
1650 AD to 1670 AD, Psalm 129: The Flood.
This generation is that of the 1650s and 1660s.
- In a climate [1] of relative prosperity, the legal guarantees of the Jews of Poland, slowly built since the Middle Ages, seemed unshakeable. The coexistence of the Jewish and Christian populations was not without shadow, but it could seem idyllic compared to the situation of other European countries. The role played by the Jews in the Polish economy had allowed them to build a private life in harmony with their religious principles. […] Cossack revolts, supported by peasants, took place in 1630, 1637 and 1639. The climate deteriorated to the detriment of the Jews and the nobles. […]
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- The expulsions [2] of Jews from Western European countries at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries led to their migration from west to east across Germany, Bohemia and Silesia to Poland and Lithuania. The sparsely populated and huge areas, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, the « republic of the two nations » that formed the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania together became, from the fifteenth century, the place of residence of the largest number of Jews in Europe. Their progress was rapid: in the 15th century, there were only a few thousand in the « Polish-Lithuanian Union », whereas around 1550, 160,000 lived there, then 350,000 by 1648, representing between 5% and 7% of population. In the second half of the seventeenth century, the pogroms and emigration caused by the great massacres, perpetrated by the Cossacks raised between 1648 and 1658 under the command of their hetman Bohdan Chmielnicki, and during the Russian and Swedish wars, from 1654 to 1660 , decimate them temporarily. Their number dropped to 150,000 and then increased (nearly 800,000 in 1765 in Poland / Lithuania).
(extract of the psalm 129 associated to this generation, verses 1 to 3)
- A song of ascents. Much have they distressed me from my youth, Israel will say now.
- Much have they distressed me from my youth, but also they have not prevailed against me.
- On my back, the plowmen plowed; they lengthened their furrow.
Charles I was beheaded in 1649 giving way to a republic headed by Cromwell who acts like a king while denying the title. Charles II, who had failed to succeed his father in 1649, finally succeeded in Cromwell’s death in 1658. This period initiated a new Christian messianic movement in which the Jews had their place:
- Anguish [3] about the catastrophe and the hope of redemption went hand in hand: France and England were bloodied by civil wars while in Eastern Europe, the Jews of Poland and Ukraine were massacred thousands by the marauding Cossacks of Khmelnytskyi hetman. In 1649, Charles I was decapitated and Olivier Cromwell took power as Lord Protector. This Millenarian soldier was convinced that these Puritans, like their New England brothers, were the chosen people:
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The Cromwell period, though ephemeral, begins the return of the Jews in England to a key period of it, since it will soon become one of the greatest powers in the world.
(extract of the psalm 129 associated to this generation, verses 4 to 8)
- The Lord is righteous; He will cut the ropes of the wicked.
- May all those who hate Zion be ashamed and retreat.
- May they be like the grass of the roofs, which, before it is plucked, withers.
- Of which the reaper did not fill his hand, nor the gatherer his arm.
- And the passers-by did not say, « May the blessing of the Lord be to you; we have blessed you in the name of the Lord. »
[1] Daniel Tollet: « To be Jewish in Poland, thousand years of history from the Middle Ages to 1939 ». (French: « Être Juif en Pologne, mille ans d’histoire du Moyen-Âge à 1939 ». (p. 84 à 92) )
[2] (Antoine Germa Collective / Benjamin Lellouch / Evelyne Patlagean): « The Jews in History ». Chapter of Marie Elizabeth Ducreux: « Jews in the societies of Central and Eastern Europe ». (French: « Les Juifs dans l’histoire ». Chapitre de Marie Elizabeth Ducreux: « Les Juifs dans les sociétés d’Europe Centrale et Orientale ». (p. 333/334) ).
[3] Simon Sebag Montefiore: « Jerusalem: Biography ». Chapter « Mystics and Messiahs ». (French: « Jérusalem : Biographie ». Chapitre « Mystiques et messies ». (p. 363) )