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Imagine the year is 1150. You know, you are walking

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into this ornate, just breathtakingly beautiful

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synagogue in medieval Spain. Right. And you're

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admiring the architecture, the horseshoe arches,

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that intricate stucco work. Exactly. Yeah. The

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sunlight is hitting these amazing geometric tile

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patterns on the walls. And you walk toward the

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front of the room, you look down at the floor,

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and right next to the holy Torah art. The most

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sacred space in the whole building. Right. The

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absolute most sacred space where the scrolls

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are kept. Sitting right there is a woven prayer

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rug. Yeah. But it is not just, you know, any

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decorative rug. Woven directly into the fabric

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is a highly detailed image of the Kaaba. The

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Kaaba in Mecca. Yeah. The holiest site in Islam.

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Right. A few centuries ago, people looking back

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at history would have thought this was, I mean,

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an impossible contradiction, like a mistake,

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right? Oh, absolutely. But if you look at the

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medieval Mediterranean, it wasn't a contradiction

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at all. It was just Tuesday. It really was. I

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mean, it completely shatters the way we are usually

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taught to think about history. We were so conditioned

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to imagine the past as a map with these thick...

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black, impenetrable borders. Yeah, totally. We

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want the political boundary to cleanly match

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the religious boundary. We want everyone to just

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stay neatly in their designated boxes. Right.

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The good guys here, the other guys there. Exactly.

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But the moment you zoom in on the medieval Islamic

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world, somebody takes a giant eraser to those

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thick black lines. Which is exactly why we are

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here today. So whether you are catching up on

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medieval history for a seminar or, you know,

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you're just insanely curious about how cultures

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actually collide and bleed into one another and

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create absolute magic, you are in the right place.

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We are going on a massive deep dive today. A

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huge one. We are diving into one of the most

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comprehensive sources out there, which is volume

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five of the Cambridge History of Judaism. It

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is a monumental piece of scholarship. Really,

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it's just massive. It is an absolute behemoth

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of a book. So to keep us focused, we have a very

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specific mission for this deep dive. Right, we

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have to narrow it down. We do. We are zeroing

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in entirely on part three of this work. So part

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three of the book, we are focusing on the...

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Spiritual and intellectual history of Jews living

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in the medieval Islamic world. Which means we

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are moving past, you know, the dates of battles

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or the economics of trade routes. Right. We are

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leaving the trade routes behind. We are going

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to look at the mind, the soul, the books, the

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arguments and like the actual prayers of this

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era. It's the fun stuff. It is. OK, let's unpack

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this. Where exactly in time and space are we

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dropping the listener right now? Well, to set

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the stage properly, we are looking at a vast

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expanse of time, roughly from 600 to 1500 CE.

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Okay, so a huge chunk of time. Yeah, nearly a

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millennium. And we go back to the very beginning

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of this era. The center of Jewish gravity, both

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demographic and intellectual, was firmly in Babylonia,

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which is modern -day Iraq. But then, as the new

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religion of Islam rose in the Arabian Peninsula

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and just rapidly expanded into this massive empire,

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that Jewish center of gravity began to shift.

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It spread westward. It moved across Egypt, across

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North Africa. Exactly. And all the way up into

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the Iberian Peninsula, into Spain. And I think

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the crucial baseline for everything we're going

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to talk about today is that this is not it's

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not a story of isolation. No, not at all. We

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aren't looking at some minority community hiding

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behind closed doors, you know, pretending the

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outside world doesn't exist. Far from it. The

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Jewish communities were deeply, just fundamentally

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embedded in the broader Islamic society. I mean,

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they shared the same cities, the same marketplaces.

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The same doctors, right? Yes. The same medical

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texts, the same philosophical anxieties. This

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profound intellectual cross -pollination reshaped

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literally everything. It changed how they spoke,

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how they read their sacred texts, how they resolved

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lawsuits. Even how they conceptualized God. Wow.

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Okay, so to understand how someone thought a

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thousand years ago, I feel like we first have

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to figure out how they communicated. Right, language

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is everything. Yeah, like what language was actually

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coming out of their mouths and what were they

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writing down. Which brings us to the research

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of Angel Signs Badios and S .J. Pierce on the

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linguistic reality of the era. And the very first

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thing that jumps out. is this incredible linguistic

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balancing act. The Judeo -Arabic thing. Exactly.

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It's this fascinating sociolinguistic dynamic.

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The vast majority of the Jewish population in

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this empire basically adopted Arabic as their

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mother tongue. Right. But they didn't just adopt

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Arabic as is. They created Judeo -Arabic. So

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mechanically speaking, Judeo -Arabic is the Arabic

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language. It's Arabic grammar, Arabic vocabulary.

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Arabic syntax. But written using the Hebrew alphabet.

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OK, I want to pause on the mechanics of that

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for a second because it sounds wild. Why would

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you write a language in the wrong alphabet? It

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does sound counterintuitive. Yeah. Like if they

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are speaking Arabic all day, why not just use

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the Arabic script to write it down? Well, that

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is a brilliant question. And it really comes

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down to identity and educational infrastructure.

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Yeah. In this society, literacy was just intimately

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tied to religious education. So you learned to

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read at the synagogue. Right. A young Jewish

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boy would first learn to read by tracing the

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letters of the Hebrew Bible. So the Hebrew alphabet

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was hardwired into their brains from childhood.

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It was their primary vehicle for written communication.

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Ah, okay. So it's just what they knew how to

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physically write. That's a big part of it. But

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at the same time, they really wanted to participate

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in this vibrant... Aramaic -speaking world around

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them. So writing Arabic in Hebrew characters

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was a way to fully engage with a dominant culture

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while still maintaining this distinct in -group

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boundary. That makes so much sense. It allows

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for a massive flow of ideas without a total loss

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of identity. Exactly. And it became the language

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of everything. They used it for business contracts,

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personal letters, heavy philosophical treatises,

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medical manuals. But Hebrew didn't just vanish

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into the history books, right? No, not at all.

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And this is where the scholar Rina Drory's analysis

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is so crucial. Because Judeo -Arabic took over

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all the day -to -day heavy lifting, Hebrew was

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actually freed up to become something else. Freed

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up how? Well, it was reserved for what Drury

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calls festive and grandiloquent purposes. Oh,

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I love that phrase. Festive and grandiloquent.

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Right. It perfectly captures it. It really is

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like how we still use language today, depending

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on the stakes of the moment. Like, Judeo -Arabic

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was your everyday communication. It's your quick

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text messages, your grocery lists, the internal

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office memos. Yes, the mundane stuff. But Hebrew

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was elevated. You use Hebrew when you have to,

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like, stand up and deliver a formal wedding toast

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in front of 300 people. or you use it to draft

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a constitution or write a sonnet. It's the language

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you use when you want the words to outlast you.

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That is a highly accurate way to frame it, yeah.

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And because the Jewish intellectual elite possessed

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this dual fluency, I mean, they had the everyday

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utility of Arabic, and the deep textual resonance

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of Hebrew plus, they often knew Aramaic. and

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occasionally Latin or Greek. Depending on where

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they lived, yeah. Exactly. Because of all that,

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they naturally became the great cultural brokers

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of the Middle Ages. They were basically the connective

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tissue of the Mediterranean. That's exactly how

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it played out. They actively participated in

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the massive translation movement that completely

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defined the Islamic Golden Age. This is the movement

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in Baghdad, right? Yes, we're talking about the

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deliberate state -sponsored effort. by the Abbasid

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caliphs in Baghdad to translate the entirety

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of classical Greek knowledge into Arabic. Okay,

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but how did that actually work on the ground?

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I mean, a Jewish scholar in 10th century Spain

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wasn't just, you know, pulling a scroll of Aristotle

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in the original Greek off a shelf and translating

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it directly into Hebrew. Usually, no. The mechanics

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of transmission were way more layered than that.

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Okay, so walk me through it. Often, a Greek philosophical

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or medical text was first translated into Syriac.

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By who? By Christian scholars in the East. Yeah.

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Then from Syriac, it was translated into Arabic.

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And then Jewish scholars operating seamlessly

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within this Arabic intellectual ecosystem would

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study those Arabic texts. Ah, so they're reading

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Aristotle in Arabic. Yes. And later, especially

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as the center of Jewish life started shifting

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toward Christian Europe. Jewish scholars took

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these Arabic translations of Greek thought and

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translated them into Hebrew. And then sometimes

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from Hebrew into Latin. Exactly. They were these

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human bridges just moving the knowledge of antiquity

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all the way through the Islamic world and eventually

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up into the universities of Christian Europe.

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That is incredible. But, you know, all of this

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translation, all of this high minded philosophy,

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it requires a physical medium. You can't have

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a vibrant intellectual culture if there are no

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actual books. No, you need paper. Right. And

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Judik Olzoi Schlanger's chapter on book production

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in this volume, it just completely shatters this

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lingering illusion we have. You know, that medieval

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knowledge was trapped in the hands of like. Three

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or four elite rabbis hoarding scrolls in a dark

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candlelit room. Yeah, she provides a master class

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in the material history of reading here. To really

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get this, we have to contrast it with the earlier

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rabbinic period. Before the Islamic conquest,

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Jewish knowledge was overwhelmingly transmitted

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orally. Because books were just too expensive.

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Astronomically expensive. The writing materials

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were primarily parchment, which is made from

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animal skins. A complete copy of the Hebrew Bible

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on parchment required an entire herd of animals.

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Wow. So literacy had to be super restricted just

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by pure economics. Texts were incredibly rare.

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Yes. But then, enter paper. Enter paper, the

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absolute game changer. Total game changer. The

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Islamic Empire actually learned the secret of

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papermaking from Chinese prisoners of war in

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the 8th century. I always forget that detail.

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It's so crazy. It revolutionized everything.

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Paper is just exponentially cheaper and faster

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to produce than pyramid. And this technological

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shift catalyzed a massive deepening of literacy

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across the entire society. And it created an

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entirely new industry, too. We see the rise of

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professional stationers who were known in Arabic

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as the Warraquan. The Warraquan were fascinating.

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They were essentially the very first commercial

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publishers and booksellers in the Middle East.

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Now, on one level, they formed this elite, interconnected

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network. They traded rare manuscripts. They debated

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the accuracy of different editions. They basically

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acted as curators of high knowledge. But the

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physical output of the books themselves actually

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reached a surprisingly broad public. It did.

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It wasn't just for the elites anymore. There

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is this specific detail from the Cairo Geniza

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that perfectly illustrates this democratization

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of reading. And actually, for those listening

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who might be unfamiliar, we should probably explain

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what the Cairo Geniza is really quick. Oh, absolutely.

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It's essential. It's this massive walled -off

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storeroom in the Ben Ezra synagogue in Egypt.

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For centuries, the Jewish community there deposited

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hundreds of thousands of worn -out documents.

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It's basically the greatest... treasure trove

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of medieval history we have. Literally hundreds

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of thousands of fragments. Right. And within

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this trove, researchers found evidence of communally

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owned Bible scrolls and codices. And these books

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were explicitly designated for orphans and poor

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children to use specifically to learn how to

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read. It is a remarkable social indicator. I

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mean, it tells us that this wasn't just a society

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where wealthy merchants bought illuminated manuscripts

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just to display them as status symbols on a shelf.

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Right. It was practical. The community fundamentally

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believed that basic literacy was a requirement

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for participation in Jewish life, to the point

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that they systematically funded access to books

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for the absolute. most vulnerable economic classes.

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Which is so beautiful. And when a society values

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literacy across all economic classes like that,

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the demand for reading material completely changes.

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People don't just want to read dry legal codes

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and scripture all day. No, they want to be entertained.

