Reb Arie's Midrash

July 7, 2009 | Tikkun Daily

An acquaintance of mine, who is Syrian-Palestinian, and does not think himself an anti-Semite (but is, in my opinion) sent an email with the following subject:

What if the entire tale of the Jewish Diaspora is historically wrong?

It has been said that the greatest enemies the Jews have are other Jews. This has long been known historically. The Disputations forced on Jews by Catholics in medieval Europe were oft-arranged by Jewish apostates (sometimes by choice, sometimes under duress).

Opponents of Hasidic Judaism in the 18th century would routinely denounce the Hasidim to the authorities, which often resulted in Hasidic leaders being jailed or held for ransom.

And now Shlomo Zand, a professor at the University of Tel-Aviv, has published When And How Was The Jewish People Invented?.

He suggests herein that most Jews don’t originate from the ancient Land of Israel; never existed as a “nation-race”with a common origin; and are descendants of European, Russian and African groups that at various stages in history adopted the Jewish religion.

Fascinating.

I’m trying — and failing — to see the originality of Zand’s thinking. His perspective has set off alarm bells in Israel and elsewhere but all it did for me was send me to Megilat Ester (the biblical Book of Esther),where we are told repeatedly that the king, Ahashverosh (Xerxes), sent his decrees (both for and against the Jews) to the 127 provinces of the Persian Empire.

Anyone who has read the Megilat Ester, which is traditionally read on the Purim holiday, knows that the Jews were dispersed throughout the 127 provinces of the Persian Empire. This was a vast territory:

• It proceeded west from Paras (Persia), to Israel — this is southwestern Asia; and east from Paras to parts of the Indian sub-continent, then south into what is now Afghanistan, and west into what is central Asia (and formerly Asian Russia).
• It proceeded south of Arabia across the Red Sea to the African continent, stretching from Ethiopia as far south as Zanzibar and Mozambique and west from the Horn of Africa to what is now the eastern part of Libya, thus covering portions of both East Africa and North Africa.

Wow. A professor at the University of Tel-Aviv has re-written the book of Esther. What a tremendous scholarly achievement! And an Israeli bestseller — now, maybe, Jewish Israelis will finally learn some Jewish history!

Shlomo Zand freely admits he has no Jewish historical background. It’s only blind luck that he manages to re-state a central theme of Esther, the widespread dispersal of Israel over three continents.

Zand has been a communist his entire life. He was raised by communist parents. I do not mention this as a criticism, merely as motivation for his migration from European history, especially that of France, to Jewish history — a subject he knows nothing about.

It seems strange to Jews outside Israel that Jews inside Israel would know nothing of Jewish history, but this is the case.

One example is the Zionist veneration of Masada as an act of great courage.

Masada (from metzuda “fortress”) is in the Negev Desert overlooking the Yam Suf (Dead Sea). During the Jewish Revolt against Rome in 66-70 of the Common Era, a siege engine built by Roman Legionaries led to the mass suicide of the Qana’im (Zealots) who occupied the fortress. The Qana’im preferred death to surrender and perpetrated a mass suicide.

The traditional Jewish perspective is found in Avot de’Rabbi Natan, a type of commentary on Mishna Pirqei Avot. The mass suicide is a tragedy.

The modern, Zionist perspective transforms tragedy into courage. Jewish traditional perspectives are often at odds with Jewish modern realities. That Shlomo Zand does not know this is less tragic than that Shlomo Zand doesn’t care to know this.

You can find any number of links to Zand’s book on anti-Semitic websites. The greatest tragedy, in my opinion, is that Shlomo Zand does not understand that his lack of real scholarship will inevitably lead to real anti-Semitism.