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évora
tions and the operation of natural selection were responsible
for evolution, whereas according to Neo-Lamarckism, development
cannot be accounted for without assuming that there
is something in the living substance which guides it toward
development. In this sense there is a statement of the rabbis:
“There is no herb which has not a guardian angel in heaven
that strikes it and says, Grow!” (Gen. R. 10:6). Other scholars
maintain that there are metaphysical factors that guide and
direct the existence and development of the organism. This
theory, known as teleology, approximates to the religious view
of the Creator’s providence over His creatures. Some leading
evolutionists, although dissociating themselves from the teleological
approach, nevertheless agreed that it was impossible
to explain evolution on the basis only of known forces. Thus
G.L. Stebbins, who made a study of evolution in flora, argued
that evolution can be explained by mutations, hybridization,
and natural selection directed by a certain force of unknown
nature. Certain embryologists, too, assumed that in ontogeny
– the development of the individual during the embryonic
period – there is an unknown or nonrational force directing it
toward its development, and in this there is a parallel between
phylogeny, the development of the species, and ontogeny, the
development of the individual.
However much these views fall out of fashion as molecular
biology progresses and the fossil record is clarified, these
assumptions have an indubitable religious significance, and
in this connection mention should be made of the words of
Rabbi Kook: “The theory of evolution, which is at present increasingly
conquering the world, is more in harmony with the
mysteries of Kabbalah than all other philosophical theories”
(Orot ha-Kodesh, ii, 558). On the other hand there are many
evolutionists who are not prepared to include in the scheme
of creation and evolution a nonrational force and hold that
these “unknown” forces, responsible for the evolutionary
process, will be revealed and defined as known chemical or
physical forces. There are numerous theories to explain the
mechanism of evolution, but the doubts exceed the certainties.
When Rabbi Kook was asked about the problem of evolution,
he summed it up as follows: “Nothing in the Torah
is contradicted by any knowledge in the world that emerges
from research. But we must not accept hypotheses as certainties,
even if there is a wide agreement about them” (Iggerot
ha-Re’iyyah, no. 91).
Bibliography: S.B. Ulman, Madda’ei ha-Teva u-Veri’ at ha-
Olam (1944); M.M. Kasher, in: Sefer Yovel… Samuel K. Mirsky (1958),
256–84; idem, in: Sinai, 48 (1960), 21–33; J. Feliks, Kilei Zera’im ve-
Harkavah (1967), 7–12, 112–5; idem, in: Teva va-Areẓ, 7 (1965), 330–7;
O. Wolfsberg, in: L. Jung (ed.), Jewish Library, 2 (1968), 145–70.
[Jehuda Feliks]
ÉVORA, capital of Alto Alentejo province, S. central Portugal.
It had one of the most important Jewish communities in
the country. Regulations defining the powers of the *Arraby
Moor issued during the reign of King Alfonso III (1248–79)
laid down that the chief rabbi of the Jewish communities in
Alentejo (Alemtejo) should reside in Évora. In 1360, 1388, and
1434, the Évora community was given privileges by the king
defining the limits of its autonomy. In 1325 the Jews of Évora
were compelled by a special decree to wear a yellow shield of
David on their hats (see Jewish *badge). On several occasions
the kings of Portugal intervened in favor of the Jews of Évora
who engaged in varied economic activities. In 1392 John I ordered
the town authorities to desist from further confiscation
of Jewish property in the synagogues of Évora, and in 1408 he
granted the Jews a privilege permitting them to enlarge their
quarter. The old Jewish quarter can still be visited. On the
doorposts of stone-made houses three slots for mezzuzot were
found. In 1478 the community paid a sum of 264,430 cruzados
to the crown. After the decree of expulsion and forced conversions
of 1496/7, Évora continued to be an important center
of *anusim. In April 1505 these were set upon by bands of
rioters, who manhandled them and set the synagogue on fire.
From 1542, the year in which Luis *Dias of Setúbal was burned
at the stake there, a tribunal of the Inquisition was active in
Évora. Numerous anusim were condemned to the stake from
the 16th to 18th centuries.
Bibliography: M. Kayserling, Geschichte der Juden in Portugal
(1867), index; J. Mendes dos Remedios, Os Judeus em Portugal, 1
(1895), 226, 362, 382; L. Wolf, Reports on the Marranos or Crypto-Jews
of Portugal (1926), 6–7; N. Slouschz, Ha-Anusim be-Portugal (1932),
10–12, 16, 21, 24, 69; B. Roth, in: REJ, 126 (1957), 94–95; Roth, Marranos,
index; J. dos Santos Ramalho Coelho, in: A Cidade de Évora,
63/64 (1980/81), 267–84; M.J.P. Ferro Tavares, in: Anuario de Estudios
Medievales, 17 (1987), 551–58; A.B. Coelho, Inquisicío de Évora dos
promórdios a 1668, 2 vols. (1987); M. do Carmo Teixeira and L.M.L.
Ferreira Runa, in: Revista de História Económica e Social, 22 (1988),
51–76; L.M.L. Ferreira Runa, in: Arqueologia do estado, vol. 1 (1988),
375–86; M.B.A. Araújo, in: Inquisicío, vol. 1 (1989–90), 49–72.
ÉVREUX, capital of the Eure department, N.W. France. During
the Middle Ages, Évreux was renowned as a center of
Jewish scholarship. Most famous of its scholars was the tosafist
*Samuel (b. Sheneor) of Évreux, known as the “Prince
of Évreux”; his elder brother, *Moses of Évreux, was also a
tosafist, and his two other brothers, the liturgical poet Judah
and the commentator *Isaac of Évreux, are also well known.
The Jewish community lived in the “rue aux Juifs,” later known
as Rue de la Bove. The synagogue was situated on the eastern
side of the street. After the expulsion of 1306, no community
existed in Évreux. In the 1950s, a community was
established by Jews from North Africa. In 1968 it had about
250 members.
Bibliography: Gross, Gal Jud, 38–43; U. Lamiray, Promenades…
dans Evreux (1927), 162f.
[Bernhard Blumenkranz]
EVRON (Heb. ןֹ ורְ בֶ ע), kibbutz in the Plain of Acre, Israel,
near Nahariyyah, affiliated with Kibbutz Arẓi ha-Shomer ha-
Ẓa’ir. Evron was founded in 1945 by immigrants from Poland
and Romania. In addition to intensive farming (cotton and
avocado plantations), the kibbutz had a factory for irrigation
588 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6