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Exactly. They want art. They want stories. Which

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perfectly explains the explosion of secular literature

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or bell lash in this period. Raymond P. Scheinland's

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research in the book walks us through how Jewish

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writers looked at the dominant Arabic literary

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culture around them and just decided to adapt

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it. Because Arabic poetry was basically the pop

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culture of the day, right? It was the absolute

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pinnacle of cultural prestige. It was highly

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structured, incredibly beautiful, and heavily

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subsidized by wealthy patrons at the royal courts.

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But applying Arabic poetic forms to Hebrew, I

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mean, that isn't just a simple cocky -paced job.

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Mechanically, it is incredibly difficult. It

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requires total linguistic acrobatics. See, Arabic

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poetry of this era relied on quantitative meter.

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Which means what exactly? It means the rhythm

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of the poem is dictated by a strict repeating

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sequence of short and long syllables. Okay. The

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problem is that biblical Hebrew grammar does

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not naturally fit that kind of metrical system.

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Its syllable structure is completely fundamentally

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different from Arabic. So how do they do it?

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How do you write an Arabic style? A poem in Hebrew.

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They essentially had to hack the Hebrew language.

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Hack it. Yeah. Jewish poets like Dunesh Ben Labra

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in the 10th century, they systematically forced

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Hebrew words into these Arabic metrical moles.

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They literally redefined how certain Hebrew vowels

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functioned just to make the rhythm work. Wow.

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So they bent the rules of their own ancient language

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just to fit the current trend. They did. And

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once they cracked the code. I mean, it unleashed

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a tsunami of creativity. They took all the classic

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thematic tropes of Arabic poetry, you know, poems

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praising wealthy patrons, poems about getting

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drunk in gardens. I love those. Right. Agonizing

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love poetry, poems about the beauty of nature.

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And they applied them entirely to Hebrew. This

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birthed an entirely new genre of secular Hebrew

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poetry. So suddenly you have these very serious

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rabbis who write strict, dense legal decisions

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by day, but then they're writing passionate poems

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about gazelles and wine by night. It's a great

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image. And the literary borrowing went way beyond

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just strict poetry. They also adopted the makamah.

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Oh, the Makama is such a fun genre. For listeners,

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00:14:07,379 --> 00:14:09,440
it's essentially this rhymed prose. It usually

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tells these episodic, picarous stories about

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00:14:11,580 --> 00:14:14,519
a witty, fast -talking rogue. A total trickster

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00:14:14,519 --> 00:14:16,580
character. Yes. He travels around tricking people

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and delivering these brilliant, impromptu speeches.

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It was basically the perfect vehicle for showing

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00:14:21,700 --> 00:14:24,600
off your linguistic brilliance. We see figures

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00:14:24,600 --> 00:14:27,320
like Judah Al -Harizi in the East writing these

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00:14:27,320 --> 00:14:30,710
deeply entertaining Hebrew Makamat. And then

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this entire literary culture just migrates across

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the Mediterranean to the Andalusian West into

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Muslim Spain. Which is what sparks the famous

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golden age of Hebrew poetry in Spain. Exactly.

326
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With giants like Judah Halevi and Moses Ibn Ezra,

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they are taking these incredibly sophisticated

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linguistic tools developed by their Islamic neighbors,

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and they're using them to stretch the ancient

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Hebrew language into entirely new emotional and

331
00:14:57,389 --> 00:14:59,820
artistic shapes. Okay, but wait. If they are

332
00:14:59,820 --> 00:15:02,879
obsessing over grammar and syllable length and

333
00:15:02,879 --> 00:15:05,659
adapting Arabic poetic structures all week, how

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00:15:05,659 --> 00:15:07,700
does that affect their actual religious reading?

335
00:15:07,860 --> 00:15:09,879
It changes it completely. Right, because you

336
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can't spend your entire week intensely analyzing

337
00:15:12,480 --> 00:15:15,100
the philologies of Arabic and Hebrew poetry and

338
00:15:15,100 --> 00:15:17,360
then open the Torah on Saturday morning and read

339
00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:19,259
it the exact same way your great -grandfather

340
00:15:19,259 --> 00:15:22,600
did. Absolutely cannot. And this is where the

341
00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:25,220
intellectual cross -pollination hits the absolute

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00:15:25,220 --> 00:15:28,360
core of Jewish identity. The Islamic environment

343
00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:33,080
totally permanently rewired how Jews read the

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Bible. So to understand this rewiring, we really

345
00:15:35,519 --> 00:15:38,120
have to look at Mordecai Z. Cohen's chapter on

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00:15:38,120 --> 00:15:40,820
Jewish Bible exegesis. Let's talk about the old

347
00:15:40,820 --> 00:15:43,830
way first, just for contrast. For centuries,

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00:15:44,070 --> 00:15:46,309
the dominant way the rabbinic establishment read

349
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the Bible was through midrash. Yes, midrash.

350
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How would you describe the mechanics of midrash

351
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to someone who has never encountered it before?

352
00:15:54,090 --> 00:15:57,190
Well, midrash is highly imaginative, very associative

353
00:15:57,190 --> 00:15:59,350
reading. It really doesn't restrict itself to

354
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the literal meaning of a verse or the historical

355
00:16:01,470 --> 00:16:03,629
context of a story. It's way more fluid than

356
00:16:03,629 --> 00:16:05,470
that. Very fluid. It looks for hidden meanings.

357
00:16:05,610 --> 00:16:08,070
It plays with the numerical value of letters.

358
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A midrash might connect two completely unrelated

359
00:16:10,940 --> 00:16:13,059
verses from different books of the Bible just

360
00:16:13,059 --> 00:16:14,879
because they happen to share a similar word.

361
00:16:15,019 --> 00:16:17,159
Wait, it's fill in the blanks, right? Exactly.

362
00:16:17,340 --> 00:16:20,820
If a biblical story seems to lack logic or skips

363
00:16:20,820 --> 00:16:23,620
a detail, a midrash will just invent a backstory

364
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to smooth it out. And often that involves talking

365
00:16:26,799 --> 00:16:30,320
animals or angels or miracles. It is a beautiful

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00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:33,480
homiletical way of extracting moral lessons from

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00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:35,639
the text. I always think of it like reading a

368
00:16:35,639 --> 00:16:37,769
text. Through a kaleidoscope, it produces these

369
00:16:37,769 --> 00:16:40,509
gorgeous complex patterns, but it's not a clear

370
00:16:40,509 --> 00:16:42,750
literal window into what the original author

371
00:16:42,750 --> 00:16:45,610
meant. That's a great analogy. But suddenly these

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00:16:45,610 --> 00:16:47,769
Jewish intellectuals are operating in an Islamic

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world that is totally dominated by a fierce new

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rationalist theology, specifically the Mutazilite

375
00:16:54,730 --> 00:16:57,269
school of Islamic thought. OK, let me stop you

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00:16:57,269 --> 00:16:59,669
there for a second. What exactly is Mutazilite

377
00:16:59,669 --> 00:17:01,769
thought and why did it put so much pressure on

378
00:17:01,769 --> 00:17:04,269
the Jewish community? So the Mutazilites were

379
00:17:04,269 --> 00:17:07,009
Islamic theologians. who prized human reason

380
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and strict logic above almost everything else,

381
00:17:09,589 --> 00:17:12,970
even above received tradition. Yeah. They argued

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00:17:12,970 --> 00:17:15,990
fiercely for the absolute uncompromising unity

383
00:17:15,990 --> 00:17:19,849
and justice of God. To them, any description

384
00:17:19,849 --> 00:17:22,410
of God in the Quran that sounded physical like

385
00:17:22,410 --> 00:17:25,130
God's hand or God sitting on a physical throne,

386
00:17:25,289 --> 00:17:28,410
it absolutely had to be interpreted metaphorically.

387
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Because a physical God with a hand violates the

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00:17:31,390 --> 00:17:33,930
logical premise of absolute unity. Precisely.

389
00:17:33,970 --> 00:17:37,019
Furthermore, They applied extremely rigorous

390
00:17:37,019 --> 00:17:39,680
grammatical analysis to the Quran to determine

391
00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:42,079
its exact rational meaning. Okay, I see where

392
00:17:42,079 --> 00:17:44,000
this is going. So if you are a Jewish scholar

393
00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:46,980
sitting in Baghdad and your Mutazilite neighbor

394
00:17:46,980 --> 00:17:49,700
is using cutting -edge linguistic science to

395
00:17:49,700 --> 00:17:51,859
analyze the Quran. And you are defending the

396
00:17:51,859 --> 00:17:55,519
Torah using a midrash about a talking frog. You're

397
00:17:55,519 --> 00:17:57,619
going to feel a bit intellectually embarrassed.

398
00:17:57,740 --> 00:18:00,400
That is precisely the psychological dynamic that

399
00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:02,740
was happening. The rationalist environment made

400
00:18:02,740 --> 00:18:05,960
the old, fanciful midrash seem totally inadequate

401
00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:08,039
for high -level intellectual defense. They felt

402
00:18:08,039 --> 00:18:10,119
like they were falling behind. Jewish scholars

403
00:18:10,119 --> 00:18:13,339
felt intensely challenged. They realized that

404
00:18:13,339 --> 00:18:15,279
if they wanted to prove the superiority of the

405
00:18:15,279 --> 00:18:18,140
Hebrew Bible in this culture, they had to understand

406
00:18:18,140 --> 00:18:20,859
Biblical Hebrew with the exact same scientific,

407
00:18:21,099 --> 00:18:24,180
philological precision that Muslim scholars applied

408
00:18:24,180 --> 00:18:27,299
to Quranic Arabic. And this birthed the Peshat

409
00:18:27,299 --> 00:18:30,059
movement. Peshat meaning the plain, literal,

410
00:18:30,259 --> 00:18:34,480
contextual meaning of the text. Yes. It's really

411
00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:36,240
important to clarify what literal means here.

412
00:18:36,299 --> 00:18:38,519
It does not mean modern fundamentalist literalism.

413
00:18:38,559 --> 00:18:40,119
Right. They aren't reading it like a science

414
00:18:40,119 --> 00:18:42,720
textbook. Exactly. It means reading a text according

415
00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:45,599
to the strict rules of its own grammar and its

416
00:18:45,599 --> 00:18:48,279
own historical context. You start to see Jewish

417
00:18:48,279 --> 00:18:51,920
scholars systematically analyzing the tricontinental

418
00:18:51,920 --> 00:18:54,720
roots of Hebrew words. They are comparing rare,

419
00:18:54,900 --> 00:18:58,339
obscure Hebrew words in the Bible to Arabic cognates

420
00:18:58,339 --> 00:19:00,660
just to figure out what they actually mean. So

421
00:19:00,660 --> 00:19:03,039
we see heavy hitters like Syediyah Gion in the

422
00:19:03,039 --> 00:19:05,779
East and later Abraham Ibn Ezra in Spain really

423
00:19:05,779 --> 00:19:07,920
pioneering this rational approach. But I want

424
00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:09,240
to make sure I'm hearing you correctly. Are you

425
00:19:09,240 --> 00:19:10,920
saying that Jewish scholars actually learned

426
00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:13,059
how to read the Torah differently by watching

427
00:19:13,059 --> 00:19:16,579
how Muslims read the Koran? Yes. Emphatically,

428
00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:19,500
yes. The methodological tools used for Islamic

429
00:19:19,500 --> 00:19:23,880
Koranic exegesis literally goaded Jewish scholars

430
00:19:23,880 --> 00:19:26,440
into creating the science of Hebrew grammar.

