa'andia, even though at the time he had no official standing in the Goenic academies, took a leading role in defense of the Babylonian tradition. But, by the spring of 922, all they'd succeeded in doing with their polemics was confusing everyone and chaos reigned And that Pesach there were numerous communities perhaps including even some within Babylon itself who followed Rav Ben and celebrated the first day of Passover on Sunday This was a potential catastrophe. You have to understand that even today, the calendar is the last thing which unites the entire Jewish world. There are theological, political, social rifts which split on Israel today. all you have to do is look in the news or talk to your neighbors.

But no one argues about what day Pesach falls out. So just imagine what would have happened if that had fallen apart. But don't be warned. By Rosh Hashanah the very same year, the fight was already over. Rav Sajah and the Kaonim of Bavel had once again carried the day, and the power of Eretz Yisrael to dictate anything in the halachic structure was gone forever. and this contribution not only introduced Rav Sa'adji to public life it almost certainly helped him to achieve the highest office when he was appointed as Gaon of Surah in the year 928 of the Common Era. Surah had fallen on hard times and by the early 10th century there were even thoughts of shutting down what was really the oldest seat of learning in all Babylon basically for lack of qualified scholars to lead it.

the exilarch David Ben Zakkai looked to this young energetic Egyptian to save the day in fact this was actually against the advice of some of his close advisors who looked the littlest cancer of Sadia both because of his non-Babylonian origins and because of his well-known combative personality nevertheless the exilarch persevered and at age 46 Rav Saadja became the first and only non-Babylonian to ever serve as Gaon. And the decision worked, in that the academy certainly thrived under its leadership, as did the Torah in general, a bit of which we've already demonstrated. But it wasn't without struggle, because a few years into his Gaonet, Rav Sa'adi refused to confirm a judicial appointment which was made by the Exilarch.

Now, in retaliation, the Exilarch announced that Rav Sa'da was no longer going to Surah, and he appointed another and, frankly, inferior scholar in his stead. But Rav Sadja was never one to back down from a fight. So instead of seeking reconciliation, he actually deposed the exile and announced the appointment of another in his place. And for seven years, the Jews of Babylonia were divided into two camps, sometimes armed camps. And even their attempts to bribe the Muslim authorities in the favor of one side or another couldn't actually tip the scales. Eventually, thank God, reconciliation was reached, and Rav Saadjet was once again universally recognized as the Go'on of Surah. But when he died in 942, after serving only 14 years as Go'on, he'd spent nearly half that time in a shadow capacity.

And nevertheless, Rav Saadjet managed, as I said, to revolutionize the office of the Go'onate, and through that, to lay the framework for the Middle Ages. Now, his specific contributions are actually too many to list. I've already mentioned the introduction of the writing of Pew Tim, of this liturgical poetry, into Gaonian culture of Babylon, where they actually became part of mainstream Jewish culture. We mentioned reviving interest in the study of the Hebrew language. We mentioned beginning the process of biblical exegesis, which actually became something that the rest of the Gaonian pursued as well. He also, something we didn't mention, brought with him from the land of Israel, the Palestinian Talmud, the tradition of Eretz Israel of post-Mishnahic learning, something which had been more or less ignored in the academies of Bavel, and through this actually fused post-Mishnahic rabbinic thought into one unit which could serve the generations ahead.

This is an awful lot. But I actually want to close with what may have been his most fateful and fraught contribution, the beginnings of Jewish theology. So anyone who's ever spent any significant time learning the Gemara and other rabbinic texts knows that classical rabbinic Judaism placed very little weight on dogma. Any attempt to extract coherent theology from the Gemara and Midrash literature is bound to come away with, at best, a notion of the unity of God and the revelation of the Torah to Israel, and not much else. And even these are going to be far from simplistic in their presentation. Because the theology the Gemara offers is complex, fragmented, sometimes contradictory. But most important, it's actually presented as stories.

Which of course means that their ultimate meaning is going to lie in the mind of the reader, not in the text. But Rav Sachi was gone at a very particular time. It was a time when both Christianity and Islam were engaged in systematizing their own beliefs, and in defending them from one another, and from the diverse voices from within, through the particular method of reasoned argument. The historical context of this is bound up with a phenomenon which is known as the Kalam. It was a school of speculative theology. The word Kalam actually means speech or discourse. that emerged in Muslim society as a companion to the growing body of Islamic law, jurisprudence. Now why was it called Kalam, speech or discourse?

