The Pan-Arab newswebsite Al-Araby recently reported that Islamic forces operating in the south of Iraq have seized control of the building housing a shul and the Kever of Ezra HaSofer located in the Amara province south of Baghdad. According to the website, the terrorists cut off all access to the gravesite to prevent journalists from reporting on the destruction of parts of the building which they are now using as both a mosque and their headquarters in southern Iraq.
A recent video of the shrine of Ezra the Scribe was shot by Ahmed Saleh Alhasnawi and is posted on the Jews of Iraq facebook page. Green paint has been used to decorate the building and inscriptions from the Koran and Hadith ( Islamic Medrashim lehavdil) hang on the walls.
It is not clear which forces have taken it over, but it is believed to be those of ISIS.
The shrine of Ezra Sofer was in the hands of the local Jewish community for centuries until two years after the creation of the Jewish State when Operation Ezra and Nehemiah took place and between 120,000 to 130,000 Jews were flown to Israel.
Only two and a half thousand Jews remained in Iraq at the time; their synagogues and institutions were abandoned and looted and their gravesites fell into disrepair and decay. Today there appears to be no more Jews in Iraq. What may have been one of the oldest continuous Jewish communities in the world – the Babylonia Jewish community in Iraq has now vanished.
Establishment of the Jewish Community of Iraq
In 586 B.C.E when Nevuchadnezzar destroyed the first Beis HaMikdash, he brought thirty-five thousand Jewish captives to his capital in Babylon, ninety kilometers south of modern day Baghdad. The first synagogue in the world may have been in Babylon. More than a decade earlier King Yehoyachin was exiled by Nevuchadnezzar and built the “Shaf VeYativ ” Synagogue in Nehardea, traditionally believed to be the Great Synagogue in Baghdad.
Following the destruction of the Second Bais HaMikdash, waves of Jews traveled west and some settled in Babylonia too.
The great academies of Sura , Nehardea and Pumbedita were great Torah centers and the Talmud Bavli established in Iraq is the major source of learning in every Yeshiva today.
Benjamin of Tudela Visits Babylonia
Benjamin of Tudela ,the twelfth century famous medieval Jewish traveler describes his visit to Babylonia and to the gravesite of Ezra HaSofer in his travelogue.
“Baghdad contains about one thousand Jews, who enjoy peace, comfort, and much honor under the government the great King. Among them are very wise men, whose occupation is the study of the Mosaic law. …..
The ruins of the palace of Nevuchadnezzar are still to be seen; but people are afraid to venture among them on account of the serpents and scorpions with which they are infested. Twenty thousand Jews live within about twenty miles from this place, and perform their worship in the synagogue of Daniel, who rests in peace. This synagogue is of remote antiquity, having been built by Daniel himself; it is constructed of solid stones and bricks. Here the traveler may also behold the palace of Nevuchadrezzar, with the burning fiery furnace into which were thrown Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; it is a valley well known to everyone.
Benjamin of Tudela was shown the grave of Ezra the scribe on the Shaṭṭ al-‘Arab, near the point where the Tigris flows into the Euphrates . This is located about 400 kilometers south of Baghdad.
He writes: The sepulcher of Ezra, the priest and scribe, is in this place, where he died on his journey from Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes.
Why was Ezra HaSofer not buried in Eretz Yisroel?
The Jews of Iraq had a tradition that Ezra the scribe had visited Babylonia traveling by donkey. He passed away during his visit and was buried there.
There are legends explaining why Ezra HaSofer did not merit to be buried in Eretz Yisroel. He had been cursed by Jews in different countries that he would be buried in the diaspora. They were angry at Ezra HaSofer for having cursed them for not heeding his call during the second Temple Era to return to Jerusalem.
Yaakov Sapir who traveled to several countries to collect money for the Churvah synagogue in 1859, writes in his book “Even Sapir” about the Jews of Yemen he encountered there.
They have a tradition among them, he writes, that their ancestors received a letter from Ezra HaSofer urging them to make Aliyah. The Jews had grown powerful and rich and were not anxious to move, and refused to heed his call. Ezra then traveled to Yemen and appealed to them in person, but they again refused. They claimed this was not yet the final redemption.
According to Yemenite tradition, Ezra became outraged and excommunicated the Jews of Yemen. They in turn cursed him, saying that he would not be buried in the Land of Israel. The curses of both came true. From then on the Jews of Yemen know no peace and Ezra was buried outside the Land of Israel.
This account is corroborated in the writings of Rabbi Shlomo Adeni, (1567 C.E.- circa 1630 C.E.) a native of Yemen and author of Meleches Shlomo, a commentary on the Mishnah, who lived in the Land of Israel. In the introduction to his commentary, Adeni writes of having been told by his family that their ancestors were of the ten tribes of Israel and had gone into exile with them. He was also told that they belonged to the group which Ezra had appealed to, to return to the Land of Israel. But they had refused to do so. Ezra cursed them that they should therefore suffer from want.
Ezra the Scribe also traveled to a community consisting solely of Kohanim in Djerba, the island off the Tunisian coast. According to their tradition, their ancestors immigrated to Africa after the destruction of the First Temple, and from there came to the island.
