We started our day at the southern part of the Western Wall, meaning the same wall as the Kotel (Western Wall), just a different part of it (further to the South). For several days we've been talking about the development of two main groups within Am Yisrael: those who embraced Hellenism and those who rejected it. As the Romans take over Israel (they're more or less in charge, though not directly ruling, by 63 BCE) we see Am Yisrael divide into at least four different groups (a little bit like political parties). The two main groups are the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Sadducees came mostly from the Priestly class, believed Judaism should revolve around Beit HaMikdash (the Temple) and didn't accept the legitimacy of the Oral Law (we've just scraped the surface of this subject, but for now we can think of it as anything other than the strict, written text of the Tanakh). The Pharisees tended to come from a lower economic stratum. While valuing the Temple, they also believed that study and developing the law were important.
Yesterday I left blog readers (though not the students) in terrible suspense, not revealing the big secret behind the Hanukkah story. The truth is it's rather mundane. After nearly a century in power the Hasmoneans, leaders of the revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes (167 BCE - 164 BCE), had become quite Hellenized. Among other things this led to a gradually worsening conflict with the Pharisees, which included quite a bit of violence by the Hasmoneans against the Pharisees. The Pharisees, the sect who ended up surviving and continuing Jewish history, didn't want to give credit to the Hasmoneans, their eventual enemies, for the revolt against the Seleucids. Instead, the Pharisaic Rabbis singled out one Hasmonean, Judah Maccabee, for praise, and created a story about some oil, giving most of the credit to Hashem.
While the Pharisees and Sadducees were the two most important sects, there were at least three others. The Essenes, who considered Jerusalem to be corrupt beyond saving, lived in secluded communities in the desert. They were obsessed with purity and therefore wore all white and frequently visited their mikvahs (Jewish ritual baths). The Dead Sea scrolls were likely preserved in caves for us to see today by the sudden disappearance of one of these communities of Essenes. The Zealots, as their name implies, were intensely opposed to any foreign rule in Judea. They believed an armed revolt was the only way to overthrow the Roman oppressors. It is members from this sect who held out against the Romans at Massada. The last sect of Jews at this time is the Christians, to whom we'll devote a full class period later.
While at the Southern Wall we talked a bit about King Herod, the genius/madman responsible for building Beit Hamikdash (the Temple). King Herod, a completely Hellenistic ruler who had the full backing of Rome, came from a family that had only converted to Judaism (probably after being forced by the Hasmoneans) a couple of generations earlier. His Roman sympathies along with his family's questionable Jewishness caused many of his subjects to question his legitimacy. Also, while his building program was magnificent (he built Beit HaMikdash, the port Caesarea and Massada, for example), it also meant there were high taxes to finance all these projects, which made him less than beloved. As a result (and probably because he was a little crazy anyways) he became tremendously insecure and paranoid, killing much of his family (among others).
Regardless of the sanity (or insanity) of the man who built it (for a visual check out the video from my last post), Herod's Temple was an extraordinary building. Romans from throughout the empire visiting Judea marveled at three things: the Temple, a sea in which everything floats and a day on which no one works. In Judaism, there are three pilgrimage holidays (shalosh regalim in Hebrew): Sukkot, Pesach and Shavuot (all connected to harvests in Israel). During Herod's reign there were certainly tens of thousands (at least) of pilgrims. We saw the special staircase designed to deal with crowds, the alley where the pilgrim might have exchanged his money and bought his sacrifice and the mikveh where he might have purified himself. While it's hard to convey the sense of importance Beit HaMikdash had to Am Yisrael (after all few religions today are based around a central shrine where animals are sacrificed), I think being there, seeing the enormity of the stones used in its building, walking up the southern steps singing the same songs Jewish pilgrims sang (such as Psalm 126, the Song of Ascents, which many Jews sing every Shabbat at the beginning of Birkat HaMazon, the blessing after meals) gives the students at least some sense of what it was like. They also found a few places for some great pictures.
After the Southern Wall the students had a delicious falafel and shwarma lunch in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. When we reconvened we visited some homes that were likely destroyed along with the Second Temple to try and learn about who might have been living there. We saw beautiful mosaics, tons of mikvehs, and a generally high standard of living. We decided, based on these things together with the apartments location close to Beit HaMikdash, that these were likely the homes of Sadduccees. I then asked the students to consider what sorts of things they have in their homes/rooms and what it might say about them if archaeologists find it 1000 years from now. Will they identify you as more American or more Jewish? Should that matter?
