Population - Ethnic Divisions - Yemenite Jews
Yemenite Jews (תֵּימָנִי, Standard Hebrew
Temani, Tiberian Hebrew Têmānî; plural תֵּימָנִים, Standard Hebrew
Temanim, Tiberian Hebrew Têmānîm) are those Jews who live, or whose
recent ancestors lived, in Yemen (תֵּימָן "far south", Standard Hebrew
Teman, Tiberian Hebrew Têmān), on the southern tip of the Arabian
peninsula. They are sometimes considered to be Mizrahi.
History of the community
Local Yemenite Jewish traditions trace the earliest settlement of Jews
in this region back to the time of King Solomon. Interestingly enough,
the Chabashim (Jews in neighboring Ethiopia) have a sister legend of
their origins that places the Queen of Sheba as married to King Solomon.
The Sanaite Jews have a legend that their ancestors settled there
forty-two years before the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem.
It is said that under the prophet Jeremiah some 75,000 Jews, including
priests and Levites, travelled to Yemen; when Ezra the scribe commanded
the Jews to return to Jerusalem they disobeyed, whereupon he pronounced
a ban upon them. Tradition states, however, that as a punishment for
this hasty action Ezra was denied burial in Israel. As a result of this
local tradition, which can not be validated historically, no Jew of
Yemen gives the name of Ezra to a child, although all other Biblical
appellatives are used. The Yemenite Jews claim that Ezra cursed them to
be a poor people for not heeding his call. This seems to have come true
in the eyes of many Yemenites, as Yemen is extremely poor.
The actual immigration of Jews into Yemen appears to have taken place
about the beginning of the second century C.E., although the province is
mentioned neither by Josephus nor by the main books of the Jewish oral
law, the Mishnah and Talmud. According to some sources, the Jews of
Yemen enjoyed prosperity until the sixth century C.E., and the fourth
sovereign before Dhu Nuwas was a convert to Judaism.
Yemenite Jews and Maimonides
The average Jewish population of Yemen for the first five centuries C.E.
is said to have been about 3,000. The Jews were scattered throughout the
country, but carried on an extensive commerce and thus succeeded in
getting possession of many Jewish books. When Saladin became sultan in
the last quarter of the twelfth century and the Shiite Muslims revolted
against him, the trials of the Yemenite Jews began. There were few
scholars among them at that time, and a putative prophet arose; he
preached a syncrectic religion that combined Judaism and Islam, and
claimed that the Bible foretold his coming.
One of Yemen's most respected Jewish scholars, Jacob ben Nathanael al-Fayyumi,
wrote for counsel to Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, better known as Maimonides.
Maimonides replied in a epistle entitled Iggeret Teman (The Yemen
Epistle). This letter made a tremendous impression on Yemenite Jewry,
and effectively stopped the new religious movement.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the condition of the Jews of
Yemen was miserable. They were under the jurisdiction of the local
Muslim Imam, and they were forbidden to wear new or good clothes, nor
might they ride a donkey or a mule. They were compelled to make long
journeys on foot when occasion required it. They were prohibited from
engaging in money transactions, and were all mechanics, being employed
chiefly as carpenters, masons, and smiths.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century they are said to have
numbered 30,000, and to have lived principally in Aden (200), Sana
(10,000), Sada (1,000), Dhamar (1,000), and the desert of Beda (2,000).
The chief industry of the Jews of Yemen at this time was the making of
pottery.
Groups
The three main groups of Yemenite Jews are the Baladi, the Shami and the
Maimonideans or "Rambamists" (followers of Maimonides aka "Rambam"),
though the Maimonideans are typically considered a type of Baladi Jew.
In the early part of the 20th century, a group of Maimonideans called
Dor Daim (the generation of Knowledge) became strong sub-group of the
original surviving Maimonideans. Their goal was to bring Yemenite Jews
back to the original Maimonidean method of understanding Judaism that
existed in pre-1600's Yemen.
The liturgy of most Baladi Jews was developed by a rabbi known as the
Maharitz. He attempted to break the deadlock between the followers of
Maimonides and the followers of the mystic, Isaac Luria. Before
promoters of the Zohar gained influence in Yemen, the Baladi Jews had
been Maimonideans.
