1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,700 Imagine for a second that you are tasked with 2 00:00:03,700 --> 00:00:08,359 building this towering, magnificent skyscraper. 3 00:00:08,380 --> 00:00:11,019 Like a massive architectural undertaking. Exactly. 4 00:00:11,259 --> 00:00:14,000 It needs to hold thousands of people. It needs 5 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:17,239 a complex plumbing system, a designated security 6 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:20,559 apparatus. Administrative offices, a bustling 7 00:00:20,559 --> 00:00:22,660 economy on the ground floor, you know, all the 8 00:00:22,660 --> 00:00:25,300 works. Yeah, all of that. But here's the catch. 9 00:00:25,539 --> 00:00:28,699 You have no land to build it on. Wow, okay. You 10 00:00:28,699 --> 00:00:31,079 have no concrete. You have no steel. And the 11 00:00:31,079 --> 00:00:33,560 people you are building it for, they are constantly 12 00:00:33,560 --> 00:00:35,579 being told they don't actually belong in the 13 00:00:35,579 --> 00:00:37,990 neighborhood. Right. That's a tough spot. How 14 00:00:37,990 --> 00:00:40,130 do you do it? I mean, today we are looking at 15 00:00:40,130 --> 00:00:43,210 how a population of medieval migrants and refugees 16 00:00:43,210 --> 00:00:46,189 pulled off arguably the greatest architectural 17 00:00:46,189 --> 00:00:48,890 feat in human society. It really is when you 18 00:00:48,890 --> 00:00:50,810 think about it. They built a fully functioning 19 00:00:50,810 --> 00:00:53,289 national government. We're talking complete with 20 00:00:53,289 --> 00:00:55,530 the parliament, a judicial system, a tax code. 21 00:00:55,729 --> 00:00:57,770 And they did it entirely out of intellectual 22 00:00:57,770 --> 00:01:01,289 debate, legal codes, and just this unyielding 23 00:01:01,289 --> 00:01:03,329 sense of community. Right. They basically built 24 00:01:03,329 --> 00:01:05,680 a state without a physical state. Exactly. It 25 00:01:05,680 --> 00:01:08,180 is a phenomenal concept to wrap your head around, 26 00:01:08,299 --> 00:01:11,040 honestly, because you have the traditional definition 27 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:14,079 of a polity or a nation state is completely territorial. 28 00:01:14,359 --> 00:01:16,340 Right. You need borders. Yeah. You have borders. 29 00:01:16,420 --> 00:01:18,599 You have the land. You have the centralized state 30 00:01:18,599 --> 00:01:21,280 apparatus with an army. But what we see in Eastern 31 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:23,780 Europe shatters that traditional definition entirely. 32 00:01:23,939 --> 00:01:27,000 Which brings us to our mission today. We are 33 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:29,939 taking you on a massive journey to explore the 34 00:01:29,939 --> 00:01:34,150 rich. complex, and really profound history of 35 00:01:34,150 --> 00:01:36,950 the Jews of Lithuania. And of course, the broader 36 00:01:36,950 --> 00:01:39,769 Polish -Lithuanian Commonwealth that they fundamentally 37 00:01:39,769 --> 00:01:43,329 helped shape. Yes, exactly. And to do this, we 38 00:01:43,329 --> 00:01:47,109 are unpacking a towering stack of sources. Specifically, 39 00:01:47,450 --> 00:01:50,450 we are doing a deep dive into volumes six, seven, 40 00:01:50,489 --> 00:01:52,870 and eight of the Cambridge History of Judaism. 41 00:01:53,420 --> 00:01:55,359 And let me tell you, these are truly comprehensive, 42 00:01:55,719 --> 00:01:59,000 exhaustive academic texts. I mean, they are dense. 43 00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:02,420 Oh, yeah. Heavy reading. Very heavy. We are talking 44 00:02:02,420 --> 00:02:04,640 about volumes that span from the late Middle 45 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:06,739 Ages all the way through the modern world. They 46 00:02:06,739 --> 00:02:09,740 cover these immense demographic, economic, and 47 00:02:09,740 --> 00:02:12,610 spiritual shifts. They trace how this initially 48 00:02:12,610 --> 00:02:16,449 small immigrant population evolved into the demographic 49 00:02:16,449 --> 00:02:19,469 and intellectual center of the entire global 50 00:02:19,469 --> 00:02:22,189 Jewish world. So if you are listening to this, 51 00:02:22,370 --> 00:02:25,770 our goal today is to translate these dense, heavy 52 00:02:25,770 --> 00:02:29,030 volumes into the vital mechanics of how the society 53 00:02:29,030 --> 00:02:31,360 actually functioned. Right. breaking it down. 54 00:02:31,419 --> 00:02:34,319 We are going to debate this history concept by 55 00:02:34,319 --> 00:02:37,020 concept, community by community, and century 56 00:02:37,020 --> 00:02:39,080 by century. Because we want to understand how 57 00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:42,460 this population managed to establish what historians 58 00:02:42,460 --> 00:02:46,240 refer to as a national polity. A polity whose 59 00:02:46,240 --> 00:02:49,039 constitution wasn't, you know, a piece of parchment 60 00:02:49,039 --> 00:02:51,639 locked in a national archive, but the Torah itself. 61 00:02:52,180 --> 00:02:54,879 Exactly. But before we can look at the absolute 62 00:02:54,879 --> 00:02:57,460 peak of Lithuanian Jewish culture, we really 63 00:02:57,460 --> 00:02:59,240 have to deal with the origin story because you 64 00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:01,560 don't just wake up one day with a booming autonomous 65 00:03:01,560 --> 00:03:04,360 population in the middle of a massive Eastern 66 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:06,319 European commonwealth. Right. They had to come 67 00:03:06,319 --> 00:03:07,740 from somewhere. Where did they actually come 68 00:03:07,740 --> 00:03:10,020 from? Because there is a very famous, very romantic 69 00:03:10,020 --> 00:03:13,000 myth about this, right? Oh, there is. And it 70 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:15,740 is a fascinating piece of historiography in its 71 00:03:15,740 --> 00:03:18,639 own right, actually. If you look into the origins 72 00:03:18,639 --> 00:03:21,520 of Eastern European Jewry, you will inevitably 73 00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:24,560 encounter something called the Khazar Hypothesis. 74 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:27,659 The Khazars. Yeah. This was an idea most famously 75 00:03:27,659 --> 00:03:30,539 championed in the early 20th century by the historian 76 00:03:30,539 --> 00:03:33,849 Yitzhak Schipper. Okay. And the hypothesis suggests 77 00:03:33,849 --> 00:03:36,689 that Polish and Lithuanian Jews didn't migrate 78 00:03:36,689 --> 00:03:39,590 from the West, but actually descended from a 79 00:03:39,590 --> 00:03:43,210 Turkic nomadic people known as the Khazars. Wait, 80 00:03:43,270 --> 00:03:46,349 really? A Turkic nomadic people? Yep. The story 81 00:03:46,349 --> 00:03:48,889 goes that the Khazar elite converted to Judaism 82 00:03:48,889 --> 00:03:52,009 en masse in the 8th or 9th century. And when 83 00:03:52,009 --> 00:03:54,430 their empire in the Caucasus collapsed, they 84 00:03:54,430 --> 00:03:57,349 supposedly migrated westward into Poland and 85 00:03:57,349 --> 00:04:00,439 Lithuania. That is a wild theory. It basically 86 00:04:00,439 --> 00:04:02,860 argues that Ashkenazi Jews are indigenous to 87 00:04:02,860 --> 00:04:05,120 the east, just, you know, of Turkic descent rather 88 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:07,360 than Semitic. Right, exactly. But the Cambridge 89 00:04:07,360 --> 00:04:09,680 volumes we're looking at, they are pretty ruthless 90 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:12,500 in dismantling this, right? Oh, absolutely ruthless. 91 00:04:12,659 --> 00:04:15,580 I mean, the texts make it very clear that the 92 00:04:15,580 --> 00:04:18,279 Khazara hypothesis has faced just overwhelming 93 00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:21,279 scholarly criticism to the point of being entirely 94 00:04:21,279 --> 00:04:25,139 debunked by modern historians, linguists, geneticists, 95 00:04:25,259 --> 00:04:27,339 everyone. Okay, let's play devil's advocate for 96 00:04:27,339 --> 00:04:30,110 a second, though. Why was it debunked? What is 97 00:04:30,110 --> 00:04:33,290 the actual smoking gun that proves they didn't 98 00:04:33,290 --> 00:04:36,290 come from a Turkic empire? Well, the most glaring 99 00:04:36,290 --> 00:04:38,750 evidence is linguistic. Okay. Think about it. 100 00:04:38,810 --> 00:04:41,629 If millions of people migrated from a Turkic 101 00:04:41,629 --> 00:04:44,629 empire to settle in Poland, their language would 102 00:04:44,629 --> 00:04:47,949 retain massive amounts of Turkic vocabulary or 103 00:04:47,949 --> 00:04:50,370 syntax, right? Yeah, that makes sense. They'd 104 00:04:50,370 --> 00:04:52,689 bring their words with them. Exactly. But when 105 00:04:52,689 --> 00:04:55,480 linguists analyze... early Yiddish, which is 106 00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:57,199 the vernacular language that these communities 107 00:04:57,199 --> 00:05:00,519 developed, they find almost zero Turkic loanwords. 