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The Princeton Economic History of the Western World #42
The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70-1492
How the Jewish people went from farmers to merchants
In 70 CE, the Jews were an agrarian and illiterate people living mostly in the Land of Israel and Mesopotamia. By 1492 the Jewish people had become a small group of literate urbanites specializing in crafts, trade, moneylending, and medicine in hundreds of places across the Old World, from Seville to Mangalore. What caused this radical change? The Chosen Few presents a new answer to this question by applying the lens of economic analysis to the key facts of fifteen formative centuries of Jewish history. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein offer a powerful new explanation of one of the most significant transformations in Jewish history while also providing fresh insights into the growing debate about the social and economic impact of religion.
In 70 CE, the Jews were an agrarian and illiterate people living mostly in the Land of Israel and Mesopotamia. By 1492 the Jewish people had become a small group of literate urbanites specializing in crafts, trade, moneylending, and medicine in hundreds of places across the Old World, from Seville to Mangalore. What caused this radical change? The Chosen Few presents a new answer to this question by applying the lens of economic analysis to the key facts of fifteen formative centuries of Jewish history. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein offer a powerful new explanation of one of the most significant transformations in Jewish history while also providing fresh insights into the growing debate about the social and economic impact of religion.
344 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
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January 2, 2016
Shh! Don't let the American Nazi Party learn about this book!! Seriously! The first chapter would earn a 5 star review, but then...? Disaster. It verifies all the anti-Jewish people who believe that Jews manipulate everything, and have more money than God, as it was once said to me. Well, money I don't have and never did, and certainly never will. I was a child of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, a descendant of blacksmiths, tailors, leatherworkers--and farmers, many of whom were also Jewish religious scholars. Yet, my grandfather, from Maidan in Ukraine, whose widowed mother raised chickens, was also a brilliant, sought-after scholar of Jewish religious law. In Ukraine, his job consisted of weighing and evaluating the monetary value of crops. Maiden was a Jewish farming co-operative settled by Jews in the late 18th century (See The Road to Letichev) My grandfather's only education was in religious studies. These didn't include mathematics. Yet, one of his sons got a Ph.D in Applied Mathematics. Another became a DMD. His great-grandson was chosen for the Sloan Award for the best young mathematician internationally. (Next comes the Nobel Prize!!!) And, I was a born scholar.
I got a Ph.D. in Linguistics, two of his grandsons earned doctorates, as did his
granddaughter, grandsons, as well as two of his great-granddaughters. Why did people descended from farmers and craftsmen achieve so much? The authors show that, over the centuries, Jews self-selected for scholarly talents. For centuries, Jews also didn't marry non-Jews. They were a close society.
The authors point out that literacy became a religious requirement before Jesus. No other religious groups insisted on literacy. Jesus' own life is a good example. Jesus was a carpenter's son. Still, he could read the Torah, as, could the fishermen who followed him. Besides being literate, Jews were also encouraged to dispute what the Torah meant and to come up with wise interpretations. When Jesus contradicted the elders, he was doing what all Jewish males did--and do today on their Bar Mitzvahs. The Talmudic injunction stated that even reading wasn't enough. Jews had to try to interpret scripture and analyze it. Coming up ith a new meaning of a passage was a point of pride
Since there was no free education, this meant that the early Jews, who were farmers, had to pay for their sons' lessons, which were expensive. Furthermore, while sons were studying, they couldn't work on the farms. That meant hiring farm hands.
For poor farmers, the Talmudic injunction was hard. They couldn't afford it. Or, they didn't want to. Fortunately, the unwilling ones could convert to early Christianity, which was then a Jewish sect. Like Judaism, Christian Jews believed in one God, and also the Bible, so the switch was easy for them. The result of the literacy requirement was that a huge number of early Jews became Christian. The ones who remained Jewish, then, were predisposed to literacy and scholarship. This chapter revealed to me the answer to my wondering why Jews are, to this day, so over-represented in scholarship in all areas of academia. They descend from scholarly ancestors.
This book then goes progressively downhill. First, its organization is terrible. Frequently, on one page, you will be reading about the 9th century, the 11th, the 10th, then the 13th. Turn the page and you might find yourself on the 12th. Coupled with its abundance of repetitions, I found it difficult to maintain a trajectory of what happened. Chronological order is a must for history books, but this one hasn't got it. They don't even us adverbs to warn you, like "later" or "now." This book was published by Princeton University Press. Don't they employ copyeditors?
Then, although it presents facts like population numbers, its data is skewed. The authors mention that Jews became skilled craftsmen. They repeat this as well, but, and this is a BIG "but," they only explicate the roles of moneylenders! This book presents Jews as moneylenders who kept in touch with Jews from other countries. However, they don't mention the numbers of Jews who actually were moneylenders. Or the ratio between craftsmen and moneylenders. And, they also claim ad nauseum that Jews were not farmers. Haven't they heard of the Khazars? The result is the strong impression that all those anti-Jewish screeds about Jews as international bankers who manipulate society has a basis in fact. Right? But the answer is, "NO, that's not true! It couldn't have been true at ANY time in history."
They admit that, even after defections to Christianity, Jews numbered in the millions. The authors also note that before Medieval times, Jews weren't being slaughtered. Surely, millions of Jews could not have been moneylenders. Populations of everyone were far, far lower than they are today. If 1,000,000 Jews became money lenders, to whom would they lend money? And where did they get that money? Clearly, 1,oo0,000 money lenders couldn't have earned a living in Medieval times or in the Renaissance, much less today. In fact, most Jews couldn't have been moneylenders! As it happens, the authors show that there were Italians and even some Moslems who were moneylenders. The authors don't elucidate ever how many Jews were craftsmen, traders, peddlers, and merchants, although clearly, that's what most Jews have been throughout history. Instead, they harp on Jews as international bankers. How much Hitler would have enjoyed this book!
(An aside is pertinent here. Chaucer mentions Jews only as making knights the best armor.)
Not only Nazis, but other Christian readers can cite this book as a confirmation of myths about Jews. How sorry!! I'll close with an experience I had some time ago. A German couple from Berlin were visiting me. On my hallway walls, my husband and I had pictures of our families, many of which were taken Ukraine and Poland. The couple asked me who these people were, so I told them, "This is my great-grandfather, who was a blacksmith. These are of tailors, furriers, and leather workers..." Suddenly, Walter exclaimed, "You talk about blacksmiths and tailors. Where are the bankers?" Huh? He really meant it. He was born after WWII, so he wasn't indoctrinated by Hitler, but he still believed the myth of international Jewish bankers. This book feeds that myth.
I got a Ph.D. in Linguistics, two of his grandsons earned doctorates, as did his
granddaughter, grandsons, as well as two of his great-granddaughters. Why did people descended from farmers and craftsmen achieve so much? The authors show that, over the centuries, Jews self-selected for scholarly talents. For centuries, Jews also didn't marry non-Jews. They were a close society.
The authors point out that literacy became a religious requirement before Jesus. No other religious groups insisted on literacy. Jesus' own life is a good example. Jesus was a carpenter's son. Still, he could read the Torah, as, could the fishermen who followed him. Besides being literate, Jews were also encouraged to dispute what the Torah meant and to come up with wise interpretations. When Jesus contradicted the elders, he was doing what all Jewish males did--and do today on their Bar Mitzvahs. The Talmudic injunction stated that even reading wasn't enough. Jews had to try to interpret scripture and analyze it. Coming up ith a new meaning of a passage was a point of pride
Since there was no free education, this meant that the early Jews, who were farmers, had to pay for their sons' lessons, which were expensive. Furthermore, while sons were studying, they couldn't work on the farms. That meant hiring farm hands.
For poor farmers, the Talmudic injunction was hard. They couldn't afford it. Or, they didn't want to. Fortunately, the unwilling ones could convert to early Christianity, which was then a Jewish sect. Like Judaism, Christian Jews believed in one God, and also the Bible, so the switch was easy for them. The result of the literacy requirement was that a huge number of early Jews became Christian. The ones who remained Jewish, then, were predisposed to literacy and scholarship. This chapter revealed to me the answer to my wondering why Jews are, to this day, so over-represented in scholarship in all areas of academia. They descend from scholarly ancestors.
