''Herem'' (, also Romanized ''chērem, ḥērem'') is the highest ecclesiastical censure in the

Jewish community 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 ...

. It is the total exclusion of a person from the Jewish community. It is a form of

shunning Shunning can be the act of social rejection, or emotional distance. In a religious context, shunning is a formal decision by a denomination or a congregation to cease interaction with an individual or a group, and follows a particular set of rul ...

and is similar to ''vitandus'' "

excommunication Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

" in the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

. Cognate terms in other Semitic languages include the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

terms ''

ḥarām ''Haram'' (; ar, حَرَام, , ) is an Arabic term meaning 'Forbidden'. This may refer to either something sacred to which access is not allowed to the people who are not in a state of purity or who are not initiated into the sacred knowl ...

'' "forbidden, taboo, off-limits, or immoral" and haram "set apart, sanctuary", and the Ge'ez word ''ʿirm'' "accursed". Arguably the most famous case of a herem is that of

Baruch Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, ...

, the seventeenth-century philosopher. Another renowned case is the herem the

Vilna Gaon Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, ( he , ר' אליהו בן שלמה זלמן ''Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman'') known as the Vilna Gaon (Yiddish: דער װילנער גאון ''Der Vilner Gaon'', pl, Gaon z Wilna, lt, Vilniaus Gaonas) or Elijah of ...

ruled against the early

Hassidic Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...

groups in 1777 and then again in 1781, under the charge of believing in

panentheism Panentheism ("all in God", from the Greek grc, πᾶν, pân, all, label=none, grc, ἐν, en, in, label=none and grc, Θεός, Theós, God, label=none) is the belief that the divine intersects every part of the universe and also extends be ...

. Other famous subjects of a herem were early Russian

communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...

and

Grigory Zinoviev Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev, . Transliterated ''Grigorii Evseevich Zinov'ev'' according to the Library of Congress system. (born Hirsch Apfelbaum, – 25 August 1936), known also under the name Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky (russian: Ов ...

. Sometime in 1918, while Ukraine was under German occupation, the

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...

s of

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

pronounced herem against Trotsky, Zinoviev, and other Jewish

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

leaders.

Summary

Although developed from the

biblical 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 of ...

ban, excommunication, as employed by the rabbis during Talmudic times and during the Middle Ages, became a rabbinic institution, the object of which was to preserve Jewish solidarity. A system of laws was gradually developed by rabbis, by means of which this power was limited, so that it became one of the modes of legal punishment by rabbinic courts. While it did not entirely lose its arbitrary character, since individuals were allowed to pronounce the ban of excommunication on particular occasions, it became chiefly a legal measure resorted to by a judicial court for certain prescribed offenses.

Etymology and cognate terms

The three terms ''herem'', "censure, excommunication", " devotion of enemies by annihilation" in the

Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' devotion of property to a

kohen Kohen ( he, , ''kōhēn'', , "priest", pl. , ''kōhănīm'', , "priests") is the Hebrew word for " priest", used in reference to the Aaronic priesthood, also called Aaronites or Aaronides. Levitical priests or ''kohanim'' are traditionally ...

", are all English

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...

s of the same Hebrew noun. This noun comes from the

semitic root The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or "radicals" (hence the term consonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the formation of actual words by adding the vowels ...

Ḥ-R-M '' Ḥ- R- M'' ( Modern he, ח–ר–מ; ar, ح–ر–م) is the triconsonantal root of many Semitic words, and many of those words are used as names. The basic meaning expressed by the root translates as "forbidden". Arabic Names *'' Al-Mas ...

. There is also a

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones ( equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definitio ...

''herem'' "fisherman's net", which appears nine times in the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...

of the Tanakh, that has no etymological connection to ''herem''. The Talmudic usage of ''herem'' for excommunication can be distinguished from the usage of ''herem'' described in the Tanakh in the time of

Joshua Joshua () or Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' lit. 'Yahweh is salvation') ''Yēšūaʿ''; syr, ܝܫܘܥ ܒܪ ܢܘܢ ''Yəšūʿ bar Nōn''; el, Ἰησοῦς, ar , يُوشَعُ ٱبْنُ نُونٍ '' Yūšaʿ ...

and the early Hebrew monarchy, which was the practice of consecration by total annihilation at the command of God carried out against peoples such as the

Midian Midian (; he, מִדְיָן ''Mīḏyān'' ; ar, مَدْيَن, Madyan; grc-gre, Μαδιάμ, ''Madiam'') is a geographical place mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and Quran. William G. Dever states that biblical Midian was in the "northwest Ar ...

ites, the Amalekites, and the entire population of

Jericho Jericho ( ; ar, أريحا ; he, יְרִיחוֹ ) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. It is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It is the administrative seat of the Jericho ...