108 00:05:00,720 --> 00:05:04,639 Oh, wow. Zero, basically zero. Instead, Yiddish 109 00:05:04,639 --> 00:05:07,439 is overwhelmingly rooted in medieval high German, 110 00:05:07,560 --> 00:05:10,459 fused with Hebrew, Aramaic, and later Slavic 111 00:05:10,459 --> 00:05:12,339 elements. Right. I mean, if they were Khazars, 112 00:05:12,339 --> 00:05:14,199 they wouldn't have spontaneously decided to start 113 00:05:14,199 --> 00:05:16,480 speaking a dialect of medieval German upon arriving 114 00:05:16,480 --> 00:05:18,839 in Poland, you know? Yeah, that would make absolutely 115 00:05:18,839 --> 00:05:21,560 no sense, which points the compass firmly to 116 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:24,259 the West. The origins of this massive Eastern 117 00:05:24,259 --> 00:05:27,720 European community actually lie in German -speaking 118 00:05:27,720 --> 00:05:31,160 lands. Yes, they're moving east. Let's talk about 119 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:33,839 the push and pull factors then. Why leave Western 120 00:05:33,839 --> 00:05:35,860 Europe in the first place? Well, during the Middle 121 00:05:35,860 --> 00:05:39,100 Ages, Jews in Western Europe, the region known 122 00:05:39,100 --> 00:05:42,879 in Jewish legal texts as Ashkenaz, which was 123 00:05:42,879 --> 00:05:46,040 primarily the Rhineland. They were facing a catastrophic 124 00:05:46,040 --> 00:05:48,860 rise in tensions. Really bad stuff. Horrific. 125 00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:52,399 Increasingly restrictive regulations and just 126 00:05:52,399 --> 00:05:55,199 outright massacres. Right. The turning point 127 00:05:55,199 --> 00:05:57,579 is often cited as the First Crusade in 1096. 128 00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:00,699 You had these zealous mobs moving through the 129 00:06:00,699 --> 00:06:03,000 Rhineland, basically giving Jewish communities 130 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:06,259 the choice of baptism or death. Wow. Entire communities 131 00:06:06,259 --> 00:06:08,279 and cities like Worms and Mains were just wiped 132 00:06:08,279 --> 00:06:10,180 out. And it didn't get better after that, right? 133 00:06:10,300 --> 00:06:12,360 Not at all. Over the following centuries, you 134 00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:14,759 have blood libels. You have the blaming of Jews 135 00:06:14,759 --> 00:06:16,620 for the Black Death in the 14th century. Which 136 00:06:16,620 --> 00:06:19,120 is just crazy. Completely. And you have mass 137 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:21,060 expulsions from places like England and France. 138 00:06:21,379 --> 00:06:24,139 So the push is sheer survival. I mean, they're 139 00:06:24,139 --> 00:06:26,699 fleeing violence and systemic marginalization. 140 00:06:26,779 --> 00:06:29,079 But you don't just walk into a new country unless 141 00:06:29,079 --> 00:06:31,060 someone leaves the door open for you. Exactly. 142 00:06:31,060 --> 00:06:33,319 You need an invitation. And this brings us to 143 00:06:33,319 --> 00:06:36,019 a document that seems completely anomalous for 144 00:06:36,019 --> 00:06:40,730 the Middle Ages. In 1264, a ruler named Duke 145 00:06:40,730 --> 00:06:44,370 Balisia the Pious issues something called the 146 00:06:44,370 --> 00:06:47,689 Statute of Kellis. It is a revolutionary charter. 147 00:06:48,040 --> 00:06:50,819 Truly. For a population that is used to having 148 00:06:50,819 --> 00:06:52,959 their rights arbitrarily revoked by whatever 149 00:06:52,959 --> 00:06:55,439 king happens to be on the throne, the Statute 150 00:06:55,439 --> 00:06:57,860 of Kellis is this incredible legal anchor. What 151 00:06:57,860 --> 00:07:01,019 did it actually do? Duke Belissia granted Jews 152 00:07:01,019 --> 00:07:04,240 the explicit right to settle, to engage in trade, 153 00:07:04,379 --> 00:07:06,579 and crucially to practice their religion freely. 154 00:07:06,879 --> 00:07:09,660 Wow. In 1264. Yeah. It specifically protected 155 00:07:09,660 --> 00:07:11,959 their right to build synagogues, to establish 156 00:07:11,959 --> 00:07:14,939 cemeteries. And this is huge. It strictly outlawed 157 00:07:14,939 --> 00:07:17,399 the blood libel. Oh, the false accusation that 158 00:07:17,399 --> 00:07:20,500 Jews used Christian blood in rituals. Yes. The 159 00:07:20,500 --> 00:07:22,319 very thing that was getting Jews murdered across 160 00:07:22,319 --> 00:07:24,860 Western Europe was now legally outlawed in his 161 00:07:24,860 --> 00:07:27,160 territory. I want to focus on the cemeteries 162 00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:29,540 for a second because that feels like the ultimate 163 00:07:29,540 --> 00:07:31,860 signal. I mean, if a king lets you set up a market 164 00:07:31,860 --> 00:07:33,620 stall, that's temporary, right? Right. You can 165 00:07:33,620 --> 00:07:35,720 pack up a stall in a day. But if a king lets 166 00:07:35,720 --> 00:07:38,339 you bury your dead in his soil, that is permanence. 167 00:07:38,459 --> 00:07:41,079 Absolutely. It's a statement of belonging. But 168 00:07:41,079 --> 00:07:44,990 Duke Baleshaw wasn't running a medieval... human 169 00:07:44,990 --> 00:07:49,329 rights NGO, why would a Catholic duke in 1264 170 00:07:49,329 --> 00:07:52,990 invite a non -Christian population into his territory 171 00:07:52,990 --> 00:07:55,910 and grant them such extensive protections? Was 172 00:07:55,910 --> 00:07:59,649 this essentially a medieval special economic 173 00:07:59,649 --> 00:08:02,730 zone? That is an excellent way to frame it, actually. 174 00:08:02,810 --> 00:08:05,750 Yeah. Because the rulers of these expanding but 175 00:08:05,750 --> 00:08:08,430 vastly underdeveloped Eastern European territories, 176 00:08:08,750 --> 00:08:11,050 they desperately needed economic stimulation. 177 00:08:11,110 --> 00:08:14,649 They needed cash. Cash, skills, everything. They 178 00:08:14,649 --> 00:08:16,649 had an abundance of land and agriculture, but 179 00:08:16,649 --> 00:08:18,850 they lacked liquid capital. They lacked international 180 00:08:18,850 --> 00:08:20,730 commercial networks, and they lacked a middle 181 00:08:20,730 --> 00:08:23,050 class with administrative and literacy skills. 182 00:08:23,230 --> 00:08:26,089 Oh, I see. If you were Duke Belatio and you want 183 00:08:26,089 --> 00:08:28,430 to modernize your realm, you need to attract 184 00:08:28,430 --> 00:08:32,409 talent. By creating a legal safe haven, you pull 185 00:08:32,409 --> 00:08:35,009 in a highly literate, highly urbanized population 186 00:08:35,009 --> 00:08:38,129 with trading connections spanning all the way 187 00:08:38,129 --> 00:08:40,480 back to the west of the Mediterranean. OK, let's 188 00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:43,240 unpack this. It is a completely pragmatic alliance. 189 00:08:43,539 --> 00:08:46,460 The Duke gets his local economy supercharged 190 00:08:46,460 --> 00:08:49,059 and the Jewish immigrants get to live without 191 00:08:49,059 --> 00:08:51,799 fear of arbitrary mob violence. Exactly. It's 192 00:08:51,799 --> 00:08:53,879 a win -win for both sides at that time. And if 193 00:08:53,879 --> 00:08:56,659 we connect this to the bigger picture, this symbiotic 194 00:08:56,659 --> 00:08:59,059 relationship set the stage for an unprecedented 195 00:08:59,059 --> 00:09:02,259 demographic explosion, especially when we leap 196 00:09:02,259 --> 00:09:05,379 forward to a massive geopolitical event, the 197 00:09:05,379 --> 00:09:08,940 Union of Lublin in 1569. Oh, the Union of Lublin 198 00:09:08,940 --> 00:09:10,980 is a watershed moment. What happened there? It 199 00:09:10,980 --> 00:09:13,179 formally united the crown of the Kingdom of Poland 200 00:09:13,179 --> 00:09:16,399 and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into a single 201 00:09:16,399 --> 00:09:19,080 massive state, the Polish -Lithuanian Commonwealth. 202 00:09:19,299 --> 00:09:21,419 Right. At its height, this was one of the largest 203 00:09:21,419 --> 00:09:23,299 and most populous countries in all of Europe. 204 00:09:23,360 --> 00:09:25,659 It stretched from the Baltic Sea down to the 205 00:09:25,659 --> 00:09:28,769 Black Sea. And for the Jewish population, this 206 00:09:28,769 --> 00:09:32,370 unification essentially creates an enormous borderless 207 00:09:32,370 --> 00:09:35,190 free trade zone. Exactly. The sources indicate 208 00:09:35,190 --> 00:09:37,750 that this paved the way for what contemporaries 209 00:09:37,750 --> 00:09:40,730 genuinely called a golden age for Jewish communities. 210 00:09:40,769 --> 00:09:44,450 It really did. It created an environment of unparalleled 211 00:09:44,450 --> 00:09:47,679 economic and demographic expansion. You have 212 00:09:47,679 --> 00:09:50,580 Jews moving from the older established centers 213 00:09:50,580 --> 00:09:53,279 in western Poland, deep into the vast, newly 214 00:09:53,279 --> 00:09:56,279 opened territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. 215 00:09:56,440 --> 00:09:58,740 And into the eastern frontiers of Ukraine, too, 216 00:09:58,820 --> 00:10:02,100 right? Yes. But with this vast expansion of territory 217 00:10:02,100 --> 00:10:04,860 and population, the ad hoc, localized structures 218 00:10:04,860 --> 00:10:07,279 of the past were no longer sufficient. Which 219 00:10:07,279 --> 00:10:09,759 is exactly the problem with rapid scaling in 220 00:10:09,759 --> 00:10:12,309 any organization. If you have a few hundred families 221 00:10:12,309 --> 00:10:14,690 in a town, a single rabbi and a local council 222 00:10:14,690 --> 00:10:16,590 can manage disputes. Right, it's manageable. 223 00:10:16,850 --> 00:10:18,610 But when you have a booming population spread 224 00:10:18,610 --> 00:10:20,730 out over hundreds of thousands of square miles 225 00:10:20,730 --> 00:10:23,070 in this new commonwealth, the old ways break 226 00:10:23,070 --> 00:10:25,730 down. They needed an architecture for autonomy. 