Because the representatives of the three monotheistic faiths, who share the assumption that both religious and philosophical traditions were the custodians of truth, actually came together with the goal of arriving at a purified conception of God, A conception that can actually stand up to rational criticism based in philosophy, but would nevertheless preserve the key concept of a personal God. A God who is concerned for and communicates with humanity. Now remember, this is the very historical context in which the works of the classic Greek philosophers begin to make their way back into religious culture through their translation into Arabic. and therefore when these three faiths who realized that an attempt to reconcile their scriptures was only going to lead to bloodshed they looked to the foundations of Greek philosophical notions as a basis for their discussion they were the rational principles that could be accepted by everyone arguments from scripture were inadmissible in these discussions and they were actually discussions they occurred in places or situations called majalis, basically salon meetings, intellectual salon meetings, and they would have a profound effect on all three faiths, and reached its height basically in the 11th century before either it petered out or was suppressed, depending on whose history you read.

And Rav Sadia was the most important of the Jewish mutakalimun, the participants in these discussions. As a result of his experience, and also the sense he shared that the time was right for the clarification of theological boundaries, he brought Jewish theology into formal existence with the publication of his great work, Emunot Videot, which was published in the year 933 of the Common Era. Now, it's tough to translate what Emunot Videot exactly means. You can call it beliefs and opinions, perhaps. The book is essentially a compilation of ten essays whose focus is to extract theological principles from an incredibly inspired and creative reading of an enormous amount of biblical verses. And that's key, because with the exception of his treatment of eschatology, the end-of-days theology, rabbinic sources actually play a very minor role.

This is mostly about the Bible. And in his introduction, Rav Sajjah makes clear his reason for creating, once again, a whole new genre of Jewish literary work. He says, And therefore, he stepped into those deep waters. And he says he undertook the work for two reasons. 1. In order that we may find out for ourselves what we know in the way of imparted knowledge from the prophets of God, meaning to clarify the divine message which we hold in our inheritance, and 2. In order that we may be able to refute those who attack us on matters connected with our religion. And here it is once again, the two phases of Kedusha, of sanctity, clarifying what we know in order to connect to God and maintaining the boundaries of who we are.

But what I believe to actually be the most far-reaching impact of emunot videot, beliefs and opinions, is actually a little bit further on in the introduction, where Rav Sadiah lays out an epistemology that would actually shape the way Jews know the world for many generations to come. Yeah, I did it again. I use one of those words. So epistemology is a theory of knowledge. It's not what you know, it's how you know anything. In other words, what is it that distinguishes justified belief from opinion, emunah and deyah? So Rav Sajjah says that there are three universally accepted sources of knowing. Number one, sensory perception. He says the starting point of knowledge is invariably of a concrete nature.

and its final result will be an abstract ideal What you can touch is real Number two direct intellectual comprehension That book learning You may have never touched an atom but you can learn about it through someone else's communicated experience. And number three, logical inference. As in, where there's smoke, there's fire. You don't have to see the fire to know that it's there. And then he says there's actually a fourth source of knowledge, which is shared by all monotheists, and that's authentic tradition. Now here he reveals his hand, because in reality this whole work is about reconciling reason and revelation, philosophy and religion. And he says that sense perception, reason, and inferential knowledge all require time to understand and conceptualize, and not everybody makes it.

There's a process to rational knowledge, and many people give up along the way or make fundamental mistakes. But authentic tradition, revelation, can be considered what he calls immediate knowledge. Rav Sajjah says that the Torah is like a report that one trusts automatically. It's an immediate source for certain knowledge about the world, and thus can serve as a foundation upon which one can use their reason. and thus in his teaching revelation becomes the grounding context for any knowledge at all for people who have ever given any thought to the post-modern problem of the absence of any solid ground from which to build epistemology from you can see that he's dancing around it and what's fascinating to me is that Rav Sajj is also the one who introduces the argument which will actually become the central logical proof of the Torah for many generations to come to this very day, I hear people quote it.

And that's the argument for mass revelation. This idea that the Torah says 600,000 men of military age witnessed the revelation at Sinai and you could never make such a thing up because at some point you would have to convince everyone that it happened to them or at the very least that their fathers had told them a lie. This becomes in history the basis for a way of life in the same way that revelation serves as the context for all critical knowledge. Unfortunately, I feel in the post-Nazi era, that argument has kind of fallen apart. Nevertheless, for our purposes, Rav Sajja felt it was sound, and he goes on to say, I think the most important piece, that rational speculation, read philosophy, is actually a religious obligation.

He quotes Isaiah saying, do you not understand the foundations of the earth? meaning you better figure it out. Rav Sajjah says that through one's reason, you can clarify doubt, remove errors from thought, in a constant process, until you are completely free of all doubt. By building the process of reason on the foundation of revelation, Rav Sajjah is actually aiming to transform doubts and errors of Am Yisrael into sound and reliable beliefs. And in so doing, he creates a way of knowing the world that's going to characterize a significant portion of Jews to this very day. So here it is. With the addition of theology now to the study of language, biblical exegesis, the unification of rabbinic learning from the land of Israel in Babel, and the beauty of poetry, Rav Sajah has now laid the spiritual and intellectual groundwork for the Jewish Middle Ages that lie ahead.

and furthermore by employing the Arabic language and Greek philosophical structures as well as engaging in what amounts to interfaith dialogue he's also engaging the fundamental challenge which the Middle Ages will offer and that is how to maintain the relevance and vitality of the Torah in the face of rising new cultures and new ways of knowing the world Rausadja clearly in his own life demonstrates that this type of engagement doesn't have to be a threat. It can actually be a constant source of creativity and renewal. But his attempt to integrate philosophy and religion, reason and revelation, has also been a step back into a very old conflict. Because if you recall, the last systematic attempt at such a reconciliation between the Torah and Greek philosophy was actually done by Philo of Alexandria in the first century before the Common Era.

