Herod reigned as king of Judea (via Roman appointment) from 37 BCE until his death in 4 BCE, a very long reign of 33 years, and in many ways a golden period of time in terms of economic prosperity and social stability.

Part of the reason for the prosperity and stability was that during this time, the Romans took a backseat role in the day-to-day life of the Jews.

The general Roman attitude was one of tolerance, meaning Jews were granted exemptions from the official Roman state religion. A very interesting point to remember is that religion and state went together in all empires in the ancient world, and more so in Rome than almost anywhere because Rome also practiced emperor worship -- that is, the Romans deified their emperors posthumously.

Linking state and religion gave the rulers added legitimacy, obviously. The connection between temporal power and spiritual power gave them complete control over the physical existence and spiritual existence of their subjects. (Later, we are going to see the Catholic Church doing the same thing in Medieval Europe.)

While accepting the state religion was a vital part of Roman identity and loyalty to the state, the Romans were also pragmatists. They had learned by the Greek experience that Jews could not be forced to worship idols. And they saw for themselves that the Jews were not like other pagan peoples - they were not going to conform. So the Romans granted the Jews an official status of being exempt from Roman state religion.

On the one hand, it was a very smart and very tolerant policy. On the other hand, with that policy also went a punitive tax called fiscus Judaicus. You want to be exempt from the state religion? Okay, so long as you pay for the privilege.

So, it might have happened that the Jews simply paid the tax and did their own thing. But it didn't go as smoothly as that (as we shall see).

ECONOMIC PROSPERITY

For the time being, the Jews were doing well - at least economically (if not spiritually), thanks in large part to Herod's amiable relationship with Rome.

Herod had Rome's complete support in administering a very important territory which included several major trade routes. Everything moved through Judea, which was sort of like the great way-station for the incense trade coming from Yemen up the Arabian Peninsula and going out to the Mediterranean.

Additionally, this was one of the most agriculturally productive pieces of land in the Middle East famous for its olive oil (which was used as a main source of light, and not just for cooking), for its dates (the chief sweetener in the times before sugar), and for its wine.

Herod used the huge profits from trade to undertake a series of mammoth building projects - some of the most magnificent in the world.

As a matter of fact if they hadn't closed the list of the wonders of the ancient world before his time, Herod would probably have had half the list to his credit. Almost all archeologists and students of architecture of the ancient world appreciate that he was one of the greatest builders of all human history.

At Herodium, in an incredible feat of engineering - Herod built an artificial mountain and, on top of it, a huge palace. Unfortunately, this palace was destroyed in 70 CE during the Great Revolt.

He built another fortress, Masada, on top of a mesa, a rock plateau, in the desert. Complete with all the creature comforts in the desert, Masada had an incredible water supply system that fed gardens for growing agricultural staples. (Masada is open to tourists today and a sight to behold.)

The port city of Caesarea deserves special mention - not only because it was a center of trade and the Roman administrative capitol of Judea, but because it became a symbol in Jewish eyes of everything that was pagan, Roman, and antithetical to Judaism. Here Herod created an amazing artificial port (one of the two largest in the Empire), put in a beautiful amphitheater, a hippodrome for chariot races (like in the movie Ben Hur, bath houses, and a huge temple dedicated to the Roman god-emperor, Augustus Caesar. (You can visit today the excavations of Caesarea Maritina and they are most impressive.)

HEROD'S TEMPLE

The most ambitious of Herod's projects was the re-building of the Temple, which was almost certainly an attempt to gain popularity among his subjects who, he knew, held him in contempt.

It took 10,000 men ten years just to build the retaining walls around the Temple Mount (on top of which the Muslim shrine, the Dome of the Rock, stands today). The Western Wall (formerly known as the Wailing Wall) is merely part of that 500-meter-long retaining wall that was designed to hold a huge man-made platform that could accommodate twelve football fields.

Why did he make the Temple Mount so large?

Historians estimate that there were about 6-7 million Jews living in the Roman Empire (plus another 1 million in Persia), many of whom would come to Jerusalem for the three pilgrimage festivals: Passover, Shavuot and Succot. So you had to have a huge space to accommodate such a huge number of people. Hence the size of the platform.

When it came to building the Temple itself on top of this platform, Herod truly outdid himself, and even the Talmud acknowledges that the end-result was spectacular.