This book then goes progressively downhill. First, its organization is terrible. Frequently, on one page, you will be reading about the 9th century, the 11th, the 10th, then the 13th. Turn the page and you might find yourself on the 12th. Coupled with its abundance of repetitions, I found it difficult to maintain a trajectory of what happened. Chronological order is a must for history books, but this one hasn't got it. They don't even us adverbs to warn you, like "later" or "now." This book was published by Princeton University Press. Don't they employ copyeditors?
Then, although it presents facts like population numbers, its data is skewed. The authors mention that Jews became skilled craftsmen. They repeat this as well, but, and this is a BIG "but," they only explicate the roles of moneylenders! This book presents Jews as moneylenders who kept in touch with Jews from other countries. However, they don't mention the numbers of Jews who actually were moneylenders. Or the ratio between craftsmen and moneylenders. And, they also claim ad nauseum that Jews were not farmers. Haven't they heard of the Khazars? The result is the strong impression that all those anti-Jewish screeds about Jews as international bankers who manipulate society has a basis in fact. Right? But the answer is, "NO, that's not true! It couldn't have been true at ANY time in history."
They admit that, even after defections to Christianity, Jews numbered in the millions. The authors also note that before Medieval times, Jews weren't being slaughtered. Surely, millions of Jews could not have been moneylenders. Populations of everyone were far, far lower than they are today. If 1,000,000 Jews became money lenders, to whom would they lend money? And where did they get that money? Clearly, 1,oo0,000 money lenders couldn't have earned a living in Medieval times or in the Renaissance, much less today. In fact, most Jews couldn't have been moneylenders! As it happens, the authors show that there were Italians and even some Moslems who were moneylenders. The authors don't elucidate ever how many Jews were craftsmen, traders, peddlers, and merchants, although clearly, that's what most Jews have been throughout history. Instead, they harp on Jews as international bankers. How much Hitler would have enjoyed this book!
(An aside is pertinent here. Chaucer mentions Jews only as making knights the best armor.)
Not only Nazis, but other Christian readers can cite this book as a confirmation of myths about Jews. How sorry!! I'll close with an experience I had some time ago. A German couple from Berlin were visiting me. On my hallway walls, my husband and I had pictures of our families, many of which were taken Ukraine and Poland. The couple asked me who these people were, so I told them, "This is my great-grandfather, who was a blacksmith. These are of tailors, furriers, and leather workers..." Suddenly, Walter exclaimed, "You talk about blacksmiths and tailors. Where are the bankers?" Huh? He really meant it. He was born after WWII, so he wasn't indoctrinated by Hitler, but he still believed the myth of international Jewish bankers. This book feeds that myth.
February 20, 2023
An extraordinary work of scholarship combining economic modeling with primary documents and an enormous synthesis, The Chosen Few seeks to explain Jewish economic and demographic history from 70 to 1492. Specifically it attempts to explain several facts including: (1) the decline in Jewish population through about 700, (2) the huge shift of Jews into urban living and trades, ultimately moneylending, from 700 to 1200, (3) the stabilization of population over that period, (4) the spread of Jews to Europe and their dispersion across a wide range of cities, and (5) the decline of the Jewish population from about 1250 through at least 1492.
The authors persuasively demolish a few popular theses including the Jews were banned from agriculture so moved to cities, that Christians were banned from moneylending so Jews filled the vacuum, that Jews were not permitted in guilds and that Jews were afraid of being forced to move so they invested in human capital instead of physical capital. The problem with all of these arguments is that many of the restrictions that they are premised on were instituted well after Jews became a highly urban population. Moreover they were only instituted in some places but Jews became urbanized everywhere. The thesis has lots of other problems, including the majority of moneylending was still Christians and moneylenders worked better if they were rooted in a place so knew all the people.
Instead the authors argue that a cultural development was central and it interacted with global events. Specifically, the destruction of the temple in the year 70 resulted in the primacy of the Jewish sects centering around reading and learning Torah for oneself rather than centralized worship through ritual sacrifices. Universal male literacy with universal primary school started early. Initially this did not confer any economic advantages for Jews because they were still farmers. As a result the population fell as families converted rather than bear the "useless" cost of all the learning to no economic aim. But with Arab conquests an urban world centered around trade emerged and the "random mutation" of literacy all of a sudden became economically favored. The result was a rapid shift of Jews away from agriculture and towards urban occupations.
This eventually evolved into moneylending because literacy/numeracy combined with other cultural/institutional factors including access to capital, networks and institutions to enforce contracts.
As for some of the other facts, the Jewish population started to decline after the Mongol invasion was a setback for urbanization and reduced the benefits of the education that Jews invested in. And Jewish populations were dispersed because they were highly specialized so hard to have too many in one area--and benefits of spreading out.
The book ends in 1492 and I am curious about how some of the explanations fit the next 500 years, particularly the large concentration of Jews in Eastern Europe--a group that was not especially prosperous. Was literacy more widespread so the returns to it fell? Or discrimination/exclusion took an economic toll? Something else? And does this "out of sample" test of their hypotheses fail and if so what does that mean of their explanations in sample?
Overall, the book has enormous erudition, going deeply into cultural, institutional, religious and economic developments across a wide range of territory and time, at times going very deep (e.g., into moneylending in Italy). This can make for exciting reading at times, but in other places it can be repetitive and have the feel of stapling together different papers into a book rather than something that was conceived as a single work. That said, is never boring and highly persuasive.
The authors persuasively demolish a few popular theses including the Jews were banned from agriculture so moved to cities, that Christians were banned from moneylending so Jews filled the vacuum, that Jews were not permitted in guilds and that Jews were afraid of being forced to move so they invested in human capital instead of physical capital. The problem with all of these arguments is that many of the restrictions that they are premised on were instituted well after Jews became a highly urban population. Moreover they were only instituted in some places but Jews became urbanized everywhere. The thesis has lots of other problems, including the majority of moneylending was still Christians and moneylenders worked better if they were rooted in a place so knew all the people.
Instead the authors argue that a cultural development was central and it interacted with global events. Specifically, the destruction of the temple in the year 70 resulted in the primacy of the Jewish sects centering around reading and learning Torah for oneself rather than centralized worship through ritual sacrifices. Universal male literacy with universal primary school started early. Initially this did not confer any economic advantages for Jews because they were still farmers. As a result the population fell as families converted rather than bear the "useless" cost of all the learning to no economic aim. But with Arab conquests an urban world centered around trade emerged and the "random mutation" of literacy all of a sudden became economically favored. The result was a rapid shift of Jews away from agriculture and towards urban occupations.
This eventually evolved into moneylending because literacy/numeracy combined with other cultural/institutional factors including access to capital, networks and institutions to enforce contracts.
As for some of the other facts, the Jewish population started to decline after the Mongol invasion was a setback for urbanization and reduced the benefits of the education that Jews invested in. And Jewish populations were dispersed because they were highly specialized so hard to have too many in one area--and benefits of spreading out.
The book ends in 1492 and I am curious about how some of the explanations fit the next 500 years, particularly the large concentration of Jews in Eastern Europe--a group that was not especially prosperous. Was literacy more widespread so the returns to it fell? Or discrimination/exclusion took an economic toll? Something else? And does this "out of sample" test of their hypotheses fail and if so what does that mean of their explanations in sample?
Overall, the book has enormous erudition, going deeply into cultural, institutional, religious and economic developments across a wide range of territory and time, at times going very deep (e.g., into moneylending in Italy). This can make for exciting reading at times, but in other places it can be repetitive and have the feel of stapling together different papers into a book rather than something that was conceived as a single work. That said, is never boring and highly persuasive.
November 5, 2022
Dealing with a fascinating subject, this book is an excellent piece of research from, an impressive range of source material. It presents a compelling argument about both the economic history of Jewish population between roughly the 100 BCE and late 15th century, and subsequently its demographics.
The core of the argument is that a ruling by Rabbi Judah haNasi in mid-second century, which made it compulsory for Jewish fathers to educate their sons, created a dynamic within the Jewish population, that led both to dramatic decreases in the population size in times without urbanisation or during economic downturns (the authors argue by conversions), but also subsequently prepared Jews to become the highly educated yet very small group of urban dwellers, who have for over a thousand years dominated the highly specialised and skilled professions like moneylending, law, medicine or in mid-Middle Ages, crafts.
