''Hastening Redemption: Messianism and the Resettlement of the Land of Israel'' is a history of nineteenth century

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...

to Palestine published in 1985 by Israeli

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

Arie Morgenstern. Publication of the book led to a scholarly reconsideration of the followers of the Vilna Gaon, who were not previously thought of as messianic in outlook. According to Morgenstern, the messianic impulse that motivated Jews to settle in the Land of Israel and the belief in the centrality of ''

Eretz Yisrael The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Israe ...

'' were critical components in Jewish spiritual life that predated the

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

era. He bases his findings on documentation made available by the opening of archives in the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and archival discoveries in Western and Central Europe.

Jewish immigration in 1808-1840

According to a certain pietistic reading of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

and

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

, it was said that the

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

would arrive in the Hebrew year 5600, or 1840. Beginning in the early years of the nineteenth century, thousands of Jews able to finance the journey moved with their families to the Land of Israel to await the great event. The arrival of large numbers of followers of the Vilna Gaon, known collectively as the ''

perushim The ''perushim'' ( he, פרושים) were Jewish disciples of the Vilna Gaon, Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, who left Lithuania at the beginning of the 19th century to settle in the Land of Israel, which was then part of Ottoman Syria under Otto ...

'', was especially notable. Sizeable groups are recorded as arriving from Jewish communities all over the world, including

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. The Gaon's followers initially settled in

Tiberias Tiberias ( ; he, טְבֶרְיָה, ; ar, طبريا, Ṭabariyyā) is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's F ...

and then Safed. Later, some of them moved to

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

and continued to live there, abandoning their messianic beliefs when the Messiah failed to appear in 1840. The settlers' early enthusiasm was tempered by a devastating cholera epidemic in 1813. Much hardship was caused by the underdeveloped state of the economy and the Ottoman government's disinterest in securing the life and property of its subjects. The mortality rates among the immigrants were extraordinarily high. Life was difficult for everyone, but Jews suffered even more due to laws that forbade them to bear arms (making it impossible for Jewish travelers to defend themselves from bandits), build housing or establish synagogues. These restrictions could only be overcome by means of substantial bribes, and even that was only possible in the event that the responsible officials were corrupt and not especially ill-disposed towards Jews. Some disciples of the Gaon arrived from Lithuania as part of the ''Hazon Zion'' (Vision of Zion) movement led by Rabbi Menahem Mendel of Shklov. Conditions improved after the conquest of Syria (of which the Land of Israel was then part) by

Muhammad Ali of Egypt Muhammad Ali Pasha al-Mas'ud ibn Agha, also known as Muhammad Ali of Egypt and the Sudan ( sq, Mehmet Ali Pasha, ar, محمد علي باشا, ; ota, محمد علی پاشا المسعود بن آغا; ; 4 March 1769 – 2 August 1849), was ...

in 1832. A letter from Jerusalem in 1834 describes large-scale immigration to the Holy Land: “It should be known to you that from other lands, worthy people are actually streaming to the Four Holy Cities (

Hebron Hebron ( ar, الخليل or ; he, חֶבְרוֹן ) is a Palestinian. city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies above sea level. The second-largest city in the West Bank (after Eas ...

, Jerusalem, Tiberias and Safed)” Hastening Redemption: Messianism and the Resettlement of the Land of Israel, Arie Morgenstern, Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 52, letter from Jerusalem, 24 December 1834. The new government was more lenient in its treatment of the Jews, allowing the rebuilding of synagogues in Tiberias and Safed destroyed by the

Galilee earthquake of 1837 The Galilee earthquake of 1837, often called the Safed earthquake, shook the Galilee on January 1 and is one of a number of moderate to large events that have occurred along the Dead Sea Transform (DST) fault system that marks the boundary of t ...

and the building of some Jewish housing.

References

{{reflist 2007 non-fiction books Books about Israel History books about Judaism Jews and Judaism in Palestine (region)