The Holy of Holies was covered in gold; the walls and columns of the other buildings were of white marble; the floors were of carrara marble, its blue tinge giving the impression of a moving sea of water; the curtains were tapestries of blue, white, scarlet and purple thread, depicting, according to Josephus,"the whole vista of the heavens."

Josephus describes how incredible it looked:

Viewed from without, the Sanctuary had everything that could amaze either mind or eyes. Overlaid all round with stout plates of gold, the first rays of the sun it reflected so fierce a blaze of fire that those who endeavored to look at it were forced to turn away as if they had looked straight at the sun. To strangers as they approached it seemed in the distance like a mountain covered with snow; for any part not covered with gold was dazzling white... (The Jewish War, p. 304)

Herod saw fit however, to place at the main entrance a huge Roman eagle, which the pious Jews saw as a sacrilege. A group of Torah students promptly smashed this emblem of idolatry and oppression, but Herod had them hunted down, dragged in chains to his residence in Jericho, where they were burned alive.

Having built the Temple, Herod took pains to make sure it would be run without future problems of this kind. He appointed his own High Priest, having by then put to death forty-six leading members of the Sanhedrin, the rabbinical court.

HEROD'S PERSECUTIONS

Herod's persecutions were infamous and they even extended to his own family.

Herod, knowing that his Jewish credentials were suspect, had married Miriam -- the granddaughter of Hyrcanus and therefore a Hasmonean princess -- largely to gain legitimacy among the Jewish people. But he also loved her madly. As Josephus relates:

Of the five children which Herod had by Miriam, two of them were daughters and three were sons. The youngest of these sons was educated in Rome and died there but the two eldest he treated as those of royal blood on account of the nobility of their mother and because they were not born until he was king. But what was stronger than all this was his love he bore for Miriam which inflamed him every day to a great degree ...

The problem was that Miriam hated him as much as he loved her, largely because of what he had done to her brother, Aristobulus.

Herod had made Aristobulus High Priest at the age of 17, and watched with trepidation as the young man became hugely popular. This was not surprising as Aristobulus was a Hasmonean with a legitimate right to be High Priest - a genuine Jew and a genuine cohen.

But this threatened Herod too much and he had him drowned.

Indeed, Herod later became jealous of his own sons for the same reason and had them murdered as well.

And he even had his own wife murdered in a fit of jealousy. Josephus again:

His passion also made him stark mad and leaping out of his bed he ran around the palace in a wild manner. His sister Salome took the opportunity also to slander Miriam and to confirm his suspicions about Joseph [Miriam's alleged lover]. Then out of his ungovernable jealousy and rage he commanded both of them to be killed immediately. But as soon as his passion was over he repented of what he had done and as soon as his anger was worn off his affections were kindled again ... Indeed, the flame of his desires for her was so hard that he could not think she was dead but he would appear under his disorders to speak to her as if she were still alive...

Not a stable man to say the least. Even Augustus said of him:"It is better to be Herod's dog than one of his children."

Herod's paranoia, his interference with the Temple hierarchy, and his dedication to the Hellenization of the Jewish people all contributed to the growing discontent that would erupt in a revolt against Rome some 70 years after his death.

SPIRITUAL CONFLICT

Beneath the surface events, there was a deeper spiritual battle raging -- between paganism and Judaism. Additionally, Jewish nationalistic feelings were rising to the surface.

It didn't help matters that Hellenism dominated Judea. A significant number of Greeks as well as other gentiles who adopted the Greek life-style had lived here since the days of the Greek Empire and now, encouraged by the Romans, more Hellenist outsiders came to settle the land.

Additionally, the Jewish upper-classes, though a minority, subscribed to this"higher" culture. And of course, the king was an avowed Hellenist.

Seeing himself as an enlightened leader who would bring his backward people into the modern world, Herod did what he saw necessary to accomplish his"idealistic" end. This included the persecution and murder of all rabbis whom he viewed not only as threats to his authority, but as obstacles to the mass Hellenization of the Jews.