As education was expensive (books & teacher salaries plus opportunity costs of son's work in field) and provided no direct returns for Jews who were engaged in agriculture, the authors argue that it motivated conversions to other Jewish sects of the second century, Christianity and later Islam, which did not have this costly requirement. Specifically:
...in the long run, rabinic Judaism cannot survive in subsistence farming societies, because the heavy costs imposed on Jewish families to obey the norms of heir religion, including the costly norm requiring fathers to educate their sons and the lack of economic returns to this investmentin literacy, will prompt a proportion of Jews to leave Judaism and embrace other religions that have less-demanding norms. (they do not take into account halakhic dietary or time management laws).
The formal model they construct is interesting and illustrative, yet somewhat feels self-serving and almost feels like it comes at the expense of better causality tracking, because a lot of the components of their arguments are not explained fully or properly. For instance there is not enough attention paid to contract-enforcement institutions, origins of the capital for moneylenders in medieval Europe or the transformations of Judaism within the Talmudic era. We are told about the movements of Jews across Europe and their specialisations (for instance the Jewish moneylenders in England), but do not get to read about how it actually happened. Yes, literacy and thinking trained by Mishnah were an advantage, but how did for instance the fact that "In England between 1239 and 1260, the Jews contributed roughly one-sixth to one-fifth of the crown revenues, despite representing just O.01 percent of the population." actually occur?
Also as the book is essentially an academic work trying to establish and verify the validity of its hypothesis, it does not dive deeply enough (in some parts, in others it does a good job explaining tangential information, like important jewish scholars like Rashi or Maimonides). Thus sometimes i feels a bit repetitive, as it tries to hammer home the main argument of the book.
The book also spends a lot of time explaining the movements of population which get a bit tiresome (almost every section in every chapter has a part discussing either communities or individuals moving from one country or part of the world to another).
Overall however, the book is quite readable, with fascinating factoids, tables and numbers, providing an interesting story of not just Jewish history, but also generally economic history, for instance by analysing banking, interest and taxation in Italy, where Jews competed with Lombards and Tuscans.
The core of the argument is that a ruling by Rabbi Judah haNasi in mid-second century, which made it compulsory for Jewish fathers to educate their sons, created a dynamic within the Jewish population, that led both to dramatic decreases in the population size in times without urbanisation or during economic downturns (the authors argue by conversions), but also subsequently prepared Jews to become the highly educated yet very small group of urban dwellers, who have for over a thousand years dominated the highly specialised and skilled professions like moneylending, law, medicine or in mid-Middle Ages, crafts.
As education was expensive (books & teacher salaries plus opportunity costs of son's work in field) and provided no direct returns for Jews who were engaged in agriculture, the authors argue that it motivated conversions to other Jewish sects of the second century, Christianity and later Islam, which did not have this costly requirement. Specifically:
...in the long run, rabinic Judaism cannot survive in subsistence farming societies, because the heavy costs imposed on Jewish families to obey the norms of heir religion, including the costly norm requiring fathers to educate their sons and the lack of economic returns to this investmentin literacy, will prompt a proportion of Jews to leave Judaism and embrace other religions that have less-demanding norms. (they do not take into account halakhic dietary or time management laws).
The formal model they construct is interesting and illustrative, yet somewhat feels self-serving and almost feels like it comes at the expense of better causality tracking, because a lot of the components of their arguments are not explained fully or properly. For instance there is not enough attention paid to contract-enforcement institutions, origins of the capital for moneylenders in medieval Europe or the transformations of Judaism within the Talmudic era. We are told about the movements of Jews across Europe and their specialisations (for instance the Jewish moneylenders in England), but do not get to read about how it actually happened. Yes, literacy and thinking trained by Mishnah were an advantage, but how did for instance the fact that "In England between 1239 and 1260, the Jews contributed roughly one-sixth to one-fifth of the crown revenues, despite representing just O.01 percent of the population." actually occur?
Also as the book is essentially an academic work trying to establish and verify the validity of its hypothesis, it does not dive deeply enough (in some parts, in others it does a good job explaining tangential information, like important jewish scholars like Rashi or Maimonides). Thus sometimes i feels a bit repetitive, as it tries to hammer home the main argument of the book.
The book also spends a lot of time explaining the movements of population which get a bit tiresome (almost every section in every chapter has a part discussing either communities or individuals moving from one country or part of the world to another).
Overall however, the book is quite readable, with fascinating factoids, tables and numbers, providing an interesting story of not just Jewish history, but also generally economic history, for instance by analysing banking, interest and taxation in Italy, where Jews competed with Lombards and Tuscans.
January 3, 2022
I’m always in dialogue with a book while I read it, but the most notable books in my life are those who stay in dialogue with me long after I’ve finished reading them.
The Chosen Few, was a most notable book. I think it’ll have a lasting effect on my point of view.
Many years ago, good friends had introduced me to the concept of ‘The Teaneck Formula’. The premise of the Teaneck formula was that every East-Coast modern-Orthodox Jew wanted to live in a nice house in Teaneck, where Jewish communities were plentiful, education was excellent, and kosher restaurants abounded. The aim of the formula to be able to afford the expensive lifestyle of raising a modern-Orthodox Jewish family in Teaneck, NJ. The gist of the Teaneck formula was that affording the Teaneck lifestyle required that children (mainly boys) be groomed for academic excellence from a young age – aiming for the best education possible – in order to engage in intellectually stimulating AND financially rewarding professions. I don’t know whether Teaneck is still the apex of East-Coast Modern Orthodox living, but I think that the proverbial Teaneck formula will continue to live on in the United States, as long as Jews continue to see high-quality, private education.
What The Chosen Few made me realize, though, was that the Teaneck Formula goes way beyond Teaneck. If the authors’ theory is correct, it precedes the Teaneck Jewish community by almost 2000 years. The authors’ research is aimed at proving that the Jewish community was not forced into usury because Jews were denied the right to own land. Rather, this was a necessity, based on the post-Temple transition of Judaism from being agrarian an ritual-oriented to being cerebral and literacy-oriented. A high level of literacy has been a prerequisite for sustaining Jewish communities for over 2000 years, but apparently, the same goes for a high level of professionalism.
The level of investment required to gain and sustain Jewish literacy – required from a very young age – could only be feasible if that time could also be leveraged toward gainful employment. Jews who didn’t have a time to invest in Jewish literacy for themselves and their families would not be able to fully engage with their community or pass Judaism to the next generations. Anyone who wanted to maintain an agricultural lifestyle needed to invest time and efforts into skills that had no use in Judaism, and no one had time to invest both in Jewish literacy AND and an agricultural profession. Profession whose skillsets overlapped with the skillsets needed for Jewish literacy - such as usury - allowed Jews to let their children spend time in cheder and learn to chant from the Torah.
Interestingly, in order to sustain Israel, we need a whole variety of skillsets Moreover, Jewish education in Israel today isn’t quite the same tax on our resources that it had been for 2000 years. Also, I think the modern age gives us more free time and more access to literacy than ever, which leads to the ability to make more professional choices without damaging the Jewish community and its book-centric rituals. .So, while the Teaneck formula goes way beyond Teaneck, perhaps it doesn’t quite pass muster in Israel. Time will tell.
The Chosen Few, was a most notable book. I think it’ll have a lasting effect on my point of view.
Many years ago, good friends had introduced me to the concept of ‘The Teaneck Formula’. The premise of the Teaneck formula was that every East-Coast modern-Orthodox Jew wanted to live in a nice house in Teaneck, where Jewish communities were plentiful, education was excellent, and kosher restaurants abounded. The aim of the formula to be able to afford the expensive lifestyle of raising a modern-Orthodox Jewish family in Teaneck, NJ. The gist of the Teaneck formula was that affording the Teaneck lifestyle required that children (mainly boys) be groomed for academic excellence from a young age – aiming for the best education possible – in order to engage in intellectually stimulating AND financially rewarding professions. I don’t know whether Teaneck is still the apex of East-Coast Modern Orthodox living, but I think that the proverbial Teaneck formula will continue to live on in the United States, as long as Jews continue to see high-quality, private education.
What The Chosen Few made me realize, though, was that the Teaneck Formula goes way beyond Teaneck. If the authors’ theory is correct, it precedes the Teaneck Jewish community by almost 2000 years. The authors’ research is aimed at proving that the Jewish community was not forced into usury because Jews were denied the right to own land. Rather, this was a necessity, based on the post-Temple transition of Judaism from being agrarian an ritual-oriented to being cerebral and literacy-oriented. A high level of literacy has been a prerequisite for sustaining Jewish communities for over 2000 years, but apparently, the same goes for a high level of professionalism.
