May 15 2009
How I Got Here- Part 7: How History Showed Me I Would Disappear
I took a class my freshman year at SUNY Alabny called “Survey of Jewish Civilization”.
Like many classes I took in college, I took it because I was interested in learning the subject, and sat amongst dozens of students who were alreay familiar with the subject and took it for the easy ‘A’.
But I digress…
I made a discovery during this class, and I really have no idea how to interpret it any other way.
Something magical becomes beyond apparent when you see all of Jewish history laid out in front of you.
Agree with me or not, something is ridiculously special about the longevity of the Jewish people. We can be battered and bashed and tortured generation after generation, but somehow or other we always manage to hang on, even if by a thread, and in a relatively short period of time we end up on top again.
Well, it sounds nice. But is it really true?
The fact is: Yes… and no.
There seems to be some Divine assistance that keeps the Jews alive throughout the ages. Nevertheless, it doesn’t seem to work for all Jews. Some distinct groups seem to disappear, never to be heard from again.
Let’s look at a few throughout the history of the world, namely the Shomronim, the Hellenists, the Sadducees, the Jewish Christians, and the Karaites
The Shomronim (Samaritans):
They popped into the Jewish world, deposited in the land of Israel by the Assyrians to replace the Jewish population. They claimed to be the real Jews, caused the acual Jews a ton of problems, and within the next 600 years were left tiny and insignificant, and remain so to this day. This is despite the fact that at one point they were a tremendously formidable presence.
They came, caused a ruckus… and are now forgotten.
The mainstream Jew prevailed. Remained. And remains.
The Hellenists:
Mass amounts of Jews felt that Judaism was outdated, and welcomed the possibility of filling their lives up with Greek culture. They were called Hellenists. They embraced a lifestyle of swine, idolatry, and promiscuity, only to eventually have it thrust upon them forcefully.
In the final equasion the mainstream Jews rose to the center of the stage, aggressively pushed the Greeks out of Israel, ended the phenomenon called Hellenism, and rendered it a word for the history books.
The Shomronim came about, and now no one cares about them. The Hellenists took the Jewish world by storm, and then drowned in the floods of that same storm. And as I learned about these groups I found myself rooting and cheering for the home team. I found myself excited each time a fringe group arose outside the main Jewish camp, and was finally permanently irrelevant.
But it didn’t stop 2,000 years ago.
In my next post I’ll speak of the Sadducees, the Jewish Christians, and the Karaites, and I’ll explain what all this has to do with how I got here, and who I am.
