The Romans
 | Jewish tradition maintains the Romans were descendants of Esau, the red-haired and blood-thirsty brother of Jacob. |
Before we tell the story of how the Second Commonwealth of Israel met its sad end at the hands of the Roman Empire, let us step back in time and delve into what Rome was about, and how it became a power that challenged the mighty Greeks.
Rome started out as a city-state, dating its history to 753 BCE. The founding of the city is rooted in a famous legend:
It was common practice of the settlers of the banks of the Tiber River to keep “vestal virgins” on whom they believed their fate rested. These young women had to stay pure and chaste, and if any vestal virgin strayed, she was put to death by being buried alive.
According to this legend, in the 8th century BCE one vestal virgin, named Rhea Silvia, found herself pregnant. But she got pregnant through no fault of her own—she was raped by the god Mars.
(Here we have a familiar story, that predates the Christian one by some 800 years—a woman who has a physical relationship with a god, ergo est, as they say in Latin, she remains a virgin yet she gives birth.)
Rhea Silvia gave birth to twins—Romulus and Remus—but the local king, jealous of their semi-divine status, had them thrown into the Tiber River. Miraculously, they floated ashore, were nursed by a she-wolf, and then reared by a shepherd.
When they grew up, these boys established the city of Rome on seven hills overlooking the Tiber, near the very place where they had been rescued from drowning. (Later Romulus killed Remus and became the god Quirinus.)
Interestingly, Jewish tradition holds that the Romans were the descendants of Esau, the red-haired and blood-thirsty twin brother of Jacob. Judaism calls Rome “Edom”, (another name given Esau in Genesis 36:1) from the Hebrew root which means both “red” and “blood.” When we look at the Jewish-Roman relationship later on, we will see that the Romans were the spiritual inheritors of the Esau worldview.
ROMAN REPUBLIC
If we skip ahead a few hundred years from the time of Romulus, we find that circa 500 BCE the residents of Rome have overthrown the monarchy ruling them and have established a republic ruled by a senate. An oligarchy, the senate was made up of upper class, land-owning male citizens called the “patricians.”
As any healthy and strong ancient civilization, the Romans went to war to expand their sphere of dominance. Roman ambitions met the like-minded Carthaginians, unleashing a titanic struggle known as the Punic Wars, which lasted from 264 to 146 BCE, and in which Rome was victorious.
The Romans went on to conquer the Greek colonies and Greece itself, and to become the great power in the Mediterranean. To a large extent they inherited the Greek view of the world. We call their culture Greco-Roman because—although Greece and Rome were two different peoples, different civilizations and different cultures—the Romans to a very large extent viewed themselves as the cultural inheritors of the Greeks.
Later on in Roman history, many Romans will view themselves, literally, as the reincarnation of the Greeks. The Greeks influenced roman architecture and much of the Roman worldview in many respects. But the Romans made their own unique contributions as well.
For one thing Rome was much more conservative, patriarchal society than Greece was. The Romans were also very hard-working and extremely well organized, and this is what made them masters of empire-building.
We see their ability to organize in all spheres:
- We see it in their feats of engineering. Everywhere we look where the Romans dominated, we find Roman aqueducts, Roman roads, Roman fortifications, Roman walls still standing today. They were incredible builders and had amazing knowledge of how to build.
- We see it in their government and law. They institutionalized a system of law that was used throughout the entire Mediterranean basin.
- We see it in their ability to administer, to collect taxes.
ROMAN CONQUEST The Romans revolutionized warfare. Unlike the Greeks, they did not conscript citizens; Roman evolved into the world’s first professional army. Their soldiers were paid to fight, and they made a lifelong career of it. Soldiering for Rome was not just a job—it was a way of life and a commitment which lasted for twenty five years. The Roman motto was captured in a famous saying of Julius Caesar, arguably Rome’s greatest general: Veni, vidi, vici - “I came, I saw, I conquered.”
Because they made a career of fighting, Roman soldiers were extremely well trained and very disciplined in battle. And they were also extremely well equipped. The art of warfare was perfected through constant drilling and tactical training, discipline and state-of-the-art military technology. This gave the Romans a huge advantage in battle that was unparalleled in human history.
