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Schisms among the Jews are cultural as well as religious. They have happened as a product of historical accident, geography, andtheology.
The Samaritans are anethnoreligious group of theLevant originating from theIsraelites (orHebrews) of theAncient Near East.
Ancestrally, Samaritans claim descent from theTribe of Ephraim andTribe of Manasseh (two sons ofJoseph) as well as from theLevites,[1] who have links to ancientSamaria from the period of their entry intoCanaan, while someOrthodox Jews suggest that it was from the beginning of theBabylonian captivity up to the Samaritan polity under the rule ofBaba Rabba. According to Samaritan tradition, the split between them and theJudean-led Southern Israelites began during the biblical time of the priestEli when the Southern Israelites split off from the central Israelite tradition, as they perceive it.[2]
They consider themselves to beB'nei Yisrael ('Children of Israel'), a term used universally by Jewish denominations for the Jewish people as a whole, but do not call themselvesYehudim. The wordYehudim comes from theHebrew wordYehudi which means from theTribe of Judah.
The biblical narrative describes the split by theKingdom of Israel from theKingdom of Judah.[3] It points toSolomon's unfaithfulness to the divine covenant as the reason for the schism.[4] WhenRehoboam, Solomon's son, became king, the people requested tax reform. Rehoboam refused. This caused the break. At first, Rehoboam considered a military solution but the prophetShemaiah told him not fight because God had caused the schism.Jeroboam, the leader of the tax revolt, became the leader of the Kingdom of Israel.
After the destruction and exile of the Kingdom of Israel byAssyria, non-Yahwistic practices continued. The narratives ofJeremiah and others interpreted this as the cause of the failure, destruction, and exile of the Kingdom of Judah byBabylonia.Nebuchadnezzar had additional reasons for taking over Judah and turning its inhabitants into exiles, including challenging its great rivalEgypt.
Conflicts betweenPharisees andSadducees took place in the context of much broader and longstanding social and religious conflicts among Jews, made worse by the Roman occupation.[5] Another conflict was cultural, between those who favoredHellenization (the Sadducees) and those who resisted it (the Pharisees). A third was juridico-religious, between those who emphasized the importance of theSecond Temple with itsrites and services, and those who emphasized the importance of otherMosaic Laws. A fourth point of conflict, specifically religious, involved different interpretations of theTorah and how to apply it to current Jewish life, with Sadducees recognizing only theWritten Torah (with Greek philosophy) and rejecting doctrines such as theOral Torah, theProphets, theWritings, and theresurrection of the dead.
According toJosephus, the Sadducees differed from the Pharisees on a number of doctrinal grounds, notably rejecting ideas of life after death. They appear to have dominated the aristocracy and the temple, but their influence over the wider Jewish population was limited.
TheEssenes preached a reclusive way of life. TheZealots advocated armed rebellion against any foreign power such asRome. All were at violent loggerheads with each other, leading to the confusion and disunity that ended with the destruction of the Second Temple and the sacking ofJerusalem by Rome.
The first Christians (whom historians refer to asJewish Christians) were the original Jewish followers ofJesus, a Galilean preacher and, according to early Christian belief, the resurrected messiah. After hiscrucifixion by the Romans, his followers broke over whether they shouldcontinue to observe Jewish law, such as at theCouncil of Jerusalem. Those who argued that the law was abrogated (either partially or fully, either by Jesus or Paul or by the Romandestruction of the Temple) broke to form Christianity.[6]
The eventual repudiation ofMoses' Law by Jesus'disciples and theirbelief in his divinity, along with thedevelopment of the New Testament, ensured thatChristianity and Judaism would become different and often conflicting religions. TheNew Testament depicts the Sadducees and Pharisees as Jesus' opponents (seeWoes of the Pharisees). In contrast, the Jewish perspective has the Pharisees as the justified predecessors of therabbis who upheld theTorah, including theOral law, which Christians refer to as theMosaic Law or Pentateuch or "Old Covenant" in contrast to the "New Covenant".