. The neglect of

Saul Saul (; he, , ; , ; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first monarch of the United Kingdom of Israel. His reign, traditionally placed in the late 11th century BCE, supposedly marked the transition of Israel and Judah from a scattered tri ...

to carry out such a command as delivered by

Samuel Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bib ...

resulted in the selection of

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

as his replacement.

Offenses

The Talmud speaks of twenty-four offenses that, in theory, were punishable by a form of '' niddui'' or temporary excommunication.

Maimonides Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah ...

(as well as later authorities) enumerates the twenty-four as follows: # insulting a learned man, even after his death; # insulting a messenger of the court; # calling a fellow Jew a "slave"; # refusing to appear before the court at the appointed time; # dealing lightly with any of the rabbinic or Mosaic precepts; # refusing to abide by a decision of the court; # keeping in one's possession an animal or an object that may prove injurious to others, such as a savage dog or a broken ladder; # selling one's real estate to a non-Jew without assuming the responsibility for any injury that the non-Jew may cause his neighbors; # testifying against one's Jewish neighbor in a non-Jewish court, and thereby causing that neighbor to lose money which he would not have lost had the case been decided in a Jewish court; # a kohen shochet (butcher) who refuses to give the

foreleg, cheeks and maw The gift of the foreleg, cheeks and maw ( he, זְּרועַ לְּחָיַיִם וְקֵּיבָה) of a kosher-slaughtered animal to a '' kohen'' is a positive commandment in the Hebrew Bible. The Shulchan Aruch rules that after the sla ...

of kosher-slaughtered livestock to another kohen; # violating the second day of a holiday, even though its observance is only a custom; # performing work on the afternoon of the day preceding Passover; # taking the name of God in vain; # causing others to profane the name of God; # causing others to eat holy meat outside of Jerusalem; # making calculations for the calendar, and establishing festivals accordingly, outside of Israel; # putting a stumbling-block in the way of the blind, that is to say, tempting another to sin ( Lifnei iver); # preventing the community from performing some religious act; # selling forbidden ("

terefah Terefah ( he, טְרֵפָה, lit. "torn by a beast of prey"; plural ''treifot'') refers to either: * A member of a kosher species of mammal or bird, disqualified from being considered kosher, due to pre-existing mortal injuries or physical def ...

") meat as permitted meat ("kosher"); # failure by a shochet to show his knife to the rabbi for examination; # purposely bringing oneself to erection; # engaging in business with one's divorced wife that will lead them to come into contact with each other; # being made the subject of scandal (in the case of a rabbi); # declaring an unjustified excommunication.

''Niddui''

The '' niddui'' () ban was usually imposed for a period of seven days (in Israel thirty days). If inflicted on account of money matters, the offender was first publicly warned ("hatra'ah") three times, on Monday, Thursday, and Monday successively, at the regular service in the synagogue. During the period of niddui, no one except the members of his immediate household was permitted to associate with the offender, or to sit within four cubits of him, or to eat in his company. He was expected to go into mourning and to refrain from bathing, cutting his hair, and wearing shoes, and he had to observe all the laws that pertained to a mourner. He could not be counted in the quorum for the performance of a public religious function. If he died, a stone was placed on his hearse, and the relatives were not obliged to observe the ceremonies customary at the death of a kinsman, such as the tearing of garments,

etc. ''Et Cetera'' ( or (proscribed) , ), abbreviated to ''etc.'', ''etc'', ''et cet.'', ''&c.'' or ''&c'' is a Latin expression that is used in English to mean "and other similar things", or "and so forth". Translated literally from Latin, means ' ...

It was in the power of the court to lessen or increase the severity of the niddui. The court might even reduce or increase the number of days, forbid all intercourse with the offender, and exclude his children from the schools and his wife from the synagogue, until he became humbled and willing to repent and obey the court's mandates. According to one opinion, the apprehension that the offender might leave the Jewish fold on account of the severity of the excommunication did not prevent the court from adding rigor to its punishments so as to maintain its dignity and authority (

Shulkhan Arukh The ''Shulchan Aruch'' ( he, שֻׁלְחָן עָרוּך , literally: "Set Table"), sometimes dubbed in English as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism. It was authored in Safed (today in ...

Yoreh De'ah Yoreh De'ah ( he, יורה דעה) is a section of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher's compilation of halakha (Jewish law), Arba'ah Turim around 1300. This section treats all aspects of Jewish law not pertinent to the Hebrew calendar, finance, torts, marriage, ...