As a result of Herod's interference and the ever-spreading Hellenistic influences among the Jewish upper classes, the Temple hierarchy became very corrupt. The Sadduccees, a religious group of the wealthy, who collaborated with the Romans in order to keep their power base, now controlled the Temple, much to the chagrin of the mainstream Jewish majority, the Pharasees, and of the extreme religious minority, the Zealots. (For more on these groups see Part 28.)

The cauldron was beginning to boil and soon it would erupt.

In Part 28, we discussed the rift between the Pharisees (the mainstream Jews) and the Sadducees (the Jews who only followed the Written Torah, making up their own interpretations). In Part 31, we further explained how Herod's massacres of rabbis and interference with the Temple hierarchy (not to mention his efforts at further Hellenizing the Jews) contributed to widespread corruption within the priesthood.

But we didn't cover what was right with Judaism.

For one thing, all the normative institutions - the yeshivas, the synagogues, etc. - were all run by the mainstream Jews and were functioning. There was still a Sanhedrin (a Jewish Supreme Court), though its powers had been severely curtailed.

Most importantly, the teachings of the rabbis and the chain of transmission remained undisturbed.

The very opening of Pirkei Avot ("Ethics of the Fathers") records how the chain of transmission was maintained -- starting with Moses, going on to Joshua, the prophets, the Men of the Great Assembly and so forth.

When Shimon HaTzaddik, the last member of the Great Assembly (see Part 26) died in 273 BCE, a period began known as the period of the Zugot, meaning "pairs."

From that time on, there were always two rabbis at the helm of the Jewish tradition. One was called the Av Beit Din (the head of the Sanhedrin), the other was called the Nasi (the president). These pairs are all listed in the "Ethics of the Fathers."

The last pair was perhaps the most famous - Hillel and Shammai.

Hillel, who came to Israel from Babylon, was very poor. The Talmud tells some interesting stories about how poor he was and how much he loved learning Torah. For example, he was so poor that he couldn't even afford the couple of grushim that it cost to enter the Beit HaMidrash, "the House of Study." So in order to learn, he would sit up on the roof and listen through the skylight. One day, he was doing this in terrible cold and became so frozen he passed out. The students down below were suddenly aware that something was blocking the light, went up onto the roof, found him and revived him.

Despite his poverty, which had no impact in how much people respected his wisdom, Hillel achieved the position of Nasi; at that time, Shammai held the position of Av Beis Din.

The schools of Hillel and Shammai are famous for their disputes in Jewish law. One of these concerned whether one should tell a bride on her wedding day that she is beautiful even if this is not true. The school of Shammai held that it is wrong to lie. The school of Hillel held that a bride is always beautiful on her wedding day. (Talmud, Ketubot 16b-17a) The school of Hillel won the dispute. Indeed, Jewish law today generally agrees with the school of Hillel. The Talmud (Eruvin 13b) explains why:

A heavenly voice declared: "The words of both schools are the words of the living God, but the law follows the rulings of the school of Hillel."

So why does the law follow the rulings of the school of Hillel? The Talmud explains that the disciples of Hillel were gentle and modest, and studied both their own opinions and the opinions of the other school, and humbly mentioned the words of the other school before their own.

DANGEROUS TIME

We might recall that in the days of the First Temple, while the rabbis debated points of Jewish law, they did not engage in lengthy disputes. So why were things different in the days of Herod's Temple?

By this time around 1,300 years had passed since Sinai. The Jewish people had been exiled from the land of Israel, and upon their return faced many struggles. The influence of the Greeks, the fight against Greek domination, and the corruption of the Hasmonean rulers, all left their wounds. More recently, there was the Roman occupation and the corruption that came with Herod.

As a result of this unrest, scholarship declined among the Jewish people resulting in an increasing lack of clarity. Indeed, the oral transmission process was starting to fray around the edges. (The Talmud has not yet been written, but the time is coming soon when the rabbis will decide that the Oral Torah must be written down because it might become lost.)

Of course, if you read these disputes in the Talmud today - and the Talmud contains thousands of them - you see that the rabbis were not arguing about anything big, like "can Jews eat pork?" The disputes were usually about small things, some of which had no actual ramifications in the practical application of Jewish law. Many were arguments about theoretical principles which would never apply in any real situation.

A very important point to understand here is that although there were disputes, there were also red lines beyond which no mainstream, traditional, orthodox Jew ever went beyond. All the disputes were on small details, which meant that on the big details everyone agreed.