227 00:10:26,049 --> 00:10:28,470 Yes. This is where we see the transition from 228 00:10:28,470 --> 00:10:31,389 merely living in a place to building that virtual 229 00:10:31,389 --> 00:10:33,809 skyscraper you mentioned in the intro. The state 230 00:10:33,809 --> 00:10:36,470 without a state. Exactly. The concept of the 231 00:10:36,470 --> 00:10:39,830 state within a state. takes on a highly formalized 232 00:10:39,830 --> 00:10:43,370 legal reality here. The Polish kings and Lithuanian 233 00:10:43,370 --> 00:10:46,210 grand dukes granted the Jewish communities a 234 00:10:46,210 --> 00:10:49,629 remarkable level of legal autonomy. Oh, so? They 235 00:10:49,629 --> 00:10:52,129 were largely exempted from municipal jurisdiction. 236 00:10:52,450 --> 00:10:53,970 Wait, let me stop you there because the mechanics 237 00:10:53,970 --> 00:10:55,909 of this are crucial. If they are exempted from 238 00:10:55,909 --> 00:10:58,429 municipal jurisdiction, does that mean, like, 239 00:10:58,490 --> 00:11:01,750 if a Jewish grain merchant in Vilna has a contract 240 00:11:01,750 --> 00:11:04,470 dispute with another Jewish merchant, they don't 241 00:11:04,470 --> 00:11:08,120 go to the local Lithuanian town court? Precisely. 242 00:11:08,120 --> 00:11:10,799 They do not go to the secular magistrate. Really? 243 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:13,279 Yeah. The Polish and Lithuanian authorities essentially 244 00:11:13,279 --> 00:11:15,779 said, as long as you pay your collective taxes 245 00:11:15,779 --> 00:11:18,500 to the crown, you handle your internal affairs 246 00:11:18,500 --> 00:11:21,919 yourselves. That is wild. It is. So the bulk 247 00:11:21,919 --> 00:11:24,519 of civil litigation, contracts, inheritance, 248 00:11:24,940 --> 00:11:28,509 marriage, torts among Jews. It was handled entirely 249 00:11:28,509 --> 00:11:31,049 by Jewish rabbinical courts. The court is only 250 00:11:31,049 --> 00:11:33,169 as good as the law upholds, right? I mean, if 251 00:11:33,169 --> 00:11:35,450 every town rabbi is just making up rulings based 252 00:11:35,450 --> 00:11:37,610 on their own gut feeling, you have total chaos. 253 00:11:37,870 --> 00:11:40,350 Oh, completely. You can't have a national economy 254 00:11:40,350 --> 00:11:43,350 if a contract is valid in Lublin but considered 255 00:11:43,350 --> 00:11:47,039 void in Vilna. And that is exactly why the codification 256 00:11:47,039 --> 00:11:49,860 of Jewish law, halakha, during this exact period 257 00:11:49,860 --> 00:11:52,539 is so vital. The courts couldn't operate on vibes. 258 00:11:52,840 --> 00:11:55,139 They were operating on a rigorous, universally 259 00:11:55,139 --> 00:11:58,259 recognized legal code. Right. And the dominant 260 00:11:58,259 --> 00:12:01,559 operating system of this era becomes a text called 261 00:12:01,559 --> 00:12:04,919 the Shulchan Aruch. The sources spend a lot of 262 00:12:04,919 --> 00:12:07,340 time on this book. Now, it was originally written 263 00:12:07,340 --> 00:12:10,340 by Joseph Caro, who was a Sephardic scholar living 264 00:12:10,340 --> 00:12:12,539 in Seyfed in the Ottoman Empire, right? Yes, 265 00:12:12,580 --> 00:12:16,379 exactly. So why is a book written by a Sephardic 266 00:12:16,379 --> 00:12:18,980 mystic in the Middle East becoming the legal 267 00:12:18,980 --> 00:12:22,559 bedrock for Ashkenazic Jews in a frozen Lithuanian 268 00:12:22,559 --> 00:12:24,919 winter? That's a great question. And it happened 269 00:12:24,919 --> 00:12:26,820 because of a brilliant scholarly intervention. 270 00:12:27,179 --> 00:12:29,620 Okay. See, Joseph Caro's code was masterful. 271 00:12:29,830 --> 00:12:33,450 but it reflected the customs, rulings, and realities 272 00:12:33,450 --> 00:12:35,570 of the Sephardic world. Which is very different 273 00:12:35,570 --> 00:12:37,649 from Eastern Europe. Very different. So a brilliant 274 00:12:37,649 --> 00:12:40,009 Polish scholar named Moses Isserlis, based in 275 00:12:40,009 --> 00:12:42,769 Greco, wrote an extensive commentary on the Shulhan 276 00:12:42,769 --> 00:12:46,210 Aruch. Ah. Isserlis famously called his commentary 277 00:12:46,210 --> 00:12:48,769 the Mapa, which translates to the tablecloth. 278 00:12:49,250 --> 00:12:51,990 It was meant to be spread over Karo's set table, 279 00:12:52,129 --> 00:12:54,649 which is what Shulhan Aruch means. Oh, that's 280 00:12:54,649 --> 00:12:57,590 clever. Isn't it? Isserles embedded all the specific 281 00:12:57,590 --> 00:13:00,710 customs, stringencies, and regional rulings of 282 00:13:00,710 --> 00:13:03,990 Ashkenazic Jewry directly into the text alongside 283 00:13:03,990 --> 00:13:07,269 Caro's rulings. So he basically localized the 284 00:13:07,269 --> 00:13:09,990 software. Exactly. He made it a universally applicable 285 00:13:09,990 --> 00:13:13,330 legal manual for their region. The Jewish merchant 286 00:13:13,330 --> 00:13:15,929 in Vilna and the merchant in Lublin were now 287 00:13:15,929 --> 00:13:18,610 operating under the exact same complex legal 288 00:13:18,610 --> 00:13:21,330 framework. OK, so they have the localized courts 289 00:13:21,330 --> 00:13:24,169 and they have the universal legal code, but you 290 00:13:24,169 --> 00:13:26,570 still need a macro level administration. I mean, 291 00:13:26,570 --> 00:13:28,769 you need to collect taxes for the crown. You 292 00:13:28,769 --> 00:13:31,210 need to lobby the king. You need to manage disputes 293 00:13:31,210 --> 00:13:33,710 between entire regions. You need a government. 294 00:13:33,990 --> 00:13:36,029 And this leads to an institution that completely 295 00:13:36,029 --> 00:13:39,149 blew my mind in the sources. The Council of Four 296 00:13:39,149 --> 00:13:42,149 Lands, established around 1580. The Wad Arba 297 00:13:42,149 --> 00:13:44,549 Eretzat, yes. This was a super communal body. 298 00:13:44,769 --> 00:13:47,049 How did it work? Well, representatives like rabbis 299 00:13:47,049 --> 00:13:49,289 and wealthy lay leaders from Jewish communities 300 00:13:49,289 --> 00:13:51,990 all across the Polish territories would gather 301 00:13:51,990 --> 00:13:54,529 together to make policy, allocate tax burdens, 302 00:13:54,669 --> 00:13:57,009 and represent the Jewish population directly 303 00:13:57,009 --> 00:13:59,730 to the crown. I am going to push back on the 304 00:13:59,730 --> 00:14:02,190 terminology here, though. Calling it a council 305 00:14:02,190 --> 00:14:05,350 almost sounds like a local school board, but 306 00:14:05,350 --> 00:14:07,549 they are assessing taxes across half a continent 307 00:14:07,549 --> 00:14:09,490 and negotiating with monarchs and regulating 308 00:14:09,490 --> 00:14:12,889 trade. Was this essentially a shadow parliament? 309 00:14:13,169 --> 00:14:15,769 Yes, absolutely. In fact, the historian Simon 310 00:14:15,769 --> 00:14:18,490 Dubnow, who is a giant in the field of Eastern 311 00:14:18,490 --> 00:14:21,389 European Jewish history, he explicitly pointed 312 00:14:21,389 --> 00:14:24,190 to these councils as early modern predecessors. 313 00:14:24,600 --> 00:14:27,419 to modern national politics. Wow. They would 314 00:14:27,419 --> 00:14:29,559 meet at the massive commercial fairs in cities 315 00:14:29,559 --> 00:14:32,179 like Lublin and Jerusalem. The fairs were chosen 316 00:14:32,179 --> 00:14:34,500 because, well, that's where the wealthiest merchants 317 00:14:34,500 --> 00:14:36,480 were naturally gathering anyway. Likes logistical 318 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:38,919 sense. It does. And they functioned as a national 319 00:14:38,919 --> 00:14:41,399 polity. They issued edicts that governed economic 320 00:14:41,399 --> 00:14:44,379 competition, social behavior, and even education 321 00:14:44,379 --> 00:14:47,120 standards. But hold on. A parliament has a monopoly 322 00:14:47,120 --> 00:14:50,919 on violence, right? A state has a police force. 323 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:53,980 It has prisons. If the Council of Four Lands 324 00:14:53,980 --> 00:14:57,159 decides that a wealthy Jewish merchant owes a 325 00:14:57,159 --> 00:15:00,139 massive tax bill and that merchant just says, 326 00:15:00,159 --> 00:15:02,039 you know, no, I'm not paying and I'm not going 327 00:15:02,039 --> 00:15:04,700 to your rabbinical court. What does the council 328 00:15:04,700 --> 00:15:06,360 actually do? They don't have a Jewish police 329 00:15:06,360 --> 00:15:09,320 force to go arrest him. No, they don't. And that 330 00:15:09,320 --> 00:15:12,120 is the crucial vulnerability of a virtual state. 331 00:15:12,799 --> 00:15:15,980 It required a highly specific enforcement mechanism. 