Why is knowing Jewish history important?

Trying to delve deeper.

One of the things I wanted to do with this substack was to do deep dives into intresting parts of Jewsih history that sometimes are overlooked or misprepresented. A truer understanding of the history of the Jewish people is a mind-opening experience and we could be doing it better. I think there are two main problems that plauge the frum discussion around history.

One, an oversimplication and lack of context surrounding historical Jewish life, for example we have an endless amount of Gedolim biographies¹ and very few if any “period pieces”(What life was like for the average jew living in Spain in the 1400s for example). I think one outcome of this has been a hyper-idealistic attitude of the past that ends up having unrealistic or even wrong ideas about what Judaism “should look like”. This also ends up leading to the fallacy of presentism, imposing our current culture on to the past and assuming things have “always been this way” when they almost assuredly have not.

Two, and this is a much broader issue than the first, is an almost complete lack of knowledge of anything post the Chumash, including Navi (I can only speak for the boys), but even as you go further down, we have no context to the period of the writing of the Mishna and Gemara, the Geonim are basically skipped over completely, many of the Rishonim are only known based on their acronyms, and there is an overall blank spot for many except for those specifically intrested in these topics². What ends up happening again is that we come off with a superficial view of jewish history, we dont see how the past has impacted the present, and our ideas about Judaism itself become overly reliant on the present.

There is also an important Hashkafic reason for painting a realistic portrait of Jewish history. “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it” is a famous qoute commonly attributed to Churchill but it has a special significance for Jews. The cyclical theory of history is an idea that history does not progress on a linear path but continues in a circular fashion, encountering issues and ideas seen already but possibly clothed in new garments. This idea rings true to those who have studied jewish history or the pasuk in Koheles:

מַה־שֶּֽׁהָיָה֙ ה֣וּא שֶׁיִּהְיֶ֔ה וּמַה־שֶּׁנַּֽעֲשָׂ֔ה ה֖וּא שֶׁיֵּעָשֶׂ֑ה וְאֵ֥ין כׇּל־חָדָ֖שׁ תַּ֥חַת הַשָּֽׁמֶשׁ׃

That which has been, it is that which shall be; and that which has been done is that which shall be done: and there is nothing new under the sun.

(Koheles 1:9)

As a society, I think knowing your own history is a crucial part of living a fulfilled life. If the cutoff for ending education in jewish history is somewhere in early elementary school, of course it is going to be easy to end up with a large group of the population cutoff from Mesorah and totally dependant on the whims of whatever culture happens to be going on around them. I think this is objectively a bad idea, and has added to the rise of polarization and trends to varying movements within the frum communities³. So why the lack of history?

There actually is a good historical reason why Jewish history and Tanach are largely overlooked as part of the frum curiculum (Full essay on this will follow, here will be a quick overview). In the 1800s there was a movement in Germany called the Wissenschaft des Judentums (The Science of Judaism), under the larger umbrella of the Reform movement. What this movement set out to do broadly was to solidify Judaism historically and culturally while at the same time removing the “husk” of the actual practice of religion⁴. The methods that they uses to do this where overwhelmingly from Tanach and a “historical analysis” of Jewsih history while simultaneously viewing the Gemara as “archaic law” that had no use in a modern world. So for the first time in history there was a correlation between knowledge of Jewish history and Tanach and a lack of religiousness, suddenly the frum world had to be on gaurd against crucial parts of Judaism and, while clutching tightly to Gemara study so it would not fall out of the Jewish Mesorah⁵! A schism had formed in Jewish education that we still deal with to some extent today.

What does knowing Jewish history as a Jew ultimately provide? An anchor into the foothold of Mesorah. A deep knowledge into the societies and the contexts that formed the Gedolim of the past . Understanding how former generations Jews interacted with the world. For us it would be impossible to imagine a frum world without Kollelim and Yeshivos, yet obviously for most of Jewish history these institutions did not exist. It gives the individual a way to peel back the thin layer of externalities⁶ to see a much deeper connection to the past and to Mesorah. History, not for histories sake but for the sake of a grounded frum society.

זְכֹר֙ יְמ֣וֹת עוֹלָ֔ם בִּ֖ינוּ שְׁנ֣וֹת דֹּר־וָדֹ֑ר         שְׁאַ֤ל אָבִ֙יךָ֙ וְיַגֵּ֔דְךָ זְקֵנֶ֖יךָ וְיֹ֥אמְרוּ לָֽךְ׃

Remember the days of old,
Consider the years of ages past;
Ask your parent, who will inform you,
Your elders, who will tell you:

(Devarim 32:7)

1. Artscroll.com boasts 175 Jewish biographies to a mere 39 books on Jewish history.

2. I would like to point out that the Jewish history podcasting library has never been richer. Here are some of the best: Jewish history with Rabbi Dr. Dovid Katz, Jewish History Soundbites (Yehuda Geberer), anything Berel Wein.

3. There will be posts elaborating on specific trends, not necesarily negative.

4. This qoute should tell you everything about their method of learning:

“Zunz felt obliged to assume that Judaism had come to an end, and that it was the task of Wissenschaft des Judentums to provide a judicious accounting of the varied and rich contributions which Judaism had made to civilization. In a similar spirit, Steinschneider is said to have once quipped that Wissenschaft des Judentums seeks to ensure that Judaism will receive a proper burial, in which scholarship amounts to an extended obituary properly eulogizing the deceased”.

Though it should be noted that R'Dovid Tzvi Hoffman, the great German Posek was involved with the movement to some extent in his lifetime, see his Wikipedia page for more information.

5. This is oversimplified as the rise of the Yeshiva system as an ideal was happening around this time. iy’h my first series will be on the rise and evolution of the yeshiva system.

6. Externalaties, though important for upholding a sense of community and togetherness are not representative of the intrinsic value of that community. Someone who wears a Bekishe and Shtriemel are no closer to the ideal of a חסיד because of it. Hopefully, in a pragmatic way this will aid that individual in his strive to internally earn the title חסיד, so too for any community that opts to dress in a certain fashion, they are ultimately a means to an end.