SPIRITUAL DECLINE

But even if these disputes were small, we have to see them as bad news, because they signified not just a decline in scholarship, but even more importantly, a decline in the spiritual state of the Jewish people. This is called yeridot hadorot, "decline of the generations." #The closer Jews were to Mount Sinai, chronologically speaking, the clearer things were.

It's very important to understand how the Jewish people traditionally look at the transmission process. Modern man thinks that the later we get in history the more technology we have, therefore the better we are. This is not a Jewish idea in either history or spirituality or Jewish law. According to Jewish thought, ancient man was spiritually more sophisticated. And in the realm of the transmission process the closer we were to Mount Sinai, chronologically speaking, the clearer things were.

The entire transmission process of the Jewish people is one of the most amazing aspects of Jewish history. The fact that the Oral Torah has been passed down for thousands of years and has been applied to all kinds of new scenarios, yet the basic body of what is Jewish law has not changed, is amazing.

But the closer the Jews were to Sinai, the more spiritual they were, and the more clearly they understood the will of God. Today, we are the furthest and for us it is a great deal fuzzier. This is why we do not have the authority to uproot Jewish law laid down by the sages who came before us. That's fundamental to the whole transmission process.

The disputes marked the beginning of a process that's going to make Judaism that much more complicated. More and more arguments and debates are coming.

This period of time manifests a symptom of a significant problem plaguing the Jewish people - that of discord.

The discord among the Sadducees, Pharisees and the Zealots created an atmosphere of "senseless hatred" which undermined the unity of the Jewish people just as they had decided to revolt against Rome.

Like the Greeks, the Romans worshipped many gods. Not only that, whenever they conquered a swath of land, they simply added the conquered peoples' gods to the Roman pantheon. The Roman historian Vero writes that by the 1st century BCE they had in excess of 30,000 gods.

The Jewish idea of one invisible God, who demanded exclusive worship and could not be added to the big pot, was totally incomprehensible to the Romans.

But more importantly, along with Jewish beliefs went a lifestyle of obedience to a host of commandments that countered the Roman worldview. For example, the Jewish insistence on respect for life, was bound to irk a people who built amphitheaters just so the public could be amused by watching their fellow human beings be butchered, the more grotesquely the better. (See Part 30.)

The Talmud (in Megillah 6a) captures the difference in a very interesting statement:

Caesarea and Jerusalem: if someone will tell you, "both are destroyed," do not believe it; if someone will tell you, "both are standing," do not believe it. But if someone will tell you, "Caesarea is destroyed and Jerusalem is standing," or "Jerusalem is destroyed and Caesarea is standing" that you can believe.

 

Now we know for a historical fact that Caesarea and Jerusalem were standing at the same time. When Herod was alive, he built the city of Caesarea, and for sure he didn't destroy Jerusalem.

So what does this mean?

In making this statement the rabbis were making a theological, historical, and political point about the reality of the relationship between Israel and Rome, between the descendants of Jacob and the descendants of Esau.

What they meant is that in terms of the cosmic struggle one can't be on top without the other being down. When the Jews are up and Jewish values are strong, then Roman values are going to be down and so on. That's the cosmic struggle for the soul of humanity.

Unfortunately, we are seeing a very similar situation today. You don't need to be a scholar of political science to realize that by far the biggest problem in the Land of Israel, and the Jewish world as a whole, is the hatred the Jews have for each other. There are factions of Ashkenazim, Sephardim, secular, religious; among the religious there are the Hassidim, the Mitnagdim, and the religious Zionists. A weakened, disunited Jewish nation is easy prey for the both anti-Semites and the enemies of Israel.

The paradigm for all that is happening today can be found in the Roman era.

Adding fuel to the ideological fire was the way the Romans tried to extract money - by taxation and sometimes outright looting -- from the local population. This was especially true of several of the governors (procurators) of Judea who were exceptionally cruel and avaricious.

Historian Paul Johnson in his History of the Jews (p. 136) explains why this proved a particularly incendiary element in the conflict:

The Hellenized gentiles ... [who] constituted the local civil service and the tax collectors ... were notorious in their anti-semitism ... Foolishly, Rome insisted on drawing its Judaean procurators from Greek-speaking gentile areas - the last and most insensitive of them, Gessius Florus came from Greek Asia Minor."