431
00:19:26,599 --> 00:19:29,289
That's amazing. Without the pressure of the Islamic

432
00:19:29,289 --> 00:19:31,789
intellectual environment, the Jewish Peshat movement,

433
00:19:32,009 --> 00:19:34,950
basically the very way we understand the grammatical

434
00:19:34,950 --> 00:19:37,950
reality of the Hebrew Bible today, it would not

435
00:19:37,950 --> 00:19:39,950
exist in the form that it does. That is just

436
00:19:39,950 --> 00:19:42,049
a staggering level of intellectual intimacy.

437
00:19:42,170 --> 00:19:44,630
And we actually see this exact same dynamic playing

438
00:19:44,630 --> 00:19:47,049
out in the realm of law, too. Gideon Libson's

439
00:19:47,049 --> 00:19:49,650
research in the book on Jewish law, The Halakha,

440
00:19:49,789 --> 00:19:53,009
shows how Jewish courts absorbed Islamic legal

441
00:19:53,009 --> 00:19:55,730
jargon and practical mechanisms. Yeah, and that

442
00:19:55,730 --> 00:19:57,309
was just a matter of pure economic survival.

443
00:19:57,759 --> 00:20:00,039
How so? Well, the Talmud, which is the foundational

444
00:20:00,039 --> 00:20:02,339
text of Jewish law finalized around the 6th century,

445
00:20:02,519 --> 00:20:05,079
was designed for a largely agrarian society.

446
00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:08,420
Farmers and shepherds. Right. It's property laws

447
00:20:08,420 --> 00:20:11,640
deal with, you know, oxen goring cows, dividing

448
00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:14,559
crop yields, resolving disputes over local water

449
00:20:14,559 --> 00:20:18,559
rights. But the medieval Islamic empire was a

450
00:20:18,559 --> 00:20:22,380
vast, highly urbanized commercial network. It

451
00:20:22,380 --> 00:20:24,960
was an empire of wealthy merchants trading from

452
00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:27,740
Spain. all the way to India. Give me a concrete

453
00:20:27,740 --> 00:20:31,000
example of the Talmud failing a medieval merchant.

454
00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:33,519
Like, why couldn't they just use the old agrarian

455
00:20:33,519 --> 00:20:35,900
laws for a new business? Because agrarian laws

456
00:20:35,900 --> 00:20:39,019
fundamentally rely on physical proximity. If

457
00:20:39,019 --> 00:20:40,799
I want to buy your field in the Talmud, I can

458
00:20:40,799 --> 00:20:42,880
physically walk over to it, hand you money, and

459
00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:44,900
perform an act of acquisition on the dirt. Right.

460
00:20:45,039 --> 00:20:47,200
But what happens if a Jewish merchant in Cairo

461
00:20:47,200 --> 00:20:49,740
wants to purchase a massive shipment of silk

462
00:20:49,740 --> 00:20:52,680
from a partner in Baghdad? The Talmud had very

463
00:20:52,680 --> 00:20:55,440
limited, really clunky mechanisms for authorizing

464
00:20:55,440 --> 00:20:57,759
a distant agent or transferring debt without

465
00:20:57,759 --> 00:21:01,019
physical coins changing hands. So the rigid agrarian

466
00:21:01,019 --> 00:21:03,259
laws were basically choking international trade

467
00:21:03,259 --> 00:21:05,640
for Jewish merchants. Exactly. So how did the

468
00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:08,160
Jewish legal theorists fix it? They did what

469
00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:10,740
they always did in this era. They looked out

470
00:21:10,740 --> 00:21:13,180
the window at the Islamic marketplace and just

471
00:21:13,180 --> 00:21:16,099
adopted their tools. The most famous example

472
00:21:16,099 --> 00:21:19,279
is the Suftaja. Ah, the Suftaja. How does that

473
00:21:19,279 --> 00:21:21,859
work mechanically? It is essentially a medieval

474
00:21:21,859 --> 00:21:25,039
letter of credit or a bill of exchange. Say you

475
00:21:25,039 --> 00:21:27,940
are a merchant traveling from Cairo to Damascus.

476
00:21:28,420 --> 00:21:31,400
You do not want to carry a heavy chest of gold

477
00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:34,400
dinars through the desert on a camel where you

478
00:21:34,400 --> 00:21:36,740
will absolutely be robbed. Right. Bad idea. So

479
00:21:36,740 --> 00:21:38,500
instead, you deposit your gold with a trusted

480
00:21:38,500 --> 00:21:41,299
banker in Cairo. The banker writes you a suftaja,

481
00:21:41,420 --> 00:21:43,819
legally binding note. You just carry this light

482
00:21:43,819 --> 00:21:45,920
piece of paper to Damascus, present it to the

483
00:21:45,920 --> 00:21:48,539
banker's partner there, and he gives you the

484
00:21:48,539 --> 00:21:51,220
gold. It's literally a traveler's check. It is

485
00:21:51,220 --> 00:21:53,640
exactly a traveler's check. Yeah. Now, Islamic

486
00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:56,099
law had already developed a complex legal framework

487
00:21:56,099 --> 00:21:59,279
to make the suftaja enforceable in court. Jewish

488
00:21:59,279 --> 00:22:01,460
law absorbed this framework almost entirely.

489
00:22:01,779 --> 00:22:03,619
Even though it's not in the Talmud. Even though

490
00:22:03,619 --> 00:22:06,279
the suftaja isn't explicitly found anywhere in

491
00:22:06,279 --> 00:22:09,490
the Talmud, the jinnim, the heads of the Jewish

492
00:22:09,490 --> 00:22:13,250
academies, they issued rulings validating it

493
00:22:13,250 --> 00:22:15,990
under Jewish law anyway. They use legal fictions

494
00:22:15,990 --> 00:22:19,480
and this concept of customary law to... integrate

495
00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:21,940
Islamic commercial mechanisms into their own

496
00:22:21,940 --> 00:22:24,240
courts. And if they hadn't done that? If they

497
00:22:24,240 --> 00:22:26,380
hadn't, Jewish merchants would have been forced

498
00:22:26,380 --> 00:22:29,180
to abandon Jewish courts and use Islamic courts

499
00:22:29,180 --> 00:22:32,460
to run their businesses. which over time would

500
00:22:32,460 --> 00:22:34,380
have eventually dissolved the community's autonomy

501
00:22:34,380 --> 00:22:37,559
altogether. Wow. OK, let's unpack this, because

502
00:22:37,559 --> 00:22:40,019
so far we are painting a picture of just total

503
00:22:40,019 --> 00:22:43,420
harmony, right? We have Jews writing Arabic poetry.

504
00:22:43,599 --> 00:22:45,680
They're using Islamic grammar rules to read the

505
00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:47,660
Bible. They're adopting Islamic banking laws.

506
00:22:47,920 --> 00:22:50,640
It sounds idyllic. It does. But living that intimately,

507
00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:53,099
sharing that much intellectual space, it inevitably

508
00:22:53,099 --> 00:22:55,920
creates friction. Oh, absolutely. And that brings

509
00:22:55,920 --> 00:22:58,099
us to the polemics and interreligious debates

510
00:22:58,099 --> 00:23:01,049
discussed in Hegem Azouz's chapter. Now, I do

511
00:23:01,049 --> 00:23:03,170
want to throw out a crucial note of impartiality

512
00:23:03,170 --> 00:23:05,430
here for the listener. Good idea. Our goal today

513
00:23:05,430 --> 00:23:08,930
is objectively reporting and analyzing the historical

514
00:23:08,930 --> 00:23:12,230
reality of these texts. We are absolutely not

515
00:23:12,230 --> 00:23:15,170
taking sides or validating the theological claims

516
00:23:15,170 --> 00:23:17,890
of either Muslims or Jews. We are just looking

517
00:23:17,890 --> 00:23:20,069
at the history of what they wrote to each other.

518
00:23:20,130 --> 00:23:22,430
Right, strictly the historical record. which

519
00:23:22,430 --> 00:23:25,349
shows a robust, often very fierce tradition of

520
00:23:25,349 --> 00:23:28,230
polemical writing between Muslim and Jewish intellectuals.

521
00:23:28,230 --> 00:23:30,670
So what were the actual arguments being made

522
00:23:30,670 --> 00:23:34,150
on the ground? Muslim polemicists primarily focused

523
00:23:34,150 --> 00:23:36,650
on two major arguments regarding the Hebrew Bible.

524
00:23:36,990 --> 00:23:39,930
The first was Tarif, which is the accusation

525
00:23:39,930 --> 00:23:41,630
of falsification. Okay, meaning they changed

526
00:23:41,630 --> 00:23:44,509
the text. Yes. They argued that the Jewish community

527
00:23:44,509 --> 00:23:47,069
had deliberately altered or corrupted the text

528
00:23:47,069 --> 00:23:49,609
of the Bible over the centuries. And that, they

529
00:23:49,609 --> 00:23:51,609
claimed, is why the Bible didn't perfectly align

530
00:23:51,609 --> 00:23:54,130
with the Quran. Got it. And the second argument?

531
00:23:54,329 --> 00:23:56,569
The second argument was Bashrat, which translates

532
00:23:56,569 --> 00:24:00,299
to glad tidings. Muslim scholars scoured the

533
00:24:00,299 --> 00:24:02,480
Hebrew Bible and argued that despite all the

534
00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:04,660
alleged corruptions, there were still hidden

535
00:24:04,660 --> 00:24:06,960
prophecies in there predicting the arrival of

536
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:09,420
the Prophet Muhammad. Okay. And Jewish authors

537
00:24:09,420 --> 00:24:11,759
obviously wrote counterpolemics pushing back

538
00:24:11,759 --> 00:24:14,319
against both of those claims. Vigorously. They

539
00:24:14,319 --> 00:24:16,500
rigorously defended the textual transmission

540
00:24:16,500 --> 00:24:19,039
of the Torah to counter the Tarif accusation.

541
00:24:19,119 --> 00:24:22,940
And they offered these intense, granular, philological

542
00:24:22,940 --> 00:24:26,200
rebuttals to the verses Muslims claimed were

543
00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:28,759
prophecies of Muhammad. But, you know, there's

544
00:24:28,759 --> 00:24:31,079
a massive power dynamic here that dictates how

545
00:24:31,079 --> 00:24:33,960
these texts were written. The danger factor cannot

546
00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:36,700
be overstated. Under Islamic law at the time.

547
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:39,160
blaspheming the prophet Muhammad or insulting

548
00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:41,480
the religion of Islam was a capital offense.

549
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:44,240
You could be executed. Yes. So it was exceptionally

550
00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:47,059
dangerous for a Jewish scholar to write a public,

551
00:24:47,119 --> 00:24:50,220
open attack on Islamic theology meant for Muslim

552
00:24:50,220 --> 00:24:53,140
eyes. Right. So as Mazuz points out in his chapter,

553
00:24:53,319 --> 00:24:55,480
a huge portion of what we categorize as Jewish

554
00:24:55,480 --> 00:24:57,380
polemics were actually apologetics. They were

555
00:24:57,380 --> 00:24:59,539
entirely inward facing. They were written in

556
00:24:59,539 --> 00:25:02,079
Hebrew or Judeo -Arabic specifically for a Jewish

557
00:25:02,079 --> 00:25:05,150
audience. The goal was almost never to convince

558
00:25:05,150 --> 00:25:07,750
a Muslim scholar that Islam was wrong. The goal

559
00:25:07,750 --> 00:25:10,250
was to stop internal brain drain. Brain drain,

560
00:25:10,430 --> 00:25:13,170
exactly. Because when you are a minority living

561
00:25:13,170 --> 00:25:15,750
in this massive empire where the majority culture

562
00:25:15,750 --> 00:25:18,589
holds all the political power, controls all the

563
00:25:18,589 --> 00:25:21,089
wealth, and is producing this brilliant cutting

564
00:25:21,089 --> 00:25:24,509
edge science and philosophy. The temptation to

565
00:25:24,509 --> 00:25:26,730
assimilate and convert to Islam is overwhelming.

