The Second Temple
 | The Temple the Babylonians destroyed is rebuilt, but it is never the same – the Ark of the Covenant is missing. |
The rebuilding of the Temple, which had began under Cyrus when the Persians first took over the Babylonian empire, and which was then interrupted for 18 years, resumed with blessing of Darius II, the Persian king whom we believe to be the son of Esther.
The work is completed in 350 BCE and the Temple is re-dedicated. But it is not the same.
The intense spiritually of the First Temple cannot be compared to the Second. The constant open miracles are gone. Prophecy will also disappear during the early years of the second Temple. The Ark of the Covenant is gone—and although there is a Holy of Holies, it stands empty.
The Ark—this special gold-lined cedar chest which had contained the tablets of the Ten Commandments—was the place where the Shechina, the Presence of God, descended from heaven between the outstretched wings of the two golden cherubs. What happened to it? The Talmud talks about it and relates two opinions.(1) One opinion says the Babylonians took it into captivity. The other opinion says that it was hidden by King Josiah who had anticipated the impending invasion and destruction.
There’s a well-known story told in the Talmud of a cohen, a priest, who finds a loose stone on the Temple Mount and realizes that’s where the Ark is hidden. On the way to tell others about it, he dies.(2) The point of the story is that the Ark is not meant to be found. Not yet.
EZRA AND NECHEMIAH
The Jews who rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem were faced with many challenges and difficulties. Strong leadership would be essential for them to be able to both rebuilt the Temple and re-establish a strong community.
Two individuals played a critical role in the re-establishment of the Jewish community in Israel. One was Ezra.
A scribe and scholar and a Jewish community leader in Persia, Ezra, acohen, hears that the Jewish community in the Holy Land is floundering with neither king nor prophet. So, he takes with him 1,496 well-chosen men with leadership abilities and comes to the rescue.
Ezra is so well thought of in the Talmud that it is written of him that “the Torah could have been given to Israel through Ezra, if not that Moses preceded him” (Sanhedrin 21b).
This high praise goes to Ezra for the spiritual rebuilding of the Jewish people and his efforts to reinstate Torah law in the land.
Among his most dramatic reforms is his war against assimilation and inter-marriage.
Indeed, the Book of Ezra condemns all the men living in Israel who had married non-Jewish wives and gives their names—all 112 of them. (Ezra10:18-44.)
You might ask: Why the big deal? After all, only 112 men strayed. Today, millions of Jews are intermarrying—the intermarriage rate in America over 50%. The difference is that 2,500 years ago, even one Jew intermarrying was an outrage. Now society accepts it as normal. So-called “progressive” congregations in America are even shopping for rabbis who will officiate at mixed marriages—to lend legitimacy to something the Bible repeatedly condemns, and which spells the death of the Jewish people.
Through Ezra’s efforts, these mixed marriages are dissolved. All the people are then gathered in Jerusalem—men and women from all over the country—and the Torah is read out loud to all. At the end, all present pledge not to intermarry, uphold the Torah and strengthen themselves spiritually.(3)
The other major personality of this period is Nechemiah, a leader of the Jewish community of Babylon and an official of the Emperor Darius II. While Ezra had succeeded in spiritually strengthening the returnees, Jerusalem remained un-walled and unprotected. Thirteen years after the arrival of Ezra, Nechemiah arrives, having been appointed governor by Darius. After surveying Jerusalem he announces: “Come, let us build the walls of Jerusalem so that we will no longer be an object of scorn.” (Nechemiah 2:17). Despite the efforts of the surrounding peoples to hinder its construction, the wall is completed. Spiritually and physically fortified, Jerusalem will prosper and its population will expand.
SPIRITUAL VACUUM
Despite Ezra’s efforts (and those of the other leaders) the Temple is spiritually a shadow of its former self.
The returnees from Babylon are not in a position to rebuild the Temple as splendid as Solomon’s. Eventually (circa 30 BCE) it will be rebuilt again by Herod the Great, and made into a spectacular structure, but even though it is going to be physically beautiful, it will be spiritually empty when compared with the First Temple. And even though there are going to be High Priests, the institution will become corrupt.