The level of investment required to gain and sustain Jewish literacy – required from a very young age – could only be feasible if that time could also be leveraged toward gainful employment. Jews who didn’t have a time to invest in Jewish literacy for themselves and their families would not be able to fully engage with their community or pass Judaism to the next generations. Anyone who wanted to maintain an agricultural lifestyle needed to invest time and efforts into skills that had no use in Judaism, and no one had time to invest both in Jewish literacy AND and an agricultural profession. Profession whose skillsets overlapped with the skillsets needed for Jewish literacy - such as usury - allowed Jews to let their children spend time in cheder and learn to chant from the Torah.
Interestingly, in order to sustain Israel, we need a whole variety of skillsets Moreover, Jewish education in Israel today isn’t quite the same tax on our resources that it had been for 2000 years. Also, I think the modern age gives us more free time and more access to literacy than ever, which leads to the ability to make more professional choices without damaging the Jewish community and its book-centric rituals. .So, while the Teaneck formula goes way beyond Teaneck, perhaps it doesn’t quite pass muster in Israel. Time will tell.
July 6, 2013
A great narrative on Jewish history, extensively researched and compellingly written. Will be loved by Philo-Semites and those with a general interest in Jewish communities around the world; provides a good overview as well for those unfamiliar with Jewish history.
October 6, 2022
Excellent scholarly volume about 1) how Jews moved from being a rural and small-village people employed mostly in agriculture to a very urban people employed mostly in skilled professions, 2) dramatic population fluctuations in Jewish communities due to death, forced conversion, and willing conversions, and 3) what happens when the factors which made Jews successful in urban, skilled professions disappear (as happened after the Mongol conquest of Persia and large parts of Mesopotamia)? Eckstein and Botticini's books contains a slew of information about early Jewish schooling, as a major component of their hypotheses is that rabbinical demands for schooling increased literacy among those Jews who stayed Jewish despite the diaspora and that mandatory schooling bridged the divide between the worlds of agriculturalists and skilled laborers in an urban context.
The economics aspect fascinated me. I did feel that the authors underplayed the effects of the Crusades, which were so great as to create a population bottleneck (as described by Dr. Shai Carmi, among others). (The attitude of the authors was, "Well, most towns bounced back," but without attention to the extreme human losses that they were bouncing back from.) I also felt that they needed additional evidence for their final section--which surprised me, because the idea that many Iranians and Iraqis today are of Jewish origins has been expressed to me by Jewish friends from that region. There's got to be research into this, even if it's ethnographic, based on interviews, storytelling, etc. Anyway, the authors just dropped this idea on readers and then rushed to conclude the book.
Overall, though, I found a wealth of interesting, well-thought-out and well-defended ideas about the long-term impacts of rabbinical edicts, with some interesting ideas in the conclusion about how current developments (the State of Israel, the state of Jewish schooling today) will affect the future.
The economics aspect fascinated me. I did feel that the authors underplayed the effects of the Crusades, which were so great as to create a population bottleneck (as described by Dr. Shai Carmi, among others). (The attitude of the authors was, "Well, most towns bounced back," but without attention to the extreme human losses that they were bouncing back from.) I also felt that they needed additional evidence for their final section--which surprised me, because the idea that many Iranians and Iraqis today are of Jewish origins has been expressed to me by Jewish friends from that region. There's got to be research into this, even if it's ethnographic, based on interviews, storytelling, etc. Anyway, the authors just dropped this idea on readers and then rushed to conclude the book.
Overall, though, I found a wealth of interesting, well-thought-out and well-defended ideas about the long-term impacts of rabbinical edicts, with some interesting ideas in the conclusion about how current developments (the State of Israel, the state of Jewish schooling today) will affect the future.
July 16, 2023
Moving this book into my favorites.
The core thesis is that major Jewish demographic trends from the post temple period through the 15th century can be explained by the fact that the early rabbis and tanaim declared that all Jewish boys must be educated and literate in Hebrew. The authors develop a model that shows that when there are economic returns to literacy (as in urban societies), jews will prosper but when those returns disappear, jews will convert. They show this most forcefully in the collapse of Jewish populations in the pre-Islamic period and again in the collapse of Jewish populations of Mesopotamia and Persia at the end of the Islamic empires. They also use this to explain why jews gravitated most to international trade and moneylending in particular.
The core thesis is pretty interesting as the modern orthodox society contemplates the high cost of Jewish education. It clearly lays out the situations in which that education is “worth it” and what the potential downsides are. It also gives a historical antecedents, for when the cost of Jewish literacy is high, you see a massive reduction in commitment to Judaism. We may be seeing that again today.
The authors tease at the end that there appears to be a strong occupational structure consistent during the time period of the book until today, with the exception of Jews living in modern Israel. For example, Jews in Israel are way more likely to be farmers and way less likely to have a higher education. This should be an interesting follow on.
Overall, the thesis is certainly interesting. I need to find some reviews.
The core thesis is that major Jewish demographic trends from the post temple period through the 15th century can be explained by the fact that the early rabbis and tanaim declared that all Jewish boys must be educated and literate in Hebrew. The authors develop a model that shows that when there are economic returns to literacy (as in urban societies), jews will prosper but when those returns disappear, jews will convert. They show this most forcefully in the collapse of Jewish populations in the pre-Islamic period and again in the collapse of Jewish populations of Mesopotamia and Persia at the end of the Islamic empires. They also use this to explain why jews gravitated most to international trade and moneylending in particular.
The core thesis is pretty interesting as the modern orthodox society contemplates the high cost of Jewish education. It clearly lays out the situations in which that education is “worth it” and what the potential downsides are. It also gives a historical antecedents, for when the cost of Jewish literacy is high, you see a massive reduction in commitment to Judaism. We may be seeing that again today.
The authors tease at the end that there appears to be a strong occupational structure consistent during the time period of the book until today, with the exception of Jews living in modern Israel. For example, Jews in Israel are way more likely to be farmers and way less likely to have a higher education. This should be an interesting follow on.
Overall, the thesis is certainly interesting. I need to find some reviews.
December 24, 2019
I thought this was a great bit of scholarship and well written. I liked how it clearly stated its theory and goal up front and then spent the following chapters walking through history and data to bolster its argument. There was lots of historical data in tables and graphs and maps and the prose was clear and fun to read. Regardless of whether or not its true, its the way academic arguments should be presented in book form.
The book asks "Why are there so few Jewish Farmers? Why are the Jews an urban population of traders, entrepreneurs, bankers, financiers, lawyers, physicians, and scholars? When and why did these occupational and residential patterns become the distinctive feature of Jews?...Why have the Jewish people experienced one of the most scattered diasporas in world history, living as a minority in cities and towns around the globe for millennia?"
They show that a lot of the existing accepted answers (prohibitions on land ownership, persecution, usury bans for Christians, incentives to invest in portable human capital) do not fit the historical data.
Instead, they show, through a wide variety of data, that what happened started back in the destruction of the Second Temple, when it was no longer possible to perform sacrifices, that the religion shifted to one where the main norm was that every Jewish man was able to read and study the Torah in Hebrew and to send his sons at age six or seven to primary school or synagogue to learn to do so. Not only was this norm required (building in strength over several centuries) but those who did not perform this task (teaching their sons to read) were ostracized.
This meant that in an age of farming (everyone was a farmer at that time) a very costly and non-useful skill (literacy) was now required as part of membership in the Jewish community. Those that had the will, skill, and fortitude to make this sacrifice remained in the religion, while those who were not willing to accept the cost (which presumably would be much higher if natural aptitude was not present) exited the religion through conversion into the very similar (and much more welcoming) Christian or Muslim religions. As a result, one sees a dramatic decline in Jewish population across the entire diaspora (before persecutions) in regions where there was a dramatic increase in Christianity and Islam.
The Jews would have likely disappeared entirely just like other religious subgroups (e.g. Samaritans) if it hadn't been for the rise of cities under the new Muslim empire, which allowed a commercial economy over a vast territory. Suddenly, small tight knit groups of literate Jews were able to move to cities and enter urban skilled occupations (crafts, trade, moneylending) where there was a very strong return to their investment in literacy. Farming was abandoned and Jews became entirely urban. This urban community then went forth in search of worldwide opportunities in crafts, trade, commerce, moneylending, banking, finance, and medicine, creating a voluntary worldwide diaspora. Good thing that diaspora happened, because the Mongol invasions that ravaged Mesopotamia and Persia destroyed many of the urban centers that were previously home to most Jews, shifting the center of Judaism from Mesopotamia to Europe.