, 334, 1, Rama's gloss, citing '' Sefer Agudah''). This opinion is vehemently contested by the Taz (ibid.), who cites earlier authorities of the same opinion ( Maharshal; Maharam; Mahari Mintz) and presents proof of his position from the Talmud. Additionally, the Taz notes that his edition of the ''Sefer Agudah'' does not contain the cited position.

''Herem''

If the offense was in reference to monetary matters, or if the punishment was inflicted by an individual, the laws were more lenient, the chief punishment being that men might not associate with the offender. At the expiration of the period the ban was raised by the court. If, however, the excommunicate showed no sign of penitence or remorse, the niddui might be renewed once and again, and finally the "herem," the most rigorous form of excommunication, might be pronounced. This extended for an indefinite period, and no one was permitted to teach the offender or work for him, or benefit him in any way, except when he was in need of the bare necessities of life.

''Nezifah''

A milder form than either niddui or herem was the ''nezifah'' ban. (In modern Hebrew, ''nezifah'' generally means "a dressing-down" or "reading (someone) the riot act", i.e., a stern verbal rebuke.) This ban generally only lasted one day. During this time the offender dared not appear before him whom he had displeased. He had to retire to his house, speak little, refrain from business and pleasure, and manifest his regret and remorse. He was not required, however, to separate himself from society, nor was he obliged to apologize to the man whom he had insulted; for his conduct on the day of nezifah was sufficient apology. But when a scholar or prominent man actually pronounced the formal niddui on one who had slighted him, all the laws of niddui applied. This procedure was, however, much discouraged by the sages, so that it was a matter of proper pride for a rabbi to be able to say that he had never pronounced the ban of excommunication. Maimonides concludes with these words the chapter on the laws of excommunication:

Since the Jewish Enlightenment

Except in rare cases in the

Haredi Haredi Judaism ( he, ', ; also spelled ''Charedi'' in English; plural ''Haredim'' or ''Charedim'') consists of groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict adherence to ''halakha'' (Jewish law) and traditions, in oppos ...

and Hasidic communities, ''herem'' stopped existing after the

Haskalah The ''Haskalah'', often termed Jewish Enlightenment ( he, השכלה; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Euro ...

, when local Jewish communities lost their political autonomy, and Jews were integrated into the gentile nations in which they lived. * In 1918, the Rabbinical Council of

, declared ''herem'' on

and several other Jewish

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

. * In 1945, rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the founder of

Reconstructionist Judaism Reconstructionist Judaism is a Jewish movement that views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization rather than a religion, based on concepts developed by Mordecai Kaplan (1881–1983). The movement originated as a semi-organized stream w ...

(a Jewish religious movement that seeks to divorce Judaism from belief in a personal deity), was formally excommunicated by the Haredi Union of Orthodox Rabbis (''Agudath HaRabonim''). * In 2004, the

High Court of South Africa The High Court of South Africa is a superior court of law in South Africa. It is divided into nine provincial divisions, some of which sit in more than one location. Each High Court division has general jurisdiction over a defined geographica ...

upheld a herem against a

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

businessman because he refused to pay his former wife

alimony Alimony, also called aliment (Scotland), maintenance (England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Canada, New Zealand), spousal support (U.S., Canada) and spouse maintenance (Australia), is a legal obligation on a person to provide financial sup ...

as ordered by a

beth din A beit din ( he, בית דין, Bet Din, house of judgment, , Ashkenazic: ''beis din'', plural: batei din) is a rabbinical court of Judaism. In ancient times, it was the building block of the legal system in the Biblical Land of Israel. Today, it ...

. * A herem against members of Neturei Karta who attended the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust was declared by numerous Haredi religious leaders, including the leaders of the Satmar and

Chabad Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (), is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, particularly for its outreach activities. It is one of the largest Hasidic group ...

Hassidic groups.

Literature

* Hofreiter Christian (2012): Genocide in Deuteronomy and Christian interpretation. in: Interpreting Deuteronomy. Issues and approaches. Firth, D. G., Johnston P. S. (eds), IVP Academic.

References

External links

Jewish Encyclopedia 1901: Anathema

Jewish Encyclopedia 1901: Ban
* {{Cite web , url=http://www.roylaw.co.za/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.article&pageID=6218762&ArticleID=7315629 , title=South African High Court upholds Jewish right to pronounce herem , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130314011604/http://www.roylaw.co.za/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.article&pageID=6218762&ArticleID=7315629 , archive-date=March 14, 2013 Excommunication Jewish courts and civil law Punishments in religion Shunning