Arabs, Edomites and Jews - Getting on With Your
Relatives
By David Steinberg
Home page http://members.rogers.com/davidsteinberg/
1. What the Torah Says
In
Genesis chapters 25-28 we read of the birth and development of 2 full brothers
– Jacob and Esau. Earlier, in Genesis
chapters 16 and 21 we read of 2 half-brothers Isaac, Jacob’s father, and
Ishmael both of whom were the sons of Abraham[1].
There
are a number of similarities in the two stories and some differences. The Torah tells us that each pair of brothers
were sons of Patriarchs, in each case the younger became the bearer of
Israelite-Jewish tradition, and in each case the mother of the favoured son was
instrumental in the younger son displacing the elder. There are, of course, some differences such
as Jacob and Esau being twins while Isaac and Ishmael had different mothers who
were of different status i.e. Hagar was the Egyptian handmaid of Sarah. Sarah was from the same family as Abraham. However, the similarities between the
Isaac-Ishmael and Jacob-Esau stories are striking.
2. The Midrashic Tradition
The
Jewish homiletic midrashic tradition does not have much good to say about
either elder brother. Ishmael is given
less coverage and perhaps less harsh treatment: he is the dross compared to Isaac
who is the gold; he practices idolatry; violates maidens; sheds blood; shoots
arrows intending to kill Isaac; and, is cruel.
However, he becomes a genuine penitent in later life. In post-biblical Jewish tradition, as in
biblical tradition, Ishmael is the ancestor of the Arabs. In Targum Onkolos yishma‘elim is
translated ‘arava’e i.e. Arabs.
The
Midrash is much harsher regarding Esau[2]. Concerning Gen. 25:22, where Jacob and Esau,
as yet unborn, struggle in the womb, the Midrash states that whenever Rebecca
passed a heathen place of worship Esau tried to be born. Jacob did the same whenever she passed a
synagogue or beth midrash. Esau’s ruddy hair was taken to indicate that
he would be a murderer. The statement
that Jacob dwelt in tents was taken as an indication of his love for studying
Torah while Esau being a man of the field was considered an allusion to his
open immorality. Finally, the day
Abraham died, midrashic tradition states that Esau: cohabited with a betrothed
maiden; murdered; denied God; denied the resurrection of the dead; and, spurned
his birthright.
There
are 2 clear reasons why Esau is treated so much more harshly in the midrash
than is Ishmael. Firstly, while the
Jews’ relationships with the Ishmaelites were rather distant and usually not
hostile, hostility was the norm between Judeans and Edomites from the time of
the Exodus until the forced conversion of the Edomites, by then called
Idumeans, to Judaism in 125 BCE.
Secondly, after the absorption of the Idumeans into the body of the
Jewish people,
3. Israelite-Jewish Relations with the Edomites
In
chapter 36 verse 8, it is stated that Esau is the ancestor of
·
Control over the lucrative trade routes from
·
Access to the
The
desire to control
Remember, O LORD,
against the E'domites the day of
O daughter of
Happy shall he be who
takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!”
The
subsequent mass exile of Judeans to
The
best treatment of Jewish relations with the Idumaeans and Arabs during the
Second Temple Period is that of Kasher.
The
Idumeans were hostile to the Maccabean Revolt.