A few data sources that were used heavily in the book that I really liked:
• Detailed population figures of Jews and non-Jews in 7 different world regions, showing that the Jewish population declined in all regions (some regions almost completely disappearing) from ~10% of the population in 65 CE before the Temple destruction to 2% overall by 650 CE (most of it in Mesopotamia and Persia, with hardly any Jews left in major original Jewish centers like Land of Israel, Northern Africa, Asia Minor and Balkans, Syria and Lebanon where there was a 90-99% decline).
• Shift of occupations from farming to urban occupations between 400 and 650 CE in multiple locations, with a higher wage in these new occupations
• Ongoing laws preventing Jews from retaliating against Jews who converted to Christianity, showing this was a major problem the authorities had to deal with. Growth in Christian populations right where there was a decline in Jewish populations.
• Extensive documentation of a set of communications (the Geniza and Responsa) between Jews across the diaspora and a few rabbinical centers. There were constant questions (mailed in) about how to deal with contracts and also issues around school wages and teacher pay. These academies acted as rabbinical courts and their decisions were widely shared across the diaspora (because of nearly universal literacy). I loved that we have this written record and the insight into normal everyday life these urban traders and craftsmen had along with their specific problems.
• Info from long-ranging Jewish traders (Benjamin of Tudela for example) who recorded their travels and also performed a sort of census recording Jewish community sizes everywhere they went
• Really cool detailed data from actual moneylending accounts of where the money went and who was being lent to at what interest rate
Overall, it is a beautiful example, argued persuasively, of how culture can shape economics and peoples. The Jews of today are "the chosen few" who have been so successful in today's modern economies precisely because of a very costly religious norm that nearly wiped them out early on. It's like a cultural founder effect. Todays Jews are the descendants of people who voluntarily agreed to continue this norm while those that didn't have the resources or aptitude to remain in this cultural community voluntarily left. In biological evolution, natural selection must kill off offspring or reduce the likelihood offspring are generated, while in cultural evolution selective pressure may just nudge people to switch to a different cultural group.
Whether its true or not, I dont know, but I thought it was one of a small handful of good books where a cultural/economic theory is advanced and supported.
The book asks "Why are there so few Jewish Farmers? Why are the Jews an urban population of traders, entrepreneurs, bankers, financiers, lawyers, physicians, and scholars? When and why did these occupational and residential patterns become the distinctive feature of Jews?...Why have the Jewish people experienced one of the most scattered diasporas in world history, living as a minority in cities and towns around the globe for millennia?"
They show that a lot of the existing accepted answers (prohibitions on land ownership, persecution, usury bans for Christians, incentives to invest in portable human capital) do not fit the historical data.
Instead, they show, through a wide variety of data, that what happened started back in the destruction of the Second Temple, when it was no longer possible to perform sacrifices, that the religion shifted to one where the main norm was that every Jewish man was able to read and study the Torah in Hebrew and to send his sons at age six or seven to primary school or synagogue to learn to do so. Not only was this norm required (building in strength over several centuries) but those who did not perform this task (teaching their sons to read) were ostracized.
This meant that in an age of farming (everyone was a farmer at that time) a very costly and non-useful skill (literacy) was now required as part of membership in the Jewish community. Those that had the will, skill, and fortitude to make this sacrifice remained in the religion, while those who were not willing to accept the cost (which presumably would be much higher if natural aptitude was not present) exited the religion through conversion into the very similar (and much more welcoming) Christian or Muslim religions. As a result, one sees a dramatic decline in Jewish population across the entire diaspora (before persecutions) in regions where there was a dramatic increase in Christianity and Islam.
The Jews would have likely disappeared entirely just like other religious subgroups (e.g. Samaritans) if it hadn't been for the rise of cities under the new Muslim empire, which allowed a commercial economy over a vast territory. Suddenly, small tight knit groups of literate Jews were able to move to cities and enter urban skilled occupations (crafts, trade, moneylending) where there was a very strong return to their investment in literacy. Farming was abandoned and Jews became entirely urban. This urban community then went forth in search of worldwide opportunities in crafts, trade, commerce, moneylending, banking, finance, and medicine, creating a voluntary worldwide diaspora. Good thing that diaspora happened, because the Mongol invasions that ravaged Mesopotamia and Persia destroyed many of the urban centers that were previously home to most Jews, shifting the center of Judaism from Mesopotamia to Europe.
A few data sources that were used heavily in the book that I really liked:
• Detailed population figures of Jews and non-Jews in 7 different world regions, showing that the Jewish population declined in all regions (some regions almost completely disappearing) from ~10% of the population in 65 CE before the Temple destruction to 2% overall by 650 CE (most of it in Mesopotamia and Persia, with hardly any Jews left in major original Jewish centers like Land of Israel, Northern Africa, Asia Minor and Balkans, Syria and Lebanon where there was a 90-99% decline).
• Shift of occupations from farming to urban occupations between 400 and 650 CE in multiple locations, with a higher wage in these new occupations
• Ongoing laws preventing Jews from retaliating against Jews who converted to Christianity, showing this was a major problem the authorities had to deal with. Growth in Christian populations right where there was a decline in Jewish populations.
• Extensive documentation of a set of communications (the Geniza and Responsa) between Jews across the diaspora and a few rabbinical centers. There were constant questions (mailed in) about how to deal with contracts and also issues around school wages and teacher pay. These academies acted as rabbinical courts and their decisions were widely shared across the diaspora (because of nearly universal literacy). I loved that we have this written record and the insight into normal everyday life these urban traders and craftsmen had along with their specific problems.
• Info from long-ranging Jewish traders (Benjamin of Tudela for example) who recorded their travels and also performed a sort of census recording Jewish community sizes everywhere they went
• Really cool detailed data from actual moneylending accounts of where the money went and who was being lent to at what interest rate
Overall, it is a beautiful example, argued persuasively, of how culture can shape economics and peoples. The Jews of today are "the chosen few" who have been so successful in today's modern economies precisely because of a very costly religious norm that nearly wiped them out early on. It's like a cultural founder effect. Todays Jews are the descendants of people who voluntarily agreed to continue this norm while those that didn't have the resources or aptitude to remain in this cultural community voluntarily left. In biological evolution, natural selection must kill off offspring or reduce the likelihood offspring are generated, while in cultural evolution selective pressure may just nudge people to switch to a different cultural group.
Whether its true or not, I dont know, but I thought it was one of a small handful of good books where a cultural/economic theory is advanced and supported.
June 12, 2023
Completely new way to view post Second Temple Jewish history
April 9, 2021
2nd time. First time in 2012 and I emailed the author; she said she hoped it didn't take 12 years for the sequel, from 1492 to Israel. GR not user-friendly. Read in 2012, rereading now--start date March 12.
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I coulda sworn I had written a second review but it seems to have vanished. I adored this book. Here it is.
Ok with the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD Judaism however it was then was at a crossroads. In history terms we are in the Rabbinic Era. From wikipedia: "As the rabbis were required to face a new reality, that of Judaism without a Temple (to serve as the location for sacrifice and study) and Judea without autonomy, there was a flurry of legal discourse, and the old system of oral scholarship could not be maintained. It is during this period that rabbinic discourse began to be recorded in writing."
One rabbi (can't recall his name) who was the top rabbi made it normative (not a law) that Jewish fathers had to send their 6 and 7-year old boys to school to learn how to read and write. Keep in mind that this was 100% an agrarian society. Just about everyone was illiterate.
So besides the expense, which was a lot given that people lived at subsistence, it meant the boys would be taken away from the plots of land. Subtext: Judaism was not much different from Christianity and sects at this time--one god, other things which I don't know. There was a huge population decline, really huge, and there is nothing to account for it - no pogroms, no outside disasters, etc.
For a farmer to not send his sons to school was like ostracism from the community. So there were many conversions.
So here we have this Jewish community. The Babylonian Talmud had been codified so now there was the book. Everything about Jewish life, laws, a guide for everything. So these boys maybe in the hundreds (?) and they are learning to read and write. Hardly anyone was literate.