According to the Talmud, during the First Temple period of about 410 years, there were only 18 High Priests. During the Second Temple period of 420 years, there were more than 300 High Priests! We know (from the Talmud, Yoma 9a) that Yochanan was High Priest for 80 years, Shimon was High Priest for 40 years, and Yishmael ben Pabi was High Priest for 10 years. That means in the remaining 290 years there were at least 300 priests—one every year or so. What accounts for that?
The Talmud tells us that the Holy of Holies was forbidden ground, except for Yom Kippur. On that one day only, the High Priests entered to perform special rites before God. But if he himself was not spiritually pure and unable to focus, he would not be able to stand the intense encounter with God and would die on the spot. We know that during the Second Temple Period a rope had to be tied to the High Priest, so that in case he died, he could be pulled out of the Holy of Holies.
Because the whole High Priesthood was a corrupted institution for most of the Second Temple period, the High Priests died or were replaced every year. (4) And yet people clamored for the job, which went to the highest bidder. So the question has to be asked: If he was going to die on Yom Kippur, who would want the position? One possible answer is that many of the candidates strongly believed that their incorrect Temple service was actually the correct way to do it.(5) That is how bad things go
LOSS OF PROPHECY
Why did things get so bad?
Largely because prophecy disappeared from the land and strong central authority was largely lacking.
When the prophets were around and leadership was strong, heresy was much more difficult. A prophet talked to God and he’d straighten a heretic right out. No one could deny basic tenets of Judaism in the face of prophecy and open miracles. In the period of the Judges and the First Temple an individual could always make a free-will decision to reject Judaism, worship idols and even use the impure spirituality of idolatry to perform magic and divination, but the presence of prophets and strong leadership made it virtually impossible to undermine the philosophy and practices of Judaism.
But when prophecy disappeared and central authority was weakened, it became easier for people to stray and for various holy institutions (like the High Priesthood) to become corrupt.
Prophecy disappeared because the Jewish people had damaged their relationship with God. They were spiritually weaker and could not do the same intense spiritual work required to achieve prophecy(6). To be a prophet you have to perfect yourself spiritually, you have to have total self control. It’s the ultimate Jewish expression of who being a great man is. The sages say, “Who is a great man? He who conquers his inclination (controls himself).” [Ethics of the Fathers, 4:1]
Prophecy in the Jewish understanding is not just the ability to predict the future. It is a state of transcendence of the physical world. It means the prophet has entered such a high plane of understanding that he or she is able to communicate with the Infinite and access information and understanding inaccessible to a normal person.
Moses was the ultimate prophet - that is he reached the highest level of prophecy that is humanly possible. But there were many others - hundreds of thousands, according to the Talmud - who achieved lesser levels and were prophets. In the story of Saul, we talked about how the Jewish people consulted the prophets on everything, including lost objects. But that phenomenon disappears during the early years of the second Temple. “After the later prophets, Haggai, Zecharia, and Malachi, had died, the prophetic spirit disappeared from the Jewish people…” (Yoma 9b)(7)
If anyone is interested in how to become a prophet there is an instruction book available. It called “Path of the Just” and it was written in the 18th century by the great Kabbalist, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato, also known as the Ramchal. This is a guidebook on how to get complete control of yourself physically, emotionally and spiritually so you can transcend this world and become a prophet. In his book, The Way of God, Rabbi Luzzatto clearly defines the concept of prophecy:
The main concept of true prophecy is therefore that a living person achieves such an attachment and bond with God. This in itself is certainly a very high degree of perfection. Besides this, however, it is often accompanied by certain information and enlightenment. Through prophecy one can gain knowledge of many lofty truths among God’s hidden mysteries. These things are perceived very clearly…Part of a prophet’s career may include being sent on a mission by God(8).
But even if you master that book, you will not be a prophet. Why not? Because the gates of prophecy are closed to us. Why? Because prophecy is only possible if the rest of the Jewish people are also spiritually elevated.
