Yemen:
A Land of Pure Dreams
Continuing his series on Jewish communities around the world, Mann introduces us to Yemen- where a rich and unique Jewish history can be found.
Yemen is villages spread in the mountains and mountains bordering the Red Sea. It’s a country of a natural wall which traps wet clouds of the monsoon rolling in from the Indian Ocean to the south and east. Its two thousand miles south of Jerusalem and a patient Jewish community that waited three thousand years to come home. It’s a country where Jews settled during the reign of King Solomon during the period of the First Temple. Here one could see the "glowing religious fervor of the Yemenite Jew." The Jews who on Sabbath "would spend almost the entire day in the Synagogue in prayer and study, and a community surrounded by an aura of holiness." It was a land of pure dreams waiting for the return to Zion.
Yeminite Jews believe that forty two years before the destruction of the First Temple, 75,000 Jews under Jeremiah left and settled in Yemen. By the beginning of the sixth century there was undoubtedly a strong Jewish community.
At the beginning of the sixth century, a local Himyarite king, Yusef Asar Dhu Nuwas, converted to Judaism and Yemen indeed became, albeit for a short time, a Jewish kingdom.
There were hundreds of separate Yeminite Jewish villages, as Jews built synagogues all the time, depending on the good will of the Moslems. The Yeminite Jews were great scholars of Jewish knowledge. Individuals knew by heart the Torah, the prayers and large portions of Jewish literature.
The Sabbath for the Yemenite Jews was regarded as a foretaste of the Messianic Era; it was a time for the families and the community to share all the possessions and joys of life. At home, on the Sabbath the Yemenite Jews sang the sixteenth century songs of the famous poet Shalom Shabazi.
The Synagogues were called Kanis (also al-Kanis meaning big Synagogue.) They were modest, domeless, one-story structures with whitewashed walls. A Jewish house was generally not allowed to exceed the height of Moslem houses, and Synagogues had likewise to be lower than the lowest mosque.
The entrance to the Synagogue was an unpretentious gate bordering the street, leading some three to ten steps down into a courtyard where the congregation washed their hands and placed their shoes in small lockers before entering the place of worship. Thus the Synagogue was built partially below ground level, which created a greater sense of height inside the building than outside. It provided the congregation with air-space, while allowing them to fulfill the promise of Psalm 130: "Out of the depth have I called, O L-rd."
The Synagogue was named after its donor, or founder, usually an important rabbi who had gathered the community around himself. Thus we find Synagogues with names such as Kanis Bayt al-Usta, or Kanis Bayt al-Shaykh.
The interior of the Synagogue was as modest as that of private homes, particularly in the poor rural areas. There were no chairs or benches; worshippers sat on the floors along the walls, legs crossed in oriental fashion, on mattress-like cushions (farsh) or sheep-skins (Jarm) spread on large black goat hair carpets (fara-iq). In some villages there were simple palm-straw mats (Hasirah).
In the Synagogue walls there were niches (Khizaneh) opened or filled with wooden doors which served as cupboards and in which the worshipper’s prayer books were kept. Each worshipper brought from home a piece of fabric measuring 50 or 60 cm to be hung on two hooks on the wall behind his seat. He also provided the cushion (wusadeh) on which to learn, and a small bench (marfa) on which he rested his book during prayer and study. The wall hangings and cushion gave a colorful look to the synagogue despite its whitewashed walls and dank carpets.
The Synagogue was subdued not luxurious, where community members gathered daily for prayer, teaching and discussion and also to drink coffee (gishr) brought from home in coffee pots, and occasionally chewing qat leaves (smoking was not allowed). Women were generally not seen there although there were some Synagogues which had a separate room with a separate entrance visited mainly by the older women.
The Synagogue was a place of profound spirituality and a gathering place which even used to lodge travelers. On the northern wall, facing Jerusalem was what called (in Hebrew) Hekhal, known as the aron-ha-kodesh. The Hekhal was a broad niche in the wall, 80 cm above the floor, whose inner walls were often covered with scarves, and in which Torah schools were kept in upright position. Below the Hekhal there was usually a closed storage space serving as a genizah for ritual objects no longer in use.
The number of Torah scrolls owned by the Synagogue varied according to the wealth of the community. In San’a, the capital of Yemen, for instance the largest synagogue Usta had 150 scrolls, Hubareh had 20, while in the villages there were very few. When not in use, these were sometimes kept in private homes to guard against theft. The wooden doors of the Hekhal, which were closed with a lock and bolt were reportedly sometimes richly carved or even inlaid with mother-of-pearl.
