[Avodah] the anceint western galut

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, February 15, 2007 10:34 am, Newman,Saul Z wrote:
: http://www.huji.ac.il/cgi-bin/dovrut/dovrut_search_eng.pl?mesge1171276403326
: 88760  on the divide, in the era of the churban, of the jews of the East and
: the West. theorizes that the lack of access to Rabbinic halachic judaism led
: to the eventual disappearance of Europe's first jews....

This theory rests heavily on the idea that the concept of TSBP dates to the
rabbinic period, and thus these western Jews, who knew Greek but little
Hebrew, only knew of the Septuagint -- Tzeduqi style. I wouldn't buy into it.

To quote:
> In the east, ... the period after the Temple's destruction was the time in
> which the oral law was developed.... These writings form the basis of what
> became Halachic, or normative, Judaism. The languages of this oral and
> written tradition were Hebrew and Aramaic, the languages known to the Jews
> of the east.

> Since this tradition was not translated, continue the authors, the oral
> tradition remained unknown to the Jews of the west, who spoke only Greek.
> For them, Jewish tradition was conveyed solely through the Bible via the
> Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Bible.... This dichotomy ultimately
> provided a fertile ground for the early emissaries of the Church....

Tir'u baTov!
-mi