So a quick fast forward to later times. There is commerce, the building of cities, records needed to be kept and maintained, trade routes, networks, language-learning. So what group of people had a massive head start.
Amazing book!
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I coulda sworn I had written a second review but it seems to have vanished. I adored this book. Here it is.
Ok with the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD Judaism however it was then was at a crossroads. In history terms we are in the Rabbinic Era. From wikipedia: "As the rabbis were required to face a new reality, that of Judaism without a Temple (to serve as the location for sacrifice and study) and Judea without autonomy, there was a flurry of legal discourse, and the old system of oral scholarship could not be maintained. It is during this period that rabbinic discourse began to be recorded in writing."
One rabbi (can't recall his name) who was the top rabbi made it normative (not a law) that Jewish fathers had to send their 6 and 7-year old boys to school to learn how to read and write. Keep in mind that this was 100% an agrarian society. Just about everyone was illiterate.
So besides the expense, which was a lot given that people lived at subsistence, it meant the boys would be taken away from the plots of land. Subtext: Judaism was not much different from Christianity and sects at this time--one god, other things which I don't know. There was a huge population decline, really huge, and there is nothing to account for it - no pogroms, no outside disasters, etc.
For a farmer to not send his sons to school was like ostracism from the community. So there were many conversions.
So here we have this Jewish community. The Babylonian Talmud had been codified so now there was the book. Everything about Jewish life, laws, a guide for everything. So these boys maybe in the hundreds (?) and they are learning to read and write. Hardly anyone was literate.
So a quick fast forward to later times. There is commerce, the building of cities, records needed to be kept and maintained, trade routes, networks, language-learning. So what group of people had a massive head start.
Amazing book!
October 11, 2021
This terrific companion to The Jewish Century and The Son Also Rises provides well-researched economic support to make the case that capital, networking, and education (literacy and numeracy) set Jews apart. A common language, legal cannon (Talmud), and rabbinic courts for judicial enforcement created a powerful network mechanism across the diaspora.
Around 600 AD Jews began shifting to trades and crafts as the Abbasid caliphate expanded beyond Mesopotamia and Persia. Jews' advantage in literacy and numeracy from their Talmudic studies allowed them to quickly capitalize on the shift to urbanization and trade, and they further invested in literacy and numeracy, solidifying themselves as central to business in these city centers. By 900 AD, Jews were overwhelmingly craftsmen, traders, medicine practitioners, and financiers. Although there was a precipitous decline during the Dark Ages, Jews accounted for as much as 20% of lending in Renaissance Tuscany.
From 70 AD to 600 AD, the Jewish population declined from 5 million to 1 million as literacy became a prevalent requirement among Jews. The destruction of the second temple in 70 AD by the Romans led to decentralized synagogues where reading the Torah was primary activity, and they sent their sons starting at 6-7 years old to learn. Investing in literacy and education as Judaism required was costly for an agrarian community as there was little to no economic return to literacy.
It’s a case where leadership knew this was the right path forward and was willing to dramatically shrink in size in order to ultimately survive and thrive in the long run. Jews like other persecuted religious and ethnic minorities preferred to invest in education rather than land because human capital is portable and cannot be expropriated. There were over 16 million Jews in 1939; however, only 13 million today.
Around 600 AD Jews began shifting to trades and crafts as the Abbasid caliphate expanded beyond Mesopotamia and Persia. Jews' advantage in literacy and numeracy from their Talmudic studies allowed them to quickly capitalize on the shift to urbanization and trade, and they further invested in literacy and numeracy, solidifying themselves as central to business in these city centers. By 900 AD, Jews were overwhelmingly craftsmen, traders, medicine practitioners, and financiers. Although there was a precipitous decline during the Dark Ages, Jews accounted for as much as 20% of lending in Renaissance Tuscany.
From 70 AD to 600 AD, the Jewish population declined from 5 million to 1 million as literacy became a prevalent requirement among Jews. The destruction of the second temple in 70 AD by the Romans led to decentralized synagogues where reading the Torah was primary activity, and they sent their sons starting at 6-7 years old to learn. Investing in literacy and education as Judaism required was costly for an agrarian community as there was little to no economic return to literacy.
It’s a case where leadership knew this was the right path forward and was willing to dramatically shrink in size in order to ultimately survive and thrive in the long run. Jews like other persecuted religious and ethnic minorities preferred to invest in education rather than land because human capital is portable and cannot be expropriated. There were over 16 million Jews in 1939; however, only 13 million today.
September 19, 2012
I know nothing about economics, so I can't speak to the accuracy of their theory, or whether it even makes sense. But as someone who feels responsible for thinking about the future of the Jewish people on a daily basis, specifically w/r/t the cost of living Jewishly, this book stokes many of the concerns I have - essentially, the Jewish population declined dramatically between 70 CE and 630CE because Jewish education cost too much, and didn't have a whole lot of utility for an economy based on farming. I think it relates directly to our present challenge - not that people will convert necessarily but they are already opting out. I'm so glad our current crisis has historical precedent! Not so glad about the outcome, though.
September 5, 2019
Absolutely fascinating
This book takes one of the key theses of Jewish history - that is were driven into finance and related professions by discrimination and the closure of other fields to them, and hence became a literate an numerate people - and turns it on its head.
Instead, the authors show that the restrictions on Jews engaging in other fields is (with the exception of the state bureaucracy) a myth. It is because the Jews were a literate and numerate people that they bakades away from agriculture and into the proffessions, notably finance and trading, where they possessed a number of advantages.
More to the point, at least in my opinion, they conclusively prove their case. A must-read!
This book takes one of the key theses of Jewish history - that is were driven into finance and related professions by discrimination and the closure of other fields to them, and hence became a literate an numerate people - and turns it on its head.
Instead, the authors show that the restrictions on Jews engaging in other fields is (with the exception of the state bureaucracy) a myth. It is because the Jews were a literate and numerate people that they bakades away from agriculture and into the proffessions, notably finance and trading, where they possessed a number of advantages.
More to the point, at least in my opinion, they conclusively prove their case. A must-read!
November 11, 2012
Excellent, thought-provoking book with a new economic theory to answer three puzzles of Jewish history: 1) There were one million Jews in the year 0; why aren't more Jews today? 2) Why did Jews go from farmers in the Talmudic period to merchants and craftsmen? 3) Why did Jews migrate to Europe and North Africa? A new and substantial way to answer these questions that has large implications for the Jewish future.
September 13, 2014
The book present a theory on why the Jewish people are highly educated. The theory is a very interesting one and the authors present very good evidence supporting this theory. The evidence would eventually take you on a trip through over 1400 years in which you see how the Jewish people evolved .
January 6, 2018
Intellectual compounding, outgrowth of a genetic and cultural bottleneck.
Greetings to my sixth great-grandparent who was 100% Iberian.
Greetings to my sixth great-grandparent who was 100% Iberian.
July 20, 2024
ספר מצוין שמספר את ההיסטוריה היהודית בין חורבן בית שני לגירוש ספרד.
מטרת הספר היא להסביר כיצד הפכו היהודים לעם עירוני ומשכיל שמתפרנס בעיקר ממקצועות המסחר והמלאכה (סוחרים, חנוונים, רצענים, נפחים, רופאים, מורים, בנקאים וכו׳) ולאחר מכן בעיקר הלוואה בריבית. הספר תוקף את התיאוריה המקובלת שהפנייה של יהודים להלוואה בריבית נובעת ברובה כתוצאה מאיסור לעסוק במקצועות אחרים.
התיאוריה שמוצגת בספר היא שתרבות היהודית הרבנית\תלמודית שהתפתחה לאחר חורבן בית שני, תחילה ביבנה על ידי רבן יוחנן בן זכאי ולאחר מכן על ידי האמוראים והתנאים בתקופת התלמוד והמשנה, יהדות שהדגישה את הלימוד על פני הפולחן וציוותה על אבות לשלוח את ילדיהם לבית הספר בגיל 6 או 7 וללמוד לקרוא ולכתוב (על מנת שיוכלו לקרוא בתורה), דחקה את היהודים הרחק ממקצועות החקלאות למקצועות העירוניים הדורשים מיומנות גבוהה יותר.