Instead of the big, unwieldy Greek phalanxes that could not move quickly, the Romans created what they called legions, each of which was subdivided into 10 smaller and more mobile cohorts. The legion became the basic unit of the Roman army. The Romans would have between 24 and 28 legions, each with about 5,000 men plus and equal number of auxiliary troops, mostly infantry with a little cavalry.
The organizational structure of the legions gave the Romans tremendous flexibility on the battlefield. The smaller units (cohorts) that comprised each legion could maneuver independently in ways that the Greek phalanx could never do.
This is how the Romans chewed up the Greeks. They simply slaughtered them like they slaughtered everyone they encountered.
This brings us to another key feature of the Roman culture. Although the Romans were very sophisticated people, they were also very brutal, perhaps the most brutal civilization in history.
Their brutality can, of course, be seen in their warfare. They were an incredibly aggressive people, a people with seeming unbridled ambition to conquer everything. (This fits with the Jewish understanding of the descendants of Esau, who was gifted with the power to dominate physically; whereas Esau’s twin-brother Jacob was gifted with the power to dominate spiritually.)
But even more strikingly, their brutality can be seen in their forms of entertainment. At 200 different locations throughout the empire, the Romans built amphitheaters where they would spend the day, eating, relaxing and watching people be grotesquely butchered. (The practice was extremely popular and Emperor Augustus in his Acts brags that during his reign he staged games where 10,000 men fought and 3,500 wild beasts were slain.
This points out a very interesting lesson in human history. We often will find the most sophisticated cultures, despite their sophisticated legal systems, being the most brutal. You see it with Rome (and later with many others, most recently with Nazi Germany).
ROMAN EMPIRE
While the Roman armies were mightily victorious abroad, the republic wasn’t doing so well at home.
In the 1st century BCE, Rome had to contend with internal strife and class struggle - of which the slave revolt led by Spartacus (72 BCE) is perhaps the most famous. The so-called “Social War” forced Rome to extend citizenship widely, but the republic was nevertheless doomed.
The general, Pompeii emerged as a popular champion and found allies in Crassus and Julius Caesar, forming the First Triumvirate in 60 BCE. But within ten years Pompeii and Caesar fell out, with Caesar becoming the master of Rome and laying the foundation for the Roman Empire.
This is the point in time where we left off the story back in the land of Israel.
The last two Hasmonean rulers (from the line of the Maccabees) were two brothers: Hyrcanus and Aristobolus. Quarreling with each other as to who should be king, they hit on the idea of asking Rome to mediate in their dispute. And thus, in 63 BCE, Pompeii was invited to move his armies into Israel.
Josephus, the great first century CE Jewish historian, explains what happened next in great detail.
The Romans came in, slaughtered many Jews and made Hyrcanus, the weaker of the two brothers, the nominal puppet ruler of the country.
This was part of the Roman system. They liked to rule by proxy, allowing the local governor or king to deal with the day-to-day problems of running the country, as long as the Roman tax was paid and Roman laws obeyed!
Roman intervention in Israel had effectively ended Jewish independence and ushered in one of the bleakest periods of Jewish history. Rome ruled, not Hyrcanus, or any Jew for that matter. (The Sanhedrin’s authority was abolished by Roman decree six years after Pompeii’s conquest.)
The independent state of Israel ceased to exist, and became the Roman province of Judea. Pompeii split up much of the land giving large chunks to his soldiers as a reward for their prowess in battle. Gaza, Jaffa, Ashdod and other Jewish cities were now a part of the map of the Roman Empire.
Hyrcanus, though he might call himself king, got only Jerusalem, along with a few pieces north and south, but even this small area he could not govern without checking in with the Roman proconsul in Damascus.
A key role in the Roman takeover of Israel was played by Hyrcanus’ chief advisor—the Idumean general Antipater. The Idumeans bore testimony to an unprecedented lapse in observance among the Jews—they were the people whom Yochanan Hyrcanus forcibly converted to Judaism.