332 00:15:16,039 --> 00:15:19,090 Which was? The harem. or excommunication because 333 00:15:19,090 --> 00:15:22,730 they lacked physical coercive power they relied 334 00:15:22,730 --> 00:15:25,950 on immense social and religious coercive power 335 00:15:25,950 --> 00:15:29,110 if you defied the council or the rabbinical court 336 00:15:29,110 --> 00:15:32,009 you could be placed under the harem what does 337 00:15:32,009 --> 00:15:34,169 that actually look like on a tuesday for the 338 00:15:34,169 --> 00:15:36,269 guy who got excommunicated it looked like total 339 00:15:36,269 --> 00:15:46,860 social and economic death really yeah That's 340 00:15:46,860 --> 00:16:03,429 brutal. I bet. that held the virtual skyscraper 341 00:16:03,429 --> 00:16:06,970 together that is incredibly potent but this shadow 342 00:16:06,970 --> 00:16:09,029 parliament wasn't completely harmonious right 343 00:16:09,029 --> 00:16:11,289 and here is where we get the lithuanian pivot 344 00:16:11,289 --> 00:16:14,049 which is central to our deep dive today ah yeah 345 00:16:14,049 --> 00:16:16,690 for decades the lithuanian jewish communities 346 00:16:16,690 --> 00:16:20,409 are part of this council of four lands but in 347 00:16:20,409 --> 00:16:25,250 1623 they decide they've had enough they secede 348 00:16:25,250 --> 00:16:28,529 they do they break away and form their own independent 349 00:16:28,529 --> 00:16:31,929 body the Council of the Land of Lithuania or 350 00:16:31,929 --> 00:16:34,710 the Vat Medina Lida, why did they break away? 351 00:16:35,009 --> 00:16:37,769 It really comes down to regional identity, sheer 352 00:16:37,769 --> 00:16:40,389 geography, and drastically different economic 353 00:16:40,389 --> 00:16:43,149 realities. Okay, tell me more. Even though Poland 354 00:16:43,149 --> 00:16:45,629 and Lithuania were united in a single commonwealth, 355 00:16:45,809 --> 00:16:48,549 the Grand Duchy of Lithuania retained its own 356 00:16:48,549 --> 00:16:51,169 distinct legal landscape. It had its own treasury 357 00:16:51,169 --> 00:16:53,570 and its own army. Right. But more importantly, 358 00:16:53,669 --> 00:16:56,090 the tax structures were different. The Lithuanian 359 00:16:56,090 --> 00:16:58,590 Jewish leaders realized that their specific needs 360 00:16:58,590 --> 00:17:00,909 and economic burdens were not being adequately 361 00:17:00,909 --> 00:17:03,490 represented by a council that was dominated by 362 00:17:03,490 --> 00:17:06,029 the much more numerous Polish communities. Ah, 363 00:17:06,210 --> 00:17:09,250 so it's the classic grievance, taxation without 364 00:17:09,250 --> 00:17:11,869 adequate representation. Exactly. The Lithuanian 365 00:17:11,869 --> 00:17:14,369 communities felt they were being assessed unfairly 366 00:17:14,369 --> 00:17:16,890 to cover debts incurred by Polish communities. 367 00:17:18,539 --> 00:17:20,980 Traveling from deep in Lithuania all the way 368 00:17:20,980 --> 00:17:24,059 to Lublin for a meeting in the 17th century wasn't 369 00:17:24,059 --> 00:17:26,819 exactly a quick weekend trip. Exactly. The geographic 370 00:17:26,819 --> 00:17:30,920 distance was immense. Traveling took weeks and 371 00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:33,440 was dangerous. Right. And what's interesting 372 00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:36,140 is the Lithuanian secession wasn't a religious 373 00:17:36,140 --> 00:17:38,460 schism. They weren't debating theology here. 374 00:17:38,599 --> 00:17:41,230 It was purely practical. Yes. It was a highly 375 00:17:41,230 --> 00:17:44,210 sophisticated administrative and political maneuver. 376 00:17:44,410 --> 00:17:46,910 It highlights just how autonomous and politically 377 00:17:46,910 --> 00:17:49,430 mature these communities had become. They recognized 378 00:17:49,430 --> 00:17:51,690 their distinct geopolitical needs and simply 379 00:17:51,690 --> 00:17:53,890 formed their own Congress to address them. Yep. 380 00:17:53,930 --> 00:17:56,390 And the Lithuanian Council would go on to operate 381 00:17:56,390 --> 00:17:58,849 independently for over a century and a half. 382 00:17:58,950 --> 00:18:01,549 They developed their own deeply distinct cultural 383 00:18:01,549 --> 00:18:03,849 and administrative character during that time. 384 00:18:04,309 --> 00:18:06,769 So we have this massive, complex administrative 385 00:18:06,769 --> 00:18:09,049 structure. We have councils, we have courts, 386 00:18:09,190 --> 00:18:12,049 we have regional secessions. But governments, 387 00:18:12,369 --> 00:18:15,490 even virtual ones, run on money, paying the crown's 388 00:18:15,490 --> 00:18:18,609 taxes, funding the yeshivas, supporting the rabbinical 389 00:18:18,609 --> 00:18:21,329 courts. I mean, it requires immense amounts of 390 00:18:21,329 --> 00:18:23,349 liquid capital. Huge amounts, yes. If they are 391 00:18:23,349 --> 00:18:25,549 living in a fundamentally feudal agricultural 392 00:18:25,549 --> 00:18:28,789 society, how are they generating that kind of 393 00:18:28,789 --> 00:18:31,009 wealth? To understand their economic engine, 394 00:18:31,339 --> 00:18:33,980 You really have to understand the bizarre structure 395 00:18:33,980 --> 00:18:37,079 of the Polish -Lithuanian economy itself. Okay, 396 00:18:37,160 --> 00:18:39,779 lay it on me. It was overwhelmingly agrarian, 397 00:18:39,779 --> 00:18:42,859 but it wasn't run by the king. It was dominated 398 00:18:42,859 --> 00:18:45,980 by massive, sprawling estates owned by incredibly 399 00:18:45,980 --> 00:18:49,539 wealthy, powerful aristocrats known as the magnates. 400 00:18:49,640 --> 00:18:52,079 And these magnates owned the land, they owned 401 00:18:52,079 --> 00:18:54,299 the forests, and they legally owned the labor 402 00:18:54,299 --> 00:18:56,700 of the unserved peasants living on that land. 403 00:18:56,940 --> 00:18:59,880 Correct. But here's the catch. These nobles lived 404 00:18:59,880 --> 00:19:02,579 in palatial estates, often in Warsaw or Vilna, 405 00:19:02,700 --> 00:19:04,900 or even traveling abroad in Paris. Right. They 406 00:19:04,900 --> 00:19:07,319 aren't farming. Exactly. Yeah. They considered 407 00:19:07,319 --> 00:19:09,799 it beneath their noble dignity to get their hands 408 00:19:09,799 --> 00:19:12,140 dirty with the day -to -day management of agriculture, 409 00:19:12,460 --> 00:19:14,900 commerce, bookkeeping, or toll collection. So 410 00:19:14,900 --> 00:19:17,319 they needed middlemen to extract the wealth from 411 00:19:17,319 --> 00:19:20,759 their land and turn it into cash. Yes. And the 412 00:19:20,759 --> 00:19:23,640 Jews stepped perfectly into this role. They acted 413 00:19:23,640 --> 00:19:26,759 as the vital intermediaries between the rural... 414 00:19:26,940 --> 00:19:29,720 agricultural sphere of the peasants and the urban 415 00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:31,940 commercial sphere of the markets. Let's drill 416 00:19:31,940 --> 00:19:33,900 down into the mechanics of this, because the 417 00:19:33,900 --> 00:19:36,700 sources point to a specific system that defined 418 00:19:36,700 --> 00:19:40,200 this era, the Arenda system. How does this work? 419 00:19:40,240 --> 00:19:42,640 I keep picturing it like a bizarre 18th century 420 00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:45,319 franchise model. The franchise analogy is actually 421 00:19:45,319 --> 00:19:47,640 brilliant. That's exactly what it was like. Under 422 00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:50,720 the Arenda system, Jews functioned as leaseholders 423 00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:53,960 on these aristocratic estates. Okay. A magnate 424 00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:55,779 would lease the monopoly rights of a specific 425 00:19:55,779 --> 00:19:59,000 economic function to a Jewish businessman for 426 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:01,640 a set period, usually three years, in exchange 427 00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:04,559 for a fixed upfront cash payment. The sources 428 00:20:04,559 --> 00:20:06,759 go into incredible detail on this, specifically 429 00:20:06,759 --> 00:20:09,720 focusing on the Radziwiya estates in 18th century 430 00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:13,200 Lithuania. Now, the Radziwiya family was unimaginably 431 00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:15,559 wealthy. Oh, like unfathomably wealthy. And you 432 00:20:15,559 --> 00:20:17,819 had Jews serving as general leaseholders, their 433 00:20:17,819 --> 00:20:20,119 renders. What exact rights were they leasing? 434 00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:22,940 Practically everything. They were leasing the 435 00:20:22,940 --> 00:20:25,140 right to collect tolls on the roads and bridges. 436 00:20:25,460 --> 00:20:27,940 They were leasing the right to operate the local 437 00:20:27,940 --> 00:20:31,099 grain mills. Wow. And most significantly, they 438 00:20:31,099 --> 00:20:34,240 were leasing the propina, which was the nobles' 439 00:20:34,339 --> 00:20:36,900 absolute monopoly on the production and sale 440 00:20:36,900 --> 00:20:40,720 of alcohol. Basically, the Jewish Arendars ran 441 00:20:40,720 --> 00:20:43,160 the local tavern. Let me stop you there because 442 00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:46,359 the tavern monopoly is so crucial. If a local 443 00:20:46,359 --> 00:20:49,420 peasant harvests a bunch of grain, and decides 444 00:20:49,420 --> 00:20:51,579 he wants to brew his own beer in his barn to 445 00:20:51,579 --> 00:20:54,319 save money, what happens? Under the feudal law 446 00:20:54,319 --> 00:20:56,880 of the estate, that is entirely illegal. Really? 447 00:20:56,980 --> 00:20:59,440 Yes. The peasant is legally required to take 448 00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:01,200 his grain to the mill operated by the Jewish 449 00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:04,140 leaseholder, pay a fee to have it milled, and 450 00:21:04,140 --> 00:21:06,359 if he wants alcohol, he is legally required to 451 00:21:06,359 --> 00:21:09,019 buy it exclusively from the tavern run by the 452 00:21:09,019 --> 00:21:12,180 Jewish leaseholder. That is wild. So the noble 453 00:21:12,180 --> 00:21:14,759 enforces this monopoly to guarantee his own income. 