How The East Was Won
Most of us in America have grown up with tales of how the “West” was won, on the North American continent. It was not always a happy tale, to put it mildly. When cultures and peoples clash, there are occasionally winners, and nearly always losers. Most will be surprised to learn though, that as with the American West, so it also was with the Jewish east. Even many Jews are surprised to learn the sometimes grisly story of how the modern Mainstream of Judaism came to have it’s hegemony over the Jewish people. They say that the winners write the histories; I see no reason to disagree. History is sparse on the many Jewish sects that faded into oblivion over the years and centuries after the destruction of the Herodian Temple in year 70. Let’s see what we can put together for fact, and perhaps a bit of opinion. Suggestions on sources to fill out the details would be appreciated.
Obviously, the Sadducees, who managed the Temple, were out of a job. There is also a contested reference that many of them followed the Netzarene away from the corrupted administration of the Temple years before it’s destruction. The remnant apparently amalgamated, more or less, with the surviving remnant of Judah, retaining their heritage in names like “Cohen”, “Lewis”, and similar.
The Essenes also were greatly reduced by the Roman onslaught, and left only a small remnant for several centuries, before fading away totally. Several other minor sects did not fare even that well. The only body of Jewish culture to survive more or less intact were the Pharisees. Legend has it that in the siege of Jerusalem, as the militant defenders were battling each other perhaps as much as they were battling Rome, the Pharisees alone developed a coherent plan for survival. The militants forbad any surrender to Rome, but the leadership of the Pharisees, with a perfectly logical will to survive, figured a way. Their elderly leader would feign death, they would ask he be permitted the honor to be taken from the beseiged city for a decent burial, and he would ask terms of surrender from the Roman forces. It worked. He was amazingly not “run through” on leaving the city, to ensure he was really dead. This speaks of how highly esteemed he was in the general community. Those for whom he was able to negotiate a surrender were permitted to regroup at the study center of Tsafat. This was a major factor in Pharisaism becoming what we know of today as Mainstream Rabbinic Judaism. After the defeat of year 70, they did not have much competition. Rome was the winner, the Pharisees were only the "least defeated" of the Jewish sects. And Yes, they DID write the histories.
There were still many individuals and groups though, that chaffed under the yoke of the vigorous and well organized Rabbis. As in generations past, the competition between groups had at times been fierce. In the local areas of Palestine, and farther east, in Babylon, the re-invented Pharisees consolidated their system of traditions in the Mishna, then the Talmuds. Their traditions and unique interpretations of the Law and Prophets did not win universal Jewish acceptance. To many, the fanciful and rather "creative" interpretations of the Rabbis were next to, if not in fact, Idolatrous, in their self-elevation at the expense of the traditional writings of Moses, as interpreted by the prophets of YHWH. Those who preferred the plain meaning common sense of the books of Moses and the prophets did not go for the Rabbis line. This would change soon.
The Rabbis second big "post Temple" boost among their Jewish compatriots was a result of the rise and spread of Islam. As the best organized Jewish faction, they won recognition from the Islamic authorities as the legitimate representatives of the Jewish people. A fringe benefit to them, was they enjoyed the power of the Islamic overlords to help impose their Talmudic system on a Jewish people that, as often as not, already had the Books of Moses, thank you very much, and were not interested in this newfangled “Talmud”. Resistance to the Rabbis and their system was typically poorly organized, based not on what they stood for, so much as what they were against, namely the Rabbinic “Hegemony” based on the Talmud.
Yes, this is that Talmud that grew out of the Pharisaic traditions that Yahshua spoke against so frequently, and also that the prophet Isaiah spoke of, roughly, “In vain do they worship me(Yah), teaching an artificial set of man made rules”. The loose affiliation of anti-Rabbi Jewish resistors became best known as "Karaites". Their religious observance was essentially identical to that of their Rabbinic brethren, except for their refusal to recognize the right of the Rabbis to a higher legislative status than YHWH himself. The Rabbis very frankly claimed that "YHWH" had deferred to them, they were in charge now, and could re-write the rules as they pleased. It was a tough pill for the “Karaites” to swallow. Many Karaites suffered intensely for their faith, much blood was shed. But the positive direction and tight organization of the Rabbis prevailed, and the “East was Won.” The wounds have not totally healed to this day, with the Rabbanists typically disdainfully calling the small and insignificant remnant of the Karaites “scoundrels”, or the offspring of same.
Mainstream Judaism is not nearly as mainstream as the Rabbis would have you believe. Cast off your shackles, freedom loving Jewish people. The Mosaic covenant was good enough to bring in the glories of the Davidic and Solomonic Kingdom of YHWH, and maintain Israel as the Glory of all kingdoms. All this centuries before the very first Rabbi was even a gleam in the eye of a far remote generation. Return O Israel, to your Maker YHWH, who is eager to pardon and bless abundantly.
The mosaic covenant was also good enough to cause Yahshua to be willing to give his life to restore it to the honor it is due in his time, but that is another story. In fact, it was more accurately called the covenant of YHWH, rather than the covenant of Moses. Moses was only the mediator.
Your Rabbi might tell you that the Oral Torah kept the Jewish people all on the same page through 1900 years of Diaspora. Ask him, if it was so great, why it failed to keep the Jewish people from going into captivity in the first place. Yes, throughout most of first century Judea, the Pharisees and the “Oral Law” were generally calling the shots both religiously and politically; in the synagogue, and (Gasp!), yes, even in the Sadducee "ruled" temple. Much of the outcome has to be laid at their feet, for well or ill. That includes events from the destruction of the temple to the holocaust. Interestingly, I’m not sure if the creation of the modern State of Israel can be laid at the feet of the Rabbis or not. It appears most of the Zionists were also atheists, even as the Prophet Daniel hints, “…the sons of the lawless men of your people will exalt themselves to establish vision…(Dan 11:14)”
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