Antipater, the real strength behind the weak Hyrcanus, made sure, of course, that he positioned his own family in power while he had a chance. He continued to guide Hyrcanus and—when in 49 BCE, Pompeii and Julius Caesar became engaged in internal struggle—helped him choose the winning side. Soon, Antipater was the man in power.
The Romans judged correctly that this forcibly converted Jew did not identify with Jewish values or nationalism, and that with him in power, “militant monotheism” would not again rear its dangerous head.
While Antipater did not go down in history as a household name, his son Herod—who took after his father and then some—did. Coming from a family of forced converts that was only nominally Jewish, he nevertheless became one of the most famous kings of the Jews.
He went down in history as Herod, the Great.
| #30 of 70 in the Aish.com Jewish History Series | |
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Herod the Great
 | A madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis, Herod was also the greatest builder in Jewish history. |
Herod, the Great (Part 31)
Herod, the Great (not to be confused with Herod Antipas who came later) is one of the most important characters in Jewish history. He was ambitious, cruel and paranoid to be sure, but, nevertheless, he remains a very significant person in the terms of understanding this period of Roman domination of the Jewish people.
Herod first leadership role was as governor of the Galilee, a position granted to him by his father, Antipater. Early on in his career he demonstrates his brutality by ruthlessly crushing a revolt in the Galilee.
The background to Herod’s rise to power is the Roman civil war that will transform Rome from a republic into and empire ruled by the Caesars or emperors. In 44BCE Julius Caesar is murdered by Brutus and Cassius who are in turn defeated by Anthony and Octavian in 42 BCE. The Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, is the final showdown between Octaviun and Anthony. Octaviun emerged as the unrivaled victor, changing his name to Augustus and becoming the first Roman emperor.
Herod had originally sided with Anthony but switches allegiance at the last minute and backs Octavian. His last minute support for Octavian earns him Augustus’s confirmation as King of Israel.
Herod will reigned as king of Judea from 37 BCE until his death in 4 BCE, a very long reign of 33 years, and in many ways a good period in terms of development of the country and social stability.
Part of the reason for the 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 specifically for the Jews 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).
TRADE, DEVLOPMENT AND CONTRUCTION
Herod’s rule was characterized by a period of unprecedented growth and construction, thanks in large part to Herod’s amiable relationship with Rome and his obsession with massive and elaborate construction projects
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 and money acquired through the crushing taxes he placed upon his subjects 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 added three more to list. Almost all archeologists and students of architecture of the ancient world appreciate that he was one of the greatest builders of all human history.
He built relentlessly—cities, palaces and fortresses, some of which still stand:
- the fortresses at Masada, Antonia and Herodium
- the port city of Caesarea
- the huge edifice at the top of the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron
- the massive fortifications around Jerusalem as well as three towers at the entrance to the city (the remains of which are today erroneously named the Tower of David) and much more
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 and three bathhouses (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 and one of the largest ports in the Empire, 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 and also to make amends for his cruelty toward the rabbis.
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 twenty four football fields. When it was completed, it was the world’s largest functioning religious site and until today it remains the largest man-made platform in the world.
Why did he make the Temple Mount so large?
There’s no question that Herod had a huge ego and liked to impress people with grandiose building projects. But there is also another more practical reason. 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 Sukkot. 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. “He who has not seen Herod’s building, has never in his life seen a truly grand building.” (Talmud-Bava Basra 4a)
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… (Antiquities 15.7.4,5)
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 Sadducees, 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 Pharisees, and of the extreme religious minority, the Zealots.
The cauldron was beginning to boil and soon it would erupt.