As an individual you can reach a tremendously high level but you can only reach so high. To get all the way to the top and break through the threshold, you’ve got to “stand on the shoulders” of the Jewish people because there has to be a minimum level of spirituality of the entire nation upon which to rest yourself so that you can reach the level of prophecy. If the nation drops below that level, that threshold, it doesn’t matter how much you stand on your tippy-toes and reach up, you’re not going to succeed. And during the Second Temple period, we’re going to see the Jewish people dropping below a certain threshold of spirituality which they’re never going to attain again during the entire period.
As we saw from the Purim story-by the time we arrive at the period of the Second Temple, God’s presence is hidden, the Ark of the Covenant is hidden as is prophecy.
The Talmud says there were definitely individuals living at this time, who, had they lived earlier, would most certainly have been prophets. “There is one among you who deserves that the Shechina (Divine Presence) should rest on him as it did on Moses, but his generation is not deserving.” (Sanhedrin 11a) But the door to prophecy had been slammed in the face of the Jewish people. And we are told that it will not be opened again until the Messianic Era.
Following the destruction of the First Temple when it became apparent that the Jewish people were growing weaker spiritually, a group of wise leaders came together - expanding the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court, from 70 to 120 members - with a special aim of preserving and strengthening Judaism in the Diaspora and afterward. They were the Men of the Great Assembly.
1)See Talmud-Yoma 52b-53b.
2)Talmud-Yoma 53b
3)Nechemia 10:30-31.
4)See Talmud-Yoma 9a.
5)See: Talmud-Yoma 19b-for an account of Sadducee High Priest who dies due to his improper actions while in the Holy of Holies.
6)See: Rashi on Shir HaShirim chap.6:5.
7)See also: Talmud-Sanhedrin 11a
8)Luzzatto, Derech Hashem III:3:4 & III:4:6; see also Talmud-Nedarim
2)Talmud-Yoma 53b
3)Nechemia 10:30-31.
4)See Talmud-Yoma 9a.
5)See: Talmud-Yoma 19b-for an account of Sadducee High Priest who dies due to his improper actions while in the Holy of Holies.
6)See: Rashi on Shir HaShirim chap.6:5.
7)See also: Talmud-Sanhedrin 11a
8)Luzzatto, Derech Hashem III:3:4 & III:4:6; see also Talmud-Nedarim
| #25 of 70 in the Aish.com Jewish History Series | |
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The Great Assembly
 | These extraordinary sages defined the essence of Judaism for the Jews of Israel and the Diaspora. |
The Men of the Great Assembly—in Hebrew, Anshei Knesset HaGedolah—was an unusual group of Jewish personalities who assumed the reigns of Jewish leadership between 410 BCE and 310 BCE. This time period follows the destruction of the First Temple, and includes the early decades of the Second Temple, up until the invasion of the Greeks, led by Alexander the Great.
Realizing that the Jewish people were growing weaker spiritually, a group of wise leaders came together—expanding the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court, from 70 to 120 members—with a special aim of strengthening Judaism. Initially gathered together by Ezra, they defined Judaism in this tumultuous time when prophecy and kingship were all but gone from the Jewish people.
(Today’s Israeli Parliament, which is called “the Knesset,” also has 120 members in imitation of the Great Assembly although the Knesset of today serves an entirely different function of the Great Assembly of 2,500 years ago.)
Among them we count the last of the prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, as well as the sages Mordechai, (of the Purim story), Yehoshua, (the High Priest), Nechemia (the chief architect of rebuilding of Jerusalem), Shimon HaTzaddik (also a High Priest).
Keep in mind that at this time the Talmud has not yet been compiled. Knowing how to live a Jewish life depends on knowing the commandments of the Torah and their interpretations and applications which have been passed down orally—in short, knowing what is known as the Written Torah and the Oral Torah, both of which date back to Moses’ teachings at Sinai.
