| farfel_n08_066_527The long hisory of Jewish settlement in the cities
+ towns of Yemen, isolated at the southwestern tip
of the Arabian peninsula, resulted in a Jewish
civilization that was different from that of other
communities. Of venerable age, dating back at least
to pre-Islamic times , the Yemenite community at
first may have practiced a form of Judaism at
variance with that of Palestine + Babylonia but gradually
it came under the influence of the talmudic academies
in those 2 centers. By the 12th C the Jews of Yemen
were fully within the mainstream of rabbinic Judaism.
Because the Jewish community of Yemen was so
isolated, its traditional ways of social + religious
life were not influenced by many of the trends
+ currents that affected the rest of the Jewish
world. For this reason, it has preserved many
works of Jewish literature that were lost or
forgotten elsewhere. | farfel_n08_066_527The long hisory of Jewish settlement in the cities
+ towns of Yemen, isolated at the southwestern tip
of the Arabian peninsula, resulted in a Jewish
civilization that was different from that of other
communities. Of venerable age, dating back at least
to pre-Islamic times , the Yemenite community at
first may have practiced a form of Judaism at
variance with that of Palestine + Babylonia but gradually
it came under the influence of the talmudic academies
in those 2 centers. By the 12th C the Jews of Yemen
were fully within the mainstream of rabbinic Judaism.
Because the Jewish community of Yemen was so
isolated, its traditional ways of social + religious
life were not influenced by many of the trends
+ currents that affected the rest of the Jewish
world. For this reason, it has preserved many
works of Jewish literature that were lost or
forgotten elsewhere. |