Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Mishnah - First great collection of rabbinical wisdom.

Mishnah

Mishnah (Hebrew: מִשְׁנָה, "repetition"): first great collection of rabbinical wisdom.

After the fall of Jerusalem, in 70 CE, Jewish life had no temple and no high priest any more. Judaism had to reinvent itself. The Sadducees vanished, the people who had written the sectarian texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls (perhaps the Essenes) disappeared as well, the Sicarians and Zealots were violently repressed. Two branches survived: on the one hand the Pharisees, on the other hand the group that recognized Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah.

The Parting of Ways

Texts, written in the last quarter of the first century, document a clash between those two branches of Judaism, both claiming to be the true continuation of Temple Judaism. The Fiscus Judaicus, a Roman tax that had to be paid by Jews only but allowed them to be monotheists, acerbated these tensions, and the fact that Simon bar Kochba, a Messianic leader who revolted against Rome in 132-136, executed adherents of the rival Messiah,note did not help either.

The Christians would find new leaders: priests, deacons, presbyters and bishops. The Pharisees continued the tradition of rabbinical teaching, often associated with the synagogues. The first to organize this branch of Judaism was Yohanan ben Zakkai, who had survived the sack of Jerusalem and founded a school in Javne, probably under Roman auspices.

Seizing power in a confused world, the academy of Javne, as it is called, made important decisions. The Amidah (the prayer of the Eighteen Benedictions) was created, a summary of Jewish faith. The canon of the Jewish Bible was established. The training of rabbis was organized. The old Pharisaic traditions, which had been handed down orally, were written down.

The Mishnah

The first to summarize these traditions may have been rabbi Aqiba; the first collection of rabbinical wisdom that survives is the Mishnah ("repetition"), which was created in c.200 CE by rabbi Yehuda ha-Nasi of Sepphoris. It consists of sixty-three tractates, containing the opinions of the rabbinical sages. The tractates are divided into six groups ("orders"):

Zeraim ("Seeds"), 11 tractates on a/o agriculture; this includes Berakhot (blessings")
Moed ("Festival"), 12 tractates on the Jewish festivals and the Sabbath
Nashim ("Women"), 7 tractates on a/o marriage and divorce
Nezikin ("Damages"), 10 tractates on civil and criminal law; this includes the tractate Sanhedrin (on criminal law), Avodah Zarah (on idolatry), and Avot ("sayings of the fathers")
Kodashim ("Holy things"), 11 tractates on the Jewish cult and dietary laws"; this includes Middot (a description of the Temple)
Tohorot ("Purity"), 12 tractates on purity

Although certain topics are not discussed, and several topics are obviously hypothetical (e.g., the tractate Middot on rebuilding the Temple), one gets the impression that Yehuda tried to cover every aspect of human life, showing that God is everywhere, Judaism is always possible, and that God had - as was written in the first chapter of the Bible - created a world that was good.

Later collections

A second collection of rabbinical wisdom is the Tosefta ("supplement"), which contains traditions that Yehuda ha-Nasi had left out, such as Messianism. Later, the Mishnah was commented upon and these new traditions were ordered in the Palestinian Talmud (fifth century) and the Babylonian Talmud (seventh century). These four collections - Mishnah, Tosefta, and the two Talmuds - are the foundation of rabbinical Judaism.

Those Jews who did not accept the authority of the rabbis and their texts - in other words: those who accepted only the Jewish Bible as authoritative - are called Karaites.

Yohanan ben Zakkai - Rabbi, one of the founders of rabbinical Judaism.

Yohanan ben Zakkai

Yohanan ben Zakkai (second half first century CE): rabbi, one of the founders of rabbinical Judaism.

Modern reconstruction of an ancient synagogue

After the fall of Jerusalem, in 70 CE, Judaism had to reinvent itself. There was no temple, there was no high priest. The Sadducees had vanished, the people who had written the sectarian texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls (perhaps the Essenes) had disappeared as well, the Romans had violently repressed the Sicarians and Zealots. Only two branches of the ancient, pluralistic faith would survive: those who stressed Messianism became Christians, those who stressed the study of the Law would develop into rabbinical Judaism. One key figure was Yohanan ben Zakkai, who renewed Pharisaism and gave Judaism a new future.

Crisis

The importance of the crisis in 70 CE cannot be overestimated, but the Jewish religion was not exclusively about the temple in Jerusalem. There were synagogues, charismatics, and sects with their own customs, rituals, and ideas. One of those ideas was almost the opposite of the sacrificial cult, namely the answer to the question of the core of the Jewish faith. The summary attributed to the Pharisaic leader Hillel and to Jesus of Nazareth “do to others what you want them to do to you”,note certainly does not put the temple cult at the center of Judaism. Instead, it focuses on the correct way of life.

