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Welcome to 10 Minute TopicsThis week’s topic is: Teimanim Jews
Temanim – or Yemenite Jews – are those Jews and their ancestors who lived in Yemen on thesouthern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Nearly the entire Jewish population emigrated fromYemen between June 1949 and September 1950 during Operation Magic Carpet. Most of theseémigrés now live in Israel while some live in the United States and other places around theworld. There is only a small population of Temanim left in Yemen.
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The immigration of the majority of Jews into Yemen appears to have taken place around the beginning of the second century CE where they enjoyed prosperity until the sixth century CE. Inthe fifth century, the Himyarite king – Abu-Karib Asad Toban – converted to Judaism whilelaying siege to Medina. His army marched north to battle the Aksumites who had been in controlof Yemen. The Aksumites were expelled from the region with the assistance of the Arabian Jewsand their pagan allies. In 518 CE the kingdom was taken over by another Jewish convert – Zar’aYusuf (also known as Dhu Nuwas) – who continued the wars against the Aksumites. Jewish rulelasted until approximately 525 CE when the Aksumites defeated and killed Zar’a Yusuf. Duringtheir reigns, the Jewish Yemenite kings did not force Judaism on their subjects – following theTalmudic view that one can be a righteous gentile without the need to convert to Judaism.
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 In the seventh century, “Islamic caliphs began to exert control over the area. After the caliphate broke up, the former North Yemen came under the control of imams of various dynasties,usually of the Zaidi sect, who established a theocratic political structure that survived untilmodern times.”
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As “People of the Book”, the Teimanim were assured religious freedom inexchange for the jizya tax. Active Muslim persecution of the Teimanim did not begin in fullforce until the early tenth century when the Shiite-Zaidi clan seized power. The Teimanim weretreated like pariahs and the Zaidi enforced a statue known as the Orphan’s Decree. Under thisdecree, the Zaidi state would forcibly convert Teimanim children whose parents died while theywere minors to Islam. This decree was largely ignored under the Ottoman Empire but wasreinstituted by the Yemen government in 1922.
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There were two major centers of Teimanim life in Yemen – one in Aden and one in Hadramaut.The Jews of Aden lived in and around the city flourishing under the British protectorate. TheTeimanim of Hadramaut lived a more isolated life and the community was unknown to theoutside world until the early twentieth century. The Teimanim numbered approximately 50,000in the early twentieth century but now only number in the hundreds – residing mostly in Sa’dahand Rada’a.
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Immigration of the Teimanim from Yemen to the Palestine territory began in 1881 and continuedalmost uninterrupted until 1914. From 1881 through 1882 a few hundred Teimanim from Sana’aand nearby settlements immigrated to the Palestine territory. This was followed by other 
 
Teimanim continuing to move to the Palestine territory until 1914 with the majority of theTeimanim settling in Yerusalayim and Yaffa. The wave of the Teimanim who immigrated to thePalestine territory from 1906 to 1914 settled mostly on moshavim (agricultural settlements).Through the work of the World Zionist Organization and their representative Shmu’el Yavne’eli,about 1,000 Teimanim immigrated to the Palestine territory between 1912 and 1914.
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In 1947, Arab Muslim rioters – assisted by the local police – carried out a pogrom in Aden whichled to the death of 82 Jews and the destruction of hundreds of Teimanim homes and businesses.In 1948, a blood libel – the unfounded accusation of ritual murder – led to looting in Aden by theMuslim population.
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In 1948 with the declaration of the independent State of Israel, manyTeimanim immigrated to the newly formed state. Between June 1949 and September 1950,Operation Magic Carpet airlifted most of Yemen’s Jews – over 50,000 in all – from Yemen toIsrael. A smaller, continuous immigration continued until 1962 when a Yemeni civil war put anend to any further Teimanim immigration.
