Tag: David Solomon Jewish History podcast

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#110 Jewish History in Six Chapters (1)

This Jewish History lecture examines the Second Temple Period (Bayit Sheini), which spans from approximately the year -500 (or 500 BCE) to the theoretical year 0 (3260 to 3760 in the traditional Hebraic calendar).

The period is divisible into four distinct phases, named after whichever political power was in control of the Jewish People in the Land of Israel and the Temple in Jerusalem. These entities were:

  • The Persian (Achaemenid) Empire
  • The Hellenistic (Greek-based) dominions
  • The Hasmonean dynasty
  • The Rome Empire

Each of these phases includes several significant historical events or people that provide the keys to understanding the era as a whole. They were:

Persian

  • Zerubavel ben Sh’alti’el, Yehoshua ben Yehotzdak, and last of the prophets
  • Ezra and Nehemiah
  • The temple at Elephantine

Greek 

  • Alexander the Great
  • The Ptolemaic and Seleucid dynasties
  • The translation of the Torah into Greek
  • The Antiochus III and Antiochus IV 

Hasmonean 

  • Yehudah, Yonatan, Shimon, Yochanan Hyrkanus, Yehudah Aristobulous, Alexander Yannai, Shlomtziyon, Yochanan Hyrkanus II and Aristobulous II
  • The conversion of the Idumeans
  • The conflict between ‘Scribes’ and ‘Sadducees’ (Tzeduqim)

Rome           

  • Herod and Roman subservience
  • The reconstruction of the temple
  • Hillel 
  • The rise of rabbinic leadership and the tradition of interpretation
  • The beginnings of political rebellion against Rome.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:28:51 — 93.9MB)

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#77 Revelation & Revolution: Jewish History of the 18th Century (4)

Although many of the remarkable developments in 18th-century Jewish life were set within the boundaries of Europe and Ashkenazi Jewry, so much was happening beyond this region.
In this fascinating podcast episode, David explores some of the most remarkable events, personalities, and contributions of Jews in the Sephardic communities of the 1700s, centred in the:
  • Ottoman Empire
  • Land of Israel.

In doing so, he discusses:

  • Yehudah HaChasid
  • Avraham Revigo
  • R. Emmanuel Chai Rikki
  • R. Chayim Abulafia
  • R. Chayim ibn Attar, the Or Hachayim
  • R. Shalom Shar’abi, the Rashash.
View of Jerusalem, from the manuscript of the Georgian travelogue by Timothy Gabashvili between 1755 and 1759. Public domain.

He also relays stories of some of the most notable emissaries from the Land of Israel to the diaspora, including:

  • R. Haim Yosef David Azulai ben Yitzhak Zerachia, the Hida
  • R. Moshe Malchi
  • R. Raphael Carigal.

The lecture also considers developments in the “new world”, including:

In the Americas –

  • Francis Salvador
  • Haym Salomon

and in the colony of New South Wales, which was to become part of Australia –

  • Esther Abrahams
  • Joseph Samuel.

David concludes the lecture by returning to Europe in the final years of the 18th century to look at the enormous changes happening across the continent and their implications for Jewish life in the coming century.

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#57 Wine and the High Holidays

Wine has played a central role in Jewish life from the very beginning. In this podcast episode, David draws together the themes of wine, the High Holidays, Kabbalah, and the natural world in a talk given in New York in 2008. David explores the significance of wine in Jewish culture and spirituality, its status and influence as demonstrated in an array of stories from the Bible and Jewish History, and the fascinating discussions in Jewish mystical texts about the role and attributes of wine in relation to the Jewish people and their Divine connection.

The Grapes of Canaan by James Tissot. Public Domain.

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#12 Worlds in Transition: Jewish History of the 16th Century (part 1)

In the first of this podcast series looking at Jewish History of the 16th century, David Solomon examines fascinating religious and secular developments of the early 1500s in Europe and Asia and the consequences they would have for Jewish populations – both positive and negative.  David also discusses the emergence of a range of remarkable Jewish figures during this period as well as influential new texts in Jewish mysticism, history, law and commentary, and science – and an explosion in the printing of Jewish books which would have significant impact on the spread of learning and ideas across the world.

“Göke” (1495) was the flagship of Kemal Reis to save the Sephardic Jews of Spain from the Spanish Inquisition and granted them permission to settle in the Ottoman Empire. Public Domain

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