Rabbinatet i historiskt perspektiv

Authors

• Nils Martola Åbo akademi

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30752/nj.69434

Keywords:

Rabbis, Group identity, Jews -- Emancipation, Authority, Leadership, Religious, Karaites, Torah, Middle Ages

Abstract

The article gives a survey of the rabbinate from a historical perspective. The rabbinate is defined as the institution whose representatives – the rabbis – have taken care of the maintenance of the Jewish identity and of the leadership for many of the internal Jewish functions. The article commences with a description of the emergence of the rabbinate in Yabne under the leadership of Yochanan ben Zakkai, and the patriarchate later located in Tiberias. The exilarchate in Babylonia was founded by the Parthians as counterweight to the patriarchate in Roman Palestine. The next section deals with the consolidation and spread of the rabbinate during gaoneic times and the High Middle Ages, and the foremost enemies of the rabbinate, the Karaites. The third section starts with the onset of the 19th century, a century which witnessed the emancipation of the Jews with the ensuing fundamental changes in their conditions. Although the rabbis have been challenged, their position has never been seriously threatened until the onset of the emancipation in the 19th century.