JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

economic history
6 C.E. when Judea was incorporated into the Roman Empire
as a mere subdivision of the Syrian province. Thenceforth the
center of gravity of the whole people shifted more and more
to the Diaspora lands.
Talmudic Era
Before the fall of Jerusalem the majority of the Jewish people
had long lived outside Palestine. Yet the course of Jewish
history was largely determined by the Palestinian leadership
and society. Only Egypt acted in a more independent way and
Alexandria, its great emporium of trade and culture, served
as Jerusalem’s counterpart, as it was designated by the Palestinian
leaders in their letter to Judah b. Tabbai (TJ, Ḥag. 2:2).
Even Babylonia, upon which soon descended the mantle of
leadership of the whole people, was rather inarticulate about
its Jewish life until the third century C.E., when it came under
the neo-Persian domination. Outside these two centers there
is some information about the Jews of *Rome, owing to the
preservation of numerous catacomb inscriptions, as well as
occasional references, mostly in an anti-Jewish vein, in contemporary
Latin letters. As to the multitude of Jews inhabiting
Syria, Asia Minor, the Balkans, and North Africa west of
Egypt, we are limited to stray flashes of light thrown by a few
surviving inscriptions, the Pauline Epistles, and other sporadic
sources. Before long, the distinction between Palestine Jewry
and those of other countries became increasingly blurred as
the former gradually lost their position as a majority of the
Palestinian population.
Minority status understandably affected also the Jewish
economic structure. Many Mediterranean communities may
have owed their origin to Jewish prisoners of war taken by the
Romans and sold into slavery. This was particularly true of the
capital itself. To be sure, the Jews did not long remain in bondage.
Because many Jewish slaves insisted upon observing the
Sabbath rest commandment and abstained from consuming
ritually forbidden food, they must have been uncomfortable
workers and domestic servants. On the other hand, Jewish
families and communities bent every effort to redeem captives,
a commandment placed high in the hierarchy of values
by the ancient rabbis. Roman law facilitated manumission inasmuch
as freedmen retained certain connections with their
patrons – whose family names they usually assumed – and
performed important economic services for them. According
to law, moreover, freedmen enjoyed a limited Roman citizenship,
while their descendants were treated as full-fledged citizens
with rights far superior to those of other citizens in the
complex political structure of the empire before 312 C.E. Economically,
however, such privileged citizens at first joined only
the vast group of landless proletarians. Especially in Rome
many of them joined the estimated 200,000 welfare clients
(about a fourth of the population). In fact, Augustus singled
out the Jewish welfare recipients for special favors. Taking into
account their religious scruples, he allowed them to demand
a double portion of the grain due them on Friday so that they
would not have to violate the Sabbath. He also gave them the
option of refusing oil, the other major article of consumption
given away free, and to ask for money instead. In this way the
Roman emperor decided a question still controversial among
Palestinian rabbis as to whether “the oil of gentiles” was prohibited
for Jewish consumption.
Nevertheless some former slaves and many free immigrants
found ultimate employment in agriculture. Most of
them had been engaged in farming at home and, wherever
given the opportunity, they tilled the soil either as small farmers
or as hired hands. In the major countries of their settlement,
particularly Egypt and Babylonia, many of them cultivated
vineyards, which they and the Greeks seem to have
introduced into Egypt, and olive groves, in the planting of
which their ancestors appear to have pioneered in Babylonia.
They also helped produce dates and other fruits, as well as
grain. Dates were particularly plentiful and inexpensive. The
Palestinian rabbi Ulla upon arriving in Babylonia exclaimed:
“A whole basket of dates for a zuz [28 cents] and yet the Babylonians
do not study the Torah!” But after overindulging in
dates, which caused him a stomach upset, he varied his epigram
by saying: “A whole basket of poison for a zuz, and yet
the Babylonians study the Torah!” (Pes. 88a). To facilitate their
coreligionists’ agricultural pursuits in competition with non-
Jewish farmers, the Babylonian sages quite early suspended the
obligation of Diaspora Jews to observe the years of fallowness
and even the payment of levitical tithes. They included these
requirements among “commandments dependent on the land”
of Israel, that is, as being binding only for Palestine. Later on,
under the pressure of Roman taxation and particularly after
the reform of Diocletian (who instituted the collection in kind
of the land tax from territorial groups (so-called iugera) regardless
of the ethnic or religious differences among the owners
of particular parcels of land) R. Yannai ordered even the
Palestinian farmers to “go out and sow during the Sabbatical
Year because of the tax” (Sanh. 26a).
Certain industrial activities, such as the brewing of beer,
were also connected with *agriculture. Unlike Palestine, whose
population preferred table wines, Babylonia had from ancient
times consumed much beer, one variety being brewed from a
mixture of barley and dates. No less than three distinguished
Babylonian rabbis, *Huna, *Ḥisda, and *Papa, are recorded
as having amassed considerable wealth from brewing. Jews
were also active in many other crafts, and at times organized
specific Jewish guilds. The crafts of tanners (see *Leather), collectors
of dog dung, and copper miners were, however, considered
so malodorous that the law permitted wives to sue for
divorce on this ground. Nevertheless everybody knew that
they were socially necessary and all that Judah ha-Nasi could
say was that “the world cannot get along without either a perfumer
or a tanner. Happy is he whose occupation is perfuming.
Woe unto him who must earn a living as a tanner” (Kid.
4:14; 82a-b). Complaints of unethical practices by craftsmen
were also heard; an example of such prejudices was the popular
adage that “the best of surgeons belongs to Hell, and the
most conscientious of butchers is a partner of Amalek.” Judah
102 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6