תחילה, המחברים סוקרים את תקופת המשנה (שהסתיימה עם חתימתו של יהודה הנשיא על המשנה) ולאחר מכן הגמרא (בירושלים ובמספוטמיה שהפכה למרכז היהודי במאות שאחרי מרד בר כוכבא). בשנים שבין ישו למוחמד הצטמצמה היהדות מב-5 מליון לכמליון נפשות בקירוב. בנוסף למגפות ומקרי טבח, נראה שהרוב המוחלט של הירידה מוסבר על ידי נטישת היהדות (ככל הנראה בעיקר לטובת הנצרות) באותן שנים. התיאוריה של המחברים היא שהדבר קרה מפני שבאותה תקופה רוב בני האדם התפרנסו מחקלאות, ולציווי היהדות התלמודית היה מחיר שלילי רב - אוריינות לא היתה מועילה בחקלאות וחמור מכך, הצורך לשלוח את הילדים לבית הספר פגע ביכולת שלהם לעזור להורים בעבודת החקלאו��.
עם כיבושי מוחמד והיווצרות האימפריה המוסלמית, תחילה תחת בית אומיה ולאחר מכן תחת בית עבאס, חווה האיזור צמיחה תרבותית, כלכלית ועיור, מה שהעלה את הביקוש למקצועות עירוניים שדרשו אוריינות. בתקופה הזו החלה היהדות לשגשג והיהדות החקלאית כמעט ונעלמה. באותה תקופה התפשטו היהודים לכל אורך ורוחב האימפריה המוסלמית מהמגרב עד לאיזור הודו. מכיוון שהאימפריה היתה מפותחת מבחינה תרבותית וכלכלית, דברה שפה אחידה (ערבית) ולא היו מגבלות מיוחדות על עיסוק היהודים (זולת לקיחת חלק במשטר עצמו), שגשגו היהודים במה שנודע כתור הזהב של היהודים תחת האימפריה המוסלמית.
הכיבוש המונגולי של מספוטמיה החריב את הקהילה היהודית הגדולה בבגדאד. המונגולים החריבו גם את התרבות המפוארת של האימפריה המוסלמית וכתוצאה מכך אנשים חזרו לחיות כחקלאים על סף קיום, ובמאות השנים הבאות שוב כמעט נעלמה היהדות באותם איזורים, ככל הנראה כתוצאה מהמרת דת לאיסלם. לעומת זאת, באותן שנים שגשגו יהודי חצי האי האיברי.
באותן שנים עברו רוב יהודי העולם, כמו גם יהודי אירופה, להלוואה בריבית. זה קרה לפני שנאסר על היהודים להיות חברים בגילדות מקצועיות אחרות ולפני שנאסר על הנוצרים להלוות בריבית. על-פי המחברים, הסיבה לכך היא שליהודים הסוחרים כבר היה הון התחלתי שאיפשר להם לעסוק בפיננסים, אוריינות גבוהה, רישות רחב של יהודים באיזורים שונים באירופה ובמזרח התיכון וכן מערכת בוררות וחוזים בדמות חוקי ההלכה.
מטרת הספר היא להסביר כיצד הפכו היהודים לעם עירוני ומשכיל שמתפרנס בעיקר ממקצועות המסחר והמלאכה (סוחרים, חנוונים, רצענים, נפחים, רופאים, מורים, בנקאים וכו׳) ולאחר מכן בעיקר הלוואה בריבית. הספר תוקף את התיאוריה המקובלת שהפנייה של יהודים להלוואה בריבית נובעת ברובה כתוצאה מאיסור לעסוק במקצועות אחרים.
התיאוריה שמוצגת בספר היא שתרבות היהודית הרבנית\תלמודית שהתפתחה לאחר חורבן בית שני, תחילה ביבנה על ידי רבן יוחנן בן זכאי ולאחר מכן על ידי האמוראים והתנאים בתקופת התלמוד והמשנה, יהדות שהדגישה את הלימוד על פני הפולחן וציוותה על אבות לשלוח את ילדיהם לבית הספר בגיל 6 או 7 וללמוד לקרוא ולכתוב (על מנת שיוכלו לקרוא בתורה), דחקה את היהודים הרחק ממקצועות החקלאות למקצועות העירוניים הדורשים מיומנות גבוהה יותר.
תחילה, המחברים סוקרים את תקופת המשנה (שהסתיימה עם חתימתו של יהודה הנשיא על המשנה) ולאחר מכן הגמרא (בירושלים ובמספוטמיה שהפכה למרכז היהודי במאות שאחרי מרד בר כוכבא). בשנים שבין ישו למוחמד הצטמצמה היהדות מב-5 מליון לכמליון נפשות בקירוב. בנוסף למגפות ומקרי טבח, נראה שהרוב המוחלט של הירידה מוסבר על ידי נטישת היהדות (ככל הנראה בעיקר לטובת הנצרות) באותן שנים. התיאוריה של המחברים היא שהדבר קרה מפני שבאותה תקופה רוב בני האדם התפרנסו מחקלאות, ולציווי היהדות התלמודית היה מחיר שלילי רב - אוריינות לא היתה מועילה בחקלאות וחמור מכך, הצורך לשלוח את הילדים לבית הספר פגע ביכולת שלהם לעזור להורים בעבודת החקלאו��.
עם כיבושי מוחמד והיווצרות האימפריה המוסלמית, תחילה תחת בית אומיה ולאחר מכן תחת בית עבאס, חווה האיזור צמיחה תרבותית, כלכלית ועיור, מה שהעלה את הביקוש למקצועות עירוניים שדרשו אוריינות. בתקופה הזו החלה היהדות לשגשג והיהדות החקלאית כמעט ונעלמה. באותה תקופה התפשטו היהודים לכל אורך ורוחב האימפריה המוסלמית מהמגרב עד לאיזור הודו. מכיוון שהאימפריה היתה מפותחת מבחינה תרבותית וכלכלית, דברה שפה אחידה (ערבית) ולא היו מגבלות מיוחדות על עיסוק היהודים (זולת לקיחת חלק במשטר עצמו), שגשגו היהודים במה שנודע כתור הזהב של היהודים תחת האימפריה המוסלמית.
הכיבוש המונגולי של מספוטמיה החריב את הקהילה היהודית הגדולה בבגדאד. המונגולים החריבו גם את התרבות המפוארת של האימפריה המוסלמית וכתוצאה מכך אנשים חזרו לחיות כחקלאים על סף קיום, ובמאות השנים הבאות שוב כמעט נעלמה היהדות באותם איזורים, ככל הנראה כתוצאה מהמרת דת לאיסלם. לעומת זאת, באותן שנים שגשגו יהודי חצי האי האיברי.
באותן שנים עברו רוב יהודי העולם, כמו גם יהודי אירופה, להלוואה בריבית. זה קרה לפני שנאסר על היהודים להיות חברים בגילדות מקצועיות אחרות ולפני שנאסר על הנוצרים להלוות בריבית. על-פי המחברים, הסיבה לכך היא שליהודים הסוחרים כבר היה הון התחלתי שאיפשר להם לעסוק בפיננסים, אוריינות גבוהה, רישות רחב של יהודים באיזורים שונים באירופה ובמזרח התיכון וכן מערכת בוררות וחוזים בדמות חוקי ההלכה.
May 2, 2021
Đọc sách cũng kiên trì lắm :)) như cuốn sách giáo khoa sử, rất dài và rất xa.... :)) Đọc mãi đọc mãi cuối cùng cũng tìm được câu trả lời cho câu hỏi “Tại sao người Do Thái là số ít được lựa chọn?”
Về cơ bản, dân Do Thái là dân tộc ham học. “Biểu tượng trong cộng đồng người Do Thái là hình ảnh một người nông dân Do Thái đang đọc và nghiên cứu kinh Torah trong giáo đường và cho con trai tới trường hoặc giáo đường để đọc và nghiên cứu kinh Torah.”
Bản dịch mình đang cầm có khá nhiều lỗi chính tả cũng như lỗi diễn đạt. Sách dịch mà! Nhưng giống như một cuốn giáo khoa Sử, mình đọc lướt và chỉ tìm kiếm thông tin mình cần, nên tóm lại, lỗi thì mình vẫn nuốt được. Cho 3* vì giá trị kiến thức mà cuốn sách đem lại!
Người Do Thái chưa chắc đã hiểu ý nghĩa của việc cho con đi học đọc, học viết đâu. Nhưng họ là những con chiên ngoan đạo! Quy định tôn giáo yêu cầu họ phải đọc kinh Torah, cho con tới giáo đường học đọc, nghiên cứu kinh Torah bằng chữ Hebrew.