566
00:25:27,230 --> 00:25:29,730
It has to be. So these apologetic texts were

567
00:25:29,730 --> 00:25:33,250
survival tools. A rabbi would write a detailed,

568
00:25:33,329 --> 00:25:36,250
highly intellectual defense of Judaism not to

569
00:25:36,250 --> 00:25:39,109
hand to a Muslim cleric, but to hand to a young

570
00:25:39,630 --> 00:25:42,190
brilliant Jewish student who was wavering. To

571
00:25:42,190 --> 00:25:44,529
convince him that his ancestral tradition could

572
00:25:44,529 --> 00:25:46,410
hold its own against the intellectual giants

573
00:25:46,410 --> 00:25:48,670
of the Islamic world. Exactly. To say, look,

574
00:25:48,789 --> 00:25:51,490
we have rationalism too. But this immense pressure

575
00:25:51,490 --> 00:25:54,470
for intellectual rigor, this new demand for rationalism,

576
00:25:54,470 --> 00:25:56,509
for grammatical precision, for logical defense,

577
00:25:56,690 --> 00:25:58,869
it didn't just cause friction with the outside

578
00:25:58,869 --> 00:26:01,690
world. It actually caused earth shattering fractures

579
00:26:01,690 --> 00:26:04,509
within the Jewish community itself. Oh, massive

580
00:26:04,509 --> 00:26:07,349
fractures. When you have an entire society that

581
00:26:07,349 --> 00:26:09,529
becomes completely obsessed with reading texts

582
00:26:09,529 --> 00:26:12,630
closely and grammatically, it is absolutely inevitable

583
00:26:12,630 --> 00:26:14,549
that they will start arguing with each other

584
00:26:14,549 --> 00:26:16,710
about exactly what those texts mean. Right. You

585
00:26:16,710 --> 00:26:18,970
give everyone the tools of critique and they

586
00:26:18,970 --> 00:26:20,990
start critiquing the leadership. And this brings

587
00:26:20,990 --> 00:26:24,289
us to the rebels, the sectarians and the alternative

588
00:26:24,289 --> 00:26:27,190
Judaisms of the medieval era. Yes. The biggest,

589
00:26:27,269 --> 00:26:31,039
most consequential rebellion was Karenism. Haggai

590
00:26:31,039 --> 00:26:33,640
Ben Shammai's chapter outlines the schism, and

591
00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:35,680
it really threatened to tear Judaism in half.

592
00:26:35,759 --> 00:26:38,519
It was a very real threat. So to understand Quranism,

593
00:26:38,539 --> 00:26:41,000
I feel like we need a baseline first. The mainstream

594
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:43,819
Jewish establishment was Rabbinite. Rabbinites

595
00:26:43,819 --> 00:26:46,039
believe in the dual revelation at Sinai, right?

596
00:26:46,220 --> 00:26:49,380
So Moses received the written Torah, but he also

597
00:26:49,380 --> 00:26:52,259
received an oral law, which was eventually codified

598
00:26:52,259 --> 00:26:55,319
by the rabbis into the Mishnah and the Talmud.

599
00:26:55,460 --> 00:26:58,480
Right. And for a Rabbinite... You cannot understand

600
00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:01,000
the written Bible without the rabbinic oral law

601
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:03,079
interpreting it for you. The two are locked together.

602
00:27:03,319 --> 00:27:05,579
Okay, so then the Karaites come along. The Karaites

603
00:27:05,579 --> 00:27:07,420
looked at the rabbinic establishment. They looked

604
00:27:07,420 --> 00:27:09,880
at the Talmud, and they essentially said, no,

605
00:27:10,140 --> 00:27:12,920
the Talmud is not divine. It is the invention

606
00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:16,480
of men. Wow. We reject rabbinic authority entirely,

607
00:27:16,660 --> 00:27:18,619
and we are returning strictly to the written

608
00:27:18,619 --> 00:27:21,670
text of the Hebrew Bible. I mean, it is the exact

609
00:27:21,670 --> 00:27:25,250
same theological impulse as the Protestant Reformation,

610
00:27:25,450 --> 00:27:28,430
just happening 700 years earlier in the Islamic

611
00:27:28,430 --> 00:27:30,950
world. It's a sola scriptura movement scripture

612
00:27:30,950 --> 00:27:33,390
alone. That's a perfect parallel. But I want

613
00:27:33,390 --> 00:27:35,609
to know how this actually changed their daily

614
00:27:35,609 --> 00:27:38,309
lives on the ground. If a Kararite and a Rabbinite

615
00:27:38,309 --> 00:27:41,230
are living on the exact same street, how does

616
00:27:41,230 --> 00:27:44,309
this theological split manifest physically? The

617
00:27:44,309 --> 00:27:46,910
most glaring everyday example is the observance

618
00:27:46,910 --> 00:27:49,690
of Shabbat, the Sabbath. The written Torah explicitly

619
00:27:49,690 --> 00:27:52,349
commands you shall kindle no fire throughout

620
00:27:52,349 --> 00:27:54,430
your settlements on the Sabbath day. Okay, clear

621
00:27:54,430 --> 00:27:57,670
enough. Well, the rabbinate oral law interprets

622
00:27:57,670 --> 00:27:59,569
this to mean you cannot light a new fire on the

623
00:27:59,569 --> 00:28:02,210
Sabbath. But if you light a fire or a lamp on

624
00:28:02,210 --> 00:28:04,289
Friday afternoon before the Sabbath officially

625
00:28:04,289 --> 00:28:07,710
begins, you can let it burn. And you can enjoy

626
00:28:07,710 --> 00:28:10,029
the light and the warmth all through Friday night.

627
00:28:10,170 --> 00:28:13,049
Which makes Friday night dinner this warm, brightly

628
00:28:13,049 --> 00:28:17,130
lit family affair. Exactly. But early Karaites,

629
00:28:17,130 --> 00:28:19,650
applying a strict literal grammatical reading

630
00:28:19,650 --> 00:28:22,450
to that exact same verse, they argued that the

631
00:28:22,450 --> 00:28:24,869
presence of any burning fire in your home on

632
00:28:24,869 --> 00:28:27,410
the Sabbath, regardless of when it was lit, was

633
00:28:27,410 --> 00:28:30,369
a violation of the Torah. Oh no, so they spent

634
00:28:30,369 --> 00:28:32,789
Friday night sitting in the pitch dark. Sitting

635
00:28:32,789 --> 00:28:36,130
in the pitch dark and eating cold food. That

636
00:28:36,130 --> 00:28:39,250
is intense. It was, and the differences extended

637
00:28:39,250 --> 00:28:42,569
to marriage laws, dietary restrictions, and probably

638
00:28:42,569 --> 00:28:45,970
most disruptively, The calendar. How so? Because

639
00:28:45,970 --> 00:28:47,809
Kariais rejected the rabbinic mathematically

640
00:28:47,809 --> 00:28:50,470
calculated calendar. They insisted on actually

641
00:28:50,470 --> 00:28:52,769
observing the physical new moon in the sky to

642
00:28:52,769 --> 00:28:55,230
determine the start of months. Because of that,

643
00:28:55,369 --> 00:28:57,869
Kariais and rabbinites frequently ended up celebrating

644
00:28:57,869 --> 00:29:00,849
major holidays like Passover or Yom Kippur on

645
00:29:00,849 --> 00:29:03,170
completely different days. That is a logistical

646
00:29:03,170 --> 00:29:05,769
nightmare for a community. It really was. And

647
00:29:05,769 --> 00:29:07,630
the polemics between the two groups were vicious.

648
00:29:07,890 --> 00:29:10,210
The rabbinites excommunicated them. The Kariais

649
00:29:10,210 --> 00:29:12,950
called the rabbis heretics. If you only read

650
00:29:12,950 --> 00:29:15,269
the theological treatises, you would think these

651
00:29:15,269 --> 00:29:17,670
two groups were just constantly at each other's

652
00:29:17,670 --> 00:29:20,109
throats in the streets having gang wars. Right,

653
00:29:20,150 --> 00:29:21,990
but this is exactly why social history is so

654
00:29:21,990 --> 00:29:25,289
vital. The reality on the ground was a massive

655
00:29:25,289 --> 00:29:28,430
plot twist. Yes. The social reality completely

656
00:29:28,430 --> 00:29:31,970
contradicts the elite theological warfare. Because

657
00:29:31,970 --> 00:29:34,950
despite all those bitter polemics, charism actually

658
00:29:34,950 --> 00:29:38,190
grew into a very powerful, wealthy movement.

659
00:29:38,309 --> 00:29:41,609
It did. By the 11th century, elite Karaites held

660
00:29:41,609 --> 00:29:43,710
immense political power in the Fatimid court

661
00:29:43,710 --> 00:29:46,390
in Egypt. And interestingly, they used that power

662
00:29:46,390 --> 00:29:48,910
to advocate for and protect the entire Jewish

663
00:29:48,910 --> 00:29:51,309
community, Rabbinites included, which doesn't

664
00:29:51,309 --> 00:29:53,390
fit the narrative of a blood feud. Not at all.

665
00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:56,440
But the detail that just proves how porous these

666
00:29:56,440 --> 00:29:58,779
boundaries really were is the marriage contracts.

667
00:29:59,039 --> 00:30:02,180
We have actual physical legal documents from

668
00:30:02,180 --> 00:30:04,940
the Geniza proving that rabbinites and karyites

669
00:30:04,940 --> 00:30:07,259
intermarried frequently. The pragmatism of these

670
00:30:07,259 --> 00:30:10,019
documents is just astounding to read. We have

671
00:30:10,019 --> 00:30:12,359
these marriage contracts outlining exactly how

672
00:30:12,359 --> 00:30:15,259
a karyite husband and a rabbinite wife are going

673
00:30:15,259 --> 00:30:17,259
to manage their conflicting religious obligations

674
00:30:17,259 --> 00:30:21,160
under one single roof. It's like an ancient prenup.

675
00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:24,930
It is. The husband explicitly agrees not to force

676
00:30:24,930 --> 00:30:27,549
his wife to eat meat that was slaughtered according

677
00:30:27,549 --> 00:30:30,390
to a Karaite law. And the wife agrees to respect

678
00:30:30,390 --> 00:30:33,190
the Karaite calendar for holiday observance within

679
00:30:33,190 --> 00:30:35,430
the household. It just demonstrates this incredible

680
00:30:35,430 --> 00:30:38,470
level of daily tolerance and domestic compromise

681
00:30:38,470 --> 00:30:41,410
that the screaming theologians writing the polemics

682
00:30:41,410 --> 00:30:44,009
completely ignored. They were just figuring out

683
00:30:44,009 --> 00:30:46,180
how to live together. I just love the mental

684
00:30:46,180 --> 00:30:48,279
image of that. You know, the highest ranking

685
00:30:48,279 --> 00:30:50,559
scholars are in their studies writing furious

686
00:30:50,559 --> 00:30:52,660
treatises condemning each other to hell. And

687
00:30:52,660 --> 00:30:55,640
meanwhile, a Karyite and a Rabbanite are sitting

688
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:57,859
in a kitchen trying to negotiate who is cooking

689
00:30:57,859 --> 00:31:00,680
on a Tuesday. Exactly. Real life always wins

690
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:03,839
out. It does. But Karyism was just the most successful

691
00:31:03,839 --> 00:31:06,910
splinter group, right? Fred Astrin's chapter

692
00:31:06,910 --> 00:31:10,490
dives into the messianic and charismatic sects

693
00:31:10,490 --> 00:31:12,349
that erupted during this time as well. Yeah,

694
00:31:12,369 --> 00:31:14,869
we see the rise of these really radical groups

695
00:31:14,869 --> 00:31:18,250
following figures like Abu Isa of Isfahan or

696
00:31:18,250 --> 00:31:20,730
the Uganiya. Where were they popping up? Usually

697
00:31:20,730 --> 00:31:22,809
on the eastern frontier of the Islamic empire

698
00:31:22,809 --> 00:31:26,970
in places like Persia. Abu Isa actually claimed

699
00:31:26,970 --> 00:31:29,109
to be a prophet and a forerunner to the Messiah.