Dor Da'im are followers of Maimonides who, for the most part, did not
accept the Maharitz's compromise, although most do follow the same basic
nusach (prayer text) as codified in their siddur. They reject the Zohar,
a famous book of esoteric Jewish mysticism; in this they are similar to
the old-time Spanish Portuguese (Western Sephardi Jews), who are also
known to be strict Maimonideans who reject the Zohar.
In terms of liturgy and of interpreting Jewish law Shami Yemenite Jews
were strongly influenced by Syrian Sephardi Jews, though on some issues
they reject the later European codes of Jewish law, and instead follow
the earlier decisions of Maimonides. Unlike the Baladi Jews, they
accepted the validity, authenticity and content of the Zohar, and
modified the original Yemenite nusach to incorporate changes based on
Kabbalah. Kabbalah also influenced their world-view, which, for example,
made social progress out of poverty a non-goal.
Form of Hebrew
There are two main pronunciations of Yemenite Hebrew, considered by many
to be the most accurate form of Hebrew. Although there are technically
five in total that relate to the regions of Yemen. In the Yemenite
dialect, all Hebrew letters have a distinct sound, except for the
letters ס sāmekh and ש śîn. The Sanaani Hebrew pronunciation (used by
the majority) has been indirectly critiqued by Saadia Gaon since it
contains the Hebrew letters jimmel and guf, which he rules is incorrect.
Rabbi Mazuz postulates this hypothesis through the Jerban (Tunisia)
Jewish dialect's use of gimmel & quf, switching to jimmel & guf when
talking with Gentiles in the Gentile dialect of Jerba. Some feel that
the Shar'abi pronunciation of Yemen is more accurate & similar to the
Babylonian dialect since they both use a gimmel and quf, instead of the
jimmel and guf.
Writings
The oldest Yemenite manuscripts are those of the Hebrew Bible, which the
Yemenite Jews call "Taj" ("crown"). They date from the ninth century,
and each of them has a short Masoretic introduction, while many contain
Arabic commentaries.
Yemenite Jews were acquainted with the works of Saadia Gaon, Rashi,
Kimhi, Nahmanides, Yehudah ha Levy, and Isaac Arama, besides producing a
number of exegetes from among themselves. In the fourteenth century
Nathanael ben Isaiah wrote an Arabic commentary on the Bible; in the
second half of the fifteenth century Saadia ben David al-Adani was the
author of a commentary on Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Abraham
ben Solomon wrote on the Prophets.
Among the midrash collections from Yemen mention should be made of the "Midrash
ha-Gadol" of David bar Amram al-'Adani. Between 1413 and 1430 the
physician Yaḥya Zechariah b. Solomon wrote a compilation entitled "Midrash
ha-Ḥefeẓ," which included the Pentateuch, Lamentations, Esther, and
other sections of the Hebrew Bible. Between 1484 and 1493 David al-Lawani
composed his "Midrash al-Wajiz al-Mughni."
Among the Yemenite poets who wrote Hebrew and Arabic hymns modeled after
the Spanish school, mention may be made of Yaḥya al-Dhahri and the
members of the Al-Shabbezi family. A single non-religious work, inspired
by Ḥariri, was written in 1573 by Zechariah ben Saadia (identical with
the Yaḥya al-Dhahri mentioned above), under the title "Sefer ha-Musar."
The philosophical writers include: Saadia b. Jabeẓ and Saadia b. Mas'ud,
both at the beginning of the fourteenth century; Ibn al-Ḥawas, the
author of a treatise in the form of a dialogue written in rimed prose,
and termed by its author the "Flower of Yemen"; Ḥasan al-Dhamari; and
Joseph ha-Levi b. Jefes, who wrote the philosophical treatises "Ner
Yisrael" (1420) and "Kitab al-Masaḥah."
Operation "Magic Carpet"
In the course of the Operation Magic Carpet (1949–1950), the majority of
Yemenite Jews (about 49,000) immigrated to Israel. Most of them had
never seen an airplane before, but they believed in the Biblical
prophecy: according to the Book of Isaiah (40:31), God promised to
return the children of Israel to Zion "with wings".
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemenite_Jews
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