454 00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:17,900 But the face of that monopoly, the person actually 455 00:21:17,900 --> 00:21:20,019 taking the peasant's coin and enforcing the rule, 456 00:21:20,119 --> 00:21:22,559 is the Jewish Arendars. Exactly. And you can 457 00:21:22,559 --> 00:21:24,700 see how this is a terrifyingly precarious position. 458 00:21:25,019 --> 00:21:27,420 Yeah. I mean, they aren't just merchants trading 459 00:21:27,420 --> 00:21:30,019 spices. They are the middle managers of an entire 460 00:21:30,019 --> 00:21:32,660 agrarian empire. Right. You have this Jewish 461 00:21:32,660 --> 00:21:36,079 family living out in the rural countryside, completely 462 00:21:36,079 --> 00:21:38,880 isolated from the large urban Jewish communities, 463 00:21:39,140 --> 00:21:42,819 basically acting as the human shield for the 464 00:21:42,819 --> 00:21:45,559 local lord's economic exploitation. You've hit 465 00:21:45,559 --> 00:21:48,799 on the exact structural vulnerability of the 466 00:21:48,799 --> 00:21:51,460 Polish -Lithuanian -Jewish experience. Because 467 00:21:51,460 --> 00:21:55,160 on the one hand, the Arenda system was wildly 468 00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:57,559 successful. It made a lot of money. It generated 469 00:21:57,559 --> 00:22:00,440 immense wealth, which funded those councils and 470 00:22:00,440 --> 00:22:03,339 yeshivas. It integrated Jews deeply into the 471 00:22:03,339 --> 00:22:05,759 lifeblood of the Commonwealth's economy. Right. 472 00:22:05,900 --> 00:22:07,880 But on the other hand, it placed them in a highly 473 00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:12,099 volatile buffer zone. Because if you are a destitute 474 00:22:12,099 --> 00:22:15,160 Orthodox Christian peasant in Ukraine and you 475 00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:17,319 are angry about your systemic poverty and the 476 00:22:17,319 --> 00:22:19,559 crushing taxes you have to pay, you don't march 477 00:22:19,559 --> 00:22:22,240 hundreds of miles to a distant palace in Warsaw 478 00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:24,579 to yell at the Catholic Polish Lord. No, you 479 00:22:24,579 --> 00:22:26,500 don't. You march down the road to the tavern 480 00:22:26,500 --> 00:22:28,119 and you take it out on the Jewish leaseholder 481 00:22:28,119 --> 00:22:30,799 who just demanded your money. Exactly. It was 482 00:22:30,799 --> 00:22:33,500 an economic position of great utility to the 483 00:22:33,500 --> 00:22:36,720 ruling class, but it inherently generated immense 484 00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:40,640 social and class friction. the jew was the visible 485 00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:43,920 agent of an invisible oppressor it was a structural 486 00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:46,559 fault line that was bound to rupture eventually 487 00:22:46,559 --> 00:22:49,539 yes it was just a matter of time Before we talk 488 00:22:49,539 --> 00:22:51,160 about the rupture, we really have to look at 489 00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:54,000 what this economic engine built during times 490 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:56,839 of peace. Because they didn't just use this wealth 491 00:22:56,839 --> 00:22:59,960 to build nicer houses or buy fancier clothes. 492 00:23:00,380 --> 00:23:03,619 The massive capital generated by the Arenda system, 493 00:23:03,740 --> 00:23:06,319 combined with the political autonomy of the councils, 494 00:23:06,619 --> 00:23:09,880 allowed the Jews of Poland and Lithuania to pivot 495 00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:11,839 their energy towards something else entirely. 496 00:23:12,299 --> 00:23:14,740 They became an absolute intellectual superpower. 497 00:23:15,259 --> 00:23:17,819 This is perhaps the most enduring legacy of this 498 00:23:17,819 --> 00:23:41,990 society. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. 499 00:23:48,190 --> 00:23:50,289 I try to think of it like Silicon Valley in the 500 00:23:50,289 --> 00:23:54,130 1990s. The absolute brightest minds, the most 501 00:23:54,130 --> 00:23:56,910 cutting edge debates, the center of gravity for 502 00:23:56,910 --> 00:24:00,150 an entire global culture. It all shifted to the 503 00:24:00,150 --> 00:24:02,990 east. It was an intellectual gold rush. That's 504 00:24:02,990 --> 00:24:05,390 a great comparison. And the scale of it was staggering. 505 00:24:05,589 --> 00:24:08,609 The texts cite an Italian rabbi named Simone 506 00:24:08,609 --> 00:24:10,990 Luzzatto. Oh, yeah. The quote from the sources. 507 00:24:11,049 --> 00:24:14,450 Yes. Writing in 1638 from the perspective of 508 00:24:14,450 --> 00:24:16,910 the older, established Mediterranean Jewish communities, 509 00:24:17,089 --> 00:24:19,009 he marveled at what was happening in the East. 510 00:24:19,250 --> 00:24:21,430 He wrote that thousands of young men diligently 511 00:24:21,430 --> 00:24:23,829 pursue the study of the Jews' civil and religious 512 00:24:23,829 --> 00:24:26,549 laws in the yeshivas of Lithuania and Poland. 513 00:24:26,930 --> 00:24:30,269 Thousands. In 1638, when most of Europe was largely 514 00:24:30,269 --> 00:24:32,930 illiterate, you have this massive, highly organized 515 00:24:32,930 --> 00:24:35,650 system of higher education functioning across 516 00:24:35,650 --> 00:24:38,589 an entire region. It was a society that prioritized 517 00:24:38,589 --> 00:24:41,630 scholarship above almost all else. Above wealth. 518 00:24:41,930 --> 00:24:44,369 Oh, definitely. The highest social status wasn't 519 00:24:44,369 --> 00:24:46,430 given to the wealthiest merchant, but to the 520 00:24:46,430 --> 00:24:49,049 most brilliant scholar. Wealthy merchants would 521 00:24:49,049 --> 00:24:52,049 actively seek out the best yeshiva students to 522 00:24:52,049 --> 00:24:54,890 marry their daughters, essentially funding their 523 00:24:54,890 --> 00:24:57,829 lifelong study. That is fascinating. And this 524 00:24:57,829 --> 00:25:00,349 intellectual culture was uniquely bilingual, 525 00:25:00,529 --> 00:25:02,910 which the Cambridge volumes emphasize heavily. 526 00:25:03,309 --> 00:25:05,730 Right. Because they maintained Hebrew and Aramaic 527 00:25:05,730 --> 00:25:08,809 as the holy tongues, the language of the Talmud, 528 00:25:08,950 --> 00:25:11,930 the legal codes and the elite scholarship. Yes. 529 00:25:12,069 --> 00:25:15,170 But alongside it, they were cultivating Yiddish. 530 00:25:15,210 --> 00:25:18,250 The vernacular. Yiddish became the rich, expressive 531 00:25:18,250 --> 00:25:20,710 Eastern European vernacular. It was a language 532 00:25:20,710 --> 00:25:22,789 of daily life, of commerce, of the marketplace 533 00:25:22,789 --> 00:25:25,950 and eventually of a massive body of popular literature 534 00:25:25,950 --> 00:25:28,509 and poetry. So it created a dual layered culture, 535 00:25:28,710 --> 00:25:32,009 the rigorous, elite, legalistic world of Hebrew. 536 00:25:32,589 --> 00:25:35,869 And the warm, dynamic, everyday world of Yiddish. 537 00:25:36,009 --> 00:25:38,950 And if we are talking about the absolute peak 538 00:25:38,950 --> 00:25:41,730 of this intellectual culture, the apex predator 539 00:25:41,730 --> 00:25:45,329 of Lithuanian scholarship, all roads lead to 540 00:25:45,329 --> 00:25:49,009 one man in the 18th century. The Vilna Goon. 541 00:25:49,450 --> 00:25:52,559 Elijah Ben Solomon Zalman. The Goan. The Goan 542 00:25:52,559 --> 00:25:55,480 of Vilna. He is arguably one of the most brilliant 543 00:25:55,480 --> 00:25:57,579 and influential figures in modern Jewish history. 544 00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:01,400 The title Gelon literally means genius or eminence. 545 00:26:01,500 --> 00:26:04,119 Wow. He was the undisputed intellectual giant 546 00:26:04,119 --> 00:26:07,279 of Lithuanian Jewry, and his approach to study 547 00:26:07,279 --> 00:26:10,470 essentially defined what we now consider... The 548 00:26:10,470 --> 00:26:12,569 Lithuanian style of learning. Which is? Hyper 549 00:26:12,569 --> 00:26:15,390 -analytical, relentlessly text -based, and brutally 550 00:26:15,390 --> 00:26:17,470 logical. Let me stop you because I think the 551 00:26:17,470 --> 00:26:19,769 modern listener has a specific stereotype in 552 00:26:19,769 --> 00:26:22,150 mind when we talk about an 18th century ultra 553 00:26:22,150 --> 00:26:24,289 -orthodox traditional religious scholar. Sure, 554 00:26:24,309 --> 00:26:25,990 they picture someone very closed off. Right, 555 00:26:26,009 --> 00:26:27,750 we picture someone totally cloister, violently 556 00:26:27,750 --> 00:26:29,829 anti -secular, treating anything outside the 557 00:26:29,829 --> 00:26:33,150 Bible as absolute heresy. But the sources show 558 00:26:33,150 --> 00:26:35,349 a totally different side to the Gowan. He was 559 00:26:35,349 --> 00:26:37,869 championing the study of geometry. This is what 560 00:26:37,869 --> 00:26:41,380 makes him so fascinating. The Vilna game did 561 00:26:41,380 --> 00:26:43,900 not view secular knowledge like mathematics, 562 00:26:44,140 --> 00:26:47,480 astronomy, or anatomy as an inherent threat to 563 00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:50,039 Torah study. Not a threat at all. No. In fact, 564 00:26:50,079 --> 00:26:52,500 he believed the exact opposite. He believed that 565 00:26:52,500 --> 00:26:54,579 the Torah contained the blueprint of the entire 566 00:26:54,579 --> 00:26:58,279 universe, which meant that a flaw in one's understanding 567 00:26:58,279 --> 00:27:00,819 of the natural physical world would inevitably 568 00:27:00,819 --> 00:27:02,920 lead to a flaw in one's understanding of the 569 00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:05,059 divine law. Oh, that makes sense. You cannot 570 00:27:05,059 --> 00:27:08,019 calculate the complex agricultural laws or the 571 00:27:08,019 --> 00:27:10,700 lunar calendar. without a masterful grasp of 572 00:27:10,700 --> 00:27:14,180 astronomy and math. The sources highlight a specific, 573 00:27:14,359 --> 00:27:16,799 amazing moment that illustrates this perfectly. 