An anecdote about rabbi Yohanan shows that the Jews were aware that the center of gravity in their religion was shifting away from sacrifice in the temple. When one of Yohanan’s disciples saw the ruins of the temple, he said that the Jews were lost because they could no longer make sacrifices to restore their ritual purity or atone for sins. No one would ever enter the world that was to come. However, Yohanan reassured him: there was another way, as good as sacrifice, to come to terms with God, namely acts of charity.note

The reliability of this anecdote is difficult to determine. It was passed down to us in an early Medieval text, which suggests that it is unreliable, but this Medieval text contains material of considerable antiquity, which suggests the opposite. As a consequence, the authenticity of Yohanan’s statement is disputed, although it is certain that the idea was not uncommon in the late first century.note

To Javne

This anecdote shows that Yohanan was the subject of several legends, which may or may not be true. Another example is the story that during the siege of Jerusalem, Yohanan managed to escape, hidden in a coffin, and gained the favor of Vespasian by foretelling him that one day, he would be emperor. As a reward, the rabbi-turned-prophet received permission to establish a school in Javne.note That not Titus but his father is presented as the besieger of Jerusalem is sufficient to describe the anecdote as unhistorical.

Still, it is plausible that Yohanan founded a school or lawcourt in Javne where decisions were taken that were in some way recognized by other Jews. The Mishnah, the oldest collection of rabbinical wisdom, mentions Yohanan several times in connection with Javne, as in an anecdote about the right time to celebrate New Year.note It is certainly conceivable that the Romans assisted moderate religious leaders to establish schools.

No Roman would have been offended by the matters discussed in Javne. This certainly applies to Yohanan’s statement about Messianism:

If you want to plant a shoot and someone tells you that the Messiah is coming, plant that shoot before you welcome him. note

Again, the authenticity of these words is questionable, but they fit perfectly in the years after the destruction of the temple, when people had come to distrust the violent messianism of a Simon bar Giora. The quote may be authentic.

Seizure of Power

The rabbinical debates in Javne did not bother the Roman authorities. They were about ritual purity,note marriage contracts,note calendars,note or agriculture.note

That is not to say, however, that the people in Javne did not practice politics. The Babylonian Talmud contains an old list of decisions made by Yohanan, including the decision that priests should not wear sandals when they climbed on a platform in the synagogue to bless the people. This may look obscure but this is how the priests had once acted in the temple and Yohanan now presented the priests with a choice: either they had no duties at all (after all, the temple had been destroyed) or they were given a modest privilege in the synagogues – but on the authority of Javne.note

Something similar can be said about another seemingly insignificant issue: the blowing of a horn, the shofar, during the festivities of the New Year. This had always been done in both the temple and the synagogues, but if the first day of the year was a Saturday, the Sabbath was observed and the music was heard only in the temple. This occurred in September 71, when the Jewish New Year fell on a Saturday. Since there was no temple, there was a problem. Yohanan now decided that from now on, the shofar would be blown wherever the court was – in Javne.note So in effect, Yohanan strove for his institution, whatever status it may have had, to take over as many tasks as possible from Jerusalem.

Rabbinical Judaism

Rabbinical Judaism seems to have replaced Pharisaism quickly, because we don’t hear much more about the latter, but if Yohanan is the link between these two stages of Jewish thinking, it would be exaggerated to say that continuity was complete. Pharisaism had always known two complementary branches: the precise House of Shammai and the moderate House of Hillel. In the discussion between these houses, Yohanan and his students sided with the latter, which means that a significant part of the Pharisaic traditions was now discarded. The scholars of Javne also made their own choices: the Mishnaic tractate Eduyoth begins with a list of disputes in which both Shammai and Hillel had, according to the rabbis, both been wrong.

Thus, the scholars of Javne set the first steps on a road that would lead to the emergence of the rabbinate. Until then, the title of rabbi, “master”, had been used informally for all people of authority, but now the rabbinate became an official function that required teaching by recognized rabbis. The title was transferred through a ritual of laying on of hands.

Whether the rabbinical authority was already accepted by many people in these years cannot be determined, but success may have come quickly because the alternatives were rapidly discredited in a Jewish world that was still in turmoil. When Yohanan gave his verdict on the blowing of the shofar in 71, the battle for Masada still had to begin.

One alternative was the temple in Leontopolis, Egypt, which had been built by high priest Honi IV in the second century BCE. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus says that it attracted so many former insurgents that the Alexandrian Jews and the governor of Egypt started to worry, and in 74 CE, the last Jewish temple was closed.note Another alternative to the rabbinic assumption of power was king Agrippa II. There may well have been other parties who wanted to fill the power vacuum. It is conceivable that a group of priests went to Arabia and tried to build a new temple in, for example, Dedan or Tayma, oases with Jewish minorities. Arab Judaism is one of our blind spots and there may very well have been other alternatives to Javne. The rabbis’ seizure of power was swift but not self-evident.