700
00:31:29,650 --> 00:31:32,710
And he even led an armed Jewish rebellion against

701
00:31:32,710 --> 00:31:35,430
the Abbasid caliphate in the 8th century. Let

702
00:31:35,430 --> 00:31:37,970
me guess, it didn't go well. Which was predictably

703
00:31:37,970 --> 00:31:41,910
crushed, yes. But why then and why there? What

704
00:31:41,910 --> 00:31:44,970
was it about this specific era that produced

705
00:31:44,970 --> 00:31:49,069
armed Jewish messianic sects? Estrin points to

706
00:31:49,069 --> 00:31:51,630
the vast connectivity of the Islamic empire as

707
00:31:51,630 --> 00:31:54,529
the catalyst. The empire had created these unprecedented

708
00:31:54,529 --> 00:31:56,869
trade routes spanning from Spain all the way

709
00:31:56,869 --> 00:31:59,950
to Central Asia. Ideas, news, and apocalyptic

710
00:31:59,950 --> 00:32:01,950
rumors traveled along these Silk Road networks

711
00:32:01,950 --> 00:32:04,410
rapidly. So information is moving faster than

712
00:32:04,410 --> 00:32:07,089
ever. Yes. But more importantly, the Jewish communities

713
00:32:07,089 --> 00:32:09,569
were actively absorbing the messianic anxieties

714
00:32:09,569 --> 00:32:11,109
of their Muslim neighbors. Oh, you're talking

715
00:32:11,109 --> 00:32:13,569
about Shi 'i Islam. Yes, exactly. Shi 'i Islam

716
00:32:13,569 --> 00:32:16,970
has a deeply ingrained messianic component, specifically

717
00:32:16,970 --> 00:32:19,509
surrounding the concept of the Mahdi, the hidden

718
00:32:19,509 --> 00:32:22,349
imam, who will return at the end of days to restore

719
00:32:22,349 --> 00:32:25,829
justice. This intense apocalyptic energy within

720
00:32:25,829 --> 00:32:29,109
the broader Islamic culture basically bled through

721
00:32:29,109 --> 00:32:32,630
the poorest communal boundaries and sparked parallel

722
00:32:32,630 --> 00:32:36,170
Jewish apocalyptic movements. the spiritual atmosphere

723
00:32:36,170 --> 00:32:39,049
of the time was just highly contagious so what

724
00:32:39,049 --> 00:32:42,460
does this all mean Put yourself in the shoes

725
00:32:42,460 --> 00:32:45,099
of the mainstream rabbinic establishment sitting

726
00:32:45,099 --> 00:32:48,319
in Baghdad. You are facing an existential crisis

727
00:32:48,319 --> 00:32:51,640
from literally all sides. Total crisis. You have

728
00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:54,220
the mutazilite rationalists forcing you to rethink

729
00:32:54,220 --> 00:32:57,119
how you read your own Bible. You have Karait

730
00:32:57,119 --> 00:32:59,599
scripturalists actively undermining your authority

731
00:32:59,599 --> 00:33:02,640
from the inside. And you have armed messianic

732
00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:05,000
sects running around the Persian frontier. That's

733
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:07,359
a lot to handle. How did rabbinic Judaism actually

734
00:33:07,359 --> 00:33:09,819
survive this? Because they obviously did. It's

735
00:33:09,819 --> 00:33:12,119
really the central. question of the era. And

736
00:33:12,119 --> 00:33:13,720
the answer is that the rabbinic establishment

737
00:33:13,720 --> 00:33:16,339
didn't just fight back with theological arguments.

738
00:33:16,579 --> 00:33:19,099
They realized that you don't secure the loyalty

739
00:33:19,099 --> 00:33:22,559
of the common people just by winning a dry philosophical

740
00:33:22,559 --> 00:33:25,319
debate. You secure their loyalty by controlling

741
00:33:25,319 --> 00:33:28,279
the rhythm of their daily lives. Yes. They fought

742
00:33:28,279 --> 00:33:30,700
back through the sound, the space, and the shape

743
00:33:30,700 --> 00:33:32,880
of worship. They took the battle to the synagogue.

744
00:33:33,339 --> 00:33:36,119
Precisely. We see the mechanics of this in the

745
00:33:36,119 --> 00:33:39,359
chapters by Stephan C. Ray Fantova Beery on Liturgy

746
00:33:39,359 --> 00:33:42,599
Impute. Before this era, Jewish prayer was actually

747
00:33:42,599 --> 00:33:44,680
somewhat fluid. There was a general structure,

748
00:33:44,779 --> 00:33:47,900
sure, but local communities had a lot of leeway

749
00:33:47,900 --> 00:33:49,920
in how they actually prayed. They just kind of

750
00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:52,319
did their own thing. Right. But the Babylonian

751
00:33:52,319 --> 00:33:54,339
academies, which were the seat of rabbinic power,

752
00:33:54,660 --> 00:33:57,119
they realized that to cement their authority

753
00:33:57,119 --> 00:33:59,819
over a diaspora that was now scattered from Spain

754
00:33:59,819 --> 00:34:03,140
to India, they needed standardization. They needed

755
00:34:03,140 --> 00:34:05,759
everyone on the exact same page. So figures like

756
00:34:05,759 --> 00:34:09,010
Amram Gowan and our old friend Seyadiogon. they

757
00:34:09,010 --> 00:34:12,309
started compiling the first comprehensive, authoritative

758
00:34:12,309 --> 00:34:15,050
prayer books, the Sitterim. They were essentially

759
00:34:15,050 --> 00:34:17,409
creating a communal tether. They would say, look,

760
00:34:17,530 --> 00:34:19,989
no matter where you live, if you want to be part

761
00:34:19,989 --> 00:34:22,750
of the true mainstream rabbinic community, this

762
00:34:22,750 --> 00:34:25,050
is the exact order of prayers you must recite.

763
00:34:25,510 --> 00:34:28,050
It was a mechanism of centralized control. I

764
00:34:28,050 --> 00:34:29,510
see your point, but let me push back on that

765
00:34:29,510 --> 00:34:31,780
a little bit. Did it actually work? I mean, human

766
00:34:31,780 --> 00:34:34,159
beings generally hate being told exactly what

767
00:34:34,159 --> 00:34:36,139
to do, especially when it comes to local traditions.

768
00:34:36,579 --> 00:34:39,599
Did the communities in Egypt and Spain just quietly

769
00:34:39,599 --> 00:34:42,619
accept the Babylonian prayer book and stop improvising?

770
00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:45,340
They accepted the core structure, yes, but they

771
00:34:45,340 --> 00:34:48,289
violently resisted the rigidity. And they resisted

772
00:34:48,289 --> 00:34:50,510
it through piyut, which is liturgical poetry.

773
00:34:51,409 --> 00:34:53,929
Tova Biri notes this incredible statistic in

774
00:34:53,929 --> 00:34:57,570
her chapter. An estimated 40 % of all the poetry

775
00:34:57,570 --> 00:35:00,429
documents found in the Cairo Genizah are piyutim.

776
00:35:00,570 --> 00:35:03,989
40 %! That is a staggering volume of poetry.

777
00:35:04,150 --> 00:35:06,969
It really is. It shows that local cantors, the

778
00:35:06,969 --> 00:35:09,429
Hasanim, absolutely refused to just read from

779
00:35:09,429 --> 00:35:11,690
a standardized script. The Hazen was basically

780
00:35:11,690 --> 00:35:14,210
a performer, right? Like a local rock star. Exactly.

781
00:35:14,389 --> 00:35:16,409
They would take the standard Babylonian prayer

782
00:35:16,409 --> 00:35:18,730
and right in the middle of it, they would seamlessly

783
00:35:18,730 --> 00:35:21,909
weave in these complex, beautiful, entirely original

784
00:35:21,909 --> 00:35:24,329
Hebrew poems that they wrote for that specific

785
00:35:24,329 --> 00:35:27,289
week or for a specific local holiday. So the

786
00:35:27,289 --> 00:35:30,159
synagogue service wasn't a static reading. It

787
00:35:30,159 --> 00:35:33,800
was a dynamic, highly auditory spectacle of local

788
00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:36,940
improvisation, specifically pushing back against

789
00:35:36,940 --> 00:35:39,900
central authority. Yes. And this dynamic liturgy

790
00:35:39,900 --> 00:35:42,900
was also subject to the intense cross -pollination

791
00:35:42,900 --> 00:35:45,579
we've been tracking everywhere else. I'm thinking

792
00:35:45,579 --> 00:35:48,800
specifically of Abraham Maimonides in 13th century

793
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:52,260
Egypt. He is the son of the famous Moses Maimonides.

794
00:35:52,460 --> 00:35:55,500
Right. And he actually institutes reforms to

795
00:35:55,500 --> 00:35:57,940
physically change how Jews pray in the synagogue.

796
00:35:58,260 --> 00:36:00,920
Tell me about the pietist reforms. So he looked

797
00:36:00,920 --> 00:36:03,860
around the synagogue in Egypt and was just appalled

798
00:36:03,860 --> 00:36:06,119
by the lack of decorum. People were chatting,

799
00:36:06,139 --> 00:36:07,760
walking around, not really paying attention.

800
00:36:07,940 --> 00:36:10,280
Typical synagogue stuff, honestly. Exactly. So

801
00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:12,780
he instituted strict rules. Yeah. Everyone facing

802
00:36:12,780 --> 00:36:15,159
a certain direction, standing in ordered rows,

803
00:36:15,380 --> 00:36:17,800
and most radically incorporating full physical

804
00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:20,199
prostrations during the prayers. Like kneeling

805
00:36:20,199 --> 00:36:22,159
and bowing until your face touches the floor.

806
00:36:22,260 --> 00:36:24,519
Yes, exactly like that. And where did he get

807
00:36:24,519 --> 00:36:26,659
the idea for these physical prostrations? Let

808
00:36:26,659 --> 00:36:29,329
me guess. Directly from observing Sufi Muslim

809
00:36:29,329 --> 00:36:32,869
practices, he witnessed the intense, disciplined,

810
00:36:33,269 --> 00:36:36,289
highly physical devotion of Sufi ascetics and

811
00:36:36,289 --> 00:36:39,289
was just deeply moved by it. But didn't he see

812
00:36:39,289 --> 00:36:41,610
that as borrowing from a foreign religion? No,

813
00:36:41,630 --> 00:36:43,409
this is the brilliant part. He didn't see it

814
00:36:43,409 --> 00:36:46,030
that way at all. He convinced himself that these

815
00:36:46,030 --> 00:36:48,630
physical postures were actually ancient Jewish

816
00:36:48,630 --> 00:36:51,369
temple practices that the Jews had simply forgotten

817
00:36:51,369 --> 00:36:54,070
while in exile and that the Sufis had just happened

818
00:36:54,070 --> 00:36:56,360
to preserve them. Wow. So he was trying to reclaim

819
00:36:56,360 --> 00:36:59,039
ancient Jewish piety using an Islamic blueprint.

820
00:36:59,380 --> 00:37:01,880
Exactly. And this blending wasn't just auditory

821
00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:04,119
or physical, right? It was highly visual. The

822
00:37:04,119 --> 00:37:06,340
physical space of the synagogue itself reflected

823
00:37:06,340 --> 00:37:10,019
this interwoven reality. The chapters by Vivian

824
00:37:10,019 --> 00:37:12,320
B. Mann and Shalom Sabar on material culture

825
00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:15,039
and art are just breathtaking. They really are.