Kết thúc là một câu nói về người Do Thái rất hay!
“Kỷ nguyên hiện đại là kỷ nguyên Do Thái. Hiện đại hoá là mọi người trở thành người thành thị, cơ động, biết chữ, nói năng mạch lạc, có trình độ tri thức cao, biết chăm chút cơ thể, linh hoạt trong chọn nghề. Hiện đại hoá là cách trồng người, làm phong phú biểu tượng chứ không phải trồng lúa hay chăn nuôi.”
Con chữ giúp ích nhiều cho cuộc đời mỗi người chứ. Vì người Do Thái đầu tư cho học hành, nên cơ bản dân tộc của họ biết chữ, là một dân tộc thông thái, vậy thôi!
Mình cx vẫn thường thắc mắc, tại sao người Do Thái thông minh, thông thái như vậy, nhưng ko tập hợp thành 1 quốc gia, mà họ sống rải rác khắp các châu lục? Họ thực ra cx là người, nghĩ kỹ thì cx khá cá nhân ^^ “Bản thân người Do Thái có thể, và thực sự đã ngăn cản không cho đồng hương Do Thái định cư ở cùng một nơi và cạnh tranh với họ.”
Và nơi nào có đô thị phát triển, nơi ấy người Do Thái mới có đất để phát triển, để “dụng võ”! Điều ấy giải thích vì sao sau thời Mông Cổ chinh phạt Ba Tư, đô thị bị tàn phá, cuộc sống trở về kinh tế nông nghiệp, thì số lượng người Do Thái cũng sụt giảm nhanh chóng.
Tóm lại, giáo dục và con chữ có một sức mạnh kinh khủng!!! Người Do Thái nổi bật với sự thông thái vì ngày ấy, họ chịu chi cho GD, trong khi các tôn giáo dân tộc khác, đang loay hoay kiếm sống hằng ngày mà bỏ qua chi phí tốn kém đầu tư GD cho con trẻ này.
Về cơ bản, dân Do Thái là dân tộc ham học. “Biểu tượng trong cộng đồng người Do Thái là hình ảnh một người nông dân Do Thái đang đọc và nghiên cứu kinh Torah trong giáo đường và cho con trai tới trường hoặc giáo đường để đọc và nghiên cứu kinh Torah.”
Bản dịch mình đang cầm có khá nhiều lỗi chính tả cũng như lỗi diễn đạt. Sách dịch mà! Nhưng giống như một cuốn giáo khoa Sử, mình đọc lướt và chỉ tìm kiếm thông tin mình cần, nên tóm lại, lỗi thì mình vẫn nuốt được. Cho 3* vì giá trị kiến thức mà cuốn sách đem lại!
Người Do Thái chưa chắc đã hiểu ý nghĩa của việc cho con đi học đọc, học viết đâu. Nhưng họ là những con chiên ngoan đạo! Quy định tôn giáo yêu cầu họ phải đọc kinh Torah, cho con tới giáo đường học đọc, nghiên cứu kinh Torah bằng chữ Hebrew.
Kết thúc là một câu nói về người Do Thái rất hay!
“Kỷ nguyên hiện đại là kỷ nguyên Do Thái. Hiện đại hoá là mọi người trở thành người thành thị, cơ động, biết chữ, nói năng mạch lạc, có trình độ tri thức cao, biết chăm chút cơ thể, linh hoạt trong chọn nghề. Hiện đại hoá là cách trồng người, làm phong phú biểu tượng chứ không phải trồng lúa hay chăn nuôi.”
Con chữ giúp ích nhiều cho cuộc đời mỗi người chứ. Vì người Do Thái đầu tư cho học hành, nên cơ bản dân tộc của họ biết chữ, là một dân tộc thông thái, vậy thôi!
Mình cx vẫn thường thắc mắc, tại sao người Do Thái thông minh, thông thái như vậy, nhưng ko tập hợp thành 1 quốc gia, mà họ sống rải rác khắp các châu lục? Họ thực ra cx là người, nghĩ kỹ thì cx khá cá nhân ^^ “Bản thân người Do Thái có thể, và thực sự đã ngăn cản không cho đồng hương Do Thái định cư ở cùng một nơi và cạnh tranh với họ.”
Và nơi nào có đô thị phát triển, nơi ấy người Do Thái mới có đất để phát triển, để “dụng võ”! Điều ấy giải thích vì sao sau thời Mông Cổ chinh phạt Ba Tư, đô thị bị tàn phá, cuộc sống trở về kinh tế nông nghiệp, thì số lượng người Do Thái cũng sụt giảm nhanh chóng.
Tóm lại, giáo dục và con chữ có một sức mạnh kinh khủng!!! Người Do Thái nổi bật với sự thông thái vì ngày ấy, họ chịu chi cho GD, trong khi các tôn giáo dân tộc khác, đang loay hoay kiếm sống hằng ngày mà bỏ qua chi phí tốn kém đầu tư GD cho con trẻ này.
January 14, 2023
I learned some interesting things but it's an obviously thesis-first work. I was aghast at the early section where they ask the question "why did the Jewish population shrink dramatically during the rise of Christianity without any notable forced conversions" without admitting the possibility of, you know, non-forced conversions. Like, where do they think all the new Christians came from. It's not a coincidence that both trends happened concurrently.
June 7, 2020
quite dry and academic, but very clearly written. research questions are clearly defined in the introduction and during every following chapter. a bit repetitive in prose but that's expected from more academic research based writing. an interesting look into the shifts of jewish demographics throughout history.
February 4, 2022
There are some equations in this book the accuracy of which I'm not to judge at all. Hr arguments are interesting although I'm not sure that economic ideas about choice and compulsion operated as universally and cross all economies and religious zones (late-Roman Israel, early medieval Iraq etc) would have played out as clearly as the authors hold. I don't know. In any case, really interesting.
May 30, 2021
Very academic and sometimes repetitive. Fairly compelling argument but could have been conveyed much more succinctly. It's a very impressive piece of work but not as an enjoyable read as it could have been, although, I recognize that was probably not the author's main goal.
March 19, 2019
Interesting and convincing academic book.
September 8, 2019
Fascinating
August 16, 2022
love the book
History of Jewish people based on facts not on bible stories. Great book that every Jewish person must read to know her/his history
History of Jewish people based on facts not on bible stories. Great book that every Jewish person must read to know her/his history
November 18, 2023
A fascinating history of the Jewish people from an economic perspective. Gives one a whole different perspective.
June 5, 2022
A very well written book that demonstrates the value of education.
June 5, 2015
This is the first book I read on this topic and I love it.
I was a little put off at the beginning, when the authors put forward their arguments. It's a big challenging for me to follow the names of so many ancient periods without a good knowledge of the history.
But the arguments were very well researched and articulated. They've done tons of research.
It's interesting to learn that a shift in this religion before the century - Jewish man is obligated to study Talmud and is required to send jewish boys aged six and seven to study Talmud. This change in how it worships its religions generates great impact - people who do not see an immediate utility in education started to convert to other religions, the jewish population dwindled during hundreds of years, and eventually those who followed this tradition became a highly literate group in a still agrarian, largely illiterate society.
The book ends the story around 1500. The authors indicated they were working on a second book for jewish history in recent hundreds of years. Can't wait to read it!
I was a little put off at the beginning, when the authors put forward their arguments. It's a big challenging for me to follow the names of so many ancient periods without a good knowledge of the history.
But the arguments were very well researched and articulated. They've done tons of research.
It's interesting to learn that a shift in this religion before the century - Jewish man is obligated to study Talmud and is required to send jewish boys aged six and seven to study Talmud. This change in how it worships its religions generates great impact - people who do not see an immediate utility in education started to convert to other religions, the jewish population dwindled during hundreds of years, and eventually those who followed this tradition became a highly literate group in a still agrarian, largely illiterate society.
The book ends the story around 1500. The authors indicated they were working on a second book for jewish history in recent hundreds of years. Can't wait to read it!
Shelved as 'specially-requested'
March 31, 2014
January 27, 2015
an informative book about Israeli from the 1st century till the end of the fifteenth century.
There's another book from the fifteenth century to the modern world.
However, I'm still considering to read the new one or not because the writing style does not match me.
There's another book from the fifteenth century to the modern world.
However, I'm still considering to read the new one or not because the writing style does not match me.
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