The Amidah

Among those who did not accept Javne were the followers of Jesus. The gospels of Matthew and John and the text known as Didache contain various polemics against rival groups, with the "woes of the Pharisees" as obvious example.note

The other voice in these polemics is the Amidah, the prayer of the Eighteen Benedictions that summarizes Jewish faith. It was formulated at the time of Yohanan’s successor Gamaliel II.note This classic Jewish text expresses (among many other things) the wish that there will be no hope for apostates. Two manuscripts, both from Cairo, explicitly mention the notsrim, the Christians, which fits the Christian accusation that in the synagogues, people cursed Christians.note

We do not know whether the Cairene manuscripts present us with the original text or a variant, but it seems certain that towards the end of the first century CE, the Amidah contained a prayer against apostates in general. There must have been synagogues where Christians who maintained the Law were regarded as apostates and asked to leave; there certainly were synagogues that took a different stance, for it is certain that Christians continued to participate in the synagogue service three centuries later.

The Parting of Ways

As said, we don’t know how great the authority of the rabbis initially was. Nor do we know in how many synagogues and in what words the Amidah was recited. It is certain, however, that towards the end of the first century, there was at least one group in the Jewish world that believed action should be taken against apostates and that there was at least one group of followers of Jesus who felt addressed. The Fiscus Judaicus, a Roman tax that had to be paid by Jews only, acerbated these tensions, and the fact that Simon bar Kochba, a Messianic leader who revolted against Rome in 132-136, executed adherents of the rival Messiah,note did not help either.

The Christians would find new leaders: priests, deacons, presbyters and bishops. Many Jews would accept the rabbis as leaders. They would establish the canon of the Jewish Bible, and towards the end of the second century, Yehuda ha-Nasi would collect and organize the oral traditions of the rabbis in the Mishnah, the first book of rabbinic wisdom. The roads had started to diverge.

DISTURBED SINGER DAVID DRAIMAN TO NEWBIES: ‘THERE’S NO SECRET TO SUCCESS, YOU HAVE TO DO ONE THING’

Enes K.

July 27, 2020

Chicago based American heavy metal band Disturbed’s frontman and also known as one of the highly talented vocalists of the era, David Draiman had a new interview with Louder Sound’s Merlin Alderslade and responded compiled questions of the fans.

Disturbed frontman answered lots of questions of the fans from his part of touring to his recommendations for the metal bands that want to break mainstream nowadays. According to David, there is not a certain thing that leads you to success and the musicians have to perfect their craft to write the best song they can make.

While revealing his advice to the newbies, David also exposed if there is any person in the world that Disturbed would like to cover.

Let’s hear what he said about the covers:

How to keep the integrity of the original song but still make it your own? Not planning ahead when it comes to our selection is part of the challenge and fun of it.”

And here is his statement about what does he recommend to the newbies:

He continued:

“Promote your asses off, don’t be lazy, don’t expect anyone to hand anything to you. Take it seriously, perfect your craft. Learn to navigate the waters you are hoping to sail in by aligning yourself with trustworthy, wise individuals who can not only help guide you to the promised land, but you can learn from along the way. Bust your asses, and with determination, talent, wisdom, and a whole shit-ton of luck, you might just make it.”

Click here for the source.

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

David Draiman: “Aliens? I’d show them Twitter and hope they’d leave us in our misery”

(Image credit: Travis Shinn)

Since shooting to fame on the back of their 2000 debut album The Sickness, Disturbed have become one of modern metal’s greatest success stories. Yet charismatic frontman David Draiman is also one of the most divisive figures around – the singer has his fair share of vocal detractors, not least in the press. So thought we’d give you lot the chance to grill him instead. Would the good people of the Hammer readership give our Dave safe passage?

Did you get any feedback from Simon & Garfunkel after The Sound Of Silence? Ken Johnson, Twitter

“When we were a week or so our from our live performance of The Sound Of Silence on Conan, our manager contacted me and asked if it was alright for him to give my email address to Paul Simon’s manager. He had expressed an interest in contacting me. I said of course he could and then waited like a nervous child. He wrote: ‘David, really powerful performance on Conan the other day. First time I’d seen you do it live. Nice. Thanks. Paul.’ We were a few hours away from performing when I got the email, and I ran around backstage to anyone who’d care to look at Paul’s praise! He liked it so much that he talked about it repeatedly in interviews and even put our Conan performance on his own social media pages!”

What’s your favourite album? @TimmyPPG, Twitter

“Ride the Lightning. I’d never heard such complexity, power, depth, ferocity and beauty melded together before. Fade To Black is perhaps my favourite Metallica song. It’s such a truly epic record.”

Are there any other unexpected artists you’d like Disturbed to cover?