The curtain drawn over the Hekhal, called by its Hebrew name, Parokhet, was made of silk, velvet, or cotton, framed by a border of different fabric featuring a geometric pattern, a row of rhomboids (mshawsaq) against a background of contrasting colors.
Torah scrolls wrapped in scarves, are among the few Yemenite ceremonial items that have been preserved and brought to Israel. The protective cases called by the Hebrew term tiqm, are wooden boxes of octagonal of 30 cm flat on top and bottom. They were made of two identical sections, held together with brass hinges at the back and shut by brass hooks in the front. The richly painted design and color combination are evidence of the excellent carpentry work and a high order of artistic ability.
Inside the Torah case four to five scarves, called Masarat in Arabic and mitpahot in Hebrew enveloped the scrolls for maximum protection. One of the scarves was used to cover a part of the script while reading the Torah, in order not to stain the scrolls with perspiring fingers. It was considered a pious deed for women in Yemen to donate pieces of jewelry (attaching them to the Torah mantle) this tradition has continued in the Yemenite community in Israel. When the Yemenites left for Israel a large majority of ceremonial objects were left behind, buried in wells and other hiding places. Many objects were broken beforehand in order to prevent their desecration by Muslims, who might have used the objects for secular use.
There was a great wealth of books. Throughout the long period of their exile, the Yemenite Jews not only produced many written translations, and commentaries, but also scribes who were excellent copyist in manuscripts, and teachers and scholars who excelled in studying, preserving and transmitting ancient Jewish works. There is today, not a single major public university or private library which does not have representations of Yemenite Hebrew manuscripts. Yemenite Jews in the world Jewry account for less that 3 percent, yet, a surprising high percentage probably no less than an average of 20 percent of ancient Hebrew, Aramaic and Judaeo-Arabic works are now found in Universities and private libraries in American and Europe. About one-third of the Jewish manuscripts in the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York are Yemenite. In the British library collection ten percent of the Biblical texts are Yemenite.
The entire gamut of Jewish literature could be found, in Mishna, and Talmud, Midrash, Halakhic and Haggadic Midrashim, medieval Jewish works, part of the works of the Sa’adyah Gaon and Maimonides, poetry, Kabbalah, responsa. Some of the manuscripts abounded in marginal notes which are of literary historical import. Travelers would visit the country in search of manuscripts.
In the caste-like Islamic society, the Jews of Yemen stood at the very bottom of the ladder. The Jews were virtually the only non-Muslim community in Yemen. There was a dark side for the life of the Yemenite Jew. Legally they were the property of its leaders. Every Emir, Sheikh and potentate could do with his Jews as he pleased, and used them for any kind of work he desired, for his own benefit or for his village. Jews were sometimes conscripted to work in the fields against a share of the harvest, but often they were used for hard and degrading slave labor.
"The Jews of Yemen are reduced to a lowly state and are persecuted by a people that regard itself as holy and intensely pious but which is very brutal." This was written in 1866.
Edicts by the Iman were issued against the Jews of Yemen. They could not raise their voices in front of a Muslim, could not build houses higher than a Muslim, to look at a Muslim passing on his way, or let his garment touch him. The Jew could not raise his voice in prayer or to study books outside a Synagogue, and had to always stand in the presence of a Muslim. In 1921, the Iman, brutally enforced a law whereby every Jewish child whose father had died, was taken to a State orphanage and forcibly converted, even if his mother was alive.
Hundreds of such children were hunted and captured in the 1920’s and 30’s and this explains the early marriages of boys at the age of fourteen. There were no Jews in government service, and they were debarred from the army. In a court of law, their evidence was not accepted against that of a Muslim. Jews were obliged to clean the public latrines.
But still the Iman, whose name was Yahya ibn Mohammed el Mansour was considered tolerant with the Jews. During his rule, the Jews suffered no mob violence or pogroms. On one occasion the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini incited the people of the city, to attack the Jewish quarter, the Iman, personally intervened. Leaving his palace at midnight on horseback, he appeared among the mob at the head of the police, and quelled the disturbance before it could start.
Famine which struck the country particularly affected the Jewish community, "people tore down their houses to sell beams for a piece of bread. There was conversion, mainly women, for those who convert are provided by the Iman with food and drink." Twenty thousand Jews died in the famines.