It is impossible to understand the Written Torah without its Oral complement. For example, when the Written Torah states: “And these words which I command you today shall be upon your heart ... and you shall write them upon the door-posts of your house and upon your gateways,” it is the Oral Torah that explains which “words” the Written Torah is referring to, and that these words should be penned on a small scroll and affixed to the door frame. Without the Oral Torah we wouldn’t know about the mezuzah and countless other ways of day-to-day Judaism.
ACCURATE TRANSMISSION
The destruction of the first Temple and ensuing exile were incredibly traumatic experiences for the Jewish people: The Temple and its daily service were gone as was the monarchy. The Jews found themselves in an alien land with none of the normative institutions fundamental to Judaism. (Ironically, the Jewish world is still in the same situation. The difference is that after 2,500 years the exile is so comfortable that what is really an abnormal situation is now accepted as totally normal) As the Jewish people struggle with the aftermath of exile, accurate transmission of this oral tradition becomes essential. And here is where the Men of the Great Assembly make the greatest contribution.(1)
As we see in history, to the extent that the Jews stop living according to Jewish law and tradition (i.e. that which makes them Jewish), to that extent they assimilate and disappear. Therefore, the contributions of these men can be said to account to a large measure for Jewish survival.
The Mishna pays them great homage:
Moses received the Torah from Sinai and conveyed to Joshua, Joshua to the Elders, the Elders to the Prophets, and the Prophets to the Men of the Great Assembly ... Shimon HaTzaddik was one of the remnants of the Great Assembly. He used to say, “The world stands on three things: on the Torah; on the service of God, and upon acts of loving-kindness…” (Ethics of the Fathers, 1:1)
THE CONTENTS OF THE BIBLE
In addition to insuring the accurate transmission of the Oral Torah, the Men of the Great Assembly decide which of the multitude of Jewish holy writings should be in the Bible. The Jewish people have produced hundreds of thousands of prophets (both men and women). Which of their writings should be preserved for future generations and which had limited applicability?
The Men of the Great Assembly make this decision and give us what is known as the Hebrew Bible today—or the Tanach. (Tanach is a Hebrew acronym which stands for Torah, Prophets, Writings.)
This is what the Christians call the “Old Testament” but traditionally Jews never call it that. “Testament” is derived from the Latin word testari meaning “to be a witness.” The Hebrew Bible was named the Old Testament by the Christians because of their belief that God cancelled the covenant he made with the Jews and made a new covenant, “New Testament,” with the followers of Jesus. As Jews deny that God would ever “change His mind” after promising the Jews they would be His “eternal nation”, they find that term insulting.
The Hebrew Bible consists of the five books of the Torah, eight books of the prophets (the last of which consists of twelve short books) and 11 books of various writings, which include the Psalms (largely attributed to King David), the writings of King Solomon (Song of Songs, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes), the books of Job, Ruth, Esther and Daniel etc.
PRAYER
The last thing that the Men of the Great Assembly do is formalize prayer. They actually begin a process which is not finished until the 2nd century CE, after the destruction of the Second Temple, but they lay down the key principles and basic structure of formalized prayer.(2)
During the First Temple period, there was no need for formalized Jewish prayer liturgy, because God’s presence was more manifest. It was much easier for the individual to have a close, intense, personal relationship with God. Additionally, a great deal of what is now the object of prayer was formally accomplished through the offering of sacrifices and the Temple service. Of course, when the Second Temple was rebuilt, sacrifices resumed, but most of the Jews had not returned to the land of Israel and therefore had no access to this medium of connecting to God via the Temple. In addition, as mentioned previously, even with the Temple rebuilt, the connection during the Second temple period was much weaker.
Therefore, the times of the formalized prayer are designed to correspond to times when things were done in the Temple: the morning prayer is designed to correspond to the Shacharit Service in the Temple; the afternoon prayer corresponds to the Mincha Service; a the evening prayer, Ma’ariv, corresponds to the nightly duties (as there were no sacrifices as night).
