The History of the Jewish People

"Remember your days long gone by. Ponder the years of each generation. Ask your father and let him tell you, and your grandfather, who will explain it." (Deuteronomy 32:7) 

The sensitive student of Jewish history is frequently troubled by doubts and fundamental questions regarding Heaven's providence and the purpose of the Jewish Nation and its many travails. Many of these inquiries, if not all, require the background and knowledge of one well-steeped in Jewish hashkafah to provide satisfactory answers. Rabbi Chaim Dov Rabinowitz, b. 1911, has earned fame as author of Da'at Sofrim, his monumental and acclaimed commentary on the Tanach. In his youth he studied in the yeshivot of Baranowitz and Grodno, where he was known as "Chaim the matmid from Zoblin." He is also author of several novels describing the spiritual conflicts of yeshivah students in pre-World War Il Poland and Lithuania. He later emigrated to the Land of Israel, but also spent many years in the United States where he resided in Cleveland, Ohio. There he was asked by Rabbi Mordecai Katz zt"l, the late Rosh Yeshivah of Telz, to compose a work on the history of the Jewish Nation from the Second Temple period onward which would present the Torah view of events which affected the Jewish Nation over the last 2,500 years. His work is not a history book in the classic sense with its litany of dates and data. In his book, Rabbi Chaim Dov Rabinowitz often reiterates the theme that mere study of history for curiosity's sake is a waste of time which could be utilized for more constructive purposes. Rather, the author strives to impart to readers concepts of hashkafah and the Torah's perception of events which have affected the course of Jewish history up to the present day. These ideas are found in the Discussion sections appended to many chapters which provide answers to questions the perceptive reader asks while reading the history text.