Janine Opie, Facebook

“We don’t premeditate when it comes to choosing covers – we leave choosing them for the last part of the recording process each time we go in the studio. The covers are fun for us. They’re a different challenge each time. How to keep the integrity of the original song but still make it your own? Not planning ahead when it comes to our selection is part of the challenge and fun of it.”

What’s your favourite part of touring? Any bands you wanna tour with?

@MetalheadMarv

“It’s always all about the show. We are truly addicted to the live experience… all of us. Everything else is just travel and coming up with ways to keep yourself sane or pass the time until the next show. We’d still love to do a proper tour with Metallica or Iron Maiden one day. Tool and Rammstein are on the wishlist as well. Foo Fighters, too!”

How can metal bands break the mainstream these days? Kenner Smith, Facebook

“I truly wish I knew. There is no ‘secret’ to success. Not now, nor was there ever. No magical equation that if you follow to a T, will ensure that you get your big break. All any musician can do, in any era, is write the best songs they possibly can, and play them with all of their hearts and souls every time they take the stage. Promote your asses off, don’t be lazy, don’t expect anyone to hand anything to you. Take it seriously, perfect your craft. Learn to navigate the waters you are hoping to sail in by aligning yourself with trustworthy, wise individuals who can not only help guide you to the promised land, but you can learn from along the way. Bust your asses, and with determination, talent, wisdom and a whole shit-ton of luck, you might just make it.”

Do you get people making monkey noises at you in the street? Alex Holaifa, email

“More often than you might think, to be honest. One of my favourites was when I was at a mall somewhere on tour, and this little boy, couldn’t have been more than three or four years old, ran up to me, wrapped his arms and legs around my leg, looked up at me and shouted, ‘Ooh wah ah ah ah!’ I was dying laughing, it was so sweet. His parents came running up, apologising to me, which I told them was absolutely unnecessary. I took pictures with them and thanked them.”

If an alien came down to Earth what three things would you show him to explain the human race? Jackie Warren, Facebook

“I’d show them Twitter, and I’d hope they’d do the wise thing at that point. Leave us in our misery and travel back to their home world as fast as possible.”

Best advice you can give to all the aspiring musicians out there who want a career in the music industry? @rocknroro, Twitter

“Try finding another profession. Ha ha! Seriously though, it’s as tough as it’s ever been. Competition is everywhere, and the internet barrages the consumer with stimuli. It’s information overload. Technology has made it easier for musicians to get their music to people, but because of the ease of its pathway, there are more people doing it than ever. If you’re going to give it a try, be prepared to give it all you’ve got. To risk sacrificing everything else, because sometimes, that’s what it takes.”

If you weren’t fronting Disturbed what would you be doing with your life right now? Jenna Gardner, email

“I’d probably still be a Health Care Administrator. I worked as one for about six years prior to getting signed. It was a heartbreaking job at times, getting close to people you are caring for only to see them leave the world too soon every time. Families taking advantage of their loved ones, stealing from them or defrauding them, neglectful or even abusive nurses and aides, and trying to make a profitable business from managing people’s health. It was rewarding helping everyone I could, but depressing at the same time.”

What do you say to those people who claim that “rock is dead”? @RockMetalMLover, Twitter

“Nonsense. We just finished our most successful arena run of our careers here in the USA on the first leg of our Evolution tour. Shinedown, Five Finger Death Punch and many others are either doing or coming off of successful arena runs themselves. The biggest festivals in the world are dominated by rock bands, and Metallica, Iron Maiden, AC/DC and Guns N’ Roses are still selling out stadiums. Newer bands like Nothing More, Greta Van Fleet, Bring Me The Horizon, The 1975, The Struts, and others are very strong representatives of a new generation of rock that have massive fan bases which are growing with each passing day. Dead? To whom?”

If you could have experimented with another genre and get away with it what would your sound be? @drum_by, Twitter

“I think we just did on Evolution. I’m not sure what ‘genre’ some of our new material falls into, but it certainly isn’t stereotypically Disturbed. Call it a more classic rock feel, or balladry, but it was definitely experimentation, and I couldn’t be happier that we did.”

I heard you love snorkelling. What’s the best fish? Bryan Austin, Facebook

“I’m an avid scuba diver – I’ve been on over 450 dives – and one of the perks of travelling the world on tour is being able to set aside the time to dive in some of the most amazing places in the world. The Maldives, the Great Barrier Reef, the Red Sea, all over the Caribbean, Hawaii, Fiji, to name a few. As far as underwater life is concerned, the bigger the better for me. I love encountering large pelagic life, and I love sharks. Some of the most spectacular dives I’ve been privileged to go on were open water shark dives. I just did one not too long ago in Fiji at about 80+ft with 10-15 bull sharks in a feeding frenzy! It was amazing!”

Published in Metal Hammer #322

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