The centerpiece of each selection of prayers (repeated three times a day) is the Shmonei Esrai, “The Eighteen Blessings.” Each “blessing” is stated in the plural, to underscore the interdependency of the Jewish people, and each blessing is rooted in Torah and Kabbalah.
The mystical depth of this prayer—a masterpiece of writing by the Great Assembly—is astounding. For example, the blessing for healing is composed of 27 words, corresponding to the 27 words in the verse in the Torah (Exodus 15:26) where God promises to be the Healer of the Jewish people. It is said (Nefesh HaChaim 2:13) that the text of the Shmonei Esraiis so spiritually powerful that even when recited without intention, feeling or understanding, its words have a great impact on the world.
Through Divine inspiration and sheer genius the Men of the Great Assembly were able to create out of the ashes of a physically destroyed nation, a spiritually thriving people. Their work defined and anchored Jewish religious and national identity and created focus, unity and uniformity for the Jewish people, no matter where in the world they might be scattered.
The last surviving member of the Great Assembly was Shimon HaTzaddik. Under him, according to the ancient historian Josephus (Contra Apion1:197), the Jews of Israel prospered and Jewish population in the land reached 350,000.
It helped the Jews physically (if not spiritually) that the Persians were such benevolent dictators. But the picture was about the change with the growing power of the Greek Empire looming on the horizon.
1) See Talmud-Nedarim 37b; Kiddushin 30a
2) See Talmud-Megillah 17b. The process was completed after the destruction of the Second Temple by the Sanhedrin in Yavne. In addition to prayer, the Men of the Great Assembly also instituted the blessings said before and after food and the performance of various commandments as well as Kiddush and Havdallah before and after the Sabbath.
2) See Talmud-Megillah 17b. The process was completed after the destruction of the Second Temple by the Sanhedrin in Yavne. In addition to prayer, the Men of the Great Assembly also instituted the blessings said before and after food and the performance of various commandments as well as Kiddush and Havdallah before and after the Sabbath.
| #26 of 70 in the Aish.com Jewish History Series | |
| << Previous Part 25: The Second Temple | Next >> Part 27: The Greek Empire |
The Greek Empire
 | To the Greeks, what was beautiful was holy; to the Jews, what was holy was beautiful. These views were bound to clash. |
The 4th century BCE has been eventful for the Jewish people:
- Exiled to Babylon, they witness the fall of a mighty empire before their very eyes as the Persians invade.
- Permitted to return to the land of Israel by the Persian emperor Cyrus in 370 BCE, they reluctantly take up the offer, with only 42,000 of their number actually returning.
- The returnees’ attempts to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem are aborted early as their angry neighbors, the not-so-good Samaritans complain to the emperor.
- In Persia, Haman, the chief minister to King Achashverosh, hatches a plot to annihilate the Jews. But Queen Esther (who is secretly Jewish) comes to the rescue in 355 BCE.
- The next Persian monarch, Darius II, Esther’s son, allows the rebuilding of the Temple in 347 BCE.
- The Jewish people living in the land of Israel are re-energized spiritually thanks to the leadership of Ezra and the Men of the Great Assembly.
It is now 312 BCE and the last of the Men of the Great Assembly, Shimon HaTzaddik, is High Priest. On the other side of Mediterranean, a new threat is looming. It is called Greece.
THE RISE OF THE GREEK EMPIRE
The origins of Greece are shrouded in mystery and date back to the time of Abraham, 18th century BCE, or perhaps even earlier. Historians disagree as to where the Greeks came from. They could have been people migrating down from Asia down through Europe and settling in the Greek Isles, or they could have been seafaring people who settled along the coast.
Whoever they were, the earliest inhabitants of mainland Greece (called Mycenaeans after excavations found at Mycenae) developed an advanced culture. But, around 1100 BCE, the Mycenaeans were invaded by barbarians called Dorians and all their civilization disappeared. Greece went into a “Dark Age” to re-emerge hundreds of years later.
