Very Many Jewish Groups for One God

While Judaism and the Jewish People have always been one religion and one nation; their one wholeness has always been the sum of many very different parts.

In Biblical days, the People of Israel were divided into three or four distinct groups based on the number of Mitsvot they were expected to do.

First, the twelve tribes of Israel were divided into Levites, who were responsible for running the Temple in Jerusalem, and the remaining eleven tribes; with more Mitsvot applying to the Levites than the rest of Israel.

Second, the tribe of Levy was divided into the clan of Kohanim, who were responsible for the Temple service ritual offerings; and the other clans who were just regular Temple Levites, with the Kohanim being responsible to do many more Mitsvot than even the Levites.

Third, all Israelites were divided by gender; with many more Mitsvot applying to men than women.

Although the Jerusalem Temple has not existed for more than nineteen centuries, remnants of these distinctions still do exist in Orthodox Synagogues, where there is a fixed order of four distinct hereditary categories in which Jews are called up to read Torah.

First Kohanim, second Levites, third Jewish men in general and fourth; Jewish woman, who are not called up to read Torah at all.

In Conservative Synagogues there are only the first three categories, and in Reform Temples where tribal and gender equality is stressed there is only one category: Jews.

The new groups, parties and sects within the Jewish People in the post Biblical period were no longer tribal and inherited. They were geographical and cultural i.e. Hellenistic Jews and Israeli Jews; religious i.e. Scribes Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and political; Herodians, Zealot and Sicari anti-Roman revolutionaries and disciples of the sages/rabbis.

In Medieval times diversity among new groups was reduced and constricted primarily by geography; Sephardim and Ashkenazim and to some extent to; Karaites, Kabbalists and Talmudists.

However, the Ashkenazim in the modern age are divided into several religious sects: Hassidim, Anti-hasidim, modern Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Renewal and other smaller groups.

So, is the warning of Rabbi Yohanan that Israel did not go into exile until there were “twenty-four sects [kitot] of minim.” Still valid today? Yes and no.

Some divisions are normal and necessary, especially in the realm of religion. As Thomas Jefferson said: “The maxim of civil government being opposite that of religion, where its true form is: ‘Divided we stand, united we fall.’” But when religions get political then extreme and intolerant division is destructive.

As we have seen, from the time of Jacob’s descendants Israel has been divide into twelve tribes. From the time of Aaron descendants, the tribe of Levy has been separated from the other tribes.

By the first century there were over a dozen separate religious and political parties in Israel. And there were more than five million Jews in the world 18-21 centuries ago, the majority of them living outside the land of Israel, in the Persian and Roman Empires.

The Jewish population of Judea and Galilee was divided into three religious groups, two major and one minor. The largest group by numbers were the Pharisees but they were not a majority.

The most politically powerful, and the wealthiest group, were the Sadducees who were mostly from the tribe of Levi. The smallest group were the Essenes, the smallest and most pious.

The Sadducees were Temple First, mostly urban, mostly fairly well off, and with good secular educations. They controlled a lot of wealth, and were in general supporters of the Roman government, which in turn supported Sadduceean power.

Religiously, the Sadducees supported the Temple’s centrality in Judaism. According to the New Testament and other historical sources, the Sadducees did not sanctify the oral Torah. They took the view that the duty of the average Jew was to pay their Temple taxes and follow the Torah’s written rules.

The Essenes were ultra religious ascetics who felt the Sadducees had sold out to Rome for secular power, and thus weren’t legitimate. Most (not all) Essenes lived in Essene-only communities with strict internal rules. They were not very numerous, but somewhat admired.

Pharisaism was numerically the largest group. Few Pharisees were wealthy, most were rural or in smaller cities. They vastly expanded the Torah’s food, ritual purity, and Sabbath restrictions.

Politically, the Sadducees were like Monarchists: the naturally elite class should govern. The Pharisees thought “governments are established by the consent of the governed”. An educated citizenry were the true elites.

In the first century maybe a third of Judeans lived outside Judea in the non-Jewish world. After two Judean major revolts the majority of Jews lived outside the Land of Israel.

So, numerically, in Galilee, and in Judea, most people were Pharisees or leaning toward that. Sadducees were fewer in number, centered mostly around Jerusalem, and were politically powerful. Essenes, the smallest group, mostly living near the Dead Sea and in Egypt.

The Jewish rebellions of 70-73, and later 132-135, resulted in the elimination of the Essenes, and near destruction of the Sadducees as a power. Pharisaic Judaism was the only viable survivor group, and the conversion of Pharisaism into Rabbinic Judaism, from which all forms of modern Judaism developed happened slowly throughout the second and third centuries.

Early Christianity was a splinter cult of Pharisaic Judaism. This Jewish version disappeared after the Jewish rebellions in 70-73 and 132-135. Modern Christianity developed outside Judea among mostly non-Jews in Greek and Roman cities. From early first century to the mid-fourth century, hundreds of thousands of non-Jews converted to Judaism. That slowed and stoped when the Roman government legalized Christianity.

By the first century there were over a dozen separate religious and political parties in Israel. But even so there did not have to be fragmentation and destruction. The sin that caused the destruction of Jerusalem was that political and religious extremism led to unrestricted, unlimited hate. As the lesson of Eichah Rabbah 1:33 teaches:

“Why was the First Temple destroyed? Because of three things which existed in it: idolatry, immorality, and bloodshed. …But why was the Second Temple destroyed, since at that time people were involved in study, mitzvot, and deeds of kindness? Because at that time there was unrestricted hatred among the Jewish people. This teaches that unrestricted hatred is as powerful an evil as idolatry, immorality, and bloodshed combined!”

What kind of hatred and intolerance was there? After the disaster our sages said (note that all of these things were done only by some Jews): Jerusalem was destroyed only because of: her laws were based on the strict letter of the Torah and not interpreted by ways of mercy and kindness, the morning and evening prayers were abolished. the school age children who remained untaught. The people who did not feel shame (at their hatred) toward one another. No distinction was drawn between the young and the old. one did not warn or admonish (against hating each) other. much of scholarship and learning was despised. There were no longer men of hope and faith in her midst. (Vilnay, Legends of Jerusalem, citing Shabbat 119b, Yoma 9b, Tosefta Menahot 13:22, Yalkut Shimoni Isaiah 394, Seder Eliyahu Zuta 15:11)

Or as Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai (who was there) remarked in the account of Kamza and Bar Kamza, “Through the strict scrupulousness (Haredi) of Rabbi Zechariah ben Abkulas our homeland was destroyed, our Temple burnt, and we ourselves were exiled from our land.” (Gittin 55b-56a)