826
00:37:15,099 --> 00:37:17,480
When you look at the surviving synagogues built

827
00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:20,469
in Spain. during this era, like the ones in Toledo,

828
00:37:20,610 --> 00:37:23,309
they are designed in the Mudijar style. Meaning

829
00:37:23,309 --> 00:37:26,150
they utilize the exact same architectural vocabulary

830
00:37:26,150 --> 00:37:29,110
as the grand Islamic mosques and palaces of the

831
00:37:29,110 --> 00:37:32,130
region? Yes. They have the horseshoe arches,

832
00:37:32,289 --> 00:37:35,889
the intricate lace -like stucco work, the gorgeous

833
00:37:35,889 --> 00:37:39,050
wooden ceilings with geometric patterns. Literally,

834
00:37:39,050 --> 00:37:42,010
if you removed the Hebrew inscriptions from the

835
00:37:42,010 --> 00:37:44,730
walls, you would swear you were standing in an

836
00:37:44,730 --> 00:37:47,210
Islamic building. They didn't retreat into some

837
00:37:47,210 --> 00:37:50,780
distinct... insular, purely Jewish architectural

838
00:37:50,780 --> 00:37:53,920
style. They just used the highest, most prestigious

839
00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:56,820
visual language available in their society. Why

840
00:37:56,820 --> 00:37:59,000
wouldn't they? It was beautiful. Right. But I

841
00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:00,380
want to go back to the hook we started with,

842
00:38:00,500 --> 00:38:02,320
the detail that absolutely short circuits my

843
00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:06,280
brain. The 13th century responsum by the rabbi

844
00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:09,420
Asher B. Jehiel. Ah, yes. The Kaaba rug. The

845
00:38:09,420 --> 00:38:12,239
Kaaba rug. So he is writing a legal answer regarding

846
00:38:12,239 --> 00:38:14,760
synagogue practices, and he just casually reveals

847
00:38:14,760 --> 00:38:17,099
that in some synagogues they are placing prayer

848
00:38:17,099 --> 00:38:20,179
rugs flanking the Torah Ark. Now, using prayer

849
00:38:20,179 --> 00:38:22,340
rugs in a synagogue is already a massive Islamic

850
00:38:22,340 --> 00:38:24,760
influence. Definitely. But it goes further. He

851
00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:27,179
notes that these specific rugs had woven images

852
00:38:27,179 --> 00:38:30,239
of the Kaaba, the black cube in Mecca, the ultimate

853
00:38:30,239 --> 00:38:32,480
center of Islamic worship, directly on them.

854
00:38:32,579 --> 00:38:34,420
Yes, sitting right next to the Torah. I have

855
00:38:34,420 --> 00:38:36,460
to play skeptic here for a minute. Are we sure

856
00:38:36,460 --> 00:38:39,139
this is a profound statement of cultural blending?

857
00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:42,679
Is it possible the synagogue caretakers just,

858
00:38:42,800 --> 00:38:45,519
you know, went down to the local bazaar, bought

859
00:38:45,519 --> 00:38:48,340
a stack of high -quality prayer rugs on a discount,

860
00:38:48,579 --> 00:38:51,500
and didn't really care or notice what was woven

861
00:38:51,500 --> 00:38:54,659
into the background pattern? That's a great skeptical

862
00:38:54,659 --> 00:38:57,659
question. Yeah. But Asher B. Jehiel's writings

863
00:38:57,659 --> 00:39:00,840
suggest this was absolutely not accidental ignorance.

864
00:39:01,199 --> 00:39:04,909
He is deliberately evaluating the the Jewish

865
00:39:04,909 --> 00:39:07,590
legal permissibility of having these specific

866
00:39:07,590 --> 00:39:11,130
images near the Torah. Ah, so the debate itself

867
00:39:11,130 --> 00:39:13,170
proves they knew exactly what the imagery was.

868
00:39:13,369 --> 00:39:15,590
Exactly. The fact that the congregants weren't

869
00:39:15,590 --> 00:39:17,550
instantly repulsed or threatened by having the

870
00:39:17,550 --> 00:39:19,989
holiest symbol of Islam inches away from their

871
00:39:19,989 --> 00:39:22,739
Torah scrolls tells us something profound. What

872
00:39:22,739 --> 00:39:24,679
does it tell us? It implies they viewed this

873
00:39:24,679 --> 00:39:27,239
Islamic iconography not as a radioactive religious

874
00:39:27,239 --> 00:39:29,780
threat, but simply as a marker of high aesthetic

875
00:39:29,780 --> 00:39:33,039
value. It was just the elite visual culture of

876
00:39:33,039 --> 00:39:35,500
their shared world. It perfectly encapsulates

877
00:39:35,500 --> 00:39:38,239
the entire era because that physical blending

878
00:39:38,239 --> 00:39:40,539
in the architecture of the synagogue was merely

879
00:39:40,539 --> 00:39:43,519
a mirror reflecting the ultimate blending happening

880
00:39:43,519 --> 00:39:45,659
in the minds of the intellectual elite. Right.

881
00:39:45,699 --> 00:39:47,719
The boundaries between the physical world and

882
00:39:47,719 --> 00:39:50,119
the intellectual world were totally porous. Which

883
00:39:50,119 --> 00:39:52,500
launches us into our final and... honestly most

884
00:39:52,500 --> 00:39:56,179
expansive section, the rational mind, the magical

885
00:39:56,179 --> 00:39:59,780
amulet, and the mystical soul. We're going deep

886
00:39:59,780 --> 00:40:02,179
into the brain of the medieval Jewish intellectual.

887
00:40:02,579 --> 00:40:05,280
Let's start with philosophy, as outlined in Alfred

888
00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:08,139
L. Ivory's chapter. The Jewish engagement with

889
00:40:08,139 --> 00:40:10,460
Greek philosophy during this era was passionate

890
00:40:10,460 --> 00:40:14,000
and all -consuming. But again, they rarely accessed

891
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:16,639
Aristotle and Plato directly from Greek manuscripts.

892
00:40:16,920 --> 00:40:19,079
They received them through the interpretive lens

893
00:40:19,079 --> 00:40:22,000
of Muslim philosophers, right? Yes. like Al -Farabi

894
00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:24,460
and Avicenna, the philosophical frameworks were

895
00:40:24,460 --> 00:40:26,699
entirely shared. Give me the breakdown of how

896
00:40:26,699 --> 00:40:29,340
this actually influenced Jewish theology. We've

897
00:40:29,340 --> 00:40:32,019
mentioned Seyad Jagal on battling Kalam theology

898
00:40:32,019 --> 00:40:35,460
earlier. What exactly is Kalam and how did a

899
00:40:35,460 --> 00:40:38,519
Jewish scholar use it? Kalam is a form of Islamic

900
00:40:38,519 --> 00:40:41,460
scholastic theology. It relies heavily on strict

901
00:40:41,460 --> 00:40:45,159
logic to prove God's existence in unity. A major

902
00:40:45,159 --> 00:40:47,500
school of Kalam believed in a form of atomism

903
00:40:47,500 --> 00:40:50,360
and occasionalism. Okay. Meaning the idea that

904
00:40:50,360 --> 00:40:53,000
God is constantly recreating the universe in

905
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:56,920
every single microscopic instant. So there are

906
00:40:56,920 --> 00:40:59,619
no independent laws of nature, only God's continuous

907
00:40:59,619 --> 00:41:03,860
act of will. Zia Yagon absorbed the logical structure

908
00:41:03,860 --> 00:41:06,360
of Kalam to write his masterpiece, The Book of

909
00:41:06,360 --> 00:41:08,820
Beliefs and Opinions. He used Islamic logical

910
00:41:08,820 --> 00:41:11,300
frameworks to prove that Jewish rabbinic tradition

911
00:41:11,300 --> 00:41:14,230
was perfectly aligned with pure reason. And then

912
00:41:14,230 --> 00:41:16,150
the philosophical trends shift, right? And we

913
00:41:16,150 --> 00:41:18,730
get Neoplatonism. You have Solomon Ibn Gabarel

914
00:41:18,730 --> 00:41:21,309
in Spain writing a book called Fons Vitae, The

915
00:41:21,309 --> 00:41:23,349
Fountain of Life. Yes. And this book is purely

916
00:41:23,349 --> 00:41:25,309
philosophical. It doesn't quote Bible verses.

917
00:41:25,389 --> 00:41:27,269
It doesn't mention Jewish law. It talks entirely

918
00:41:27,269 --> 00:41:29,489
about the soul, intellect, and form and matter.

919
00:41:29,650 --> 00:41:32,010
It was translated into Latin. And for centuries,

920
00:41:32,150 --> 00:41:34,650
European scholars who read it assumed the author

921
00:41:34,650 --> 00:41:36,730
was either a Christian monk or a Muslim philosopher.

922
00:41:36,909 --> 00:41:38,690
They didn't even know he was Jewish. It just

923
00:41:38,690 --> 00:41:41,409
demonstrates how universal the language of Neoplatonism

924
00:41:41,409 --> 00:41:44,400
really was. You also have Baha 'i Ibn Paqwa rating

925
00:41:44,400 --> 00:41:47,039
duties of the heart. He essentially argues that

926
00:41:47,039 --> 00:41:49,099
keeping the physical laws of Judaism, eating

927
00:41:49,099 --> 00:41:51,960
kosher, observing the Sabbath, that is the easy

928
00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:54,260
part. The physical stuff is easy. Right. The

929
00:41:54,260 --> 00:41:56,880
real challenge is the inward ethical piety of

930
00:41:56,880 --> 00:41:59,260
the heart. It's an ascetic approach that draws

931
00:41:59,260 --> 00:42:03,219
heavily on Sufi ethical models. But the undisputed

932
00:42:03,219 --> 00:42:05,880
king of this rationalist enterprise is Moses

933
00:42:05,880 --> 00:42:09,059
Maimonides. He writes the guide for the perplexed.

934
00:42:09,420 --> 00:42:11,139
Break down the mechanics of the guide for me

935
00:42:11,139 --> 00:42:13,539
because he is trying to solve the ultimate existential

936
00:42:13,539 --> 00:42:16,320
crisis of the medieval intellectual. How do you

937
00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:19,360
reconcile the God of Aristotle with the God of

938
00:42:19,360 --> 00:42:22,059
the Bible? It is a massive problem. The God of

939
00:42:22,059 --> 00:42:24,960
Aristotle is the unmoved mover. It is a pure

940
00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:27,199
abstract intellect that exists totally outside

941
00:42:27,199 --> 00:42:30,119
of time and space. It's cold. Yes. It does not

942
00:42:30,119 --> 00:42:33,199
feel emotions like anger or jealousy. It does

943
00:42:33,199 --> 00:42:36,219
not possess a body. It does not arbitrarily intervene

944
00:42:36,219 --> 00:42:38,969
in history. But the God of the Hebrew Bible is

945
00:42:38,969 --> 00:42:41,969
intensely emotional and physical. God gets angry.

946
00:42:42,170 --> 00:42:45,829
God loves. God has an outstretched arm. God literally

947
00:42:45,829 --> 00:42:49,449
changes his mind. How does Maimonides square

948
00:42:49,449 --> 00:42:52,469
that circle? Maimonides uses a concept known

949
00:42:52,469 --> 00:42:55,869
as negative theology or epiphanic theology. He

950
00:42:55,869 --> 00:42:58,449
argues that human language is fundamentally incapable

951
00:42:58,449 --> 00:43:01,670
of describing the true essence of God. Therefore,

952
00:43:01,849 --> 00:43:04,550
you cannot say what God is. You can only say

953
00:43:04,550 --> 00:43:07,380
what God is not. Okay, so if I say God is powerful.

