Ezra HaKohen Sofer

Rabbi Ezra HaKohen Sofer, born in the Babylonian exile, came from a family of Kohanim Gedolim (High Priests). From childhood he studied the Holy Scriptures with great zeal and was widely known throughout the Jewish communities of Babylonia and Persia as a master of Torah. For this, his contemporaries gave him the honorary name HaSofer, meaning both "scribe" and "scholar." He distributed scrolls of the Holy Scriptures that he himself had copied, and was a profound scholar and commentator of them. Ezra's teacher was Baruch, a disciple of the prophet Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah). A few years before the Babylonian catastrophe, during restoration work, hidden scrolls of the Holy Scriptures were discovered in the Jerusalem Temple. When he went into Babylonian exile, Baruch took them with him, and later passed them on to his beloved student Ezra. Out of devotion to his elderly teacher, Ezra returned to his homeland only after Baruch's death, bringing with him the completed scrolls of the Chumash, in order to give spiritual support to his brethren and guide them onto the right path. For his mission in Judea to succeed, Ezra needed to hold secular authority as well — that is, to have official powers granted by the Persian king Artaxerxes Longimanus, who knew Ezra well as his court scribe. Artaxerxes provided Ezra with a "nishtevan" (a decree, an edict) granting him the broadest possible authority. Ezra was permitted to bring with him from Babylonia to Yerushalayim all the Jews who wished to go. He was also permitted to collect donations among the Babylonian Jews on behalf of the Temple and the needy residents of Judea. Rich gifts for the Temple were given to Ezra by the king himself and his advisors. Royal officials were obligated to assist him. All Kohanim, Levites, and other servants of the Jerusalem Temple were completely exempted from taxes. And most importantly, Ezra received the right to declare the Torah the civil code of the Jews — that is, to bring the life of the nation into accordance with the laws of the Holy Scriptures. For this purpose, he was authorized to appoint judges in Judea. In the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes, "there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the gatekeepers... to Yerushalayim" (Ezra 7:7). Ezra set out on his journey on the 1st day of the month of Nisan, and five months later, on the 1st day of the month of Av in the year 3412 (348 CE... [Note: date as in original]), arrived in Yerushalayim. The scene that opened before him was joyless. The people had forgotten the Holy Torah, were mired in vice, had entered into blood ties with pagans, had lost respect for their sacred things, and had grown impoverished in mind and heart. Ezra refused food and drink, tore his garments, and in deep grief sank down upon the steps of the Temple, remaining motionless until evening. A crowd gathered around him, but he did not see it. So deep was his grief that no one dared speak to him. Only when evening came did Ezra rise and pour out his soul in prayer to the Almighty. And it seems the words of that prayer were extraordinary, for they shook even the most hardened hearts. People approached Ezra and touched the hem of his garment. Ezra demanded that the Jews send away their pagan wives. This demand meant the dissolution of family bonds, the renunciation of personal feelings for the sake of the national cause. Ezra understood that in this matter, where the future of the Jewish people was at stake, there could be no room for pity, and that softness would have been an unforgivable sin. Only by purifying Jewish society of foreign elements could it be rebuilt according to the laws of the Torah. The people accepted Ezra's demand, and within three months all the mixed marriages were dissolved. Ezra's merits before the Jewish people are invaluable. Later generations said of him: "The Divine Torah would have been forgotten and lost, had Ezra not restored it." (http://www.beerot.ru/статьи/эпоха-второго-храма/второй-исход-из-вавилона-эзра-а-софер/)