Florus persuaded Nero to strip the Jews of Caesarea of their citizenship, making them effectively aliens in the city and totally at the mercy of the Greco-Roman population. The Jews revolted, and their protest was viciously put down with many people killed and synagogues desecrated. The pogrom spread to other cities where the Hellenized population seized the opportunity to get rid of the Jews - Jewish homes were invaded, looted and burned down.

Jewish refugees, vowing vengeance, began to stream into Jerusalem.

But Florus only escalated the conflict, first by giving Roman soldiers free rein to massacre more than 3,600 Jews who had jeered him, and then by arresting Jewish elders, having them publicly flogged and crucified. (See Josephus, Jewish War, p. 152)

Now there was no turning back. The Jews took up arms.

To go up against the might of the Roman Empire was nothing short of suicidal, and indeed, the Jewish War would end in great tragedy. But when it began in 66 CE, it had some astonishing successes with Florus fleeing from Jerusalem for his life and the Roman garrison isolated and overwhelmed.

But such insults to its might Rome could not abide. Jewish historian, Rabbi Berel Wein in his Echoes of Glory (p. 155) relates graphically what happened next:

The success of the Jews in driving Rome from Jerusalem sent shock waves throughout the Roman Empire. It also unleashed a wave of bloody pogroms against Jews, especially in Caesarea, Alexandria and Damascus. Thousands of Jews were slaughtered in these riots, and thousands more were sold into the slave markets of Rome.

The sages and rabbis advised a reconciliation with the Romans, seeing that, if irritated any further, Rome would retaliate with even greater force and then surely destroy the whole country and decimate the Jewish people.

Considering that the Sadducees were already pro-Rome and the Pharisees held generally moderate views, their wisdom might have prevailed. But the Zealot extremists would have none of it.

Vowing to fight to the death, they went up against a new Roman contingent making its way toward Jerusalem and slayed 6,000 Romans soldiers. Coincidentally, the victory was won on the very same spot where the Maccabees had vanquished the Greeks, and the Zealots -- seeing a Divine hand helping them -- were encouraged further.

The Roman answer was to dispatch four legions under the empire's most experienced commander, Vespasian.

Vespasian's strategy was to subdue conflict throughout the region first, and then to take the final prize - Jerusalem.

 
The might of Rome could not be challenged.

In response to the revolt of the Jews, in 67 CE Rome sends out the empire's most experienced commander, Vespasian, at the head of four legions. This is a massive force. Each legion has 6,000 fighting men plus an equal number of auxiliaries for a total of nearly 50,000 Roman soldiers.

(One of these four legions, the 10th is the most famous. It is commanded by Vespasian's own son, Titus, and has a boar as its symbol.)

The Roman goal: the annihilation of those Jews who dared to rise against Rome and who have heretofore (unbelievably) succeeded.

Shrewdly, Vespasian begins his campaign in the north. Any city or town that resists his advance is utterly destroyed, its population slaughtered or taken into slavery, the women raped, property pillaged. Then, the surrounding area is denuded of trees and the fields strewn with salt to ensure that nothing would grow there again.

While always brutal in warfare, the Romans surpass themselves when it comes to the Jews. Their aim is to send a message throughout the Empire: any resistance against Rome will end in total and complete devastation.

Vespasian hopes that by the time he turns to Jerusalem, the Jews will have seen that resistance is futile and have surrendered.

But, even with four legions, Vespasian has a tough fight on his hands.

JOSEPHUS

One of the first to resist is the fortress of Jotapata, built on the slopes of Mount Atzmon. Here the commander of the Jewish forces in the Galilee, Yosef ben Mattityahu -- better known to us as Josephus Flavius -- makes a heroic stand, but cannot withstand the Roman onslaught.

When defeat seems certain, the Zealots of the group decide that it is better to die at their own hands than to be sold into slavery or to watch their families be mercilessly butchered by the Romans.

Thus, they make a pact to kill their own wives and children and then themselves. Josephus is one of the few survivors; rather than kill himself, he surrenders to the Romans.

Vespasian realizes immediately that Josephus could be useful to the Romans and employs him as guide/translator and later as a chronicler of the war.

