History of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel

The outgrowth of a Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of cultic practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group, setting them apart from other Canaanites.

"[23] This "Israel" was a cultural and probably political entity of the central highlands, well enough established to be perceived by the Egyptians as a possible challenge to their hegemony, but an ethnic group rather than an organized state.

[25] According to modern archaeologists, sometime during Iron Age I a population began to identify itself as 'Israelite', differentiating itself from the Canaanites through such markers as the prohibition of intermarriage, an emphasis on family history and genealogy, and religion.

Whereas previously the Israelites had lived mainly in small and unfortified settlements, the rise of the Kingdom of Israel saw the growth of cities and the construction of palaces, large royal enclosures, and fortifications with walls and gates.

[51] During the reign of Hezekiah (c. 716–687 BCE) a notable increase in the power of the Judean state is reflected by archaeological sites and findings such as the Broad Wall and the Siloam tunnel in Jerusalem.

However, in the last half of the 7th century Assyria suddenly collapsed, and the ensuing competition between the Egyptian and Neo-Babylonian empires for control of Palestine led to the destruction of Judah in a series of campaigns between 597 and 582.

[53] According to Professor Meir Bar-Ilan, on the eve of the end of the First Temple period and the Persian conquest, the population of the land was approximately 350,000, of whom 150,000 lived in Judea and 200,000 in the Galilee and Transjordan.

Babylonian Judah suffered a steep decline in both economy and population[57] and lost the Negev, the Shephelah, and part of the Judean hill country, including Hebron, to encroachments from Edom and other neighbours.

[58] Jerusalem, while probably not totally abandoned, was much smaller than previously, and the town of Mizpah in Benjamin in the relatively unscathed northern section of the kingdom became the capital of the new Babylonian province of Yehud Medinata.

[59] (This was standard Babylonian practice: when the Philistine city of Ashkalon was conquered in 604, the political, religious and economic ruling class (but not the bulk of the population) was banished and the administrative centre shifted to a new location).

[62] The most significant casualty was the state ideology of "Zion theology,"[63] the idea that Yahweh, the god of Israel, had chosen Jerusalem for his dwelling-place and that the Davidic dynasty would reign there forever.

According to the Bible, Cyrus issued a proclamation granting subjugated nations their freedom, and 50,000 Judeans, led by Zerubabel, returned to Judah to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem.

[74] According to the Bible, Ezra and Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem in the middle of the 5th century BCE, the first empowered by the Persian king to enforce the Torah, the second with the status of governor and a royal mission to restore the walls of the city.

[76] The careers of Ezra and Nehemiah in the 5th century BCE were thus a kind of religious colonisation in reverse, an attempt by one of the many Jewish factions in Babylon to create a self-segregated, ritually pure society inspired by the prophesies of Ezekiel and his followers.

As part of their struggle against Hellenistic civilization, the Pharisees established what may have been the world's first national male (religious) education and literacy program, based around synagogues.

[113] 638 Umar allows Jews backinto Jerusalem 691–705 Islamization of the Temple Mount 720 Jews permanently excludedfrom ascending Temple Mount c. 750 Yeshiva of Eretz Israel based inTiberias c. 850 Seat of the Gaonatetransferred to Jerusalem 875 Mourners of Zion reside inJerusalem 921 Controversy erupts regardingcalendrical calculations ofAaron ben Meïr 960 Masorete Aaron ben Asherdies in Tiberias 1071 Gaonate exiled to Tyre In 638 CE, the Byzantine Empire lost the Levant to the Arab Islamic Empire.

The conversion of the Christians to Islam -Gil maintaining they were a majority- is generally thought to have occurred on a large scale only after the Crusades, in the wake of Saladin's conquest, and as a result of disaffection for the Latins.

The religious transformation of the land is evident with large congregation style mosques built in cities like Tiberias, Jarash, Beth Shean, Jerusalem and possibly Cesarea.

In line with trail of bloodshed the Crusaders left in Europe on their way to conquer the Holy Land, in Palestine, both Muslims and Jews were indiscriminately massacred or sold into slavery.

[153] The motivation of European Jews to emigrate to the Holyland in the 13th-century possibly lay in persecution,[154] economic hardship, messianic expectations or the desire to fulfill the commandments specific to the land of Israel.

[145] From 1219 to 1220, most of Jerusalem was destroyed on the orders of Al-Mu'azzam Isa, who wanted to remove all Crusader fortifications in the Levant, and as a result, the Jewish community, along with the majority of the rest of the population, left the city.

Nachmanides, the 13th-century Spanish rabbi and recognised leader of Jewry greatly praised the land of Israel and viewed its settlement as a positive commandment incumbent on all Jews.

[158][159] Upon arrival, he had established the Beth Midrash ha-Gadol d'Paris Talmudic academy where one of the greatest Karaite authorities, Aaron ben Joseph the Elder, was said to have attended.

The Franciscans, who had occupied the site since 1335, petitioned Pope Martin V who issued a papal order prohibiting sea captains from carrying Jews to Palestine.

[169] Not wanting to forfeit revenue made from special Jewish taxes, the authorities were against the mass emigration of Jews and accused the group of planning to illegally smuggle gold off the island.

Joseph Karo's comprehensive guide to Jewish law, the Shulchan Aruch, was considered so authoritative that the variant customs of German-Polish Jewry were merely added as supplement glosses.

[189][190] Nasi had the walls of the town rebuilt by 1564 and attempted to turn it into a self-sufficient textile manufacturing center by planting mulberry trees for the cultivation of silk.

[204][205] In 1714, Dutch researcher Adriaan Reland published an account of his visit to Palestine, and noted the existence of significant Jewish population centers throughout the country, particularly Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias, and Gaza.

The third Jewish neighborhood built outside the Old City was Nahalat Shiv'a, which was founded in 1869 as a cooperative effort by seven families who pooled their funds to purchase the land and build homes.

Social welfare payments, such as unemployment benefits, child allowances, old age pensions and minimum income support, were expanded continuously, until they formed a major budgetary expenditure.