The earlier post established that the Yemenite Jews prove the Written Torah and the Oral Torah as to existence and content. But I hope my reader will demand absolutely irrefutable proof. Thus the following adduces the evidence which I am certain will convince you, M’Lud!
Historical Isolation of Yemenite Jews
For over two millennia, the rest of the world forgot the Yemenite Jews. They were glad of that fact – from the events they heard. A forgotten outpost; they saw the later kings after King Solomon confirming their worst fears. They sent missions to Israel, kept abreast with the tragic events and had the later books of the Judges and Prophets and Kings with the sorry narrative of the Jews’ fate. Surely, they were grateful, one imagines, to be far from such events and keen not to become embroiled.
Yemenite Jews Post Babylonian Exile Return
The most famous contact they had was at the Return of the Babylonian Exile – 370 BCE. When Ezra decreed that the Yemenite Jews must also return to help build the Second Temple, they politely refused. Why risk a second destruction, a second exile, the final razing of the Holy Land? They were safe and rooted in Yemen.
Anecdote from a Yemenite Jew on Poverty and Torah
This very afternoon, a young Yemenite Jew, who indeed resembled a noble Old Testament prince, explained to me that his grandfather had told him that his ancestors had foreseen the destruction of the Second Temple and that when Ezra ‘cursed’ them with poverty for not obeying him, nothing could have been better. ‘It is our poverty that stopped us leaving the Torah,’ were his words.
It seems that they had learnt that wealth is no gift but a terrible, dangerous responsibility. Innumerable pathetic multi-millionaires on their death beds realize that it was their very wealth, their greatest ‘achievement’, which had destroyed their families. Real Judaism’s education cannot succeed with spoiled children.
Yemenite Jews’ Relation to the Talmud and Oral Law
Although it seems they had communicated with Babylonian centers, the Yemenite Jews never adopted the Talmud as a central study. It was their living tradition and they would not agree with writing down the Jewish Oral Law. Further this 1st – 3rd century period commenced their isolation in that after this they were entirely absorbed in wars with or against pagans and Christians or engulfed by Islam and forced to mountain refuges.
Yemenite Jews’ Adoption of Ashuris Script
Well before this, however, they did adopt the modern ‘Ashuris’ script – א ב ג – today’s block Hebrew – as Ezra decreed. They originally had, like the rest of the us, used proto-Hebrew Ivri –– 𐤀𐤁𐤂 Torah Scrolls and texts, and also several scripts and languages over the ages. This was not unusual in those times and it in no way challenged their observance or customs. But, unlike the Samaritans, they did not doggedly stick to Ivri and there are finds of quotes from late Biblical books in Hebrew and Ancient Yemeni Arabic – for they had knowledge of both scripts from Solomon’s times.
There is also clear proof of their acquisition and adoption of the final Biblical books as early as circa 300 BCE.
Yemenite Jews’ Unique Hebrew Pronunciation
Another extremely telling point is the unique Yemenite Jewish pronunciation of Hebrew. It is another proof of their provenance. They are the only surviving group who distinguish between every grammatical intricacy. The rest of us, by accepted convention, pronounce many letters and vowels completely incorrectly and brazenly ignore, not only grammatical rules, but clearly printed dots and other signs.
Most Hebrew letters can have a dot in the middle of them. Each therefore should be pronounced differently to show whether it has this dot or not, otherwise what is the point? We do distinguish between three or four such letters but none of the others. The Yemenite Jews distinguish between all – as well as almost every other nuance of pronunciation.
Where did this come from?
It seems inescapable that this is how King Solomon read the Torah. Today’s Hebraists will scream in horror at this because centuries of the Church grammarians’ fog imposed Latinate and Germanic concepts of grammar onto Hebrew, an entirely Semitic language.
The concepts of conjugations, declensions, even syllables, are European notions which need subtle adjustment to encompass Hebrew. Look at time – past, present and future. These ideas are entirely foreign to orthodox Jews attending a function or catching a plane.