1)See Talmud-Megillah 6a
2)The Talmud relates the following story: Herod went and killed [most of] Rabbis. However he left Bavas ben Buta alive in order to use him as an adviser Herod put a crown of sharpened porcupine skin around his eyes, [and the sharp spines] blinded him. One day Herod, [pretending to be an ordinary citizen], sat down before Bava ben Buta and said, “Rabbi, do realize the terrible things this no-good slave Herod is doing?” “What should I do to him?” replied Bave ben Buta. Said Herod , [trying to trap him], “I want you to curse him.” Replied Bava ben Buta, “[How can I curse him] It says, ‘Even in your thoughts do not curse a king.’(Ecclesiastes 12:20). Retorted Herod, “But he is no king; [he does not meet the criteria of a Jewish king.]” replied Bava ben Buta, “He certainly is no less than a rich man and the same verse continues, ‘and in your bedchamber do not curse the rich.’ He certainly is no different than a leader, and it says, ‘Do not curse the leader of your people’ (Exodus 22:27).’... Herod then confessed, “I am Herod. If I had know that the rabbis were so careful [with their words], I would not have killed them. Now please tell what I can do to rectify what I have done?” Replied Bava ben Buta, “Since you snuffed out the light of the world, [that is what the rabbis are called]...you should involve yourself in [increasing] the light of the world [i.e. the Temple]...Someone who has not seen the new Temple that Herod built has never seen a magnificent building.” Talmud-Bava Basra 3b-4a
2)The Talmud relates the following story: Herod went and killed [most of] Rabbis. However he left Bavas ben Buta alive in order to use him as an adviser Herod put a crown of sharpened porcupine skin around his eyes, [and the sharp spines] blinded him. One day Herod, [pretending to be an ordinary citizen], sat down before Bava ben Buta and said, “Rabbi, do realize the terrible things this no-good slave Herod is doing?” “What should I do to him?” replied Bave ben Buta. Said Herod , [trying to trap him], “I want you to curse him.” Replied Bava ben Buta, “[How can I curse him] It says, ‘Even in your thoughts do not curse a king.’(Ecclesiastes 12:20). Retorted Herod, “But he is no king; [he does not meet the criteria of a Jewish king.]” replied Bava ben Buta, “He certainly is no less than a rich man and the same verse continues, ‘and in your bedchamber do not curse the rich.’ He certainly is no different than a leader, and it says, ‘Do not curse the leader of your people’ (Exodus 22:27).’... Herod then confessed, “I am Herod. If I had know that the rabbis were so careful [with their words], I would not have killed them. Now please tell what I can do to rectify what I have done?” Replied Bava ben Buta, “Since you snuffed out the light of the world, [that is what the rabbis are called]...you should involve yourself in [increasing] the light of the world [i.e. the Temple]...Someone who has not seen the new Temple that Herod built has never seen a magnificent building.” Talmud-Bava Basra 3b-4a
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Hillel and Shammai
 | In a time when many things were going wrong for the Jews, Hillel and Shammai defined what was going right. |
We have 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). We also 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, the normative institutions, like the yeshivas, 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 died in 273 BCE, a period began known as the period of the Zugot, meaning “pairs.”
From that time on, for almost 300 years, there were always two rabbis at the helm of the Jewish tradition. One was called the Nasi (the president), the other was called the Av Beit Din (the head of the Sanhedrin). 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.(1)
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 in this situation it would be 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 almost always 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 as it became harder for the rabbis to reach a consensus on certain legal issues.(2) (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 more localized and dealt with the details of how to apply the law. A small number of these disputes had no actual ramifications in the practical application of Jewish law. They were arguments about theoretical cases which would never apply in any real situation, but nonetheless dealt with important principles that needed to be understood.
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 major issues everyone agreed. (3)
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.
Originally, there were not many disputes ...However with the increase in the number of students of Hillel and Shamai who did not serve their teachers adequately-unresolved disputes increased and the Torah became like two Torahs. (Talmud, Sanhedrin 88b)
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.
1) see Talmud, Yoma 35:b
2) see: Talmud, Eruvin 53a; Shabbes 112:b; Sanhedrin 11:a; Brachos 20:a
3) see: Rashi on Talmud, Kesubos 57a; Talmud, Chagiga 3b
2) see: Talmud, Eruvin 53a; Shabbes 112:b; Sanhedrin 11:a; Brachos 20:a
3) see: Rashi on Talmud, Kesubos 57a; Talmud, Chagiga 3b
| #32 of 70 in the Aish.com Jewish History Series | |
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