Nahum Slouschz, in his Hebrew book on the Kohanim of Djerba relates: In the beginning of the era of the Second Temple, Ezra the Scribe, who traveled widely to gather the dispersed Jews, especially Kohanim and Leviyyim of proven pedigree, came to the island of Djerba to call upon the Kohanim to return to Jerusalem.
They refused, because they did not believe that the building of the Second Temple was indeed ordained by G-d.
Ezra cursed them and their children: they would not serve as Kohanim in the Beis HaMikdash and no Levite would come to the island to be of service to them. The Kohanim in turn pronounced a curse against Ezra: he would not return to Eretz Yisrael and would not be buried there.
According to the traditions of Djerba, all the curses came true. Ezra did not have the privilege of being buried in the Land of Israel; the Kohanim of Djerba did not return to Jerusalem during the entire era of the Second Temple, and no Levite ever came to live on the island. There is a tradition among the islanders that a Levite settling in Djerba would survive no more than a year.
Slouschz writes: “Curious is the fact that till this day it is impossible for a Levite to live among the Jews of Djerba. No shaliach from Jerusalem who is a Levite would dare to disembark at Djerba; and never would the community of Djerba dare to receive one in their midst.”
In a booklet entitled Sefer Djerba Yehudit by Boaz Hadad, a Jew from Djerba, the following account of the Ezra Tradition is given: There are no Levites on the island. According to tradition no Levites are allowed to live there more than twelve months. A Levite who stays longer endangers his life,
“It is told that when Ezra came to Jerusalem he didn’t find enough Levites for service in the Bais Hamikdash among the new olim. He turned to the Levites of Djerba to come to Jerusalem. They refused saying the Bais HaMikdash would be destroyed and the Jews would again be exiled. Why should they go to Jerusalem, when in the end they would be exiled again? Ezra tried to convince them that if the Jews kept the Mitzvohs, the Beis HaMikdash would not be destroyed. However, the Levites of Djerba persisted in their refusal. Thereupon Ezra cursed them: “No Levite would survive for more than a year on the island.” All Levites who resided there died during the year.”
Since then, until this very day, the curse rests upon the Levites of Djerba and no Levite dares to stay longer than a year. In 1912 a new Zionist printing press was established on the island. There were no people in Djerba who could work the new presses. Mr. Yosef ben Natanel HaLevi, a printer from Tunis was brought to the island. However, he took care never to stay more than a year. He would stop work from time to time and leave Djerba.
A Visit to the Kever of Ezra
David Sassoon, the prominent bibliophile and philanthropist travelled from Bombay (now Mumbai) to Basra in 1910 with his mother Pircha (Florence) Sassoon and his sister Mazel Tov. On the way they stopped off in Baghdad. He wrote a diary in Hebrew entitled Massaei Bavel.
The following is an English translation of an excerpt of his dairy by Rabbi Aharon Bassous describing his visit to Ezra HaSofer’s Kever.
Tuesday Sept. 20
At 7:00 am we reached AL Qurna where the Tigris and Euphrates unite. Tradition has it that the Garden of Eden was here! We rested for 10 minutes. Continuing on our journey to Baghdad we passed in the afternoon a building which is traditionally the grave of Ezra HaSofer or Al Ezair in Arabic.
On the outside the grave looks like the dome of a mosque and is covered with glazed blue tiles. We went inside to visit. On entering the town we were in a large chamber leading to the synagogue and grave. Before entering the building we were told to remove our shoes. On top of the grave is a large tomb made from wood. Every Jewish visitor lights a lamp and says: I am lighting this lamp in honor of our master Ezra the scribe, after which he circles the grave and kisses it. Many give money for someone to bless them at the grave. Even non-Jews, come there to pray.
The main time for visiting is between Pesach and Shavuot. Jews come from Basra, Abushire, Baghdad, etc. On the two days of Shavuot it is absolutely crowded. The visitors stay in two buildings built especially for them and are charged a small fee. Mozelle the wife of Eliyah David Joseph Ezra from Calcutta rebuilt one of the buildings in 1883. It cost her 4000 Rupees.
The order of prayers at the shrine of Ezra HaSofer for the Festival of Shavuot are as follows:
On the night of Shavuot they gather in the synagogue for the public auction of Mitzvot. The first one is buying the merit to put a Parochet on the grave. After which is the sale of four Rimonim (bells) to be placed on the four comers of the grave. Afterwards a special blessing is made for each person who wants to donate money to Tzedaka. The Arvit service is then commenced. When the service is completed they all go to the grave of the Tzaddik and sing various songs clapping hands in great rejoicing. Afterwards they go to have their meal.
After the meal they read in the two houses for visitors the special Tikun of this night. It is divided into sections and each portion is then auctioned and that portion is then read loudly by the one who bought it. The readings are completed about two hours before sunrise. They then sing some more songs till the time for Shachrit arrives. Before Shachrit they sell the reading of the various parts of the service and before the reading of the Torah the various Aliyot are sold. The money from the sales is used for the upkeep of the houses for the visitors and to support the pupils of the Yeshiva.
Originally, the custom was to read by the grave the book of Ezra from a scroll, but this custom has stopped since Rabbi Yosef Chayim printed a book called Mamlechet Kohanim where he made a special order of readings and prayers to be read at the grave.