In 112 BCE Hyrcanus, a Maccabean king, conquered Idumea and, in the
words of Josephus -
“ Hyrcanus took also Dora and Marissa, cities
of Idumea, and subdued all the Idumeans; and permitted them to stay in that
country, if they would circumcise their genitals, and make use of the laws of
the Jews; and they were so desirous of living in the country of their
forefathers, that they submitted to the use of circumcision, and of the rest of
the Jewish ways of living; at which time therefore this befell them, that they
were hereafter no other than Jews.” Antiquities of the Jews - Book XIII
chap. 9
Herod
the Great, the Jewish king who rebuilt the temple, creating the splendid
edifice described by Josephus and the Talmud, was a descendant of Idumean
converts. Perhaps, the suffering he
caused the Jews, could be seen as poetic justice. Idumean contingents were noted for their
courage in defending
4. Israelite-Jewish Relations with the Arabs
From
the earliest times, Israelite relations with the Arabs have been extensive but
mainly limited to commerce and not generally acrimonious. pical is the first recorded interaction
when Ishmaelites traders purchased Joseph from his brothers (Gen. 37:25-28). These Ishmaelites were playing an unwitting
part in God’s grand design to send the Israelites to
Nehemiah,
the 5th century BCE rebuilder of
Most
of the boundaries of the Maccabean state were with the Iturian and Nabatean
Arab kingdoms. Points of Physical
contiguity:
a)
The Nabatean Arab kingdom formed the southern and eastern
borders of Perea (i.e. Jewish areas east of the
b)
The Iturean Arab kingdom, based on the Beqa’ Valley
(south-east
It
is possible that Jewish trading colonies existed in
As Islam developed
it became, by far, the major religion closest to Judaism. The most obvious common feature is the
statement of the absolute unity of God which Muslims repeat five times each day,
and Jews at least twice. Judaism and
Islam are unique in having systems of religious law based on oral tradition
which can over-ride the written laws and which does not distinguish between
holy and secular spheres. In each,
similar logical systems are used for deriving religious law, and in both cases
a similar responsa literature developed in
Jewish
influence on Islam in its formative period was great. It is of interest to note that there are
cases of Jewish ideas or practices entering Islam, being changed and then
returned to Judaism. Thus the Talmudic
idea of kavannah (praying or doing a ritual act with conscious intent)
entered Islam which invented ritual kavannah formulations and these in
turn, in Hebrew garb, were reintroduced into Judaism by Jewish mystics.
When the Arabs conquered the
a.
Philosophy
v Mainstream Jewish philosophy developed as a subdivision of Islamic
philosophy[5].
This is true whether one is talking of Saadia Gaon, who was influenced
by the Muslim-Kalam theological school or of the Jewish Neoplatonists or
Aristotelians that followed him.
v Greek philosophy, science, medicine and mathematics was absorbed by
Jewish thinkers in the Arab world via Arabic translations[6]
and, to some extent, via Arab Muslim commentators[7].
In science and philosophy, Jewish scholars absorbed the data and, more
importantly, method, world view and pre-suppositions of the Greek masters. Also
absorbed were more dubious works e.g. Hermetica, astrology.
v “In their philosophy of nature… Hellenistic
and medieval Jewish thinkers… for the most part… adopted the view that the
universe is governed by immutable laws…. However, the philosophical view of nature
posed problems for the traditional Jewish (and Muslim and Christian) view as expressed in the Bible and
Talmud. For traditional Judaism the
universe did not run according to set immutable laws. Rather God directly regulated the workings of
the universe that he had created, insuring that events would lead to the
specific goal He had in mind. The
medieval Jewish philosopher, unable to give up this view of nature completely,
sought in his philosophies of nature to reconcile the biblical and Talmudic concepts
of creation and miracles with the theories of secular philosophy.”[8]
v
Of special note
are:
o
Moses Maimonides was a follower of Greek-Islamic Aristotelianism and a practitioner of
Greek-Islamic medicine. Mishneh Torah was
the main conduit for entry of Greek science and philosophy into rabbinic legal
tradition[9].
Goitein said that the Guide of the Perplexed is a great monument of Jewish-Arab
symbiosis, not merely because it was written in Arabic by an original Jewish
thinker and was studied by Arabs, but because it developed and conveyed to
large sections of the Jewish intellectual elite ideas which had so long
occupied the Arab mind;
o
Neo-Platonism[10]
fusing with older Jewish Mystic tradition to form Kabbalah[11]
o
Bahya ibn Paquda’s Neo-Platonic and Islamic Sufi
influenced Hovot ha-Levavot (Duties of the Heart) was the founding work of
Jewish ethical or pietistic literature[12]
and has strongly influenced subsequent works and the lives of pietistic groups
such as the Musar Movement. Hovot
ha-Levavot is clearly in the Sufi (Islamic mystical) tradition and, in
fact, is very similar to Christian and Muslim books of the same school.
o
Judah Halevi’s
Neo-Platonic influenced Kuzari and Maimonides’ Guide to the Perplexed have an ongoing influence on traditional
Jews.
b.
