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Thanks to efforts from people like Rabbi Chananel and Rabbi Isaac the Jewish community in North Africa became very strong. Jews from that community would move into Spain when the Moors invaded and colonized Spain. At the same time the Sephardic communities were developing in North Africa and Spain, the Ashkenazic Jews were developing in France and the German Rhineland. Even though these two Jewish communities developed at the same time they occupied two completely different worlds, so to speak.
The spiritual founder of Ashkenazic Jewry was Rabbi Gershom ben Judah, known as Rabbeinu Gershom. He was the last of the Geonim. Born in 960 CE in Mainz (he died in 1030 CE), he lived most of his life in the French Rhineland, though he did travel as far as today’s Yugoslavia on the Adriatic. He is the father of Ashkanazic Jewry in the same way that Rabbi Chananel and Rabbi Isaac, the Rif, were the fathers of Sephardic Jewry.
Another decree of Rabbeinu Gershom had to do with apostate Jews. We cannot imagine the pressure Jews were subject to in medieval Europe to convert to Christianity. The pressure was not only economic and social, but came with the threat of death and torture. Many of these Jews recanted on their deathbeds. Others wanted to be accepted back into the Jewish community or at least be buried in a Jewish cemetery. There were many Jews who resented that – especially those who suffered under the same trying circumstances but did not succumb. They harbored an understandable feeling of animosity and bitterness toward those who did give in. Nevertheless, Rabbeinu Gershom defended the right of apostate Jews to return to Judaism. This policy was a milestone in Jewish history. These were only some of Rabbeinu Gershom’s decrees. All told, they helped lay the groundwork for European Jewry until this day. That is why he was considered the father of Ashkenazic Jewry.
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or simply Ashkenazim (Hebrew: אַשְׁכְּנַזִּים, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: [ˌaʃkəˈnazim], singular: [ˌaʃkəˈnazi], Modern Hebrew: [aʃkenaˈzim, aʃkenaˈzi]; also יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכֲּנַז Y'hudey Ashkenaz),[16] are a Jewish diaspora population who coalesced as a distinct community in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium.[17] The traditional diaspora language of Ashkenazi Jews is Yiddish (which incorporates several dialects), with Hebrew used only as a sacred language until relatively recently. Throughout their time in Europe, Ashkenazim have made many important contributions to philosophy, scholarship, literature, art, music, and science.[18][19][20][21]
Ashkenazim originate from the Jews who settled along the Rhine River, in Western Germany and Northern France.[22] There they became a distinct diaspora community with a unique way of life that adapted traditions from Babylon, The Land of Israel, and the Western Mediterranean to their new environment.[23] The Ashkenazi religious rite developed in cities such as Mainz, Worms, and Troyes. The eminent French Rishon Rabbi Shlomo Itzhaki (Rashi) would have a significant impact on the Jewish religion.
In Jeremiah 51:27, Ashkenaz figures as one of three kingdoms in the far north, the others being Minni and Ararat, perhaps corresponding to Urartu, called on by God to resist Babylon.[38][39]
In the Yoma tractate of the Babylonian Talmud the name Gomer is rendered as Germania, which elsewhere in rabbinical literature was identified with Germanikia in northwestern Syria, but later became associated with Germania. Ashkenaz is linked to Scandza/Scanzia, viewed as the cradle of Germanic tribes, as early as a 6th-century gloss to the Historia Ecclesiastica of Eusebius.[40] In the 10th-century History of Armenia of Yovhannes Drasxanakertc'i (1.15) Ashkenaz was associated with Armenia,[41] as it was occasionally in Jewish usage, where its denotation extended at times to Adiabene, Khazaria, Crimea and areas to the east.[42] His contemporary Saadia Gaon identified Ashkenaz with the Saquliba or Slavic territories,[43] and such usage covered also the lands of tribes neighboring the Slavs, and Eastern and Central Europe.[42] In modern times, Samuel Krauss identified the Biblical "Ashkenaz" with Khazaria.[44]
Khazar state: culture and institutions Royal Diarchy with sacral Qağanate Khazaria developed a Dual kingship governance structure,[64] typical among Turkic nomads, consisting of a shad/bäk and a qağan.[65] The emergence of this system may be deeply entwined with the conversion to Judaism.[66] According to Arabic sources, the lesser king was called îšâ and the greater king Khazar xâqân; the former managed and commanded the military, while the greater king's role was primarily sacral, less concerned with daily affairs. The greater king was recruited from the Khazar house of notables (ahl bait ma'rûfīn) and, in an initiation ritual, was nearly strangled until he declared the number of years he wished to reign, on the expiration of which he would be killed by the nobles.[67][68][69][70] The deputy ruler would enter the presence of the reclusive greater king only with great ceremony, approaching him barefoot to prostrate himself in the dust and then light a piece of wood as a purifying fire, while waiting humbly and calmly to be summoned.[71] Particularly elaborate rituals accompanied a royal burial. At one period, travellers had to dismount, bow before the ruler's tomb, and then walk away on foot.[72] Subsequently, the charismatic sovereign's burial place was hidden from view, with a palatial structure ('Paradise') constructed and then hidden under rerouted river water to avoid disturbance by evil spirits and later generations. Such a royal burial ground (qoruq) is typical of inner Asian peoples.[73] Both the îšâ and the xâqân converted to Judaism sometime in the 8th century, while the rest, according to the Persian traveller Ahmad ibn Rustah, probably followed the old Tūrkic religion.[74][75]
originally posted by: AdmireTheDistance
Who stars and flags a nonexistent OP?
originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: Revolution9
I have to wonder, why would a regular member do that?
(We are to wait with bated breath, or to give us a chance to write up some replies even before the meat of the thread comes? )
Curious, just plain curious.
originally posted by: LABTECH767
a reply to: Revolution9
Anyway God bless Zion and grant peace there AND only peace there can prevent the potential for WW3 to really start there as indeed if peace is not found it may very well do so, Isreal is Nuclear armed, Saudi Arabia is Nuclear armed and perhaps soo too are several of the other involved nation's.
originally posted by: Revolution9
Sorry about all the quotes. When writing about history we have to try and be as factual as possible, else we end up believing ludicrous lies.
originally posted by: Revolution9
Hitler really meant business and had a good old go at them, but their might prevailed.
originally posted by: AdmireTheDistance
Who stars and flags a nonexistent OP?
originally posted by: Neith
a reply to: rickymouse
I could compose it, I'm told i have a really nice voice. I can even sing in hebrew.
Middle eastern music is one of my favorite sounds. It's all in the rhythm.