From: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com
To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 02:53:30 +0000
Subject: History of the 2nd Temple Period - Part 12
Reply-to: history@virtual.co.il
From: JUICE Administration <juice@virtual.co.il>
To: Contemporary Jewish History <history@virtual.co.il>
Subject: JUICE History 12 and Evaluation
X-To: history@wzo.org.il
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World Zionist Organization
Student and Academics Department
Jewish University in CyberspacE
juice@wzo.org.il birnbaum@wzo.org.il
http://www.wzo.org.il
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Course: An Introduction to the History of the Second Temple Period
Lecture: 12/12
Lecturer: Scott Copeland
From Jerusalem to Yavneh: Endings & New Beginnings
Our course finishes, in a sense, where it began. In spite of the Babylonian
destruction (586 BCE), the Jewish people refused to exit the stage of
history. Instead, they persisted. Small waves of ragtag refugees returned
to Jerusalem. They raised the curtain on the drama of the Second Temple
period. In 70 CE, Jerusalem was again destroyed. Over and over, Jews
fought against the Roman legions until Bar Kochba, the last Jewish general
of ancient times, was defeated. In the face of repeated, pummeling defeats,
how was rebuilding possible?
In the closing months before Jerusalem's fall, in 68 or 69 CE, it became
increasingly clear to both Jews and Romans that the city could not hold out
indefinitely against the legions of Vespasian. Jerusalem was surrounded by
Roman troops. Cut off from the rest of the country, Jerusalem's citizens
faced starvation. Rebel gangs battled amongst themselves for turf. Wealthy
homes were looted in a desperate search for food and supplies. Jerusalem
stood on the verge of collapse. In those terrible days, knowing full well
that he may be branded a traitor by the rebels, Rabbi Yohanan Ben Zakkai
planned to escape Jerusalem. The already great sage, a Kohen by birth and
Pharisaic leader, decided that in order to save Judaism, Jerusalem must be
abandoned.
Unfortunately, Josephus does not relate the bold gamble undertaken by Ben
Zakkai. Talmudic literature preserves three different traditions (in Gittin
56 a-b, Avot de Rabbi Natan Chptr. 4, Midrash Rabba Eicha 1:34).
With the city under siege, escape became virtually impossible. No living
soul could pierce the Roman siege camps. And so, disguised as a corpse,
hidden in a coffin, Ben Zakkai was smuggled beyond the walls by his
students. Once outside the walls, Ben Zakkai sought audience with
Vespasian. Knowing that Jerusalem was already lost, Ben Zakkai requested
permission from the soon to be Emperor to establish a seminary with his
students at the small, southern town of Yavneh. For Vespasian, Ben Zakkai's
request must have seemed irrelevant, even foolish. But Ben Zakkai realized
that at Yavneh, far from the centers of conflict, an effort could be
mounted to recast Judaism for a new age without the Temple, and without
Jerusalem. The re-establishment of the Sanhedrin, as a center for law and
teaching, at Yavneh laid the first building blocks for Rabbinic Judaism.
The destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple was a tremendous blow to the
Jewish people. The Temple represented the link between the God of Israel
and the Chosen People. Facing the loss, painful questions were asked about
God's justice, compassion, and concern for the Jewish people. Rituals of
mourning developed to help people deal with their pain. Still today, the
anniversary of the destruction of the Temple on the Ninth of the Hebrew
month of Av, Tisha B'Av is observed as a national day of mourning.
The Talmudic text below relates to the depth of the loss (Baba Batra 60 a-b):
"Our Rabbis taught: When the Temple was destroyed for the second time large
numbers in Israel became ascetics, binding themselves never to eat meat nor
to drink wine. Rabbi Joshua got into a conversation with them and said to
them: My children, why do you not eat meat nor drink wine? They replied:
Shall we eat the flesh which used to be brought as an offering on the
altar, but now no longer? He said to them: If that is so, we should not eat
bread either, because the meal offerings have ceased. They said: That is
so, and so we will manage with fruit. R. Joshua replied: We
should not eat fruit either because there is no longer an offering of the
first fruits. Then we can manage with other fruits (they said). But, R.
Joshua went on, we should not drink water because their is no longer a
ceremony for the pouring of the water. To this they cold find no answer. R.
Joshua said to them, "Come and listen to me. Not to mourn at all is
impossible because this terrible thing has happened, but to mourn to much
is also impossible. We cannot impose on the community a hardship that
cannot be endured . . . .
The Sages have thus ordained: A man may stucco his house, but he
should leave a little bare. (How much should this be? R. Yosef says: A
cubit square; to which R. Hisdai adds that it must be by the door.) A man
can prepare a full course banquet, but he should leave out an item or two.
(What should this be? R. Papa says: The hors d'ouevre of the salted fish.)
