Yemenite Jews
Yemenite Jews are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen, a nation on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula.
| Table of contents |
|
2 Yemenite Jews and Maimonides 3 Groups 4 Form of Hebrew 5 Writings |
Local Yemenite Jewish traditions trace the earliest settlement of Jews in this region back to the time of 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 Palestine. As a result of this local tradition, which is devoid of historicity, no Jew of Yemen gives the name of Ezra to a child, although all other Biblical appellatives are used.
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.
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 effectivly 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.
The three main groups of Yemenite Jews are the Baladi, the Shami and the Darde'i.
The liturgy of Baladim Jews developed were developed by a rabbi known as the Maharitz. He attempted to break the deadlock between the followers of Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides) and the followers of the mystic, Isaac Luria.
Darde'im are followers of Maimonides who did not accept the Maharitz's compromise. They reject the Zohar, a famous book of esoteric Jewish mysticism.
In terms of liturgy and of interpreting Jewish law Shamim Yemenite Jews are similar to Sephardic Jews, though on some issues they reject the later European codes of Jewish law, and instead follow the earlier decisions of Maimonides.
There are two main pronunciations of Yemenite Hebrew, considered by many to be the most accurate form of Hebrew. In the Yemenite dialiect, all hebrew letters have a distinct sound, except for the letters samekh and seen. The Sana'ani 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 demonstrates this 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. 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.
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, and Isaac Arama, besides producing a number of exegetes from among themselves. In the fourteenth century Nathanael b. 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."
See also: JewsHistory of the community
Yemenite Jews and Maimonides
Groups
Form of Hebrew
Writings
