The Ashkenazi Revolution

318PalmachThe Palmach was the elite fightingforce of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv (Jewish community)during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine. The Palmach wasestablished on May 15, 1941. By the outbreak of the Israeli War forIndependence in 1948 it consisted of over 2,000 men and women in threefighting brigades and auxiliary aerial, naval and intelligence units. With thecreation of Israel's army, the three Palmach Brigades were disbanded. Thisand political reasons led to many of the senior Palmach officers resigning in1950.Pinchas SapirPinchas Sapir (born PinchasKozlowski on October 15,1906, died August 12,1975) was anIsraeli politician during the first three decades following the country's founding.PinskerLeon Pinsker, Yiddish: YehudahLeib Pinsker, Russian: Lev Semyonovich Pinsker (1821, TomaszówLubelski, Poland (then Russian Empire) – 1891, Odessa, Russian Empire) wasa physician, a Zionist pioneer and activist, and the founder and leader ofthe Hovevei Zion, also known as Hibbat Zion (Lovers of Zion) movement.Rabenu Gershom Gershom ben Judah, (c. 960-1040? -1028?) best known as Rabbeinu Gershom and also commonlyknown to scholars of Judaism by the title Rabbeinu Gershom Me'OrHagolah ("Our teacher Gershom the light of the exile"), was afamous Talmudist and Halakhist. Rashi of Troyes (d. 1105) said less than acentury after Gershom's death, "all members of the Ashkenazi diaspora arestudents of his." As early as the 14th century Asher ben Jehiel wrote thatRabbeinu Gershom's writings were "such permanent fixtures that they maywell have been handed down on Mount Sinai." He is most famous forthe synod he called around 1000 CE, in which he instituted various laws andbans. Questions of religious casuistry were addressed to him from allcountries, and measures which he authorized had legal force among all theJews of Europe. About 1000 CE he called a synod which decided thefollowing particulars: (1) prohibition of polygamy; (2) necessity of obtainingthe consent of both parties to a divorce; (3) modification of the rulesconcerning those who became apostates under compulsion; (4) prohibitionagainst opening correspondence addressed to another.RashiShlomo Yitzhaki or Isaacides andbetter known by the acronym Rashi (February 22, 1040 – July 13, 1105),