Secular Poetry
Muslims consider the Koran to be the perfect divine book and the Arabic
of the Koran to be the ideal language. Thus, when Muslim poets in
c. Grammar
Linguistic Tradition and Lexicography
The
Arabs developed vowel pointing to ensure that preservation of the ancient
reading tradition of the Koran was perpetuated.
Also in support of maintaining and increasing the understanding of the
Koran they developed the sciences of Arabic and lexicography. The Masorites developed the system
of vowels used in Hebrew during the period of the Arabic Caliphate probably
stimulated by concurrent developments for Arabic and Syriac. Medieval Hebrew study of grammar and
lexicography were inspired and informed by the development of those branches of
knowledge for Arabic.
5. Theological Idiom – Toward the Future
Judaism
and Islam being very similar religious systems (see Goitein),
face very similar intellectual and practical problems in confronting western
culture. Many of these problems are
quite different from those faced by Christianity. There may be much to gain by opening a
dialogue between Jewish and Muslim religious thinkers. Of course, any such dialogue requires that
each group study the other’s religion and literature, as they did at the height
of the Arab-Jewish symbiosis.
I’d
like to end with a hope for the future –
“Behold,
how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”
Psalm
133:1
Select Bibliography
Blau,
Joseph L., The story of Jewish philosophy, Random House [1966, c1962]
Dicou,
B,
Ephal,
J, The Ancient Arabs, Magnes Brill 1982
Frank,
Daniel H. and Leaman, Oliver (eds.), History of Jewish philosophy,
Routledge, 1997.
Goitein, S D, Jews
and Arabs: Their Contact Through the Ages, Schoken 1955, 1964
Goldstein, B. R, Maimonides, article
Encyclopedia Judaica vol. 11 cols. 754-782, Keter 1972
Hyman,
A, Philosophy, Jewish, article in Encyclopedia Judaica vol. 13
cols. 421-465, Keter 1972 see also article Platonism article in
Encyclopedia Judaica vol. 13 cols. 628-630, Keter 1972
Kasher, Aryeh, Jews, Idumaeans and Ancient Arabs, J CB
Mohr (Paul Siebeck)
Pagis, D., article Poetry – Medieval Hebrew Secular Poetry
in Encyclopedia Judaica vol. 13 cols. 681-690, Keter 1972
Rosenbloom,
Joseph R., Conversion to Judaism: from the Biblical period to the present,
[1] In Islamic tradition,
Abraham was one of the 5 major prophets who preceded Muhammad.
[2] See
[3] Aharoni, Y and Avi-Yonah,
M, The Macmillan Bible Atlas, third edition revised by A F Rainey and Z Safrai,
MacMillan 1993 map 217
[4] The Macmillan Bible Atlas
map 213
[5] Jews in Hellenistic times had
produced one important philosopher i.e. Philo.
However, Philo’s writings, while providing the base for Christina
theology, were lost to Jewish tradition.
[6] From Lindberg,
David C., The Beginnings of Western
Science, University of Chicago Press, 1992 p. 168-180
“The
translation of Greek and Syriac works into Arabic… became serious business
under Harun ar-Rashid (786-809)…. By the
year 1000 AD, almost the entire corpus of Greek medicine, natural philosophy
and mathematical science had been rendered into usable Arabic versions…. The
scientific movement in Islam was both distinguished and durable … by the end of
the ninth century translation activity had crested and serious scholarship was
under way. From the middle of the ninth
century until well into the thirteenth, we find impressive scientific work in
all the main branches of Greek science being carried forward throughout the
Islamic world. The period of Muslim
preeminence in science lasted for 500 years – a longer period of time than has
intervened between Copernicus and ourselves.”
[7] From http://www.magicdragon.com/UltimateSF/timeline12.html
“Various Jewish scholar wrote and translated scientific and mathematical works
from Arabic to Hebrew. These include:
Abraham ben Ezra… Maimonides… Johannes Hispalensis … Samuel ben Abbas, an
unknown Jew of England who wrote 'Mathematicum Rudimenta'”
[8] Ivry, A. L., in article Nature,
Encyclopedia Judaica vol. 12 cols. 888-889, Keter 1972
[9] Following quoted from Twersky, Isadore, Introduction
to the Code of Maimonides (Mishneh Torah), Yale University Press, 1980;
Twersky,
Isadore, A Maimonides Reader, Behrman 1972; Goldstein, B. R, Maimonides,
article Encyclopedia Judaica vol. 11 cols. 754-782, Keter 1972
“The influence of Maimonides on the future
development of Judaism is incalculable.