574 00:27:17,299 --> 00:27:21,619 In 1780, a scholar named Baruch Schick of Shklov 575 00:27:21,619 --> 00:27:24,599 translates the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid's 576 00:27:24,599 --> 00:27:27,180 elements into Hebrew. And in the introduction 577 00:27:27,180 --> 00:27:30,319 to this geometry textbook, he explicitly quotes 578 00:27:30,319 --> 00:27:32,650 the Vilna Gaon. Yes, he does. He writes that 579 00:27:32,650 --> 00:27:35,049 he heard from the Gaon's own mouth that to the 580 00:27:35,049 --> 00:27:37,210 degree that a man is lacking in knowledge of 581 00:27:37,210 --> 00:27:40,109 the mathematical sciences, he will lack a hundredfold 582 00:27:40,109 --> 00:27:43,150 in the wisdom of the Torah. The most revered 583 00:27:43,150 --> 00:27:45,589 rabbi in Eastern Europe essentially commanded 584 00:27:45,589 --> 00:27:49,130 him to translate a Greek math book. It perfectly 585 00:27:49,130 --> 00:27:51,910 illustrates the specific character of the Lithuanian 586 00:27:51,910 --> 00:27:55,109 Jewish intellect. The Gaon wasn't advocating 587 00:27:55,109 --> 00:27:58,750 for assimilation or secularization. He was... 588 00:27:59,230 --> 00:28:01,289 Deeply, fiercely traditional. Right. He wasn't 589 00:28:01,289 --> 00:28:03,769 trying to be secular. Exactly. But he demanded 590 00:28:03,769 --> 00:28:07,269 absolute intellectual perfection. He recognized 591 00:28:07,269 --> 00:28:09,650 that mathematics and astronomy were essential 592 00:28:09,650 --> 00:28:13,009 tools required to achieve that perfection. It 593 00:28:13,009 --> 00:28:17,529 was a culture of extreme rigor. But here, you 594 00:28:17,529 --> 00:28:19,769 can't build a skyscraper on a fault line without 595 00:28:19,769 --> 00:28:21,869 eventually feeling an earthquake. No, you can't. 596 00:28:21,890 --> 00:28:23,750 They are intellectually firing on all cylinders. 597 00:28:23,890 --> 00:28:25,450 They have their shadow parliament. They have 598 00:28:25,450 --> 00:28:28,029 the Arenda economy. But as we discussed, they 599 00:28:28,029 --> 00:28:30,190 are acting as the buffer between the powerful 600 00:28:30,190 --> 00:28:32,789 Catholic magnates and the oppressed Orthodox 601 00:28:32,789 --> 00:28:35,930 peasants in places like Ukraine. You can't be 602 00:28:35,930 --> 00:28:38,609 the face of an oppressive feudal system forever 603 00:28:38,609 --> 00:28:42,579 without someone snapping. And in 1648, the fault 604 00:28:42,579 --> 00:28:45,759 line violently, catastrophically ruptures. The 605 00:28:45,759 --> 00:28:49,160 Cossack Massacre. Yes. The intellectual and economic 606 00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:52,119 golden age is interrupted by the Cossack Massacres, 607 00:28:52,119 --> 00:28:55,319 led by Bogdan Kamilinski. Let's set the stage 608 00:28:55,319 --> 00:28:56,980 for this because this isn't just a localized 609 00:28:56,980 --> 00:28:59,400 riot. This is a massive geopolitical explosion. 610 00:28:59,740 --> 00:29:02,599 The Kamilinski Uprising was an apocalyptic event 611 00:29:02,599 --> 00:29:06,289 for Eastern European Jewry. The Cossacks, who 612 00:29:06,289 --> 00:29:08,549 were militarized bands living in the borderlands 613 00:29:08,549 --> 00:29:12,009 of Ukraine, were Orthodox Christians. They allied 614 00:29:12,009 --> 00:29:15,410 with Tatar forces from the Crimea and enraged 615 00:29:15,410 --> 00:29:18,190 local and serfed peasants. They rose up in a 616 00:29:18,190 --> 00:29:19,970 massive rebellion against the Polish Catholic 617 00:29:19,970 --> 00:29:22,869 rule. And because the Jews were the administrators 618 00:29:22,869 --> 00:29:26,529 of the Polish estates, arendars running the taverns 619 00:29:26,529 --> 00:29:28,910 and collecting the tolls, the full unbridled 620 00:29:28,910 --> 00:29:31,650 fury of the uprising was directed at them. Exactly. 621 00:29:31,769 --> 00:29:33,589 The sheer scale of the violence is horrifying. 622 00:29:34,029 --> 00:29:36,569 Entire Jewish communities across Ukraine and 623 00:29:36,569 --> 00:29:39,259 southern Poland were obliterated. But the sources 624 00:29:39,259 --> 00:29:41,799 focused not just on the physical devastation, 625 00:29:41,819 --> 00:29:44,819 but on the profound psychological toll this took 626 00:29:44,819 --> 00:29:47,799 on the survivors. The mental map of their world 627 00:29:47,799 --> 00:29:51,170 was completely shattered. Right. There is a famous 628 00:29:51,170 --> 00:29:53,190 chronicle written by a survivor named Nathan 629 00:29:53,190 --> 00:29:57,069 Nada Hanover titled Yevon Metzula or the Abyss 630 00:29:57,069 --> 00:30:00,009 of Despair. It is a harrowing read. I mean, he 631 00:30:00,009 --> 00:30:03,549 details the horrific tortures and mass executions. 632 00:30:03,549 --> 00:30:06,849 But what is equally striking is how he eulogizes 633 00:30:06,849 --> 00:30:09,690 the lost culture. Yes. He writes that before 634 00:30:09,690 --> 00:30:13,369 1648, almost every single house had someone studying 635 00:30:13,369 --> 00:30:16,920 Torah, that the yeshivas were full. He is mourning 636 00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:18,779 not just the bodies, but the destruction of the 637 00:30:18,779 --> 00:30:20,980 intellectual citadel they had built. He's mourning 638 00:30:20,980 --> 00:30:23,460 the world they lost. Exactly. I'm trying to put 639 00:30:23,460 --> 00:30:25,740 myself in the shoes of an average person surviving 640 00:30:25,740 --> 00:30:28,160 this. Your village is burned, half your family 641 00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:30,960 is dead, and the intellectual elites, the brilliant 642 00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:33,339 rabbis with their complex legal codes failed 643 00:30:33,339 --> 00:30:35,859 to protect you. Right. In fact, all that hyper 644 00:30:35,859 --> 00:30:38,599 -analytical study suddenly feels incredibly cold 645 00:30:38,599 --> 00:30:41,220 and distant when you are traumatized. How does 646 00:30:41,220 --> 00:30:43,980 a society spiritually process an apocalypse like 647 00:30:43,980 --> 00:30:46,400 that? Well, when a society experiences trauma 648 00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:50,019 on that scale, it forces a deep spiritual reckoning. 649 00:30:50,119 --> 00:30:53,059 It has to. The traditional, highly intellectualized, 650 00:30:53,079 --> 00:30:56,220 elite form of religion championed by the yeshivas 651 00:30:56,220 --> 00:30:59,559 suddenly felt inadequate to the traumatized masses. 652 00:31:00,019 --> 00:31:03,220 They needed unmediated comfort. They needed something 653 00:31:03,220 --> 00:31:05,720 direct. Exactly. They needed a direct connection 654 00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:08,299 to the divine that didn't require 20 years of 655 00:31:08,299 --> 00:31:11,859 Talmudic mastery. And out of this shattered landscape, 656 00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:15,279 an entirely new spiritual movement is birthed 657 00:31:15,279 --> 00:31:18,529 in the 18th century. Hasidism. Founded by the 658 00:31:18,529 --> 00:31:21,150 figure known as the Baal Shem Tov. Wait, let 659 00:31:21,150 --> 00:31:22,630 me make sure I understand the psychology here. 660 00:31:22,730 --> 00:31:24,750 You have a population that just went through 661 00:31:24,750 --> 00:31:26,730 an apocalyptic massacre. Everything is dark. 662 00:31:27,049 --> 00:31:29,710 And the movement that captures their hearts is 663 00:31:29,710 --> 00:31:32,450 Hasidism, which is entirely based on ecstatic, 664 00:31:32,490 --> 00:31:34,829 mystical joy. It sounds counterintuitive, right? 665 00:31:34,950 --> 00:31:36,769 Shouldn't they be depressed? How does trauma 666 00:31:36,769 --> 00:31:39,349 lead to mystical singing and dancing? It is a 667 00:31:39,349 --> 00:31:41,970 profound psychological response, actually. The 668 00:31:41,970 --> 00:31:45,069 Baal Shem Tov offered a theology of radical eminence. 669 00:31:45,089 --> 00:31:47,390 Radical eminence. The idea that God is present 670 00:31:47,390 --> 00:31:50,450 everywhere, in every mundane action, in the trees, 671 00:31:50,630 --> 00:31:53,789 in the tavern, in a simple song. He argued that 672 00:31:53,789 --> 00:31:56,430 you don't need to be an elite scholar dissecting 673 00:31:56,430 --> 00:31:58,869 the Shulchan Aruch to connect with God. Oh, wow. 674 00:31:59,309 --> 00:32:03,109 A sincere, joyful prayer from a simple, illiterate 675 00:32:03,109 --> 00:32:06,750 peasant is just as holy, if not more so, than 676 00:32:06,750 --> 00:32:09,710 the complex study of a genius. It democratized 677 00:32:09,710 --> 00:32:12,750 spirituality. It told a traumatized, impoverished 678 00:32:12,750 --> 00:32:15,250 population that their joy, their emotional devotion 679 00:32:15,250 --> 00:32:18,269 was the key to the heavens. Yes. That sounds 680 00:32:18,269 --> 00:32:20,809 incredibly appealing to the masses. But I have 681 00:32:20,809 --> 00:32:24,289 to imagine the Lithuanian elites, the guys translating 682 00:32:24,289 --> 00:32:26,930 Euclid and mastering the Talmud, looked at this 683 00:32:26,930 --> 00:32:29,930 emotional, ecstatic movement and absolutely panicked. 