ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with reaction to domination as a problem of collective consciousness; its field of observation is Jewish history during the Middle Ages. Throughout the Middle Ages the Jewish people refused in fact to take the painful reality of their "Exile" as the final judgment of history and they refused to mistake it for a mere "Diaspora" either. Jewish law and custom was bent upon granting scholars as many advantages as possible, especially by exempting them from taking part in paying taxes and dues to the authorities of the outside world. The power of Jewish money exploited by greedy potentates has been raised to significance by the dominant Church itself through one of the strangest paradoxes in social history. The corporative structure of feudal society and the prevalence of jus sanguinis over jus soli made Jewish self-government possible, the everlasting need of money on the part of the rudimentary secular state made it a necessity.