Yesterday I left blog readers (though not the students) in terrible suspense, not revealing the big secret behind the Hanukkah story. The truth is it's rather mundane. After nearly a century in power the Hasmoneans, leaders of the revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes (167 BCE - 164 BCE), had become quite Hellenized. Among other things this led to a gradually worsening conflict with the Pharisees, which included quite a bit of violence by the Hasmoneans against the Pharisees. The Pharisees, the sect who ended up surviving and continuing Jewish history, didn't want to give credit to the Hasmoneans, their eventual enemies, for the revolt against the Seleucids. Instead, the Pharisaic Rabbis singled out one Hasmonean, Judah Maccabee, for praise, and created a story about some oil, giving most of the credit to Hashem.
While the Pharisees and Sadducees were the two most important sects, there were at least three others. The Essenes, who considered Jerusalem to be corrupt beyond saving, lived in secluded communities in the desert. They were obsessed with purity and therefore wore all white and frequently visited their mikvahs (Jewish ritual baths). The Dead Sea scrolls were likely preserved in caves for us to see today by the sudden disappearance of one of these communities of Essenes. The Zealots, as their name implies, were intensely opposed to any foreign rule in Judea. They believed an armed revolt was the only way to overthrow the Roman oppressors. It is members from this sect who held out against the Romans at Massada. The last sect of Jews at this time is the Christians, to whom we'll devote a full class period later.
While at the Southern Wall we talked a bit about King Herod, the genius/madman responsible for building Beit Hamikdash (the Temple). King Herod, a completely Hellenistic ruler who had the full backing of Rome, came from a family that had only converted to Judaism (probably after being forced by the Hasmoneans) a couple of generations earlier. His Roman sympathies along with his family's questionable Jewishness caused many of his subjects to question his legitimacy. Also, while his building program was magnificent (he built Beit HaMikdash, the port Caesarea and Massada, for example), it also meant there were high taxes to finance all these projects, which made him less than beloved. As a result (and probably because he was a little crazy anyways) he became tremendously insecure and paranoid, killing much of his family (among others).
Regardless of the sanity (or insanity) of the man who built it (for a visual check out the video from my last post), Herod's Temple was an extraordinary building. Romans from throughout the empire visiting Judea marveled at three things: the Temple, a sea in which everything floats and a day on which no one works. In Judaism, there are three pilgrimage holidays (shalosh regalim in Hebrew): Sukkot, Pesach and Shavuot (all connected to harvests in Israel). During Herod's reign there were certainly tens of thousands (at least) of pilgrims. We saw the special staircase designed to deal with crowds, the alley where the pilgrim might have exchanged his money and bought his sacrifice and the mikveh where he might have purified himself. While it's hard to convey the sense of importance Beit HaMikdash had to Am Yisrael (after all few religions today are based around a central shrine where animals are sacrificed), I think being there, seeing the enormity of the stones used in its building, walking up the southern steps singing the same songs Jewish pilgrims sang (such as Psalm 126, the Song of Ascents, which many Jews sing every Shabbat at the beginning of Birkat HaMazon, the blessing after meals) gives the students at least some sense of what it was like. They also found a few places for some great pictures.
After Herod was king (37 BCE - 4 BCE) his sons took over for a while, mostly unsuccessfully. The Romans then decided to rule Judea directly instead of through a puppet king, and appointed procurators to that purpose. Like any other government official, some were excellent and many were terrible. For many this was their big chance to make money (one of the keys to advancement in Rome), so they taxed the population as heavily as possible.
It is with this background--often incompetent and cruel governance, increasing fragmentation among Am Yisrael into various sects--that one of Am Yisrael's greatest tragedies occurred: the destruction of Beit HaMikdash. According to tradition there was a conflict between two Jews in which one of them was publicly embarrassed while the leaders of the Jewish community looked on. Taking the leaders' silence as approval the offended Jew then successfully convinced the Romans that the Jews were planning a revolt, which led to accusations and eventually a real revolt (this is the story of Kamza and Bar Kamza for those who are curious, it starts in the middle of the last paragraph). The scientific/historical reason seems to be a slowly escalating religious tension between Am Yisrael and Pagans, specifically in the Herod-built port of Caesarea. One way or another the Great Revolt (66-70 CE), as it's later called, eventually leads to the destruction of Beit HaMikdash by the Roman general Titus on the 9th of the Hebrew month of Av (the day everything bad happens to Am Yisrael) in the year 70. This is arguably the most tragic event in all of Jewish history (and, unfortunately, that's some serious competition) and is still commemorated today. In Jewish wedding ceremonies, for example, the groom breaks a glass, so that even on our happiest day we'll remember this terrible tragedy. How will Judaism, up until now based on Beit HaMikdash, survive? We'll save that for another blog.
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