Yemenite Jews and the Oral Law
Over the centuries, even when Jewish contact was made with them, even when they adopted ‘new’ texts or ideas, these were only those which in no way changed their traditions. They staunchly retained the central body of their distinctive Judaism – laws, customs, dress, minutiae of ritual, methods of studying, attitudes – all of which are certainly the most authentic in representing how we lived in the period between the two Temples.
The very fact that they have their distinctive slight variations of some of the Oral Laws proves absolutely that this body of law existed for 2700 years, since they left Solomon’s Israel. Their variances – astonishingly – usually simply follow a quoted judgment which eventually the Talmud rejects. Their original leaders had debated this a thousand years earlier and chose the minority opinion quoted in Babylon!
Detailed Proofs from Yemenite Practices
The detailed proofs are numerous and decisive. For example, the way they blow the ‘ram’s horn’ (shofar) on the New Year, make their wine, tie their ‘tzitzis’ and bake their Passover unleavened bread (matzoh) – each is a lens clarifying ancient debates in the Talmud.
Shofar Blowing Tradition
Take the shofar. First they do not use a ram’s horn of preference but rather a kudu or ibex horn. Secondly, nearly all other Jews blow one particular sound – the ‘t’ruah’ – as a minimum of nine rapidly-tongued notes. There was no musical notation 2000 years ago but it is described as a wavering, rapidly repeated sound. To be certain that it is blown ‘properly’, the Talmud requires at least nine notes close together; this is described as three triplets – ‘tri-metrim’ = ‘three-meters’ in Hebraic Latin – each is played staccato.
However, undisturbed, the Yemenite Jews have kept their tradition of a long untongued semi-trill, soft fluttertonguing for this.
Incredibly, only the ancient Rhineland tradition – Frankfort-Mainz – also does this. Both groups emigrated during Solomon’s reign – trading up the Rhine or in Arabia – and had in their aural memories this most ancient t’ruah from the Temple which still stood. Otherwise how could people 2000 miles apart uniquely come to identical sounds?
Matzah Baking Tradition
Take matzah: our matzah is made as a dry and hard crisp bread, to guarantee absolutely all the stringencies of ‘unleavened-ness’ are adhered to. Faced with extermination, the ancient Rabbis proscribed all but the safest and most stringent practices to protect a scattered,broken people.
Forgotten and untroubled in Yemen, the Jews there knew none of all this and baked on. They always had made a flexible, tough sort of thick laffa which they have baked every year for perhaps 2800 years. They could do this because the skill of baking it remained in their hands – literally. Now the re-constructed Yemenite communities in Israel and New York, may they flourish, at last are making this again under the guidance of one or two great-grandfathers. It is almost certain that this is what our ancient matzahs were like.
And wonder of wonders, today – Passover 2023 – I saw adverts for this very same authentic Yemenite flexible matzah stuck on the walls outside my building – called ‘Avnatanah’ with no less than three Rabbinical seals of approval!! We are getting there!
Parallels in Oral Law Variations
This applies to numerous parallel matters. They changed nothing without a clear, recorded reason. Yes, different regions of Yemen had their own ways of practising the minutiae of customs – as applied across the entire globe. But, as below, each even tiny difference was noted and explained. Their practice matched discussions in the Talmudic texts of which they were utterly unaware for two millennia.
We are talking about an entire way of life, in all its intricate details, controlled by an oral law unwritten for 2500 years. These detailed laws echo those your forebears followed with slight variations for that same period in the Middle East, Arabian Peninsula and Eastern and Western Europe – right through until your great grandparents.