A women can put on all of her ornaments but leave off one or two. . . . And
whoever mourns for Jerusalem will merit seeing its rejoicing, as it is
said, "Rejoice wit Jerusalem and be glad for her, all who love her, rejoice
with her in joy, all you who mourn over her" (Isa 66:10)
Another legend (Avot De Rabbi Natan 4:5), places Rabbi Joshua in the place
of the mourners. Ben Zakkai and Joshua were leaving Jerusalem. As they
passed the ruins of the Temple, Joshua was gripped by the fear that with
the loss of the Temple, the Jewish people would be unable to continue their
dialogue with the Divine. Ben Zakkai reminded him that even if the Temple
is but a memory, social justice, and human compassion are also gateways of
worship. Ben Zakkai quoted Hosea 6:6 - "For I desire compassion and not
sacrifice, and the search for God's truth more than burnt offerings." Rabbi
Joshua clearly shared the pain of the ascetics, but he realized, having
internalized Ben Zakkai's teaching, that excessive mourning would stifle
the Jewish people's growth. Despite the still open wound of defeat and
destruction, Joshua, Ben Zakkai, and their colleagues called on the Jewish
people to channel their pain into concrete activity. They argued that even
if Jerusalem is lost, it may be regained some day. However if the Jewish
people are to reach that far-off rebuilding, emphasis must be placed on the
"micro" of Jewish life - on family, and community. The Sages sought to
refocus Jewish life around three pillars - study of Torah, on a unified
ritual of Jewish ritual, and on the prophetic ethical code that offered the
arena of human relations as a central dimension of spirituality. In
essence, the Rabbis argued that all of creation can be made holy, that
every human act can be made sacred. Ben Zakkai and his students were
pragmatists. They knew that Jewish survival depended not on grandiose
slogans of revolt and restoration, but on a slow process of careful
building in the present.
Rabbi Yohanan taught, "If you have a seedling in your hand and they say to
you, "Look here comes the Messiah!" Go - and plant the seedling first. Then
come out to meet him." (Avot De Rabbi Natan)
Ben Zakkai's practical constructivist approach warned against being
distracted by promises of easy hope. Hope and memory are important, but
both need be controlled by the daily demands of present responsibilities.
Each Jewish home, each community, could be transformed into a focus for
religious life. Through the development of the halacha (literally "the way"
or "the path"), the behavioral framework for Jewish teaching, the Rabbis
sought to offer a set of guidelines that could be carried from community to
community, that could be renewed by each generation. The halacha,
throughout it's continuing development, focused on actual life situations,
not on detached philosophy, as it's foundation stone. A contemporary
scholar, one of the greatest examples of the Rabbinic ideal, Rabbi Joseph
B. Soloveitchik summarized the halachic approach:
"The Halacha is not hermetically enclosed within the confines of cult
sanctuaries but penetrates into every nook and cranny of life. The
marketplace, the street, the factory, the house, the meeting place, the
banquet hall, all constitute the backdrop for the religious life. The
synagogue does not occupy a central place in Judaism . . . . The true
sanctuary is the sphere of our daily, mundane activities . . . ." (Halachic
Man. pp.94-95)
At Yavneh, the sages began the process of rebuilding. It was there, in the
years immediately following the destruction of Jerusalem that the Hebrew
Bible, the TANACH, was canonized. Raban Gamliel pioneered the editing and
ordering of Jewish communal prayer. Local study halls, Batei Midrash, were
established by teachers at Kfar Aziz, Bnei Brak, and Tzippori. At Yavneh,
the Sages worked on a popular, mobile Judaism. From the central core at
Yavneh, teachers went out to the Jews of the Eretz Yisrael and the
Diaspora. Education, not only for the elites, but primarily for the Jewish
masses, became the most important tool in continued Jewish survival and
creativity. As the years passed, the Sanhedrin moved from Yavneh to the
Galilee. By 200 CE, under the supervision of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, the
Mishnah was compiled. Representing the recorded discussions and debates of
several generations of scholars and students on the meaning of the Torah,
the Mishnah formed a foundation for Jewish behavior. Judaism's ability to
flourish even after the twin blows of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE
and the Bar Kochba Revolt in 132-135 CE, lay within the ongoing, vital
process of re-interpretation. Nothing was taken for granted. Everything was
held up to examination. Throughout the centuries, while empires rose and
fell in piles of stone rubble, the Jewish people continued through tragedy
and triumph. The Jewish people's greatest monuments were not built of
stone, but of parchment, paper, and pen. Each new generation stood on the
shoulders of their predecessors in continuing the building of a portable
empire that celebrated renewal, recalled past destructions, and clung to
the hope of return.
"Rabbi Tarfon used to say: You are not called upon to complete the work,
yet neither are you free to evade responsibility." (Pirke Avot 2:21)
For further reading:
1.Neusner, Jacob. A Life of Yohanan Ben Zakkai
2. Soloveitchik, Rabbi Joseph B. Halachic Man.
3. Steinsaltz, Adin. The Essential Talmud.
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