And in the end, Philo succeeded in lowering the inviolate sanctity of the Torah by attempting to reconcile it through the mechanism of allegory. And in doing so, he actually opened the doors to Christianity. Go back and review some of the previous episodes if you have no idea what I'm talking about. But in our case, by once again pursuing this two-track approach to the truth, Rav Sajah unwittingly will sow the same seeds of discord in Am Yisrael. And they, along with all of his other efforts, will actually flower in the soil of Spain in a form of skepticism, and then a reactionary fundamentalism which will breach the walls of community and lead to Jews who will burn the books of the Rambam. And so, it's really Spain on our horizon.

And I'd like to close maybe with the story of how it is exactly, Am Yisrael tells the tale of the transition from the living heart of Babylon to the really furthest flung element of the exile, to Spain. So Amaran ibn Da'ud, in his work, Sefer Kabbalah, tells the following story. Somewhere in the middle of the 10th century, the great academies of Bavel sent some of the leading scholars with their families on a fundraising mission to Italy. Their names were Rabbi Shmariah, Rabbi Chushel, and Rabbi Moshe ben Enuch. And in those days, the Christian-Muslim battle for supremacy raged on the seas, and all the waterways were infested with pirates, or freedom fighters, depending on which side you are. And their business was to seize whatever ship they found on the high seas and sell their passengers into slavery.

and there was a certain sea captain called Ibn Rumahis who captured the ship of these great rabbis and took all of the passengers as prisoners and he recognized right away that these rabbis would bring a handsome price from the large Jewish communities of North Africa, Spain and Italy. So he went first to Alexandria where he ransomed off Reb Shemaria and the community there was more than happy to pay the enormous amount of money that he asked and Rav Shemaria actually went on to become the chief rabbi of Fostat of Old Cairo. So the pirate continued on his voyage along the African coast until he reached the great port town of Kerouan in Tunisia. And there he brought out his second captive, Rabbi Chushiel.

And again the local Jewish community paid a massive amount of ransom money and saved Rabbi Chushiel. And he too in the end founded a great yeshiva and became the chief rabbi of Kerouan. Two of his great disciples, who perhaps we'll speak about in coming episodes, were Rabbeinu Hananel and Rabbeinu Nisim. So on sailed Ibn Rumays. The last stop, of course, was Spain. There was only Rabbeinu Moshe now, left of his four great captives. So after many days at sea, the ship cast anchor at Cordoba. And here, Rabbeinu Moshe and his son were very quickly ransomed by the community. but Rabbeinu Moshe was so humble he didn't want to reveal to the people who he was, that he was in fact one of the onim he just remained in their eyes the captive until one day as he was sitting in the academy listening to a Talmudic discourse given by the Dayan, the local community rabbi he heard him make a mistake and at that point Rabbeinu Moshe couldn't hold back he approached Rav Natan the rabbi of the community after the class and very modestly pointed out how astoundingly wrong he was.

Rav Natan, of course, looking at this man as some poor captive, argued back, at which point Rabbeinu Moshe deepened his argument, at which point Rav Natan argued back, at which point Rav Natan said, wait a minute, this is no ordinary captive. And he took him out in the street and declared him on the spot to be the new chief rabbi. He said, I am not worthy to lead this community in the presence of this man. And from then on, Rabbeinu Moshe became famous not only in Cordoba, but throughout all of the peninsula of Spain and well beyond. Young men began to flow into Spain to the center of Red Emotion Academy, and Cordoba became a flourishing Jewish center of learning. And that's where our story will leave us now, with Babylon behind and Spain on the horizon.

I want to thank everybody who makes this possible. Really, you know, there are just over 30 people who give their hard-earned money to keep this material coming out, to keep it distributed, syndicated, and free and available to all. If you want to join them, I encourage you to go now to www.patreon.com and find my M. Foyer page, and you can give a podcast donation. I want to thank the folks at the Land of Israel Network for giving me the opportunity to reach such a broad swath of the human experience. I want to thank Pardes at p-a-r-d-e-s dot org dot i-l for letting me touch the hearts of so many different types of Jews. I want to thank Sudam Yaakov, sudamyaakov.com, for giving me such a beloved home.

And I want to thank you for listening. I'm Rav Mike Boyer, and this is The Jewish Story.