Critical Essays on Israeli Society, Religion, and Government: Books on Israel, Volume IV

7. Remembering the Sages of Aram Saba (Aleppo)

7. Remembering the Sages ofAram Saba (Aleppo) Walter P. Zenner Ya'akov Choeka and Hayyim Sabato. Minhat Aharon: Me'asejTorani LeZikhro shel HaRav Aharon Choeka z"l (A Torahitic Collection oj Essays Dedicated to the Memory ojRabbi Aharon Choeka, ojBlessed Memory). Published by the family. 5750 (1989-1990). Rabbi David Zion Laniado. Sejer LaQedoshim asher baAre's (Book jor the Holy Men Who Were in Aram Soba). Privately published by the sons of the author. Jerusalem: 5740 (1979-1980). H. Makover. Hakhme Aram Sobah (Rabbis of Aleppo). (Jerusalem: Yeshivat Hod Yosef, 5752 (1992-1993). Introduction A mong the biases have which marked the social scien- ~\ titlc study of Israeli ethnicity and religion have been 1. The tendency to treat these aspects as separate phenomena; 2. The neglect of texts by group members; and 3. Little concern with small ethnic groups, which did not present Israeli society with social problems. The appearance of two Sephardic religious parties on the Israeli political scene-first, the short-lived TAMI party, and 137 138 Religion then, the more durable SHAS party-has shown how distorted the first two biases have made us. The third bias is the one of which we should always beware. Some small groups have influenced certain sectors of Israeli society disproportionately. One of these groups were the rabbis from Aleppo or [of] Aleppian descent. One of their number was, for many years, the head of a major Sephardic yeshiva, Porat Yosef. The militant conservatism of the Aleppian rabbinate prefigured the hareo'i orientation of the SHAS party. In addition, rabbis of Israeli Aleppian origin have been important leaders of Sephardic communities in the Americas. The various books under consideration here, while different from each other, give us some insight into the mentalities of the Aleppian and related Sephardic rabbinic circles through how they relate the rich traditions of the Aleppian rabbinate to present-day Israel. The production of these books also reveals the web of connections between different groups of rabbis and laymen in Israel and the Diaspora. I Books have, for a long time, been used as ways of honoring and remembering other human beings living and dead. Books are dedicated to family and fliends, as well as teachers and scholars. For a long time, sC::1olars would honor their mentors by writing papers in their honor as gifts on their jubilees (Festschrijten) or after their deaths (Memorschriften). For Jewish communities-which were destroyed or abandoned, in Europe or elsewhere-the memory book (zikhronbikh) serves as a portable memorial for a community which is no longer in the place where it once was. I As a result of Zionist ideology, there has been a tendency in Israel studies to draw a sharp line between Diaspora Jewry and Israel. Yet, a considerable number of books are published in Israel which show that there is continuity between the past abroad and the present in a variety of ways. These books, which feature remembrance of sages, represent this aspect of the relationship between Israel and the diaspora Remembering the Sages 139 birthplace and hometown, especially with regard to the books by Laniado and Makover. Some simply want to remember their roots, while others-especially among the Orthodoxlook for role models among and gUidance from their forbears. The publication of such books reveals much about the values and social relationships of the people who have produced these books in both previous [and) contemporary contexts. In a notable article, Shlomo Deshen described the publishing ventures in Israel of Jews from Jerba in Southern Tunisia.2 In this article, Deshen sees publication of booksas well as pilgrimages to the tombs of saints-as a substitution for traditional religious practices, which have been abandoned by these Jews during their period of immigration and acculturation. For the many of the publishers and buyers of these books, their contents are of less account than their talismanic value as a quasi-magical protection of the home against evil, and as a memorial to the past. The contents of the books, which often are works of Talmudic learning , are unlikely to appeal to most buyers simply as readers. Rather, their purchase and possession by themselves are considered as meritorious. Deshen's analysis of the "ritualization of literacy" makes sense when applied to the traditionally minded laity of many Jewish groups, including American Reform Jews. The seJerthe holy book-just like other ritual objects, such as mezzuzot-or Passover...