The classical Greek period begins as early as 7th century BCE, though we tend to be more familiar with its history in the 5th century when Greece consists of a group of constantly warring city-states, the most famous being Athens and Sparta. The Greek victory at the Marathon (490 BCE),(1) the destruction of the Persian fleet at Salamis (480 BCE) and the victory at Plataea (479 BCE) brought and end to the Persian Empire’s attempts to conquer Greece. During the last three decades of the 5th century, Athens and Sparta waged a devastating war (Peloponnesian War 431-404 BCE) which culminated in the surrender of Athens. More inter-Greek fighting followed in the 4th century but later in that century all of Greece would succumb to Phillip II of Macedon, who paves way for his son, Alexander the Great, to spread the Greek civilization across the world.
The late 5th and the 4th century are as eventful for the Greeks as it has for the Jews. Despite constant warfare, this is also the golden age of classical Greek culture—the birth of democracy, the time of Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato.
GREEK INHUMANITY
While admiring the Greek contributions to civilization—its politics, philosophy, art and architecture - it is easy to forget what Greek society was really like.
For example, we’ve heard of the “Spartan lifestyle,” but what did that mean in practice? Well, for starters, at the age of seven, Spartan boys were separated from their parents; they lived in military barracks where they were beaten, and not even given minimal food to encourage them to steal. To be Spartan meant to be tough.
The Athenians, not as tough as the Spartans, were not what you’d describe as “soft” either. For example, they thought nothing of killing infants (a common practice in all ancient civilizations even the “elevated” ones). One of the most influential thinkers in Western intellectual history—none other than Aristotle- - argued in his Politics (VII.16) that killing children was essential to the functioning of society. He wrote:
“There must be a law that no imperfect or maimed child shall be brought up. And to avoid an excess in population, some children must be exposed [i.e. thrown on the trash heap or left out in the woods to die]. For a limit must be fixed to the population of the state.”
Note the tone of his statement. Aristotle isn’t saying “I like killing babies,” but he is making a cold, rational calculation: over-population is dangerous; this is the most expedient way to keep it in check.
In warfare, the Greeks invented the “pitched battle”—with thousands of foot soldiers colliding with the enemy, slaughtering and being slaughtered as they advanced. (The 80 pounds of armor and weaponry carried by the average Greek hoplite (infantry man) also necessitated a pitched battle since after about 30 to 45 minutes the soldiers were all exhausted) While we tend to think today of the Greeks as cultured and noble, it is shocking to learn how brutal their civilization (like all ancient civilizations) could be.(2)
The other great Greek innovation was the phalanx. Instead of the undisciplined,” free for all” combat common in ancient warfare, the Greeks fought in disciplined battle lines; infantry advanced with shields “locked” together and spears pointing straight ahead. A well-disciplined phalanx created a formidable wall of shields and spears which was used with deadly efficiency.(3)
The one who took the Greek conquests to new heights was, of course, Alexander the Great.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
Alexander, born in 356BCE, was the son of Phillip II (382-336BCE), the King of Macedonia in northern Greece. (And considered a barbarian by the southern Greek city states). Phillip created a powerful, professional army which forcibly united the fractious Greek city-states into one empire. From an early age, Alexander, displayed tremendous military talent and was appointed as a commander in his father’s army at the age of eighteen. Having conquered all of Greece Phillip was about to embark on a campaign to invade Greece’s arch-enemy, the Persian Empire. Before he could invade Persia he was assassinated, possibly by Alexander, who then became king in 336BCE. Two years in 334 BCE he crossed the Hellspont (in modern-day Turkey) with 45,000 men and invaded the Persian Empire.
The backbone of Alexander’s Macedonian army was his infantry. They carried extremely long pikes (spears which may have been as long as 21 feet/ 3 meters.) These pikemen moved in giant squares called a phalanx, shields locked together, 16 men across and 16 deep-the first five rows of pikes pointed straight ahead creating a lethal wall of spear heads.
