Judaism lived in a traditional society, which we call the Kehila, from the time of the Talmud (2nd to 6th centuries) until the European Enlightenment. Even after this time, some Jewish communities continued to live in this traditional community of values and rules, essentially defined by the Hebrew Bible (Tanach) and the Talmud. I would like to briefly describe this traditional Jewish society, the Kehila, highlighting only a few segments of it, which was a typical form of Jewish life between the 16th and 18th centuries. I will then turn to the social role of the family in the context of the Kehila, the traditional Jewish societas. My focus is on the so-called Ashkenazi, European Jewry. My approach is social-historical, and I use the methods of Jewish studies.
Jewish communities that have existed for thousands of years have survived to the present day despite often brutally hostile environments. In this paper, I want to examine some of the sociological characteristics of medieval Jewish communities. Are there any particular principles or patterns that we can observe and draw general conclusions from? How did Jewish communities survive for thousands of years?
In addition to presenting the medieval Kehila, the Jewish community, I would like to draw some conclusions. Jewish communities, as I will try to present descriptively, subordinated the individual and even the family to the interests of the community. The survival of the community was more important than the will, happiness, and interests of the individual and/or the family. Everything was subordinated to the interests of the majority. The operating mechanisms of the community implemented the total supremacy of the collective over the institution of the individual and even the family. This may have been one of the secrets of its success.
The Jews could adapt, their traditional-spiritual way of life predestined them to do so, and their survival was successful.