Josephus' works have survived to this day. Among the foremost are Antiquities and The Jewish War, the story of all of the events taking place before, during, and after the Great Revolt, from 66 CE to 70 CE.

His account is unique as far as historical accounts go, because he is an eyewitness to many things he writes about. (He differs in this regard from other Roman historians, like Deo Cassius, who lived later and merely repeated what they've read in official records.)

Of course, Josephus has his own slant on things. For example, he is writing for the Romans, (which is probably why his works have survived intact), yet he has been loyal to Judaism his whole life. So he seems to be trying to please everyone at the same time, and you have to read him very cautiously and very critically.

However, one thing that even his critics agree upon is that he is very accurate concerning the physical descriptions of places and structures in the Land of Israel. Archeology has verified many of his accounts.

GAMLA

All during the summer and autumn of 67 CE Vespasian marches through northern Israel suppressing Jewish resistance. Some surrender without a fight - like Tiberias, for example. Some fight to the end.

One of the most heroic stories concerns the city of Gamla in the Golan Heights.

Partially excavated and the center of a beautiful nature reserve, Gamla is a must-see spot in Israel today. This site is unusual, because unlike most cities in Israel that were destroyed, Gamla was never re-built by anyone and is therefore considered to be one of the best-preserved Roman battle sites in the world. The excavations show the city exactly like it looked on the day of its destruction in 67 CE.

(Gamla stood covered by the sands of time for exactly 1900 years until Israel won back the Golan Heights in 1967.)

Anticipating the Roman advance, the citizens of Gamla minted coins with the imprint "To the Redemption of Jerusalem, the Holy." They believed that on the outcome of their resistance rested the future of Jerusalem. Sadly, they were right.

The Romans totally annihilated Gamla killing some 4,000 Jews. The remaining 5,000 inhabitants, rather than waiting to be brutaly slaughtered by the Romans, jumped to their deaths off the cliffs surrounding the city. (This is why Gamla is called the Masada of the north; we will discuss Masada in the next installment.)

JERUSALEM

In the summer of 70 CE, the Romans finally work their way to Jerusalem. They surround the city and lay siege to it.

The Romans know that if they can destroy Jerusalem, they will destroy the Jewish people, because Jerusalem is the center of their spiritual life.

Before the Great Revolt began, Jerusalem had somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 inhabitants, but now, with refugees from other places flocking in, the population is two to three times its normal size. It is concentrated in two enclaves:

1. the Lower City, south of the Temple Mount (this section of Jerusalem is today outside the current city walls; today it is called the City of David or Silwan in Arabic)

    

2. the Upper City, west of the Temple Mount, inhabited by the wealthier folks and the priestly class (excavations of this part of the city can be seen in the underground Wohl Museum)

    

The city is massively fortified. It also has huge storehouses of food. It has a good water supply. Jerusalem can hold back the Romans for a long time.

So it seems like the Romans are in a very bad situation. They are trying to besiege one of the largest cities in the ancient world which is remarkably well fortified, which has a huge amount of food and water and a lot of determined people who are not afraid to die.

Jerusalem could have gone done down in history as the only city that the Romans couldn't take by laying siege. But it didn't.

The reason that it did not was sinat chinam, "senseless hatred among the Jews."

CIVIL WAR

While the Romans are besieging the city on the outside, the Jews are waging a civil war inside.

Forces of the various factions are occupying various parts of the city. Most importantly, the Sicarii and the Zealots, led by Yochanan of Gush Chalav, have control of the Temple Mount. The unholy alliance of Sadducees and Pharisees makes up the bulk of the moderate forces which rule the rest of the city.

When the moderates attempt to remove the extremists from the Temple Mount, Yochanan of Gush Chalav brings in non-Jewish mercenaries, the Idumeans, who slaughter the moderate Jews.

As if that is not enough, the Zealots destroy the great storehouses of food so that the people would have no choice but to fight or starve.

With the food storehouses destroyed, famine breaks out in the city and desparate people try and sneak outside the walls to forage for food. Anyone that is caught by the Romans is immediately put to death via the standard Roman form of execution - crucifixion. So many die that the city is surrounded by thousands of crucified Jews.

Meanwhile, the Romans continue their systematic destructions of the city's defenses, layer by layer.

What happens next?