Karaite Judaism is aJewish denomination characterized by reliance on theTanakh as the sole source of bindingJewish Law. Karaites rejected the rabbinic tenet that anOral Torah (oral law) was transmitted to Moses at Mount Sinai along with thewritten scriptures. Accordingly, they rejected the central works ofRabbinic Judaism which claimed to expound and interpret this written law, including theMidrash and theTalmud, as authoritative on questions ofJewish law. They may consult or discuss various interpretations of the Tanakh, but Karaites do not consider these other sources as binding or authoritative. Karaites prefer to use thepeshat method of study, seeking a meaning within the text that would have been naturally understood by the ancient Hebrews.
Karaites had a wide following between the 9th and 12th centuries (they claim that at one time they numbered perhaps 10 percent of Jewry), but over the centuries their numbers have dwindled drastically. Today they are a small group, living mostly inIsrael; estimates of the number of Israeli Karaites range from as low as 10,000 to as high as 50,000.[7][8][9][10]
There is a divergence of views about the historical origins ofKaraite Judaism. Most scholars and some Karaites maintain that it was founded at least in part byAnan ben David, whereas other Karaites believe that they are not the historical disciples of Anan ben David at all, and point out that many of their later sages (such as Ya'acov Al-Kirkisani) argued that most of Anan's teachings were "derived from Rabbanite Lore".
The state of Israel, along with its Chief Rabbinate, ruled that Karaites are Jews, and while critical differences betweenOrthodox Judaism and Karaite Judaism exist, American Orthodox rabbis ruled that Karaism is much closer to Orthodoxy than the Conservative and Reform movements, which may ease issues of formal conversion.
In 1648,Sabbatai Zevi declared himself to be the long-awaited JewishMessiah whilst living in theOttoman Empire. Vast numbers of Jews, known asSabbateans, believed him. Still, when under pain of a death sentence in front of theOttoman sultanMehmed IV, he became anapostate from Judaism by becoming aMuslim, his movement crumbled. Nevertheless, for centuries, small groups of Jews believed in him, and therabbis were always on guard against any manifestations of this schism, always suspicious of hiddenShebselekh (Yiddish for "little Sabbatians", a play on the word for "young dumb sheep"). When the movement ofHasidism began attracting many followers, the rabbis were again suspicious that this was Sabbatianism in different forms. It would take centuries to sort out these complex divisions and schisms.
After his mysterious death somewhere in the area ofOttoman Albania, groups of Jews continued to be clandestine followers of Shabbatai Sevi even though they had outwardly converted toIslam, these Jews being known as theDonmeh. Jewish converts to Islam were, at times, therefore, regarded with great suspicion by their fellow Muslims.
A few decades after Shabbatai Sevi's death, a man namedJacob Frank, claiming mystical powers, preached that he was Shabbatai Sevi's successor. He attracted a following, preached against theTalmud, advocated a form of licentious worship, and was condemned by the rabbis then. When confronted by thePolish authorities, he converted toCatholicism in 1759 in the presence ofKing Augustus III of Poland, together with groups of his Jewish followers, known as "Frankists". To the alarm of his opponents, he was received by reigning European monarchs who were anxious to see their Jewish subjects abandon Judaism andapostacise. The Frankists eventually joined the Polish nobility and gentry.
Israel ben Eliezer (1698–1760), also known as theBaal Shem Tov ('Master [of the] Good Name'), changed much of Jewish history inEastern Europe for what is now known asHaredi Judaism. His teachings were based on the earlier expositions of RabbiIsaac Luria (1534–1572) who had based much of hisKabbalistic teachings on theZohar. Baal Shem Tov came after Jews of Eastern Europe were collectively recovering fromfalse messiahsShabtai Tzvi (1626–1676) andJacob Frank (1726–1791) in particular.
Baal Shem Tov witnessed Frank's publicapostasy (shmad in Hebrew) toChristianity,[citation needed] which compounded Tzvi's earlier apostasy to Islam. Baal Shem Tov was thus determined to encourage his influential disciples (talmidim) to launch a spiritual revolution in Jewish life in order to reinvigorate the Jewish masses' connections withTorah Judaism and to vigorously motivate them to bind themselves to the joyous observance of thecommandments,worship,Torah study, and sincere belief inGod, so that the lures of Christianity and Islam, and the appeal of the risingsecularEnlightenment, to the Jewish masses would be weakened and halted. To a large degree he succeeded in Eastern Europe.