In three Colossal battles, Granicus, Issus and Gaugamela, that took place between 334 and 331 Alexander brilliantly (and often recklessly) led his army to victory against Persian armies that may have outnumbered his own as much as ten to one. His chief tactics were to always be on the offense and always do the unexpected. In battle he would lead his Campanion Cavalry right at the strongest (rather than the weakest) point of the enemy line. When he fights the Persians, for example, he goes for the most heavily protected point of the Persian force surrounding the Persian Emperor, aiming to destroy the leadership. When the Persian emperor Darius flees at the battle the Persian army collapses. By 331 BCE the Persian Empire was defeated, the Persian Emperor Darius was dead, and Alexander was the undisputed rival of the Mediterranean. His military campaign lasted 12 years and took him and his army 10,000 miles to the Indus River in India. Only the weariness of his men and his untimely death in 323BCE at the age of 32 ended the Greek conquest of the known world. It is said that when Alexander looked at his empire he wept for there was nothing more to conquer.
At its largest, Alexander’s empire stretched from Egypt to India. He built six Greek cities in his empire, named Alexandria. (Today the best known is the city of Alexandria in Egypt at the Nile delta.) These cities and the Greeks who settle in them brought Greek culture to the center of the oldest civilizations of Mesopotamia.
HELLENISM
The Greeks were not only military imperialist but also cultural imperialist. Greek soldiers and settlers brought their way of life: their language, art, architecture, literature, and philosophy, to Middle East. When Greek culture merged with the culture of the Middle East it created a new cultural hybrid-Hellenism (Hellas is the Greek word for Greece) whose impact would be far greater and last for far longer than the brief period of Alexander’s empire. Whether through the idea of the pitched battle, art, architecture or philosophy, Hellenism’s influence on the Roman Empire, Christianity, and the West was monumental.
The Greeks showcased all human talents - literature, drama, poetry, music architecture, sculpture, etc. They glorified the beauty of the human body, displaying athletic prowess in the Olympics. Nothing regarding the human body was considered embarrassing, in need of hiding, or private for that matter.
(Athletic competitions performed in the nude were the norm in Greece. Our modern word “gymnasium” is derived from the Greek word “gumnos” which means naked. Public toilets often consisted of a bench on main street with holes in it; people sat there and did their business as others walked by.)
Naturally, human passions were venerated and this meant there were few sexual taboos—even pedophilia and pederasty. Indeed, the sexual initiation of a young boy by an older man was considered the highest form of love and vital part of a boys education. Plato wrote of this in his Symposium (178C):
“I, for my part, am at a loss to say what greater blessing a man can have in earliest youth than an honorable [older] lover ...”
Even Greek gods were described in human terms and were often bested by human beings in Greek mythology; with time, it became the style of intellectual Greeks to denigrate their gods and speak of them with biting cynicism and disrespect.
In short, the Greeks introduced into human consciousness an idea which is going to come into play as one of the most powerful intellectual forces in modern history - humanism. The human being is the center of all things. The human mind and its ability to understand and observe and comprehend things rationally is the be-all-and-end-all. That’s an idea which comes from the Greeks.
Above all, the Greeks thought that this was enlightenment, the highest level of civilization. They had a strong sense of destiny and believed that their culture was ordained to become the universal culture of humanity.
The Jews had a different vision. The Jews believed that a world united in the belief in one God and ascribing to one absolute standard of moral values—including respect for life, peace, justice, and social responsibility for the weak and poor—was the ultimate future of the human race.
This Jewish ideology was wedded to an extreme, uncompromising exclusivity of worship (as demanded by the belief in one God) and a complete intolerance of polytheistic religious beliefs or practices. There was only one God and so only one God could be worshipped, end of story.
To the Jews, human beings were created in the image of God. To the Greeks, gods were made in the image of human beings. To the Jews, the physical world was something to be perfected and elevated spiritually. To the Greeks the physical world was perfect. In short, to Greeks, what was beautiful was holy; to the Jews what was holy was beautiful.
Such disparate views were bound to clash, sooner or later.