684 00:32:30,069 --> 00:32:32,150 Oh, they viewed it as a catastrophic threat. 685 00:32:32,289 --> 00:32:34,690 I bet. The Lithuanian establishment, led by the 686 00:32:34,690 --> 00:32:37,509 Vilna Gaon himself, became known as the Mitnigdem. 687 00:32:37,759 --> 00:32:39,859 which literally translates to the opponents. 688 00:32:40,119 --> 00:32:43,259 Okay. They saw Hasidism as a dangerous anti -intellectual 689 00:32:43,259 --> 00:32:46,240 heresy. The Gowan issued fierce excommunications 690 00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:48,460 harem against the Hasidim. He ordered their books 691 00:32:48,460 --> 00:32:52,140 burned. All burned. Yes. He feared that by elevating 692 00:32:52,140 --> 00:32:55,119 emotion over rigorous legal study, the Hasidim 693 00:32:55,119 --> 00:32:57,920 would abandon Halakha entirely and lead the community 694 00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:00,619 into chaos. So it is essentially a spiritual 695 00:33:00,619 --> 00:33:04,059 civil war. The virtual state is fracturing from 696 00:33:04,059 --> 00:33:06,500 within over the very definition of how to serve 697 00:33:06,500 --> 00:33:09,660 God. It was a bitter divide. But what is fascinating 698 00:33:09,660 --> 00:33:13,160 is how this civil war evolves. Hasidism didn't 699 00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:16,400 disappear. It exploded in popularity and eventually 700 00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:18,559 integrated into the broader Orthodox structure. 701 00:33:18,740 --> 00:33:20,660 Interesting. But the Lithuanian tradition also 702 00:33:20,660 --> 00:33:24,180 realized it had a problem. The purely intellectual 703 00:33:24,180 --> 00:33:26,920 pursuit of Torah study wasn't enough to sustain 704 00:33:26,920 --> 00:33:28,859 the moral fabric of the community. They needed 705 00:33:28,859 --> 00:33:31,710 something else. Right. And this leads to a fascinating 706 00:33:31,710 --> 00:33:33,809 counter -movement from within the Lithuanian 707 00:33:33,809 --> 00:33:36,089 camp in the 19th century, the Musar movement. 708 00:33:36,410 --> 00:33:39,450 Led by Rabbi Israel Salanter. Yes. I found this 709 00:33:39,450 --> 00:33:41,690 part of the sources fascinating because it feels 710 00:33:41,690 --> 00:33:44,529 incredibly modern. It almost reads like 19th 711 00:33:44,529 --> 00:33:47,670 century self -help or cognitive behavioral therapy. 712 00:33:48,170 --> 00:33:52,369 Salanter's critique was profound. He argued that 713 00:33:52,369 --> 00:33:54,640 you could have a brilliant scholar who knows 714 00:33:54,640 --> 00:33:57,500 the entire Talmud by heart, who observes every 715 00:33:57,500 --> 00:34:00,480 single ritual law perfectly, but who is arrogant, 716 00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:03,500 unethical in business, and cruel to his neighbors. 717 00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:06,059 Right. Salantra believed the community needed 718 00:34:06,059 --> 00:34:10,400 a profound, deliberate refocus on internal ethics, 719 00:34:10,599 --> 00:34:13,179 psychology, and character development. So it 720 00:34:13,179 --> 00:34:15,059 wasn't enough to just study the law. You had 721 00:34:15,059 --> 00:34:17,159 to study yourself. Exactly. The Musar movement 722 00:34:17,159 --> 00:34:19,579 introduced dedicated times for studying ethical 723 00:34:19,579 --> 00:34:22,679 texts, engaging in deep... often highly emotional 724 00:34:22,679 --> 00:34:25,639 self -reflection, and actively working to break 725 00:34:25,639 --> 00:34:28,099 negative character traits. Like pride or anger. 726 00:34:28,380 --> 00:34:31,039 Yes. It was an attempt to inject deep moral and 727 00:34:31,039 --> 00:34:33,800 emotional rigor into the hyper -analytical Lithuanian 728 00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:36,619 system. So you have these massive tectonic shifts 729 00:34:36,619 --> 00:34:38,860 in the spiritual life of the community. You have 730 00:34:38,860 --> 00:34:41,300 the joy of Hasidism, the intellectual rigor of 731 00:34:41,300 --> 00:34:43,380 the Gaon, the ethical focus of Musar. They're 732 00:34:43,380 --> 00:34:45,320 having the deepest debates about the human soul. 733 00:34:45,789 --> 00:34:48,510 But while they are looking inward, the physical 734 00:34:48,510 --> 00:34:51,250 external world they inhabit, the Polish -Lithuanian 735 00:34:51,250 --> 00:34:53,889 Commonwealth, is literally collapsing around 736 00:34:53,889 --> 00:34:57,079 them. The irony is tragic, honestly. While the 737 00:34:57,079 --> 00:34:59,539 internal Jewish world was at its most vibrant 738 00:34:59,539 --> 00:35:02,539 and complex, the host state was on its deathbed. 739 00:35:02,639 --> 00:35:04,800 Right. We are moving into the late 18th century 740 00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:06,960 now. The Enlightenment and the French Revolution 741 00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:10,380 are sparking intense debates across Europe. Nations 742 00:35:10,380 --> 00:35:12,300 are asking fundamental questions about civic 743 00:35:12,300 --> 00:35:15,019 improvement, the rights of man, and the emancipation 744 00:35:15,019 --> 00:35:18,059 of minority populations. And the Polish -Lithuanian 745 00:35:18,059 --> 00:35:21,230 Commonwealth is surrounded by... Predatory absolutist 746 00:35:21,230 --> 00:35:24,969 empires, Russia, Prussia and Austria. Yes. These 747 00:35:24,969 --> 00:35:27,349 empires are looking at the weakened, decentralized 748 00:35:27,349 --> 00:35:30,469 Polish state like wolves looking at a wounded 749 00:35:30,469 --> 00:35:32,829 deer. And the Polish reformers realized they 750 00:35:32,829 --> 00:35:35,309 were in existential danger. They attempted a 751 00:35:35,309 --> 00:35:37,909 desperate modernization of their state to resist 752 00:35:37,909 --> 00:35:41,429 these empires. In 1791, they passed the Polish 753 00:35:41,429 --> 00:35:43,780 Constitution. Which the Cambridge texts point 754 00:35:43,780 --> 00:35:46,019 out is actually a massive pilestone. It was the 755 00:35:46,019 --> 00:35:48,500 first written modern constitution in Europe, 756 00:35:48,659 --> 00:35:51,480 predating the French one by a few months. It 757 00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:54,199 was a huge deal. But despite all its enlightened 758 00:35:54,199 --> 00:35:56,280 rhetoric, how did it handle the massive Jewish 759 00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:58,920 population living in its borders? It essentially 760 00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:01,860 ignored them entirely. Of course. The reformers 761 00:36:01,860 --> 00:36:04,039 were too focused on the rights of the nobility 762 00:36:04,039 --> 00:36:08,610 and the burghers. The 1791 constitution completely 763 00:36:08,610 --> 00:36:11,269 failed to resolve the pressing legal inequalities 764 00:36:11,269 --> 00:36:14,150 of the Jewish population. Right. The state within 765 00:36:14,150 --> 00:36:16,889 a state structure was deemed incompatible with 766 00:36:16,889 --> 00:36:19,909 a modern centralized nation, but the state wasn't 767 00:36:19,909 --> 00:36:22,090 willing to offer full civic equality either. 768 00:36:22,250 --> 00:36:24,329 And it turned out to be too little too late anyway, 769 00:36:24,550 --> 00:36:26,869 right? The neighboring empires didn't care about 770 00:36:26,869 --> 00:36:29,989 the Constitution. No, they didn't. In 1793, we 771 00:36:29,989 --> 00:36:32,130 see the second partition of Poland -Lithuania, 772 00:36:32,269 --> 00:36:35,090 where Russia and Prussia literally just carve 773 00:36:35,090 --> 00:36:37,489 up massive chunks of the Commonwealth and annex 774 00:36:37,489 --> 00:36:40,030 them. The state is being erased from the map. 775 00:36:40,250 --> 00:36:43,190 Which leads to a final, desperate last stand. 776 00:36:43,860 --> 00:36:48,380 In 1794, a Polish military leader named Tadeusz 777 00:36:48,380 --> 00:36:51,460 Kosciuszko launches a massive armed uprising 778 00:36:51,460 --> 00:36:53,960 to try and save the Commonwealth, push out the 779 00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:56,880 Russian forces, and secure independence. And 780 00:36:56,880 --> 00:36:59,460 here we get one of the most remarkable cinematic 781 00:36:59,460 --> 00:37:02,360 stories in all of our sources. A man named Berek 782 00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:04,960 Kosilewicz. Tell us about him. Berek Kosilewicz 783 00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:07,820 was a Jew of Lithuanian background. He was a 784 00:37:07,820 --> 00:37:10,139 merchant, he had traveled widely, and he had 785 00:37:10,139 --> 00:37:12,380 actually spent time in Paris during the early 786 00:37:12,380 --> 00:37:14,360 days of the French Revolution. Okay, so he's 787 00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:16,900 seeing all of this unfold. Yes, he absorbed the 788 00:37:16,900 --> 00:37:20,480 ideals of civic nationalism. And in the midst 789 00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:23,380 of this desperate Polish uprising in Warsaw in 790 00:37:23,380 --> 00:37:26,820 1794, he does something completely unprecedented 791 00:37:26,820 --> 00:37:30,059 in Eastern European Jewish history. I want to 792 00:37:30,059 --> 00:37:32,260 paint the picture of this because it is incredible. 