954
00:43:07,699 --> 00:43:09,699
If you say God is powerful, you are limiting

955
00:43:09,699 --> 00:43:12,639
God to human concepts of power. You can only

956
00:43:12,639 --> 00:43:16,030
say God is not lacking in power. Wow. So what

957
00:43:16,030 --> 00:43:17,690
does he do with all the biblical verses about

958
00:43:17,690 --> 00:43:19,889
God being angry or having a hand? Does he just

959
00:43:19,889 --> 00:43:22,550
ignore them? No, he argues they are purely metaphorical.

960
00:43:22,650 --> 00:43:25,110
He famously says the Torah speaks in the language

961
00:43:25,110 --> 00:43:27,349
of men. He believed the Torah was written in

962
00:43:27,349 --> 00:43:29,550
a way that the average uneducated person could

963
00:43:29,550 --> 00:43:32,050
understand. Average people need a God with a

964
00:43:32,050 --> 00:43:34,210
face who gets angry to keep them in line. But

965
00:43:34,210 --> 00:43:36,730
for the intellectual elite? For the elite, Maimonides

966
00:43:36,730 --> 00:43:40,010
argues, you must strip away those physical metaphors

967
00:43:40,010 --> 00:43:42,889
and recognize that God is pure, unknowable unity.

968
00:43:43,340 --> 00:43:46,460
It is a brilliant, highly rational synthesis.

969
00:43:46,840 --> 00:43:49,480
It allows you to keep your ancestral faith without

970
00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:52,639
abandoning your Aristotelian brain. And this

971
00:43:52,639 --> 00:43:54,880
rationalism didn't just stay in theology, right?

972
00:43:55,059 --> 00:43:57,019
It extended into how they viewed the physical

973
00:43:57,019 --> 00:43:59,480
world, specifically through science and medicine.

974
00:44:00,179 --> 00:44:02,800
Gabriela Ferrario and Maude Cozzodoy highlight

975
00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:05,639
how science transcended confessional lines almost

976
00:44:05,639 --> 00:44:08,449
entirely. Because the human body is the human

977
00:44:08,449 --> 00:44:10,429
body, whether it belongs to a Muslim, a Jew,

978
00:44:10,550 --> 00:44:13,250
or a Christian. If a surgical technique or a

979
00:44:13,250 --> 00:44:16,389
pharmacological compound works, it works. We

980
00:44:16,389 --> 00:44:18,469
see Jewish doctors training in Muslim hospitals

981
00:44:18,469 --> 00:44:21,170
under Muslim masters and Muslim students studying

982
00:44:21,170 --> 00:44:23,190
under Jewish physicians. They're all reading

983
00:44:23,190 --> 00:44:25,989
the exact same medical corpus, primarily the

984
00:44:25,989 --> 00:44:28,210
works of the Greek physician Galen, which had

985
00:44:28,210 --> 00:44:30,289
been translated into Arabic. And it extended

986
00:44:30,289 --> 00:44:33,349
to the hard sciences like astronomy. The political

987
00:44:33,349 --> 00:44:35,670
elites of the Islamic world relied heavily on

988
00:44:35,670 --> 00:44:38,389
astrology, which in the medieval mind was a highly

989
00:44:38,389 --> 00:44:41,210
mathematical, rational science connected to astronomy.

990
00:44:41,469 --> 00:44:44,309
Yes, and Jewish astronomers were deeply respected

991
00:44:44,309 --> 00:44:46,969
in this field. A perfect example is Mashallah

992
00:44:46,969 --> 00:44:50,869
B. Athari. In the year 762, the Abbasid caliph

993
00:44:50,869 --> 00:44:53,809
decided to build a magnificent new capital city,

994
00:44:54,349 --> 00:44:57,590
Baghdad. Okay. But he needed the absolute most

995
00:44:57,590 --> 00:45:00,670
auspicious astrological moment to lay the foundation

996
00:45:00,670 --> 00:45:03,340
stone. you know, to ensure the empire's success.

997
00:45:03,559 --> 00:45:06,019
So he brings in the experts. Right. He didn't

998
00:45:06,019 --> 00:45:08,820
just ask Muslim clerics. He hired a team of astronomers,

999
00:45:09,059 --> 00:45:11,719
including Mashallah, a Jew, to calculate the

1000
00:45:11,719 --> 00:45:14,480
exact planetary alignment for the birth of Baghdad.

1001
00:45:14,679 --> 00:45:17,320
The political center of the Islamic world was

1002
00:45:17,320 --> 00:45:20,250
founded on a date calculated in part. by a Jewish

1003
00:45:20,250 --> 00:45:22,409
scientist. That is just incredible. Okay, here's

1004
00:45:22,409 --> 00:45:24,110
where it gets really interesting. Because you

1005
00:45:24,110 --> 00:45:27,510
hear about Maimonides' pure Aristotelian logic.

1006
00:45:27,630 --> 00:45:29,869
You hear about astronomers mapping planetary

1007
00:45:29,869 --> 00:45:32,389
spheres using complex mathematics. You hear about

1008
00:45:32,389 --> 00:45:34,750
doctors practicing empirical medicine. And you

1009
00:45:34,750 --> 00:45:37,369
think, this must be a society of pure, cold,

1010
00:45:37,489 --> 00:45:39,630
Spock -like logic. That's the exception, yeah.

1011
00:45:39,809 --> 00:45:41,630
But then you look at the research of Gideon Bohack

1012
00:45:41,630 --> 00:45:45,909
on magic. Ah, yes. Magic. The great historical

1013
00:45:45,909 --> 00:45:48,639
equalizer. I'm struggling to reconcile this.

1014
00:45:48,840 --> 00:45:51,340
If this was an era defined by high philosophy

1015
00:45:51,340 --> 00:45:54,619
and rationalism, why on earth are archaeologists

1016
00:45:54,619 --> 00:45:57,139
finding thousands of magical amulets in the Cairo

1017
00:45:57,139 --> 00:45:59,980
Geniza? Why are there scraps of paper covered

1018
00:45:59,980 --> 00:46:02,579
in spells to cure a headache, or force someone

1019
00:46:02,579 --> 00:46:04,800
to fall in love with you, or curse a business

1020
00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:07,519
rival? It is the ultimate paradox of the era,

1021
00:46:07,639 --> 00:46:10,679
and it reminds us that human nature is just fundamentally

1022
00:46:10,679 --> 00:46:14,369
messy. The ultra -rationalists like Maimonides

1023
00:46:15,409 --> 00:46:18,389
absolutely despised magic. I would imagine. Maimonides

1024
00:46:18,389 --> 00:46:21,130
viewed it as irrational, idolatrous nonsense

1025
00:46:21,130 --> 00:46:24,349
that distracted from the true philosophical contemplation

1026
00:46:24,349 --> 00:46:26,809
of God. He railed against it in his writings.

1027
00:46:27,050 --> 00:46:29,190
But the physical evidence in the Geniza proves

1028
00:46:29,190 --> 00:46:31,389
beyond a shadow of a doubt that Maimonides lost

1029
00:46:31,389 --> 00:46:34,469
that battle entirely. Everyone used magic. And

1030
00:46:34,469 --> 00:46:36,630
it wasn't just like uneducated peasants looking

1031
00:46:36,630 --> 00:46:39,690
for folk remedies. Not at all. Magic was completely

1032
00:46:39,690 --> 00:46:42,449
embedded in society, all the way up to the absolute

1033
00:46:42,449 --> 00:46:45,150
elite. The most striking piece of evidence is

1034
00:46:45,150 --> 00:46:47,530
a personalized magical amulet found in the Geniza

1035
00:46:47,530 --> 00:46:50,190
that was crafted specifically for Lezlia Hakon

1036
00:46:50,190 --> 00:46:52,530
Gown. Remind me who he was. He was the head of

1037
00:46:52,530 --> 00:46:54,949
the Jews in Egypt in the 12th century. Oh, wow.

1038
00:46:55,190 --> 00:46:58,090
He was the highest ranking religious, legal and

1039
00:46:58,090 --> 00:47:00,710
political Jewish official in the entire empire.

1040
00:47:00,889 --> 00:47:03,329
He was a scholar of the absolute highest order.

1041
00:47:03,570 --> 00:47:06,849
And yet someone crafted a magical amulet for

1042
00:47:06,849 --> 00:47:10,360
his. personal physical protection, invoking angels

1043
00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:12,780
and divine names. It just proves that you can

1044
00:47:12,780 --> 00:47:15,139
be the most educated person in the room. You

1045
00:47:15,139 --> 00:47:18,320
can quote Aristotle in flawless Arabic. But when

1046
00:47:18,320 --> 00:47:20,639
the plague is sweeping through your city or you

1047
00:47:20,639 --> 00:47:22,480
have a toothache that won't let you sleep for

1048
00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:25,619
a week, pure logic isn't enough. No. You want

1049
00:47:25,619 --> 00:47:27,760
control over the uncontrollable. You are going

1050
00:47:27,760 --> 00:47:30,940
to buy the magical amulet. Exactly. Magic provided

1051
00:47:30,940 --> 00:47:33,420
an illusion of control in a pre -modern world

1052
00:47:33,420 --> 00:47:36,159
full of sudden death and disease. And what is

1053
00:47:36,159 --> 00:47:38,780
really fascinating is how pragmatic the magic

1054
00:47:38,780 --> 00:47:41,699
was. Pragmatic how? Well, Jewish magicians obviously

1055
00:47:41,699 --> 00:47:44,280
drew on ancient Jewish traditions, manipulating

1056
00:47:44,280 --> 00:47:47,059
biblical verses and the names of angels. But

1057
00:47:47,059 --> 00:47:50,480
they also freely borrowed magical formulas, astrological

1058
00:47:50,480 --> 00:47:52,940
symbols, and even the names of Arabic demons

1059
00:47:52,940 --> 00:47:55,519
from Islamic and Christian sources. They just

1060
00:47:55,519 --> 00:47:57,880
mixed and matched whatever worked. It was a purely

1061
00:47:57,880 --> 00:48:01,599
results -oriented field. If a Muslim spell for

1062
00:48:01,599 --> 00:48:04,360
curing a fever worked, A Jewish magician would

1063
00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:06,500
simply write it out in Judeo -Arabic letters

1064
00:48:06,500 --> 00:48:09,539
and sell it. No one cared about theological purity

1065
00:48:09,539 --> 00:48:11,619
when they were sick. Which leads us to the final

1066
00:48:11,619 --> 00:48:14,360
and perhaps most profound area of the mind we

1067
00:48:14,360 --> 00:48:17,880
need to cover. Mysticism. Sarasviri's chapter

1068
00:48:17,880 --> 00:48:20,380
on this topic completely upends a lot of what

1069
00:48:20,380 --> 00:48:22,300
people think they know about medieval Jewish

1070
00:48:22,300 --> 00:48:25,519
mysticism. It is a totally groundbreaking reassessment.

1071
00:48:25,929 --> 00:48:28,070
There's a very common assumption, even among

1072
00:48:28,070 --> 00:48:30,949
historians sometimes, that medieval Jewish mysticism

1073
00:48:30,949 --> 00:48:34,050
was basically just a Jewish copy of Sufism. Right.