YOCHANAN BEN ZAKKAI

The leader of the Pharisees, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, sees that Jerusalem cannot hold out. It's too late. But the Zealots are bent on continuing their suicidal fight. So he formulates a plan.

At this time the Zealots are not allowing anyone to leave the city (as if anyone wanted to flee to be crucified), except for burials. In a desperate bid to try and salvage something from the impending disaster, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai has himself put in a casket and taken to Vespasian.

He greets Vespasian as if he were the emperor, to which Vespasian replies that he ought to be executed for his remark. Not exactly a friendly welcome. But Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai persists, telling Vespasian that God would allow only a great ruler to take Jerusalem.

Just then, a messenger arrives from Rome with a message for Vespasian: "Rise, because Caesar has died and the prominent men of Rome have decided to seek you as their head. They have made you Caesar."

Impressed with Rabbi Yochanan's ability to predict the future, Vespasian asks him to name a wish.

Rabbi Yochanan asks to save Torah.

Vespasian gives Rabbi Yochanan a safe escort for the Torah sages of the day to leave Jerusalem and to convene a Sanhedrin at Yavneh.

Could Rabbi Yochanan have asked Vespesian to spare Jerusalem?

Not likely. By then, the Romans had to prove a point. They would not have spared Jerusalem. But Rabbi Yochanan's quick thinking spared Judaism.

The Jewish people can always survive physical destruction. The much bigger danger is spiritual destruction.

Because the Romans granted Rabbi Yochanan's wish, the sages survived, the chain of transmission survived, and the Jewish people survived.

Meanwhile, now that Vespasian is emperor, he must return to Rome. He turns the siege over to his son Titus and tells him to finish the job.

Titus attacks just after Passover in the year 70 CE, battering the city with his catapults which propel a rain of stone, iron and fire onto the population. By then, the city defenders are weakened from hunger and perhaps even more so from internal strife. Even so, it takes Titus two months of intense fighting before he is able to breach the walls of the city.

The date for this event is 17th of the Hebrew month of Tammuz. To this day, religious Jews fast on the 17th of Tammuz in commemoration of this event.

Roman historian, Deo Cassius, reports:

"Though a breach was made in the wall by means of engines, nevertheless the capture of the place did not immediately follow even then. On the contrary, the defenders killed great numbers [of Romans] who tried to crowd through the opening and they also set fire to some of the buildings nearby, hoping thus to check the further progress of the Romans. Nevertheless, the soldiers, because of their superstition, did not immediately rush in but at last, under compulsion from Titus, they made their way inside. Then the Jews defended themselves much more vigorously than before, as if they had discovered a piece of rare good fortune in being able to fight near the Temple and fall in its defense."

A horrific slaughter ensues with the Romans taking the city, literally house-by-house. One of the excavations that testifies to the destruction is the famous "Burnt House" which is open to visitors in Old City Jerusalem today. Here the skeletal remains of a woman's arm were found where she died on the doorstep of her house, a spear still in her death grip.

It takes him three weeks, but Titus slowly works his way to the Temple Mount. Now a duel to the death ensues, and finally, four months after the Romans had begun this attack Titus orders the Second Temple razed to the ground. The day is the 9th of Av, the very same day on which the First Temple was destroyed.

Deo Cassius again:

"The populace was stationed below in the court and the elders on the steps and the priests in the Sanctuary itself. And though they were but a handful fighting against a far superior force, they were not conquered until part of the Temple was set on fire. Then they met their death willingly, some throwing themselves on the swords of the Romans, some slaying one another, others taking their own lives and still others leaping into the flames. And it seemed to everybody and especially to them that so far from being destruction, it was victory and salvation and happiness to them that they perished along with the Temple."

All of the neighboring countryside is denuded of whatever trees remained from the siege to create the giant bonfire to burn the buildings of the Temple to the ground. The intense heat from the fire causes the moisture in the limestone to expand and it explodes like popcorn, producing a chain reaction of destruction. In a day's time, the magnificent Temple is nothing but rubble.

HISTORY AS DESTINY

The destruction of the Second Temple is one of the most important events in the history of the Jewish people, and certainly one of the most depressing.

It is a sign that God has withdrawn from (though certainly not abandoned) the Jews. Although the Jews will survive -- in accordance with the promise that they will be an "eternal nation" - the special relationship with God they enjoyed while the Temple stood is gone.