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There are three main groups of Teimanim – based on their traditions regarding the works of Maimonides and Isaac Luria (Ari).1. The Baladi generally follow the legal rulings of Maimonides as codified in the MishnehTorah. Their liturgy was developed by the Maharitz in an attempt to break the deadlock betweenthe followers of Maimonides and the followers of Isaac Luria. Baladis may or may not accept theZohar and Kabbalah theologically but in general will follow their ancestral traditions.2. The Rambamists are a sub-sect of the Baladi who strictly follow the legal rulings of Maimonides as codified in the Mishneh Torah. They generally reject the Zohar and other mystical teachings of Isaac Luria.3. The Shami generally follow the legal rulings of both Maimonides as codified in the MishnehTorah and Yoseph Caro as codified in the Shulchan Aruch. Their liturgy follows the Sephardictradition though there do remain ancestral traditions included in their siddur (prayerbook) and inother customs such as Hebrew pronunciation. Shami accept the Zohar theologically. MostTeimanim are considered to be Shami.
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During a Teimanim wedding, the bride in bedecked with jewelry and wears traditional weddingclothing with gold threads woven into the fabric. The bride’s elaborate headdress is decoratedwith flowers and rue leaves which are believed to ward off evil. The bride’s hands and feet aredecorated in intricate designs with a cosmetic paste derived from the henna plant. Songs – withlyrics that tell of friendship and love – are sung in alternating Hebrew and Arabic as a central part of the seven-day wedding celebration.
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There are two main traditional pronunciations of Teimanim Hebrew that are considered by manyscholars to be the most accurate form of Biblical Hebrew. All Hebrew letters of the TeimanimHebrew dialect have a distinct sound except for the letters samech (ס) and sin (ש). The Sana’aniHebrew pronunciation, used by the majority of the Teimanim, contains the additional letters
 
 jimmel (גּ) and guf (ק). Teimanim boys begin learning Hebrew at age three. Hebrew traditionallywas used primarily as a liturgical and scholarly language.
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The oldest Teimanim manuscripts are those of the Tanach which is referred to as the “Taj”(crown). The oldest texts date from the ninth century with each of them beginning with aMasoretic introduction and many contain Arabic commentaries. In the fourteenth century, Nathaniel ben-Isaiah wrote an Arabic commentary on the Tanach. In the fifteenth century Saadia ben-David al-Adani authored commentaries on Vayikra (Leviticus), Bamidbar (Numbers), andDevarim (Deuteronomy) and a midrash collection known as the Midrash ha-Gadol. Two other midrash collections were also composed in the fifteenth century. Yachya Zechariah ben-Solomonwrote a midrash collection known as the Midrash ha-Chefez and David al-Lawani composedMidrash al-Wajiz al-Mughni.
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In the larger Teimanim communities boys were sent to the Ma’lamed at the age of three to begintheir religious learning. They attend Ma’lamed Sunday through Thursday from early dawn tosunset and until noon on Friday. Teimanim females were required to have a thorough knowledgeof laws pertaining to kashrut (kosher laws) and taharat mishpachah (family purity).
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 Other than the Kurdish Jews, the Teimanim are the only Jewish community that maintains thetradition of reading the Torah in the synagogue in both Hebrew and the Aramaic Targum. In theTeimanim tradition each person called for an aliyah (reading/blessing over the Torah) reads theTorah portion for himself. Children under the age of bar mitzvah (age 13) are often given thesixth aliyah. Each verse of the Torah is read in Hebrew and then followed by the AramaicTargum, usually chanted by a child. Both the sixth aliyah and the Targum have a simplifiedmelody which is distinct from the general Torah melody used for the other aliyot. Like other Jewish communities, Teimanim chant different melodies for Torah, Haftorah, Megillah Eicha(Lamentations), Megillah Ester (Esther), and Kohelet (Ecclesiastes). Unlike the Ashkenazicommunities, the Teimanim also have specified melodies for Mishle (Proverbs) and Tehillim(Psalms).
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The Teimanim do not have chairs or benches in their synagogues. Instead, they sit on the floor inaccordance with the teachings of Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah. This tradition also providesspace for prostration – another ancient practice continued by some to this day during theTachanun (Supplication) portion of the daily prayers. In some parts of Yemen, minyamim (groupof ten adult Jewish males) would often meet in homes instead of having a separate building usedas a synagogue.
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Today there is still a small Teimanim community in the town of Beit Harash with a rabbi, asynagogue, and a mikveh. This community also has a boys yeshiva and a girls seminary funded by the Satmar Chasidic organization. There is also a small enclave of Teimanim in Raydahwhich hosts a yeshiva funded by the Satmar Chasidic organization. The Yemen government
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