The Khazar Correspondence and its implications for Jewish statehood

(Based on the English edition of I Will Await Him, p. 466, and the Hebrew Achakeh Lo p. 341.)

Q: In the eighth century, the king of the Khazar nation and much of its aristocracy converted to Judaism. Judaism remained the official religion of the nation until it was conquered by the Kievan Rus in the tenth century. The Khazar nation certainly fought wars and, at times, exacted revenge for violence against Jews in other countries. Doesn’t this violate the alleged prohibition on Jews running a state during exile? In all the rabbinic literature surrounding the Khazar story (for example, the correspondence between the Khazar king and Chasdai ibn Shaprut, and the Kuzari by Rabbi Yehuda Halevi) there is no hint that the Khazars violated the oaths.

A: True, but the Kuzari does contain a condemnation of the Zionist position of rising up from exile whenever the opportunity presents itself. In Maamar 1,115 the king accuses the Jews of accepting exile against their will, not for the sake of fulfilling Hashem’s decree. If they were able to, they would fight and kill. The rabbi admits that he is unfortunately right about most Jews, but says that nevertheless there are a minority who do bear the exile for Hashem’s sake. Obviously, Rabbi Yehuda Halevi upheld the validity of the oaths, yet held that the Khazars did not violate them, or else he would have told the king that if he and his people wished to convert to Judaism, they would have to abandon their sovereignty. 

Most probably, the reason is that the Khazars existed as a sovereign state before their conversion to Judaism. Therefore, even after the conversion, their state was not considered as Jews in exile rising up and establishing a state, but rather as a non-Jewish state adopting Judaism. Their statehood was not a facet of their Jewishness; rather their Jewishness was an incidental aspect of their statehood.

Furthermore, one could argue that the Three Oaths only prohibit us from having a Jewish state – a state created by and for the Jewish people, with laws discriminating in favor of Jews. But the Khazar kingdom was not a Jewish kingdom. The king may have converted to Judaism and many of his people may have converted along with him, but he did not force Judaism upon anyone. For that matter, we don’t even know if the majority of the people converted. Imagine that an American president and a few prominent American leaders were to convert to Judaism, or that America exacted revenge for attacks on Jews. Those things would not make it a Jewish state. But the State of Israel has a Jewish majority, and laws that favor Jews, such as the Law of Return.

Q: But in the Khazar Correspondence, Chisdai ibn Shaprut writes to the Khazar king as follows: “Whenever emissaries came to Muslim Spain to bring gifts from faraway countries, I asked them about our brethren, the Bnei Yisroel, the survivors of exile, if they had heard of any freedom for the survivors, who are consumed by servitude and have found no rest. Until finally the emissaries of Khursan, the merchants, told me that there is a kingdom of Jews called Alcazar. And I did not believe them, for I said, they told me this only to please me and get friendly with me. So I kept silent for a while, until the emissaries of Constantinople came with a gift and a letter from their king to our king. And I asked them about this matter, and they said it is true… and the name of the current king is Yosef… And when I heard this I was full of vigor and courage, and my hope was reignited, and I bowed and prostrated myself to the G-d of heaven… And now, if it be good in the eyes of the king, and if he cares about the wishes of his servant, may my life be dear in his eyes and may he command his royal scribes to respond to my letter with a call of peace from afar, and tell me the root of the matter and the beginning of the story, how Jews came to live in his place.”

Apparently, Chisdai thought that the Khazars were Jews by descent, who had arrived there in the course of exile and set up a country of their own – not people of an existing country who merely converted to Judaism. And although the Khazar king wrote back and corrected him on this point, saying that they were converts, we must still ask: why was Chisdai originally so excited and happy to hear about a kingdom of Jews by descent? Shouldn’t he have been angry that these Jews transgressed the Three Oaths?

A: Chisdai ibn Shaprut may not have been well-versed in Shas and halacha, and was unaware of the Oaths. Rabbi Yehuda Halevi was, of course, a great Rishon, but by his time it was known that the Khazar were converts.