Talmudic Opinions and Community Rulings
May I remind you that in the Talmud, the ultimate conclusions will usually follow one Sage’s opinion. Often, however, his disputants are free to rule for their own community. They can follow his minority decision but generally, the Talmud recommends the other opinion. This all, remember, was covered in only oral debates from 1312 BCE to 00 BCE. Between about 00 BCE and 500 CE all these debates were codified and written down for the first time as ‘the Talmud’. And, remember, the non-Jewish research reveals that Yemenite Jews’ ancestors were emissaries for King Solomon who left about 850 BCE. Thus,the Talmud cannot be their source. They never studied it at all in Yemen. (‘Who needs a Babylonian written version of what we do every day?’ [with the greatest of respect])
Examples of Distinct Customs
For example – a wife could more easily request a divorce to be forced on her husband; no oath was required to absolve a widow from fraud concerning matrimonial property and they were particularly strict in protecting a wife’s alimony.
Fascinatingly, some of their ‘different’ customs were later adopted by world Jewry. For example – they permit a hot drink before morning prayers; they do not do circumcisions only early in the day; they regard raisin wine as normal fresh grape wine; they do not eat a special ceremonial third meal on festivals only on the Sabbath; even children are offered four (small) cups of wine (grape juice) during the Passover ceremonial meal.
Flexibility in Jewish Customs
Over the past 2000 years all the above have become normal in all communities, as the diaspora spread after Rome collapsed and local Sages made individual decisions. So we have followed the Yemenite Jews in adopting the ‘other’ opinion in the Talmud. I must interject that this flexibility and difference in local custom is a great strength. It is always, but always, based on the local Rabbi’s interpretation of the Talmud. It is always noted, recorded and fully accepted as only a local practice. Often, lengthy written responsa will have continued for decades between the brilliant polymaths heading different communities about such details.
Our libraries bulge with them. It absolutely does not mean – as our denialists try to claim – that we cheerfully changed the law to suit ourselves, to make things easier, to make more money from kosher food or in a fit of religious spite. Absolutely nothing changes over the millennia except for such recorded variations.
Significance of Trivial Details in Oral Law
Now, to you these must seem ridiculously trivial and weird details about which to make so much fuss. But that is not what we are discussing. We are simply proving the age and minute detail of the Oral Law and its ubiquitous accuracy.
Incorporation of Later Customs by Yemenite Jews
It must be also emphasized again that over the ‘recent’ centuries the Yemenite Jews did learn of and occasionally incorporated customs which they deemed acceptable. They were interested in and considered carefully the Shulchan Aruch published in 1565. This is the ultimate and most authoritative compendium of Jewish Law to this day. They also share – usually in a very distinct Yemenite way – many customs with a wide variety of ancient Sephardic communities – ranging from dress, food, and music to forms of prayer.
Diversity Within Yemenite Jewish Communities
Further, there have always been several communal groups within Yemenite Jews and these have had their own distinct differences and attitudes to outside influence. Some accepted, whilst others rejected the Kabbalah. They embraced the rulings of ‘Mishna Torah’ of Maimonides (1135 – 1204). Some were influenced, as mentioned, in 14th to 18th centuries by different foreign ancient communities. However, all this was from within a culture of isolation and distinctiveness, fiercely proud of its own authentic and ancient traditions.
Impact of Poverty on Religious Education
The incredible poverty of many isolated Yemenite village communities meant that with scarcely food or clothing, there were periods when the abject conditions prevented anything but the most fundamental religious education. For many centuries at different times, whilst they were always passionately observant and obedient Jews, they were ignorant and unable to learn. This increased under the exterminatory rule of Islam.
Yet, all this applied equally to your own family over 2000 years, starved and beaten in different eras by Christians and Muslims. However, there was always a chain through time of thriving Jewish centers. These Jews, able to maintain their learning, always kept the flame of knowledge of the Jewish Law burning. This then was used to rekindle the ignorant, but utterly committed, impoverished or persecuted communities when times improved, unless, of course, as was common, they had been wiped out.
Uniqueness of Yemenite Jews in Proving Jewish Pedigree
Thus, we see that Yemenite Jews are unique in their antiquity, authenticity and role in proving your pedigree.
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