1074
00:48:34,130 --> 00:48:36,510
The assumption is that Jews saw Muslim Sufis

1075
00:48:36,510 --> 00:48:39,190
engaging in ecstatic dances and ascetic practices,

1076
00:48:39,289 --> 00:48:41,670
and they just slapped Hebrew words onto Sufi

1077
00:48:41,670 --> 00:48:43,909
rituals. Which, to be fair, we did see some of

1078
00:48:43,909 --> 00:48:46,570
that with Abraham Maimonides adopting Sufi physical

1079
00:48:46,570 --> 00:48:49,349
prostrations. Yes. Sufism heavily influenced

1080
00:48:49,349 --> 00:48:52,610
Jewish ethics and physical piety. But Sviri argues

1081
00:48:52,610 --> 00:48:54,670
forcefully that the core philosophical architecture

1082
00:48:54,670 --> 00:48:57,130
of Jewish mysticism in this era comes from a

1083
00:48:57,130 --> 00:48:58,789
completely different root. Okay, where does it

1084
00:48:58,789 --> 00:49:01,369
come from? It is not rooted in Sufi ecstatic

1085
00:49:01,369 --> 00:49:04,510
practices. It is deeply rooted in Neoplatonic

1086
00:49:04,510 --> 00:49:08,650
philosophy and, incredibly, in Ismaili esoteric

1087
00:49:08,650 --> 00:49:12,409
concepts. Wait, Ismaili as in the branch of Shi

1088
00:49:12,409 --> 00:49:15,869
'i Islam? Exactly. The Ismailis had a very rich

1089
00:49:15,869 --> 00:49:18,750
tradition of esoteric philosophy. Sfiri specifically

1090
00:49:18,750 --> 00:49:21,670
points to the influence of texts like the epistles

1091
00:49:21,670 --> 00:49:23,969
of the Sincere Brethren, which was a massive

1092
00:49:23,969 --> 00:49:27,150
encyclopedic work of Ismaili philosophy circulating

1093
00:49:27,150 --> 00:49:30,190
at the time. This type of mysticism wasn't about

1094
00:49:30,190 --> 00:49:32,429
whirling dervishes or achieving an emotional

1095
00:49:32,429 --> 00:49:35,449
trance. It was a rigorous, highly intellectual,

1096
00:49:35,610 --> 00:49:38,670
philosophical mysticism. How does that actually

1097
00:49:38,670 --> 00:49:41,309
work mechanically? What is an intellectual mysticism?

1098
00:49:41,409 --> 00:49:43,960
It almost sounds like an oxymoron. It revolves

1099
00:49:43,960 --> 00:49:46,500
heavily around the Neoplatonic concept of emanation.

1100
00:49:46,679 --> 00:49:48,900
This is the idea that God is a pure, infinite,

1101
00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:51,800
unknowable source, the one. The material world

1102
00:49:51,800 --> 00:49:54,019
wasn't created out of nothing in a single moment

1103
00:49:54,019 --> 00:49:55,579
like the book of Genesis literally describes.

1104
00:49:55,800 --> 00:49:58,840
Instead, existence cascades or emanates out of

1105
00:49:58,840 --> 00:50:01,320
the one in a series of descending spiritual levels

1106
00:50:01,320 --> 00:50:03,840
or intellects until it finally solidifies into

1107
00:50:03,840 --> 00:50:06,559
the gross material world we live in. So if creation

1108
00:50:06,559 --> 00:50:09,400
is a downward flow from the one to the material,

1109
00:50:10,239 --> 00:50:12,780
The mystical experience is about reversing that

1110
00:50:12,780 --> 00:50:16,019
flow. Precisely. The goal of the mystic is to

1111
00:50:16,019 --> 00:50:19,139
use intense intellectual contemplation, rigorous

1112
00:50:19,139 --> 00:50:22,500
study of philosophy, and purity of thought to

1113
00:50:22,500 --> 00:50:24,760
allow their soul to climb back up that chain

1114
00:50:24,760 --> 00:50:27,079
of emanation. To get back to the source. Yes.

1115
00:50:27,079 --> 00:50:30,360
You are trying to intellectually ascend through

1116
00:50:30,360 --> 00:50:33,559
the cosmic spheres to briefly reunite with the

1117
00:50:33,559 --> 00:50:36,840
divine source. It is a highly structured, almost

1118
00:50:36,840 --> 00:50:39,159
mathematical approach to the mystical experience.

1119
00:50:39,420 --> 00:50:42,300
And why this is so historically crucial is because

1120
00:50:42,300 --> 00:50:44,800
this isn't just an intellectual dead end. This

1121
00:50:44,800 --> 00:50:47,860
specific brand of Neoplatonic, emanation -based

1122
00:50:47,860 --> 00:50:51,199
mysticism, cultivated in the Islamic world, laid

1123
00:50:51,199 --> 00:50:53,139
the foundational root structure for the greatest

1124
00:50:53,139 --> 00:50:55,460
mystical movement in Jewish history. It provided

1125
00:50:55,460 --> 00:50:58,300
the exact concepts, the vocabulary, and the cosmological

1126
00:50:58,300 --> 00:51:00,380
maps that would eventually travel across the

1127
00:51:00,380 --> 00:51:02,889
Mediterranean to Christian Europe. This Judeo

1128
00:51:02,889 --> 00:51:04,789
-Arabic philosophy is the direct soil out of

1129
00:51:04,789 --> 00:51:07,050
which the Kabbalah blossoms in 13th century Spain

1130
00:51:07,050 --> 00:51:09,690
and later in Safed. So you cannot understand

1131
00:51:09,690 --> 00:51:12,889
the complex architecture of the Kabbalistic tree

1132
00:51:12,889 --> 00:51:15,929
of life, the Sephirot, without understanding

1133
00:51:15,929 --> 00:51:19,469
the Arabic -infused Neoplatonism that preceded

1134
00:51:19,469 --> 00:51:21,409
it. You really can't. The Kabbalah doesn't just

1135
00:51:21,409 --> 00:51:23,750
spring out of nowhere in Crete and Spain. It

1136
00:51:23,750 --> 00:51:26,570
is a seed. planted in Baghdad and Cairo. Exactly.

1137
00:51:26,809 --> 00:51:29,230
Okay, let's pull all of this together. We have

1138
00:51:29,230 --> 00:51:32,289
covered a massive amount of historical and intellectual

1139
00:51:32,289 --> 00:51:34,949
ground today. We really have. We started with

1140
00:51:34,949 --> 00:51:37,250
the linguistic gymnastics of writing Arabic and

1141
00:51:37,250 --> 00:51:39,750
Hebrew letters just to write secular poetry about

1142
00:51:39,750 --> 00:51:42,849
wine. We moved to the mutazilite pressure that

1143
00:51:42,849 --> 00:51:46,050
forced rabbis to invent Hebrew grammar to read

1144
00:51:46,050 --> 00:51:49,260
the Bible literally. We saw Karaites and Rabbanites

1145
00:51:49,260 --> 00:51:51,219
signing marriage contracts to share kitchens

1146
00:51:51,219 --> 00:51:54,500
despite theological warfare. Yes. We walked into

1147
00:51:54,500 --> 00:51:57,199
synagogues with Mudijar architecture and Kaaba

1148
00:51:57,199 --> 00:52:00,239
rugs. We watched Maimonides use Aristotle to

1149
00:52:00,239 --> 00:52:02,320
explain away an angry god while the head of the

1150
00:52:02,320 --> 00:52:04,760
Jews bought magic amulets to ward off demons.

1151
00:52:05,019 --> 00:52:08,039
And it all culminated in the Ismaili roots of

1152
00:52:08,039 --> 00:52:10,719
the Kabbalah. The sheer scale and depth of the

1153
00:52:10,719 --> 00:52:13,380
intellectual cross -pollination is just breathtaking.

1154
00:52:14,010 --> 00:52:16,730
The medieval Islamic world wasn't just a passive

1155
00:52:16,730 --> 00:52:18,869
backdrop where Jewish history happened to take

1156
00:52:18,869 --> 00:52:21,190
place. No, it was the act of crucible. It was

1157
00:52:21,190 --> 00:52:23,929
a shared intellectual ecosystem where Judaism

1158
00:52:23,929 --> 00:52:27,550
was fundamentally permanently reshaped. Its language,

1159
00:52:27,750 --> 00:52:30,829
its laws, its prayers, and its deepest philosophies

1160
00:52:30,829 --> 00:52:33,530
were forged in direct conversation with Islam.

1161
00:52:33,929 --> 00:52:36,010
It really makes you look at that historical map,

1162
00:52:36,190 --> 00:52:37,610
you know, the one we talked about the very beginning

1163
00:52:37,610 --> 00:52:40,030
with the thick, impenetrable black borders, and

1164
00:52:40,030 --> 00:52:42,769
realize just how much of a lie it is. It is a

1165
00:52:42,769 --> 00:52:45,449
complete fiction. The reality of how humans actually

1166
00:52:45,449 --> 00:52:48,030
live and think and borrow from one another is

1167
00:52:48,030 --> 00:52:51,489
messy, entangled, and infinitely more creative

1168
00:52:51,489 --> 00:52:54,170
than the borders suggest. History is rarely made

1169
00:52:54,170 --> 00:52:56,949
in isolation. The most profound leaps in human

1170
00:52:56,949 --> 00:52:59,269
thought almost always occur in the friction,

1171
00:52:59,429 --> 00:53:02,460
the tension, and the flow between cultures. Beautifully

1172
00:53:02,460 --> 00:53:04,679
said. And I want to leave you, the listener,

1173
00:53:04,820 --> 00:53:07,440
with a final thought to mull over, something

1174
00:53:07,440 --> 00:53:09,380
that builds on everything we've just unpacked

1175
00:53:09,380 --> 00:53:12,860
today. We have spent this entire deep jive looking

1176
00:53:12,860 --> 00:53:15,539
at how the Islamic world shaped Jewish thought.

1177
00:53:15,940 --> 00:53:18,639
But think about the ripple effect of what happens

1178
00:53:18,639 --> 00:53:22,900
next. In the year 1492, The Jews are expelled

1179
00:53:22,900 --> 00:53:25,300
from Christian Spain. Right, a massive turning

1180
00:53:25,300 --> 00:53:27,719
point. And as they were forced to scatter, they

1181
00:53:27,719 --> 00:53:30,519
carry these Arabic -infused philosophies, this

1182
00:53:30,519 --> 00:53:33,380
rigorous philology, this Neoplatonic mysticism,

1183
00:53:33,519 --> 00:53:37,039
and these translated Greek sciences up into Christian

1184
00:53:37,039 --> 00:53:39,960
Europe, into Italy, into France, into Amsterdam.

1185
00:53:40,199 --> 00:53:41,860
They took it all with them. They did. The very

1186
00:53:41,860 --> 00:53:44,579
foundation of the European Renaissance, the explosion

1187
00:53:44,579 --> 00:53:46,880
of scientific and philosophical thought that

1188
00:53:46,880 --> 00:53:49,579
birthed the modern world, was in many significant

1189
00:53:49,579 --> 00:53:52,340
ways seeded by... the Judeo -Arabic texts and

1190
00:53:52,340 --> 00:53:53,800
the cultural collisions we just talked about

1191
00:53:53,800 --> 00:53:56,300
today, the ideas forged in the Islamic Mediterranean

1192
00:53:56,300 --> 00:53:59,420
became the spark for the modern West. So my question

1193
00:53:59,420 --> 00:54:01,960
for you is, what other cultural collisions are

1194
00:54:01,960 --> 00:54:03,699
happening right now in our own time completely

1195
00:54:03,699 --> 00:54:06,099
under our radar that will seed the philosophies

1196
00:54:06,099 --> 00:54:08,199
of the next millennia? A powerful question to

1197
00:54:08,199 --> 00:54:10,420
end on. Thank you so much for taking this deep

1198
00:54:10,420 --> 00:54:13,079
dive with us. Keep questioning those borders

1199
00:54:13,079 --> 00:54:13,699
on the map.