 | Jewish leadership: Encyclopedia II - Jewish leadership - Historic leadership
Jewish leadership - Historic leadership
Jewish leadership - Biblical leadership Before 70 CE
See related List of Jewish Biblical figures.
During the era of the Tanakh, leadership of the Jewish people was governed by Torah principles. There were the heads of the original Hebrew tribes, and then also prophets such as Moses, Jeremiah and Samuel and whose words still as reference points for the believers, judges such as Samson, kings such as David and Solomon, priests of the Temple in Jerusalem, and the Sanhedrin which was the judiciary.
Jewish leadership - Mishnaic Talmudic Middle Ages leadership 70 - 1600s
See related Mishnaic rabbis; Talmudic rabbis, Middle ages rabbis.
With the demise of ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah and coinciding with the revolt of the Maccabees against ancient Greece and later Jewish-Roman wars, the sages of the Mishnah and subsequently the Talmud, referred to as the Oral Law in Judaism, took on a growing and central leadership roles. After the destruction of the Second Temple and the subsequent exile for almost two thousand years, the Jews scattered throughout the world turned to their most learned rabbis for local leadership and council.
During Bar Kokhba's revolt against Roman Empire (132-135), the supreme religious authority Rabbi Akiva sanctioned Simon bar Kokhba to be a war leader, whereas during the 2nd century Judah haNasi was not only the supreme temporal leader sanctioned by Rome, but also edited the original work of the Mishnah which became the "de-facto constitution" of the world's Jewry. The final editions of the Talmud became the core curriculum of the majority of Jews.
In Babylonia the Exilarch was almost always a rabbinical personality. The Geonim such as Saadia Gaon (892-942) were not only great sages but also political guides. The writings and rulings of those such as Rashi (1040-1105), Maimonides (1135-1204), Yosef Karo (1488-1575) who published the most widely accepted code of Jewish law the Shulkhan Arukh, Isaac Luria (1534-1572), the Vilna Gaon (1720-1797), the Chafetz Chaim (1838-1933) and many others have shaped Jewish religious law for almost two thousand years, as their religious rulings were published, distributed, studied, and observed until the present time.
Jewish leadership - Early modern leadership 1700s-1800s
See related Rabbis of the Early Modern period.
The loose collection of learned rabbis that governed the dispersed Jewish community held sway for a long time. Great parts of Central Europe accepted the leadership of the rabbinical Council of Four Lands from the 1500s to the late 1700s. In the Eastern Europe, in spite of the rivalry between the schools of thought of the Vilna Gaon (or the GRA, Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon, 1720-1797) of the Mitnagdim, who spoke against Hasidic Judaism and Baal Shem Tov (Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, 1700-1760), the founder of Hasidic Judaism), rabbis were regarded as the final arbiters of community decisions. Tens of thousands of Responsa and many works were published and studied wherever Jews lived in organized communities.
Other related archives132, 135, 2nd century, 70, Agudath Israel of America, American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, Anti-Defamation League, B'nai B'rith, Baal Shem Tov, Babylonia, Bar Kokhba's revolt, Central Conference of American Rabbis, Central Europe, Chafetz Chaim, Chief Rabbi, Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, Conservative rabbis, Council of Four Lands, David, Eastern Europe, Elijah ben Solomon, Enlightenment, Europe, Exilarch, Gabbai, Geonim, Hadassah, Haredi, Hasidic Judaism, Haskalah, Hassidic, Hebrew Union College, Hebrew tribes, Isaac Luria, Israel ben Eliezer, Jeremiah, Jerusalem, Jewish, Jewish Theological Seminary, Jewish diaspora, Jewish ghettos in Europe, Jewish religious law, Jewish-Roman wars, Jews and Judaism, Judah haNasi, Judaism, Karaite, List of Jewish Biblical figures, Lubavitch, Maccabees, Maimonides, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Middle ages rabbis, Mishnah, Mishnaic rabbis, Mitnagdim, Moses, Napoleon, North America, Oral Law, Orthodox rabbis, Ovadia Yosef, Rabbi Akiva, Rabbinical Assembly, Rabbis of the Early Modern period, Rashi, Rebbe, Reconstructionist rabbis, Reform rabbis, Renaissance, Responsa, Roman Empire, Rosh yeshivas, Saadia Gaon, Samson, Samuel, Sanhedrin, Second Temple, Semicha, Shas, Shulkhan Arukh, Simon bar Kokhba, Solomon, Talmud, Talmudic rabbis, Tanakh, Temple in Jerusalem, Torah, United Jewish Communities, Vilna Gaon, Yosef Karo, ancient Greece, ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah, cantor, constitution, curriculum, destruction of the Second Temple, hazzan, humanitarian, judges, judiciary, kings, leadership, modern world, philanthropic, prayer service, priests, prophets, rabbi, rabbis, responsa, secular, sexton, synagogues, values, yeshiva
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Historic leadership", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