Sadly, this period of time, perhaps more than any other reflects the maxim that Jewish past is Jewish future, that Jewish history is Jewish destiny.

There's no period of time that more closely reflects what is going on today in Israel and among the Jewish people worldwide. (See Part 33).  We are still living in the consequences of the destruction of the Second Temple, spiritually and physically. And the same problems we had then are the same problems we have now.

States the Talmud (in Yomah): "Why was the Second Temple destroyed? Because of sinat chinam, senseless hatred of one Jew for another."

What is the antidote to this problem which is so rampant in the Jewish world today? The answer is ahavat chinam, the Jews have to learn to love their fellow Jews.

There's no hope for the Jewish people until all learn how to communicate with each other, and respect each other, regardless of differences.

God has no patience for Jews fighting each other. It's extremely important to study this period of time carefully because there are many valuable lessons that we can learn about the pitfalls that need to be avoided.

"JUDEA CAPTURED"

Before setting fire to the Temple, the Romans removed anything of value. Then they harnessed a group of Jewish slaves to take these priceless artifacts to Rome. Their arrival in Rome is memorialized in engravings of the Arch of Titus, still standing there today near the Forum.

It was the tradition in the Roman Jewish community that Jews would never walk under that arch. On the night of May 14, 1948, when Israel was declared a state, the Jews of Rome had a triumphant parade and marched under the arch. Their message: "Rome is gone, we're still around. Victory is ours."

But at the time it was a horrible disaster. Hundreds of thousands of people died, many more were enslaved. There were so many Jews flooding the slave market after the Great Revolt that you could buy a Jewish slave for less than the price of a horse. Israel was in despair.

MASADA

Jerusalem has been conquered, the Temple has been destroyed, but it was not over yet.

A group of about 1,000 Zealots escaped and made their way into the desert where they holed up in the great fortress on top of a mountain plateau called Masada.

Masada was built by Herod, the Great, as a place of refuge for him. As such it was practically self-sufficient. With its own water collection system and storage houses that could feed an army for years. What's more, the fortress was practically inaccessible from below and easy to defend.

Indeed, the Zealots manage to survive there for three years.

If you go visit the ruins of Masada, you will see the remains of the fortress as well as the ramp that the Romans built, using Jewish slave labor, in order to capture Masada.

Josephus reports on the capture of Masada in 73 CE and the narrative resembles in some way the capture of Gamla. Here, too, the Zealots killed their own families, then each other until finally, there was only one man left, and he committed suicide.

For the modern state of Israel, Masada is a symbol of Jews who chose to die as free men rather than be enslaved or executed by the Romans, and is held up as a Zionist ideal. Up until recently, Israeli soldiers would go up to Masada to be sworn in, and call out for the mountain to hear and echo back: "Masada will never fall again!" (We will discuss this in greater detail in future installments on modern Zionist history.)

Back in 73 CE when Masada, the last Jewish stronghold, fell, the Romans could finally declare an end to the revolt.

Congratulating themselves on asserting the Roman might against the defiant Jews, the Romans also minted coins depicting a weeping woman and proclaiming Judea Capta, "Judea Captured."

But was it?

JEWISH SURVIVAL

The land was no longer under Jewish control, but it had not been since the days of Hasmoneans anyway. True, the Temple, the center of Jewish worship and the symbol of Judaism's special connection to the one God, was gone. But Judaism - along with all its unique value system -- was alive and well.

Thanks to the foresight of Rabbi Yachanan ben Zakkai, the center of Torah learning at Yavneh thrived. It was here that the rabbis put together the legal/spiritual infrastructure which would allow the Jewish people to survive without many of the normative institutions which were the backbone of Judaism: Temple and its service, the High Priesthood, the monarchy. It was here that the rabbis institutionalized public prayer as a replacement for the Temple service and made the synagogue the center of Jewish communal life.

But most importantly, it was here that the rabbis devised a way of making sure that Judaism lived on in every Jewish home. In the coming years, when the Jews would be dispersed the world over - doomed for two thousand years to have no common land, no centralized leadership, and aside from Hebrew scriptures, no common language - they would carry with them their Judaism undiminished.

But that was yet to come.