No spiritual leader of the Jewish people in the post-talmudic period has
exercised such an influence both in his own and subsequent generations…. In his
philosophic views Maimonides was an Aristotelian… and it was he who put
medieval Jewish philosophy on a firm Aristotelian basis. But in line with contemporary Aristotelianism
his political philosophy was Platonic.”
“It
is repeated emphatically in the Mishnah Torah, where Maimonides extols the wise
men of
…
all this is part of the science of astronomy and mathematics, about which many
books have been composed by Greek sages – books that are still available to the
scholars of our time. But the books
which have been composed by the sages of
“Furthermore,
Maimonides’ halakic formulation, which grafts philosophy onto the
substance of the Oral Law, dovetails perfectly with his view on the history of
philosophy. In common with many medieval
writers, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim, Maimonides is of the opinion that Jews
in antiquity cultivated the science of physics and metaphysics, which they
later neglected for a variety of reasons, historical and theological. He does not, however, repeat the widespread view,
as does hal-Levi, that all sciences originated in Judaism and were borrowed or
plagiarized by the ancient philosophers…. Maimonides does not care to trace all
philosophical wisdom back to an ancient Jewish matrix. His sole concern is to establish hokma
as an original part of the Oral Law, from which it follows that the study of
the latter in its encyclopaedic totality – that is, Gemara – includes
philosophy. This position – a
harmonistic position unifying the practical, theoretical, and theological parts
of the law – which Maimonides codified in Mishneh Torah.”
“In
one broad generalization, we may say that the Mishneh Torah became a
prism through which reflection and analysis of virtually all subsequent Talmud
study had to pass, There is hardly a book
in the broad field of Rabbinic literature that does not relate in some way to
the Mishneh Torah.”
[10] Neo-Platonism was also fundamental to
the development of Christian theology and Islamic Sufism and had a close
relationship to Aristotelianism. The
following is from the Encyclopedia Britannica
“Relationship to Neoplatonism. Aristotle's works were adopted by the
systematic builders of Neoplatonism in the 3rd century AD. Plotinus, the
school's chief representative, followed Aristotle wherever he found a
possibility of agreement or development, as he did in Aristotle's theory of the
intellect. And Plotinus' pupil Porphyry, the first great harmonizer of Plato
and Aristotle, provided the field of logic with a short introduction (Isagoge).
… Neoplatonism dominated the
[11] “From the beginning of
its development, the Kabbalah embraced an esoterism closely akin to the spirit
of Gnosticism, one which was not restricted to instruction in the mystical path
but also included ideas on cosmology, angelology and magic. Only later, and as a result of the contact
with medieval Jewish philosophy, the Kabbalah became a Jewish “mystical
theology,” more or less systematically elaborated. This process brought about a separation of
the mystical, speculative elements from the occult and especially the magical
elements…. The confrontation between the Gnostic tradition in the Bahir
and Neoplatonic ideas concerning God, His emanation, and man’s place in the
world, was extremely fruitful, leading to the deep penetration of these ideas
into earlier mystical theories. The
Kabbalah in its historical significance can be defined as the product of the
interpenetration of Jewish Gnosticism and neoplatonism.” From Scholem, G, Kabbalah
article in Encyclopedia Judaica vol. 10 cols. 489-653, Keter 1972
[12] From Encyclopedia
Judaica vol. 6 cols. 922-925, Keter 1972 – “There is no specific ethical literature
as such in the biblical and talmudic period insofar as a systematic formulation
of Jewish ethics is concerned. Even the
Wisdom literature of the Bible, though entirely ethical in content, does not
aim at giving a systematic exposition of this science of morals and human
duties, but confines itself to apothegms and unconnected moral sayings. The same is true of tractate Avot, the only
wholly ethical tractate of the Mishnah…. The beginnings of Jewish ethical literature
in the Middle Ages are rooted in the development of Jewish philosophy of that
period”