The Arabs might treat the Jews with contempt, but they could not take away their dignity. The more oppressed they were the more ardently did they cultivate their ancient heritage. They observed the minutest matters in life and strictly adhered to the ancient Jewish Code of Law. The ghetto in San’a might be a labyrinth of ill smelling lanes, the house low, dreary, but they showed "a high degree of cleanliness." The rooms might be bare of furniture, no chairs or bed, only carpets and mattresses on the floor, but the floors were scrubbed, the walls white washed.
The men spent the day of the Sabbath in prayer, studying and meditating. Nowhere in the world was the Sabbath observed with such holiness and joy as in the distant and undeveloped Yemen.
The Jew of Yemen had dignity which comes from skilled craftmanship. "The artisan is king." All the Jews in Yemen knew some handicraft. They were famous mainly as workers of precious metals, Jewelers, smiths, weavers, tanners potters painters, no less than fifty different manual trades. The Jews were the craftsman of the country. Every time an Arab needed some skilled work done, he had to go to the Jews. He simply could not get along without them, and that is what helped the Jewish community to survive.
Work and study went together. There were rabbis, who received little or no payment for their services to the community, but practiced some manual trade for a living. The greatest scholar might work by day manufacturing Narghiles (brass water pipes), and write philosophical treatise by night. Habashush was a metal engraver, and yet learned enough to decipher old Sabaean inscriptions from Halevy.
"Every Yemenite Jew knew how to read from the Torah Scroll with the correct pronunciation and tune, exactly right in every detail. Each man who was called up to the Torah read his section by himself. All this was possible because children right from the start learned to read without any vowels. Their diction is much more correct than the Sephardic and Ashkenazic dialect. The results of their education are outstanding, for example if someone is speaking with his neighbor and needs to quote a verse from the Bible, he speaks it out by heart, without pause or effort, with its melody."
With the Jewish State established, the call went out to the Jews of Yemen , 50,000 to come home at last. They trekked from the rural villages and embarked on the perilous journey south to Aden. Through the desert they carried their Torahs where the planes of Operation Magic Carpet were waiting. Battered C-47 cargo planes awaited them. This was one of the most dramatic episodes in modern history. This exodus formerly known as "On Eagles Wings" began in 1949. "They created an interesting sight as they arrived with almost no possessions. They were like prophets stepping out of the Bible. They carried with them their carefully wrapped Torah scrolls. They were slim, lithe, a graceful people, with olive-colored Semitic faces. They showed an inner force, patience and forbearance under suffering and an intense religiousness."
It took 315 flights to bring the Yemenite Jews to Israel. They took with them thousands of books and manuscripts salvaged by the various congregations from their synagogues in Yemen.
After many beginning hardships in their new land, over the time, the Yemenites blended successfully into the Israeli melting pot. Today they are estimated to number around 200,000 of whom approximately forty percent live in the greater Tel Aviv area. They are well represented in the professions. Their music and dance are considered to be the most ancient and authentic form of Middle Eastern artistic expression. Many Israeli folk songs are based on Yemenite religious poetry and musical themes. Much of the craftwork thought of as "Israeli" is of Yemenite origin. So highly regarded is this craftwork that the Bezalel Institute in Jerusalem is in large part dedicated to the study of Yemenite arts and crafts.
Today there are an estimated 500 to 1,000 Jews left in Yemen. They are spread out all over the country. Many of these Jews are believed to have stayed behind during Operation On Eagles’ Wings because they were held in chains and forced to teach their trades to low-caste Muslims or did not want to leave elderly or sick relatives behind. There are no Jews left in the capital. The Jews live in relative harmony with their Muslim neighbors. The Yemeni government no longer restricts emigration to Israel and since 1990s, has shown concern for the religious needs of the Jewish community.
They kept moving that summer, over the landscapes, on foot, on donkey, some left behind and buried in the sands; they came bruised, weary, they came, the women giving birth, they prayed all day in the hot sun on the runways, fasting on that Yom Kippur and ascended as the dawn approached. They came with a dream, the Jews of Yemen.
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Jews Around the World
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The untold histry of the jews of yemen
The unwritten history of the jews of yemen,and thier perscution by the rulers of that time,that made them to migrate to other parts of the world,is only found in oral history,and hardly in written history,most of them migrated to southeast asia and east africa,very little is known and only singles family survived in holding tight to their belief and culture,but there are outthere,singels family surviving holding tight to what their inherited from the oral tradition passed to them by their parents,these and others who are not known,are fighting to be known,and reckonized for their full rights to return to their homeland,somebody outthere should reach thier cries and agonies of their longing for return to the land of their origin....
By: abdulsamad salum awad enigma (abdulsamad...) - July 25, 2004
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What kind of contact have you had with Yemenite Jews?