Already during his lifetime, and gaining momentum following his death, Baal Shem Tov's disciples spread out to teach his mystical creeds all over Eastern Europe. Thus was bornHasidic Judaism (Hasidism). Some of the main movements were in:Russia which saw the rise of theChabad-Lubavitch movement;Poland which had theGerrer Hasidim;Galicia hadBobov;Hungary hadSatmar Hasidim; andUkraine had theBreslovers, and many others that grew rapidly, gaining millions of adherents, until it became the dominant brand of Judaism.
Only when this new religious movement reachedLithuania did it meet its first stiff resistance at the hands of theLithuanian Jews (Litvaks). It was Rabbi Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman (c. 1720 – 1797), known as theVilna Gaon ("Genius [of]Vilna"), and those who followed his classic stringentTalmudic andHalakhic scholasticism, who put up the fiercest resistance to the Hasidim ("devoted [ones]"). They were calledMitnagdim, meaning "[those who are] opposed [to the Hasidim]".
TheVilna Gaon, who was himself steeped in bothTalmudic andKabbalistic wisdom, analyzed the theological underpinnings of this new "Hasidism" and in his view, concluded that it was deeply flawed since it had elements of what may be roughly termed aspanentheism and perhaps even outrightpantheism, dangerous aspirations for bringing theJewish Messiah that could easily be twisted in unpredictable directions for Jewry as had previously happened with the Tzvi and Frank religious "revival" fiascos, and an array of complex rejections of their religious ideology. TheVilna Gaon's views were later formulated by his chief disciple RabbiChaim Volozhin (1741–1821) in his workNefesh HaChaim. The new Hasidic leaders countered with their own religious counter-arguments, some of which can be found in theTanya of Chabad-Lubavitch.
Little of the split between Hasidim and Mitnagdim remains within the modern Haredi world.[citation needed] In modern-dayIsrael Hasidim support theAgudat Israel party in theKnesset (Israel's parliament) and the non-Hasidic Mitnagdim support theDegel HaTorah party, led byRabbi Chaim Kanievsky andRabbi Gershon Eidelstein. Agudat Israel and Degel Torah have formed a political alliance, theUnited Torah Judaism party. There is also another large community that follows the rabbinical teachings of theEdah Charedis. These include theSatmar Hasidim and theperushim communities, which do not support any groups that participate in the Israeli government or state activities, including elections.
From the time of theFrench Revolution of 1789, and the growth ofLiberalism, added to the political and personal freedoms granted byNapoleon to the Jews of Europe, many Jews chose to abandon the foreboding and isolatingghettos and enter into general society. This influenced the internal conflicts about religion, culture, and politics of the Jews to this day.
Some Jews inWestern Europe, and many Jews inAmerica, joined the religiously liberalReform Judaism movement, which drew inspiration from the writings of modernist thinkers likeMoses Mendelson. They coined the name "Orthodox" to describe those who opposed the "Reform". They were criticized by theOrthodox rabbis, such asSamson Raphael Hirsch in Germany, and condemned particularly by those known today as followers of Haredi Judaism, based mainly in Eastern Europe. (Later on, in 1880s America,Conservative Judaism split from the Reform movement.)
Thus a culturalschism was also created between the more WesternGerman-,English- andFrench-speakingWestern European Jews and their more religiously observantYiddish-speaking Eastern European brethren whom they denigratingly labeledOstjuden ("Eastern Jews"). These schisms and the debates surrounding them, continue with much ferocity in all Jewish communities today as the Reform and Orthodox movements continue to confront each other over a wide range of religious, social, political and ethnic issues. (Today, the largest Jewish communities are in Israel and in theUnited States, and the geographical separation has resulted in cultural differences, such as a tendency to identify ashiloni andharedi in Israel, as opposed to, say, Reform and Orthodox in the United States.)
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