Jews Forced Into Commerce a Myth Chajes

The Students’ Guide Through the Talmud, by Zevi Hirsch Chajes. 2005

Jews Had Neither Been Forced Into Commerce Nor Prevented From Engaging in Farming

This is a 1952 English-language translation of the work of Zevi Hirsch Chajes (1805-1855), who had been a leading Talmudic scholar in Austrian-ruled southeastern Poland (eastern Galicia). (He was born in Brody and died in Lwow/Lviv). The translator and annotator was Jacob Schachter, the Rabbi of the Jewish community of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

In his analysis of the Talmud, Chajes touches on almost every imaginable topic. The minutiae are almost staggering, and it is sobering to realize that Jews once lived according to so many arcane rules that governed virtually every aspect of everyday life.

THE RESTRICTED JEWISH OCCUPATIONS MYTH. JEWS COULD DO FARMING

It is commonly supposed that Jews engaged in “parasitic” occupations, such as usury and shopkeeping, because they were barred from other occupations, including agriculture. This was not the case, at least in Eastern Galicia at the time. Most non-Jews were farmers, but Jews were not prevented from becoming farmers. In fact, Schachter praises Chajes’ activism, among Jews, in this regard, “He actively participated in the movement to encourage the Jews to take up agriculture as an occupation and means to livelihood; and he also strongly intervened in all matters tending to elevate the moral and social status of the Jews in Galicia, such as the abrogation of the medieval form of the Jewish oath in Court, even favoring some changes in the traditional Galician Jewish dress.” (p. xiii).

However, this was largely for naught. Very few Jews departed from their traditional occupations, centered on commerce, and went to agriculture.

TALMUDIC TERMS FOR CHRISTIANS

Schachter comments on Chajes’ use of the term MIN/MINIM, “A sectarian, probably from the Heb. [term for] (species, sect). Used variously of Samaritans, Sadducees, agnostics, Jewish-Christians, and other sectaries according to the epoch to which the passage belongs.” (p. 32; See also p. 144). Does this imply that MIN/MINIM is a flexible term that can be applied to different peoples are different times? If so, does it mean that MIN/MINIM at least sometimes applied to modern Christians?

Although, as noted earlier, this work is packed with minutiae of every sort, author Chajes conspicuously avoids the controversial Talmudic verses on Jews and gentiles. Was this the case with Chajes himself, or was some of his material left out, by the translator and annotator, in this English-language volume?

In any case, what Chajes does NOT say may be as significant as what he says. Nowadays, it is argued that the controversial Talmudic verses do not apply to Christians, and that they had applied only to ancient pagans. This is supposed to be based on centuries of normative Jewish interpretation as well as halakhic rulings. However, such a notion is conspicuously absent in this volume. Chajes freely brings up various Talmudic teachings related to the heathen (e. g, p. 69), and does not indicate any semblance of dichotomy between the past and the present, or between ancient GOYIM and modern GOYIM. Since there were not too many ancient Egyptians or ancient Canaanites (or other polytheists) living in 19th-century eastern Galicia, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that Chajes was alluding to modern Christians.

SOME INTERESTING RELIGIOUS INFORMATION

Chajes suggests that apparent contradictions in the Bible, such as seemingly-conflicting information on the 430-year duration of Jews in Egypt, stems from the fact that Scripture is generally briefly worded and lacking detailed directions. (pp. 1-2).

The rabbis of the past generally believed that the miracles in the Bible were literally true. (pp. 208-209).

The authors of the Talmud commonly did not quote the Bible accurately, and Chajes suggests that these Rabbis generally thought it unnecessary to cite the words precisely as they were written. (p. 231). [This is ironic, as Jews commonly fault the New Testament authors for imprecise quotations of Old Testament verses.]