THE GREEKS VS. THE JEWS
During his military campaign against Persia, Alexander takes a detour to the south, conquering Tyre and then Egypt via what is today Israel. Alexander is planning to destroy the Temple, egged on by the Samaritans who hate the Jews There is a fascinating story about Alexander’s first encounter with the Jews of Israel. (Who were until that time subjects of the Persian Empire).
The narrative concerning Alexander’s first interaction with the Jews is recorded in both the Talmud (Yoma 69a and in the Jewish historian Josephus’s book Antiquities XI, 321-47.) In both accounts the High Priest of the Temple (in the Talmudic narrative he is Shimon HaTzaddik—the last surviving member of the Men of the Great Assembly) in Jerusalem, fearing that Alexander would destroy the city, goes out to meet him before he arrives at the city. The narrative then describes how Alexander, upon seeing the High Priest dismounts and bows to him. (Alexander rarely, if ever, bowed to anyone.) In Josephus’s account, when asked by his general, Parmerio, to explain his actions he answered: “I did not bow before him but before that God who has honored him with the high Priesthood; for I saw this very person in a dream, in this very apparel.”
Alexander interpreted the vision of the High Priest as a good omen and thus spared Jerusalem and peacefully absorbed the Land of Israel into his growing empire. As tribute to his benign conquest the Rabbis decreed that the Jewish firstborn of that time be named Alexander (which is a Jewish name until today) and date of the meeting (25th of Teves) was declared a minor holiday.
So Alexander the Great does not destroy the Temple. And he listens when Shimon HaTzaddik tells him that the Jews are not enemies of the Greeks but the Samaritans are. The Talmud relates the interaction between Alexander and the Jewish delegation
They (the Jews led by Shimon HaTzaddik) answered, “Is it possible that these idol worshippers should fool you into destroying the House where prayers are offered for you and your kingdom that it should never be destroyed!” Alexander said to them, “What idol worshippers do you mean?” They replied, “We are referring to the Samaritans who are standing before you now.” Said Alexander, “I am handing them over to you to do with them as you please.”(4)
As a result, the Jews are given free rein to go trash the Samaritans, which they promptly go out and do. And Israel and Jerusalem are peacefully absorbed into the Greek Empire.
At first, the Greek authorities preserve the rights of the local Jewish population and do not attempt to interfere with Jewish religious practice. The Jews continue to flourish as a separate and distinct entity for 165 years - a rare phenomenon in the Hellenistic world.
The vast majority of the peoples conquered by Alexander the Great have willingly allowed themselves to be Hellenized. The fact that the Jews - with the exception of a small minority - reject Hellenism is a strong testament to that ever-present Jewish drive and sense of mission.
The famed classical historian Michael Grant, in his From Alexander to Cleopatra (p. 75), explains:
The Jews proved not only unassimilated, but unassimilable, and ... the demonstration that this was so proved one of the most significant turning-points in Greek history, owing to the gigantic influence exerted throughout subsequent ages by their religion…
But with time, Judaism, with its intractable beliefs and bizarre practices, begins to stand out as an open challenge to the concept of Hellenistic world supremacy.
For the generally tolerant Greeks, this challenge becomes more and more intolerable. It is only a matter of time before open conflict will arise.
1) The modern Marathon race of 26 miles commemorates the tradtion that a runner ran that distance from the Marathon to Athens with news of the victory and then dropped dead.
2) For a more detailed explanation of the brutality of the ancient world see my first book: WorldPerfect-The Jewish Impact on Civilization, Health Communications Inc., 2002
3) For an excellent overview of Greek warfare see: Peter Connolly. Greece and Rome at War.London: Greenhill Books, 1998.
4) Talmud-Yoma 69a.
2) For a more detailed explanation of the brutality of the ancient world see my first book: WorldPerfect-The Jewish Impact on Civilization, Health Communications Inc., 2002
3) For an excellent overview of Greek warfare see: Peter Connolly. Greece and Rome at War.London: Greenhill Books, 1998.
4) Talmud-Yoma 69a.
| #27 of 70 in the Aish.com Jewish History Series | |
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