793 00:37:32,920 --> 00:37:35,579 Hoselevich petitions the Polish military leadership 794 00:37:35,579 --> 00:37:38,519 for permission to form a Jewish armed cavalry 795 00:37:38,519 --> 00:37:41,599 unit to defend Warsaw alongside the Polish forces. 796 00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:45,260 He issues a fiery proclamation in Yiddish, calling 797 00:37:45,260 --> 00:37:47,659 on the Jewish population to take up arms to fight 798 00:37:47,659 --> 00:37:49,920 for the land they live in. Wow. He raises a regiment 799 00:37:49,920 --> 00:37:52,980 of nearly 500 Jewish men, arms them, and leads 800 00:37:52,980 --> 00:37:55,000 them into battle against the overwhelming Russian 801 00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:57,699 army at the defense of Praga, which is a suburb 802 00:37:57,699 --> 00:38:00,849 of Warsaw. This is astounding. Let's pause and 803 00:38:00,849 --> 00:38:02,590 appreciate the contradiction here for a second. 804 00:38:03,369 --> 00:38:05,889 Barak Joselovic is riding through the streets 805 00:38:05,889 --> 00:38:08,690 of Warsaw, rallying men who had largely never 806 00:38:08,690 --> 00:38:11,610 been allowed to bear arms to fight and die for 807 00:38:11,610 --> 00:38:14,769 a Polish constitution that still legally considered 808 00:38:14,769 --> 00:38:18,070 them second -class citizens. Why on earth would 809 00:38:18,070 --> 00:38:21,230 he do that? Because Joselovic represented a total 810 00:38:21,230 --> 00:38:24,409 paradigm shift. For centuries, as we've discussed, 811 00:38:24,630 --> 00:38:27,210 the Jewish community had operated as a separate 812 00:38:27,500 --> 00:38:30,579 autonomous entity their loyalty was to their 813 00:38:30,579 --> 00:38:33,000 own internal law and their local community their 814 00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:36,119 virtual state exactly but hoselovich represented 815 00:38:36,119 --> 00:38:39,260 the birth of a totally new innovation the jew 816 00:38:39,260 --> 00:38:42,960 as an active armed civic patriot he's looking 817 00:38:42,960 --> 00:38:44,699 at the collapsing state and saying you know this 818 00:38:44,699 --> 00:38:47,309 is my country too We are not just a state within 819 00:38:47,309 --> 00:38:49,489 a state anymore. I will shed blood for the broader 820 00:38:49,489 --> 00:38:51,690 national polity and through that blood demand 821 00:38:51,690 --> 00:38:54,090 equal citizenship. Exactly. It was a bid for 822 00:38:54,090 --> 00:38:56,070 integration through shared sacrifice. Did it 823 00:38:56,070 --> 00:38:59,170 work? Tragically, no. His cavalry was almost 824 00:38:59,170 --> 00:39:01,710 entirely wiped out by the superior Russian forces 825 00:39:01,710 --> 00:39:04,309 during the massacre of Praga. The Kosciuszko 826 00:39:04,309 --> 00:39:07,739 uprising failed. The following year, in 1795, 827 00:39:08,119 --> 00:39:10,760 the final partition occurred, and the Polish 828 00:39:10,760 --> 00:39:12,920 -Lithuanian Commonwealth was completely wiped 829 00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:15,699 off the map. Which means what for the Jews? Millions 830 00:39:15,699 --> 00:39:18,019 of Jews who had lived in this unique, autonomous 831 00:39:18,019 --> 00:39:21,239 system suddenly woke up as subjects of the autocratic 832 00:39:21,239 --> 00:39:24,179 Russian Empire. But Hoselowitz himself survived, 833 00:39:24,599 --> 00:39:27,360 fled, and continued to fight in the Napoleonic 834 00:39:27,360 --> 00:39:30,440 Polish legions, eventually dying in battle years 835 00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:33,789 later. Even though the state he fought for vanished, 836 00:39:33,909 --> 00:39:37,409 he became this massive, enduring 19th century 837 00:39:37,409 --> 00:39:40,170 icon. He signaled that the era of the isolated, 838 00:39:40,309 --> 00:39:43,090 autonomous Jewish council was ending. The era 839 00:39:43,090 --> 00:39:46,409 of the modern Jewish citizen struggling for emancipation, 840 00:39:46,429 --> 00:39:48,670 equal rights, and national identity within a 841 00:39:48,670 --> 00:39:51,650 modern nation state had definitively begun. Wow. 842 00:39:52,119 --> 00:39:54,139 Let's take a breath, step back, and look at the 843 00:39:54,139 --> 00:39:56,599 epic sweeping arc of what we've just covered 844 00:39:56,599 --> 00:39:58,500 from these Cambridge volumes today. It's a lot. 845 00:39:58,619 --> 00:40:01,139 It's incredible. We traced the Jews of Lithuania 846 00:40:01,139 --> 00:40:03,519 from their origins as invited medieval migrants 847 00:40:03,519 --> 00:40:06,659 fleeing the violence of the Rhineland. We saw 848 00:40:06,659 --> 00:40:09,000 them utilize the Statute of Calais to lay roots. 849 00:40:09,219 --> 00:40:11,780 We watched them become the architects of an intricate 850 00:40:11,780 --> 00:40:14,840 shadow parliament, complete with rabbinical courts 851 00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:18,250 and the Lithuanian Council. We saw how they funded 852 00:40:18,250 --> 00:40:20,769 the society by acting as the precarious middle 853 00:40:20,769 --> 00:40:24,010 managers of the Arenda system, collecting tolls 854 00:40:24,010 --> 00:40:26,210 and running taverns in the buffer zone between 855 00:40:26,210 --> 00:40:29,269 magnate and peasant. And we saw how they channeled 856 00:40:29,269 --> 00:40:31,449 that wealth into an intellectual golden age, 857 00:40:31,570 --> 00:40:34,389 turning the yeshivas into the capital of the 858 00:40:34,389 --> 00:40:37,210 global Jewish mind under the rigorous brilliance 859 00:40:37,210 --> 00:40:39,619 of the Vilna Gaon. We watched them survive the 860 00:40:39,619 --> 00:40:43,159 apocalyptic Khmelnytsky massacres of 1648 and 861 00:40:43,159 --> 00:40:45,780 invent entirely new frameworks for the human 862 00:40:45,780 --> 00:40:48,940 soul, the emotional joy of Hasidism and the ethical 863 00:40:48,940 --> 00:40:51,639 rigor of the Moussar movement. And ultimately, 864 00:40:51,699 --> 00:40:54,039 through the sheer defiance of Berek Azelevich, 865 00:40:54,139 --> 00:40:56,780 we saw them take up arms to defend a collapsing 866 00:40:56,780 --> 00:40:59,619 nation pivoting toward modernity. It is the history 867 00:40:59,619 --> 00:41:01,940 of a people who mastered the art of building 868 00:41:01,940 --> 00:41:04,239 a civilization in the margins of someone else's 869 00:41:04,239 --> 00:41:06,679 map. That is beautifully put. And that brings 870 00:41:06,679 --> 00:41:09,300 us to our final thought. As you go about your 871 00:41:09,300 --> 00:41:12,039 day, reflecting on this deep dive, I want you 872 00:41:12,039 --> 00:41:14,239 to ponder something that historians constantly 873 00:41:14,239 --> 00:41:16,559 debate. What's that? For centuries, the Jews 874 00:41:16,559 --> 00:41:19,000 of Poland and Lithuania managed to function as 875 00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:21,420 that state within a state. They assessed their 876 00:41:21,420 --> 00:41:23,699 own taxes, they debated their own laws, they 877 00:41:23,699 --> 00:41:26,320 governed themselves. When the Polish -Lithuanian 878 00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:28,820 Commonwealth was wiped off the map, that physical 879 00:41:28,820 --> 00:41:31,800 autonomy was crushed by the Russian czars. It 880 00:41:31,800 --> 00:41:34,800 was gone. But when you practice self -rule... 881 00:41:35,019 --> 00:41:37,300 political organization and intensive legal debate 882 00:41:37,300 --> 00:41:40,300 for hundreds of years, that muscle memory doesn't 883 00:41:40,300 --> 00:41:43,300 just disappear when the borders change. It becomes 884 00:41:43,300 --> 00:41:46,860 embedded in the cultural DNA. Exactly. So the 885 00:41:46,860 --> 00:41:49,719 question is, did this unique centuries long experience 886 00:41:49,719 --> 00:41:53,039 of shadow governance actually serve as the unseen 887 00:41:53,039 --> 00:41:56,139 psychological blueprint for the massive Jewish 888 00:41:56,139 --> 00:41:58,280 political movements that would emerge in the 889 00:41:58,280 --> 00:42:00,710 20th century? It's a profound question. When 890 00:42:00,710 --> 00:42:03,010 the time came to build modern political parties, 891 00:42:03,289 --> 00:42:05,690 labor unions, and eventually a modern state of 892 00:42:05,690 --> 00:42:07,969 Israel, did they pull the blueprints from that 893 00:42:07,969 --> 00:42:10,210 virtual skyscraper they built in the forests 894 00:42:10,210 --> 00:42:13,090 of Lithuania? It turns out that virtual structure 895 00:42:13,090 --> 00:42:15,530 wasn't just a temporary shelter from the storm. 896 00:42:15,710 --> 00:42:18,289 It was the foundation of the modern Jewish world. 897 00:42:18,690 --> 00:42:21,050 Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into 898 00:42:21,050 --> 00:42:23,829 the source material. There is so much more to 899 00:42:23,829 --> 00:42:25,909 the massive legacy of Lithuanian jewelry and 900 00:42:25,909 --> 00:42:28,030 we highly encourage you to pick up the text and 901 00:42:28,030 --> 00:42:30,690 keep exploring it on your own. Until next time.